City Commission - Special Meeting

Special meeting is called to order. Today is Monday, July 20th, 2026. The time is 9 a.m. Madam Clerk, do we have a quorum?

Yes, Mayor.

I will lead the pledge of allegiance and invocation. Please stand.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Father, thank you for the grace that you extend to our hearts. Improve the lives of those in our community. Lead and move us to love each other with so much joy and compassion. Help us to make and have a discussion worth loving you. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Commissioner, the governing body is asked to consider and approve a draft of the 2027 city budget so that the indication of revenue neutral rate intent can be authorized to be signed by the mayor. Jared.

Good morning. Based on the preliminary estimated valuation from the county clerk, the value for one mill for the City of Garden City is $326,356. Following the adjustments listed above, additional adjustments of the following amounts would be required for the designated mill rate. To achieve a 1.5 mill increase, or 40.002 rate, you would need $182,976. To achieve a one-mill increase at $39,502, you would need $346,154. To achieve a half-mill increase at $39,002, you would need $509,332. To achieve a flat for levy at $38,502, you would need $672,509. And to achieve a revenue to rate at $37,504, you would need $998,212. The input received from the governing body was the desire to reduce the amount held for the potential implementation of any adjustments to the C-Space scale following the third-party consultant's analysis. The initial budget for this intent was $1 million. Therefore, based on the targeted mill levy amounts indicated above and the remaining budget gaps indicated, the following amounts indicate what will be available to be utilized for this intent should each targeted mill levy be selected. If you go with $1.5 million increase, you'd have $817,024 remaining. If you chose a million increase, you'd have $652,846 remaining. If you had a half million increase, you'd have $490,668 remaining. A flat and a levy would achieve $327,490 remaining, $91 remaining. And the revenue to trade would be $1,788. While the option presented above is to remove the entirety of the $400,000 intended to be utilized for CIP projects in 2027 and utilize the balance of funds remaining for the implementation of any adjustment to the pay scale as defined in Delta to achieve the targetability, the governing body could also provide direction to further adjust the amount held for this implementation to re-procreate some funding for the 2027 CIP projects, if desired. At this time, a decision must be made regarding the City's intent to exceed the revenue rate. The deadline to submit an indication to the County regarding the revenue rate is today, July 20, 2026. The City's requirement is to indicate whether or not the City intends to exceed the revenue rate. The City is also asked to include an anticipated mill levy rate, which will be included in the publication sent to residents by the County. The final mill levy adopted by the City and published for the public budget hearing can differ from the mill levy rate included in the publication. However, the City aims to accurately estimate the anticipated mill levy rate. The alternatives before you today are that to offer as the Mayor to sign the indication of revenue to rate intent. Stating the City intends to exceed the revenue to rate and identify a mill levy rate to be included on the publication sent to citizens. or to authorize the mayor to sign the indication of revenue to rate intent, stating the city does not intend to exceed the revenue to rate and indicate the revenue to rate or some other rate lower than that revenue to rate to be included on the publication sent to citizens. The staff recommends the governing body authorize the mayor to sign the indication of revenue to rate intent, stating the city intends to exceed the revenue to rate and identify a delivery rate to be included on the publication sent to citizens. I'm happy to answer any questions you guys have.

So what's the, I should know this, but what's the current mill levy for the city?

Do we have that?

Oh, that's it, right. Sorry. It was right there in the memo. Thanks. Yeah, it's a morning meeting. Yeah.

Any questions for staff?

I know there was discussion about the communications, MyGCKS, the texting communications tool where we were looking at possibly trying to keep that.

So that item was in... in the list of cuts, remains in the list of cuts. It's renewal isn't until September of 2027, so actually in the creation of the 2028 budget, you'll have a second opportunity to consider that. We're gonna use that in time to see if there's other tools that may cost less, and then kind of weigh in the balance what the the pain of switching services when we have almost a thousand people using that service if we discontinued that and had to start back from zero because it we sort of when we first started we had 400 right-of-ways sign up and then it sort of stagnated then we have another aggressive push and it got up to 800 And that was after, I think, the winter storm event where we used that as a communication tool. This was an example of where people could get updated. And so over time, we've been, I wouldn't say taken advantage of, but That's accurate. We've utilized kind of high-value public alert situations to promote that to get it to 1,000 users. At the end of the day, it's an expense that if the commission chose to do away with it. We do have other ways to alert people. That seems, if we can hit their phones, that seems right now to be one of the more effective ones. So in answer to your question, it's shown as a cut but it won't materially happen. We wouldn't discontinue service until the commission's had another round of these kind of deliberations next year. Okay.

Thank you.

You're welcome. I'd also like to call your attention to the letter that County Administrator Ramos provided, which I think in staff's opinion probably allays concerns that would have put you choosing between three different options as a safety net. One of those which would have been, do you need to build into the mill levy for your 2027 budget, sufficient budget authority to cover the expense of the LEC? not knowing the timing of reimbursement other options could have been internal financing or depleting unrelated reserves in hopes that those could get restored once the repayment occurs but I think with this letter it shows that the intent of the county in the city is to redo the agreements. The spirit of both agreements would lead us to believe that both parties are in agreement on how to handle this, but it isn't in the letter of the agreements. And we will need a reimbursement agreement so that we can send over invoices and they can pay those out of sales tax proceeds from the bond issue that was approved by voters. So this letter simply states that they recognize that as well and it would be the intent of both staffs to put that in front of both commissions for consideration. So not ironclad because both commissions haven't approved it but I think we believe this goes a long way in allaying the concerns that we expressed at the last meeting. Thank you.

Would there be any cost savings with the vehicle lease options that we talked about at our last meeting in lieu of purchasing vehicles in this budget, or not really?

We'll probably utilize the funds that we already allocated for purchasing those vehicles to then offset the... We'll get more vehicles, more bankrupt, but it's probably a decrease in what it's doing now, so I don't anticipate there will be any cost savings. Okay.

Could staff kind of give us a preview of the landscape for all taxing entities within our community? I think it's good to have context of what other taxing entities intend to do with their mill levy. So I don't know that yet.

This notice will be put on the publication that will then go out, but I haven't heard from other taxing entities about their intentions for the year.

I know at the last school board meeting, they intend to lower it to 51 mils. They're at 51.478. So that was the recommendation from staff to the school board. I know that, but I'm not for sure about the others.

The county commission's discussion this morning is taking into consideration the cost of implementing their pay plan, which is upward pressure on their mill levy. So I wouldn't want to speak for them before. But it looks like they are... depending on the degree to which they implement that pipe plan, looking at a mill levy increase. I don't know for sure on the community college. My understanding of the school district is the same as Commissioner Cessna's. R&R would be a slight, for them, holding that number would be a slight mill levy reduction. Garden City Community College, my discussions with President Ruda are they're kind of hovering maybe around where This commission is maybe a little bit closer to level, I think, is their sentiment right now. I don't know that they've voted. I don't know that they've published their R&R. They probably have by now since today's the deadline. But I think their notice may be at zero mill levy increase. Gotcha. Thank you.

So they would not change their mill levy? What is their plan on mill levy?

Well, yeah, I mean... We won't know until they adopt their budget, but based on what I understand their indication of revenue neutral rate intent, they're going to publish the notice of the intent to go above revenue neutral rate, but their budget landing spot at this point appears to be level mill levy.

Any further questions for staff? Any comments from the governing body?

Just like to thank staff for all their hard work on getting us to this point. I know it was difficult decisions on putting all the information together for us to make this decision to get us to this point, but you guys did a really great job on giving us all the information we need to try to make a decision. Thank you.

Yeah, thanks for all your hard work. It's not easy. I mean, it's been interesting in the community, all of the people that have an opinion, which is a lot. And I've been surprised at some of the comments from people in the community, people that I would have thought that were very conservative said, you know, if you have to go up, this would be the year. But then others who were like, please don't go up, keep it flat. And I wish that in my head, I wish that there was like, one way up or down. But I will say that having the work session that we had in the evening, I'm surprised at the number of people who watched it and who have been very complimentary of the commission. And one person said that they work for different tax entities, said that they actually took notes because of all the preparation that staff did and getting the commissioners ready, but then also the respectful dialogue that as commissioners that we had with one another. So I thought that was a really insightful comment.

i agree with commissioner deb there's been back and forth some people say to go ahead and try to hold it and then we have i've had other people say that we do need if we if we need to make a change to go ahead and make the change now before it if we keep hold it and then we don't make the change in the next year what happens so it's been a mix in the community

I just want to say as well, just thank you to staff for the time and effort you put into on these budgets. They really do help us out a ton up here. So I just want to say thank you for the time and hours you put into that.

And especially the sacrifices I think each department is willing to make, regardless of how that really impacts them, I still think it is a big hit for everybody. And so I think that's what I'm most appreciative of. If there are no other comments from us, I will entertain a motion for this item.

I move to adopt a flat mill levy rate of 38.502.

There's been a motion. Is there a second? I second. There's been a motion and a second. Any further discussion? I think having this flat mill levy, I think the numbers are there for us too. I think it does postpone a lot more pain later on and I think that yes we can point to and say well when that time comes we will figure it out again but I think that kind of setting the stage of trying to understand our curve a little bit I think a flat metal levy is fairly difficult for that it'll be a tough year

I agree. I do believe that we're just going to postpone something that we need to try to deal with slowly. And if we can try to do that this year, it might make it easier. Holding it flat for me just right now, I'm not sure about that. I would rather see half to one and then we can change it and adjust it later if we can go down instead of saying flat and then finding out that we have to raise it.

Any further discussion? All in favor, say aye.

Aye. Wait, do we have to, well, I know we said, but in that motion, do we have to, kind of back up right quick, I was thinking, in that motion, do we have to also acknowledge that we will be exceeding the revenue neutral rate? Do we have to make that in the motion as well?

Okay, I'll amend my motion to add that.

Just for clarity's sake, I guess.

And then we'll need a second for that amendment. Unless the... There's been a motion. Can you scroll down there? Thank you. There's been an amendment to authorize the measure to sign the indication of revenue rate intent, saying the city intends to exceed the revenue rate and identify a mill levy of 38.502, including the publication sent to citizens. Okay. Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Nay. Motion passes 3-2.

Thank you. That concludes the business items for this special meeting.

With no items left on our special meeting agenda, this meeting is adjourned.