The Levelland City Council kicked off their special meeting Monday evening with appointing a new municipal court judge followed by a budget work session.
Following a unanimous approval with a full council, City Secretary Andrea Corley administered the Oath of Office for Esmeralda Rowand as she was officially appointed as the new municipal court judge for the city.
Rowand thanked the council for the opportunity, stating she would put forth her most effort moving forward. Mayor Breann Buxkemper shared her excitement with the council and crowd in attendance thanking Rowand for her hard work up until this point while also sharing her excitement for Rowand’s future serving as municipal judge.
Moving forward, City Manager James Fisher spearheaded another budget discussion for the Fiscal Year 2024-2025 Budget. Previously, a proposed budget draft was provided to the council which contained some fund deficits in 2025.
A proposed list of changes was provided to the council which would place those major funds in the surplus. If agreed upon, the proposed changes would be reflected in the final proposed budget, which will be given to the council at the end of this week.
Fisher also reminded the council that the city will need to formally adopt a budget and tax rate on September 16. This gives the council and city staff roughly three weeks to overview the final proposed budget before the adoption process.
It was explained that city staff is working through the proposed budget with unaudited numbers with some changes possibly taking place as they move forward until they have true numbers. Currently, the city is going through an audit and will be working throughout the week. Fisher is hopeful the city will have their audit completed by the end of the current budget year.
Previously, the council adopted a tax rate ceiling of .55000 with a proposed tax rate of .53500. Every cent on the tax rate generates roughly $66,150 for FY 2024-25.
Included in the proposed budget is a 3% Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) and an Employee Compensation Analysis.
The bulk of the conversation circled around American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds and the deadline to spend those funds. Councilman Bill Powell asked when the deadline to spend the ARPA funds was. Fisher hopes to exhaust the ARPA funds by December 1 as he has heard the deadline is either Dec. 1 or Dec. 31. Fisher added that staff looked at items that ARPA funds could be used for which could fall under revenue replacement, public safety items, etc.
When staff placed those funds, all of the city’s funds were balanced or in the positive. Those numbers were placed within the list provided to council and it was explained the group would have to allow city staff to make those adjustments during the same time the budget is adopted as those changes would be for the 2025 budget.
Proposed ARPA funded capital items for the 2025 budget included $81,000 for police, $85,000 for fire, $46,000 for EMC, $45,000 for inspections and $50,000 for cemetery. The total ARPA funds to the General Fund for the 2025 budget totaled $257,000 and the total ARPA funds to the Cemetery Fund for the 2025 Budget is $50,000.
Three School Resource Officer (SRO’s) as LISD will only be funding three out of the five SRO’s budgeted this year and the 2025 budget reflects the decrease. Fortunately, three positions have open positions and will not affect the police department staffing.
With those ARPA funds allocated for possible approval, the remaining ARPA balance for the city sits between $1million and $1.5 million.
Once the deadline to exhaust the ARPA funds passes, the city is required to return what was not used back to the federal government.
Fisher informed staff that ARPA funds are meant for onetime payments and cannot be used for reoccurring payments. An example of what the city staff are looking into are generators which were shown to be an extreme need following the devastation of the May 29 storm. The current generator located at the Levelland Fire Department and dispatch area was not strong enough to accommodate both entities.
Mayor Breann Buxkemper and Councilmen and Mayor Pro-Tem Michael Stueart asked about possible road repairs aside from the expected seal coat which is scheduled to begin within the coming weeks. Fisher explained that would be a difficult task due to the length of a project and when payment is made.
Payment on projects similar to a road repair are not paid for until the project is completed which could cause issue if the deadline encroaches the ARPA deadline.
Moving forward, Fisher and city staff will be compiling various options that would allow the city to exhaust the ARPA funds.
The council was asked to provide any feedback and include options they could think of or if any community members have voiced possible options to them.
While there are several items that are needing to be addressed, the city is held to the requirements where and how those funds can be spent according to the federal government guidelines.