During their regularly scheduled meeting Monday, the City of Levelland City Council received an audit report and moved forward with approving several budget amendments.
A representative from the auditing firm Bolinger, Segars, Gilbert and Moss, L.L.P was in attendance to make a brief presentation regarding the 20212022 fiscal year audit.
Covering the important highlights of the report, the firms representative informed the council, the process went smoothly, and the report includes a clean opinion regarding the financial statements which is also considered a unmodified opinion.
The representative giving the report explained to everyone in attendance that is what a council or city staff would want as a result of an audit.
Once the report was wrapped up, no extra discussion was had before the council unanimously approved the report and moved on to additional agenda items.
On the agenda was the consideration and action regarding the approval of Mike Pietsch Consulting to conduct an ISO Survey and approve a budget amendment resolution 2023-07 to fund the service.
Levelland Fire Chief Jay McKay was in attendance to offer more detail as to why the survey is required and what its purpose is.
McKay explained that periodically, the Insurance Services Office conducts a review of the fire prevention and suppression efforts for fire departments. The City of Levelland was last evaluated roughly five years ago.
The overall purpose of the survey is to conduct a review to help the insurance industry in setting fire insurance rates by establishing a PPC or Public Protection Classification for each city.
When establishing a PPC, the ISO does a comprehensive review of all factors involved in fire protection and suppression.
That includes, but is not limited to: the city’s personnel and training, equipment, ability to deliver water for firefighting and enforcement of building codes.
McKay continued his breakdown of the process and added the ISO makes a recommendation to the Texas Department of Insurance, which helps establish fire insurance rates regarding the PPC for each city.
The classifications range from one being the best and 10 being the worst.
Based on its PPC, a city having better fire prevention and suppression programs can get better insurance rates than cities whose efforts are not as effective.
After the last review 10 years ago, Levelland’s rating improved from a 4 to 3. In the latest review, the same consultant was able to help bring the Levelland department from a three to a two.
McKay also added that the survey was not planned for in the budgeting process before the fiscal year began as it was believed the survey was going to be conducted in the following year.
McKay’s recommendation to the council included bringing in the services of Mr. Pietsch and his 28 years of experience. The amended amount suggested to council was $38,500 to accommodate the price.
After McKay gave further explanation and detail, the council unanimously agreed to approve the amendment.
City Manager Brandon Anderson brought the next agenda item to the council’s attention. The budget amendment Resolution 2023-08 included a five-year contract with Johnson Controls for city hall security technology upgrades and service.
Anderson explained that as part of the move to Ring Central from phone service, the building is in need of upgrades for security system functionality at city hall. It was also added that the city has been with Johson Controls for several years, originally signing a five-year contract and continuing service with them on an annual basis.
The documents included in the agenda for council included a review of the proposal to update the system. The proposal was competitively bid through Sourcewell and would update the intrusion alarm system.
The agreement also includes a one-time fee for hardware updates of $5,329.58. The city would own the electronic security equipment upon purchase. The monthly monitoring would cost $62.18 per month, which was broken down into annual savings of roughly $265 from the current year-to-year agreement.
It was also mentioned to the council that the need for the system is a function of state law requiring certain security features for buildings that house a municipal court. In part, the proposal for the initial equipment purchase would be funded out of building security, which is the court security fund.
The monthly fee would be budgeted out of the building department in the general fund. After the explanation for the budget amendment and agenda item, the council unanimously approved the item.
Carrying on through the meeting, City of Levelland Parks and Cemetery Director Dustin Reichelt approached the podium to discuss a possible budget amendment, Resolution No. 202309 for a name monument at L.G Griffin Park.
Reichelt and his department have continued to upgrade the several parks located around the Levelland community and the L.G Griffin Park is scheduled to get a much needed face lift with a new pavilion.
In addition to those upgrades, Reichelt explained the city was approached by group of individuals that were wanting to possibly put in a new monument sign for the park.
Reichelt added that the sign would be similar in construction and material to the new sign that was placed at Bartlett Park but would be slightly smaller.
It was explained to the council that there was believed to be a sign at the park, but was damaged by a vehicle and had not been replaced. Once city staff visited with the group and were able to see renderings and the overall goal, the group was encouraged to raise a part of the funds needed to complete the monument.
The city’s portion to match the funds is $4,000 and the proposal to fund the matched amount would come out of the prior year’s surplus in the parks department’s budget.
The council approved the amendment and multiple council members asked Reichelt if the monument would be completed before the annual Juneteenth Celebration that is held at the park.
Reichelt said that the department will most likely have it completed along with the renovations before the event for the community to enjoy.
Moving forward, a budget amendment named Resolution No. 2023-11 was brought to council which involved using ARPA funds to fund the Street Seal Program for 2022-2023.
During this current fiscal years budget talk, street seals were cut as the no-new-revenue tax rate was adopted which restricted the city’s flexibility to cover certain expenses.
With a select amount of ARPA funds remaining, putting an amount aside for street seals was an option brought to the council.
The amended amount for the proposal is $595,480, which the council moved forward with unanimously approving the item.
An additional item that was brought forward by city staff to the council during possible project options to fund through ARPA funds was funding a portion of internal finance debt repayment as it was another expense not included in this year’s budget.
The amended amount was set at $687,737 and the council agreed on passing the amendment.