During the Levelland City Council meeting held Monday evening, City Manager Jeff Fisher provided updates for the group as budget season gets underway.
Fisher explained that had has met with several citizens regarding the Levelland Animal Shelter and the provision of services provided by the city.
The Animal Services Division currently housed in the Levelland Police Department and its budget is intermingled within the police department.
Fisher will be recommending in the Fiscal Year 2025 Annual Budget that animal services become a separate department within its own budget. Additionally, the department will still report to the chief of police or their designee and Fisher will also be recommending an Animal Service Manager who will oversee the department, shelter and operational piece of it.
“Nothing against the current people that are overseeing the animal service. They are doing the best they can with what they have,” explained Fisher. “Can we do better? I believe those individuals would agree that we can.”
In implementing this change, it will allow for a clearer picture on what is being spent when looking at the animal services budget.
“Right now it is very hard to see what is going on out there and this would allow a clearer path even for donations that are made to animal services,” said Fisher. “Those are not unreasonable request, so we are going to be working on that and clean it up.”
In September 2022, the council created the Animal Shelter Advisory Board. The current members include Kristy Sanders, Lola Smith, Taylor Perez, Sallie Morris, Jimmy Gleason and Councilmen Max Ledesma.
The board is appointed by the council and must contain one licensed veterinarian; the city manager or his designee; one animal control officer of the city that is appointed by the chief of police; one member of an animal welfare organization; two residents of the city and one member of the city council. Members of the board shall hold office for staggered terms of two years and until their successors are appointed.
The board is shall be advisory only and all members serve at the will and pleasure of the council.
“We just have to get our hands around this so we can do a better job and creating a model that is easier for our community to see what is happening,” said Fisher. “I will be asking to reconvene this board and I believe we have one opening as Kristy Sanders has stepped down.”
Plans will be to advertise to fill that spot and an additional council member will serve as a alternate if Councilmen Ledesma is unavailable.
“I intend to have discussion this fall with council about how we do all of our board appointments,” said Fisher. “Hopefully within the next couple of weeks we can at least get this board together and fill the position in the beginning of July.”
Further budget discussion was held with Fisher explaining that he has begun meeting with department heads to discuss their action plan or evaluation with budget plans and priorities for the upcoming year.
A special meeting is set for June 13 which will include the council touring the various facilities within the City of Levelland. Additionally, another special meeting is set for June 14 to allow the council to discuss what they saw during the tour and if anything needs to be addressed.
Fisher added that the city is currently behind schedule when it comes to addressing the budget for the upcoming year.
“We are still trying to get our audit done and while we do have a new finance director in place, there have been a lot of changes over the past year requiring us to play catch up,” explained Fisher. “These are not excuses. We will get everything done that is required of us, but we are behind in the process.”
In turn, Fisher explained that he has been meeting with department heads in one-on-one meetings to see where the departments feel are priorities that need to be addressed and what are some things that can be shared with council to allow the members to already be thinking about before budget work sessions begin later in the process.
Budget work sessions are projected to begin in August.
“As we look at capital items, I lumped them together but when I talk to department heads in categorized capital items as equipment, programs and people,” explained Fisher. “People are our number one capital item and they are our number one investment.”
When looking at the items, Fisher explained that the council and staff must look at the total expense from purchase, operation, training, maintenance and updates.
“On the flip side of things, what does it mean if we don’t buy the item or do not add the additional person,” said Fisher. “The goal is to make people think extensively about what our goals are and what we are doing. We cannot afford everything, but we need to understand what they are asking for.”
Being fiscally responsible is the goal for Fisher while also providing the basic necessities for city staff to do their jobs efficiently.