CITY COUNCIL ADOPTS BUDGET / TAX RATE
The Brenham City Council adopted on the first reading, an 80 million dollar budget for the 2014 – 2015 fiscal year. No one spoke during the public hearing on the budget. Also approved was the property tax rate of 49.12 cents per $100 valuation. That is a drop of over seven cents from the current rate. The drop in the tax rate is due to the exchange of emergency communications with the county. That rate includes 28.90 cents for maintenance and operations and 20.22 cents for debt.
The Council also approved a Tax Phase-In agreement with Independence Coffee Company which plans to relocate to the old Beaumeir Iron Works building at 321 South Baylor Street near downtown. Council woman Gloria Nix was the only dissenting vote, stating she believes the building is not environmentally safe.
City Secretary Jeana Bellinger presented an update on the review of the changes needed in the city charter. Her office along with City Attorney Cary Bovey have been working on updates to the charter and presented some of the proposed changes to Council in the workshop session. Council member Danny Goss brought up the fact that there were no proposed changes to the compensation for Council members or the Mayor. He stated they needed adequate compensation for the time they spend for the city, not a salary, but better compensation than they now receive. Currently, the Mayor is paid $275 per month and Council members make $225 per month. Mayor Milton Tate and Council woman Mary Barnes – Tilley both stated they felt that working on the City Council was basically a volunteer position:
In other action, the council voted to approve a bid for the extension of Chappell Hill Street. The initial phase will be extending the street from Lawndale across Market to Stringer Street. City staff had recommended that Council approve an alternate bid for concrete paving for $93 thousand more because the future maintenance would be less. Council members voted to approve the lower asphalt bid so that the cost savings could be used on other street projects.
After an executive session to discuss the City Managers contract, Council voted to extended the Terry Roberts contract for an additional year. He also will receive a salary increase of 2%, effective on April 1 of next year.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
The city could cut back on their administrative costs (across the board) if there was a more active council. Similar to the county commission. We would need a more full time mayor and have the council members to be more directly involved in overseeing various departments. Brenham is no longer a small town that once worked well with a volunteer system. Time for change. These savings could reflect on increased city salaries of hard working people.
Respectfully,
Gary
I agree they could give mayor and city council a raise in pay if they would quit giving Terry Roberts a raise every year, something other city employees don’t get, he should be ashamed of himself for accepting a raise every year when he doesn’t add in raises for other employees in the budget!!!
I agree with Danny Goss that the council members and mayor should have better wages. This would encourage younger and/or working people to run for office. The mayor and city council are important jobs and the pay should be appropriate.
Gary