Staff Reports
Jefferson City Council will hold a special meeting tonight (Monday, August 19) to continue discussions on the 2024-25 fiscal budget. Tuesday night’s meeting will handle regular business but no budget discussions will occur.
Special Meeting Monday
Starting at 6:30p Monday at the Jefferson Convention and Visitor Center, Council will first swear in newly appointed Ward 2 Alderman Dan Harrigan. Harrigan was appointed last week, and immediately sworn in even though only his appointment was on the posted agenda.
Marion County Tax Assessor/Collector Karen Jones is then scheduled to be on hand to discuss the various tax rate options for the City for the coming year.
According to the agenda packet, Jones’ calculations put the possibility of a slight tax rate decrease to generate the same revenue as last year (No New Revenue or NNR) Last year’s rate was $0.4186110. This years NNR is $0.4087406, or a $0.0098704 decrease per $100 of appraised value. The NNR rate would generate $891,750 in property tax revenue. A one percent tax increase would set the rate at $0.4128280 and generate $900,668 in revenue. A one cent tax increase would set the rate at $0.418741 and generate $913,68 in revenue. Jones has also supplied Aldermen with a chart outlining how much revenue would be generated for various tax rates from the NNR to the DeMinimis Rate of $0.6398835.
Jones holds these discussions with each of the taxing entities.
So far in the budget workshop discussions, property tax revenue has not been updated from the 2023-24 fiscal year into the documents council is using to determine the budget.
Last week’s budget workshops drew citizen attention and feedback over proposed budget cuts made by Mayor Patricia Finstrom. Following over an hour of public comment, Aldermen worked to put back many of the cuts Finstrom proposed.
Cuts proposed, and put back, included funding to Friends of Jefferson Animals, the Jefferson Salutes America, and cutting the Jefferson Police Department officers, as well as others across most departments. FoJA was initially cut from $16,000 to $500, then Ward 2 Alderman Ray Hengst was first to request the the funding be restored, by adding it to the proposed $500 – making their allocation $16,500. The workshop proposal for Monday had FoJA at $16,359. Council were against decreasing the JPD budget following a line-item review with JPD Chief Florentino Perez during last Tuesday’s meeting.
The current budget proposal has a $187,838.50 deficit, but, property tax revenue has not been updated yet.
Regular Meeting Tuesday
Tuesday night’s regular City Council meeting will start at 5:30p at the Visitor Center and has the regular City of Jefferson type of business agenda.
Agenda items include:
- Presentations by Kevin Cashion of Gollob, Morgan and Peddy on the City’s Financial Audit for 2023.
- Presentation by Victor Perot on the Jefferson Volunteer Fire Department – rescheduled from July’s meeting
- A lengthly consent agenda including
- approval of previous meeting minutes and financial statements of the city
- the resignation of Dennis wan’ without two weeks notice
- hiring Kami Roser to fill the Administrative Assistant Position at a rate of $17.87/hour starting September 1
- rehiring Carson McKnight for the vacant patrol officer position inJPD
- accept the resignation of Mike Watts from P&Z commission
- an Amusement Ride permit renewal from Jefferson TX Tours LLC (trolly tour)
- Approving Event Applications for 2025 Outlaw Nationals in April, Memorial Day Ark-La-Tex Meetup in May 2025, East Texas Burn Run application for 2025, and Jefferson High School Homecoming Parade for Sept. 20, 2024.
- an interlocal agreement with TML for Risk Pool Cyber Liability and Data Breach Response
- and the financial audit for 2023.
- Action items incldue
- new event agreement for East Teas Chili Cook-off in January
- building permits for
- Michael Blackshear at 409 E Dixon
- Capstone Healthcare at 1307 MLK
- Approve Jefferson Historical Foundation to repair and activate the Sterne Fountain
- JEDCO, P&Z, and Tourism appointments by Harrigan
- approving Madison Hood’s contract for legal services to the City as City Attorney
- advertising for bids for Mowing contracts for (3) cemeteries, and general city property
- approving an ordinance allowing council members to place items on the agenda
- awarding the bid for an all-in-one accounting software system for the City
- Council Initiatives discussions/updates
The Herald/Jimplecute will be live for both meetings with followup posting of recordings incase of streaming issues.