BROKEN BOW - A budget hearing and then a regular meeting of the Broken Bow City Council took place Tuesday night at the Municipal Building. All council members were present.
Full Budget Hearing Packet: 9-24-24-Budget-Hearing-Packet
Full Council Agenda Packet: 9-24-24-City-Council-Packet-with-links
Jeff Oeltjen with Dana F. Cole accounting presented several figures throughout the budget packet to council as well as the public in attendance.
"The actual property tax request dropped seven percent from $1,231,706 a year ago down to the $1,141,000 for this year. And that's with a valuation increase from $249 million a year ago up to $263 million this year," Oeltjen pointed out.
City Administrator David Schmidt summarized any changes that had been made since the publication of the budget in the newspaper, "We made a couple of changes to the sales tax infrastructure spending to reflect Eagle Crest monies, we updated the health insurance information to the actual numbers for the fiscal year ending 2023-2024, and we added some additional funds in equipment repairs for the electrical department. And we will re-run that notice in the Chief if Council chooses to approve this."
A good amount of discussion was had about line items concerning insurance. Several council members raised concern at its up-and-down amount changes over the past few years, despite everyone in the room understanding that insurance costs are up in general. A specific concern was its six-figure rise in cost for this budget.
Mayor Sonnichsen stated it was too late for insurance changes for this budget, but said that he had received comments about looking deeper into costs next year. He added that 'many eyes' and individuals worked on making the budget what it is, which he said was 'basically started over in February 2023'.
After the closing of the budget hearing, council called to order the regular meeting at 6:00 PM.
To open the meeting, resolution 2024-09 was approved, which established a policy for the payment of payroll, payroll associated expenses, and other recurring monthly expenses prior to council's approval of claims at council meetings. Further explained, council would see these items on claims as 'check printed' and the need for the policy was to avoid fees when due dates don't line up with City Council approvals.
In the next items on the council agenda Tuesday night, approved unanimously were the annual appropriation bill, a 1% increase to the restricted funds, the final property tax request for 2024-2025, and the 2024-2025 wage ordinance.
Steve Parr with JEO Consulting came before council to present and answer any questions about the 1 and 6 year plans, which include several concrete removal/replacements, ADA ramps, sidewalks, storm sewers, and erosion control projects. He stated that having the plans in place allows the city to receive highway allocation money. The plans were unanimously approved.
During mayor and council comments, councilman Paul Holland made the suggestion of having the council members, the mayor, and city administrator all make a yearly visit to every city department.
Tuesday's council meeting adjourned at 6:22 PM, at which time a closed session was entered for the purpose of evaluating the job performance of the city administrator.