Smithville City Council Freezes Tax Note Spending With Exceptions

By Kristen Meriwether, Publisher

The Smithville City Council held a special meeting on Wednesday as it continues to address the aftermath from City Manager Robert Tamble's retirement announcement two weeks ago.

As part of its budget process, the council voted to take out a $2 million tax note for the general fund and a $1 million tax note for the utility fund.

The council set its priorities for spending (which you can see in the lede image of this article), but the authorization to spend the money is typically held by the city manager.

With Tamble retiring and no successor yet in place, the council voted to freeze the spending on any tax note items unless directed by the council. But after getting feedback during the meeting from several department heads, the council did carve out several exceptions to ensure certain items didn't have to wait a month for another regular meeting.

The Public Works Department had several immediate needs, including materials for road repairs, an engineering study for repairs to the electrical lines in the Garwood Park development, utility trucks, mowers, a truck lift and a stump grinder. The council authorized up to $300,000 to be used to pay for those items.

The Smithville Police Department was authorized to purchase two new patrol vehicles and ensure they are fully outfitted.

The council authorized $75,000 to be spent on Oct. 1 to pay for new computers and to upgrade to Windows 11. The city is currently using computers with Windows 10, which will become obsolete on Oct. 14. The upgrade will help prevent attacks and close up vulnerabilities.

The Finance Department was given authority to pay bills from prior tax notes in two payment systems.

The council also voted to direct department heads across all departments to find savings of 1.75% by December. The council did not have any discussion on this item.

The new master fee schedule, which features the numerous fee increases approved with the budget, was formally adopted. The fee to repay the tax note was decreased by 10 cents to $6.25. That will begin appearing on utility bills next month.

The council will hold another special called meeting next Wednesday at 2 p.m. in council chambers. The agenda can be found here.