DeSoto City Council Discusses Budget, Final Hearing On September 17

DESOTO – The DeSoto City Council spent a good part of the meeting Tuesday night discussing the upcoming FY 2024/2025 budget.

There was one citizen comment, 34-year resident Anna Williams who thanked the DeSoto Police Department regarding city safety. Williams mentioned a former local Sheriff having said “Thank you for the most thankless job in America” adding “quite often that happens in DeSoto. Chief Costa and his policemen and policewomen, they are great and they do an amazing job in helping us in DeSoto to clean up crime, to clean up gambling that should not have been here, but they have done that and they have done an amazing job and I hope they continue to stay with us and with the citizens.”

Bernadine Harrison did not speak, but noted on a public comment card she was confused on how agenda items are presented.

The budget item was a discussion-only public hearing with no residents speaking.

The adoption of the Budget, Tax Rate, Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), and Council Business Plan is set for Tuesday, September 17, 2024, at 7 p.m.

DeSoto City Manager Majed Al-Ghafry said regarding the budget that staff was able to maintain the existing tax rate, and create a balanced general fund “as well as focusing to achieve the business plan priorities and strategic plan finally investing in areas identified as high priorities with citizen survey results while focusing on implementing large and prioritizes capital projects.”

The proposed budget, including the CIP, was first presented to the council on July 11 with two budget workshops held at the end of July.

The next steps will be for the council to prepare the draft and finalize its business plan during its upcoming summer retreat.

In staff notes it was pointed out the tax rate necessary to pay the debt obligations and provide the level of operating services as proposed in the budget is 68.4934 cents per $100 valuation, which is slightly lower than the tax rate in Tax Year 2024. The proposed rate is comprised of the Debt Service and Maintenance & Operations rates. The Debt Service rate is 18.1000 cents per $100 valuation, 0.0607 cents lower than Tax Year 2024. The Maintenance and Operations rate is 50.3934 cents per $100 valuation, 0.0449 cents higher than the Tax Rate in 2024. Adopting this tax rate will lower the overall tax rate by .000158 and enable the City to cover additional personnel compensation, salary, and associated benefits increases, supplies and equipment costs, contractual services, and professional fees.

The City is not required to hold an election with the proposed tax rate equal to the voter approval tax rate. The FY2024-25 budget is projected to raise more total revenue taxes than last year’s budget by $6,389,424 or 13.87%. Of that amount, $1,067,228 is tax revenue to be raised from new property added to the tax roll this year.

The Public Utility Fund Budget for FY 2024-25 has proposed a 9% increase in the water base and volume rates from the current base rate of $10.64 to $11.60 and the current volume rate of $3.70 to $4.03. The fund also has proposed a 9% increase in the sewer base rate from the current rate of $12.87 to $14.03 and a 9% increase in the sewer volume rate from the current rate of $12.87 to $14.03. The increase is proposed to cover the costs of contract water and wastewater treatment services, maintain current service levels, and continue capital improvements.

The Sanitation Fund Budget for FY 2024-2025 proposes a 5% increase in the sanitation rate from the current $29.97 to $31.47. The increase is proposed to maintain current service levels and cover the cost of the City’s new waste hauler contract with Republic Services.

Place 2 councilmember Pierette Parker had several questions about the increase $11.64 average of residential accounts proposed increase for water and sewer. Staff emphasized these costs are not controlled by the city and are passed along by TMA who dictates what they think is necessary to do their cost recovery.

Al-Ghafry added that as a responsive and responsible city and to ensure it continues to provide proper customer service while also maintaining reserves, “we really should be looking at the rate every single year and there has got to be a rate study every single year even if the city decides not to increase the rate, there has to be rate study that calculates that to ensure we are not impacting our reserve as one of the slides indicates. That is something that is just normal practice in the utility business.”

Place 4 councilmember Andre Byrd reminded the increase of 9% last year was part of the projected plan and added DeSoto has the lowest utility rates in the region adding “We are leading in population whereas we are lingering in recouping the cost and therefore depleting the fund balance.”

Place 3 councilmember Nicole Raphiel wanted to be sure people knew the final public hearing on the budget and tax rate is September 17 and said, “People need to hear about why the increases need to happen.”

She also had questions about what the city was bringing in and what it was spending and noted the difference is $659,000 for the proposed budget. She brought up Holiday in the Park and said she remembered talking about cost recovery mentioning Parks and Recreation did a presentation and she wanted to be reminded where they landed regarding the ice skating rink and where that cost falls now.

Park and Recreation staff addressed this issue and said in April the city discussed the ice skating rink noting there were over 2,000 people generating a little over $42,000 in attendance. It was noted expenditures were a little under $190,000 and that was about a 22% cost recovery, 28% with the infrastructure for the electricity.

It was explained the Parks and Recreation Department has three different types of services; essential services, important services, and value-add services.

Essential service would be, for example, Juneteenth benefiting the entire community and using tax dollars to subsidize these events.

Value add are classes, for example, individuals benefit from and pay for as well.

The ice skating rink was in the middle and ranked as an important service with community and individual benefit. It was noted when it comes to cost and the success of an event, the Parks and Recreation Department looks for 50 to 70% cost recovery on the items deemed important like the ice skating rink. That is how they determine the life span of events for the city.

Raphiel pointed out the ice skating rink was a 22% cost recovery and she wondered if they budgeted and regarding advertising. With the budget and event preparation being so close in the timeframe in this case, it was said the city couldn’t get started on such a project without knowing the funding is there.

Raphiel also suggested reducing the food budget for the council and directors for meetings and adding some type of standardization to bring the cost down on that budget item.

Parker asked about a new department in the budget and the “5% increase at the beginning.”

She noted “This budget piece sounds and looks similar” to a past proposal that was shot down and she asked “How did we get it in the budget without reviewing it before we got it to the budget and second when we are talking in regards to impact to the budget it is not as clear as it was in the discussion in May of last year it had specific financial impact and I think I brought up the SB2 impacts that were this year.”

Staff was confused on what new department and Parker mentioned the budget reflecting the new department heads and finally said “I am trying to understand the impact financially to the city.”

The City Manager answered Senate Bill 2 was considered in preparing the budget “with the understanding that whatever the impact would be absorbed in this year’s budget. Next year we are going to priority-based budgeting, or zero-based budgeting, which is going to look at all the forecasted revenues in the future of course with the SB2 monitoring what the legislation is going to do and we are going to do a five-year forecast and a two-year balanced budget with the first year being approved by the city council and the next year is going to be earmarked and all of that is going to look at the resources of the city and aligning that with council priorities so there will be impact in the future.”

He also said there is no added position with a new department. He said the department she is mentioning is going to be a reclassification of a position and the elimination of a couple of positions with opportunities to start focusing on grants, neighborhood response teams, communication, and community involvement.

“As a city manager I have the ability to recommend a budget to you and that could involve a new department,” Al-Ghafry told council. “I don’t know what happened in the past in terms of presentation, but in my month and half I saw a major need in focusing on the grants or things we missed in the past according to staff and I had the ability to look at the communication piece and the community.”

He also mentioned the ability to freeze a position for half a year, the deputy city manager and eliminate a couple of positions and truly put the city in a position where it can focus on better response to not just the city council, but also the residents.

The position will be a liaison to the mayor and the city council full time and focus on responding to requests “and be able to follow back on things that you have had some challenges with sometimes staff not responding back to you that liaison position is going to be able to focus on that,” he said.

He also added there is zero financial impact “because we were able to not only delay a position, but also eliminate a couple of positions at least that is the evaluation we had so we did it with the resources we have.”

Councilmember Place 5 Dinah Marks wanted to know how the Council Liaison position will differ from the two assistant secretaries the city has in addition to the main secretary, “I am trying to understand what that person will be doing differently than people are doing now and why is it necessary,” she said.

Al-Ghafry said, “It is necessary because we are receiving a lot of questions, concerns, and emails about things to follow up with regarding the constituents so this person will work directly with you to ensure any communication with the residents is communicated to you as a city council and is functioning as a liaison with the department heads and city staff to assure that response is happening at a much faster rate than what you see.”

He also said this position is a model in every city around DeSoto “so this is not a new model.”

All consent agenda items passed including approval of the Special City Council meeting minutes from June 17, 2024, and the Regular City Council meeting minutes from May 21 and June 18, 2024

Other items included Gwendolyn Spencer appointed to the DeSoto Audit and Finance Committee, Tanikqua Darden appointed to the Building and Standards Commission, Jamila Sherman and Pamela Spooner appointed to the Cultural Arts Foundation, Gilbert Graim appointed to the Planning and Zoning Commission, and Sandra Carder appointed to the Tri-City Animal Shelter Board.

A proclamation was read honoring National Voter Registration month, and an ordinance passed approving the 2024 Annual Service Plan Update and Assessment Roll for Public Improvements for the Danieldale Homestead Public Improvement District.

A Resolution passed approving assignment of North Central Texas Housing Finance Corporation Private Activity Bond Authority to the Texas Department of Housing & Community Affairs. Councilmember Parker wanted to know how the resolution approving this assignment benefits the city. She was told it moves funds to City of DeSoto residents. Councilmember Byrd said it has benefitted the city since being part of this gives the city a bigger pool of money for helping first-time homebuyers.

DeSoto Mayor Rachel Proctor said one notable funding source was the HOA grants and that money allotted from the housing and financing, however she was corrected as apparently the HOA grant money comes from the DeSoto Housing and not North Texas Housing.

The Economic Development Director was authorized to execute an economic development incentive agreement to provide a facade grant to Health and Allied Health, Inc., not-to-exceed $10,489.26, to be applied as reimbursement for a portion of costs incurred for a monument sign and door signage for a business at 1824 N. Hampton Road, approved by the DeSoto Development Corporation Board this past August.

Also passed was authorizing the Economic Development Director to execute an economic development incentive agreement to provide an Infrastructure grant to Sunshine Pediatric Day Center, DeSoto LLC., for $20,000 to reimburse a portion of eligible site improvement and infrastructure expenses related to a prescribed extended care center at 1059 E. Belt Line Road also approved by the DeSoto Development Corporation Board in August.

David Maymon from Sunshine Pediatric Center was on hand to speak and he said the pediatric day center is a prescribed pediatric extended care center that provides a one-of-a-kind special needs day center for children with individualized medical needs. This center meets the medical, developmental, physical, nutritional, and social needs of children who require intermittent or long-term skilled nursing care. The center has been designed to care for up to 60 kids.

The item on the regular agenda passed 6 – 1 to approve a resolution granting an exception to the Nuisance Noise Ordinance and the Park Regulations Ordinance to allow the World-A-Music Reggae Festival Organizers to operate until 11 p.m. at Grimes Park and sell and serve alcoholic beverages during the proposed Dallas Reggae Festival. For the three-day festival from October 18 to 20, there are expected to be up to 15,000 people in attendance.

The post DeSoto City Council Discusses Budget, Final Hearing On September 17 appeared first on Focus Daily News.