The Week of August 17th -21st, 2020 in the City of Waxahachie

Hello Friends!

Just a quick note to let you know that I may miss next week's newsletter and/or be slow to respond to messages this week as I'm scheduled for surgery. It's just for my shoulder, but not sure how the recovery will be.

Here are the draft board minutes from recent meetings: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BSziKZ5H-mNoY3A1VpPKX34BsuCPVuDE/view?usp=sharing


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Monday, August 17, 2020
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5:45 PM - City Council Briefing
Council Conference Room, City Hall

Agenda: https://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/document-uploads-001/uploads/video/agenda_file/74680/8-17-20_City_Council_Briefing_Agenda.pdf

Due to the length of the 7:00 PM meeting agenda, this briefing session is being held a bit earlier than normal.  If there is any way that you can make it there, it is worth it.  The briefings are highly informational and I would really like for the City to stream Council briefings, even if they don't stream any other board briefings.

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7:00 PM - City Council Regular Meeting
Council Chamber, City Hall

Agenda Packet: https://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/document-uploads-001/uploads/video/agenda_file/74681/8-17-20_City_Council_Agenda_Packet.pdf

Items 5c, 6 & 27 are probably the most important items on this agenda.

5c - Set City Council meeting for September 8, 2020:  We have to set the date for our regular meeting from Monday, September 7th to Tuesday, September 8th due to the Labor Day holiday.

6 - Consider and tax action on an ordinance providing for the issuance of the City of Waxahachie, Texas Combination Tax and Revenue Certificates of Obligation, Series 2020, in an aggregate principal amount not to exceed $23,255,000; and ordaining other matters relating to the subject. I believe that bonds should be handled like the school district does and hold an election for them.  That being said, most of the monies are being used for infrastructure and street repair.  Here is a picture of the breakdown for your review.  If the picture doesn't come in clear enough, here is a link to view the document: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15KDTxn00khRqct7yMLS6IckLK14D4kaN/view?usp=sharing  I would be interested in your thoughts on whether you agree with these expenditures or not.  Here is the link to the Notice of Intention to Issue Certificates of Obligation on the City's website and it shows the principal amount of all outstanding debt obligations of the City is $160,210,000, among other data. http://www.waxahachie.com/Notice%20of%20Intent.pdf

27 - Consider setting Proposed Tax Rate and Dates for Public Hearing.  Staff has stressed that this is not the actual vote on the tax rate, but placing an item on a future Council agenda to vote on the tax rate.  Staff recommends taking a record vote to propose an ad valorem tax rate of $0.66000 for FY 2021 and schedule a public hearing for Tuesday, September 1, 2020 at 6:00 PM.  The City Council will consider adoption of the tax rate for FY 2021 on September 8th.

A couple notes about the tax rate.  $0.66 is a two cent decrease from the current rate of $0.68; however, the proposed rate exceeds the no-new-revenue rate (which some cities are adopting) of $0.63041, but does not exceed the voter-approval tax rate of 0.66289 (which we would have to have an election if we went over the voter-approval rate).  The tax rate was originally proposed of having an overall 2 cent reduction (from the debt service), but calculated using the 8% revenue cap.  Moving down to the 3.5% revenue cap gave us the ability to provide a 2 cent reduction from the M&O, but then staff changed the debt service back up by 2 cents.  This is why I would really like to see our tax rate no higher than $0.64.  That would still give the city more revenue than last year.  I understand that some won't agree with me on this, and that's okay.  I'm just stating how I came to this number.  The tax rate information is provided on pages 172 & 173 of the agenda packet, linked above.

The City Council meeting will be live-streamed via this link: http://www.waxahachie.com/government/city_council/city_council_meeting_live_stream.php

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I hope that everyone is having a great weekend and has a wonderful week ahead!

Your Friendly Councilmember,

Melissa Olson
(text) 817-507-5162
molson@waxahachie.com
www.olsonfortexas.com