Hello Friends!
I hope you're all doing well and enjoy the long Labor Day weekend! First item to note is that City Hall will be closed on Monday, September 6th due to Labor Day. For
non-emergency needs during this time, please call the Waxahachie Police
Department at 469-309-4400. For emergencies, please dial 911.
Please refer back to the city's calendar to see if any new meetings are added after this newsletter goes out. To do that, please visit: https://www.waxahachie.com/calendar_app/index.html
Council will be approving a tax rate and budget for the City of Waxahachie this Tuesday. If you were unable to come to the public hearing about it, please feel free to speak Tuesday night during the Public Comments section of the agenda. These items are NOT listed as public hearings again. I originally requested a detailed copy of the budget the other day when I realized that all Council has seen to date is a budget summary. I wanted to review the in depth budget for myself, but due to increasing questions and demand from my constituents to see the detailed budget, I'll provide this link so you can review it as well: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-3e3ND7hbbWSOG4G0RrW7sUEubrR3PA8/view?usp=sharing
Let's get started on this week's meetings! Please take note, that due to Labor Day, our Council briefing and meeting have been moved to Tuesday evening.
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Tuesday, September 7, 2021
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6:00 PM - City Council Briefing Session
Council Conference Room, City Hall
401 S. Rogers St.
In this briefing session, Council and staff will discuss items for the 7:00 PM regular meeting. This briefing session is not live-streamed, but you are welcome to attend in person. They are an invaluable source of information about how the decisions we make in the regular meeting are made.
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7:00 PM - City Council Regular Meeting
Council Chamber, City Hall
401 S. Rogers St.
Agenda Packet: https://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/document-uploads-001/uploads/video/agenda_file/136436/9-7-21_City_Council_Agenda_Packet.pdf
Items 6-13 are all P&Z items that have been continued. Council will not consider these items nor take any action other than continuing the hearing to each respective date.
19 - Consider proposed ordinance approving revised budget figures for FY 21 and approving the budget for FY 22. Part of the ordinance states "Whereas, the City Council has studied the budget and listened to the comments of the taxpayers at the public hearing therefore and has determined that the budget attached hereto is in the best interest of the city,". As stated above, I have requested and read the entire budget. The budget was presented to us as being bare bones and only having those items which are essential. I have previously issued support for this budget but in reviewing the detailed version and after listening to the taxpayers, I feel that there are areas that could be reduced or cut altogether. As much as I appreciate the work of the employees, using taxpayer funds for employee Christmas gifts ($8000) and the $6000 for the employee Christmas party just seem like too much. There are lots of companies that show appreciation without this level of taxpayer expense, and I would like to explore other cost-effective options. There are auto allowances throughout the budget (there might be a perfectly good reason for this, but at first glance, this looks like something that is above the bare bones), a $40,000 appropriation to the Chamber of Commerce, $5000 for Council work sessions/meetings (for what? food? staff costs? Council members do not get paid for meetings.)
I'm not an expert in budgets and don't pretend to be, but I have proven to be competent in listening to the taxpayers. You can decide for yourself. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-3e3ND7hbbWSOG4G0RrW7sUEubrR3PA8/view?usp=sharing
You might say that it's a lean budget and there's nothing to cut. You might think there are some things that could be reduced or might not be the best use of taxpayer funds. I'd love to hear from you about it either way! Just an FYI- when reviewing the document, Fund 100 - General: that one is funded primarily from property taxes and sales taxes. Other departments like the WCDC and Hotel/Motels are funded through other sources, so that may change how you feel about the way those funds are handled.
20 - Consider proposed ordinance amending Water and Wastewater fees and setting an effective date of 10/1/21. Every year these numbers have gone up - EXCEPT this year! The FY 22 budget does NOT include a rate increase to customer water or sewer-related rates!
21 - Consider a motion to ratify the property tax revenue increase reflected in the FY 22 budget in accordance with the Texas Local Government Code. Make no mistake that keeping our .66 tax rate this year - even though it's the same as last year - IS a property tax increase. The Texas Local Government Code requires that "adoption of a budget that will require raising more revenue from property taxes than in the previous year requires a separate vote of the governing body to ratify the property tax increase reflected in the budget." Per the city's notice of public notice: "This budget will raise more total property taxes than last year's budget by $2,919,240 or 11.3%, and of that amount, $1,276,903 is tax revenue to be raised from new property added to the tax roll this year. The revenue from new property added to the tax roll represents approximately 4.9% of this increase."
22 - Consider proposed Ordinance adopting the tax rate for FY 22. Tax Code 26.05 (b) requires that the following language be used in adopting the tax rate: "I move that the property tax rate be increased by the adoption of a tax rate of 66 cents, which is effectively a 5.5% increase in the tax rate." Don't be fooled by hearing "we kept the tax rate the same". Prior to last year, your city tax rate had been the same for about 9-ish years, but I would bet that you've been consistently paying more in city taxes every year because appraisals have been on the rise. The no-new-revenue rate for FY22 is $0.625875, but that is not what is being presented for adoption. $0.66 is the tax rate being presented for adoption and what the budget was based on. Again, the public hearing for this has passed so if you do want to address Council on the matter, you must do so either by emailing us https://www.waxahachie.com/government/city_council/index.php or by speaking during the public comments Tuesday night.
24 - Consider proposed ordinance approving an interlocal boundary and ETJ agreement adjusting the current and ultimate boundaries of the City of Waxahachie's Extraterritorial Jurisdictional and Corporate limits between Waxahachie and the City of Midlothian. More details on this in the agenda packet linked above and staff will discuss this more in the Council briefing Tuesday evening.
26 - Consider appointments to Boards and Commissions. Waxahachie is an incredible community where people want to give back and serve. Serving on our city boards and commissions is a great way to do that and we receive many applications for folks to do so. Unfortunately, the leadership of Waxahachie has been very set in its ways and not been very accepting to change. That means that many have not had the opportunity to serve the city in this capacity. The city's website states "Appointments are made by City Council in August/September each year." but this isn't exactly accurate. Appointments are largely made by the mayor, even though the mayor is not elected outright by the people. He/she may take input from the Council on the matter, especially from the Council liaison to each board, but in the end, it's up to the mayor. A person in the position of mayor must be willing to make hard decisions for the betterment of the community and residents. We have some amazing residents who have been serving on our boards and commissions for 1 - 2 DECADES. While grateful for their dedication and participation, we need to allow other residents the same opportunity. I'm happy to report that there will be new faces on our boards/commissions this coming year - more than I've seen in the past. Unfortunately, there are some positions that are being reappointed even after serving decades. Again, there's nothing against these residents who have served the city so long. I greatly admire and appreciate them very much; but, we also need to have new voices and new input.
This meeting is open to the public to attend, but will be live-streamed as well. The link to view the live-stream is: https://www.waxahachie.com/government/city_council/city_council_meeting_live_stream.php
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Thursday, September 9, 2021
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4:00 PM - Mid-Way Regional Airport Board Regular Meeting
Upstairs common area of Mid-Way Regional Airport
131 Airport Dr., Midlothian, TX
5 - Discuss upcoming event "Wings-N-Wheels"
6 - Recognition of outgoing board member, Kent McGuire
This is a public meeting and you are welcome to attend; however, the meeting is not live-streamed.
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5:30 PM - Heritage Preservation Commission Regular Meeting
Council Chamber, City Hall
401 S. Rogers St.
Agenda Packet: https://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/document-uploads-001/uploads/video/agenda_file/136424/9-9-21_HPC_Agenda_Packet.pdf
4 - Consider sign application for 201 E. Main Street
5 - Consider Certificate of Appropriateness for 329 Virginia
6 - Consult with Kevin Strength and Diane Shaw regarding awning for downtown property
This is a public meeting and you are welcome to attend; however, this meeting will not be live-streamed at this time.
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As always, I appreciate and look forward to your input regarding city matters and am available to answer questions. My contact information is below. I hope you have a fantastic long weekend and a wonderful week ahead!
Your Friendly Councilmember,
Melissa Olson, CMO
(text) 817-507-5162
molson@waxahachie.com
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