Tough budget issues remain Buffalo Council’s main focus

A continued focus on the city's finances appeared to be the council members’ main goal at Monday night's meeting of the Buffalo City Council.

A budget workshop preceeded the August 9th meeting. The council reviewed the city's revenue and expenditures stream and identified salaries as the main area where they need to aim a sharp pencil. Dianne Ryder suggested that a subcommittee might be formed to allow local hotel and motel management to have some input on how hotel/motel taxes are allocated.

An agreement for the diby vision of expenses between the City and the Fire Department was considered at length. The expense of testing the city's 111 fire hydrants was a big-ticket item in the agreement, but the Council concurred that the City may be liable if the hydrants are not tested and inoperable hydrants at least identified, if not immediately repaired. Ultimately the agreement was approved as presented.

Gary Hocutt outlined his concerns with a developer's plans to put up "cabins" near his property, in an area which is in a flood plain. He suggested, "Strangers that come to town to rent a place don't want to rent in a flood zone. As reasonable persons you could say, 'We don't want cabins built there', and you could use water/sewer (restrictions) to accomplish this goal." He was assured that a water meter for the developer's office building, which IS on high ground, will not be allowed to tie in to additional buildings, and any further development will have to comply with the flood plain ordinance which the City adopted.

During the opportunity for public comments, Mike Glick pointed out that many Texas cities and school districts have their financials posted on-line. "It is some thing I'd like to see the City Council consider at some point. The technology is there and it would give the city government a whole lot more transparency," Glick suggested. He also commented on the discolored city water, which brought an emphatheic chorus from others in the room. Mayor Royce Dawkins acknowledged the problem and explained that it is caused by pressure spikes from the new well forcing a lot of water through Buffalo's older pipes. "The engineers are telling us to continue to flush the fire hydrants until they can come up with a solution to slow that down," he concluded. Glick also requested that the City stop making patches on city streets with oil sand. "The patching we do should be at least semi-permanent. Oil sand is a substandard repair -- we're making a mess (that will) make the roads harder to deal with at a later date when they CAN be repaved."

The Council voted to approve a resolution and participate with a group of cities to lobby to fight any sudden rate increases by Atmos Gas. No action was taken on request from the County for commitment of funds to build, support and maintain the proposed Expo Center. During public comments Johnny Wilson cautioned the Council, "think the Expo Center is great deal, but I don't know if they actually have a good enough plan... We should be the biggest donators, since we have the most motels -- but hope ya'll will look into their full-blown plan before we commit anything." Since the request lacked specific dollar amounts, the matter was tabled until a later meeting.

After an executive session to discuss personnel, the Council voted to consider Water/Sewer Supervisor Roy Kingsbury as an exempt employee and to continue at his present salary with no overtime.

The Council approved the purchase of 35 "Welcome to Buffalo" banners in patriotic colors, to be installed before the upcoming Stampede.

City Secretary Debbie Waters presented copies of a report from Staples and Associates, who are wanting to contract to do the City's accounting services. The firm is already under contract to do Buffalo's outside audits, and the matter was tabled without approval.

Police Chief Lance Pavelka reported his department responded to 120 documented calls last month. He recommended higher security measures by citizens. "The tighter money gets, the more burglaries and other crimes will rise," Pavelka pointed out, suggesting everyone lock their vehicles, houses and garages. He also reminded everyone that school zones will be back in effect on August 23rd, and the new law prohibiting cell phone use in a flashing school zone WILL BE ENFORCED. ($200 fine, Class C misdemeanor.)

After taking care of other routine housekeeping (reports, outstanding bills, minutes) the meeting adjourned shortly after 9:00.