Be it remembered the Council of the City of Caruthersville met in special session Monday, August 13, 2018, at 5:00 p.m. in the Council room of the Municipal Building at which time and place the following were present:
- Sue Grantham – Mayor,
- Takella Motton – City Clerk,
- Lawrence Dorroh (Absent) – City Counselor,
- Tony Jones – Sergeant at Arms,
- Hood (Absent) – Councilperson Merideth – Councilperson
- Rodgers – Councilperson
- Duckworth (Absent) – Councilperson
- Bullington – Councilperson
- Lyons – Councilperson
- Rittenberry – Councilperson
- Grable – Councilperson
The number of members necessary to consider a quorum being present, the Mayor called the meeting to order and announced the meeting was in session for the transaction of business. Councilperson Grable Chairman of the Street & Sanitation Committee addressed the Council with some items proposed by Terry Rushing who was on vacation. Mr. Rushing requested the following: 1) The two dump trucks to be repaired by pilots 2) Street sweeper repaired by Key Equipment 3) Purchase of a drain pipe, which would need pricing, and 50 signposts roughly at $1,000. Councilperson Bullington stated that the items were regular maintenance that needed to be fixed, and would put them in the budget once she got Mr. Rushing’s budget. Councilperson Bullington motion for the items to get repaired and purchased, second by Councilperson Rittenberry with all in favor. Mayor Grantham stated that the bond issue concerning the half-cent economic development tax will be brought forward in the regular meeting.
Councilperson Bullington made mention of the revisions to the Economic Fund by transferring funds from the Community Revitalization fund through the land sale of $25,200. The Economic fund is zeroed out instead of having a deficit, and the General fund now stands at $219,842.15 instead of $194,642.15. Councilperson Bullington presented a report of special projects funded out of the Sales Tax fund that has been proposed for the 2018-2019 fiscal year. Councilperson Bullington presented a report of the City’s vehicles with the year and mileage, and the consensus was to construct a rotation schedule of the vehicles for the determination as to who gets what.
Councilperson Bullington pointed out on the June financials how the Sewer fund had deficit spending of $120,272.10 and how the Water fund would be in trouble next year if it carried the sewer deficit with the Water fund having an ending balance of $108,483.35. The Sewer fund by ordinance received a $1 from the Sanitation fund, if returned it would help but to break even the Sanitation fund would have been raised by $3.00. The Sewer fund deficit would be compounded but would be corrected by raising the base rate to $3.00, and $.085 per 1000 for anything over 2000 gallons. The base would go from $8.00 to $11.00 and $1.65 per 1000 for anything over 2000 gallons to $2.50. There was a discussion about the employee raises as to whether or not to have them done in September or wait to January, whereby everyone would be scheduled to get raises since the police department had gotten, raises January of this year. It would also give the City some breathing room by waiting those extra months. There were more discussions of ways to save money that could improve the bottom line. Doug McDowell stated that the City has to be run like a business, with costs going up then you have to raise fees accordingly in order to operate. Councilperson Bullington stated that the projections have been made, and now is the time when the City can no longer talk about the problem, but something has to take place. Councilperson Merideth made mention of maybe a way that employees could get personal time by use of sick time if raises weren’t given, as a way to boost morale. Councilperson Bullington stated that when the personnel manual was being worked on that they addressed adding an extra perk by giving more hours to employees that had been employed longer.
Councilperson Rittenberry made motion effective October 1, 2018, to move the $1 from Sewer back to Sanitation, and raise the Garbage fees by $3.00 second by Councilperson Merideth, which resulted in the following vote.
- Merideth – Yes
- Rodgers – Yes
- Bullington – Yes
- Lyons – Yes
- Rittenberry – Yes
- Grable – Yes
Councilperson Merideth motion effective October 1, 2018, to raise the Sewer fees base by $3.00 and $2.50 per 1000 for anything over 2000 gallons, second by Councilperson Rittenberry, which resulted in the following vote:
- Merideth – Yes
- Rodgers – Yes
- Bullington – Yes
- Lyons – Yes
- Rittenberry – Yes
- Grable – Yes
Councilperson Grable motion to table the raises and revisit December 1, 2018, second by Councilperson Rittenberry, which resulted in the following vote:
- Merideth – Yes
- Rodgers – Yes
- Bullington – Yes
- Lyons – Yes
- Rittenberry – Yes
- Grable – Yes
Paul Shaw reported that the County will not be building a tower, so the network capabilities will be going forward on the City’s water tower. There may be also an opportunity for a cell tower to go on a water tower, which would be economically beneficial to the City.
Councilperson Bullington stated that as far as the budget the only thing that should have to come to the Finance committee to approve is anything that goes above what’s budgeted or that is not in the budget. Councilperson Merideth stated that if the department heads needed something extra to let the Council know in advance to give time to mull it over.
Doug McDowell stated that once the budget was done that he would revise a chart of accounts, and all the old ones would need to be disposed of.
With no further business to come before the Council, Councilperson Lyons motion to adjourn, second by Councilperson Rodgers with all in favor the meeting adjourning at 6:23 pm.