By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
City council members participated in a work session on the city’s proposed Fiscal Year 2025-2026 budget Tuesday, first going over lists of items requested by city department heads.
The work session was held in council chambers at City Hall and was held to review proposed purchases of “fixed assets” like vehicles and equipment and funding for a variety of city projects.
City Manager Shawna Burkhart introduced the presentation, telling council members, “As we have prepared the capital outlay for this year, we have tried to minimize all rolling stock, down to, I believe, one piece of equipment and some grant vehicles that would be purchased . . . We do have one vehicle, . . . a backhoe, and that backhoe has over 6,000 man-hours, and it was a 2017 backhoe, so it is well-used and needs to be replaced.
“Other than that, . . . you’ll see that we’ve tried to minimize all capital outlay that’s unnecessary at this time and/or can wait until the next year,” Burkhart added.
Before the presentation started, Mayor Al Arreola thanked all the city department heads who attended the meeting, filling up most of the seats in the council chambers.
“I wish we could turn the camera around and show the citizens you guys are participating in this budget, and you have been participating for the last four or five years, so I thank every director that’s here,” Arreola said.
City budget analyst Flavio Aguilar led the presentation to the council.
Aguilar began by showing the council the actual purchases made from the previous and current year’s budgets, items that will still be purchased or which the city has bought but has yet to receive before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30 and the requests made by departments for purchase in next year’s budget.
Aguilar told the council purchases planned for the next fiscal year total just under one million dollars, $979,523.
Aguilar then went over specific items requested by departments under the city’s general fund, its special revenue funds, enterprise funds and internal service funds.
Among the items being requested for purchase by general fund departments next year are two icemakers for two of the city’s fire stations, a dump trailer for the neighborhood services department and a John Deere backhoe for the streets department.
Aguilar said other items being requested include a hand squeeze roller and a striping machine for the traffic control division.
Requested items to be purchased from general fund revenues next year total $192,500, Aguilar said.
After highlighting some of the requests that would be paid from the city’s general fund, Aguilar went over some of the requests that would be paid from special revenue funds, including two Starcraft Allstar buses for the city’s transportation department and a vehicle for the Women, Infants & Children (WIC) program.
Aguilar said the city’s nutrition services department is requesting the purchase of a walk-in freezer.
“This is another safety issue. Our freezer is very old, and we need to replace it before it decides to bite the dust,” Burkhart said.
Also under special revenue purchases is a request to upgrade the video production equipment in council chambers at City Hall.
Requested items to be purchased from special revenue next year total $410,623, Aguilar said.
Under enterprise funds, Aguilar said, the city’s gas department is requesting a stopping machine, and the water department has asked for a high service pump and heater and a water tapping machine.
The wastewater division has requested the purchase of pumps for several lift stations, a water trailer, flow meters and effluent return pumps for the San Felipe Wastewater Treatment Plant, Aguilar said.
Requested items to be purchased from enterprise fund revenues next year total $271,700, Aguilar said.
Aguilar also covered requests to be paid for through the city’s internal service funds, including a backup generator for the Management Information System (MIS) division, an A/C recovery machine for the fleet service division and the facilities department is asking for a pickup truck, a Ditch Witch trencher and a water jetter.
Requested items to be purchased from internal service fund revenues next year total $104,700, Aguilar said.
He told the council, “Our total for city of Del Rio capital outlay comes to just under a million (dollars), at $979,523. As you can see from our prior years, we have greatly reduced our need of assets.”
Several members of the council, including Councilman Jesus Lopez Jr. and Councilwoman Carmen Gutierrez, asked about the items the city will purchase from grant monies and the items the city will buy using local taxpayer dollars.
Aguilar said he would have to calculate those numbers, noting grant funds will pay for a number of assets being requested by the police department, including several vehicles and body cameras. He said grant monies will also pay for several fire department requests.
Gutierrez reiterated her question, and Interim City Finance Director Linda Coones said about $750,000 worth of requests will be funded through various federal and state grants.
“How much are we going to have to pay that is not grant covered?” Gutierrez asked.
“It’s approximately $1.3 million,” Aguilar replied.
Arreola followed up with some questions about the timeline on city bid requests for vehicles.
The mayor complimented the finance department and the department heads for “cutting back” on their requests where they could.
The council took no action following the presentation, and another budget work session is planned for 9 a.m. to noon Saturday in council chambers at City Hall.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
