By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
City Manager Shawna Burkhart assured council members on Saturday that city services
won’t suffer by a proposal to cut 28 jobs from next year’s budget.
Burkhart unveiled more than $3 million in recommended cuts from the city’s proposed
Fiscal Year 2025-2026 budget during a special city council meeting to go over the
budget.
Among the cost-cutting measures the city manager proposed are the elimination of 24
full-time and four part-time city jobs. (See separate story here.)
After Burkhart made her presentation, city council members asked a range of questions.
Mayor Al Arreola asked Burkhart how she and the staff had made their decision on
which positions to cut, and Burkhart replied, “Simply by assessing the department, its
efficiencies, the productivity, the options to transfer people, like, for instance, facility
maintenance, to shrink that (department). We used some technology to assist in,
potentially, technology that we already have, to assist in the decrease of a position. All of
those things were taken into account, efficiencies, effectiveness, productivity, simply
everything we could think of went into that process.”
Arreola then asked, “If the council decided not to do these (cuts), what are our
consequences down the line?”
“Simply that your deficit goes up,” Burkhart replied.
“And it goes up by $3 million?” Arreola asked.
“If you choose not to do any of these changes that we’ve presented here today, then, yes,
you would be back at your $6 million in the hole, in the deficit position,” Burkhart
responded.
Even in making all the changes recommended by the city manager, the city is still facing
a $3 million deficit in next year’s budget.
When Arreola asked if there were “any other things that we can cut back,” Burkhart said,
“Certainly; travel is one line item that is not listed on here. That can certainly be looked
at, but I think that should be on a case-by-case basis because we have so many areas to
grow in and learn and strengthen our knowledge in, that I would hate to stop that
learning.”
Burkhart added every purchase the city will make over the next year will be reviewed by
City Purchasing Agent Luis Menchaca, by Interim Finance Director Linda Coones and by
herself. Burkhart said she has been doing this for about a month and will continue that
process over the next fiscal year.
Arreola then asked if the council approved the personnel cuts, “would the city be able to
operate or are we going to be struggling out there?”
“Without a doubt. It will affect us, but what we’ve tried to do first is make sure that we
have as minimal an impact as possible, on the public, first, and also as minimal an impact
as possible on the department as well,” the city manager said.
Arreola also asked how much money is put into the Del Rio Economic Development
Corporation and wanted to know “if that money could be utilized for something else.”
“It cannot be used for operations. It cannot be used for general fund purposes,” Burkhart
said.
Councilman Jesus Lopez Jr. asked if the cuts would affect services offered by WIC,
Transportation and Nutrition Services, and Burkhart said those departments would not be
cut.
Councilman Randy Quiñones said he wanted to know how much was in the original
budget for the Fourth of July festivities, where Burkhart had recommended a $15,000
cutback. Community Services Director Esme Meza addressed the question, noting staff
also solicited donations for the event from the community.
Assistant City Manager
Manuel Chavez said the initial budget for the Fourth of July events was $70,000.
Quiñones said he also would like to see similar figures on the other cuts Burkhart
recommended. Assistant City Manager Roxy Soto later said on the other cuts
recommended, the amount cut was the amount that had been budgeted.
Council members also asked additional questions about the savings the city would see
with the proposed personnel cuts and the affects those cuts would have on services.
“Our point to the citizens should be that while positions are being cut, services will not be
cut. The city of Del Rio will continue to provide fully the services that are required of a
city,” Councilwoman Carmen Gutierrez said.
“That’s correct,” Burkhart said.
Gutierrez also asked if any positions in streets, water and wastewater would be cut, and
Burkhart and Coones said most of the cuts would be in clerical support staff in various
departments.
Gutierrez said the council’s travel should be looked at as well.
“We (the council) should also be impacted. Anything we can reduce, we should,”
Gutierrez said.
The council also asked questions about the amount of money the city holds in reserve.
Councilman J.P. Sanchez asked about the amount of the shortage that would remain even
if the council made the cuts and changes recommended by staff.
“$3,018,050,” Burkhart replied.
“And we still have $10,666,000 in the general fund? And we need a three-month reserve
of $7,227,000? Is that correct?” Sanchez asked.
“That’s correct,” Burkhart said.
She then answered an earlier question posed by Arreola about the total number of
vacancies.
“We have 42 vacancies, and most of those are in PD, fire, dispatch and water,” Burkhart
said.
She then returned to Sanchez’s question.
“We would have remaining $3,441,253, but next year, we still have that same $3,018,000
that we haven’t cut this year, and we’re taking it out of our ‘savings account,’ our fund
balance. That’s still going to be remaining next year,” she told the councilman.
“But then we would have a year to figure out how to. . .What I’m trying to get to is for us
to be balanced. I realize that we want to have extra money in our fund balance, but we’re
only required to have the $7,220,000, and we’re short $3.1 million. . .There’s money
there to get us to balance. . . Now we have a year to figure out what we’re going to have to do to get that other $3 million, otherwise we’re going to be short that next year,”
Sanchez said.
Sanchez also said the city “needs to look good” to tackle the loans it will try to obtain to
deal with priority water and wastewater infrastructure issues.
“We need to do what we need to do right now. . . It’s going to hurt a lot of people, but
we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do. We need to do what we can to balance this budget.
We need to show a balanced budget to solve the other problems that the city is going
through right now,” Sanchez said.
Gutierrez also asked follow-up questions about the money being cut for operation of the
county’s women’s shelter, wanting to know if grant funding could be obtained to pay for
that portion.
“Not at this time,” Burkhart said.
City Attorney Ana Markowski Smith pointed out the funding is based on a memorandum
of understanding (MOU) between the city and the county.
“We probably need to look at what our real obligation is, if it’s a real obligation, because
it’s not just a voluntary contribution,” the city attorney said.
Burkhart said she would investigate and let the council know during its meeting on
Tuesday.
Burkhart also spent some time discussing some of the debt the city plans to pay off next
year and how that will affect the city’s proposed property tax rate, which is made up of
two parts, the “I&S,” interest and sinking, which goes toward debt, and the “M&O,”
maintenance and operation, which goes toward the city’s operating expenses.
Soto also spoke about the city’s debt payments, then she, Coones and Smith spent some
time talking about the planned payoff of several of the city’s general obligation bonds
and certificates of obligation over the next year.
Council members asked additional questions, and at the end of the workshop, Burkhart
said, “I hope we made it short and less painful than last Saturday. Certainly the grim
nature of a reduction in force is never something that’s embraced fully, and, please, I
want to ask that no information be shared that has not already been shared because
between now and Sept. 9 we may be able to move positions to be able to salvage some if
not all, and we’ll try our level best to accommodate and see what we can bring back in
without increasing our deficit.”
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com .
