By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Concern over proposed city employee layoffs dominated conversations during September 3rd’s town hall meeting on next year’s city budget.
The meeting, held in the Red Oak Ballroom at the Del Rio Civic Center, was hosted by City Manager Shawna Burkhart and was the second of two. The first meeting was held Tuesday in the Joe Ramos Center.
Burkhart opened Wednesday’s town hall by welcoming those attending, then launched into a presentation on the city’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2025-2026, just as she had at the beginning of Tuesday’s meeting.
One of the first points she made Wednesday was that the city this year faced a $6.6 million shortfall between its revenues and its planned expenditures.
“So we had to start cutting,” Burkhart told the audience, which included about 15 citizens, as well as several city council members and a handful of city administrators and staff.
Burkhart went over several of the draft versions of the proposed budget she had presented to the city council and said she would review each of the reductions and encouraged those with questions to stop her and ask them.
The city manager said during their last meeting, city council members asked her to “go back and scrub those numbers one more time and re-look at all revenues and expenses.”
The result of that review, she said, was that she has increased the projection of revenue from tax collections by $200,000 and of revenue from permits and licenses by $25,000.
She said the review also led to a projected decrease in the projection for special grants, in the amount of $541,000. The review also led to a decrease in supplies totaling $58,900, a decrease of $167,600 in contractual services, a decrease of $90,300 in fund transfers out and a decrease in grant-related expenses of $494,900.
“This gives us $1,781,200 that we’re short, a negative balance, and please note that this is just revenues minus expenditures. It is not fund balance,” Burkhart said.
She then explained the fund balance “is what you begin the year with.”
“Then you have your revenues added in, your expenditures subtracted out, and your ending fund balance (remaining),” she added.
Burkhart then went over a presentation that included information about the city’s tax rate history and trends in the fund balance of the city’s general fund.
“You will see that since 2020, we have had a downturn in our fund balance for the general fund,” she said.
Burkhart reviewed the revenues sources that feed the general fund and transfers into the general fund from the city’s enterprise funds like the international bridge, water and wastewater. She also showed a chart depicting how tax collections, transfers from other funds and other revenue pay for various general fund departments.
She said the remaining portions of her presentation dealt with the city’s debt and depicted how the certificates of obligation (COs) issued during various years were spent or the projects to which those funds are allocated.
Burkhart said the 2023A series of COs included $9 million originally slated to fund “a building program” for City Hall.
“Well, $9 million won’t build a new City Hall, and I am encouraging city council at the next meeting to consider using those funds, half of those funds to be used to restore the current city hall and try to get 20 more years of life out of that facility, at least 20 more years, and also, to consider using some of those funds to rebuild Buena Vista Pool and to also, if they see fit, to use some of that for Joe Ramos renovations,” Burkhart said.
She reiterated city council will make the decisions on how the $9 million will be spent.
Burkhart then encouraged those attending the meeting to ask any questions they wanted.
Stevie Quilo, a local digital journalist, asked if the proposed budget included the recent fees, permit and license changes recently approved by the city council, and Burkhart said it did.
Burkhart then told the audience, “I know several here are concerned about the (proposed) reduction in force. It only generates approximately $750,000, give or take, and it is a very hard pill to swallow, for even consideration purposes, let alone going through and actually doing that.
“It is not easy when 90 percent of the city’s budgets are personnel related, so when you go through four or five drafts of cutting, appropriately cutting, strategic line items such as supplies and contractual obligations, increasing revenue, decreasing expenses, all of that needs to be considered, but, eventually, 90 percent of your budget is personnel, and so, the question is, how much will the city council allow for the city to eat into our savings, our fund balance, in one given year?
“It is a very hard thing to propose, and I know for city council, it’s a very hard thing to consider, but certainly, that’s the situation we’re in,” Burkhart said.
Andrew Pavlinski asked about how the city will end this fiscal year, and city budget analyst Flavio Aguilar replied the city will need a fund balance transfer of about $1.9 million to end the year.
Pavlinski commented he was at the last city council meeting where one council member asked city staff “to sharpen their pencils” and said he appreciated it, “but the very next line item on the agenda, after the budget, was an expenditure of roughly $235,000 for the creek (walk) engineering plans.”
He also asked how much of the city’s existing debt from certificates of obligation has been drawn on. Burkhart said the figures she provided only showed how much had been issued in COs.
“Many of these have already been completed and zeroed out,” she said.
Burkhart said during the council’s next meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 9, she is preparing information on “what the debt is currently and what we currently have left to spend on those COs.”
Burkhart also said she will propose to the council to hold only three months of operating reserves instead of five months in an attempt to address the deficit.
Mary Hernandez asked, “Have you notified the employees who will be losing their jobs?”
“No, I have not, and the reason being is until city council votes on Sept. 9, it doesn’t happen,” Burkhart replied.
“Those employees right now are worried to death that they might lose their jobs,” Hernandez said.
“I understand,” Burkhart replied.
Hernandez again said she believed Burkhart should have let the employees know.
“And if it doesn’t happen, I would have worried them for nothing,” Burkhart replied.
“My point is, if the council says ‘no,’ are you still going to find a way to get rid of those employees?” Hernandez pressed.
“No, because I don’t have an intention of getting rid of employees. The only thing I’m trying to do is create efficiencies, where necessary, to get the budget under control. All I can do is to give the best financial foundation from which to have a good city organization that provides the services to the citizens, and that is all I’m attempting to do. It has nothing to do with personalities,” Burkhart said.
Hernandez again said she believed Burkhart should have “the courtesy” to notify employees, and Burkhart responded, “They’ll be notified on Sept. 10 (if council approves), and not one minute before.”
Robert Wade, a member of The Upstagers, Del Rio’s community theater group, said he, too, was concerned about the effects of the proposed reductions in force.
Wade said one of his concerns regarding the proposed reduction in force was the impact of those reductions on the Paul Poag Theatre and the civic center.
“If the reductions in staff impact either or both of those, what are the countermeasures that people have the necessary qualifications to manage those functions?” Wade asked.
Burkhart said the Paul Poag “would be funded appropriately, based on when it opens, and manned appropriately, when it opens.”
Burkhart said she is currently proposing cutting 22 full-time and four part-time positions, but noted there are vacancies in other areas “we are trying to move people into.”
“We’re looking first at their tenure and then at their skill sets,” the city manager said.
Wade said he understood, but added, “What our concern is, of course, is that there is the proper qualifications and staff that do support Paul Poag Theatre and the civic center, because we use the civic center, too, that that is a prime consideration.”
“You make the choices you have to, I get that, but ultimately my concern is, as a member of The Upstagers, we want to make sure the expertise is either maintained or acquired, to make sure those facilities – you’re investing a lot of money to bring (the Paul Poag) up. We just don’t want to see it slide back to the way it was because the cuts have resulted in reductions that were not optimal or the people put in place going forward don’t have the level of expertise necessary,” Wade added.
Paul Mancha asked if the city manager “was on that list for the chopping block.”
“I am not,” Burkhart said, then added, “But council can, at any time, give me 24 hours’ notice.”
Mancha expressed further concerns about the time frame of notice to be given the employees whose jobs might be cut.
Burkhart said if council agrees to cut those positions, the employees will be given 20 days notice that their jobs will end Sept. 30 and their earnings to that point, vacation and unemployment would be paid out.
Bea Vallejo asked if the city has any heavy equipment it could sell, and City Purchasing Agent Luis Menchaca replied that the city regularly auctions off items that have been deemed “unusable or beyond repair.”
At the end of the meeting, Burkhart thanked everyone for their time and attendance.
She said, “I certainly know you have serious concerns, and we take those very seriously. I take those very seriously, and I will take those back to city council as we finalize this budget.”
After she spoke, Pavlinski called out, “What can we do to avoid being in this position next year?”
Burkhart replied, “Until we get equal revenues versus expenditures, we will be in this situation each year until we grow our revenues.”
She added that currently, revenues from sales tax and from the city’s international bridge are helping the city hold down property taxes.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
