By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
City council members voted unanimously Tuesday to direct City Manager Shawna Burkhart to meet with city department heads again in an attempt to trim more money from the city’s expenditures next year.
The 6-0 vote by the council came after Burkhart gave a presentation on the city’s proposed Fiscal Year 2025-2026 budget.
After Burkhart’s presentation, city council members asked questions and made comments about aspects of the five drafts.
Mayor Al Arreola asked Burkhart to explain the city’s operating expenses. Interim Finance Director Linda Coones fielded the question, telling the mayor that the operating expenses in the city’s general fund “are what you are actually spending to run your departments.”
Coones added in a balanced budget, “your revenues and your expenditures have to be equal.” If they are not, she said, money from the city’s unreserved fund balance is brought in to make up the difference.
Burkhart told the council, “I would like to take an opportunity to share from my perspective the situation at the city. We are here, not because of one administration, not because of one city council. This has been a growing effect over many years.”
She added a one-cent increase in the city’s property tax rate generates about $180,000 to $200,000 in additional revenue, and if that amount is divided into the $6 million budget shortfall the city is facing this year, the number of years in which the city’s current situation developed can be calculated (assuming a one-cent increase every year).
“It’s just something that’s not achieved in one year. It’s grown over time, many years, and there’s not one person to place the blame on, or one organization, meaning council, this is simply a growth pattern that has occurred over time,” the city manager added.
Of the proposed budget, Burkhart said, “Do I believe that we have a very good handle on budget? I think we are getting there. I think by next year, we will see if we’ve got overstated areas, and we will cut those, and I think we’ve cut everything we possibly can.
We have staff who came to me today and said, ‘Hey, let’s look at these other areas,’ and we hope to cut those as well, but there will be tweaking, if you will, along the way next year, but I think we will be closer to where we need to be and more accurate in telling you what we’re spending of taxpayer money on the operations of the city and giving a real reflection of what fund balance is, because we have tied to audits, and we know now what we have.”
Arreola then asked if the city’s current three-month hiring freeze could be extended for a full year.
Burkhart said it could be done, noting that in the most current version of the proposed budget, she is recommending cutting 22 full-time positions and four part-time positions.
She had earlier recommended cutting 24 full-time and four part-time positions. She also said she hopes to be able to place at least 10 of those employees in currently vacant city positions.
The mayor also asked about how the city’s departments develop their budgets.
Burkhart said she and members of the finance and purchasing department met with every department and “walked through every line item of their budget.”
Burkhart again addressed the employee cuts she is recommending to the council.
Burkhart said, “If I may also address council and the city employees here. This does not come without grave consideration, many hours of sleepless nights and thought about how to, first, minimize the impact to the citizens of Del Rio. Not saying that there won’t be an impact; there will be, of some kind, an impact to the citizens, but trying to minimize that impact, and do it in the most efficient way possible. And that’s what we did to try to develop this budget.”
Arreola said one comment he hears from citizens is that the city is “administrator heavy,” and Burkhart said every level of the city’s organization was scrutinized and every level touched by the proposed budget cuts.
Other council members asked questions about the budget, beginning with Councilwoman Carmen Gutierrez, who said she had researched use of the city’s 830GO app to report problems around the city. Gutierrez said she had researched use of the app after Burkhart recommended it be cut from the budget, and Councilman Randy Quiñones asked that it be kept.
Gutierrez said in 2023, 65 reports were made through the app. In 2024, 59 reports were made, and to date this year, 39 reports have been made.
By comparison, Gutierrez said, 819 reports have been submitted on the city’s web site.
Gutierrez said, “So, I would submit that hopefully you can consider removing the 830GO app, (which costs) $25,000, and putting it toward to the (proposed) reduction of supplies and contractual for facility maintenance, where I think it would be more impactful and more efficient, instead of paying for an app that very few use, and we have another method that is very well-used by our citizens.”
Quiñones agreed, and wondered aloud if there were other areas where the city could save money.
Quiñones said, “What else are we missing? Have we gone back to the department heads to say, ‘Hey, this is the situation from your focus group, or from your round table discussion, can you go back and find somewhere to save?’”
The councilman also said he “doesn’t agree with” any of the five budget drafts Burkhart presented.
“I think we’re not done. I feel like we’re being told we’re done, this is it, but I don’t think we’re there,” Quiñones said.
Gutierrez said she hopes during the two town hall meetings on the city’s proposed budget scheduled for next week, city staff will present detailed information about the city’s revenues and expenditures, as well as the city’s debts. Burkhart said staff will develop a slide presentation on how the city is spending its money.
Councilman J.P. Sanchez asked, “Do you have any other adjustments that you might be able to make, has (Assistant Finance Director) Roxy (Soto) gone through everything, have you been able to find any mysterious money out there that we haven’t been able to get ahold of to help us in our situation? Also, the department heads, have they really put the pencil to it or are these cuts that are coming to the departments made by yourself? We need to get them involved in this, because it’s their department, so we need to see if they can sharpened their pencils as much as they can.”
Burkhart replied, “They have sharpened their pencils very sharply. They have been involved in all of those cuts related to their budgets, except for the reduction in force, which, as I shared with you, was done by myself, run through the HR (human resources) department and also consulted with the directors, and so, with that said, they had limited input in that process, but everything else, they’ve had pencil to paper from the very moment we said go on the budget and so they are very much up to speed on this.”
Quiñones reiterated he would like to see additional feedback from the city’s department heads for any more savings they might be able to come up with to rescue some of the positions Burkhart has recommended be cut.
Gutierrez asked when the city last raised its property tax rate.
Soto replied, “It hasn’t been within the past three years. I can check the historical. Maybe 2022? 2021?”
Burkhart said a chart on the city tax rates from previous years had been provided to council members at their last meeting, but added she would email it to council members again.
Burkhart said, “I would liken it this way. If an individual has a $4,000 budget in their household, and they’re spending already $4,200, every month they’re using $200 of their savings, that savings depletes over time, and if one chooses to go out and purchase a vehicle and can’t pay for that because they already are over budget, how much more so will they eat down on that savings account? That’s where we’re at. We’re like a home budget. We, too, have to come in and balance our budget and cut where we can.”
The city manager added, “We will bring before you as balanced a budget as we can for Sept. 9, and we hope that the city council can vote at that time for a budget and a tax rate,” Burkhart said.
Quiñones said, “On your example, Ms. Burkhart, I think that it was great, but that household could also watch what they are spending to make adjustments, and I’d like to make a motion with the directive to go back and talk to the departments and see if there’s anything that we could cut or they could do away with without jeopardizing the operation.”
Sanchez gave the second, and after a question from the mayor about selling some of the city’s real property assets, the council voted unanimously to approve Quiñones’ motion.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
