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09/03/2019MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF THE CITY OF PARIS, TEXAS September 3, 2019 The City Council of the City of Paris met for a special session at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, September 3, 2019, at the City Council Chamber, 107 E. Kaufinan, Paris, Texas. Present: Mayor: Steve Clifford Council Members: Derrick Hughes; Linda Knox; Clayton Pilgrim; and Paula Portugal City Staff: Gene Anderson, Interim City Manager/Finance Director; Stephanie Harris, City Attorney; Janice Ellis, City Clerk; Bob Hundley, Police Chief; Mike Vogel, Fire Chief; Kent Klinkerman, EMS Director; Doug Harris, Utilities Director; Jerry McDaniel, Public Works Director, Carla Easton, City Engineer; Priscilla McAnally, Library Director; and Clyde Crews, Fire Marshal Absent: Council Member: Renae Stone and Billy Trenado Call meeting to order. Mayor Clifford called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. 2. Citizens' forum. No one spoke during citizens' forum. 3. Conduct the first public hearing on the City's proposed tax rate for 2019-2020. Interim City Manager Gene Anderson said Section 140.010 of the Local Government Code required two public hearings on the proposed City tax rate. Mayor Clifford asked if the hearings were required only if the tax rate was effectively increased. Gene — only if you raise the tax revenue. Mayor Clifford opened the public hearing and asked for anyone wishing to speak about the tax rate, to please forward. Steve Ekstrom, 725 Medalist, he said last month he and his wife appeared before the Lamar County Appraisal District to oppose the increase in their property value. He said they were told appraisals were raised a blanket 8% because the Comptroller told them they had to do that. He inquired if anyone had seen that specific paperwork from the Comptroller. He urged City Council to find out where it came from and to have their attorney to determine if there was City Council Special Meeting September 3, 2019 Page 2 legal justification. Mayor Clifford asked City Attorney Stephanie Harris if that was something the City could do and she told him the City could look into it but the City could not set property values. Steve Clifford, 2050 Silverleaf Drive, he said this was the fifth year he had been on City Council and he did not plan to support a tax increase. He said for four years straight they had left the tax rate the same, which essentially increased taxes for the citizens of Paris. Mayor Clifford said this year many people were going to get hit with increased tax bills, and he was not going to support a tax increase for the citizens of Paris. Mayor Clifford said when property values increased taxes increased, and they could not continue raising taxes. He said he was not going to support a budget that increased taxes for a fifth year in a row. James O'Bryan, 3150 Bonham Street, 3150 Bonham Street, he said agreed with the Mayor. He said there were not a lot of details in the line items. He said the tax rate should not be increased unless it could be justified for what the citizens were getting. He also said the City should look at expenses, such as the amount of postage spent and going to paperless documents. Mayor Clifford explained if the tax rate was to remain the same and because of increased property values, they would actually need to decrease the tax rate in order to remain revenue neutral regarding the existing properties. He said they would still be allowed to increase the revenue with new properties coming into town. Mayor Clifford also said they would have to decrease the tax rate monetarily to remain revenue neutral. With no one else speaking, Mayor Clifford closed the public hearing. 4. Conduct a public hearing on the City Manager's proposed budget for fiscal year 2019- 2020. Mayor Clifford opened the public hearing and asked for anyone wishing to speak about this item, to please come forward. Council Member Pilgrim said he had tagged several items that he wanted to review, one budgeted salaries that appeared to be more than the actual salaries, such as in the streets and highways budget. Mr. Anderson said they were not able to fill some of those budgeted positions and used contract labor. Council Member Pilgrim also referenced several other increases in salaries and inquired if there were buffers in the line items. Council Member Pilgrim said on page 20 in community development there was a big increase. Council Member Pilgrim said he thought they could get the budget down. Council Member Knox said one of the budget documents they received reflected the number of employees that were budgeted and it would be good to know how many of those positions were filled with contract labor. Mayor Clifford said if Mr. Anderson could cut the budget by $560,000, they would not have to raise the tax rate. Council Member Pilgrim inquired the difference in the tax rate if they shave the budget by $560,000. Mr. Anderson said instead of 55.195 cents per $100 valuation, that they would have the effective tax rate of 51.608. Council Member Knox inquired if there were any specific City Council Special Meeting September 3, 2019 Page 3 projects that were budgeted to use up that $560,000. Mr. Anderson said the quickest way to reach that amount would be to look at the capital fund where there were large ticketed items. Council Member Portugal said if they could speed up the downtown project, she would be willing to keep the tax rate or reduce it by one-half. Mayor Clifford inquired of Council how they wanted to proceed. Council Member Knox said she would like to try to see if they could keep the budget neutral. Council Member Hughes expressed concern about cutting from salaries, in that it might be more difficult to retain good employees. Council Member Portugal suggested to Mr. Ekstrom that he also contact their State Representative Gary VanDeaver as to the school taxes, because legislators had promised tax relief. She said the school taxes were much higher than City taxes. Retired TxDOT employee Steve Ekstrom said he would not sell his house for the appraised value, and that PISD needed to throttle back on their budget. Council Member Pilgrim said he would like to see some cuts to the budget. Mayor Clifford said he would like Mr. Anderson to see if he could get the budget neutral. Mayor Clifford said this money had been spread uniformly all over the budget, in a thousand places and that is why they could not find it. He said once Mr. Anderson brings the budget back to budget neutral, the Council could decide if a project was important, and could add a little back in. He said they did not know what they were getting for their money, and that the Council was the guardians of taxpayer money. Council Member Pilgrim said they would see an increase in taxes by lowering them, because lower taxes would encourage growth. Citizen Chad Lindsey said maybe they could look at general revenue and annexing property. Citizen James O'Bryan suggested they use a large part to pay off debt and generate more income. Mayor Clifford closed the public hearing. Mr. Anderson explained that if any item was increased in this budget a public hearing would be required, and there would not be sufficient time to act on that unless staff knew what the increases were tonight. Mr. Anderson said if they wanted to get back to revenue neutral, an alternative would be to adopt a rate that was going to allow some increase. He said then in October after the budget was adopted, Council could come back and amend it. Mr. Anderson said at that time, they could increase items. Mayor Clifford confirmed they could tell Mr. Anderson to decrease items, adopt a higher tax rate at a future meeting but lower than what they have, and then amend the budget in another month. Council Member Knox said by then they would have the year-end numbers, could see where they actually were and that would be a great help. It was a consensus of the City Council to have Mr. Anderson try to get the budget back to budget neutral. 5. Discuss and act on a Resolution calling a public hearing on proposed amendments to the proposed budget for fiscal year 2019-2020. City Council Special Meeting September 3, 2019 Page 4 Mayor Clifford said Council was not proposing amendments, so no action was necessary. 6. Discuss and act on RESOLUTION NO. 2019-032: A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PARIS, TEXAS AUTHORIZING REPRESENTATION IN AN IRS MATTER AND DELEGATING AUTHORITY TO EXECUTE FORM 2848 IRS POWER OF ATTORNEY; MAKING OTHER FINDINGS AND PROVISIONS RELATED TO THE SUBJECT; AND PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE. Mr. Anderson explained that the City of Paris, along with numerous other cities worked through TML to file IRS forms 1094-C and 1095-C. He said TML outsourced to a third party and these forms were not timely filed with the IRS in 2016 and 2017. Mr. Anderson also said TML had engaged a law firm to represent TML and the affected parties. Mayor Clifford wanted to know who was going to assume the responsibility and Mr. Anderson said TML was going to assume responsibility. A Motion to approve this item was made by Mayor Clifford and seconded by Council Member Portugal. Motion carried, 5 ayes — 0 nays. 7. Adjournment. There being no further business, a Motion to adjourn was made by Mayor Clifford and was seconded by Council Member Portugal. Motion carried, 5 ayes — 0 nays. The meeting was adjourned at 6:28 p.m. 1 " STE E ,JCLIFFO MAYOR