Partly cloudy skies with gusty winds. High around 65F. Winds W at 20 to 30 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph..
Mainly clear early, then a few clouds later on. Low 44F. NNE winds at 10 to 20 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph.
Updated: March 30, 2022 @ 1:18 am
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Although inflation and economic uncertainty continue on a global basis, Cleburne remains financially healthy, City Manager Steve Polasek said during a Thursday workshop held at the Cleburne Railroad Museum.
Despite optimism in many areas, however, big challenges remain in others, Polasek said.
On the plus side, city revenues are up in most if not all categories over last year including sales and property tax collections and revenues from gas wells on city owned properties. Hotel/motel tax revenues have doubled since last year now that COVID-19 restrictions have eased. City expenditures are slightly lower than last year as well.
New home and business construction remains robust and Cleburne’s massive growth of late appears set to continue for the foreseeable future.
“All indicators are very positive right now for the city of Cleburne,” Polasek said.
The workshop served the purpose of updating the Cleburne City Council on financial trends and budget preparation for the city’s upcoming fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.
“I’ve got to file a budget and have it to [the council] by Aug. 5,” Polasek said. “Which is tough because our final tax roll numbers don’t come in until July 25.”
The secret sauce of Cleburne’s budget and financial planning, Polasek said, stems from sticking with the city’s long running conservative financial philosophy of not spending money not on hand and conservatively estimating revenues among other factors.
Though August is a ways off, Polasek said he and staff are working under several budget assumptions.
Chief among those is that no new tax rate increases are planned.
Other assumptions include conservative revenue estimates, continued pursuit of economic development opportunities, fee schedule revisions where appropriate, identification and implementation of operational cost savings initiatives, pursuit of grant opportunities and pursuit of public/private partnership opportunities.
Budget assumptions on the expenditure side include continued investment in employees, limited potential to add new employees, infrastructure investments, enhancement of city fund balances where possible and undertaking of aggressive public works and parks capital improvement plans.
While employees are the city’s biggest asset, Polasek said, they’re also it’s most expensive, and things have changed.
“It’s a dog fight to keep employees not just for us but for everybody,” Polasek said. “Employees are being picked off left and right and we’re trying to pick quality employees off left and right.”
A shortage of workers overall has led to salary increases and put employees in the driver’s seat, Polasek said. Not to mention that the cost of living has increased substantially as have insurance costs in part because of COVID-19’s impact on the health care system.
“We’ve made insurance adjustments the last couple of years,” Polasek said. “We don’t want to this year. We want to try not to push more of the cost of that onto our employees.”
Turnover and loss of employees equals loss of experience and costs incurred through training, Polasek said.
“Take our water/wastewater department,” Polasek said. “Many of those workers, because of Texas Commission on Environmental Quality standards, have to have certain licenses and we face penalties if we don’t have those people. You think police and firefighters are getting picked off. Everybody and their brother is trying to pick off water/wastewater employees.”
The new budget proposal will likely include pay adjustments and increased COLAs.
Polasek told council members they should also expect to see about a $900,000 increase in insurance costs.
“It’s going to be an expensive year to operate the city next year,” Polasek said.
Mayor Scott Cain agreed that salary and COLA adjustments must be addressed in order to retain the city’s “rock star staff” and remain competitive with other cities and employers.
Other cities plan to or have already addressed pay and COLA adjustments, Polasek said, including Waxahachie which implemented a mid-year 5 percent COLA adjustment.
Councilman Mike Mann suggested reaching out to baby boomers, retirees and state employees in seeking new employees. Councilman Derek Weathers agreed and added those recently discharged from the military to the list.
It’s also worth noting, Polasek said, that the, for now, the city is doing more with less but also experiencing an overall reduction in productivity compared to when positions were fully staffed. At the same time, the high number of current vacancies has resulted in salary savings for the city.
It’s important to address such issues but at the same time not go overboard, Polasek said.
“It’s market driven right now but we don’t want to overreact and end up with bloated payrolls five years from now if and when things go back to normal,” Polasek said.
Calling infrastructure the city’s meat and potatoes, Polasek laid out an ambitious five-year capital improvement street plan to the tune of $42,490,000 and a five-year drainage project plan — with most projects focused on the city’s long neglected east side — totalling $2.63 million.
Fund balances on hand would cover the initial years of street improvements — as, in certain cases, other funding sources — with the rest dependent on council funding decisions as the hope of increased revenues from population and valuation growth.
The most ambitious proposal addressed Cleburne’s water needs to the tune of $172,534,000.
Of those projects, available fund balance, American Recovery Plan Act funds and developer participation funding in addition to an estimated $2.19 million in impact fees will cover 2023’s $7.465 in proposed projects.
Available fund balances and an estimated $1.38 million in impact fees would also cover 2024’s $13.7 million in proposed projects while projects proposed for 2025, 2026 and 2027 — $22.48 million, $32,76 million and $79.6 million respectively — would require debt issuance.
“We would be able to cash fund these projects for several years because of conservative budgeting in the past, which was all part of a sound, conservative game plan to manage and stay ahead of growth,” Polasek said.
The projects though expensive are necessary to ensure Cleburne maintains an ample water supply as growth continues, city officials said.
Projects include adding an additional wastewater facility, securing additional water sources for the city and other projects.
Polasek recommended that council members consider implementing graduated water rates beginning in Fiscal Year 2024 so as not to introduce a large increase in one fell swoop and to ensure sufficient water revenues to pay off the bonds should council approve them in the coming years.
As for cost, it’s also important to consider the legitimate possibility of enhanced customer base and revenues and additional impact fee collections in the years ahead.
Much needed new homes for the Cleburne Public Library and the Cleburne Police Department, both of which have outgrown their current facility, will have to wait.
Estimates for a new public safety building for CPD and city municipal courts total $50 million while estimates for a new library come in at $39 million.
Given the city’s current financial position, such would require a tax increase of 17 to 18 cents, a proposal Polasek labeled a “bridge too far.”
CPD and the library will have to wait until economic conditions improve and revenues go up, officials said.
On the plus side, Cleburne looks on track to permit 300 new residential units this year and, over the past five years, has issued 1,183 residential permits a far cry from the 10 or so the city issued just a few years ago. During the same five-year period, 109 commercial permits were issued representing 1,784,486 of commercial square footage and 36,995 of industrial square footage. Even better news is that 5,297 residential units are in various stages of development in Cleburne right now.
Partly cloudy skies with gusty winds. High around 65F. Winds W at 20 to 30 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.
Mainly clear early, then a few clouds later on. Low 44F. NNE winds at 10 to 20 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph.
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Linda West Davis, 80, of Rio Vista, passed away March 29, 2022. Service: 2:00pm, Sunday, April 3, 2022, Chisolm Trail Church, Rio Vista.
Jane Ann Denson Nixon, 77, of Odessa passed away March 28, 2022 in Keene. Service will be at a later date in Abilene.
Isidro Natera, Jr., 18, of Cleburne and Forest Hill, passed away March 26, 2022 in Cleburne. Service: 2:00pm Saturday, April 2, 2022 Crosier-Pearson Cleburne Chapel.
Suzanne Linhart Richard, 91, of Cleburne passed away January 10, 2022 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Memorial Service: 10:00am, Saturday, April 2, 2022 Crosier-Pearson Cleburne Chapel.
Leroy Bowles, 89, passed away March 25, 2022 in Grandview. Service: 10:00 A.M., Tuesday, March 29, 2022 Crosier-Pearson Cleburne Chapel.
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