July 27th BOMA

July's Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting

Only newly appointed alderman Mike Wall was absent. The meeting this month was delayed one week as many board members were out of town.

The agenda was adopted and the minutes from last month and the study session were approved. No one was signed up to speak in the public comments, and there were no public hearings.

10.Communication from Mayor, Aldermen, City Attorney, and City Administrator. Alderman Spicer congratulated the Parks and Rec Department on their recent award. She mentioned how thankful she is for the amazing parks department. Alderman Silver thanked the police for the uptick in tickets that have been written lately. She thanked them for keeping our community safe. (Outside of this communication, Chief Brady mentioned that the WHPD has finally added more officers and they are through their training) Valerie Webb, city attorney, had an update as well. Her update was concerning the Days Inn code violation issues. It was considered attorney client privilege and the board was sent into executive session for the update. The board was in executive session for about 8 minutes.

Administrative Services Director, Derek Watson, mentioned that there was an error in the codes report that had to be adjusted. The FY 2023 chart had June’s numbers and had to be updated to include the year to date. Approved.

12. Consideration of the Following Ordinances: a. Ordinance 23-12: An ordinance establishing the tax rate for the tax year 2023. First Reading. Finance Director, Jason Barnes, updated the board about the tax rate changes. Normally this is done with the budget, but they have been waiting on the state for the county assessments and the equalized tax rates. Robertson County’s tax rate went down, but most of the reappraisal assessments went up. Most likely on the Robertson County side taxes will remain the same or have a slight increase. Sumner County’s tax rate went up. However, their reassessment happens next year. As their appraisals go up, their rate will also come down. This works out to about a $.05 increase in the tax rate in Sumner County. The taxes in the city are based on $100. This looks like $38 more in taxes on a $300k house in Sumner County on a house without upgrades to the property. City Administrator Herman asked if any increases came from the city or just the state. Barnes responded that the city did not raise taxes at all. This is the rate change from the state to make sure that after the reappraisals the taxes are equalized. Alderman Matthews added that he and Barnes had been through the revenue versus the budget for the upcoming fiscal year, and Barnes came within $20k in their budget. Matthews added that Barnes did an excellent job to get that close without the actual numbers from the state, it was impressive. Approved.

13. Purchasing: a. To approve or reject single source requests for FY 2023-2024. The Public Services Director recommends approval. Public Works Director Cieslak asked if the board had questions about the list of what needed to be purchased this year for waste management. Most of the items on this list are manufactured by the company on the list, and and need to be serviced by the same company. For example, Source Tech has proprietary liquid for their scrubbers. Alderman Matthews asked if Labtronx had to be used and if they were the only company that the city could use. Cieslak stated that they have been using Labtronx for years, and they service their own equipment, but he will double check. Approved

Meeting was adjourned.

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