September 15, 2020 Budget Workshop
The Town of Glen St. Mary held a workshop on Tuesday, September 15, 2020 at 6:00 P.M. at the Town Hall with Council Member McCullough, Councilman Oca, Council Member Reneau, and Councilman Rhynehardt present. Mayor Rhynehardt presided over the workshop.
The purpose of the workshop was to discuss the current and upcoming budgets with Council.
Mayor Rhynehardt had new packets of explanations ready for Council that included notes for accounting lines explaining if it had more or less revenues and why. Town Clerk Loadholtz told Council that changes that have been made since the first budget workshop was highlighted in yellow on both the budget and explanation sheet and they could find the budgets in the agenda packets. Council briefly reviewed a few changes to the Capacity Fee budgets and the Water/Sewer budgets. Since it was the Council’s first budgets and in order to better understand, Mayor Rhynehardt began with the 2019/2020 Proposed Amended General Operating account and went line for line explaining the accounting lines. Many income revenues are allocated from the state and we have no control over. He then discussed the 2020/2021 Proposed General Operating account. Ms. Padgett asked about line item 519.49, which is for trees that are in question. She then suggested having the road department handle the tree issue. Attorney Bense told Council we need to advertise at least two days prior to adoption. We will reopen the workshop after the regular Town meeting to continue discussing the budget shortage.
On a motion by Councilman Oca, second by Council member Reneau, the workshop was closed at 6:58 P.M.
The budget workshop was reopened at 7:25 P.M. so that Council could try to find ways to balance the budget. We are looking for $11,000. At the end of August, the check register reports showed about $120,000 in the General Operating banking account and about $80,000 in the Water/Sewer banking account. The Town could use that if necessary, but we don’t want to continue to do so. Attorney Bense told Council the Florida Statute number 166.241 allows for money to be brought forward to balance. Council asked if we could check with the County and the City of Macclenny to see if they also are seeing less budget money. Council looked at the Payroll sections of the 2020/2021 General Operating budget. Some Council members still suggested checking with the City of Macclenny for water assistance. Council discussed a few maintenance employee issues before turning their attention back to the budget. Council member McCullough suggested borrowing from the bank account to balance the upcoming budget. She told Council she is not a fan of borrowing, but rather than try hiring an assistant, she felt the Town has bigger issues to deal with right now. She stated that if the Town can’t increase revenues, maybe look at the assistant again in six months. She added that they may need to talk about annexing with Macclenny. Council member McCullough asked if there was a way to establish qualifications for the Mayor. Maybe add an extra month of Mayor salary to train as a consultant. Attorney Bense responded the position has a certain amount of self-education. Council has a goal to hire an assistant as soon as possible. Mayor Rhynehardt told Council there is another grant cycle coming up. He would like to fix sidewalks and fix roads around Town, stating this was on his top five list. Council member McCullough that if the Town is to eventually grow, it will need some type of code enforcement. Attorney Bense told Council code enforcement could bring money into the Town as well and briefly explained the penalties that could be charged. A courtesy notice could be the first step citing the Ordinance they are violating as well as what they need to be doing to improve the property. Council member stated the revenue would be coming from new builds and if they are looking around, they aren’t going to want to move here. Council decided to use funds on hand from the General Operating bank account. Attorney Bense told Town Clerk Loadholtz she would need to ad a line for “Reserve Brought Forward” on the 2020/2021 Proposed General Operating Budget to balance the budget to be voted on.
On a motion by Council member McCullough, second by Councilman Oca the workshop was adjourned at 8:25 P.M.
