Council members Robert Hanneman, Joan Breith, Ronald Weir and Mayor Tommy Hicks
The City Council met in regular session on Monday, May 15, where they addressed a short agenda.
During the announcement portion of the meeting Councilman Clinton Bowman informed the Council he had informed County Judge Jim Barron and Commissioner Ray Marion that he and Council member Joan Breith were wanting to be placed on a future agenda to discuss updates to the Denver City swimming pool located on the north end of Stuffy Moorhead Park. Bowman is hoping they can meet with the Commissioners as soon as school has been dismissed.
Breith had presented a handout to each Council member during their last meeting concerning different renovations at the local pool, which is a county pool and would need the approval of the Commissioners Court before any improvements could be made.
The highlight of the short meeting was the swearing in of three council members and Mayor Tommy Hicks. Council members Joan Breith, Ronald Weir, and Robert Hanneman along with the Mayor were all given the oath of office by City Secretary Beverly Prather. All four council members were unopposed in the recent election resulting in the election being canceled.
Moving on into the agenda Sham Myatt of Myatt, Blume, & Osborn, Ltd., L.L.P. was in attendance where he presented to the Council the City of Denver City Audited Financial Statements for the Year Ended September 30, 2016.
In a written statement Myatt noted his agency audited all the financial statements of the governmental activities, the business-type activities, the discretely presented component unit and each major fund of the City of Denver City.
Myatt then took time to highlight those areas he felt like the Council and Mayor would be most interested in, which included current financial statements and the current fund balance.
He concluded by saying the financial report was an unqualified report, meaning they could see no areas of concerns. He praised the work of City Manager Stan David and City Secretary Beverly Prather for the work they had done helping with the report.
The Council then unanimously approved the financial report.
Moving on Mayor Hicks read a proclamation declaring the month of May, 2017 as Lupus Awareness Month and Friday, May 19, 2017 as “Put on Purple Day.”
During the reading of the proclamation it was noted that an estimated 1.5 million Americans suffer from Lupus, the chronic inflammatory, autoimmune disease that can affect various parts of the body, especially the skin, joints, blood, and kidneys.
City Manager Stan David then went over a tentative budget calendar for 2017-2018. He noted the budget work sessions would start on June 5 and will be held after each Council meeting through August 21.
David was anticipating presenting an effective tax rate for 2017 on August 7, voting on the proposed tax rate and setting times and dates for public hearings concerning tax rate adoption of tax rate on August 21.
The Public Hearings will be held sometime in September and the adoption of the tax rate and the budget will be during the September 18 meeting.
“Although we don’t have the final figures to work with at this time, it looks like everything will be about the same as last year,” David said. “We were told after the meeting in Plains with representatives of T Boone Pickens minerals values will be about the same, maybe even a little more. It’s not much, but at least we aren’t dealing with a major loss in values.”
Following this discussion a motion was made to pay the April Manual checks in the amount of $191,249.87 and the regular city bills of $63,658.70.
Following the unanimous approval to pay the bills the Council adjourned.
Council members Joan Breith, Ronald Weir, Robert Hanneman, Clinton Bowman, Mark Sherman, and Keith Mensch along with Mayor Tommy Hicks were all present.
The next meeting will be held on June 5 at 7 pm in the City Hall chambers.
