August 1, 2015 - Although the Timpson City Council was presented with a reduced police force, the proposal didn't meet with the majority's preference and for a second year in a row, not all budgets were immediately adopted.
Mayor Smith prepared the 2015-2016 budget for the General Department, which she stated is everything the city spends money on other than water, sewer and electric. A four-man police department schedule was presented to the council by Timpson Police Chief Kent Graham and although this is a reduction in force, Wolfe and Baker stated once again they want a three-man police department.
Mayor Smith stated she doesn't believe the patrol vehicles are going to hold up well to that scenario, because officers would need to take the cars home with them to be able to respond in an emergency situation when they are on call. If officers were to respond to an emergency in a personal vehicle, this would both increase response time in an emergency and create a number of liability issues if the officer were to be involved in a crash while en-route to the emergency.
Although Baker wished to know where the current officers live, this is irrelevant, because future officers would not necessarily be the same individuals or live in the same location as current officers.
Ramsey stated she has been seeing what she describes as criminal activity from the porch of her home. Once she witnessed a man hiding a tiller in bushes near her home and the suspect fled when an officer arrived. She also stated neighbors have had items stolen when they were on vacation, "I'm gonna tell you, you can ask my brother (Constable Stanley Burgay), it is bad and it is bad, y'all might just want to think about that."
Chief Graham confirmed there has been a rash of burglaries, which he said luckily have all been solved. He said 90% of the individuals responsible for these burglaries are in jail.
Ramsey made a motion to adopt the proposed budget for the General Department for the city of Timpson for 2015-2016, as well as a four-man police department. The motion was seconded by Allen. Mayor Smith asked if Wolfe would like to elaborate on his wishes to have a three-man department.
"We had a three-man department and they worked eight hour shifts, they was on call four hours and we had 24-hour coverage," said Wolfe.
Allen asked what benefit there is to the city by cutting back from a four-man department to a three-man department when the four-man reflects a positive budget, "Exactly where would you see a reallocation of need of those funds being greater than that officer, just simply answered."
Wolfe responded by stating the last meeting the council was discussing replacing 20,000 feet of clay sewer line which would cost $2.3 million. Mayor Smith said that money is a water/sewer plan and asked Wolfe if he was talking about transferring that money from the electric to the water and sewer, because there is no water from the General Department which goes to water/sewer, "Water/sewer is a water/sewer deal, it's either a bond, or property taxes or transferring from your other utility company. You can't transfer from General (Fund) to water or General (Fund) to electric."
Wolfe stated money is being transferred from electric to police and Smith tried to explain to him how the funding process works involving city funds, "Police is a General Fund, by Texas law they are a general service, they are not a for hire business." To which Wolfe responded money is being transferred from electric to the General Fund. Smith continued, "Because that's a business, General (Fund) is not allowed to do that. General tax dollars have to be used for the general welfare of the city of Timpson, but that includes street paving, police service, sidewalks. But, it doesn't do the water/sewer or the electric because we have our own utility company."
An ominous picture was painted by Wolfe as he stated along with the sewer repair is street repair also in the future. Smith stated the Economic Development Corporation has $60,000 they are planning to put toward street repairs, which they will be meeting about soon.
The motion to adopt the General Fund Budget failed with Baker, Wolfe and Grace all against. Mayor Smith stated a meeting would be necessary on August 6, 2015. Item four on the agenda involving the employee handbook was not able to be addressed, because not all budgets were adopted.
Earlier in the meeting, councilwoman Yvonne Ramsey reiterated her motion from the previous meeting of July 28, 2015 to accept the 12.2% increase in the premium of TML healthcare which means continue to pay the full amount at the rate of $495.80. The motion was seconded by councilman Kyle Allen; however, when the item came to a vote council members Ronnie Wolfe, Janell Baker and George Grace all voted against the motion causing it to fail.
Wolfe then brought up street sweeping in Timpson and said he would like to do away with having the streets swept, he also stated his intent to put a cap on the cost of insurance for city employees, "We can't just continue, insurance is going to continue to escalate."
No longer having a service sweeping the streets of Timpson is a savings of $4,458 a year. The streets the sweeper covered were around the Timpson square and near MLK Park.
Baker agreed she would like to see a cap put on how much the city pays for insurance and she would rather see the money from sweeping go toward the employee insurance. Wolfe made a motion to pay 100% of the employees insurance and put a cap on it to not pay more on the insurance than currently, ever and to discontinue the street sweeping. Baker seconded the motion.
Councilman Allen remarked he was glad the council didn't put a cap on insurance in 1981 as cost increase is inevitable, "As the price of everything goes up, I mean, to keep employees. I mean, we're more or less giving them a pay cut if we do that."
Wolfe remarked the employees are already receiving a cut in their benefits with the proposed budget. Mayor Debra Pate Smith confirmed the motion was to to pay the full amount at the TML rate increase of 12.2% at $495.80 and add a cap of that amount going forward. The motion carried. Street sweeping will discontinue on October 1, 2015.
Ramsey made a motion to adopt the proposed budget for the Electric Department for 2015-2016, which was seconded by Wolfe and the motion carried.
