When the Watonga City Council met Tuesday evening, it faced a long and varied agenda.
Some of the buildup was from the city being unable to approve items like the budget amendments because before the election there were only two sitting council members. Others were the annual contracts with various entities such as the City of Weatherford for dispatching services, the Ferguson Home Museum and the Liberty Theater.
However, some were weighty items that directly affect the citizens of the town.
One of the matters highly anticipated was whether the council would retain interim City Manager Karrie Little and return her to permanent status or begin a search for a new manager. During a public hearing, several members of the community addressed the topic.
Marcus Wray, an unsuccessful candidate for city council, noted the need for good leadership. “Whether you are talking about producing bananas, toothpicks or government, you need good leaders. It shouldn’t take weeks to fill a records request. One person here has too much power and there is no job description for that person.” His suggestion was to open the job for applications rather that hire the Oklahoma Municipal League to enact a search. But former city council member Gary Flynn had the opposite opinion. He said citizens should go to their representatives with issues rather than try to talk to the city manager.
“Why is there so much negativity? Our people are doing their jobs. We need to get some normalcy. Either fire her and get her out or extend the job to her and let’s get to work.”
In the end, that is what the council did, reaffirming Little’s job as interim manager until a new contract can be worked out and Little returned to full city manager status.
Another heavy topic was the budget for the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1. The draft budget shows the general fund expects an income of $3.7 million and expenses of $5.9 million. It anticipates transfers into the fund of almost $1 million and an ending balance of $1.5 million, down from the current $2.7 million.
The enterprise funds, which include light and water departments, expect revenues of $22.5 million and expenses of $24. 3 million. It will also be on the hook for the nearly $1 million transfer to the general fund. This will leave the enterprises with an ending balance of some $540,000, down from the current year’s ending balance of $3.3 million. The expenses are high because of the ongoing construction of the drinking water treatment plant and the wastewater disposal plant projects.
Those projects should be completed in fiscal year 2025-26, according to an update the council received from Garver Engineers, the project engineers for the builds.
The city council also approved the adjustment of the base price for utilities. Each type of utility, water service, sewer service and electricity will increase by $8 per month, adding $24 to each utility bill. That was the amount the city determined it would need from each bill to cover part of the debt service to the Oklahoma Water Resources Board, which lent it the money to build the new drinking water and wastewater treatment projects. The drinking water project was not the choice of the city but mandated by the Department of Environmental Quality because the water supply had a nitrate level that was deemed too high for safe consumption.
The wastewater treatment project was undertaken so that the city would be positioned for future growth.