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Jackie (L) and Jay Clark (C) are introduced as the new city emergency managers during a Geary Council meeting. They were brought on board by Jeff Choate (L) who is resigning as public works director for the city and is working to fill the jobs he will vacate later this month.
Jeff Choate, in his last appearance as public works director for the City of Geary, went over the reports for his departments before introducing the new emergency managers for the city. Choate was hired by the city in 2013 as public works director, but since that time has taken on other titles, jobs and duties. He will soon be working as rural fire 9-1-1 coordinator for the Association of Central Oklahoma Governments in Oklahoma City. He will still serve as fire chief for Geary.
During executive session, the city council accepted his resignation and agreed to hire Tommy Lewis as his replacement. Lewis will be on a 90-day probation and will be paid at a rate of $22 hour. His pay, overtime and compensation time will be reviewed at the end of the probationary period.
The new managers are a couple, Jay and Jackie Clark, who live in Geary and are part of the community already, as opposed to a candidate who would have to come in and learn the town. They have worked extensively in Florida, through four hurricanes and Jackie Clark was an emergency manager for a large power plant near Ft. Pierce, Fla.
The city also promoted Amy Wood to code enforcement officer, one of two the city needs. This step was taken to keep the job of code enforcement off the desk of public works director. Choate had also formerly served as code enforcer.
Choate said his department had recently dealt with several water leaks and the service line north of Geary was 98 percent complete, with just a few line crossings and sleeves to be done. Choate noted there had been a hay bale fire that consumed 240 acres, new firefighters were undergoing training and three of four engines had passed their annual pumper pressure tests.
Other topics the council covered in its regular Oct. 6 meeting dealt largely with finances. A representative of RS Meacham, the city’s accounting firm, pointed out the city was three months into its fiscal year and some categories were up from the year previous, such as sales and use taxes. Those two revenue streams are major sources of income for the town, up $29,000 from the same point last year.
However, the council has a meeting scheduled with Meacham advisers to trim its budget, bringing it in line with projected income.
“We are going to have to cut somewhere, we have some tough decisions to make,” said council member Allison Carter. She was specifically speaking about the allocations for the police department, one of the largest line items in the city budget.
Presenting costs as a single item, council member Rocky Coleman pointed out, was not as helpful as breaking down the dollars to smaller categories that could be more easily understood. Carter, for her part, agreed that looking at the breakdown at the month end meeting would very likely answer her questions about the PD budget.
“We need that itemization,” Coleman said. 'That’s why the number is staggering. We (now) have the opportunity to massage that.”