The City of Watonga met May 19 in regular session. The council and those in attendance made use of the upstairs meeting room at City Hall, a change from previous meetings held in the auditorium in that building.
Following the approval of the consent agenda, the council heard a financial report from RS Meacham CPA which had been tabled at the May 5 council meeting. That first meeting was too early in the month to give an accurate snapshot of the city’s financial standing.
“Overall, you have had a very good year,” said city manager Larry Mitchell.
Once the financial report was accepted, the council moved on to discuss the 2018-19 audit from FSW&B CPA. Audits generally run a year or more behind and are conducted by an accounting firm who establishes whether the city has used sound management and accounting standards and whether there are any duties which overlap and should be separated to follow best accounting practices.
The audit pointed out there had been some problems in that area. The city had suffered the theft of $9,000 internally during the time when there was neither a city finance director nor a city manager. The auditor told the council embezzlement in city government is very common, but noted Watonga had caught it early, whereas many towns don’t catch on until much more money has disappeared. Because it was a personnel issue rather than system wide, it was noted as an exception in an otherwise clean audit.
Council also took action to clarify verbiage in the vacation time policy for employees. The language was a little muddy, but the clarification would not change the time accrued for any employee.
City building inspector Terry Lauminick had previously notified the city that the original part of the city library needed ventilation modification, with attention focused on the space between the roof and the ceiling, where condensation was accumulating. Weston Rice had presented a quote for remediation in the amount of $3500 to do the work. Council accepted the quote and agreed to have the work done. Weston Rice is distantly related to city light and water superintendent Warren Rice.
Former city employee David Kurtz asked to withdraw the full amount – some $17,000 – he had contributed during his employment to the Oklahoma Municipal Retirement Fund. Council granted his request.
When the meeting changed from city council to Watonga Public Works Authority, at issue was excess power generated by privately owned solar panels. Developer Monte Stewart has installed panels in two buildings on Main Street to supply energy to a shop and several apartments. He is still responsible for any additional electricity supplied by the city but is not paid for juice sent from the panels into the system. That electricity may be sold by the city to other customers.
The last time the topic was brought up then-council member Bobby Spencer was adamant that solar panel users foot their share of the bill for set costs of electricity infrastructure such as lines andpoles. The plan was those using solar with electrical supplement would pay a flat fee monthly to cover those costs and would not be paid for any excess power they generated.
Because Watonga is a member of the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority, it is obligated to purchase the lion’s share of its power from the cooperative.
In the end, Stewart was told a representative of OMPA would be asked to the next meeting to explain the city’s options.
Connie Burcham can be reached at Editor@WatongaRepublican.com