After a marathon Watonga City Council special meeting Tuesday, new council members may be wondering what they signed up for.
The first item on the agenda was to propose an ordinance that would allow the same person to hold the jobs of city clerk and city treasurer. Jared Harrison, the city attorney, did discuss the legality of the matter, which he said was permissible by law.
The council agreed to the ordinance, but it must be publicized by legal notice for 30 days before it can be enacted.
Next the council agreed to name Kenya Smith as the city treasurer. She has been on the city payroll since before the previous treasurer, Rodney Jacks, retired, acting in the capacity of financial director. Adding the treasurer title was either an oversight or setting the scene for Smith to become the city clerk as well as her current duties.
Interim city manager Karrie Little told the council the move was to save a salaried position and the costs associated with it.
Little was the topic of discussion next as the council adjourned into executive session to discuss her position. She has been acting as the interim manager since August when the sitting council at that time demoted her to interim. It did issue a job opening for the position then, and after council members Bill Seitter and Travis Bradt resigned, the three remaining council members did not start the search, choosing instead to wait for the new council to make that decision.
The new council did agree to have Harrison reach out to Oklahoma Municipal Management Services for a contract for their headhunter services so that the council could review it. Once the review is completed, the council will decide whether to avail itself of OMMS’ services or to go another route to gather applications for the city manager position.
The council then was introduced to the various department heads and given a brief overview of what their duties were and what the department took care of.
At that point the council and the gallery, with about 25 in attendance, got a seventh inning stretch. They returned when a representative of RS Meacham, the city’s accounting firm, arrived at the meeting.
Council members then took on the draft of the city budget for Fiscal Year 2025-26. The city budgets from July 1 of one year to June 30 of the next year.
The budget process runs something like this: well before the budget is due – it must have a public hearing at least 30 days before presentation to the state. The date for the public hearing this year is May 20, prior to the council meeting. Since the budget is due by June 23, it must be approved in its final form by the June city council meeting. The timelines are set by the Oklahoma Municipal Budget Act.
Departments begin bringing their budget suggestions – “ Wants, needs, desires, hopes and dreams,” as Little put it to the city manager and the financial director well in advance of the presentation date.
The numbers are input into the budget format. Some requests are dismissed early in the discussions and others are brought forward in the draft to the full council.
The council found itself faced with a $4.4 million shortfall in the operational side of the government. Little told the members she and the accountants needed direction on what to cut and what to curtail to bring the numbers in line.
Some items mentioned by council members for reduction or elimination included two radar units for police cruisers at $6,100, keycard access to city buildings, a cost savings of $20,000 and security cameras for the same buildings, at $50,000.
Still, as councilman Neal Riley put it, “That’s just a drop in the bucket.”
Also discussed for going under the axe is a truck rebreather – no one was exactly sure what that is – for $10,000 and a street sweeper expected to cost $300,000.
A bigger drop was the elimination of the Cerney Street project, which included asphalt and bridge work, at an anticipated cost of $1 million. Those cuts reduced the overrun to $3.013 million.
That left the other side of the balance sheet – increasing income. Council member Howard Hursh said he was loathe to increase rates, but any line item the city could fund now would save money over having to fund it at a higher cost down the road.
“I mean, the sooner these problems are fixed, the less it will cost,” he said.
Jeanna King, representing Meacham, pointed out the disparity between Watonga’s rates for utilities and those of other cities with which she is familiar.
For instance, Cordell’s base rate for access to water is $22. Thomas charges $30, and Hydro charges $31.79. Watonga charges $12.
Riley asked to compare base rate charges – the cost for having a water meter and sewer service – and use rates, or what the city charges per 1,000 gallons from either water or sewer.
Little explained to have that discussion would require another special meeting so that the budget could be completed before the deadline. She also noted the water and sewer rates were already on a gradual increase trajectory so that by the time the drinking water and waste water treatment plant projects were completed, the city would not need to implement steep, sudden increases to satisfy the Oklahoma Water Resources Board – OWRB – that the city could meet its payment obligations to OWRB.
That board loaned the city $13 million to complete the projects. Should the city fail to implement the rate structure OWRB supports, it would likely call the loan, meaning the city would have to return the $13 million in a lump sum.
After an almost fourhour session, the city council agreed to another special meeting at 7 p.m. Monday, May 5 to decide how to move forward on the budget process.