City Council: What's going on with the budget and the water?

The Blackwell City Council met Thursday, July 18 for roughly two hours. The city of Blackwell's budget was heavily discussed. 

The meeting began at 6 p.m with a presentation from The Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority General Manager David Osborn. He presented the city with a $20,000 check for being CUP (Competitive Utility Program) Certified. CUP began in 1995 as a voluntary program that provides OMPA members with financial awards for improving and efficiently operating their electric utilities. 

City Manager Janet Smith said the CUP Certification takes about three months worth of staff effort to file for, and it is a yearly process with great rewards.

“The whole city benefits from it because we try to spread that to as many departments as we can,” said Smith. “We’ll make sure everyone knows where those funds are going.”

Following that, Blackwell Chief of Police Dewayne Wood took the podium, where he recognized Lt. John Mitchell for his Association of Narcotics Enforcers (AONE) Award.

Wood read a letter from the AONE President, saying Mitchell was recognized as Region Five Officer of the Year. Region Five encompasses 16 counties in Central and Northwestern Oklahoma. Mitchell is also a nominee for State Officer of the Year.

Mitchell was then mentioned as being awarded the AONE Excellence in Rural Enforcement Award. 

“In 2018 alone, Mitchell investigated 50 distribution cases — 37 of which were from a single operation. This endeavor even involved a rescue operation where an informant was being threatened by armed defendants,” Wood read. 

“I was really excited to get that,” Wood explained, thanking District Attorney Brian Hermanson as well as the City Council and the Blackwell Police Department for supporting the fight against drugs in Kay and Noble Counties. Wood praised Mitchell for his “relentless pursuit” of drug users and dealers in order to keep the streets safer.

The AONE banquet will take place next Thursday in Tulsa, where Mitchell will formally receive the awards and, potentially, be named the State Officer of the Year. 

Mayor T.J. Greenfield then spoke. He recognized Frank Barrows in the electric department for his 40 years of service to the city. Wood quipped that Frank should get “two clocks,” which the Council light-heartedly agreed with. Smith commended Greenfield for recognizing Barrows’ time with the city.

Jim Hoos, water department supervisor, then spoke. He gave the night’s only departmental report.

“We've had quite a few issues, as you know, over the past month,” Smith said. “I've asked Jim to come address some of these things.”

“The good news,” Hoos said, “is that the big wastewater project we need to get done, started [Wednesday]. We're already making really good progress. That's the good news. That's actually the only good news I have.” 

“Now, for the bad news,” he said. “We’ve been having a lot of issues with wastewater. We've had bypass issues through our manholes, including one on D Street that's giving us problems. I've informed the Department of Environmental Quality — as is proper procedure — and we're waiting to consult with them. It's a sizable mess.” 

The issue, Hoos explained, is that the manhole out in a field between Ferguson and Lincoln avenues was overflowing and cracked, leading to leakage for an undetermined amount of time. Hoos clarified that it is not spilling into the river, but added that there's a “sizable area” that is a “swamp” made up of rainwater and wastewater.

Following that, Frank Crawford, the city’s chief financial officer, gave an extended overview of the city’s June 2019 financials. 

Crawford said that the city’s amended budget, before the night's meeting, did not have a beginning cash balance for the General Fund. He said that the “actual” was sitting at $526,343. The amended budget's revenue was sitting at $1.7 million, while the actual was at $2.1 million, accounting for 121percent of the budget. Expenditures were $5.2 million (amended) compared to $4.6 million actual. 

Revenues over/under expenditures — the amount by which fund expenditures are in excess of revenues prior to transfers from other funds and Blackwell Public Trust contributions — were at $3.5 amended and $2.5 million actual.

Blackwell Public Trust contributions were amended for $714,000 while transfers In sat at $2.7 million amended from $2.6 million actual. 

For the Increase (Decrease) to beginning cash balance, Crawford's amended reading was at $204,000, which indicates the current budget, as adopted, plans on spending nearly the same amount as estimated revenue, thereby planning to leave nearly the same amount of beginning operating cash balance by the end of the fiscal year — a “break even” year.  

The actual sat at $83,061, which indicated the fund has received revenues and transfers from other funds that exceed year-to-date expenditures by the amount as a year-to-date  increase in the operating cash balance — an improvement rather than a break-even. 

Crawford went over the budget in detail for roughly two hours. Afterwards, the Council voted to solicit bids for pool filters.