The City of Indianola has finally approved and adopted a proposed budget for the 2020 fiscal year.
The proposed revision passed on a 4 to 1 vote at a special call meeting on September 25 with Alderman Gary Fratesi casting the lone no vote.
Fratesi cited some inconsistencies with the explanations of the city’s financials as being his reason for the nay vote.
A statement made by Alderman Marvin Elder, regarding the need for City Clerk Lashanda Moore to have part-time help, sparked a discussion about expenses related to a new position, the duties and responsibilities of Moore and the deputy clerks and whose budgeted allocations were paying the expenses for the clerks.
The subsequent remarks also sparked a debate about the exactness of certain aspects of the financial reports as well as when and if certain things had been properly posted over the years. As the discussion over inconsistencies lingered on Mayor Steve Rosenthal said, “We probably don’t need to be discussing this we need to go on to something else.
It was unclear if his disinclination was because of the content of the conversation or the fact that the special meeting agenda only allowed for approval of the recommended budget, a discussion of possible funding to help reduce random shootings and the approval of a parade route.
Fratesi enounced, “Mayor, it sounds like nobody knows what’s going on, so I’m not going to be a part of this budget because we don’t know what year is done, we don’t know this, we don’t know that, so I say the budget is not right and when you correct it I’ll come back.”
Before there was a call for a motion, Fratesi arose from his chair and started leaving the room, Rosenthal said, “Well let’s move on.” He then reminded Fratesi that he had placed an item on the agenda, so Fratesi returned to his seat and lingered until the close of the session.
Moore suggested that the ongoing discussion should not hinder Fratesi’s approval of the budget. “The budget is a proposal, it doesn’t have anything to do with that, Moore said. Rosenthal concurred, “Right, and the proposal is based on what we spent last year,” he said.
At one point, Fratesi mentioned that the city was operating illegally without a part-time person to review the receipts. “Because everybody can’t touch the money,” he said.
However, Rosenthal made an effort to clarify. “Not illegal. The auditor said, to be compliant, we need someone posting the receipts that doesn’t handle cash. That is what the auditor said and we’re going against what the auditor told us to do,” stated Rosenthal.
During his budget presentation, Rosenthal said, “To do the adjustment as per Alderman Woods’ request. We chose to do $37.50 per employee, which generated a little over $31,000 income to counter the $108,000 increase in health insurance.”
Rosenthal further explained that he also eliminated one open employee position that had a $25,000 base salary, plus benefits. “But that doesn’t eliminate all open slots, we do have some open slots,” he said.
In addition, Rosenthal said he increased the sales tax estimate by $20,000, because according to him, the amount has not been increased in the last two years even though they have had a slight increase in sales tax. “So, that made a total reduction of the deficit by $50,000. I hope that is satisfactory to what you want to see happen,” he said.
Rosenthal reiterated all of the main reduction measures implemented to reduce the original $209,679.16 deficit and announced that the new shortfall amount is $193,617. He also once again stated that the amount is not a true deficit since the city has money in the bank to cover it and they don’t expect to end the year with a negative.
Just before ending the meeting, Rosenthal asked the city lawmakers to set a new meeting date to bring the budget back before the board. Alderman Darrell Simpson asked why, only to be reminded by Rosenthal that they still had not voted to approve his proposal. Elder made the motion, Simpson seconded and the vote was taken.
In other business, the aldermen heard a report from Police Chief Edrick Hall regarding the most recent shooting incident and some possible resources for detecting and reducing random shootings.
They also approved an October 14 parade requested by the Sunflower County Consolidated School District to celebrate the district’s rating.
