FARMINGTON -- The City Council voted to approve the 2018 budget, with members Diane Bryant and Linda Bell voting against the budget resolution.
The approved budget shows revenue of $3.1 million for the general fund, compared to $2.7 million for 2017.
General fund expenditures would increase from $2.7 million in 2017 to $2.9 million in 2018.
The budget includes two new firefighter positions and a new officer for the Police Department. City employees will receive a 2 percent cost-of-living increase. Elected officials and members of the Planning Commission will not receive any increases in their monthly stipends.
Earlier in the meeting, Bryant said she wanted to study the budget before voting and made a motion to table the vote until the December meeting. Her motion failed 3-4, with Bryant, Bell and Patsy Pike voting to table and Keith Lipford, Brenda Cunningham, Bobby Morgan and Shelley Parsley voting against the motion.
After the meeting, Bryant said she wanted to wait a month for several reasons. For one, the council meeting had been going on for more than an hour and she thought people were getting tired and it would be better to come back next month when everyone was rested.
Another reason, Bryant said, is she had questions about adding money to the elected officials' payroll to cover the possibility of a full-time mayor's position.
Council members looked over a draft earlier this month and city business manager Melissa McCarville told council members she made some changes to the draft.
One of the changes was to add $38,000 to the payroll for elected officials, in case the City Council decides to make the mayor's position a full-time one this year.
In the meeting, Bryant wondered if the Arkansas Municipal League had guidelines for elected officials' salaries.
City Clerk Kelly Penn, who is married to Mayor Ernie Penn, answered Bryant's question, but first asked council members to take her out of the equation as the mayor's wife. Kelly Penn noted the city has an ordinance giving a range of $36,000 to $72,000 for the mayor's salary. Ernie Penn, who is considered a part-time mayor, makes the minimum allowed.
Kelly Penn said cities make their own salary schedules, not the Arkansas Municipal League, noting the salary for mayor of Farmington cannot be compared to salaries for mayors in other small cities. She said Farmington has "more moving parts" than most smaller cities.
After the meeting, Bryant said she just wanted to make sure Farmington was doing things the right way.
"We've been in some hot water recently and I wanted to make sure we're doing things correctly," Bryant said, referring to a recent Legislative audit finding $1.5 million missing from District Court and general fund revenue over the past eight years.
General Fund budgets approved for the different departments include: Administration, $832,650; Fire Department, $427,100; District Court, $115,900; Police Department, $1,089,200 and Parks, $259,900.
For the Street Department, the city projects to receive almost $600,000 in revenue and spend $553,000. Expenditures include $165,000 for street lights for repairs and improvements to traffic signals and $100,000 for street repairs.
NW News on 11/26/2017