Eagleville city officials are considering a proposed budget for fiscal year (FY) 2009 that calls for a 25 percent raise for the new city recorder, no police department and no property tax increase.

Also, Mayor Nolan Barham is proposing to put $25,000 in a new unrestricted general fund category for street maintenance in addition to the state gasoline tax money that has to go into the restricted street aid fund.

A total of $12,000 of the projected $16,000 of gasoline tax income is budgeted to pay for the electricity for the city’s street lights, and $3,000 is budgeted for contract labor and $1,000 for street maintenance.

Barham also proposes to set aside $30,000 for the "rainy day" reserve fund, which is now at $20,000. William Haston, a finance and accounting consultant for the Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS), said the city should have about $100,000 in the reserve fund.

The city does not have to use the unrestricted monies for street maintenance or for the reserve fund if money runs short during the year.

Among the other budget highlights, the city is projecting that the sales tax income by the June 30 end of this fiscal year will be 63 percent or $76,858 lower than the year before. The 2007 audit shows the city received $121,858 in sales tax income in 2007 but the estimated sales tax income for 2008 is only $45,000.

Barham noted that Crosslin Supply closed in Eagleville in May of last year and the grocery store was closed for several months. Further, the dairy bar and barbecue restaurant closed.

Doyle and Chris Wood, however, are expected to open up two new restaurants in place of the old restaurants in fiscal year (FY) 2009. Also, the Eagleville grocery store reopened in October under the new management of Brad and Ryan Perryman.

The city is estimating the sales tax income will total about $75,000 by the end of FY 2009 and that $98,000 will come in from property taxes.

One item that has helped offset the lower sales tax revenue is a drop in the city’s long-term debt payment from about $63,000 to about $29,000 per year.

Since 1988, the city had been paying off a bond issue for a sewer system, which never was built. In August 2005, the city borrowed $350,000 to help build the city park and to refund the outstanding $140,000 in principal remaining on the 1988 sewer bond issue, according to the 2005 audit.

The 2006, 2007 and 2008 payments on the new note corresponded with what they would have been under the 1988 bond payment plan, with the last payment being made this year.

The remainder on the new note for the park must be paid off by 2017 and will require about $29,000 in principal and interest for the next nine years.

The proposed property tax rate will remain the same as it is now at 87 cents per $100 of valuation.

Councilmen had their only meeting so far on the budget on June 3. At that time, they met in a 90-minute workshop followed by a brief council session at which they adopted the budget ordinance on the first of three readings.

A second reading is scheduled for a called meeting on June 23 that begins at 7 p.m. at city hall. A public hearing on the proposed budget and a final reading of the budget ordinance is slated at the council meeting on June 26 at 7 p.m.

City Recorder Pay

Mayor Nolan Barham is proposing that City Recorder Colleen Adams’ salary be raised from $24,000 to $30,000 per year on July 1, at which time she will have been with the city about six months.

He said he had recommended a salary of $30,000 when Adams, who is the city’s only office person, was hired, but the council did not agree. He noted that the agreement was to revisit the salary at budget time.

Barham is also proposing that the title of the city recorder position be changed to include finance director because of the 2007 state law that says whoever has financial oversight responsibilities of a city must become a certified municipal finance officer (CMFO) unless the employee is already a certified finance manager or a certified public accountant.

Cities the size of Eagleville must comply with the law by 2013, according to Haston. The city is expected to pay about $9,000 to an accounting firm in the current fiscal year to help keep track of the city’s finances. Theoretically, once the city recorder is trained and is proficient, the outside accounting services cost could go away.

Adams said she would like to take the training and assume the financial duties once she is trained, which Haston predicts will not happen before FY 2010.

To earn the CMFO designation, Adams will have to attend 80 hours of training offered by MTAS and pass 10 financial management tests. The city will pay for the training and the training will be done on city time with travel expenses paid.

When councilmen were in the process of hiring a new city recorder last November they discussed offering an estimated annual cost of living increase of about 3 percent in the future.

"I say go with a cost of living raise and let them know that is pretty well going to be it," Vice Mayor Ronnie Hill said at the time.

Hill now says he believes that Adams’ starting pay was low and said he agrees with upping her salary to $30,000 with the stipulation that there should be no large increase after the CMFO training is done.

"I don’t have a problem with the $30,000 a year, even starting with this budget like the mayor has proposed," Hill said. "But once she gets certified, I don’t want the mayor to come back and say she needs $5,000 more or $6,000 more because she is now certified as a financial officer."

Councilmen Harold Vincion and Terry Zumbro also agreed, but Councilman M.A. Smitty argued that the city should give a cost of living increase now or an incentive increase to do the training and then consider a larger raise after the training is done.

Smitty said that if a $6,000 raise were given he would "throw a fit" if someone mentioned adding retirement or "something like that" to the pay package.

"We simply can’t afford it," he said.

Barham said he did a salary survey of six or eight similar size cities and determined the average salary for a city recorder was about $31,000 per years.

He asked for Adams’ input about the city recorder’s job, and she said she has been stunned about the amount of work and responsibility the job requires even though she had researched the position before she took the job.

"I know it is a small town but it was explained to me that a small town has to be run like a big city," she said. "It is just on a smaller scale."

Haston noted that in a small town the city recorder is the chief financial officer, the purchasing director, human resource person, risk manager and handler of other business that comes before the city.

Adams said she probably would not have taken the city recorder job for the pay that was offered had she known "everything" that the job entails.

"Having said that, I am enjoying it, and I’m really learning new things," she said.

Adams was hired as city recorder about Dec. 22 of last year. A total of 29 people applied for the position and five were interviewed.

She replaced former City Recorder Michelle Bennett, who left the city Oct. 31 of last year.

Police Department

The proposed 2009 budget has no provision for re-establishing a police department, which was eliminated when Police Chief Everett Stone retired in May 2007 after the state determined he did not have the required certification.

Since then, the city has relied on the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office for police services.

The proposed 2009 budget includes a nominal $7,500 for police salaries and $500 for police vehicle expense.

Most council members, except Smitty, spoke for continuing to have the sheriff’s department provide the police services for the city, saying police coverage is as good as or maybe better than it was under a city police department.

"We have gone a year and three months without a police officer, and I cannot see the difference except on the bottom line of this budget," Hill said.

Councilman Vincion expressed similar sentiments.

"I think over the past year and half, we have seen more police protection by the sheriff’s department than we have by any city policeman that we can get," he said.

Smitty suggested putting some of the money that is earmarked for street maintenance in a line item for salary for a policeman. He argued that the response time from Murfreesboro is too long.

Zumbro suggested that the city could designate a location in town for a substation so the sheriff’s department could station a car and a person in the area.

Barham noted an officer and a detective already live in Eagleville and said he would talk with the sheriff about the possibility of a putting a substation here.

City Park

The city is at the end of its grant period for the park with the last 15 percent of the grant money being withheld until the work is completed. Up to $22,500 will be available from the grant, which has to be matched by the city. Plus a total of $18,000 of income for the park has been designated from the general fund and the park is expected to receive an undetermined amount in donations and fund raisers.

No income is budgeted from the park concession stand for FY 2009 because it is uncertain what, if any, profit was made during the current fiscal year.

Park director Jeff Mooneyham is over the ordering and stocking of the concession stand and provides the concession stand workers at no cost to the city, according to the employment agreement worked out last budget year. Any profit that is made at the concession stand is to go to the city, and the city is to pay for the cost of the food and other supplies. The city recorder makes the deposits and writes the checks to pay the bills for the park.

Hill, who is the council member that oversees the park, said the computer printout of expenses and receipts from the concession stand for this fiscal year indicates the expenses were about $1,500 more than the income. He said he plans to go through the receipts to see what had been bought because items that were bought could have been placed in the wrong category.

"I just don’t know what was placed in there because I haven’t had time to go through the tickets or there could be a problem, and I have got to find out," he said.

Smitty said that the city should contract with an independent person to run the concession stand.

"If we have an independent person who sits down there and just tends to that and gives us (a set amount according to an agreement), then you don’t have to worry about whether more went out than came it," he said. "It is just theirs, and if they make $50,000 down there then pat them on the back."

Hill said the food has been good under the current arrangement and "you go to other places and it is not."

"If the hamburgers are no good then I catch the heck," he said.

Hill said he hopes to have an answer on why the concession stand expenses were more than the revenue before the budget is finalized.

Expenses in the 2008-2009 budget for the park include $5,500 for general expenses for the park, $4,600 for electricity, $300 for water, $9,000 for the park director, $8,000 for concession supplies, $3,000 for mowing and $35,000 for capital expenditures which would be for the walking trail.

In the past, Hill has down the mowing for free but he said he did not know if he will do the mowing in the new budget year.

______________________________________________________________