The Tioga City Council received a clean, unmodified audit at its Monday evening meeting.
The audit process is typically done in December, but extenuating circumstances made it so that the presentation and approval had to wait until February.
“Just in case you didn’t notice that your city’s growing, look at that chart on the bottom of Page 4,” City Auditor Joseph Madden said. “… Net assets can be defi ned as the accumulation of all your profits or losses since Day 1 of the city’s incorporation through the fiscal year end of 2024, so you can see right there, it took you all about 10 years to increase your net assets by a million dollars from 2010 to 2020, but from 2020 to 2024, you increased it by [about] $9 million.”
He complimented the city on having its liabilities, largely its certificates of obligation, trend down.
He also broke down how the revenues versus expenditures lined up with the general government, which is not supposed to be a profit center, and the utility fund, which can be.
“If you go down to the water and sewer department, you can see it cost you $1.15 [million] to operate, but your revenues were $1.18 [million],” Madden said.
Overall, the city brought in around $168,649 more than it budgeted and spent $58,674 less than it planned to spend, he added.
Also at the meeting, representatives of a proposed development that would include 90 houses on 25 acres came before the council between the Ray Roberts Parkway and Florence Street.
When the development was first proposed, Mayor Craig Jezek said, it did not include any special funding mechanisms.
However, the current plans include a Public Improvement District, which he said means the city needs time to complete its due diligence to make sure the agreement is correct and beneficial for both sides.
“We just want to make sure [with] our financial person that looks out for the interest of our city along with the bond attorney that does these things that it is in the best interest for us and y’all,” Jezek said. Also at the meeting, the City Council adopted the changes to the longevity pay plan that had been discussed during the budget process.
That includes modifying the structure to have compensation beyond a monthly scale without a cap for years of service.
The previous system had employees grouped together from their first year through their 10th, then 11-15 as the second scaled amount with a cap at 20 years.
“The people that were here for one year or 10 years getting the same amount of money … is honestly not a fair way of doing that,” Jezek said. “So then it’s broken down by each month of service that you have.”
Also updated was the city’s per diem amount for employees who attend training, bringing it to $44. That amount is still lower than the county’s recommended level, which council members Heather Nesmith and Kurt Hall brought up.
However, Jezek and City Secretary Donna Carney specified that if someone attending training provides receipts that show that their food costs exceeded that amount, they can be reimbursed for the difference as well.
The council also approved a preliminary plat for the Casey’s Tioga addition at the southwest corner of U.S. 377 and FM 922, as well as an ordinance expanding the school zone around Tioga High School.
Carney also mentioned that the Holiday Hustle organized by Sydney Wynn and Ashley Moncrief raised $2,260 for the city park.
The upcoming March meeting will be March 3 to account for Tioga ISD’s planned spring break.
