August 21 Public Hearing summary

The Combine City Council held a Public Hearing Monday August 21 @ 7:30pm with the intent of setting the tax rate for the 2006/07 budget year which begins October 1, 2006. Previous Councilman Bruce Coates explained State law requires cities to prepare their budgets first and then set the tax rate. After that, a few comments were made and the Mayor blamed their miss-start on advice from the Texas Municipal League.

The Council has not done any work on the 2006/07 budget, and they will have to get busy on it. The timeline will be tight to comply with State law and Kaufman County Tax Assessors office requests. The council plans a Budget Workshop for Monday August 28 (public input appreciated) and a Public Hearing for September 8. The next regular Combine City Council meeting will be Monday September 11. Watch for agendas for all of these meetings posted at the proper times at the usual locations.

Mayor Taylor said Kaufman County Appraisal District reports 2006/07 taxable value for Combine property as $79,890,853.00. That figure with the current tax rate of 0.251000 cents/hundred dollar value projects 2006/07 revenue to be $200,526.00 at a receipt rate of 89% making the total projected property tax revenue to be approximately $178,468.00. (See http://www.kaufman-cad.org/taxinfo3.htm )

Several members of the council stated that total expenses for 2005/06 totaling $371,218 have been found to be in line with the 2005/06 budget prepared by the previous Council, and the current tax rate should stay the same in order to keep needed funds coming in (this from Councilpersons Barber, Boyd and Mayor Taylor.) Considering all the needs of the City as well as citizens expecting much more work to be done, the 0.251000 rate would probably be needed to meet the needs of the 2006/07 budget.

However, the final 2006/07 tax rate will not be known until the 2006/07 budget is prepared.
The meeting was adjourned at approximately 8:30pm.

August 7 2006 City Council meeting

Here is what happened at the Combine City Council meeting Monday August 7, 7:30pm:
1. Pledge & Invocation
2. Citizen Comments (limited to 3 minutes; you must sign in on a form furnished by the City before the start of the meeting.) No comments from citizens.
3. Reports (Police; Municipal Court; Fire Dept; Building Inspector; Planning & Zoning;)
4. Minutes of previous Council Meetings/Workshops/Public Hearings; and Treasurer's Reports May, June and July. Mitzi Boyd questioned the minutes for the workshop and public hearing, but all minutes were voted accepted. Various items in the Treasurer's Reports were questioned, so the reports were not approved. The Council tabled the Treasurer's Reports for the second consecutive month.
5. Discussion and Action on the following:
Road Committee report & recommendation by Councilperson Dennie
Councilperson Dennie reported that Albert Harlan has finished his study and drainage plan for Davis Road with the recommendation to raise the level of the road by 8 inches, clean out the ditches on both sides, and repair the culverts. The Council voted to order the work through Kaufman County requesting to add appx 6 inches of material to raise the level of the road at a cost of $32,620. There will be no work on the ditches at this time. This is for Davis Road only.
P&Z recommendation for City final plat approval on Waldrum Addition Phase III
P&Z recommendation for City final plat approval on Riverbend Estates
Set date, time, place for Public Hearing regarding 2007 tax rate
This Public Hearing will be Monday August 21 @ 7:30pm @ City Hall. Immediately following this Public Hearing, the Council will convene in order to adopt the 2007 tax rate.
Executive Session regarding employment contract for Combine Police Chief Armitage
The Executive Session lasted appx 1 hour
Action concerning employment contract for Combine Police Chief Armitage as discussed in Executive Session.
The Council returned to report no action will be taken on the Police Chief's contract at this time.
The meeting adjourned at appx 11:00pm.

Combine City Council meeting scheduled for Monday August 7, 7:30pm agenda:
1. Pledge & Invocation
2. Citizen Comments (limited to 3 minutes; you must sign in on a form furnished by the City before the start of the meeting.)
3. Reports (Police; Municipal Court; Fire Dept; Building Inspector; Planning & Zoning;)
4. Minutes of previous Council Meetings/Workshops/Public Hearings; Treasurer's Reports May, June and July.
5. Discussion and Action on the following:

• Road Committee report & recommendation by Councilperson Dennie
• P&Z recommendation for City final plat approval on Waldrum Addition Phase III
• P&Z recommendation for City final plat approval on Riverbend Estates
• Set date, time, place for Public Hearing regarding 2007 tax rate
• Executive Session regarding employment contract for Combine Police Chief Armitage
• Action concerning employment contract for Combine Police Chief Armitage as discussed in Executive Session.
  

THE NEXT REGULARLY SCHEDULED MEETING OF THE COMBINE CITY COUNCIL WILL BE HELD MONDAY, AUGUST 7 @ 7:30PM AT COMBINE CITY HALL, 123 DAVIS ROAD, COMBINE.
(THE AGENDA FOR THIS MEETING WILL BE POSTED BY 5PM FRIDAY, AUGUST 4 AT COMBINE CITY HALL.)

Thanks to the Shipley's for their constructive comments.
Just for the record, please understand anything POSTED here is TRUTH.
Comments are opinions of the person who decides to make a comment. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and entitled to choose to sign or to not sign that opinion/comment.
Signing or not signing a comment neither validates nor invalidates it. All comments have worth...signed or not.