First look at city budget Monday

McCOOK, Neb. — The McCook City Council is coordinating a public meeting Monday evening to recap by department the proposed 2017-18 city budget.

The meeting is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. at City Council Chambers, however, city leaders indicated earlier this week it would begin immediately following a Planning Commission meeting scheduled to start at 5:15 p.m.

Monday’s public meeting will offer a first look at the upcoming city budget, as well as discussion on the individual budgets for each department, including financial issues and equipment needs that sales tax dollars might be allocated towards, according to City Manager Nate Schneider.

“So we can talk about some of the items that we’re kinda thinking that we may want to be utilizing sales tax dollars for, and those kinds of things. Just initial discussions,” he said during a City Council meeting in July when reviewing the upcoming budget calendar.

The three readings of the 2017-18 fiscal year City of McCook budget are scheduled to begin on Aug. 21, with second reading on Sept. 5 and final reading on Sept. 18.

Three City Council members, Mayor Mike Gonzales, Councilman Bruce McDowell and Councilman Jerry Calvin, indicated previously they had submitted no budget requests for city staff to include in the upcoming budget.

Councilwoman Janet Hepp said she requested trees for the island on Parkway Drive and also mentioned the Barnett park shelter house was something she’d like to see city staff look at.

Councilman Gene Weedin said he asked for sales tax money to be set aside for continued improvements at the Jaycee Complex and for the city to establish a fund to demolish abandoned or nuisance houses.

One of the most important roles fulfilled by City Council is its involvement in the financial affairs of the city to provide oversight and independent review functions, according to the city’s annual financial audit. Due to the size of McCook’s administrative staff preventing internal controls that would typically remove “opportunity for employees to commit fraud that may go undetected.”

During a public review of the audit report in February, the auditor praised McCook’s financial position and said city staff’s fiscal prudence was setting the city up, “for the ability to have infrastructure, whatever your future needs might be.”

Expenses for 12 of the 15 city departments came in lower than the best practice mark established by the auditor’s comparison of 13 similar Nebraska communities. McCook’s parks department reported the lowest expenses at nearly half the best practice benchmark, coming in at $32 per capita compared to a $60 best practice established by the comparison.