By Anton Riecher
Debate among the Devine City Council members concerned the upcoming city budget centered on balancing the yet to be determined tax rate against salary increases for the city staff during a budget workshop August 20.
Mayor Butch Cook said the biggest component of the new budget will be wages and salaries.
“We still have time to announce the tax rate but the sooner the better,” Cook said. “I personally don’t know how you can do a budget unless you know what the revenue is going to be.”
Previously the council members had agreed to pay no less than $20 an hour to any city employee who has worked for the city at least two years, Cook said. Also, the majority of the council had agreed to merit based salary increases as opposed to cost of living increases.
Precinct 3 Council Member Jeff Miller said that COLA (cost of living increases tend to have a detrimental effect on the basic skills available to the city staff. COLA increases lead to problems filling positions that are not paid enough to attract applicants or keep them once hired.
“That causes problems like people having training issues (with jobs that) have a learning curve,” Miller said. “Then you have department heads constantly putting people in training or just hoping they can find somebody trained.”
The result “wastes a lot of time where (the department heads) are spinning their wheels.”
Miller said the city staff already has “at lot of people at the top of their scale for their certifications.”
“There’s already concern out there that we have some people earning too much money,” he said.
District 5 Council Member Debbie Randall countered that failure to raise salaries risk key employees feeling undervalued.
“My opinion on this was that we’re telling those people they’re not worth getting a raise for all the work they’ve done in the last two years,” Randall said.
Last year the council granted two percent increases for upper income salaries on the city staff and six percent for workers earning less than $60,000.
“They got two percent last year,” Randall said. “And now we’re saying maybe, maybe, now two percent.”
District 4 Council Member Josh Ritchey said the labor market has tightened significantly of late.
“We’re operating on a very low income, a very limited amount of value, and I don’t want to increase taxes too much more.”
Miller said the council needs to look at the greater picture “and the greater picture is we don’t want to raise the tax rate.”
“You’re playing with fire at this point,” Miller said. “People have already had their appraised values jacked way up.”
City now looking for third contractor to complete water project
In other business, the city now finds itself looking for a third utility contractor to complete its $9.9 million asbestos water line replacement project after Qro Mex Construction abandoned the 90 percent complete first phase.
City Administrator David Jordan briefed the council on the situation during its regular session following the budget workshop.
Quo Mex bid $3.4 million to take over the project after the city terminated its agreement with the initial contractor, Jordan said. However, in April, Quo Mex notified the city that it was temporarily “demobilizing” the Devine project to devote full time to a $30 million project it had underway in San Antonio.
The plan called for Quo Mex to return to Devine in June to complete the first phase of the water line replacement. However, Quo Mex representatives notified the city that it would require mapping of the existing water lines and cut off valves to complete the project.
“I articulated that that was not part of the agreement initially,” Jordan said. “(Quo Mex) did the job knowing that (they) had to search for the pipes.”
Disagreement also arose concerning the inventory of materials on site when Quo Mex took over from the previous contractor. The value of the materials already on hand when Quo Mex took over was $400,000, Jordan said.
“All of a sudden they reviewed the records and realized they undervalued the materials on site,” Jordan said. “They’re asking for an additional $77,000.”
Jordan said he rejected the request. He also rejected a request for an additional $95,000 in costs to Quo Mex to re-activate the work in Devine.
“At this point I think it’s a mutually agreeable situation that they do not come back to the city to finish,” Jordan said.
The 10 percent of the project left involves water lines along Devine Drive, Colonial, Davis and East Davis. Also left to be done are new tie-in valves at several locations including Windy Knoll.
Questioned by Randall, Jordan said that $3.392 million of the $9.9 million borrowed by the city for the project still remains. At least four more months of work remains, not including the necessity of renewing work permits for the project.
Miller urged Jordan to move forward quickly on finding a new contractor.
“That last 10 percent should be done as soon as possible because the cost keeps going up,” Miller said.
Water tank roof repairs, something
Maquire “does all the time”
Regarding other infrastructure work, the council heard a presentation from a representative of Maquire Iron, Inc., the company taking charge of repairing the city’s main above ground water storage tank near Warhorse Stadium.
City administrator Jordan asked for details on dealing with tanks the age of the city tank and the process of taking it off line to make the necessary repairs.
The Maquire representative said that tanks such as the one serving Devine are usually built with a 100-year life expectancy.
“Your tank is from 1952 and is 72 years old,” the representative said. “You’re not at the maximum age.”
The tank has no visible external corrosion and does not leak, she said.
“What we’re looking at is holes in the roof,” the representative said. “This is something Maquire does all the time.” The company has two such projects already scheduled for the coming year.
“The major cause of the decline of the roof is off gassing of high levels of chlorine,” she said. “There is no working vent on the tank. The vents that are on the tank are undersized.”
Reject West Texas Gas 57% hike
Another utility issue addressed by the council was gas service. On a motion by Randall, the council rejected a requested 57 percent rate increase submitted by West Texas Gas to the Texas Railroad Commission.
