Category: Lytle City Council Meetings

By Anton Riecher
A host of new capital projects drove down the amount of cash on hand at the end of the 2023-2024 fiscal year by a small amount, according to the 2023-2024 municipal audit presented to the Lytle City Council Monday night.
The audit, prepared by Armstrong, Vaughn and Associates, was presented to the council by auditor Jacob Twomay.
“You did have less cash at the end of the current fiscal year,” Twomay said. “This is because you spent a lot of money on a lot of new capital projects that you’ve been working on. I’m sure you’ve seen the construction going on throughout town.”
The decrease in available cash amounted to $36,000 from the previous fiscal year, “not a very large decrease in terms of what you have on the books, but it was still a decrease,” he said.
Despite the decrease, the city continues to show growth in sales tax and property tax revenue, Twomay added.
“There’s been a lot of expansion here along the highway (Interstate 35) with new businesses and new buildings coming in,” he said. “That helped increase your sales tax and has been a great boom.”
However, the audit shows that the city’s expenses increased as well, Twomay said.
“The main thing I would note was your professional fees grew in the past year along with your salaries and wages,” he said.
Those increases are to be expected with the effort to retain the talent on the city staff, Twomay said.
“You’ve got to incentivize them to stay,” he said.
Twomay also noted that the increase in property taxes, while healthy, was not as much as had been expected.
“You were actually over budget in revenue overall, especially because of your sales tax, which was over budget by $232,000,” he said.
Mayor Ruben Gonzalez, who works as Medina County veterans services officer, asked if the expected increases failed to take into account tax exemptions for disabled veterans moving into the area. Twomay said that was possible.
“Depending on how the freeze works, over age 65 and disabled veterans, those freezes will kind of keep your tax value down, which keeps your revenue from increasing as much as you would probably expect, or as much as the market would say,” he said.
As is standard procedure in many communities, the council elected earlier this year to bring in a new auditing firm after a five-year stint with Armstrong, Vaughn & Associates. Gonzalez noted that the auditors had worked closely with city staff to bring financial bookkeeping up to date.
The books were as much as three years behind at one point before the auditing firm came on board, city finance director LaNet Hester said.
One area that Twoney noted that still needs work is the number of bank accounts main…LOGIN TO CONTINUE READING at www.devinewsmembers.com. You will get INSTANT online access to our full E-edition, and begin getting the newspaper delivered to your home next week for $36 a year in Medina County. Support important local city, county, and school news like this!

Filing opens January 15, 2025 and end at 5:00 pm on February 14, 2025 at the City of Lytle office, 14916 Main St..
The City of Lytle operates with a Mayor-Council form of government. The council consists of five Aldermen that each serve a single member district.
The City Council’s primary duty is policy making. The council identifies the needs of the city’s residents and provides programs to meet the changing requirements of the community and measure the effectiveness of ongoing services in the city. See qualifications for becoming a Council member at lytletx.org.

By Anton Riecher
The Lytle City Council Monday again voted unanimously to deny approval for a proposed 30-acre manufactured home park, reaffirming its decision in November citing the project’s failure to conform to current zoning of the property.
City Administrator, Zachary Meadows, explained that the final plat for Lytle MHC Mobile Park had been resubmitted by the developers after the council’s previous action.
“The state does require that with the changes that were done under the local government code regarding platting when we receive basically a request to reconsider it, we have 15 days to hear it,” he said.
Since the council does not have another meeting schedule before 2025, the request to reconsider was placed on the Dec. 9 agenda.
District 3 Alderman David Emery made the motion to deny the request “as the final plat does not conform to the City of Lytle comprehensive plan and related zoning regulations.” District 2 Alderman Richard Hughes seconded the motion.
Meadows reported in November that both the city staff and the city planning and zoning commission recommended denying approval for the mobile home park.
“Staff has communicated…

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Agrees to join Medina water alliance

By Anton Riecher
By unanimous vote the Lytle City Council approved a $4.832 million budget for fiscal year 2024-2025 supported by a property tax rate of $.398363 per $100 valuation, an increase of 13.11 percent.
Mayor Ruben Gonzalez said the tax rate, set during the Sept. 23 regular meeting, remains one of the lowest of the three counties in which the city is located.
“I just want to remind everybody that when you put the numbers together we’re still about three cents lower than any community around here,” Gonzalez said.
City Administrator Zachary Meadows said that closest that any Medina County community comes to the Lytle tax rate is 43 cents per $100 valuation. The next closest in Atascosa, Medina or Bexar counties is still three to four cents higher than Lytle, he said.
The full tax roll for Lytle in all three counties totals $1,168,945, Meadows said.
No comment was heard from taxpayers during the separate public hearings conducted for the tax rate and the budget. The rate amounted to a one cent increase from last year.
The tax rate combines a debt service rate of $.071490 per $100 valuation and a maintenance and operation (M&O) rate of $.326873 per $100 valuation. The tax rate, budget, debt service and M&O rate were…

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By Anton Riecher
Lytle ISD Superintendent Dustin Breithaupt addressed the Lytle city council during a public hearing on the city’s stormwater utility system Aug. 26.
A rate of $7 per equivalent residential unit in the proposed creation of a stormwater utility fund to better manage drainage issues was approved by the Lytle City Council earlier this year.
In Texas, cities are authorized to adopt local stormwater drainage utility systems to protect public health from flooding and health issues. Through the utility, communities organize maintenance activities and capital projects to better manage the situation.
Equivalent residential units or ERUs are a taxable unit representing the average square footage of impervious area for a residential property. Impervious area refers to surfaces that allow little or no stormwater infiltration into the ground such as asphalt, concrete, brick or stone.
City Administrator Zachary Meadows said that the school district noted that because their budget is already in place for the year meeting the new utility rate effective in October would be difficult.
“What the council did was…

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By Anton Riecher
An engineering study to investigate floodplain issues with the site of a yet unnamed subdivision proposed for FM 2790 was approved by the Lytle City Council during its July 22 regular session.
City Administrator Zachary Meadows said the new subdivision would be adjacent to the east side of the planned Lytle Farms subdivision. The proposed project will consist of single family and duplexes dwellings with commercial development fronting FM 2790.
“We have been working with our attorneys on this particular subdivision before we bring anything to you,” Meadows told the council. “Unfortunately, this is kind of the first one that has hit that they need to get some answers on because there are some floodplain issues with the particular property in question.”
Meadows said the study will be in preparation for a public hearing on annexation of the property into the city. The study will be conducted by TRC Engineering with the developer responsible for reimbursing the $3,000 cost to the city.

Continue reading “Lytle council backs floodplain study supporting subdivision proposal”

By Anton Riecher
The Lytle City Council voted unanimously to approve a two-year contract for City Administrator Zachary Meadows at a starting salary of $105,000 a year during the council’s July 8 regular session.
Mayor Ruben Gonzalez congratulated Meadows who started as city administrator in mid-December.
“We appreciate and look forward to working with you as a part of our leadership team,” he said.
Meadows previously served as interim city administrator of Spring Valley Village near Houston. Holding a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Texas at San Antonio, he previously worked as a management assistant to the city administrator in Dickenson, Texas.

Continue reading “Lytle council approves two-year contract for city administrator Meadows”