The Simonton City Council will hold its FIFTH budget meeting, beginning at 6:00 pm on Tuesday, September 16, 2024. The highlight of this meeting will be the public hearing and the vote on the budget and an ordinance related to adopting it.

Overview:
This will be the fifth meeting in the City’s efforts  to complete their annual budgeting process for FY 2024-2025. 

The Mayor appears to seek a budget based on almost 30 cents per hundred of valuation while it is clear that the majority of the City Council members appear to want to consider either a .21 or .24 cent rate.

Having skipped the opportunity to meet last week (09-10-2024) the Mayor presently appears to be at the end of the line when it comes to opportunities to discuss potential alternatives and possibly resolve the chasm that exists between herself and three of the five members of the City Council. 

For reference:
The Budget must be adopted and published prior to the beginning of the 2024-2025 fiscal year, which begins on October 1, 2024.

To be clear, the city budget can be initially proposed by the Mayor. However, it is up to the City Council to make any and all changes to any proposed budget as they see fit as they adopt the final version of their budget. In this way, the City Council (not the Mayor) establishes the maximum that can be spent throughout the fiscal year.

Interested parties should review the agenda to better understand the issues to be discussed. 

The public is encouraged to attend and to participate in sharing their thoughts and concerns via “Public Comments”.

CLICK HERE for the Budget Meeting Agenda on the City’s website.

See you there!

Watch the meeting live or watch it later
As before, I plan on live-streaming the meeting via my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SimontonTexas/ 

In the event that I am unable to stream the meeting, I will post the video as quickly as possible. Of course, it will be presented prominently on this website as well.

Important Notice and Disclosure:
I do not edit and have never intentionally edited a Simonton City Council meeting except to add titles where necessary, to exclude portions of the video immediately prior to and immediately following the official meeting, and where personal attacks are used to intentionally harrass, slander, defame, harm, injure, or otherwise attack persons in the gallery, including myself as I will not be party to such behavior. 

Consequently, I reserve the right, at my sole discretion, to silence, redact or fully remove portions of the final video where any person intentionally uses the videos I produce as their personal platform, wherein the video record may otherwise be used in an effort to create and a record of or otherwise document any personal attack on any member of the gallery, including myself.

Note, however, when comments are made that relate specifically to the city and their business, I fully intend to ensure that those comments are heard.

Regarding Internet Bandwidth Drop Outs:
Any “skips” that may occur during a live-stream, causing the video to be interrupted momentarily, are beyond my control and occur when the bandwidth from my internet provider drops out during a live stream broadcast. These are going to happen from time to time and are unavoidable when wireless internet is used.

In general, as the public will see by the online record, in order to provide the most complete recording possible with the best audio I am able to provide, I have begun posting the full, higher-quality video from my video camera on YouTube the following day or as soon as possible after the meeting.i