By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post
After another round of cuts, the Ellis County Commission moved forward with its 2019 budget at Monday’s commission meeting.
At last week’s meeting, the county commissioners sent the budget back to staff and called for an additional 1 percent cut in general fund spending. That was after already directing staff to keep 2019 budget requests similar to 2018.
According to County Administrator Phillip Smith-Hanes, all but three departments submitted a budget that contained the reduction while the rest were close to the 1 percent mark.
County Commissioner Barb Wasinger read a prepared statement and called on the county to take action now.
“Each and every elected official and department head needs to change how they operate,” she said. “I know that department heads have started working on this, but it was also made abundantly clear that this is not a popular idea with elected officials or employees.”
Wasinger also said it is necessary to get control of spending now and not place the burden on future commissions.
“We were elected by the taxpayers of Ellis County to make hard decisions when it comes to spending and that’s what we need to do now and in the future,” she said.
Watch Wasinger’s full statement below
In her prepared statement, Wasinger also address a letter sent to Smith-Hanes and the commission from County Attorney Tom Drees. Wasinger called the letter a threat.
“I believe this thinly veiled threat of legal action is unappreciated, unwise and in very poor taste,” said Wasinger. “Particularly with a requested budget of $924,787, which has risen steadily every year from his budget of 2015.”
In an interview after the meeting, Drees said the letter was not a threat but instead an attempt to inform the commission that his office might not be able to come in at the proposed budget level.
“I was simply pointing out that the statute requires the county to ‘adequately fund the county attorney,’ ” said Drees. “This was not a threat, veiled or otherwise, as to legal action. I was simply advising them that at this 1 percent cut it’s a very real possibility I will come in over budget.”
According to Drees, his budget was cut by just less than $15,000 from his original request. That request contained an additional request of $38,000 to bring his assistant county attorney’s to the mid-level on the pay scale.
One of the goals the commission laid out in the beginning of the budget process was to bring all employees to the mid-level, but the $38,000 request was cut from the proposed budget in the first budget meeting by the commission.
According to Drees, many county attorneys offices in counties comparable to Ellis County have larger budgets and more staff.
In fiscal year 2017, Ellis County ranked 15th in the state in the number of criminal and civil prosecutions or settlements but ranked 21st in population.
Commissioner Dean Haselhorst and Marcy McClelland said they agreed with Wasinger’s statement.
Haselhorst also said they may have to look at the commission taking a 2 percent pay cut in the future.
But because both Wasinger and McClelland are involved in political races, he did not want to implement changes to could affect future commissioners without their involvement.
The budget that will be published for the public and subject of a public meeting Aug. 6 is $22.1 million and does not contain a mill levy increase for the general fund or Fire District No. 1.
In other business, the commission:
• Approved the purchase of natural gas for November 2019 through March 2020 and November 2020 and March 2021 for the price of $3.20 from Secure Energy. The commission locked in the price of $3.57 for the 2018-2019 winter months.
• Approved County Counselor Bill Jeter to continue with an upcoming tax foreclosure sale. He said they currently have 20 properties eligible for sale this year.
• Signed a letter of support for the city of Hays for a BUILD Grant for improved for the north Vine Street corridor.