Local News
City will hold off on hiring CFO
By David Wilfong
Herald-Banner Staff
Due to lower-than-expected revenues related to the recent economy, Royse City council members have indicated that they support the city manager's recommendation to hold off on hiring an assistant city manager to serve as the city's Chief Financial Officer.
Royse City City Manager Bill Shipp told the council that as of the Jan. 7 workshop, he had imposed a hiring freeze on all city employees. He later noted that the new police chief as well as one police officer's position that had already begun the hiring process were exempt from the freeze.
The city had approved a budget for the fiscal year that included the CFO position to be hired as of April 1, but with the economic concerns currently at play, Shipp told the council he was resigned to hold off on the hiring.
"Do we need that person today? Yes," Shipp said. "Would I like to hire that person April 1? Yes. But we have some concerns with the most recent two months of sales tax. We were down 27 percent in December. We were down 16 percent this month.
"We have no reason to believe that anything else in our budget is soft, revenue-wise. But that has the potential to be a little soft, and that concerns me. Even with your approval to hire this person, I will not go out tomorrow and do that. Cause I want to continue to monitor this revenue and see how we're doing."
Shipp said that he could expect to delay the hiring up to six months to push it into the next fiscal year. He said the CFO position was budgeted for around $65,000, which translates to an expense of around $90,000 after benefits.
At the beginning of the workshop, the council was informed of a slipping revenue base in the overall economic picture for the city.
"We're dropping in cash a little bit, yes," reported Stephanie Modisette, the city's financial director. "But we have not had to touch the reserves yet."
Modisette went on to explain that year-to-date, revenues are $20,608 below expectations.
"Primarily that is sales tax," Modisette said. "For the last two months on sales tax is down from what we had projected."
Later in the conversation, EDC President Larry Lott clarified the sales tax issue saying that the drop in sales tax doesn't seem to be coming from regular retail sources. He explained that the restaurants and retail stores were holding their own in Royse City, but that there were manufacturing interests that have had lower-than-normal earnings.
"We have about a half-a-dozen fairly large industrial companies that do collect sales tax," Lott said. "From what we've been able to evaluate, the drop has been there as opposed to retail."
Lott characterized the drop as, "not surprising in the economy that we're in."
Modisette then advised the council that the expenses continued to be much lower as well, to the tune of $397,178 less than budgeted for.
- Local News
-
-
Hogan, Fowler head into runoff for County Judge
Jerry Hogan and Kevin Fowler said there will be a change in their focus as they head to an April 13 runoff election for Rockwall County Judge.
-
Voters opt to keep Hall, Deuell and Laubenburg
Voters opted to keep the incumbents for U.S. Representatives District 4, State Senate District 2 and State Representative District 89 in last Tuesday’s contested Republican primary.
U.S. Representative Ralph Hall (R-Rockwall) won his party’s nomination well ahead of his opponents, with a total of 39,384 votes (57.3 percent), according to the unofficial election results from the Office of the Secretary of State. -
City may suspend impact fees to promote growth
Royse City Manager Bill Shipp threw out an idea to the four members of the city council present at last Thursday’s workshop meeting about suspending the city’s impact fees in an effort to spur growth.
-
Big jump in unemployment numbers for RW County
Local unemployment rose sharply to start the year, with the jobless rate and the number of people seeking jobs the highest recorded during the month of January so far this century.
-
Trial date set in marijuana, money laundering case
A trial date has been scheduled for one of four Ohio residents, charged with marijuana possession and money laundering.
-
Gerri’s Legacy: Lessons learned from cancer
A friend once told me that it’s interesting to compare a photograph of a cancer patient before and after their diagnosis, because the look in their eyes changes. I believe that’s true.
-
Intruder at Rockwall school causes kidnapping scare
A 35-year-old Mesquite man is facing attempted kidnapping charges after he allegedly attempted to persuade a 7-year-old first grader to leave a Rockwall ISD elementary school with him Thursday.
-
RCISD campuses set activities for Texas Public Schools Week
Students and educators will open the doors to classrooms at Royse City ISD for parents and community members to gain an inside look at the educational programs offered by our public schools during Texas Public Schools Week.
-
New Police Chief sworn in
Carl Alsabrook was sworn in as the new Royse City Police Chief on Tuesday night at the regular city council meeting. Alsabrook replaced outgoing Chief Tom Shelton, who retired after five years as the chief of the RCPD following a career with Dallas SWAT. There will be a welcoming reception for Alsabrook on Thursday, March 18 from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Melloday room at Royse City City Hall. For more details, see the March 17 issue of the Royse City Herald-Banner.
-
New Fate pump station could cost up to $6.2 million
Increasing water demand for a growing city could result in the City of Fate spending $6.2 million for pump station improvements.
- More Local News Headlines
-
