A new street sweeper for the city of Mexico is among the items and purchases proposed in the upcoming fiscal year budget.

The Mexico City Council examined some of those budget costs at the July 28 meeting, and council members will have a work session to discuss the budget before their first meeting in August. Chairman Pro Tem Chris Miller was absent from the July 28 meeting.

City Manager Bruce Slagle said city staff just wanted to provide council a “very high level overview at this point” in the process. He gave a budget preparation schedule, and said department directors created their line-item budget, conducting their work in April and May and submitting information by June 1.  By the middle of June, they had to have their capital outlay requests submitted.

“We met with each department director in the first part of July to go over each of their budgets and (have) discussions,” Slagle said. “And a big part of that is balancing. Looking at what’s necessary versus what’s needed, what we can financially afford, what we can’t afford, and what can (happen) in that overall budget and not.”

He said they have to make sure they are keeping tabs on the budget and living within their means. 

The budget study session meeting will be at 4 p.m. Aug. 11. The budget session will continue after the regular meeting, Slagle said. He added that there has to be the property tax rate hearing and approval before the end of August. And then in September, there will be first readings of the budget and approval process.

He told council there will be an adjustment in the public health area, explaining there will be $50,000 proposed in demolition and $50,000 in nuisance abatement, with more money in the current budget year for demolition - $75,000. There has been less money spent on nuisance abatement previously, Slagle said, adding there’s more need to spend more dollars in that area, such as cleaning up yards and areas that have been sitting for years.

“Will we get some of those funds back? We may,” he said. “Because ultimately, if we go in and clean them up, we will assess the property for those fees, so there may be an opportunity to reclaim some of those. But we believe that that is the focus that we need to concentrate on in the coming year.”

That is just one item on the horizon, though, he told council, as the city needs to replace the street sweeper. 

“That is not a cheap item - that is a $300,000 piece of equipment,” he said.

He said that, for years now, money has been put in the sanitation department fund, which will pay for half of it, and then the rest will come from the general fund.

The city also needs to do a network upgrade of its computer systems. 

“They are out of date, some security risks (exist), and it’s time to do some upgrades,” he said.

With outside agency funding, Slagle said all the same agencies are being included at the same level of funding.

“As you remember those from last year, we did increase some funding in a couple of those areas, but this year, we are proposing that we stay the same, based on the dollar amounts that we have available,” he said. “So there will be no increases as far as any requests. It will be the same level of funding.”

Slagle said there are contract agencies, such as the Optimist Club and the Handi-Shop for their particular programs, and charitable agencies, such as The Help Center and Miss Missouri, that the city helps.

The city also wants to conduct a compensation study, as it has not performed the study since 2018, and officials like to do a study every five years, Slagle said. The study will look at pay scales and how they compare to other comparable cities. The study is conducted by an external group. 

Slagle discussed other budgeted expenses in the city, including  street, pavement and sidewalk repair projects, and city hall and public safety building project funding. Council asked about some items in the budget, such as demolition and nuisance abatement spending.