Mervyn City Council FY2027 Budget Work Session - June 30, 2026
Mervyn City Council FY2027 Budget Work Session - June 30, 2026
The Mervyn City Council held its third budget work session for fiscal year 2027 on June 30, 2026, starting at 6:00 p.m. City staff presented the proposed fee schedule, a comprehensive budget overview, component unit finances, general fund details, and the utility fund. The city manager emphasized the city's strong financial position, strategic use of fund balance, and adherence to financial policies.
Discussion Items
Fee Schedule (Presented by Finance Director Bernadette Fitzpatrick Walker)
- Solid waste fees will increase by 4.7% due to Republic Services' CPI adjustment. Residential once-per-week service rises from $14.20 to $14.87 (a $0.66 increase), with similar increases for recycling and other services.
- Water and wastewater volumetric rates follow Scenario 3 approved last fiscal year: a 7.3% increase for water and 7.61% for sewer. Tiered rates are designed to conserve water by increasing the percentage impact on higher usage. The lowest tier (under 15,000 gallons) has the smallest percentage increase.
- Winter averaging methodology changes: Instead of excluding December, the city will now use the three lowest consumption months from November through February to calculate sewer charges.
- New meter-related fees were introduced, including meter relocation (price quote basis), meter testing fees ($500 for sending out), meter tampering ($250 minimum plus damages), obstruction fees, and increased meter costs for new meters (residential 3/4-inch meter from $330 to $430; 1-inch from $420 to $530). Council member inquired about a reconnection fee; staff will consider adding one.
- Hydrant meter relocation fee set at $25.
- The fee schedule is expected to be placed on the consent agenda for adoption in August.
Budget Overview (Presented by City Manager)
- The budget was developed collaboratively with all departments present, and public engagement increased through an April survey (133 responses) and a new online tax receipt tool launched June 15.
- The survey ranked street maintenance as the top priority (133 votes), followed by park improvements (108), personnel growth, software/technology, new equipment, recreation programs, and MCC modernization.
- The tax receipt tool allows residents to see how much they pay in property and sales tax to the city and how it is allocated.
- Overall fund balance remains strong, with all funds meeting the 20-25% reserve policy through the five-year projection.
- Total preliminary budget for all funds is $68.9 million, a 9.2% increase over the prior year, largely due to major capital projects.
- One-time funding requests from the general fund total approximately $253,000, funded from fund balance. These include software, facility upgrades, and equipment.
Component Units (MCDC and MDD)
- The MCDC (4A corporation) fund has a 1% change in budget; one-time requests include tables, painting, sod, volleyball sand, water bottle refilling stations, archery equipment, and event tents ($1,000 each for better durability).
- The MDD (4B corporation) fund will fund infrastructure projects: pedestrian bridge ($1.2 million) and HEB turn lane.
- Community events budget totals $795,000 for FY27, with revenues of $707,000, including $57,000 in event revenue and $17,000 sponsorship projection for May Days alone. Personnel overtime accounts for approximately $250,000 of the events budget.
General Fund Overview
- FY27 general fund revenues are projected at $21.2 million, primarily from property tax and sales tax. Expenditures are higher to strategically use fund balance.
- Public safety (police and fire) accounts for the largest share, followed by administrative services (22%), public works (13%), and neighborhood services (12%).
- Two new patrol officers are budgeted, along with two elections and facility maintenance.
- One-time funding of $253,000 from fund balance is recommended.
Utility Fund Overview
- Utility fund rates follow the approved 5-year rate study; no new rate analysis this year. The city plans to pause annual studies and revisit in FY29 for FY30 rates.
- Projected water revenue $12.2 million, sewer $5 million, total utility fund expenditures increase 8% ($1.5 million) largely due to contractual provider cost increases from North Texas Municipal Water District.
- The city uses 92% of its budget for contractual services.
- Proposed personnel changes: two crew leaders in wastewater and a reclassification of public works superintendent to assistant director.
- One-time capital requests include a material storage pad ($80,000), low-water crossing on South Maxwell Creek, and painting of elevated storage tank.
- Discussion on water conservation noted that wet weather reduces revenue, and the city is not projected to exceed its cap this year.
Key Outcomes
- The fee schedule will proceed to adoption on the consent agenda at a future council meeting in August.
- The budget work session schedule was adjusted: the July 7 meeting will focus on police department policy, staffing, and equipment; the August 4 council meeting will include a work session for the tax rate; adoption of the tax rate moved from September 1 to September 15.
- Council expressed interest in adding a reconnection fee for utility tampering cases; staff will evaluate and potentially include.
- No formal votes were taken; all items will be formally considered at upcoming meetings.
Meeting Transcript
Welcome you to the Mervyn City Council budget work session. It's June 30th, time to 6 p.m. From time over to City Secretary. We'll call the screen. Mayor Scott Bradley? Mayor Protein Scott Smith. Here. Deputy Mayor Ken Oldman. Council Member Place 1 Elizabeth Everham? Here. Councilmember Place 3. Debbie Ison? Here. Council Member Place 5, Kevin Kelly. Here. Council Member Place 6, Janae Butler. Mayor Certify the President. With that, I will call item 3A fiscal year 2027 budget work session. All right, Mayor and Council, thank you for being here this evening. Uh we are here to go over our, I think this is maybe our third budget work session of the budget season. So we'll be going over a few different things for you tonight. The 2027 fee schedule will do a budget overview of all budget. We'll talk about component units, the general fund overview, and we will end with the review of our utility fund. Before we dive in, I do want to kind of frame the night and some of the things that I really want you to walk away with tonight. After you go through this presentation, there are some things that I want you to kind of realize. One, the city has an exceptionally strong financial position. We are doing well where we are. We're continuing to prioritize council's uh wants and desires and what you all have asked us to do through the strategic plan. And we're doing all of that while still following the policies that we have in place. We're abiding by our financial policies, and we'll show you how that looks when it comes to our fund balance when it comes to the composition of our budgets as well. So I want you to make sure that you walk away with that tonight. So with that, I'm gonna turn it over to our finance director, Berna Fitzpatrick Walker, and she's gonna go through our fee schedule. Now, if you can jump in and ask questions anytime, but we will leave questions at the end of each different section as well if you want to wait, but it's totally up to you. Thank you, Mayor and Council. So the the fee schedule this year is just gonna be um the solid waste. There's gonna be some water volumetric rates and the wastewater volumetric rates, and there's gonna be some changes in the billing related to the sewer averaging methodology, and then there's gonna be some new meter and meter related fees. Um so just bring your attention to the fact that the solid waste are only changing because it's the republic CPI adjustment capability that they have and um the utility rate volume or the scenario three that was passed um in prior um fiscal year, and so it's just moving forward with that um that utility rate analysis that's going to be presented um for 27, 28, 29, 30. They gave us five years of that rate study. So um just wanted you to know that it's gonna be a 4.7 CPI increase, and so there's gonna be lots of um individual line items that are changed. Um I'm not gonna walk you through each one of them, but you'll see that we have the current, you'll see the proposed, and you'll see the impact, and this is the calculation that's between these two, and then walks you forward with the administration fee and the franchise fee, as well as the total, so that you can see the impact overall. So the solid waste once per week service is going from 1420 to 1487, and that's 66 uh cents increase. And then the same thing walk the recycling once per week is gonna impact uh increase of 31 cents, and the um twice a year drop at city hall is gonna be four cents, and then the solid waste is an increase of 1.02. So we just keep walking forward, it's gonna be the same thing. We'll see some of them aren't gonna be a change, and then the impact if there's an additional solid waste fee, and then the impact for the recycling cards. Now, just to explain this one to you a little bit, because there's so many different columns. This is gonna be the the new proposed section, and then it's telling you if you look at CY1, it's an increase of 106, and so it's it's based by column, so then you can see the CY1 here is gonna be this, and it was an increase of 364. And so then it just kind of walks you through those, so you don't have to do the math. Um, I'm not going to read each one of them to you. Just know that each one of them is because there's a 4.7% increase in the CPI. So it's going to be on the residential side, as well as the goes into the dumpsters for the four cubic yards, the six cubic yards, eight cubic yards, and then takes us into the collection itself.
openpublica.com