The Minden City Council met for a special session on Friday in order to pass the Minden City Budget for the 20/21 fiscal year. To those experiencing deja vu, let it be noted that the Council did pass the budget earlier this week, however it was passed as a resolution. Once it was realized that for the budget to formally be passed it needed to be done as an ordinance, the Mayor/Council agreed to meet once again to do so.
The budget was motioned in by Councilman Wayne Edwards of Dist. A and seconded by Councilman Pam Bloxom of Dist. D.
When it came time for discussion, Bradford wanted to gauge the Council’s understanding of this section of the ordinance:
“WHEREAS, the Chief Executive Officer will have the authority to amend the aforementioned budget through intra-fund transfers, and
WHEREAS, only the governing body will have the authority to amend the aforementioned budget through inter-fund or fund balance transfers,” the ordinance reads.
He asked some of the Councilmen and Mayor to explain what that section meant and after gave his own interpretation.
Councilman Edwards responded, “These are intra-fund transfers right? That’s inside the budget. That means he can take the funds inside of the budget and as long as he doesn’t exceed that dollar amount, spend them. And the other one is, if we have to go and amend the budget for lack of funds, we’re gonna transfer from … reserves, and in that particular case, the dollar amount increase, if I’m not mistaken, I think if it’s five percent interfering with the budget, it goes to council.”
“You guys are ready to approve this and don’t really know what this means,” said Bradford shortly after.
“The intra-fund transfers. That’s when you got a problem in one of your departments, and you have to transfer funds, but they also have to give up something. If they need a copy machine, and they already got let’s say telephones in the budget, they have to cut out the telephones to get this. Is that correct?”
Ultimately they agreed that this is in fact an example of the intra-fund transfers referred to in the ordinance, however, Bradford pushed for further clarification of the inter-fund transfers that were referenced as well.
“Well in the next line it says inter-fund. What is that?” asked Bradford.
“That’s funds within the city that we already have,” replied Gardner.
“And how do you do that, give me an example of that?” asked Bradford.
“Well you have to have council approval to do that. To move something from one line item to the other, it has to be an amendment,” responded Gardner.
Eventually, this line of questioning petered out and the Council conducted the vote. After some confusion surrounding Bradford’s vote, it was determined that the budget passed unanimously with all Councilmen voting in favor.
The Regular session of the City Council Meeting will take place Monday, Oct. 5 starting at 5:30 p.m. It is now open at 75% maximum occupancy, though those attending are required to wear masks. Social distancing guidelines of at least 6 feet will be followed as well. The meeting can also be viewed online at City’s Youtube Channel, City of Minden – Feels Like Home.