By George Slaughter
The Katy City Council Monday adopted a $32 million budget and a property tax rate of $0.447168 per $100 to help support it.
The budget is a slight decrease from last year’s $32.2 million budget. The rate is a decrease from last year’s $0.48 per $100.
The budget covers public safety (58%), general government operations (24%), streets (8%), debt service (6%), and other services (4%).
Tax revenues come from property taxes (41%), sales taxes (37%), and franchise taxes (5%). Other sources include services (8%), fines, forfeitures, and fees (6%), interest in other sources (2%), and grants (1%).
“We delivered for the citizens,” Ward A Council Member Frank Carroll said.
In other action Monday, the council:
- Heard a presentation from Nici Cowan-Jessett about city permitting issues at MKT Distillery. She said the city had building standards the distillery was expected to meet, but there was poor follow-up from city staff when those standards were met. Mayor Bill Hastings said while he could not apologize for the city’s building codes and standards, he could and did apologize for the lack of customer service.
- Approved its August 10 and August 24 meeting minutes.
- Reviewed the August fiscal monthly report, bank statement summary, and check register through August 31.
- Approved a $29,550 hotel occupancy tax grant application for the Katy Heritage Society, which requested roof replacement work for the Wright Museum and the Stockdick Home in Katy Heritage Park.
- Approved a final plat for Falls at Green Meadows in Harris and Waller counties.
- Approved a final plat for the West 10 Business Park commercial reserves in Fort Bend County.
- Approved a final plat for Katy Main Street commercial reserves in Fort Bend County.
- Awarded a bid to Huitt-Zollars for engineering design services and drainage project implementation on Fortuna Street.
- Authorized Mayor Bill Hastings to sign two proposals with Costello, Inc., for professional engineering services on the storm water pump station for the wastewater treatment plant site.
- Ratified $186,861 in emergency repairs for an 18-inch sanitary sewer line replacement on Roberts Road, and authorized Tackle Construction and Mersino Dewatering, Inc., to do the work.
- Authorized $4,020,000 in unlimited Series 2020 tax bonds for road work at the Village of Katy.
- Moved the uncollectible water, sewer, and garbage account from October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018, to a bad debt historical account.
- Authorized a rice separator machine loan agreement with Adrienne Davitz. The machine will be loaned for display at the Johnny Nelson Katy Heritage Museum.
- Authorized a statement of work with Milliman to perform actuarial valuation for work for city employee benefits.
- Authorized a service agreement with Motorola Solutions for on-site service and support, and software updates and support, for the fire station alerting systems.
- Authorized an extension to the maintenance and support agreement with IDEMIA Identity & Security USA, LLC, for LiveScan system maintenance for the Katy Police Department.
- Passed an ordinance approving the City of Katy’s investment policy. This policy remains the same, but the city must renew or update it every year under state law.