The City of Brownfield had its first meeting this year this morning on Thursday, January 5th. City Council didn’t skip a beat as they approved the minutes of the last meeting on December 15, 2022. After that, the Council named the employee of the month to Jimmy Hart. Jimmy has been working with the City of Brownfield as a Meter Reader and his coworker described him as reliable, dependable, and kind. Also in the meeting, the Council sat down and discussed the monthly Financials. City Manager Jeff Davis said, “This November’s financials we didn’t have the numbers in time for December but we will discuss that in the next meeting. In the report, nothing seems to be out of line, but it seems like we spent a little more than we brought in regarding revenue. I think it’ll make it back up once those property taxes come in.” with everything checking out the Council approved it and moved on to the next item.
The next item was to hear and discuss the quarterly investment report. Mr. Davis added, “This report is along the same lines as the financials. You see there’s not a lot of revenue that came in I think we made a little bit over 7,000 dollars in revenue we did have 19,000 dollars in interest which is great and I understand the Feds raised rates last week.” Council Eric Horton elected to approve and the rest of the Council followed.
The next item was to discuss the city ordinance No.2134 and adopting and enacting a 90-day moratorium on any agreements, permitting, and approvals for solar energy projects within the city limits of Brownfield. This stems from some customers who are confused about how their solar energy is regulated and rebated. Mr. Davis said, ” I am working with a rate consultant and I think this is an opportunity to look at our electric rates, water rates, and our sewer rates and we are gonna look at this really really hard. This kind of started the whole process so we will come back with a different rate structure than what we currently have than a flat rate. You see the water rate looking a little different right now currently the more water you use the cheaper it gets. So we will be looking at that and I that those landfill rates are something we aren’t happy with so this is a great opportunity to look at all of them.” The motion to approve the item was successful and moved
The Council also had to discuss the quarterly update from electric utilities and water and waste. With nothing sticking out of the ordinary, the Council elected to approve the items and moved on. The next items were to consider funding from the hotel occupancy tax Revenue for advertising through the Texas hotel magazine of West Texas and through the TravelHost magazine of West Texas. Those items were also approved.
With the meeting coming to a close, the City Council will meet again on January 19 at 7:30 am.
