[Johnny Hill]

Council,

By my calculations, we can Balance the current <$159,514.85> budget shortfall by making the following changes:

1. Removing and delaying the $70,000.00 of Capital outlays for repair of lift station 2 and 5 manholes.
2. Increase our expected property tax collection rate from 93% to 96%
3. Transfer the remaining defecit of $34,089.20 into line 7991 from the GF Reserve.

This is my recommendation unless someone has a better option, as it will allow us to go forward with the “No New Revenue Tax Rate” and therefore not have a tax increase this year.

[Johnny Hill]

Dear Council and Citizens,

As of right now, our proposed budget is online in the packet for this coming Monday’s Public Budget Hearing. This budget is based on and includes the following things:
1- The reinstatement of Troy Harrison in a dual role of Police Chief and city Manager for the first 6 months of the 2025-2026 budget year at the same rate that he had before he resigned that role. The thought behind doing this was to maintain some continuity in the leadership of City Hall until we can hire a full time city manager and elect a new Mayor.

2- the budget provides for adding a full time city manager for the second half of the year.

3- The budget provides 70,000 dollars for repairing lift station 2 and sealing 5 manholes that are currently allowing storm water to drain into and overload the sewer system.

This budget requires an approximately 11% tax increase to balance it.

If we do not raise taxes and we go with the “no new revenue” tax rate of .85013 per $100 of evaluation, then we are facing a budget shortfall of <$159,514.85>

I am hoping that council and citizens will review the posted budget and come to the hearing with constructive ideas of what we can cut out of the budget in order to balance it without a tax increase. I will be prepared in Monday’s meeting to make any suggested cuts on the fly to see in real time how they change the bottom line.

Looking forward to a productive meeting.

[Johnny Hill]

Dear Council and Mayor Pro-Tem,

It is my opinion that our budget to retain the level of services that we have for EMS, Fire protection and police dept. will require an approximately 11% tax increase which will cause property taxes to go up by about $94.00 per $100,000.00 of property evaluation. This increase is below the approximately 13% increase that would require voter approval. I tend to agree with most of the following assessment that I received from Mr. Barry Plante and I wanted to share this with you here.

Fy2025-26 Shoreacres Budget Feedback
Barry Plante
9/22/2025

COMMENTS
•Shoreacres is 1/231 Type A General Law cities in Texas
•Mostly small rural cities with limited public services
•Most of these rely on county or volunteer FD and EMS
•3 cites in Harris County with population between 1000-2000
•Morgan’s Point, Shoreacres , Southside Place
•SA budget is 1/3 to 1/5 of those two cities
•Budget limited by lack of commercial tax base
•As expected, Shoreacres residents want similar services offered by big
cites; however, the budget is not there.

CURRENT BUDGET
•Current budget as is unsustainable…requires major change
• ~56% ($1.3M) of total budget ($2.3M) spent on PD, EMS, and FD
•1/3 EMS and FD (~$440k)
•2/3 Police Dept ($860k)
•~24% on Administration and Other ($.55M)
•~20% on Public Works and Parks ($.45M)
•Appears that recent EMS cost growth is bulk of recent fiscal strain
• Current Public Works budget is inadequate; further cuts are
unacceptable for minimal quality of life in the city

RECOMMENDATIONS
Short term (FY25-26) Recommendations

•Either raise taxes or eliminate a major service (aka EMS)
•Keep existing City Manager Police Chief if possible for transitioning
purposes
•Do not hire a full time City Manager AND Police Chief ever!

[Johnny Hill]

Dear Council and Mayor Pro-tem, We will have to re-schedule the planned City Council meeting for Monday Sept. 22nd, and the budget meeting for Tuesday Sept. 23rd. The required postings on the council chamber west side door were posted on the inside of the glass and cannot be read through the tinting of the glass door. therefore we do not meet public ADA posting requirements.

[Johnny Hill]

Paul,

I agree.

[Johnny Hill]

Council,

I would like to clarify that my previous post is what I considered as a minimum tax increase required and not necessarily what I think we should go forward with. I have received a response from one of our citizens (Barry Plante) regarding my post and would like to share it with you here. Mr. Plante brings up some valid points for us to consider in finalizing the budget. I will go through another budget scenario and see what it would look like with a 10% tax increase. I will also post that here on this forum.

Johnny,
Thanks for your assessment of the budget. Very informative. I was somewhat surprised with the TOTAL cost of city labor driven by loads. Tough situation to be in. Doing this on iPhone in Colorado so excuse the grammar.

First off, we need to remind ourselves that all this 2025 budget and tax rate issue is short term because our city operating budget is unsustainable without major change. You will be at it again next year, only worse. Think strategically when laying out this budget.

Few unorganized comments:
– Any change in assessed property values proportionally affects city income. Could be good or bad. Big unknown.
– Last year the state increased the homestead exemption to $140k which negatively affects the city’s income. Was that even considered?
– SA tax rate is 32% of the total tax assessed to households which means that we don’t have control of 68%.
– Stopping COLAs on the work force should only be this year. Keeping that logic in future years is detrimental to the workforce.
– Do we really need a part time police chief for a small police force? Likewise I would say we just need a part-time city manager for the few employees.
– Any unknown unknowns (infrastructure failures) will be problematic to fund.
– If you move forward with bare bone budget as is, the smallest M&O and repairs will be likely be deferred which makes it worse in the future. Just look at the city public works building…weeds growing out of gutters.
– I see so many complaints about inability to fix basic things like benches, play grounds, tree maintenance etc. We could go on and on. I see a nightmare unfolding and council meetings will all be about little things which will negatively impact strategic planning.

My closing thoughts:
– We all hate tax increases but I think you have to hike the SA tax a minimum of 10% for 2025 to get through this mess hole. Right now, you have authority to increase the tax rate to .961320% (thats a 15% increase). Keep in mind that even a 10% increase amounts to a 3% overall property tax increase. No different than a 3% increase in assessed property values.
– If you do increase taxes, it needs to be accompanied with a strategic plan to change the way we provide services or be integrated into LaPorte.
– I still question why we spend $250k+ on emergency response. We lived without this for several decades. I know people expect similar services as our neighbors that have a commercial tax base. It’s now kinda like an “entitlement” that we can’t afford.
– Fully transition PD to LaPorte beginning this FY so that done by 2026 if possible. I would think they can do this cheaper And that will make transition to LP easier if we do. Worth investigating.

Good luck with this. Feel free to share with other council members. I would be glad to help when I get back…even as a sounding board.

Also, I would be glad to help with writing a realistic and clear job description for city manager who has 3-4 people to manage along with contracts.

PS – in your spare time, please fix the flood ordinance that you guys screwed up. Lol

Sincerely,
Barry Plante

[Johnny Hill]

Gentlemen,

All good points.

Paul,
A well experienced Project Manager who has experience with managing large (2million plus) projects would have the experience that I am talking about in my second requirement. I definitely think we should immediately open up applications to that type of person as well.

I understand that Felicia is crafting the job posting. Maybe she will post what she has so far on here so that we can get dialogue going and maybe have a job posting ready before our meeting on the 22nd.

[Johnny Hill]

Dear Council,
Since our last budget meeting and after further analysis of the proposed budget from the Mayor, I realized that there was a cost of living raise in it for all city personnel including police and administration. I have revised my spreadsheet and have put together a budget that I believe minimizes the pending tax increase as a best case scenario. This version freezes all salaries and pay rates at last years rate with no cost of living increase and does not include any capex expenditures. Any increase in personnel cost or Capex will of course increase the amount of tax rate increase.

I have reduced the part time police chiefs rate as follows:
* Troy Harrison was paid all sick and vacation leave on 7/9/2025 after his resignation as city manager and his contract was cancelled. Troy’s rate at that time was $50.40 per hour. His rate prior to becoming City Manager was $36.18 per hour as police chief.
I am proposing that we change Troy’s rate as part time Police Chief(32 hours per week, 1,664 hrs per year) to a rate of $38.50 per hour with no benefits (i.e. no bonus, no vehicle allowance, no health insurance, & no retirement) since he will be considered part time.
This rate would be $2.00 per hour more than his Sergeant.

Employee Hrly Wage Proposed Wage Personnel salaries
2024-2025 2025/2026 plus T&I & retirement
Police Dept
Harrison, Troy D * $50.40 $38.50 $73,011.58 (no benefits)
Barmore, Jerry G $31.57 $31.57 $102,939.51
Haase, Timothy D $31.57 $31.57 $102,844.47
Tidwell, James C $36.50 $36.50 $115,916.67
Ryan, John B. $31.57 $31.57 $102,773.19
Santana, Jonathan $31.57 $31.57 $102,523.71
Officer PT- Fenley $17.95 $17.95 $7,327.30
Officer PT- Mendoza $18.95 $18.95 $7,327.30
Officer PT- Hernandez $19.95 $19.95 $7,327.30
Total Police $621,991.04
Administration
City Manager-TBD ** $50.40 $61.00 $135,551.05 **(This is based on what we would have had to pay Mr. Gant, and
Stokes, Diane $24.43 $24.43 $79,471.50 therefore represents current market at minimum)
Anderson, Bernadette $26.43 $26.43 $94,320.75
Total Admin $309,343.30
==============
Total budgeted Salary cost per year $931,334.33

Other large expense line items included in a total budgeted expense of $2,267,573.92:

Police Dept. Maintenance and Services $169,380.00
Debt Service- water and sewer infrastructure loan $252,800.00
6391 · Emergency Medical Services $189,919.92
6390-10 · Fire protection $252,000.00
6392 · Dispatch contract $54,000.00
6369-50 · Outside Services-Public Works $48,000.00

This revised budget scenario increases tax as follows:
3.736% increase in property taxes based on part time police chief @$38.50 + city mgr@ $61.00, no capex. Putting the new total tax rate at .881891 dollars per hundred of evaluation. up from the “no new revenue rate” of .850130 This is still well below the voter approval rate of .961320 per hundred of evaluation.

Actual increase amount to property taxes:
$0.031761 per $100.00 of evaluation increase
or $31.76 per $100,000.00 of evaluation increase

[Johnny Hill]

Council,

Please post your thoughts on the requirements for a job description and the posting for the city manager position. We can discuss it here and maybe get this settled prior to the next council meeting on Sept. 22nd. My thoughts are as follows with my preference and priority starting top down :

1. Prior successful experience as a city manager or Mayor of a “Strong Mayor-Council” type city government.

2. Strong background in accounting or Business Management (successful P&L responsibility). I don’t think we necessarily need an accounting or finance professional, but a demonstrated ability to manage a budget with the background and experience to know that requirements and deadlines are being met.

3. someone with good people skills and the ability to communicate well with the citizens of Shoreacres.

4. If one of the candidates has the ability to be tasked as “Head of the Police Dept.” , I would consider that a plus if all other factors are equal.

[Johnny Hill]

Chuck,

As I recall, we all asked the Mayor to pre-screen the applications received to eliminate any obviously unqualified applicants and help save us some time. I trusted his opinion (and still do) based on his long time knowledge of what the job requirements are. With that being said, now that we are still on the hunt for an acceptable candidate, I am sure that David will be willing to pass on any of the applicants that he initially screened out.

Also, I would like to see Mayor Pro-Tem Ramos’ list of qualification requirements for the job, since she stated that financial and accounting background or experience was not really needed for the position. I think it would be great for her to post that on this forum, along with her expectation of salary for the position.

Respectfully

[Johnny Hill]

Dear Council,

My thoughts on Budget Salaries for city manager and part time police chief:
In the hiring process where we initially selected Mr. Gant as the new city manager, his cost to the city would have been $131,680.00 per year for salary and vehicle allowance to be both city manager and Dept head of the police. Now that council has done a flip flop and elected not to hire Mr. Gant, I would be in favor of keeping Mr. Harrison as a part time police chief and contracting with Mr. Ybarra for City Manager at a pay rate equal to the difference of what we would have paid Mr. Gant minus the amount that we wind up paying Mr. Harrison. This would probably be around $30,000.00 per year. Since Mr. Ybarra at one time offered to do the job for free, I think 30k is a fair offer and helps us stay away from having to raise taxes.

Speaking of taxes, I am not in favor of doing anything in this budget that requires us to raise taxes.

Thoughts?

[Author]

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