Controversy Stalls Council Action
Controversy erupted during the special City Council called meeting Tuesday evening, leading to the budget not being passed for the second consecutive week. The special meeting/work session on Tuesday was designed to approve an initial budget for the city for FY2024.
The budget was preliminary passed in a 2-1 vote with Council Member Jenny Murphy making the motion and Mayor Pro Tem Doug Currie seconding the motion. Council Member David Wease voted in opposition. Council member Cynthia Miller did not vote on the budget for the second consecutive year. Council Member Larry Thurman was absent for the meeting
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After initially passing the proposed budget in a 2-1 vote, several in attendance spoke in outrage against the decision, questioning the legality behind it. The meeting went into a 20 minute recess to discuss the ruling with City Attorney Joe Reitmann via telephone. It was determined during the recess period that with four council members present, the majority vote was in fact not reached to pass a budget. The budget was then tabled to yet another meeting which will take place Wednesday, June 28 at 6 p.m..
A group of around 20 concerned citizens were in attendance with almost all speaking in opposition of the proposed budget. Reginald Jacobs, Patricia Finger, Camilla Goodrum, and Tammy Parks all expressed their displeasure with the council by getting up to speak multiple times throughout the nearly one hour public hearing.
One of the main routes of the disagreements was the $4 million decrease in the budget from FY2023 to FY2024. City Manager LaThaydra Sands, repeatedly mentioned that this large figure of money was due to Blockstream, which was a main source of revenue that is no longer a factor in the budget.
Several citizens also spoke with the concerns of the city not having an official audit since FY2019. One concerned citizen questioned the city’s motives and wanted to make sure the city was being “financially responsible.” Another concerned citizen questioned how the budget could even be done when the current day to day funds weren’t available due to the lack of auditing.
Many who spoke also commented on the budget cuts that plagued the city. The Get Ahead House cut was the main route of discussion, with it taking a $15,000 cut in the proposed budget. Mr. Currie said that these decisions were difficult to make and that “none of this is what we wanted.” The council reiterated that almost everything was cut in some capacity since the budget discussions first started in April. This even included a cut to the (Downtown Development Authority (DDA) that occurred in the work session prior to the regular meeting.
Lastly, many spoke out on the lack of organization and communication that has taken place within the city. Danny Norris spoke on how the lack of city organization is “troubling” and that the citizens of Monticello are tired of the same “broken record” that has plagued the council for years. Tammy Parks spoke about the constant dysfunction of budgeting, stating that the council should ask for an extension and ask for outside help to “figure it out.”
Before Mrs. Murphy could make a motion to pass the FY24 budget, Reginald Jacobs questioned why physical copies of the proposed budget weren’t available for the public at the meeting, despite the public hearing section being closed. City Clerk Carnethia Pennamon reiterated that copies were available to the public but were not accurate due to the recent cut of the DDA that occurred at the work session minutes prior.
With the cut to the DDA, the proposed budget figure was 8,667,280.
Nonetheless, the budget was still not passed.
With the lack of budget, Mrs. Murphy requested a motion to table the budget as well as all other remaining agenda items to the next meeting. This was seconded by Mr. Currie and the meeting was adjourned. The next meeting will take place on June 28.
