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Residents spoke their minds at a special called meeting Friday evening.
The Farmers Branch City Council listened to residents and backpedaled on a portion of the proposed tax reduction rate on items spoken about the most loudly.
The meeting was called after the Aug. 27 town hall set to inform residents of the proposed budget for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, which starts Oct.1, and must be finalized by the council by Sept. 17.
Tammy Zimmerman, director of finance, fleet and facilities for the city, walked residents who filled the council chambers through the summer’s budget process, including an exercise to see what a 10-cent tax reduction would have looked like before going through the items in the budget that were slated to be reduced or cut.
The items that raised the most concerns from residents included reduced hours at the Farmers Branch Recreation Center, Margaret Young Natatorium and The Branch Connection; closure of the Citizens Collection Center; reduced funding of the Farmers Branch Community Garden to include only water for irrigation; elimination of Halloween in the Park; eliminating mosquito spraying for proactive measures; and the monthly $5 trash fee that will begin in October.
Thirteen residents spoke before council expressing their concerns.
Debbie Pochmann and David Jones spoke passionately about the number of people who attend the recreation center and natatorium and the importance of the facilities to their continued health.
Vicki Harrison asked about the quality of plantings in medians and the entrances to the city though those items were not in the proposed cuts.
Robert Diaz, director of parks and recreation, later addressed the issue saying that drought and winter freezes had wreaked havoc on the street and park landscaping and that city staff was hurrying to remediate the issue.
Chuck Zubarik asked two questions which were not addressed by council or staff.
“What I’d like someone to answer is, what is the yearly cost of all the trash that citizens now take to the collection center for free?”
He later asked, “Is there a currently undisclosed agenda to lease or sell the collection center land? If yes, to whom, what and what money reasons?”
After residents spoke, each council member stated their thoughts on each matter, led by a monologue by Councilmember Omar Roman, District 1.
Staff members then addressed concerns and answered council questions.
City Manager Ben Williamson then asked Zimmerman to tabulate the council's responses.
“We need absolute direction so going into Tuesday we have to prepare the documents,” Williamson said.
There will be a public hearing for the budget at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 10, at City Hall.
In the end, the council returned facility hours to their previous operating hours, with the exception of the library, which Williamson said was recommended by the library management company because hours were not in line with other cities; agreed to bring back Halloween in the Park for 2025 though Diaz said it was too late to plan the event for this year; and return maintenance and materials into the budget for the community garden with the understanding that the gardeners would look into other sources of funding.
The Citizens Collection Center will close and Shane Davis, deputy director of public works, said staff would look at other options for collecting electronics and other items that should be recycled.
Community Services Director Danielle Summers emphasized that while $50,000 was being cut from the budget for mosquito spraying, the city will proactively treat stagnant water in the city with a bacteria to kill mosquito larvae before they mature, and the city will continue to provide mosquito dunks to residents for free.
Monitoring mosquito traps for West Nile Virus will continue by Dallas County, who has been providing that service, and spraying for mosquitoes, if one is found with the virus, is still an option.
For context, Mayor Terry Lynne originally asked the council to reduce the city’s tax rate by three cents at a meeting earlier this summer, and Councilmember Roger Neal, District 5, challenged the council to reduce the city’s tax rate by five cents.
In that early summer meeting, Councilmember Omar Roman, District 1, pushed city staff to show what a 10-cent reduction looked like.
“I think it might have gotten misinterpreted,” Roman said Friday. “And I asked for that 10-cent exercise.”
The resulting presentation included ideas such as removing the city’s rose garden and closing the library, aquatics center and library, and created an uproar among citizens.
Between the July budget retreat and the August city council special meetings, the council settled on the three-cent reduction, which was reduced to 2.75 cents when the Dallas County Appraisal District (DCAD) released their valuations on property values in Farmers Branch.
The original estimate for property taxes was over $11 billion in Farmers Branch. Zimmerman said she conservatively budgeted for $10.2 billion.
However, the final tally from DCAD was $9.9 billion, which forced the council to settle on the 2.75-cent reduction.
At Friday’s meeting, Zimmerman reminded residents that a one-cent reduction meant $35.28 for the average Farmers Branch homeowner and $1,000,119 for the city’s revenue.
Councilmembers Roman and David Reid, District 3, asked for residents to get involved in the budgeting process earlier in the year.
Roman and Neal said they’d heard repeatedly from residents about their desire to cut taxes.
“It looks like we needed to consider … the other side,” Roman said. He said he wanted to find a compromise that would work for both those who wanted tax cuts as well as those who wanted service levels to remain.
Though Zimmerman did not have final numbers for city council at Friday’s meeting, even with restoration of services, the city will likely have a reduced tax rate about 2 cents.
There is a public hearing on Tuesday, Sept. 10 at 6 p.m., at City Hall. As of press time, the updated presentation for Tuesday’s meeting had not been posted on the city’s website. The link for the presentation can be found by visiting https://farmersbranch.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=6847896&GUID=AE757439-A796-4982-8D9C-3C4431AF8B71&Options=&Search=.
