Councilman Charles Goodman’s efforts to secure a city contribution for the planned municipal animal shelter finally bore fruit Tuesday night.

By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

Animal advocacy groups in Williston got a gift Tuesday night.

The Williston City Council tentatively agreed in a budget workshop to set aside $75,000 in next year’s budget for construction of a new animal shelter.

Councilman Charles Goodman made a formal request for the city to contribute $65,000 to the shelter project, but Mayor Jerry Robinson said $75,000 would be better.

The council agreed.

There were no local animal advocacy groups at the workshop. The groups appeared at the July 7 council meeting to ask for shelter funding. The groups are building the shelter.

A budget workshop is a planning session for the city budget. No formal vote was taken on providing funding for the shelter.

Council President Nancy Wininger questioned whether any of the $75,000 would be spent on hiring people, but Goodman and Robinson said it would be earmarked exclusively for construction.

Councilman Justin Head said he felt construction cost estimates weren’t really solid and he wanted to know those costs. Police Chief Dennis Strow responded the projected cost of construction is $299,000.

Philanthropist Robert Echols has agreed to provide $125,000 to help build the shelter and he told council members at the July 7 council meeting he was willing to give an additional $40,000 if the council would chip in a similar amount. The council declined to offer any money until budget talks began.

The council met the challenge plus a little more at the workshop.

Echols is founder of For Our Friends the Animals Foundation. He also made a large contribution to fund construction of a 50-unit air conditioned and heated dog shelter at Levy County Animal Services.

When the city budget is given final approval in September, shelter funding will be part of the final spending plan unless it is removed between now and then.

Bob Levesque, founder of Levy Animal Friends in Williston, is working with Echols to raise $200,000. Levesque told council members at the July 7 meeting the project needs $200,000 in the bank before the United States Department of Agriculture will release a $100,000 grant for the project.

Goodman and Robinson are animal lovers. Goodman’s motion to provide the funding reflected his respect for animals.

“I am now making it (the motion) on behalf of the animals in Williston that don’t have a voice,” he said.

After the meeting, Robinson was joking with a reporter. The reporter said he was apparently one of those doggone animal lovers. The remark was said in jest. Robinson owned up to it.

He said he was going home to give his dogs a restroom break.

Goodman has been lobbying for a new shelter for some time. He has been critical of the conditions at the current shelter, but moderated his tone at the meeting, noting the council is aware the shelter needs replacing.

“This is something that’s been an ongoing need,” he said. “The fact is what we have there is not sufficient.”

Keeping Handle on Taxes

After the workshop adjourned, the council reconvened in a special meeting to adopt its tentative millage rate for next year. The new budget begins on Oct. 1.

Council members voted to approve a maximum tax rate of 6.5 mills with the understanding they have the option of lowering the millage later in the budget process.

The current tax rate is 6.25 mills and would generate an additional $15,000 from increased property values.

 Adopting the 6.5 mill rate would generate an additional $41,000.

Employee Raises

The board agreed to give Brooke Willis, an administrative employee who handles large amounts of sensitive information for the police and fire departments, an additional $5,700 to compensate for absorbing the job duties of a part-time employee who left the city.

Council members asked City Manager Scott Lippmann to make certain the transfer of additional money to Willis doesn’t cause conflicts with the labor union contract. She isn’t a union member but the union has input into job classifications and how pay raises are given. Lippmann said the raise Willis is receiving is within the pay range for the job position she holds, but because of the uniqueness of her job responsibilities she may need a different job description.

The board hasn’t settled on the size of the employee pay raise for next year.  City financial advisor Steven Bloom said a 3 percent across the board raise would cost about $87,000.

Police Chief Dennis Strow said Willis handles an enormous workload for the police and fire departments. Wininger was worried that Willis could suffer burnout from taking on too much work. Strow said she is already doing the added workload without extra pay.

The council also tentatively agreed to raise the starting pay of dispatchers from $24,000 to $26,000 and give the four existing dispatchers a $2,000 raise to leave room between them and the new hires.

Public Utilities Director C.J. Zimoski said Willis’ situation raises questions about whether some of his underpaid employees should get bigger raises. He said some of the employees were barely raised to the poverty level with the increase they received last year and he has administrative employees who handle sensitive information.

Questions were also raised as to whether the dispatchers would get a 3 percent raise on top of the $2,000 lump sum, and whether that would be fair to other city employees who might only get the 3 percent.

The issue of raises remains on the table.

Fire Chief Lamar Stegall said he wasn’t giving his employees raises. He is proposing to change the way firefighters are paid for night work by assigning them to 12 hour shifts rather than giving them overtime when they respond to a fire call. His overall budget will decrease by about $7,000.

Stegall surprised the board when he said he wasn’t operating a totally volunteer department. Board members thought Williston Fire Rescue was strictly a volunteer department. Stegall said he operates a “combination department” consisting of hourly wage earners, the firefighters with more advanced training and experience, and beginning firefighters who earn a set amount when they respond to a fire. He has no full-time employees and Stegall himself is part-time.

Total City Budget

Bloom said the total city budget for the 2019-20 year will drop to $11.9 million from the current $13.3 million.

Construction of City Hall added costs to the current budget. City Hall has been in use since late last year.

The remaining debt for City Hall is $1,245,000. The annual payment is $72,000.

Board members are proposing to transfer $690,000 from the city’s utility fund to the general operating budget, a practice that has been common for many years. The money can be spent for any city need.

City of Williston Budget Workshop July 23, 2019; Posted July 23, 2019