WAURIKA — Few citizens seemed interested in the public hearing Waurika city officials held Monday evening, but some of those officials were certainly intrigued by the presentation of the 2010-11 fiscal year budget.

Meeting agendas for the Waurika City Commission and Waurika Public Works Authority included items relating to the city budget for FY ’10-11. One of those items called for a public hearing, but only three residents unaffiliated with city government or who were not city employees appeared at the meeting at City Hall.

However, during a discussion of the budget, three of the four commissioners present [Vice Major Jim Bernard was absent.] were troubled by the single-sheet copy of the budget they received from Treasurer Gail Kelley.

The copy presented included general break downs of revenues and expenditures projected for the new fiscal year, but commissioners Carole Eakin, Bill Everett and Rubye Benson felt the breakdowns weren’t complete.

“I’m not happy with this type of budget. This doesn’t tell me much of anything,” Eakin said, referring to the sheet presented to the commissioners.

“It’s kind of open-ended,” noted Everett, while Benson added, “I can’t make any sense of it.”

Mayor Gayle Johnson said, “I can’t tell where everything is coming or going by (the presented budget), but I’m used to line item budgets.

“I do know that we’ve been able to stay very close to our budget projections in the past, and we’re lucky that our incomes have been rising. And I know we’re in better financial shape that in the past.

“But I’m just not comfortable with this budget.”

As the discussion continued, Kelley left the meeting room and returned with copies of a different presentation of the budget. This budget presentation had both the General Fund and the individual city funds broken down more extensively.

Kelley explained the original copy the commissioners were given was “just a reference sheet. Here’s one that has things broken down more exactly.”

After examining the more expanded budget, the commissioners voted not to make any changes in the proposed budget. They approved holding a special meeting at 6 p.m. Monday, June 14, at which time a vote will be taken to approve or reject the FY ’10-11 budget.

Action on the budget was later endorsed by trustees of the Waurika Public Works Authority.

There were other items upon which the commissioners took action that were later endorsed by WPWA trustees. Those were:

n Tabling action on a proposal from City Manager Chuck Brown to purchase of generators that would be used for rural water pumps and possibly at City Hall. “I would feel better if we were just taking care of the water pump at this time, because that’s a necessity,” Johnson noted.

The commissioners then voted to table the matter to their July regular meeting, which would allow Brown time to get price quotes on a generator for the water pump.

n An annual action on an RD 442-2 Statement of Budget Income and Equity, which is required as part of the process for the Rural Development loan the city acquired from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Other actions taken by the WPWA were to approve claims and purchase orders totaling $17,160.25 on the WPWA Fund, Kelley’s treasurer’s report for May and minutes from a May 3 regular meeting.

During their meeting, the commissioners addressed two items involving the Waurika Volunteer Fire Department.

There was a unanimous vote not to accept a list of officers for 2010-11 that had been voted on by the firefighters. That slate named Johnny Berry as fire chief, David Morris as assistant fire chief and David England as secretary/treasurer.

Since the commissioners rejected the list of officers, the firefighters will have to take a second vote and return a new slate for commission consideration.

The commissioners approved a request from the fire department to declare tank truck No. 332 to be surplus property. The action means the department can now go out for bids to sell the tanker.

On another matter involving vehicles, Everett said he and Bernard were in agreement that all city-owned vehicles should be identified as such.

“Having the city seal on all the vehicles would be fine with me,” Everett said. His colleagues agreed and passed a motion to require that all city-owned vehicles and equipment have some type of logo identifying them as belonging to the city.

In other action, the commission approved:

n Naming Melicia McFadden to the Waurika Library Board, on a recommendation by Johnson.

n Having Brown named as a nuisance administrative official, which would make him the first level of appeal in the city’s abatement process. City Clerk Mark Bryant felt it was a possible conflict of interest for him to be both the city official required to issue nuisance citations and be the adjudicator of appeals.

n The following purchase orders and claims on the General Fund: $14,200.84 on the General Fund; $1,050 on the Library Grant Fund; $450.81 on the Rural Fire Fund; $352.96 on the Library State Aid Fund; and, $13.97 on the Literacy Fund.

n Kelley’s treasurer’s report for May.

n Minutes from a regular meeting on May 3.

There were two items that drew discussion but no action.

One concerned going out for bids for someone to cut and bale foliage on 65.5 acres of city-owned property. Everett felt a bid received of $1,300 would create an inequity for the city.

“If someone is biding $1,300 and they can sell those big bales (of cut foliage) for something like $9,000, the city is losing out on a chance for $7,500,” Everett said.

Johnson also raised the issue of a time schedule being placed on the baling contract and including contract language that would assure the city would be paid up front by the winning bidder.

On advise from David Hammond, who was sitting in for City Attorney Jim Frieda, the commissioners took no action and agreed to consider the baling project later.

They also took no action on an item dealing with whether or not there was a need to appoint an acting city manager to fill in for Brown, when he is on medical leave from June 23 to July 5.