CRETE CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL/ WORK SESSION MEETING CITY HALL August 27th, 2025 (Condensed, entire copy available at the office of the City Clerk). Mayor Dave Bauer called the meeting of the City Council to order at 5:35 p.m. Answering roll call were the following Council Members: Strehle, Papik and Fitzgerald; Frans arrived at 5:36 p.m. Absent: Crisman, Newmyer The following items were discussed at the meeting: Approved the Consent Agenda. Strehle: Aye, Papik: Aye, Fitzgerald: Aye, Bauer: Aye Mayor Dave Bauer thanked everyone who worked on the budget. Discussion was held on departmental budget proposals for the development of a fiscal year budget to be submitted at a Public Hearing on September 2nd, 2025 at 6:00 p.m. Fire and Rescue Department: City Administrator Tom Ourada stated that the Fire Department budget has not been increased in several years and they are going to be getting $20,000 more for the fire side. Police Department: There was discussion on the Police Department Budget and Ourada mentioned that Crete Public Schools pays for 9 months of the School Resource Officer. Chief of Police Gary Young stated that there are $105,5000 grant proceeds budgeted. Library: Library Director Jessica Wilkinson stated that they increased staff salary by 3% and decreased the book and programming budget. The Friends of the Library will be helping with programming. Park and Recreation Department: Director Liz Cody stated that community volunteers help with many projects in the Parks and Recreation Department. The department has been awarded grants that have helped with practical things such as the lawn mower and mulch. Thanks to the grants they have received they were able to decrease their budget. Public Works: Ourada stated that the hangar rent increase will help with the Airport Budget. It looks like the $180,000 is being transferred in but actually only transferring in $30,000 and the $150,000 is the grant for design. 2026 is a design year and 2027 is for construction of the double box hangar. Streets: The Bond will be for the grader and the street sweeper. We will pay the sweeper lease purchase off and get a lower interest rate and spread it over the five years. General Fund: When departments go over budget that gets taken out of the general fund. It looks like it is $4.8 million but it actually is about $4 million transfers out and is what goes to all the other departments. Sale Tax: We budgeted $2.7 million and it’s an increase from the $2.5 million that we had budgeted. There are three components of sales tax: City sales tax which is 1%, LB840 fund which is a ½%, and LB357 fund which is ½% and all of those together are a little under $3 million. Sales tax have been steadily decreasing. Capital Outlay: This is where the different departments put their savings accounts. The new one that was added was the street equipment Bond transfer. On there is the equipment sweeper and grader. All of these tracks back to the budget sheets that were previously mentioned. Economic Development: LB840 has been budgeted like it will be renewed. However, if it isn’t then that money stays there. There are allowable choices such as funding different LB840 projects/economic development projects or it can go into the general fund. Utility Funds: The Electric Department has never operated at a deficit. The budget is very conservative since it is dependent on socioeconomic, weather, etc. and can swing a million dollars from year to year depending on the weather. Water: The budget is doing better and rate increases were passed by the City Council. Sewer: The City Council had approved for JEO to do plans and specs for the lift station and that’s in there. When JEO comes back with the engineering the City will go out for bid. A lot of the things in this budget are revenue neutral and expense neutral. Ourada provided an overview of the Draft Sate Budget Form: The property tax request is going to be $1,604,890.00. It went up this year just under 4%. The total Bonded indebtedness is $19,937,247.63. The budget this year is $40,864,816.25. The City placed $200,000 for allowable exceptions utilized and that leaves us with $698,559.52 in unused property tax request authority for future years. Our valuation is going to be about $0.220841. This is below what it was last year. The total property tax request is $1,605,288.80 but the 2025-2026 actual property tax request is $1,604,890.00. We are leaving less than $1,000 in unused authority. The operating budget projection in 2024 was $45,400,688.00 and in 2025 is $40,864,816.25 The property tax request in 2024 was $1,545,330.00 and in 2025 is $1,604,890.00 so we are asking 4% more. The valuation in 2024 was $450,968,476.00 and in 2025 is $528,163,016.00 and the valuation went up 17%. The tax rate in 2024 was 0.342669 and in 2025 is 0.303863 and went down 11%. Meeting adjourned at 7:46 p.m. CR — September 03, 2025 ZNEZ
