Lakeway City Council held a special budget work session Monday (July 18, 2022) afternoon, along with the City Council regular meeting that evening. Here is a recap:
BUDGET WORK SESSION:
Several Lakeway committees presented their budget requests to City Council for the FY 2023 budget Monday afternoon, including the Heritage Committee and Wildlife Committee. City Manager Julie Oakley also gave more details about the budget outlook indicating that the Lakeway tax rate will be lower for homeowners due to higher projected property values and more new homes added this year. Additionally, it's anticipated there will be around $1.5 million in additional revenue this year mainly due to salary savings on the expenditures side, and higher sales tax dollars received on the revenue side. City Council agreed to use the opportunity to fund new requested positions like an assistant parks director and multimedia specialist position, along with other items like a camera system upgrade in City Hall and replacing three city vehicles. The next planning discussion of the FY 2023 budget will take place at a Special Meeting on Aug. 1, 2022. This discussion will also include updated information from the appraisal district regarding the tax rate.
FINANCIAL REPORT
City Manager Julie Oakley gave an update on the current state of the City's finances in the current budget cycle, which ends on Sept. 30, 2022. The current budget shows a positive revenue amount of $814,471, while expenditures remain under budgeted projections by $373,496 out of a total $16.7 million annual budget.
CITY SECRETARY AWARD
City Secretary Jo Ann Touchstone recently received the Municipal Clerk's Office Achievement of Excellence Award. She is one of 38 out of 783 municipal clerks in the State of Texas to receive the award. The award recognizes municipal clerks and their offices throughout the state for compliance with federal, state and local statutes that govern standards necessary to fulfill the duties and responsibilities of the office.
ORDINANCE UPDATES
Several ordinance updates were discussed at the City Council meeting Monday night, including the 4th reading of the Home Occupation Ordinance with a special section on Home Daycares, a review of recommended updates to the City's Ethics Ordinance, and a 1st reading of the revised Golf Cart Ordinance. No decisions were voted on Monday night regarding these ordinance updates, but the Home Occupation Ordinance and Ethics Ordinance will be revisited Aug. 1. City Council did approve (6-0) an update to the ordinance pertaining to accessory structures Monday night.
DEVELOPMENTS & PARKS PROJECTS
Several projects moved forward on the next step of their development thanks to City Council approval Monday night, including the Enclave at Lohmans, Lakeway Estates, and Lakeway Highlands Village. City Council also voted to annex and re-zone (P1) what is called Lakeway Highlands Public Park, which is a strip of land between Highlands Blvd. and Rough Hollow Cove.
CITY MANAGER SEARCH
After an Executive Session Monday Night, City Council voted (6-0) to form a search committee made up of three councilmembers. City Council voted to select Councilmember Kelly Brynteson, Councilmember Sanjeev Kumar and Councilmember Louis Mastrangelo as chair of the committee. City Manager Julie Oakley submitted her resignation to City Council earlier this month after taking a position with a top national accounting firm. Her last day with the City of Lakeway will be Sept. 2, 2022.
If you're interested in reviewing the full video and agenda from Monday afternoon's budget work session, please CLICK HERE. For the regular City Council meeting Monday night, please CLICK HERE.
