Gonzales city departments talk budgets

The department heads got together for a special Gonzales City Council meeting to discuss their budgets on Monday, May 16, regarding budget requests.

The department heads went over the list of items and anything that needs increase in their budgets to kick off budget process.

City Manager Tim Patek explained it is a start so the council can review and absorb the information from the departments and he added in June they’ll go more detail.

Nick Deleon, of the Electric Department, kicked off the meeting with a brief discussion of the budget for the Electric Department and mentioned the prices for the transformers went up and including the street lights too.

It was a recurring theme as some departments are dealing with price increases for certain supplies and adjusting their budgets due to inflation.

The Parks and Recs Director Ralph Camarillo told the council the fuel budget went up from $15,000 to $20,000 from last year due to the increase in gas prices.

Camarillo added their capital outlay expenses went up from $46,000 to $80,000.

Camarillo suggested to the council for revenue making opportunity with the old show barn.

“I think that's a lot of unused space that we have that it would like to eventually to turn that around.” Camarillo said.

Other budgets that was discussed as follows: Gonzales Fire Department, Gonzales Police Department, Robert Lee Brothers, Jr. Memorial Library, Gonzales Main Street, Economic Development and ect.

The council will have their next regularly scheduled meeting Thursday, June 9.

In other news, the council approved one agenda item:

– Approved on resolution number 2022-51 acknowledging receipt and presentation of the annual comprehensive financial report for fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2021.