“If anyone asks if the City will be pursuing a forensic audit, Nicole, the answer is YES,” says City of Fairfield Mayor Roy Hill at the City Council meeting held Tuesday, March 13th.

Following months of debate, and at the prompting of some councilmen and many community members, the Council sought Requests of Qualifications (RFQs) from three Texas forensic auditing firms.

One firm declined due to being backlogged with their current work load. The other two, William Brown of WD Brown & Associates and Allen Nelson of Nelson Forensic & Advising Services, chose to combine their services and offer an estimated cost of $43,000 total to review the past five years and three months of financial records for the City of Fairfield.

Councilmen voted unanimously to approve City Attorney Linda Sjogren with Bojorquez Law Firm to enter into negotiations with WD Brown & Associates, combined with Allen Nelson, for these services.

A contract is expected to be presented for a vote at the next council meeting.

Another issue that has been discussed at length lately is the possibility of changing the water ordinance dealing with billing for multi-unit housing, such as apartments and RV parks.

City Administrator Jeff Looney presented a proposed update that would require each unit to be charged a base rate fee instead of one commercial base rate, which could cause water bills to rise substantially for owners of these types of businesses.

“This is the only community that is doing this to RV Parks,” says Primrose RV Park owner Mary Jean Alford. “We are a minor water user and I feel that this would be an oppressive charge.”

Councilman Place 5, Kenny Hughes, says, “I’ve done some research on this. Changing this ordinance would drastically affect the elderly and financially challenged if we pass this ordinance and a landlord passes the cost on to customers.”

“I believe we would be doing our citizens a disservice to pass this ordinance,” Councilman Hughes continues. “I make a motion that we do not consider this change at this time. Current customers stay as they are, grandfathered in, and take any new development on a case by case basis when making any deals.”

Councilman Place 3, Keith Daniels, seconded that motion and all others voted unanimously.

A topic of contention at this meeting dealt with whether or not the City should pay for Administrator Looney and members of the Council to attend the annual Texas Aviation Conference from March 26th through 29th.

Registration for the convention is $365.00 per person; hotel rate is $99 per room/per night; plus cost of food and gas for the trip.

“We’ve attended this event each year,” says Administrator Looney. “It helps us keep our foot in the door for airport related grants.”

Councilman Place 4, Landis Bayless, explains, “This is for the benefit of Fairfield, for our growth and development. It’s a miniscule amount of money to spend compared to the return we could receive is they chose to put an airport here.”

Following more debate and a few opinions expressed with raised voices, councilmen voted to approve the City paying for this travel expense.

The vote, however, was not unanimous. Councilman Place 2, Randy Johnson voted against this expenditure.

Also at this meeting, councilmen voted to approve the following items:
–Contract Agreement with Freestone County Fair Association for the 2018 County Fair
–Appointment of Mrs. Gina Robinson as election judge for the 2018 City Elections
–Allowing City Attorney to draft a new ‘Burn Ban’ ordinance
–Contract Agreement with the Softball Association
–Contract Agreement with the Fairfield Soccer Association
–Engineering Services Agreement with Mr. Mike Tibbets and Hayter Engineering for services related to the TDCJ improvements
–Contract with TXU beginning December 2019 for a 5-year secured electric rate of .0367, which will save the City approximately $40K per year
–Accepted Fairfield Police Department’s Annual Racial Profiling Report

In addition, Councilmen viewed a presentation from Jonathan Blackwell of Performance Services regarding automated metering services.

Blackwell explained that currently, their proposal and reports are being reviewed by a third party engineering firm, which is required by the State of Texas. Once the review is complete, he will return to present the results.

“I am very confident that this self funding project will be a great benefit to the City of Fairfield,” says Blackwell.

The next council meeting is scheduled for Thursday, March 29, 2018, beginning at 6:00 p.m. at Fairfield City Hall. All are welcomed and encouraged to attend.