East Texas

By BETTY WATERS
Staff Writer

WINONA -- The mayor pledged during a council meeting Tuesday that the city will prohibit city employees from making personal purchases on city accounts and then reimbursing the city. Later, the council awarded a contract for new water well and adopted ordinances on noise control and a curfew for teens.

The council accepted the $606,000 bid of ATS Construction of Trinidad for a water well, but the first change order is expected to reduce the cost to $550,000. The well capacity will not be reduced and the savings will come from having an earthen pit instead of a steel box and similar changes.

"Our specs were for a Cadillac well, we will drop back to a Chevy," Mayor Rusty Smith said.

Smith recalled the well was originally expected two years ago to cost $350,000. City officials experienced sticker shock upon first seeing the bids, Smith said, but he has since learned from talks with other mayors in Smith County that prices have gone up.

The council tabled bids on an elevated storage tank to give KSA Engineering time to talk with bidders in an attempt to achieve a lower price. Tank prices have gone up due to rising steel prices. Bidders are Phoenix Fabricators, $598,100, and Caldwell Tank, $627,000.

The city is about $238,000 short on bond funding for the well and tank, but the shortage can be covered with $200,000 reserve funds and revenue in the coming fiscal year, Smith said.

On another front, the council adopted a curfew ordinance patterned after the city of Troup's ordinance that sets a curfew from midnight to 6 a.m. for teens. The council also adopted an ordinance prohibiting unreasonably loud, disturbing, unnecessary noise.

In an unrelated issue raised by Council Member Pat Schlau, the council discussed an occasional practice of city employees making personal purchases on a city account when they happen to be in Tyler picking up items purchased for the city and later reimbursing the city for their personal items.

The discussion was triggered by City Administrator James Bixler having purchased parts at a Tyler auto parts store for Council Member Ronnie Marsh's vehicle without having been asked to make the purchase and then reimbursing the city out of his pocket.

Ms. Schlau later said the issue mainly was over the differences between what benefits city officials have as opposed to employees and areas that are not defined.

"When citizens bring things to me, I feel responsible to bring it here (to council)," she said. "People were very upset..."

The mayor said it's not unusual for employees to reimburse the city for personal purchases when they go out to buy work boots, for example. In the past, city employees used the city's Sam's Club cards for personal purchases and reimbursed the city, Smith said.

That practice was ceased through a verbal order. Although Marsh was not involved, the city administrator was just helping out Marsh by picking up parts at a parts store while in Tyler, Smith said.

"The impropriety comes in the fact you're avoiding sales tax (by making personal purchases on the city's account) because as a city, we don't pay city sales tax. You're not necessarily trying to get out of it, but that's what happens when you buy it on a city account," Smith said.

Smith said a proposed official city policy will be presented to council during its December meeting to amend the city employee handbook to prohibit city employees from making personal purchases on city accounts and then reimbursing the city. The proposed policy will outline disciplinary action against employees who violate the regulation, Smith said.