Mayor Roxanne McKee is not seeking re-election, leaving the lone mayoral applicant and current Rollingwood City Alderman Michael Dyson as next in line for the job.
During a special meeting Thursday, Rollingwood City Council certified the uncontested elections for mayor and three council members.
Last month, City Secretary Robin Ryan explained that Alderwoman Sara Hutson and Alderman Gavin Massingill are running unopposed. Because Dyson’s term runs for another year, his council seat will be vacant until City Council appoints someone else at a date to be determined following the Nov. 6 swearing in of the three officials.
A Nov. 6 Rollingwood special election to replace Alderman Bobby Dillard’s vacant seat was also canceled because no one applied to run against Alderwoman Amy Pattillo. Ryan said Pattillo was appointed to fill Dillard’s seat until November following his May resignation. She will also be sworn in Nov. 6.
The city of Rollingwood entered into an interlocal dispatch agreement with Travis County
The Travis County Sheriff’s Office will provide emergency law enforcement dispatch services to Rollingwood law enforcement personnel starting Oct. 1.
City Council voted for a one-year interlocal agreement with TCSO that comes with a base fee of $17,141, as well as hourly labor rates of $60 per hour for information technology support of a mobile data system.
Under the terms of the agreement, TCSO will only handle calls associated with law enforcement incidents. Rollingwood dispatch personnel and other appropriate government entities will still handle fire, medical and other kinds of emergency calls.
The agreement also states that it will automatically renew Oct. 1, 2019, unless terminated sooner by either entity.
Public hearings commenced for proposed fiscal year 2018-19 ad valorem tax rate
Although no Rollingwood residents showed up, City Council on Thursday held the first of two public hearings required to adopt a tax rate that exceeds whichever is lower between the rollback rate and the effective tax rate, according to city documents.
Council voted Aug. 15 on a proposed ad valorem tax rate of $0.20535 per $100 of valuation, which city documents state is the highest the city can set before taxpayer rollback procedures can begin.
The proposed rate will raise total property taxes 7.7 percent over last year. That amounts to $142,715, and new property added to this year’s tax roll accounts for $77,859 of that, according to a City Council memo.
City documents state the second and final public hearing on the proposed tax rate is set for Sept. 12, and council will discuss and consider action for the FY 2018-19 operating budget at the Sept. 19 council meeting.
By the numbers
What does the proposed $0.20535 rollback rate mean for Rollingwood taxpayers? A Rollingwood homeowner with a homestead exemption and average taxable value of $1,210,550 would pay:
- $2,485.86 for FY 2018-19
- $50.23 over the 2018-19 effective tax rate
- $198.13 over the 2017-18 tax rate
Another budget workshop brings an official adoption that much closer
Council voted to move the final vote on the budget to Sept. 19, and during Thursday night's budget workshop, discussions focused on line items not yet certain to make it into the final budget consideration.
Council adopted the "exceptional" items to add them to its proposed base budget, which has already been established, Alderman Gavin Massingill said.
These items will now be consolidated into a final 2018-19 proposed budget that will be brought back to council for preliminary consideration Sept. 12 and final consideration Sept. 19, he said.
Big ticket items moving on to the next round
- $315,000 for architectural and engineering for municipal building
- $63,000 for parks improvements, including planting more trees on trails, a plant consultant, walking trail upgrades, tree trimming and park drainage projects
- $60,000 for drainage improvements
- $50,000 for waterline improvements in culs-de-sac
- $45,000 for legal expenses
- $40,000 to crack seal city roads
- $31,500 for traffic-related infrastructure
- $30,000 for a utility vehicle for wastewater services
