The City of Gladewater’s Sept. 15 budget workshop began $37,328 in the red – the deficit was closer to $297,000 by the end of the night.
Pounding away at the numbers throughout the following days, city leaders aimed to have Budget Version 7 in balance ahead of another special session set for tonight.
At the same time, the council members, administrators and department heads are concerned the “stability budget” for Fiscal Year 2026-2027 – with no raises, no Cost of Living Adjustment, no changes in compensation for firefighters and police officers – will have a negative impact on the employee roster and, consequently, operations.
They’re working to avoid that, but various decisions, actions and complications have painted the city into a corner with less than a week until FY27 begins Oct. 1.
Notably, this article went to press before the council members’ Sept. 22 budget workshop and will hit newsstands after the fact. It was published online Tuesday morning at GladewaterMirror.com alongside other coverage of the council’s discussions of the proposed tax rate and the position of City Treasurer / Human Resources Director.
“These are the hard times. We only have so many funds,” Mayor Brandy Flanagan-Shipp said. “We would love to fund everything. Our staff and crew deserve it.
“We unfortunately have to make really tough decisions.”
For the better part of four-and-a-half hours last week, city leaders went through their latest budget projection department by department, line by line and, in some cases, item by item and person by person. It wasn’t until the last half-hour that the meeting started going off the rails, again, in what’s been a stormy budget season.
Regularly checking on the projected deficit, the municipality’s stakeholders made cuts where possible and increases when needed, simultaneously accounting for inflation.
The goal’s to minimize the impact on residents’ bank accounts without cutting into the services they receive. To that end, the council members are reticent to approve an increase to water rates – they accept the necessity, but they’re committed to keeping the number low.
No speakers addressed the elected officials during mandated public hearings on the budget and tax rate.
“Remember, we’re not wanting operations to be set back,” the mayor said. Addressing the room, “When budgets get adopted, those are legally binding,” and the council needs to base decisions on true numbers: “As we’re going through this, I really need everybody, up here included, to understand that. When we’re truly asking you – ‘Can we make those numbers work?’ – we need the truth from you. We need actual numbers that will work.”
Personnel was a recurring topic as the city’s leaders try to cover staffing gaps and hold on to employees.
Emergency responders were in the spotlight. Locally, they’re on the lower end of the pay scale compared to the region, and the cost-of-replacement can run $10,000 to $20,000 or more depending on various circumstances.
Gladewater Police Department’s latest budget rundown was projected for a reduced 3 percent increase as of Sept. 15 – it does not include pay increases.
“We cut the wish list, we cut everything,” Lt. Mike Baggett said. “Now we just hope we can keep the people.”
At the fire department, “We lost two guys already due to pay… We lose thousands of dollars when we lose a guy because we have a lot invested in them,” Gladewater Fire Chief Tim Basham told the council. “You can be the cashier at McDonald’s at $18 an hour. Our parttime guys are getting $15.
Meanwhile, “In-house, I have a little trouble getting people to move up because they don’t want the responsibility” in exchange for just $1 more per hour as Captain. “There is a large amount of responsibility when you move up.”
Following last week’s discussion, the Public Works department will “borrow” an employee from the mowing crew to assistant on other projects.
From Code Enforcement, Wes Moyers said, “We’ve trimmed down as much as we can to still do our jobs effectively.”
The city is also trying to find a balance between accepting grants and setting aside the necessary matching funds locally.
“All items are on the table until we say they’re not on the table,” councilman Kevin Clark said.
There’s also an ongoing discussion about the city’s “rolling stock” and how much is going out the door for leased vehicles.
Would it not be more affordable to purchase some vehicles? council member Stoney Stone asked.
Especially during a tight year to come, the council members reminded the city’s administrators to alert them when expenditures approach budget caps. Spending during FY2026 has become a sticking point, especially during the past eight weeks of budget back-and-forth.
“Anytime it’s going to go above that amount, you’ve got to bring it before council,” the mayor said.
A fresh concern is the state of some of the city’s fire hydrants and what it will cost to repair them. Out of a rough figure of 400, 25 or more are black-bagged, out-of-service and have already complicated fire response. Repair and replacement runs between $7,500 and $10,000 considering some of the units date back to the mid-50s.
“We have a bunch that are inoperable in town,” Public Works Director Brian Smith reported. “I’m just bringing it to y’all’s attention.”
Something needs to be put toward it this year, councilman William Blackmon said.
“We don’t need to be in the habit of going backwards.”
Those have an impact on the ISO fire rating, said council member André Clay, which hits citizens’ bottom line on their insurance.
“We need a list of how many hydrants do we have, how many don’t work,” Clark said. “That translates directly to money.”
The city also has to cover about $114,000 in fines from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. They were incurred from violations almost a decade back, and some or all may be mitigated through Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs) moving forward.
It took almost four hours for tempers to fray last week, with council members arguing about the proposed tax rate as well as the city’s Finance department – find articles online at GladewaterMirror.com
Meanwhile, with the Sept. 15 meeting stretching to about 10:30 p.m. that Tuesday night, the planned discussion of grants did not happen. The group moved on to the record vote proposing the No New Revenue Rate on a motion from Clark, seconded by Milton Anderson.
The rate includes $0.481637 for Maintenance & Operations and $0.085570 in Interest & Sinking (debt service).
“Our hope is, to the staff, that this is one of those off years,” Flanagan-Shipp concluded. “We make all of these adjustments, we get on top of the things, and then we can get the staff stuff back on track at that point.
“Every once in a while, we’re going to have a year where something like this happens. We all face that in our jobs. I do hate it.”