(Marion) — The Marion City Council last week did something that it hasn’t done in months. It actually held an official council meeting. After months of infighting and resignations, the council came together for one night to try to adopt a budget and tax rate for its new fiscal year, which begins on October 1. Despite the efforts to bring the council together during the special meeting, it should probably come as no suprise that the meeting did not go well, and the citizens of Marion were again left with questions about the city’s future.
Marion Mayor Danny Loyola was joined by Aledermen Abigaile Mayberry, DeShon Blyden and Darrell Grimley for last Monday’s meeting. The council hasn’t held a meeting since February, because it didn’t have enough members to make a quorum. That was partly due to the fact that there were resignations during that time, but it was also due to the fact that the city actually missed a deadline earlier this year which would have allowed it to conduct its regular city council elections in May.
The problems with Marion’s municipal government have now been well documented, but the council was going to try to set all of that aside for now, and host one meeting so that the budget and tax rate could be adopted. Both are key to the city moving forward into its new fiscal year.
Mayor Loyola says he was hopeful that they could, at least, get this done as a temporary measure — until a new council is elected in November. But he says it didn’t take long from him to realize that they were not going to be able to come together.
“It didn’t go so well for the city. I think off the bat, I pretty much knew in the first couple of minutes that it wasn’t going to get passed just to due to Mr. Blyden’s public comments that he made, so I pretty much knew that it was (not) going to pass. Mr. Grimley did make a motion to pass it, because it was pretty much copying the same budget from last year and then doing it this year. That’s pretty much what I did and the formula added two percent. It was pretty much the same as last year. I’m like, hey, you can tell me because of the fact of this is the same budget as last year. Mr. Grimley even mentioned that as well, that this is the same budget from last year. But they were looking at…having actuals in there. All I did was just say, hey, we didn’t have actuals because we are still working on trying to figure out stuff from (fiscal year) 2022. So, I took (the actual numbers) all out. But let’s not get it twisted, the budget that they had last year — there wasn’t a lot of actuals in there. In my opinion, regardless of what that meeting was, man, they were not going to pass it. It could have been the perfect budget for the city, (but) they were not going to pass it. I think it’s just because they don’t like me and what I’m trying to do with (helping the city),” said Loyola.
Loyola says there was an attempt to get the budget passed that night, but there wasn’t enough support to get it approved.
“There was a motion on the table made by Mr. Grimley and…it pretty much died on the table because nobody gave it a second. And then when we went back to see if we were going to pass the budget again or if they were going to deny it, I had to ask each individual – and…two denied it and then one approved,” said Loyola.
The lack of action on the budget, meant the tax rate also could not be approved. That led to even more questions from concerned citizens. Loyola says fortunately, it appears as if the city will not have to shut down completely on October 1.
“One of the residents had asked, ‘OK, so what does that do on October 1…is the city shut down?’ (The city attorney’s) thing was no. (He said) I could still pay the staff. I could still pay bills and stuff like that. So, daily operations for City Hall can still be done. I just have to wait until pretty much a November time frame for the elections and whatever council gets passed. We’ll have that meeting in November and then hopefully by then we have the actual budget and everything will be reconciled from 2020 to 2024. We can actually give them an actual budget,” said Loyola.
The question about how the city could move forward and expend city funds, that had not been approved in a budget, was a major concern going into last week’s meeting. Mayor Loyola says ideally, they would have adopted the budget and tax rate. But because that didn’t happen, he now will rely on the advice of the city’s legal advisor.
“I looked over to the city attorney and I said ‘let me get this straight, I can still pay the staff and I can still pay bills?’ And he says yes. I said ok, I can do that and then in November we’ll go ahead and finish it, pass it, then ratify it and just see if we need to amend anything when it comes to all that,” said Loyola.
One of the key sticking points last Monday were questions about spending in the current budget. The actual expendittures weren’t included in the budget. Loyola says that’s because those numbers are still being crunched. But he says he hopes to have all of that information for the new council.
“I’m pretty sure we will have those numbers for that council in November to look at and we’ll have actuals and just to see where that money went. (That’s) what everybody’s been talking about — where the money went it. So, we’re doing some very deep dives going into that account to the point that I’m memorizing bank accounts left and right, memorizing all kinds of stuff just because I’m looking at those bank accounts,” said Loyola.
Loyola, who was new to municipal government when he was elected to office last November, says he accepts some responsibility for how things have gone since that time. But he says the challenges for the city of Marion predate his election. He says things have only gotten worse this year, because of the continued in-fighting, which includes resignations on the council and at Marion City Hall, spats on social media and on the city’s official website, and the fact that the council went seven months without holding one single council meeting.
Loyola says that he was disappointed that they couldn’t — at the very least — come together on the budget, but he says he wasn’t surprised. He says in his short time in office, he has largely seen personality conflicts completely overshadow the city’s ability to operate. Loyola has admitted publicly that everyone involved, including himself, needed to “grow up” and do what’s best for the people of Marion. But after last week’s meeting, that remains a challenge for the city.
“Pretty much from the moment that I won the election, I think that’s where it was. That’s where it was already started, because I’ve heard things about people could have fixed things, but they didn’t want to fix it because they didn’t want it to hand it to me perfectly. So, they just let it sit there and (said) he can figure it out. But it’s like you’re not doing any service to the citizens (by doing that). That’s who suffers at the moment, right? Is it the people,” said Loyola.
While the news last week was disappointing, Loyola says he thinks Marion will be on a better path after the November election. He says it will be a reset opportunity for the city, and a time to start to get some things done for the people of Marion.
“We’re going to probably do something that this previous council couldn’t do and that’s figure out the numbers, and figure out the budget. I’m just excited for November. I really am. I get a second opportunity to do this and you know, I got to take an opportunity to kind of just go through this, and we’re going to fix it. That’s one of the things I’m going to guarantee you that we are going to fix it. I’m going to say we’re doing this and the previous council couldn’t do that. So, that’s going to be our (goal). The people that I’ve talked to — a couple of people that have applied (for council)…that’s the thing we’re talking about is just trying to fix it. You know, start from the bottom and fix it and fix a lot of things that need to be fixed,” said Loyola.
All five seats on the Marion City Council will appear on the city’s November 5 ballot. There are nine candidates vying for one of the five alderman positions. The candidates that will appear on the ballot include Jena Rodriguez, Stanley Stevens, Phil Karrer, Karen Mills, Jorge Olea, Jeremiah Burns, Kerry Gutierrez, Carl Martin and Jerry Penshorn.