Fisk officials explain municipal budget, state tax issues, city staffing

FISK, Mo. -- Fisk mayor Doug Mosbey is shining a light on the city's budget after some citizens expressed concern over the distribution of funds, including the phone bill, insurance policy and accounting fees.

The 2023-2024 budget projects $299,600 of total income from tax revenue and municipal services, and $217,113 in total expenses. The friction arose because several areas of the city, such as the pound, need more resources or people, but Fisk is currently is not providing those.

"Not that the city is broke, but we just don't have a lot of extra money to be hiring more people," Mosbey emphasized. "That's the thing."

The 2023-2024 fiscal year budget was created by City Council members, according to Mosbey. He added the numbers on the budget are conservative estimates and not set in stone.

The city has set aside $2,000 for a year of AT&T phone service, which consists of a landline and fax machine. The city has used AT&T for as long as Mosbey can remember.

City Clerk Courtney Schuster confirmed AT&T was the city's carrier when the administration changed, "so we just continued using it". To her knowledge the city had never bid out its phone service with other carriers.

The city also insures two employees through United Healthcare for $25,000, which Mosbey said has risen from last year.

"When I first took over, it was $23,000 a year," he noted.

Since the city does not currently employ an accountant, some have raised eyebrows at the $3,500 expense labeled "accounting" in the budget.

Schuster explained this money is to hire someone to do the city's taxes next year.

Mosbey explained, "The previous mayor and city clerk decided the city could save money by not using a CPA. We have checked into that with various state people, and they said the clerk is usually the one to do it."

Unfortunately, the clerk at the time did not turn the city's taxes in to the state on time, and Fisk accrued hefty penalty fees.

"Things did not get turned in to the state from the previous clerk, and as mayor pro tem and the rest of the council members, we were locked out of the office by the mayor (John Murray). He stated that that's what the sheriff's department told him to do, because there were documents that had come up missing. The previous clerk failed to send in financial statements to the state auditor, and we received a letter that said we were $210,000 in the hole to the State of Missouri," Mosbey continued.

The situation was straightened out by a tax office employee, who Mosbey and Schuster said wishes to remain anonymous. The city's taxes were filed and the fees forgiven.

"There have been questions on the whole penalty thing that we acquired from the State, but since that has been taken care of, there has not really been a lot of questions ... people misunderstood, and they thought that was money that was missing, but it was not. It was penalties from the State of Missouri," he said.

One of the larger items on the budget is payroll. The city employs four people for $105,000, and tries to save money by having them service the city's trucks and tractors as needed, Mosbey said. He also tried to make the maintenance position part-time to save on expenses but found the amount of work was too much.

"There's no way at 20 hours a week they can keep up," he said.

The city is also preparing for expensive but needed upgrades to its water system.

"We're currently looking at a water project that is an enormous amount of money. We're trying to secure funding for that," said Mosbey.

Officials are working with Ozark Regional Planing Commission to secure grants for the project. Mosbey praised ORPC as "great" to work with and hopes to find more funding to straighten out the city's ditches once its water problems are solved.

Despite the town's tight belts, Fisk's income and expenses have improved in at least one way from prior years: a new policy of enforcing unpaid water bills.

"There's been times in the past where water bills went crazy without getting paid, and never got shut off," Mosbey said. "So when I stepped in and got elected as mayor, I said, 'We're going to start shutting people off because that forces them, if they want to have water, to come in and pay their bill.' And we still have a few that aren't going to pay their bill. It's just money we're never going to recover. But for the most part, people are paying their water bill because they know now that we'll turn them off."