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Challenging the narrative behind council spending

As a long-time advocate for the City of Wimberley, a founder of Keep Wimberley Beautiful, and a member of the first Wimberley City Council, I have been increasingly distressed by the financial misdirection of the recently elected city council and mayor.

Since Wimberley became incorporated in 2000, all 17 City Councils, whatever their personal and political make-up, have created a sensible, practical budget. They have also created a fund balance (savings account) which has been judiciously and seldomly used.

As the chart (at right) shows, the city’s savings has grown every year since at least 2012, until 2017. The revelation that the city’s savings account will be decreased by $1.1 million during the city’s fiscal years 2018 and 2019, led by the recently elected/appointed city council, is very disturbing to me. It will put the future of our beloved City of Wimberley in great jeopardy.

Financial responsibility has always been a city council watchword.

Until now.

By law all cities must balance their budgets. The way this council did it was to deplete Wimberley’s savings account.

To cover up this unprecedented disaster for our budget, they are trying to blame this on previous councils as they had been instructed to do in letter from a Wimberley citizen. This is not true.

The previous councils designed and financed the new city owned sewer plant both without going into the city’s savings, and certainly not depleting it by $1.1 million.

The newly elected council members ran together crying fiscal responsibility and transparency. Yet they have totally ignored their financial duty, their pledge to be transparent, and put the city in major jeopardy. This is primarily the result of forcing us into a proposed costly change to Aqua Texas which will continue to drain the city’s savings account.

The City Fund Balance took 17 years to build. This current council and by the end of this fiscal year will have spent more than 45% of it. This is an unprecedented spending of our savings with nothing to show for it except extensive delays in the sewer system and the unpopular proposal of a contract with Aqua Texas, a contract that will cause increased environmental risk and more expense to citizens of Wimberley.

Martha Knies

Wimberley View

P.O. Box 49
Wimberley, TX 78676
Phone: 512-847-2202
Fax: 512-847-9054