The Norman City Council discussed the proposed 2025 city budget and made changes to a contract for emergency shelter services during its study session meeting Tuesday.
The agenda for the meeting had a third item about the establishment of an internal audit charter but the council postponed the discussion for next Tuesday after the meeting reached three hours.
Food and Shelter contract and possible amendments
Shaakira Calnick, city auditor, recommended several amendment changes to the contract with Food and Shelter Inc. for emergency shelter services.
Food and Shelter is an organization aiming to help those in need by providing food, shelter and other resources.
The first recommendation was that the city should secure a location that could possibly become a permanent shelter location.
Calnick said the location at 109 W. Gray St. could be used as a shelter and roughly half the cost could be recovered for future development of the property.
The council is awaiting the appraisal for this location.
Calnick recommended to conduct a cost analysis in this location, which was previously done based on the city's experience with another shelter.
The council also discussed the use of metal detectors at the entrance of the shelter. Mayor Larry Heikkila said this implementation is to increase the safety of the shelter's residents.
The council discussed the possibility of implementing new standards for collecting incident report data and the need for a sobering center in Norman after being presented data regarding shelter clients.
Calnick recommended clients who arrive at the shelter intoxicated should be immediately referred to an appropriate detox program for the night, however, there is no detox program in Norman.
Ward 7 Councilmember Stephen Tyler Holman said a sobering center is something the community should be pushing.
"We don't have (a sobering center) but have university people walking around drunk all the time, even if it's innocent," Holman said.
Calnick also recommended training all shelter personnel under the Approved Medication Assistive Personnel program. Under this program, staff members are trained by approved registered professional nurses and must work under their supervision.
It was also recommended that Food and Shelter should furnish Homeless Management Information System licenses to all personnel assigned. HMIS is a technology system used to collect data on the provision of housing and services to individuals and families experiencing homelessness.
Other recommendations include that Food and Shelter should employ qualified social work professionals and that the contractor should immediately report all fires, injuries, assaults and emergencies, which staff supports because it ensures transparency related to the safe operation of the facility.
2025 fiscal year end budget
Kim Coffman, the city's budget manager, presented the enterprise funds in the proposed budget.
According to the presentation, enterprise funds are operated similar to private business enterprises, where the intent of the city is to finance or recover the costs of providing goods or services to the general public through user charges.
The net total budget for all Norman funds for the 2024 fiscal year was $252,962,743, according to the annual budget. For the 2025 fiscal year, the total proposed budget has increased to $271,227,424, which accounts for capital project allocations in water and wastewater reclamation, the Young Family Athletic Center and increased debt service expenditures related to ongoing transportation and bridge improvements.
In 2024, the Norman fiscal budget primarily focused on capital projects, which will remain a priority in the 2025 proposed budget as construction that was federally funded within the last year is now underway.
Coffman also presented several funds, including a sanitation, water and water reclamation funds, which includes residential and commercial collection of waste and recycling.
The sanitation rate increased in April 2011 to $17.20 per unit, per month. This includes a $3 per month curbside recycling charge and $0.20 for the Oklahoma Solid Waste Management charge.
The water fund projects include the Parsons Waterline Replacement and the Area and Infrastructure Master plan or AIM Norman. The projects under the sanitation fund include the compost facility and the Transfer Station renovation.
According to the presentation, residential wastewater services were raised in November 2013, with the current base rate set at $5 plus $2.70 per 1,000 gallons of treated wastewater. The fee revenues of the 2025 FYE are budgeted at a projected 3.6% increase from data found in last year's estimate.
Coffman discussed a proposed amendment to the water reclamation fund, which will reduce service fee revenue by $775,000 due to slow growth. With the amendment, the estimated 2025 FYE ending fund balance for the water reclamation fund is $1,452,101.
The council will consider the budget for adoption on June 4. If adopted, the 2025 FYE budget will run from July 1 to June 30, 2025.
