The City of Nelson will have to wait a little longer for a new mayor, while it continues to struggle with its financial woes. During its monthly meeting last night, the Nelson City Council set a date for its mayoral election. Last month then-mayor David Leister abruptly resigned from his position. In a May 25th email to city council members, City Clerk Brandy Edwards, Pickens County Sole Commissioner Robert Jones, and Cherokee County Commission Chairman Buzz Ahrens, Leister curtly stated his resignation, writing, “I would like to share with you my decision to step aside as Mayor of Nelson effective immediately.”

During this week’s city council meeting, council set a November 6th date for the mayoral election. Qualifying for the election will be held from Wednesday, August 1st to Friday, August 3rd.

Also, the council delivered its first public hearing of the budget for fiscal year 2013. Council presented numerous versions of the proposed budget, finally agreeing on version number four. In the financial workshop preceding the meeting, though, the council grappled with the city’s myriad monetary obstacles.

Opening the workshop, the first to come to the podium and speak about the budget was former Nelson Mayor David Leister. At the podium, Leister addressed the council regarding the financial challenges facing the city. Referring to a May 15th financial report, Leister said that Nelson’s financial outlook was

“not a pretty picture.”

The report, he said was based on a period of 12 ½ years. The report reveals the city does not have a reserve or contingency fund; its expenses have exceeded its revenues over the time period stated; the budget has not addressed the accommodation for inflation and the city lacks fiscal leadership. Additionally, the report states,

“Without a sustainable fund balance that is based on a predictable revenue source, the city is heading in the direction of becoming a failed financial enterprise.”

Leister said he had developed several scenarios to address these concerns. One of these scenarios cuts a $365,000 budget to $335,000 by outsourcing the city’s maintenance service and eliminating the criminal court clerk position. He also suggested depositing municipal fees in the reserve fund over the course of a few years to reach a balance of $100,000. At the end of his talk, Leister referred to the possibility of raising taxes as inevitable.

“I know all of you don’t want to raise taxes,”

he told the council,

“so what I think all of you are going to do is review this and do everything in your realm to ensure that we don’t see a four in half percent increase is real estate taxes before you’ve done everything (possible).”

Later, Leister also complimented the council members, saying,

“These people are trying their best to make certain that this city stays afloat.”

On the heels of Leister’s talk, Councilman Jonathan Bishop said he too had prepared several budget proposals. Proposal one and two were $375,790.50 budgets and factored in $16,000 in revenue from fines collected from the police department. The second proposal cut maintenance and sanitation. The third proposal required $3000 in fines from municipal court and leaves only $500 under Council for education and travel. It revealed more cuts and was lowered to $328,100. The fourth proposal, the tightest of them all, was cut even lower to $320,000. Bishop said $320,000 was all the revenue the city receives, so it could spend no more than this amount. Unlike the other proposals, the fourth proposal restores the second police officer (where the others cut the force down to only one officer). This proposal spends $10,000 on maintenance; $25,000 for roads and streets; $18,000 on electricity, and

“everything else is pretty much cut down to the bare bones,”

Bishop said. He admitted that there was nothing left to cut.

Bishop also mentioned Nelson’s portion of the revenue from the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST), which it receives from Pickens County. Currently, Nelson receives 2.8 percent of the tax, which Bishop says amounts to approximately $110,000. He said the revenue from LOST is used for funding the operations of the city. As such, he noted if the city stopped receiving LOST revenue the city’s financial situation would be even more critical than it is now. Related to this comment, Councilman Jackie Jarrett expressed concern about the city losing its charter. However, Pickens County is required to share the LOST revenue with the incorporated municipalities in the county, which includes Nelson. Other options the council discussed to remedy its financial maladies were to lease or rent city buildings and sell off surplus equipment.

“We may have to raise some tax rate to get more revenue if we want to have any of these services put back,”

Bishop cautioned.

In the end, council approved Bishop’s budget proposal number four for $320,000.

“That one,”

Bishop said,

“puts us on the path to being fiscally solvent for the first time in 12 years.”