Biloxi City Council calls special meeting as budget deadline nears
BILOXI, Miss. (WXXV) — As the deadline for the City of Biloxi’s budget looms, council members are making their final adjustments.
Another special-called meeting was held at city hall on Tuesday, giving council members a chance to fine-tune the numbers and hear concerns from the community.
This meeting was just one of many planned over the next few weeks as the city council works to determine where cuts will be made and finalize the budget for the next fiscal year, but after hours of discussion, it’s fair to say the meeting was at times tense, as council members debated some of the tough decisions facing the city.
“Budget time is always tense. I can’t recall any budget process that hasn’t been tense,” said Ward 6 Councilman Kenny Glavan.
One of the big topics of discussion involved Parks and Recreation. City council members are concerned the A.J. Holloway Sports Complex is not generating enough revenue to cover its costs, and they’re now brainstorming ways to close that gap. Parks and Rec. says one of the issues lies in the lack of staffing.
That discussion comes just a year and a half after the city completed an over $5 million renovation project at the complex.
“Parks and Rec., we gave some, I think, very good suggestions to the director — including how we could increase the revenue, sponsorships. How we could expand to open it up to more tournaments, and we’re gonna take those suggestions. Try to solve that problem, and at the end of the day, I think we’ll be more efficient and productive,” said Glavan.
The budget is still a work in progress. With the deadline set for the end of September, city council members plan to continue meeting regularly in the weeks ahead as they work to reach agreements and finalize the numbers.
The goal is to balance the city’s budget without compromising the services currently provided to Biloxi residents.
“You know, I think when we started, we had a target on what our expected revenues are. Those haven’t changed that much, and we’ve been working on the individual departments, trying to get to a zero-based budget. Little by little we seem to be getting there.” he said. “We still have some big decisions to make, but I think today we had some good suggestions, and we’ll take that and next week we’ll be back at it. We’ll continue to work this process all the way down until we have to pass a budget at the end of September.”
Councilman Kenny Glavan is advising Biloxi residents who have recommendations or suggestions to contact the councilman over their ward or Biloxi City Hall.
