The City of Alba was offered, and officially voted to accept, a Texas Water Development Board grant for water system improvements on Monday night. The grant is for $1.87 million and will not need to be paid back by the city.

City financial advisor Paul Jasin assured the city that the only fees the city would pay are those to the escrow agent. The 100% grant status of the agreement “typically (is) not the case.” They will close on the deal in early April.

“I’m just not used to this, $1.87 million just fell out of the sky,” said council member Tammy Kirkpatrick.

Regarding an alleged purchasing policy violation by city staff members Jenna Trussell and Lindy McCarty, wherein a website designer was paid $2,000 instead of the budgeted $50 a month ($600 a year), Alba acting mayor Robert Kraemer pointed out, “There’s not much we can do about it…. It’s done,” and that the actions were “totally within the (purchasing) policy.”

After some discussion regarding who should actually be held responsible for the line item overage, Kraemer asked for a motion to dismiss the allegations, which the council voted unanimously to do.

The council also discussed the city’s deficit budget, which sits at $16,000. Kirkpatrick re-organized several budget line items, with the approval of the council, to bring the deficit down to $16,000 from its original $20,000.

Two Alba citizens, Paul Kelbe and Sondra Burge, spoke on the need for “checks and balances” within the mayoral position.

Kelbe pointed out that items in a proposed ordinance for the duties and powers of the mayor conflict with an ordinance approved in January for setting agenda items.

Attorney Leigh Thompson agreed that the current ordinances do clash, and said that the proposed ordinance has and will be continued to be updated before it is discussed at the April meeting.

The council voted to transfer the property of the “Old City Jail Lot,” which is 0.03 acres, to Charles “Buddy” Park for $10 plus Thompson’s legal fee of $250. The property is adjacent to Park’s property and has been kept up by him for several years.

They also cancelled the May 3 election, since there are no opposed seats.

They also voted to accept the new vacation leave/comp time policy for the City of Alba Handbook, which now reads that employees can receive a maximum 40-hour carryover, should they not take allowed vacation time by the end of their work year. 

The council voted to finalize their street improvement project with GrantWorks, to retroactively approve the hiring of three police officers, and to look into the cost of microphone equipment for the council.