Council, city department heads hold budget work session

By Jessica Breger Special to Monett Monthly

Mickey Ayre, Monett’s newly hired city administrator, made his debut at the first city budget work session of 2025.

Ayre joined the City Council as it met with department heads on Feb. 20 to discuss preliminary budget requests for the upcoming fiscal year. He officially began his role as city administrator March 3.

Ayre said he felt it was important to be at this meeting prior to beginning work in his new position.

“The budget is one of the key things the city administrator oversees and overlooks, and your department heads are the ones that are operating those budgets,” he said. “They’re the ones that know exactly what they need in the field, so it’s critical for a city administrator to hear.”

Ayre said that his role as city administrator is to support the elected officials in carrying out services for residents.

“Public safety and public services are the two critical things that cities do,” he said. “Public safety is police and fire, ambulance emergency management and public service. That’s the utilities, the roads, the storm water and sewer; all those things need to be taken care of.

“A bonus to all that are the amenities, like the golf course and the parks and all these other things that bring just a good life to the community. We want to make sure we keep those high standards.”

During the work session, Ayres and the city council heard the budgetary hopes for city departments, including police, fire, airport, public works and emergency management.

Mayor Randy Burke opened the meeting by explaining this first budget meeting was simply to hear the priorities of city departments, and more meetings will be held to create the new year’s budget.

“The focus of this city council meeting is so all of us can get the base input from the department heads,” he said. “So, this is us listening to department heads as you talk about your priorities. Budget is about priorities.”

Added personnel was on the priority list for multiple departments, including airport, police and fire. The airport will be looking to train new employees to fulfill roles of multiple employees preparing to retire in the coming two years. 

Police Chief George Daoud spoke to council about potentially adding K9 units to the force. He said this request comes from a decrease in outside drug enforcement resources and following a survey which showed support for K9 units.

Daoud said that the department used to be able to lean on three other agencies and two drug task forces, however, these resources have become less available over time.

“We went from having a plethora of drug enforcement to almost none,” he said.

Daoud explained the last time the department needed the help of a K9 unit, it reached out to another city and was denied. 

The fire department is looking to add three full-time firefighters to replace some who have recently left. Wages for firefighters and police have also become a concern, as the police department has had difficulties in hiring new officers, and the fire department is losing firefighters, with leaders of both agencies citing wage issues.

The fire department is also looking at replacing outdated equipment and supplies, including a 1996 ladder truck and fire suppression foam which can be a health hazard for firefighters. 

The public works department set its priorities as equipment and park development.

The department is looking for aid in obtaining new landscaping equipment for North Park and South Park, as well as upgrading maintenance facilities shared between South Park and the golf course.

Upgrades to the maintenance building would provide workers a break room and improved restroom.

“I don’t expect it this year, but I wanted it part of the conversation,” said Dave Dunn, public works department head. 

The department is also giving attention to playground upgrades at South Park, including a mega-unit playground that would allow up to 200 children to play at once, as well as updating fencing and lighting at the baseball fields at North Park.

Public Works is also looking for equipment replacements for road and safety care. These requests include a dump truck, leaf machine, commercial paver and extreme slope mower. All current equipment set to be replaced are 1990s models which have been repaired multiple times to extend their lives. 

The city’s emergency management department is looking toward community preparedness, asking for funding for a new siren that would also detect lightning and double as a PA system, allowing for ease of public announcements.

The department is hoping to work with other agencies, such as the chamber of commerce, to develop a community preparedness exercise with city businesses and the community in the spring or summer this year.

Other budgetary items consisted of facility maintenance and updates for all departments. While preliminary estimates were given at the meeting, further discussions are planned to finalize numbers before the budget is submitted.

Council hopes to submit the city budget in March, if not approved by April 1, the city will continue with the current budget.