ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Money was the hot topic of the evening for the Liberal City Commission at its most recent meeting Tuesday evening.
To conclude the meeting’s new business, the commission discussed compensation for Scarlette Diseker as the interim city manager.
“We have in our code book where it is $1,000 more per month on their salary, but I don’t believe that is actually in place anymore” Liberal Mayor Jose Lara said. “That means we don’t actually have an ordinance that states what you pay as a set amount, so we can either go with that method or we can come up with our own, and it would take a commission motion to do that, so how do we feel about that? And is there anything we need to know from our attorney?”
“It is completely up to the commission’s discretion,” City Attorney Lynn Koehn said. “I don’t want to put Scarlette too much on the spot, but you also probably want to make it an amount that’s going to be worth all the extra work she’ll be taking on. As was stated earlier, that additional $1,000 on top of the salary per month has been rescinded, so it’s completely up to the discretion of the commission.”
Diseker shared her current salary is at $108,000.
“The former city manager was being paid $170,000. I don’t think we need to match that level, but I would think $150,000 for these next few months would be a fair salary to match,” Lara said. “What number does everyone else think would work, or do we want to match the $170,000?”
“I would say either $130,000 or $135,000, and the reason I came up with that number is because of research I’ve done into salaries of other city managers in community comparable to our community’s size,” commissioner Matt Landry said.
“I would say $135,000 would be a good number given everything else she’s going to be taking on,” commissioner Janeth Vazquez added.
After some more brief discussion, the commission approved $135,000 for Diseker’s compensation as interim city manager effective as of Sept. 30.
“I am perfectly okay with that number, and I thank you for doing the research,” Diseker said. “That’s what’s best for the City of Liberal and the taxpayer.”
Earlier in the meeting, the commission heard from Dustin Ormiston of Hay, Rice and Associates regarding the 2023 audit and a proposal for the 2024 audit contract.
“This year’s reporting is different than what we’ve done in past years. At the beginning is our opinion and in the first part, we have an adverse opinion on generally accepted accounting principles, and that means we did not comply with generally accepted accounting principles because the City of Liberal, in January, made an election to pass a resolution to instead use a different basis of accounting that is allowed by Kansas statutes which shows compliance with cash basis and budget law along with the notes and financial statements,” Ormiston said. “On that basis, at the end of that report, it shows we issued an unqualified opinion on that basis of accounting, and the unqualified basis or opinion is the highest level of assurance we – or another accounting firm – would give on the presentation of the financial statements. That all means we believe the financial statements are presented fairly in all material respects. Included in the report is the main financial statement that is being reported now. That financial statement starts with the beginning unencumbered cash balance we had at the beginning of the year, and it shows the receipts for every applicable fund the City of Liberal has, the expenditures of each of those funds, and it comes up with an ending unencumbered cash. We add back the payables and encumbrances that have yet to be expended to come up with an ending cash balance, which again ties to the statement online that shows the cash of the City of Liberal.”
Ormiston then continued his report.
“Also included in the report is the beginning unencumbered cash started at about $29.7 million, and that ended at $32.4 million, so we did have a slight increase in cash during the year whenever we aggregate all the funds together,” Ormiston said. “This report shows our compliance with Kansas statutes on a cash basis and if you go near the end of the financial statements and past all the notes, you’ll see all the funds the City of Liberal has individually which are subject to a budget, and that shows our variances both positive and negative by line item on each of the revenue and expenditure items for each of those applicable funds. This is a different reporting than we’ve done in the past, and probably more than 50 percent of the taxing entities in the state of Kansas do comply with this form of reporting rather than a gap financial that is a lot more comprehensive.”
Ultimately, the commission unanimously voted to approve the report and also voted to table discussion of the 2024 audit contract until the next meeting to allow for legal counsel to peruse it.
In other business, the commission approved the rezoning of a property at 304 E. Pancake Blvd from a C-2 to an R-3 to allow for the development of studio apartments, and also approved the refurbishment of a slide at Adventure Bay Water Park and the refinishing of the gym floor at the Recreation Center. The commission also approved a quote from B&G Services to build aprons for the splash pads for an amount not to exceed $55,000.
