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By JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

The City of Clanton received a favorable audit for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2019, during a meeting on Feb. 10.

“Your financial statements looked good,” Janice Hull of Hull & Russell said.

The total net position for the city at the end of the fiscal year was $35,395,331 including required pension deferrals. This includes the governmental activities fund ($19,643,893) and the business activities fund for water and sewer ($15,751,438).

Hull explained that a loss showing on the income sheet was to be able to make a transfer into the water fund.

“You transferred about $1.7 million … over to the waterworks so that you could pay for that water plant,” Hull said. “Those are your improvements.”

Hull also highlighted the city’s changes in long-term debt.

“You can see that you have paid about $1.1 million on your long-term debt,” Hull said. “You only have one more payment left on that waterworks bond, so you almost have that one paid off.”

A request by a nonprofit for the donation of a vehicle was discussed during the meeting. Mayor Billy Joe Driver said he had discussed the issue with the city’s attorney, and they could not legally give a nonprofit a vehicle. Councilman Jeffery Price asked about when the Council had given a vehicle to the Chilton County Airport. City Attorney John Hollis Jackson explained that the airport is a “governmental agency created by other governments” including the City of Clanton, which allowed the city to be able to give it a vehicle.

The topic of employee evaluations tied to potential bonuses was also discussed. Price presented a sample rubric, saying he would like to test the evaluations with one of the city employees to see if it might work. The Council and mayor said they were fine with him testing the idea. Price said the employee and the supervisor would both fill out an evaluation form and then have a conversation comparing them.

Also during the meeting, the Council approved:

• Paying a bill to Thomas Oil for $29,227
• Three absentee ballot officials for the upcoming election. The Council had approved suspending the rules in order to vote on the matter immediately, rather than having to wait until another meeting.
• Purchasing a $35,025 Tahoe truck off of the state bid list for the Clanton Fire Department for use by the fire chief. His current vehicle will go to the assistant fire chief. A 2001 truck will be retired from use by the department. Funds for the vehicle had been included in the department’s budget for this fiscal year. Fire Chief David Driver said buying vehicles off the state bid saves about $15,000.
• A payment of $50,000 to the Chilton County Airport Authority. The mayor explained that this was the fourth year of a five-year agreement with the governmental entity in which the city said it would make an effort to contribute $50,000 to the airport each year for five years.