The City of Commerce’s financial situation is the reason Bob Monday got into the race for City Council.
“The indebtedness of the City of Commerce was interesting me quite a bit,” Monday said. “We owe $19,132,174. For a town of less than 10,000 that is a substantial burden to withstand.”
Monday is running for the Place 4 seat on the Council against Russell Lutes and Dr. Billy Taylor. He is concerned with how much debt the city has.
“Twenty-five percent of our ad valorem taxes goes to debt service,” he said. “They’re trying to call for another $3 million (bond election for a) street program and that $3 million will cost you almost $5 million in 20 years. To me, it’s totally revolting and out of place.”
The debt service the city would pay on the street program would be $245,000 per year on average, according to Monday. It could be a maximum of $324,000.
“What I believe is, you can go somewhere in between and start putting that money up,” he said. “The streets are all shot anyway. There are over 50 miles of streets in Commerce, Texas. They’re all in pretty wretched shape.”
Monday said he would much rather have the city set money aside and fix streets and water and sewer problems as they could.
“I think if people see some action on streets, whether it’s in the old part or the new part of town, they say, ‘Well, we’ll have our turn at some time.’ It takes a lot of discipline to do that,” he said.
Another thing Monday would like to do is look at all the property the city owns outright and if there are no other plans for it, to sell it.
“It is absolutely ridiculous for the city to hold the amount of property it does that’s not being used,” he said.
He also wants to speed up the sale of property in which the city is the trustee for other taxing entities. The budget also needs to gone over meticulously with the department heads to see how service can be improved while reducing cost.
Another thing Monday would like to see is better use of people sentenced to community service for municipal court fines they are unable to pay.
“I want to use those to the best advantage to the city of Commerce and maybe not to the individual,” he said.
Downtown Commerce also needs help, according to Monday. He would like to see a committee formed to seriously look into what can be done to improve it.
“We have one shot of getting the downtown moving in such a manner so that it would be a service to the citizens of Commerce,” he said. “Failing that, it looks awful bleak to me for the downtown portion. Even though we’re seeing movements now, we must continue. There are too many vacant buildings downtown now. It’s not a tax-supported thing, but it should be encouraged by the City Council.”
Monday was born and raised in Commerce. He and his wife, Norma, have been married 52 years. They have three grown daughters, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
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Jay Strickland
Monday worried about city's debt, condition of streets
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