2023
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WEDNESDAY • MAY 22, 2024
FBISD staff recommends $826.6 million budget for 2024-25 By Ken Fountain KFOUNTAIN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
Fort Bend ISD staff will present a $828.6 million operating budget for the 2024-2025 school year at a public hearing on June 3, with board action to adopt the budget set for June 10. Chief financial officer Bryan Guinn laid out the staff ’s recommended budget at the board’s regular meeting on Monday. He noted at the outset of his presentation that public school districts across the state are experiencing severe budget shortfalls this year and are expected to
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Meadows Place sees change of mayorship By Ken Fountain KFOUNTAIN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
It was a true changing of the guard last week at Meadows Place City Hall as longtime Mayor Charles Jessup handed the reins to his successor, Audrey St. Germain, who overwhelmingly won the election for the seat on May 4. Jessup, who had served as the one-square-mile Fort Bend County city’s mayor since 2007 and previously served as an alderman beginning in 2002, chose to step down this year. St. Germain, a teacher at Meadows Place Elementary School, won
handily in a three-person race. A standing-room-only audience filled the Council chamber on May 14, which besides several Meadows Place residents and dignitaries also saw Sugar Land Mayor Joe Zimmerman, Stafford Mayor Ken Mathews and Council members Alice Chen and Virginia Rosas (both also reelected on May 4) and former Missouri City Mayor Allen Owen voicing their accolades for the outgoing mayor. “I’m not surprised that there’s this many here to say get out of town,” Jessup, long known for his sense of
humor, said as he opened the special meeting. “I see a lot of folks and friends who I haven’t seen in a long time and I appreciate it a lot, because I know you’re here to welcome in a new mayor.” Municipal Judge Bret Kisluk swore in St. Germain, who received a long round of applause and signed the paperwork officially making her mayor. Incumbent aldermen David Mertins Sr., Tia Baker, and Rick Staigle, who all ran unopposed in their respective elections, were also sworn in by Kisluk.
SEE MAYORSHIP PAGE 2
New Meadows Place Mayor Audrey St. Germain shares a moment with her predecessor, Charles Jessup, at last week’s City Council meeting. Courtesy City of Meadows Place.
How Bazaar
See page 3 - for more photos from the Bazaar festival
Fort Bend ISD staff will present a $828.6 million operating budget for the 2024-2025 school year at a public hearing on June 3, with board action set for June 10. Photo by Ken Fountain
undergo similar pain in the next budget cycle. While many have laid the blame for the Texas Legislature’s failure to increase the daily allotment for student population since 2019, Guinn noted, Gov. Greg Abbott said in public comments last week that school districts were to blame, indicating that they had relied too much of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funding in recent years to cover their operating costs. That federal COVID-era program is set to expire in September, Guinn said. But Guinn noted that Fort Bend ISD is currently in good financial shape after undergoing two years of budget cuts after voters did not approve a tax rate election in November 2022. A second such tax rate election passed last November. Guinn said that $720.76 million, or 87 percent, of the proposed budget will go toward salaries and benefits for the district’s more than 10,000 employees, while $107.82 million, or 13 percent, will go toward maintenance and operations expenses. While the administration is expecting $827 million in revenues in the coming school year, Guinn said the administration is confident that it will be able to maintain a 90-day fund balance to ensure that expenses are met. The district has AA+ bond ratings from Fitch and Standard & Poors, two of the most respected bond rating agencies, he said.
SEE BUDGET PAGE 2
Sharon Gahunis, left, and Harpreet Kurr of Raja Sweets & Restaurant in Houston’s “Little India” set out samples at the Bazaar Food and Wine Festival at Sugar Land Town Square on Saturday. Photo by Ken Fountain
Missouri City council considers charter revisions Community Reports The Missouri City City Council will consider no later than August 19 several recommendations made by the city’s 2024 Charter Review Commission in its recently published final reports. The council received the final report at its May 6 regular meeting. Members of the commission appointed on January 2 were Peter Cruickshank, Jeremy Davis, Ketan Inamdar, Mark Kramer, and Mark Rubal. The commission met on January 22, February 28, March 25, and April 22 to review various items related to the Charter.
Each meeting was open to the public. In its final report, the commission makes the following recommended revisions to the charter and recommended that City Council call a special charter election. • Qualifying that city council determinations as to qualifications for office shall be subject to judicial review; • Deleting language requiring an election and a six-month waiting period for the implementation of city council compensation changes; • Changing the timeframe for electing the mayor pro
tem from the second meeting in December to a meeting between November 15 and December 31; • Clarifying that the city council may only appoint a new councilmember if 12 months or less remain on the unexpired term of office for the vacant position on the council; • Requiring the city council to hold at least two meetings per month in 10 months per calendar year and at least one (1) meeting per month in the remaining two (2) months; • Qualifying the amount of members required for a quorum in certain circumstances pursuant to state
law; • Increasing the number of councilmembers required to offer an ordinance to the governing body from one to two; • Revising the codification provision of the Charter due to current technology and the ease in which the Missouri City Code is “recodified” and made available to the public online; • Allowing the city manager to appoint, suspend, or remove directors of departments after consultation with the city council; • Allowing a former member of the city council to be chosen as city manager or acting city manager after
one (1) year of leaving office; • Authorizing the city manager to prepare and adopt personnel rules after council consultation; • Requiring the city council to adopt pay plans by ordinance; • Requiring the city secretary to verify the residency of a candidate for office by viewing a • Texas driver’s license or identification card; • Authorizing the city manager and financial services director to sign City checks instead of the mayor and the city manager; and
SEE CHARTER PAGE 2