The Mableton City Council adopted its first transitional spending plan last week to move forward in building the new city in Cobb County.
The transitional plan, effective Dec. 1, 2023, through June 30, 2024, will provide a spending roadmap for the council to create city departments. State law gives new cities two years to transition and provide services, so Mableton has until 2025 to be fully operational.
“The charter specifically says we do not have to have a spending plan or budget during the transition period, but we absolutely wanted to make sure that we were being fiscally responsible and we can show that on paper,” Mayor Michael Owens said during Thursday’s meeting.
Some of the departments included are the basics for government operations: a city administrator, a city clerk, legal, finance, technology and human resources. The other categories provide a preview of which services the council intends to take on in the next several months — code enforcement, community development and building inspections to start. The city currently has an interim city clerk, city attorney and finance consultant.
The plan also shows where the city will be deriving most of its revenue. Owens previously announced his intention not to levy a city property tax, so the city receives most of its revenue currently through franchise fees, hotel and motel taxes, business license fees and motor vehicle ad valorem taxes.
The council estimates it will bring in $3.8 million in total revenue during the seven months, with most of the expenses covering administrative costs. The most expensive departments include legal for $501,000; code enforcement for $431,000; community development for $414,000, and technology for $406,000.
“Overall, there are expenses in here that have basically been put into buckets so that once we do have our departments up and going, they will be pre-funded,” Owens said.
Credit: City of Mableton
Credit: City of Mableton
The council also established a pay plan for 15 employees: a city manager, executive assistants, department directors, a business license specialist, a building inspector, and three code enforcement officers.
Because the city does not yet have department heads to propose their budgets, this transitional plan just gets the initial funding outlines in place, Owens said. The city will undergo a more traditional budget process before June 30, 2024, when the new fiscal year begins, he said.
Watch the meeting here.
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