Poteet City Council approves budget amidst disagreementsFree Access



After preparing the budget the past couple months, the City of Poteet council voted 3-2 in favor of approving the budget for the 2021-2022 Fiscal Year. Multiple topics were disputed between the council during the budget meeting on Oct. 25 at city hall.

Newly hired City Administrator Kim Davis finalized the budget ahead of the meeting. Council member Candace Cantu mentioned there were a lot of changes and it looked completely different. Davis reminded the council they could make amendments to the budget.

“It’s not intended to be a completely new draft budget,” Davis said. “It was intended to give the council the best information possible. It’s important to remind y’all that a budget is simply a guide for what you’re anticipating spending through the fiscal year. You can adjust it via budget amendment after the budget is adopted. I based this off of the best information that I could get off the system and looking at the previous budgets.”

Council member Nicholas Sanchez said he was satisfied with the budget. However, Mayor Denise Sanchez disagreed, adding that she met with Haney, the company in charge of the forensic audit for the City of Poteet. When N. Sanchez asked for a specific example, Mayor Sanchez withheld the information. Cantu added that she didn’t trust the figures because they changed. N. Sanchez responded saying that Davis had an answer to all the questions.

“Ms. Cantu, with all due respect ma’am, part of why y’all hired me was because I’m detail oriented and meticulous,” Davis said. “I didn’t want to send that other budget in front of this council, knowing that it was full of mistakes and errors. I apologize that it took so long to get it to y’all once I got here. All I have focused on was trying to get y’all the best information possible to be prepared for this meeting.”

Davis was hired 10 days prior to the budget meeting. Council member Nicholas Sanchez motioned to approve the budget. Council member Rick Flores seconded the motion. Before the vote was taken, Mayor Sanchez added that she didn’t want to pass the budget because some items were missing.

“Mayor, unless that information becomes available to council, we can’t act on it,” N. Sanchez said. 

Cantu called for a question and the vote to be taken. However, Mayor Sanchez misinterpreted the statement and told her to ask the question.

“Asking the question means we end discussion,” N. Sanchez said. “When someone calls the question, you take a vote on it. If it passes, that means discussion is over.”

The motion to adopt the budget was approved after the council voted 3-2 in favor. Council members Jeremy Fernandez and Cantu voted against. Council member Crystal Bautista broke the tie to approve the draft budget. Though the council voted to pass the budget, it may be recalled at the City of Poteet council meeting on Nov. 2 according to N. Sanchez. The Pleasanton Express will livestream the meeting.

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