The city’s credit rating came back with a positive score at the June 25 Pilot Point City Council meeting.
Back in April, the council passed a resolution for a notice of intent to issue $5 million in certificates of obligation toward the water and sewer projects, and the bonds have now been sold.
“I’m pleased to report that Standard & Poor's came back and affirmed the city's rating at an A-plus,” said Quynh-Thi Nguyen, Investment Banking Associate at HilltopSecurities. “Additionally, we also applied for bond insurance, provided by Assured Guaranty, in which they carry a little higher rating at a double A. This is similar to past issuance; we have done this in the past, nothing new, but as the credit rating goes up, interest rates go down, similar to ones on the personal credit score when obtaining a car loan.”
The bonds have a 30-year repayment term, and the average annual payment will be around $340,000.
With the council adopting the ordinance, the interest rate will stay set for the life of the bonds, Nguyen said.
Assistant City Manager/Chief Financial Officer Michele Sanchez discussed how the city’s budget looks for the current fiscal year, starting with the general fund and the water and sewer fund.
“On both sides of it, we do look like projected revenues are going to come in a little under what we had budgeted, but expenditures are also trending low,” Sanchez said. “So we should finish the fiscal year in a positive way.”
She explained that it was low because development services have had fewer new building permit filings than expected, which also affects water revenue.
However, the city does not plan to end the year in a deficit, and City Manager Britt Lusk added that the development services department has been reaching out to see where developers are in the home-building process.
“Another thing that needs to happen as we go into FY2027 is again, making sure that we're staying current in our market with our comparator cities for salaries,” Sanchez said.
She added that the city’s mission is to remain within 10% of the market rate, and the financial impact will be about $600,000 across all departments.
Sanchez then provided a breakdown of each department's budget request, including equipment and staffing for the next fiscal year.
Some of the requests mentioned by the police department included faculty upgrades, weapons replacement and additional staff.
The fire department also requested additional equipment and three additional firefighters/EMTs.
The library requested a vault redesign, a library kiosk that operates like a vending machine and funds for the Museum Digital Archive Program.
The parks department requested funds for an extension of the Allen Groff Walking Trail, a shade structure for the Square, and traffic redirection for the Square along with a food court, which several council members expressed interest in.
The total general fund requests are over $4.3 million.
“Step one is moving any kind of projects that can be funded through special revenue funds out of the general fund to try and free up as much revenue as we can,” Sanchez said. “And then we start striking items that are just not possible.”
She then discussed the request from the water and sewer departments, which includes additional employees and equipment to help with the workload, as the city grows.
The total enterprise fund is slightly over $1.7 million.
“There's no way we're going to generate an additional $1.7 million next fiscal year in the water and sewer fund, but a lot of these capital projects, especially equipment, can be shifted over to some bond dollars,” Sanchez said. “So that will be step one, and then parceling through some of those budget requests for positions will be the next step after that.”
She noted that bond money cannot be used to lease equipment and that, in the long run, it’s more costeffective for the city to buy equipment than to lease it.
Before the council adopts the budget and the tax rate on Sept. 10, there will be several more conversations on the topic.
Also at the meeting, the council unanimously approved Board and Commission appointments for the 2026-27 year.
“I'm thankful for every one of them that volunteered their time and service to help the city,” council member Ray Dane said.
The Board, Commission and Committee Handbook was also approved by the council with the recommended changes.
Police Chief Angela Mathews introduced several new police officers and a new fire marshal at the meetings before they were sworn in and then pinned by their loved ones.
“I am so very proud of our team and our new members on our team,” Mathews said. “We are really and have been working hard to make this a police department that the city can be proud of.”
