MIDLAND, Texas — When it comes to planning the City of Midland's fiscal budget, the city's annual retreat gives each of the city's departments a chance to stake their claim.
Last year the City of Midland's General Fund was more than 128 million dollars, which Mayor Jerry Morales calls a valuable opportunity.
"We're growing so fast, and our challenges are so much more aggressive than they were three years ago, and what's really good about this annual retreat is that we can all get on the same page," said Morales.
So on July 18, the department heads of each city department converged in the Blakemore Planetarium conference room, giving presentations on their accomplishments from the past year and expressing their needs for the future.
"We can spend as much time as we need on one issue, we can figure out what the costs involved are, how much manpower is needed, and so on," said Morales.
Arguably one of the biggest issues discussed today was the lack of staffing for the city's police and fire departments.
"Personnel changes are a big one today, trying to understand where the police and the fire are," said Morales.
But this issue hasn't been in the dark for city officials, in fact, councilman Spencer Robnett has been working with the police department and other officials to have proposals for solutions ready for the council retreat.
"So what we've done this budget cycle is propose pay incentives, a lot of which are merit-based for both the police and fire department that will hopefully give us more tools to recruit and retain people to come on board," said Robnett.
Incentives that could mean raises of up to $14,000 dollars for sworn-in officers and firefighters.
Police Chief Seth Herman believes this figure would go a long way for hiring new police officers, and in turn help tackle crime within the city.
"With that we move away from a reactive standpoint and more towards a proactive standpoint, that's really the only way you curb crime is to be proactive and that's our focus right now," said Herman.
City officials are expecting a record high sales tax return and a higher general fund for the 2020 fiscal year.