Shepherdsville council presses for line-item capital project list, schedules June 2 special meeting

Shepherdsville council members on Tuesday renewed calls for greater budget transparency and for capital projects to be listed by project beneath each department’s total capital expense, and they scheduled a special meeting for 6 p.m. June 2 to review an itemized list.

The discussion began after council members said they had learned projects such as a skate park had not appeared in the current budget ordinance even though work had been authorized. Council member Jennifer (last name not specified in transcript) said, “I would like to see our budget when it has miscellaneous projects that those projects are specified.”

Council members and staff traded explanations about how the city now provides monthly itemized reports that show every department purchase and account activity, but several councillors said those monthly reports are not the same as the ordinance language they vote on. Mayor (name not specified in transcript) and department staff described a compromise: list capital projects by name under each department’s total capital expense in the ordinance but avoid attaching fixed dollar amounts that would require council amendments if project priorities change.

Staff and legal counsel described the procurement and bidding process that applied to recent park work. Tom (staff member) and other staff said certain park components were bid nationally or through state contracts because local contractors do not perform specialized skate-park or playground installs; other site work and materials were handled differently. Council raised a separate concern that a private donation intended for the skate park was temporarily recorded in the general fund and therefore was not shown as an allocated line in the ordinance. Staff said the donation was later earmarked for park plans once the funding allocation was reconciled.

Council members pressed for a practical solution that provides oversight without unduly restricting day-to-day operations. The council agreed to have Catherine (City Attorney) and staff prepare a “long report” — a monthly, itemized capital project report — and publish it publicly, and to place a department-by-department list of capital projects under each total capital expense line in the ordinance. That listing will not include fixed dollar amounts, staff said, to preserve flexibility for unavoidable purchases such as emergency repairs.

Council members also asked department heads to deliver itemized capital-expenditure lists by the next meeting; police, fire, public works and wastewater staff committed to send those lists to the city clerk/city staff and to Catherine for inclusion in the June 2 packet.

The council set a special meeting for 6 p.m. June 2 to review the itemized reports and to hold a first reading of the general and sewer budgets; a second reading of the ordinance will follow as scheduled at the June 9 meeting, staff said.

The debate illustrated friction between two transparency goals: providing the council and public with project-level visibility, and preserving administrative flexibility to respond to emergencies and to use general contractors where required by procurement rules. Council members said the itemized listing approach should allow both oversight and the ability to proceed with time-sensitive work without repeated ordinance amendments.

Staff said they would post the long report and the capital-project lists to the city’s online repository and circulate the itemized lists to council members ahead of the June 2 special meeting.

The council did not adopt a substantive budget amendment at Tuesday’s session; it directed staff to prepare the itemized materials and return to the special meeting.

The skate-park funding and bidding history will be reviewed as part of that June 2 agenda, staff said.