Beaumont council approves year-end budget changes, engineering contracts and multiple rezones; one special-use permit denied

Beaumont City Council voted on a package of budget adjustments, professional services contracts and land-use requests at its Sept. 30 meeting, approving most items on the consent agenda and taking separate action on several zoning and code-enforcement matters.

The council approved an ordinance amending the fiscal year 2025 budget to increase appropriations for funds with projected overages, moved forward a contract to upgrade the water production SCADA system, approved a downtown traffic ingress-and-egress study, accepted a change order on a water-line rehabilitation project, amended the city's agreement for water utility service line inspections and adopted updates to Chapter 21 of the city code (salary schedule language for EMTs). Council also approved two rezoning requests and denied a specific-use permit for a large-vehicle storage facility.

The budget amendment was presented by the assistant finance director, who said cities commonly amend year-end appropriations to cover projected overages and to transfer a remaining debt-service fund balance into employee benefits. The council then voted to approve the…