Manville council okays budget amendments: $25,000 for recycling program, staff gift cards increased, and $50,000 efficiency study

Manville City Council voted to amend the budget to fund three items: a $25,000 contribution to Keep Pearland Beautiful’s Stella Roberts Recycling Center operations, up to $10,500 for H‑E‑B gift cards for city employees (set at $75 per employee), and up to $50,000 for an organizational operational efficiency study.

City Manager Dan Johnson summarized the items. The H‑E‑B gift-card program is a longstanding council tradition intended to provide holiday assistance to city employees; council members debated the per-employee amount and agreed to increase the gift to $75 per employee and budget the total at a not-to-exceed amount ($10,500) assuming roughly 120 employees. The keep-Pearland-Beutiful contribution offsets recycling-center service costs for local residents, staff said.

On the efficiency study, staff described the scope as an outside organizational assessment to examine alignment of divisions, staffing utilization, workflow and performance metrics (KPIs), and to identify opportunities for service improvements and cost savings. The vendor staff discussed is already working with nearby cities, staff said; the recommended cap for that contract is $50,000.

Council voted unanimously to approve the grouped budget amendment and the gift-card allocation after a motion to increase the cards to $75 per employee. Councilor Sarmiento and others advocated a higher per-employee level to reflect rising costs; the final motion set the per-employee gift at $75 and the city manager said staff would use the funds as necessary to cover actual employee counts at issuance time.

The council instructed staff to proceed with procurement of the efficiency study and to finalize details for the employee gift‑card distribution. The budget amendment moves the approved sums from fund balance into the respective operating accounts for disbursement.