Bowie council adopts FY2024–25 budget, adopts tax rate reading and approves contingent-fee collections contract

The City of Bowie council approved the city’s annual budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, 2024, and ending Sept. 30, 2025, and adopted related tax ordinance language during its regular meeting. Council also voted to approve a contingent-fee contract for collections of delinquent court fines and fees and enacted a local ordinance authorizing a collections fee.

Council voted to adopt ordinance 2024-O5, the second reading of the city’s annual budget, after a motion and second; the motion passed with affirmative recorded votes. The meeting record shows the motion was moved and seconded and that council members voted in favor. No total dollar figure for the adopted budget was read into the record during the transcript segment.

On the tax rate, the record includes two statements that appear to conflict. The presiding speaker read the ordinance to levy the city’s ad valorem tax rate for tax year 2024. One council member read the rate aloud as “0.543” and stated that figure “is effectively 11.4% increase in the tax rate.” In an earlier part of the exchange a council member referred to a tax rate figure described as “$54.03, same as last year.” The council proceeded to adopt the rate as read; the transcript does not resolve the numerical discrepancy between the statements.

The council also voted to approve a contingent-fee contract to handle collections of delinquent court fines and fees and to adopt written findings supporting that contract. An attorney who identified himself in the record as a partner with a Wichita Falls law firm described the firm’s approach in general terms: under the presenter’s example, a $100 delinquent obligation can become $130 under state statute once collection fees are applied after 60 days; the presenter said the firm would keep the contract fee portion and remit principal amounts to the city, and that the arrangement imposes no upfront cost on the city.

Council members asked several follow-up questions about the program’s success rate and scope. The presenter cited industry standards around a roughly 35% clearance rate over time and said his firm targets about 45% on some accounts; he also described call-center outreach, the possibility of issuing warrants in certain jurisdictions, and that judges retain control over dockets and indigency determinations. The presenter said the proposed contract would operate on a 30-day renewal basis and could be terminated if performance did not meet expectations.

The council also adopted ordinance 2024-O7 to authorize a fee to defray the cost of collecting delinquent fines and fees; the ordinance text and the contract together determine the fee applied to delinquent accounts, the council record shows.

Votes at a glance (recorded in meeting speech): ordinance 2024-O5 (annual budget) — adopted; joint election agreement/equipment lease — approved; ordinance 2024-O6 (tax rate reading) — adopted as read; contingent-fee collections contract and written findings — approved; ordinance 2024-O7 (fee enabling ordinance) — adopted.

The meeting record did not include an explicit line-item total for the adopted budget, and the transcript presents differing spoken figures for the tax rate; the record shows the council adopted both the budget ordinance and the tax ordinance as presented during the meeting. The council adjourned following a brief round of announcements.