This month, the Town will say goodbye and good luck to our longtime Town Manager, Jimmy Stathatos. Since his arrival in the beginning of 2013, Jimmy has fought hard to make Flower Mound a better place for residents and businesses. Jimmy has also made his mark on Town employees, raising morale by double digits, as evidenced in the 2014 and 2018 Town employee surveys.
I am proud to say I was a part of the Council that hired Jimmy. It was clear he was the right person for the job, and would take our community in a positive direction to help ensure Flower Mound had a strong future. During his tenure, Jimmy helped the Town receive its first of several AAA bond ratings. Having the highest bond rating allows the Town to save millions of taxpayer dollars through lower interest rates.
Jimmy also helped create a financial environment that allowed the Town Council to lower the tax rate and pass Flower Mound’s first homestead exemption. To do this, he and the Town’s Finance staff continued Flower Mound’s longstanding tradition of being fiscally conservative and presenting budgets that met the Town’s needs while continuing to expand Town services and programs where necessary. He also took an active role in economic development, which has helped create more than 6,000 new jobs in Flower Mound over the past several years.
I will miss Jimmy and his passion for Flower Mound and I wish him nothing but success as he starts his next chapter as Bedford’s City Manager. In the coming weeks, the Council will name an Interim Town Manager and start the recruitment process for Flower Mound’s next Town Manager. I will keep you updated as new information is available to share.
I wanted to share some good news we had last month – 209 Flower Mound businesses were awarded a total of $5.8 million through Phase II of the Denton County Open for Business grant program. The program provided grants to Denton County businesses (with fewer than 100 employees) that experienced a loss in revenue due to COVID-19.
Phase II also contained $1,180,000 of the Town’s Cares Relief Funds (CRF) specifically dedicated to Flower Mound businesses. This $1,180,000 was the portion of the CRF that exceeded the Town’s expenses related to COVID-19 that were eligible for reimbursement. I’m glad the Town had the opportunity to put that portion of the CRF toward making a difference in our business community and I’m very thankful to our Denton County Judge Andy Eads and Commissioners Bobbie Mitchell and Dianne Edmondson for coordinating that effort. Thanks to those grants, the Town will be able to help retain over 9,200 jobs. For more information about the Denton County’s Open for Business grant program, please visit www.dentoncounty.gov/open.
Looking ahead, the Council will approve a new budget and tax rate on Monday, September 21 for the 2020-2021 Fiscal Year. Last month, the Council held a budget workshop to start initial budget discussions. In the proposed budget, the Town’s Finance staff accounted for property tax cap limitations along with a downturn in sales tax dollars due to the pandemic by presenting a proposed budget with no new full-time positions, no salary increases for staff, limited new programs or expanded services, and no general debt for capital improvement projects. Before its approval, Council members will continue to work with staff to make any necessary changes. If you’d like to take a look at the Town’s proposed budget, please visit www.flower-mound.com/314/Annual-Budget.
As always, if you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to email me at [email protected].
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