Created about two years ago, the plan highlights key priorities of the city and makes long-term forecasts and fiscal plans with the intention of making the local government more high-performing and self-sufficient.
"None of this means that we're perfect, but what it means is that we are a learning organization," Chief of Staff Taylor Novak said in a presentation to Midland City Council. "We're committed to improving every single day across every department. That includes learning from our mistakes, correcting them and then using them as fuel to get better. That's the culture we are building, and that's the Midland we are delivering."
The forecasts have indicated a financial gap to emerge in the next five years due to rising costs, a growing population and a limited tax base. Regarding the forecasted gap, the city credits it to addressing aging infrastructure and other necessary renovations.
"Because much of Midland was built decades and decades ago and hasn't seen significant reinvestment, as those systems begin to fail — similar to what we saw with the manhole that fell in on Wadley Avenue — we have to have unbudgeted costs to be able to make repairs there," Mayor Lori Blong said. "We're working to where we can budget for potential failures that we can foresee, but those are rising costs that we know are coming because those things are going to continue to fail."
The city believes it will eventually bounce back based on its different efficiency plans.
"Think of this gap like an accordion," Novak said. "It expands and contracts based on what's happening with inflation with those capital needs, our debt obligations and economic cycles. But no matter how it shifts, we must have a plan to address it and get in front of it. We continue to highlight this because it's the driving force of everything that we're doing."
The efficiencies represent the many ways the Midland government has been able to save tens of millions of taxpayer dollars. These are split into two categories: recurring efficiencies, which save money on an annual basis; and one-time efficiencies, which save money in a single action. In the last year, recurring efficiencies saved the city $15.2 million, while one-time efficiencies saved them $101.3 million.
SAVINGS FROM RECURRING EFFICIENCIES
$10 million from a series of strategic policy changes and process improvements in the utilities department.
$2.1 million using an annual water leak detection service called Asterra. "We're going to be collecting basically every drop that's coming through the city system," Blong said. "It's also going to help us to conserve water over time, because people are understanding exactly how much water they're using. It surveys all of Midland and shows where the chlorine is. We want the chlorine to be in the known pipes; if we see chlorine outside the pipe, we know we have a leak."
$1 million from a subsidy elimination on Midland International Air and Space Port.
$870,000 via enterprise IT optimization in the IT service department. "That one is about going through and asking departments what technology they are using (and) are there redundancies (in software functionality) that we don't need," Novak said. "Really doing a deep dive and audit on all of those different softwares and eliminating those that the department no longer uses (or) we found a different product that was the same quality but cheaper."
$700,000 from a subsidy elimination on Hogan Park Golf Course. "That has reassessed fees and made sure that we were within the market standard, but raised those to be able to let that self-sustain," Blong said.
$500,000 from a pre-employment medical testing overhaul.
$28,412 by using Asterra to detect energy leaks.
SAVINGS FROM ONE-TIME EFFICIENCIES
$60 million by avoiding an obligation bond on the firefighter pension. "It was a significant savings; the way we did that, with the firefighters taking on a portion of that, we've saved the taxpayers $60 million," Blong said. Added Novak: "The decision was, 'Do we pay cash and the firefighters come to the table, or do we take this to the voters and make it a ballot decision?' Had that passed, there would have been $60 million in addition to the $120 million cost that we would have never seen.
$16.8 million from a series of private partnerships done as part of the numerous Beal Park renovations. "That's going to allow us to have a splash park, an amphitheater and some of those other things that we wouldn't have been able to do for a municipal park without them," Blong said.
$8.6 million from a grant from the Federal Highway Administration called Safe Streets and Roads for All.
$6.67 million via grants for upcoming Wildcatter Trail. "Those are grants that we've received through TxDOT and FHWA," Blong said.
$5.4 million after an audit on Midland International to determine fees that should have been subsidized. "Things that the FAA should have been paying for, or the airport should have been paying for, they're going to be paying that back," Blong said. "This offsets the burden of property tax payers."
$2.8 million via a federal ATP grant for airport terminal modernization.
$530,000 after a hotel occupancy tax audit.
$298,043 from the collection of delinquent accounts receivable, which was found through an audit.
$130,000 from a grant for Grasslands Park.
ACHIEVING A 'MODERN GOVERNMENT'
Overall, the efficiencies are designed to help Midland achieve what Blong and Novak dub a "modern government": being proactive, strategic, transparent and adaptable. Blong says she believes that the efficiencies have left her optimistic about Midland's capabilities going forward.
"There's some shock and awe in (the financial gap), certainly, and so we want to understand where we will be unless we find those efficiencies," Blong said. "Growing our revenue stream through fee-based services is part of that, but also finding efficiencies where we've previously bled money that we didn't have to. It's about both of these things, and we have to place equal importance, value and attention on both."
The efficiencies, as well as the enterprise funds, will continue to be discussed by the city as it plans its budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1.
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