NATCHEZ — City of Natchez leaders left a public budget hearing Monday with mixed emotions but no definitive decision on a budget that, if not adopted, could leave the city in a financial lurch.

During the one-and-a-half hour hearing, members of the Board of Aldermen uncovered several discrepancies in the budget, but established no clear plan of how to correct those errors.

Only four city residents attended the public hearing, which quickly turned into a discussion among members of the board, mostly.

Those discussions varied between specific line item budgeting questions for certain departments to general questions about the budgeting process.

But Alderwoman Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis brought up one issue that sparked the most collective discussion of the evening.

“If we get through this hearing and get into the board meeting and don’t agree … people won’t get paid,” Arceneaux-Mathis said. “I don’t want to get to Tuesday, not pass this budget and we don’t get paychecks out.”

The alderwoman’s comments stemmed from a delay in the legal advertisement of the budget and public hearing that stopped the city from adopting a budget by the Oct. 1 deadline.

Because the city missed the budget adoption deadline, it cannot legally spend money.

Though city payroll is processed on the 15th and 30th of every month, Arceneaux-Mathis and other board members expressed concern about what would happen if the budget wasn’t adopted next week.

“This is like a goal-line stance here, and the administration is going to make a play,” Alderman Dan Dillard said after the meeting. “But I don’t think anybody was satisfied or confident that this budgeting process has been successful.”

Frustrations appeared in the meeting when Mayor Butch Brown explained adjustments to salaries for several departments that board members pointed out had changed from a previous budget they had been given.

Brown said the increases stemmed from commitments he made when he hired certain employees that were promised a raise after an amount of time in their position or after a job performance review.

The changes in the salaries, Brown said, was a minor amount compared to the entire budget and money those employees earned through their work for the city.

Alderwoman Sarah Carter Smith said it was difficult to account for those changes in budget when the board members have no knowledge of agreements made between the mayor and certain employees.

“We weren’t aware of the deals,” Smith said.

Alderman Ricky Gray said he didn’t think it was fair to select only those particular employees for raises.

“We have a lot of great employees, but it’s just not fair who we pick and choose who we give raises to,” Gray said. “We have people living under the poverty line who need raises.”

Brown said an across-the-board raise would likely only happen if the board voted to increase taxes.

But Smith said she didn’t believe that was fair to the taxpayers.

“Until we have a good handle of our money, it’s hard to give a tax increase to our residents,” she said.

The city’s overall $37.7 million budget has a nearly $3 million surplus.

Brown said at the meeting Monday that a previous general fund budget deficit had been eliminated and a nearly $50,000 surplus now existed in the general fund.

Dillard said he felt the projected budget released Monday at the meeting contained several discrepancies and was drastically different than the one presented at a work session last week.

Until the board receives a consistent budget proposal, Dillard suggested the administration agree to no salary increases, no vehicle or equipment purchases and no new hiring until January.

“At least until we get a grip on everything, which I don’t think will be until January,” Dillard said. “That way we can wait to see what our revenues are and revise the budget up instead of hoping for these revenues and revising down.”

The meeting ended abruptly with Brown saying discussions had gotten off topic of the budget and urging the board to identify a plan.

Brown said after the meeting he would continue to examine the budget with City Clerk Donnie Holloway up until the board meeting next week.

“I assure you we will have a budget adopted,” Brown said. “We got some feedback (Monday) that we’ll go back and look at, but we will not let this pass any longer than it needs to.”