GONZALES - On Monday, the Gonzales mayor tried to introduce the general fund budget, but no motion was passed, meaning the budget was not introduced.

The general fund budget is a little more than $22 million. Mayor Tim Riley said that if the budget was not properly introduced, a special meeting would need to be held before the council could vote on the budget in August.

As previously reported, there have been concerns with the city's budget, with some council members calling for transparency.

"We haven't seen financials in three months or sales tax figures in three months, and that's got a lot to do with the budget. Before we make decisions, we need to know all that," Gonzales Councilman Kirk Boudreaux said.

The budget introduces four new administrative positions: purchasing manager, warehouse associate, business license clerk and HR clerk. But earlier this year, city officials say two other positions were brought on: a secretary for Department of Public Works and an administrative chief of staff. Councilmembers say part of the problem stems from the disagreement over who approves new positions.

"It has a couple of positions in the budget that hasn't been approved by the council. We have our ordinance, any position created must come through the council. You have like three to four positions inside the budget that hasn't been approved by the council. It's working out little things like that, making sure everything is above board," Gonzales Councilman Tyler Turner said.

Riley said councilmembers take issue with the man he hired for chief of staff, Wade Petite.

"They really went after my chief of staff in the morning Advocate. They're saying that it's cause of him that they're not passing the budget," Riley said.

The role of chief of staff is new to the city. Riley said he appointed Petite at the beginning of the year. Past budgets list a similar job to chief of staff, the chief administrative officer (CAO) who also served as city clerk. Riley said the job of CAO is unfilled.

"We followed the advice of legal, everything I do, I get two or three opinions," Riley said. "I appointed him chief of staff. The same money that the CAO would have used to pay his salary, the chief of staff is getting paid off that salary, and he's getting paid less."

Councilmember Terri Lambert expressed to WBRZ that she would approve the budget after councilmembers are allowed to vote on the new positions and issued the following statement:

"The Gonzales City Municipal Code 2:159 states: (3) Action to CREATE, abolish, or reallocate a filled or vacant position shall be subject to ratification by the Mayor and City Council at its next regular meeting.  Until such time as this is rectified in the proposed budget, I will not be approving it. "

Some councilmembers say the budget must be up to code.

"It's just us making sure we've got everything done the proper way, making sure we follow all our ordinances and all the laws pertaining to the budget," Turner said.

WBRZ also spoke to councilmembers Eddie Williams and Cynthia Gray James who said they both support the existing budget.

The budget is to be voted on August 25. The budget can be found here.