Council meeting 2025-07-07

Agenda · Packet · Minutes · YouTube · 3:03:25 long

Unreviewed automatic captions. Names are often wrong. Speakers are not identified. Check the video before quoting.

0:00I need three.

0:02That dude in here

0:07going to be the mirror today.

0:19Okay.

0:27Okay. call meeting in order uh with a

0:30prayer and our pledge. Uh [name],

0:35let us pray. Heavenly Father, we come to

0:37you this morning with praise and

0:38thanksgiving in our hearts. We thank you

0:40for the opportunity to gather here at

0:42city hall uh pertaining to all of the uh

0:45the business at hand. Uh we ask you to

0:48give us wisdom uh beyond any experience

0:52and knowledge that we would have, Lord,

0:54concerning all things. We also want to

0:57pray for all the people and all the

1:00families that's been affected

1:02uh by the tragedy of of the floods and

1:06loss of lives and children's lives and

1:08and people who have lost their

1:10possessions. Lord, we just lift them all

1:12up unto you and ask you to to bless them

1:15and the and the first responders and the

1:17law enforcement and all that are that

1:20are working in that area to bless them.

1:21And we thank you again for all your

1:24blessings in our lives. and we give you

1:25praise in Christ Jesus name we pray.

1:28Amen.

1:32I pledge allegiance to the flag of the

1:34United States of America and to the

1:37republic for which it stands. One nation

1:40under God, indivisible with liberty and

1:43justice for all.

1:52Okay.

1:54Have we got any recognizing visitor? We

1:57got any comments or

2:04I gave it to you in

2:06I gave it to you on Friday when we met.

2:10I can print off. What's the mayor's

2:13agenda? Yeah, I got everything.

2:17Yeah, I gave it to her on Friday.

2:19Yeah, from Friday.

2:21I got everything else.

2:24Okay. Uh, no comments. No, no comment.

2:27Anybody council?

2:29Um, yeah, sure. Um, just want to just

2:32let everyone know that the um freedom

2:35over Crockett, I I really enjoyed that.

2:38It kind of pulled off even though it

2:40kind of rained a little bit, but I think

2:42it turned out uh well overall. So, um I

2:46think this we just need to get a earlier

2:48start and uh but I appreciate all of the

2:52um do the sponsors. Um they they did a

2:56really good job. Um I know HB I don't

2:59want to start calling out a lot of names

3:00but it's because I may miss somebody but

3:03um we just appreciate them sponsoring

3:05that event for the community. So

3:07yes, you mean like an earlier start to

3:10for planning?

3:11Yes, planning. planning

3:13next year is 250 this year anniversary

3:16as well. So

3:17yes, sponsors sponsorship

3:20because I know that like the start of

3:22the fireworks itself was due to the

3:24weather.

3:25We still had it and that was good. It

3:27was a good show.

3:28It was

3:28really good show.

3:29Yeah. I'm just saying just planning

3:31overall. Yes.

3:33Okay.

3:36Okay. Uh need to get approval of minutes

3:39regret session June 16th 2025.

3:52Motion.

3:53I'll get a motion to approve the minutes

3:56of June 16th, 2025.

4:00I second.

4:03Okay. Been um motion and second. All

4:06approved.

4:11Okay. Item number two,

4:14consider and approve an interlocal

4:15agreement between the city of Crockett

4:17and Greatland Independent School

4:19District for the conveyance and welding

4:24stations of welding stations. Mayor and

4:26Council, um we talked about this a

4:29couple months ago and um did reach out

4:33to Crockett ISD, ask them if they were

4:37still interested or or if they were

4:39interested at all in the uh welding

4:42machines or um booth, welding booth, and

4:47they've just undergone a lot of

4:49renovations and work on their place, and

4:52they said they had no need for them and

4:54or space. uh for the welding booth and

4:57they didn't need any welding welders.

4:59So, um one of the uh one of the guys

5:04that works out at the Crockett ISD had

5:06actually transferred to uh Grain ISD was

5:09hired as a teacher for Grainland ISD and

5:12he said they have a lot of needs up

5:14there um for welding uh booths. They do

5:17have welders. They don't need the

5:18welders, but they needed they could

5:19definitely use the welding uh booths.

5:22And so we reached out to the school

5:24district and got uh their approval on

5:28their end for the interlocal agreement

5:29to transfer six uh welding stations. Uh

5:33there's they're double units. So it's

5:35actually 12 in total. Uh six units.

5:38Is that all of them?

5:40Yes.

5:40So I had to get it out of the way.

5:41That that gets those the contractors

5:43that are working out there at the

5:45Probalis building have already uh

5:47disconnected them all. Um all the

5:49electricity and everything. Uh they had

5:51uh uh this this past week they had um a

5:56uh

5:59convention

5:59convention uh the FFA convention and uh

6:02so this week hopefully when when they're

6:04back in town they're going to bring some

6:06trailers and stuff and we'll help load

6:08them up and get it transferred up there

6:09so they can connect them.

6:11So well so uh Great has a welding course

6:14or welding class that they're offering.

6:16have they have an act program for

6:20so they're implementing welding in the

6:22ACT program or

6:24I would expect yes ma'am they're

6:28but they said they could definitely use

6:30them so I just make a recommendation

6:32that we do this interlocal agreement to

6:34get the um property transferred

6:40and their board president has already

6:41signed off on

6:46I have a motion. Do

6:47we need a motion? Motion.

6:49Well, I make a motion we approve the

6:51interlocal agreement between the city of

6:53Crockett and Greatland Independent

6:55School District for the conveyance of

6:57the welding stations.

7:00I second.

7:03We have a motion and second. All in

7:05favor?

7:11Okay.

7:13Yeah, if we just approve the resolution

7:17as presented in the package.

7:18Okay. I want to u Okay. On number three,

7:21consider and approve a resolution

7:24um as described in

7:30uh for the city and the encore.

7:34Mayor, council, this is a was a lengthy

7:36header uh for this resolution. Um

7:39however just in short uh this resolution

7:42allows us to uh procure the uh the

7:45services um

7:48under the uh AOC it's alliance of encore

7:51cities um to represent the city

7:56um as well as other cities and encore

7:59distribution areas to um

8:04they're they're going through the PUC

8:06process of increasing their uh rates and

8:10on average this rate increase um to the

8:13a city of Crockett resident or business

8:17it's a distribution rate increase so

8:19it's about $7 um increase a month for

8:24their uh rate fees and so

8:28um we have under the AOC there's an

8:30alliance of encore cities uh the city of

8:33Corsa

8:35um heads up an alliance

8:38and they have a special counsel that

8:40attends the PUC hearings

8:43um and

8:45uh works with Encore to try to negotiate

8:48and lower that rate increase or provide

8:51s you know sufficient enough

8:53justification that before the PUC they

8:55can follow through with that rate

8:57increase. But hopefully it results in in

9:00some kind of a middle ground um to that

9:03rate increase. Um

9:07but they would represent um the city of

9:10Crockett as well as other cities that um

9:13enter this alliance. Um under the PUC

9:16rules uh we we don't pay for this

9:20representation.

9:21Encore is required to cover the cost of

9:24legal representation of of cities that

9:28uh require a PUC hearing and um rate

9:31justification.

9:40What show?

9:41So

9:43go ahead.

9:44So basically when I I see the law firm

9:47now that we will be hiring the Herrera

9:50Law and Associates.

9:52The firm that the AOC has hired is uh

9:56Yes. Yes ma'am. is um Herrera Law and

9:59Associates

10:02and they they specialize in special

10:05counsel for PUC PUC hearings.

10:11PUC being the Public Utilities

10:13Commission.

10:19Well, I'm I'm reading all this and um

10:21I'm just trying to figure out how to

10:22frame a

10:28a motion.

10:30So essentially um one other thing that I

10:33mentioned they so Encore when they sent

10:35the notice out they sent a binder about

10:38that thick about 5,000 pages with a

10:41thick volume. That's why we need

10:43representation and I I was just looking

10:46here at the package of data that they

10:48sent. Um, as far as the the motion, it

10:51would just be to to move to approve the

10:53resolution

10:55um

10:58between the by the city of Crockett

11:00suspending Encore's uh rate increase and

11:05um ultimately what it would do would

11:07allow us to enter the AOC alliance and

11:10hire special counsel, but all we need is

11:13a motion to approve this resolution.

11:15Well, I make a motion that we approve

11:16the resolution.

11:18I'll second

11:21a motion and a second. All in favor?

11:25Motion.

11:29Okay. Item number four,

11:32consider and approve an extension 30-day

11:34cure period for Lincoln Lumber Tax

11:36abatement and incentives agreement.

11:40Mayor and council. Um I presented I sent

11:43uh yesterday or last week I sent the um

11:46a letter from

11:48Lincoln Lumber. We issued them a notice

11:50of default after their closure out at

11:54the uh their Crockett site, their

11:56Lincoln Lumber Crockett site.

12:00They have come since come back and asked

12:02to meet with council and the

12:04commissioner's court to discuss some

12:07other items within this um uh they're

12:10not they're not um arguing that they are

12:15in default and that they are closing and

12:18that um the abatement agree and

12:21incentives agreement that we provided

12:23them um there's performance clauses in

12:26it that where they have to repay us

12:28forum tax abatements ments provided and

12:31incentives provided.

12:33However, they have some additional

12:35information that they would like to

12:36present to the to the board uh both

12:39council and uh commissioner's court and

12:42they're asking for well, I'm asking

12:44actually for a 30-day extension to allow

12:48us to sit down and meet with them and to

12:50discuss what they wish to provide to the

12:53city, the details that they would like

12:55to provide. They fill in a lot of ways.

12:57They've actually um

13:00surpassed or exceeded the initial

13:02requirements of our abatement agreement.

13:05However, the term they they're not

13:07currently in operation. And so due to

13:10that, they are in default. So that being

13:14said, in in order for me not to make any

13:16argument for or against them, I would

13:17like them to present to council and um

13:21to our our legal council and for a

13:25decision to be made on what if any

13:29concessions need to be made on uh what

13:31they are due back to what you know the

13:34taxes and the uh incentives that are due

13:36back to the city.

13:38So I would like to meet with them at

13:41another meeting.

13:42So there's in the original contractor

13:46agreement

13:48there's not a stipulation that addresses

13:52this situation that occurred. Amen.

13:56Yes sir. There is there's performance

13:57perform the performance clauses or the

14:00um the clawbacks.

14:02Yeah.

14:03In the agreement addresses what they owe

14:07back to the city if they do not complete

14:09their performance agreement.

14:10So they're they're challenging that.

14:12Um no not not really. They didn't say

14:15that they are challenging it. they'd

14:16wish to present more information and

14:18hope that council can come to

14:24a a resolution along with them. So, I'm

14:26sure that they're asking for some type

14:28of forgiveness since they they feel that

14:30they've over or exceeded uh the the

14:35agreement in some ways. So, that being

14:38said, I I can't make an argument

14:40Yeah.

14:40for them. They're going to have to

14:41present that argument or or that

14:44additional information to council and

14:46then y'all decide how to proceed.

14:48Well, I mean legally though, legally,

14:51can we

14:53I mean being a contract legally can we

14:56that's taxpayers money. I mean

14:58contract can be amended

15:01by agreement,

15:01but it should be amended before before

15:04the default

15:07not after really.

15:10I guess but what they're asking for is

15:12additional time to cure. So you never

15:14ask for that prior to default. You

15:16always ask for that after

15:18that's all they're asking for now is

15:20just addition.

15:20That's what they're asking.

15:21Yeah.

15:22They're saying, you know, don't default

15:24yet because the contract allows for cure

15:27time. They have time to cure it. They

15:29want additional time to cure it. And I

15:32think they have an argument as to

15:36how they can do that and how they

15:40exceeded expectations in other areas. So

15:42that everybody

15:44but in but in exceeding the expectations

15:49they they exceeded in in in their

15:52revenue as well.

15:53Sure.

15:54Well, I would like to know when when did

15:56we find out that that they were closing?

16:02I don't have the dates. I mean after I

16:04was provided notice.

16:06When did they provide you notice? I like

16:08I said, I don't have the dates in front

16:09of me right now, but after I provided me

16:12notice, I sent them

16:14I prepared a notice of default and sent

16:17that to them and then they've come back

16:19with with this. And like I say, in order

16:22to not get ahead of ourselves, I don't

16:23even know what they're going to be

16:24asking for.

16:25Okay.

16:26Um, so I'm not so I don't want us to

16:29talk, they may not even be asking for

16:31specifically on the financial side.

16:34They're also, like I said, one I went

16:36out there to meet them. They were

16:37meeting with another business to move in

16:41also. And then they were also talking

16:42about a couple other options to where

16:44they could continue operating out there.

16:47Um, so there's several things that they

16:49want to present.

16:50And that being said,

16:52I would like them to present to to to

16:56council and to the commissioner's court

16:58um

17:00what it is they had in mind.

17:03So, so back to square one, we just need

17:05an ext a 30-day extension.

17:07That's what I'm asking for. Okay.

17:0930 days to allow council and them to

17:14and let them make their presentation to

17:17the board.

17:18Yeah. So, with this, I mean, doing uh

17:21what you're suggesting, is this setting

17:24precedents for other businesses that

17:26come in? I mean, are we

17:28potentially depending on what it is

17:29they're asking? I don't know.

17:31Not not the

17:33I mean, in other words, every every

17:35business they come in and and leave or

17:38decide they want to leave our city, are

17:41they going to come and ask us for

17:44forgiveness because they did above and

17:47beyond the contract.

17:49So basically what they did was they

17:52honored the contract that we we agreed

17:55upon. Now the above and beyond maybe

17:58they needed that uh to um for their

18:03business.

18:04Sure.

18:04Uh

18:05that was their business business

18:06decision,

18:06right? For their business. So it's what

18:08it what it didn't include us. So I

18:11personally I mean we can you know

18:14discuss it further but I'm just worried

18:16about us setting precedence for other

18:17business because well

18:19we'd have to be careful of that that we

18:21didn't set a precedence for

18:22We've already said one. Yeah.

18:26Basically, I mean, if we do that, I

18:28mean, we got to make sure that if we if

18:31we I mean, I don't know what they're

18:33asking time.

18:34No, no, no, no, no. When we go in and

18:36talk with them and see what they're

18:38asking us well

18:39extra to do that I'm assuming that

18:42they're going to ask,

18:43but right now we just

18:45the 30-day cure period that that you're

18:47asking for. I mean, that's that doesn't

18:50settle anything. That just opens up the

18:52discussion,

18:53allows us time to meet

18:54Yeah. Yeah. and and and and it would

18:56come back to us.

18:58Yes.

18:59Yeah. Okay. All right.

19:01Yes, sir.

19:01Okay.

19:03Yeah. I make a motion to approve the

19:05extension of the 30-day cure period for

19:07Lincoln lumber tax abatement.

19:10Got a motion?

19:12I second. Got a motion and second. All

19:14in favor?

19:16Motion carries.

19:18Okay. I guess uh we're going into our

19:21fiscal year

19:2326 budget and council. We we sorry for

19:26that. We added the those additional

19:28items that had to that were under some

19:30time time uh crunch. So we added that to

19:34our special meeting today. Um that way

19:36we wouldn't have to have another a

19:38secondary meeting this afternoon. So we

19:42address it all during our special

19:43meeting this morning.

19:47Mayor and council, a lot of this is

19:48going to um this is

19:52on each one of y'all um to help leading

19:55lead and guide and provide

19:57recommendations. The B budget workshop

19:59and its intent is to allow us to present

20:03uh to council uh needs that are ongoing

20:05in the city that are not being addressed

20:08in our current year's budget. Um

20:12and that allows us to present these to

20:14council. council has the ability to

20:18um request more information if you if

20:21you don't have enough information or

20:23provide recommendations maybe of

20:25something that we even haven't thought

20:27about or you know some type of a middle

20:29ground between what we're asking for and

20:32what's what's reasonable. Um, so that

20:35being said, I'll start off with just a

20:37few talking points, a few budget points,

20:40um, to to lay the ground about

20:44any of these items that require

20:46additional funding where that funding

20:48comes from.

20:50Um, and to for y'all to formalize in

20:54y'all's mind as y'all hear as you hear

20:56these needs, uh, prioritize what is

21:01and you can put it any way you want, but

21:02what is really really needed, what is

21:06needed,

21:08what can be put off or what can be

21:10changed in in in

21:13and how it can be better u funded. So,

21:17um, at any point if you can stop, ask

21:20more questions. The initial points that

21:22I'm going to be talking about, I'm using

21:24draft numbers from the appraisal

21:26district and using some of our last

21:27year's numbers that are not out yet for

21:30this year. So, a lot of it is we're in

21:34the middle of of having to prepare for

21:36next year without knowing all of next

21:38year's specifics.

21:40Um, a lot of it is projections using the

21:44last few years worth of data and are we

21:48are we trending upwards, are we trending

21:50downwards, um, and things of that

21:52nature.

21:54Okay.

21:56I

21:58kind of uh with with the budget, I'm at

22:01the point to where I really don't know

22:04uh far as I guess the debt to revenue

22:06ratio. So um so

22:10it's um we have that broken down in our

22:13current budget. I don't have it once we

22:15prepare next year's budget then I'll

22:17I'll I'll present that to you. Um this

22:20year um this year it's in your budget

22:23books the debt to revenue and um the

22:26debt uh per capita and um as well as our

22:32M and INS which is our debt and our

22:34operations expenditure breakdown. that's

22:36in the back of your budget books that um

22:41that look like this here. The the our

22:43annual budget books. This is for this

22:45year.

22:46Let me see.

22:49All right. So, um

22:53here's just some of my projections

22:57using last year's uh revenue to date

23:01and looking forward. I don't feel

23:04comfortable to project any significant

23:06sales tax rate increases. I don't feel

23:09like we're on a downward trend, but

23:11we're also in the middle of of

23:15global

23:17global issues, local issues um within

23:20our

23:21within our country and and locally that

23:24anything could change that pro

23:25projection. So, um sales tax is healthy.

23:29Uh but I don't believe it's to the point

23:31to where we can um build in additional

23:36expenditures for next year that then we

23:38have to go and amend our budget because

23:40I I come back to you guys and say that

23:42sales tax is down and so far we haven't

23:44had to do that. um franchise revenue.

23:50That's um electrical, gas, cable, TV, uh

23:55telephone. All of our franchise revenues

23:59since I've been here have have decreased

24:02pretty much every year. That's on a

24:04downward trend. I think a lot of it as

24:06things move towards online,

24:09as things move towards more uh

24:12efficiencies like say electricity, LEDs

24:15change outs and things become more and

24:18more efficient and solar panels popping

24:20up on roofs and different things like

24:21that. Slowly that has decreased. Uh

24:25cable, everything's streaming. Um, a lot

24:28of those streaming services do not pay

24:30franchise fees or they're conglomerated

24:33into another service like Northland or

24:36Vive Cable. So, a lot of those

24:39that historically have funded cities for

24:42for them to go out and use our rideways,

24:45they no longer use our rightways in a

24:46lot of ways. Cell phones, you know,

24:48those don't use our rideways and they

24:50don't pay franchise fees. So, a lot of

24:52the things that we took for granted for

24:54bringing in revenue year-over-year are

24:56going away and they're not being

24:57replaced with new sources of revenue.

25:00What do you think the percentage

25:02uh decrease just say annually for the

25:05last couple of years? Um I mean do you

25:08have

25:09overall probably I've been building in

25:11roughly 5% decreases each and every

25:14year. Okay. Um this for instance this

25:17last year our uh our electrical

25:20franchise I budgeted um I believe it was

25:2529 uh 290,000 and we're we we got about

25:29280,000.

25:30So it's each and every year it decreases

25:34just a little bit

25:34and it's been showing that yes

25:36annually. Yeah.

25:36So where what are those numbers

25:39in the budget?

25:39In our budget book.

25:40Yes. Okay. So, so what what what do you

25:44think would be safe? I know you I know

25:48that's just projecting. I mean,

25:51look, just so so far what we've seen has

25:56held true pretty much every year. So,

25:58we've kept that in the budget by

26:00decreasing it around 5%. Um

26:06um so I feel like that's safe continuing

26:08that, you know, continuing about a 5%

26:11decrease because um all of that together

26:13um you know adds up to around $400,000

26:16when you're talking about all of our

26:18franchise revenue. And so um that's not

26:22a huge huge impact, but it's a

26:23significant portion of our budget and

26:26it's on a on a downward trend.

26:30Property tax revenue

26:32Um,

26:33last year

26:35we uh what we voted on last year was a

26:38no new revenue rate. So we decreased our

26:40our sale our property tax rate from 68

26:43cents to 63 cents. We we did a uh a

26:48decrease in our rate to match the

26:51increases in property valuations. So, as

26:55people's properties were valuated more,

26:58if we would have kept the same tax rate,

27:01we would have made more money as far as

27:03the city and county and stuff like that.

27:05We decreased ourselves our our property

27:08tax rate to not bring in any more money

27:11than the previous year.

27:13This year, we've been fortunate. We've

27:15seen additional, a lot of it hasn't hit

27:18the books yet or the tax goals yet, but

27:20we've seen in properties that were not

27:23part of any kind of incentives or

27:25agreements, we've seen a little over $5

27:28million in additional property

27:30valuations of new construction. So, we

27:33don't get penalized for new

27:34construction. When new construction

27:36happens, that's good. That's that's the

27:38only real healthy increase, not us

27:42trying to figure out people's current

27:44values and bump them up and change them

27:46like that. New properties, we can take

27:48full advantage of that. Um, that's good

27:51for the city. That if we adopted a no

27:55new revenue rate this year as well for

27:57everybody else that's paying taxes

27:59current, you know, from last year,

28:02their rates do not inc their the dollars

28:04that they pay in in taxes do not

28:05increase. So, it would require us to

28:08lower our tax rate again if we adopt a

28:10no new revenue rate, but it would still

28:13bring in about around $30,000 of new

28:16money

28:18because of the new construction.

28:20The voter approval rate

28:23stands to add 3.5% over last year's

28:26revenue. So, the amount of revenue that

28:29we brought in last year, about $2.4

28:31million, if you subtract $2.4 $4 million

28:34is what we bring in in property taxes.

28:37Um if if you subtract the debt out of

28:41that, we end up with about $1.9 million

28:43of money that helps fund police, fire,

28:46streets, parks,

28:48library,

28:50city hall, everything outside of water

28:52and sewer. The water and sewer

28:54departments have a separate fund that

28:56pays for those.

28:57That's if we raise them.

29:00If we raise it to 3.5, that's the voter

29:04approval tax rate. That's the amount

29:06that we're allowed to go up to, the 3.5%

29:09of additional money to not trigger an

29:12election.

29:14If we go over that amount,

29:17it's not immediate, but

29:20the citizens can petition for an

29:22election. If they feel like it's not

29:24justified or there's just we that it's

29:29just too much, then they can petition

29:31and I believe it's 3% of the registered

29:33voters can put a petition together and

29:36make it go onto the November ballot.

29:38Whether that holds true, if the if the

29:41election passes, then we can keep

29:43whatever rate council decides to keep or

29:46it will bump it will bump us back down

29:49to this voter approval rate, that 3.5%.

29:52Let's say we decided to go up 5%. And

29:55the election um overwhelmingly

29:59denies that, then it'll kick it back to

30:01the voter approval rate, which will only

30:03bring in about 69,000

30:05of additional money. Uh so this is

30:08so if you add those two together

30:10right at 100 was that 102 right at

30:13102,000

30:15is the only amount

30:18of new money that we can appropriate

30:22without triggering a potential election.

30:27That's the only amount of new money that

30:28can come into the city to help fund all

30:30of our needs that we're dealing with

30:32today. That's about $30,000 in

30:36for the no new revenue rate and the

30:38voter approval rate, which is the max

30:40allowed

30:42without triggering a a potential

30:44election. Um, that's a total of 100,000.

30:4830,000 is the amount that we can bring

30:50in without increasing taxes. Basically

30:54lowering our tax rate. So

30:57that's just a dra, you know, sir.

31:00Well, I was on the taxes, you know. I

31:03mean, don't get me wrong. I know we need

31:05taxes to make the city and help the city

31:08out, but it's it's not it's a lot of

31:11people that's struggling down here still

31:13with not without the jobs and stuff. So,

31:16until we start getting jobs coming in

31:18where people could pay their taxes, I'm

31:20not talking about everybody because I

31:22know

31:23a lot of people can pay their taxes, but

31:26I know a lot of people that can't pay

31:27their taxes right now. Why it's like

31:29that, you know? So,

31:31understand

31:32when we talking about taxes and stuff, I

31:34got to think about my people that can't

31:37pay the taxes right now, you know.

31:40Yes, sir.

31:41I would love I would love to see

31:44Crockett growing. Well, we can raise the

31:47taxes and everybody, but I'm not really

31:50with people losing their properties

31:52behind property taxes just because, you

31:54know,

31:56that's just me. Al also one thing I see

31:58too with raising property tax is that

32:01you have a lot of retirees that are here

32:04uh in this city. Uh everything's going

32:07up but their check is not. So I think we

32:10need to consider those elderly people,

32:12those people that are retiring. Um I

32:15think we need to consider them as well

32:17for sure. Um the majority of that is all

32:20um capped by uh exemptions. uh you have

32:2465 and older exemptions and or homestead

32:27exemptions. So it does not hit uh for

32:31the most part it does not hit those uh

32:33taxpayers.

32:34Which ones? Which which one?

32:36The 65 and older.

32:37Okay. But those retired?

32:39Yes. Yes, ma'am.

32:40Everybody not not 65 that's retired.

32:43Right. Understand. But but I'm saying I

32:45I clarified that by saying 65 and older.

32:48Okay. are provided um homestead

32:50exemptions and theirs are capped. Um so

32:55most of it falls to you know

33:01and probably most of the crowd so uh is

33:06the one that fits the bill.

33:08Well, I'm going to speak on the

33:09retirement.

33:09I agree.

33:10They have

33:12that hasn't met the 65

33:13that has I met the 65

33:16and checks not changes. Yeah. So, um,

33:21garbage rates, we've just gone through

33:22that. Um, to clarify, there's no

33:25expected increases on garbage rates. Um,

33:27and and our and our contractor is not

33:31requesting a garbage rate increase.

33:33Water rates, we have received uh 2% um a

33:37request or not really a request, but

33:40notification that our water rates are

33:41going up by 2%.

33:43Um I don't have all the dollar numbers

33:46on that. I have to run projections on

33:48water rates first and build that 2% in.

33:52Um but there'll be a slight uh just to

33:55remind y'all last year

33:57they can't take it away. What we don't

33:58use.

34:00We're under tax. We're under uh taker

34:03pay.

34:04We're under taker pay. So the part that

34:06we don't use we still pay for.

34:07That's what

34:09um water contract.

34:12Yes, sir. Water rates um last year went

34:17up as well, but we did not pass it on to

34:21the p the residents. We we absorbed the

34:25rate increase in our budget. Just these

34:29are just talking points. These are just

34:31to recol to to remind y'all last year

34:34and this year. So going forward,

34:41for every cent

34:44that we charge,

34:47we bring in about $42,000 in revenue in

34:52in new money for every 1 cent increase

34:54in our tax rate. That equals that 1 cent

34:58increase equals about $9.40 for the

35:01average home valuing bracket. So, when

35:04we're talking about the need for, hey,

35:06we really need to get

35:09this funded. Let's this is a priority.

35:10Let's find money for this.

35:13That's about what it boils about down to

35:15just in rough numbers.

35:16About 80 cents a month.

35:20Correct.

35:22Um, for every $42,000 in in revenue,

35:26it's $9.40 a year for the the average

35:29home value.

35:30Well, when you talk an average home,

35:31what's your average home? 98,000 or 94

35:34uh 94,000.

35:35So if you got a $500,000 home, that's

35:37going to be what?

35:38Five times that.

35:39Huh?

35:40Five.

35:40Five times that. Yeah.

35:41Um

35:42about $50,000. That was $50 a year.

35:45On that note, let me ask you a question

35:47real quick. Um so, and I guess I have

35:51not got clarity on you got the property

35:54tax rate. I have not got clarity on the

35:58monies from the economic development

36:01covering some of the property tax. So,

36:05we need to get clarity on that. I think

36:07a lot of people are still having

36:08questions and I do because I like to

36:11know how uh those uh funds or those uh

36:15monies are going to cover property taxes

36:18and if it's allowed,

36:20we spoke about it.

36:21Those debts haven't been served yet,

36:23though. So that money, what I'm doing is

36:26working with I'm working with our um

36:29bookkeeper to two things are going to

36:31have to happen on the EDC side of that

36:33sales tax that's coming in. One, we're

36:36going to have to amend um our budget,

36:38our EDC budget due to all the expenses

36:40that were built into that budget when it

36:43was approved versus current day

36:46expenses. and current day expenses were

36:50specified in our windown resolution that

36:53it could go only go EDC money could only

36:55go towards these items. And so we're

36:58going to have to amend our budget for

37:00the EDC sales tax to address this year

37:04as well as the next few years of budgets

37:09are going to be allocated specific

37:12expenditures for each of those

37:15allowable items.

37:17Okay.

37:18The biggest one is pay off the debt for

37:20the uh proalis building for the vote

37:23center. So legally, can we make changes?

37:26My understanding is that when we went to

37:29when we voted in November and in um

37:35EDC was no longer Crockett economic

37:37development was no longer my

37:39understanding that there were no changes

37:41or we couldn't use those funds for

37:43anything else but what it was for at

37:46that time.

37:47Correct.

37:47So how are we using any of these funds

37:51for it? because those

37:53the only thing that we're currently

37:55using them for or it can be used for in

37:57even in the future or only for items

38:00that were already obligated at that

38:01time.

38:02So that's the that's you're you're

38:04right. It's still the case.

38:05We can't come up with hey that'd be a

38:08good project for EDC funds. We can't do

38:10that anymore. It's done. And so it

38:12we've been doing it right.

38:13No, we're already voted on ahead of

38:15time.

38:15No ma'am. No, but another thing too,

38:18even a lot of things that we voted on

38:20ahead of time, like the phase build out

38:23and stuff like that.

38:23The vote center.

38:24Yeah. Vote techch center phase build

38:26out. We never got any numbers.

38:28All we said was

38:30that phase.

38:31Yes, ma'am. We

38:32So, when did we get those numbers?

38:33We built the budget number in.

38:34Win-win. Win-win.

38:36End of the wind down resolution that

38:38y'all approved. 640,000.

38:40So, I don't think it was even that much.

38:41I think it was 550 or something. Yeah.

38:44Okay. So is that what of 550? So

38:50so all of that money that was allocated

38:52then in the windown resolution is is the

38:54only amount of money that we can use

38:56towards finalizing any on the book

38:59projects.

39:00No more new projects. So once those

39:02projects are completed,

39:05then that money,

39:07right now it's around $750,000 a year,

39:11about 3/4 of a million dollars a year in

39:13sales tax from that that half cent sales

39:15tax. Then that money will be right now

39:19our our our sales taxes brings in around

39:221.9,

39:25right? $2 million. Not our sales tax,

39:27our property taxes,

39:29right? I just spoke of it. Yeah,

39:31we're bringing in that that 2 million

39:33that 750,000 from the sales tax is going

39:38to be plugged in there and then we only

39:40have to bring in property taxes for the

39:42remaining amount over and above that

39:44750,000.

39:46So somewhere around 30 40% of our sales

39:50tax or our property taxes will be funded

39:52by that sales tax.

39:53Well, I'm economic development.

39:55Yes, ma'am. At this point, it'll be

39:57called it'll be called a um

40:01property tax reduction tax, sales tax

40:04for property tax relief.

40:06So, did we we talked to the um the state

40:09controllers's office or

40:10Yes, ma'am.

40:11We we already spoke with someone there.

40:13Our attorneys have. Yes, ma'am.

40:14Everything's been addressed through our

40:16attorneys.

40:16Okay. What attorneys?

40:19Our special counsel, DNRBZ.

40:22Okay. We have any paperwork, anything?

40:25Yes, ma'am.

40:26Okay.

40:28So, the NR Okay, which is Dan.

40:34We still in a lot of debt with that

40:36building though, huh?

40:38Yeah. About 2 million. So, just that

40:40alone, just that sales tax, that that

40:42revenue alone of around 750,000 has to

40:45pay off about 2 million. So, we know

40:48that's around 2 and 1/2 years just for

40:50the that debt alone. So with that debt

40:53then so with that debt of my building

40:56and then the build out.

41:03So this gives you this gives you an idea

41:06of where this money comes from when

41:08we're talking about um when we're

41:12talking about our needs. Are there any

41:13like I said this is a high just a high

41:16level u refresher on that.

41:20Um

41:23so I would like to move into

41:26is there any questions on that?

41:29So next we'll move into our um capital

41:33request.

41:35One point that I want to make before we

41:37move into that there's two types of

41:39expenditures.

41:42There's an appropriational expenditure

41:44that

41:45whenever we whenever we approve

41:49a continuous expense personnel,

41:53it's not a onetime expense.

41:56capital requests

41:58that are a one-time in nature. If I can

42:02come up with funding for that one-time

42:04expense,

42:06we may not have to build it into our tax

42:09rate if it's a onetime expense. Hey, we

42:12have some additional reserves here. Um,

42:14some of the things that we're going to

42:16present back is I'm going to in a in our

42:18subse in a subsequent meeting, I'm going

42:20to bring back to council what um how

42:22much money we have left in our ARPA

42:24fund. uh we have to expand that I

42:27believe by the end of 2026.

42:29So we have a little bit of money left

42:31there.

42:32Um, and so

42:37that's a little bit different than

42:40costs that are year-over-year

42:42because I may be able to put a little

42:44bit of money that we have in hand now

42:46towards that, but then that goes away

42:49and it's going to have to come out of

42:50our tax out of our out of our revenue um

42:54for future years. So, um, cost of living

42:59adjustments,

43:00that's from now on. Um, new personnel,

43:04that's from now on. New programs,

43:07um, that's for now and and moving into

43:10the future. We have to come up with that

43:12money each and every year.

43:16So, um,

43:17would you uh explain those ARPA funds,

43:20please? what they're what what they

43:22actually what what they what what ARPA

43:25stands for and what what they're using.

43:27American Rescue Plan Act is what the

43:30ARPA it was Corona virus relief fund. It

43:33was a legislation that was um enacted um

43:38with a with a COVID relief some monies

43:42that were allocated to cities and

43:44counties throughout the US and uh we've

43:48used that money in the past to purchase

43:52police vehicles to repair um to purchase

43:56the animal shelter and repair it to get

43:59it up and refunctional. We've used it

44:01for items like that one time purchasing

44:04items. We've used it for the pavilion at

44:06it Williams Park. We use it to fix the

44:09pavilion in the big park or to paint it,

44:11sand blast it and paint it. Um things of

44:14that nature.

44:15The signs, the gateway signs that'll be

44:17funded from um that amount. So basically

44:20some of the some of the items that

44:21council has already allocated out of

44:24that fund. I need to subtract the ones

44:26that are currently still in the works

44:28such as the gateway signs and the other

44:30one is the fire station.

44:33Uh we've been working trying to get her

44:36to work in without having to being able

44:39to use the previous engineer drawings on

44:41that building without having to involve

44:43engineers again and find someone to

44:46provide a u an estimate on busting that

44:50concrete slab out at the fire station

44:52that's that's falling apart where the

44:54trucks are parked.

44:56We allocated some money for that. So

44:57there's a couple items that still need

44:59to come out of that fund. So, I would

45:01like to bring a a total to y'all of of

45:03unallocated amounts that are left

45:06and then we can use requests that are

45:09made today

45:11and and y'all can allocate some of those

45:14funds towards them

45:15with uh my my question is with those

45:17funds we could have repaired streets and

45:20infrastructure with that as well.

45:21Anything that the city does

45:23it could have been used towards. Yes,

45:25ma'am. Did we not think about

45:26prioritizing

45:28uh our city streets and infrastructure?

45:30Yes, ma'am. We did. We actually use a

45:32lot of those funds to purchase uh

45:34equipment. Like I said, you have onetime

45:37expenses to use that money towards

45:40to fix one street. We have 200 streets.

45:43So, what we used is some of that money

45:46to purchase equipment to where we could

45:48continue fixing those streets year over

45:50year. Um that money would immediately be

45:55sapped up by one project probably, you

45:57know.

45:58Um so, but we did think about that, but

46:00that's it was ultimately council's

46:02decision about what was the priorities.

46:04Wow.

46:05So,

46:07and that was and the streets were

46:08suggested as one of the priorities.

46:11They always are. That's that's the hot

46:13topic that we're always trying to find

46:15funding for.

46:15So, we can consider that this time.

46:17Okay.

46:20Okay. Um,

46:23would would you like to start?

46:29Give me a

46:30Sure.

46:31Give me a little break.

46:38Good morning, Mayor Council.

46:42I know that I've talked to most of y'all

46:44already. we

46:47had meeting. So, don't let my packet

46:50terrify. I know it's big and it entails

46:54a lot of money. So,

46:57uh I'll kind of just go through these

46:59and then if y'all have questions

47:02questions or if y'all want to meet

47:03another time,

47:06I'm good with whatever y'all choose. But

47:08we'll start out uh with the expansion of

47:12the police department or new

47:13construction. Uh those of you that were

47:16able to come over, I walked y'all

47:17through the uh the office and kind of

47:20talk to y'all about some of the issues

47:21that we were facing. Uh one of my

47:25long-term plans when I became chief was

47:28to build a new station because when this

47:30police department was built and

47:32finished, they had already outgrown it,

47:34but they had to work with what they had

47:36at the time. I understand that

47:39one of our biggest issues right now that

47:41we're facing with our current facility

47:43is our property and evidentially

47:47extremely small. Uh it lacks adequate

47:51ventilation and adequate storage. We're

47:55required to keep certain specific

47:57evidence items separate from one another

48:01and to have proper processing station.

48:05Bottom line is we just don't have the

48:07room there. We've looked at different

48:09ways to to try to make that happen with

48:12what we have, but ultimately at the very

48:15end, it also cannot be on an exterior

48:18wall, which is what we face now. That

48:21building set up the way it is, there's

48:24literally no possible way to have an

48:26evidential property room that's not on

48:28an exterior wall.

48:31Someone may ask, well, who who oversees

48:34that? Who manages that? There's no

48:38particular agency that specifically

48:40manages that other than our ethical

48:43commitment and moral value of presenting

48:47solid cases and solid evidence to the

48:50courts. Now, going forward, u you all

48:54hear me talk about the state is making a

48:56lot of changes. Uh T Cole is starting to

49:00become more involved um in law

49:03enforcement agencies. And one of their

49:05big pushes within the next three years,

49:08they're going to require all law

49:10enforcement agencies or municipality

49:12police department to become accredited.

49:16Accreditation is not necessarily a bad

49:18thing. um they would come in and audit

49:20us, make sure that our policies are up

49:23to date, that we're managing the police

49:25department the way we should, and we

49:28would be audited on that every so many

49:30years.

49:31One of the requirements in that

49:33accreditation is uh the evidence room

49:37and proper evidence management. Now,

49:39we'll be clear, the evidence room we

49:41have now and the process we use, our

49:43property officers doing a great job. Uh

49:46they can go in any need to and find any

49:48piece of evidence that that needs to be

49:50found to report. Um, space is a big

49:54issue and ventilation is even worse.

49:57Those of y'all that have even been

49:58stepped foot in the police department,

50:00you can smell the odor as soon as you

50:02walk in the door and that's that's

50:04always not a fun and healthy thing.

50:09Um, beyond just the evidence room, uh,

50:13space is extremely limited. Uh we have

50:15no formal interview room with

50:18interviewing equipment. We have no space

50:21to bring witnesses or victims in where

50:25they can sit down and talk to officers

50:28without tons of people around just

50:30because of the way that facility is set

50:32up.

50:34Storage is also an issue when it comes

50:36to storing piles, maintaining piles that

50:39we're required to keep for retention

50:41periods. So, uh, those are some of the

50:43things. Um, as far as some of the issues

50:47that we have,

50:49we've looked at two different two

50:51different things. Uh, expanding the

50:53police department out back. Um, adding

50:56about another 14-,500 square foot. Um,

51:00that's that's kind of a a fix for now.

51:03That would fix our property room issue.

51:05That would give us a little additional

51:07space. Essentially, we can make that

51:09work.

51:11there would be some some headaches with

51:13that talking with a contractor some of

51:15the things he would have to do. Um and

51:18he roughly estimated that uh to cost

51:21around he said between 630 and $800,000

51:27in that conversation we spoke about uh

51:29new construction from the ground up at

51:32the location and maybe the city already

51:33owns the property and he estimated

51:36roughly a 5,000t building constructed

51:40the way needs to be constructed at

51:42around 1.5 million. So, I put both of

51:45these houses in there so we can talk

51:47about going forward and determine what

51:49do we want to do. Do we want to spend

51:53between 6 and 800,000

51:56on a

51:58basically a remodel and an add-on? Or do

52:02we want to spend more money and think

52:04about 20 years down the road, 25 years

52:07down the road for the people that come

52:09after us?

52:10And that's that's something that I want

52:11to work with y'all on determine the best

52:13the best fit for the city. And with

52:16that, we're not we're not against a

52:18pre-existing structure. There's a

52:20structure somewhere in the city that

52:22that we feel like could be cost

52:24effective uh to to purchase and to

52:28renovate into a police department. I am

52:31open to that, too. My biggest focus

52:32right now is adding some additional

52:35space and getting our property room up

52:38to where to where it needs to be. That's

52:41one of the most important areas that we

52:43deal with.

52:49My thought on on funding this, I know

52:51that's it's a lot of money. Work a

52:53little bit with Mr. Time. We kind of

52:55talked about the funding side of this. I

52:59think we both agree it would take some

53:01type of tax note on extended multi-year

53:04payment plan to fund something like

53:06this. I put some breakdowns in in the

53:10packet kind of show you

53:13property values um all the way down to

53:16500,000

53:18what a 20 year 15year

53:22and 10 year note would cost uh the

53:25taxpayer per year kind of gives you an

53:29idea of what each taxpayer look at if

53:31this is something that y'all chose to go

53:34with. I also think that if uh If it's a

53:37situation that council is not

53:39comfortable saying, "Hey, we're going to

53:40authorize this. We're going to put this

53:42on the taxpayers." Um, I ask that we

53:45consider putting it before the vote. Uh,

53:48let the taxpayer speak and say, "Yes, we

53:50support this or no, we don't." But I

53:53think we have to do our due diligence in

53:56trying to fix some of these issues.

53:59the overall issue and and this is none

54:02of y'all are responsible for this years

54:05past as we've went things have been

54:07ignored

54:09happening pay sales vehicles facilities

54:13it's been ignored over the years uh

54:15where you get to a point where you're

54:18spending $2 million a million and a half

54:22and that's what I'm trying to prevent as

54:24we're going forward to not get to that

54:26point let's address a little bit of it

54:27as much as we

54:29So as we go forward, we're not looking

54:30at everything all at one time.

54:40You'll see next in the packet, I

54:42included mobile and portable radios. I

54:45included those

54:47with right after the uh facility plan

54:51that I feel like this is something that

54:53we could include on a tax note. Um

54:56you'll see three different options uh

54:59three different quotes in there. Uh the

55:01first quote is Motorola. Obviously that

55:03would be um something that would be my

55:07preference, but they're considered more

55:09expensive than than some of the other

55:12options that uh that I've included in

55:15here. I have included a higher wattage

55:18radio and a radio that's 7800

55:21compatible.

55:23at some point in the future we'll be

55:25moving to 7800 and again that's a

55:27situation that ultimately we're going to

55:29have to face. We may not have to face it

55:32right now in regards to using the 7800

55:36system but what we are going to have to

55:38face is the fact that our current radios

55:40are 25 plus years old and they're

55:42starting to go down. So, um, my idea of

55:45this is we purchase these radios that

55:49currently work for what we need, plus in

55:52the future when we go 7800, they will

55:54work for that with a software upgrade,

55:57software change, or a flip of a switch.

55:59So, we're not shelling out to $300,000

56:03multiple times. I think these radios

56:06would be adequate

56:08for us now and then in the future.

56:12Our

56:18next one is always a hot topic and

56:21that's a pay increase.

56:24Two and a half years ago, council voted

56:27to significantly increase

56:30the salaries

56:33which have been a huge factor in our

56:36retention. We're currently staffed and I

56:41believe for the first time in about 8

56:44years our agency has been fully staffed

56:47uh for consecutive years.

56:51That's large in part to the city uh

56:54increasing the salary pay.

56:59The unfortunate thing uh when we made

57:01that increase uh when it went into

57:04effect within six months later agencies

57:08around us increased another 10 to 20%.

57:12So where we leveled up a little bit with

57:14them within 6 months they went up again.

57:18I understand some of the otheries may

57:21have more income may have more tax base.

57:24Um, but I as your chief, I have to bring

57:27it to you. Uh, because at the end of the

57:29day,

57:32employees still expect uh good pay, uh,

57:36pay that they can live on, they can buy

57:38a house on, they can raise a family on.

57:40And I fear if we don't stay competitive,

57:44uh, we're going to be looking at a

57:46situation where we start losing officers

57:48again. Um, when your salary scale is not

57:52competitive with other agencies, it's

57:54very tough for retainment and

57:56recruitment because you're fighting a

57:59battle at the police academy saying,

58:00"Hey, come to work for Crockett. We've

58:02got a great department. We've got a

58:03great city government. We've got a great

58:05city and they look at your pay scale and

58:07then they look over at Huntsville or

58:09Walker County and they're like, "Chief,

58:11I appreciate it, but I'm headed over

58:13there." Um, I know it's tough to compete

58:16with with larger agencies. Huntsville,

58:18Lin, Tyler, but I think we have to try

58:21to meet in the middle somewhere uh to to

58:25stay competitive and to be able to

58:27retain the staff we have. I hope that as

58:31long as I'm here, we keep the staff we

58:33have here. We got a great department and

58:35a great group of officers, and I really

58:37want to retain the ones we have because

58:39they they really do a good job. And if

58:42it comes to a situation of having to

58:43recruit other officers, I will be uh

58:46competitive in recruiting good officers.

58:49Uh so in this I've included a 5 10 15%

58:54um option uh on the pay scale. You can

58:57see hourly and clearly what what that

59:01increase would be and what that what

59:03those numbers would be. Um,

59:07I'm just asking that you look at it and

59:10if there's a way possible to to address

59:12and I I said up to 15%. That doesn't

59:15mean that you all can't come up with

59:16something else, but I think if as long

59:19as we continue to address our pay scale

59:21each year, we will not get into a

59:23situation where one day we're looking at

59:25it and we have to go up 35% because

59:28we're so far behind.

59:31You'll see in included in that um

59:35officer proficiency pay. Two and a half

59:38years ago when we got that pay raise,

59:40the officers give up their uh incentive

59:43pay or certificate pay. U we've revamped

59:48this proficiency pay to where it

59:50requires them to obtain an intermediate

59:53advanced or a master peace officer

59:55license. Um, the more training these

59:58officers get, the better they are, uh,

1:00:01the better they can serve our citizens.

1:00:04U, it's not a lot, but it is an

1:00:06incentive for them to continue to

1:00:07maintain and to reach those goals.

1:00:10And on that second page, you'll see a

1:00:12breakdown of u what it would cost us

1:00:16this year if we did do this, that

1:00:19$7,800.

1:00:21Now this this is a fee that would be

1:00:24budgeted annually because that number is

1:00:27going to change maybe each year every

1:00:31two years those offices are going to

1:00:32advance up. So those are going to change

1:00:34a little bit as time goes. So I think

1:00:38that's something we would have to work

1:00:39to budget going forward because it's not

1:00:43just a one-time expense. It it would be

1:00:46something that we essentially be married

1:00:48to.

1:00:52Next in your packet, you'll see the

1:00:55increase of staff.

1:00:58I broke this down on a three-year plan

1:01:01with an overall goal in mind of adding

1:01:03five additional patrol officers uh to

1:01:06our board. In this plan, we utilize the

1:01:09COPS grant. That cops grant if funded

1:01:13would pay the full salary of these

1:01:16officers for the first year. Uh the

1:01:19second year the city would pay 25%.

1:01:24The third year the city would pay 50%.

1:01:28Uh fourth year the city would pay 75%

1:01:30and then that fifth year the city would

1:01:32pick up the full uh the full salary.

1:01:35Basically the grant would go away at

1:01:37that point. The only requirement of that

1:01:40grant is that we do hold them to that

1:01:43fifth year and pay that fifth year

1:01:45salary. Then if we choose a reduction in

1:01:47force or something of that nature, that

1:01:49would be up to the council. I don't

1:01:51recommend that. But I I tell you that to

1:01:54so that you understand that it's not

1:01:57we're married to it for 5 years, but

1:01:58after that fifth year, if you so chose

1:02:00to say, "Hey, we need to drop an

1:02:02officer." That's something that we could

1:02:07talk about. I would be against that, but

1:02:09that's just a solution that you have.

1:02:12What I'm really asking for on this is

1:02:15because applying for this grant, uh, if

1:02:18we were to obtain this grant, uh, there

1:02:21would be some requirements by the city

1:02:24that would cost the city. Uh, what I'm

1:02:26asking to do is to apply for this grant

1:02:29and see see if we're even awarded. Um

1:02:33that way going forward we'll know uh yes

1:02:37they've said we've approved you for one

1:02:39spot or we've approved you for two that

1:02:42way y'all are already involved in it and

1:02:45commit to those additional years or

1:02:47those future years

1:02:50if we so choose to do this

1:02:54and again that is something that before

1:02:56we made that final call obviously I

1:02:58would come back before y'all and say hey

1:03:01we've been awarded

1:03:03or we were awarded one. Uh, you know,

1:03:05what direction do we want to go? We

1:03:08currently have 10 patrolman that patrol

1:03:11the street. Um, we have two officers per

1:03:15shift. Uh, so at night or during the

1:03:17day, we have two patrolman that are

1:03:19responding to call, making traffic stops

1:03:22that are out there available. During the

1:03:25day shift, uh, we have our

1:03:27administrative staff, which is myself,

1:03:29my assistant chief, and my captain. Um,

1:03:32and I have two detectives that are

1:03:34handling obviously major crimes,

1:03:36burgies,

1:03:38um, frauds, sexual assaults, uh, things

1:03:42of that nature.

1:03:44Even as a small department, even our top

1:03:46admin, we go out and respond to calls.

1:03:49We work shifts from time to time just

1:03:51because it's necessary. The guys will be

1:03:54tied up, multiple call, we will go out

1:03:57and take those calls because that's what

1:03:59has to be done.

1:04:01U each one of those administrators that

1:04:04I name um have a list of duties that

1:04:07they're required to do as well. They're

1:04:08not when they're not taking calls,

1:04:10they're not just sitting in the office.

1:04:12Uh we'll take Captain [name] for instance.

1:04:14He's over our property.

1:04:16That's a daily chore. He's also our

1:04:19emergency management for the city of

1:04:21property. That's a daily chore. He's

1:04:24over our equipment and ordering um and

1:04:29validating making We have all that

1:04:30equipment. My assistant chief, the same

1:04:33thing. He's over reports. We can't just

1:04:36do reports and send them straight up the

1:04:37hill. They have to be checked off,

1:04:39approved, corrected. Um, among some of

1:04:43the duties that he does. So, there's a

1:04:44lot of things out there that that these

1:04:46guys do that are not out on the street

1:04:48that make that department run. If we

1:04:51didn't have those, our agency would not

1:04:54be nearly as successful as what we are.

1:04:59Uh the Texas average is 2.1 officers per

1:05:0210,000 residents. Uh we're set at about

1:05:051.3 officers per 10,000 residents.

1:05:09And when that that recommendation is

1:05:11patrol officers that respond that to

1:05:14calls for service.

1:05:17And the last thing you'll see in our

1:05:19packet is vehicles. Uh I'll be very

1:05:22upfront with you, our fleet right now is

1:05:25in probably the best shape that it's

1:05:27been in a long time.

1:05:30I do want to

1:05:32I don't say that to say that we don't

1:05:34need a new vehicle. I want to keep that

1:05:36rotation going so we don't get in the

1:05:38situation where we're buying four or

1:05:40five at a time like we have recently. I

1:05:43think if we can continue to rotate the

1:05:45older vehicles out

1:05:48as of late some of the other city

1:05:50departments have gotten use out of them

1:05:52or we seem to get more money from uh the

1:05:55auctioner from when we sell them. So,

1:05:57uh, I put two quotes in there. I know

1:06:00Councilman [name] really liked the truck

1:06:01and so did Councilman [name]. The trucks

1:06:04are considerably more expensive. Uh, but

1:06:08they are very nice. And then the Dodge

1:06:12Durango. We seem to still have a hard

1:06:15time getting our hands on Taho, but

1:06:17we've had good luck with the Durango.

1:06:20So, we're not against

1:06:23not against those. So, I will feel any

1:06:26questions or if y'all want to move on to

1:06:28somebody else and then set up a time,

1:06:30however youall want to handle that.

1:06:34Chief and Council [name] making notes

1:06:36over there.

1:06:38Well, Chief, um I got quite a few notes

1:06:40myself. Um I I've actually, you know, um

1:06:45as I took a tour of your facility, u Mr.

1:06:48Don Hill, he's the architect, and I

1:06:51spoke with him and um he said basically

1:06:54he could kind of sketch something out

1:06:56and and help you look at possibly uh

1:06:59remodeling to where you can uh open up

1:07:02some things there in your facility and

1:07:05possibly add on. So, I'm just saying

1:07:08maybe um move forward talking with him,

1:07:12see if he can sketch something out and

1:07:14see what we would have to do

1:07:16from there. Um, also, um, and you say

1:07:20the, um,

1:07:23your you said the raises that y'all

1:07:25received was two and a half years ago or

1:07:27you're last year.

1:07:29I'd have to go back and get the specific

1:07:30time frame, but I roughly I want to say

1:07:32it's been about two and a half years.

1:07:34Okay. You mean the one that's that the

1:07:36whole everybody got?

1:07:38Yes.

1:07:38Okay. That I think I recall that was

1:07:40last year.

1:07:41Last last

1:07:42It was 2022, I believe.

1:07:45We got a

1:07:47We gave a complicated we gave a cola

1:07:50cola raise. Okay.

1:07:52He's talking he's talking about when we

1:07:54we went out and did a um multi-ity

1:07:57survey to try to kind of level our uh

1:08:02catch up on a lot of our positions that

1:08:04were well underpaid in 2022

1:08:08is when we really did a big a big

1:08:10adjustment in pay. Then last year we did

1:08:14a

1:08:14Yeah, the last year we did a 2% for cost

1:08:17of living.

1:08:22Okay. Okay.

1:08:24What would you like to see, man? Would

1:08:25you like a new department or would you

1:08:27like to add um I mean I think about the

1:08:31future, too. You know,

1:08:32if you're asking my preference, I'll be

1:08:35very upfront. I love to see a new

1:08:37facility for multiple reasons. You build

1:08:40it the way you want it. It's a new face

1:08:42for the city. People see that new

1:08:45building. It adds

1:08:49makes the city attractive. You can see

1:08:51that new construction, but I'm at the

1:08:54point of whatever we have to do. So, I

1:08:57would love to see a new facility. Um,

1:09:00that way it be constructed the way that

1:09:02it should have been and should be

1:09:04constructed for future. Um, and the only

1:09:08way you can really do that is to start

1:09:10from the ground up. uh but to fix the

1:09:13problems we have and to get uh where I

1:09:17feel like we need to be to uh sustain

1:09:21our evidence management and what we have

1:09:23going right now I'm open to expansion.

1:09:27So, there's a lot of variables there.

1:09:30Like, uh, if if y'all said, "Hey, here's

1:09:32$2 million or a million and a half, do

1:09:35what you want to with it. I would build

1:09:37a new facility

1:09:39because I think that you can cut out any

1:09:42potential issues that you may have if

1:09:43you go from the ground up. Plus, it adds

1:09:47makes the city a little more attractive

1:09:49when people see it. So, that's if I had

1:09:51a wish list, that's that's what I would

1:09:53do. what's what's the difference or the

1:09:55prices to add on and uh get

1:09:59so the numbers that I have are rough

1:10:02estimates for the contractor that I met

1:10:04with uh there were many other

1:10:05contractors or many other people to talk

1:10:07to um his rough estimates were expansion

1:10:13and adding on between 600 and 800,000

1:10:17um a new facility he recommended around

1:10:205,000 square foot would be about 1.5

1:10:24million. So you're looking at about half

1:10:27or just under half.

1:10:29He the he the only contractor you talked

1:10:31to

1:10:31so far? Yes. I wanted to get more

1:10:35direction to see if this is something

1:10:37we're even interested in

1:10:40uh trying to obtain and how we're going

1:10:42to fund it uh before we start uh because

1:10:45if it's something we decide to do,

1:10:48there's a lot of steps to take when it

1:10:49comes to uh engineers contracting

1:10:53um getting specific quotes, being able

1:10:56to tell them specifically what we want

1:10:58because they don't just draw plans up

1:11:00for free. there's the cost associated

1:11:02with that. So, um he just happened to be

1:11:06willing to come over. Um I believe his

1:11:08company is the one that constructed

1:11:10Southland Federal Bank or Southland

1:11:12Federal Credit Union. Uh so he was

1:11:15willing to come over and take a look at

1:11:16it and offer him, but as I said, there's

1:11:19many other people. There's local

1:11:21contractors uh that might be interested,

1:11:24but I haven't taken those steps just

1:11:27yet.

1:11:28So with that being said, would out of

1:11:31everything that you presented to us

1:11:33today, what would you think or what

1:11:36would you suggest would be the most

1:11:38would be priority would be would how

1:11:41would you prioritize your your list your

1:11:43facility

1:11:44as far as importance?

1:11:45Yes. what's most important to you at

1:11:47what you

1:11:49rate uh any of my requests in here today

1:11:52uh as most important um I think you're

1:11:56talking about salary uh because I think

1:12:00uh just as every one of us in this room

1:12:03at times fight to make ends meet

1:12:07I know that my guys do too and I'm sure

1:12:10Mr. [name] and and everyone else in

1:12:12here. Um we have a different generation

1:12:16of people working for it today than we

1:12:18did 10 15 years ago. Um people to today

1:12:24if they don't feel like they're being

1:12:25fairly compensated, they will need they

1:12:28will go find the money that they need to

1:12:31uh

1:12:32survive,

1:12:33pay their house note to support their

1:12:34family uh because that's what they have

1:12:37to do. So, that's one of the most

1:12:39important things to me. Um, I in saying

1:12:43that, I don't want it to sound like

1:12:44we're not appreciative of the salary

1:12:46that we have because we've come a long

1:12:49way from when I first started here at

1:12:51$11 an hour. We've come a long way. Um,

1:12:55but just as it is for everybody, cost of

1:12:58living is skyrocketing. And these guys

1:13:01want to be able to buy homes just like

1:13:03everybody else. They want to be able to

1:13:04support their family. So, And then the

1:13:07the facility is a very close second and

1:13:10it's a very close second

1:13:13first because of the property. Um that's

1:13:16an issue that has to be addressed. No

1:13:18matter what we decide to do, we still

1:13:21have to find a way to address that

1:13:23issue. Um so in the coming weeks, I'm

1:13:27going to be working on different

1:13:28options. if we choose not to do a tax

1:13:31note and address that um different

1:13:34options to offer to fix that problem

1:13:36because at the end of the day um any

1:13:38issues that arise out of that evidence

1:13:41room come back on him because he's our

1:13:44current property officer and then come

1:13:47back on me and just as he said if we

1:13:51can't fix it I want to give it to

1:13:53somebody else because I don't want to be

1:13:54responsible for it and I I understand

1:13:56that. Um, and how do you go to somebody

1:13:59else and say, "Hey, I know we have all

1:14:01these issues, but I'm going to stick you

1:14:03in there and put you over." You can't do

1:14:05that knowing that that you have these

1:14:08issues, and I want to fix these issues

1:14:11before they become a problem and a

1:14:15blackout for the city. So,

1:14:18how old is that? How old is that

1:14:20building?

1:14:21Believe it was built or they moved in in

1:14:231993.

1:14:25Oh, 94. I was 11 years old.

1:14:29So basically, so basically actually, so

1:14:33we really I mean, so we're not

1:14:35addressing a new building because we're

1:14:38trying to make space your for your

1:14:39property room. So we're not looking at

1:14:41spending over $2 million to address a

1:14:44property room issue, right? So that's So

1:14:47with that being said, we could do a

1:14:50build out or a remodel or renovations

1:14:53there to make it to where it could serve

1:14:56its purpose uh for the time being until

1:14:59we come to to the economy and we can see

1:15:03what's going forward because we don't

1:15:05know what's coming right now. We have no

1:15:08idea what's going to happen with the

1:15:10economy. And I know a lot of the

1:15:11taxpayers right now are kind of like

1:15:14real leery and holding on to everything

1:15:16that they have. So with that being said,

1:15:19we we do I understand we do have to

1:15:21address the cuz I the property wrong

1:15:23because I went in there and I understand

1:15:25that. But I would say that we look at it

1:15:28to be more conservative uh on addressing

1:15:31issue far as spending. Um that's where

1:15:34I'm I'm I'm with that. Um, another thing

1:15:38too, uh, Chief, and not to, uh, you

1:15:41know, this is just me, um, I I think

1:15:44that, um, being that you only have two

1:15:47officers per shift, I'm thinking that we

1:15:50need to look at priorit prioritizing

1:15:53staffing um, the police department

1:15:57because when you have a call on one side

1:16:00of town and a call on the other side of

1:16:03town and

1:16:05where the where the officers and and you

1:16:07get a call at Walmart. Where are the

1:16:09officers?

1:16:10It goes once and and I've explained in

1:16:12some of the community roundts. Um I'll

1:16:15use an example if if we have a

1:16:17disturbance over we'll say on North

1:16:20Fourth Street. Um if it's a verbal or

1:16:23physical disturbance by policy and for

1:16:26safety reasons, both of those officers

1:16:28respond to that location.

1:16:31Sometimes those those call to service

1:16:33may last for 15 minutes. Sometimes it

1:16:36may be 45 depending on the situation.

1:16:39But during that time the rest of the

1:16:41city is left open.

1:16:42Yes.

1:16:42No one rolling around. Um

1:16:45no that not total correct. You still got

1:16:50can't detectives still do weekends.

1:16:53Currently I'm talking about night shift.

1:16:55Okay. So at night, u those those guys on

1:16:59the street, if they're on that call or

1:17:01something like that, um that's leaves

1:17:04the rest of the city open.

1:17:06U criminals figured that out real quick.

1:17:09[segment omitted]

1:17:13driving by to see if they're parked here

1:17:15or to see what they're doing, to see if

1:17:17they're in the office working on

1:17:18something and then go out and try to do

1:17:20something. Um people are getting smart.

1:17:23They're paying attention to what's going

1:17:24on. So, uh, two officers on the street

1:17:27tonight, um, can prove to be difficult.

1:17:30We try to be more proactive in stopping

1:17:32crime, um,

1:17:35reactive and coming back in and

1:17:37investigating. A lot of police work is

1:17:39reactive because the crime happens, you

1:17:41come in, try to solve it, and put

1:17:43someone in jail or charge someone for

1:17:45the crime. But it's also our duty to be

1:17:47proactive and try to prevent that from

1:17:51happening. And the only way you can do

1:17:52that is visibility and people moving

1:17:55around. Um, and at night that's that's

1:17:57tough with two officers. Day shift, uh,

1:18:01if we have a situation going on where we

1:18:03have two detectives in there, they're

1:18:05out of the office a lot because they're

1:18:07looking, they're reviewing surveillance

1:18:09videos, they're going to follow up with

1:18:11this person or they're going to follow

1:18:12up with that person. Um, a lot of people

1:18:14hear, uh, I know we've heard the term

1:18:17too many chiefs and not enough Indians.

1:18:19Um, a lot of people will bring that up

1:18:22at times because they don't truly know

1:18:24what uh those detectives are doing or

1:18:28what my assistant chief's doing, what my

1:18:30captain's doing. Um, are there times

1:18:33that that maybe they could step out and

1:18:36go patrol? Absolutely. I'm not going to

1:18:37lie to you. But there's majority of the

1:18:40time they're locked in to doing

1:18:42something that's required for the

1:18:44department or that helps make that

1:18:46department run. So, um I think staffing

1:18:50is important. Um and I think as the city

1:18:53continues to grow, we're way behind. If

1:18:55this city hit a gross bird this year or

1:18:58next year, we're way behind. And I see

1:19:00that coming. Not necessarily next year.

1:19:02Uh but within the next 5 years, I see

1:19:06our city growing.

1:19:08Yeah. Me, too.

1:19:09A lot more than what it is. Now, they

1:19:12say our population is under 7,000. Um I

1:19:16don't think those numbers are accurate.

1:19:18Um you see we see the traffic that's

1:19:20around the loop. Um at different times

1:19:24[segment omitted]

1:19:27traffic coming into Crockett. Um

1:19:31of course all those may not be staying

1:19:32here or living here but there's a lot of

1:19:34people that pass through this town and

1:19:36there's a lot of people here on the

1:19:37weekend.

1:19:39So I think uh if we start chipping away

1:19:43at staffing

1:19:45in 3 to 5 years, we're not going to be

1:19:47behind behind the a be ahead of it. So

1:19:52So with with that being said, we can

1:19:54agree that possibly staffing would be

1:19:57our number one um item on the agenda and

1:20:01then the property room would be possibly

1:20:04the second. I I don't think that I can I

1:20:07don't think that I'll change my uh that

1:20:10I can change my opinion. I do think

1:20:12staffing is very important. Um and it's

1:20:15very difficult to prioritize these. Uh

1:20:17because truthfully, my opinion,

1:20:19everything that I've talked to y'all

1:20:20about today

1:20:22is important. Um, but if I'm put on the

1:20:25spot and ask, I know what is going to

1:20:28cause um our department and our city as

1:20:32a whole and our city government the most

1:20:35problem and that being um inadequate

1:20:38facilities and that being turnover

1:20:42because of of salary. Um we can't do any

1:20:47of the rest of this stuff. We can't hire

1:20:49additional staff if we're not

1:20:51attractive. if our salary is not

1:20:54attractive.

1:20:55So, let me ask you,

1:20:56right now is primarily homegrown. We

1:21:00have one person that lives outside of

1:21:02Houston County and that person just

1:21:04bought a home in Houston County because

1:21:07they like the city. They like working

1:21:09here. So, you're not going to get Fort

1:21:12Worth PD, Austin PD, Houston PD, senior

1:21:16officers

1:21:17here for that. So I do think that thing

1:21:21is very important but I think we have to

1:21:23address salary to continue to be able to

1:21:27recruit those people.

1:21:28So chief the are these salaries

1:21:31that we have they're current

1:21:34so in that one uh

1:21:37like the current salaries

1:21:4045 for us 50 for Gralin and 56 for

1:21:43Madisonville.

1:21:44Yes sir.

1:21:45That's all current.

1:21:47That's our current starting

1:21:49uh salary for an officer out of the

1:21:52academy first year.

1:21:54So we're the lowest on the totem pole

1:21:56then.

1:21:57Yes.

1:21:58Now that's starting

1:21:59that's well yeah I mean

1:22:02you got to go too [name] and look at how

1:22:05many officers do Madisonville have.

1:22:07That's what

1:22:08how many lieutenants they got? How many

1:22:09sergeants they got? How many patrol

1:22:11officers?

1:22:11I understand. Yeah. I'm just I'm just

1:22:13they might have less enough so they're

1:22:14able to pay a little more. a lot like we

1:22:16are. I think they have 16 or 17 officers

1:22:20versus our 15. Um, their command staff

1:22:24is set up similar. Uh, I don't I don't

1:22:27recall if they had an assistant chief or

1:22:29not, but their staff is set up

1:22:31relatively the same. Now, they do have

1:22:33an interstate that runs through their

1:22:34city. Um, and they have some other maybe

1:22:39so they're closer to larger

1:22:41What's that?

1:22:41So, they're closer to a larger

1:22:43right city. Uh, Grain, uh, we can

1:22:47compare that all day long, but they only

1:22:49have

1:22:51five full-time offers. Um, so I know

1:22:54when you're talking about 15 versus

1:22:56five, that's that changes that changes

1:22:58the number. Um, but at the end of the

1:23:01day, it doesn't change the issue.

1:23:04And that's that's the that's what I have

1:23:07to bring to y'all to try to find a way

1:23:09to address. So, I don't want you

1:23:11thinking that uh adding staff is low

1:23:15priority. Um I think it's very high

1:23:17priority. Uh but I think we have to

1:23:20continue uh to focus on on things that

1:23:23can also get us in a legal bond.

1:23:27Uh things that are going to help attract

1:23:30those other officers that we're trying

1:23:31to hire. Um and I think those are are

1:23:35things that we have to look at in going

1:23:37forward.

1:23:39chief, not just to say, but I mean it

1:23:41could also get us in a legal bind with

1:23:43not having the adequate staffing. Uh,

1:23:46and that's a real legal bind that we

1:23:49could really really be in. So,

1:23:53uh, with that being said, some of those

1:23:55salaries that were increasing, we could

1:23:58hire more staff um there. So, am I

1:24:03correct or not? Well, so so yes, uh I

1:24:07guess technically what you're saying is

1:24:09correct. Uh but if if you're not

1:24:13increasing salaries and you're losing

1:24:15other people because they're going to

1:24:16find other jobs, now the five positions

1:24:20that you add that you haven't filled. Uh

1:24:22now you're going to add five more to it

1:24:24because people have left to go.

1:24:26So my question So my question is so far

1:24:30as retention, so that's retention. So

1:24:33basically, we're trying to retain our

1:24:35officers. So if we continue to so

1:24:40I guess compete with other cities that

1:24:44are larger than us, then we are we'll

1:24:47never get the staffing that we need.

1:24:50We got to pay.

1:24:51I'm not saying that.

1:24:53I mean, because we're we're we're we'll

1:24:55be way over budget. I mean, I asked u

1:24:58other day I asked um [name] to give me a

1:25:01copy of the employees. the

1:25:04um and we're we're

1:25:08we're topheavy really. We're really

1:25:11topheavy. Um to where we can't I mean

1:25:15I'm where we can't where where we're

1:25:19accommodating what we have and I know we

1:25:21need to retain everybody that we have

1:25:24and they're doing an excellent job but

1:25:27we are overloading our uh staff as well.

1:25:32Um,

1:25:34I mean, they're doing way more, you

1:25:38know, and and some things are going

1:25:39lacking because of the fact that, um,

1:25:43we're not we don't have the staff. We I

1:25:45mean, we have the we have the u

1:25:48supervisors and the the administration,

1:25:51but we don't have the staff. And we need

1:25:54we need the staff, not just in your

1:25:56department, but I've been looking at the

1:25:58whole I mean I mean some were left that

1:26:02off I believe, but just looking at the

1:26:04whole um pay report, we're topheavy and

1:26:09we need staff.

1:26:10Well, I think I think if you saw a

1:26:12breakdown and and I will get this for

1:26:14you and I'll get it for everybody. I

1:26:15think if you saw a breakdown of what

1:26:18each one of these supervisors were

1:26:21responsible for and the things that they

1:26:23do on a daily basis, um I think you

1:26:26would understand their positions and and

1:26:29understand that it may look like we're

1:26:31topheavy. U but even in li of these

1:26:34responsibilities, duties they have, they

1:26:37still go out and patrol. They still go

1:26:38out and answer calls. they still cover a

1:26:40ship if this officer needs off um all

1:26:44hours of the night taking phone calls,

1:26:45getting called in. Um whereas

1:26:49the other officers may not. If if

1:26:52they're a patrol officer, they're not

1:26:53working their ship. They're not getting

1:26:55called out for pulling dead bodies out

1:26:57of creek uh for investigating infant

1:27:01deaths or burglaries or fatal car

1:27:04crashes. those guys that are topheavy or

1:27:07those supervisors

1:27:09are getting called out to do that um all

1:27:11hours of the night.

1:27:14This pay scale, the way it's set up is

1:27:17to attract longevity. If that first year

1:27:21officer comes and looks and says, "Well,

1:27:22I know I'm going to start out at this,

1:27:23but man, in six years or if I promote to

1:27:26this, this is what I'm going to be

1:27:28making." Well, they have something to

1:27:31look forward to. they know what they're

1:27:32going to be making or they know what

1:27:34they what they have coming to them.

1:27:37They're a lot lot more likely to stay

1:27:39around and be committed to the city

1:27:41versus coming here for two years,

1:27:44getting really good training, and then

1:27:46going and being a great officer for

1:27:48Houston or Dallas or DPS. Um, we have to

1:27:52give them something to look forward to.

1:27:54And it may look topheavy, u, but in

1:27:58day-to-day operations, it's very light.

1:28:00Um, but I think the way this pay scale

1:28:03is set up, it gives these officers

1:28:05something to look forward to. Uh,

1:28:07because essentially, if you're looking

1:28:09at it now, you may think, well, there's

1:28:11not a lot of turnover. Well, um,

1:28:14our our top top guys

1:28:18are either at retirement age or close to

1:28:20it. Now, I'm not notifying y'all that

1:28:22I'm retiring or that my assistant

1:28:24chief's retiring, uh, but there's going

1:28:26to be room for growth in that department

1:28:28at some point. So, these guys have to

1:28:30look forward to. They know that if they

1:28:32stay here and they stay committed to the

1:28:35city

1:28:36that they they have something that

1:28:40will benefit them. So, uh we do need

1:28:44more boots on the ground. Yes. Um but I

1:28:47think we have to look at it as a whole

1:28:50to attract them and not only to attract

1:28:54them but to keep them here because it

1:28:56does us no good. If we get them here, we

1:28:58spend all the money to send them to the

1:29:00academy. We get them through a six-month

1:29:02FTO process and then in a year or two

1:29:04years and say, "Hey, I'm headed here."

1:29:07Um, it doesn't seem no good. And we do

1:29:09contracts,

1:29:11but at what point will someone agree to

1:29:13a three or five year contract?

1:29:16It's going to ultimately depend on what

1:29:18your salary uh schedule says and what

1:29:21they've got to look forward to in the

1:29:22future. So, um, I think everything works

1:29:26and everything's very important and as I

1:29:28said it's very difficult to prioritize

1:29:31um these particular requests because in

1:29:34my opinion they're all important and

1:29:36some of them uh actually rely on each

1:29:38other uh to to be successful.

1:29:42I have one one request for you, bro. Um,

1:29:46if you could get more than one uh bid

1:29:52from the guys that could do the

1:29:53construction for the

1:29:55Absolutely. If you can get about if you

1:29:57get about two more bids, maybe you can

1:30:00make them work,

1:30:03we'll reach out to see what what number

1:30:05we can get and what we can do and I'll

1:30:06present all that back to to each of

1:30:08y'all.

1:30:11Other than that, man, we want to help

1:30:12you, you know, doing a good job, bro.

1:30:18Thank you, [name]. Want to call

1:30:21Thank you for putting this report

1:30:22together. I appreciate it. Yeah,

1:30:24thank you much.

1:30:25Want to call for about a 5m minute

1:30:27recess so everybody can go stretch her

1:30:29legs

1:30:41old.

1:30:43Got to get it work out

1:30:50for coals. Yeah.

1:31:21Sometimes I have to make it. Right.

1:31:35Absolutely.

1:32:04I understand

1:32:08it works.

1:32:17Sure.

1:33:15No surviving. I do not

1:33:34drove up on that guy

1:33:40for

1:33:43his car.

1:33:56Oh man.

1:34:07They're starting now.

1:34:20because

1:34:47I think

1:35:00all chicken out there

1:35:05been busy on the oil change.

1:35:06They have.

1:35:07Mhm. That's good.

1:35:10I'll be gone Saturday and Sunday cuz

1:35:12next Saturday's

1:35:15anything comes up. We got to go do that

1:35:17uh [name] will be too.

1:35:21We got to go do that sheriff's

1:35:22convention for work.

1:35:25Is he singing it?

1:35:26Oh yeah, we do the morning Sunday

1:35:29morning service.

1:35:31Got to set up sound system.

1:35:34We'll do music and he'll speak a little

1:35:35bit.

1:35:39It's

1:35:40good getaway. We'll all go

1:35:43uh me and him and our of course our

1:35:45wives and the whole band will go down

1:35:46the stock barge and eat Saturday night.

1:35:50That's always fun.

1:35:53I guess they always have it in Fort

1:35:54Worth.

1:35:56They sometimes they have it in San

1:35:58Antonio. I like that too cuz you go on

1:36:01the river wall

1:36:03but the last few years it's been before

1:36:07pretty neat. We we pull up there

1:36:12up there and check in. They roll that

1:36:14big door up. I drive into the convention

1:36:16center.

1:36:17That's where they got all the cop cars.

1:36:21Helicopter and all kinds of stuff. all

1:36:23the radioic.

1:36:33I said they'll have cop cars, radios,

1:36:35helicopters, everything inside. They're

1:36:38all cheap, too.

1:36:39Yeah, they're all cheap. Got red and

1:36:41blue lights on it. Sure.

1:36:42Great budget interior.

1:36:44Yeah. You know, see, this is what I'm

1:36:46wanting to know. And I this is what I'm

1:36:50like

1:36:52for instance what

1:36:54how many patrol officers do they have

1:36:57other

1:37:01I don't know I know number-wise them and

1:37:04Madison and Bill are in number about the

1:37:07same as ours like number of I think

1:37:09we're 16 so they're right the same

1:37:14so

1:37:16give Or do I put uh

1:37:18I'll go in and type it.

1:37:19Okay.

1:37:22Your name

1:37:24sign I m I k

1:37:27I got that one. Spell that last one for

1:37:29me.

1:37:30Well, he the last one. M A R S A

1:37:39too.

1:37:41Forgot.

1:37:42What was that? put an X down there and

1:37:44I'll and I'll put a little X under it to

1:37:47verify.

1:37:55Well, you know,

1:37:59tax

1:38:03bies their sell their property tax since

1:38:06their since Bies opened up their

1:38:10property tax took a took a dive because

1:38:14sales taxes. Trevor said he went through

1:38:17there yesterday to drop off utility.

1:38:20Heather

1:38:22met him at Bies. He said when he pulled

1:38:25off first, he said I started hitting

1:38:28traffic in us all the way to Fairfield.

1:38:31When he got the Bies,

1:38:33he said there was a line to turn in that

1:38:36first driveway. He went on to the second

1:38:38turn in because the traffic the light

1:38:41was backed up too. When he turned in

1:38:44that driveway,

1:38:46it took him 15 minutes to get from there

1:38:49to the other side of the parking lot.

1:38:52That's crazy. keeping.

1:38:54He said he was so mad.

1:38:55The exit on

1:38:57there, they have to back it up close to

1:39:00half a mile.

1:39:01Well, they normally do one that exit to

1:39:04back it up close to half a mile to

1:39:06accommodate.

1:39:07Yep.

1:39:08Cuz people were pulling off on the

1:39:11interstate on the side to make that

1:39:12exit.

1:39:13But he said they were there were so many

1:39:15people going. He said you could not get

1:39:17through there to even get to the 21

1:39:21side. That's great.

1:39:24You seen the Circle T uh in Navasota?

1:39:27You've been in you got over there.

1:39:29Yeah. Yeah.

1:39:31That's the one that's coming out there

1:39:33on the South Loop. The Circle Tuck stop.

1:39:36Pretty pretty swinking.

1:39:40Is that the

1:39:42Is that got the uh what restaurant in

1:39:46there?

1:39:48Is that on OSR, right?

1:39:51No. No,

1:39:53that's that's a armies

1:39:57over there.

1:39:58Yeah. OSR.

1:39:59Yeah.

1:40:09Okay.

1:40:12We got quite a good lift. I just text

1:40:14him and told her I wasn't have lunch

1:40:15with.

1:40:17Well, get the fire department then.

1:40:21I got mine boiled down to one page.

1:40:24One page is

1:40:38Yeah. Is it cold?

1:40:46Where is

1:40:49it in one of these? Which one? Jens.

1:40:51Yeah, sure.

1:40:52It's Yeah, it's in there.

1:40:55Okay. Yeah.

1:41:01That's where we're at before the police

1:41:02department.

1:41:15This is the

1:41:17the only one that police department or

1:41:18fire department has.

1:41:23[Music]

1:41:47Get this time.

1:41:52It's a lift station

1:41:57when the

1:42:00so sewer all flows down great, right?

1:42:02You got to keep on flowing down. It

1:42:04don't won't go uphill.

1:42:07So on the south 19 side at Nottingham

1:42:09Woods over there by 2022, there are two

1:42:11areas where all the sewer flows to one

1:42:13point and then it has a lift station and

1:42:16it pumps it up about 30 ft.

1:42:18and gets it up closer to the top of the

1:42:20ground again and then flows to the

1:42:23treatment plants. We used to have four

1:42:26or five of them and with new technology

1:42:29we've eliminated we only have two lift

1:42:31stations now.

1:42:35Yeah, I'll explain that one. Um, this

1:42:37lift station here, it's a it's an old

1:42:40one and it's falling falling apart on 5

1:42:43minutes. Get your gap.

1:43:09Yeah, that's it's old.

1:43:18Okay, we'll resume the meeting. Uh,

1:43:21[name], I guess you're next. Fire

1:43:23department.

1:43:30[Laughter]

1:43:41Thank God.

1:43:44How about that this morning? I like to

1:43:45have a visual when I'm talking about

1:43:47something. So,

1:43:54all right.

1:43:57I've just asked for, as [name] was

1:43:59talking, you know, it's not really a

1:44:01capital onetime fee that I'm asking for.

1:44:03I'm asking for an extra or to add

1:44:06another firefighter to my staff.

1:44:08Currently, we got five paid

1:44:09firefighters. Uh they work two days on,

1:44:13four days off. Um

1:44:17and there's one shift that's missing the

1:44:19guys. So, every day of the week there's

1:44:21two firefighters at the station.

1:44:23that third that third uh shift that's

1:44:26missing that one extra person that this

1:44:28is the one I'm trying to fill. I'm

1:44:30feeling with some part-time people. Um

1:44:34and even sometimes that's hard if if

1:44:36they got they're working their other job

1:44:38and stuff like that. It's hard getting

1:44:40that

1:44:42person to get there to cover that shift

1:44:44and and I have worked those shifts too

1:44:47here in the last couple weeks. There

1:44:49have been people taking off and stuff

1:44:50like that. So

1:44:53I've been having to pull a 48 96 shift

1:44:56myself just so we got those two people

1:44:58there every day. I think we kind of set

1:45:01that at the standard to have the two

1:45:03people there, the B personnel. And on

1:45:06average, if you average the calls out,

1:45:08they are the ones that ask or running

1:45:11the calls, answering the calls, the two

1:45:13people are probably safe to say 95% of

1:45:16the pay staff is answering the calls.

1:45:19Uh, just let y'all know, and I want

1:45:21y'all to be aware of this. uh even that

1:45:23one person might not it'll help me now

1:45:26but in the long run as volunteerism is

1:45:29dying you know I was here last year

1:45:31asking for people I'm telling you I'm

1:45:33always needing people uh

1:45:36I consider us to be an aggressive

1:45:38aggressive department when I say

1:45:40aggressive department we're going to

1:45:41show up and we go inside the house we're

1:45:43going to put the fire out and save

1:45:45taxpayers money by uh not letting their

1:45:48house get completely burned we get in

1:45:50there knock the fire out and they have a

1:45:53sable house which they got insurance

1:45:55someday.

1:45:57Just to let y'all know, uh there's a

1:45:59rule in fire service. There's two people

1:46:02that goes in the house and there's two

1:46:04people outside the house, which we call

1:46:06the written team, which is rapid

1:46:08intervision team, to go in to save those

1:46:10two firefighters or help them rescue the

1:46:14innocent person on the inside. So, yes,

1:46:17we got those two firefighters. They're

1:46:19getting there to the scene. One's got to

1:46:22pump the truck and you got the one guy.

1:46:23We're not meeting that minimum

1:46:25requirement for two people two people

1:46:27out

1:46:28and and time is money in our business.

1:46:31The sooner we can get there, the sooner

1:46:33we can put the fire out, sooner we can

1:46:34go and do a primary search and make sure

1:46:37there's nobody in there. Yes, we do have

1:46:39mutual aid agreements with Lexo. They

1:46:42are also facing the volunteerism crisis,

1:46:45too. And the volunteers that are there

1:46:48were getting older. I can actually put

1:46:50myself in that where we need people that

1:46:53can go in pack out and stuff like that

1:46:55where there's all these rural

1:46:57departments they're having older people

1:46:59the younger generation not coming there.

1:47:01So yes, we got a mutual contract with

1:47:04Lexa who backs us up to help meet that

1:47:07two in two out person. But by time he

1:47:10pays in you're looking at them being

1:47:11anywhere on scene from six to six to 10

1:47:16minutes before they show up. And that's

1:47:19valuable time when the fire is burning.

1:47:21So, um, just not saying we're not, you

1:47:25know, our volunteer. I'm gonna go over

1:47:28that what I just handed you. Uh, our

1:47:31full-time staff is the one highlighted

1:47:33in blue. I just wanted y'all to see my

1:47:34roster what I'm working with. Uh, the

1:47:37part-time people that's in yellow. That

1:47:39means they only work when they're

1:47:41assigned to. They're not going to come

1:47:43in after hours or anything like that

1:47:45because some of those people, they don't

1:47:47even there's a couple of them that don't

1:47:49live here in property. So, they're only

1:47:51going to work when they're assigned to

1:47:52work. U the ones that's purple slash uh

1:47:57orange, those those are my two

1:48:00volunteers who also are certified and

1:48:02they can work part-time hours. When you

1:48:05fall down to the orange, that is

1:48:07actually all the volunteers that we have

1:48:09on our department this time. Uh so,

1:48:12Say eight to be safe. Six that's in the

1:48:15orange. But if those uh other two guys

1:48:19that's in the purple and orange pulling

1:48:21the shift, you might count those other

1:48:23guys not be responding. So at the end of

1:48:26the day, I have six people, six

1:48:28volunteers that are possibly

1:48:30responding to a call.

1:48:33I just there's a hard decision to be

1:48:36making in this is I want y'all to be

1:48:38aware of the decision I might have to

1:48:40make which going to reflect the city at

1:48:43some point. We're like I said we're

1:48:46correct department will go in and do

1:48:47stuff. There's going to be a time where

1:48:49we ain't going to have enough manpower

1:48:52on scene to meet that two in two and out

1:48:55and I'm going to have to make that

1:48:56decision.

1:48:58I can't send the two guys in because I

1:49:00am breaking what I can get in trouble

1:49:03with is the people that regulates us.

1:49:05Kind of like TCO for PE police

1:49:07department. It is Texas Commission on

1:49:09Fire Protection for us. So anytime we

1:49:12don't meet that requirement to in

1:49:15I got to send the report to TCF why I

1:49:19made that decision to do it. So at some

1:49:22point there's going to be a hard

1:49:23decision being made on my part. we can't

1:49:25go in because we don't have an adequate

1:49:28person to go save the firefighter if

1:49:29they get injured or you know we're going

1:49:33to have to do some surrounding and

1:49:34drowning which we don't like doing. Uh

1:49:37we take great pride in what we're doing

1:49:39and is this one person is a step in the

1:49:42right direction. Hopefully uh I'm

1:49:46currently working on trying to get like

1:49:48a junior program and to the schools to u

1:49:51I'm trying to get where we can get more

1:49:53volunteers. Um, uh, if y'all got any

1:49:57suggestions on how to do that, like I

1:49:58say every meeting, give them to me. I'm

1:50:00willing to try anything at this point to

1:50:02get volunteers. So,

1:50:05nutshell, basically, I just wanted y'all

1:50:07to see my roster and actually break it

1:50:09down to you because at every meeting, I

1:50:11said I got 17 people, but this is

1:50:13actually breaking them down. The paid

1:50:16guys, the part-time guys, the volunteer,

1:50:18and the part part-time volunteers. Um,

1:50:23so with that being said, uh, is there

1:50:26any questions for me?

1:50:28So you said when those guys go out and

1:50:31the volunteers, y'all call them in or

1:50:34how does that work?

1:50:35Every call that comes in for us, the

1:50:37volunteers, I got paid, we got apps on

1:50:39phone, so they're aware of it. We have a

1:50:41call,

1:50:42but they're at work. It's not like it

1:50:45used to be in, you know, 20, 30 years

1:50:46ago when the businesses are letting them

1:50:48go,

1:50:49you know, they're not there. business.

1:50:51They're not helping make any money. So,

1:50:52I understand that. But everybody knows

1:50:54when we get a call, everybody that's on

1:50:56this list either carries a pager or they

1:51:00get alert on their phone to respond to

1:51:01the fire department.

1:51:03So, have y'all considered uh like

1:51:05chief's doing apply for grants to assist

1:51:09the grant where that's what really

1:51:11started all our paid guys was grants.

1:51:13Well, this year they changed a lot of

1:51:14stuff where it used to be it was free at

1:51:17first or the first year was covered then

1:51:19it went down in percentage. Well, now

1:51:21the first year you got to pay 25%. So,

1:51:24this is what I'm trying to this is what

1:51:26I want to do is is get this position

1:51:28filled because like I said, two people

1:51:30is really not enough when you show up on

1:51:31scene. I want to apply for grants like

1:51:34[name] was talking about and get get

1:51:36that three where there's three people

1:51:38every day. So, you got the driver and

1:51:40two firefighters that can go in. So my

1:51:42my goal is to apply for the grants to

1:51:44meet three people a day so we can at

1:51:48least you know have stuff to work with

1:51:50or you know staggering where they bring

1:51:52the second truck and you know stuff like

1:51:54that. It's just it's always we adapt and

1:51:57overcome in this field know what works

1:51:59today is not going to work tomorrow. So

1:52:01you constantly got to over adapt with

1:52:03your manpower and all that stuff. So

1:52:05yes, I'm trying to just meet where this

1:52:08is like we got we get our two shifts

1:52:11every day then apply for the grants for

1:52:13those next three to have three people

1:52:15day.

1:52:16So what are your shifts? What are your

1:52:18our shifts or you work? There's a B and

1:52:21C shift. And like I said, they're

1:52:23they're they're at the station for 48

1:52:25hours. They sleep and stay at the

1:52:27station for 48 hours. And they're all

1:52:29four days. Most everybody on this that

1:52:32they got a second job and they work

1:52:34three or four days off. So most some two

1:52:36of those I can just about ride off

1:52:38that's not going to make a call if we

1:52:40have something after after hours.

1:52:42So do they have to stay at the station

1:52:44for 48 hours?

1:52:45Yes, they are. They are there. They show

1:52:47up at 7:00 in the morning then I'll

1:52:49leave to 48 hours later at 7:00 the next

1:52:52day.

1:52:53So that's what I'm saying. So they have

1:52:54to that's their job.

1:52:56There's upstairs

1:52:59I know we've been hit or miss on coming

1:53:01by the station but there's living

1:53:02quarters upstairs. There's bed, there's

1:53:04a kitchen, a bathroom, shower, and like

1:53:07a little couple chairs there and watch

1:53:09TV at night.

1:53:10Yeah. So is it required by the state

1:53:12that they stay 48 hours?

1:53:14It's not required. Uh we've tried like I

1:53:17said used to when this first came out

1:53:19full-time people and we had a lot of

1:53:21volunteers that couldn't come during the

1:53:24day. So we initially started out

1:53:26basically they worked uh 410 they was

1:53:29there during the hours then at night had

1:53:32a bunch of volunteers they would check

1:53:33you know we had the main fire that then

1:53:36that slowed down so we went to a 24-hour

1:53:39shift. Well a lot of people don't want

1:53:41to work a 24hour shift far as training

1:53:43people. They want to work that two days

1:53:45and they're all four days and then go

1:53:46work a second job and do something on

1:53:48the day off. That's a couple of the

1:53:51three of those actually. One two people

1:53:55work for different departments and one

1:53:57has their own business that they do

1:53:59stuff on their days off. So

1:54:04what do y'all do to try to get like

1:54:06volunteers?

1:54:08We reach down and paper. Uh last year I

1:54:10start I started earlier. went to the

1:54:12junior high talking just like hey you

1:54:15know look forward to this and you turn

1:54:1718 come b come give us your time we got

1:54:21grants that'll pay for your

1:54:22certification yes we know we might not

1:54:25be able to retain you but at least we

1:54:26got you and train you and have you in

1:54:29our community you know till they uh get

1:54:32their certification because as it is

1:54:35people the new generation of ch I don't

1:54:38like uh it's hard to retain people here

1:54:40like [name] was talking about, but most

1:54:42my people that are full-time, they live

1:54:45here and it was easier to retain those

1:54:47people. We'd like to hire from the end

1:54:50if we hire somebody before we hire from

1:54:52without. So, if we got somebody

1:54:53realistic two weeks internally, go

1:54:56ahead.

1:54:56See, uh, you know, people that's already

1:54:58here, best of here, don't want to move

1:55:00away like me. I never want to leave. I

1:55:02was born, raised here, never left here.

1:55:05Yeah.

1:55:06So

1:55:07always when we get a position we hire

1:55:09from within before we hire from so we're

1:55:12not having that revolving door because

1:55:14if we hire from without nine times out

1:55:16of 10 we're just they're just filling

1:55:18spots so they get on to a bigger

1:55:20department.

1:55:22So

1:55:23you think it's something else we may

1:55:24could do to try to get the word out

1:55:27maybe like

1:55:28I'll take suggestions. We've been in

1:55:30paper social media. Uh I just don't know

1:55:32what it uh if we can figure it out, we

1:55:35can retire at least nationwide as far as

1:55:38not getting volunteers. We had the

1:55:40newspaper, they come out, they done

1:55:42stuff in the paper. Um even when we do

1:55:45stuff like Walmart stuff, we got

1:55:46applications there. Hey, anybody want to

1:55:48join the fire department? Come talk to

1:55:50us. The deal is we have a lot of people

1:55:53that not a lot of people, they have

1:55:55people come there. Normally how it

1:55:57works, if you want to get on the fire

1:55:58department, you show up for one of our

1:55:59drill hunt, which is first Mondays and

1:56:02third Thursdays. Hey, come see what we

1:56:04do because it's not just, you know, put

1:56:08the wet stuff on the red stuff. You

1:56:09know, there's stuff we got to do. And

1:56:11some people that come to our drills and

1:56:13they're like, "Oh, I didn't know you

1:56:14done all this. I'm tapping out." M

1:56:16so I just if we could figure out what

1:56:19draws their attention and keep them here

1:56:22we could we could solve like I said it's

1:56:24not just a city crocket that's facing

1:56:25the this nation

1:56:31okay um so on the um but like you were

1:56:35saying about the 48 hours so you said

1:56:38it's not necessarily that they have to

1:56:40stay there the 48 hours it's just the

1:56:43schedule that you you 48 896 and they

1:56:47are they

1:56:48are on if any call drops those two

1:56:51people are there for that 48 hours to

1:56:53respond.

1:56:55So

1:56:55that's pretty much nationwide.

1:56:57Yes, that's most most departments that's

1:56:59Yeah. But when you have a small city um

1:57:01those fire department those fire u

1:57:05fighters don't usually stay

1:57:09uh 24 hours, do they?

1:57:11Yeah, people do. Yeah.

1:57:12Yeah.

1:57:13I mean I know somewhere like Houston or

1:57:15whatever. So what are the average calls?

1:57:16What are we what are we averaging far as

1:57:19the calls for the city?

1:57:22If you average your average is 1.5 calls

1:57:24a day if you average 1.5 calls. Some

1:57:28days that might be like on a storm day

1:57:30that might be 14 calls. Uh or usually

1:57:35this time of year we're into grass fire

1:57:37season. But thank God for the rain that

1:57:40we received and we're not really high in

1:57:42the grass fires now. But, you know, it

1:57:46might be they might go a day, they might

1:57:47not be available, but they got stuff

1:57:50they do Monday through through seven

1:57:52days a week. There's a check. They check

1:57:54the trucks off every day. There's stuff

1:57:56we got to do like air packs, all that

1:57:58stuff. So, the trucks are all ready to

1:58:01go. And that's how we catch stuff that

1:58:03might be broken or stuff like that.

1:58:05Every day is a every day is a truck. So,

1:58:08this truck is being washed this day.

1:58:10We're checking all the equipment on it.

1:58:12Even though it's that truck, but the

1:58:14guys that there were air pack or the

1:58:16paid guys, they got to check off on two

1:58:18more trucks on those air packs. Make

1:58:20sure they're ready to go because they

1:58:21might not go in our first time. They

1:58:24might have to go into the county engine

1:58:26or or another engine. So, they're always

1:58:29prepared to go in whatever truck and

1:58:31they're checked off to go on the air.

1:58:36For most big say a bigger department you

1:58:39got one truck one station. We got

1:58:43several trucks one station that meets

1:58:47different requirements. We don't have

1:58:49several departments that this one's for

1:58:51house fire this one. This one's for we

1:58:54do all of it.

1:58:55So my next question is and I'm not

1:58:58trying to call you out or anything but

1:59:01so from what budget are we paying Mr.

1:59:05[name], are we paying from the fire

1:59:07department budget or the city budget?

1:59:10It is there is a as it is right now

1:59:13there's a fire department budget and

1:59:16there's a fire marshal budget. So the

1:59:18fire marshall budget is a budget

1:59:20separated. Uh when I was fire marshall

1:59:23we had to have a separate budget. That's

1:59:25we I met the requirements for

1:59:28stuff with the police side of it. So

1:59:31that's how we had to break them up back

1:59:34in 2014. Had a break it up.

1:59:39Okay. So we're paying Mr. [name] from

1:59:40the fire the fire marshall budget.

1:59:48Okay. Okay.

1:59:57Have you uh

2:00:01at all? Maybe uh with us going into the

2:00:05county so much and uh using our paid

2:00:09firefighters to go about maybe

2:00:11contacting ESD about providing a

2:00:14full-time firefighter for Crockett.

2:00:18I don't think they will. They might go

2:00:19up on our annual their annual payment,

2:00:23but I mean, we do use our paid guys to

2:00:26go into the county, right?

2:00:28So, that would be an avenue avenue to

2:00:31maybe get one or two guys and let them

2:00:35say, "Hey, look, you know, we we're

2:00:37using our paid guys to go into the

2:00:39county to

2:00:40to cover." And

2:00:41that might be something where that

2:00:43contract should be coming up

2:00:46next year also. That contract's coming

2:00:48up. Uh because the current contract said

2:00:51we will provide

2:00:53As y'all was talking about contracts,

2:00:55the current contracts that we provide,

2:00:56the same service that we offer for the

2:00:59city of Crockett, they're the same. We

2:01:02give them the same uh deal. That might

2:01:05be something when it come time again.

2:01:07It's like, hey, we're going to offer you

2:01:10the same thing you get out. The

2:01:11volunteers that come in will be the one

2:01:13responding for y'all. So, but they're

2:01:17going into their budget their budget

2:01:20workshop I think next month.

2:01:22I would maybe mention something to them,

2:01:24you know, just say, "Hey, look, this is

2:01:26where the way we're going. Uh, we need

2:01:29help and

2:01:31we don't have the guys to go,

2:01:34you know, I I feel like they need to

2:01:36have a little bit of

2:01:37I am also

2:01:38I do. I feel like it.

2:01:42I think

2:01:42that being said, would you uh ask them

2:01:45to consider uh paying half

2:01:48I say a firefighter, a whole

2:01:50firefighter,

2:01:51half of all the all the salaries.

2:01:54I mean, if we we're using all the

2:01:56firefighters,

2:01:56y'all tell me what y'all want me to ask

2:01:59them. And I ask that y'all let [name] or

2:02:02Len somebody else come with me who has

2:02:05the data and so we can have a closed

2:02:08session meeting with them to discuss our

2:02:10contract and stuff. So I'd like somebody

2:02:12besid myself to be there too.

2:02:14I don't think directions how y'all want

2:02:16to go.

2:02:18All of them are going up.

2:02:19All I'm saying is is we we we do run

2:02:22more calls in the city so than we do the

2:02:25county. But uh and they all don't go.

2:02:30I mean what I'm saying? Yeah. When

2:02:32they're on duty. But

2:02:33um I'm just trying to get another

2:02:36firefighter and if they pay for it

2:02:41um

2:02:41cuz we're we're actually paying for six

2:02:44firefighters. We're actually paying for

2:02:46six. I mean we I mean because we have um

2:02:49[name] on there as a fire marshall.

2:02:52So we're already paying my name. Oh

2:02:55yeah, you too. I'm sorry.

2:02:58Seven. Okay.

2:02:59So, to let y'all know, like when I show

2:03:01up on scene as a chief, the way the TCFP

2:03:04rules are, I'm not supposed to I'm

2:03:07supposed to be the one overseeing the

2:03:08whole accident.

2:03:10TCFP, Texas Commission on Fire

2:03:12Protection, who governs our license. So,

2:03:15when I when I show up, I'm supposed to

2:03:17be the one directing the scene and scene

2:03:20safety, all that good stuff. But I do

2:03:23still fly. So, it's a small town. We

2:03:27don't have a lot of people.

2:03:29Who's over?

2:03:30And we're bound to have fire.

2:03:31Who's over y'all social media?

2:03:39I think y'all take advantage of social

2:03:40media. Make make flyers, pages. I mean,

2:03:44that's you got to put it out there, man.

2:03:46You got to take tell Kim she got to take

2:03:49more advantage of that social media and

2:03:51get the get the word out there, you

2:03:53know? make some nice little flies or

2:03:55something and you never know where it

2:03:57come from.

2:03:59There might be some other incentives

2:04:01that y'all would have to approve to

2:04:02attract.

2:04:04One thing I think [name] looked at in the

2:04:06past is how you're your fireman

2:04:10water bill. Not you don't have to pay

2:04:13water bill to live inside the ceiling.

2:04:14So that's something we got to come up

2:04:16some kind of senate to attract people to

2:04:19uh just know

2:04:20you're the chief, man.

2:04:22like that back in the day. But there's

2:04:24going to be minimum requirements you got

2:04:26you got to make, you know, because I

2:04:28don't just everybody, oh, I'll get a

2:04:29free water bill.

2:04:32So, they got minimum requirements.

2:04:35And also, y'all, as y'all look, there's

2:04:38a lot of empty spaces up there below my

2:04:40name. Those volunteers used to they used

2:04:43to be volunteer officers. So, those

2:04:46current volunteers aren't making a

2:04:49percentage a year to to get those

2:04:52volunteer officer positions. So, as

2:04:55y'all was saying, there's there's one

2:04:57chief and not enough Indians. In my

2:04:59case,

2:04:59I can see I can see probably, you know,

2:05:02one reason maybe that you're not getting

2:05:04the the volunteers because I mean, you

2:05:06have paid staff. So, a lot of them

2:05:09that's really wanting to come out, you

2:05:12they're like, well, if they're getting

2:05:13paid to do the job.

2:05:15Yes. And we ran into that. Uh just to

2:05:16give uh uh the last three, they're not

2:05:20going to show up till probably after

2:05:22hours. Uh actually the last one is uh he

2:05:27actually last month I mean he just got

2:05:29on last month and he made I would say

2:05:32almost every call. So I'm telling my pay

2:05:34guy cuz we got a app that shows you're

2:05:37coming to the station. I'll wait an

2:05:39extra two minutes for him to get there

2:05:41because he's trying to put his heart

2:05:43into it and we don't need to be leaving

2:05:45him at the station going. I'll just show

2:05:46the station off to do nothing or he

2:05:48don't get to do nothing. So, we're

2:05:50having to always adapt and overcome. So,

2:05:52we're staying that extra one or two or

2:05:54three minutes waiting on him to come in

2:05:56so he get experience as a fire

2:05:58department. So,

2:06:00we're used to that's all we got. We got

2:06:02to go.

2:06:04We slowed down this last month. Wait for

2:06:05these guys that are coming to the

2:06:08station. Let them let them get on the

2:06:09truck.

2:06:11I was uh also another incentive and I

2:06:14was looking at it um last year at last

2:06:17year's budget and I really didn't know

2:06:19what it was. I was really questioning it

2:06:21and uh I talked to [name] the other day

2:06:23about it and it was the incentive of for

2:06:26volunteers to uh come in and have a

2:06:29retirement. So, uh, I didn't even know

2:06:33that volunteers had a retirement.

2:06:37If they put in enough time, they will

2:06:39get a retirement. So, it's not going to

2:06:41be a lot, but it's, you know, when you

2:06:44retire, that's 100 bucks a month.

2:06:47153.

2:06:57That's something that we could look

2:06:58toward is maybe pay more do that. So it

2:07:01might draw some of the people like hey

2:07:03in 10 years bring home a couple.

2:07:11So you will look into um possibly

2:07:15applying for some type of or searching

2:07:17for some type of grants to

2:07:18Yes. That's going to be something I'm

2:07:20about to bring back to y'all. It's like

2:07:21okay year one we get three people we got

2:07:25to pay 25% of our salaries the first

2:07:27year. Then the second year we got to pay

2:07:3040%. Then the third year I think they

2:07:32even knocked it down.

2:07:35I think it used to be five years and now

2:07:37the fourth year is 100% yours.

2:07:40So is that something that you think that

2:07:42uh ESD would buy into?

2:07:46Maybe.

2:07:46How would that work? [name], what do you

2:07:48think? Yeah, I mean I I think it's

2:07:51reasonable if we provide a light

2:07:53service, whatever we do in the city and

2:07:55our citizens are paying taxes for, we

2:07:58should present that that same

2:08:01level of responsibility and footing the

2:08:03bill to the ESD.

2:08:05Um, like I said, the fire marshall, that

2:08:07position is for the city. It's for it's

2:08:09not that he doesn't work out in the

2:08:12county. But other than that position,

2:08:14everybody

2:08:16[name], whether it's a city call or

2:08:18inches, he goes and all of our

2:08:21firefighters go the same number of

2:08:24people, trucks and everything. And so I

2:08:26mean just that budget line item alone is

2:08:29370,000,

2:08:32you know. So I think it should be

2:08:33presented that they should cover half of

2:08:35it if they want the same service that

2:08:37the city provides because when they're

2:08:39gone to be loud or we somewhere else

2:08:42the city

2:08:43the city has zero people left in it for

2:08:45any of our fires

2:08:46and so that means that we're as a city

2:08:48is are paying

2:08:50are footing the bill for the county

2:08:51basically for the county.

2:08:52Mhm.

2:08:56that maybe we could I mean the other

2:08:58thing is um like you were mentioning

2:09:00we're in a a digital a digital

2:09:03environment where a lot of information

2:09:05it's easy to get out and get in the

2:09:07young people's minds

2:09:10kind of get it in the forefront of their

2:09:11mind maybe we do a few 10 second

2:09:1415-second like when you're scrolling on

2:09:17Facebook and those you know videos come

2:09:19up

2:09:20that's big man

2:09:21you show hey did you ever think that you

2:09:24could be this. We'll pay for the

2:09:25training. These are the benefits and

2:09:28give some just something to plug in

2:09:31their minds.

2:09:32We got to have social media, man. You

2:09:33got to take advantage.

2:09:34Did you say some type of compensation

2:09:36with that or no?

2:09:37Well, we we already have quite a few

2:09:39different incentives and and

2:09:41compensations like you were talking

2:09:42about just a minute ago, the retirement

2:09:43and

2:09:44you get paid for when you do go to these

2:09:46calls. We're not asking you to volunteer

2:09:48for free.

2:09:49We're compensating you some. So, that's

2:09:51additional sources of revenue and

2:09:53training. You can become a paid

2:09:55certified firefighter, EMT for

2:09:58and start working here full-time or for

2:10:00another city and we can provide all

2:10:02those at no cost.

2:10:04If you get somebody good in marketing

2:10:06and putting little that and PD, you

2:10:09know, and just plug this area within a

2:10:1250 mile radius, if you're around here

2:10:15and you're scrolling on Instagram or

2:10:16Facebook or Tik Tok, you get hit with

2:10:19those videos.

2:10:20People stay on social. Let

2:10:21people know how how much we need them.

2:10:24And you did say you you're thinking

2:10:25about attempting to implement a U junior

2:10:29firefighter program.

2:10:30Looking into that. That's something I

2:10:33requested out to uh to get the

2:10:36information and what's legal and all

2:10:38that stuff because

2:10:40they're not going to be able to go to a

2:10:42structure fire on a grass fire. But

2:10:45there's a lot of legal side to this

2:10:48person. I reached out to look at

2:10:51firefight.

2:11:01See, when I'm on social media, I don't I

2:11:03don't see nothing about Crockett fire

2:11:05department.

2:11:08I'm not I tell you right now, I'm not

2:11:10socially on social media stuff. That's

2:11:12not my

2:11:15push.

2:11:17But we need somebody to push. I see

2:11:20Crockett Police Department and

2:11:22I see them all the time. I don't see too

2:11:24much about the fire station.

2:11:26Yeah. And I don't have the time because

2:11:28we're so short-handed, but I don't have

2:11:29the time to sit there and type all that

2:11:31stuff cuz I'm dealing with the calls.

2:11:32Can we Can you get somebody though

2:11:34that's one of the one

2:11:35more money? They'd be more than happy to

2:11:36do it.

2:11:38We already paying them. Let's make them

2:11:39part of the

2:11:40And these are the guys that going to the

2:11:41calls, you know.

2:11:43So what they doing when they not going

2:11:45through the calls?

2:11:47sitting down social media person

2:11:51with some people see what we can come up

2:11:52with.

2:11:53We need it, man.

2:11:54Some of those pushes require extra $10

2:11:56here, $15 to push it out for a certain

2:11:58area and stuff like that. So,

2:12:01I mean, it's free.

2:12:05I just think in in general, I think if

2:12:07ES,

2:12:11I think they'll be good for the city. uh

2:12:14if especially when when they're

2:12:16receiving the same services and um and

2:12:19the city's actually put in the majority

2:12:21of the videos.

2:12:24All right.

2:12:27Thank you.

2:12:28Thank you much.

2:12:29Thank you.

2:12:32All right. Mayor Council, I know you you

2:12:34are starting to fade real quick, so I

2:12:36want to go through these. You stop me

2:12:39when you have a question. Um,

2:12:43as we build this budget, um, moving

2:12:45forward, um, based on y'all's

2:12:48recommendations and pro and and

2:12:50priorities,

2:12:52um, I'll continue keeping y'all up up to

2:12:54speed on what sources of revenue we have

2:12:57come in to to uh build any of these

2:13:00capital requests in from police, fire,

2:13:03and and public works. Um, and then um,

2:13:07we can build our budget base around

2:13:09this. The only one on this on that I'm

2:13:12going to be presenting to you that is a

2:13:14multi-year appropriation expense is the

2:13:17first one. Um

2:13:20like [name] said, I would not be doing

2:13:22our department service, our our our

2:13:25employee service if we didn't try to

2:13:28continue staying.

2:13:30Right now, we're behind the curve, but

2:13:32we need to continue trying to meet u

2:13:35meet the the needs of our employees and

2:13:37cost of living um increases. Um in 2022,

2:13:44the uh CPI for our region increased by

2:13:4711.2%

2:13:49to date. So

2:13:52reflecting the ongoing rise of of goods

2:13:54and services over that same period since

2:13:572022,

2:13:59the city has provided a two 2% cola that

2:14:02was implemented last year. Still leaving

2:14:04a pretty good gap that we gained a lot

2:14:06of ground, but if we don't continue

2:14:09pushing, we're going to lose a lot of

2:14:11that ground that we gained. Um,

2:14:15that being said, what we're the main

2:14:17thing that we're finding out with our

2:14:18employees are not what other cities are

2:14:20paying. Our employees that are leaving

2:14:22us are not going into other cities.

2:14:23They're going to the private sector. You

2:14:25know, they're going somewhere where we

2:14:28require them to maybe have CDLs. They

2:14:30can go to a company with a CDL and make

2:14:33significantly more. Uh, we try to

2:14:35attract them with good benefits, you

2:14:37know, paid health insurance and and

2:14:39retirement system and stuff like that.

2:14:41But like I say, a lot of the younger

2:14:43younger crowd that we're trying to have

2:14:46work for us, they're not necessarily

2:14:47looking at those long-term. They're not

2:14:49paying attention to retirement quite

2:14:51yet. They're looking at the dollar per

2:14:53hour. Um and if and so the ones that

2:14:55we're losing are going to the private

2:14:57sector a lot. So I really those are the

2:15:00ones that I want to address more than

2:15:01more than anything.

2:15:04Um I presented two two costs for all

2:15:07employees and that would be all city

2:15:09employees including the police

2:15:10department. Uh so for all city employees

2:15:14um for a 3% and this this covers the

2:15:18salaries and benefits because as you

2:15:19increase salaries the retirement

2:15:21percentages go up the FICA the amount

2:15:23that you put into workers you know

2:15:25compensation

2:15:27um all of that goes up. So it's 115,000

2:15:30for all all employees for 3% cola and

2:15:34it's a for a 5% is 191,000 for all city

2:15:38employees.

2:15:40Um,

2:15:43and [name], I said a few minutes ago, I

2:15:45mean, I appreciate all all the

2:15:47employees, but I think right now, now to

2:15:50me, I think right now with our local

2:15:53economy, the way things are going, I

2:15:56think that, you know, we need to

2:15:58possibly look at um the cola raise um in

2:16:02our next budget. Um we are and like I

2:16:07said earlier, we are top heavy and we

2:16:09going to have to figure out um our our

2:16:13staffing because um as I was talking to

2:16:16you the other day about Mr. [name], he

2:16:18needs staff. He needs he needs someone

2:16:21to assist him with those u the streets,

2:16:24the infrastructure. I mean, we need we

2:16:26need staff. And I understand and what

2:16:29I'm I'm seeing is I understand that

2:16:31you're saying, you know, we want to pay

2:16:33our people. Yes, we do want to pay our

2:16:35people, but we also need staff as well.

2:16:38I mean, u chief needs staff. I mean, we

2:16:41we're

2:16:43overloading our people here. Um when

2:16:47just say just like I'm just going to

2:16:49dismiss. Just like if the water

2:16:52department, you have one person in the

2:16:53water department. If she's sick, then

2:16:56you're pulling Miss [name] to go in the

2:16:58water department. Um, you have Mr.

2:17:01[name], I think that's his name. Mr.

2:17:03[name], you have him listed in the water

2:17:05department, but I don't know if he works

2:17:08in the water department of where he

2:17:10actually worked. So, what I'm saying is

2:17:13we're going to have to really look at

2:17:14our staffing plan. Um, you I mean, we

2:17:18have people in departments that they're

2:17:20not really working in those departments.

2:17:23They're all

2:17:24They're all being

2:17:25or either they or they labeled to be

2:17:27working in those departments and I don't

2:17:28know where they're working.

2:17:29Yeah, they are. So, um we we that that

2:17:33right there is a a very fine measure of

2:17:37we can we can choose to um increase

2:17:42people as we the the argument is 100%

2:17:45that we need more more people. I've been

2:17:47talking about with that with Mr. ulture

2:17:49for instance in the street department

2:17:51total of five people for all of our

2:17:53streets maintenance ditch work mowing

2:17:56patchwork nuke street construction so

2:17:59even when we're doing new projects we're

2:18:01bringing in parks department and water

2:18:03department to help us to get enough

2:18:05people all at once because you you need

2:18:06more than just a few people when you're

2:18:08having all that equipment out there.

2:18:10That being said,

2:18:12by putting that money and increasing

2:18:15staff and not maintaining

2:18:19salaries, we're also losing staff and we

2:18:21can't even maintain the people that we

2:18:23the positions that we currently have.

2:18:25Okay.

2:18:26And so why is it that we Yeah. Why is it

2:18:29that I mean that's what I'm saying. So

2:18:31we we we are overloading our staff. We

2:18:34we don't have the the staff. And I see

2:18:36what your point is. Your point is don't

2:18:39hire anybody. Just keep increasing the

2:18:42the salaries

2:18:43to keep the people maintained. But then

2:18:46you got the city going lacking.

2:18:48You have the the uh residents, they're

2:18:51the they're the they want their streets

2:18:53done. We got infrastructure that's

2:18:55that's going wrong like the other day

2:18:58the pipe busted on uh uh 229, you know.

2:19:03So I mean things like that. I mean, we

2:19:05we need to meet the needs of the

2:19:09residents. I mean, so much stuff that's

2:19:11things that have been um lacking in our

2:19:15city that has not been paid attention

2:19:17to. I think a lot of

2:19:18So, we need to start as a council, we

2:19:21need to start paying attention to the

2:19:22needs of the people. They want better

2:19:25streets. They want better

2:19:27infrastructure. Um I mean, that those

2:19:31are the two main things that they're

2:19:32they're asking,

2:19:33I think. So I think we need to address

2:19:35that.

2:19:35But they don't want to pay taxes.

2:19:37They aren't paying taxes.

2:19:38Well, we going to get

2:19:39hold rephrase that. We are paying taxes

2:19:42cuz I

2:19:44nevertheless not just being a council

2:19:47member.

2:19:48Well, let me rephrase.

2:19:48I am a taxpayer as well

2:19:51and I pay taxes religious.

2:19:53We all we all are.

2:19:54Okay. So that's what I'm saying. They

2:19:56don't want they don't want an increase

2:19:57in taxes. So, so, so the issue, the

2:20:00issue is this is the big dilemma people

2:20:04and as more it seems recently in the

2:20:07last few years, one the people have

2:20:09began to see something happening, but

2:20:12it's almost like it's not happening fast

2:20:14enough because it maintenance has been

2:20:17delayed for so many years, 30 and 40

2:20:20years with no real projects going on.

2:20:22We've been patch patchwork on top of

2:20:24patchwork and we've run out of time. So

2:20:27they see work getting done. Now we've

2:20:30overextended ourselves. Me and Mr.

2:20:32[name], we can sit down and tell you

2:20:33right now, the expectations on our

2:20:36departments has increased so much over

2:20:39the past few years because we've taken

2:20:42on a lot on our plate. And we're at the

2:20:44point one, we really need to chew up the

2:20:46stuff that's on our plate first with the

2:20:48people we we have before we take on too

2:20:51many more projects because we have lots

2:20:54of ongoing projects and and just a small

2:20:56amount of people to take care of it.

2:20:58That's right.

2:20:59So that's all we need.

2:21:00So the need I'm not arguing with you. I

2:21:02agree 100%. We do need more staff if you

2:21:05want to continue at the rate that we're

2:21:08that we've been working at. the amount

2:21:10of work that's been getting done. We've

2:21:12done seen a lot of progress, but what's

2:21:14happening is every project that we take

2:21:16on and bite, we take a bite out, we need

2:21:20to continue maintaining that project.

2:21:22that street that we fixed five to six

2:21:24years ago is already coming up for

2:21:27maintenance like another chip seal or

2:21:29and so if we continue more projects and

2:21:32don't finish the projects that we

2:21:34already started we're on a runaway train

2:21:37without we don't have the staff and the

2:21:38ability to keep this uh to keep it in

2:21:41this in this project trajectory. So yes,

2:21:45we need more people

2:21:47if you want to continue seeing the

2:21:49amount of work that's been getting done.

2:21:51We need more people and we need to keep

2:21:53we've our biggest struggle

2:21:56has been training people that finally

2:22:00get to know how to run our road grader,

2:22:02our chip sealer, our oil truck. Our old

2:22:04truck takes a you got to have a master's

2:22:06degree almost to run to know the system,

2:22:09the computer system and and run it

2:22:13without it. I mean, [name] knows that

2:22:17the the temperatures need to be so

2:22:19perfect. You know, the the speed that

2:22:22you're put distributing that oil and we

2:22:25we ultimately almost every project we

2:22:28have several

2:22:30hiccups trying to get these training

2:22:32everybody. And once we get somebody

2:22:34trained, okay, you're going you're

2:22:36you're operator for our oil truck. You

2:22:38you really got the knack for it.

2:22:40We lose that five people. I mean,

2:22:42I know that's what I'm saying.

2:22:43Five people. So, So once I

2:22:45the one call in sick then what?

2:22:48Y

2:22:48I agree 100%.

2:22:49If you got another if you got two people

2:22:51call in sick that day then what does it

2:22:52happen?

2:22:52I second that motion. So

2:22:54okay

2:22:54all of this I agree with. So that is the

2:22:57problem. If we lose one person one

2:22:59person either goes to another job we

2:23:02lose him for better pay somewhere else.

2:23:05One calls in sick or something happens.

2:23:07We're down by 20% of our employees right

2:23:09there. Bam. if two of them done it, we

2:23:11might as well just move to just a few

2:23:13patchwork that day and forget any

2:23:15projects that we had scheduled that

2:23:16week. So, I agree 100%. But we also as

2:23:20we train and teach these people how to

2:23:22run this equipment and become

2:23:23proficient, I got to try to stay

2:23:26competitive and keep those people. I

2:23:28could open up 20 more positions and they

2:23:30will all be empty.

2:23:33or the people that show up. We don't

2:23:34want them running that old truck or we

2:23:36don't want them running our motor grader

2:23:38because they'll take out every, you

2:23:39know,

2:23:40meter and hydrant in the in the

2:23:42neighborhood. So, it requires a balance

2:23:45is what I'm saying. I'm not arguing with

2:23:47you. I agree 100%. There's got to be a

2:23:49balance of what we're paying to retain

2:23:51people

2:23:53versus just saying, "Hey, let's add

2:23:54another $50,000 for a full salary

2:23:57package for somebody else, for another

2:23:59employee."

2:24:01and we've prioritized that and we one we

2:24:04can't recruit top talent especially

2:24:06somebody with a CDL or operating

2:24:07experience and we lose our people that

2:24:10we finally got trained that's kind of

2:24:12been a revolving door so I' got to try

2:24:14to maintain some some quality employees

2:24:16and bring in new people and not raise a

2:24:19dime in taxes so that's the big that's

2:24:21the big

2:24:21that's almost impossible

2:24:23it is it is 100% we're set up for

2:24:25failure we're continually being set up

2:24:27for more failure when

2:24:31we can't re increase revenue, but we

2:24:34need to continue doing more and more to

2:24:35stay on top of things and and catch up

2:24:37and and and go at the rate that we've

2:24:39already been going because we've we've

2:24:41made a bit of progress, but we're

2:24:44realizing quickly, whoa, we need to slow

2:24:46down and maintain the the stuff that's

2:24:49already on our plate before we bite off

2:24:51more. And I I think [name] was wanting

2:24:52to mention something. Yeah, we're

2:24:54basically faced with two sport. Either

2:24:56way you go, you're faced with a two

2:24:59sword. You been to the strip. The

2:25:02gentleman I had

2:25:04last year, he's gone. He left his job.

2:25:09So

2:25:11they jump in training now for the first

2:25:16opportunity to shoot this week, sometime

2:25:18this week on E Wilson. So we're waiting

2:25:22for 2x4.

2:25:23Yes, we need people, but yes, we need to

2:25:26retain some experience, too.

2:25:28Right?

2:25:29Because it's hard to feel experience,

2:25:31right?

2:25:31Once that person is gone, then you got

2:25:34to start all over again with somebody

2:25:36younger with the hopes that they got

2:25:40enough dog fight still around here.

2:25:42Because what what we've been discussing

2:25:44on the on the street crew and and on the

2:25:47water crew also is you get people

2:25:50trained and working good but social

2:25:52media always scrolling and when they see

2:25:56that job it's going to pay more

2:25:59they're gone.

2:26:00But my question is with that being said

2:26:02though do we continue to give raises

2:26:05every year? I mean to I mean I mean

2:26:08because looks like like I said we we're

2:26:10we're real we're we are topheavy. I I

2:26:13know you keep on talking about I mean

2:26:15I'm looking at this at these salaries

2:26:17here and I'm like I'm like where are the

2:26:20people that I mean I mean the the

2:26:23topheaviness is I'm like some of these

2:26:26these the jobs we could we could have

2:26:28hired some of these salaries we could

2:26:30have hired um extra people you know

2:26:34but then the work that those people then

2:26:36the work that those people are doing we

2:26:39won't have somebody qualified

2:26:41to do the work that those people are

2:26:43doing. We are when you say topheavy, we

2:26:45have very few supervisory positions. We

2:26:49do have good pay. I'm not up here

2:26:51fighting for a for for an increase for

2:26:52myself or for any of our topics.

2:26:54You're on there. So,

2:26:55cuz you asked for my salary and I gave

2:26:57you my salary. I'm not asking you for my

2:26:59salary increase. I haven't got a pay

2:27:01increase since I've been here in in nine

2:27:02years.

2:27:03No, not salary increase, but you got the

2:27:04cola.

2:27:05No, ma'am. I've I've I've refused cola

2:27:08increases since I've been here. And so,

2:27:09if heaviness, you want to look at me.

2:27:11You said you said for all, right? Last

2:27:14year

2:27:15he should get something.

2:27:16He's He's got plenty.

2:27:17He should get something.

2:27:18He's He's getting plenty.

2:27:19Well, when you when you

2:27:21For a city our size?

2:27:23No. For a city our size.

2:27:24For a city our size. Not close to

2:27:26For a city our size.

2:27:27Not close to a big city.

2:27:29He's $40,000 under other city.

2:27:32For a city our size, I get paid much

2:27:34much less than any other city manager.

2:27:36If we want

2:27:36those cities that you looked at, were

2:27:37they close to Houston, Dallas?

2:27:40No. go to center text. I'm talking about

2:27:42center.

2:27:42I'm talking about every city around us.

2:27:45Every city around us. So, that's another

2:27:47discussion that we can have.

2:27:49Cuz I'm I'm already ready to have that

2:27:51discussion as well.

2:27:52Mhm.

2:27:52What I'm fighting for right now is the

2:27:54people is all my entry level people,

2:27:57those five on his department, his

2:27:59patrolman. He I I guarantee you he'd be

2:28:01willing to give up his salary, any

2:28:03salary increases for all the topheavy

2:28:05people you're talking about. We have

2:28:07very few supervisors

2:28:10when it comes to that ratio of who's

2:28:12getting the work done. And the

2:28:14supervisors that we have are out there

2:28:15with oil on their hands, too.

2:28:17They're getting the work done with those

2:28:19people.

2:28:19And I understand that. But that's but

2:28:21it's the matter of like I said, I

2:28:23understand that. But he's he he he's

2:28:25he's one person and two people call in

2:28:28and he only has five on his staff. So, I

2:28:31mean

2:28:33I mean so we need staff really.

2:28:37I mean I would I would love I would love

2:28:39to see everybody getting paid more.

2:28:41But what about the people in the town?

2:28:44We we we're lacking the citizen res.

2:28:47Don't get me wrong. I would love to see

2:28:49everybody in the city get paid, but what

2:28:50about the other businesses up here

2:28:52that's struggling, man?

2:28:53Everybody is.

2:28:54I mean, you know,

2:28:55so that that's that's why y'all are

2:28:57sitting on council to look at these real

2:28:59numbers.

2:29:01There's nothing there's nothing being

2:29:03hidden up here. What what y'all need to

2:29:05make decision is how much work y'all

2:29:07want to get done and how much of a

2:29:08priority is it.

2:29:09So you believe for instance that we need

2:29:12more people.

2:29:14If that's the consensus of everybody

2:29:16else then we get more people. My consent

2:29:18my yes I need more people but I'm

2:29:22already concerned that I can't keep the

2:29:23people that I already have.

2:29:24Right?

2:29:25That's my number one concern. If I can

2:29:27address number one and my quick number

2:29:29two is, hey, we do need more people if

2:29:32you want to get the amount of work that

2:29:34you're expecting or the citizens are

2:29:35expecting. They're expecting everybody

2:29:38says they're everybody has the belief

2:29:40that their street is the worst. There

2:29:41needs to be next on the list for us to

2:29:44spread five people across 200 plus

2:29:46streets across this entire city and

2:29:48maintain the ones we got and expect to

2:29:51Yes. We're asking for failure. We're

2:29:54there's no way we can eat this. My

2:29:55question to you is, are we going to ask

2:29:59every year for an increase?

2:30:01Yes, absolutely. Cuz every year, every

2:30:04year everything goes up. Last year,

2:30:06y'all gave us the no new revenue rate,

2:30:09Mr.

2:30:10Yeah.

2:30:10You push for it. As a taxpayer,

2:30:13there ain't too many businesses coming

2:30:14down.

2:30:14As a taxpayer, I believe that is

2:30:16something that we always need to

2:30:18consider.

2:30:19100%.

2:30:20You going to raise my taxes. going to

2:30:22raise my taxes, but it's nothing, no

2:30:26money coming in here, man.

2:30:27Agree. What we need is

2:30:29a few jobs down here, a few people that

2:30:31got businesses down here that's doing

2:30:32real well.

2:30:34Yeah.

2:30:34But when somebody ride around here that

2:30:36got businesses that is hard to maintain

2:30:39and then you come through here and you

2:30:40see nothing but the city, hospital,

2:30:42police station, all that stuff is drawn.

2:30:44How you think that how you think that

2:30:46make them?

2:30:46I I agree 100%. But see, you look at

2:30:49stuff one way, you got to look at stuff

2:30:51everybody way.

2:30:52That's why from from my perspective,

2:30:54I love to see people getting paid, but

2:30:55we got to look at the whole town, man.

2:30:58From my perspective, our number one our

2:31:00number one priority is to bring bringing

2:31:02in new businesses, new values, new jobs.

2:31:06I'm with you.

2:31:07That's what we need to be prioritizing

2:31:08on. So, while we're pushing that, we

2:31:11still have an entire city that needs to

2:31:12be addressed.

2:31:13I'm with you on that. So for those

2:31:15struggling businesses, they're still

2:31:17parked. Their address is on a street

2:31:19that probably needs to be addressed.

2:31:21But you going to raise their taxes so

2:31:22you can get paid more.

2:31:24No,

2:31:25I'm that's that's I'm with everybody.

2:31:28It's also

2:31:30it's also just like [name] said a few

2:31:32moment I it's double double-edged sword.

2:31:34I mean as we're sitting here talking

2:31:36this and and I agree, but at the same

2:31:39time somebody was talking about

2:31:40scrolling earlier. these people who who

2:31:43have the who have the experience and and

2:31:45and and qualified and they and and maybe

2:31:50maybe they're they're hurting too,

2:31:52right?

2:31:53They need they need some more money.

2:31:55Well, when they find that job, when

2:31:57they're scrolling, they're going to go

2:31:59and they're going to inquire about it.

2:32:00Next thing you know, they're going to be

2:32:02packing up and they're going to be

2:32:04moving and and and and they're going to

2:32:05be somewhere else and then you're going

2:32:07to have to start all over again with

2:32:09somebody.

2:32:09Oh, I I totally understand that. But but

2:32:11so so the challenge is is keep these

2:32:15the people we got

2:32:16wonderful qualified people that we have

2:32:19uh you know and the way that you're

2:32:20going to keep them is you're going to

2:32:22have to give them

2:32:23more

2:32:23you know more and at the same time we

2:32:26got to have new but at the same time we

2:32:28got to try the best that we can in

2:32:31representing all our constituency and

2:32:33try to keep the taxes low but you we

2:32:36just we just can't always do everything

2:32:39you can't and I understand that. But I

2:32:41want you to understand where I'm coming

2:32:43from also.

2:32:44Oh, I do because I'm a taxpayer myself.

2:32:46I don't like to see. But I understand,

2:32:49you know, you got to pay you got to pay

2:32:51to play.

2:32:52Yeah. And and what we did last year,

2:32:55what we did last year is we did not

2:32:57apply it as a percentage because once

2:33:00again, if we're trying to address entry

2:33:02level pay, when we're trying to address

2:33:04recruiting and bringing in good

2:33:06qualified people, the ones that we're

2:33:08seeing the overturn are on the lower end

2:33:11of the pay scale, the entry level folk.

2:33:15That's why we did not do it based on a

2:33:16percentage. We did it on a fixed rate.

2:33:18Because when you do it based on a

2:33:20percentage, if you make more and you get

2:33:22a percentage of that salary,

2:33:24you make more. You ended up getting a

2:33:26bigger raise than those on the lower end

2:33:27of the scale.

2:33:28And so that's why we did not do it based

2:33:30on a percentage to try to address the

2:33:32people on the bottom end of the scale,

2:33:34you know, more. And and so whether it be

2:33:37that whether council says, let's look at

2:33:40let's find a me a medium ground. Let's

2:33:43let's address our entry level pay and

2:33:46give bigger colas on on that end of the

2:33:49of the scale. The ones that we're the

2:33:51ones the ones that we're seeing

2:33:53turnover, the ones that we're trying to

2:33:55train up and become the next

2:33:59supervisors in 5 years, you know, let's

2:34:01address those. I'm open th we we have to

2:34:06I have to bring it to your attention.

2:34:08Otherwise, I would not be doing the city

2:34:10a service. We just I think that we

2:34:12really need to like you say get together

2:34:14and really discuss and come up with a

2:34:17planar to try to retain u because I look

2:34:20back at at the state of Texas

2:34:22they didn't give a raise every year.

2:34:25I mean it was they gave a a

2:34:29we bar got a raise I mean we got a raise

2:34:33but it was not yearly. Right.

2:34:35So that's

2:34:36compare state salaries to cities though.

2:34:39Excuse me.

2:34:40Compare the state of Texas salary to the

2:34:42city and and the benefit

2:34:44what I knew what I knew now

2:34:46and the benefit.

2:34:46I work for the city.

2:34:48Yeah.

2:34:48I I applied for the city

2:34:50with no with with no insurance. We don't

2:34:53get insurance upon retirement. There's

2:34:54all the benefits that come with working

2:34:56for the state

2:34:57that are that come with retention built

2:35:00in that you don't want to leave the

2:35:01state once you start working for the

2:35:02state. I would have we don't take

2:35:04benefit.

2:35:04But don't get me wrong, I would love to

2:35:06see the cuz I know it's Mr. [name] and

2:35:08them and I stay beside the city work. I

2:35:10see him on call 247. I would love to

2:35:13give him extra money, man.

2:35:15So you you but you made a point and I'm

2:35:17going to finish it up with that. As we

2:35:19move forward with this, I'm telling you

2:35:21that we really need to consider in order

2:35:24to retain the people that we have, we

2:35:26really need to consider some type of a

2:35:28cost of living. I'm not dictating what

2:35:30it should be or how it should look. When

2:35:32you're talking about topheavy people, I

2:35:34want you to meet with me and highlight

2:35:36highlight those people so I can give you

2:35:38job descriptions and show what every All

2:35:40I can do is talk for myself right now.

2:35:42Oh yeah.

2:35:42Since I've been here since I've been

2:35:44here, please please look at me like

2:35:47you.

2:35:47So since I've been here, I have not

2:35:49taken any pay increases. Since I've been

2:35:52here, I've done nothing but take on more

2:35:54work and more work on my plate. Since

2:35:57I've in in this last year, um, my my my

2:36:01job load has doubled. Now I have to do

2:36:04an an entire different department. And

2:36:06y'all gave me nothing for that. And I

2:36:08willingly take it on and successfully

2:36:10tried to do my best at that job as well

2:36:13and in in economic development and

2:36:14business development and doing what I

2:36:16can to try to keep this city moving

2:36:18forward. And I've never come back

2:36:19complaining to you. And I never you

2:36:21never you'll never hear me complaining

2:36:22because if I don't feel happy or I don't

2:36:24feel like I'm doing my job, then you'll

2:36:27be looking I'll let you know, hey, I

2:36:28need to bow out. You need to find

2:36:30somebody else. But as long as I can

2:36:31successfully do my job, you're not going

2:36:33to hear me complaining. And I know all

2:36:36of my supervisors that are under me from

2:36:38from Mr. [name], from Mr. [name], from

2:36:41city secretary, from Miss [name], none

2:36:44of us are in here. We're here fighting

2:36:46for our people. We're here fighting for

2:36:47our people. That's why they're here

2:36:48today. They're not fighting for

2:36:50themselves. They're fighting for their

2:36:51people because they know what they're up

2:36:52against. And every one of us will put

2:36:54gloves on and go out there and work

2:36:55alongside those people. So our we are

2:36:58not topheavy when it comes to having too

2:37:01many chiefs and not enough Indians. If

2:37:03you're saying that you feel that those

2:37:05people are are paid too much, then I

2:37:06would be more than happy to show you

2:37:09numbers, to show you uh competitive

2:37:11rates, to show you our job descriptions

2:37:13to know that you have no doubt in your

2:37:15mind that we're we're underpaid as well,

2:37:17but we're doing it happily. We're happy

2:37:19to do it because that's why we're here.

2:37:21And so as we move forward, any money

2:37:24that I can find in the budget, I'm more

2:37:26than willing to try to work with y'all

2:37:28and show y'all options to try to attract

2:37:32and retain the people that we

2:37:35consistently see that we're losing.

2:37:37Patrolman, those are the ones that we're

2:37:39highest. We're losing the the most. You

2:37:42know, the turnover, the guy, all of our

2:37:45operators, our CDL drivers and

2:37:47operators, those are the ones that we're

2:37:49losing the most. And that's why we're

2:37:50bringing those numbers to you. Those are

2:37:52the ones that we need to retain.

2:37:56We can talk about more people, but I got

2:37:58to retain our quality employees first

2:38:01and keep them

2:38:02as soon as we train them. We need to be

2:38:04able to keep those people.

2:38:05And so I'll continue coming back

2:38:07throughout this budget workshop and we

2:38:08can talk about that how y'all want it to

2:38:10look. Um, I know we're running out a

2:38:12little bit out of time, so I want to

2:38:14plug through a few more of these, but I

2:38:16wanted that to be the first one because

2:38:17that isn't, you know, the number one

2:38:19that comes will come back every year

2:38:21and I and I requires an expense

2:38:23and I understand that. That's why I

2:38:25would say being that the Kell is the way

2:38:27it is now. Um, we don't of course we

2:38:30don't know. um we have a lot of issues

2:38:32going on and so I would look at me

2:38:35personally I would look at doing because

2:38:37we just did a cola raise I would look at

2:38:40doing uh looking at it on the next

2:38:42budget year. I that's what I could I

2:38:44could say cuz I'm I'm looking at you

2:38:46know possibly if we could hire staff

2:38:49because we'll never hire staff if we

2:38:51continue because I think you gave the

2:38:53same spill on last year for the raises

2:38:57and I I got it. I understand you're

2:38:59fighting. Let's move on.

2:39:00For the people, I'm talking.

2:39:03No, but this we in discussion.

2:39:05But anyway, um I can understand you

2:39:07fighting for your people. I I got it for

2:39:09for the for our people. I got that. I

2:39:12understand that. But we also have to

2:39:13look at what's what the residents are

2:39:15looking at as well. Because they're

2:39:17expecting out of us what what uh what

2:39:20their tax money is uh paying for.

2:39:23What our tax money.

2:39:24Yeah. Exactly. And they're paying for

2:39:25this. So, we need to respond. They

2:39:27elected us to to speak on their behalf

2:39:30and that's what we need to do. We need

2:39:31to stand up for th uh those tax uh our

2:39:35taxpayers.

2:39:36Yep.

2:39:36So I agree 100%.

2:39:38So saying that I I would suggest that we

2:39:41look at um looking at the um cola rates

2:39:45on on the next budget. That's just me.

2:39:47All right. So, um, here's a few of

2:39:50here's a few items that we need to be

2:39:51looking at, and I'll gladly meet with

2:39:53y'all, and and we can look at these

2:39:55more, um, one on- one, and with a few of

2:39:58y'all, I have when I've been able to

2:39:59meet with you. Um, something that we

2:40:01continue get a complaint about is, um,

2:40:04here in the council chambers, um, the

2:40:07the sound and the acoustics are are are

2:40:10bad. As soon as I raise the level of

2:40:13these um the speaker systems and the the

2:40:15volume in here, the echo creates such a

2:40:18feedback that I really I would I would

2:40:21like to see some carpet and some some

2:40:23acoustics

2:40:25addressed in here. Ever since we went

2:40:27from carpet flooring, since we went from

2:40:30carpet flooring to this uh and it's

2:40:32really good hard, you know, durable

2:40:34flooring, but it's not set for a system

2:40:37where we record in when we record and

2:40:40when we uh have uh speakers, uh, you

2:40:43know, microphones and stuff like that.

2:40:45So, that we've done from this point to

2:40:49the other end of the building. We've

2:40:50fixed all the cracks and the and the

2:40:52nicks and dings in the walls and we

2:40:54painted them. I want to finish this. Get

2:40:57some these chairs right here. I've put

2:40:59several screw that they're being held

2:41:01together. I' I fix these chairs

2:41:03regularly because the they're falling

2:41:05apart. Get some nice chairs for the

2:41:08audience to where we're nice, really

2:41:09respectable, presentable. Um, audience

2:41:12chairs here, carpet flooring to help on

2:41:15the acoustics and to finish painting

2:41:17this the the the city hall and the other

2:41:20offices. The lobby out front has big

2:41:22cracks in it. um dings in the walls. It

2:41:25hasn't been, you know, painted since the

2:41:2680s probably. Um actually, it was

2:41:30painted once before, but it was done by

2:41:32some community service. So, we really

2:41:34need to, you know, clean our office up

2:41:36to where it looks nice here at city

2:41:38hall. Um and I have that the dollar

2:41:40amount there. That's just a budgeted uh

2:41:42dollar amount that I put in there for

2:41:4325,900.

2:41:45That's for painting all of city hall,

2:41:47putting flooring, uh carpet flooring,

2:41:48and changing out our chairs in our

2:41:51council room. The agarena requires

2:41:54toilets and bathroom fixtures. The

2:41:56faucets and the and the toilets at the

2:41:58agarena are in really bad shape. I've

2:42:00got some quotes just on dollar for

2:42:02replacing the fixtures and the plumbing

2:42:05um uh for $21,000 for all of those.

2:42:09Those have to be changed out to ADA

2:42:11toilets and uh uh sinks.

2:42:13I have a question about that. So, who's

2:42:15actually responsible for the u

2:42:17agreement?

2:42:19Ultimately, the city.

2:42:20Yes, ma'am.

2:42:22I mean, the city's responsible. We have

2:42:24the

2:42:25repairs,

2:42:26ma'am.

2:42:26The city's responsible for repairs.

2:42:29We own it. We own it. Um, the uh Lions

2:42:32Club does some management out there, but

2:42:34there's not a lot of

2:42:37money for investment for repairs and

2:42:39stuff like that on the on the Lions

2:42:41Club. Um,

2:42:43okay. So what what I'm saying on that

2:42:46though, so with that being said, um I

2:42:49mean and you saying restrooms. So that

2:42:5221,000 and I see that in our capital

2:42:56outlay that you gave us, it does not

2:42:59include a swimming pool. So would we be

2:43:03able to address the swimming pool at any

2:43:04time

2:43:05if we get the grant?

2:43:08So uh we can't but we can um designate

2:43:12monies toward

2:43:13it already has been based on that grant.

2:43:16So we don't have any funding coming from

2:43:19tax

2:43:21revenue or you know city budget for the

2:43:24swimming pool. But if we get that grant

2:43:26then I'll come to you with a grant

2:43:27project.

2:43:29Okay. So in other words, we won't be

2:43:31able but we can't apply uh any of these

2:43:35funds towards swimming pool.

2:43:38No ma'am. Well, I mean, yeah, we we can,

2:43:42but that's

2:43:44So, right now we have a deficit of about

2:43:46750,000. So, if y'all I mean, all of the

2:43:49these are current fixtures. The these

2:43:51are facilities that we own. The Arena,

2:43:53the Civic Center, the city hall. These

2:43:55are the ones that I'm bringing back to

2:43:56you just to keep our investment. These

2:43:58is these are the only things that we

2:43:59have the best things that we have to

2:44:01present to the public that the public

2:44:03accesses the civic center where we have

2:44:05lots of people and and outside you know

2:44:08customers coming in. I feel like we need

2:44:10to keep those up. Those were big huge

2:44:12investments that we made back in the day

2:44:14and those are the only things some of

2:44:15the only things going for us as a city.

2:44:17So we need to prioritize maintaining

2:44:19them and making them look presentable.

2:44:21So um

2:44:22the money they pay like when they rent a

2:44:24civic center do they come back to the

2:44:26city?

2:44:26Yes sir. And I have that in the budget.

2:44:28I'll show you that that helps fund the

2:44:29civ. Right now the civic center u budget

2:44:32is around a 100,000 and our revenue for

2:44:34the civic center is about 50. So it

2:44:37helps cover a lot of the cost of the

2:44:39civic center.

2:44:40So you so you've already applied for the

2:44:42grant for the swimming pool.

2:44:43Yes. And y'all approved it. Y'all

2:44:45approved it in March or April.

2:44:47So but if things change and we decide to

2:44:49do different, we can

2:44:51Yes.

2:44:51Okay. Because I'm looking here. I'm

2:44:54looking at

2:44:55Oh go let you go ahead. I'm just trying

2:44:56to get through these before noon cuz

2:44:58we're fixing to lose one of our council

2:45:00members.

2:45:00Um security we still have.

2:45:03Yes, we do. Yes, ma'am. I'm just letting

2:45:05you know. Uh we we need to install Well,

2:45:09[segment omitted]

2:45:11fire station and civic center. Those are

2:45:12our two main facilities that currently

2:45:14are not covered by on and off uh you

2:45:17know, premise uh security systems. So

2:45:20that's

2:45:21I was uh and that's what my question was

2:45:24on that is could we use that money

2:45:26towards the swimming pool because it's

2:45:28not necessarily that we have to have

2:45:30security system set up just at the

2:45:33present time. Correct. How long has it

2:45:35been without

2:45:36it's it's it's it's an over it's a it's

2:45:39an it's an ever occurring liability.

2:45:41Every year that we go on without

2:45:43security systems um it's a liability to

2:45:47the city. It's not a requirement.

2:45:49There's a lot of stuff that is not a

2:45:50requirement. Those are recommendations

2:45:52in order to increase our security to

2:45:56know who's coming in and coming out, if

2:45:58they're leaving with with stuff, if they

2:46:00if they've broken into the civic center,

2:46:01if they've damaged anything. We have

2:46:03some amount of accountability for our

2:46:06fire station and um uh civic center.

2:46:09Yeah. So, I'm actually asking now, I got

2:46:12I mean, like I say, all your capital

2:46:13requests, but um the uh council um

2:46:19didn't submit anything. So, that's why I

2:46:21was asking about the swim proposal. So,

2:46:24keep going. I'm sorry. Keep going.

2:46:28Um

2:46:30repairing and painting the civic center.

2:46:32the the civic center is in bad need of

2:46:35repairs and to the walls molding the

2:46:37trim the the trim is falling off. We

2:46:40have lots of stained uh ceiling tiles um

2:46:43in the bathrooms. The tiles are all

2:46:45they're they're really embarrassing

2:46:46looking. I'd love to see just pop those

2:46:48out and buff those concrete floors like

2:46:51we did at the Proalis building to where

2:46:53they're more durable and and it has a

2:46:55better finish. that painting uh

2:46:58repainting and and fixing up our civic

2:47:01center auditorium lobby conference rooms

2:47:04even our conference rooms we were built

2:47:05in the in the what 2010 2012

2:47:10they they we need to maintain them and

2:47:11make them look presentable because

2:47:13that's where that's the kind of the face

2:47:15of our city

2:47:16and I'd really like um council to um

2:47:18entertain that. Um

2:47:22I would like to replace so currently

2:47:25with the transition of our fire marshall

2:47:28to the community development office not

2:47:31just working over as just a specific

2:47:33fire marshall office. Now that role has

2:47:36taken on a lot more.

2:47:38That role does also not require a a a

2:47:43big diesel pickup that he currently

2:47:45drives the fire marshal. Um, and now f

2:47:49fulfilling the role as assistant city

2:47:51manager, it's a lot more travel,

2:47:54meetings, meeting with people and stuff,

2:47:56but not necessarily the need for a

2:47:58truck. What we'd like to do is

2:48:00transition the fire chief's truck

2:48:02currently, the gray one- ton pickup to

2:48:05the to the public works department. So,

2:48:07we have a one- ton pickup to pull our

2:48:10equipment, our excavators, our bulldozer

2:48:13that we have. we that we have something

2:48:14big enough to pull our big pieces of

2:48:16equipment with a one- ton diesel.

2:48:19Uh transition the fire marshall,

2:48:22assistant city manager black truck, the

2:48:24diesel to the fire department to where

2:48:25they still have a truck to pull their

2:48:27air trailer and use for fire service cuz

2:48:30it's already equipped with lights and

2:48:31everything else and just get a used

2:48:33vehicle, a used pickup or used SUV or

2:48:36car or something like that. So we

2:48:39instead of buying another truck for

2:48:41public works, we found a way to

2:48:43transition two trucks that we currently

2:48:45have

2:48:47and use something else that's not

2:48:49requiring a diesel big 3/4 ton pickup.

2:48:52So I'd like to if we can find some funds

2:48:55to purchase a used um vehicle

2:48:58for running around and not for uh not

2:49:01running around with a big diesel pickup.

2:49:03So we don't have a we don't have a

2:49:05vehicle available. the city doesn't.

2:49:08Not currently. Not currently. If what

2:49:11we've been doing with the police

2:49:13department as as they transition and

2:49:15bring new vehicles in for non-emergency

2:49:18services, we want lower mileage, better

2:49:20vehicles for the emergency services, but

2:49:22we've been transitioning like I I drive

2:49:24that truck. I've the Tahoe I've been

2:49:26driving for about 5 years now was a

2:49:29handme-down from the police department.

2:49:30So, we've been transferring those

2:49:31vehicles into the city, but right now

2:49:34with not purchasing any more police, if

2:49:36y'all do find funds for purchasing a

2:49:38police vehicle, you know, a new police

2:49:41vehicle, we could probably use one of

2:49:42those, but right now I don't have one.

2:49:44Um, the last thing or the last couple of

2:49:48things, two things.

2:49:49Is that a is that a need? I mean, is

2:49:51that a

2:49:51It's No, it's not. It's one of those.

2:49:55It's a it's a it's a benefit and a need

2:49:57that impacts three departments. Um it

2:50:01helps the public works for the most part

2:50:03because they're the ones that would

2:50:05benefit the greatest because they get a

2:50:07new vehicle, a truck that can pull the

2:50:09bulldozers and excavators, our big truck

2:50:11cuz we don't have a big one ton truck um

2:50:14to pull those, you know, our big pieces

2:50:17of equipment around. So the public works

2:50:20benefits, the fire department is not

2:50:22hurt at all because the truck that they

2:50:23lose, they would gain the fire marshal,

2:50:26assistant city manager's truck because

2:50:28he doesn't require a diesel, you know, a

2:50:30big pickup.

2:50:32They're just not getting the maximum

2:50:34benefit of that truck.

2:50:35It impacts everybody. Yes,

2:50:37um

2:50:38so it's not a need.

2:50:40Yeah, they're all needs. Is it is a Is

2:50:44it a really hard Yeah. Yeah. So, um,

2:50:48purchase a padfoot steel roller. Um,

2:50:52this is one that keeps on coming up

2:50:53probably as our number one priority each

2:50:55year. We've found and maximize ways that

2:50:58we go in and do reconstruction on our

2:51:00roads. We have the rollers, we have

2:51:03mixers, the motor grader, the stuff that

2:51:05we there's some things that soon will

2:51:08need to be replaced, but the one item

2:51:10that we don't have is a pad foot roller

2:51:12to compact our roads better. Um, and I

2:51:15have even a picture in there to show.

2:51:17So, as we mix that road down, we go down

2:51:20about 12 in, pull all that material

2:51:22back, we bring in Portland cement, and

2:51:25we mix it together, and we bring it in

2:51:26in layers. Our current rollers are

2:51:29smooth. They're finish rollers. And so,

2:51:31we're not able to compact that base and

2:51:34build good, strong roads like we should

2:51:36be. Um,

2:51:39I found those are new. Those new are

2:51:41closer to 200,000. I found several of

2:51:43them going off of um uh United Reynolds

2:51:47or CAT rentals that you know 2,000 3,000

2:51:50hours on them still five six years old

2:51:53and you get and they've had good

2:51:54maintenance on them and so I would like

2:51:57to

2:51:58that dollar amount is somewhere between

2:52:0050 to 70,000 is what we're seeing some

2:52:04good used rollers uh going on to

2:52:07Are we going are we going to be able to

2:52:08do more rows with this? No, we will be

2:52:11able to do current roads better.

2:52:15Some of the roads that we've been doing,

2:52:17we've been doing with either the rubber

2:52:18tire roller or our smooth drum roller,

2:52:20and it only hits the high sides. It hits

2:52:23it's not

2:52:24getting down there and compacting the

2:52:26base like it should be. Also, also by

2:52:29purchasing this roller, it won't it

2:52:32won't be as labor intense because with

2:52:35the rollers we have now, we have to put

2:52:37it in in lifts about 4 in lifts in order

2:52:41to try to get some compassion. You have

2:52:43to put in about 4 in lifts, which takes

2:52:45longer to do it. The last time we done

2:52:49Wilson adhesive, we started that

2:52:51morning. They started mixing at about

2:52:538:30 in the morning. We didn't get off

2:52:55those streets till 9 at night.

2:52:58because we trying to do it correctly.

2:53:00Put it in my lips. It should be getting

2:53:03a quality finished product. This

2:53:06particular roller, you won't have to put

2:53:08it in so many lips because if you if you

2:53:11look at it, it's got the little long go

2:53:13the pad foot that's made for the

2:53:15compaction so you get the density that

2:53:18you need on the on on the street. Uh

2:53:24we done Eston

2:53:27Street is probably

2:53:29eight years old and you just now start

2:53:31to see a few potholes in it

2:53:34and it was because we used a chicken

2:53:36foot roller. We had access to one in and

2:53:40we used it to put the rolling in.

2:53:43It needs a chip edmist. All it needs is

2:53:45a good chip seal again to get another

2:53:47five, eight years out of it. But that

2:53:50base is solid as you you could ever

2:53:51want. Um

2:53:52I'm worried about there.

2:53:54Yeah.

2:53:55Skip the holes in it.

2:53:57Which one?

2:53:58Over on the

2:54:01Village Way.

2:54:02So we really we really you really need

2:54:03this.

2:54:04We just need the We need the asphalt on

2:54:05that one.

2:54:06Village way. We're good on that one,

2:54:08too. We We did that one in good list.

2:54:09We come back with

2:54:10cuz that just has a It has a prep chip

2:54:13seal on it. That wasn't a finished

2:54:14product. So we just did the base on that

2:54:16one. Village way still is going to get a

2:54:19couple inches of asphalt over there.

2:54:20Right. Well, I'm saying it's already

2:54:21getting holes in it,

2:54:22but we need to get over there and

2:54:23but but that's part of the process. We

2:54:25got this way. It was with grow tire and

2:54:28the slick drone because that's all we

2:54:30have to work.

2:54:31Yeah, but I'm just afraid we're going to

2:54:32lose it since we it's been so long.

2:54:34We're going to get we're going to get

2:54:35over there quick. We promise. That's

2:54:37what that five people.

2:54:39I know. I'm not saying that. No,

2:54:41it's just not at all. So that's part of

2:54:42our problem especially with the rain and

2:54:44stuff and just trying to maximize our

2:54:47other projects. But yeah, we'll be back.

2:54:49But that being said on on for streets

2:54:51and you mentioned Village Way on um

2:54:54streets for us um considering what

2:54:57Darius Ralph Bunch

2:55:00uh

2:55:03so when will I be when will we start

2:55:05looking at

2:55:07um looking at those locations? That'll

2:55:10be in this budget workshop. That'll be

2:55:12done while we prepare our budget this

2:55:15year.

2:55:17Yes, ma'am.

2:55:17Okay.

2:55:18Um

2:55:19um another question real quick. Okay. Um

2:55:22so the the road on

2:55:25on Bale Street,

2:55:28what can you tell me inform me of what

2:55:32happened there?

2:55:33Well, what's going on there?

2:55:35What happened was

2:55:37a base failure. part of what we're

2:55:40concerned about like when we're doing

2:55:41the streets that we're doing without the

2:55:43proper equipment. These are contractors

2:55:45that do it with the proper equipment and

2:55:46there's still

2:55:48things that happen. Um whether not

2:55:51enough whether not enough uh you know uh

2:55:54material was put in, whether it was done

2:55:57during a rainy season, all of those

2:55:59factors contributed to base failures.

2:56:01So, our contractors while they're doing

2:56:04this work, they're also, you know, under

2:56:07some requirements and warranties that if

2:56:10the base fails and is not done properly,

2:56:13they're coming back to fix it. If we do

2:56:15the roads ourselves, we don't have

2:56:17anybody to blame but ourselves, so we go

2:56:18back out there and do it ourselves and

2:56:20fix it. Um, luckily, these roads, um,

2:56:23there's several of them, and a lot of it

2:56:25is the struggle of time getting it done

2:56:27fast enough in the middle of bad, rainy,

2:56:30like

2:56:31historical type rains and then trying to

2:56:34fix it in between two or three days of

2:56:37no rain and it probably should have

2:56:38waited longer to dry out better to be

2:56:41mixed in better. So, it's just juggling

2:56:44that with our contractors and some of

2:56:46them the timing and the rain hitting

2:56:49them in the middle of a project. So,

2:56:51they're going back and fixing those

2:56:52roads.

2:56:52So, would it benefit us or I mean far as

2:56:55cuz these are change orders, right? No,

2:56:58this is this is under they did a job to

2:57:01meet certain specifications and so they

2:57:03have to continue coming back and making

2:57:04sure it's right warranty

2:57:06to get paid. It's under Yeah. So it's

2:57:08not under uh they're not charging us

2:57:10more for any of that work.

2:57:11Okay. Okay. So, um, so with with that

2:57:14being said, would it be beneficial for

2:57:17us to, uh, before we do like just say,

2:57:21um,

2:57:23there areas and wrap bunch and that,

2:57:26would it be beneficial for us to get an

2:57:27engineer to come in and look at that

2:57:30road to?

2:57:31No, ma'am.

2:57:31Not not really.

2:57:32Not really.

2:57:34Okay.

2:57:34Because whenever you do whenever you do

2:57:37uh base work, it's it's basically going

2:57:40to be the be It's going to be the same

2:57:42thing. Uh the procedure is going to be

2:57:45the same.

2:57:46Okay.

2:57:46How you supposed to do it is all

2:57:49procedurally same.

2:57:51So I think we'll be fine with the way

2:57:52we've been doing it. We just need this

2:57:54piece of equipment to ensure we get the

2:57:57compassion.

2:57:57Yeah.

2:57:58Once we incorporate that cement

2:58:00because

2:58:02if you

2:58:04a load a transport cement is going to

2:58:06cost you $6,000. M

2:58:08so if you going to incorporate two loans

2:58:11this $12,000 you have tied up

2:58:13and so we just want to make sure

2:58:16that we doing everything systematically

2:58:18correct

2:58:19when we put it when we put ours

2:58:22um is that so um and the last one is on

2:58:26our utility side one of our biggest

2:58:29needs currently with the current

2:58:30infrastructure that we have is our

2:58:32wastewater uh our lift station at uh

2:58:35South 19 across across from the

2:58:38fireworks stand outside the loop um is

2:58:41where we have our uh lift station. That

2:58:44lift station has is is failing. Um it

2:58:47has dirt bottoms. The way it was built

2:58:50was not built with concrete bottoms. So,

2:58:52it's starting to fail and the sides are

2:58:54dropping down. The pumps are old. Our

2:58:56our pumping pipes, the pipes that pull

2:58:58the the uh the lift station and make up

2:59:02that lift station, all of that's old. We

2:59:04rebuilt two years ago. We rebuilt our

2:59:07Nottingham Woods lift station and I'd

2:59:09like to do the same at this one cuz it's

2:59:12out of it's out of time. It's it's

2:59:14falling apart. All the the system out

2:59:16there is old. So, all this we would do

2:59:18in-house. We just need the money for the

2:59:20work or for the for the equipment

2:59:23ourselves and we can install this. It's

2:59:25just the pumps. The pumps cost money and

2:59:28um the piping and everything like that,

2:59:30but we would sub it out and not have to

2:59:32hire because we're just doing it back

2:59:33like it was engineered. So we don't have

2:59:34to hire engineers and contractors for

2:59:36it. Um, all right.

2:59:40And that's it

2:59:42for now.

2:59:45That gives uh council an idea of some of

2:59:47our bigger a lot of the smaller stuff,

2:59:50things that we're not expecting big

2:59:52changes on. Um um insurance, we haven't

2:59:55got all of our numbers back on property

2:59:57and uh and liability insuranceances, but

3:00:00um health insurance, we're projecting um

3:00:03a flat with no increase on that. We we

3:00:06went out to bid this past what 2 3

3:00:08months ago, got our insurance rates in.

3:00:11Everything looks good moving forward

3:00:13into our next year. So not not

3:00:15projecting any big increases there. Um,

3:00:18so

3:00:20other than some small stuff that comes

3:00:21up, these are our bigger either one-time

3:00:24needs or appropriational needs. And so,

3:00:30thank you all.

3:00:32Is there any

3:00:34any questions or

3:00:37direction for us?

3:00:38When will we revisit this?

3:00:40Probably at our next council meeting.

3:00:42Our next regularly scheduled council

3:00:43meeting will be the third Monday.

3:00:46And if we have some follow-up items as

3:00:48we're moving forward, we get better

3:00:49different numbers some of the direction

3:00:51that council has recommendations that

3:00:52council's already provided, I'll meet

3:00:54with the department heads. And if

3:00:55there's other follow-up information that

3:00:57we can bring back to council and

3:00:59hopefully by then I'll also get better

3:01:01information to start giving y'all

3:01:03revenue and expenditure projections uh

3:01:06once we get better numbers from the uh

3:01:08appraisal district on that. Um

3:01:14so our next council meeting will be the

3:01:16third Monday and we'll do that at the

3:01:17regular time at at our regular regular

3:01:20time.

3:01:21Okay. So um also what was your um what

3:01:24was a financial report for the um

3:01:27I'm working with the

3:01:28economic development.

3:01:29I'm working with the bookkeeper on on

3:01:30that to where I can show because right

3:01:32now I have the budget or or our uh

3:01:34profit and loss. So, I can show you the

3:01:36profit and loss, but once again, we're

3:01:38using a previous budget that did not did

3:01:41not um address any of the things that

3:01:44the windown resolution addresses, all

3:01:46the current obligations. It So, in that,

3:01:49I'll bring back to council another a a

3:01:52budget amendment to change the current

3:01:54budget to what the windown resolution

3:01:57dictates over the next few years. And

3:01:59each year we'll just update that and

3:02:01I'll bring it back to council for a for

3:02:03an annual budget. Here's the ongoing

3:02:06obligations. Here's what's left to pay.

3:02:08Here's what's left to pay on this.

3:02:10Here's the revenue line items. And that

3:02:12way every bit of additional revenue that

3:02:14we get that doesn't meet obligations

3:02:15goes straight into debt payoff. Paying

3:02:17down.

3:02:17So we'll be able to change the budget.

3:02:19Yes, ma'am.

3:02:20Even though that's after it was

3:02:23we have to we have several more years

3:02:25worth of obligations to meet. So council

3:02:27by their wind windown resolution is

3:02:29going to manage that wind down.

3:02:39Motion to

3:02:40make a motion with

3:02:41second

3:02:43third.

3:02:48So we'll see

3:02:51if we get a 5% cola we get $2.50. 50%

3:02:56raise.

3:02:56Yeah,

3:02:58maybe we can go out and party.

3:03:01They got us making it hard to go out and

3:03:03party.

3:03:04Hey, we didn't get the 2% $26 a week

3:03:16instead of calling me like

3:03:20you hear me.

3:03:21I just man

3:03:25to look at giving counsel.

Unreviewed automatic captions. Names are often wrong. Speakers are not identified. Check the video before quoting.