Source: YouTube auto-captions via youtube-transcript-api
Meeting: Crockett City Council, 2025-07-07
Title: Crockett City Council Meeting - 07/07/2025
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVHeJ8foRKo
Status: verbatim auto-captions. Names are often wrong. Not reviewed. Not for the public site.

[0:00] I need three.
[0:02] That dude in here
[0:07] going to be the mirror today.
[0:19] Okay.
[0:27] Okay. call meeting in order uh with a
[0:30] prayer and our pledge. Uh [name],
[0:35] let us pray. Heavenly Father, we come to
[0:37] you this morning with praise and
[0:38] thanksgiving in our hearts. We thank you
[0:40] for the opportunity to gather here at
[0:42] city hall uh pertaining to all of the uh
[0:45] the business at hand. Uh we ask you to
[0:48] give us wisdom uh beyond any experience
[0:52] and knowledge that we would have, Lord,
[0:54] concerning all things. We also want to
[0:57] pray for all the people and all the
[1:00] families that's been affected
[1:02] uh by the tragedy of of the floods and
[1:06] loss of lives and children's lives and
[1:08] and people who have lost their
[1:10] possessions. Lord, we just lift them all
[1:12] up unto you and ask you to to bless them
[1:15] and the and the first responders and the
[1:17] law enforcement and all that are that
[1:20] are working in that area to bless them.
[1:21] And we thank you again for all your
[1:24] blessings in our lives. and we give you
[1:25] praise in Christ Jesus name we pray.
[1:28] Amen.
[1:28] Amen.
[1:32] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
[1:34] United States of America and to the
[1:37] republic for which it stands. One nation
[1:40] under God, indivisible with liberty and
[1:43] justice for all.
[1:52] Okay.
[1:54] Have we got any recognizing visitor? We
[1:57] got any comments or
[2:04] I gave it to you in
[2:06] I gave it to you on Friday when we met.
[2:10] I can print off. What's the mayor's
[2:13] agenda? Yeah, I got everything.
[2:17] Yeah, I gave it to her on Friday.
[2:19] Yeah, from Friday.
[2:21] I got everything else.
[2:24] Okay. Uh, no comments. No, no comment.
[2:27] Anybody council?
[2:29] Um, yeah, sure. Um, just want to just
[2:32] let everyone know that the um freedom
[2:35] over Crockett, I I really enjoyed that.
[2:38] It kind of pulled off even though it
[2:40] kind of rained a little bit, but I think
[2:42] it turned out uh well overall. So, um I
[2:46] think this we just need to get a earlier
[2:48] start and uh but I appreciate all of the
[2:52] um do the sponsors. Um they they did a
[2:56] really good job. Um I know HB I don't
[2:59] want to start calling out a lot of names
[3:00] but it's because I may miss somebody but
[3:03] um we just appreciate them sponsoring
[3:05] that event for the community. So
[3:07] yes, you mean like an earlier start to
[3:10] for planning?
[3:11] Yes, planning. planning
[3:13] next year is 250 this year anniversary
[3:16] as well. So
[3:17] yes, sponsors sponsorship
[3:20] because I know that like the start of
[3:22] the fireworks itself was due to the
[3:24] weather.
[3:25] We still had it and that was good. It
[3:27] was a good show.
[3:28] It was
[3:28] really good show.
[3:29] Yeah. I'm just saying just planning
[3:31] overall. Yes.
[3:33] Okay.
[3:36] Okay. Uh need to get approval of minutes
[3:39] regret session June 16th 2025.
[3:52] Motion.
[3:53] I'll get a motion to approve the minutes
[3:56] of June 16th, 2025.
[4:00] I second.
[4:03] Okay. Been um motion and second. All
[4:06] approved.
[4:11] Okay. Item number two,
[4:14] consider and approve an interlocal
[4:15] agreement between the city of Crockett
[4:17] and Greatland Independent School
[4:19] District for the conveyance and welding
[4:24] stations of welding stations. Mayor and
[4:26] Council, um we talked about this a
[4:29] couple months ago and um did reach out
[4:33] to Crockett ISD, ask them if they were
[4:37] still interested or or if they were
[4:39] interested at all in the uh welding
[4:42] machines or um booth, welding booth, and
[4:47] they've just undergone a lot of
[4:49] renovations and work on their place, and
[4:52] they said they had no need for them and
[4:54] or space. uh for the welding booth and
[4:57] they didn't need any welding welders.
[4:59] So, um one of the uh one of the guys
[5:04] that works out at the Crockett ISD had
[5:06] actually transferred to uh Grain ISD was
[5:09] hired as a teacher for Grainland ISD and
[5:12] he said they have a lot of needs up
[5:14] there um for welding uh booths. They do
[5:17] have welders. They don't need the
[5:18] welders, but they needed they could
[5:19] definitely use the welding uh booths.
[5:22] And so we reached out to the school
[5:24] district and got uh their approval on
[5:28] their end for the interlocal agreement
[5:29] to transfer six uh welding stations. Uh
[5:33] there's they're double units. So it's
[5:35] actually 12 in total. Uh six units.
[5:38] Is that all of them?
[5:40] Yes.
[5:40] So I had to get it out of the way.
[5:41] That that gets those the contractors
[5:43] that are working out there at the
[5:45] Probalis building have already uh
[5:47] disconnected them all. Um all the
[5:49] electricity and everything. Uh they had
[5:51] uh uh this this past week they had um a
[5:56] uh
[5:59] convention
[5:59] convention uh the FFA convention and uh
[6:02] so this week hopefully when when they're
[6:04] back in town they're going to bring some
[6:06] trailers and stuff and we'll help load
[6:08] them up and get it transferred up there
[6:09] so they can connect them.
[6:11] So well so uh Great has a welding course
[6:14] or welding class that they're offering.
[6:16] have they have an act program for
[6:20] so they're implementing welding in the
[6:22] ACT program or
[6:24] I would expect yes ma'am they're
[6:28] but they said they could definitely use
[6:30] them so I just make a recommendation
[6:32] that we do this interlocal agreement to
[6:34] get the um property transferred
[6:40] and their board president has already
[6:41] signed off on
[6:46] I have a motion. Do
[6:47] we need a motion? Motion.
[6:49] Well, I make a motion we approve the
[6:51] interlocal agreement between the city of
[6:53] Crockett and Greatland Independent
[6:55] School District for the conveyance of
[6:57] the welding stations.
[7:00] I second.
[7:03] We have a motion and second. All in
[7:05] favor?
[7:11] Okay.
[7:13] Yeah, if we just approve the resolution
[7:17] as presented in the package.
[7:18] Okay. I want to u Okay. On number three,
[7:21] consider and approve a resolution
[7:24] um as described in
[7:30] uh for the city and the encore.
[7:34] Mayor, council, this is a was a lengthy
[7:36] header uh for this resolution. Um
[7:39] however just in short uh this resolution
[7:42] allows us to uh procure the uh the
[7:45] services um
[7:48] under the uh AOC it's alliance of encore
[7:51] cities um to represent the city
[7:56] um as well as other cities and encore
[7:59] distribution areas to um
[8:04] they're they're going through the PUC
[8:06] process of increasing their uh rates and
[8:10] on average this rate increase um to the
[8:13] a city of Crockett resident or business
[8:17] it's a distribution rate increase so
[8:19] it's about $7 um increase a month for
[8:24] their uh rate fees and so
[8:28] um we have under the AOC there's an
[8:30] alliance of encore cities uh the city of
[8:33] Corsa
[8:35] um heads up an alliance
[8:38] and they have a special counsel that
[8:40] attends the PUC hearings
[8:43] um and
[8:45] uh works with Encore to try to negotiate
[8:48] and lower that rate increase or provide
[8:51] s you know sufficient enough
[8:53] justification that before the PUC they
[8:55] can follow through with that rate
[8:57] increase. But hopefully it results in in
[9:00] some kind of a middle ground um to that
[9:03] rate increase. Um
[9:07] but they would represent um the city of
[9:10] Crockett as well as other cities that um
[9:13] enter this alliance. Um under the PUC
[9:16] rules uh we we don't pay for this
[9:20] representation.
[9:21] Encore is required to cover the cost of
[9:24] legal representation of of cities that
[9:28] uh require a PUC hearing and um rate
[9:31] justification.
[9:40] What show?
[9:41] So
[9:43] go ahead.
[9:44] So basically when I I see the law firm
[9:47] now that we will be hiring the Herrera
[9:50] Law and Associates.
[9:52] The firm that the AOC has hired is uh
[9:56] Yes. Yes ma'am. is um Herrera Law and
[9:59] Associates
[10:02] and they they specialize in special
[10:05] counsel for PUC PUC hearings.
[10:11] PUC being the Public Utilities
[10:13] Commission.
[10:19] Well, I'm I'm reading all this and um
[10:21] I'm just trying to figure out how to
[10:22] frame a
[10:28] a motion.
[10:30] So essentially um one other thing that I
[10:33] mentioned they so Encore when they sent
[10:35] the notice out they sent a binder about
[10:38] that thick about 5,000 pages with a
[10:41] thick volume. That's why we need
[10:43] representation and I I was just looking
[10:46] here at the package of data that they
[10:48] sent. Um, as far as the the motion, it
[10:51] would just be to to move to approve the
[10:53] resolution
[10:55] um
[10:58] between the by the city of Crockett
[11:00] suspending Encore's uh rate increase and
[11:05] um ultimately what it would do would
[11:07] allow us to enter the AOC alliance and
[11:10] hire special counsel, but all we need is
[11:13] a motion to approve this resolution.
[11:15] Well, I make a motion that we approve
[11:16] the resolution.
[11:18] I'll second
[11:21] a motion and a second. All in favor?
[11:25] Motion.
[11:29] Okay. Item number four,
[11:32] consider and approve an extension 30-day
[11:34] cure period for Lincoln Lumber Tax
[11:36] abatement and incentives agreement.
[11:40] Mayor and council. Um I presented I sent
[11:43] uh yesterday or last week I sent the um
[11:46] a letter from
[11:48] Lincoln Lumber. We issued them a notice
[11:50] of default after their closure out at
[11:54] the uh their Crockett site, their
[11:56] Lincoln Lumber Crockett site.
[12:00] They have come since come back and asked
[12:02] to meet with council and the
[12:04] commissioner's court to discuss some
[12:07] other items within this um uh they're
[12:10] not they're not um arguing that they are
[12:15] in default and that they are closing and
[12:18] that um the abatement agree and
[12:21] incentives agreement that we provided
[12:23] them um there's performance clauses in
[12:26] it that where they have to repay us
[12:28] forum tax abatements ments provided and
[12:31] incentives provided.
[12:33] However, they have some additional
[12:35] information that they would like to
[12:36] present to the to the board uh both
[12:39] council and uh commissioner's court and
[12:42] they're asking for well, I'm asking
[12:44] actually for a 30-day extension to allow
[12:48] us to sit down and meet with them and to
[12:50] discuss what they wish to provide to the
[12:53] city, the details that they would like
[12:55] to provide. They fill in a lot of ways.
[12:57] They've actually um
[13:00] surpassed or exceeded the initial
[13:02] requirements of our abatement agreement.
[13:05] However, the term they they're not
[13:07] currently in operation. And so due to
[13:10] that, they are in default. So that being
[13:14] said, in in order for me not to make any
[13:16] argument for or against them, I would
[13:17] like them to present to council and um
[13:21] to our our legal council and for a
[13:25] decision to be made on what if any
[13:29] concessions need to be made on uh what
[13:31] they are due back to what you know the
[13:34] taxes and the uh incentives that are due
[13:36] back to the city.
[13:38] So I would like to meet with them at
[13:41] another meeting.
[13:42] So there's in the original contractor
[13:46] agreement
[13:48] there's not a stipulation that addresses
[13:52] this situation that occurred. Amen.
[13:56] Yes sir. There is there's performance
[13:57] perform the performance clauses or the
[14:00] um the clawbacks.
[14:02] Yeah.
[14:03] In the agreement addresses what they owe
[14:07] back to the city if they do not complete
[14:09] their performance agreement.
[14:10] So they're they're challenging that.
[14:12] Um no not not really. They didn't say
[14:15] that they are challenging it. they'd
[14:16] wish to present more information and
[14:18] hope that council can come to
[14:24] a a resolution along with them. So, I'm
[14:26] sure that they're asking for some type
[14:28] of forgiveness since they they feel that
[14:30] they've over or exceeded uh the the
[14:35] agreement in some ways. So, that being
[14:38] said, I I can't make an argument
[14:40] Yeah.
[14:40] for them. They're going to have to
[14:41] present that argument or or that
[14:44] additional information to council and
[14:46] then y'all decide how to proceed.
[14:48] Well, I mean legally though, legally,
[14:51] can we
[14:53] I mean being a contract legally can we
[14:56] that's taxpayers money. I mean
[14:58] contract can be amended
[15:01] by agreement,
[15:01] but it should be amended before before
[15:04] the default
[15:07] not after really.
[15:10] I guess but what they're asking for is
[15:12] additional time to cure. So you never
[15:14] ask for that prior to default. You
[15:16] always ask for that after
[15:18] that's all they're asking for now is
[15:20] just addition.
[15:20] That's what they're asking.
[15:21] Yeah.
[15:22] They're saying, you know, don't default
[15:24] yet because the contract allows for cure
[15:27] time. They have time to cure it. They
[15:29] want additional time to cure it. And I
[15:32] think they have an argument as to
[15:36] how they can do that and how they
[15:40] exceeded expectations in other areas. So
[15:42] that everybody
[15:44] but in but in exceeding the expectations
[15:49] they they exceeded in in in their
[15:52] revenue as well.
[15:53] Sure.
[15:54] Well, I would like to know when when did
[15:56] we find out that that they were closing?
[16:02] I don't have the dates. I mean after I
[16:04] was provided notice.
[16:06] When did they provide you notice? I like
[16:08] I said, I don't have the dates in front
[16:09] of me right now, but after I provided me
[16:12] notice, I sent them
[16:14] I prepared a notice of default and sent
[16:17] that to them and then they've come back
[16:19] with with this. And like I say, in order
[16:22] to not get ahead of ourselves, I don't
[16:23] even know what they're going to be
[16:24] asking for.
[16:25] Okay.
[16:26] Um, so I'm not so I don't want us to
[16:29] talk, they may not even be asking for
[16:31] specifically on the financial side.
[16:34] They're also, like I said, one I went
[16:36] out there to meet them. They were
[16:37] meeting with another business to move in
[16:41] also. And then they were also talking
[16:42] about a couple other options to where
[16:44] they could continue operating out there.
[16:47] Um, so there's several things that they
[16:49] want to present.
[16:50] And that being said,
[16:52] I would like them to present to to to
[16:56] council and to the commissioner's court
[16:58] um
[17:00] what it is they had in mind.
[17:03] So, so back to square one, we just need
[17:05] an ext a 30-day extension.
[17:07] That's what I'm asking for. Okay.
[17:09] 30 days to allow council and them to
[17:14] and let them make their presentation to
[17:17] the board.
[17:18] Yeah. So, with this, I mean, doing uh
[17:21] what you're suggesting, is this setting
[17:24] precedents for other businesses that
[17:26] come in? I mean, are we
[17:28] potentially depending on what it is
[17:29] they're asking? I don't know.
[17:31] Not not the
[17:33] I mean, in other words, every every
[17:35] business they come in and and leave or
[17:38] decide they want to leave our city, are
[17:41] they going to come and ask us for
[17:44] forgiveness because they did above and
[17:47] beyond the contract.
[17:49] So basically what they did was they
[17:52] honored the contract that we we agreed
[17:55] upon. Now the above and beyond maybe
[17:58] they needed that uh to um for their
[18:03] business.
[18:04] Sure.
[18:04] Uh
[18:05] that was their business business
[18:06] decision,
[18:06] right? For their business. So it's what
[18:08] it what it didn't include us. So I
[18:11] personally I mean we can you know
[18:14] discuss it further but I'm just worried
[18:16] about us setting precedence for other
[18:17] business because well
[18:19] we'd have to be careful of that that we
[18:21] didn't set a precedence for
[18:22] We've already said one. Yeah.
[18:26] Basically, I mean, if we do that, I
[18:28] mean, we got to make sure that if we if
[18:31] we I mean, I don't know what they're
[18:33] asking time.
[18:34] No, no, no, no, no. When we go in and
[18:36] talk with them and see what they're
[18:38] asking us well
[18:39] extra to do that I'm assuming that
[18:42] they're going to ask,
[18:43] but right now we just
[18:45] the 30-day cure period that that you're
[18:47] asking for. I mean, that's that doesn't
[18:50] settle anything. That just opens up the
[18:52] discussion,
[18:53] allows us time to meet
[18:54] Yeah. Yeah. and and and and it would
[18:56] come back to us.
[18:58] Yes.
[18:59] Yeah. Okay. All right.
[19:01] Yes, sir.
[19:01] Okay.
[19:03] Yeah. I make a motion to approve the
[19:05] extension of the 30-day cure period for
[19:07] Lincoln lumber tax abatement.
[19:10] Got a motion?
[19:12] I second. Got a motion and second. All
[19:14] in favor?
[19:16] Motion carries.
[19:18] Okay. I guess uh we're going into our
[19:21] fiscal year
[19:23] 26 budget and council. We we sorry for
[19:26] that. We added the those additional
[19:28] items that had to that were under some
[19:30] time time uh crunch. So we added that to
[19:34] our special meeting today. Um that way
[19:36] we wouldn't have to have another a
[19:38] secondary meeting this afternoon. So we
[19:42] address it all during our special
[19:43] meeting this morning.
[19:47] Mayor and council, a lot of this is
[19:48] going to um this is
[19:52] on each one of y'all um to help leading
[19:55] lead and guide and provide
[19:57] recommendations. The B budget workshop
[19:59] and its intent is to allow us to present
[20:03] uh to council uh needs that are ongoing
[20:05] in the city that are not being addressed
[20:08] in our current year's budget. Um
[20:12] and that allows us to present these to
[20:14] council. council has the ability to
[20:18] um request more information if you if
[20:21] you don't have enough information or
[20:23] provide recommendations maybe of
[20:25] something that we even haven't thought
[20:27] about or you know some type of a middle
[20:29] ground between what we're asking for and
[20:32] what's what's reasonable. Um, so that
[20:35] being said, I'll start off with just a
[20:37] few talking points, a few budget points,
[20:40] um, to to lay the ground about
[20:44] any of these items that require
[20:46] additional funding where that funding
[20:48] comes from.
[20:50] Um, and to for y'all to formalize in
[20:54] y'all's mind as y'all hear as you hear
[20:56] these needs, uh, prioritize what is
[21:01] and you can put it any way you want, but
[21:02] what is really really needed, what is
[21:06] needed,
[21:08] what can be put off or what can be
[21:10] changed in in in
[21:13] and how it can be better u funded. So,
[21:17] um, at any point if you can stop, ask
[21:20] more questions. The initial points that
[21:22] I'm going to be talking about, I'm using
[21:24] draft numbers from the appraisal
[21:26] district and using some of our last
[21:27] year's numbers that are not out yet for
[21:30] this year. So, a lot of it is we're in
[21:34] the middle of of having to prepare for
[21:36] next year without knowing all of next
[21:38] year's specifics.
[21:40] Um, a lot of it is projections using the
[21:44] last few years worth of data and are we
[21:48] are we trending upwards, are we trending
[21:50] downwards, um, and things of that
[21:52] nature.
[21:54] Okay.
[21:56] I
[21:58] kind of uh with with the budget, I'm at
[22:01] the point to where I really don't know
[22:04] uh far as I guess the debt to revenue
[22:06] ratio. So um so
[22:10] it's um we have that broken down in our
[22:13] current budget. I don't have it once we
[22:15] prepare next year's budget then I'll
[22:17] I'll I'll present that to you. Um this
[22:20] year um this year it's in your budget
[22:23] books the debt to revenue and um the
[22:26] debt uh per capita and um as well as our
[22:32] M and INS which is our debt and our
[22:34] operations expenditure breakdown. that's
[22:36] in the back of your budget books that um
[22:41] that look like this here. The the our
[22:43] annual budget books. This is for this
[22:45] year.
[22:46] Let me see.
[22:49] All right. So, um
[22:53] here's just some of my projections
[22:57] using last year's uh revenue to date
[23:01] and looking forward. I don't feel
[23:04] comfortable to project any significant
[23:06] sales tax rate increases. I don't feel
[23:09] like we're on a downward trend, but
[23:11] we're also in the middle of of
[23:15] global
[23:17] global issues, local issues um within
[23:20] our
[23:21] within our country and and locally that
[23:24] anything could change that pro
[23:25] projection. So, um sales tax is healthy.
[23:29] Uh but I don't believe it's to the point
[23:31] to where we can um build in additional
[23:36] expenditures for next year that then we
[23:38] have to go and amend our budget because
[23:40] I I come back to you guys and say that
[23:42] sales tax is down and so far we haven't
[23:44] had to do that. um franchise revenue.
[23:50] That's um electrical, gas, cable, TV, uh
[23:55] telephone. All of our franchise revenues
[23:59] since I've been here have have decreased
[24:02] pretty much every year. That's on a
[24:04] downward trend. I think a lot of it as
[24:06] things move towards online,
[24:09] as things move towards more uh
[24:12] efficiencies like say electricity, LEDs
[24:15] change outs and things become more and
[24:18] more efficient and solar panels popping
[24:20] up on roofs and different things like
[24:21] that. Slowly that has decreased. Uh
[24:25] cable, everything's streaming. Um, a lot
[24:28] of those streaming services do not pay
[24:30] franchise fees or they're conglomerated
[24:33] into another service like Northland or
[24:36] Vive Cable. So, a lot of those
[24:39] that historically have funded cities for
[24:42] for them to go out and use our rideways,
[24:45] they no longer use our rightways in a
[24:46] lot of ways. Cell phones, you know,
[24:48] those don't use our rideways and they
[24:50] don't pay franchise fees. So, a lot of
[24:52] the things that we took for granted for
[24:54] bringing in revenue year-over-year are
[24:56] going away and they're not being
[24:57] replaced with new sources of revenue.
[25:00] What do you think the percentage
[25:02] uh decrease just say annually for the
[25:05] last couple of years? Um I mean do you
[25:08] have
[25:09] overall probably I've been building in
[25:11] roughly 5% decreases each and every
[25:14] year. Okay. Um this for instance this
[25:17] last year our uh our electrical
[25:20] franchise I budgeted um I believe it was
[25:25] 29 uh 290,000 and we're we we got about
[25:29] 280,000.
[25:30] So it's each and every year it decreases
[25:34] just a little bit
[25:34] and it's been showing that yes
[25:36] annually. Yeah.
[25:36] So where what are those numbers
[25:39] in the budget?
[25:39] In our budget book.
[25:40] Yes. Okay. So, so what what what do you
[25:44] think would be safe? I know you I know
[25:48] that's just projecting. I mean,
[25:51] look, just so so far what we've seen has
[25:56] held true pretty much every year. So,
[25:58] we've kept that in the budget by
[26:00] decreasing it around 5%. Um
[26:06] um so I feel like that's safe continuing
[26:08] that, you know, continuing about a 5%
[26:11] decrease because um all of that together
[26:13] um you know adds up to around $400,000
[26:16] when you're talking about all of our
[26:18] franchise revenue. And so um that's not
[26:22] a huge huge impact, but it's a
[26:23] significant portion of our budget and
[26:26] it's on a on a downward trend.
[26:30] Property tax revenue
[26:32] Um,
[26:33] last year
[26:35] we uh what we voted on last year was a
[26:38] no new revenue rate. So we decreased our
[26:40] our sale our property tax rate from 68
[26:43] cents to 63 cents. We we did a uh a
[26:48] decrease in our rate to match the
[26:51] increases in property valuations. So, as
[26:55] people's properties were valuated more,
[26:58] if we would have kept the same tax rate,
[27:01] we would have made more money as far as
[27:03] the city and county and stuff like that.
[27:05] We decreased ourselves our our property
[27:08] tax rate to not bring in any more money
[27:11] than the previous year.
[27:13] This year, we've been fortunate. We've
[27:15] seen additional, a lot of it hasn't hit
[27:18] the books yet or the tax goals yet, but
[27:20] we've seen in properties that were not
[27:23] part of any kind of incentives or
[27:25] agreements, we've seen a little over $5
[27:28] million in additional property
[27:30] valuations of new construction. So, we
[27:33] don't get penalized for new
[27:34] construction. When new construction
[27:36] happens, that's good. That's that's the
[27:38] only real healthy increase, not us
[27:42] trying to figure out people's current
[27:44] values and bump them up and change them
[27:46] like that. New properties, we can take
[27:48] full advantage of that. Um, that's good
[27:51] for the city. That if we adopted a no
[27:55] new revenue rate this year as well for
[27:57] everybody else that's paying taxes
[27:59] current, you know, from last year,
[28:02] their rates do not inc their the dollars
[28:04] that they pay in in taxes do not
[28:05] increase. So, it would require us to
[28:08] lower our tax rate again if we adopt a
[28:10] no new revenue rate, but it would still
[28:13] bring in about around $30,000 of new
[28:16] money
[28:18] because of the new construction.
[28:20] The voter approval rate
[28:23] stands to add 3.5% over last year's
[28:26] revenue. So, the amount of revenue that
[28:29] we brought in last year, about $2.4
[28:31] million, if you subtract $2.4 $4 million
[28:34] is what we bring in in property taxes.
[28:37] Um if if you subtract the debt out of
[28:41] that, we end up with about $1.9 million
[28:43] of money that helps fund police, fire,
[28:46] streets, parks,
[28:48] library,
[28:50] city hall, everything outside of water
[28:52] and sewer. The water and sewer
[28:54] departments have a separate fund that
[28:56] pays for those.
[28:57] That's if we raise them.
[29:00] If we raise it to 3.5, that's the voter
[29:04] approval tax rate. That's the amount
[29:06] that we're allowed to go up to, the 3.5%
[29:09] of additional money to not trigger an
[29:12] election.
[29:14] If we go over that amount,
[29:17] it's not immediate, but
[29:20] the citizens can petition for an
[29:22] election. If they feel like it's not
[29:24] justified or there's just we that it's
[29:29] just too much, then they can petition
[29:31] and I believe it's 3% of the registered
[29:33] voters can put a petition together and
[29:36] make it go onto the November ballot.
[29:38] Whether that holds true, if the if the
[29:41] election passes, then we can keep
[29:43] whatever rate council decides to keep or
[29:46] it will bump it will bump us back down
[29:49] to this voter approval rate, that 3.5%.
[29:52] Let's say we decided to go up 5%. And
[29:55] the election um overwhelmingly
[29:59] denies that, then it'll kick it back to
[30:01] the voter approval rate, which will only
[30:03] bring in about 69,000
[30:05] of additional money. Uh so this is
[30:08] so if you add those two together
[30:10] right at 100 was that 102 right at
[30:13] 102,000
[30:15] is the only amount
[30:18] of new money that we can appropriate
[30:22] without triggering a potential election.
[30:27] That's the only amount of new money that
[30:28] can come into the city to help fund all
[30:30] of our needs that we're dealing with
[30:32] today. That's about $30,000 in
[30:36] for the no new revenue rate and the
[30:38] voter approval rate, which is the max
[30:40] allowed
[30:42] without triggering a a potential
[30:44] election. Um, that's a total of 100,000.
[30:48] 30,000 is the amount that we can bring
[30:50] in without increasing taxes. Basically
[30:54] lowering our tax rate. So
[30:57] that's just a dra, you know, sir.
[31:00] Well, I was on the taxes, you know. I
[31:03] mean, don't get me wrong. I know we need
[31:05] taxes to make the city and help the city
[31:08] out, but it's it's not it's a lot of
[31:11] people that's struggling down here still
[31:13] with not without the jobs and stuff. So,
[31:16] until we start getting jobs coming in
[31:18] where people could pay their taxes, I'm
[31:20] not talking about everybody because I
[31:22] know
[31:23] a lot of people can pay their taxes, but
[31:26] I know a lot of people that can't pay
[31:27] their taxes right now. Why it's like
[31:29] that, you know? So,
[31:31] understand
[31:32] when we talking about taxes and stuff, I
[31:34] got to think about my people that can't
[31:37] pay the taxes right now, you know.
[31:40] Yes, sir.
[31:41] I would love I would love to see
[31:44] Crockett growing. Well, we can raise the
[31:47] taxes and everybody, but I'm not really
[31:50] with people losing their properties
[31:52] behind property taxes just because, you
[31:54] know,
[31:56] that's just me. Al also one thing I see
[31:58] too with raising property tax is that
[32:01] you have a lot of retirees that are here
[32:04] uh in this city. Uh everything's going
[32:07] up but their check is not. So I think we
[32:10] need to consider those elderly people,
[32:12] those people that are retiring. Um I
[32:15] think we need to consider them as well
[32:17] for sure. Um the majority of that is all
[32:20] um capped by uh exemptions. uh you have
[32:24] 65 and older exemptions and or homestead
[32:27] exemptions. So it does not hit uh for
[32:31] the most part it does not hit those uh
[32:33] taxpayers.
[32:34] Which ones? Which which one?
[32:36] The 65 and older.
[32:37] Okay. But those retired?
[32:39] Yes. Yes, ma'am.
[32:40] Everybody not not 65 that's retired.
[32:43] Right. Understand. But but I'm saying I
[32:45] I clarified that by saying 65 and older.
[32:48] Okay. are provided um homestead
[32:50] exemptions and theirs are capped. Um so
[32:55] most of it falls to you know
[33:01] and probably most of the crowd so uh is
[33:06] the one that fits the bill.
[33:08] Well, I'm going to speak on the
[33:09] retirement.
[33:09] I agree.
[33:10] They have
[33:12] that hasn't met the 65
[33:13] that has I met the 65
[33:16] and checks not changes. Yeah. So, um,
[33:21] garbage rates, we've just gone through
[33:22] that. Um, to clarify, there's no
[33:25] expected increases on garbage rates. Um,
[33:27] and and our and our contractor is not
[33:31] requesting a garbage rate increase.
[33:33] Water rates, we have received uh 2% um a
[33:37] request or not really a request, but
[33:40] notification that our water rates are
[33:41] going up by 2%.
[33:43] Um I don't have all the dollar numbers
[33:46] on that. I have to run projections on
[33:48] water rates first and build that 2% in.
[33:52] Um but there'll be a slight uh just to
[33:55] remind y'all last year
[33:57] they can't take it away. What we don't
[33:58] use.
[34:00] We're under tax. We're under uh taker
[34:03] pay.
[34:04] We're under taker pay. So the part that
[34:06] we don't use we still pay for.
[34:07] That's what
[34:09] um water contract.
[34:12] Yes, sir. Water rates um last year went
[34:17] up as well, but we did not pass it on to
[34:21] the p the residents. We we absorbed the
[34:25] rate increase in our budget. Just these
[34:29] are just talking points. These are just
[34:31] to recol to to remind y'all last year
[34:34] and this year. So going forward,
[34:41] for every cent
[34:44] that we charge,
[34:47] we bring in about $42,000 in revenue in
[34:52] in new money for every 1 cent increase
[34:54] in our tax rate. That equals that 1 cent
[34:58] increase equals about $9.40 for the
[35:01] average home valuing bracket. So, when
[35:04] we're talking about the need for, hey,
[35:06] we really need to get
[35:09] this funded. Let's this is a priority.
[35:10] Let's find money for this.
[35:13] That's about what it boils about down to
[35:15] just in rough numbers.
[35:16] About 80 cents a month.
[35:20] Correct.
[35:22] Um, for every $42,000 in in revenue,
[35:26] it's $9.40 a year for the the average
[35:29] home value.
[35:30] Well, when you talk an average home,
[35:31] what's your average home? 98,000 or 94
[35:34] uh 94,000.
[35:35] So if you got a $500,000 home, that's
[35:37] going to be what?
[35:38] Five times that.
[35:39] Huh?
[35:40] Five.
[35:40] Five times that. Yeah.
[35:41] Um
[35:42] about $50,000. That was $50 a year.
[35:45] On that note, let me ask you a question
[35:47] real quick. Um so, and I guess I have
[35:51] not got clarity on you got the property
[35:54] tax rate. I have not got clarity on the
[35:58] monies from the economic development
[36:01] covering some of the property tax. So,
[36:05] we need to get clarity on that. I think
[36:07] a lot of people are still having
[36:08] questions and I do because I like to
[36:11] know how uh those uh funds or those uh
[36:15] monies are going to cover property taxes
[36:18] and if it's allowed,
[36:20] we spoke about it.
[36:21] Those debts haven't been served yet,
[36:23] though. So that money, what I'm doing is
[36:26] working with I'm working with our um
[36:29] bookkeeper to two things are going to
[36:31] have to happen on the EDC side of that
[36:33] sales tax that's coming in. One, we're
[36:36] going to have to amend um our budget,
[36:38] our EDC budget due to all the expenses
[36:40] that were built into that budget when it
[36:43] was approved versus current day
[36:46] expenses. and current day expenses were
[36:50] specified in our windown resolution that
[36:53] it could go only go EDC money could only
[36:55] go towards these items. And so we're
[36:58] going to have to amend our budget for
[37:00] the EDC sales tax to address this year
[37:04] as well as the next few years of budgets
[37:09] are going to be allocated specific
[37:12] expenditures for each of those
[37:15] allowable items.
[37:17] Okay.
[37:18] The biggest one is pay off the debt for
[37:20] the uh proalis building for the vote
[37:23] center. So legally, can we make changes?
[37:26] My understanding is that when we went to
[37:29] when we voted in November and in um
[37:35] EDC was no longer Crockett economic
[37:37] development was no longer my
[37:39] understanding that there were no changes
[37:41] or we couldn't use those funds for
[37:43] anything else but what it was for at
[37:46] that time.
[37:47] Correct.
[37:47] So how are we using any of these funds
[37:51] for it? because those
[37:53] the only thing that we're currently
[37:55] using them for or it can be used for in
[37:57] even in the future or only for items
[38:00] that were already obligated at that
[38:01] time.
[38:02] So that's the that's you're you're
[38:04] right. It's still the case.
[38:05] We can't come up with hey that'd be a
[38:08] good project for EDC funds. We can't do
[38:10] that anymore. It's done. And so it
[38:12] we've been doing it right.
[38:13] No, we're already voted on ahead of
[38:15] time.
[38:15] No ma'am. No, but another thing too,
[38:18] even a lot of things that we voted on
[38:20] ahead of time, like the phase build out
[38:23] and stuff like that.
[38:23] The vote center.
[38:24] Yeah. Vote techch center phase build
[38:26] out. We never got any numbers.
[38:28] All we said was
[38:30] that phase.
[38:31] Yes, ma'am. We
[38:32] So, when did we get those numbers?
[38:33] We built the budget number in.
[38:34] Win-win. Win-win.
[38:36] End of the wind down resolution that
[38:38] y'all approved. 640,000.
[38:40] So, I don't think it was even that much.
[38:41] I think it was 550 or something. Yeah.
[38:44] Okay. So is that what of 550? So
[38:50] so all of that money that was allocated
[38:52] then in the windown resolution is is the
[38:54] only amount of money that we can use
[38:56] towards finalizing any on the book
[38:59] projects.
[39:00] No more new projects. So once those
[39:02] projects are completed,
[39:05] then that money,
[39:07] right now it's around $750,000 a year,
[39:11] about 3/4 of a million dollars a year in
[39:13] sales tax from that that half cent sales
[39:15] tax. Then that money will be right now
[39:19] our our our sales taxes brings in around
[39:22] 1.9,
[39:25] right? $2 million. Not our sales tax,
[39:27] our property taxes,
[39:29] right? I just spoke of it. Yeah,
[39:31] we're bringing in that that 2 million
[39:33] that 750,000 from the sales tax is going
[39:38] to be plugged in there and then we only
[39:40] have to bring in property taxes for the
[39:42] remaining amount over and above that
[39:44] 750,000.
[39:46] So somewhere around 30 40% of our sales
[39:50] tax or our property taxes will be funded
[39:52] by that sales tax.
[39:53] Well, I'm economic development.
[39:55] Yes, ma'am. At this point, it'll be
[39:57] called it'll be called a um
[40:01] property tax reduction tax, sales tax
[40:04] for property tax relief.
[40:06] So, did we we talked to the um the state
[40:09] controllers's office or
[40:10] Yes, ma'am.
[40:11] We we already spoke with someone there.
[40:13] Our attorneys have. Yes, ma'am.
[40:14] Everything's been addressed through our
[40:16] attorneys.
[40:16] Okay. What attorneys?
[40:19] Our special counsel, DNRBZ.
[40:22] Okay. We have any paperwork, anything?
[40:25] Yes, ma'am.
[40:26] Okay.
[40:28] So, the NR Okay, which is Dan.
[40:34] We still in a lot of debt with that
[40:36] building though, huh?
[40:38] Yeah. About 2 million. So, just that
[40:40] alone, just that sales tax, that that
[40:42] revenue alone of around 750,000 has to
[40:45] pay off about 2 million. So, we know
[40:48] that's around 2 and 1/2 years just for
[40:50] the that debt alone. So with that debt
[40:53] then so with that debt of my building
[40:56] and then the build out.
[41:03] So this gives you this gives you an idea
[41:06] of where this money comes from when
[41:08] we're talking about um when we're
[41:12] talking about our needs. Are there any
[41:13] like I said this is a high just a high
[41:16] level u refresher on that.
[41:20] Um
[41:23] so I would like to move into
[41:26] is there any questions on that?
[41:29] So next we'll move into our um capital
[41:33] request.
[41:35] One point that I want to make before we
[41:37] move into that there's two types of
[41:39] expenditures.
[41:42] There's an appropriational expenditure
[41:44] that
[41:45] whenever we whenever we approve
[41:49] a continuous expense personnel,
[41:53] it's not a onetime expense.
[41:56] capital requests
[41:58] that are a one-time in nature. If I can
[42:02] come up with funding for that one-time
[42:04] expense,
[42:06] we may not have to build it into our tax
[42:09] rate if it's a onetime expense. Hey, we
[42:12] have some additional reserves here. Um,
[42:14] some of the things that we're going to
[42:16] present back is I'm going to in a in our
[42:18] subse in a subsequent meeting, I'm going
[42:20] to bring back to council what um how
[42:22] much money we have left in our ARPA
[42:24] fund. uh we have to expand that I
[42:27] believe by the end of 2026.
[42:29] So we have a little bit of money left
[42:31] there.
[42:32] Um, and so
[42:37] that's a little bit different than
[42:40] costs that are year-over-year
[42:42] because I may be able to put a little
[42:44] bit of money that we have in hand now
[42:46] towards that, but then that goes away
[42:49] and it's going to have to come out of
[42:50] our tax out of our out of our revenue um
[42:54] for future years. So, um, cost of living
[42:59] adjustments,
[43:00] that's from now on. Um, new personnel,
[43:04] that's from now on. New programs,
[43:07] um, that's for now and and moving into
[43:10] the future. We have to come up with that
[43:12] money each and every year.
[43:16] So, um,
[43:17] would you uh explain those ARPA funds,
[43:20] please? what they're what what they
[43:22] actually what what they what what ARPA
[43:25] stands for and what what they're using.
[43:27] American Rescue Plan Act is what the
[43:30] ARPA it was Corona virus relief fund. It
[43:33] was a legislation that was um enacted um
[43:38] with a with a COVID relief some monies
[43:42] that were allocated to cities and
[43:44] counties throughout the US and uh we've
[43:48] used that money in the past to purchase
[43:52] police vehicles to repair um to purchase
[43:56] the animal shelter and repair it to get
[43:59] it up and refunctional. We've used it
[44:01] for items like that one time purchasing
[44:04] items. We've used it for the pavilion at
[44:06] it Williams Park. We use it to fix the
[44:09] pavilion in the big park or to paint it,
[44:11] sand blast it and paint it. Um things of
[44:14] that nature.
[44:15] The signs, the gateway signs that'll be
[44:17] funded from um that amount. So basically
[44:20] some of the some of the items that
[44:21] council has already allocated out of
[44:24] that fund. I need to subtract the ones
[44:26] that are currently still in the works
[44:28] such as the gateway signs and the other
[44:30] one is the fire station.
[44:33] Uh we've been working trying to get her
[44:36] to work in without having to being able
[44:39] to use the previous engineer drawings on
[44:41] that building without having to involve
[44:43] engineers again and find someone to
[44:46] provide a u an estimate on busting that
[44:50] concrete slab out at the fire station
[44:52] that's that's falling apart where the
[44:54] trucks are parked.
[44:56] We allocated some money for that. So
[44:57] there's a couple items that still need
[44:59] to come out of that fund. So, I would
[45:01] like to bring a a total to y'all of of
[45:03] unallocated amounts that are left
[45:06] and then we can use requests that are
[45:09] made today
[45:11] and and y'all can allocate some of those
[45:14] funds towards them
[45:15] with uh my my question is with those
[45:17] funds we could have repaired streets and
[45:20] infrastructure with that as well.
[45:21] Anything that the city does
[45:23] it could have been used towards. Yes,
[45:25] ma'am. Did we not think about
[45:26] prioritizing
[45:28] uh our city streets and infrastructure?
[45:30] Yes, ma'am. We did. We actually use a
[45:32] lot of those funds to purchase uh
[45:34] equipment. Like I said, you have onetime
[45:37] expenses to use that money towards
[45:40] to fix one street. We have 200 streets.
[45:43] So, what we used is some of that money
[45:46] to purchase equipment to where we could
[45:48] continue fixing those streets year over
[45:50] year. Um that money would immediately be
[45:55] sapped up by one project probably, you
[45:57] know.
[45:58] Um so, but we did think about that, but
[46:00] that's it was ultimately council's
[46:02] decision about what was the priorities.
[46:04] Wow.
[46:05] So,
[46:07] and that was and the streets were
[46:08] suggested as one of the priorities.
[46:11] They always are. That's that's the hot
[46:13] topic that we're always trying to find
[46:15] funding for.
[46:15] So, we can consider that this time.
[46:17] Okay.
[46:20] Okay. Um,
[46:23] would would you like to start?
[46:29] Give me a
[46:30] Sure.
[46:31] Give me a little break.
[46:38] Good morning, Mayor Council.
[46:42] I know that I've talked to most of y'all
[46:44] already. we
[46:47] had meeting. So, don't let my packet
[46:50] terrify. I know it's big and it entails
[46:54] a lot of money. So,
[46:57] uh I'll kind of just go through these
[46:59] and then if y'all have questions
[47:02] questions or if y'all want to meet
[47:03] another time,
[47:06] I'm good with whatever y'all choose. But
[47:08] we'll start out uh with the expansion of
[47:12] the police department or new
[47:13] construction. Uh those of you that were
[47:16] able to come over, I walked y'all
[47:17] through the uh the office and kind of
[47:20] talk to y'all about some of the issues
[47:21] that we were facing. Uh one of my
[47:25] long-term plans when I became chief was
[47:28] to build a new station because when this
[47:30] police department was built and
[47:32] finished, they had already outgrown it,
[47:34] but they had to work with what they had
[47:36] at the time. I understand that
[47:39] one of our biggest issues right now that
[47:41] we're facing with our current facility
[47:43] is our property and evidentially
[47:47] extremely small. Uh it lacks adequate
[47:51] ventilation and adequate storage. We're
[47:55] required to keep certain specific
[47:57] evidence items separate from one another
[48:01] and to have proper processing station.
[48:05] Bottom line is we just don't have the
[48:07] room there. We've looked at different
[48:09] ways to to try to make that happen with
[48:12] what we have, but ultimately at the very
[48:15] end, it also cannot be on an exterior
[48:18] wall, which is what we face now. That
[48:21] building set up the way it is, there's
[48:24] literally no possible way to have an
[48:26] evidential property room that's not on
[48:28] an exterior wall.
[48:31] Someone may ask, well, who who oversees
[48:34] that? Who manages that? There's no
[48:38] particular agency that specifically
[48:40] manages that other than our ethical
[48:43] commitment and moral value of presenting
[48:47] solid cases and solid evidence to the
[48:50] courts. Now, going forward, u you all
[48:54] hear me talk about the state is making a
[48:56] lot of changes. Uh T Cole is starting to
[49:00] become more involved um in law
[49:03] enforcement agencies. And one of their
[49:05] big pushes within the next three years,
[49:08] they're going to require all law
[49:10] enforcement agencies or municipality
[49:12] police department to become accredited.
[49:16] Accreditation is not necessarily a bad
[49:18] thing. um they would come in and audit
[49:20] us, make sure that our policies are up
[49:23] to date, that we're managing the police
[49:25] department the way we should, and we
[49:28] would be audited on that every so many
[49:30] years.
[49:31] One of the requirements in that
[49:33] accreditation is uh the evidence room
[49:37] and proper evidence management. Now,
[49:39] we'll be clear, the evidence room we
[49:41] have now and the process we use, our
[49:43] property officers doing a great job. Uh
[49:46] they can go in any need to and find any
[49:48] piece of evidence that that needs to be
[49:50] found to report. Um, space is a big
[49:54] issue and ventilation is even worse.
[49:57] Those of y'all that have even been
[49:58] stepped foot in the police department,
[50:00] you can smell the odor as soon as you
[50:02] walk in the door and that's that's
[50:04] always not a fun and healthy thing.
[50:09] Um, beyond just the evidence room, uh,
[50:13] space is extremely limited. Uh we have
[50:15] no formal interview room with
[50:18] interviewing equipment. We have no space
[50:21] to bring witnesses or victims in where
[50:25] they can sit down and talk to officers
[50:28] without tons of people around just
[50:30] because of the way that facility is set
[50:32] up.
[50:34] Storage is also an issue when it comes
[50:36] to storing piles, maintaining piles that
[50:39] we're required to keep for retention
[50:41] periods. So, uh, those are some of the
[50:43] things. Um, as far as some of the issues
[50:47] that we have,
[50:49] we've looked at two different two
[50:51] different things. Uh, expanding the
[50:53] police department out back. Um, adding
[50:56] about another 14-,500 square foot. Um,
[51:00] that's that's kind of a a fix for now.
[51:03] That would fix our property room issue.
[51:05] That would give us a little additional
[51:07] space. Essentially, we can make that
[51:09] work.
[51:11] there would be some some headaches with
[51:13] that talking with a contractor some of
[51:15] the things he would have to do. Um and
[51:18] he roughly estimated that uh to cost
[51:21] around he said between 630 and $800,000
[51:27] in that conversation we spoke about uh
[51:29] new construction from the ground up at
[51:32] the location and maybe the city already
[51:33] owns the property and he estimated
[51:36] roughly a 5,000t building constructed
[51:40] the way needs to be constructed at
[51:42] around 1.5 million. So, I put both of
[51:45] these houses in there so we can talk
[51:47] about going forward and determine what
[51:49] do we want to do. Do we want to spend
[51:53] between 6 and 800,000
[51:56] on a
[51:58] basically a remodel and an add-on? Or do
[52:02] we want to spend more money and think
[52:04] about 20 years down the road, 25 years
[52:07] down the road for the people that come
[52:09] after us?
[52:10] And that's that's something that I want
[52:11] to work with y'all on determine the best
[52:13] the best fit for the city. And with
[52:16] that, we're not we're not against a
[52:18] pre-existing structure. There's a
[52:20] structure somewhere in the city that
[52:22] that we feel like could be cost
[52:24] effective uh to to purchase and to
[52:28] renovate into a police department. I am
[52:31] open to that, too. My biggest focus
[52:32] right now is adding some additional
[52:35] space and getting our property room up
[52:38] to where to where it needs to be. That's
[52:41] one of the most important areas that we
[52:43] deal with.
[52:49] My thought on on funding this, I know
[52:51] that's it's a lot of money. Work a
[52:53] little bit with Mr. Time. We kind of
[52:55] talked about the funding side of this. I
[52:59] think we both agree it would take some
[53:01] type of tax note on extended multi-year
[53:04] payment plan to fund something like
[53:06] this. I put some breakdowns in in the
[53:10] packet kind of show you
[53:13] property values um all the way down to
[53:16] 500,000
[53:18] what a 20 year 15year
[53:22] and 10 year note would cost uh the
[53:25] taxpayer per year kind of gives you an
[53:29] idea of what each taxpayer look at if
[53:31] this is something that y'all chose to go
[53:34] with. I also think that if uh If it's a
[53:37] situation that council is not
[53:39] comfortable saying, "Hey, we're going to
[53:40] authorize this. We're going to put this
[53:42] on the taxpayers." Um, I ask that we
[53:45] consider putting it before the vote. Uh,
[53:48] let the taxpayer speak and say, "Yes, we
[53:50] support this or no, we don't." But I
[53:53] think we have to do our due diligence in
[53:56] trying to fix some of these issues.
[53:59] the overall issue and and this is none
[54:02] of y'all are responsible for this years
[54:05] past as we've went things have been
[54:07] ignored
[54:09] happening pay sales vehicles facilities
[54:13] it's been ignored over the years uh
[54:15] where you get to a point where you're
[54:18] spending $2 million a million and a half
[54:22] and that's what I'm trying to prevent as
[54:24] we're going forward to not get to that
[54:26] point let's address a little bit of it
[54:27] as much as we
[54:29] So as we go forward, we're not looking
[54:30] at everything all at one time.
[54:40] You'll see next in the packet, I
[54:42] included mobile and portable radios. I
[54:45] included those
[54:47] with right after the uh facility plan
[54:51] that I feel like this is something that
[54:53] we could include on a tax note. Um
[54:56] you'll see three different options uh
[54:59] three different quotes in there. Uh the
[55:01] first quote is Motorola. Obviously that
[55:03] would be um something that would be my
[55:07] preference, but they're considered more
[55:09] expensive than than some of the other
[55:12] options that uh that I've included in
[55:15] here. I have included a higher wattage
[55:18] radio and a radio that's 7800
[55:21] compatible.
[55:23] at some point in the future we'll be
[55:25] moving to 7800 and again that's a
[55:27] situation that ultimately we're going to
[55:29] have to face. We may not have to face it
[55:32] right now in regards to using the 7800
[55:36] system but what we are going to have to
[55:38] face is the fact that our current radios
[55:40] are 25 plus years old and they're
[55:42] starting to go down. So, um, my idea of
[55:45] this is we purchase these radios that
[55:49] currently work for what we need, plus in
[55:52] the future when we go 7800, they will
[55:54] work for that with a software upgrade,
[55:57] software change, or a flip of a switch.
[55:59] So, we're not shelling out to $300,000
[56:03] multiple times. I think these radios
[56:06] would be adequate
[56:08] for us now and then in the future.
[56:12] Our
[56:18] next one is always a hot topic and
[56:21] that's a pay increase.
[56:24] Two and a half years ago, council voted
[56:27] to significantly increase
[56:30] the salaries
[56:33] which have been a huge factor in our
[56:36] retention. We're currently staffed and I
[56:41] believe for the first time in about 8
[56:44] years our agency has been fully staffed
[56:47] uh for consecutive years.
[56:51] That's large in part to the city uh
[56:54] increasing the salary pay.
[56:59] The unfortunate thing uh when we made
[57:01] that increase uh when it went into
[57:04] effect within six months later agencies
[57:08] around us increased another 10 to 20%.
[57:12] So where we leveled up a little bit with
[57:14] them within 6 months they went up again.
[57:18] I understand some of the otheries may
[57:21] have more income may have more tax base.
[57:24] Um, but I as your chief, I have to bring
[57:27] it to you. Uh, because at the end of the
[57:29] day,
[57:32] employees still expect uh good pay, uh,
[57:36] pay that they can live on, they can buy
[57:38] a house on, they can raise a family on.
[57:40] And I fear if we don't stay competitive,
[57:44] uh, we're going to be looking at a
[57:46] situation where we start losing officers
[57:48] again. Um, when your salary scale is not
[57:52] competitive with other agencies, it's
[57:54] very tough for retainment and
[57:56] recruitment because you're fighting a
[57:59] battle at the police academy saying,
[58:00] "Hey, come to work for Crockett. We've
[58:02] got a great department. We've got a
[58:03] great city government. We've got a great
[58:05] city and they look at your pay scale and
[58:07] then they look over at Huntsville or
[58:09] Walker County and they're like, "Chief,
[58:11] I appreciate it, but I'm headed over
[58:13] there." Um, I know it's tough to compete
[58:16] with with larger agencies. Huntsville,
[58:18] Lin, Tyler, but I think we have to try
[58:21] to meet in the middle somewhere uh to to
[58:25] stay competitive and to be able to
[58:27] retain the staff we have. I hope that as
[58:31] long as I'm here, we keep the staff we
[58:33] have here. We got a great department and
[58:35] a great group of officers, and I really
[58:37] want to retain the ones we have because
[58:39] they they really do a good job. And if
[58:42] it comes to a situation of having to
[58:43] recruit other officers, I will be uh
[58:46] competitive in recruiting good officers.
[58:49] Uh so in this I've included a 5 10 15%
[58:54] um option uh on the pay scale. You can
[58:57] see hourly and clearly what what that
[59:01] increase would be and what that what
[59:03] those numbers would be. Um,
[59:07] I'm just asking that you look at it and
[59:10] if there's a way possible to to address
[59:12] and I I said up to 15%. That doesn't
[59:15] mean that you all can't come up with
[59:16] something else, but I think if as long
[59:19] as we continue to address our pay scale
[59:21] each year, we will not get into a
[59:23] situation where one day we're looking at
[59:25] it and we have to go up 35% because
[59:28] we're so far behind.
[59:31] You'll see in included in that um
[59:35] officer proficiency pay. Two and a half
[59:38] years ago when we got that pay raise,
[59:40] the officers give up their uh incentive
[59:43] pay or certificate pay. U we've revamped
[59:48] this proficiency pay to where it
[59:50] requires them to obtain an intermediate
[59:53] advanced or a master peace officer
[59:55] license. Um, the more training these
[59:58] officers get, the better they are, uh,
[1:00:01] the better they can serve our citizens.
[1:00:04] U, it's not a lot, but it is an
[1:00:06] incentive for them to continue to
[1:00:07] maintain and to reach those goals.
[1:00:10] And on that second page, you'll see a
[1:00:12] breakdown of u what it would cost us
[1:00:16] this year if we did do this, that
[1:00:19] $7,800.
[1:00:21] Now this this is a fee that would be
[1:00:24] budgeted annually because that number is
[1:00:27] going to change maybe each year every
[1:00:31] two years those offices are going to
[1:00:32] advance up. So those are going to change
[1:00:34] a little bit as time goes. So I think
[1:00:38] that's something we would have to work
[1:00:39] to budget going forward because it's not
[1:00:43] just a one-time expense. It it would be
[1:00:46] something that we essentially be married
[1:00:48] to.
[1:00:52] Next in your packet, you'll see the
[1:00:55] increase of staff.
[1:00:58] I broke this down on a three-year plan
[1:01:01] with an overall goal in mind of adding
[1:01:03] five additional patrol officers uh to
[1:01:06] our board. In this plan, we utilize the
[1:01:09] COPS grant. That cops grant if funded
[1:01:13] would pay the full salary of these
[1:01:16] officers for the first year. Uh the
[1:01:19] second year the city would pay 25%.
[1:01:24] The third year the city would pay 50%.
[1:01:28] Uh fourth year the city would pay 75%
[1:01:30] and then that fifth year the city would
[1:01:32] pick up the full uh the full salary.
[1:01:35] Basically the grant would go away at
[1:01:37] that point. The only requirement of that
[1:01:40] grant is that we do hold them to that
[1:01:43] fifth year and pay that fifth year
[1:01:45] salary. Then if we choose a reduction in
[1:01:47] force or something of that nature, that
[1:01:49] would be up to the council. I don't
[1:01:51] recommend that. But I I tell you that to
[1:01:54] so that you understand that it's not
[1:01:57] we're married to it for 5 years, but
[1:01:58] after that fifth year, if you so chose
[1:02:00] to say, "Hey, we need to drop an
[1:02:02] officer." That's something that we could
[1:02:07] talk about. I would be against that, but
[1:02:09] that's just a solution that you have.
[1:02:12] What I'm really asking for on this is
[1:02:15] because applying for this grant, uh, if
[1:02:18] we were to obtain this grant, uh, there
[1:02:21] would be some requirements by the city
[1:02:24] that would cost the city. Uh, what I'm
[1:02:26] asking to do is to apply for this grant
[1:02:29] and see see if we're even awarded. Um
[1:02:33] that way going forward we'll know uh yes
[1:02:37] they've said we've approved you for one
[1:02:39] spot or we've approved you for two that
[1:02:42] way y'all are already involved in it and
[1:02:45] commit to those additional years or
[1:02:47] those future years
[1:02:50] if we so choose to do this
[1:02:54] and again that is something that before
[1:02:56] we made that final call obviously I
[1:02:58] would come back before y'all and say hey
[1:03:01] we've been awarded
[1:03:03] or we were awarded one. Uh, you know,
[1:03:05] what direction do we want to go? We
[1:03:08] currently have 10 patrolman that patrol
[1:03:11] the street. Um, we have two officers per
[1:03:15] shift. Uh, so at night or during the
[1:03:17] day, we have two patrolman that are
[1:03:19] responding to call, making traffic stops
[1:03:22] that are out there available. During the
[1:03:25] day shift, uh, we have our
[1:03:27] administrative staff, which is myself,
[1:03:29] my assistant chief, and my captain. Um,
[1:03:32] and I have two detectives that are
[1:03:34] handling obviously major crimes,
[1:03:36] burgies,
[1:03:38] um, frauds, sexual assaults, uh, things
[1:03:42] of that nature.
[1:03:44] Even as a small department, even our top
[1:03:46] admin, we go out and respond to calls.
[1:03:49] We work shifts from time to time just
[1:03:51] because it's necessary. The guys will be
[1:03:54] tied up, multiple call, we will go out
[1:03:57] and take those calls because that's what
[1:03:59] has to be done.
[1:04:01] U each one of those administrators that
[1:04:04] I name um have a list of duties that
[1:04:07] they're required to do as well. They're
[1:04:08] not when they're not taking calls,
[1:04:10] they're not just sitting in the office.
[1:04:12] Uh we'll take Captain [name] for instance.
[1:04:14] He's over our property.
[1:04:16] That's a daily chore. He's also our
[1:04:19] emergency management for the city of
[1:04:21] property. That's a daily chore. He's
[1:04:24] over our equipment and ordering um and
[1:04:29] validating making We have all that
[1:04:30] equipment. My assistant chief, the same
[1:04:33] thing. He's over reports. We can't just
[1:04:36] do reports and send them straight up the
[1:04:37] hill. They have to be checked off,
[1:04:39] approved, corrected. Um, among some of
[1:04:43] the duties that he does. So, there's a
[1:04:44] lot of things out there that that these
[1:04:46] guys do that are not out on the street
[1:04:48] that make that department run. If we
[1:04:51] didn't have those, our agency would not
[1:04:54] be nearly as successful as what we are.
[1:04:59] Uh the Texas average is 2.1 officers per
[1:05:02] 10,000 residents. Uh we're set at about
[1:05:05] 1.3 officers per 10,000 residents.
[1:05:09] And when that that recommendation is
[1:05:11] patrol officers that respond that to
[1:05:14] calls for service.
[1:05:17] And the last thing you'll see in our
[1:05:19] packet is vehicles. Uh I'll be very
[1:05:22] upfront with you, our fleet right now is
[1:05:25] in probably the best shape that it's
[1:05:27] been in a long time.
[1:05:30] I do want to
[1:05:32] I don't say that to say that we don't
[1:05:34] need a new vehicle. I want to keep that
[1:05:36] rotation going so we don't get in the
[1:05:38] situation where we're buying four or
[1:05:40] five at a time like we have recently. I
[1:05:43] think if we can continue to rotate the
[1:05:45] older vehicles out
[1:05:48] as of late some of the other city
[1:05:50] departments have gotten use out of them
[1:05:52] or we seem to get more money from uh the
[1:05:55] auctioner from when we sell them. So,
[1:05:57] uh, I put two quotes in there. I know
[1:06:00] Councilman [name] really liked the truck
[1:06:01] and so did Councilman [name]. The trucks
[1:06:04] are considerably more expensive. Uh, but
[1:06:08] they are very nice. And then the Dodge
[1:06:12] Durango. We seem to still have a hard
[1:06:15] time getting our hands on Taho, but
[1:06:17] we've had good luck with the Durango.
[1:06:20] So, we're not against
[1:06:23] not against those. So, I will feel any
[1:06:26] questions or if y'all want to move on to
[1:06:28] somebody else and then set up a time,
[1:06:30] however youall want to handle that.
[1:06:34] Chief and Council [name] making notes
[1:06:36] over there.
[1:06:38] Well, Chief, um I got quite a few notes
[1:06:40] myself. Um I I've actually, you know, um
[1:06:45] as I took a tour of your facility, u Mr.
[1:06:48] Don Hill, he's the architect, and I
[1:06:51] spoke with him and um he said basically
[1:06:54] he could kind of sketch something out
[1:06:56] and and help you look at possibly uh
[1:06:59] remodeling to where you can uh open up
[1:07:02] some things there in your facility and
[1:07:05] possibly add on. So, I'm just saying
[1:07:08] maybe um move forward talking with him,
[1:07:12] see if he can sketch something out and
[1:07:14] see what we would have to do
[1:07:16] from there. Um, also, um, and you say
[1:07:20] the, um,
[1:07:23] your you said the raises that y'all
[1:07:25] received was two and a half years ago or
[1:07:27] you're last year.
[1:07:29] I'd have to go back and get the specific
[1:07:30] time frame, but I roughly I want to say
[1:07:32] it's been about two and a half years.
[1:07:34] Okay. You mean the one that's that the
[1:07:36] whole everybody got?
[1:07:38] Yes.
[1:07:38] Okay. That I think I recall that was
[1:07:40] last year.
[1:07:41] Last last
[1:07:42] It was 2022, I believe.
[1:07:45] We got a
[1:07:47] We gave a complicated we gave a cola
[1:07:50] cola raise. Okay.
[1:07:52] He's talking he's talking about when we
[1:07:54] we went out and did a um multi-ity
[1:07:57] survey to try to kind of level our uh
[1:08:02] catch up on a lot of our positions that
[1:08:04] were well underpaid in 2022
[1:08:08] is when we really did a big a big
[1:08:10] adjustment in pay. Then last year we did
[1:08:14] a
[1:08:14] Yeah, the last year we did a 2% for cost
[1:08:17] of living.
[1:08:22] Okay. Okay.
[1:08:24] What would you like to see, man? Would
[1:08:25] you like a new department or would you
[1:08:27] like to add um I mean I think about the
[1:08:31] future, too. You know,
[1:08:32] if you're asking my preference, I'll be
[1:08:35] very upfront. I love to see a new
[1:08:37] facility for multiple reasons. You build
[1:08:40] it the way you want it. It's a new face
[1:08:42] for the city. People see that new
[1:08:45] building. It adds
[1:08:49] makes the city attractive. You can see
[1:08:51] that new construction, but I'm at the
[1:08:54] point of whatever we have to do. So, I
[1:08:57] would love to see a new facility. Um,
[1:09:00] that way it be constructed the way that
[1:09:02] it should have been and should be
[1:09:04] constructed for future. Um, and the only
[1:09:08] way you can really do that is to start
[1:09:10] from the ground up. uh but to fix the
[1:09:13] problems we have and to get uh where I
[1:09:17] feel like we need to be to uh sustain
[1:09:21] our evidence management and what we have
[1:09:23] going right now I'm open to expansion.
[1:09:27] So, there's a lot of variables there.
[1:09:30] Like, uh, if if y'all said, "Hey, here's
[1:09:32] $2 million or a million and a half, do
[1:09:35] what you want to with it. I would build
[1:09:37] a new facility
[1:09:39] because I think that you can cut out any
[1:09:42] potential issues that you may have if
[1:09:43] you go from the ground up. Plus, it adds
[1:09:47] makes the city a little more attractive
[1:09:49] when people see it. So, that's if I had
[1:09:51] a wish list, that's that's what I would
[1:09:53] do. what's what's the difference or the
[1:09:55] prices to add on and uh get
[1:09:59] so the numbers that I have are rough
[1:10:02] estimates for the contractor that I met
[1:10:04] with uh there were many other
[1:10:05] contractors or many other people to talk
[1:10:07] to um his rough estimates were expansion
[1:10:13] and adding on between 600 and 800,000
[1:10:17] um a new facility he recommended around
[1:10:20] 5,000 square foot would be about 1.5
[1:10:24] million. So you're looking at about half
[1:10:27] or just under half.
[1:10:29] He the he the only contractor you talked
[1:10:31] to
[1:10:31] so far? Yes. I wanted to get more
[1:10:35] direction to see if this is something
[1:10:37] we're even interested in
[1:10:40] uh trying to obtain and how we're going
[1:10:42] to fund it uh before we start uh because
[1:10:45] if it's something we decide to do,
[1:10:48] there's a lot of steps to take when it
[1:10:49] comes to uh engineers contracting
[1:10:53] um getting specific quotes, being able
[1:10:56] to tell them specifically what we want
[1:10:58] because they don't just draw plans up
[1:11:00] for free. there's the cost associated
[1:11:02] with that. So, um he just happened to be
[1:11:06] willing to come over. Um I believe his
[1:11:08] company is the one that constructed
[1:11:10] Southland Federal Bank or Southland
[1:11:12] Federal Credit Union. Uh so he was
[1:11:15] willing to come over and take a look at
[1:11:16] it and offer him, but as I said, there's
[1:11:19] many other people. There's local
[1:11:21] contractors uh that might be interested,
[1:11:24] but I haven't taken those steps just
[1:11:27] yet.
[1:11:28] So with that being said, would out of
[1:11:31] everything that you presented to us
[1:11:33] today, what would you think or what
[1:11:36] would you suggest would be the most
[1:11:38] would be priority would be would how
[1:11:41] would you prioritize your your list your
[1:11:43] facility
[1:11:44] as far as importance?
[1:11:45] Yes. what's most important to you at
[1:11:47] what you
[1:11:49] rate uh any of my requests in here today
[1:11:52] uh as most important um I think you're
[1:11:56] talking about salary uh because I think
[1:12:00] uh just as every one of us in this room
[1:12:03] at times fight to make ends meet
[1:12:07] I know that my guys do too and I'm sure
[1:12:10] Mr. [name] and and everyone else in
[1:12:12] here. Um we have a different generation
[1:12:16] of people working for it today than we
[1:12:18] did 10 15 years ago. Um people to today
[1:12:24] if they don't feel like they're being
[1:12:25] fairly compensated, they will need they
[1:12:28] will go find the money that they need to
[1:12:31] uh
[1:12:32] survive,
[1:12:33] pay their house note to support their
[1:12:34] family uh because that's what they have
[1:12:37] to do. So, that's one of the most
[1:12:39] important things to me. Um, I in saying
[1:12:43] that, I don't want it to sound like
[1:12:44] we're not appreciative of the salary
[1:12:46] that we have because we've come a long
[1:12:49] way from when I first started here at
[1:12:51] $11 an hour. We've come a long way. Um,
[1:12:55] but just as it is for everybody, cost of
[1:12:58] living is skyrocketing. And these guys
[1:13:01] want to be able to buy homes just like
[1:13:03] everybody else. They want to be able to
[1:13:04] support their family. So, And then the
[1:13:07] the facility is a very close second and
[1:13:10] it's a very close second
[1:13:13] first because of the property. Um that's
[1:13:16] an issue that has to be addressed. No
[1:13:18] matter what we decide to do, we still
[1:13:21] have to find a way to address that
[1:13:23] issue. Um so in the coming weeks, I'm
[1:13:27] going to be working on different
[1:13:28] options. if we choose not to do a tax
[1:13:31] note and address that um different
[1:13:34] options to offer to fix that problem
[1:13:36] because at the end of the day um any
[1:13:38] issues that arise out of that evidence
[1:13:41] room come back on him because he's our
[1:13:44] current property officer and then come
[1:13:47] back on me and just as he said if we
[1:13:51] can't fix it I want to give it to
[1:13:53] somebody else because I don't want to be
[1:13:54] responsible for it and I I understand
[1:13:56] that. Um, and how do you go to somebody
[1:13:59] else and say, "Hey, I know we have all
[1:14:01] these issues, but I'm going to stick you
[1:14:03] in there and put you over." You can't do
[1:14:05] that knowing that that you have these
[1:14:08] issues, and I want to fix these issues
[1:14:11] before they become a problem and a
[1:14:15] blackout for the city. So,
[1:14:18] how old is that? How old is that
[1:14:20] building?
[1:14:21] Believe it was built or they moved in in
[1:14:23] 1993.
[1:14:25] Oh, 94. I was 11 years old.
[1:14:29] So basically, so basically actually, so
[1:14:33] we really I mean, so we're not
[1:14:35] addressing a new building because we're
[1:14:38] trying to make space your for your
[1:14:39] property room. So we're not looking at
[1:14:41] spending over $2 million to address a
[1:14:44] property room issue, right? So that's So
[1:14:47] with that being said, we could do a
[1:14:50] build out or a remodel or renovations
[1:14:53] there to make it to where it could serve
[1:14:56] its purpose uh for the time being until
[1:14:59] we come to to the economy and we can see
[1:15:03] what's going forward because we don't
[1:15:05] know what's coming right now. We have no
[1:15:08] idea what's going to happen with the
[1:15:10] economy. And I know a lot of the
[1:15:11] taxpayers right now are kind of like
[1:15:14] real leery and holding on to everything
[1:15:16] that they have. So with that being said,
[1:15:19] we we do I understand we do have to
[1:15:21] address the cuz I the property wrong
[1:15:23] because I went in there and I understand
[1:15:25] that. But I would say that we look at it
[1:15:28] to be more conservative uh on addressing
[1:15:31] issue far as spending. Um that's where
[1:15:34] I'm I'm I'm with that. Um, another thing
[1:15:38] too, uh, Chief, and not to, uh, you
[1:15:41] know, this is just me, um, I I think
[1:15:44] that, um, being that you only have two
[1:15:47] officers per shift, I'm thinking that we
[1:15:50] need to look at priorit prioritizing
[1:15:53] staffing um, the police department
[1:15:57] because when you have a call on one side
[1:16:00] of town and a call on the other side of
[1:16:03] town and
[1:16:05] where the where the officers and and you
[1:16:07] get a call at Walmart. Where are the
[1:16:09] officers?
[1:16:10] It goes once and and I've explained in
[1:16:12] some of the community roundts. Um I'll
[1:16:15] use an example if if we have a
[1:16:17] disturbance over we'll say on North
[1:16:20] Fourth Street. Um if it's a verbal or
[1:16:23] physical disturbance by policy and for
[1:16:26] safety reasons, both of those officers
[1:16:28] respond to that location.
[1:16:31] Sometimes those those call to service
[1:16:33] may last for 15 minutes. Sometimes it
[1:16:36] may be 45 depending on the situation.
[1:16:39] But during that time the rest of the
[1:16:41] city is left open.
[1:16:42] Yes.
[1:16:42] No one rolling around. Um
[1:16:45] no that not total correct. You still got
[1:16:50] can't detectives still do weekends.
[1:16:53] Currently I'm talking about night shift.
[1:16:55] Okay. So at night, u those those guys on
[1:16:59] the street, if they're on that call or
[1:17:01] something like that, um that's leaves
[1:17:04] the rest of the city open.
[1:17:06] U criminals figured that out real quick.
[1:17:09] [segment omitted]
[1:17:13] driving by to see if they're parked here
[1:17:15] or to see what they're doing, to see if
[1:17:17] they're in the office working on
[1:17:18] something and then go out and try to do
[1:17:20] something. Um people are getting smart.
[1:17:23] They're paying attention to what's going
[1:17:24] on. So, uh, two officers on the street
[1:17:27] tonight, um, can prove to be difficult.
[1:17:30] We try to be more proactive in stopping
[1:17:32] crime, um,
[1:17:35] reactive and coming back in and
[1:17:37] investigating. A lot of police work is
[1:17:39] reactive because the crime happens, you
[1:17:41] come in, try to solve it, and put
[1:17:43] someone in jail or charge someone for
[1:17:45] the crime. But it's also our duty to be
[1:17:47] proactive and try to prevent that from
[1:17:51] happening. And the only way you can do
[1:17:52] that is visibility and people moving
[1:17:55] around. Um, and at night that's that's
[1:17:57] tough with two officers. Day shift, uh,
[1:18:01] if we have a situation going on where we
[1:18:03] have two detectives in there, they're
[1:18:05] out of the office a lot because they're
[1:18:07] looking, they're reviewing surveillance
[1:18:09] videos, they're going to follow up with
[1:18:11] this person or they're going to follow
[1:18:12] up with that person. Um, a lot of people
[1:18:14] hear, uh, I know we've heard the term
[1:18:17] too many chiefs and not enough Indians.
[1:18:19] Um, a lot of people will bring that up
[1:18:22] at times because they don't truly know
[1:18:24] what uh those detectives are doing or
[1:18:28] what my assistant chief's doing, what my
[1:18:30] captain's doing. Um, are there times
[1:18:33] that that maybe they could step out and
[1:18:36] go patrol? Absolutely. I'm not going to
[1:18:37] lie to you. But there's majority of the
[1:18:40] time they're locked in to doing
[1:18:42] something that's required for the
[1:18:44] department or that helps make that
[1:18:46] department run. So, um I think staffing
[1:18:50] is important. Um and I think as the city
[1:18:53] continues to grow, we're way behind. If
[1:18:55] this city hit a gross bird this year or
[1:18:58] next year, we're way behind. And I see
[1:19:00] that coming. Not necessarily next year.
[1:19:02] Uh but within the next 5 years, I see
[1:19:06] our city growing.
[1:19:08] Yeah. Me, too.
[1:19:09] A lot more than what it is. Now, they
[1:19:12] say our population is under 7,000. Um I
[1:19:16] don't think those numbers are accurate.
[1:19:18] Um you see we see the traffic that's
[1:19:20] around the loop. Um at different times
[1:19:24] [segment omitted]
[1:19:27] traffic coming into Crockett. Um
[1:19:31] of course all those may not be staying
[1:19:32] here or living here but there's a lot of
[1:19:34] people that pass through this town and
[1:19:36] there's a lot of people here on the
[1:19:37] weekend.
[1:19:39] So I think uh if we start chipping away
[1:19:43] at staffing
[1:19:45] in 3 to 5 years, we're not going to be
[1:19:47] behind behind the a be ahead of it. So
[1:19:52] So with with that being said, we can
[1:19:54] agree that possibly staffing would be
[1:19:57] our number one um item on the agenda and
[1:20:01] then the property room would be possibly
[1:20:04] the second. I I don't think that I can I
[1:20:07] don't think that I'll change my uh that
[1:20:10] I can change my opinion. I do think
[1:20:12] staffing is very important. Um and it's
[1:20:15] very difficult to prioritize these. Uh
[1:20:17] because truthfully, my opinion,
[1:20:19] everything that I've talked to y'all
[1:20:20] about today
[1:20:22] is important. Um, but if I'm put on the
[1:20:25] spot and ask, I know what is going to
[1:20:28] cause um our department and our city as
[1:20:32] a whole and our city government the most
[1:20:35] problem and that being um inadequate
[1:20:38] facilities and that being turnover
[1:20:42] because of of salary. Um we can't do any
[1:20:47] of the rest of this stuff. We can't hire
[1:20:49] additional staff if we're not
[1:20:51] attractive. if our salary is not
[1:20:54] attractive.
[1:20:55] So, let me ask you,
[1:20:56] right now is primarily homegrown. We
[1:21:00] have one person that lives outside of
[1:21:02] Houston County and that person just
[1:21:04] bought a home in Houston County because
[1:21:07] they like the city. They like working
[1:21:09] here. So, you're not going to get Fort
[1:21:12] Worth PD, Austin PD, Houston PD, senior
[1:21:16] officers
[1:21:17] here for that. So I do think that thing
[1:21:21] is very important but I think we have to
[1:21:23] address salary to continue to be able to
[1:21:27] recruit those people.
[1:21:28] So chief the are these salaries
[1:21:31] that we have they're current
[1:21:34] so in that one uh
[1:21:37] like the current salaries
[1:21:40] 45 for us 50 for Gralin and 56 for
[1:21:43] Madisonville.
[1:21:44] Yes sir.
[1:21:45] That's all current.
[1:21:47] That's our current starting
[1:21:49] uh salary for an officer out of the
[1:21:52] academy first year.
[1:21:54] So we're the lowest on the totem pole
[1:21:56] then.
[1:21:57] Yes.
[1:21:58] Now that's starting
[1:21:59] that's well yeah I mean
[1:22:02] you got to go too [name] and look at how
[1:22:05] many officers do Madisonville have.
[1:22:07] That's what
[1:22:08] how many lieutenants they got? How many
[1:22:09] sergeants they got? How many patrol
[1:22:11] officers?
[1:22:11] I understand. Yeah. I'm just I'm just
[1:22:13] they might have less enough so they're
[1:22:14] able to pay a little more. a lot like we
[1:22:16] are. I think they have 16 or 17 officers
[1:22:20] versus our 15. Um, their command staff
[1:22:24] is set up similar. Uh, I don't I don't
[1:22:27] recall if they had an assistant chief or
[1:22:29] not, but their staff is set up
[1:22:31] relatively the same. Now, they do have
[1:22:33] an interstate that runs through their
[1:22:34] city. Um, and they have some other maybe
[1:22:39] so they're closer to larger
[1:22:41] What's that?
[1:22:41] So, they're closer to a larger
[1:22:43] right city. Uh, Grain, uh, we can
[1:22:47] compare that all day long, but they only
[1:22:49] have
[1:22:51] five full-time offers. Um, so I know
[1:22:54] when you're talking about 15 versus
[1:22:56] five, that's that changes that changes
[1:22:58] the number. Um, but at the end of the
[1:23:01] day, it doesn't change the issue.
[1:23:04] And that's that's the that's what I have
[1:23:07] to bring to y'all to try to find a way
[1:23:09] to address. So, I don't want you
[1:23:11] thinking that uh adding staff is low
[1:23:15] priority. Um I think it's very high
[1:23:17] priority. Uh but I think we have to
[1:23:20] continue uh to focus on on things that
[1:23:23] can also get us in a legal bond.
[1:23:27] Uh things that are going to help attract
[1:23:30] those other officers that we're trying
[1:23:31] to hire. Um and I think those are are
[1:23:35] things that we have to look at in going
[1:23:37] forward.
[1:23:39] chief, not just to say, but I mean it
[1:23:41] could also get us in a legal bind with
[1:23:43] not having the adequate staffing. Uh,
[1:23:46] and that's a real legal bind that we
[1:23:49] could really really be in. So,
[1:23:53] uh, with that being said, some of those
[1:23:55] salaries that were increasing, we could
[1:23:58] hire more staff um there. So, am I
[1:24:03] correct or not? Well, so so yes, uh I
[1:24:07] guess technically what you're saying is
[1:24:09] correct. Uh but if if you're not
[1:24:13] increasing salaries and you're losing
[1:24:15] other people because they're going to
[1:24:16] find other jobs, now the five positions
[1:24:20] that you add that you haven't filled. Uh
[1:24:22] now you're going to add five more to it
[1:24:24] because people have left to go.
[1:24:26] So my question So my question is so far
[1:24:30] as retention, so that's retention. So
[1:24:33] basically, we're trying to retain our
[1:24:35] officers. So if we continue to so
[1:24:40] I guess compete with other cities that
[1:24:44] are larger than us, then we are we'll
[1:24:47] never get the staffing that we need.
[1:24:50] We got to pay.
[1:24:51] I'm not saying that.
[1:24:53] I mean, because we're we're we're we'll
[1:24:55] be way over budget. I mean, I asked u
[1:24:58] other day I asked um [name] to give me a
[1:25:01] copy of the employees. the
[1:25:04] um and we're we're
[1:25:08] we're topheavy really. We're really
[1:25:11] topheavy. Um to where we can't I mean
[1:25:15] I'm where we can't where where we're
[1:25:19] accommodating what we have and I know we
[1:25:21] need to retain everybody that we have
[1:25:24] and they're doing an excellent job but
[1:25:27] we are overloading our uh staff as well.
[1:25:32] Um,
[1:25:34] I mean, they're doing way more, you
[1:25:38] know, and and some things are going
[1:25:39] lacking because of the fact that, um,
[1:25:43] we're not we don't have the staff. We I
[1:25:45] mean, we have the we have the u
[1:25:48] supervisors and the the administration,
[1:25:51] but we don't have the staff. And we need
[1:25:54] we need the staff, not just in your
[1:25:56] department, but I've been looking at the
[1:25:58] whole I mean I mean some were left that
[1:26:02] off I believe, but just looking at the
[1:26:04] whole um pay report, we're topheavy and
[1:26:09] we need staff.
[1:26:10] Well, I think I think if you saw a
[1:26:12] breakdown and and I will get this for
[1:26:14] you and I'll get it for everybody. I
[1:26:15] think if you saw a breakdown of what
[1:26:18] each one of these supervisors were
[1:26:21] responsible for and the things that they
[1:26:23] do on a daily basis, um I think you
[1:26:26] would understand their positions and and
[1:26:29] understand that it may look like we're
[1:26:31] topheavy. U but even in li of these
[1:26:34] responsibilities, duties they have, they
[1:26:37] still go out and patrol. They still go
[1:26:38] out and answer calls. they still cover a
[1:26:40] ship if this officer needs off um all
[1:26:44] hours of the night taking phone calls,
[1:26:45] getting called in. Um whereas
[1:26:49] the other officers may not. If if
[1:26:52] they're a patrol officer, they're not
[1:26:53] working their ship. They're not getting
[1:26:55] called out for pulling dead bodies out
[1:26:57] of creek uh for investigating infant
[1:27:01] deaths or burglaries or fatal car
[1:27:04] crashes. those guys that are topheavy or
[1:27:07] those supervisors
[1:27:09] are getting called out to do that um all
[1:27:11] hours of the night.
[1:27:14] This pay scale, the way it's set up is
[1:27:17] to attract longevity. If that first year
[1:27:21] officer comes and looks and says, "Well,
[1:27:22] I know I'm going to start out at this,
[1:27:23] but man, in six years or if I promote to
[1:27:26] this, this is what I'm going to be
[1:27:28] making." Well, they have something to
[1:27:31] look forward to. they know what they're
[1:27:32] going to be making or they know what
[1:27:34] they what they have coming to them.
[1:27:37] They're a lot lot more likely to stay
[1:27:39] around and be committed to the city
[1:27:41] versus coming here for two years,
[1:27:44] getting really good training, and then
[1:27:46] going and being a great officer for
[1:27:48] Houston or Dallas or DPS. Um, we have to
[1:27:52] give them something to look forward to.
[1:27:54] And it may look topheavy, u, but in
[1:27:58] day-to-day operations, it's very light.
[1:28:00] Um, but I think the way this pay scale
[1:28:03] is set up, it gives these officers
[1:28:05] something to look forward to. Uh,
[1:28:07] because essentially, if you're looking
[1:28:09] at it now, you may think, well, there's
[1:28:11] not a lot of turnover. Well, um,
[1:28:14] our our top top guys
[1:28:18] are either at retirement age or close to
[1:28:20] it. Now, I'm not notifying y'all that
[1:28:22] I'm retiring or that my assistant
[1:28:24] chief's retiring, uh, but there's going
[1:28:26] to be room for growth in that department
[1:28:28] at some point. So, these guys have to
[1:28:30] look forward to. They know that if they
[1:28:32] stay here and they stay committed to the
[1:28:35] city
[1:28:36] that they they have something that
[1:28:40] will benefit them. So, uh we do need
[1:28:44] more boots on the ground. Yes. Um but I
[1:28:47] think we have to look at it as a whole
[1:28:50] to attract them and not only to attract
[1:28:54] them but to keep them here because it
[1:28:56] does us no good. If we get them here, we
[1:28:58] spend all the money to send them to the
[1:29:00] academy. We get them through a six-month
[1:29:02] FTO process and then in a year or two
[1:29:04] years and say, "Hey, I'm headed here."
[1:29:07] Um, it doesn't seem no good. And we do
[1:29:09] contracts,
[1:29:11] but at what point will someone agree to
[1:29:13] a three or five year contract?
[1:29:16] It's going to ultimately depend on what
[1:29:18] your salary uh schedule says and what
[1:29:21] they've got to look forward to in the
[1:29:22] future. So, um, I think everything works
[1:29:26] and everything's very important and as I
[1:29:28] said it's very difficult to prioritize
[1:29:31] um these particular requests because in
[1:29:34] my opinion they're all important and
[1:29:36] some of them uh actually rely on each
[1:29:38] other uh to to be successful.
[1:29:42] I have one one request for you, bro. Um,
[1:29:46] if you could get more than one uh bid
[1:29:52] from the guys that could do the
[1:29:53] construction for the
[1:29:55] Absolutely. If you can get about if you
[1:29:57] get about two more bids, maybe you can
[1:30:00] make them work,
[1:30:03] we'll reach out to see what what number
[1:30:05] we can get and what we can do and I'll
[1:30:06] present all that back to to each of
[1:30:08] y'all.
[1:30:11] Other than that, man, we want to help
[1:30:12] you, you know, doing a good job, bro.
[1:30:18] Thank you, [name]. Want to call
[1:30:21] Thank you for putting this report
[1:30:22] together. I appreciate it. Yeah,
[1:30:24] thank you much.
[1:30:25] Want to call for about a 5m minute
[1:30:27] recess so everybody can go stretch her
[1:30:29] legs
[1:30:41] old.
[1:30:43] Got to get it work out
[1:30:50] for coals. Yeah.
[1:31:21] Sometimes I have to make it. Right.
[1:31:35] Absolutely.
[1:32:04] I understand
[1:32:08] it works.
[1:32:17] Sure.
[1:33:15] No surviving. I do not
[1:33:34] drove up on that guy
[1:33:40] for
[1:33:43] his car.
[1:33:56] Oh man.
[1:34:07] They're starting now.
[1:34:20] because
[1:34:47] I think
[1:35:00] all chicken out there
[1:35:05] been busy on the oil change.
[1:35:06] They have.
[1:35:07] Mhm. That's good.
[1:35:10] I'll be gone Saturday and Sunday cuz
[1:35:12] next Saturday's
[1:35:15] anything comes up. We got to go do that
[1:35:17] uh [name] will be too.
[1:35:21] We got to go do that sheriff's
[1:35:22] convention for work.
[1:35:25] Is he singing it?
[1:35:26] Oh yeah, we do the morning Sunday
[1:35:29] morning service.
[1:35:31] Got to set up sound system.
[1:35:34] We'll do music and he'll speak a little
[1:35:35] bit.
[1:35:39] It's
[1:35:40] good getaway. We'll all go
[1:35:43] uh me and him and our of course our
[1:35:45] wives and the whole band will go down
[1:35:46] the stock barge and eat Saturday night.
[1:35:50] That's always fun.
[1:35:53] I guess they always have it in Fort
[1:35:54] Worth.
[1:35:56] They sometimes they have it in San
[1:35:58] Antonio. I like that too cuz you go on
[1:36:01] the river wall
[1:36:03] but the last few years it's been before
[1:36:07] pretty neat. We we pull up there
[1:36:12] up there and check in. They roll that
[1:36:14] big door up. I drive into the convention
[1:36:16] center.
[1:36:17] That's where they got all the cop cars.
[1:36:21] Helicopter and all kinds of stuff. all
[1:36:23] the radioic.
[1:36:33] I said they'll have cop cars, radios,
[1:36:35] helicopters, everything inside. They're
[1:36:38] all cheap, too.
[1:36:39] Yeah, they're all cheap. Got red and
[1:36:41] blue lights on it. Sure.
[1:36:42] Great budget interior.
[1:36:44] Yeah. You know, see, this is what I'm
[1:36:46] wanting to know. And I this is what I'm
[1:36:50] like
[1:36:52] for instance what
[1:36:54] how many patrol officers do they have
[1:36:57] other
[1:37:01] I don't know I know number-wise them and
[1:37:04] Madison and Bill are in number about the
[1:37:07] same as ours like number of I think
[1:37:09] we're 16 so they're right the same
[1:37:14] so
[1:37:16] give Or do I put uh
[1:37:18] I'll go in and type it.
[1:37:19] Okay.
[1:37:22] Your name
[1:37:24] sign I m I k
[1:37:27] I got that one. Spell that last one for
[1:37:29] me.
[1:37:30] Well, he the last one. M A R S A
[1:37:39] too.
[1:37:41] Forgot.
[1:37:42] What was that? put an X down there and
[1:37:44] I'll and I'll put a little X under it to
[1:37:47] verify.
[1:37:55] Well, you know,
[1:37:59] tax
[1:38:03] bies their sell their property tax since
[1:38:06] their since Bies opened up their
[1:38:10] property tax took a took a dive because
[1:38:14] sales taxes. Trevor said he went through
[1:38:17] there yesterday to drop off utility.
[1:38:20] Heather
[1:38:22] met him at Bies. He said when he pulled
[1:38:25] off first, he said I started hitting
[1:38:28] traffic in us all the way to Fairfield.
[1:38:31] When he got the Bies,
[1:38:33] he said there was a line to turn in that
[1:38:36] first driveway. He went on to the second
[1:38:38] turn in because the traffic the light
[1:38:41] was backed up too. When he turned in
[1:38:44] that driveway,
[1:38:46] it took him 15 minutes to get from there
[1:38:49] to the other side of the parking lot.
[1:38:52] That's crazy. keeping.
[1:38:54] He said he was so mad.
[1:38:55] The exit on
[1:38:57] there, they have to back it up close to
[1:39:00] half a mile.
[1:39:01] Well, they normally do one that exit to
[1:39:04] back it up close to half a mile to
[1:39:06] accommodate.
[1:39:07] Yep.
[1:39:08] Cuz people were pulling off on the
[1:39:11] interstate on the side to make that
[1:39:12] exit.
[1:39:13] But he said they were there were so many
[1:39:15] people going. He said you could not get
[1:39:17] through there to even get to the 21
[1:39:21] side. That's great.
[1:39:24] You seen the Circle T uh in Navasota?
[1:39:27] You've been in you got over there.
[1:39:29] Yeah. Yeah.
[1:39:31] That's the one that's coming out there
[1:39:33] on the South Loop. The Circle Tuck stop.
[1:39:36] Pretty pretty swinking.
[1:39:40] Is that the
[1:39:42] Is that got the uh what restaurant in
[1:39:46] there?
[1:39:48] Is that on OSR, right?
[1:39:51] No. No,
[1:39:53] that's that's a armies
[1:39:57] over there.
[1:39:58] Yeah. OSR.
[1:39:59] Yeah.
[1:40:09] Okay.
[1:40:12] We got quite a good lift. I just text
[1:40:14] him and told her I wasn't have lunch
[1:40:15] with.
[1:40:17] Well, get the fire department then.
[1:40:21] I got mine boiled down to one page.
[1:40:24] One page is
[1:40:38] Yeah. Is it cold?
[1:40:46] Where is
[1:40:49] it in one of these? Which one? Jens.
[1:40:51] Yeah, sure.
[1:40:52] It's Yeah, it's in there.
[1:40:55] Okay. Yeah.
[1:41:01] That's where we're at before the police
[1:41:02] department.
[1:41:15] This is the
[1:41:17] the only one that police department or
[1:41:18] fire department has.
[1:41:23] [Music]
[1:41:47] Get this time.
[1:41:52] It's a lift station
[1:41:57] when the
[1:42:00] so sewer all flows down great, right?
[1:42:02] You got to keep on flowing down. It
[1:42:04] don't won't go uphill.
[1:42:07] So on the south 19 side at Nottingham
[1:42:09] Woods over there by 2022, there are two
[1:42:11] areas where all the sewer flows to one
[1:42:13] point and then it has a lift station and
[1:42:16] it pumps it up about 30 ft.
[1:42:18] and gets it up closer to the top of the
[1:42:20] ground again and then flows to the
[1:42:23] treatment plants. We used to have four
[1:42:26] or five of them and with new technology
[1:42:29] we've eliminated we only have two lift
[1:42:31] stations now.
[1:42:35] Yeah, I'll explain that one. Um, this
[1:42:37] lift station here, it's a it's an old
[1:42:40] one and it's falling falling apart on 5
[1:42:43] minutes. Get your gap.
[1:43:09] Yeah, that's it's old.
[1:43:18] Okay, we'll resume the meeting. Uh,
[1:43:21] [name], I guess you're next. Fire
[1:43:23] department.
[1:43:30] [Laughter]
[1:43:41] Thank God.
[1:43:44] How about that this morning? I like to
[1:43:45] have a visual when I'm talking about
[1:43:47] something. So,
[1:43:54] all right.
[1:43:57] I've just asked for, as [name] was
[1:43:59] talking, you know, it's not really a
[1:44:01] capital onetime fee that I'm asking for.
[1:44:03] I'm asking for an extra or to add
[1:44:06] another firefighter to my staff.
[1:44:08] Currently, we got five paid
[1:44:09] firefighters. Uh they work two days on,
[1:44:13] four days off. Um
[1:44:17] and there's one shift that's missing the
[1:44:19] guys. So, every day of the week there's
[1:44:21] two firefighters at the station.
[1:44:23] that third that third uh shift that's
[1:44:26] missing that one extra person that this
[1:44:28] is the one I'm trying to fill. I'm
[1:44:30] feeling with some part-time people. Um
[1:44:34] and even sometimes that's hard if if
[1:44:36] they got they're working their other job
[1:44:38] and stuff like that. It's hard getting
[1:44:40] that
[1:44:42] person to get there to cover that shift
[1:44:44] and and I have worked those shifts too
[1:44:47] here in the last couple weeks. There
[1:44:49] have been people taking off and stuff
[1:44:50] like that. So
[1:44:53] I've been having to pull a 48 96 shift
[1:44:56] myself just so we got those two people
[1:44:58] there every day. I think we kind of set
[1:45:01] that at the standard to have the two
[1:45:03] people there, the B personnel. And on
[1:45:06] average, if you average the calls out,
[1:45:08] they are the ones that ask or running
[1:45:11] the calls, answering the calls, the two
[1:45:13] people are probably safe to say 95% of
[1:45:16] the pay staff is answering the calls.
[1:45:19] Uh, just let y'all know, and I want
[1:45:21] y'all to be aware of this. uh even that
[1:45:23] one person might not it'll help me now
[1:45:26] but in the long run as volunteerism is
[1:45:29] dying you know I was here last year
[1:45:31] asking for people I'm telling you I'm
[1:45:33] always needing people uh
[1:45:36] I consider us to be an aggressive
[1:45:38] aggressive department when I say
[1:45:40] aggressive department we're going to
[1:45:41] show up and we go inside the house we're
[1:45:43] going to put the fire out and save
[1:45:45] taxpayers money by uh not letting their
[1:45:48] house get completely burned we get in
[1:45:50] there knock the fire out and they have a
[1:45:53] sable house which they got insurance
[1:45:55] someday.
[1:45:57] Just to let y'all know, uh there's a
[1:45:59] rule in fire service. There's two people
[1:46:02] that goes in the house and there's two
[1:46:04] people outside the house, which we call
[1:46:06] the written team, which is rapid
[1:46:08] intervision team, to go in to save those
[1:46:10] two firefighters or help them rescue the
[1:46:14] innocent person on the inside. So, yes,
[1:46:17] we got those two firefighters. They're
[1:46:19] getting there to the scene. One's got to
[1:46:22] pump the truck and you got the one guy.
[1:46:23] We're not meeting that minimum
[1:46:25] requirement for two people two people
[1:46:27] out
[1:46:28] and and time is money in our business.
[1:46:31] The sooner we can get there, the sooner
[1:46:33] we can put the fire out, sooner we can
[1:46:34] go and do a primary search and make sure
[1:46:37] there's nobody in there. Yes, we do have
[1:46:39] mutual aid agreements with Lexo. They
[1:46:42] are also facing the volunteerism crisis,
[1:46:45] too. And the volunteers that are there
[1:46:48] were getting older. I can actually put
[1:46:50] myself in that where we need people that
[1:46:53] can go in pack out and stuff like that
[1:46:55] where there's all these rural
[1:46:57] departments they're having older people
[1:46:59] the younger generation not coming there.
[1:47:01] So yes, we got a mutual contract with
[1:47:04] Lexa who backs us up to help meet that
[1:47:07] two in two out person. But by time he
[1:47:10] pays in you're looking at them being
[1:47:11] anywhere on scene from six to six to 10
[1:47:16] minutes before they show up. And that's
[1:47:19] valuable time when the fire is burning.
[1:47:21] So, um, just not saying we're not, you
[1:47:25] know, our volunteer. I'm gonna go over
[1:47:28] that what I just handed you. Uh, our
[1:47:31] full-time staff is the one highlighted
[1:47:33] in blue. I just wanted y'all to see my
[1:47:34] roster what I'm working with. Uh, the
[1:47:37] part-time people that's in yellow. That
[1:47:39] means they only work when they're
[1:47:41] assigned to. They're not going to come
[1:47:43] in after hours or anything like that
[1:47:45] because some of those people, they don't
[1:47:47] even there's a couple of them that don't
[1:47:49] live here in property. So, they're only
[1:47:51] going to work when they're assigned to
[1:47:52] work. U the ones that's purple slash uh
[1:47:57] orange, those those are my two
[1:48:00] volunteers who also are certified and
[1:48:02] they can work part-time hours. When you
[1:48:05] fall down to the orange, that is
[1:48:07] actually all the volunteers that we have
[1:48:09] on our department this time. Uh so,
[1:48:12] Say eight to be safe. Six that's in the
[1:48:15] orange. But if those uh other two guys
[1:48:19] that's in the purple and orange pulling
[1:48:21] the shift, you might count those other
[1:48:23] guys not be responding. So at the end of
[1:48:26] the day, I have six people, six
[1:48:28] volunteers that are possibly
[1:48:30] responding to a call.
[1:48:33] I just there's a hard decision to be
[1:48:36] making in this is I want y'all to be
[1:48:38] aware of the decision I might have to
[1:48:40] make which going to reflect the city at
[1:48:43] some point. We're like I said we're
[1:48:46] correct department will go in and do
[1:48:47] stuff. There's going to be a time where
[1:48:49] we ain't going to have enough manpower
[1:48:52] on scene to meet that two in two and out
[1:48:55] and I'm going to have to make that
[1:48:56] decision.
[1:48:58] I can't send the two guys in because I
[1:49:00] am breaking what I can get in trouble
[1:49:03] with is the people that regulates us.
[1:49:05] Kind of like TCO for PE police
[1:49:07] department. It is Texas Commission on
[1:49:09] Fire Protection for us. So anytime we
[1:49:12] don't meet that requirement to in
[1:49:15] I got to send the report to TCF why I
[1:49:19] made that decision to do it. So at some
[1:49:22] point there's going to be a hard
[1:49:23] decision being made on my part. we can't
[1:49:25] go in because we don't have an adequate
[1:49:28] person to go save the firefighter if
[1:49:29] they get injured or you know we're going
[1:49:33] to have to do some surrounding and
[1:49:34] drowning which we don't like doing. Uh
[1:49:37] we take great pride in what we're doing
[1:49:39] and is this one person is a step in the
[1:49:42] right direction. Hopefully uh I'm
[1:49:46] currently working on trying to get like
[1:49:48] a junior program and to the schools to u
[1:49:51] I'm trying to get where we can get more
[1:49:53] volunteers. Um, uh, if y'all got any
[1:49:57] suggestions on how to do that, like I
[1:49:58] say every meeting, give them to me. I'm
[1:50:00] willing to try anything at this point to
[1:50:02] get volunteers. So,
[1:50:05] nutshell, basically, I just wanted y'all
[1:50:07] to see my roster and actually break it
[1:50:09] down to you because at every meeting, I
[1:50:11] said I got 17 people, but this is
[1:50:13] actually breaking them down. The paid
[1:50:16] guys, the part-time guys, the volunteer,
[1:50:18] and the part part-time volunteers. Um,
[1:50:23] so with that being said, uh, is there
[1:50:26] any questions for me?
[1:50:28] So you said when those guys go out and
[1:50:31] the volunteers, y'all call them in or
[1:50:34] how does that work?
[1:50:35] Every call that comes in for us, the
[1:50:37] volunteers, I got paid, we got apps on
[1:50:39] phone, so they're aware of it. We have a
[1:50:41] call,
[1:50:42] but they're at work. It's not like it
[1:50:45] used to be in, you know, 20, 30 years
[1:50:46] ago when the businesses are letting them
[1:50:48] go,
[1:50:49] you know, they're not there. business.
[1:50:51] They're not helping make any money. So,
[1:50:52] I understand that. But everybody knows
[1:50:54] when we get a call, everybody that's on
[1:50:56] this list either carries a pager or they
[1:51:00] get alert on their phone to respond to
[1:51:01] the fire department.
[1:51:03] So, have y'all considered uh like
[1:51:05] chief's doing apply for grants to assist
[1:51:09] the grant where that's what really
[1:51:11] started all our paid guys was grants.
[1:51:13] Well, this year they changed a lot of
[1:51:14] stuff where it used to be it was free at
[1:51:17] first or the first year was covered then
[1:51:19] it went down in percentage. Well, now
[1:51:21] the first year you got to pay 25%. So,
[1:51:24] this is what I'm trying to this is what
[1:51:26] I want to do is is get this position
[1:51:28] filled because like I said, two people
[1:51:30] is really not enough when you show up on
[1:51:31] scene. I want to apply for grants like
[1:51:34] [name] was talking about and get get
[1:51:36] that three where there's three people
[1:51:38] every day. So, you got the driver and
[1:51:40] two firefighters that can go in. So my
[1:51:42] my goal is to apply for the grants to
[1:51:44] meet three people a day so we can at
[1:51:48] least you know have stuff to work with
[1:51:50] or you know staggering where they bring
[1:51:52] the second truck and you know stuff like
[1:51:54] that. It's just it's always we adapt and
[1:51:57] overcome in this field know what works
[1:51:59] today is not going to work tomorrow. So
[1:52:01] you constantly got to over adapt with
[1:52:03] your manpower and all that stuff. So
[1:52:05] yes, I'm trying to just meet where this
[1:52:08] is like we got we get our two shifts
[1:52:11] every day then apply for the grants for
[1:52:13] those next three to have three people
[1:52:15] day.
[1:52:16] So what are your shifts? What are your
[1:52:18] our shifts or you work? There's a B and
[1:52:21] C shift. And like I said, they're
[1:52:23] they're they're at the station for 48
[1:52:25] hours. They sleep and stay at the
[1:52:27] station for 48 hours. And they're all
[1:52:29] four days. Most everybody on this that
[1:52:32] they got a second job and they work
[1:52:34] three or four days off. So most some two
[1:52:36] of those I can just about ride off
[1:52:38] that's not going to make a call if we
[1:52:40] have something after after hours.
[1:52:42] So do they have to stay at the station
[1:52:44] for 48 hours?
[1:52:45] Yes, they are. They are there. They show
[1:52:47] up at 7:00 in the morning then I'll
[1:52:49] leave to 48 hours later at 7:00 the next
[1:52:52] day.
[1:52:53] So that's what I'm saying. So they have
[1:52:54] to that's their job.
[1:52:56] There's upstairs
[1:52:59] I know we've been hit or miss on coming
[1:53:01] by the station but there's living
[1:53:02] quarters upstairs. There's bed, there's
[1:53:04] a kitchen, a bathroom, shower, and like
[1:53:07] a little couple chairs there and watch
[1:53:09] TV at night.
[1:53:10] Yeah. So is it required by the state
[1:53:12] that they stay 48 hours?
[1:53:14] It's not required. Uh we've tried like I
[1:53:17] said used to when this first came out
[1:53:19] full-time people and we had a lot of
[1:53:21] volunteers that couldn't come during the
[1:53:24] day. So we initially started out
[1:53:26] basically they worked uh 410 they was
[1:53:29] there during the hours then at night had
[1:53:32] a bunch of volunteers they would check
[1:53:33] you know we had the main fire that then
[1:53:36] that slowed down so we went to a 24-hour
[1:53:39] shift. Well a lot of people don't want
[1:53:41] to work a 24hour shift far as training
[1:53:43] people. They want to work that two days
[1:53:45] and they're all four days and then go
[1:53:46] work a second job and do something on
[1:53:48] the day off. That's a couple of the
[1:53:51] three of those actually. One two people
[1:53:55] work for different departments and one
[1:53:57] has their own business that they do
[1:53:59] stuff on their days off. So
[1:54:04] what do y'all do to try to get like
[1:54:06] volunteers?
[1:54:08] We reach down and paper. Uh last year I
[1:54:10] start I started earlier. went to the
[1:54:12] junior high talking just like hey you
[1:54:15] know look forward to this and you turn
[1:54:17] 18 come b come give us your time we got
[1:54:21] grants that'll pay for your
[1:54:22] certification yes we know we might not
[1:54:25] be able to retain you but at least we
[1:54:26] got you and train you and have you in
[1:54:29] our community you know till they uh get
[1:54:32] their certification because as it is
[1:54:35] people the new generation of ch I don't
[1:54:38] like uh it's hard to retain people here
[1:54:40] like [name] was talking about, but most
[1:54:42] my people that are full-time, they live
[1:54:45] here and it was easier to retain those
[1:54:47] people. We'd like to hire from the end
[1:54:50] if we hire somebody before we hire from
[1:54:52] without. So, if we got somebody
[1:54:53] realistic two weeks internally, go
[1:54:56] ahead.
[1:54:56] See, uh, you know, people that's already
[1:54:58] here, best of here, don't want to move
[1:55:00] away like me. I never want to leave. I
[1:55:02] was born, raised here, never left here.
[1:55:05] Yeah.
[1:55:06] So
[1:55:07] always when we get a position we hire
[1:55:09] from within before we hire from so we're
[1:55:12] not having that revolving door because
[1:55:14] if we hire from without nine times out
[1:55:16] of 10 we're just they're just filling
[1:55:18] spots so they get on to a bigger
[1:55:20] department.
[1:55:22] So
[1:55:23] you think it's something else we may
[1:55:24] could do to try to get the word out
[1:55:27] maybe like
[1:55:28] I'll take suggestions. We've been in
[1:55:30] paper social media. Uh I just don't know
[1:55:32] what it uh if we can figure it out, we
[1:55:35] can retire at least nationwide as far as
[1:55:38] not getting volunteers. We had the
[1:55:40] newspaper, they come out, they done
[1:55:42] stuff in the paper. Um even when we do
[1:55:45] stuff like Walmart stuff, we got
[1:55:46] applications there. Hey, anybody want to
[1:55:48] join the fire department? Come talk to
[1:55:50] us. The deal is we have a lot of people
[1:55:53] that not a lot of people, they have
[1:55:55] people come there. Normally how it
[1:55:57] works, if you want to get on the fire
[1:55:58] department, you show up for one of our
[1:55:59] drill hunt, which is first Mondays and
[1:56:02] third Thursdays. Hey, come see what we
[1:56:04] do because it's not just, you know, put
[1:56:08] the wet stuff on the red stuff. You
[1:56:09] know, there's stuff we got to do. And
[1:56:11] some people that come to our drills and
[1:56:13] they're like, "Oh, I didn't know you
[1:56:14] done all this. I'm tapping out." M
[1:56:16] so I just if we could figure out what
[1:56:19] draws their attention and keep them here
[1:56:22] we could we could solve like I said it's
[1:56:24] not just a city crocket that's facing
[1:56:25] the this nation
[1:56:31] okay um so on the um but like you were
[1:56:35] saying about the 48 hours so you said
[1:56:38] it's not necessarily that they have to
[1:56:40] stay there the 48 hours it's just the
[1:56:43] schedule that you you 48 896 and they
[1:56:47] are they
[1:56:48] are on if any call drops those two
[1:56:51] people are there for that 48 hours to
[1:56:53] respond.
[1:56:55] So
[1:56:55] that's pretty much nationwide.
[1:56:57] Yes, that's most most departments that's
[1:56:59] Yeah. But when you have a small city um
[1:57:01] those fire department those fire u
[1:57:05] fighters don't usually stay
[1:57:09] uh 24 hours, do they?
[1:57:11] Yeah, people do. Yeah.
[1:57:12] Yeah.
[1:57:13] I mean I know somewhere like Houston or
[1:57:15] whatever. So what are the average calls?
[1:57:16] What are we what are we averaging far as
[1:57:19] the calls for the city?
[1:57:22] If you average your average is 1.5 calls
[1:57:24] a day if you average 1.5 calls. Some
[1:57:28] days that might be like on a storm day
[1:57:30] that might be 14 calls. Uh or usually
[1:57:35] this time of year we're into grass fire
[1:57:37] season. But thank God for the rain that
[1:57:40] we received and we're not really high in
[1:57:42] the grass fires now. But, you know, it
[1:57:46] might be they might go a day, they might
[1:57:47] not be available, but they got stuff
[1:57:50] they do Monday through through seven
[1:57:52] days a week. There's a check. They check
[1:57:54] the trucks off every day. There's stuff
[1:57:56] we got to do like air packs, all that
[1:57:58] stuff. So, the trucks are all ready to
[1:58:01] go. And that's how we catch stuff that
[1:58:03] might be broken or stuff like that.
[1:58:05] Every day is a every day is a truck. So,
[1:58:08] this truck is being washed this day.
[1:58:10] We're checking all the equipment on it.
[1:58:12] Even though it's that truck, but the
[1:58:14] guys that there were air pack or the
[1:58:16] paid guys, they got to check off on two
[1:58:18] more trucks on those air packs. Make
[1:58:20] sure they're ready to go because they
[1:58:21] might not go in our first time. They
[1:58:24] might have to go into the county engine
[1:58:26] or or another engine. So, they're always
[1:58:29] prepared to go in whatever truck and
[1:58:31] they're checked off to go on the air.
[1:58:36] For most big say a bigger department you
[1:58:39] got one truck one station. We got
[1:58:43] several trucks one station that meets
[1:58:47] different requirements. We don't have
[1:58:49] several departments that this one's for
[1:58:51] house fire this one. This one's for we
[1:58:54] do all of it.
[1:58:55] So my next question is and I'm not
[1:58:58] trying to call you out or anything but
[1:59:01] so from what budget are we paying Mr.
[1:59:05] [name], are we paying from the fire
[1:59:07] department budget or the city budget?
[1:59:10] It is there is a as it is right now
[1:59:13] there's a fire department budget and
[1:59:16] there's a fire marshal budget. So the
[1:59:18] fire marshall budget is a budget
[1:59:20] separated. Uh when I was fire marshall
[1:59:23] we had to have a separate budget. That's
[1:59:25] we I met the requirements for
[1:59:28] stuff with the police side of it. So
[1:59:31] that's how we had to break them up back
[1:59:34] in 2014. Had a break it up.
[1:59:39] Okay. So we're paying Mr. [name] from
[1:59:40] the fire the fire marshall budget.
[1:59:48] Okay. Okay.
[1:59:57] Have you uh
[2:00:01] at all? Maybe uh with us going into the
[2:00:05] county so much and uh using our paid
[2:00:09] firefighters to go about maybe
[2:00:11] contacting ESD about providing a
[2:00:14] full-time firefighter for Crockett.
[2:00:18] I don't think they will. They might go
[2:00:19] up on our annual their annual payment,
[2:00:23] but I mean, we do use our paid guys to
[2:00:26] go into the county, right?
[2:00:28] So, that would be an avenue avenue to
[2:00:31] maybe get one or two guys and let them
[2:00:35] say, "Hey, look, you know, we we're
[2:00:37] using our paid guys to go into the
[2:00:39] county to
[2:00:40] to cover." And
[2:00:41] that might be something where that
[2:00:43] contract should be coming up
[2:00:46] next year also. That contract's coming
[2:00:48] up. Uh because the current contract said
[2:00:51] we will provide
[2:00:53] As y'all was talking about contracts,
[2:00:55] the current contracts that we provide,
[2:00:56] the same service that we offer for the
[2:00:59] city of Crockett, they're the same. We
[2:01:02] give them the same uh deal. That might
[2:01:05] be something when it come time again.
[2:01:07] It's like, hey, we're going to offer you
[2:01:10] the same thing you get out. The
[2:01:11] volunteers that come in will be the one
[2:01:13] responding for y'all. So, but they're
[2:01:17] going into their budget their budget
[2:01:20] workshop I think next month.
[2:01:22] I would maybe mention something to them,
[2:01:24] you know, just say, "Hey, look, this is
[2:01:26] where the way we're going. Uh, we need
[2:01:29] help and
[2:01:31] we don't have the guys to go,
[2:01:34] you know, I I feel like they need to
[2:01:36] have a little bit of
[2:01:37] I am also
[2:01:38] I do. I feel like it.
[2:01:42] I think
[2:01:42] that being said, would you uh ask them
[2:01:45] to consider uh paying half
[2:01:48] I say a firefighter, a whole
[2:01:50] firefighter,
[2:01:51] half of all the all the salaries.
[2:01:54] I mean, if we we're using all the
[2:01:56] firefighters,
[2:01:56] y'all tell me what y'all want me to ask
[2:01:59] them. And I ask that y'all let [name] or
[2:02:02] Len somebody else come with me who has
[2:02:05] the data and so we can have a closed
[2:02:08] session meeting with them to discuss our
[2:02:10] contract and stuff. So I'd like somebody
[2:02:12] besid myself to be there too.
[2:02:14] I don't think directions how y'all want
[2:02:16] to go.
[2:02:18] All of them are going up.
[2:02:19] All I'm saying is is we we we do run
[2:02:22] more calls in the city so than we do the
[2:02:25] county. But uh and they all don't go.
[2:02:30] I mean what I'm saying? Yeah. When
[2:02:32] they're on duty. But
[2:02:33] um I'm just trying to get another
[2:02:36] firefighter and if they pay for it
[2:02:41] um
[2:02:41] cuz we're we're actually paying for six
[2:02:44] firefighters. We're actually paying for
[2:02:46] six. I mean we I mean because we have um
[2:02:49] [name] on there as a fire marshall.
[2:02:52] So we're already paying my name. Oh
[2:02:55] yeah, you too. I'm sorry.
[2:02:58] Seven. Okay.
[2:02:59] So, to let y'all know, like when I show
[2:03:01] up on scene as a chief, the way the TCFP
[2:03:04] rules are, I'm not supposed to I'm
[2:03:07] supposed to be the one overseeing the
[2:03:08] whole accident.
[2:03:10] TCFP, Texas Commission on Fire
[2:03:12] Protection, who governs our license. So,
[2:03:15] when I when I show up, I'm supposed to
[2:03:17] be the one directing the scene and scene
[2:03:20] safety, all that good stuff. But I do
[2:03:23] still fly. So, it's a small town. We
[2:03:27] don't have a lot of people.
[2:03:29] Who's over?
[2:03:30] And we're bound to have fire.
[2:03:31] Who's over y'all social media?
[2:03:39] I think y'all take advantage of social
[2:03:40] media. Make make flyers, pages. I mean,
[2:03:44] that's you got to put it out there, man.
[2:03:46] You got to take tell Kim she got to take
[2:03:49] more advantage of that social media and
[2:03:51] get the get the word out there, you
[2:03:53] know? make some nice little flies or
[2:03:55] something and you never know where it
[2:03:57] come from.
[2:03:59] There might be some other incentives
[2:04:01] that y'all would have to approve to
[2:04:02] attract.
[2:04:04] One thing I think [name] looked at in the
[2:04:06] past is how you're your fireman
[2:04:10] water bill. Not you don't have to pay
[2:04:13] water bill to live inside the ceiling.
[2:04:14] So that's something we got to come up
[2:04:16] some kind of senate to attract people to
[2:04:19] uh just know
[2:04:20] you're the chief, man.
[2:04:22] like that back in the day. But there's
[2:04:24] going to be minimum requirements you got
[2:04:26] you got to make, you know, because I
[2:04:28] don't just everybody, oh, I'll get a
[2:04:29] free water bill.
[2:04:32] So, they got minimum requirements.
[2:04:35] And also, y'all, as y'all look, there's
[2:04:38] a lot of empty spaces up there below my
[2:04:40] name. Those volunteers used to they used
[2:04:43] to be volunteer officers. So, those
[2:04:46] current volunteers aren't making a
[2:04:49] percentage a year to to get those
[2:04:52] volunteer officer positions. So, as
[2:04:55] y'all was saying, there's there's one
[2:04:57] chief and not enough Indians. In my
[2:04:59] case,
[2:04:59] I can see I can see probably, you know,
[2:05:02] one reason maybe that you're not getting
[2:05:04] the the volunteers because I mean, you
[2:05:06] have paid staff. So, a lot of them
[2:05:09] that's really wanting to come out, you
[2:05:12] they're like, well, if they're getting
[2:05:13] paid to do the job.
[2:05:15] Yes. And we ran into that. Uh just to
[2:05:16] give uh uh the last three, they're not
[2:05:20] going to show up till probably after
[2:05:22] hours. Uh actually the last one is uh he
[2:05:27] actually last month I mean he just got
[2:05:29] on last month and he made I would say
[2:05:32] almost every call. So I'm telling my pay
[2:05:34] guy cuz we got a app that shows you're
[2:05:37] coming to the station. I'll wait an
[2:05:39] extra two minutes for him to get there
[2:05:41] because he's trying to put his heart
[2:05:43] into it and we don't need to be leaving
[2:05:45] him at the station going. I'll just show
[2:05:46] the station off to do nothing or he
[2:05:48] don't get to do nothing. So, we're
[2:05:50] having to always adapt and overcome. So,
[2:05:52] we're staying that extra one or two or
[2:05:54] three minutes waiting on him to come in
[2:05:56] so he get experience as a fire
[2:05:58] department. So,
[2:06:00] we're used to that's all we got. We got
[2:06:02] to go.
[2:06:04] We slowed down this last month. Wait for
[2:06:05] these guys that are coming to the
[2:06:08] station. Let them let them get on the
[2:06:09] truck.
[2:06:11] I was uh also another incentive and I
[2:06:14] was looking at it um last year at last
[2:06:17] year's budget and I really didn't know
[2:06:19] what it was. I was really questioning it
[2:06:21] and uh I talked to [name] the other day
[2:06:23] about it and it was the incentive of for
[2:06:26] volunteers to uh come in and have a
[2:06:29] retirement. So, uh, I didn't even know
[2:06:33] that volunteers had a retirement.
[2:06:37] If they put in enough time, they will
[2:06:39] get a retirement. So, it's not going to
[2:06:41] be a lot, but it's, you know, when you
[2:06:44] retire, that's 100 bucks a month.
[2:06:47] 153.
[2:06:57] That's something that we could look
[2:06:58] toward is maybe pay more do that. So it
[2:07:01] might draw some of the people like hey
[2:07:03] in 10 years bring home a couple.
[2:07:11] So you will look into um possibly
[2:07:15] applying for some type of or searching
[2:07:17] for some type of grants to
[2:07:18] Yes. That's going to be something I'm
[2:07:20] about to bring back to y'all. It's like
[2:07:21] okay year one we get three people we got
[2:07:25] to pay 25% of our salaries the first
[2:07:27] year. Then the second year we got to pay
[2:07:30] 40%. Then the third year I think they
[2:07:32] even knocked it down.
[2:07:35] I think it used to be five years and now
[2:07:37] the fourth year is 100% yours.
[2:07:40] So is that something that you think that
[2:07:42] uh ESD would buy into?
[2:07:46] Maybe.
[2:07:46] How would that work? [name], what do you
[2:07:48] think? Yeah, I mean I I think it's
[2:07:51] reasonable if we provide a light
[2:07:53] service, whatever we do in the city and
[2:07:55] our citizens are paying taxes for, we
[2:07:58] should present that that same
[2:08:01] level of responsibility and footing the
[2:08:03] bill to the ESD.
[2:08:05] Um, like I said, the fire marshall, that
[2:08:07] position is for the city. It's for it's
[2:08:09] not that he doesn't work out in the
[2:08:12] county. But other than that position,
[2:08:14] everybody
[2:08:16] [name], whether it's a city call or
[2:08:18] inches, he goes and all of our
[2:08:21] firefighters go the same number of
[2:08:24] people, trucks and everything. And so I
[2:08:26] mean just that budget line item alone is
[2:08:29] 370,000,
[2:08:32] you know. So I think it should be
[2:08:33] presented that they should cover half of
[2:08:35] it if they want the same service that
[2:08:37] the city provides because when they're
[2:08:39] gone to be loud or we somewhere else
[2:08:42] the city
[2:08:43] the city has zero people left in it for
[2:08:45] any of our fires
[2:08:46] and so that means that we're as a city
[2:08:48] is are paying
[2:08:50] are footing the bill for the county
[2:08:51] basically for the county.
[2:08:52] Mhm.
[2:08:56] that maybe we could I mean the other
[2:08:58] thing is um like you were mentioning
[2:09:00] we're in a a digital a digital
[2:09:03] environment where a lot of information
[2:09:05] it's easy to get out and get in the
[2:09:07] young people's minds
[2:09:10] kind of get it in the forefront of their
[2:09:11] mind maybe we do a few 10 second
[2:09:14] 15-second like when you're scrolling on
[2:09:17] Facebook and those you know videos come
[2:09:19] up
[2:09:20] that's big man
[2:09:21] you show hey did you ever think that you
[2:09:24] could be this. We'll pay for the
[2:09:25] training. These are the benefits and
[2:09:28] give some just something to plug in
[2:09:31] their minds.
[2:09:32] We got to have social media, man. You
[2:09:33] got to take advantage.
[2:09:34] Did you say some type of compensation
[2:09:36] with that or no?
[2:09:37] Well, we we already have quite a few
[2:09:39] different incentives and and
[2:09:41] compensations like you were talking
[2:09:42] about just a minute ago, the retirement
[2:09:43] and
[2:09:44] you get paid for when you do go to these
[2:09:46] calls. We're not asking you to volunteer
[2:09:48] for free.
[2:09:49] We're compensating you some. So, that's
[2:09:51] additional sources of revenue and
[2:09:53] training. You can become a paid
[2:09:55] certified firefighter, EMT for
[2:09:58] and start working here full-time or for
[2:10:00] another city and we can provide all
[2:10:02] those at no cost.
[2:10:04] If you get somebody good in marketing
[2:10:06] and putting little that and PD, you
[2:10:09] know, and just plug this area within a
[2:10:12] 50 mile radius, if you're around here
[2:10:15] and you're scrolling on Instagram or
[2:10:16] Facebook or Tik Tok, you get hit with
[2:10:19] those videos.
[2:10:20] People stay on social. Let
[2:10:21] people know how how much we need them.
[2:10:24] And you did say you you're thinking
[2:10:25] about attempting to implement a U junior
[2:10:29] firefighter program.
[2:10:30] Looking into that. That's something I
[2:10:33] requested out to uh to get the
[2:10:36] information and what's legal and all
[2:10:38] that stuff because
[2:10:40] they're not going to be able to go to a
[2:10:42] structure fire on a grass fire. But
[2:10:45] there's a lot of legal side to this
[2:10:48] person. I reached out to look at
[2:10:51] firefight.
[2:11:01] See, when I'm on social media, I don't I
[2:11:03] don't see nothing about Crockett fire
[2:11:05] department.
[2:11:08] I'm not I tell you right now, I'm not
[2:11:10] socially on social media stuff. That's
[2:11:12] not my
[2:11:15] push.
[2:11:17] But we need somebody to push. I see
[2:11:20] Crockett Police Department and
[2:11:22] I see them all the time. I don't see too
[2:11:24] much about the fire station.
[2:11:26] Yeah. And I don't have the time because
[2:11:28] we're so short-handed, but I don't have
[2:11:29] the time to sit there and type all that
[2:11:31] stuff cuz I'm dealing with the calls.
[2:11:32] Can we Can you get somebody though
[2:11:34] that's one of the one
[2:11:35] more money? They'd be more than happy to
[2:11:36] do it.
[2:11:38] We already paying them. Let's make them
[2:11:39] part of the
[2:11:40] And these are the guys that going to the
[2:11:41] calls, you know.
[2:11:43] So what they doing when they not going
[2:11:45] through the calls?
[2:11:47] sitting down social media person
[2:11:51] with some people see what we can come up
[2:11:52] with.
[2:11:53] We need it, man.
[2:11:54] Some of those pushes require extra $10
[2:11:56] here, $15 to push it out for a certain
[2:11:58] area and stuff like that. So,
[2:12:01] I mean, it's free.
[2:12:05] I just think in in general, I think if
[2:12:07] ES,
[2:12:11] I think they'll be good for the city. uh
[2:12:14] if especially when when they're
[2:12:16] receiving the same services and um and
[2:12:19] the city's actually put in the majority
[2:12:21] of the videos.
[2:12:24] All right.
[2:12:27] Thank you.
[2:12:28] Thank you much.
[2:12:29] Thank you.
[2:12:32] All right. Mayor Council, I know you you
[2:12:34] are starting to fade real quick, so I
[2:12:36] want to go through these. You stop me
[2:12:39] when you have a question. Um,
[2:12:43] as we build this budget, um, moving
[2:12:45] forward, um, based on y'all's
[2:12:48] recommendations and pro and and
[2:12:50] priorities,
[2:12:52] um, I'll continue keeping y'all up up to
[2:12:54] speed on what sources of revenue we have
[2:12:57] come in to to uh build any of these
[2:13:00] capital requests in from police, fire,
[2:13:03] and and public works. Um, and then um,
[2:13:07] we can build our budget base around
[2:13:09] this. The only one on this on that I'm
[2:13:12] going to be presenting to you that is a
[2:13:14] multi-year appropriation expense is the
[2:13:17] first one. Um
[2:13:20] like [name] said, I would not be doing
[2:13:22] our department service, our our our
[2:13:25] employee service if we didn't try to
[2:13:28] continue staying.
[2:13:30] Right now, we're behind the curve, but
[2:13:32] we need to continue trying to meet u
[2:13:35] meet the the needs of our employees and
[2:13:37] cost of living um increases. Um in 2022,
[2:13:44] the uh CPI for our region increased by
[2:13:47] 11.2%
[2:13:49] to date. So
[2:13:52] reflecting the ongoing rise of of goods
[2:13:54] and services over that same period since
[2:13:57] 2022,
[2:13:59] the city has provided a two 2% cola that
[2:14:02] was implemented last year. Still leaving
[2:14:04] a pretty good gap that we gained a lot
[2:14:06] of ground, but if we don't continue
[2:14:09] pushing, we're going to lose a lot of
[2:14:11] that ground that we gained. Um,
[2:14:15] that being said, what we're the main
[2:14:17] thing that we're finding out with our
[2:14:18] employees are not what other cities are
[2:14:20] paying. Our employees that are leaving
[2:14:22] us are not going into other cities.
[2:14:23] They're going to the private sector. You
[2:14:25] know, they're going somewhere where we
[2:14:28] require them to maybe have CDLs. They
[2:14:30] can go to a company with a CDL and make
[2:14:33] significantly more. Uh, we try to
[2:14:35] attract them with good benefits, you
[2:14:37] know, paid health insurance and and
[2:14:39] retirement system and stuff like that.
[2:14:41] But like I say, a lot of the younger
[2:14:43] younger crowd that we're trying to have
[2:14:46] work for us, they're not necessarily
[2:14:47] looking at those long-term. They're not
[2:14:49] paying attention to retirement quite
[2:14:51] yet. They're looking at the dollar per
[2:14:53] hour. Um and if and so the ones that
[2:14:55] we're losing are going to the private
[2:14:57] sector a lot. So I really those are the
[2:15:00] ones that I want to address more than
[2:15:01] more than anything.
[2:15:04] Um I presented two two costs for all
[2:15:07] employees and that would be all city
[2:15:09] employees including the police
[2:15:10] department. Uh so for all city employees
[2:15:14] um for a 3% and this this covers the
[2:15:18] salaries and benefits because as you
[2:15:19] increase salaries the retirement
[2:15:21] percentages go up the FICA the amount
[2:15:23] that you put into workers you know
[2:15:25] compensation
[2:15:27] um all of that goes up. So it's 115,000
[2:15:30] for all all employees for 3% cola and
[2:15:34] it's a for a 5% is 191,000 for all city
[2:15:38] employees.
[2:15:40] Um,
[2:15:43] and [name], I said a few minutes ago, I
[2:15:45] mean, I appreciate all all the
[2:15:47] employees, but I think right now, now to
[2:15:50] me, I think right now with our local
[2:15:53] economy, the way things are going, I
[2:15:56] think that, you know, we need to
[2:15:58] possibly look at um the cola raise um in
[2:16:02] our next budget. Um we are and like I
[2:16:07] said earlier, we are top heavy and we
[2:16:09] going to have to figure out um our our
[2:16:13] staffing because um as I was talking to
[2:16:16] you the other day about Mr. [name], he
[2:16:18] needs staff. He needs he needs someone
[2:16:21] to assist him with those u the streets,
[2:16:24] the infrastructure. I mean, we need we
[2:16:26] need staff. And I understand and what
[2:16:29] I'm I'm seeing is I understand that
[2:16:31] you're saying, you know, we want to pay
[2:16:33] our people. Yes, we do want to pay our
[2:16:35] people, but we also need staff as well.
[2:16:38] I mean, u chief needs staff. I mean, we
[2:16:41] we're
[2:16:43] overloading our people here. Um when
[2:16:47] just say just like I'm just going to
[2:16:49] dismiss. Just like if the water
[2:16:52] department, you have one person in the
[2:16:53] water department. If she's sick, then
[2:16:56] you're pulling Miss [name] to go in the
[2:16:58] water 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
[2:17:05] department, but I don't know if he works
[2:17:08] in the water department of where he
[2:17:10] actually worked. So, what I'm saying is
[2:17:13] we're going to have to really look at
[2:17:14] our staffing plan. Um, you I mean, we
[2:17:18] have people in departments that they're
[2:17:20] not really working in those departments.
[2:17:23] They're all
[2:17:24] They're all being
[2:17:25] or either they or they labeled to be
[2:17:27] working in those departments and I don't
[2:17:28] know where they're working.
[2:17:29] Yeah, they are. So, um we we that that
[2:17:33] right there is a a very fine measure of
[2:17:37] we can we can choose to um increase
[2:17:42] people as we the the argument is 100%
[2:17:45] that we need more more people. I've been
[2:17:47] talking about with that with Mr. ulture
[2:17:49] for instance in the street department
[2:17:51] total of five people for all of our
[2:17:53] streets maintenance ditch work mowing
[2:17:56] patchwork nuke street construction so
[2:17:59] even when we're doing new projects we're
[2:18:01] bringing in parks department and water
[2:18:03] department to help us to get enough
[2:18:05] people all at once because you you need
[2:18:06] more than just a few people when you're
[2:18:08] having all that equipment out there.
[2:18:10] That being said,
[2:18:12] by putting that money and increasing
[2:18:15] staff and not maintaining
[2:18:19] salaries, we're also losing staff and we
[2:18:21] can't even maintain the people that we
[2:18:23] the positions that we currently have.
[2:18:25] Okay.
[2:18:26] And so why is it that we Yeah. Why is it
[2:18:29] that I mean that's what I'm saying. So
[2:18:31] we we we are overloading our staff. We
[2:18:34] we don't have the the staff. And I see
[2:18:36] what your point is. Your point is don't
[2:18:39] hire anybody. Just keep increasing the
[2:18:42] the salaries
[2:18:43] to keep the people maintained. But then
[2:18:46] you got the city going lacking.
[2:18:48] You have the the uh residents, they're
[2:18:51] the they're the they want their streets
[2:18:53] done. We got infrastructure that's
[2:18:55] that's going wrong like the other day
[2:18:58] the pipe busted on uh uh 229, you know.
[2:19:03] So I mean things like that. I mean, we
[2:19:05] we need to meet the needs of the
[2:19:09] residents. I mean, so much stuff that's
[2:19:11] things that have been um lacking in our
[2:19:15] city that has not been paid attention
[2:19:17] to. I think a lot of
[2:19:18] So, we need to start as a council, we
[2:19:21] need to start paying attention to the
[2:19:22] needs of the people. They want better
[2:19:25] streets. They want better
[2:19:27] infrastructure. Um I mean, that those
[2:19:31] are the two main things that they're
[2:19:32] they're asking,
[2:19:33] I think. So I think we need to address
[2:19:35] that.
[2:19:35] But they don't want to pay taxes.
[2:19:37] They aren't paying taxes.
[2:19:38] Well, we going to get
[2:19:39] hold rephrase that. We are paying taxes
[2:19:42] cuz I
[2:19:44] nevertheless not just being a council
[2:19:47] member.
[2:19:48] Well, let me rephrase.
[2:19:48] I am a taxpayer as well
[2:19:51] and I pay taxes religious.
[2:19:53] We all we all are.
[2:19:54] Okay. So that's what I'm saying. They
[2:19:56] don't want they don't want an increase
[2:19:57] in taxes. So, so, so the issue, the
[2:20:00] issue is this is the big dilemma people
[2:20:04] and as more it seems recently in the
[2:20:07] last few years, one the people have
[2:20:09] began to see something happening, but
[2:20:12] it's almost like it's not happening fast
[2:20:14] enough because it maintenance has been
[2:20:17] delayed for so many years, 30 and 40
[2:20:20] years with no real projects going on.
[2:20:22] We've been patch patchwork on top of
[2:20:24] patchwork and we've run out of time. So
[2:20:27] they see work getting done. Now we've
[2:20:30] overextended ourselves. Me and Mr.
[2:20:32] [name], we can sit down and tell you
[2:20:33] right now, the expectations on our
[2:20:36] departments has increased so much over
[2:20:39] the past few years because we've taken
[2:20:42] on a lot on our plate. And we're at the
[2:20:44] point one, we really need to chew up the
[2:20:46] stuff that's on our plate first with the
[2:20:48] people we we have before we take on too
[2:20:51] many more projects because we have lots
[2:20:54] of ongoing projects and and just a small
[2:20:56] amount of people to take care of it.
[2:20:58] That's right.
[2:20:59] So that's all we need.
[2:21:00] So the need I'm not arguing with you. I
[2:21:02] agree 100%. We do need more staff if you
[2:21:05] want to continue at the rate that we're
[2:21:08] that we've been working at. the amount
[2:21:10] of work that's been getting done. We've
[2:21:12] done seen a lot of progress, but what's
[2:21:14] happening is every project that we take
[2:21:16] on and bite, we take a bite out, we need
[2:21:20] to continue maintaining that project.
[2:21:22] that street that we fixed five to six
[2:21:24] years ago is already coming up for
[2:21:27] maintenance like another chip seal or
[2:21:29] and so if we continue more projects and
[2:21:32] don't finish the projects that we
[2:21:34] already started we're on a runaway train
[2:21:37] without we don't have the staff and the
[2:21:38] ability to keep this uh to keep it in
[2:21:41] this in this project trajectory. So yes,
[2:21:45] we need more people
[2:21:47] if you want to continue seeing the
[2:21:49] amount of work that's been getting done.
[2:21:51] We need more people and we need to keep
[2:21:53] we've our biggest struggle
[2:21:56] has been training people that finally
[2:22:00] get to know how to run our road grader,
[2:22:02] our chip sealer, our oil truck. Our old
[2:22:04] truck takes a you got to have a master's
[2:22:06] degree almost to run to know the system,
[2:22:09] the computer system and and run it
[2:22:13] without it. I mean, [name] knows that
[2:22:17] the the temperatures need to be so
[2:22:19] perfect. You know, the the speed that
[2:22:22] you're put distributing that oil and we
[2:22:25] we ultimately almost every project we
[2:22:28] have several
[2:22:30] hiccups trying to get these training
[2:22:32] everybody. And once we get somebody
[2:22:34] trained, okay, you're going you're
[2:22:36] you're operator for our oil truck. You
[2:22:38] you really got the knack for it.
[2:22:40] We lose that five people. I mean,
[2:22:42] I know that's what I'm saying.
[2:22:43] Five people. So, So once I
[2:22:45] the one call in sick then what?
[2:22:48] Y
[2:22:48] I agree 100%.
[2:22:49] If you got another if you got two people
[2:22:51] call in sick that day then what does it
[2:22:52] happen?
[2:22:52] I second that motion. So
[2:22:54] okay
[2:22:54] all of this I agree with. So that is the
[2:22:57] problem. If we lose one person one
[2:22:59] person either goes to another job we
[2:23:02] lose him for better pay somewhere else.
[2:23:05] One calls in sick or something happens.
[2:23:07] We're down by 20% of our employees right
[2:23:09] there. Bam. if two of them done it, we
[2:23:11] might as well just move to just a few
[2:23:13] patchwork that day and forget any
[2:23:15] projects that we had scheduled that
[2:23:16] week. So, I agree 100%. But we also as
[2:23:20] we train and teach these people how to
[2:23:22] run this equipment and become
[2:23:23] proficient, I got to try to stay
[2:23:26] competitive and keep those people. I
[2:23:28] could open up 20 more positions and they
[2:23:30] will all be empty.
[2:23:33] or the people that show up. We don't
[2:23:34] want them running that old truck or we
[2:23:36] don't want them running our motor grader
[2:23:38] because they'll take out every, you
[2:23:39] know,
[2:23:40] meter and hydrant in the in the
[2:23:42] neighborhood. So, it requires a balance
[2:23:45] is what I'm saying. I'm not arguing with
[2:23:47] you. I agree 100%. There's got to be a
[2:23:49] balance of what we're paying to retain
[2:23:51] people
[2:23:53] versus just saying, "Hey, let's add
[2:23:54] another $50,000 for a full salary
[2:23:57] package for somebody else, for another
[2:23:59] employee."
[2:24:01] and we've prioritized that and we one we
[2:24:04] can't recruit top talent especially
[2:24:06] somebody with a CDL or operating
[2:24:07] experience and we lose our people that
[2:24:10] we finally got trained that's kind of
[2:24:12] been a revolving door so I' got to try
[2:24:14] to maintain some some quality employees
[2:24:16] and bring in new people and not raise a
[2:24:19] dime in taxes so that's the big that's
[2:24:21] the big
[2:24:21] that's almost impossible
[2:24:23] it is it is 100% we're set up for
[2:24:25] failure we're continually being set up
[2:24:27] for more failure when
[2:24:31] we can't re increase revenue, but we
[2:24:34] need to continue doing more and more to
[2:24:35] stay on top of things and and catch up
[2:24:37] and and and go at the rate that we've
[2:24:39] already been going because we've we've
[2:24:41] made a bit of progress, but we're
[2:24:44] realizing quickly, whoa, we need to slow
[2:24:46] down and maintain the the stuff that's
[2:24:49] already on our plate before we bite off
[2:24:51] more. And I I think [name] was wanting
[2:24:52] to mention something. Yeah, we're
[2:24:54] basically faced with two sport. Either
[2:24:56] way you go, you're faced with a two
[2:24:59] sword. You been to the strip. The
[2:25:02] gentleman I had
[2:25:04] last year, he's gone. He left his job.
[2:25:09] So
[2:25:11] they jump in training now for the first
[2:25:16] opportunity to shoot this week, sometime
[2:25:18] this week on E Wilson. So we're waiting
[2:25:22] for 2x4.
[2:25:23] Yes, we need people, but yes, we need to
[2:25:26] retain some experience, too.
[2:25:28] Right?
[2:25:29] Because it's hard to feel experience,
[2:25:31] right?
[2:25:31] Once that person is gone, then you got
[2:25:34] to start all over again with somebody
[2:25:36] younger with the hopes that they got
[2:25:40] enough dog fight still around here.
[2:25:42] Because what what we've been discussing
[2:25:44] on the on the street crew and and on the
[2:25:47] water crew also is you get people
[2:25:50] trained and working good but social
[2:25:52] media always scrolling and when they see
[2:25:56] that job it's going to pay more
[2:25:59] they're gone.
[2:26:00] But my question is with that being said
[2:26:02] though do we continue to give raises
[2:26:05] every year? I mean to I mean I mean
[2:26:08] because looks like like I said we we're
[2:26:10] we're real we're we are topheavy. I I
[2:26:13] know you keep on talking about I mean
[2:26:15] I'm looking at this at these salaries
[2:26:17] here and I'm like I'm like where are the
[2:26:20] people that I mean I mean the the
[2:26:23] topheaviness is I'm like some of these
[2:26:26] these the jobs we could we could have
[2:26:28] hired some of these salaries we could
[2:26:30] have hired um extra people you know
[2:26:34] but then the work that those people then
[2:26:36] the work that those people are doing we
[2:26:39] won't have somebody qualified
[2:26:41] to do the work that those people are
[2:26:43] doing. We are when you say topheavy, we
[2:26:45] have very few supervisory positions. We
[2:26:49] do have good pay. I'm not up here
[2:26:51] fighting for a for for an increase for
[2:26:52] myself or for any of our topics.
[2:26:54] You're on there. So,
[2:26:55] cuz you asked for my salary and I gave
[2:26:57] you my salary. I'm not asking you for my
[2:26:59] salary increase. I haven't got a pay
[2:27:01] increase since I've been here in in nine
[2:27:02] years.
[2:27:03] No, not salary increase, but you got the
[2:27:04] cola.
[2:27:05] No, ma'am. I've I've I've refused cola
[2:27:08] increases since I've been here. And so,
[2:27:09] if heaviness, you want to look at me.
[2:27:11] You said you said for all, right? Last
[2:27:14] year
[2:27:15] he should get something.
[2:27:16] He's He's got plenty.
[2:27:17] He should get something.
[2:27:18] He's He's getting plenty.
[2:27:19] Well, when you when you
[2:27:21] For a city our size?
[2:27:23] No. For a city our size.
[2:27:24] For a city our size. Not close to
[2:27:26] For a city our size.
[2:27:27] Not close to a big city.
[2:27:29] He's $40,000 under other city.
[2:27:32] For a city our size, I get paid much
[2:27:34] much less than any other city manager.
[2:27:36] If we want
[2:27:36] those cities that you looked at, were
[2:27:37] they close to Houston, Dallas?
[2:27:40] No. go to center text. I'm talking about
[2:27:42] center.
[2:27:42] I'm talking about every city around us.
[2:27:45] Every city around us. So, that's another
[2:27:47] discussion that we can have.
[2:27:49] Cuz I'm I'm already ready to have that
[2:27:51] discussion as well.
[2:27:52] Mhm.
[2:27:52] What I'm fighting for right now is the
[2:27:54] people is all my entry level people,
[2:27:57] those five on his department, his
[2:27:59] patrolman. He I I guarantee you he'd be
[2:28:01] willing to give up his salary, any
[2:28:03] salary increases for all the topheavy
[2:28:05] people you're talking about. We have
[2:28:07] very few supervisors
[2:28:10] when it comes to that ratio of who's
[2:28:12] getting the work done. And the
[2:28:14] supervisors that we have are out there
[2:28:15] with oil on their hands, too.
[2:28:17] They're getting the work done with those
[2:28:19] people.
[2:28:19] And I understand that. But that's but
[2:28:21] it's the matter of like I said, I
[2:28:23] understand that. But he's he he he's
[2:28:25] he's one person and two people call in
[2:28:28] and he only has five on his staff. So, I
[2:28:31] mean
[2:28:33] I mean so we need staff really.
[2:28:37] I mean I would I would love I would love
[2:28:39] to see everybody getting paid more.
[2:28:41] But what about the people in the town?
[2:28:44] We we we're lacking the citizen res.
[2:28:47] Don't get me wrong. I would love to see
[2:28:49] everybody in the city get paid, but what
[2:28:50] about the other businesses up here
[2:28:52] that's struggling, man?
[2:28:53] Everybody is.
[2:28:54] I mean, you know,
[2:28:55] so that that's that's why y'all are
[2:28:57] sitting on council to look at these real
[2:28:59] numbers.
[2:29:01] There's nothing there's nothing being
[2:29:03] hidden up here. What what y'all need to
[2:29:05] make decision is how much work y'all
[2:29:07] want to get done and how much of a
[2:29:08] priority is it.
[2:29:09] So you believe for instance that we need
[2:29:12] more people.
[2:29:14] If that's the consensus of everybody
[2:29:16] else then we get more people. My consent
[2:29:18] my yes I need more people but I'm
[2:29:22] already concerned that I can't keep the
[2:29:23] people that I already have.
[2:29:24] Right?
[2:29:25] That's my number one concern. If I can
[2:29:27] address number one and my quick number
[2:29:29] two is, hey, we do need more people if
[2:29:32] you want to get the amount of work that
[2:29:34] you're expecting or the citizens are
[2:29:35] expecting. They're expecting everybody
[2:29:38] says they're everybody has the belief
[2:29:40] that their street is the worst. There
[2:29:41] needs to be next on the list for us to
[2:29:44] spread five people across 200 plus
[2:29:46] streets across this entire city and
[2:29:48] maintain the ones we got and expect to
[2:29:51] Yes. We're asking for failure. We're
[2:29:54] there's no way we can eat this. My
[2:29:55] question to you is, are we going to ask
[2:29:59] every year for an increase?
[2:30:01] Yes, absolutely. Cuz every year, every
[2:30:04] year everything goes up. Last year,
[2:30:06] y'all gave us the no new revenue rate,
[2:30:09] Mr.
[2:30:10] Yeah.
[2:30:10] You push for it. As a taxpayer,
[2:30:13] there ain't too many businesses coming
[2:30:14] down.
[2:30:14] As a taxpayer, I believe that is
[2:30:16] something that we always need to
[2:30:18] consider.
[2:30:19] 100%.
[2:30:20] You going to raise my taxes. going to
[2:30:22] raise my taxes, but it's nothing, no
[2:30:26] money coming in here, man.
[2:30:27] Agree. What we need is
[2:30:29] a few jobs down here, a few people that
[2:30:31] got businesses down here that's doing
[2:30:32] real well.
[2:30:34] Yeah.
[2:30:34] But when somebody ride around here that
[2:30:36] got businesses that is hard to maintain
[2:30:39] and then you come through here and you
[2:30:40] see nothing but the city, hospital,
[2:30:42] police station, all that stuff is drawn.
[2:30:44] How you think that how you think that
[2:30:46] make them?
[2:30:46] I I agree 100%. But see, you look at
[2:30:49] stuff one way, you got to look at stuff
[2:30:51] everybody way.
[2:30:52] That's why from from my perspective,
[2:30:54] I love to see people getting paid, but
[2:30:55] we got to look at the whole town, man.
[2:30:58] From my perspective, our number one our
[2:31:00] number one priority is to bring bringing
[2:31:02] in new businesses, new values, new jobs.
[2:31:06] I'm with you.
[2:31:07] That's what we need to be prioritizing
[2:31:08] on. So, while we're pushing that, we
[2:31:11] still have an entire city that needs to
[2:31:12] be addressed.
[2:31:13] I'm with you on that. So for those
[2:31:15] struggling businesses, they're still
[2:31:17] parked. Their address is on a street
[2:31:19] that probably needs to be addressed.
[2:31:21] But you going to raise their taxes so
[2:31:22] you can get paid more.
[2:31:24] No,
[2:31:25] I'm that's that's I'm with everybody.
[2:31:28] It's also
[2:31:30] it's also just like [name] said a few
[2:31:32] moment I it's double double-edged sword.
[2:31:34] I mean as we're sitting here talking
[2:31:36] this and and I agree, but at the same
[2:31:39] time somebody was talking about
[2:31:40] scrolling earlier. these people who who
[2:31:43] have the who have the experience and and
[2:31:45] and and qualified and they and and maybe
[2:31:50] maybe they're they're hurting too,
[2:31:52] right?
[2:31:53] They need they need some more money.
[2:31:55] Well, when they find that job, when
[2:31:57] they're scrolling, they're going to go
[2:31:59] and they're going to inquire about it.
[2:32:00] Next thing you know, they're going to be
[2:32:02] packing up and they're going to be
[2:32:04] moving and and and and they're going to
[2:32:05] be somewhere else and then you're going
[2:32:07] to have to start all over again with
[2:32:09] somebody.
[2:32:09] Oh, I I totally understand that. But but
[2:32:11] so so the challenge is is keep these
[2:32:15] the people we got
[2:32:16] wonderful qualified people that we have
[2:32:19] uh you know and the way that you're
[2:32:20] going to keep them is you're going to
[2:32:22] have to give them
[2:32:23] more
[2:32:23] you know more and at the same time we
[2:32:26] got to have new but at the same time we
[2:32:28] got to try the best that we can in
[2:32:31] representing all our constituency and
[2:32:33] try to keep the taxes low but you we
[2:32:36] just we just can't always do everything
[2:32:39] you can't and I understand that. But I
[2:32:41] want you to understand where I'm coming
[2:32:43] from also.
[2:32:44] Oh, I do because I'm a taxpayer myself.
[2:32:46] I don't like to see. But I understand,
[2:32:49] you know, you got to pay you got to pay
[2:32:51] to play.
[2:32:52] Yeah. And and what we did last year,
[2:32:55] what we did last year is we did not
[2:32:57] apply it as a percentage because once
[2:33:00] again, if we're trying to address entry
[2:33:02] level pay, when we're trying to address
[2:33:04] recruiting and bringing in good
[2:33:06] qualified people, the ones that we're
[2:33:08] seeing the overturn are on the lower end
[2:33:11] of the pay scale, the entry level folk.
[2:33:15] That's why we did not do it based on a
[2:33:16] percentage. We did it on a fixed rate.
[2:33:18] Because when you do it based on a
[2:33:20] percentage, if you make more and you get
[2:33:22] a percentage of that salary,
[2:33:24] you make more. You ended up getting a
[2:33:26] bigger raise than those on the lower end
[2:33:27] of the scale.
[2:33:28] And so that's why we did not do it based
[2:33:30] on a percentage to try to address the
[2:33:32] people on the bottom end of the scale,
[2:33:34] you know, more. And and so whether it be
[2:33:37] that whether council says, let's look at
[2:33:40] let's find a me a medium ground. Let's
[2:33:43] let's address our entry level pay and
[2:33:46] give bigger colas on on that end of the
[2:33:49] of the scale. The ones that we're the
[2:33:51] ones the ones that we're seeing
[2:33:53] turnover, the ones that we're trying to
[2:33:55] train up and become the next
[2:33:59] supervisors in 5 years, you know, let's
[2:34:01] address those. I'm open th we we have to
[2:34:06] I have to bring it to your attention.
[2:34:08] Otherwise, I would not be doing the city
[2:34:10] a service. We just I think that we
[2:34:12] really need to like you say get together
[2:34:14] and really discuss and come up with a
[2:34:17] planar to try to retain u because I look
[2:34:20] back at at the state of Texas
[2:34:22] they didn't give a raise every year.
[2:34:25] I mean it was they gave a a
[2:34:29] we bar got a raise I mean we got a raise
[2:34:33] but it was not yearly. Right.
[2:34:35] So that's
[2:34:36] compare state salaries to cities though.
[2:34:39] Excuse me.
[2:34:40] Compare the state of Texas salary to the
[2:34:42] city and and the benefit
[2:34:44] what I knew what I knew now
[2:34:46] and the benefit.
[2:34:46] I work for the city.
[2:34:48] Yeah.
[2:34:48] I I applied for the city
[2:34:50] with no with with no insurance. We don't
[2:34:53] get insurance upon retirement. There's
[2:34:54] all the benefits that come with working
[2:34:56] for the state
[2:34:57] that are that come with retention built
[2:35:00] in that you don't want to leave the
[2:35:01] state once you start working for the
[2:35:02] state. I would have we don't take
[2:35:04] benefit.
[2:35:04] But don't get me wrong, I would love to
[2:35:06] see the cuz I know it's Mr. [name] and
[2:35:08] them and I stay beside the city work. I
[2:35:10] see him on call 247. I would love to
[2:35:13] give him extra money, man.
[2:35:15] So you you but you made a point and I'm
[2:35:17] going to finish it up with that. As we
[2:35:19] move forward with this, I'm telling you
[2:35:21] that we really need to consider in order
[2:35:24] to retain the people that we have, we
[2:35:26] really need to consider some type of a
[2:35:28] cost of living. I'm not dictating what
[2:35:30] it should be or how it should look. When
[2:35:32] you're talking about topheavy people, I
[2:35:34] want you to meet with me and highlight
[2:35:36] highlight those people so I can give you
[2:35:38] job descriptions and show what every All
[2:35:40] I can do is talk for myself right now.
[2:35:42] Oh yeah.
[2:35:42] Since I've been here since I've been
[2:35:44] here, please please look at me like
[2:35:47] you.
[2:35:47] So since I've been here, I have not
[2:35:49] taken any pay increases. Since I've been
[2:35:52] here, I've done nothing but take on more
[2:35:54] work and more work on my plate. Since
[2:35:57] I've in in this last year, um, my my my
[2:36:01] job load has doubled. Now I have to do
[2:36:04] an an entire different department. And
[2:36:06] y'all gave me nothing for that. And I
[2:36:08] willingly take it on and successfully
[2:36:10] tried to do my best at that job as well
[2:36:13] and in in economic development and
[2:36:14] business development and doing what I
[2:36:16] can to try to keep this city moving
[2:36:18] forward. And I've never come back
[2:36:19] complaining to you. And I never you
[2:36:21] never you'll never hear me complaining
[2:36:22] because if I don't feel happy or I don't
[2:36:24] feel like I'm doing my job, then you'll
[2:36:27] be looking I'll let you know, hey, I
[2:36:28] need to bow out. You need to find
[2:36:30] somebody else. But as long as I can
[2:36:31] successfully do my job, you're not going
[2:36:33] to hear me complaining. And I know all
[2:36:36] of my supervisors that are under me from
[2:36:38] from Mr. [name], from Mr. [name], from
[2:36:41] city secretary, from Miss [name], none
[2:36:44] of us are in here. We're here fighting
[2:36:46] for our people. We're here fighting for
[2:36:47] our people. That's why they're here
[2:36:48] today. They're not fighting for
[2:36:50] themselves. They're fighting for their
[2:36:51] people because they know what they're up
[2:36:52] against. And every one of us will put
[2:36:54] gloves on and go out there and work
[2:36:55] alongside those people. So our we are
[2:36:58] not topheavy when it comes to having too
[2:37:01] many chiefs and not enough Indians. If
[2:37:03] you're saying that you feel that those
[2:37:05] people are are paid too much, then I
[2:37:06] would be more than happy to show you
[2:37:09] numbers, to show you uh competitive
[2:37:11] rates, to show you our job descriptions
[2:37:13] to know that you have no doubt in your
[2:37:15] mind that we're we're underpaid as well,
[2:37:17] but we're doing it happily. We're happy
[2:37:19] to do it because that's why we're here.
[2:37:21] And so as we move forward, any money
[2:37:24] that I can find in the budget, I'm more
[2:37:26] than willing to try to work with y'all
[2:37:28] and show y'all options to try to attract
[2:37:32] and retain the people that we
[2:37:35] consistently see that we're losing.
[2:37:37] Patrolman, those are the ones that we're
[2:37:39] highest. We're losing the the most. You
[2:37:42] know, the turnover, the guy, all of our
[2:37:45] operators, our CDL drivers and
[2:37:47] operators, those are the ones that we're
[2:37:49] losing the most. And that's why we're
[2:37:50] bringing those numbers to you. Those are
[2:37:52] the ones that we need to retain.
[2:37:56] We can talk about more people, but I got
[2:37:58] to retain our quality employees first
[2:38:01] and keep them
[2:38:02] as soon as we train them. We need to be
[2:38:04] able to keep those people.
[2:38:05] And so I'll continue coming back
[2:38:07] throughout this budget workshop and we
[2:38:08] can talk about that how y'all want it to
[2:38:10] look. Um, I know we're running out a
[2:38:12] little bit out of time, so I want to
[2:38:14] plug through a few more of these, but I
[2:38:16] wanted that to be the first one because
[2:38:17] that isn't, you know, the number one
[2:38:19] that comes will come back every year
[2:38:21] and I and I requires an expense
[2:38:23] and I understand that. That's why I
[2:38:25] would say being that the Kell is the way
[2:38:27] it is now. Um, we don't of course we
[2:38:30] don't know. um we have a lot of issues
[2:38:32] going on and so I would look at me
[2:38:35] personally I would look at doing because
[2:38:37] we just did a cola raise I would look at
[2:38:40] doing uh looking at it on the next
[2:38:42] budget year. I that's what I could I
[2:38:44] could say cuz I'm I'm looking at you
[2:38:46] know possibly if we could hire staff
[2:38:49] because we'll never hire staff if we
[2:38:51] continue because I think you gave the
[2:38:53] same spill on last year for the raises
[2:38:57] and I I got it. I understand you're
[2:38:59] fighting. Let's move on.
[2:39:00] For the people, I'm talking.
[2:39:03] No, but this we in discussion.
[2:39:05] But anyway, um I can understand you
[2:39:07] fighting for your people. I I got it for
[2:39:09] for the for our people. I got that. I
[2:39:12] understand that. But we also have to
[2:39:13] look at what's what the residents are
[2:39:15] looking at as well. Because they're
[2:39:17] expecting out of us what what uh what
[2:39:20] their tax money is uh paying for.
[2:39:23] What our tax money.
[2:39:24] Yeah. Exactly. And they're paying for
[2:39:25] this. So, we need to respond. They
[2:39:27] elected us to to speak on their behalf
[2:39:30] and that's what we need to do. We need
[2:39:31] to stand up for th uh those tax uh our
[2:39:35] taxpayers.
[2:39:36] Yep.
[2:39:36] So I agree 100%.
[2:39:38] So saying that I I would suggest that we
[2:39:41] look at um looking at the um cola rates
[2:39:45] on on the next budget. That's just me.
[2:39:47] All right. So, um, here's a few of
[2:39:50] here's a few items that we need to be
[2:39:51] looking at, and I'll gladly meet with
[2:39:53] y'all, and and we can look at these
[2:39:55] more, um, one on- one, and with a few of
[2:39:58] y'all, I have when I've been able to
[2:39:59] meet with you. Um, something that we
[2:40:01] continue get a complaint about is, um,
[2:40:04] here in the council chambers, um, the
[2:40:07] the sound and the acoustics are are are
[2:40:10] bad. As soon as I raise the level of
[2:40:13] these um the speaker systems and the the
[2:40:15] volume in here, the echo creates such a
[2:40:18] feedback that I really I would I would
[2:40:21] like to see some carpet and some some
[2:40:23] acoustics
[2:40:25] addressed in here. Ever since we went
[2:40:27] from carpet flooring, since we went from
[2:40:30] carpet flooring to this uh and it's
[2:40:32] really good hard, you know, durable
[2:40:34] flooring, but it's not set for a system
[2:40:37] where we record in when we record and
[2:40:40] when we uh have uh speakers, uh, you
[2:40:43] know, microphones and stuff like that.
[2:40:45] So, that we've done from this point to
[2:40:49] the other end of the building. We've
[2:40:50] fixed all the cracks and the and the
[2:40:52] nicks and dings in the walls and we
[2:40:54] painted them. I want to finish this. Get
[2:40:57] some these chairs right here. I've put
[2:40:59] several screw that they're being held
[2:41:01] together. I' I fix these chairs
[2:41:03] regularly because the they're falling
[2:41:05] apart. Get some nice chairs for the
[2:41:08] audience to where we're nice, really
[2:41:09] respectable, presentable. Um, audience
[2:41:12] chairs here, carpet flooring to help on
[2:41:15] the acoustics and to finish painting
[2:41:17] this the the the city hall and the other
[2:41:20] offices. The lobby out front has big
[2:41:22] cracks in it. um dings in the walls. It
[2:41:25] hasn't been, you know, painted since the
[2:41:26] 80s probably. Um actually, it was
[2:41:30] painted once before, but it was done by
[2:41:32] some community service. So, we really
[2:41:34] need to, you know, clean our office up
[2:41:36] to where it looks nice here at city
[2:41:38] hall. Um and I have that the dollar
[2:41:40] amount there. That's just a budgeted uh
[2:41:42] dollar amount that I put in there for
[2:41:43] 25,900.
[2:41:45] That's for painting all of city hall,
[2:41:47] putting flooring, uh carpet flooring,
[2:41:48] and changing out our chairs in our
[2:41:51] council room. The agarena requires
[2:41:54] toilets and bathroom fixtures. The
[2:41:56] faucets and the and the toilets at the
[2:41:58] agarena are in really bad shape. I've
[2:42:00] got some quotes just on dollar for
[2:42:02] replacing the fixtures and the plumbing
[2:42:05] um uh for $21,000 for all of those.
[2:42:09] Those have to be changed out to ADA
[2:42:11] toilets and uh uh sinks.
[2:42:13] I have a question about that. So, who's
[2:42:15] actually responsible for the u
[2:42:17] agreement?
[2:42:19] Ultimately, the city.
[2:42:20] Yes, ma'am.
[2:42:22] I mean, the city's responsible. We have
[2:42:24] the
[2:42:25] repairs,
[2:42:26] ma'am.
[2:42:26] The city's responsible for repairs.
[2:42:29] We own it. We own it. Um, the uh Lions
[2:42:32] Club does some management out there, but
[2:42:34] there's not a lot of
[2:42:37] money for investment for repairs and
[2:42:39] stuff like that on the on the Lions
[2:42:41] Club. Um,
[2:42:43] okay. So what what I'm saying on that
[2:42:46] though, so with that being said, um I
[2:42:49] mean and you saying restrooms. So that
[2:42:52] 21,000 and I see that in our capital
[2:42:56] outlay that you gave us, it does not
[2:42:59] include a swimming pool. So would we be
[2:43:03] able to address the swimming pool at any
[2:43:04] time
[2:43:05] if we get the grant?
[2:43:08] So uh we can't but we can um designate
[2:43:12] monies toward
[2:43:13] it already has been based on that grant.
[2:43:16] So we don't have any funding coming from
[2:43:19] tax
[2:43:21] revenue or you know city budget for the
[2:43:24] swimming pool. But if we get that grant
[2:43:26] then I'll come to you with a grant
[2:43:27] project.
[2:43:29] Okay. So in other words, we won't be
[2:43:31] able but we can't apply uh any of these
[2:43:35] funds towards swimming pool.
[2:43:38] No ma'am. Well, I mean, yeah, we we can,
[2:43:42] but that's
[2:43:44] So, right now we have a deficit of about
[2:43:46] 750,000. So, if y'all I mean, all of the
[2:43:49] these are current fixtures. The these
[2:43:51] are facilities that we own. The Arena,
[2:43:53] the Civic Center, the city hall. These
[2:43:55] are the ones that I'm bringing back to
[2:43:56] you just to keep our investment. These
[2:43:58] is these are the only things that we
[2:43:59] have the best things that we have to
[2:44:01] present to the public that the public
[2:44:03] accesses the civic center where we have
[2:44:05] lots of people and and outside you know
[2:44:08] customers coming in. I feel like we need
[2:44:10] to keep those up. Those were big huge
[2:44:12] investments that we made back in the day
[2:44:14] and those are the only things some of
[2:44:15] the only things going for us as a city.
[2:44:17] So we need to prioritize maintaining
[2:44:19] them and making them look presentable.
[2:44:21] So um
[2:44:22] the money they pay like when they rent a
[2:44:24] civic center do they come back to the
[2:44:26] city?
[2:44:26] Yes sir. And I have that in the budget.
[2:44:28] I'll show you that that helps fund the
[2:44:29] civ. Right now the civic center u budget
[2:44:32] is around a 100,000 and our revenue for
[2:44:34] the civic center is about 50. So it
[2:44:37] helps cover a lot of the cost of the
[2:44:39] civic center.
[2:44:40] So you so you've already applied for the
[2:44:42] grant for the swimming pool.
[2:44:43] Yes. And y'all approved it. Y'all
[2:44:45] approved it in March or April.
[2:44:47] So but if things change and we decide to
[2:44:49] do different, we can
[2:44:51] Yes.
[2:44:51] Okay. Because I'm looking here. I'm
[2:44:54] looking at
[2:44:55] Oh go let you go ahead. I'm just trying
[2:44:56] to get through these before noon cuz
[2:44:58] we're fixing to lose one of our council
[2:45:00] members.
[2:45:00] Um security we still have.
[2:45:03] Yes, we do. Yes, ma'am. I'm just letting
[2:45:05] you know. Uh we we need to install Well,
[2:45:09] [segment omitted]
[2:45:11] fire station and civic center. Those are
[2:45:12] our two main facilities that currently
[2:45:14] are not covered by on and off uh you
[2:45:17] know, premise uh security systems. So
[2:45:20] that's
[2:45:21] I was uh and that's what my question was
[2:45:24] on that is could we use that money
[2:45:26] towards the swimming pool because it's
[2:45:28] not necessarily that we have to have
[2:45:30] security system set up just at the
[2:45:33] present time. Correct. How long has it
[2:45:35] been without
[2:45:36] it's it's it's it's an over it's a it's
[2:45:39] an it's an ever occurring liability.
[2:45:41] Every year that we go on without
[2:45:43] security systems um it's a liability to
[2:45:47] the city. It's not a requirement.
[2:45:49] There's a lot of stuff that is not a
[2:45:50] requirement. Those are recommendations
[2:45:52] in order to increase our security to
[2:45:56] know who's coming in and coming out, if
[2:45:58] they're leaving with with stuff, if they
[2:46:00] if they've broken into the civic center,
[2:46:01] if they've damaged anything. We have
[2:46:03] some amount of accountability for our
[2:46:06] fire station and um uh civic center.
[2:46:09] Yeah. So, I'm actually asking now, I got
[2:46:12] I mean, like I say, all your capital
[2:46:13] requests, but um the uh council um
[2:46:19] didn't submit anything. So, that's why I
[2:46:21] was asking about the swim proposal. So,
[2:46:24] keep going. I'm sorry. Keep going.
[2:46:28] Um
[2:46:30] repairing and painting the civic center.
[2:46:32] the the civic center is in bad need of
[2:46:35] repairs and to the walls molding the
[2:46:37] trim the the trim is falling off. We
[2:46:40] have lots of stained uh ceiling tiles um
[2:46:43] in the bathrooms. The tiles are all
[2:46:45] they're they're really embarrassing
[2:46:46] looking. I'd love to see just pop those
[2:46:48] out and buff those concrete floors like
[2:46:51] we did at the Proalis building to where
[2:46:53] they're more durable and and it has a
[2:46:55] better finish. that painting uh
[2:46:58] repainting and and fixing up our civic
[2:47:01] center auditorium lobby conference rooms
[2:47:04] even our conference rooms we were built
[2:47:05] in the in the what 2010 2012
[2:47:10] they they we need to maintain them and
[2:47:11] make them look presentable because
[2:47:13] that's where that's the kind of the face
[2:47:15] of our city
[2:47:16] and I'd really like um council to um
[2:47:18] entertain that. Um
[2:47:22] I would like to replace so currently
[2:47:25] with the transition of our fire marshall
[2:47:28] to the community development office not
[2:47:31] just working over as just a specific
[2:47:33] fire marshall office. Now that role has
[2:47:36] taken on a lot more.
[2:47:38] That role does also not require a a a
[2:47:43] big diesel pickup that he currently
[2:47:45] drives the fire marshal. Um, and now f
[2:47:49] fulfilling the role as assistant city
[2:47:51] manager, it's a lot more travel,
[2:47:54] meetings, meeting with people and stuff,
[2:47:56] but not necessarily the need for a
[2:47:58] truck. What we'd like to do is
[2:48:00] transition the fire chief's truck
[2:48:02] currently, the gray one- ton pickup to
[2:48:05] the to the public works department. So,
[2:48:07] we have a one- ton pickup to pull our
[2:48:10] equipment, our excavators, our bulldozer
[2:48:13] that we have. we that we have something
[2:48:14] big enough to pull our big pieces of
[2:48:16] equipment with a one- ton diesel.
[2:48:19] Uh transition the fire marshall,
[2:48:22] assistant city manager black truck, the
[2:48:24] diesel to the fire department to where
[2:48:25] they still have a truck to pull their
[2:48:27] air trailer and use for fire service cuz
[2:48:30] it's already equipped with lights and
[2:48:31] everything else and just get a used
[2:48:33] vehicle, a used pickup or used SUV or
[2:48:36] car or something like that. So we
[2:48:39] instead of buying another truck for
[2:48:41] public works, we found a way to
[2:48:43] transition two trucks that we currently
[2:48:45] have
[2:48:47] and use something else that's not
[2:48:49] requiring a diesel big 3/4 ton pickup.
[2:48:52] So I'd like to if we can find some funds
[2:48:55] to purchase a used um vehicle
[2:48:58] for running around and not for uh not
[2:49:01] running around with a big diesel pickup.
[2:49:03] So we don't have a we don't have a
[2:49:05] vehicle available. the city doesn't.
[2:49:08] Not currently. Not currently. If what
[2:49:11] we've been doing with the police
[2:49:13] department as as they transition and
[2:49:15] bring new vehicles in for non-emergency
[2:49:18] services, we want lower mileage, better
[2:49:20] vehicles for the emergency services, but
[2:49:22] we've been transitioning like I I drive
[2:49:24] that truck. I've the Tahoe I've been
[2:49:26] driving for about 5 years now was a
[2:49:29] handme-down from the police department.
[2:49:30] So, we've been transferring those
[2:49:31] vehicles into the city, but right now
[2:49:34] with not purchasing any more police, if
[2:49:36] y'all do find funds for purchasing a
[2:49:38] police vehicle, you know, a new police
[2:49:41] vehicle, we could probably use one of
[2:49:42] those, but right now I don't have one.
[2:49:44] Um, the last thing or the last couple of
[2:49:48] things, two things.
[2:49:49] Is that a is that a need? I mean, is
[2:49:51] that a
[2:49:51] It's No, it's not. It's one of those.
[2:49:55] It's a it's a it's a benefit and a need
[2:49:57] that impacts three departments. Um it
[2:50:01] helps the public works for the most part
[2:50:03] because they're the ones that would
[2:50:05] benefit the greatest because they get a
[2:50:07] new vehicle, a truck that can pull the
[2:50:09] bulldozers and excavators, our big truck
[2:50:11] cuz we don't have a big one ton truck um
[2:50:14] to pull those, you know, our big pieces
[2:50:17] of equipment around. So the public works
[2:50:20] benefits, the fire department is not
[2:50:22] hurt at all because the truck that they
[2:50:23] lose, they would gain the fire marshal,
[2:50:26] assistant city manager's truck because
[2:50:28] he doesn't require a diesel, you know, a
[2:50:30] big pickup.
[2:50:32] They're just not getting the maximum
[2:50:34] benefit of that truck.
[2:50:35] It impacts everybody. Yes,
[2:50:37] um
[2:50:38] so it's not a need.
[2:50:40] Yeah, they're all needs. Is it is a Is
[2:50:44] it a really hard Yeah. Yeah. So, um,
[2:50:48] purchase a padfoot steel roller. Um,
[2:50:52] this is one that keeps on coming up
[2:50:53] probably as our number one priority each
[2:50:55] year. We've found and maximize ways that
[2:50:58] we go in and do reconstruction on our
[2:51:00] roads. We have the rollers, we have
[2:51:03] mixers, the motor grader, the stuff that
[2:51:05] we there's some things that soon will
[2:51:08] need to be replaced, but the one item
[2:51:10] that we don't have is a pad foot roller
[2:51:12] to compact our roads better. Um, and I
[2:51:15] have even a picture in there to show.
[2:51:17] So, as we mix that road down, we go down
[2:51:20] about 12 in, pull all that material
[2:51:22] back, we bring in Portland cement, and
[2:51:25] we mix it together, and we bring it in
[2:51:26] in layers. Our current rollers are
[2:51:29] smooth. They're finish rollers. And so,
[2:51:31] we're not able to compact that base and
[2:51:34] build good, strong roads like we should
[2:51:36] be. Um,
[2:51:39] I found those are new. Those new are
[2:51:41] closer to 200,000. I found several of
[2:51:43] them going off of um uh United Reynolds
[2:51:47] or CAT rentals that you know 2,000 3,000
[2:51:50] hours on them still five six years old
[2:51:53] and you get and they've had good
[2:51:54] maintenance on them and so I would like
[2:51:57] to
[2:51:58] that dollar amount is somewhere between
[2:52:00] 50 to 70,000 is what we're seeing some
[2:52:04] good used rollers uh going on to
[2:52:07] Are we going are we going to be able to
[2:52:08] do more rows with this? No, we will be
[2:52:11] able to do current roads better.
[2:52:15] Some of the roads that we've been doing,
[2:52:17] we've been doing with either the rubber
[2:52:18] tire roller or our smooth drum roller,
[2:52:20] and it only hits the high sides. It hits
[2:52:23] it's not
[2:52:24] getting down there and compacting the
[2:52:26] base like it should be. Also, also by
[2:52:29] purchasing this roller, it won't it
[2:52:32] won't be as labor intense because with
[2:52:35] the rollers we have now, we have to put
[2:52:37] it in in lifts about 4 in lifts in order
[2:52:41] to try to get some compassion. You have
[2:52:43] to put in about 4 in lifts, which takes
[2:52:45] longer to do it. The last time we done
[2:52:49] Wilson adhesive, we started that
[2:52:51] morning. They started mixing at about
[2:52:53] 8:30 in the morning. We didn't get off
[2:52:55] those streets till 9 at night.
[2:52:58] because we trying to do it correctly.
[2:53:00] Put it in my lips. It should be getting
[2:53:03] a quality finished product. This
[2:53:06] particular roller, you won't have to put
[2:53:08] it in so many lips because if you if you
[2:53:11] look at it, it's got the little long go
[2:53:13] the pad foot that's made for the
[2:53:15] compaction so you get the density that
[2:53:18] you need on the on on the street. Uh
[2:53:24] we done Eston
[2:53:27] Street is probably
[2:53:29] eight years old and you just now start
[2:53:31] to see a few potholes in it
[2:53:34] and it was because we used a chicken
[2:53:36] foot roller. We had access to one in and
[2:53:40] we used it to put the rolling in.
[2:53:43] It needs a chip edmist. All it needs is
[2:53:45] a good chip seal again to get another
[2:53:47] five, eight years out of it. But that
[2:53:50] base is solid as you you could ever
[2:53:51] want. Um
[2:53:52] I'm worried about there.
[2:53:54] Yeah.
[2:53:55] Skip the holes in it.
[2:53:57] Which one?
[2:53:58] Over on the
[2:54:01] Village Way.
[2:54:02] So we really we really you really need
[2:54:03] this.
[2:54:04] We just need the We need the asphalt on
[2:54:05] that one.
[2:54:06] Village way. We're good on that one,
[2:54:08] too. We We did that one in good list.
[2:54:09] We come back with
[2:54:10] cuz that just has a It has a prep chip
[2:54:13] seal on it. That wasn't a finished
[2:54:14] product. So we just did the base on that
[2:54:16] one. Village way still is going to get a
[2:54:19] couple inches of asphalt over there.
[2:54:20] Right. Well, I'm saying it's already
[2:54:21] getting holes in it,
[2:54:22] but we need to get over there and
[2:54:23] but but that's part of the process. We
[2:54:25] got this way. It was with grow tire and
[2:54:28] the slick drone because that's all we
[2:54:30] have to work.
[2:54:31] Yeah, but I'm just afraid we're going to
[2:54:32] lose it since we it's been so long.
[2:54:34] We're going to get we're going to get
[2:54:35] over there quick. We promise. That's
[2:54:37] what that five people.
[2:54:39] I know. I'm not saying that. No,
[2:54:41] it's just not at all. So that's part of
[2:54:42] our problem especially with the rain and
[2:54:44] stuff and just trying to maximize our
[2:54:47] other projects. But yeah, we'll be back.
[2:54:49] But that being said on on for streets
[2:54:51] and you mentioned Village Way on um
[2:54:54] streets for us um considering what
[2:54:57] Darius Ralph Bunch
[2:55:00] uh
[2:55:03] so when will I be when will we start
[2:55:05] looking at
[2:55:07] um looking at those locations? That'll
[2:55:10] be in this budget workshop. That'll be
[2:55:12] done while we prepare our budget this
[2:55:15] year.
[2:55:17] Yes, ma'am.
[2:55:17] Okay.
[2:55:18] Um
[2:55:19] um another question real quick. Okay. Um
[2:55:22] so the the road on
[2:55:25] on Bale Street,
[2:55:28] what can you tell me inform me of what
[2:55:32] happened there?
[2:55:33] Well, what's going on there?
[2:55:35] What happened was
[2:55:37] a base failure. part of what we're
[2:55:40] concerned about like when we're doing
[2:55:41] the streets that we're doing without the
[2:55:43] proper equipment. These are contractors
[2:55:45] that do it with the proper equipment and
[2:55:46] there's still
[2:55:48] things that happen. Um whether not
[2:55:51] enough whether not enough uh you know uh
[2:55:54] material was put in, whether it was done
[2:55:57] during a rainy season, all of those
[2:55:59] factors contributed to base failures.
[2:56:01] So, our contractors while they're doing
[2:56:04] this work, they're also, you know, under
[2:56:07] some requirements and warranties that if
[2:56:10] the base fails and is not done properly,
[2:56:13] they're coming back to fix it. If we do
[2:56:15] the roads ourselves, we don't have
[2:56:17] anybody to blame but ourselves, so we go
[2:56:18] back out there and do it ourselves and
[2:56:20] fix it. Um, luckily, these roads, um,
[2:56:23] there's several of them, and a lot of it
[2:56:25] is the struggle of time getting it done
[2:56:27] fast enough in the middle of bad, rainy,
[2:56:30] like
[2:56:31] historical type rains and then trying to
[2:56:34] fix it in between two or three days of
[2:56:37] no rain and it probably should have
[2:56:38] waited longer to dry out better to be
[2:56:41] mixed in better. So, it's just juggling
[2:56:44] that with our contractors and some of
[2:56:46] them the timing and the rain hitting
[2:56:49] them in the middle of a project. So,
[2:56:51] they're going back and fixing those
[2:56:52] roads.
[2:56:52] So, would it benefit us or I mean far as
[2:56:55] cuz these are change orders, right? No,
[2:56:58] this is this is under they did a job to
[2:57:01] meet certain specifications and so they
[2:57:03] have to continue coming back and making
[2:57:04] sure it's right warranty
[2:57:06] to get paid. It's under Yeah. So it's
[2:57:08] not under uh they're not charging us
[2:57:10] more for any of that work.
[2:57:11] Okay. Okay. So, um, so with with that
[2:57:14] being said, would it be beneficial for
[2:57:17] us to, uh, before we do like just say,
[2:57:21] um,
[2:57:23] there areas and wrap bunch and that,
[2:57:26] would it be beneficial for us to get an
[2:57:27] engineer to come in and look at that
[2:57:30] road to?
[2:57:31] No, ma'am.
[2:57:31] Not not really.
[2:57:32] Not really.
[2:57:34] Okay.
[2:57:34] Because whenever you do whenever you do
[2:57:37] uh base work, it's it's basically going
[2:57:40] to be the be It's going to be the same
[2:57:42] thing. Uh the procedure is going to be
[2:57:45] the same.
[2:57:46] Okay.
[2:57:46] How you supposed to do it is all
[2:57:49] procedurally same.
[2:57:51] So I think we'll be fine with the way
[2:57:52] we've been doing it. We just need this
[2:57:54] piece of equipment to ensure we get the
[2:57:57] compassion.
[2:57:57] Yeah.
[2:57:58] Once we incorporate that cement
[2:58:00] because
[2:58:02] if you
[2:58:04] a load a transport cement is going to
[2:58:06] cost you $6,000. M
[2:58:08] so if you going to incorporate two loans
[2:58:11] this $12,000 you have tied up
[2:58:13] and so we just want to make sure
[2:58:16] that we doing everything systematically
[2:58:18] correct
[2:58:19] when we put it when we put ours
[2:58:22] um is that so um and the last one is on
[2:58:26] our utility side one of our biggest
[2:58:29] needs currently with the current
[2:58:30] infrastructure that we have is our
[2:58:32] wastewater uh our lift station at uh
[2:58:35] South 19 across across from the
[2:58:38] fireworks stand outside the loop um is
[2:58:41] where we have our uh lift station. That
[2:58:44] lift station has is is failing. Um it
[2:58:47] has dirt bottoms. The way it was built
[2:58:50] was not built with concrete bottoms. So,
[2:58:52] it's starting to fail and the sides are
[2:58:54] dropping down. The pumps are old. Our
[2:58:56] our pumping pipes, the pipes that pull
[2:58:58] the the uh the lift station and make up
[2:59:02] that lift station, all of that's old. We
[2:59:04] rebuilt two years ago. We rebuilt our
[2:59:07] Nottingham Woods lift station and I'd
[2:59:09] like to do the same at this one cuz it's
[2:59:12] out of it's out of time. It's it's
[2:59:14] falling apart. All the the system out
[2:59:16] there is old. So, all this we would do
[2:59:18] in-house. We just need the money for the
[2:59:20] work or for the for the equipment
[2:59:23] ourselves and we can install this. It's
[2:59:25] just the pumps. The pumps cost money and
[2:59:28] um the piping and everything like that,
[2:59:30] but we would sub it out and not have to
[2:59:32] hire because we're just doing it back
[2:59:33] like it was engineered. So we don't have
[2:59:34] to hire engineers and contractors for
[2:59:36] it. Um, all right.
[2:59:40] And that's it
[2:59:42] for now.
[2:59:45] That gives uh council an idea of some of
[2:59:47] our bigger a lot of the smaller stuff,
[2:59:50] things that we're not expecting big
[2:59:52] changes on. Um um insurance, we haven't
[2:59:55] got all of our numbers back on property
[2:59:57] and uh and liability insuranceances, but
[3:00:00] um health insurance, we're projecting um
[3:00:03] a flat with no increase on that. We we
[3:00:06] went out to bid this past what 2 3
[3:00:08] months ago, got our insurance rates in.
[3:00:11] Everything looks good moving forward
[3:00:13] into our next year. So not not
[3:00:15] projecting any big increases there. Um,
[3:00:18] so
[3:00:20] other than some small stuff that comes
[3:00:21] up, these are our bigger either one-time
[3:00:24] needs or appropriational needs. And so,
[3:00:30] thank you all.
[3:00:32] Is there any
[3:00:34] any questions or
[3:00:37] direction for us?
[3:00:38] When will we revisit this?
[3:00:40] Probably at our next council meeting.
[3:00:42] Our next regularly scheduled council
[3:00:43] meeting will be the third Monday.
[3:00:46] And if we have some follow-up items as
[3:00:48] we're moving forward, we get better
[3:00:49] different numbers some of the direction
[3:00:51] that council has recommendations that
[3:00:52] council's already provided, I'll meet
[3:00:54] with the department heads. And if
[3:00:55] there's other follow-up information that
[3:00:57] we can bring back to council and
[3:00:59] hopefully by then I'll also get better
[3:01:01] information to start giving y'all
[3:01:03] revenue and expenditure projections uh
[3:01:06] once we get better numbers from the uh
[3:01:08] appraisal district on that. Um
[3:01:14] so our next council meeting will be the
[3:01:16] third Monday and we'll do that at the
[3:01:17] regular time at at our regular regular
[3:01:20] time.
[3:01:21] Okay. So um also what was your um what
[3:01:24] was a financial report for the um
[3:01:27] I'm working with the
[3:01:28] economic development.
[3:01:29] I'm working with the bookkeeper on on
[3:01:30] that to where I can show because right
[3:01:32] now I have the budget or or our uh
[3:01:34] profit and loss. So, I can show you the
[3:01:36] profit and loss, but once again, we're
[3:01:38] using a previous budget that did not did
[3:01:41] not um address any of the things that
[3:01:44] the windown resolution addresses, all
[3:01:46] the current obligations. It So, in that,
[3:01:49] I'll bring back to council another a a
[3:01:52] budget amendment to change the current
[3:01:54] budget to what the windown resolution
[3:01:57] dictates over the next few years. And
[3:01:59] each year we'll just update that and
[3:02:01] I'll bring it back to council for a for
[3:02:03] an annual budget. Here's the ongoing
[3:02:06] obligations. Here's what's left to pay.
[3:02:08] Here's what's left to pay on this.
[3:02:10] Here's the revenue line items. And that
[3:02:12] way every bit of additional revenue that
[3:02:14] we get that doesn't meet obligations
[3:02:15] goes straight into debt payoff. Paying
[3:02:17] down.
[3:02:17] So we'll be able to change the budget.
[3:02:19] Yes, ma'am.
[3:02:20] Even though that's after it was
[3:02:23] we have to we have several more years
[3:02:25] worth of obligations to meet. So council
[3:02:27] by their wind windown resolution is
[3:02:29] going to manage that wind down.
[3:02:39] Motion to
[3:02:40] make a motion with
[3:02:41] second
[3:02:43] third.
[3:02:48] So we'll see
[3:02:51] if we get a 5% cola we get $2.50. 50%
[3:02:56] raise.
[3:02:56] Yeah,
[3:02:58] maybe we can go out and party.
[3:03:01] They got us making it hard to go out and
[3:03:03] party.
[3:03:04] Hey, we didn't get the 2% $26 a week
[3:03:16] instead of calling me like
[3:03:20] you hear me.
[3:03:21] I just man
[3:03:25] to look at giving counsel.
