Source: YouTube transcript file from James
Meeting: Crockett City Council, 2026-07-20
Identified from the tape: "this is our city council uh meeting for June July 20th." Item one approves the July 6, 2026 special session minutes. Council votes to move the August 17 meeting to August 24.
Status: verbatim auto-captions. Names are often wrong. Not reviewed. Not for the public site.

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0:099 secondsThere we go.
0:1212 secondsGood evening everyone. So glad that you could join us today. Uh we're open with a prayer and then we're going to our council meeting.
0:2222 secondsI got a prayer in each. Dear father in heaven, we just come before you with bow heads, humble hearts and a lot of hearts are troubled because of the number of
0:3131 secondspeople that have been affected with different accidents and different things that have happened in their lives. And when one of us hurt, we all hurt. So
0:3838 secondsLord, as we gather together to take care of our city, that's what you've called us to do and the assignment that we have. We ask that everything that we do
0:4646 secondswould be pleasing to you and it would be done for the benefit and edification of you. But not only you, but we know that you care about all of the what we do.
0:5454 secondsHelp us to make the right decision. We thank you for all of those that have taken a sign to join us in this event.
1:001 minuteAnd Lord, as we go through, we just be careful to give you the praises because we know that you do all things well. In Jesus name, we claim it all.
1:081 minute, 8 secondsAmen.
1:091 minute, 9 secondsI pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic
1:171 minute, 17 secondsfor which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
1:321 minute, 32 secondsI said we don't want to make sure that we don't deny anybody a seat that would like a seat. There are still seats. available. Feel free to have one.
1:421 minute, 42 secondsUh once again, we'd like uh to remind you this is our city council uh meeting for June July 20th. Uh thank you so much
1:501 minute, 50 secondsfor taking us taking your time to come and see and help take care of the city's business. Uh
1:591 minute, 59 secondswith that, we're recognizing all our visitors. Uh, with that it brings us up to our public
2:062 minutes, 6 secondscomments and I'll share the information with you. I'm sure all of you do already have it. It said public comments from the audience. At this time, members of
2:142 minutes, 14 secondsthe public will be allowed to speak on city related matters only. No personnel matters or matters under litigation will
2:222 minutes, 22 secondsbe allowed. The length of time may not exceed three minutes. City Council shall not speak under this item in accordance
2:302 minutes, 30 secondswith the Texas Open Meetings Act. The council may not deliberate or take action on matters except as properly
2:372 minutes, 37 secondsposted in accordance with the law. And to simplify that, what it basically mean, if you come up with a comment,
2:442 minutes, 44 secondswe're going to smile. We didn't disregard it, but nobody can actually comment on it. So, we appreciate anyone that has to comment. So at this time is
2:532 minutes, 53 secondsanyone no one oh that was a long speech and we didn't have anybody sign but you understand the process and so that brings us right now to item number one
3:023 minutes, 2 secondsapproval of minutes from the special session July 6 2026.
3:123 minutes, 12 secondsMayor and council I move that we uh approve special session July 6, 2026 uh minutes.
3:203 minutes, 20 secondsI second.
3:213 minutes, 21 secondsOkay. It's been moved and second and ready for the vote. All in favor?
3:263 minutes, 26 secondsMotion carries. That brings us to item number two, reports, police uh department manpower and criminal incident report for June 2026.
3:373 minutes, 37 secondsthe mayor, council, city administrator, the police department on criminal activity report
3:453 minutes, 45 secondsJune of 2026, a total of 16 officers, worked 2,694
3:543 minutes, 54 secondshours, responded to 416 calls for service, investigated five traffic accidents, made 66 arrest, issued 211
4:034 minutes, 3 secondstraffic citations, completed 74 reports responded to 27 alarm calls. 23 of those
4:104 minutes, 10 secondswere false alarm. Below you'll see a breakdown of our report. I'll entertain any questions you may have.
4:184 minutes, 18 secondsUm I want to say thank you chief for responding to the situation that I had with you for over this weekend. Um like
4:254 minutes, 25 secondsI said um earlier between you and I that was a situation that I was unaware of and to know that you were aware of and that you know you were um you know
4:344 minutes, 34 secondsascertaining the situation. Thank you again. Any other comments? Well we thank you.
4:424 minutes, 42 secondsGood job. Thank you sir. We like our we love our police officers.
4:464 minutes, 46 secondsUh and that brings us to item number three.
4:514 minutes, 51 secondsFire Department monthly activity and status report for June 2026.
4:574 minutes, 57 secondsMayor, council member administrator. For the month of June, we had a total of 38 calls. 30 of those being inside the city
5:035 minutes, 3 secondslimits and eight of those being response.
5:125 minutes, 12 secondsquestion.
5:155 minutes, 15 secondsWell, I guess the question has the rain kind of slowed down weather this week is supposed to be like 1023.
5:275 minutes, 27 secondsYeah. So, your word to everybody is to we sure appreciate it. Does anyone else
5:345 minutes, 34 secondshave any comments? Thank you so much, Chief. Thank you, Chief. Okay, it brings us to item number four.
5:435 minutes, 43 secondsConsider and approve moving the August 17, 2026 city council meeting to August 24, 2026.
5:515 minutes, 51 secondsMayor and council. Um, due to this being the official budget calendar that we approved a couple months ago, there's
5:585 minutes, 58 secondsbeen a couple or there's been one change requested from several council members that the August 17th uh date was going to um interfere with on their schedule.
6:116 minutes, 11 secondsAnd so, uh, we're requesting that that date be moved to the 24th. And that will move all of the public notice
6:186 minutes, 18 secondsrequirements along with it. we'll have to uh be sending out public notices and I need to know that the 24th is now a
6:256 minutes, 25 secondsgood date. If that is a good date that we can move forward with, we'll use that for all of our uh as you see here that
6:326 minutes, 32 seconds24th meeting is going to include all the uh the hearings of the budget tax rates and approvals of the budget and tax rates. So, we're going to be here for a long time.
6:426 minutes, 42 secondsWell, hopefully most of the meat of the disc of the decisions have been worked out by then, but um that's also after
6:506 minutes, 50 secondswe've gone through the public process of developing a budget. That'll be the opportunity as well for the public to
6:586 minutes, 58 secondsgive input, provide input, last minute changes to be done, and then approvals done.
7:047 minutes, 4 secondsSo, it's important that everybody be in attendance. That's why we didn't want to have a 17th meeting and risk not having everyone here. Okay.
7:127 minutes, 12 secondsSo, we're ready for a motion. That will be at 6. Same same time. Yes. Okay.
7:207 minutes, 20 secondsMake a motion that we approve moving the August 17th city council meeting to August 24th.
7:297 minutes, 29 secondsI second.
7:307 minutes, 30 secondsOkay. It's been moved and second. All in favor? Motion carries. Thank you.
7:397 minutes, 39 secondsOkay. Now, that brings us to um fiscal year 2027 budget workshop number two.
7:497 minutes, 49 secondsAll right. May council. Um I was given some homework to do after our last meeting, told to go get some more numbers. I've met with I've met with
7:577 minutes, 57 secondseach of you uh since then, updating those numbers and giving you that more information. And I do have it I have
8:048 minutes, 4 secondsprintouts in front of us and we wanted to go over those quickly. Um
8:118 minutes, 11 secondsum I will get to this initial form. Basically to to recap
8:208 minutes, 20 secondswhere we were on our capital request after meeting with department heads going over budget. Um if council says
8:288 minutes, 28 secondsdifferent, we'll continue uh finding money for those.
8:348 minutes, 34 secondsBut as an update, uh the vehicles that we requested, um
8:438 minutes, 43 secondsat this time, we're going to back off of requests that were being proposed to come out of fund balance. Anyway, any of
8:508 minutes, 50 secondsthe requests that uh we felt like would have to come from our savings account or fund balance.
8:568 minutes, 56 secondsUm, and I don't and most of them were based on availability of the market. So, like if I said, "Hey, I I want $35,000
9:059 minutes, 5 secondsfor a used truck. I don't have my finger on a used truck right now." So, we would have to go out and shop the market. So, give me the opportunity. Let's go
9:139 minutes, 13 secondsthrough this budget process. The things that are required to be budgeted from and revenues that need to be found, the things that would come from fund uh balance when those opportunities arise.
9:259 minutes, 25 secondsIf we if one or more of our trucks go down and we just really have a strong need and maybe we find a good deal, I can bring that to council at that time because obviously if it's not in the
9:339 minutes, 33 secondsbudget, um I'll have to bring it back to council. But um just basically uh wanted to address the things that really needed
9:419 minutes, 41 secondsto be addressed with in this meeting initially. Um the two things that we we felt um that we needed to go the three
9:509 minutes, 50 secondsthings uh so three things was the street the street broom or the street sweeper.
9:579 minutes, 57 secondsum just due to the amount of money that we would be saving, I would like to get council's um approval to move forward
10:0310 minutes, 3 secondswith finding a good used unit. I did reach out, Mr. [name], to um
10:1110 minutes, 11 secondsCaterpillar United and um I'm sorry, what's the what's the place
10:1910 minutes, 19 secondsin Lufkin? Uh Timber timberjack. So, they all have different
10:2810 minutes, 28 secondsused um options, but none of them offer a lease agreement or financing option for used, only new. Um
10:3710 minutes, 37 secondsso, we could go that route, but it' just be using basic market rates. If we were to just take a loan from the bank and pay it over three, you know, two or
10:4510 minutes, 45 secondsthree years like that, we' just be doing it at market rates. Um I feel we we found several options anywhere from 25
10:5310 minutes, 53 secondsto about 35. 25,000 had no cab on it. It was an open cab. And when you're talking about a street broom, that brings up a lot of dust and that's
11:0211 minutes, 2 secondsa pretty tough environment to try to work in and breathe in.
11:0711 minutes, 7 secondsUm, we're also looking at one option um, which is a a skid steer attachment. We just really want to look at the warranty
11:1511 minutes, 15 secondsand how because we do have a good skid steer with a cab and everything. So, that would be a lot cheaper option. We just want to be sure it's a good strong
11:2411 minutes, 24 secondssomething that's meant for everyday use and that would save a lot. That was about $9,000 for a new attachment for our skid steer. So, we're going to shop
11:3211 minutes, 32 secondsa couple of those options, but I do want to get um you know council approval for that. the fire department. We did
11:4011 minutes, 40 secondsinclude in the operational budget that we have in front of us um a capital outlay of 8,140
11:4711 minutes, 47 secondsuh was his reduced ask for hose hose.
11:5111 minutes, 51 secondsBasically, he reduced the 5 in hose and went with the attack hose. So, um those are the ones that they lay out on the fire scene and need to be cleaned and
12:0012 minutesdried. So, that would give them that rotation. The big hose um he was going to hold off for now.
12:0612 minutes, 6 secondsUm, and then the the third one that we really need to find funding for is the police department's rifle package. That
12:1312 minutes, 13 secondswas their number one ask. Um, and um, you know, I would like to at least try to find um, council's blessing on that for paying for that out of fund balance.
12:2612 minutes, 26 secondsUm the other items um the needs um at our facilities um
12:3512 minutes, 35 secondsthe vehicles uh I think everything really pelled in comparison once we started talking about the need and the length of time that
12:4412 minutes, 44 secondsit's been since um a cost of living adjustment. We really felt like that that was the number one need is to
12:5112 minutes, 51 secondsretain quality employees and um if we do have openings to be able to recruit quality employees and so cola after
13:0013 minutestalking to council members and to department heads if we're talking about cola we don't the other items are going to have to wait.
13:1013 minutes, 10 secondsUm and so the uh the last two items that would be funded out of um our utility
13:1713 minutes, 17 secondsfund is our water tower uh refurbishing our water tower, sand blasting and painting our water tower.
13:2613 minutes, 26 secondsum in y'all's packets. I'd handed it out um at our last meeting, but the the fund balance uh sheet that we had given you,
13:3413 minutes, 34 secondsthere's a line item for um
13:4413 minutes, 44 secondsmake sure I'm titling it right. There's a line item for uh USDA asset reserve.
13:5113 minutes, 51 secondsThat's money that we set aside each year for short-lived assets. That's what this is. The water tower is a short-lived
13:5713 minutes, 57 secondsasset. We invested the half a million dollars in getting it sandlasted and repainted it six years ago. The coating is not lasting. We need to address that.
14:0914 minutes, 9 secondsWe do have a shortlived asset fund that I recommend us pulling from to cover that and then we can build that
14:1514 minutes, 15 secondsshortlived asset fund back. this would not impact our um water rates, you know, our water utility rates.
14:2314 minutes, 23 secondsWe have money being set aside each and every month uh for for items like this.
14:2914 minutes, 29 secondsThe other item, the big one, um that we're under mandate to fix our our sewer plant is permitted.
14:3714 minutes, 37 secondsThus, every three years, TCQ is presented with our permit plan, what it takes for us to treat, how much we can
14:4514 minutes, 45 secondstreat of of of sewer, and the whole process to get to treated uh to get to clean water that um goes into the creek.
14:5414 minutes, 54 secondsIt requires two clarifiers. Our system operates with two clarifiers. We're down to one clarifier and it's not in great shape.
15:0115 minutes, 1 secondUm that is a mandate that we need to get that back online. using the quotes from our last clarifier at the north plant.
15:1115 minutes, 11 secondsLike I mentioned to council, we believe this ask is going to be in the neighborhood of 320,000.
15:1615 minutes, 16 secondsBut uh we do need to go out um and get some bids and then I'll come back and keep council in the loop. How I propose
15:2415 minutes, 24 secondsto fund that need is we also have an account. If you if you look at your fund balance sheet, we have an account.
15:3415 minutes, 34 secondsI can h I can hand another one out to y'all afterwards. But we have one called um the USDA INS fund.
15:4115 minutes, 41 secondsThat is our debt service fund. That's where we pay the annual debt from for the USDA um equipment. Um we've set
15:4915 minutes, 49 secondsaside additional funds in that INS to cover debt service, but in the tune of about three years worth of debt service.
15:5815 minutes, 58 secondsWe only need one year in advance. We easily have $200,000 that we can draw down out of that account and still have
16:0716 minutes, 7 secondsa full year's worth of debt service payments in that account. That would give us 200 towards that 320,000.
16:1516 minutes, 15 secondsThat's where this comes to. This is on the clarifier. This is on the clarifier. Yes, sir. Okay. And you say that the debt service?
16:2316 minutes, 23 secondsYes. Yes, ma'am. USDA ins account. Okay.
16:5016 minutes, 50 secondsYou can look at that and pass it down.
16:5316 minutes, 53 secondsUm, that's where this the these two sheets that are on the top that we just handed out to you come into play. The water customer and the sewer customer spreadsheets that shows our rates.
17:0617 minutes, 6 secondsUm, and actually I'll pull it up right here as well.
17:2517 minutes, 25 secondsI'm aware.
17:2617 minutes, 26 secondsSo for for the clarifier, if we're to bring in additional $120,000, I guess the two main directions from
17:3417 minutes, 34 secondscouncil would be do we bring in that 100 the 120 from
17:4217 minutes, 42 secondsfund balance or do we bring in that 120 um through new revenues? We we adjust our sewer rates in order to cover this
17:5117 minutes, 51 secondsneed. Another thing that I would like to do with that need is after council
17:5817 minutes, 58 secondsafter council if council was to approve a sewer rate adjustment to cover the need for our clarifier, I would like to set that money aside after that need is
18:0818 minutes, 8 secondsmet to continue going towards depreciation or short-lived assets for this very need because the other clarifier is getting close to needing to
18:1618 minutes, 16 secondsbe replaced. And when that one's done, there's other needs. We have big pump stations uh uh uh our lift stations. So
18:2518 minutes, 25 secondswith all of the needs that we have, just like we were able to pull from some asset reserve accounts that we currently have, I would like to continue putting
18:3218 minutes, 32 secondsmoney aside to where we don't have to adjust rates in the future every time we have a need. We have money sitting in accounts to address those specific needs.
18:4018 minutes, 40 secondsSo what accounts are these monies sitting in? Are they sitting in are we borrowing from the scing fund or where these monies come from? No, we're not
18:4818 minutes, 48 secondsallowed to borrow from that. They're all the accounts that you just saw. Those are all se setting in separate accounts. It's standalone accounts.
18:5618 minutes, 56 secondsOkay.
18:5718 minutes, 57 secondsUm and so the other the other I guess the main and
19:0619 minutes, 6 secondsthe last question that I need direction from council is I gave y'all a spreadsheet.
19:2619 minutes, 26 secondsthe spreadsheet here that's in front of you.
19:3019 minutes, 30 secondsUm, the police department brought a brought some proposals, some needs for employee raises.
19:3919 minutes, 39 secondsUm, I brought y'all some scenarios that I would like to I would like to
19:4819 minutes, 48 secondssplit the split the ask in two different scenarios.
19:5319 minutes, 53 secondsWhat I'm asking for tonight is to get approval on a something called a cost of a a cost of living adjustment, not a raise.
20:0320 minutes, 3 secondsIn 2022, we did a salary study of our city of all of our city employees. We had we
20:0920 minutes, 9 secondshad openings across the city. Um, in public works, we had, I believe, five police officer positions open and no one
20:1920 minutes, 19 secondstrying to fill those positions every time we would put out notices for hire.
20:2420 minutes, 24 secondsUm, and it got to the point to where council said we we need to prioritize this. We did a salary study of ourselves of in comparison to many other cities of
20:3320 minutes, 33 secondsour like size in our region in East Texas, not not using metroplex numbers or Houston numbers or anything like that. And we came back with numbers that council said this is what we need to do.
20:4420 minutes, 44 secondsAnd we approved salaries, a salary adjustment across the board um to address our our employees.
20:5220 minutes, 52 secondsAnd it was primarily all on our entry level. That's where the primary focus was. And then any salary adjustments
21:0121 minutes, 1 secondum lessened as the as the rates got higher, you know, with our higherend employees, with our leadership positions. [clears throat]
21:1021 minutes, 10 secondsAnd that addressed the need. It filled those positions. All of our positions were were filled. Uh the police department's positions were filled and
21:1821 minutes, 18 secondsto this date, they remain. We our positions um are full.
21:2721 minutes, 27 secondsBut what's happening is since 2022, inflation has hit us by 12 and a half% and we have not adjusted for it. Um,
21:3621 minutes, 36 secondswe've maintained the same tax rate since 2022. We've maintained the same salary level since 2022.
21:4521 minutes, 45 secondsAnd so, first of all, I want to I want to propose to council that we address a
21:5121 minutes, 51 secondscost of living adjustment to adjust for inflation.
21:5721 minutes, 57 secondsThere's also a there's also a need for raises. There's a over and above that, but that will have to be proven. I I
22:0622 minutes, 6 secondsfeel like that needs to be proven and justified by council um with data.
22:1322 minutes, 13 secondsUm in 2022, this is what we paid our people. This is what we agreed to. Since then, we have not stayed
22:2122 minutes, 21 secondson task with that and we've slipped. So the people what the what our employees were making in 2022, they're no longer making that.
22:2922 minutes, 29 secondsSo I'm asking at least to get back get us back to that.
22:3322 minutes, 33 secondsUm uh governments around us, uh even in our county, county governments and um dis
22:4022 minutes, 40 secondsall the districts um we've seen them each and every year, not every year, but many of these years provide colas,
22:4822 minutes, 48 secondsprovide cost of living adjustments, and we haven't. Um, so I'm asking for 10% cola across the
22:5622 minutes, 56 secondsboard and that's um that's for all employees uh from police chief, fire chief,
23:0323 minutes, 3 secondsdepartment heads on down. That excludes myself, city secretary and finance director.
23:0923 minutes, 9 secondsUm, so be over be clear. So be clear. Okay. So with you asking for this raise and I appreciate
23:1823 minutes, 18 secondsyou all uh everybody for everything that that you all do
23:2223 minutes, 22 seconds[clears throat]
23:2223 minutes, 22 secondsum and I do have to speak on behalf of my constituents. So with the with your offering or requesting the this across
23:3023 minutes, 30 secondsthe board raise then that means that we would have to in turn um um
23:3923 minutes, 39 secondscharge our people uh the con the constituents or the taxpayers we would have they would have an increase.
23:4623 minutes, 46 secondsSo they would have to pay more taxes, more water rates, more and we just last year we just increased the water rates.
23:5523 minutes, 55 secondsYou just increased the sewer rates.
23:5723 minutes, 57 secondsWe increased rates to cover um I know we increased rates to cover repairs at our wastewater plant
24:0424 minutes, 4 secondsand we increase rates to uh drill a new well. Yeah.
24:0724 minutes, 7 secondsUm so let me uh let me been increasing rates. When is it that we have not had that's that's what I like to know. When is Could you uh finish the proposal?
24:1624 minutes, 16 secondsI really need to finish my presentation.
24:1924 minutes, 19 secondsSo what I'm asking for what what you mentioned was raises. We're not asking for I'm not asking at this time for our
24:2624 minutes, 26 secondsrates. I'm asking for cost of living adjustments to address our employees basic needs um
24:3424 minutes, 34 secondsto get them back to what we agreed to pay them in 2022.
24:3924 minutes, 39 secondsAfter that, we can discuss raises. These employees, every one of them that are even from the ones that are in here, um
24:4824 minutes, 48 secondsthe employees that you're talking about and the constituents, they're taxpayers. They live in this city. they work and they live in this city. So,
24:5724 minutes, 57 secondsso what I want to go over first, I want to go over the impact and that's what I've pro provided to y'all um early on
25:0525 minutes, 5 secondsin the week and I want to go over quickly on that for all employees excluding the admin staff at a 10% colo. U the total raised cost is 448,000.
25:1825 minutes, 18 secondsThat hits our general fund by 338,000 and our utility fund by 109.
25:2425 minutes, 24 secondsThe tax rate needed to address a 10% cola. as the budget was presented to y'all last meeting that that budget was
25:3325 minutes, 33 secondsbuilt on the voter approval rate that vote that um that covers the uh capital requests
25:4125 minutes, 41 secondsum that I had mentioned but none of the others does not include vehicles does in doesn't include any of our capital um needs but it addresses all of our
25:5025 minutes, 50 secondscurrent operations that is estimated to impact the average homeowner in the city of Crockett
25:5825 minutes, 58 secondsby an annual um impact of $75.71 a year to their tax bill for the city of Crockett. that six that 10% ask.
26:1126 minutes, 11 secondsThe employees that are funded by our water and sewer uh revenues that would impact um that that would be a monthly
26:2026 minutes, 20 secondsimpact of approximately um uh for the for our water bill it would be $135 and for our sewer bill it' be $165 a month. That's 10 approximately.
26:3226 minutes, 32 seconds[clears throat] And that's that's per gallon per like average bill overall.
26:4026 minutes, 40 secondsNo, that's that's the monthly impact to the average homeowner.
26:4526 minutes, 45 secondsThat's that's what it'll impact my bill, your bill. Oh, just a dollar extra. $135.
26:5126 minutes, 51 seconds$135 to the water bill and $165 to the sewer bill.
26:5426 minutes, 54 secondsAnd then um Okay, ma'am. And then the monthly impact where you say$131k
27:0327 minutes, 3 seconds631 no the the the 100k does so a a water um
27:1027 minutes, 10 secondsyeah the monthly impact for on the on the on the tax rate side would be $6 a month. Yes ma'am. And then on the
27:1927 minutes, 19 secondsutility side, doesn't matter what house you live in, you know, but if you have a water rate and a sewer rate, it's a $135 and and $165. It would be the impact of that.
27:3127 minutes, 31 secondsUm, that's two.
27:3427 minutes, 34 secondsIt's It's going to be easy math from here. It's not That's not even two soft drinks.
27:4227 minutes, 42 secondsFrom from here, it's easy math. If council decides to track down from there, or track up from there. It's it, you
27:5127 minutes, 51 secondsknow, based on a calculation of 10%. Um, we can go from there. I just need to know what direction council wants to go
27:5827 minutes, 58 secondsin. Um, that's what I'm asking for and what police department is asking for for all
28:0628 minutes, 6 secondsof our employees is at minimum we need a cost of living adjustment.
28:1228 minutes, 12 secondsthe the police department has presented another need and I won't speak for him, but his need is to be able to retain
28:1928 minutes, 19 secondsofficers that can easily go to another city. That's where raises come in. That's where
28:2728 minutes, 27 secondscompetitiveness comes into play. And so, and that's a very real thing. That's a very real need to lose people to bigger
28:3628 minutes, 36 secondsbigger departments. And so I also have numbers on raises, you know, what that's
28:4228 minutes, 42 secondsgoing to cost us to be competitive with our closest cities. Um the initial number that I'm asking for are not
28:5028 minutes, 50 secondsraises. I'm asking for can we pay our employees what we paid them in 2022.
28:5628 minutes, 56 secondsSo let me ask you a question now. Um so far as the the raises, so is that 2022?
29:0329 minutes, 3 secondsSo because I I went back and looked I think one time before. So, how many times have they have the employees not received raises? How many years?
29:1229 minutes, 12 secondsFor since 2022, we had it since 2022, we did a a cola of 2%.
29:2029 minutes, 20 secondsSince 2022 in 24, we did a cola of 2%.
29:2329 minutes, 23 secondsUm, so we've fallen about 10 and a half% behind in in for inflation. Well, the thing reason I
29:3229 minutes, 32 secondsasked I was like because you were giving when I went back and learned you were giving raises like every year. No.
29:3829 minutes, 38 secondsIs that the only You weren't color raising not every year.
29:4129 minutes, 41 secondsNo. No. I mean that's something that Yeah. I I I it's based on council's budget that they provide me.
29:4929 minutes, 49 secondsOkay. So, um Wow.
29:5329 minutes, 53 seconds[name], to be clear, this uh the increase to this uh tax rate does not require um
30:0130 minutes, 1 secondor does not mandate or trigger an election or vote.
30:0530 minutes, 5 secondsSo, if you go So, if you go to your tax rate analysis, um I have an FY2026 tax rate analysis.
30:2130 minutes, 21 secondsour current budget.
30:2530 minutes, 25 secondsI should be getting certified values in this week.
30:3130 minutes, 31 secondsAll of these are kind of the chicken and and egg process trying to be ahead of the game. So, we're not behind the game,
30:3830 minutes, 38 secondsbut we don't have all the numbers. So, we we're basing these numbers on um estimates provided by the appraisal district. Um I don't have numbers on new
30:4730 minutes, 47 secondsconstruction. A lot of the everything that I've built in this budget are worst case scenarios. This
30:5330 minutes, 53 secondsbudget really stands to improve. If um if new construction numbers come in right now, I'm not I have not built in
31:0131 minutes, 1 secondany number for new construction. New construction does not impact our budget.
31:0531 minutes, 5 secondsIt's new revenue that could immediately fill when I come back to council. Hey, if this is the number for new construction, now we can
31:1331 minutes, 13 secondsfund this or now we can reduce that tax rate by this much. I'm not including any of those numbers. The numbers that you see in front of you on that tax rate analysis, you have our current number.
31:2431 minutes, 24 secondsThis is the current amount of revenue and um the tax rate. Mhm.
31:2931 minutes, 29 secondsThe no new revenue rate to bring in the same amount of money as last year. And you have the voter approval rate. And so
31:3731 minutes, 37 secondsit the voter approval rate for for the entire budget has brought in um an estimated $77,000 into our budget.
31:4731 minutes, 47 secondsThat's addressed the needs from our insurance, our electrical cost, especially insurance because they've
31:5431 minutes, 54 secondsgone in and they reestimated or reevaluated all of our properties. That caused some significant jumps in our in
32:0232 minutes, 2 secondsour um coverages. um electricity in several departments needed to be this
32:1032 minutes, 10 secondshas addressed all of those needs without going over the vote approval rate. If you're going to go if you're
32:1732 minutes, 17 secondsgoing to consider a cost of living and truthfully if you're going to consider a cost of living of of 2%
32:2432 minutes, 24 secondsthat's going to trigger us going over that voter approval rate. Okay.
32:3032 minutes, 30 secondsSo it will not go over the dimminimous rate.
32:3432 minutes, 34 secondsUnderstood. So the voter approval rate, if we go over that, the citizens through this process have an ability to listen to our meetings, to attend our
32:4232 minutes, 42 secondsmeetings, to provide input, say no, you don't need to give raises, or you do need to give raises.
32:5032 minutes, 50 secondsIf council makes a decision that the majority of the citizens do not agree with, they are provided the opportunity
32:5932 minutes, 59 secondsto petition for a roll back or and it basically rolls us back to this voter approval rate. So, if council says we
33:0633 minutes, 6 secondsreally feel like we need to um we need to do a a cost of living and it's going to cost this much. If it's not supported by the citizens, they still have a voice.
33:1533 minutes, 15 secondsUnderstood.
33:1533 minutes, 15 secondsBut it's not going to trigger an automatic election. Understood. So basically giving raises.
33:2233 minutes, 22 secondsUm so you're saying that we have the monies to do this that we're not currently in the red to to do what?
33:3033 minutes, 30 secondsTo give to to give raises. We currently have the monies to give raise give raises.
33:3533 minutes, 35 secondsNo ma'am. That's why I'm asking for it tonight. No, we do not.
33:3833 minutes, 38 secondsUnless I'm asking what? So our current budget as presented to y'all already, the draft budget that I presented to you does not include
33:4633 minutes, 46 secondsraises. And so if council is going to prioritize and provide for raises,
33:5533 minutes, 55 secondsthat's going to go that's not budgeted for. And so that's going to require an adjustment on the on the water and sewer rates and it's going to require an adjustment on our our uh tax rate.
34:0734 minutes, 7 seconds[clears throat]
34:0734 minutes, 7 secondsUm Okay. So when you um proposed the the 10%.
34:1634 minutes, 16 secondsYes, ma'am.
34:1834 minutes, 18 secondsAnd you were saying that could be fitted in without with just the recommended form that you had for when I move it down.
34:2734 minutes, 27 secondsThat's for the initial the initial request of just the cola, not raises. Yeah. I said just the cost of living.
34:3434 minutes, 34 secondsBut, you know, I guess overall looking at it, the people that are getting the cost of living that we're projecting, they live here. They're going to get
34:4334 minutes, 43 secondstaxed. They're going to feel they're going to be supportive. They're going to be supporting supporting it, too. I mean, it's not like we're giving
34:5134 minutes, 51 secondseverybody the strangers and we're giving people that live in the community an opportunity to stay in the community to
34:5834 minutes, 58 secondsbetter themselves. And like I say, it's a small amount, but it is enough to show that we care about the people that are keeping our city good because they are
35:0735 minutes, 7 secondsmaking a difference in the city. If you looked around, you can see all the work that's been done and the people that are showing up and and they seem to like
35:1535 minutes, 15 secondstheir jobs. And I think that's only fair, you know, to to not expect anything more from from the council.
35:2435 minutes, 24 secondsAnd even as us that that are in here, we're all in it together. We're all paying taxes and you know, but if you've been to the Dair Queen, I won't name
35:3235 minutes, 32 secondsplaces. You've been to any eating place lately, you might want to see what they tacked on your meal. Everything has gone up. It's nothing has remained the same
35:4135 minutes, 41 secondsin the city. So, we are expending our funding across the board to help other people. Why not the people that are helping us? I would like council to
35:5035 minutes, 50 secondsinclude in the in their discussions and um I would like this to be a fixed race a fixed rate cola as well not based on
36:0036 minutespercentage. The numbers are developed or derived from a percentage, but I would like the same amount that
36:0736 minutes, 7 secondsthe entry level employee is provided a raise um to be across the board to be weighted evenly and not by
36:1636 minutes, 16 secondspercentage to where someone that makes more ends up getting more of an increase. Um and that's how we made the
36:2336 minutes, 23 secondsadjustment in 2022 that um the groceries and everything that they buy the same pe you know the person that
36:3236 minutes, 32 secondsmakes $18 an hour he needs that raise if not more than the person that makes a little bit more so I
36:4036 minutes, 40 secondswould like it to be weighted evenly and not based on a percentage
36:4836 minutes, 48 secondsI don't um so basically so the same thing with like with the the budget report so how does that weigh in there
36:5736 minutes, 57 secondslike the what the department department spending and things like that. So, how does that weigh in there when we are
37:0437 minutes, 4 secondslike basically in the red? How do we climb from there to get places? We're not We're not in the red.
37:1237 minutes, 12 secondsI don't know.
37:1337 minutes, 13 secondsWe're not I'm not asking for I'm just saying we're not asking for raises from departments the from the reports that
37:2137 minutes, 21 secondsyou're seeing. I'm asking for raises that would go into effect in October.
37:2537 minutes, 25 secondsThis is I'm asking for the funding to address the colas that would go into effect in October. Um this and but to to
37:3537 minutes, 35 secondstalk about our budgets being in the red, they're not in the red. Okay.
37:3837 minutes, 38 secondsUm but that's not where the money comes from anyway. Okay.
37:4437 minutes, 44 seconds[name], how many how many full-time employees does the city have?
37:4737 minutes, 47 secondsWe have 56 employees, I believe. That's including supervisor.
37:5537 minutes, 55 secondsWhat's that? Say that again, Missy.
37:5837 minutes, 58 secondsFull-time. Yes, we have 56 and I believe 76 or 77 with all of our part-time
38:0438 minutes, 4 secondsemployees, library employees, and and many of our other employees. And we have some of them part-time, even in our water and sewer departments are part-time.
38:1538 minutes, 15 secondsNow, didn't we we just uh and that includes the ones we just hired or we haven't hired really many any
38:2438 minutes, 24 secondsrecently, but that includes all all the employees as well.
38:3038 minutes, 30 secondsOkay. Are we still bringing the employees that we are hiring or we still bring that come y'all bring them to the are we bringing them to the council to
38:3838 minutes, 38 secondsbe approved so we can add those salaries to the to the budget? No, I only I only hire an employee when there is money
38:4638 minutes, 46 secondsbudgeted for an employee. I don't I'm not I don't hire an employee that I don't have funding for.
38:5138 minutes, 51 secondsWe're not creating any new positions fill positions that we already have funded. Right.
38:5538 minutes, 55 secondsRight. Yes, ma'am. If I don't have a position funded for, then yes, ma'am. I would.
39:0039 minutesSo, are you leaving any of the employees that were employees on the employee list so you can fill that position later?
39:1039 minutes, 10 secondsI don't have any openings. I don't that's what I'm saying. If somebody's already has
39:1639 minutes, 16 seconds[clears throat]
39:1639 minutes, 16 secondsleft the hear if uh if the employee has
39:2439 minutes, 24 secondshas ceased employment if the if they uh have not if they've ceased employment are you keeping them on the role or the position is still budgeted for you?
39:3539 minutes, 35 secondsPosition is still budgeted for
39:3839 minutes, 38 seconds[snorts]
39:3939 minutes, 39 secondsOkay. Oh, was it a summary?
39:4439 minutes, 44 secondsThat that is a summary. Um though you have the numbers in front of you. Um I prioritize the needs. I I do have my we
39:5439 minutes, 54 secondsis is [name] here too. Um well we have you know a police chief, fire chief. I'm I don't want to speak for them. I like I
40:0140 minutes, 1 secondsaid, I do based on his initial request, um I do want to bring back like even the
40:0940 minutes, 9 secondsthe rifle package if that is a specific need that if [snorts] we have additional funds that come in after our certifications
40:1740 minutes, 17 secondsare done with appraisal district, we may able to fund that. If not, we we we need to fund I believe we need to fund that from our fund balance and and buy the uh the packages that they're needing.
40:2740 minutes, 27 secondsAnd that's a one time purchase, correct?
40:2940 minutes, 29 seconds[snorts]
40:3040 minutes, 30 secondsNo sir, that is a onetime purchase.
40:3240 minutes, 32 secondsYes. Yes. Um so is that going to be a a loan or or we just purchas a one time purchase? Yes,
40:3940 minutes, 39 secondsma'am. Um the the other items that um as y'all as y'all saw in y'all's draft budget, all
40:4740 minutes, 47 secondsof the items that were uh put in there, those have remained the same. We did, like I like I told you, the voter
40:5540 minutes, 55 secondsapproval rate did bring in roughly $77,000 of new revenue. And uh we've also made
41:0341 minutes, 3 secondsthose adjustments as requested by the police department for his annual fees and equip equipment leases. All the items that he was needing, those are now
41:1241 minutes, 12 secondsbudgeted for in the budget in the draft budget. um the um and the travel and the his uh training budget.
41:2541 minutes, 25 secondsWe made adjustments to that too and brought his his training budget up as well as his um annual fees and equipment
41:32 [segment omitted]
41:4041 minutes, 40 secondsYes, ma'am. Chief, did you uh did you I know we had talked at the last budget meeting, we had talked about leasing vehicles. Did you did you happen to
41:4941 minutes, 49 secondsfollow up on that at all? Did you get anything back?
41:5241 minutes, 52 secondsSpeak. You said leases. It made me remember that. Yes.
41:5441 minutes, 54 secondsUh so actually I'll pass these out in case that come up.
42:0342 minutes, 3 secondsThis is something This is not the official the one that was given by the company. I couldn't get the print off the right size, so I put this together.
42:1342 minutes, 13 secondsSo, I'm just gonna kind of touch base on it real quick.
42:1842 minutes, 18 secondsThis this these numbers that you're looking at right here are worst case scenario. That's if we were to completely replace our entire fleet um
42:2742 minutes, 27 secondsand add two additional vehicles. So, um we'll look at the second box on the first page. If we decide that we want to
42:3642 minutes, 36 secondsdo that, our first year cost will be 82,000. That would get us 13 brand new vehicles.
42:4442 minutes, 44 secondsThat includes the equipment. They show up, they're ready to go to work. Um it's
42:5042 minutes, 50 secondsa total uh 48 month lease. So that second, third, and fourth year would
42:5942 minutes, 59 secondscost us 266,340 per year. At the end of that lease, at the end of that fourth year,
43:0843 minutes, 8 secondswould write us a check back to the city for the equity in the vehicle for $378,700.
43:1743 minutes, 17 secondsAgain, these numbers are worst case. This is if we replace our entire fleet.
43:2243 minutes, 22 secondsUm, do we honestly need to replace our entire fleet right now? No. Uh, we have five vehicles that are high mileage. Um,
43:3243 minutes, 32 secondsthey're they're probably over the oldest ones in the fleet. Those are definitely the ones that we need to focus on. Uh
43:4043 minutes, 40 secondsbut going forward, we have to focus on the other ones that are getting older at the same time. If not, we're going to keep running into these situations where
43:4743 minutes, 47 secondswe we're having to go out for a loan and spend $300,000 to get three vehicles or four vehicles. Um I think that helps
43:5643 minutes, 56 secondskeep our vehicles constantly being replaced and sent out as as they get older. So, I
44:0544 minutes, 5 secondswanted to just throw some worst case scenario numbers. Uh, the representative of Enterprise advised that she would be more than
44:1344 minutes, 13 secondswilling to come down and discuss the whole program or any questions you'all had, any specific questions y'all had.
44:2044 minutes, 20 secondsSo, if there's something else specific y'all want me to look at as far as, hey, let's look at three vehicles, four
44:2644 minutes, 26 secondsvehicles, and start this program out a little smaller to see what those numbers are, then obviously that's that we can
44:3444 minutes, 34 secondsdo pretty easily. But, uh, a lot of perks to it. Uh, one thing I will say about it, um, if you sign this
44:4144 minutes, 41 secondsagreement and you agree to this lease, then that amount of money is going to have to be budgeted every year. So,
44:4944 minutes, 49 secondswe're going to go into each budget workshop, let's say, let's say we go ahead and sign on to do it. We know we're going to pay 182,000 this year,
44:5744 minutes, 57 secondsbut going into budget workshop next year, we know that we have to have $266,340
45:0445 minutes, 4 secondsfor that lease. That's that's before anything else comes out. So, we know that we have to have that. So, that's something to think about going forward.
45:1145 minutes, 11 secondsAlso, if we commit to it, it's a long-term commitment. because if we decide, oh, we don't have that money or
45:1845 minutes, 18 secondswe don't want to pay this lease, then we have to give them all the vehicles back and we're back to square one. So, um, do
45:2645 minutes, 26 secondsI think we need to replace the entire fleet? Of course, if I had my wish, let's get all [laughter] vehicles,
45:3245 minutes, 32 secondsbut I understand um that that may not be feasible. So, at a minimum, I think we need to look at our oldest vehicle for
45:4145 minutes, 41 secondsthe highest mileage and start cycling those out. And I had a number throw out today. I'd say it's going to be between four and five
45:4945 minutes, 49 secondsvehicles that we need to look at, which is going to bring that cost down significantly.
45:5445 minutes, 54 secondsSo, that it doesn't matter how many vehicles you decide to lease. I'm sorry. So, you do have the option on how many.
46:0146 minutes, 1 secondYes. And as as the lease continues, let's say next year, uh, two of our Durango get high mileage and we want to
46:0946 minutes, 9 secondscycle them out, we can add those vehicles to the lease and just continue that lease. So, we can add to it as we go. Uh, that that may adjust the cost
46:1746 minutes, 17 secondssome depending on what the vehicle's worth, uh, how much money we're going to get back in equity at the end of that lease. But, but yes, we can do that.
46:2646 minutes, 26 secondsAnd is there a certain amount of mileage that you can put on a vehicle?
46:3046 minutes, 30 secondsSo, our average right now per vehicle is roughly 20 to 25,000 a year. That's what they that's something they ask us for
46:4046 minutes, 40 secondsthis lease. So these numbers u the 48 month or 20,000 annual buy. So once that
46:4746 minutes, 47 secondsvehicle hits that 20,000 enterprise going to call and say hey we're going to send you a new vehicle we're going to come hit that one and they do that so
46:5546 minutes, 55 secondsthat they can get more money for it when they sell it. um that's why we're able to get that equity back in the vehicle at the end of that that [snorts] lease.
47:0447 minutes, 4 secondsSo that's interesting.
47:0547 minutes, 5 secondsAgain, if that's something we're interested in or we want to look at in more in depth, um I'd be more than happy to have her come down and go over all
47:1447 minutes, 14 secondsthe specifics or questions specific.
47:2047 minutes, 20 secondsSo, Chief, how how much have we spent on just say in the last five years on
47:2747 minutes, 27 secondsvehicles? I know that's a question you probably don't know. Just roughly in the neighborhood of $850,000 to a million dollar.
47:3747 minutes, 37 secondsOkay. Well, well then this sounds good. [laughter] Sounds good. We we've been this last
47:4547 minutes, 45 secondsthree or four years we've been pretty disciplined. We slipped a couple years then last year we bought three to catch back up.
47:5747 minutes, 57 secondsuh this year if if council and you know if if y'all say we at least need if we bought about
48:0448 minutes, 4 secondstwo vehicles a year is what that's what it would take to keep us with no older than
48:1148 minutes, 11 secondsfive or six year old vehicles 100,000 kind of the 100,000 and five to six year breaking point we would have to buy two
48:1948 minutes, 19 secondspretty much every year and um last year we bought three this year we probably need to buy at
48:2648 minutes, 26 secondsleast one if we want to stay on task and uh and so
48:3448 minutes, 34 secondsbut it's it you know that I won't mention much but I'm I'm not the least thing it takes its chunk out of the pie
48:4248 minutes, 42 secondsbefore we even as you as he mentioned next year when they say we need 260,000 it has to be there our voter approval rate only brings in
48:5048 minutes, 50 seconds70,000 and so it's going to cause us every year to dance to their tune or They take our vehicles away.
48:5848 minutes, 58 secondsSo that'll be just by default.
48:5948 minutes, 59 secondsSo would that be a part of our debt service as well?
49:0249 minutes, 2 secondsNo, that's and that's not a debt service. That's not a debt service.
49:0549 minutes, 5 secondsIt's not a debt service. No, that's that's something that we would have to budget for out of our operational income and rate
49:1349 minutes, 13 secondscurrent something for me kind of rule of thumb.
49:1749 minutes, 17 secondsIdeally, we want to replace at least two vehicles every year. Probably the same for public work. So they're basic
49:2449 minutes, 24 secondsvehicles. Uh, so if you do cycle those out, you get more more money for them when you auction them off. Uh, if we
49:3249 minutes, 32 secondswere to decide to buy two patrol vehicles this year, outfitted, ready to go, we're looking at $175 to $180,000
49:39 [segment omitted]
49:4749 minutes, 47 secondstalking about a lot of money just for two weeks and that's that's not with a lot of fancy really fancy equipment. But again,
49:5749 minutes, 57 secondsyou know, maybe the downside of that is you're you're married to that number every year going forward. So, um I know
50:0550 minutes, 5 secondsthat the city of they they have a police agreement with Enterprise, their police department and
50:1350 minutes, 13 secondspublic department. They follow far they've been happy with it. They haven't had any issues. Uh that's just one of the departments that I talked to.
50:2250 minutes, 22 secondsBut I'm I'm sure every city's different.
50:2550 minutes, 25 secondsEvery city finances are different. I just know that um we've got continually repl
50:4150 minutes, 41 secondsChief in this this number $266,000.
50:4550 minutes, 45 secondsThat's that's for 13 vehicles. So, if it was if it was three vehicles or four, I do you have any idea what that ballpark number would be?
50:5250 minutes, 52 secondsI don't. I mean, I know that it's going to be considerably lower. I can tell you that uh if you look at that uh that
51:0051 minutesfirst box there, 2027 top, you're looking at $1,645
51:0651 minutes, 6 secondsa month for one vehicle. So, you've done the quick math times three45
51:1651 minutes, 16 secondsand then 12. That's that's going to give you a rough number if you're looking at just three vehicles, but that number is
51:2351 minutes, 23 secondswhat the lease cost. Um, but that's also equipment included.
51:2851 minutes, 28 secondsIf my if my smartphone is smarter than me, it comes out to $59,329.
51:3351 minutes, 33 secondsSo $60,000 we would have to dedicate every year for that lease. Is that I mean that's for four
51:4051 minutes, 40 secondsif we done Yes. If we done that number replace those those four. So if we if we
51:4851 minutes, 48 secondslease four say next month um we're not going to get rid of those next year. So our other vehicles are going to start
51:5651 minutes, 56 secondsaging out. So probably before that lease contract is up. We're going to need to replace two, three, four more. So that
52:0452 minutes, 4 secondsnumber is going to rise. Correct. If you started initially, we could probably get through two years of
52:1152 minutes, 11 secondsof those vehicles before you had to start. side. Okay.
52:1852 minutes, 18 secondsSo, let me ask but did you suggest that we not consider doing vehicles because of cola or you still considering doing vehicles?
52:2752 minutes, 27 secondsNo, that's a I'm talking what what the budget currently has in there. It does not have a new any new vehicles in the
52:3452 minutes, 34 secondsdraft budget. Um, if council wants to purchase any vehicles, we will have to
52:4152 minutes, 41 secondseither finance some or pay for them out of fund balance. Okay. The same thing with colas. No, ma'am. Okay.
52:4952 minutes, 49 secondsNo, colas are not out of fund balance.
52:5252 minutes, 52 secondsYou say colas are going to come out of what? They're not.
52:5752 minutes, 57 secondsColas would come out of Sorry, I'm thinking in my head. I apologize.
53:0153 minutes, 1 secondYeah, colas. Colas are going to be be coming out of our tax property taxes and water water and sewer rates.
53:1053 minutes, 10 secondsOkay. Taxpayers.
53:1353 minutes, 13 secondsSo I mean theoretically, ideally, Chief, so if we if we let's just say hypothetically, we did this. We got three cars now this month or October to
53:2153 minutes, 21 secondskeep it kind of feasible and keep a a relatively good stock of vehicles. In two years, we'd need at least three more. So like every two years we're
53:3053 minutes, 30 secondsrotating out at least three vehicles.
53:3553 minutes, 35 secondsWould that alleviate some of your strain on your vehicles? It absolutely would.
53:3953 minutes, 39 secondsI mean, so you'd get you'd be getting six cars and then every two years you'd be or there about or Yeah. about every two years you'd be replacing them.
53:4753 minutes, 47 secondsSure. Okay.
53:4853 minutes, 48 secondsSo, my one of my concerns I heard somebody mention is going out for a loan or bank, you know, getting three or
53:5553 minutes, 55 secondsfour. I learned the hard way several years ago. We financed several new And the unit I was in was total at the
54:0454 minutes, 4 secondsintersection of 19 total loss and we in the strangers time we were good with it. We got insurance, right? No, the bank called and said,
54:1254 minutes, 12 seconds"Hey, send that check to us." So that put us in a bind because we were finance we financed them. Accidents are going to
54:1954 minutes, 19 secondshappen and you never know when that's going to come. So it's not not the greatest idea to finance vehicles. Um
54:2754 minutes, 27 secondsbut I guess worst case scenario the insurance wasn't even enough to cover the vehicles to to go out and buy another vehicle.
54:3754 minutes, 37 secondsGap sort of like I said last meeting um that kind of that kind of you know helps out
54:4454 minutes, 44 secondsyour your maintenance uh alleviates funds and stuff from that right as well.
54:5054 minutes, 50 secondskeeps them fresh on their bumper bumper warranties, their power train warranties, stuff like that. Um, we
54:5854 minutes, 58 secondsthat's one thing we run into this year with one of our Durango. There's some issues that cover warranty and it cost
55:0455 minutes, 4 secondsus almost $5,000 out of pocket. So, that would be alleviated then, right?
55:1255 minutes, 12 secondsWould that alleviate the maintenance line item? Probably not.
55:1855 minutes, 18 secondsWe're still going to have to tires, oil changes, windshield wipers, lights, but your major cost, your transmission,
55:2855 minutes, 28 secondsdrives,
55:3855 minutes, 38 secondswe try to keep them trying to give try to give some work to do.
55:4455 minutes, 44 secondsChief, thank you for putting in this work. Um, I I appreciate it. Thank you.
55:5055 minutes, 50 secondsIf I may, while I'm here, we were talking about cost of living, pay
55:5855 minutes, 58 secondsI don't know if we can go back to that that one sheet that had it all filled out.
56:0956 minutes, 9 secondsThis one, I know that I'm not something that
56:1656 minutes, 16 secondsobviously the fire chief, Mr. [name]. Um, we represent each of our departments and
56:2556 minutes, 25 secondswe're supposed to fight for each of our departments. I think it's imperative at a minimum that these employees, when I say employees, I mean across the board, get 10%.
56:3656 minutes, 36 secondsAs each of you know, we all know the cost of living has skyrocketed. And something I think that we don't always think about, um, something I'm dealing
56:4556 minutes, 45 secondswith with some of my guys And some of y'all may disagree with this, but our insurance, our medical insurance is not the greatest.
56:5456 minutes, 54 secondsNo, nobody I've got employees don't get no that can't I got a bunch of employees that can't afford to put their family on
57:0257 minutes, 2 secondsinsurance because it cost him $755 a paycheck to cover his family. That pretty much takes away his whole paycheck.
57:1257 minutes, 12 secondsIt's actually, it's sad, but it's actually cheaper for our employees that have insurance to go to the hospital and get a procedure [snorts] done and pay
57:2057 minutes, 20 secondsthe cash price versus using their insurance. Um, we've got public works is
57:2657 minutes, 26 secondsthe same. Um, we've got our lot of our employees that don't cover their families because they can't afford to.
57:3557 minutes, 35 secondsThey're having to go for procedures and pay cash out of pocket. cash they really don't have because of what our pay still
57:4257 minutes, 42 secondsis. So when we look at these numbers right here and we see all 10% and we see
57:4957 minutes, 49 secondsPD 15 or 25, those are numbers that I'm asking for for my people. Um I wouldn't expect any different out of Mr. [name]
57:5857 minutes, 58 secondsor the fire chief. That's not saying that any of these guys are worth any more than anybody else, but it's my job to fight for my people and and try to
58:0758 minutes, 7 secondsget get what I can for them. And one thing that I heard that you want to compare to cities our size, well,
58:1558 minutes, 15 secondsunfortunately, that's not who we're losing or going to lose employees to.
58:2058 minutes, 20 secondsUm, we're not losing them to Madison or center. We're losing them to these agencies that are out at 65 and $70,000.
58:3158 minutes, 31 secondsAnd I understand that we can't do that here, like I said last time. But we have we have to find that happy medium that is attractive enough to keep them here.
58:4258 minutes, 42 secondsEither they're hometown people or they have family here, they have groups here.
58:4558 minutes, 45 secondsIt's enough that they can survive on whether they one income or two incomes that they can survive. So, um I think
58:5358 minutes, 53 secondsfor all city employees, it's it's got to be priority to to push through 10%. And I think as far as the police department,
59:0159 minutes, 1 secondy'all y'all already heard my request and what I would like for a pay scale from my staff. And I think we have to listen to to the other agency heads to figure
59:0959 minutes, 9 secondsout what it's going to require to keep our employees here.
59:1459 minutes, 14 secondsI don't like the idea of having a full staff that we trained up for three, four, five, six, seven, eight years and
59:2159 minutes, 21 secondsthen get them ready investigators and then send them down to Walker County or send them to Palestine because they're trained up. They're
59:2959 minutes, 29 secondsprime officers and now we're starting back over bottom of the barrel. And so whatever that's worth, I just wanted
59:3659 minutes, 36 secondsto say thank you. Thanks, Chief.
59:4359 minutes, 43 seconds[applause]
59:4559 minutes, 45 secondsI said and his supporters said, "Yeah, yeah." [laughter] Uh, yeah. Was that the summary of it?
59:5359 minutes, 53 seconds[name], if I got a I got a question real quick. Just doing some quick math on the K on the all all employees 10% cola
1:00:021 hour, 2 secondsif it was raised with the watermelon $9.31. Is that is that about right?
1:00:101 hour, 10 secondsYes. per per pretty much I mean $9.31.
1:00:351 hour, 35 secondsOkay. Um was that it?
1:00:391 hour, 39 secondsYes, ma'am. My apologize. Okay, that's uh yeah, that's there there's no easy way to put it.
1:00:451 hour, 45 secondsThere's no this is the tough decisions that's before council. Um I do request
1:00:531 hour, 53 secondsum continued continued direction from council. How do you want me to develop this budget? As you as you see saw on
1:01:021 hour, 1 minute, 2 secondsthe budget calendar at our next meeting, I'll be bringing draft budgets to council with the draft because then I'll have certified rates and I'll have those
1:01:111 hour, 1 minute, 11 secondsto be brought back to council. And so I need to know how do y'all want me do y'all want me to fund one police car? Do
1:01:191 hour, 1 minute, 19 secondsy'all want me to move forward with the draft budget as is with a and and what colas uh do y'all want to uh apply
1:01:271 hour, 1 minute, 27 secondstowards this draft budget? I want you to those are the num this is the impact this is the numbers but I still need to build it into the budget and bring that
1:01:351 hour, 1 minute, 35 secondsback to council you know for basically you'll have an opportunity for uh final approval at our first meeting in um
1:01:431 hour, 1 minute, 43 secondsAugust for the draft budget this is the these are the decisions that get us to the draft budget first Monday we approve
1:01:511 hour, 1 minute, 51 secondsthe draft budget I have to go to the newspaper put it on our website put it out in lobby foyer people can come in
1:01:581 hour, 1 minute, 58 secondsmake comments on the budget. Um and we have to uh publish that and basically for three four weeks we'll
1:02:071 hour, 2 minutes, 7 secondshave that um published in the newspaper on our website and then at the third meet uh at the uh what is it August the 24th that's when we'll come back and actually
1:02:151 hour, 2 minutes, 15 secondsvote on that budget but we'll also have opportunities for public hearings you know um
1:02:231 hour, 2 minutes, 23 secondsI I just I mean I've been doing some homework and kind of trying to look at the numbers and see what was what was
1:02:301 hour, 2 minutes, 30 secondsreal and what what we could do. And I I mean I
1:02:371 hour, 2 minutes, 37 secondsI mean and I I want to give raises. I want to give raises to everybody. I want you get a raise, you get a raise, you get a raise. But it's just I just don't
1:02:461 hour, 2 minutes, 46 secondssee that where we could actually do it uh financially. I don't see that. I'm seeing that when I'm looking over these reports that you give me, the budget
1:02:541 hour, 2 minutes, 54 secondsreport, I'm looking over that the salaries are uh the majority taking the majority of the money from the city
1:03:021 hour, 3 minutes, 2 secondsalready. Um let alone I think that I think that we need to
1:03:091 hour, 3 minutes, 9 secondslook at um look at giving raises, but we need to
1:03:161 hour, 3 minutes, 16 secondslook at our monies and see where where we are. Um I I I took the the sheet that
1:03:231 hour, 3 minutes, 23 secondsyou gave me with the um salaries there and I hopefully I didn't uh mishad or anything like that. But I mean it's just
1:03:311 hour, 3 minutes, 31 secondsit's just that right now I mean I can see doing it in the future but right now
1:03:381 hour, 3 minutes, 38 secondsI I I don't see where we can do it. Um, I also looked at the interest um the the
1:03:451 hour, 3 minutes, 45 secondsthe debt service um interest that we're fixing to have to pay. It's over a million dollars in just interest.
1:03:531 hour, 3 minutes, 53 secondsNo, ma'am.
1:03:541 hour, 3 minutes, 54 secondsUm well, that's what I got in this book here.
1:03:561 hour, 3 minutes, 56 secondsYeah, that's I just I figured figured it out.
1:04:001 hour, 4 minutesWhat I I I mean I I'm just asking you to help me see I've met with you and I'll help you see it every time you meet with me.
1:04:071 hour, 4 minutes, 7 secondsLet me just make a statement right here.
1:04:091 hour, 4 minutes, 9 secondsOkay. You're pulling numbers. Let me let me just explain.
1:04:121 hour, 4 minutes, 12 secondsYou've had a discussion with that. State your statement. But when if he corrected No, I mean I mean going back and forth. It's not going to get it back and forth.
1:04:211 hour, 4 minutes, 21 secondsI'm just No, you said he said it and he just state your statement and then we're going Yeah, you can make your statement, but if he says it what it's incorrect, then you just go on with your statement.
1:04:311 hour, 4 minutes, 31 secondsNo problem.
1:04:321 hour, 4 minutes, 32 secondsOkay. No problem. So what it is is like I said the debt service this year August of 26 we're uh we're paying I mean uh in
1:04:411 hour, 4 minutes, 41 secondsjust in interest not even touching the uh principle of anything we're paying over a million dollars and then we're
1:04:481 hour, 4 minutes, 48 secondseven coming into the year of February um I believe
1:04:571 hour, 4 minutes, 57 secondsum this coming year in 2027 just in interest on this debt service we're paying
1:05:041 hour, 5 minutes, 4 secondsa million over a million dollars. And so I'm trying to figure out where are we getting the monies? If we're borrowing
1:05:111 hour, 5 minutes, 11 secondsmonies from our syncing funds or where are we getting the monies to pay this?
1:05:151 hour, 5 minutes, 15 secondsCuz when I'm looking at this, all this money that we're in debt with, I mean, that's not even touching the principal
1:05:241 hour, 5 minutes, 24 secondsthat our next generation, second and third generation, we won't even be able to see it when they start paying the principal. So we're leaving them. Okay, that's your interpretation of it. Okay.
1:05:341 hour, 5 minutes, 34 secondsSo, yes, that's your interpretation.
1:05:351 hour, 5 minutes, 35 secondsSo, we're leaving them, we're handing them the the rest of the debt. But my whole issue is that, you know, that we're not we're not uh being uh mindful
1:05:441 hour, 5 minutes, 44 secondsof our spending. We're doing some overspending and we need to see where we need to um cut down our spending.
1:05:551 hour, 5 minutes, 55 secondsOkay.
1:05:551 hour, 5 minutes, 55 secondsWe need to That's what we need to look at.
1:05:571 hour, 5 minutes, 57 secondsThat's your opinion. Well, I thank you, Madam uh Madame Mayor. I mean, and I get your point about fiduciary
1:06:061 hour, 6 minutes, 6 secondsresponsibility and I I can't stand it when the federal government raises our taxes or whatever they do to
1:06:121 hour, 6 minutes, 12 secondsbuy goldplated toilet seats. But you, Councilwoman [name], you sit there and talk about fiduciary responsibility and
1:06:191 hour, 6 minutes, 19 secondswe're spending $2,500 on a project that may or may never impact Crockett. That's $2,500 that we're wasting
1:06:271 hour, 6 minutes, 27 secondsfor the project for for the for the tax 21. That's $2,500. You're looking at these people in our lobby or in our in our in our Don't get me wrong, I don't
1:06:351 hour, 6 minutes, 35 secondswant to raise taxes. I'm absolutely against it. But when you're looking at people that are starving to death because of that are our responsibility to take care of, how can we not give them a raise?
1:06:451 hour, 6 minutes, 45 secondsHow can we not? That's just that's these are our neighbors. They live next to us.
1:06:501 hour, 6 minutes, 50 secondsWe eat with them in the same restaurants. We have to do something. No, I don't want to raise taxes at all.
1:06:541 hour, 6 minutes, 54 secondsI don't I really don't. I mean, I'm I'm I'm absolutely But $9.31, the guy in the the guy in the back said it's a Happy Meal. That ain't a Happy Meal. You ain't bought one in a while.
1:07:041 hour, 7 minutes, 4 secondsThey're about $12. Okay. I mean, and I and you're right, we have to be responsible to our voters, and I get it,
1:07:121 hour, 7 minutes, 12 secondsand I don't want to raise taxes for them, but I also don't want to lose our employees. If we don't have our city, we don't have the people to run the stuff, what are we going to do? Who are we going to call? Ghostbusters.
1:07:221 hour, 7 minutes, 22 secondsOne thing. One thing I do see I see us a lot of lot of times I see what we're doing is because I see us miss me mentioning Palestine a whole lot and
1:07:291 hour, 7 minutes, 29 secondsPalestine have a lot of more revenue coming in than what we do and I do see that uh they also have industry um
1:07:371 hour, 7 minutes, 37 secondsthings such as that. So more taxpayers we're also over a million dollars delinquent in our taxes. So I mean um gosh you're throwing numbers out.
1:07:491 hour, 7 minutes, 49 secondsThese are the numbers I'm looking No, ma'am. Just looking at numbers and knowing how to interpret the numbers and get correct information, but to say that
1:07:571 hour, 7 minutes, 57 secondswe're overspending to say that we're delinquent in delinquent in payments, those are false. Those are false statements. So, I will make that
1:08:051 hour, 8 minutes, 5 secondsmention, but I won't get into back and forth and arguments with you.
1:08:081 hour, 8 minutes, 8 secondsBut I will tell you that the numbers that you're reading are not they're they're not facts.
1:08:131 hour, 8 minutes, 13 secondsThey're not fact. You're taking them out of context. Um, every item that's in there were for major infrastructure buildouts. When we borrow money, it's
1:08:221 hour, 8 minutes, 22 secondsfor major item infrastructures that we do not have the cash flow for. Those are all approved for by council.
1:08:291 hour, 8 minutes, 29 secondsSo to bring that back today and talk about it as a reason why you're not going to consider a not and you keep on mentioning raises. This is not a raise.
1:08:381 hour, 8 minutes, 38 secondsThis is a cost of living adjustment. So to use decisions that y'all made for in the past to keep our water towers online
1:08:451 hour, 8 minutes, 45 secondsand our clarifiers going and and install a water well to say these are reasons that we're not going to do this.
1:08:521 hour, 8 minutes, 52 secondsWhere are we going to get the money from? If you read that budget, it also shows where that money's coming from.
1:08:571 hour, 8 minutes, 57 secondsThat money is already budgeted for. All of those asks and needs are already appropriated for. The only one that's not appropriated for tonight
1:09:061 hour, 9 minutes, 6 secondsis to address a cost of living living adjustment. That's the only thing that we're really that I'm asking for us to consider where that money is coming from.
1:09:151 hour, 9 minutes, 15 secondsMayor and everything else. Mayor and council, I call the question in uh in Lud to make a motion.
1:09:231 hour, 9 minutes, 23 secondsQuestion. Okay. Step.
1:09:361 hour, 9 minutes, 36 secondsOkay. at this board.
1:09:451 hour, 9 minutes, 45 secondsI need council's direction tonight.
1:09:471 hour, 9 minutes, 47 secondsY'all saw the the budget. You see the impacts on our on our rates. Um
1:09:551 hour, 9 minutes, 55 secondsyou've heard the things that we can fund within our budget and the things that we'll need additional direction. The things that I'll need direction for is
1:10:041 hour, 10 minutes, 4 secondsthe items that you want us to take from fund balance.
1:10:071 hour, 10 minutes, 7 secondsIf we are going to approve a purchase of a vehicle, a purchase of the street broom
1:10:141 hour, 10 minutes, 14 secondsand a and a purchase of the uh police officer rifles, those three will have to come from fund balance. The rest can be
1:10:231 hour, 10 minutes, 23 secondsbudgeted for within our budget. And do y'all want to assess any kind of rate increase to pay for the clarifier or do
1:10:311 hour, 10 minutes, 31 secondsy'all want that to come from fund balance?
1:10:341 hour, 10 minutes, 34 secondsUm, and do y'all want to budget for a cost of living adjustment?
1:10:401 hour, 10 minutes, 40 seconds[name], I move that um that you um continue with uh with the um with line number one uh all employees at 10%.
1:10:521 hour, 10 minutes, 52 secondsum with the tax rate with the tax rate increase of 0.0796 0796
1:10:581 hour, 10 minutes, 58 secondsum at a fixed rate um and you bring that back to council um and you move forward
1:11:061 hour, 11 minutes, 6 secondswith the um I'm not going to say procurement but the with the search of of u the the sweeper
1:11:151 hour, 11 minutes, 15 secondsuh for public works and that you move forward also with u
1:11:221 hour, 11 minutes, 22 secondsuh the purchase of the um hose for the fire department
1:11:291 hour, 11 minutes, 29 secondspurchase those in the rifle package.
1:11:351 hour, 11 minutes, 35 secondsOkay. Um, was there anything else? I mean, I'll second his motion.
1:11:451 hour, 11 minutes, 45 secondsBut go ahead. Did you want to modify? I I'd like to modify discussion. Sorry. I'm sorry. Go ahead. It's open for discussion.
1:11:521 hour, 11 minutes, 52 secondsin part of the discussion. I I mean I'd like to I don't even remember how the how to do it. Modify the motion to include the rifle package to come out of uh
1:12:001 hour, 12 minutesthe fund balance. The fund balance. Fund balance. Yeah. Okay.
1:12:051 hour, 12 minutes, 5 secondsHe could he could amend his motion if after the second is made, he can go ahead and move forward with an amendment
1:12:121 hour, 12 minutes, 12 secondsto his motion if if a council will support it with a second. Well, I second. He's got to make the motion. Yes. He he's uh David.
1:12:211 hour, 12 minutes, 21 secondsSo now you So mayor and council, I move that um [name], you continue with the um with the
1:12:301 hour, 12 minutes, 30 secondsuh 10% increase at uh for uh tax rate increase of 00796%
1:12:381 hour, 12 minutes, 38 secondsI mean 0.0796% to the um utility and at a fixed rate.
1:12:451 hour, 12 minutes, 45 secondsUm, with that, um, you continue moving forward with the, uh, purchase of the, uh, fire hose for the fire department.
1:12:541 hour, 12 minutes, 54 secondsUm, the sweeper for the public works and including the is it the rifle and the rifle package and scopes. Yeah. For the police
1:13:021 hour, 13 minutes, 2 secondsdepartment, second and the clarifier. So, and moving forward with the clarifier that would be purchased. That that that is a one-time purchase. Is that not correct? Yes.
1:13:141 hour, 13 minutes, 14 secondsOkay. Do you want to um that with that being a onetime purchase?
1:13:171 hour, 13 minutes, 17 secondsDo you want to fund it from fund balance or do you Yes. I'll second it.
1:13:231 hour, 13 minutes, 23 secondsOkay. It's been moved and second. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries.
1:13:321 hour, 13 minutes, 32 secondsAll right, council. Um that gives me enough direction to move forward. Um I'll continue discussions with council as these new numbers come out. Um, this
1:13:401 hour, 13 minutes, 40 secondsweek I should have certified values and I'll continue bringing a draft budget probably by the end of this week if I get the numbers in time back to council.
1:13:501 hour, 13 minutes, 50 secondsYou'll have about two weeks to review them before our first meeting in August on um are are we down to new business?
1:14:021 hour, 14 minutes, 2 secondsYes, we're down to Okay, we're down to new business. Are we down to new business? Yes.
1:14:081 hour, 14 minutes, 8 secondsSo on um on new business last meeting um I made a motion um on the uh text 21. I
1:14:161 hour, 14 minutes, 16 secondswould like to call that back into question so I can clarify the uh the motion that I that I had made.
1:14:241 hour, 14 minutes, 24 secondsOkay. Could you present that as a motion um to to place back on the agenda for discussion?
1:14:301 hour, 14 minutes, 30 secondsYes, to place back on the agenda for discussion. Okay. To modify my motion. possible action.
1:14:381 hour, 14 minutes, 38 secondsOkay, it's been it's a motion been moved and seconded. All in favor?
1:14:451 hour, 14 minutes, 45 secondsOkay, motion carries now. So that'll be for new business. Okay, so that brings us Oh, new business. I'll bring it back.
1:14:561 hour, 14 minutes, 56 secondsOkay. So, if there's nothing else, I I like it. U
1:15:041 hour, 15 minutes, 4 secondsWell, new business. I think it's going to deal with the budget. It won't be business. So, I need to know um about
1:15:131 hour, 15 minutes, 13 seconds[clears throat] the uh uh budgeting, but I want to Oh, how does that work?
1:15:231 hour, 15 minutes, 23 secondsDo you want to bring this um item or what are you talking about? I'm not sure.
1:15:291 hour, 15 minutes, 29 secondsAre you wanting a new um business item placed on the agenda or what?
1:15:341 hour, 15 minutes, 34 secondsFor future agenda. Is that what you're asking?
1:15:361 hour, 15 minutes, 36 secondsI'm not understand budgeting uh budgeting.
1:15:411 hour, 15 minutes, 41 secondsSo to put that on budget. Do I need to bring that back to the next meeting or Okay. Yeah, we'll just bring that back
1:15:501 hour, 15 minutes, 50 secondsinto the next meeting if that's something that you want to present in our draft legend.
1:15:541 hour, 15 minutes, 54 secondsOkay. I'm motion that uh I move that we place the uh item of swimming pool to
1:16:021 hour, 16 minutes, 2 secondsdiscuss on our next uh budget meeting or next meeting. I second your motion.
1:16:081 hour, 16 minutes, 8 secondsOkay, it's been moved and second. All in favor? Opposed?
1:16:161 hour, 16 minutes, 16 secondsMotion carries. She wants to bring the swimming pool into our budget discussion at our next meeting.
1:16:231 hour, 16 minutes, 23 secondsOkay. If there's nothing else, motion to ma'am Chris.
1:16:341 hour, 16 minutes, 34 secondsYeah. Three hit. He was against. That was the descending vote.
1:16:481 hour, 16 minutes, 48 seconds[name], I appreciate it like far as the question that I have like
1:16:551 hour, 16 minutes, 55 secondswhat I the homework I've done. I appreciate if you go over there with me and show me what you're doing.
1:17:021 hour, 17 minutes, 2 secondsCuz I'm seeing some numbers on here that's not numbers. When I figured it out, it's not coming. Just tell me.
1:17:091 hour, 17 minutes, 9 secondsLet me show you something in the budget. in the uh the budget report.
1:17:181 hour, 17 minutes, 18 secondsIn the budget report, you got there's a lot of um like here you got the original
1:17:251 hour, 17 minutes, 25 secondsthis is the original you have $800 here and then over here you got $1,800. So powered.
