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The Grant County Record
in Grant County · Budget committee · 2024-08-26 · full transcript
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    0:15  who's get here
    0:39  yeah I just sent him a text so oh okay
    1:05  all right good evening and welcome to the second budget committee meeting August 26 2024 at 6 PM in the council
    1:14  chambers this is our second budget committee meeting with the presentation of the budget from the mayor for
    1:22  2025 and uh just like to start out with thanking everybody for being here and all the department dep heads for taking
    1:32  this fine evening uh to come in and spend with the council um it's and I just want to thank the mayor again for giving us access to
    1:40  communicate with all the department heads as well uh it's been very beneficial and I just want to apologize ahead of time for my you know middle of
    1:48  the night emails last night to all the department heads uh you just got to do business when you can do business so um but everybody got back and very quickly
    1:56  so I really really appreciate that so okay so the way I would like tonight to go is and I did email everyone ahead of
    2:03  time is uh we will go ahead and do just like a format of pulling each department head up to the microphone that way everyone all the council members feel
    2:12  like they had an opportunity to ask questions um and of course the mayor imagine you're always available for any
    2:19  questions throughout um so yeah and uh and basically we'll call up each department head
    2:27  and just going to be Whoever has questions can ask ask if you don't then uh then we'll move on to the next so uh
    2:34  mayor did you want to say anything or or add anything um oh yeah so first of all thank you all again for being here and
    2:41  doing this and and trusting um me as our first my first budget cycle so I'm excited and nervous and happy all at the
    2:50  same time so I appreciate all you guys working with me on this and trusting our Administration and be able to put together a um solid budget for uh the
    2:58  city of Maran again our reer I'm super proud of all the work that uh myself and all the department heads and all of our team has done to get this uh prepared a
    3:07  lot of work went into this and uh one thing I will say that we are proud of is we have a a general fund that is functioning in the the black for the the
    3:16  first time in a long time so kudos to our team for making that happen and um yeah from there I think we're ready for for questions I don't know what order I
    3:24  mean do you want to go and order a book or how how you want to do okay um yeah I'll I'll go in a certain
    3:32  order here but I will go ahead and start just with the common council's budget first um
    3:40  so I let's see if everyone can go to that common Council it's the second one in on the green book
    3:48  um so like I said the last meeting vice president Cal and I sat down with controller G I don't know two months ago
    3:58  just to kind of put some pre preliminary information in and I will remind everybody that this is just a committee meeting so things can be changed up and
    4:06  down of course obviously with the mayor's blessing um moving forward when it gets to the actual full council
    4:13  meeting that's when you can only cut so I say that because um there was a decision made not to propose a pay
    4:22  increase for the council I don't feel like that was appropriate for just me or vice president calill to propose so
    4:30  um if any of the council members feel like they that should be the council should get a pay increase
    4:38  um obviously this is a committee we all can discuss it um but as far as anything else on there I'm willing to take
    4:45  questions answer I mean this is this a collaboration is the way I view this we're all on the council we had to have
    4:52  a starting point and a base that was a starting point in the base and I'm open to suggestions recommendations from there so so anybody have anything they
    5:01  want to add for the common Council budget just whoever has questions yep just just ask and I'll address you yep
    5:10  vice president Calo um yeah I you know I I think that I think that we ought to have a
    5:18  raise in there I do because it's it's the same situation with the mayor I mean he went what 14 or 16 years whatever it
    5:24  was and so and there's that's the cost of living goes up every single year and right now I mean we've all been to the grocery store we know how much
    5:33  groceries are gas everything is going up we had our rise for the first time um last year I think it was it was last
    5:40  year or year before in 20 years and when we go and not get raises year after year after year you fall behind and that's
    5:49  why Marian is the police department the fire department the mayor's office was our common Council average salary for a
    5:56  councilman in Indiana is like $14,000 we make what eight I think or something like
    6:02  that I just personally and it it's not I mean that that raise of the five and a half or whatever it was that everybody
    6:09  else got on what we make is not going to be it's going to be what 150 bucks or something whatever it is but I think
    6:18  that we I think that we need to get out of the habit of skipping people's pay year after year after
    6:27  year all right thank you vice president anyone else have an opinion on Council pay oh councilman Kane I I would
    6:35  certainly agree I don't sorry always forget that I uh I
    6:43  agree with Mr Cowgill I think that uh to to not give council members a
    6:51  raise um is a mistake um I think you have to keep up
    6:58  from year to year here we don't want to we don't want to fall in the Trap of 3 four
    7:06  years and and Mr celd was exactly right it was 20 years since um the council had
    7:14  received a raise because I guess nobody thought they had
    7:21  the maybe the nerve to suggest that we get a get a raise or give our give ourselves a raise I don't feel I'm
    7:30  giving myself a raise I'm giving the whole Council a raise from year to year
    7:36  just to keep up with um normal expenses I I broke it down I've said this many
    7:43  times I've broken this down a 5% raise and that would be my suggestion to this
    7:49  Council um a 5% raise amounts to here again I've said it before a half a tank
    7:56  of gas per month so what it amounts to so uh breaking it down into layman's term I
    8:03  don't think that's too much to ask for but it is keeping up with uh the cost of
    8:10  Le living on a year-to-year basis so I would suggest um AR raise thank
    8:18  you all right thank you councilman King any other council members have input for or against
    8:26  that yeah councilman for I go and turn your mic on so
    8:33  5% would be 43151 a year that would bring our base pay to
    8:41  9,619 a year pre-tax if you guys want to try to do
    8:49  the math on that at 5% so that's
    8:57  43151 per person times n and I don't have a problem with that
    9:06  um because we did take on additional at the end of not the end but during the year of 2023 we took on paying the bills
    9:15  and going on over those every two weeks and I don't know about the rest of you but I spend several hours every two weeks going through all of those bills
    9:24  and invoices that was an added project for us so um once again I don't have a problem
    9:32  with that but I would like to uh take it out of our budget either technical equipment or miscellaneous
    9:39  contractual I would like to reduce the miscellaneous contractual which I don't know why we need that since we've got Tech equipment in there the only
    9:47  miscellaneous contractual that we've ever used is we we've had an outside attorney from a lawsuit and I don't believe that that
    9:55  should be falling under this purview and we should have to have a lawsuit against the city council so I'm
   10:03  not against it if we take it out of our budget that we have proposed all right appreciate that
   10:11  councilman fores councilman Bruner I just um to uh add to what the uh fellow
   10:19  councilman have said um I think with a new mayor uh he's he's uh doing a great
   10:25  job bringing a lot of things to us we've had uh very
   10:32  uh much anticipated meetings and I think that uh just a simple fact that uh we've
   10:39  gone from like an hour per meeting to maybe two hours per meeting I think we're also spending more time no and
   10:46  there's nothing wrong with that I I think uh he's he and I when we have our meetings I I I tell him I think he's
   10:56  doing a great job because he's bringing a lot of new things to us so I I think just that simple fact is is is a is a
   11:04  reason for a small raise also great thank you thanks so much Council Brunner I just chuckle because we've had some long meetings for
   11:13  sure uh okay anybody else have input on that councilman Klein yeah the only and
   11:19  you beat me to it the only way I can see to vote for raise for me us with a
   11:26  straight face is that if it has zero effect on the whole Council budget take
   11:33  it from someplace else and put it up there don't rate I mean that's the only way I can do it with a straight
   11:41  face yeah we don't want to give up that Council and the black we don't want to give that up so I concur on that any
   11:49  other council members have any input on that mayor um I just speaking from a a
   11:57  high level on this I think we've engaged in some unhealthy practices uh from elected official raises over the years
   12:04  and now we was put to the situation where we are now so I think that incumbent on us to fix that so you guys should have to go 20 years May off
   12:12  should have to go 16 and etc etc um so I think that now if we look at this correctly we should be able to uh come
   12:19  in and fix this as a as a team you guys deserve a raage you're working hard I appreciate you all and um the controllers their officers almost done
   12:26  doing the calculations of what that 5% would add and and um once they have it it's not it's not that much um if you
   12:34  were to remove it from miscellaneous contractual Services um then I think think it takes the salaries to Total
   12:40  like $81,300 something doll and then 9,619 yeah I mean for the um the the
   12:48  total uh the total everybody's added together yeah yep um that's $3,883 59 for nine counts yeah so then
   12:57  she'll have all the totals and so so would that much to remove or reduce with other place great I appreciate that so in fact I mean I'm glad you brought it
   13:06  the misile contractual I was going to have a discussion on that as well that we just kept in there because I wanted to have this discussion uh in more in
   13:13  depth um because I know that was just for outside Council which I agree with councilman pise I don't foresee needing
   13:20  that um unless there was this particular ordinance that maybe we wanted to craft that we didn't really
   13:29  feel like it was necessary to pull the City attorney for that I I don't know I mean who knows um I'm okay with cutting
   13:37  definitely 10,000 off the miss any is contractional contractual um but I'm even for totally
   13:43  dropping the whole thing if nobody if everyone agrees with that I I would I would if if
   13:52  um I wouldn't take it completely away in case just just in case
   14:00  I'm I'm speculating just in case we have to have it you're only talking about 3883 off of it so it's still going to
   14:08  leave you you know 16,000 you're still going to have to account for taxes and retirement the
   14:16  other benefits it'll be just a hair more than that yeah yeah but once we run it
   14:23  through the yeah controller and I'm yes it's 38835 and then you will have taxes included in
   14:30  on that stuff so but I'm just saying instead of getting rid of completely and I'm just a little bit leery that if we
   14:37  do that and then have to have it to if we can't use the City attorney we can't use a city council attorney we have to
   14:45  hire an outside attorney we've got a little buffer okay if that's suitable with the controller's office Dana Linda
   14:53  will that work so yeah they're figuring out I would I would say um whatever that total
   15:01  calculation would be if we just did the 5% and then subtract off of the miscellaneous contractual like round down to the nearest 100 just because I
   15:09  like clean even numbers so um so I agree about taking it out out of there as well
   15:16  but I also agree with Council pise about we don't want to leave it empty because the the reason we had to use outside
   15:24  Council and we had that before had it had nothing to do with the administration was not an issue which said it was an issue with something
   15:32  outside of here that we needed to take a stand and fight for the citizens that put us in here to
   15:40  do that to fight for them so I would leave what's left in there as well sounds great yeah my other thought is if
   15:48  we didn't then we can always pass something but again that's a delay so I'm okay with that too umone
   15:55  else is the total was $461 15 everything together so I would just say can we just
   16:03  drop our miscellaneous contractual down to 15,000 everyone good with that just even clean number gives us a little puts us a little more in the black how about
   16:11  that so and I my personal opinion is I'm neutral on it I don't care whether I get a raise or not truthfully like I
   16:19  probably would do this if it was free because I'm just that kind of guy I'm on so many boards it doesn't matter so but I'm neutral on it I do think you know we
   16:28  do put a lot of time and work and and to I'm not asking for this nor will I push for it but to be fair too I actually
   16:35  think the council president's position should probably get a extra pay because there is a lot involved but I would not ask for that uh anybody that's sat in
   16:44  this seat can probably understand that but I'm not asking for I'm just being real with you it does require no no no I would vote against to
   16:53  that if it was proposed but I'm just saying so anyways anyone that's out here can can
   17:01  understand so all right got okay all right so yes I just say drop
   17:09  the miscellaneous contractual 15 and then you can add that 5% in and all the other things that adjust with that so
   17:17  great discussion I appreciate that I just wanted to be a group discussion on that uh anything else um I will say
   17:25  actually I will add on the technical equipment the reason so we took money out of travel and training and moved it into technical equipment because the
   17:32  discussion was had that if we decided to get new microphones for the council chambers there's some money in there but
   17:40  I'm still not convinced that we need anything yet actually um Danny I think might have solve the issue after that
   17:47  last meeting but I yes we have Micron yes so but I just thought we have it in there just in the event that one I mean
   17:55  somebody that's laptops so if our laptops Break Stop working cell phones anything like that that would fall under
   18:02  the technical equipment um but I don't foresee us needing that but it's there just in the event worst case scenario
   18:09  happens with our equipment so anybody have any other questions or they want to talk about for our
   18:17  budget all right sounds great well we'll continue on then and I was asked uh vice
   18:25  president cgill asked me to start with rose from the park Department if that's all right she always goes last she's just looking out
   18:35  so vice president cill made their recommendation so Rose if you want to come on
   18:46  up I know trying to find it
   18:52  here maybe it's towards the end here
   19:00  I remember correctly
   19:07  from there we go yeah okay so we'll just uh open it up if
   19:15  anyone has questions they can ask it if no one ends up having questions you get an easy night um and mayor of course
   19:22  you're always welcome if you wanted to elaborate on anything further within each budget as well or things you want to highlight you're more than welcome to
   19:30  but any council members with questions for Rose from the parks department tman
   19:38  Force hi Rose I can't believe they're putting you up here first anyhow I I've only got a couple
   19:47  questions for you um because we've been through this before on friendship partk do you have enough money in there for maintenance to seal that since we just
   19:55  spent $36,000 on that and the reason is because there wasn't any money in there to maintain it seal it as you well know
   20:04  first question second question is on the new equipment and surface down at Charles Mill does that require a
   20:13  maintenance and ceiling since it is a foam product or rubber product and do you have something in there to maintain
   20:20  that down the road sure um as far as friendship Corner since we just put it down it doesn't have to microphone micro
   20:28  red um as far as friendship Corner um since we just put the serving down it doesn't have to be sealed for
   20:36  three years so and that's GNA well it was around $660,000 to do that so we'll have to worry about that in just a
   20:43  couple years to add it to the budget but um this year we don't need those funds and as far as the um Fitness Court I'm
   20:51  really not sure if something needs to be sealed maybe the mayor might or if there was a if there's a maintenance on is there a maintenance on that from one the
   20:59  product that we bought it I just like like to think ahead because we got hammered on this before on Friendship Park and that was a big that was a big
   21:07  hit for the uh Fitness Court I remember if I remember right I can't it's Randy here how long do they say That's supposed to last before
   21:15  we uh three to five years but they left replacement pads so we have a few extra pads in case one do for the entire
   21:24  surface yes so you can replace the whole pad and the whole surface it's if they're uh 2 by two squares mhm so if a
   21:33  square goes bad we do have replacement pads and as far as the black border we have some of that but the surface doesn't need any treatment due to Sun
   21:40  and weather and snow no sir and you said it's a three to five year guarantee on it or warranty what is a three to five
   21:48  that's just how was explain how is it how is a three to five is it limited unlimited well it's normal wear and tear
   21:56  um can be replaced but it's you get guys out there like what they did to our surface at the playground and they cut on it and all that but no they won't
   22:04  yeah because that's going to be a problem so as far as the actual surface whatever coating is actually on that
   22:12  when we get it that's what's guaranteed unless it's man okay so we don't have anything row
   22:18  built in to maintain that we we do not no so that might be something we have to
   22:25  deal with in the future sure okay thank you that's all I got any other council
   22:33  members hello thank you for joining us um is there anything you need that wasn't
   22:41  included oh we need lots of things I know that you have time not wants but needs you know
   22:49  anything safety related that could be a liability that kind of thing is what I'm really trying to dive into um what we
   22:58  run into each year with our budget is the replacement parts for our playground equipment that we now have um friendship
   23:07  corner I mean we get lots of vandalism um someone set one of the slides um on
   23:13  fire it's $8,000 and so our deductible with the insurance is 5,000 so a lot of those parts and everything come out of
   23:21  our budget so for the past few years we've had thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars just in repair equipment alone that's not buil into our
   23:30  budget um we squeeze it out where we can and we do the best we can um as far as um needs we do have a
   23:40  couple shelters that are going to need roofs on them um and we've transition most of our shelters to um metal roofing
   23:48  um just for longterm maintenance um we still have I believe two if I'm Excuse me right Randy um that's still need done
   23:56  um we were hoping to increase the budget this year for those um that is once again up to the mayor and uh that's the
   24:05  few things I can think of right off the top of my head head is um playground equipment for sure and uh one thing we did if you look
   24:13  uh because I wanted to obviously my goal was to get a the budget balanced so what I did was I inserted uh I believe it's 120,000 into the edit fund for pars and
   24:22  will build use for improvements uh repairs in the Parks
   24:31  any other council members how are we with the sash house I mean we've had that for a number of
   24:38  years now as far as like Andy was talking about repair maintenance are we is that in pretty good shape or where we at there so Splash house is in desperate
   24:47  need of some upgrades and we're working on a chlorine system and chemical system that um is kind of non-existent now we
   24:56  can are having a hard time getting s for it um we're talking thousands you know a couple hundred thousand dollar to do
   25:04  that um eventually it's either going to have to be done or the Park's going to be closed um but there are Al all kinds
   25:11  of maintenance maintenance issues out there um we did um I think it was last year built in $50,000 into the budget
   25:20  for to help with the shortcomings of the splash house but really truly that $50,000 doesn't even touch
   25:29  um at the end of the year end of the season whatever you want to say um touch what they really um leave us in the
   25:36  whole as um all of our rentals and things like that kind of help the splash house and help keep us um from being the
   25:45  in the negative but um the Splash House does um and I suggest that all of you guys reach out to Andy he would really
   25:52  know what those list of things are um and I know that um he's over time got
   25:59  um quotes and different things for some of those repairs and to add another thing that
   26:08  all the department heads have are working on have submitted to me preliminary is the uh Capital Improvement plan so what um I think I
   26:16  started the first one of I can't remember I said out earlier this year but we'll refin it in preparation for next year for so all department heads submit to some of their top their top
   26:25  three needs and top three wants and then once the year rolls over will be able to ask for those things out from a capital
   26:32  Improvement standpoint thank you welcome councilwoman
   26:39  Divine um so you have the perks budget which is in the general fund but then you've also got the parks fund nonreverting fund nonreverting fund can
   26:48  you not correct okay how how so park fund
   26:56  tax we'll call it they okay can you explain just for the newbies of us what type of expenses you
   27:05  do out of that fund versus what's out of the general fund sure um nonreverting um
   27:11  we do um all of our um garden house repairs um softball our programs um our
   27:21  shelter rental money goes in that account also um we process um it's a pass through for walk of Lights um so we
   27:30  process all the bills for walkway of lights out of there um we process all of Splash House bills um out of there um whether it be
   27:39  concession expense payroll so things like that I have a question so if if it's
   27:49  possible how much are we operating in the negative from the splash house if you could give a number versus how much we allocate from
   27:57  the fund versus how much you bring in Revenue like what how far off are we to keep sustaining
   28:04  it um so as of right now um where I entered my last bill um as of to date
   28:11  for the splash house right now we're almost ,000 in the negative
   28:18  um now that only includes July bills um once we do get August through and then we'll do our month ends then we'll have
   28:26  a better number then but I would say probably um by the end of the season
   28:33  will'll probably be a good $775,000 probably negative have we ever had a time where
   28:41  we've been in the positive never which I get it's a city provided Park but I'm just curious so
   28:51  okay any other questions council member Runner Rose um
   28:59  the calendar is kind of really changed around I mean I never once in my life
   29:05  ever went to school before Labor Day and now we're going to school almost the start of
   29:12  August um are you still able to maintain the same number of days that you've always
   29:19  had for the splash house so when the kids go back to school we go to Weekends Only so this the earlier they go back
   29:27  the earlier we closed during the week so um we've also are closed on Mondays
   29:34  um so but other than that I and Andy I Andy told the park board the other day that he's had we've had a lot of um rain
   29:44  and bad weather early in the season and so that's going to affect the numbers at the end of are your total
   29:51  days remaining about the same as they were five or 10 years ago no how are you
   29:58  down then total number of days that you're open yes we didn't used to be closed any days during um during the
   30:06  week I'm not sure why they chose to take Mondays I'm not sure um but yeah we used to be open seven
   30:14  days a week and the hours used to be longer also okay thank you that's a great question valid point
   30:22  School opening earlier who whose decision is that to close on Mondays
   30:30  um it was up to that Administration from what I remember the
   30:38  mayor okay any other questions for Rose Tuesday afternoons be Council day
   30:47  then all right any other questions okay all right well thank you so much Rose appreciate you yeah you
   30:56  Rose okay and let's go ahead and move to
   31:10  Transportation find it in here welcome good
   31:17  evening okay let us all get to that
   31:29  Jeff's on his way back from my family get together in Texas he and his wife flying back this afternoon so that's why I'm here tonight all right give me one
   31:38  moment here should have put sticky notes to find it oh
   31:44  okay there we go there she is okay all right well we'll just go and
   31:52  open it up anyone have questions as you can see our budget for next year
   32:04  can you turn the microphone on for me there thank you mayor budget next year is right at approximately $1.7 million
   32:11  uh we spent 1.4 million give or take 2,000 last year and U we have subsidies
   32:19  coming in which are that an offsets Revenue offsets will account for about 68% reimbursement of those uh of those
   32:28  cost for operating expenses thank you yeah because that 68% comes from that grant that we get every
   32:35  year is that yes sir yeah operating Grant plus we have Capital expenses
   32:43  also we're asking for two new buses next year to we've kind of rotate the vehicles to to keep things moving slow
   32:50  SL smoothly and so we've asked for two V vehicles to be subsidized by OT and the
   32:57  federal trans trans Administration and we're actually going to receive because they have handicap LTS uh we're going to receive 85% reimbursement payment for
   33:06  those buses and the local share would just be 15% usually 8020 so that's how we replace our
   33:15  Capital Equipment by rotating them every couple years or every year normally rotate like to rotate two
   33:23  units all right and then do you have uh any plans is there on changing routes or adding routes or is everything going to
   33:30  stay the same stay the same we we we forecast right now and I know uh mayor I think you posted something
   33:38  about offering rides I think even to the City Council meetings do you anticipate any extra expense from any of those
   33:45  extra Services um yeah so when I proposed that we had to reach out to actually get approved to us allow us be to do that because the grant is really
   33:53  restrictive of what how we can change routes and do different things so the uh and this is good for the public to know too the the routes the hours the cedure
   34:02  are really controlled by the grant so we don't we're not at Liberty just to change and add and move things so um for us to do that city council service was
   34:11  had to get permission to do that all right thank you anybody have
   34:19  questions he said go ahead you say you're getting two new buses that's what we like to do yes sir and where does that show up in the in the Bud well
   34:28  that's part of our Capital Improvement that mayor's where is the 1.69 no that's that's operating sir so
   34:37  well real quick councilman Marshall just so you know because I don't think you were at the last one were at okay okay could remember no we only right yeah
   34:46  yeah couldn't remember who wasn't so yeah so that's the capital is going to be submitted separately so that's not going to be in this so where well then
   34:55  you have the line item where it says $20,000 Motor Vehicles what is that that's it just in there for miscellaneous equipment or motor
   35:02  vehicles that we need uh we have during during the year and that's kind of it's flexible we can use it for non non
   35:10  vehicl items such as you copy machine or something like
   35:18  that all right coun brother have you uh added or subtracted any drivers at all
   35:27  16 about what you normally have uh right now we have 15 full-time and two part-time Jeff has added two part-time
   35:34  drivers they got their CDLs and and they're right now going through their training and so we're still at 18
   35:42  employees 15 drivers or mechanic and two administrators thank you sure actually
   35:51  the personal services salaries and wages and fringe benefits account for about 77% of these operating costs so it's a
   36:00  highly labor oriented business thank you anybody
   36:11  else okay I think we're all set for transportation thank you so much I appreciate you coming in tonight thank
   36:22  you okay I'm just going to go back to the front of the book for now and we'll ask controller G to come up and we'll go
   36:31  over the controller's budget good evening
   36:41  welcome any council members have questions or mayor controller G want to share anything
   36:57  going once oh councilwoman Divine um I think just to pose you some of the same questions we've been posing any major
   37:05  maintenance concerns coming up for the office any major uh Capital Improvements I know that we'll get this plan at some point but just things you're thinking
   37:14  ahead over the next couple years for no we've really had a really nice remodel this year so we're not looking
   37:21  for any Capital improvement in our office or anything so I think we're doing pretty well up there
   37:31  any other council members okay that was easy thank
   37:46  you all right and let's go ahead and move into Board of works
   37:58  mayor do you have anyone here to speak on the board of works or is that going to be you okay just want to make sure all right so any council members have
   38:06  questions under the bo Board of Works budget councilman for I I I just have one mayor I know um used
   38:15  to and I'm sure that you've got this covered but on economic growth Council we used to we used to give them 70,000
   38:22  and then when the last Administration economic growth Council uh but heads um
   38:29  he decided to cut that back but um I don't know if you've talked to Chuck on that or not as far as helping the
   38:37  economic growth Council because I do know that I think the county has got a new cut on that too because of the
   38:45  legislation that they got passed on in the back door on midnight but I was just just curious I know you've probably got
   38:52  that covered but I do know that's vital to our community so if if you'd address that that's the only question I got next so we've um we've committed that same
   39:01  40,000 to them and we've actually uh you know I'm a Performance Based guys so what we've done is we reworked our agreement to where we pay them out
   39:09  monthly as a opposed to one lump sum up front we used to pay them 4,000 or $70,000 like all at one time and now we
   39:16  do it in monthly installments to be able to make sure that we we're uh working together really well and Chuck has been amazing and I think that um going into
   39:24  the future we could look at one day increasing that back back up some but they were very happy and thankful to be still getting the
   39:31  $40,000 okay thank you mayor councilwoman
   39:41  Divine I was just gonna say um under miscellaneous contractual I see you guys increased that one by 53,000 what was the reasoning for that
   39:49  maror that is um yeah so I mean if you look at the history of it it went from like 158 to
   39:57  316 down to 40 and down to uh now up to 93 so we added a few different things in
   40:03  there um this is to help out with um I think I said this before so out of the mayor's budget I removed um travel
   40:11  expenses and other things and and moveed to here and then also this will help offset some of the additional costs for fourth July this year uh the total cost
   40:20  I think I think I went I raised about $30,000 um so I'm going try to do that again but just in case we can't I want to make sure that our for live
   40:28  experience is the best in the county so that'll help us um be able to be able to make sure that that's true thank you
   40:35  mayor I have a quick question on that so just out of curiosity I guess it's doesn't make a huge difference because
   40:43  you have a category already the 30 339-3143 there's a reason that it wasn't put in that versus miscellaneous
   40:52  contractual uh no no reason I mean if you would like to see it some more mood that's okay but I think that it gave us more flexibility because again I might
   41:01  be able to go out and raise 50,000 this year and I just I don't know how much how successful I'll be raising raising money okay now I see where it come from
   41:10  because if okay appreciate that councilwoman Divine did you have questions I know we addressed health
   41:19  insurance the last meeting um and then looking at the budgets for the property Auto cyber uh liability and so forth I
   41:28  know it's way early to get those renewals I assume we're on a January 1 did they give any indication of what kind of percentage increase we were
   41:36  going to look at on those which one specifically um that would be in your insurance line items work comp liability
   41:44  property Auto cyber yeah so um funny enough Council mckin asked me this too so our our property uh Insurance
   41:52  actually went up and here's the reason because we weren't accounting for all the things that we own so we I sent a
   41:58  team through and they would we we had an exuberant amount of things that we owned that we weren't insurance so I it's not
   42:06  funny but but now we went through and got it all covered so now everything we own is actually insured so that will make that show an increase from from
   42:14  last year and um we'll have a reduction in expenses on the health insurance um and then the same thing for for auto we were
   42:23  we were insuring vehicles that were just sitting over there in the uh impound lot halfway tore up then we were inur we weren't insur vehicles that people were
   42:31  actually driving so so we got it all sorted out all out department has worked out in with and I asked them to go and
   42:39  get every single vend number every single mileage of every vehicle we had and now we have a solid inventory of all the things that we that we own and that
   42:45  will keep that um process going for all of our from our laor to uh back holes to
   42:53  excavators to to normal cars to um our gators so all those things need to be
   43:00  insured and they quite frankly weren't so um just because I like to keep things
   43:06  local can who is our insurance company is that IMG covering that yes all right just making
   43:14  sure any other questions uh Council Vine you go and finish since
   43:22  you had the floor already we'll come back to you that's good go ahead um and then I had a note that it was
   43:30  talking about maintenance agreements that you had a percentage in that do you know what maintenance agreements that was covering just out of
   43:37  curiosity um that's repairs and maintenance maintenance agreements uh 336
   43:45  d05 shows 60,000 I don't know what is
   44:13  and that's for all this the whole Citywide then okay all right councilman Marshall did
   44:22  you have a question I I want to Circle back to the Mis miscellaneous contractual so we we're increasing that by
   44:30  $53,000 and so I'm curious as to how much you you would hope or potentially spend on the fourth of July or how much
   44:37  of that would be or what is the 53,000 where that come so to pull off the Fourth of July experience we had this year and everyone said they had a great
   44:44  time you missed it you really missed it um we spent about uh 40,000 on fire we spent about
   44:51  $75,000 on to pull this year's thing off um and I I went out and raised about 30 35,000 from local businesses and other
   45:00  businesses um so so so to pull the experience off that we want is is about
   45:06  that 75 75,000 pull it off right so um I I think I can probably raise again another 35 so pretty much that whole 50
   45:16  isun of if I can't raise enough money that will go to help us out okay now I understand better yeah
   45:27  vice president kle did you have questions okay thought you did I know this was before you but I one
   45:35  thing that did stand out uh under missing his contractional was in 2023 the
   45:44  316,000 but I mean that's in the past but I don't know what that was from but it's what was it from the law
   45:51  suit great glad that's over okay anybody else with Board of Works
   45:59  councilwoman Divine um and then the transportation match I noticed that was a new line item that's the grant match that we were just
   46:07  talking about okay and that has not been in there before or was that kind of in a different line item and this is showing
   46:16  that out for transparency so we always been paying the match but I forgot for some reason we had to start paying it out of the general fund this year as
   46:23  opposed to where you used to come from so it was always in the general f
   46:43  I do have one question on the property insurance that councilwoman Devon brought up about not knowing what increase might come
   46:50  along um and just experience usually renewals will come out a month two months in advance so so not knowing what
   46:57  it's going to be and say it I would anticipate it's probably going to be going up all insurance has gone up at
   47:05  that point then would you come back and ask for an appropriation from us for that I'm just making sure
   47:13  okay okay
   47:36  okay great thank you any other council members for Board of
   47:45  works okay all right let's go ahead and move into Community
   47:54  Development just for you okay all right Community Development
   48:01  um yeah any council members have questions on that now I'm just kind of going one to the next so that way we don't it's
   48:10  literally right behind Board of Works same section
   48:31  just for clarity transparency purposes I the mayor I think clicked this up for me on my email but under contractual
   48:38  Services the 83,000 that's actually am I correct that's actually going to pay for like the director or what can you explain
   48:46  that 83,000 contractual services for everybody so um what we what we did is we had a the person who ran our director deputy director of Community Development
   48:54  retired so I decided not to renew that position as a full-time spot and then from that uh money we would have we were
   49:02  able to pay our grant writer um in in contractual Services line item our grant Rider our
   49:09  um director of uh our the city's director of Economic Development and also the the money asked for for the traditional uh michan contractual
   49:17  services from for the Community Development Department and from a number specifically is 20,000 for the grant
   49:24  Rider 40 for the um um economic development director and 23
   49:30  for uh contract other contractual Services all right thank you councilman
   49:37  for ice yeah uh mayor do we have contract with the grant writer since he's contractual service you've got it you've got it and also with the economic
   49:46  development you got thank any other council members for
   49:53  Community Development sir oh councilman k questions how um looking at at raises how were those how were those raises
   50:01  determined for the two positions that are in that department yeah I think I I saided about I misspoke last time so every all the budgets were done by the
   50:11  department head themselves so what they submitted is what I received and if I thought it was fair I left it left it as it was so what you see as far as salary
   50:20  increases across was what the uh department heads and their um felt for their
   50:33  Department councilwoman Divine are you done sorry so to follow up on that um
   50:40  the rate that the director was making and now the supervisor of Community Development
   50:49  marketing that position is now making more than what the director was making the year before has that job description been reviewed
   50:57  and and the details changed in order to right so what so what that what the position we had before was deputy
   51:04  director so I guess a little bit historic one the city of Mir used to have a director of development um and the previous administration cut that
   51:12  position when they took over so then we were just left with a deputy director no director and then we had a uh director
   51:18  of Community Development and marketing so what we did this year was change the name from director of Community Development and marketing to supervisor
   51:27  of Community Development and marketing and that department head overseas the neighborhood association coordinator the grant writer and the um director of uh
   51:36  Economic Development so that so that when you say supervisor of Community Development and marketing that is the department head of all the whole entire
   51:44  uh uh department so yes the job description changed from being a um a reporting to somebody to now being
   51:53  a department head that manages one uh three employees and is that is that Leila is that is
   52:02  that okay that's sure where the right title there any other council members for Community
   52:12  Development all right we'll move forward then and next
   52:18  page City Hall maintenance that you David
   52:27  I think that's you right y building of grounds I think that's you come on
   52:35  up kudos for the air conditioning today was the real test for us but it worked thank you all right any council members
   52:43  with questions for City Hall maintenance give you a moment
   52:52  to so much of a question as I do a statement um it's not an easy job what you do and uh we've had a lot of issues
   53:01  with remodels this year with air conditioning like we were just talking about all kinds of stuff um our
   53:09  flooring I think you're doing an unbelievable job thank you I really do you're probably one of the hardest working guys at City Hall I notice it
   53:17  and sometimes you know you work hard and and you wonder if it's unnoticed it's not
   53:24  you're doing a great job dud seriously appreciate that I will concur as a Yard Man myself I've noticed the improvements to the
   53:33  landscaping and even the edging that I much appreciate around here any other council
   53:44  members councilwoman Divine sorry I have lots of
   53:51  questions um so my one concern is is in looking at past history your
   53:59  budget 2023 it looks like you spent about 344,000 and then this year's budget is
   54:06  at 269 plus we gave almost 50,000 in additionals which would put it over
   54:12  300,000 so I guess my concern is is this budget enough I mean if we is what's
   54:19  budgeted in here okay not taking Capital expenses into account because I know that we're talking additional for those
   54:27  but that's my main concern is since it's already shorter than the last two years from you know each year are we sure what
   54:35  I've got planned for next year that that's where I'm at you know trying to not put too much on the plate because we
   54:43  have been doing a lot we're just trying to get there you know right mayor and they saying that's where we're at right
   54:51  now to go for so we um I mean it's hard we don't know if something goes catastrophic wrong we'll come and ask to help out but as far as the improvements
   54:59  we want to do we have it uh written in there and also one Improvement you'll see in my edit fund ask is for the uh City Hall bathroom so I I budgeted that
   55:08  out of that line item to be able to uh relieve some of the the stresses of this
   55:22  this and I think that that's kind of where I was going was is there more building structure items that need to be
   55:30  done he just addressed the bathrooms but things that we need to keep looking year overy year um to keep working ourselves
   55:38  forward will that be part of that Capital Improvement plan you're working on or do you know already a list the biggest cost you know
   55:47  that I've been here for three years has been our heating and air so we're setting up an agreement
   55:56  with a company to come in to keep that primtive down so they can come in monitor that stuff that's never really
   56:04  happened before I want to get back on track on that to keep that big cost down on there so that's one thing especially
   56:12  like in my maintenance agreement you can see that's where a lot of that's at you know keeping our floors down scrubbing
   56:20  and recoding doing that kind of stuff our our parking lots you know we got them paid they're going to have to be recoded and striped we still got the MPD
   56:29  the hole that has to be done the dock so that's part of that maintenance agreement that we're trying to to do next year
   56:38  too um one one thing I address for a capital improvement from this is um when
   56:45  you feel air or heat in here it's there's no if it's either full blast air full blast heat so you're either going
   56:53  to be hot or you're going to be extremely cold because the controls like you for fun sometime just go flip the controls they don't work right so one of the larger expenses from our Capital
   57:02  Improvement um to address what C woman Divine is saying it's gonna have to be about getting our control panels fix it's not cheap either like we've got a
   57:09  few quotes and plan already like a half a million dollars worth of stuff so it's GNA be a a big ask but none of the air is controlled by anything right now it's either he goes and flips the switch and
   57:17  it's all air conditioner freeze to death or flip the switch and it's all heat that's all we
   57:24  got yeah that's got to be fix so you're right Council mine did you have anything
   57:33  else one um just out of curiosity what's institution and Medical in your budget
   57:42  is that just a strange line item title uh it's a 222.000 three part of garage and
   57:50  Motors there's 9,000 in it I'm just I just didn't know what that meant
   57:57  I'm not real sure myself but it's yeah it could be just for our maybe
   58:06  some of our supplies or something maybe that something because you know everything you know in here if there's
   58:14  lights or bolts and screws you know key fobs doing that stuff just trying to keep that stuff updated it depending on
   58:22  which group that's coming out of I know sometimes those line items have old T
   58:32  tags okay any other councilman Divine under
   58:42  that category all right hey it's okay that's why we're here questions any other
   58:50  council members under City Hall maintenance all right last thing I have is just have a one maintenance work
   58:57  request we have a light out right here just so you know got it no rush all right we'll move on thank you
   59:06  so much hey we might be able to take that half a million out of the president's extra
   59:13  money yeah okay jokes okay moving into City Court
   59:23  um I don't think uh I had emailed Debbie and she didn't really have anything to say but I
   59:30  don't know if anyone has any questions maybe the mayor can answer or or if you had questions that maybe I could help with because I did talk to
   59:38  Debbie a little bit she was involved in no you know I'm sorry I'm thinking of the wrong category never mind I'm thinking city clerk so
   59:47  City Court um I think the mayor I emailed you on this one right you answered on that yeah so if anyone has questions I guess
   59:54  direct it towards the mayor I'm just curious about the red ink why is that there is just accident what is
 1:00:02  it the there I have three lines that are printed in red for some reason I think it's just your book okay so it's like
 1:00:11  that seem OD you got this special yeah yours are yours yeah ours are the same okay
 1:00:20  oh we just wanted to see if you're paying attention you did I'm but no there's I think ours are all black unless it's
 1:00:28  supposed to be red ink and all of ours okay got it all right councilman
 1:00:35  King there's a position that's been cut and that's the bayth reasoning behind that um when I
 1:00:44  talked with ch he said they they don't use it he said they haven't actually had one in the last year or so so the position was there but nobody hadn't hired anyone to fill it so
 1:00:53  they didn't need it and they uh so they can cut it out appreciate that thank you also I know I mean a lot of it were
 1:01:01  doing video now so maybe less need for Bay too councilman
 1:01:07  fores yeah mayor on on this um the reason that we raises this
 1:01:13  $25,000 was for um blight because this judge was supposed to dedicate more time
 1:01:21  through the week and extra two days through the week to process blight uh court cases I was just wondering if
 1:01:28  that's holding true because that's it was normally at 30, 360 and the reason it was that low is because it was just
 1:01:37  two days a week or court dates but then we added 25,000 to kind to expediate the nuisance abatement and blight problems
 1:01:46  with the back court logs because it was back so long and I was just wondering how that's working out with the the
 1:01:54  raise to this judge and court if he's processing those faster for Jerry so um things are going okay I mean
 1:02:02  we're navigating through the first year of this we're actually exploring the process to possibly get that through the board of Works instead of the Court um
 1:02:10  we get in the trick bag because I don't think we can reduce any salaries of elected officials so the 55,000 is what it is but we're trying to work what we
 1:02:18  do we can the best that we can to make sure we get those things moving faster thank
 1:02:27  any other questions under city court all right we'll move
 1:02:41  on to legal department mayor you're gonna ask questions or mayor
 1:02:50  and Mr Hots welcome any question questions under
 1:02:56  legal for any council
 1:03:07  members give everyone a moment mayor you want to add anything or
 1:03:18  okay all right I don't see anyone speaking up so oh councilman clein
 1:03:26  I I think I know the answer uh contractural Services 134 to Z was that the
 1:03:35  lawsuit no historically uh Mr Hunt was was um paid as independent contractor U but as you
 1:03:43  know um there is a statutory test for what an independent contractor is and um
 1:03:51  what an employee is right and so the the the problem there is you don't really meet the test of it so statutorily there is a legal department because we're
 1:03:59  class two City uh that I'm technically in charge of hiring any any legal council um for the city and there's
 1:04:07  certain statutory obligations that I have fulfill and also you know operate under the direction of the mayor so you
 1:04:15  know you think about an independent contractor it's kind of like hey come here and take the tree down you don't ask questions right and that's that's really not what that role looks
 1:04:23  like I don't know why it was set up that way but that was that's the way it was set up so we just kind of corrected that as we as we came and did this
 1:04:32  Administration it's an OD because if you don't do it right they'll come back and say you should have withheld taxes for that person the whole time and and
 1:04:39  charge a bill of times eight years so hopefully nobody's listening to that uh through lgf or anything like that so we
 1:04:47  there's a statute limitations on there we red the ship we're good and if we aren't then we've got you to uh represent us
 1:04:56  yeah I would say that you know I just want to put a plugin too for administrative assistant here Vinnie Gilbert she's she's been doing a great
 1:05:04  job it's not that easy we kind of collapsed a couple different used to be Tom and and and herb and Herb kind of
 1:05:11  medical reason stepped aside so kind of all collapsed it down into me in some shape or form uh she's done a really great job in that department and we've
 1:05:19  also uh worked with the mayor's blessing too on his Digi digitization and transparency so unfortunately just kind
 1:05:28  of a turning point we kind of inherited a lot of boxes and a lot of Hey where's that at and so we've uh moved towards
 1:05:37  the the legal system so if I get hit by a bus or I get fired or something like that there's there's a password and all that information just ports over to the
 1:05:45  next Administration so we've done a lot of work to make sure that every contract everything that we sign is is there and searchable um so that's that's a real
 1:05:54  big uh push for the mayor's U and his agenda to make sure that we're digital and we can find things
 1:06:01  o I'm glad you said that about WN you're right I'm up there quite often and she does work really hard she comes from a good family thank God she's like
 1:06:10  her grandparents yeah it's no small things you know she's I mean send an email at 10 o'clock at night and she's hitting you back you're like who like
 1:06:18  you are you awake so all right any other questions from
 1:06:26  the council for legal all right thank you thank you
 1:06:34  Michael okay and then uh we're moving on to city clerk now I know a little bit about it like I
 1:06:43  said uh talking to Debby but um maybe the mayor can ask questions anyone have questions for City Clerk
 1:06:57  I will say Debbie was satisfied with all I mean I emailed her she was happy with everything the one thing in the email um
 1:07:06  this year we went to Otter AI software basically is what records our meetings and translates it and converts it into
 1:07:14  our minutes of course it is scrubbed by Aisha our Deputy clerk um to give us our
 1:07:22  summarized minutes um but that software is included in their budget um that is one new that's really
 1:07:30  the only new addition and they did actually fill that second Deputy position we have a can't remember name new lady as second Deputy now in the
 1:07:40  city clerk's office so those are the only updates anyone have any questions for City Clerk and they removed the part-time
 1:07:49  person then with having the second Deputy I assume yes yeah well they yeah so
 1:07:57  um with um previous city clerk they kind of kept her on for a little while to help transition but I don't think that's
 1:08:05  needed anymore any other questions for city
 1:08:11  clerk all right mayor anything on that okay okay moving along to mayor's
 1:08:23  office all right mayor do you want to start by saying since it's particular your office if not we'll open it up for questions uh nope I think we just we can
 1:08:31  take questions I'd like to make a comment I guess kind of start going off from where
 1:08:40  I started about raises and stuff um you know he's deserving of this raise like I said I can't believe that it went 16
 1:08:48  years for the mayor's office for the city of Marian that didn't have any raises that that was
 1:08:56  ridiculous um we all know how hard our current mayor is working the things he's doing that's more than welld deserved um
 1:09:04  if anybody has problems with that it's they have no idea what's going on
 1:09:13  so any other questions Council want me to
 1:09:19  find so you removed all the travel and subscription and dues and promot and all that did that and you put that out into
 1:09:28  other departments or in the board of works specifically okay um what about any of
 1:09:35  your maintenance needs like your auto repairs or um contractual services for
 1:09:42  you know your equipment things like that so the only equipment we I guess talking about the vehicle that I have that's under the fleeces
 1:09:50  fleet yeah just out of curiosity as a reason why
 1:10:00  it's not under the mayor's office budget I think since historically since the mayor got a vehicle and Maran it's always been a police uh man I mean from
 1:10:08  long as always it's always been that way yeah which that's not a valid reason to do something but that's just how that's just how
 1:10:17  yeah gotcha okay any other questions
 1:10:27  no just the comment that I mean obviously transparency and stuff and I know it's covered but I'm not sure
 1:10:34  putting it in a different budget outside of the mayor's budget for some of those things may be to me and maybe I'm the only one who feels that way but I'm I
 1:10:43  think departments should reflect what they do and should reflect their expenses properly and not be moved into other department areas that's just my
 1:10:52  opinion I don't know how everybody else feels but I understand kind of the thought process behind it
 1:11:01  but no I mean I I agree with that I mean I think things should be listed underneath each individual
 1:11:08  Department I mean I but I will say I mean I appreciate you telling us you know where it's at so but just
 1:11:17  for on paper black and white it would be nice to see it under one specific Department if it's going to be
 1:11:24  SP out I mean that doesn't bother me at all I can we can put it back and just take it from that um that board of Works line
 1:11:32  item I think too also just for for future you know in for eight 12 years
 1:11:39  say you've moved on or whatever just for historical purposes so we kind of know hey this is where we've been at instead of having gaps and going well we don't
 1:11:47  know how much we spent and where did that come from so um that wouldn't be
 1:11:54  nice get that put back in there in that same format but then you'll see the border of Works miscellaneous reduce
 1:12:02  yeah it'll be it'll be a wash just moving from one to another
 1:12:11  okay yeah okay all right any other questions under
 1:12:22  the mayor's office I have one I'm just curious on the where
 1:12:29  it says Insurance workers comp and liability there's nothing there why then why is the line why are the lines there
 1:12:36  are they required to be there or do we not pay Workhorse comp for this department
 1:13:02  so just for people listening online um Linda said it's all under Board of works so or most of it so it got moved so yeah
 1:13:11  these are just old line items that I don't know we just we can't remove necessarily but they have to stay there with nothing in
 1:13:19  it any other questions under the mayor's office budget
 1:13:29  all right we'll move on on to engineering and planning department mik come on
 1:13:40  up welcome welcome thank you so as as pretty much the the line says it's now
 1:13:48  engineering and planning last year uh the departments were separate uh so we combined those departments so you look
 1:13:55  down the uh the current and the proposed the reason why you might see increases it's not so much that there's any increases other than the than the
 1:14:04  request for the salary is that combined um two departments have just what was
 1:14:11  two separate ones are now one so
 1:14:25  doesn't have traffic on here though so all
 1:14:34  right do we know how much the planning budget was out of curiosity does that make up because I noticed that it was like a 21% increase
 1:14:43  in yours so we still had some savings from the planning department budget being pulled
 1:14:53  in D I'm sorry sorry yeah so if if you look at the previous year Sam uh had a
 1:15:02  salary Sam Ramsey who was the planning director had a base salary of what was
 1:15:10  57 somewhere in there and the mayor as as as a incredible negotiator that he
 1:15:17  was got me dirt cheap uh so I didn't uh I didn't get the 57,000 so I only got 15
 1:15:25  that's what I that's what I agreed upon uh so that's that there's a savings in the salary portion that that would have
 1:15:33  if the Departments would have stayed separate that there probably would have been that additional fund so that's why
 1:15:41  salary Insurance per that you know breaks down in that and that engineering planning assistant is that a new position or is
 1:15:48  that the position coming over from planning yeah that's Lisa Lisa is always kind of assisted in the engineering department but yeah that's that's was
 1:15:57  planning so yeah you have the increase in your salary but you're also running three departments now which is the savings to
 1:16:06  the city well I appreciate that yeah but that yeah that's correct yeah it's that's reflected of three of three
 1:16:14  different departments correct so just from hearing so we had
 1:16:24  three departments engineering planning traffic correct at one point we actually had three separate Apartments is that correct well the the
 1:16:32  traffic has always been a um a redheaded stepchild unfortunately no one really wanted to take it uh many many years ago
 1:16:41  uh the engineering department put brought it in there the wing because they're the only one that had any kind of funds directly relat relatable to
 1:16:50  what um the traffic department does um so I've just kind
 1:16:56  of held uh Rhonda under my perview uh she gets paid by the
 1:17:05  um yeah the the public or the street department or or Citywide maintenance so she's directly under them but she works
 1:17:14  uh under my purview to assist me with uh signals and signs and that type of stuff
 1:17:21  and then my budget uh which I we kind of talked about at the first meeting I I had requested some funds for that uh to
 1:17:30  offset the costs uh associated with um equipment and and items that she
 1:17:39  needs and the mayor said that if we you know we wanted to come back in we might come back in for an appropriation later
 1:17:47  but um just to give you for instance that anybody that's noticed uh or driven by W Bashan cam and the the lights in
 1:17:56  activation that light is a has been a headache from from the time that we activated it so now we've got to we're
 1:18:04  going to have to buy a whole new controller uh and we've gotten estimates between 15 and $220,000 for the
 1:18:10  controller um we literally it's it's being held together with some duct tape on on a fuse that keeps falling out
 1:18:20  is that is that because I live there there and I go there I mean it makes me dizzy half the time because I'll go one way and it's flashing I'll come back
 1:18:28  it's light so then I've caught myself sitting at a flashing light waiting for I mean it's so is is it doing it automatically by itself well when the
 1:18:36  fuse when it when the 20 Vol 24 volt system finds it's got a conflict then it'll automatically go to the red Flash
 1:18:45  and then we'll have to go back out there find out what the the issue is get it reactivated thing okay yeah I mean it
 1:18:53  it's it automatically goes red as a default so that everything all the intersections are red so okay yeah so far trying to
 1:19:01  fix so far it's been working so this is the longest it's worked uh for several days
 1:19:09  so we're very happy about that
 1:19:18  yeah I heard that probably I probably go through it more
 1:19:26  now just to check to make sure that it's working okay all right um I I do want to add something uh I
 1:19:36  don't know if it's in here or not I didn't email it either it just came across my mind and I know I've talked to the mayor about this and I don't know if I've talked to you Mike but just the um
 1:19:45  I know we're replacing um the street signs the the the name street signs but as far as the larger ones that are over the
 1:19:53  intersection is was that already do we have money this year for that or is that in the plans to replace those ones that are
 1:20:02  actually on those overhead lights so that yeah the long short answer is no we'll do those inhouse just because of
 1:20:09  the sheer size um and there isn't very many of them actually but majority of them that you do see are on state roads
 1:20:16  and they won't let us change those out they they will remain green and white it won't it won't follow our suit so so
 1:20:24  like the on at the city though on the city streets I think they're green and white right now are you planning on replacing those with black and white to
 1:20:31  match them that we say yes that's that's it that is what we want to do but again I pay for all the blanks I pay for all
 1:20:38  the film and sometimes that's we're just have to have to wait until wait and see so do we have money in the budget for
 1:20:47  that or is that going to be part of some other like Capital Improvement or is that already kind of absorbed in or do we have money this year already to
 1:20:56  replace those larger ones over the intersection so there is no set budget for the traffic department as I say you
 1:21:03  know there are there line items within my budget either Street Maintenance or local Road Street or CCD CCI there are funds to take to take care of that I
 1:21:12  would love to going forward for whoever takes my position to have a an item align item in here that that represents
 1:21:21  the usage of traffic so we're not it's not so much co-mingling but so we can
 1:21:27  identify what's being spent for for that department as opposed to taking it from something we may want to do for street
 1:21:36  street work or something so i' eventually I'd like to get to there but and I think that that's that's for the
 1:21:42  future I would agree 100% um I think would like the be word on here blight uh I think we have traffic maintenance
 1:21:51  blight that's been neglected I mean I think it's washing 10 and 30th somewhere along Washington like
 1:21:59  literally the sign overhead looks like it's from 1940s it's so can you read the sign uh it depends on the height the light hits it but I mean so that's those
 1:22:08  those are the things that people see and I know the mayor is aware of it um we've talked about it a lot but I just wanted to make sure that it's on the radar
 1:22:16  because if we're goingon to replace all the regular signs let's replace the ones overhead but also to the point of the um
 1:22:23  State High ways so before I was in the council last year curiosity I called the OT about those because I was just
 1:22:32  curious what how do we do that and they just told they told me that um the city has to just request a permit and then we
 1:22:41  can put a sign overhead when they approve it so I don't know if you're yeah I mean we can do that and and they and that will be part of their update along state road 18 but they will not be
 1:22:50  black and white they've pretty much told us that yeah and that's fine I just my point is that we have many intersections on the bypass and
 1:22:59  18 uh I had I had I had a count actually at one point um last year but less than half or around a half of the actual
 1:23:08  light intersections on our state roads actually have a sign up above now I know in the corner of the intersection there might be a sign but I'm just be real if
 1:23:16  I'm coming through the bypass at 40 mile an hour I'm not looking to the corner for a sign I just think it would look
 1:23:23  good and people navigate better if we actually had on every single one and I'm not sure I don't think it would cost us
 1:23:31  that much I mean to make those is there an estimate on that and again if if which we've we pointed it out and the
 1:23:38  mayor has too along with some of the conversations that he's had they're they're aware that we want those updated
 1:23:46  and I think that they're looking a little bit more favorably than they've had in the past so my hopes is as they as we do some of the projects we're
 1:23:54  looking forward on stay road 18 and stay Road 9 that we'll start seeing them put take responsibility up above as opposed
 1:24:03  to everything coming down to the city to try to maintain so but I mean what can we do to get some up to the
 1:24:10  intersections that don't have any can we again just it's a request as you said you know we can Co we can contact our
 1:24:18  that you we're aware of it we just we can it's not a permit because that's their section so we just need to request
 1:24:26  their signed group to okay you know go out there and take I would just I would fully support that
 1:24:32  yeah okay any other questions councilman Bruner all of a sudden my
 1:24:40  microphone where's Danny questions about this
 1:24:51  bridge any other it County what's the L on the bridge down
 1:24:58  by so State Road N9 bridge over the Miss W so last conversation I had was not too
 1:25:05  long after the 4th of July uh I I had an initial conversation with them on the 4th of July when we were talking about
 1:25:12  the um celebration that we were going to have and whether or not we could gain access under the bridge for that day
 1:25:19  which they granted the access the at that point uh it what they're waiting for is the steel the steel
 1:25:27  structure um and as of a month ago they're still waiting so we're talking
 1:25:34  July August uh well over a month from my initial conversation they're still waiting on this steel uh I don't know
 1:25:41  that their time frame they're they're keeping they've assured me that they believe that once the steel comes in
 1:25:49  they're still going to be done by November I highly am apprehensive that that will be the case um because I this I don't know
 1:25:57  where this Deal's coming from um but I know that they said that they've they're waiting on the steel and without the
 1:26:04  steel they can't pour the deck uh but um as much as it pains me uh to not have
 1:26:12  the bridge my my hope is that if if it gets into the walkway of lights that and we're still in the same position that we
 1:26:20  are that they'll open it up so that we still have access for the walkway of light that's that's that was my last
 1:26:26  conversation please guarantee us that we can use it if you're if it's still down so but I I mean I IND Do's not giving me
 1:26:35  a whole lot more to give to to you or to the media and their media people are not very responsive to that answer
 1:26:46  I situation next ail I would hope not but I'm not certainly couldn't guarantee
 1:26:53  that unfortunately lot of people driving a lot of extra miles yes well and it backs up in a lot of different areas
 1:27:00  around town too yeah thank you you're welcome all right any other questions
 1:27:07  under engineering and planning councilwoman Divine the so you have the
 1:27:15  general um fund budget but then you're also managing the motor vehicle Highway the local Road and streets so those
 1:27:24  mainly the matches to the transportation Grant or what kind of again as newbies what's kind of the difference between what
 1:27:32  you're budgeting out of those versus the so obviously what you see before you is is what you allocate the the local Road
 1:27:40  Street MBH CCD CCI those are all state either coming from uh wheel taxes obviously we have wheel tax now wheel
 1:27:47  tax cigarette tax fuel taxes that's where those monies are generated from uh that's why you as as a Council uh don't
 1:27:56  sit and regulate that because quite honestly from time most of the time we don't know what those numbers are until
 1:28:03  well into the um budget itself or the season itself um which makes it difficult at times for me
 1:28:11  to budget and allocate stuff based on I mean I can only go on his historical data uh what we've done previously and
 1:28:19  in hopes that we're not going to see a big cut um I mean I can't tell you even with with property tax cap and if that
 1:28:27  whatever happens with the governor how that might change the whole dynamics of things too so but yes what you deal with
 1:28:34  just here is just what um what is allocated I did make a conversation if I if I might nick nick uh asked me a
 1:28:42  question about the mvh fund and uh several years ago um MBH kind of allocated what the what the funds could
 1:28:51  be used for I did have a budget of uh about 500 and some odd thousand um and
 1:28:58  but in order to make the the mvh fund work the way that it needed to I decreased my budget and then took over some of the MBH funds that I wasn't
 1:29:06  normally hadn't normally gotten before but because of the way that they want to alocate for roads that was the easiest way to do
 1:29:20  it oh okay all right okay any other
 1:29:28  questions Mr graft all right thank you thank you Mike
 1:29:35  yeah I would uh add um for the mayor you know in the future um just the
 1:29:43  salary for that position I just think there's some way we I mean there's a lot of hats being worn in that position I would uh and I
 1:29:52  know we already gave an increase but Mike I mean he does a lot and he probably reports more information to the
 1:30:01  council than a lot of others so I would just support looking at that in the future yeah go
 1:30:09  ahead I'd like to make a comment on that because you're exactly right normally most City engineers make six figures
 1:30:18  well over I mean the reason that Mike was part-time with the city as an engineer working for imis because we
 1:30:25  didn't have enough money in the budget to pay him the correct amount so he could work fulltime with his degrees and everything you're not going to hire just
 1:30:34  an engineer for less than six figures plus he's doing head of engineering and
 1:30:40  planning so Nick's exactly right I mean Mike gets ready to retire you're definitely gonna be looking at six
 1:30:48  figures for an engineer there's just no way that you're going to get around it that's why we had him as part-time and he worked for IMI and
 1:30:57  we just got lucky and he agreed to do that and then he retired and we're still getting real real lucky so you might
 1:31:04  think about that in the future there thank you or if there's anywhere we can trim a little here a little there to to
 1:31:11  do it this year I would I would be all for it even though Mike I mean Mike has to put up with me too so that you probably should get
 1:31:19  raise for that too right all right
 1:31:27  11 the emails meetings that's on the mayor all right okay we'll move on to
 1:31:35  building department all right Jerry come on up
 1:31:44  and sure no problem um one thing I'll add on this is um I talked with councilman cgill and
 1:31:52  took his recommendation and there'll be a a salary adjustment to the building commissioner's um salary but that that's not going to change the bottom line of
 1:32:00  the the budget so you'll see adjustment to that one can you give us a heads up on what that is the
 1:32:08  adjustment what I sent yeah I sent it over I think
 1:32:16  it takes it now to 69 it's $5,000 increase 69,000 and whatever 69,000
 1:32:24  $441 and that that also obviously affects Social Security and per as well so it'll be a total increase from
 1:32:34  last year about $99,000 in change I appreciate you adjusting that
 1:32:44  because just like what we was just talking about with Mike it's the same way with Jerry Jerry's running three very difficult departments building
 1:32:51  department the nuisance abatement the animal control um and that's why I talked to you and I appreciate that you listened
 1:32:59  to me and did that all right any council members with
 1:33:06  questions under building department councilman pise yeah um I guess this would be for Dana and Linda if we could
 1:33:15  get those is it going to be total 69444 does that include taxes and and everything on on that I mean that's the
 1:33:25  the new gross salary is 69444 yeah so the Sal the actual salary with that Top Line would be $
 1:33:33  69,4 but then that will obviously increase the taxes the per and Social Security so so the total increase won't affect the bottom line of the budget
 1:33:42  it'll be removed from other spaces to make sure it stays so the total budget still stays at um in the building
 1:33:49  department yeah in the building department so the total budget still stays at the million 95,00 $867 so do you know where you're going to take that
 1:33:56  from so we uh I was exploring it today I think we going to take some of it out of the um you don't have to answer today I
 1:34:03  just if we can get that yeah updated I appreciate
 1:34:11  it all right any other questions for Jerry and her building department
 1:34:30  I do I do have one question actually it I didn't email us I just caught it under demolition we have
 1:34:37  250,000 um but just out of curiosity Jerry I mean with the rate at which we're going now I mean we've approved a
 1:34:44  lot for demolition do you expect or maybe mayor you can answer this are we not going to be able to spend all that
 1:34:51  this year will that move into next year and can we continue adding to that 250,000 no we'll probably use most of it
 1:35:00  this year uh along with the million dollars that was uh from the ARP money
 1:35:07  that we were given uh we now have outside contractors getting ready to demo we uh
 1:35:16  just we we put out this week 11 properties get estimates on uh we took uh 11 Properties or 12
 1:35:27  properties to the board of Works last week get approval on or this week iose we got approval on those at our next uh
 1:35:36  Board of Works meeting we're taking an additional 12 properties and then the following Board of Works were take
 1:35:43  another 11 and we probably have about approximately 40 letters 10day letters
 1:35:50  right now to uh individuals so this is going to be a very aggressive year so we're going to go through a lot
 1:35:58  of money very quickly all right great and then so you and mayor can answer this then so do you anticipate just having 250,000 for demo
 1:36:07  next year or are you going to come and ask for more on top of that um so uh budgeted wise I think we're safe that
 1:36:14  250,000 but also we we are in the ready uh program for the B elimination and we made it to the next round so that's another million dollar we asked for too
 1:36:22  so all things work out the state should send us another million dollars that's not guaranteed but that's we made it uh they say what we saw what we've done so
 1:36:30  far we made to the next round looking positive but that $250,000 I think will be safe for us from from a budgetary standpoint and if we get to the point
 1:36:38  where we get enough through in the pipeline we need some more money I think we can come and ask for say we need however much more to tear some more
 1:36:46  down all right great thank you any other council members councilman K just just a comat I am so thankful for this
 1:36:54  Administration and for you Jerry to be so aggress aggressive on on blight
 1:37:01  elimination I I think if the citizens of Maran aren't appreciative of that they're they're
 1:37:08  missing that missing the what's going on so I for one and I think this I can speak for the whole Council we
 1:37:16  appreciate you what you're doing thank you
 1:37:27  any other questions for Jerry councilwoman Divine uh just a couple things um so
 1:37:34  your budget also is animal control and I apologize if you asked this while I was at or while if you answer this while I was outside is does this also include
 1:37:44  the improvements that the animal control the shelter needs um or is that in a totally different budget that'll be a part of
 1:37:52  our Capital Improvement ask Capital Improvement okay um and then I noticed the overtime budget is up quite a bit is
 1:38:00  that again is that from your budget or is that more the animal control side that's got the overtime going well we've
 1:38:09  used uh we're in the whole what 400 and some odd thousand or 400 and some odd percent in the whole right now from
 1:38:17  Animal Care tool so this will help allset that but also we've had some is ches in our secretarial pool upstairs
 1:38:26  we've used some money for that uh on our Citywide cleanups that we have we'll use some money on additional monies on that
 1:38:34  to offset some of the cost so uh uh well we use the full 25,000 hopefully not but
 1:38:42  we're going to use it to Chun C yes and is the Staffing at the right
 1:38:50  level for the animal control as well is that something that long term we need to be looking at and be thinking about
 1:38:57  MoneyWise well uh yes I I I think you know we can always use more staff out
 1:39:04  there uh you know we we did uh through controller's office and the mayor uh we
 1:39:11  are uh using the Pro Resources we were able to hire a couple additional people out there which is helping their you
 1:39:20  know basically kandle cleaners they help clean the kandles and uh uh help uh just do things around there that needs to be
 1:39:28  done at the facility so uh uh you know again we can always use more help but by
 1:39:36  these two additional uh people that we could get in there as helping this
 1:39:46  qu my last thing is I noticed there was uh last in this year's budget there was7
 1:39:53  the in leas purchase um vehicle purchase and an Mac I assume with some of that
 1:40:01  arpa money that we bought something outright and that's why that's not in there anymore yeah so those are for vehicles and so they they're not anol
 1:40:09  doesn't need Vehicles every year so that was that's why you seen just pop up for 24 and then it wasn't previously or it wasn't the year before that so yeah
 1:40:17  those were just vehicle purchases
 1:40:31  and we did we did purchase an excavator this year through the the mayor approved it and uh we're thankful because now we
 1:40:38  have two excavators that we can use on job sites uh makes it much quicker and uh we eventually we're going to be able
 1:40:46  to have one one site one the another site which I help quite a bit I was just going to ask you if that's helped out a
 1:40:52  lot so has sir yes yes any other questions for
 1:41:03  Jared all right thank you so much appreciate you moving into information technology
 1:41:13  department Danny putting you to work tonight on these microphones we think we have a dead mic sorry Jim and that's the thing still
 1:41:22  get sound oh it works he it works now came over here you didn't see he came over here and fixed it did you swap the mic out then no no but that's the thing
 1:41:30  we're sitting there talking the sound's still coming through the speaker so I think it's something in the microphone I do have a spare mic and I'll change it out in the morning if I do it now then I
 1:41:39  have to syn them all again no problem thank you all right okay so
 1:41:46  questions under information technology
 1:41:57  I I do have one question ot to ask this but as for our email System since we go through Google where's that covered
 1:42:05  under here how much are we paying for our email system uh the the email system with the storage Google drop G Suite is
 1:42:13  basically I think about 1100 a month 12 maybe a little more than that, 1500 okay
 1:42:23  asked me about that that was me yeah so why there's that was a big chunk 300,000 but we basically paying for the G Suite
 1:42:32  that's storage their Google Docs and then your email and that kind of thing well so I guess maybe that
 1:42:39  ain't so that come comes back to like putting things in the right department so we're paying for email out of our telephone budget correct
 1:42:48  communication communication yeah I me a lot so the telephon coming out of there are is coming out of there our email our
 1:42:56  subscription to emails coming out of there um that covers it all yeah I I guess we could go through and add that but it's
 1:43:09  yeah yeah old school terminology I get it it's like when someone s ask you for a
 1:43:16  home number I don't have one but I'll put my cell in there so I get just the thought maybe we update it next year or just the kind of realign those but get
 1:43:25  through it appreciate it any other questions for information technology does each department pay for
 1:43:34  their uh computer upgrades and monitors and things like that yeah right now that's how we pretty much do it I have a
 1:43:42  little bit in my budget as you can see and normally I try to save that for my switches and things like that but
 1:43:49  occasionally I'll run ac across somebody and needs something maybe they can't get it I'll help them get it because I think they need
 1:44:04  it all right any other questions for information technology okay right we'll go move on
 1:44:14  thanks Danny thank you appreciate your help tonight all right right and moving into
 1:44:26  the fire department yeah I know that Chief told us last time he were going to make it so
 1:44:34  mayor's going to hold us down on this one any questions for the mayor under the fire
 1:44:43  department can you remind us what Staffing level they're at are they fully staffed or they still have openings they just went through a hiring process and
 1:44:50  they hired five new and um that that will take them to a fully fully staff and let somebody
 1:44:59  retired or something like that um and then in the in the contract negotiation which is done and signed they'll now be budgeted for
 1:45:06  61 which is reflected here but they be budgeted for 61 firefighters so they might have one more space left in the
 1:45:15  new year I piggyback on that question so I
 1:45:22  know there's been some discussion all over the place about station
 1:45:28  one um if that were to come fruition and approved is that 61 include Staffing for
 1:45:37  that or is that just a whole separate thing you're going to attack yeah I I think that we will you know address that when it when it gets done but I I think
 1:45:45  to operate with station one to operate everything as add in station one they'll need to be a 66 fire at least right um
 1:45:53  so you know we'll be able to address that when we we had our meeting today about station uh station one um we just
 1:46:00  got our our RFP Qs back so realistically it's looking like that should be done about the end of 2026 beginning of
 1:46:12  27 any other questions under our fire department
 1:46:23  yeah okay uh all right we'll go ahead and move
 1:46:31  on to the Police Department chief Gilbert's
 1:46:40  here welcome Chief I think all the department heads for sticking around to the end here I'm so sorry that you're towards the end
 1:46:48  it's okay us um engineer gra asked me to keep it going going so he's got he's behind me I can't see
 1:46:56  him so all right okay so we'll go and open it up any questions for the chief or the
 1:47:05  mayor same question about Staffing where are you at right now we're at uh 44 Patrol officers who are Bonafide who can
 1:47:14  Patrol we we're at 54 total including rookies um and we have some in the
 1:47:21  pipeline we have three who went to the academy just uh check that we have four who just went to the academy today we graduated
 1:47:29  three Friday before last so we're moving right along but uh still
 1:47:37  under so how many openings does that still leave I just need to know how many to budget for 62 we're at 54 so okay
 1:47:45  thank you yes can you turn your mic
 1:47:53  always I apologize so this is for 62 I've heard you've said it personally and
 1:48:00  I've heard you say it publicly you want more that program is not going to stop right that you're still looking
 1:48:08  to we're always looking for quality people who want to stay fully stuffed whatever that number is it okay it's uh
 1:48:17  I'm looking at is it is it an issue of raises versus Manpower or can they Co
 1:48:23  exist I hope so that would be my SM that's always the Dilemma it's the the money available versus how many people
 1:48:32  and all that it's a a moving Target if you will and uh but we I since I've been
 1:48:39  in the meeting I've literally was just responding to an officer who just sent us farewell message for leaving today to
 1:48:47  go to Muny PD so it today was his last Duty day and he was saying for while and I responded in the back of the room so
 1:48:55  it's it's not only about hiring new people it's about retaining the people we have too so
 1:49:03  um uh little bit less than eight years I had him in the pipeline when I was cheap before and the chief Haley hired in
 1:49:11  really really is one of our first one of was business so yeah a big loss but yeah we we want
 1:49:19  to start focused on retention as well as hiring rookies so we got to keep we spent so much money on the guys we have to lose them is bad bad business so it's
 1:49:28  another part of the equation which means pay uh this this this guy left he he
 1:49:37  makes no bones about it he's got a new baby he loves it here he loves his Partners loves the work environment the team environment the family atmosphere
 1:49:45  but for his family had to make a tough decision about the financial side of it so and he's a veteran officer so it's
 1:49:53  it's hiring rookies is good we need to focus as well on retaining the veterans we have we spend a a lot of money to get
 1:50:01  them capable and then to lose them to another department just crushes so yeah there's a lot of knowledge here a lot every you're right
 1:50:08  Dave I mean it and that's been the problem again we go back to what we started saying years police of fire in Maran has been the most underpaid in our
 1:50:18  class of City for well over 20 years and that's why we can't keep and we've got to figure out somehow some way I don't know
 1:50:26  man Grant I don't something there's grant money out there for Staffing I don't know we got to figure out something because do you mind if I add
 1:50:34  a opinion piece to part of the conversation you had at the very beginning about raises for you guys I I think it's in a way
 1:50:43  about mindset it's um pervasive if you take I'm as conservative fiscally as anybody I
 1:50:51  believe me I I live in Mary and I'm a taxpayer too so I I don't want you blow in my money but uh I think it's pervasive when we start taking the
 1:50:59  approach that next year for the even for you guys you guys are politicians so you don't win too many elections voting
 1:51:07  yourself raises too often but at the same time I think you have to you know you have to if you want to attract a quality candidate to run for mayor
 1:51:15  you've got to pay and it and it trickles down if you want quality people to run for the council you you've got something has to be more than
 1:51:23  altruistic we all have families so and it just it's it's the same way all over so I think if you set the tone that we're going to pay for Quality from the
 1:51:31  top down I think it sets the tone for good candidates to want to come here I I just really do I don't think it's selfish I think it's the price of doing
 1:51:40  business I agree 100% you get what you pay for yes
 1:51:49  sir what's that somebody I miss something oh you talking to mic yeah
 1:51:55  micc I I just want to add on that so I mean you know it's my first year in
 1:52:02  the council um and police definitely has a special place for me came from police background fire does as well I have a
 1:52:11  stepson on the fire department so they all mean a lot to me but I just wanted to talk particularly on the police May or noo stand on this
 1:52:21  um we've got to find a way but and I know that's all talk I mean I've gone through this budget it's the first budget I've gone through I've been
 1:52:28  through this book it's phenomenal mayor did a great job of you know being a fiscal conservative the fact that we can
 1:52:36  say we've got a balanced budget and we didn't a look at projects on their own Merit moving
 1:52:42  forward um as far as capital was great um we've got to find a way and it's more
 1:52:48  than just talk um and I I can you know I can say there are things being looked at
 1:52:55  explored options um I I don't want any police officer on Department I think we're just saying it to buy time with them uh I can
 1:53:04  say that there are discussions things that are being discussed that could potentially really help us with the
 1:53:12  police department and getting the pay where it should be um I'm just going to shoot it straight um for our population
 1:53:20  our crime is uh I would my opinion say above average as far as severity and um I hate to say
 1:53:29  that publicly but the data is the data um I'm not saying police prevent crime
 1:53:36  necessarily they do we it is a huge portion of it a lot of what the job is reactive um we could go in a whole
 1:53:44  discussion about why crime is the way it is and Society Etc but uh what I can say is that when officers are running short
 1:53:53  um that backup that's not there could be the difference between life and death and when you're not fully staffed and
 1:54:00  you're running shift minimums all the time not only are you um running you know short staff and your safeties are
 1:54:08  RIS but you're getting ran rampant so just from my experience you know hot busy nights you're running call to call
 1:54:16  to call and then in the night you're stuck writing four or five reports there's your overtime there's it's just
 1:54:22  it's tiring and um you know I I just want to let Chief know and um anyone
 1:54:31  else on the department um you know I'm sure it's been said many times before but like this is a new Administration we
 1:54:38  say a new makeup of a council that it's not just talk we are we are seriously looking at options I'm not I'm not
 1:54:46  comfortable saying what they are at this point but we are seriously looking at options to rectify this
 1:54:53  um moving forward just can't we have to approve our budget now so we have to go through this motion but I commend the
 1:55:00  mayor for um you know not having to do it but you know doing the 5.5% across the board um even
 1:55:09  though you didn't necessarily have to do it but I will say it's not enough and uh we need more police we need to retain
 1:55:18  them and um we'll keep we'll keep working for and the mayor's I give mayor credit he is definitely exploring many options
 1:55:26  right now so just not comfortable quite sharing that at this point okay any other questions anything else for chief
 1:55:38  Gilbert I will add when we can get that pay up maybe we can attract those officers back here yeah and I know that happened in South Ben they had a huge
 1:55:47  pay bump and then all of a sudden you have officers that left to go to surrounding departments come back just because of the pay so we can do that U
 1:55:56  it it was a problem years in the making crime and benefits on both fronts it's
 1:56:03  it's years in the making I think it's a tall order ask a mayor to come in on his first year and solve the problem quickly it took years to create it it's going to
 1:56:11  take some years to solve it or some time to solve it so I I just asked for the benefit of Doubt but I agree with your sentiment what you said there I know the
 1:56:18  mayor does too we're we're sympatic we we're in agreement on that but um people are
 1:56:27  impatient but I think I patience is required so we're working on it I promise you
 1:56:35  that going to be safer when I leave than we were when I got here I promise you we appreciate
 1:56:42  that any other questions councilman for I had his end up first Dave thanks for your service I
 1:56:49  appreciate it very much um and that was an excellent point that you just made
 1:56:55  when you leave when are you leaving mayor just saying I know you've got 307
 1:57:05  years in and it's it's getting close so I'm just saying it and then I've got one other question after that that's my main
 1:57:13  question I mean I could be very happy I've got a wonderful wife and family I could retire right now and be very happy I love this place I like working for the
 1:57:21  mayor I wouldn't I told him if he would I'm not going to work for another mayor that's the way I'll answer your question I'm going to work for him and
 1:57:29  I'm going to be done okay I appreciate that the other question I have and I think you still adhere to this once you send an officer through the academy do
 1:57:38  we still have a five-year contract with them to stay with this department under those terms and Provisions and I know
 1:57:46  that we had that before we were trying to secure that especially if we sent them to the academy put all that time and effort into them we we do but I I
 1:57:56  have mixed feelings about it I'm rulling it over about I I I think you have to
 1:58:03  look at the whole thing you don't know who doesn't come because of that and if another department is not
 1:58:10  putting that burden on the candidate that may be the thing that makes them go to the other department so it's it's it's easy to say let's do that it gives
 1:58:18  us some security but you don't know who you've lost in the process who's not willing to come here for that reason because other apartments aren't having
 1:58:26  to do that I I really so I have mixed feelings about that it may make us feel better but I'm not sure it's a solution to our problem um the solution to our
 1:58:36  problem is paying a salary that's going to make us a destination Police Department like we used to be where people want to come here and then you
 1:58:43  won't have to have that they'll they'll want to come here and they'll want to stay so good question though we have kind of a on the fire department Gary
 1:58:51  they have a thing that and I think it's five years as well that we don't send them through the academy like you guys do so we don't have to worry about that
 1:58:58  part but if they leave in a certain amount of time they have to reimburse the
 1:59:05  city I'll talk you did uh they have to reimburse the city for their like equipment that we purchase for them
 1:59:13  because it's all custom fit for them and any education do you guys have anything like that or we do that's that's what we're talking about it's
 1:59:20  uh yeah but I think it's counterintuitive on on on a level you I it kind of protects the
 1:59:28  city but I think if you take the broader view I think you have to be careful that you're not keeping people away who you really want to try to come here I have an excellent candidate and he's looking
 1:59:36  at us and another department they're saying hey you come here with us we're going to make you happy and you'll want to stay and us we're saying if you leave we're going to punish you well who who
 1:59:45  are you going to pick I mean and that's that's exactly the scenario you want to be that's the that's the arena we want to fight in we want to be fighting for
 1:59:52  the best candidates we don't want to be taking somebody and starting a relationship that way so I I understand why it was put into place under last
 1:59:59  Administration but I I don't necessarily agree that it's the best way to go um sometimes you have to take risk if
 2:00:07  you treat your people right they want to stay so is that so we I didn't even know we had we have a fiveyear contract they
 2:00:15  have to sign I I want to I might have said four but U if you'll indulge me I can look into it and get you to answer question we have a contract that to sign
 2:00:24  if they get hired on I would say an agreement okay yeah yeah
 2:00:33  okay W yeah I was but I knew that was a fire department because those are custom fit fire outfits that they have to go
 2:00:41  through no but I'm just saying yeah and I know they have to reimburse if they def fact in in a
 2:00:49  certain amount of time with the fire department so and I knew that because the academy is pretty expensive I mean it's not cheap to send a Cadet to an
 2:00:57  academy and getting well we don't we don't pay very much money to to to actually have them go it's not like going to college this this state the
 2:01:05  academy is funded for that purpose but we do have a little bit of investment we do have PRM and you know it's not it's not free but it's not as expensive as
 2:01:12  you might think it's more the overall investment the time invested it's just more the Academy I I wouldn't want to get hung up on the
 2:01:21  academy how long is it just shy four months yeah then you still have fto and
 2:01:29  yeah it takes a year it takes a guy two weeks to tell us he's leaving it takes us minimum if we have a and that's we have a guy standing by to hire that next
 2:01:38  day it would takes a year to get ready to to work and that's assuming he does everything he's supposed to do and makes it he or she and the the sometimes they
 2:01:48  don't so but you know don't PRI the river that's our challenge but I um if if you ask me
 2:01:56  know I think I'd probably want to get rid of that requirement you have to stay so long just roll the dice and getting so if we can get them here if we can get
 2:02:04  them here they'll want to work here yeah our our family and our environment once they get on our team they love it I have guys who've gone to
 2:02:13  Carmel um these other estate police and they'll come back they'll come back to visit and typically this is how go they'll say I'm making a lot more money
 2:02:22  but I miss you guys I miss the environment I I miss the work I miss my partners and I just don't have that
 2:02:30  where I'm at and uh I hear that all the time and I'll hear it from the guy who just left today I promise you so if if
 2:02:37  we set the right if we if we if we create the right environment we won't need that contract it'll be useless it it'll actually is an now butross if you
 2:02:45  think about it well just for some education so you know your pensions based off of of where you retired from
 2:02:54  um based off of patrolman's pay so where you retire from also affects your retirement um so the less you make when
 2:03:04  you retire right whatever the Department's patrolman pay is is you're getting half of that I think well starting out it's 50% then it goes up
 2:03:13  but still it's a scaled thing so I mean though it's not just what they're making now it's when they're going to retire how much are they making how much is
 2:03:20  going into their per all that so exactly right um so it's like why wouldn't I go somewhere else make some more money so I know when I retire I'm gonna make more
 2:03:29  money when I retire too so um but yeah I I appreciate your efforts and um I I I
 2:03:37  concur I didn't know we had that me I'd get rid of that because I think I wouldn't want to reply if that was an agreement that's not a competitive
 2:03:44  Advantage whatsoever I think it actually hurts us more than help it's one of the things on the surface there seems to be some logic to it but I just I didn't do
 2:03:54  it before and I don't I don't think I want to continue to do that but that's a good question the only place I've ever seen those are departments like five
 2:04:01  people or less because they literally on a sh string budget but yeah I just it's my opinion councilman Klein Chief this
 2:04:09  is I guess a bottom line kind is this a budget you can live with you can look your men and women in the eyes and feel
 2:04:16  comfortable with yeah I wouldn't be here it's U it's a it's uh it's a tight budget but we have an
 2:04:24  obligation but part of it what the mayor is talking about is the idea that we need we need an infusion if we need
 2:04:33  something I know you you have said that as well that we need to come to the council make those make our case not be frivolous but if we need something we'll
 2:04:41  we'll be back yeah any other questions for chief
 2:04:50  Gilbert appreciate yeah thank you all right thank you so much appreciate
 2:04:57  it okay moving into almost to the end here Street
 2:05:08  Department thank you Randy welcome all right so anybody have
 2:05:17  questions for Randy
 2:05:30  I'll let everyone get flipped over there and give everyone a moment to catch up
 2:05:44  there your operating supplies area you have the fuel and ice and then garage and Motors um both of those are cut in
 2:05:52  half from this year's current budget um there was 880,000 budgeted for fuel and ice and this proposed budget
 2:06:00  has 40 and the garage and Motors had 200,000 and this proposed budget has 100,000 do you know what originally you
 2:06:09  were planning with that and why that's okay to be cut in half for the next year or the uh the 2024 budget obviously I
 2:06:18  wasn't a part of um but there were some that were paid out of the garage of Motors we paid off a skid steerer we paid for some pavement through the
 2:06:27  parking lot via Mike graph excuse me the fuel and Ice how the fuel works is I pay it and then all the other departments
 2:06:35  are budgeted into that and then they pay that back so I have no idea why it was 80 to begin with because we've never spent
 2:06:43  40 as an individual department so to be honest why it was at 80 at one time from the original 40
 2:06:54  but for the garage of Motors to be cut in half I don't have those I don't foresee those expenses paying off the
 2:07:01  equipment because it already got paid off quick question did you get that new
 2:07:11  truck yet no sir it's being built the manufacturer that they have the chassis and the the tank and
 2:07:19  everything gets put on per order cuz there special orders no sir but uh thanks to these two ladies it was it was
 2:07:27  ordered awesome thank you excited to see it any other council members for
 2:07:39  Randy okay anyone uh guess with no other questions we'll move on Randy thanks for hanging out to the end with us thank you
 2:07:48  yeah okay and moving on we've already done
 2:07:57  parks and we're going to do we did Transportation almost down to the last
 2:08:06  one Board of Aviation
 2:08:17  y m yeah he was anybody have questions on it or
 2:08:24  discussion they want to have over it yeah no increases yeah it's all looks the same and I mean essentially we did
 2:08:34  give them some stuff through arpa and all that so that's greaty
 2:08:40  okay okay so um just to wrap it up um any council members have any of their
 2:08:47  questions they want to go back to for the mayor anything they feel like they missed or questions that pop back
 2:08:55  up or mayor do you have anything you want to share that you wish we would have covered or controler gold can you come up to the mic sorry changes we'll
 2:09:03  have the changes for you this week and we'll make sure everybody get the changes okay changes this
 2:09:11  week like to request over all those and iron out all this that we've gone over make sure that
 2:09:20  we're in line with it mayor we're going to say something don't need another I don't need the
 2:09:27  department heads I just think as a council with some of these changes and stuff that we've done we get the changes from the controller that we could have a
 2:09:37  committee budget hearing to make sure that we're online and everything and everything's according to what we find yeah that's fine me I
 2:09:46  mean you want me at that or you talking about just for the coun well yeah yeah I mean I mean I mean but it's on the
 2:09:55  agenda for September 3rd so if we do another one we have to well so I guess
 2:10:02  I'm trying to understand what I mean I hear what you're saying but mean we're here now so I guess we ironed out the questions we've had two meetings for
 2:10:11  almost four weeks so what what more do we need to discuss changes on salary increases and stuff like that not all the raises are the same as everybody
 2:10:18  else's some are 16 some are five some are eight 18 some are 177 some are 6.4 I just think now that I mean you just
 2:10:26  raise Jerry's I mean you know I just like to go over everything with everybody and make sure that we're
 2:10:33  online with everything on the rate increases and the salary increases and everything we've gone over on the budget I mean it's kind of hard to do and two
 2:10:42  and then start taking it to the I guess yeah I'm I mean we've but I'm just trying to understand I mean
 2:10:50  we've discussed it we've they're going to tweak the numbers on the paper and I guess we can discuss it now I mean essentially it's just a change on the
 2:10:59  paper and it still has to come to the council if I we can still cut things um but I'm just trying to
 2:11:07  understand the necessity of the third meeting could we not just do that at first reading that's what I was thinking we could still discuss it first reading
 2:11:16  I mean we're not going to add anything right I think everyone's agreed we're not adding anything we're not asking add anything other than those
 2:11:23  few tweaks changes some transfer we're not really we haven't really changed the bottom line it's just changing some
 2:11:31  categories am I correct so we haven't technically added anything to the budget so that was my thought Gary and I I
 2:11:38  appreciate you wanted to to do that my thought was that we could address those things at the first reading plus it's a little more of a public form for people
 2:11:46  to hear it too fine that's what you want to do what does the rest of the council feel on that I mean just want to get
 2:11:54  everyone's input on that I I agree I mean I kind of agree with Michael too it's the I took notes on the the like
 2:12:02  with Jerry tonight and made that and then I already know what numbers coming from you so it'll just be in the budget
 2:12:10  as it is it's I'm not g to learn anything new by another budget meeting that I don't already know now and then first reading I think would take care of
 2:12:17  that as well that's my opin because I think we got to do three readings so we're going have three readings on this so I mean we definitely have ample
 2:12:26  opportunity on the public um platform to discuss this also I mean sure the mayor is okay if you have
 2:12:34  additional questions ask the mayor yeah I mean I'm open for questions emails whatever I mean if we if we want to do a third one I'm not offended by it again
 2:12:41  this is a big big thing so either way I'm okay whether it goes to a third um budget committee or we decide to go to
 2:12:48  the first first counsel I'm open I'm opening for I'm I'm going to take a little roll call councilman Bruner how do you feel do you
 2:12:56  feel first reading or would you rather to see a third budget I'm I'm whatever you want to do
 2:13:04  sir I'm I'm ready to rock and roll okay councilman Marshall well I'm I'm
 2:13:12  assuming that the adjustments we made today are going to get put into the document and we will get a copy of that prior to reconvening so
 2:13:21  something doesn't seem true then we can call and see get that correct if necessary and so I I don't think it's
 2:13:32  necessary first first okay councilman Kane I think you what Eric said okay yeah I
 2:13:40  agree vice president kago gave his opinion already so councilman
 2:13:47  Whitten okay Council woman
 2:13:58  Divine I fully understand what Gary's saying right think what one question from for the controller's office the changes we're going to get will it be
 2:14:05  hard copy we can swap out pages in the book
 2:14:14  okay and we can come up and pick them up yeah
 2:14:24  okay okay now thank you I fully understand what Gary's saying but we I
 2:14:31  think I think we can do it on a first reading when we're going to have a lot more people here might spark some interest in the public
 2:14:39  hearing that's my thought okay great just want to make sure everyone's comfortable because I mean this is probably one of our most important tasks
 2:14:48  and roles as a council is the budget I want sure we're comfortable moving forward so U we'll just go ahead and just move it to that first reading and
 2:14:57  um go from there mayor any last comments all right well thank you everyone for um coming tonight department heads Council thank you and
 2:15:04  we'll go ahead and adjourn the budget meeting
 2:15:21  s