City Commission - Special Meeting

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I'd like to call this special commission meeting to order at 6.30, September 2, 2026. We begin with an invocation by Commissioner Kennard, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance from the City Manager, Mr. Alex Little. All rise.

Father God, in the name of Jesus, we just want to thank you for who you are. We ask that you be here with us in this meeting. Help us to make the best decision for our community. Help us to work together for the betterment of this city. In the name of Jesus, we thank you for what you did. Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all.

Madam Clerk.

Commissioner Clark Griffin. Present. Commissioner Fields. Present. Commissioner Henderson. Commissioner Henry. Commissioner Isom.

Present.

Commissioner Kennard.

Present.

Commissioner Warren. Present. Mayor Pro Tem Turner. Mayor Muhammad.

Present.

You have a quorum.

This brings us to public comments. Three minute maximum per speaker. Please sign in with the clerk and she will call you accordingly.

No comments.

This brings us to our two agenda items. The first item is a resolution approving the purchase of a 2027 24 foot low trail trailer for transporting the new Bobcat and its attachments. Is there a motion for the approval?

Motion for the approval.

Motion is made by Commissioner Warren. Is there support?

Support.

So it is supported by Commissioner Isom. Commissioner Clark-Griffin. So for special meetings, there is no consent calendar. This is on the agenda item number one. Is there discussion? You recognize? Yes, ma'am. Madam, pardon me, Commissioner Henry.

Thank you, Chair. I want to ask this question again. BECAUSE AFTER I ASKED IT, THERE WAS THE CONFIRMED THAT THIS WAS THERE WAS NO USED EQUIPMENT THAT WAS AVAILABLE AT ANOTHER SAVINGS. And then I went online and found some. So I want to bring this up again. There's no really working mechanism on a trailer. It's not like the brakes got to go out. The only thing that's going to go out is maybe the electrical wiring or the tires. And we are definitely in a crunch. money crunch, so I would be looking for every avenue that I can to save money, and this would be one. Thank you.

Madam Clerk.

Commissioner Henry.

No.

Commissioner Isom.

Yes.

Commissioner Kennard. No.

No.

Commissioner Warren? Yes. Commissioner Clark-Griffin? Yes. Commissioner Fields? Yes. Mayor Muhammad? Yes. Motion carried.

This brings us to the second item on the agenda, resolution authorizing the purchase and finance of a garbage truck through Enterprise. Is there a motion for the approval?

Motion for approval.

Motion is made by Commissioner Isom. Is there support?

Support.

It is supported by Commissioner Warren. Is there discussion? The chair recognizes Fourth Ward Commissioner Clark Griffin.

So I just want to say, back in, I believe, February, Mayor Pro Tem made this suggestion, the same thing that we're about to do today. He suggested it. He talked about it over and over again. He was told that it's the city manager job to make the decision. Commissioners cannot do administrative business. Yet, we're here, sitting here today, commissioners doing administrative duties, doing the same thing that Mayor Pro Tem Turner suggested that we do back in February. And then we get complaints from residents about their leaves been out three weeks, even some was months. And then we contact the person that runs the day-to-day operation, and we get no answer. The resident deserves better. This has to stop, and more has got to be done, and all commissioners should get answers when they contact the person that runs the day-to-day. Thank you.

TO RECOGNIZE IS COMMISSIONER CANARD.

YES, I'D LIKE TO JUST AGREE WITH COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN, BECAUSE I DO REMEMBER THAT THIS SUBJECT MATTER CAME UP, AND I KNOW IT WAS EARLY PART OF THIS YEAR, JUST THE EXACT DATE. I DON'T KNOW. BUT IT WAS BROUGHT UP BY MAYOR PROTEMP. AND THESE THINGS SHOULDN'T WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE FOR US TO TRY TO GRAB ONTO AND HAVE THE SPECIAL MEETINGS TO WORK ON THESE THINGS. WE HAD PLENTY ENOUGH AWARENESS OF THE PROBLEMS THAT WE HAVE. SO WHY NOT GET STARTED WITH THEM BEFORE IT FESTERS? AND AT THE LAST MINUTE, YOU'RE LOOKING FOR US TO VOTE ON IT. SO I THINK THAT THIS IS REALLY A SLAP IN THE FACE WHEN YOU'RE AWARE THAT THESE THINGS HAVE COME ABOUT AND NOT TO TRY TO PUT SOMETHING IN PLACE EARLY ENOUGH THAT WE HAVE TIME TO SORT OUT PRICE-WISE AND OTHER THINGS TO SAVE OURSELVES DOLLARS. SO I AGREE TOTALLY WITH WHAT COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN SAID. THANK YOU.

CHAIR RECOGNIZES COMMISSIONER LARGE ISOM.

THANK YOU, AMBULANCE MAYOR. I JUST WANT TO SAY THAT, YOU KNOW, WE HAVE TO GET THE JOB DONE. And it's a brand new truck, city manager? 26 truck. And the most important thing to me is about supporting the maintenance, the maintenance, to keep it running, you know, changing the hydraulic fluid, the oils, and, you know, to keep it running. I don't know how long the... time limits on a garbage truck. I don't know, you know, but I know if you keep the fluids changed, hydraulic lines, and so I know that truck is going to run, you know, it's a workhorse. They have to be six, seven days a week sometime. And so I think this is what the city needs to get the job done for the residents. And I thank the city manager for making a wise choice. And I hope this commission can push it through a brand new truck to help clean up our city. Thank you.

The chair recognizes Commissioner Lodge-Fields.

I concur with two of my other commissioners in regards to this topic had been brought up before. I can't speak to the exact details, but that it had been suggested by Mayor Pro Tem. However, I... know the residents and even our public work staff will be appreciative of a brand new trash truck, or that's the appropriate wording for it, to have a brand new one so that we are not having repeated upkeep and things of that nature. And I think it's actually nice to have something new versus something refurbished and things of that nature. We know a lot of times you can even get a car off the lot. and you can still have issues on it. So, having such a situation with a plan of maintenance, as our Commissioner-at-Large Issam stated, a question that I have then is, what does the maintenance plan and things of that nature look like for us? Do we have any details associated with that?

The chair recognizes the city manager, Mr. Alex Little.

One of the reasons for financing this through Enterprise is that for the 60-month period that it's being financed, they take care of all maintenance on it with the exception of brakes and tires.

So I'd just like to add that, you know, to camelback off of what the city manager stated, when we first went into an agreement with Enterprise, our police fleet, you know, the tires are so bald. I mean, vehicles 10 years old, seatbelts defunct. and really putting the officers in a very bad position. So what Enterprise did was not only upgrade our fleet, but as you just stated, Commissioner Fields, the maintenance program. And although there's some associated cost with that, but when we can have our fleet Department of Public Works and our workers able to be on a truck and don't have to be concerned with it not starting or while they're throwing trash, is it going to break down? It just creates a whole lot of added anxiety and problems and morale. So I think that this is the right time. Would I have liked to get the truck earlier?

Absolutely.

But we all know in finances, sometimes when you want to get it, you can't necessarily get it at that time. I think the rate that we're getting it at now, you know, reflects the change in rates. And we may not have gotten the same rate then as we're getting now, you know, so sometimes the deal. You know, it can be greater later. So I'm excited. We held a special meeting because, you know, I was contacting and we can't wait to September 8th operating with just one truck. So this vote and this meeting is about taking care of the residents and the people and making sure that. The issue of sanitation does not face any disruptions because we know when S flies, it hits everywhere or when it hits the fan.

I'd like to add, if I could, give thanks to Mr. Meeks for locating one quickly. It's a fact that Commissioner Turner had brought this up many months ago. He and I even talked about it as recently as several weeks ago. But the plan was, I mean, all of us need to think back and recall, we're in a financial tight and we were trying to struggle on through with that truck as long as we could keep it running and try to at least get through this year. When Mr. Meeks come to me and said, hey, the truck's out there and I'm afraid we're not going to be able to get it repaired. It looks like it's the motor that's going on it. Didn't have any choice. Then we got to move and that's what we're doing. And I want to thank all of you for your support and help with this because we're just doing what we have to do. We no longer had the option of trying to stretch it out to the end of the year.

Call for the question. I want to recognize our senior and dean of the city council, Commissioner Henry.

Thank you, Mayor. I just want a little more information about the truck. I mean, I see this. It's a dump truck, and I see how much it costs, and I see what Enterprise lease says, but I don't see any information about the truck other than the vehicle order, the type. In a year, I don't see anything about the truck. Does it have an arm? It doesn't have an arm? It's a rear-loaded truck like the one we have Okay. Pretty much what those things do.

It's a simple garbage truck to handle the refuse that we get in that city.

Right.

So it's got a tip on it.

It's got all the working lights in on it.

Yeah, okay.

Since everybody has something to say about certain things, yes, we did try to get a truck. I was trying to get a truck earlier, but before we could have a third truck to have a backup truck. Because the problem, we run trash every day. It's very hard to get a truck in a shop and get it maintenance. So what happened with this truck, this truck, I was trying to save the truck that's in the shop now, but it went down and now it costs a lot of money to get it repaired. So now we stuck in the rock and the hard spot. We only still got two trucks because the other third one that they bought, Four or five years ago, they was old when we got them. So we're trying to run our city off old stuff, and everybody around us is getting new stuff. It's not working for the city of Benton Harbor. We study struggling and spending expenses to keep these trucks running. It's getting bad. It's really hard on the finance department. They're trying to keep these trucks and finding the money to pay for them. When you're getting bills, $5, $10, $20,000 just to fix a truck, it's getting old.

Okay. I appreciate you, Mr. Meachie, about your expertise on that. But over the years, I've seen a lot of expenses come in for one or two trucks, one in particular, and it just, the same thing happened to it every time, that arm and... You know, I'm just not in, I have been a conspiracy person, but to have that happen over and over and over, it seems like somebody was sabotaging it. Now, maybe not, but I sure would not like to see that happen to this old truck we got. We're going to use this old truck too, right, if we can.

I'm not going to say 100% we could use the old truck still because I don't know in turn because I stopped them because I didn't want them to tear the motor apart.

No, I don't mean that one. That one that is in the shop. We have another one that works sometimes, huh?

It's got a lot of issues, too, so I don't want to go into details with that truck. So they're more than welcome for you to see them. I'll get them towed to City Hall and let you see them and go through them. So the main thing about the trucks, the trucks are old when we got them. So a lot of wearing parts was on the trucks before we got them. All they did was paint the trucks, sent them here. I think they got them from Florida. Send them here. Got them here. They looked good to everybody in our sight, but they was old. I'm not saying they was raggedy, but they was wore out. But now we got to a point that we had a situation where we needed a truck. I was trying to get the situation done earlier before we could have a bag of truck. We was borrowing trucks from other cities. I don't know what happened. They don't want to give us the trucks no more. I don't know. And we got a holiday that's coming up. monday so that's going to put us even back even farther because trash will not get picked up monday so that's going to be two days worth of trash plus we'll be behind on now yeah it's a bad spot so if you're understanding about machinery commissioner henry if we're gonna um if we're gonna just just yes ma'am if we're gonna

get this new one and use it to the max, how long do you think it would last?

Well, the thing about it is, as it was stated, you know, this particular vehicle is under warranty. All maintenance is at the behest of Enterprise. So some warranties in the event that if it's a mechanical issue, under warranty then they may provide another or but I don't know all the details but the good thing is we got a 2026 I presume it's low mileage no mileage no mile so brand new you know and somebody who you know has been in been in this in the business a little bit that's that's a wonderful thing okay my last question is about the money

we have to come up with $70,000. Of course, that's going to be coming out of the general fund. Low, that's going to be a hit to the general fund. Are we going to start utilizing the loan money at this time when we have this $70 and what is it, a monthly almost $4,000 every month? Is it a diesel truck?

Yes, ma'am.

Oh, we're going to pay diesel fare and gas, too.

So, yeah, I need to know if that is where the general fund is going to be after this.

Mr. Manager.

I think it's fair to say that we'll do what we have to do in order to keep things going. We, as I said, have held off as long as we could. And we do have, if necessary, the loan money to, you know, if we have to go into it. But I don't see any other path forward without getting this new truck.

So you're saying that the general fund might not be able to handle this expense? We might go to the loan. Did I hear you correctly?

I believe that it will, but it will depend on what the total cash needs are at the time. And if it requires going into it, then we'll have to do that.

Will there be a notification to the body about those kind of expenditures out of the loan?

Yes, ma'am, there will be. Thank you.

Commissioner Kennard.

Thank you, Mayor. This is time and time again, year after year, from where I can see that we've had this occurrence of the problem. And in managing the city, we have to sort of be aware of that and work to solve that problem, be creative in the way that you work. So this to me, I saw in the past that they had one man that took care of the whole city. His name was Roger Henry. And he had the arm on that truck that picked things up and it dumped it. And once in a while you see him get off the truck and something that he had to get up and pull something over. That man did that for years. And I think it was Curly that he was working under. He did that job. And you have to be creative when you're managing even a home. You have to be creative in the way that you do things. If it's a cutback on things, you've got to find some creative way to do things. And that's what managing things, to me, is about. We know the problems. You've got everything, the paperwork and everything. past history of things and we've had this over and over again as Commissioner Henry said we've had this problem over and over again so what are we going into especially when the year prior to this we had went into the red and we were getting money from everywhere trying to just manage the bills and pay the bills

Is this about purchasing a truck?

I know it's about purchasing a truck, but we've got to be creative in the way when we purchase it to take care of it and make sure that we don't look for all the red spots that we could run into. It's a diesel and it's other things that we haven't maybe defined. And it's at the last minute that you ask for us to come in and make a decision about something so you can't even do anything. any kind of background check about the things and the prices of things. So this is the thing that I'm looking at, that how many times can this be brought up, even in the future, so we would have had time to even look into it.

It's a brand new truck.

So it's a brand new truck, but they tear up everything that comes anyway.

With no miles.

Later.

So... Mr. Little did not buy the previous trucks. That was a decision made by a previous council, a previous city manager. What Mr. Little was doing is correcting a problem that he inherited. And it's our duty and responsibility to consummate the process so moving forward we have the type of equipment needed to do a more effective job. So he shouldn't be beat up for correcting a problem.

I'm not beating him up. What I'm speaking about, the commissioner's been here all the time, and you have been here all the time. I have been here. So that's why I'm saying these are some creative ways that you should have looked into things like this and see a way for working around it and working with it. See that it's always a maintenance, an upkeep of everything that you get.

I call for the question.

Commissioner Isom?

Yes.

Commissioner Kennard? Commissioner Warren?

Yes.

Commissioner Clark-Griffin?

Yes.

Commissioner Fields? Yes. Commissioner Henry? Yes. Mayor Muhammad?

Yes.

Motion carried.

Chair recognizes the Deputy Director of Public Safety. Is there a motion to adjourn?

Motion to adjourn. Support. Commissioner Clark-Griffin? Yes. Commissioner Fields? Yes. Commissioner Henry? Yes. Commissioner Isom?

Yes.

Commissioner Kennard? Yes. Commissioner Warren? Yes. Mayor Muhammad? Yes. Motion carried.