City Council - Regular Meeting

call the Bristol, Tennessee City Council uh sorry I call the Bristol Tennessee City Council meeting of July 8th, 2025 to order. Mary Lee, would you please call the role? Yes, sir. Turner here. Fire Robbin here. Hutton here. Powers here. A here. Thank you. I want to welcome everyone to our meeting tonight. Uh throughout the evening, there will be a number of opportunities uh for members of the community to speak on uh matters of city business. A sheet explaining those opportunities was made available outside the the meeting room. As we go forward throughout tonight, I'll I'll tell you note each time when the public comment is welcome. And in addition, there was a signup sheet outside in the hallway as you entered city council chambers for anyone willing to wanting to address city council during appearance of citizens. That's uh really important designation. There are three public hearings on tonight's agenda. If your comments relate to one of those hearings, please speak during that public hearing. Uh if you have comments about matters of city business that are not on the agenda, please save your comments until the appearance of citizens. A number of you signed up on this sheet that is for the appearance of citizens. Uh I'll read your names during those times, but if you would, you're here to speak on a matter uh that is on the agenda. Uh you'll have an opportunity to do that at the appropriate time. Uh now we're going to have our invocation and pledge of allegiance. Reverend Jeremy Burden from the pastor of First Christian Church will lead us in the invocation and the pledge of allegiance. Would you all please stand? Mr. Mr. Mayor, City Council, thank you for the opportunity tonight. Let's pray. Blessed are you, O Lord, our heavenly father. From you alone comes the fullness of blessing. We glorify you here and honor your presence that is with us now. Lord, we come before you knowing that there is potential conflict present, but I ask for your peace to lead us to the place of true justice and restoration. Father, we ask for the truth to be present and seen. Lord, I ask that in the height of emotion, anger

will not cross the line into the boundary of sin. Holy Spirit, we ask that you lead us tonight. I pray. Lord, we pray for the people and the families that live in our city. God, we ask you to help them and provide for them and break through for their needs, both emotional and physical. We also lift up our city leaders, city council, and those who serve in our city in any capacity, that you'll lead them in the way worthy of the kingdom and release your blessing upon them. God, we commit this time to you and ask for what is right to be accomplished according to your plan for our city. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Listen, if we can face the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much, pastor. Thank you, Miss Bourgeois. Are there any additions? No, there are not. Right. We have one proclamation tonight. Um, Councilwoman Fire Robbin will read the proclamation and parks and recck director Mike Mains will accept the proclamation. A proclamation designating July 2025 parks and recreation month. Whereas parks and recreation programs are an integral part of communities throughout this country including the city of city city of Bristol, Tennessee. And whereas parks and recreation promotes health and wellness, improving the physical and mental health of people who live near parks. And whereas parks and recreation promotes time spent in nature, which positively impacts mental health by increasing cognitive performance and well-being and alleviating illnesses such as depression, attention deficit disorders, and Alzheimer's. And whereas

parks and recreation encourages physical activities by providing space for popular sports, hiking trails, swimming pools, and many other activities designated to promote active lifestyles. And whereas parks and recreation is a leading provider of healthy meals, nutrition services, and education. And whereas parks and park and recreation program and educational activities such as out of schooltime program, youth sports and environmental education are critical to childhood development. And whereas parks and recreation increase a community's economic prosperity through increased property values, expansion of local tax base, increased tourism, the attraction and retention of businesses, crime reduction, and is fundamental to the environment environmental well-being of our community. And whereas parks and recreation is essential and adaptable infrastructure that makes our communities resilient in the face of natural disasters and climate change. And whereas our parks and natural recreation areas ensure the ecological beauty of our community and provide a place for children and adults to connect with nature and recreate outdoors. And whereas the US House of Representatives has designated July as Parks and Recreation Month. And whereas the city of Bristol, Tennessee recognizes the benefits derived from parks and recreation resources. Therefore, the mayor of Bristol, Tennessee hereby proclaims July 2025 as Park and Recreation Month. This 8th day of July 2025.

[Applause] Mayor Hunt, members of council, we we just really want to thank you for this recognition. Um, our department's come a long way, I believe, in a year. I've been here a little bit over a year and uh although we've had some challenges along the way, I hope the citizens can really clearly see the difference that we're making in the lives of our kids, our families, and uh the impact we're having on improving the quality of life for everyone. I came with a bunch of notes and and uh I want to keep it short, but I think this gives me a platform to also share with you and then also our citizens everything that we've done over this past year. And that's something that we sometimes can miss even though we have a wonderful community relations department. Um sometimes we we miss certain things that happen is the small things that mean a lot. And so over this past year, our wonderful staff that have worked so hard and are so talented and dedicated have created um numerous events and we we looked at White Top, that facility, a four field complex with several soccer fields and we've uh added about 25 tournaments, both softball, baseball, and soccer. We're improving the quality of life there. We've also had Girls on the Run. local little league has used that facility often which hasn't been done in the past and coming this fall we'll have more activities and events and also co-ed softball if anybody's interested in doing that one capital projects have been uh

challenging at times but the Bristol Pickle Ball Park um it has created an opportunity for the best players in the world to come to Bristol our city our beautiful city and and take part in in in a weekend tournament which is nationally televised uh so that's an incredible accomplishment in a very short period of time. We just opened last year and already ESPN, Fox, National have have been there to cover everything going on at that facility. Our nature center, uh, if you haven't been by there, please go by and check it out. Jeremy S and his staff are doing a wonderful job and educating our kids and and youth uh, about all the opportunities they have with nature. And, uh, so it's just really a a beautiful facility to see new events. That's something we really focus on, especially for our kids and youth. Family Nights at Slater, Splashbat Tuesdays, Grill and Chill with Dad, 3D print shop, Mother's Day magical evening, Valentine's Day now out, uh, Thanksgiving Bake Off, The Monster Mash, Royal Tea Party, Kids in Motion, Popsicles in the Park. Those were all new programs that we recre our staff created this year. Partnerships. A little over a year ago, we met with council uh at all the departments did and uh that was an incredible opportunity for us to sit down and plan our goals and objectives for the year. One of those was creating partnerships in our community and in that we focused on that and what we could do. Let me start first of all by saying the the main partnership is the city departments we have here in in Bristol. The working relationship that we have with them, the teamwork, the chemistry that goes into it is making successful things happen uh for our city. So all those departments we appreciate. Little League Library, Appalachian Literacy Foundation, Friends of Steel Creek Park City School System, Del Burns Youth Leagues, soccer, basketball, football, pickleball, uh are serving hundreds of youth uh each each year. And so that was new to the relationship with the school system to partner with them to create a really wonderful youth program in in athletics.

And that was a great success. Um capital projects, we are doing everything we can to find grant funding and also private funding, too. And there's going to be some great news ahead. Uh I can assure you of that wonderful things are happening. Of course, we've discussed a baseball stadium uh that will be serving our local kids 10 months out of the year, if not more than that. U the other thing is a skate park, which the state gave $1 million in funding for that project. Katie's playground, a $10 million facility will be going to Steel Creek Park. an incredible opportunity for our kids and youth and we are thrilled with that and that was a donation uh for that that equipment. So uh I've seen some plans for that and renderings and it is it is off the charts fantastic. So, another thing to be proud about with Bristol. And then, uh, the last thing, aquatic center and a facility. We have been working on that now for several months, looking into researching that, looking into land and, uh, opportunities with funding. So, that's ongoing work that we've been doing. Uh, and that's, I think, going to happen. So, we'll see how that goes. But very proud to work on that. Lastly, but not least, I told our staff when I came here, I want to win. And I do. How does Bristol win? We'd be great. You know, we're great at what we do. Whether it be maintaining our streets, maintaining our parks. That's what it's all about. And in recreation, we win by improving the quality of life for our citizens, creating new exciting programs, improve our park facilities. We have a passionate staff, and they're going to do the best job they can. So, thank you for this recognition tonight, and I appreciate your support, as does our staff. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mains. Uh, we do not have

any presentations this evening. Move now to the board of education leaison report. Dr. Tutor will be reporting. Good evening everyone. Uh, I'd like to just start. We are um starting to receive some of our academic data back. We don't have it all back yet and we're just digging into it. But one of the things that we learned last week was some interesting results from our advanced placement exams and I know that you all have supported that over the years by splitting the cost of that three ways and I wanted to just give you some exciting news about that. Um if you're not familiar with advanced placement exams, our students, juniors and seniors typically sometimes freshmen take those exams every May. It's the most accelerated coursework that we have. um they take those exams every May. They score a one through a five. And typically colleges and universities accept a three, four or five as college credit just as they would dual enrollment. And so I'm just excited to let you know that we've had a 17% increase in the number of students achieving a three or higher on those exams over last year. Last year it was 52%. This year it's 69%. So that's pretty exciting for those students. Just wanted you to know and and let you know that that is investment is is actually contributing very well to our students. Um couple of capital projects happening in the summer just to update you on those. We have significant roofing projects at both Anderson Elementary School and Tennessee High School. And I know that we've you've mentioned the Koopa before, Councilwoman Powers, at at Tennessee High School. That is a part of that project. So we're excited to see the renovation of that coming to fruition. um back to school dates. I know a couple of you have heard this already and actually Councilwoman Akre corrected me on some dates, but our first our teachers return, if you can believe it, in a couple of weeks, July 28th, we have three inservice days that week and two work days for teachers that

week. Our first student day is Monday, August 4th. That's a two-hour day. Sometimes folks ask why that's just a two-hour day. that so that students can meet their teachers, but also particularly elementary school, we use that as an enrollment day and to determine whether we need to hire additional teachers based on the number of students who who come and attend that first day. So oftentimes we're hiring a new teacher on that day. And then the first full day is August 5th on Tuesday. The most exciting news, if you haven't heard in social media or um news outlets, we have our very own Allison Rutherford, teacher at Fairmont. She's library media specialist at Fairmont Elementary School. She's also had previous experience as a library media specialist at Vance Middle School when it was Vance. She has now moved on to be a finalist for Tennessee teacher of the year. So, she started off as building level teacher of the year for Fairmont. She's also Rotary Teacher of the Year. She moved on to being regional teacher of the year. If you're not familiar with that, every school in our state, I assume, nominates a teacher, and they do that by grade bands. She would be in the elementary grade band. There's a middle school grade band and a high school grade band. It's now narrowed to nine teachers across the state. So, she's one of nine as a finalist. And so, we will find out in August whether she accomplishes that. Regardless of whether she does or not, she is a fantastic educator. She exemplifies what we want out of all of our educators and she definitely impacts lives every day. Very proud of her for making it as far as she has. That's all I have for you unless you have questions for me. Any questions for Dr. Tutor? No questions. But I don't know if it's got into her application, but I know um and she made the newspaper when she taught at I believe Hannesfield and taught science and she would bury a chicken with a a raw chicken with vinegar or

whatever to so that they could see what happens as things stay in the ground or whatever. It was a scientific experiment. It was pretty interesting. It sounds like it. I'm not familiar. And um that's a sign of her creativity for what she does. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. Moving on now to our public hearings. Uh these public hearings are opportunities. There'll be three opportunities for the public to speak during those. Uh and I'll let you know when that is. The first one is resolution 25-70. It's a resolution annexing certain territory upon written consent of the owners to incorporate the same within the boundaries of the city of Bristol Watra El Harbor Beaver Creek. The public hearing is hereby open for resolution 25-70. Chair Young, director of planning and community development will present. Thank you, Mayor Hutton. Good evening, council members. Um, tonight I'm here uh two public hearings back to back uh related to the annexation request on Beaver Creek Road. Um, this request came to us from the property owner, Mr. Wal Walter Harbor. Uh he submitted the uh annexation application. He's been represented through this process by Mr. Robert Stewart. Um the property is approximately 3.66 acres and it's two parcels uh side by sides currently zoned A1 in Sullivan County. Um this is not the first time that council has heard uh about this uh annexation request. The resolution to set these public hearings and to proceed with the annexation process uh came before you in May. Since that date, uh staff has gone through our notification processes. So, newspaper ad, we've posted a sign on the property. We've notified adjacent property owners and we have notified the appropriate folks at Sullivan County that we're supposed to notify of annexation requests. Um to date, um we did receive four comment letters back from adjacent property owners, one in favor, three opposed. Uh we've received three

telephone calls, two in favor, one opposed. Um and we did take this to the planning commission um for a public hearing on the plan of services uh during their June 16th meeting. Um the they did re recommend an amended plan of services and I will hold the details on that until this next public hearing. With that, I'd be happy to answer any questions about the annexation itself. Would anyone in the audience like to address council on this matter? Ordinance 25-70? Seeing none, this public hearing is now closed. Moving now to resolution 25-71. It's a resolution approving the plan of services for certain annex territory, Walter L. Harbor, Beaver Creek Road. This public hearing is hereby open for resolution 25-71. Chair Young will present on this item as well. Thank you once again. So, just a few additional details about the plan of services. Um, the planning commission, as I said, did review the plan of services during their meeting uh in June and did recommend um in favor of the the plan of services that's in your packet this evening. Um, just a couple things to point out. Uh, most city services are available upon annexation. So, that annexation effective date is tomorrow. So, police, fire services, recreation, and parks, all of those good things will be available immediately, although there are currently no structures on the property right now. Um, the couple things I'd like to point out is that um public sanitary sewer service will be available through the city of Bristol. There is public sanitary sewer very close to this parcel, but the developer will be responsible uh for extending that sewer uh service to serve a future development. So, that's one. Um and then the second thing is related to the streets. So the planning commission when they reviewed this plan of services um discussed the need for a traffic light at the intersection of Highway 394 and Beaver Creek Road. So that was a priority in their discussion and they

wanted staff to amend the plan of services uh to reflect that um item. So, what you have in your packet uh basically says that the city will request a traffic light um at the intersection of Highway 394 and Beaver Creek. There is some monies budgeted in the 2026 capital improvement plan for this project, but we do need um TOT uh both in terms of approval and some grant funds uh to make that happen. So, we will continue working on that. um we'll come back at a uh sixmonth point to report on this to city council and a one-year uh point to report on this project uh to city council and then as needed after that. Uh the final item uh because you will have a uh reading of a first ordinance to assign the zoning of the property. Uh the staff recommendation and the planning commission recommendation in the plan of services is to zone this R2 which matches with the Fox Meadows adjacent u development same zoning as Fox Meadows. So R2 single family and Duplex zoning. Fantastic. Uh would anyone in the audience like to address council on this matter? Seeing none, this per public hear Oh, you have to please come to the microphone. state your name and address. Yeah. Hi, Steve Doll. Um, I have no idea about this this project. I'm trying to figure out what is what is the purpose and use. Is it for development of a you know of a of a housing development or what exactly are we approving? We're chair. Thank you. Yes, sir. So briefly, um the the future desire for the parcels would be residential development um zoned R2. This matches the development standards, the density uh standards for the Fox Meadows development. Um so the future intention would be for residential

development. There is no plan submitted at this time. So I don't know the details of what that will look like, but that would be the future um development ideal. And again with an R2 zone, that's single family or duplex zoning. Um so it would match um much with what what Fox Meadows was developed under the first phases of Fox Meadows. Great. Thank you. Sheriff, would you like to speak a little to the point uh of the annexation issue and the other areas the other parcels in that area that have already been annexed? Sure. So, um the the development here um it's zoned A1 in Sullivan County for the parcels uh zoned A1 in Fox in Svin County. This is the entrance to Fox Meadows. So, this is all within the city limits. So, the um the goal and the desire of the uh property owner here is to be able to connect to city services. So, public sanitary, sewer, um police, fire, schools, um all of the services that the city offers um were attractive to this uh property owner in terms of future development. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you. Seeing no additional comments, this public hearing is now closed. We're moving now to ordinance 25-15. Uh this is an ordinance adopting the annual budget and tax rate for fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025 and ending July June 30th, 2026. Uh I imagine that this is uh this is the public hearing section that most of you are here to speak about. Some of you may have signed up on the sign-in sheet on the way in. Uh but um but the sign-in sheet again is for the appearance of citizens which will follow uh this part of the public hearing. This is your opportunity to speak, ask uh for the public hearing part about this ordinance. There's another section that we'll get to later when we take the vote and there's that is not a time for

public comment or questions during that time. So this is an opportunity to do that. Again, uh the appearance of citizens is for things that are not on the agenda. So just bear that in mind. So uh this public hearing is hereby opened for ordinance 25-15. Finance director Ali Vin will present. Good evening, mayor and council members. So, an item for public hearing and subsequent reading later tonight for second reading is ordinance 2515 to appropriate the fiscal 26 budget. Briefly recapping on June 19th, 2025, ordinance 2513 failed on second reading to appropriate the 26 budget. On June 24th, 25, the first reading was approved for this ordinance 2515 to appropriate the fiscal year 26 budget, which incorporates $187 as the tax rate and totals 154,595,455 for all funds. This reading still includes police and fire wage increases based on the department analyses, a 4.7% pay increase for all other city departments and funds for the remaining department analysis implementation. The budget presented includes cuts such as not filling open positions and pushing out capital equipment and projects to future years and we covered those in the first reading. Examples of those were a grant specialist position and IT help desk position, part-time positions in the park and wreck department, some police overtime for special programs, money for a training facility plan, money and some public works operation accounts, capital equipment such as a prime mover for the fire department, forklift for community engagement events and the meridian barriers. Additional monies have been removed for the grant match on the

Shelby lot and the neighborhood traffic calming projects. On the next slide, you can see that the municipal government funds total 95,160,179, which is an increase of 4.3% over the 25 budget. And the school system funds total 59,435,276, which is an increase of 2 and a half% over the 25 budget. This 26 proposed budget still includes funding for the Bristol Public Library. Currently, both the main and branches and the Bristol Tennessee City Schools. On this slide, the library funding is broken out um by each one of those areas and it's proposed at 1,153,425 and that's around 10 cents on the tax rate. Um, and then the next slide, the funding for the schools is proposed at $5,568,458, which is broken out on that slide, and that totals around 49 cents on the tax rate. At the proposed $187, the tax rate of the tax rate, the increase in property tax revenue would be approximately $3.8 million and anticipates the use of about a million dollars from fund balance from the general fund in fiscal year 2026. Thank you. Thank you. Would anyone in the audience like to address council on this matter? If so, please come to the podium. You can uh probably queue up over there. Uh please come to the podium uh and state your name before making your comments. Please be uh reminded you have three minutes. Yes. My name is Steve Dah, 61 Kingsbridge, Bristol, Tennessee. First of all, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your service. I have some bullet points that I'd like to go over regarding the 2026 budget. Mr. could you speak into the microphone, please? Oh, okay. Thank you. Thank you. Um, number one, you have promised transparency. I spoke about

this last time, but I've emailed each of you twice in the last two weeks and only gotten one of you to respond. Unfortunately, the member did not have a good grasp on the matter that I brought up. Furthermore, the city budget is too convoluted for the average person to understand, and the numbers seem to change from report to report. And I've gone through your budget and all the different little segments and it just it does make it difficult for I say the and I'm not I don't think I'm average but uh for me it it was very complicated and I didn't quite figure out how all the numbers um matched up the LC King building. I have requested the true cost and the cost of renovating a 100-year-old building. And I've seen several purchase costs, bond costs, but no one can tell me what the renovation costs are. My guess $1 to $150 a square foot, which equals $6 to9 million in renovation costs, which isn't in this budget. Where is that coming from? What is going to be you? What is it going to be used for and by whom? The baseball field costs. And I appreciate the gentleman here who was speaking on the parks and wreck. I think that's that's great. I think kids should be out playing and all that kind of stuff, but the costs I've seen are 4.5 to 8.5 million. Who's going to use it? Tennessee High and a college summer league team, not even a class A team. There is a perfectly good field in Virginia that is regulation and doesn't need reworking. Let's fix up the Todd Houston field for Tennessee High at a fraction of the cost. Has anyone done a costbenefit study and a payback schedule? Who will draw it and who will it draw and what other uses can a baseball be field be used for? Number four, the skate park I've heard is being privately funded by a grant and donations. Hey, praise the Lord. But the

city has but has the city investigated the liability costs? The city needs to manage it, build it, insure it, repair it, and supervise the use of it. You will need signage and a means to call for help in case of injuries, which there will be. What is the yearly cost of insuring and supervising the facility? Insurance nowadays for a dangerous activity, and I consider skateboarding a dangerous activity, is very expensive if you can get it. And lastly, my wife and I lived through the city of Stockton bankruptcy experienced in the early 1990s when housing prices were skyrocketing and it provided a large increase in property tax revenues. Of course, the city fathers thought this was going to last and went on spending spree with government offices, a ballpark for minor league team, and several other projects raising the city's exposure to bonds and repayment. Well, if fate would have it, this housing market dumped in 2008 and the city could not meet their obligations and became the largest city in the country to declare bankruptcy in 2012. The result is they're still paying it off until 203. My request is that the budget get frozen at last year's level. Get an audit done to explain what all the expenses and revenue buckets consist of. Be transparent with all upcoming projects, their initial costs, and the maintenance costs, and how long the payback is on for each item. And in conclusion, we've always lived by the words of Dr. Charles Stanley, just do the right thing. Is it right to subjugate the citizens of Bristol to a 23% increase on the back of a 13% increase last year? This is a hardship on the loyal citizens of Bristol to bear the brunt of this. Is it right to raise taxes on the elder elderly to perhaps lose their homes? Mr. G, you're you're well over your time. Well, I'm I've got one sentence left. Please do. Thank you.

Okay. And the younger people to be unable to purchase homes. Have you truly listened to your constituents? In closing, just do the right thing before the community and before God. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr. Dole. [Applause] Please state your name and your address for the record, please. Oh, yeah. I know. Tom Hel, 716 Bluff City Highway. Um, I I don't see anything up there about uh how we're implementing any kind of AI to help eliminate some of these administrative positions. I would guess that the school budget alone is probably what 60% administrative costs. That would be my guess. And yet all the AI models that are out there that can automate workflows, they can replace all of those people. Current AI models can get rid of administrative staff in the police department, in the judicial system, the DMV. I mean, there's a lot that we could cut simply with a few computer programs. And teachers could definitely see a significant increase in their pay every time we get rid of an administrative staff. Same thing for the police officers. I mean, there are plenty of administrative people that can be replaced by these AI models. And the best part is it's not difficult. There's no serious coding involved. Um, automated workflows are almost no coding. You set them up, they're open source. You don't have to pay for any licensing. There's nothing to do. You can get a free API of Chat GBT or Grock or any other AI model. You can then assign it to a workflow, have it do whatever it is you want it to do, whether it's looking at spreadsheets,

getting grades put together, organizing kids, helping the police with police reports, any of that stuff. And if I were a teacher or I were a police officer, I'd be saying, "How come I'm not getting a 7 to 9% increase year-over-year as we get rid of the administrative staff?" And on top of that, the debt that we have to pay, you know, for all this money and everything that we have, you're you're going to make it up. You're going to have plenty of money available to pay that. And then the issues that were brought up by the gentleman before me, they don't become issues anymore. You get those funds. You're going to be able to pull that money in even at lower levels than where we are today. So that's what I want to see. I want to see more investigation into why we're not using free, completely free resources, which I know because I implement them into businesses already. That's what I do for a living. And so I want to see those sources and why and how we can put those into our systems. They're not difficult. They are very easy to do. I don't know what else I could possibly do to demonstrate it other than to just sit down with you because it wouldn't even take but a few minutes. So, what what I'm kind of disappointed to see I expect it but I'm kind of disappointed to see that we're not exploring the technology to help us out here and it's easy to do. So, what I would like to do is table this um increase stick with the current budget at the very least and start focusing on how we can move these administrative staff out of here. There are whole departments even in the judicial system. We don't need um the judges,

police officers. You're over your time, sir. They can all handle it on their own with automated workflows. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Please state your name and your address, please. Joe Mason, 118 Flocks Creek, Bristol, Tennessee. Uh, I looked up the the population growth of Bristol. Since two 2020, five years, we've grown a total of 4.11%. Last week, my first lesson was the city government should not grow any faster than the city population. Uh here we are with a 20ome percent increase, had 13 last year. Uh with that in mind, the media asked the mayor last week, "What's the purpose of the King Building?" And the mayor said for future growth of city government. That flies in the face of that. And maybe Mark, you didn't listen last week, but uh you're forgiven. Uh let's talk about the proposed capital projects. Now, there are two types. This is lesson number two. The necessary items you have to put in the budget, but there's some luxury items that you ought to review and decide which ones to put in there. And that has not happened with all these projects that we've got. So the proposed capital projects in this budget are $9 million. I'm not going to ask questions because you told me I was drilling you. So I'm I'm just going to tell you what's in your budget. $9 million. Local taxes increased 28% from 24 to 26. uh total revenue only increased 17%. Which

means you're putting it on the back of the property owners that that's included in that 17%. Line item city council, you must have looked at this. Your budget in two years has increased 101%. Unbelievable. I don't know what that is, but it's unbelievable. general fund revenue exceeds expenditures in the proposed budget by $8 million. What do you I thought you should budget where it's even. You you got a surplus of $8 million. Don't understand that. That's appalling. Fund balances is accumulated fund balances over the years. Total $16 million. You must be looking at these numbers. I don't understand. You're not a bank. That's that's beyond me. It's it's uh it's appalling to me. I don't I can't begin to understand what's going on. So, with that in mind, the last gentleman just said it. Just sit on this year's budget. Do it one more year and hire an outside firm to come in here and pick this thing apart. That's what's happening in Washington. We ought to be doing it here on a local level. Please do that and consider that please. Thank you very much. [Applause] Please state your name and your address for the record. Good evening. Tim Marendino, 404 El Paso Drive. Um,

I've been here been very uh participant in these recent budget activities uh and looking through it as best as I can. Uh, background about me, I'm a father of three wonderful children who attend or will attend the Brussels, Tennessee city schools. I'm a husband of fantastic wife who currently works in child care and I am a part-time service member for our country in the state of Tennessee. I'm also the primary provider of my family. This means when taxes go up, my my costs go up. Just like many others who are in this room today, I say that to say this, I also have a budget. I stick by my budget. My budget includes necessities such as water, electricity, internet, mortgage, car note, second mortgage, needed to repair some issues on my home, insurance, medical costs, and gas. I base my extra funding for family events, activities, and other items on funds that I either know for a fact I do have or will have by my employer, which usually isn't that much. City of Bristol conversely is basing its budget by taking the funds from struggling citizens to fund PEP projects and pay toward below average condition buildings such as the LC King building as well as running most of the funds projected to extend the Todd Houston field an extra 100 feet for an MLB summer league team MLB affiliated summer league team. City of Bristol currently has or at least as of 2023 a citizens of 27,500. This means to fund the $5 million project portion that the city is paying for the Todd Houston field re uh renovation, it'd be about $180 $182 per Bristol citizen. Personally, I'm not willing to pay about $900, let alone the taxes um for an MLB summer league team when the field as it is is great for our high school students as it is. Um the LC King building, I've heard a lot of numbers. Most recent number I found

was 2.8 8 million was the purchase cost of the building. When the assessments came out that it's public, the building is valued and surrounding parking lots right around $800,000, which means we're paying $2 million over value for this building. Truly, how much is the city paying for the building? I don't know the exact numbers, but 2 million's an exerb amount over. And if you want to, you're more than welcome to come pay my house for 2.25 million, which is also $2 million over its value. not very fiscally responsible. Uh Councilwoman uh Fire Farbin recently said that she views the city of Bristol as fiscally responsible. Me personally, paying $2 million over the value of a building, that's not fiscally responsible. That's very irresponsible, especially when we don't even know what the building's going to be used for on on public comments. It's not like we're putting the cart before the horse. Surely, several people in here have said it. I wouldn't say necessarily freeze the tax rate. I I could see a small increase because I agree our firefighters, our police officers, they deserve the raise. But what irritates me is in order to complete this, the city council's holding hostage the pay increases for firefighters and police to fund pet projects that make no sense for the city at this time. I will say this, if you vote yes to this, I can guarantee that I will not only vote against you, but I may help fund your opposition. and I hope that I can help them defeat you in the future. If you vote no and oppose this increase, I will personally try to help you any way I can to keep you in your seat. Thank you for your time. Good night, and I pray that you make the best decision. [Applause] Anyone else wish to address council on this matter, please come to the microphone. You don't have to hold your hand up. You just go ahead and get in line. Right.

Ben Phillips, 112 Abby Lane. I wanted to discuss this from an angle that I haven't heard discussed by anyone in the previous meetings. And I know a lot of this is outside of your all's control and the city's control, but this tax increase along with the county's reassessment, which I don't know, that's the part I haven't heard discussed. This reassessment is resulting in a pretty significant shift in the tax burden moving from commercial payers to residential payers. I don't know if everyone's aware of that, but it's pretty significant. I know the state set a certified rate that equalizes the city's total revenues, but within that total revenue bucket, it's very disproportionate among commercial payers and residential payers. Um, I looked up a few businesses just um as examples. Um, one very iconic one, Bristol Motor Speedway, their taxes, even with this $187 tax rate, their taxes 24 to 25 will actually decrease 15.25%. And also, I don't know if the city's aware, but BMS hasn't paid their 24th property taxes either, which is with interest on the city's website is $756,000 that they owe the city of Bristol. that could go a long ways in paying for some of these things. Um, just a few other ones. Um, not going to throw names on all of them, but a business on the volunteer parkway, their taxes with the increase will go down 3.4%. Another one on the Parkway um will go down 8.4%. Meanwhile, my house is um going to go up 37.6%. And that's with me contesting the assessment with Sullivan County successively successfully. If I hadn't

got it lowered, it would have been a 63% increase. So, it's not going to be an odd case to have a citizen in this city paying 50% or more in property taxes in 25 than they did 24. For me personally, that's not going to be an adverse financial effect. I can afford it. It's not going to kill me. But I know I'm blessed financially and other people that's not going to be able to be sustain that. I know a lot of you have been here for a long time and I think all of you care for this city and want to do what's in its best interest. and for the most part have over the years. And um it's just unfortunate that this is coming on top of the county reassessment because even though a lot of it isn't is out of your control, you're going to get the blame for it, unfortunately. And by voting for this tax increase, you're almost assuredly voting yourself out of office. That's it. Thank you. [Applause] Please state your name and your address for the record. James Kaiser, 2204 King College Road, Bristol, Tennessee. I just want to say I never had any interest or involvement in city politics and and no interest in public speaking. But what we saw at your last meeting was worrisome. We went back and did some reading online. Bristol ranks 28th in Tennessee city population while Brisy Bristol city manager ranked seventh in pay for city manager salary at about 194,000 plus. According to gov salaries website in the year 20 2024 Bristol Tennessee council member

salaries were about 245% higher than the average city city council member salary in the state of Tennessee. It lists amounts, but I won't bore you with that stuff. Point being, the lower levels whistle city employees are paid about 40% less than the state's average, while the city council paid themselves well above the average. Uh, Councilwoman Farabin, I think, stated that part of the budget increase was to catch up these employees that were left behind. But one wonders how those at the top who made the budget, the council, the mayor, the manager, and the city attorney, well above average, got paid well ahead of the state average while the little folks got left behind. Like you didn't know that the salaries of these people sitting here on the council probably didn't put the budget in the red. But it does suggest that the council may not be a trustworthy steward of the taxpayers money. Taxpayers can't depend upon the council to monitor and manage salaries equitably. Why should they trust other expenditures? Proposed building purchases put higher taxes on Bristol residents. That's only the start of the cost. There's good reason. Federal government has been selling off buildings. The expense of renovations, upkeep, cleaning, hiring more city employees to do it. Taxpayers will be paying these bills for the rest of their lives. Why wouldn't you look for private industry investors to purchase the properties for a tax base rather than create an internal tax liability for city residents? Real estate deals the council has made deserve a closer look, but the city documents online are not really user friendly in that area. There's already about 517 city employees, which put near 2% of Bristol's population working for the city. and any raise you give them, you'll be taken back in a tax hike. I just wonder, do you think your job or position is to represent your

constituents, the Bristol residents, yourselves, or a few special interest people, companies that may benefit from these actions? Bristol, Tennessee city residents are already double taxed by the county and city. It's not management when you just keep reaching into someone else's pocket for more. Doesn't take a smart person to do that. rather than budgeting like the rest of us. This is East Tennessee where residents favor frugal, responsible fiscal management, sit in California, New York, or Minnesota. I know most of you been in office a long, long time. But that's not a mandate to do whatever you want. Your job is to be good stewards of the taxpayers's dollars. Your job is to balance the budget and manage and live within that budget. It's not your money. All I got to say. [Applause] Please state your name and your address for the record. My name is Lanniguel Bena. I live at 1010 Southside Avenue. I have been a Bristol, Tennessee resident. I was born here. And I'm not here I don't have all the eloquent speech and all the numbers. I'm here to plead to your humanitarian side. The the people is like us. We are on a fixed income. Our property values have gone up exponentially and the taxes are going up. We can't keep up with that with a fixed income. And I just would like to ask if and this may not be the forum. What what do you suggest that the property owners? We don't want welfare. I don't want welfare. I want to be fair and we want to pay the taxes on our property and to

live in in peace and harmony, but we can't we won't be able to to keep it up at the rate this is going. And I realize that and you all I'm not I'm not going to say anything about what you make. You work for a living as most people do. I'm 77 and I'm retired. There's no way. You're you're you're pushing us out. And like I said, as a as a Bristol, Tennessee resident for 77 years, I love my city. I'm proud of Bristol, Tennessee. And I love the residents here. Please, please have p have mercy. I I plead for mercy. Thank you. [Applause] Mr. Kirk, please state your name and your address for the record. My name is Ron Kirk and I live on Robinson Walk in Bristol, Tennessee. I will be very brief. I'm not opposed to a tax increase. Nobody likes more. Have to spend more. It costs more to run the city. It costs more to to do everything. I am very much opposed to finding ways to go spend money. I'm sorry. I shouldn't said it that way. I'm opposed of us looking at this might be year to go spend money on things and that we don't have to do right now. and that would tighten the expenditures which would put some ease on the tax base. Uh I brought this number up every time I've spoke. This is my third time and I will tell you that 15%

on the new uh assessed values this year for me anyway at my house is about a 34% increase. Uh you don't put percentages in the bank though. You put dollars in the bank and that's how you bills. I I asked that tonight's the final reading uh to to pass this tax rate. If it goes through at I think a$187, is that right? Uh it's going to be some tough times. Uh there's going to be some hard feelings. I don't want that here in the city. We need cooperation and I I'm trying to offer a solution and maybe we need to find a couple of things that are big ticket items and simply wait. Just wait. Uh we don't have to do it. Do I enjoy baseball? You bet I do. And it'd be nice to have that stadium, but you know, I'd like to go buy a brand new Mercedes, but I can't do that this year. So, I have to I I just want you all to see if there's anything you could reduce in order to do this. And yes, one of the things that keeps coming up is the LC King building. I don't have all the facts on that, but I don't think it's mandatory for now. Uh so, I'm asking you all to take one more look at the tax rate and do what you think you need to do. And I appreciate all the time and the multiple hours you spent trying to do something here. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. [Applause] Please state your name and your address for the record. Yes. Brian Suzac, 114 Monroe Drive. I've been here three times. I want to thank you all for being on the city council and all your services and what you do here because it's a tough job and I know that. Uh I knew a lot of people working

in local and state governments back in California and they were tough. it was tough on them. So, I thank you. Um, what I want to just bring up once more, and I sort of hit on this before, but between December of last year and let's just say May of this year, the amount of taxes based on the appraisal value of my property that's going to be increased between December and now is 75% increase. Now, what that means is without touching the tax rate, the city off my property is going to get 75% more than you got in December. Now, I just heard the gentleman say his tax rate or his appraised value went up is going to cause an increase in his taxes of 34%. Now, if everyone looked at how much their appraised values went up without touching the tax rate, I would say you guys or you guys, sorry, the city will bring in a significant amount more money this year than last year. And I'm confused about that. That question has not been addressed appropriately other than to say no, it's taken into account. So, I I'd say I'd recommend the city council stop now and really look at that because the appraised values of all properties in the city have gone up. Unless I'm wrong and some have gone down. Maybe they have. Maybe the counties made the mistake on other properties that they made on mine that they still haven't corrected, which is they said, "I I had a 3969 foot house. I only have a 2721 square foot house. They haven't lowered my appraised value yet. And so I'm at well over anyone around me. And I have a 52-y old house. There's

a house down the street that was built in 2020 that is appraised below my my house appraisal and a cost per square foot. They have a larger lot. They don't have a road coming through within feet of their garage, public road where all these cars are are running regularly and they have a larger square footage. But yet my square footage is a dollar per square foot is more than theirs. That's because of county mistake that I'm trying to clarify and get corrected. So, I would just say the city needs to step back and really look at appraised values because if you don't do that, you're going to have right now I've heard you have a $5 million excess amount of money in the budget or not in the budget but in the funds. Well, you're going to have a lot more next year and all these people are going to be paying for it, the city uh city people. So, thank you very much. Thank you. [Applause] Please state your name and address for the record. My name is Trevor Lee and I live at 405 Redwood Road here in Bristol. Um, I wanted to speak on the LC King building purchase. So, after doing some publicly available online research, you can see that the building is years behind on property taxes. And as the council is voting on raising our property taxes, they are going to be covering in the purchase the property taxes, delinquent property taxes of an owner of an old building that we're going to preserve so our residents can see where jeans were made. So I'm just curious as to why we're expected to raise our tax rate. We've heard from people who were here on fixed income. My mom's a single mother. She's been raising my sister and I for years. I mean, you tax people so much they're going to have to leave. The great thing about this area is the cheap cost of living and how you can live here without having to have 18 jobs and 40

mortgages, but you can't if your property taxes keep going up. So, I believe it sets a poor precedent that we're going to cover someone's property taxes in overpurchasing their building while raising property taxes on the citizens. And I think that's just a complete disregard to the citizens and the people who work every day to pay their taxes to cover people's taxes that didn't pay. I'm sure everybody in here would love if the city popped in and paid their property taxes every now and then, but that doesn't happen unless you own a building that made jeans. So, I just want everybody to know the truth of what happens with your money is sometimes not as it's presented. Thank you. [Applause] Please state your name and your address for the record. Excuse me. My name is Jim Jordan. I live at 232 Colony Drive. Excuse me. Uh is it correct that um the 21% tax increase uh would produce 3.7 million to the budget? Am I correct in that figure? And am I correct also in your fund balance u projected width is 3.7 million is 15.1 million for 26 according to your uh projection. I think that's correct. Okay. Um well, as we've uh as all have discussed, uh everyone I think would be in favor of um uh raises for the employees of the city, especially our emergency personnel, police and fire. Um and uh I think we would be in favor of

some of the projects that you're talking about. Um however with the burden of 13% increase of last year versus the 21 at least 21% increase this year actually most even if you went to the certified rate I would have a 3.4% increase as some others have said we will still see a slight increase. Um, but I would appeal to you uh tonight uh to look at the 3.7 million uh that you're looking for to fund the raises and other uh things that are in the budget uh from the fund balance which would you would still have a fund balance of 11.5 million projected even if you took it from that projected fund balance of 26 that is about two two and a half months reserve I I know you look for three months maybe four months reserve which would be good but what I would urge you to do then is to go back look at the budget fund fund your current budget I know it would be probably practically impossible to go back at this point from your general fund I'm speaking of $50 million budget to try to cut additional but uh again take the monies that you're looking for from the fund balance then look at ways to raise your revenue for next year or even ask for uh others to participate in your projects such as a baseball field or others uh foundations or individuals who would like to contribute or even consider other forms of revenue uh for tourists coming in. We love the tourists but we don't really want to fund the tourists. they should fund themselves, you know, and I think there are plenty of opportunities for either referendums on increases for sales tax, etc., but there are other sources of revenue. So, I just again appeal to you to hold the

uh hold the tax and take it from your fund balance. Thank you. [Applause] Please state your name and address for the record. Jane Nichols 1031. Would you speak in the microphone? Jane Nichols, 1031 Kentucky Avenue. Um, first off, I want to thank each of you because I would not want to be in your shoes. It's not an easy place to be. I would also like to thank Mr. Turner for your vote last meeting. But anyways, um, I don't want my taxes raised, but I mean, if they raise, they raise, and I get that. But I do want them to raise if it supports our children in our community. Those children are our future. These officers put their lines their lives on the line every day for us. Yeah, they deserve a big time pay. Not just a little bit. I mean major. I wouldn't want to be in their shoes either. I don't have the courage. They never know what they're going to go up on to. But anyways, um I'm I hate to say I'm poor taxes going up, but I am if it's going to support a pool for the kids, a skate park for the kids, things to keep them out of jail so these officers don't have to deal with them. My son grew up on skateboards, bicycles, dirt bikes. He's never been in jail in trouble. He don't drink or smoke or do drugs. He works as his own home. I mean, these things help our children. It keeps them out of trouble. So, thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Please state your name and your address for the record. Gan Sanders, uh, 251 Jonesboro Drive, Bluff City. So, I have a question about a line item on the budget.

It's under the city manager line on the general fund. It shows for fiscal year 2024 249 roughly 249,000 and then it bumps up to 94,000. But from what I've heard that 94,000 is a lump sum amount of all expenses. Where is it broke down for the expenses that is included in the 94,000? That's roughly a 650% increase. Is it anywhere in the proposed budget where that's listed? That's a drastic increase because 249 roughly 249,000 to 94,000. I mean, is that an annual pay for a city manager or is that a lump sum pay? Because that is huge. And why is it two two 249,000 last year and then it jumps to 949 if it's lumped into 949 or 904 lumped in and then it was 249 all as one like one salary. Is that the way it was for 2024 as one salary or was that as a lump you know all together as a mayor? Would you like me to answer that? I would. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Um, yes, it is split out in the budget, but the difference is 650,000 of that 94 is a placeholder for the department analyses for wage increases for other staff within the city. Okay. It is not mine nor my assistance wages. Okay. I've never seen that listed that way in the in a budget. Yeah, we we showed it at the last meeting. We didn't have that slide up for this this meeting. I mean, I I've seen other cities budgets and I've not seen it listed that way. So, it kind of

perked my eye a little bit, so I wasn't sure. And on the other gentleman that said about a raise for emergency personnel for police and fire would be fantastic, but also if there's that much money left over in a fund. Also keep in mind for administrative personnel like courts because they're the ones that handle the tickets and you know administrative personnel um staff and whatnot. Just keep that in the back of your mind because they also work hard. Just you know kind of leave that in there. But that the 94,000 just kind of caught my eye. Just wanted to ask that question. Thank you. Thank you. Any additional questions or comments regarding resolution 25-15? Hearing none, this public hearing is now closed. We're moving now to the appearance of citizens. Uh, this section provides an opportunity for the public to address city council on any item that is not on the agenda for formal consideration. A response will not likely be made at this time since in most cases neither the council nor city manager will be prepared to effectively respond to the concern. The city manager will look into the matter and report back to the city council or as appropriate have a staff meet with you in an effort to satisfy your concern. Again, comments are limited to three minutes per individual and are not transferable to other individuals. groups are encouraged to select a spokesperson to represent them. Uh there is a list here. I think some of you have already spoken uh in regards to ordinance 25-15, but I will uh go through this list. Uh the first is Steve Dole. Yes, sir. Uh Ron Kirk, already spoken. Uh Joey Davidson. Yes, sir. Uh James Kaiser. Yes, sir. Joe Massion. Yes, sir. All right.

Thank you very much. Um, seeing as there's no additional uh folks on uh the appearance of citizens, we're going to move on now to appointments of the better property board. We have one candidate uh for one open position on the Better Property Board. That's uh Lonnie uh Barrett. Would anyone on council like to speak on behalf of the candidate? Okay, please mark your ballots and pass them to the city manager. Okay. Councilwoman Anchor has Lonnie Barrett. Councilwoman Fire Robin has Lonnie Barrett. Vice Mayor Turner has Lonnie Barrett. Councilwoman Powers has Lonnie Barrett and Mayor Hutton has Lonnie Barrett. Thank you very much. All right, we're moving now to board of code of appeals. We have one candidate for one open position on the better property board. Um that's Daniel Witcher. Would anyone on council like to speak to uh the candidate? Speak on behalf of the candidate. Wer, would you pass it down? Yeah. Yeah. All right. Please mark your ballots. City manager. Okay. Um, the board of code appeals, Daniel Witcher. Uh, Councilwoman Rayard has Mayor Turner has Daniel Witcher. Councilwoman Powers has Daniel Witcher. Vice Mayor Turner has Daniel Witcher and Councilwoman by Robin has Daniel Witcher. Great. Moving now to the community development advisory committee. We have two candidates for two open positions on the community development advisory committee. one position for an unexpired term of office ending April 30th, 2026 and one position for a term of office

ending April 30th, 2028. That's Adriana Cox and Tom Swadley. Please uh pass your ballots on to city manager. Would any anyone on council like to speak on behalf of the candidates? Not on nec. Yeah, I mean I could, but um we have to decide which one is which term. Right. I would suggest we go alphabetically for that. The first one is fill the term and the second one is the full term. That's my suggestion. Council is okay with that. I have no issue with that. So any other go with the alphabetical. So that would be Adriana Cox. Is that okay if you ready? Yes. Okay. So it would be Adriana Cox to fill the uh term of office ending April 30th, 2026 and then Thomas Wadley for uh term April 30th, 2028. Is that correct? Yes. Right. Thank you. So then I have Councilwoman Akre has Adriana Cox filling the first term and Tom Swadley filling the second. Councilwoman Fire Robbin has Adriana Cox filling the first term, Tom Swaldley filling the second. Councilwoman Powers has Adriana Cox filling the first term, Tom Swadley filling the second. Mayor Hutton has Adriana Cox filling the first term and Tom Swadley filling the second. And Vice Mayor Turner has Adriana Cox filling the first term and Tom Swadley filling the second. Thank you. The next is uh the emergency 911 board. Emergency communications. We have three candidates for three open positions on the E911 emergency communications board. That is Matt Austin, Adam Dy, and Eddie Wampler. Would anyone like to speak on behalf of the candidates hearing? None. Okay. Councilwoman Akard has Matt Austin, Adam D, and Eddie Wampler. Mayor Hutton has Matt Austin, Adam D, and Eddie Wampler. Councilwoman Powers has Matt Austin, Adam Dy, and Eddie Wampler. Vice Mayor Turner has Matt Austin, Adam Dy, and Eddie Wampler. And

Councilwoman Fire Robin has Matt Austin, Adam Dy, and Eddie Wampler. Thank you. Now to the parks and recreation commission. We have two candidates for two open positions on the parks and rec commission. First is Colin Riggs and the second is Cheryl Willinger. Would anyone like to speak on behalf of the candidates? Um I can uh Sherry has served. She's also on Friends of Steel Creek, so she brings that. Um and Colin Riggs is um newer to our community and getting involved in different things and is very interested in outdoors and parks and rent. Okay. Okay. Councilwoman Akert has Colin Riggs and Sher Willinger. Councilwoman Fire Robbin has Colin Riggs and Sher Willinger. Councilwoman Powers has Colin Riggs and Sher Willinger. Vice Mayor Turner has Colin Riggs and Sher Willinger. And Mayor Hutton has Colin Riggs and Sherry Willinger. Thank you. The next is the planning commission. We have one candidate for one open position on the planning commission, Mr. Men Lutil. Would anybody like to speak on behalf of the candidate? I could speak on behalf of Men. Uh Meen has served our community in several different capacities. He has served on the planning commission prior to this appointment and uh is very conscientious and did a great job. So I would be very honored to have Mail to return to the planning commission. Okay. Okay. Councilwoman Akard has mail and let Councilwoman Fire Robin has mail and let Councilwoman Powers has mail and let Vice Mayor Turner has mail and let Mayor Hutton has mail and leal. The next is the power board. We have one candidate for one open position on the power board, Mr. John Van. Would anybody like to speak on behalf of the

candidate? I've served with John the last couple of years. Can you Can you say that you have served with John? John's done a great job and happy he's continuing. Okay. Councilwoman Akre has John Ban. Councilwoman Fire Robin has John Ban. Councilwoman Powers has John Ban. Vice Mayor Turner has John Van. Mayor Hutton has John Ban. Right. We uh we now have four candidates for the open positions on our tree board. That's Mindy Beold, uh Gene Larda, Susan Tanner, Robin Tate. Robert Tate. Would anyone like to speak on behalf of the candidates? Okay. Councilwoman Akre has Mandy Betold, Gene Lassarda, Suzanne Turner, and Robert Tate. Councilwoman Fire Robin has Mandy Betol, Gene Lassarda, Suzanne T, excuse me, Tanner and Robert Tate. Councilwoman Powers has Mandy Betold, Gene Lassarda, Suzanne Turner, and Robert Tate. Vice Mayor Turner has Mendy Betold, Gene Lassarda. Suzanne Turner and Robert Tate. and Mayor Hutton has Meny Beto, Gene Larda, Suzanne Turner, and Robert Tate. Can I take a moment of privilege just to let we've had a lot of people who are interested in being involved our boards and commissions. I know some of y'all have gotten familiar with our website, the openings for boards and commissions are on our website. That's where these people learned about vacancy. Some of them s already served, so they knew their term was up. Some other people are brand new. Um, some people contact us and ask about different boards, etc. So, and we probably between all of us, we could have spoken to all these candidates, but I think tonight trying to keep things going, but we have a lot of really good citizens like you all who serve our community by serving on boards and commissions. So, I know there's

several people here who serve and if any of y'all are interested, check on the website, contact any of us, find out where the openings are coming up and um what you might be interested in. Thank you. Thank you. Absolutely. Moving now to ordinances and resolutions. Tonight we will consider or res resolutions before we move to ordinances so that we can act on the annexation resolutions that were the subject of public hearings earlier before we act in the ordinance establishing the zoning of the annex property. The first is resolution 25-70. It's a resolution annexing certain territory upon written consent of the owner and to incorporate the same within the boundaries of the city of Bristol Tennessee. It's the Walter L Harbor property on Beaver Creek Road. This item was presented uh by Cherith Young during the public hearing earlier this evening and the public had an opportunity to comment during that public hearing. Are there any questions of council for Miss Young? Seeing none, is there a motion to approve resolution 25-70? Motion to approve to resolution 25-70. Is there a second? Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? I just wanted to um make comment that the process for annexation has changed over the years. This is relatively new, five years or something since uh this process, but it's very much um citizen um initiated and has a lot of hoops for us to jump through that are required by the state to allow us to annex properties. So, just wanted to say that. Any additional discussion? Mary Lee, please call the role. Yes, sir. Turner, yes. Fire Robbin, yes. Hutton, yes. How? Yes. Akard? Yes. We have resolution 25-71. It's a resolution approving the plan of services for certain annex territory, Walter El Harbor, Beaver Creek Road. This item was also presented by Cher Young during the public hearing earlier this evening, and the public had an

opportunity to comment during that public hearing. Are there any questions of council for Miss Young? I do. on the you know we discussed in planning about the red light uh which is something has to the state has to be involved in in this plan of services. So will this mean that by adding that in there which and I'm not disagreeing that it needs to to be there but of within this plan of services of within a year and if the state does not grant the you know of getting them involved how is that going to affect this annexation and the potential project that could happen. So the um the plan of services sets forth what the city will provide um in terms of services to the applicant. We don't have the sole control in terms of that light. So we are going to need um T do DOT's approval um and some grant funds to um establish the light and get it in place. Um, I have talked to the applicant and they he understands that that's not his responsibility. That's something that the city's going to ask for and work on. And he also understands um that there is no I don't know the end time time frame for this yet. So the way that we would um proceed is that any item that is not resolved, so state law requires me to come back at six months and one year um to give a report on this annexation. And typically uh the last several that we've done, we've been able to say at that one year mark everything is complete. This is closed. So if that is not the case at one year, I I think I will just have to

come back um at set periods to to keep reporting on the um timeline of that project, but it won't affect anything else. It won't affect his his project, right? And he know he knows that he's not responsible for this light, so he's aware of that. Um and it wouldn't slow down uh his project um as it moves forward. Okay, perfect. I just wanted to clarify that. Okay, thank you. Is there a motion to approve resolution 25-71? So moved. One. Is there a second? Second. We have a motion in a second. Any discussion among council? Seeing none, Mayor Lee, will you please call the role? Turner? Yes. Fire Robin? Yes. Hutton? Yes. Powers? Yes. Akard? Yes. Moving now to resolution 25-72. It's a resolution accepting Centerport Drive as a public street and associated utility infrastructure as public infrastructure. Chair Young will present. Thank you. Um so Centerpoint Drive uh is now ready for acceptance into the public system. Um the resolution to accept Centerpoint um is the formal action that the city takes to accept responsibility for um Centerpoint Drive and the associated um public infrastructure. Though Centerpoint Drive has been functioning for quite some time, we've been uh zipping up some loose ends on the public utility side. Um at this point in time, everything is complete. Everything has been inspected by the public works department and it's ready for uh this formal action. The planning commission reviewed this uh during their meeting in June and did recommend unanimously um to send a favorable recommendation to city council. Thank you. Are there any questions of council for Miss Young? Motion to approve. Motion. Is there a second? Second.

Would anyone in the audience like to address council on this matter? We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion among council? Mary Lee, please call the role. Turner. Yes. Fire Robbin. Yes. Hutton. Yes. Powers. Yes. ARD. Yes. Great. Moving now to resolution 25-73 authorizing the purchase of real property 260 Midway Medical Park in partnership with Sullivan County, Tennessee. City Manager Kelly Bouris will present. Yes. Thank you, Mayor Councel. The city's been working with Sullivan County Health Department um and the Sullivan County Commission to purchase the property at 260 Midway Medical Park to establish a public health clinic in Bristol. and we haven't had a health public health clinic here in over 20 years. This building would also allow the city to own instead of lease our employee clinic which is already located at that property. At their June 26 commission meeting, thanks to Commissioner Harvey um and Commissioner Sgel and Akard, uh the Sullivan County Commission voted unanimously to enter into an agreement with the city of Bristol to purchase that building for the purpose of establishing the public health clinic in Bristol. Details of the partnership are established in resolution 25-73. They include a total building purchase price of $589,000 with the county to pay the city 400,000. Of that 589 under a lease purchase agreement and four equal installments of $100,000 per year. Once that final payment is made, a condominium plat and two separate deeds would be drafted providing for county ownership of the public health clinic portion of the building and city ownership of the employee clinic portion of the building. It's about a 7030 split of the total building. The city would provide routine yard and parking lot maintenance for the entire facility. We're already doing that. The city would also provide for capital maintenance of the top parking area which services our clinic and the county would provide for the capital maintenance of the bottom parking area which would be the primary parking area for the public health clinic. Each entity would be responsible

for maintenance and improvements of their own space. And then the entities would cost share at a 7030 ratio any building improvements that would impact the entire facility such as a roof or gutters. Um the the resolution also establishes that the county attorney and the city attorney with direction from the mayor and the city manager will um draft those agreements and enter into those agreements. So resolution 25-73 allows for the purchase of the the property at 260 Midway Medical Park and authorizes entry into the partnership with Sullivan County to establish that health clinic. Are there any questions of council for Miss Bourgeois? Is there a motion to approve resolution 25-73? Motion to approve. Is there a second? Second. Would anyone in the audience like to address council on this matter? come to the microphone. Please state your name and your address. Joe Mason on 118 Pl Creek. What's the reasoning? I know nobody's asking any questions, but this is why we bought all these properties. We've got all these projects. I've watched you online for months now, and nobody ever asked questions. Maybe it's happening behind the scenes, but what is this about? Why are we buying another piece of property? As Mr. Bourgeois just stated, this property is in partnership with the Solomon County Health Department. It's so that we will have a health department uh in Bristol, which will be the first time in 25 years at this point that a lot of people in this community have to go to Blunt Bowl and there's not transportation. And so we've been working this, we've talked about this at our work sessions for quite a while. Been working with our our county commission. uh Cheryl Harvey back there has worked tirelessly along with Matt Slaggel and David Akard to to facilitate a largest portion of the funding with Sullivan County. So we're paying a small portion, they're paying the larger

portion over the next few years. The building will be ours. Our employee health clinic is there already. Um so that's the purpose for this building. So it's a it is a partnership with Sullivan County. Is this the right time? It is exactly the right time. How many years have we not had one? 25. How long? I think it's 27 27 years. Can we wait another year? No, sir. Okay. I know that's how you've been doing business, but that's why you get surprised. Yes, sir. Thank you. Uh Steve Dah, 61 Kingsbridge. I've been up here before. Um, actually, um, you guys have seemed like you've thought this out, and that's that's that's great. I'm kind of a numbers guy. I just would like to see, and I and I didn't see this, and maybe I missed it, and I'm sorry if I did. Um, what is the the cost to to the city for, you know, for this? I see a hundred,000 county pays us $100,000. What are what part are we paying? They're paying us $100,000 a year over four years. Four years and after that it it's it's ours. It it is a partnership with the county. So it'll be there'll be two deeds as as Miss Bourgeois just stated. So in four years are we going to have some costs associated with this? Well, partially there because we are using part of it for right now we're actually leasing the property. So now it'll be our our property, but there'll be costs in terms of um part of it is for our the city health clinic for our employees, but we're already what she said was we're we're doing the maintenance on it now. It's a it's a savings over time. Okay. Thank you. Just come on up, sir. James Kaiser, King College Road. And uh

I guess first one just kind of a question. Who owns the building that uh you're buying? I'm I'm not I don't actually know the the name of the Anybody know who the city's buying it from? Yes, we do. I just don't know the names right off the bat and don't know that it's Go ahead. It's a limited liability call company called Mcdana LLC. Right. Okay. And then I had one one statement related to something you just said. They're paying so much of it. Meaning Sullivan County, right? Yes. And the city's paying. Well, that means we're paying it because we're double taxed. Well, that we don't get any break from being in the city. And so I I just want to make that point that again, that's another burden on the taxpayers and revenue loss from private people that would be paying property tax. I I understand that the funding that's coming from the county is actually coming from a a fund. So, it's not directly coming from a from taxpayers. It's it's coming from a specific I don't want to call it a grant, but it's coming from a a fund. It's not I think it's coming from the drug fund actually. But city city is not, sir. No, I mean the city is we're kicking in our part. So, it is a partnership within the city and the county to to purchase this building. Thank you. Yes, sir. Anyone else in the audience like to address council on this matter? Miss Sword, please state your name and address for the record. I'm Katie Sword. I live at 109 Trey Circle. I'm really excited about a possible health clinic in Bristol. I have a lot of families and students that were going to Bluntville and that was part of issues. Um when families don't have access to health care with the recent cuts in Medicaid and Medicare, there's going to be families that are

impacted. We have families that are impacted now. They're using things like healing hands to get very basic care. This is a good thing for our community. So, just wanted you guys to hear some support. Thumbs up for me. Thanks. Anyone else? Anyone else have any comments about this matter? We have a motion and a second. Any discussion from council? Yeah. Um, we have waited a long time for a health department in our own community and they provide a lot of services for a lot of people. This um location is also it's across the street a little bit down from Healing Hands. it's close to other medical facilities in that area. So, it means that it'll be easier for people to access it. And if you don't have transportation, um we have worked out where people can get transportation to Bluntville to the health department, but it is not easy to be able to do that in within our city. We're fortunate we have a bus service, but our buses do not go outside of the city limits. So, we have been um deficient with that. And I'll say again, thanks to Cheryl Harvey and to um our commissioner Akard and Slaggel for working real hard. This took a lot and um to come to this. We're very excited. Also, I'll just note in addition, Gary Mays, who's been our health department director for quite some time, has just retired and the news is that Hannah Taylor um is appointed as the new health director. So, um we're excited to um have somebody we're sad to see Gary Mays go, but we're excited to have a new person appointed. And this is a project

that was exciting for Gary to end up with. He's worked hard on it and exciting for Hannah Taylor who's already done a business plan. They already know they do not have to increase staffing at the Blunt office. They're able to staff this with people who are at Blunk office. So they already have a business plan to be able to do that. So great service for our community members who are part of Sullivan County and are deserving of getting the services that um are offered in Bluntville. Thank you. Any other discussion from council? Mayor Lee, please call the role. Turner, yes. Fire Robbin, yes. Hutton, yes. Powers, yes. Akard, yes. We have one ordinance on first reading to consider tonight. It's ordinance 25-16. It's an ordinance designating the zoning of property newly annexed into the city of Bristol Tennessee as R2 single family duplex residential the Altra L Harbor Property. Chair Young will present. Thank you, Mayor Hutton. Um, so just one more time on the zoning piece of this annexation puzzle. Um so again here is the property uh that is the uh subject of the annexation. Um this property is zoned A1 in Svin County right now. It's adjacent to city R2 zoning. So that is what is proposed in the plan of services as the the match for that land use. Um, if you look here on the right side of the screen, um, this is designated on our future landings map in purple, uh, which is a low dens, I'm sorry, medium density, uh, zoning, medium density land use, uh, classification. So, the R2 does match with that future land use plan. Um, again, tonight's the first reading on this. We'll come back um, in August with the second reading, and that will

wrap up the annexation process. Okay. Are there any questions of council for Miss Young? So at that second reading, we'll also have a public hearing or does this not require that? So um we will have a public hearing on that second reading. So okay, second reading, public hearing for the zoning portion, right, of this part. So annexation has a bunch of different parts and process is a little different for some of those parts. Yes, ma'am. So clarifying. Thank you. Thank you. Is there a motion to take action on ordinance 25-16? Motion to approve. Is there a second? Second. Would anyone in the audience like to address council on this matter? We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Mary Lee, please call the role. Turner, yes. F Robin, yes. Hutton, yes. Powers, yes. Acre, yes. We have one ordinance for second reading tonight. It's Ordinance 25-15 adopting the annual budget and tax rate for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025 and ending June 30th, 2026. This item was presented by Finance Director Holly Vin earlier during the public hearing this evening and the public had an opportunity to comment during that public hearing. Are there any questions of council for Miss Von on this matter? Is there a motion to approve ordinance 25-15? I'll motion to approve ordinance 25-15. Is there a second? Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, Maryly, can you please call the role? Turner, no. Farroin, yes. Putin, yes. Powers, yes. ARD, yes. Seeing that, uh, this ordinance 25-15 has passed. Moving now to the consent

agenda. Miss Bourgeois, please read the consent agenda. We have the minutes of the June 3rd city council meeting. Minutes of the June 12th city called CC called City Council called work session. Minutes of the June 19th city council called meeting. Minutes of the June 24th city council special called meeting. Adoption of resolution 25-74 authorizing the purchase of software support for Tyler Technologies. Approval of resolution 25-75 authorizing the purchase of software support for local government corporation system financial software. Approval of resolution 25-76 approving an interlocal cooperation agreement with emergency communications district of the city of Bristol, Tennessee. Approval of resolution 25-77 authorizing the temporary use of public property by Tennessee Hills distillery for the service of complimentary samples of alcoholic beverages for the ho ho happy possum festival. Approval of resolution 25-78 authorizing license renewal of Microsoft Office 365. Approval of resolution 25-79 approving submitt of an application for the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation Recycling Convenience Center grant. Approval of resolution 25-80 authorizing the purchase of a refuge truck through Sourcewell. Approval of resolution 25-81 authorizing resurfacing of pickleball courts. Approval of resolution 25-82 authorizing entry into a service agreement with Howard E. Niheart Company for the annual actuary valuation of other post-employment benefits. And approval of resolution 25-83 awarding a bid for purchase of automatic samplers for the sanitary sewer collection system. Thank you. Would any member of council like an item removed from the consent agenda? Hearing none, do I have a motion to approve the items included in the consent agenda? So moved. Second. Have a motion to second. Would anyone in the audience like to address council on any item on the consent agenda? Great. Would you please call the role? Yes, sir. Turner,

yes. Fire Robbin, yes. Hutton, yes. Powers, yes. A, yes. Great. Moving now to city manager report. Just a few things. Staff met with Tuck directors today regarding grant opportunities for the environmental assessment and remediation if needed of the LC property. The Sounds of Summer concert series continues with music at the downtown center every Tuesday and Thursday from 7:00 to 9:00. The farmers market is now Wednesday evenings in addition to the Saturdays. And Mermaid Day is at Steel Creek Splash Pad from 11 to 1 on July 12th. And that's all I have. Thank you. Any comments from city council members? I have just a few. I had really hoped that everyone that spoke this evening would have stayed until the end. Can you hear me now? Because we began working on this budget. Uh staff began last October. They'll begin again even sooner this year. We uh met in January. We met in February. We met a whole day in March, April, May. We've had many work sessions in regard to this. It is not uh we don't take this uh lightly. We have looked at all of our different options and opportunities. I would welcome everyone, those who have already left as well as those of you that are still still here to be engaged in the process. I think that if you're engaged in the process early on or earlier on than than the past six weeks, two months, you could see a lot of what goes into formulating a budget of this magnitude. It's certainly not the federal budget, but for Bristol, it's a it's a big budget. Um, we haven't taken any part of this lightly. Governor Lee was in uh

Washington County, Tennessee about five, six weeks ago and he made the point that really for government to be able to move forward with any type of projects, it'll have to be in a public private partnership that the government can't lift it all by themselves. And so with the baseball, it's a public private partnership. I know there was the comment made that why didn't we look for partners? We have a partner. Um, and first and foremost, it's for the community, our students. The fact that Boyd Sports will use it two months out of the year is great, but it's not the primary reason that we've done this. We feel like our community, I feel like our community as well as our uh students and school system deserve a much better facility than they've had. They haven't had a new facility in a long time. There are a lot of issues with the current one there. As far as the LC King building goes, it has been explained multiple times how the plan in general would prove that the LC King building could become revenue neutral. It's complicated, but anybody in this room can understand it if you have the time to sit and go through everything related to it. Um, we are in a great we have a great opportunity in front of us. We have several potential partners looking at us right now. The Katie's playground at Still Creek, it's a $10 million project that has been given to the city. has been given to the city and through the uh legal expertise of our city attorney and our city manager, the maintenance to that is built into that cost. A great opportunity. We have other great

opportunities that are just waiting in the wings. The skate park is one. I appreciated the comment about what do we have for our children. We've heard for a long time that you know there's nothing here for our children or even for our adults. Some people had one of the big complaints previously was that there was no vision. There were there was nothing happening and uh along with that it's uh opportunities. Where are our opportunities that other communities have had? Vision and opportunities are not free. They're just not. We'd like for everything to come at no cost, but very little does. Anything that's meaningful, it does have a cost attached to it. So, we're seizing on opportunities with partners. We're trying to work through and and uh upgrade the infrastructure and we're doing it with partners so that it isn't as much of a burden on the taxpayers. I appreciate all of you. I appreciate your comments. I hope that you will join us as we continue to work through the budget. And um we appreciate your support. Thank you. I'm sure not tonight. Great. All right. Seeing none, this meeting is now adjourned.