City Council - Special Meeting

budget and I make a motion. Do I hear a second? Motion been made and properly seconded. Any questions about this amendment? Councilman Lovato, you're recognized.

Thank you, Mayor. I understand that this is moving capital to operating, but exactly what projects are we moving here?

Well, we're just moving the allocation back into operating out of the capital budget. We've frozen all the capital projects, so we're just moving that back into operating so it will not short them and affect staff.

So it's just to help with the staff numbers? Yes. Okay, that's all I have.

All right, thank you. Any other questions? Hearing none, seeing none, are you ready to vote?

I'll talk slow, Madam Clerk, so you can get it on the board.

Okay, every member voted. Any member wish to change their vote? Madam Clerk, please take the vote.

12 yes, 1 no, 0 abstain.

Amendment is adopted. Now we'll start at Ward 12. Councilman Lovato for amendments.

Thank you. I only have one. It's the same amendment that I brought forward last time moving $2.4 million into the capital improvement plans for the fire. And that's my motion.

Okay, Councilman Lovato, you're recognized for an explanation.

Thank you, Mayor. As I said, this is the same amendment that we passed last time. It's moving $2.4 million into the capital improvement plan for the fire truck.

Okay, it's establishing the capital improvement project. Is that what you're doing?

Yes.

Okay. All right. Just want to make sure. Okay. Any questions regarding this amendment? Seeing none, hearing none, are you ready to vote? All members, cast your vote. Every member voted. Any member wish to change their vote? Madam Clerk, take the vote.

13 yes, 0 no, 0 abstain.

Amendment is adopted. Councilman Lovato?

That's all I have.

Thank you. Councilman Shekinah, amendments?

Yes, Mayor. Mine is coming around.

Okay.

All right. So you can see we have six items on mine. I want to scratch that last item. So it'll give me five items on mine. The first one, HR, reducing all out of the general funds, reducing by $75,000. Building maintenance, forestry and tree board, same thing, $75,000. IT, $50,000. Transit, $50,000. And parks and recs, $50,000.

And I'll entertain a motion motion midnight and properly seconded any comment or question regarding this amendment councilman Lovato, you're recognized on this amendment.

Thank you, Mary. I'd like to divide the question into five please.

Motion been made and properly seconded to divide the question.

How do you wish to divide into five with, with each item being a separate vote?

Okay. Any objection to dividing the question into five separate motions? I don't hear any, so we will do that. Okay, the first one is the HR question of decreasing that budget by $75,000. Councilman Lovato, any further question or comment?

No, I have no further questions.

Okay. Councilman Streetman on this part of the question?

Yes, sir. Of course, we just cut $26,000 from them, cutting another $75,000 from them. what exactly, I mean, I know it says training materials, supplies, and travel. Is that everything that's remaining? I'm sorry, I'm looking for Ms. Lentz. Oh, I apologize. Could we talk, could we hear?

Yeah, Christy Ulschweiger, Deputy Director, if you don't mind. Councilman Streetman, your question?

Yeah, just asking, like I said, we just, there was a cut made before it came to us to reduce it to 102. already took out 26,000 from the operating, the additional 75. It's listed here as cutting training materials and supplies, travel, et cetera. How does the 75 affect you all?

Sure, absolutely. This would affect us immensely. For lack of better word, we already run a pretty frugal budget. We go through several approval processes as a department, and everything that's been presented to you has already been combed through quite a bit. What would be left at this point, like you've already mentioned, would be travel or any certifications, which would have implications on our personnel, of course, and our training abilities and our credentials. Also, as you already are aware, we are also restructuring our HR department and adding two additional employees from other departments that are being moved over. So that would impact our operational functionality for those two new employees. Additionally, with this grade of a decrease, we'd probably be looking at larger items such as the pay study or other large items, which would have implications for the employees as a whole.

Okay, that answers my question, Mayor.

Councilman Lovato, you're recognized on this part of the question.

Thank you, Mayor. My question. She mentioned that the pace study would be on the chopping block. I am just curious of why, when we're triaging the needs of the city, why that would go first before travel and training.

I think she mentioned that it would cut into travel and training for certifications. The society of human resource profession managers or charm, whatever that stands for and other necessary certifications in order to keep our staff as sharp as they are.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions regarding this amendment? Councilman Shekinah, you're recognized on this amendment.

Yes, Mayor. I know from my experience in the military, if there's a budget cut, training is the first thing to go. But I look at this as if we, at the rate we're going right now, if we don't approve a budget, it's going to be at 92 cents. So a whole lot of stuff is going to get cut if we don't approve a budget. So we're either going to work to try to minimize or we stay at 92 cents.

Councilman clutch on this part of the question.

I thank you, Mr Mayor. Uh, I have the year to date. I'm sorry. The general fund year to date department budgets, virtues, actual expenses fiscal year 2026 as of May 31st, 2026 that I pulled off the website from finance and according to their Actual budget for human resources. Their actual is 2.3 million that they've spent estimated 2.7. So there's a surplus say surplus. There's $357,000 that have not been used. So I would be interested to know in the month of June, is it still $357,000 that is beyond what we anticipated as the budget or what is that number? Because 75 is, A lot less than $357,000.

Typically, departments get back monies that are unspent or proposed to be unspent. So we have that amount of money heading into this new fiscal year that we're in. So we're using that as part of the revenue that we're counting on for the current year. So whatever is unspent is not necessarily unused. It's just we're going to use it in the current fiscal year if it's appropriated. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. You're welcome. Councilman Streetman, you're recognized on this part of the question.

Yes, sir. Again, pointing out, like I said, we just had $26,000 come out of it, and the training budget for 2027 is just under $32,000. So even if that first $26,000 came out of the training, that only left $5,000 left. I guess my question should have been, how were they accounting for the $26,000 that was just cut before it came to us because, I mean, the pay study is $93,000. I don't know. I'm just trying to figure out, again, I mean, obviously we can't cut software renewals, licensing. I mean, there's things that absolutely can't come out. So I'm just trying to figure out where that full 50 would truly come from after the 26 that's already been taken out. The operating expenditures are $330,000. You've already took out 30 of it, I mean 26 of it, and we don't want the 93 to go away. Like I said, I'm just still trying to figure out how. I'm afraid we're going to be cutting into things. I don't see how you can do it. Again, depending on what the technical is, I don't know how we can do it without cutting into the money for the pay study.

that's I'm sorry I that was kind of just going through the numbers that I was looking at here and going along with what she just stated councilman she came in final words yes mayor under miscellaneous line item 1 0 4 1 5 5 0 3 4 2 9 1 the budget for this year is 83,000 the actual for 2026 was 30,000 and 7 for training training line item budget the last four is three two two one the budget this year is thirty one nine five five the actual last year was eight thousand three hundred and twenty six for professional service the last four is four three three zero the budget this year is ninety three thousand the actual in 2025 was sixty nine dollars and sixty eight cents the actual in 2026 was $64.68. So by my math, that's $161,000. So we can cut if we want to cut. That's all I have, Mary. Thank you.

Councilman Marquis, you're recognized on this question.

Yeah, so I might have the more up-to-date version of this, because in June 26, 2026, that number that was available was $396,459, which is 86.6% of the percentage used. Now, however, there was a payroll that came out, $71,000. So there is

substantial gap there I agree thank you any further questions regarding this budget part of the budget amendment seeing none hearing on are you ready to vote all members please cast your vote every member voted any member voice to change their vote madam clerk take the vote 11 yes 2 no 0 abstain 3 is adopted Councilman Shekinah, question two regarding building, maintenance, forestry, and tree board.

You're recognized. Building, maintenance, forestry, and tree board, 75,000. Again, if that department wants to cut, they can cut. If not, then I'll go more into the weeds.

I hear a motion. Do I hear a second? Motion been made and properly seconded. Any comment or question? Seeing none, hearing none, are you ready to vote? All members, please cast your vote. Every member voted. Any member wish to change their vote? Madam Clerk, take the vote.

12 yes, 1 no, 0 abstain.

Amendment is adopted. Councilman Shekinah, you're recognized on the IT portion.

IT, $50,000. I motion.

Motion been made and properly seconded in favor of this amendment. Anything else, Councilman Shekinah?

No.

Councilman Lovato, you're recognized.

Thank you, Mayor. To the sponsor, IT has already taken some cuts this year. Can you clarify what this $50,000 would remove?

Yes. I'm going to let IT figure out what that $50,000 cut is. It's out of their budget, general cut. And if they can't do it, then again, we'll be at $0.92.

Would it be okay if IT came up and clarified what $50,000 is for?

Without objection, Ms. Wilson. Councilman Lovato?

Thank you, Mayor. Ms. Wilson, can you clarify what the $50,000 in equipment is for?

So if we're talking equipment, we're on a five-year lifecycle replacement for computers. I really need to keep that at five years because we start seeing slowdowns at about four years. It could affect our network equipment. which is the last year of our network upgrade project, so we couldn't have to just halt that project because of this. My budget has already taken a hit for $104,000 from last year total operating. This would put me at $154,000 less than last year.

How much did you give back last year?

This year?

Yeah.

Minimal. It was like $10,000. I don't operate within my budget, and I account for everything. So I didn't even have much to give back.

Okay.

That's all the questions I have.

Councilman Streetman, you're recognized.

My question was going to be having already had the $160,000 cut for the new servers. So are the new the nodes for two of the four servers that we have and already not having the funding available in there to even extend the warranty right now, taking an additional 50 and having equipment like you just mentioned, as well as potentially not being able to do the thing with the network. How can those two together?

be a compound I mean with those two to get those two cuts together be a compounding of the issue oh yes I mean they're in separate funds but we're just gonna have to do as much work this year and it could affect our employees and how they operate with the public too because their machines may run slower they because we just won't be able to replace them

Thank you Councilman Shekinah be recognized on your amendment.

Thank you. I have a question for you miss Wilson And a lot of it goes by how you phrase the question All right, so I'm gonna phrase the question a little bit different with 50,000 with with the proposed $50,000 cut where your department be mission failure It will not be mission failure.

It will just be Thank you

Thank you, Ms. Wilson. Any other comment or question regarding this part of the question? Seeing none, hearing none, let's vote. Every member voted. Any member wish to change their vote? Madam Clerk, please take the vote.

Eight yes, five no, zero abstain.

The amendment is adopted. We're now on transit. Councilman Shekinah? Yes.

Transit for $50,000. I motion for approval.

Motion been made and properly seconded in favor of this amendment. Any comment or question regarding this amendment? Councilman Chandler, you're recognized on this portion of the amendment.

I'd just like to know, I mean, this came up, we've been met so many times, I don't know which time, but it came up about they needed matching funds for grants. Will this put any of that in jeopardy?

That's a question for Mr. Ringenberg. Mr. Ringenberg, sir, if you don't mind. Councilman Chandler, you have the floor if you don't mind asking your question when he gets up to the well. Councilman Chandler, you have the floor.

Would this reduce, you know, you said before we have to have X number of dollars to match grants. Will this put any grant in jeopardy?

Yeah, we've already put a lot of the grants in jeopardy. We're going to have to roll them to next year is what we're going to have to do. We started off with $866,000 in CIP, and I think I was just told we're now at $66,000. So we've taken $800,000 off the top, which is going to change the way we do business.

Thank you. Pay now or pay later.

Councilman Streetman, you're recognized. I have questions. Mr. Ringenberg, not so fast.

I know you said that this puts grants in question, but part of what we give has to do with the excess after matching. you know, it's budgeted for $4.6 million is what it's showing on this budget as local funds, which is the excess after matching. Even $51,000 alone is for the, it's the local 15% that has to be given for planning operations. It's also showing in, you know, a state is 5% from the state and showing the other 80% from the federal government. However, in 2024, none of that was funded. 2025, none of that was funded on the federal, state, or local side. In 2026, it's showing budgeted $228,595, $14,000 and some odd from the state and $42,000 from the local government. However, as of December 31st, it was showing anticipated at zero, zero, and zero. so and then it says to year end 2026 it's all showing a zero so even this 50 alone could be taken could that not be taken from the planning operations that we haven't been spending the money on in years past we could

The challenge is going to be all of the other stuff coming at us. We're going to have three new hospitals. We're going to have a VA clinic. We budgeted more money this year for planning because we have a lot of stuff coming at us. With no new FTEs, we're going to have to figure out how to do more with less. That's where the planning dollars come into play is we're going to have to take the system apart and try to figure out how do we add a route to X11 with no increase in staffing, no increase in vehicles. So we can play the game however we want to do this. If it's a $50,000 cut, we'll make it work. Is there going to be staff at this point in time? I would say no, but I don't think we're done here tonight. Before tonight's over, I'm sure we're all going to be reducing staff. So that's where I'm thinking right now is you give me the cut $50,000, we'll make it work. I can't guarantee it won't be staff until we sit down and try to figure it out. We've spent months putting this together, and now we're going to try to take it apart in an hour or two. So I'm going to need some time with my folks to make sure what's going to work in the end.

And I understand that we've got new hospitals coming and VA, but we had it budgeted in 2026 and didn't utilize that.

We didn't make any big changes in 2026. So 27, we're gonna have to make changes if we don't get staffing. We asked for, I think it was a million dollars in new people this last year for this year coming up and that was a million dollar cut we took off the top because we knew the budget was gonna be tight. We're gonna have the same question next year is can we add more staff to do an exit 11 route? Can we do to Oak Grove, which is their folks are asking for it. So we've got a lot of stuff up in the air right now until we get through the budget as to what we're gonna do going forward. I'm not sure I answered your question like you wanted.

No, I just knew you said that we needed to plan for it because we had these other, you know, options coming on. But we knew it this year and we hadn't utilized any of that.

We didn't make any big changes this year. We tried to be as frugal as possible and not make a lot of changes, but we knew we got a lot of stuff coming at us. We didn't have dates for the hospitals and the VA clinic and that kind of stuff coming at us. Whereas now we have dates. We've got to have something ready to go by 2028, 2029. And then we're going to have to have vehicles for that. And it takes 18 months to get a Gillick bus built. So if we don't get a bus built here in the next year or two for that route, we're going to use a 2015 bus for that route, which will have 600,000 miles on it. That's the bigger challenge of this is whatever happens this year. Like this year, we asked for $270,000 in match for vehicles. It was going to give us $2.9 million in vehicles. Next year it's going to be even more than that because we're not going to get them this year, so we're going to have to ask for them next year, which means next year we're going to have to ask. Let's stick with current year. Okay.

Okay. Okay, I guess I'm still unsure of where that planning, that money, the money budget, where does that go, the planning money?

Where does it go?

What's it for?

It's going to be paying a contractor to come in and help us build new routes. we're going to have to have public outreach and, uh, they're going to have to go out and ride the routes, talk to the customers. We have to have so many public meetings with the customers for the FTA.

Okay. Thank you.

Councilman Smith, you recognized.

Thank you, mayor.

Um, sister, Mr. Rangenberg.

Oh, okay. All right. Okay. Thank you. I look on here and I see the amendment, but it also says in comments to reduce fuel, routes and maintenance. And I know this will impact transit pretty bad in the sense that we need the few to run the buses. We need the routes because, as they said, we have new hospitals coming to Clarksville being built today. Also, we need maintenance to keep the buses safe. So if this is what this 50,000 is for is to cut this I just don't think it's a great idea to cut the 50,000 cause we need the field. We need the routes and we need maintenance to keep our buses safe and the people who ride on the buses safe. So, um, Mr Ringberg, would you like to add anything to this?

No, you said it very well. Okay. Without new vehicles being bought, we're going to have to maintain what we have even longer. And they're gonna have five and six hundred thousand miles on the bigger buses As we go through this if we don't get them this year next year probably the same challenge So we're gonna have six and seven hundred thousand on some of those The maintenance is gonna be our bigger concern right now and prices are doubling on some of the pieces Fuel we would hope would go back down, but we don't see it dropping that much yet So that's another concern is that we budget enough for a fuel at four dollars a gallon or whatever. It's going to be I

Thank you. I also think this will affect the senior citizens as well as the citizens who use the bus to get to and fro to work in the city, within the city. I think we need to keep the fuel. We need to keep the routes. We basically need to add new routes. So I just think that this 50,000 decrease will really hurt and impact the only transportation we have here citywide. We don't have like an Amtrak or anything else to to take the place of this or to fill in. And Michelle can't use the police department to take us where we need to go. So we really need to keep the transit. You know, and I said that as a joke. You know, we can't use the police department. Have a little sense of humor. Try to get y'all to smile. Y'all look and say it out there. But anyway, we do need our transit, and that's all I have to say. Thank you, Mr. Ringberg.

Thank you. Chief Bird, I wasn't smiling.

I know you were.

Thank you. Councilman Shekinah, final word. Yes, Mayor. There you go.

All right, thank you. Yes, Mayor. And to the previous speaker, who always said, well, we can't tell them what to cut. So I'm going to say, I put these comments in here, but they can plan their routes better. They can reassess their routes and determine what's working and what's not working. They can make it work. And we just heard the director say, He can live, his department can live with a $50,000 cut. Thank you.

Councilman Smith, rebuttal.

Well, you're right. We can't do line item cuts, but you have a list here on your paper, so that's why I read it. That's what you got in your comments. That's what you want cut. It said reduce fuel, routes, and maintenance. So that's why I approached it and made comments about it respectfully.

Councilman Zacharias, you're recognized. Thank you, Mayor. I'd just like to advise my, or urge my colleagues to vote against this amendment. There are people in our city who are unemployed because they can't get to work. We are running the same 11 bus routes that we've been running since 1987. The industrial park has no has no service. They are having problems filling their shifts because there is no public transportation that can get their employees to those manufacturing sites. CTS needs help and this is not, these cuts to CTS are going to make life more difficult for some of the most vulnerable people in our city. Thank you. Councilman Shekinah, do you recognize?

Thank you, Mayor. And I'd like to say to the previous speaker, if we've been running the same 11 routes for the last how many years, we need to reassess those routes. Because when I look at the buses, I see onesies and twosies on the buses. So we can do a better job planning the bus routes, the timing of the bus routes, which again saves money and fuel. Thank you.

Well, when we're seeing the buses, they may have just dropped off a load of folks. So it may be onesies and twosies, but it may have been 20s and 30s. Councilman Claunch, you're recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Again, with respect to everyone, thank you for that comment because in North Clarksville, the buses are heavily utilized. We have a concern about our youth getting involved in nefarious activities. I have a neighbor across the street. There's five of them. They work all day. They get on the bus to go to the mall to spend their money. It's not a bad thing. Uh, so maybe in various parts of towns, they are not utilized correctly or as efficiently, but I would say North Clarksville, new prop area, they most definitely are. That's all I have.

Councilman Holloman, you're recognized.

Thank you, mayor. So we were talking about efficiency and just how much the buses are actually utilized. I can just tell you just for my ward and surrounding wards of what I see. And again, you know, this is just my area of the city, but um, you know, one onesies and twosies, um, That's about right. I would say probably max between like four and six people is what I've counted, and I do pay attention to it to the point of I always wonder if, and again, this is just from Ward 7's perspective, but if about four people ride a bus at one go, then why do we have these extra large buses? Wouldn't it be more cost effective to go with a smaller short bus, so to speak, as far as fuel efficiency and then maneuverability? But it's kind of kind of my thinking on that. But thank you.

Councilman Zacharias on this part of the question.

Thank you, Mayor. I would just like to point out that while we're sitting here talking about things that we could be doing, just after we heard the director of CTS tell us that it costs money to do the analysis that needs to be done to make CTS work better, work for the people, work better for the people in Clarksville. If people aren't using the bus, and yes, I've had a lot of reason to look into this lately, and the example that I like to use is the Walgreens at the corner of Tiny Town and Trenton. There's a Walgreens at the corner of Tiny Town and Trenton, and there's a Walgreens at the corner of Trenton and Wilma Rudolph. So it makes it a really easy picture to paint. Those two Walgreens are four miles apart, four and a half miles apart. And if you want to take a bus from one to the other, it takes an hour and a half. So that means if you live in Tylertown and you want to work at that Walgreens, you've got to ride a bus an hour and a half to get to work. And that's assuming the bus is going to get there when you need it to. we are not going to make CTS relevant for everybody in the city by chopping its legs out from under it. Thank you.

Councilman Smith, you're recognized.

Thank you, Mayor. When I give the monthly report for the transit department, I have said almost every month that about 45,000 people rise to the bus monthly. That's the monthly total. sometimes $45,000, anywhere from $45,000 to $43,000, $50,000 a month. Some people look at it from a day-to-day perspective, but we total it up monthly. And that also includes seniors riding, about 9,000 seniors riding a month free. So we need to really think about cutting the $50,000 from this bus system the only transportation we have here in Clarksville that seems to be pretty dependable. And I just hope we think about that. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilman Shekinah, the closing argument.

Yes, thank you, Mayor. One of the previous speakers mentioned it would cost money for an analysis. If I was running a department Well, if I was doing something the same thing over and over and over, I would have a very good idea of what's working and what's not working. I wouldn't have to pay an outside entity to come in and spend money to do it and not take it away from the department. But I'm addressing the previous speaker who made that comment about the analysis and the cost of the analysis. So I don't think it would cost money to look at redoing these things or running better routes or the timing of better routes, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Thank you.

Thank you. Any more comment or question regarding this part of the question? Seeing none, are we ready to vote? Every member, please cast your vote. Every member voted. Any member wish to change their vote? Madam Clerk, take the vote.

Five yes, eight no, zero abstain.

Amendment fails. We are now on the final part of the question. Councilman Shekinah, have you recognized?

Yes, Mayor. Parks and Recs, $50,000. Motion for approval.

Second.

Motion been made and properly seconded. Councilman Lovato, you're recognized.

Thank you, Mayor. I don't have any questions. I'm just going to articulate a concern. I appreciate what the Councilman from Ward 11 is doing tonight, but $50,000 from Parks and Rec that has already been cut significantly. I have the list pulled up here, and I feel like a third of this is already Parks and Rec. In the comment, it says part-time employees, and I just want to let the council know that those part-time employees include the youth summer camp programs that are keeping our kiddos busy while their parents work and school is not in session. It is staffing our pools where kiddos are going and they're getting the exercise that they need. It is, you know, taking care of our park. So please do not discredit the worth of our part-time employees. Thank you.

Councilman Streetman, you're recognized.

Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate what the previous councilperson said, and I'd actually totaled everything up off of our spreadsheet of the fiscal year 27 budget changes, and this doesn't take into account the $87,000 that was taken from both Mason Rudolph and Swan Lake, but so far Parks and Recreation has already taken a hit of $429,352. So, Like she stated, they've already taken a substantial hit, which is a lot of equipment, including equipment that's important for our citizens to be able to utilize. The Mary Court ball fill lighting, the baby pool replacement at New Providence Pool, fencing repairs and replacement, basketball court repair. So there's already been a considerable amount that has been cut from their budget. I feel like another $50,000, that's another huge hit. Same way I felt about IT, but just giving you the total number of where we're at on theirs.

Councilman Shekinah, closing arguments.

Yes, thank you, Mayor. We have part-time employees. We have advertisement right now for people to be hired. We don't have a budget. So those people are probably not going to be hired so we can hold off on hiring those people.

Thank you Thank you. Any more comment or question regarding this portion of the question Seeing none hearing none. Are you ready to vote all members? Please cast your vote Every member voted in member wish to change their vote madam clerk. Please take the vote five.

Yes eight No, zero abstain amendment fails councilman Shakina

That's it, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, let me just say I want to caution us from using year-end numbers because the books of the city have not been closed yet. They're not going to be closed until the end of August. So the numbers that you may see or have are not necessarily the final numbers that will go into the fiscal year audit. So just wanted to say that. Councilman Streetman for amendments.

Yes, sir. I'm trying to cross off the bottom one. So bear with me just one second, because if we didn't approve 50, we certainly aren't going to improve the amount that I have on here. And so I apologize. Bear with me one more second. I'm almost to the end. Let me make sure I do. Thank you, sir. I have one. Thank you. Oh, I'm missing some here. There's more that goes with that. All right. This is again trying to bring back these road projects. As you can see, crossed off the transit. that I'd had on there, but this is, again, trying to... You'll hang on just a minute till we get to the end over here. You'll have to wait because I had to cross it out.

Okay, you're recognized.

All right, this is to fund one year on these projects for us to be able to do the Needmore Road project, Memorial Drive extension, and Rossview Road capital projects. One of the things that we are – I'll talk on it. Let me first make a motion for approval.

Motion been made and properly seconded. You're recognized.

Thank you, Mayor. One of the things that we hear about year-round is the need for improvements to our infrastructure projects. we have got to get moving forward on these projects. Everybody consistently, that is the top thing that I hear about, and I imagine it's the top thing every one of us hear about, is the need to improve our infrastructure. And I know the statement was made last time, we need to finish projects we have before we start any others. However, if we're going to do one project at a time, that's going to take considerably longer, one or two projects at a time, it's going to take substantially longer to be able to finish our projects. We can be in one stage of one project and moving on and doing another stage of another project. But in order to do that, we've got to move forward. People have been asking for a very long time for us to be able to move forward and get our road projects done because they're on the road every single day. Talk about riding an hour on the bus, well, you spend considerable amount of time sitting in traffic. So I'm asking once again, it's to the tune of 512,500 will cover the interest to be able to get these 3 projects moving forward and that's the 4.7 for Ross at 4.7 for need more 4.5 for Memorial extension and 1 million dollars to get the process started and try and move us up some on the list for the Ross view road project I would appreciate your support on this for my benefit for our benefit and for everyone's benefit in Clarksville.

Councilman Lovato, you're recognized on this question.

Thank you, Mayor. I just want to clarify, my statement last time was not that we should only do one or two road projects at a time, and that is not my statement this time. I have said a handful of times this budget season, we have a debt problem, and we're not asking enough questions about how much debt we're going into. This is over $1.5 million that we're adding to the debt. with no clear five-year, ten-year forecast about what this is going to do for future tax rates. Yes, we need to focus on the infrastructure, but until we fully understand as a council what is going on with our debt, we should not keep approving these projects.

Councilman Claunch, you're recognized.

Uh, thank you, Mr mayor. I concur with my fellow council member, but also you, you made a statement, sir. And I'd like to get your clarification about understanding that the numbers won't be fully codified until August. And this is from the city website from the finance department. There's $9 million. What is the. I look at it as spades and sandbags, right? Like, do I have five in a P or do I have two and I'm sandbagging three or four? So we have an access currently of $8.993 million that is going to get rolled over at the end of August when everything gets closed down. Are we off by $8.993 million?

What do you mean off?

Because you said earlier that, like, you can't. You can't use this as the end of year because we still have to close everything down in August.

Right.

Well, we currently have, at the end of May, almost $9 million that we're waiting to close off at the end of August. So what is the actual number? And I would argue it's probably not $9 million to get us closer to identify some of the debt and where the monies are going. This is from our own finance department on the website accessible to everyone in the city. I'm just asking. I understand that among abundance of caution.

Right.

But $9 million is a lot of caution. Or is it not a lot of caution? To me, it seems like it's a whole lot of caution.

Well, $9 million is real money in my house. So it is... typically money that we count on roll over into the next year and use as unobligated money that we will then appropriate in the current fiscal year budget that we're in, 26-27. So $9 million may show, but it may not be the final number. But the finance department usually projects that, and that's part of the revenue picture. We start out with a starting fund balance, and here's what we are using. And then here's the projected revenue, property tax, sales tax, fees, et cetera, et cetera.

No, I understand.

I'm not answering your question directly because and I'm not avoiding the question. I'm just trying to get to. The answer that you need.

Well, it's just, again, to the fellow councilman, it's just understanding the debt that we have, this rollover money. What is the actual, a more accurate number? Because $9 million, I also, that's grown folks money. But what is that number? Is it $4.5 million that we have to finish the debt and we're going to roll over $4.5 million? Because that's several pennies. Is it $6 million? Because that's... several more pennies. What is that number? Understanding that bills have to get paid and it rolls over into the next year's budget. But if If I allocate X dollars and then have an overage, well, then I probably need to bring that down for my internal house functioning fund, so to speak. And that maybe can go into a vacation fund. Well, $9 million is one heck of a vacation fund.

Well, there's no vacations being taken, I promise you that.

Understood. But what is that number? What is a more accurate representation of, at the end of August, it's not $9 million. What's going to get rolled over into the next year's budget?

Finance, do we, can you help answer that question? What was the, I guess the amount of money that we reclaimed from departments that gave back is how we refer to it.

That process, sorry. We start that process in April. A lot of the departments do it in March. So there's quite a bit of changes that can be made. But I'm not exactly sure. I would love to see what you're looking at to see.

Okay. So you are looking. These are May 31st statements. Sorry. Excuse me.

Those are statements from our financial statements ending May 31st. So we still have a whole other month. And at the moment, I could not give you a number. That would have to be a discussion that I would have with each department head where they can tell me what they think they still have left to spend. And then we could come back with a number.

And that's fair. But we have some historical data somewhere that would say it's not $9 million. Is it?

It's not 9 million because that is missing a whole month of payables and all that.

So let's say that it's 6 million, right? That's 3 million. And I understand I'm not asking you to pin something down, but again, we're still talking about grown folks' money. We're talking about millions of dollars that could lower a tax rate that we haven't been able to pass in five readings. This is our fifth, right?

Can you give me one moment to grab a piece of paper? Absolutely. Sorry. I thought we had a number that we do not, so I cannot give it to you. Oh, our payroll for the city general fund for one payroll, which is two weeks is $2.8 million. Okay. So we'll call that three and you, you would have at least two or three in that last month.

Okay. So six. So there's still $3 million.

Well, you still also have all of your electric bills, any supplies you've bought,

These are just questions that I can't answer from my constituents and I'm, this isn't a stump to jump. This is, I need to be able to explain this and what a great forum for us all to try to understand and flatten it together. So we're not rolling over 9 million. No, we're not rolling over 1 million. We're not rolling over 2 million. Like what is the, again, I, I'm not, this isn't a stump to chomp. I mean, what's the, I understand we all want to have the access. We want a cushion. What is that cushion?

And I would love to have the time to get back to you on that number.

Okay.

Give you an accurate one.

Yes, ma'am. I appreciate it.

Is that it, Councilman?

It is. Thank you, sir.

Thank you. Councilman Chandler, you're recognized.

You know, first of all, I don't understand the exact need of... the Memorial Drive extension that just with all the other places in town. Uh, you know, here a while back we had a businessman that offered us the property to cut over and not have to go all the way down that curvy road and not necessarily this body here, but the city council. voted it down because of ludolph town people didn't like the idea and so as you know on that i just it's going to be hard for me to explain to people again in north clarkville and downtown clarkville well we're going we're going to improve that road out there first y'all just you know wait a minute uh you know and and honestly and truthfully If you think about it, look at your e-mails. The people stop you on the street and whatnot. The citizens have spoke. The citizens are the ones that are telling me, I don't want my taxes increased, so you don't want your tax. Just like we all had a fellow that sent us an e-mail. No tax increase, period. None. My response back to him was, well, all right. what jobs you want us to cut, what services do you want us to cut, you pick them. Well, obviously, the citizens are picking, and they don't want us to increase expenditures for roadways and stuff. So I'm going to vote no on this for the simple fact that that's what you wanted, that's what you asked for, that's what I'm going to vote for. Thank you, Mayor.

Councilman Smith, you're recognized.

Thank you, Mayor. I have a question for Ms. Wilcox, please.

All right, what is it?

It's concerning what we're on right now.

Okay, what's the question so she can be prepared?

Okay. Does the city have access to borrow more money, or have we met our borrowing power?

Ms. Wilcox?

So in the state of Tennessee, there is no limit on what you can borrow for debt. Excuse me. However, for me, forecasting what we're spending in debt for our fiscal health, we have definitely met that. We're at at least $20 million a year in debt service, and I am not comfortable with any more than that.

Why?

Because we can't get a tax rate increase right now just to support the $20 million we already have, along with the inflation that each department is feeling. And just to throw out, too, the state of Tennessee has projected that sales tax revenue will be flat. There will be no growth in it. So our revenues, some of them are slowing down quite a bit outside of property taxes. So they're to be conservative. I'm not comfortable taking on more debt.

I think we're over debt. We're over, above, and beyond what we should have bought. I think we've done just right.

I can tell you it keeps me up at night.

Thank you for being honest. Another question. Thank you. I think we're about $200 million in debt. Is that correct? I would have to look for that. About $200 million, is that correct?

Well, if you look on your page 436 to 438 of the budget book.

Regina, can you pull that up real quick?

That's what it shows.

That's what it shows on those pages? Then, yes, that's what we're in debt for.

When will we pay off the first debt? Is that in 2027? I thought that's what I saw. I might be wrong.

Are you talking about the issue from 2009? They have their last debt payment in 2027. Who was that too?

I can't remember. Do you know?

No, I do not.

And then I know we borrowed some money from two of our departments. Um, I think it was CD and the water department. Uh, how did we pay them back?

So we borrowed 11 and a half million from gas and water last year. to address cash flow, but we did issue bonds after that, and that's how we repaid them with interest.

So just for the record and for the constituents, so we issued debt to repay them to departments? Correct.

One department.

One department. We didn't borrow anything from CDE?

No. No, thank you.

Okay. All right. Thank you. So that's the only one we borrowed from?

Yep.

Yes. Okay. All right. Good. Thank you.

Councilman Haywood, you're recognized. Thank you, Mayor. No questions for you. Thank you. Thank you. I said the same thing last meeting, as I will say this meeting. Nemore Road is falling apart. You drive down the road, your passenger wheels are kicking up asphalt. And on top of that, we have a fire department right up on the road. Chief Montgomery can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we've had two accidents involving our fire truck in the last year. And, I mean, it's a 35-mile-an-hour road. People go about 40, 45. So this widening needs to happen. So I'm in favor of it, and I appreciate you bringing it up, so I don't have to.

Councilman Streetman, closing arguments.

Thank you. And having seen the changes that have been made, In my lifetime, my grandmother lived on need more road. I know quite the difference between a long time ago now and now, um, for how much traffic is on there. Um, in regard to the memorial drive extension, it was even stated what a curvy road it is. Um, so for one thing, when you do widening, the plan is to smooth curves out as well to make that less curvy. And I know people have lost their lives on that road. um granted the light at the where memorial extension connects to 76 has been exceptionally beneficial and i again say thank you to representative curtis johnson for all his work to help us be able to get that that's been helpful in that but you still have a tremendous amount of traffic that will back up there and that road it's not just rudolph town that's on that road we have houses that are consistently being built on that road So it's continuing to get more and more and more. So the backup that they're currently already experienced on there is going to just continue because, like I said, there's nothing we can do to stop those houses being built along there. It's already got zoning to be able to do it. They are building them over there and it's making that situation worse. This also is going to allow the road. The memorial extension project would allow it to be able to connect directly with an old farmers road rather than people going up to it, coming back, cutting across, cutting through the neighborhood over there. And I know the statement was made that we had Businessmen come up here and be willing to give us the road to give us the property to build a road on his property to which would of course Benefit his development and I had more than one developer make the comment to me Hey, just so you know if you build his y'all are building hours so if you want to set a precedence with the city building roads within development so that the developers don't have to then that passing this is exactly what's going to happen and So if we wanted to do that, we could. I also spoke with the street department at that time that even if you had that road going through and connecting, and I talked to Mr. Crowlin about it, and I know he's very educated on everything that has to do with it, and I know we miss him being here. But as an engineer, I was quite confident in his opinion on it that even with building, if we were to build that road, we would still have to make the improvements to Memorial Extension. So either way you look at it, those improvements are needed on Memorial Extension. They've been part of the transportation plan since 2021. Rossview Road is one that, without a doubt, I know it wasn't mentioned in conversations here, without a doubt, we need the state to start moving on that project in order to be able to do it. We have got to start doing the lead work to get that project going because they already got it widened outside the county. We need it widened inside the county as well. There's a tremendous amount of people that travel that and with you having the wider part there and only more that is coming outside of there. It's only going to continue to get worse in there. So I along with the previous person spoke with appreciate your support because these road projects, the longer we wait, the more they cost. They cost more than when we first planned for them. They're going to cost more every day, every year that we continue to wait to be able to do these because inflation is hitting this like anything else. And it's been really rough in the construction industry. So I would ask for your support on this and let's get Clarksville moving.

all right that concludes our comments and questions on this portion of the amendment are you ready to vote all members please cast your vote every member voted any member wish to change their vote madam clerk take the vote six yes six yes seven no zero abstain amendment fails councilman streetman that's all i had mayor all right councilman brown you're recognized for amendments nothing you're wrong Councilman Haywood, you're recognized for amendments?

No need to beat the need more road horse. We're good.

Councilman Holloman, you're recognized for amendments? No amendments. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Smith, amendments?

No, sir.

Councilman Marquis, amendments?

Yes, I have two.

All right. Pass them out, and then I'll come to you for explanation. Councilman Marquis, you're recognized for a motion and explanation.

Okay, so a little different, not by much, but instead of reducing the Parks and Rec amount of 1.2 million for the funds related to Ajax, I'm reducing it to reduce the tax rate. So I will make a motion. Second.

Motion been made and properly seconded. In favor of this amendment, you're recognized, Councilman Marquis. So...

our meeting a few days ago the city will not be able to utilize this until well into December maybe the next new year in which case it's just money that will potentially be sitting in our account we can't utilize the building until court proceedings so I would rather see this go down bring the tax rate down. So again, that's really the logic here. We can't use it. It's just going to sit there until something happens in either court or we get new counsel and mayor seats come January. That's the reality. And that is why I'm presenting this the way I am today.

All right. You've heard the explanation. Any comment or question? Are you ready to vote? All members, please cast your vote. Every member voted. Any member wish to change their vote? Madam Clerk, take the vote.

Six yes, seven no, zero abstain.

Amendment fails. Councilman Marquis, you're recognized for amendments. All right. Councilman Marquis, you're recognized on your amendment.

All right, so we may need Ms. Wilcox up here eventually, but this is the same concept. It's an attempt to reduce the tax rate by a couple pennies from the debt service fund since we have a transfer from the general fund, and there is a difference in... the funds shown should see in one section of the budget compared to section four and I can get into that a little bit more depth but I will make a motion for this amendment here motion been made and properly seconded you're recognized in section four of our budget books that we can find on the agenda tonight it identifies the fiscal year 2027 debt service requirement of 19 million 145 thousand and 58 dollars however Our operating budget appropriates $20,145,058, with a difference of $1 million. So if the requirement is $1 million, we're actually moving an additional $1 million from the general fund into this. And so that is the difference, essentially, that I am reducing here. That's the logic there. CHAIRMAN BRYANT.

Okay. You've heard the explanation. Any comment or question? Councilman Lovato, you're recognized.

Thank you, Mayor. Can we get Ms. Wilcox up here to explain the impact that this is going to have?

Sure. Ms. Wilcox? Councilman Lovato, you have the floor.

I'm not opposed to moving this, but can you explain the impact that this will have and possible repercussions?

So the $19 million that's on the debt service schedule are bonds that we have already borrowed. Those are bonds we must pay those debt service. However, we did approve, you did approve, a $42.5 million ban. We have not finalized that, so we had to estimate what it would be. But within that ban, we will be paying the city back for expenses they've already spent on capital projects, $12 million. It will also continue the financing of Tylertown and Spring Creek Parkway. So the extra million that we are moving is an estimate on the band that is not finalized as of yet.

If you don't mind, get to your microphone a little closer.

I just want to make sure that I'm understanding, I'm tracking the money appropriately. You said essentially this million dollars is $12 million in repaying the city back. Whose budget is that in? Walk me through that, please.

So $12 million has been spent out of the general fund to pay for capital project expenditures. We don't issue the debt until there's really a need. to issue debt because of the interest rates and the cost of issuance. So a lot of times we end up using general fund money to use on capital projects, such as Spring Creek and Tylertown, and I believe the Customs House Museum. Those kinds of things we will pay. Now when we issue the debt, we are going to pay back the general fund $12 million.

So did we come out of pocket for some of those projects because they were over budget, or what's going on?

It's the normal practice for city governments. It's called pay as you go. So as much as possible, in order to forego those interest costs and the debt costs, you will pay as you go out of pocket as much as you can until it... So it necessitates issuing debt.

So if we move this and we don't pay ourselves back, is there a department that is going to be in the negative based on the budget that's presented to us?

Not a specific department, no. We will all have to absorb that $12 million in some way.

OK, that's all the questions I have.

Now, the $1 million is anticipated interest payment for the bond anticipation note that part of that is reimbursing the city for expenses that we've incurred out of pocket.

Correct. And to finish, Tylertown, Spring Creek Parkway.

Right.

Okay. Thank you. All right. Any more comment or question regarding this amendment? Councilman Zacharias, you're recognized.

Thank you, Mayor. I just want to restate this as I understand it. So the council approved a, uh, uh, banking anticipation note, um, so that we could finish Tyler town and spring Creek parkway. And what we're considering cutting from the budget right now is paying back the money that we agreed to borrow. That does not seem like it makes a whole lot of sense. On one hand to say, yes, we authorize the city to issue this bank anticipation note, and then two months later say, but we're not going to appropriate the money to make the payments on that debt. I think this is a bad idea.

Thank you. Thank you. Any more comment or question? All right. Are we ready to vote on this amendment? All members, please cast your vote. Every member voted. Any member wish to change their vote? Madam Clerk, take the vote.

3 yes, 10 no, 0 abstain.

Amendment failed. Councilman Marquis, you're recognized on amendments.

That's all I have.

Thank you. Councilman Chandler? None. Councilman Peters? None, Mr. Mayor. Councilman Clonch?

None, Mr. Mayor.

Councilman Zacharias? No, sir. All right. Any further discussion regarding Ordinance 98 as amended? Councilman Lovato, you're recognized.

Yes, mayor. I just want to, um, make a statement. I am going to vote in favor of this budget tonight because we need to move forward. But I do not believe that this budget is the final product. We need to make some more cuts and get that tax rate down. Thank you.

Councilman Smith, you recognized on the ordinance as amended.

Yes. After the gives up deductions, how much money are we bringing forth for the new tax rate?

It's negligible. It's immaterial. I mean, it's pennies, not pennies on the tax rate, but chump change.

So what are we voting on? What tax rate are we voting on tonight?

$1.02. $1.02.

I want to make an amendment.

Put it in writing, please. You want to do it in second reading? If we survive it? Because if we don't survive it, it's a moot point.

I just want to make an amendment to keep the tax rate at the same amount that we have now. I can do it at the second reading if you want. Okay. I'll do it at the second reading.

All right. Okay. We're now voting on Ordinance 98 as amended. Every member, please cast your vote. Every member voted. Any member wish to change their vote? Madam Clerk, take the vote.

Seven yes, six no, zero abstain.

Ordinance 98 passes first reading. Hallelujah. All right. We're now ready for public comment. Any member of the public wish to address the council? The purpose for which this special session of the Clarksville City Council, having been accomplished, I will entertain a motion to... Brother Bill, you coming to speak to us? All right. Give us your name, and you've got five minutes. Pull that microphone down if you don't mind. Brother Bill.

My name is Mr. Bill, a hard-working man in Clarksville. and uh i had to say about the clarksville transit they are the best in all the country and they do the best they can keep the buses running on time and stuff and a lot of times the traffic slows them down and stuff and uh and they uh They think it's safety too, and they are, I'll tell you, they know how to treat the public right in a mighty way. And I'd like to see, let me tell you, I came up here in 93 from Hollywood, Florida. And I've seen this town, this city grow, and this past couple years it's growing like wildfire. And I'd like to see this, I'd like to see this fire department get a little more equipment and stuff because later on they're going to need it. And I'd like to thank you for letting me give my comment.

Thank you, Brother Bill. Anybody else? Now, the purpose for which the special session of the Clarksville City Council having been accomplished, I will entertain. It's already been made. Without objection, we're adjourned. See you.