City Council - Regular Meeting

Scooted all the way down to it.

with a word of prayer and a pledge of allegiance. If you would like, please feel free to join us. Ms. Isby, can I ask you a word of prayer, please? Sure.

If you'll bow with me, our gracious Heavenly Father, we want to thank you for all the abundant blessings that you've given us. We thank you, Lord, for this city that you have blessed us with. We just ask, Lord, that you lead and guide us in the directions that we go, and we just pray, Lord, that you get the honor and the glory that you're so deserving of. In your name we pray. Amen.

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

And before we start tonight, we're going to sing happy birthday to Miss Denise Hurd. Troy, would you start us off?

Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Denise. Happy birthday to you.

Can somebody tell me who these are from?

I'll take them off your hands if you need me to. All right. Now call this meeting to order. Ms. Hurd, would you call the roll, please?

Yes, sir. Mr. Hawkins? Here. Mr. Grimes? Here. Mr. Spergers? Here. Ms. Mill? Here. Mr. Ledbetter? Here. Mr. Hawks? Here. And Ms. Isby? Here.

You should have received copies of the minutes from the May 26, 2026 City Council meeting. Any corrections, changes, or comments?

Make a motion for approval as submitted. Second.

I have a motion and a second to approve the minutes as submitted. Any further discussion? All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Seven to zero. First up, we have the monthly financial report ending May 31, 2026. Mr. Winningham.

The council and everybody watching at home. We are looking at the month of May. And. We've talked pretty much all year about how ugly the general fund looks and it hadn't really got much prettier. So I did a little bit deeper dive on that. We have had the same scenarios this year that we have every year when it comes to large expenditures early on in the year. Usually by now we've started to turn around and the primary reason we have not this year is the two departments that are relatively new, the community center and then emergency operations is not a new department, but we're operating it in a completely new manner and being the sole PSAP for the county. So the issue, the tricky part with those two departments is when it comes to community center, we're just now getting into the busy season to where we should see revenue for that facility really start to ramp up. And that we're just at the beginning of that cycle. So we still don't yet know what that's gonna look like. When it comes to the emergency operations center tricky part there is number one we've got the large radio project that we took on last year so that's an expense that's affects these numbers that you see but it's not going to be an ongoing you know once we do that that project's done the other tricky part there is the primary revenue source the 911 fees from the state board only comes in quarterly so we'll have a receipt come in and then over the next two to three months you're going to see you'll see you know that position start to look worse then we'll get a receipt make it better it'll start to get worse so that's just something we're just going to have to kind of deal with typically those receipts come in march june october and december so when we look at the june financials we should have another 9-1-1 board receipt accounted for in here and that should help that scenario look better excuse me When it comes to sales tax, which is something we talk about every month in the month of May, we were up 3.3%, which for the year puts us up 3.4. So we're tracking right along on budget there. State turned back. Mr. Hawkins, you asked about this one month and I didn't fully understand your question and I want to. Correct it now. So state turn back.

You're correcting the question?

My answer.

Okay.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

So your question was, you thought we received that in a sort of uneven manner. And I said, no, sir, it comes in pretty even through the year. Well, from the state of Arkansas, it comes in pretty even through the year. But the portion that is not even is the portion related to lot fee. And that number is included in with the revenue number you see here. So the lot fee portion of the state turn back we get, we'll start to get it in July. And that should help the general fund fairly significantly as well when it comes to the bottom line. And you'll see on the May financials for the property tax, we got our first big receipt from the county there for the first round of property tax bills that have been paid. So that was good. Uh, moving on to the street fund, it's looking a little beat up as well. It's going to continue to look that way until we start to get our connect Conway reimbursements. Which, as I understand is kind of on hold at the moment. So. We're kind of at the mercy of of Washington there. But the sanitation airport funds both look look healthy and well, nothing to report there. And that's all I've got to nightmare.

On the Connect Conway, I think the street funds right now are about $2 million into that. That will be reimbursed to us, but that's one reason that line item looks pretty tough right now. But right now, for some reason, Washington has put a pause on all that. They've not cut it off. We will be reimbursed for that, but we have stopped until we get that reimbursement and make sure that moving forward we will as well.

So that problem is in D.C., then, is that correct?

Correct.

Thank you. Do we anticipate that to be corrected?

In the conversations we have had, they said that it will proceed, but we don't know what the holdup is at the moment. But we have made the decision, as well as our partners that we're working with, to hold up. not move forward, not make any more investments until we do recoup the money that we have invested and are sure that we will be reimbursed moving forward.

Good idea.

Any questions for Mr. Winningham? I'll take a motion if there are no questions.

I'll make a motion that we approve the monthly financial reports ending May 31st.

I have a motion and a second to approve the monthly financials. Any further discussion?

One other question, Mr. Mayor. Yes, sir. We started seeing sales tax numbers coming in on the situation that was voted on in November of last year. Not yet. Those will start coming in pretty quickly, though, will they not?

We should get our first receipt this week.

Okay.

For the April sales.

Very good. Thank you.

It's heard.

All in favor say aye.

Aye. Any opposed? Passes seven to zero. Thank you, Mr. Winningham. Next up, we have community development. Mr. Hawkins, turn this over to you, sir.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. First item on this portion of the agenda is approving, waiving all the reading, all three readings for ordinances on tonight's agenda, and I'll take a motion to that effect.

So moved.

have a motion and a second to approve the waving of all three readings tonight for the june 23rd 2026 council meeting any further discussion there are eight there are eight of those there are eight of those uh on our agenda this evening my bad let me turn my hearing aids up okay i'll lean in closer one now we have one now any further discussion

Miss Heard.

All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

That passes seven to zero. I really did turn them up.

Mr. Hawkins. Next item, Mr. Mayor, is an ordinance approving the private club location for Longshot Lounge Off Club, LLC. It's located at 1012 Oak Street, right in the middle of downtown Conway. And we have an ordinance to read for this item. It's ordinance 026.

36 36 and i believe the applicant is here am i correct you gentlemen like to approach the podium, state your name and address for the record, and see if the council has any questions for you. Welcome to Conway, by the way.

Thank you so much for having us. Hi, everyone. My name is Brandon Proenza, co-owner of the Longshot Lounge Golf Club. I have ran businesses in downtown Conway since 2023, and I've always believed in the potential growth that downtown Conway has. My co-owner, Dave, and I came up with an idea together to allow golfers to now golf all four seasons instead of packing up their golf clubs come the end of fall. Our goal is to cater to all golfers new and old to the game, including lessons, leagues, and eventful ways to bring our community together. We have now opened a safe space for all golfers to be welcome to our facility. We are excited to grow with downtown Conway and cannot wait for what the future holds. Thank you for everyone for having us here today, and I look forward to introducing myself if we haven't already. Thank you.

Council, any questions?

I've been there already, and it's a lot of fun. Thank you so much. I'll recommend it.

Council, back to you.

Good motion for the approval of the ordinance. Second.

I have a motion and a second to approve this ordinance, approving a private club location for Longshot Lounge and Golf Club at LLC. Any further discussion? It's heard.

Ms. Mell? Aye. Mr. Hawks? Yes. Mr. Grimes?

Aye.

Mr. Ledbetter? Yes. Mr. Spergers?

Aye.

Mr. Hawkins? Yes. Ms. Bisbee? Yes.

That passes 7-0. Welcome, gentlemen.

Thank you. Mr. Hawkins. Excited, Mr. Mayor, is the resolution to approve the proposal for ridge lighting and holiday decor for the Conway Advertising and Promotion Commission. And we have a resolution to be read for this. Resolution is R26. 26. 26. Rachel Shaw is here to present.

Rachel, we all know your name, but if you would, give your name and address for the record, please.

Rachel Shaw, 4350 Gazebo Drive, Conway, Arkansas. I'm here to represent the AMP Commission. So the idea came about to basically amp up Christmas in Conway, even more so than what we already do, including some holiday decor and ridge lighting throughout downtown. The downtown partnership reached out to some vendors, talked to them about... what their capabilities are. Tiffany in planning handled the RFP process. AMP commission reviewed the proposals and made selections on two vendors, one for the holiday decor items and then a separate for the ridge lighting throughout downtown. So they chose the option for the ridge lighting that was based on price. They were the cheapest per linear foot and they were a local company.

Rachel, this ridge lighting will not only be useful at Christmastime, but it will be useful the rest of the year as well, won't it?

Yes, the ridge lighting can be programmed throughout the year, all 12 months. It should have the capabilities to use different colors and really enhance downtown.

LED lighting?

Yes, that is correct. As I understand it. Very good.

final thing is christmas be here before you know it uh it's halfway through the year already now so any questions miss shaw this funding does come with amp commission correct yes fully funded by the amp commission we do we typically vote on np commission it's i think it's because of the size of the project we wanted to bring we wanted to bring this to council

just to make you aware that yeah yeah yes fully funded by the amp commission they have the funds in their reserves and who will monitor or control the lights that's a good question We're still working out all of the details of the implementation. So the AMP Commission just approved it on June 8th, and so we have intentionally not taken any steps until you all had the chance to sign off on it.

Just put a big switch down in y'all's office. Okay.

I'll list that as an option.

Tim needs a remote. Yeah. This is fun. Council, back to you.

make a motion for the adoption of the resolution r2626 i have a motion and a second to approve this resolution approving the proposal for ridge lighting and holiday decoration for the amp commission any further discussion this is also going to be a safety issue it will provide additional safety and lighting in the downtown area and i think that from that standpoint it's a very positive move thank you mr arnold miss heard

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Passes seven to zero. Thank you, Rachel.

Thank you.

Mr. Hawkins.

Next item, Mr. Mayor, is consideration to approve a conditional use permit to allow a stationary store in the 03 zone for property at 703 Donaghy. This conditional use request was reviewed by the Planning Commission at their June 20th meeting. and be forwarded to City Council with a recommendation of approval. There is no vote that is given on that. Ms. Tucker, are you here? Yes, there you are.

That's okay. What was your question? I'm sorry about the memo.

Just the vote on this. It says it was forwarded to City Council with a recommendation of approval, but it doesn't say whether it was unanimous or 5-4. Yes, it was a 7-0 vote. Thank you.

unanimous to approve.

Are the applicants here, Ms. Tucker? Yeah. Would you like to come up so folks at home can kind of get an idea of what you're talking about?

Yes. The applicant has asked for a conditional use permit for property at 703 Donaghy. If you'll remember, it was the old Fredosian Foot Clinic.

That's the building we're talking about. Yes.

And they want to put a stationary store in there, and it's an O3 zoning, and so it will require CUP. There are a list of conditions in your packet that the applicant has agreed to, each and every one of them, the hours of operation, all of the regulations, and they're just asking for your consideration. And Mr. Kahn, I'm going to mess his name up, Kahn's father is here to speak.

Oh no, if you would please state your name and address for the record, Sir.

Sir, my name is Eric Kinsfather and my address. My address is 17 Cobalt Cove, Greenbrier, AR and I've had the privilege of serving this community at Conway Regional Medical Center for 27 years and my wife and I would like to take this opportunity to give. Conway and the surrounding area, unique shopping experience with fine writing instruments and stationary products. I'm curious.

Tell us a little more about it, about your store.

Well, we've got, we've got a, it's a deep and wide rabbit hole actually. That's kind of fascinating. We're actually headed to the St. Louis pen show in a couple of days. There are pen shows all throughout the country. We've already been to San Francisco, Chicago, and Orlando already this year. We've got Dallas coming up. We've got Orlando again. We want to bring this experience to Conway and the surrounding area. There's nothing actually like that here in the state at the moment where, frankly, folks are really tired of looking at these all the time. and um i don't know the last time you wrote a letter or received a letter in the mail and that's a whole night that's a whole lot different than getting an email though isn't it and it's neat to get something like that yeah and so we're we're trying to get um more intentional living through analog tools pen and paper um bringing that to this area so we're excited to potentially bring that if this is like luxury pens park water correct yes yes awesome I also do some vintage restoration of old pens as well. Nice. Awesome.

Do you have anything that can help me write legibly?

Come see us, Mayor, and we'll help you out. Can't even read my own writing.

Thank you, sir. Any more questions, Council? I would motion for adoption of the conditional use permit.

Second.

I have a motion and a second to approve this conditional use permit to allow a stationary store in 03 Zone at 703 Donaghy. Any further discussion?

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Passes seven to zero. Thank you.

Thanks, Eric.

Mr. Hawkins. Final item here, Mr. Mayor, is an ordinance amending the boundary for the city by releasing certain property. de-annexing locations in Section 23, Township 6 North, Range 14 West, off of Highway 25. Troy, translate that for us, please.

I'll be glad to. Earl Rogers. Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Good evening, Council. As stated, the applicant is requesting property located on the northeast boundary of the City of Conway be released from the city, be remitted back to the county. Property is located along Highway 25, just due west of beaver fort park and i would say most of us would refer to this simply as the earl rogers property The Allen family and the Hill family have submitted this request on behalf of the current owners, the Earl Rogers family, and the request is being made due to lack of adequate city services and the expense to extend water service due to the sparse number of inhabitants in the area. I'll be glad to answer any questions that I can. One of the applicants, Mr. David Hill, is here tonight, and he could probably shed more information on what they plan to do. Any questions you have for him as well?

I don't know if this is a question for you, or he is there any planned development out there or they are planning some residential development for just the 2 families as I understand. And then the reason for this is really just to avoid the expense of bringing city utilities out there.

Yes, as well as if it remained in the city, there would be some additional expenses as well, such as road construction, fire considerations, things like that. It is a relatively large piece of property, but it has a very, very small footprint as far as street frontage along Highway 25, which makes it a very not a great developable property for a large development to go into. But certainly Mr. Hill can elaborate on what they have planned for that. Did he drive in from Destin?

Did he drive in from Destin?

Yes.

We want him to come up and talk. If you drove in from Destin, come on up.

I'm David Hill, and like Mr. Troy said, I'm just one of the families, the Allen family is the other family that was also scheduled for vacation this week. But anyway, glad to be here and would like the opportunity to Again, introduce myself, but just let you know a little bit about the property, what we're wanting to do with it. It's not a large scale development. Like Mr. Troy said, we're looking at two, possibly a third family house. Both families have kids, small children, and we're just, you know, would like to have a little property for the kids to grow up on. Mr. Troy mentioned the cost. The cost is astronomical. Bringing utilities into that property and conway corp has worked very hard to um try to you know help us out any way they can and you know still we're still at a very high dollar amount to build three houses that's that's the request i commend you in wanting to raise your kids on some land yeah that's a good thing

Counsel, any questions for Mr. Hill or Mr. Rice?

Be careful going back. Yes, sir. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you.

Are you driving back tonight or sleeping a little bit?

I'll drive partway. All right. Be careful, Mr. Hawkinson.

Counsel, back to you.

I take a motion for adoption of the ordinance.

Second.

I have a motion and a second to adopt this ordinance to release certain property or de-index the Earl Rogers property. We'll just say that for short. Any further discussion? It's heard.

Mr. Grimes?

Aye.

Ms. Mill? Aye. Mr. Hawkins? Yes. Mr. Spergers?

Aye.

Ms. Isby? Yes. Mr. Ledbetter? Yes. Mr. Hawks?

Yes.

passes seven to zero thank you mr hawkins before we go to the public service portion of the meeting tonight i'd like to ask ann tucker to go over a change that will come back before the city council in july regarding uh temporary certificates of occupancy for commercial properties hello

When we amended the zoning code in January, we had the intention then of amending the TCO fees. Currently, they are $500 a month. Or the old zoning code said for 12 months, but what we found is that's very hard to enforce. So let's just say we have an apartment building. I'm not going to go over there and start a victim people because they don't have a permanent C of O. I'm not going to shut down businesses because of landscaping, that kind of thing. So we were looking for a metric to mitigate some of these ongoing issues. And the only way that we knew how to do that was through the fee. So in the original zoning, or the change that we made in January, this was always the intent. But the way it read, we would have had to start charging people with misdemeanors and taking them through district court, which is not something that we cared to do. So this is the fix. And I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Council, this will not come back for you for another month. There'll be plenty of time to look over this and call Ann and ask her specifics about what she's talking about.

I'm curious on the goal is to simplify what enforcement looks like and to not be overly punitive. Is that accurate?

right i don't want to start charging people with misdemeanors and it the the way it currently reads that is the path it would have to go through district court and then the fees assessed and all that kind of stuff we would have to actually charge them with a crime which is not something right we're trying to do understood and who uh who owns collections on these Well, the permits department is who builds out the TCOs and collects them. But all the departments have to sign off on a final certificate of occupancy just to make sure that everything's done. And again, if it's just landscaping, we will drop those fees during a season that they can't plant. But what we found with several businesses is they've gone through two to three planting seasons and still not planted. And that's what we're trying to avoid.

Any more questions, Ms. Tucker? Thank you, Ann. Thank you again, Mr. Hawkins. Yes, sir. Next up, we have an ordinance. We are in the Public Service Committee in order to appropriate funds for the Conway Animal Services for the Best Friend Animal Society Grant. Mr. Clausen. Yes, good evening.

David Mitchell was invited out to Utah by this outfit to learn some strategies to help our shelter. And he came back with some really good ideas. And this is a reimbursement for a scholarship grant that they provided to him to attend.

Make a motion for the adoption of the ordinance 02638. Is that correct, Ms. Hart?

Second. I have a motion and a second to approve this ordinance appropriating funds for the Conway Animal Services for the Best Friend Animal Society Grant. Any further discussion? It's heard.

Mr. Hawkins?

Yes.

Mr. Ledbetter? Yes. Ms. Isby? Yes. Mr. Hawk? Yes. Ms. Mill? Aye. Mr. Spergers? Aye. Mr. Grimes?

Aye. That passes seven to zero. Thank you, Spencer. Y'all keep up the good work out there. Next up, we have the Public Service Committee. and Public Safety Committee, I'm sorry. And we have an ordinance appropriating reimbursement funds from various entities for the Conway Police Department. Chief Harris. Good evening, counsel.

This first item, it's just several different reimbursements from different entities. And we just request that they be reallocated to their respective accounts. Obviously, the majority of them is extra duty work from our officers.

I'll make a motion for adoption of this ordinance.

Second.

I have a motion and a second to approve this ordinance to appropriate funds, reimbursement funds from various entities for the Conway Police Department. Any further discussion? Ordinance 2639.

Ms. Hurd. Mr. Spurters. Aye. Mr. Grimes. Aye. Mr. Hawkins. Yes. Mr. Hawks. Yes. Ms. Isby. Yes. Mr. Ledbetter. Yes. Ms. Mill. Aye.

That passes seven to zero. Chief, just hold your spot there. Next up, we have an ordinance appropriating asset forfeiture funds for various equipment within the Conway Police Department.

So the first item, we recently acquired an armored vehicle from the Bella Vista Police Department through the state LISO program. Um, we're requesting utilized funds from the asset forfeiture account to upfit it, paint job, put our decals on it, lights public. Um, so it's, it's not going to be used for everyday, obviously everyday patrol, any type use is going to be used more for high risk, um, barricaded suspects, hostage situations. It also can be used for it because it sits so high. I think, did y'all have a, I put some papers up that I didn't know if y'all had a V a picture of it. So go pass them around.

Here. We had anything. It looks like this before.

If not, I didn't think we had pass administrations have tried and then depends on who's in office or whatnot. Military stuff. Would be on hold, um, so with with this vehicle, it's through the Lisa. This is 1 of the things most a lot of times with the Lisa program, you have to keep something for a year. Then it's yours, so if you got rid of it, you could resell it or these are not. So, when Bella Vista, I believe we're getting something different. This came open for us, so if we have it 1 year, 2 years, 5 years. And we either get rid of it to get something else. We have to return it to another department or back to the state. So, like I said, we'll use forfeiture money for this. I don't like the way it looks, obviously. We make it look like our vehicles, but these also can be used during natural disasters, right? Flooding, debris removal, trying to get people out, so.

Just give me a I think something that looks military grade feels like a lot for us. Can you give me some real examples of times that we would use this? I mean, I heard natural disasters, but can we liken that back to other times?

I mean, there's oftentimes if you have, let's say somebody pinned down, right? Gunfire, you can drive that in. It's armored, bulletproof, right? If you have something where you put a public announcement system in there and you have a hostage situation or a barricade, you can drive that right up to the front door and not have to risk your officer's safety. So like I said, honestly, it would be utilized just in high risk. It won't be utilized just to probably utilize more for safety fair and people and kids looking at it, but it's better to have it and not need it. But to answer your question, militaristic, yes. I don't want it to look, you know, we'll paint it to our colors, put our stickers on it.

And then just one more kind of bigger picture question about asset forfeiture money. Where all is that coming from?

Majority of it is drug seizures, so it won't be taxpayer money. It'll be seizures from...

Seizures of drug money. Yeah, proceeds.

And other things too, right? Like when somebody you arrest and they're getting their ill-gotten gains from their criminal activity, so from bank seizures and everything. So basically it's seizures from criminals, but taxpayers, it's not any taxpayer money per se. Thank you.

I would just as soon not see this one pull through the Taco Bell drive-through. I hope it better not. It won't.

Council, back to you.

I'll make a motion for adoption of the ordinance.

Second.

I have a motion and a second to adopt this ordinance. Appropriating asset forfeiture funds for various equipment within the Conway Police Department. Any further discussion?

We'll have something else on there. what i still have something else on there oh i'm sorry so um just want to stop before you adopt it so the next item and then it's the two items that go together um give you a little background on this obviously our tasers are a lot of money so doing some digging um our our taser contract expires next december When we renew a contract, it's going to be roughly around 900,000 dollars. For 5 years, right? So I've looked at the previous administration. They had a different less lethal option that we never used. Um, it's remember the old pepper spray aerosol cans. Right that weren't very popular because if you sprayed 1 person, you got 10. Right so this is a new system. I know Benton police department uses it. They went away from tasers and I talked with them. This is a new system. Um, that when you spray it, it's not an aerosol. It's more of and I hate to use the term paste. But it's more of paste you get it. You can get it farther distance. shoot you know somebody and hit them where it just affects them for the most part i'm not saying 100 that that's what i want to go to but i think we got to do our due diligence and try to find because the way taser keeps raising prices every time it's not sustainable at some point So I'm requesting we have eight. I'm requesting using forfeiture money to buy four more. And we have four patrol shifts. Let two officers per shift carry it, plus our crime suppression unit. Try it out from now until sometime at the next year and see how it how it works out. Just to give you a when we did the math, Taser would be roughly around 900,000. We could outfit everybody at the department, which is not needed, but we could just doing the math. and have more cartridges that we need and it was only going to be around 125 000 so i think we at least need to look at that option and then the other item is for you have to have obviously go to train and have a trainer is there any way we could take a look at that uh prior to saying yeah we want to go to that system well and i don't know for sure that that's what we'll do that's why we're going to try it out we have eight already that y'all approved at some point many years ago i say many but back when the previous administration we just haven't never implemented them yet so that's why the training is coming back out that we need to send officers to get retrained that's something i just want to try out and see if the officers like better actually put out a a survey through the department And see out their thoughts and everything so. Um, you know, most of the department. And it's a good thing that a lot of people have never even used the taser, which is good in my opinion. Right? But roughly every year we don't use it that often. So, if we could go to something that's less expensive, but just as effective, I think we at least need to look at that. But to answer your question, we have paid at the police department. We could always set up something and go out. Is the $900,000 for the taser, is that all due at one time? No, it's over five years. So what you would spend. So you're about $200,000 in a year then. It just depends on which one, which. Yeah, it's roughly, you know, you could do one option where you're paying more towards the end of the five years. or you do it where it's even through every year that you're roughly, yeah, 130, 40. Yeah. So. another related question so a taser does it have an expiration date is that why you have to renew it like every five years it's it's taser um basically it's like anything they say oh hey we have this model okay great we buy that model two years down the road we have this model now we're fine with ours three or four years down the road but we're not making that anymore Right. So it's just, I mean, and I know the chief of Benton and that's why they went away. At some point you just, and you know, we, we've thought about a whole bunch of different things. We could implement some of this and then we could still have, you know, some tasers, right. That we had 120 that maybe we have 40 in the future, right. That people can check out instead of having 120 where we're spending nearly a million dollars.

Thank you. Any more questions of the chief? We have a motion and a second. Ms. Hurd.

This is ordinance 02640. Mr. Ledbetter? Yes. Mr. Spurgers? Aye. Mr. Hawkins? Yes. Ms. Bisbee? Yes. Ms. Mill? Aye. Mr. Grimes? Aye. Mr. Hawks? Yes.

Passes seven to zero. Thank you, Chief.

Thank you.

Last, we have the finance portion of our meeting tonight, and we have three ordinances all related to personnel within the Conway Fire Department. I'm sorry, within the City of Conway Fire We have first up is the Sanitation Department, and we have Adam Robinson from Sanitation. Adam Robinson from Sanitation.

Mayor, City Council, thank you all for having me. We just have an ordinance considering, asking you all to consider an ordinance proposing the restructure of the Department of Sanitation provisions to the Department Compensation Plan and updates to authorized position lists.

The cost to the Department of Sanitation, which will come out of their funding, not out of the general fund, will be $350,000 to get them aligned like they think they need to for the future.

That's for a full year? Yeah.

So we're looking at about $175,000. Is that right? That's my understanding, yes.

Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Robinson?

And all of this money, Mr. Mayor, is coming from the Sanitation Department?

Yes, sir.

It's not coming out of the general fund?

Not coming out of the general fund.

Okay.

Thank you.

Council, back to you. Move for adoption.

Second.

I have a motion and a second to adopt this salary fee for the Conway Sanitation Department. Any... There is an emergency clause. Yes, there is, because we're going to adopt this July 1st. I have a motion and a second to adopt this with the emergency clause. Any further discussion? It's heard.

Mel? Aye. Mr. Grimes? Aye. Mr. Spergers? Aye. Mr. Ledbetter? Yes. Ms. Isby? Yes. Mr. Hawks? Yes. Mr. Hawkins? Yes. And the emergency clause, Ms. Mel? Aye. Mr. Grimes? Aye. Mr. Spergers? Aye. Mr. Ledbetter? Yes. Ms. Isby? Yes. Mr. Hawks? Yes. Mr. Hawkins? Yes.

Yes. Those both passed 7-0. We appreciate the job that the Sanitation Department does. You did a great job. Next, we have the Transportation Department. An ordinance approving the restructuring of the Department of Transportation. We have Mr. Jones and Mr. Reynolds here.

Good evening. Good evening. Come on, Jacob. Yeah, I'll pull him up here if I need some muscle. So if you looked at this, you probably realized that it looks ours is structured fairly similar to sanitation department. We're similar in operation to them in that we're funded separately from the general fund. And if it looks like we copied off one another, we we did a little Because we have a lot of similar positions and we wanted to kind of create a comparable system so that we're not competing back and forth for employees that are in similar positions. But this would restructure the transportation department, give us some room for future growth within positions that currently now are kind of dead-end positions. The overall cost, annual cost, For this restructuring to our department, it would be $143,643 per year, so roughly $70,000 for the remainder of this year. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

You guys are moving on on that roundabout out there at Meadowlake and Salem. Yeah, it's going pretty smoothly so far. Counsel, any questions for Mr. Jones or Mr. Reynolds? He's just waiting to answer a question.

Can you give me those numbers again, Mr. General?

Okay, sure. I'm sorry. Yeah, the overall increase to our budget would be $143,643 per year based on this schedule, and that's for a total year. So it would be, you know, for half a year around $70,000.

Thank you, sir. That's all I wanted to ask.

I'll make a motion for the adoption of the ordinance, and I have it as 2. 2.

Second. I have a motion and a second to adopt this ordinance, approving the restructure of the transportation department with the emergency clause. Any further discussion? Miss Heard.

Is this me? Yes. Ms. Mell? Aye. Mr. Hawks? Yes. Mr. Spergers? Aye. Mr. Hawkins? Yes. Mr. Grimes? Aye. Mr. Ledbetter? Yes. And the emergency clause, Ms. Isby? Yes. Ms. Mell? Aye. Mr. Hawks? Yes. Mr. Spergers? Aye. Mr. Hawkins? Yes. Mr. Grimes? Aye. Mr. Ledbetter? Yes.

Those both passed 7-0. The last item is an ordinance appropriating funds for employee pay adjustments for the City of Conway. This would be the general fund for the remainder of the year. This will be $375,000 for the general fund and $5,500 from the airport fund. And if you will recall, Council, I had made mention at the end of the year last year that we would come back at mid-year and look at what we could do for city employees if the numbers allowed it. We are at mid-year, which is wild how fast this year has gone. So that's what this is about. Our sales tax revenue is up. And thanks to the passage of the public safety sales tax, certain capital equipment purchase that would normally come from the general fund are no longer placing the same pressure on the fund. That puts us in a position to make responsible adjustments for employees across the city. This is a measured step. It acknowledges the daily contributions of our employees while reflecting the city's current financial standing. Again, we said we would talk about this at mid-year, and here we are. So at that point, I think, Ms. Rogers, are you coming up with Mr. Winningham?

Oh, hey, Council. So I just wanted to make two corrections on the sheet that's in the agenda. It will not affect the number. For the Conway Police Department, there is an investigation assistant. It should be 48. 9, 5, 1.

Where is that?

On your page?

It's the next to last page. And it's the second line, Investigations Assistant Crime Specialist. Thank you.

That number should be 48, 9, 5, 1. And then the city attorneys. Deputy number one. We did 86,000.

86.

86. That will change on the sheet, but the amount will remain the same. At 375, it won't change the amount we appropriate. Mayor, that's all I had.

Council, do you have any questions of Ms. Rogers or any questions of Mr. Winningham?

I don't know who the questions for but yes, from from one of you, you know, I'm thinking back to our special meeting from last fall, where we talked about some of the salary issues the city is, is facing. And obviously, there's been some steps toward that in the last few months. Can you speak to kind of someone Felicia or Tyler speak to the thinking of why we're making these specific moves at this time?

Specifically, we got with the departments and looked at our kind of you let theirs and every department kind of looked at some of the positions that are a little bit lower and looked at those. And those are the ones that they felt like needed a boost. Some of them are below market, especially in parks and sanitation. And so those those department just looked at those positions and those are the ones that they wanted to look at in each department.

And so this was this was your office with HR with individual departments looking at this. Will you talk for a second about I believe some of this is was trying to fix some of the compression at the top. Is that accurate?

Yeah, so if you look at if you're, you know, looking at the general fund and you look at some of the salaries in there, a lot of them are they're running very close together. And so what we try to do, especially when you have a lot of multiple positions, is try to keep them, you know, separated. And so as you separate, of course, the top is also needs to be separated. And so that's what a lot of those looked at. Specifically, we looked at some of our top positions just to make sure that again that that that those positions were not overlapping some of the top positions.

So if we look specifically at fire with what has happened in the last year with position changes and things like that, we were compressed up at the top where our senior people that weren't the chief, there was no room. And so this gives us room to be able to.

And the chief can speak better to that than me. But yes, fire was looked at the same exact way, making sure that from basic all the way to the fire chief, that that spread was evenly spread throughout with this particular adjustment.

I mean, I'd love to hear from the chief. Anybody else is up for it?

Council.

Achieved. If question for I can and as do you have opening thoughts first? No worries, if not, I can just ask your question. Just ask happy to just hear what you think on this. So I know that we've talked about this a lot in the last couple years. The sentiment that I'm walking away with here is. The the entry level positions were still not the issue. It was more retention and upward mobility for people to be with us for a long time and we were trying to correct that. Am I remembering correctly?

We lose personnel to other departments within the 1st. 2 to 5 years. You'll see those adjustments.

In the proposed scale.

As. The firefighters promoted and moved up. was compression as you were speaking to earlier it was like there's not room to move up the growth wasn't the growth is fine but there's not room to move up um and so it starts at the top you have to move the top up to to allow others to move up right so yes so

Uh, you know, I think this is step 3 from your committee's work. Is that right? Mr. Grimes?

I think this is the 3rd increase since 3 or 4 somewhere as large as others. But, yeah, 334. so I think my curiosity here is, I mean.

What what issue do you feel like is still left for us to solve after this? Like, how's our progress bar look in here?

So you did a mid year adjustment last year. And that was targeted at fire. did longevity pay at the end of the year that was citywide but it included fire you have increased personnel by six uh we're still moving forward with all this it's one thing i would implore y'all to continue to do as you've done the last eight nine years colas salary adjustments, pay scale adjustments. Look at the pay scales. It doesn't take the Municipal League study. Every department head in this city can get everything you need, probably within a few hours. So you're not having to spend millions of dollars just to get us back in the ballpark. So that's what I would, and it's happened the last eight or nine years, you've done that. We just got so far behind before that.

We also added incentive pay.

You said added incentive pay?

The fire department, yeah.

Totally in support of this. My question is, how big is the issue still to be solved after this?

I'm still going to be after the mayor. I'm a short timer. I don't have much time left. One thing that I wanted when I took over this position was to try and get three personnel three firefighters per unit uh we're close we're close and i'm going to continue to push the mayor and you know try and get there thank you any questions of the chief thank you chief thank you council back to you here i have a question for mr winningham

All right, how are we going to be able to absorb this? Or what does it look like? If. The community center has a shortfall on its budget and what is our cushion? Like, there's a shortfall. How much shortfall could it be if we can continue to do these races and then, uh. Drew brought up a good point, and Chief brought this up too, as far as a continued COLA so we don't shoot ourselves in the foot and we're able to offer COLAs. So what does that look like as far as our cushion there?

the cushion is just what's in our reserves so to speak so if you look at this month's financials go to the balance sheet that first number there 8.9 million that was the the reserve we had at the end of may and then we've got the additional true reserve of two million dollars that we try not to touch but the cushion is that 8.9 without council activity to dip into that extra two million. If we do end up with a shortfall at the community center, it's going to require a discussion amongst all of us how to handle that. Does the structure need to be re-evaluated? Do we need to try to get more bodies in the building? Do we need to look for efficiencies on the expense side? All those discussions will need to be had if there is a shortfall there. If these adjustments are made tonight, it will make COLAs citywide going forward more difficult. It'll make them harder to accomplish, at least for the next few years until, you know, if there is a significant increase in our sales tax revenue in our local economy, I think we would be able to do some cost of living adjustments going forward. But the citywide adjustments may prove to be more difficult.

Tyler, can you remind everyone what we anticipate from the public safety, the new sales tax? Because I think that's the one piece that could have an impact on more available funds within the general fund because things we used to purchase out of there can now be purchased somewhere else.

Right, yeah. Based on current sales tax levels, that should bring in about $6 million a year. And if you project 3% growth on that, it will... will grow, but at a kind of a slow pace.

It won't be six more million dollars we can spend because we never spent that much, but I think it takes some of the pressure off.

Right, yeah, I think once we kind of get caught up on the issues we've had for the last few years, I think then that's going to put us in a position where we can let that balance build up and then maybe do expansions, you know, new stations, station remodels, station expansions, and that sort of thing, hopefully.

Well, fire trucks aren't getting any cheaper. Police cars are not getting any cheaper. SCBAs, and we learned tonight, nor is tasers.

Tasers are not getting any cheaper.

Normally, those items come out of the general fund. Those are big-ticket items, all of them, and those are not going to change. That's just part of public safety.

As I look at pictures in my phone, we opened the community center on or about july 17th of last year is that that's correct so we're coming up on a full year of of knowing what our expenses are and and i would like to have a final year report in our july meeting of what the expenses look like so that we can know what we might be looking at to Mr. Hawk's question a while ago.

Can we do that? We can, and that's not going to be the best thing to look at, but it's going to really be the only thing we have to look at. Well, you know, the truth is a good thing to tell. Because whereas we expect revenues to increase in these months, June, July, August,

expenses are going to be a little bit higher in those months as well for you know the chemicals for the pool if we've got more people in it and that sort of thing but certainly we can look at that okay are we accepting renewals on memberships right now felicia what can you tell me about that don't leave tyler thank you very much

I mean, we're always accepting renewals on memberships, but the one thing about last year is we did not sell summer memberships. So this is our first year selling summer memberships. So again, those numbers will look a little different. But yeah, we have members that renew monthly, and we have some members who pay yearly, and we have some members who pay just for the summer. And then we have a lot of day use passes from residents and non-residents.

Who's setting those costs?

You did when we passed the ordinance before the pool opened.

We didn't set them for summer memberships, though.

No, we did.

It was included. Yes, sir. It was included.

We can look at it again. What is that? Do you remember off the top of your head? I don't.

Sorry.

I didn't. It's okay. You didn't know I was going to ask that question.

I didn't know I was doing pools.

No, I'm sorry.

Okay.

Okay. It looks like it's busy.

Busy.

It looks like it's very busy. It's very busy. It is.

It's very busy. If you go by any evening, it's very busy. The weekend is busy. But we'll get some report ran so you guys can see exactly what the activity has been like.

And pickleball players?

Pickleball players are very happy.

Pickleball, volleyball.

They're very happy.

They're all out there. Okay. Good. Very good. There's a bunch out there. I can't say all. There's a bunch. Any more questions, Mr. Winningham? Thank you, Felicia.

Mr. Winningham, I don't have anything else. Someone else might. I just didn't want you to get too far. Drew has one, Tyler.

And I don't know, Tyler, if this is better for you or Felicia. There's a philosophical thing that I want us to talk about just a little bit here that I referenced a little bit earlier with this compression at the top. you know if there's some concern about like well why are we making raises here and i want to talk about how that is necessary to be able to do everything else obviously i'm the new guy that has been around least for this when when was the last time we made any kind of comp adjustment for the council other than cola raises i don't think council's ever had one and i i may be wrong mr hawkins you've been here longer than i have we had one fifty dollar raise a month

so that i remember since i've been here and then we had one other maybe a 25 raise and then the mayor gave us a three and a half percent three or three and a half percent a couple of years ago and that's been the change in the 30 something years that i've been here right and i don't imagine yours has changed in the time you've been in office david or andy or sheila could answer that they or shelly they've been on there longer i seems like i remember tab getting one

I think TAB did give you one.

I think we did do one decent adjustment on TAB years ago. Wasn't enough then and still not enough now. I know. The rest has just been cold.

Other than cold, it's just been one. The reason I bring this up is to say that I have heard you say, well, just don't do anything for me, don't do anything for me, don't do anything for me. And I think some of our noble intention has created, I say some of our, some of the previous governing people's noble intention has left us with some of the problem that we've experienced elsewhere with this compression where everything is so tight that we don't have room to give raises to people that have been here for a long time. So I see this as like philosophically we would like to say, well, okay, let's just not do this. But that doesn't allow us the option to be able to take care of Everybody else elsewhere. I also looked yesterday just out of curiosity. Um, I, I am in support of this as much as I wish that it. Could look different or be different, but I looked yesterday and I think you are the 17th. Compensated mayor in in the in the state. So, when we look at cities of like size, you're still 2030, $40,000 behind some of those cities. I know the city attorney has experienced that some elsewhere.

without correcting this at the top we have no other option to fix everything else is the way that i'm seeing this is that accurate tyler i think so yeah i mean to echo that i mean the mayor's position needs to be the highest paid position in the city and if you're gonna have department heads start creep up towards that that stops their movement which then stops the people under them which stops people from them and that's how you got some of that compression and without fixing that you'd be in that same boat so yeah

That was it for me just talking about the reason there. I think for for some it may look like you know. Like this is us trying to give ourselves raises or something like that that I wanted to highlight that I don't think this has changed in many, many, many years. I know we're behind a lot of other places. Don't don't care about that. I'm just saying the justification for this is to be able to start stepping towards solving some of the other problems. That's it for me.

Council back to you.

I will make a motion for the adoption of Ordinance 02643 with the emergency clause.

Second. I have a motion and a second to adopt this ordinance with the emergency clause. Any further discussion? Ms. Hurd?

Mr. Hawks? Yes. Mr. Grimes?

Aye.

Mr. Hawkins? Aye.

Yes.

Ms. Isby? Yes. Ms. Mell? Aye. Mr. Spergers?

Aye.

Mr. Ledbetter?

Yes.

And the emergency clause. Mr. Hawks? Yes. Mr. Grimes? Aye. Mr. Hawkins? Yes. Ms. Isby? Yes. Ms. Mell? Aye. Mr. Spergers? Aye. Mr. Ledbetter? Yes.

Both passed 7-0. Council, that's all we have tonight. Appreciate your time and appreciate the audience. I'll take a motion to adjourn.

So moved. Second. We are adjourned. We did.

They did. If you can read...