Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

Agenda approval. Motion. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Citizen participation. 3-0. 3-0.

I'm sorry.

So Renee said that she sent the information kind of in on what it was going to be, what we're requesting to do. We wanted it to be date-reserved, and I don't have people who want me to put all the work into it, and then it, you know, not be necessary. So other places, such as Herman, Sullivan, and other surrounding places have things around how we kind of call it, which is on, you know, in Herman, we were talking, and it would be kind of neat to have it under basically like a block party, a sit-and-save music. It would be called Witches' Night on 67th Street, 66th. And what we're requesting is the day, what, 3 o'clock to 10 o'clock is what we said, on October 3rd of this year, 2026. Renee already called and verified there was nothing going on those dates. And we were requesting this street. So Smith Street from the right line now to the appliances where it touches 64 on the four-way street.

Say that again, where?

Smith Street now. You need to correct our streets. Is it Smith Street? Yeah. Smith Street is right to the appliance at the four-way stop. OK.

So Smith from school to 66. No, the appliance is this way.

Yeah. It's his wife. I'm right. You don't have her. I don't have it. I travel these three states.

We'll treat the rats again. Like, you went down past Red Line?

Between the at-home store and Wallace House. Yeah, that's at-house. Oh. Yeah, so it would be that street right there. Just the one block? Yeah, so two blocks. It would be from the parking lot right line. From school street? Yeah. We made that earlier. I got it. So basically what they'll be is vendors, music, food trucks, you know. to start halloween off so we're having a lot of vendors that probably have like you know deck four of halloween possibly they might throw some christmas or thanksgiving stuff in there um and that's basically it you dress up kind of just like all the other ones do a lot of them dress up guys you know it's more for you know it can be kids and adults so um i think we're going to open it up for all i know i think

Do we have a second? Discussion? Will that be a problem?

I have to look at my calendar for the first day. I don't think anybody else has mentioned having anything closed. What day is the third on? A Saturday.

Yeah, and Renee called and she called both places and she said that you guys had nothing that day. Yeah, that's that.

Now, will this street be closed as well?

Just this street right here. Just the intersection. So they can go around, you know. Either way they can go around. They can go around this way or that way. Because we're not closing the main intersection.

The only thing that we do in the end of October for the U of S. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, it's exactly the same.

You know, first and second. Any more discussion?

Will you guys require legal liability insurance? When we're paying check-in for that, we put a cue bell instead of it.

What did you ask?

I asked if you guys were going to require legal liability insurance. Most events, we require liability insurance. I'm just asking if you guys are required to do that. And that's fine. Just let us know what you need. How much, what is the policy that you need for the event insurance?

Generally speaking, they do a million dollars.

For one day. Okay. And then because it is nothing that they're hooking up to electric, so vendors don't have to pay the city, correct?

As long as they have a business license.

Sure, yeah, we'll make sure that that, we'll make sure we get copies of that prior, that way we don't have to do anything, we'll double check everything and send it.

It's required that the vendors

It doesn't conflict with like Herman or Owensville's because I don't want to use business.

No, I mean, here's the thing. None of our people are, I'm not worried about that because if we start worrying about all the neighborhood things, we're never going to have anything for our town. You know, who's going to want to do that and drive, you know,

an hour away, and we really need to remind folks about that.

And I think Herman does it on that. I think so, too.

Because I know Owensville does it with witches. Yeah.

And a lot of the people, and a lot of the people, as long as you don't want to drink wine, it's open. You know, it's going to be a lot easier to get, you know, to do that. So I didn't ask Victor. Did she give the location? And they did the check that red line is not booked? Because we don't want to close the street if red line is booked. Do you know what she did?

She said she did.

And if that is the case, we can always start it from here down. So it can work. Yeah. So we'll be accommodable to that. I mean, because things are always subject to change. So if it does come up, just let us know. We'll start it a little further down. That way we get the dating. So like we said, we don't want to get all this done and then turn around and not have a date and not do it. It's a waste of our time and a waste of money that we're going to be putting out too.

I think the most we could do is demand it, but we have insurance. A business license and insurance. A business license for all vendors and food trucks and insurance.

So the vendors don't need a business license. It's only with the...

Vendors don't need that.

Yeah, but the food trucks need business licenses. Right. So we'll make sure... And we'll make sure the food trucks have the business license, food truck, and their insurance. And then vendors, obviously, they're craft, usually craft things, they don't have any of that, so. That's good.

Do we have a first and a second? Thank you. All those in favor?

No. No? You didn't put your name in there.

Yes. No. I put amend to have insurance. Okay.

Yes. Anybody opposed? Is that? Anybody opposed?

All right. We'll make sure we get all the copies and everything beforehand. That way it's all sustained. If you have any questions, you can reach out to me. Thanks, guys. Thank you.

I'm here over the regular meeting minutes of June 2nd, 2026. How about . Oh, sorry.

Sorry. Thank you. No problem.

I just want to share a story with you all, both heartbreaking and heartwarming. Started out at Tangle Creek Park, where I used to walk in the morning, and I noticed a memorial stone underneath the tree at the south end of the park, just east of the pavilion. And written on it was, In Memory of Viola Hoyer. Long ago, I knew Alice Hoyer and her daughter, Shirley Hoyer, but I had never heard of Viola. Asked around town, nobody knew her. The city doesn't keep records of such memorials, so they couldn't help, but I couldn't help but wonder who was she, what was her connection to Tangle Creek, was she related to the Hoyers I had known, and who put the stone there? One morning, the stone was out of the ground when it turned on its face. I was concerned it might be stolen and vandalized, so I took it home. The mayor came down to my house and got it and took it home with him for safekeeping, and he asked Jerry Montgomery if he would put it back or outbound it. Jerry, of course, said he'd be happy to. But my questions kept nagging, and now I had a few more questions. Had the stone originally been placed under that tree? Or perhaps it had been placed elsewhere and then moved. Did the family want it back under the tree? Was there even a family? So I asked Mary to give me some time to see what I could find out. It took six weeks. A few trips to Kinder Cemetery, a funeral home, the County Collector, lots of online research, and tons of phone calls to numerous higher relatives, mostly distant. Some of my questions will never be answered. No one has any memory of the stone. But I did learn that Viola Hoyer is actually Viola Alice Hoyer, the woman I knew many years ago. And while she was called only Alice, no one knows why Viola was put on the stone in her memory. She died in 2001, survived by her two children, Gordon Sonny Hoyer and Shirley Hoyer. Shirley never married and had no children. Sonny died in 1991, his wife in 2017. They were survived by their two daughters, Cynthia and Tamara. Cynthia died just two years after her mother in 2019. Tamara died in a car accident just last month, very near the time I was taking the stone from Tango Creek to save it from possible theft and vandalism. As we would have it, about six weeks later, on the day I drove to St. Louis to try and find Tiffany, Alice's great-granddaughter and Cynthia's daughter, the family was having a celebration of life for Tamara. In just 25 years, three generations of lawyers are gone. But a great-granddaughter survived and now has the stone. Before she didn't know it existed, but now she is so happy to have it. It is a fine remembrance of her great-grandmother. So this is in memory of Viola Alice Porter. Thank you.

Do you remember anything about that, Kevin?

Anybody else? Okay, regular meeting minutes of June 2nd, 2026.

Motion.

Second. All those in favor? Aye. Executive session meeting minutes of June 2nd, 2026. Second.

All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Aye.

All those opposed? Special meeting notes on June 8th, 2026. Motion. One second.

All those in favor?

Aye. All those in favor? All right. Bills to be paid. Can I have a second?

All those in favor? Aye.

Opposed? Budget revisions as of 6-30-26 approval. Anybody have a chance to review those? No. Thank you.

Thank you.

If the 19 revisions, the way we constructed the 2027 budget, were the same revisions in it as they were in 2026, I'm trying to take care of this problem.

This is the 2026 budget, the last revision of the year. The 2027 budget is for a year and this heads up maybe 2027. So I will revise the budget every quarter to make sure that we're staying on point. Hopefully they're not going to be as large, but it's my recommendation that you stay on the quarterly revision process to make sure that your departments are staying on point. Otherwise you can get to the last revision where we're at right now and it can be very off point and you won't know if you're going to need to be.

The number of revisions can also be dependent on income that we have coming in and whether that changes to a great degree.

But I would like to keep on the quarterly process otherwise You won't know where you're at.

Would that be a quarterly revision or a quarterly review?

Quarterly revision. I'll make a recommendation. I'm not going to have a revision recommendation at any point to where we need to make some sort of recommendation in my years of doing this position. So... They're always reviewed and then made a recommendation to you for what needs to be done. We went through the state audit and the recommendation was to basically do a quarterly revision process, anything over your percentage marks, your benchmarks, if you're not at that point to make a revision. So that's pretty much the benchmark that I've been following based on what they recommended. And that's the procedure that I will keep doing until otherwise changed.

I had a question. Why are we transferring capital for the farm to the general farm and transportation farm to the general farm? Back side of the second sheet is what I'm looking at.

The general fund will receive $40,084. And $32,884 will come from Water Works. $8,000 will come from capital improvement. The streets fund will receive $40,050. It's actually being decreased from the transportation tax fund. So we're decreasing that amount. We did not need $4,050 that we had previously said that we would need, so we're recommending you decrease that. And then the $8,000 is explained on the back, the very last sheet. It's for the siren, batteries, and drivers. And I can read through, I'd like to read through the sheet for you on those two notes, if that's okay. This is our fourth provision of the 2026 fiscal year. Unfortunately, our last provision is one of good news. While I was anticipating that our trend of positivity would continue throughout the remainder of the fiscal year, My hopes were shattered when the final numbers came in and I have to ask that we revise the budget $325,595 expenditures over revenues. Our revenues were revised to $822,824 and our expenses were now revised to $1,168,419. Our estimated ending net income is now $2,474. While I did not expect to end our fiscal year this way when we began on 7-1-25, we are now expected to end fairly not borrowing from our reserves. Many factors lead to the outcome, increased spending, increased capital projects, and low revenues in sub-departments. wage payouts for retiring employees, higher winter utility bills, gas and electric, and et cetera. For the fourth quarter, we normally only see a few accounts to revise, but this revision showed a lot of accounts that needed to be revised. We see many of the same accounts again being revised every quarter or every other quarter. From my perspective, this is not always the good outlook that we like to see. I encourage you to look at the report and see which expenditures are causing your budget to revise each quarter. Finally, I expect to revise some accounts within each fund that are over a certain point each quarter. At this point, for the fourth quarter, it's around 90-100% of the allocated amount for each account number. If an account number is not below that target number, we expect that they will be over by June 30, 2026. Our city is in a tough spot right now and it's going to take all council members, department heads, and employees working together as a team to see a difference in our cash flow and budget. With everyone working together to get the job done, I feel that we can achieve greatness for the city of Cuba. A balanced budget is something that takes a team to accomplish and I feel that we have a great team to achieve this task. We must look at the aspects of the city funds including the inter-fund transfers to cover the cost of spending. Amendments to the budget could only be made if there's funding that cannot wait until the next fiscal year. Again, I'll point out that utilizing reserve funding is not the ideal practice and we cannot continue And we continue to see this happening in many ways today. I hope you can describe this as a, this has to stop until we resolve the issue together. In the coming months, as the end of the fiscal year nears end, we need to focus on less spending and more saving for the future of the city of Cuba. In closing, please remember our budget is nothing more than a management tool to act as a guide along, not only quote Apollo 13, however I feel this is a quote, more fitting. You're only one day closer to your goal. Always remember that we might not be at our goal today, but tomorrow we are always going to get closer. Our budget might not look great, but today and tomorrow we are going to get to do our best to look better and get to our goal. So, not a great dude. Ending. but we are asking for those who are in business to take place to give us an interview. We're hoping for some better news.

I'm going to look at it. If all these are necessary, so that's what's written here, they have to be done. We don't really have a choice. I'm going to look at it. We accept, we approve the revision as presented. I have a motion.

Johnson. All those in favor of discussion? Any discussion? All those opposed?

Hartzell? Yes. Crawford? Yes. Werner?

Yes.

Ranieri?

Yes.

Rosen?

Yes. Taft? No.

I don't think that we can buy batteries and chargers for EOC with capital improvement money. That's not a permanent fixture. Those wear out.

Do you want to answer it and talk about it a little? To my knowledge, it's a maintenance of a thing that's in EOC that we're making of a structure that's already on the depreciation schedules.

On top of that, that wasn't our last meeting also when we accepted the bids, and that was the cheaper of the bid because the manufacturer wanted something like 10 plus thousand or $15,000 that we got batteries and chargers from the manufacturer.

Where do you think it should have come from, Jeff? What's that? Where do you think the money should come from?

It should come from something besides capital improvement money. It wasn't a long bill. The floor is being replaced in the locker or the shower room at the pool. And you told me we couldn't use it for that because it wasn't a permanent fixture to the pool. That goes way around. You told me that yourself. So that's just money, money somewhere else won't... And I just looked it up and it says it has to be permanent structure, infrastructure, batteries and chargers are not permanent. And we gotta have them, we gotta have them, but I go to no on it because I don't know that we should be using that money for that. I would like to say something at our meeting the other night when Ray made a motion to accept, he said,

He said, all the yellow things. And I thought that was just the yellow things, not the whole budget. Which I think he meant the whole budget, but that's not what he said in the motion.

The whole budget. And then it said, be sure the yellow things are included.

But at the motion, you didn't say that.

I didn't point it this way. I thought I said that.

You said it had to be, didn't you? But when you made the motion.

I don't think that we've said that. That's passed, right? That's passed. That's what I said.

Because I have a problem with all the things on the budget. I don't think we should have a hiring freeze on the budget.

Let's get to a first and a second, and then we'll be open for discussion. So discussion approval of the final fiscal year 27 budget.

I need to go through it.

We'll let her do her presentation.

So on page two is the start of the budget message. Submitted to you this year is the budget for the fiscal year 2026-2027, final budget. and program of the services of the city of cuba this proposal is written planning for our fiscal year 2027 which represents a policy document operations guide communication manual and above all financial planning for the city of cuba desert the finished project of the budget represents many hours of hard work fearful planning consideration to get us to arrive at the many benefits to the citizens and employees of the city of cuba Let's get down and basically the single most important task of the Board of Aldermen can be accomplished while serving its citizens is the determination of the annual budget due to the complicity in the annual planning for the future of projects which Gary and his services offer and how the Board allocates the governmental resources. Building a better tomorrow that there is for everyone is something that all citizens should be proud to know that our councils and employees are starting to succeed this year. To achieve this goal, we must begin by controlling our expenditures to provide the quality of services While yet building on a better tomorrow for the City of Cuba, I believe this to be a good motto for the City of Cuba to follow and strive each year. The budget is structurally balanced in total since the city is not planning to expand beyond its total available resources. Cuba's budget is conforming with the Missouri State Statute, Section 61.010, which requires full proposed expenditures, not exceeded estimated revenues. This fiscal year, the budget will end with a net income of $363,650. We'll have $530,396 in capital projects from the enterprise funds, which, when we look at the net income versus our fiscal resources, we're given a good idea that we're going to use around $281,746 from reserves due to not having enough net income to cover the cost of the capital income. You'll skip over to page... Can you finish those last two months? Yeah, want me to repeat those? Yeah. So, the fiscal year budget will end with a net income of $363,000. We'll have $530,396,000 in capital projects from the inter... Price funds, which when we look at the net income versus fiscal resources, we are given a good idea that we are going to use around $281,746, which is reserved, so you do not have enough net income to cover the cost of capital product, capital income, capital projects. Keep in mind, you must have the cash available to cover the cost of the projects. At this time, I would like to caution the city on the cost of capital projects and some of the timing of them. And then if you'll skip to page 7, I'm going to cover economic outlook because I feel this is an important section for you to understand. Our economic outlook is grim. If we do not change the way that we do business, our departments must tighten their belts, adjust their spending habits, and get used to doing more with less. By working together to achieve this goal for the betterment of the city of Cuba, we will see a difference that builds a better future for all employees, council members, and citizens. We must continue to concentrate on core services and funding essential services to provide the means that we are currently in at the time of this fiscal budget. Overspending within our budget amounts can no longer occur and department heads must manage their departments regularly and must monitor their departmental budgets on a regular basis. This can no longer fall on one person's shoulders as a way of achieving the goal is a term of a team and everyone working together and not just one person. Living and working in a tight economic environment is not only tough for individuals but also extremely tough for a municipality to survive and provide essential services to its citizens. With that in mind, budget cuts and shortfalls have become common occurrence with more forecasts at both the state and national levels. In conclusion, the budget plan I have laid out before you is structured in a way that gives the City time to start building back its reserve balances in departments that need to have reserves. It also sets forth a plan to give the citizens of Cuba good quality of services while controlling our expenditures. It provides a balanced budget for every department in the City of Cuba. I appreciate the work of all department heads, mayors, and the Board of Aldermen with their efforts in preparation of the completion of this budget. The process of working on a budget is not something that happens overnight. This process begins January of each year. All to be completed by June 30th. This is a very challenging effort and we have a great team working to achieve this goal. As you can see from the budget before you, many hours of thought and care were put into the document. And you'll see on page six begins the budget summary. Nothing's really changed on that. It's all the same as you saw on the special meeting. Page 12 is your overview of the budget. Nothing, just some general information on page 16. I'd like to point out that is our organizational chart for the city of Cuba. And on the back side there is the map of the city of Cuba. Page 18 begins our fiscal policies, and I'd like just to point out that it does state in there that we do succeed in having an audit, even though we are behind. I also typed in something new that's called our fund balance policy that was not in there before, but I was able to find that we do have one, and it is typed in. I'd also like to point out, we do have a capital assets policy that is in there and that is something that we must follow.

Can we hold both of those?

You want me to read them all? So, fund balance policy. The fund balance policy was established in November of 2019. To ensure financial security through maintenance of a healthy reserve fund that guides the creation, maintenance, and use of resources for financial stabilization purposes. With the policy, the city also sought to maintain the highest possible credit ratings, which are dependent in part on the city's maintenance of a healthy fund balance. Fund balance policy statement. The fund balance of the city's federal fund has been accumulated to meet meet this purpose to provide stability and flexibility to respond to unexpected adversity and or opportunities. The target is to maintain an unrestricted fund balance of not less than 70% of annual operating expenditure for the fiscal year. The City's basic goal is to maintain annual expenditure increase at a growth rate and to limit expenditure anticipated to revenue to maintain a balanced budget. The decision to retain an unrestricted fund balance of not less than 17% of operating expenses stems from the following. This amount provides adequate funding to cover approximately two months of operating expenses. This amount provides the liquidity necessary to accommodate the city's uneven cash flow, provides liquidity to respond to contingent liabilities, and the GFOI recommends the minimum be no less than two months of regular operating revenue or expenditures.

Do we meet that requirement?

Not at this time. And we haven't for some time and for many years because there's no way that we could have even our cash flow. Capital asset expenditures. Expenditures of $5,000 or more per unit on items having an estimated useful life of two years or more are capital assets for the purpose of classification of expenditures. Capital assets are depreciated using the straight line method over the estimated useful lives of various classes of assets. The estimated useful life of depreciable capital assets are as follows. And then there's a table there listing all of those. We use that. Other depreciable property is determined by the IRS Publication 946. And that's how we follow that. Policies that need to be developed. The following are policies we need to develop. Anti-fraud and corruption policy, debt policy, the transfer policy, a uniform policy, a vehicle use policy, uniform and issue policy, mail reimbursement policy, credit card use policy, trading reimbursement policy, an update on the purchasing and procurement policy, and the news that are possible. It is possible one or more of these policies exist, however, research to locate them and possible updates may be needed in the future. These are to protect you, and in the future, we're not saying anybody will do anything out of the ordinary, but you need a necessity to protect you. And they're required by, some of them have been recommended by your municipal advisor, and they're required for your credit ratings. So when my position or other positions that come to you and recommend that you need these policies, it's highly recommended that you do get them and get them passed as soon as possible because you need them for your credit ratings when you go out for lease purchases or grant funding or anything like that in order to be able to obtain those. Moving on. On page 24 is your budget calendar. So that's just showing you that, yes, we do have one, and that, yes, I try to stick to that as best as possible. We get off a little bit, but we do try to stick with that. On page 27, you'll see our breakdown of total revenue sources. You'll see that our largest one there is obviously charges for services called by...

Charges for services would be like our electric rates, water rates, and all that, correct?

Yeah.

Yeah, charges for services are a large one. And then obviously sales tax is going to be somewhere in the midst of that probably next. So obviously I've got sales tax on the next page showing your sales tax history. And if you do a straight line across that page, And I have pretty much explained this to most departments as what stagnant sales tax equals in our economy means that the city of Cuba is not growing and that people are not buying things in the city of Cuba, which is not good for our sales tax and our economy here for us. It's one of our largest revenue sources for the city of Cuba, so when it's not growing, we are not getting revenue, and it's staying the same pretty much every month. So I just wanted to kind of show you that, that our revenue for sales tax is staying the same every month. It's not getting any larger. On page 31, you can see the breakdown of the total revenue sources comparison and then the breakdown of the total revenue sources too, a little bit there. And then on page 34 is our expenditure breakdown. You can see the breakdowns there for sources. Again, the biggest source of revenue for the expenditures for us is going to be salary benefits. at 33 percent of our expenditures for the year 33 so it is the largest one coming in and then on the next page is the expenditures by department i'm 35 and obviously the big one is coming in on the electric department it's a given in our large department but coming in next in our non-business like activity department would be the general fund. And that is concerning to me because they do not have their own revenue source without sales tax and they don't make enough sales tax to cover their own revenue. So when they're coming in at 23.5% of the expenditures for our budget, where's the revenue coming in to offset that? So that's something to look at. And then there's your capital outlay. Kind of gives you where is my easy to spend capital outlay this year. And I just put it in bar graph and high graph as well.

So basically with the general being that small, to try to generate more revenue for the general fund, which is sales tax, am I understanding that correctly?

Well, sales tax is basically our biggest... There's only basically...

There's about... No, I'm just saying the sales tax goes into the general fund.

They have a one-set sales tax. Okay. And some other...

So, hypothetically, if we can get economic development in here and get some retail stores in here that sell things to try to put the Internet out of business, that would be nice. then our sales tax would increase. We need to be focusing on maybe some economic development to help boost our general fund. Correct? Hypothetically?

Or other avenues to create revenue. That's about the best answer I can give you for that one. The next one, of course, is our salary plan, and obviously there is no increase in the plan that's been in place since 2020. There is currently no raise in place as we cannot afford one this year. I have all my coworkers that I have done everything in my power to put a raise in place, and there is no chance that a raise is going to fit. And then on page 43 starts our actual budget numbers and those are exactly the way they were for last meeting. So that is your budget in a nutshell. And yes, there is a hiring freeze based on what was really on the last meeting because we need to abort the restriction. We cannot abort to higher at this point, adding more positions to our budget, and that was voted on at the last meeting. And as well as a spending freeze, so anything voted in will have a spending freeze and they will need to bring it to you for approval. And that was voted on at the last meeting.

There's only one department that needs added to, and that's the police department. We're not adding, we're replacing.

It would be a hiring freeze for any additions or anything. It would be a hiring freeze for supervisors only.

That was what it was on. You've got to have a police report. You have to have a police report.

And situations are going to come up where we're going to have to hire people. I mean, we lost eight people in like two months. before and, you know, we can't just say there's a hiring freeze and we can't hire anybody to learn how to quit.

Because that's the way I'll take it. Let's say we have five guys in the electric department. Two quit. There's a freeze. That leaves us with three. Is that basically what you're saying?

Two from any department.

That's what I'm trying to clarify. It's a freeze across the board. And through... What did you call the board again? It's attrition. It's attrition. That means if you got five in the electric department, two quick tomorrow, they're down to three.

Well, it depends on what the work center is. There are minimums that they have to have in your enterprise funds, the ones that are such as your electric department, your natural gas, your water, and your sewage. Those are enterprise funds, and they're funded through their fees. So there are minimums that they have to have in the work center.

And the police are going to be two down. And how are we going to protect the citizens in this town?

We have to have police 24-7, 365.

We need to find some other way to come up with money then to not rehire employees we already have.

Well, I guess when the city doesn't have the money to pay for the employees, then what are you going to do? I can only make numbers work for so long. I mean, I'm not trying to be the bad guy, but when there's not money in the bank to pay for the employees and you have to lay employees off, Then, I guess, you can say, I'm the bad guy and I didn't make it work. But at some point, you're going to get to that point where you have to lay employees off. Because you're not going to have money to pay for them. So just a budget, how many lease officers is in the 2027 budget? Well, right now, you have a full budget support team, and at some point, you're going to have to absorb the nutrition. When one goes away, you're going to have to absorb the nutrition in the police department. And they are going to have to figure and manage their own department. I mean, unfortunately, I hate to break that news, and I hate to be that person that at some point, we have to start... Lowering the staff from there.

One of the issues we're going to have is the fact that we have a police dog and we have a grant that could possibly have to be paid back if we don't have an officer to handle that dog.

There are other officers in that police department that are going to handle that dog.

They are not trained. They have to be certified. They have to be certified. We don't have any officers on their side. You do. Thank you.

Do you have any other resources?

I mean, you know, and it seems like it's almost this department that gets picked on.

Well, apparently you have, you have a grounds department that has been attributed. You have a grounds department that got, that got attributed, and then I also recommended in the street department that they be agreed to do an attorney now. I can only, I mean, there are certain departments that have, that have attrition, and you've got, I can only make the recommendations where I see fit. I'm trying to, you guys have a certain amount of cash flow in your bank account and I could only make the recommendation for it if eventually the bank account is going to get to where we're going to have to go to the bank and say, we need help. And then what are you going to do then? I mean, at some point...

So my question here is, I mean, we're talking to taxpayers just like me and the people I represent more and more. We're looking at this and going, okay, we're here in the bad news. We're going to have to get rid of people. I'll get rid of people. Is there anything that we're not doing right now to... improve our income? Are we up to date on what we can charge on water and sewer and gas? Are we at the max that we can do that is still in line with our surrounding communities? What is it that we can be doing to generate income.

Yeah, at least on the water and the sewer, you are doing what you can. You can't throw it all at them. You can't throw the book at them at once.

But that's all going to start coming in this year.

And it's been put in place and implemented as far as in the budget. But again, it's not going to happen overnight. You're not going to see that you're not going to see that in the next couple building cycles. It's going to take a while for that to go in place.

We're raking the rates on water and turf. We're raking the rates on electric. We're raking the rates on natural gas. If you don't get that, all that money at one time.

And you're not going to get to see all of that go to the police department. Unfortunately, all that can't go to the police department. It can't go to the general fund to be utilized.

Do you guys understand what co-angling is?

What?

People that have been in municipal government or whatever understands what that term is. What's happened is, I asked her a little while ago so that you guys would understand. We were supposed to be capped at 17%. What's happening is, for the past ever, 15, 20, however long you want to say it, we have basically used everything, the electric, the water, the natural gas, Any revenue coming in, we decided that we're going to use it. If we need to hire another person here, another person here. If we need to buy this, we need to do that. We use those funds. All of our auditors way back when – I mean I've went back all the way to 1996, but the audit that happened in like 2019, a forced audit was done. And every audit since then, our auditors have told us that we have to have policies in place. Those policies that they're talking about are the ones that she mentioned earlier in this thing. One of those is telling you that you have to get your revenue that you're using from your enterprise funds. GASB, is that how you say it? GASB, sorry. GASB is the law, and it tells you that you cannot co-lingual your funds. You're supposed to have funds for each one of your enterprise funds, your proprietary funds and everything. When you take money out of those, you're supposed to regulate what you do. You have to build a restricted fund. This past year, in one month, how much was our bill for one month during the cold state?

$1.1 million.

We should have somewhere between $6 and $8 million in our reserves, and we don't have that. When she reads off, say, the electric department, and she says it has an asset or a reserve fund balance of like $6 million or something like that, you've got to remember that's not cash in hand that can be used. That's assets. That's vehicles. That's everything that the electric department has. That's not your restricted fund for it if we have an emergency. In one month, in January, we got hit with a million dollar bill. They had to work to pay it. Right now, we're suffering consequences of not having rate increases since 2000. I'm guessing, because I can't find the information, but I think electric's probably been 2009, 10, somewhere around here. Natural gas was somewhere around 2014. The water was somewhere around 2014. And we're slowly trying to do incremental raises. Because when you don't do raises for 10, 15, 20 years, you can't come to the taxpayer and say, let's just, if, say, Ronald Owens Hill somewhere is at $1.89, I don't know if he has a loan. And we're at $1.35. We can't go to the taxpayer and say, okay, well, we didn't do any raises all along, so now we're going to raise this up to 189 because we cripple the people that are in Social Security, fixed incomes, or whatever. So we have to do small incremental raises and small annual. We've got to do small raises that get us that competitive so that we can pay our bills. So, yes, it's going to hurt for a little while, but we cannot commingle our funds. That is restricted. We are not allowed, that's why they call them restricted funds. Somehow they're wearing that change to reserve funds. That's not the right word to use for these. It's supposed to be restricted funds, meaning that you're not supposed to take, and we have a fund balance policy, I don't know why it was never used for many, many years or whatever. But if we cap ourselves right now, which we are going to be doing policies, if we cap ourselves right now, if we actually adhere to that rule, how would we pay the people that we're talking about hiring? In fact, we had the revenue to pay the ones that we have. So that's where we're coming from. We're just saying, hey, we're going to have to watch ourselves because these policies are going to happen. We are committed to the McBride project. Our infrastructure is going to have to grow. All of these things are going to require grants. Every one of them, they're going to look at our financial situation. And all those write-ups that we got from the audits said what? We must have our policies in place. So we're going to be addressing that tonight and try to help get those. So when they look at our finances, even if we don't look good on the financial side, they can see that we're addressing the problems that were annotated by the auditors. both at the city level and the municipal level, so they can say, okay, yes, a little bit of a risk, but at least they're addressing the issues. If we don't address the issues, the money's not going to be there. It's pretty much that simple. Why would anybody take the risk on us if we're in such bad financial situations?

In other words, the only thing I have to say about that is, if you look at the books, since 2020, through the 2024 audit, we spent $4.3 million more than we took in. So that comes out of our non-restrictive reserve, non-reserve as restricted funds. We spent $4.3 million more than we took in. Can't keep doing this or we'll be out of business. That's it.

And it's not that I'm picking on one department. It's picking on a department where, you know, in a fund that is taking in money from outside sources that needs to be eliminated. And unfortunately, in that fund, that's the largest department that needs to have some It's the largest department it has with expenditures right now, with wage and benefits. So at some point, we have to look at it and go, okay, in the general fund, where can we look at the cuts that need to be made? And we start going down through there and looking and There are no other cuts that can be made and that's where it's not a picking on department effort. We cut in the grounds department and we've made other cuts. I also made a recommendation in the streets department and y'all turned me down on that one. So it's not like I'm picking on one other department. When I make recommendations, I will make them as I see fit for attrition. Because, yes, I feel like there are some other departments that could possibly make recommendations on that as well. But they have not had any at this time.

But how many officers do you have right now, Doug?

Right now we have 10 until... Well, with the new one coming in that we have committed to hire July 25th, OLA's is out, so we can also work on working on a skeleton crew right now. You know, my job as the chief is protecting our officers and their safety in numbers, and we're asking our officers to work 24-7 and work by themselves, by themselves. when there's domestics going on or whatever else there is. I mean, right now, I have all support for myself.

Because I don't think you know that another one quit.

Yeah.

So now we're getting eight down, three. Well, what we voted on last night doesn't go into effect until tonight first. Or the other night. Anything can come before the council

Well, my stance will always remain the same. The hiring in the department, I feel like you can still go down to a minimum. I feel like we are comparable right now to other cities in our area. I've done the research. I've talked to other cities. I believe that that answer on that is definitely. I mean, I don't know why in 2022 did we not need a minimum officer and now all of a sudden we do. So why is it so hard to have one today that in 2022 we did not need one?

Nobody said we didn't need one then. It took us this long to get one.

No, no, it was voted on in the minutes that we did not need to gain an officer because it cost a lot, and they wouldn't have split the money for remaining officers. So, again, most of all. So, I mean, now I'm...

That was not done in 2022. That was not done in 2022. You're saying four years ago we did that. That was not done in 2022. That's when Mark is back, whenever we made Mark's decision.

But, you know, and then they go $6,000 a year a couple years ago, so...

That was the splitting of the officer way back when we limited Mark's position.

Well, but they also got an additional $6,000 about two years ago.

No, I didn't get an additional $6,000.

Yeah, you did.

Okay. Okay. All right, let's go. So we need a discussion approval of the final fiscal year 27 budget. Do we have it first? Thank you.

That's right, he did search and he wanted to see your presentation.

You wanted to see the presentation first, so do we have a first to approve the budget? Ray has a first. Second. Second from here.

Roll call. No.

Yes.

budget passes with a yes

Number seven, discussion approval of the contract CPA firm to establish financial policies and work with the municipal advisor. There should be a form, a sheet in here, it's called agenda item number seven. Discussion approval of the contract CPA firm to establish financial policies and work with the municipal advisor. Christy Matthews, CPA, Bush Matthews & Associates, CPA. Christy Matthews has offered her services pro bono to assist Jennifer with establishing financial policies and assisting working with the municipal advisor. As these services are time-consuming, it will allow Jennifer to still do and keep up with the day-to-day work. Jennifer and Christy have spoken and believe it will be a good working collaboration in moving forward. The reason this came out is the policies that we're talking about are extensive policies that are supposed to be in place. For one person to write them, it would probably take her about a year, year and a half to write all those policies. And that's if she has the information she needs to write those policies. Christy Matthews has done numerous municipal, has written numerous policies. Our municipal advisor recommended that we start these as soon as possible so that he can have them in place to show that we are working to solve all the problems that the audits, to include his, have shown. So we're pressing to go out. She is not charging us anything. Christy grew up in this town. She's a graduate of Cuba High School. She went to college. She owns the cemetery out between Cuba and F Highway. Her family is here, so she has a vested interest in this community. So she wanted to do this pro bono, no charge to us to assist the municipal advisor. She will be doing no advising at all. She will not have access to our computer system. Anything that she works on will be through the municipal advisor and through Jennifer. She will not have access to any of our computers. And she will not be doing any advising of our municipal, the way we run our municipal government. She is strictly adhered to the right policies.

Motion.

Second. All those in favor? Aye. So now we need to get a contract written with that number. Anybody opposed? Football court project discussion approval or bid for pavilion shades inside your packet. First I want to say Al, fantastic job you guys at the street department having all through that pavement and the slopes and everything to meet up with the new concrete to meet the ABA requirements and everything. You guys did a fantastic job. If you guys haven't seen it Had to kind of re-engineer the center part because it did not get done when the football courts were done and then the fences went up and the things got finished. So they couldn't do the concrete in one floor, no access without hitting the fences. So we were blessed in that Mr. Scheinach. funded the new concrete, and then Al and them come in, mill back the asphalt, made that meet the concrete, and I think it looks fantastic. Then they came out and placed all the stop guards up, they painted the handicap, they put the dirt down around the three sides today, and it looks fantastic. Hopefully we'll get some grass down, seed down, and some straw here in the next couple of days. And then, signs hopefully will be ordered tonight. So the Pickleball Court Sunshade bids are in front of it. We thought we were going to have three bids and then one of them never did show up. So I contacted them and they did not get their bid for them. So Michael Montgomery, our public works supervisor, and Don did some research and came up with these two options that would meet our requirement. Out of the two options, we could either go with two 12x24 or one 12x24 sunshade. Michael is on vacation right now. He recommended doing the two, so that way if we should have any kind of damage to, we don't lose the whole structure, we'd be able to have one while we're working on the other. We made sure we had the footings poured so that we can attach them when they come in. They are pass-through, so we'll have to do some boring of the concrete, but they feel like they can do those. I've been talking to AJ and a couple of guys who thought they can do it. So the two beds that you have in front of us, there's one for a 12 by 24 and the other one is for two 14 by 24s.

The guy that does the one, did he also do the two? I'm sorry?

Did these guys both get the opportunity to build the two? They're an online company or whatever, but they did not provide it. They did not have a two. They only had a 14 by 24, and then they had a 12 by 24, and then they had a 24 by 24. But they did not have a 12 by 24. I mean, they had 12 by 24s. And the other one did not have a 12x24. I mean a 24x24. Or something like that. So you can have two of the 12x12s or one 12x22.

I think it would be better with the two 12 by 12. Like you said, if one gets damaged, if it's just one, it's... Let's go back to the other one.

Yeah.

These will come out of Mr. Chauvin's face. Okay.

So I make a motion to go with the 2, 12 by 12. Good. Second. Almost clear.

All right.

Almost closing. OK. 2, 4 by 4. Football Court Project Discussion Approval of the Scheinach Family Foundation Football Complex Signs. If you look in your folder, there are bids in here for signs. Would each one of you do me a favor?

I'm sorry? I'm taking bids. I'm sorry? Can we put in a paper that we're asking for bids? I'll give it to the two companies that keep them all on the ground. We have a motion to go out for bid.

No.

Second. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Go out for bid for new signs. How much time, Greg?

How long do we want for bids? Two weeks.

Two weeks.

So do we hang on to these two and then we just add to it? No, no.

It's not really worth it if you guys already did. The third guy knows exactly what to do. So we'll have to revise it a bit.

Thank you. Discussion approves, so we'll take a left. Discussion approval of landscape and interest in the pickleball court. We kind of polled you guys and we agreed on the two-inch gravel outside in between the asphalt and everything, but we want to approve that tonight. So we need a first and a second to approve the... What did we do to it? We did the two-inch rail that was in between that they recommended to do, but we want to bring it and make sure that it's formally done.

Motion.

I'll second it. Motion to accept the work that's already done. Yeah, well. Aye. That's why we contacted you guys to make sure, because they want to get it for you anyway. Aye. Anybody opposed? Okay, electric department. Mid-node trust, transformer discussion, approval of contract. No? No.

Okay, so they, the contract, you have the contract to review. Is this just contract form of everything that occurred at the last meeting? So you just need to approve it, and then we can submit it to the other company for their approval before we move forward.

Then it'll come back to us after we sign it, and we'll bring to it, and it'll come back to us.

9138. Do they agree to buy the new one as well as the old one?

So it's within the contract. So then we would present it to them, and if they accept that, then they will send it to us.

Okay, so it says here the majority vote. If they authorize us to sell it, I don't want to sell it to one if they're going to buy it.

I'm just saying that you guys approved for us.

Okay, all right.

All those in favor? Aye.

All those opposed?

Okay, Underground Country, wire bids, discussion and approval. Andy could be here tonight, so .

Andy submitted two bids, one from Wesco and one from . Wesco is also . So Andy's recommendation was to go with the Wesco bid. And it is, I don't know what kind of wire that is. The total is $10,454.05. And the Fletcher Reinhardt bid is $10,831.06.

I'll make a motion we go with Andy's recommendation. Second.

All those in favor? Aye.

Opposed?

Planning and zoning recommendations. So I gave you their letter of intent. They had their first hearing regarding this request from R1 to R2.

They did a motion to recommend moving forward with the request. So to move forward, we just need an approval to have the Board of Aldermen public hearings. It's just the next step within the process. And you were there. I mean, there was some alternate there. If anybody would like to add more to the conversation.

I'll make a motion.

Motion? Second. So the discussion is, it says be reclassified from R1 zoning to R2 zoning. I'm not sure, I'm not familiar with zoning. What's R1 and what's R2?

R1 is residential and R2 is multifamily.

Two quadplexes.

Okay. Any other discussion?

Roll call? Roll call? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Criminal Star 501C3 from the police department. This would be for children events, correct, Ned? Correct.

Could it be for anything else?

I don't know how.

No, they're specific at the community foundation. They've asked for a specific what you're using the money for. And so when he asks for it for a solar event or whatever else he's asking for it, when we submit invoices, they have to be specifically for those items where the money will not be processed through. I mean, could you ask for more than one thing?

they are pretty particular about how they want that set up.

I think my question here is, we know that one kid's event that they're wanting to use it for, what if in the future they have another separate kid's event, maybe not the exact same thing, but something that involves youth, like a fishing tournament, or... I think we should do kids set up as children, and it's like, I don't want it set up as a...

parks, projects, or whatever. It's not specific to LWCF or anything.

I'll make a motion. I'll second. Sorry, Jeff. You said it.

Just to be clear, Mayor, this is not the city sitting at the file. It's not for profit. It's not.

It's not. Yeah. We just submit the stuff to them for reimbursement.

We're saying nothing that we sell to the parks. I just want to make sure that

We did not verify that it is the agency that is partnering with us. Okay, first my vows.

Do you have a second? Yes. Okay.

Make a motion?

Yeah, what they said, because we want to make sure it says police department, children, and adults.

Mm-hm. 511C, agency, partnership, from the police department, specifically for children's events.

Thank you. Okay, item 12, attorney legal representation. Yeah, first and second. All right, my bad. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? I second. Any discussion? It won't be Zoom called for it.

No, it's . I think they'll .

They just say that they could show up if you do pay them an hour for a job and everything. And it is, they, everyone's . We have the first . All those in favor?

Aye. Opposed?

Yeah. Oh, I know.

I don't have a lot on nuisance. We just got one in today in reference to a large tree over someone's back door fence. I'm going to have to look into that a little further before I have any more information on that. I can't handle that with that person's complaint. Any other nuisances? I haven't had anything else come across my desk. I have the Department of Agricultural audit from the state. This is a topic for the council. It's a large one. I didn't make a whole bunch of it for everybody who wants to try to read that. That is an inspection. It's also on the very last page. That's just the two of them. This is like the initial? Let me see what you have there. Yeah, that's the official . If there's any questions in reference to it, Missy can probably answer those a lot easier than I can, basically, from looking at it. Everything over the pound is running fine. There's a couple things, and they listed it on the inspection, things they needed to change, things they were unaware of, and just one thing they just kind of slipped by that they found. It's not a big deal. It's not a great recurring thing. Does anybody have any other questions in reference to that and that list of complaints?

I read it well. She had it cleaned up. Other than the minor thing that she had done. A pair of pants and something. Hiring a K-9 officer to wish him special approval.

I'm not there yet. Oh, sorry. SRO agreement with the Cuban School of Discussion.

This is the visitor copy. That's the agreement with the school signed, ready for mayor. My signature for 46,000 a year to supplement an officer's pay. And then it seems to be exactly towards this time.

I think he was the end because you meant this one.

So is this the same agreement that we had prior, like in the past years?

Yeah, it's the same agreement except that we had this one in the meeting that we're in, Mr. Mayor, where we came up with the 33... This is the one where we met with Donald Davidson. 38, 33, 33? Yeah. Yeah, that's a 46,000-year supplement.

This one, in a previous meeting, I think Lou had approached Doug about going to the school to see whether or not they would help us fund one of the SROs. They have three in the school, and we paid for two of them, and the Sheriff's Department pays for one. So Doug did that. He set up a meeting with myself, Doug, Dr. Davidson, and the board president, and they proposed paying 46,000, which comes out to $3,833.33 per month toward one of the SROs if we would keep two of them in the school. We tentatively agreed on it because they had to take it before the board first. So that's what we're proposing tonight in hopes that we could keep both of our SRUs in school since the school came back and met the need to at least, even though they're not fully funding the position, they are funding what they can.

So is this a motion so they can take it before the school board?

No, they have to get it approved. That's why it didn't come to us first. It had to go to them to approve.

It's been approved by the school board. You guys just need to approve, Mayor, sign it, and then I'll sign it. I think the motion is approved.

I second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Thank you. And now hiring a canine officer position, especially in the group.

I've heard everything. So I feel like I should put my spiel in as chief of police. I just want to put my spiel in that this is a service that the city pays for, for the protection of all citizens. We are down officers. We do have a canine that is on the grant. I think for us, actually. Hint on that a little bit, the details of that grant. We do need to keep the dog rolling. The canine is something that an officer has to want to do. I can't just make someone, hey, take this dog home, care for it, and then run it. Not every officer has that ability to do it. Now, also asking, the canine officer is also a road working patrolman, taking reports and stuff. And like I said, there's safety in numbers. If I know we're on a hiring freeze, if we choose, and this is a decision completely up to you guys if you decide to hire or not to hire. This is a decision on you. I lost my train of thought here. But if we stop hiring and we start asking officers to start working by themselves, we'll lose more. When we lose more... We don't have a bunch of people putting applications out. It's rare to have officers putting applications out. So many departments pay more than we do. We'll just leave it at that. They do. They can go anywhere else. And people aren't getting into law enforcement like they used to back in the day. People used to go to the academy, and there's a bunch of people looking for jobs. So what do you propose, John? I have an officer that's going to come in and handle the dog. I believe he can get certified for $0. If I have anybody else do it, it's going to cost you $4,000 to get him certified. He would have to be certified with that dog, but because he's a handler before, he should be able to be him. Talking with the trainers, he should be able to most likely get certified before for zero. That's what we're hoping. So he's been certified before? Yes, he's been certified. He actually handles our retired dog. He keeps it at home.

Did he work here before?

He did.

Ben Weber has worked here for... The issue is he has to be certified with that animal. And what I'm concerned about is if he's saying zero, it's not going to cost the same.

Right. So he's been trained and certified with our previous canine. Talking with the trainers, they're like, well, if we know who his trainer is, they should be able to certify him with our new dog for zero dollars. They said it should be a little bit higher. we already have a contract with them for training already so it shouldn't cost anything further on that so until we know that though we really can't put it on anything but besides that is he willing to work for what we were paying well no um in order for him to come in he won 52. um

How much experience does he have? Eight years. Eight years? Yeah. We can't afford it.

So, do we know what the dollar amount is? What was the dollar amount for Louie? For that position? That's actually a good question.

$45,000 for a starting employee.

We should stop. Yeah, how much was that?

What's the dollar amount? The grant on there for the dog was somewhere, I don't have that number with me, but I'm going to say somewhere around $16,000 and an $8,000 in training.

My proposal is that we table this until we know whatever costs us that we have to pay the grant back, whether or not he's willing to work for what we're offering, and then...

It's $52,000. He won't come to us. It's $52,000. He already did his blessing to say it's $52,000.

And that's the lamp that I have for the commission. What's the start? What would the starting date be?

For a new officer? A new officer comes in at 4-6. That's what we always start everybody at, is 4-6. It's not a desirable number. It's as other places pay.

And you're down three officers right now?

Yeah.

And what would you say they thought the grant was?

And one on license. 16 plus six. I don't quote me on those numbers. I don't. I saw the numbers. I'm not 100% on that number. So it's just a matter of what you guys want to do. I mean, I don't want to lose officers because we're not hiring officers either. Because then we'll have even less officers. If we didn't hire a dog dog?

That's a good question. Most departments will not take what is considered a used dog.

We can't cancel the dog. We can't give the dog away. It's our dog.

The only way a dog can go anywhere is if it's officially a pet.

Yeah, you'd have to retire the dog, and I don't know what to do with the grant. When did we take the grant, and when does it run?

I'm thinking that grant was two years, three years ago. Three years ago, I think.

Jeffrey, you know what the time was on that grant?

We got the money through the OCO board. There was no official grant.

Somebody said something weird.

Well, it's their grant process.

Somebody in the meeting earlier, I thought I overheard, so correct me if I'm wrong. Do we have a certified handler within the department now? No. No. No. No. No.

No.

No. No.

No.

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. I already talked to them.

They said it wouldn't be an issue. I talked to people who got the dog from the training facility.

They said it's not an issue. It's more than what they use. Hey, dog. No. Right now, currently, down three, one on light duty.

In July, we'll get one, so we'll be down two, one on light duty.

And how long does light duty last? Can you discuss that?

That is not... That's up to this doctor.

Okay, I didn't know if they had a time frame. I don't know what happened.

I don't know if it's up to this doctor. I don't know when it's next week. This is next time.

That's what I have on there. So you wanted to wait until we got all the information?

It's a grant.

But it would be after July 1st when we have another meeting.

And then we'd have to also know what the cost is on the training. Because we don't 100% know that either.

So if we were to pay for something that needs to be decided on, and then the fiscal year rolls around, can that table item be backtracked to the last fiscal year then? Does that make sense?

What I'm trying to say? No, not on our.

So we almost have to decide on that.

Okay. I'd be more than happy to have you in the force of life. Yes, we need all that information. Yeah. I have a question for you.

Yeah.

We've got a lot of information here, so we need to go.

Yeah, I made phone calls and wait for phone calls back. But what I gave you is the most I got. They said most likely. zero would give just to certify and stuff like that.

What it relies on is the dog responding to his command, basically. Do what? What it relies on is the dog responding to his command.

Right. Well, before he certified, I mean, if he was pre-hired, he would work with the dog, he would work with the dog itself and stuff because he knows how to do that stuff. He wouldn't be working the dog. He couldn't take the dog on calls. until he's certified, but he'd work with the dog himself, get used to the dog, understand the dog, and then he'd probably have a day up there with them to be certified to make sure that, yes.

Because even if we voted on the match, he would not work for what we're offering. He would require $52,000.

And we just have one opposite page on that tool.

But you can't save the money.

You can't save the money. That's not the purpose of compounding the budget.

But we have $1,400.

Last I have is that you will possibly have a special meeting for emergency hire if necessary.

Do you have anybody else to hire? No, not right now.

And then if anybody applies, I can't say, hey, do you want to be here? And they're like, no, I can't do that.

He's got eight years experience.

It's probably going to be harder to hire them all. We can't get a road officer, let alone get one to come in that wants to be a K-9 officer.

And then, like I said, the other problem we have right now, how long is he going to stay?

That's true. I think we can say that about just about anybody with a model. Any motion?

We're talking.

It is. I understand it's a tough one. So let me get this right, right now.

Right now, just say 14 is what's budgeted. And you have 11 right now? Well, after July 1. How many? What year? That'll be 12. And then if we hire this gentleman, that would be 13.

So you'd still be down one, even if we hired this guy, right?

I don't know which number to give you. If we can take a break from this for one second, I'll start my discussion. The other thing that's not on the agenda...

The new officer resigned.

He decided it wasn't for him, the one we put through the academy. It was not for him. He resigned. He said he can't handle it. I don't know the actual reasons, just what he put on the resignation. I'll just give this to Lane. It is your copy.

And so it's not, how many are you down with them?

No, it's okay. So with them, it's down. I'm down, and before... The other young lady we committed to hire July 25th, we're down, and Olaf on my due, we're down four officers. Once Olaf is back, To be 13. Once she's on, we'd be at 12. No, 11. Dang it. 4. Okay. I got my numbers wrong. Sorry. Don't write that down. Dang it. Okay. We're down 4. Once I was back, we'd be up to 11. Once the young lady that we hired on July 25th, we'd be down to 12.

And this guy could be 13 and we hire him. He would be 13. I'm sorry? What'd you say? Thank you. Thank you. Well, we have the K-9 and we have him.

And this guy is trained on it. But we don't have anybody warning the job.

Now, is your K-9 a street officer's job? Not a big one. What do you mean by, it's not a canine officer? Well, there's a... Oh, the canine officer. He's a canine officer. Yeah, he's regular patrolman. He does all the work patrolman does. He does all the work patrolman does.

But we're still, even if we hire this one, we're down.

Well, I would only be down one. You've got one coming out of school in July. Law will be, hopefully, in July. And then if you hire Brad, so you'd only be down one. Let me say this. Let me say this.

factoring $52,000 for an officer.

That's a big downfall.

An officer with eight years of experience, no matter where he goes, he's going to be gone in the morning and he's starting an officer.

Exactly. If we don't get the next officer, then...

I'm looking at this, too. We're looking at... I'm going to call my donors. You've got Officer 13, you've got Officer 14. We're short. Okay, if this gentleman was hired, he would be Officer 13. Okay, if you take Officer 13's salary start and Officer 14's salary start, that's $92,000 a year. Where we would eliminate, if we do this, we would eliminate Officer 14 completely. And we would actually still be safe. But we have to eliminate a permanent officer for me.

Well, after July 1st, there's a hiring for you.

Not really, because I want to protect my officer. I'm going to work at the best of his ability. I mean, there was two officers on whenever Mark was shot. I mean, he just got there before the other guy did, and he still got shot.

Has this officer worked for you before? Weber? Yes. When do you want to hire back? Why did you put us before?

Your ass is always greener on the other side. The other side is not, I guess. I don't know why you left.

I just wonder if he just doesn't quit like most of the officers have now and then.

No, neither do I. They do that in every park, not just the police park.

Is he currently employed now? So if they hire him now, how long could he start? Two weeks. Two weeks, OK.

Where do you come up with the extra revenue to pay for the extra $6,000? Because it's not accounted for.

Eliminating Officer 14.

That doesn't account for the $6,000. That's right, but they gave you money. I told you you needed to do that anyway. I mean, I'm telling you, for the increased pay, you still need to account for an extra additional $6,000, plus you probably already do an elimination of Number 14.

But number 14 is on the budget, so we would be deleting all the $6,000 of that. So that would be a savings.

I don't agree to limiting the $4,000 per person.

Well, starting July 1st, apparently, we have a hiring freeze, so... If you don't take this one now and not get the next one, you won't get the next one anyway. Apparently.

Yeah, that's what I'm looking at. If you hire them. I think if you don't hire them, you probably won't get either of them.

Exactly.

That's what I'm saying. Yeah, that actually makes the most sense. I'll still try.

What did he say? What did he say? $52,000? $52,000. That's the state you have.

Not much. But that's the other thing, too. Another officer quits the next, say, another officer quits July 1.

He'll be in trouble.

In law enforcement, when you start asking officers to work by themselves and go on these high levels, you start losing officers. Yeah.

If I do my math correctly, two officers starting pay $92,000 a year.

If we hire as many as 52,000 a year and did not hire 14, that would give us a savings of $40,000. But that's the base salary. That's not looking at the extended benefits. Well, people are making that as well. Only one. Right, only one. But once again, I do agree with that. Trying to find good quality officers are hard right now. We've just seen, we just got presented, one started and quit. And that quick. And what's a good officer?

And he's going to have to pay us.

Listen, I'm reading this wrong. We just got $40,000 from the school. Yeah, because we can't. No, just saying.

I know what you're saying. And it has nothing to do with the police department or anything. You've got to remember, whenever we save money, we can't look at it as, it's just like the house.

We can't say, well, we save this, how do we spend this? Mr. Mayor, we have a deadlock right now. Yeah. They're trying to find me. Yeah. 52,000, 42,000, 38,000, whatever it is. I'm just saying, we just save, save. No, that's right.

It was left out, the SRO. We did not have a contract signed. It was on a . So it will let every one of the first .

OK, the acceptance of this rule.

I'm making a motion to cable this. We have a . We're at a standstill right now. That is all . That's my motion. I'll second.

Do we want to set the date?

We're talking day time or evening time?

I think we should probably finish voting on the motion before we set the date.

No problem. No problem.

You can vote until another day.

Anytime.

If I'm at work, I can't be here.

Record?

Yes. Part O? Yes.

No earlier than 5.30. No earlier than 5.30?

No earlier than 5.30.

All right. So can anybody do Tuesday of next week, the 23rd? I can do that.

You can't do that. I can do that. That is the only thing that's going to be on the special.

That will be the only thing. So don't ask. Until we ask.

Before we finish up with my section here, with Sears' resignation, he was under contract. And if you guys want to make motion or advise Jennifer to find the difference in pay, because on his contract he had to do the move, he was obligated. So we're already looking into it.

I just did my thing about doing it.

Okay, so 5.30 on Tuesday.

Jennifer, do you need to be there? I don't know. If you need to be there, I'll be there. If you invite me, I don't know. It may be.

I don't know.

It may be.

I don't know.

Okay, moving on. Number 14, bill number 2-2-1-9. Motion to have the first reading of Bill number 2219. Motion. Second.

All in favor? Aye.

In ordinance accepting and authorizing the Mayor of the City of Cuba, Missouri on behalf of the City of Cuba, Missouri to enter into and execute an agreement with Travis Pritchett to manage the Municipal Airport.

Motion to approve the first reading of bill number 2219. Okay.

Second. Roll call.

Yes. Yes. Motion to have the second reading of bill number 2219.

Motion. Second. All those in favor? Aye.

And we're just accepting and authorizing the mayor of the city of Cuba, Missouri, on behalf of the city of Cuba, Missouri, to enter into an execution agreement with Travis Pritchett to manage the municipal airport.

Motion through to the second reading of bill number 2211. Okay.

Second. No call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Bill number 2-2-1-9 becomes special ordinance 9-6-4.

9-6-4.

9-6-4. All right. Motion to have the first reading of bill number 2-2-2-0. No. Second. All in favor? Aye.

And we're submitting section 210-2210 pertaining to the discharge of fireworks.

Motion to approve the stretch reading of bill number 2220. Second.

We'll call that stretch.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Motion to have the second reading of bill number 2220.

Motion.

Second. All in favor?

Aye. An ordinance amending section 210-2210 pertaining to the discharge of fireworks.

Motion to approve the second bill, bill number 2220. Motion.

Second.

Roll call.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Bill number 2220 becomes general ordinance 1251. 1, 2, 5, 1. Motion to have the first reading of 2221.

Motion.

Second. All in favor? Aye.

An ordinance authorizing the acceptance of the budget for fiscal year 2027 in the city of Cuba, Missouri. Motion.

Motion to approve the first reading of bill number 2221. Okay. Second. Roll call.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Motion to have the second reading of bill number 2221. Motion. Second. All in favor?

Aye. An ordinance authorizing the acceptance of the budget for fiscal year 2027 in the city of Cuba, Missouri.

Motion. Second.

Roll call.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay, bill number two, we'll see. Bill number, motion to have the first reading of bill number 2222. All in favor?

No, sorry. Motion? Second. All in favor? Aye.

An ordinance amending section 725.120 of the Cuba City Code amending water rates in the city of Cuba, Missouri for the purpose of providing funds needed to pay for all expenses associated with construction, installation, operation, maintenance, upkeep, and repair of the city's water system.

Motion to approve the first reading of bill number 2222. Motion. Second.

Roll call.

Hartzell? Yes. Cracker? Yes. Sturteveyer? Yes. Bernani?

Yes.

Breslin?

Yes.

Motion to have the second reading of bill number 2222. Motion. Second. All in favor?

Aye.

In ordinance amending Section 725.120 of the Cuba City Code amending water rates in the city of Cuba, Missouri for the purpose of providing funds needed to pay for all expenses associated with construction, installation, operation, maintenance, upkeep, and repair of the city's water system.

Motion to approve the second reading of bill number 2222. Second. Roll call.

Bill number 2222 becomes ordinance number 1252.

Motion to have the first reading of bill number 2223.

Motion.

Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye.

An ordinance amending Section 725-110D of the Cuba City Code amending the user fees in the City of Cuba, Missouri for the purpose of providing funds needed to pay for all expenses associated with construction, installation, operation, maintenance, upkeep, and repair of the City's wastewater treatment works.

Motion to approve the first reading of bill number 2223. Motion. Second.

Motion to have a second reading of Bill 2223. Second.

All in favor? Aye.

An ordinance amending Section 725.110 of the Cuba City Code amending the user fees in the City of Cuba, Missouri for the purpose of providing funds needed to pay for all expenses associated with construction, installation, operation, maintenance, upkeep, and repair of the City's wastewater treatment works.

Motion to approve the second reading of Bill 2223. Second. Second.

We'll call.

Bill number 2223 becomes general ordinance 1253.

Motion to have the first reading of bill number 2224. Motion. Second. All in favor? Aye.

A resolution to approve a mutual aid agreement between the City of Cuba, Missouri and the City of St. James, Missouri. Very good.

You don't have 2224? I don't have 2220 either. Yes, I'll listen to you.

Did you get stuff out of your box when you came in?

It was sitting right here. No, there might have been more in her box that were going to be in her bag.

I'm sorry. I apologize.

Second. Roll call. She did it.

Herzog. Yes. Crocker. Yes. Mortimer. Yes. Roseman. Yes.

And this is the resolution, so there's no second reading. Correct.

Resolution number .

All right.

So bill number 2224 becomes resolution number 06-16. 06-16. 06-16.

Motion to have the first reading of bill number 2225.

Motion. Second. Second.

All in favor? Aye.

An ordinance authorizing the mayor of the city of Cuba, Missouri, on behalf of said city, to enter into a lease agreement with GFI Digital for the lease of a copier and maintenance services.

Motion to approve the first reading of bill number 2225. Motion. Second. All in favor? Aye.

President? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Motion to have the second reading of bill number 2225. Motion. Second.

All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye.

In order to authorize the mayor of the city of Cuba, Missouri on behalf of the city to enter into a lease agreement with GFI Digital for the lease of a copier and maintenance services.

Motion to approve the second reading of bill number 2225. Motion. Second. Roll call. Crenshaw.

Yes. Crawford. Yes. Mortimer. Yes. Cronary. Yes. Rosamond. Yes.

Bill number 2225 becomes special ordinance number 966. Motion to have the first reading of bill number 2226. Motion. Second. All in favor? Aye.

In ordinance authorizing the mayor of the city of Cuba, Missouri on behalf of the city of Cuba, Missouri to enter into an addendum to the original agreement for a donation from the Scheimeck Family Foundation to establish a new pickleball complex. Motion. Second.

Roll call.

Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Motion to have a second reading of bill number 2226. Motion. Second. All in favor? Aye.

Aye. An ordinance authorizing the mayor of the city of Cuba, Missouri, on behalf of the city of Cuba, Missouri, to enter into an addendum to the original agreement for a donation from the Scheinbeck Family Foundation to establish a new pickleball complex.

Motion to approve the second reading of bill number 2226.

Motion. Roll call. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes.

So bill number 2226 becomes special ordinance 967.

Okay, number 22, old and unfinished business. Joyce? Ready? Nope.

I did, but I already forgot. Okay, we are going to...

We talked about maybe opening the pickleball court. It's not on the agenda, but since we got the word that everything's down on the entry side of it, and we're going to have to go out for bids on the signs and everything. I want to know if you guys are okay with opening the pickleball courts. The nets are here, they're just not up. They will be up. So I thought about opening the pickleball courts up on this Friday for June 10th so that they can enjoy the park.

Then we'll get the signs in and the shades up and everything. We'll have a grand opening and invite Michelle next time.

We are going to close and go into executive session. Motion.

Second. All those in favor? Aye. All in favor? So moved.

Yes. Yes. Yes.