Council - Regular Meeting

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.

Here. Here. Here. Here. Assistant participation. Again, . Sorry, . Motion. Thank you.

All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Assistant participation. I have been using the new website, and I want to say to one and all that it's excellent. I understand we still have some building left to be done on it, and there will be more of these before long, but it is really great. And David, I believe you're to be thanked for that, so thank you very much. Pardon me.

Jessica had a lot to do with it as well.

I'll thank her too. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, David and Jessica. Anybody else? Any?

I'm here with the soccer program. We are wanting to get approval to have a mini-slip put up in the concession stand. We had a bid from Keating's, or from German's Keating and Cooling. They would be the ones installing it. They were willing to donate some time. on their part, we've got the quote, we don't have to pay for anything at all, we just want the permission to put it in. There's a unit already there, if proper's been stolen out of it, we can haul it off, whatever we need to do. Our season starts on August 12th, or the 11th, we start practices that week, so we're kind of in a time crunch when Germans can get it put in and so on. So basically they're just asking for permission to put it in, we're not asking Anything else from the city, basically. And you realize once it's installed, it belongs to the city?

That's fine. Okay. Do we have the city employee there to see if they make any changes? Michael, make sure that happens.

What kind of unit are you putting in?

Black and black? Are you doing a mini split? Just a mini split.

No, right above our shoulder. so that we don't have to pay maintenance to have our coolers cleaned every year because they're being overworked. And so basically we're having to pay $4,500 every season to have somebody come out and fix those just to keep them cool.

So that's going to be on the bathroom wall, correct?

Yeah, inside the concession. But it actually, it just goes up. It doesn't, nothing that hooks actually can, I mean, it'll be like hanging a picture. Right. I mean, it's not, there's like a little condensation line that'll run out and the electric current is all there to come up and piece along.

Where will the head unit be and where will the compressor unit be?

I would say that, I mean, the compressor, or I don't know what the difference is, but whatever. But the same spot outside, we're actually going to build a cage or something over it, though. So it can't steal anything. Yes. With a lock on it or whatever needs to be done. And then the other thing will be installed on the wall.

I got it.

Yeah, I'll coordinate with you. We'll get it taken care of.

Emily, do we need to do anything for them to say that they realize that we own it? I think their contract already said that.

I think you've already acknowledged that on the minutes on the record, as long as that reflects that you noted that and she acknowledged that.

It is addressed in the contract.

It is. We have a first and second motion. We have a second. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Aye.

Not long ago, Mr. Mayor, you requested that I use my to ask questions that I have I'd like to have an answer for it. I've got ahold of Mr. Ranieri. Never heard anything of that. So that question was, are we required, does the city require an accounting degree from the Comptroller? I'd like an answer for that. No, it does not. It does not? Well, that's interesting. We employ several different things here in town. I mean, our city attorney has to have a law degree. Our police department, they all have to be full certified, and that's per ordinance. There's lots of degrees, and yet you're telling me that the one person that we entrust millions of dollars with, we don't require an accounting degree. Now, I would hope that sometime in the near future that that would be addressed and fixed. I mean, it's – we get ourselves in financial peril, and then we all look surprised. I want to understand. I mean, this is all – we're talking about a person here that couldn't tell me how much money we had in the arts and rec fund.

I don't know what you're talking about there. There are, there are ordinance in place and there are job descriptions in place somewhat. The city has kind of run like this for a long, long time. When she was hired, she was brought before the alderman. The alderman had the power to hire people. And that was not, I think, only two people on this board at that time. Probably Jeff, maybe Joyce. Joyce was here. So only one person was on the board. Did it go through the proper process to be there at that time? No. So did it go through the proper process to get Jennifer hired? No. Debbie and Dave took care of all the interviewing. And it made it to the board and she was voted on, correct? And she was hired. And you were part of that process.

Well, I'm sure that was followed, but I don't understand why you would not want an accounting degree for something so important as taking care of that kind of money. Well, it's not my fault. Well, it should be at this point. Again, I'm hoping that this is brought up in the future and discussed and perhaps making a different decision on that. It's ridiculous.

I can't tell you that's going to happen.

No, you can't. I just want to say that this interviewing process has been a bunch of crap for a long time. Interviews should be conducted by the entire board, not just two people. How long have you been on the council?

I have made this argument several times, but when you're the lone dove... And it needs to be brought before the council again. We need to have a salary committee. We need to have, there are a lot of jobs in this city for the beginning of time that do not have job descriptions. In fact, as you are aware, our ordinances were outdated. Are you aware of that? There's ordinances that are outdated. There are contracts that are not in place, that were not written in place. They were using applications to hire people, and that was their job descriptions, the application. What can I fix in three months, Danny? How much can I fix in three months?

I'm not expecting you to snap your fingers, Mr. Mayor, and fix things. What I am asking is that you give it intelligence and look into it and perhaps make a different decision on something like that.

Right now, we are trying to get our audits that have not been done for... Since 2022, they were outdated. Now, 2023, 24, and 25. 25 is behind. We'll discuss that tonight. We're doing what we can. Sure. If I remember correctly, Kevin could probably tell you, Jeff could probably tell you, how long did they look for a person? I think we had a person that was filling in, and it went unfilled for quite a while, and they finally went out and found somebody to fill the position because they did not. If I remember correctly, Jeff, I think you told me it went for like a year or something like that without somebody to fill it. They could not find anybody to fill it. They sold out the most qualified person they can at the time.

That's sad. Again, that's because we don't pay worth of crap. Really.

Well, I would think six to plus a year is not worth a crap. If you've got an accounting degree, you're going to do more than that.

Perhaps you should. Moving on, because I'm almost positive I'm just about out of time. The other thing that I wanted to address here, I hear that you're going to, the executive session is June 16th. Was that not the executive session that I was brought up in? You don't have to get into specifics. I specifically waited for that executive session for that result to come out. And I believe that our city attorney told us that you had all voted to keep that quiet. So my question is, is that the same one? No.

Oh, okay. Were you here for that one? No.

Moving on. I see that you're gonna ask for these Executive Session minutes to be approved. You asked to take an Executive Session.

Yes.

Did you ever approve the Executive Session that involved me? No, no. That's hilarious. That's illegal. You're going to approve an executive session that involved me to begin with. It didn't involve me.

That was not under my mayorship. That is totally under another administration. It had nothing to do with me. I do not approve those minutes.

Yet it was voted that we were going to keep that silent.

Yeah, because it was an executive session. Whether the minutes were, it doesn't change the original.

The original was an illegal executive session, was it not? I'm sorry? The original that involved me to begin with, that involved the then Mayor Kevin Coakley, was an illegal executive session, was it not?

According to our legal advisor, it was illegal. What happened? What happened? The processes that were taken in place. You better call the Ethics Commission. Thank you for your time. Well, we haven't even taken a session to cover that yet. I called the Ethics Commission.

They've got a totally different answer.

Okay. So is there a discussion? Yep. Come on up now. We actually have a place for you. Or you can go ahead. You can go ahead.

Okay. So I'm Alan King, and I'm talking about 366. We've got several things going on. This is the first thing that's kind of actually produced. This is a sign that's going to go up the four-way. This sign would be on the Diva Cuba corner. And there's a similar sign with opposite directions that goes on the Wallace Oil Company headquarters corner. And what I'm here for is to see if we can get the city employee who knows that to install the sign driver to install it for us. We were on a call to get it right and all that's done.

So it's just a little, here you go. Thank you. Alan, you can take care of that when it's time. Put the signs up. So this is just a little thing to let people know that turn right, turn left, turn 66.

This is the one that goes to be the Cuba corner. The wall of soil would say west, east, back. Yeah. And if we do have more signs coming now, we want to direct people to the museum. And I understand the old City Hall, or whatever that building was, is going to be an information center. So we'll probably get a sign coming for that. And then we've got other things going on, too. But this is the first thing that we need help with. Thank you, Alan.

Thank you so much for that. For the side of the textbook, would that be city or state property? Would that be city or state property?

It's not state property. They would want us to be signed as a state property. Okay.

So it's going to be not on the street, but up on the street.

Yeah, it would be the sidewalk. Right. And then we're about three feet off the sidewalk. And they've got a sign. Actually, there's an irrigation... line right there. So they've got a sign on actually the Cuba side on that irrigation line. And it's going to be similar to where that sign is. It's about five, six feet off the sidewalk.

One of your notes comes in, Alan. Get with our street supervisor and let them know what you want them to leave.

I do have one question. And I know I've got the answer. But with the Beaver Keeper Guard, there's not supposed to be any signs. Is that already going all the way? Yeah, yeah.

The ladies, they're all behind it. As far as post, do you want us to provide a post or do you have a post board? Well, if you've got a post, that would be a professional post. I mean, that's what I'm using. No, they don't like the green. Okay, that's my next question. It's quite a lot to talk about. Yeah.

About the holes. Yeah, so standard stainless?

Yeah.

Okay, got it.

Hey, Alan, can you show everybody out there? Yeah, sure.

There'll be several other signs in that town that promote your 66th.

Over the next couple of months, I may be able to get them to be approved.

I'm not sure about that.

I don't see a motion for that.

I don't think the motion is required.

I've got the paper on this, so you don't have to cause us to see anything. Thank you, Al. Thank you for doing it. Thanks, Al.

Appreciate it. Thanks, Al.

Any more citizens or patients? Okay bills to be paid, votes are for regular meeting minutes of June 16th, 2026. Motion.

Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Executive session meeting minutes of June 16th, 2026. Motion. Second.

All's in favor? Aye. Opposed? Opposed? You're saying it. You're saying it.

You're saying it. Yes, I'm saying it. Special meeting minutes of June 23rd, 2026. Motion. Second. All's in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right, those will be paid.

All right. All right. All right.

All right.

So yeah, almost a week ago, last Wednesday, July 1st, the new website originally went live. The old one. The only thing that stayed live on it is the payment page. So when you're on our new website, click on the payment to go pay your bills. It actually takes you to the old website. It's just those two pages. That's all it's at. It had to be like that for our billing system and the software we use. So everything... It didn't go as smoothly as I was hoping. You know, last Wednesday it was supposed to be a two-hour process, turned into five hours of messaging and calling and everything else finally getting going. We finally got it going and it's up and running. We did apply for the .gov domain, so we're no longer .com, we're the city of cubamo.gov. It's a little more official and professional, so we switched to .gov. And it is supposed to be fully ADA compliant, and if there's something that's not ADA compliant, If somebody finds it and brings it to our attention, we'll make the effort to correct that and get it again. But it should be pretty close to, should be there as far as I'm concerned. So yeah, I think it's, she alluded to how it looks and it's easier to use. It's definitely more user-friendly to find the information you need. Jessica and I are working hard on it to keep it up to date. And I do ask that if you have any events, maybe I'm not here in a meeting and don't hear about it, or pool nights, team nights at the pool or movie nights or whatever's going on, like the 100 Acres Wood Rally, any kind of events you guys want on there, please let Jessica or I know we'll make sure and update the community calendar that's on there because there's a calendar feature that's really cool you can see what's going up and that's fair on there public notices stuff like that so really cool website hope you guys go check it out and just let us know What do you think? There's an on-number pool feature on there. On any page on the website, there's a contact us button. You can go there and hit that and you can fill out the form with your information, your phone number, what your issue is, and you can actually select to email a department supervisor, web administrator, utility clerk, or whatever kind of issue you may have, they will send an email directly to them with their message. So it's a good way to kind of skip the no man and just give your message back to the person that needs to hear it. So that's what we do.

So my question is, you said there's an events page on there, and we want to add events. Should that be... merged together with the Chamber of Commerce then?

There is, up in the services section in the headers, there is a link, I think, to the Chamber of Commerce page. I know we've got one of the tourism boards, the fire department. We can link to every other page as well. So I don't know. I don't remember if we've got Chamber of Commerce on there. We can probably add that to it. It'll take you to the Chamber of Commerce website. By the way, you can check them out. I know, like, our Facebook page, we post pool nights, you know, parties and this and that going on. That'd be kind of cool to have, you know, in our city county in general that's on those sites. We work hard on making that a good feature for people to just go on there and be able to find any event they want to find out what's happening here in Cuba. Any questions? Yes, that's where we're at. Community, you guys, I'd like for you guys to go check it out. And again, let us know if you find any issues or anything wrong with it or if you have any suggestions. We're happy to answer them. Thank you, Judith.

Thank you. Is that all? Are there any questions? No.

He's on the next one, too.

He's on the next one. David, treatment plant operator, salary increase, discussion, approval.

David has got one of the best treatment plant licenses in the state of Missouri. And we have always, we've always, when something like this happens, and you get a license, you've got extra pay. Dave studied hard, diligently, night after night, and what have we got this. We've got one now that can run as a treatment plant forever. It's not like a treatment. Dave, what is it? Top license number? This is Dave Austin. It's called Dave Austin. So he talked to my committee, he talked to the former mayor, and we said, yes, once you get this in, you will get a total of a raise because we've given everybody a raise to get these licenses, or get you got the top license. He asked for his time, he wanted 7%. There was this, all this term law with no money, came up, we don't have this stuff. So, I'll turn it back to the mayor. You've got this background for why we said this.

On March 17th, 2026, I validated the dates. March 17th, 2026, it was a second address, April 9th, 2026. In hopes that our finances would look better. Of course, we're doing the freezes and everything. But there's promises made to David. And I feel like on the integrity side, whenever you talk with somebody, whether it's the previous mayor, whether it's Ray or whoever, when you were told that if you go and get this and you do your due diligence, we will reward you for that. We need to find the money to make that happen, because that's an integrity thing, and it's a promise that was made to him. We came to an agreement that we would step, he would go up one step, which is not 7%. So we sat down and talked with him, said, David, would you feel like it's fair? And he agreed that he would take step 26, I think it is. Is that right, Jennifer?

I thought we were in the boat that you are. Yeah.

And so that is what was put into the budget. It was discussed for months before the new budget came out in July 1. The timing for the council meetings just wasn't there. So my recommendation is that we move David Minardi to the step 26 for the treatment plant.

You can't make a recommendation. What? You can't make a recommendation.

Well, I can't make a recommendation, but I...

I have a question. Is there anybody else over there with a class A?

You did it on his own. Nobody else did it. You took the initiative.

You got to say the motion. Thank you.

So this is budgeted then, correct?

With the new budget, yeah. With the new budget, okay.

Well, my next question. When we find the money, will he be moved up to his 7%?

And he's having an agreement that he would stay at the 26%. That's what I'm asking. Okay.

Yeah, he's taking it to 20%. He's taking it to 25% instead of 7%. Oh, okay. I just figured that wouldn't be a bad thing.

Level 25 is what it currently is, and then maybe level 26.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Employee hiring freeze policy discussion approved.

So we met with the supervisors and got one of our minimum hiring staff. And we're asking for counsel. I don't have all of those opportunities. I'm sorry. I don't have all those numbers. I mean, I thought this was a notepad, but it's not. I apologize. So the training recall for memory police will go to a minimum of 12 employees. Streets will be a minimum of four. Grounds will still stay at their one full-time, one part-time summer only. Electric will stay at four. Waterworks will stay at their current staff. Natural gas was discussed at two, unless they're in construction and warming at three. We feel that if they're out of construction, they're in construction projects, that there's potential for them to maybe move down into employees.

Unless construction and training.

Construction and training, correct. Property management, one. Court, same staff. Admin, same staff. Animal control will be three part-time. Who am I missing? Public works, we'll stay at their, their male home staff right now. I don't think we're dropping anybody else.

Street is 5. Street will be a minimum of 4.

In other words, if they lose one, then they will drop the floor, Darren and I are first. If they should lose one person.

And this was taken up with the supervisors of each department as well. They are already aware of it and maybe not necessarily agreed to, but are aware of it.

Everybody was in the meeting and there was also, which all of them were here? I think Renee, Russ, and George.

What department are you missing?

Same with grounds?

Grounds was one full-time, one part-time, summer only.

Water treatment was one.

Water works will stay in the middle of the staff, so they will remain in their current staff. So that's water. Water works is their two, water's two, sewer's two. Fruit treatment and treatment is one each. So that's the current staff in the middle. Electric is for natural gas because the shop will be one minimum there, which the current staff, their current staff, which is the prosecutor, the judge, one full-time court clerk, one part-time court clerk.

So if a department falls below their minimum staffing, then that opens the freeze to allow to come back up to minimum. Yes, to come back up to minimum.

You've got to remember that a freeze is, the reason I'm explaining that to all the supervisors too, a freeze is just to see if we can It's a six-month freeze. In other words, it has to be looked at again in six months. It's what we're doing right now, and I'll give you a background on it. We've been saying for a while now that... When our transfers happen at the end of the year, it's going to be worse than what we thought, just based on what was lost between April and March. And then when we, our first quarter, when the, finished up through June, as of today, our general fund was, what, short, what, 2.1? I assume it was short 2.1. And that's what funds our manpower. They're literally, and we're not done yet. When all the transfers are done and we see where we're at, we may be back down. We've consistently gone about 1.5, 1.8 forever. And all the spending and all the stuff from before is starting to roll downhill. It has finally accumulated, and we will be in the red right as of today, about 2.1.

You said that was before transfers?

We're doing the transfers as we speak. And at this point right now, I think I told everybody back in April that the numbers that I was looking at were normally around 1.5 or 1.8. And from what I could see, we were going to be worse. And as of today, it's 2.1. The actions that have been taken for a number of years is coming to fruition. A lot of people ask, how did we get here? We have not had a rate increase in electric from what I can tell. I've asked around and I've asked everybody. We have not had a rate increase in electric since 2009. The natural gas, the electric and stuff like that, the rate increases were not happening since 2014. We're now doing incremental. And we're having to do small incrementals. We're talking 10 cent here, 7% here. Because they haven't been done since 2009, 2014, the city just decided we're not going to pass our charges on. Well, when you do that, eventually it catches up to you, and you can't overcome it by just saying, okay, say we're at $1.39 for a cubic foot for our natural gas, and everybody else is selling them for $1.89. We would cripple anybody on Social Security or anybody that's on a fixed income or on welfare because if we went to $1.89, they could not afford their gas bill that month, the first month that it hit. So we're having to do all of our raises incrementally. So that means that this year we do a very small one, next year maybe we'll do a small one, and eventually we'll get caught up. The side effect of that is, since we're not doing one big one at a time, we can't see all the benefits of what we haven't been doing for 10 years, 15 years, 20 years. We can't see all that gain at one time. We would hurt the people that need it the most. So we're having to do small incrementals. Our 2025 audit, that 2025, we'll talk about this in a little bit, We're looking at, they had some computer problems and they had to call out some software and people are on with their business. No fault of their own. They told us they would try to have them done by June 30th. Right now they're saying probably another two weeks if everything goes well. They got their computer problems fixed. So we should have those in about two weeks' time frame. Those 2025 budgets ride everything that we can do in the future, such as the rate increases that have not happened for electric since 2009. We're looking at small incremental raises on that. We've got to do them because when our providers are charging us and charging us and charging us, raising rates, and we're not passing that on, eventually they become here, and we can't survive off of that.

So my question is who – Within the city, without the city, whatever. Should have seen these rate increases from our supplier and not addressing the element saying, listen, our rates are going up. We have to buy it for more money. What are we going to do?

Lou, I've always been the person that we look forward. We don't look back because it's obviously at this table. We as aldermen have to make decisions sometimes that a bill comes in, just like in January we had the big bill that hit us from our providers for our natural gas and our electric. And we had made it, I feel like we made the right call, but we had to make the call that we had to pass that on. But we did the right thing. We divided, what, Jeff, over three months, and I think if I remember correctly, Jennifer, and tried to make it easy for the people that actually had to reimburse us for these things. Those are the kind of decisions that you make. They're tough ones because you don't want to do them, but if you don't do them, where's the money going to come from? We can't keep being everything for everybody. That obviously has not worked for us for a long, long time.

Well, Mr. Mayor, the thing I'm pointing out, though, is... As aldermen, we have to be aware. Somebody has to come to us and say, hey, listen, we have to buy our electric here. It just went out. So we have to do something. That's what I'm trying to find out. Why wasn't the portable in there? Even in the past, when we needed to move forward and bring that up, when the brakes go up for whatever reason, We as Auburn need to be informed so we can make an educated decision on what we're going to do next. Actually, they were educated.

There were, from what I can tell, they just made the conscious decision not to pass it on. It happens.

The last administration, when we found out that there was a money problem, we started looking at all that. And we're the ones that did all these studies to increase office. It's just going to start now. But we did all that when we saw there was a problem.

So it's starting to work, the processes, but it's not something we're going to overcome right away. We're talking something that's been going on since, I'm talking years and years and years. Not three years, not four years, not five years. It's been going on obviously since 2009 and on some fronts 2014. So with that said, This is where we're at with the hiring freeze and our buying freezes and stuff like that. Now freezes, the temporary thing that you put in place and see, hey, let's see where we end up. Right now we don't know where we're going to end up because we, now we have a new process in place. I have met with the comptroller. We're going to start doing our transfers and everything will be done every three months. No more waiting until the end of the year doing transfers like has gone on forever. I don't do my home budget that way and I don't think it's a good thing to do. So we've talked and we're getting away from the old past for many, many years of doing one transfer at the end of the year. And so you really don't know what the panic is. June 30th rolls around and you start doing them. You really don't know how you ended the year. for weeks, and I don't like that. So the process is gonna now happen poorly, so we have a better picture of where we stand. Each supervisor has now been provided with what their budget is, and they're gonna know, they'll be able to look, every time they spend something, they'll be able to look at that and say, this is what our budget is, and what's left over. So hopefully we can get a better grip of where our spending is, both on the manpower side and on the purchasing side.

I have a question. Who decided the minimum for each department?

We looked at history and what each department could demand.

through the ministries over the time. But they all used to have a lot more employees in each department, so. Well, we used to work with the right amount of people. Were you consulted on the minimum number on each department? No.

That's where she did her job and went back and looked at our payroll sheets for the last 10 years, I think it was, and picked her numbers out of that. That's what we paid her to do.

But they used to have more employees in the past, so.

All right, so let me ask you a question, Joyce. If we're $2.1 million in the hole, and you're saying we need to hire more people, where will you write that check?

I'm not saying we need to hire more people. I'm saying you guys are cutting employees without asking the departments. We have not cut a single employee. I am cutting the number without consulting the departments themselves.

They sat in the meeting with us, Joyce.

You told them they didn't get a chance to...

They had every opportunity to speak. We opened the floor to them numerous times. What's your suggestion, Joyce? Since you have a problem, what is your suggestion? How do you suggest we fix the problem?

Well, I don't have a suggestion except that... We can't cut the number of people that we need to run the city if we need to find another way to come up with money, which we are coming up with money. It's just going to take a little while because we did all those studies, got everything ready to raise everything. So it's going to happen. The money's coming back.

So what did I say? This is a temporary freeze for six months? If you have a better option, I would love to hear it.

So the minimum is a temporary?

Absolutely. Now, it may go back into effect when the six months is up and we look at things and we're no better off. It's going to take a while for these rate increases and everything to come in. But I think you're missing a key point here. We have a fund balance policy in place that prevents us from doing what we're doing. That is by ordinance that was voted on by numerous previous administrations. It says that we can only use so much of our enterprise funds to shore up our government. That's nothing that I did or nothing that you did or you did. This was written a long time ago.

And those are restricted funds.

Those are restricted funds. There's a word that's been going around called reserve funds. They're not reserve funds. They're called restricted funds. And will we be able to abide by that policy? Right now, looking at it, there is no way. We are going to have to use our enterprise funds to shore up our other debts, no doubt about it.

When did that start?

2019.

No, she's talking about 2005. When does the freeze start?

No. Wasn't that last thing you wanted to do? Oh, yeah. I believe it was past 2019. I have to get the correct date, but to be sure, I believe it was 2019.

We can look through here and we can probably find a whole lot of stuff in here that is luxury for the city of Keywood that we can cut out. Absolutely. Bring me a list. I'll give you something right now. Those guys clean the public works. There's four girls in City Hall. We can cut out the cleaners. That'll save some money. The police department.

Everybody's got your bills here. Take them home, look through them, because that's not on the agenda tonight. Take them home, mark the things down, give them to us, and let's discuss them. That's the things that we've got to do. We've got to find the nickels and dimes to add up. We are going to have to find a way. You mean City Hall can get that dirty?

If we're cutting, everybody's going to have to put the log on and help out. Dave, you get a planer at the trigger point? You've got to clean it.

All right. All right. Any more discussion? We're asking for approval to put a hiring freeze in place with those minimums that Jennifer just gave for a six month time limit.

I make a motion that we vote to approve the hiring freeze for a six month and to be reviewed every six months. That is my motion.

I have a motion on the floor, do we have a second? All right, second on rank. Roll call vote.

Yes.

No.

Rosen?

Yes.

Harry?

Yes.

Werner?

Yes.

Cracker?

Yes.

Herzog?

No.

Motion passes. All right, number nine, just for your 25 audit status.

So I did ask the auditor for an update on Mark's fit on an audit. His words were nothing specific to say except that we're working towards completing the audit as soon as possible. His worker Alex is working on the governmental side with his other employee Nate. community with it later today this was monday july 6th to see where he is so a lot of a better idea of where they are um i will keep up to date on that um periodically but i hope that they'll have something by um being more concocted by me in the next week we'll just keep on them as the mayor just saying they have some Technical issues, and we'll stay on them, but first and final line is how far I can push them where it becomes non-independent.

So the bottom line is they have not given us a date.

They have not given us a new deadline. They're working on it. They'll stay with them, but I can't force too much because it becomes non-independent. Thank you. Do you have any idea on that? I'm sorry?

Do you have any idea? I know they have everything they need.

Can you give them a deadline?

Can't give them a deadline.

Can you give them a deadline?

No, they told me that they felt they were done. All right.

All right. Straight forward. Down here.

I guess the first one there is just the capital improvement funds. We've been getting behind like everybody else on our streets. We have been on a fine rotation to be able to pay for an oversea . I asked this year for more, and Jennifer said we could get some. I've got some on my regular tax fund. I'm asking for more out of the cap room for him to do a little bit of catch up. And talking to Jennifer, everything was okay, but that's up to council to approve the addition of the cap room. I bet everybody's got a sheet up there for the addition of the cap room for each side of it. Do you know how much you need, Alan? Yeah. I don't know. I can't say it's still going to be a big job. It's his estimates. Well, being that we don't have estimates yet, isn't that kind of jumping upon to get capital improvements?

Because I figured if we get a vote on, approve on a bid, then at that time, if we need more, we can go on that time. Is that correct or am I wrong?

Well, you're approving the use of top home improvement funding up to the $147,500.

Oh, okay, so we can go ahead and approve. Yeah.

That's what he needs up to that amount on that paper. What's in the budget is up to $147,500. Okay. He's got $147,500 in the budget.

Yeah, right, right, right, right.

I'll make a motion to go ahead and do this.

That's what I think.

The streets that I do have for capital improvement, if I was not to do this, which that's up against, I picked some of them that's been untouched for years, and they've all won 66. Trying to do something like that for our anniversary would make that improvement too, as well.

All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed?

And now do we have to approve him going out for a bid for the other part?

It'd be paid for all of them.

So yeah, advertised street repair. So that's going up. When you mean advertised street repair, that means going out with guests, right? Yes, advertised.

Now, we have to vote on this one because that was not mentioned in person. So we have to do advertised street repair discussion approval. So basically, we want to go out and advertise for what you just talked about. So we need a motion for that.

I make a motion. Second.

All those in favor?

Aye. Thank you.

National Gas Department.

I want to give you an update first on our department part of this. We just got, last week we got fully certified, properly qualified. So we're going to move forward in the future to be completely compliant with the PNC. so that we can do everything without any reservations. We've been relying on San Antonio to do all this stuff. When audits come, we don't get fined or anything. But on that page, on the audit stuff that this is, it's not on there as a mapping system, but the very first one, what it is, more than mapping, is it takes all of my files and my information. As of right now, I'm printed them off. fill them out, scan them in, and log them back on to a SharePoint that we have. But this thing can do it all on the field, on the phone, and it mitigates a lot of desk paperwork. Like the other day I filled out 115 separate pieces of paper for valve operation. And this app, I can go up, click on it, put it in, and it does all my compliance, everything for the auditors, and it just sends them a follow-up in a lot of time. So the money spent on this will really be made a backup for all of your time in the later on.

Is this on the budget?

Yeah, it's on the budget. So is this, this piece of paper you gave us is 192GIS, and that is through USDI. And then are you logging onto their server then? Are they going to set scoring up solely? They, meaning USB-I, has a major crash and they lose all their files. We are relieved of liability.

Yes, it's on SharePoint, which is a Google Doc that they have. But everybody's GIS will be updated to that. So it saves so much. Maybe a little planning thing after the office is all paperwork for this year. Just one click of the button, it does the paperwork, files it, and they send it all out, so they don't have to come and go through files and files.

And how much is it?

It's $66,000 to start. It's $44,000 a year for $2,000, so you've got to come down and set up a referral system.

So 64 to start and then it would be 440 a year. And that's in the budget? That's in the budget. I'll make the motion. Is that right?

Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? I'll second that as well. You're doing a tremendous job jumping in here.

And congratulations to all of you. Thank you.

And the whole public works as a group has really come together.

Everybody's helping each other.

good teamwork everybody's helping everybody so it's it's going really really well the natural gas department is heading the right direction this is step four yes yeah thank you thank you thank you thank you pick ball court monument sign minutes discussion approved

This one's from the Cuban Marble Ranch. I think the early on people had sent in a bid. The other people had already had bids out, but they were requested to send in a bid just like everybody else, and we did not receive them in time. We received one late, and we notified them that it was not approved to be part of the bid.

There's something...

We'll pass this around. What did we put in that?

Do you have it? We did ask for a name.

I really don't know what's . Oh, OK, so I think. Let me just go back to personal data. OK, so we have . Can you get copies of this while you're in there?

I'm going to have to touch the .

Thank you. um Okay.

What it looks like to me, according to this, that the plain Jane would sign with just a concrete pedestal is more expensive than a fancy black one. Well, I think it is.

I think I understand it. I don't think it meets the requirement. The requirement of those sign dimensions to be 48 inches tall and 48 inches wide by 8 inches thick. The sign must be set and secured on the existing concrete. The bidder may give up to two design options and must include a visual of the sign. Each design must have a final price stated warranty and maintenance requirements and include a clear statement of understanding the fairing and installation restrictions for the site. The bidder must provide proof of insurance along with an estimated completion date of sign and install. What was the dimension supposed to be? 48 by 48 minus 8 inches to 36 by 8. 36 by 24 and 36 by 48.

And they were given, that wasn't, that was close to the test requirement.

And it might be, they didn't just, they just didn't put that on.

Well, the matter is, you're not 48 by 48. And then they were supposed to have final prices stated. And any maintenance that looks like here, concrete passed through a bed for stone to sit in. I don't know what that means because it said it had the effects of existing concrete.

One of them was submitted or bid and it got here late.

A half a day late. I make the motion that we re-bid it and we make sure that they get the- Yeah. We can't accept this because it's not what we're asking. Okay, we don't have any. No, we'll have to go back out for a bit. Yeah. But I just want one. I can't do anything with it. Okay, so we'll accept the bill and we'll go back out for a bit.

And make sure that there's a copy of the requirement. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed?

Are you going to put it back in the paper, or are you going to go according to the bidding policy?

We'll go according to the bidding policy, and we'll contact all three of them and see if they just want to redo their bids. We don't have to actually go to the paper. There's only three. Yeah, so we're just going to contact them and have them read it.

Make sure they get copies of it. This was provided to them. This was provided to them.

I don't think they can even pick it up. Well, maybe they didn't know.

This sign, it was in the paper, and it was also posted.

All right.

Next one, number 13, Proposal Law Enforcement Tax on November 3rd, 2026.

You're up.

Okay, so since our last meeting, a lot of us over in here, we came to a tie vote, came to a mayor tie break, and I've talked with some old men and men about this, and I know we could have just spoken the way we did and moved on. But this was one of the hardest decisions I personally had to make, and I totally didn't like the decision I had to make, but according to the Comptroller, money is money. We just didn't have any. I could have left it at that, but I kept going, so I did some research. Gascayne County, I don't remember exactly what it was, in Gascayne law enforcement sales tax, and I don't know how much, But they, in Gatsby County, shared between the Sheriff's Department, Herman, I think Rosebud, Owensville, and Bland. November of 2025, Steel Belt passed a law enforcement tax. And I'm thinking to myself, maybe this is where we're at now in society as a whole, that law enforcement is not a revenue generator, never has been, it's not expected to be. Maybe this is where we're at with the technology, law enforcement now, where when I was a police officer, tasers were just coming out. Batons are not even used anymore. So we're moving in a direction. Vests that they're wearing now, they didn't exist, cat vests. I wore a flak vest in the military. So I'm thinking, yeah, there's quite a bit of... difference in law enforcement since then is it probably cost more to run a police department. And being that the alderman here, and I've heard on the street, both sides, we've got too many officers. Yeah, we need public safety. So I'm hearing from both sides. It's not like it's all one side or the other. So seeing that other... Places around us, Gascoyne County, Crawford County, have proposed sales tax. They have passed. They have passed. Maybe it's time for Cuban to do something like this. So I looked into an $0.08 sales tax increase. I thought, that's not enough. That won't even buy a new car. So I proposed... I think with our voters here in the city of Cuba, a half cent sales tax may be a little much this time. So I'd like to propose that we impose a law enforcement sales tax on the November ballot at a quarter cent. Because I talked to the comptroller, and what would we say a quarter cent would be approximately?

Quarter cent. It's about $220,000.

And that's per year, correct? Per year. Per year. It's better than nothing. I have a feeling.

It will pass.

And you let the taxpayers make the decision. They made the decision and still don't. the citizens of Gascony County made their decision in Gascony County.

How much did they get, do you know?

I did not look into that. All I looked at was did they have one, yes or no, and did it pass, yes or no. And those two did, and they're close to home.

I'll make a motion to do it. Okay. Discussion?

You sure a quarter's a no? It's a good place to start. I don't want to go after the taxpayers for too much. They might say a half cent is too much. Now, we do a quarter, and we get it approved. We look at the budget. We could always up it another quarter if we have to.

I don't think an aim is going to matter. Well, the thing is, every time you try to come, you have to go back. You have to go back . Right. But you want to . It's costing the city a right amount because it's going to be a major election . But it's going to cost the city to actually do the election.

Do you think a half-step would be better than a quarter? I mean, we're in discussion. I think it would be a little bit larger this time, but a quarter.

I don't disagree with you. I'm kind of – I don't like being Texas. Me neither. But like you said, we're at a point where you can order a police department to do what we need to do.

I don't know if we got time. We Googled it on Steele Wilson. Steele Wilson has the one-sentence full-sentence.

Oh, on the full-sentence? And that was ? We have a motion right now. We have a first . We didn't get a motion to amend it, or we have a vote that doesn't prove it. Well, you have to withdraw your . I'll withdraw it. Withdraw the motion.

So, I think, based on what he said, the whole sentence, maybe we need to go up to a half-sentence here. You know, I voted and still didn't win.

That's it. We don't have a big turnout. I don't like the motion that we put an order for a half-sentence. I'll second.

Okay. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Okay. Roll call.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Do we need to discuss now if it's going to be?

You need to discuss the time frame.

What is it?

What's your proposal? I mean, it's up to you.

Normally, we do our part-time. Yeah, part-time.

Yeah, but we might want to do the other half.

That's true.

You want to make it five?

You go five years. Five years. Five years and then it will also give us time to bring our utilities and things like we talked to bring our budget back into better shape as well. What can we make for five?

I'm checking it for five. So you're making a commission for five years? Yes.

Anyone have a second? Any discussion?

So that's a half cent for five years? Yes.

Okay, 16, police chief report. No, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

14, okay.

14 was tabled. City Hall had built the tuck point. Marginal didn't try to do that in-house, so they didn't give you the shot. Number 15, option surplus items, discussion and approval.

Oh, thank you so much. Yeah, it was.

If you take a look at this list, we have 16 items that we've talked with all the departments, double, triple checked with everyone. We have not used these items in several, several years, 10, 15, 20 years, some of them 20 years. So if you want to go through there, if you want to go item by item and discuss them, if it's something like that, or you just want to take a look and see what you think of the list, if you have any questions on any of the items, Please ask.

So we're going to have a reserve on these bids, correct? I'm sorry.

If you look at that list, I will go through a few things that we have talked about, a few options as far as options out and off. First one will be a live option. I spoke with Joe Gason, and he said that he would come on Wednesday. Saturday morning, we could say, and bring everything out to Public Works in the parking lot, have a live auction right there in the parking lot, and advertise it for, you say, two weeks in the paper, get it out, get as many people as we can exposed on Facebook and on the website as well, and have a live auction at Public Works. And there would be no fee for that. Joe, we have a long period of time, too. run an option for us. Most of them we do pretty good on sealed bids. And I know that's how we did it. Previously it was sealed bids, put it in a newspaper for a couple weeks and then did it.

For one or two items. Yeah. We have 16 here.

Yeah. So that is a, you know, like we've done in the past, I wasn't involved in any past surplus. items that we had in the paper. I've never been through that process. I don't know much about that. Let's see what we can do with Joe and whatever doesn't sell. I just want to discuss each one of them. So that's the live auction option with Joe Cason. The next one will be Purple Wave. I don't know if you're familiar with that. It's a website. They put items on. They will... Put it on the website for you. Take pictures. They'll come down, take the pictures, get all the titles, everything that they need to do in the description. They'll put all that on the website for you. It will be listed for four weeks on the website. And after four weeks, the highest bid gets the item. So you couldn't put a reserve price on it, right? Yeah, in Purplewood, you cannot put reserves on items on Purplewood. And do they charge a commission for each sale? They do not. So, they charge an extra 10% to the buyer. So, for example, if a buyer sells for $300, they charge them 10% as $330. That's how they make their commission.

And you said other cities were using this?

Parker Way is very popular with the surrounding towns. Rolla has done several, Sullivan. I reached out to Proper Electric as well and they said they had used it multiple times and had huge success with it. They asked for about two weeks for payments and they will invoice it and send it to us with proof of who will be coming to pick up the item. We will get the wholesale price. That is the purple wave. That is how that one operates. It will be on for four weeks online. After four weeks, the highest bidder gets it. Godfield is also another option. I was not able to get a whole lot of information on GoField, so you have to sign up as a member, and it takes 24 hours for us to process, and we did not get any much information on it. I do have a little bit, we will do all the work. We'll have to put it online, pictures and descriptions. They do sell it for you. At the end of the auction, they will invoice, collect money, and then they send money to your bank account. I don't know exactly how all that would transpire but and they do a lot of reserves on gut fields. So that's the difference between purple wave and gut fields. Gut fields does a lot of reserves on islands and purple wave does not. Anybody else want to agree to gut fields as well? I did not ask anybody around for gut fields. I've dealt with gut deals. They do a pretty good job of describing your stuff.

I bought from them when I used to have my RV business or surplus stuff, and they do a pretty good job. I've used Purple Wave, too. Both of them have tremendous following, so you know you're going to have – you literally have – hundreds of thousands of people looking at your item yeah i'm familiar with bulk terminal waiting from the beginning of this district i don't like the fact that they won't allow them to bid you don't deserve it does and gov deals does not charge you a seller fee either right it's all paid by the buyer right and what i'm gonna put it in the paper

We have the right to reject the bid.

We can set reserves on a live bid. We can only set reserves on an item. So you have three choices.

I'm not promoting this. Put it in the paper for two weeks.

No second. Now, maybe we should do a caveat to that, and whether it plays big into the live auctions. So, if it's a bad day, are we going to cancel the auction, or is there something we can do there? No, I don't think that's what he was talking about. My motion is to just put it in the paper. Well, we have a motion to set it, and he's the special. Right.

His motion was to put it in the paper for two weeks and take a single date, correct? Yeah. Thank you.

And we will have to have reserves from the president.

Reserves, and then we'll have to make a decision probably for weather. Because if we have bad weather and we only have three people show up, it's not going to be a good day for us. That's not my question. Put it in a paper and then turn it into good here. But you want to do still good for all 16 items? Yeah.

That's what it is. Whatever level you can maybe...

Well, my thought was, since we're in discussion, my thought was, I like purple wave. I don't like the fact that they don't have a reserve bid. Anything that we have as a reserve, like item number one, we do a sealed bid on that one, but we can pick and choose what we want to put on that. What was it called? What was it again? Purple wave or item number one. Ones that don't have a reserve bid. things that may cost more money that we might want to have a little more control over, something more profitable.

Well, we have a first and a second arm there.

And this would go online, too, of course, right? No. Because we always put it in a paper and online. Oh.

What if you sell one at both places? No, no. She's saying you're advertising the newspaper and online that it's a deal. Oh, really?

Yeah. Because online will get to more people. But we do that when we advertise, usually.

We can put it on the website.

No, we can put it on our own website. Yeah. We can get it on there anyway. So they have to hand walk the bid to City Hall, right?

Yes. I mean, I'm a millennial. I have to play by my mind. I'm just saying.

Is that acceptable now to have, you know, they say a sealed bid, but can a sealed bid be emailed? No. Technically, no. Technically not?

You guys have to open them right here, right?

Yeah, you're going to sit here and open 16 bids.

But there's no change in the sealed-bed posse due to technology because of e-mail now?

Legal-wise? I'm going to have to see it.

If somebody else is there and they see it, it's...

Jeff and I caused this discussion, so if you see what happened, then we can get everybody to discuss.

Okay? So we've had discussions.

And is the motion that it will be in the paper and online? No. No?

I'll withdraw. You withdraw? Yeah.

It means for it to be in the paper and online? Yeah.

What's the definition of online advertising?

I don't know.

He just wants to put the dead on the face of the page.

The items that are overbid? Yeah.

We're just advertising, but two different formats. A physical paper and online. So that's basically all this.

If I make a motion, then we put it in the papers. Advertise it in the paper that we're taking some of this and on our website that we're taking some of this. I'll second.

That's what you wanted, correct? Mm-hm. Are we going to vote? Yeah, right.

Yeah, I'm good. All those in favor?

Aye. Opposed? I think we should go online. So let me ask, when do you want these to go this way?

What do you want them to do by?

When can they go on paper?

I mean, I want to tell you, I want to tell you, I want to tell you, I want to tell you, I want to tell you, I want to tell you, I want to tell you, I want to tell you, I want to tell you, I want to tell you, I want to tell you, I want to tell you,

I don't know if we can do 16 of them.

I don't know.

I don't bid on stuff like this.

So I'm asking generally. Are these descriptions good enough to bid on items to bring me a field bid?

If I'm dating on something, I'd like to see a picture of it.

Yeah, you're going to have to put an ad in with a picture, and each one is going to have to be their own ad.

And if we set an ad with a picture, that stuff is going to be pretty expensive.

And if we just do the list and give it the option to come to Public Works to look at it?

We've done this before when we had a large number of items. When the old city mechanic shed was up here at this end of town, we just put a list in the paper saying we're accepting sealed bids for these items. Items are available for public viewing. By contacting Public Works, and by appointment, you would go up there. That's how they did it in the past.

And I agree with that. So you guys, everybody makes you submit just the listing of the items, and then come to the shop. That's how they're trying to contact Public Works.

No pictures. Yeah, they have to come and see if there's something that they could bid on.

Or they can bid on it, or they wouldn't see it.

That I can do. If we don't sell any of them, if we don't get any bids, then we will actually be one of our nerves at the time. So... I think that's a good idea we need to look into as well, is if we do this and we don't get bids on, say, five of these items before it expires, then we need to explore purple wavers. Yes, correct. Thank you.

Hang it up, man. I didn't need anything for news and reports. One of the animal care attendants It looks like Anson Hite has turned in a resignation. I gave Lainey a copy. I think everybody's got a copy of that. I did not.

I just got one. I just got one from my .

Oh, OK. OK. So I just need to accept a resignation.

Her last name will be 726.

Motion to accept a resignation.

I'll second.

All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Okay.

Chief Shelton would like to also post-deposition, I have advised for an annual guarantee to fill that upcoming vacancy.

And that stays within the known plan.

I'll make a motion. Okay.

When's the last day?

July 26th.

So we can't post until it's vacant, right?

We can't hire until it's vacant.

That way it'll work out good because they have to get two weeks notice of their job. The only other thing that she can add was

The animal care attendant, Sarah Butler, he would like to promote her to the supervisor of animal controls, actually animal shelter, and increase her pay from, I don't know what she's at right now, but move it to $18 an hour for the supervisor to get promoted. No, but I mean...

I don't know how to answer that. No, it was not predetermined to move Sarah to that position.

Was this looked at possibly when she was hired?

Her manager retired and she was a contract, so... Instead of, so they took one position away. Right. And they were just going to give her the supervisor job and raise her up to 18 instead of having another employee there. It has been discussed. Yeah. Yeah, I remember that.

The first and the second. Yeah, we're in discussion.

You might ask me.

Because they did have two helpers and a supervisor, so they're down to just two helpers. And they're going to make one of the helpers the supervisor. I remember that.

So full-time or part-time? Part-time. $1400, correct?

$1500.

Okay, we have a first and second.

Any other discussion?

All those in favor? Aye. All those?

That's all Chief sent me with. All these sent you with? All right. OK.

All right. I do have one question. We can go back to that 16A nuisance report. When I'm looking at the nuisance report, I'm thinking like, is that correct? Is that part of the police department now or is that part of the work supervisor?

and some nuisance.

Currently, nuisance complaints run in the police department. This mouse back and forth over here.

Oh, we're talking about nuisance complaints from the public, not the actual nuisance incidents. Right. Correct. Oh, .

OK, now moving on to our ordinances. Motion to have the first reading of bill number 2227. Motion. Second. Long paper.

Aye.

Aye. Opposed? An ordinance authorizing the mayor of the city of Cuba, Missouri on behalf of said city to enter into an agreement with Williams, Robinson, Wiggins, PC for legal services.

Motion to approve the first reading of bill number 2227. Motion. Second. Roll call. Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Motion to have the second reading of bill number 2227.

Motion. Second. All in favor? Aye.

An ordinance authorizing the mayor of the city of Cuba, Missouri, on behalf of said city, to enter into an agreement with Williams, Robinson, Williams, P.C. for legal services.

Motion approved. Second reading of bill number 2227. Motion. Second. Roll call.

Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Motion to add the first reading of bill number 222. Oh, sorry. Bill number 2227 becomes special ordinance 968 on the seventh day of July 2, 2026. Motion to add the first reading of bill number 2228.

Motion. Second.

All in favor? Aye. In order to authorize the mayor of the city of Cuba, Missouri on behalf of said city to execute a contract with the Cuba public schools for providing a school resource officer.

Motion to approve the first reading of bill number 2228. Motion. Second. Low call. Herzog. Yes. Crawford.

Yes. Vornheimer. Yes. Ranieri.

Yes. Rosenberg. Yes. Voss.

Yes. Motion to have the second reading of bill number 2228. Motion. Second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed?

An ordinance authorizing the mayor of the city of Cuba, Missouri on behalf of said city to execute a contract with the Cuba public schools for providing a school resource officer.

Motion.

Motion to approve the second reading of bill number 2228. Motion. Second.

Roll call. Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Bill number 2228 becomes special ordinance 969 on the seventh day of July 26th.

Can I ask a question about this last one? I can't remember, why did you say that the CPA is going to do this for free? I'm sorry? Why is she going to do this for free?

She is. Because this is her hometown and she cares. She what?

This is her hometown and she cares. Most CPAs, especially with the bigger firms, they do pro bono work and that makes a difference to their organizations.

Is she affiliated with any businesses in town?

Other than she does some, probably has some clients in it because this is where she grew up. She's strictly working on the municipal side with the municipal auditor. She got out of the way. She was cool.

Grew up here. She cares about the community, Joyce.

Well, I just wondered if she was affiliated with anything sent down. No, no. Okay.

Anything else? Motion to have the first reading of bill number 2229. Motion. Second.

Longfellow?

Aye. Opposed?

An ordinance authorizing the mayor of the city of Cuba, Missouri, on behalf of said city, to enter into an agreement with Bush, Matthews, and Associates CPA for consulting services.

Motion to approve. Second.

Motion to have a second reading of bill number 2229. Motion. Second. All in favor? Aye.

In order to authorize the mayor of the city of Cuba, Missouri, on behalf of the city to enter into an agreement with Bush, Matthews, and Associates CPA for consulting services.

Motion to approve the second reading of bill number 2229.

Motion.

Second. Roll call.

Yes.

Yes.

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

Bill number 2229 becomes special ordinance 970 on this 7th day of July 2026.

All right. All in business?

Well, I had a woman call me about complaints about finding drug paraphernalia out of the park at Quinn Park when actually people called her and wanted her to Come to the meeting, but she lives out of the city limits, so she brought it to me, and I talked to Doug about it. And he said all they would give, they would call the police, they would come and get it and try to find out where it came from. And I will let her know that. But she asked me to bring it to the board, and I am.

Thank you. I had a complaint. We had somebody in our yard up here at the museum and they're flying, taking all night in the grass. When did you receive the complaint? He was there time-wise. The complaint was Thursday or Friday. I think over the weekend, one of our officers removed somebody. Over the weekend, one of our officers removed somebody from over there. Okay. That's why I had a complaint.

He had someone speaking in the garage by the monument or something.

There's some reason that part of town seems to draw people that kind of let's go.

Yeah, that was the guy who was kicked out. I'm sure.

There's no one here.

Luke? Nothing, but I covered 913. I think it does. Nothing for me. Jim?

Well, I got just something I want to say. I was informed that one of our former employees was asked or whatever to bring his boots back. And in my 25 years being involved with the city, never have we ever asked an employee when they leave here to bring back their rooms, coats, caps, whatever. That was the most ridiculous thing I ever heard. Do you know the story? And then I heard you ask another employee if he would wear them. Well, yeah.

You don't ask them, where do you use boots? Maybe you don't. I do. When the guy's wearing his own personal boots until he was getting a set of boots and he was knee deep in the mud. The past employee, when he left, said, hey, I just got these boots. If he wants them, I'll give them to him. So I said, okay, fine. Then when I seen the boots that... that Colton had on after he worked on a job, I called Isaiah and said, yeah, Isaiah, if you still have those boots off, he goes, I still have them, I don't wear them. So he brought them to me. That's the story. I wish you had told me first and you would have known the story. Colton was wearing his own boots and he was knee deep in the mud.

He comes up here to haze and get there. Okay. That's what haze is there for.

You've got a six-month probation. I cannot buy him boots and all the stuff that goes with it until he gets out of his six-month probation. I've never heard of that either. If you don't, what if he... Well, I made that decision, so if you didn't take the boots, I have them. Would you like them?

No, they don't go back to Isaiah.

I was wondering why they weren't on the third book. Well, they will be if you want them. I don't understand why you wouldn't just call me and ask me the question. Why don't you bring them up here instead of just calling me and asking me the question?

Because I don't want to. Obviously. Okay. All right. Motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn.