City Commission - Special Meeting

Meeting to order.

Today is Monday, June the 1st, 2026. Time is 11 o'clock. Uh, call us to order and we're going to have a final draft of fiscal year 27 budget review. Mr. Coffey.

Thank you, Mayor, Commissioners. Um, so this, this is, uh, go to the next slide there real quick. This is the near the end of our process. Um, As you can see from slide number two, this is the final draft review. To remind us, what we talked about the last time was we felt like we were pretty solid on our appropriations, acknowledging that this is a very low, low decision year because of the things that we had in process, the state of the economy, and all the things that are related to the fiscal attributes of the city. This was a low decision year, really. As they go. And so at the last meeting, we were able to get to a point where we felt pretty solid on the appropriations. And one of the things we were doing was to reassess in front of this final review kind of where we sat with revenues, where we sat with expenses to see if there was any adjustments that created more room towards the end of the fiscal year. to see if you wanted to speed up some of the decisions. My mind jumped ahead there. Saying that, what you'll hear today is that we feel good about the numbers. We do feel like we're going to be a little bit ahead of what we predicted on revenue originally, but we would still end up with the recommendation of doing an adjustment in December if you wanted to do an adjustment. I do think that their probability is higher that you will have room to make an adjustment to the personnel. Remember, we have talked about the adjustment being adding three firefighters, adding staff in different spots, and that really turns into a discussion, I really feel like, that is lined with that December in order to continue to be conservative, continue to monitor what's happening with the economy outside of the building. And what you'll hear is that remains our recommendation. throughout, and I think that is a conservative tact, and I do think that means that you're pretty well settled on the budget if you all agree with that philosophy. And so with that, this is the final draft review, but it is possible that we could do, if you all philosophically agree with that after today, then we would we would be in essence done with the budget process and so we'd be in a position to have the first reading with you and what we consider the budget presentation to you to ask for that first reading probably even Monday night if that's what you wanted to do and that would mean we may be done with budget meetings, that's up to you as well. So with that, that's kind of where we're at in our process. and we will then turn it over to Lee and let her go through some of the slides from here.

Just a quick overview of where we are when it pertains to the citywide budget. We did produce and so far have produced a balanced operating budget for all funds that are supported by your reoccurring revenues. we have maintained budgeted reserves usage for planned one-time investments and capital costs rather than having any sort of operational deficit, which is what we want to avoid. That would mean that your routine recurring expenses such as your payroll and operating costs are being supported by your reserves, which in several years could put you in a bad position. We've not had that. We were able to maintain our recurring operations with recurring revenues. capital projects, infrastructure improvements, new equipment are supported by reserves and grant matches and the city maintains reserve levels sufficient to support your operations during economic downturns or emergencies. We want to emphasize that to the community. Total citywide appropriations currently set at $73,485,546. This is largely positioned in your general funds and your utility fund. Your utility fund does show a significant increase compared to prior years, which is largely due to your ongoing capital work. If you all remember from a few weeks back, we were notified that we did get significant funds from the state to put toward our wastewater treatment plant of about 12 million. We also have several other large projects for the utility fund, including work on your Clark's Run trunk line of about 6 million, various other projects. So the utility fund is projected to have a higher than average appropriation year. The general fund is at 27 million. which is a little higher than last fiscal year due to some capital work within our park system that will be transferred to that system. Operating appropriations for your general fund are a little higher than last fiscal year, but that's due to routine cost of living increases and normal inflation. So compared to where we were at a month ago, we did go back and do the exercise of reviewing our revenues compared to where they were. We undertook the exercise in February. We again undertook the exercise in March. or I'm sorry, in May, which is reflected on your spreadsheets in your green column. That is your up-to-date numbers as of May 13th, 2026. we were able to revise our budgeted revenues up slightly compared to where we were at at the prior meeting, which was a exercise in looking at where the actual dollars are as of May 13th compared to where they are, we project them to be on 630, and then taking that into the upcoming year. So they did increase slightly. The dollar increase is documented on page 11 of your large budget spreadsheets. Your original before revision general fund revenue was at 24.59 million, and we're now at 24.79 million. So that was an increase of 195,000. Largely that was from your insurance premium tax and your occupational payroll tax. We did see a few other places where we could improve that projected dollar amount, but not significant overall. Total operating budgeted revenues are at $24,790,320. your total, Operating appropriations are at $24,594,481, which leaves you an operating projected surplus of $195,839. As Earl had mentioned, we will have a better idea at December if we're gonna hit those projections and what that allows us to do as it concerns to staff because of the nature of those long-term liabilities related to new staff. In this budget, we also have one-time appropriations for capital and investment of one-time equipment, things like that from your fund balance reserves. We were able to maintain full family coverage and a robust health plan for all existing employees. We provided the COLA and step adjustment for salaries to all existing employees, which included a market rate adjustment for 911. reclasses for our HR clerk and a detective, and to hire one public works maintenance worker for a half year.

Stop with that one, if I may interrupt. When we were talking about changing, if you wanted to go ahead and the one caveat to that is if you want to make this position full-time all year, I think with a surplus of $195, I think you have the room to go ahead and do that. and then Public Works could make that higher beginning in July rather than waiting until December, which that would make sense. The rest of them I would probably still wait and have a conversation in December. You want to make sure that your revenue is sustainable and stable before you add the quantity or the new employees on the fire and the other side. I wrote that roughly, what, $100,000? No, it would add an additional $45,000 probably to the budget to pick up that worker the other half of the year. Oh, that's right.

So currently you have him in there at half year. That's about $39,000 for the year. So an additional $39,000-ish for the remainder of the year. Yeah, I round it up.

Sounds like a good idea to me. Yeah. Do it now when we need him before the winter hits and all that good stuff.

Yeah, so that will be in a budget adjustment we do. If you all generally agree with that, we'll go ahead and add that position in. Since you're adding it in January anyway, we would, with that surplus, go ahead and recommend adding that in July. So we'll add the expense to the budget of the half year of the maintenance worker.

Our police and fire pension board met in April to discuss the upcoming contribution. If you all remember, we have a very small police and fire pension that remains. There are four members still in the police and fire pension from prior to when the city joined KPPA, the board for the pension board voted to increase monthly contributions to the pension members by 4%, which is an approximate amount that the city staff will be receiving themselves. for the year. And then generally we reviewed the pension plan and its investment account to make sure it is sustainable. The pension is fully funded at this point, which is an excellent position for us to be in. And the city will have a minimal contribution of $5,000 from the general fund to the police and fire pension fund as just an annual contribution an annual budgeting tactic to maintain the health of the pension fund and to ensure that it doesn't get lost throughout the years, essentially. The city's general fund budget also was able to invest into 20 plus community and shared agencies as long as well as funds for economic development initiatives brought to the commission in the 250th celebration that we are having in middle in July next month. When you look at your general fund revenues, the largest portion, as we know, comes from your various license and fees, including your payroll, withholding, your net profits, your insurance premiums. Total license and fees make up 81% of your budget at $20 million. Your next largest category of revenue at 10% of your total general fund budget at 2.6 million is your property taxes. As we discussed throughout the budget process, those budget numbers are based on the commission electing to take the compensating rate. You have some other recurring revenue, service revenue, intergovernmental revenue. It makes up smaller portions of your budget. Total budget for FY27 in the general fund would be $24,790,320. And that, like we said, was based on our revision in May after we collected that last quarter of occupational tax. in insurance premium tax for the year. Our general fund appropriations in total, which is total is on page 11 of your large spreadsheet is $27,094,031. You have $904,000 from general fund capital items. You have transfers to other funds, which includes capital expenses for your parks fund at 2.9 million. In addition, you have your debt service at 2,084,000. Your largest departmental expenses, your police department due to just the number of officers we have, and then your fire department, and then your public works. In total 27 million, but operationally you're at 24 million for the year.

I would like to say this slide is important and produces a little bit of, so when we're talking about the transparency, Folks, we suggest a lot of times that supporting the economic vitality of the community is really what your mission is, and that is done through police, fire, and the various services that the city offers. And so the number one objective of that is having a clean, safe, well-maintained community with... things that complement quality of life. And so when you look at the expenditures and the appropriation, the delineation with the police, seven million, the police fire communications is your core safety component, 14 million of your $24 million budget. When you add up then public works, roughly $2 million, and then your transfers to your parks and rec, which is your quality of life, and then your capital, which is your parks and rec and all those things, you're looking at roughly 80% of your budget can directly be seen to assess to police, fire, communications, and your basic services, which is your public works and then your parks, right? This slide demonstrates that you're making the investment not misdirected but aligned with your overall mission. And I think that's not well communicated with just this slide unless you have some dialogue around it. But I do think that this slide does tell that good quality story for you.

So because these numbers haven't really changed much from our previous meetings, as you guys have questions, please let me know or stop us. We'll continue going through them. The biggest change was in your general fundamental...

Excuse me.

You okay over there?

Yeah, I had a peanut burrito for breakfast. I'm sorry.

Um, was, um, on the appropriation side, your change was, um, we did increase our capital number due to some revised estimates from, um, the police department, um, related to their, their tasers, um, which we considered a necessary change. Uh, but otherwise, and overall, it was fairly minimal change. Um, really not a lot has changed on the appropriation side, which is what your budget, your legal budget is based on. So I'll keep going through our slides. Like I said, as you all have questions, let me know. Your municipal aid funds, that is where your gas tax are derived from. We have requested appropriations. $300,000 is your streets, your annual road and paving. $40,000 is your transfer back to the general funds. And then we have $520,000 for capital projects, which is largely your Boffman Avenue project. which Josh has assured us is ongoing and will happen in FY27. And just as a reminder for you all, I know the gas tax is in the news a lot right now. In 2018, the city received $327,000 in gas tax revenue. In 2025, that's the current year that we have complete, we've not received all FY26 funds yet. we received $353,000. That's a 7% increase in seven years. And your 2018 buying power of $327,000 would be closer to $432,000 in 2026 according to like CPI calculations. So the gas tax revenue does not keep up with the cost of inflation. It doesn't keep up with the cost to maintain streets and roads. That's something for us to keep in mind just every year due to the rising cost of maintaining the roads that we have. Opioid fund. This is probably your fund with the biggest changes. If you all remember the last time we talked, we had not yet provided you any sort of appropriations for this fund. For the public and for your old reminder, our opioid funds come from settlements with opioid manufacturers from the state. Essentially the state and several states sued opioid manufacturers due to the harmful nature of the opioid epidemic that the whole country has faced and we received these opioid settlements. These funds are restricted for use to opioid remediation and to help those impacted directly by opioid use disorder. The Boyle County Homeless Coalition has provided to Tony and Earl and myself a proposal for use of some of our opioid funds, and this is really the first proposal that we've gotten that we've wanted to bring forward. to you all at a specific date. This is just authorizing some funds to be used in the future, but we would bring a specific recommendation forward to you all in the future. So this isn't approval to use these funds, but this is allowing us to have the budget there to do so if you approve it. They have a program called, that they are starting called Program Solid Grounds to provide transitional housing. for those affected with homelessness. And a lot of those folks have also experienced opioid use disorder and the harmful, the side effects that come along with that. This program is intended to provide furnished housing, case management, employment support, and life skills training to those individuals Participants will contribute 30% of their earned income once they're working toward future housing stability to help them provide for themselves in the future. It's a pilot program with the hope of expanding their capacity in the future to address local challenges including job loss and lack of affordable housing. It's designed to reduce long-term public costs associated with homelessness, including EMS services, law enforcement, and incarceration. And they have a total estimated program cost of $41,600. They're asking that the city allocate $25,000 in fiscal 27 to help support their mission. And we would ensure that our program funds are targeted toward participants with opioid use disorder in accordance with the settlement. They'll have some more details and when they're ready to, this is a very, it's a brand new program that they're working on. And they'll be able to explain in detail to you all about the disorder, or I'm sorry, the program. But we thought it was a good first use of the city's opioid funds. So we're recommending $25,000 to be appropriated in the opioid fund for the upcoming year.

So you're going to get additional requests on this money this year with the state, the implementation of the state budget. from this spring session. There are cuts in some of the things related to the court system. We're aware that folks there are gonna come and ask for some of that money dedicated to extend those services. We're gonna meet, with them and we're gonna hear that out. But the thing with the opioid money that I think is critical is that will run out. That is not something that's sustainable long term. And so what we want to make sure our recommendation if we make one It is something that is cooked in to be sustainable and isn't something that's going to daylight out into the general fund and create a burden on property taxes or occupational taxes. And so understand that our recommendations are tailored in that direction unless we hear something different from you. And then also with the philosophical approach that what should the city be doing and what should the county be doing? And talking to some of those folks over there, we agree as administrators that, yeah, we've got to make sure that we don't just let programs start at the city that really belong at the county and have things start at the county that should belong at the city. And so that we continue that partnership and working together towards those objectives. So if there's something tied to the court system, then theoretically that should be a county function. Something tied to local community service, such as this housing program as a pilot, that better aligns with things that cities do. And so I say that only to say that as that plays out, expect to hear more. Expect to hear a lot more dialogue and a lot more requests. And so we'll figure that out as we go. And understanding that that's our philosophical approach.

And the people that are working on that, Tony, you working with them, or the police department working with them?

Tony is engaged. He does a lot of the meetings and attends some of those things because a lot of them are impactful to law enforcement. We don't want to incidentally increase an expenditure on law enforcement side of man hours, and so we have to be careful with that. And I don't think that... folks really understand the connectivity between the man hours that law enforcement has to invest in some of these programs. I think it's just programmatic cost and it's good. It's not. And so we do want the police chief engaged. We do listen to the police chief with some of those recommendations and also understand that's cooked into our process. I would make sure to your point that you know that when we are making a recommendation on opioid money or something like this, we have We have also talked to the police chief, or the police chief has come out with a recommendation to us.

Okay, so they would come to us at a future meeting?

Absolutely.

And talk to us about it? Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah.

They didn't even make a request on how to spend this $25,000.

They will have to come forward with you with a detail, with detail what we suggested to the group that came, which is your homeless coalition, that we would recommend in the budget having $25,000 that they could come and request of you. And so this gives you the chance to, the way our budget is structured, you've got, without budget amendment, a chance to allocate $25,000 towards the initiatives tied to opioid abatement.

You can see from our chart, those funds come in at varying fiscal 23, we got $85,000. Fiscal 24, we got $2,000. Fiscal 25, we got $163,000. Some of that is we got a few one-time settlements. Some of the settlements that we participate in, we've gotten all the money that we're ever going to get from them based on the total allocation. They do an allocation based on location and population and... when we sign to participate in the settlement and some of them are ongoing and we'll get, you know, two to 5,000 a year for the next projected 15 years, but we can't guarantee that we will get any beyond what we already have. So that's also one of the reason we have not jumped headfirst to say, oh, we'll spend $100,000 here or there because we don't know how long these funds will last and we wanna make the biggest impact that we can with our dollars. So moving forward, police safety funds. This is where we track your expenses and revenues tied to your highway safety grant, which is a grant used by law enforcement agencies to pay overtime, to officers for things like traffic stops and seatbelt violations and unsafe driving. In the current year you have budgeted approximately $14,000 and some change. Very similar to what we have in previous years, which is based on the hours we can allocate for staff that are able to participate. All of the appropriations, all of the expenses for this fund are reimbursed by that grant. Your drug forfeiture fund tracks the expenses and revenues received from assets that are seized through drug-related, drug enforcement actions. These funds come to us from the circuit court clerk after they have been through a court process. All of the spending and expenses related to this fund are directly tied to drug and drug enforcement training and prevention that are restricted under Kentucky law. We have budgeted $7,500 in total appropriations for this fund. This is very similar to other years. Sometimes we get more in revenues than we originally anticipated, but that's not something we can project out, it's very variable based on kind of the court system.

Can I ask a quick question? Absolutely. I've always kind of wondered, this is for Tony, what do you all do with that? I mean, I know it's restricted, but what have you all done with it or what do you typically do with it? Yeah, like I say, I was just curious.

Your Streetscapes fund is a capital project fund that's used to track the spending related to improvements in our downtown corridor. We have 60,000 budgeted... Let me make sure that's correct. 50,000, I apologize. 50,000 budgeted for the upcoming fiscal year for any sort of curb repair or if we need bollards or anything like that in the downtown corridor. The revenues from this fund are strictly general fund transfers. It's supported by your general fund in a minor amount of interest. Your Park and Recreation Fund. As you're going through that, your revenues start on page 17 of your large spreadsheets. You have total budgeted operating revenues of $1,948,533 and budgeted operating appropriations of $1,948,533. Our one-time appropriations for capital investments are supported from general fund reserves grants and Boyle County Fiscal Court's support. We have also maintained full family coverage on our robust health plan for all of our full-time employees. We've provided COLA plus step-in adjustments to salaries. The Boyle County Fiscal Court and partner organizations continue to support major recreational investments. Tommy's working with Josh to bring forward in the near future, some more sponsorship opportunities. And they've continued to try to obtain new sponsorships for ongoing programs and one-time costs. your total budgeted revenues are $4,023,533. This includes 1.49 million from the general funds. It also includes 580,000 from grants related to capital projects. your Boyle County Fiscal Court support for your capital improvements don't get recognized as budgeted transfers in revenues. That is a accounting those actually offset the cost in your capital program. So we'll budget the total capital cost for the year and then at the end of the year, that total will be reduced by the support, by the Boyle County Fiscal Court. Due to them owning 50% of the projects that we partner on, they then themselves would have a 50% expense on their books for capital projects. So overwhelmingly, the $4.4 million is made up of transfers from your general fund for your operations. Danville's general fund will support operations at $972,000. We also have approximately $900,000, $980,000 in support from the fiscal court for operations of $400,000 and your grants of $580,000. Park service revenue is budgeted at $125,000. Parks revenue for your programs, facility use fees, and your concessions at 391. Other recurring revenue for things such as Jenny Rogers concessions, miscellaneous items at 17,000 and sponsorships at 42,000. Your total parks appropriations are $4,023,833. That's $2,075,000 in capital items. We've provided you a reminder of what our capital projects are for the upcoming year and noted which ones are shared with the county, which ones have some grant funding, and the others would just be general funds.

Capital projects tend to be... they tend to last across fiscal years as well and so just a reminder of that the the programming that you have here represents a fairly robust set of projects that really touch all the bases from outdoor mountain biking to skateboarding to we're continuing to refine the indoor concept the aquatics get some legs and and so so we're we are feel good about, include maintenance, for example, like the drinking fountains in Millennium Park. So we feel good about the diversity of these capital investments, creating a maintenance program for your facilities so that your facilities don't just sit there for years with no money being spent and and whatnot. So I would encourage you to have confidence that those are, that is a very diverse and solid group of projects, including playground development, for example. So I think you're doing, you have a good presentation there.

I mean, on the parks, So we've already decided these are our capital projects.

Those are the capital projects that you have underway right now that continue. And remember, a couple of them, like the performance pavilion got bumped up because it's funded by a grant external to the city and county. Now, we do expect this conversation to play out this summer, and so it is possible that you end up with a budget amendment to fund additional capital requests, but for us, that's probably just the way it needs to play out in order to continue or to... prevent your budget from being artificially inflated while you're, you're in planning. Right. And so we'll, we'll continue to push those projects. They are a priority and we do have a path forward. We've got a meeting later today on the indoor rec and aquatics, for example. And so, so we're, we're, we are, those are priorities and we are pushing those. And, and you, we do expect to have follow-up conversation, uh, not just later in the summer, but throughout the fiscal year that you're in.

And again, you know, aquatics has been a big thing since I was when I first started, and we're still the same place we are, except for where the pool is holding its own, I guess, after the water is staying. I went by there yesterday. There's so many kids out there at the pool, you know, and It was nice to see, but you walk around the building and just stuff is falling apart. What do we do with that? And then pickleball courts were busy from the morning to night of kids of all ages, older people, and are we going to repair those while we're sort of in the middle? Are we just going to leave them like they are? Or will we make any, I guess, improvements to Bunny Davis on the outside? I mean, just small things. I can talk to you about later, but that you see that things are just falling apart. And there's a lot of people out there.

Yeah, totally. We agree with that idea, and we agree that we have to have a plan that's sustainable. And I do agree and thank Josh and Tommy. for a couple different things. Number one, focusing on maintenance, but then two, pushing the agenda to try to get to a decision where long-term decisions can be made tied to aquatics and tied to all the pickleball and all the things, right? And so that is not falling on deaf ears. We hear that, and we are pushing to... Remember, we've talked about, too, a long time, and this is a reminder for the community and everybody involved. When we break ground on something, you're at the 70% done mark. And a lot of times what the general public sees when we actually have a piece of equipment out there and we're breaking ground, folks think we just finally did it. And the planning, the pre-planning, the development of a project, the approvals, a lot of times with the state, when you're building some structure that has occupancy in it, all the things that go into moving the project from nothing to nothing, you're something you're actually building, that's a lot of work. And it does take time. And it's unfortunate that it takes as much time as it does. But we always say it takes 10 years to build a road. Well, that's true. And I know that folks want government to move really quickly. But most of the time, the context of the work leading, the planning that is necessary to get to a point where you are doing something is not understood, and so we try to repeat that every time. We know you guys understand all those aspects of it, but the repeating of that is for the public at large and those watching at home because there is a lot of necessary work that goes into something to get a dozer on a scene to break ground on something.

And the Jenny Rogers parking lot, we've already graded for it. Is it $50,000 for paving?

Paving, putting the final surface on. Okay. Yep.

The $50,000 for the indoor aquatics, that's for the, they talked about the pro forma and moving the plants forward in and of themselves.

So like what Earl was talking about, that's part of it.

You have to also fund that background work with real investment. So it's not just investment to build something. The planning exercise for us to understand how big the pool needs to be, for example, in the future, you've got to spend money to understand that number. And so that's what the $50,000 is for in the fiscal year you're going into. Okay.

So we will move forward to our cemetery funds. Your cemetery fund revenues are supported by general fund transfers, your operating fees from your lot sales and your cemetery job work and some minor revenue and investment income total of $430,259. Your total I'm sorry, your total fund appropriations are $430,000, $259,000. And this includes your full family coverage as well, your COLA and your step adjustment for all your existing employees. We also have a budgeted bench replacement of your West property. Other than that, there's not a ton of major activity in the cemetery fund for the upcoming year. Your stormwater fund total appropriations are?

The West property on the fence replacement. Is that across the bottom? I can't see any new place out there.

That would be the west side of one of our cemeteries. That's what the experts referred to it as. And I have not been to either of our cemeteries.

No, it's not the Kilby Lane. It's not that one. No, it's not that one. It's the fence on the existing cemetery.

on either Hilldale or Bellevue, but I'm not sure which one it is. I assumed you guys knew.

Will that enclose the entire cemetery, or still you're open on other ends of Bellevue? I mean, I don't know, because you've got so many openings.

Bellevue on the west side is fenced currently. That's the one that backs up the bell place. Right. The north end is open to the woods. There's no fence there, so I would assume it would be Hilldale.

Okay.

Yeah, I think we replaced Bellevue fencing either last year or the year before. So my instinct would be that it is for Hilldale. Okay. On the west side of Hilldale?

It may be that property right there. The one that we just bought. The one we just bought? Yeah.

Okay. Is that by Duncan Hill?

That's Duncan Hill.

Yeah. I didn't want to go all the way with that, but I do think she's correct on that.

That's the one. Josh wrote, we'll blame this one on Josh. He wrote west property on his capital improvement plan.

Well, I bring it up because we want to make sure we don't forget about the Kilby Lane. Last year, it got the grass, the weeds, all that stuff got overlooked, got missed last time. So that's why I said, where is it?

Yeah, it's not that one.

Make sure the lawn service guys get up there. That would have been nice if it was. I've never heard of it. Show me.

That's okay.

Stormwater funds. We have budgeted appropriations of $1,242,500. That does include improvements on your East Main slash Kentucky for drainage improvements and a mini excavator in your capital program totaling $500,000. You have some minor debt service in your stormwater fund. Partially this is leased vehicles And then you have a general obligation bond in your stormwater fund, but that has very few years left on that debt service. I believe that one ends in 2030. Total revenues are budgeted at $742,000 with those capital improvements to be funded through your reserves from your stormwater. We have budgeted a... increase to your rate for COLA so that we don't have to have the same conversation that we did last year where there's a significant jump in your stormwater rates and so that the fund is able to keep up with cost of living going forward. So your stormwater management folks will be bringing a recommendation to a commission meeting in the future to align our current ordinance with that.

That was my question. Yes. Tell me to fix the ordinance.

So I've not seen their suggested improvements, but our current discussions involve updating the ordinance more akin to the water and sewer ordinance. That does include the COLA adjustment in it going forward. just so that is maintained for longer rather than it being a set rate in your ordinance. Your garbage fund. We have updated the appropriations based on what we believe is the current track of the commission to change our billing to be in-house, the base rate. And then, but billed through Republic, your recycling and your extra carts would be billed separately. Total appropriations are $1,405,735. which includes $45,000 that we send to the fiscal court to support recycling. Total revenues at $1,411,000. Based on the discussions that we've had through the last couple months, the city will continue to bill your base rate garbage collection of one can at $14.94. And then your Republic Services will bill additional services. And we believe that this is the, based on the feedback that Josh, you know, and Earl received from you all, kind of our best going forward. And we think this will also help us slowly reduce that, the support from the general funds as much as we can and help us balance that fund balance.

Do we have plans for like an educational or, I don't know, I tell people about this and they're shocked like they've never heard it before. I just wonder how we can do it better. That's a question we always ask.

I do think there are some plans for information to go out into water bills as those are over the next couple months. My understanding is on July 1st it's not going to be a hard transition because it's going to take Republic once they have an official contract on hand it's going to take them some time to get set up for that and then it's going to take us some time to transition that over to update um rates and and accounts and things like that in our system um so there is going to be some information going out in our in our through the mail um through social media um i can speak other than that in general i know that those are internal discussions i can't speak to the specifics more than that we know we know that we have to communicate consistently um we have to

have consistent messaging with the county. I know the county is, I went to the movies last night with my son and I saw their recycling ad play at the movies, for example. And so that messaging has to hit all age brackets and all, so we freely acknowledge that we have to have constant communication throughout the summer and regular communication throughout the summer.

Your utility fund revenues are budgeted at $36,961,770. This includes $17.2 million in grants and 6.3 million in low-interest loans and debt service for our, both of those are targeted specifically for capital projects that are upcoming. So your operating revenues are right around 13 million, which is considered very base and normal for the city's water operations. and includes that automatic cost of living that we do have built into our ordinance. Total operating fees for water are $6.7 million. Total operating fees related to the sewer systems are $6.4 million. You have a budgeted operating surplus between your operating revenues and your operating expenses of $28,931. We, again, were able to maintain for all of our utility fund our full family coverage. I keep mentioning it because it is a significant investment into every fund. It doesn't just impact one fund. It impacts all of our funds. Our COLA plus your step adjustment for existing employees. And like we said, your significant capital improvements, including your Mox Creek Pump Station, Clarks Run Sewer Improvements, and Wastewater Treatment Plant Phase II, Total appropriations in your fund are $37,782,477. There is a spend down of your fund balance for your one-time capital equipment, one-time capital investment in a couple projects. But the majority of your capital improvements will be funded through loans and grants that we have been allocated. from a couple entities.

This slide here indicates really the pressure that the environmental cabinet has placed on the sanitary sewer system. We are touching every, from Parable to Junction City to the north side in Danville to Clark's Run, which is the center of Danville, to the south side, which is the extension of service from Balls Branch up to some of the commercial areas. The renovation of the wastewater plant in Danville, the addition of the capacity on the north side of the Mox Creek pump station, tidying that pump station up after 20 years of service there. We know there's other complaints out there and that kind of thing. The pressure that Marshall is feeling from the Division of Water to implement Sanitary Sewer Service, Sanitary Sewer System improvements is reflected in that number. And I want to make sure that you all have your heads around that as you go forward and have that in your pocket to understand that the pace that he is asking for investment in the sanctuary sewer system is not necessarily because he is really good at doing century sewer projects or really efficient at doing century sewer projects. It's a reflection of the pace that the Division of Water has placed on us, frankly, has placed on a lot of towns in Kentucky. There was a real high last year of rainfall in the spring. A lot of communities found themselves in overcapacity on their wastewater plants last year as a result of that, because of I&I. And the Division of Water is addressing that throughout Kentucky in many cities, including ours. We were in a little bit different posture because we were already planning to do wastewater plant improvements, and we knew we had to run our capacity properly. We wanted to trend towards our capacity so that we were in a good spot to do a project rather than doing a project preemptively years ago, right? So we let it run. So now we're here. We did get some addition of state money this time thanks to Senator Bledsoe and Elliot, Representative Elliot. And so those are terrific investments. Once we get past this next 24 months, 30 months of investment in the utility, you're going to see the city be required to start thinking about water system improvements again, not necessarily wastewater plant or I mean a water plant for the sake of Reliability and those things like we had done before but but we want us You're going to start seeing additional demand issues not necessarily because our plants undersized but because they're again regulatory perspectives and the alignment of resources means that more and more folks that centralized water plant does matter, and it does produce efficiency in your cost of service, and so you're going to get more pressure after this 30, this month, this 30-month, 36-month cycle of capital investment in sanitary. You're going to start seeing a lot of pressure on the water side again is what I want to make sure I communicate, just to plant that seed for you so that when you hear it again from us, you'll know kind of the origin of it. A lot of it's going to be tied to industrial growth, industrial activity, or residential growth, or system capacity. Most of it's going to be tied to new revenue, though. That's the good thing on that aspect. So if there's additional capital investment beyond this, hopefully you're also getting new customers, new revenue from it.

So we'll move forward. Our museum fund budgeted appropriations are at $66,980 with revenues to match at $66,980. The revenues consist of transfers from our general fund with some minor interest. The expenses are directly tied to maintenance related to mostly 401 West Main and a few things at 411 West Main, which is the newer quote unquote, newer building to us. Both facilities are leased to the Art Center of the Bluegrass to support the arts and benefits to the general public. There's no significant activity planned for FY27 out of this fund.

That does raise a question. We need to schedule a tour of the new ballroom.

I would bet they would love to give you a tour. I couldn't speak to that. I am not sure. I have no idea what they've got going on over there. I do know their lunch is very good. But that's all I can speak to. Your parking fund accounts for all of the operations for the city's parking enforcement and infrastructure in your downtown corridor. We maintain 50 plus parking leases between the lots and the garage, which is over 400 spaces. We were able to maintain your full family coverage for the personnel in your parking fund. and provide your COLA plus step adjustment for the employees and then maintenance of your long-lived capital asset. Your total personnel operating costs in your parking funds, total costs are $490,643. Personnel Your pie graph is a little bit off. That's my fault for not catching it. Total fund expenses are $490,000, not personnel. Your total personnel costs are $75,000. Okay. I grabbed the wrong number on my chart. Total fund cost for the year are 490. Personnel are 75,677. Your contract services at 88,000. Other at 4,600. Your debt service at 271,000. And capital improvements at 50,000. Your revenues are largely derived from your parking rental fees, which are mostly your leases at 329,000. Some investment interest at 32,000. Penalties related to parking fines at 8,000 and general fund transfers of 70,000. No, the spreadsheet's correct. Yeah, your spreadsheet's correct. I just grabbed the wrong number from the spreadsheet when building my pie chart. Yeah. No, your 490 is correct as a total. It's just personnel is not your largest cost in your parking funds. Personnel is your third largest cost. Your largest cost in your parking fund is the debt service related to the garage.

Should we talk about parking spaces? It says 400 plus spaces?

Yes. So that's in your garage and your two lots that are available downtown.

And it says 50 parking leases?

Yes. In your garage and in both spaces. In the lots downtown, some of the spaces are leased and some are available for public parking at all times. Your parking garage has some of the spaces are leased and then you have public parking free for two hours for anybody every day and then free after five on the weekends. or free after five during the week and on the weekends all day. And then your upper levels in the garage are available during the day for general use. So in my opinion, there is a conversation in the public social media space that there's no parking downtown, but we do have a lot of parking. It's just not immediately available on Main Street sometimes. And then we do have folks that, it's not advertised, but are using where the old fire station lot was and next door where the old U.S. Bank parking lot was. Those are city-owned and are being utilized as parking and parking. It's just free for folks who need parking.

But in the parking garage, 24-7, there's really some free parking.

24-7, there is free space available up to two hours, 24-7, and then longer nights and weekends.

And it's a short walk.

We still have, it says 50 leases, but... there's not as many in the parking garage being leased?

So all of the leaseable spaces are fully leased in the parking garage. Yes. Between the garage and the surface loss, there's 50 plus lease agreements on file. Some places have significantly more than one space. For instance, farmers leases quite a few from us.

But all of the available spots in the garage?

All of the available leased spaces are leased.

And some get double parked.

Uh-huh. And in the beyond what is considered leased available, there are, in addition to the leased spaces in the garage, there's significantly more. There's two floors, I believe, two full floors that are available to the public at all times. So they just have to drive up a couple floors.

That's amazing.

So our budget process, we want to emphasize that our budget process is open and transparent. All of our meetings are available on YouTube. We also have a linked budget page on the city's website that gives you a bit of an overview of what we talked about at our meeting, as well as the link to the YouTube page in the meeting so that you can watch it at any point. We kind of, Earl, kind of recap that as long as you all are in agreement and are... of we're all on the same page, we can present our first reading of our ordinance at our regularly scheduled commission meeting on the 8th with a final adoption at the following meeting. The line item budget will be available after adoption with the full budget book to follow within the following month or two.

I guess it's time for questions and comments then.

Thank you again for this wonderful summary. I remember the days of, you know, unnumbered black and white huge booklets and I would get a little confused. And this is just wonderful, not only for us, but for the transparency of the citizens. So thank you. I saved these. Just to confirm, Mr. Coffey, so we're waiting until December to see if there's any extra fire.

Okay. Yeah, that's where my recommendation landed. Okay. Strictly because it is going to be a long-term expense.

Right.

And so we didn't really necessarily, we weren't able to predict enough variance from expenditures and revenue to make a recommendation to do something different.

Okay. But December this year? Yes.

Okay. Thank you. We'll continue to have a conversation in December. Okay.

Maybe the first of December instead of the end of December so we can be prepared.

The idea is when you get your first quarter information, you get the end of the fiscal year, your first quarter, so you're in that October, then therefore October, November. So around that second meeting in November, first meeting in December, I'd like to have that conversation again just to start it.

and we hope the conversation is good news, but conservatively, it might not be good news.

Yeah, we don't want to say yes for sure we will do it.

That's right.

Right, but at that point, we will be able to say, okay, are we on track for the year to meet our projected goals, and does that allow us to then to be able to potentially hire, right? We talk about hiring in threes for the fire department specifically. due to the nature of their shifts. For a full year, that's $300,000 or more, depending on the employees and what comes in.

The experience level.

The experience level. And then we do remind ourselves that it's not always just... the $100,000 for their salary and their benefits, that does come with the health insurance long term for their full family. And we wanna make sure we can sustain it. So we do wanna, so that's why that December target is a good target.

And then, oh, sorry. But we have sort of agreed today to go ahead Right in the halftime maintenance.

Yeah, based on the analysis that we did and the increase to that surplus in our general fund compared to operations, we had, you know, we had enough to support the addition of the maintenance worker for the full year and not just half the year. And we're comfortable with that.

Yeah.

And then we have a balanced budget. We have a balanced budget.

We're not raising any taxes. There's no property, well, property taxes aren't being raised.

So you have not made any decisions on property taxes at this point in time. You are budgeting based on your compensating rate, which does not raise your rate.

I just want to put that out there.

It's a balanced budget because I do think there was some misconceptions recently and we are fundamentally balanced. Your capital improvements and your one-time investments are coming from your reserves which is what you build them for.

And the reserves we still have. We have some reserves even after.

We still have sufficient reserves after our improvements to maintain a healthy environment if there is an economic downturn or a natural disaster, which is we do have to consider that for the future.

We pulled that number down to, at the end of the day, that $12.5 million number for the general fund seems to be a good number, and we hover around that. So theoretically, you operate plus or minus with $12.5 million in the bank, And then depending on when taxes come from the county, that initial, that first quarter, you've got to fund yourself all the way through that first and second quarter, which is why that reserve is so critical. And then also still have some money in there in case all the trees fall on the power lines, which we've had happen. And so, yes, that's your number. Your sheer number is about that. Yeah.

And it's worth noting, in case those disasters do happen, I know there was a city I talked to last week. They had, when those tornadoes came through last year, it was a big city. They were still waiting on over half a million dollars in FEMA funding to be reimbursed to them. It's not a quick... It's not when a disaster happens you know a lot of times we are able to get help from the state or federal government but that doesn't happen automatically. So we still have to pay bills and payroll and things like that until we get those things reimbursed. So it is important for us to to maintain that and for the community to know that we we do maintain that for a reason and not just to hold on to it. But we do have to be prepared.

Thank you. Other questions or comments?

Well, I was glad to see and, you know, I assume we were putting some maintenance money back for the downtown streetscape because, you know, we spent all that money on it and just to let it go for whatever, try to play catch up again, which is what's happened previously, is not a good idea. So I think that's a good idea. I agree.

That covers the sidewalks too. Why?

Yes. Any issues that crop up with the sidewalk or with the infrastructure items that we've input. So anything like that.

So then we...

Your mic on? Your mic on? I couldn't hear you. Okay.

So we will anticipate doing an agenda item Monday night with the first reading attached to it. So we'll do another budget summary demonstrating what the appropriations are. And then we'll provide you a first reading. And then if you all are so inclined, then we won't necessarily need any more special budget meetings in the fiscal year. We'll be able to align the balance of our work with regular meeting agendas. So we'll see how it plays out if nothing else pops up Monday. We appreciate it very much.

I hate to give Lee credit, but she does a really good job.

She does a great job. And the staff back there in the back that actually enables her to be able to focus on things sometimes. And so there's pieces to that, and we a lot of times – don't acknowledge the other parts to that that make it possible for her to focus on something and do a good job with an individual task. She has to have support from other people in order to give her the time to do that, and we appreciate their work in the back in order to make that happen because it makes it all possible for all of us.

And they do a lot of behind-the-scenes work. Even if they're not actually touching the budget themselves, they always have to go back and it's called foot the budget, which is essentially they manually... These are all spreadsheets, and spreadsheets can... bring you problems, right? There can be errors and so they have to manually go back and re-add all of these for me on an old-fashioned calculator tape and the tape gets in the floors and there's and they just they love it when I bring on a new spreadsheet to to recalculate but they they all are integral to to the work that I do and I do appreciate them. And I appreciate you guys for being so invested in our budgets because it is important.

We almost have to because, you know, we get told no or we get stepped on the wrist. Any questions or comments? Hearing none, the chair will entertain a motion to adjourn.

I'll move to adjourn.

Second. I thought you all didn't want to go home for a while. All those in favor say aye. Aye.