City Council - workshop

It is 6.30, and I'm calling to order our city council workshop meeting. And we will begin with our roll call. And we'll begin with Deputy Mayor Craig Tim, St. Pierre. St. Pierre here.

Mayfield here.

Corum here.

Pena here. McShann here.

Hines here.

Gibson here.

Love here. Okay. We need a motion for Council Member.

I'll make that motion.

And I'll second. Second.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded, and we will begin with Mayor Pro Tem Love. Love, yes. St. Pierre, yes.

Mayfield, yes.

Crim, yes.

Pena, yes.

McShann, yes.

Hymas, yes.

Gibson, yes.

Okay, and Liston, I think you're on for the invocation.

Oh, I did not know that.

All righty. Short and sweet. All right.

And, dear Lord, we ask that you be with us this evening as we conduct city business, and we ask that you give us the guidance and the good judgment to do so. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Amen. Amen. And we'll stand for our Pledge of Allegiance.

And under the Texas flag, I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible.

We'll go on to our public comments. Stephanie Lipke.

can you hear me okay okay good evening mayor council um i handed you a handout in over the past six plus years this council because it started in 22 mayor was on the council Council member Gibson the year before council member love came on and 23 and then Council's members crim and st. Pierre came on after that y'all have become increasingly dependent on Transfers from the utility fund now.

I'm not saying there's anything that

It's not illegal. That's usually what I need to say. It's not illegal. It's done commonly in small bits and pieces. But this nearly $2.1 million transfer that you're doing this year, when you say it's for administrative costs, that's nearly 20% of your personnel budget. That's a huge amount in comparison to any other city around here. And more importantly, when you're taking those transfers out and you're raising rates and you're saying that the utility fund is not supporting itself, would it be supporting itself if since 22 you hadn't taken $9 million out of it? I think it'd be a lot healthier. But more importantly, that is there to fix infrastructure when it breaks. And we know the water treatment plant is aging. We've already made some concessions to work on that. The wastewater treatment plant has had upgrades, but we're putting pressure on it every single day. Elm Creek Lift Station, on a hot day, you're gonna smell that it's overworking. So what you're gambling with is the fact that a major breakdown is not going to happen. And you can't predict that. You can't predict something's going to break, but you can plan for it. And when you're not planning for it, and when you're taking every bit from the wastewater treatment plant, $2 million, and you're going to run a deficit this year to $1.3 million. you're okay with running a deficit in the utility fund and raising rates and having the citizens of Elgin, the rate payers and the taxpayers pick up that slack for financial instability. And another thing that you're gonna look at is when we went out for bonds in 21, the rating went up because, I hate to say it, but the guy before had stabilized that by not abusing taking that money. And then we of course went back to it. But by that same token, you're not prepared with that money in case of an emergency. And I'm not talking snowmageddon. I'm not talking a hurricane. I'm talking a Wednesday afternoon when somebody goes and their toilet doesn't flush and the water doesn't turn on. That's what you need to prepare for. Thank you.

All right, our new business. to review and discussion of the proposed City of Elgin FY26-2027 annual operating budget as presented by the city manager, including but not limited to possible discussions of revenue and expenditure projections, department budget, and personnel requests, discussion of major funds, capital improvement needs, and anticipated challenges in review of the proposed tax rate as the fee adjustments, if applicable.

Evening, Council. Michael Gonzalez, Director of Public Works. I think the first one on your agenda item is review and discuss the capital improvement plan, the five-year capital improvement plan. You do not have that at your desk tonight for two main reasons. One of them is we're not ready. And then the second big reason is this is going to be a separate document adopted completely separate from your operating budget. Those lists are being worked on right now. This is the first time that we've done it over the last couple years that we've given it to a professional to have them develop this five-year capital plan and also tie it to specific funding sources that we can name and we can note. If you've been with us over the last couple of years, the way that we have developed that capital improvement plan is last summer in particular. The staff come up with those projects, either from council saying something or different problems that we might encounter in the department. put those together and we assign a number to them. That's really kind of a placeholder or a ballpark number. What we're moving to in this next form of this capital improvement plan is more detailed analysis of what these things are going to cost and where is the funding source going to come from. An example of that would be a couple of different projects that we have coming up would be the Lund Farms water tower. So we know that we need that in our system. We can tie it to a specific development agreement. that Lund Farms is doing, and we can put those pages in this capital plan. We can also have a more detailed number along with that. So given us the opportunity to assemble that, we're going to bring it back before you in September, and it's also going to be adopted as a separate document away from your general operating budget. When you get into large projects like this, the $5, $10, and $20 million projects, those typically, a town our size, are not going to be covered in the general fund. And so we want to identify these funding sources, whether they're general revenue bonds or if they're development agreements that are separate away from this general operating budget. So that's the reason why you don't have it for you tonight. Bo and I are working on it. We'll bring that back before you in September. Any questions?

No, we don't have nothing.

See, that's that's what we're looking for right here.

That's a presentation.

Thank you so much, Council. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Okay. Number two, review of the master fee schedule. Yes.

Good evening, Council. Pam Sanders, H.R. Director. In front of you is a copy of the revised master fee of schedules. This is what we charge for services. There's track changes so you can see what they were to what they are, or what they're being proposed. This was a cumulative approach from different departments to make adjustments in what they were charging for fees. This will come to you on September 15th for approval. And if you have any questions, you can look over that over the next couple of meetings, and then we'll address those questions.

This is September 15th, right? Yes.

So also notice that on the utility rates, it says pending study.

This will all also be obviously sent to you as as a council. Which will also be posted to the public.

This will go in the back of your budget book.

We move on to discussion of compensation and benefits state.

Good evening. We are going to break down the compensation study so that I can answer or hope to answer most of the questions that have been asked. If you have questions along the way, feel free to stop me. The compensation study was a comprehensive classification and compensation study. So there were two parts to it. So we're going to start with the classification side. The classification side is where you group like jobs together. They looked at all of our job descriptions and looked at the actual duties being performed, the scope, the qualifications required, the complexity of the position, the authority the position held, and any supervisory responsibilities. And then those positions got grouped together. You'll see on the slide, there's four groups, management, professional, maintenance, and administrative. And next to it, it tells you what they do, and management provides primarily responsible for managing people, department budgets, and units. Professional are jobs that typically will require a degree and professional experience. Maintenance is your field maintenance, typically utilities, streets, trades, And administrative is clerical, administrative, technical support, and operational office jobs. Each of these groups has five different levels. So you'll see the MG1, MG3, MG5, and so on. So over the course of it, there is 20 different levels of classifications. So I'm gonna give you a real life scenario. We have four individuals. They are all currently classified in pay grade 25. Their classification title is an administrative assistant three. The two with the red and the green, those positions require high school diploma and a number of years of experience. The gold and the blue, those positions required a degree, yet they are currently all in the same classification. When we did the last study in April of 2025, the goal was to get people to the minimum. So as you can see from the dates, the blue, gold, and green were currently working at that time of that study. So we brought them to the minimum. Excuse me. The green person worked for 20 years and made $25.50 per hour. There was no recognition of time in position. That person was simply brought to the minimum like everybody else. The gold and the blue worked for two or three years and made 30 cents less than the person who works here for 20 years. The red person who's been here one year was hired at the minimum rate, which is 24.23. This is the reason and the necessity of a job classification so that you can align positions and align groups where they need to be so that you fix the internal equity. The classification side of it does not have much to do with the external side. This is an internal process that identifies like positions and puts them together so that you're being paid equal for the jobs that you're doing. In the new proposed plan, the green and the red will actually move to a grade 14. They will not receive a bring to minimum, which is BTM, or a time and position recognition. They will receive the 3% that the consultant discussed. Remember, those positions require a high school diploma. The blue and the gold are positions that require a degree. They are moving to pay grade 17, which is in the professional pay grade. They would receive a bring to minimum and time and position. Give you an example of what that means. We have one police chief. Maybe when you look at the job allocations that were presented a few weeks back, you look at the range for the chief of police and you're not sure that that person should be placed at that range. It is very important that you remove the person, we're talking about positions, and that's the hard part when you're doing a classification study. You need to consider what it will cost you to fill that position tomorrow. Questions? This is a slide from the consultant that I took from their slideshow that they presented. In this slide it says overall general pay tracks the market closely. You can see on the left hand side it says actual salaries are 93.9%. Those are considered a line. We're just talking salaries. Those are the dollars that people get every two weeks in their paycheck. It states that individual jobs vary, 21 classifications are misaligned by 10% or more, some below market, some above. So going backward, you see two are currently placed above the market, two are currently placed below the market. When you look at those numbers, 21 and 13 classifications, you have 34 different classifications that are out of alignment. The reason that our actual salaries are at 93% aligned is because over the last 12 months, we have hired positions at what they should be hired, but remaining within the current ranges. So some of our positions are on the higher end of the range, and those positions would be finance director, public information officer, parks manager, IT, and city manager. When we look at the next slide, it talks about sworn police. Clearly, they were misaligned. However, range means the pay grade, range minimum. We can recruit because we are aligned. We cannot retain because as they go through the years, they're maxed out. It's significantly misaligned. There were 29 positions of sworn police officers that need correction. And looking at this one, this is the one where I believe that there was some confusion. The gray is what we are currently at, the orange is the proposed. The city would be at the 50th percentile if passing the proposed, which is 100% of the goal, not 100% of the market. It states that on the left hand side, I've circled that. Every group will land within the market aligned range if the proposed is passed. Remember the consultant said other cities are doing the same study that we are and this means within a couple of years we will be aligned at 100% and not over. So those that are 100 and two, 105, then the next couple of years they will sit at 100. So let's talk numbers. Overall, the actual salaries at the 50th percentile were 93%. Again, the 37 plus eight is 45 actual salaries that are aligned with where the city wants to be at the 50th percentile. That comes from the 3% in general fund and the time and position. The time and position, those eight people are currently where they need to be at the minimum, but there's no recognition for how long they've been in those positions. 26 civilian positions and 29 sworn positions are not where they should be. The numbers that you see there include all the funds. That includes general fund, utility fund, and EDC. It does exclude the police officers. Your structure closely mirrors the market of where the city wants to be. Again, the range minimums, midpoints, and maximums for non-sworn positions are highly aligned. Aligning positions is based on qualifications, duties, scope, complexity, authority, supervisory responsibilities, not simply the employee's title, tenure, or performance. That's where we lack. You see, what had happened was our alignment was off. All supervisors do tend to elevate their positions and who or is or was in the position, which is how the alignment got out of hand. So I have some numbers here. And it might be a little bit hard to see. The general fund, you can see the 3% will cost you $60,000. The bring to minimum is 15, the time in position is 47, and the bring to minimum and time in position is 176. So if you take out the 3%, which was for those people who weren't going to get a bring to minimum or time in position, you knock that number down to 239,000. And across the board, utility fund and the EDC. There are 34 positions in general fund, 20 in utility, and one in EDC if you remove the 3%. We ask that you don't do that because that 3% replaces your COLA that you would hopefully approve again in this budget. When you look at those dollars, the general fund breaks down to $11,000 per payroll. The utility fund is $5,400 per payroll. I broke that down so that you can put it into perspective and not look at a $300,000 number. The quartiles. Again, I believe everybody was a little confused on this, so I want to explain this. The gray is our current. The orange is proposed. And when you talk about first quartile, second quartile, third quartile, and fourth quartile. So if every employee was a court clerk, that range is listed there. 42,000 minimum, maximum is 63,000. In the first quartile, that would be between 42,000 and 47,000. The consultant stated 67 people would fall there. The second, 27. The third, three. And last, the fourth, one. We currently do have pay compressions and I didn't want to put specific positions, but I thought it would be a little bit easier to explain. We have a plant operator, one who's been here for 20 years and one who's been here for one year. They both work at the same plant. They both make the same amount of money. We have an animal control officer who's been here two and a half years and one who's been here one month. The one month person makes more than the one who's been here for two and a half years. So having a misalignment hurts the people that you're trying to retain. Our street maintenance techs, there are four people between 2.8 years and three months, they make the same thing. Utility maintenance falls in the same thing and utility billing clerk falls in the same area. But that plan operator stands out. So the importance of bringing to minimum versus the time and position. When you raise everyone to a single grade minimum or a shared step, you are flattening the pace so that long tenured staff land at or below the same rate as recent hires. That is where compression comes in. It restores your external market but creates internal inequity and it reduces morale. And if you recall that when the consultant met with leadership, one of the comments leadership made was that it was a good community atmosphere and flexibility to work for the city of Elgin. The consultant also talked about comp ratio. We completely discourage that because the placement isn't fair in any aspect. So let's recap. BTM means bring to minimum, time in position is TIP. You have 43 that are already aligned, but the consultant recommended 3% increase. You have 10 that will receive a bring to minimum increase but no time in position. 20 that will receive a time in position but no bring to minimum. And 25 who will receive a bring to minimum and time in position. time and position for a total of 98 positions. We've decided to do this in a two-step approval because it is important that we align the positions correctly. So we'll bring this back to you on September the 15th with the job allocations for the grouping of the jobs. And then the next approval would be the pay grades as recommended by the consultant.

That's all I got.

You have questions?

Did you say the 3% replaces the yearly COLA? It would replace, yes.

Since I'm new, I just want to throw something out there. How long has this been so misaligned?

I've been here for eight years, and it's been ever since I've been here, and I'm sure long before then.

Good. Any other questions? OK, we'll move on to number four, discussion of fiscal year 2026-2027 budget and property tax rate.

At the last meeting we discussed, the staff was given a direction to estimate scenario four that was on that tax rate sheet. So we had to do it. Oh, the scenario numbers changed now, I'm sorry. Because on the scenarios that you're getting now, we added in additional options, a different leveling. Anyway, so we had to make revisions to meet that direction. So this is what you're getting in front of you. So we'll go through and explain how to replace these in your books. Peyton will help too. The yellow pages indicate the budget has been revised to reflect that 68 cents.

Council, obviously our staff, as you notice, we're hyper-focused and it may seem a little awkward, but this is teamwork at its best, I think. And so we're laser-focused forward and so we're here to be able to do what needs to be done, how it needs to be done. And so this is a simple replacement. We believe tonight there isn't any decisions to be made anyway. All of what you've seen so far will be readily available to you, but really it's just part of the process. And so right now for you is a simple process of replacement based on one, well, Again, go ahead, but we do have Lori, and whenever they need a city manager, or you do, I'll jump in, how about that? Continue, please.

This page will go right after your table of contents. This explains the revisions. The next page.

There you go.

Well, this one is, there's nothing to pull out.

That's why I didn't bring mine either.

That's okay. I will make sure staff have their revised pages tomorrow.

We're here to help too. We got you.

We're coming.

We got the experts in the room too. And we'll wait.

OK, the next page is page three. This is the one that talks about this budget will raise more total property taxes.

I'm sorry. Pam, hold on. Let me wait until council gives a thumbs up. No, do not take page three out.

Do not take page three out.

Who needs a pen?

On the old page three, cross, put an X over that page. The reason you don't take that page out is because there is more information on the back side. Next, turn to page 19. Take out pages 19 through 34 and replace with all but the last of your yellow pages. 19 through 34.

Oh, it is.

We did yellow at Peyton's request so that you would easily identify the revised pages. If there's any more, they'll be blue.

Correct.

And if we need clarification on the way, that's what we're here for. So it's as simple as that, Mayor, Council. But we're all saying the same thing. And so it may seem different, but that's all this is. But it's at your direction, so.

The last one is page 63. Do not take it out of your book. Cross it out and put this one in front of it.

As long as you're ready, Mayor. Tell us and we'll keep moving.

Keep moving, sir.

All right, I think you heard the mayor. Keep moving.

OK, we're going to talk about tax rate. I'm going to let Lori come up and do tax rate.

Second matter expert coming up. Take whatever you need from here. No, no, no, no, no, no.

You take mine. I know what you're about to say, so go right ahead. Yes, ma'am.

I'm sorry. Miss Pina's got a question.

Where are we at for that? You should have got a sheet like this.

Let's make sure...

I DON'T KNOW IF I GOT THAT. OKAY. YOU SHOULD HAVE A SEPARATE SHEET. SEPARATE SHEET. NOT IN YOUR BOOK.

IT'S JUST A SEPARATE SHEET.

WE'LL GET YOU ONE.

WE WANT TO MAKE SURE EVERYBODY'S GOT THE SAME PAGE OR LOOKING AT THE SAME THING.

YES. LET'S GET THAT.

NO, NO, NO. WE MOVED.

JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE I'M NOT MISSING ANYTHING.

I GET ONE MOVING.

THAT'S FINE.

IT FELL RIGHT THERE. IT FELL RIGHT THERE. IT KEPT ALL OF THEM.

I'M SORRY. I MIGHT HAVE STOLE YOURS. I GIVE IT BACK.

are you ready to miss me oh yes sir yeah no i'm just one of you know where i come from okay so previously y'all y'all have been given instruction y'all have been given a tax rate of let me get that number at the 61 926 which is the top scenario which is the current year tax rate We have put together several more scenarios in here just so that you can see the effect of adding a half a cent or just to give you some variation within the tax rates, just to give you an idea of how much more money will be added to the general fund if you were to adopt that tax rate. The general fund now reflects the yellow that is shown here, and that is a tax rate of 685873. And so if you decide to go above that, then you will get more revenue into the general fund. and also you have posted for the voter approval rate which is the maximum you can go up by law and that's the orange now as a finance professional i always would highly encourage you to consider the voter approval rate can i stop you there as your city manager i'm gonna echo that i would also say that and i'm gonna say it right now very clear And the reason why I would always encourage you to at least consider it.

Thank you.

Of course it's your decision. Is because you're trying to build up reserves. You're a city that is trying to build up your reserves. Right now you're sitting in the general fund because it's a balanced budget. Revenues are covering expenses in the general fund. You're sitting with about 57 days worth of reserves. if you want to consider the fund balance. You haven't designated that as reserved yet, but you do have about 57 days worth of fund balance. And you have made comments in the past that you want to adopt some type of fund balance policy that I'm sure the new finance director will bring before you. And best practices is 90 days, which is 25% of operating expenses. 60 days, 30 days. So whenever your new finance director comes before you, He will recommend and y'all will decide on what your reserve policy is. You will be able to build your reserves if you do adopt your voter approval rate. And just something to consider. I know it's not always a popular thing. We don't know what the legislature is going to do next May. Right now, we can go up 3 and 1 half percent over the no new revenue M&O rate, which is a weird calculation. We don't know what the legislature is going to allow you to do next year. If you don't do your voter approval rate, you're leaving money on the table. And as a growing city, you need to start establishing those reserves. So that's my spiel. That's my encourage you to consider. I do understand there are very, there's a lot of things to consider whenever you're making that decision. But this budget is the 68-5.

Okay, so if I may say to explain my reason for saying that as well is we pay Gradient a good amount of money to be able to give us that unbiased opinion and I know enough to be able to say that as your city manager and I'm gonna stop there and so I know my limitations and I know what council needs to do but I'm crystal clear about what Laura's role is and what my role is too so that's where I'm gonna lay that where it is and we're gonna go through the process tonight also should be crystal clear there are no decisions to be made tonight So tonight, that's why you saw was rather quick, because it's about answering questions, it's about minimal functions, and I don't mean to make this so simple, but it really is that simple also. Joe. Am I saying this correct, Lori?

Oh, yes, sir.

Yes, ma'am. And that's not a paid commercial ad, but almost is because we do pay Ms. Lori and Gradient. But it's always up to this council to make all decisions. And I'll leave that there. So if there are any questions for Ms. Lori, she is here because she is paid by this council. And See, there you go. Team, jump in. No, no, please. You know where to go. What was your name again? I'm sorry.

I don't know. I forgot. I'm Pam Sanders. I'm the HR director.

Right.

We have a public hearing scheduled Tuesday, September the 1st, and again two weeks after that on the 15th. So we do have to kind of get this aligned pretty quick so that we are ready to go on September the 1st.

And last, well, not last thing, at least for me, as a reminder, is all of these things will be more clear, right? All these notes, and I know, please, whatever notes you need to, but I will guarantee you that our staff is listening, our staff are answering, our staff is working together. Maybe not like others, and that's fair, but at least know that I think we're getting there, we're going there. and we're trying to show that we're listening and be responsive.

I just want to make sure that I understand what you said, Lauren. You said the current amount, which is the 0.685873 is in the budget. Yes, ma'am. The orange scenario, which is number nine in the board approved, are you saying that that rate is what would allow us to build revenue in addition to our current 57-day grainy day fund?

It would increase your revenue by about $400,000, and then you could use that to go towards some of the reserve requirements that y'all need to adopt in the future. Okay, thank you.

But the yellow is the same thing too, right? Just the orange increases it more.

The yellow is what is in the budget right now, and so you won't, if you adopt the 68-5 that we actually have in the budget right now, I think that's the rounding, excuse me, yeah, then you won't get any more money than what we have already presented on these yellow pages. in front of us. Does that make sense?

Yes.

Okay. Because originally, the original pages were bringing back 619, which is the current year tax rate, the year we're standing in. And it was not enough to support the budget. So if we cover our revenue, your revenues cover your expenses in the general fund. I'm specifically talking about the general fund because that's the one that's property tax supported as well. Then your, I lost my train of thought, excuse me. Your property tax revenue for the general fund would be almost $7.1 million from property tax at the rate that is being presented to you tonight on the yellow sheets. If you do adopt your voter approval rate, you would be approximately 7.5, 7.463 million for the general fund. You can, one of my recommendations would be to use that excess, any excess above the yellow that is presented, to use that to help establish your reserve requirements. And what I wanna make sure it's understood because I said it twice, I said it wrong the first time. Right now you have fund balance, you don't have an adopted reserve policy. So you have fund balance of about 57 days of operating expenses that are showing in this budget, but you have not adopted a policy to be at 90 or 60 days or 30 days, whatever. So I misspoke just a little bit. Just know you don't have that policy adopted right now.

So the one that we looked at the first time when we decided what we were going to post, I have that right here. And I believe the reason why a lot of us picked this is because at this rate, it said that we would generate $510,000. But then on this one, it's saying that we're just basically balanced. So how does that work?

Because we have already put those numbers into this budget previously. You had sixty one nine worth of revenue in the budget. Now you have sixty eight five worth of revenue in the budget. And the city manager designated that additional five hundred and ten thousand as your opportunity to add additional requests on Starting at page 63, that's where the additional requests come into play and you can add additional requests. So we have already earmarked that $510,000 as possible uses, you know, to use, excuse me, to fund the additional requests. That is up to you what you fund. We just earmarked it as if you were going to use the whole amount of that increase for new programs and new requests. You don't have to. You can also use some of that 510 to go towards your policy, your reserve requirements that you're wanting to adopt in the future. But we wanted to show a balanced budget where your revenues are covering your expenses at zero, basically, on the general fund. So know that you still have $510,000 available

to fund more things if you adopt the 68.5 does that make sense that does make sense i was thinking the same thing based on what we said last time so when you're you're coming in i was like it doesn't make sense but that that makes sense that it went to adding you came with 61 we decided on 0.68 and now we've got 0.68 and

And $510,000 worth of programs that you can add to the budget, that you can decide to add. Yes, ma'am.

out you'll see that there was one dollar last time.

We had the dollar in there as a placeholder so that you could actually see the page the budget software that yeah the budget software that we use if we don't have a dollar then you won't get to see the page.

So that's part of the program. That dollar holder. Yes ma'am. Yes.

There's tricks tall.

Yeah because I'm I look confused.

I'm sorry. I'm new. So do you want to... What is your confusion? And maybe I can reword it a different way.

Right. Are we in a positive money? Yes. We're positive. We're not in the negative anywhere. You're...

your your face to talk say you're asking about the general fund general fund general fund you're in the positive yes ma'am you are your revenues cover your expenses at its revenues minus expenses is zero it's balanced yes ma'am okay which is and if you but from the from last week to this week we've added five hundred and ten thousand dollars worth of revenue by doing the sixty five eight sixty eight five and now you can allocate that revenue to additional programs, excuse me, the requests.

So can I say something? So if I can offer this as well and these are the steps we're trying because we I do listen and I don't mean to not write. We play this back each other in our different ways. Right. So that's the blessing of having recorded video as well. And that's what I try to write back to you all that we're when we collect this is how we process. To answer, I think to be helpful in that way, and I think there's questions about how we process with Gradient and Lori especially. So right now the process that we take is that Lori specifically, and I keep mentioning Lori, Lori, Lori with Gradient, is that Lori works for the city and we pay her contractually. She's here normally every Tuesday. She travels in, but that is paid by this council. So why don't you tell me or even Pam can tell me but I know for a fact that every time we request outside of whatever is established right now right up to the point we want to keep and this council sees it every time past tuesdays of every week this council has to pay and that's what i mean when i send counsel like if you want to meet outside of tuesdays right that's what i mean by that and i know there's some specific uh councilman st pierre i think you've asked a couple times and that's what i've tried to say with those kind of conversations and that's all fair And I encourage that in fact. And I'm telling everybody, and that's what I'm trying to explain here is to say, Councilor Pena, if there is something that we can make more understandable in any way, I am already saying that clearly this is a priority and staff knows that already. If we weren't clear about that, I'm making it crystal clear, is to say that's important to us. Lori from Gradient knows that. And I'm publicly saying that with you. So that way everybody knows it as well. So if there's a misunderstanding or we need to clear it, whether you're new, been here longer.

Twelve years or so.

Or, you know, to the council, whatever it may be. And that service just know that it does come at a cost and the value is high. So if you need that, let me know. But we also know that you do have to direct contact with just like we're talking about budget. We know she knows already. All of us know this is priority.

So you need to work on that schedule and we're going to make it make it happen because

Schedule is being scheduled. We'll get it done. I just want to make that clear with anybody here on this council.

Just want to make sure that I'm not missing anything or misinterpreting something.

That's your person?

No, ma'am.

General fund has a balanced budget with available fund balance. With available fund balance.

And I appreciate that. Thank you for clarification for my own personal understanding. I think she was asking about accounts, bank accounts, cash accounts.

Is that what you were asking more clearly?

Bank accounts that were balanced. Do we have any money? Yeah, do we have money?

Oh, yes. Also, too, we recognize also we speak different languages, so she speaks one language and we speak another, right?

I'm not, yes.

I'm far enough to know get out of the way. That's my language.

You can definitely pay, the city can definitely pay their bills without that excess. Yes, ma'am.

You can ask her questions like that. Yes. We speak, we speak.

I just don't want to look like I'm, An idiot up here. No, never. No, ma'am.

No, ma'am.

No. We all come at it from a different angle.

Right. And that's why everybody's, our staff at least, is open to be able to get these out. However they get done.

Thank you. Any other questions for me?

So the 68 would satisfy the request that we've had?

It would satisfy $510,000 of approximately $5 million worth of requests. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Look at this. It is on page...

But we're encouraged.

Go to 63 and you'll see every single item.

The requester there was 3.4 million. Right.

Yeah, right.

For the general fund.

Because when we said 500,000, I'm like, not much.

So again, I would say this. There is validity in a lot of different ways for a lot of different reasons. So if your city manager isn't saying what I'm saying, Just put that in context, right? So I know it's all about timing and place, so there's validity to that too. So I pay respect to whatever's happened prior, I pay respect to what's gonna happen forward, but I must tell you this, because if I'm being honest with you with what's happening today, that's the honest answer. If you wanna have the honest answer, trust, trust, trust. Right now, right here, and in the future, trust your team. So my team is telling me this. So it's a tough decision, I know. I get it. I've been watching longer than probably you guys realize. I'm sorry, but videos don't lie too, so right. So good. As long as we're clear with that. Look, so tonight there is no, anything more than, as we understood, or as long as we understood it was gonna be, have a lot of time for you all. This is, well, it's always about you all.

Right, Mayor?

But that was our spiel. To ask if you want, but.

I would just urge council to make sure y'all look at this budget. Everything that was said yes to is in here. so when y'all come back next week you're having the whole week to ask your questions and of course you send it to robert and we all will see them i'm pretty sure some of us are probably going to have the same questions um but i would urge each and every one of us to actually look through this and not just rely on maybe half the council actually doing the work and then just saying yes and then you'll get upset saying well now my constituents are coming to me saying that we raised it past this

and you didn't look at the book yeah just my two feet and if i can uh to say that too i will say this and we all recognize this too uh and there's people missing here i mean i think beau is spelunking somewhere i had to get that word in because that's the word of the day i don't know i just that was the word of the day i was trying to get in right councilmember all right we agreed spelunking was the word of the day

Come on.

We had to have a little bit of Robert, the past Robert, come in, right? Obviously, this is a team decision. We're trying to answer all of it. But also, too, you all have to put in whatever work you all think you need to put in, how you need to put it in. But I promise you, we'll do our piece. We're not in it for whatever. We're willing to accept each one of us have superpowers, and we're all supposed to just get the job done. Because we got to get going. We got a lot on our plate, I think, today. If you were there.

So y'all need to really, as Mayor Pro Tem said, we need to all do our homework. That's it. So that we'll be able to decide. And you can stand by your decision.

That's all we're doing.

If you got questions, don't hesitate. Don't wait till Tuesday. Send them in before that so we can already have that now.

And if I could just say something too. I think one of the biggest things that the point that you're trying to get across is that there was five million in requests and we're looking at only adding half a million. So that's wrap your head around that and just like kind of pare down the requests and kind of what you want to like your priorities and what you're looking at. so that the staff can know what we're looking at, so that they can bring us back something that aligns with that.

What's he saying? Unfortunately, we don't have $5 million to give.

I would hate to see what that tax rate looked like.

Yeah. Yeah.

And last, Mary, that really will be my last unless you have some more questions. Go to where, with whatever resource we have, just go directly. You don't need, I mean, this is your deal, right? So you have access. I think I mentioned it last time, right? So this is critical to us because, and I will say too, this is not, we know what's life or death. There's always the next day. believe me that we know for sure and it's gonna be I can see next day so this isn't the set this this is being done everywhere today's not that conversation I just want to leave it at that so ask questions if you got them, if you have them right now.

I have one.

Yes, ma'am.

Since obviously this entire budget process has been different from the past, I'm trying to figure out how to word it. Just say it, ma'am. we come back just saying we come okay five million we know we're not doing five million yes ma'am how are we breaking that down are we coming back at the next meeting like either council meeting or a budget meeting and going like line item to read because it's staff thing right so how are we truly saying i was saying like epd needs to to take some of their stuff off like in general just like you choose what you want to take off right and then bring that back how are we doing this Go ahead.

HR. Well, she's actually, what is your title right now? Because we're truly working under,

What I'm fixing to say is HR. Okay. So there were a lot of requests for positions within your general fund new request. So one of the things I would recommend is that the department managers look at that and really evaluate are those positions necessary. It is much cheaper to hire a part-time position but a lot harder to recruit for. So keep that in mind. Another option would be to go back to the department managers and say, what are your priorities, what do you need? Because I can assure you that a lot of this is wish list items. You know, the street sweeper that Michael's asked for for five years. You know, I mean, so. So I mean, those are the things that can take place. But no, I don't think we're going line by line.

Yes, and I mean, We if if you believe and we hear exactly what you're believe in your staff believe in your city manager that I'm listening and we're communicating.

That's kind of the impression I had was that staff would come back. Because you have such a limited amount of money to work with, you come back with those recommendations. I don't feel confident enough to tell you if you need a new lawnmower or you don't.

I mean, again, you all will be ultimately changing this. And by the way, also, once we establish this, we can do budget amendments until the cows come home. Right. So this will get us across the line, keep us moving and get going. So, yes, this is a critical time, but I'll be honest with you, there's going to be a next critical time and the next critical time and the next critical time. This is just what is it? Tuesday, Monday, Tuesday. So that's all we're dealing with today. We're doing today's stuff for tomorrow. And we're going and going and going. But if you guys have a question about this, I will answer until we're done today. And that's not what we're trying to say today. So let's not say that. At least staff's not saying that. We'll stay here as long as you need. So that's up to you. Well, it's up to the mayor. I'll be honest.

But at this point, we need to go through it. So I mean, sitting here, talking about it isn't going to get us too far. We need to do some study time.

Yep. And you have resources available. That's been established. They are open. So there's no limitations.

And I think they're well aware that we don't have $5 million, so you're not going to get everything you asked for. And I think we have enough trust in our city managers for them to understand that. I think he's got that. I think staff has that. And so we automatically expect you to look at what's realistic. what you have to do to do your functions day to day. And that's what you need to focus on. We're not going to go back line by line. We're not going to tell you you can't have this, you can't have that. Y'all are big boys and big girls, and you can figure out what it is you can do to work with and what you can't.

So we don't have an issue with that. I think it's a logistics recommendation. That's all. Depending on the tax rate that you do decide to adopt to say for instance We're going to do the 68 five and you have the five hundred and ten thousand dollars if you're not comfortable This is for these recommendations. You may throw something just we go with this If you decide not to make the decision between now and the first that is something that you could have a conversation after the fact after you adopt your budget and to decide how to allocate it. If you're still feeling pressure to make the decision by next Tuesday or by the 15th, it can be earmarked for new requests, and then you can have another conversation in October or whenever, whatever makes sense to the council, to allocate it that is just because we are kind of we are bumping up to the deadlines of public hearings and having to get it adopted by a certain time in september and that type of thing so whatever tax rate you decide and whatever addition whatever additional property tax revenue that it does create for the general fund can just be earmarked for those new pro new requests and it can be considered at a later date thank you

So do we have any questions about the process and what's next?

Seemed as clear as mud to me. Yep.

That's the way it's supposed to be, I think. Right? Always. Because I don't speak at least language for sure. OK. It is 728, and we are adjourned.