Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

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Good evening and welcome to the city of Frankfurt Board of Commissioners January regular meeting. Today is January 26th. It's 5:00 p.m. and we'll begin tonight with the pledge of allegiance. If everyone will rise. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. City clerk, will you please call the role? Commissioner Richardson, here. Commissioner, here. Commissioner May here.

Commissioner Smith Willis here. Mayor Wilkerson

present. And we begin tonight. We have a special ceremonial and recognition on the agenda. Police department promotions. And I'll invite our chief Derek Napier to the podium. So, we have three promotions here tonight. The first one is going to be patrolman and canine handler Tony Katana is being promoted to sergeant. If he would just come up and bring his guest If you want to get a picture instruction,

good deal. [applause] [applause]

Next up, we have Detective Jonathan Bentley, who's been promoted to sergeant. If you and your family would come up. Yeah, you can clap. [applause] Our next promotion is Sergeant Jason Jon is being promoted lieutenant. If he would come up with his family.

Oh, they're pros at this though. You're a major in the National Guard. He's been through this a few times.

[applause]

Yeah, if everybody wants to come because I know they had a lot of lot of guys come They want to come up. I'll probably back. I did want to mention there's actually a fourth promotion. It's Sergeant Gonzalez is being promoted to lieutenant, but his uh flight was cancelled, his return flight. So, he won't be back till Friday. But thank you all till Friday. [snorts]

That's a long Congratulations. Congrats everyone. [snorts]

We'll move on. No citizens comments that I saw coming in. Anybody would like to say anything? No. All right. Move on to consent calendar. Item number one of the consent calendar. We have the minutes from the work session December 15, 2025. A regular meeting December 15, 2025. Uh we have a construction agreement Broadway and street repair R.J. Corman Railroad Company, Central Kentucky Lines. Uh staff request the board of commissioners to approve the construction agreement with R.J. Corman for emergency repairs needed to Broadway and and to alleviate reoccurring basement flooding on Broadway Street and authorize the mayor to sign our related documents. Total request would be $131,626. This is an emergency project and will require a budget amendment. [snorts] Item number three, amendment number one with Orchard Hilts and Mccclement Incorporated for assistance in easement acquisition for the prevention park project. Staff recommends a professional services contract amendment number one with OM adviserss for assistance in easement acquisitions for the prevention park project and authorizing the mayor to sign all related documents. These services are budgeted total cost of $75,000. Item number four, professional services agreement amendment number one with QK4 Incorporated. Staff recommends amendment number one for a time extension to the professional services agreement with QK4 Incorporated for assistance with department projects and authorized the mayor to sign all related documents. These services are budgeted in fiscal year 2526. Uh total amount $250,000. Item number five, amendment number two with Hazen and Sawyer PSC for additional construction administration services and resident project representative for East Frankfurt interceptor project. Staff recommends professional services contract amendment number two with Hazen for additional construction administration services and resident

project represent representative for East Frankfurt interceptor project and authorize the mayor to sign all related documents. Uh Hayen's work has expanded. Additional cost is $225,000. These services are budgeted in fiscal year 2526. Item number six, uh staff request the board of commissioners approval and authorize the mayor's signature on renewal agreement with UKG for use of UKG ready modules. Uh this is a three-year contract with the first year being $53,25248. Item number seven is personnel actions. We have an appointment. Aaron Smith, Police Department 162026. Police officer appointment. Robert Hell, police 162026. Police officer appointment. Kyle Hilton, Sewer, 16206. Plant operator appointment. Brandon Sheay, public works streets, 12:30 2025 public tech streets. Uh, we have an appointment of Joseph Curtis, public works solid waste 1230 2025 public works tech solid waste. We have an appointment of Dyson no public works transit 182026 transit driver non CDL. Resignation Daniel Maguire, fire and EMS 1226 2025 firefighter paramedic. Resignation Michael Perkins, Transit 1230 20226 transit driver and resignation Jackie Cox public works solid waste 113 2026 public works tech solid waste.

Motion to approve. Second. Okay. Motion to approve the consent calendar and any discussion or questions? If none, I'll ask Madame Clerk to call for the vote. Commissioner Richardson, yes. Commissioner, yes. Commissioner May, yes. Commissioner Smith Willis, yes. Mayor Wilkerson,

yes. And that consent calendar is adopted. Next, we have boards. And before we go on to the rest of the agenda, without objection, I would ask that we table the uh board appointment number two, board of ethics, the appointment of Mary Nishimua. And also on the action items number three, the first reading of the ordinance related to providing sewer services to areas outside the city limits. We still have some administrative things to get together on both of those if no one has any objection. That'd be okay.

All right. Thank you. So the first is a board appointment of John Gilbert. This is a reappoint to the architectural review board with a term expiring September 12th, 2028. Motion to approve. [snorts] It was second. Any discussion on this reappoint of Mr. Gilbert? If none, I will ask for a vote. Commissioner Richardson, yes. Commissioner, yes. Commissioner May, yes. Commissioner Smith Willis, yes.

Mayor Wilkerson, yes. And that board appointment carries. And thank you, John Gilbert, for serving again. And next, we'll go to action items. First is a second reading. An ordinance amending city of Frankfurt code of ordinances sections 37.31 and 37.32 related to officer and employee pay structure classification and compensation and salary schedules. This or this this ordinance amends city of Frankfurt code of ordinances section 37.31 and 37.32 to update city of Frankfurt salary schedule to create two new lieutenant positions and reclassify one existing lieutenant position.

Motion to approve. Second. Any discussion on this second reading? If none ask for the vote. Commissioner Richardson, yes. Commissioner, yes. Commissioner May, yes. Commissioner Smith Willis, yes. Mayor Wilkerson, yes. And that ordinance is adopted. Action item number two,

an ordinance to close an unused portion of public rideway being a part of Airport Road, Frankfurt, Kentucky. This ordinance establishes a new section of the city of Frankfurt code of ordinances closing an unused portion of public rightway located on Airport Road, Frankfurt, Kentucky in accordance with KRS 82.405. Motion to approve. Second.

Motion and a second. Any discussion on this ordinance? [snorts] And for those who may be watching, what exactly are we doing here? This ordinance is is really just a very small piece of city right away that the state itself um asked us for. So we're transferring it to them so that they can complete new terminal construction at the airport. We don't use that supporting growth. Right. Okay. Put that on our list. If no other discussion or questions, Madam Clerk, please. Commissioner Richardson. Yes. Commissioner, yes. Commissioner May, yes. Commissioner Smith Willis, yes.

Mayor Wilkerson, yes. That ordinance is adopted. Action item number four.

Action item number four is riverfront visioning and strategic plan agreement. Uh city staff request that the board of commissioners approve an agreement with Sasaki for $333,853. Uh a budget amendment will be required for this agreement, but the general fund can be reimbured from downtown and parks master plan money. Uh city staff is uh recommending Sasaki for our riverfront visioning plan because of their uh outstanding projects and their focus on flood resiliency. Uh we did receive 12 uh RFPs when we sent this out and uh it was pretty much unanimous. The staff agreed that the Sasaki was the the right one for this with the riverfront stuff. They've done uh Chicago Riverwalk is a project that they've completed uh up in Riverfront Park in Cincinnati. something else that they've done among several other things and their biggest focus in their proposal to the city was flood resiliency on our riverfront. Uh locally they have also done Gaton Park is one of the recent ones that they've done very close by and we would just like to recommend that we move forward with this and we've given them a deadline of July 31st to have this complete. I also have Chuck Nullles here if we have any questions. Uh Sarah also served on that board with me. Uh we will probably right now we're appointing Eric Cochley as the uh project manager in consultation with Chuck and myself to continue this going on with that fast uh turnaround time.

Commissioner Smith Willis will Suzaki um I see that it says July 31st, 2026. Will they present um the will they present the plan to the board or will the community be able to see that? Chuck, I guess that's a question for you. Thank you. Say part part of the uh phase and I don't want to step on Chuck's toes here, but part of the phase is going to be a lot of uh uh consultation with the community and a lot of uh information gathering with stakeholders,

right? Uh [clears throat] yes, we wanted to uh set a deadline uh I guess end of July. It gives them basically six months uh to perform all activities they've proposed in their scope of work. And we wanted to get that done at that point in time so we could then pursue uh funding opportunities both through federal grant opportunities as well as state legislative appropriations possibly in in the coming session for 2027. So they're going to do something or in that phase are they going to do something kind of how KYTC did for the singing bridge like present to the community? I don't know if that's I might be speaking for them. I'm just curious to see what the feedback for the community is going to look like.

They their public engagement pretty much is laid out in kind of four steps. right up front, they're going to meet with city staff and stakeholders in the community, and we've identified already a list of those uh just to kind of get a feel for what people think about what they would like for this riverfront and the vision. Uh second, they're going to provide a survey uh that we can distribute to anybody that wants to respond to that. They're also going to de develop three alternatives for a vision and then get the public engaged as far as what they think which one they like similar to what they did Katima with the singing bridge. And then their last one is going to be kind of a uh presentation uh to the public uh as well as as the board here uh as to what they've determined not only their vision and their strategic plan but also how they propose to fund some of the early pieces of that

because they're going to prioritize you know different parts of that and then figure how they're going to fund that. Perfect. Thank you, Commissioner Richardson. So, I just saw, am I right, that we just got some money awarded for riverbank uh firming up the riverbank federal government. It still has to pass the Senate. I think I I think like the mayor said, uh the House has passed that 5.8 million, I think, for riverbank stabilization. And of course, it's got to go to the Senate. I'm [clears throat] just I'm being optimistic. No, I'm trying to be, right? I always think you got to think good, right? especially with about 2 foot [clears throat] of snow outside. But

um [snorts] this would help with this project. I'm assuming if this all if this funding comes through it will u it kind of coordinate with it. Do you I mean I don't know what I'm looking for. I think I think river riverbank stabilization is kind of the foundation. That's that's kind of what I'm getting. Right. When you talk about resiliency, you want something to after the flood waters recede to still be there. Yeah. when it's done. So, this this project would complement, I think, the vision and the strategic plan.

Well, I'm comparing it to like Ashlin, uh, Owensboro, you know, they've all developed their river, you know, riverfront developments and and I do know from speaking to some of them that was a big thing like you said, once the water recedes, if there is a flood that it doesn't take everything with it, including half the land, right? So, I just kind of want to be, you know, I saw that it comes out. This kind of goes hand in hand together like you said maybe the foundation of where it will help uh with our riverfront development. Right. I agree. Okay. Thanks. Commissioner,

I'd just like to um make comment that after reviewing this and looking up Sasaki, they they're really an amazing company that have um done a lot of really great projects for communities and you can see how it's transformed riverfront. So, I'm really excited. I feel like I say that a lot, but this is this could be really big for Frankfurt and Riverfront. So, you know, I agree. I I think to to support what Jason said earlier, one [snorts] of the key positives of Sasaki out of the 12 responses was their experience uh and expertise with uh flooding and resiliency

of riverfronts because they've dealt with the Ohio River is just like the Kentucky River. It can raise 40 feet. Yep. And so, uh, they've dealt with the Evansville, they've dealt with Cincinnati, Ohio Riverfronts, and, uh, so they've got some experience with, you know, that type of flooding. I think one of the positives that we also stood out to us was the fact that it wasn't just a plan. They actually had they they help you to that finish line of getting those projects started and completed. So, it it's to a ribbon cutting, not just for a plan. And I think that was staff's big focus here was trying to find that company that's going to get us to that finish line, not just a plan that sits on a shelf.

Right. Sasaki has good experience with gaining funding both public and private for pieces of their project. So that's another reason we selected them. And to Commissioner Richardson's point that in terms of the timing is very good because

the uh we we requested stabilization funds. This is our second attempt to try to get these through Congress and now um and so last year it was set aside this year it was included again. Thankfully it passed the House still has to pass the Senate and there's some challenges there but um but Representative Comr felt comfortable enough they did a press release on it and that's we're we're as far along as that project as we've ever been. But we can't do whatever Sasaki comes up with here uh in terms of what should be on the waterfront. We really won't be able to do it with confidence unless we know we're not going to lose a lot of it due to the next flood. So this is foundational. It's it is the most important step really and and frankly it would it'd be hard for us to do it because it's such a big dollar amount $5.8 million. If you look at Owensboro, I took a tour in the fall at the League of Cities. um conference and and a big part of that the river wall was federal money but then they once that was in place they were able to do locally fund the rest of the other improvements there and that's what I think here there's just a lot of opportunity we know that everybody I think understands the riverfront's a underused asset and this is an opportunity I do have a question and we don't have a motion on the floor yet do we um

um is I hope this will include I I was wondering if it would include Fort Hill in some way. Could they somehow incorporate access to to Fort Hill? Is that was that talked about on the committee? As part of the RFP, we we had a one-page map where we kind of outlined all of the riverfront areas and adjacent areas that we wanted them to consider as part of their visioning strategic plan. It ran from Buffalo Trace through downtown all the way down to Capitol View Park. But part of that was we incorporated Fort Hill also in that. So they will, I guess, attempt to try to connect Fort Hill with the river and the riverfront. [clears throat]

I'll be excited to see what they say. I'm excited to see. Who knows what they'll come up with. Motion to approve. Second. Any other discussion on this or questions? We got a little Commissioner Smith. I just wanted to say thank you to the committee. I think um you know with with these committees you know we can only be so many places at one time. So I love the intentionality behind the decision-m list with Suzaki. So I just wanted to thank the people that are on the committee to choose the one that best represents our community. So thank you. That was a chore to go through 12. [laughter] Listen I said that because I saw how thick the proposal I was like oh my goodness. So thank you all for your time

over the holidays. It's what we all did. [laughter] Yes we did. And you know, just to follow up and and Jason mentioned it earlier, of the eight people on on the committee, all of us recognized Sasaki as one of our top. They were the only firm out of 12 that everybody figured that out was one of their top. So, as we talked through the evaluation process, we kind of landed on them. Thanks. That's great. Madam Clerk, you call for the vote. Mr. Richardson. Yes. Commissioner, yes. Commissioner May, yes. Commissioner Smith Willis, yes. Mayor Wilson,

yes. And that passes. Action item number five. Number five is the pilot agreement for the Capital Positive Hotel. This was presented by uh Gil Johnson at the work session if you all recall and we've worked through that and the county has passed their portion of it. I believe the school board has as well and it's just back on this commission to look at the pilot portion.

I'll entertain a motion. Motion. Second. Okay, we have a motion to approve this pilot and a second. Any discussion or questions? Commissioner Smith Willis. I just wanted to um thank everybody that contributed to this. Um payment and lose were new for me to learn. So, I took it upon myself to make sure I went to the fiscal court meetings to make sure that we were aligned with the developers um and the school board and the county. I just appreciate all the work and the transparency that was put into this. So, thank you all and um I'm also looking forward to this development as well.

I'll just say a couple of things here. So, what this is this IRB this payment and Lou and I think want to make it clear to everyone that the city is not investing directly in this project. We're not borrowing $33 million to fund this project. All we're doing is agreeing to forego property taxes for 10 years as that that's the way I understand it. So, uh, we're we're helping the project by that. We're we're giving some concessions to the developer, but we're not investing in this. We're not at risk in any way financially. It doesn't affect our credit and this is a common practice in other cities and it helps helps private developers do projects that are otherwise hard to do and in light of the fact that we've already passed a tiff for this district. We've invested in a parking structure to unlock the growth potential in this district and u we we've already done some things over here. I don't see why we wouldn't go for this if this is what they need to get it going. I don't want to be the one that holds it up.

Mayor could also say that that pilot also protects the city because it puts certain stipulations on the developer to hold certain jobs and certain occupancy levels. So, the pilot helps us maintain that. Mayor, that I was going to mention there is some safeguards in there to protect the city. So, uh, I appreciate staff making sure that that, you know, if if if it does go ary, let's hope not. Um, that we do have, uh, protections for for the city in Can we elaborate on those so that people can hear those again? Sure. Uh,

do that. So basically uh except for the first three startup years uh anytime that they don't meet the specific requirements and I'm sorry I do not have 42 is it 43 43 42% off. It was 60% occupancy and 42 full-time employees. 60% I'm almost 100% on, but the 42 might be 42 43. 40 to 45 full-time full-time jobs. And I think I thought it was 43% occupancy, but that might be the current occupancy. I think the occupancy is actually 60 trending towards 70. That's

60 trending toward 70. So from that point on in any calendar year where they don't meet um those particular requirements they will certify as such we will know and we will uh recover 50% of the property tax that would have been due for that year. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions discussion? If none ask the clerk to call for the vote. Commissioner Richardson, yes. [clears throat] Commissioner, yes. Commissioner May, yes. Commissioner Smith, yes. Mayor Wilkerson, yes. And that pilot agreement is adopted. Action item number six.

We have a discussion of additional information regarding solid waste. And I'll have Sarah and Byron come up here. Believe you all received this updated packet earlier today. Okay. So, we just wanted to um I know we just talked about this what two weeks ago, but we wanted to uh provide some additional information. There are some questions asked, some things left kind of unanswered. So, we've we've done some work to see if we can't move things. Does this work?

Okay. Um so, one of the things that came up was a question about timing. uh like uh what was our deadline kind of um the RFP that we put out stipulated that pricing and other conditions would remain firm for 90 days. So we opened responses on January 6 making that 90 days expire on April 6th. Um so we we do have time to discuss and make a decision. One thing to keep in mind is that the service start dates that were proposed by the responders in their responses was based on an assumption that we would have a determination to award a contract by February 23rd. So next month's regular meeting. Okay. So that it doesn't mean we can't take additional time. It just means that those dates would be scooched. Right. Okay. Next, please. There we go. Um this is just a reminder. This is the exact same slide that we talked about last time with the um municipal versus residential billing from the two primary responders. So, you know, if if the city was paying the bill, the two uh kind of number ranges to look at are the 2.4 to 2.7 million or the 2.7 to 3.2. Okay, this is just this is just a refresher. No new information here. Next, please. Um, okay. So, we did reach out to the responders and ask a couple of additional questions based on feedback that we got. Um, if you'll remember, we had a resident, um, Mr. Ferguson stopped by last time and he had a question about, you know, what do how can I manage my additional waste? So, we asked the responders, hey, in this situation, what is your plan? Responder A said um that they would allow an additional cart for residents at a $5 per month charge and that charge would

go directly to the resident. Um responder B very similar said a [clears throat] 350 per month charge for an additional cart directly to the resident. Um just for comparison what the city currently how we currently [snorts] manage those uh we have the blue overflow bags that you guys have seen that are available for purchase at uh both Kroger's. So, if a citizen chooses to purchase those and put those out, there's no additional fee to pick them up. They've already paid the fee. Um, there's also landfill vouchers available four times per year. Four times per year for residents

and those are I think you guys are aware of those. They're available through the county's website. Um, the other question we asked them was just for um I guess just kind of comparison purposes. what if any available information were they able to share regarding pay structure, benefits, etc. So, regarding pay, responder A told us that weekly pay started out at $22 per hour um weekly pay um at 40 hours per week and that that initial pay was increased based on experience. So, and we don't have that exact um bless you. We don't have that exact uh layout what those are, but that's that's the base pay. Uh responder B didn't uh elaborate, which they weren't required to on the exact dollar amount, but similar kind of response. Weekly pay 40 hours a week and that um initial pay was based on experience. For comparison, the city uh starting out we pay 2166 an hour and that's a 37 half hour work week and we pay bi-weekly. Um both responder A and B responded that they offered 401k health, dental and vision. The city similarly offers KPPPA participation which is a 401k style or 450. Say the wrong thing. Okay.

Health dental envision. So similar kind of um offers. And then in terms of leave time, responder A offers 10 vacation days and five personal days starting out. Responder V B offers 15 vacation days and the city offers um 12 vacation days and 12 sick days, one of each offered or earned per month. Keep the next one. Okay. So, previously when we talked about um solid waste costs, we talked about the FY26 budget. Um so that that budget on the books is $2,149,410. Uh since the time that we initially talked about that, there's been the system that we used does an adjusted forecast for the what basically what they anticipate you're going to spend that year. So our adjusted forecast for FY26 is $2,391,786. Some of the reasons that that's high or that's higher than we um initially budgeted. Uh due to the flooding, we had for this fiscal year, we paid additional tipping fees at the landfill. We paid uh all those dumpster rental fees. Um our automotive repairs, which we'll talk about a little bit on the next slide, that often goes over every year. That's just a a reflection of the age and state of the fleet. Um, and then advertising and postage. This was higher than anticipated because we reinstated bi-weekly recycling, which although it's a good thing, is expensive to get the word out. Oops. Yeah.

Yes, I was sorry. Okay, so this next slide has a lot of numbers and we'll talk about all of them. Um so the the operating budget for solid waste these a lot of these categories are things that are not included in that whether you want to call it 2.1 or 2.3 million. Um, so insurance premiums I had uh or Jason asked Sean Caldwell to break out just the solid waste portion of insurance premiums and that totals a little over 75,000. Then you've got workers comp, medical benefits, and all other insuranceances are all under a different budget category. And those total respectively 28,000, 187,000, and 40 almost 47,000 annually. Now, those four costs, well, the I guess cost two, three, and four, workers comp medical benefits, those are directly tied to the number of employees, right? So those are best guesses at what the share for solid waste is. But if those employees are housed, if we privatize and those same number of employees are housed somewhere else, those costs don't necessarily change. The workers comp might go down a little bit because solid waste is nationally a very

dangerous job. It has higher workers comp claims than a lot of other areas. So you might see a decrease in that. But as long as the same number of overall employees are on board, those numbers aren't going to change much. Um, another thing we had talked about, um, just kind of trying to break out a little bit was special events. Um, now this these prices and these hours here are estimates and they probably would not change either because the city's still going to have our special events and we're still going to provide these services. But generally speaking, setup goes anywhere from two to 15 hours and takes two to four people. Uh cleanup for those events two to four hours and usually takes two people. Um and just kind of looking at an overall average of what it costs us in terms of personnel and time, uh 13,500. Uh our fleet maintenance garage, we I don't remember if we talked about this last time or not. Um the fleet maintenance garage spends dedicates almost every Monday to solid waste. Um the reason being that the solid waste doesn't run a regular route on Mondays. They run a few um a few smaller routes. Um so Monday is maintenance day. Um they also as needed throughout the week spend time on solid waste um vehicles. So this 145 is it's it's just assigning a number to it. That's 25% of the maintenance garages budget. Now I'm not saying that if we privatize we spend that much less money. I'm saying that there's that much time and effort that becomes available to work either on additional vehicles that they aren't currently working on or to work larger um do larger repairs that they currently

don't have time to do. Like for example, uh last year the maintenance garage did a full engine rebuild for one of the fire for one of the fire engines. Um they did it because it saved us $ 35 $40,000, but then it puts them behind on everything else. So they don't really have the time regularly to do stuff like that. However, if they were freed up from working on every single Monday and as needed solid waste vehicles, they would have time to do some of these larger projects or take on additional vehicles that they aren't currently servicing. So, it's a it's a it's a savings that you I don't really know how to assign a dollar amount to it, but um automotive repairs in this fiscal year's budget, the line item for automotive repairs for solid waste is $268,000. At this point in the year, our anticipated overages in just that category are $174,810

over the 268. Correct. In addition to Yes. Um and again, that's just age of fleet. Um and not not necessarily even just age of fleet, but when you have a fleet that's older, you end up having vehicles that are repeatedly off the road being serviced. So your vehicles that are in better shape are running longer, right? So they take more of a beating than they should.

Um and then the last one, the big ticket item that's not included in the regular operating expenses, capital expenditures. So this range of 450 to 900,000 that includes one to two trucks purchased annually. So my thought in putting this together was if we do not privatize and we want to continue having this service, this is what we need to be looking at spending. So one to two vehicles per year. Um some upgrades to the facility. They don't have security. They don't have fencing. Um routing software would be this is all stuff we talked about before. Routing software um among other things. So that's a range. So, at the bottom, the total there is excluding events because that doesn't really change. Um, all of these things total up to between 1.2 and 1.68 million. If you take out everything except just the automotive overages and capital expenses, because some of those categories at the top, if we if we have the same number of employees don't change, you're looking at 624,000 to 1.07 07 million and that's on top of the 2

2.39 million. Okay, so next slide pretty please. [clears throat] So that's that's the purpose of this slide. So our projected budget for this year 2.39 million then all of those um costs that are incurred based on personnel or capital expenditures every year for a low total of 3.18 million and a high total of 3.63 million is what we anticipate spending like next year if we keep doing this. Um, does that I know I went through a lot of Oh, sorry. Sorry, I didn't I don't have the update.

Sorry. Um, does that make sense? That kind of range and why it's laid out that way. Okay. Um, next slide pretty please. So, some of the benefits that we could realize if we were to privatize that you can't really place a monetary value on. We talked about the maintenance garage already that we could work on either additional vehicles and or um larger, more complex um repairs that are currently being outsourced. So that would save us not just money but time. When we outsource a repair, it takes tremendously longer to get that vehicle back and on the road than it does if we perform the same tasks in house. Um, we have the potential to gain storage or operational space. We have a huge facility on Rouse Avenue that was just revamped,

right? Or repaired after the fire. Yeah. One half was revamped, the other half got a makeover, a facelift. So,

and if we were to privatize, a lot of that space would become available to repurpose. We could talk about better using space at our garage, our our streets um location on Bald Knob. could talk about moving downtown parks office or a lot of things. But the point is there's a space there. There's a building that's in pretty decent condition. Um that would become useful for something else. Um we talked a lot last time about quality of life issues. Um I think for a lot of employees this might be seen as a morale boost. Um, Byron's staff feels uh they're kind of feeling crunched, right? They're feeling um I don't know if overworked is the right word, but they're feeling

Yeah, that's they're feeling the stress of all of this like conversation, the conversation and overwork because like I told y'all before, you know, our our policy is pretty strict on being time off and just uh last week for example, I had two employees that had to be off early Friday for uh funerals and another employee called in. I had a note for a a for sickness and another employee called in. had death in the family. So that put me, you know, three or four four employees down on my biggest route on Friday. So it made it a little rougher than and I knew we had the snow coming in that we had to push the guys a little bit to make sure we get done that we could be prepared for this weather if we were needed like we were today.

Yeah. And then finally, um at least at least for a while, you've got a lot of really skilled amazing employees that could be um rehomed to other places in the city. You could look at additional crews for public works or other departments. Like in public works, we talked about it'd be great in streets to have a dedicated concrete crew. Like how much could we get done if we had a crew that was dedicated almost solely to just doing these concrete projects? Um you could have a dedicated crew for the back truck. So regular more regular maintenance of our storm water system. Um, we could I mean outside of public works there's parks, there's sewer, a whole bunch of other places that people are in pretty desperate need of uh help. And with that, what kind of questions do you guys have or thoughts? Commissioner Richardson,

I don't have any questions other than this is a pretty good detailed and this is exactly what I think. Um, some of this uh I won't say I knew all of it. Some of it I went out and researched and asked questions of many other municipalities and entities. Um, you know, I I appreciate this and and I like what you said about great employees. I mean, they they probably we get a lot of compliments on folks that that are in that that department. Um, but these numbers and what you've given us lays a picture of the sustainability

and I'm going to go back to that and I I don't want to put anybody on the spot, but this is a lot of money to get to just get it back to where we can be even, right? I mean, this is not even above what we need to be. And we're talking anywhere from, like you said, I mean, we're we're in the we're close to a million dollars, probably over that, right? I'm being conservative with that number.

I I appreciate this. I mean, you've put a lot of work into this and and like I said before, I love how you um you know, we've got a lot of good people that we can repurpose in different areas, which we need help in those areas, especially when it comes to the beautifification of our fine city. Um but I appreciate it. I mean, I'm coming up. I'm just your numbers. I'm I'm I'm I apologize getting on my phone because I don't like to do that. But just if we privatized this and went with just the I'm I'm speculating responder A, I mean, we're looking at somewhere in the excess of $600,000 of savings with everything you put in here. And that is being very ultraconservative, a little over half a million dollars.

And and just like you said, Byron, you got employees that I understand coming from the police department when you are uh staffed minimums. You've got staffing minimums. I mean, we had that. It It really It bites that you can't let people off for a funeral, right? And that and you don't have We would love to give you 12 more people, but unfortunately, I don't know if the budget can handle that. [snorts] [laughter] So, uh again, you have done both of you have done excellent on this research, and to me, um this is exactly what I needed u to make that informed decision on this.

That's what we were hoping. We're hoping to give you guys enough information that you know making a a recommendation to have us either pursue this or not. I guess my one question would be on the what kind of uh the contract the RFP we put out was it the number of years that was my question.

Fair. So we we didn't stipulate that it had to be a certain um length. We said that we anticipated or um yeah that we anticipated issuing a five-year contract with the option to renew for a second five years. The other option I've kind of been toying with um is instead of doing a five-year contract with the option to renew once is a two-year contract with an option to renew four additional times. So, it's the same amount of time, right? It's still 10 years, but it gives both the responder and us a little more, especially since it's new. if we do this. Yeah, not dragging it out so long before we before we revisit.

Um I felt a little more comfortable with that idea. I have not talked to the responders about it, but I assume since it allows them more flexibility as well that it would and it's the same amount of time that it would not be a huge deal. Commissioner Smith Willis,

thank you for um definitely coming back with some of the questions that I had um that I've been thinking about this. For me personally, um I have two different thought processes on this. Um there's my personal side as a resident and then there's also my side as a leader. Um just kind of going back to when we did our strategic planning for the beginning of the year, you know, we talked heavily about quality of life. So for me personally, um and I know a few of the solid waste crew members, I just feel like this is something that will contribute to their morale. Um and then I also on top of that, you know, I just feel like this is not nothing that we put up here is permanent. I want the community to know that. So, like we can make this decision. Um, there's people that appreciate and some that don't, but none of this is permanent. So, I do feel like, you know, to Commissioner Richardson's point, I would like to recoup financially and recover. And then if we ever, my seat might not be here, but whoever's up here could always revisit this conversation um for the for the purpose of the community at that time. So, I appreciate the information. Um, I don't think that we can give you 12 employees like we would like to. Um, I was gonna say it for board comments.

For the stars, right, dream [laughter] big. Um, I was gonna say this for board comments, but I just really want to say that I appreciate the work that they're putting in right now. I mean, they are stretched very thin. I'm sure they're tired. Um, but their work does not go unnoticed, but um, any decision that I make up here is really for the quality of life for the staff and then still for the community. So, um, just thank you for the information and you've definitely given me something to think about quickly, I suppose. Commissioner Hunger,

thank you. Um, I also appreciate all the information. I feel like, um, I will be able to really have some good conversations with the community about it. Um, and I think if anyone's listening, I I think um, I hear about trash a lot, good and bad, but usually it's good. People are proud of of our crews. Um and and espec I could think about like four years ago I was just getting non-stop thank you. Can you tell them thank you?

And and so as of lately I might get a little bit more negative comments. Some people are struggling with with the bi-weekly pickup for recycling and just you know families. We heard the citizen two weeks ago talk to that. But, um, I think I understand the positive in in looking at this is maybe saving the city and taxpayers some money. Um, but some cons that I think I worry about and I made I made a little list. Um, potential rate increases. Um, we know that, you know, that can always happen and probably will. Um, diminished accountability. um potentially a change and maybe compromised services. Maybe it's not what we're used to. It's not what um yeah, people have come to be used to over the years. And just that loss of control of how good our service is compared to what maybe a private companies could be. And and I made note of like lack of innovation. You know, I feel like we've talked about composting over the years of me sitting up here and like what could curbside composting look like or like a community program and I could see that a private company may not do that. So, that might be something that we would choose to do on our own if we did privatize. But, but I think this is all really good to think about. But to the sustainability part of either going private or keeping it inhouse, you know, can we take on can we continue to take on the full brunt budgetarily for this even if we do privatize or will we be billing the citizens? So that that's all listed here. We know,

you know, what those amounts could be. Um, and I and I was looking back at some notes and just thinking, you know, what what was that solid waste fee amount that we had most recently discussed? It was around $25 maybe. Yeah, I think last time we talked about it, we were estimating 25 to cover the full 3.6 million or 3 something. Well, actually, I don't know if I'd have to go back and look. I don't know if some of those personnel costs were included like the insurance and all that. I feel like it was under three point. It was like around three. Yeah.

But we had discussed that 25 a month as a potential fee. And of course, if that's, you know, if that's something that we that you guys choose to have us look into further, we would make sure to revisit it and recalculate and make sure all the numbers are included. But yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's it foration. Thank you, Commissioner May.

Thank you all so much. I echo what everyone said. Appreciate the data that we have so we can make an informed decision. Was there uh any [snorts] conversations regarding um as we move forward specifically who uh could take on like those boutique services and how we would transition those and keep those in house as we have the conversation? And then I'm I'm just still real nervous about the fleet management moving forward and knowing that it seems like all of our costs and across departments of that being something you know when we talk about ambulances those costs just keep continuing to go up.

So would we plan on I think we had talked about potentially them buying purchasing some of the fleet from us. um where are we at in those kind of discussions? And um responder B actually submitted uh based on road hours and make model a year of the vehicles, they actually submitted a table to us with um proposed purchase prices for each vehicle. Responder A indicated that they were interested and would like to go through a private valuation of the vehicles and then work that out in the contract. Thank you.

And then uh with A, B, and C and us not necessarily knowing exactly who those are, but are there conversations that can happen with joining maybe an existing service that already serves the county? Have we had those or will we be able to have those conversations when we get um I believe that the county's contract is good through the end of

27 I believe without looking. Um, so unless the county wants to break their contract and uh that's not really um ideal timing. Um, another benefit to maybe looking at a two-year contract that we can renew up to four times would be that at the end of the first or second two years, if the county was in a position that they wanted to talk to us about um joining services, that would be an ideal time to do it. Okay. Um, did you have anything else you want to add to that, Laura? Does that Okay, [clears throat] thank you. Yeah,

that's one of my questions is on the coordination with the county. So, what we're talking about with the responder A and B right now, that term would coincide with what the county's calendar is. Um the two-year term would to be Yeah. I mean, we'd have to the two-year would be closer to that. Um if that's something that we wanted to look into more, we could certainly have discussions with the county and we could also have discussions with a selected responder about I don't know how that would look exactly in terms of a contract, but we'd have to discuss that before we committed to this though, right? uh we wouldn't have to but it [clears throat] would not hurt to

because I think that's uh you know if there's economies of scale if we if we think we if I mean in some cases I know in Commissioner Richardson's neighborhood you have our trucks and county you know the the private company going into the same neighborhood. So just seems like there's some savings there. And then uh Commissioner May ask it about the upfront payment. So we don't know with responder A what we would get with an upfront for any vehicle or any equipment but we do from responder B correct any ballpark what that would be uh 1.4 1 something 1.2 to 1.4 before it was somewhere in that there would be some upfront cash.

Some upfront cash. Yeah. And like I said, responder A is also interested. They just wanted to have the vehicles evaluated. Well, that's an important consideration. Um and then the salaries that are in the let's say we did we realized that some of the employees would go with the private company probably. Yeah. and a lot of them maybe, but we also some would stay back and and go into other departments or other position. Well, probably the same department, but other other uh positions. So, but that those salaries are included in the 2.3 million that we're projecting for our current employees. Yes. Yes. So, they would still continue on. Yes.

So, it's that, you know, that we'd have to I think that's why I was trying to ask him email. We'd have to add that back in to any potential savings. Um, now it would still be a benefit because those people would then be we would have more people doing other things. So, we'd have but I get that. But in terms of dollar amounts, right? You know, if I'm comparing apples to apples, I'd like to know. Yeah. I know we can't approximate yet, but I mean maybe we could just say let's say half the employees go. Yeah. So, uh, workers comp, medical benefits, and insurance are directly tied to how many employees Yeah.

exist that we're, you know, that the city. Um, so and and those are the portions just for solid waste right now. So, let's say we privatize and let's say, you know, a third of our employees choose of their own will to go to the private company that we choose or anybody else. Um, those numbers would reduce by approximately a third. Yeah. But then the salary I understand salaries as well. Yes. The salaries are included in the operational budget. Yes. Right. But the 2 I'm going to round and say 2.4 million is what we're going to spend in 2026. So some of those salaries would be I see

wouldn't be savings when we're comparing this you know dollar for dollar instead of saying so okay our total cost is going to be let's say 3.1 million versus two 2.4 for for the private company. We need to add back in some salaries that are gonna stay. Yeah. And we can do that. We can I can do that. We can pull out Yeah, we can do that. It still sounds like it's going to be a savings. So, I acknowledge that. But and I realize that those people that are now going to be doing other things that aren't being tended to now. Could be beautifification, could be road, could be a lot of things. But but it for if we're comparing dollars there I can pull those numbers out and email them to all of you tomorrow.

If it's not too much it's not Commissioner Smith. I have two two questions. Are we hypothetically we move forward with this? Are we allowing the staff to choose if they want to be absorbed by currently have the option to choose to be employed wherever they'd like to be employed? Okay, cool. [laughter] Great. I mean, they're none of them have a contract that ties them to being here for any specific amount of time. So, I mean, they're they're they have free will to pursue employment elsewhere. Um, but obviously, I don't want for any of them to be forced to do that, right? Um,

but yes, I mean, they all have that opportunity available to them now or at the time that we potentially privatize. And then my other question was I'm just I'm very interested in for transparency purposes to understand and to kind of feel where everybody's coming from. So of course we have the community. Do we Byron? Do you know how the staff is feeling about this conversation? How like where are their thoughts on it? And then of course the community has their pros and cons. Is that something I shouldn't open up to? But I'm just curious. No, they haven't really spoken a whole lot with me about I know most of them want to stay there. Got it. Or want to stay in the city. Got it. Cool. Thank you,

Commissioner Richardson. In all reality, I know I mentioned 12 extra people, but you know, when you have a uh manpower um you know, intensive department, sort of like where I came from, your relief factor is huge, I would imagine. So, you're working right now. You're one short, am I correct? One short. And you're having a hard time just letting one person off. Yeah. I mean, we we still let them off just like last Friday. I mean, I'm not gonna deny anybody. Not I would agree. I I get that anything, you know, whe whether I have to drive or the assistant drives or codes work drives. So, I'm trying I'm just back to one guy on a truck. How many total are you How many total you have? Supposed to have 19. We have We're currently at 18.

So, I would say your your relief factor is somewhere around four. And and I know this because I've done these I've done this on a shift level. And what I mean by that is you have training, you do right, you have downtime, you have sick time, you have vacation time. All of that has to play into your department. And that you there is actually formulas and I would I'll be happy to share it with any because I did it in in my on my shift. It comes up with a relief factor. Meaning I especially when you have, you know, a minimum staffing, you have to have that minimum staffing. Fire does it, police does it. Uh, and it it's hard to explain unless you really put it on pen to paper, but you don't have enough staff. No, no. I mean, I've known that for

that's that's what I'm trying to get. I've known that for 20ome years. I know that. I know that. We've always been we've always taken, you know, we lose a spot, but sometimes we didn't get it back. When I first started, we had 21 employees, two supervisory employees, and 19 working staff, techs or whatever you want to call them. And and I wish we still I wish we had that back when I was I remember in and uh Chief Nap we had seven almost 78 officers too and we don't have that. So unfortunately people cost a lot of money these days. I'm just back up the numbers we that I'm at now thanks to you know commission city manager and the director we were down to 15 total employees at one time. We just couldn't survive. It was really tough.

So on and I appreciate uh Commissioner Smith Willis talking about that that [laughter] It is but you know I I have talked to some people in in your department and and I do think morale um and I think it as much as we've took our time on this and you too this is not u you know of hey we're trying to get rid of you we're trying to that I I I hope you have conveyed that and oh yeah I tell them all the time

um this is more about for me is about our budget mainly And um Commissioner Hunger makes a good point. Service to our community. Uh but when it really comes down to it, our budget, we only have so much money and that's that's it. And the revenue is the revenue. And that's what I'm looking at. And especially these forecast expenditures. I mean, I know for a fact that it it it's going to take from something else is what I'm trying to say. Yeah.

Um Commissioner uh May said it. We have we have a lot of capital things that we need to purchase and I'm not putting that priority that that your truck is is you know more less important than any other truck but um unfortunately those trucks are not cheap. No.

So uh I just want to I would hope that I'm not sure where we move from here. We get this information and we move this to the work session. But I do think because of the timeline that we really I'm gonna take this home. I'm gonna digest this and do the same thing as Commissioner ask. I've already done a lot of these questions, but um I'm hoping we can revisit this a work session and get this on uh one way or another [snorts] because I don't want to keep dragging this out either. And it's expected that we vote on this at the regular meeting in February, correct? or if we're going to move forward with the prices as seen.

If when we wrote the RFP, we said that we anticipated being able to award a contract or having approval to award a contract on February 23rd. We also told them that they had to hold their for 90 days. Yeah, their their Yes, pricing. Thank you. For 90 days. So, there is a built-in little cushion there, but like I said, if we if we take longer, it'll just push timelines back. Commissioner Anger,

just one more comment as I'm sitting here thinking about it all. Just if we were if the city was to privatize, it just seems like it'd be real hard to bring it back. You know, you're talking about maybe using that space for something completely different. You're talking about buying a whole new fleet of trucks. I think I'm, you know, I'd just really like to figure out how to make it sustainable and keep it in house is just where my brain's going at the moment as we keep talking. So, it's a big change and I'm all for ch change can be a really good thing, too. So,

thank you guys. Yep. Any other discussion or questions? We'll look to put this on the work session and then see if we need to discuss it more and uh I think with a goal if we got to decide end of February, right? And we have 90 days. What was the 90 days? The 90-day deadline is April 6th um because we opened on uh January 6th um for us to get them to answer or to well to and to be able to enter into a contract. So, you're you're really looking at e either February 23rd or March, whatever that date is that we have the regular meeting.

Um, ideally February 23rd because then it we don't have to look at reevaluating their timelines that they proposed. Um, but we have the option. I have Smith, I have um, like I said, I have my personal like my citizen opinion that I have my leadership opinion. So just for the record, I just encourage anybody that's watching to just reach out to me so we can have those constructive conversations because I really don't this is like a really big decision like Commissioner said. So I I really I just want to open that up to just conversation and dialogue around this to make so I can make the the right decision um for my vote. So thank you all very much for the work that you all put into this. All right.

And thank you Byron and all the crews for today and yesterday. And yeah, thanks to the crew.

Yeah. Thank you. All right, that's the end of action items. Any unfinished business? There's none from the last meeting. How about new business to come before the board? If none, any board comments before we go into executive session? Mayor, I motion that we go into executive session per KRS61.810 litigation discussion of litigation regarding the OI and potential litigation involving poly construction. Action may be taken in open session.

Second. All those in favor of going into executive session say I. I. We are now in executive session.

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Heat. motion.

Second. All in favor say I. I. Um, I'll entertain a motion. I'd like to make a motion to settle all current litigation and claims with Old Y LLC in accordance with the terms of the letter from the Old Yers dated January 21st, 2026 and authorize the mayor or his designate to sign all related documents. Second. I have a first and a second. U Madam Cler, can you call the role? Commissioner Richardson, yes. Commissioner Ogre, yes. Commissioner May. Yes. Commissioner Smith Willis.

Yes. A motion carries. Um all in favor say I. Motion to journ. Second. We are journ. Have a good evening.

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