City Commission - Regular Meeting

queue it up. Good morning. Uh I want to welcome everyone here first of all and uh at this time we will call the uh Franklin City Commission to order. This is a regular call meeting and we'll open our meeting up with uh with uh prayer with Commissioner Stewart.

Thank you, Mayor. Pray with me. Dear heavenly father, once again we thank you for this opportunity to to be a part of your your service as it renders into another day. We thank you for your many blessings. We thank you for your love. We thank you for your mercy and we thank you for your grace. Father, we we just thank you for life as it is and and all the many blessings you give us that we sometimes just take for granted, but you know, we ask you to to continue to allow us to search our hearts to know that that the meaning that we serve for you is greater than any meaning that we could ever have. And then within that meaning, Father, we as we serve you, that that we can serve one another with with compassion and and passion and love and and all the things that you'd have us to do that that connects us as one. Father, we we can't be remiss to ask you to continue to look in on the the sick, the shut in, those that may be in the nursing home, those that are in foreign land, uh those that may be in bereavement, all the things that you know that that we are compelled to deal with from day to day. Father, you know best and you know how to fix it best. We ask you to come in this meeting today and bless each and everyone that is here represented in whatever capacity they may be. And if nothing else, Father, we ask that if there is not anything that we can agree on, that we can agree to disagree. Bless us as we make our decisions that those decisions will be pleasing in your sight. For we know that if we seek seek you and your heart, we know that we can't make bad decisions. Again, Father, we thank you. We thank you for your love, mercy, grace. We just thank you for all that you do for us, all that you're going to do for us in in any manner you see that it needs to be done. In your darling name, son, I pray for and say, "Amen. Thank you, Commissioner Stewart.

Thank you. Uh we'll move on to this point to uh hear the public. And I believe that we have one person registered to speak and uh that's Mrs. Kristen Bailey Wilson. So if you would like to come to the podium at this time, we'll welcome. Yeah.

Okay. I'm gonna start the stopwatch so I stay in my time. Okay, I'm ready if you all are. Yeah,

I only have five minutes, so I can only name topics, but I've sent you all an electronic folder and it's full of all kinds of detail. So, I only have one ask today and that one ask is to stand with the citizens of Franklin, Kentucky, to slow down, to form a committee, and to study the data center industry before you do anything else. Give it a year before you do anything. I'm asking you to be proactive, not reactive. The citizens of Franklin showed up, probably 200 to the planning and zoning meeting. Over a thousand signed the electronic petition into and many more have said to you via email or phone calls. They've let me know. They've tried to meet with you. Some are responding, some are not. But they've also when I'm out and about in town, people that I know and don't know will walk up to me and they'll hug me and they'll thank me. Uh they'll tell me that I'm sent by God or compare me to Gideon. And I know I'm not the only person who spoke at the planning and zoning meeting getting that treatment. So, the Franklin citizens have made it clear they do not want a large polluting data center. There's grassroots organizing happening around this. Uh, and it's never good when your citizens are organizing against your decisions. That's a bad thing. And I'm asking you to listen to listen because when I've talked to other coalitions around the country, they give me advice about GoFundMe accounts and open records requests and hiring lawyers and social media and selling merchandise and setting up town halls. And I'm here asking you today, do we really have to do all that? Can we get you on our side? Can we ask you, our elected officials, to be on the side with the citizens? Comparing a local server warehouse or a small crypto mining operation in a shipping container to this proposed data center is like comparing a baby bunny to Godzilla. Data centers are disastrous industry all over the country. Noise

air, light, water pollution, rising energy costs, drain on resources, scaring away wildlife. It goes on and on. And in that folder I sent you, there are hundreds of articles and white papers about these problems. The citizens know these stories and they want to talk to you in detail about these issues. The folder also contains model ordinances that I've collected together. And because if I've gotten one piece of advice from coalition leaders around the country, it's this. Pass city ordinances to ensure you are inviting good neighbors when you build a data center. Our elected leaders and citizens should also be well-versed not just in potential tax revenue, but what are the incentives for the data center investor? So, there's a lot of new federal and state legislation, and I'm just going to mention it, but there's minutia galore that we should know before we invite this industry in. There's new federal legislation allowing 100% depreciation of all construction costs. That creates a giant operating loss. There's new opportunity zone funding rules. There's a 10-year rule in opportunity zone funding. House Bill 775 is a complete abatement of all state taxes for 50 years. And House Bill 701 passed this year is permissive rules for crypto mining. Are you aware of all the minutia? And if not, there's information in that folder about all this. And what about ancillary businesses? Glasgow's getting Tate industry. That's 420 real jobs. They're building floors. Have we looked into ancillary businesses? And will you talk to your citizens about that? There's new technology coming. Seammens and Eaton have partnered announced this year that they're working on offgrid natural gas turbines, but they do two things that the proposal doesn't. They work in noise control, noise um mitigation, and they work in emissions controls. So there's new technology coming. So I'm asking you,

you know, do the citizens of Franklin deserve the best stuff? Meta and Hitachi are working on configurations for solarp powered data centers and there's an open compute project. It's a nonprofit and it's powered by the big names Microsoft, Google, Intel, Micron, all of those. And they're doing it public facing white papers and all kinds of details about new configurations for data centers. The demand for data centers isn't going away. We can wait for the good stuff. We can wait for non-polluting, not noisy data center technology. So, I recognize that an NDA and a non-disclosure agreement can make you feel like you're in the important people club, but there are the antithesis of democracy. You, the elected officials, sign over the rights of the people to be full participants in their own democracy. And I'm asking you not to do that, to let us in. NDAs can like marriages can be both done and undone. Um, and I'm asking you to let us be part of it. Form a committee, bring the citizens in. I don't care so much about the construct of this committee. I mostly care that the citizens get a voice. Um, so I'm I'm just saying it's difficult to say out of one side of your mouth, I love Franklin more than any other person and out of the other side of your mouth, sign an NDA that takes away their democratic rights. So please, I'm asking, stand with the citizens of Franklin. Slow down, make an informed choice. Talk to us about it in great detail. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Kristen. Thank you for your comments. Okay, we will move on to the approval of minutes. And that'll be the approval of minutes of the October 13, 2025 regular meeting. And I'm sure everyone's had an opportunity to look over those. So, make a motion we approve them. We have a motion by Commissioner Powell to approve as stated. Second by Commissioner Stewart. Are there any further questions or comments? If not, all in favor? I I

Is there any opposition? And that motion carries uh as stated. and uh we will move on to uh recognitions. Uh don't believe we have any recognitions today. Uh community services. Uh none there. We'll move on to general government and under general government will be discussion and a possible action regarding proposed resolution authorizing the statewide mutual aid agreement. And uh I believe that Robert Palmer's here to uh briefly bring that uh to us. And thank you, Robert.

Good afternoon, everybody. Good afternoon.

I believe you guys all have a copy of it in your uh information there. Uh statewide mutual aid agreement is not a it's not a new thing. It's been on the uh on the books for many years, but it's been a long time since it was updated. So, with having multiple governors have changed hands and multiple state emergency management agencies and local state elected officials across the state, um with all of the change that's taking place, it's I think it's 2011 was the last time this was updated and signed. So, uh, they've taken upon about two years of updating to get all the legal information correct in it, get the verbiage correct. Uh, KCO and Kentucky League of Cities, they've all been involved in this as well. So, I'm just here to ask you guys to uh, and what this does, uh, so everybody will understand what it is. It's it's a statewide mutual agreement. So, in the event we have a disaster, a a declaration of emergency across the state, a community, a community does a declaration, and we expend all of our resources and want to reach out to the state or to a neighboring uh community for assistance. This mutual aid agreement kind of lays out the the groundwork about when you send resources, how you send resources, how you request resources. Um, and then after a certain amount of time, how you get reimbursed for the resources that you send. Um, if you do, if somebody asked us to to send some public works assistance or fire assistance, whatever, um, how long do we foot the bill for that? And then how do we get reimbursed if we stay longer than than that amount of

time? So, it's a really good thing to have in our in our toolbox. And I'm here to answer any questions if anybody's got anything. Anyone have any questions? Is it the Is it pretty much the same it's always been? Yeah, it hasn't changed much. They they put a they put some good verbiage in it about I believe the first 24 hours is on us

as as responders and then uh you got to have documentation. So, you got to have the state the number from the state EOC to put on all your documents that you're claiming. Uh they've they've tightened things up pretty good in that aspect. And as far as requesting uh for assistance and responding to that request has been tightened up a little bit as well, but for the most part it's pretty much the same as it used to be. Mayor, I have one more question. This is off the topic. I've had several people lately ask me what's the status on the new the radio digital radio system.

It is well, we've actually deployed all the radios. I think the city police cars are are working in the process of getting them installed. The the areawwide pro part of the project is going to be uh probably a few months on down the road yet because we're still you know how red tape is getting state signatures and andous and stuff in place on the state side of it. But we're getting ready to to hopefully before the end of the year we'll activate our our local site. um they call it site trunking and it'll basically replace the one that we've been on doing the same thing local local communications. Uh the the testing that we did though was was outstanding. We we're talking in places that we've never been able to talk before. So

will will the old system stay in place for a backup? We're using it as a backup. It'll remain that way broadcasting. We're going to we're going to keep it going as long as it'll hang in there. That gives us two towers. So if in the case, you know, in the event something crashes on the new stuff, we just switch everybody back over to the old system and and keep on running with it. So thank you. As long as Really? How much longer do you think it's going to be? Bob, do you have any time for the area wide? Yeah.

I uh if we if we can light a fire underneath the state to get them to get these agreements and stuff in place. Uh, I will say that Motorola and our partners closer to home are are putting a lot of pressure on the state to get this thing going. So, we're still the I mean, we were the first community out the gate to to sign on to this this area and statewide communications plan. And uh that being the case, they've they've tiptoed through a bunch of stuff to make sure that when we roll this thing out, it's it's kind of like toothpaste. Once you push it out of the tube, you can't ever put it back. Yeah.

So our side and their side. We want to make sure it's right when we roll it out because we don't want to have to start it, play with it, not play with it, but use it for a little while and then have to turn it off and go back to what we've got now because we missed something. So, and I'm I'm thinking I'm thinking probably we'll go with our with our local system hopefully before the end of the year and in sometime in the probably the first half of next year is what they're predicting, but I've heard that before. And that wasn't to put you on the spot in any way. I was just in general wondering uh Oh, yeah. where where we were really

and and I'll and I'll throw that disclaimer out there and don't hold my feet to that because yeah, I can't I can't make anybody in Frankfurt sign documents. Okay. mayor uh to adopt a motion for resolution number J2025 authorizing the mayor to sign the statewide emergency management mutual aid and assistant agreement and designate the mayor as a primary representative for the city of Franklin and the director of emergency management as alternative representative for the city of Franklin. That's the motion that Bob had presented for us. I'll make all what Kent said. We have a We have a motion by Commissioner McCra.

We have a second by Commissioner Powell. Is there any further discussion or comments? If not, we'll take a vote. All in favor? I. Any opposition? And that motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Bob. Thank you for the present for the presentation. Okay, moving on. under general government will be discussion or possible action regarding proposed ordinance amending FY 2026 budget. And Carol, you want to take off on that? That's going to take a little time and just bear with us. Okay. All right. So, in your packet on page 25, that's where we're starting. Yep.

And I reorganized this a little bit this time, hopefully to make it easier to follow. So the first page is the general fund um which has mo the most changes of all the funds. Obviously at the top you'll see that first column of numbers that has the letters AA underneath it. That's just a summary of the total change. So in the original budget we said the general fund net assets were would have a proposed change of $411,000. With this new amendment, the change is $464,000. And so that difference is $54,000 is the net change we're asking for. And if you go all the way to the bottom of that page, you'll see that the number in blue matches that. So, what I'm trying to do is explain at the top section the the big areas of change, but the box at the bottom is really what I want to go through to explain each of the changes that we made in this amendment. All right.

Yeah. Stop me at any time if you have questions. So, the first change um is in planning and zoning. When we were doing the budget in the spring, we did not know what was going to happen with planning and zoning. So, we had a very very limited budget because we didn't know what was going to happen. Now that the planning and zoning is in place for the city, we have sat down with the team and come up with a full budget. That information is is in your packet on page 26 as well as a proposed um agreement or a job description for a building and electrical inspector.

When we first did rolled this out, we had obviously had contractors, but our goal is to by the first of the year try to hire somebody full-time. So this is what's back there. It's just a a job description that like we like to post and start that process. So thank you Carol. Go ahead.

So in the first budget we had no revenues for planning and zoning. Um we have looked at what we've already um collected this year so far and projected out um based on the information we have from the joint planning and zoning commission um from last year. And so we're adding $432,000 of revenue. And then on the expense side, we had only included a little bit of personnel costs for Carter Monday. We've now increased those expenses to include include all the labor costs, the benefits, the um you know inspector costs, all those different things that are listed on page 26. So the net impact on the expenses, it's additional expenses is $160,000. So the net impact to our budget is actually an improvement of $272,000. Does that make sense? Okay, I will move on.

Yeah.

Uh the next line are property taxes. When we did the original budget, we didn't have the assessments yet from the PBA's office. And so, as we've done the past several years, we were conservative and only assumed a 4% increase in those assessments. The assessments actually came in at just under 18%. And then as we changed the rate, we had originally budgeted at last year's rate at 11.1 cent per 100 assessed $100 of assessed value and the commission lowered that when they set the new rate to 10.8% 8% or cents per $100 of value. So, the net of those changes are an increase in property tax revenue of $151,000. And then, um the next section there are the capital projects from last year. As always, we put we have capital projects in our budgets and we budget as if they're going to be finished in the current fiscal year. So, we had three projects in the general fund that we budgeted for fiscal year 25 but didn't get completely finished and so we need to roll them over into this year's budget. So that is the South College Street sidewalks for 282,000 being rolled over. The cyber security grant project, we were still waiting on one final piece. So we need to roll over 6,000 for that. And the city hall kitchen upgrade, we had we thought we would do half of that project last year and we did not get it finished with personnel changes. So we need to roll that 25 into this year. So the total capital roll forward is $312,000. And then the next section are all the other capital changes that have happened since we did the budget related just to fiscal 26.

So um as you know we have planned to put a playground out here um near the pavilion and when we did the budget we just had a budgetary estimate. We now have a good solid quote from vendors and um we've added some shade area and the appropriate fencing around that and that was an increase over our budgetary estimate of $14,000. And so once this is approved, we'll be able to kick that off and hopefully get that playground going this spring. Um on the community pavilion, we needed to increase that by 14,000 or almost $15,000. And that is primarily the the weather proofing for the restrooms. That was not built into the original specs and we needed to do that.

Weather proofing. Yeah, the there's restrooms and it wasn't winterized to, you know, it was basically made to drain it, turn it off. But I went ahead and put the put it in the change order to put insulation and stuff so that wouldn't be uh forget and freeze and fuss pipes. Oh, okay. So that's that change. Okay, that makes sense. Sorry, I'm not going to say the right word.

Um we also added, if you guys remember, I think in the previous meeting, an additional police vehicle. We had budgeted to buy four, but since um budget was done, we've had one vehicle totaled and so we needed to add that fifth vehicle to have enough in the pool. So that's an additional $64,000. Um we've also added um a code enforcement vehicle replacement. Um the one that we have is having issues with transmission and the cost is significantly more to repair it than it's worth. So, we're proposing to purchase a a new vehicle.

We currently have a two 2013 Ford CMax. It's a hybrid. And uh transmission is going out and the repair cost is 8,000. Book value is five. So, and uh so in elected putting more money in what it's worth, we're asking to go ahead and purchase a new car similar.

A new one. Yeah. Um, since the beginning of the fiscal year, we have completed several of our capital projects. We purchased the drone, the traffic sign, the hoam, we bought the rangers, and the net impact on those projects is we actually spent about $15,000 less than we budgeted. So, we're taking that that excess back out of the budget. We don't need those funds. Um we have essentially finished the sidewalks on South College phase one and um have added in $20,000 to do the phase 2 engineering which would include uh the Cherry Street little piece from College over to Main Street and from Rolling Road down to Bluegrass.

Correct. So, it's just just the 20,000 would get us the engineering and a cost estimate that we could use to bid that out in or to put in our budget for fiscal 27 and then move forward with that. That engineering that 20,000 that'll take care of both of those Cherry and also from Rolling Road to uh Bluegrass. Bluegrass. Yes. Yeah. or at Cherry starting at South College and going to 31W that little we had talked about that and there's a lot of students that still cuts across. So if you notice on uh currently on South College you got a little spur we we stopped there but that's to complete that engineering. So for both of those projects. Okay. Okay.

What you stopped what? Right there on South College where Cherry is, there's a little Y, a little spur. It's kicked off and that's for the continuation of that sidewalk along Cherry to 31W. There's a little stub out.

Okay. And um the safe room, the uh engineering part of that was phase one and we had that budgeted, but what we had not included was the $2,500 that we needed to help have Brad administer that grant for us. And so I'm adding that $2,500 to that project. So the total of all of those capital changes is an additional cost of $127,000 for fiscal 26. So, the budget for the playground is only 14,000 or it's going up by 14,000? It's going up by 14. These are all the changes from the original budget.

So, what's the what's the budget for the playground with this in it? It's 244. Is that the right number? That includes the fencing and 244K. Uhhuh. And that's what was left over from the building fund, correct? I think. Okay. That was what was left over from the what we had in the original budget last year. Yes. Okay. So the sidew the sidewalk engineering I don't So is Richard doing that? That's what we have proposed. Yes.

So I mean what's the what's the point of the the engineering if we're not going to stick to the plans? because the plans that we drew up for South College Street are not they weren't followed

followed as best as we could. I mean, we'd kind of change it basically where some utility holes was in the way. So, we kind of changed it based on our first time. So, um we've learned a lot since that first first proposal, first construction. So, Whenever whenever we whenever we do engineering work, does that uh does that also include, you know, the easements with the uh uh the property owners? Cuz I mean obviously, you know, when you get when we got ready to do the sidewalks, we come to realize that some of the some of the property owners said, you know, we don't want to give easements.

So that's a good point. Wouldn't it be better if we got the easements first before we design it? Well, some of them was we're trying to stay within the uh road easement.

The the short answer to that is no because we need a property description for the easement and they draw that out when they do the engineering. And that's we we had done all of the easements before the South College Street thing was started and then we ran into problems as you know with some property owners not want to do it. But typically I have to have I can't file an easement without a description of what we're actually using. So they usually put that in there in the engineering part. Now we can get a surveyor, I guess, but we still have to know where it's going to go first.

So the car you said for code enforcement, we're going to go back with the same model. Um, similar. I mean, it'd be a hybrid, I would think. Smaller car. What's the model of the one now? It's a Ford uh CX make. I'm sorry. It's a Ford CMax. 2013.

2013. Any more questions on the capital? If not, I'll move on to the last section which are the other costs. Um these are personnel costs partially. Um primarily that is for the police state police department. Um just the timing of we had open positions that we assumed we would fill right at the beginning of the fiscal year that have remained open. We've had other uh resignations that have created new bankruptcies. Um we have a workers comp claim. So, there's one one officer out on workers comp, so we're not paying him. All of that, the wages plus the benefit impact is actually going to reduce our um total spending by 160,000 for police this year. Um, with all those changes all netted together. So, we're taking that back out. We don't need that expenditure for this year. um we had been asked to look at getting um someone to answer the phones at city hall and so we've looked into that and on page 29 and 30 we have a proposal.

Yeah. Uh Carol, I'll talk to that. We have a two proposals. Um, one was to outsource the call center and we had a kind of an estimate of 55,000 and if we was to do it internal, uh, you can see the estimate of $15 an hour plus benefits is basically $75,000. Uh, what Carol has in this proposal is is outsourcing that. And you can see on page 30 is a basically uh is what that would provide. uh the calls. It's it's a kind of a a local call center and just obviously if we want to to want to go outside, we would have to bid it, you know, and go through that process. But for uh for the budget amendment, we just included that information in that for the call center. But if we wanted something different, we needed to discuss that.

Yes. Yeah.

Um I'm not that at all. Um, we're we're we're talking about going to a third party to do the same thing that the automated system is doing now. But as you guys know, I'm for I still think we need a person answering the phones here, have somebody out front, city hall, to greet the public. And I'm not going that long random, but uh I believe city hall should be open with the public. There's not another office in Franklin you can't walk into where it's county courthouse, the bank. You pick pick an office in Franklin. I just don't see how the city is doing. Now, we had some concern over the water department and I think you discussed maybe some security sometimes or what have you, but um that's where I still stand on it and I can't be for that. It can't be for which one commission

to for this either one of them. No, not for this outsourcing. No.

So you're saying hire in the in to hire a individual. The second one was individual. Yes. Can I talk to that a little bit? Sure. Let me ask one question. the the $75,000 annual is that would that include the the hourly rate as well as benefits. So we talking about okay but it doesn't include you know vacation or anything like that if somebody was to be absent. So that obviously that go ahead that that's my concern. I don't have a person we get probably 75% of the calls in our office and we answer those. That's not the issue. It's the others

where people are not at their desk to answer their phone and they don't hit to get to customer service. Um but I I have trouble keeping customer service staffed. Um you know absences whatever vacations. So even hiring one person, I don't know what we're going to do when that person wants to take a day off. I'm not sure either, but and I'm not sure where the person is physically going to be located.

Yeah, we did. I think we need to have a discussion about that. And I've said it before, every city around us, every city gets to talk to a live person in Walking City Hall. And I I'm not worried about the $20,000 whatsoever. uh our budget size that's minute compared to what perception we're going to give the public and the public can walk into city hall okay just to clarify you can walk into city hall and you have to push a button and someone answers you sorry Carol that's where I stand we the rest I just want to clarify for the public it's not like you come in and there's nobody you can get to answer you commission can voice their opinion but that's where I stand

every day there's never a line waiting to be buzzed in. There might be one or two, but there's never a line of anybody waiting to be buzzed into that office. And uh also, I'm going to speak to that a little bit, too. Um you know, uh there's when people are dealing with people at city hall and about their water bills, there gets to be some personal information shared there. And if you've got five or six people, and I don't think there's a person in this room that would like their personal information shared, not a person in here. I wouldn't, and I don't think anybody else would either. So, uh I uh I I don't have a pro I don't have a problem with the system. And I'm sorry, Commissioner McQuary, you and I disagree agree to disagree on that, but uh but uh we uh there is also uh you're talking about social security numbers, you're talking about addresses, you're talking about phone numbers. I mean, people don't want that information shared and and there's no way to privately keep that from being shared if there's three or four people standing in there. So, that's just my take on it. And there may be some other

mayor. Let me question. All right. Are we are we talking about are we talking about a a combination here? Are we talking about a phone and then what? Well, I guess we're I mean I I thought I thought we were dealing first of all with you know dealing with a phone. Yeah. And that's the way I looked at it. You know, we looked at the data. There was 3,400 calls a month that comes into city hall and we were looking for a live voice to welcome and direct that individuals where they need to go. Uh it wasn't somebody to be front and center. So um that's where we put our efforts into was just to have somebody to answer and direct and ask questions.

So third party what are we talking about? Are we actually talking about some It's not It It's not uh uh AI. No, it's not AI. Are we talking about a person? Yes. Would be What is that? Do you Excuse me. Do you know where that call goes into? It would be local.

It would be a local it it'd be a local area, local person or somewhere uh in a geographic area. So, uh it would just be managing our incoming basically cuz I I don't think I think when somebody calls a city hall I think they call they don't call to have a conversation like they would a friend. So I'm not I'm not overly concerned about the who any more than I am you know just a call being taken and directed wherever it needs to be directed to. Uh, I think most people would be more concerned with that than they would as to, you know, I I'm not, it wouldn't make no difference because half the time the people that you would call into if you said, "Hey, this is Carl. How could I help you?" I don't know, Carl. You know, I I you know, I'm not calling. I I've got a I've got a concern. So I guess my question is is can uh you know can the call center which would be um we would be responsible for having someone in place every day that would eliminate a worry for us in the event that someone was sick child sick if it's female male don't make no difference. Uh but I think the overall concern I think would be is making sure that you're not calling and then you got to automate it where you got to hit you know, whoever your party's line is, and you don't know who that is. So, now you're stuck from the jump because you don't even know how to get to who you need to talk to.

Well, also the the call center, like I said, being local, they would know the functions of city hall. If it needs to go to utilities, it needs to go to the mayor. They can hear the concerns and they're going to be educated enough to know where to route that call person or and then forward it into their desk. And as Carol said, sometimes you're not there. Can I take a message? And then but that's the log gist of the local call center. So would the will the call center be addressing the caller as thank you for calling Franklin? Mhm. Da da da. Yeah. How may I how help? How may I direct your call?

Okay. I I don't I don't have a problem with that. I mean I I don't know, you know, because they're not they're not hands-on with the public. It's a phone service. you you know you wouldn't know as long as whatever your problem would be is making sure that it gets addressed. Um you know I now that I have a better understanding as to how it works. I don't have a problem with that. I don't know where we obviously there's more discussion. I don't know if you we leave this in there as a talking point and we have to come back because I know it's in the budget. Well, I guess

and that that's just 50% of it for me. That's as I've said before, I still want us I still think we need a person they can the public can walk into and talk to at city hall. And I don't want to keep repeating myself, but I've tried that out myself with every city around us and I get to talk to somebody in city hall. And I'm not against the call part like commissioner s said that's just part of it. I still wants to look at a person that can greet people when they walk in just like they could at the bank. They give out social security numbers, banking information. I just don't feel the city.

So, let me let me Okay, so let let me find let me let me understand what you're saying when you say that we need somebody to greet somebody like I mean I know Walmart has a greeter. No, no, no,

no. I I get that. I But you're saying greet. Okay. Now, are we talking about being able to get into customer service to see someone? Yeah. I I I don't I don't understand what it is you're talking about when you say greeted because the only issue I that I know is and I I think maybe it derived from co and it has ridden and there has been there has been some concern as to you know the safety issue which uh which comes into into play as to what I I'm not sure I don't know the calls that they get with someone someone that may be disgruntled about something I'm not sure about that um But I'm I'm trying to understand when you say a a someone to greet the public

because even though they you know to be buzzed in you're going to see someone. So I have to ask why do we want to have them buzzed in? Okay. So let let's well let's let's chop down to it and see what what it is we're talking about here. So in addition to the water bills, we also collect property taxes, business taxes, planning and zoning fees. So it's not just people coming in to pay their water bill or set up new service. So does the sheriff's department. They're behind glass. So people with the water.

So we also in the last two years in addition to you know we have two customer service representatives sitting there. Um those two people are responsible for people coming into the office for whatever their purpose is and either collecting their payment or directing them to someone else for payment. uh they have to do the drive-thru and they have to answer the phones. So if one of them's on a phone call and there's somebody at the drive-thru that you can't see, there's nobody to wait on you when you walk in there. Okay? So So we ask you to buzz in and as soon as we can, we answer that.

So in a in a perfect all I hear is objections. So, in a perfect world, if we were going to make it so that, and I agree with Commissioner McCru, so in a perfect world, what would you need for a receptionist to be there with no one buzzed in? With no one buzzed in. Yeah. Um, they're going to have to buzz into customer service and say, "Can you take another customer?" They're not like depending on where you put them, they can't see. Why do they buzz in when nobody else in Franklin buzzes anybody in? Let's just I think a lot of it is is for safety. And I think

I think let's just put it out there. Since 2020, there is heightened anxiety of people coming in. I have been in the vestibule two times. So, we've got a safety issue. So, how do we correct it so we can move past this?

Well, I guess we could have a police officer there. I I don't know. I'm just telling you there's a there's a level of security of having somebody there to ring in and you know it is if I don't know it I can go into the vegetable and not bring them into the inner workings of of city hall. There is an obvious concern with the staff that's happened to us from time to time. There has been police called while I've been out in the vestibu because things has gotten so loud. So there is an overall concern. I don't have the answer. It it is a hyphen awareness that there are people comes in, they're totally upset and to get them calm down sometimes is a lot of work and sometimes you can't. So how do we deal with that? I don't know.

I got to ask. So are you saying the buzzing in prevents that? Well, go ahead. It gives a layer. You do not let them come all the way into city hall. I will go out if we don't know and try to and then address the concerns. If I know it, then I I'll bring them in. We'll sit down and we'll talk to it.

So, if you have two people in there, what the person that comes in behind them and this is all going on and and getting escalated and then that third and fourth and fifth person if in line if that's what they are are also getting agitated. We've seen it. Commissioner McQuery, you gave the scenario of people going into a bank. When people go into a bank, my opinion is when I go into a bank, I'm either going in to get some money or deposit up some money or I want to get a loan. I've got a whole lot different attitude when I when I let me finish. Let me finish. when I've got a whole lot different attitude if I'm walking into a bank to do a service with the bank. If uh if I've got if my water's been cut off, I I'm upset about that. So, when I come into city hall, most of the time those people that come into city hall or or they're behind with their water bill, they're upset and they're mad. And sometimes the decisions that they or the comments they're making don't always come out like they're going to come out with somebody facing a bank teller. I mean that's the scenario that I'm that I want to give. It's a whole lot different. And uh and and again I I I will re-emphasize uh uh if I need if if if I'm embarrassed and my water and I need to make arrangements for my water bill, I don't want five people standing around listening to my business trying to work out something with with somebody to pay my water bill. I mean that's just I mean that's

and mayor that's just a May. Sure. Sure. precautionary measures is not anything new uh with what we have to face with in in our general public today. Uh you can't go up to Franklin Simpson High School right now and walk right in anymore. No, you can't. When I graduate from high school with school, you could walk you could walk right in. You could walk right into the school. You can't do that anymore. No, you can't. Cherry pick stuff. Uh let's cherry pick the electric board. I was going to fire. Judge, how many people buzz into the courthouse? Yeah, I understand. Yes. No. Okay. You all don't have locks on your doors, judge. No.

No. No. You You're familiar with what we have at city hall. You don't have that. Okay. I didn't know. I haven't been over there in a while. And I think the same county water district. And that's that's traditionally the way it's always been here in Franklin. And I mean, that's the beauty of living here. But it still doesn't mean that precautionary measures can't be taken because you never know. I mean it it if if it's something you know in a lot of cases it's it's it's not if it's when we all know that. So to be proactive and taking precautionary measures u you know I I mean as Franklin grows I think the worst thing I see now in Franklin sometimes is just convenience and getting one end of town to the next.

And with that you know that's just some of the things that come with it. So I mean uh you know I think as commissioner Bush used the term cherry picked I mean I think it's cherry I think it's kind of cherry I think it is a it's a subject worth talking about because obviously people in the community has got some concerns about it but in the same token you know once again we have to make a decision as what is good in the public safety community uh as as it relates to our community uh and if this is one of the precautionary measures that we could take you know to potentially you know add a layer of protection um I know it's inconvenient it's it would be inconvenient, you know, for me, but I I you know, I'm just speaking as one person. I can't represent the the few thousand people we have in this community. But at the same token, um for the precautionary measures that I think in public safety that we also have to take some consideration in, you know, I think it's something that, you know, we should take a look at. and and and and to add this more importantly, uh I could say what I don't like or what I do like, but I learn more when I'm more in that position. I'm not in city hall every day, so I don't know what goes on and comes in the people that come in and out over there every day. That I don't know. And uh I do take uh serious consideration for those that are there that do deal with that on a day-to-day basis and that possibility that they feel that they could be in and I I can't I can't dismiss that. I

mayor, I I guess I ask commission as far as, you know, I know this is a big topic and and it's a good topic to discuss, but before we get too far down, I I just ask commission to talk to the employees at city hall because they're the they're the ones that's boots on the ground and they would have a lot of good input. I would I encourage you to talk to them, go and they can share uh and maybe they'll share. They they'll have some different ideas. I I just think getting their input. I don't know how Carol feels, but I think that would be welcome anytime.

Uh something that they can tell what they can deal with and maybe like you said, we can navigate around it. But um so it's not going to be an easy solution, but our safety of our employees is is very important. It's vital and I know that they feel sometimes unsafe and I don't know how to to do that. Uh, but I just asked to maybe we table this, talk about it, we come back and and discuss it again. Can can I suggest a couple of things? I'm sorry.

I've got one. So, I just want to make sure I'm clear what you're saying. So if this hypothetical confrontation whether you're buzzed in or not it starts at some point where I mean if you don't know about the confrontation before I don't think you're on guard 247 or five 8 whatever to be anticipating a conflict and cut them off at the door. So actually the buzzing door whether or not you do that or not the initial conflict would start somewhere anyway. I just can't understand the buzzing in of the person before you know a conflict is going to take place. I mean, you have to deescalate it at the time. But, however, it just doesn't make sense to me.

If somebody wants to see me and I do not know what they are, I will go out in in the vestibule and I will talk to them first before I let them in and then once I understand, sure, let's go in and talk about it. So, do you know before every controversy there's going to be I will go out in the vest bill unless I know a visitor is coming and I tell Kathy, "Yes, let them come in." But if somebody comes and asks for me, I will go out there and meet them face to face first. I understand. But you can't predict every conflict that's going to come. No, I can't. That's why I'll go meet face to face. And if they're really angry, know about it. That's all I'm saying.

Yeah, but it's just me at that point. Let me can I can I say just sure first um we're all aware that there are people who are not happy with not being able to just walk in and access the open. We all know that. So I think it it's going to require you all to go to city hall and actually look at logistically how things are set up.

Agree. I mean, I I understand the issue and and I've heard it from the public just like you all have. I'm not sure how we set that up to make that work. Number one, and number two, I do think Kenton's right. Talk to the employees. That's that that's kind of a side issue. Now, let me get back to the legal part of this. The question at hand is, are you going to budget $55,000 for a third party caller? or you going to budget $75,000 or whatever as a point of order. That's where we are. So, I I was just trying to draw the conversation back to where we were. And logistically, I agree it's a great conversation and it's one that needs to be had to decide the buzz in or not buzz in or whatever. But I'm trying to focus it back on where we are. So, um Mayor, you mind if we take this off for the moment to discuss it? Uh we can we we can remove it for the moment and have discuss but I am going to suggest that every person sitting here come in and spend some time with the employees to I will take it off on those conditions that that every person sitting here will phone situation.

Well that's what you got right the elephant. Okay. So that is that what we're dealing with in this one item. of what what she's got budgeted. Let's to get it back to the $55,000 just to answer the phones without benefits or anything else. So the discussion, do you need her to add more to it and and look at a person for budgetary? All this is is for budgetary purposes. Budary purposes. So do you want her to do 55,000 or

Well, and 75,000 is for a year. We don't have a full year left in the fiscal year. So 55 would cover a portion of a person for the year. I think either way the 55,000 is okay to leave in this version and then we'll have more discussions and decide which way to go what to do. So we can just take that up during budget session of next year. What she you see what she's saying 55,000 will cover whether it's for a per live person hired or third party cost. However, if I vote if I vote yes for this budget amendment am I voting yes for that person the third party that they'll still have to go through. process and bring it back to you guys. This is only for the budget here.

This is just making those funds available based on whatever decision is made with the understanding that we that you all come back here for whichever way. Okay.

All right. Moving on. Um the next line down are audit fees. um we were behind on the audit and so we finished fiscal 24 audit and have paid for that but we are also going to have the fiscal 25 audit done in this year and we had only budgeted to have one within the fiscal year so I need to add another $20,000 of audit expense offsetting that uh we had talked last year at length about outsourcing payroll and had added $18,000 to do that in fiscal 26 but We are not going to do that. So, we do not need that $18,000. So, I'm pulling that back out of the budget. Um, we've got additional software costs for code enforcement of $11,000 that we need to add. Um, we failed to budget for lean filing and release fees for property taxes. So, I need to add $7,000 for that. Um, we need to add $5,000 for the police to add a laptop and a printer or two laptops and a printer. I can't remember off the top of my head, just to get us current with all the staffing for the patrol that's currently out there. It's shifted a little bit and we need some additional equipment. And then other operating costs, we have some travel and training for public works that we missed since in the original budget. So that's 4,100. And then in community services, we had two things that the commission had approved, the Amvetss and the Relay for Life. And in addition to that, we've added uh $4,000 for bike racks and the the compact parking uh painting on the parking places that the commission had already approved. We just had not done that project because there was nothing budgeted for it.

So total of all those other cost changes are to give us back 71,000. So the net of all those changes we talked about is um 54,000 versus the original budget leaving us net assets of $464,000 net change. Questions on any of the general fund stuff. Anybody have questions, comments? Yeah.

All right. So going on to page 31, this is also general fund and it ties back to that page 25 that we just went through in detail, but this one starts with the proposed what we think the beginning of the year would be 11.5 million. All the revenues coming in of of 12 million, the all those expenses going out in total. And then coming down line 19, 46442 is the proposed change that we had on page 25. And then the total change versus the first budget is the 54,000 at the bottom. So it just restates it a different way so you can see it in total for the money. And then moving on to page 32, this is the utility fund balance. Um, similar to general fund, the first column there shows the original budget was an for change in net assets of negative 100 1.8 million. We're now asking that go to 2.3 million negative, a change of 460,000. Uh, of that $460,000 change, $432,000 is just rolling capital projects that were approved last year but not completed into fiscal 26. And that's that first section. So, we need to roll forward of the Morgantown Road water line project for 56,000. Um, the electric project at the water wastewater treatment plant for 9,000. The sewer rehab project for 30 7,000 the parasitic acid chemical feed system at water wastewater treatment for 47,000

and the hydro replacement project for about 3,000. So the total of those is 432,000 moving from being approved for last year's budget into this year's budget. Any questions on any of those? If not, the next section or other capital that's come up since we did the budget. Um, we would like to spend 50,000 on valves in the Simpson Elementary area. Um, based on what we found when we had the waterline issue over there, that would help us to prevent it being down as long as we need to have it down. To offset that, we would delay some of 50,000 of the spending on the bar screen for the wastewater treatment plant for 50,000. So that would just be a wash for the fiscal year. And then when we got the new scanner um in the first part of this year, we had to get an upgraded computer because the one we had that we thought we could use did not have GIS capabilities. So that was an extra $1,500. So the the other capital there just is an additional $1,500.

So what's what what was the thing the deal with the bar spin? We're just going to move it out another year just so we don't spend more between those two projects. We're just replacing one project with another essentially based on priorities. We can't fit the bar screen there too. January rolls around.

So that's not a negative impact to have to wait. It's not nothing. It doesn't hurt to wait. No. Thank you. We've been going out the last month or so looking streams in service operated frames on what they like. We have one more two weeks in two weeks and then our final ones.

Okay.

And then the other costs are all operational things that have come up this year. In water distribution, we need to add $16,000 to buy additional earths and pipe clamps. Um earths due to additional apartment complexes. That's hit us a little bit harder this year, so we just need more. And with the water leak, we've used a lot of the pipe clamps. Um we've had a lot of locates for utilities called in and so we need some additional supplies for that process for 3,000. Um, we've had some building repairs, contract labor. Um, we had issue at the wastewater treatment plant that we had did a repair. We filed insurance on that. So, we had to cover the deductible of 2500 plus an additional we we put an extra thousand in because that would wipe the whole balance out to zero um just to give us a little bit in case something happens the rest of the fiscal year. And then in water distribution, we would like to replace the hydraulic hydraulic saw which is used to cut cast iron piping. The one we had is very old. Um can't get parts for it and we just like to replace that for $5,000. So the total of those operational costs is 27,500. So the total change to the budget is $460,000 versus the first version. Any questions on any of that?

Yeah, I do. Just a question real quick. When when you talked about the contract labor and building repairs, is that just something that that something that uh some work was done to city hall or at at the wastewater treatment? At the wastewater treatment. Okay. You may have said it. I mean, you fool me. Okay. We uh backed the back truck and hit the the door frame and had to have it repaired. Okay.

Yeah. Um, page 33 is just a restatement of the utility fund in that other format showing starting the year at 18.5 million fund balance and coming down to proposed net change for fiscal 26 to the minus 2.3 million which is a change of 461,000 versus the original budget. All right. And then the rest of the funds as we go on through are much simpler. So, um we don't have to go through as much detail, but page 34 is the municipal aid fund. Um we're requesting a change of $100,000 versus the original budget and that is all for street paving um based on the OCI the I forget what that stands for overall condition index process that we did earlier this year. here. I sent that out to the commission in early October. Based on what the the road scored and the cost of the paving, based on our current contract, uh we needed to spend $626,000 to repave those those streets that do do not meet our standards. We had only budgeted for $580,000. So, we needed to add 46,000 just to cover the paving we need to do in the fall. Um, we don't know what the winter will bring weatherwise or water project or sewer project or whatever else the contractors might do with development. So, we'd like to add an additional on top of the 46, another 54,000 to give us a 100,000 total going into the spring in case something else comes up that we need to cover. So, that's where the 100,000. Does that make sense?

Yep. Okay. Um the next page, page 35, is for perpetual care. So this is the fund that uh gets used to take care of the cemetery long term. We're asking for a change of 225,000 and this is just a roll forward from last year. We had budgeted, you know, we built we're building the new building at the cemetery and the plan all along was to fund that from this perpetual care fund. We didn't finish the building until just I think last week or so we got the final invoices. So we had not transferred those funds out of perpetual care to cemetery. So I need to roll that into this budget so that we can pay for that cemetery building out of here.

We could do that.

Page 36 is the cemetery fund and we're asking for a change um of $16,000. We need to roll forward 29,000 for the cemetery building. That was what was remaining in the last year's budget to spend on that building and that's offset by moving that 225,000 we just talked about out of perpetual into cemetery. So the net of that is $16,000 pickup. Page 37 is the storm water fund. Um, we're requesting a change of $17,000. We have couple of capital projects that we needed to roll forward from last year. There were storm water easements that did not get completed until this year. That's 20,000. And the industrial drive storm water project, we still have about 21,000 on that project to roll into this year. And then um if you remember the concept of the syncing funds, we we when we know a project ahead of time and we haven't spent it, we put it into our basically into a savings. Uh we had that savings for the industrial drive project, but I failed to show that in the original budget. That's all in that 70,000 was in the sinking fund. So I'm just showing it here and putting it back in. So that's a pickup. Other capital changes. Um while doing the storm south college sidewalks, we had some issues with storm drains and had to do another project and we needed additional 11,500 for that. Um Kenton had already brought that to the commission and it was approved in a prior meeting and then we've completed we purchased the rangers and the skid steer and that was a pickup in total of $650. So we're adding that back to the budget. And then from an operational cost, the

only change is some additional training cost that we missed of $900. So the net of all of those is actually a pickup of 17,725. All right. Page uh 38 is just the list of the community services just for your reference. And then page 39 and 40 are the actual ordinance um which shows all the funds and the change in the budget versus the original budget. So um any other questions on anything we've talked about? If not, I would request two sponsors for ordinance 202527 to amend the budget.

I'll be one. I sponsor. Thank you. and Stewart. Stewart and Pal. Yeah,

Carol, thank you. That was that was a lot of work, long process. Okay, we will uh you have your sponsors and we will move on then to uh discussion and a possible action regarding proposed resolution ratifying the amended health flexible spending account and cafeteria plan. And Carol, you want to speak to that? That's on page 41 also.

Yes. So, the city offers a cafeteria plan um which just allows you to choose from a variety of different insurance policies. Um we've used McGregor and Associates for the last several years to do the reimbursement and the flexible spending and with that there is a cafeteria 125 plan that has to be done and they've handled that for us. This year, KC at no charge to the cities has agreed to help co-manage that cafeteria plan. And part of that is um it it just going to help us remain compliant, make sure that every year we get a review of that plan, which wasn't always happening. Um, so what attached are the plan documents that have been updated and I highlighted in yellow. There's a plan document, a summary plan description, and then an election not to participate form. And there are a few changes they made. Um, part of it is they added the cancer plan. They listed that out specifically and just instead of just including it in the other supplemental, I think this was just KC what they focused on. And then there was a some wording on page I think 60. Yeah, they took out some wording that was no longer applicable now that KLC is self-insured. And um there was some other compliance language in there on page 54 that they added. All this does is just get us compliant with the IRS rules. And then there's also a sum the summary plan description I will need to distribute to all the participant participating employees once we do this. Um in order to do this we do need to do a resolution. So, the proposed motion is to adopt resolution H205 with the date amended to today's date um

to amend the city of Franklin cafeteria plan document including a health flexible spending account and authorize the mayor to sign any and all documents related to the plan. Okay, you have heard the motion. Do I have a motion? So, move. We have a motion by Commissioner Powell. Second, mayor. Second by Commissioner McQuary. Uh is there any further discussion or comments? All in favor? I I. Any opposition? And that motion carries. Thank you.

Okay. And we will move on to discussion and a possible action regarding proposed resolution authorizing FEMA hazard mitigation grant uh project. And John will speak to that to us. It's always tough to follow a budget and insurance discussion. Uh but thank you Carol. You do an excellent job to take care of us. We appreciate it. Um so if you all remember we have the uh FEMA hazard mitigation grant to conduct storm shelter construction on the corner of Redwood and 108. Um it's city-owned property. We're looking forward to having a uh safe building for uh storm protection. This area serves 600 to 1,200 residents in that area within half a mile radius um including a trailer park and several small residential areas and multif family. Um so the resolution that uh we're asking for is just to allow essentially allow the mayor to sign any and all documents related to the grant. Um, and I guess I need a motion in a second to approve that resolution.

Okay. All right. Uh, the, uh, you heard the motion. Uh, do I have a motion to that effect? Some move, mayor. Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Stewart. Second by Commissioner Powell. Uh, any further discussion, questions, or comments? So, it's 300 people and there's five five parking spots. That's what the current uh plans show. Yes. How much does the current plan cost to produce?

Well, I believe with the engineering that we have set aside for that, it's uh roughly $50,000. Um so, the 50,000 was supposed to come out of this grant money. a good chunk of I believe we only cover 15% um for this particular grant. Yes. Yeah. I just I I don't see how this is appropriate the plan.

Okay. Well, I'm not an engineer. I can't can't explain to you how it's appropriate, but what I can say is I've worked closely with the engineer and the architect on this project and with the Brad office. Um, and what we've determined is the structure itself is going to be one of the top rated storm structures uh around most of them just have a center block building. Um, I believe that this room, if I'm not mistaken, Roger, is currently used as a storm shelter in hazard events. next room. That room today. Okay.

Um so this gives us an opportunity to have another one. Um we also have one being built at the community park if I'm not mistaken that the uh Simpson County Physical Court is managing that grant. And this is going to cost how much to build? Right now the current safe room estimates for construction is $69,500. Of course we have the grant. I mean that the grants was is really taking care of most of the

correct and I I guess I'll go ahead and um move on. We actually did a request the original uh grant funding was for $550,000. Um so I submitted a a letter to the Brad office to submit to FEMA to expand that by $59,500. So we're requesting more funds. Um we're hoping to hear back whether or not we get the funds relatively soon, but the most out of pocket for the city will be, I believe, 91,000. Is that what we came to? Yeah. Yeah. So, so how are 300 people going to get there if there's only five parking spots?

Obviously, we can look at enlarging it. I mean, gravel or whatever. I mean, some of that is walking distance. I mean, but so why don't we just sell this property at auction and divide it up, put restrictions on it to make sure that the the housing needs to look similar to the housing that's already there. And let's go down here and build a square tornado shelter that

doesn't have to be this fancy that we can actually have some people come and park at it. We've actually already uh surpassed that point, but selling that property is out of the question because it was donated to the city with the stipulations that it would be turned into a park or multi-purpose green space. So, that is the purpose in using this property um and using this grant to provide the storm shelter in a heavily residential area. So, 300 people are going to fit in five parking spots. Well, they can park on the side, they can park across the street. We can also expand our, you know,

properties that we own and and expand parking, but this grant doesn't cover parking. Um, so we're going to be out of pocket on additional parking for that. Is there room for additional parking for these plans? Okay. We definitely need to look at it even if it cost the city some money. I mean, bottom line.

Yeah, there is a real issue as far as I I know that Bob is here on this side of town. Uh, I know that with the singing subdivision in the area, it it's just a real need and and and we were looking at this as more of a business as it's designated designated as a a park uh to be used for a park. So, we thought, okay, let's make a pocket park out of it. I know part of this room is going to be a multi-purpose. It's going to be able to be used by the public. So, um, but as John said, worst case would be out of pocket 91,000, but you know, we could look at additional parking. Um, John, can you next time will you talk to the engineer again? I'll assume it in the near future.

I'm sorry. Say that again. Yeah. Will you be seeing the engineer again in the near future? Uh, actually, I've submitted some paperwork to uh the Brad office to kind of get the ball rolling on this. I I request you just tell him about our discussion and see what he says. We could set the money spots. So just just get a feel for them and we can come back and address it. Yeah, we definitely have problems and you know we we're able to look at different proposals but we have 490 days if we want to cash in this grant. Um so clock is ticking. So I'll reach out to to the engineering firm and the architecture firm and and see what their thoughts are. Yep. Okay. So are we you want to table the

are we going to table this then at this point? that we need the resolution to to authorize the resolution. Yes. Um what do we need? And the next thing on the agenda will be a ratification of the mayor's signature to expand the funding um and to submit requests for reimbursement for funds that we've already spent. So, okay. Well, we've had a motion and a second to that effect. So that was for the that was for the resolution that was for we'll go ahead and take a vote on that then. So corrected resolution in um dated November 10th 2025 resolution numbers I2025.

Yes resolution H-2025 who made I don't think we have one. I don't have a motion that that was for the last is that we need a motion to approve the resolution first four. So it's I have a motion to that effect. Mayor, I'll make that motion. Okay, we have a motion by Commissioner Stewart. Second, mayor. Second by Commissioner McQuary. Uh all in favor I. Any opposition? And that motion carries. Thanks, John. And then the second motion I'll need is to ratify the mayor's signature on the two letters submitted to the Brad office for reimbursement and expansion of funds.

I'll make that motion. We have a motion by Commissioner McQuary. Second. Second by Commissioner Powell. Any further discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposition? And that motion carries. Okay. Thank you, John.

Uh moving on, we will uh Okay. We we will have we let's see we just we taking care of both of those. Moving on, we'll have discussion and a possible action regarding the Franklin Simpson Renaissance street closing request. And uh that's on page 90 and uh that's for the Christmas parade. And uh the motion on that is to uh approve the street closing request for the Franklin Simpson Renaissance for small town Christmas on Saturday, December 6, 2025 from 700 a.m. until 400 p p.m. for College Street at the intersection of of Cedar and College and the intersection of Kentucky and College Street. So that is uh that is a motion. I mean that's what we've always done in years past. So that's nothing new. And I will ask for a motion to that.

Make that motion. Okay, we have a motion by Commissioner McQuery. Second. Second by Commissioner Bush. Uh all in favor I I.

Any opposition? And that motion carries. Okay. And we will move on to public safety. And I don't think we have anything under public safety to this point. Uh we'll move on to utilities and uh that will be discussion and a uh possible action regarding engineering recommendation letter for the state road widening project and that's on 1008 right uh sir uh tren I said I don't know if the public knows but hopefully y'all will know that uh Kentucky state transportation department will be widening Roby Street from East Cedar to North Street. Uh the city utilities department, the water and sewer has been working with Richard Jones on our asset locations and the design for the relocation of the assets. So when they're widening it, we've got sewer and water lines in that area and we're going to have to move them. Just kind of simple way to say that. Um, the Kentucky State Transportation Department is needing a recommendation letter from the city and signed by the mayor for RJ Consulting Engineer, which is Richard Jones. Uh, all the engineering costs will be reimbursed on this project. Uh, this this letter will allow Richard to submit plans and work with the transportation department on the city's behalf. And the request for action is motion and a second to authorize the mayor to sign all documents pertaining to the engineering for the widening of Roby Street, which is a Kentucky State Transportation Department project.

I'll make that motion. Okay, we have a motion by Commissioner Bush. Second. Second by Commissioner Powell. Any further discussion? I live off real tight. All in favor? I. Any opposition to that? And that motion carries. Thank you, Trent. Uh moving on to ordinances and uh uh that'll be a first summary reading and Miss Kathy, will you?

Thank you, mayor. We'll have first summary reading today of ordinance number 2025027, an ordinance amending the annual budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025 and ending June 30, 2026 by estimating revenues and appropriations. This concludes first time rereading of this ordinance. It will become effective upon passage and publication and will be posted on the website. A full copy is available by request by contacting the city clerk at city hall during normal business hours. Okay. Thank you very much, Miss Kathy. You always do a good job on those going out the back way on that.

Okay. From there, we will move on to executive session. And under executive session, we will have uh personnel and that's discussions or hearings which might lead to the appointment discipline or dismissal of an individual employee or member under KRS61.810F and I will need a motion to go into executive session for that last question before going to exe. Yeah, real quick. Aken Avenue pretty bad. Will it be getting repaid completely or Darl? Do you had that?

Ath Avenue will not be getting paid anytime soon. Right now, the guys that are doing the sewer project once they get finished, they got a contractor that's going to come back and pay and fix all the places they

um second. I talked at I asked Roger Solomon to look at this out at Woodmont Avenue behind the hospital. Trying to make you brief. So, at coming out of Wood Woodmont, there's a stop sign there, but I went out there and talked to six different residences last week myself, and they're requesting maybe a stop sign right there. Uh, they had incident the other day where an elderly lady just almost got ran over. That long straight stretch, they drive fast down through there. So, I'm just requesting you to look at it. Give us your opinion at the next city commission, please, sir. And last, the we discussed before the lines on the road out by McDonald's. uh going out by 65. Do you have a timeline where we might get those looked at?

You're talking about the stripings on the steel road. Yeah, because it's they're non-existent just about. If you drive out there at night, you're liable to cross paths with either side of traffic. I'll talk to Darl. I know we got some striping we got to do. So, uh we'll just add it to our list. Appreciate it. Thank you, D. Good. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? I I and we in the opposition do not have a motion. Yeah, we did have for a motion. I'll make a motion. Go before. Who made the motion? Commissioner. Commissioner Bush.

I'll second it. We have a motion by Commissioner Pal. Now, all in favor I I thought we had a motion and a second. Sorry about that. That's before we got to that point. We will now move into executive session.

Okay. I will now ask for a motion to come out of executive session. So move, mayor. Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Stewart. Second. Second by Commissioner Bush. All in favor? I. And we now move back into regular session. And uh I believe we have a couple of uh motions to come before the body. We do, mayor. Uh first is a motion to hire Corey Jones as a police officer to have him start effective tomorrow. Okay. So move. We have a motion by Commissioner Powell. Second. Second by Commissioner Bush. All in favor? I I.

Any opposition? And that motion carries. And the second is to hire Max Mueller as a police officer with a start date of November 24th. I'll make that motion. We have a motion by Commissioner Bush. Second. Second by Commissioner McQuary. All in favor? I. I. Any opposition. And that motion carries. And from here we will move on to uh city attorney report.

I do have one thing mayor. Uh if you recall at a couple the last real meeting we had Josh Blackburn was here and asked us about veterans and some tax breaks. Uh I did look into that issue and I promised you all I would come back with a report today. Some other some questions came up. Uh I got a hold of Josh and I have given him the information that I need or asked him to get me some information back. Have not heard from him. As of yesterday I told him I was going to update you all. So basically the ball's in his court and he's going to get back with me and I'll come back to you all when I hear from him. So that's where we are on that.

Okay. We'll have uh city uh city manager report. No sir, I do. Okay. Okay. City uh commission report starting with Commissioner Stewart. I don't have one. Commissioner McQuary, I just want to wish all the veterans happy Veterans Day and appreciate their service and we wouldn't be sitting here without them. And also, today is the 250th birthday of the United States Marines. We appreciate that.

I just want to say that again, just to echo Commissioner McQuary's uh comments, uh our veterans are very uh they're very special people. I mean, we wouldn't be the country we are today without our veterans. And we certainly do want to say a special thank you to them for the service that they have given and the service that they continue to give. And then uh I would also like to uh move on with comment. Uh I just want to say that there are a lot of good things happening in this community. I had five people, five families to come to me this weekend and say, "We have moved here from different areas and they just didn't move here to move here. Some of them came in their SUVs and they searched us out, not only us and other communities before they decided to live here. But we do have a lot of good things going on in this community and we need to we need to be grateful for them. We need to be thankful for them. And I appreciate this community. And I do want to say in all due respect that I love this community. I was born, my feet came into the world right out here on Codle Hill. And my feet will probably stick up in this community. But uh I do love this community as much as anybody that lives here and always have and always will and always will do everything that I know to do to help this community be a great community and a prosperous community. And uh that's my comments. Commissioner Bush.

So uh Miss Wilson gave us a uh a proposed motion based on her speech. So, I would I would change that a little bit, but I would make a motion to form an advisory committee led by the industrial uh board, industrial authority director made up of no less than seven individuals, including the industrial authority director and no more than 15 individuals. That would also include the U industrial authority director to study the question of data center development, consider new city uh ordinances for data centers, and consider if zoning is needed for this type of development, and report the findings of the committee to this body at the end of the first quarter of next year. Kelly, a couple things. Chris, I've talked to you through text or by email. I do agree with your theory. However, I'd like another couple weeks to think about this. Reason being, uh, of course, Jim Deeser, our industrial authority director, as I hear,

let let me stop you as a point of order. There's a motion on the floor. We need a second to discuss or it dies from a second under Robert. And you're correct. Okay. I second. No, we need to get second. Commissioner P seconded for discussion. I'm ass for discuss. He's second for discussion. Now, now you can continue. Thank you. Thank you.

Follow agree with the committee. But u I can't vote for today because I think to be fair to Jim, he needs to hear this if he's going to be a part of it. And as you know, the commissions don't govern the industrial authority. So, we can't force him to do that, but I think we need to talk to him. And again, I'm all for a committee, but I just don't think we can appropriately sit here today and do it without talking to Jim. Only fair to him. So,

but I am positive on this. What if I amended the motion to take out the industrial authority directors and then have the city manager work to um or the mayor work to uh work with the the county judge to find somebody to to fill that spot in my opinion and I'm not making the motion that you're taking out the legs because the industrial director is the guy who knows everything that's coming Jim, I believe Jim I believe Jim would do it but but I agree what we should ask said he'll do it I think we need to I think we personally

I'm not in position to vote on that today myself I think we need to do some more study on that so okay that's well for what this is worth so we shouldn't be doing this during the meeting but Jim desire just texted Kenton and said he would do it Okay, fair enough. Okay. He said he said he would ain't technology great. How about that? It is. He must be watching. Did you say he must be watching live? He must be one of our four viewers of these meetings. He must be watching live. So there is a mo. So we have a duly made motion and a second. So now you can call for a vote.

Okay. We'll call for vote. Roll call vote at this time. All right. have a first by Commissioner Bush, second by Pal. Um, I need your vote, Jamie. Well, I second it, so I'll vote for it. Thank you. Commissioner Bush, yes. Mayor Dixon, I will vote for the U for the study of it. Yeah, Commissioner McCra. Yes. Commissioner Stewart, yes. And that motion passes unanimously. I would also like to make a motion that we hold a special call meeting with the fiscal court and the school board and the only agenda item would be hear the public.

Could I get a second on that? The only agenda item would be what? To hear the public with no agenda. The only agenda item would be to hear the public. Hear what from the public. Whatever they want to say. Okay. Well, we have we have meetings for the public to speak. So, uh that's that's my take on again. Let me get back to the procedure. There's a motion on the floor. Either you need a second again. You have a second. I just need some clarification on what the motion was. I can't unfortunately can't do that with

I got you. It dies for a lack of second. Okay, that's all I have. Okay, I will uh Commissioner Powell, we haven't gotten to you for comments. I So what you being a veteran, I want to recognize all the veterans because u and with that I make a motion we adjourn. Okay, we have a motion by Commissioner Pal to adjourn. Second, mayor. Second by Commissioner Stewart. All in favor? I I now stand adjourned.