City Commission - Regular Meeting

Good morning. I would like to welcome each of you here this morning. Uh uh it is time to call the city of Franklin city commission to order. This is a regular meeting and to open up our meeting. I will ask Commissioner Powell if he would to lead us in a word of prayer.

Yes. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you Lord for another day of life. Thank you for each blessing that you bestow on us each day. I pray Lord that you bless each and everyone that's under the sound of my voice. I pray Lord for the sick, the shut in, the bererieved. I pray as we approach this Christmas season that they we remember the reason for the season. Now Lord, I ask you to come into this meeting, guide our hearts and minds as we make decisions that are pleasing in your eye and pleasing to the citizens of Franklin. Jesus name I pray. Amen. Thank you, Commissioner Powell. And from here, we will move on to uh recognitions. And uh I believe that uh Kenton Powell has some uh comments and some recognitions to present.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh John Thompson, David Scheler, Jeremy Pering, uh Trent Coffee, and Randy Moore. Can you just kind of come up here and kind of Don't trip over the HDMI there. don't want to have an accident. But uh uh we have a very special opportunity for service awards and employment employee of the year. And uh it's always exciting time. So uh uh just to uh to start off service awards um we're going to recognize five 10 and 20 years service awards and uh uh we all know that people are greatest assets and the service award are a significant aspect of recognition and appreciation. Uh these awards are given to employees who have dedicated a substantial amount of time and effort to the city. Uh presentation of these awards are a token of gratitude by the city of Franklin for your loyalty and commitment and that was not AI generated. I broke that right out this morning. So uh I just wanted to be on the record to say that. Uh so to start um oh I never had an officer behind my back before but that's kind of scary. First is John Thompson. He's five years into this, but uh uh but John Thompson has 15 years of police department u experience. It means a lot, but he has five with the city. And just to say, he has numerous positions. Uh he's been police training officer, canine handler, sergeant, lieutenant, captain, and major. You can see that his talent has been working up to the years. So congratulations for being with the city for five years.

Um don't leave All right, the next one for a five-year is uh David Schuler. Uh class three water distribution. And uh just to say class three, what does that mean? Uh that takes a lot of experience other than on time, but also testing. It could take three to five years. And just because you've been here three to five years doesn't mean you earn it. So there's a lot of testing beside of it. There's a lot of training. So, uh, David, thank you so much for, uh, your service to the city. Thank you. Next is Jeremy. Jeremy, five years as well, sir.

Uh, but Jeremy has 15 years of water distribution and he's class 4. So, uh, we thank you so much for being a part of the city and thank you for your leadership. So, thank you so much. We got Trent Coffee. We all know him. Uh Trent's been here for 10 years. He come on board as a pre-treatment operator, wastewater superintendent, and then also right now he's public works uh director. So I appreciate you coming on board and and continue significance with the city. Um, Randy Moore, 20 years. He has a lot of certificates and I have to say he has a class 2 water treatment operator, class 3 wastewater collection operator, and a class 3 water distribution. And you can ask Randy to do something. He can do it. He's always changing his hat. And we're very fortunate to have him on board. So, I hope you can stay another 20. All right. So those are uh service award but also I kind of wanted to mention the employee of the year which is uh this is something that was kind of uh not kind of we've been doing it for several years but it's appointed by their peers. I didn't select it or anybody there's nominations we sent out so that's kind of so I I thought it was appropriate to kind of walk back a few years. Uh who was the previous? Uh Angela West was our first Daryl Mallerie, Steve Aken, Randy Moore, Carol Rigbop, Bill Belchure. Those are some of the previous employee of the years. Um before I make that announcement that says uh I'm going to say this first uh for the individual, we are grateful for your drive, hard work, and talent. Thank you for excellent performance. Our city is lucky to have you and we appreciate appreciate all the

hard work and dedication. And this year 2025 employee of the year is Jeremy. Congratulations. It just so happened it was a five year and plus that. But uh Jeremy's hit the ground running. He kind of filled some voids and uh there is nothing if I ask a question he's on it all the time. and I really appreciate you coming on board and the whole team. So, just give everybody a a hand for the service. So, thank you guys. That's it, mayor. Okay. Thank you guys. We appreciate the job you do. Yeah. Okay. Uh moving on, we uh we have uh Michael Simon here from the Kentucky League of Cities to uh speak with us this morning on employment. He he Michael is our employment law attorney with Kentucky League of Cities. And uh at this time, I'm going to I I'm going to turn the uh podium over to him, and you feel free to make any comments you'd like to or want to, but we're glad to have you here with us this morning. And uh we thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to be with us this morning, Michael. So at this point, you've got the podium.

Great. Well, thank you, mayor. I appreciate it. I'm happy to be here. Uh like mayor said, I'm an employment law attorney at Kentucky League of Cities. Uh the city of Franklin has been great partners with us. Uh we we are all on the same team here. We ensure you all promote everything. We have the good fortune doing that. So, you know, often we'll we see you all at our annual events and we are so happy to have that and we have, you know, great relationships internally. You know, Scott and I often b bounce things off each other and the like. Um, so I'm happy to be here. Obviously, I presented at this at conference, the first time that I've done it as far as workplace violence goes, specifically in culmination with various chiefs around the state, kind of bouncing ideas off of them and seeing what works, what doesn't work, and that sort of thing. um it's been kind of an increase from a statistical standpoint really since co that this has ramped up um in the world but in the workplace. So I'm going to go through my presentation but if there's anything you want to stop me at at any point I'm happy to take questions and we can do that at the end or throughout uh whatever works for you all. So the first thing is why are we talking about this right? I kind of alluded to this in general, but often I'll have the conversation with folks of, you know, it's never happened here or won't happen here. And if you have this great history of a safe workplace and everything else, that's fantastic. But it's fantastic up until it's not. And like I said, I mean, just the way that the world is now, this is something where it's impossible to stay perfect forever. You may do everything right as far as employees are concerned, as far as your elected officials are concerned, your relations with the public and that sort of thing, but you can't control everybody, especially those people that are not an elected official that are not an employee on your payroll and your administering their benefits and all of those things. You know, members of the public, whether they live in the city, the county, or anywhere within the Commonwealth, or even not adjacent states and the like, there may be something that you're eventually forced to deal with in that way. Like I said, there's an increase in workplace violence. I mean, there's no ifs and buts about it. We can theorize whatever

we want to do and think about what the causes may be, whether that's COVID, whether it's the world that we're in, whatever it may be. But the fact of the matter is over the last 10 years specifically and particularly the last five, there's just an increase uh both internally with employees uh anywhere, not just public employers, not just cities, not just Kentucky, uh but also just with members of the public coming in and kind of looking for that, right? I mean, we all have probably seen in the news those First Amendment auditors and people that are are looking for it, you know, and that sort of thing. The political landscape, I'm not going to, you know, talk politics too much. to try to avoid that as much as I can. But obviously just generally whether it's state, whether it's the national landscape, it's just a moment of hostility. People are just whether ready to jump down each other's throats, right or wrong, for whatever that reason may be. But the most important part here is I think you and your employees matter. The situation that you're creating and to avoid a hostile workplace and to keep your employees safe is a duty that all employers have, particularly public employers. keep your d keep your employees safe from all of these issues. Uh providing them a safe environment and keeping them away from things within reason that are avoided. So put some numbers to it here. 23% of local government officials experienced workplace violence. 50% of public sector employees have faced workplace violence in their careers just in the public sector. 15% of workplace violence went unreported. And some public sector employees report daily exposure to workplace aggression or violence. And I think it's often important to kind of put that in some context, too. Obviously, we think of the classic example with people fighting or something like that. It doesn't have to be that straightforward. It could be somebody's tone. It could be somebody's threatening manner or something like that. Essentially, just creating the person to feel a situation where they themselves are unsafe. You know, there's the difference when we'll talk about certain things like harassment and the like about the somebody's subjective perspective versus the objective

perspective. And when we talk about workplace violence, it really is somebody's subjective perspective in these situations. And what I mean by that is I may think that I'm just flying off the handle about whatever it is. I'm not mad at that person, right? I'm mad about something that's going on at home with my wife and kids or whatever it may be. But if I'm taking it out on that person or just my general demeanor and that person is feeling intimidated or scared or you know like there's a a propensity for violence that person's feelings are valid and that person is correctly feeling an instance of workplace violence in that situation. We'll talk about city specific challenges. Obviously I think we know with all things that public employers and private employers differ uh particularly even within the s uh city context. It's going to differ a little bit even with the county, even with state positions and the like, but often cities will have a small staff with big responsibility. I know your city manager kind of alluded to this, but often you have employees that wear many different hats, right? I mean, you all have titles and the like as employees, but that's not necessarily well defined. Probably all your job descriptions say or if I looked at them, it probably says other duties as assigned, right? Which may mean a various uh a various number of things that may be there. high-risisk interactions with angry residents, contentious public meetings and disputes. You know, for a lot of folks that are maybe in your community, that's their their recourse. If they're mad about something, they're going to come march on down here and let you know about it, whether it's in a meeting, whether it's at the front desk, whatever it may be, and that sort of thing. Megan and I, our municipal law attorney that kind of handles the other side of the house when I do employment law, and she does municipal law. We created a program that we call city governance 101 really out of the reason just a couple years ago of hostilities just amongst elected officials with folks not getting along. Um and you know that's a situation where that's all we that's been a very successful program because it's all over the state. People run for whatever reason it may be and you know cities don't work unless everybody can kind of work together as far as that's concerned.

What was that program? City governance 101.

Okay. um high emotional toll with constant exposure to hostility which increases stress and burnout. If I had a conversation with a mayor, city administrator, whatever that may be as part of that, particularly police departments, fire departments, water operators, water departments, it's probably fair to say that around the state, everybody's understaffed, right? I don't think that we have to that's a secret by any means. getting people to work in public employment with a variety of reasons. Whether it's the retirement system, whether it's just that people are more inclined or accepting of traveling further for a couple extra dollars an hour or whatever it may be, that's just a long way to say that all employers, public employers are understaffed. And so people end up working longer hours, wearing additional hats. And when they're met with this kind of situation of hostility in addition to working longer hours and they're like, well, you have stress, you have burnout, and it leads people to either becoming hostile themselves or just leaving or the notion of quiet quitting and that sort of thing where they just kind of let their job responsibilities fall by the wayside. Uh, strategies must be tailored for city employees on the front lines. You know, everybody I think in city government or just public employers in general deal with these situations, but particularly those folks that are forward- facing. And what I mean by that is having those daily interactions with members of the public. Not everybody's the same. You know, if you have 50 employees, you may have 10 that are dealing with uh members from the public every day, whether it's taking payments, whether it's addressing questions, issuing business licenses, whatever it may be. Open records requests. I mean, that's probably number one on that list, but that's the idea. When we talk about risk factors, we can look and see where are the people that are going to be probably most disposed to this in general. And like I said, it's already those public facing roles. Anybody can experience it, but just simply put, the more interactions that you have with members of the public um and the like, you're increasing that chance of having those negative interactions or whatever it may be, frequent interactions, right? More of

them as well. Lack of security measures. Um, and I will say I had the good fortune of touring your city hall with Carol and going through and I do think you all are doing a great job as far as the mechanisms that you already have. You know, individual codes for example to see who's coming in and out. Uh, buzzing people in, seeing things on video and the like. I think all the things that you have done so far are good things. Um, increasing tools, right? Like the drive-thru, like being able to pay bills online, not requiring somebody to come down and pay their utility bill or whatever it may be. Uh, and that begs the question, if you have all of these opportunities, if you have all of these resources that you can do those things, then what is the person that's coming to city hall coming for? Obviously, there are going to be legitimate reasons, but there's nothing wrong with asking what that reason is when they have these opportunities. High stress situations, internal, external, whatever it may be. I mean, there's the simple notion of somebody coming, for example, for an open records request. That could mean many different things. you know, it may be for legitimate records and information and the like, or it may be that they're trying to play the gotcha game. You know, it just depends on what that may be. Similarly, you may have the same situation with employees. Doesn't have to be members of the public with people trying to hold their peers and their counterparts and their colleagues accountable for something or trying to get information that way. City meetings and public events as risk zones. Obviously, cities do a lot of different things. I think generally we talk about budget meetings are usually the most highly attended meetings or if you're increasing property taxes or doing something with property taxes or putting in a new tax for the first time. When we talk about financial things, uh something that's, you know, potentially coming out of your citizens pockets and the like, that's when you usually have those situations. Um or there's just something that's out of the usual and you you often know you'll hear the murmurss of, oh, it's going to be a highly attended meeting. You know, do we in increase our police presence at that meeting? What does that look like? Uh zoning, often planning and zoning, those

those commission meetings end up being highly contentious, too. If you're impacting somebody's property, of course, that's going to be something that may be and then personnel issues. You know, obviously you probably go into executive session to discuss a lot of those things, but usually people see that coming and they may have their own contingency come uh as far as that was concerned and what that looks like. Large emotional audiences increase the risk, right? Um, I don't know that, you know, we've seen certain cities, I'm not going to name names, but we've seen cities in in Kentucky in the recent news as far as what their meetings may look like, and it's it's often just like the tag along effect. One person's mad that gives another person a reason to talk about it. They're certainly experiencing the same things. What I mean by that is they're citizens in the city. they probably feel like they're predisposed and going through all of the same processes, but often it can be that kind of group think uh mechanism about having their comments shared. What can you do generally, and we'll talk more specifics, but like I've already said, police presence. I just got off the phone on my way here with uh a city manager in a different city that was talking about that in their meeting tonight, and he was like, "Well, I don't want to make it seem like we're having this increased police presence to be overly reactionary. like I don't want to, you know, and the member of the public was kind of aiming for this. He was the the language that he had shared with other folks was, "Yeah, we're gonna have 20 police officers there just for me." Like, you know, but then the flip side of that is, well, you're on notice at this point that this guy's coming to cause a problem essentially if you don't have that increased police presence. Well, it looks like you're not taking the appropriate steps and safeguarding those mechanisms. So, everything and when we talk about workplace violence and we talk about safety, there's not a lot of black and white with a lot of these things. There's not a lot of right and wrong, too. We're operating in the gray area probably as much as we ever are for city government. Safeguard those high-risisk meetings. Even if you don't hear these murmurss from the public and from people and the like, if you know there's a contentious issue, those things like budgets, those things like planning and zoning, property taxes,

whatever it may be, just go ahead and do it. I mean, have that increased police presence. you know, I don't know how you handle your meetings in general with public comment and the like, but you can use certain viewpoint neutral things to limit the time of comments or require folks to sign up beforehand or something along those lines. Uh, just to make sure that we're treating everybody equally in those circumstances, but also moving the meeting along u, and the like. So workplace violence as it's defined, OSHA defines it as any act of physical violence, verbal abuse, intimidation, harassment, or other disruptive or harmful behaviors that occur at the workplace or during workrelated activities. And I think that's an important definition because I think we all think of the first one, right? We all think of physical violence. We may not think about verbal abuse or intimidation or harassment or other disruptive or harmful behavior. You know, if somebody's making it, whether they're employee, whether they're a citizen, whatever it may be, member of the public, if it's making it so somebody cannot do their job effectively, whatever that looks like, whether that's threats of violence, whether that's harassment, whether that's just giving them a hard time, I mean, we're kind of entering into that territory. If somebody is just automatically preventing them from doing the things that they need to do if there's no legitimate reason behind it, again, just kind of laying out those types of violence as well. Um, easiest one to probably start with worker and worker violence. Um, often we'll see this in same department or whatever it may be. Particularly those employees that are working in high stress situations, whether it's, you know, the employees in the field that are spending long hours together or just dealing with high stress situations like fires, you know, like criminal conduct, that sort of thing. customer to client aggression. Somebody got a property bill wrong or somebody got a uh a water bill wrong or something and then they come in are automatically mad before they've even talked to the customer service representative because how could you get my bill wrong? Things happen, right? But it's just predisposed and entering that situation angry. And often the the customer service representative has to

be so reactionary where you know they have to take a step back and say, "Okay, this person is entering this situation already mad. Let's not do anything to inflame that or whatever." ever it may be. Of course, criminal intent, you know, that's kind of a whole separate thing as far as if somebody's going to literally do something that we have to get our police department involved or the sheriff's department or the like uh for legitimate battery or legitimately legitimate assault, excuse me. And then I kind of alluded to this earlier, but domestic violence spill over too. I mean, there we've seen several situations uh you know, over the past decade in the Commonwealth with where you have an employee that's working and they have kind of their own situation going on at home. uh that stems from domestic violence and that spouse or boyfriend or girlfriend or whoever it may be shows up to the workplace angry wanting to take it out on them there making a fool of them in front of their employer or you know where they're going to be that sort of thing but again that's completely outside of your control but that's something that you have to prevent for specifically more along those lines personal disputes can surface at work and we also know I mean we can't be ignorant to the fact that often we'll have situ situations where co-workers start dating. Hopefully not while they're married to other people that but that's usually the calls that I get are about that. And then partners or spouses may target those city facilities. They know that they're going to be there. They know, you know, sometimes these people are egotistical and they know they're going to have an audience, right? That just may be the situation where they're looking to do that despite the fact that we know the police department's right around the corner. Policies include restraining orders, awareness, and controlled access. Controlled access is number one thing that I saw in your city, which is great. what is your purpose for being here? You know, state your business. And I think that's often a bad connotation about just people in general that think that, okay, I I provide my property taxes to the city or my occupational tax if you have it or something. I have full and unfathered ability to see everything that the city is doing. And that's not true. Right? There's certain safeguards in place that we talk about, whether

it's open records, whether it's open meetings that provide those things that are a whole statutory scheme to do that. But, you know, walking into the mayor's office and looking through all of his files and going through his filing cabinet is probably not one of those things. And then provide support, resources, and training for staff. What do they do in these situations? I mean, this is a good first step as far as having this conversation goes, but in that situation may look differently. You know, your city clerk may experience something very differently than what your water operators are experiencing differently. uh based on where they are, if they're in city hall, if they're in the field, who they're interacting with on a daily basis, what their personal safeguards and procedures are as far as those things are considered uh within city hall. So, let's talk about prevention strategies. Uh training scenario-based. I presented with uh Chief Barry Wilkerson in St. Matthews and he had really good information on this as far as like, you know, let's not just kind of use it in terms of theoretical things as far as that's concerned. Let's present. What do you do in this situation? Almost giving people through the crash course of like customer service training. If you have an angry customer that comes through the door, what do you do? Act it out. Whatever it may be as far as that's concerned. And deescalation is the first thing, right? We kind of already talked about this in terms of if somebody's coming through and they're going to have that conversation, they may already be angry about it. And number one is not adding fuel to that fire. It's deescalating those things as far as that's concerned. Policy development. Um, this is probably hopefully in your policy as far as workplace violence goes in general, but keeping that clear and concise and also know that there's zero tolerance. Something to know and if you've had a conversation with me about references and the like we say and what you have to provide under the laws, just those facts of employment, when somebody began employment, when they ended employment, uh, their salary, their position, that sort of thing. I don't get into, you know, were they a good employee, were they a bad employee, whatever it may be either way. But workplace violence is an exception to

that. So if somebody is violent under the course of their employment with the city, threats of violence, as we have said, are enough and then you fire them or you suspend them or even if they voluntarily leave, but you have this written documentation of workplace violence, you do have a duty to inform future employers of that. Now, if you fired me for workplace violence, you don't have to follow me around to every employer I go to and provide that information. But if you get a reference check about me and I was a city employee of the city of Franklin that was violent at the time, the city has an obligation to provide that information and say Michael was violent here, right? So, it follows that person and I think that's a real educational component that it's not going to be just something that's swept under the rug in that way. safety measures, panic alarms. You know, there may be a situation where, and what the chief in St. Matthews had said about this is they have, you know, almost like a bank, right? They have their buttons under the table where it's going somewhere. And so what happens in that situation for his city was automatically the the police department is informed. Goes off like any other call. Now, this may depend on how your dispatch is set up and your city and your county and that sort of thing, but automatically it goes to the police department. We don't even have to have the phone call. We don't even have to have the conversation. they know there's an issue at customer service desk one right there because of how that alarm is going off in that situation. Same thing with the design. You know, a lot of safekeeping as far as requiring uh you know, codes to get through the door and whatnot. But communication, I think, is last on here, but probably the most important thing. You want your staff in a city and elected officials alike to be able to feel comfortable to report these things and go through that process as far as they're concerned. Um, in situations like this, there's never a problem with over reporting, you know, and that kind of comes back to the objective versus subjective difference and what somebody's feeling with violence. But in that situation, if somebody's feeling that and having that conversation, they should absolutely feel comfortable

making it important. So that's important to have a situation where you have elected officials and members of your management team that are encouraging these conversations and encouraging people to come to them. Shouldn't have a situation where you have an employee that feels legitimately scared or uncomfortable uh reporting to whoever it may be uh that they've experienced this. And along those same lines, building that culture of prevention uh beforehand, before anything that's happened, you know, I just talked about reporting when something does happen. But prior to that, it's a commitment from leadership. It's important to set the tone from the top, including your members of management, your department heads, your elected officials. What does it look like? That there is zero tolerance that if anything like this happens, especially from your employees where you have a lot of agency over u that that's not going to be something that's tolerated. We're going to discipline those employees as well. And who's setting that? That's elected officials, right? You can't handle an elected official the same way that you're going to be handling your city clerk because they're not an employee. But that's really how that works. Talked about open communication, encouraging those early reporting without fear or retaliation. You know, not somebody's not going to be disciplined for reporting this that they're feeling training and drills. You know, we t talked about the mock scenarios and acting it out and doing all of those things. uh but reinforce being prepared regularly and culture not just policy. So, we can adopt a great workplace violence policy, put it into place, you know, the commission adopts it, hand it out to the all the employees, but if you don't follow it, train on it, and actually utilize it, well, then it's just a written policy that's not actually doing anything for you all. Some practical tools here, have the policy. It's a zero tolerance stance with reporting steps. Obviously, in a situation where somebody's going to utilize their immediate supervisor, yeah, we want to respect the hierarchy in that place in that circumstance. But there may be situations where you don't, especially if that person, your direct supervisor, is the one that's harassing you or threatening you or being violent to you, that person can go to anybody

that they feel comfortable with and make that report. Um, ensuring consistent documentation on an incident reporting form, making sure that everybody's filling out the same thing and make sure they have access to it, whether it's on, you know, an employee portal if you have one or on your website or in their handbook or whatever it may be. And then a checklist for threats. you know, remain calm like we talked about deescalation, especially when dealing with folks from the public, creating distance, and then if it gets to that point, notifying your supervisor or notifying law enforcement with the things that we talked about, but empowering your staff and standardize the city response. If somebody walks through the door as a member of the public and is violent and the like, it shouldn't make a difference what Bill, Tom, or Susie does. It should be a pretty standard response across the board of what that looks like. Let's talk about early intervention. So recognizing that escalating behavior consistently and I think that's part of having that conversation about what to look for and those sorts of things. Uh so somebody's on guard, somebody's aware that this has the propensity of using that using a calm voice, respectful tone, and open body language. And I know sometimes it's easier said than done, but when somebody's coming to work, it's really you have to drop everything else at the door when you're especially in these customerf facing positions because you're dealing with everybody else's emotions on top of your own. Redirecting the conversation when possible. Somebody will often be mad and they'll start hurling personal insults or, you know, swearing about whatever it may be. And you know, that conversation should be let's talk about the issue at hand. you were mad about your property bill and now you're talking about how the cities did a terrible job at the Christmas parade or something like that. Uh you know, you want to redirect to the issue at hand. Supervisors play a key role in addressing those conflict conflicts quickly, particularly in a situation where you have employees of the same department or even if they're not in the same department. But if supervisors are aware of that, they have a duty to act quickly and really as fast as they can. Most incidents are preventable if they're caught and dealt with early on. You know, even if you have all of these

reporting mechanisms and are doing the right things, but then you have a city that doesn't deal with the problem, you know, they've been made aware of it and we have correct reporting mechanisms, but then nothing's done about it. Well, then the takeaway is that the city's going to let that conduct go on and then you're on a whole different kettle of worms because now we're looking at a hostile work environment claim or whatever it may be as part of that. So it's not just having all of those reporting mechanisms and the information correct. It's more than that, right? It's what do we do when we receive that information? How do we go? So signs of potential violence, of course, increased aggression. And I think when we're talking about employees too, if this is a situation, you know, I've been framing it a lot in terms of the customer or the citizen towards the employee can go the other way of course as well where your employee is taking that out on a member of the public and you don't want that either. But especially when we talk about employee and employee, you may not know the members of the public and what their general disposition is, but you probably are going to know that about your employees. Um, so particularly if they're acting out of character. You know, they have outbursts, they have yelling, they're arguing, and they're not usually doing those things. Well, you know, that's a sign of potential violence right there when somebody's really acting out of character. Um, intimidation, bully, bullying, threatening body language or tone, whatever it may be. Of course, threats, whether it's direct or indirect, and then obsessive behavior, fixation on weapons, violence, or particular individuals. If somebody's really fixating on an individual, uh, you know, somebody's coming through city hall to talk to the same person every day if there's not a legitimate purpose behind it or something like that, that's something to be aware of. Technology and security enhancements, panic buttons, I talked about this, but direct connection to law enforcement, right? um letting them know that there there's something going on that's something out of the usual uh that should be surveillance cameras which I think you all have often there there could be a deterrent as far as somebody's potentially thinking about doing something they see a big camera in front

of their face maybe they don't do that thing but also evidence collection so he said she said when we got it on on camera access control which you all certainly have as far as uh the codes and the like go badge entry secured doors visitor check-in we did that at the meeting which is a great idea may be something to consider for everybody, especially those who are going past uh your security mechanisms. You know, who's in there at what time, have that person sign in. It's absolutely something that you're able to do. Uh technology improves safety and response times. I think when we add those things to it, there's no question about it that it helps. Encouraging a safe work environment. Leadership's role, like I said, everything has to start with the top. and promoting open communication, working both ways. Both that your employees feel comfortable doing that, but also that your elected officials and members of management feel comfortable having those conversations and are setting a good example as well. Encouragement for reporting. There's never a problem with over reporting. You know, you'll do an investigation, you'll go through the process, but the the worst report or the worst documentation is always the one that you don't have. Foster a collaborative and respectful workplace culture. I mean, probably in the city, it's fairly fair to say that probably most of your employees live in the city or live in the county or adjacent counties, right? Um, these are all people that know each other, probably people that see each other on the weekends and the like. Uh, there may be issues that spill in over from that, but these are also people that are legitimate friends, family members, whatever it may be. We want to create the best culture that we can. It's also probably how you get a lot of your future employees. You know, it's not like it was or we're publishing an ad and seeing what happens. A lot of hiring now is word of mouth. So you don't want to have the situation where that's the connotation of the city. Connotation is of the city is we've got angry folks, you know, that are creating hostile work environments and have workplace violence and then the city doesn't do anything about it. Nobody wants to work for them, right? It's already the hardest hiring market we've ever had as far as these

things are concerned. We don't have to add the intangibles that we don't need to have. We're already hamstrung with compensation and benefits and those sorts of things when we talk about public sector versus private sector. Don't add things like workplace violence where it doesn't have to be metrics and accountability. Track those incidents, right? If you have any sort of and it may not be something where we're talking legitimate workplace violence, where we're 10 steps down the road in the doomsday scenario, but there's nothing wrong with as a person's supervisor or as a member of the public. You can absolutely if you're feeling intimidated by whoever it is, make your own notes. make your own documentation about what that looks like. Uh, measure your progress. More reporting shows trust in the system. You know, what is what is the situation? And this is kind of hard to go back in time and do this now, but did you all ever have workplace incidents? What did the added technology do? What did the add average or the added, excuse me, uh, safeguards do? Did that increase or decrease traffic rather? Did that decrease workplace violence incidents? is what you're doing working essentially. Um, measurable results drive safer workplaces. And then employee feedback. This is probably the best mechanism you can use. You know, what do employees want to see? What would it what whether you put it out via survey, via conversation, focus groups, whatever mechanism works for you, but what auto will automatically make them feel better, right? As far as an employee, what can you do to make them feel safer in their job? Uh, you know, obviously employees are going to feel different in different departments and what their role looks like, but that's the best thing you can do is solicit feedback to the boots on the ground folks, so to speak, about what can we do to make it feel like you're you're safe where you work. U response and reporting procedures. Take immediate action. Obviously, if somebody is coming and being threatening, don't engage in it. Revert to the training emergency action plans. Again, what happens when somebody is violent? What what do you do in that situations? Again, reporting is the most

important thing here. Reporting all of those incidents. The default is going to be their supervisor. Obviously, there's going to be situations where they don't report that to their supervisor and they can go to whoever they feel comfortable with. Documentation, documentation, documentation. There's there's never a circumstance. I mean, think about it. If you have no documentation verse, I say John Smith came through on December 7th at 10 or 10:00 a.m. and was threatening. Well, we have a whole different world of documentation there as far as that's concerned. Uh just to kind of build that up and now you know what to look out for. There's nothing wrong with doing that. And same thing employee to employee as well. Let's talk about crisis management. So relying on the policy, you know, you want to have a workplace violence policy and you want to rely on it. Prepare for that post incident management and utilize your available resources. I mean through your health insurance is an employee assistance program that has free resources to employees. things like anger management, things like counseling, uh things like grief counseling, which often ends in anger for a lot of folks that are free to employees that they're able to utilize self-report. City may not even know about it as far as that's concerned. Um external, you know, there's there's certain companies obviously that provide things like workplace violence training or safety training, whatever that may be. And then OSHA has kind of all these definitions and frameworks as far as what you're supposed to do and what it looks like. Ultimately, you want to support your employees uh from each other, but also from members of the public and whatever that kind of looks like. Mental health and employee support. I kind of already talked about the EAP, but again, confidential counseling for stress, anxiety, trauma. It's just a good resource to have. Uh folks may experience secondary trauma. Long-term exposure to hostility harms a person's well-being. I think that's fairly straightforward. But even in a situation where they're just experiencing this day in and day out, it's almost like the straw that broke the camel's back or something like that. If it's just little kind of microaggressions every single day,

obviously it'll stack up. Peer support and training. Normalize conversations about stress in the workplace. Uh be comfortable saying that the workplace is stressful and that you what can we do to change that? What can we do to make that more comfortable for people?

And then again, protecting employees includes their emotional safety as well. You know, we obviously don't want John Smith to get hit, but we also don't want John Smith to be verbally abused and those sorts of things as well. And then again, the OSHA general duty clause, employers have to provide a workplace free from those recognized hazards. What does that mean? If you have something that's reported to you in this situation, well, that is absolutely a recognized hazard at that point. And every employer has a duty to prevent that when they're on notice. Otherwise, an employer is negligent at that point. Cities can face fines or lawsuits if they fail to address those known threats. Back to things like hostile work environment claims and the like. Prevention isn't optional. It's the legal duty of the city to make sure that your employees are safe from these risks. Um, last couple things here. Financial and organizational costs of workplace violence. Obviously, the direct cost includes claims, workers comp, property damage if somebody's doing something like that, which obviously costs a lot of money to the city. The indirect cost is turnover, absenteeism, morale loss. It's incredibly difficult to hire somebody now. Further, it's incredibly expensive to hire somebody. So, if you're lo losing folks because of these things, you know, posting a job, all the salaries that it takes to then interview that person and hire that person um and that sort of thing. Municipalities have faced six figure costs that we've just seen in lawsuits from single events, single workplace violence events. And then the protection uh protects both people and budgets. Obviously, if the city's exerting a lot of resources on these workplace violence claims and the like, well, that money has to come from somewhere and the result is that money doesn't go somewhere else. Some future trends and emerging issues, uh rising aggression at public meetings, both internally and then externally. People from the public just feeling comfortable comfortable, excuse me, being hostile in these in these meetings and the like. Social media threats crossing into workplaces. I think this is probably number one. Obviously, there's a lot of First Amendment protections and the like uh for public

officials, but employees and individuals in general as far as what a city can and cannot do, but we're always have the keyboard warrior that's going to come into the city, whether it's an employee, whether it's somebody else, who's kind of predisposing that person to that workplace aggression because they're commenting them on their Facebook. You know, I had a situation where a different city, we had an elected official who was just disparaging an employee constantly via Facebook and just kind of blowing them up when it really wasn't their role at all in that situation. Um, need for combined cyber security and physical security. Training must evolve to mean modern risk. You know, things like when we talk about the mechanisms that you do have, the the safety buttons and the like, acknowledging social media's role, those are the kind of modern things that we're talking about. And then the preparation must change threats. You know, if I gave the same workplace violence presentation five years ago, it's changed. Things have changed. The world has changed. And it's important to change training with all of those things. Community and stakeholder partnerships, coordinate with law enforcement, which I think you know you all do extremely well, involving the police department in planning and training. Uh community awareness, educating your residents on respectful engagement as well. what is best for everybody both sides of the aisle here to have you know protecting your employees but also saying what conduct is acceptable as far as that's concerned stakeholder buyin elected officials have to support those safety measures or they're really all for none and then the real takeaway here is everybody elected officials employees members of the public citizens uh safety works best when the whole community is involved and we can say the the city's a safe workplace and that's the most important thing last thing here is you know safety is not expensive. It's priceless. There it is invaluable to say that the city is a safe workplace and that you can advertise that you know somebody coming through the door to a meeting maybe for the first time. Somebody moved into the city for the first time wants to come to a meeting that's great. Their ability to feel safe and the connotation of the city that that's going to be a safe meeting. A new employee comes and they

can feel safe in their workplace. Somebody wants to run for office and they can feel safe as far as that's concerned as well. And then like I said, we've always had these situations where maybe it's never happened in the city and that's perfect until it's not. So you're preparing today because it probably will happen tomorrow or there's the potential of it. Then hope's not a strategy. Got to have a plan. Got to be aware. And you got to have training. Make sure folks are bought in. Make sure everybody's on the same page. And your last thing is you don't rise to occasion. You fall to the level of your training. You know, you have all of these things, policies, training, and the like. And then you execute it. Making sure folks are prepared. making sure you have all this information out there. So, that's all I've got. Any questions for me? Yes, sir.

Who's supposed to address between the city and county? Meaning what? Like we're talking about employees of the county versus employees of the city.

Yeah. of your community. Yeah. I mean, I think if we had the answer to city and county relations, I'd probably be out of a job. But I think in general, it's a it's I mean, point taken, and I don't mean to be flippant about it. I do think it's a situation where all across the state, we see those situations, county versus city, especially when we talk about hostile situations, whether it be annexation or something like that that impacts both. I don't right and I absolutely

nothing happens nothing yeah I don't have a perfect answer for you I think honestly so many of these situations have been something to your point that have existed for generations you know um I will say we had a situation recently where it was exactly what you were describing And when was the last time all of your uh decision makers in the city sat at the same table as all the decision makers in the county? It's been a while. Right.

Right. Because of that. And so this was the situation and often I hear all the time when I go in somewhere somebody's like, "It's the most hostile situation you've been in." And my answer to that is, "No, it's not." No matter what the situation is. But usually when you put there's a lot more that people say or are willing to say typically when it's over social media or over the phone or word of mouth and people are a lot less willing to say things when they're actually sitting across from the person. So, it may be a good idea maybe with the police department there to to have everybody sit down. And I know that's easier said than done, too. But if you haven't done it in 20 years, maybe it's an idea, but no, there's no perfect answer. And that's also to say I can't liken one city to another nor a county to another. I mean, those relations are so independent.

Yes. And vice versa. Yeah, every and and that's the thing too is like I mean we talk about tourism or whatever it may be is like if somebody is coming to the city or the county like we're all benefiting at that point and if they're not everybody's struggling. So it it's truly is a situation where financially but all I mean people touring the city, people doing tourism, people staying in your hotels, people eating at your restaurants, you know people sharing the resources. It's like if if you all are at each other's throats, it's not benefiting anybody. Okay.

Well, that's all I've got. If you all don't have anything else, I appreciate it. My contact information's here. If you all if I close this and you think I had a nagging question I want to ask Michael, any of these people have my contact information. So, thank you very much and I appreciate appreciate you all being a good audience. Thank you, Michael. Thank you, Michael. Thank you, Michael. Thank you for coming, sharing your valuable information with us. We appreciate it. And you uh travel safely back home. I appreciate it, mayor. Thank you. Yeah.

Okay. We will uh from here move on to hear the public and I believe we have two people that are registered. So, uh I believe that Mr. Malasi, are you ready to copy of my hand. The second page is a free dinner at Colorado.

Thank you, sir. They have better tarter sauce. Afternoon. Um, it's surprising to me that the mayor scheduled me to talk on the day we had a talk about violence in government. I I come in peace. I assure you. I'm too old to be treacherous and I can't run very fast. Um, I'm here to talk about the data center project. Uh, I appreciate the opportunity to give you my thoughts on the development of Steel Road. Specifically, I'd like to talk about uh a a data center that requires uh generated power on site. Uh 150 years ago, our nation had an industrial revolution. Many businesses required their own power. They used water wheels, steam, coal, horses even, and probably other techniques. All of these power systems went to the wayside once centralized power from utilities came into being. These were these were very desirable to switch the utility power rather than the self power. It let somebody else run the power plant. They might be 100 miles away. The utility had to deal with the noise off gases maintenance associated with power generation. We really don't want to return to this method of local power generation for

factories or data centers. And it's totally ironic that something as advanced as a data center would want to resort to local power generation. It seems like a step back. Uh I was a professional engineer in Indiana and Michigan. I try to kind of use my training and common sense to decide what's a good idea. I'm not against data storage centers, but I strongly suggest that we limit all industries that want to locate in our county to utilize PVA power or solar power. If we allow gas turbine power generation for the data center, we open the door to a lot more industries wanting the same. In Memphis, uh Elon Musk operates a data storage center using methane powered gas turbines. I'm not sure why methane, but he did. He he is permitted to run these generators until TVA can supply the power, but it's going to be several years. And he was permitted to put in 15 turbines, but due to the extra high demand, the plant now has 35 turbines. And the neighbors are not happy uh complaining of odor, noise, and vibration. Uh Gallatin, Tennessee has a media s a meta data center Facebook in operation. Not a lot of problem because they have TVA power.

I've seen I've seen pictures of it. I've not visited the site. Uh my second opinion about data storage center coming here uh is fire protection. We have a fine and adequate fire department but they would have very little success fighting a fire in the server areas, lithium battery storage areas or the gas turbine areas. As a senior citizen, and some of us on the council are seniors, I I noticed I often weigh the long-term ramifications of my decisions. Everything has a legacy element. Now, it seems as you get older, you must, some of you that are seniors, as I repeat, must decide whether whether you want to saddle this community. Saddle, that's a nice word. with the long-term effects of living near a plant with multiple gas turbines running 247. I'm I I'd like you to think heavily about that cuz doesn't sound appetizing. I'm asking you to overlook the promised tax money flow from the developer and ask him to find another location for his data center. Many counties have already turned these projects down. If you do this, you will become a hero in our rural community. And on page two that I handed you, it talks about how TVA is actually looking

at powering these places in the future and primarily with nuclear small nuclear plants, not locally uh situated, but at their generation facility. So that's all I have. I appreciate your time. I've kept it as short as I can. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Yeah. Okay. Moving on. We will uh move on into our meeting and we will uh we had another person registered but they're not Donnie Briggs. He's not here.

Not here. Okay. Uh we will move on to approval of minutes and that'll be approval of minutes of the November 2024 2024 regular meeting. And I'm sure everyone's had an opportunity to look over those. Are there any comments or questions? Make a motion we approve them. We have a motion by Commissioner Powell to approve the minutes as they're stated and written. Second, Mayor. We have a second by Commissioner McCquiry. Uh any further comments? If not, all in favor? I I.

Any opposition? And those minutes stand approved as they're stated. Uh we will move on to community services. Uh believe we have anything from here. No community services. We'll move on to general government and uh I will have that one. Uh we'll have discussion and a possible action regarding the cancellation of the December 2022 2025 regular meeting. Uh that is a normal for us and u uh nor that is just two days. it would be the 22nd and that's just two days before Christmas. So, I'm sure that most of us would like to be home with our families and enjoy them. And I would entertain a motion at this time that we would cancel the regular uh meeting of the December 2022 meeting.

I'll make that motion. Okay, we have a motion by Commissioner Bush. Do we have second? Second. Second by Commissioner Powell. Uh any further discussion? All in favor I I and any opposition and that motion carries. So uh we will move on to discussion and a possible action under general government regarding uh reappointment of board members and Kenton would you like to speak?

Yes, mayor. Uh we have two uh reappointments for boards and uh proposed action is motion to reappoint Wanda Tuck to the Franklin Simpson code uh enforcement board for a four-year term and then reappoint Phil Lockhart to the housing authority Franklin board of directors for a four-year term expiring both expiring on 1231 of 2029. And I might just add that both of those people have served have served on boards and are willing to continue to serve. So I would entertain a motion. I make that motion. Mayor. Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Stewart. Second.

Seconded by Commissioner Powell. Any further discussion? All in favor? I. I. Any opposition? And that motion carries. Okay. And we will move on under general government uh discussion and a possible action regarding a letter of support for project pathy. And Jim Decessi, our industrial board executive director is here to uh speak to us on that.

Mayor, if I may, um while Jim's here, we had slated some things for him to discuss with us in executive session. Unbeknownst to me, and I guess I'm the only one in the world that didn't know this, they had the other project go to planning and zoning last Tuesday night. So, it's public. I would ask the commission to allow him to go ahead and speak to both topics while he's up here today in public uh and and move them on if that's okay. Okay. With you and the rest of the people involved. So, Okay. All right. Thank you. So, that' be Papy and then what was the other one? Project Wave. That's the Yeah. Okay, you ready? May take all.

All right, thank you all. So, the uh first project I'm going to discuss will be project papy which is the Fritz Winter ACU ac acquisition. Um we need to use the the code name for this project until the state approves their incentives on Thursday. Uh the company is interested in buying the Fritz Winter property wants to pursue a new KBI incentive package. So, right now they have a a KBI incentive package. they have a an IRB agreement um that is that can be transferred over to the new owner but the uh the new owner would like to pursue its own KBI incentives for this project and then the continuation of the current IRB and the company has agreed to make a payment in lie of taxes to the school board for the remainder of the IRB agreement and I'll go over each of these documents briefly um first of all the company's going to make a $114300,000 investment ment. Uh when they get fully operational, they'll have 295 employees with an average hourly wage of $35.20 before benefits. Uh the first document I'll address is the the letter of support for the KBI incentives. This is similar to the other letters that we've done. We did one recently for project gong. Uh they want to pursue their KBI incentives for 10 years and request the city to give up uh their 0.25% of the occupational tax. Uh the next is a resolution which the city and the board of commissioners uh stating support for the potential acquisition of Fritz Winter. Uh it involves a $200 million series 2017 bond. The facility is set to close on December 31st which will affect the 230 employees. I think there's less than that there now. Uh it's set to close as I mentioned on the 31st. The purchaser plans to ret retrofit the building uh with a pilot agreement for

tax payments to the board of education during the bond's term through 2047. So the the remaining 22 or so years left on that current IRB. Uh the resolution simply states uh that the city supports the acquisition of Fritz winner to the new purchaser. Uh will transfer the industrial revenue bond over to the new purchaser. uh they will enter into a pilot agreement with the Simpson County Board of Education ensuring annual payments until the bonds mature in 2047. And again, I'll discuss that a little more in a few moments. It also allows the mayor to execute necessary documents and provide a letter of support uh for the KBIN cus, which I've already discussed. It states that no city funds will be used. the city will not use its funds for the bond transfer, facility purchase or the project papy cost. And then uh it mentions the economic benefits that it uh project aims to address unemployment, create jobs and promote economic growth. And then the uh next document is the assignment and the assumption of the bond documents. Uh this document outlines an assignment and assumption of bond documents agreed between Fritz Winner and the new purchaser. Uh it the agreement involves the transfer of rights, title, interest, obligations, and liabilities related to the IRB, the industrial building revenue bonds issued by the city in 2017. These bonds were originally issued for $200 million were used to fund a construction and equipment equipping of the facility. uh Fritz Wy is transferring their interest in the bonds, bond documents and lease agreement to the purchaser who will assume all future payments and performance obligations under these agreements. Uh the purchaser plans to retrofit the facility for its own manufacturing operations which it will still be a steel related industry. uh I

can say they will not be in the automotive industry and and they'll be more in the infrastructure industry and the city consents to the transaction and release Fritz winner from any obligation or liabilities under the doc bond documents agreeing to hold the purchaser responsible for future obligations and the document also includes legal representation severability clauses and descriptions of the property involved in the track transaction and then the final agreement is the payment in lie of taxes. This document outlines the pilot agreement between the Simpson County Board of Education and the purchaser. Under the uh current IRB um agreement, Fritz Wy is not making any pilot uh payments to the school board, resulting in no no revenue for the school system. Uh this new agreement, the purchaser will make an annual flat negotiated payment to the Simpson County Board of Education in lie of Adalorum property taxes starting from the first January 1st assessment date after the acquisition and continuing until the IRB matures in April of 2047. And I would like to uh thank uh Scott Crabtree. Uh we met with the um attorneys for the new company and and that was one of the things that we were both very adamant about trying to get this pilot agreement uh in place for the schools. So this will be all new revenue to the school district and um revenue that they're not getting now. So those are the documents related to project papy.

And let me explain a couple things real quick. industrial revenue bonds as Jim kind of glossed over and we have another Jim here today who's going to talk about this here in a minute and he's the guru on IRBs and things like that. So, he would be the guy that could tell you more. But, industrial revenue bonds create no obligation to the city. It's just for the company. It's more of a I I like to call it a tax loophole than anything else. But, uh I I know practitioners in that probably don't like that me to use that term. Uh however, when Fritz Wy came, they were adamant about not paying any property taxes to the schools. Uh so this is a a a win-win for everybody because we continue on with the bonds. We're not extending them any. It's the same term as they were before and the school gets their tax money on the property. In addition, currently uh we are we have an interlog agreement with the school whereby we're splitting occupational fees with the school from that facility that will cease when this is over. I need to sit down and talk to probably Ken and I need to sit down talk to Tim Schlloer at some point and work out the final details. But overall, uh in order to salvage the jobs out there, uh and I I'll commend Jim because I'm not They really wanted to do the pilot with the school taxes, but uh I I kind of pushed a little bit and then Jim took it across the goal line. So, he he really did a a great job in getting that done for the school system. With that being said, there are a slew of documents in this in this packet that we need to approve, what the motion needs to be. Are we ready for the motion, Jim, first?

Yeah. And I I would like to add one final thing. Absolutely. With this pilot agreement, um there will no longer be any industries in Simpson County that aren't making their school taxes. Now, after we uh corrected the Lio Kim agreement with fiscal court earlier this year, uh after they get through their first five years, everybody will be making their their school taxes. That's great. Good. So, if we're ready for a motion, the motion, Kathy, needs to be a motion to approve the incentive letter for project papy the ind the uh inducement resolution.

No uh it would be the um it' be the assign yeah the assignment of the IRB the incentive letter and the pilot agreement. Okay. Well, don't we will need Well, that that's good for now. And and and let's go ahead and put in any and all other documents just to cover us because something could pop up later. And the resolution gives the the mayor the ability to sign all related documents, right? That's right. Still covering the motion though too. So, we'll be suspending.

Okay. You have heard the presentation and the motion and this is nothing different than different different than we've done for any other factory or or uh industry coming into into our community uh other than we've made the schools whole. So do I hear a motion to that to that discussion? So moved. We have a motion by Commissioner Powell. Second. Mayor second by Commissioner Stewart. Are there any further questions or comments? The only comment that I'm going to make is I'm going to vote no only for the reason that I haven't had time to fully process the information. Okay. And I will ask pass for a roll call vote. Kathy, thank you. Mayor Commissioner Pal, yes.

Commissioner Bush, no. Mayor Dixon, yes. Commissioner McCra, yes. Commissioner Stewart, yes. And that motion passes. Jim Tion take off. Yeah.

Yeah. And I I'll bring Mr. Parsons up here for this part of it. Uh I would like to uh thank Mr. Parsons. He was actually acting as an adviser for the industrial authority on the project Papy and he reviewed all those documents as well. Um next we're going to talk about Project Wave and I'll I'll just sort of give a a preamble and then let them take over. Uh it's a new industry looking at purchasing I believe about 125 acres uh on Steel Road. They will employ 430 individuals with an a average annual salary of $56,472. The uh total investment for this project is approximately $400 million. Um we will need a a letter a KBI incentive letter approved and I should note that this is an enhanced project by the state. So uh they will get uh incent KBI incentives for 15 years but the state or the city and the county will not have to give up their portion of the occupational tax since it is an enhanced project. So that'll be new revenue coming into the city. I believe um approximately 259,000 a year in new revenue for the life of the industrial revenue bond. Uh, the county has already approved their letter of support for the KBI incentives and I'll let Mr. Parsons and his team talk about the inducement resolution and the pilot agreement that goes along with this.

I'm James Parsons, the law firm cle uh in Cincinnati. I only practice in Kentucky though, so uh but uh but any event uh I wanted to uh thank you for allowing us to be here today. I do want to introduce uh Daniel Poland with the uh Kroger Company. Uh she's the director of economic development for Kroger and she can answer questions specifically about the project. But this is an exciting project that we're working toward. Now, we're not there yet because you know these incentive agreements have to be approved and in particular Thursday's uh is the date we're working towards the state approvals. So everything's kind of contingent until that is finally done. But we are looking at the use of again as as Jim indicated uh we're looking at a payroll of in the in the range of 27 28 million uh for this particular project and and and uh Danielle could give you more specific information about the project about a $400 million investment. That's a combination of of of equipment and land and building. Uh it is basically a the con the development of a a fulfillment center and basically distribution center for the Kroger company uh for that's going to be servicing the Nashville market and the southern Kentucky market. And uh it's a it's a major major step for Kroger uh in this this particular project. Uh again, the IRBs are for a 30-year term. uh there will be a 100% payment to the school district uh during that that and and in addition to that the term of the IRB again as Mr. Craig Tree indicates IRBs are not the debt of the local government at all. Uh and it's basically a tool to provide some real estate and tangible tax exemption during the term of the bonds. Uh but in this particular case the uh the uh school district will receive 100% pilot pay.

And GM do me a favor. Uh, we have a couple of commissioners, I know you and I have worked together for years, that that haven't been through the IRB process before. Could you explain to them since you're the you're the guru on this, how that works about needing and leasing back and all that?

Yeah, in Kentucky, uh, local governments don't do not have the legal authority to grant a direct tax exemption. There's only one except to that. Actually, the constitution does allow cities to grant a five-year tax exemption on manufacturing projects. That's my wife calling me. Sorry, I thought I'd turn my phone off. But, uh, but in any in any event, as a result of that, uh, there there is a way that's indirectly that property tax exemptions can be obtained for projects and basically using industrial revenue bonds. is actually the only process in Kentucky except for that one exception for new manufacturing that exists in the state. And so what happens is that under state law uh even the local governments cannot directly grant a tax exemption for property when if if industrial revenue bonds are issued for the project and during the term of the bonds the title of the project is in the name of the public issuer and then leased back to the local to the private entity for the term of the for the term that creates a total complete total exemption of local property taxes against the project for the term of the bonds. Normally then as part of that process the um uh the uh there is a what we call agreement in lie of taxes where during the the term that that that even though the project exempt from taxation uh then the the there is often times for the issuance of the bonds there's an a corlary agreement called an agreement l of taxes where certain taxing districts in this case the school district will receive a pilot payment during the term of the bonds. There's a secondary process that's part of what you're doing today too is that in addition to the local approvals, uh there is a process for exemption of the state rate and that's going to be decided on Thursday, but there is a state application we filed relative to that that situation. So the combination of that lease

structure in place and the fact the bonds are outstanding, that's what grants the property tax exemption during the term of the bonds. It's very very common process that you've probably gone you've sounds like you've gone through several times but again uh this is not a debt of the local government. Uh your auditors when they come in they'll make a footnote usually in your financial statements to say that you've issued bonds for a particular project but they're not your debt. In fact give you an example just up the road uh uh the uh Harden County just as a matter of example issued $5 billion in bonds for that battery plant and stuff. Again, it's not I'm just want to say the scale of this doesn't it's not has has nothing to do with your debt at all and your debt capacity and it's a very very common tool used in Kentucky as a way to provide some real estate and tangible tax.

Let me jump in and say this. I know you cover it. You said the issuer. So for the public, if the paper still does the deeds, it publishes the deeds every so often. you'll see a deed coming from Kroger to the city, project wave to the city. And don't think that the city bought it. You know, the city is just this is part of the industrial revenue bond process for the city to hold title to the property and lease it back to the company.

And one thing on on there too is under the lease itself, uh there is a complete indemnification from the tenant back to the local government issuer. uh under even under the lease, even though the the city will have legal title, the real owner of the project is the is the private entity. And there's references there that the private entity is entitled to the depreciation exemption, things like that that a regular business owner would have. This is just really a conduit financing tool that has been was created years ago as a way to provide some some some incentive for projects. We are completely insulated from liability, but like I said, it's basically a tax loophole. I know they hate to say that, but that's essentially what it is. It's one of them.

Thank Thank you, Jim. And if you have questions, Danielle's certainly able to answer questions. Project Wave here now, so this is a good time to This was project wave until today. Today, the name we are able to say that it is it is the Kroger company that's doing this particular project. Any plans to open a grocery store here?

I thought that might be a question. Um, figured you might. We are ramping up our brickandmortar footprint over the next few years. Our CEO talks about it all the time. So, we are constantly looking for different sites that may make sense. Um, we don't have any plans right now, but I'm not ruling that out completely. Okay. I'm not going to ask for anything, but I do I would like to say thank you for uh choosing our community to come and and and uh be a part of this our growing process and providing jobs and and giving our community opportunity to to expand and go go forth. So, thank you very much for choosing our community.

Thank Thank you. The community's been really great to work with and we appreciate the partnership as well. So, this will be on Still Road, right? Correct. So, have you guys done any geological surveys yet? Um, yes, they have. They have done initial due diligence and have a geotech survey, an initial one complete. Okay.

And we've already worked out an agreement with the county on the on the steel road and improvements that'll be made to that. That is going to be the construction access for the site. But then after the fact, certain improvements we made to Steel Road, plus there'll be some other upgrades to Steel Road uh for the future operation there. We've got a separate agreement the county approved uh relative to that to make that work. So, but the uh steel road will not be the access for truck traffic though after the project is open. That'll just be for regular uh vehicular access.

Yeah, I was just going to add that the developer is going to construct a new road coming from the property u behind Cracker Barrel on the 31W, which will be the the road used for truck access. Wait, what? To to my understanding, 350 450 jobs. Is that 430? What's the average pay? Are you forecasting? About 56,000 712 an hour. How How is the road going to go behind Cracker Barrel? It's like an extender road. It's going to be a connector road. It's going to be a new road. From where though? From going to come straight off the property across Steel Road.

So, it's going to run down beside the interstate. It's going to going to it's going to loop around come off parallel with 31W and come out on 31W. It'll come out approximately where lot of land existing exit to liquor is yes across lot of land that's owned by the owner that owns the own the zer property he owns that parcel of land and then there's another parcel of land on 31W that they've got access to. Okay. So if you know where our lift station is, Kelly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just south of that. Yeah. So the concern there is going to be is like the state going to put in a light. I mean I know that's

they're they're working with the state the whole process. Yeah. We'll have to have something there, right? There state improvement road improvements as part of the project everything else and they're working with the state. Actually the state of Kentucky has been very good on trying to provide not only direct incentives but additional funding for this particular project. Uh, and if I can say, I mean, the the other site was actually uh right across the border. So, uh, you know, Franklin was able to to win this site over the over the Tennessee site. All full-time jobs, not temporary. Yes. Thanks. That's right. Full-time. That's what we need.

Jim, I would just like to echo Commissioner Stewart's words. Uh we do thank you all for uh choosing Franklin and uh we welcome you and uh thank you. Thank you very much. I want to be down here several more times actually. We look forward to seeing you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. So I guess to your approval today you'll is would be that

we will. I'm getting I if you want to I'll stick around make sure I word the motion right. So, we need we need a motion to approve the uh incentive letter to the K kefi. We also need a a motion as part of that motion to approve the inducement resolution uh the pilot agreement and the what else we got? That's basically maybe to execute the uh state application for the IRB to execute this and any and all other documents which I think are covered in the in the

deed and everything's covered at least covered in the the resolution. Okay, I will I will ask for that motion. I'll make that motion, Mayor. Okay, we have a motion by Commissioner Stewart, second by Commissioner Powell. Any further discussion? We'll have a roll call vote. Kathy, please. Commissioner Pal, yes. Commissioner Bush, I'm going to abstain. Mayor Dixon, yes. Commissioner McCra, yes. Commissioner Stewart, yes.

And that motion passes. Mayor and members of the board of commissioners, we do thank you on behalf of myself as a bond council, but on behalf of the Kroker Company, we really thank you and the the welcome we've had in this community. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Bo. Thank you very much. Okay, we will move on under general government to discussion or possible action uh regarding proposed ordinance amending the Franklin Planning and Zoning Administrative Regulation and Enforcement. And Scott, you want to speak to that?

I I will, mayor. Uh, at the same meeting, I think, as they had the uh public hearing on the other text amendments, they had this text amendment hearing, and this text amendment is just housekeeping. It changed the text of the planning and zoning regulations to reflect our current ordinances as far as board members, you know, times of meetings and all that. it doesn't have any significant impact other than just to make sure that their regulations are consistent with our ordinances. So if the commission finds it appropriate, we'll need two sponsors for the ordinance to revise the text.

Kathy, I'll be commissioner Pal. We got Yes, ma'am. Okay. Thank you, Scott. And we will move on to discussion and a possible action uh regarding proposed ordinance to close a public portion of Huff Avenue and Scott will speak to that one also for us.

Yes, sir. Mayor, uh this has been in the works for about a year. If you all know where I always call it Huff Street, the Huff Avenue intersects with Lemon over near the housing authority. It is a fairly short 200 50 foot section of a street that's been there forever. There used to be houses that fronted it. They have long since been torn down uh through dilapidation. The street itself is truthfully a mess. uh and has not been used really in in years.

Uh Matt Fugqua and his company acquired a big portion of the property and wants to develop it. He is currently slated to go to planning and zoning at their next meeting to talk about his development plan. He has asked us to close that street as portion at as part of closing the street. We deed it half to one the property owners on one side, half to the property owners on the other side. There are still other owners that own a small portion of the land in there. So, there will need to be as part of closing this, we'll need an ordinance closing the street, which also authorizes me to go ahead and deed the property to the existing uh adjacent land owners. So, if the commission I'll be happy to answer any questions in a second. There is also a plat in there to show you more detail uh in your packet. Uh I will need two sponsors, Commissioner Pal's already raising his hand to sponsor this ordinance and Commissioner Stewart. So

any questions or anything on that the process or anything? No, I think there's another one we need to do as well too, right? We street closing. Yeah, it's we talked about it earlier in the year. That one over by I always get the street wrong. It's uh Bard Bard or Breenidge, I can't remember. Over by the um school the um we can talk about later. Okay. Not a big deal. I I mean it what I don't usually Commissioner Bush I don't usually get into this unless the property owners come and ask us to and then we close. If all the adjacent property owners ask us to close it, then that's when I Okay.

Well, that's okay. So, if there's a hold out, we can't do it yet. I don't know if there is in the Well, I mean, do both property owners have to have to agree? Yes. Okay. If they touch that street, they have to agree to have the street closed and sign a consent to close the street. Huh. Okay. Okay. We will move on to we do have the two sponsors. We do. Yes, sir. And we'll first reading in our ordinance section. We will move on to discussion of possible action regarding the list of letter of credit for the Simpson County Developing Partners. That's Windsor Park section three phase two. And uh uh Carol, do you want to bring that to

Yes, I do. Thank you, mayor. In January of 2024, we had Simpson County Developing Partners provide a letter of credit just under $85,000 to ensure completion of Windsor Park subdivision section 3 phase 2. Based on the final inspection, that work has been completed satisfactory. So, I'm asking that the commission approve the release of their letter of credit 243-10 that was issued by Franklin Bank and Trust. And um the attached release form would need to be signed by the mayor. So it's asking for his authorization to sign that. And we have a there'll be the motion is to as Carol read

approve the release of Simpson County Developing Partners irrevocable letter of credit 2403-10 for Windsor Park section 3 phase 2 and approve the mayor to sign the attached notice acknowledging the release. This is just housekeeping. Yeah, I'll make the motion here. Okay. And we have a motion by Commissioner Stewart. Second. Second by Commissioner McQuary. Is there any further discussion on that? All in favor? I I. Any opposition? And that motion carries. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, Carol. And uh we'll move on to the next one. And under general government, that'll be discussion or possible action regarding the purchase of a vehicle for code enforcement. and Adam is going to come and bring that to us.

Thank you, mayor. Um, code enforcement's in need of a new vehicle currently driving a 2013 CMAX and the transmission's going out in it. Uh, it's had some ongoing issues over the years, so we need to upgrade it. The value of the vehicles range between $4 to $6,000, but the cost of repairs going to be $8,000 plus. Um, so we got three quotes as you can see. Um, Johnson, Nissan, and Bowling Green has the lowest cost. Um, so that's the one we would like to go with. So, the proposed action is if the commission agrees with the recommendation, award the purchase of a 2026 Nissan Kicks in the amount of $24,000 to Jim Johnson and authorize the mayor to sign any and all document documentation related to this purchase. So move.

We have a motion by Commissioner Powell. Second. I'll second with a question. Second by Commissioner Stewart. Uh question. Mayor, I have a question. Adam, I guess or or Ken, this this vehicle I was this a budget vehicle or is this a is this a situation where that the vehicle has broke down and need to be replaced? It is almost broke down. It's we drive it around in town. Yes. Just slightly. Obviously, the transmission is going out. Yeah. And then it is budgeted. So budget amendment. So it is in the budget. Okay. That's all the that's you have to hot seat. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate. Any further question, comment.

Kathy, could we have a roll call vote on that? Commissioner Powell? Yes. Commissioner Bush? No. Mayor Dixon? Yes. Commissioner McCra? Yes. Commissioner Stewart? Yes. And that motion passes. Okay. Thank you, Kathy. Uh, from here we will move to public safety. Thank you, Adam, by the way. Thank you. From here, we'll move on to public safety, and that'll be discussion or possible action regarding quotes for AEDs for the police cruisers. And uh, Chief Solomon's going to bring that to us. That's a discussion that we had last uh, uh,

meeting. And I believe the chief has some updated information for us. So

sir, um I told you I'd get some information for you. Um so it's all included in your packet. Um so to outfit for the patrol officers only, which would be 20 20 cruisers. Um the total cost would be $23,980. The each each AEDS are around $1,199 a piece for the life pack, which is what we have now. And they're of good quality. Um, if you outfitted every sworn officer, which includes myself, the two majors, the detectives, and uh, drug task force, uh, that's 27 cruisers. The total cost cost would be $32,273. Um, additionally, there also be battery replacement every 3 years. That would range from 10,000 to 13,500 depending on how many cruisers you outfitted. And then also pad replacements on the same cycle would be two to 4,000 depending on. So based on that is there there's no motion today. Is there any question y'all have? I mean if I guess the question is to you and Dale. Would the would the 20 if we bought 20, would that be enough? the the logical logical thing would be to outfit every car if we're going to do it because

yes, the administration is not out there as prevalently as patrol or drug task force or the detectives just based on job assignment, but we have take-home cars and we're also could potentially be close enough to a scene to where we respond at that given time and I'd rather have it than not have it in all 27 cars. If we're going to do that, which would include the $32,7273, right? May I make the motion we go ahead with it? Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner McQuary. A second. Yeah. So, we we're we're going to get all 20. We're making the motion for all 27. Correct.

Like like Chief said, you don't want to put yourself in a position where you don't you know 5% doesn't have it. That'll be the time it'll get you. Yeah. I would second that motion to buy all all 27. Okay, we have a motion by Commissioner McQuery, a second by Commissioner Bush. Is there further discussion on that? If not, all in favor? I I. Any opposition? And that motion carries. Thank Thank you, Chief. Appreciate it.

Okay. Uh we will move on to utilities. Uh anything under Okay. From here we will move on to ordinances and uh Miss Kathy will you take take those for us please? Okay. Okay, we'll have second summary reading today of ordinance number 2025028, an ordinance reszoning approximately 20 acres located on Nashville Road 31W South from B5 Interstate Interchange Business to B4 Highway Business District as requested by Zuari Investments LLC. I will need a first and second motion for approval.

I make that motion. We have a motion by Commissioner Stewart, second by Commissioner Powell. And we will have a roll call vote of Commissioner Powell. Yes. Commissioner Bush, no. Mayor Dixon, yes. Commissioner McCra, yes. Commissioner Stewart, yes.

And that ordinance passes. Next, we'll have first summary reading of ordinance number 2025029, an ordinance amending the city of Franklin's local zoning regulations concerning administrative regulations and enforcement. And moving on, we will have first summary reading of ordinance number 2025 030, an ordinance to close the public portion of a 0.1525 acre track or less of Huff Avenue. This concludes first and second summary reading of these ordinances. They will become effective upon passage and publication and will be posted on the city's website. The full copy is available upon request by contacting the city clerk at city hall during normal business hours.

Kathy, thank you very much. You're welcome. Mayor, before you start about executive session, we can remove business and litigation. All we need to go in for is personnel. Okay. All right. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Um we will go into uh we will go into executive session for personnel and that will be discussions or hearings which might lead to the appointment, discipline or dismissal of an individual employee or member under KRS618101F and I will need a motion to go into executive session. I'll make that motion. We have a motion by Commissioner Bush. Second second by Commissioner McQuary. All in favor? I

I And that motion carries. And we will now move into executive session. Mayor, let's take a short break. And we

I will need a motion to come out of executive session. So move, mayor. We have a motion by Commissioner Stewart. Second, mayor. Second by Commissioner McCquary. All in favor? I I. Any opposition? And we now move into uh regular session. And we do have uh some uh motions to come before the floor. We do. Uh the first is a motion to accept the resignation of Ben Mishoto from Franklin Police Department. So move second. We have a motion by Commissioner Pal, a second by Commissioner Bush. Um any further discussion? All in favor? I I.

Any opposition? And that motion carries. Thank you. The next is a motion to hire Lton Vincent as an officer for the Franklin Police Department effective January 12th of 2026. I'll make that motion. Mayor, we have a motion by Commissioner Stewart. Second, second by Commissioner Powell. Any further discussion? All in favor? I I. Any opposition? And that motion carries. The next is a motion to hire Garrett Dinkens as storm water operator for the city with an effective hire date of December 29th. Make a motion. Mayor,

we have a motion. We've got Commissioner McCreary. Second. Second by Commission. Commissioner Bush. Yeah. I heard both of you at the same time. Uh any further comments? All in favor? I. Any opposition? And that motion carries. And the last is a motion to hire Millie McIntosh as the human resources director for the city of Franklin. I make that motion. Mayor, we have a motion by Commissioner Stewart. Second. We have a second by Commissioner Powell. Do we have any further discussion? Yeah, we need to talk about how much we're going to pay this person.

How much we're going to pay this this position? Salary is 135 annually. So what's the salary for Bowling Green? Less than 135. So we're going to pay somebody more than what we're paying in Bowling Green that has two times or three times the amount of employees. This person also does not work 40 hours a week as a HR person. This person does work 40 hours a week. This person does not work 40 hours a week as a HR person. 40 hours a week. This person does not work 40 hours a week as a HR person based on

because based on the last conversation that we had in executive session two weeks ago where I brought up the fact that that you've got this person as a dual role. You and Carol both said that they they wear many hats. So we're paying above and beyond what we should be paying. One of the highest paid HR directors in the state. We have advertised a position for an assistant city manager that was never acted upon. Um, let's see. I mean, the biggest thing I think is the pay. We didn't Did you advertise the pay with the pay rating range? I did not. So, you did not advertise the pay range.

So, you did not advertise the pay range and we're going to pay this person the max that we have for the pay band for that position. So, what are we doing for other employees that are not that are currently working here, that are currently not maxed out at their position? Because we're paying this person effectively what would be two salaries for police officers and two or three salaries for public works with only 80 employees, 90 give or take. Well, we of the 20ome uh resumes we received similar to the same job qualifications uh annual salary was 112, 101, 120, 125. These were some of the ones with the same not as full uh qualification as she has but very similar but not but she far exceeded those. I'm just telling you that these are the salaries that come in for that job.

So rather than advertising a salary ban, we just advertise a position and then the person that you wanted or that that was selected by you and the team. You just let them pick their salary and it was the highest that it could possibly.

I did not select it. That went through a natural process. It went through everybody. I did not have a vote. It went through a natural selection. I think the things that what she can bring to the city is far outweighs anything that we can do as far as far far as Bowling Green. Bowling Green has a larger staff of HR. This is a staff of basically one uh and that makes a difference. So I would say let's circle back around in a year to see what we look like. Well, this

this person comes with a multitude of qualifications, multitude and experience and uh you know uh that's uh that that's to be considered in a salary. So just because this person has a lot of certifications, we're going to pay them more than what we should be paying them.

We're going to pay this person more than a city that is quite a bit larger than our city. we're going to pay this person more than what someone in a different city makes because that person has assistance. So that was one of the justifications is that the reason Bowling Green salary was lower is because that person has assistance. That doesn't make sense. Well, I believe we've had discussion on that. Does anybody else have any comments or or questions?

I I do. Um I agree. Bowling Greens assist Bowling Greens HR manager makes one from what I can find out makes 129,000 a year. They have over 400 employees, but it was brought up they do have assistance, but obviously because of 400 plus employees. Um, I agree with Commissioner Bush on this. I think we need to talk about this more. for any position we that we hire, we need to have a salary range because if you advertise 135,000 a year, how do you not know you're going to not get some more people? That's just as qualified. Not that I'm for paying that because I think it's too much. I know our last HR manager wasn't as credentialed. However, her salary was almost $40,000 a year lower or maybe more. I think it was a little more actually. So, and again, I don't know this person we're talking about hiring. They're obviously credentialed. It's not anything personal. I'm sure they'll do a good job. They're they're extremely qualified, but nonetheless, the pay the pay amount in my eyes is is too much. So,

that's my take on It's definitely It's definitely too much. Let me if I can address first. Sure. Just one thing real quick and then we'll go back to this. As far as the pay ranges, I I wasn't involved in this process, but as far as the pay ranges when you advertise, we've never done that somewhat on purpose because if you if you put a pay range in there and you get somebody extremely qualified, more qualified than you were even necessarily looking for, but they fit, you can't go to what they need to come, you know, to come on board. And that's and that's the main reason why we've never done that. Now, if the commission wants to put those parameters on there going forward, certainly it's something we can look at. We just never have in my time here.

Well, I think if if you're going to pay a person, if you're going to hire somebody at a high rate of pay and you didn't advertise that pay range, what that was possible to get to that point, I think you're disqualifying yourself from potential candidates that's very capable. I can see both sides. I mean, all I'm saying to you is is we've never done it. I understand. That's my suggestion. We may need to look at that. That's something. Let me let's look at that. We can talk about that later. I'm sorry. Get back to the

No, no. I you know I think all points that have been brought out is you know well taken. I I do uh you know the salary I know that you know we are probably stepping in the range and and in in a uh that we've we haven't done before. Um few things. Number one we we've I don't want to discredit any of again I've said this before. I don't want to discredit any of the other people that served in that capacity of HR, but I think it's pretty obvious that we've we've never had someone that has been classified as human resources, but they've done a tremendous job. So therefore, uh going forward, where do we begin to set a platform for that job and that position? Um, I I'd like to go back to uh the chief, you know, when Roger came in, you know, it was in a disarray. I think now he set a course that if someone else succeeds him, it's going to be a transition that'll be a lot easier than those that we that that we've been in before at that position. Um, number one. Number two, when you have people of that caliber, they have a tendency sometime to earn their pay uh through negotiations of um health insurance. And I'm not all I I can't tell you all the responsibilities of a HR, but these people have the tendencies to be able at times to be able to save money uh or even save enough money to contribute to what is considered their salaries in savings to the city. So that's something that I'm looking at and taking in consideration. I genuinely believe that uh that the chief has done I think the department heads have done these things. Uh, you know, I'm really feeling good about people that are in places in place. Uh, and there's, you know, I could go on and talk about a lot of things about the

city because I've been here long enough to talk about these things and the improvements that we've made in these in these situations, you know, and I'm sure we can argue all day long about the cost. And I'm sure that that uh, you know, if this were to pass, you probably would hear more. But I'm ready to defend that because I made the motion for it and I still stand behind it for the reasons that I just made mention of. So I just want that to be publicly known and uh and that's all I have to say. Okay. Well, I think we've had full discussion and we haven't we're not done yet. I am uh I am ready. Point of order. We've had discussion and I bring it to order. I'm ready to bring it to a vote.

Point of order. So, he can't close this unless there's two/3s vote. We're still in the debate of this. The question hadn't been closed. Am I correct or am I not? We have a motion on the floor and a second and we've had discussion and I'm going to call for a vote and he's might be two/3 vote maybe, but I mean so the point of order doesn't matter that we're not we're not what what is it you're want to ask? Well, we're not done debating this. We still have we're we're not we're fixing to spend $135,000 a year to hire someone. We've had debate.

Okay. Well, I guess it's your show, mayor. You can just do whatever you want, can't you? No. Okay. Let's continue talking debate. Mayor. Mayor, you obviously do not want to talk about this. The whole issue is a traditional is that you guys try to Let's have it. Let's have it if that's a traditional conversation because what what you're trying to do is you try to justify these things with illogical arguments. Are you talking about me? Yeah, I'm actually talking about you.

Okay. Well, what do you got to say about me? Well, then how much money is it going to save? Show me. Show me the data that we actually need an HR person 40 hours a week. That has never been shown to us. We've got two people, unbeknownst to us until last executive session, that we knew that we hired Rita on a part-time basis, but now we've got Tammy Kerry coming back and doing stuff as well. So, why do we have two part-time HR directors? Because we don't have an HR director, right? So, if two part-time HR directors are doing the job, then why do we need to spend $135,000 on somebody who's not going to spend 40 hours a week to do the HR job?

Finish out the year until we can hire HR. I mean, how often do you come to city hall to really see what's happening? How often do you participate in what's happening in the city of Franklin to really know? You ask me a question now. What's your participation? What's your solutions? I do not go to city hall often. Okay. So, I mean, so what what is it? What do you know? What I know is you guys justify the way you spend money. Pretty illogical. I would think so. I mean, because when you have someone like yourself that's saying that we don't need to spend it. So, I made the motion. Okay. So, I want to justify why I'm making that motion. So, you're justify spending $135,000. You I made the motion.

Okay. All right. What do you not understand? We have never even looked at or considered the fact that we may be able to outsource this or at least parts of it to KLC. I'm sure they do this or other agencies. That's never even been looked at. Well, the last time I remember, maybe it wasn't, but the last time we had a conversation about this, I I think I heard directly that we needed to fill the HR position. That was that was said what happened to the uh assistant city manager position? What happened to it? Why are we not looking at that now? Well, it could be. So, I'm right now is on the floor. We said we'd want to hire an HR director. That's what I

Well, a few months ago, we said we were going to hire an assistant city manager as well, but I came back and I don't know if Dale voted for it or not. I didn't vote for it, though. I said we're going to hire an HR director first. So, so then why do we bring up the assistant city manager position? Because at that time, I felt like that was a need to put it on the on the table. So, is this person going to have assistant city manager duties? No. You saw the job description. You handed I handed the job description. Yeah. And it's not 40 hours worth of work a week. No, it's not. That's your opinion. Okay. Yeah. You've not demonstrated that there's 40 hours worth of work. That's your opinion. Okay. You still haven't demonstrated.

I just don't think you understand the ramifications of what the HR director will be doing. Okay. I guess I don't. But I'm not in favor of spending this much money on a town this size, with an agency this size, with the amount of employees that we have, with the policies and procedures that we have, with the leadership that we have. It's not it's not a good fit.

Well, you know, we as elected officials are elected to serve this community and make the best decisions that we can make. And I think uh I think uh we we went through the process of hiring the person that we felt was the right person for this position and uh I think we've had a full discussion on it and again I'm bringing it to a vote and it can be voted down or voted up. So we're going to bring it to a vote in the majority rules. So at this point in time we're going to ask for a vote and a roll call vote. Kathy Commissioner Powell. Yes. Commissioner Bush. No, Mayor Dixon. Yes, Commissioner McCra.

Based off the salary only, I want to emphasize only. This person's qualified. No doubt. I'm sure they're a great person, but due to the salary rate that is set, no. Commissioner Stewart. Yes. And the motion passes. Thank you very much, Kathy. Okay, we will move on to city attorney reports. None. Uh, city manager report. No, sir. Okay. Uh, Commissioner Stewart.

Uh, just a couple things, Mayor. Uh, one, can you when you gave the service awards, uh, I was really glad. I don't think we've done that at a commissioner's meeting before. Generally, it's done at the Christmas park. Uh, and I was glad that I think I would like to see us continue to do that yearly to bring out and let let people know that, you know, we had over the years we've had uh, you know, we've we've had issues retaining employees and and, you know, we've got some longstanding employees and it it's it's taken work to improve the that that situation with with wages and with benefits and things of that nature. And I appreciate those men that stay with the city because they do the real work that makes us get get compliments, but you guys do the work

and I appreciate that. I really do. Uh uh you know, so thank you for that doing that, Kitten. And I hope we can continue to do that. I thought it went well and that pro I was thinking the same thing. I think we do need to do it more often and also the public needs to understand how many years of certifications and stuff that they've had to earn. Right. Uh so and we've just had a flock of guys retire from the city. So we'd like to keep that going too, guys. Okay. And I guess secondly, we won't be having a meeting uh the 20 at our next commission. So I just want to wish the community a happy safe uh Christmas and uh and a blessed New Year's coming in as well. That's it for me, ma'am. Thank you, Commissioner Stewart. Commissioner McQuary.

Uh yeah, one statement, one question. Um, just with Commissioner Stewart, I want to wish everybody a merry Christmas and remember the reason why we're having Christmas to celebrate Jesus Christ. Uh, secondly, the history center is having their open house this on the 13th, I think, from 8 till noon. I believe that's it. So, they're going to have food and just invite everybody to come down. It's a nice occasion and uh I'm sure the staff there appreciate it. And lastly, I did want to ask you, are we still pursuing the assistant city manager here? I thought I'd come back and talk to the commission on the first of the year where we are. So,

I do want to remind you that the commission did a 32 roll call vote to pursue the assistant city manager. I realize that. Okay. All right. That's all, mayor.

Thank you, Chris Commissioner Query. I just want to wish the community a uh merry Christmas and I hope that n that 2026 will be a prosperous, happy and a healthy new year for everyone. And I would just like to add that u that uh we the person that we just hired as HR person uh is a person that is well qualified that has a lot of experience and I think we will see the production of her work in the in the coming year. And I want to echo every word that Commissioner Stewart said to our to our all of our employees. We have great employees. They work hard. They're appreciated and we're gonna continue to do all we can do to to continue to support them in every way we can.

Thank you. But we're going to pay the new people. So, on December 1st, the county judge sent an email

to everyone uh talking about the planning and zoning issues. So, I've also experienced some planning and zoning issues. Uh the email went on to say that, you know, it it sounds like they would like to have a discussion to at least entertain the idea to bring the inspections back in in house. So, I would make a motion that we schedule a joint city county meeting sometime in January to discuss the the planning and zoning issues and how we can work together to to make it better for the entire community.

Yeah, I hear second. That motion dies for a lack of a second. Cool. Merry Christmas. Commissioner Pal, I'd just like to say that that I appreciate each and every one of our employees. I've been around a long time and I think we got the greatest employees in the country from the bottom to the top. And I'd just like to wish each and every one of y'all a merry Christmas and the public a merry Christmas. I make a motion we adjourn. Second. Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Pal to adjurnn. We have a second by Commissioner Bush. All in favor? I I

any co any I guess that motion carries. Thank you.