Boma - workshop

Okay, thank you, Joey, and good evening, everybody. This is the work session for the Board of Mayor and Aldermen for Tuesday, August 11, 2026. We start out by calling the meeting to order, and we're going to call the roll. Alderman Barnhill? Here. Alderman Blanton? Here. Alderman Caesar? Here. Alderman Peterson? Here. Alderman Berger? Present. Alderman Brown? Present. Alderman Potts? Present. Vice Mayor Baggett? Present. And the mayors here were all here. Any citizen comments? I have no speaker cards, so we'll continue to move along. We'll go to item number one, which is event permit for turkey trots sponsored by GraceWorks. Any questions about that one? Item number two is discussion of the update to the compensation plan for the Franklin Police Department sworn personnel.

I will kick that off. We have a team here to help with it as well. This is a check-in, something we anticipated when we built the fiscal 27 budget that we would need to look at police compensation. We'd seen movement in the market, and we've done some work over the last several months understanding where that's at, and we wanted to walk you through that today. I want to thank especially our HR team, Sean Groves, who you will hear from in a little bit. We're diligently on this, our Office of Budget and Performance. I especially want to highlight Norma Lockney put a lot of work into this as well, along with the whole budget and performance team, Michael's here as well, that worked in understanding where the market is and what we might need to do to remain at the competitive position that we want to stay at to attract and retain the best talent. Let me take you through this first slide that gives you some background. Then I'd like to have Chief Faulkner make a couple comments on this as well from her perspective. Let's go to the next slide if we could. Just to give you some background, back in 2024, we made some significant changes to our compensation structure in both police and fire. We established separate pay grade structures for each of those, police and fire, to help us be more responsive and better align with the market. So that was established back then. We made some specific moves to strengthen our position. We targeted being in the 90th percentile or better of pay, meaning we're in the very, very top tier of pay in our broader market study area. And in 2025, for the fiscal 26 budget, you also made some additional adjustments to pay grades, et cetera, to make sure we remained in that strong position as you made other adjustments across the entirety of our compensation plan. Again, we look to be in the strongest position we can in hiring entry-level employees and in hiring lateral officers that come to us with experience with certification. One of the things we do currently that we've done the last few years is we've had a flat rate for lateral transfers. So officers that have the post-certification, we've had a flat rate, not distinguishing in years of experience, but just bringing them in at that same level. What we've seen in the market in recent years is that has become more pronounced in other agencies where they are using more of a stepped program or a differentiation based on levels of experience and offering a range of salary. And we think it's time to reexamine that given what's happened in the market. Our goal isn't to just drive numbers up. In fact, the last two years we've seen record numbers in terms of applicants. That's a good thing. But we want to make sure we're attracting the best and retaining the great officers we have. So we're looking at that. We want officers that are experienced, have sound judgment, have a heart for community and community policing. And so to do that, you need to be on your game. You need to be sharply positioned in the market. And so that's why we're bringing this to you today. In addition to the adjustments we'd make for attracting new officers that are either entry-level or lateral, we would also make further adjustments to existing officers and positions to address any compression that might occur with what we're doing to be more aggressive in the market for new hires. We want to also address some adjustments for folks that are currently on board with us. I'll stop with that background right now. I want Chief Faulkner to give you some perspective from her position as police chief, and then we'll go into more detail in the presentation.

Thank you, Mr. Stuckey, and good evening to all of you. I appreciate this opportunity to say a few words about this. It's extremely important to us at the police department, and I'm certain that you know that you have a hardworking, dedicated, and professional police department. We're known as a premier law enforcement agency that meets very high standards. The number of calls for service, special events, and other demands on a police officer's time has increased year over year. We're prepared to start the hiring process for new police officers. It's imperative that we highlight the incentives that we offer, but especially to be competitive and attractive in our salary category. There are over 100 law enforcement agencies just in Middle Tennessee, and we are in competition with every one of them for the best candidates. The market has shifted big time. I've never seen anything like it in my career. The presentation that we have for you tonight will demonstrate the city of Franklin's effort to be the standout law enforcement agency that draws the best and the brightest to become Franklin's finest. And thank you.

Thank you, Chief. Let's go to the next slide. This summarizes kind of up front for you what we're talking about in terms of the general compensation, where we are today. Entry-level officers, we go at 65,000. We would propose that that move up 3,000 up to 68,000. And then as I described, what is currently today a flat lateral rate at 68,000, that that would move to a tiered structure from one to three years at 73, four to seven years at 75, and eight years plus at 77. So we're gonna take you through some market comparisons to give you a sense of where that is. As I mentioned, we will also make 3% adjustments for all of our officers, existing officers, from police officer up to lieutenant, that whole range of positions there. We did examine our other compensation elements. Those remain highly competitive, but they really matter, and you'll see that when we look at some of the market comparatives in terms of shift differential, some of the specialized stipends that are in place, take home vehicles that we offer, to many of our officers and other incentive pays that we have in place or structures we have in place to encourage officers to develop, get things like tuition reimbursement, etc. So this is kind of the bottom line of what we're recommending. The budget accommodates it. We anticipated the need to make some adjustments. We're in a position now that we can make some specific recommendations to you. We also have a pretty good handle on where other agencies are or where they're going with their budgets and And so this is the right time for us to do it. Sean's going to take you through the specifics in terms of the market structure and the comparatives of where we are and where we'll move to that take into account some of the differences between schedules and other things that happen from agency to agency and try to give you as good a level comparison of where we are and where we need to be. Let me mention just specifically, Sean will highlight somewhere around 10 agencies in particular that we did comparatives to. Our market comparison group is obviously much larger than that, but we honed in on those groups because they are the ones we are most likely to compete against and they are on the upper end of the scale where we are competing with them. Our market comparatives are much Larger than that, typically when we look at that and that speaks to us maintaining that position of being in the 90th percentile or higher. So I'll hand it over to Sean to walk you through some of the details and then we'll be glad to take questions and have discussion from there and talk about what next steps look like. So take it away, Sean.

Yeah, so as Eric was saying, we know how important it is to be competitive in this market. So we really wanted to take the data and see where we compare with these new rates, and I will go over our comparison and how that looks and how we stay competitive. So in this comparison, we took nine regional law enforcement employers, and then we take a base salary comparison as well as an hourly. Many of these departments work different schedules. They work either 2080 up to 2,236 hours per year. So we wanted to show you both the annual amount and the hourly amount. shift differential stipends vehicles retirement and other benefits were analyzed separately from the the actual base salary and So with that, we'll start with our first tier, which is our entry-level tier. Currently, we bring in entry-level candidates at 65,000 a year. With our updated, we would bring them in at 68,000. 68,000 puts us annual salary of number two out of the eight, just behind Murfreesboro at 68,000, and Murfreesboro would be at 70,299. Then you look at the entry level with our shift differential. We took the max shift differential from each department and compared that to ours. And that bumped us up to annually, back up to number one at 74,800. And our hourly, we're at number one as well at 3596. So our first lateral tier, that's the experienced officers with one to three years of experience, we would be bringing them in at an updated rate of 73,000 a year. And currently we're at that flat rate at 68,000 a year. Bringing them in at that rate compared to the other departments, it ranks us fourth annually. And third, hourly. We are right below Mount Juliet, who is 73,819, and we come in at 73,000. However, our hourly is slightly higher because of the difference in schedules. So then you add on the max shift differential for that. That bumps us up to number two annually, right behind Metro Nashville. That brings our officers up to 80,300, where Metro Nashville would be at 83,189. However, our hourly rank, that bumps us up to number one. in the difference in schedule again at 3861 hour, where Metro Nashville is at 3809. And the next updated tier is these experienced officers from four to seven years. We would bring them in at 75,000, and that would put us at an annual ranking of four out of ten and an hourly ranking of three out of ten for that base pay. And then again, you look at that with our max shift differential, and that brings us up to an annual rank of 2 out of 10. And then we are first in our hourly rank at 39.66, which puts us slightly above Nashville, who's 38.09 hourly. And then our third tier is for those lateral officers who would have eight plus years of qualifying experience. We would be bumping them up to a 77,000. And that would put us at five out of 10 for the annual rank and four out of 10 for the hourly rank. However, again, when you add that max shift differential, we then move to number one annually ranked and number one ranking for their hourly. And that brings them up to a total of $84,700 for the year or $40.72 hourly, which puts us slightly above Metro Nashville. So when you look at that at a glance, when you compare the hourly compensation with the shift diff, we are number one in all categories. We have a very competitive shift differential. When you look at the base, we are still very competitive with these numbers, and we believe this will really help us recruit and also retain those experienced officers. So when you look at total compensation, you look at the shift differential. We compared all the departments. We found that some have no shift differential, some are slightly behind us, and then some are quite a ways behind us. We have ranked first. With our entry-level shift diff, you're looking at adding an extra $4,760 per year for that afternoon shift differential at 7%. And then at 10%, the majority night shift differential, you would be looking at adding an extra $6,800 per year. And then another thing that helps us remain competitive in the market, not only is our shift differential great, we offer specialized team pay for our SWAT, DIVE, Crisis, and CERT teams, our Honor Guard team. We offer our take-home vehicle program. We offer our officers $250 a week for on-call pay and two hours of guaranteed call pack pay. And then one of our best benefits here, we offer special duty pay that is now paid through payroll and can contribute to the TCRS for these new officers and current officers.

Sean, when you say that it as part of the TCRS. Yeah. Is part of that being contributed to TCRS, or is this their TCRS contribution from us increased because of that?

It would increase because it's through our payroll now.

So it gets treated like pay. Other agencies pay it sort of outside of regular compensation so it doesn't get added to the base in the pension. We include it through the regular pay system, so it becomes eligible to be part of the pension calculation. It also fits into managing liability associated with those officers working and using city equipment, et cetera. So this is something we've done for several years now. It's a cleaner way to do that operation. It does have a benefit to the officer at the end of the day as well. And not all agencies, many agencies don't do that. They just... have an arrangement where those officers may get paid directly by the user and it doesn't fall into the compensation system of the city. Thank you.

And then with those tier changes, we recognize that it does create a compression risk, and that's why we then implement the 3% targeted adjustment for those ranks of PO2 and up to lieutenant. It kind of helps with that compression risk, and those officers would be that PO2 rank, detectives, MPOs, sergeants, and lieutenants that would get that 3% bump.

Yeah, we'll make sure that no one coming in is making more than folks have similar experience that are already with us. So that's a check Sean and the team have already done as we implement this.

And then once we took a look at the numbers, we reviewed 140 employees. We have projected increases for 123 of those employees. And then in those higher ranks above P01, that will receive that 3% adjustment, about 84 employees. And then we estimated the salary impact to be around $195,000 for the remainder of this fiscal year. And that's with an estimated 20% for the fringe benefits as well, with a total FY27 impact of $234,000.

So here's the implementation approach that we would like to take. We're presenting it to you this evening and welcome your feedback, questions, discussion on this for sure. Our goal would be to incorporate this in an upcoming recruitment effort for new officers and we're ready to launch that recruitment as soon as this week. We've been doing some teasers on social media you might have seen, but we are ready to go with some more specifics around some of the information you've seen tonight that talk about how we've positioned ourselves within the market so that we can attract the most qualified officers and retain the great talent that we already have. The runway for that implementation would be between now and the end of the year. We'd ramp up for that. It would be part of the recruitment, and we would make sure our existing officers are addressed before we start to pay the new officers with this proposed structure. Specifically, this is all within the approved pay plan that the board has. So there's not really specific action required by the board. I absolutely want your feedback and guidance on this. But the way it's set up, we're working within the existing approved pay plan and ranges that you've approved. This would just be modifications across existing officers and the level of starting pay that we authorize for officers that we recruit that are either entry-level or lateral transfers. We really don't need other action, but we do want your guidance, want to make sure you're comfortable with this approach. Again, Sean gave you the numbers. It's somewhere in the $240,000 range, something like that, that is anticipated within the budget, and that includes both pay adjustments and the relative benefits associated with those pay adjustments and accommodating those on that timeframe starting at the first of the calendar year moving into the balance of the fiscal year. So that's in place. We're ready to move forward with this should the Board be comfortable with it and glad to take any questions, comments, follow-up that you have here. We'll hit our very last slide that sort of summarizes this. We've looked at being competitive in terms of base pay. We want to be in the front of the market generally so that we are attracting entertaining folks and that we're clearly seen as the right agency for the best talent. You'll also see that the impact in this fiscal year is right at $234,000 all in. That's pay and benefits and would be implemented at the first part of 2027 in January. What we hope to do is what we've seen when we took these strong actions over the last two to three years. We see an increase in the talent coming in to the recruitment pool. We improve our ability to retain talent overall, and we build the strongest department that we can. It's not just about compensation. It's also about the culture we create and the support we provide for officers in terms of training and advancement and opportunity. And we take that very seriously as a really important equal component in the equation of building a strong team and attracting or retaining the best talent to serve the community. So I think that covers it. Sean, anything else you want to add?

I think that's it. Thanks to the budget team, I know how important this is to the police department, to chief. And it's our goal to always partner with them and make sure we're recruiting the best officers we can across this country and bring that experience to Franklin.

I do want to add, in our recognition, Chief Faulkner obviously was very involved in this process. Lieutenant Scott Quinn played a role in helping us look at this as well and just gathering information, trying to find out as much as we can about what other agencies were doing or preparing to do in terms of compensation so that we could give you the best information tonight. So we'll turn it over. Mayor, any questions, discussions that folks have?

Two questions. One, I'm assuming the target of 3%. You're just going to do a blanket 3%. You'll make sure there's a meaningful avoidance of compression, not just helpful.

Yeah, we're going to look at both the comparative to level of experience and the thresholds that we put here and then the 3% as well. So we're doing that. That's similar to what we did in 2024 when we made adjustments, and it did help us. Chief always looks at individual situations, and sometimes you have to make some other adjustments, but we think this puts us, by and large, in the vast majority of cases, in that position we want to be where we've taken care of our existing people and we've also put our best foot forward from a recruitment standpoint.

Okay and then what what is the percentage of officers on our roster that are receiving the ten seven and ten percent shift differential?

Two-thirds of the folks on patrol are. I mean, is it split that evenly? Yeah, it's pretty much. I think that's pretty accurate. We have a few other things related to stipend. We do have callback pay for folks like detectives that are on call for certain periods of time that we have to call in for certain situations. So I think we've also done some things for our traffic folks as well. So there's a mix of things we do to try to address some of those additional requirements we have on folks.

Two or three questions. The $234,000 would not begin until January of next year, right?

January of 27, correct.

January the 1st. So the $234,000 is for that six-month period, January the 1st through June the 30th. Yeah, June the 30th of 2027. That's right. Give us a little breakdown on the recruiting process and how many applicants we have currently. How many openings do we have now? And what are we looking to fill based upon the needs that we are addressed? We would, if you start hiring now, this is August, if you start hiring now, you start interviewing, you're probably not going to get them on payroll until sometime, what? January the first?

That's why that January date makes sense in terms of the ramp up. Our current eligibility list has been exhausted so that's why we're going out now. And so we need to replenish that recruit list that we would hire from. So that's what we're getting ready to do and we wanted to have the most updated numbers in terms of where we wanted to position in the market. So we would go out, gosh, I don't have exact numbers. Sean may have them. Last time we went out, it was well over 200, maybe close to 300 applicants that we had last time we went out. Now, they're not all qualified. But we did see a strong number in terms of response there. So we would hope to do that well or better. From that, there's a pretty exhaustive screening process so that we make sure we're getting the right folks there. Current openings, we do authorize, and you all have empowered us to do this when we do a recruitment process, you do authorize up to five over-hires. And we do that in both entry-level police officers and firefighters because The recruitment process is very exhaustive and expensive, and we want to make sure we're making the most of getting the best candidates. And if it helps us to overhire when we've got a good pool, that's smart for us because we know just with the size of the department, you're going to have retirements, you're going to have opportunities that you wish you'd had those folks in a few months if you don't go ahead and hire them. earlier in the process while we know they're looking and they're available. So that's been a strategy we've used that's served us very well in both fire and police in the last several years. Current openings, do you have that handy, Sean? I think Chief probably does. I think she's got it etched on her hand somewhere.

I sure do know. We have eight, and that includes the three new positions you budgeted July 1st, and I had some overhires. I had a couple officers who were scheduled to come here, both lateral from another state, and they had health issues in their family, and one couldn't sell his house in New Jersey. Imagine that. You won't have that problem here, but we have eight right now.

My other comment would be just a general comment. It does appear with all that we're doing here, it does appear that that $234,000 might be a little light.

MR. It's the number. We've run the numbers. So, yeah, and we had anticipated probably a little higher number when we budgeted, but this is the number when we came through with what we're recommending to you today, including benefits. So we've run those numbers multiple times between HR and budget. So we're pretty comfortable that that's accurate.

Vice Mayor. Oh, thank you. I thought you might wake you up. No, no.

I thought I had been overlooked. That's good. I feel seen, Mayor. That's part of an important culture. I will tell you, I think this is great. Of the positions, I've noticed the entry level is very high on our competitors, but probably the highest cost to train and bring people up. And that's a very expensive process. What's the training difference? So if we were looking at like an eight plus year person versus an entry level, do the training, they don't have to go through the academy and all that stuff, but are there other things that the eight plus year or three, four to seven that we have to do training expenses associated with that as well? Or are those kind of like kind of plug and play in some regards? Does that make sense?

Okay, if I understand the question, someone who comes to us with eight years of experience, if they're from out of state, they have to be post-certified in the state of Tennessee. So that class, that transition class is about three weeks. Plus, they have to do what we call learning it Franklin's way. Totally different than other places. We're very community-oriented. We're very victim-centered. You know, when somebody's a victim of crime, we want to make sure that they're covered and They're taken care of and comforted as they need to be. So if I understand the rest of your question, well over $100,000. Compare that to an entry level.

How many weeks is an entry level?

An entry level, I have four right now at Walter State who are brand new police officers who are going to be Tennessee Post certified at the end of about 12 weeks. They were hired in June and they just left in the last of July. So we had them for a couple of months to go over general orders, just to have them qualify with a firearm, to get them ready for the 12 weeks. And generally speaking, when they get there, they're the top of the class. I mean, they can always tell me. They can always tell who's from Franklin because we want them to stand out.

So that's good. So I guess really what I'm trying to get at is, is it more – we're lower in the ranks for experienced officers as far as in the market study. We're four – with shift differential and the other things, but we're two, three, four. But those are probably the lesser costs to train and bring an onboard and get them into the role. Yeah. So I'm trying to understand, like, while – We wouldn't be higher in those more experienced tiers?

When you factor in the shift differential, we're actually at the top.

That's only two-thirds of the people that we would be looking for.

Yes, exactly. It is something we look at. You're right, it is a significant savings. We're looking at how we're positioned in the market, and we think that positions us in the right place. They are going to be on some level shift differential when they come on. That's just the nature of somebody new. Even if you came in with eight years, you're going to be in one of those shifts. So that's a reality for them. We actually have even a pay calculator that candidates can run online themselves and see these exact numbers. about shift differential, about if they get selected for one of the specialized teams, how that might affect them, all those elements. So we think it's still the right place. It still puts us at the top of the market, but you're right. It does justify maybe this tiered approach that we haven't taken until now, and the market has changed on that. Three years ago, that wasn't nearly as pronounced, and people were just stepping up more to get the more experienced officers. So it does make sense to pay that because you're paying for that experience, and you are avoiding the more extensive training costs associated with an entry level.

I think the line of thought was if it costs $15,000 to get someone up and running that's three years post-certified and greater, and it costs $50,000 to train an entry level officer, and we're number one for entry level those kind of costs are not necessarily You can't really peg that out. I mean, and so that's why I was wondering if maybe we want to incentivize ones with less training. And we're doing that.

I think we want a balance. I mean, that's really what we're looking for because we want folks – because you also have what kind of runway you have on a career. And so we want folks that maybe are starting a 25-plus year career and some that might be in the middle of a 25-plus year career. And they bring that experience, which is valuable. But it's hitting that balance. The chief may be able to speak to that, too, in terms of what we try to look for in getting a – a balance across our workforce.

Exactly. You do want a balance of new officers and lateral entry. One of the things that I do, and like Mr. Stuckey said, we had over a couple hundred candidates last time. That was amazing compared to before. We'd have like 15 that would show up. It's good to be wanted. But one of the things that I do during the interview is to ask them, how did you find out we were hiring? Because I don't want to waste money and time that's not working. And so it looks like social media is very prominent, and therefore you've been seeing all these teasers if you've been on social media at all. We've been teasing, you know, kind of coming soon. Today we did one that was real splashy. We've got a video that goes out tomorrow that's super splashy. We want to appeal to people who are interested in our different forms of policing that we do with our various special operations because they want a challenge. I mean, it's fine to answer calls, but they like the challenge and the extra experience and training for SWAT or negotiations or dive. So I think that's another thing that we offer, even though we're a midsize agency. I had several people email today that said, you know, it says coming soon and they're sending me messages that says when. So that's kind of a good place to be. And I'm very optimistic and I'm excited about the type of people we're going to attract to the City of Franklin. The ones that I talk to, especially the laterals, all say I'm coming there. That's where I want to raise my children. And that's an amazing thing for someone to say, not just that they want to be a part of our department, they want to be a part of our community, and that's really what I hope to attract.

Thank you. Holden Pons. Thank you, sir. First, great presentation. Thank you so much for stepping up and doing all of this. Thank you as well, Chief and Eric. As I look at this, I'm looking at the, I would just challenge us on the four to seven, And the eight-plus years, because we're sitting just above the middle of the pack right there, and based on our goal of being in that top 10%, I know that it's something we're going to have to watch as we're moving forward. And that leads me to my next comment slash question, and that is, now that we've been through this process right here, what is our plan – to review this again, what's going to be our schedule so that we're not caught off guard and we're having to react more to the market, but we're leading that market. So are we looking at doing this every two years, every three years? What do we think the plan will be now?

I would say we look at doing it as needed. We continually keep an eye on the market. We've done that. We made a significant adjustment in 24. We made an additional adjustment. We did the whole compensation plan for the whole city in 25, and here we are talking to you in 26. So I think that shows you that we're trying to be very aware. We do it not just in public safety, but we look at everything, and we try to do a comprehensive compensation plan review every around every three years. So we've got that as a baseline, but we look at all sorts of things, not just public safety, but other things, and that's one of the charges we give our department directors and our HR team, is if we see that we are falling behind in the market or we're losing good talent, either folks that we have or folks that we're trying to recruit, we take a look at that. We make adjustments in compensation structure every budget. We do it comprehensively every three years, and then we look at targeted adjustments every year. So it's really kind of an ongoing process, especially with public safety. You see the recruitment efforts that others put out there. I always get e-mails from both of our chiefs about what is out there and what people are doing, and we keep a close eye on it and will continue to do so for our team.

Well, we appreciate you doing that. Thank you, Chief.

Thank you.

Alderman Barnhill, question, and this is just for interest. One of the benefits is the take-home vehicle. Do all of the patrol officers have a take-home vehicle? I mean, who has?

The folks on patrol pretty much all do.

Those on patrol, first, second, and third shift.

And when you look at this, and again, this is kind of the top of the market, these nine or ten that we're looking at, ten when you include us. Most of them, with the exception of, what, two or three agencies, provide a take-home vehicle. So that's sort of a base competitive element that you see in the market as well.

That's been a huge benefit when we've had to call people back. We have a major call, like over the weekend, we had some flooding in some areas, and so we had a call back. We had some officers, I'll come in, I'll come in. Jump in the car, and they're here, and they can check in. They don't have to come to the police department to get a car, go get the keys. They're ready to go to work. So, I mean, that's a tremendous asset for us, as well as them.

Alderman Caesar. Appreciate the discussion here. I think some of the things that I want to highlight, number one, this list is not static, so if we move to one, do we have an idea of when the other members of that list have re-evaluated their pay so that we can see if this adjustment is going to be followed quickly by Collierville or Brentwood or whoever making that next move?

It can always happen. We think we have projected out. We've looked at what has happened in their budget processes, so we have a good sense of where they are, but They're going to see this presentation, and there might be some adjustments. That happened last time. That might happen this time. But we think we've positioned ourselves about right, anticipating as much as we can and as much as we know. Lots of calls went out. Lots of background checked through budget documents, through connections. That's why some of our police team helped us identify where we think they're going, not just where they are right now, but where we think they're going in the future.

The beauty of the public process. Yes. All police officers are eligible for the annual cost of living raise or merit raise. So in addition to this, there will be additional increases. You answered my questions about number of openings. One thing I would just really underscore is that as I saw this presentation, as you stratified it, the new entrance, the kind of mid-career entrance and the later career entrance with more than eight, my concern was are we building a police force that for the future. It does seem in public safety we go through these waves of retirements and I'm proud to hear you share tonight that that is a piece of the pie that you've presented. Recognizing as Alderman Baggett was highlighting that it may cost more to get a first year or somebody with less than a year on board but that person potentially has a career of 25 years with our organization and wanting to make sure that we have new blood as well as more experience and also continue to be competitive so that we can respond to the crises when they present. So thank you for that.

One of the realities for Franklin is we've seen pretty significant growth over a long period of time. 99, 2000, 2001, this city grew significantly in terms of staffing. We added fire stations. We added police officers pretty significantly in those time frames because they were needed. But we also added a lot of folks at the same time. So we have a lot of people eligible to retire in that window. And so we're trying to be mindful of that. And that's what some of this balancing helps us do. But it's a general exposure we have because the city experienced growth. and sort of took a step significantly in staffing to meet that growth at certain times, and especially like the turn of the century. So we're hitting that 25-plus range where a lot of those folks are in that range, and it starts to be a reality for us. Nothing we can do about it except for try to make sure we're as competitive as we can be and get the best talent to replace those great team members that might make that choice in retirement in the next year or two or three. Yes. So with the board's consideration or your feedback tonight, we'll move forward with this plan. It exists within the pay structure you've approved, and we'll move forward, and you'll see some pretty good information out there as we put our best foot forward to get the best talent to serve and support this community. I mentioned the work that Chief Faulkner did. Lieutenant Quinn helped us with this. We've also put some specific efforts around recruitment, And Lieutenant Joanne Wilhite has helped us lead that effort too. So we've been very conscious about making this an emphasis. It's something Chief talks about all the time. I think every one-on-one we talk about vacancies and positioning and where we are. So we're very mindful about getting that talent in the door and the best talent we can. So thank you for your support, and thank you to our team for their work here.

Thank you. Thank you.

Item three is resolution 2026 dash 57 amending the Franklin first United Methodist Church PUD subdivision to extend the vesting rights for the property located south of Mack Hatcher Parkway west of Daniel Mack Mahan Lane located 110 Aldersgate Way, establishing public hearing September the 8th 2026. Any questions about that? Seeing none, we'll move on to item number four, which is approve the lease template for commercial tenants as part of the city hall block redevelopment and authorize the city administrator to execute tenant leases and contracts for tenant improvements.

So things are continuing to move along with the City Hall project. And one of the elements is the commercial space along 3rd Avenue. And I think that could be a very exciting opportunity. You've given us some guidance on that. We surveyed our team members. We've gathered information. We've got a really good commercial broker knowledgeable of the market, knowledgeable of downtown working with us. Kelly can provide some updates there, but we've seen very, very strong response there. So we're preparing for what we do as we start to make those decisions and how we might structure that. We'll absolutely bring to you the selected or the recommended tenants for that space, but want to talk about how we might work on this. on a go-forward basis so we can be as responsive and get the best potential tenants in place. So, Kelly, take it away.

Thank you. This is a resolution to approve a template lease contract and to lay out and formalize the process going forward for the commercial tenant spaces. The available spaces are part of the city hall block redevelopment. They're visible on Third Avenue South. There are up to three tenant spaces available. And the city has contracted with Hamilton Young to manage this process and tenant selection process going forward. and also to manage the property once the tenant contracts are in place. This is the tenant criteria which the BOMA has seen before and approved and is part of this resolution as well. There are a variety of potential tenants that could be in these spaces according to the market and economic analysis that was done a few years ago. Their general commercial office or general commercial spaces, retail, You can kind of see some of the concepts on these slides, restaurants, which brings us to our resolution we're talking about tonight. So as I mentioned, it approves the lease contract to be used in the negotiation process with potential tenants. Time is of the essence in the commercial brokerage world. and having an approved lease template by BOMA will allow Hamilton Young to operate more nimbly and work with potential tenants to negotiate leases. Steve Bacon and Russ Haynes and Reid Mengelsdorf are here tonight if you have any specific questions about the lease template. Another part of the resolution is the tenant criteria that the BOMA previously approved that will be used for the tenant selection process. It authorizes Hamilton Young to select the tenants based on those criteria as well as sound financial capabilities of the potential tenants. It also specifies the city administrator to inform BOMA of the selected tenants prior to execution of any leases. and then authorizes the city administrator to finalize and execute the leases as well as tenant improvement contracts as may be needed upon terms acceptable to the city attorney. And lastly, it authorizes the city administrator to make day-to-day decisions in coordination with Hamilton Young, but any major decisions like termination of lease contracts would come back to the BOMA for consideration. So looking at next steps, marketing and negotiation of the tenant spaces is underway through the summer and fall of this year with the selected tenant notice to BOMA and lease execution in late fall, winter, and then tenant improvements into the next year with the goal of hopefully opening those tenant spaces in coordination with City Hall opening. So I'll answer any questions you may have.

Alderman Barnhill. You say we went through the process of selecting the group that will manage this. How many applicants did we have?

I believe there were at least three.

At least three? Yes.

And Hamilton Young had extensive experience in downtown Franklin, which the others did not have.

And to date, letters of interest somewhere around 15 so far from potential users of the commercial space. So we see strong interest from potential users already. And that number could be growing. After all the people that watch our board meetings, it's probably going to skyrocket.

My eyes were drawn to the insurance section, and I do think that we need to take a look at that. It just requires $1 million, $2 million in general liability. I know this can be adjusted based off the tenant that occupies the space, but I would say it's probably typical for folks to require at least an umbrella and some auto liability and some other. So I think that one particular section we probably should... have a once over on that but i definitely think that's probably less than what the market bears but and that for us is very important obviously to make sure we're protected the tenant i think this is i'm sorry the tenant mix and making sure the types of businesses that we're not limiting ourselves to just what the consultant said meaning the retail consultant said. I don't think that is what we're saying by reminding us by your slides, and that was a great reminder that basically he said pretty much anything... Lots of things could work here, yeah. Pretty much anything could work. So that's good. We're not limiting, I guess, the... That's not a funnel by which we're siphoning things through. Okay.

Just examples.

Just examples, all right. And then I would, you know, the last thing is making sure it's locally owned or focused. There's lots of ways to describe that. But I would definitely not want... I'm not going to use any specific names. But if you go up and down Main Street, you can tell the ones that are chains and the ones that are not chains. And chains can be defined in a lot of different ways. And I respect... Look, there's great... When you have multiple locations, that's fine. But I definitely wanted to make sure that we're not just adding something that could go in the mall. And that we're really thinking about that. And I know that the... brokers that you selected were thinking that way too. So those are my comments. Thank you.

That's very much a high focus for us is to have something that is unique and has a local feel. Is absolutely local or very unique to the area.

I would agree with that, Patrick. I think that's really important. So you talked earlier about limiting where it said limiting vape and things of that nature, which I think we all get. But when it also limited any ability of any restaurant to limit their ability to serve beer or wine, a lot of times that is a great revenue strain because the margins are so tight on restaurants. And I really don't like the fact that we would limit that, but I do understand, and we've got an insurance fellow here who could speak to it. But, I mean, there is definitely a risk. I'm not debating that. You brought that up. And I'm like, yeah, sure, there's always a risk that we would be named in a lawsuit if someone was drinking and driving. That's true for anywhere. I think we could also be, so how do we handle Eastern Flank when we have weddings there? Because they were running that place out, and people have alcohol there. And so we are at risk there as well. Now, I'm not risk-averse on this kind of thing. I think we ought to be smart about it. I think maybe there are some things that we could do. I just don't want to limit those kinds of things for restaurants. And I just have a problem with that not being an option. Now... We might not need that right now and maybe we could add it on later. And I think we should probably, uh, have you all weigh in on that and figure out, you know, if there is certainly a need that you can come back to us and say there is need and, um, you would like to have that added in and then we'd have to discuss it and all that. Uh, if that's our current need, then I'm not gonna push to say, Hey, let's add that now. But I think maybe we ought to be open to it in the future. and say that we aren't gonna totally eliminate it. The other thing is, on these things, I would caution us to not add on a commercial venture that we have multiple, multiple, multiple ones in our city. There's one example in there that I can count four right within three to four blocks. of that same kind of commercial offering. And I'd rather not add another one because we need to diversify a little bit with our offerings, I think. So I'm not going to name it. I think you know what I'm talking about. But I think you ought to take a look at that just to make sure that we don't add another one on top of that. Say you have a bagel place and you have four or five bagel places or six or seven pizza places within seven blocks, and then you add another pizza place, whatever the case is. So I think we ought to look at that. But thank you. Good work. It's a very attractive space since people would want to be there. Thanks.

Alderman Blanton.

I think Beth brings up a really good point, and I'm sitting here walking down Main Street trying to think of any of our restaurant offerings that don't have some version of libation, whether it's craft beer or whatever. I don't know that there are any. So I understand that we're the landlord, if you will, but the idea that we have other places that we lease where that's done as just kind of like common acceptance, it seems a little bit archaic to me. So it does limit the kind of retail or restaurants that you can bring. If you think about somebody who's not able to have that as part of their offerings, they end up being a breakfast and lunch, and it's hard to make a nut in Franklin, Tennessee without having three meals a day as your offering. You're right on the margins. I was a bartender for 12 years, so I get that. So I don't understand why that's in there. If it was just a copy-paste, just what we do, but I think they need to have their full arsenal of opportunity for the people that are interested. And I think it could really change our opportunity to be able to have a certain kind of tenant.

I think what drove it was some liability concerns. We're not a church. We're not close to, you know. So that's what drove it. And when we made the recommendations several months ago when we talked about it, that was part of that consideration that it's a little different when you're the owner of the property. You will be a target if something happens. So I think what our approach was, let's see what the market gives us with that. Obviously, you could revisit it if we think we're missing something, but I think we're seeing pretty strong response with that being an element of the consideration. I think we hear that concern, but I think we also are seeing that the market's reacting pretty strongly to the structure we've put out there, and that's been part of it.

We don't have that data. So you can tell us 15 people, but it may be 15 people that we don't really feel as strongly about as you do. I just think when you're going out and you're trying to find the best tenant, then you have the best opportunities.

I've got Alderman Caesar. Let him go.

Go ahead, Alderman. Vice Mayor. Because in keeping with that, when you look at the risk of, and I'm sure a lot of buildings that have bars in them, the main thing you look at is the revenue from food versus alcohol sales. And so you might have some sort of, you know, the breakfast place on the square, they serve, but they're, the risk is next to the percentage of their total revenue. So this obviously would don't want a bar. We don't want a bar. We don't want revenues for that. So I think it's going to be circumstantial. It's all insurable. But I also think I think we all would choose tenant that didn't serve if there were great options that except and so I think that needs to be the bent but if there is a you know a brunch spot again to your point I hear you they need all three meals you know I just think making sure we're not we're not setting up shop set up a bar that's we don't want to do that but you know hopefully that won't be a problem we'll have good options for other otherwise but if something this is guest feedback for the broker if something comes back and there is some limited sale, then that should be brought to staff and considered based on this feedback.

We'll have that dialogue with the broker as well and look at it. Since things are pretty positive, but let's see if that might change.

I just want to make sure that you don't hesitate to ask us if you have a great client that you think would fit that and you do need that, please come back to us and talk to us about it because I think that we already have on property that we rent out already like weddings and You know, we have this going on in our parks. We have Harlinsdale. We've got Meesterflank and things like that. So we're already dealing with that. So I really just don't want to miss out on that. So make sure you come back to us if you need it.

Item 5 is City of Franklin Contract 2026-0306 with, I'm sorry. No, he rescinded his request. With diversified for acquisition, installation, audio, video, and other technology equipment amount of $1,297,428.89 for the city block redevelopment project.

So technology is another important component of bringing the building to life, and Mark's going to walk through where we are with that piece right now.

So I'm getting there.

Okay, so thank you for your time this evening. So the contract before you is COF Contract 2026-0306 with diversified. The amount is just shy of $1.3 million. When we started projecting costs for this project, the technology budget was estimated to be about $2 million. From everything that we've purchased to date and what we anticipate purchasing further lands at about $2.64 million, which is certainly over the two that we had projected. I will say that when we did do the projections early on, the full technology design hadn't been completed yet. We were just making some assumptions. But that, with escalating costs, we landed at about 2.64. The one item left to purchase are security cameras, which is included in that $2.6 million figure. and that's estimated to be about $120,000. So the contract we're proposing this evening is being purchased, the equipment is being purchased through a cooperative agreement, and what that does is allows the city to really get attractive costs on what the equipment is. I don't know what... It's significantly reduced from if we went to an open market to purchase. So I know IT, Jason and Mike Proctor spent a significant amount of time working through these numbers and identifying the needs versus wants. And so that's what's before you this evening, and I'm happy to try and answer any questions.

This is a pretty volatile area in terms of costs. I'll give you an example from the budget process we just went through. There was a component in the IT realm that dealt with, I think, a piece of our data center, and we were able to expedite the purchase and do it in last fiscal year, and it ended up saving us about $300,000, something like that, even higher. So just by the timing of getting these things done. So it is pretty volatile. We feel like this is what it takes to support the operation and also have the capacity to expand as we need to going forward. You know, you want something that works day one but also keeps you where you need to be in year five and year ten and beyond. And we think we're doing that with the package that we're bringing forward to you. tonight and the overall approach to technology within the building. We're not getting the very top, top of the line, but we're getting what we need to support the operations and have what we anticipate in terms of flexibility going forward as we add additional capacity.

Correct. Item six is Alderman Berger.

Are there any grants out there that we can get for this kind of thing with protection, security? Have we looked into that yet?

We've gotten a cybersecurity grant that we're working on right now. I got some authorized for payment today.

We received that today. But that would not go into the infrastructure and the architecture.

But we do look at things around cybersecurity in particular where we can. We try to be opportunistic. If that comes our way, we'll explore it.

I'll talk to you later because I thought there was something nationally, federally that they were working on. Yeah, I'll just talk to you afterwards. Okay, sure.

We are always looking for those opportunities.

City of Franklin contract 2026-0310 with color burst landscape services for landscape services for city facilities in the amount of $263,933.62. Any questions about that? Mr. Wilson's here.

What it is is the current provider of services to the city of Franklin facilities for mowing and landscaping services, they have not done their job. They have caused damage to city facilities. It's been kind of a constant little battle. I've met with them multiple times trying to straighten things out. I finally made a decision that I wanted to replace them based on the agreement that we have with them. It was 30 days. I pulled the trigger. I met with their representative about two weeks ago. He literally was not surprised that I did what I did. He had already told his company to expect it. So we've made a great choice with going with Colorverse to do our services now. We've already let them start a little bit of cleanup around the police department, and it looks fantastic when you look at it. That's the kind of service we will get.

Item seven is procurement award for city of Franklin contract 2026-0294 with waste management, Tennessee for single stream recycling service. Good evening, everyone. You want to do seven and eight together?

Eight is actually for water management, so we'll keep them separate. Good evening, everyone. SES is seeking to procure services from Waste Management Recycle America, who is the sole respondent to an invitation to bid for processing of our single-stream recycling that we get through our Blue Bin program. The proposed contract includes an initial three-year term with the option to renew for additional two one-year options. for a maximum of a five-year contract. Additionally, this agreement is expected to create an opportunity for the city to generate revenue through the sale of cardboard, which will affect our bottom line and our tipping fee. The blended rate with this right now is right around 43 or maybe going down a little bit? Yeah, right around 43. For an example of that, say right now at the time when it was bid or when we had the value in September of 2025, we're looking at a 65% value. So if it costs waste management $121 to process the recyclables, When you apply our value, our shared value, our price comes in at $39.69. And then when they redid the contract again, because it took us a while to get through it, we're looking at just $43. So it would still be under the rate that we were actually paying.

We were paying somewhere around $50 at one point. Yeah. So we've actually brought that cost down per ton. It does vary a little bit with what's going on in the commodity markets. We just have to work with that. Nate and the team, though, have created an opportunity for us to generate more revenue with the drop-off sites, especially for cardboard. So that gives us an opportunity for those larger volumes and to actually generate direct revenue. So this is an improvement over where we were about a year ago and gives us a little more dependability. We have shifted vendors to waste management with this proposal, but it gets us a better value, we think, long term. Vice Mayor?

This is an industry, I mean, I don't know if there are other cities doing this, but if you look at the amount of cardboard that ends up on my front porch, it is significant. Yes, sir. And if we're getting paid for that, and I'll be honest, a lot of it gets to the recycling. Some of it doesn't. Some of it gets taken, you know, put in the truck, and I take it to the dump. I mean, I guess I could go to the recycling and drop off stuff. But I guess... With 88,000 people and 45,000 households in the city, something like that, there's a lot of cardboard coming into the city. And what kind of revenue? And maybe now is not the time to kind of expound on that, but I would love to know more about that and what other cities, if other cities are getting ready, like curb pickup of cardboard, if that's a revenue-generating situation, there's a ton of it. And I hate breaking it down, although it probably needs to be broken down, and I do break it down. But there's got to be something that innovates on this, and it is revenue.

Definitely. Right now, just looking at as of yesterday, our glass recycling satellite stations have brought in over 16 tons, and then you're looking at cardboard has brought over 24 tons. That's not counting the station that's located at our main hub at 417th Century Court. So we're doing pretty good with those numbers. Do we sell that? Yes, sir. We do sell that.

And then what, I guess, what does 24 tons... Is that part of that discounted price you were just talking about? Yes, sir. The differential?

Yes, sir. Once the contract has been activated, that's when we go into the shared. Right now, we're on a $50 per ton uncontracted rate that stays the same until we get this deal in place. So that $50 will drop down to around $43.

Yes, sir. We do have the ability to sell what we collect at those drop-off sites. Yes.

We did do an audit of the waste stream so we know what we're generating, what the composition is.

And so that's part of what we worked with the bidders on to understand what they're going to get so that we could get the best value. But it is something to continue to keep an eye on. It does change. I mean, you know, there's a point at which we were getting paid for all of it, and now then we had to pay significantly higher to get it processed, and now it's coming back the other way.

When we did our original audit before we got out of contract with Lewisburg, we did an audit. We came in at $18 a ton that we would be paying to cross the scale. because of the commodities and how clean our recycling is that come through. So you're looking at the most of that is going to be cardboard. That's where the highest value is. And that's what we're missing out on right now is the high value of the cardboard in the market. That's what we're going to be looking at. And then also when we did our waste audit, You're looking at textiles, that's clothing. The biggest part of that was organics that we need to take out. That was over 50%. We saw the cardboard in there, too, that we could pull out, and then also the glass. So that's what we've been working on to try to weed that out of our waste stream.

Alderman Potts. Thank you, sir. So, question. I think this is great, number one. I've been after this. It used to be a... Twenty-plus years ago, I lived in another city that had curbside pickup for the cardboard. I think it's great. It's broken down anyway. I know we used to do something similar. My question is on people that can't participate in the blue bins, and I'm thinking about those in our multifamily units in different places. Do we have any plan, or is there some type of an existing plan that's going to be expanded? to have cardboard pickup at those locations? Because the same thing that Alderman Baggett's talking about, they're getting just as much cardboard being dropped off, but they can't take a blue bin to the curb every time.

Yes, sir. Good question. We're always looking for ways to include everyone. So we will continue to look at ways to include everyone. We're always looking at different cities and how they handle their multifamily units. So we're definitely looking at ways to try to bring that in, too. And largely those are served by some commercial providers, so that's a little different place where we cross each other.

That's why the drop-off sites help with that?

Yes. And we may be looking at expanding those drop-off sites. We'd like to thank the fire department and the parks for lending us their spaces to be able to do this program.

So, yeah, there may be other places we could add, and the more convenient you make it to those folks, the more you're likely to capture it. Yes. I'd like to see that place. Yes, sir.

Which parks are participating?

You're looking at Jim Warren Park and you're also looking at Fieldstone Park that's participating.

Only two?

Yes, and then the fire stations, you're looking at the fire station in Al-Balad Park and then the fire station in West Haven. Seven and eight, yeah.

We have nothing on the east side.

You have... We're actually covering all four wards. Yeah, there's one in each ward. We're tracking in all four wards.

Where's ward one?

Ward 1 is over there, Cool Springs. Yes, ma'am. Forgot to put that one in there.

Where?

Cool Springs Fire Station. Station 6. Oh, the fire station. Yes, ma'am.

Yeah, okay. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I forgot.

And I can actually send the numbers to you, Alderman, to see your awards, to see what you guys are doing.

Yeah, that's good.

Item 8 is procurement award of City of Franklin Contract 2026-0295 with Waste Management of Tennessee, Inc. for Sanitary Landfill Service.

Hi there. So this is for the contract that we need to have with waste management to dispose of our sludge. Now, as a teaser, we have a presentation that will be at the next August 25th about the potential use of, the potential beneficial use of our biosolids. But either way, we have to have this contract in place in case some of our biosolids equipment has to go offline for maintenance or for a power outage or whatever and we can't treat to the level that we need to treat. Just to describe this a little bit like Nate did, so the previous contract we had, before we brought our solids online, we were taking obviously all of our solids to the landfill. Our tipping fee was, actually it was $29 when I started with the city 13 years ago. This contract is for $65 a ton. So it is drastically increased because we're not taking as much solids there as we were before. So we have a, I'm going to lead to my spoiler again, we have a really big kind of good presentation about how the cost that we could avoid, that we could divert by not using this contract. But we have to have this. So this would only be as an as needed, you know, if we get into one of those situations. So this is for the same thing, three years with two one-year riders. There was only one bidder on this contract, waste management.

No questions? We'll keep rolling on. How about item nine, presentation discussion on the proposed transportation project evaluation process?

So last meeting at our July meeting we went through an update on our capital investment program and we also talked about how we might evaluate projects and one of the things we talked about was bringing back to you some real examples of projects you're familiar with and how an enhanced evaluation criteria might help you look at projects in the future. So Paul and the engineering team pulled together some examples and we're going to walk through that just to help facilitate some understanding and more understanding and gain some more feedback on how we might look at evaluating transportation projects going forward. Take it away, Paul.

Okay. So you've seen this first slide before. These are the five categories that we propose to rank transportation projects on. Again, this is modeled after the Nashville area MPO, how they do it regionally. It's a much simpler version of it, but it's the same concept. This is an example score sheet. I chose to use East McEwen Phase 5 project for it, and you can see how we go through and pull the different data sources, and it ultimately gives a total score for each project. This is a pairwise comparison. You've noticed that it's just Marston, Jonathan Marston and myself did it. We were fairly close together. The interesting part about this is there's really not a wrong category to choose. It's just really a way of collectively prioritizing what the overall board thinks is most important. And so, for example, you would compare state of good repair against roadway safety. In that case, that was mine. I picked roadway safety. Then you compare state of good repair against congestion management, and I picked state of good repair. Again, there's no real wrong answer. I actually found it a little bit challenging to do on my own. Jonathan and I were fairly close in what we picked. Not exactly, but fairly close, and ultimately what that does is give you a weighted percentage there on the far right. And then what we would do is take that weighted percentage and say, for example, if this was the boards and the mayor's vote, roadway safety is the most important. And so as we look at these different projects, roadway safety would be weighted higher, stronger, and influence more as to the ranking of the projects. This shows you how the projects actually rank. So this tells you, do you like the way these projects are scoring? If the order seems to be right, and you understand that, then it seems that it's generally working correct. I'm not going to say it's absolutely perfect. But you look at it on the left is the non-paralyzed. So basically, everything's weighted the same. Once we put the different weightings on, you can see to the right how some of these rankings shifted. And so the projects that scored on top were the same either way, East McEwen, Base 4, Mallory Lane, North Royal Oaks, Liberty were the top two. So the top two were the same. And then if you look at the bottom, it varies slightly. Now I will tell you projects like Goose Creek Bypass and Carothers Extension, it's going to score zero in some categories. Mack Hatcher Southwest is going to score zero in some categories. There's no traffic volume on it. There's... You know, no travel time. So there's certain categories that it just doesn't apply to because it's a new road. And that's ultimately where we get to the end of where, you know, BOMA still needs to weigh in and prioritize and pick those five-star projects. And we really want to focus on when we rank them, the data is what the data is. A lot of it's coming from big data such as INREX, cell phone data, AASHTOWARE, which is provided by the state of Tennessee. ADTs, which we get from TDOT's website, or city counts. So a lot of that data is what it is, but ultimately the Board of Mayor and Aldermen needs to select those five-star projects. Where we would ultimately go, and I don't have an exact schedule or have this laid out as to when we do it, is ultimately we would want the board to go through that pairwise comparison. We would put together a call for projects focused around transportation. The staff would provide you all with a list and we would ask for feedback on that list of what projects are we missing that you as a board member really want to see ranked and compared. Then staff would spend about two months trying to score those projects, and then ultimately we would present that back for BOMA feedback and BOMA prioritization. And so that summarizes it. I'm going to go back to this list because this is probably the most important slide that shows you how projects were ranking against each other. And so we would put together a team to look at certain aspects of it, such as economic development, state of good repair. We would want to involve some of our public works team to help us make those determinations on scoring. But a group of staff would work on this together to try to finalize it.

Alderman Brown.

The market researcher in me. tries to understand how do you not have a bias on roadway safety? I mean, I can't imagine that not being table stakes. I can't imagine anybody on this board not ranking roadway safety number one just out of You know what I mean? How would that not be our number one consideration? So how do you just eliminate the idea that roadway safety would be number one already? Maybe that's not the case, but I can't imagine that any of us would assume that roadway safety wouldn't be first. And so then really does it not come down to the other four in terms of subjective criteria?

Do you see what I'm saying? I would agree with you 100%, and that's where Jonathan and I ended up, but ultimately that would be your decision to...

Because if you're only going to do the pairwise once and then apply it to everything, I would think that roadway safety would be applied.

Yeah. And to what percentage? You know, how much of a weighting does that give you? Yes, I would agree. Roadway safety is hard to overlook.

Yeah. Vice Mayor. I can think of a couple of projects that would have zero because they don't exist. The long lane bridge.

Yeah.

It would not have zero.

Yes.

So that would knock it down.

Um, Deuce Creek and Carruthers Mack Hatcher Southwest.

So I, you know, and then the safety is real is relative. You know, the residents of Boyd Mill Pike see an extreme hazard in safety while I was, you know, I'm at a board meal on the sidewalk. Right. And then, you know, you don't drive it often. Maybe it doesn't feel that way. So I think that's where, so that safety are going to be objective criteria.

No safety is going to be based on true accident counts. Accident cameras. Whether there's major fatalities or major injuries, K&A accident types. And then we'll also add a factor of vulnerable road user where Boyd Mill would score high in that vulnerable road user category because there's no bike lanes or sidewalks. So that would fall into safety. Fall into safety, yeah.

I don't want to go through a whole other capital investment ranking situation after we just went through it. I mean, I love... This is what we called for. It would be interesting to see what it does, but opening back up this... a full wholesale change can't be great for... And that's not our intent today.

It is to give you a sense of how it works. And so next time we do this process, we'll apply this technique. So we're not looking to change what you've already approved. And these are still tools. there'll be a point at which the board needs to exercise the judgment about what you think is most important. This is a way for us to narrow it down, maybe shortlist things and get into more detail as you need it. So it's not meant to answer every question, but it's meant to give you sort of a funnel to work through things so that you get to the most impactful projects. And then there's always going to be room for you to exercise the judgment and the timing that you want on projects that have the right community impact.

So the last slide, then, the next steps, I think that's where maybe I was. So this feels like a capital kind of redo. But calling for new projects, are we going to just take the – maybe if we took what we've already ranked this last six months, whenever we voted on it, and just see if that changes our minds on anything. Instead of adding new projects in at this point, I don't know.

What we do every two to three years, we revisit the CIP. The next time we do it, we would apply this. We're not going to go back because we are working on delivering the projects you told us to do.

This is what we would do when you're ready to do it, when the city's ready to move forward with it. It's just trying to get out ahead of it.

I was seeing quarterly update and I was thinking the next quarterly update we're going to be getting back into this.

I misunderstood. That was part of our work plan is to give you a better structure, a more involved structure that helped us analyze projects. That's been part of our work plan along with delivering projects. Love it. Bless you.

Well, I like it. It's not the ultimate answer. You know, I think it helps us sort through some things, and I want to make sure it's just another tool. But ultimately, as you said, the board will ultimately have to decide what five-star projects are. Alderman Caesar.

This may be a typo on page four, the ranking, and I don't know what the points in the final rank, how you did that, Paul, but there's I think you may have put two fours in there. So you lost an opportunity for a five to change things. I guess that leads up to my question. My question is some of this will be subjective and some will be objective, I assume. It's not the kind of thing that you can just apply to our votes and then give us a number. We'll have to then go in and input a pairwise response in addition in order to get the pairwise output. Sorry, I asked that question while you were trying to figure out if there's a five in there or not. So this won't be something that happens automatically, because I think, like the mayor said, what's really interesting to me about this is not necessarily where they are ranked, but the why they moved, and then allowing us to debate, perhaps, and understand more why they moved. Is it this one scored higher or this one scored lower? And as long as it doesn't create an enormous pairwise exercise for all of us, where I've now got to correlate with four other people's numbers to make sure my numbers look right, and those things don't happen, or now the staff I guess that's why we have a budget and finance team to do this work for us. But I think the first question is each individual contributor provides this pairwise ranking. It's not something that happens organically outside of us.

No, each one of the board members would provide that, and then we would create the final version of what that is on average.

I think it would be an interesting data point for us to see why things move based off of this example as compared to our just organic response. So thank you.

Ultimately, you'll have a score sheet similar to this for every project, and you could look at the data if you really wanted to dive into it.

Thank you. Alderman Berger.

Because I was looking at this thinking, well, how those play in safety, like you were saying, and thought, well, if you rank a road, that if it's repaired or widened, that could relieve another roadway with a higher accident count to get more people traveling on a road that's being avoided. Correct. Sometimes we have to look at things like that. And then congestion management ends up affecting safety because if you have congestion, you're more likely to have safety issues there. So you have to look. I think some of those pair out together. You know what I mean?

They do.

Yeah.

Anything else? See you promptly at 7. All right.