Cc Meeting - Regular Meeting

Um, it is 7 o'clock. I'm calling the Franklin City Council regular meeting uh to to order. And u this is a this is a rescheduled meeting from Monday night. Um roll call. Dr. Johnson present. Mr. Kitchen here. Miss Banks here. Miss Copelan present. Mr. Pres and Mr. Grizz

present. And um uh ladies and gentlemen, if you'll turn off your cell phones and join us, stand if you will to join us in the pledge of allegiance, please. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

Thank you very much. We'll start off with uh citizens. I have uh Lorraine Green Whitehead up first. Certainly.

So many things I got two of them. Thank you.

Um, your honorable Mayor Kaplan and Franklin City Council, I want to thank you for the opportunity to address you tonight. I'm Lorraine Green Whitehead, executive director of Early Childhood Western Tidewater, formerly known as Smart Beginnings. Um, I will choose my words carefully because what um I want to talk about isn't about me. It's about my organization and the future of our children and community. I live by saying, I heard decades ago, what we do today determines their tomorrows. So what we do today, we support early child care providers and centers and home daycare in the following ways. In order to be licensed, providers have to have at least 16 hours of training. We provide that training. They also have to um have class observations every year, actually twice a year, and we provide those class observations from Orange Green uh has the lure to do that. Other activities were instrumental in getting the food bank. I was on the food bank board uh in Norfolk which got the food bank here. Um I also was instrumental in getting the ODU mobile health unit here. We provide cribs and safe sleep training for mothers of new infants in need. I serve on the head start board as well as SP Morton steering committee. I'm going fast because I don't have but three minutes. Um, I work with SP Morning for recruiting preK students and on their steering committee. Um, I could go on and on and on, but our latest thing is um, we have the Dolly Parton Imagination Library that is being funded by a donor through us uh, to get a book um, once a month in every child's home in Franklin and Southampton County from birth to five years old. Franklin has supported us in these endeavors since our beginning in 2008.

The city also served as our fiscal agent. Our funding from other supporters includes Southampton County, Isa White, Franklin Southampton Charities, Camp Foundations, IP Giving, and others. And it was all run through on the Franklin City books. Last year, Mrs. Oglesby, the city manager, met with us and informed us that the city would no longer be our fiscal agent. We had to open our own checking account with the Bank of Franklin and we became our own fiscal agent. According to our books, our accountant that does our taxes, the city treasur, and the city director of finance, we had a carryover of $19,536.92. I met with city treasur, the director of finance, and the assistant city manager, and they all agree that this figure is correct. They were all extremely nice. The problem is they don't know what the next step is for us to get our carryover money for for our funding and our activities. My second concern is that for the first time in forever, Franklin City did not support our work. I'm kind of hurt. That's my time.

Let's go on for another minute or so.

Okay. Um, I'm kind of hurt and sad and afraid that our for our organization, our work and our mission for the children in Franklin, Southampton County. This may not seem like a large amount of money to many. However, our entire budget, including this funding, is only $194,000. Being short, the 13,000 that you all usually give us. Um, and then the $19,536 totaling $32,536 is a substantial deficit for us to have to uh continue our services for the families and children in Western Tower. Somebody please help the girl.

And may the force be with us. Miss Whitehead, I might suggest that you scheduled time to be on the agenda as opposed to citizens time where we can ask questions and make comments. Okay. Yeah. I would love that city manager. Thank you. U Mr. Weiss.

My name is Gary Wise. I live at 205 Willis Road, Franklin, Virginia. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Madame Vice Mayor, members of council. Over the last, I don't know, four years, three years, something like that, I've watched a plethora of city managers come and go in this fair city. And it's just hard to keep up with that stuff. And I would like to make sure that as this council gets ready to hire a new city manager, a new whatever it is that you're going to hire that we take time and make sure that we know that that's the person we really want to dance with. Because if it's not, then we shouldn't do it. We shouldn't spend the taxpayers money and then find out a week later that they don't like Franklin. I don't know what it could be, but I'm I I just don't think that the time to hire somebody that's going to be a member of this community for hopefully a long time doesn't get fully vetted before they're hired and before they're extended an offer. That's all I have to say. Thank you, sir. Um, I can't read the next Melvin. Is that Yeah, Melvin. Okay.

Flight. Yes, I'm sorry. Good afternoon. My name is Melvin Flight. I have filed a complaint. Well, which I am going to file a complaint against corporate T. Sir, I just want to tell you the incident that this 57y old man went through through his like his vessel. What happened? Now, we cannot discuss personnel issues during citizens time. So, you have to be you have to be generic. Well, what genericity is what happened to me, my life, it's my life. It's nobody else. Yes, sir. But you cannot talk about specific city employees.

Well, in other words, I just want to speak about the things that he did to me as I was walking. I was leaving my house somewhere in Franklin, Virginia, coming over by the armory hall. Officer Dobson, you cannot discuss an individual. I'm I'm speaking about You cannot discuss an individual person's name. Don't say the name of the person. Just don't say this.

Okay, no problem. Well, the officer approached me as I was walking. He circled [snorts] me completely around the football field to come back in front of me. I'm going say actually at the 711 across from the football field. So when the officer actually came up on me, I asked him what was the problem. He said, "I need your ID." And at that moment in that time I asked him what was the purpose of showing my ID out the clear blue moon he say you arrested for not identify yourself and concealing your identity. Also this officer me who I am tried to deescalate he continue to escalate the situation. I also asked the officer could he call his supervisor. He actually told me he was the supervisor. So I asked him could he call his superior. He said he told me I would see the superior when I get to the station. Officer never read me my random rights no time at any given time. I never took no fingerprints no time at any given time. Also, it was a officer with him. I couldn't call his name. Was a recruiter. Also this same officer

when he took my belongings from me, I had found a a ID from this young lady I was walking and my purpose of having that ID was to mail it back to her and return it to her. Your time is up, sir. He's a fair guy. But give him another minute. Give him another minute. Mr.

To me, this officer, all I could see was evil coming towards me. That's what I see. I don't know what anyone else is who I am. I don't understand why he would treat a black man such as me, 57 years old. How would you feel if a officer ran up you and approached you and violated your rights? Which I stood there like who I was with no encounter trying to deescalate the whole situation while he completely escalated. Snatch everything off me. What I would like for y'all to review is the body cam. It would tell everything that happened to me for no cause, no reason, no purpose, anything to me. And I appreciate you.

Yes, sir. Mr. I would I would I would I would I would get that back to you. I would get Okay. I would make contact back with about the information. Thank you. Have a bless Mr. Fly. One last thing. We are not a court. We We can't handle your case. So, I just came here. I didn't ask you what you was. That's not my thought. That's your thought.

Mr. Sykes. Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council, and City attorney. Um, I have two issues. One is the industrial park um behind my house. I I got a phone call. Well, matter of fact, I got two phone calls and and I want to say three because I I would love to complain as well uh about the loud noise. It was dark. People that they're working keeping um I think they're digging a hole or something but that thing stumping to the ground keeping a loud noise. So like I said I received two phone calls about this thing this tonight dark after six o'clock it's dark and yet so I don't think they should be out there disturbing the people that time of night. Uh and second thing on the list is I don't know if you guys have a hiring procedure or not but um I think you need to over I mean to revamp and look at your hiring procedure way you you're hiring speaking of your the people that you hire your city manager and your city attorney um I'm not sure everything that's you guys are going through and and how you're doing it. But from the way I'm receiving it, you need I think that we need to look at how we're going to do it and make sure that we're doing like the people before me. Make sure that we're doing the right thing because like Miss Green said, the things you guys do up here today is going to have a long effect on all of us tomorrow in the years after. So with all that being said, thank you for your time. Thank you.

All right. Um, do I have a motion to approve the agenda as presented? So move. Have a second. Second. Motion a second. Any discussion? Yes, there is. Uh, start on any discussions. All right. Yes. I would like to know uh from the attorney, is this the proper time to make a motion to amend the agenda.

Well, I'd like to make a motion to amend the agenda to add a discussion of our hiring procedures for our city manager and city attorney. Well, we already have that in our in our where in our closed session.

No. Um Yes, we do. We don't have the procedures and it's not written down anywhere for the public. The until someone is hired, they're not personnel. And when we hired Chief Patterson, uh, Miss Jarrett allowed us or she had a public, uh, interview, allowed public interview. the city manager and the city attorney are going to be the people's employee as well as the city councils. So a procedure would be whether we have a public interview, whether we have a second interview procedures and my motion is for us to at least discuss proper procedures. That is the motion I'm making. Excuse me.

Have a second. Second have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Would you do you Mike? Interviewed all these people three weeks ago. Six of us agreed on Mr. Moment when exiting said Kitchens got his boy. I'm going with the consensus of city council. Now that seems to be an issue. That's all I got to say. So I vote when the time comes.

Uh I have a response. in procedures is all I'm asking. I'm not talking about what candidate we should hire. And I think it's fair that you mentioned to the to the citizens that we had a one-hour interview with someone three weeks ago. Would you go on a date with someone for one hour and decide with that one hour to marry that person? married 40 years. I know going on today with anyone, including you. No. Well, I'm I'm just I'm saying, wait a minute. You couldn't have made no decision because we haven't voted. We haven't voted. You had a consensus.

Mr. Mr. McLemore, there's a motion on McLemore. I have an opportunity to speak as well, just like everybody else does. Uh, we decided our procedure ages ago when we hired the Berkeley Group to to vet people to inter pre-in people to to check their backgrounds, have a professional organization to do all that. Um, I'm I'm sorry that that you got up and walked out of our meeting with no with no with no mention to anybody why you were why you were leaving. You were asked why you were you asked why you were leaving. That's a lie.

You were asked why you were leaving. Was everything okay? And you just walked and you said, "I'm good. consensus of this group and you were asked again the same thing and you said I'm good with the consensus of this group. I asked you to stay. I did not know that you were going on a cruise. You were leaving to go on a cruise and that's a wonderful thing. It's wonderful opportunity. But it you walked out without saying anything to anybody in this group. Nobody knew. I even went to your home three times because I thought something was wrong. I wanted you to know what was going on, what we had decided. I left you text messages and went over and over trying to make sure that you were okay and there was nothing wrong, but you decided you were the one that decided to walk out. May I respond? I didn't interrupt you. I left so the citizens deserve to know. We had to interview seven people. I was there to interview [clears throat] four of those seven. Three candidates for city man. Four candidates for city manager. That's the uh fourth candidates for city manager. I missed three. We had six candidates altogether. I missed three. The one the reason that I said to the council, I'm good with the consensus because the only person I was not there to interview, we interviewed over a year ago and this council decided almost unanimously that we did not want that person as our city manager. So therefore, I knew nothing had changed for me to change my position regarding

that individual. So I didn't need to interview that last individual for city manager. So with the four people that we interviewed, I thought this council would be prudent enough to select one of the four. I didn't know that this council would pick the only one who we had already turned down once because of circumstances. So when I said when you say that I said I'm fine with consensus, that's true because I had seen all of the candidates through their entire interview. Now when I talk about procedures, these people may assume that we gave thorough uh uh interviews, if you want to call one hour with each of us only asking three questions that were already pre-written by someone else, not our own questions, for our city manager. and you think that's enough to entrust them with the operation of your city, I think you deserve more. I think that at least two interviews would be reasonable. And I try and that's what I mean when I talk about procedures in hiring practices. It would not hurt to give that person that we are ready to entrust our city with a second interview before we say, "Okay, here's the keys to the city." Especially when that in that person may not meet the citizen standards, not less somebody on counsel because they happen to be friends of someone on council or a couple of

people on counsel. The citizens deserve more. That's all I say. I have always said I'm not here for anybody but the people. And I think the people deserve that we give prudent, rigorous investigation of these candidates before we talked to them for one hour, which if you combine the time that we each spoke to them, you might have said each of us spent four minutes, maybe five, talking to them. That's it. And now we're going to release them to handle your business for the next years because once they're hired, that's it.

Um, Mr. Mayor, I would like to say you you may speak after me, but I I I started speaking first. And you can just wait. You can just wait just a moment. I will be glad to give you a chance to speak. Go ahead.

Thank you. This is a serious matter that we're going to think about hiring city manager and attorney and two of our citizens just made a comment in citizens and I agree with them. I agree with this is a matter that we can take it lightly. We need a second interview. We We need a public interview. We need to make sure the person that we hire here in the city of Franklin is going to help the city grow and develop. I'm very concerned about that. It does not take um We only spent a couple minutes preconceived questions uh that that were put together. That's fine. But the public is going to work with this individual that we hire as well as city council and we want to make sure that the public is satisfied with who we hire. Now, that's something I think we need to discuss deeply because If not, it's just the railroad situation. I guess I guess I have an issue with this because this should have been um processed or thought about before now. I mean,

well, I just need clarification on one thing before I can move forward with this. I think the Berkeley group had an interview with these people first. It was vetted and then so they did have multiple interviews. Matter of fact, we ranked them. The Berkeley group had them ranked according to experience on a sheet of paper that we had initially and then after they were ranked um we kind of chose the ones based off of their background and resume that we thought were the top ones out off of the ranking list. And so the Berkeley interviewed with them prior to us. So by the time that they got to us, they had already experienced we were their second interview. So unless someone can um you know give me clarity on that, they did go through at least two interviews before that. It wasn't just an hour. So I wanted that to be cleared up. It wasn't just an hour with us. They went through an interview with the Berkeley group initially after we ranked them. So there was a process. I don't mind being transparent about that process with the public. The public should know. Now whether you're challenging tonight, we should have a public interview or not, that's a different story. But I did want to go on record to say they did have multiple interviews.

May I? Now, I don't think you're going to find a single candidate for city manager that will come to a public interview and put themselves in a situation where their current employer knows they're trying to leave. That's not going to happen. They're not going to show up. Um, they're not going to agree to that. It's not going to happen. The Berkeley Group has been finding city managers and county administrators for years in Virginia and other states as well. They they know what they're doing. They have professional staff. They have professional investigators to investigate and and check resumes and and check references and backgrounds. And that was done. And they they they conducted their interviews. Where where where were these ideas when we met in that room right over there and picked the people and and decided the procedure?

We agreed to that. We we agreed to that procedure in When we hired the Berkeley Group, Berkeley Group told us how they wanted to do it, how they recommended, we did not make any changes to their to their procedures. And now the night we're going to to ratify a contract. We didn't do this overnight. We didn't do this without consultation and without investigation, it was done. We're not qualified to do those investigations. We had professionals do that. You you know, May I May I Mr. Mayor?

Yes. It's sad. It troubles my heart to hear someone who is elected by the people as yourself that will twist a story for the people to meet their needs. Now, you just sat there and twisted that all the way around. But first, let me start with Miss Bankus. How do you know that they reviewed their resume versus what type of interview they gave them? Whether it was five minutes, an hour, whatever. How do you know? Did they tell you what they did? Yes or no? They said that they had an interview with them. First round of interview.

They said they reviewed the people that we had picked. Okay. I I'm not I'll let that I'll let that stand because to me it's more important that I make a point that we did not agree on any procedures. I mentioned two interviews in that room. No, you didn't. Now you shaking your head yes and he's saying no. No, you did not. So we got two people here saying yes and you're saying no. The interview process the day. No, I did it in that room back there. He did. Okay. Well, then I then I then I admit that I'm wrong. Everybody else,

you do that often. You do. But this is a decision, Mr. Mayor, that is probably I've been here 15 years. This is probably the most important decision that we have ever made or you will ever make on this day because this person that we choose will run this city. When you pick that uh attorney, that attorney and that city manager will advise us on everything. And if you don't have any familiarity with municipal government, you will do whatever they say when it's your job to make the decisions. You will go by everything they say. So, if you're going to entrust this city to those people, we deserve to rigorously interview these people. Not I agree. I happen to agree with a public interview because again, they're not personnel. And you said it never happens. Nobody would do it. We had several police chiefs interview for the police chief position in public in this room. You were not on council. We had public interviews because it was an important position for

city manager. Have you? I've never heard of it. You No. Have you ever interviewed for a city manager? Yes, I have. Where? Here. Who? To be the city manager? No. What in what city manager have you interviewed? I interviewed the same people that you did except I did more than

No, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about before that. And you keep talking about I walked out. Yes, I left because I got an emergency call that I needed to leave. Then I didn't need to tell you why. Because I saw the five candidates, the four candidates that I thought this this body would choose from. Again, I had no idea that they would choose the one candidate that we all rejected the last time except you because you weren't on the council the last time they interviewed.

Only one person. Neither was Mr. Grizz. Only one person up here wanted them last time. I won't call no names. Well, Mr. Kitchen's the only one that wanted them. And they're buddies. Now all of a sudden I go away because I figure they got four people to choose from. Whichever one they choose, I'll support. And then they walk away. They pick the other one. No, you're not going to keep running that. You You decision to walk away. The other thing then you assumed you assumed you just said that they would not you would pick one of the four. All right. I call for the question.

I call for the question. There is a motion on the floor. There is a motion and a second on the floor. I called the question, which means it's time to vote. I'm I'm stopping. This has gone on too far. Your vote, sir. The motion that Mr. the motion. The motion. He don't remember. Please restate your motion. What is it? What is it, Mr. Mayor? You've done exactly what you want to do. You've gotten everybody upset.

No, that was not my intention. My intention is for us to take our time before we make the decision. You're out of order, sir. You're out of order, sir. If you speak again out of order, I'll have you removed.

Miss M Miss Sir, if you speak again out of order, I'll have you removed. The motion was for us to discuss the procedures before we make a decision to hire because we have not discussed in its conclusion any of the other candidates other than after the direct interview. We don't know why the other I don't know why my colleagues didn't choose any of the other because we have not met or had a conversation. The mayor did not he said he came by my house. We have not since three weeks. We have not talked about this. The last time we talked was at that interview three weeks ago. I'd like to know why none of the other candidates were considered and that would come in procedures of how we interview. So the motion is that we will discuss the procedures that we want to adopt in order to hire a mayor and a city manager.

We have the clarification of the motion. We have a second. I'll call for the vote. I nay. Nay. We've already discussed this. No, it has already been

and the motion fails. A motion on the floor to to to approve the agenda. We had a motion. We had a motion and a second. You want to make another motion, Mr. Kitchen? So move. We had a motion second already. Take the vote on that. I Nate

I motion carries. Um we have uh we're going to switch gears a little bit to something a little bit more pleasant. Um Miss Gail Riddick is on the agenda to discuss the city's 150th anniversary. Take your time. Yeah, need a lot of time. I'm Gel Rick. I was born and raised here in Franklin Community 91 years ago. That's why I need a little time. Um, Mr. Mayor, ladies and gentlemen of council, thank you for listening to me for just a jiffy as I address you just with information. Haven't come to ask for any money. just came to tell you what some citizens in our fast city are doing to recognize the fact that we're going to be 150 years old in just a few weeks. which was March the 15th, 1876 that the Virginia um Commonwealth Virginia uh gave a charter to the little town of Franklin which was one time Franklin Depot but now it's Franklin. It's the largest little village in Southampton County. In fact, it's more than a village. It's grown quite rapidly. And so in order to to recognize that 50 years ago at the

same time the nation was celebrating its bicesentennial we decided that we would celebrate Franklin's centennial it was a fiveday wonderful celebration and many people living here are young folks young now I call them young folks some that I taught I have some with me that are on this what we called our citizens committee. We've met twice and I'd like to just tell you what we have planned and we just want your good wishes and whatever support you might give us enthusiastic support because we want to fill Barrett's landing with as many people as we filled Franklin's Municipal Park on Clay Street in 1976. The police then estimated that there were a thousand people there that afternoon for us to place a time capsule in the park. It was made for us by Union Camp Corporation. It was buried there with the help of the Masons. The people of this town, every every mom and pop grocery store Union Camp Corporation. It didn't matter from the big to the little all were asked to put a letter in the box in that time capsule. They were thrilled to do that. They were allowed one 8 and 12 by 11 sheet of paper. We didn't have plastic cover sheets then. That's 50 years ago, folks. We didn't even have a computer then. And so they

came with their little 8 and 1 half by 11 sheet of paper on which they had written something about their business or what they've done in the last 50 years or since they'd been born, what had happened or what they might foresee for the next 50 years. We don't know what they said. They buried in that time capsule. So this year we propose to put a memory chest which is a 8 and a half I mean a 44 and a half foot long ceda chest here in city hall to stay here for the next 50 years. We don't want to bury this. We want it filled just as it was filled then with letters from Hu I can't believe that they sent us that they're 500 and some businesses that have people that have business licenses in the city of Franklin. We love them to put this time anywhere from one sheet to three sheets and put it in a plastic sleeve which we will furnish. Put in our time capsule. Our time capsule, our memory chest, put it out here in city hall and we have a newcomer to Franklin who has agreed to paint it. It will be a work, I assure you, it will be a work of art and people will see this for 50 years and wonder What's in there? What did they put in there? What did they do 40 years ago? I'm the only living member of that committee. And that's why I'm addressing you tonight. Hoping that you will when I was 41, I was appointed to that committee by

city council. And I hope you will bless my my committee and me as we do what we got to do to get ready to fill this memory chest for the next 15. We will have I'm sure you've all gotten the letter that I wrote and you know we're going to have a then we had aund voice choir that performed two night concerts. This time we're going to have 150 voice choir from the choir members across this city. Um, and they will perform that afternoon. Everybody will bring a chair. We'll have a program. We'll fill it fill the memory chest. Hopefully, we will welcome some newcomers to Franklin. That's what I want to see. So, help us. Give us your blessings. and let's make Franklin's 150th birthday celebration something that I think we'll be proud of and I hope it as well you have any questionsbody forget my thing that's not It's all It's It's all That's all dark, too. I'm blind, half three blind, half de struggling, but I'm here.

You're still here. You're still here. Thank you, Miss R. [applause] We've all gotten this this flyer and we're I personally very excited about this this program coming up in just a couple months, just a little over a month. And anybody else have any comments? What is missing to be voted on? Um, I think we'd want to do a resolution. Resolution

just support. I know you I you've met with the city manager um Burg I know you've just met with the city manager on some of this and um briefly so

come up to the if you come up to the podium so it can be recorded. So, um I think our biggest thing is we just want your support. We just want you to know mark your calendars, make sure you're there if you can be. The mayor has offered we've asked him to do a welcome so he'll be a part of the welcome, but we certainly want your input. We want you pass the word around to your ward as much as you can. We're trying to get on social media. We're we're connecting with um not just businesses. We're doing churches, civic organizations, um schools, uh daycarees, any anything that anybody that's affiliated with Franklin in any way, shape, or form, we want them to participate in here. Bring a letter. Um we'll have some plastic sleeves you can get downtown and um either drop them off able to make it. We want them to come to the memory box at Barrett's Landing and actually physically put it in the box themselves. Um, we think it'll be a wonderful opportunity and how interesting in 50 years to see all the people that have, you know, had something to say, comments, you city council, the department heads here in the government, city government. Um, everybody has a story to tell about Franklin and it was just a perfect time to tell it. I do want to introduce um members of our committee that gay did such a great job getting right here we have Nancy Parish, we have Patricia RS and Don Benjamin. They're here with us tonight but Ellis Koffield is on our committee. Jeremy Cop, Kathy WH, Gayen Butler, Sandra Williams,

Clyde Parker, Reverend Keith Rose and his wife Renee Rose and then Gell and Liz Burgess. And so we're just trying to do something really special and really great community and we just want to let everybody 50 years from now see about it, see what we're all about as long as as well as the when they open. So if you have any questions, feel free to contact any of us. We are more than happy to answer them. And again, we just really want your blessing and look forward to seeing you on March 13, March 15th at 3:00 at Bears. So, and thank you for letting us and the two concerts.

No one. No, it's no concert. Oh, sorry. March 10th. Well, this is a rehearsal. Excuse me. Excuse me.

Yeah, we're giving these out to everybody because not you don't have to be in the choir to do this in a church or the school or anything. If you like We want you to pass this out as well. If you just want to sing because you love singing, then um it's music that people know. It's just regular American music kind of stuff. Um and so we, you know, Jeremy welcomes you to come and sing and be a part of all of this. We are looking for 150 people. So he has contacted all the churches that he has information on. I think he has like 30 churches here in the community he's connected with. But that's not the only people that try and get the word out. We look forward to having you on March 15.

Any council members have any questions? No, I don't have any questions.

Absolutely. Thank you. I'm gonna choose not to sing, Miss Rick. I'm going to choose not. You made me sing in the fifth grade. I'm not singing anymore. I'm willing to make a motion if if it's appropriate when the time comes to support him any question. Um there was talk at the beginning about opening the time capsule at the 50y year mark instead of the 100 year mark. Is that the plan or leave it?

There was time um talked about opening that time capsule and being that I was the only living member of that group. I thought maybe by approaching city council we could do that. And then I had other thoughts about that. That thing was, I think, put in the ground by I know the Masons did it. And I think that's concrete. And if they tore into that and went into that capsule, we've spoiled it then for the because it says on that plaque to be opened in a hundred years. I think I think we should not do that. Leave it there. And that's why the idea of this one came up. Why don't we just make another one? So that gives us a chance to do something. Gives you a chance. I got my letter in that one. Okay. I might put one in this one, too, if I can live six more weeks. Thank you, Paul.

Thank you so much. All right. Um, next thing on the agenda is the uh reappointment of the planning commission members. Do I need a motion? Um, people below. Terms expiring this year need to be reained. So move. We have a mo motion. Second. A motion and a second. Is there any discussion on this? All right. Dr. Johnson. I I

And I thank you so much, council. Um I have a motion. need a motion to go into close session for the discussion of consideration of interviews of prospective candidates. Excuse me. Move that we enter into close session pursuant to 2.23711 371 A1 of the code of Virginia discussion consideration of interviews with prospective candidates position city manag I

n I and I motion carries. Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to close session. We will resume with a couple of other things at the end, but close section session and step out of the room. Oh, we're going in there. Okay, we're going to

serious. Wow. I had a heart attack. So I ain't gonna get so upset. All right, I'll take a motion to come back into open session.

I'll make a motion to come out of close session. Have a second. Second. A motion to second. Any discussion? All in favor? We'll start with Dr. Johnson. I I I I I and I very much motion carries certification.

I move to certify that to the best of each member's knowledge. One, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements under Virginia Freedom of Information Act. two only such business matters identified in the motion to convene the closed session were heard discussed or considered in the closed session certification I'm sorry I can't remember do we need a mo motion to that motion motion you made the motion okay second thank you very much um any discussion all right Dr. Johnson for start. I certify. Certify. I certify. I certify. Certify. I certify.

And I certify. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. We will with the agenda. Short. Couple pieces at the end. Um, city manager report. That might not be short.

It will be this evening. I only comment tonight is just a deep uh statement of gratitude to all the city employees who work so hard this past weekend responding to the snowstorm etc. I I know there have been requests from council members to um bring forward some of those agencies power and light and others so that we can express our thanks wanted to make sure they got another night of rest tonight catching up and obviously also keeping an eye on and preparing for for what we might see this weekend as well. But um while we have the opportunity I just want to say thank you to city employees who I think really did an excellent job responding to a very challenging snowstorm snow ice storm. Thank you, sir. Um boards of commissions, any reports?

Uh yes, uh Mr. Mayor, we had the jail board meeting. Lastly, and u we're still working on um making the changes in the jail basically as far as um security and the other things that matter and once this finished we'll have a a tour of the jail. Thanks, sir. Thank you. On social services. Okay. Okay. Uh, council comments, Johnson.

Uh, yes. Um, reflecting somewhat to what, um, our city manager said, as I was looking at the news and I saw the many, the thousands of people without power uh, going through troubling situations. It made me grateful and thankful for the lights and power that we have and that we were spared. Um, our lights went out a couple of times, but uh they came back on that we were spared. Um, and hopefully we'll be spared again uh this weekend as well. But I'm very grateful for that. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. I was going I had asked to bring up the power and light the good job they did but somebody's jumped the gun so I don't have nothing else. Thank you. No comment.

No comment. Well, I would like to say first I was out of town starting on the 10th and therefore I was unable to attend the final homegoing services for our former mayor Jim Council. So I would like to personally take this opportunity to wish my condolences to his wife and family. He served this city for like 14 years as our mayor. And I'll have to say through my tenure, he was probably one of the best mayors that I ever worked with. We had our ups and downs and the city will uh greatly miss his wisdom and support. Next, I would like to say that I also experienced something I've never seen before. Maybe I just wasn't looking. But the way this ice was on the trees and the grass, it was actually glistening. Everywhere you looked, I mean, on the wires, they were coated with ice. I've never seen it so ice filled as long as I've been in Franklin. And I, as I rode down the street, I was like, "The trees look white and that's all ice." And I was so grateful. So our our citizens, I was like, even if we do sometimes charge a couple pennies more than they might get with Dominion, it was worth it. Like Councilman Johnson said that when our power went out, it won't out some hours and we were back up. If we were we didn't have our own power and light company, we would be down the list

for Dominion or those companies to get to Franklin to get us back up. So, I'm grateful once again that we have our own Power and Light company and um uh or department and I think that the people they did a they did a pretty fantastic job. I never seen the lights do like they were doing. It was like a kid was flicking the flick on and off. Did y'all Did anybody else notice that? It was like on. They didn't even leave it on a second. It was like on, off, on, off. I never experienced that before. But I think overall they did a fantastic job. And I'm just so grateful that we had them. and I will retain any other comments or concerns that I might have in regards to the other issues we discussed tonight uh until after we have made our final decisions which I'm glad the council have had some concerns that we're going to address.

Normally I don't have a lot of comments tonight I'm sorry but I'm going to have a couple. Um one is I still not addressed issues that we've been considering since February of 2025, only a month after I started. We still don't have answers from Franklin City Public Schools. Um, what is the deal with the budget for them? Where did we finish? What was our total deficit? Was it even a deficit? Uh, who's going to be held accountable for those things? These are things that have come to me in the last few days from constituents. Um, in regards to Mr. Albrook's loss of confidence letter, what are we to do moving forward about that? We as a council, we need to consider that. So before we have our next meeting, we need to have thoughts and answers for that

in regards to Mr. Albrook's letter of loss of confidence. Absolutely. So I think we have to know our roles in reference to that. We anything like it's up to the board at this point to vote to either remove we can voice our um support or you know if we don't support it we can say that but we have to know our roles as city council and school board and that's not our thing well said

thank you that that's just what I was looking for some clarification as well because you know I'm brand new and I don't know the things that y'all do Um, where do we stand on changing the charter to look at going from an elected board instead of an appointed board? Have we worked on that anymore? I'm not familiar if we've discussed it anymore any further because we don't truly have our own city attorney still. Um, the retreat, we all know that got postponed to So that would be rescheduled. Um we should also do a financial report for the city and schools and it should be available at least once a month in my opinion for us to hear as well as the public. It should be brought forward once a month if that's something that can be discussed and legally held in council. I just feel like we should be As we all keep saying, we want to be transparent. We need to step up and actually be transparent if that's something that can be discussed in open session. Um, as for the updates on the employees that were discussed, we can't talk about that, but um, it was a recommendation that we do some type of a town hall meeting later to introduce those to the citizens and welcome them and also have a second one later on to discuss what plans they would like to implement moving forward and what vision as we discussed do we have as well as what those new employees and that's all thank you Mr. um you may have a moment

thank you Mr. Um, I'm having a town hall meeting for W one, but everybody can come February the 10th at 6 p.m. Trinidad Church. The reason that things fall through the cracks is we we're constantly tableabling things, putting things off and there's no perfect time, but right now, so I'm not saying the retreat should have happened. We keep putting things off till people lose interest or people can't can't show up. That's all I got to say. Thank you. All right. May I I just like to say um

Oh, thank you. Uh I had to cancel the uh 24th meeting for W three because of the snow. Uh I was out there and also the city manager came out there. So, we were there and also Miss Loretta uh and my other constituent was back there and um I know you're going to get mad at me because your name has gone past me. Darthy. Arthy came out there. So, I thank them for coming and a few more people stopped by, but we had to cancel because of the weather. And I will soon as I can get with the library and get another date, I will reschedule the ward 3 ward meeting.

I was also, just for the record, I was also on my way, city manager. Yeah, I can't speak for you, but no, we weren't.

Mr. Mayor, if I might, um, could I suggest that we do have try to reach out to the school board for a joint meeting um so that we owe it to the public. I do agree. I I wanted you to know what the roles were as far as the letter was concerned. But as far as being transparent with budgeting, I do totally support and that being public transparency. I just wanted to clarify um council member whether that is a meeting you think would be beneficial either before budget introduction or is it better after budget introduction. I think before and I'm just one person only because like you said we have loose ends that still haven't been tied and I mean we'll hear from other entities for sure but I think with them it's FCPS it's a little bit more in depth than the rest of them who may be doing introductions and budget requests.

Understood. Thank you. Thank you. I think it's a good point. Thank you very much. All right. Um I wanted to say that while Mr. and I have not agreed on much tonight. I do agree on the accolades you gave to the our electric departmental job as as our all of our first responders, our public works folks, our uh social services was involved uh contacting uh their clients that were they thought were at risk ahead of time. Um parks and recck was involved. Every city every city agency was involved in some way, but but As much as the accolades I want to give the police department, fire department, it was the it was the electric department that really stood out and and star performers, every one of them. Um I know they had some contractor help, but at the same time they just did an amazing job. I also wanted to echo Mr. Mcmore again comments. Uh I was not able to go to Mr. Mr. Kitchen was there as well. Mr. Johnson was there, Dr. Johnson Mr. C. funeral, beautiful service. His children spoke and was a very very moving moving event and he was quite a leader again. So we didn't always agree. I wasn't on council but we spoke a lot about council business and we didn't always agree but but he was the shining face of the city for many many years and did a did a beautiful job on that side of things. Um our next meeting is February the 9th unless we come together again for a special meeting on contracts. Um, excuse me.

I would like to make one quick comment and that is to make sure that we accolades all of the agencies agencies. That's right. Fire all the agencies work together form a team. Teamwork is how we survive through the storm and it's how we survive team working together. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. If there's no other comments, I believe we've helped you waste perfectly good two hours. Um, thank you very much and I'll take a motion to

adjourn. Motion and a second, multiple seconds. And any discussion? I'll take the vote. Dr. Johnson, I and I. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.