City Council - Regular Meeting

Jenny got called out, so she's gone out for this afternoon, but everybody else is here. And so, we'll go ahead and get started. The first thing I'd like is to have Danny Ricker come up and lead us for the invocation, and then Tim Ward will lead us in the pledge. Let us pray. Father, as always, we're thankful for our city leaders, God, as they conduct their business. And thank you for every uh opportunity, God, to serve you, Lord. And we give you praise and glory that your hands on them and on our whole town, all our city leaders, department heads in Jesus mighty name. Amen. And if you'll face the flag, please. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Hey Danny, can you stay up here just a minute? Now,

I just wanted to take a minute and I'm going to ask you the next meeting to bring in one month of your activities that you do each month because I think people will be amazed when they see what you do and when you do and what a blessing you are to our community. So, please everybody give this young man a hand because he's awesome. Thank you. Uh, a couple things. One, did anybody notice it snowed this weekend?

No, you didn't. Well, I didn't either because I stayed in the house for the last three days. But um one of the things that we found, this was an unusual snow that we had getting 11 in in one day and falling or dropping to two or whatever it was. It's a hard thing to to manage the snow. But one of the things Kathy and I were talking about this weekend was what's the plan? Which roads do we go to? How do we get to where? What's first, what's next? What's last? And those kinds of things. So I think we're going to look at that. Second thing is couple years ago we made a decision to uh contract with the state to take care of the state roads and state routes in our town. So that's why the town was out on 11E and all the state routes to clean the roads. We did that in the for the main reason was that the state was coming in and mowing on the uh medians maybe twice a summer and it looked terrible. So we contracted with them to take care of that and we don't typically have snows like this. So we really don't have all of the equipment that we need. I think that's something we probably need to look at in the in the future. I don't know when the contract comes up, but it's something we can take a look at and see if that's a the best way to do things. Also, um was talking with John Loveven about uh Depot Street and the sidewalks and the bricks down there and how they can be treated. and I would like him to come up for just a minute and kind of talk about what we talked about.

Thank you. So, you asked me about the the brick pavers on Depot Street. I would recommend that someone call the manufacturer of those fruit pavers and say what what kind of steps does our maintenance department need to be doing for proper u cleaning of getting the salts off those bricks. Those bricks are a lot stronger than the concrete that's down. They're a lot more durable than the concrete that's down. Not that anything's wrong with the concrete, just the bricks are much more dense. So therefore, you don't have the same issues. Highly recommend we get the salts off the sidewalks ASAP. And those sidewalks need to be sealed as they were supposed to be done two years ago.

Thank you. But call the manufacturer. All right. Appreciate you. Can you say something? Uh, I' I'd like Tim to share something here for just a second.

And Nicole Rider probably better speak to this than I am. U our auxiliary chief of police, Terry Rednau, died uh after a lengthy illness. He's he been fighting this for years. U so just at his funeral. Um but if we could moment of silence for Terry, please. Uh he gave 20 plus years to this town basically for free. Um absolutely a standout of a man. Um so if you would please let's give us a moment of silence for Terry. Okay. Thank you. I think we'll also look to do something to uh honor him next meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Um we got some members from the leadership group. Can you stand up and introduce yourself if you're here? Tom.

Okay, thanks and welcome. Thanks for coming.

Okay, we'll move on to the next item and public comments. I think we've got Mr. Nuswonger wants to come up and talk to a couple of things. So, if you want to come up repeat what several others have said today. Thanks to everyone that did a great job during the the snowfall from from Friday till today and getting the streets clean. It's great job by everyone. Street department is working really well. Thanks to everyone that was involved in that. I had a question first of all for for Pete with MTAS. I know you're back there somewhere.

Um, I got to thinking about the I had I had the pleasure of having a phone call uh as many community people did with Pete on what we thought we should look for in the city manager. And as I went through that today in preparing for today, the question I had for him is he had a um a list of metrics that was on one side and um then public comment about what we all thought as citizens would be important for the next city manager. And Pete, my question for you is um what was the balance between uh what the city comments were, the folks that live here for a city manager and the metrics you used as an example for everyone. One of those metrics was uh do you have a uh for the applicants, do you have a master's degree? Um what how did you how were you able to rank this? Okay. Um and um secondly, the other thing I believe's on the agenda for today is the Roby Center. And I just wanted to add my comment that I think it's just critically important that we preserve and put back to good use the first public school building to be commissioned for that purpose in Greenville. And um I will support that uh significantly financially if we choose to go forward with that. I would like to be involved in that and be helpful to to those in the committee that will be involved in making those decisions.

Okay.

All right. Thank you. I appreciate that. Um Okay. Move on to the agenda. We'll go to unfinished business item 6.1. Actually, I'm going to go back real quick. I don't think I did a good job of saying thank you to the public works department. They spent an awful lot of time awful. I saw them driving around after night and after early and up and down and here and there and back and forth and they really did work hard. So I appreciate their help and thank you Scott for saying that. So now to go to item 6.1. It's consideration to approve the minutes from the regularly scheduled meeting held on January 20th, 2026. We got those on Friday. Do I hear a motion to approve?

So moved. Is there any further discussion or connect collect changes? Second. Okay, we got a motion in a second. All those in favor say I. I.

Those against like sign. Motion carries. Item 7.1 is discussion and consideration of applicants for the city manager position presented by Pete Augur MTAS municipal management consultant the deadlings the dead one of the things I'd like to clarify we were under the inset uh understanding that the deadline was going to be at five o'clock on Friday January 30th what we found was that it was actually Saturday, January 31st. So, we had one that came in on on Saturday. So, we need to add that to the agenda today to add that one consider shoot

applicant. Applicant. Thank you. Do I hear a motion to Why would we do that? If this deadline was Saturday, why would we need a motion to do that? Because it wasn't on the he wasn't listed on here. So I just want to our email that we got with what you're saying. So Ted or sorry yes correct

Pete asked me to add this portion the deadline to accept resumes to till 5 o'clock on Friday January 30th so that later that evening he could send those to me and then I could send that out to you all along with sending out an updated packet to um several people that get that email and to the the local news. And then um after looking after he received the additional applicant on Saturday, he noticed that going back to the flyer, the flyer states 31st versus the Friday the 30th. So then um there we've got that one additional applicant. And since it didn't get out, that was the MTAS flyer you're talking about.

Yes. So since it wasn't in the information that was sent out, I thought it was best that we did that. So do I hear a motion to add that last applicant? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. All good. All those against like sign. Motion carries. Okay, here we go.

Thank you, your honor. And normally that's what we we error in the side of of um abundance there when we have two dates out there and normally we try not to do that but when we do and somebody applies and they're within that one of the dates we uh try to get them across. We had two more that came in um or one inquiry and one more resume that came in after that and those weren't accepted and you don't have those uh because clearly they weren't by the deadline. Um but with that we have um 17 applicants um and I think a wide uh variance of experience education um uh for you to look at and I'm sure you all have looked at it uh to answer the previous question um all your answers really when I ask a lot of these questions early on when I'm interviewing you or the public I'm looking for outliers, things that are on the outside of of what everyone else said. And in this process, you were all very similar in all your answers of what you were looking for. So, there weren't any outliers. Um, actually, there was a lot of um a lot of similarities to what you all said in the individual interviews, uh, with the department director's interviews, uh, with some public interviews, it was all very similar. and therefore easy to come up with that job description that we did when we posted. Um, now's the fun part. Um, is narrowing down the list. Um, when you narrow down a um a list of employees to interview, um, well, first I guess I should should ask, are there any questions about the 17 applicants that you that you received?

Okay. Going to try to go almost go into that next section then of because um I was asked how do we narrow this down? How do we get down? I'm going to approach and keep show you a tool that I use. Thank you.

So, I like to keep it simple. Um, but what I have here is when I go through this type of process, and this goes back to years ago when I was a city manager, I try to remove any bias that I would have in selecting any position. Um, and sometimes we have unknown bias or a blind spot in ourselves. So, as I received these applicants coming in, I just numbered them as they came in. And then I went to the criteria that you set up. You had core knowledge, core um abilities and then core skills and then some basic qualifications. So basically 16 different items. That's all down the left side of the graph. And when they came in, if they spelled it out in their resume and cover letter, combination of both, uh, I would color that block in with green. If they might have swerved in there but really didn't pull it out that they had that skill, technique, or ability, that's where you'll see the yellow. And if they didn't cover it at all, um, you'll see a red block. And then as more applicants come in, I just number them and keep going down the path. That way that gives me a good visual of are we getting quality candidates first of all when from 30,000 ft looking at it and you can tell most of your sheet is fil sheets are filled with green but then you start when you prioritize and say okay who should we be interviewing? Um, usually you had 16 uh total criteria being utilized. You had two of the applicants um that had 16. You had

six that had 15 and one with 14. So, normally in this process, if you're looking for a recommendation, I would go down the list to get to a number that's below double digits. And that's just been my experience. When you interview, if you have more than double digits, people you're interviewing, they start to mix. Okay, who is the person that said, no matter how good a note you take, they start to blend together. Um, that's just a lot of people to interview and keep keep separate. So, if the council would um like to interview uh eight candidates, we could level it to the 16 and 15. Uh that would give us eight candidates. If they wanted nine, we could go down uh to the ones that qualified with 14, I believe it is. So, that's just a way that I would recommend one of the tools you can use. Now, you might know some of the applicants and you might say, "Well, I'd like to interview this person, too. They didn't make that list." That's totally up to the council. All the decisions are up to the council to make. Um, and as challenging as it is, I think it's a good thing that you got a lot of good candidates. It definitely beats the alternative of not having a lot of good candidates. Um, you have a lot of, like I say, you have a lot of different um, a lot of different experiences in this group. So, my ratings are all based on paper, not based on personality. And people say, "Well, you don't want them based on personality." Well, actually, you do because you have to work with these people. And if your personalities don't mix, you you could have a challenge there. So, it's about personality. It's

about your values. and how those two mix and when you interview people how they interview in public. So, I don't know if that gets you enough information uh to ask some questions or figure out which way to go or do we need to work through this a little bit. Just make a comment real quick. When I sent this to city council, I sent this to them in alphabetical order, not based on the That is That is even better. So it is so blind nobody knows who's applicant one two three exactly okay one of the white boxes

uh the white boxes there there's a couple with white boxes that I did I didn't find it and they they it wasn't enough to be a red and it just left me confused on whether they had that experience or not. Um, the yellow ones were they kind of mentioned something about uh having some experience but not really touting I am I I can do this. I've done this. Did you kind of I'm sorry. Did you count a white red? Did I count a white a red? Well,

I mean how did it how did it go into the scoring? I didn't use a a weighted schedule on this because I was looking for more people that were uh homogenized into what you were looking for. So the green were were the ones that really counted, not necessarily negative, the positive, the people that matched on the positive. So the greens are are what weighed in. The reds and the yellow really didn't play into it other than the fact that they weren't green. Okay.

So just to better understand the tool. So under for for example core abilities uh the second box down ability to study municipal operations and make recommendations to city council for improvement including technology and innovation and you evaluated cover letters and and resumeums. Number one candidate is yellow. Number two candidate is green. Number three candidate is red. Can you just so we can better understand your thought process and how you you know came to those determinations. Can you articulate the difference between uh the green and the red?

Yeah. Like based off of the resumes and the uh and the and the cover letters like how did you determine that for each of these candidates? I'm just curious to better understand. Yeah. Well, this is where cover letters to me are important because it fills in the blank. Um a lot of time resumeumés are just point blank this date to this date. maybe some of the things you've done in the municipality or whatever, but in the cover letter they said we worked with um what was that what you were asking for? Um

for core abilities. Yeah. So a green might have been um worked with city council to develop new ways to look at how we um make improvement in technology and innovation. A yellow might be um studied innovations when I was in college, you know, so no real experience doing it, but they read about it. So they have something in there. Red is there was no mention or anything either in their cover letter or the resume that they had that core. So it there is some subject to it subjectivity to it because I'm the one that's reading it. Yeah.

And it's reading through my eyes. Um, I just didn't know if you had like a a a rubric of like just criteria to help you pick your color, so to speak. Just Oh, and I don't use chat GPITS or any of that. I'm an old guy. I just go through and read it and uh and look and and looking at the resumes. Um I kind of looked at them and thought there were these people were ones. They they were the higher level and these people were okay and then the other ones were not.

So one, two, and three. If if everyone did that themselves and sent that information to you, can you get a an average to maybe see if if our thinking and your thinking kind of matches? Yeah, that that that'd be another verification tool to see that we're, you know, that you're all in the same boat that um you know, you want to interview how many because you're going to have to decide how many interview um and not looking at any of them. I uh and I redacted all the pertinent information, the home address and phone numbers and things like that. And uh but you do have a couple that are out from out of state. And I should cover that that normally when you want to interview someone from out of state, uh the city usually puts up some travel expenses and and puts them up overnight when they come into town to do the interview or whatever process. Um but yes that that could be another way to check and balance and say okay we're we're looking for this and we find like you say three tanches and these are our top these are our top five or six or however many you want.

Anybody have any other

just as just as a followup to that? I mean, I like the idea of us being able to kind of give our the valuations ranking, but I still think we need some type of a definition of what's a green, what's a red, what's a yellow. That way, we're better oriented towards what we're looking for because he may think, and I say he, Tim may think that that's a green based off of his own lived experience and and whatnot. I may think it's a yellow. Right now, we have nothing to really delineate what is green and what is yellow, what is red. I I just based off of this. I don't have your lived experience. I don't have your knowledge as a as a previous city manager. So, it would be, I think, more difficult for us as lay people, if you will, to try to determine uh who's most fit for each of these criteria. Is there some type of it would it be difficult for you to create some type of a like a criteria based off of each of those three? Um well, and if the mayor may correct me, but what I think I heard him say is um the council picked the the top of their list of people they'd like to interview and just separately email them to me and I average those out and see how they if they compare to the list I came up with, which would might get us to the point where we interview. But I don't I don't know. If I heard you right, mayor, not necessarily the green, red, yellow.

My wife says I'm very difficult to understand. So that was my intent. Well, you have nine all green. Your mind, they're all green. Um, there's only two. We have Well, one of them is wide. Well, I have one square is wide. I have uh two of them that meet all the requirements. Only two. Um, six of them meet 15 of them. We have nine. All green. No. Right here, Tim. See the 16 criteria. Only two of them. Yeah, these two.

We're going with this, right? Stack it like that. But you do have you do have a good number of applicants that that meet most of the criteria.

Um which is like I say this is a very good challenge to have uh versus the other way around. But then you have to start thinning the herd for lack of a better word of cutting down how many you want to interview. Um and like I say, you got a lot of good choices here. Well,

I'm willing I'm willing to to work with you and help you through this next step is as much or as as little as you want. Uh because what do you think, Mr. Tim W? At what point do we start checking references and backgrounds? Because we've got a lot of people who are leaving other jobs. Why are they leaving? Why they why they want to come here? Um what point do we factor that in? Start looking

after the interview and you select somebody that you want to move forward. A lot of city councils think right after interview you're make let's say you get to grow a consensus around one candidate. The next step is not to offer that person a position. It's to move them forward in the process. And that's usually when you get them to sign off on a position like this with a credit check and a background check. And then you put them through the process. Then you don't do that the negative factf finding basically. um during the process. Um

that that's not the usual process where from my background uh with law enforcement, we we start looking for negatives from the get-go because if if they've got something bad in their past, I don't want to interview them. I don't want to waste my time with it. Uh if if we can find that out beforehand, I'd much rather do that. Just just thinking out loud.

Well, and and it's it's totally up to the community. There are um some privacy laws out there um especially depending on how you're doing your background search like looking in social media and you find something negative and you eliminate somebody and that fact is not true. Um that's why I always recommend um at the end um you you you do it and you get a signature sign off that we're going to do a background check. You're going to let us do a credit check on you. Um, so everyone knows that it, you know, but you may you end up may end up with two or three that you can't decide on and you might do it at that time as well. But with 17, I think that's just a little

Not not disagreeing. I'm just saying that when we start narrowing our pool talk to, I think we need to start digging. Um, because otherwise we're just wasting time. Um

well not I would dis agree a little bit with wasting time uh because through every process you learn and you might have a number one candidate and let's say they get washed out in the background or the credit check. you still have others in that pool. You say, "All right, let's check the next one. Let's see if we can, you know, we still have quality candidates you might want to offer the position to." We we we never reach out to candidates and tell them they're out of the running until you select somebody and say after the background check. So, you still have a pool to go through. And in a pool like this, you might you I mean, you might have four really good candidates and you have to narrow it down and start looking for hairs. U but that's where the personality comes in and how they get along with you, how they speak in public, etc.

To follow up with what Tim saying, um I think it would make sense to reach out and talk to these folks about our town and we could put together something. I don't think any of us need to do it, but you could do it. And there might be some folks that they realize when there's 16,000 people in Greenville and there's a guy named Cal Dodie that's mayor, I'm not coming up there. But it would also give you a chance to to talk with them. If if I was hiring you as a um head hunter, this that would be an expectation I would have is that you have a chance to talk with them first. Um some of the other things like the checking the references I have never caused called a reference who is on somebody's reference list and they say I wouldn't recognize or rec recogn I wouldn't suggest you get this person. So, um, but

I see what you're saying. Well, you could use the FBI technique is you call the references and you don't talk to the references. You tell me two other people you know that know him or her and then they chase down those people, not the people listed on the resume. Um, that's a lot of work. Would you feel comfortable talking to the top nine?

Um, I sure can. I can I can do that. Um, but then again, it's more of a subjective, um, as Matt brought up, uh, with with my history and my, yeah, it might be able to wean one or two off just how they answer the questions or dodge a question, but that would be very subjective on my part and not part of the the board discussion. I since you've gone this far with it, if I may, I I would like for you to get with Kathy and give her if Cal's okay with it. and give us the names where we can read again resumes and let us know who these green

so based on your bottom get the top nine right based on the way you sent it to me and share with them the top nine right so that further I mean coming from your background yep thought what you read. Yep. And and none of us have been through this. I mean, so we're I think we hadund 113 resumes when we went through this to begin with and they narrowed it down to three. Really? Something like that. Were you involved? Yeah. Were you involved in that? No, I was not.

Was that after? That's why I'm saying I'm brand new at this. Before you or is Well, it was after me and then before me. Okay. Yeah, it does. Well, and just piggy backing on that or whatever like uh to your point, I mean, obviously I I trust your your your judgment in in and uh

in let's not go there. Uh look, trust your judgment in terms of uh identifying, you know, a top five, top nine, whatever. That's fine. I want to I need something though to read to understand how you came to that conclusion. Right now, I'm basing everything off of colors. So, when I leave here tonight and I go back to my own life and I'm trying and I'm trying to evaluate this, I don't know what was running through your mind of what determined a green versus a red versus yellow. And I'm sorry, it makes sense to you, but I don't think it would make sense to me or anyone if I was to take this to the audience right now and say, "Hey, tell me what do you think?" Right now, we don't have anything definitive that uh articulates how you kind of came to these conclusions. I'd like to see kind of that thought process behind it of why these are your top nine or your top five. I don't I'm not saying you have to write a dissertation for each of them, but it would just be kind of nice to have something more to base on than just this is who you thought you know should be included. I because you might know I you might have something that makes complete sense but if I don't if I have questions you might could answer them if you provide the notes. Right. So if I provide with um to Kathy um the names that go with those top nine and you read those cover letters and you read the resumeumés and then look at the categories the 16 categorories you guys described of what you were looking for in those core development. I think the picture would be clearer reading it with those of knowledge of municipal uh budget uh budgetary processes and practices. You

look at that, then you read this resume. Where do they me they mention budget? Where do they mention finance? Where do they me how what stands out there?

But I could do control F in a resume and count how many times they say budget or finance. I want to know what about how did they articulate in their cover letter that their skill with finance or their but you know I I that there's stuff that again that comes with your knowledge as a city manager and as a consultant that we're not going to have. So it would just be kind of nice to understand how did you measure ability to evaluate situations and make decisions in a timely manner because how I measure that might be different from oh everyone else

100% but that that's the that's a subjectivity to any evaluation is they might write in their uh cover letter that they they've done forecast budgeting

or implemented forecast budgeting to to whatever organization they're in. Well, that tells me that they have some experience in laying out budgets into the future and they have some fiscal knowledge of why that's important. You might not get that out of that same sentence. So, there is subjectivity to to the process. But if you read through after if I send you the top nine or whatever and you read through those with that in mind because what I do is I read the first one when I get an new applicant in I start with those core knowledge and I start with the top one knowledge of municipal budget principles and practices. Okay? And then I read it. Now, of course, by the time I get to the third one, they all start popping in my head of, okay, I look at I I read their resume and I can see where it's at, and they pop out to me as they probably would you after you read a couple of them that, oh, wait, they mentioned budgeting. They uh projects, major projects was another one. Do they list major projects? Um, and some people don't. Some people just don't have that experience. Um and then the easy the I guess the easier ones are at the end the qualifications bachelor's degree um etc. Master's degree um preferred either they have a masters or they don't

part of the reason we bring in a consultant is because we're trying to use their knowledge to help us make decisions. So I think if my opinion I don't get a vote was is if we are able to look at the candidates and their scores what Pete's providing to what we think and and if it's if it basically matches then then we're kind of good. If if one of them's holy goodness gracious, this person doesn't have any of these things in my mind or they've only got half of them, then that that could create an additional uh discussion. But I don't think we've got the time or ability to basically be taught completely on how to do a um this whole subject, a whole if we were going to do that, we wouldn't have to have him. So, that's the what that's what I think.

Well, and and if you have questions as you go through, you say, "I've read this resume twice and I I can't figure out why this person didn't get credit for that. I see it. It's right here." You know, I can answer those questions when you have individual questions as well.

Okay. Is there a do we need to make a motion on that? Okay. Parliamentarian if we just asking him for the names. Do we need any kind of This is just a discussion. No. No, you're not making a formal decision. Okay. I've got your list here of your top nine with based on the scores here at the bottom. So, I'll just compare that with the names with you to confirm before I share with them.

Right. And I I'll go back and I'll go back and and look at them. And then, like I say, if if anyone has any questions after that, after they get the names to it and they read over the resume and they either positive or negative of why was that box filled in that way, I'll be happy to go through it and might convince me I'm stupid. Wouldn't be the first person. Okay. All right. Thank you. Uh, one other thing I'd like to ask everyone to think about a Saturday where we might can get together once we get all these names probably over the next three to four weeks to do inter in uh the interviews.

Question. they were blended with uh a lot of the the answers um like you answered were either already given by directors already covered. There were no standouts that were home that everyone was pretty much in the same were no big variances.

I would say all of them. Okay. To answer that because um not only are you a member of the community, but they're a member of the community. um and some of the department directors. So all that information like I said there were there was no which is good because sometimes you go into um a community and you have some config there were everyone looking

thank you P above and beyond And item 7.3 is public hearing and consideration of an ordinance on second and final reading to amend the fiscal year 2026 budget. Laura, you want to cut cover that? Um, there were no changes from the first um reading on the ordinance. Do anybody have any specific questions? We did reach out to the insurance company. We're waiting to hear on the library roof. We're waiting to hear back from an adjuster to come out. They've been in communication with Aaron Evans, the director. Okay.

I don't know if that's something we I don't think so since we didn't set a time or a date. It was just kind of a part of the con. Thank you. All right. Well, we had voted on this uh our last meeting and this is the second reading. It is a public hearing. Do we have anybody that would like to speak?

Okay. If not, I'll make a motion to approve. We have a motion to approve. Do I hear a second? Any further discussion? All those in favor say I.

I. Those against like sign motion carries. Item 7.4 is consideration to approve the purchase of a cardiac monitor for the Greenville Fire Department. Are you going to talk about that, Eric? I don't want to embarrass you, but I think there was a pretty big thing that happened over the last couple of days. Part of your out part of your u private life. 16th anniversary. Oh. Oh, well that's still that's really not private life. That's kind of semi-public, I guess. So,

good thing we got the news rolling back there. live at six o'clock. This just in. Yes, we are. We are very fortunate on that on that regard. So, thank you for recognizing that. Thank you for all you've done in our community. You surprised me. I was like, where's this going? I'm sorry. I apologize. Got you got Bobby fired up. He's going to have something to talk about. That pin was a just a weapon over there. All right. Um All right. Okay. Let's get back in there.

All right. back back to regular here. So, yes, part of the budget amendment uh was to allocate funds to purchase a we've been buying the reconditioned life pack 15 cardiac monitors uh to replace our current ones which are no longer supported by Philips Healthcare. They were purchased I think in 2011 somewhere in that range. Uh there's no more software support or anything like that. EMS has already completely switched to these monitors and we're slowly trying to get our fleet of monitors up to that standard be all the same. So, how many have we gotten? This will allow us to put um this monitor will allow us to have uh the life pack 15s on all of our frontline apparatus with the exception of the 100 foot ladder truck which normally doesn't respond on medical calls. So,

good. Okay. Do I hear a motion to approve? Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. Hi. Those against like sign motion carries. Thank you, Eric.

Item 7.5 is consideration to approve the ad hoc committee to move forward with formal planning for the Roby Auditorium with the Dave A. David Wright as the design architect. We all know that yesterday was groundhog day and the groundhog saw a shadow. Also looked at my shadow and I've got six more weeks of extreme diet in ahead of me. So too many too many Christmas cookies and baked goods. So probably be on an ill mood for the next six weeks. So, uh, again, I'm here addressing the board, um, as my role right now in the ad hoc committee. Uh, Todd had asked me before he left if I would serve on that committee, which I have. And right now, we're still in a search mode only uh to try to come up with a good budget on what this uh project's going to cost. Uh, I've I've talked with the state fire marshall. I've also talked with Bert's office and the state fire marshall eventually will want to see a complete set of documents. Um they're they're they're looking at life safety looking at ADA issues. So I know that's as this ad hoc committee transcends to a project hopefully you will probably want to go into the RFQ mode and want to select a permanent architect who will at that time prepare the necessary plans uh that will be reviewed by the state fire marshall's office Bert's office as well as David Williams's office. So right now again we're in the mode of trying to come up

with a good budget on what this scope of works is going to cost. So, uh, right now we cannot do any construction at all until those plans are approved, uh, short of doing some maintenance items, maybe getting, um, some, um, electric there in the building so that engineers can and architects can can look at the existing situations to develop that scope of work and uh, a cost estimate. So, that's kind of where we're at. And again, I know this is an ad hoc committee and but right now we're still in a search mode. So, um that's where we're at.

So, when you're when you made a comment about um needing drawings to let the fire power fire marshall make decisions, are you are you saying you're going to do that to get to them as right now or

No, you just going to keep talking or just checking? Yeah, we're we're we're just we're just trying to build the scope of work and a cost estimate. And again, based on the the city's standard policy of issuing RF RFQS to that other architects may want to submit proposals on doing that work, but mine is just as an ad hoc kind of representative based on based on um Todd's asking me to do that. And also, I kind of like the building. It's it's kind of a neat building. I guess Scott had had reiterated there as well. It's a it's a it's a primary building there I think needs to be preserved uh in its totality and hopefully I know that's I know you got a pecking order with other buildings. I mean we've got we've got to address uh um George CL. I don't know what's going to happen with the building that the uh Boys and Girls Club is in right now. And so I I know it's we just got to kind of get in the picking order some way. So again, I we're just trying to dot the eyes and cross the tees and and arrive at a good budget figure there that we can present to the to the council.

I'd like to throw something out if I could, Mayor. Sure. Instead of them coming back to us every meeting to do this, get a price for this, let them in the building for that. Is there a way maybe we can talk to our city lawyer and maybe do a lease for this committee, 99-year lease like we do the Boys and Girls Club down at the neighborhood gym. Could we do something like that to where they wouldn't have to come back to the city for and I don't know if you'd have to do an RFQ if that would help, you know, if we would. And I may be way off base, but I'm just thinking to make this a lot easier. Well, that would be good. to maybe kind of cut to the chase of

That's what I'm saying. I mean, you could you could get a couple sprinkler guys in there. I know you could without going through all this. Well, we do have to go to the state fire. I understand that. But what I'm saying to get a to get a ballpark price that he was talking about two weeks ago. Yeah. And that's what we're trying to do. It'd be a lot easier if it wasn't in the I mean, take over the insurance or whatever on the building away from the city. We'll just do a long-term lease on it. Yeah. Let's Let's talk with our attorney and see. I I don't know. It's a It's a I I certainly would want to explore that.

Yeah, it's uh you know, the buildings I was I was really surprised that the buildings is is in good a shape as it is. I mean, we don't there's no leaks. It's basically just been unused for many years. And uh it's got a lot of potential. So again, I don't know what the what the future's going to um is going to be for the Roby Adult Center. I don't know whether they'll stay or whether they'll go somewhere else. But again, I know that's in your your agenda somewhere. So it's the O saying it only takes money. We have so many things backed up right now. Yeah. Yeah. Yes.

Add another one to the city budget. Exactly. I'm just saying let's let these fine people that are wanting to do something with the habit auditorium and let it happen instead of the building just keep sitting there.

Well, and and Oh, go ahead. I'm sorry. Oh, sorry. If you go ahead and finish. I'm I was just going to say I just I I want to make sure we set the record straight because it is uh it's been brought up to me the this this feeling that you know this project might be trying to jump ahead of others or might be perceived as jumping ahead. And and if you go back and and look at the report, I I don't believe that that's the case. This is a project that was never completed in 2004. And so for years, you know, 20 plus years, a a commonly sanctioned narrative was that it was that it was too far gone. And and we know that's not the case. Um, so I don't I don't want it to be I don't want it to be perceived that, you know, this is all a sudden being brought up and trying to jump in front of other projects. It's it's more so finishing something that was never completed in 2004. Um, and so the community members that are on the ad hoc committee right now are are dedicated to getting the information necessary and exploring the potential opportunities to where it might not cost the town um, you know, a huge amount of money. if we can organize ourselves and and get ourselves uh in a position to potentially write grants to potentially seek outside funding, but we can't do any of that until we, you know, get ourselves organized and we get the necessary data points that Dave is uh suggesting. Um, so that's kind of the point of bringing this agenda item up is allowing us to get the necessary evaluations. um allow allow us to continue the exploration phase and and look at potential uh because if you go back to the report, we wanted to form a strategic partnership for that uh for the Roby Auditorium that would involve multiple stakeholders to where maybe we could eventually look at your uh idea of a 99-year lease down the road if that's

something that we wanted to to to look at again with that conglomeration of stakeholders. But right now, we we just need to get all the data points in order. And that's what we're asking to do is to formalize the committee to where we can do that investigative research and get the data points that Dave has mentioned and then make a decision. Is it something we want to tackle right away because there's a grant out there that could could catapult it? Is it something that we, you know, probably can't get to in the next five, 10, maybe later, you know, years? Or is it something that we get through all the data points? Is it something that we can even do at all? But we can't answer that question at this point. So that's kind of what we're trying to do. Um trying to be proactive rather than just reactive, but it's not jumping ahead of other projects. I just want to make sure that narrative is is not being uh spread. This is something that was never finished in 2004.

Right. And I'd like the idea of exploring that with city attorney plus with PEP because PEP sees that building as one, not as two. So that would be that could be a little issue when it comes to if you got down to the point of a lease how they see it as one. Firewall firewall would have to be constructed. If not, I think there's well there is one a so so firewall and I think we were we were still working. Yeah, we we were working for Vana Mountain at that time, right? And

I I I worked with the city and we just basically put a a band-aid on that and and we and we put a fire petition in there, a two-hour fire petition. That's why ROI is still or the adult center is still able to operate and there's there was nothing done on the auditorium side. So there's a distinct 2hour fire petition in that on doors, not a wall. Yeah. Well, there's penetration to the wall, which is not a firewall. Yeah. And but that could be remedied. I think especially with PEP. Yeah. I think we could cover that. And I just think it'd be something good to look into

and that way they wouldn't have to come back to us for like RFQS. If they wanted to use Dave, they could use Dave right now and let him get prices for sprinkler systems or whatever without the restrictions that the city has. I don't know what what advantages that remain in the city's hands it would be for No, I was she had asked me a question. I was um I don't know if there would be any advantages for us to retain the property. I mean, we would, but I mean, in a lease like we do with the Boys and Girls Club. And do we have leases with the other ones, Kathy?

They're agreements basically. Well, that's one of the things too that PEP said that we're going to have to do is have official agreements with each of the entities that are in all town facilities. For example, I know Boys and Girls Club is planning to move out to their new location soon, but in the meantime, we do need to work on facility use agreements with Boys and Girls Club, the museum, Greenville, Green County Museum, Main Street. Um, and then, as you can see, next on the agenda is a facility use agreement with George CLIM um for Head Start to use the space that they've been using at this point in time. So, that has been

Andrew Johnson, Andrew Johnson has some type of agreement. So that's the Greenville Green County Museum and Main Street and the credit union currently occupy that space. And so um that's another thing that they suggested to us recently that we need official agreements in place and and insurance to to cover that general liability that you were trying to jump in front of anything. I mean it's all No. And that wasn't that wasn't a slot towards you. That that has just been a perception taxpayers to take on something else when they got all that done. And I' I've not heard that what you said, but I I hope people don't think that that's we just want to do our due diligence and do our research. And I think I think the Habstick Auditorium was basically,

for a better word, walked away from when all the energy went into the Capitol Theater. Let's redo it. I think you're right. I'm pretty sure it was. That's what I remember. Yeah. So, okay. Well, do we need to vote on about create or shoot talking about the lease and some other activities or you going to just work on that and bring it into our next meeting? Yep. What what was in front of us here? I think just that Dave was going to RFQ putting out an RFQ or Dave, what what do you suggest? I I know Laura's gonna say we're gonna have to put RFQS out if you want to further.

So, you didn't say that that's where you're at yet. Well, I'm gonna be greedy. I want to be the architect. But, you know, again, you are the architect. Well, and I and I know that the city Yeah, I know the city goes through, you know, the different policies. So, but again, just me as a member of the ad the ad hoc committee, we're just we're trying to just gather the information as best we can so we can bring those numbers back to the city to take a look at. Katie's got something she wants to share. We talked about today.

Yeah. So, I've been doing a little research on that to have you um be the designated architect for that and I was looking at the the town of Greenville purchasing policy uh which is our local policy that we follow versus TCA. So, um, I referenced TCA, uh, 124107 for contracts for professional services. Historically, the town has followed section A, B, and C of that particular code, um, which basically says we do an RFQ, which you're familiar with, Dave, and then, um, a committee reviews it and then we bring it in front of city council and then they select a person. And at that point in time, if you were the selected one, then there's a contract worked out between you and the town. And then that allows you to go and reach out to

structural engineer, electrical engineer, whoever to get kind of an ideal. And then those costs

come to you because that's built into your contract with the town. Um now I will say in TCA section D of 124107 it does allow um the city if you have a satisfactory existing working relationship with an architect um Dave Wright that you basically could exercise without doing the other sections which is historically what we've done this the committee doing an RFQ and doing the committee and then bringing it in front of city council The only concern I shall bring up is that TCA is good to follow, but your local policies, if you have a local purchasing policy that is stricter, then you typically go through the stricter process, which is why we've normally used A, B, and C, which is the services shall be procured using the RFQ procurement method. So, um, could you allow Dave to be that person since you have a satisfactory existing working relationship? If you al city council so choose to do that, you could. Um, but then I suggest to you that's not been our standard practice because we because of our stricter local procurement policy. So, if you did allow that today, then I would suggest maybe looking at changing the town of Greenville purchasing policy. I do I'll let Laura speak to this too to confirm if I'm saying this correctly. If you went ahead today and chose Dave as the design architect based on that section D. Um I think if it was in our meeting minutes today, don't you do you not agree, Laura, if they documented in that meeting minutes, it might suffice possibly our audit?

I think we should rewrite the policy before we make a decision like that. and vote on that. So maybe we'll wait. Anybody have any Can you work on that and have it ready for next week or next next meeting there? We might need if we're going to revise the town of Greenville purchasing policy. We might need to do some it's basically the same except for D. I I just re I just looked at D because that's what we were talking about when it was referencing um contracts for professional services. So we can go against our ordinance if we vote on it.

So again to Kathy's point, our policy says we shall the language is we shall do an RFQ. So that's why I say that we need to do that to procure one. State statute takes that a a leg further. So if the city council wants to go that direction and appoint Dave, I would just record it that way in the minutes. Can can we and then if we need to adjust our purchasing policy, I think that's something we could do down the road.

Okay. Well, I guess the recommendation is for Dave to be the architect for the ROI. Are y'all happy with that? Okay. Do I hear a motion? Where's Dave's bills going to be sent? not from us. That complicates things.

So I I really don't and that's a that's a part to it too. if if you all approve Dave as the design architect, which references section D of that TCA for this one time um under these circumstances, then Dave would normally negotiate a contract with the town for X amount of price. Um the question is who's going to pay for that then? Because from the city council standpoint last time, I don't know that that was well and we've got the same issue. I'm sorry.

And the city council just hired him, so of course he'd send him to the city. I guess we we had the thing with the um Harmony Cemetery that's kind of very simil similar by choosing a um and we went through the RFQ, but we choose we chose it for for the the Harmony group. So we we've kind of done it all that way one time, but there was no charge.

There was no CH. So the going referencing the Old Harmony Cemetery that went through the RFQ process, which is our standard process that we've used thus far and then that firm was chosen and then from my understanding, Christina, um that firm is being covered by a another entity to pay those costs. covered by the Green County Heritage Trust, which they've already voted to do, or the grant that we get would cover that. So, it's no town money involved in that. So, I guess that's just the decision that would need to be made on this is if Dave's getting a fee or not getting a fee, then that would need to be determined.

Might help with that diet. I mean, really? Yeah. We might not go. You might be able to go out. Well, and another example is the pocket park. Um so in the pocket park there was um RFQS were sent out and um there was three firms that responded back. One withdrew, two were left and and Dave was the one that was chosen for that. And at that point in time um the town negotiated a contract with Dave. He presented a contract and at a set price and then you then went out and got advice from a structural electrical plumbing and that was built into your fee.

You know, I don't mind at all still working in the in the ad hoc kind of role because again we're just trying to gather the information and then bring that back with a more concentrated budget what what this is going to cost. And right now we're not, you know, I'm not doing a whole lot of drawings at all. I've done some preliminary drawings that I've communicated with with the state fire marshall on and also Bert and uh but you know, nothing to the extent that we can actually put anything out to bid so to speak. This is just preliminary information and just a fact gathering uh process right now to see what it's going to cost to heat and cool it, put the electrical in, get the a get the ADA issues u addressed and life safety which is first and foremost. So right now that's that's that's what we're looking at right now. So nothing as far as any kind of

bees bees or drawings. It's basically basically pro bono kind of stuff. Okay. Well, if you're just going to be looking at the building and trying to decide what you want to do next, I don't think Okay. There's nothing for us to do. No, I do think that since we've got two um projects that are going on with public private pro partnerships, possibly we need to address that some way. Even if it's the the uh private group funding all of the public work, we need to somehow define how that works.

And that's part of what when we say formalize this committee, we want to do that work and formalize if it is with for example Green County Heritage Trust, formalize and say do you want to, you know, go forward even more with this endeavor or not? But we're trying I think there might be the misunderstanding. We want to just make sure that we're just recognized formally as a committee to do this research to do this work. Um so that's what we're asking for here. I don't think city council has to prove that. Do we

Well, yes to I mean that's the whole reason we're here. If it if if we didn't need that approval, it wouldn't have been on the agenda and I wouldn't we wouldn't this wouldn't be the second time it's been on the agenda. Not understanding why you need that approval. I guess I understand Kathy and Laura can speak to that. I've I would just say it's just simply because it's a town facility. Yeah. I mean that's a short answer. It's a town facility. So decisions to use and improve and research and all that. Anything related to town facilities, decisions about those and how that works comes back to the city council.

I'll make the motion that they can form their committee, their ad hoc committee. Second what we need to do. Have a motion second. Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Those against like sign. Okay. Go forward. Hallelujah. Um,

item 7.6 is consideration to approve agreement with Upper East Tennessee Human Develop Agency allowing Head Start to utilize a portion of the George Clint facility for operation and programming. Since we took over the George Clint building, they have a a com commitment to

They did. They So when the city schools occupied the space at the George Clint facility, um Head Start, Upper East Tennessee Human Development Agency had a an agreement with the school system. It was a an extended 10-year agreement with them to stay in that space and um the the city schools provided some services for them. It's basically um maintenance for the most part and food. And um when the city schools moved out, that agreement ended. And so um Head Start and I met, Josh and I met, and there's a few others from Everest, Tennessee, and I met and um I said, "We've got to formalize an agreement for you all to continue in that space." And we were upfront and honest about it. We do we do not know the George Clim does have a steering committee and they are looking and exploring options to bring to city council as to what they would like that facility to be. Um it's in the early phases of that. They do not have a um um firm plan in place to to bring to city council at this point in time. So I said with Head Start, this would probably be better insteading instead of committing to the 10-year agreement that we need to have an annual agreement with George CLM. um moving forward at this point in time. So with this agreement um basically they're going to continue to use the space that they have which if Christina pulls up um there's an exhibit A which is basically a map that Josh provided me that highlights the section that Head Start will use. Um and it is when you walk into the the George Clan facility, it's to the far right. Um they basically have some double doors that uh lead down a hallway and on the hallway there's a girl's bathroom and a boy's bathroom that the students use. Um but they're escorted in there with a a staff member, an employee. And then they go through these double doors and they can either go down

the ramp or the stairwell. And then there's an office space on the left and the right and then a classroom that serves 15 students. And then on the opposite side it says cafeteria. That's really a space that they have their lunch, their food which is brought in. They have a separate contract with Greenville City Schools and they deliver their food. So that would not be any kind of expectation of us as a municipality. And then um that is also used slash an indoor play space in case they cannot use the the front playground that that Head Start put in a couple years ago and then an additional office space. So, the main thing to point is they would be still be using their designated area. Um, in the meantime, if for some reason, uh, the town decided to let another facility or another organization use other portions of that building um, until things are finalized, that community space, which is the hallway, parking, um, the bathrooms, then those would be uh, used by other people besides Head Start. So, that pretty much sums it up. But um we're we're taking this year by year just to see from this point forward as this committee is still exploring options for what that building could become per your approval.

If I may add, um Kathy, I know we had talked about I know right now George Clim's kind of open the air what they want to do with it. There's a long list of of items that um are looking to be funded. I know George Clim's not even really on at on the agenda at this point. Um, we have been in the space for a very long time. Um, I will say we had we have an agreement with uh the Greenville School Systems right now. We're actually in every elementary school that they have. We have a Head Start program. They all service three to four year olds. And really the big thing about George Clem is it's solely focused on the three-year-olds. Um, so I know for a short period of time the city schools, they'll after they they do their enrollment, they'll have a short period where they'll try to get a few three-year-olds in. Um, but for most people trying to get four-year-olds ready for kindergarten is the main priority. Um, so sometimes the three-year-olds kind of get left out a little bit in our area. So that really is the main focus of George CLIM is to get these three-year-olds in and it's solely focused on the three-year-olds. Um, so it's the only one in the area. Like I said, Head Start is a program for low-income families, so there's no charge for the kids to go there. Um, we do provide services as far as screenings um to try to get them in if there's any issues with like health, speech, dental, things like that. um they don't have to pay for it. So, it's a really good program. Um we are looking to retain the space if possible. We don't expect as far as like ma major maintenance, anything like that. For the most part, I'm the operations manager, so we actually handle most our maintenance. We're not looking for people to come in and replace light bulbs, do things like that. Um try to take care of it as much as we can ourself. Um like you said, the area there is really nice because when you come in, it's kind of sealed off by itself. Um the doors do lock so it keeps the kids safe. Um so it's really been a perfect area for us in the building. Um we try to improve also whatever we can as far as the space that we're in. We don't ask for people to come in and do renovations. Um I don't know if any of you all have been by the George Cle school, but there's a brand new playground out front at the bottom of the hill. Um and we put that in. So and

it's not just for us. We don't lock the gates, things like that. We want um people to bring their kids and play on the playground. Um so it is more of a community playground. So, we do try to bring that aspect of community everywhere we go. Um, but as far as why I'm here, we're just kind of looking at, like Kathy said, more of just a a yearly lease. You know, we don't expect 10 years, but um, we do enjoy the space, like the space. It works out really well for us. So, whatever we can continue to keep will be really nice. So, we're just being asked to honor the agreement that we had between the city schools.

Well, it's got some exceptions in there because we're not a we're not going to help provide uh nutrition. that the city schools had. Um we are basically providing um they're providing their own insurance um coverage. We're and we've got insurance on the building too, but they've got their own separate insurance, but they are basically we're providing heating and air and um utilities. They're cleaning those restrooms right now and supplying those restrooms. We're maintaining them. So, right now, all the utilities um that once were paid for by the city schools are being paid for by the town under parks and reccks budget back there. Uh thank you, Butch. Thanks, Butch.

And um if there is a minor like toilet leak or something like that, um they have reached out for the parks and rec guys to go fix that. But at this point in time, it's very minor. And Josh um is their maintenance guy. He serves all of them, so he gets to them when he can. He's not on site on a day-to-day basis, but there's no significant in the agreement, too. It basically says we'll share those common areas outside of his designated space. And um like you mentioned, there's no significant renovations. If they wanted to make some changes, they would have to come back before you all get your permission to do so, which nothing has been really done other than just some general upkeep. Kathy, have you ran this by the George Clim steering committee to at least get their input? I know there's been some thoughts and feelings on uh decisions being made without their input and uh have you at least

So, I did reach out to a few of the folks that serve on that committee the other day to just to let them know. Um I didn't reach out to all of them, but I did reach out to a few of them because I wanted them to be aware that if this came up on the agenda today that that this was what this was. it's nothing more than what it has been and it's just until you know year by year because if something else happens with the the building then um they know that and so we were very I was very upfront and clear with with Josh um to say we don't know what this building's going to be in the future but we can take this on a year-to-year basis. So I'll bring this back again to you June 30th and then every year at that point forward until we know where this is going. I'll make a motion we let Head Start use the facility.

We have a motion. Do we have a and a second? Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Those against like sign. Motion carries. Thanks, Josh. We a motion to adjurnn. So move. All those in favor say I. I. Okay. Now I'd like to call to order the beer board. Special called meeting. Is there any public comments, Christina?

Okay. First, unfinished business. Consideration to approve the minutes of the special call meeting held on January 6, 2026. Do I hear a motion to approve? So moved. All those in favor say I. I. Those against like sign. Motion carries. New business.