City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. I'd like to call this January 6 regular city council meeting to order and like to call on for invocation war 12. Lord, thank you for bringing us together as a council at the start of this new year. As we look ahead, grant us clarity to make sound decisions and the courage to act with integrity. We ask that you bless this year with opportunities for growth, healing, and progress in our community. In your holy name we pray. Amen. Amen. Can we stand for the pledge, please?

To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Clerk, would you please call the role, ma'am? Council member Smith, present. Council member Stalins, here. Council member Marsh, here. Council member Crabtree here. Council member Craig here. Council member Martin here. Council member Sear here. Council member Meek here. Council member Bogard present. Council member here. Council member Bell here. Council member D here. We have a quorum.

All righty. Thank you. Item five, awards and recognitions. We do not have any at this time. And we'll move on to item six, public comments. If anyone would like to come and speak at the podium, please come and speak. You have five minutes. State your name and address.

Good evening. I'm Diane Cronny Turner, 26 Harden Place. I have placed our Jeffers Ben Environmental Center December newsletters. This is for the year of of of 2025. These are all the activities and everything that we did at Jeff Be. This is just something for you to take and look at and see what we do. And also on the last page on page 11, you will have our dates for 2026 of our activities that we'll be having at Jeffers Ben. And if anybody ever want to volunteer, we'll be glad to have volunteers at all of our events at Jeffers Ben. So, thank you so much for supporting us in 2025 and we look forward to you in 2026. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Turner. All right. Anybody else would like to speak at public comments? All righty. That turns it to item seven. That would be me. Um, merry Christmas to everyone. Hope everybody had a great Christmas and going to have a great new year. We're off to a great start here at the city. Um, looking forward to the new year, the new possibilities. I want to thank each and every department for their hard work for everything they done in 25. We've got a lot of progress and we got a lot more to do and we're going to keep pushing forward. Just a few highlights. The finance department finance department closed out our fiscal year this on this. Got everything moving forward. I'd like for everyone to remember it's budget time now. Fixing to start here in January and get ready for that. Everybody says that's a good time or a bad time. It can be a little of both. So, but we'll have good times with that. But I also want to remind our 501c3 people out there, our organizations, you know, the Hoptown helps things there. So, get your paperwork ready so we our council and that committee can get together and work on this so we can be ready to move forward with the budget on that. We'd like everybody to do that. Big shout out to the PD, Chief Nubbie and his team. We had zero homicides for 2025. [applause] And our last year of doing that was 2008. Thank y'all there again. Thank you. You know, Hoggo Fire Department had 16,000 emergency calls responded to. The public works had 900 staff hours dedicated to flood response and cleanup on that. Resurfered 7.1 miles of streets, repaired over 2600 or replaced 2600 ft of sidewalk. 64 drain projects to help the future draining flooding problems that they're working on. they're working still with but we have done 64 already in 25 and we're also

fixing to start something new. We are watching right here. The neighborhood watch group is out and looking at everything. This will be coming out next Monday. You call Chief Newbie. The neighborhood associations will be reaching out to everyone. We're proud to be saying that here at city hall and Chief Newbie and Marvel will be taking everybody's phone calls on this and working hard on it. He will be talking more about this on his podcast on Monday. But the neighborhood associations and everyone get that get together because we are coming. We want you to know we're here to help you and to be safe and public safety is our first and main thing on that. Now, the city offices will be closed on January the 19th in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but HRC, our community partners, will be also putting out the Martin Luther King March starting at Freedom Elementary. And I want everyone to come out and support Martin Luther King Day. Let's don't forget our past and let's keep moving forward with our future on this. At the auditorium, at the college, we'll just be a short little walk and we'll pray the good Lord gives us just a little warm weather. If not, bundle up and we still have a good time when we do this on that and housing form on 18 of 26. It'll be this Thursday night at Grace Episcopal. If anyone would like to come and speak of that, HRC is doing that, too. We want everyone to come out. You know, let's get informed about what's going on about this fair housing piece. Let everybody come out and talk about it. The more we talk about it, the better informed we'll be. And we hope you're there on that. So, that being said, uh we will move into item eight, reports from committee and guest speakers, and we're going into financial report from Melissa Clayton for the month of November.

Good evening.

All right, we're going to do November's um financial report. For the month of November, we didn't have any inter fund transfers. So total interfund transfers was 30,415 through 5 months, leaving 69,585 available. Our payroll tax through 5 months um collections is at 9,229430. Um, that is a decrease in equivalent payroll through five months of 3.51%. It's also a little bit more than a half a million dollars below what was budgeted. [clears throat] Our property tax collections came in strong in the month of November and October. So we have collected 5,285 370 is exactly the same amount of budget we had through November 24 at 89.8%. our insurance premium tax through November. Um we so far we've collected 3,791613 which is an increase in our equivalent pay uh premiums of 2.73%. Our business license year to date we've collected 801,736 through November. I kind of expected November to be a little bit stronger because that's when the tax deadline was. So it didn't quite come in as much as I had budgeted. um but it was still a good number. So our fund balance in the general fund um through five months we started the year with 317904. We've collected 25,222 315. We've spent 22,609 giving us positive revenue over expenses in the general fund of 2,930442. So, when we compare that balance to last

year's amount, um you can see that we had a little bit more revenue over expenses through five months than we're showing right now by about $800,000. So, municipal road aid so far uh we started the year with 353,535. We've collected 232,000. We have spent 1,254 548. So we have negative revenue over expenses of 668510 [clears throat] in our capital fund. Um we started the year with 967863 we've collected so far um because we do the second quarter in December 1,361823 we've actually spent 2,131924. So we do have positive still revenue over expenses in the capital fund of 197762. Our departmental expenses through 5 months we should be at 41.7%. Um so admin's at 41.1, the tax department's at 42, information technology was at 51.6, legislative was at 45.1 and our public safety um police departments at 41.5. ECC was at 42.4. 4. The fire department's at 40.5, EMS is at 44.8, and fire prevention was at 36.5. In our public works, um, public works admins at 40.7, city maintenance was at 38.5, Fort Campbell contracts is at 22.3, the service center is at 38.6, parks and wreck was at 42.3, the sports is at 33.3, and the water park was at 63.8. eight. Overall, um we are running a little bit under budget for our expenses through five months at 39% in the general fund.

Uh municipal road aid is at 75% of what was budgeted and the capital fund is at 46.9% of what was budgeted. So our cash fund balance, we started the year with 18,269128. We received 25,22215. We've spent 22,609777. So our cash balance as of November 30th was 20 20,881665. Um minus our incumbrances gives us our available cash on November 30th of 20,7679. [snorts] So we take our available cash and we subtract out our two reserve accounts. Um that gives us our unassigned cash fund balance of 19432622 which is 41.4% of our operating budget. And when we compare that with last year um last year we were at 42.4% of our operating budget. So we're a little bit um below that this year. Our last um thing we report on is our investment. Um we started the year June 30th with 1,218. Um we've collected interest of 12,33 given our cash balance November 30th of 1,23147 and um we have an unrealized market gain of 91,879. So if we'd have sold all of our um stocks and stuff as of November 30th, we would have made 1,ion32206. I'd be happy to answer any questions you guys might have about November's financial statement. Any questions for Miss Clayton? One. All right. Thank you, Miss Clayton.

Thank you. All righty. We'll move into item nine, approval of minutes for December the 11th, 2025, special call meeting. So move. Got a motion and second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. Any opposed? All righty. December 11th, 2025 special call meeting for KC training. We need approval of those minutes. A motion. Second. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I.

Any oppose? Likewise. All righty. Thank you. All righty. Item 10, ordinance 01 2026 FY226, operational budget amendment. First reading

amending the city of Hopkinsville, Kentucky annual budget for fiscal year July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026 by estimating revenues and resources and appropriating funds for the operation of city government. Summary now therefore be ordained by the city council of the city of Hopkinsville, Kentucky as follows. Section one, by summary, section one of ordinance 26, 2022, adopting the annual budget for fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025 and ending June 30, 2026 is hereby amended as follows. Revenues general fund 56,860,153 municipal road aid fund 1 million 1 million 326,507 prior year 1,20,394 prior year revenue building maintenance reserve 38,500 total revenues 59,245,554 expenses general fund 57,919,047 municipal road aid 1,326,507 total expenses 59,24 45,554 surplus zero. Section two, section 2, ordinance 172025 is amended to add EMS captain to pay grade 17. Section three. The full text of this ordinance is on file in the office of the undersigned city clerk of the city of Hopkinsville at 7:15 South Virginia Street, Hopkinsville, Kentucky, where it is available for public inspection between the hours of 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Need a motion. Motion Don, second by Amy. [clears throat]

Any discussion? Clerk, please call the role. Council member Smith, yes. Council member Salins, yes. Council member Marsh, [clears throat] yes. Council member Crabtree, yes. Council member Craig, yes. Council member Martin, yes. Council member Sumar, yes. Council member Meek, yes. Council member Bogard, yes. Council member Veles, yes. Council member Bell, yes. Council member Dra, yes. That passes on first reading.

Thank you. All righty. Municipal orders. I would like to call Miss Holly Boggas to the podium to have a little conversation with us here in just a minute. And Miss Amy, correct? Okay.

Thank you, Zach. Uh, thank you all for the opportunity. We're just going to provide a real brief presentation to hit some of the highlights of the municipal order that's included in your packet. There are actually two small presentations. And so we'll address the rental rehabilitation program first. This was created in 2012 by Hopkinsville City Council. There were some major modifications that were made in 2024. Under the old program, 31 projects were completed and approved. And since the changes that have been made in 2024, 11 projects have been approved just in the last year. So great changes, modifications to the program. We appreciate you all taking a look at it and continuing with the program. Couple of before and after pictures that are shown. Um that's all right. You can go to the next screen. Thank you. So, uh, the major modifications that were made required that applications be submitted within 120 days of property acquisition. It tried to convert the program from a maintenance program to more of an investment program. And we believe that's working very nicely. Um, all basic property maintenance code violations um then had to be addressed. So, the incentives that are being provided are for things that exceed the basic property maintenance code requirements. So things like uh weatherization, um energy efficiency items and things that will prolong the longevity of the home. There's still a five-year mortgage requirement that's placed on the property, so it's forgiven in 20% increments every year. As long as the property isn't sold, it's forgiven in full at the end. Uh the funding is limited to $10,000 per unit. And we've seen again 11 projects just in 2024. We have a few more before and after pictures we just want to show you so that you can see some of the physical changes that take place. There's one on Riverview, the next one um over on Walnut Street, and then finally uh one on 809 East 19th Street. Okay. And then there's just one showing you the interior of one of the properties uh being renovated. So, the modifications that are being recommended

by the Legacy Hopkinsville Committee include incorporating a demolition line item so that funds can be provided up to $8,000 toward the demolition of an unsafe structure. Uh this would create an element to encourage the property owner to go ahead and move forward with taking out an unsafe structure and they would be required to submit a building permit application and a development plan at the time of the application. Uh the demolition would be required to be completed within one month of approval uh with the construction of the new structure to be completed within nine months. There is a recommendation included to allow some extensions if warranted for weather related delays and things like that on a case-byase basis. The recommendations are changing two applications per year to two applications per each six-month period. And then um it's also allowing the applicants to apply for the new construction incentives that are also funded under the legacy Hopkinsville program. All of those changes are highlighted uh by bold underlined text in the municipal order that you have and any uh old language is being stricken. And I'll defer to Amy. Uh Amy Craig was the chair of this committee if she would like to add any additional comments.

Uh thanks. I really don't have a lot of additional comments. I just wanted to mention that um when we with this committee, we've kind of gone through each of these things specifically to look at what is working and what can be improved. And so a lot of these recommendations are coming from Holly and Tom who are doing this all the time. And so I think that we want to make it as effective as possible, but also provide incentives to continue to improve our our downtown area. So when we see those before and after pictures, it's evident that this this is a big deal. And it I mean, one house at a time, we start really seeing a difference. So if we can help encourage more development in our downtown area, it only helps everyone. It provides housing. it makes it more attractive. So, there's there's it's a win-win, I think, for everyone involved. But, um, I I think I think these recommendations are are really important to continue with the program and make it more accessible and, um, allow for things like demolition to make it even more enticing to developers. Is there any anybody else on the committee want to add anything to that?

Yeah, I think we're good. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Holly. Thank you, Mr. Gre. I would like to add something to that. Yes, sir. Molly, when is this Linda Woods replacement? When when is that job going to be up? Because what's happening is a lot of constituents the neighborhood association that this program goes through they're basically giving up on it and not showing up to the neighborhood association meetings anymore because of Miss Linda Woods is not present or someone they can talk to about their empowerment plans.

We advertised for that position um in December. Uh the ad ran twice in new in the new era. So we have resumeums right now. We have about six or seven that we're looking at. We hope to be conducting interviews um in the next two weeks. So, not not on the city web page. You didn't mark it on there. It said in December. Yes. Okay. We posted in December. Um it was posted on Indeed. An ad ran in the newspaper and it's on the city's website as well. All right. Thank you so much. Yes, sir. You're welcome.

I would like to add something. Uh thank you, Amy, for leading us on that. You did a really great job because we were brand new. We didn't know what we were doing. And Holly, [clears throat] um, thank you for your due diligence. Uh, you were battling canceller and you put all your effort into this and so I'm very thankful for you. More than welcome. Thank you. All credit to Holly for sure. We're a team. We're a team.

Mayor, I have a few questions. I Holly, Doug, whoever. I'm not sure here. So, for me, this is program's great. Look forward to proving to continue it. uh hopefully more funds in the future even. Um to me I have the same questions about this as I do some of the other programs and that is simple that public funds should have public access. I totally disagree with having geographic boundaries limiting us to our ability for people citizens to apply for things. Um, it's not so much a a a uh ideological argument. It's a principle of government and and governance and and and to be able to do that. All of our citizens pay taxes. All of our citizens pay to help allow us the ability to create these programs to do these things. But we say if you live here and have the exact same issue as someone living here, only one of you are entitled to this help. Um, same thing I've talked about the inner city res. I don't think that we [clears throat] should have geographic boundaries,

right?

Um that that's something I would like to see changed in the future for not just this program but others. Uh you know, if if someone in my ward has a dilapitated house next to it, my my thing is is the city taxes are aren't zoned. Um our code enforcement is citywide. So, all residents should have the opportunity for these type of things. I understand some of the concept and principle between uh our legacy neighborhoods. We're not saying don't do that. All I'm saying is the fund shouldn't be exclusive. Um and that's something that I think that needs to have conversation to to be changed, but I may be the only one that feels that way. So, I kind of would like to it was up to me I would want to come up with a way to change how these programs like this could be citywide. Um, so Mr. Sun and see try to get feedback from anybody who's not in that area. Well, what we can do with that on that, Councilman Stalins, is we can do that and we can put it out there and put out a survey. What do you feel as a citizen that pays taxes in on the your tax dollars? How should we spend it? Should it just be limited to the legacy areas or inner city areas or all across city of Hopkinsville? because some ne some of these neighborhoods and I agree with what Clayton says on some of this. Some of these neighborhoods that are not in the inner city are older neighborhoods now that were built in the late early 60s and so on that are starting to show wear and tear. So with that being said,

I will have Amanda put this out and we will ask a survey with the community and I'll bring that comm community that survey back to y'all. I just think like everything else, give the voice to the people. Yes, cuz I think he has a valid concern. It is their money. So, we'll let them speak on it. This is not our money. We're just delegating their money. So, we'll be glad to put it [clears throat] to them and ask them where they like for it to be spent.

Yes, sir. Council member, we do budget hearings during the budget process. And personally speaking, I think that's a more authentic because it's people that live here and they're here. There is a risk to surveys when you put them out there. Somebody in Dubai could come on there and say, "I don't think you should do that." So we we will we can definitely put that on the agenda for the budget hearings here in this chamber. Holly. Yes, sir. Guess in your opinion because you've done this for a long time and y'all do a great job at this. Thank you. What is the negative side of expanding it? Funding. Just funding. Funding. So the issue being that we would have more people wanting to take part. Yes. Yes.

We would run out of money quickly.

Okay. But the caveat to that is is we're saying we do this because we want our neighborhoods to be more beautiful. We want them to be safer. We want homes to be nicer, property values to go up, which hopefully brings in more tax revenue. But we only want to do it to this area. That's that's where I have the whole issue. I want my whole city to be that way. Not just certain neighborhoods, not certain areas. I think you're right. It's a budgeting issue. I agree completely. and that we'll probably sit here in a few months ago, well, we can't afford that. But that should be put on this body's responsibility. That shouldn't be assumed by you all, right? It shouldn't be assumed by y'all. That's for us to figure out how we fund it, right? Put that burden on us,

but expand these type projects to bigger areas. It's everybody's paying taxes here deserves the right to those funds. Their public fund should be public access. That's just as clear as I can put it. Um, so I would really like to see us figure out a way to to make that happen, mayor. And I don't know what step needs to take be taken to have that discussion to see if that needs to happen now or if that can be done later. I will get it put together and have it in the January agenda next coming up. Doug, is there anything from a legal standpoint there for I I think this is just a policy decision for council on on what type of program do you want? What are you going to fund? As far as a legality, I don't see a problem either way.

Is there council members? I ask my fellow Yeah, please. Can I say something? Please. Yeah. No, I I totally agree with you actually. I mean, I see your point 100%. I I mean, absolutely. I think what we need to look at though is that when we say legacy Hopkinsville, it's the same exact thing as inner city resets. So, when it was created, it was meant to help the inner city. So, we would have to separate this these rehabilitation programs from the inner city legacy programs because when we're looking at legacy, we have like the downtown renaissance program. I mean, that would have to stay in I mean, things that are affiliated specifically with the downtown would need to stay in Legacy. And it's almost like this would need to be its own separate a second.

Yeah. It would be its own second program that would be citywide. Do you see what I'm saying? So, I mean, I don't see why not. And we all offered citywide if we had but it would be a separate thing from Legacy Hopkinsville because Legacy Hopkinsville has to be in a designated area. So if we want this part to be citywide, we would call it something else.

I guess that Let me just ask follow downtown revitalization. Good with that. Has to be the downtown area. I I get that we're saying that because we want business to come in here and all, but I don't know that I 100% agree with the legacy part because that's designated neighborhoods that we designated as being in those areas. You can literally live on this side. I'm just going to use Brian Street for an example. On Brian Street and on this side you qualify and on this side you don't. That's true. It's very that specific. No, I don't.

That's wrong. Like in my opinion, that's just wrong. and and I get for downtown for businesses and we're trying to, you know, upstairs and everything. I get that. But when we're talking about residential properties especially, um I think that should be I don't know if the answer is income based. I don't know if you do it off of percentage of home value. I don't know because I'm not saying um that we don't support the legacy neighborhoods. That's not it at all. It's just a matter of the investment that we're putting into that shouldn't be exclusive to those areas. It needs to be spread out throughout our community at all areas.

What we'll do is we'll get Doug and we'll look at this and we'll bring the language back to y'all in January here in the second council meeting. Then we throw it into committee of the whole for more discussion. I think Holly has something to say too. Ju just No, that's okay. Just just so that everyone understands why those areas were selected. Um those were based on census tracks. So the geographic boundaries weren't necessarily created by us or by you.

This body approved those, but it was based on um the quality of the housing stock, the age of the housing stock, and the income levels that were within those geographic boundaries, which were census tracks that existed whenever the program was first established, 2005. And what have property values across our city, even in inner city areas, changed since then? A lot. It's quite a bit. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. My thing is some of the PVA records reflect significant increases and some don't. Yeah. I I just

ask for an updated one. Well, again, but even then you're saying some of that was based on economic on financial off of property values and income from those areas. Correct. They were they were low to moderate income areas as defined by if I remember back to one of those meets we had before an example I used. Uh, so in Ward 7, if I have a 90-year-old widow whose husband died 30 years ago and she's living on that same pension for the last 30 years, potentially meets that same financial burden, but because of where that home sits, she no longer has the she has no opportunity for those funds under this program for a new h for a new roof, new windows, I think, was one of the discussions we had.

Correct. Again, that's that's the problem for me personally. I want to make it fair for all of our citizens. Understand? Thank you, though. Yes, sir. All righty. Any more discussion from Miss Holly before we start? Well, I think it'd be fair for Amy to say I was on that committee. I think it'd be fair to say we had this discussion one of those meetings that, you know, given the funding, we would move forward because we want to see this expand in other areas of the city. We had a had a long discussion on that. So, Oh, yeah. They did have a discussion on that. I think we all feel exactly the same way. Good. I was hoping for feedback from all you all cuz I wasn't sure if it was just me. So, thank you. No, no, they they had the reason I said I'll bring it back home.

We we all want, you know, folks to live in safe homes and and and you know, revitalize them. And it's, you know, I think the terminology we used in that meeting was it's not a hand out, it's a hand up. Sure. Right. You know, so that's that's really it. Thank you. So, I have a I do have a a question, you know, with what was just said about when this like when the boundaries were created. Um would it be worth revisiting? Yes. and having all of you know redoing the all of the data to see if that boundary expands while simultaneously creating a sister program that encompasses the area not not you know within that so that you still have that part of the legacy program

because I think it's it's valuable in it as an entity in its own but I think creating either a separate program that encompasses the rest of the city to make it accessible to all taxpayers who are all fundamentally paid I mean, I I think there's a couple of options, but I mean, what would it take to do that to get to get that reevaluation? We would just have to uh you know, to look at census data again and to start pulling information on quality of housing stock, looking at um the low to moderate income areas. I don't think they've changed significantly, but we can we can conduct that analysis. We serve at your pleasure and we'll give us some marching orders and we'll we'll take care of

I will get ju just to double double check things, Holly, this is rental rehabilitation, correct?

So it's not like a a private homeowner is fixing up their own own home. Uh the second question as these houses have been renovated has there been or or do we even have the data to know if we have I don't say we but if undergoing the rehabilitation has priced anyone out of the rental market because the property is worth more. Um, so have we seen any negative things from going through this program?

We've not gotten any feedback that indicates that, but we're not actively pursuing that data either. It's something we can look into, but I think it's good. The data is 20 years old, so I mean, yeah, it's got you know, we need to look at current data and look at it very closely. And with that, we will look into that and we'll get with Miss Holly and Tom and we'll move forward with that, too. Okay. Any more discussion from Miss Holly while we got her here? Okay. All righty. We will move into municipal orders then. Thank you, Miss Holly. Yes, sir.

Municipal order 012026 legacy hopsy rental rehab incentive program amendment. Hopkinsville City Council hereby amends municipal order 432024 by adopting the attached revised legacy Hopkinsville rental re rehabilitation incentives program policy. Funding for the legacy Hopkinsville rental re rehabilitation incentives program will be taken from funds budgeted for the inner city RES program. So moved second motion and second. Any discussion? Okay. All those in favor say I. I. Any oppose? Likewise. All righty. Item B, municipal order 022026, [clears throat] housing empowerment plans.

In accordance with executive order 292025, Hopkinsville City Council hereby adopts the following provisions concerning housing. Can I stop you, Britney? I think that Holly has a presentation on this one, too. Oh, she does. Okay. I'm sorry. Come on up, Miss Holly. I'm sorry. [laughter] Thank you. I apologize. I wanted you to be able to finish the program. We looked at several programs. Yes,

we did. We did. Okay. Again, real quickly, uh, just to to bring you up to speed on what the empowerment plan process looks like, the existing program again is available within the Legacy Hopkinsville neighborhoods. It's for singer family homeowner occupied structures only. Ex. The current program limits funding to 25% of the assessed value of the property. Um, we only go we do not go inside the house unless we're addressing access accessibility issues. We're limited to exterior code violations. Uh the applicant has to be current on all of their property taxes. Um if the properties are assessed at $24,000 or more, there are some additional requirements. There's some deferred mortgages placed on the properties. And then if they assess at $60,000 or more, an income verification is triggered. So we looked at that and tried to figure out how we might be able to streamline the process and get some additional projects undertaken. If you can go to the next slide, please. Uh just a couple of before pictures that we want to show you. The majority of projects that we undertake involve windows, doors, roofs, gutters. We do some porches, some um accessibility issues on the exterior as far as ramps leading up to the house. Next slide. HVAC units to make sure that the properties have adequate heating and cooling facilities. And that's a roof project uh before and after. So, um, some of the things that the committee recommended that we look at is eliminate that 25% rule. Um, you really shouldn't base the amount of assistance on what the house is valued at whenever you've got more code violations than than that amount will address. So, they're recommending that the 25% rule be eliminated, but there be a cap placed of $15,000 per property. Require insurance on all projects across the board, regardless of the value of the property. Keep a five-year mortgage on all projects that are valued at $6,000 or

more. Um, don't allow any exterior code violations to remain on the property if money is being invested. And if there are extenduating circumstances such as structural issues, then an additional $10,000 up to $10,000 could be incorporated on a case-byase basis to address those issues. Um, also recommending implementing a 10-year blockout period. so that anyone who has received assistance cannot receive assistance again for at least a 10-year period. The income verification requirements would remain in place and um if the property is valued at $60,000 or more and those income limits are shown on the screen in front of you. And those were the the uh changes that were being suggested and I'd be happy to answer any questions that you might have and if council member Craig would like to add anything.

I won't be a total broken record. Same thing I said. Gotcha. Ditto. Okay. Okay. Roger that. Gotcha. All right. What set what set the limits just based on what we're seeing? Um some of our projects, like if we're doing a roofing project, it's going to run between5 and $8,000. If they need windows and a roof and gutters, we're not able to get all of that done based on a 25% value. So $15,000 will normally get us there. We don't spend 15,000 on each project. like we don't even spend 5,000 on each project. I'm just curious how we can do about those. Thank you.

Can I say one thing about that? Yes. One of the things that we discussed, especially going back to number five that you see on the screen, is we didn't want to just address one issue and have there still be code violations. So, like if we used all the money for the roof and then the windows were still bad, then it it seems like we we just basically put a band-aid on something and didn't address all the issues. So the thought process was that this would be able to address more code violations. But going back to what you said, this is exactly the same process obviously is what you're talking about being citywide because the first

the whole first thing we looked at was rental rehabilitation. This one is is what you were kind of talking about before, which would be a homeowner. So yeah, that's all I got. Thank you. Clayton, you have anything else, sir? Make a citywide. No. Anybody else got anything they want to talk about? People that were on the committee, please speak up. I just I just want to reassure. Okay. I mean, Mr. [laughter] has been discussed trying to move it forward. Thank you. Yeah. I just wanted to reassure you that too. We should discuss,

you know, and we're me and Holly and Tom are talking. We're going to have some more discussions with Amy about the on these committees which are coming up. All righty. Anything else, Miss Holly? No, sir. Thank you. All right. We're going to move into item B then. [laughter] Municipal order 02 20226, housing empowerment plans. Sorry about that.

That's okay. Sorry, I didn't know she had another one. [laughter] In accordance with executive order 292025, Hopkinsville City Council hereby adopts the following provisions concerning housing empowerment plan projects as recommended by the Legacy Hopkinsville Committee. Program purpose and intent. Housing empowerment plan projects preserve existing housing stock within the Legacy Hopkinsville neighborhoods. They provide suitable living environments for residents, preserve city resources for demolition costs due to continued deterioration, and assist with preventing homelessness. Housing and apartment plans encourage neighborhood pride and engagement and promote stability and collaboration through public private partnerships. Applicant eligibility. Eligibility shall be limited to single family homeowner occupied residential units located within the legacy Hopkinsville boundaries map attached for reference. All city and county taxes shall be paid on the property for which assistance is being sought as well as any other property owned by the applicant in whole or in part. The applicant shall provide proof of homeowners insurance at the time of application. Should the structure not be insurable at the time of application, the applicant shall provide documentation from an insurance company detailing that the structure will be insurable upon project completion. Property properties valued at 60,000 or more based upon records of the Christian County Property Valuation Administrator shall trigger an income verification for all persons residing in the structure. Total household income shall not exceed 80% of the area median income, AMI, as defined by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development for the Clarksville, Tennessee, Kentucky, HUD, Metro FMR area. Program parameters. The program shall only address exterior code violations unless the structure has interior damage caused by an existing code violation or unless interior improvements are necessary to make Americans with Disability Act ADA improvements such as grab bars, elevated toilets, or other similar accommodations. Two, funding shall be limited to 15,000 per property and shall address all exterior code violations. In extenduating circumstances, when multiple exterior code violations exist, consider consideration may be given at the discretion of the Christian County

Hopkinsville Development Corporation, LDC, on a case-byase basis. for additional funding up to 10,000 to address the exterior code violations. Extenduating circumstances shall include structural elements or defects such as cracks in the foundation, but shall not include cosmetic or aesthetic defects such as chipping paint. In no case shall the funding exceed 25,000 per structure. Three, no consideration or funding will be given toward repairing any structural residential structure that is on the unsafe structures list as identified by the city of Hopkinsville. Four, projects funded at 6,000 or more shall trigger the requirement for a mortgage and promisory note. Said mortgage shall be executed the time of contract signing and shall remain in effect for 5-year period with 20% forgiven at the conclusion of each year. The Christian County Hopkinsville Development Corporation LDC shall be listed as an additional insured. Should the [clears throat] homeowner sell the house or move out of the structure prior to the mortgage maturity date, this will constitute default of the mortgage terms causing a repayment of the pr-rated amount detailed in the promisory note calculated on an annual basis. Five, homeowners and structures who receive assistance through the housing empowerment plan process shall not be eligible to receive additional financial assistance for a period of 10 years following the date of final inspection. Six, applications will be reviewed on a first come, first- serve basis by community and development services staff. Provided the application meets program criteria, it will be forwarded to the Christian County Hopkinsville Development Corporation LDC for funding consideration. All applications are subject to the availability of funding provided by the city of Hopkinsville. Seven, the Christian County Hopkinsville Development Corporation shall serve as the approval authority with the staff support provided by community and development services. The city of Hopkinsville Finance Department shall serve as the fiscal agent and distribute payments to contractors.

Second, Miss Downs. All righty. Any discussion anymore? Got a question, mayor. Yes, sir. How much money is currently allocated to this program? Melissa, can you tell me that off the top of your head? I bet Holl's got it. Hold on. [clears throat] We're going to need more. Currently, um, remaining less encumbrances is $60,39342. That was as of the end of December. We haven't reconciled with Melissa yet, but we typically do reconcile. So, So, how many have participated in the program so far? Usually about 20 to 25 per year. Per year. Yes, sir. Thank you.

You're welcome. And I will tell you, we're probably going to need more money once we change this. You know, we know that already. Look at after Melissa's talk, we've got plenty to put in there. Well, we that's what the council has to talk about. [laughter] Say one last thing real quick. Holly, just real quick, just to where my mind's at on this, just so you know, because I know you'll be the one tasked to probably figure this out. I can in and my short little brain span. I can envision seeing like the legacy areas,

like if we did it on a point system, but all citizens are available to apply for this and maybe a legacy area gets a point for being in the legacy area, right? So, it still gets somewhat of a priority for that inner city area that we're trying to do outside of downtown surrounding it. But I just still would like, you see what I'm saying? Still giving some emphasis for that, but allowing it to be citywide. So, I just wanted to Sure. Thank you. Thank you. If anybody else has input to share with us before we get started, please do that. Yeah, that'd be great. Maybe we've got plenty of extra money after Melissa spoke, plus opening it up to everybody like Clayton was talking about. We we can discuss that in the committee of the whole. I agree with you, Crabtree.

I'm thinking like just drop five mil on it. I mean, we got it. Okay, we get discussion here. Any more discussion on this? Okay, no more discussion. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? All righty. Thank you. All right. We are now moving on to municipal order 032026 EMS captain job descriptions. Hopkinsville city council hereby approves the attached EMS captain job description. Motion second.

Motion and second. And um any discussion on this at all? Okay. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Okay. There we go. Now we move into item 12. Executive order. Executive order 012026. Board of zoning adjustment. Effective immediately. Betty Esters and Katherine Leam shall be reappointed to the board of zoning adjustment BCA. These terms shall expire December 31st, 2029. And we do need a motion and a second. So move. Second.

Motion and a second. All righty. Any discussion? All righty. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? All right. Executive order 02-2026 Hawkingville Christian County Conference Center Court Board. Effective February 1st, 2026. Martha Agate and Todd Morris shall be reappointed to the Hopkinsville Christian County Conference Center Corporation Board. These terms shall expire January 31st, 2030. We also need a motion and a second. Motion second. Motion by Don, second by Amy. Any discussion? Okay, seeing none, all those in favor say I. I.

Any oppose? Likewise. All right, moving right along. Executive order 03206 Renaissance Design Review Board. Effective immediately, Katherine Dempse and Diane Turner shall be reappointed to the Renaissance Design Review Board. These terms shall expire October 31st, 2029. There's no action necessary. Right. Executive Order 04 2026, Hawkinsville Solid Waste Enterprises. Effective immediately, Natalie Adams shall be appointed to the Hopkinsville Solid Waste Enterprise Board to fill the unexpired term of Chrissy Fletcher. This term shall expire June 30th, 2028. We need a motion in a second. S. All right. Any discussion? All those in favor?

I. Any opposed? All right. E. Executive Order 052026, County Board of Assessment Appeals. Effective immediately, Steve Wade shall be reappointed to the County Board of Assessment Appeals. This term shall expire December 31st, 2028. There's no action necessary. All righty. Number 13, other we got any other business we need to discuss at this moment? All right. I move into item 14. Councilman comments. I do have comments.

Yes, ma'am. I just going back to all this legacy Hopkinsville changes. I just wanted the whole council to be aware that we're still actively meeting and we're not done yet. So, we're you're going to see more things coming before you. The reason why we wanted to go ahead and do these two is because we don't want to slow the process down anymore. We want to go ahead and make the changes so that people interested could go ahead and apply. But obviously, going back to money, there's they're going to run out of money and so we know that that's coming as well. But, um, I just wanted you all to be aware that we're not done yet. So, we're going to we're going to see more things coming soon. Any more comments from council?

Yes. I just want to thank Chief New with all those shootings going on over in the east side. And [clears throat] to you also, mayor, thank y'all for coming together, Miss Britney, and uh we just I like the way we pulled together on that to be able to, you know, the safety of the citizens in that area. Yes, I just want to say thank you, Chief, and your team. Appreciate that. I think we all reflect that as well, Chief. You did a good job, too, Vance. Thank you [clears throat] so much. [laughter] All righty. Any more councilman comments?

All righty. We are going to go to item 15, close session per KRS61.8101c, 8101C discussion of uh pending litigation or proposed litigation. I'd like [clears throat] to make a motion we go into close session. Got a motion. Got a second. All in favor say I. All righty. Any nays? Fast.

We're out of close session and there was no business take actions taken during close session at this time and now we will move into item 16 or 12 German. Okay. So, in keeping with this time of the new year resolutions, I'm going to read a quote from Jordan Peterson. [clears throat] The better ambitions have to do with the development of character and ability rather than status and power. Status you lose. You carry character with you wherever you go and it allows you to prevail against adversity. With that, I make a motion to adjurnn.

Second. Got a second by Travis. All those in favor say I. Hi. Any oppose? Likewise.