City Council - Regular Meeting

something. Yes, sir. Check. Check. It is 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 5th. And at this time, I am calling our city council meeting to order. But I'm going to starve for just a couple of seconds to give a couple council people some time to make it back to their seats.

Don't worry, it's not just you. Go get Mike Popey. We still waiting on one more. Will is Will already here? I see his computer set up. Oh, okay. Cool. Cool. Okay. Um, we will start with pledge of allegiance and then invocation will be given by second ward council member and vice mayor Freddy Dancy. special guest, Pastor Chris Heidenberg from Found Church.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, one nation under God,

indivisible with liberty and justice for all. All right. Well, uh, again, thank you for the the opportunity to pray with you all. I always consider it a real privilege to be able to pray in a public split a public space. And I also want to just honor each of you for your um for the difficulty that you face working in a public space in a civic arena. It's not easy. And um I consider you guys to be servants of the city. And so I honor you for that. And I just want to lift all of you up in prayer. Father, we uh ask you to be present in this space today. We ask you for the wisdom of your spirit. We ask you for uh the strength to make the determined decisions that are necessary to lead this city forward. And uh we just thank you, Lord, and ask that you be ever so present and move in the midst of these conversations, this discussion, and ultimately the decisions that are made in in your name Jesus we pray. Amen.

Amen. Madame clerk, if you will proceed with a roll call, please. Mayor Mahoney, present. Vice Mayor Dansancy, Council Member Robinson, present. Council member Gun, present. Council member Wood, present. Council member Hunt, present. Council member Forgrave. All right. Thank you very much. Uh, next I'd be looking for a motion and support to adopt the agenda. So move.

It's been moved and supported. Any discussion? Seeing or hearing none, the clerk will tally and display the vote. Yep. I did. Hang on. It's on both pages for some reason. Unless you just resent it again.

Okay, it's under now. All right, we have an agenda. Uh, next is a public hearing for our fiscal year 2026 2027 proposed budget. Looking for a motion and support to open the public hearing. Bless you. It's been moved and supported. Y'all have to forgive me. My allergies got my left ear blocked. So if I don't hear you from this way, just yell at me, okay? I won't take it personal. Um, it's a motion on the floor. Any discussion? Seeing or hearing? None. All in favor say I.

I.

All oppose the same. Public hearing is now open. And before we get started, just want to read the rules for speaking before city council during the public comment portion. Excuse me. During the public hearing portion of the meeting, number one, each speaker will state their name and address. Number two, during public hearings, the city council may enact a timeline and all speakers to ensure that all present get an equal chance to speak. Council members and or staff may answer questions during this time. Number three, comments made during the public hearing shall remain relevant to the specific topic of the hearing. Number four, each speaker should be polite and courteous to the council and members of the public in attendance. Number five, while any speaker is free to express his or her opinion on the specific topic of the public hearing, no speaker may direct personal attacks at any member of the staff or council unrelated to the manner in which they perform their duties, use obscene language while addressing the city council, or engage in disruptive or disorderly behavior during a council meeting. Number six, should the mayor determine that any of the items listed in number five occur, the mayor may declare the speaker out of order. If a speaker is declared out of order by the mayor and refuses to cease and desist from disruptive or disorderly conduct, the mayor may order the person removed from the meeting. Uh, do we have any mailed in or emails? Okay, thank you. Uh, John C. King. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. John King, 203rd Street here in the city. As far as uh the budget process, uh and I've sort of uh mentioned this before previously. Um and I'll start with the

city cleanup day on Saturday. Um it was worked out really nice getting rid of uh certain things. a few neighbors had like brush and things since I have a truck. I took it with me and so like it was helpful to get rid of things like that just from the media immediate block that I'm on. Uh the employees were friendly uh uh had smiles and were helpful and everything like that. Really nice. None of them uh said the United States was a bad place. None of them called me maybe a racist or other people or you know there there just didn't seem to be any politics involved with it. So that's where I want to see the the money budgeted towards is maybe DPW and providing services to the residents. Last week we had the Supreme Court decision in which judging people other than by the content of their character is basically no longer legal. So that's where as I've complained about the department of DEI and a lot of the you know it meant there was like a thing you know that they do that they are reflective the diverse and inclusive values of the community it serves. Um I I don't agree with that. Uh I I think it uh there's a lot of propaganda that uh you know there's a lot of falsehoods

you know almost like hate and stuff and yet all kinds of money is being put towards that. Um in the report for this upcoming year, you know, there's hopes for the expansion of DEI. You know, it it's mentioned different things uh like grow Junth, make it an all year, you know, maybe a employee will have to uh be dedicated to that. So, a lot of money will need to be put towards that. Um, it mentioned expanding the youth council. Maybe now it's full. And as I mentioned a couple meetings ago, the chair uh I think was during the state of the city address kind of gave some anti-American propaganda. And I don't want to see money budgeted towards uh indoctrinating youngsters with that kind of nonsense. Um I know it mentioned the Hispanic Heritage Festival. You know, I thought that was just a separate deal. Um, Jacob and Asencio and another young lady were doing that. Um, of course they cancel it, you know, suggesting that, oh, there was fear that ICE was going to come here and arrest if not illegal aliens, maybe they'll even arrest American citizens and stuff. Um, so that's more how DEI uh goes along with that type of politics. I don't

know. There was at some point last year, the amount of money went up to like over $600,000 that was budgeted. Now, the stuff I currently see, it it's kind of dropped back down. So after I think I complained maybe John Wilson and others like even on Facebook I don't know what the slight of hand was that maybe oh actually maybe that amount wasn't spent. So I uh you know I don't know what's up with that. I would ask maybe the city manager but he's not here so I don't think that question can be answered. Um, I know. Oh, it's been probably a year and a half ago, there were some expenses, big ones like trucks and things like that that the DPW was purchasing. And I thought, well, gee, there were like at least, you know, well over a million dollars still left that hadn't been spent. And so after those were purchased out of general funds, um since DPW stuff was done with, Mike Osborne walked out because he was no longer needed. So I briefly just asked him, "Well, why wasn't that paid with ARPA funds?" And he said, "Well, they had already met their budget." And I'm thinking all this money is coming out of the general funds um to pay for stuff like that when it could have been paid with DARPA funds. Um and yet as I've been mentioning with

the DEI uh you know the the the politics is just so bad. I want money spent on services to the citizens, not politics. So that that's my thoughts on the budget. Thank you. Uh Jimmy, I see you with a green form over there, brother. If you if you want to speak, come on up and then you can just turn that into us later. Now, you knew you was going to speak during this public hearing.

Somebody's got to counter John C. King. You don't.

Um, I'm going to start off with the budget. No budget is anybody's fault. Um, I started getting involved in politics in about 2010, but just before that, I started to get interested in economics and global economics. And I want to start with the crisis and the crash of 2008. That was when the whole country probably should have uh declared bankruptcy and we should have restructured our debt. Um but instead we rolled it over and it was within a couple of years I heard the term debt sealing. First time I ever heard the term and I looked it up and sure enough it was it was an instrument put into the Congress uh so that we never overspent so that we wouldn't have a bankruptcy. So in 2011 was the first time and my congressman was one person who voted for it voted to raise the debt ceiling. Two more times uh that happened and the debt ceiling was was raised. Then uh Congress did away with it all together. So since then we've been on this freeforall where nobody seems to know where money comes from and yet we have just been in a position where and it's the demand of the people, you know, so shame on us. We want everything and we want help for everything. But we've we've increased almost every budget across the board and and kind of expanded what government has done. And that's that's a that's a ball of wax into itself because that expands to a lot of the NOS's that now were funded through a lot of federal and state money. But um when it comes to leadership, you know, when you can print money, any can be in charge. Kermit the frog could run our government as long as you got plenty of money to pay for everything. But the moment you run through an economic contraction or a budget problem, that's when you start to

that's when true leaders are going to need to be be stepping up. There's going to be some hard decisions to be made in the next couple of years. It's again, it's nobody's fault. We all knew when CO shut us down that we were all going to get a lot of money. We all also knew that it was going to end. Um, now having said that, we're almost to the predictive program position of we're running out of money, budgets are tight, and some of them are a little underwater. Revenue streams aren't as great as we thought they would be, and our tax base is reducing. I think this is a perfect place to be for a place like Jackson. We have been underneath the boot of something for the longest time. Whether it's whether it's the redlinining of of how the southside had happened or whether it's uh Jackson just supposed to be the resource center for all of the section 8 and the the the people who are in uh dire need after coming out of the prison or um somebody who gets into the system. We've just we've been a place where a lot of people are benefiting from the services that are being provided to the product at the bottom. Um the the poor people. Now somewhere in there, we're going to have to find the difference between what the public economy is and what the private economy is and how we're going to start putting this burden back towards the private sector. Uh charity is going to have to be a thing versus anything else. I went on too long about this. I said everything I wanted to say. Um, I just want to uh reiterate that the leaders of the future, they're going to have to be a lot better than the leaders of the past. I promise you, there is no status quo that's going to save us. There is no new piece of paper that we're going to put over the old piece of paper and everything's going to go away. This is going to be rough. I'm going to love it. Um, and back to the DEI department, I've been working with KATIMA and the DEDI

department and the MLKCIA corridor for several years now. And I don't care what that is called, that department is a gem to our community. And if anyone has ever met Katima or watched her in her little uh in her in her orbit and when she's in her sphere of of being the person that she is representing the city, we need we need a hundred Katimas. So, I don't care what you'd call that department, but that's that department is doing a lot for for what it has in its budget. It probably could use another another couple of people and turn into an ambassador tourist attraction program. But that's just my opinion, John. Thank you guys. Mr. Mayor,

I I'd just like to record my objection to the implication that Kermit the Frog is not a smart muppet. He is in fact the leader of the Muppets and runs the show quite well, is my understanding. Thank you. Duly noted. Um, with that being our closing comment during this public hearing, I would ask for a motion for us to close the public hearing. So move. support. It's been moved and duly supported. All in favor say I. I.

All oppose the same. Brings us to item number six, our fiscal year 2026 2027 budget workshop. Who's going to kick us off?

How you doing? I'm doing good. How are you? Good. Good evening. Good evening.

Uh Jonathan is wrapping up a meeting uh this evening and so he asked me to kick things off and get us going. So welcome and to the 2026 2027 proposed budget. Um Rebecca's going to drive over there for me tonight and I forgot to plug us in before I left. So she's going to get the budget up there. Um, so I first off I wanted to talk about the city tax base and our 10-year trends. Um, this year the inflation cap for Michigan was set at 2.7%. And we experienced a 5.8% 8% increase in the taxable value for 2026 um for a total taxable value of approximately 867 million. And this is due to the inflation cap that's um uncapped when property values are sold. So you can see that it's also gone up every year for at least the last 10 years that are shown on that table. Then we'll move on to the millrates. Um this year the general operating and the public improvement mileages are going to remain the same as calculated by the Headley Act. Um but the good news is the city hall debt and the act 345 police and fire pension millages are going to decrease due to reduced service requirements in the upcoming fiscal year. Um so the overall decrease will be

just over 1 mil or 5.87% compared to the previous year. Um if we look at the 10-year trend table and I actually this isn't even on the 10-year trend table. If we go back to 201617, um the millage rate next year will be the lowest since then and since 2021 it'll be over three mills less. So heading in the right direction. Next, we're going to look at our income tax trends, which we have more good news there. Now, the last few years, they've been relatively flat. And then in um the LA 2025 fiscal year, they actually were down about $600,000. So far this year, they've been up and we're expecting them to increase about 12 and a half percent over last year. Um, with a modest growth projected for fiscal year 27. Looking at the fund balance um for the current fiscal year, we're projected to end at about 38.5% of the total projected expenditures and at the end of 27 30.3% which is in line with our current fund balance policy.

This year, our debt service um retirements include the 2016 capital improvement bonds, which were retired in October of 25. And next month, the 2001 DDA TIFF bonds will be retired. Uh next year in fiscal year 27, the city hall refunding debt bond will be retired and that will eliminate the city hall debt millage also. And just as a footnote, um, if anyone has paid close attention, uh, the debt service funds 309 and 308 up there have been revised since the budget was originally distributed to reflect the final debt service information that was provided since we closed on those um, bond issues recently. And I also recently added um the debt service summary for the enterprise funds which includes the DWSRFs and the CWSRF. Um we don't have any interest amounts for those because they are not finalized yet. This year I wanted to talk a little bit about the self-insured healthcare fund. This is one that we haven't talked about recently. Um but we've had a steady decline since 2020 due to increased claims utilization. Um in fiscal year 26 we're projected to um have approximately um $1 million fund

balance at the end of the year as claims have reduced significantly. Um and that includes fewer shot claims as well um and also lower monthly settlement payments to Blue Cross. If these current trends continue into fiscal year 27, we should be at around a $2 million fund balance, which is roughly where we'd like to be um given the increasing costs of healthcare. And then just as a final note, the city manager's proposed budget reflects the city's continued financial stability with fund balance levels meeting established policy targets and providing a solid foundation for ongoing operations. However, as one-time resource one-time revenue sources decline, the city's capacity to fund new capital investments is more limited. In response, this budget carefully aligns expenditures with available resources while maintaining essential services and operational priorities. Looking ahead, continued strategic planning, disciplined financial management, and thoughtful prioritization of critical needs will be essential to preserving long-term fiscal sustainability. These efforts will position the city to maintain highquality public services while making targeted investments, support community priorities, and future growth. Does anybody have any questions on any of that so far? Nope. All right. Then next up, we're going to have the police. Yes.

Good evening, council. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Uh certainly a pleasure to be in front of you this evening uh to talk about our budget. I always start with some good news, more or less. Um we're allocated 52 sworn police officers in the city of Jackson and currently we have 50. So we are doing well on filling some of our vacancies. Um so always good to start there. Now with our budget, our budget consists more or less of four big departments or areas if you will and I go through each one. Um overall our total increase of our budget is 0.29% over fiscal year 26 is adopted budget which is the lowest we've had since fiscal year of 21. Uh number one is our personnel costs. Um 0.17 decrease in personnel costs from uh fiscal year 26 due to negotiated retirement cost changes. um personnel costs equate to probably about 86% of our overall budget in uh fiscal year 27. Uh more than 3.4 million goes to um public act 345 pension costs for sworn police officers. Um next item is number two are materials and supplies. Uh we looked at a 6.09 decrease in materials and supplies u from fiscal year 26. Uh most other areas stayed the same showing a decrease compared to physical year 26. Two areas which increased our proactive um I'm sorry protective gear and uniforms due to the necessity of outfitting new staff with appropriate uniforms and body armor. Number three, contractual and other uh we had a 5.52 increase u for our contractual and other

services from physical year 26. uh services included life waste clinician uh mental health social worker as part of our GVI program. An increase of $50,000 was added to our budget um which was more or less the um community developments department eyes on the block program which was added to the city police department's budget. We have retention incentives paid out to um lower union lower union members included two police officers who will reach their 5-year anniversary with the police department. Um and lastly in this area software maintenance fees continue to increase as we all see and the department is using technology more often for operational investigative needs uh to include a foresight for the use of future AI. Um last one is number four uh for me is capital outlay. Uh we had a 4.44% increase in our projects compared to fiscal year 26. Um some things uh while the building additions the majority of the improvements of the police department's main facility or its outdoor range were cut from the budget prior to this presentation. Um, evidence locker replacement, remodel of evidence packaging area, replacing floor in the evidence packaging area, repair sewer system at the outdoor range, and rebuild a women's locker room was also cut from the budget. What did remain, we are replacing the second floor windows to the PD is the only major project currently in our budget. Um, office furniture um and storage units have not been replaced since the mid 90s. Um several areas were to be updated in physical year 27. Um they were cut from the proposed budgets for vehicles. Um two patrol vehicles will be purchased to replace patrol vehicles reaching their

uh life cycle. An additional patrol vehicle and one administrative vehicle uh was also removed from the budget. And lastly, um, one big item that we have is the cap for our capital outlay is our radio system. In June of 2027, the state of Michigan, uh, will mandate that all law enforcement agencies and their radios have encryption to them. So, that gives us about little just about a year to get all of our radios encrypted. We did budget for that. Um, we did look at all types of radios. Of course, you have the Cadillacs and you have things, you know, that will get you by. So, we did budget kind of in the middle of the road um to to get us by um when that happens. The unique thing about the radios for us, not only um the encryption for 2027, but the shelf life ends in 2030. So, it makes no sense to just put new encryption into old radios. So, we looked at getting brand new radios for all our radios and our vehicles as well as the ones that the portable radios that we carry. That will conclude my summary. I'll entertain any questions if anyone has any. Council, what questions do we have? Chief, for those uh encrypted radios and and new radios, do you foresee the possibility of any uh funding being provided to pay for the replacement of an update of those?

Yes, we we've made one attempt before obviously by previous employer um coupled with the 911 dispatch center. Um it failed. Well, it never reached the White House. Um we did try again. that did reach the first appropriation from what I understand and I mean we not the city of Jackson but um the dispatch center with councilman not councilman but uh congressman Wahberg's office. So yes, there is a there's an opportunity potentially.

Yeah. Um, so I know you said we have 50 50 sworn. 50 sworn. Uh, are we finding it hard to maintain or keep officers? Yes. I know we have some retirements coming up soon, but

we do. We have six retirements um and next fiscal year um which we're planning for accordingly uh which will include uh two supervisors, two detectives, a lieutenant, and a sergeant. Um, so we've already started some of the processes for replacement already. So we kind of do a little proactive work to try to make sure we backfill those council. Any other questions for the chief? All right.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, sir. And councel.

Go ahead. I'm still catching up. Good evening.

Good evening. Good evening, Mr. Mayor Council. Uh, this year's proposed budget, the fire department reflects a disciplined approach focused on supporting current staffing levels, firefighter safety, and meeting increasing emergency service demands within our community. In 2026, the department responded to a record 6,400 calls for service. This ongoing increase underscores the need for reliable staffing, consistent training, and operational readiness. Each call represents a resident in need, and this year's budget ensures the department remains prepared to respond effectively and professionally. As a snapshot, the total proposed increase for this year is 8.64%. The prim primary cost drivers are personnel, contractual obligations, and inflation on goods and services. After salaries and fixed costs, less than 10% of the budget supports the day-to-day operations. Uh FY27 budget was prepared to ensure reliable service delivery during another record setting year with year-to- date call volumes already up 4%. Personnel uh remains a foundation to emergency response. You will see a 2% increase in personnel costs driven by contractual wage adjustments, step increases, uh benefits, which allows us to stay competitive in the job market. uh in supporting both recruitment and retention. Personnel counts for approximately 86% of the total budget coinciding with previous years. Uh strategic staffing levels include the proposed addition to one firefighter aligning with our long-term goal. Uh this is incre incremental staffing investment improves response reliability, firefighter safety while also allowing personnel to support essential services needs from the community and the growing demands on the fire department. Uh this progress is a positive step uh but staffing improvements remain below pre-recession levels of 2008. Inflation, fuel supplies, gear, and maintenance will place additional pressures on future

budgets, which is why a continued upstream thinking like continued support for partnerships and potential grants are critical. Training and equipment see a moderate uh to stable change. Uh the fire department suppression personnel average uh five years of total service. Uh that is uh 29 suppression staff. Uh the average is five years of service. why his training is is so paramount. Last year, we averaged 5,600 hours of service and year to date, we're at almost 1,800 hours. This ongoing investment over the last years uh is core resources and equipment has demonstrated its value during several major fires in 2025. Training is ensures compliance, operational readiness, and the ability to respond to these increasing emergencies. Training remains our priority, but some long-term equipment and technology upgrades are deferred to support the immediate operational readiness. Operating supplies, you see a moderate increase in the budget. Uh there was a 19% increase in EMS EMS calls since 2021, which represents the increased budget for those supplies. testing continues testing uh and con continued rise in consumables continue to raise these line items. However, through continued partnerships, we are working to offset these costs through joint purchasing, training uh and closest apparatus dis dispatching which have shown cost savings and fuel maintenance in these areas that we're continuing to develop. Fire prevention and community risk reduction continues to deliver measurable impact. We have an 86% compliance for fire and life safety systems. We've reached over 200 residents through CPR, AED, and fire extinguisher training, and the growing needs of expanded outreach from these uh community programs continue to rise again this year. These programs reduce long-term risk, but require sustained

investments to maintain their effectiveness. Through capital outlays and facilities, you will see uh there is a dramatic decrease. Uh we our focus is on maintaining two active fire stations and one closed fire station built in the 60s. ARPA funding has allowed us to address uh these critical efficiency needs uh last year and the year before. You will see a 74% reduction in the building improvement spending compared to last year. Uh there are no projected major capital improvements that are funded this year as uh they are deferred uh the critical infrastructure needs. Apparatus and vehicles uh recent ARPA funding through the apparatus investment has improved our reliability in our apparatus. Last year we did start a vehicle replacement fund was initiated but the current funding is not sufficient to support long-term replacement cycles. Uh potential shared apparatus partnerships uh with our partner Summit Township may offer uh cost savings uh but remain under evaluation. In conclusion, this year's budgets designed to support a reliable service delivery in a high demand environment, strategic investments in personnel training and prevention ensured the department the department will remain capable and responsive even with limited resources. Adding one firefighter is a proactive step and we're actively pursuing initiative solutions for future staffing and capital needs. Continued council support has enabled us to meet the growing demands and remain prepared for the emergencies and community needs. Thank you for your consideration in this year's proposed budget and I would entertain any questions. Council,

what questions do we have? Can I ask one for the good of the order? Absolutely. For everyone's benefit, Chief, can you um give a brief overview of the efforts made so far um on partnerships? This council approved an agreement uh a few months ago. Give us an update on how those what's what's starting to bud, what's starting to bear fruit, things like that.

Great question. uh we have been working our strategic plan uh that was um approved uh by both summit and and Jackson and so from that we've initiated uh three phases operationally we've been meeting with our command staff from summit uh as well as us we've been aligning SOPs SOGS we also have been um looking for ways to basically break the borders down and like I stated before send that closest apparatus so how would we look running as one department how would we have our efficiencies uh we've also been looking operationally is how staffing models would look. How are we going to be able to uh get the most bang for the buck? Uh and so those have all been basically bookmarked uh with the the plan of a shared service agreement. As far as staffing goes with the with the unions, we've had multiple conversations. I'm hopeful to bring an LOA to you in the recent incoming times. Um and so uh that would look as how is our staffing models look? How would we able to share share some some staffing day-to-day? Uh I've directed our operations chief as along with Summit Township to look at a fleet maintenance program. I want them to take a look at both fleets and see how we're looking giving them a score and what we will need with the the overall uh plan is the next vehicle purchase is to be one jointly jointly purchased together. So uh we are also looking at reimbursement rates as far as uh pay rates for firefighters based from Summit Township to the city. And I believe we have a meeting coming up in the near future uh to address some of those and hopefully come up come up with a uh a number that will suffice for both the city as well as Summit Township. So uh a lot of plates spinning. Nothing landed as of yet. Uh but all the conversation is is very productive.

Thanks, Council. Any other questions? Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Mr. Mayor, council, I'm really proud to be here tonight to talk to you about the parks, recreation, cemeteries, trail, art, downtown, and many more things that come out in the area of parks and recreation. Today, I provided you a folder. Um, it's first time I've done this, but it's very hard to put into place over a 100 multi-generational programs, what we're doing in the trails, what we're doing at the golf courses, and also what is happening um with over a 100,000 visitors and everything that we do within a year. Um, one thing I want to bring um to point to is uh for le for your leisure reading later on, I kind of put what I'm talking about today in case you had any questions later. I also provided some of our new um brochures and things that we're doing with our department to work towards like a new multi- media across the board with our web page and what we're doing within the city center kitchen and what we're doing within the um city center rental facility area. So, you could take a great look at that. And I would be remissed if I do not share that an employee in our department who has been here for 41 years has taken this on and she has rolled with this uh um doing our web page making sure things are up to date, things are matching and we're moving forward in a really great way. Uh so we're really excited about some of our material coming out today. So I wanted to make sure for your leisure you can look at that at a later time if you wanted to see all our programs. But I'll go ahead and start with our uh first program or our first budget line line item is 101567 um which is our cemeteries budget uh for the Woodland uh cemetery in Mount Evergreen Historical Cemetery here in Jackson. Uh we have been holding pretty steady with a little over a 100 burials

a year um and also the maintenance of the and upkeep of those areas. Not a lot of changes going on. We're just trying to keep offering the best service that we can uh for citizens and people coming um possibly at the worst time in their lives to see us. We want to make sure that we're offering a good service. So, not a lot of changes in 101 um 567, but always happy to entertain questions on that. 101 752 is a budget of um administrative bus budget. um has a few admin administrations uh salaries and it also handles like kind of what's happening in our office, our office from paper to pencils to copers. Uh those type of things are happening in 101752. Here's a fun one. 101 758 Nixon Waterpark. Nixon Water Park is um I was trying to think it out the other day in my mind. It is about 24 years old. I'm probably saying that wrong. Uh and it's a beauty. It's working hard and we've had an opportunity over the last year to do a lot of work, a little faceelifting here and there. Uh we're excited. I think we're pumped and we're ready. We've got some new pumps. Uh we've done some work um on the pool walls. Uh and we have done work in the bathrooms and the and the locker room. So, we're really excited to open up for our season in 2026. Uh we're excited to be working with our staff person, Alexa Markham, who's been training all year for our lifeguards to on board and be a part of not only our swim lessons, but a part of Nixon Park. U 101771 that is a budget line item that handles um 28 of our 29 city parks. um that also manages from mowing to care of the facility from a swing set to things that happen in the different parks but is also part of the trail system is in this um also working in the downtown area and

all the work that we do in the downtown area. A field roundabouts um public art all those type of things fall within this budget line item. And here's our new one for our department, which I'm very excited about, which is 101776, the city center budget. Uh, between September of last year when we opened up and this upcoming September, we are rounding about 50 rentals. Um, we have more coming every day. We have two uh long-term renters renters in our kitchen and onboarding three or four more. Uh the exciting part is we're headed in a great direction and we hope we can keep that going through our marketing and word of mouth for the city center. So that does include the two areas of the kitchen and the uh rental facility area and the upkeep of the of the building and the needs within the building. Next we have 101751 which is our cemetery perpetual care. That's part of the money that comes out of your purchase of a lot to help us maintain the cemetery. We've uh pretty much much like you'll see in our funds to come uh is we do get a certain percentage of interest that will go to towards the care of the cemetery itself. Next up we have 208751 Ellis Sharp Golf Course. This is for the golf course, the management of the golf golf course, everything that the golf course needs, the staff that take care of the golf course and the and the turf management of that to the simulators and the things that happen there within the golf course area. Good note there. First municipal golf course in the state of Michigan in the early 1920s and we're still rocking and rolling since that point. 28771 much like 101771, but it manages the full Ellis Sharp property uh and the needs in the Ellis Sharp property. Uh, one of the things that happened this last year was our annual deer harvest

where we were able to um harvest 135 uh, deer and provide 600 pounds of ground meat to local shelters here in our community. We also have 754. If uh, we're open now, you want to enjoy and find out more about this place and talk budget, we have our Lers miniature golf course. Um, and that is the budget for that. We have uh 208753 which is our driving range learning center where you can take classes or enjoy yourself on the driving range. Um and next up we have um 296756 which is our citywide activity fund. Um and that is um the fund in which um like when people are paying fields for uh fees for softball our um active uh living program different fees come through that and help provide recreational program in in that area. Next we have uh 297 uh recreation village. This is our first year of um our uh recreation millillage that we passed in 2024. Um and so we're under new underneath that new millillage that will be with us for 10 years. Uh we got swim lessons back. We're going to be doing a couple sessions of swim lessons, which is popular, something's asked for, and providing a lot more programs, which you can see in your booklet of our over aundred programs that we're offering at the Booze Recreation Center, at the MLK Center, um at uh the disc golf course and pickle ball, uh you name it. Um we're working on activities. And one of the greatest thing about this is the money goes right back into our community by employing local high school and college aid students to stay in Jackson and work uh in our programs for this summer. And we also have uh the endowment fund uh Ellisharp endowment fund and the Lloyd Mount uh endowment fund which is

affiliated with our Lsharp Park program uh and it's an interest base that comes back uh to help with our funding within Ellis Sharp Park uh and is available um through the Ella's will um and which we manage through our LSAR board of trustees. I hope I didn't talk too fast, but if there's anything I can answer or help with, please let me know. Is it council? What questions do you guys have? Yes, sir. Kelly, in your Nixon pool presentation, can you talk to us about any changes to the operations there for the summer? Sunday.

Pardon?

Sundays. Oh, sorry. Thank you. I was like, "Yes, I know it, but I can't think." Um, we've been evaluating, which we always do. Um, we do a lot of debriefing after seasons to see what is working and what is not working. And what we're finding is a high need for um a session on Sundays. People want to get out on the weekend, cool off. Um, we haven't been doing Sundays as of late and tried Friday and uh, Friday nights and that wasn't super popular, but we think Sundays is going to be the place that we need to be because that is what we're here to do is meet with the citizens are asking and that's where a lot of our events come from as citizens talking to us about what they want to see. And so Sundays, we're really excited that we will be open this summer on Sundays at Nixon. Then also not to dwell on the city center, but could you repeat the rental numbers for both like the the general space on the first floor and then absolutely um talk about what it means to have a a year-long renter in the kitchen.

Absolutely. We'll start with the kitchen. We have two uh year- round renters and several onboarding, but the year- round renter is a commitment not only to the K kitchen and what we can provide for them, but also the opportunity to have them in our kitchen for a whole year. relationship building opportunity to work together. We're very excited because these are um people in our community doing things in our community. You're going to see them places when you go uh they're going to be catering events. Um so we're excited. Um committing to a whole year is amazing to be in our kitchen. You commit by an hour to sometimes you can commit um by different levels um to be a part of the kitchen, but to say hey I'm going to be in your kitchen for a year is is is an amazing opportunity from two highlevel caterers. We're really excited to see that. Um, in the rental space, we've been busy and, uh, we've been busy every weekend this May. U, we have rentals happening all the time. We're getting calls and tours all the time. Um, and to have, you know, over 50 renters in a building that we had just opened up in September and moving our way into next um, this next September. And we already have several renters coming in for 2027 that are hurrying to book now so that they can get their time into the center before it books. Um because a lot of times if you wait sometimes that stuff goes by and people are calling right now trying to make that work and that's been a great opportunity for people to tour. Um from doing uh photos to having an anniversary party, everything has happened in the center thus far. Baby showers, we've seen everything. So it's been it's been a labor of love for sure. Everybody that's involved in it. Thanks.

All right. Thank you. Thank you, council. Thank you so much. Put some time on that clock. Time on the clock. Good evening, council. Good evening, mayor. It's a pleasure to be here tonight. Good to see you. I think it's the quickest budget session I've ever been to. start my clock.

Thank you. The community development department is comprised of numerous different divisions. I'll start out with the general fund divisions first, which is the planning department fund 1701. the planning director zoning administrator's primary responsibilities to guide land use development policy and growth that best meets the cities of Jackson's goals. This work is steered by the master plan. When you look at the the numbers on the increases of expenditures in this fund, the driving factor was the master plan. The master plan we have through the 2627 budget year allocated or request for allocation $90,000 60,000 of the 150 that was allocated previously through the RFP process uh was expended and that's $60,000 in the 2526 budget year. you will see an anomaly um in the actual 2526 in which you see 88,057 for salaries and wages that was due to a part-time planning and zoning administrator Chris Atkin who had left the city and was working part-time as a consultant until we could find a replacement. You'll see an increase in training for the planning director, Mr. proconer where he will be attending Brownfield conferences, the muster and center for community progress. These are very important trainings so he can stay on top um professionally of um of his skill sets that are required.

There is an increase in membership dues. Um it is very important that our staff is a member of the professional organizations in their field and that is reflected here in the budget. Are there any questions on 101701? We move to historic district department. The city of Jackson historic district encompasses a significant portion of the downtown Jackson. contains buildings and sites of historical importance. It features a variety of architectural styles dating back to the 19th century. The Jackson Historic District Commission is listed in the National Registry of Historic Places. This is a very important department for the city. The funding increase was very small this year. We did have a slight funding increase because we are asking for allocation of $500 for training for the HDC and for membership dues. Very small. Not much else noteworthy in the changes for the HTC. Are there any questions? I'd like to move on to the administrative hearings bureau which is 29900. This is also a general fund supported activity. The administrative hearings bureau is responsible for addressing community concerns related to blight. The city defines blight as condition that negatively impacts property due to factors such as decay, improper storage, and other issues affecting property and quality of life. You will see some increases here. We have uh administrative hearings officers who one is a retired judge uh district court

judge and the other is um the retired district court magistrate. Uh they had not had a raise in quite some time. They requested a raise and a raise was granted. That is one of the driving factors. The other is the uncollectibles for fines. That that went from uh basically 93,780 and 2425 to 100, 2526 budgeted and then we're we're anticipating 100,000. Again, that is a a hard fund to collect. We don't uh we don't typically rely on that revenue stream to come in. So there's traditionally a loss in that fund. Any questions?

Council, any questions?

Oh, this is easy. You guys are easy on me tonight. The city of Jackson building department 249 that is not a general fund activity. The building department like other divisions within the community development department are supported by fees that uh city council had approved. Uh the latest fee structure for the building department I think was last approved three years ago. City of Jackson's building department operates under the authority of the state and local building codes. These codes and regulations are in place to ensure the construction, demolition, property maintenance activities to meet the safety and structural standards required by the state of Michigan. This fund of revenue on um I think it's Are you up there? Fund revenue. Fund revenue is hard to predict. We try and do a smoothing. you know, take an average of the last three years at where revenue was at. Difficult to predict because we we only receive funds when people purchase permits and uh that money goes into this fund and it can only be spent within this fund. Largest drivers of increases were just ra wage increases uh in training. We we did make some adjustments to this fund and the personnel and how how that personnel was paid. Personnel uh I'll address this in the next fund discussion, but Mr. Taylor who was 100% paid out of the building fund, we had to change the allocations. So the part of his wage was paid out of the housing code enforcement fund. And that's stands to reason since he's the one that is uh 100% responsible really for that activity.

The increase was very small 2.85% from 2526 to requested 2627. I'd say that's that's pretty good considering cost of inflation. Are there any questions on the building department? Freddy, you look like you have a question. So, the license permit, I see that it's a little bit down from last year. I see it's a little bit down from last year. The license of permit fund.

Well, it it could go up if we get big projects. It could go up. It It depends on house building, decks, anything somebody gets a permit for that goes into that fund. So we it's really difficult to predict what that's going to be. We hope I would say we hope next year if we get uh maybe 50 new houses and a couple other larger structures that will increase. No other questions. We'll move on to the 251, the housing code enforcement fund. This fund is used to account for receipts and expenditures related to cost operating enforcing the housing code by community development department under the provisions of the city ordinance. The department is responsible for registrations nonoccupied residential structures and units and inspection of these structures or units to ensure they meet required requirements of chapter 14 which is the international property maintenance code. Surprisingly, this fund had uh a decrease of 0.804%. And revenue revenues um were predicted for next year to to be lower because there's not a registration. Registration is every 3 years. So when there's a registration every 3 years, those registration dollars go into this fund. There's no registration for next year. even know when when houses are sold and a different buyer purchase is that and if it's still going to be used as a non-owner occupied residential property, they will have to register it. So, we do anticipate some revenue, but it won't be as great. Um, some of the cost cutting measures that we've done is we used to have there were actually six full-time code officers who did housing inspections and then we went to five and then when Mr. Okconor was promoted. We went from five

and now we have four housing code inspectors who also perform blight inspections and we have one part-time. So, we have we've done a a great job, I think, of decreasing staff and helping us um uh be able to be fiscally responsible. There is no contribution to this fund from the general fund. We have spent down or will have spent down the majority of the fund balance. We don't anticipate coming back to city council for a resolution to increase the fees the next two years. We we would like to spend that fun balance all the way down as much as we can and that way it will be six years from the last increase until the next requested increase. Um other things we're trying to do to cut cost is we're going from in-person trainings. We're going to go to more virtual training so the code officers can keep their international property maintenance and license. So that's going to help. We do have some additional um stipen increases uh because everybody in the department went and got certified as international property maintenance code instructor or inspectors. Collections are still a driving factor. uh we anticipate 10 to 20% in uncollectibles. There there is you will see um in the revenue there's a part in there for um uh what our collectibles and so forth were uncollectibles for previous years. actually we were a negative and the reason why that is is we collected a great deal of old debt and that piled on top of taking care of old debt which made that a minus for those years. So

when you read that and you see minus that just means what we did is we took the money that was collected in through the core system and we paid off that old debt those old invoices now will show negative or not in the positive on on that on collectibles uh 285 e I'm sorry there are any questions on the housing 285 the EPA Brownfield grant. This was an assessment grant that the city received for $500,000 from the US Environmental Protection Agency that is pretty much getting spent down or as spent down that paid for phase one and phase two um activities. The next couple are going to be quick. There's really not much there but I have to cover them. Any questions on the 285 EPA Brownfield assessment grant fund? Do we have plans to apply for future brownfield assessment grant funds if they're available?

Yeah, Mr. um Mr. Okconor is really watching um the list serves and and we use fishback currently for a lot of our brownfield assessment work. So, we're in constant contact with Fishback to see what is out there that we can go after as far as grants to help us out with some of those sites that are uh environmentally impacted in the negative. Next is the housing stability fund. That was the my hope grant in the state allocation. uh my hope grant fund formally adopted by city council oh I guess just over two years ago that the program was designed to promote energy efficiency upgrades and target lower income households that $250,000 has been exhausted. Great job. Council state allocation grant as you know the one-third of those dollars uh council voted to allocate those toward the 100 elms program and I believe there's are those dollars left that was allocated maybe four applications less left that could be granted those dollars. So, great job. We pretty much exhausted those. The other grants that are are out there for the state allocation are the Jackson Housing Commission and RIA. And once those um all the receipts and so forth are turned in, we anticipate that uh that balance is going to go to zero. Are there any questions? I'm sorry, my voice is killing me. 234 HCDF MISH grant. The HCDF MISH grant was the grant that the city had received in the form of $880,000 to build four visible and accessible houses for

individuals with disabilities. Those houses were constructed and the closings have taken place. The uh houses are occupied and those um grant funds have been expended down to $0. No, I'm I'm almost done. Freddy, you sure we got questions?

Well, yeah, I've I'll take them. Affordable housing develop fund um is the fund in which the 100 homes program is um the down payment assistance is being paid out of and the expanded rehabilitation. We exhausted the dollars for the expanded rehabilitation. We have dollars left over. We anticipate going through um roughly 900 Well, it's going to be less than that as of today, but $950,000 for 38 more homes. It's going to be less than that because um we actually approved our 68th home and uh probably soon to be 69th home um this week. So that that may be expended down even to less than that. Are there any questions on any of the divisions or funds?

Mr. green. We have our 100 home program and from the sound of it with good news you shared tonight having 68 approvals but that's not just the only thing we're doing with housing is it?

Do you have a sense offhand because I'm putting you on the spot here in the last year how many units have been built in the city of Jackson including the multifamily units you have a sense of that? the close to council I the work you've done and the approvals you've done were close to 90 structures that's not total units because we have some that have 53 and I believe 56 um we have the ones all the um the approvals that we have from the 100 homes program are not included in that number because they're not built yet they're approved but not built yet. So that's where there's a difference between what we actually have in the ground and built and then the greater number of how many have been approved. And the reason why there's so many more than 100 is because we have Alan Edwin who I believe on Maple uh Chidok and Williams are putting up 12. There's numerous up there if you went down there. VMG who has built up most of the health district. you have Agricon and Mike Felis and all these are builders that you have uh voted to sell lots to to construct these homes and um the overunder Mr. Green and I had a couple years ago is um probably times by 100. So, it's a lot of building going on and hopefully that helps our building division in in the revenue that we have. Are there any further questions?

Miss Hunt, you have one. Okay. Thank you. Mayor, I'm waiting for you to excuse me.

Just just one just pertaining to the 100 homes. I mean, one, I think we've done a phenomenal job. You guys have done a phenomenal job uh just in general. one with the 100 homes project and um how that spurred and attracted more developers to build more homes uh increasing the amount of of house houses we have in our community. Um, what's your prediction on us finishing the next 31 houses? Our Let me No, I can't just answer that with a quick I know

we have about 1,900 applicants. We're the race is against the building speed, not the number of people who could qualify or need a home or need a down payment assistance. From the time that someone is approved till the time a house is built, you're looking at 4 to 6 months depending. Our application process is very quick. Someone completed the process in 2 hours and 50 minutes, I guess, from what Cory indicated. Some people take a couple weeks and then once the process is done then we introduce them to the builder and then the the whole building process begins and that can take those months. So we're kind of racing against the clock. Um we have a staff member who's fully dedicated now. We had had some transition in personnel and we had to move somebody into a different position out of that role and we had somebody who's very qualified to move into this role and is approving them very quickly. Not that the other person wasn't quickly, but in the down payment assistance, we have to go back into the entire list of prior applicants and go through those, filter out which ones with additional assistance could qualify. And we contacted every single person that said there's more dollars available. What could help even greater is um the corridor improvement authority has approved dollars for to pair up with our down payments the city's down payment assistance dollars um to the tune of 35,000. So that's huge. I believe 35,000 excuse me no it's 30. So that would be a total of $55,000 um an applicant could receive on $178,000 home which is incredible amount of money and that may in that would give us 10 from the corridor. If we could get 10 in the corridor that's that moves the

needle considerably. And the builder is also building on spec. So we have a lot of things to meet that number. The builder who's building on spec is Norfolk. They built five specs recently. The sighting isn't even on one of them. That's the North Forbes house and there's already a purchase offer and um that was accepted. So, it's And if you go by Griswald, you'll see that um Green Heights with a without the E is um got um stakes in there for six houses right now. One is up. One is up if you go by there. It's pretty incredible. Okay. Great work, council. Great work, Shane. Thank you.

Great work, Shane. Anything else? Very welcome. And we did, if you go by North Street near Miss Gun's house, you'll see that we did extract a structure there. And uh hopefully the view is a little bit better out your front door now. So, thank you, You're about to get into engineering and DPW. Anybody needs a party break? Okay. We just get a motion for 10 minutes. Motion for

brief break. Okay. Uh just need a second. Second. All in favor say I. Okay. 10 minutes, man.

Looking for a motion and support to return from our brief commercial break. It's been moved and supported. All in favor say I. I. We are back. Come on down.

Good evening, mayor and council members. Um, I'm going to do things a little different this year. I have Chander with me and um, I would like to say before I even start that, um, it's fitting that she's here because she does all the heavy lifting for the budget. So, she knows the stuff like the back of her hand. So, if there's a question that I may not have the answer to, she will certainly know. So, so um and I'm going to start this is my my opportunity really to actually um expand on what we do too. So, I would like to do that to start. DBW maintain the streets, sewers, and catch basins year round. In the autumn, the city provides leap collection. In the winter, snow and ice removal is a priority. Additionally, DBW has two city cleanup days, fall and spring. Public work maintains divisions through streets, sanitary sewers, wire distribution, forestry, and motorpool are all responsible for maintaining 100 miles of local streets, 54 miles of major streets, 8 miles of state highway trunk lines, and this all includes street maintenance and repairs. Last year, we laid down 1,896 tons of asphalt patching and padding. Um forestry services includes tree trimming and tree removal. We do sign repair, storm sewer maintenance and collection system maintenance. The collection system is the sanitary sewer system. So and our water distribution staff is responsible for maintaining 244 miles of water man, 1670 hydrants and 2412 valves. So last year they did 55 water mane brakes, exercise 543 water valves, replaced 23 water main valves, repaired

16 water services, and replaced 20 curb stop valves. It repaired 15 sewer lines and retired three water manes and lead service line. We've really ramped up now and we're doing between 20 and 30 lead service lines a month. Utility billing staff sent out 70,844 bills for water and sewer totaling 18 million890,972. Water services completed $6,193 calls for service. The water the water plant operates 247. They treat and soften water for over 50,000 people. and the city in Blackman Township. In 2025, the water plant delivered 1.95 billion with a B gallons of water. The water is tested daily and the city is certified testing laboratory according to EPA and state regulations. And the wastewater plant provides service 247 for over 85,000 residents and businesses in the city and surrounding townships and the prison. In 2025, they average 10.1 million gallons of sewage per day, 3.7 billion gallons total. Pollutants are removed as flow passes through the treatment processes with the clean water returning to the environment through the outfall at the Grand River. And um I'm going to let Chandra talk about her own department, uh DBW physical services.

Good evening everyone. Um the public works physical services division plays a critical role in the financial planning and grant management for the Department of Public Works and Engineering. This work ensures funding is aligned with infrastructure improvements and the city's street water and sewer systems. The division also leads water and sewer rate studies to support long-term operations, maintenance, and capital investment needed to provide safe, reliable services for our city residents and the surrounding communities. In addition to um fiscal services provides the day-to-day financial and administrative support for the departmental operations and works in coordination with the city's finance department. The division is staffed by two full-time employees and one part-time employee which is amazing.

All right, with that we'll jump right into the budget. The first one we will talk about is forestry. Um, now a couple years ago I went to Jonathan and asked and Heather and asked for more money because ever since 2023 when we had the big ice storm, we're so far behind. Um, it was just staggering. So, they were I thank them for g throwing some money at us so we could catch up and now we're in a much better place. We reduced our response time drastically. So it and you know it looks like now it went down a little because we have no more extra money to catch up but we're in a much better place. And the next thing is um sidewalk construction. And this is kind of like the same old same old. There's really not much to talk about here. This is city owned sidewalk construction. So um not much has changed. There's a small increase and that's about it. um drains at large. This went up a bit because of uh we're doing we're in the middle of our MS4 program and and for those of you that aren't that don't know um MS4 is like um storm water pollution prevention and um Eagle is is um they're getting to be more and more strict on the regulations. Um and it what that is is municipal separate sewer system. So, this is stuff that runs off the streets into the gutter pan and right into the river. So, and the catch basins. So, um we have a lot of rules we have to follow and actually have a meeting with him in a couple weeks and we're going to see about our permit. Um used to be permits were once every three years for this and now they're once a year. So, and then next we have ground maintenance. And now this went up a little bit because of leave pickup. This is city mowing lots, islands, parkways, trash

container pickup and 50% of lead pickup. Then this is city lot and snow removal and salting. So there's not really much to talk about there. Um and then we have t tax property maintenance and this is more properties we take back from the county. And there's there's really not a lot to talk about there. We, you know, we have to do what we have to do. So, the next one is civic affairs. And I'd like to talk about that one a little bit. It went up. It went up because of the second location for city cleanup, but I'm for that. I'm I'm I'm absolutely loving it because I heard the mayor say a couple weeks ago that it's so nice that you can if you want to, you can go to the Nixon location now and you don't have to wait so long at Water Street. And um the feedback we're getting for these um city clam days is incredible. I mean the the people seem to love this. So um I would like to keep doing you know the two locations as long as we can afford to do so. Um and um now we're down to streets. Um you know I'll just go through this to give you a little background. All street money is Act 51 money except for trunk line maintenance. Act 51 money comes from gas tax and vehicle registration. Some construction comes from federal grants and that's more on um Troy's side. But as far as salt, we always I always get this question. We store 4,500 tons and we order about 500 tons at a time. Now, right now, we have a barn full of salt. And the reason why we have a barn full of salt right now is because it's on last year's prices. We don't want to wait because we know salt's going to go up every year. So, we don't want to wait

and buy it next year. It's going to cost more. So, we stock up now. And we have 155 miles of streets. This summer, we're going to focus not just on patching, but we're going to try to do some padding. Um, but of course we talked to engineering about we want to pad streets that they're not going to reconstruct in the near near future. Padding is, you know, I was having a conversation today with Troy. Padding will last uh maybe two, three years depending on location, the condition of the road underneath it, and how much traffic that it, you know, that pad will see. But, um, you know, it's just is it that's just a way to get us through for a while. Um there's, you know, the major street fund and the local street funds are pretty much the same. You know, they they don't change much. It's we do we do uh in the winter we do salting, plowing, you know, in the summer we do patching, padding, and uh street sweeping. These don't really change a lot and and you know, so it's based on a equation from the state anyways based on how many miles of road you have. And so trunk lines is a little different because we we um there's about 270,000 and we build that back to the state. Um and there's really not much to say about that because they because they set the price. Um now I'd like to move on to one of some one of our bigger items is the 402 which is water equipment replacement fund. Um what the one of the big things that you're going to notice in here is we're going to spend $400,000 on a machine that pulls wells. Now, um, they've been wanting to buy this for a few years and we put it off. But the the thing is we pull three to four wells

per year and we figure we can put we we only have to pull 10 wells and we're we it's paid for itself in five years or less because it costs so much to have a contractor come in and do that that work. We're not talking about little residential wells. We're talking about big production wells. And um another another project that we're doing is um in 1999 they did a project at the water plant. You're gonna say something. Uh what you mean by you we pull whales. Can you explain that?

So you you have to pull the well head off and pull the casing out to inspect it. And you would think, you know, they're they're multi-stage turbine wells. So, the motor's up top and you have a big shaft that goes down and you pull the whole thing out, you know, 150 ft of it and you pull it, you inspect the pipe, you know, and you have to do this every so often to do maintenance on the wells. Um, where was I? Oh, and um they did a they did a project plant, the water plant 99, and they redid a lot of actuators and and valves and things. And um the we have to replace some of these actuators now on the clarifiers and things at the water plant that are way beyond their expected life. So that's another uh price that might jump out at you. And the brick work needs to be done at the pump station across the street from the w the water plant. And that's just because that's an old building. It's a beautiful old building, but we we're going to have to give it some love. And uh the next thing on the list is the lead service line program. Now right now this is a huge priority for us. Um we were talking someone brought up ARPA money earlier. We're spending the last of our ARPA money on and DBW on lead service lines which is where I think it should be spent. Um we have till the end of the year we have to spend it. So, we're we're allocating as much time and resources as we can to this project and um we will have the money spent by the end of the year. Um and the we have to build up some money in this line item because we know that the grant money is going to dry up. So, Chenner's been doing a great job making sure there's some money in there so that

we can continue to do lead service lines after the ARPA money is gone. And then another big item that I want to talk about is the 406 is the wastewater equipment replacement. And now we switch over to wastewater. Um the big thing that you're going to see is the capital improvement bond digtor improvement project. Now no one has touched our digesttors at the wastewater plant since the early 80s. So this work it was severely severely needed. Um and this they're going to re there it's the rehabilitation of digesttors one and four including cleaning and coating the concrete walls. Removing floating lid from digesttor 4, replacing it with a um stationary domed lid. Installing new mixing pumps and piping. new sludge transfer pumps and new heat exchangers and new gas collection equipment and new associated control systems. And this is a total of uh about $9.6 million. So that's a that's a big one that need absolutely needed to be done. Um and that that one might jump out at you. And now we're going to go to the 590 which is a sewer fund. And Chandra is going to talk about that one. So the 590 sewer fund is used to account for the operations and maintenance of the wastewater treatment plant and the collection system. We serve not only Jackson residents but also Blackman Summit, Spring Arbor, Napoleon, and Rise Township along with the state correctional facility. We have recently finalized negotiations with these connected communities to bring the contract to city council on May 19th meeting for consideration. The most significant benefit of this contract is

the updated rate methodology that establishes a fair and equitable rate for all rate payers based on the use of the system. The increase in expenditures in fiscal year 26 and 27 is due to additional funding needed for capital improvement projects planned in the wastewater equipment replacement fund. as well as the new debt service payments for the 2026 capital improvement bonds which were approved by council in January of 26 and we are closing on those like Heather mentioned earlier um to complete the wastewater digesttor improvement project that Mike just discussed. That's all I have for the sewer fund. Did you have any questions?

I would just like to say that I'm very proud of my staff. Um it was a long time coming, but we um we settled the sewer contract. That that was uh that wasn't easy. So, and I I don't want to start naming names. I'll probably forget somebody, but there were a lot of people involved that had a lot of help. Um and I'm very proud to tell everyone that it's done now and we got a we have a good contract and you'll see that at the next meeting. Um, and next thing is the 591. It's water. Um, there are a lot of there all the grant money and everything runs through this. So, it looks a little bloated, but the one thing that might jump out at you that I want to mention is uh we have to clean the a lagoon at the water treatment plant because we've been putting it off. Um, you know, last few years, last three years, we put off um cleaning out a lagoon because, you know, it was an easy place to cut money when we needed it. We turned the fat every year and now that that bill's coming due. Um, we're going to if we don't clean one out this year, we'll have no place to put the sludge. So, we have to spend the million dollars and clean out one of the lagoons. And that's and that's a big item. And now um again I'm going to turn it over to Chander and let her talk about um public works admin. Okay. The public works administration fund is used to account for the labor pool of employees primarily funded through reimbursement from other funds for services rendered. The reimbursements are calculated as a percentage of direct labor costs for

hours worked by public works employees on various city projects and activities. Um, the increase in the 2627 budget is due to increases in employee wages and benefit cost for the recently negotiated Michigan Association of Public Employees contract and the investment employee education and training to com um to obtain commercial driver's licenses, water distribution license to operate our water system and along with safety and first aid training for all frontline staff.

Thank you. Um, and now the we only have one left and it's uh motorpool. And I don't know I don't want to embarrass Chandra, but um six years ago when I entered into this position that that fund was broke and um because of Chandra's hard work, we're actually we actually have a reserve now. We can buy we can buy the stuff um we can buy one plow truck a year and afford a couple other things. So, um, this this fund has been repaired. So, this year we're going to buy one plow truck. And I, you know, and I know I've talked to some of you as you come through DPW about I really, what I'd really like to I'd like to get to the point where, you know, we don't have plow trucks over 10 years old because they're used. They're used and used and used. And, um, for some of your other vehicles that you don't use as much, you know, you can go over 10 years. But um the one we're buying this year um the one that's going to be replaced is a 2003. So we're not there yet. Um and then the and we're buying an F450 450 with a dome body um and some lead boxes for hook and lift trucks. So So we're actually going to be able to buy a few things and um we're very happy to see that this fund is repaired. And that's all I have. Um, anyone any questions?

Mike, you mentioned lagoons at the underwater operations. Lagoons are something I think I'm more familiar with on the wastewater side. Can you just describe in detail the lagoons that need to be cleaned out at the water plant?

Sure. Um, so in the softening process, there's a lot of waste. It's um mostly calcium and um when you when you soften water, you got to get rid of this sludge. It's not harmful. It's actually farmers love it. It brings the pH up and they call it sweetening the soil. So So what we have to we have to dump it out. We have these lagoons. We put it in the lagoons and they come out and they dig it out. But we dry we dry it out in the lagoons and then they dig it out and land apply it to farmer's fields. It's a byproduct from softening the water.

Seems pretty expensive. What strategies are you looking at to reduce our cost for it?

Well, we've talked about many things. We tal we've even talked about trying to figure out a way to buy our own, you know, our own trucks, our own front end loader out at the water plant. We've looked at presses. We and we we continue to look at different ways that maybe we can save money. There's a lot of different ideas and um no idea is a bad idea. You know, there's the presses could help. What that does is it it compresses the sludge and then you just haul it off to a landfill or a far, you know, but um we haven't taken a leap yet. We're still looking at some of these things. As of yet, we haven't done, you know, because um we're going to have to do some engineering and figure out what's the smartest thing to do.

Thanks, Mike. Yep. Any other questions? Question. Yes, sir. Service lines. You don't have an exact answer today. I'm just curious if you just service. Oh, the total.

Yeah, I can get with Troy and we can come up together because we're we're both kind of working at opposite ends here. So, yeah, we can come up with something. Anything else? Thank you. Oh, wait. Hey, where you going, man? Go ahead. Hello, city council. Hello. Thank you for having me. Um, I'm going to do mine a little different. I uh emailed you guys a summary sheet. I think you guys got it. I'll uh give you a couple to pass around. Thank you.

Ba basically what this does is this summarizes the charts that uh that are in the budget. It kind of takes several several pages and makes them into a single page. I try to make it uh easy for me to follow and I'm sharing that with you. So, this is a summary of uh everything engineering does and then we're going to I'm going to sit here and I'm going to summarize that for you real quick. So, we're going to do a summary of the summary. Um basically, if you look at what engineering does, we do mostly construction, but we do have some line items. line items uh like 1 4 6 and uh 9 through 11 on this uh chart I gave you. Those are non- construction items and they basically cover traffic surfaces. When I say traffic services, I mean mostly um traffic signals. We take care of street lighting and parking. And if you look at the chart that I gave you, you're going to find that for those non- construction items, spending is going to be relatively static um year-over-year. it's going to pretty much match last year. There might be a little bit of fluctuation, but nothing big and nothing uh that I think I need to bring to your attention specifically. Um if you look at the rest of the items, um basically streets, sewer, and water, those are for construction. About 85% of the money we spend is as on construction. Um and that's not static. It's going to be a significant decrease from last year. Uh if you look at the at the bottom of the chart, um we're projected to spend about 42,000 or 42 million 43 million by the end of this fiscal year, but next fiscal year we're going to be down to 21 22 million. So it's a significant reduction. So what's driving those reductions? Um one that's always big for us is uh when MDOT does a big job, it makes the numbers look big. Well, last year, if you recall, they did the Cooper Street

Bridge. Um, it's mostly MDOT funded, but it does show up in our budget. So, it makes it look a lot bigger because it is bigger, but they're done with that. So, next going into next year, it's not going to show up, and that's going to make it look like we're reducing our work. But the other part of that is we are actually reducing how much work we're doing as a city. Um, a lot of the the spending that went on last year, we're kind of catching the end or of the co era grant money. It's kind of like the the rat going through the BOA and we're kind of it's kind of passing through. Um, I think if you look on the flip side of your thing of the the page I gave you, you'll see there's 25 um projects listed for this year. Well, last year when I did this table, it was 36. 25 is a lot of work, but it's not 36. I don't know if you guys recall last year, you couldn't hardly get home because there was construction everywhere all at once. It's going to be like that this year, but not as bad. So, um, spending's going down because grant funding is going down. We're looking at construction about half of last year in terms of dollars. But that being said, I think it's worth noting this year with 26 projects and 22 million by any other measure besides last year, that would be a banner year. This is still a lot of work, more than we do historically year-over-year. Um, it's just not going to be as big as last year, but it's still a lot of work. So, I think that's where we can look ahead beyond what's shown on this table. When I come to you next year, it's going to be a little less. when I come to you the year after, we're going to start um landing and evening off and uh not having as much of the grant funding that we got coming out of COVID and the opportunities that we're able to capitalize on. Um but that being said, even though we are leveling off, we'll always be doing some construction. It's just going to be

a little bit more level and uh not as not as much. One thing I can tell you that will continue to be a priority will be the lead service line replacements. We're working with Mike and DPW. We're hitting that everywhere we can. We got our in-house staff working on it and we're using a contractor and every every uh dollar we get, we're we're figuring out a way to spend it so we can do more services. Um, I think that's a very brief summary of what we're doing, but I think that kind of uh wraps up the engineering budget, but I'd be happy to answer any questions if you got them for me.

I have a question for you. Thank you for the summary. after the lead line, the lead service lines have been um replaced, the reconstruction, like the repair, what can you describe what that process is for someone to come back out and make it like it was before?

Okay. Well, yeah, it's a good question. So, they've been working all winter and they weren't able to do repairs. So, they are starting to catch up on that. Right now, what we've got going on is um we got one crew working doing lead service replacements. You know what? Let me back up. Getting ahead of myself. For most of the winter, there was two groups out there working on lead service replacements. It was winter. They knew they couldn't plant grass. They couldn't repave the road. Um so those two just kept working and they went nuts. Um probably I don't want to say how many hundred, four or 500 got done. Well, uh when spring hit, they divided. One group is working on restoration and they're um fixing the pavement in the street and they're putting down top soil and trying to grow grass. Um and that work is still ongoing. We get a lot of calls like when are you going to get to our street? They're closing in and catching up on it, but there's still more to be done. So when people say well my street hasn't been permanently fixed yet and it's been a while. That's true, but it will be done. And um we're just closing in on that and playing catch-up on that. Did I answer your question or did I say a bunch of things that going around the question?

No, you you answered that for the most part. So, is there a list of is it a priority list and how these are getting addressed? I've received several. Well, I would say cost I would say when when the the contract we're working on now will replace about 800 services

and one of the biggest challenges with a with that much work going on that fast is keeping a log of what's been done where and what needs to be done. And uh my staff up there with Jeff and Kristen, they do have the list and they know what is needed where. And um we are just work they're working their way through it. Um, like everything else, it's a little bit like when there's an outage of consumers, they're hitting the places where they can get the most done the fastest. Um, you know, those streets that have a lot of patches are getting it a little faster than the streets that have two or three. Um, that's just kind of the nature of how quickly can we get the most done and satisfy the most customers with the realization that means a few people are waiting a little longer.

Okay. Thank you. We do have um the funding that we're using, it has to be spent here shortly. Um I think basically we're going to have to stop replacing lead lines under this contract in mid June because we um have to get all the money spent um and into uh the state for reimbursement shortly thereafter. So you can rest assured they will be done before then because they have to be done before then. Okay. Now now you answered my question. I had I took the long route through there, didn't I? There you go. Good thing there's not a gong, right? Anybody else?

Thank you.

Uhoh. Here we go. Duck and cover. Good evening everybody. Good evening. Good evening. Uh, I had it all laid out, so I'd be up here for about two minutes, but I'm also inspired sometimes by things we hear publicly. So,

like Mike was saying, we off we're here we get an opportunity to to toot our horn a little bit to talk about some of the things that we see, some of the things that we do. I was listening in the public hearing section. I I began to realize, you know, maybe I'm not doing my job of letting people know what DEI is happening to the city of Jackson. So, maybe we need to talk about that a little bit more so they can better understand what it is. So if you can't see equity in our city, it's because you haven't looked at the collaboration between Shandra and Troy in our engineering department and our DPW to put a 7.5 million dollar reconstruction street on Martin Luther King Drive. Now keep in mind Martin Luther King Drive was Francis Street and the community fought for 45 years.

49 years. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. 49 years to have that street name changed to Martin Luther King Drive. $7.5 million which replace storm sewers, water manes, street construction reducing the road from four lanes down to two and sidewalks on the side. If you're looking for some equity, you can start right there. You can also look into our DPW which just had another trash day where they invited the community to come out regardless of where you're from and bring whatever trash and waste you have into the community. Equity can be found there. If that's not enough, then look at our assessor's office. You can give them a call if you're having a problem paying your taxes and things haven't worked out for you. You can meet with them and if you can't meet that burden, they can work with you to get through that. You can also find uh equity in our treasur's office with a payment plan and she came up for those struggling to pay their taxes. Equity in our water department where in the whole month of December they eliminated shut offs for this community because of the need. That's equity at work. You find equity in our community development department. You've heard about the 100 homes program offering down payments to families to be able to afford a home. Combine that with an additional $30,000 from the King from the MLKCA's Cornerstone Initiative program to make it available to everyone. Equity is beautiful, but it has to be accessible to all for it to truly be equity. Hunter homes fix 36 curb appeal rehab program for families that need that that are in need of assistance can be found right in our community development. You want to see equity? Take a look at our city council where our city council voted for the first time in our history to not place an assessment on a community that couldn't afford it at that time. So we do have equity. It is visible from there for you to see. Let's talk a little bit about diversity. some when you separate those three words sometimes you get a better understanding when you just say DEI politically that

challenges some people so we don't separate it word by word diversity we have a racial equity commission DEI office and does those do those things really make a difference I don't know let's see we have African-American police chief Hispanic fire chief that both started on the bottom rung of their departments that worked their way up tonight. You heard from our first female finance director for the city of Jackson and our first female parks and recreation director for the city of Jackson. Diversity is not just color. The any difference that makes a difference, that's diversity. You can see that here. You can see the summits and the different things that they're doing. Look at our city council. We have the most diverse city council in the history of Jackson, Michigan, led by my friend, our first African-American mayor for the city of Jackson. That's what diversity looks like. Inclusion. We included our youth when we created our youth council. We included others when we created a a non-discrimination ordinance to make sure that people weren't discriminated against by gender identity. inclusive sessions at Martin Luther King Center for senior citizens to make sure that they can give their opinion on how the city of Jackson operates. Meeting with the Jackson's Immigration Coalition to find out how their lives are being affected by the political things that they see happening in in communities across the country. Conversation with disability connections to make sure that the services that we have are meeting the needs of our challenged communities. Inclusion includes our police department's civilian academy where they bring in civilians for you to get a chance to go through some police training and see what it's like to be in the situations that they are in. That's how you include people in your community. Inclusion is when we support events like

Junth Hispanic Heritage Festival and Jackson Pride when we give new opportunities to grassroots organizations and get criticized for it greatly. But that's what inclusion is. It's providing those opportunities. They get a chance. We're giving groups a chance to address issues where they are closer to the problem than we are. That's what inclusion is. Inclusion is when every supervisor in your whole organ organization goes through a training that teaches you to look beyond yourself that gives you little pneumonics like UDA to remember how to make supervisory decisions. UDA orient yourself, observe, decide, and act. Teaching all of our supervisors in the city to to set your ego aside, listen to the people that we have on the first line. That's what inclusion is. The reason I brought that up is because sometimes people think DEI is just the work of our department. It's not. It's the work of this entire city. It's the work of every single department. It's the work of every single employee. Like we've been taught, once we know what the mission is, it's our responsibility to do whatever we need to do to accomplish the mission. And now to get to my my little budget here. We don't have any big ass. But some every once in a while, I I'm moved by the things people say when they step up to this microphone. But tonight, I had time. So, we just wanted to be able to speak on those things. In our budget, there was some reference to a couple years when the our budget was a little larger than what it normally is. That was based on the fact that we had a racial equity audit going forward. So, our contractual expenses at that time rose for a while and those those that the last of that expenses in this year's this year's budget and financing, but it's pretty simple. We we like every other department, we're doing what we

can to reduce and meet whatever the needs are of our organization. Any questions,

council? Any questions? Could you please repeat that? D EI.

It's real simple. DEI difference. Diversity. Any difference that makes a difference. That's all it is. Any difference that makes a difference. It could be size. It could be religion. It could be ethnicity. It could be race. It could be color. It can be anything. But that's not what the public wants you to focus on. Equity is real simple. I walk into this room and I bring a box of shirts for everybody in this room and it's one sizefits all. Well, that's problematic because me and Heather won't be able to fit the same shirt. Equity simply means I walk into this room with a shirt that everyone can fit in their size. That's all it is. We can have the greatest programs in the world, but if everybody can't have access to them, then there's no equity. And inclusion is real simple. I'm having a party. I like uh if I'm going to hip-hop, I got my Jay-Z music. I like to wear dark colors, so everything in the party is dark and blue. I like greens, chicken, yams, and a pretty good meal, but it's only what I like. Then I want everybody here to come to the party. And I'm disappointed when you don't come or you leave after two seconds. So you don't want to hear no more Jay-Z. Inclusion just simply means I'm having that party. And I go and I say, "Shalina, what kind of music do you like to hear?" And I step over to the mayor. I say, "Mr. Mayor, what would you what would you like to eat?" I say, "Mr. Anhelita, can you help me with these decorations so I can make sure I'm including everybody in it?" It's just including people in the decisions that we have to make that affect their lives every day. That's DEI. Uh, yes. Can I I know um the um funds are running out for artworks. Can you tell me where where are we at? Is that part of this?

Can't be. It's not a problem at all. So yes, with the uh MLKCIA, as you see, all of the funds are planned to be utilized by December 1st of 2026. At this point, it's about 2.478 that's been used and they have plans to use the US. We have a couple major projects in the working. We talk about some of those things and what we're talking about the food access commercial corridor. Obviously, the grocery store is still our number one priority. We have some very positive announcements we looking to make in the in the next couple weeks or next or should I say within the next 30 days regarding that and some funds will be utilized there. As well as we have a restaurant incubator at the corner of Prospect Street and MLK Drive. We're looking to do some work more as that. And there are some other land acquisition things and development things in the corridor that we'll be working through with our finance director and guide house to make sure we're we're legit with everything.

Thank you. Very welcome, sir. I see in your business development and organizational capacity that the fifth tranch was just that's listed. Do we anticipate any uh future tranches? We we don't know yet. the fifth tranch we had 61 applications. Uh 12 12 applicants were moved forward. Eight of those are in the final process right now of going through that. So the corridor the MLKCIA board has to make a decision at some point. Do they want to go into go into another trench or some other things that they want to do? Have some expenses and some things they have to take a look at. And how much money is remaining? Just uh just under $2 million. Under two million. Okay.

Right. Right. I'm doing the right number there based on what we have here. Yes, ma'am.

Close enough. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And by the way, we are in the middle of our should say right at the start of a fundraising campaign. It talks about it a little bit in the paper brochure that you have, but we're in a fundraising campaign to work on the sustainability of the MLKCIA corridor so that when the funds are out, we're not out. It's still sustainable to maintain and continue economic development in the corridor. It's one of the things that we also think this for Jackson is extremely unique and a lot of people don't understand why would you give $4.5 million to this area. We have an area that was intentionally divested in this investment for a long time to the tune of a loss of 4 $4.2 million in actual loss in 1960 but in today's dollars an equivalent of $42.3 million in loss equity. So for a city to come along and intentionally reinvest in a struggling community, we don't get to see it a lot, but in the communities communities that it has happened in, it has been a benefit to those communities, which has a toll is all rising tides, lift our ships. So as Jackson continues to lift, we want to keep continue to lift not just the southside community, but the east side, other communities that we're working with as well. Yes, ma'am. Council, any other questions, comments, concerns for Mr. Willis?

This is nice. Thank you. You're very welcome. Thank you, Miss. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you all. Jason Jason, come on down. He's on the agenda. Well, who is this guy? Who is this person? You work here. He contracts. Mayor, council members, I didn't see no budget. I thought we took him out the budget.

Uh, very difficult to follow. John, go ahead and brush your shoulder off. Uh, and uh, I apparently have 99 problems. So, uh, enough of the JZ references here. Uh, I like that. I see. I see what you did there. I appreciated that.

Uh, so not a lot of exciting things here. My budget doesn't change very much from one year to the next. It's a It's a people and paper and pencils type of budget. So, um, I think of significance. Um, we we really uh we got a car probably back in 2014 uh before I became the assessor of record. We held on to that car. We got it uh before it went to auction. U picked it up from the Department of Public Works and we drove it until it started to malfunction. So, uh we did have to uh make a u arrangement to get a used vehicle, a used leased vehicle from DPW. So thanks to uh Mike Osborne for kind of coordinating that with my office and and Chandra uh for your help as well in getting us that. So that was a significant increase. Uh the other increase uh has to do with uh software packages that we have. I think uh engineering had been covering our GIS budget for a number of years um and they had since allocated that. So um with that and then the increase of of the other software packages we use that was really it other than just the increase to the employees um pay

I think so questions concerns council what questions do we have Freddy I'm sorry I never seen you before in my life very good thanks everybody have a good Thank you.

Okay. Is there any department you'd like to hear from? Matt and I can do ours, but status quo budgets. No personnel changes.

Yeah. I won't hear from the city council budget. No, I don't. Well, which one of you guys put it together? Levy come up and present on it. I thought

it's real short. No budget. Uh something highlight everything else is pretty much status quo. Uh the goal for me, you heard from Heather at the beginning and she provided you with the budget message. Uh the overall goal for me to you for this budget and for every budget is to be boring as possible. Don't want to have any any um landmines. Want to sus out as much stuff as we can and present to you guys a balanced budget. One that aderes to our fund balance policy. one that continues the strategic and tactical uh decisions that you've made and one that emphasizes while everything is important. I repeat that every so every department can hear that every city department and every city employee is important but that being said the big five police, fire, water, sewer and roads are what people depend on and what they touch and feel the most. That's why we led with those departments tonight. And you'll see in those budgets the commitment that we've continued to make to the residents to make sure that those budgets are in good standing. We have enough personnel to do what we need to do. We can take advantage of street projects and grants still um with that and uh we can continue to get things done. Uh I think Heather did a tremendous job. You heard it last year and you heard it again a little bit this year that the end of ARPA. So our goal and Heather and my

goal is to land softly and through the wise decisions this body made at the beginning of the ARPA money coming along along our ways to not not entirely make all of the decisions one-time spending asks but to think strategically about how we were spending our ARPA dollars so that we wouldn't create a bunch of programs that would get fund they get funded during then and then have to, you know, stop. Now, you see some news of other municipalities in Mid Michigan that aren't quite well as well positioned as we are. So, I'm very proud of our staff to come to a budget workshop tonight, present like we did, and have it just be another hoham meeting because Hoome is predictable. It's what our businesses like. It's what our residents like. Aside from both fixed roads and no construction, that dichconomy is always fun to navigate in the summer. Um, but as Troy pointed out, very busy this summer, as Mike pointed out, lots of good investments in our public works, adding a new firefighter in our fire department, police chief. As you heard, one thing that I didn't get a chance to ask him to uh celebrate his work since coming on as chief, but this is the most staffed department that I can remember since I've worked at the city. There's always been a there's always been 52 allocated. Never come close to having full staff. And I think by the end of next year, the chief is going to get us fully staffed. And that that means a higher presence in our community. That means special taskings by the police department. That means an overall department that can respond better to our citizens. So, thank you for your patience tonight. Thanks for going through all these things. Thank you to staff for putting

the hard work into all of this uh over and over again. We started this process when I say we, sorry, Heather. Heather started this process with Rebecca in January if not worrying about it before. So, thank you to to them for that and thank you for your patience tonight and your questions as always to help us sharpen us up. That's all I got. Who did that? When he said that's all we got, that was it. He dropped the mic was gone and everything shut down.

Yeah. Council, do we have any other questions, comments, concerns before moving forward? All right. Uh just want to say thank you again to all the staff for um a great budget workshop. And that brings us down to item number seven. Uh citizen comment portion of the meeting. Uh I will read the rules for speaking before city council during this portion of the meeting. Number one, each speaker will state their name and address prior to addressing council. Number two, each speaker is limited to up to three minutes during the citizen comment portion of the meeting. Council members will not debate or answer questions at this time. Number three, each speaker should be polite and courteous to the council and members of the public in attendance, while any speaker is free to express his or her opinion on any subject. No speaker may direct personal attacks at any member of the staff or council unrelated to the manner in which they perform their duties. use obscene language while addressing the city council or engage in disruptive or disorderly behavior during a council meeting. Number four, should any speaker cause a breach of the peace through their conduct, the mayor may declare the speaker out of order. Number five, if a speaker is declared out of order by the mayor and refuses to cease and desist from disruptive or disorderly conduct, the mayor may order the person removed from the meeting. Number six, each speaker should, excuse me, each speaker may speak once under public comment and may not yield their time to others. Joseph Feller,

come on down, brother.

I am Joseph Feller at 700 East Gansen. I've lived here approximately 13 years. I'm from Arizona. I have a few things I just want to point out. Um, couple with our parks, we don't clean them up. I go out there, my wife picks up trash, we fill trash bags all the time. Spent $1 million that we put aside for Lumis Park. And now we also have a additional $697,800 or $685 that we're now going to put towards it towards again. Um, that is quite a bit for upgrading a park that we're not even taking care of. I'm seeing trash, broken equipment, smash things. I understand everyone's busy. We all got things to do, but we do have people in play. If we're upgrading it that should be fixing it and paying attention to it. Um, I also want to state that when I first moved here, I enjoyed this city. I love this city. I love this state. with the crime and everything that has gone up, we are looking at quite a high crime rate and the national average of 97% um violent crimes up by a lot 326 violent crimes that's 1,61.8 per 1,000 or 100,000 people. That is one 195.75%. That is absolutely ridiculous considering that we just mentioned that we are almost fully staffed in our police department, which I appreciate. I love having police enforcement around. On my side of town, we see a lot. We pick up a lot of trash, a lot of garbage from people throwing it out. I get it. People suck. But we're picking up this trash. I've called for the city to come remove a dead animal on the side road. Got told that is not their

responsibility. That is a absolute outrage. I took care of that cat. I buried it myself when it could have been picked up by the city or someone. Uh stray animals running around. Dogs without a leash on the weekend. Literally got told, "Call the police cuz animal control isn't working this weekend. Called the police. Call animal control. Got the runarounds." My wife got chased by this dog. My kid, 5 years old, was also with my wife when this happened. Absolutely ridiculous. This city is downgrading faster and faster every year. The past 7 years, I have watched it go from here to down here, and it's just slowly getting worse and worse and worse. I am not normally a speaker. I took a day off to work, come here, and vent out on how I'm feeling. Seeing this city slowly go down, we're focusing on this over here, and this over here, and this over here, and this over here. We're not focusing on the actual big picture. Keeping our citizens safe, making sure that all these properties that are being built are built properly. I'm watching water slide down the roads on these properties, wiping around the dirt because they weren't packed in properly and all these other things, plus all pro rental picking up multiple of these properties. Thank you, John C. King. John King 203 third street here in the city. As far as EI and the MLKCIE and all that stuff, a lot of people are making out like bandits with that. You know, I would say John Willis is laughing all the way to the bank with that. And someone might say, well, gee, John, you know, it's the 2020s. you know, there's direct deposit, but the city provides him with a really nice vehicle, so why wouldn't he go down to the bank with it? Um, one of those

wanting to make out with the bandit is Jimmy Minnik, who has properties on the ML in the MLCIA, and he doesn't mention that, but he's all for himself and being self-enriched. Uh late last year I criticized the council member. Um he ended up coming up and criticizing for that. He didn't mention that he was a sp paid staff of her. So he's not Jimmy Minnick isn't coming from a point of being a principal person. Uh, as far as the Nommo me, uh, if you notice when lawns are mowed, there'll still be dandelions and everything like that, flowering plants. Uh, even when it's mowed really low. Uh, I complain about this nonsense of this no uh, mole mate. It really doesn't increase the amount of dandelions and other plants. it probably could increase the amount of ticks and maybe even Lyme disease. So, this needs to be the the last year of that. Um, during last meeting, I mentioned my comments China with Iran. Uh, the US has stopped the ships going to China with oil. A lot of Democrats were against that uh criticizing Trump. Um, so it turns out, you know, there's act blue, which is the financial thing that allows Democrats to get highly financed. Uh, there's been the suggestion there's a lot of bad things going on there. I think they're indicted. I'm assuming maybe China's been kicking money in there to elect Democrats. There's so many of their really bad candidates and it's like, how can they raise that much

money? So, there could be something to that. We'll see what they um Secretary Joselyn Benson, who is the Southern Poverty Law Center, who I consider a hate group, you know, it turns out they hired in Charlottesville, they hired, you know, the guy the main guy in so Charlottesville was sort of a SPLC scam. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. King.

Uh, that brings us to council member comments. Uh, Council Member Wood.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, thank you to all of our public commenters as usual. Um, I really want to thank city staff for the work that you guys put into producing this budget and um, doing the little uh, like showand tell for us. Um, I'm sure that it is uh, thrilling for all of you, but I actually do find this to be an incredibly valuable um, exercise and it's one of my favorite meetings of the year. So, I appreciate all the work that you all are doing and um appreciate the the leadership of our city manager who I rag on a fair bit, but has uh I think been very responsible with um tapering down the ARPA bonanza, which is, I think, incredibly important and is work that should really be appreciated. Um so, thank you for that. That's it, Mr. Mayor.

Council member Hunt. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you to our city staff for the detailed presentations. That information is always helpful. And um thank you to everyone that came out tonight to be a part of this discussion. I do want to let everyone know that on May 14th at the Jackson um district library, the Carnegie branch, the community police oversight commission will be meeting there for our meeting. And I know we had um decided that the meeting would be held in each individual ward and so this month it will be in ward 5. So for those of you that would like to be a part of that discussion, please join us on the 14th at 6 o'clock at the library. Thank you,

Council Member Robinson.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I want to thank all of the staff for your presentations today. It is helpful. Um, just kind of gives us a rundown of the previous year and where we're headed for this year. Um, so I appreciate all of your your comments. Um, our finance staffer. Uh you do such a good job. So, we appreciate you putting together the budget with our city manager and um just thank everyone for coming out and we do appreciate your comments. Thank you,

Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. No comments. All right, Council Member Gun.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yeah, I appreciate um these presentations, too. It's really helpful to um you know, give us an overview of things that we should be looking for. I mean, certainly reading this is helpful, but it's also good to get highlights um from each of your departments and things that you're doing. And um so, thank you for being here with us tonight. And um thank you for the public who showed up. And um happy Mother's Day to all the mothers, right? That's this weekend. Yeah, I just got to make sure I have stuff on my agenda or schedule that I'm gonna make. So, all right. Thank you.

Um, okay. I'm going to make my comments as quick as possible. Uh, one, I would like to ditto that. Happy Mother's Day. Special happy Mother's Day uh to all the mothers here in the room on counsel in the room in general. If you are a mother, happy Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day to my wife um who made me a father. Um and happy Mother's Day to my mother. Love you, Mom. Um, want to say uh just thank you and great work to uh Chief Simpson and JPD uh under recent arrest uh that was made of another person, a wanted suspect for a murder um and all the work that that the department does. Um uh one of the one of the comments made tonight uh from our public is this is um this is where we where I've talked about that um statistics can be different than what people feel. Uh so like I acknowledge your feeling that crime has increased but that's actually not accurate. Uh crime has actually decreased. Um specifically over the last few years crime has decreased. Um and it's not because of anything that we've done except for being willing to support uh what our police department needs. Uh which they can't prevent crime. they can only react after crime has been committed. Uh we can't stop stupid people from doing stupid things. Uh we appreciate whatever work you've done to help keep the park clean. Um

there is a process that you can use. I try to inform everybody. There's a report of concern on the city of Jackson website. Uh it seems like it would be a lot easier to just talk to somebody directly to say, "Hey, we need the park cleaned up. This that and the other is going on." Uh, but when you use that website and I see you said three times so we can check into that, right? Because that creates a footprint, creates a paper trail that we can actually follow up on um, to see what was reported, how it may have been taken care of. If it wasn't addressed, we can also address why it may not have been addressed at the time that it was reported. Um, but like I said, I don't I'm I'm I'm not trying to be dismissive of how you feel about the safety of the city. um because your perception is is your reality. Um but statistically crime has gone down in several areas in the city. Uh but we appreciate you for coming out for sure. Um and again, thank you to the staff for the work that they put into the budget uh as our uh gift that came along with the curse of CO begins to dry up or we near the end of it. Um, I'm happy to see that we didn't uh get ourselves in any situation that would cause long-term uh damage to the way our budget performs. Um, so yeah, that's that's all my comments. Uh, so thank you, Mr. City Manager, for all the work that you guys have done to put together this budget.

Mr. City Manager, thank you for all your kind words. I know staff appreciates serving the people of Jackson and the city council. And with that, that's all I have. Thank you. Looking for a motion to adjourn.