Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I'd like to welcome everybody to the regular scheduled Johnson City Commission meeting. It's Thursday, August 20th, 6 o'clock. I'd like to call the meeting to order at the Municipal and Safety Building. For the first order of business, I'd love to invite Reverend Paul Helfenstein up from First Presbyterian Church for the invocation and the pledge. If everybody would stand.

Let us pray. Gracious and loving God, we thank you for the world you have made. We thank you for the lives you've given us. We thank you for the beauty of the mountains and the community we call home. In light of yesterday's tragedy, we come tonight particularly aware of the preciousness of life. We pray for the families of Halen Engle and Braylon Rogers. Bring them your comfort, your healing, and your peace. We pray for the cyclists who are injured. Bring them healing in body, mind, and spirit. We pray for the Milligan University community, for administrators, faculty, staff, and students as they mourn this unimaginable loss. We pray for all the first responders, doctors, nurses, and hospital staff who are caring for the injured. Bring them a tremendous sense of purpose in their work and an unmistakable knowledge of your presence in their lives. Help us to stand beside the hurting as we walk this road together. Guide us as a community as we seek your wholeness in the midst of brokenness. We ask tonight that you bless our nation, our state, our community, and all its leaders. We ask that you bless the citizens of Johnson City and all those who work diligently to keep us safe and strong. We ask that you bless the work of this commission, give them wisdom and clarity in their deliberations, and thank you for raising up men and women who are willing to place service above self. Help us to truly be a community that cares for one another and for all our neighbors. Help us to see the humanity in one another in divisive times. Guide us all toward a more unified and peaceful Johnson City for all its citizens. We ask this in your holy and eternal name. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

Commissioners, the first order of business is to consider approval of the minutes for the regularly scheduled City Commission meeting held on Thursday, August 6, 2026.

Move approval. Second. Ms. Louse?

Commissioner Fowler?

Yes.

Commissioner Goetz? Yes. Commissioner Wise? Yes. Vice Mayor Brock? Yes. Mayor Cox?

Yes.

The next item... for consideration is under proclamations, resolutions, and presentations. Item 4.1 is presentation of proclamation for Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. Accepting this proclamation is Heather Lee Sifford with valid help.

Hi, thank you for being here today. I'd love to share this proclamation with you. Whereas suicide is a tremendous form of suffering and one of the most disruptive and tragic events a family and community can experience, with more than 1,200 lives lost in Tennessee each year, an estimated 25 attempted suicides for each suicide death, and whereas suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in Tennessee, the third leading cause of death among youth and young adults ages of 10 to 24, as well as the fourth leading cause of death of adults ages 35 to 44, and the eighth cause of death for adults between 45 and 54. And whereas suicide prevention has been declared a state priority by Governor Bill Lee and the Tennessee legislator, and whereas 988 suicide and crisis lifeline provide 24-7 free and confidential support for people in distress, prevention and crisis resources for you or your loved ones, and best practices for professionals in the United States. And whereas a Suicide Prevention Network Advisory Council has been appointed to coordinate the implementation of the Tennessee Strategy for Suicide Prevention, And whereas the Tennessee Suicide Prevention Network is a grassroots collaboration of Tennesseans and organizations working to eliminate the stigma of suicide, educate the community about the warning signs of suicide, and ultimately reduce the rate of suicide in our state. And whereas everyone can play a role in suicide prevention by learning and sharing the risk and warning signs, decreasing the stigma as a mean to promote health seeking by talking about suicide using safe messaging and sharing the valuable resources. Now, therefore, I, Greg Cox, Mayor of the City of Johnson City, Tennessee, do hereby proclaim September Suicide Prevention Awareness Month in Johnson City. So thanks for being here. Does anything you want to share or anything about 988 or in the crisis line? Yes.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

Okay. So I feel like, as the Reverend said before in his prayer, that this truly is a community caring for each other, honestly. And all of you all have been so supportive of our mission and what we do over the years. Vice Mayor Brock, you have been one of our champions for years. long time now and we truly appreciate that this means a lot to us and because it is about caring for each other ultimately and everybody at some point in their life is affected by suicide either directly or indirectly so we appreciate you acknowledging this this proclamation will go to Nashville with me in two weeks when we are there for our big statewide events so thank you for this we appreciate it Thank you. Thank you.

The next presentation of proclamation is for International Overdose Awareness Day. Accepting the proclamation is a representative from Insight Alliance of Washington County.

Hi there. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Ms. Ashland?

Yes. OK.

I'd love to read this to you. Whereas there has been a significant increase in global overdose deaths over the past 20 years and in 2024, Washington County recorded 37 overdose deaths. And whereas fatal overdoses involving opioids, stimulants and antidepressants decreased in Tennessee in 2024, opioids and stimulants still continue to be the primary substances contributing to overdose deaths in the state. And whereas East Tennessee has consistently accounted for the highest amount of overdose deaths in the state, representing approximately 43% statewide in recent years. And whereas approximately one in seven Tennesseans who died from an overdose had experienced a non-fatal overdose treated in a Tennessee hospital during the year preceding their death. and whereas International Overdose Awareness Day is the world's largest annual campaign dedicated to remembering those who have lost their lives, raising awareness, and reducing the stigma surrounding substance use and overdose. And whereas recognizing this day affirms the dedication of local organizations, healthcare providers, public safety personnel, and residents who work to strengthen overdose prevention strategies and expand recovery resources. Now, therefore, I, Greg Cox, Mayor of the City of Johnson City, Tennessee, do hereby proclaim August 31st, 2026 as International Overdose Awareness Day. So thanks for being here. Is there anything you want to share about your organization?

I'm Ashlyn. I am from Inside Alliance. Inside Alliance is Washington County's prevention coalition. One of the primary goals of prevention is to spread awareness. And what we're doing for International Awareness Day with our proclamation is bringing awareness to what happens whenever prevention is not in place in our communities. So like it was said in the proclamation, our fatal overdose deaths have decreased, but our non-fatal overdose deaths have not decreased. So we're hoping with our efforts in the community and with our partners, we can bring those numbers down. Another thing, we have our International Overdose Awareness event happening on August 29th at Carver Park from 11 to 2 p.m. If you all would like to come out and honor those that we have lost, just spread awareness and reduce the stigma. We would love to have you all there. Thank you.

Thanks, Ashlyn. Thanks for being here. Thank you.

The next item for consideration is the consent agenda.

All right. I'm going to start with my right, see if there's anything to pull. Commissioner Powell? I have nothing. Vice Mayor Brock?

Yes, I do. 6.1.1, 6.1.2, and 6.1.4.

All right, Commissioner Wise.

I don't have anything, thank you.

Commissioner Goetz.

6.1.3, please, and 6.4.4. Sounds great.

So the first item, 6.1.1, is to consider approval of an interlocal agreement between the City of Johnson City and the 911 Emergency Communication District of Washington County.

Mr. Willis, while you're just talking about the interlocal agreement, I think at the same time, too, and perhaps even Dr. Fowler would like to comment on the collaboration and the cooperation that we have with our 911 and... all of our EMA groups who come together to protect the citizens of Washington County, Johnson City.

Sure, absolutely. Dr. Fowler, do you want to comment first?

I'm on the EMS board for the city, and I'm also the vice chairman of the committee, just being a physician and being on the city commission both. And they do a great job for us and it's always hard to keep enough EMS people just because of turnover kind of things with people taking other jobs and doing things. So, We cover a large area with one group, and between the county and the city, taking care of everybody with that. And I actually had to use them last week. I met four of our really good people to help me last week in an ambulance on a ride to the hospital. But he's okay. But I'm doing okay. So they do a great job, and they recruit really well. And

um we were very blessed to have the group of people that worked for us in 9-1-1 ems collaboration with us and with the county both so absolutely thanks so so this item tonight specifically revolves around the 9-1-1 piece of that interlocal agreement and it is required under state statute that that be memorialized each year that's why this particular one comes before you annually So just as a refresher in the FY27 budget, there was $1,375,000 allocated to 911. And as I said, that is required for under state statute for us to approve formally. And since Director Matherly was not able to join us tonight, Obviously, as Dr. Fowler commented, we have a great partnership, and they do fantastic work at 911. If you've never had the opportunity to go out there and tour the facility, I would encourage you to do that. It's an amazing facility, and the folks there do an amazing job. Just a couple of examples of the work they do. Over 200,000 calls were fielded in the past year by our 911 operators that they were able to dispatch the appropriate folks out, not just Johnson City Police and Fire, but also the county, town of Jonesboro and others. And they serve in total a little over 140,000 residents. And the training that those folks go through is what was so prevalent to me as I was able to go out there a few months ago and take a look at that operation. They go through a tremendous amount of training before they're actually solo, if you will, in order to keep that calm head to get the response there in the most expeditious way possible. So they do a fantastic job. Director Matherly does a fantastic job, and we're very appreciative of that partnership.

You may not know, but they were going to be upgrading their consoles at some point in time. Do you know if that process has started?

I don't believe it's started yet, but it's going to be a multi-year phased-in approach. I know as he communicated to us during the budget cycle, that'll be a phased approach. And I think they were actually refreshing some quotes so that they could bring some of those numbers back to us because I think the quotes were dated.

The second one is yours too, and I thought this is a good chance for us to review for the public to know about the Employee Health Clinic and the results of what that has meant over these last few years to our employees.

I'd be happy to speak to that. We opened the Employee Health Center in October of 2016, so we're almost 10 years into that process now, and as we looked at The health, not only at that point in time of city employees, but also at that time we had the school's employees on our plan as well. Unfortunately, they aren't now, but at that time they were. A couple of things that were brought forward by our employees that were barriers to care for them. The first thing was time. you're working full time, maybe you have three children and you're spending the entire weekend on the ball field, how do you get that preventive care that you might need? So they outline time and cost. And even though our co-payments through our health plan are fantastic and very, very low, that was still a barrier for some folks. So by implementing the clinic where employees and their covered dependents above the age of five, they can go there at no cost. And the model is such that You could wake up at three o'clock in the morning and not feel well. You can get on an app on your phone or iPad and get an appointment, get in to see the physician. They take the time that's necessary. We stock about 120 generic drugs on site so you can get seen by the doc and get the medicine you need and you're on your way. And one of the great things for us as an organization is most of those folks didn't come back to work unless they're contagious. If they're contagious, we don't want them to come back. So we kind of tackled both of those barriers with the clinic. But we have experienced significant what I would call hard savings in terms of, I guess I could best explain it like this. It's paying wholesale versus retail pricing. For example, when we looked at data over the past couple of years, If an employee goes into the marketplace for just a routine visit, what hits our health plan is about $134 for that visit. We can see that same individual through our health clinic for about $104. So it's a significant savings on the hard cost side. But the thing that folks don't think about a lot, we certainly do, are the soft costs. For the example I just gave you, maybe getting an employee back to work faster and just the ease of the employee being able to use that clinic versus perhaps if we didn't have that offering, they would be going to an emergency room where you might have a $5,000 cost or a walk-in clinic. Not that walk-in clinics don't have their place, but that's certainly not what we would like for a preventative care standpoint. So one of the other things that the clinic has done for us is a significant portion of our employees that 10 years ago did not have a primary care physician, now they do. They use our clinic as their primary care physician. Ballard Health, they have been a fantastic partner in this clinic, and we have not seen an increase for 10 years and that's unheard of. Now what you have before you this evening is about a 10% increase to that cost. Our annual spend is about $320,000 for the clinic. So we would be looking at a $34,000 to $35,000 increase with this contract. But as we benchmark not only just our neighbors here locally that operate clinics, but also regionally, we are still very, very low in comparison to our neighbors, even with that increase. And we feel like what we've negotiated with them is very fair, both to us and to them. And truly the success of a clinic is that practitioner. Because if your employees feel comfortable going to that practitioner and getting the level of service that they expect, they're going to go back. Certainly, if they have that positive experience, they're going to tell their friends. Our utilization is about 90% in that clinic, meaning that For every 10 appointments we have available, nine of those are filled on average. And during cold and flu seasons, we're often over 100% utilization because the practitioner is so good, she's willing to stay late to ensure that our employees and their dependents get a level of service that you can't get anywhere else. So we're very pleased with this relationship. We know it saves money. It's more convenient for our employees. And I would certainly recommend your approval of this agreement with Blue Ridge Management Corporation, which is a division of Valley.

How many employees and family members are covered under our plan?

a little over 2100 and you can go to the clinic as long as you're age five or older. We have about 85 dependents that are under the age of five right now. So certainly the vast majority.

So if the clinic is costing 300 and some thousand, it's about $17 15 or $15 per per person per year. It's a great deal.

I think another way of looking at it is that we're paying for the clinic out of the cost savings. from people going out into the marketplace, getting those same services that they can get theirs.

And with healthcare costs exploding, double-digit increases, if you look at the fully insured market, had we not done this, had this commission, a portion of you were on that board that approved this in 2016, had you not made that commitment, I can't imagine where we would be today without it, quite honestly.

Are they still offering like diabetes classes and doing the preventive classes?

A full diabetes program in conjunction with Blue Cross Blue Shield, our TPA, if you will. And we're looking at some more pilot programs that we hope to roll out next year that I don't want to share with you yet. It would be premature to do that, but certainly in the fourth quarter we'll be bringing some things forward that we believe will also have a positive impact.

We actually get employees kind of enrolled in those programs that may be pre-diabetic, right? Yes. To help get a reversal. Absolutely.

Mr. Willis, from an employee recruitment standpoint, I'm sure, and I say this because I've heard from our employees that this is a great benefit for them. I mean, is this normal for a lot of local governments when people are looking for where they want to work? Is that something that we hear from a competition standpoint?

Really, private sector, you don't see it at all unless you're maybe a Fortune 500 company. But on the local side, we do have other municipalities that offer it, but I don't think to the level we do from an hours availability standpoint. A lot of municipalities run part-time clinics where we're there Monday through Friday, and even at that, have that high utilization rate. But it is certainly a recruitment tool that we use. Our clinic folks come to orientation for new employees so they know up front all these services are available to you and they're free. And a healthy workforce is a healthy organization. So that's certainly something that we encourage not only through the interview process as we're selling the city, but also once an employee gets here, we want them to have all the information in front of them and take that home to their dependents so that it can be utilized to its fullest extent. Thank you.

The next item is to consider approval of an easement agreement with the State of Tennessee for the West State of Franklin Road and University Intersection Improvements Project.

Thank you, Mr. Miles. I wanted to pull this one when I was maybe three days into being a commissioner. I was at a meeting at ETSU, and one of the residents of the Tree Streets had pulled me to the side and kind of brought up this area from a traffic and safety concern. Could you talk about this piece of the project and also some of the... larger plans for that area, both from this project and a larger implementation, if you don't mind.

Probably helps to pull up some graphic or two here.

Oops, that's not the one.

So what you see here is pretty simplified form of what we're proposing to do. We're looking to develop crosswalks or sort of islands there, which you see similar to the location at University Parkway and South Rowan Street. So the area that we need from ETSU is right there by their sign. It's that great area right there, roughly 150 square feet of right-of-way dedication. What that allows us to do is create a safer vehicular and pedestrian crossing at that location. ETSU has approved our agreement, of course, so this is kind of the last step before we move forward with finalizing the construction details and ultimately starting construction after the kids are out of school spring semester. So, yeah. As for additional work that we may do in the area, phase two would be across the street from there, sort of on the Starbucks side, so to speak, and something similar there, but that's down the road. Are you referring to another project in particular?

Exactly. Sorry, just that general area. I know we have a lot of the residents of our community, especially those that live in that area, that bike, that want to move around that area safely. And I know concerns I have heard are our safety and be able to safely get across, especially for those that may work or attend ETSU. So hearing that we're putting some of these safety measures and making it a little easier to get across, I think is important.

Certainly. Also in the area is the, it's another project that, you know, is kind of in its infant stages for planning, but it's what we call our hawk signal. Yes. This is also something that we've recently discussed with ETSU. I'm not sure how to zoom in on this, but this is kind of a mid-block crossing, if you will, across University Parkway. We had put the median in because we had a lot of vehicle safety issues there, and all the data backed that up, of course. But this particular solution is something that we're working on for the future to provide that mid-block crossing and make it safer. So that's another project in the area, if you will.

Mr. Miles, with that, what we're voting on tonight is the easement, the right-of-way dedication. That's correct. As far as this pedestrian communication between the area and just making sure we prioritize costs or what we're doing to what ETSU is most interested in, too, I know that's

That's correct. Yes, sir.

Intersection is really important to them. It is. I think as we kind of progress, and I don't know if there's some things that have to be ordered and some other things with that intersection, but just keep that in mind to make sure. Sure. See what e-tissue, because I think... Even moving pedestrians back and forth, this is a great solution for this intersection, but if it can be upstream on the other side of Walnut Street. to just make sure that communication keeps going.

Sure. What's the old video game, Frogger?

Yeah. I don't want to see students, faculty, and staff doing that, trying to get in between campus.

So, no, thank you.

Yes, ma'am. Thank you.

The next item, Mr. Miles, is consider approval of a right-of-way conveyance and construction easement to the state of Tennessee for TDOT to replace the State Route 34 bridge over the railroad. Okay.

I pulled that one, Mr. Miles. I think particularly projects that are public-facing that are going to, you know, from a traffic flow, and I know it's not going to start right away, but if you might just do a real quick review of what TDOT's doing to replace that bridge on Market Street. Sure.

So what they're asking from the city right now is to acquire small amount of property at Innovation Park adjacent to State Route 34, which is Market Street. They're at the bridge so that they can construct their improvements. Well, replace the bridge, essentially. My understanding is that there might be an issue from one of the local businesses there adjacent to the project site that, you know, it's impacting their property. But The actual issue there is that I think the business has kind of encroached on a right-of-way. Sorry, TDOT's right-of-way. So TDOT's basically taken their right-of-way back. Y'all may recall we dealt with this with the West Walnut Corridor Redevelopment Project, where a lot of people over the years had kind of encroached into the city's right-of-way. And as part of that project, we sort of took that back for the improvements that we made. So kind of a similar issue to that.

Is this a 2027 or 28 start date?

For that project? Good question. I would, given its infancy, I would venture to say it's probably not going to start next year, but we can certainly follow up and find out a timeline for you. My guess is it's probably 28 or beyond.

And is that, are they going to replace both lanes? of the bridge that's going across Market Street there.

Anthony made it more about that. I think they're going to replace the entire bridge. I'm sure there's access.

That's a pretty long project, right?

They are. They're going to replace the entire bridge, and they're currently scheduled to be in a December of 2028 bid letting. Those oftentimes aren't met, so it could slide a little bit later. But it's going to be a lengthy project. It's not going to be fun for the people driving through there because they do have to narrow the lanes down. So they'll likely do one side at a time?

Yes. Okay. And this is out there by the old Optimus Park, basically? Is that what we're talking about?

It is. So right there by the substation that you see. It's right in there.

About the time Culver's opens, you're going to be narrowing the lanes.

Right now to that big fancy John City sign that used to be there.

Is it the bridge that actually goes over the railroad tracks?

It is. It's over CSX Railroad.

We could have twin projects going on at the same time, couldn't we?

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you. This one's the engineering services expansion of the city's fiber optic network.

Thank you, Mr. Todd. I would just like to hear and know that the way that I read these documents, that it's about connectivity and the traffic signals. Can you kind of talk about what that is in that, you know, how that how we're connected now, how this is an enhancement and the communication with other parts of the city just for my own benefit?

Yes. So we have a lot of the core area already covered. So you can see I don't have all the street names in here, so it just shows you that the part in closer to town, we already have that covered. It's about 17 miles of fiber that we have in right now. So what this will do is move us out to the areas that we aren't covering very well right now. So Boone's Creek and also out in Gray, we want to be able to see what's going on out there so that we can tell when we need to make modifications. So if you don't have good communications, First of all, you can't control it very well, but also you can't react as people call in and say, we've got a problem. Right now, a lot of times we can go real time and we can go view what they're talking about and we can make changes remotely to try to address some of those things. So it gives us the ability to both watch it and go back and study it from what's happened in the past and also to act real time on some of this.

Are we totally underground?

We are completely underground on this project, so it'll be about 12 miles of additional fiber that'll be underground. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Make a motion to approve the consent agenda.

Second.

Ms. Louse?

Commissioner Fowler? Yes. Commissioner Goetz? Yes. Commissioner Wise? Yes. Vice Mayor Brock? Yes. Mayor Cox?

Yes.

The next item is to consider approval of an energy-related services contract with Energy Systems Group, LLC, for HVAC replacement upgrades at Mountain View Elementary and Indian Trail Schools. Building-level controls unit upgrades at nine additional school locations will also be in the scope of work for this project.

good evening commissioners brian ross director of building services for the city this item before you tonight is a proposed agreement with energy systems group to replace some aged out equipment and software at these two schools mountain view elementary indian trail middle those are the equipment changes and software and then as well as some control upgrades at various other locations around the district A quick summary of the project, the total proposed contract is $7,280,000. It's funded by the People's Education Plan, which, as you all are aware, was enacted in 1994 for just this purpose of capital improvements at our school facilities. The systems at both schools are water source heat pumps, and the major components of that are the water source heat pump units themselves. have an average lifespan of 20 to 25 years. The fluid coolers have a lifespan of 15 to 25. Most of that equipment at these schools is original. So I did a little math there. Mountain View opened in 1995. That's a little over 30 years. And Indian Trail opened in 1998, a little under 30 years. So they are definitely due for these upgrades. At Mountain View, the largest component is that what you see in that middle picture is the fluid cooler. That is what rejects heat from the system, brings in cooling to the school. It also includes replacing 20 individual heat pumps throughout the school, and those are the devices that actually distribute and control the conditioning in specific areas within the building. And then along with that are some other pumps, upgrading those controls and cleaning the duct work. At Indian Trail, we're also proposing to replace the fluid cooler there, which you see on the right, and some hydronic pumps along with that. We also would like to replace the boilers, which is those blue boxes you see in the middle. That's what provides the heating for the entire system. And then upgrading the controls for this system as well. Control upgrades, you'll see at these locations around the district, these are all 20 to 25 years old and are actually scheduled to become obsolete this year. Those would no longer be supported, so obviously we don't want to be in that situation. Rough schedule. We've already been through the planning and proposal phase. So if this contract is approved tonight, we'll move immediately into the final design documents and ordering materials ready to go. Work would not begin on site until late fall. And over the winter, and that would begin with the fluid cooler replacement because we don't have demand for cooling during those months. So that would not disrupt the comfort of the school during that time. Then coming out of winter and moving into spring is when we would begin replacing the boilers. There again, those are a little more controlled. We can do one at a time or whatever we need to in order to also not disrupt heating demand during those times. And then going towards the end of the school year and into the summer, there'll be a flurry of activity to replace the heat pump units individually, other pumps, cleaning the ducts, and installing the controls. So we'll have it wrapped up and ready to go for the new school year. So a little bit about the firm that we're proposing to enter into this agreement with. a successful track record of designing and implementing these systems for us over the last decade or so. And I won't read all those, but some of those may be familiar to you. And those have all gone very well. We're very pleased with how those are performing. And then just to run down some of the benefits of this proposal, we're taking advantage of being able to control the downtime of that equipment. Those fluid coolers in particular, if they go down, we're in a world of hurt because we have no air, no conditioning, no cooling in those buildings. So we would like to do that in a controlled manner. The school system maintains these systems. As you can see, they're beyond their anticipated useful life. So they've really done a good job at maintaining those systems, but they are spending money. you know, money and time to keep them running. They do need to be replaced, but we're doing this in a manner by partnering with an energy specialist such as Energy Systems Group to really make sure we're maximizing efficiency, conserving energy, and improving the indoor quality in these schools. With the software, we want to make sure we have uninterrupted software support. And by going with a company such as Energy Systems, they're responsible for the entire project. So if something's not working right, we have an issue, we know who to go to to fix it instead of trying to figure out which contractor, which subcontractor might be accountable. And then because of our successful track record with Energy Systems Group, we feel there's a low risk due to their demonstrative success. And with that, I'm happy to take any questions. We also have a couple of gentlemen from Energy Systems Group in the audience if you had any more technical questions or wanted to address them.

You were talking about replacing the boilers out at Indian Trail. It was only three or four years ago we had kind of an emergency replacement of one of them out there. So would it be all of them replaced or is that one still in good condition?

I believe it's all of them. There are some minor exceptions in here for equipment such as that that's not as old as the rest of it. This is a general summary of that. But there are some items that if they are not quieted there into the useful life, we're not expending the money to replace that. The other thing, too, is the boiler's at, let's see here. So for that same reason, we're not proposing to replace the boilers at Mountain View. They're only about four years old, and we expect to get about 10 to 15 years or so of life out of those, so we don't see the need to replace those at this time.

Well, this was a very good program, and I was fortunate to be able to vote on it the first time in 2016, and ESG's been a great company to work with. We just miss Mr. Russell. For sure. Thank y'all for what you've done.

Make a motion to approve.

Second.

Ms. Laus?

Commissioner Fowler? Yes. Commissioner Goetz? Yes. Commissioner Wise? Yes. Vice Mayor Brock? Yes. Mayor Cox?

Yes. You know, I didn't have central heat and air at Southside when I was there. It sure would be nice to be so proactive about.

They probably had more windows in the building.

I said the radiators actually stay warm.

Commissioners, the next item is to consider approval of the Vertex quote for OpenGov permitting and building software.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners. My name is Cooper Reeves, Special Projects Manager in the Administration Department. With me is Lexi Vance, our Economic Development Coordinator. And we are here tonight to present, as Ms. Ball said, the Vertosoft co-op contract that is in front of you for the OpenGov permitting software. So just a brief history of how we got here and why we're here tonight with this in front of you. This comes from our JC Builds initiative. The goal of the JC Builds initiative is to identify and correct obstacles to successful development in Johnson City. Our three objectives with that initiative are consistency, customer service, and culture. and all of those are being worked on through a three-part effort one being our jc builds mayor's advisory task force our bi-monthly roundtables both of those are made up of citizens within the construction development world and then are also our internal process improvements which are conducted by staff At the beginning of this year, all of these groups work together to lay out goals for the calendar year that we wish to accomplish. And you'll see on here that the ones in green are the ones that we have already completed or implemented. And then the one before you tonight is our new permitting software. So just for the public's benefit, what a permitting software is for the city, this is what we use to manage all of the city's building and development review processes from application all the way through approval. This is what allows customers who are citizens to submit permits and plans online. This is what allows our staff to review those and process them. track our inspections, collect our fees, that sort of thing. This is the centralized hub of all of our permits and projects and property information for any development or construction project going on in the city. Right now, our current permitting software is CityView, which we brought online back in 2019. Then over the years that we've had it, we've just noticed some issues that are kind of keeping us from reaching that next level of customer service that we want to provide. Our customer service with CityView is just not quite at the level that we want it to be. There's also constant system issues with it lagging, incomplete records. Staff are not able to get notifications when a customer uploads new documents. Also on the customer side, they're not able to get inspection pictures from our building inspectors when they put them on a report. They're not able to find their properties easily in the system by searching the address like you think they'd be able to. It's just becoming a very clunky system that is not doing what we need it to do. We did survey all of our city staff that use it as well as our builders. And we just pulled out a few highlights from those surveys so you can see kind of what the general feeling is around it. There's inconsistency again in those emailing inspection notices. It's not updating and showing them their scheduled inspections. Staff, the reports they need are not being run correctly so they have to manually go in and add information. Sometimes they have to run the report a few different times. Planning staff can't get what they need on their devices. There's no way for our staff to go online and pull some like knowledge library training materials to further the understanding of the software. It's just becoming not what we need it to be. So after gathering input from our staff, as well as all of our stakeholders, it became clear that a new permitting system was a must for working towards that goal of identifying obstacles to successful development in Johnson City. So the request for approval tonight comes as a joint recommendation from staff as well as our mayor's advisory task force and our other community stakeholders. And I'll turn it over to Lexi to tell you a little bit how we got to OpenGov.

We're going to go through the search. Whenever we kind of realized that a new software was something that we really needed, we wanted to be very intentional about how we went about that. Because of the number of stakeholders affected by the potential software change being so high, both on the customer side and the staff side, we developed a project plan consisting of six steps. The plan was designed to give both staff and builders a meaningful voice in the process while still keeping the project moving forward within a reasonable timeframe. Our first step was to see if we could salvage our existing software, CityView. We had spent a lot of time investing in that software and we wanted to be absolutely sure that there was no way that we could move forward with it. So for many months, we worked on our pain points with their customer service people and eventually came to the conclusion that it was just not a viable software for our needs. Then we started researching replacements. And we utilized this search criteria to ensure that we were evaluating all the products consistently. And we looked at usability, innovation, transparency, implementation, customer service, and of course things like cost and security. Then we narrowed our search field down to about six final products. And we did a more formal demo of those products. Of the 15 total products, here are the six that we did a more formal demo of and the two highlighted in green, Central Square and OpenGov. Those ones were selected to move on to our final round. And for our final round, We did an in-person staff demo for both of those products, and we had about 50 staff members gathered in this room. And the providers from those companies, they came and did demos, answered questions from our staff. And at the end, we gave staff a piece of paper to fill out, and they turned those back into us. And OpenGov emerged as a clear standout throughout that process. And we had them rate it out of five, one being not very excited about it, five being really, really excited about it, and it got a 4.5 out of five. OpenGov is trusted by over 2,000 governments, many of which are in Tennessee or comparable sizes to Johnson City, which gave us confidence in moving forward. Cooper, do you want to take the slide over?

So as Lexi said, from the demo with staff, we were very excited about what OpenGov would be able to do for all of those staff and all of their different departments. So just want to highlight a few of the things that we're excited about. Number one is an app. Right now, our current system does not have an app. So customers and staff are both accessing it through just a webpage, but with an app, they will be able to access it on their devices. Our staff will be able to access it out in the field, which we're very excited about. And then just some other things, it's going to have automated notifications. So for staff, we can align them better with the timeline that we set with customers by sending them notifications about either tasks that are due soon or tasks that are overdue, just making sure we're all understanding of the timeline that we've set for ourselves. Offline functionality, right now our building inspectors or our code enforcement officers, when they go out into the field, they can log their comments, but they cannot sync them in the system until they get back to the office on wifi. With this offline functionality, they'll be able to do it out in the field. Our planning staff will be able to access the documents that they need from their devices. And then things that were not necessarily deal breakers, but we're very excited about. Of course, the photo uploads again for our inspectors to be able to upload those from the field. Also, when a customer or a staff member enters a property address, it will come up with a flag if it's in a historic district or if it's in a floodplain. Also for our inspectors, when they get their list of properties that they're going to inspect that day, it will route them for them so they can show them the map of the best way to do it in the most efficient and time effective way. And then also we'll be able to link and stack all of our related sub permits and records in the system. Right now there is two separate lines. And so we'll be able to finally put those in one record. So those are just some of the things that we're excited about. It has a lot of great features, but we think these especially will really kind of radicalize the way we're able to do our systems and processes.

Another consideration for us was that the city already utilizes OpenGov in our public works department and our water and sewer department. So it wasn't a completely unfamiliar company. With some institutional experience, we're hoping that that can help in the implementation phase of the project. The staff feedback from the final demonstration was very positive. There was a lot of excitement about it, as you can see here. After we had kind of found our standout software, we wanted to make sure that our building community felt the same way about it. And so we took it to a JCBuilds roundtable with about 55 builders there. OpenGov came in person, it gave a demo to the builders, and they were really excited, and we again got overwhelmingly good feedback from our customers. And then as a final step, we did an executive demo, and we kind of looked at all the staff feedback, the overall product, builder feedback, functionality, and organizational needs before we started moving into contract discussions. Here's a project timeline. This project took an entire year, just about. And this timeline shows that we had a lot of things moving at once. There were a lot of moving parts to this. So you can see in that step one, that's where we were still trying to see if CityView might be salvageable. And at the same time, we were doing initial scoping calls for new softwares, first round demos. And then step four is kind of our big milestone where we had that in-person demo for our staff. We did a due diligence period where we just kind of fact checked some things, called in references, things of that nature. And then had our roundtable demo to builders and then step six our executive demo and contract negotiations and then step seven is where we are at right now which is the commission consideration of open gov purchase throughout this process we kept coming back to three priorities we needed staff buy-in they're the people who are going to be using this system every day it won't be me and cooper Second, we needed engagement from builders and the development community because they're our customers. And third, we needed a system that doesn't just solve today's problems because it gives us the ability to continue improving our internal processes, transparency, and customer service. Those priorities are ultimately what drove the recommendation. These numbers help demonstrate how extensive the evaluation was in a year long project we had 52 staff members involved in more than 55 builders engaged. More than 400 staff hours invested five Community best practice exploration calls 15 products evaluated throughout the broader search and 26 hours of software demonstrations.

This project was budgeted in the FY27 budget that was recently passed. So I just wanted to point out to you what those terms would look like. So that term one, which is the first year you'll see, is $198,140.50. That consists of the licensing, which is the subscription, as well as the implementation work, as well as the migration of data that is in CityView that we would be moving into OpenGov. Terms two through five include the licensing costs, as well as the integrations that we have to have, as well as the post-launch tech support and services that we will be getting. Also, terms two through five, you'll notice it's just a little bit increased each year. All of that for a total five-year cost of this five-year contract that is renewable annually just under $600,000.

Next steps. So if this were to be approved tonight, at the very start of September, we would have our first scoping call and we would kind of set out our project timeline for implementation. We would start with our historical data migration and our records creation and workflow building. And while we are still kind of building out those workflows and things, we would start training staff as we build. And then there would also be a plethora of builder training. We want them to feel prepared to switch to a new system. And then there would be a go live date. This is a tentative timeline. It could take anywhere from eight to 12 months to go live. And until go live, we will still be using CityView as our contract with them last until next June.

so the jc builds initiative will reach its two-year mark next month in september and since the beginning of that initiative the topic of a permitting software has pretty much been present since the beginning this is in line with the commission strategic plan of excellence and city government we feel without an adequate permitting system we cannot serve the customers to the level that we want to we feel like that us as staff cannot do the work on our end that to the level that we want to without a robust and strong permitting software so our request to you tonight as noted is the approval of this five-year annually renewable contract through the vertosoft co-op to purchase the opengov software for our building and permitting we are happy to answer any questions you may have

First of all, this is just to reaffirm that the work that the Johnson City Bills group, who've been, like you said, working almost two years, this was one of their priorities. Is that correct?

Yes, ma'am.

Yeah. And they've spent a long time. They are the end users of this software. Whether there was any prediction from the cost savings we may see from it because of increased efficiency, staff time is better organized and the response to the builders and inspections and codes and permitting and all that is going to improve by any kind of prediction of percentage of what we're going to see in terms of productivity.

Yeah, absolutely. So we did poll our staff in those surveys about what CityView was able to do for them. And we had many, many staff members saying they were losing over an hour every day just because of the issues or the manual work that they were having to go back and do. So we do feel like with a new permitting system that is able to do stuff, A, a lot of automatically, but B, just to the level that we really need it to, we will save a lot on staff time just because a system will work the way it's designed to for this kind of field that requires it.

And just to note that we are already paying for some software, so this is not all new cost. It's replacing something that we're already using that's not performing like it should. That causes a lot of frustration, I think, for the community and developers. So not only I think there's a big cost savings for city and staff, but I think just the time a developer has between inspections and communication can be significant. I'm really, really excited about this and what you guys have put together. I think it's a solution that will really change. And Dr. Fowler for having the task force and sticking with it for two, almost three years probably. So I'd love to have some metric report in 24 months from now that's implemented and some successes maybe after that.

I agree. I've enjoyed attending some of the JC Builds roundtables. And I think this is a great example of government and industry working together to improve our processes. And I'm just really proud of the work that so many folks, I just got to come in and listen to, you know, some of the final conversations. But thank you all so much for all the effort that you've put in, as well as those in the industry that were part of this work.

It has been a long time coming, but I appreciate all the hours, the hard work, and I will move for approval. Second. Ms. Louse.

Commissioner Fowler.

Yes.

Commissioner Goetz. Yes. Commissioner Wise. Yes. Vice Mayor Brock. Yes. Mayor Cox.

Yes.

Thank you. Thank you.

Next item is...

The next item is Ordinance 4950-26. This is the third reading of an ordinance to establish a local jurisdiction property tax relief program to benefit the elderly, low-income taxpayer, totally and permanently disabled taxpayer, disabled veteran taxpayer, and widowers of disabled veteran taxpayers.

I have to move this down a little bit. I'm not nearly as tall as you guys. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, and city staff. I'm Stephanie Louse, finance director, and I'm here to talk about Ordinance 4950-26, which is the local jurisdiction property tax relief program. This is the third reading, so I'm just going to go through the program. fairly quickly, and then I'll answer any questions. So the state implemented this program in 1973 with a constitutional amendment and mandated that all localities participate in the state version. In 2025 statewide, we had 152,000 claims and over $43 million in relief. Johnson City alone had 1,000 approved applicants between our three counties. The application for this program is done at the county or the city level. They come in, do their application. We file it with the state. The state does the approval. They do eligibility, and they notify us of their approval process. The state then provides reimbursement to the individual or payment directly to us, depending on how the process has gone. And we do have several localities near us that have already implemented this type of program for their citizens. So what the proposed ordinance will do is it will amend Title V. It establishes our local tax relief program, indicates that we'll use state eligibility determinations, there will be no additional burden on taxpayers, and then the local relief amount will be determined annually via resolution. anticipated impact, the resolution will be brought to the commission after the state sets the 26 tax relief amounts. The staff plans to recommend setting our local relief amount equal to the amount that the state sets for the elderly and disabled, but the relief will be applicable to all individuals that are eligible for the state program regardless of what their classification is. And so this is third reading and adoption. And then we just provided our property tax rates to the state last week after the special called meeting. So we anticipate that we'll be getting the state numbers very soon and be able to bring the resolution with our recommended amount for the September meeting.

Have you been receiving calls from the eligible folks for this program?

Not yet. Not yet. We anticipate that as soon as they will actually get their vouchers mailed to them by the state, and that's when we'll start really seeing. But this is a program that we have been asked for. The three years that I've been here, every year people come in and they're requesting that the city do this. So I think it's going to be a very, very good program for the city to implement.

I hope we can really do some proactive advertising about it too. make it easy for people to, you know.

With the budget conversation, sometimes some stuff gets lost in the noise, and this is an important one to get out into the news, and that we were able to pass this with the budget, so.

Yes, I do have a, I have a dedicated staff member who only does property taxes, and so she's very well versed and meets with all of the applicants, and does a great job with those.

Ms. Loss, thank you so much. I've spoken about this a number of times, both in our work session and during the budget process, so I'm very excited to see this included and almost over the finish line. Will you talk to us a little bit about what that notification looks like for impacted individuals? You said they received their notification from the state, but is there anything included with that that makes them aware, hey, Johnson City is participating in this as well?

So there is not anything on there. They're called ACBs. They're vouchers that the state gives. There's not anything that's on there that talks about the city having a local program. But we will have it advertised on our website. We have a property tax section of our website where we'll mention that. We'll talk about the program and how to be eligible. And we... If the citizens were eligible last year for the state program, they'll get the notification if they've been deemed as eligible again this year. And we'll go along with those those eligibilities.

Great. I would strongly encourage staff to help spread the word. I know we have some great communications and outreach efforts and hope that they will. also include and will help spread that word as well. But thank you so much for you and your team.

And I would encourage the citizens just to know that if you don't know if you're going to be eligible, if you think you may be eligible, apply. You know, the program is out there for everybody and it's a really good program.

Move approval.

Happy to call the roll. Commissioner Fowler. Yes. Commissioner Goetz? Yes. Commissioner Weiss?

Who seconded it? Oh, I don't think we had a second.

Second. Second. I'm sorry. Commissioner Fowler?

Yes.

Commissioner Goetz? Yes. Commissioner Weiss? Yes. Vice Mayor Brock? Yes. Mayor Cox?

Yes.

And I will go back and mention, I think it's been brought to my attention that we have item number five, which is public comment on the agenda. We had no one sign up for that item, so I didn't mention it, but we had no one sign up for that item.

Yeah, they're signed up under other, and I think that will be the last item after.

That's correct.

Chief Bell may come.

That's correct. So the next item on the agenda is under the City Manager's Report. This is the history of the Johnson City Fire Department. Chief Bell.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, City Administration. Thank you for the opportunity to be here with you this evening. What we have for you tonight is a way for us to brag on our department, our personnel, and our great city. We was working with communications and marketing, and Nick Harrison was able to film and direct a video for us to be able to show to JC101, which we'd done the other night. Our civil service board got to see this. So we're really excited about this, to be able to use this moving forward to give the same message to everybody so they know who we are and let them know that we're proud to be in Johnson City, to be able to be the fire department for our great city and be able to protect our citizens and do what we can to help in any way. I'm gonna show you a video. It's about 11 minutes long, but I think it'll be a great thing to watch.

Every community has people who answer the call when lives or property is on the line. In Johnson City, that responsibility has belonged to the Johnson City Fire Department for more than 130 years. We welcome you to the Johnson City Fire Department. During the next few minutes, we'd like to share a little bit about our department with you. Every department has a beginning. Ours started with a single act of determination. In 1891, local businessman Harry D. Gump witnessed a devastating fire and recognized the growing city needed an organized fire service. He organized Johnson City's first bucket brigade, laying the foundation for a department that has faithfully served the community and has become one of the most respected departments in Tennessee. As Johnson City expanded, so did its fire department. Bucket brigades gave way to hose carts, and by 1902, the department became a paid organization. That same year, two remarkable firefighters joined the team, Frank and Charlie. Two powerful workhorses became the department's first full-time employees pulling the city's fire wagon through streets long before engines replaced horsepower. The department also had a loyal companion, a pit bull named Boss, who became known for faithfully accompanying firefighters on calls. Legend has it that Boss would make sure firefighters did not leave the station without their coats and helmets. Boss, Frank, Charlie, and the horse-drawn fire wagon remain proudly displayed on the Johnson City Fire Department patch, a lasting tribute to our early history and the spirit of service that still defines it. The Johnson City Fire Department entered a new era in 1915 with its first motorized fire engine, Since then, each generation has embraced new technology, expanded emergency services, and advanced training. Our core values, honesty, truthful in all we do, empathy, compassion for all in need, loyalty, devoted to serving our community, and professionalism through valued service. Our mission is to be the all-hazards provider to residents and visitors through prevention, preparedness, and emergency response. Our commitment to excellence has earned national and international recognition. In 2016, the Johnson City Fire Department earned an Insurance Services Office Public Protection Classification of Class I. The highest rating possible At the time, it was one of only six departments in Tennessee to achieve the distinction, placing Johnson City Fire among an elite group nationwide. That pursuit of excellence continued in 2022 when the department became an accredited agency through the Commission on Fire Accreditation International. This internationally recognized achievement reflects the department's dedication to continuous improvement, preparation, and providing exceptional fire and emergency services to every resident of Johnson City. Emergencies do not wait, and neither do we. Nine strategically located fire stations ensure help is never far away. These stations allow firefighters to respond quickly and efficiently whenever an emergency occurs. Staffed around the clock, these stations stand ready, ensuring that professional emergency services are never far away. The outcome of emergency often depends on the preparation that happens long before the alarm sounds. In 2023, the Johnson City Fire Department broke ground on its new state-of-the-art training complex, representing a major investment in the future of public safety. Here, firefighters train in realistic environments that mirror challenges they could encounter in the field. From fire suppression to technical rescue, every exercise builds confidence, sharpens decision-making, and strengthens the skills that help to protect our community. Both the training facility and the hands-on training structure were built with funding from the American Rescue Plan Act. Serving a growing community requires far more than emergency response. It takes an entire team working toward a common goal. The Johnson City Fire Department is organized into four primary divisions. The Administrative Division provides leadership and support that keeps the department operating at its highest level. The Suppression Division serves on the front lines responding to fires, rescues, medical emergencies, hazardous materials, and countless calls for assistance every day. The Fire Prevention Division works to reduce risks before emergencies occur. Led by the fire marshal, this team conducts inspections, reviews plans, investigates fires, and provides education to help keep our community safe. The training division ensures personnel are prepared for all hazards emergency responses. The division supervises and evaluates new fire personnel, coordinates department in-service trainings, and evaluates the overall effectiveness of the training program. Together, these four divisions work as one team to provide comprehensive fire and emergency services for Johnson City. Every emergency presents its own challenges, and every apparatus has a purpose. The department operates nine engine companies, three truck companies, and command vehicles led by two district chiefs. Every vehicle in the Johnson City Fire Department's fleet has a specific mission in mind. Engine companies deliver firefighters' water and essential equipment to the scene. Truck companies provide specialized capabilities, including aerial operations, ventilation, forcible entry, and search and rescue. Command vehicles allow district chiefs to coordinate complex incidents, ensuring that the right personnel and equipment are deployed wherever they're needed. Today's fire service extends far beyond fighting fires. As an all hazards fire rescue agency, The Johnson City Fire Department responds to structure fires, medical emergencies, hazardous materials incidents, and complex technical rescues. These specialized responses may involve rope rescues, confined spaces, trench emergencies, swift water, or situations requiring advanced equipment and extensive training. Beyond emergency response, The department also promotes safety through fire inspections, code enforcement, and public education. Every call is different. The commitment behind each response never changes. Community risk reduction is a proactive approach that identifies hazards before they become emergencies and helps create a safer Johnson City. Through inspections, fire and life safety public education, code enforcement, Pre-incident planning and partnerships with local schools, businesses, and community organizations, firefighters work every day to reduce the risk of danger across the community. Some of the Johnson City Fire Department's most meaningful work happens long before someone dials 911. Through a partnership with the state of Tennessee, our firefighters provide and install smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors for qualifying residents across the city, helping families gain critical early warning during an emergency. We also offer free hands-only CPR instruction, empowering residents to provide life-saving care before first responders arrive. Certified technicians within our department assist parents and caregivers with child passenger safety, ensuring car seats are installed correctly and children travel safely. Our firefighters also conduct dozens of public education events at schools and community events each year across the city. These programs reflect a simple philosophy. Protecting our community means being present before, during, and after an emergency. Behind our department is something that cannot be measured by equipment or technology. It's trust. Firefighters depend on one another in environments where preparation, communication, and confidence matter every second. Those relationships are strengthened through shared challenges, 24-hour shifts, constant training, and the commitment to always have each other's back. Our sense of family extends way beyond the station walls and shapes every interaction with the community we proudly serve. For more than 130 years, the Johnson City Fire Department has answered the call with courage, compassion, and professionalism. The technology and equipment change, the city continues to grow, and the challenges evolve. What has never changed is the commitment carried by every firefighter who wears the patch of the Johnson City Fire Department. Whenever our community needs us, we will respond.

All right. Well, thank you for letting me show you the video. Nick did an amazing job on the video. It really highlighted our personnel and what they do for the city each and every day. And it's a complete honor just to be able to be with this department and get to work with these men and women every day. And I say thank you to you all for supporting us to allow us to do this and providing us with the budget and the backing to do this job. Thank you very much.

Did Nick go to the top of the ladder to shoot that shot or did one of y'all go up there and shoot that shot? I think he used his drone. He was smart. I found it a little unsettling.

My heart rate went up in a few of us.

Chief, thank you so much. And we couldn't be more proud of the fire department than we are now. Now, you showed a video, and you've got to know that I saw something in that video, and you probably know what I'm getting ready to ask you about the sea grave, the 1928 sea grave.

So right now, we do have a motor that we ended up, Deputy Chief Beasley drove to Canada and found a motor.

Really?

And sometime he went and got it and brought it back to us. We're in the process of trying to get moving forward to get it back in operation. Oh, wow. It's taken some time, but we're still waiting on parts from the other motor as well, and we're excited to get that back. We truly want that back in operation. That'd be great.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

The next item, commissioners, is public comment under other. We have Mr. Mike Boyd signed up at 2609 Mimosa Lane.

Hey there, Mr. Boyd, if you don't care to state your name. My name is Michael Boyd. And then we've got three minutes for public comment, and it's time for us to hear your concern or your comments.

It'd be good.

Okay.

Thank you. Good evening. I've lived in Johnson City since the second grade from my days at Fairmont Elementary. to the then newly built Liberty Bell Middle School through Science Hill and finally graduating from ETSU, this city has been my home. Through my enlistment in the Army and later in my corporate career as a marketing director for Papa John's Pizza, I've always proudly told anyone who enlisted how much I love Johnson City, Tennessee. My original goal in addressing this at the Commission tonight was to complain about an unresolved issue in my neighborhood. Lately, it's been easy to get discouraged when we see instances of preferential treatment given to the more affluent citizens and corporations over the less affluent neighborhoods and people, or when we see high-profile consequences of paying favors. But I realize that trying to change the attitudes of those who choose favoritism over favoritism is not where my focus belongs. Instead of complaining, I want to encourage my fellow citizens to look at the good people we have, the real heart of our community. In Asheville, North Carolina, a man named Julian Price, who was an heir to Jefferson Pilot Insurance, used his inheritance to quietly and profoundly lift up his city, investing heavily in its people and its future. We don't have to look far to find that exact same spirit right here in Johnson City. People who have given their lives to serve Johnson City. We have our own Julian Prices. Consider Herb Greenlee at Carver Recreation Center and Eldon Janutolo, who coordinates transportation for our school systems in Johnson City Transit. Together, these two individuals represent at least 80 years of dedicated service to our community. They didn't do it for the headlines or special favors. They did it because they love our citizens and our city. That same spirit of community is alive and well in our neighborhoods right now. Recently, my church, Grace Fellowship, decided to give $150,000 to one of our local elementary schools for a playground. When that announcement was made last Sunday in our church service, it garnered a spontaneous round of applause over... That applause wasn't for a government. It's for the joy of our citizens giving back to our children and our city. My message tonight is an encouragement of the citizens of Johnson City. Our strength doesn't come from the top down. It comes from the bottom up. It comes from the teachers, the city workers, the law enforcement, our fire department, wherever he went. who look out for one another. Let us remember her. Let us remember Eldona and continue to look at and be inspired by the good people who make this city great. Thank you.

Thank you very much for being here.

And you get points for accuracy, like you're down to one.

Yeah, you were on the money over here.

AI is amazing.

You didn't have to tell anybody.

But thank you for being here. All right. Well, with that, we have a lot to be thankful for in the city and a lot of great citizens and great staff. So I will close our public meeting.