Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I'd like to welcome everybody to the regular scheduled Johnson City Commission meeting. It's Thursday, September 3rd at 6 o'clock, held at the Municipal and Safety Building. I'd like to call the meeting to order. For the first order of business, I'd like to welcome Chaplain Roger Kelly with Cornerstone Church for our invocation and our pledge. If everybody, please stand.

Thank you. Hi. Please bow your head and join me in prayer. Lord, we ask for your continued grace upon the members of this city commission. Grant them wisdom, discernment, and a shared vision as they make decisions that shape the future of Johnson City. Instill in them a spirit of collaboration, empathy, and integrity that they may lead with fairness and look out for the well-being of every residence. Bless our city, our neighborhoods, and all who labor for the common good here today. Amen.

of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

Ms. Paul?

Commissioners, the next order of business is to consider the approval of the minutes for the special call city commission meeting held on Thursday, August 13th, 2026. Move approval. Second.

Ms. Louse?

Commissioner Fowler?

Abstain. I was not here.

Commissioner Goetz? Yes. Commissioner Wise?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Brock? Yes. Mayor Cox?

Yes.

And the next item is to consider approval of the minutes for the regularly scheduled City Commission meeting held on Thursday, August 20, 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 presentation of proclamation for Find the Good Day. Accepting the proclamation is the Junior League of Johnson City members.

Hey there. If y'all would come up here and stand with me. How are you? Thanks for being here. I'd love to read a proclamation to you guys. Whereas the Junior League... Whereas the Junior League is dedicated to promoting volunteerism, empowering women, and enhancing communities through effective leadership and action. And whereas Find the Good Day encourages individuals to recognize the positive contributions taking place in their communities and to seek opportunities to make a difference in the lives of others. And whereas the Junior League of Johnson City has demonstrated this commitment through decades of service and investment in community projects like Willow Springs Park, the Johnson City Public Library's Children's Library, Frontier Health Safe House, and more, a lot more really. And whereas these efforts demonstrate the lasting impact that volunteerism, collaboration and community minded service can have in creating stronger and more vibrant communities across Johnson City and the world. Now, therefore, I, Greg Cox, mayor of the city of Johnson City, Tennessee, do hereby proclaim September 17th, 2026. Find the good day. in Johnson City, Tennessee, and encourage the citizens of Johnson City to participate in acts of kindness, volunteerism, and community service. So thanks for everything you guys do, and you're always a great, active organization. I'd love to share a few words if you guys want to, well, if you guys want to share, so. No.

Hi, my name is Caitlin North. I'm the Community Impact Director for the Junior League of Johnson City. Junior League is not a sports organization like it may sound. We are a collection of women in the community that have the mission of advancing the well-being and health of women and children in our community. He listed a couple of our projects. Please feel free to Google us and get involved if you'd like. But Find the Good Day is all about seeking positivity in the world, and we're very happy to celebrate it in a couple weeks.

Thank you guys very much.

Next, we would love to have Ms. Lottie Ryans come up and honor her.

And I'm going to get our Vice Mayor Brock to come down, too.

Celebration of the retirement of Lottie Ryans. And, of course, accepting the retirement is Ms. Ryans herself.

Well, it's an honor to get to read this to you. Whereas Lottie Ryans has dedicated her career to serving the people of Johnson City and Northeast Tennessee, demonstrating a longstanding commitment to education, workforce development, and creating opportunities for individuals and families to succeed. And whereas throughout your career, Lottie has used her leadership, experience, and collaborative spirit to bring together educators, businesses, and public partners to address the challenges and identify opportunities. And whereas Lottie spent 32 years in telecommunications career with CenturyLink before continuing her commitment to public service through three terms on the John City Board of Education. And whereas in April 2016, Lottie became the Director of Workforce and Literacy Initiatives for the First Tennessee Development District, where she has worked to strengthen workforce development, literacy, education, and economic opportunity. And whereas Lottie has helped develop and lead initiatives including Career Quest Tennessee, the Education to Employment Summit, Caring Workplaces, and Regional Work Ready Initiatives, creating stronger connections between education and employment. and whereas your work has fostered collaboration throughout Northeast Tennessee, including efforts to support families, expand childcare opportunities, connect students with careers, and secure other investments to strengthen local communities, and whereas Johnson City is a better place because of Lottie and her decades of service, leadership, and commitment to advancing the collaborative work taking place in Northeast Tennessee. So now, therefore, I, Greg Cox, Mayor of the City of Johnson City, do here recognize Lottie Ryans for her distinguished service and express our sincere appreciation for her dedication, leadership, and commitment to bettering our community. So it's an honor to read that. I know Jeannie's going to want to share some words and have some.

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Lottie, Lottie, Lottie. I've known you for so long, you know, and our families go back to Science Hill days, mainly with your sisters. I was there. But you followed suit very soon. When I first ran for the school board in 2005, I believe, or 2006, Lottie was on the school board. And I think I told you this one time, even though I'm a little bit older than you. that you are my hero. You are such a mentor to not just other adults and other businesses in this community, but to people who need to kind of be groomed along to understand what our role can be in this community. And you have been that role that I'm very proud to know that you're my friend and I've learned so much from you. I wish you well in your retirement, but I hope you don't just stop doing things for this community. We are very, on behalf of the Commission and the Mayor, we have a very special award for you. This is only the second one we've given in the City of Johnson City, and so you are well deserving of it. It's called the Moving Mountains Award. And it is presented to Lottie Ryans on September 3rd, 2026, with appreciation for more than four decades of impactful service to Johnson City. And Lottie, when you walk through this city and when you walk through Washington County, your footprints are all over it and they will never go away. So thank you very much and best of luck. And Eric, good luck. You've got her home for a while. And I think you're getting ready to go on vacation. Is that right? So Lottie here is this, and we want to give you a chance to say something.

I was thinking about back when I was in the Junior League as an active member and we'd come before the City Commission asking to use Freedom Hall for Bag of Bargains. So I did the long work of the ladies in that organization. The work that I've done was really a godsend and one where I was able to take the things I love and just do good work every day because of people like the city commission and the city staff. Whenever we would call, whether we needed a road closed or whether we needed somebody to help set up an exhibit for something or we're working on a childcare project, it didn't matter. It was a yes and how can we help? And it's because of... Leadership here leadership within the city and all the employees willingness to say yes and do things that we were able to get work done so I do promise to continue to Get stuff done as best I can and hopefully people will still take my phone calls because This community is wonderful and to see the progress and when people have who've not been here in a while come back and they see what's happening. It's very exciting to have been a part of it. So thank you for allowing me to be, and thank you all for leading, and thank you for this recognition. It is overwhelming. Thank you.

Commissioner, we have no one signed up to speak under public comment on the agenda. So, we will move to the next item on the agenda, which is the consent agenda for your consideration.

Vice Mayor gets settled. I'll start tomorrow. Anything you'd like to pull, Dr. Fowler? Nothing for me. Thanks. I'll come back to you. Commissioner Wise? Nothing for me.

Nothing for me as well.

And Vice Mayor Brock, anything to pull?

Yeah, I'll pull 6.3.1 just for an update on what's happening and the progress we're making with our systems here, if you'll give us a little update on that.

Sounds great. If I can get Mr. John Lane to come up.

Yeah, this is an RFQ for professional services for Timberlake and Green Valley North lift stations.

Yes, ma'am. So good evening, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners, John Lane, director of water and sewer services for the city of Johnston City. So what's before you tonight is actually a proposal for engineering services with Matterton Craig Engineering. So they're one of several consultant engineers that our department has worked with over the last several years. So we realized about 10 years ago there's about 24 sewer lift stations that we can phase out by gravity. So as part of that, we've been slowly going through that list. So currently we've already phased out by gravity eight of those 24. So every time we phase one of those out, it's less operations and maintenance that our staff have to deal with. So eight done complete. We have six that are in some form of design currently. One that's in construction, so the project you see off Knopp Creek Road, that's kind of before the construction. The overpass project with TDOT, that's one we're trying to phase out by gravity as well. So before you tonight is the next two. So this would be one off of Green Valley North and then another one off Timberlake Lift Station. So both of those would allow us to phase both of those out by gravity and not have to do the service of those continuing ongoing maintenance. And pump maintenance, motor maintenance is part of that and the visits that it involves. So both of those would be phased out by gravity. So this would be the surveying, design, and then the construction administration to phase both of those out.

So just for people who aren't that familiar with lift stations and gravity and all that, if you could kind of give just a little tutorial for the public about how do you achieve the gravity field that you need to do what you're going to do to replace this very expensive equipment.

Yes, ma'am. So we have a little over 760 miles of gravity sewer in our system, three different sewer pumps, three different sewer wastewater plants that sewer network goes to. But ideally, both stormwater and sanitary sewer, you want it to be grade sensitive. You want it to flow by gravity and go through that process. Based on the topography of Johnson City, both some high points and Boone Lake and low points, not all of it does. So for any kind of residential commercial areas that are on low-lying areas, you have a sewer pump station that catches the flow and and then pumps it over a ridge line to get it back into the gravity network. So because of that, we have right out of 100 sewer pump stations throughout our system based on topography. And like I said, right at 20% of those, we could phase out by gravity, and we've been slowly working through that list.

So what has changed since it was initially installed requiring a lift station? What is making it possible now to do gravity where it hadn't previously?

It could be kind of a couple different scenarios. So the ones before you tonight, it's based on development finally happening in the area where it just wasn't constant. It didn't make sense cost-wise to actually do it. The first one is Timberlake Lift Station. It's one right off of Timberlake Road. based on before you on the last commission agenda was the next couple phases of cardinal forest cardinal forest phases four and five will be going almost to timberlake road so that project will allow the gravity network and that to make us go halfway to what we need to get so kind of taking that as an advantage as the development side and then also it might have been timeline based on if a developer another property owner needed a service by a certain date Sewer pump stations can be placed on force mains, which can be three feet below versus gravity might be eight to 10 feet deep. So based on that side, you can install a force main, a pressurized sewer line a lot faster than gravity. So it might've been based on the timeline to get service.

So we'll also save on, we'll be, able to take the generators away as well?

Yes, so for ones that we have standby generators, we can relocate those. It'll take it off of electrical service, so both of these are on Bright Ridges, so we won't have an ongoing power bill at both of those services. So we do a cost-benefit analysis, and as we work through these, we've kind of prioritized both of those. The other one on the list tonight is Green Valley North. So we have three sewer pump plants, our wastewater plants. That one actually currently goes to our Knob Creek plant, but by the gravity, it'll phase it out to gravity to the regional plant. So it actually will flip it over the hillside towards regional. And that's kind of based on the growth that's happened in that area. That's a benefit for us. It takes it off one plant and adds it to a plant that has additional capacity.

Will we be able to use this equipment in other ways or put it on,

gov.com and to try to sell or to get them to other cities who could use them yes ma'am so part of that is when we get to the final design is in the contract specifications before i bet them out i'll put a list of items that we will surplus and salvage so contractor knows that when we go into it so both of these stations are both 1970 stations that we can actually reuse the pumps and motors and equipment at some of our other stations okay yeah thank you yeah you're welcome yeah great great projects

Can I get a motion? Move for approval. Second. Ms. Laus?

Commissioner Fowler?

Yes.

Commissioner Goetz? Yes. Commissioner Wise?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Brock? Yes. Mayor Cox?

Yes.

The next item for consideration is approval to accept the school resource officer project grant in the amount of $900,000. Good evening.

Good evening, Mayor Cox, Vice Mayor Brock, commissioners. My name is Scotty Carrier. I'm the administrative major with the Johnson City Police Department. I want to thank you for giving me this opportunity to come before you this evening to talk very briefly about the school resource officer program grant for your consideration. But now before we get started into what the grant actually does, I want to take just a second here and talk about the purpose of the SROs in our school system. This is just a slide that I've put in here because I want you to see why we have SROs in our schools. If you take a look at that, you're going to see some bullet points there. And I'm not going to take the time to read all of those because you can do so. But I do want to focus on the bottom one there that I've highlighted that says that they are there to promote a safe and secure environment where students and staff can thrive. Obviously, we understand that they're there to curtail criminal activity and to enforce the laws that are in place, but we feel like no child can learn properly unless they feel safe in the environment that they're in. Now, let's talk about what is the SRO grant program specifically, and I want to highlight that it is a state-funded grant that is given to local law enforcement entities to place one full-time highly trained officer in each K through 12 public and alternative school within the confines of Johnson City. Each school that's eligible can receive up to $75,000 per year per eligible school. And this covers the timeframe of July the 1st of 2026 through June 30th of 2027. Now, what does that mean for Johnson City? We have 12 schools that are eligible for this grant. You can see all of them listed up there. If you multiply $75,000 by 12, you come up with $900,000. $900,000 is what we have been awarded by the state of Tennessee that we can apply towards our SRO program. So in conclusion, I want to focus on the top paragraph right there because every grant that you receive has certain stipulations that are attached to it. This one specifically says that funding may only be used for expenses that are directly related to placing an SRO in a school. And the grant specifically mentions for salaries, benefits, training, and equipment. Therefore, it is our recommendation we're going to use this for salaries and benefits because typically we cover their training and equipment through our operating budget, but we'd like to use the $900,000 to apply it towards your salaries and benefits. Now, I don't want to mislead you in thinking that this is going to cover all of their expenses because we have 13 SROs, and most of them are senior officers, so obviously their salary and benefits are going to be higher than a one- to two-year officer salary. Nevertheless, $900,000 would go a long way towards helping towards that. I want to thank you for giving me just a moment of your time to discuss this. And at this moment in time, I will be glad to open this up to questions and comments. Any questions for me? So are we seeking the grant or we've got the grant? We have the grant. It's strictly pending your approval this evening.

And the history on this was the state wanted, correct me if I'm wrong, to incentivize school districts across the state that weren't already doing what we've been doing for years. And this just we stand to benefit simply because they're trying to encourage others to do something we were doing before.

You're exactly right, Commissioner Wise. And we've actually, this is our fourth year to bring this back before you. We've done this three years in the past, and this is actually our fourth year to seek this out. And like you said properly, we've been awarded the grant. It's just pending your approval this evening. I would move for approval. Second. Slouse?

Commissioner Fowler?

Yes.

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

Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Major. Thank you for staying up on it and finding these grants.

Oh, you thank Ms. Rabb.

Major, do you know how long we've had police officers, SROs?

Oh, my goodness. We started, our very first ones were in the mid, we're in the mid-90s when they actually started up then. All right.

We were being at Southside, and, you know, I think for a kid, our special officers, they look forward to seeing them every day.

Off the top of my head, I'm wanting to think it was around 1995 is when we started. You weren't at Southside in 1995.

I was. It was 88. Okay, well, that's different, but it wasn't 1995. Okay. It wasn't too far off. I know, but it still hurts.

Well, regardless of when they started, they do remarkable work. Officer Willis is a big part of our family, and seeing his smiling face just really warms the hearts of kids walking in each day. And I know that is not unique to our school. We have some incredible officers throughout this city. So thank you all for recognizing the work that they do and seeking this grant. So we appreciate it.

Well, thank you very much. Have a good evening.

I also think we need to thank the state of Tennessee because they took a step forward there. So this is applicable to Washington County, to all the other schools in the area that we finally all have SROs that we can count on and that are looking after our little kiddos at school. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Thank you.

And I would just point out that we budgeted for this grant because we have received it for the past four years. So this does not free up money in the budget. So this was a part of the budget that was adopted. So there is not an additional $900,000 in the budget. Is that correct, Mr. Thomas? Yeah. Thank you. The next item for consideration is Ordinance 4952-26. This is the first reading and public hearing of a supplemental budget ordinance, which is an ordinance appropriating additional funds to the various departments and divisions of the City of Johnson City, Tennessee, with additional revenue from local, state, and federal sources.

Thank you, Ms. Ball. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners. Thank you for allowing me to speak to you briefly on the supplemental budget this evening. The ordinance before you is your FY26 supplemental budget ordinance. As a reminder, we go through the supplemental budget process every year to true up the original budget ordinance. We do this to stay in compliance with our city charter and the state comptroller. The supplemental budget amends the FY26 budget to include the items not captured in the original budget ordinance. It formalizes those changes approved by the Board and incorporates them into the budget. These adjustments are necessary to properly recognize additional expenses and the corresponding funding sources approved throughout the fiscal year. And this last point is very important. All of the items in the supplemental budget, less the school operating changes, that require your approval have been approved in open public meeting in FY26. This next slide shows just a summary at the fund level of the proposed adjustments. I will point out a few that stick out. One, the PEP Fund, also known as the Educational Facilities Trust Fund. That $19 million deals with debt refunding, and Ms. Louse can speak to that if you have any questions on refunding of bonds. Also, remember, we did a mid-year rate adjustment on solid waste rates. So both of those funds, municipal and regional, are adjusted appropriately. The school's budgets are also included in this ordinance based on amendments that they have passed throughout the year. I am happy to answer any questions that you may have about the supplemental budget ordinance. Otherwise, we would recommend your approval on first reading after public hearing.

Mr. Thompson, I have a couple questions. Yes, ma'am. Help me understand why we are here at this time, a few months after the fiscal year has closed, and why we are looking back at the previous year budget at this point in time. So the timing.

So as the fiscal year progresses, As you know, the budget is a spending plan. During the course of a fiscal year, sometimes these plans change. Things come up during the course of the fiscal year that were not in the original budget. to, in a sense, memorialize those, to formalize those. We need to get those in the budget. Otherwise, these would be items, projects, whatever that may be, were not formally a part of the budget. We need to get them to be part of the budget. So the fiscal year ends, as you mentioned, a couple months later. The fiscal year ended on June 30th. It allows Ms. Louse and her team time to work on closing out the fiscal year and see where we've landed in certain departments, taking these additional expenditures into account. And then we come to you with what this is, a supplemental budget, to approve those, to get those in the budget so they are reflected as such.

So this is not new spending. This is, you know, money that has been spent. It was part of the budget passed in the, you know, previous July, not this most recent. So this is spent money really kind of clearing things up for auditing purposes, is my understanding correct?

Correct.

Okay. And recognizing, you know... TDOT grants and some of these other funds that we may not have had at the time the budget was originally passed before I was in this room, but that's how we are recognizing receipt of those funds. Is that correct?

That is correct. That is correct. Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you.

I may have more, but thank you.

In the same vein, There's a number of different categories, one of which was identified as miscellaneous, which is kind of a curious label. I'm familiar with some of the things that we've used, but could you talk about why we have a category miscellaneous? So the one I'm remembering, I think we use that for like opioid settlement money and confirm that. Like, can you talk about historically what sorts of things? flow through that and why it's in that category and not some other category.

Absolutely. So miscellaneous appropriations is a line item in our budget. And it's really for certain items, certain expenses that just do not fit with a specific department. For example, and your example was a great one. the opioid settlement funds. During this last fiscal year, you allocated $369,000 of the opioid settlement funds to Fairview Housing. That expense shows up in our miscellaneous appropriations line. In years past, the funds for the tapestry project, for example, showed up in the miscellaneous appropriation line. Some funding using economic development reserve funds often hit miscellaneous appropriations. There are some recurring expenses that do hit miscellaneous appropriations. Our annual TIF payment is one of them.

That's the big one. Now, it wouldn't be part of a supplement, though, because we would, or would it be? I mean, I guess we don't always know what the increment is. Right.

So we do budget in the original budget the TIF payment. Mm-hmm. And some consulting services also hit miscellaneous appropriation. Thank you.

So those are unique projects, like one time, not traditionally?

With the exception of the TIF funds, which are recurring, most of what hits miscellaneous appropriations, again, not necessarily department-specific, like the tapestry funding or the opioid funds to Fairview Housing, things of that nature, typically hit miscellaneous appropriations.

Thank you. Just a little clarity around the TIF funds. We collect those taxes, those incremental taxes on projects and hold it here at the city and then transfer those funds to JCBA to use on projects. That's an agreement we have also with Washington County. They do the same thing, which gives us basically some economic development funds to help projects take place here in Johnson City. This isn't our first budget amendment. Did we not have one about two months ago or three months ago. And I know that the schools get their funding in at such different times that they have to do budget amendments, which then come over here and we have to do that as well.

So the schools have amended their budget throughout the year and the Board of Education has approved that. All those amendments are included in this supplemental budget for you to approve this evening on first reading.

Any other questions? Oh, I'm sorry. We have public hearing. I'm sorry. I'm just so excited about a budget.

All right. I'm going to open public hearing. Anybody to speak for or against or with comments regarding the budget amendment? Step forward. Seeing none, I will close public hearing.

Now I'll make a motion to approve on first reading.

Second.

Ms. Lause?

Commissioner Fowler?

Yes.

Commissioner Goetz? Yes. Commissioner Wise?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Brock? Yes. Mayor Cox?

Yes.

The next item we have is public comment under other. Our first speaker is Ashley Buckles to speak under about flock cameras.

And while we're calling out names, I'm just going to remind everybody that now we have two different public comment sections on our agenda. One is for at the beginning of our meeting for items germane to that are on our agenda. The second one will be for any items just germane to the city in general. And this is for kind of that second section. Public comment is limited to 15 speakers total for the night, 10 for agenda related comments, and five for general comments. You will have three minutes when you come up to speak and there will be a timer on the board. And you did already call Ashley Buckles.

Madam Miss Buckles.

OK. All right. We'll go on to.

The next speaker is Randy Keebler to speak about flock cameras and property taxes.

Hello, everybody, again. You know, I hate coming here.

Well, we'd like to hear from you, Mr. Keebler, if you don't care to state your name.

Randy Keebler.

I dress like this because I knew Dave would be here.

Yeah. I just wanted to have a little competition to scare the hell out of him, what he'd look like in 50 years. Anyhow, I'm not going to make this personal. We're not going to talk about stuff. My name's Randy, not Stanley. So I've known your family. I've known your family and everything. So the thing about this is the Aquatic Center. I just had to tell a lady she can't stay in the house anymore. I mean, she's older. I talked to Chip about it. He knows her. She couldn't afford to stay there. I've lost money for the last 10 years on her. But I didn't want to evict her. So this is about people. Somebody was at the food bank the other day. Remember me, 2000, for the stupid Speedway ticket. But a lot of people can't afford that cost. The city really can't afford that cost, to my knowledge. I'm not smart. But the thing is, by what I see, and you still have litigation coming, if you just either, you know, you can sell bonds. defer your hotel taxes towards it. You have a variety of things to do it. If the pools are adequate for right now, you know, I mean, just for a year or two, just so you get your money straight, just like if it was your home and you're trying to get your stuff straight, you don't go out and spend money you don't have until you get your stuff straight. So you have six days to put this on a referendum. That's the time frame you have left. Ms. Goetz was against it when you all voted for it. So I'm asking her to put on a referendum. Flock cameras, if you find them necessary, the police find them necessary. I know a lot of people are complaining. I'll give you my schedule. It's very boring. I really don't care if they know what I'm doing. My question is the red light cameras. You see it every day. We run the same road. How many people run red lights? Getting on 26, you think they can't get to gray fast enough. There's always four cars after the light's red. Unfortunately, I take my dog walking on the other side of town in the morning. So I see them run red lights all the time. I just always wait for the red. I thought they generated money. They don't cost money. If you're going to have cameras, why not put the red line cameras back? I got the ticket for one. I paid it. You do what you do. All right? That's it. Thank you, Mr. Keebler.

Our next speaker, commissioners, is Mr. Harris to speak about property issues.

Mr. Harris, if you don't care to come up, state your name.

I'm Todd Harris. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, Commissioners. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you tonight, and thank you for supporting this open forum. I think this is a great thing. Again, my name is Todd Harris. I live at 303 Ivanhoe Drive here in Johnson City. Am I here to plea for your actions toward an ongoing, what I believe to be a city stormwater system failure that's causing repeated flooding of my home? The failures cause significant property damage and is degrading the value of my home. I purchased the home in 2017 through a licensed, local, reputable brokerage. There was no mention of any flooding on the disclosure. My home wasn't in a floodplain. I lived there from 2017 until 2021, until the first event. In the back of my yard is the city of A stormwater drain lid that I've witnessed blow out three times each time, bringing up to a foot and a half of water standing on my home. This will continue to occur and any time the stormwater exceeds the capacity of the drain line. The first event occurred in 2021 in the last, earlier in August of this month, of last month. I've explored waterproofing remedies with professionals and experts. And to prevent standing water on my home, I need about 50 dump truck loads, significant grading, as well as getting permit to do that as it affects other people's properties. I have to brick up my double door that is now my only access to the basement. And so I really am caught in a spot I can't win. I have to disclose this repeated flight. failure if I have to sell my home. And if I don't sell my home and I want to remedy it, I've got to do things that reduce the value of my home by limiting access to my basement, along with the significant cost of it. So I'm here just to respectfully request your help in seeking a remedy for me. It's a significantly undersized stormwater drain line, and it's impacting my life, my property, and those that live with me. And I thank you for your time and consideration. And, again, I support public comment, so thank you for that. Thank you, Mr. Harris.

And just to remind everybody, public comment is for us to hear what you have to say, so when we don't respond, it's just because we're here to listen and have everything to say. So thank you for being here.

Commissioner, the next person signed up to speak is Mr. Dave Adams to talk about Safe City Project.

I think we need a referendum on who has the best shirt. It's the only way to settle it. Good evening, Mayor Cox and Commission. Tonight, I'm asking the Commission to remove Johnson City's flock cameras and end our participation in the flock system. I don't make that request because I think the technology is useless. I'm asking because it is extraordinarily powerful, because that power is growing, and because the people and government of Johnson City have very little meaningful control over where it goes from here. In software engineering, we deliberately build rules into systems that prevent developers from taking dangerous shortcuts. Sometimes those rules make the job harder, and competent, well-meaning people will oftentimes convince themselves that they can work around them. However, just like constitutional rights, the reason for the rule always becomes clear in due time. Flock is currently beta testing a software called OS Investigate. It allows you to work backwards from patterns instead of working backwards from subjects and to work forward from a name to a full map of activity. Here are some real queries from that beta. Find repeat round trips between city A and city B in the past two weeks with a minimum of two round trips. or this three-stage query. Retrieve full workup for name and date of birth. Search associated vehicles for name and date of birth. Break down plate activity over last 30 days. This turns a person into a dossier without articulating a crime or an area. Five hours ago, a flock seminar leaked showing how to surveil people based on their political activity. In Johnson City, recently, somebody did a public records request for one month of our network audit logs. And those are queries from outside of our department, if you're not familiar with the terminology. There were so many logs that it took over 12 billable hours of time to redact them and get them to the public. I'd argue that our handle on internal usage is already shaky, but the biggest threat is trusting the judgment of departments and entities that we do not control. We knowingly give access to about 150 entities right now, from the TVA to UT Memphis Health Science Center campus police. We have developers up here, so let me speak common language. If you owned a house on paper, but somebody had a perpetual irrevocable license to live there as long as the house existed rent free, Would you say that you control that house? We grant Flock a perpetual irrevocable license to our data. Can we say in good faith that we blindly trust every agent of 150 entities to properly engage with the sensitive data of over 70,000 residents without a warrant? I don't think we can say yes to that. We are not locked into this for 10 years. The budget argument is already there. Asheville, Knox County, Sullivan County, and over 100 other places have already reconsidered, and I think we can too. So I ask that you terminate this agreement and remove these cameras.

Thanks, Mr. Adams.

Commissioners, the next person signed up to speak is Mr. Matthew Leahy to speak about flock safety cameras.

If you don't care to state your name...

Good evening. My name is Matthew Leahy, and I will be speaking from some notes. I have been a Johnson City resident for seven years, and I would like to speak on flock safety cameras. It is my opinion that the flock devices deployed in Johnson City are warrantless mass surveillance that constitute an unreasonable encroachment on our protected legal rights to privacy. In addition to the fundamentally illegal nature of this mass surveillance, the Flock devices and systems are, as noted by our previous speaker, unsecure, abusable, expensive, and a pain to audit. Flock's $8.3 billion, with a B, dollar valuation has even drawn attention from the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Crime and Counterterrorism. You know them as Senator Josh Hawley. That's the bad news. The good news is that we can stop paying this private company to spy on us. We can just stop. The city has only paid $300,000 out of, I believe, the police fund for drugs. There's actually $8 million left on the contract, and we haven't even started paying it yet. I have serious concerns about this company and their profit motive. We do have time to correct this error in public safety policy. We can join other communities around the state and around the country to say no to surveillance companies like Flock. I would like to ask that the city terminate its financial relationship with Flock Group Incorporated and not appropriate any funds or make monies available for the remaining years in the Flock contract. Further, I would like to ask that the city implement a ban on the use of all automatic license plate recognition, also known as ALPR, surveillance technologies. This is a complicated thing. If you require assistance, there are people in the community who would be more than happy and willing to accept and provide help. I would recommend the Deflock Johnson City as a good local resource. I would also recommend, as I stated, the letter, I believe it was seven days ago, eight days ago now, that Senator Josh Hawley sent to the CEO flock detailing his concerns about constitutional right to privacy amongst data exploitation and other serious topics. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Lee.

That is all the people we have signed up to speak. I would like to, if I may, commissioners, thank our new planning director. Mr. Steve Nelson is in the audience and has come to join us. I appreciate him coming even before he starts work. So welcome, and we appreciate your willingness to come and serve with us, alongside us, and look forward to your start date. Mr. Nelson.

Yes, very much so. Just to wind things up, anything else to share, Dr. Fowler? Vice Mayor? I just want to recognize Lottie Ryan one more time for everything she's done for our community. My guess is she will work hard in retirement and keep doing lots of good stuff.

I just want to thank her.

Thank you guys for being here speaking. I'll close the public hearing. Bean.