Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everybody. I'd like to welcome everyone to the regular scheduled city commission meeting. It's Thursday, September 7th, just after 6 o'clock. It's 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 Pastor Steve Marfia from the University Parkway Baptist Church for the invocation and the pledge. Everybody stand with me.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, an honor to be here and enjoy. I'm the new pastor of University Parkway Baptist Church and new to the area and it's a great joy to call this city and this state home now. I want to open with a quick passage from scripture and then invite you all to join me in prayer. I fully recognize that in a public environment like this, that there are probably people from various backgrounds, belief systems, and faiths, and I just want to honor every person every human as someone who is full of brokenness and beauty and I want to honor the freedom that all have to choose what they believe and I also want to acknowledge that I will be praying to Jesus as Lord Psalm 24 1 says the earth is the Lord's and everything in it the world and all its people belong to him so Lord God we come to you I come to you acknowledging that God this world is And the humans that we call neighbors and family and friends, those who are across the street, city, state, and nation, have a beautiful brokenness about them. And that God, I have found no other way. other than through Jesus Christ, that anyone can be saved or anything can be redeemed or any good thing can happen. And yet at the same time, there are precious men and women in this room right now in positions of authority that represent government and business and nonprofit sectors. who regardless of their religious background or faith affiliation are working to serve the good of this city. And God, I want to honor that right now. I pray for your blessing over those who are serving in office right now. And I ask God that no matter what one might believe, that God, they might have a desire in their heart for justice and righteousness to do what is good and right and pleasing and beneficial. for their neighbors and for their family and for this city. So God, would you bless those who have been elected? Would you bless everyone who is in a position of authority? And would you allow them to have a sober sense of humility about the honor and opportunity that they have to serve? And would you give them wisdom to do it well? And would you allow them the joy of completing their tasks? with the sense that they have done well and right, and that they could lay their heads on the pillow at night and rest peacefully because they did the right thing for the right reason. Allow them that grace and that gift, and I ask it in Jesus' good name for the good of this city. Amen. Amen. Thank you.

Commissioner, the next order of business on the agenda is to consider the approval of the minutes for the regularly scheduled City Commission meeting held on Thursday, September 3rd, 2026. Move approval.

Second. Ms. Laus.

Commissioner Fowler.

Yes.

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

Yes. Ms. Laus, I may have misspoke. It said September 7th earlier. For the record, 17th. Just...

The next items on the agenda are proclamations, resolutions, and presentation. First up is a presentation of proclamation for Constitution Week. Accepting this proclamation is representatives from the local Daughters of the American Revolution chapter.

Hello. Thank you all for being here. Come on up to the front. It would be great. Thank you. I'm Greg. I'd love to read a proclamation to you guys. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Whereas as the guardian of our liberties, the Constitution of the United States of America embodies the principles of limited government in a republic dedicated to rule by law. And whereas September 17th, 2026 marks the 239th anniversary of the framing of the Constitution of the United States of America by the Constitutional Convention. Whereas since its founding in 1908, the John Sevier Sarah Hawkins chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, a non-profit, non-political women's service organization whose members trace their lineage to the patriots of the Revolutionary War, has been dedicated to promoting the Constitution's framework. And whereas through longstanding partnerships with the community, the chapter supports local students by sponsoring American history essay contests, recognizing good citizens and youth leadership award recipients, presenting JROTC and ROTC awards, and during Constitution Week, providing educational materials such as library-bound books, informational posters, and patriotic bookmarks to the Johnson City area schools. Now, therefore, I, Greg Cox, Mayor of the City of Johnson City, Tennessee, do hereby proclaim September 17th to the 23rd Constitution Week. And Johnson City, Tennessee, encourage all residents to show reverence for this document and all that it has meant for our country and our freedoms. So thanks for everything you guys do and for being here. And would you mind sharing a little bit more about DAR and what you do and if you don't care?

Sure. Be glad to. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. First of all, I'd like to say thank you for helping us celebrate the 239th birthday of our Constitution. September 17, 1787, the Constitution was signed by 39 men in a room smaller than this. And today it's its birthday, so thank you. The John Sevier Sarah Hawkins DAR chapter is the oldest DAR chapter in this area. It is the first one, it was founded in 1908. The Sarah Hawkins chapter was founded in 1935. And later in 2012, 14, the two chapters combined. Now we have a combined chapter, John Sevier, Sarah Hawkins. We're very active in the community. In fact, we are in the process of putting a marker at Wing Deer Park. It's the only 250th marker in Washington County. So we're very proud of that and very proud of the city for helping us with that. Thank you.

Thanks for being here, and thanks to a former teacher who I'm pretty sure took me to Governor's school, high school, so it's great to see you. Thanks for being here in all you do, and there's little markers hidden everywhere. I think William Bean and you guys have a marker in this special hidden spot where his... Yeah. Great.

Mayor, may I say something to y'all? Thank you so much for everything you do to keep reminding us of our history. It is the time now for us to go back to those historical moments to know who we are as a nation and the values that we share, even with our founding fathers. I see Brian Lauza out in the audience there. You couldn't get away from it. But one of the things I'm very proud that the American Legion and the City of Johnson City worked on together was putting the flag on tannery knobs. And the big flag is flying. It has been all week. And it's just a beautiful sight. But one of the principles behind putting that up there, so noticeable and so proud, is that it is a teaching place for our children. You know, we are the role models for our children and we need to take this opportunity to continue to teach. And when you have things like that, that's so powerful, I've seen, I've certainly taken my grandchildren up there and it's like, oh my, you know, when you get up there too, I mean, it's so impressive from below, but when you get up there and you see this magnificent flag and that we know up in the dome of it are some special things that got put in there. So I want to thank Brian and the American Legion, the King's Chapter, for all they did. We just went to them with an idea and they ran with it and made it happen. So we're very pleased and for the work that y'all do. I hope you use it up there and take some of our students up to see it. But thank you so much.

Mayor, the next presentation of award is to the Johnson City Fire Department for Fitting Station of the Year. Accepting will be the Johnson City Fire Department representatives.

Hey there, how's it going? It's good to see you guys as always. I'm going to read something for you guys. On September 16th in Nashville, the Tennessee Highway Safety Office presented the Johnson City Fire Department with this year's Fitting Station of the Year Public Health and Emergency Response Award. The award recognizes an organization that champions child passenger safety through its established networks in health, advocacy, or emergency services. Through its contacts in health and emergency services, the Johnson City Fire Department has integrated car seat safety as a cornerstone of family well-being and preparedness. The Johnson City Fire Department has consistently demonstrated an outstanding commitment to making child safety seat services ready, available, and providing caregivers with the help they need. The Fire Department is proactive in their outreach and in providing crucial child passenger safety information and assistance. The documentation of their activities through the National Digital Car Seat Check Form system also received attention for contributing crucial insights that help to shape programming and drive resources to where they are needed most across the state. Please join me in a round of applause for our outstanding John City Fire Department. And I'm sure this probably is that every new mom and parent needs to know that if they're having trouble with the car seat or even if they've got it in, they can come by any of the stations, really, any time, and you'll check and make sure. I know my mother-in-law used that service a few times, but she had to pick up my kids, and she couldn't do it herself. So thank you all for doing that and always being open. Anything you'd like to share?

This is a great program that Lieutenant Bellamy has really taken to heart, and he's drove it to where it's at today. We're very proud of him and all the men and women in the department that do this each and every day. It was something that we saw as a need, and we had people coming by the stations, and we realized that there was more we could do. But we have a great partnership with Niswonger Children's Hospital, Ballot Health. They've been really tremendous helping us get to training as well as providing car seats. And Lieutenant Bellamy here can tell you about an event that we do have coming up.

I just want to speak a little bit what Chief Bell said. I just want to give recognition to. the people that created this program before I was involved in it, and all the other car seat technicians in the fire department. There's 18 of us currently, and they're the ones that put in the work, and they enter the data into the check form system, which is really the driver behind this award and what the state-level car seat program is based off of and is trying to be based off of. So I'm just proud of everybody that has assisted us in getting to where we are today. I'm proud to be able to be present yesterday to receive this award in front of our peers from across the state. I believe they said there's 198 feeding stations in the state. So to be recognized as the one for the year and put a positive light on our department in the city, it made me proud to be there. So I just want to thank everybody that has helped us get to this point. We are having a... child safety week is coming up this next week so we're going to be doing some things throughout the week educational wise and it'll end with the car seat checkpoint at food city on state of franklin from 10 to 2 on saturday the 26th so anybody that wants to come by and see us and have their car seat checked we'll be there during those times sounds great thank you again congratulations thank you

The next order of business is public comment on the agenda. We have no one signed up to speak on the agenda. So we will move to the next item on the agenda, which is consideration of the consent agenda.

Start to my right. There's not a big consent agenda. Dr. Fowler, is there anything? Vice Mayor?

I'd like to pull 6.1.2, but just for a discussion about what we're facing with our equipment replacement. And Mr. Miles, maybe you could just give us an update.

Mayor Wise, or Commissioner Wise.

No, thank you.

Do we have any others?

No, I think that's it.

Mr. Bass, there's really two of these things. One is the rental of the pneumatic or excavator rental, kind of why we're renting as opposed to owning the equipment. And the second one is just what we're facing with the price of replacement of equipment from what we paid two years ago plus what it is today.

Sure. As far as the rental goes, that was a three-year rental. We're going on three years now, and that's for various projects. That was for a rock hammer and an excavator. So we demonstrated a need there, and so we were actually bidding one of these out to actually purchase. So we have that, and we won't have those rental costs. I believe it bids not a week from Tuesday. So then you'll see that come back before you for an excavator. But we have to rent for a lot of rock hammering, especially when we're putting in stormwater systems. As far as the price of equipment, I don't have an exact number of the percentage, but it's significant. These were just a few years ago, mid-200s, and now they're approaching mid-300,000s for pieces of equipment. This particular one is actually a... Typically, our knuckle booms have trailers. This is actually all truck in one unit to help us get down some of the narrow streets and dead ends. It'll also... when we pick up or use furniture or bulk items with it, we can take it directly to the landfill, which will also help our operations and not obligate someone from solid waste to another driver. So you're not handling it twice.

I think it's safe to say that particularly in public works, the kind of equipment y'all operate really takes a beating. I mean, it's heavy work, a lot of miles on it. Yes. Do you know off the top of your head, like a trash truck, how many miles a week one goes?

I know we, so as far as our brush trucks go, we touch every road within the city every two weeks. Every two weeks? Yes, and trash trucks are doing it weekly. So they would be double the miles. But yes, our brush trucks are in every street or every corner of the city twice a week, or every two weeks, excuse me.

And I think we've talked about this before, just to provide the citizens the service of physical waste, you know, picking up. It takes three different kinds of vehicles, the sidearm, the recycle truck, and then the I like that word, knuckle boom.

Yeah, yes. And those are the three that we use for residential. And then there's also a front loader for more like your apartments. And then you have roll-offs for more of your industrial waste. So there's actually, I guess, a couple of different other trucks also.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

Any more questions? I don't think so. Move approval. Second. Can I hear a second?

Second.

Commissioner Fowler?

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

Yes.

Commission, the next order of business is the presentation of unaudited financial statements as of June 30, 2026. As Ms. Louse makes her way up, just as a reminder, Mayor, this item does not require a vote because it's unaudited at this point in time. So it's just a presentation. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, and City Administration. I'm Stephanie Laos, Finance Director. I'm going to present to you some unaudited financial information from the fiscal year June 30, 2026. It is unaudited because our audit just started. We are in the midst of that, will be until around Thanksgiving, and the audit report is due to the comptroller the end of December. These numbers will remain unaudited until that point when it's actually given to the comptroller. In the general fund, we are ending the year with an increase in fund balance of $3.4 million. That is due to a couple of different things that I'll touch on in the next two slides. But generally, revenues came in on average about 2.7% above the original budget, and the departments kept their spending well below what was anticipated. To touch on the revenues, as you can see here, almost every part of our revenues came in above budget. In our pilots, our payments in lieu of taxes came in well above. Quite a few of our payers were above budget for that. Our local sales tax was almost $1 million above budget. It came in at 3.5% above prior year, where we had budgeted about 3%. Interest was another large factor.

Can you speak to what we use to budget sales tax? So when we overperform, is that because the budget sandbagged those estimates? Or what are we using as a source of guidance for budgeting our sales tax?

So I would have to defer to the budget director, Dustin, but I believe it's from the University of Tennessee. They give us guidance on what kind of inflation to.

Yeah.

Good evening.

When we do look at sales tax, obviously we do look at prior year performance and we do take economic data into consideration. There is a couple of reports. One is from the University of Tennessee, as was mentioned, that looks at sales tax projections for the upcoming fiscal year. They typically do a very good job projecting. We, as Ms. Lyle said, we had a very good year on sales tax. When we are estimating revenues, Ms. Louse and I sit down and go through it in great detail to come up with a number that what I like to call realistically conservative. And we just had a good year on revenue in FY26 based on the unaudited numbers. Thank you.

One of the other areas where we did see some significant increase in over budgeted was our interest. We almost doubled what we had budgeted for in our interest income. So that was another big driver there. Just to look at local sales tax a little more closely, here it is year over year for the last four fiscal years. And like I said, we budget around 3%. We averaged 3.5% growth in fiscal year 2026, which is really good compared to in 24, we were about 2.1% of growth. 25, we were about 4%, and now we're at 3.5%. General fund expenditures. So at the beginning of the budget process for FY26, all the departments were tasked to reduce their spending, their operational spending by at least 5%. And then they were tasked to meet that and stick to it throughout the year. And I'm very pleased to say I'm proud of our team that we did. The departments really stuck to where they needed to and they all recognized those cuts and those reduction in expenses. And that's a big driver in why we ended up the year with such a good amount to put back into fund balance. The general fund fund balance on audited at the end of the year is $34.8 million. That is a combination of all the different types we have that is spendable, non-spendable, restricted. We have several different types of restricted money that is restricted either by outside grant sources, outside independent groups, or something that the commission has acted on as far as like our economic development reserves and and things like that, including also our stabilization or our rainy day fund, which is at this time would be around $18.5 million, which the comptroller recommends a two month reserve of our operating expenses, which comes about 16.67 of our operating expenses. We, as of right now, we are at about 14.2% of our FY27 budgeted numbers. So we're not quite meeting the stabilization, the rainy day fund that the comptroller recommends.

And maybe say a little bit more, that's a label we put on that previously we called that unrestricted fund balance, I believe. And so can you talk a little bit about how, like, if you go back and audit five or ten years ago, where would that number trace to?

So we changed the labeling of that in the past couple of years where it used to be called rainy day fund. But also in the audits, it actually was lumped into a category called special purposes. It was restricted for special purposes. So if you look back in audits pre-2023, that's where you're going to find that number. That has been historically, we have always hit around the comptroller category. recommendation or a little bit more because the commission a few years ago or several years ago set our goal at 20% of our expenses. So that number has remained fairly stable, just slightly under at this point. To talk a little bit about our enterprise funds, those are our standalone funds that have to generate charges for services for their expenses. The water and sewer fund, our revenue came in about 0.9% above budget. Expenses were significantly under budget by about 7%. That was mostly savings and personnel due to some vacancies. And then also our depreciation came in well under budget. budget because of some projects not being finalized so they weren't put in service. And a project is not depreciated until it's fully complete and put into service for the year. So they're ending the year by putting about $6.6 million back in their net assets. The other enterprise funds are solid waste, city solid waste and stormwater all completed the year right at budget or a little bit better than what they had been. Some savings and expenses due to materials and then revenues being a little above budget. And then finally, Freedom Hall. Freedom Hall finished the year with expenditures and excess of revenue by about $850,000. Their revenues were 17% above budget, while expenses were about 34%. However, I do want to emphasize that with Freedom Hall, the their direct financial statements don't really paint the whole picture of their contribution to the city. They don't get the benefit of any of the sales tax that they bring in when people come from outside the city and they come and they're spending in our downtown, they're spending in our stores, they're going to our restaurants. They don't get that sales tax. That sales tax goes directly into the general fund. The occupancy tax, when out-of-town visitors come and stay in our hotels, and that's a huge benefit to the city, it does not hit the Freedom Hall's financial statements. It hits the general fund. And then just the tourism spending where they come and they support the local businesses, the job support for local vendors, caterers, that sort of thing. So looking at Freedom Hall's financial statements alone does not really show you the impact of that they, the positive impact that they have on the city itself.

What do we charge the schools for hosting graduation at Freedom Hall?

I believe that's nothing.

Okay. Thank you.

Well, you know, to kind of summarize, they really enable businesses in the community to be able to generate more revenue. I think the Big South tournament alone was somewhere $6, $7 million that was spent in the community, in hotels and restaurants and the mall and all over.

You can kind of see that when the sales tax in the 12 months in the slide you had, you can see Big South pull it out of the winter doldrums and pull it out a little earlier than before Big South.

Yes. Yes, it is hard to look at their financials and really paint a picture of what their impact is.

I believe, if my number is correct, from looking at the tourism report last week that Commissioner Ezell put out for the state, and Washington County had increased its tourism spending here. They're 11th out of 95 counties. But I think from those tourism dollars spent here, about $14 million came in to sales tax. somewhere in that neighborhood. So it was a lot over the course of the year. Yes, absolutely.

So I would be curious to talk a little bit about the fund balance. So if, if we in the last audit ended up at 31.4 and you project unaudited at 38, um, I think you and I talked earlier to confirm my reading of the audits. And for those who value transparency, every audit the city has had for the last 20 years can be found on the comptroller's website. And so I took the liberty of going back and pulling all 20 years worth of audits. The year I joined the city commission, the first audit, our fund balance, unrestricted fund balance, which would be the equivalent of this stabilization fund, was I believe we decided $12.6 million. Yes. And so of that 34, if memory serves, that's going to put our fund balance just a little bit under $20 million. And so there have been some claims being made out there that we've spent the fund balance, took us 100 years to build the fund balance, and we spent it in the last three months. But the fund balance in the time Commissioner Fowler and I have been here has actually increased by about 50% dollar over dollar in the last eight years. And just because Commissioner Brock, Vice Mayor, shouldn't be left out, it's increased even more. I think if you go back to the total, and I'm shifting in and out of the unrestricted and general fund fund balance, and so I apologize. The stat for the first budget that Vice Mayor Brock would have been, I'm sorry, first audit, she would have been a part of, had it at about $18 million in total general fund balance. And we are now going to be, to your number, nearly $35 million. So in her case, not quite double, but that does not look like... you know, took us 100 years to build a fund balance, and then we went and spent it. It looks like we've actually stewarded that number in a responsible direction. So just want to take that opportunity.

The state share sales tax, is that reflected in there? Do we know what that is?

That is reflected in...

The other taxes?

It's actually in intergovernmental revenue. So that came in about 103% of budget, but it was slightly up, not quite as much as our local sales tax, but it was up over budget.

Thank you. Can you go back to the one that shows the months on the line graph? Yeah. But you can certainly see a little bit of an improvement in March, certainly over the older years, because Big South started last year.

This was the second year, so those two were selected.

So FY25 and FY26, the two top lines would be Big South March versus the two bottom lines are no Big South March. And that's a pretty noticeable difference. So that's value to Freedom Hall that isn't showing at Freedom Hall's financials. Absolutely.

Ms. Louse, could you go back to the slide you were just at? What are some examples under the miscellaneous category? What would fall in under that category?

Miscellaneous is where you would see collections for damage to city property when someone runs into a sign hole or a street light and we collect money from their insurance company. That's where that goes. That's also where our interest income is. That's going to be the bulk of those numbers.

131% is pretty significant.

So, yes. We also do, Dustin does, he budgets, we budget very conservatively in miscellaneous because those are miscellaneous incomes.

We don't have control over a lot of those. Exactly.

The interest income would be nice to pull out some too and just see how we're doing in our, I mean, our interest rates, 10-year treasuries. just to make sure we're utilizing all of our tools as good as possible.

Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you.

The next item on the agenda.

is item 8.1, Ordinance 4952-26. This is the second reading of FY2026 Supplemental Budget Ordinance. This 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, commissioners. I am Dustin Thompson. I am the budget director for the city. There have been no changes since the first reading of the ordinance. Just as a reminder, this is essentially a true-up ordinance for the original FY26 budget ordinance. So the presentation that you just saw from Ms. Louse, that is based on the original budget. This is a true-up ordinance to recognize additional expenses and the corresponding revenues in the FY26 budget. Just to point out, and this is very important, all of the items that are listed in the supplemental budget that require your approval have been approved in open public meeting during FY26. And I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have. Otherwise, we recommend approval on second reading.

To just clarify for the benefit of people watching, for example, I think this amendment includes around $300 and some thousand dollars of opioid settlement money. Yes, sir, it does. That would be money that we didn't necessarily go into the budget year for. knowing we would have or how we would use. That is correct. So we appropriated those dollars, I believe, in what season was it? I don't remember now what time of year it was. It was several months ago. But well into the budget year. Oh, yes, absolutely. So it's that kind of thing that we're talking about. This is just getting it to line up so that the comptroller looks at our final budget and agrees that all of the spending is within that authorization. Yes, sir. So I would move approval.

Second. Ms. Lauf.

Commissioner Fowler?

Yes.

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

Mayor Cox?

Yes.

Dustin, before you leave, this is Dustin's last meeting before he goes to a better opportunity. And so we just want to say a huge thank you to you for your service to the city and appreciation for the work that you've done for us. And we wish you the very best.

I sincerely appreciate that, and if I may take just a quick moment to thank the commissioners, present and past, staff. I'm the budget guy, but it doesn't happen in a vacuum. Budget is definitely a team effort. I appreciate our management team. I appreciate all the staff that I've got to work with over the years. I also want to thank our citizens. I have enjoyed greatly over the years being able to talk to various citizen groups and students to hopefully do the best I can to educate on the budget and the budget process. Last but not least, because I know she's watching, my wife, Lindsay, who is the best person I know, and she puts up with me. And I love you, Lindsay. And I want to thank everybody and thank you for the opportunity to be here for almost 13 years. It's been a blessing and an honor. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am.

Commissioners, under the City Manager's Report, we have crime data since Ordinance 4925-25 was approved by the City Commission.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners. My name's Cooper Reeves. I'm the Special Projects Manager in the Administration Department. I'm here tonight with Chief Eric Dougherty, our Police Chief, and I'm here to present you with the crime data since Ordinance 4925-25 went into effect. I want to give a brief overview of the ordinance and what it meant. So this ordinance took effect on September 5th, 2025, and it changed the cutoff time for alcohol sales. changing the cutoff time from 3 a.m. to 1 a.m. This change applied in all business and commercial zoning districts where on-premise alcohol sales are permitted. This ordinance did not require an establishment to close early or cease any other business activity. It only changed the sell-by time for alcohol. And just as a reminder, this ordinance was adopted with the goal of helping Johnson City remain a safe and thriving community. So again, this ordinance applied to establishments and all business and commercial zoning districts, including the downtown area. And when we talk about the downtown area, this is the exact footprint we are talking about here, this downtown district. So with Ordinance 4925-25 being in effect for just over a year now, we wanted to provide you with the crime statistics to show the impact that it's having. So the data will show you the number of offenses occurring between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m., both citywide and in the downtown area. you'll see that the numbers have dropped, which is a strong sign that we're moving in a positive step in the right direction. So we have tracked eight types of offenses, all of which fall in the category of violent crimes, weapons and drug violations, or DUI offenses. and we've tracked the offenses occurring between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. And the reason we're discussing these offenses and this timeframe and why we have been since the beginning of this ordinance is because when we gathered crime data from January 2019 to June 2025, there was a clear and sharp increase in these types of offenses occurring in that 1 to 4 a.m. timeframe. So before we get into the data, I want to kind of set the comparison for you. We have taken the number of offenses that occurred between 1 and 4 a.m. in the year prior to the ordinance going into effect and compared it to the number of offenses that occurred in the year since the ordinance went into effect. The first number you'll see is the number of offenses occurring citywide, and the number in parentheses is the number of offenses occurring downtown. That downtown number is not a separate total. It is the portion of total offenses that happened in the downtown area. So starting with aggravated assault, in the year before the ordinance went into effect, we had 41 across the city, 18 of which occurred downtown. And in the year since the ordinance went into effect, that number has dropped to 17 occurring across the city, six of which occurred downtown. And when you look at that percentage change, it's just over 58% drop citywide and just over 66% drop in that downtown portion. Disorderly conduct was 33 citywide, 28 of which occurred downtown. That number dropped to 27 citywide, 25 of which occurred downtown, which is just over 18% and just over 10% drop. DUIs totaled 98 citywide before the ordinance went into effect, 40 of those occurring downtown. And since the ordinance went into effect, it's dropped to 56 occurring citywide, 21 of those occurring downtown. It's an over 42% drop and a 47.5% drop in the downtown number. Drunkenness offenses totaled 72 citywide, 48 occurring downtown. That number has dropped to 62 citywide, 38 of those occurring downtown. That's an almost 14% drop in the citywide number and an over 20% drop in the downtown portion. Drug violations totaled 115 citywide in the year prior, 38 occurring downtown. And in the year since, that has dropped to 92 citywide, 26 of those occurring downtown. So a 20% drop in the citywide number and just over 31.5% drop in the downtown number. Our sexual assaults were nine citywide in the year prior, two of those occurring downtown. That number has dropped to five citywide in the year since the ordinance went into effect, one of those occurring downtown. If you look at that percentage change, it's a 44.44% drop in the citywide number and a 50% drop in that downtown portion. Simple assaults were 98 citywide, 36 occurring in the downtown area. And since the ordinance went into effect just over a year ago, that number has dropped to 70 citywide, 23 of those 70 occurring downtown. That's just over 28.5% drop citywide and an over 36% drop in the downtown number. Finally, our weapons violations totaled 27 citywide, 13 occurring downtown. That number has dropped to 17, seven of which occurred downtown. That's a 37% drop in our citywide number and an over 46% drop in the downtown portion. So commissioners, we present this data to you to show both you and the community that there have been reductions in these offenses during the overnight hours in downtown and across the city. Ordinance 4925-25 was adopted with the goal of helping ensure Johnson City remains a safe and thriving community. And that overarching goal of public safety directly relates to each of this commission's strategic goals listed here. We have been encouraged to see the reduction in these offenses that have occurred after the adoption of the ordinance just over a year ago. And this time, myself or our police chief, Chief Dougherty, would be happy to answer any questions.

Could you expand on the distinction between things like aggravated assault and simple assault and some of those? Those of us who are less criminally justice and tangled may not be familiar.

Yes, sir. Between an aggravated assault and simple assault, it could be a weapon usage. It could bump it up to an aggravated assault. It could be the type of injuries, very serious injuries with a simple assault, hands and feet. That could elevate to an aggravated assault as well.

Okay, and these numbers, we're not talking about where you've arrested people for these things. We're talking about reports of these activities? Yes, correct. Okay, so these are numbers being triggered by someone calling in 911 and reporting an incident. It's not us deciding... not to count it that way. I mean, can you talk about how we're counting apples to apples a little bit, please?

Yes, sir. Those are all reported. Some could be self-initiated activity with an officer who maybe observes that crime. Of course, you have to factor that in. But generally, either a 911 call or an officer on the scene would take the report, and that's how that goes into the system.

Yeah. Commissioners, and particularly Commissioner Wise and Commissioner Fowler, because Commissioner Goetz, I don't think you were here, nor Greg. When City Manager Ball came in 2021, it wasn't long thereafter we were working on our strategic plan. And one of the key objectives that we gave you, as you remember, was a reduction of crime. We were seeing a lot in the city at that time. And that was a focus of the commission to make it and put it out front so that we could do something about it, making sure that we had the proper funding in place for police and all that. And I think we can see, Ms. Ball, the results of the work that you and the police department and all employees of the city to make this a priority. We still have a ways to go, but it is tremendous to see the effort that's been done and the results that we've attained since then. So I just want to say thank you to all of you.

So one of the things that happened a year or two ago, and these videos would show up on social media and they'd be out there just maybe 12 hours or 24 hours and then they would get taken down. But I don't know how else to describe them, but to refer to them as like street brawls. I mean, that you just had groups of people fighting and kicking each other in the head. I mean, am I exaggerating what was happening in those videos?

No, sir, you're correct.

And have we seen... what is the nature of that kind of i wish every resident of johnson city could watch those videos but if we put them on the youtube channel to show you we would lose our youtube channel because they would shut us down that's how bad these videos were they were shocking um what is the nature of that kind of activity are we seeing that same activity earlier or are we just not seeing that activity at all what's happening in that regard

So in that regard, are there still fights around those areas? Yes, there will be. That happens regularly. But as far as the big brawls, those things occurring, no. We like to attribute that to our extra patrols, the extra enforcement we do, our tools and technology, every effort we put forward to try to prevent that. But there's still altercations. There's still going to be fights occur.

I mean, the video I saw, I don't think I'm exaggerating to say I think there might have been two dozen people throwing punches. I mean, I don't think I'm exaggerating. Yeah. And so you're not you're not encountering those kind like we wouldn't even have had enough police on duty at that time to deal with two dozen people throwing punches at the same time. That's been very difficult. Yes, sir.

When I've just got a few questions, too, while you're here, just it's campaign season. And so some stuff has been out there and I want to make sure I kind of clarify a few questions. And one of it's just the number of peace officers that we have versus budgeted for. And I think looking from what we budgeted for, we cut it into two phases this year to increase to 100. We have budgeted for 165. For the first half of the year, and then we can choose to go up to 175 for the second half. Is that correct?

So 164, then 174, yes, sir. And then right now we have? 155.

And then we always have, we'll probably have cadet interviews in October.

We're scheduling interviews and assessments are written and physical testing in October, yes, sir.

And then I'm not sure, because I think you came on as chief about when I got more involved, but where we were budgeted-wise three or four years ago, five years ago, I don't know. I'm just trying to look to see what the change has been.

This commission, the commission had approved an additional, at two different times approved additional 10 and then at another time approved an additional 10. So 20 have been approved in the last three years.

Well, and I think the hiring, the culture in the police department seems great to me, attributed that to you and your immediate predecessor.

Can I ask? There's a claim out there in writing that you're 40 officers short.

That is not correct. No, sir. Okay.

There's another claim out there that you are budgeted for 135 officers, but you only have 90 so that money can be spent other ways.

that would have reflected what that budget would have supported maybe 20 years ago or longer. That is not correct.

So I happen to know the answer to that. And it's a lot longer ago than that. Um, to the, the number of police officers we had in 1981 was 99 sworn officers where we were in 1999 was 150. And I point that out to say, when you became chief or, where were we two years ago on the number of sworn officers we were budgeting for?

It was about three years ago. So in 2023, we really started working on adding those numbers. I think it was 22 into 23. We were almost 20 down.

But the budget, like, so in 22, the budget for what you were trying to fill was, I believe, 153 officers. Correct. Okay. The point I'm making is that in 2022, we had a budget for 153 officers. And in 1999, we had a budget for 150 officers. During that same period of time, our city's population grew from 55,000 people to 75,000 people. And our police force was budgeting. That doesn't mean we were even filling all those positions. That just meant those were the positions that existed. 150 positions basically for a quarter of a century while our population grew by 40%. Does that sound accurate? Yes, sir. That's accurate. Does that sound reasonable? It's very accurate. But you're not, okay. Thank you.

Chief, just a, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Just a clarification. So if we have currently budgeted for 164 and we have 155 with candidates coming in in the next month you would say we are actively recruiting for to fill those positions without lowering standards, you know, keeping those standards high, recruiting for 164. That's correct.

We will not lower our standards. If we can't fill it, we can't fill it because we haven't had qualified applicants come through the door. Okay.

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

One more question while you're up here, Chief. There's been some claims that we don't pay overtime. And what do you think? I think we were $1 million-something in overtime last year that we paid our police. But I know we do pay overtime, correct? Yes, sir, we do pay overtime. Okay, and that is determined not by us, but by a federal standard on what we do? That's my understanding, yes, sir. So we do pay overtime, and we do what the federal government says we can do. Yes.

Overtime, if you look at it historically in the police department over the past five years or so, we're somewhere between $300,000 and $320,000 in overtime. That would equate anywhere between probably 7,500 total hours up to about 10,000 total hours is pretty consistent over the past four or five years.

Mr. Willis, talk about the regulation that regulates overtime for fire, police, How long has that been in existence?

So the Fair Labor Standards Act has a 7K exemption for the groups that you just outlined. And that was put in place, gosh, in the 70s. It was adopted in the public sector probably mid-80s, 1985, 1986. I'm not sure exactly when Johnson City adopted that, but we've been on that program for decades. The reason for that is because police and fire don't work traditional schedules. So our police officers work 12 hour shifts. So they're paid on a 28 day pay cycle. Same thing for fire. So those overtime thresholds are different because of that fluctuating schedule. For example, a police officer will have a seven day break, seven consecutive days off during that 28 day cycle. Our fire department has three and four days off during their 28 day cycle. So that legislation was put in place specific for those groups because it was more conducive to 12-hour shifts and 24-hour shifts that rotate on a really inconsistent basis, I guess is how I would characterize it.

Are we the only city that follows that?

No, ma'am. That's the national standard for most departments. That exemption allows a 14-day cycle or 28-day cycle. There are some variations that other cities have based on the size of their department and the type of schedules that they elect. But that legislation is specific for those groups.

And that's also true for our fire department and for EMS, they're paid the same way.

Yes, EMS I can't speak to because we don't do their payroll, but I do believe they're on the same type of schedule. I know they do have some 12 hour shifts, but they also have some eights. The only difference for us with police and fire are the thresholds are different because their schedules are different. Police are on 12, fire's on 24. So the overtime threshold for police is 171 hours in that 28 day period. Anything above that's paid at a time and a half rate. For fire, it's 212. Again, because they're on a 24 hour shift.

Well, I just want to thank you for everything you've done. And I think those numbers really show a lot what you've done with the police department and really the professionalism of all your officers. And so we support you and thank you for what you're doing. And those numbers tell a pretty powerful story. Thanks, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Cooper.

Commissioners, the next order of business is public comment request under other. Our first speaker is Dave Adams to speak about flock safety system.

State your name and I'll just remind everybody that public comment is limited to 15 speakers for the whole. There are two separate designated periods. One is for items solely on the agenda. One is for an item that is germane to general city business. And so you'll be speaking on that. You have three minutes.

Thanks. Dave Adams, 3 Coventry Court. Two weeks ago I spoke about how unequipped we are at scale and at the scale and magnitude of the current FLOC dragnet. There have been two major developments since I spoke two weeks ago. The first development came from our own network audit logs. Remember when I said somebody paid for 30 days of audit logs? Those audit logs have now been reviewed. In 30 days, we were searched at least 1,048,575 times by at least 3,308 different agencies. I say at least because that data is actually incomplete. You can't make this up. There were so many searches that the logs were truncated by Excel when the department handed them over. You were told that we limit access to Tennessee agencies. However, over 90% of those searches came from outside of Tennessee. You were told that safeguards were in place requiring case numbers. Over half a million searches had no case number. Over 10% of searches had no license plate number. Search reasons included other other and ASDF, ASDF, ASDF. A year ago at the Community Roundtable, I asked how we could safeguard external access. I was told exactly what you were told. We control who sees the data, we monitor incoming searches, and it's under control. but we are averaging a search every three seconds. Second development is actually a breach that occurred with flock hardware. A few days ago, the operating system from a real flock camera was copied and shared with reporters. I actually downloaded the machine learning model that's running on the camera and I have it on my laptop over there. So this is gonna be a silly question, but do any of you identify as a license plate? I'm going to assume not. At the start of this meeting, I took a screenshot from the current stream that's going out to YouTube just to catch everyone on the panel. And I took that picture and I fed it straight into the model. It found no license plates, but it detected each one of you as a person. And that is the model that is running on every flock camera in Johnson City. It's 2 a.m. You're standing in the kitchen. The kid says he's not touching the cookies. You're looking at him with his hand in the cookie jar. Do you trust your eyes and ears, or do you trust the company? Vice Mayor Brock, you once asked me, why should we trust your data if you don't trust ours? Use that instinct. Interrogate the data. What you were told does not match what the data now shows. It's okay to recognize an error when new information becomes available. We can correct it. This is getting rapidly out of hand, so please mitigate this risk. I ask again that you end this contract and remove these cameras.

The next speaker is Brad Batt to speak about flock cameras and government surveillance.

Howdy, everyone. My name is Brad Batt. I love this city. I love America. I love my freedoms, which is why I'm here to speak against government surveillance. the 200 flock cameras that you've installed across our city that have already been abused and why they need to come down. The way we went about this was underhanded. We didn't have the normal three sessions we would for a project of this magnitude for public comment. We just one-shotted it with a budget resolution. The people of Washington County did not vote to be surveilled by their government 24-7 as they go about their business. These cameras log people going to work, to school, to church, to the doctor, everywhere they go in this city. It's a huge invasion of privacy and a breach to our Fourth Amendment. This is done without warrants and without guardrails and without oversight. Here's the thing. Either you're lying to us or you're being lied to. I think you might be being lied to. These cameras are not license plate readers, as you just heard. They're AI-powered surveillance tools run by a third-party company that uses technology as an end loop around the Fourth Amendment. If you go to takedownthesecameras.com, you'll see the map that shows everyone that searches here in Johnson City. It goes all the way from Maine to California to Florida. I've reviewed the data myself. It's a 30-day period of those 1 million searches, and that data wasn't obtained from this commission or the police, but through FOIA requests. What's even more disturbing is what our own police have searched for, which lays bare the lie that they're license plate readers. Over the period of April to June this year, They searched for vague things like white SUV, black Dodge Ram, black Ford F-150, and even wheelbarrow. That's not a license plate. More egregious were searches for people. Male wearing a tan or brown baseball hat, quote, person walking, and female wearing black pants and black sports bra. Not a license plate. Do I actually have to iterate why this is so concerning? Are you willing to concede that they're not license plate readers? I encourage people to go to takedownthesecameras.com, review the information for themselves. Either you're being lied to or you're lying to us. So let us know which one it is. Take them down.

Our next speaker is Sylvan Bruni to speak about crime data.

Silvan Bruni, 166 Garland Way in Johnson City. Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioner, staff, good evening. Tonight, I want to connect two issues, the last call ordinance we heard about and flock cameras. Both were presented as public safety solutions, but I continue to oppose both because the math doesn't add up. I want to start by saying clearly that crime going down in Johnson City is a great thing, and JCPD deserves all the credit for this work. And we should all be glad to see fewer offenses in our city. But when we talk about the crime data presented tonight, I think there are two separate questions. One is, did crime go down between 1 and 4 a.m.? And the answer is yes. But do those data prove that the last school ordinance caused those decreases? And the answer is no. There is a before and after comparison, and correlation does not mean causation. We learned that in school. Crime can change due to policing. staffing economic conditions and many other factors the chief himself acknowledged that and the city-owned numbers give us a reason to be cautious and not boast too much about impact of 40 or 50 percent because the math doesn't work like that because declines in incidents downtown must be benchmarked against the city-wide declines presumably unrelated to the last call ordinance which was focused on downtown supposedly. So I did the math on the data released by the city, and the total decline in offenses is about 30% total, with downtown at 34%, thus a modest 4% above average. or 8% better than areas not affected by the ordinance. In the most positive light, downtown fair better by only 7% to 18% across most incident types, albeit on very small data numbers, right, which statistics aren't good for. Drunkenness, as expected, is better by 21%, but disorderly conduct is significantly lagging behind the rest of the city. Those decreased by 60% outside of downtown and by only 10% downtown. And even if we eventually established that changing alcohol sales hours contributed to some reduction in crime, A positive outcome does not automatically justify the method. There were other ways to address late night public safety without imposing such restrictions on every business. The same principle applies to Flock. Last week, the Flock Johnson City published an analysis. You just heard about that. Over 1 million searches recorded in 30 days. That's one every 2.5 second nonstop day and night. And contrary to the commission's assurances that are still on the website of the city right now, Those searches are not limited to Tennessee. You heard it, 90% from outside of states. How do you explain that? So Johnson City must eliminate that flock system and rethink this aspect of public safety from the ground up. Public safety matters. So do privacy, accountability, due process, and public trust. We all want a safer Johnson City. And so the question is how we get there and whether we make those decisions with good evidence, public involvement, and respect for all the people involved. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

Mayor, that's all the items on the agenda.

Thank you.

Anybody have anything they want to discuss?