City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everybody. Welcome to city council. This is 03/03/2026. Let me see. Councilman Emerson, would you like to lead us in prayer? I didn't ask. Sure.

Alright. That'd great. Yes.

Alright. We'll go ahead and open this evening's minutes, and I'll start with pledge allegiance and invocation will be led after. I pledge allegiance to the flag 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.

You bow

your heads and pray with me? Dear Lord, thank you for bringing us all here today to do the business of the great city of Jonesboro. And we just ask a hand of healing and calm and just looking over all of our troops, of our soldiers, everybody that's overseas, it's a conflict right now, along with our first responders that are here in Jonesboro. And just ask that you forgive us of our sins and look after us as we go about we go about our day, and trying to live life in the way that you'd want us to lead it. Thank you so much for everything that you've given us. Amen.

If you would please go ahead and do roll call. Let's see who hasn't. All right, we do have 10 present. Next we'll move on special presentations.

Good evening. Item four, special presentation. The honorable mayor Harold Copenaver will present the state of the city address.

Good evening, council and everybody in the community. I appreciate everybody for being present. Council, I wanna tell you it's an honor to provide you the state of the city address for Jonesboro. You know, it's an honor to work with Tony Thomas, Brian Richardson, Tanya, Tracy, April Leggett, our city clerk, and city attorney Carol Duncan, to invest and improve in our city. This is my sixth state of the city address.

And every single time, I'm thrilled for the privilege to stand before you. You know, this is an amazing city, and we're doing amazing things together. I'd also like to recognize our city employees. The city team works incredibly hard to ensure city services and programs run smoothly. Last year, more than one and a half million hours of their labor was dedicated to this community in the rain, cold, sunshine, and the recent snow.

Their dedication to the residents of this city is on display every day for this community. I certainly want to thank those who make sure our tax dollars are well kept. Last year, Steve Perty and our finance department processed a 107,000 various transactions. They managed nearly 5,000 business licenses licenses and distributed nearly $40,000,000 in payroll checks. Now let me back up and restate that.

They processed a 107,000 transactions with a staff of 10. They oversaw nearly $100,000,000 in revenue, and they did that with exceptional professionalism en route to receiving 15 consecutive clean audits by the Arkansas legislative audit. That means not one of those transactions violated the accounting standards for local, state, or federal law. That's incredible. Thank you, Steve.

Lastly, I'd like to thank all the residents of Jonesboro. Jonesboro is a great community. It's a community to build a life in, a family, business, and every individual though contributes to our community. You are the heartbeat of Jonesboro. So the state of Jonesboro is thriving because our people make it that way.

Jonesboro is filled with amazing people who go above and beyond. Some are in this room. Our financial position is solid. We wrapped up 2025 with $28,100,000 in reserves, 9,600,000.0 of which is required by city policy. The closing months of 2025 also reflect economic growth and the strengthening of the local economy, which sales tax returns month after month surpassing those of the previous year.

Our chamber cut ribbons on a 150 new businesses in Jonesboro last year. A 150. That's a 150 new opportunities for individuals to have jobs and millions in the economic impact. There was recently announcement of a new industry coming to Jonesboro. In Vowasian, it's gonna bring 200 plus more jobs to Jonesboro.

Jonesboro's Jonesboro's growth, though, is directly tied to the decisions that's made in this room. Decisions to fund safety needs, quality of life projects, zoning, and policy decisions, and allocating funding for infrastructure investments that literally pave the way for development. In this room, decisions are made to fund positions to carry out the needs of the city. Last year, our human resources department onboarded 232 employees to fill existing openings. 94 of those were employees full time, a 136 were part time.

Jason Ratliff, the information systems team worked daily to protect our most sensitive information from cyber attacks. The number is in the tens of thousands in attempts of every year. They closed 3,154 tickets for technical help from city employees, maintain more than 600 computer work stations, and even managed last year the transition from jonesborough.org to jonesboroughar.gov that included updating every city email address. You are all aware that that Jonesboro does not receive the same financial resources compared to any other city our size in the state. Our combined sales tax rate is the lowest among our peers.

Unlike most, it also has to pay for services most communities charge separate for, like sanitation cost. Without an aggressive approach to securing grants and appropriations as a city, we simply could not function. Our grants department has handled more than $75,000,000 in funding in the last five years. Notable funding, they worked hard to secure in February railroad elimination study grant, a $500,000 TAP grant for the Marion Barry Overpass, and $4,500,000 in federal appropriations. They work closely with local nonprofits to assist with resources in identifying and manage our community development block grant program that provides $600 of annual funding back to our community.

To keep pace with market, council also approved a much needed cost of living for the full time employees. Now after not receiving a COLA for multiple years prior, this marked the fifth straight year of employees receiving both their annual step and COLA. All in all, our 2,025 workforce included roughly 800 full and part time employees, oversaw nearly a $100,000,000 in total revenues, and managed nearly $15,000,000 in capital improvements. So as we reflect on the past year and share what next year will bring, we focus on what the blueprint of Jonesboro is and needs to be. It's a dual focus.

What's worked and what needs to work? Progress by design, not by happenstance. This is what Destination 100 k is all about. To reiterate from last year, Destination hundred hundred k is not a goal or a push to grow Jonesboro to 100,000 people. It's coming whether we like it or not.

It's about ensuring the coming growth is carefully managed, planned, and adequately prepared for. Between what's happened over the past year and what's planned this year, city investments are in action. For the first time in nearly a generation, the city of Jonesboro issued revenue bonds for capital improvements. Some of these projects have been planned for nearly twenty years. They are finally funded.

They will soon be visible with concrete and steel. We will soon begin to break down break ground on a nine one one public safety center. This is a 5 and a half million dollar investment in public safety. Senator Bozeman knows how important this center is. He recently secured 3,500,000.0 appropriations to enhance this project.

For years, a common complaint about Jonesboro was the lack of sidewalks and the amount of traffic bottlenecking on South Caraway Road. We are finally finally moving forward this year with a funded project, moving on the project that predates basically all of our city officials and staff. Our street department, under the direction of Steve Tippett, works to take preventative steps to extend our road life. They are, though, in a constant state of upkeep. Our street signs, our line markings, managing our drainage system, and maintaining miles of public right away.

Listen, we are investing more than $3,000,000 in road overlays this year from reserves. Like I said last year, it's investing some of our reserves back into our community. Street crews cleaned nearly 17,000 linear feet of residential drainage ways and mowed 65 miles with heavy equipment. They mowed Interstate 55520 times and performed 80 miles of litter pickup efforts. In addition to all they do, without without hesitation, they, along with several other departments, load it up to head to Hardee and to Monet to assist when disaster recovery efforts are needed.

While not a city government project, most all of our West End neighborhood now rest upon a new sewer system, thanks to the multimillion dollar project by our friends and partners at City Water and Light. While those living in the area are aware of the project, many who pass through just assume this is poor road maintenance. To those with that belief, I want to remind them that now that most of the work is complete and permanent repairs will soon begin as warmer weather arrives. Now not all infrastructure is built for wheels, tires, or feet, each year each year, we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars solely on drainage infrastructure to maintain our drainage ways. Just last week, released that congressman Crawford secured an additional million dollars to help flooding along Lost Creek.

We will spend nearly 1 and a half million dollars this year on improving our industrial rail system that supplies our industrial partners with a raw product and transports their finished goods around the world. In 2025, we saw an award of $1,200,000 rail elimination grant to study crossings throughout the city. This will provide the type of data that we need to secure funding for major safety and infrastructure improvements where our streets meet our railroad tracks. Now RDOT is investing in Jonesboro as well. They have more than 100,000,000 million dollars of projects under construction here as we speak.

The Airport Road Overpass will soon be complete. Martin Luther King Drive Junior Bypass is in its final stages. Southwest Drive and Parker are getting a major overhaul in Highway 3 fifty one five lane expansion project will soon serve the Hilltop community, which is growing as fast as anywhere in the state. But RDOT isn't just pouring concrete here. Director Jared Wiley, who is an ASU graduate, and his team are planning a flag in the form of a regional planning office that will staff more than 20 people because because they see what I see.

They see what you see. Jonesboro's future is bright, but we better prepare for it right now. Private dollars are also pouring in to the city. Constructing buildings to housing new residents and businesses, they're choosing Jonesboro. Last year, our inspections department issued more than 5,000 permits.

That included approvals of more than 500 commercial and residential construction projects. Our planning department reviewed more than 1,300 plan submissions that represent more than $250,000,000 in improvements. Not only do new construction projects have to meet building codes, zoning codes, or landscaping codes, but they also must be developed in a way that doesn't harm those downstream with stormwater runoff to cause traffic backup. Our engineering department conducted nearly 2,000 stormwater drainage inspections last last year on commercial and residential development. They reviewed nearly 100 traffic and speed limit request, conducted 75 traffic count studies, and assisted in more than 1,000 utility locate requests to make underground hazards for projects that involve digging.

Folks, those numbers I just shared with you and will throughout this evening represent a lot of work that performed by a surprisingly small amount of city employees. Our priority is a safe city, but we also want to be more streamlined and efficient community to build in. So last year, we engaged Matrix Consulting to research our codes, analyze our processes, and make recommendations on how we can both reduce red tape and encourage better projects. That study should be wrapping up soon. I look forward to seeing how we can make those necessary adjustments together.

Now I'm gonna move into public safety and quality of life. By most any metric, public safety and quality of life is how a family judges the value of a city. How we as parents decide where we raise our children and where our children choose to build their lives. It's clearly important because most half of our annual budget is dedicated to public safety in one way or another. Nearly 40,000,000 of money is well spent though.

Jonesboro isn't just a great city. It's a safe city. We just appropriated funding for critical life saving equipment for our firefighters, a couple fire trucks, and the necessary gear that helps keep all people safe and protects our coveted ISO rating one. If you want to know more about it though, please sign up for the next class of the new Citizens Fire Academy. An increasing population naturally results in more calls for emergency services.

Firefighters responded to we have some in the room, I think, don't we? Gentlemen. Firefighters responded to 10% more calls 25 than 2,024. It's 11,501 calls. They conducted 3,200 inspections and reached more than 13,000 residents and youth through public education pieces.

So thank you to chief Hardy Hamrick, assistant chief Basham, Ricky Houghton, and thank you for every firefighter for what you do. Now even with Jonesboro's considerable population growth over the last decade, recently released statistics by the Federal Bureau of Investigations show violent crimes is the lowest in Jonesboro has seen in a decade. Now think about that. More people, less actual crimes committed. That's impressive.

You know why? It's because our police department is impressive. Thank you to your leadership, Rick Elliott, and assistant chief, Lynn Waterworth. Our police department oversees more than 800 cameras that were referenced over 2,000 times in investigations last year for the real time crime center. They processed more than 1,500 FOIA requests last year.

Officers participated in more than 100 community outreach events and connected with 25,000 residents. Safety is a priority, also for our furry friends as well. Under the leadership of Larry Rogers, our Animal Services Division sponsors regular low cost shot clinics with residents. Thousands attend a year to receive that. That takes a lot of work.

The people have no idea what goes on behind the scenes. They keep a watchful eye as well on disease trends and rabies and distemper and rescue an occasional kitten from a storm drain every now and then. You know, lives are being saved though monthly by our newly incorporated and trendsetter award winning emergency medical dispatch program, incorporated by our nine one one dispatch team led by director Ronnie Sturge and Melanie Bennett. In 2025, more than 100,000 calls were answered by our dispatchers. Seven of those calls were dispatchers saving a life, calmly, and walking panicked loved ones through CPR.

And one of those hard work of our sanitation, the dedication to keep Jonesboro beautiful committee, and our partnership with breaking bonds ministry. Now we have challenges in this community when it comes to trash and litter in our community, but it's all of our responsibility to do our part. Code enforcement led by Scott Roper investigated more than seventy five hundred cases in 2025. Nearly seven thousand of those are now in compliance. Think about that.

Think about that. Between condemnations and working with property owners, more than one hundred blighted structures were demolished and removed from our neighborhoods. Park rangers, what a success for our community and our parks. It provides safety at a level that we haven't had before and a communication between our community. Our sanitation department, in addition to providing daily collection, saw more than 250 tons of junk.

Over 1,000 tires brought though directly to us either through our monthly neighborhood cleanups and our new bulky junk drop off on Lacey Drive. We invested significantly in parks last year, but not with just dollars. We did it with hands. We did it with backs in the hearts of the best park state staff in the state. They've been through a lot lately, but they've stayed focused on what matters, and that's service service to our community.

Planning for a new park in Northeast Jonesboro is well underway. This project is possible thanks to a million dollar grant by the Arkansas Parks Grant and a $100,000 act of heartfelt benevolence by the junior auxiliary of Jonesboro. Allen Park, University Lions Park, saw totally new playgrounds installed in 2025. Allen Park was also a recipient of a brand brand new splash pad. Our beautiful walking path around Craighead Forest Park is now lit to provide more than a 100,000 park visitors a year the ability to walk at night when the day gets short.

We cut ribbon on a new pocket park downtown, and we're working daily to improve our recreational sports and activity offerings. I look forward to seeing the continued improvements in our system with the new ideas championed by director Jim Stearns. Walls now stand tall at the Ridge Athletic Center. Drive by and check out the progress. This time next year, I look forward to watching young athletes from around the country competing in multi day tournaments, packing our hotels, restaurants, and stores.

But this amenity won't be just for sports tourists. It will provide year round swimming opportunities for Jonesboro residents. 200,000 square foot of indoor recreational space and outdoor aquatics parks. You know, there's momentum as well building in downtown too. Hey, the old bank building's gone.

That's prime real estate for development. New restaurants are opening and thriving. We're seeing great attendance as well in our festivals and events. One of which saw thousands packed downtown to watch the historic Clydesdales parade downtown on Main Street to outstanding fanfare. Look in every direction. You see growth. What's happening in Hilltop? What's happening in Southwest Drive is amazing. The core is also improving. The once struggling Caraway Road is now lined with new development in homes in the historic West End neighborhood.

They're as popular as ever. We have a lot to be proud of in Jonesboro. But folks, we got a lot to accomplish. A city can be stressful if people can get not get where they want to go or need to go. Infrastructure move from here to there is a serious but expensive challenge.

It's an evolution of a growing city. More is a wonderful problem to have when you consider the alternative is decline. We recently submitted a $21,000,000 build grant application to add vehicle capacity, make intersection improvements on Caraway Road, and add a long overdue pedestrian walkways from I 55 all the way to Highland Drive. Our MPO works daily on identifying immediate needs and long term goals, including completing the 2050 Metropolitan Transportation Plan. They work together on planning future highway routes, RDOT, and are consistently seeking ways to make our roads safer.

But not everyone can or wants to drive everywhere. So we will soon be renovating the Marion Barry Overpass. This joint project with Arkansas State University will create a direct trail connection between the university and downtown Jonesboro. We are investing in making Jonesboro more walkable, more rideable with our JBR trail system. The new JBR brand was envisioned, to JD Ranwater and other connectivity committee members, to both provide an identity for our system and to show that progress should be celebrated but not defended.

We should all stand united in making Jonesboro safer for all residents to enjoy. Taking pride in doing the right thing isn't always easy, though. There are plenty of naysayers who think pedestrian infrastructure is a waste, that buses, trolleys are worthless. And if a dollar spent doesn't directly benefit them, it's bad government. Cities don't design for one person, one special interest group, or a vocal minority, nor is Jonesboro about just you or me.

It's about all the residents. So to the naysayers who think pedestrian infrastructure is a waste of money, I say saving lives starts with investing in them, investing in mothers, fathers, children, grandparent, and friends who choose to have to navigate our community without a vehicle. They matter to me, and I know they matter to this city council. And I know we won't turn a blind eye to the basic needs of our community. Connectivity also means better connecting Jonesboro with other communities.

Our airport will soon open its doors on a new $6,000,000 terminal building. Our runways have been strengthened. They've been lengthened to handle larger planes and carry more passengers to and from Jonesboro. As a direct result of more than $20,000,000 in investment in our airport in the last four years, we received four commercial bids for air service this past year, two of which were jet service. So but connectivity isn't just about physically connecting people either.

It's also about sharing ideas, achievements, and connecting Jones Boro's story with other communities and potential future residents. Council, great cities set trends. This year, Jonesboro brought home three trendsetter awards. On a statewide level, we were recognized as trendsetting with our emergency medical dispatch system. The first of its kind Park Ranger program in the JBR connectivity system efforts.

Joy Fest was awarded the Arkansas Parks Association event of the year, and our first annual skirmish gravel cycle race was named festival of the year by the Arkansas Delta Byways. The downtown Jonesboro alliance won downtown revitalization award for the city of Jonesboro and was named volunteer city of the year or youth engagement by Engage Arkansas. That's a big deal. In Jonesboro, we do big things. And people from big areas and small ones, they see them.

Attend our festivals, and might I dare say they envy what they see going on here. But you know what? That's something for us to be proud of. Because when your city is being recognized across Arkansas, across the region, and across the nation when other communities are looking to us, for example. You know what?

Council, that's worth celebrating. Connectivity is also about how the government connects with residents to keep them informed. Our communications department processed 294 FOIA requests in JustFOIA last year and dozens more via email or in person. That's hundreds of hours spent researching relevant documents, reviewing and uploading them into a system for fulfillment. They filmed and produced 59 videos, 39 press releases, and created 36 community progress reports along with hundreds of public service announcements and covered in detail the Citizens Bank building project with regular updates.

So when we talk about overall city connectivity, public transit is also a foundational piece. We've seen all the new trolley buses we acquired in my first term. We've expanded that fleet though, and more are on the way. We've added routes, began a partnership with Arkansas State University to connect students with the community. We operate the Red Wolf Express to ferry people from downtown right to the front gates of home football games, and they're updating our bus shelters as well that y'all are aware of.

Now the future. Nothing we do or that any city does for that matter is universally agreed upon by every resident. All of us have ideas for what's best for the long term growth of our city. But contrary to how other cities and towns prepare for growth, we need public input. We want to grow Jonesboro together.

This past August, we funded playing Jonesboro. We kicked it off last month with an open house at Earl Bell. We had over a 100 members from the public that attended. We're hosting events and meetings, and a big one is happening this month in a form of a week long event at the Y, March 30 to April 3. Please participate.

This is an effort to show the open door and challenge the public to get them involved, to be a part of the solution, to help craft a blueprint, a blueprint to a smarter, safer, stronger city that belongs to all of us. So in conclusion, growth is exciting, but it's expensive. To be ready for growth to propel us rather than to burden us, it's going to require more investment, not just from the government, but from the community. It's more hospital beds, more homes, more roads, more entertainment venues, more businesses, more jobs, more vehicles. We have to be prepared.

Police presence, fire protection. It's gonna be expensive, and we need more of everything. The cost of doing business in the city continues to rise just like the cost of operating in the private market. In Jonesboro, when you look back ten years compared to today's number, it's eye opening. Police salaries are up 63% since 2015.

Firefighter salaries are up 52%. Concrete is up 25%. Asphalt is up 50%. Across the board, the price of drilling business climbs each year. At some point, soon, conservative budgeting simply won't be enough to meet the demands of a growing city with needs. We are past due a new police station. We need two new fire stations. We're spending more on road overlays than ever before. A council that barely keeps up with the needed maintenance. So to succeed, we must plan.

We must plan to invest our limited resources wisely, most importantly, together. Work together with our state, federal leaders for continued funding. Funding, work together with our wonderful chamber to attract jobs, and work together with Arkansas State University and ASU Newport to keep churning out a talented workforce. You know, we must work together together with our local schools, provide our children with the foundation needed for success as I have always said. If you can't see it, you can't be it.

If you can't see it, you can't be it. And if we don't allow our youth and our community to see it, then shame on us. We need to make sure that we work with charities and nonprofits serving those in need and work together with community and faith leaders to guide our journey with wise counsel. You know, I'm honored to serve alongside this city council for the way we represent this community. We don't always agree on every matter, and we shouldn't.

But a healthy debate of goals and thoughts is what drives new ideas. What's important is that we never lose sight of why we are here. That's to work together in a way that best serves the people of Jonesboro. I consider myself and the residents of Jonesboro very fortunate to benefit from the years of combined experience in municipal service present in this room. I've discussed a lot of numbers, stats, and financial figures this evening.

You know, it's a lot to process. There's a lot going on, but all those numbers numbers can add up to an overall total of one. One goal, one responsibility, to make Jonesboro the best city we can. I wanna thank each and every one of you for your continued support of our great city. Your friendship and your dedication will provide this community a bright future.

Thank you and God bless. Council, thank you for allowing me that time this evening. And next we'll move on to item number five on consent agenda.

Make a motion to adopt unless there's an item to be removed. Second.

We do have a motion on the floor to adopt. Any items to be removed? I don't see any. If you would, please cast your ballot. Doctor. Coleman. And that does carry. Next we will move on to item six, and these are items on new business. Ordinance on the first reading, Ordinance 26,006.

Move we suspend the rules and offer by title only. Second.

We have motion on

the floor.

In favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

An ordinance by the city of Jonesboro to place various traffic signs at designated locations is determined by the traffic control committee.

Any discussion by council? I don't see Anyone in council chambers? I don't see any as well. That will move on to its next reading. Now we'll move on to item number seven. These are items on unfinished business. We'll start with ordinance on the second reading, ordinance twenty six zero zero five.

Ordinance to vacate and abandon a drainage easement located in Lot 5 R of the second edition of Block C, Southern Hills, Jonesboro, Arkansas. Any discussion by council?

I don't see any. Anyone in council chambers? I don't see any as well. That'll move on to its next reading. Now we'll move on to ordinance twenty six zero zero seven.

An ordinance to amend chapter one seventeen known as the zoning ordinance providing for changes in zoning boundaries from R one to r s six for property located at 900 North Caraway Road as requested by Clouse Property Management LLC.

Do we have any discussion by council? I don't see any. Anyone in council chambers? Okay. I don't see as well. Alright. That will move on to its next reading. Now we'll move on to ordinances on the third reading. We do have one. That is ordinance 26,004.

An ordinance to amend chapter 117 known as the zoning ordinance providing for changes in zoning boundaries from r one to r s seven for property located at 1306 Charles Drive as requested by Weston Wagner.

Move to adopt.

Second. We have motion and second on the floor to adopt. Any discussion by council? Anyone in council chambers? I don't see any.

If you would, please cast your ballot. And that ordinance does carry. Council, next we will move on to item eight. These are city council or mayor report. I will begin tonight's comments as though you haven't heard me speak enough.

Recognizing though the unfortunate passing of Bruce Burrow. He died Thursday at the Flo and Phil Jones Hospice House in Jonesboro. Most of you knew Mr. Burrow. He was a renowned commercial real estate developer who chose to build his career in Jonesboro.

He was instrumental in the building of the mall, Turtle Creek, a project in which he took great pride. He built Walmart centers, hotels, and many other retail buildings. So it is not an exaggeration to say Bruce Burrow made an impact on Jonesboro and helped build the city that we live in today. Last week, I had the pleasure of welcoming the leadership Jonesboro class of 2026 to City Hall. We discussed city operations, future projects, and key initiatives in shaping Jonesboro.

The group engaged in a great question and answer session, discussing everything from community growth to economic from a city perspective. The group also met with the Jonesboro Police Department and Fire Department touring the facilities, viewing equipment and vehicles. You're never too old to be fascinated by fire trucks. All the while gaining close-up insight to public safety operations. We're proud to see these leaders learn more about our city works.

Thank you you to the regional chamber of commerce for fostering leadership and civic engagement. There were some well attended entertainment opportunities last week in support of our community clubs and foundations. The foundation of arts hosted an extreme karaoke night Friday and the city staff was represented by Cliff Nash who came away with second place prize. But I think the key is he had 30 city support supporters from the community there that are city employees. So that's the kind of support that our employees provide to other city employees.

I understand the rest of the crowd knew exactly who the city staffers were and supported him that night. Saturday night also marked the occasion of Jonesboro Junior Auxiliary's annual charity ball with more than 650 attendants and their auction. The event raises enough money to support many efforts in our community, including their own donation of 100,000 to our new park being built in East Jonesboro. It was a great time, and I was proud to have the pleasure of taking my daughter to the event. At this time, I would like Steve Pertea to come forward and take the podium to explain to everyone the current accounting processes of our city youth sports program. Steve?

Thank you,

Board

Directors the of the the of

Directors

and accounting process for the same. All U sports financial activities are presently being reviewed by the finance department and have been

the has working

on on the

19

and quarter quarter

stages of the transition, we reestablished was the audit contract service that was earlier being provided by Mike Burrows. Mike is a retired legislative auditor and former city of Jonesboro city accountant. He most recently provided internal audit review of select cash activities and audit of receipt records for the city. On lot We our employees and

on

proper controls, and verification of proper disposition. I want to go through an overview of several account groupings the of

Directors

center. Immediately during the transition, director of Sterns developed standard operating positions or procedures for his staff to follow relative to the handling of cash and cash activities within his department. These procedures provide for count verification, dual control, and have been expanded ability to account numerically. What I mean by that is via tickets, armbands, etcetera for event admission. At present, while it may be impractical to numerically account for all concession activities, this handling of cash still follows the verification and dual control measures that have been established.

All of these activities are reviewed by our internal auditor, Mike Burrows. We talk about withdrawals. Dual control measures are maintained throughout the establishment of the starting cash position. What I mean by that is you have a certain amount of starting cash that starts each event. The same starting cash balances are accounted completely through results.

Company's position position. Ball program has been for a number of years now. Check registers for contract worker payments are provided and reconciled to the bank records. Timesheets presently being used in lot the working a the the team and

team

These will be relating to event registration, credit card settlements, those types of things. All electronic activities are verified through the vendor portal activity detail and proper disposition is verified through the bank records, again confirmed by our city accountant or internal auditor rather. Let me kind of go over the accounting process itself. Reporting will be provided through the currently existing sports program cost center. Director Stearns has approved the establishment of four different sport grouping categories consisting of youth volleyball, youth basketball, youth soccer, and youth football and cheer.

Account general ledger accounts will be established for each. These general ledgers will account for direct costs of each for each sport. Indirect costs will also be accounted for by sport to the extent possible. Due to the seasonality of the majority of these programs and the overlap of park staff serving these sports programs, it may be impractical to account for all costs at the sport level. However, all year.

We sheet.

We

results. Directors have a of and to for through the city financials, budgeting will be developed with administration and not director Stern's input. A future budget amendment will be prepared for city council approval. Another key component of this transition is a review with legislative audit. Legislative auditors will be here March 9, next Monday, to begin the 2025 audit of the city's financials.

As youth sports accounting systems are developed, these practices and routines will be shared with them to seek their initial input on them. As far as a future process, current software services for most part activities are supported by the active software vendor. Director Stearns and staff are reviewing to see if the available equipment and process may be expanded to support youth sports as well. And my final comment, Mayor Copenhagen requested that at the same time expansion of the existing accounting opportunities. He has requested that the remaining reserve of the previous fund be set aside as restricted funding for future youth sports.

This fund will then be available as seed money for the growth of additional youth youth sports program. The alternative option is that this remaining reserve become part of the general fund. Very foundation We

very the the

this reserve was approximately $70,000

Thank you. Steve? Earlier today, I took part in the US Mayor's Conference panel meeting serving as a panelist. I had the opportunity to share information about our rail crossing project, which is making progress. If you recall, the rail crossing project is an information system that among other features helps our non e11 dispatchers route emergency response vehicles around road crossings that may be blocked by sharing ideas on how to improve their community, and so it was an honor to be a part of that panelist group.

Counsel, I hope you're able to take a minute to read the press release this week about Plan Jonesboro Project. I'm happy to see the strong turnout for the first meeting and the continued interest of the citizens participating in this thirty year planning project for setting priorities in the growth of the city. I have a few folks I'd like to recognize tonight for their achievements. First, there is Roger McKinney, who thoughtfully and faithfully is the caretaker of the Jonesboro Black History Museum for the Eboom Watson Center. He received the Living Legacy Award from Arkansas State University Living Legacy Program.

Also, Doctor. Charles Coleman, one of our own, was awarded the Edway Community Support Award at the recent Red Dress Gala in support of the Community Health Foundation. I also want to congratulate our employee of the month, Dennis Trinidad, from our IT department, and thank you for First Security Bank for sponsoring this program for the city. And lastly, I would like to say thank you to Donald Malone. I'd like to say publicly, I appreciate you taking on the challenges the last two years of communications.

It's It's a growing demand that we see change every day and it can be stressful in so many ways that the community doesn't appreciate the job that you did. We as a community want to say thank you to you publicly, and we wish you well on your second retirement. But more importantly, you're going to stay here in our community. You're going to be engaged, and that's what it's all about. So thank you for your commitment to the city of Jonesboro. Thank you, Donna. Now we move on to item nine. This is city council reports.

Mr. Street.

No thank you.

Mr. Miller. No thank you. Mr. Bryant.

A couple of things. Steve referenced the $70,000, I guess, that was left over from City Stars. So my question's more for miss Duncan. Do we have any concerns about doing anything with that before the indictment potential indictment or the end of the FBI investigation?

None have been expressed to us from the FBI. They actually also have an amount of cash, that they seized during their initial visit to the parks department that they are looking at trying to return to us. We're just waiting on that to occur.

And I'll say a couple of other things. I've got like three or four notes and I'll try to be quick because we've had a long meeting. I agree with the mayor on sidewalks and I appreciate your commitment to that because it is important and I can't remember the percentage of people in this community that don't drive but it's like a shocking percentage. Mean, Lee, okay, there we go. Mean, it's a really shocking number and we tend to, like you said, we tend to think about what we do and most of the people in this room probably have a car or two and we get around.

We don't think about others enough so I think that's a really good point. And I'll say too about the growth of the community. I spent the weekend in Little Rock and there was a headline in Little Rock this weekend that their fire department is so underfunded like the people are responding in their personal vehicles to calls because some of the fire trucks aren't working. So I think as we look long term, we're going to have challenges because the growth is coming. And then I think, two, we're up simultaneously against people's lack of trust in government in general, just not here, but just a national trend. And we see in Florida there's a trend to reduce property taxes. Granted, we don't get very much money for property taxes, primarily I guess police and fire pension. But I think there'll be challenges long term as we try to seek any other money. So I'll make those points. And I'll make two other points.

We were challenged, I guess I was gone in the last meeting so I guess it was the meeting before last. We were challenged to kind of look into some of the City Star stuff and a lot of people have and there's been a lot of FOI requests and I've tried to review some of them and poor Donna, I mean, there are a lot. I mean, I tried to pour through some of the requests and it's so much to review and I primarily looked at two, I guess, that others had requested. There was a two page summary from the Parks Department about people working tournaments and I think my concerns on that one was we didn't have records about who had worked the tournaments, you know, in this two page. So then that concerns me from a couple of different perspectives.

Just kind of from a Department of Labor perspective and from an overtime perspective and just the threshold of their salary employees, of course, that you can make work overtime and salary employees that you can't make work overtime based on certain thresholds. And so that was a concern for me on that one. And then the other and this was more like I think in kind of the Daniel Geary thousands of documents. Mean I don't know if I had a hundred hours if I could possibly review all of them but in doing the best I could to review them, there were so many invoices to City Stars in the past that went to city employee email addresses and had like the Earl Bell Community Center address on there. So I think as we go forward, we just need to make sure we all try to review those materials as we really try to acknowledge what happened in the past.

Thank you for your comments.

Doctor. Anthony Coleman.

Not much. Thank you, Mayor, for sharing today and to each of you. I literally just thought about this when councilmember L. J. Was sharing, and I just wanted to know, and we don't have to answer it today, but Carol, and you all just have to help me understand this. So we're taking over the City Stars thing, but then it was run by a nonprofit. And I just wanna make certain that we were legal.

We're not taking over profit status. The five zero one c three still exists and they own that.

Okay.

So all they did as a board of the non profit was transfer the money basically to the city of Jonesboro. I mean that's the easiest way to explain it. They transferred their financials to us so that we could take over that. But we don't have anything to do with the five zero

one c. Sure. But it's in their documentation that they

If there was any documentation, they transferred that to us. I haven't seen it. My understanding is that was limited as to what we got.

No, I'm saying even documents, so I'm including minutes that's saying, hey, we're run. I just wanna make sure we're we're legal.

Yeah. I mean, my understanding is their board voted to turn that over to us. That's what you know, before we considered accepting that money from them, we requested that their board voted to turn that over to us. My understanding is that occurred. And then beyond that, I don't know how much documentation we got from City Stars as far as what was happening but that's where we are. We mostly took over the financial part of it. Sure. And of course ultimately managing city youth sports. Yeah.

That's all. Thank you.

Mr. McLean.

I've got a couple. I've got a little bit of stuff that I need to want to visit about. A couple of things. One, from Steve's comments, where are we in terms of moving to either partial cashless in terms of youth sports? I know I had someone send me a picture that from a table from one of the events around town that was cash only. So how far out are we in terms of moving to a system where we don't only take

Jim, you've got a few minutes to kind of give us an update.

So working closely with IT currently to assess the equipment cost and the infrastructure we'll take to make sure there's stolen WiFi at all facilities. We put together our phase one program, which would just be the equipment cost. I can have that. I can gladly send that to you. Please. And then IT and I are working with Ritternets, some of the other various internet providers to see what the cost would be to truly create all our parks with solid WiFi.

Okay. And you think that's going be next thirty, sixty, forty five? How many days you think?

The first phase of the program, I can send that document to you in the morning. We're still waiting on a little bit of info from IT as well as from RitterNet to see what that cost would be to make sure there's enough Wi Fi at all the places to truly convert.

Jim, also going to the accountability at this point and I think Steve alluded to it as well, the checks and balances you currently have, I mean, you're obviously still dealing with cash, right? And I know it. I go every weekend as well. And so processes are in place.

Currently, the process of handling cash is very solid. There's multiple accountability trails, multiple checks and balances to make sure that cash is accounted for and each person gets some semblance of a receipt when they make that transaction either through a ticket, an armband or a pass card.

Few other questions. So I appreciate you number one sent that response from my email. But one in particular question I really feel like we need to get to the bottom of. And my question was, has the city looked into whether any employees have paid in cash at any time? You mentioned city employees did not receive cash compensation from the city of Jonesboro, which I understand that.

But I think beyond that, I think the follow-up I have is have you asked Parks and Rec employees have they been paid in cash in the past for work and events or in the form of Christmas bonuses? We have I have. Okay. If you, however you get back to me, really would appreciate it via email. And then I think also, and a few other questions I'll have here in a second that we should have the council as a whole should know the responses.

So a couple other things. As Mr. Bryant said, you encouraged some citizens to look things up. Part of some of the information that was sent to me as it relates to City Stars goes to our city parade, the Christmas parade that was held. One of the biggest questions, I think one of the biggest concerns I have is were you aware that Christmas parade was run through City Stars and all the financial transactions were run through that account.

I don't know if you knew that. Did you know or? Q. Was there I guess who made that call and why would we do that midst of a lot of concerns and questions about the finances?

May I? Mr. McClain, I think if I will indicate this, I will confirm this. Through the A and P Commission, they funded $500 to the Christmas parade fund through City Stars. There was a check that I saw in the account that where that was processed by the parade committee. So that's the only thing parade related that I'm aware of. I can confirm that.

Okay. Would, yeah, like I said, I'd appreciate it. Same thing, whatever responses May you guys

I ask a question? What information do you have that I could reference to see that?

Yeah, so I'll send you some information.

So that I can verify.

For sure, I'll send you some information that was requested again from a FOIA request that shows City Stars, the parade money was run through the City Stars account. So I'll send that to you. I'm not

familiar with that for you.

Yeah, go ahead. Yeah,

kind of thinking back on this, if we look back in time, of course, the parade was going through a position of they didn't exactly know who was going to take it over when the Foundation of Arts kind of stepped aside. And so there was a committee that was formed for the parade. And that committee chose to engage with City Stars because there had to be a nonprofit to be able to work that through since it was going to be related to, I guess, donations or account fees or whatever type of entry fees that they had. And that was a decision that was made by the, I guess you'd say, the showrunners of the parade. I know that Heather Talley's been heading that up.

I would say on any questions regarding to why those decisions were made or anything as far as the accounting goes that Heather would be would obviously have some information on that but as far as the city involvement we don't sponsor parades. We worked with them to help make sure they had what they needed to be able to do it. That would be

I think, like I said, Brian, the biggest concern I have is we ran it through now, guess I don't understand why we could not run the funds through the city, just directly to the city.

Well, just a clarification, we didn't do anything. The city parade had committee that worked with City Stars. As far as I know, was no money from the party that ever came into the city coffers. We just assisted them with event request and some special event codes and all that kind of stuff.

So I like I said, you want me to shoot you, I will. But like I said, would love for you to respond to the full council. I don't know what we need to do, Carol, to be compliant with FOIA, I do feel like everybody, we all need to get to the bottom of things.

I'm not sure what the question is about FOIA.

So if

he responds, if he sends the email to the questions I've asked tonight, if he sends it to the full council, what does he need to do to make sure we're compliant?

I mean, think that FOIA allows you to provide information. So I think that that would be considered background information that could be provided. I mean, obviously anybody that wants a copy can request it, I'm sure they will. But I don't think there's anything wrong with providing background information to the council. We just don't need to have an open discussion via email I understand about that that.

I will say that initially, just to answer the question about employees being paid with cash, initially, we were very cautious about asking any employees any questions after our first meeting with the FBI because of the fact that it was an ongoing investigation and they were going to be initiating interviews with employees. And we felt it was important to step back from asking any questions that were involved in that investigation and allow them to do their investigation. We didn't wanna do anything. Should that investigation or that questioning implicate anyone else, we wanted to not have interfered with that. We wanted to allow the FBI to do their investigation.

So part of that decision was after our first meeting that that we were not gonna ask any questions until the FBI conducted their investigation. So I don't know where we are in that now. We can certainly reach out to the investigator and make sure that we're good to ask our own questions at this point. But I do want y'all to understand why, after I met with, you know, director Sterns and I were were in a meeting with the investigator, and and we did not wanna do anything as far as asking questions about cash payments that would in any way impede his investigation of that issue in case there were other people that he needed to take a look at, if that makes sense.

Yeah. Yeah. It makes it makes sense. But since then, there's been no conversations

As far as I know, he's he's not finished with his investigation until it gets to an indictment or a grand jury or however they proceed with that. So we have just let that part of investigation be handled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation so as not to to interfere. But I can certainly reach out to him and say, we've had these questions from counsel. Is there any concern now with us? I don't know if he's conducted every interview he intends to conduct. I know he's conducted quite a few. I don't know if there's still some that he's working on but I can certainly reach out and ask that question and see if we are good then to interview our employees and ask those questions. We just did not want to impede his investigation in any way.

Okay, thank you.

Mr. Gibson?

Just real briefly, I don't have

a timeline nailed down just yet but I will be calling a specially called public services meeting in the very near future. Thank

you. Mr. Moore?

Mayor, what was the timeline on the repairs on the streets downtown from CWL's sewer? We've got the meeting

to Thursday morning at 09:00. So I'll get that information to you expediently. So they're ready to move forward.

I think most people downtown are

ready to move forward. We are too. That's all.

Doctor. Charles Goldman. Mr. Emerson.

Nothing at this time, thank you.

All right, that's the end of city council reports. Next, we'll move on to public comments and these are limited to five minutes in the audience. If anyone would like to come forward, please state your name and address.

Matt Daniel, 2203 Doral Drive, Jonesboro. For the record, I voted for mayor Copenhaber. I believe he earned his seat in the election cycle much like his actions have earned the seat that he is sitting in tonight. Also, for the record, I'm a first time speaker in front of this council. I may have been in council a handful of times in my lifetime, including once when I received a key to the city, which I still proudly display in my home.

I've never had a desire to stand at this podium. I'm not here tonight because I enjoy this. I'm here because clarity matters. I'm aware at the conclusion of this meeting, I may be painted in a negative light, viewed as an enemy, or even targeted. That would be unfortunate because as I can promise you, I have no desire to be any of the three.

In fact, the opposite. I would like to point out that my resignation letter was a stand alone document sent to the revelation foot Revolution Football Club and came almost a year ago. I deferred both to the city's leadership and vision intentionally. I made no accusations, mentioned no titles, and certainly no singular person by name. That was also intentional on my on my part out of respect at that time.

Yet, here we are. This conversation is heavy, and I recognize that. I wanna be clear for any backlash that may come. I speak for myself as a single person. I do not speak for my wife and children, my parents, or any extended family, or any long lasting relationships that I have in the city where I was born, raised, and chose to return my family as a positive contributor in a place that I love dearly. This burden tonight is mine and mine alone. Leadership requires hard decisions and the willingness to do to address what other would rather avoid. Let me begin with this. I'm not here to discuss criminal liability. The FBI will determine that, and I respect that process completely.

What I am here to discuss is governance. In his very deliberate comments to this council on February 3, the mayor closed his statement with this. I won't change my integrity, and I won't lie. Integrity and truth. At that same meeting, the mayor referenced my name and my resignation letter and publicly stated that parts of it were incorrect.

Accuracy matters to me. So I reviewed my letter. I reviewed the proposal and also other documentation, and I stand by what I wrote, every word of it. The mayor stated that the proposal we presented at his request, by the way, sought 500,000 public funding free from city oversight. That is not accurate.

Plainly, not true. The proposal clearly stated initial funding would be established in part by transfer of funds already existing within the City Stars Booster Club, and that the city would have full visibility and to into accounts and the ability to audit at any time. Clearly, not free from city oversight. The mayor stated it was an incorrect belief that the city controlled aspects of the City Stars budget. My actual words were that city employees control the budget.

And as you all know, the parks director, a city employee, did in fact control the city's budget and operations. It appears it may have been always been set up to run that way. In my letter, I wrote the city was committing a large portion, which has a subjective understanding of the proposal number to facility programming and staffing. The mayor stated that the city contributed a definitive zero towards City Stars. Yet, three city employees were paid to work City Stars leagues and events.

That was their jobs. One of those being soccer, of course. Those positions exist on city payroll. Additionally, they had part time sports staff that worked for the city and work conducting youth sports, formerly City Stars. That is also documented, both included in an email from the department head on February 9, six days after the mayor's statements, a direct contradiction. I'm not here to debate intent. I'm not here to assign motive. I'm here to simply clarify the record. But the examples above do not stand alone. The city is publicly maintained that the City Star has operated independently and outside of oversight.

Yet contracts, payroll involvement, event insurance filings, and operational interweaving shows a far more And also the team. To accounting, it falls solely on our governance to make sure the organizations or businesses we have relationships with are healthy, and they are honoring their portion ethically and with good faith. If the contract or relationship is unhealthy, break it. If there is no contract, even better, just start anew. Individually, each of these might be explained away.

Collectively, they reveal something larger. When public statements do not align with written records, when oversight appears blurred, when independence is claimed, but entanglement exists.

I'll let you go ahead and continue.

Thank you. I appreciate it.

I

I'm happy to ask for a motion. I understand. I don't wanna be here. I just feel like it's proper.

I'm fine.

I'll be brief. When oversight appears blurred, when independence is claimed but entanglement exists, that is not a technical disagreement. That is a governance issue. Regardless of indictment, regardless of any proposal, regardless of personalities, leadership is not measured by whether We're very proud of been taken. Instead, our leadership's compass led us in a different direction entirely, deflect and defend.

Leaders find solutions, not excuses. Public confidence has eroded. For what it's worth, I've never FOI'd anything. I don't even know how the process works. These documents I mentioned were either part I was either a part of or they found their way to me, and I have them for you tonight. And I can assure you there are more topics and even departments where current concerns exist. Mayor Copenhagen, I have lost all confidence in your leadership for our city. If this is how you this is not personal for me. This is how you operate in your personal life. It would be no business of mine or anyone else's, but we can't afford this for city operations.

It is based on documented inconsistencies and not only how this matter has been handled, but also coupled with other areas not mentioned tonight. I find your leadership misleading and deceitful, purposely neglectful, and ultimately unethical. Our city's leadership is becoming more and more disturbing with every spoken word. And I believe our city is stronger than what is being reflected by our leadership. But this moment is not solely about the mayor.

And I recognize the authority that surrounds me. Council, you are the safeguard system of checks and balances. The issue before you is not criminal guilt. The issue before you is leadership, fitness, and public trust. The longer uncertainty persists, the more damage is done to city employees, to families, to volunteers, and to the reputation of our community. Silence, inaction, deferral, and accountability are all decisions. This community needs you. If you have the confidence in this administration, say so. If you do not, say so. Jonesboro deserves clarity. Thank you for your extended time. I have these documents for you. I'll pass out.

Is there anyone else in the audience that would like come forward and speak? See so, we'll move on to item 11, that's adjournment.

So moved. Second. Do you have

a motion on the floor? All in favor, aye. Aye. Any opposed?