City Council - Regular Meeting

We'll go ahead and get this evening's city council meeting started. We'll go ahead and, I'll lead in the pledge of allegiance and councilman Porter is gonna lead us in invocation. Would, please stand.

I pledge

nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please pray with me. Dear father in heaven, we come to you with grateful hearts for your bountiful blessings. We thank you for family, friends, and neighbors. We thank you for selfless public servants who work tirelessly for the benefit of our community. Please grant us understanding and wisdom wisdom as we tend to the people's business. To paraphrase Micah six eight, help us to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with you. This we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen.

If you would counsel, please go ahead and mark your attendance, please. And I'll go down. We do have a special presentation this evening. Well, good evening, counsel. It's always privilege to stand before you.

But this evening, as we recognize each year, our public transit system, last year, we did an appreciation as well. But tonight, we're presentation by our new name, Gojo. But importantly, I want to recognize all the city employees with the transit public system. On behalf of the city, I'm proud to recognize and celebrate each of you on National National Transit Employee Appreciation Day. Your dedication, professionalism, and commitment to public service play an essential role in keeping our community connected, and your teamwork is the heartbeat behind community driven.

Whether you are behind the wheel, dispatching routes, maintaining vehicles, or supporting operations behind the scenes, your work ensures that residents can reach jobs, schools, health care, and many opportunities that our city has to offer. Reliable transit is a cornerstone of a thriving community, and it would not be possible without your work and dedication. Public transit employees often work early mornings, late evenings, and through challenging conditions such as inclement weather to serve others. I appreciate that, Lee. Your willingness to go the extra mile reflects the spirit of service that makes our city so strong, to help people get where they need to go in a safe way and dependable.

And in doing so, you make a meaningful difference in countless lives within our community. So today, we pause to recognize and say thank you for the role that you play in Jonesboro. Please know that your efforts are supported not only today but throughout the year. On behalf of our residents and city leadership, thank you for your commitment to excellence and for the pride you bring to public transit service in Jonesboro. Thank you so much. We appreciate y'all.

Good evening, mayor and council members. I'd like thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight about the rebrand of the city's public transit system. As we evaluated the future of transit in Jonesboro, one thing became very clear. Many people in our community were either not aware of the service or did not realize it is a resource available to the entire city by the city. Public transportation is not intended to serve only a small segment of the population.

It is a public service meant to support the mobility, workforce access, and daily needs of our entire community. Because of that, we felt it was important to create a brand that was more visible, more recognizable, and more clearly connected to the city itself. The Gojo brand helps accomplish that by directing by directly tying the system to Jonesboro and creating a the that. We're

We're

to be immediately recognize to it as a service provided by the city. This rebrand also strengthens the identity of transit as a department of the city and helps ensure that the work being done by our team is more visible to the public we serve. By having a consistent and recognizable brand across vehicles, bus stops, shelters, and digital platforms, we can better communicate that this is a city service designed to benefit the entire community. Another important reason for this effort is modernization. As we continue to evaluate our routes, technology, and service delivery, the system must evolve to operate more efficiently and respond to how people move around the city today.

A refreshed identity allows us to introduce improvements, whether those are operational changes, technology upgrades, or service adjustments, in a way that clearly signals progress and growth. This rebrand is not simply about a new name or a logo. It is about positioning the transit system for the future, expanding our reach, improving visibility, modernizing our operations, ensuring that public transportation continues to serve the residents of Jonesboro as effectively as possible. We do appreciate the council's continued support as we work to make transit a more visible, accessible, and valuable service for the entire community. Thank you.

So I wanted to talk a little bit today about the new vision for public transit. So one of the things I handed out a while ago was our map. Our route map not only has our map for all of the different routes, but it also has inside that our mission statement. That mission statement clearly defines our goals. It talks about who we are and where we want to go.

Also in there is our vision. That's helped there to help clearly define our direction and tell you how we're going to get there. We also wanted to make everything clear for how we operate. So included in your map is also rules to write to help clearly understand what the expectations are whenever you ride public transit. This is not just an external objective.

We're also working to bring these same ideas and goals to our department as a whole. With these goals, we have already begun to make some impactful improvements to our service. And one of those is our long awaited app. And I'd like to bring Ryan up to discuss that, please.

Good evening council members, good evening mayor. I'm Ryan Brazier, I'm the marketing coordinator for Gojo. And like Lee said, this has been long awaited but before I get into it, I would like to thank all of our beta testers that helped us develop this. Ann Williams was also one of those beta testers, so thank you very much. But yeah.

But anyway, the app has been long awaited and long needed. It's going to give us a new way and our riders a new way to look at live bus information, excuse me, and live stop information. All of the maps you can clearly see where the buses are and what stops they'll get to next. It also has a plan a trip feature. That feature is going to allow new residents in Jonesboro or people who aren't quite as familiar with the transit system to put in their starting location and where they want to go, and that'll tell them how far they need to walk to their closest bus stop, how long the ride is going to be, and whether or not they need to transfer buses at our transfer station.

That being said, I also have a demo prepared for you guys so we can actually see how the app works instead of me just sitting here talking about it. So introducing the Let's Gojo app. Whenever you enter the home screen, you'll be able to see the stop that's closest to your location and how long you're going to be waiting for that bus at that stop. If you click that and then click the more button, you'll actually be able to see the stop's entire schedule for the rest of the day. On this, you'll be able to see what routes hit that stop.

So, this case, the Municipal Building blue route is going to be hitting it, and then you'll be able to see that it's hitting it about every hour. And now let's go check out the plan a trip section. So you hit the menu, you click plan a trip, and it will take you to a trip home menu. You start putting your starting location, so in this case the municipal center, and then I put a state and we're going to head over to the student union. You get to then choose some other options and details like if you want to leave by a certain time or you want to arrive by a certain time, you can put that.

And then you can pick if you don't want to walk very far. We've got options for that because this is the public transit system, not the public walking system. Once you get everything situated and everything that you're ready to go, you click the go button. Here you're going to see all the different options for the trips that you can take that will get you there at the time you specify. So some of them have more walking than others.

Some of them will have different transfers. It just depends on the trip you're wanting to take. So I chose the first one, and whenever you choose your trip, you're gonna get a map that tells you the whole route that you're gonna take. It'll tell you each stop, each route, if you need to transfer all the information that you need. And then if you need some more direction, that's where the bottom half of the screen comes into play.

And we're gonna look at it for a little bit longer until we get to go look at our live route maps. So same menu, you hit map. And when you click that, it'll take you to all of our live maps. So you can see right now all of them are visible, but if you hit that little routes tab there on the side, you can filter the routes that you want to be shown. So I chose route, the green one.

So now you get to see all of that specific route. You can pick any stop on it. You can look at the bus capacity, when it's due at the next bus stop, and then when it will hit that stop subsequently. Yeah. So that's the Let's Go Joe app.

We think it's gonna be a super impactful tool for our current and future writers. I don't see how having more information in this case is ever a bad thing. So once again, thank you Ann Williams for helping us beta test it. Thank you for the rest of our testers. And now I would like to talk about our social media a little bit.

So with the rebranding, we have developed a new Facebook page. We are Gojo on Facebook, so we'd love it if you guys gave us a follow and checked out the content we're posting. This is gonna be everything that Jet was posting from route changes, closures, special events that we're hosting or helping out with. But also right now, we're still celebrating the rebrand. I mean, we're posting about how the new logo and the different aspects on what it means.

So, a lot of fun information coming out right now and we hope everyone gives it a follow. We're also pushing the hashtag community driven on it because we want to be more in the community. We want to have that community driven aspect. In the past, we wanted to keep it in the present. We also want to keep driving our community forward.

So we're pushing that hashtag. So if you're doing anything with Gojo, post something, put the hashtag on it, we'll see it, maybe share it in our story. And then our new social media campaign that we're starting up is where do you Gojo? If you're riding on a Gojo bus, a transit van, or you're even at an event where we have one of our trolleys, take a picture, hashtag it, where do you go, Joe? Put the location. We'd love to see where people are riding our buses and spread spread the community even further. That being said, I would like to also invite Rachel Cook up to talk about expansions.

Good evening. My name is Cook, and I am the field operations supervisor at Gojo, which means I handle most daily operations, if not all. First, I'd like to say we have worked very hard over the past few months to build a foundation that shows we are community driven for expansion and for growth. We're working on building up our staff to do that. We are hiring CDL drivers.

We are also hiring people that are looking to obtain their CDL or the required passenger endorsement that is needed to drive one of our buses. We do provide in house training for the CDL and the required passenger endorsement and while we do offer training, it does take some time. This isn't something they can just walk in and we put them in a bus. Our current service that we are running is four routes, Monday through Friday, 5AM to 7PM, and Saturday, 9AM to 4PM. And we currently have one trolley on campus that runs 9AM to 3PM, Monday through Friday.

We are expecting to have two trolleys on campus from 5AM to 7PM by the end of second quarter. We currently have Red Wolf 1 and Route 17 that provide all day service to the campus. In addition, the addition of Red Wolf 2 will provide an average wait time of fifteen to thirty minutes on campus for students, faculty, and staff. To utilize the A State Loop that gets them from one of the campus to the other. We've also been in discussion of adding an extension to the Walmart Neighborhood Market on Creek Drive which would give those that needed a direct route from campus to groceries or necessities.

With the A state route expanding that gives us the ability to expand our other routes that do not have access to the fixed route service currently. Those routes will include seventeen, twenty seven, 37, 43, and 53. We are still building, planning, evaluating those routes to provide the most efficient service that we can. Expanding to five routes will allow for timing improvements which will hopefully cut the wait time down to thirty minutes on average for each route. With those changes, Route 17 will no longer hit campus.

It will then focus on Hilltop, which will take fifty three who now covers Hilltop, and they'll focus on the industrial district which hit MLK, Ray Street, and Phillips Drive and that will cut down the wait time for individuals trying to get to work or get home from work. With those adjustments to Route 17, they still will hit the Walmart on Highland. These adjustments will provide decreased wait times for our passengers that in the past have had to wait up to an hour. These changes go hand in hand with getting our trolleys on campus full time and we're aiming to end for the end of second quarter or early third quarter in getting all of our five routes and our two trolley routes. Works planning to expand and rearrange our routes to provide service to areas of Jonesboro that do not currently have easy access to public transit.

We have added Greensboro Village on Hilltop which give those that live at the landing access to the rest of the city and also the other parts of town, ability to utilize the businesses like the social and the Theatre. We currently do not have a bus stop necessarily close to the revenue office. On Southwest Drive and to remedy that, we're expanding Route 43 which will hit Jonesboro High School, the Bart Park, and the Helping Hands Food Pantry on West Highland. Along with 43, Route 27 will be rerouted to travel down South Culverhouse and to Southwest Drive which will provide more possibilities for our riders to access all the businesses down Southwest Drive. Route 27 will also extend down West Nettleton with a bus stop in front of Annie Camp.

With those added stops on and around Southwest Drive, we are going to remove a bus stop at church and campus and no one wants to hear that we're taking away a bus stop but a lot of our passengers that utilize that stop are going to the food pantry, are going to the revenue office, are going to Jonesboro High School. So, we are eliminating our passengers having to cross Southwest Drive in order to get to those places. We are also relocating our bus stop at Monroe at Union Park. Currently, it is on the Monroe Side Of Union Park and it will move to the Union Side Of Union Park. Another addition that we are adding hopefully and very excited for is our parks route.

This proposed route would connect downtown to Craig Head Forest Park. This will give students, tourists, residents, a direct connection from downtown, the entertainment district to our largest park. This route is still in development so we're not sure yet on what the average wait time will be but our goal is for a thirty minute wait time. We're projecting that this parks route will go live by fall. We want to make it very clear that we are always talking, always planning, always evaluating how we can be better and provide a better service for the city and with that, there are always possibilities for extra additional stops and if you have no questions for me, I will hand it back to Lee to discuss more new items we have coming.

So, I wanted to take just a quick moment and talk about some of the items that we have already talked about previously and give you an update on where those are. So, currently, our shelter project is still currently. It's it's ongoing. We did order 45 shelters. Two of which well, we're putting 37 locations. Two of those, however, are going to be doubles. That means there are two shelters side by side. We are putting one of those at Parker Park and we have one of those at Bill's. This is giving us 27 locations that currently have shelters that are going to get that enhancement. This is also going to add 10 new locations to our service that were not sheltered previously.

And then that will give us some spare shelters that we're going to be reviewing and looking at to see where we can utilize those in different areas. Of course, one of the steps that we have to do with this is the ADA improvements if there are any needs for that in order to make sure that they are completely accessible. And then also to get electricity ran to those locations for the upcoming enhancements that we're putting on that. We currently have six shelters left to place and we are reviewing additional locations for those six spare shelters that we have, one of which of course will be considered as Cricket Forest Park. With these new shelters comes some LED lighting for

over I'll

I'll

it

bus that is approaching. And then when the bus approaches and becomes imminently approaching, it will pulse to let those riders at the bus stop and let people close by know that the bus is getting very close. They need to quickly get to the bus stop. Also with this is going to be the shelter signage. That shelter signage you can see on here as well, that is going to show the arrival time of the next bus and also the time or what that bus is.

So that way you'll know in advance. There will be some accommodations and enhancements that will be put into the full shelter. One of which will be an ADA accommodation for text to speak if that is needed and then also some opportunities for additional languages like Spanish language if that is needed as well. Our transfer center is also going to get some enhancements during this project as well. So once we start putting all of those media boxes up, we will see some display signage go up at the transfer center as well for tracking.

That tracking system will be similar to what you see at the airports, kind of letting you know what buses are out, what buses are running, what the timings are for them, and when they'll arrive at the transfer center next. Those will also have those same enhancements to those. Another thing that we have going on that we did go through council recently was our digital fare collections. That's our tap to pay, swap to pay process. Thank you all for approving that.

We have that project starting at the April. And what that will allow is for all of the buses to move away from a cash only option to be able to go to be able to accept credit card payments, whether that be a customer from out of town who's swapping their credit card, or if that's a customer who's a regular rider who wants to get a reloadable card that they can purchase and then fill up at their need. That will also allow them to not only fill that card here at City Hall, but also to be able to go to some retail locations to add funds onto their card for use as well. And then one of the last things we have is some of our enhanced fleet. We do have one item on the agenda today for some vans, but we've also gone through for some buses.

These new buses are a lower floor bus than what we've used before. One of the benefit of that is that there's no more steps going up into the vehicle. It is almost level with the curb. And for any that do need it, there is a ramp as opposed to a lift to be able to get any mobility devices in or those that need that added assistance to give them easy access. Another improvement on this is for driver safety that if you look at the image here, you can see the driver has room to exit the driver seat into the vehicle as opposed to exiting out into traffic to walk around the vehicle to assist any people that may need assistance.

That's just another increased safety piece that we're going to be able to do moving forward with that. And if that's all I've got, if anyone does have any questions, we'd be happy to be answer that. We do have some additional maps for anyone in the audience that may want one after the council meeting. And then of course, we have our scannable logo or yeah, logo on screen the if you wanted to download the app. Does anyone have any questions?

Lee, thank you very much and I appreciate your team. Give them a round of applause for that presentation. Thank you. I also had a presentation that was gonna be led this evening as well by our engineering department, but Craig's had to unfortunately step out for a funeral service to attend. And so with that, I think Councilman Moore, did you get your request on the roads?

Yes, I did. I appreciate that. I asked at the last meeting for a road list and Tracy gave it to me, so I'm good to go.

Alright. Good deal. I think it's important too, counsel, just real quick, Jim, if you would come forward and just kinda give us, we have meetings on Monday morning with all the directors and they last quite a while but I think it's important that the community realize, we're kicking the season off. Jim, you've got a lot going on. So just real quick, give us a real wrap up with things.

Well, we're in our slow season. We have youth basketball going on. We're in third week. We have almost 1,000 kids signed up. We're playing 37 games every Saturday at the three community centers.

We had a friendly soccer tournament this past weekend with about 14 teams that came to Jonesboro and played. We had eight man tackle football this weekend out of Joe McCampbell on the turf field, semi pro tackle football. Southside softball had the most recent tournament, had 28 teams on the youth side and six teams on the adult side. This past weekend at Southside, many comments were made about Southside, this biggest crowd they've seen in years. This next weekend, we have a high school team Friday and Saturday, high school tournament, 48 teams signed up in Southside.

Shooting Sports Complex had the greatest weekend in a long time. We had an ATA Trap Tournament with 200 participants. We had a three d archery tournament with 38 participants, and we had a 22 long rifle tournament with 20 participants this past weekend. So just a short version on our slow season. In April, we're gonna double all that up.

Thanks, Jim. Appreciate it very much. Right, counsel, that's the end of special presentations. We'll move on to item number five, consent agenda.

Move to adopt unless changes are noted.

Second. We remove twenty six thousand and twenty eight.

Asked to remove 26.028. All right. Any other?

I'll amend my motion to reflect that.

And I'll amend my second.

Okay. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? We'll go ahead and discuss resolution twenty six zero two eight.

Resolution authorizing the city of Jonesboro to enter into a contract to leave up lease office space for e nine one one administration administrative staff and amend the fiscal year twenty twenty six budget. Whereas the following whereas following the closure of the nonreinforced portion of the Justice Complex e nine one one administrative and training staff have been temporarily housed in open open office space in multiple areas at City Hall. And whereas nine one one administrative staff seek a longer term office arrangement that allows for more efficient communication, training needs, and general usage space. And whereas new staffing has been hired and office spaces currently occupied by nine one one administration are now needed by other department staff, and whereas it has been determined that it is more cost effective to rent a temporary space rather than repair the damage Justice Complex building until the new nine one one center is completed, whereas research has been performed and the space proposed has been identified as the best option in regard to pricing layout and location, whereas the unit is located at 624 South Main and includes approximately 1,700 square feet that includes office space, a conference room for training, private restrooms, and a break room area.

Whereas the proposed lease initial term is six months with the ability for the city to renew under the same terms at a rate of 2,300 per month. Whereas in order to support the lease payments, moving cost, and miscellaneous expenses associated, a fiscal year twenty twenty six budget amendment of $25,000 is requested, be it resolved by the city council of the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas that section one, city council approves the lease contract attached to this resolution with Continental Limited Partnership. Section two, the city council hereby approves a $25,000 amendment to the e nine one one fiscal year twenty twenty six budget. Section three, the mayor of Copenhagen city clerk April Leggett are hereby authorized by the city council for the city of Jonesboro to execute all documents necessary to effectuate the agreement.

Counsel, if I can before, I appreciate you removing that. I'd like if it's okay with council to go ahead and table this to the next meeting. We're looking at another possibility.

Drummer. Motion.

Second. Motion on the floor.

For how long?

Next meeting.

To the next meeting.

I didn't hear the motion. Was it a motion to postpone temporary until the next meeting?

Yes. Okay.

We do have a first and a second on that. All in favor of council say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Next, we'll move on to resolutions removed from consent agenda. It's resolution twenty six zero one eight.

Resolution requesting free utility services from City Water and Light for a traffic signal. Whereas city of Jonesboro is requesting that city water and light provide free utilities at the following location, 356 U Pleasant View Drive traffic signal. Now therefore be it resolved by city council for the City of Jonesboro, Arkansas that section one, city water and light be requested by this resolution to provide free utilities to the location listed above. Section two to permit such services to be provided without charge, city of Jonesboro hereby affirms to city water and light that the ultimate use of CWL utilities so provided is now and shall remain a use or purpose which the city is engaged in as part of its governmental or proprietary functions under authority to it by state law.

We have any discussion by council? Anyone in council chambers? Chambers? I don't see any. If you would, please go ahead and cast your ballot.

Was there a motion?

Sorry. Motion. We have a motion.

I make a motion to approve. Second.

I'd ask

to be recused from voter discussion, mayor.

So noted. All right. I'll ask that again. Any discussion by council? Anyone in council chambers? I don't see any. If you would cast your ballot. That resolution does carry. Now council will move on to the next resolution, twenty six zero one nine.

Just thinking that. Did we? Did we vote on the consent agenda? Nope. I was just thinking that. I was but I wasn't gonna interrupt. I'm gonna we need to back up and vote on the consent agenda other than one that was removed. Did a voice vote on the one that was removed from the consent agenda. I don't believe you voted on the actual consent agenda.

We did have a motion on the floor.

You did have a motion in a second. Motion on the floor. Alright. Here. It was April this time.

Okay. The consent agenda does carry. Now we're gonna move back to twenty six zero one nine.

Resolution requesting free utility services from City Water and Light for bus shelters, whereas the city of Jonesboro is requesting that City Water and Light provide free utilities at the following location. 1418 U East Washington Avenue, 200 U Creff Avenue, 900 U West Monroe Avenue, 301 U South G Street, 621 U South G Street, 1421 U West Neddleton Avenue, 315 U West Oak Avenue, 1210 U South Church Street, 1003 U East Matthews Avenue, 1301 U South Caraway Road, 1737 U South Caraway Road, 1834 U Grant Avenue, 2405 U East Neddleton Avenue, 1500 U N North Church Street, 2404 U Ray Street, 1900 U Letteret Drive, 5504 U Kruger Drive, 2601 U Richardson Drive, 2904 U Phillips Drive, 2608 U Fair Park Boulevard, 2106 U East Johnson Avenue, 22 220 U North Main Street.

Not done.

2028 U North Church Street, 2410 U North Church Street, 1005 U Belt Street, 1435 U Belt Street, 2001 U Belt Street, 1904 U East Johnson Avenue, 300 U Carson Street, 200 U Kate Street, 2046 U Century Boulevard, 401 U Union Street, 301 U West Highland Drive, 125 U Forest Park Drive, 3800 U Rice Street, 501 U West Highland Drive, 316 U West Washington Avenue, 1751 U West Neddleton Avenue. Now therefore be it resolved by the city council for the City of Jonesboro, Arkansas that section one, city water and light be requested by this resolution to provide free utilities to locations listed above. Section two to permit such services to be provided without charge. City of Jonesboro hereby affirms to city water and light that the ultimate use of CWL utilities so provided is now and shall remain a use of purpose which the city is engaged in as a part of its governmental or proprietary functions under authority to it by state law.

Move to adopt. Second. We do have a motion on the floor. You need to take your breath.

I'm good.

A little bit.

Any discussion by counsel? That's gonna be recused on that too, Mayor.

Okay. So noted. Question. Is the U in there just because it's utilities? Yes. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah.

I don't know.

I've never addressed a letter that way.

I'll just. Right.

It's an address with

bit a

a a a

stops will have a meter to run get their electricity. And so instead of giving it an actual address, you assign a U so that nine eleven emergency services know that it's a utility address and not an actual home address.

Okay.

Thank you, Darrell.

I learned something today.

I learned something new every day.

All right. Any questions from the audience? I don't see any. If you would please go ahead and cast your ballot, counsel. All right. And that does carry. All right. Counsel, now we move on to resolution twenty six zero two four. Oh. Go ahead, Carol. I was just gonna make sure that we do have mister Rowe on

He is on Zoom.

He is on Zoom. Okay.

Resolution by the city resolution by the Jonesboro City Council to accept an offer to settle existing liens and end dual litigation efforts between the city of Jonesboro and Laurel Park LLC. Whereas Laurel Park LLC representatives have made an offer to settle a lien established by the Jonesboro City Council resolution twenty five one zero six for demolition cost of a structure located at or near 100 West Washington Avenue, commonly known as Citizens Bank, whereas a settlement offer of a $110,000 has been presented for consideration. And whereas upon acceptance of the offer and certification of funds received has been completed, the city of Jonesboro would terminate the lien claims by the city on Parcel 01 Dash 144183 Dash 42300. Now therefore be it resolved by city council of the city of Jonesboro that section one, city of Jonesboro, Arkansas hereby authorizes the settlement of the lien established by resolution twenty five one zero six in exchange for payment of a $110,000 by Laurel Park LLC. Section two, upon certification of funds received by the city, the city of Jonesboro were removed.

Currently, claims held by the city on Parcel Number 01 Dash 144183 Dash 42300. Section three, mayor and city clerk are hereby authorized by the city council for the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas to execute all documents necessary to effectuate the proposed settlement.

Move to adopt. Second. We have motion on the floor and a second. Have we had any discussion, council?

Just want to make certain that I get this and I was just writing down and y'all can correct me if I'm wrong. We spent over $3,000,000 The land is worth over 300,000 We got an offer of 110,000 for the land to remove the liens minus the attorney fees. Is that accurate? Close.

Any other questions by counsel?

Has there been any have they come back and said we want to maybe increase or this is their final?

We have legal on phone. Mr. Roe, would you like to answer that question?

Yes. Can you hear me?

Yes.

Okay. So yes, this wasn't their first offer. This was negotiated. The plaintiff, Laurel Park LLC, believes it has and has argued, it filed the appeal from the city's lien that it is it can defeat the lien. It's seeking to void the lien.

It's making essentially two arguments, broad brush, that one is they object to the legal description in the lien, another is to the timing of the notice. We believe that the city can prevail, but nevertheless, the unless the city is going to develop this property at the end of the day, the city is going to have to sell the property and buy if through litigation, a foreclosure sale or an execution sale, one or the other, given the pleadings that have been filed and we intend to file. And so this was a negotiated settlement. Laurel Park is the natural buyer here for this property because it has already invested monies into the property. And so this was a means of getting to the resolution sooner rather than later, I think, is a fair characterization of the litigation and avoid additional litigation costs, which would come out of the total amount the city could get, again, with an appraised amount of 300,000 and then, having to sell at a foreclosure execution sale.

I think most of us have seen, those those sales occur before and typically the appraised value is not what is bid in at one of those sales.

What's your question? Well, I was

just curious, have they have we had any conversations? So no more conversations had been had?

We've not made any other offers to Okay. My

And Mr. Roe, he's our legal counsel, correct?

Right.

All right. In your experience, have you seen this go to litigation and cities prevail? Since you said you feel that we the city would prevail.

Well, there these cases are all gonna turn on their facts. And so the what we have here is, yes, I, we have mapped out the arguments we think would prevail. However, the, Laurel Park's attorney believes equally strongly that he can prevail and defeat the lien. And so what you have is litigation risk. We can't ever take that away.

I can't make any promises that you're gonna win nor can he make any promises his client's gonna win. And so there is a meeting somewhere in the middle, keeping in mind that the middle, if the city prevails, would not be in in your typical case of a foreclosure execution sale, the amount of the appraised value. It's the amount somebody will bid when they show up that day.

Mayor? Mr. Rowe, I think the city attorney briefed us on this and I can't get the terminology right, unjustly enriched or whatever the terminology is that we might have an argument that we made this property more valuable by taking down the building. Could you walk through that a little bit?

Yes. So Sorry. I had to stop another phone there. The appeal that was filed is an appeal from the lien that the city approved last year, and then you your council approved last year, and then subsequently, the city filed. What we have in draft haven't completed it because discussions started, and so there was an opportunity to resolve this, before, lit litigation is is carried all the way through and the city incurs an additional fees.

And in our draft counterclaim, we have an unjust enrichment claim. The the unjust enrichment claim is any alternative to the lien itself, and it depending upon how the court, wants to give a remedy for that claim, if the court feels we proved it, and that the city paid to remove that that seven story or thereabout structure on the property that, was a hazard, and, it cost $3,200,000. Therefore, the the land itself was improved. Then the question there are two questions then arise from that. We anticipate that the attorney for Laura Park is going to argue that the improvement can't exceed the value, the appraised value of the property, simply because it costs more than that to, to remove that building, and that will be for the court to decide.

If the city prevails and it gets a judgment against Laurel Park or the property for $3,200,000, you still would presumably be left or you would be left with, what is the value of that land? That's the only source of collection that I am aware of. The real estate itself, in the case of the land, or Laurel Park, by all the research we've done, and, I think this has been confirmed by counsel, is that it this is a this is its property, its sole property there. So I certainly, by the time litigation is over, wouldn't expect that, Laurel Park would would be owning $3,200,000 of other property. It seems to have been formed for the purpose of holding this single piece of property.

And therefore, what we're we're looking at is the same ultimate recovery, which has to come from the property that you would have through the lien.

Which is the $300,000

Which is price the maximum $300,000 price value to be sold in at a foreclosure or execution sale.

Mayor, I have a question. I may have forgotten some stuff, so please forgive me. Is this the only parcel of land that Laurel Park owns? They own more parcels on that property, right?

They do own a couple of other parcels on that property, yes. I don't know which ones off the top of that.

Do we

have any idea what the total value of that property is? The original amount when they asked us to litigate for all three pieces, purchased that was what, 700? $750 7 and $50,000

Here's what I'm thinking. I understand the city is never going to get the $3,200,000 fully paid. But the way I look at it is if that building was still there, wouldn't be that property would not be sellable at all because no one was going to buy that property and tear down that building and put that I don't think so. There's a part of me I was the one that said, hey, let's see what they settled for and let's get moving and get that thing developed. But if they were willing to sell us that for 750,000 and mean there's a part of me that would love them to say, if we spent $3,200,000 to make their property sellable, and I know this I don't think it's unreasonable for them to pay us the $300,000 They still get $450,000 because their land is now sellable.

If that building was still there, this property would not be sellable at all. I don't think $300,000 is out of the question to get this thing moving. As much as I want to see this gone, I just I'm really struggling with us only getting $100,000 or $87,000 whatever it is, after legal fees, when we made that property sellable. It's not like they're giving us 300,000 and they don't get that. They don't have anything left to sell. They're still going to net something plus 3,200,000.0.

Well, flip side of that is we can litigate it for the next the we'll the to the year. Lose and have nothing. So it's not like we can ask them and litigate it and then if we lose, still tell them okay, we're gonna take the original offer. It's gonna be an all or nothing. Mean, we're we're facing we're facing the maximum recovery of the appraised value of that property down there at 309,000.

We have an offer for a little over 100,000. I mean, it's a bad situation all the way around. But in that four year period, that property could also sell and be developed and turn back into a revenue stream from the use taxes on it. It's a lot more than just, I mean, house is sitting over not only with four years of litigation, but we've lost any and all proceeds we may have gained from that if it had been developed four years ago. And that could be a considerable chunk of money there, probably would exceed the difference in the $100,000 offer and the $300,000 offer that you're talking about, Mr.

Aftner.

Yeah, I know it's not easy situation.

It's not easy. As Marty Lilly, the esteemed lawyer told me today, and I see Carol chucking, sometimes you gotta forget the cheese and get out of the trap. And right now we're in a trap

down there.

For the record, I didn't chuckle.

I saw the look on your face from here when I

I bet he chuckled because He probably chuckled.

With what Joe says, ideally, we'd get 3,200,000 recover our money, but that's not gonna happen. I think it's more realistic than what Chris said. I know from dealing with the ice house. We got a lot of investors in it. Sure don't want to come out. This is a lose lose. You hear a win win? This is a lose lose anyway we go. And there is definitely a possibility of spending enough money to make it a wash for that. So I think I'd rather see it develop and bring some revenue to downtown and enhance downtown.

All right. Well, is the importance of having this discussion. I mean, we've got to remember it was just a month or two ago, we were at 55,000. So Mr. Rose with litigation has been able to bring it up a little bit. You know, I think it's one of those things to counsel, you've to look at diminishing returns. So we need to go ahead. Is that the end of council comments? For now? For now. Okay. How about public comments? Anyone from the public that would like to make a comment? I don't see any. All right, counsel, if you would, please go ahead and cast your ballot.

Okay. And that resolution does carry. All right, counsel. We'll move on to resolutions to be introduced. This is resolution twenty six zero three zero.

Resolution by the city council of the City of Jonesboro, Arkansas to enter into a contract to sell 1025 Hope Avenue and 405 McDaniel Street to Clint Jackson. Whereas the city of Jonesboro desires to enter into a contract to sell 1025 Hope Avenue and 405 McDaniel Street together known as the property to Clint Jackson, the purchaser. And whereas the Land Bank Commission held a regular meeting on 02/10/2026 with all members who were present voting unanimously to recommend acceptance of the purchaser's response to RFP for the purchase of the property for the purchase price of $60,000. Now therefore be it resolved by the city council of the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas that section one, the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas shall contract with Clint Jackson for the sale of 1025 Hope Avenue and 405 McDaniel Street to purchaser for the purchase price of $60,000 plus customary closing cost. Section two, a copy of the real estate contract is attached here too.

Section three, the mayor hill Copenhagen city clerk at Bolegate are hereby authorized by the city council for the city of Jonesboro to execute all documents necessary to effectuate this agreement.

Okay, counsel. We do need a motion to adopt.

So moved. Second.

I have a motion on the floor to adopt. Any discussion by counsel? Anyone in counsel chambers? I don't see any. If you would, Please go ahead and cast your ballot.

Next

we'll move on to number six. This is items on new business. First one is 26.013.

We could set the public hearing for April 7 at 05:25PM. This is an unusual case. We don't get a lot of taxicabs. It's been about ten years since we've had one. Alright. There's not really anything to vote on on that. It's just a communication request

Okay.

To set a public hearing for a new taxi cab service. And you said what date, April? April 7. That should be our first meeting in April 2026. At 05:25.

Alright. We'll move on to ordinances on the first reading. Ordinance twenty six zero one one.

Move we suspend the rules and offer but title

only. Second.

All in favor, aye. Aye. Any opposed?

Ordinance to amend chapter one seventeen article three known as the zoning ordinance of the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas providing for changes in zoning boundaries from c two to c three for property located at 2005 East Highland Drive.

Do we have any questions by council? Don't see any. Anyone in council chambers? I don't see any as well. That ordinance will now move on to its second reading. Next, we'll move on to ordinances on the second reading. We have ordinance twenty six zero zero six.

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

Any discussion by council? K. I don't see any. Anyone in council chambers? I don't see any as well. That'll move on to its third reading. Now we move on to ordinances on the third reading. So ordinance twenty six zero zero five.

An ordinance to vacate and abandon a drainage easement located in Lot 5 R of the second edition of Block C, Southern Hills, Jonesboro, Arkansas.

Move to adopt. Second.

Do you have a motion on the floor to adopt? Any discussion by counsel? I to 'm going I'm

questions.

Ordinance twenty six zero zero five does carry. Next, we'll move on to ordinance twenty six zero zero seven.

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.

Move to adopt. Second.

We have a motion on the floor to adopt. Any discussion by counsel? I don't see any. Anyone in counsel chambers? I don't see any as well. If you would, please cast your ballot. That does carry. Alright, counsel. We'll move on to mayor's comments. And I kind of want to get started this evening.

We'll go through this pretty quickly. But I want to make a statement, first of all, and I want to kind of bring an update from my side of things on the Jonesboro Christmas parade that was brought up at the last city council meeting. In 2024, I was made aware of the foundation of arts would not be serving as the primary sponsor or organizer of the Jonesboro annual Christmas parade. Understanding how important this tradition is to the community, I remember it as a child who's been around for, obviously, for a long time. And it's helpful to the downtown businesses as well.

The city started an effort to find someone to step up and take over those duties. It didn't take long to see that Heather Talley was the best person to do so. She quickly assembled a support group and began taking steps necessary for a successful and safe event. There was a challenge on how the parade could process entry fees, and it was likely too short of a time window to create a nonprofit. After the last city council meeting, I asked staff staff for information about the nonprofit selection process at the parade.

In August 2024, city staff and miss Talley met at City hall to discuss options. Ultimately, the City Stars nonprofit was suggested and seemed like a good fit, assuming the respective committees saw no issues. The Parade Committee requested a separate account to keep a clear line of separation between parade funds and City Star's nonprofit funds. We can ask Steve Perty if there's any questions regarding that. The city's role in the parade was similar to any other special event.

Police and fire worked with organ organizers on safety plans. Streets and parks and sanitation worked on road closures and cleanup. Organizing events of this size require significant attention by the city staff. And this was the case in the Christmas parade. That's from my understanding.

Entry fees and parade monies were not processed through any of city of Jonesboro accounts other than a $500 contribution by the Jonesboro AMP Commission. As mayor, I would have made the same efforts for Veterans Parade, the MLK Parade, or any other event that's important to our community in danger of ending. I do want to express my appreciation for all the parade organizers that make the parade happen. It's a lot of work, and they're outstanding individuals that shouldn't be seen in a negative light for something they had no control over. Without their efforts, this event would have likely ended in 2024.

I also would like to have Dwayne come forward. I would like Dwayne to make a statement on progress of what we're doing on behalf of the city and if Carol needs to make any additional comments, she can and then I'll continue with my mayor's comments. Dwayne? Okay. Good evening, council. I've been asked to make a statement and and once I was given approval to begin our own investigation, I conducted an internal investigation of city employees of Parks Department on whether they had ever witnessed any wrongdoing or received cash from Danny Capales. Those staff working

have

been on gift from Danny. The After a thorough review of the matter and careful consideration of all the information and interviews I conducted, the investigation found no evidence my investigation found no evidence of intentional wrongdoing or misconduct by any current city employee. So, based on my investigation, no disciplinary action was necessary And the results of that investigation are now a part of the employee personnel file. Thank you for your comments. Thank you.

Alright. Good evening, counsel. And I'm just gonna continue with the mayor's comments. You know, last time we met, I shared the state of the city address with updates for the entire year 2025. There is a bound booklet for each of you with project highlights photos in each department. It's on the table up here by Brian. For those of you who did not collect it last time, please feel free to get that. A few of you received that, and it's available for you at any time to pick up. You know, I can't say enough the next day how much I was pleased to have a large crowd. Well over 500 people at the Chamber of Commerce State of the City event.

I believe we had three city council members present. Some of you in this room were also present. We're grateful to the partner for the chamber of commerce and the event of that capacity. And I appreciate Embassy Suites for providing the wonderful venue. During the event presentation, I was happy to present Joanne Alley.

I don't know if any of you know her, but if you don't, you need to. With a key to the city, her extraordinary career and lifelong dedication to early childhood education have shaped opportunities for children, families, and educators across Arkansas for over fifty years. As the leader of Arkansas State University Childhood Services, she grew a small outreach effort into a program that now impacts communities across the state. It was my honor to present her a key to the city as her life work continue to make an everlasting impression within our state. It's important that we continue to support efforts for advancing education.

We also revealed and launched the brand new state of the city jet system logo, which I saw earlier this evening, Gojo. Go Jonesboro. Moving Jonesboro forward, Gojo's brand new shares the community vision driven mission in a fresh way. So download the app. Share it with people in the community.

Also, the Plan Jonesboro input survey was also shared at the chamber's state city event, engaging hundreds in building the blueprint for a thirty year comprehensive plan. With focus group meetings ongoing, such as we had one this past week. Daryl, you in the room? Yeah, we had we had pretty good meeting last week or this last Thursday. That's correct.

And then we've got one this week, five to seven, March 19 at His Way Holiness Church. Now counsel, if you haven't participated, I'd ask you to do so. Your input is much advised for the future of our community. We're also going to host a design week at the end of the month. Design week is a lifelong focus meetings with specific groups, including an open house meeting from 05:30 to 07:30 on Monday, March 30 and April 2 at the Jonesboro Youth Community Center located at 1421 West Elton Avenue.

So please come and join us. So with a lot of conversations and recommendations from some of you here at council, we've also started the monthly city reports. The first report for both January and February included each department is given an overview of projects and initiatives worked throughout the month. Keep in mind, many of these projects are ongoing. The monthly report should keep you up to date on the process.

They're also available to pick up the desk right down there by Brian. So the first two months of the year are ready to go and then we'll be fastly approaching the March. March and February had community cleanups at the city's Lacey Drive location totaling 4.19 tons of trash and 68 tires collected. The upcoming neighborhood cleanup is scheduled for April 11 behind First United Methodist Church on Union Street. All residents are encouraged to drop off your bulky junk and recycling items.

It's important to keep our city clean, green, and beautiful. Now the parks department's been busy, but spring comes up a plethora of events. So we've got a full calendar. Jim responded to that earlier. With that, keep in mind the seasonal positions are now open. Grounds keeping crews and lifeguard positions will be needed soon. Check out the employment opportunities on the city's website and get your application as soon

as

possible. The park rangers have been out in the parks, and soon festival season picks up, so they'll be out at all those events. They opened seven cases in just last week alone, helping our city parks be safe and more engaging to the public. Our grants department has been busy working on the process of eight new house rehabs with the CDBG program, as well as RTP and TAP grants. Their hard work serves the community in many ways, helping with securing outside funding for the general budget. The fire department kicked the Citizens Fire Academy last night with their third class, approximately what? Chief, do you have about 20? Is he over in the corner? Yeah. Okay.

Full house. That's awesome. It's important that they learn what goes on behind the scenes as a firefighter. They're some of our bravest in the community, and we're grateful for the residents who want to learn about what they do and serve for our community. Just to make you all aware, the flagpole on the municipal building appears to be bent.

I think Ronnie's in the back room. We're having someone from Wisconsin come in to inspect it. Many thanks to Ronnie Shavers and the facilities teams for their top notch care that they continue to provide for all of our city buildings. Also, please take note of a fraudulent email scam. Emails impersonating the planning department are seeking payment to finalize zoning and various applications through wire transfer and include fake invoices.

Stay alert and remember, all city mail addresses end in jonesboroughar dot gov. Do not send money or provide financial information. Do not respond to the sender. Contact the city of Jonesborough's planning department to verify any request. If you receive suspicious message claiming to be part of the city's planning department, we encourage you to report them to the city of Jonesboro Police Department.

Now, city of Jonesboro, we've set up, and I'm Jason make a comment here a little bit later about a new website. It's called officialsjonesboroughar.gov, email address for the public to connect with all elected officials. We're also looking at a council at jonesboroughar dot gov or councildirectjonesboroughar dot gov, email address for city council only. I never heard back on the preference from council, so we'll look on to move on that quickly and with council direct email address unless we hear otherwise by the end of tomorrow. And on a happy note, a huge congratulations to coach Dez and the Arkansas State women's basketball team on their invitation to the NWNIT.

We hope to be cheering them on here at home for a few games. And get your Red Wolf tickets. We need to fill up the seats. Also, this is pretty cool. The men's baseball is nationally ranked, twenty second in The United States. It's the first in our lifetime even Doctor. Coleman's lifetime. That's the end of the mayor's report. Next we'll move on to City Council report.

No, thank you. Mr. Emerson.

Only thing I've got is just a little bit of information. I was going back and reflecting over past agenda items when it came to police pay. And I noticed it was back about two years, over two and a half years ago since we've looked into that. And I think that whenever we had ran everything through finance in the past that we said in a two or three year period that we would come back around and look at that. So just wanted to let everybody know that I had a brief conversation with chief today and we're gonna start going back and look at any cross comparison numbers between Jonesboro Police Department and other agencies just to make sure that we've got police pay dialed in where it needs to be. Gotcha, thank you.

Doctor. Charles Coleman.

The older the better.

Mr. Moore. Mr. Mayor, I know we used to have an employee rep committee that was chaired by Larry Jackson, and I know Larry Jackson retired. Have we got somebody that replaced him? I know he used to make a report to us, and I don't know if the new the new rep will come and make a report to us on a yearly basis or

higher Would you like to come forward? I know that some of the city staff's been in communications with employee rep committee.

I saw Larry Jackson go down the road this week and it reminded me of that.

Yeah, we are actively, that group has actively met on a monthly basis when members are present. Herbert Uggles.

Uggles. I think it's Uggles.

Uggles. I call him Herbie for all intents and purposes. Herbie is our chair or president of that group. We've had some recent meetings in regards to just that how that group is represented not only before mayor and administration but also before the city council and we've been kind of working through that. I anticipate that you'll see some language in an upcoming handbook revision that we have that sort of outlines that as well, just so that those parameters are there and understood and readily available for employees to reference.

Okay, good deal. Well, know I know Larry used to make a report about once or twice a year to the council and I guess occasionally when he had an issue, so maybe we'll see Herbert at the same frequency. Thank you mayor. That's all.

Thank you councilman.

Miss Williams.

Yes. In

light of the tragic death of Mike Dixon, the pedestrian crossing Washington, there has been a lot of concern among a wide group of people in Jonesboro in regard to what measures can be taken to prevent another tragedy like that. And so I spoke to Craig Light today at the MPO meeting and asked him. And he mentioned this all stop system, which might be a a good thing for us to be looking at. And I know he can't Craig couldn't be here tonight, but I talked to Brian about it as far as explaining that and what the city is doing aggressively to implement that system.

Absolutely. Well, and I think it's a a gainful reminder that, these accidents can happen anywhere in our community. And I I think some of you know how close Mike was to my family.

I can He was a classmate of Tanya.

Yeah. Yeah. So with that, Craig, again, he was going to make a short presentation on that this evening. So at the next city council meeting, we'll explain that to you.

Wonder if we could Brian,

you want to come? Yeah, you can.

I ask him if there could be some explanation just so that people are aware of what we're talking about.

Sure. So currently, when you press the walk button at most intersections, the ones downtown, you you get the little guy that says walk. However, in this case that we're talking about, the walk light was on. However, there's still a left hand green. And so that's obviously a recipe for some unintended consequences of that system.

And so our engineering department is constantly looking at possible safety at resident intersections. And we actually have a couple of them right now that are all stop condition. They're just not necessarily branded that way. And those are over on Marion Barry Overpass. But essentially what it would do is when when you press the button, there are no green lights in any direction until the pedestrians are cleared from the intersection.

You know, we actually I I think we shared a video with the connectivity committee. It's called a pedestrian scramble, I think. I'm sure they're called a lot of different things. But happy to send around the council so they can kind of see in real time what system looks like. But it would definitely halt all traffic going in any directions.

Of course, those would have to be signed properly. And there's some equipment upgrades that are going be necessary to add engineers looking into that. As with anything, any opportunity we have to make our roads, not just downtown but across the entire city safer, we're to look into. And just kind of like the Hawk signal, I'm not so sure people truly understand how many people that helps on a daily basis. There's

Craig mentioned that at the MPO meeting about the new one on North Church, and that he saw a woman pushing a child in a stroller crossing. And he said that makes it worthwhile.

Yeah, there's been tens of thousands of button pushes on that thing over the past year. Cliff Nash, our traffic guru, I guess you would call him. Studies that pretty constantly. And he's passionate about public safety and about pedestrian safety as well. So he keeps a compliance count on that. He's constantly looking at ways to improve. And it's inarguable when you look at the number of button pushes and just truthfully, the traffic slowed down just from such a big obstacle in your way, even if somebody's not it right, no doubt, you know, has an impact on pedestrian safety right there.

I I told him I I saw after the one installed on Johnson, a woman pushing a stroller in with two young children walking. And I thought wow, that's what we did.

It's a

far cry from where we were a few years ago out there.

And I think councilman too, with the input of our camera system throughout the city, we're able to address the ones about the schools. We're seeing a lot of near misses by Jonesboro High School and other schools and so we gotta prioritize them.

There a

possibility of maybe there in Highland, was it at Highland And Southwest Drive?

Yes.

Doing an all star?

It's a critical one. That's critical. We've seen almost.

Well, it'd be good if everyone could see the video that you sent me. That'd be good.

Thank you, Councilman.

That's all.

Mr. Gibson? Somewhat along those same lines there was some discussion here a while back about one lining Main Street from Washington down to Burke. Can we get an update on where we're at on those conversations to make it more pedestrian friendly as well?

Sure. That was actually sent to EDG, Environmental Design Group Engineering, to look at its dropping plan and actually some hard armoring. I know there's been some discussion about that just kind of go out and do it. Sort of the last thing that I think any one of us want to have our hands on or vote on is something that's not really been looked at by a professional traffic engineer when you're talking about a major traffic pattern. I actually got an email from Martin Smith just earlier today walking down to the council, him and Craig have been talking and they were hoping to have that proposal by the end of last week.

Certainly hoping by the end of this week, I know there's some discussion about how you're gonna mark the stoppage line or the delivery line. And so I really hope that we get that by the end of this week. So yes, conversations are ongoing. We're looking at maybe hopping on a call Thursday, just to iron out the final proposal and make sure that it's very clear and concise because there's gonna be money involved and that's gonna be brought to a resolution to approve that funding to this council. So we definitely want it to not only be very clear, but also for y'all to feel comfortable that this has been looked at by an outside independent engineering firm to make sure that we're not doing anything that might accidentally increase any kind of pedestrian liabilities or concerns.

Just curious.

Thank you.

That's all I have. Thank you, Council.

Mr. McClain.

Yes, Mayor, so last Council meeting, I raised some questions and some of them were answered tonight partially, but was trying to figure out when we would receive, the council will receive a follow-up to that email because I haven't received one. I don't know if everyone else or anyone else has received one, but was curious when we could expect to hear from you. Then I got a couple of questions I'd like to follow-up with from Dwayne's comments.

Okay, all right. Counsel, I'd really like you to listen to what I've got to say. I think it's really important. And Councilman McLean, I do appreciate your questions. I wrote some notes down this afternoon, and I want to respond to you.

Counsel, I've done my very best to be professional and respectful at all times as the mayor of Jonesboro. We've answered questions to the best of my ability, and I think we really need to get down to the bottom line here or what are the questions you really want and what are you asking? So I'm just going to say it. Did I steal money? Money? No. Did I knowingly turn my back so theft could occur? No. And the questions continue to arise. I requested that Citi Stars do an independent audit from a reputable firm.

Did I trust mister Caballes? Yes. I trusted him like I trust every director and employee in this room. There will be an appropriate time for us to discuss this, and that's when we all know the actual facts. Right now, we are all speculating.

At this time, we can sit down and review what we could have done better. At that time, excuse me, we can sit down and review what we could have done better, what I could have done better, and how we can make improvements if there's any wrongdoing. As mayor, I get that whatever a city employee does either as an employee or in any other capacity reflects on the city and ultimately me. If the theft allegations are true, then they should be prosecuted. My mayor, my job as mayor, is to work for the community.

Counsel, with all due respect, starting now, I tend to fully rededicate my time to doing just that and let the investigators handle the investigation. Until the process is complete, I'm moving on and will have no more comments on city stars, not because it's not important, because until we know the facts, it's just speculating and taken away from what we should be focusing on. And that's all the residents of Jonesboro. So I appreciate you allowing me to say my opinion. I believe you said you had another question.

Yeah, had a couple of other Again, think respectfully, we are owed in answering. If we have questions, we should be able to ask these questions. This is a big deal. This is a huge investigation going on in our community. And if if if we all wait we can ask ask questions now. There's nothing that says we can't. There's nothing from the Federal Bureau of Investigation that said we cannot ask questions. To me, it goes beyond our relationship. It goes to the public trust. If the public has questions, we should be able to ask because they're going bring them to us.

Their trust is vital and to me the most important thing because without it we're not going to be able to move forward when we talk about police facilities or we talk about new things going on in our community. If the public doesn't trust us, then none of that stuff is going to happen. And so to me, if we have questions, we should be able to ask them, we should ask them until we get an answer. That's where I am on it. So a couple of questions.

Dwayne, you mentioned you investigate some employees. How many employees do you know of were paid and what were they paid for? You said they were given money around Christmas time. What was that for? What was it for? Just because? Did they say?

They expressed that they believed that that was sort of a Christmas gift. It was like a Christmas bonus. They didn't call it a bonus. They believed it was a Christmas gift from their supervisor, from him personally, not from the city of Jonesboro or any other entity, from him personally. That's what they expressed.

So it wasn't, hey, I appreciate you working this weekend No. For this event?

That was one of our concerns.

Okay.

Right? Is are we gonna find out that money was received after a particular tournament or after a particular working overtime? And that is not what we what we determined or what HR determined when they did their interviewing. It was that it was believed to be a Christmas gift from their their direct supervisor just thanking them for their hard work that they do for him.

How many you how many employees were talking?

I don't know exactly because I don't have it in front of me, but I wanna say six or seven, something like that. Now I don't know if we've gotten every single person. Some have left the city.

Mhmm.

You know, some no longer work here. So but that's my understanding.

Good. Doctor.

Anthony Coleman.

Thank you.

Mr. Haffner.

Yes, do have one thing. It's hard to believe, it'll be a year ago tomorrow that we passed ordinance 25,005 that amended the sidewalk ordinance and allowed companies in the industrial park to pay a in lieu of fee. I think we had two companies, maybe more, but I think it's two that have been operating under a temp CO. City planners tried to contact them and has been unsuccessful. So here we are a year later and we still haven't been paid the in lieu of fees.

So my question is what other avenues do we have available to us to get our fees? I don't know if municipal liens can be used for in lieu of fees but

I have

to do some research on that I mean I think we always have an opportunity to cite people for a violation of city code but let me look into the lien question.

And they're operating under a temp CO, so those should have

We could also revoke a temp CO.

Probably not there operating under that for four or five years. So it would just be nice to

I'll get with Darryl and we'll look at what options we might have.

Enforce the ordinance to get our money collected. Appreciate any help. Thank you.

Mr. Bryant.

Yeah, a few things. I think the mayor wants to make this out like only a few people have questions and when you look at the foyer's from supporter, Matt Daniel, who is Copenhagen supporter. He won't answer their questions either. He won't answer the community's questions. And this week, he we learned he got copies of our emails in real time.

He read the council's incoming emails in real time to make sure he controlled every bit of information. We know, I mean, from the packets from Jerry Morgan and Matt Motylewski and Matt Daniel and other people, we know he was well aware of the allegations against Danny and yet he's nominating him for Tourism Person of the Year or whatever the award is. So don't be fooled by this deception. Don't be fooled by the fact that he won't answer questions. I think the reality is he's scared of what's happening in Boone County. Would look up pretty carefully there and that's all I'll say about that.

I will make a comment. I think in reflection, I think a comment has been made that we, the administration, are spying. And I think this is something that all the aldermen were very aware of. This has been going on. It's 2004. It's an alderman year, over a dozen emails that you all been cc'd in on. I've responded to the alderman email. Carol Duncan responded. Ron Richardson. Richardson.

And so it's clearly we're not hiding anything. It's a bulk email. And the FOIA laws allow anybody to have access in the state of Arkansas. Then give

us a copy of yours in real time. Send That's fine. Good. Tell your IT person, we want your email, every single one of them in real time. I want it done tomorrow. You commit to that, Mayor?

Again, for you to say that we were spying on you is incorrect. Incorrect.

Okay. Mr. Miller.

No, thank you.

Mr. Street.

I just want to follow-up on what Ann talked about, MPL meeting today. Craig's not here, but the Hawk was installed a lot quicker than the one on Johnson that took years. It is well worth the effort, especially now before swimming season starts for a lot of people who will be crossing at Parker Park. Hopefully, can get some more in some other high traffic areas. But that is Craig was very impressed that because of the one on Johnson, it was being utilized and has been used quite a bit already. So I'm very pleased that that's up before

And have the data and Brian has indicated it's pretty phenomenal.

And there are a lot of construction projects going on. Shane Wood, the District ten engineer, covered most of those. I mean, they're still distant. A lot of it's utility relocation stuff, but there will be a lot of considerable construction going on at most of the major intersections in the peripheral areas of the city. So just something people need to be aware of and plan accordingly when you have to be somewhere, but it's all good. And hopefully in a few years, we'll reap some good benefits from that money that we finally got.

Thank you for your comments. Jason, if you would, I'd like you to come forward and kind of present your findings. I think it was something was responded to earlier in the week that we were using an app, a signal app. Can you respond to that, please?

Sure. So council member LJ Bryan asked or had some concerns about unauthorized software that may be on desktops or city cell phones. As far as the desktops go, you would have to have a local admin administrator password and only IT has that. So it would have to be approved by us. As far as city cell phones go, we don't have the management capabilities as we do on the desktops.

So council member Brian has asked me to do a review of all the city cell phones. We are still ongoing with that review. About halfway done. So far, no signals few police officers that do use that for police investigations on that part. But again, the review is still going on. We're about half way through.

Thank you, Jason. I appreciate it. I forgot that earlier. Thank you. All right, we're done with that. We'll move on to public comments. Anyone in the audience can come forward and state your name and address and you have five minutes for a comment.

Well, my name's already been brought up. I'm Heather Talley. I live at 805 West Jefferson. I am the Jonesboro Christmas Parade coordinator. It kinda still feels strange to say that because it's not just my effort.

There's an amazing committee that worked extremely hard in 2024 and 2025 to put on what I think was a heck of a parade both years. After visiting with the committee and you know, there's there's a lot going around right now. There's a lot of information, a lot some misinformation, some speculation, just public comments and questions. We felt it would be in the best idea of transparency with the public and the council to just prepare a statement and I'd love to share that with you. I thank the mayor for his statement today to clarify some of those questions.

So, this is a statement from the Jonesboro Christmas play parade planning committee for the record. I would like to read a prepared statement on behalf of the Jonesboro Christmas Parade Planning Committee. In 2024, when the previous leadership of the Jonesboro Christmas Parade stepped down, a citizen led planning committee assumed responsibility for the organizing the event with the support and cooperation of the city of Jonesboro. An excuse me, an initial meeting was held at City Hall in July 2024 with the parade coordinator, that's me, city employees, and a representative of City Stars, who at the time was also a city employee. To establish the administrative structure for the parade.

During that meeting, it was suggested and agreed that the parade would utilize City Stars as an existing nonprofit organization as the administration for the as the administrative nonprofit for the event. In August 2024, the planning committee was formed and held its first meeting at City Hall. In October 2024, designated bank account was established for the parade. All parade funds, including registration fees, donations, and sponsorships were deposited into that bank account and were not deposited into or commingled with any City Stars accounts. The planning committee organized the parade and maintained control of its finances.

The committee considered that after expenses were satisfied and if funds remained, a donation could be made to a local non profit organization. The committee voted to designate City Stars as the recipient of any such donation. The Jonesboro Christmas Parade serves the citizens and businesses of Jonesboro and is organized by a planning committee of local business owners, professionals, and civic participants. The continued success of the Jonesboro Christmas Parade depends on participation from local businesses, organizations, and residents. And personal insertion here, we can't do this without you guys.

It has hurt our sponsorship already. What's what's gone around and been speculated. So, I hope that that won't impede progress this year and it won't stop people from wanting to participate and wanting to sponsor and donate. Lastly, because this matter involves an ongoing investigation, the committee won't comment on that process, but we do appreciate your support and look forward to successful parade this year. Thank you.

Miss Talley, thank you very much. Is there anyone else that would like to make a comment? If you would, please come forward, state your name and address.

My name is Donna Malone. I live at 1208 Haven Street. Some of you might remember me from, having worked here at one time. I retired on March 4. Just saying. If you don't remember me, I'm sorry about that. I wanna talk about FOIA. FOIA is, quite frankly why I left. Monster. I have worked on FOIA for fifty years.

Fifty years. I was young when I started. I was only 12. But it was not really. But I you know, we start learning about FOIA very early when you're do when you're in communications and you're in intend intending on going into media because you're on the other side of it.

You want you you want to get the documentation for stories, so that's why I learned about FOIA. On the other side of it, it's a lot it looks a lot different, I can assure you. But also think about the difference in what documentation and city documents and all government documents looked like, the volume from fifty years ago to now. Think about what difference it made from ten years ago to now. Think about your own email boxes.

How many more emails you're getting today than you did ten years ago? It's it's humongous. It's oceans of it. There's no way with all due respect, mister, I don't think you could read every email that he got. There's no way that I could have redacted them all.

We ran into this on an I ran into it on a daily basis. There's so much more information. In fact, read a statistic not long ago that the generation before us received the amount of information in their lifetime that we receive in one day, we are bombarded with information. So these FOIA requests are supposed to be for documents that exist, not documents that should be that have to be created. We is this this is correct, Carol, that we are not required.

In fact, it would case. The exist. If And you're creating something just to fill a to fill a FOIA, you're not giving documentation. You're giving what your opinion is of what that person wants. There's, you know, something called and I think it's in a it's a legal used to be a legal term anyway, called the reasonable person theory.

You know, you have to be a reasonable person in legal matters. Later, because of the the documentation nightmare that everyone that works with FOIA is going through, a man named, Brandellini, I think is his name. Brandellini. He's Italian. And he said that, you know, that that that really the lie, that the misinformation go spreads like wildfire, and the real information does not.

So it it behooves us to not spread misinformation. It is in fact, what you do is you damage the city, you damage yourselves, you damage all of the all of the people who are innocent of anything, and you and you clog up the works. We all anyone, and I'm talking anybody, if I did it, now that I am citizen Donna, if I foyered every one of you, I would be clogging up the works of what can be done for the city. If I foyered the mayor all the time, I would be stopping his progress on other other projects that he needs to be working on. I'm not saying don't FOIA.

I would never say don't FOIA. I'm saying be specific, be credible, do not use FOIA as a weapon, please. Don't use it as a personal grudge. Use it to help the city. Use it to help our let's be per public servants. Well, I'm not anymore. I'm I'm one that you're serving now, actually, now that I think about it. And I am making a little bit of sarcastic remark there. But I think it's really important that we look at ourselves. I did.

I looked at myself as a public servant. You ought to look at yourselves as public service. The mayor does as well. All of these people here who are directors are public servants. And when our work is impeded by asking for tons of emails that we'll never read from from the public, that the public will never look at, please be reasonable. Everyone who can hear my voice, please be reasonable in your FOIA requests. Don't don't pay attention to lies. Do ask questions, but be smart about your FOIA request. That's all I have to say. Thank you very much for the time. I'm out of time. I never thought I would do that, but I am that person. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, miss Malone. Anyone else in the audience? Would please come forward, state your name and address?

Jeremy Terrell, 909 Pinecrest. Crest. I I didn't plan to come here and actually say anything tonight, but I'm a tell you, I'm I'm I don't I I I'm not I am speculating here, but FOIA is a must, period. FOIA 100% is you guys communicating with us, and it's our only checks and balance from the citizens. So I'm sorry that there's a lot of FOIAs that have gone on.

That's for a reason. And the reason is is because the amount of of trust that has been lost. Now people are taking this personal, and that is fine. Take it personal. Don't take it personal. Whatever. The fact of the matter is is that we have an investigation. There is evidence that people have known or speculated for years, and we want answers, and we deserve answers. Period. And for anybody to say that we don't or or be careful or whatever, that's just plain ridiculous.

Now, I'm sorry that there's more work for everybody involved. That that does suck too but if we didn't lose our confidence in what's going on, there wouldn't be all these foyers and for instance, a foyer that I got here recently on a request is an email on that audit done where in that, the question is asked, what accusations have been made so that I can make my testing defend those? Those. That was from the person that did the audit. I sent it to everyone of you guys.

I didn't send it to you. That came from an FOI. At the end of that, it says, my goal is to make sure that at the end of this, that you'll be able to present that no money is missing. That was from an FOI. That was lied about. I'm I'm so sick and tired of you guys having to defend yourself each and every week. I you know, with all due respect, Heather, you didn't even apologize. You brought her name up, you threw her under the bus, and there's still no apology. There was no I am sorry. And that's happened two or three times over the last several months.

It's not taking accountability that we are frustrated about. This entire thing about the whole investigation should be, man, this is the worst thing that we could have experienced at this point in time. It's definitely in your, you know, capacity as the mayor and under my duty, I'll make sure that something like this never happens again, and I take full responsibility that this happened under my watch. This would have been done. There wouldn't have been all these four years.

They may not even been an investigation. And that's just the truth. So we keep losing what we believe to have been on the up and up. We are now losing that. And that's that's just the process that has happened.

And you guys do bear responsibility in that loss of trust. Period. So, if you gotta hire another person to do for you so that everybody else isn't burdened, that's just what you gotta do to make sure that the people are represented and they get to know what in the world is going on within their city government because it is their city government. It's theirs. With all due respect, it's our government that you serve and you serve the people.

And so at the end of the day, the FOI is our way to find out what's happening. Because there is, unfortunately, with emails like this, things that we don't get to know, that are hidden from from us, not by you specifically, but by people that you are coming to find out you probably shouldn't have trusted. So at some point in time, time, city council, I sent you guys this. Two people two people answered that. I think it's 100% a an appropriate question that I asked on there is do we have the confidence in that company to continue to do audits?

When they send somebody like that and say that kind of questioning before they did their audit. And I would like a response from you guys. 100%. I have confidence in the majority of you guys, but I do want you to do better. Please. Thank you.

All right. We reached the maximum time. We'll move on to the next item. That's adjournment. So moved. Second. We have motion all in favor, aye. Aye. Any opposed?