City Council - Regular Meeting

Alright. Good evening, everybody. We'll go ahead and start city council. This is Tuesday, 05/19/2026, and we're gonna go ahead and call that to order. I'll begin with the pledge allegiance, and then doctor Coleman will lead us in prayer.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god and indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Alright. Yes. If you would. Lord, we thank you for this day and this time that you've given us. Thank you for your grace that is new every morning. And so as we come together as one on tonight, the I pray and thank you for the safety United of our city. Thank you for those men and women who put their selves on themselves on the line for us. Thank you for the administration and others that continue to lead and guide this city. But father, your word declares in Psalms, accept the lord, keep the city. The watchmen waited but in vain. Father, we thank you that you are watcher, watching opportunity We to thank you for the the table. We

to

attendance.

All right. And we do have 11 members present this evening. So next we'll move on to item number four, and these are items under special presentation. And Mr. Fowler, if you would, please come forward. He's in support of the guard and reserve. I'll meet you down front with Marty Hamrick. He does have an award and presentation to provide.

Good afternoon. It's my pleasure to be with you this evening. I'm lieutenant colonel retired Gil Fowler, also known as Santa Gil. And, tonight, I want to make a special presentation to the Golden Helmet, I guess, division organization here in Jonesboro, their fire department. Basically, I represent a group called the employee support of the Garden Reserve.

We're a group of, most of us veterans whose job it is working under the secretary of I think it's defense, but maybe secretary of war, nonetheless, to address the importance that our citizen soldiers bring to the local community. ESCR has chapters in all 50 states, in Australia, in Europe, throughout the world, and our job again is to basically help support our men and women in uniform and recognize the importance and value that they bring to the local community. Our all volunteer force today basically has a lot of challenges. Being away from home, being away from family, being away from community, and doing the things that are necessary for our society to exist and continue. Since 09/11, over a million citizen soldiers have served our country in addition to, of course, the regular force, twenty four hour, all all purpose, soldiers.

Today, I want to pay special attention to chief Marty Hamrick and present him with what we call my boss is a patriot award. He was nominated by Spencer Saul, one of his, employees who serves with the ten thirty sixth engineer company here in Jonesboro. Basically, in his nomination that goes forward to the secretary of defense, secretary of war's office, and it takes several months to, in essence, be evaluated to ensure that, that, one, he's a legitimate person and at the same time, Spencer Saul is a legitimate soldier. We want to ensure that both of those components fit together in in making that nomination. But he says, chief Hamrick ensures that all rules and regulations pertaining to service members are followed and is very supportive of the employees who team.

Team. We We We team. Times with that I have to be away and is fully supportive of my service. Having a supervisor like that makes being a military member easy. He's done a fantastic job making guardsmen and their families feel welcome and appreciated.

He's a true patriot and outstanding supervisor, a professional at what he does, and yet he gets he takes the time to get to know you and your family as a person. Our workplace is both a team and a family. So tonight, it's my pleasure to recognize chief Hamrick with what we call my boss is a patriot award. Now, it's a three part award. The first part is basically a certificate specifying that he has been recognized by the secretary of war and by the state of Arkansas and our soldiers as being one who truly respects and understands and works with our citizen soldiers when they're not here.

Secondly, we have a what we call statement of support for the Jonesboro Fire Department that we hope he will put up in a prominent place so that when soldiers and guardsmen and their families come in, they will see the seals of the army, navy, air force, marines, coast guard, etcetera, and say, this must be a good place to be. And thirdly, we have a patriot pen. Now, these are controlled items. You all know what a controlled item is. It's very simple.

You don't lose it. You sign for it. This has been given to me to give to, if you will, someone who's been recognized as a true patriot. It's my pleasure to pass it along to him so that I am no longer responsible for it. Because if I lose it, I'm accountable.

Now, I'm going to make him accountable. I hope when you see someone with one of these patriot pins, you too will say, thank you for helping our citizen soldiers. Now, in the in the same process at the end, I want to congratulate members of the city council, members of Jonesboro, and our citizens for also being patriots. Whenever a soldier is called to duty, whether it's training, active duty, or whatever it has to be, someone has to step up and take their place. And in so doing, we're all in the process of supporting our men and women in uniform.

So congratulations to all of you. Chief Hammer, here's your pen and I'm tickled to death to no longer be responsible for it. Certainly, we have the statement of support to the Jonesboro Fire Department and I couldn't get Golden Helmet on here quick enough. But nonetheless, we are most pleased with your recognition statewide and nation nationally for what you're doing in leading that department here for Jonesboro. And certainly, the certificate that I hope you'll put in your office in a special place, saying in essence, I have been recognized not for myself, but what my workplace does to support our citizen soldiers.

Sir, thank you so much.

Brings back the foundation of our country with the two hundred and fiftieth year approaching sacrifices that many have made before us so we can enjoy the evening that we have here in our community that's each and every night. So, Gil, thank you again for your service to our community and our country as well. Thank you. Next council, I'd like to move on, and I've got, Allison Breck here. She is the manager of the Matrix Consulting Group.

And if you remember, last year, city council contracted with the development advisement group named Matrix Consulting to review our processes from a plan submission to final inspections of construction projects in Jonesboro. Now this goes way back. I mean, we've always had questions on how we can make improvements, and so I'm excited to say that Ms. Allison is coming forward tonight after a long period of time in conversations and in-depth detail for this. I'll be leaving after her presentation and Councilman Moore will be taking over the meeting from there.

But the primary goal of this study is to make Jonesboro a clear, more defined, and efficient community to invest in from a construction and development perspective. The firm dug up and really went into detail on our codes, our processes, our structure, and our strengths and weaknesses. We should expect that we only allow safe quality structures to be built in Jonesboro, but we want it to be clear and an easier process on the front end. At the same time, we ask that if we are not overly burdensome in some areas. So we wanted to hopefully have her presentation this evening, which you've all received.

We're going to ask that if you have questions to hold to the end of her presentation. And, so, miss Breck, the floor is yours.

Thank you so much, mayor. And thank you, not only to the mayor, but all council members for having me here great example city of Jonesboro And the a review of the permitting and inspection activities within the city. The work that you'll hear summarized tonight reflects several months of analysis, including staff interviews, customer surveys, a review of workload data, benchmarking against comparable jurisdictions, and analysis of building codes. And the result is a prioritized actionable set of recommendations to help Jonesboro deliver faster, more transparent, and more consistent permitting services. So we always like to say at Matrix, it's it's a very important step for for the city to actually do the study because that's the exciting beginning of of lots of good change.

So quick agenda for tonight is going to be a really brief background about Matrix Consulting Group and why you were selected. Then we'll walk through the scope of the study, deliverables and methodology that we took, key findings. I'm going to identify what you all are doing well and some top areas for improvement or opportunities for improvement. Tonight's discussion, and I do recognize it will be lengthy, but we are going to just focus on those high priority recommendations and then have questions and discussion to follow. So real quick, major consulting group, we're actually based in San Mateo, California.

We've doing work and have completed 200 plus dedicated studies evaluating development review, permitting, and inspection operations, code enforcement too, across the country. I think one of the top features about Matrix Consulting Group is that we were past government employees. So my bulk of my career is a professional planner in local government, both city and county governments. This is the largest council I've presented to, so congratulations But we do have that real life experience that helps us as we engage with our clients to ensure we know what questions to ask and can identify issues issues pretty quickly. So as the mayor already mentioned, really, some top priorities here was to enhance the process, make it more efficient, make it more predictable.

Probably the top thing that we hear from your from customers anywhere really is to make the process more predictable. I just need to know how long it's gonna take and what steps are required. So that was one of our focuses. Also, to improve the customer experience, we certainly understand it's very important here in the city of Jonesboro, making sure that the development and business community find the city as easy to work with. Third, to identify opportunities for technology, integration, and workflow improvement.

So that's really what we talk about now for that that process step of the steps of a process. It's very technology based now, really post COVID, and so it's just making sure that the system is as integrated as well as it can be. Fourth was to assess the staffing capacity relative to workload, ensuring the city has the right people in the right roles as well as the right number of people to handle the current demand. And then there was also a unique analysis of your local building and fire codes, a very in-depth appendix that you can read later, but it was actually very helpful to identify gaps between local codes and state requirements, and so the city can work on those efforts into the future. Deliverables, we really ensure that we have deliverables throughout our entire study that staff can review and ensure that we're getting accurate along the way.

We don't want to end up at this final stage without these interim deliverables for staff and we really keep that communication line open throughout the whole process. Initially we created a current state profile and best practice assessment. We built a detailed profile of current operations, identifying staffing levels, roles and responsibilities of staff, workload volumes, so that's permit numbers, application numbers, and performance metrics. And then we compared those against industry best practices for permit review, technology, customer service, and management. These are industry best practices that that Matrix as a firm has created, not only from our experience across the country, but also through our membership with professional organizations like American Planning Association, Public Works Association, and the International City and County Managers Association.

Next, we did a comparable jurisdiction, so we compared Jonesboro to five comparable we're be to to So

online

survey. Do we're We sent this out to past to past customers, so past applicants. And we also just had some individual conversations, but it's really important to note that these recommendations in front of you definitely have perspectives that we received through that customer outreach effort. As I mentioned, we did a building code analysis, so conducting an analysis of the city's existing building and fire codes to identify gaps in state requirements and best practices. Then we really analyzed staffing capacity.

We actually did an internal survey to staff just really asking them to explain how they spend their time reviewing the workload and permit counts just to help us understand the percentage and breakdown of how staff is spending time. And that helped us evaluate organizational structure of permitting functions even more. We then go into further analysis to create final findings, and that's compiled into that report. And then we have a prioritized implementation plan, really giving the city a road map for action into the future. Before we talk about challenges and recommendations, it's really important to recognize what you as a city is doing very well.

So the first thing that we recognize was that you're utilizing a permitting software system. That is absolutely best practice. So you're implementing both project docs for project excuse me, digital plans, submittals, review, and then also iWork for a permit tracking and issuance. And so the city has made a meaningful investment into this technology, and staff have incorporated these tools into their workflows, and that's a really good first step. So now the next task is just to make sure that those tools are being used fully and consistently.

Also, your staff is meeting. Development leadership is meeting weekly to review current permitting reports and address stalled or delayed projects. You're proactively actually reaching out to applicants that aren't responding. You have a staff member that is specifically tasked in doing that, so that's very customer front facing and absolutely a strength. You're also doing same day inspections. Actually, that came out of the comparable jurisdiction. That is a best practice, and, also, you are exceeding when you are compared to those other jurisdictions. So that was one we wanted to call out. And then as I mentioned just previously, you do have a dedicated construction outreach coordinator position. It's actually a really unique position.

We don't see this type of position in in most of the cities we work in, but you have actively created position to help the development community navigate the process, and that absolutely should be called out as a strength. It's a real asset that you can continue to build upon. So with strengths, there's always opportunities for improvement, and of course that's going to be the bulk of our report and recommendations. But the top one I want to talk about here is just that you have no defined performance objectives. What does that mean?

You have no really goalpost or understanding of what you're trying to aim for, and that's really important not only for your customers to have that predictable process but for your staff so they understand what is expected of them. So right now, Citi currently lacks clearly defined performance targets for permitting timelines and management dashboards are not consistently used to track progress against goals. We are continually seeing how dashboards and pushing out information to the public is very helpful for a city because you're being very transparent with your information, and it helps educate really the community as a whole. But without data driven oversight, it is difficult to identify where delays occur, how you can hold staff accountable, and demonstrate improvement to applicants and leadership. So this is really what you have to institute so you can keep looking at how you're improving and the metrics that are changing.

You also have a very fragmented application intake, and it's and it likely just happened, you know, over time and especially as you move from a very paper based system to a digital process. But you have four different positions in three different departments, engineering, inspections, and planning, and that's they're all in charge of the intake process. So when that frontline level of staff, when a permit or application comes across the counter, even if it's a digital counter, you have four different people doing that, and that is creating inconsistencies in how applications are received and reviewed for completeness. And applicants may receive different information depending on which staff member they contact. So our report is recommending a consolidation intake center into a basically a centralized permit center.

You have an outdated fee schedule. Fee schedule has not been updated since 2017, and we we also indicated and note noted that the plan a plan review fee is not collected before permit issuance. So what's essentially happening is your staff is reviewing permits. They may be ready to be issued, and then the project never happens. So staff time was spent before actual fees were collected, any fees.

Also, the the other thing we identified is just the parallel operation of project docs in iWork is is creating some some inconsistencies. Staff has been spending a lot of time in trying to address those inconsistencies. So there is essentially, the recommendation is to figure out with maybe some customer support from each software system how to better integrate the two or consider replacement. But these challenges are interconnected, and the recommendations throughout the report talk about that. So we're gonna move into the next section of the presentation where we're gonna talk about the high priority recommendations, and and each one is categorized essentially.

It's very it's meant to be parallel to

the report, the order of

the report. So we're gonna start with the permit review process and the high priority recommendations. And some of these I've touched on just with my opening remarks. So the first one we see as being a really important recommendation, hence why it's high priority, is to establish a centralized permit center as a single intake point for all applications and permits. So talking to staff, we did hear that it's still very important in the city of Jonesboro to have a physical counter, to have a place where customers can come in and know where they can start the process.

K. You're gonna also replicate that in the digital world, but it's also very important for the city of Jonesboro to have that in person interaction. The good news is you have space in this building to do this. It's just a matter of actually improving that space. So you can also create kiosk or basically little computer areas to help people with intake because the goal is to have all intake of permits and applications be digital and not paper.

So there's just ways that you can do that, and it basically becomes a public facing space in city hall that's known as the permit center. The next thing was just reducing or replacing, excuse me, a double completeness check. So you're having this intake process take longer than it should, linked with the multiple staff people that are are doing the intake process, but you're creating redundancy and delays without adding value. So the report recommends replacing this with a single clearly defined completeness review that you can clearly document for the record and then one accountable staff person who makes that final call before it moves into further review. So review comments, these are comments that staff are making during the review process.

These comments eventually get to your customer, to your applicant. So all review comments and project communications should be consolidated across departments and documented within the permitting system. So two really important parts to this. It's not only having your staff making those review comments and making sure that they're consistent with one another. It's also making sure that they're in the permitting system so that that can be your database, your record of the process.

That goes back to that metric, that data driven phase four, it's just making sure you're having the data there to check how you are performing. Applicants should receive one unified set of comments rather than fragmented feedback from multiple reviewers. So as I mentioned, you're doing same day inspections, but the scheduling of inspections could be improved. There could be establishing some minimum request time frames just so that people know when they have actually get a request in for an inspection. And then also making sure that there's just a little bit more predictability for contractors giving them the option if it's a morning or afternoon.

Also, looked at the certificate of occupancy signatory. Right now, you have actually two people acting in that capacity, but we recommend you designate the chief billing official to be that person, and then you also should be defining temporary C of O eligibility criteria. The staff is using criteria but it's not documented. Temporary C of O is when you might have something that's outstanding but you're able safely to allow occupancy or partial occupancy. It's very important for the city that you establish a very clean line in the sand of what it is gonna take for the applicant, the owner, to get that full certificate of occupancy.

It's one of those areas where you wanna be customer friendly, but at the same time is to protect the city and make sure that you have documented CFOs in place for all occupancies. Okay. Moving into technology. So this is where we're gonna talk about those two permitting software systems that you're currently integrating. That's Project Docs and iWork.

And so the recommendation is essentially to either better integrate these two platforms together or move to a single unified platform. I know that that's a it's a big recommendation and can have even multiple pieces to what that looks like. But just from our discussions with staff and just seeing how the two are working together, we think, first of all, to start with just working toward better integration and then seeing where the gaps remain. You want to enable paperless submittals, so paper free for all application types. So some permit types are still requiring paper submittals to be coming in across the the counter.

Of course, when we say paperless submittals, you're always gonna have exceptions for someone that doesn't have access to a computer. You're gonna have, you know, exceptions to just whatever the case might be, but the standard should be paperless and and coming in digitally, so over the digital front counter. And they should all be coming through project docs, and that's gonna reduce manual steps and improve tracking of permits and applications. Also, you should activate online inspection scheduling. That is a feature that is available to you in in iWork, I believe.

It's just a matter of turning the switch on and having that be an option for people so they can schedule in the freedom of their own time time to schedule that inspection rather than calling. So all inspections are coming in via the phone right now. Staff training. So it's just really important as technology becomes more more complex that you are ensuring that your staff understand how to use the systems, that they're not just learning from each other. Of course, they can always improve and build upon their skills by by their fellow employees, but it's really important that the city provides standardized training.

And you typically work with the customer support of each software system to look at options there. And then lastly, it's consolidating the application categories. So these are that are coming up in the system for your customers to choose from. Basically, there's there's too many types, too many categories. It's become too granular, and this just creates automatic confusion for applicants and immediately is why someone feels like they have to call a staff member to help them.

So streamlining and consolidating these categories will simplify the submission process and improve data reporting. Okay. So next is customer outreach customer service and outreach. So as I mentioned, really important for the city of Jonesboro to have that in person aspect, that permit center where people can come in and and receive customer service, but you also need to create that on your website and have a digital front counter essentially. So right now applicants must navigate multiple departmental pages, so individual web pages on the city website to find permitting information, forms, and checklists.

And so the report is recommending you create a single comprehensive development service site or web page. You could call it the digital permit center. There's many ways the city could choose to brand it, but you basically have a one stop shop where everybody can find the resources in one location. This is becoming even more important as people are using cell phones and tablets for their primary system. So having to navigate through multiple tabs or web pages can become very complex for your non savvy developer.

I always think of my dear mother who thinks you know, who would apply for a permit. She wants to make it as simple as possible possible. But this page should include links to all application forms, your checklist, your fee schedules, contact information, and status updates. It's where you could put dashboards showing progress for current permits and applications that are being reviewed by the city. Also you want to make sure you have staff that are assigned to update this website.

So making make creating the web page is the first step, but you have to make sure that it stays current. That's becoming very it's it's it's a big responsibility, especially as cities and counties are being asked to ensure their website is accessible per federal law. So it does require someone to ensure that you're keeping it current and accessible, but just designate that ownership up front. And then comprehensive checklist. So what we mean by this are documents that can help an individual's that it's basically the document they're gonna review before they submit.

So, yes, in the paper world, you used to print out these documents. You would have boxes and check them off and then attach the papers of the of the components that you have checked off. But you still need to have this guidance we have found. It's very important for applicants to have this. It's basically providing that predictability of what is required.

And, essentially, if they're able to put that into the system digitally, then they would be able to move through the completeness check process faster, which is a good thing for the applicant and staff. Okay. We're gonna move into management and administration. So these next two sections, it's management and administration and staffing and workload. They're they're complex, and there are some, you know, sometimes some deep rooted issues, but it's important that we still talk about them.

So we did see that job descriptions are not kept up with actual responsibilities. So these staff members so the it's it's the it's the responsibilities your staff is carrying are not in alignment with their job description. So we're recommending that all permitting position job descriptions are updated. And then, of course, as HR would likely recommend evaluating whether compensation is appropriately aligned. This is foundational to recruiting and retaining qualified staff.

I know it's a very high budget reality for cities to do this, but it's also very important that you can keep making sure that you have the best qualified staff. We also need to standardize the supervision and backup coverage in onboarding. It's all grouped together. But basically there's no formal onboarding program for new permitting staff, and training is inconsistent across departments. The report recommends implementing a structured onboarding program.

It might be something that is developed for the city as a whole, but then something that is specific also created for permitting staff members. You also need to make sure that you have backup coverage for your critical functions. That is not in place right now. And you need to make sure that you have standardized supervision expectations across all permitting departments. That's making sure that staff is being held accountable when you have that supervision in place.

You're also gonna define you need to better define application coordination functions. That's a mouthful. But, basically, we would like you to just really understand and making sure staff understand their roles in the process. So you go through responsible, accountable, consultant, and informed matrix that clarifies who owns each step of the process. As we do this work, we are finding more and more than ever, especially after COVID when we were all not communicating as well as we could have, there is this tendency for staff just to start creating their own responsibilities.

And so it's very important that as a collective group, each staff members understands their roles and responsibilities. It will make them feel more comfortable reaching out to their supervisor when they need to. It also just helps the team as a whole to understand each person's component to the larger puzzle. Also, as I mentioned probably near the beginning of the of the presentation, just making sure that you have formal performance metrics. So making sure that you are able to tell an applicant how long it should be expected for them to get it approved.

So target review time frames. These should be provided for all permit types, all application types, and then making sure that you're tracking those the performance against these metrics consistently. And that's, again, going back to the dashboard concept. You can start with dashboards that are just internal facing, again, going back to that leadership group meeting weekly, making sure that they are seeing the progress of the time frames, making sure that they are being met, finding out when they are not. But then also this is where you can push out information to your community to better inform them.

But basically, without defined targets, you don't have a way to measure how you're improving. I think that becomes very important to you as a council, just to have those metrics to know how you're improving. Staff can come to you and report on those metrics. You are able to report back to your community members. That's where it works.

The other thing that we would see as very important is really creating a cross departmental management lead. This is going to be linked with the restructure we are recommending or reorg we're recommending, but you need to have a designate designate a single leadership position, excuse me, with cross depart departmental coordination authority. It's not in place right now, but it is informally, but not formally. And so it's really important that with the reorg that we're going to talk about in the next slide, that you think about that top leadership role who is coordinating the overall process. Because the overall process is always going to have different disciplines, subject matter experts, and it's really important to make sure that you have that contact person, not only for staff but for your community, to know who is in charge.

And like I said, that's going to be discussed a little bit further. So staffing and workload really linked to initially, it was the findings that we saw with the layers of intake that are occurring and over different division lines. It we led to it led to us to recommend an organizational restructure of the permitting function within the city. So right now, they're all in different departments, and we are suggesting that you have a slight merge to create a true permitting department. This is gonna, of course, be linked with a structured transition plan with updated job descriptions, staff engagement plan, but that is our top recommendation out of the staffing and workload category.

The report recommends creating a new development service department. Again, the name can be called whatever the city thinks is best, but you're consolidating key permitting functions under a development services director. We present two alternatives in the reports, alternatives A and B, but both alternatives address three core gaps: the absence of a designated cross departmental management lead, the fragmented distribution of intake, technology management and coordination responsibilities, and the lack of a unified institutional identity for the permitting function for the city. And so we think that that would work well with the also the recommendation to create a permit center. Those two combined will will work very well for the city.

And, of course, as I mentioned, it is a transition plan that would be a part of this reorg for all affected positions. Definitely engage with staff and see how they think they they have ideas is what I will say. Also, we we found the need, and these two are are are really joint related, but right now, it would be best to reduce the chief billing official's actual plan review times, the time that they are spending on reviewing plan sets, and actually pass that workload over to a commercial plans reviewer. This will allow your chief billing official to become a true manager. Again, they are obtaining that greater oversight of the certificate of occupancy process, as I mentioned before, but basically it's offsetting some roles and responsibilities from your chief billing official to a commercial plans reviewer.

This is a lot. I appreciate you hanging in there with me. So I created some slides just to show you really what this looks like in terms terms of implementation for as soon as quarter three of twenty twenty six. So, you know, I have the gold highlighted because that's the org restructure. I recognize that was at the end of the report, but we felt that it was actually good to have it there because all of the findings and recommendations building up to that really supports the reorg.

So again, that's a new commercial plans reviewer, that CBO reallocation of duties, a transition plan that's very much linked with the idea of creating a centralized intake permit center, so having that physical presence within city hall as well as having it on a website. That's your customer service and outreach. And then linked with that, of course, is the technology and ensuring that you have the best integration of those two systems that you can, iWork and Project Docs. But linked with that is just making sure you enable paperless submittals and activate the online inspection scheduling. That was just two things that can be very helpful for the customer, just knowing to expect that.

Then in 2027, you know, we still have some things. You you know, start with the permit center, but then you can work on that development services web page, making sure that you have service goals for that new centralized permitting function in the city. Then, again, that technology, that's going to be just an ongoing, honestly, recommendation moving forward is just making sure that you really ask that software representative to do what they're supposed to do and ensure that you have staff that can fully integrate their system as they promised you. Budget impact and I just really want to emphasize, of course, you all will have total control of the true budget impact. This is just what was assumed by Matrix just with our work across the country.

But we can see actually, a lot of the high priority recommendations could be implemented through process changes, policy updates, and reallocation of existing staff responsibilities with minimal or no budget required. But the ones that we see likely carry budget implications that you should be aware of is the establishment of the permit center. So you do have the physical space. That's a good thing. Already exists in city hall, but there just might be modest costs associated with kiosk equipment, signage, and any reconfiguration needed to formalize the customer service hub, basically.

Enable paperless submittals and online inspection scheduling. Again, these are really software configuration realities, but it may require some additional vendor support, and that sometimes can trigger system modification fees per your contract with that software. Staff training program, it can really be a high or low budget implication, but just making sure that you develop a formal training curriculum and having that as a part of budget moving forward. There could be costs with associated training materials or sometimes you have external facilitation support that comes in. And you are a university city, so there might be some opportunities there for you to partner.

Hire one dedicated commercial plans reviewer. This is a new full time employee, represents the most significant near term budget impact, but it is a position that is expected to accelerate review timelines and improve cost recovery through fee collections in theory, so that's partially offsetting the investment. And then the system integration, again, going back to technology, but that would likely be a capital investment that you need to be thinking about tracking in the future. Because if you do have if you go the route of having a replacement program, that is a cost that is absolutely a reality. Okay.

I think I've made it to the questions and discussion slide, so I appreciate you hanging out with me for the past hour. But I'm here to answer any of your questions or concerns.

Yes? I have one question.

Please. The

iWork system, is there a standard nationwide or across the board standard system for implementing documentation that you

For the for the permitting software

Yeah.

Council member? There are many options out there right now. And I always tell staff when I start to interview them, unfortunately, none of them have easy buttons. There's certainly and and you're also seeing a lot of these larger companies buy smaller companies, which is kinda of creating the problem because you start with a customer service group that changes once they're bought. Is am I misunderstanding your question?

Yeah. But can the city also, I guess, hire an analysis to to to make up their own software?

Oh, so we we have seen that occur, but that typically is just not it's it's not long lasting. It doesn't it's it's a huge cost for the city, and what we have seen happen is that the city is then spending so much money and trying just to keep updating it themselves. Also, you're, in a way, creating a very unique system that customers aren't interacting anywhere else, and that's not necessarily a good thing in the software world. So I would just recommend you look at the other software systems that your comparable jurisdictions are using. It is absolutely the first time we have seen Project Docs and iWork used together.

Now I'm not saying that means it's a bad option, but it was the first time we've seen it. Does that help? Okay.

So I'd like to expand on that conversation because that was really one of my questions in that software system itself. Does that software, one of those softwares, can they be updated or handle the capacity that you're referring to to streamline a lot of this process?

So I think from what I know, you actually have most options purchased for iWork. So it's a matter of literally turning on the switch for some of the integration. Project Docs is could be a little bit tricky for becoming the intake for building permits, but you do see cities making it happen. So I think the answer I wanna provide you is yes. I mean, I we are absolutely recommending to start with what you have right now because we recognize the monumental process it would take to start over with something else.

I think it's just a matter of really getting the right people in the room. You have some highly qualified staff. It's not their full time job to be doing this, but they are very much improving the workflow systems behind the scenes on the technology side. I think it's just a matter of seeing how you can get some assistance from customer support, having some vendor support and maybe potentially paying a little bit more for that training aspect and having them actually come on-site and see how you're utilizing it too.

Sure. And one last question. I'm sorry, Chairman. I saw on the first slide it said 85 implementation. I'm assuming that's implementing what you all recommend.

Correct.

But I did not see any success rates, follow ups, or anything like that regarding that 85% implementation.

Yeah, fair. That's a great point. We have it. I just didn't put it on the slide. But we really actually celebrate being available to staff after we are done here tonight. We want it's it's very important for us to receive feedback on recommendations that didn't work out for you all as well as the ones that are working out well for you. So we just actively want to make sure that we're communicating with staff forward and just having those questions you know come back to us as you're implementing it. We are available. I am certainly available.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else have a question or comment? Mr. Mayor.

Kind of a couple related questions. As we think about a few different topics, we think about AI and fertility and population changing. We've seen our growth slow down here. Conway is growing twice as fast as us. We're no longer in the top 10 fastest growing cities. So as we consider some of those things, how do we and even in the permit data, our permits and granted, things have changed across the country. Don't get me wrong. But our single family permits are down. All of our permits are down. So how do we weigh those things against making these investments?

Yeah, that's a great question. So tracking the growth is, of course, the first step. But we certainly were looking at current workload. And actually, it was the trends in the last three years. So even if you're seeing a decrease, we're still factoring in current workload.

Our recommendations are really to improve the process. You are going to continue to grow. It might not be the fastest growing area. But when you start to become the fastest growing area, again, you are going to have these tools and these systems in place to ensure that you can continue to address the interest that you might have from developers. The technology is a reality that you will need to be addressing no matter what.

That is how applications and permits are submitted to cities and counties now. And so that investment is an ongoing reality, I would say. Of course, for additional staff, that can be further discussion just on it's really that one commercial plans reviewer, is that justified? You have a vacancy, I believe, right now in inspections right now. But our recommendations are really to address the current realities.

Yes. Jonesboro might not be a high growth area, but it would just I'm trying to just quickly think of ways that you might typically, when we have those types of communities, you are seeing a larger number of FTEs being recommended because you just don't have enough people and the hours available to do the actual review that's required.

Question? Yes. Anyone else? Seeing none, thank you for your presentation.

Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

All right. Moving on, item five, the consent agenda. Do I have an offer?

Move to adopt unless changes are noted. Second.

Offer and a second to adopt the consent agenda. All in favor say aye. Sir, I would.

I was trying to jump in, I'm sorry.

Gotta be quicker Doctor. Cohen.

Yes sir, yes sir. Resolution 2643, I have a question about this.

43?

Yes sir.

Anyone else have one to remove? Mr. Gibson, you amend?

I'll amend my motion to reflect that removal of twenty six forty three.

That would be my second.

Thank you. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed. All right, we'll move on resolution 26,043.

My computer's locked and won't open it. Do you have a copy?

I've got just the title. I don't I've got it on my I've got the full copy if you need it at my desk. I've got the packet.

Mean, for whatever reason, it's locked in the wait. There it went. Never mind. Everybody remain calm.

Just in case.

Okay. A resolution of the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas authorizing the mayor to enter into an agreement with the United Way of Greater Jonesboro to lease space at 407 Union Avenue. Whereas the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas and the United Way of Greater Jonesboro desire to enter into a lease agreement for property located at 407 Union Avenue, Jonesboro, Arkansas. And whereas the United Way is a local independent nonprofit in good standing with its own board of directors and bylaws. And whereas said lease agreement is attached here too in the terms set out therein.

Now therefore be it resolved by city council for the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas that a lease agreement between the city of Jonesboro is approved with United Way of Greater Jonesboro for property located at 407 Union Avenue, Jonesboro, Arkansas, that the term of the agreement shall be for a period of ten years, the rental cost for the space shall be $1 to be paid annually. All other details of the agreement are set out in the attachment. Mayor Hill Copenhagen, city clerk, upper legate are hereby authorized by city council for the city of Jones boro to execute all documents necessary to effectuate this agreement.

Move to adopt.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. Any discussion by the council?

Yes sir, thank you. I just had question about the dates on that contract. That agreement, it's now '26 and it had 12/01/2025. Would that affect anything or is it alright?

It'll be okay. We had been going back and forth with it for a while. I mean obviously they're leasing the building currently as a holdover tenant from a previous lease so I don't think it would make a difference that it's I

just noticed the dates and I didn't want it to hurt us.

Anyone else on the council has a question? Mr.

Mayor, quick question for the city attorney and I flipped through it and the answer may be obvious but it wasn't obvious to me. Let's say we decided to demolish that building for some random reason in the next ten years, do we have the ability to

I believe there's an out clause in there that if there's something going on where the building is no longer usable or I do think we have an out in in the contract. I'd have to look to point you to the paragraph, but I do believe we have an out on that lease.

Anyone else on the council? Anyone on the public have a question or a comment about this item? I'd hear none. Madam clerk? Owen, will you punch it for me?

Thanks, doctor. Alright.

The ayes have it. Moving on. Resolutions removed from the consent agenda. Resolution twenty six zero four five.

Resolution by the city council of the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas Arkansas to condemn property located at 1205 North Floyd Street, Jonesboro, Arkansas 72401. Parcel number 01Dash143123Dash01200. Owner Dave a and Melissa a Matthews. Legal description follows. Whereas the above property has been inspected and has been determined and seated for human habitation. Whereas all the stipulations have been met in the condemnation process to proceed with the condemnation of this property. Now therefore be it resolved by the city council of the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas that the city should proceed with the condemnation of the property located at 1205 North Floyd Street, Jonesboro, Arkansas 72401.

Voted to adopt. Second.

I have a motion motion and and a a second. Anyone on the council with question or comment? Hearing none, anyone in the audience wish to speak on this item?

Hearing

none, Madam Clerk. Alright. The ayes have it. Item six, new business ordinances on the first reading. Move we suspend the rules and offer ordinance twenty six zero sixteen by title only. Second. I have an offer and a set our motion and a second to suspend the rules and offer by title only. All in favor, aye. Aye. All opposed.

In order to authorize the issuance of industrial development revenue bonds under the municipalities and counties industrial development revenue bond law for the purpose of securing and developing industry, to authorize the sale of the bonds and the approval of a bond purchase agreement and a payment in lieu of taxes agreement in connection therewith, to authorize the execution and delivery of a trust indenture securing the bonds, to authorize and prescribe certain matters pertaining to the project, the acquisition, construction, and equipping thereof, and the financing thereof to authorize the execution and delivery of a lease agreement relating to the project and for other purposes.

Alright. Anyone on the council with question or comment?

I do have a, I don't know if this is the right time, I would like to make a motion to waive the second reading. Second.

It is the right time if we're gonna waive it, it's now instead of doing it on the next reading. All right, I have a motion a second to spin the rules and waive the second reading. All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed. All right. Anyone in the audience wish to speak on this item? Alright. Hearing none. Item seven, unfinished business, ordinances on the third reading.

An ordinance to amend chapter one seventeen known as the zoning ordinance providing for changes in zoning boundaries from I one to c three l u o for property located at 5925 East Johnson Avenue.

Move to adopt. Second. I have a motion and a second to adopt. Any discussion by the council? Hearing none, any discussion or anyone in the audience? Hearing none, madam clerk. Alright. The ayes have it. Ordinance 25. Ordinance twenty five zero one five. An ordinance to amend chapter one seventeen known as the zoning ordinance.

Yes, mister councilman. I've had a request if we could hold this till the next council meeting. I believe it has to be referred back to the zoning board for another approval and they're requesting it could be held till the next meeting for two weeks. Motion is to postpone till the Do next

I have a second? Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed.

All right. That concludes our business. Item eight will be the mayor's report. I'll read the mayor's report as it was presented to me. Make it short. It's nine pages, Charles. It's not gonna be short, but Mayor's comments. Good evening, everyone. Since our last city council meeting on May 5, there has been a great deal of activity across the city, and I'd like to highlight a few important updates and community events. First, I wanna encourage everyone to participate in the Plan Jonesboro comprehensive planning process.

The community survey remains open at planjonesboro.com. I encourage all residents to share their thoughts and ideas about the future of our city. Public engagement continues to be a major part of this effort. A public input meeting was hosted by the West End Neighborhood Association yesterday, May 18 at the library, and additional meetings are scheduled for June 4, July 25, and July 16. There will also be webinars and additional community engagement opportunities throughout the summer.

Stay engaged and help shape the plans for the future of Jonesboro. I also want to remind students and families that applications are now open for the youth advancement council. Students in grades nine through 12, including public, private, and homeschool students are encouraged to apply. Applications are available on the city's website at www.jonesboroughar.gov for both new and returning members and will be open through July 1. We have some fresh ideas and are looking forward to working closely with the city leadership for the upcoming year.

On May 7, we recognized May as specialty court month and highlighted the important work treatment courts do in reducing crime by addressing substance use and mental health disorders. These programs continue to make a meaningful impact while also saving taxpayer money, approximately $6,000 per individual served. I wanna extend my heartfelt thanks to all who served to make this option possible, including our city attorney. On May 11, we celebrated the hundred and twenty fifth anniversary of the Salvation Army and recognized their long standing partnership in serving those in need throughout our community. We also want to thank Captain Charles and Terry Smith for their service to Jonesboro as they prepare for reassignment to Louisiana.

We wish them all the best in their next chapter. I had the opportunity to welcome attendees to the Arkansas Community Action Agency Association Spring Conference on May 13 and the CRDC Prevention Conference on May 14. Also on May 14, a group of city employees attended the FOA LEAP program event featuring an impressive showcase by clients from Abilities Unlimited. We are grateful for their investment in our community and our city employees support all our community partners. Community events have continued throughout the month, including the Fisher Street fish fry hosted by doctor Coleman on May 16.

I hope you were able to stop by and grab your fish plate before they were gone. Today, city staff attended multiple events throughout the day, the tenth annual nonprofit summit of the Northeast Arkansas hosted by Kerris Consulting Group, the law enforcement luncheon at Central Baptist, and Arkansas Rural Development Commission Conference. I was pleased to share in a panel discussion alongside Andrea Allen and Judge Marvin Day to kick off the three day conference. Mayor and Chief Elliott are beginning discussions on the incentive position for recruitment to the Jonesboro Police Department. Safety is a priority for our growing city, and we must continue to work together to encourage officers to protect and serve in Jonesboro.

We've celebrated several ribbon cuttings and business milestones with the Chamber of Commerce. These investments and expansions continue to reflect the momentum and growth happening across Jonesboro. I know many are pleased with the addition of Raising Cane's. It was a whole celebration. Looking ahead, we are excited to welcome visitors and cycling enthusiasts downtown for the Skirmish Delta Gravel Festival taking place May 28 through May 31.

And on June 6, the next neighborhood cleanup event will be hosted at Fisher Street United Methodist Church as part of continued efforts to support beautification and neighborhood engagement. Please also note, city offices and services, including sanitation and the Gojo Transit, will be closed on Monday, May 25 in observance of Memorial Day. The adjusted sanitation schedule is available on the city's website and was posted to social media outlets as well. With that, take notice that the incinerator location will be closed on Saturday, May 23 to allow our sanitation employees a holiday weekend as well. Back to business after Memorial Day holiday.

We do wanna pause and take a moment in honor of all who have served and sacrificed for our country. This Memorial Day, we remember and honor the brave men and women who gave their lives in service to our nation. And thank you to all our residents, community partners, volunteers, nonprofits, businesses, and city staff who continue working every day to make Jonesboro a stronger community. God bless, Mayor Copenabra. Alrighty.

That'll conclude the mayor's report. It says your financial statements are available. City Council reports. Madam Clerk.

Mister Street. No. Thank you. Mister Miller.

No. Thank you.

Mr. Bryant?

Just two quick things. Think Mr. Richardson and I have talked about this at one point. You know, if you Google the Park Ranger program, to me it's still not clear how to get ahold of folks and how that works. So think we need some public education around the park ranger program. The mayor just referenced it in his report. I know Chairman Emerson has worked on it some. We've got the open positions in the PDs. We've got money out there. So we need to figure out how to reallocate the money to help the Chief. It's a national problem. I mean, the team takeover movement that's happening around the country and what's happened at City Water and Lotte Park, it's happening all over America. It's only going to be worse in the summer all over America as kids are out of school and stuff. So we need to make sure the chief has what he needs from us.

Mr. Haffner. Doctor. Anthony Coleman.

I just wanted to reiterate that while this is Mental Health Awareness Month, to thank all of our health professionals that are out there. I do advocate seeing a therapist if you can and desire. But I just want to say thanks to all of those hard workers. Thank you.

Mr. McLean?

I had questions I think really for Jim. I know he presented at finance last week and spoke a little bit about the gun range being something that is losing money to the tune of over 450,000, I believe, is the number a year. And so had a few questions. If he wouldn't mind coming up and just answering a couple of questions real quick. Correct me if I'm wrong, Jim, on those numbers.

No, sir, you're correct.

Okay. So it's $450,000 a year. 2025

loss was 497,000. 2024 was 506,000 and 2023 was 412,000.

Have we talked a little bit or have we discussed a play going forward maybe to help stop that bleeding? And I'm not meaning to catch you off guard, but at the same time, just trying to brainstorm about what we can do to stop that, maybe stop the bleeding there.

That's the question of the day. Yes, sir. We're looking at different ways to attract more tournaments to the facility. I can give you a report on how successful tournaments have been the past year. We still lack in a facility as far as a conference meeting room to really host larger tournaments. That's one potential way. We've already kind of slowed down our projects and renovations and landscaping projects. We're trying to cut those costs and limit that kind of stuff. We've done a lot work on the range. We're challenged a lot with the EPA requirements of being a wetland. And so we're really trying to make sure that we're living up to that agreement as well.

When I was on A and P, we talked a little bit about using some funds maybe before. You just talked about a facility maybe for the clubhouse. Is that what you're referring to maybe the clubhouse or to finish out?

Yes,

To build one? Yes, sir. Have you all had any discussions anymore about that?

We've had very little discussion about that. We've just started to kind of reproach that now. And as Mr. Morgan mentioned that a couple months ago.

We

also look at hopefully adding a camera system to the pistol rifle side to maybe reduce the number of staff that we have out there until we improve our numbers. So we're looking at that option as well. That's one of the projects we're kind of looking at.

Okay, last thing, I don't know if we can do this, but I hope we can. Have we looked at maybe outsourcing and having someone else run the facility? Maybe like we're gonna have a company run our rack, Have we looked at having someone else?

We have not. To my knowledge, I've really been here five months.

Yes, have? Okay. It's doable. One, is it doable first? And then second, are we

This is obviously a discussion that happened prior to Jim. We did have some discussions with the sports facilities group that is going to be running the Ridge Athletic Center. And they did some preliminary research. And of course, a lot of their determinations are that in order to actually live up to what that facility was probably proposed to do back when it was originally funded. You do need some sort of centralized clubhouse to intake tournaments and to allow for registration and vendors and food service and all that kind of stuff.

They had their doubts that it would be on paper self sufficient and profitable along its own just based off of that one centralized building. It would give you the opportunity to reduce that loss each year. And you're kind of hamstrung with the shooting range because you can't de staff it to the point where it's unsafe. It's a city property and the last

thing

we want to do is a city owned property to be unsafe because of lack of staff. Jim's done an excellent job of kind of going through that. In fact, whenever he came on board as Assistant Parks Director, that was kind of one of his first assignments was to figure out where we can cut and where we can make it more efficient and help reduce the loss every year because I do think it is important anytime we talk about parks that I know that the shooting range is often viewed as kind of different because it is revenue producing but the ultimate goal of all parks is not necessarily to make money, it's to help with the overall economic development and get people in the town and where they're spending money at hotels and restaurants and everything that the Ridge is going to also do. So it's kind of finding that balance line of how much do we have to spend to be able for the facility to function as it was originally proposed? Is that possible?

Where's the money gonna come from? And at what point are we satisfied with losing $200,000 a year if it's generating X amount of million dollars in economic impact? Some of these reformers obviously that were probably worked through ten years ago. Some of that stuff has been kind of looked at by the sports facilities group. And so outsourcing is an option.

But in order to outsource it, you're going to have to either complete it or work out some sort of funding agreement that allows funding to complete that. And that's a hard ask to come before city council and make until you can show that you can cut as much as possible and still be a safe facility and effective facility. And so that's what Jim has been working pretty hard on to try to make that a presentable opportunity and we're also seeking some outside funding. I know there's been discussions with the Game and Fish on some possible supportive funding because again, it's hard to ask for more public dollars to go in this without bringing some private investment or some third party investment into this. So we're certainly well aware of the realities of where we are on this project.

I don't think you can cut to half 1,000,000 a year. Honestly, I've been mentioned cutting some stuff but I really don't think that's possible. You'd have to in my thinking you'd have to lay off staff and a few other things. Like you said we can't do that. So I would encourage discussion to happen with A and P and then also if we can figure out a way to get with sports facilities group then I would encourage that as well.

Well and ultimately what we want is a safe facility that produces the type of economic impact that was originally kind of proposed and envisioned with this project. And we've actually kind of redesigned the building to help reduce the cost. I think originally the proposed is a 6,500 square foot or so main building. And even at that construction time, was a 6,000,000 or $7,000,000 building, if I remember right. And we've kind of worked back through it and tried to engineer just the essentials in there, enough meeting space to make it a viable facility.

And I think the last estimate that we had on it was somewhere just a little north of 3,000,000. But you start going below that, and are you building what you actually need to make that facility successful? So it's definitely a complex problem that doesn't necessarily have an easy button answer to it. Because again, this is a created force doesn't make money, but we know how important it is to the community. So where's that, trying to find that fine line is a constant challenge that's placed at Okay, Jim's

thank you.

Unless Unless you had something else, Jim, you want to?

No, sir.

Okay, thank you.

Mr. Gibson.

Yes, just a couple of things. Advertising and promotions met yesterday and I would like to suspend the rules and walk on resolution 26,057. Second.

Second. Alright, I have a motion and a second to suspend the rules and walk on resolution 26,057. Carol, we confirm there was unanimous decision at that. Yes.

That.

Carol Okay. Confirmed there was a unanimous decision which is the prerequisite. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed.

Resolution by the city council of the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas to make a reappointment to the advertising and promotions commission as recommended by the commission. Whereas the following reappointment has been recommended by the Advertising and Promotions Commission. Now therefore be it resolved by the city council for the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas that the following reappointment be confirmed. Reappointment of Jerry Morgan to a four year term ending 05/18/2030.

Move to adopt. Second. I have a motion and a second to adopt. Any questions from the council? Anyone in the audience have a question or a comment about this resolution? Hearing none, all in favor say aye.

Aye. Aye. All opposed. The only other thing I had is we had a conversation a couple of weeks ago about the Parks Advisory Committee wanting to reconvene with the Public services committee and I think that I want to try to do that on our regularly scheduled meeting date on June 16 but I would like to move that up to 03:30 just to allow adequate time.

We won't need a All right, duly noted. Anything else Mr. Gibson?

That's all, thank you.

Mr. Moore?

No sir,

no ma'am.

Doctor. Charles Coleman?

I only have two things. I spoke to Ronnie Shaver, he's at home, he's doing a lot better.

He's also watching. He's also watching, he sent me a text.

Yeah.

The other thing is to thank the DARE program for helping the fish program that we had this weekend. We've done real well. We gave 365, 75 plates and 3 and a half dollars, but at the same time, some certain city council people didn't show up and certain administration people didn't show up and I was so happy.

All right, thank you Doctor. Coleman.

Mr. Emerson.

Only thing I have is I wanna reiterate on the mayor's comments and also to LJ's point that did have an opportunity to sit down and talk with the employee reps for the Jonesboro Police Department and think that we've got a lot of good options for us as we proceed forward as we look at what benefits that we're able to offer the Jonesboro Police officers because Lord knows they make it where we can go to sleep and we can rest every night. It's our opportunity to take care of those that take care of us on a daily basis. It was set up and me and chief were going to try to get together last week. However, there was a scheduling conflict and I think this is a good opportunity to brag on Chief and brag on some good initiatives that we have going on in Jonesboro right now. Chief, I'm kind of putting you on the spot here, but would you like to come up and tell us about the Blue Envelope program?

Please?

This past week we participated in a mock traffic stop drills for people with autism. We're the first agency in the state to put on such a project like this. This is Autism Awareness Month and I've been working with several people at the university and with the Governor's Council on Develop mental Disabilities, John Taylor out of Little Rock. We started this project back in May. So we did some scenarios, mock traffic stops this past Wednesday out of ASU with people with autism.

And so the therapist and the counselors and everybody that's involved in this can see how the individuals act due to the stress levels that a traffic stop causes. As we all know, stops generate stress as it is. And then with people that have autism, that increases their stress levels even more. So we, as an agency got to learn how to deal with individuals and but more important the blue envelope program and green envelope program was something that was passed by legislation went into effect first year. Essentially when an officer makes a traffic stop and if a person has autism, they'll pass a blue envelope to the officer.

They'll have directions that, hey, I have whatever. And inside that envelope would be their license, registration, and proof of insurance. They may be stressed at the level that they can't communicate to the officer. And failure to communicate when officers approach can lead to unfortunate things for the driver. We may think they're impaired or a million other different reasons.

So it just kind of cut down any anything would be un unfortunate. So that works. So we had this demo and again everything worked according to plan. There's some changes that we're looking to take back to our state legislators on this. We've learned a lot from that and looking to move forward with some more changes.

But again, I'm just proud of the department and being able to participate this in this program along with state police and ASU police. Like I said, we're the first in state to do it. And ironically, two days later, one of our traffic officers worked an accident on a person with autism. And the first thing he did was presented the blue envelope. So he was stressed out because of the accident and just he knew to hand the officer when she approached the blue envelope.

So the program across statewide hopefully will grow. It's an educational piece right now because law enforcement just learning about the program, starting to how to implement it and how it works. But again, I'm just proud that we are the first in the state to kick this off and continue to work on the local and the state level to make this a go across the state of Arkansas. So thank you.

Thank you, Chief. Anything else, Mr. Brown?

No sir, thank you. Ms.

Borger?

No, thank you.

All right, that concludes our regular business. Item 10, public comments. Public comments. Anyone in the audience wish to speak? Please state your name and address for the record, sir.

Jonathan Carville. It's 4474 Highway 163 in Arkansas.

Speak up just a little bit or

4474 Highway 163 in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Good evening. Thank you for your time. I'm here as representing the SWAT swim club. Some of the parents asked me to come speak about the situation that we have at the city pool. I don't know how familiar you are with the situation, but a few weeks ago we were told that rather than splitting the space at pool with the other team in town, we would have to allocate more space to the other team because it wasn't going to be safe for them. They had so many swimmers. It wasn't going to be safe for them to swim with just five lanes. They were going to need more than that. And so I'd like to address that specifically, the safety aspect.

First as a parent, we all want our kids to be safe. That's our primary responsibility. It's a secondary responsibility for the swim clubs themselves. It's really when we give them over to them, it's their responsibility. I don't think the city has a safety issue. I think we have a space issue. And that's a good problem to have because it's exciting. It means that the new facility is going to be viable. As a safety professional, I had that role at A State as a safety officer for nearly ten years. I solved a lot of safety issues that came to me collaboratively with some of the people in this room.

And I prefer to do it that way, collaboratively as a community solution. We weren't given the opportunity to do that. So I'm here today to hopefully let you guys hear us out and again thank you. So a lot of times what we see when people bring safety issues to us as professionals is that we can't eliminate the risk. The best thing we can do is we can shift transfer it to another entity.

Risk transference usually involves insurance. In this case, I would submit that if five lanes is unsafe for one team, if six lanes is unsafe for that team, and we're now going to be squished down to three lanes for our team, that's going to create an unsafe situation for us. And again, we're going to address that. We're going to address that probably with some extraordinary things and some gymnastics that we're gonna have to do in our schedule. The other team is not gonna have to do that.

But we will because we want our kids to be safe. The other thing that happens with safety issues often is someone will come to you with a solution that sounds viable. It sounds like it'll work. More kids, more swimmers, more lanes. That makes sense.

But really what it does is it creates a perverse incentive for both teams to load up their rosters and justify their space in the pool. And that just means more and more kids in the pool, and it exacerbates the space challenges that we have. And that's probably why you don't see this type of arrangement very often. Usually, the split is along time instead of space so that you don't have that perverse incentive. And so the other thing that can happen is that we've trans again, we've transferred this risk to another group of kids, really.

But the other thing that can happen is people can cry safety. They can say, hey, this is going be unsafe for us because they have a goal in mind. They want more space. And I'm afraid that's what's happened here. And I wouldn't say that if the other team hasn't already been given seven lanes.

We were told we were going to get at least four. We had some details we wanted to work out, but apparently now they have seven lanes and we're going be down to three. And it seems inherently unfair. And so just as a parent, as a safety professional, if you've got anything to say about this situation, if you've got anything that can make it so that we feel welcome at the pool and that we can use that facility in that way, I'd really appreciate it. So I've lived here for my whole life and I think can work this out. I really do. So thank you again for your time. I appreciate it.

Thank you. Anyone else in the audience wish to make a comment? Hearing none, item 11 adjournment. So moved. I have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, we stand adjourned.