City Council - workshop

Everybody to the City Council Budget Workshop of August 5th, 2026. We will go ahead and begin with a pledge and invocation, if you'll stand with me.

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

Lord, Heavenly Father, thank you for the people who are in this room tonight. Thank you, Lord, for all of the city workers and our endeavors that we put forth for the citizens of Lake City. And Lord, please help those at the dais make great decisions for both citizens now and in the future. In your name I pray. Amen. Amen. All right. Tonight, let's make sure that everybody speaks into the mic, but Ms. Sykes, will you please call the roll?

Second.

Present.

Councilmember Harris? Present. Councilmember Young? Here. Councilmember Carter? Present. Mayor Walker? Present. City Manager Rosenthal? Here. City Attorney Martin? Here. Chief Butler? Here.

All right. Ladies and gentlemen, the Lake City Council has opened its public meeting. And since 1968, the city code has prohibited any person from making personal, impertinent, or slanderous remarks or becoming boisterous while addressing the city council. Yelling or making audible comments from the audience constitutes boisterous conduct. Such conduct will not be tolerated. And there is only one approved manner of addressing the city council, and that is to be recognized and then speak from the podium. Failure to abide by the rules of decorum will result in removal from the meeting. Similarly to last night, we're going to go through our items, and then if there's any public participation at the end, we will have that come forth. And so now I will turn it over to you, Mr. Rosenthal and Ms. Taylor.

Mr. Mayor, I have a question to ask on procedure tonight. If it's all possible, I know we have Thursday already held as an overflow day. If the council agrees, I think it would be nice if we hit a hard stop at 8 tonight and had a five-minute at 7.

Everybody get at a hard stop at 8?

I think we've been running everybody on track, too, so I'm sure that they'd appreciate getting home before 10.

Yeah, and I appreciate that. That's why we should have some of these meetings at 8 a.m. instead of 8 p.m. getting out of here. So if we could start having some meetings in the morning times, like at 10, that would be great. But unfortunately, we have people that's got jobs.

Unfortunately? Yeah, unfortunately, that's right.

Worth consideration. So that's a good point. So we all have a consensus that we're going to have a hard stop at 8 p.m. tonight.

Okay. Thank you.

Now I'll turn it over to you, Ms. Rosenthal and Ms. Angie. Thank you, Mayor.

Good evening. As we continue our budget workshop, I want to briefly reaffirm some key factors that we discussed last night that remain central to this year's budget. Our health insurance renewal included three competitive proposals. And although Florida Blue offered the lowest renewal premium, still reflect a 24% increase. Additionally, property casualties and workers' compensation insurance costs remain under our current two-year agreement. These conditions continue to shape the preliminary budget before you tonight. The city currently administers 10 active grant totals. totaling $16.3 million, all of which represent grant funding rather than local taxpayer dollars. Of this amount, the Water and Sewer Fund accounts for $13.6 million, and the Lake City Gateway Airport accounts for $2.3 million. Within the Water and Sewer Construction Fund, the largest grant-supported initiative is the Wetlands Recharge Project at the Spray Field, funded at $9.4 million, along with Phase 2 of the State Road 47 Septic to Sewer Program. funding at $1.8 million. At Lake City Gateway Airport, grant funding supports the design and construction of Taxiway A and necessary pipe repairs, totaling $550,000. In addition, the City has partnered with AAR to complete critical hangar roof repairs through a $1.7 million RRIF grant awarded by the Florida Department of Commerce. These grant awards play a vital role in advancing major infrastructure improvements for the city, significantly reducing the financial burden on our residents. Additionally, our GIS department has been formally separated from the utility administration and established as a standalone department. This restructuring elevates the role of GIS within our organization framework, strengthens our capacity for data-driven decision-making, and enhances support for citywide operations, all without any additional cost to the city. By positioning GIS at its own apartment, we are ensuring that this critical function receives the visibility, coordination, and strategic focus necessary to support modern infrastructure, planning, asset management, and long-term operational efficiency. In summary, the items we are reviewing this evening continue to reflect our ongoing efforts to balance operational needs, fiscal discipline, and our responsibility to this community. The considerations discussed last night, rising healthcare costs, personnel adjustments, and essential infrastructure priorities, remain central to shaping the financial outlook that's before us tonight. Tonight's updates build on that foundation as we move further into details of this year ahead. With that context in place, I'll now turn it over to our finance director, Angie Moore, to guide us through the next portion of this preliminary budget. Thank you.

Good evening, council members and citizens of Lake City. Thank you for joining us for the second evening of the city's budget workshop. Tonight, we will continue our review by covering the remaining funds included in the proposed budget. This will complete our walkthrough of the city's financial plan for the upcoming year and provide a comprehensive view of the resources, obligations, and operational needs across all areas of the organization. As noted last night, we are continuing our review of the city's proposed budget totaling $98,673,526, which reflects a 14.5% increase over last year. It is important to reiterate that the council has chosen to adopt the rollback rate, resulting in a 0% increase to property taxes. And it's also opted out not to increase the fire assessment or water and sewer rates. As Mr. Rosenthal noted earlier, the city is currently managing 10 active grants totaling $16.3 million. All utility grants have been assigned to the 412 Fund, which is the Water Sewer Construction Fund, to standardize their administration and ensure alignment with established grant tracking protocols, mirroring the procedures currently employed with the 341 Airport Construction Fund. As a result of this reassignment, the 410 Water Sewer Fund reflects a corresponding reduction, while the 412 Water Sewer Construction Fund shows an increase of 12.5 million. Now, I want to emphasize once again that these workshops are the time for the Council to Be fully engaged with the budget. This is where you take a close look at every section, identify what needs to be adjusted, and work through any questions or concerns that you may have. The goal is to address the issues now rather than waiting until the final hearing so we avoid last minute changes. This is your opportunity to examine the budget in detail and ensure it reflects the direction you want the city to take. So we did have a request from a council member to go back to the city manager's budget, so I'll turn it over to Mr. D. Johnson.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. In the city manager's 49 account, we did forget to put in two items. It's not going to cause an increase in the budget. I would just like to change some numbers. If you look under that account, under marketing and promotional videos, where it says 10,000, we would like to reduce that to.

What page are you on, B?

45. 45. First line of 45. You good, Ms. Ox?

Yes, thank you.

All right. Under marketing and promotional videos, we would like to reduce that to $5,000. We would like to eliminate the trunk-a-treat for 1,000. take that $6,000 and split it into two events, the MLK brunch and something for Black History Month. Each item would be $3,000 and the total will still remain $86,000.

Is the council okay with that, with those changes?

Staff needs to know if council approves.

Is the MLK brunch and the Black History Brunch the same or those are two separate things? We had two separate. In the same month? Black History Month's in February.

Martin Luther King brunch is on Sunday before the actual holiday. January, I'm sorry.

Mr. Jernigan is saying yes. Ms. Tammy, fine with that?

Does everybody agree? Okay.

Sorry. Yeah, I think we're all fine with it. Okay. Okay.

All right. Next, I'll introduce our growth management director, Mr. Scott Thomason, and he will present his growth management department.

I had a question. It was late, but I don't think we did garbage services before.

I tried to sneak that one in there. It was no changes. If you feel free to discuss, but there are no changes from last year.

All right. I just wanted to know if there was any. All right. Thanks.

Good evening.

Not to cut you off, but it's okay. I just wanted to make sure that we were prepared for you.

I have children. I'm used to being cut off. All right. So we were able to decrease the budget a little bit. If you look down the operating expenses, most of our line items we were able to reduce. There's some that we could not. We have one that's our mobility cost. We're under contract with the vendor for that. We're trying to wrap up as much as we can this year. Some of it may have to be carried over next year. We're going to have to pay this year or next year, one or the other, but we have to make sure we have the funds available to do that. Also, we have under professional services, we have foreclosure attorneys. We've got our foreclosure program starting to ramp up. That will be paying for itself. As we acquire these properties, we'll be able to clear them, clean them, and resell them. We have an attorney for land use, that is to help with our annexations of the enclaves. As we acquire these properties or bring them into the city, that's going to increase our tax base, so that will be paid for itself. But to offset those costs, we did restructure our personnel. We eliminated the principal planner position, promoted Mr. Angelo from planning technician to planner two, and we instead created a planning technician position. So we were able to cut our costs there.

Does anyone have questions about growth management? Mr. Jernigan has a question.

Yes, I have a question. Those foreclosure or land use, on the foreclosures, you usually sell the property back once you demolish it or whatever. Do you sell it back? Do we get that money back or do you like offset it?

The intention is that we will sell it and use that to offset the cost of obtaining the property.

Okay. Would you make more or would you make less off of that property?

It really is dependent. A lot of the properties have liens on them that are quite a bit. We're not going to get that. We've worked with the owners and tried to get them to clean the property, to take care of liens. We have a lien forgiveness program. Some of them just aren't taking advantage of it. So we don't have another option except to foreclose on it. Most of these are properties that have a lot of code violations. There's unsafe structures on them. They're overgrown. And they really are a blight on the community.

And Councilman, if I can interrupt, whatever we do with the property is extremely theoretical since we haven't went through the entire process with any property yet.

We're working on four of them right now.

Okay. You know, clearing my mind.

All right, and next we have CRA, and that's also Mr. Thomason.

Okay, the CRA. I know we have some, last year we established the expanded facade grant program. We'd like to extend that this year. Also encompassing the residential grant program. I know it looks like we put $600,000 available into grant programs, and we also have $600,000 set aside for infrastructure programs that could be used for various things throughout the CRA districts, replacing sidewalks, park equipment, various items. Those items would be up to the CRA board.

And I might add that we were adding a CRA specialist.

Correct. We'd like to get a CRA specialist to help with these programs. So that's what we're asking as well.

Ms. Young? No, I wouldn't agree with that because there are quite a few employees in that area already. And I think that it can be those employees Jobs that comes with the CRA can be dispersed out among the ones that are already in there. There are quite a few employees in there.

The CRA has no employees right now.

I know, but we do.

Yes, sir, Mr. Carter. Ms. Young, would you clarify what you're talking about?

How many employees are in your office?

Growth Management has eight employees. We have two code enforcement officers, two permit techs, a planning technician, a planner two, a residential building inspector, and myself.

Two permit techs?

That's correct.

Can you justify those positions as to where this CRA is? requirements or duties cannot be dispersed out?

The CRA is technically a separate legal entity.

I get that.

Would it be a contractor or would it be a new employee?

It would be a new employee. Mr. Carter? Full-time, part-time?

It would be full-time. And it would be paid out of CRA funds?

What would be the pay grade?

Right now, we currently have a salary of $47,000 in there.

So would it not be feasible to use an employee and we pay half the salary and CRA pay half the salary? That's cutting our costs there.

We could try to do that if you'd like. Right now I know staff maintains a pretty busy schedule.

No, I'd be in there too much.

Might be why they're so busy.

Mr. Carter. At a rate of $47,000, what kind of educational qualifications are required for this position? Do we already have someone in mind or is it hoping to get approved here and then we're going to?

We're hoping to get it approved here. We did create a job description. I do not have it with me, but we do have a job description that they do have some level of governmental experience, college degree, among other things.

To be clear, I guess what I'm asking is, is there some sort of a CRA specialist certification?

There are not. Previously, we had a CRA executive director that was actually costing a lot more money than this would be costing.

Yes, ma'am, Ms. Young.

Whomever comes in has to be trained. Regardless of who you hire, they have to be trained.

We are looking for someone that has CRA experience.

They have to be trained. Regardless of who comes in, in a position, they're going to have to be trained. And we have employees already who can be trained in CRA. Okay. and share the burden of the salary.

Mr. Carter and then Ms. Harris.

I would say... We've been putting a lot of effort this year into refocusing our efforts and making the CRA successful and actively engaging in it. For me, I would take staff recommendation here. I mean, we can try it. We can try it. I don't know that we necessarily have to say we're trying it for a year or something like that, but if it isn't producing, I figure we would probably know within the next year or two if it's an effective role, if it's doing something for the CRA.

Correct. I think for the first year, we're going to know if it's effective.

Yeah. Ms. Harris.

I would have felt better if I knew exactly what we're paying, $47,000.

They would be running all the programs, which would also include outreach within the CRA, things that currently staff doesn't have time for. And there are three of us working on the CRA, just the commercial grant program right now.

Okay. So you would have one person doing commercial as well as, you know,

We would have one person that's dedicated to CRA specifically.

You said commercial, but we have some.

They would be running every program.

They'd be doing everything.

They'd be doing all of it. They'd be doing all of it?

Yes.

Yeah, he needs to be advised. A lot of work. Mm-mm.

I would lean towards staff recommendation on this too. Mr. Jernigan?

Yeah. Yes.

This is a need, it's not a want, am I correct? That's correct.

And yes, I would definitely go with your recommendation. And I heard you say we should know some type of results within a year or so? Definitely. Okay.

Yes, sir, Mr. Carter.

Just checking. So if approved at this stage, would the goal be to begin the process for seeking someone out, hopefully hire by October 1st, and get the ball rolling as fast as possible on that? Yes, sir. Because it sounds like right now there's some of this aspect that a lot of you are just taking little pieces of and trying to kind of spread out among you.

We're juggling in between our normal job duties. Sure.

Yes, ma'am. I take small indications because if you put your finger up or you indicate that you want to speak, you lean forward. I have to lean. I have to read body language up here most of the time. Just doing my best.

When I see a lot of relaxation going on in the office and when I'm hearing from the constituents, the citizens who complain that when they walk into the office they're not getting help, that doesn't tell me that that's a busy office. Maybe busy bodies, but that doesn't tell me that that's a busy office. That tells me that there's some, if the work is going, unless the work is going slack, which it could possibly be, but you have to fulfill your daily operation duties fully for me to say another person to come into another employee to be hired into a position because what that says to me is just another person who come in and fall into the same rut we don't get good we don't get praises and i'm just being real we don't get praises from that office

Miss Young, I would disagree. We have a survey, a customer service survey that we ask people to fill out, and we take that very seriously. As a matter of fact, we recently just got praise from a permit runner who deals with us on a very normal basis, and she said that we are by far the best building department she works with.

Okay. Thank you, Miss Young. Mr. Carter.

I would just say a couple of things. One, especially this past year, I've been in this position for about two and a half years. This past year, I've gotten quite a few compliments on the smoothing out of the process. Also, there's a degree of uh it's your job to make sure that your staff is working and getting their job done it's his job to make sure you're doing it and so there's a there's a i mean none of us are in the building enough to be to in my opinion to be we're not the supervisors of those employees we're just not so um you know if if you're suggesting this is a necessary position in order for this cra that we're trying to make thrive thrive then i say we do it for a year we see how it goes You may feel differently about this in a year, but at this point, running that office is not our job.

Let me say this. It may not be your job, but it's for you to oversee to make sure that it's done properly. And you brought in Mr. Rosenthal, so let me touch on that. Mr. Rosenthal is his leader, but you're to see that. Wait, wait, now, you brought this in. I understand how it works. And the other thing is, don't say that somebody is not in that office enough, because sometimes I'm in there, sometimes every day for a week. So I'm in there a lot, and not only that, I get the complaints from the customer. Customer service, when you first walk in that office, those are the ones who keep that customer service up to par. I'm just being real. I'm telling you what the citizens want me to say. Mr. Jernigan? Oh, no, I...

I gave the sign.

Yeah. Okay. Well, I'll speak on it. Okay. All right. So just – no, no, no. Let's clear it up for me because I'm not going to take any more nods or finger flexes as wanting to speak anymore. Put your pin up if you want to speak from now on. That's what we're going to do. I'll speak.

I don't want you to take what – any of us say, I'll just use me for example, continue to strive to be the best you could be in that office. All you have to do is impress Mr. Rosenthal And Mr. Rosenthal has got to impress us. So just make sure whatever's going on in there, you impress Mr. Rosenthal. And I'm pretty sure that you probably talked to him about this before you brought it up in this meeting. So just strive to be the best you can be. And if it's not going good, you tell Mr. Rosenthal, and then we'll go from there. Yes, sir. Thank you.

Ms. Harris.

Well, I can say this. When I first got into office, there was a lot of chatter about how people were in the office. And I think I did speak with you about that. But what I can say, in the last year, I haven't gotten any bad reports about your office. And this is from people across the line. So I say hats off to you.

No news is good news. Thank you.

My comments would be, if you drive around the city, you see development is happening everywhere. And the growth has to be managed by the growth management team. You guys have a lot of code enforcement that you're working on. It's a busy, busy department. I think there's at least four council members that support that position. Yes, ma'am.

But I can say I'd be mad at you more than I'd be with your customers on the inside. That's okay. Yeah. I mean, you don't have to run into two, but that was me and you. But as far as your staff is concerned, I think your staff is.

I will let them know that you're happy with them, but mad at me. That's okay. Yeah. That's what I get paid for.

Okay.

Ms. Gannon.

No, I'll just forward them to you all this time.

Perfect. Don't break the sunshine, though. Ms. Angie?

Does anyone have any further questions?

My question on the CRA is how much are we having to transfer into the CRA? Or are we transferring into the CRA?

So how it works is it's actually part of the ABALORM taxes. So it's based on the taxable value.

But is that covering the full amount here?

Yes. So we're actually using – let me get back to it.

I just want to make that clear for the public so that we're not jumping up this much and it's not covered by, it's not self-funded by the CRA.

Well, it's based on Avaloram taxes. And so what happens is the taxable value for the city's millage rate, that's what we take to transfer over from the general fund to the CRA fund. Now, also, the county pays their portion as well based on their millage rate. So this year, we have... 196,000 projected to come from the general fund to the CRA fund. And then from the county, we have a projection of 320,000, almost 321,000. Now of that, we have a million dollars in reserves. So this program really hasn't been active. So it's actually quite exciting to hear that we're going to have someone manage this department because it really has been stagnant.

Good.

The overall budget for this year is $1.6 million.

Thank you, Ms. Angie. Yes, sir, Mr. Carter.

One thing to be clear, this is just my opinion, but I think we may get some agreement here. And I kind of want to see this with a lot of different things going into the next year. But we're hiring this new person, and they're going to be trying to seek out grants and programs and things that can be getting done. I would love at a minimum like a quarterly report on what is being worked on. They can come out here, tell us, talk to us about what they're working on, what they've gotten done. Because obviously, if this is going well, we should be seeing it, right? You know what I mean? We should be seeing, you know, boots on the ground. And, you know, I've been told a lot of people want some trees back. I don't know about that, but maybe we can get a tree grant. I don't know. I would like to know how this is going on a regular basis, whether it's from you, that person, or Mr. Rosenthal. But I want to kind of keep it for us and also for the public who are watching.

And it'd be good to know the metrics of residential projects, commercial projects, big projects from community partners that might be landing. Yes, sir, Mr. Jernigan.

And you say that would be like a quarterly report or every month, maybe?

Monthly, quarterly. I'm not bullish on which way, but just something regular.

There's a lot.

So staff already is planning to do a quarterly report on finances for you. I think you should be aware of your finances on a quarterly basis.

100%.

And the mayor has seen some preliminary reports that we're going to show. We're going to be giving that to everybody. And we can just as well have growth management come out with a quarterly report, too, on what they're doing. But we think that's a very fair request.

definitely yes sir mr jernigan yes i agree with that that quarterly report um i agree with that okay miss young okay so mine is cra not oh we don't the position i think so yes yeah don't the position yes ma'am okay so staff has to understand that with the positions approved yes okay yes am i okay yes yes ma'am okay so cra um businesses residential

Yes, ma'am.

And you said parks?

Yes.

You said parks, I heard you say parks.

We could use some of the infrastructure funds for parks. Okay, and that's- Within the CRA district.

Within the CRA district, I think we have at least three. So when we- Do I have to scout? Oh, you want to name them since you said four?

but I think it depends on if you think Darby Pavilion and that area there is separate from the Rotary Park and then Alustee Park and then Sallie Mae Jerry, so that would be four to three. Sorry.

You got the, did you name, it's more. But anyway, my question is, and we're not really have total knowledge of exactly what we can do concerning parks, is that right?

We can do quite a bit. The Florida Statutes 163 does give us some leeway on things, but it also has specifics of what we can spend money on. But if it's any kind of infrastructure improvement that is helping improve the area, we can do that.

Okay. So that would be like equipment. Can you name something other than equipment? Yeah.

sidewalks, restroom renovations, things that the public is using in general, yes.

Okay, so residential, I've gotten a lot of questions on residential. And so residential, if we make it plain, it's for the exterior of the property.

Correct. Yes, ma'am.

Okay, so that's like painting. Now, when we say, okay, windows, but now I've also... got information as though it's the front of the house facing the street?

Front facade.

Front facade, okay. So when we say windows?

Windows can be replaced. Anything that's on the front or, in my opinion, visible from the street.

Okay, so we can do the windows visible to the street, but if there are windows in the back, we can't do those.

That is...

that's a very good question um that's something i would have to get back to you that doesn't make sense windows are all windows yeah but so we're going to examine that this is a we we've just been working with this program for about a year and we're starting to get money in it for about about a year or so so okay we're going to be working coming back to the board and whatever we do is going to be something you approve and something that makes sense

But any kind of facial repair, you know, painting, yes, we definitely want to help with that. The idea is to improve the look of the neighborhood. If we can improve the houses that are owned there, hopefully we can encourage other people to do the same.

Okay. So we know this is coming up really soon. Yes. Right? So we got some homework to do.

Yeah.

So we'll know exactly what we can do, what we can't do, what we shouldn't do or

So we've already got a draft of the residential grant program. It just really needs to go to the CRA board to either say yes, no, or this is what we want, make these changes. And then once we do that, we can start moving forward with it.

But didn't we agree that there was a certain amount that we could only spend per place?

Yes. And that's what will come before us on the grant application.

But we didn't say the amount, right? We haven't said the amount. No.

No. He's proposed several things that's going to come back in front of you.

Yeah.

All right. Any other questions for Mr. Scott? I'll do it. Thank you. Thank you for the CRA.

Thank you. Mr. Scott, could you stay just a little longer for me? No, I'm just kidding.

I started you with an interruption and a stutter step back to your seat. Well done, Mr. Thomason. Thank you, Miss Angie.

all right next we have the fire department chief wanger start on page 156 i just want to note before he speaks that um we had to use 390 000 to balance his budget from his prior year surplus pending he doesn't spend it all this year did you say prior year surplus prior year surplus so i had leftover money You had 263, but if you don't spend all your money this year, then that will cover it. Otherwise that would be a transfer from the general fund.

So we're saving money anyway. I was hoping Steve would come introduce me, um, since he gets all the props, but anyway, we'll go from there. Um, So we're not asking for anything capital. We did have originally in our budget before we were asked to trim $500,000 for a fire truck. We were expecting to get some appropriations funds, and that would have offset that cost. The appropriations got cut, so the $500 won't. really help us with a fire truck. So we were able to remove that. Um, we do have to do a fire assessment study this year. Uh, that is a little bit of an increase and, um, and obviously our, our, uh, personal service personnel services are what increases, um, the most. But other than that, we're a pretty status quo, I think, unless you have any questions.

Any questions for Chief? I will comment. It was a tragic line item veto by the governor himself that removed that fire truck out of our building.

The last minute.

All right. No questions, Ms. Angie.

Thank you, Chief. Thank you. Thank you, Chief. Next, we have the airport, Lake City Gateway. We have Chad Gomes and Mr. Evan L.,

Double threat.

Good evening. I'd like to introduce myself first. I'm the new airport director as of July 8th. I have 15 years of airfield and jet fuel management. I'm just getting involved in this budget and educating myself. I'm thankful to have amazing airport staff and city management working with me during the process. And I look forward to continuing to make the airport a better place and increasing the economic output for the great community of Lake City, as well as Florida. So I have Mr. Ed Bonnell here to help me field any questions.

Any questions for the airport? All right. I don't think so. Thank you guys very much. Thank you. Looking forward to watching that airport grow and do big things.

If you guys would like to stay up for the airport construction fund, we can go knock that out. So if you'll flip to page 193, 192, 192, 193. This is their, they have a separate fund for their grants. So we have listed here the hangar roof grant. I help the airport with this particular fund. That's why I'm kind of announcing it. But if you have any detailed questions about the project itself, then they can help you. But this is the $1.7 million grant, the roof grant. That's for the AAR hanger roof repairs. And then also we have the taxiway repairs. rehabs design and construction and then we did put in the uh airport fund a transfer for seven hour fifty thousand dollars to this fund that way if any grants become available the match is now i believe what twenty percent twenty percent fdot so those you have match money for any future grants that may may come you know become available so

And the reason we haven't done that before is because it was a 0% match up until, and they just changed that rule this year.

That's correct. Got rid of the ready waivers. Yeah.

Unfortunate. Unfortunate.

Any other questions?

No other questions. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you, guys.

All right. Thank you. All right. So jump back to page 182. This is the debt service fund. It did decrease slightly. That was the Motorola lease two. We had two leases. The first one was two-thirds split to the police department, one-third to the fire department. They can elaborate more. It was radios and other equipment that they needed. And then Motorola lease two, I believe, was all the police department for additional radios. So that lease was paid out. So that shows the decrease. that fund and right now we only have the 2019 sales tax bond that was the money that we borrowed for the new City Hall and the new fire station and and just finishing out the paying off the lease for Motorola one the initial one so that's all we have in the debt service fund does anyone have any questions about what did you say about the new City Hall So we borrowed money in 2019 right before COVID to build a new city hall and to build the fire station. The fire department got a jumpstart and started building theirs. And the price increased because of COVID. You know, the price of materials went sky high. They originally were allocated $1.7 million of that bond money. and end up using 3.1 million. Initially, it was a $5.7 million loan, so it basically ate up any funds to actually build a city hall, and that was the plan or the thought back in 2019. So we do have some of those funds left over. That's what's gonna be next, what we discuss in the sales tax bond fund. So if you'll flip over to Paige.

I have a question, ma'am. Okay, go ahead. On this. Can you go back?

The lease for the motor rotor equipment.

Is it possible that when that lease runs out, can we buy that equipment?

I'll let the chief answer that.

And the reason why I asked you that is because, say for example, you go to Altel, you get a phone, or you go to get a truck, a car or something, you lease it, and then you can also buy it back at the end. So I'm just wondering, can you buy these

At the end of the lease, the equipment is a property of the city. The mobiles, which are in the cars and in the fire trucks and the portables, which are on the hips of the officers and the firefighters, at least the ones in the cars, they should last. The portables are getting toward end of life. They have six to seven year lifespans. The fire department, and I don't want to talk for the fire chief, but theirs have to be, I think is what intrinsically safe because of spark. So I know he needs to replace his more often, but my plan is unless I can't get replacement parts for the police radios, I'll just keep them until I need to replace them because they're no longer functional. This is also part of when we did the dispatch center at the public safety building. Since then, we've migrated over to the Columbia County Center. We still own the equipment that's at the PD, but because when we did the project, it would have been too involved to try and separate that equipment so the county could take it over. And plus, Motorola being Motorola, they're going to try and beat us up for the costs. So the plan was back when it's over, we will turn over that equipment to the county. They will then be responsible as the backup PSAP to maintain all that equipment, and the city will have no responsibility to maintain that equipment. Thank you, Chief. You're welcome.

Thank you, Mr. Jernigan.

All right, next we have the sales tax bond fund. That's the 2019 sales tax bond that we were just discussing. That's on page 186. So if you look at the revenue account numbers, what's left over of that bond money It does accrue interest. Right now, it's $1.7 million is what's left over of that bond money that we borrowed. We need to spend that. We were supposed to, per the bond covenants, we were supposed to spend that within three years. We haven't done that. I know we're six, seven years down the road, but this... money really does need to be spent as soon as possible but we're also using the rest of our arpa money to transfer that that arpa money was in the general fund we have 1.9 million left over of that and with talking with the city manager this is what we proposed last year we haven't touched any of this money and moved it over to the sales tax bond giving us $3.6 million towards either the purchase of a new city hall or to begin building. Now, if you remember, we did pass a resolution that we could go and borrow money at a later point, up to $10 million. I know that's not really the desire of the council, but if we did spend this money and had to borrow more money, the bond would reimburse us for the money spent in this fund. So does anybody have any questions about the sales tax bond fund?

I had a question on this because I think that I asked the question last year and I can't remember the answer. You said it was to build or purchase a building, correct? Yes. And it can't be to repair or retrofit a current building?

As long as it's meant for a city hall.

City hall. Mr. Carter, you had a question?

We were supposed to spend it in three years and it's been six, so we're three years past that. Are we experiencing some sort of penalties for that?

I've been in contact with Jolinda Herring. She's our legal bond counsel. And currently, we're not under the gun in any kind of penalties. But as part of the bond covenants, that was the agreement. The whole point is arbitrage. It's a financial term. So what they basically don't want you doing is borrowing money and then making money off of their money.

Which we're doing currently, right? What we could do.

Every year we have an arbitrage person come in and actually go through our books and to make sure that we're not earning more than what their interest rate that they're charging us. And so far we haven't been hit or penalized by the IRS. But the... The interest rate doubled last year, so we are potentially in jeopardy in the future of getting hit by the IRS for making money off their money. That's why it's important. Our interest rate was so low that we were earning, like Mr. Rosenthal said when he first started. We weren't in jeopardy because we weren't really making money off our money. Now that we are... that's a potential penalty down the road. So that is something that we want to kind of put on

MS. HARRIS.

MR. ROSENTHAL, DO WE HAVE ANY PLANS TO GO AHEAD AND SPEND THAT? YES, WE DO.

YES, WE DO. WE ARE LOOKING TO SPEND IT ON THE BUILDING CURRENTLY OWNED BY THE VANS. THEY WANTED $3 MILLION. WE WERE ABLE TO GET IT $100,000 INDUCTION, SO WE'RE GOING TO GIVE THEM $2,900,000 NOW FOR IT. They have a current tenant, and Dee and I are working on some things with that current tenant before we move forward, and we're waiting on some additional information from Mr. Vann.

I thought it was 2 point something.

It was $3 million initially. Now it's $2,900,000. We were able to get $100,000 taken off.

I don't remember that number. I thought it was 2 point something million. That was what they were offering.

Originally, when we first started the process, it was 2 million and something. But we never made a formal offer. We never really got into anything with it. And the value of property goes up over time. We actually had appraisals done. And the appraisal came in at that. The appraisal for our building went up too.

So have we considered just building a whole new city hall?

We have, but the funding would be much more than what we actually have on hand right now, the funding requirement. but let's just say we bought the van property and have we had someone to go in there to check to see what all problems they have and all of that we've had a we've had an engineer to go over there to look at the the property the property's in better shape than the building we're in right now uh we would also have an opportunity to build a a parking garage on the lot across from the police department with an evidence storage room

I don't want us to buy a piece of property, and then when we get in the middle of the game, find out that it's raggedy.

We've had it appraised. We've had it looked at by an engineer, a structural engineer, and it's in better shape than the building we're in right now.

Okay, you keep saying better shape. If we take our chances with a building that is already built and we get in there and find out some other stuff is going on with it, I think that we should probably think about having our own building built versus getting that and it's not we get it and find out that there's several things wrong with it well prior to making a building i've been there i know ever since i was a little girl and i'm not that old i understand prior to making an offer on a final offer on the building we'll we'll bring it back to the board and get permission to make that final offer we're still negotiating If they sell it to us for 2.9, right? And then how much renovation are we going to have to do? Because when you walk in the building, it's not like a...

I think it's going to be considerable renovations that have to be done to the building. I'm thinking probably $2 or $3 million. But if we buy a new building, we're going to be in the $12, $15 million range buying a brand new building.

Building one. Ms. Angie, you have something to add to what Ms. Rosenthal is saying?

There's something else I wanted to point out. So the customer service building and growth management where they're currently at and the old historic Columbia Bank, that was paid for with the sales tax bond funds. So if the city does not intend to use those buildings, we need to sell it at fair market value. And those funds would have to be returned back to the sales tax bond and be spent towards a new city hall.

So that means there will be more money. Yes. So with that being said, if there's more money, I prefer a new car versus a used car.

But if you, let's assume, and it's just an assumption at this point, that we get, for those two buildings, we get a million and a half dollars. That still wouldn't be enough to help us build a brand new city hall, but it might be enough to help us with the older building there. But this is a decision that we don't have to make tonight. Before we make an offer, we'll bring it back to the board and get clear direction. If the answer is don't make the offer, I won't make the offer.

My thing of it is just don't stop with just that place. Let's look into if we can get a brand new building. Okay. Do both of them so we'll have something to compare.

I think about a year ago we looked at getting a brand new building. So I can send you what we got from that to give you a comparison.

And it was about $12 million. It was about $12 million, yeah. Which is about three times what, yeah, Mr. Carter. He was next, and then it's you. I got an order.

We know.

We'll go back about seven minutes to when I raised my hand. Ms. Taylor was explaining that we would possibly be facing some more serious consequences down the road. Do we have any idea what down the road is? Is that one year, two years, five years? I feel like as long as there's no concept of a must-be-done-by, it's very easy to keep getting... Obviously, we've already done it for six years.

Oh, sorry.

Go ahead. No, that's it. That's the question.

So we just had an arbitrage report done, and we did not owe anything. But that doesn't mean – they usually check it every year. So we just had it done a couple months ago. So within a year, you could potentially – see that so if you have something in progress but we need to I mean because you could spend it on engineering anything you need so if we had a project in place I would have a little leeway to to work with them they don't really want to penalize local governments but sure The idea is for us to not intentionally be making money off their money.

Sure. Okay, so then just a good way of looking at it is we probably ought to come up with a plan this year. Yes. Thank you. Absolutely.

Michelle. The part that really... Confuses me is first of all we never decided whether we're gonna go for a new city hall or purchase the building over there, but all the effort is exhausted in the old building and Seems to me it almost sounds like administration has made up mind about purchasing a building that's already in And that concerns me. We did get, we didn't get a, I didn't get a number as to how much a new building was. I think that was a year ago. I got a roundabout. So I don't think we put enough effort into actually finding out how much It will cost us for a new city hall, look at where would we build a new city hall, and we weigh it out. You can't weigh out if it's one-sided. Everything is put into the old building, purchasing this building, and I just don't think it's right. I think we owe it to balance it out, get a cost on both. Get a cost on both. Bring us information, not one-sided. Bring us information on both sides. Give us enough data that we can look at it and make a determination as what would be best in interest for the city in a new city hall. And if we have a brand new city hall, even though we have to pay more for it, we have our very own city hall. brand new, but we designed. And you go over here, you're talking about a whole nother garage, you're talking about millions more dollars. So I think we need to put more effort into both sides Of the decision.

So to answer staff, the part about staff doing their own thing, we had a discussion where we gave them consensus to approach the owner of that building and make an offer and begin negotiations. I understand that. Concurrent with that, there was something in one of our agendas that had three different city hall plans, the least of which was just under $10 million. And that was building out at the old Columbia Bank building. One of them was completely tearing it down and building a single-story building, which I think was $11 million, and then the most expensive one. So it was like a good, better best. And the best was like around $14 million, and that was leveling it and doing a... similar footprint uh which is when we asked staff at that meeting how much space do we actually need do we have we done that assessment that i think that assessment came out with 29 000 square feet or something like that uh in the building we then asked them are there any buildings that we're looking at and do you have recommendations they said well there is a building that's around 35 000 square feet or so and that they asked us for consensus to approach them about, and that's where that building came into play. Yes, ma'am.

So, Mayor, what I would like is, what I would ask is that bring us both sides of the scale. Bring us information from both sides. We can do that. And let us look at it on paper, not word of mouth, on paper. Sure. And let us examine that and see where we find ourselves.

So formalizing the plan with the other building. All right. Yes, sir, Mr. Roosevelt.

We can actually do that. The first thing we did was for the new construction. That's what we looked at first. We can bring that back. We can make sure that all the council people get a copy of that and get a copy of where we are right now with the negotiations.

Quick question on the funds for What a new city. How much would our tax bond be? Let's say we sold our buildings. We had this all together. Do we have an estimate of how much money we would have to work with?

Well, currently in the budget is the $3.6 million. So it would depend on the sale of the other two buildings. So all of that would have to go back into the sales tax bond.

Which we bought for $2.7? It was $1.1. Okay, $1.1.

$1.1 million, I believe. I have to check my records, but I'm pretty sure.

So we would only be around $5 million based on market growth.

And then depending if we wanted to sell this building, we could add that towards it.

So it would be $5 million. Let's just say roughly $5 million without this being sold. Right. With the other properties being sold. So if we sell this as well, that would be probably, what, $1 million, $2 million? I believe they just had it appraised.

Yeah, we just gotta appraise a little over two million.

Okay, so we'll say that's roughly seven, and so we'll end up probably having to get a bond for several million to, if we decided to go with the new, seven million.

But bear in mind that the appraisal isn't necessarily what you're gonna sell it for. That's just appraised value. Somebody's gotta be willing to pay a certain amount for it.

Or it could be more.

But that just gives us an idea, like you were just outlining. Okay. Mr. Jernigan.

I'm going with new.

I know the, uh, the exchange exchange bank, they've been around a long time and that is a, uh, uh, a pretty nice, uh, bank on the inside and outside. And, uh, with the pillars out front, uh, it make it look even better. Uh, uh, so I would like to, um, if we can go forward with that bank, as long as we have Uh, we don't spend, we don't get out there and spend more money. Uh, like for example, if we're going to get a new city hall and we got to spend 10 million to get a new city hall, we, we go to this bank and I mean not the bank, but the, uh, vans, uh, carpet over here, uh, that is, that is still the bank, uh, um and we end up spending 10 million dollars in that bank to renovate it to get it up to uh the standards that we we wanted or needed or whatever um a new city we might as well get a new city hall if that's the case now if we can go in there we uh 2.9 uh 2.9 Oh, wait, 2.9, right? Yeah, 2.9. And we have to spend a couple of million and then we can save the citizens or a little bit of money spending five versus 10, 12, 14 million dollars. I think we should really look into that really hard. However, just like the council, Vice Mayor Young, she wanted, you bring it, let us all see it, and we make a decision. I think that would be the best option there.

I agree. Anybody else?

Sometimes because stuff is cheaper does not make it better. You're looking for the longevity in whatever you get. I don't know, but that animation you got going on there is incredible.

I'll explain my animation if you'd like.

I don't want you to.

A whole lot of what was just asked for was given to us very clearly months ago. Secondly, if we decide to spend $14 million on a city hall after we've just made the entire city cut their budgets and after we just took 14 road repavings out of the budget, I would expect to see this building or whatever building surrounded by pitchforks. So I can't really speak on the purchase, not purchase, et cetera, of that building over there. To be clear, I'm employed by the people who own that building. But you are speaking. I'm not. I'm not. To be clear. Hold on.

Let's not speak over each other. Mr. Carter is speaking. Thank you.

I'm not speaking about that deal. I wasn't really going to say anything, but it is still my job as a member of this council to make sure that if I can influence us making smart financial decisions, I will. So if we have the ability for whatever building in whatever place to spend $5 million instead of $15 million, that seems like a... No brainer. And that's all I'll say on that. My animation, again, was because I feel like staff was just given a real hard time. Like they didn't do what was just asked of them in the last six months because they did that exact thing. And then we gave them direction already. So it's a little frustrating when it feels like everyone forgot.

No, we didn't forget. We just need a clarification on one thing.

Thank you. Let's not have a back and forth over each other. These are for to speak to each other, but let's not talk over each other. Anything else?

All right. Next, we have the Steve Brown with Water Sewer.

Before Steve comes up, it is 7.05. Do you guys need a break?

Do we need a break?

I'm good.

Okay. Steve, come on up.

Water Sewer UT Admin Budget. It's our big budget that kind of goes over all of our departments is where we keep money for. Can you hear me? Yeah. Sorry about that. This covers our debt and stuff. Angie and those work out of those departments. So there's really not any major changes to this department. If there's any questions.

I might add that this department used to have GIS in it. So if you look at the changes, the percent changes, that's because Jason's GIS SCADA department is now its own department. So that's why it might look a little funny in the book, but there's really no change to either department. We just split them out.

Thank you. We do have a question for you, Mr. Jernigan.

We didn't have any, we didn't save, we stayed at the same level. Yes, sir. Thank you so much. Just wanted to make sure that everybody knew that. When you stay at the same level or something with everything going up the way it is and the services, that's just amazing by itself.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Jernigan. Mm-hmm.

All right, up next we have customer service with Ms. Katrina Medeiros.

Hello. So as you'll see for mine, there's not really a whole bunch of change on mine either. We fluctuate a little bit for the credit card fees. That way, just in case, we have a lot more people that's using those, so we account for those every year.

Is there, for public interface, are there any motions forward on ease of use for public interface? And I don't really know that it's so much your department as it is with like growth management and and some of those others uh but it's all customer service to me right so can can you or i.t speak to how that project was going because i know that we were looking at a higher rollout of technological public interface last year and it got shelved yeah i don't i don't know about i know the projects that we're working on but that would be jason probably if he's working on any of that call that out of the blue just like signing up for a new account and stuff like that, because they have to come in right now, right?

So right now we're working on the EPL project. That's the Enterprise Permanent Licensing. That's the first thing we're doing. We're switching everything to that program. So that's actually going through that process right now. Right now we're looking to go live with that in January. Some of the tap and impact processes currently is all on paper spreadsheets. That will be actually rolled into that process as well. As far as the customer service stuff, applications, we can start doing some of that stuff through our website hopefully going forward. But, yeah, we are actually moving forward on that.

Very good. I think that would be a huge customer improvement. Yeah, thank you. I don't know. My brain just went blank.

It happens, folks.

Anyone else have any questions? I don't have a question, Mayor, if it's okay, I have a compliment.

Yes, ma'am, absolutely.

I'm looking at this, we have pictures here in these different departments, and I'm actually looking at the picture of your team. Yes, ma'am. And this is exactly what you get when you walk in that customer service office. Do you see the eagerness, the energetic smiles? This is what you get when you walk in that door every time. I appreciate that. And I get compliments and I appreciate you and your team. And I think this falls under Mr. Brown as well. I really appreciate it. And I'm serious. When you walk in there, it's just so bright. Thank you. And I love it. I appreciate that.

Well, thank you. And I'll pass that along.

Great picture. You should post it in your office.

We've got them all up in there somewhere. Thank you.

All right, up next, we have the water treatment plant with Mr. Mike Osborne.

Mike, my man, my man, Mike. The award winner. That's right.

Good evening. Water treatment plant, with all the hurdles with inflation and everything, we've actually, our total budget's only raised a little over 1%, so we're pretty much in line, same as we were last year. If you got any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer.

Mr. Jernigan.

Yes. I don't have a question, but I'd sure like to make this statement here. I remember years ago, the water was okay. But since I went through and you gave me the tour of the plants or plant, what they do out there with that water and what you do to make sure that my kids, my grandkids and my family and friends in this city And I know you got plenty of awards and recognitions. I just want to recognize you for the job you're doing, you and your staff is doing out there. And please keep the water very, very safe for us to drink. And I think that's an achievement right there coming for the city of Lake City and then everybody. Can't nobody do it the way you have done it and the way Lake City has kept this water sewage plant going day in and day out. So I just want to thank you for that.

Thank you. I wouldn't be able to do anything without the staff that I have out there. They're the best in the state. I've always said that.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Journeyman. Can I please add that Mike was awarded the plant operator of the year last Tuesday?

I'm Mike.

Mr. Carter, you had a question?

I was just going to say the same thing Mr. Jernigan did. I know we won a couple new awards this year. You guys do great. And it's obviously nothing against any other departments in the city. But walking through you guys' stuff, it's so pristine. It's so well-maintained. And anybody else I've talked to who's seen it says the same stuff. So just keep up the great work. Keep up the great work.

Thank you. And we're always looking to show it off. So bring new people in all the time.

Yes, sir.

Also, I believe this is Mr. Mike who we had a little statement that was made and it brought an alarm to our citizens here in Lake City about a water shortage. Is this who we're talking? Okay. And so the community wants to hear about what does Lake City have in place when it comes to this water shortage that has been said that could happen in our city or is at the peak of our city. Well, I understand that Mr. Mike will be glad to talk to our citizens in some way, form, or fashion.

To let us know and I hear you're very sharp and you excited about it about talking about it, and you just confirmed that so congratulations We will be putting together another video like we did last year about the treatment process We'll be putting a video together about our conservation efforts, but it stems farther than just me Cody Pridgen and wastewater he's got a lot to do with that too because The water that we produce, that he receives, he cleans up good enough to put back into that aquifer so that we make sure the citizens will never run out of water.

And there's no reason for us to be alarmed. Is that right? No, ma'am. Great team.

Fantastic. Thank you. Thank you, Mike. Thank you, Mr. Osborne.

all right up next for the next three departments so that will be the wastewater treatment plant that's st. Margaret's and kick lighter then we have the North Florida mega industrial wastewater treatment plant that was separate due to the agreement with the county we probably could consider combining that in all one department

um and then finally the spray field so we have mr cody pritchin hey everybody welcome up mr pritchin um you'll see in the wastewater budget that the operating expense pretty much stayed the same um we got a couple capital items in there new crane truck the one we currently have is going on 13 years old and it's been in the shop quite a bit and it seems like every time it's in the shop is when we really need it the most see a spare digester pump in there so we went without what digester pump goes down the last time we had to get a new one it took about ten months to get it and we were running off of one digester so we'd like to have a spare on the shelf for that Got any questions about anything?

You ready to move to the next department? Any questions for this department?

Any questions for Mr. Pridgen? Are we just moving to the next?

Let's move into the next department. The next facility? It's the North Florida Mega Industrial Wastewater Treatment Plant. This was the plant that we purchased from the county.

Welcome back, Mr. Pridgen.

and again the operating expense pretty much stayed the same out there as well uh we've got a couple capital items uh golf cart being one of them i don't know i think the mayor's been out there to the new plant i don't know if anybody else has but The operator's got a long walk from one end of that plant to the other carrying a basket with a bunch of sample bottles and everything, so golf cart would come in handy out there.

Can you speak into the mic? Sorry about that. I apologize.

Sorry about that.

So you say you need a golf cart?

Yes, sir.

Okay. It doesn't look as big as the other one by these pictures, but it is definitely linearly way longer for sure.

Can we find him a golf cart?

Yeah. I'll agree with you. You need a golf cart. Thank you.

Is it in there? No.

Where?

I thought he said it wasn't.

Is that in there, Mr. Don? Is she talking?

I'm sorry?

Is that in there for him a golf cart? Yes, it's in there.

It's in the budget. Okay. Thank you.

And then next we have Sprayfield.

Once again, operating expenses pretty well stayed the same. We only have one capital item in there paying off one of our lease trucks, and then that'll be the last rental at the spray field. We'll own all of them after we pay this one off. It's only $1,900 to pay it off. We're working on the Brantford Road site. We have a meeting scheduled next week with the engineers to see which direction we need to go with that. The speedy wetland conversion should be going out to bid very soon. We'll talk about that in the same meeting next week.

i don't know if you got any questions about that this department was the uh the department that had the grants for uh itch technique um quality and quantity and then also the steeply wet fields or wetland yeah so those two uh grants were originally just put into this department because he was managing but we're putting those into the water sewer construction fund so it's That's why it looks a little different on his capital.

Mr. O'Connor?

Yeah, just a quick question. Really, it's a clerical question, but I don't, why are all of these parts of the wastewater treatment process put together as separate departments?

uh well the the wastewater department and the spray field were separated before i became director and i kind of like it that way it's a little easier to track where the money's going and where the money's needed at okay um the north florida mega industrial park as you know was because of the county deal thank you thank you mr prison thank you

All right, and next we have GIS slash SCADA with Mr. Jason Dumas.

Come on, Jason.

Hello. So in our budget, I know you can't really see everything. It says 100%, so it does look a little misleading, but we did cut some money in our 49 account. We saved about 40% this year, and we cut our operating supplies about 18%. Awesome. One thing I do want to bring you guys attention as you're talking about just citizen engagement, we are currently working on asset management software. We're rolling out with Public Works first, and we're actually including it with that as citizen engagement to where customers can report things happening out in the community, and we can actually track those and respond to them quicker.

Can they see, so I think this will be an awesome tool where they can see projects that have, how it looked before, how it was fixed. Will they be able to see those, like a year-to-date project? You'll see it live as we do things.

So one of the things you're talking about on our website now is like story maps. We did the 47I75 extension. You can kind of follow that project along, same with the fire station that got built. a lot of people like seeing how the process was going and as we get updates we add those to it i think when lake projects in there right now as well so as we get updates mr johnson provides us information on those we kind of keep updating the community through that absolutely very good very good any questions for mr dumas thank you jason thanks thank you

Okay. And the last department and the four 10 water sewer fund, we have Mr. Brian Scott and distribution and collections.

Our budget pretty much stayed the same. Uh, our materials are increasing us. Like Mike said, everything is steady going up on us. Um, we require several new lift stations and, um, Biggest thing is, like I said, just the materials are going on up on us. And this year we have changed out over 1,200 meters to make so we can get the reeds back and get them going.

Any questions? Thank you. Thank you.

And next is the Water Sewer Construction Fund. That is where all the grants are currently located. So we do have a flood vulnerability assessment for $300,000. We have the Itch Technique Springs quality and quantity, the State Road 47 septic sewer phase two, and the Seedly Wetland Recharge. And then the water sewer projects was leftover bond money from the St. Margaret's that I believe we're using for the SCADA upgrades. So that's That's the capital project for the water sewer fund. And then if you go on to the next, it's the impact fee trust fund. This is for water and sewer. So we did use some of those funds to purchase the wastewater treatment plant from the county. That's why you see a decrease in revenue. So we project a budget of $2.6 million. And we have that as a transfer into the water sewer fund in case of any projects that come about, we can use those funds. So currently, they're undesignated. They're just there when we need them. And then we'll move on to the gas, natural gas department with Mr. Brown. Thanks, Steve.

Thank you. So the biggest thing in gas, two things really that we've done this year. We did decrease our overall capital. We took a couple projects out. But the two big things, if we have participated in hedging programs, y'all have heard a little bit about it throughout the year. We're prepaid buying gas now where we were at about $6 a deck of therm. We're down to about $3, $3.20. Those are forecasted out for long term. So that's going to lock us in at that low rate, some of the lowest rates we've seen in years. Another very positive update is, and in this we've got 610 customer rebates, but our rebate program, which is where we go in and actually sell ourselves as a team and a business to our customers rather than them going electric. We keep them on the natural gas system. We used it for customer infill and retention. Our retention program is about 633 customers since the beginning of it. So that's 633 burners. That is an average life expectancy of 15 years. So though we have spent $212,000 and incentivizing no customers, our forecast will be futures out. So we are, we're saving money on the purchase. We're making money on the, so we're running a very healthy business in the gas department and we're keeping all of our projects in line. We have several capital projects that we are looking at expansion into neighborhoods where we can pick customers up. So we have a very healthy gas department. I would also, one other thing, non-budget related, but why I'm standing here, we did our, annual audit with the Public Service Commission this year. This is our 10th year, one decade with zero findings. So your natural gas department was 100% clean all the way through. So that's a big deal.

Well done.

Thank you.

Any questions? We do have a question for you, Mr. Brown. Mr. Carter?

Not a question, but again, you and your whole team at utilities, gas, the pipes in and out, gas, liquid, all the stuff. I know you guys do a ton of stuff in-house. You're always finding creative ways to save money. Doing that and also passing those things with no issues is very impressive. It's great. That entire department and all the departments involved in that. You guys are killing it. Thank you.

Well, I know I stand up here a lot, and I speak as a representative of the utilities and the public works and everything, but I'm just going to tell you I'm just a piece, the smallest piece of the pie. I am the guy that represents them. But these guys and gals that are behind me that work day in and day out, are tireless in their jobs. They're thinking faster than I'm thinking sometimes. And we're collaborating. We're meeting every week and talking about projects, talking about procedures. So it's really a group effort, a team effort. Your public works department, again, we're doing everything from sheetrock downstairs to concrete work. to pavement parking lots. I mean, we're moving as a team. This city is moving leaps and bounds under Mr. Rosenthal and Mr. Johnson's direction. I can say we're a very healthy place. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Brenner. Mr. Jernigan, you want to say something?

You say I'm a great counsel.

And an excellent counsel, the greatest counsel.

My question to you, Steve, I'm sorry. With all of the annexations that's coming into the city, I think that with that and we're running leaps and bounds and making sure that we get these different areas into our city, I must say that Just listening to the folks talk about the city and what we offer as far as utilities, you guys are doing a very, very good job. Thank you. I mean, I hear people say, I wish I could annex into the city. I wish I could do this because it is a very, very good operation that you guys are performing on a daily basis. So I appreciate that.

And that looks good on the cover, and we do appreciate that. But from award-winning water to wastewater plants that are just knocking it out of the park, and then a distribution and collection department that literally works around the clock. They work nights, weekends. Those guys and gals are nonstop, cold, doesn't matter, to make sure the pipes keep flowing. It is an amazing organization.

That's right. Ms. Young?

And that's why, it's good to say thank you, and it's good to give all of these great compliments, but I would just, and we're cutting budget, I realize that, but I just want us to get to a space where we can really show appreciation and raise this. And I'm not talking about administration, I'm not talking about the high dollar people, I'm talking about, like he's done two boots on the ground, customer service, I would love You know, the willingness and the eagerness that they express when you walk in, it's valuable. And I just would love to be able to give these employee raises.

If I can share just real quick, just our customer service team I've touched a little bit. They are underneath our utilities division. I shared this number with Mr. Rosenthal the other day. We did some math. Ms. Billy Joe and I did the average salary for your customer service department is around $43,000 a month. That's what you pay your best without benefits. But, you know, $43,000 a month is more than that. So we've got $2 million a month is what they're handling. So they are busy. They are busy. The calls, and you get a monthly report. If you look through that monthly report, they're at the very bottom of it. But the math that they are creating is very impressive.

With that being said, question. Can you explain to me how their salaries are paid?

So they're paid out of the utilities.

Out of utilities.

Yes, ma'am. That's the reason why they're up underneath utility division.

Y'all hear that? Something to think about. You get it? Mm-hmm. Okay.

Anything else?

Huh? You sound like the council. No, but it just sounds like they're in a position where they can go up.

They are? Yes.

They're in a position where they can go up, and I think we need to really consider that, think about that.

All right. Thanks. Thanks, Steve. Thank you. All right, turn it back over to you, Ms. Angie.

So that actually concludes all the departments in the city. Okay. So I'll turn it over back to you, Mr. Mayor.

All right, perfect. With it being turned back over to me, we already went through the grant program. We've gone through all of our – is there anything that we need to revisit? from last night, or Michelle?

Yes, I want to revisit.

Before we do public comment. I'm sorry. Go for it, sorry.

Why are they not turning to go?

I think he went to the restroom. We also need to revisit the public assistance. We never got final direction on that, on that 200,000 that you wanted and some other things. Go ahead, Mr. Chair.

Maybe take a brief recess, come back, and determine what we want to talk about before we do this. Sure, yeah, five minutes.

We're ready to go back in. We got everybody.

Just not dead. All right. Welcome back, everybody. Sorry. We've been through all the departments. We've given feedback. I appreciate presentations from all of the departments tonight. We would open it up to public participation at this point, but we don't have anybody in the room. I don't see any cards in the back, so we'll close public participation. And with that, that is all of our items for the night. So that concludes the meeting, everybody. Well done. Right? I'm just going through. Yeah. Well, I asked. I said, do we have anything further that we'd like to discuss?

Okay.

Okay. Well, what you got, Ms. Young?

Okay, I would like to counsel, respectfully bring back the, well, now it's 100,000 because we've already set the 100,000, is that right, Richardson? Remember I requested $200,000 for recreation total, right?

From staff's understanding, nothing was approved.

Right.

All right, so we're coming back to, now we're here.

Okay, okay, so we're back to recreation. So we were going to close out without doing it at all?

I said, do we have anything further to discuss or want to revisit? And I didn't hear anything. And so we're back, we're back, we're talking about it now.

So we're back to the $200,000 recreation. You got something, Andy? You're looking like... I'm just listening. Make sure I don't miss anything.

This is her typical face if you ever look down the road.

I don't look that way no more. So, and I presented a proposal last night with $100,000 specifically for Richardson Community Center. And that's what they requested. And we normally fund them yearly. Okay. So, and I ask that another 100,000 be set aside for recreation with the proposal, two hubs, one Richardson Community Center, one Annie Maddox Park, to form one unit for recreation. Are we there? one unit for recreation. So the 100,000 will be for eligible recreation, and this money cannot be diverted to utilities or unrelated capital projects. Am I saying this pretty good? Can you? I think what we got tied up on was private park because it said it's a private park. Okay, it's a private park but it is a public park if you ask me. Okay, so it's a private park but we're not funding the park We're funding recreation, which is held at the park, right? That was our number one concern is recreation. We don't have... a facility for recreation. So we have to use or we should utilize that which is available to us. So that's two recreation parks. That's Richardson and Annie Meadows. Okay? So my other part of the proposal was to form a a committee or board, however you want to say it, who will pretty much oversee these funding, right? It would include Richardson Community Center and Anna Meadows Park, these members. And I would serve, if the board says, as a liaison, as we do with some of our other entities. Now, any questions on the $100,000 and the recreation? I think I'll do that. Or would you like to kind of break something down for me? Can you add something?

Well, I've got a question to make sure I understand. The distinction I think you're trying to make is a distinction between recreation programs versus recreation capital improvements and other expenses related to the physical park itself. Is that kind of the distinction you're making? Is programs where the money go directly to the kids versus to the facility?

I think that came up as a concern yesterday. That's what I got as a concern.

And if that's the distinction you're making, it's a distinction that if the council were to adopt it, it would be documented in a grant agreement with whoever the fund recipients are to ensure that the funds go for programmatic expenses and not for park improvement, physical expenses related to the facilities itself.

I guess, so to clarify the request, the request is it, it's a total, and if we're not separating, I wouldn't separate facilities. This is what it looks like to me, right? It's a fund request for a single entity that is going to oversee and help provide recreation to youth in our community. Right. I would say that this that the entity itself and this is theoretical because I don't think this entity exists right theoretically this entity would help youth get into recreation and provide recreation no matter what the park was no matter where it was And it would be a 501c3 or organization coming to us for X amount of funds to provide recreation to X amount of children within the community, no matter where those actions happened, right?

No.

Yes, sir. Help me clarify that in my mind.

She just confirmed that I don't think she's talking about a 501c3. What I had in my mind as the councilwoman was speaking was a... perhaps a recreation advisory board appointed by this board where Ms. Young was this board's liaison to the advisory board. The advisory board can make recommendations on how the funds were to be dispersed and to whom and then would return those recommendations back to this board for a final approval and a disbursement. So this board would not have to get into the minutia of figuring out those details. It could be the advisory board that does it, but I could be wrong. I'm filling in a lot of gaps here.

I think I understood that to be correct, yes.

Okay.

That seems more confusing to me to create an advisory board. Mr. Carter, you have a question?

Yes, at this moment, I have a couple questions and then some thoughts. At this moment, we do not have an active and functioning Parks and Rec Department. I understand that there's technically a unstaffed, like on the books, there's a Parks and Rec Department that just doesn't do anything or have anything. But last year, we gave $50,000, half of the total from the Mayor of Matching Grant Fund to Bridges Community Center. as part of the budget process and then during the summer they asked for and we gave another 20 000 so last year we gave a total of 70 000 to the richardson community center those those numbers are correct okay i believe so yeah um all the for me all the stuff about the board and the committees and all of that stuff at this moment because to be clear in addition to uh those funds that we may or may not give to the richardson community center we have just uh Agreed interactively working on a million dollar investment towards the park including the splash pad Which is going to be there in existing to serve the youth of the community My suggestion as a counter At the moment is that we budget? 75 000 to the richardson community center to cover what they did last year including the summer program so they don't come to us during the summer time and ask for more money like the intention would be we give them the 50 and we give them the 25 to cover what we did last year again the point i made before is that we just we just cut everywhere else the idea of more than doubling the money we're spending on this while also investing the million dollars in the parks, which is associated. So my suggestion is that we budget $75,000, which is $5,000 more than what we did last year to Richardson Community Center to fund their programs, including the summer program, and not form that board right now. Because also, as I mentioned last night, I think that we may, in the future, not right now, be back in the parks and rec business to some degree. But we're not right now. This sounds like a confusing mess.

Ms. Harris?

I get the point where you're talking about having funding for programs. We have Mr. Nelson, I think he's the president of Annie Maddox Park.

He's a treasurer.

I would prefer to hear from them what they need because there's no need of us giving money and then they could barely run the facility. Give them money for programs and they're barely running the facility. So I would say I would want to hear from them to tell us what exactly what they need. And as far as going down the line, I get it. What you're talking about is having a board maybe to oversee to make sure the money is spent correctly on programs. I just think that would be a little bit out of our league. I don't think that we should. I don't think we should take that on. I think if we're going to give the money, we just give it to them in good faith that they will do what they say that they're going to do. So, Mr., I like to hear what exactly what they would need versus us saying programs and then they're better able to keep the lights on. But I don't know that, you know, I'm not saying that y'all better keep the lights on. But I'm just saying I would rather hear from you all what you all need versus us coming up with what we think you need.

Yes, ma'am. We need all of that million dollars that he just spoke about. and we will take it, but to the mayor, vice mayor, to the city manager, the treasurer and chaplain for the Animatics Park Board of Directors, there's many things that we are already doing at Animatics. We're trying to get with Mr. Dumas now to get some information and some pictures off the cameras that are at Animatics. so that we can put a collage and a PowerPoint together so you can see for yourself what is happening at Animatics. Every afternoon, at least three if not four times in the afternoon, you will see young men of different age groups. You will have a 6U, I think we got a 10U and maybe in a 14U football teams. There's not enough room for all three of those teams to participate and have practice. So you'll see one have to practice over by the bleachers if you're familiar with the park. The other one will get one half of the park, and the other will get the back half of the park, which is closest to the basketball courts. And then on the other days, then we have soccer that's coming out there. So we have different programs that are happening. Even on Saturdays, we're having different programs or different entities or different companies coming out there or different organizations coming out there to do things at the park. And we want to just be able to be at the park and do things for our park because there's a lot of activity that's going on. over there and at the end of the day we were hosting little league football but I know city league football is slowly going away that we have but we were hosting games but that was soon that was taken away from us so we do have the facilities to do whatever we need for all the programs that we have there's many other things that we want to do but I understand that you can't we can't use the funds for certain things but if you could give us the funding for that we will make things happen for us providing a splash pad for for our park as well, some upgrades to our equipment that we have, the basketball courts and the pickleball courts that we have, and then the upgrade of our football field. Yes, we have a football field, but we still have to keep it upgraded, and also the lights. If you know anything about lights in the football field, those lights that we have came from the University of Florida, and to buy lights for that is not cheap. It's not cheap. That's some of the expenses that we have. But I would love for you to look in and consider us giving us that grant or giving us some funding so we can help do that to take care of those things that we need at the park.

Mr. Jernigan?

Mr. Nelson.

Yes, sir.

I really appreciate you explaining all that. But what are y'all doing? What are you doing for the children? I know you got to have lights. You got to have this. But what kind of programs do you have for the kids that come out there on a daily basis who uh the the what what you know what can we we give them for for example you go out to richardson community center and uh they have like a tutor uh they may have um uh basketball practice uh as i see in the north star uh behind there they're um going over lessons help somebody with their homework and What kind of programs can we do for you to help or assist in that area? I don't think we can do anything about your lights. I don't know. Again, I don't know your lights and helping out with the tennis courts or basketball courts. I don't think we can do anything about that. I think that the city... I want to say, correct me if I'm wrong, Johnson, D. Johnson. I think the city put in new basketball courts. They put in new lighting. Help me understand. What all did we do over there?

Mr. Johnson.

A couple of years ago, yes, we did resurface the tennis courts. We replaced the lights, resurfaced the basketball courts, goals. We added water fountains, tables. I want to say trash cans. I also added cameras, I want to say, in that same resolution.

Yes. So we're doing things. But what about the children? What do we have for them?

Go ahead, sir. Oh, okay. NABLAC just opened and now they're receiving their 21st century funds from the county. So whatever children that are not being serviced at NABLAC, those are the children that we will service as well. So we will have a tutoring program and have tutors available for those children that can be tutored because if they're not being at NABLAC, they will be at Richardson. And so we're trying to get the ones that normally will be on that side of the tracks by the tracks that normally would go to Merrill's. But now they're getting zoned either for knee black or east side, so they need somewhere to go. So we wanna be that hub to make sure that those Merrill's students are taken care of.

AND WHAT YOU'RE TELLING ME IS, I KNOW YOU'RE THE PREACHER, AND TRANSPARENCY WILL BE THERE, AND YOU KEEP THE BOOKS AND ALL THAT STUFF.

WHATEVER YOU NEED, I'LL PROVIDE FOR YOU BY NIGHTFALL. I'M A FIRM BELIEVER IN MAKING SURE WHATEVER DIME YOU GIVE ME, I'M GOING TO SPEND THAT DIME AND SHOW YOU WHERE I SPEND IT.

MS. YOUNG.

SO ORGANIZED PROGRAMS, THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I'M TRYING TO SHOOT FOR HERE. Richardson Community Center, it's limited how much space we can use there. For instance, as I said last night, summer camp. They can only accept so many youth in summer camp. It's the limit. I think what we do, 50? You know how many more we can actually serve in summer camp? 50 doesn't even knock the courts off. There are so many more that we need to service. So we'll have two different recreation areas for these young people. We need recreation. It's very important. And the truth of the matter is, it's not even about the north of the tracks. This is about the community, young people. If you go out there probably right now, as I said before, you go out there now, you're going to see children. You're going to see youth. You're going to see teams, recreation. And we want to see organized recreation just as we see sports going on out there now. It's desperately needed. That's why I'm requesting these funds for organized, organized programs, not just sports.

So Mr. Nelson, if you was to give the city a number and you have certain programs that you would like to run, but you don't have the funding, what would that number look like?

You want me to be honest or you'll be sarcastic? I was just saying 250,000, but I know that's not possible. But if the board will consider at least 100,000 and just give it to us in quarters, that will be great.

And after the first quarter, we get a report showing what has happened within that quarter. And then that will determine whether they're funded the next quarter.

Do Animatics have a full staff in like Richardson or does not?

Well, it's considered a full staff. What you consider a full staff?

Like Richardson, you go out there, you'll have a secretary, you'll have Chris Carradine, you'll have people that's in the back that's running different programs or what have you.

No, ma'am. We don't have a full staff like that. No, ma'am.

So the $100,000 will be just covering?

Be covering the afternoon program. Tutoring program.

$100,000 for afternoon tutoring.

And for the summer. You've got to include the summer.

Richardson doesn't have full staff. That's summer program. That's summer program.

Full staff is a very subjective term. You can mean whatever you want to mean. How are you guys currently funded? Is it just donations?

Just donations and whatever rentals that we have.

the different sports and things that take place there at the moment, how are they organized?

Uh, they're organized by their individual coaches. They come to a board meeting, they discuss what they're trying to do, what they, what times they want to practice and things of that nature. So if we need to turn on the lights for them, we can turn on the lights for them. So they just come and meet with us. We don't ask for anything, but we do ask them to give a donation if they can, uh, after they take care of what they need to take care of for their art, far as their fees are concerned.

Okay. So they have, so like a coach and there's, there's quite a few teams. I'm assuming the coach comes.

Yes. Each team has at least four coaches. And so each one of those representatives from each one of those teams come and talk with us. When I say us, the board and tell us, Oh, we want to have practice here on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from five to seven. Is that possible?

And those coaches kind of manage their own teams? Things like money for the uniforms for the kids? Yes. Is there an organization outside of you guys that is the management of a league of some kind or something like that?

They're part of a league. They're part of a league, and we're trying to get a league there at Animatics because we have several teams, so we're trying to get it to the point that we can manage and have our own league of four teams, maybe four teams of eight U, 10 U, 12 U, or maybe 14 U.

What is $250,000? Is that your entire budget? What does that number mean to you guys?

Well, $250,000, that'll mean that we can renovate, which I know we can't do, but it will help us renovate our bathrooms. Our bathrooms need to be renovated. All of our equipment needs to be upgraded. Then our security gates, they need to be upgraded as well, some supplies, and then also some miscellaneous things that we need to get taken care of.

My thought on that, so with the CRA money that we just allocated, that can be applied for and you can go through that process. My thoughts on capital improvements of the park, and I think that I said it last night, is it's a private property, right? Yes, sir. So public funds for capital improvements on a private property is... It would be like me asking... It would be like me asking a handful of people to help me put a shed on my property or improve my property, and then I can tell them they can't come on my property, right? So capital funds, public funds for capital improvements on private property, I'm not okay with. I am okay with providing recreation for youth. So if there was – and this is kind of what I was alluding to. If there was an organization that was providing the leagues, regardless of whether it was at Richardson or at Annie Maddox, that is an easier thing, in my opinion, for the city to put funds toward to ensure that those – Um, and then they pay rents to whoever, uh, they're, they're dealing those leagues at, um, and, and those arrangements are dealt from that organization. But that, that's kind of my thought on it. Mr. Carter, Mr. Carter.

Can I, it's a public part, but it's just have a private board of directors that We want to be what we can be for the best for our community in that area and whoever wants to visit. So it's a public park. We are not stopping anybody from coming there. And we don't want nobody to feel as though this is a private place. land that you can't participate and you can't be on it. No, we're open to anybody. We want to make sure that everybody knows this is public. Anybody want to use it, they're free to use it. I'm a product of that area. I know what was happening in that area. Going up, going to the park at 10 o'clock at night just to shoot basketball. It's a public park. I know you keep saying private, but it's public. It's publicly accessible.

Yes. But who owns it?

I don't know. She donated the land, and if I had to make a wager, and I'm not a betting man, I would say New Mount Pisgah AME Church because she was a member of that church. So she was a member of that church, and she donated that land where we are because it's named after her animatics. So if I had to make a guess, it would probably be somebody that's in that church, New Mount Pisgah AME Church.

So an individual or the church itself owns it?

Well, she doesn't own it, but it was probably somebody within that church or one of her family members. If I had to make a guess, I'll have to research it and find out that that's.

It speaks my point again. If somebody owns that. At any time, if an individual owns it, you have property, right, Mr. Nelson? Yes, sir. At any time, you can tell somebody not to come on that property. I know that it's publicly accessible and that this would not happen, right?

And it hasn't happened, but it could happen.

If someone owns that property and it's not public, they can be trespassed or that park can be closed to the public at any given time. It's the lay of the law. Chief, am I wrong on this? Or Mr. Martin?

A private landowner can always exclude people from their privately owned land.

However, the very public activities that happen at that park are great. They're great activities. Again, I'm not as – I think you have to differentiate between the locations and what the purpose of the funds are. The purpose of the funds to provide recreation for youth is more acceptable to me than providing it to the – the places. But I'm going to stop diatribing. We do have an order. Mr. Carter and then Ms. Young, that was the order that I saw. Mr. Carter. A couple quick questions.

Last night, whenever the folks from Richardson Community Center were here talking, what do i remember correctly that they said that sometimes they use animatics for some of the stuff like when when they don't have enough room or or overflow or something like that so i guess my part of my question there would be is not funding them to some degree allowing they can use whatever space if they wanted to use the softball fields over here if they wanted to use animatics park or what have you they can funding that organization which is already organizing programs can use whatever space they want to so if we give them money for for these programs whatever programs they're doing i don't they it doesn't it's not up to us where they host it whether they host it that at the richardson community center or animatics park or softball fields what have you um so i'm i'm not i'm still not seeing at this juncture the need for this the other structure also yeah to be clear like as long as it is uh Yeah, it's as public as a Walmart is. And they want everyone to walk in there, but they can certainly tell you not to. So it's not a gray area, right? It's just privately owned. Although, did I understand, we don't know who owns the park? Is that some kind of mystery?

Because it was donated. The land was donated by her. To who? To the board. I was suing the board, but I'll have to research it. I'm not 100% sure. So I want to say yes or no on that.

Ms. Young, you had your answer. I don't know if you're aware, but the city, we already have a lease agreement with Annie Meadows Park. License agreement. License agreement, I'm sorry. We already have a license agreement with Annie Meadows Park. So what's the difference?

What does that look like? What is that? What does it look like? Yeah, what is that? License for what?

We weren't here on the one year.

He just informed me that the board owns it.

What now?

The board owns it?

Okay.

No, because that's publicly owned. Yes, sir, Mr. Martin.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Thomason. Speak into the microphone, please. Just to clarify, is that off of the property appraiser's website? Okay, just to set expectations, the property appraiser's property ownership records are solely for the purpose of trying to assess property for taxes. It's really not a definitive record of who owns it. But as to Ms. Young's point, and I haven't seen it, but she indicated there is some kind of agreement between the city and someone for the use of that park. But I haven't gotten to see that. I'd like to see that one day, if you don't mind.

Me too.

I didn't know. There's a license agreement for the things that we put in that park, the cameras and things like that. I don't know of any other use agreement.

But is there a public, does it make it? Yeah. What does that mean? Because you can license certain things, but what does that license provide for the, does it make it a public park? No.

We can pull that seat and bring that before the board.

Well, I found it on chat GPT. But anyway, so we provide lighting, we provide security in a part that we cannot provide organized recreation. Make it make sense.

Do you have a question about that?

Oh, no, I'm good, man.

Do we provide lighting and all that? I know that we provided cameras and we've provided capital improvements before. We installed the lights.

Yeah, okay. As far as maintenance of the lights, we don't do.

Okay.

Yeah, we pay that bill, FPL. Yeah.

Are they nickel?

No, sir. I've written three checks, and I can bring it to you for over $7,000. One was for $1,200, one was over for $2,500, and the other one was for over $3,500 for FPL.

What I meant was the nickel lights that you can feel the heat coming off of because they're generating so much energy. Yeah. A question, Mr. Carter alluded to this. I know it's 8 o'clock. We did say hard stop at 8 o'clock, so we do have an overflow for tomorrow night, but do we want to continue tonight, or do we want to work into our overflow tomorrow?

Let's overflow to tomorrow.

Well, I would just say, Mr. Mayor, for my... point of view, as short as I think this conversation could be, it doesn't seem like it's gonna be. Really, we could determine how short the board wants the conversation to be now. I expressed earlier what I think we ought to do this year.

And we all agree.

Did four of the five of us agree with that? Agree to what? What's that assertion, Mr. Carter? The assertion is that we fund Richardson Community Center for $75,000. Oh, wait, wait, wait. That was the thing I said earlier.

Oh, no, we didn't come to an agreement on that.

I'm asking. That's all I'm saying.

No. Let's revisit it tomorrow after we find out exactly what programs. Maybe you can come back tomorrow night and tell us what type of programs you would like for us to help. And in Maddox, because this is just off the cuff, we're calling him up there and specifically asking him if we gave him money, what would it be on? So if we wait till tomorrow night, maybe he can come out with a plan and say, this is what we want to do.

Mr. Jernigan, thoughts? I like Mr. Carter's idea with the $75,000. And if we want to move forward with anything else, you know, tomorrow night will be the ideal time, provided that you don't have something going on tomorrow night.

I do, but I'll come.

I thought about that, too.

Yes, sir. We have open house, but I'll come if I need to be here.

What did I switch on?

It'll be 5 p.m. Well, this will be our only item. Hold on. This will be our only item for tomorrow night. So it'll be 5 p.m. We'll start.

Okay, perfect. That'd be perfect. Where was I at on there? I didn't switch. I don't think, Ms. Young. Please help me understand.

You what?

She said I switched on the way off on the $1,000.

Say $75,000 for Richardson.

No, he said it. I agree with it.

Duh.

Okay.

Okay, let's go home.

My thought would actually be to give Richardson the $50,000 out of the Mayor's Matching Grant plus another $50,000 and have it as $100,000 to Richardson Community Center. And that way if they wanted to do – and their agreements could be with Annie Maddox, right? Because as alluded to, they already use that facility, all of that stuff. No, uh-uh. So that was my thought.

They'll be living under the mercy of whether Richardson want to give them some money.

It should be collaborative.

But it hasn't been collaborative. It hasn't been collaborative. It's been separate. So we need to have our own funds, and they have their funds.

We'll see everybody tomorrow night then.

Thank you so much.