City Council - Special Meeting

speaker card I have is Debbie Fontaine. Come on down, Debbie. Good afternoon, mayor, city council, city mayor, uh, city ma manager. Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak today. Um I um I just wanted to I I want to keep in my three minutes and yes, I agree. Several of our great employees of the city of Long View deserve a raise. Thousands of citizens deserve a raise. Many taxpayers deserve a break from being forced to work two and three jobs to make ends meet. Businesses deserve a break from the ongoing increasing property taxes with no homestead exemption, but to pay full rates imposed upon us. Many of us deserve and need a raise. Plus, the extra thousand would be nice, too. Families and businesses are being forced to cut expenses, downsize, reduce wants, sell off assets, and budget better. Why can't the city do the same? Start at the top. Cut personal car allowances. used city cars taxpayers already pay for and maintain. Stop increasing spending when you can't afford it. Sell off some assets, some unused properties, vehicles. Cut back deeper. Budget better. Property taxes are squeezing families out of their homes, apartments, and their businesses. As of today on auction.com and foreclosure.com, we have 176 families losing their homes. Um they are up for auction in area code 75601 602 604 605 and Mr. Allen with uh 19 of those being in 75604. Um landlords will pass on additional property taxes to the renters and businesses of this community. Right now our average rent is $1,242. I can't even imagine that. Um, compared to what my mortgage used to be, the lowest rent available, especially for

single families, are $500. The highest being $3,780. And the median rent in Long View is $1,220. With additional property tax, this these will also increase. I amum I ask you this question. Good leaders find a way. Great leaders make a way. Extraordinary leaders don't use others for their wants and more property taxes as the solution. What type of leader are you? I hope as elected leaders that you will protect the ones that you represent and demand better budgeting. Thank you so much for your time on behalf of myself, my neighbors, my friends, and especially my small business um constituents. Thank you.

Thank you, Debbie. Uh, next on our citizen comment speaker cards, I have Ryan Nichols. Good evening, mayor, city, city council members, and fellow Long View residents. My name is Ryan Nichols, and I'm a homeowner here in Long View, Texas. I live at 110 Lace Park Lane here in Long View, Texas. Uh, first I want to thank our police officers, firefighters, EMS personnel, and all first responders for their selfless service. They put their lives on the line every day to keep our community safe, and they and they deserve fair compensation for that dedication. I fully support giving them the payraises they've earned. That said, as a resident who's seen property taxes rise significantly this year, I'm concerned about another increase without exploring all possible alternatives. Our families are already feeling the strain and with costs climbing across the board, we need to ensure every avenue is pursued before we ask taxpayers for more. I suggest we model something like a department of government efficiency right here in Long View, Texas. An East Texas version focused on line by line audit of all city expenditures to identify waste, fraud, and abuse. When was the last time such a comprehensive review was conducted? It's standard for citizens and businesses to account for every dollar in personal property taxes each year. So why not hold the city to the same level of transparency? For example, we could prioritize selling delinquent assets or overused assets to generate revenue before turning to taxpayers. With hundreds of se such properties or other assets in Greg County that could bring in substantial funds to offset costs without raising taxes, why aren't we looking to that option? Finally, how did the city arrive at the specific figure for this tax increase? And are there uh are there the line item details available for residents to review before any vote is made? I believe this kind of open process would build trust and ensure we're making the best decisions for Long View and all of its residents. Thank you for your time and and considering these ideas. I also want to thank the city council for your dedication to our city. I understand your job isn't easy and we appreciate you thinking about us and

making these hard decisions. raising taxes should be the only option left if you've shown there's absolutely nowhere else we can pull the money from and are transparent about that. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Nichols. Uh, next speaker card I have is Melissa Beckett.

Hi everybody. Thank you so much for allowing me to be here. My name is Melissa Beckett and I live at 3771 Harley Ridge Road here in Long View. And um I love the city and I know you guys do too or you wouldn't have stepped up to do these jobs. And I know these jobs are incredibly hard. Um I am a candidate for House District 7. I want to represent this area in Austin in the House. And as I've been going around talking to people about what's important to them, the number one thing is property taxes. As everyone has already said before me, um we are just we've been squeezed as far as we can be squeezed. We just cannot be squeezed anymore. And we need you to be our heroes. We need you to do something that is unconventional. We need you to have the courage to look at the numbers and make a commitment to everyone in this room and everyone in Long View that you will not increase property tax property tax revenue period. That you 100% understand the stress that these families are under and that you will cut whatever is necessary. Now, as for the wonderful people standing behind me that keep us safe and for our firefighters, I do support their raise. And just like when at home we have to make hard decisions when revenue or our income doesn't match our expenses, we need to do that here and we need to do it so that we can pay them what they're worth, but that we do not squeeze the taxpayers anymore. Um I'm not exactly sure at what point city management moved and maybe it's always been this way where whereas the city could just kind of send a bill and say this is this is what we want from you. What really should happen is it should be a fixed number and anything above that number should be requested of the people of Long View maybe through fundraising and things like that because it should always be our choice because

we are the people that are in charge. When our country was founded, it was founded on our liberty, on your liberty. And I am just begging you tonight to choose to be our hero because if you do this, you will be one of the first cities that I believe will really make a difference for their citizens. And that is worth more than anything else you could build, anything else you could plan. And so there are lots of ways you could postpone projects, you could cancel projects in addition to the things that other people are going to say tonight. and I just know that this has got to be a hard decision, but I ask you to choose the people of Long View over everything else. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Beckett. Uh, next up is Rhonda Anderson. Good evening, Madame Mayor and Council members. My name is Rhonda Anderson. I reside at 705 Crepe Myrtle Lane in Long View and I'm here tonight to urge you to vote no on the resolution and to not raise our property taxes. Families are having to make tough decisions every day just to make ends meet. And now in the middle of that, the city of Long View consider putting its hand deeper into our pockets. This is not just about a few dollars here or there. This is about a pattern of burden on the homeowners and taxpayers that seem to grow every year. And it's especially frustrating because the Texas legislature is actively working to lower property taxes across the state of Texas. Earlier this year, state leaders passed meaningful tax measures. The goal was simple. Give Texans a break. But that relief has already been swallowed up by the skyrocketing appraisal set by the appraisal district, something most of us had no say in. We've seen it happen before. The legislature gives us relief with one hand and an unelected appraisal board takes it away with the other. And now the city of Long View is considering adding insult to injury by increasing the tax rate on top of those inflated appraisals. That's not just bad timing. It's tonedeaf. Raising taxes in this environment sends the wrong message to citizens. It says our local leaders are out of step with what working families are facing. It's saying that you're not listening. You don't raise taxes because you want to. You raise them because you failed to plan. Because you're unwilling to say no to your own wish list. That's not leadership. That's mismanagement. I know you face tough budget decisions, but I also know there are other ways to

balance the budget without passing the burden on to taxpayers. Be creative. Be responsible. Prioritize needs over wants. And most of all, respect the people who are already doing more with less. I'm asking you to vote no on this resolution and on raising property taxes. Don't undo the progress the state level has made. Don't make life harder for the very people that keep this city running. Stand with your constituents, not against them. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Anderson. I do not have any more speaker cards. Is there anyone that would like to speak and fill out a comment card after? I will move on to um I am actually going to skip the consent agenda and bump that to the bottom so that we can do budget items discussion first. Uh I think I'm allowed to do that and I think that will make the meeting flow a little better. Um go ahead Mr. McI.

I have just brief remarks for city council and the people in the audience in attendance and thank you for your comments. We we've had several discussions about our proposed budgets. a number of you I've met with in person and and we've talked through things and like always I still want to remind council when we discuss the budget uh we are we aren't simply talking about dollars and I I appreciate that but we are talking about those services delivered to our residents which that many of them spoke tonight as we consider our budget this year I think it's important that we remember that we're we will be facing another potential deficit of 1 mill 5 million next year for the business personal property tax exemption that's going to the voters which I suspect will pass unanimously but those those will actually uh impact our delivery of the services even further beyond what we're doing. Um and much was has been mentioned today the special legislative priority of the property tax relief. There are some further actions that they're talking about that that are going to create continual burdens on how we deliver those services to our residents. Um tax relief. Governor Average made that a a a big priority. He's included imposing spending limits uh which is a priority of this special session and Senate Bill 9 would which would reduce that voter approval rate from 3 and a.5% to 2.5%. So, it's it's also worth remembering that the city of Long View has not taken it full advantage of that voter approval rate and we've we have tried not to exercise that moving that needle to be respectful of the community and to our our leaders. And if you look, we've

continued to adjust the property tax rates based on the delivery of services rather than simply asking residents for all that we're able to to burden them with. This chart shows six years of data. And and I think it's important to note that we have been staying behind the voter approval rate until that year 2024 where we hit the voter approval rate and that was due to the overwhelming support of the first responders and the fire pension and the solvency of the fire pension bond. And so but since we held the vote in May, the calculation of that vote voter rate actually pushed us back downwards. So, I think it's important though when we look at it. These are all the voter approval rates we've could have gone. So, we we've done a good job managing that when we could and the Long View Council has consistently approved conservative budgets and it should be commended for that. In fact, it recently was during a July 15th panel discussion in Long View. During that discussion, which was led by the Texas chapter chapter of Americans for Prosperity, Sam Sheets differentiated Long View from other cities that tax indiscriminately, saying he was going through the numbers. The city of Long View does a pretty good job compared to other places. So, this has been an extremely difficult budget year and one in which uh I I was uh less than excited about bringing it as a recommendation, but that's all that that's all I have prepared for remarks. We've talked about it at length. So,

okay. I have a couple of comments I'd like to make. Um thank you for citizens that uh came to comment tonight. We genuinely appreciate you being here and want to hear from you. So, thank you for doing that. Um, I just wanted to make a couple of comments about the budget process so far. I think that um, I've had several individual council conversations about everybody's priorities and I think that I can probably hopefully speak for everybody when I say that we every person up here wants to pass a balanced budget. We would like to not raise your property taxes and we would like to give employees significant raises. Um, I think uh, working together that we can accomplish all of those things. Um, and so we'll we'll talk about that a little bit tonight. I did want to just uh I don't know if it's in response to but um in discussing the citizen comments that were made um point out some things that we've talked about up here and everybody knows but uh city staff has worked to cut 1.6 million out of the budget already. That's based on hard work done by our directors. We have uh delayed some fleet purchases. We have done delayed technology purchases. We have done a lot of those things and those measures um to get to where we are now that would allow some employee raises. And just a reminder that twothirds of our general operating budget is public safety. That is your fire. That is your police. The other one-third is streets, utilities, and that's often just because it's not as politically popular. The overlooked employee that doesn't get raises when we do raises. Um we've in years past done specific police raises and fire raises to make those comparable because we were working so hard at recruitment um to get officers here that we had to compete with Tyler in other places. Um, so we've done specific targeted things there. So I just I really I really want to remind everybody that we need to not leave the other one-third out when we talk about doing raises and making sure that we're paying an appropriate wage for them. Um, but based on the conversations that I've had with other council members, um, and I am just bringing this on you tonight, Ron. I apologize. Um, but I think that we

would like to consider what raises we can provide and keep uh, without raising the property tax rate. Sure. Um, so if you would provide that information back to us. Um, I personally would still like to include a flat amount. So maybe that's 5% plus the thousand to do the greater percentage for our lower wage earners. Um, but whatever that is, if you could provide us a couple of options after the meeting tonight. Um, the resolution that will be voted on tonight is not the tax rate. We are not approving a tax rate tonight. We are setting the public hearing for August 21st to vote on the tax rate. So, this resolution does include the proposed tax rate, but that would be the maximum that could be considered. We can on the 21st come back and adopt no property tax revenue increase at that time. Um, so just want to clear that up. So, we didn't feel like we were voting on that tonight. Um, and with that, I think that's all the comments I wanted to make on the discussion items. Are there And so, I'm still on budget item A. I'm sorry.

Been all over the map tonight. Is there anyone that would like to make comments, questions, discussion? I mean, I would just like to say, you know, that that was our goal, I think, for most of the council for us to look in deeper to see where we at because when we when we totally say, "Okay, we want to raise property taxes specifically for a raise." I think that that's where we were all conflicted at like we need more specifics before I say, "Hey, I'm going to go and raise all these property taxes." And just like anybody said and we've all said around council that it not it it not only affects homeowners, it it affects renters, it affects the employees that we're raising the taxes on. So this is something that we wholeheartedly feel or whatever. So I don't want that to be missed that that's not that has not has been discussed up here. We've said this time and time again.

Yeah, we're better together. All good conversation. And I guess also for transparency's sake, this is a conversation we had last year. This is a conversation we're having again this year. I can't sit here and promise you we won't have the same conversation next year about raising property taxes. So, please come back again and make comment. Uh, but this is a conversation that just has to continue to evolve because we have to hit a balanced budget every year. Yes, Mr. Connley. Oops.

Um, yeah. I mean, we last meeting um appreciate the discussion that we had, the information. I think it's all um like you like you mentioned um that we want to obviously compensate our people fairly, make that competitive, but we want to also take care of the taxpayers and not do what we can without raising taxes. I want to say uh this council uh I appreciate uh you city manager and conversations that I've had with him and we've had a lot of deliberation and I appreciate the mayor and how much because this is not easy budgets and uh anytime you have have the responsibility of taxpayer money we we take that very seriously and it's it's a it's a balance bless you

it's a balance of uh being able to u make sure our people and particularly you mentioned twothirds of our budget is is salary budget is public safety. We want to make sure those uh people not not neglect the delivery of services. But I really appreciate more thought that happens in this being able to create be creative if we can do that in any way where we don't raise taxes. I would that's that's how I'm and I appreciate the uh the deliberation and the conversations that have happened to make that happen here.

Thank you. Perfect. I miss Nick. Sorry. Sure. Excuse me, guys. Thank you. Um, first I'd like to thank all of the citizens that came out tonight that spoke and made their voices heard. Um, I think if anything we as council members can stress is the involvement of our citizens and our city staff does a really good job of making all of our information available to everyone. And so those that are not here tonight and those that are listening, please reach out to your your council district person and let them know your thoughts. It's important for us as council members to hear your thoughts and to hear how you feel about what we're doing up here because we know that we work for you and when we hear from you, it helps us do our job better. So kudos to everyone who came here tonight. Thank you for being here. And then last thing, mayor, the proposition that you asked of the city manager, do you mind repeating that one more time because I think that's very important as well. And that will kind of help ease I think a lot of the issues and things happen.

That and so we can place that. Our next meeting is August 14th perhaps. Let's place that on there for discussion to look at what are the raise options for employees that would allow us not to raise the property tax rate. Absolutely. um because I believe that that would essentially mean we remove about 880,000 from that um and we can look at some options. I personally would like to keep the thousand percentage plus that uh but we can look at the options and figure that out al together.

Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. Uh but yes, so that would be um on we talk about that on the 14th which is not a specific budget meeting but we can put that on for the discussion if that's okay. And I I tell you, you know, when you you talk to people, whether you talk to a council member or talk with one of these people up here, I'm telling you, I have felt like everybody has listened and taken into consideration the things that uh you're saying, just like I do from the people that call me. Uh and I had a lady today that spoke with me and her forever home, what she thought she was going to be in, you know, when she retired, she said, "I can't afford to where it's getting to when I do retire. We're going to have to downsize and that's a shame and we cannot help what's happening over at the appraisal district right now. Uh but I'm telling you we can't put the burden on the taxpayers either and that's where I feel like Rollin has done a good job working. I know he's going to continue to work. I appreciate all the directors and what they've done. And I think that we're coming up with an idea of how to make this work and at no expense to the taxpayers because Lord knows I'm sitting in the same seats that you are. And uh I don't want to see that. You know, I think I'm in my forever home. Maybe I will downsize if my wife lets me ever move out to the country, but that ain't happening. Uh and I don't want to leave you all because I really enjoy Long View. But, uh, I'm telling you, we got to be cognizant and aware of what's going on and what you all are saying. And, uh, I'm telling you, I've been listening and I fully support zero increase on taxes, but we're going to take care of these employees somehow or another. We're going to get it done. We can make that happen. And I'm telling you, the conversations we're having, people are listening, and it's great to work with them. I I'm privileged to sit here with you guys and work through this and I look forward to see what we have when we come up on the 14th and where we're at then uh because I want to do

all we can for our employees. and she said something about the flat fee and I'm glad she asked this question because it shines light that people don't realize when you're talking about $1,000 to somebody who's making 30 $40,000 that ends up taking them from a 6% salary increase what we're talking about right now to some of them 8.9 to over 9% increase in their salary that's huge for somebody who is working their tails off maybe working two jobs a single mother or whatever it is that's an impact for them. I can live with a positive impact, but not at the expense of you guys sitting in those seats.

Thank you, Jenny. I saw a hand. Go for it, Sydney. Okay. Um, first off, the uh I think everyone here tonight, everyone that's listening may be watching over the last two years, maybe at least two years, has seen considerable increase in the taxable values of their home. Now, we have nothing to do with that. That's your Greg County appraisal district. It has nothing to do with the school district. It has the the amount that they raise that value on your home has nothing to do I mean there for the school district with the city the county anything the great county appraisal district is independent they set that rate so if you're looking at a value of your home that's gone up considerably which has increased your taxes that's the Greg County Appraisal District there is an appeal board out there if you feel your home is overvalued you certainly need to go talk to an adjuster or go in front of the appeals board if you think your home is overvalued. I served on that for several years. Now, what I'm going to bring up now is not going to make me very popular with the Long View Independent School District administration. When you voted for this $450ome million dollar bond increase a couple of years back, you raised your taxes 20 cents. 20 cents. We're talking about 1 cent here tonight. Now, I'm not saying school districts are not important, but your taxes actually went down from like a $140 to $137. Now, the lady that spoke earlier about the governor is trying the state legislature is trying to reduce your taxes. The school districts are all floating new bonds to try to keep your tax rate up. Now, I'm not saying that the money is not needed, that the education facilities don't need this

money, that they don't need these improvements, but you're you're you're you're I'm not going to say you're talking to the wrong people, but when your school district taxes go up 20 cents and and we're talking about 1 cent, that's just a I'm not saying we're right to raise it 1 cent, but you've already burdened yourself with a 20 cents increase and pine tree went up also not as much because they didn't float as big a bond issue but u I'm I we need to be conscious of where that money is being spent the city tax rate is like 56 cents and the long view independent school district tax rate is $1.37 it would be 20 cents less but it's your choice place on where your money goes.

Just go for it. Um, let me see. Anyway, that's I just we need to wake up to where our money is really going and if we think that's the proper place for it to be spent. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Allen. Um, any other discussion or comments on that one? Or go ahead, Mr. N. Um Rin, what percent of our budget is labor or Mariana? It was in the first presentation. It's close to 85%.

So I understand like we're all feeling the effects of inflation. And it's like a small business owner, they're experiencing higher cost of goods sold. They're experiencing higher labor cost. They're experiencing all these things. The last thing the small business owner is going to want to do is raise prices. pretty much almost all business owners have raised prices. Most of them, I'm not gonna say absolute, but they they feeling it too. The other side of it as well is if you don't raise the prices or let's say you're working with a flat budget in the case that we're pretty much at right now and you're experiencing inflation, you're going out of business. So, you have to look at it one way or the other. you cannot pass tax increases but to pay the labor that we need to provide the services. So you have to look at two options. You either reduce staff which can impact services or you provide less services. And so then this it's not really a question of cost. Cost on its own is invalid. It's what the value that you're getting is what matters. They passed the bond for LISD because the voters believe that the value they were getting was worth the tax increase that they're getting. So, it's not about sitting here trying to say, "I don't want no new taxes, period. We don't need to raise taxes. You need to dig deeper and find it. And we want to wave a magic wand." At the end of the day, when 85% of your budget is labor, where we are at right now trying to raise um do a 6% raise with a $1,000 kicker is not because we're feeling generous. It's because we're playing catchup. The um cost of living allowance, I did that last number, it's sub three or close to somewhere around that percent. We're doing some like the some of the higher end, they're getting double that. the lower end, they're getting triple that.

Why are we having to do that so much? Because if you're not, if you kick it down the road, eventually you're gonna have to pay the piper and eventually it's going to be there and we're going to have to face it. So, it's either you you do sensible budgeting now, you go ahead and plan that you don't cause the problems and and reduction in staff and services and you provide that stuff and you look at ways to do it. And I hope that we can do this without increasing property tax. That's always what we want. Um, but again, as Chris has mentioned, mayor's mentioned, we're going to probably be looking at this again next year. The legislature is capping the revenue that we're able to increase. So, yes, they're lowering property taxes or trying to do their property taxes, but they're putting it at the expense of your school districts. They're putting at the expense of your municipalities. They're doing it at the expense of other pe of other services that you're receiving. Um, that that's where that money is coming from to help provide that tax relief. Um, so it's not just they're absorbing those costs, it's getting passed on. So, um, with that, like hope we can do that. I appreciate it. I appreciate all the work of the directors. I appreciate everybody that was been here to voice the concerns. As way, uh, Councilman Wade said, we need to hear your input on it. We want to have that discussions and see where we're at. Um, so just want to be open on the fact that the labor side of it is just going to keep going deeper because cost of living allowances are going up. they're having to the the employees are also feeling the pinch just more so than uh or as much as the taxpayers on this end of it. So, I appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Yeah, thank you. Um I will move anybody else. Sorry, I thought I saw a hand. Uh we'll move on to budget item discussion B uh proposed 2526 fee resolution. Back to you. So, there was an article in the paper recently that detailed pretty much the fees and reflected the memos and the conversations. There were very good presentations by our directors at the last meeting, but they can they can entertain any of those fee questions that we have now. Uh the presentations that they gave at the last meeting were the were the explanations.

Any questions on fees or is that discussion discuss? Yeah, go ahead and discuss Mr. Allen. I want to say thank you to the newspaper. they did a very good job of the article they wrote uh on the uh fee structure and the increases such as that. Um I was a little confused on the credit cards when you pay your bills whatever bill it is water whatever with a credit card I misunderstood that the fees could go as high as 5%. I think the credit card fees Angelie are going to be right around 3%. Or um

yes, it really depends on the processor. We have multiple uh merchant service processors. Tyler Technologies for water, for example, is 3.6% or $2.50. It depends on the amount of the bill. Okay.

So, like a $100 would be $3.60. All right. Well, I that would be I I was I still think 3.6 is a little high. I think all of the companies that process these credit cards nowadays are reducing their fees over a period of time and there's several ways you negotiate them with them depending on lowering that fee on that. Uh on the fire department u I think it's a very excellent idea. I had no idea we were going out to the U facilities here. I'm not I don't want to call them rest homes. You call

assisted living homes. Yes. Where they have a situation where literally somebody and I don't want I'll just say it up front. Somebody falls out of bed or stands up and can't walk and falls down and they're not physically able to get them up and they call us and we go out there and do that. And that takes the same operation. Oh, if you'll excuse me, it's had a little something I had a matter a couple of months back. Anyway, that takes the same staff to go out and lift that person back up and put that person in bed that it does to uh uh oh to make an emergency call where there's a life and death situation. I had no idea we were doing that for free. And I want to thank our new uh fire chief for bringing that to our attention. The proposal here was we give them one free pickup. I don't see any reason in somebody having to keep track of that one free pickup. I think effective tomorrow, we should notify the assisted living centers that if it's not a medical situation and they call us to go out and assist, it's $250 uh effective within 30 days or as soon as we can after we notify them. I just see no reason to give them one free u pickup and uh had no idea and I want to thank the new fire chief for looking at that. Um I think the uh the discount on the u at the mod cob on the u nonprofits previously I think they were getting a 30% discount the proposal was to reduce that to 15%. My opinion is that's cutting it in half. I'd like to see it

at 20%. I think that if they were paying 30%, they can certainly pay 20%. And that's just a little bit of of revenue that the uh complex out there will have to operate on at that time. Um see, let's see. And I think those were the u um I don't like the water and the trash. Uh I don't like to see the increases, but as we all know, uh equipment, trash trucks, uh operations, um not counting personnel, but when you're running trucks all over the city of Long View, you've got terrible maintenance expense and and these are running start and stop, start and stop.

So that uh will give you a very high maintenance cost on those vehicles. And everybody knows when you have your car repaired or you have to buy a new set of tires or something uh nowadays you certainly are going to have a price increase. So I think if the u water and trash additional amounts are reasonable u in my opinion and u I think that's about it.

Thank you Mr. Alen Angela. Do you know I know I'm catching you off guard now. Do we get a question or an answer about the echek fee? Not yet. Okay. I um I suspect, and you can tell me if I'm wrong about this, um but I saw some Facebook discussion about having the credit card fees charged um kind of unintentionally sending more people into the office where additional staff time would be used. Um it is my experience in other pay situations that a credit card fee is passed on from the processor. But if you use the AC a check um which I confirmed you can use through your online billing service that is new now um that the fee would be lower. So it wouldn't be based on the processor. So if you use your echek when you pay your water bill

bank account yes connect it to your bank account AC bank account. Yes ma'am. It would be free or reduced fee. So, if you are worried about the credit card fee, please don't you don't well you're welcome to come in person, but you don't have to. Please just use your bank draft when you sign up through our online billing service as opposed to using your debit or credit card where you would incur the fee there. Um, and I think that will be a good solution. Yes, Mr. Connley.

I don't know who's doing these slides, but I'm I'm impressed by it. So, thanks, buddy. Let's review. Uh, one thing I think you know, we we're here and I appreciate the input from the like Mr. Wade said, Mr. Newstead, we have to help. It helps us with decision-m, but one thing we know taxes affects all of us, whether we own property or whether we rent property. And the other thing we all need is water. Can we just kind of review that fee uh increase, please? Thank you, Richard. And so, and I I want to I love what Mr. Allan just discussed because we know um we don't want an increase in water because that's going to affect everyone but we do know that nobody really likes it when somebody didn't pick up their trash and maintenance of vehicles. U so we're looking at basically and did we I think we talked about this last time uh the average slide that shows the reasons why it's going up. I think that's that's actually These are your your your three major increase contributing factors

and you I think on the last at the last meeting we also discussed uh the average increase correct yes sir when that would be what would it Can you comment Mr. That's that shows the 5/8 inch meter, which is the normal meter you'll find within the city, and it shows it's a 1.5% increase when you figure we we we do a a study of all of our expenses to figure out if it's a water or it's a sewer expense. And in this case, we did not need to go up in our sewer. So, we did not we did not want to do that, but we did need that slight water increase. So, that's why when you look at that and you see wastewater base, it didn't change. Wastewater usage didn't change. And then there was just a small increase in the water rate and its usage.

Okay. And do we have So that's basically that's a typ Okay. So typical so someone is normally paying if you're paying $10.71 for water you're basically an increase of 21. Yeah. So this is a typical bill with a 6,000 use. So be $518 is where it is today and it would move to a dollar uh I mean excuse me 51.85.

I appreciate you Mr. Archer and the information. And I know, like we said, I know you guys are directors and we're trying to make this as manageable, but also like Mr. John Allen said, we got to we got to take care of labor and uh other costs that happen. So, thank you guys. I appreciate that precision, Mr. Archer. I can tell that you tried very hard not to raise that because you were going down to the penny.

Yeah. Go ahead. Um, so I just want to mention on the two different fees and hit on it and uh I kind of like your idea, Sydney. Uh, Chief Grimes, I'm sorry. Do you mind? Um I want to make sure before I say that I'm in favor of the no onetime grace period on the lift fee. Um so I have spoke to firemen at station two before and I think station five that deal with a lot of the pickup. Um and this was a couple years ago that I talked to them and they were telling me about how much their responses are to go to the assisted living facilities. uh especially since COVID, they weren't uh my understanding is hiring staff that was equipped to pick up people because they're trying to get somebody that could do the job regardless if they're able to do that. So, it was kind of putting the burden on the fire department and they're making a lot of calls to that. Um I heard it a couple years ago and I didn't do anything with it because I didn't think there was anything we could do. So, I appreciate you bringing this option to us. Um, is there a reason for the do you recommend the the grace period or do you think it's either way we could do like uh Mr.

We could certainly go either way. Uh whether it be like Mr. Allen said to send a notification through the mail or email or however we contact those businesses to say that this is the new proposed or this is the new fee schedule. Uh my proposal was once the crews went out and they were at that facility for that one lift, they would notify the charge nurse or the uh manager on duty and say, "Hey, this is what we're going to." Maybe even hand them a little handout that explains the reasons why. Uh so that was just a notification uh an idea for how to notify.

Okay. I I like the notification idea of any like send a mailer to any of the ones that have used the service in the past. I don't know x amount of time and be easier I think on the um engineers and the firemen that are handling that. So appreciate that. Very very good way to look at it. Um so thanks for all your work on it chief.

Sure. Thank you. Um and then the other thing I want to mention um on the on the merchant processing fees. So this is in regards most like the credit card side. And so I actually had to go look and see how we're set up and we're set up to bank draft and I was kind of disappointed that we were already set up that way because I would have liked the cash back all this time I could have been getting um so the so this idea like the merchant services I support the fee there to because I don't think we should be compensating somebody else's rewards um for that and there is free option of the AC bank draft that you can do to mitigate that. It's also standard uh anything that's an obligatory payment in a sense you can't go pay your credit your mortgage payment with your credit card um you can't really a lot of the others is like any loans that you may have they're not going to allow you to go pay it with a credit card any a lot of the utilities if you look at your swept or AC or uh I looked at my swept and I looked at my centerpoint energy both of them are bank dd drafted because I guarantee you I looked at it and they charged me a fee I was like nope I'm not doing that so um and then I even looked what else do I have my cell phone bill is a bank draft instead of my credit card and then also um my gym membership is also that way. So it's industry standard and people are used to having these sort of obligations that that it is. So um I don't think it'll be that much of a hardship uh for those that are used to paying with credit cards to to make a change there. And it was interesting I did calculation on it too. So it was mentioned that we're looking at having credit card processing fees to reach $485,000 in 2026. Um, that's a lot of full-time employment jobs. That's a lot of different things that can that money could go to. And it's since the I think it was 2020 was whenever they referenced the the rates. It's a 21% growth rate annually. So, if we keep on that route, it's going to become a very big burden for the city um on that. So, those are the uh comments I had.

Thank you. Thank you. Go ahead. I have one comment. Um, can we go back to the lift assist and my one suggestion would be which may be a little bit different than everyone else's but in an effort to build a little bit more bond between PD and FD um PD as we know the false alarm call you're familiar with that correct sir?

So with our false alarm call we get three freebies. I think it's three is that the it's three. Thank you. We do pay for a permit. You do have to pay for the permit, right? I don't know. I I guess I would be favor in something similar that builds a little bit more synergy throughout our city and PDNFD. Obviously, there's times probably where you end up working together on some of these incidents, I'm assuming. Um, but it seems to be a very similar situation. Is it not Chief Grimes?

Correct. We also have the false fire alarm uh calls where we determine whether they're chargeable or non-chargeable. So, how do you how do you determine whether it's chargeable or not? Uh so, an act of nature lightning storm typically sets off a lot of the alarm systems both on the burglar alarms and on the fire alarms. Uh so, those are false non-chargeable. It wasn't due to neglect or negligence or whatever. uh on these other ones where it might be a uh contracting company that's out there testing the system and they're pulling the alarms and testing them, but they don't notify dispatch and apparatus goes out there. That's a cost to us that's not that shouldn't be incurred just based on their failure to notify dispatch that they're in test mode. Uh so after the third one, uh if it's false chargeable, then we can start billing or f I can't remember if it's three or five. I'd have to go back and review review that, but it's very similar to what PD has as far as their burglar alarms.

Sure. Okay. Chief Boon's not with us tonight, is he? I thought you were going to suggest that they start going to lift assist. I would Chief Grimes is still trying to make friends.

I suggest you go pick up Chief Boon and bring him with you. [Laughter] Thank you, Chief Grimes. Um, any other further discussion on that? I Go ahead, Miss Mark. On on the fees, I wanted to discuss the health insurance premiums increase and the why. Is it more because they're getting more benefit or is it more what what are we raising it for?

I I'll summarize it and then Bonnie, if I'm incorrect, you can you can correct me. The health insurance has not gone up in since 2018. And uh we've not had a rate increase and had have had incredible management of the fund through our benefits advisor uh which is Hub International that and the returns that they brought this past year. We actually spent money that we had over and above what's recommended to keep. But that's not sustainable because we've built up a reserve fund to make sure that we don't lose sight of what the the solveny of the health fund. And so it's really that those continued losses are not not able to be sustained. Uh there were a number of different we went out for proposals for different pharmacy benefits and for city clinic benefits and for uh our our processors and this was the rate the negotiated rate that they came back to the insurance trustees that they approved. So it was it's kind of all more due to outpouring of money to cover employees claims.

So the benefits that they get will remain the same but their premiums will go up. Yes. Yes. There's in fact I think with the HSA accounts which our younger folks typically enroll in because the charge is much less um they actually will get additional incentives to enroll in that which creates health savings accounts for our young workforce which is a large part of our workforce and that will help them to have co a way to save money for to cover those health costs when something happens.

Thank you. Yes ma'am. Mr. county. Yeah. I just want to I make sure I got Did I hear this correctly? So, we the increase in the premium you have that's the first time that's happened since 2018. Yes, sir. Yeah. Pretty good. Um, okay. Uh, discussion items both are done. I do need to come back to the consent agenda, which is again not setting the tax rate, but setting the public hearing for August 21st to vote on the tax rate at that time. So I do need a motion to approve the consent agenda. Pleaseot from Mr. Wade and do I have a second?

Second. Second from Mr. Newad. All in favor, please say I. Any opposed? Resolution is approved. Uh everybody is welcome back on the 21st. We'd be glad to see all of you here and appreciate your comments. Um I don't have anything else then, right? No. Thank our schedule again. The calendar.

Do we have the calendar? We have the calendar. Yes, Richard's got it. Hand in the air. Reads the calendar. Yes. Thank you so much. So, um, August is a little different. So, next, uh, Thursday, August 14th will be a, um, we'll have an additional budget discussion that we've just discussed there. Uh, the 21st is a public hearing on the fees and budget and vote on the proposed tax rate on the 22nd. And yes,

oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead, Mr. Yeah, I am done. Yes, it's a full calendar. Hey, come on back, guys. That'll be a lot of fun. That's right. I just want to say before we leave, I'm sorry that I couldn't make it today, but I saw the pictures and the exposure. Great day for Long View in the new uh Stanford Park. Congratulations.

Lots of fun. We threw dirt without you. We missed you, but congratulations. We got it done. Uh really proud to be a part of Long View. Yeah, very excited. No community announcements tonight. Go ahead, Mr. Fair Hill. Got to give it up to Maryanne. She's the only lady I've ever seen wear white pants and come out and work a shovel and still able to wear them in that evening. Uh so I I commend her on that. But hey, there was I've kind of questioned the manual labor that happened. Okay. Let's be honest.

But I'm telling you that was there was a I was impressed with the crowd of people that was out there. I've seen a lot of the comments that are coming in. The people are excited about it. I'm I'm proud for you guys over there uh at Stanford Park and your area. And I know they're going to get a lot of use out of it. Now fill it with water. And that what we said.

We need that done quickly. Uh but it's going to take some time, but it'll be it'll be appreciated when it's done. Perfect. All right. We'll see everybody on the 14th. Meeting is adjourned.