Board of Mayor and Aldermen - Regular Meeting

It's 620. We'll call the Finance Committee meeting to order. If I can find it.

We have one item on the agenda.

Sam, you want to tell us about this?

Sure. Each year we budget to send X amount of dollars to TCRS for our legacy employees. When positions are unfilled, someone retires or the position isn't filled on July the 1st, there's a period of time to where that money is budgeted but it's not going to TCRS. So in an effort to continue to keep our rates lower with the TCRS legacy employees, We're wanting to take that gap from year-to-date actual, since we've completed all of our payrolls for this fiscal year, the gap between year-to-date actual and the budgeted amount and send that extra to TCRS this year. We've done it for the past two years. That's just throwing this year to be about $78,000 towards that unfunded liability that has accrued over the years with TCRS. I would just like to get the... explicit approval to send that money, request that invoice from TCRS and pay that down this year.

Does anyone have any questions?

I make a motion that we approve sending the $78,000 to TCRS.

I will second that.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. Anything else come before the Finance Committee?

The budget's going to be submitted tomorrow.

All right. Thank you. This meeting's adjourned.

It's 625, and I'll call the Street and Sanitation Committee meeting to order. The first item on the agenda is to review the bids for the new HVAC at the transfer station.

Yes, we received three bids, two different companies. One, TN Cajun Services, and we got two bids from Lee Company recommending TN Cajun Services out of Murfreesboro for $16,887. Currently, our units that we have at the transfer station is from 1991. If you thought 35 years is a long time for HVAC, then you're correct. It doesn't work. It's got 90 degrees in there and we're using it a lot more. The money should come from the savings that we were having from our switch to waste management. Crunching the numbers, it looks like we're saving about $10,000 a month with waste management than if we were still with Capital Waste Services. So that seems to be what we're averaging since April 17th when we started. So about $10,000 a month in savings, $20,000 since we started, and the unit is $16,000. That sounds great.

So I didn't In my packet, I didn't see the other bid. I only saw what came in from Lee.

Yes, on the page four, you'll see their bid sheets, a total bid price of $16,887. They pretty much bid out the exact same unit as Lee Company did. Lee Company did a two-ton and five-ton ring for $25,000. Cajun Services did the exact same thing, but they're doing it almost $10,000 a year.

It's a big difference.

It is a big difference. I'm sure they have all the documents and liabilities.

Yes, they submitted those with the bid package. It just isn't included in this pack right here.

And, you know, usually we look at the warranties on this. Do you know anything about those?

Yeah, the warranties were the same. The work warranty was the same, and the parts warranty was the same.

We're not to amend the budget for that, are we?

I'm sorry?

Do we have to amend the budget for that?

No, it's going to be in next year's budget.

Thank you. I'll make a motion to approve.

I'll second it. I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion or questions? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. The motion carries. If there's nothing else, this meeting is adjourned.

Thank you. Thank you. I feel asleep on water. Are you sure?

It is 6.30 and I'll call the Water and Sewer Committee meeting to order to consider new service fees for water services discontinued due to non-payment.

All right, currently what we're doing, if somebody's disconnected for non-payment, we don't charge for a disconnect. It's $0, $25 during business hours. After business hours would be $40, and then on weekends would be a $50 reconnect. So one thing that we do, or a couple things we do, is... On the first disconnection of the year, we waive that disconnection fee. We don't charge for it. And we don't disconnect anybody that bills less than $40. It's $40 less. We don't disconnect. So the code, actually, and how it got put in the code, it actually reads 25 to disconnect, 25 to reconnect during business hours. After hours would be an additional 40. We call it the 25. And then on the weekends would be an additional $50. So you would have $75 on the weekends, $65 after hours, and then $50 during business hours. So that's what we just need to decide where it lines up with our code. So I would recommend keeping it like it is now, $25, $25 during business hours. And then the same fee after hours in the weekend. So we pay it. It costs us a little more money after hours because we pay an employee two hours to come in. And it's never an order. So never. But most of the time, it's they come in. turn somebody home, go back home, and then like an hour later they get called again to do another one. And one thing that, another thing we do is we do a call out that goes out the day before to tell that customer they've got until the next morning to pay or to be disconnected. That call's made out. Our guys are sitting around the shop waiting to get that list, go out, then turn those customers off, then go back and waiting to go back and turn them back home. Because most of those customers be back home within, By lunch, would you say?

It's pretty immediate when we get the phone calls and the payments have been made.

One thing it might do is cut down the number of cutoffs that we have. And that's the whole purpose of this. Because if they waste a half a day on disconnection pay, that's something else our employees can be doing. But it needs to line up with our current code.

Do I have a motion?

I'll make the motion.

I only had a question, so we're just now charging the 25 to do the disconnect and 25 to do the reconnect.

If you decide to not.

Okay. I'll second Sally's motion.

Any other questions for Ricky? I guess I'm just curious more than a question. So is there some latitude in here for you to like say, we're not going to charge you today?

We waive one per year, but no, there's, I mean, if a customer calls in and they're having some issues, and Sam can speak to that too, we try to work with the customer as much as we can. If it's repeat and it's constant, you know, We try to, you know, if somebody has a hardship, we try to work with them as we can. That's kind of what I was after. So, yes, that's all I have.

Yeah, a lot of those are repeat customers, correct?

They are. I think 40% to 50% are.

55% are since this year has started. 55% of those that have been cut off have been cut off twice or more. 19 of them, so 19 of the 176 have been cut off every single one. they call immediately and they pay. We have over 1% of our customers who are shut off each month for non-payment and other utilities in the area, and I've got the details, their cutoff rate is less than a half of a percent. So we're cutting off almost twice of a percentage of our customer base than they are if you look at it member for member to what we do. So I say all of that to say that Our $25 fee that we have been charging for years and years and years has not increased at all compared to what other utilities in our county have. And I think that is now apparent whenever we're shutting off 1% of our customers and the others are shutting off a half percent or less.

And we still do nights and weekends, most don't after their business hours, they don't go back out and reconnect. So if you got your water disconnected, Friday, 3 o'clock, and you don't get back in by 4.30, you wait until Monday to get service. So we try to be there for our customers. We want to support our customers, but at the end of the day, we need to do what our code says.

Okay. Anything else for Ricky? If not, all in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes. This meeting is adjourned.

The time is 645 and I'll call the parks and recreation committee meeting to order.

Thank you. Um, first thing on the agenda is to consider the rental fees and rates for governmental entities and nonprofit organizations. So what you have in front of you is a municipal rental policy. Um, and what's recommended is a 25% discount. from the standard rate for qualifying nonprofit organizations and governmental agencies. As I mentioned in the background, we had five events last year. Five great events, by the way. But what this would do would allow us to kind of recoup and regain some of the financial loss that we have with the setup, the breakdown, and just the shutdown of our facility. Most of the time, those events will happen Later in the week, maybe a Thursday, Friday, it could be a Saturday event. With that being said, we're having to tarp, tape, set up the stage, set up a sound system, tables, chairs, and then we're not able to clean that back up until probably Monday morning. So depending on the events, it could definitely impact people coming in using our facility. We took the rates that you have listed there from our standard rate, which is a non-commercial rate. So that $80 an hour rate is where we took that from, which is what our arena rental fees are currently. We have just a look on the chart where Point two, the flat rate event fees. So just in labor materials, that standard rate for us is like $1,500. Usually takes around four guys to set up. And then if we have, again, taping, tarping, if we have to do booth marking, setting up the stage, all that goes into that time as well as when we have to break it back down. Trash pick up, clean up, sweep mop, and set the gymnasium back up.

Just for clarification, are you saying, because there are several requests that come through us for free use, are you saying you want us to say no more free use, we'll do the reduced rate?

That is what I'm asking.

Okay, that's what I was trying to clarify.

And of course I did put in here that if it's non-negotiable but If there is to be an exception, it obviously needs to come to you all for that rate if there's circumstances that can't be met.

So a question, again, to clarify, these requests would not come to this board. It's covered by this policy and therefore approved by staff administratively.

I would say you have significant costs, but if we waive the fees completely, you're taking a pretty big hit on. How much do you think?

I'm glad that you asked that question. So last year I took, based on what was requested, the time that they requested the rental, the setup, stage, sound, tables, chairs. I looked at those five events and it almost totaled up to $13,000 when you looked at five combined and what was requested and of course that was free so what part of your budget does that come out of just curious um so I mean obviously I have my you know a personnel budget covers my staffing Like building rentals, you know, where I have anything that would fall into our revenue side of it as far as our rentals. Okay. That's correct.

I have a question if y'all don't mind.

Please.

Say you have an event on a Saturday or Friday, whatever. How many days ahead of time do you take that floor?

That's a good question. So I'm going to use the craft fair, for example. The craft fair moves in on Wednesday. We start tarping on a Monday because we have to booth mark before all of them move in. So it takes us two days to set the lower and upper up. When you look at an event, and I'm going to use McMinnville Special Games, it's a very easy event, but we are tarping half of our floor. We're pulling out bleachers, setting up a sound system, just trying to make sure that we can accommodate their needs. So that's an easy one because they move in on a Friday.

Is that just the lower?

It is, and they do their event on Saturdays. We still have to keep it shut down on Sunday because half the gym is tarped and we've got tables and chairs still sitting out.

I'm talking about prior tech.

Yes. That's an easy one. So we would only do that on Friday. There are events on Saturday. But most events we're trying to set up one to two days before because if they want to come in and decorate, they want to do those things. Or if they're not renting our tables and chairs, maybe they have a company that's bringing in their tables and chairs. So we have to accommodate that.

So you have additional loss of revenue based off those days as well? That's correct. Which is not part of your calculation? It is not.

Well, you know, most places make you use their own equipment, like their own tables and chairs.

There are. There are some events where they want round tables. We only have 20. But when you want rectangular tables, we can accommodate you all day long. But, you know, if they're wanting something different, chairs typically aren't an issue. We have plenty of that. Sage, not issue, but yeah. So to your point, yes, we do have additional loss there. And it's hard to kind of quantify what we're losing as far as people coming in and wanting to use the facility because it depends on the time of the year. If it's cold outside, more people are coming inside. If it's a day like today, they're out on the track and they're not using our facility.

So just to be clear, there will really be no more free Yes, sir. And it just comes to you all and that's it?

At a discounted rate, 25%. Right.

So is that going to be for any nonprofit or any government? Right now we do these five for free.

Yeah, I mean there may be more that would come in the future, but yes, we had five last year.

He's not saying do those again. Right. That's it.

For everybody.

For everybody.

And if there's ten more. Yes, ma'am.

Any more questions for Justin? So I'll make a motion that we approve the municipal rental facility policy.

I'll second it.

Okay, I have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Motion passes.

Thank you. The second item on here is discussing eliminating room and pavilion rental deposits. So Samantha had called me last week and had asked about our room rental. So we do deposits for our big events, which is a $500 refundable deposit. But we also do for smaller things like renting our rooms, $25. conversation with Samantha we hold those deposits on every rental that we do and then if there's no damages or anything like that we do a refund there it takes a lot of time and effort to On even their end, I believe you said that Misty had spent several hours going through some of those deposits, trying to get those reimbursed back to those individuals. It also requires us as staff to do a little more paperwork, which is part of what we do. But in talking with Dawn Hitchcock, our front desk manager, she was all in favor of this. And in the whole scheme of things, $25, if we have a ceiling tile damage or a floor tile or break a chair, the $25 really doesn't cover that cost. So we're asking just to remove that, those small deposits, and what that means is if Steve walks in and wants to rent the room. Instead of us going through this whole checklist of things and providing you with all the rules and asking for a $25 deposit, which you're going to get back, you just simply come in and rent the room. And we'll still give you some rules, but you just walk out the door. There's a little more into it when we do the deposit side of it. Again, for our bigger events like rental of the facility uh farmer's market those things because we do farmer's market rental and all that as well so yeah is it often that you have damage or other incidents that you would need to keep that 25 dollars that's a good question so uh we've been back in the facility since what 2021 we've used it twice Two times. So what happens after the rental? We have a facility attendant or a nighttime supervisor that goes into the room and just kind of checks and makes sure that everything is back to the way it should be. No tables are damaged, no ceiling tiles. The people were accustomed to coming in and sticking things on the walls, pulling the paint off the walls, hanging triggers from the ceiling, things like that. We've cleaned a lot of that up, but we've only had to use that twice. not a huge impact it's not and it's on us to really go in there and make sure that they're doing what their part as well and we do that is the banquet hall the big the big room where yes the first 101 the big one yeah so i think still like you mentioned still giving those rules um setting that expectation of you know we really want everybody to be careful and i think that'll still help it will i mean we provide them two tables and 20 chairs and use of our facility when they come and rent you know we provide the trash bags and the trash cans and we take out the trash and we just ask that they put things back the way it was when they when they found it and that's it and we would also add a

clause to the bottom of that receipt that says they would be responsible for any major damages so if there was someone who did something catastrophic to the room we could work with the city attorney and make sure there was language on that receipt that they agreed to that states that they go to really demolish something on them when you gave your when you

Because it's going to go around us, it makes us a little more out of the loop again. We've had several things that are now going to go around. I guess we need to stay in the know about what you're having. I guess you could do that when you give your departmental report that you had at this, that was a non-profit, that used certain rooms. Or upcoming.

Yes, or upcoming. I think she just wants to be... because when they ask us for free room use, then we know that it's happening, you know? Yes, absolutely.

Well, I just hate to be asked by somebody in the community, and I don't know anything about it. You know, it's embarrassing, really. So I like to know what's coming.

Try to bring that up in my weekly wrap-up department.

Okay, any other questions for Justin?

What kind of percentage, like, these are increases, I'm assuming, the rates that we're approving from what we have now? Are they, I know you're.

That $80 rate you're talking about?

You're not doing deposits on some things, but the rates that are on here.

Yeah, those are existing standard rates that we already have. So we're not changing anything. We're not changing anything. It's just a discounted for the qualifying folks. Okay. Yes, sir. All right.

So anything else about the removal of the small deposit? No, I'll make a motion to approve it.

I'll second it.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Motion passes.

Thank you.

Anything else, Justin?

That's it, thank you.

Okay, the meeting adjourned.

It is.

All right, it's 7 o'clock.

We'll call the meeting of the McMinnville Mayor, Board, and Alderman to order. First item on the agenda is roll call.

Alderman Sally Brock. Present. Alderman Dietra Dunlap. Present. Vice Mayor Steve Harvey.

Here.

Alderman Rachel Kirby. Here. Alderman Kerry Morton. Here. Alderman Kerry Youngblood. Here. Mayor Chastain is absent.

Thank you. Second item on the agenda is consent agenda. We have, we've been approving the minutes from last meeting and two ordinances on second reading and two resolutions. Does anyone want to discuss any of those?

I'll make a motion. Second.

I have a motion by Carrie Youngblood and a second by Sally Brock. We do roll call on this?

We do.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed? Motion carries. Third item on the agenda is recognition of visitors. If you're a visitor and you'd like to speak, this is your chance now. Welcome anyone to speak that wants to. Seeing none, we'll move on to item four, petitions. If there are none, move on to item five, discussion items.

sip and savor event decision until next meeting we were looking and one of the 11 amp series is scheduled for the 26th so just avoid any confliction see what we can work out there I do want to table that one Christmas in the park that's the standard event held every year there's no concerns or issues with that I recommend approval on that and farm to table is the standard event that is at the farmers market there is no road closures associated with that event so I recommend approval of that

What did you say about the SIP and cyber?

It's scheduled for September 26th. We have the new LEV AMP series. That means we're going to be putting on it, and that is one of the scheduled nights. So we've got some confliction there that we'll just need to work out.

I'll make a motion to approve those other two amendments. I'll second.

I have a motion and a second, and that's for Christmas in the Park and Farm to Table, right? Yes. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. Item six on the agenda. as an ordinance to purchase water services from Warren County Utility District, an ordinance of the City of McMillan, Tennessee to purchase 56 water meter services from Warren County Utility District and to set the time for this ordinance to become effective. This is the first reading.

This is back where we had the meeting prior a few weeks ago without purchasing these because Warren County Utility has water line that's jeopardized it's on their bridge their bridge there at charles creek and down below park and falter's factory so and that was due to an accident correct they had an accident after the fact but this what this this bridge is either settled but it's kind of pulled the water line away out of the out of the mail housing And so they knew if that ever blew out, they couldn't serve that side of town. We actually can serve it from just past the Catholic Church there on Walters Backyard Road. And then we can actually come over on Pike Hill and tie that line together there because we can kind of meet there. So we can serve it two different ways. So Anthony had reached out to us about purchasing those services at $1,000 per service.

I had a conversation with one of the board members, and My understanding from him was if it collapsed, that would be without water until they could get it. Either we could hook onto it or they could get it fixed, and it's just going to be too costly for them.

Well, we have a master meter up there just past. That's where the city used to serve that area. So they could have actually purchased water from us, but they knew that it would be better for us to just take it over there.

Proactive rather than reactive, yes.

I'll make a motion. Are we approved then? I'll second.

I'll motion by Karen Youngblood and second by Deidre Dunlap. Copy the vote.

Sally Brock? Yes. Deidre Dunlap? Aye. Steve Harvey? Yes. Rachel Kirby? Yes. Carrie Morton? Yes. Carrie Youngblood? Yes.

Motion carries. Item seven is recognition of employees and departmental reports. Moving on to item eight, announcements. Anyone have any announcements? Okay. Okay.

adjournment in my head I think we're requesting an executive session yes I will have an executive session meeting after this board meeting which will only be four minutes and nothing else this meetings adjourned