City Council - Regular Meeting

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the April 28th, 2026 council meeting to order. And I'll ask the clerk to please call the role. Dr. Lee here. Miss Simmons here. Miss Shanholster here. Miss Pendergast here. Miss M here. Dr. Wills here.

All right. We do have a quorum present. If you will at this time, please stand with me for the prayer and pledge and Dr. Jeff Wales will lead us in prayer tonight and pledge. As we pray, God, we first come to you in thanks and thanks for the for the rain, the beautiful rain that we received today. And we thank you for this beautiful springtime season that we have enjoyed. We thank you for these citizens and community members who are here today. And thank you for these civil servants who've come to present their budget so that we may continue the good work of the citizens of this great city. Lord, we now come to you in ask. We ask that you bless us as we do the work of these citizens. Let us have a spirit of camaraderie. Let us have a spirit of cooperation. Let us think clearly. And Lord, inspire us to always keep the citizens of this community first. And we'll be so careful to give you the honor, praise, and glory for all that is done in your name. Amen. Amen.

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.

Thank you, Dr. Wills. Thank you. We don't have any public comments tonight. We must be doing something right. Um, so we're going to move on. You all have all received a copy of the April 14, 2026 council meeting minutes. Are there any u corrections that need to be made? Hearing none. Is there a motion to adopt the minutes the April 14, 2026 council meeting minutes? So move. Second. We have a motion and a second. I'll ask the clerk to please call the role. Dr. Lee. Miss Simmons. I. Miss Shanholster. I. Miss Pendergas. Hi. Miss Matt. Hi.

Dr. Wills. I.

All right. The motion carries and the minutes are approved. Under my comments tonight, the only thing I have is that uh we have a intern here with us tonight or she's interning, Miss Shakira. M Shakira, raise your hand. She I asked them to allow her to sit up here with us. She's supposed to be shadowing the mayor. However, there's not a whole lot she's going to be able to come watch the mayor do before the meeting. So, I asked the clerks to allow her to see what goes into preparation for the meetings. And so, she's going to sit up here and continue to monitor us as we move forward. Are there any Georgia College and State University students here tonight? All right, having none, I think everybody's preparing to graduate or go home for the summer. Next, we'll have the remaining department head budget presentations. I will recognize the city manager to introduce the departments that she has scheduled for tonight.

Good afternoon. U we're not going to delay the time. Um our first presentation for tonight will be from Main Street and we'll ask Miss Jennifer Stassy to come up. Evening.

Um, I emailed out the presentation yesterday, but I also made copies. Would y'all like those as well? Um, I just want to thank y'all for the opportunity to speak with you tonight. Um, as I step into this role with Milligville Main Street, I've spent the past few months listening, learning, and thinking about the influence that I want to have on downtown Milligville. Downtown is not just the heart of our community. It's Ball and County's front porch. It's where we welcome visitors, attract investments, and create new experiences that people keep that keep people coming back.

With our rich history and charming atmosphere, we are Balling County's crown jewel. Hold it up, Miss Jennifer. Hang on.

Sorry about that. Go ahead. That's okay. It was me last week.

Um before I share my requests, I want to acknowledge the critical importance of the city's continued investment in infrastructure, public safety, and public works. Reliable water systems, a strong police presence, and a wellsupported public works department is the foundation of any growing city. Without those, growth simply isn't possible. But alongside those essentials, we must also invest in the pe and what people see, feel, and experience. And that is our downtown. Downtown Milligville is one of our strongest economic development tools. When it's vibrant, active, and well-maintained, it directly supports our small businesses, increases foot traffic, enhances property values, and strengthens our community identity. First, I'm requesting additional funding for education and professional training. As a new Main Street director, I am committed to bringing best practices, innovative ideas, and proven strategies back to Milligville. This investment ensures that our program is not operating in isolation, but instead is aligned with state and national main street practices. Per those standards, I am required to complete a minimum of 30 hours of training per year. The return on this investment is a stronger program and more effective support for our downtown businesses. Secondly, I request increased funding for events. Events is one of our most visible and impactful ways we drive people downtown. They directly support our businesses by increasing foot traffic and creating energy and exciting excitement in our district. As we look ahead, we have exciting opportunities to grow some of our existing events, particularly some prospects to elevate our hometown celebration into a larger experience. This not only enhances community pride, but also positions Milligville as a destination, bringing visitors who d who will dine, shop, and stay. Every successful event is an economic driver,

not just a gathering. Finally, I request additional dollars for contractual services and labor to support the planting and maintenance of our downtown planners. Beautification is not a luxury. It is a key component of first impressions. A clean, well-maintained, and visually inviting downtown signal signals that we are a community that cares. It encourages people to linger longer, return more often, and invest more confidently. Details matter, and in downtown, those details are what people remember. These three requests, training, events, and beautifification, work together to strengthen downtown Milligville as an economic engine. They support our businesses, enhance our community image, and create the kind of environment that attracts both visitors and future investments. I am committed to being a good steward of the resources entrusted to this program and delivering results that reflect positively on our city. I appreciate your consideration and continued support of downtown Milligville, and I'm excited about what we can accomplish together. Are there any questions?

I have one. Okay. I don't have my readers on, so I might be Well, I brought my readers, but then I gave y'all all my Okay. Look, you said that you asked for additional funds for contract contractual services and labor. Yes, ma'am. Okay. I see zeros.

I did. So we rearranged this budget and this like this like I said in my email this was one of the very first things I did. So we rearranged this budget to work within this budget. Um and then after that we did the planters and the spring came and we did all that and we realized quickly that we need help with that. Um so I I did put that in there for contractual services. I have I'm putting out feelers for getting some help with that. And I have a a man interested, possibly interested for um helping us water them. He's a um pressure washer and car detailer. Um and that would be at least $32 to $3,500 for the season, March to a uh March to October.

Um so what's the labor? What's the amount you're looking for the labor? Um 5,000. Yes, ma'am. Um education and training 2,000 events. Um advertising and public relation 10,000 and contractual labor and labor and services 5,000.

Okay. So, Jennifer, right now, who's currently doing the watering of the plants downtown? We have um asked the community to adopt a planter and um in that contract asked that they be the ones to water them and some of them are doing amazing. Um but some of them you know life happens and they get busy and they don't get watered and um

Okay. So what are the um actual streets that border downtown? We're our all of our planters are mostly on Hancock and Wayne and we have 57 54 planters. Well, this the downtown as a whole, what are the streets that border the entire downtown? Um, we h we have a large a large space where I'm not sure exactly how much we fully encompass. The planners are only on those two streets, though. Hancock and Wayne mostly. Am I right? The main planners. The main planters are on Hancock and Wayne. Am I right? That's what that's where the plan the main

Yeah, I understand that. I was just asking what are the streets that border the entire downtown cuz I know you guys are doing a lot of activities for downtown. I just wanted to know what are the actual streets. I've had a few people uh ask that. What are the actual streets that border downtown? What is considered downtown that the outskirts of downtown? What are those streets? It goes out to uh Montgomery. Montgomery Montgomery and then back to Franklin Street, right? Yeah. It's a Montgomery to Irwin. It's a pretty big area. Not Irwin, is it? Compass green.

It's not It's not to not downtown. Not to Irwin Street. No, it wouldn't be. It's it's Montgomery to um probably to Columbia or Clark Street right in there. Considered downtown and then down to Franklin. We just expanded the business district in in your last meeting. So, um do if you don't mind, I can get with you a little later. Get like a little map of what's considered downtown that you guys take care of. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. I'll get that to you. Okay. Thank you, Jennifer. Thank you. Any other questions? No. Okay.

Thank you. Thank you. If y'all excuse me for dipping out, my daughter is playing in the state tennis um playoffs right now. Good luck. So, thank you. I'm going to go watch her. Okay. Thank y'all for your time. Thank you. Okay, we'll move on to our next department, planning the zoning department.

Uh good evening everyone. Good evening.

Um in keeping with the theme, uh last year I was short and to the point. I promise to keep you to the same thing. uh playing is only an inspection budget remain rather rather conservative with minor increases in contractual services and education. Uh several departments like code enforcement uh water and sewer uh and pling and zoning are trying to implement a new software program called I works which for planning and zoning will greatly improve our customer service capabilities enabling online credit debit and card processing. The inspection department will have the ability to use the system in the field with tablets. We were able to track fees and and payments. Our buy into the software portion would be $6,000 annual. Anybody have any questions? Mr.

So that was under contractual services that you'll be requesting that $6,000. Yes, ma'am. It's boring. But you went through that just like that. Mr. Bar to the point. I don't want to bore you anybody like that. So you already have your tablets in the field. Are you We have our tablets already. Yes, ma'am. Okay. We already have. You just don't have the software yet. Okay. That's your portion from the buy in with everybody. 6,000. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am.

I'm sorry. Any other questions? Mayor, if I may ask just one quick one. Sure. So, in looking at your budget, first of all, thank you for the graphics in the back. That makes it very easy to follow. Very impressed with that. So, in looking at your budget right here, I'm looking at your 2025 to your current budget that it expires on June 30th. And then I'm looking at your proposed. It looks like you're you're asking for just barely $4,000 more over what we've appropriated in the last year. Am I understanding that correctly? Yes, sir.

I think I'm I think a total of both budgets combined. I think I am asking for $5,000 additional additional at the most. Okay. I'm trying to keep it real real conservative. That's all you need. Yes, ma'am. We appreciate you. We really do. Thank you. Straight to the point. Tell me. Thank you. Uh, Mr. Barnesville.

We don't share time. Don't touch it. Department. All right. Team plate. Well, he came up before I can introduce it. But here's the fire department. Let me get you up

to our uh mayor, council, city manager. Uh, to expedite our time just a little bit. There will be no formal induct in introductions of battalion chief pleasurery. However, I would like to begin by reading our vision. The vision of Milligville Fire Rescue Services is meeting the current and the future needs of the city. By anticipating the needs of public fire safety protection, we embrace the community's future plans and emerging industry trends. Our mission is accomplished. Our mission is to protect life, to protect property, to protect the environment. Our mission is accomplished through highly trained, competent, professional firefighters whose knowledge, skills, and abilities are ever evolving through professional development. Our core values are the foundation upon which we build the strength and the dependability of the fire department. They are competency, professionalism, diversity, community focus, teamwork. Our initiatives are healthy employees, honoring our retirees, youth investment, professional decorum, and a modern staffing model. I have two three slides actually and we can begin. They're very brief uh with the first one. Does it need sound?

Uh, just you see where the arrow is? There you go. It needs some miss. Is that our best? I'm trying to get it. It's supposed to be coming through here. Where's it coming from?

Is it coming from up there? staffing levels. hear anything right now?

Let's try it again. Mr. Griffin, will will a mic up here make it project louder? with the mic from up here that we use. Will it make I don't have control of the video back here. Just the

microphones organizers owners in the city of Columbia will lower evaluates over 45,000 across the nation on their capabilities. This evaluation includes response times hydrants fire station location. There's no better designation to recognize the professionalism staffing levels and the commitment to excellence to our fire department. It's efforts such as these is why our fire chief was recently recognized last year as the fire of the year. But the real winners from this designation is property residents will be paying less insurance premium. On behalf of Columbia City Council, we want to congratulate and recognize Chief, our fire department, and Columbia community as a whole for this outstanding.

Next slide. The next slide. Uh the key point on this slide is what the first one showed us is the value of getting and obtaining a higher rating in terms of your ISO rating. What that means for the city of Milligville and its residents is we have been able to capture a savings for the residents, the business owner of $14 million. $14 million. Next slide, please. That link right there. and her colleagues honored the moment of support is live in the details. Courtney Kennedy was transported after a couple of weeks at Grady Hospital. She was transported by her collearity as county rehabilitation facility and family.

The injured firefighter joined the department in August. hospitalies. So what we did today was we had a small sheade contained a few of our units one of our engines for the first time that the other crew members that That's that's the end of that.

This accident uh with this young firefighter occurred last year. I can certainly resonate with her story because on the inside of your uh budget presentation is yours truly on the on front cover of the Atlanta Journal Constitution. I am 29 years old when this accident occurred. I was a fire captain at one of the busiest stations in the city of Atlanta. I suffered during a fifth five alarm fire uh a broken femur. They put metal in it. They put it back together. Once that leg was healed, the doctor informed me that uh I would have to change professions because if I continued in this profession with all of the metal in my right leg, it would likely break again. At 29 years old, I told the doctor, I tell you what, let's take the metal out. We took it out and now the rest is history. uh this is how dangerous the profession that we are in really is. It is a matter of on a dime your day could change tremendously. At this moment I'm going to uh uh refer to my colleague Chief Usher. He'll come for two minutes and then I will conclude and feel any questions that you may have.

Certainly. Thank you, uh, mayor, council, city manager, Chief Collier, I want to thank you for this opportunity to speak. Um, tonight I'm asking you to focus on three main points of our presentation. Competitive pay, proper comp a comparison of Millersville Fire Rescue, and pay parity. First, the men and women of Millersville Fire Rescue are underpaid. This is not an opinion. This is a fact backed up by data. If you'll see, I think we have provided, did we hand out, chief? We have uh case studies that we conducted of our neighboring fire departments. That would be everybody that touches Bowwin County. It' be Bowwin County, Jones County, Putinham County. And we compare to see where we're at currently. These aren't distant agencies. These are departments that we lose people to constantly compete against every day. What do I mean we lose people? We hire them. We put them through intensive training. They look around and say, "Hey, I can get paid more, so I'm going to leave." That is money walking out the door. You say, "What do you mean, Chief Usher? We invest I think the total is 20 close to that number to what we invest in a new hire."

No, we were investing over 100,000

100. I mean, if you for complete by the time we complete all the training, but that's a lot of money. that we have walking out the door. And the why this is is that we're we're not competitive. Um um these departments um are offering more money so it's obvious for a young firefighter to move on. Second, we must view Milligville Fire Rescue correctly. What I mean when I say that Milligville Fire Rescue is a career full-time fire department. That means we have 247 staffing. We have full-time professionals and we are at a constant state of readiness for us at as battalion chiefs. That means that we provide operational consistency as compared to Jones County, Bowwing County, which they're called their model is combination. What does that mean? That's a mix of career firefighters, some part-time firefighters, and then volunteer volunteer personnel. This is a fundamental difference between us and them. A career department carries higher call volumes, higher expectations. We have greater responsibility. We're required to have more training hours. And while we look at Putnham County, they recently transitioned from the combination model to a career model. All the while though, Millersville Fire Rescue has been a career department. Uh we should not be asking how do we compare to them. Mayor, this is answer to your inauguration. We should be asking why aren't we being the standard that they measure themselves up against? The third thing I want to talk about is pay parity. And that is public safety is not divided. It is shared.

Right now, there is roughly $4,000 of uh pay gap with police paid more than fire. That gap, it does not reflect the shared risk, the shared mission, the shared responsibility. Uh other cities that I've researched, all our neighbors here like Americus 2, who's very similar to uh Milligville, Marietta, Decab, Perry, they've all recognized this and they pay their police and fire the same thing. What's amazing about this, we could do this now, council, city manager. We could pay us the same as the police. And let's be clear about the risk. Firefighting is consistently ranked among the most dangerous professions in the country. We've seen it firsthand. He's right here on the front page of the paper. Broke his leg. Career ended. He made a choice to move on. The young lady, her career is over as a firefighter. She lost her leg. No second chance here. Here's the thing. Police officers face danger. Firefighters face danger. Both matter. Both are essential. And that's exactly why I say pay parody makes sense. Finally, if you look at page three of our presentation, you'll see our competitive pay plan. As you look at these numbers, these numbers are not inflated. They are in line. You can look at our pay studies that we've conducted. They are in line with our region. They are in line with industry standards. This plan will fix from the bottom to the top our pay scale issues. It will improve our recruitment and our retention. And it will, this is what I like, position us, Milligville, as the leader, not a follower. When we look over these budgets, we must think about what is our motive.

If we want a strong public safety, we must invest in the people who provide it. Thank y'all. Let me conclude by saying uh on page four of your handout, this is what we are asking because it represents the need of your fire department. Number one, uh approving uh the salary plan. Number two, we have antiquated outdated uh references in terms of positions etc. That is a nonbudgetary issue which can easily be fixed and should be fixed. Number three, the approval of 13 new positions in anticipation of your new station coming online. Number four, a policy commitment when you hire new hires to retain these people persons for at least three years. And number five, migrating from an outdated status of first responder to EMTB requirements. Any questions?

I I have the first one. Yes. I want you to expand on what you just said from first responder to EMT. Can you talk to the council and the listening public about what that means and why that is so important?

Uh number one, when you look at the fire service, it does not matter whether it's in Millville or in New York. The call volume of these organizations in this industry is going to be EMS, which means that those firefighters are going on calls that will range from something as simple as helping an infilt invalid person get back into their bed or they're going on calls where someone has a traumatic incident. They've fallen off a roof doing some repair or they have some medical emergency. Because we are currently our department first responders, we are not being able to provide them with the adequate medical care when we do respond. We are only able to meet their very very menial or basic need. Now you may say, "Well, the ambulance is going to come." I may say, "How do you know they're going to come?" Because the ambulances are suffering from the same thing as everyone else is suffering from. They may be in what's sometime referred to as diversion, which means they have no ambulance available to come to your grandmother's house. That fire truck is going to come to your grandmother's house. And what you want on that fire truck is a highly skilled person to deal with whatever is ailing that person when they do arrive. All departments pretty much have migrated from first responder since the 1970s. I have been an EMTB for over 30 years. So that's why it's an urgency. That's why it needs to occur. Now, you cannot do it, but it's only going to mean you're going to be still inefficient, and by the time that you do do it, it's

going to cost you more money. It helps the community as a whole. Uh the hospital, even if the ambulance gets there at the same time you do, it becomes working with someone that has the same skill level as I do. So now we make the outcome for the patient much much better opposed to arising and having to coach someone in terms of what you want them to help you do. Does this affect our ISO rating?

It does not affect your ISO rating. It doesn't affect your ISO rating. However, need to understand that for Milligville and not just Milligville, 80 to 90% of your call volume will be EMS related. Either it's the person having the heart attack or it's the person in the car accident or it's the older person that you're helping get back in bed or you're helping an ambulance. So, those calls are going to be uh EMS related. They're going to touch some portion of emergency medical care.

And what is the cost? What projections on cost to to get every one of our personnel that needs it? Well, actually, uh, since I've been here, I have actually, uh, been able to, uh, put together two classes for free partnering with the hospital. Uh, now you're talking about, uh, if you, if someone went and did that on their own, it's going to cost them about $6,000 if they did it on their own. Um, I think that we could probably do something very very similar, but even if we have to project a cost of around $20,000, the outcome or what you're going to get from that is well worth what you're investing into it.

Thank you, Chief. Okay, Chief Collie, first thank you guys for serving the city of Milligville. Um, excuse me. Please ask to be acknowledged before y'all. Absolutely. Um, so you guys are currently at a ISO rating of two, correct? Three. Three. Okay. Is there a hurdle that prevents you guys from keeping that or being at your best? Um,

we are currently at ISO rating of three. Um, we have since my tenure have had uh two opportunities for the auditors to come in and review the department. Uh kudos to the men and women of the department who have done a tremendous job uh especially the first time around because I got a six months notice when I first arrived that we would be audited. So they have done a tremendous job in terms of improving the portions of ISO that directly reflect the fire department. Uh there are other portions of it as you would see in the video that would be the dispatch. uh we have no control over that. That would be the water department. We have no control over that. But the training, the response time and the daily staffing as Chief Ucher was saying, uh we which is the reason we operate every day with at least 10 people as a at a minimum. Uh we have direct control over that. We have been able to max out essentially those numbers. Uh as I said uh the the uh dispatch and water we have no control over that. However uh the fire department as you can look in that book in the appendix section has been the leader in ensuring that uh their rating remains the same and can potentially get better.

Um I'm going to piggy back off the water situation. Uh the fire hydrates that are covered, are they um in full function for y'all's? They're not full to work efficiently. Oh, okay. Wonder why they were covered. Okay. Um All right. Um I think that's it for me.

Pretty much they asked the questions I wanted to ask about what Mr. Will said about that medical tech uh tech technician B. Did you not get some some funding from Grady or somebody one time before for this or did you partner with Grady? We partnered with partner partner. Okay. That was the first class. We partnered with him and and subsequently Navson during the second class.

Miss uh Melbour I know you yielded a time to your staff. is anybody else have any questions? Cuz I know Miss Melville gave them a time limit. Any more questions? I may have some a little later. I need to study this though. Yes, ma'am. Most definitely.

I say the travel,000 travel. Go uh uh chief come back to the U podium. She wants to ask Miss M want to ask a question. Can you emphasize a little bit on the travel? You have 50,000. What What are you requesting to travel? What would that include?

Okay. Um, we anticipate the approval of 13 new personnel. Uh, I would just based upon our uh previous recruitment, probably the majority of those persons would not be certified. So they'll have to go off to for scythe to basic firefighter and that's where that additional money will come from. When they go off, assuming they go off and pass the first time, there's no cost. However, once they're there, we're paying them $4,000 for the entirety of the class. So it just becomes math. Um 13 people times four, that that's where you get your money. Thank you.

And chief, did you all ever come up with whether or not you could or could not um you weren't being able to mandate them that if they left to pay that money back? I think that's um four. Item four. Item four. Okay. It's item four. That's what we're asking. Okay. that becomes the will of this body

to create a resolution to create the policy. The will of this body uh what Chief Ker alluded to was if you do not retain the person that you hire, you're going to allow probably $150,000 to leave. So you got to keep them long enough to get a return on that investment. They have a minimum salary of 44,000 roughly 45 but you got to times that time uh whatever the insurance pension etc on top of that in addition to the fact they're going to basic training you're paying for it. All of these costs, the turnout gear, 6,000,7,000, you're going to get to $100,000 if you do not retain that person before you can get a return on that investment. And generally, that's measured by what you would pay a part-time employee. If you don't retain it, you're going to lose it. And then you're going to repeat a cycle, which my command staff gets tired of me doing. uh repeating the cycle over and over again. But the reason they get tired of it is because you're creating more stress uh internally because you're asking people to do more work while they could be doing something else. You're starting that cycle over and over again.

I have a question um because this is confusing. You have $500,000 budget request for overtime. Just overtime, right? Why not? I mean, you're asking for increase in salary. So, why isn't your salary increased by the amount that you're requesting? Um, why don't you have a request for the increase in salary as are you just going to pay out overtime? I mean, I I don't understand how you can do one without the other. Okay, I'll explain. That is in anticipation of 13 new people that you will be f that you will be hired,

but they wouldn't just make overtime. It will become it will neutralize the overtime if you hired those persons in theory, you're going to have less overtime. You're not going to spend $500,000 in overtime. I know it reallocated to please, but you increased it. It is it's going to be reallocated to the salary portion. However, if we do not get 13 people and we still open up a fire station, someone has to work there, which is going to be the existing employees, which is going to increase the overtime to 200 to 500.

I disagree, but okay. That is that's a budget thing and with me and that's not how you do it. But that's okay. I understand. I understand. Mayor, a follow-up question if I may. So, in your cost comparison, command staff compensation comparison under your fire chief salary, looking at that, uh, we're I know that you Jones County Fire Rescue, Baldwin, Putnham, and then ours is in blue. So, the one that seems to be a big outlier here is our neighbor over to the west, Jones County. Are those full-time positions? No. No. Wow. They're not full-time position. They're actually part-time positions.

Okay. Which is why you get uh the numbers sometimes seem a little bit wonky was not a professional word, but they they sometimes seems a little uh off center. Okay. Because they're not that was just an outlier department. That individual most of those individuals work at other departments and come back to

I got you. Thank you, sir. All right. Thank you, Chief. We appreciate you coming out. Um, when we have our budget presentation, we would appreciate it from the the uh audience. Let's not um make outbursts because we don't make outbursts. We're here to listen to them to bring to us their proposal for the uh upcoming budget. Next, this is

Okay. Um, last but definitely not least, we'll have our public works department, Mr. Thomas. I need to switch your flash drive, man. It's not working for me. Presentations are difficult tonight. That works up. Hold on. Pressure. nine a lot.

So, what I did with yours is I copied it to my desktop because you all were taking up all of my flash drive space. Yes. And it is now not working. Increase the budget for a new laptop. Is that what you're telling me? Got some money, Mr. Thomas. You want to don like share?

I know. All right.

It will not open up. Get your other one closed.

You had to. Let me just close it out. See you back in again. close. They might need to slide on. Let Miss Carrie handle these presentations. Let's get you back in. I don't know what I'm doing with

What is it about your presentation? What's that? I said, what is it about your presentation? I guess it mean passed the budget. You might have to talk it out tonight, Mr. Thomas. At all. Hold on. You the man. You got it. You prepared to talk, Mr. Thomas. Go for it. Just go this way. That's it. I'm not going to do the slideshow. I just do it from your slide that way. Okay.

Question, right? Okay. I request that you all send me these presentations prior to the meeting next time so we can test them out. All right. Good evening to all. Good evening.

First, we have like a our budget would be a two-part budget for central state uh crew and also for our public work department as well. Miss Dawn, she would assist me with this presentation. Uh we ask that you all write down your questions and hold all of them until the end. After the video, we open up for any questions. All right. video behind us.

Okay. All right. To begin, you the front sheet. You all can follow along on this sheet here. This the little agenda. But to begin, we have requested several position and equipment for the fiscal year 26 27 to meet current demands to better serve our community. All position requested are needed to enhance employees morale, maintain rightaways, and to meet the demands of of our environmental changes. One of our goals last year included purchasing three new dump trucks for yard trim and collection department to establish and serve as north, south, and central uh refu collection routes. Thanks to the city manager, mayor, council, this goal has become a reality. These are the units you see on this slide here. Now, however, public works uh continues to struggle to meet daily operation demand for current uh equipment, authorized positions, and dated infrastructure. Therefore, we are in search of the following request. Public work ultimate goal is to develop and support a workforce that is infrastructural savvy. Our first objective to obtain this is to establish and maintain a competitive pay scale. Number two, continue pay incentive for uh certification and CDL. Three, develop a master plan for infrastructural upgrade and cities growth. Now, the master plan is not the comprehensive plan. The master plan is the blueprint to your comprehensive plan so you can implement it. It's a diagrammatic plan where you can visualize, you can see the city, the entire city and central state. And what the master plan does, it allow council. It allow you all to dictate the growth, slow it down, increase it,

prepare for the future, and we can be proactive. That's a master plan for the city. Two-part to a comprehensive plan. Okay. Number four, purchase and utilize an asset management system. Miss Dawn, she would she would uh brief you all on that. Okay. Number five, position. Uh these are the requested positions. Public work coordinator and for the administrative assistant to remain. Bart trim collection supervisor. This is the only department that we have that doesn't have a supervisor. Now, the acting supervisor for this department is storm water crew leader. He's been acting supervisor for eight years. Eight years. And and he just he's he's not just over yard trimmer collection. He's like the administrator. He handles all the departments. He's he's involved with every department that we have. We have six departments and that's what this guy does. So somehow we should reward these guys to keep them from getting cold. They go cold, we can't get them back warm. But this guy here has done a great job. Okay. Um position up C. Municipal truck driver for public work and for water maintenance, utility maintenance. What's going on? We have a position called heavy equipment operator. Now the heavy equipment operator is like a it has your CDL driver and equipment operator combined together. We need to separate and install a position that's called a municipal uh truck driver and separate heavy equipment from that because what happened some department require that they have CDL. Well, your heavy equipment operators, true heavy

equipment operators, majority of them don't have CDLs and vice versa. Your CDL drivers are not your your commercial CDL drivers, they're not equipment operators. So, we need to separate those two position and create this municipal truck driver across the board. Okay. Um D public work operation. Now this would be a dedicated crew public work dedicated crew for C uh CSH C state hospital. And Miss Don she will brief you on that as well. At this time I'll let Miss Don come up and brief you on those two components.

Good evening. An administrative management or asset management system gives the city government a modern centralized way to track infrastructure, manage maintenance, and make smarter budget decisions. As cities grow and services demands increase, having accurate real-time information about our assets becomes essential. And I works provides that exactly. First, asset management improves accuracy and visibility across all departments. Second, it streamlines maintenance and daily operations. Third, it helps extend the life of city assets and reduce long-term costs. Fourth, it strengthens compliance, reporting, and grant readiness. Finally, asset management supports long-term planning and smart budgeting. By adopting asset management, city governments gain the tools to operate more efficiently, reduce costs, improve transparency, and plan responsibly for the future, all while delivering higher quality to their communities. The current programs we're using are both outdated and cumbersome systems. In search of better processes over the last year, I have worked with IWorks and negotiated down their costs from a startup of originally 99,000 per year, which covered six different departments. After several attempts, we secured discounts in the amount of $60,000, leaving the annual cost at $39,000 for six different departments, not just public works, but other departments within our city. For fleet management alone, this is a $5,000 discount due to the current system we have will no longer be supported by the company we're

using. And the upgrade they offer will cost a minimum of $18,000 annually. And I'll let Mr. Thomas take back over. You want me to do the CS? Okay.

All right. And then uh this is in regards to the central state um hospital campus presentation. Um the central state hospital campus consists of 14.49 centerline miles of roadway and approximately 1,750 acres of mixeduse land. Based on practical industry staffing ratio, an estimated 10 to 14 personnel would be required. However, to maintain our public works operational standards, a workforce of 15 to 17 personnel is required to properly manage and sustain the rights of way. Central State Hospital is a historic district with statewide significance. active redevelopment projects such as housing, event spaces, tourism with hotel and filming potential, large open spaces requiring consistent care, safety and econom economic development leverage. A high appearance standard directly supports this campus's transformation into a mixeduse economic productive district. To maintain Central State's hospital campus, the staffing, infrastructure, equipment, as well as engineer services, our projected costs are 7,650,000. All right, piggybacking off that uh the one of the open space uh that she's alluding to. Have any of you all been on land farm road over the last two weeks or so?

Have you seen how the the the lake has been cleaned up? That's your public work crew. They've cleaned that's one of your open spaces. That's just one of several of the central state. So that's the goal. When you see that area now,

if you all decide to to accept this uh location, that's what you'll see throughout Central State. It'll be clean throughout the central state. Now that you know, it'll pull developers to this area. All they want to see is a clean place. All right. Okay. And we can go to the uh you already on that slide for the equipment uh equipment. We're requesting a an F250 service truck for the uh central shop. Now, this is a mechanic service truck that we most definitely need. Now, the benefit of this, the guys when they go out right now, they just have a a F little F-150 truck. when they go out and fix make repairs to our equipment on site, they have to come back to the shop to get other equipment, generators, stuff of that nature, we we should equip them with what they need to get the job done. And this is our probably fifth attempt to request for this unit. Um B, skid steel loader storm water. Uh C two this is the 50th uh replacement of this two John Deere tractors for cemetery and park. All right and then D would be our more more Mo more. That'll be our featured in the video. Let's go to the slide right here. Um this is something that we need back.

Okay.

Okay. right here. This is uh something we need to I call it smart money. Right now it's not so smart. When we look at this uh top trench roer rental fee of 2425 is $27,000. That's how much we spent for that unit. That one unit that we need practically every week and the purchase price is only $34,000. Okay. All right, the next line item is a skid steer and we'll show you those on the next slide. This is a a universal piece of equipment that's a must for any construction crews that that's going to do work. They need this unit. This unit 2526 was 94,000 rental $548.64. Okay. purchase price 65,000 to 105,000 that's just one unit for rental next the mini uh excavate I think we saw this one uh rental fee was 2526 get 515 $57927 purchase price is 65,000 you all have purchased one last year the the min 240 that purchase for for the uh utility maintenance department. They they're in need of another unit. We should invest in this unit. And I'll tell you one reason why. Sometime you may see guys around job site. It may be eight guys standing around a job site. Well, if they're not equipped and don't have a one unit, this what you're going to do. If you equip these guys with the equipment, they can take this unit and create

another like we do at public works. Public work we we don't have eight guys on the crew. You may have three guys on the crew sometime too, but we had but you all have equipped us with what we need. You see, so so we split our guys up. We create two crew. But they fixing one leak. If they prepare two crews, they can fix two leaks that same day simultaneously. So those the numbers right there. Go to the next slide. All right. That's your mini excavator that we just recently purchased for the general man. And over here to the left is your skid ste. That's a versatile machine that needs to be on every job right there. All right. Next slide. Now go back to the two John Deere tractors. that I've been we've been requesting be replaced. You all see it on this picture. The microphone.

No, you right. Oh, no. I'm sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Do you all see your John Deere tractor on this picture? In a ditch. Anybody see it? In a ditch. Y'all see it right there? That's one of them. All right. Now, I I won't speak anymore on that. Let's go to the video. Play the video. That's last year. 2025. Is this a video? It should be.

Maybe that's what's not allowed to play. Yes, ma'am. I think that's what's keeping your power pump for opening up. Gotcha. Max more mac maneuverability. That's where boom boom more. That was it. Yeah. Then it comes maneuverability down here. There you go.

All right. Play that. Versatility is possibly the most significant aspect of the mower max. We make over 10 attachments that go on the end of the bow and we have uh with the optional front lift arms with the universal skid plate. You have over 30 attachments that you front of it to do task from blowing leaves, sweeping sweeping debris, sweeping snow, pushing snow. Uh we offer an 8 foot push off rotary deck for mowing up front anywhere from a front grapple to pushing off debris after a storm off the road. We sometimes describe our our bags as a as a boom mower tool carrier because it's it's not solely just a boom mower. has so many more functions than that which we feel and obviously governments want to get the most out of their capital budget and most out of their capital purchases. So we we our desire here is to engineer and design and make products so these public works departments can take one asset

off multitude of task with it which hopefully will have a greater return on their investment. and get stuck. All right, let's go. Let's just cut it off. Over here. See it again. No, y'all disabled my mouse with all these flash drives. That's what happened. Go ahead. Can you see Mr. I did that? Uhuh.

There we go. Okay. So, so basically that's it. I wanted you all to see that that machine right there is flexible and a universal machine. Uh it would prevent guys from attempting to cut those steep slopes where they they have a side boom more with that attachment. We we have demoed it twice and this is a great machine to have. it'll prevent them from attempting to do things that the regular tractor cannot do. So, this concludes my presentation. Uh, I'm open to questions. What was the name? Oh, I'm sorry. Mayor, may I can I speak? Yes, you may. What's the name of that equipment?

It's called Moore Max, and it's You all have a package. You can look through the package. Either one. I think it's on both packages. It's average cost at 300.

When we first presented that package, it was 155 300,000. I was going to ask you. Yes, ma'am. It went up. We don't get a discount. I can get you a discount. We We'll get a discount. Discount. So, Mr. Thomas, um, your projection on Central State Hospital because we don't we haven't acquired all that property yet. That's just a projection of what you see going forward if everything come into play. Yeah, those numbers are pretty much true.

That's from our survey and that's from the engineer survey of the roads. That's resurfacing all the roads. Those are roads that that's supposed to be turned over. Mhm. Uh that's the engineer fee as well and that's the equipment along with the uh staff that we need. We the staffing cost is not in it. So just equipment. Go ahead. I'm sorry. No, that I'm done. So I guess my next question is because I know you all received a lot of equipment and trucks within the last budget cycle. Yes, ma'am. Are we replacing anything or are you just requesting to buy new ones on top of what you already have?

No, the uh I think in that package you may have some vehicles that are being replaced. Those are your uh F-150s and 250 for the crews to get around. Those are replacement. Okay. And then you have the uh equipment like the skid steer. Those and the more those would be new units that we need to move forward with. Can I ask a question? Sure. Okay. I I want to ask you um a question about the um municipal truck driver position cuz I see in here in your notes it says that it will benefit both public works and the water maintenance department as well. You talking about one driver for both departments or

how is it going to benefit if you all are both out on doing something at the same time? No, it would we would need to authorize position for both department. M you see. So we we would have a drive. We need a drive and they would need a drive. Okay. That's what it wasn't clear cuz when you said that it would benefit both. I I didn't know if you were talking about two positions or one. So that's what I want. Yes, ma'am. Two positions. Okay. That's what I wanted to verify exactly what you were talking about with that because I only saw one on um budget on on your on your item. So I want to make sure you were talking about one for your department and one for the other. That's correct. Yes, ma'am. Okay. You you pretty much have them already. We just need to split the positions up. Okay.

From that under that heavy equipment operator, we need to split it. So you have people in place. They just need to their duties need to be Yes, ma'am. better. Yes. But what what will happen? You will attract a true Well, you're going to have to bump the field. You will attract a true heavy equipment operator that can stay with water maintenance. Okay? Because if if if they hide in now under water maintenance rules, they have to get CDLs. Okay. Okay. See, I understand now. And so so you attract more CDL drivers, but they're not a heavy equipment operators. Okay, that makes sense.

But what doesn't make sense to me is why is it that your heavy equipment operators don't have to have who doesn't have to have CDL? Like that doesn't make sense. You saw that machine we just showed at Mo your bulldozer your heavy equipment. They don't need a CDL to operate heavy equipment. Back hose bulldozer. They don't need that. Your from my experience, your most skilled operator, heavy equipment operator, they don't have CDL. They may not even have driver license. Yeah, they're being honest. I mean, but they are they are legit skill and they know how to operate. But but when they if they go to this this department and they see on that on that sheet where

there's a requirement you may they may get passed by or they going to get terminated. I think we want them to have a driver's license though. I agree with that. Certainly. If nothing else I think we would want that. Right. Yeah. That's one of our requirements. Mayor, I have a question. Sure. Um, other than the trucks, you have the skid, steer, you have the mower, max. It was when you had three pieces of equipment.

Uh, steer more mics and Oh, the tractor. The John Deere tractor. Yes, ma'am. Right. All right. So from the three, not talking about the trust, which is the most needed? I have take that more mics. I take Oh, that was a good one. But the problem the problem now you had those two you had those two uh moors that need that have been they like 17 23 years old. That more max won't be able to to carry on the outer skirts while they're doing it. See, we we want to we got to split our guys up.

We need to have a crew here, crew on north side, and have one in the central lo location as well. Everybody working. You see, if you just get that more match, you you taking away from the guys continue to cut the outer skirt. Got those two John Deere tractors, those are one you see cut the perimeter of the city. Mhm. So, do we have any do do we have some that are functional? Tractors. Uh-huh. You saw the one that was just turned over. That's right. That's It's gone. No, man. We We got it back up to But the other one is Oh, okay. More went out just shortly after that. Okay. Okay. So, we just have one. Just one.

So, instead of asking for two, maybe one. I'll take one with the more Max. Okay. big money, huh? Okay, that's a hard bargain. But it'll get some you you all will see a big different and a in a rapid time. Yeah, you you'll see a major clean up with that unit along with the other mo. I just see a lot we can do with that. Boom. M. You knew exactly what you was doing showing that video, right? So go ahead.

So um all the attachments come with the more max or there's additional purchase but the additional purchase except the uh the the more arm and a cutter come with the 300,000. It's actually 294 with two attachments. We need the more the the more arm. We need that more so than anything. Mr. Thomas, I'm sorry. I'm looking at the budget and I was just looking for actuals. Am I missing that or did you prepare that or Melba? Do you looking for what? The actuals in the budget. Should that be contained in the budget that I gave you all last week? You said last week's budget. I mean the paperwork you gave last week. Yes. Our general budget. Okay. Just wondering. Thank you.

Yes, ma'am. Madame Mayor, I just have one last question for Mr. Thomas. Um doc, you know Dr. Lee's down there playing let's make a deal. So my question is I see down at the bottom you're looking at a downtown upgrade, your holiday light enhancement, which I think would be a beautiful thing for downtown Milligville. I'm just wondering if you know if we get into a crunch where we can't honor everything you've asked for. I wonder because there's so many grants and I know Jennifer is not here still, but there's so many grants through the Georgia Main Street program and the Department of Community Affairs. I'm wondering if there's some grant money out there that could help offset that cost for the likes.

It should possibly there's some funds available. But now we should solicit to contractors and pull your public work crew away from that operation so we can so we can continue to work. These guys need to be working. So right now you you're the ones putting everything up. Yes, sir. And so when when we do that, we have to pull our crews off of the daily operation. Just just a just a suggestion. Maybe you and Miss Stazzney, there may be money out there. You know, we'll search and see

cuz I think it might be difficult with that. Let's make a deal with Dr. Lee. She might not want to give up these Christmas lights, but she might. Most I didn't see anything about the nickel. You bought a nickel boom. What was that last year? Knuckle boom. Knuckle boom last year, right? Uh you all purchased that about three two three years ago. Two years ago. We good. We good with those. We have two. You got two now. Okay. Yeah. I can see that on here. I just I love big money department. You better help us find some money. Good custom deals. Um,

if there are no more questions, thank you, Mr. Thomas, for entertaining us tonight.

Miss M, I don't have anything to report. Oh, yeah, I have. Okay. Well, I guess m don't have anything to report tonight. So, we do not have any old business or new business for tonight. And we don't have a need for close session, Miss Carrie. Correct. That's correct.

Okay. All right. This concludes the items. Uh, does anyone on council have any comments or announcements? But before we do that, I want us to remember Miss Walden and Miss uh during her hour of bereiement. You all know I know for my nine 8 n years, Mr. Wade traveled extensively with us as a team. And so if you can tomorrow, show your respects at 2:00 p.m. at Morris funeral home. Uh if not, at some point in time or another, give her a call. But Miss Shinhoster and Dr. Lee have been in contact with her and I don't think this is the right time for phone calls just yet for Okay, we have a visitation right now. Yeah, visitation is going on right now at the So, we might have a chance

at the funeral home. Is it 7 or 7:30 to 7? It's 10 minutes to 7.

Uhhuh. 5:30 7:30. I did spend a good bit of time with her this afternoon. So, um, she's grateful for everything that we've done and just solicit your prayers for her family. Okay. Uh, another thing I have is, you know, we all are aware of Robert's rule of order, whether I'm sitting in this seat or Miss Shin Holster. We're supposed to acknowledge the chair before we speak. For those of you all that remember that, thank you. For those of you that don't remember that, read up on your Robert's rules of order. uh so that you know you should acknowledge the chair when asking to speak out publicly. Um that's all I have for tonight and there being no other questions, concerns or comments will give us

I do have a comment if you don't mind. Go ahead Miss M Simmons.

So I spent a lot of time in the district speaking with my constituents and trying to bring concerns to the DAS. Um, one of the concerns were in reference to um, audits for the city. Um, considering that we are late on our audit, annual audit, they were wanting to know if we would consider having a forensic audit due to the fact of our previous city manager um, abrupt resignation last year and um, the fact that city council was not aware that we weren't paid u some large splots and T-spots funds until way later at a later date. So, I just wanted to put that out there for our consideration. So you can assure your constituents that are concerned in reference to that that we at the city are taking steps and measures one day at a time. We're going through audits as it appears right now for us and then once we're completed with that then we'll take it to the next step if that need be. Um, Miss Me, did you want to add anything to that other than

I would just clarify in terms of the audit where we stand now, the audit is behind late because of turnover and that was with the loss of our current our previous financial um, director Makita Danzy.

And so with that being said, um, with her demise that went with her a wealth of information and knowledge in terms of how to handle this audit. So we are behind because we as being new with our finance director um interim city manager a lot of new staff we are learning the ropes in terms of what is going on. So our audit team has been wonderful. They have been working with us hand in hand. We just met with them today and they said we're doing an excellent job. It's just taking time because it's so much information that we did not know how to do and they're helping us along the way and showing us what to do. So that's why the audit has been extended. But in terms of anything being wrong in our audit, there's nothing wrong. It's just taking it's a learning curve. So that's what the issue is.

Thank you for clarifying that.

Yeah. And Miss Melvin and I talked about that today. One thing I stressed with our last city manager is that succession training is a must. And so going forward, we're going to make sure that that succession training is in place so that we don't lose valuable information. uh you we have a very new team here on council other than the seasons ones that here. So there going to be a lot of questions and answers posed to you. If you don't know the answers to them, Miss Melba can pretty much answer what you need to know. If not, myself or Miss Shinhost or Dr. Lee can answer, Miss M can kind of help you steer you in the way that you need to go to get the answers you need. All right. So hearing nothing else, I'll call for a motion to adjurnn.

Motion to adjurnn. Second. Second. Okay. I'll ask the clerk to please call the role. Dr. Lee I. Miss Simmons. I. Miss Shan Holston. Hi. Hendas. Miss Pendergas. Hi. Miss M. I Dr. Wells. I All right. Meeting adjourned.