Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you, Jesus, for your life, for the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, and indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

2, absent. Agenda approval? Absent. Second.

All those in favor?

Aye. Citizen participation?

1-0. Mr. Mayor, since you've been in office, I've made several presentations to this board. And none of you showed any interest in any of the presentations, so I take it no. I've had three people come up to me and ask me, the mayor wants something from me. And I understand this because I'm not getting any type of correspondence from you or you're not calling me or anything of that nature. And I don't know if that's what your MO is, but I don't know what you've heard. I don't beat people up. I don't bite. I don't do anything of that nature. If you need something from me, please call me. Text me. Do something. Reach out. It's getting a little tiresome of having people come up to me and say, well, the mayor wants something from you.

Well, if the mayor wants something from me, he's welcome to call me. Dan, you didn't leave the documentation. You said that we wanted order, but you left without it. So I simply asked Jeff if he would ask you if you would give us a copy of that document.

Okay, it's not Jeff's responsibility. to pass on anything. If you want something from me, please, just ask for it. You made it clear that you had a problem with me, did you not? You even told me you had a problem with me. Absolutely, but that doesn't preclude you from being a bigger person, if you will, and saying that I have something from you.

I'm asking you kindly, would you please give us a copy of your documentation? Sure, I can do that.

Anybody else?

Regular meeting minutes, May 5th, 2026.

Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Special meeting minutes of May 14th, 2026. All those in favor? Aye. Bill's to be paid. Special meeting minutes, May 14th, 2026.

Did you say special, but you didn't say executive session? There's three on that.

There's three on that.

Motion.

All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Bill is to be paid. I got two copies here. I got one dated May 19th and one on Thursday, May 14th. All those in favor? Opposed?

Municipal advisory discussion and update.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thanks so much for giving us the time. Really what we want to do is just kind of update the board on the activity that's been happening behind the scenes. And I know there's a couple new faces, and so just give you an opportunity to communicate and be transparent and mention questions that you all might have. So the agenda I put together was basically kind of going over, as I mentioned, just kind of recent accomplishments. A review, again, of current debt service payments that the city is obligated to make. Talk about funding options and inspirations for Phase 1 and 2 of the infrastructure project. Talk about timing and then future needs and planning. So the planning will be beyond phase two. So phase three and four is kind of what we've kind of tagged it as. So looking at recent accomplishments. So the city's completed quite a bit this year. So obviously hiring a municipal advisor, which I think was a great idea, passed a reimbursement resolution. And so for those that aren't on the board at the time, a reimbursement resolution gave the city the opportunity to reimburse yourself for any costs that you pay out of pocket. And it's a federal tax code that basically, once you adopt the resolution, then from that point forward, you can use federally and state tax-free borrowing to then reimburse and pay yourself back. If you don't have that reimbursement resolution, then you're not able to do that. You only can do it from that point going forward, actually, a few days before going forward. So that gives you more flexibility. Now again, the resolution doesn't obligate the city, so you do not have to reimburse yourself, but it gives you the option and opportunity that you want to if you can do that through the funding mechanism. Also, the city has hired an auditor to audit financial statements, completed the 2024 audit, which I believe is being presented tonight to the board to approve. You're on track to have the 2025 audits completed on time as well, which is great news. You've completed the new water and sewer rate study. And we've gone through and given the city some different ideas for some different financial policies to consider adopting to help kind of put the guardrails and just kind of shore up things for going forward. Still to do is to approve the rate study, rate increases for water sewer rates, which I think might be later on tonight as well. So you guys are off and running, right? And then the last one is updating the financial policies as needed. So one thing that you may see in the next few months is some policy recommendations from the city to adopt for the city to use going forward. And these policies are basically financial policies. So it's like policy for like a debt policy. This is when the city would issue debt. This is the reason why. This is kind of looking, again, kind of guardrails up. A fund balance policy might be one, you know, maintaining a certain fund balance with the transfer policy of transferring funds and setting up kind of just the guidelines for that going forward as well. So the idea is, again, just kind of put the framework up to say, this is, you know, this is kind of what a lot of credit rating agencies look at as being, you know, what's a good credit for the city and putting it up. And it also helps you for future boards, basically. So for many boards going forward, policies in place for the city that allow kind of the flexibility to ensure enough things for that, so. Any questions so far? All right. This slide just kind of goes over the current debt service payments for the city. Now, these were taken from a previous a previous audit, so some of these might be shifted just slightly, but basically the only real outstanding debt that the city has right now is a bond issue, series 2011 bond issue that was passed. It says here that you have $934,000 left. You probably now, given the dates, it's probably a little bit less than that payment. But they were issued in an election that was held in 2011. And, you know, the interest rates on those are extremely low, 1.6%. So it's not something that you want to really do anything that will pay off. And those get paid off in 2031. And so what we're talking to Becky, or to Jennifer and others, is basically saying, look, let's take your debt search payments and let's wrap them around the existing debt so that you have kind of a level payment going forward. So that's kind of the payment structure that we're kind of going towards. So talk about plan funding for phase one and two. Bonds be issued at the end of this year or maybe the beginning of next year, depending on the timing of different things. Phase one, we estimate right around $500,000 of total costs. And the plan is that those costs, and we currently have been making payments towards those already. About 300,000 or so that's been paid. Don't quote me on that, but that's roughly around. And those funds will, again, have the option that those can be reimbursed back to the city once you issue debt for the financing. And the idea is to issue debt that would back pay basically for phase one and then provide funding for phase two. And that one, we're estimating right around 1.3 million for the funding for that, so that gives you a total of about 1.8 million, roughly kind of rounded to 2 million, just to kind of over-model. And as I mentioned, this payment's restructured around an outstanding debt, so that it's more of a level payment. Given the amount of payment that this is, which is right around 300,000 or so per year, we're anticipating that the bond, that the payments will be made out of the capital improvement fund from the city that's already in place. And so it doesn't require any increases in taxes for the city. Page 6 looks at what those payments would kind of look like, which I mentioned is a little bit less than $300,000. This contemplates a 15-year amortization. And again, you see the series 2011 bonds there. It wraps it around. So basically, it's a little bit of a payment for the first few years, and then it backfills and... and then pays it in the rest in 2014 and 2042. This idea is that we can't keep that in play. Any questions? All right. The next one is slide seven, which has to do with water rate recommendations. I don't know if there's anyone else in the audience who wants to join me up here?

Thank you, Chris. Thank you, council. Chris and I had a chance to meet with Jennifer last week, the mayor, and talk through some of this information that Chris has shared this evening. and ask you to come back and for the newer members on council, just kind of do a refresher of the presentation that I gave in March relative to water and sewer rates. So just a real quick recap. We undertook a task order last year to look at the city's water and sewer rates and make some recommendations kind of based on estimated population growth, estimated expenses, and kind of that list of capital improvements projects that we've had on the list for a while but haven't had the means to kind of continually implement year over year. So you should have two pages in your packet. This is a repeat of what I presented in March. Just real quickly, the goals under that NASS order of the rate study were to look at your current water and sewer rates relative to the city's revenue over the last few years. As you all know, water and sewer rates have been there for a good period of time, for a long period of time. I think it was a very known... It was a known issue that something was going back to Apple's grades. They also asked that we look at some foreseeable population growth. You have a large development, as you all know, that's currently in phase one. So what we tried to do was make some reasonable assumptions of how that population could grow, how those systems could add users, and how that would impact your revenue. We also met with all the utility supervisors, kind of compiled a list of potential short-term, long-term improvements, some rough cost estimates for those to kind of build into the borrowing scenarios. And then I'll obviously talk with Northland, with Chris and the city about how could we potentially finance those projects over a period of time. So as I shared back in March, The city, to this point, has paid out-of-pocket for any city utility improvements that were necessary to support Phase 1 of Siler Ridge when it tried to develop it. So, as Chris mentioned earlier, that out-of-pocket expense could potentially be reimbursed when money is borrowed at some point in the day for Phases 1 and 2. So those two phases really, you know, phase one is kind of the, we're seeing that primarily as the McBride project in phase one is currently under construction. And then phase two is a combination of other system improvements that would be necessary to support future phases of McBride. And also just to implement some of the water systems, sewer system projects that were identified in recent engineering reports in the city. Just simply haven't had the money to work on the last few years. And then we identified kind of a future phase three and phase four as very long-term improvements. It would be wastewater treatment plant rehabilitation, but also potentially upgrade as a result of population growth. It would be water system improvements that would be necessary if the population continues to grow and you continue to add users. But ultimately, the city can put themselves in a financial situation to be able to apply for grants, have all your audits up to date, your user rates set at an appropriate level. That should make you eligible for some cheaper money at that time. So as of right now, we're making recommendations for the next few years of what you should do with water and sewer rates to ultimately put you in a position to better cash flow to those departments and cease your rate increases or at least be able to borrow for larger phases assuming the city continues to see growth and these projects are successful. So just real quickly, How we went about your rate analysis, you know, you do have a fair amount of an industrial user base here in the sewer department. What we didn't want to do is just assume that as population grows that these manufacturers in town are by default going to continue to grow and you're going to continue to grow your commercial sewer users. So we converted all of your current users to basically like an equivalent residential user, if that makes sense, just to make these rate projections a little bit easier. And then that also doesn't kind of double count on your population growth and your your business community grow. In a perfect world, as population grows, businesses come to town, as manufacturers continue to grow, your situation really should only improve financially from what I'm showing you tonight. I didn't want to be, you know, I wanted to be conservative. I didn't want to be overly optimistic there. We also try to make sure we're minimizing impacts to kind of your ongoing operations and your annual budget. So we're just trying to make sure that we're capturing some additional revenue for those utilities. If you go to the next page, obviously not every dollar collected goes into the bank. As your system continues to grow, a lot of that money goes back out in the form of personnel, electricity, operating costs. So as you continue to plan and you look at some of these numbers that I shared tonight, just know that about 60 cents of every dollar collected we expect to go back into the system. So we're not counting for every single dollar. of additional revenue to go toward this debt service that actually can go toward operating the systems too. So, and that is a, you know, that's a fairly kind of average value both within your budget and also other communities that have done similar studies. I think that's a pretty reasonable assumption that about 60 cents of every dollar goes into actually already maintaining your system. And that does include some rehabilitation and just some ongoing deferred maintenance that maybe you have or haven't done in the past, but that would allow you to kind of reinvest in at least keeping the system that's in place right now serviceable. And that includes, you know, small repairs and replacements and things that you need to be happening in your own area, independent of the larger capital projects. The rates that you're gonna see tonight assumes over the course of the next three years, we're adding about 49 new residential customers. So I think that is a very considerable number. You have quite a few rooftops going up in other parts of town, aside from the development. Phase one of the McBride development, I believe, is 36 lots. So that would assume that over the course of the next three years, you know, that first phase would fill in and you'd have that many new customers as well as a few lots that would be built on around town now. So about 49 new kind of average residential customers is what we're accounting for between now and 2029 in some of these rate projections. And then, you know, we did run out some scenarios all the way out about 15 years, you know, to 2039. We're saying, we're assuming that that subdivision or a combination of the subdivision and other developments would raise your number of residential customers by about 600 users, which I know is a big number that, you know, over 15 years, that's probably not unreasonable with the amount of growth that you have there. So just really quickly, as Chris touched on it too, we do want to make some recommendations for some rain increases on water and sewer. But obviously we did look at several different scenarios. We want to try it to the best of our ability to minimize impact to the citizens and not have that just huge rate increase just happen all at once. So we ran a scenario that would allow for a 7% year over year annual increase to the water, the base water and sewer rates. I showed there what kind of an average residential user in town is paying or would pay as a result of that. So, you know, year over year, you're looking at somewhere, you know, to start it's around a $4 per month increase for combined for water and sewer. So about $2 a month on water and $2 a month would be an increase to their bills. And we would just continue that for a period of time. In order to get to a spot where we feel like the city could afford one of these larger projects, or at least get in a spot where you can continue to fund just rehab and capital improvement projects that are on your list, we would think you would need to run You need to implement this process with the understanding that it's going to need to happen for at least five to seven years. It doesn't mean we shouldn't review that annually. It doesn't mean that we shouldn't have some check to say, okay, maybe we're doing better than we realize. Maybe we're bringing in revenue. Maybe we've grown a little bit faster. Maybe we have a better idea of what these future projects are going to cost. It doesn't mean you can't really evaluate that. If you want to kind of minimize that sicker shock or that increase this year, it needs to be done with the understanding that this doesn't need to happen over an extended period of time and it can't just be a one-off thing. So we try to look at this in a very non-political way, more of just how do we make these departments functional and how do we afford to keep up you know keep the system in good operating condition and also be able to potentially afford you know improvements in the future so if you look at those those rates you know basically each year we would expect this additional increase to it starts by about a hundred thousand dollar gross additional revenue for that department once again some of that probably goes into but some of that money could be put in the bank for debt service and other things. And then obviously that number grows over a period of time as those rates go up. But once again, I think if you're able to implement a policy, I know obviously we have to do this legally, We want to make sure that it's transparent to everyone. So Emily and Lance can probably advise on how that policy or that ordinance would need to be written. But ultimately, we'd like to put the council in a position to where this is This is not something that is controversial. There's kind of a mutual understanding that rates need to continually be increased over a period of time rather than hit your customers with a 30% or 40% increase today betting on future projects. So I think the pace of the subdivision so far, the way that it's moving, just the trend of the project, schedule allows you to kind of do this more slowly, hopefully minimize the impact to your users month over month, year over year.

In phase one, we've had, what, five programs for phase one? That's what I heard.

One thing I wanted to note, too, is as Cameron said, the additional funds raised, obviously a portion of that will be going back to the system and back to the functioning of things and how it's going to shore up. But also, part of it is to think about long-term plan strategies to how that service on additional debt. but also to build up reserves. The best thing to do is to build up as much cash as you can because that means you don't have to borrow as much later on. Especially if you can take those funds and you can invest them even in a CD or something and start growing some of those cash reserves. Then instead of borrowing $5 million, you're only borrowing $3 million or whatever it is. And so that is the type of thing to think about. And that's one thing that's really good with this plan is that it kind of, first of all, it's a gradual kind of growth. So it's not a shock to the citizens. It's not a shock to users. And it also gives you the buildup to be able to take those funds and not, I think part of it is you want to be really prudent with it and try to build up the cash as much as possible, knowing that you're gonna have these things down the road, that kind of thing.

Any questions on that?

Then the last, oh, a couple things. So timing considerations, what we talked about before is, and as Cameron kind of pointed out, the nice thing with this plan is that it kind of allows you to kind of grow into it as needed. So you're not anticipating or you're not banking on a certain amount of time. success or a certain amount of growth before you're not putting the debt before you have the growth. You're able to do it as you gradually go on. So again, phase one is pay with current funds on hand. And then as phase one, as they start building maps and they start looking at phase two, then they're able to see how much it is and project out then on phase two, how much you think you'll need to borrow for phase two to kind of keep it in pace. And at that time, you would be issuing what's called certificates of participation. or a COP, and it's a lease structure. And so in Missouri, due to statutes, you can, those are the types of funding and borrowing that the city's able to achieve without getting full voter approval to issue the debt. And so if it's a revenue bond or it's a general obligation bond, those are the voters to get the approval on. Statutory participation is a form of borrowing that you do not need to do that. So it gives you a little bit more flexibility. And so phase two, the idea is that you would enter the market or that you would look to borrowing either anticipation of phase two, the start of it and starting the next 12 to 18 months and then kind of going through that. And so one of the things that we talked to the city about also is how to issue that debt. And there's a couple ways that you could do it. So one is that you could go out and you could do a public offering where you offer it out to the public, to investors, and then they buy the debt and they set the interest rates. The other is to do what's called a direct purchase or a direct loan or a private placement is another term for it. And that's where you go to a financial institution and you say, okay, we have this that we want. We want change or something like that. And say, we'd like to work with you on this borrowing. You kind of work directly with that one entity. And that's called a direct placement because it's directly with them. And so that can give you a little more flexibility to walk. So we'll explore, as the time comes, we'll explore both possibilities and provide you suggestions and ideas on what we think would be the best to save that time for the city. Ultimately giving you the lowest cost possible with the greatest flexibility. So that's kind of the goal that we want to achieve. And then future needs planning. Again, after phase two is completed, and depending on if you're looking to phase three and four, at that time you'll have a much better understanding of cost and timing. We currently have the numbers that we plan that we shared with Cameron on building out the rate study and structure. We're anticipating an additional four to five million for phase three. and five to six million in phase four and that's again within that spot that's five years from now to ten years from now so that's you know a number of years down the line and that kind of lines up when you look at those those numbers that camera provided kind of build up of what those funds would be used for at that time so again the idea is to be prudent to be patient, to look for things, but also to be prepared to make sure that you're in the right place at the right time to execute the plan.

A lot of good information. Sewer was 2014, water was 2021.

So over ten years your store, six years, five years for a long time. So now we have to decide. It's a chance to keep the value.

Thank you.

Correct. Cameron, you gave your updates now. We just need to decide if we're going to approve that or not. Yeah, I think so.

And I'm happy to answer any other questions about how those rate, you know, how that rate structure was built. I mean, we did look at several different scenarios. We looked at a larger increase up front and then maybe smaller increases later on. It seemed like at the pace we were expecting some of these projects to move with, you know, something a little earlier made sense. And it does, you know, over a period of years, it definitely affects your financial situation in a positive way. Obviously, the cost of just owning and maintaining that system in the last five or ten years has I mean, inflation has killed just from a day-to-day standpoint. So I think even if you were when we were having this conversation that the city's not growing at all, you're still in a position as a board where, you know, have very little margin for error and probably they need attention regardless. So we've just tried to build this around some optimistic future growth projections without being too optimistic to try to give you some guidance on what makes sense there.

So will our approval right now be, when we put on the approval, will that be for that chart that he gave us or just for the one-year current?

Mayor, I would tell you that we would recommend it should be in a one-year increment because in looking at this and our conversations about this have been that to just go ahead and pass and say a 7% increase annually for the next six, seven years, whatever, appears arbitrary and not necessarily tied to the cost of service. So I'm not saying you can't do a 7% increase every year, but it needs to be reviewed every year to say that that's tied to the cost of service and it's an appropriate increase.

And do we want to do that for a policy or ordinance?

For ordinance. I'm sorry? Ordinance. So it would recommend that if you do a filing every year that the 7% is appropriate to make sure that that's reviewed annually.

So we would need a motion to approve the rate increase for the water and sewer of the 7% for the year 2027.

I think they've recommended that it starts the calendar.

Yeah, I think basically I think that's just because when your payments due on your existing SRF loan. So ideally we start that as soon as possible so that it begins FY27 with that new rate in mind. Is that what you mean?

So are you doing calendar year or fiscal year?

Fiscal year would be ideal.

It would be fiscal year. I think you had a calendar year.

Yeah, I think fiscal year makes sense. Yeah, I think that. I think if you had a policy, you know, if you had an ordinance in a place where you were adopting a 7% increase annually but, you know, had to be reviewed based on the cost of service by the board in June every year, that makes a whole lot of sense because then... Yeah, we can be planning up ahead of that budget time, and then, you know, it would just be hopefully... You were just throwing me off because it said Calgary year, and I was like, well, we probably should push this out on the road. No, I don't like that. I think that makes sense.

Okay, so fiscal year... So it would be roughly this, but with a review in there.

Yeah, provide an ordinance for this with an annual review, correct?

With an annual review. With an annual review.

Then it'll go on a factor of 27.

No, it'll go on a factor of 8-1-2027, which would be the next fiscal year. One month into the next.

Well, so that's where I missed my chart. So let me go through that. So that actually assumes, if you look on the right-hand side, That would be the amount of funds you would collect by 1 of 2027. Oh, okay. So I would recommend you implement that for the beginning of FY2027, so in 2026. So implement it in June. Now, and by this time in 2027, that's the estimated funds that you'd raise.

Right. How do I make . Right. Right. Exactly. So that's. 630. Yeah. 630.

Thank you.

Thank you. Recommendation that the City Council develop a policy for ordinance effective 6-30-26 for an annual step rate increase beginning 6-30-26 of approximately 7% per year. We're doing the two through... Through 2023 with an annual review.

2023 with an annual review. For our sewer and wastewater services.

And...

Do I have a first? Yeah. Yeah. Do you have a question, Jules? No.

I got it.

Do you have a first? No.

We made a second. Now we're going to talk? Yeah.

Roll call? No. No. Discussion? Discussion.

We're playing catch up. Yeah. So we really don't have a choice in this. So there's not something here we're planning on making money on. We're just planning on putting it on the fence or so. That's why I'm going to say it's going to be the first because it's not something we need to do. It's something we have to do.

And it'll be an annual review.

We may not be on the board, but it's going to have to be reviewed. It's got to be started. I think the word they use is perfect. To keep the city functioning. I think that's where we're at. That's three numbers.

Any other discussion?

Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Discussion of the park tax on August 4, 2026. Ballot?

So we reviewed that and looked at the prior ordinance and the prior ordinance put the sales tax in effect beginning October 1, 2017. And that can only be renewed every 10 years. So we're a little early. So we are recommending you have that for the next April election in 2027 to be in effect then by October 1st of 2027 and that that will flow without interruption then. And if you have it on the general election instead of trying to do it on the primary, you pay less of the election expenses. And I believe we sent that proposed ordinance already over to Laney. I don't know if that's April 4th or April 6th of next year. whatever the general election is.

And then we'll share costs and stuff?

You'll share more costs that way because you'll have more municipalities with issues on the ballot, whereas in the primary, you're really not going to have any other municipalities with issues on the ballot. That would be more state issues and elections. So you would have a higher burden of the election expenses at the primary as opposed to the general municipal election.

My assumption is going to be we have to have it certified and it's announced by January. Discussion approval of fiscal year 24-0.

If you'll, for information, the honor of your audits, please. Financial highlights. The assets and deferred outflows of the resources of the City exceeded its liabilities and deferred inflows of resources at the end of the fiscal year by $27,781,641, which is your net position. Net position is compromised of $20,736,723 of net investment in capital assets. $3,530,258 is restricted for debt service and other purposes. And $1,847 is unrestricted and available for governmental activities. And $3,516,507 is unrestricted and available for the city's business type activities. I'd like to focus on that last number. in the length of it because that's not a lot of money that's unrestricted for us to use for general purposes out of the other numbers. When we talk about what is available for our general purpose and what we can use unrestricted for general purpose of purchase and basically spending at our, available at our unrestricted needs. The rest of it is restricted and not available for basic use without approval of council. when we go to think about all of that big number of $27 million. $3.5 million per circuit and available for us at our normal use. Think about that number. The city's total net position decreased by $889,415. Of this amount, $218,605 was a decrease from the city's governmental activities, and $670,810 was a decrease from the business side activities. Again, we didn't increase our net position, we decreased by almost a million dollars. It's not an error that we like to hear. We like to hear an increase, we like to hear a decrease. The unsigned fund balance for the general fund was $320, or 0% of the general fund expenditures. The city's long-term debt bonds decreased by $135,000 during the current fiscal year. Regular principal payments were made on the water work program. That's just something normal that we pay every year, something that Chris touched on in 2011. Just a normal payment for the year, nothing out of the ordinary, just something that we have to talk about, much based on the audit. The next page I'd like to focus on is page six. You'll see the government-wide financial analysis, the net position. There you'll see 2023 and 2024, both governmental and business type activities. We're not increasing, we're decreasing. At the bottom number, they're in that position. And that's basically just confirming what I said on page four on page six. So I just kind of wanted to highlight this table there for you and let you know that that's there for your resource and numbers there that you can see that where these numbers came from. On page seven, down at the bottom, Total revenues decreased by $3,112,195. Governmental activity revenue decreased by $1,970,674, mainly due to the capital grant funding from a federal airport grant for the airport received during FY23, but not received during FY24. Business life by 50s decreased $1,141,521 mainly due to decreased utilities usage. Transfers from business type activities to governmental activities increased by $901,208. Total expenses increased $926,956. governmental activity expenses increased by $766,193, and business-type activity expenses increased by $150,763. This statement here alone says that we are overspending. We need to cut our expenditures in order to survive. General fund budgetary highlights on page eight. A $157,253 increase to the general government's budgeted expenditures due to greater than anticipated expenditures for contract labor, salaries, and benefits, and this will enhance other expenses. A $146,250 increase to public safety budgeted expenditures due to greater than anticipated salaries and benefits in capital expenditures. $256,937 increased the budgeted transfers and other financing sources. Those are just a few highlights. I wanted to touch in on the general fund. This is to explain that this is the source of funding that we have to do inter-fund transfers, and if we don't cut that down, then our proprietary and business-like activities aren't going to survive because those are where the major idea sources come from. These increase in expenditures to the general fund from the things that are touched in here are continually happening as we speak today. We have to continue to cut these expenditures down. Otherwise, again, the city will not survive. Something that the auditor touched base on that we had to do was we were not accounting for allowance for uncollectible accounts. We had to make an increase to that in our books. And so I just wanted to touch base on that with you a little bit. So we are going to make some adjustments to that within our books. We had to make a slight adjustment to that. So that's why that looks a little different from the previous year. So I just wanted to mention that to you as well. And that's on page 23. On page 30, long term debt.

Yeah, the allowance for uncollectible accounts.

It's basically the account that we don't believe that we're going to collect out of utility billing. So we had not made any changes to that for several years and so we needed to make some adjustments to that this year. It was something that he didn't catch last year and he needed to make an adjustment this year. So we're going to have to adjust our policy and do some utility billing write-offs basically. Long-term debt is on page 30. You can see our long-term debt is going down on the revenue bonds. And the loan that we had, that is going down, which is a good sign. The compensated absences, which are like vacation, comp time, things that are due and payable, that are considered a liability, those are going to continue to probably rise as we have longer term employees here. Not a bad thing, they just have to be considered a debt to the city because they have to go face on our boats and they are payable as an employee leaves us. So as employees stay with us, which are good, and employees stay longer, but the city comes in debt to the city and it's doing payable, something that the city has to pay. So you'll see that those things don't go up as we have employees that are staying with us longer, and we have to book those. So I just wanted to touch base that those are on your books. Those have increased slightly, nothing too alarming other than if you have an employee leave and they're payable, then those are the things that we have to pay at the end of their term with us. And last, we did have one finding, and I would like to really focus in on this on page 58. And that is the criteria. First, there should be a system for tracking additions to and removal of items from inventory using an acceptable method of accounting in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Accounting information should then be forwarded to the city's accountant for entry into the accounting system. The condition, city's water and sewer and natural gas department's accounting policy for inventory costing is used It is to use the first in and first out FIFO method, but there is no real-time system to account for inventory items being added to nor removed from the inventory using FIFO. Inventory is counted at the year end and the count is forwarded to the City's accountant and used to adjust inventory for the general ledger count. If the cost of inventory is unknown, the current replacement value is used for the cost. The City's accountant does not receive information during the year about the inventory being removed nor nor what its purpose, cause. As mentioned above, the city's water and sewer gas department does use formal inventory tracking system and employees in these departments lack training with regard to accessible inventory accounting methodologies. In fact, the cost of accounting in the water fund and natural gas fund can materially miss being stated in the city's financial statements. They recommend that we note that the city's electrical utility department uses an inventory program that tracks inventory as it's purchased and then and use then reports the value of inventory using the weighted average cost of inventory valuation. All city utility departments should use the same inventory program and the method of inventory costing. The response, management concurs with finding and has taken steps to mitigate all city departments with the same inventory system and that same method of inventory costing. I will note that we will probably get this finding again in 2025 because this did not take effect until probably sometime in 2026. So you'll probably see this finding one more time, but we are working as it stands right now to eliminate this finding. So it is a finding, a small finding, but we are working to eliminate the finding and correct the problems.

I speak to that real quick. One of the first things that we did when Mike came to the board as a public works supervisor is to meet with the work center supervisors in both of those areas. And we got them with some of the younger guys that are a little more computer savvy. And they are currently working on those. Natural gas is probably three-quarters of the way through all their stuff. I think they've got some used products left to load. Water. Of course, he was short one person. Wynn was doing it all himself. He's not a computer guy, I don't think. He shakes his head no. So we're working with him. We have people in place to help him. Yeah, we're working on that. So hopefully, of course, this is 2024's audit. 2025's going to probably reflect the same thing. But we're already addressing them. It looks like more than likely by July we should be. So this was concluded on May 6, 2026, according to

Yeah, I think, yeah, most of the time.

Yeah, the only reason why I bring it up is for anybody who's watching, too, is when you went and said, yeah, you know, this will also be a finding for 2025. Well, of course, this is 2024 being completed in 2026. So we get 2025 done also in 2026. We show the same thing until 2027.

And if everything goes well, we're aligned to hopefully have the 2025s done before the end of June.

Is it the same company? Same company.

So basically, we're asking for approval of the 524 audit tonight.

Do we have a motion to approve it? Motion approved.

All set. Roll call.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Natural gas rates .

So in your packet, it should have an email from myself regarding the letter from Kevin Stiles regarding the natural gas increase that was submitted at our committee meeting. And it states that after meeting the natural gas facility operations, my recommendation of the rating fee to 0.0145 cents per cubic foot from 0.0135 would be the order. And on the backside of that same email, he also presented what the surrounding areas are charging. Ameren serves Rolla, Salem, and Owensville, and their rates are $14.62 per NCF, which is per 1,000 cubic feet. And fires are solvent and their rates are 14.53 per thousand cubic feet. So we are right in line with our neighbors.

So we're asking. With this increase? With this increase. With this increase. How much is it? $1.45? Yeah, $1.45.

Per gallon.

Yes. Yes.

Animal Patrol Police Committee discussing hiring an animal patrol officer.

So about our animal control, we hired the animal control assistant, still being trained, doing well, working. Animal control is still open by appointment only while she's being trained. And then we did schedule adjusted to where they'll be open to the public throughout normal working hours. At this point, we don't have anybody to present to hire for animal control. We had a couple of late applications picked up last week, so they just haven't returned. So we're just gonna wait. We do have one that was returned, but if there's more coming in, I'd like the council to go ahead and let us wait a little longer. What's the next one?

We just have one right now.

Okay. By next council meeting, hopefully we'll have something on the agenda.

Okay. So we're gonna move the tables until the next meeting, 7 June? Okay.

Two-way recommendations. .

The proposed rate increases. The current is . This is the existing. Would you like me to go through the rates? Please. It's okay.

So in your pockets I have what the rates were last year and the proposed recommendations from the parking recreation. I think... I think some of them have gone up like $10. General daily admission went, they were proposing to go from $5 to $6. An individual season pass from 55 to 65. A family of two, $80 to 110. A family of four, which last year was a family of three to six, is 130. They're proposing 180. And then a family and group of five is 15 for additional person. A senior pass last year was 40. Senior pass this year would be 45. Learning lessons went up. An individual from 60 to 70. And 110 for a family of two was $15 additional. And then pool parties. Last year it was $100 for one to 25 guests. This year they are proposing $150. 26 to 50 guests, which last year was 26 to 40, they are proposing $200. And anything over 51 guests, $250. These were full... These were recommended from the park director.

They were recommended. You can still, well, you can do a first and a second and then discuss it. You do not have to go with their recommendation.

The only thing I know was discussed, I was on air, but what I know was discussed is with, you know, the cost of lifeguards being more this year. You know, it costs more to have lifeguards, so I think that was part of their conversation. That was part of the conversation.

The increased cost is the reason why they- It's an upkeep, but- Let's get a first and a second first, and then we can just- I'll make a motion and a second. Okay. So it's been pretty special. I've got a quick question. Glenn, what's the cost of the chlorine and stuff in the pool this year? Has it gone up? I think it's pretty much the same as it was last year, but chlorine and acid is odd, you know, because it's balanceable.

And then we also have a couple other stuff that we add to it, too, and it goes up a little bit every year.

I don't have the numbers exactly how much it has, but it's relatively the same as last year. Yeah, makes sense. And then with this one, the first rate increase that's come across for a while, if I remember correctly, for us, when we were senior, when Noah was senior, we had had recommendations from the actual, the seniors at one of the council meetings to do about a $5 raise. Is that correct, Lori? Yes. So they took your suggestion on the seniors.

Well, we printed out, I'm not just doing that, on the printout from last year that was given that was on our website, it's at 40. Okay. We didn't get a deal. I don't know. I don't know. We just printed them off our NMF. That's what it says.

One thing that we all know is that the pool is a is considered a public service for the community. I don't want to see too large of an increase because it's going to be hard on people.

But we do need to mitigate loss as much as we can.

The rule is now and all the way to a BLI bill. Our cost is going to keep going up. We can't keep raising it because it doesn't make a difference how much you raise. We're never going to catch up. We can't sell candy bars for $10 a piece. We need as many kids to take her to go in the summertime. We keep raising the prices. The people can go there. They probably can't pay the price. That's all I say. There's always going to be a liability, no matter what we raise.

I think maybe parties might be okay to go up because a lot of people, you know, could pitch in for parties.

But I really don't think we should raise the price on the other thing very much because, like I said, it's for the kids and the kids something for them to do. And if their parents can't afford it, then they won't be kids anymore.

And when I talked to the two people today, they said this is just their recommendations. It's up to you guys to make the decisions.

I will tell you, we in our office sat down one day, and we went through each one, and I think our general raise that we presented to you guys that our purchase was something, I think most of ours had like a five, maybe like a full bargain of ten dollars was being raised.

So the less liability that you have from the park fund to the pool, the more you keep in your actual park fund.

you do realize that the park fund, the park tax is helping fund the pool. So if you don't help offset some of the costs and increase to your pool, you're just, anything left over is coming from the park tax and that's not helping your parks out. So it's a give and a take there. So you're going to have to do something to mitigate the increase in costs to your pool at some point.

So there is something on here, too. They did a breakdown on this, but they're recommended. It says the pass pays for itself after, based on the $6 daily admission. So individual pass, if you go 11 days, it pays for itself. The family in two, if you go nine days, it pays for itself. The family in four, eight days, and it pays for itself. And then the family in the group of five, it says seven or five days, depending on how you saw the pass. So I mean, that's another kind of breakdown that they added on their sheet.

I feel like it's a slippery slope. You raise your reach too much, it'll drive people away. Your total revenue is the same anyway. I do like the idea of the precinct for bars. I think that's a good idea, the precinct for bars. It's a big challenge.

I didn't know we had calls from surrounding towns that said, are part of Tri-C for a chief that's around.

Chief is part of Tri-C. Hey, I know what that means. There's no doubt about that. But the thing about it is we can't park our stuff out of industry. Yeah.

So let's grab the charts and let's go through them. It says here, general daily admission, increase it to $6. That's raising it, what, a dollar? Are you guys okay with that?

Okay, can we have that motion?

Yeah, I'm just gonna go, but we don't have a motion, I'm just gonna go through it. Increases in individual pass, last year it was what? It was 55, they're asking to increase it to 65. Should we have that and go to 60? I like that. 60.

60. Yeah, I like 60.

Family of two is at 110. What was it before?

80. That's a big jump.

Maybe 90. 90. Go to 90. Family of four.

Well, three to six.

Well, they used to have three to six. I think they're going family of two and then family of four. So that would be actually family of three to four.

Three to six was 130, and they jumped it to family of four to 180.

It would be family of three to four. They went from 130 to 180. Yeah. What are you guessing? 140.

Well, so they added another family group of five up to eight.

What they're doing is they're matching down the family at eight, and then they have to pay, after eight people, you have to pay. So a family of five matched out at eight would be... What was it before? A family of over six was...

And we kind of went through each one just based on the recommendations of that.

How many lessons did he give?

Thank you.

I just want to say for the record, I'm not discrediting the park board's prices. This was just what we did on our own one day in our office, off some of the recommendations we heard from the crowd. And we went off of the 25 settings. So we kept the daily rate at $5. Would you like to say $6? Fine. We kept the $4 for the seniors, 55 and up. Season pass, we did 60 for an individual, 85 for a family of two, 135 for the family three to six, 15 for... Anything over six, $15 per member, yes. And then the seniors, 55 and up past, we did 45. Swimming lessons, we just did 70 for an individual, 110 for a family of two, and then 15 for an additional family member over that. Private parties, we did not go... Private parties, we did 150 for 125. 200 for 26 is 40. 250 for 41, that's a lot. So yeah, more of those. I like those numbers.

It's kind of where we were, what we were doing.

Well, like I said, those went on like 50. What? The private pool parties.

The private parties did because the price of our lifeguards and what we had to have, you know, we have to have a certain amount of guards per kid, and with the cost, it's like we weren't doing very well. On the very last one, we did, yeah.

So basically all the other ratings, we did like a 5% increase. I think it was pretty much $5 what we did.

But like I said, that was just us over what we heard from the community, what we threw together.

So let's read these out real quick and you guys can solve them. Gain rate would be $5 for ages 3 and above. Children 2 and under are free.

And let me, can I tell you, just from what we've heard from community and phone calls that we take, we have to decide because our pool, I mean, we are a pool. We don't really offer rollout. We don't have the big slides. We don't have the, like, water walls and stuff for the kids. You know, so we don't, we have a pool for you to swim in, and that's kind of it.

I think we agree $6 was a good amount. And that's fine. I'm just telling you whether we should or not. I agree with that. Thanks. All right, then $4, let's see, for seniors, do we have that? $4 for seniors 55 and up. A season pass is $60 for an individual.

$85 for a family of two, $90.

Do we agree on $90? Yeah.

Family of three to six.

They have 135 on here.

Family of over six had $15 for each person. Seniors 55 and up, their pass would be 45. Swimming lessons is $70 for an individual. $110 for a family of two. $15 for each additional person. Private parties, $150 for 1 to 25 guests, $200 for 26 to 40 guests, and $250 for 41 guests and up. Booking a full party requires 50% down at the time of reservation.

Motion to approve those rates.

And then do we want to add these, so on theirs, is this admission fees are supposed to be 100% but like houses are only good for daily admission so if there's a special activity you do have to pay another insurance. Season passes will cover everything.

That's their recommendation.

That's if you guys want to do that right now.

The second page of the recommendation, passes be only good for daily admission, which means from 12 to 6, normal to full hours, and not covered with special activities. In other words, if you wanted to come to a midnight swim, or something like that, then you would pay the five daily rates.

Did they put on the commission for pool?

Like a twilight, which is like a team night. So they're saying anything extra, it would just be like a $3 because it's only like normally $2.

Okay, so passes to be on the record. Passes be only good for daily admissions 12-6 and not cover special activities. Admission for the special activities would be $3 for like the pool fitness and twilight swims. Senior passes, however, would cover everything. So if you have a senior pass and you want to come to the movie night or the swimming night or whatever, you would be covered with your senior pass.

That's it. You already had a first and a second motion.

And what was that motion? Was that for the original race that's recommended?

Yes, yes.

Okay, so you have to amend your motion and get a first and second. You have to amend it. You have to move to amend and get a second.

All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed?

These are the new rates.

We received one today at 2.45. Looks like Robert Weitzsacker.

Renewable for both $217 I will provide City of Cuba, $217 for the removal of damaged pavilion located at Tango Creek Park. This will include all labor and equipment necessary to complete removal. I think he's misunderstood. I think he thinks he's bidding to remove the item instead of buying the item. And there's no payment, right?

No, there's no check. That was misunderstood. So we have no games. You're going home today?

No, it's not late. April, move the stars out of it. What do we do? We're going to get rid of our towels? Yeah. Then we'll have to do it ourselves.

so there wasn't there was a time span to receive bids and it's closed okay emily do we need to do we need some motion to um reject that then of course or no it's not really a bit i don't think it really doesn't comply as you said i think they got it backwards okay next discussion is street department discussion of the bridge issue on main street and approval of the solution

We had kind of a brief meeting with the mayor, Cameron's involved, and a couple of the aldermen, or not aldermen, I'm sorry, supervisors, partners. We've got a problem with Main Street Bridge, which is just to the east side of the buyout. The color there is rotten and gone pretty well, and it's eroding from outside under the bridge. We've mandated and mandated, and it's As a matter of fact, we've got half the road blocked off now. It's going to be that unsafe. My recommendation would be to vacate it temporarily. I mean like a year, two years, whatever it takes to get the funds to replace it and go from there. That's what I would come up with. We've got water and sewer issues also that have to be taken care of and addressed at the same time. It's not going to be a quick fix or a cheap fix.

So this is my north-east main, correct? East main, yes.

It's between the wall hole and the railroad trestle. That main street bridge is a waterway that goes under the building and goes all the way up.

Oh, yeah, okay. I know. Do we have a sewer line we want to have here? We've got a sewer line that's...

Or inside that cover. So that's why I say it's going to be not an easy fix. I think AJ said that he could possibly get lower in the sewer, but you're talking cost-effective here. Water's the same way. It's in there.

There's a lot of excavation involved.

It takes a lot of work. That's a lot. We've got to watch what we do there because once it leaves us there, it's underneath another building. All the way underneath the wall. Yeah. So is the street department's recommendation closing the street for now permanently until the fix is resolved?

Correct.

on that temporary and we want to close it from from highway 19 to is that a street just to the in my opinion probably just on the other side of the bridge

We can go the other side of the bridge because we do have one house up there. One house is down there, 205. Wallace has parking in there. So we can just go past the bridge, but I'd like to buy it all the way off down to 118 so nobody's coming in there. We're trying to back back out on 118.

Well it can't, the water couldn't go nowhere because it comes under the railroad.

It comes under the railroad and under the rebuild. It's not going to be achieved.

I make a recommendation to the boy who calls the street for safety issues immediately. Can I take a question?

No, you can go. Okay.

The building that goes under was mine one time. It fell through one time. What is reinforced atop of that culvert that goes underneath that building is old Model A car frames. It even had steel. It's like eight foot across and four foot up and down. So it's completely, that was what was the, when it fell through, that's what exactly what was there. It wasn't the steel of the old Model A car frames. Because it's built in 1932. And that was the bridge? Yeah, it was underneath that building, which is trying to take all this water. So, you know, it's not where you're holding probably this, but probably someday, and what you do about it, but it goes underneath that building. And one other thing I will mention too, this culvert that is there now was put in there, I believe it was in 19...

Age, 2000, we checked on it the other day. Because that guy left in 95. But it was just shortly thereafter. So you're talking a pretty good expense for less than 30 years. So I would say let's look at it and build for a more permanent. And all kinds of new things.

And build for a long-term fix rather than.

Yeah, we can't be doing this ever 25 years.

Who owns the building? Small.

Small.

So we have a first and a second. No problem. We're closing the street.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Board of Department Hiring of Water Labor Physicians.

We have Zoom here tonight, but we need to set this up. I can't hear you.

Come on up.

The gentleman here that we accepted his application and would like him to be my assistant for the light mission mission for the water department.

And the name?

Evans Tristan Evans. And was the only application received? There was three others and we interviewed one other person. Okay.

And this is who you want to hire, correct?

You decided?

We only have one to hire until we're approved.

And this is the gentleman we want to hire. I'll make a motion to hire.

Second.

Do you think second? Okay.

All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Let's restart the meeting.

It'll be not this next Monday, but the Monday after.

Okay. Have you explained to him the commitment on the certifications? Yes. Okay. You understand there's a training commitment after you become certified between your certifications, correct? Yes, sir.

Do we have to get that once more?

Well, maybe I'll handle that.

Before that can be signed? Yeah.

And that's why I asked when you're going to be able to start, so it's not working that way.

I need to go back to the street department issue of the vacation of the bridge. We need to reconsider that notion. There needs to be a public notice specifically for the bridge.

Are we vacating the bridge or are we just temporarily closing it until we get there?

Well, if you're vacating the bridge or you're vacating the street, which I think you did, you have to have a specific line item on your agenda for that. So I think you need to vote to reconsider that and have it placed on the next meeting on the agenda specifically. Okay. To get proper notice. Thank you. And what is that? Can that street stay open that long? Yeah, I was going to say. Can it stay open that long, that street?

And how long are we talking about? Next thing.

We've got the worst half of it blocked off now, which it's a one-way street here and there for that first. It used to be two blocks, so you can't come down to 19 in that direction at all. So it's already a one-way street, and I've just left one lane open. It's also deteriorating, but not, I don't think this is, will be dangerous for them not meeting the truth.

Can we do something like a temporary closure due to public safety interests, like basically an emergency, with a motion next meeting to close it until repairs are better made?

I'm more worried about the public. Drive a car over here. I understand. I think if it'll make it the way it is until the next meeting, we probably just ought to place it on the agenda. But if you feel it's... If the concern is that there's an emergent condition, it's an emergency condition, like you can do a temporary, you're going to need to go back still and amend that vote, reconsider that vote, but you can make it an emergency basis if it's that dire situation.

I think that would be the expertise of the street department to make that call.

We'll leave it as is, and then we'll reattain on the 2nd of June with the council. So we'll withdraw the motion to close the street right now.

I would make a motion to reconsider and have a first and a second that you're going to, instead of vacating or closing at this time, you're going to place it specifically on the agenda for us.

Motion to reconsider. Second.

I can't hear you very well. I'm sorry. It's okay. It's okay. Thank you. So you're second. So motion in the second to reconsider the motion. To close the street.

And that specific island will be brought back in June 2nd so the public has a chance to respond to those. Do we have to hang on to the net where he comes off? Right now we have one side of the street blocked off where the actual caving in is taking place on the one corner.

But with the amount of rain we just got yesterday, we have more jeopardy. Okay. We'll keep an eye on it. Thank you.

I looked at it today. Great. Thank you.

Thank you. Did we do that right now? We've got a motion and a second. Did you get any better? No, we didn't.

All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Sorry for the confusion, folks. And now the Airport Hangar Project grant application using MPE and billing funds discussion room approval.

So MPE is Non-Partner Entitlement. I know, right? So you get $150,000 of MPE each year, and you can carry over up to four years at a time, and you can save up to $600,000, and then the oldest year expires as the new year is available. Local share is typically 10%, but vary in FY 2020, 2021, 2025, and 2026. This is from Barry Schultz, by the way. BIL is Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, now known as IIJA, which equals Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act. This is a limited time program that allocates funding for you from FY22 through FY26 in different amounts, but between $137,000 and $159,000 per year. After the hangar project, it will be all used. Local share is 5%. AIG is airport infrastructure grant. This is just another description of the BIL and IIJA funding. It is usually used to distinguish BIL AIG from BIL ATV or airport terminal program. So that was various explanation of all of those abbreviations. And so what we're asking for from Michelle Niles at Bodot had asked permission to use a previous ordinance that was passed a year ago, bill number 2193, special ordinance 949, was passed October 7th of October in 25. For the airport, when we had applied previously, for an airport grant and it's still active. So she's asking permission for us to utilize the same ordinance for the airport hangar grant. And so we can do that. And we also attached with that the agreement from the grant. We will have to cross three data sets each year of funding becomes available because right now they're only going to give us the amount of funding that becomes available for each year. So right now the amount of this grant that's available is on page three. Then it tells you there on item number four. $380,030 for eligible preliminary project costs and or land easements. And then on page 5, it goes into the amount of $80,030 of the grants stated above represents 90% of the eligible project costs, while the $300,000 represents the 95% of the eligible project costs. And then it talks about the amount of matching funds, which is the furnished by the sponsor and should not exceed the $24,681. And also tells us there that the amount of $8,893 represents 10% of eligible project costs, while $15,789 represents 5% of eligible project costs. There's some more, but that's basically what we're asking is if it's just to approve this, the use of this ordinance for that application.

It's the same grant.

It's for the Hanger grant.

So I make a motion that we can do that.

I'll second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed?

We don't have a whole lot that came in, but we have a fairly large one that came in and was handled on last Thursday, the 405 from Springfield, the original, and there's a lot of They were blocking streets, speeding up now streets, doing burnouts, and driving carelessly, revving up motors and causing a nuisance with some noise and sound and blocking roads. But we've taken care of that. So that's the only nuisance that I know that has come to our office lately. The other thing, we have a resignation by one of the officers. Resigned for a better paying job, so I need to accept his resignation and I'd also like to get an ad in paper to replace this officer. This officer is also a canine handler, so I have to make plans for a canine.

Does the dog stay with somebody else?

The dog will stay with somebody else.

So do we need a separate motion to accept the resignation?

We have to have a motion to accept his resignation.

Motion to accept.

I'll second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed?

And then a motion to go back to advertise.

How long do you want to run the ad? Until it's filled? Yeah.

I make a motion to run an ad.

You have two old positions currently, is that right?

Yeah, that one won't be filled until July 24th. And then I have this one, I have another officer that's out on injury, so he's out on my duty. And this one, so really I'm down four officers.

Did that person in the cabinet say it?

Mm-hmm. So I make a motion to run an ad.

Disgusting.

So you said you're down four in J. Howell right now?

You're down four right now once his class dead is down. That hurts. That hurts.

So I put in your packet, or I don't know, I put it in your mailbox, some standard information that I have edited a little bit. There were some questions I didn't ask you before. So before I get to those questions, the police department brings in $15,200 in estimated revenues. There are census, something that I think is pretty important to picture in your mind is $1.6 million. The offset is $1.5 million. Where does this money come from? The general fund revenue is protected with outstanding service $1.3 million. The revenue comes from, to offset that is comprised of capital improvements and proprietary funds from the electric and water and natural gas, So you have to ask yourself the questions I'm getting ready to ask you. How many officers are working during the daytime hours?

How many of those officers are working on the roads during the daytime hours?

How many officers work during the night compared to the day? How many officers work weekends compared to weekday hours? Why aren't we being reimbursed by the school for the SRO officer? Why are you paying the SRO sergeant pay instead of just SRO pay? Where do we compare to the number of officers in cities our size? And what is our crime rate currently? Not the national average. Adding a new officer increases our annual budget by about $74,000 for wages, taxes, loggers, and benefits. This estimate does not include workers' compensation when it's adjusted to our annual audit. Where will the revenue come to support this cost? And should we continue this practice? I recommend adopting a city policy that limits our transfers from business-type activities to cover this type of spending. I also recommend freezing hiring for all non-supervisory positions and avoiding the creation of new positions in any department until citywide cash flows improve. In addition, the city's current unrecognizable bank balance is $4.6 million. This is not sustainable and will limit the city of Cuba's ability to grow unless we reduce spending and prepare for the challenges ahead. To curb excessive spending these measures must be implemented and not only in the police department but across all departments. I know that you guys are tired of me thinking I'm picking on one department. I'm not. This is across the board. It's not just one department but they seem to have some turnover right now. All expenditures must be frozen in order to build cash flow at this time. We can no longer have departments spending cash at the same time. There will be from time to time bills that will have to be paid. Dues, insurance, natural gas, electricity, limit training, unless they need to get certified. When I explain free spending, I'm explaining that even if they are budgetary items, you've got to put them on hold. And so our natural gas is cut.

Right, we're talking about the city's budget over here. This is supposed to be my kind of talk.

He asked if I had a budgetary issue.

Currently... We're going way down.

Well, it is a budgetary item, but it's $74,000 more. And you're asking how I got a budget.

Every single time I do this...

Oh, I wasn't done. Go ahead and continue.

But I should have put a presentation on there if I want to hire somebody. This is just some interesting reading from place one on rule...

I also attached to my packet our sales tax revenue for the last five years. In this report, you can see that the sales tax revenue dropped off and states that this is not a sign Good sign. It means that we're not only growing at the rate of revenue, we're not growing at the rate of revenue for our town, but our citizens are growing as everything in the world around us is. I also included how our cash flow works. It's important to know how that cash flow works. Please understand that we have all this revenue feeding into our cash flow, and all of these expenses is flowing out, and what is left to pay the salaries is what's left over. Unfortunately, payroll is our largest expense. So when we talk about hiring another employer, we have to think what's left over to pay for that employee when we're done. Combating these problems or issues in attrition will resolve one step at a time. If we don't do attrition, unfortunately, we're looking at the next step in coming wages, which is a term no accountant or supervisor wants to use but always comes when we must cut expenses, which is a layoff. However, when I talk about attrition, I'm not talking about a layoff. Attrition is defined as a reduction in numbers as of employees or participants, usually as a result of resignation, retirement, or death. I guess I'm tired of people telling me I want a layoff when I'm asking for attrition. I'm not. I'm asking for you to do attrition to reduce our wage expenditures across the board, not just in one department, but in all the departments that need it. If we don't do something, if the city of Cuba is not going to sustain its pay balances, we're going to continue to decline. All departments have to have a hiring freeze, have to have a singing freeze. It has to be across the board. We have to tighten our belts.

So, you just mentioned her department. So, are we including, are you also including Electric Streets or National?

There has to be a minimum number of each department for each department to run.

Okay, there has to be a minimum and we have those minimums. We do have. Okay, well, I'll tell you. Is this an ordinance minimum, state minimum?

I'm saying we have a minimum for the other departments. I don't know. I don't know the police department myself.

I didn't know that there was a minimum for the department. And I'm just throwing it out there, all the departments.

Glenn can't work by himself. He's got to have a second person. He has to have three people in their work center.

But we're asking line officers to work by themselves at night, in the middle of the night, by themselves. So, are we back to the police department yet, or are we still doing budgets?

And I want to point out that they cut money in animal control to make sure that they get the right number of officers that they need.

So part of the question was, you asked me if I went out to... Yes, it is. You went out to... Okay, we're done. I've done that. There is a number. They are going to present with their board, but there is a number that looks good for them for reimbursement. So there will be that as well. You asked for some statistics. database that we use for report writing. It's an old platform, but I was able to reach out because they have a, even though it's the same one, it's Omnigo that we use. Omnigo is our report writing. So it's not, we're not using ITI. It's formerly ITI, and our platform that we work on is basically the same as the old ITI. They're going through SimCom. With the Omnigo, they were able to put these statistics together. Now, those are going to be as hard for you to read as they are for me, but there's a breakdown of everything for last year. If it wasn't for this person resigning for a better paying job, then we would be full staff with the new coming officer that we agreed that we needed and we voted for. So we still have that. All I'm asking is to replace this officer. We're not increasing our position. Well, he doesn't say that on here.

What's that? Well, he doesn't have to put that on. I'm just telling you what I know.

And the school just has to be approved by the school board.

Yeah, we can't really talk a whole lot about that because they haven't offered their school board yet. All I'm asking is we don't need to defund the police department. We need officers that have another officer working with them at night. I have my supervisors that do supervisory work during the day that's only open during daytime hours. The detective works daytime hours. He works weekends also. Not every weekend, but he does work weekends also for his investigative purposes. And I have my squads, I have two different squads that run a Kelly shift and they work 12-hour shifts. They rotate from days to evenings to nights. And right now, we're running at a bare minimum and they're working by themselves.

Hey Jeff, question. How many of your officers are Moonlight because of jobs? Most of them.

Most of them?

Yes. Let me ask you another question. You say that your officers quit us to have a better job. Did you get all their unemployment? Did you get all their insurance paid by the end of the job? And all their retirement paid? I don't know. That is also for yourself.

I don't ask him, I don't ask him whether his nuclear attack is going to be, but I'm going to assume so, since it's in Franklin County. I'm going to thank this place right away. And regardless, it doesn't matter if it's, whether it's law enforcement somewhere else or if it's a construction crew, I mean, he's going for a better paying job. That's fine. You say most of them do that.

Mm-hmm.

And we are also going to be saving more money in animal control in the future if positions change.

Do we, as the alderman, do we, can we get copies of the schedule to see, you know, what the hours are, what the Kelly schedule is? You say Kelly schedule, and I don't remember that.

That's where the officers work. They work two days, they're off two days, work three days, and then they're back to the Millau schedule. That's what I call it. Okay.

It's a new part of Fort Baruch, basically.

Okay.

My feelings are it's just a difficult time. I view it as the worst thing that could happen is we haven't approved the new budget. And then you have to pull somebody off your disguise. I hate that to happen. I hate to treat people that way. But I do understand. I would love to give you everything you want. I mean, it's just really tricky. Timeline of the budget, I feel like, and then with your headcount machines going on right now, It's just a lot to take in at once. I think there's a lot up in the air, and I'm just getting through people like Paul. That being said, we're not approving to hire someone. We're just approving to post them today, right? Correct.

But we also just voted last to go ahead and make a commitment to hire someone so I'm full staff. Why would we turn around and, hey, let's not hire someone this time to make a full staff? That doesn't make sense to me.

We have a first and a second to go out and advertise for, what do you call it? So the call's not going to be assigned to this person here? It depends on who applies.

That's something I'd have to figure out. We have a lot of money invested in this canine. And trying to find somebody to handle him and run him and continue to work with him is pretty important. A lot of money invested in it.

Is it an option? that if another department is seeking a dog in the city. Is the dog considered city property then? Yes.

So if, say, another department is looking for a canine, they won't buy a used dog from another department?

We need that dog actually.

They will be able to go straight to this one.

This county still has canines as well? 100%.

OK, we've got a first and a second. Yes. Yes.

Any questions about anything else? I believe that's all I have.

All right, all of unfinished business.

Well, I'd like to know, we had voted for the EOC to go out for bids to be moved, and then I didn't hear anything else about that.

I did start getting bids. I was waiting on other bids to come in.

I was advised, due to budget restraints, we're not moving. So I stopped searching for bids.

But the city council voted for him to be able to go out for bids.

They did, and I was advised. By who? I would rather not say, but it was of the members here at the board. Okay, I'll say that. It was the mayor.

Emily, if we vote for him to go out for bids.

Okay, but now, when the mayor took over... He advised me, due to budget restraints, right now we cannot move. That's exactly what I told, so I quit looking to try to figure it out.

But you came to us twice and told us you could not handle an emergency where you are.

I said that, and I don't have all the proper equipment. And I've been after that since day one. So there was nothing in the lunchbox. The radio that was destroyed. The laptop that was messed up from day one when I took over. I can't move, so I'll just have to work with what I got when I can. But that's exactly what I was told. Due to budget restraints, we cannot move at this time.

There was a two-fold part to that, actually. If you guys want to go out for a bit, that's fine. But there was two parts to that in that you were getting with the new Lauren and finding out whether or not the rec line would meet the requirements for it.

Well, what we talked about on that is if people wanted to bring it for, say, a wedding or doing a play, and I got one of the dressing rooms signed up, they might want to go with it. So I went to go over with Ms. Hurtzel. We went over to... Let me thank you. And in the front office, right there, if you come off of the VP, there was a small office I could use. Jerry said if they could open up the wall to make a big room, it would cost about $300. They would have to move the generator over, make a new pad, run the electric over. What was going to be the most expensive part was moving the antenna and getting the antenna and everything lined up. That was like $2,800.

When you first were offered the opportunity to go out for a bit, it went for quite a while, and I asked you whether or not the guy had come or whatever, and you said no. And then you were going to get with Warren and discuss both the rec line and that building.

Okay, and like I said, I tried to get with Warren, and he's been busy with everything, so we never really hooked up 100%.

So I didn't tell you based on budget constraints, it's probably not going to happen. But I did not tell you it wasn't.

No, your exact words were, sir, is with budget constraints right now, it is not going to happen.

Well, it's probably not going to happen. I understand that. I get that. But I said you still have to get the warrant, and I never told you not to get the bids from the guy.

Well, I basically told that it's not going to happen. Why wait for my time to tell you? You know, that's the way I looked at it, to be honest.

Okay, real quick. So you said get with Warren Wilson about recline and the medical building?

But he said they were talking about recline. Warren wants to move recline. That's all he was talking about, was moving recline. Because recline has a lack of generally. And it has a tower. And it has a tower. They don't have to move the tower over there. The building is tall enough they can hook the satellite stuff on top of the building where the guy came out and did the ESP. They don't have to move the tower, but all the other equipment has to be moved.

So based on previous discussions, you have the right to go out and get your business. So you can go out and get your bits, correct? Yeah, that's already been approved. You can go out and get your bits. It'll be both bits for the rec line and for the MEPCO as we agree.

Well, to move the equipment, it's going to be about the same in either direction. It'll be $2,800 for that. Just remove the equipment. With the generator being set up, I mean, let's get the bids. Well, I've done a lot of submit. I've done a lot of resubmit bids for removing the equipment. But we're still going back to day one. And this is before you took over service. My portable radio is where I can activate the siren system in case I lose power or the building gets damaged and I can't get in to do it. I need a portable radio to activate that. I was told from day one that basically that wasn't going to happen. The laptop that was damaged, I don't know what it became by the investigation of that. But that should have been, to me, that should have been able to prosecute the person that did that, because that was city property. And it was maliciously and permanently damaged. That was handled in a phone session. OK. Am I not entitled to know about that, since it's my equipment? I don't know. And it's my department?

Well, it's the city's equipment.

Well, OK, but my department. Let me put it that way. Let me rephrase it. You have a new computer?

No.

I thought we were- They didn't need the computer when they brought it. It was something else causing problems. Let's talk about the laptop. That was the money.

There was a hardware issue they found out. It wasn't the computer itself. That was the hardware issue. I'm talking about the laptop that was destroyed. And the radio that was destroyed. That is part of my department. If something was done about it, should I have not been called into a special session or called into an office and said, hey, this is what we're doing. This is what's going on. I've never been told nothing. So there again, going back to Breckland, if by chance, by reason, I don't wanna use Breckland, is if we gotta move people in there, we're gonna have people that's going to be trying to figure out the plan of attack, you've got other people that's gonna be sitting down in the lower area, but they're gonna be only hearing parts of the conversation and they're gonna be putting on the media, social media. They don't need to be nowhere near that. That's why I'm trying to stay with moving to the Metco building. That way, that building is strictly to house people if needed. And they're not around anything that's going on that they don't need to know every little move that we're trying to do. It needs to be kept safe. That's my only reason of wanting to move to the Metco. Yes, sir.

to the new council members, we've already got almost $50,000 in this building across the street. We can't be using the EOC forever because it was already designed for something else. We've got a lot of room in Jemezco. It would cost us another $3,000 to do it. We need to be utilizing what we fixed this building up for, and we got almost $50,000 in it now.

Now I've got another question since we're talking about the building.

We need to stop because this is not going on the agenda. So we're going to have to get it scheduled for a second. We'll let you in a second. We'll let you in. But in the meantime, if you can get us those, you have until June 2nd to get us the bids.

Well, I gave the thing a rough bid of what I feel it's going to cost me everything on there. I've got a total of whatever it would be when I need the budget. To move the equipment, to build the concrete pad. Did you actually get a bid from the people? No, because trying to nail down the supervisor for the electric department to get him over there is impossible.

We've got to have the exact bits. We can't go with it on my desk, unfortunately, because our budget's really tight, so we've got to know.

Then I've got to nail down the supervisor for the electric department. We don't need those costs.

We just need to know how much it's going to cost to move the antenna, a separate company. The cost for our city employees, we don't need.

Well, I've been engaged on that. It's over 30 days old. Okay.

Is there any way that our workers can help move some of that stuff?

Well, I don't know. I mean, I'm guessing they could, but as far as setting it up, programming it, and aiming it, so why not let them be responsible to do everything from point A to point B? Because if we damage something, we're liable. If they damage, they're liable. And that's exactly the way I look at it. You know, if they damage the antenna or something like that, then we're going to be on X, Y, Z again.

Well, if I remember correctly, we had two bids that we were supposed to get. One was to go to the rec line, and the other was to go to the- The Mets. The Mets. So we need those bids, and then we can move from there. If you have those bids by June 2nd, we'll put it on the agenda for June 2nd, and we'll resolve the whole issue.

Okay. Right now. Right now. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other over 100-inch pieces? All right. We will.

Jerry wanted to make an announcement to thank Bill Hendricks. Yes.

For he repaired them off to the pool. For he had a frozen pipe that broke. And he did a pretty good job. So he donated his life in the face of the forest. I just want to recognize him. Thank you, Bill.

Excuse me. All right. We're going to take a five minute break and then we're going to go into closed session. We're going to go into closed session for the public pursuant to RSMO 610-021, Section 1, legal advice, litigation, and Section 21, security camera systems. Motion?

Second. All those in favor?

Aye.