Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Regular meeting, April the 7th, 2026. At this time, I'll ask the city clerk Beth Davis to please call the role. Commissioner Jeff Sanford is unavailable. Commissioner Sharon Nmith here. Mayor Tom Watson here. Commissioner Curtis Maginger here. Mayor Pro Tim Bob Glenn

here. Thank you. Next item on the agenda is invocation in the pledge of allegiance. Curtis Maglinger, please pray.

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day and for the opportunity to serve our community. We ask for your hand of protection over our city and for the safety of our families, neighborhoods, first responders, and all who call Owensboro home. Grant us wisdom and unity as we make decisions and help us do what is right and best for the people we serve. Guide our hearts with humility, compassion, and integrity in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. I aliance 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, Curtis. First, next item on the agenda is a very, very, very brief Owensboro Health Regional Hospital annual update. Mark Marsh, President and CEO. Please state your name and address for the record. Oh, you got to have somebody introduce you. Yeah. Oh, excuse me. This is the brief section. Yeah.

Gavin Roberts, 25 Stone Creek Park. Um, immediate past chair of the board of Owensboro Health. Um uh sorry Dave Roberts the current board chair could not be able to be here tonight was not be able to be here but so I am here to introduce um Mark and our uh executive team and all of our team members back here. But I want Curtis, you said something in the uh in the prayer about serving the community and that's what every one of these folks do. Um we are so blessed um as a community to have abor health here in this region. um in the western part of the state. We're the largest employer west of Louisville, over 5,000 team members. I'm get ahead of Mark in his presentation, but we are blessed to have a bro Health here. I'm point over here to Beth Steel, our COO. Um but it's a pleasure for me as a as a community volunteer to serve on this board. I'm going into my ninth year as a city employee, so I'll be rolling off in October. Um but it's been a pleasure of mine. Um, probably one of the the the most honored things I've done in my in my professional career um since I've been in business here in 25 years is to serve on this board just because of the impact it makes um the people's lives it touches and every one of us is going to use some form of that facility or outreach of that facility at some time of our lives. whether we're born there, which I was born at the old hospital, and whether we're going to die there, um or one of our family members is going to be healed there. Um we that that facility does great things. So, I am going to introduce Mr. Mark Marsh. Um he leads the charge at um at the mothership out there. Uh our mission is to uh we exist to heal the sick and to improve the communities that we serve. Um our core values um is safety. The goal of

zero Okay. Yeah. Why' you do that? Let him play with the toys there. The goal of zero harm to our patients and team members is fundamental for achieving our mission. Therefore, safety is our core value at Orangeboro Health. Our core commitments uh that we as a board adopted several years ago um and this this team implements every day include excellence, innovation, integrity, respect, service, and teamwork. So, at this time, I'm going to turn it over to you, Mark, and uh and let you finish the brief presentation. Do we need to clap now, Gavin?

What's that? Should we clap now? That's right. That's the best force. There you go. That's the best part of it.

Well, thank you again, Mark Marsh, president with uh Owensboro Health and 4119 Tan Bark Place here in Owensboro. So, thank you again. Uh these seems like these years roll along awfully quick from year to year. Um but it's always a pleasure to come on behalf of you, mayor and commissioners, and just uh all the folks in the room here. As you'll hear me reference tonight, uh this is your hospital and so there's a lot of great work that's being done. Gavin alluded to um I was just trying to do a quick math here of the number of years of healthc care experience in this room and the knowledge and having been all over the country um in various episodes. I would put this management team up against pretty much any management team I've worked with. And so again uh mayor tells me and we're we're pretty honest with each other. Surround yourself with uh people smarter than you. And so that makes it pretty easy to do. But uh I am blessed truly with a lot of great um leaders here that lead and guide us every day. So thank you. So I will be brief but I certainly want to share some of the things that are going on in healthcare. Obviously like many businesses a lot of change is is is headed our way and uh a lot of this is how we navigate through this u together. And so some of these are quick statistics again I'm not going to read every one of these but um obviously you know the number of acute care facilities we have our health plexes uh certainly the number of team members we have but again uh virtually it's about 17 counties we think about we serve roughly about 700,000 lives. And so we know the region is growing and healthcare is very important. So we look at various aspects of how we can best serve our population. Uh next slide here is so we talk about um the great advancements with our team members and all the various services and I'll touch on that but obviously we are blessed um and so there's a lot of trust in health care in terms of the medical physicians, the providers um who can help us um serve this region. And so we we want to make sure things are local, they're accessible. Um because we think about the distance you have to drive to some of the big suburban markets, but we are blessed with these are the 30 providers, 30 physicians we brought in

in 2025. In many cases, they could go anywhere they want in the country and they elected to come to Owensboro Health. And so we're blessed and I get a chance to see that. And I know Dr. Defrain, who's our chief medical officer, is out this week, but one of our our great physician leaders. We got Dr. Tidwell and some others here. But again, I can tell you um we are very blessed with some of these great physicians. And so honored to work alongside them every day and help us to provide the best care possible. Next one is just a quick fly over with some of the various services we offer. So again, uh we know we're level three trauma, but uh again, we look we know the importance of having healthcare local. That's a lot to ask somebody to drive an hour, two hours. And so if we can provide high quality care, good outcomes in a very patient friendly, safe environment, what Gavin talked about, then those are things we explore. And so again, these are the various specialties. Sometimes it's on us. We have some of our marketing team here. We have to do a better job of making sure people are informed of what services we can provide here. And so again, this just gives you an idea of the comprehensiveness of what we have here. We got now our second cardiothoracic surgeon. None of us want to see him. Hopefully we see him at Walmart, not at the the hospital. But uh again some of these advancements are there in neurosurgery and so on. So again we've brought in some really really high quality physicians in those areas. Um next is just some of the the various specialties again and what we do again um obviously we think about just heart care, pulmonary care, um our surgical care um again you can go through all that but there's not too many things we don't do. And Dr. Defrain will say in many cases we pretty much can do most everything other than uh transplants. And so there's certain things and we work and we don't want to be cowboys but we work very closely with our our quattinary program. So UK, University of Louisville, Vanderbilt and so on. So sometimes um that's a good hospital is if that's something we're not equipped to or something we're not comfortable with. It's okay to send them get them to the right place and that's a lot about building that trust, right? We don't have to do all things all people. Be really good at the things that you do. But this gives you an idea of what services we offer.

Next slide. I'm just gonna again these are a couple ones. Um, I'll hit a couple really important. So, uh, M. How is our COO here with our physician enterprise. We're now up to roughly 400 physicians and APS, mid levels, um, supporting our community. Dr. Defrain says he was number 25 just about 12 years ago. So, you think about the advancements and a lot of that has to do with physicians coming out don't want to be in private practice. We're not discouraging that. We help. We we love to work with those. But you're seeing the times particularly in rural America, most physicians coming out don't want to deal with the business aspect. They want to be employed. And so that's why you're seeing this generation in Owensboro and elsewhere. So more of those physicians are being employed. But in addition to that, we look for accessibility, right? Access. It's great if we have a specialist, but if it takes me four weeks to get into you, it's probably not very good. So we measure that. We benchmark that. So we can see about 52% of our patients when they need a specialist, we get you in in 14 days or less. And so that's something we look at, you know, pretty closely. Um, just the number of emergency room department visits, guys, it's 96,000. I'll touch into some of the things that are taking place, what's getting ready to happen with this big one big beautiful bill. Um, that's going to create some more in the emergency rooms just by nature. And so, I would envision probably next year, more than likely, that probably number will exceed 100,000 visits for the three acute care facilities that I'll report out next year. Last one, I'll just see the burst. And so, certainly have uh two bursts. And I'll say that we have a contributor here in this room who helped contribute from a grandfather standpoint for two births. I think one of them maybe has a one-year birthday celebration this evening. So I think I'm standing between that and the birthday party. So I want to make sure we get you out of here promptly. So

great grandkid.

That's right. That's great. That's right. Great. Great. Um next is just the impact. And so I know we we talk a lot about the impact and bringing these physicians in uh bringing our team members in. you know, having, you know, roughly 5,000 plus team members here, but uh, you know, we take that very seriously as we think about the economic engine, but the really the collaboration and how to find ways to to work together. And we've seen that through the innovation center. And so, I'm a believer the more that we can collaborate, the more we work together, right, to solve things, to bring resources, the more effective and the better our communities are going to be. And so, that's something we really look at very clearly, and I'll show you that in our strategic imperatives and being a great community partner. And so we that's something we strive for every day to figure out how we can be a great community partner throughout. So next slide. So I'm going to just touch on the one number there. Um you can see it's grown and we know that that's the addition of team member services physicians. But last year I told you we we pushed over the the half billion dollar threshold for salaries. Uh and you can see this year now it's it's a little bit more another 25 uh you know million dollars there. So again, 525 or 524 um million dollars in salaries and so again uh quite that and you know salaries are going up. We've we've seen that you know the cost and just full transparency. People ask why are the rising costs of health care? Um again there's a lot that has to do with obviously with with team member costs, physician costs, drug costs, all the above but it's not getting any cheaper but I just wanted to share kind of what our impact is in terms of our salary and benefits. Next one's kind of our community and im uh excuse me, economic impact. I've kind of already touched on a few of these, but obviously $5.1 million. I won't read every one of these, but occupational taxes. Um, obviously it shows the Medicaid spending uh that that Medicaid spending is is probably going to go up, but in some ways may go down because we know what's going on this big beautiful bill and some changes with Medicaid. But again, we're always there ready to serve and and so everything we do and I talk about tonight is about enhancing and how

we're going to make sure we ensure the sustainability of good quality healthcare throughout the region. And so, and then last one I'm just going to share. So, the 166 new physicians, we've added, we have a really good retention rate. And so, anything when you're retaining more than 85% of your physicians, you're doing pretty good. So, you'll see we're about 87%. But at 166 physicians, we've added, Mayor Hawkins does a study. So, every physician on average you bring, it brings about $3.1 million of positive economic impact to our region. So if I do the quick calculation over these past four years, 166 new physicians added about $527 million of of economic impact and and roughly about 12 uh positions both direct or indirect on average of of other job creation. So again, they're very important. We don't do it for that reason, but obviously that's why we want patients and we want physicians to live and reside here because we know when they live and reside and they work here, then they're going to spend their money. They're going to shop here and it just helps our engine, right? So we're excited about that. So these are just the numbers from the impact. Um next we we talk about the things that we do from a community partnership we go through and I know Debbiey's here and we talk about um our our community health needs assessment we do every couple years. Um some of the grants that we do there's three really key areas outside the hospital we put a lot of emphasis on and one of that is around food insecurity. One is around um housing. We know the housing piece of it and then lastly is mental health. I know we work a lot closely with with Dr. Figureroa, with the River Valley. We're blessed to have them here, but those are three areas that did impact many of our regions and they certainly impact our communities here. And so, this is great example. We knew some of the changes that were coming down um right at the end of the year. And so, there were some changes with potential with SNAP benefits. We worked very closely with some of the food pantries around here. Some of those were getting pretty bare. Well, when you got 5,000 team members and say, "There's a calling. We want to help our neighboring communities and our partners." We we responded. You can see our team members. We love giving our ham and turkeys away, but along with that they would bring bags of food. I can

tell you they brought a lot of food, but roughly 26,000 pounds or 13 tons of food was given um during those holidays. So allowed to make sure we could fill the pantries up. And so that may say, well, how's that apply to healthcare that's being a good community partner and so we were really proud about what we did and the team members did around the holidays. Last one is just some of the slides I kind of referenced already. Uh certainly the mental health and and again I can't say it enough. We have a lot of uh collaboration. I know Beth and many of us here and Dr. Tedwell, we work very closely with Dr. Figueroa. We went out there and we did community tours. We're doing things to collaborate. Mental health is real. We know that, right? And so things that we can do together to share resources and ideas. Our communities are going to be better for a lot lot mental health. The land grants you guys are aware. I know you guys are involved with that too. Um the 17 pieces of land that we're doing and partner with Habitat for Humanity. So really excited about that. What that's going to lead for for affordable housing. So a lot a lot of areas I know Abby and I and others actually got to go up and present and I think we were one of the few hospitals where you could see a coordinated effort and so very pleased that we could go up there along with Jeremy and others and so a lot of efforts around the housing and then lastly just education overall a lot of things that we do is try to educate folks to take our folks out there. Dr. Tidwell is over our population health but we spend a lot of time going out there helping people with diabetes and other things we can do. So we want to keep you healthy. Uh we want to keep you out of the hospital. All right. So the more that we can do that with preventative types of things, we're better off. And so if we have to see and treat you and do all the stuff for preventive medicine through the ER, uh we've missed the boat. And so we want to do more and more around education. Last is just uh kind of the community, the partners. Again, these are just some of the numbers. I won't read each of these, but you'll see um this past year in our communities, we invested right at about $619,000. Some of you have been involved with that. I know some of you has come. And so I can tell you the team that goes through these grants and these things that we do, many grants and grants, they take it very seriously. There's a large

submission. There's a there's a process with it and the team who goes through and and Debbie and Nicole and others um we're proud to be able to do that because many of them will tell you if it wasn't for some of those grants, some of these not forprofits wouldn't be able to um be sustainable. And so we're honored to be able to do that and work with these non forprofits. And lastly, you'll see the 105 events. We we love doing our events and it's another way just to show our partners and you've seen us at the game ons and though they're little small things but any way we can collaborate with the junior highs the high schools but about half million dollars worth of various projects we can do. So a lot of ways we can support that being a great community partner but these are some of the examples. So last Wednesday um we had the pleasure and you may know some of these celebrities. I was out of town unfortunately. So, but we had the great uh opportunity to showcase our new mobile mimography unit. And so, again, very impressive. And so, that's going to be a great blessing for us throughout the region because we know um you know, mimography and breast cancer and those things are very prevalent. And so, the more rural you get, some of those folks are getting those preventive exams. And so, this is going to really allow us to go out throughout the region to make sure people are getting appropriate care. So, we're really excited about this this unit. It's it's one of its kind. Um that along with the two the innovation, if you guys have seen the Health Force Kentucky, all three of those units were built from Brew Brew Co just down the road, right? And so again, very blessed to have those three units, but again, this mobile mimography will will serve us well. Um last thing, I see Tim, I think Tim walked in earlier. I don't know, maybe he left, but I know we're excited about the various things, but we got the air show coming up. That's always a fun one. And so I know a lot of ways we appreciate when you bring those opportunities for us whether it's Friday after 5 or other ways to do that to be a great community partner but certainly excited about the air show. So we've we've kind of built um our framework around our strategic imperatives. This is something for five years now and you heard kind of the mission statement, you've heard our core, you know, core values, our core commitments, but everybody's got to have

a playbook. And so this five years ago, we haven't varied from this. the strategies, the tactics may have varied, but these are these are our six strategic imperatives. And so everything cascades and so a lot of this you'll see around quality and safety. You're gonna see patient experience. You're going to see about, you know, partner with our physicians with our communities, but these are our six guiding principles. So everything we do right now and obviously you're going to hear me talk just a little bit about some of the things with this new one big beautiful bill and I'm going to share a couple things how that's going to impact us. But we're gonna it's a positive way. These are opportunities and so there's new things that are come our way. We're going to navigate through it. We always do, but these are our six areas that we really have a lot of focuses. And so we have a lot of initiatives right now going on, but again, this is where I'm blessed that we have these great leaders helping us to guide us and shape the future of Owensboro Health. So I talked about the changes and so I know when I arrived here back in 2021 um actually just you we're coming out of COVID and I don't like to use that word anymore. We tried to purge it but unfortunately it still shows. But we know healthcare has gone through a lot of changes, right? And a lot of in a lot of different ways. And so what I'm proud is is is we've navigated through those those times. We've created ways. You know, Dr. Defrain was a great advocate for us. We've we've brought more physicians. We've looked at our quality. We're making sure we put systems in place. And so, all that being said, we've done really well. We measure a lot of our results. So, we look at all of our measurements and what we do. And you'll see those even throughout the hospital, throughout the health system. We have gimba boards. We want our team members to be informed. We got 90 of them throughout the health system. So again, it really tells our story and I want folks in the outside to be able to see those things. I want them to see that we're focused on quality and safety and patient experience. This is your hospital. But as you kind of look through that, you'll kind of see kind of the years of what's taking place. And so obviously um we were coming out of the co doing better. Um obviously some changes were taking place and all a sudden what we call kind of steadying the ship. You know, performance was getting better, but lo and behold, here we go. Um some changes had to occur. And so the one occur and I'll share with you

was some things that came down the federal level and we work really closely with with our congressman. Let me tell you, we are blessed to have congressman Guthrie and I won't leave the others out but mayor you know that a guy who loves our region right who resides and we're blessed because everybody knows the role he fulfills. Curtis, you and I have made visits, right? But to have a a leader who leads the energy and commerce, the integrity he has, who cares so much about the Commonwealth, we're blessed to have him. But all that being said, we went through and he presented something through the House. Obviously, the Senate came out with something a little different and we've all heard about this this HR1 or one big beautiful bill, right? It's impacted every industry. All right? And so, we know that. And so, that's created some opportunities. Um, and so those are things that you're going to see um that are going to take place. Some of those we have kind of a two-year runaway. We're a year into it to end of this next year. Um, some of those things are going to kick in. So this is not to scare you. It's not the the the share and create anxiety, but again, we have to do the the right things we have to do to make sure that our hospital is prepared, we're sustainable, we're we're in good position. All right? So let me make that very clear. So I don't want to take this out of context, but again, when you see the amount of cuts that potentially could come of what the one big beautiful bill is presenting right now, it's about a a trillion. Two, it's hard for me to say the trillion, but 1.2 trillion. And so again, of that, a big portion that is around Medicaid. All right. So again, these are changes. Um you can see on the state level, it's about 28 billion for Kentucky. There's things that are there. There's a lot to unpack. You know, some people maybe didn't need to be on Medicaid that should and vice versa, but there a lot of things and the rules are there. And so we're learning and so we're getting those things. I know Gil um who is our government relations, he spent obviously just coming out of session, he spent every day the last two months and we've been up there. I've made trips with him in Frankfurt. And so we're trying to understand that. I work really closely with the other nine health systems here in the state. So Baptist and Norton and UK and St. East and so we're all trying to figure this

out, navigate through these new times, but we will figure it out. But we've got about a hundred different initiatives right now in flight and various things that we're doing. So I just want to give you reassurance because I know people ask me all the time, hey, we know there's a lot of changes in healthcare. What's going how's that going to impact us? But I can tell you we're working really um behind the scenes a lot to ensure the sustainability of high quality care. Okay? So I just want to make sure you leave you with that point. So when I look this next slide again these numbers just as a placeholder not to scare you um but obviously there's three different kind of areas that we anticipate. The Medicare changes we already knew those were kind of baked in. We were aware of those even before the one big beautiful bill we call sequestration. Those were some Medicare cuts. And so on that um these are I'm going to do these over in 10 year increments about $5 million annually. So over a course of 10 years it's about $50 million of Medicare. All right. The insurance exchange we we talk about that right the affordable care and I know we got some folks in insurance here but some people who had some of those u stipens and some of those things were paid through the government. Some of those are not the same. Some of those stipens went up exponentially. Right. And some people may elect, I can't afford it. I can't have healthcare. Uh my deductibles, co-pays, there's a lot going on. So again, to the tune about $15 million annually. And the big one is the one there, the third one I I've got listed down there. So obviously what we see and the way it reads today, the one big beautiful bill will have about a $50 million annual impact on Owensboro Health. So again, about $50 million a year. Um so over a course of 10 years, um we're looking about $500 million. And so you're thinking, what are you doing? So those are a lot of things that we are working on um to to make sure we don't do things to hurt our ability to provide care, safe care, uh provide the services I alluded to, to make sure we have the physicians and services, but obviously we can't sit back and do nothing. We had about a two-year uh runway. Some of the

legislative folks say, "Hey, we're going to give you two years. Really, it's not till 2027 is when a lot of these things start to to kick in." So that's why we are all working really tirelessly right now. every health system, not just in Kentucky, throughout this throughout the country. I talked to my colleagues in Orlando and Nashville. So, we're all kind of getting ahead of this thing. Again, I can tell you we're in much better financial shape right now out of the box in many health systems. And the question people always ask, I'm going to go ahead and people ask your days cash on hand, right? And so, our days cash a little north of 170 days. A good thing about it, other people because of the cost of things in the last few years, people have been declining. We've held steady even knowing our daily operating costs have gone up exponentially because of some of the costs. So what it costs to operate the health system today versus what it did four years ago is about 30% more. So again uh so I just share these numbers with you some big numbers and so I I I want to be transparent and and I think people want to know that I I know uh Commissioner Glenn was up there with me and we talked about healthcare. Uh there's no secret, right? So there again we were open and transparent but again this this is real. So what I alluded to is kind of the new strategic playbook. All right. So these are the kind of the four areas and I I mentioned we have probably about 80 different initiatives in flight. This is where we're grateful to have these great healthcare leaders here. It's going to take everybody. These are kind of the four new buckets. They still cascade to our strategic imperatives. Again, there's no no rocket science. We look at the thing. Okay. But revenue growth. We're looking for new ways to grow revenues, things that we can do to make sure things can stay here. We're bringing all these new physicians in. And so we've got some great things are in flight. We've got some great things already. We won't touch on each of those, but obviously the specialty pharmacy, I can tell you it's been a great addition. Uh both monetary from revenue standpoint, but more importantly about access to pharmacy um that patients maybe weren't afforded before. Um cost containment. Uh we can't cut our way out of this. All right, I've said it all along. We're going to find ways to be prudent. We're going to be make sure not wasteful. There's a lot of things

that we're doing um to make sure um how we use our resources um in capital and those types of things, but a lot of going on around that throughout the entire system um where we can partner. I mentioned mental health and so are there things that we can work with River Valley. Are there things that we can do for buying power with other health systems? Uh but we're going to constantly look in ways we can partner. And then lastly is really about investing innovation. And so there's a lot of things AI, this AI is the new buzz word, but I can tell you we have an AI subcommittee. We've got things that we're doing AI and give you one quick example. We have something called DAX. And so we have our physician shoe now when you go to a physician um if they're using the DAX, it's an electronic health record or it's a way that they dictate and what it does. This thing is such a smart AI. Now you're going to when you're in exam room with them or in the patient room, they're going to be talking with you the whole time. Have you ever been to a physician visit and the whole thing they're they're dictating. They're they're not even looking at you, right? They're typing their transcription. This allows this actually weeds out all the things that are not important, right? You may talk about Alabama football or whatever it may be, but it really puts and and correlates and uh uh takes the the information that is dictated into a pertinent record. So, more importantly, you get really good information. It's going to make sure it's a really good clean claim, but more importantly, you're going to feel like you have a patient visit because now you're going to have five minutes with that physician who's listening to you. And so, now they're going to be told because now it's going to be unique to you. So, I can tell you the patient experience and the 50 plus physicians we have it right now, they said it's been one of the greatest things that they have. They we've given them back two hours of pajama time every night. Now, they have a better patient experience, patients are more informed. But now, at 5:00 when most people are going through the ball games, right? Dr. such and such is not having to sit back in the clinic to do two hours of dictation. They've gotten all that back. So, this is these are the win-win scenarios I'm talking about, but this is a great example of AI how it's going to have a new role in what we do going forward. So, these are our four areas. Again, I can't go into We'll be sharing more with you. We have our board retreat uh this next Thursday and Friday. Uh we'll be going through a lot.

I can tell you the new project manager and the folks we've gone through, they've seen a Gavin and David have seen a small taste of that. We'll be sharing with the board. But again, we want to make sure we track, we can measure, and so I can tell you the tools that we're using within this is going to be very impressive. So, I look forward to to seeing the advancements we'll make there. So, that's my my quick Sorry, I know I went through a lot. Uh again, um try to be brief, but this is at the end of the day, guys, we are here to serve um you as a hospital, and we're not going to do everything perfect. We know that we're gonna make mistakes, right? Um but we want to do it right. And what Gavin said about that mission statement about safety and how we serve each other is what we're all about. And one of the greatest testimonies, and I won't tell you the role, um we're we're interviewing for one of our senior leaders who's retired, and you'll be hearing about that, but we really whittle down and we want to make sure about find the right cultural fit. So, we had two individuals, we fin started with 10. We got through uh we've had them on site, we made an offer, we should be making that announcement here this next week. But one of the greatest testaments we had is one of the individuals um a neurosurgeon who was one of the guys reviewing for one of these jobs, he said a no doubt. He said, "I was impressed. I was excited about the opportunity here. I know I was not selected, but he said, "What you guys have built, what your team has in terms of the culture and what you guys are going to be able to do for the future with the healthc care changes going on is something unique." And he's coming from a very big health system in Virginia. So, that's great testament to this team here and how much they're dedicated every day. And we will make mistakes. We want you to call us when things happen. We're here to serve you. Um, but we we are proud to be able to serve and work alongside you each and every day. So, this last thing I'm going to show you a quick video and I'm going to turn over. But, um, we we've done a lot better. We're doing doing more about telling our stories about patient testimonials, but this last little video just gives you a little sample of kind of what we're trying to do with with our patients.

Oops. Come on, Buzz.

When I think about what makes a strong community, First thing is there needs to be a culture that we look out for each other and Owensboro Health does that for this community through their philanthropic efforts and through the services they provide. I can tell you health has been there every time I've needed them and provided not only quality of health care that I needed but also the presence to help me make different kind of decisions along the way. When I think about what makes a great community, Owensboro Health checks every box and this is a better place to live because of their presence.

Mayor, thank you for allowing us to be here today. Do you have any questions? No, you go first. Wait a minute. I get to choose. Oh, yes, he does. Sorry, ma'am. You're absolutely No, go ahead, Bob. You want to go first? Okay. I love the the u the the Health Force uh program. I I it has so much potential, but you know, talking to some people, my concern is the state put up the money for, am I understanding this right, Mark? One year and then after that, we got to either sink or swim. And I know you guys are going to back it to the hilt. Y

but do you have any concerns that we're going to have trouble raising the money to keep it together? I know it's tuition driven in part. So maybe just a little explanation as to how it'll work so we can keep it afloat because I think it's a great idea

and it's a great question and so very clearly so you guys recall um Suzanne represent miles was really helpful and so we went up there and we told the story and we thought this is 600 healthcare workers a year and they really love the public private partnership the nine universities so we're solving too many times we go to Frank right here's our problem you go fix it $38 million but it was very clear don't come back this is to help you this is building the infrastructure it's building the mannequins it's getting you know the startup for the first two years and so um yes great question so it's a sustainability but we've been very clear that board's comprised of all these universities right all the presidents we we opted to serve we've got a great leader in Bruce Williams you guys know that you guys who got to see that um we know that we have to make that sustainable we know 11 team members what it's going to cost and so he's working diligently with that we're finding we're putting together the models right now this is proven but we're working with those universities and so as we do that as we do different things with with we're doing a lot through scholarships. Um, obviously we deed it over the the building, but that's a great question. But I feel I stand to you today. I think we're going to be just fine. So, we're all talking through that. We've had many folks. I'll be Dr. Capluto, UK's president, was just over here three weeks ago. Walked him through. He's wowed. There's nothing like it in Kentucky. I just had Congressman Andy Bar was just here yesterday. Walk through. I mean, these people, they walk through like this is something, guys. This is not going to just cover Western Kentucky. We're going to be able to use this all throughout the country. thinking about teaching math and sciences to junior highs. Scott Wood, Dr. Williams already said OCTC their enrollment is up 17%. So what this is going to lend itself throughout Western Kentucky and throughout and how we can teach in math and sciences, eth grade, guys, we're just scratching the surface. So great point. We got to make it sustainable. I stand before you say there's there's no doubt we're going to make it's not going to fail. We won't allow it to fail, but we're working through that right now to make sure how we're going to do that from a year-to-year basis. I think it's a gamecher and I give you all the credit and everybody who's been involved, all the hard work that went into making it

happen. Um, and the only other question I've got is the flu this year with the change in regimen as to whether people should get shots and all. Have we seen an increase in flu rates at Owensboro Health or has it been pretty much a normal winter? So you and I defer to Dr. Defram. We either look at Bit or Dr. Tidwell. So you tell me. That's good. Great question because we don't always know if it's going to cover those strains and so yeah, but yeah, it's been a pretty good year. Okay, thank you for all you do.

Thank you to all of you, not just Mark. Everybody, thank you. Thank you, Mayor. No, thank you and your team for being here tonight. you know, our hospitals, you know, our hospital truly is our community hospital and we are grateful for all the lives, you know, that you care for and the lives you saved and you truly saved my life. So, thank you for being an amazing community partner. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Commissioner N Smith. Fortunately, I don't have to use you very often yet.

That's a good thing. However, but when I have, it's been it's always been great. People are professional, very professional. Uh they do treat you like individuals and uh when any uh and you talk to people and people will say sometimes they'll have something that might be a negative and then you turn around and find out but you're still alive, right? So, and you're doing well. So, thank you all and especially your leadership. I get to work with some of you on some committees and things. I see Debbie back there. And so, uh, not only are you doing your job, you're also out in that community doing the e, you're doing extra work, too. So, thank you all. Thanks for noticing that. Thank you. Nurses. We got enough of them.

So, it's funny we were asking. So, the amount of nursing program Beth just said, um, 600 is the number you shared. We have 600 nursing students in the hospital. pretty great. So I told her because we got more that want to come and I won't name them. And she said, "Mark, hang on with the We need more preceptors." So again, that's going to be the challenge, but but no, 600 nurses going through the pipeline. Yeah, I got two granddaughters that perform over there. And I'm always quizzing them about what's going on and they seem to be pretty happy. Work hard. Okay, anybody else? Good job. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Thanks for coming.

Thank you guys for being here. Okay, next item on the agenda is to consider approval of minutes dated March the 3rd and March 17, 2026. I'll make a motion to approve. Could I have a second, please? Second. Thank you. Any other discussion? Assistant city manager, do you have anything to add? I do not. Okay. All in favor indicate by saying I.

I. All oppose. Motion carries. Thank you.

Item uh 5B, consider these board appointments. Housing Authority of Orangeboro Board appoints Skyler Stewart to fill the remainder of an unexpired term ending March the 20th, 2028, replacing Rita Mormon. Shaveley York Neighborhood Alliance appoint Joshua Marks to a two-year term effective April the 7th, 2026. The Ottoman Bon Harbor Area Neighborhood Alliance appoint Don Nation to a two-year term effective April the 7th, 2026. Midtown East Neighborhood Alliance appoint Bobby Patton to a two-year term effective April the 7th, 2026. Citizens Advisory Committee on Community Development appoint Sheila Crowe effective April the 7th, 2026. Civil Service Commission reappoint Blake Edge to a three-year term effective April the 9th, 2026. County Board Whoops, that's the next one, isn't it?

Huh? Okay. County Board of Assessment Appeals appoints Steve Lewis to a three-year term effective May the 1st, 2026. I make a motion to approve these appointments. Could I have a second, please? Second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor indicate by saying I. I. All oppose. Motion carries. Thank you. All right. Item six, ordinances. Second reading. Roll call vote. Boss.

Ordinance 5-2026. an ordinance annexing to the city of Owensboro certain unincorporated territory in the county of Davis adjoining the present boundary line of the city being property located at 1205 Euing Road containing a total of 10.393 acres more or less at the request of regional water resource agency read for approval on second reading the 7th day of April 2026 thank you I'll make a motion to approve could I have a second please second assistant city manager

you got City manager Peyton spoke to this at the last meeting. Basically, this is just a cleaning up of property for RWR. So, another 10 acres comes into the city and RWR will do some development at some point there in the future related to their business. Okay. Any other discussion from the diet? Okay. Hearing none. Roll call, please. Commissioner Nesmith. Hi. Mayor Watson, yes. Commissioner Mager, yes. Mayor Proim Glenn, yes. Motion is approved. Item 6B, please.

Ordinance 6-2026, an ordinance amending the annual budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025 and ending June 30, 2026 and amending ordinance 6-2025 to appropriate funds for elevator repair at the Allen Street parking garage to receive and appropriate funds for the Benh Hall's pickle ball courts, police officer training, and traffic safety. Read for approval on second reading the 7th day of April 2026. Thank you. I'll make a motion to approve. Could I have a second please? Second. Thank you. City manager assistant.

Yes, mayor. Thank you. Um some of these funds are being used for the elevator repair at the parking garage. Mr. Daset can tell you has been plaguing us for a long time. So I take care of that. Um as well as the Ben Hall pickle wall courts and police officer training. If there's any detailed questions you have, Miss Galloway has each one of individual amendments can speak to those. Okay. Anybody have any further questions? Rogo. Mayor Watson. Yes. Commissioner Mager. Yes. Mayor Pro Tim Glenn. Yes. Commissioner Nesmith. Yes. Motion is approved. Thank you. Item 6B.

6B or 7 A. 7 A. Okay. I thought you might want to read it twice. Scared me there for a minute. Okay. Ordinance 7-20 2026, an ordinance amending chapter 2, article 4, division 3 of the Owensboro Municipal Code relating to the procurement code introduced and publicly read on first reading the 7th day of April, 2026. Since this is a first reading, there'll be no vote, but I'd like to have some comments from assistant city manager, please.

Thank you, mayor. Yeah, this is um part of a cleaning up of that ordinance that will align our purchasing code with the state's codes and basically for any changes going forward in the state. Um they automatically ours will apply and I've got D can speak to that if you don't mind. D would you like to add something to that?

Well um uh assistant city manager uh Leland Hancock is correct. It's cleaning up. In the past, the way the ordinance was written, it was so detailed that anytime there was a change in the state model procurement, we had to amend our code. And now with the way that it has been amended, it references state model procurement sections and the regulations so that when the state increases an amount threshold or updates what's allowable, then ours automatically gets updated through that. So we don't have to constantly make changes to that procurement company.

Okay. Thank you. Any discussion from the DAS? I think that's over our heads. So we just say thank you. All right. Item eight, municipal order 11-2026, a municipal order authorizing the city of Owensboro to adopt the 2025 program for public information for the community rating system. Read for approval on one reading. The 7th day of April, 2026. Okay, I'll make a motion to approve. Could I have a second, please? Second. Thank you, Mr. Hancock. I'll ask Kevin Cullian to speak to this. You're up, Kevin.

Good evening, mayor and commissioners. Uh

so this is an education outreach program uh as part of the community rating system which um the city participates in to get discounted flood insurance premiums for residents. Um it's uh has to be um readopted every verification cycle which is every five years. And so we we adopted this in 2021. This is readdopting it with some uh minor changes such as like um new people that are on the on the PPI committee, um new goals, uh new outreach targets, stuff like that. Okay, any questions?

Thank you. Do what? No vote. It says Oh, you want to do that one? I'll make a motion to approve. Second. What? And we've already had discussion from the city manager. All in favor indicate by saying I. I. I.

All oppose. Motion carries. City manager items. I asked to consider the financial report the period ending February the 28th 2026. I'll call on D to give us the report and then we'll see if we want to vote on it.

Mayor and commissioners D Galloway deputy um director of finance and support services and I'm going to present the month of February and the year to date for February. The first slide that we have shows for the month of February, the actual revenues of 5.6 million were less than the budgeted revenues of 5.9 million by about $300,000. And that's primarily due to timing with the property tax receipts. For slide two, we have the eight months ending in February. The totals for the year, the actual revenue is 55.4 4 million and it exceeded the budgeted revenues of 53.9 million by $1.4 million. And that's primarily due to net profit and insurance premium license fees being up, the timing of property tax receipts and lower netted by lower municipal road aid, and some timing with tiff reimbursements from the state. Slide number three is the expenditures for February, 6.1 million and that's less than the budgeted expenditures of 6.4 million by about $300,000 and that's primarily due to timing of uh developer incentive payouts which we pay when we get our revenue in from the state. So because that's lagging then the expenditure is lagging. Slide number four is for the eight months ended expenses for February. The actual expenditures of 54.2 million are less than the budgeted expenditures of 59.4 million by about 5 million5.2 million. This variance is primarily due to timing and transfers to the transit fund expenditures for supplies and maintenance and then our savings and

personnel services. If you look at slide five, this slide shows the secular na nature of the city's monthly revenues and expenditures. The expenditures are depicted by the red bar and the revenues by the green bar. Revenues are higher in the months of October, November because of property tax collections. If there's any questions, I'd be happy to try to address them. Any questions from the DAS? Okay, I'll make a motion to file the report for audit. Could I have a second, please? Second.

Thank you. Any further discussion? Hearing none. We'll vote now. All in favor say I. I. All oppose. Motion carries. Uh I'd like you to consider the personnel appointments. Uh Mr. Hancock.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh, new hires, we have Michael A. Dilly, probationary, full-time non-Ivil service appointment to firefighter with the fire department effective April 27th, 2026. In regular status, we have Paris R. Cameron, regular full-time non-Ivil service appointment to telecommunicator with the police department effective April 7th, 2026. Thank you. Make a motion to approve. Could I have a second, please? Second. Thank you. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor indicate by saying I. All oppose. Motion carries. Thank you. City manager comments. Mr. Hancock.

Thank you, Mayor. I hope everybody's enjoying this wonderful weather, especially our staff for this beautiful uh spring break week. We've got several staff members out and several that need to be out with some and get some RNR. So, I hope they enjoy their time. Yeah. And is that where the city manager is joining us? And he he needed something as well.

He needed a little bit. Good deal. Okay. Um, open public forum. Members of the audience may have addressed the board of commissioners on any matter of public concern that was not on tonight's agenda. Comments are limited to issues within the scope and responsibility of the commission. Commission meetings are held to conduct city business for the benefit of Orangeboro citizens and taxpayers. meetings are not intended to serve as public forums for candidates or or campaigning for political office. Political candidates will not be allowed to use the commission meetings to promote his or her candidacy for public office. At this time, anyone who wishes to address the city commission, please make their way to the podium to be recognized. Speakers must state their name and address for the clerk's record and limit the remarks to three minutes or less. Since item is not on the agenda, no respon no response is required from the staff or the board of commissioners. Mayor reserves the right to extend the time to the speaker. Anybody want to talk?

Belly McCarthy, 9154 Highway 405, Macy, Kentucky. Is that in the city? Excuse me. Uh, do you do you also go by the name of Cliff Carlock? No. No. No. Okay. I'm sorry. Go ahead. What now? Why would that What? What are you mentioning? I thought you were another I thought you had identified yourself as Cliff Carlock previously. Not that I know of last time. I mean, I still Billy McCarthy that I know of. Okay. You've never gone by the name of Cliff Carlock? Okay.

Okay. Now, the last time I was here, I was a little bit harsh. I'm going to try to tone it down this time, but I'm still going to be serious. Now, um before I can I can I say something before the time starts? No. Yeah. Go ahead.

Sure. Okay. Now, when I address you as the city um and the council, I don't just mean you currently, but I'm also talking about the previous council members and the mayor and also the city. itself as far as um other city agencies and also private leaders um of the city that um whose purpose is to bring business and tourism into Orangeboro and now and when I address myself as I um I not only am saying for myself even though I live in the county I used to be a long-term Orangeboro resident but I also speak for myself as far as also citizens of Warsboro I've spoken with that told me about issues that they've and concerns they've had of um the city and also on I think it's Facebook marketplace that uh um oh not Facebook chat uh Facebook Orange Pearl chat I'm sorry they have like 36,000 members on there and I've heard various issues so I just want to put that when I it ain't nothing personal when I address as the city I don't mean just you personally I mean other entities. So anyway, what I want to say is um I don't believe you as far as a city have vision and I'm going to prove that right now. Uh the uh Orangeboro Riverfront on the west end has the English Park. In the center you have Smother's Park. Orangeboro should acquire the old Davis County Middle School property and the adjacent um OMU property and that would be a vast amount of riverfront property for development. Um but y'all have not seen this and this this opportunity has been there for

years. Y'all pass by multiple times a day. And when you cross the bridge now, the west side of the bridge, that's where all the entertainment and tourism and restaurants and everything happens to the east side of the bridge is more industrial. You got the sand and gravel and you got uh the the main businesses there are the sand and gravel and the uh grain company. Now, a little bit more further vision is what I believe you should do is contact the owners of these two companies and facilitate facilitate a land swap where the sand and gravel could relocate out on 60 closer to their main operations. And even though um that once bro grain part I don't know what the company that Can I continue?

I'll give you another minute. You might have to give them a little bit more than that, but just bear with me. Go ahead.

The um the Onsboro grain part, that's who I call it what now it it's grown a little bit, but it's still doable that they can relocate toward their um uh oral processing facility or even farther out at the riverport along the river. Now, both of these companies have accesses to barges. The easiest business to relocate would be the sand and gravel because they mainly have steel structures and conveyor belt systems. So that could easily be trans uh disassembled and transport transported over down by their place on 60. Now the even the sanding or the the grain company can still be disassembled and transported down the river. So then if you if the city um purchased the O Davis County middle school property and consolidated consolidated it with the OMU property next to it adjacent to it and then also acquired the uh Sand and Gravel and the Grand Company property, you would have the whole riverfront ready for development because like I say when you cross if you cross the bridge at night now The whole west side of the bridge area on the riverfront's all lit up, but it's sparsely lit up on on the east side due to industrial companies. The whole riverfront should be lit up with activity and tourism. And for years, uh, previous years and even decades, the city has failed to see this opportunity right here. And you still have time to develop the riverfront. uh because it just seems like when you cross bridge it just seems like ones half closed. You got all the activity on one side, nothing happening on the east side.

Okay. Thank you for your comments and not to to say anything negative, but what makes you think we haven't been talking about that? Have you got some you got some information that that's supposed to been I read the paper and I watched the news and I have not seen any activity or any kind of progress going on to acquire these properties. So, you tell me, has there been any progress of something happening down there for a development on the east side of the bridge? Thank you very much. Appreciate your time. I appreciate you being nicer than you were last time, too. I tried to, but I have sarcasm. It's in my blood. That's genetics. Okay. Anybody else would like to speak?

Okay. I guess not. Uh I did limit forget to ask the commissioners if they wanted to give a blur about what they've been doing since we met last.

Bob um Commissioner uh Maglinger and myself went to the uh the presentation for the mimography mobile mimography center and you know I think that not only is that's going to be a wonderful resource for the the area the whole region. It was a little startling. I mean, I kind of knew we were high, but I had no idea Kentucky was number one in cancer incidents. And so, uh, I just, uh, I just was very heartened they were doing that. And I think it's going to be a wonderful resource. And I did also want to thank a lot of the neighborhood alliances who had Easter egg hunts and a lot of events this week for kids. I think that that's always a great investment of their time. And so those were the two things I was add.

Curtis. Oh, thank you, mayor. No, had had a lot of great things happening in Owens real fast couple weeks. Again, Commissioner Glenn and I want to congratulate Alma Randolph's Foundation for uh reaching their 100th uh Hands Up Succeed and you know it makes a difference to families in Owensboro. Then had the pleasure to attend the Owensboro Dance Theater spring concert and it's amazing to see our great talent right here in our community. And then lastly, Owensboro's proud was proudly in the national spotlight last night when our Owensboro owned Steve Bridgeman won 2026 inspirational country music awards entertainer of the year. So that's great. Thank you, mayor. You're welcome.

Commission, I've just been busy watching them tear up the concrete and stuff around the hotel, so I haven't got out much, but uh it is uh the weather's great. Uh we're seeing all the people coming down and enjoying it and really looking forward to um already talking and working with uh Tim Ross and his crew uh already talking about uh the barbecue and barrels and they launched the raffle online yesterday I think. So if anybody wants to win half pots uh please participate and go online spend your money. Thank you.

Thank you. My comments are thanking my fellow elected officials for filling in on me when I been absent without leave. So I I do appreciate that. Okay, I guess uh will you will adjourn? All in favor indicate by saying I oppose. We're out of here.