City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, we'll call the meeting to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance if you're able. Pledge allegiance to the United States of America to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God indivisible. Welcome everyone. A big meeting full of awards and some recognitions. Craig, take the roll call, please. Uh, council member Obala. I. Council member Hilly. I council member Postma [snorts] I council member Baskin present [laughter] broke here member Waller present council member Fiser

Mayor King here um yes yeah I'm here too council member at large Austin [laughter] present this clerk stuff's tougher than it looks it's tough rookie all All right. Um, looking like number one number item number one is a motion to adopt the agenda. So move second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Item number two is a motion approving our minutes from our April 20th, 2026 meeting. So move. Second. All in favor? I opposed.

Motion carries. On to the fund. Item number three is recognitions and awards. We have a couple retirements. Patty Hamilton is first out of the gate. We have a card and a plaque and she has three hours to talk and thank us for all the all the good times all the good three three minutes [laughter] three three seconds too long. So this is an appreciation for Patty Hamilton for service to the city of Austin from May 1, 2013 to April 1, 2026 in the park recreation and forestry administration. Respectfully presented by the Austin City Council and Mayor Steven King. So Patty, I have a plaque for you and I'd love to come around and shake your hand in the front there. [applause]

retirement, Mr. Mayor. If I I just would like to say a few things. Um, so Patty, um, Patty's title while with us was, uh, administrative assistant, but your real roles were therapist, coordinator, trusted, confident, crisis coordinator, and occasional IT support. The list kind of goes on. Um, but you really were the glue that kept our team together. Um, steady, dependable, and always making everyone around you feel great. Um, you brought millions of smiles to families in Austin and um, our community is a better place because of you.

Patty is also the human Google of our department if you didn't know that. Um, and we are lucky to have been part of your team. Um, thank you for leaving this place better than you found it and congratulations. [applause]

And next retirement, Tim Hansen. Tim's been uh with the he's I think he's he's uh older than all the fire trucks in the garage. Are you sure? I am. Yep. We got to keep those up. So Tim, thank you for your work at the uh Austin Fire Department. Tim's service uh ran for the city of Austin from April 29th, 2002 to April 29th, 2026 as a full-timer and February 17, 97 to April 28th, 2002 as a paid part-time at the fire department. So, this is uh also a nice plaque respectfully submitted by the city city of Austin city council and Josh Kunzie is going to say some words potentially, right Josh?

[applause]

20 minutes.

Honorable mayor, esteemed council members, it's a great privilege uh that I stand before you today to recognize the career and achievements of Tim Hansen. Uh Tim joined the Austin Fire Department as paid or part-time firefighter in 1997 and later promoted to full-time status in 2002, leaving his job at KL TV6 behind him. Uh Tim became a mainstay in the inspection division uh along with many duties in the uh fire prevention education initiative that we run. Uh every year Tim was in contact with um a lot of students and business owners, probably numbering in the thousands. that you'll let that sink in. Um, the amount of knowledge and uh potentially lives saved um through Tim's hard work um has definitely changed our city for the better. Uh Tim was a consmate professional, always doing his job to the letter of the code book. Um at the firehouse, Tim was a mentor. Tim was a survivor and Tim was a source of a lot of humor for all that knew him. Tim's knowledge and quick wit will be sorely missed. Please join me in congratulating Tim Hansen on 29 years of service to the city of Austin and still without a hair out of place. [laughter and applause] I think Tim would like to say a few words, but he also told me that even though he's retiring tonight, his son has somehow managed to one up him here tonight. So, he's going to be getting an award next. Thanks Josh.

Thank you. That's all I want to say is thank you. [laughter] Thank you. Appreciate the years of service. [applause] [applause]

Right on. And uh Josh is right. We are uh awarding some uh awards to the four Austin Police Department um officers and one of them is Tim's son Ryan. So, we're here to present I think Mik's going to come award some uh or present some awards to Mark Tamky, Officer Ryan Hansen, Josh Bradley, and Ted Sherman or Sherwood. Yep. I'm just giving the introduction here. Uh you one of the hardest things in our profession and the fire service as well is how do you find a way to recognize good work when amazing work happens like on a daily and weekly basis? It really is something where um I know a lot of you have gotten updates and stuff, but like you said, the the things that the police and firefighters do just every single day u I think would blow people's minds. It becomes it's it's amazing, but it becomes just what what you expect. It becomes sometimes what you expect as an administrator, as a supervisor, or even an officer. And it's really easy to get lost in uh and not recognize at times the great work that these folks do. Uh some staff members approached last year. Uh we've always tried to do letters or other ways of recognizing people. Uh but they wanted to do something a little more um structured, change some of our awards, be more public about recognizing our staff. Um formed a committee, uh put kind of a policy in place, put some procedures in place for being able to nominate staff. It's not just me. It's our our line officers can nominate staff for awards, great work and good work that they see. Um, this is our

first opportunity to do this. I really do think going [snorts] forward it's going to grow a whole lot. Um, [cough] and you know, I think the hope is they'd like to see this kind of be an independent day almost banquet style to start honoring, you know, the folks we work with where it's an opportunity to recognize citizens uh, within this program. It's really great opportunity and again the folks you're going to hear uh, about tonight have done an absolutely uh, fantastic job. they are [cough and clears throat] letting me delegate this which is good because I don't read the small pieces of paper very well anymore so best that they do it but again uh I think it's great that the staff being honored also hear from the supervisors who supervise them on the daily basis um we're often act asked to have some tough conversations but I know care very deeply for our staff care deeply for our citizens and I'll turn it over to uh which one wants to start

Hartman microphone I'm going to not used to this. Um, yeah, like the chief said, uh, this program really started beginning in 25 or throughout 25. Um, we started putting it together in 2026. I was starting to put the awards program together as something that we were lacking just to recognize those very special moments outside of what we're expected to do on a day-to-day basis. Um, thankfully I snagged Sergeant Betts, uh, got him involved and he has really taken it brought it to where it needs to be. um taken a lot of stress off of my my plate which has been nice. Um so in total we have about nine awards that we can choose from. Um when you include some of the citizen stuff this involves our officers, different citizens as well as possibly other members from different departments whether it be the fire department, county, other other departments that might come and assist. Um it is a nomination process. We have a committee that meets. They vote on what uh nominations meet what awards if any. Um, I think we probably had double digit nominations and we walked away with six total awards, four different officers. So, you're going to see two different officers get two different awards tonight. Um, like the chief said, we hope to make this kind of grow it as time goes um into something that kind of stands alone, but we'll start where we're at and just keep working from there. So, um, with that, I'm going to call up Sergeant Betts. is going to go over just what the award is very briefly. Um what the incident is that the officer is getting that award for and then we'll hand out the awards.

All right. Thank you. The first awards we're going to do are called exceptional service awards. Um, in our department, this is defined as award to department staff, chaplain or police support group members for demonstrating exemplary performance in their normal duties or for outstanding accomplishments or services. So, the first one that we are going to have is officer Mark Tamky. [applause] Sure. No. Perfect. Right there.

While they're standing there looking pretty, I'll explain this award. [laughter] Um, on September 26th or 22nd of 2005, Officer Tami responded to report of a suicidal individual who had entered a local body of water with the assistance of department drone officers and other partners. Uh, they quickly located the individual in the water. Recognizing the danger, Tami assisted other officers in getting the individual out of the water before anything went wrong. Um, after being brought to safety, that individual was uh sent to the hospital per EMS. Um, thanks to his rapid response, his teamwork and commit commitment to preserving life and the individual safety. Um, and then um the he the individual received medical care and was ultimately safe.

[applause] Thank you, Mark. Appreciate it. Appreciate your efforts. Uh, the second one up is going to be Ryan Hansen. [applause]

[applause] [laughter] I'm coming.

This is also the exceptional service reward. Um, this stem from the exact same call. This uh officer Hansen has the unique ability. He is a drone officer for the department. uh he is licensed and certified to operate our drones and he utilized that on this call to help quickly locate that person using the specialty tools that are available with that service. So because of his dedication and ability to get that certification um in this case it helped save a life. So that is why he's receiving this award. [applause] Well done, Ryan. I've seen some of your aerial photos there. It's beautiful, that drone way up there. And the uh next one up is going to be Officer Josh Bradley. [applause] So for the exceptional service award, this also stem from the same call, all nominated by their sergeant at the time, which was Sergeant Osborne. Um Bradley responded to the same call, uh recognized the the individual in distress who was partially stuck in the banks of the the water. um and utilized a rope that we had in to throw in and start pulling the person back out of the water, ultimately getting them to rescue and safe and sound.

Yep. So now what we have Bradley is actually receiving two awards tonight. Uh the second one he is receiving is the letter of recognition from the department. uh letter of recognition is awarded to a member of the department who distinguishes himself or herself for an actor achievement beyond the normal performance required of that member and reflects well upon our department. So for this would be September 14th of 2025. Officer Bradley responded to the emergency room for a report of a stabbing victim. Um, while documenting these injuries inside the ER, a severe wound unexpectedly reopened, causing s significant and rapid blood loss. At the direction of medical personnel, Officer Bradley immediately applied what is described as direct digital pressure to the wound. Um, helping to control the bleeding during a critical moment until the additional medical staff could arrive and take over that. So the the nurse of the ER is actually who um recommended Bradley for this award and uh stated that the officer swift action, calm response under pressure provided vital support to medical personnel and contributed to stabilizing the victim who was later transferred for advanced care. [applause] Thank you, Josh. And maybe uh did you get an award for blowing by Mckin during that foot chase? [laughter] You should have had one. Congratulations.

All right. And the next officer up will be Ted Sherwood. [applause] [applause]

First for Mr. Sherwood. He has the letter of recognition as well. Um, this stems from July 8th of 2025. Officer Sherwood was dispatched to a report of an unresponsive 40-year-old female who collapsed and was not breathing. Um, Sherwood located the patient on response of no pulse, acting without hesitation, initiated CPR, deployed AED, and delivered shock. uh continuing resuscitation efforts, administered Narcan precautionary and maintained CPR alongside fire personnel who assisted. Um through the sustained and coordinated effort and additional AED shocks, a pulse was restored. Um officer Sherwood's decisive action, composure under pressure, and commitment to preserving life were instrumental in successfully resuscitating this patient. That is his letter of recognition. Now, taking a step beyond that, um, Officer Turwood tonight is also receiving a life-saving award. Um, this one's a bit unique as it it requires that they go a step beyond what a typical officer is capable or potentially even trained to do um to do something that if he had not done it, that person would have been deceased. Um, this stems from May 27th, 2025. Officer Sherwood was dispatched to a motor vehicle crash involving a vehicle that had struck a utility pole. The driver was reported to have difficulty breathing. Officer Sherwood observed the pickup truck with an unresponsive male. Recognizing the severity, Sherwood quickly removed the driver from the vehicle by himself. Determined he was not breathing, immediately initiated solo CPR, deployed AED, and delivered multiple life-saving shocks all by himself. Through these actions and sustained life-saving effort efforts, a pulse was restored prior to the arrival of EM EMS. Um, again, Officer Sherwood's rapid response, critical

decision-making, and unwavering commitment to preserving life were instrumental in the resuscitation of this patient. And again, this one stands out because all this was achieved before EMS could even arrive. Sherwood handled all this um, which makes him very deserving of this award. [applause] And Ted, I'm sure your past EMS uh helped that occasion. I'm guessing council member Hely had a good idea if those that Are we done with the officers, right? Those were four. Yep. I believe I'm told they just want a picture.

Yeah, there's there's a ton of family, too. I'd invite the family up here. Even three-day old Everett, if he wants to show up. Um, so if please, those that got awards, you want to take a picture up here with your bring your families up. It would be awesome. group of

you get a group over [laughter] here. But I could recognize you.

Congrats, guys. Congrats. Good job. You awesome job. All right. Very nice. I'M I'M [applause] there is no doubt and I appreciate Austin PD going to that that structure of recognition. There's no doubt the citizens of Austin are in great hands with APD. So appreciate those uh extra stories we might not hear every day. So and all what you do every day. So thank you and thanks for doing that a those awards. Um, moving on to, and by the way, it is Chief McKean's last meeting today. That should be recognized, too. [applause]

He will be retiring on June 20th. It's his last city council meeting. Uh, onto the consent agenda. Need a motion to uh for the consent agenda to approve. So moved. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Moving on to item number five under public hearing reviewing a tax abatement application from Biglo Lennon.

Thank you mayor members. Uh this is in a infill lot. So that's kind of exciting to see that happening in the Oak Ridge edition. Estimated value is $269,000 of the structure. Submission is in conformance with our adopted policy and this is a public hearing for approval or denial of the abatement. Bradley, any comment from the public? Everybody left. Yeah. [laughter] Cleared out right fast. All right. Council, anything questions for Mr. Clark on this tax bait? No. I would move to approve. Second. Okay. Council member Obala. I. Council member Hely. I. Council member Potzma. I. Council member Baskin. I.

Council member Waller. I. Council member at large Austin. I. Motion's approved. Thank you. Item number six on petitions and requests is affirming participation in the office of the state auditor's voluntary 2026 performance measurement program. Emily,

good evening. Mayor, council. The performance measure program was established in 2010 to provide a standardized framework for evaluating local government performance. In 2011, 10 performance measures were introduced followed by a comprehensive system in 2012 and refinements in 2013 to encourage parti participation. Uh participation is voluntary and the city has participated in it since 2013. And uh [clears throat] there are 10 standard measure measures and implementation of the system. And then participating cities are eligible for a reimbursement of 14 cents per capita with a $20,000 cab. And tonight uh staff asks council for approval to participate.

Very good. Thank you, Emily. Council, any questions? Otherwise, looking for resol resolution to participate. So moved. Second, Craig. Council member Obala, I. Council member Hely, I. Council member Podzma, I. Council member Baskin, I. Council member Waller, I. Council member Large Austin, I. Resolution is adopted.

Very good. Thank you. Item number seven is a resolution approving our amendment to a DNR flood mitigation grant. Stephen In the fall, we passed a resolution supporting the grant application for [clears throat] acquisition of two properties that are in the flood plane. At that time, we were looking at a a grant uh matching cost of $490,000 that would come of our come out of our local option sales tax fund. We've been working through the budget on this project and we have found that there are some funds that it it was planned to be 50/50 between local option sales tax and the DNR. Uh but we have found that there are some consultant costs that are not covered by the DNR grant that would be cost covered 100% by the city local option sales tax fund. So, we would we request before you tonight that we adjust the previous resolution to account for $43,500. Uh that would be covered 100% with local option sales tax. Then the remaining funds that are all eligible for the grant would be covered 50/50 with local option sales tax and DNR. So, our new uh total funding uh cost for the city and the local local option sales tax fund comes to $533,500 and we would request council approval for amendment of this resolution and submittal to the state DNR.

Very good. Thank you, Stephen. Council, any questions, Mr. Lang? I'm looking even just one clarify less on this than overall. Is it the end of this year that we stop collecting it and can stop doing projects or we stop collecting it at the end of this year and then we go through what the exhaustion of the funds? Remind me on that. We we stop collecting uh March 31st of 2027. Got it. So it's four three months into uh the start of next year. We stop collecting, but then we can continue spending the funds that are in our our fund for that we have collected over the years. Okay. Thank you. Very good. I would move to approve. Okay. Second. Craig. Council member Obala. Hi. Council member Hely. I. Council member Podzma.

Hi. Council member Baskin. I. Council member Waller. I. Council member Large Austin. I. Resolution is adopted. Thank you. Item number eight is a resolution approving the hormill stipulation grant. Stephen. Yes.

Agreement. This agreement um details uh penalties associated with exceedences of the ICM agreement and we have developed a document that has been reviewed by all parties that is attached in your backup material. This would go back to July 1st of 2025 and proceed to present. uh that date has been chosen due to that was uh when the current ICM agreement was implemented last year. Um, and to give you an idea, the penalties and the stipulations involved are that when um they would the [cough] industrial user would be charged $1,000 per every 10 ICM exceeded and then they would be charged $1,000 per each exceedence that results in an affluent violation from the city of Austin. And in the backup material, there is a breakdown of what those um dollar amounts would attribute to over the past uh nine months. That we're going to do these by quarter. So, it would be the third quarter of 2025, the fourth quarter of 2025, and the first quarter of 2026. Those are what we have uh to date. And then we will continue moving forward quarterly as those are necessary. So we would request council approval of this agreement.

Very good. Thank you, Stephen. Council, any questions? I'm looking for a resolution. So move. Second. Craig. Council member Obala. Stain. Council member Hely. I. Council member Pozma. I. Council member Baskin abstain. Council member Waller I. Council member at large Austin I. Resolution is adopted. Thank you. Uh item number 10 is resolution accepting uh this donation into the city of Austin's treasury.

Number nine. Oh, did we not do nine? Okay. [snorts] Nine's resolution approving the WHKS agreement for engineering services at the wastewater treatment plant. Sorry. Yep. We received a proposal in the amount of $25,000 from WHKS to assist the city with designing uh a codings re a recoding project uh for digtor number two at the wastewater treatment plant. Uh we reached out to WHKS as they are experienced in this type of work and we would recommend council approval of their proposal to begin work uh to develop plans and specifications for a project that would occur this summer into this fall. Thank you, Stephen. Council my questions. Item number nine.

Yes, Stephen, can you remind me um is this some the some of the new stuff that we've built this thing that's failed or is this something old that we remediated? I'm just I can't remember the details as to why we have this failure and and most importantly, is it going to slow down when the completion of the wastewater treatment plant is? So, we have two digtor tanks that we've been working on separate from the larger treatment plant project. Okay. So, these were standalone contracts with a different contractor than our than our larger project.

Um, these tanks are 20 years old and we developed a a project in 2022 to rebuild and recoat a cover and tank. We did a second project in 2024 and now we are back fixing the tank that was done in 2022. So there were failures that occurred with the construction work and this project is to fix those and we will work through the those details of cost down the road. Okay. Do we expect to have the same issue with the one we did in 2024 in two years? them. [snorts]

The one in 2024 started to fail. A different type of coding started to fail before we even put it into service and we already fixed it in 2025. Okay. So, we hope no we don't have long-term issues down the road with the the digesttor number one. Very good. Anybody else have any questions? Looking for resolution. So move. Second. Craig. Council member Obala. I. Council member Hely. I. Council member Podzma. I. Council member Baskin. I. Council member Waller. I. Council member at large Austin. I.

Resolution adopted. Very good. Thank you. We thank Robert Divine for his $50 gift for the flower program in 2026. And with that, looking for uh a resolution to accept it. So moved. Second. Greg. Council member Obala. Hi. Council member Hely. I. Council member Potzma. Hi. Council member Baskin. Hi. Council member Waller. I. Council member Large Austin. I. Resolution is adopted. Thank you. Any citizens looking to address the council. Seeing none, we're good. Thank you. [laughter] Thank you. It's your night to shine, brother. Uh then moving on to reports and recommendations. Craig.

Uh yes. Jim McCoy will be retiring on the 8th of this week. Uh so want to thank him for his uh professionalism at the fire department. Um wanted to announce Michael Hartman uh is our newest uh police chief. He will start June 22nd. As Chief McKeen has a run out on his uh until his retirement date and Chief McKeen, as the mayor mentioned earlier, um this will be his last council meeting as he takes uh vacation on the rest of of the next council meeting. So, we wish him the very best. Um Troy Tigner, I'm happy to announce, will serve as our interim fire chief uh with Chief McCoy moving on. So, uh, great support for him in the department. And, um, our, uh, sales tax moved out of the, um, uh, Senate tax committee. So, that's moving along nicely. House will be a little bit different challenge than the Senate side, but it's good that we're moving and being [clears throat] considered in the omnibus bill. We have May 11th is a joint city, county, and school district meeting next week at 4:30. So, you should have that on your calendars, but just as a reminder. And then May 20th, assuming uh council members don't have any objection because we're doing the city, county, school district on the 11th, we normally meet with just the county. Uh and that would been scheduled on May 20th. We'd look to council cancel that unless there's any pressing item that mayor or council members might have for the meeting on the 20th. Otherwise, that's all I have.

Very good. Any department heads have anything? No. All right. Council Obala, nothing. Your honor,

a couple of things. Since we uh don't have work session tonight, I just wanted to um put on the record that there are a couple of things I think we should be uh working on. One is the city council code of conduct. I think that was something we wanted to try to tackle um uh sooner than later. And then also, um, even though I hate to say it, the 2027 budget will be before us before we know it, I'm really interested in, um, some things that we can do for long-term cost savings, particularly electronic systems for payroll, purchasing, and so forth. Um, I'd like to see some information and proposals on that. um and uh uh seeking alternate revenue source s sources. Um I'm understanding there are some cities that are um hosting municipal marijuana. I think it it should probably at least get um the tires kicked by us before we say we don't have any other revenue sources besides um property taxes. And then um I want to switch gears and remind folks about 4th Avenue Fest on Wednesday, June 3rd. Um it's [cough] uh [clears throat] open swim at the pool, activities at the library, and everywhere in between. We're expecting um seven food trucks. Um uh there'll be canoe and kayak rides in Mil Pond. Uh summer reading kickoff, some live music. Um wellness on wheels from Mau County Public Health and the Hormel Institute. Um Austin Aspires Parenting Resource Center, ride your bike, the fire department will bring their ladder truck. Uh Austin Utilities is there. The YMCA at ACRC. Austin Area Arts Human Rights Commission will be present. Riverland Community College, Somerset Theater, United Way of Mau County, and the Mayo Clinic bring in an ambulance for the kids to check out. So, uh, mark

your calendars. It will be here before we know it. And I did order gorgeous weather. So, sunny and 70 is on the way. We hold you to that. [laughter] Good. Thank you, Laura. Jeff. Uh, nothing, your honor, Posty. Uh, nothing other than just, uh, a thank you again to the officers recognized tonight as well as, uh, both chiefs for, uh, Chief McKeen. Our, uh, retirement present to you is the shortest meeting we've had all year. So, you're welcome. [laughter] You are not allowed to give a speech now as a double it. Email either. Very, good. Thank you, Jason.

Um, yeah, a couple things. One is I thought that was wonderful tonight. I think I mean congratulations to Patty and Tim on their you know well-deserved retirements. They'll certainly be missed and I know they've made a great mark um on the community and I thought it was wonderful to recognize them. I thought it was great that we recognize the officers. I mean that's a really cool program which probably something we should think about you know how do we roll that out to some other departments as well to you know publicly recognize a lot of the great work that our people do. Um and yeah I mean it's um you know Chief McKeen officially congratulate. I'm sure we'll drag you back up here for a retirement thing at some point, but have definitely appreciated all your leadership and guidance. And you know, I think you leave the department in a better spot than you inherited it. And you know, when you think about all the things that have taken place around policing and changes in public narrative and everything like that over the last, you know, probably 10, 15 years, you know, I've always been really proud that Austin is different. And I think most Austin residents would tell you that Austin's different. And I know that your leadership and the leadership of Captain Clinton and another folks that are in there, Chief Designate Heart, we're getting to him are are a big reason. So, thank you. You will be missed. Still not going to root for the Michigan Wolverines, but [laughter] also will though. So, I got

And same with Chief McCoy. Um I know he's moving on to, you know, another role here. I think, you know, obviously a ton of service and those are neither one of these are jobs that are, you know, 7 to five, you know, checkout, you know, type of jobs. Um, and then finally, yeah, Chief Designate Hartman, incredibly excited to have you leading the department and look forward to to working with you. I think just a great choice overall and our department will be handed off in good hands. So, best of luck. Appreciate it. Very good. Thank you, Jason Becky. Nothing.

Thank you. Well said, Jason, on that. Nice to have the those folks get the awards and also recognize our retirees. So, I do want I have a few more things, but I want to read the May anniversaries. For the month of May, we have Jeff McCormack. He has 30 years with Austin PD. Marie Ree, 24 years with Austin Fire. Tim Olsen, 19 years Austin Fire. Neil Gurgen with the streets and central garage has 14 years. Aaron Yanganger with the police, 11 years. Kurt Schmidt, sewer maintenance, nine years. Dan Buuch wastewater treatment plant, seven years. And Joel Rockwitz, our planning and zoning and building uh resource officer, has one year. So, thanks all those folks, their longevity. And then also want to mention that Jason and I had the high honor of being able to do the ceremonial puck drop at the last Saturday's Bruins uh game. Packed house. There's so much energy and I think it's only going to get bigger. They're having a great year. But that energy and that they were they were really full last two days in a row.

They were just awarded the NHL organization of the year. Is that right? About an hour ago.

Really? Well, [laughter] I think they got like three or four players up for players of the year also there. So just a great time. Uh, so it's fun for Jason and I to be doing and those guys walking out of the tunnel are not small dudes. My goodness, [laughter] they're beastly. I want to be on the ice with them. Um, also to Chief McKe and I just boy oh boy, the the times we've had over my corrections career. uh daily interaction with with uh McKe is uh something I look forward to every day and just uh I said it maybe a few meetings ago. There's no better person I'd want to be chief of police in time of crisis or time of calm. That guy has it going on. I can recall a few Christmases ago when we had that officer involved shooting and couldn't have been in more capable hands to handle that whole situation and just the day-to-day business. So just a delightful person. you will absolutely be missed. Um, and again from not only the mayor perspective but my corrections perspective too did a lot of great work. So I wish you well. He is coming back on June 22 to help swear in officer or soon to be chief Hartman. And uh he says we don't recognize him because he'll be vacationing out from now to June 20th. But I don't know what that means. Longer hair. I'm not sure what this is [laughter] really like. But I I wish you well McKe. You've been just an outstanding chief of police and a great friend for all these years. So, I appreciate your time [snorts] and happy retirement, brother.

Um, and Chief McCoy, you know, he he left to a to a job where the only thing up in Atgo is brand new homes. So, I told him he won't have a fire up there for about 35 years. They got a brand new fire station they're building. He's probably going to have a delightful time. But, we wish him well and thank him for his uh his time here as well as the chief of the fire. And again, welcome Michael. I know it's great to see two internal candidates go forward. I think that's healthy. I know I I want to thank the police civil service and the two off two chiefs that Chief McKean invited down to help interview uh from Oaton and Albert Lee. I think that was had their perspective and I just think the the whole uh process was well earned and your time on APD has got you to this place. So, we're looking forward to working with you uh [snorts] from the council perspective and also from my corrections perspective. So, you're going to you're going to do do great. I know you will. So, um, welcome to in about a month to be chief of police.