City - Regular Meeting

Uh, special session, mayor and city council meeting. Um, 11:15 Mon 11:15 a.m. uh, Monday, May 11, 2026. City Council City Hall Council Chambers call this meeting to order. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. us to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all welcome. Okay, we go to item number three, fiscal year 2026 2027 budget 8 budget workshop regarding the presentation and discussion of the 2026 2027 preliminary budget which you see.

Well, thank you. Good morning everyone. Um, thank you. Good morning again. Um, okay. So, um we have uh you you all have uh the draft of the fiscal year 2027 budget. Uh emphasize this is a draft. It will change um through the course of our discussions with you. And anything else that we uh may need before we go to the um tenative budget which is scheduled for probably next week sometime

for next week sometime. Um so it will go hard um when you pass the tenative budget. Uh up until now it's only a draft. Okay. So, um, all discussion, uh, is is yours, um, and the department heads. Just a couple of notes, um, because we need your input on a couple of different items before we can go to the tenative budget. Number one, uh, no adjustments to wages are in this draft. Okay. Um, we have provided you with I think about nine or 10 different scenarios of what might be useful for you to determine what that uh what those adjustments will be moving forward. So uh hopefully we will have that as a part of this discussion so Sergio can get that uh into the draft as as quickly as possible so that we can see what the impact will be on the budget. Okay. Um number two um the uh water fund um if you noticed when you went through it water fund is zero. Water fund is in the hole. Water fund is going to need about a $1.2 $2 million infusion. Uh it's going to have to be done with this with this budget. Um there's two possible places where that money can come from that we're uh able to use. Uh one would be the general fund reserve. The other one uh would be the sewer fund reserve. Uh we've spoken with um the auditor about both of those options. Of course, you won't be giving money to the water fund. We'll be loaning money to the

water fund, which will have to be paid back. Um, and working out the details of that will be something that we do once we um once we know uh where the money is going to come from. Uh and then we'll need some advice from legal in terms of how we structure that specifically, but that should be relatively simple uh to structure. Um we'll we'll say more about the water fund when we get to it. But obviously um in addition to that infusion of cash in order to keep it solvent, um we're going to uh not with the budget, but about the same time you adopt the budget, you're going to have to to to do something you haven't done in 10 years. U and and that would be increase the rates. Um, and we're going to have to increase them by a a pretty substantial amount. Um, it doesn't all have to happen in a single year, but it's going to have to happen over a very short period of of time in order to make it whole again. Um, and that's not just me talking. That's not just the auditor talking. That's our funding agencies talking as well. and uh you know we've got work we need to do in the water fund and they want to see skin in the game on on the part of the city uh in order to continue funding our needs and uh and as you know already the needs are substantial. So anyway um I since I haven't sat here before through one of these I don't know if you want to go through them in the order which they appear in the book or if you would rather do it some other way. Um, it's your call, Mr. Mayor.

We'll go in as as you present it, please. Uh so we

okay in front of you you have the budget workshop draft book and we can start with the which is on page four which will be the general revenues just to so you can have an outlook and an idea how the revenues are looking for expectation of uh revenues for next fiscal We currently are at based on this book the numbers when I pull the numbers it's at we're at 11.8 million. We still have the rest of May and the rest of June. Um we're expecting maybe around 12 million maybe a little bit more. just being conservative on the numbers that we selected. Um, if you're aware, uh, revenues are we're at the level that they're actually not increasing like they used to. So, they're kind of leveling up compared to how it was for the last couple of years. And that is the reason that why we're some of the numbers were keeping the same based on the historic of what the activity has been happening in that fiscal year. And we can just continue to to monitor. And if I can interject also, uh we're trying to take into consideration as best we can, uh what the impacts of tariffs are going to be and what the impacts of the war in the Middle East are going to be. Uh unfortunately, when you get down to the local level, that's pretty hard to predict. Um but we all know that tariffs have had an impact. Um and uh that that the war is going to have an impact, too. Probably less so uh than tariffs, but it it exists. that's out there and we're trying to be conservative based on those world events have any impact on local budgets.

Just right off the bat on on the current sales tax, we're already at 1.7 102,000,000 and you're dropping it 200,000 for next year for the public safety portion. This is the tax revenue which is the because we have two current uh sales tax. One that will say it's cut off. It'll just say public. That's the one that we dropped. That's the one that you're questioning. Mhm. The public safety. Mhm. Yes. It's the public safety portion that we collect.

What's the reason? And again, it's at the time when I had the numbers, it was numbers from when I put in the the the the numbers at the 1.5 million is that we didn't have that many. And again, because every month it changes. So like right now when I pulled the the full report, it included extra revenues that came in after it was determined. So you're still looking at dropping the

So we're trying to be conservative as Mr. U what what I don't see it's okay tariff and all that it's going to it's been making it's you know obviously it's been a hardship on on everybody but yet prices are going up that means higher prices more taxes already correct if people spend oh we got to eat we got you know you know well I'm not talking about food necessarily

you know and I you know I see it that no matter we put a $80 tomato box uh on on for sale it's selling like crazy. Uh you know it's it is getting hard on the on the home consumption but you know uh you know the higher it is the the higher the the tax amount is going to rec recover the tax uh or the the amount of purchasing. Mhm. We can always put it back at 17, which was the number that we had. It's at the time I had it barely 1.5. That's why

Yeah. Yeah. It's not all about uh food and gas. Yeah, I know. It's all consumer goods. Consumer goods spending is definitely down and it it's down locally just as much as it is nationwide. Page four. Page four. And you're going to be you're going to be seeing that for the rest of this year anyway. Just as public, it's the third line.

Go ahead. Continue. Okay. So, going down the this page is that based on the numbers that I had, again, this these were um back in mid April. So, the termination of what numbers was coming in. One of the things is that we did notice that there weren't coming in as as much as they were this year, last year. And as I've explained and presented on the monthly uh financial reports is that comparing the revenues to this this fiscal year compared to last fiscal period, they've been tragically going I mean not not really a big change, but they're not as high as they were last year. And that is the reason that we're trying to be more conservative conservative in in ways that saying that we're not going to be receiving this extra because it's better to under um estimate how much revenues we're going to get and then actually overestimate the numbers to make sure that we're when we're doing the when we're doing the budget for the expenses, we don't over over budget. shared revenue was actually a bit of a surprise. We were all expecting actual drops in share revenue and that did not happen across the board uh just a little bit um in uh the transaction privilege tax uh portion went down uh because of the Santan Valley uh incorporation uh that took $47 million out of out of the big part of the pie and uh so the state government must be they they must be forecasting their revenues are going to go up because uh otherwise our revenues

would have gone down because the pie is is this big and now we got another city with a very large population taking a piece out of the pie. So I'd say there we did pretty well. So on page four I guess the the biggest change will be the occupational uh business licenses. As you can see that if you look at the historic view it was you know we collected 751,000 back in fiscal year 24 23 we got about 703 a little bit less than that and right now at this point we're at 562,000. So so we're we're we

was that yeah it went it went less. So that's why we we lowered that amount for for next fiscal year because we see a trend that it's going down. So that's one of the biggest uh decreases. Uh again for when it comes to this current sales tax for the portion of the public uh we can always put at 1.7. At the time I had less than 1.5. That is the reason that I I I lowered it. I didn't want to overstate our our revenues for next fiscal year. In the next page, uh one of the increases we had was for recreational fees. uh they've been adding different programs to their summer youth programs and and and also the golf course um the driving range they've been revenues actually have been increasing. So those two were one of the increases that we had at the on this for revenues. Um and then let me see rental lease income. Uh that was increased a little bit more uh because of the taking into consideration the Balo lease. If you scroll down the page in page five, you'll see that there's a a change in the inner inter in interfer fund loan transfer, that was $118,000 that we had lent the previous fiscal year to the water fund. And at the beginning of the fund, they paid it paid us. So that's why it's at zero. That's mostly just to to track any loans that we lent to any other uh funds.

Yes. Go ahead. Turn on your mic, please. on the unfunded liability. This is uh it's not budgeted. It's mostly on the pension portion of all the debt. Yeah, I know. But where you'll get to that that's a that's a balance sheet I the balance sheet which wasn't part of it, right?

Which I mailed to you. Okay. Thank you. And then on page six, the other decrease was in the miscellaneous revenues. We would normally get dividends from our liability insurance and this was the first year that they sent that out, but they weren't um given dividends. So, we had to lower because we normally we get a check from from AMRP. So, we we don't want to budget in case they decide on to hand over a check. Yeah, they've already notified us there won't be a dividend this year. So

on the carry forward, we're just dropping two million.

Carry forward is normally calculated based on the current revenues that came in and the current expenditures at the time of the calculation. So you normally get your current uh your carry forward you will add your revenues to it that they came in and then you subtract all the expenditures but at the time again when we're working on the budget we start off in April we started May so we're not including all the revenues all the expenditures and and that's basically how it's being calculated this year I decide to kind of go back a little bit more and check the full amounts of all the revenues that came in and all the expenditures and in certain uh departments expenditures increase which you know fluctuates the amount that that you can carry forward to the following year. So that is the reason that the number is just because it includes I went back about six years to make sure that we're we're including all the revenues that have come in throughout the last six years and the and the expenditures as well since again we we only worked on the numbers that we have at at the time. We don't really include when we're calculating this number, we're not really including all the revenues, all the expenditures for May and June.

It's it's it's decreased a little bit based on the calculations of how it was being done before because the calculations was being done based on numbers normally that were from April. Uh from April actually. Yeah, a little bit. That's true, Mike.

Uh, page seven. Yes. So this is the non-dep departmental. Um so one of the changes was that we did increase was the other professional services and that's basically because of all the to have enough for the consulting or everything based on the situations that we're at just in case because well certain departments when we're getting the consultation for HR like happened u um few months ago we discussed about how it had to come out of the city manager um budget to actually pay for the HR consultant at the time. So we just want to make sure that we're other changes were based on the general um insurance building and and deduct not the deductible the vehicles building and general insurance based on AMRP they're there's a in they're increasing some of the other prices so the cost of the whole you know liability insurance has increased so we're we're making sure that we're also considering the new building that

excuse me building. Yes, the admin building and also the communication building. So that's embedded in here. Correct. Mhm.

See on the next page. I have a question because I'm looking at it um on number on the category 75 where it's 150 and 150. How is that money spent or what is that? Which one is it? Category 75, the last one on the page 150 150 services from other agencies. That's what the mayor and council has uh decided to that's what goes to the uh port authority chamber and to other agencies. Is the other additional 50,000 is that for incind or it's up to what is it may it's as far as

what we've been doing for so the 50,000 is for the incind that that um is been has been approved will be approved if that's what the mayor approved this budget it will be approved. Yeah. So I'm assuming Yeah. Oh, sorry. It's the chamber authority and and other agencies and other agencies. If I can recall that's a couple of years ago, that's what was decided. Oh, it's 50 for that. Okay.

Thank you, sir. And on the next page, the you have the res the reserve which is actually it's a increase of 2.9 million. That's more more about the un budgeted uh revenues.

Page eight on the reserve which shows a 2.9 increase of re reserve category 80. Mhm. And any any of the expenditures that we end up cutting in the general fund will go back into the reserve. So it doesn't really lower or change the the bottom line number of the total budgeted is just fluctuates between the reserve. Either we if we increase a line item, we pull it out of reserve. If it decreases, then it goes back into reserve. Just to give you that uh information. Mayor, I have a question. Go ahead.

Mr. Pulin. Um earlier you had said that there was in your opinion that we needed to look possibly at increasing the utility rates. Um so um is it fair to what the utility rates, water rates? Oh, okay. You you made that comment. Yes. Right. So um so this reserved tier um cannot just to make it clear for the public we can't use the reserves to to you know balance the the utility uh the water fund water fund. Yeah I call it utility because it covers a sewer too. So can you clarify that please so the public know that these are these are what we're talking about right now are general fund exactly

avenues. Okay. Um you can loan money to another fund. Mhm. Okay. So, if you wanted to use general fund dollars to make that loan to the water fund, then it would come out of the general fund reserves. Okay. Uh and if you wanted to do it out of one of the other utility funds, then it would be coming from there. So, so that would only be the case if this were if you decided to make that loan from the general fund. Yeah. Thank you. On your mic, Mr. Turn on your mic.

So from the conting contingency reserve to the reserve we're talking about. Uh I thought the contingency was where he kind of drew money from but it's the general reserve. Yeah, it would be the general fund reserve is where the money would come from. Okay. So, so how does it affect the contingency reserve when you draw money from that? Well, the question was asked right now. Okay. And whether you know the general fund, this contingency reserve is one item. You've got another reserve a couple pages back. Your general fund reserve could come out of there. So, there's two they're two different. Okay. That's what I wanted.

Yeah. But it's all general fund at this point. What we're what we're talking about right now is the same pot of money. Same money. Yeah. Thanks. Thank you. Okay, we go to the next page. We're going to go to the mayor's department, page nine. Mayor, may I have a a I have a question. Go ahead. Yeah, I have my mic on. Yes. Um, just before we go on, I just want to make it the summary of all funds which is included in the packet at the very beginning. said he um I wanted to ask you um how did you get come up before we move on into the uh departments?

Um how did you come up with the 10 million $10.8 million on the you put you put street funds but you know it's a herf. Yeah. How did how did you come up with that? So what happened is that they have the $6.2 million that they just received. So we need to budget and and since we never had it budgeted last fiscal year it came in. So, we have to budget it because they're they need to expense it out on those three the three uh street projects.

Okay. And and I knew you explained that because this morning I I looked up what the amount is. You know, it's a it's a public it's public information and and we're at we're at 3 million right now. State revenue uh amount for the city of Noales is 3 million as we speak this morning and you put 10 million. So, can you kind of explain to me a little bit about that? Sure. Just so in my mind I skip then you'll go back. Oh, we could just wait and we can I mean if we want to we're going to we'll get to that department. We'll get to that department. Yeah. Yeah. Because if it's docu I mean it's there that says $3 million as we spend off right now from the Yeah. I had to add the 6.2 million to the revenues because we already received it. It's already in the bank.

Okay. So we had to include the 6.2 million as as the carry forward for that project and then added the 6.2 million as expenditures as well for the projects. So we have to keep them separately. We don't want to include the 6.2 million on their operating uh budget. It's because it's only for those three uh street projects. So that is uh so if you grab that 10 what is what I think I put 10.8 you subtract the 6.2 then you'll you'll you'll drop it down to based on on the revenues are coming in expected revenues and their carry forward. Yeah. So that information on the website will be will be like updated. Um yes hopefully. Yes. Yeah. Okay.

Back to uh page nine. That's uh the mayor's side. Nothing much to say here other than the fact that it's pretty similar to last year or the current year as the case may be. Good. So, any questions the mayor's?

I just have a question. I'm looking at the travel mileage on category 68. So in 2025 it was at 9,911 and it went up to 25,000. Why such a big increase? Okay. So the budget uh for this fiscal year is 25,000. So far he spent 9.9 um well 9,900 a little over that. And he's just carrying the same uh budgeted amount for the next fiscal year. One is actual the other ones are the budgeted amounts.

Yeah. Fiscal 25 is actual and fiscal 24 is actual. So it's been much higher. Uh so we left it the same because it's been up around 25 in the past. So being that it's a draft, we can always come back and decrease it. Right. Yeah. It can it can always be numbers can change. These numbers can change. Do you pass your tenative budget? You can change it. Okay,

let's go to the next page which is the councils and this one seems to be uh budgeted the S have a question about that. Looking at one of the uh council members that we're only our budget, we have a certain budget and if you go over almost double, where does that money come from to cover that?

Okay. For this budget, there was a transfer done from uh past admin administration, city manager that they because it was overspent. So, a budget transfer was done back into this line item. And that is the reason that it's the budget seems to be higher in that and that uh line item. Well, for the next fiscal year, it's brought back to what it's supposed to be budgeted. Go ahead.

I have a question on the health insurance for the council just so we could be um transparent about it. Um health insurance is paid for council members and mayor. Yeah. Can you speak up? Yeah. Yeah. It's because I have a cold. Um the health insurance it's embedded into the cost. Correct. So um if you see the cost just it it is about $100,000 for health insurance coverage. Correct. Just want it to be in public just so that could be noted. Okay. Okay. Yeah. It is budgeted within

Yeah, you did. You did. I just wanted it to be noted that it gets paid. Thank you. Does does this number reflect from the insurance the increase uh from the health insurance the 108,000 is that the new rate or yeah let me see what's the what was what was

what was last time 98. Just get the that form real quick. It was 1,200 a month and it's 1,800 if I'm not mistaken or 1,500 a month. I just want to double give you the right number. M

yeah that includes the the increase. Yeah, it's if I may, mayor, I think it's um it's reflected in the in the amount you gave us earlier. I think we discussed that in one of the the uh insurance meetings because it's it's a different amount from last year. So, you factored it in. That's good. The additional increase. Yeah. Right. Okay. Thank you.

Any other questions with Okay, we're going to go to the city manager's budget on page 11. for other professional services you will see a decrease and that's where uh past administration had increased it and that's where we ended up paying the consultant from or HR this fiscal year so it was increased with a transfer other than that it's just your almost similar to the previous And and Sergio, what kind of expenditures are professional services are tied to the city manager's budget? So from there, that's where we're paying the lobbyist.

Uhhuh. And city manager search onsite the the city manager search and the HR. That's what was included in there. Okay. So right now that's where we paying for the city manager search. Yes. Uhhuh. on other professional services. You go back to 24 and zero. Mhm. And then it climbs up pretty drastically in the following year. The following it it it kind of shoots up in 25. Uhhuh. And then from 2526 it right goes about another 100,000 up. Mhm.

Uh what does that all that include? So as Mr. pocket explain it's for lobbyists. That's what the majority of the cost was I that I'm looking at here. It's the the lobbyists and then they're What is the actual cost for the lobbyist? I think it's 3,000 a month.

$3,000 a month. So in in 25 it was more more of that the lobbyist consulting and there's some uh and for the they also did some HR consulting in that year and for 26 it's similar but then that's when they brought the full um person here in HR. So that's what actually increases from 152 to 240 and this year it's dropped.

And then the uh search for the new city managers also in that in that budget. That one probably could come down a little bit further. We need to it could go down. That could go down probably to 100. Let me see. Sir, how many employees are under the uh city manager?

Employees right now we have two, the interim and the safety officer. Position-wise, they have budgeted they have three budgeted positions. City manager, safety officer, and the admin assistant to the city manager. for my short short time here. I didn't I thought I'd just save hiring the administrative assistant for a permanent city manager because I don't want to hire somebody and that not be compatible or something worse.

Okay. And no capital for this department. No capital. Any questions? Okay. Go to page 13. That's the finance department. Can I follow you with something? Sure. What's going on? Your mayor,

do you have a breakdown on on the on the employees, you know, assistance, safety officer, and the city manager? Yes, there in the they're in the back. I put a little sticky on the side, but you can go back to the payroll schedules. It's uh it's at the end. I put a little I added it the payroll schedule for you guys at the end. Sticky right on the side. You'll see a little sticky. Yes.

And from there you'll see the payroll schedules. Okay, thank you. And just as a point of reference, uh the posted salary or budgeted salary for that administrative assistant is 32,850. Uh that represents minimum wage in Arizona, by the way. So it's probably going to be higher moving forward. Is there a offer where the city manager's higher?

City manager will probably be higher too. That's currently budgeted at 155 because that was the pre salary. If we change that, then I can update all the numbers to recalculate all the allocations and all 170 up to 170. I can actually if I plug in that number I can give you like shot. Yeah, just go ahead.

Okay. Anything else? Yeah. So if we if we had the city manager at 170, it will increase the city manager's budget by 18,000 overall.

But now it's instead of - 12 be + 6. Mhm. Yes. Approximate also the ASRS of pension dropped a couple of percentage. So that also lowered and some departments you'll see that the pension actually dropped because of the pension the percentage dropping as well

just as uh PSPs as well. Oh okay. How much? Uh almost 10%. It just changes. is varies from fire department and police department but that also dropped the the pension because yesterday I mean last year last year which is this fiscal year uh it's the highest at least that I've seen

yes for both fire and police no decrease so the pension decrease Please any questions? For the finals, we did increase the overtime uh mainly for our meter readers that sometimes depends on the situation that they have to be they have to stay late and that's why it was increased compared to how it was uh last fiscal year.

Was that yes, we're in finance. Mhm. And also the increase also was in postage. Uh the city normally tends to uh to the finance department. The majority of the billing goes to them as we you know pay for the machine that we lease it and and the cost that keep going up and also for the billing. So we increase it based on the on the current cost and the way it's going up. Which way? Now I just have a question on on before we go down on the list on the

total c total category payroll. I'm looking at 820 and then it went up to 861. How did that uh number go up so much? On the payroll category you have. Yeah. This is the So, I know there was two there was three books I think that has the the wrong numbers. This might must be she might have watch your step.

Oh, yeah. We're in the break. I'll just let note everybody that Mr. Bohor has excused himself from this meeting. Uh he's traveling. So just want to FYI everybody. Thank you. Yes, that's the pier. Mhm. the increase in payroll. So in the first uh in fiscal year 26 the the the budgeted salaries were less for the director the manager and the accountants and that's what's adjusted by past administration from Mr. uh uh Kramer and then there's a position there that we're requesting to change it. He was uh requesting a um a grants manager and it was undecided if it was going to be going to the city manager's department. Uh we're in need

of a purchasing agent. We used to have a purchasing agent which handle all the the procurement policies and enforce them. And since they got rid of that position, we don't have it. And that's something that we're trying to implement in our department. And that's uh also in there. And overall the changes we had also uh two of the water meters come over to our department and also the salaries were adjusted with the previous administration and that's the increase about approximately that you'll see in the

mic. the it's um so so it's at 852 that's the correct amount yes 852 but if you go back to the salary payroll schedules is the purchy uh the agent that you want to that you want to hire is that's also inc embedded in the new amount the 852 and then the two vacancies at the bottom uh for uh finance revenue specialist. Mhm. Those were already We have those positions. They're just opened. I mean, vacant. Yes, they're vacant right now. This time they're vacant. The only one is this purchasing agent, correct? That's the only one

because that's the only one you're adding. Mhm. Okay. That we're changing. It was It used to be grants manager and we and the grants manager is going to be actually higher. So, we just changing the title. Correct. And lower the tier to what we're requesting. Okay. Got it. Okay. Thank you. Thanks. Any other questions for um one more mayor? I've always been curious um about this and I've never asked and maybe this is the time to ask. Where is I know that we pay the uh a company to bill our utility, send out our utility bills and all that.

Where is that embedded? that actually it's uh it's under part of it is under postage because they they pay up front the postage and they bill us the postage. So most of the postage that that we have uh budgeted it's for that. And can you can you tell me like how much we pay this company? It's out of California, right? Uh I don't know exactly where, but I That's okay. You don't have to check now. But how much do we pay this company to do our billings? Let me get that for you.

Our utility billings. The reason I'm asking is because I saw the amount there and I I couldn't disagregate the amount. I mean, I'm sure they don't charge 60,000 uh a year to do that. And that's what you've noted here. It's from 60 it's going up to uh No, that's not the No, that's not the See, that's so I'm trying to find out. No, that's just pro. Usually they'll bill us process and we'll pay. Yeah. So, where is that amount embedded in here? Contractual services.

Yeah, I think it's it's under because I'm looking at professional services. Is that that sounds more realistic 160,000 cuz the the professional services that we're that's where we're looking and that's where we pay our uh ambulance. Yeah. So, the postage is just the postage. They're charging us also for that, but their actual fees for um billing. It 160 sounds more realistic. Even sounds a little low. I don't know. Let me see. Want to give you an exact number so far what we had just for them.

Yeah, because it's not I mean it can be under contractual. should be under contractual but it's not broken down because I know that many years ago the city used to bill do the billings other other professional services uh which one George other professional services oh yeah well it's 160 that's the one but it seems but they have it but it went from 114 professional and professional services two different items Yeah, that's why I'm asking. I don't know. Yeah, contractual services seems to be the fees that we actually end up paying for credit card fees. So, it's not that bad. They use credit card fees. I'm Yeah, because I'm looking at the

So, the the people we end up um so it's more more our our Wells Fargo card fees, uh that we budget in our contractual services, our online payments, and when they actually use our So, where when when Yeah. I don't want to muddle. I don't want most of these all these are companies that they build us for for when we pay online. It's looking for

we you can get it later. I'm just curious what's embedded because we're not we're not you know they're not doing it free because I know this company must charge thousands of dollars because they do all the billing. So I was wondering where it's embedded and I stayed up last night. I'm like where could it be because it it can't be that cheap. And then now you're saying that other contractual services 160 is it can't be that either. So where is this amount up there? Other professional services like mayor says $100,000 that sounds also very inexpensive for hundred,000 and that's professional services that can't be because those are consultants. So I don't know that's just something maybe tomorrow I can get you. Yeah I can get tomorrow I have the exact amount that we've been paying for the last so I can just go

Yeah. Just so that how much it costs. And one more question if I may. Um, so when people pay with a credit card, we're picking up the fees. Correct. Yeah, we mentioned it. I think Jean mentioned it about 2, three years ago. I remember that. We're here again. We're discussing. So, why would we pick up the fees if I pay my utility bill with a credit card? Why does the city have to pay that fee? Is it is it up to us to change it? If you guys decide to to charge the fee to the customers when they're paying, then we can we can do that. M so it's it's what do other municipalities do Mr. Um, Paulin, since you have so much experience, they they eat those fees just like you do.

So, they it's very common to the municipalities to eat that fee up. That's a lot of money. When the only place I really see that is some restaurants, they'll say if if you use your credit card, you got to pay an extra 5% or what? Yeah. Yeah, you're right. Because I mean, uh, it's so common nowadays. Uh even I mean my credit card has a cash back feature. Yeah. The Apple Pay. Well, you're paying the cash back feature. That's what that's part of it. Plus the 3% to administer the whole thing. Yes. So it's been So the time you've been here, we've done we've absorbed that cost. Yeah. It's always been like that. And practice and that's that's where you see it's mostly over $100,000 in credit card. Yeah. 160

that we pay every year. Sir, I have a question on on some of these. I know that we don't use a company as a as a POSOS as a point of sale, but on some of these uh restaurants uh the the owners absorb not only the the uh the percentages, which is sometimes 2.8 uh but there's a 2.8 plus an additional 10 cents. The city of G doesn't pay those additional 10 cents. I think it it does because they they uh they always send us an email saying if we're going to increase our rates now a point of a percentage or Then we're going to add it depends on on the credit card also. It's different fees depends uh if it's American Express, if it's Discover, if it's Visa and that's so it's there's different fees.

Okay. And so we don't know what the actual exact amount because we don't know what they use to pay but it it it can be for the online services or when they come and pay here and know those are the basically what we get bill for. Okay. Thank you. Mhm. And I'll have that number for you. That's fine. Thank you, Sio. Any other questions? No.

We're going to go to human resource at page 15. And there's not a a lot of differences here. I think they only increase the other contractual services for the same reason in case they to have uh to cover some of the consulting while we uh hire somebody for HR and for advertising to also um I'm assuming for to advertise the positions.

Any questions for HR? Okay. So, uh now we have a community development seems to be almost the same as last year uh except there's no capital for for this fiscal and and the lower they uh did not budget for the code revision. And and by the way, as long as we're on this item, um Eric Fitzer, you want to raise your hand, uh Eric Fitzer is the gentleman that has been uh acting as the community development director for us one day a week. And um he's so he's been working with our employees over there to uh uh keep stuff flowing in the proper direction. So um thank you, Eric.

Thank you, Eric. Yeah. Um I have a question, mayor. Yeah. Um where is the arch em cost embedded in here? I had to ask, right? So I had to ask. So it's not in this uh in this in this actually it's not even in this fund. It's in we had the we have the a different fund where that we got the money from the ARPA. Well, it's not really the ARPA. That's more what uh there was some lef over there from from from from those revenues and then we also had a money that came in from South 32 also to continue. Oh, so it's a so that's another So that's why it's in a separate fund just to track it so we don't spend good

idea spend it for something else. Thank you. Thanks. I know I have to ask I just thought it would be there. Any other questions in community development? No. So, Eric, you're welcome to stay if you want, but thank you for your input. The code revision. Uh, I thought we just took off the whole 20. I know that that's uh a line item that Mr. Tapia had uh budgeted for the last couple of years. As you see, the activity hasn't been any any expenses. So uh

throughout the year if certain departments what they have is that it's called a budget transfer. So if by any chance they overbudget a certain line item that they're not using, they can say, you know what, I need to make a purchase for this that wasn't really in mind and but we need the funds. So what they do, they do a budget transfer. So they might say, you know what, um, we have this for much for training, but I don't think we're going to be using that much training because I need to make this purchase or need to make this, you know, and they'll transfer a line item amount and then move it to a different line item to to use it. So in case they ever need to use it, they can always transfer their line items throughout the year. Anything that's bigger than it would be up to you as council. they decide to you know that was not budgeted in this uh in these meetings then it will be brought up to you guys to say you know can we move money from the reserve for x reason and then you guys decide that's it any any other questions okay we'll go to the clerk's department that's and page 18. So, as you're aware, the department uh increased the the year. Normally we we tend to see an increase on on this department when it's an election year

for the extra cost of course. Is that why you have the 66,000 on professional service? Yeah. Yes, Mr. Mayor. um part of it uh I believe it was 55 search that we did and 15,000 to move the data from our old agenda software into our new agenda software.

Okay. Thank you, sir. Any other questions? of

course the right time. But I just want to uh say that it's very nice um to see that the website for all the voting material for the the the election material I should say is all updated and people are able to go in there and see who's running for office and it's very transparent and I know that um Mr. trustees and his staff and along with Mr. um with Mig have been working really hard on it because we didn't have that information posted and now people can go in there and look at who uh the candidates are. So I really want to uh say thank you to the to Mr. Astes um along with whoever he he has working along with Miguel. That was um a lot of people really like that information being available to them. Thank you.

You never do.

Okay. Next page is 19 which is MIS department. Good afternoon, Mor Council. MIS does have their their fiveyear plan for capital. CH will pass. It's nice and see if you guys have any questions for the department. Most of our increases happen um usually uh with our uh prof the um contracts support contracts that we have. So, and those have been increasing quite a bit lately. So, and then there was an additional the the $200,000 that uh we we had to um budget for the uh workday the transition that we're doing. So, yeah, that's most of my increase. Uh usually they go about 5% but we've seen some stuff go up 50% and it's just real crazy. So, Jose, is work day already working?

We're working on uh right now it's kind of on pause simply because um some of the key players aren't here. We don't have an HR director. We don't have a finance director. So, that part is on pause, but like the current is uh they're moving right along as far as the utility billing, which is we're excited about where we're can see all our accounts and stuff and we're doing some verifications. Um, and then we're the other one which is cloud permit. We're kind of holding off because we we we haven't had a director at all. They really need to be involved to to make sure we get uh everything migrated properly. So, it's on pause for the licenses and

well, until we can get the right the key people here to because the the workday is not like a canned software where it it worked exactly the same way here as it if somebody else had it. everybody um they uh change it to their needs. They they design it to their needs and that's why we need input. What's the extremely drop on the on the equipment maintenance and repair? Jose, I'm sorry. on the the $1.1 million you're dropping in.

That's for the workday. Uh remember we passed it. So we did a transfer from the reserve to that to pay for for the workday. And that's why it looks like it's it was an increase. Originally it wasn't that much, but once we did that budget transfer, as I explained, it it changes the budget for that line. And that's why it looks like it's a big drop, but it's just that uh the implementation of workday that's no longer being charged because it was only a one time. So where do we go to our billing? You know, let's say our water, you know, water billing. We've had tremendous hiccups. you know, is that part of uh our it is that our building department? We're, you know, we had, you know, accounts that are have been double, triple, quadrupled the charged. Uh we still haven't been able to to correct that. You know, we're still getting complaints. uh where does that go?

Uh that's actually the software itself but also the what the data of all the changes that was happening since last year. So it it it all depends on what data is being entered, how was being changed, how um at the timing of when and that's when I think two months ago when we had the budget meeting that I said that we're implementing now that instead of manually entering all the the the readings again, we were actually uploading the the full file that gets uh completed by the meter readers. That way the billing can go out on time. some of the uh payment issues was that since it was, you know, was being entered manually, by the time the bill was coming out, the payment wasn't being posted. And that's something that my revenue manager is implementing, speeding it up to the point that we're actually getting close to the point that as soon as the the whole day uh all the money that comes in, he closes the day and posts all the payments. That way, a new bill comes out, it doesn't show that it might showing the bill that they owe it, but in our system, it show that they paid it. But now the only thing that was waiting is for them to close at end of day. And that's what the revenue manager is doing now because when he came in it was about a couple of months behind. So when the bills were coming out it wasn't showing those payments that the customers were providing. So that's more more of a of an issue uh internal issue and correcting all the the previous management there uh of how it was being done. And these guys have been putting together a explanation memo of in more detail than what uh than what he just mentioned and as soon as I get done reviewing it um and uh and approve it, then we're going to send it out to all of you. So, it's four-page memo.

So, you have a question because people Yeah. still are are a little bit complaining but just so that they can sleep better. um in your records it shows their payments, right? Correct. Okay. Because they think Yeah. Yeah. They're they're they're concerned about and I've told them this that that it is in your system. Well, you know, but I since we I did not know that we were subleting our billing. So, I can imagine when we had that little mess with the information, not the information not being inputed, it created some lack of a better term, some type of latency with with the company that does our billing. So, everything just sort of compounded and it made one big problem. But it was just that issue

since because the billing doesn't it's a file. The system creates a file that gets sent to our billing company so they can cut the bills and and if the the way it was being done it was being manually entered. So now we're just uploading trying to speed it up now that we have the the meter readers and then we still get some help from the water department that in case they need some you know extra people to help out to read. So, we'll try to get, you know, eventually maybe in the future, we might look into it to see because we we want to see what workday does for this, if it speeds it up or if it's different different way of implementing the the billing that if it helps more. I mean, we want to see if are we going to need maybe more meter readers or are we going to need, you know, just a different change of approaching the the whole process. But, as of right now, uh I I believe that we're doing way better than how it was. There were some changes done again with previous administration and and that is something that it's also in that memo that Mr. Pockin uh explained that he'll he'll give to you guys so you guys have an idea of what was happening and how we're correct in this issue.

Thank you sir. The um the current software is going to is also going to correct a lot of the pain points that we have right now. uh the meter readers right now they have to go and put it into a spreadsheet then it has to be uploaded but it's a new software they're actually going to be editing the actual um uh software yeah it's going to hit the software live so that it we won't have that that double entry or we won't have uh so it should work a lot better for us but Jose say that's on the workday software right now

uh it's it's called current it's uh it works with workday but it's it's a utility billing software called current fairly late.

Ideally, um that's not now, but sometime hopefully in the not too distant future. Uh, some of our accounts are digitally read now. Um, the the really good solution to that would be to go digital on all of your accounts. You've got like 7,000 uh meters approximately

5,000 meters that you read every month. And uh I other places I've worked that that use the digital uh readers, we we just called a radio read. Um the uh vehicle, you got one reader and one vehicle and they go down every street and they've got a receiver on a truck that picks up the reading from every meter that it passes by. You can do the whole city in one day and then that way the whole building can go out uh at one time. It cuts down on labor costs. It cuts down on the time uh and it gets gets the the product out. But we have other problems in the water department that we probably got to fix first. Um but that would be where you would aspire to go uh in the future. When I was up in Winslow, we did it. Um and it it was probably about a million dollars to make the conversion and they don't have as many accounts as you do. And uh uh but once we implemented the system um it was just slick and it cut down like I say on labor costs um and it got the billing done um more uh accurately and timely. So

how do we just change some accounts into digit? Some of them. Some of them. Yeah. Because it wasn't

how far how far along are we how many did we change? Well, we we tried to do as as many as we could. Um I I know at one point most of our books were around 80% but they have to be maintained. Have to go out there and you have to one of the issues we were having is that people were cutting the cable to it and so we'd have to go out and that has to be replaced. So now we're roughly down to about 55 60% uh of each book that are are um automated like that. It's a good system the uh called Itron and but we just need to be able to maintain it and and probably they when they um uh we may need to do a new study as far as the uh the radio part of it to to to see if maybe we need more collectors and repeaters out to to get better coverage.

Yeah. because you're going to act actually just like the radio system the police department uses, you have to install repeaters so that they've got some place to pick up the signal. So that that's why it costs a million dollars. Yeah. If I if I'm not mistaken, I think uh Liberty Water Utilities does that in Rio Reco that they actually they drive and they pick up all the the readings. So it's faster that way, but obviously it's costier. Correct. The signal won't be picked up. Mike, Mr. Bill,

somebody to look at it manually and take a manual reading and Yeah. Yeah. So, so the system that we have, we don't drive around it. uh it uploads it up to the the the the automated part. It uploads it and then we just download it so nobody actually has to drive around. It's a great system again, but we just need to stay on top of it and then maybe uh add some collectors repeaters and we should but we'll never get I don't think we'll ever get 100% just because of our topology and you know some of the mess we have. Yeah. So

yeah. Yeah. Um do you think um Ha in your opinion that after we get the results of the audit which uh we're still waiting for um some of the the improvements um that need to be made will be you know will be noted on the audit and maybe you can you know the whole city and the way you guys are planning to fix the problem will be addressed a lot uh much better as far as the the workday migration is No, the billings, the utility billings. We should because I mean I'm sure that that's one of the delays from the audit that they've noted. Yeah.

Yeah. It should it should resolve some of those. Yeah. Thanks. Continue. Mhm.

Next department is the seated attorneys. And I'll just I'll just comment here. Joe actually did put his own budget together and and give it to me. So this is this is his work. A lot of cities city attorneys just don't do anything. So, um, anyway, the only real difference here is there, uh, apparently we're anticipating an increase in in legal fees. And really that's about it.

And Joe's here if you need to talk to him at page 25. Oh, okay. Okay. Mr. Ess is that increasing uh with with uh already inquired of the increase we gave uh two months ago.

Yeah, that's just taking into consideration the additional cost also support attorney staff has been taking on a lot of extra duties over the last year. That's under the code the attorney's office basically separate from employees.

Yeah, he had increased an amount. He requested actually an increase for salaries which are not inputed in here because again it's uh up to mayor and council how they decide to go across the board or department wise or on this um budget meetings. Any questions? Okay. Uh, page 22, uh, city court.

Just real quick, if there's no object,

any questions? Thank you, sir.

See you later. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Rob Gillin at the Nogalas Municipal Court. Continue to do more with less. Our filings are up this year and we're trying to to make positive changes to reduce the costs of the court on the city. Um, we have put in with our budget request a kind of a a side note and it doesn't get reflected in here. The court is still concerned about the salary salary compression that has historically happened. There's been no effort by the city to to start to correct that. And even if it doesn't make the jump all the way, the the salaries that are in that range 43, there's just a there are more positions in 43 than should be in 43. When uh the city increased the minimum wage, took out range 39, 40, 41, and 42, it's a four increase jump. um in in range for those people when nobody else in the city got that kind of treatment. And I my my request and I know we're not going to be resolving that today. I just want to bring that up as we talk about this that that needs to be addressed at some point in the future and if it doesn't get resolved all the way then maybe we start making those adjustments and maybe it's one or two at a time instead of a a four jump. That being said, the city court um has reduced its budget and um if if available, we'll pay for our own

adjustment at least in this budget year by reducing our salary or by reducing our budget um even more. I did some initial calculations. Looks like if we were to increase everybody up four um four ranges, not everybody, excuse me, because our our court security was hired after that. And so his salary is where it should be. I'm not asking for it across the board on everybody, but the rest of our office um is under that same um status that that their salaries haven't been changed since the city increased the minimum wage. Um if we were to increase the the remaining positions by four, um we're looking at about $23,000 in the salary. I don't know what it does for the other parts of it, but the city's magistrate or the city municipal court is is willing to absorb those costs at least this year. We have our contingency fund. Uh we've got two contingency funds that were supposed to um help us with our move over to the admin building. That hasn't happened. At some point, we will be moving into some other office spaces here. And so, we still have that reserve for that eventuality. Again, we don't know when that's going to happen or if it's going to happen, but we have some space in our budget for that, but we would absorb any of those additional costs. But I'm happy to to field any of your questions. I know we're not dealing with that all the way today because we don't get to touch that portion of our of our budget, the payroll portion, but if we did, we were willing to pay for it or reduce our budget in that in that amount.

I I have a question, Judge. Sure. Um, when you were talking about compression, can you just elaborate a little bit what type of compression or what are you referring to? Maybe I'm thinking

Sure. A few years ago, the city decided that it wanted to pay all of its employees at least $15 an hour. And so instead of moving all of the employees all at the same time to make that reflection and change, the city couldn't afford to do it across the board. So they just eliminated those lower salary ranges without making adjustments in the higher ones. So 39, 40, 41, and 42 were all eliminated. Those that had been in those positions are all in salary range 43. That's the compression that's happened because those that are above that are 43 and above didn't uh receive any type of compensation adjustment when they did that those adjustments for those making less than $15 an hour.

Yeah. So what what he's trying to explain is that before when they had different ranges per salary per position, you know, they they we used to have uh even lower numbers. So based on the range scale you have different type of positions, different types of jobs that uh go with that range and and that is what happens when you do a bottom line crunch increase only. So you start removing eliminating ranges. So now you have a the majority of positions in the same range. So you might have uh uh let's say receptionist, you might have a city clerk, an attorney, uh you know, a legal um secretary all in the same range because it keeps getting crunched. And so now you have all these positions in one range which some actually require some type of school or certification, some just straight out of high school. And and that is what happens by uh crunching only the bottom the bottom tiers. Yeah. You you you get rid So now you have people that actually some of them actually might have bachelor's or associates degree and they're in the same range as somebody that just came out of so they're getting paid the same for crunching. So when um I think uh last year we we well I I'm the one that normally does all the the the study sessions when you guys want a scenario how much it's going to cost the city for pay increases or anything like that. I prepared something for Mr. Kramer at the time and it was a it's a mix of uh a flat flat amount and a percentage amount and that's just to kind of like separate that little gap that we have everybody in all one position but that would also you know we'll have to get involvement of HR to see if they can rechange we don't have a director right now something that was discussed before and say we need to reorganize the ranges

again based on on the type of job duties that or job uh descriptions of everybody body to not have everybody in the same range. Um, and I realize that it's a very expensive hall to to say, "Oh, we're going to do all of this for the whole city this year." We the city won't have the funds for that. But if we start making movements in those directions, we can get ourselves prepared for it. And and ask from the directors too, like how are you guys going to pay for it? We're happy to to work with the city to reduce our budget so that so that we can be paying for that decompression.

Sergio, we we made that that decision. Was it a year or two years ago to to bring up everyone to to minimum, right? Yes. That was a city two or three years ago to make it I think a minimum of uh $15, I think, if I'm not mistaken. And um but again, you know, you get rid of certain so now you have so many in one in one range

and and we did that because minimum was technically in the state of Arizona $14 back then, right? Yeah, it was well I mean for the last couple of years I know it was supposed to just keep increasing until it reached 15, but I don't know if they're they're going to keep changing, you know, so it it depends on what but if it goes up like this year went up. So we had to adjust the the the pay for the employees and the majority actually were uh hourly wise it was uh fire department that we had to adjust because they worked different shift different hours. So the hourly had to be above the minimum uh for the state and uh so you know the uh if we increase it it will be more of the fire department. If it increases for next year, it'll be the same individuals for fire and actually maybe more employees now. By then, we'll we have to make sure. But again, we're doing again, we're just crunching the bottom. And so soon you're going to have somebody that's supposed to be a supervisor almost making the same because they just keep you keep doing that. Um that uh study that I had done I including actually I used AI that I explained to Mr. uh to uh Mr. Kramer is that you have to kind of treat him equally. And that one of the things that I remember is when you were mentioning the equality, trying to make sure that it and trying to make sure that we we do that and that's what I I but again it was uh I don't think uh it was decided not to do that and so it was scrapped last year. So

and that and that uh study it was the opposite. It was if if you would have seen the numbers, you would have seen how the bigger percentage was still at the bottom. You know, the bigger percentage, the bigger cut and and the race was to treat it a little bit better. But it's it all depends on on how you guys will, you know, determine because if they decide not to give it to a certain amount of people, then you'll give it back to the other tier. And again, you're doing the same thing all over again. So, are you talking about the compensation the cop study that was done two years ago? No, that's that was a that's another document. Yeah, that's something else. We do have a comp study that's two years old that's never seen the light of day.

51. Yeah. Well, but the problem is is that you know Yeah, because I've got to look at all of the you got to look at all of the positions everybody

in order, you know, you're never going to break the log jam of of of wage compression. if you don't do the whole thing at one time. It's just that simple. And and comp studies take that into consideration. So, because there's a lot of, you know, a lot of what we're finding um is a little bit troublesome on the um on the other end. Okay. hiring directors is that our wage ranges for the directors aren't competitive enough to attract good people. So, and that's why you haven't seen any. I did make an offer to one person that I was willing to go to battle for, but she pulled out. Any questions for uh judge?

We we don't have an audit this next year and so that that reflected in our budget. We um have one of our employees may be out for a bit. Uh he's the court security officer actually and he's going to have knee replacement surgery or something and so we have increased our our budget for um other professional services. I've reached out to a former court security officer willing to come in and work on the days when we have court. Those are the days that are required on a contractual basis. Sure.

Um do you get any funding from from superior from um the superior court from from the the county Santa Cruz County uh court? We don't get direct funding from the county court. we do get some funds back. And so we're on 22 and 23. So let's go to pages. 79 and 80 is where we have our other two funds. Those are those where we get um fill the gap funds that are coming in. What page, judge? 79 and 80. Those are where No, I think you're looking at this because we have different page numbers for the book than that report. No, mine's 79. that this is out of your

Oh, he's talking about Yeah, he's just talking about printed out. I Or the contractual services. Oh, yeah. The JP JP, right? Those are the fill the gap funds and then the other What amount is that judge? Is that what where can you can you Oh, JP is the Sorry, that's the 79. Is it? Okay. Page 79. Yep. Those are our fil the miscellaneous funds that we needed to replace a printer and so we took it out of those funds this year. That's what you're seeing the expenditure there.

Um and then the other contractual services that one's being increased and that's on page 80. That's that's where I was talking about for our port security guard to have a place to be able to pull those extra funds from. Oh, okay. But there are those are those are two separate accounts that the court has control over. That's where we're pulling those extra funds from. Again, we're trying to to lower the burden on the city overall in order to to make some room for paying our people. But those funds have been there for years though. Yeah. Yeah. You've Yeah,

those those funds are there every year. Every year we get additions to those funds and we've been holding on to them. When I first started it was we were told you're going to be moving over to the admin building. Well, that's not happened, but we're holding on to those so that when we do new desks, new um those kinds of things for upgrades for the board. Okay. If we don't and we're just moving into some of the office space that that maybe the police is going to vacate when they go upstairs or I don't know how all of that's going to work out with the move over to the admin. When we get that figured out, we'll have we'll be in a position to be able to take care of what we need to. Thank you. Um, and one more question.

Sure. Is your salary uh is that the salary we negotiated? That's the 13. I don't think that they have the number that's in here. It includes the the new figure because it says it's the same from last year and this year. Yeah, that's what I'm looking. So, I don't think it includes it. It would go up 15. Yeah, but I don't think it's um that's not the number. Well, on the form it doesn't show any Well, on the form it's not, but on the payroll schedule it is.

Right. Just on page 22, it's not reflected there, but here it is. Okay. So, the total that I have is this amount. So, it's not on your right. Yeah, on the It's not on the uh account number. Um it is on the pay uh payroll schedule, right, Judge? But not on this budget on this. Okay. So, we need its additional 15. Yeah, but it's not on the the sheet that I gave you. Yeah, that includes the Okay. But the one that got emailed out to us, it doesn't have it there. There. Thank you, Judge. That that's all I wanted to know. Okay, we'll move on. All right. Thank you. Thank you, judge.

I'll be excused. If you need me for anything else, just call the library. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Let me give you the the labor has some uh capital. I'm going to pass the papers for So the library's uh budgets remain the same and just have the different capital. If you guys have any questions on the needs here,

mayor, I have a question. Um go ahead as we're going down the departments um I had asked uh Mr. Pokei earlier um you know that in the original packet you had given us on Friday the list of the wants of every department wasn't uh submitted in our packet. So this is the first list. So it it she's submitting her wants here. Okay. Good. Okay. So the the the other departments we've had presented had no capital. Correct. Okay. Great. Yeah. The ones that I given you which is MIS that showed you their plan. Uhhuh. So she's the first one and correct.

You know in fairness that she's asking for help. Okay. Got that. I have a question. um on when when you submit the you know they come they come to the city but since we're in partnership with the county do do they are they getting the same uh submitt or for the county is that we have they pay half of the year of yes was submitted except any capital that's on the nogalas uh library right and and that's what I want to know whether yeah they already got their numbers. We're waiting on because we pay half of their animal control budgets.

So, this will be split in half. Correct. Okay. No, the cost of the the library, the county pays half of these are coming out of these are are if it's only for the main library, it comes out of just the cities.

Correct. I do want to add that for training, I know it had stayed this, it decreased a little bit just because um there were a few programs at a national level that were defunded and frozen, but they're back on. So, the Institute of Museum and Library Services is back on and staff are going to be training, going to conferences again, and they're going to be getting certifications as library assistants at a national level. So, that's a that's a plus. So the the minus 5,000 you want it back. Sure. Yeah. Is that is that what you're asking? I was just Well, yeah. I want it. Yeah. If it's possible.

Mhm. You've had, you know, training. Does it reflect that you've been you really been using any train? five five 95 4,000 4,000 U last year or two years ago and and putting 95 and you have a budget right now of bringing it down from 15 to 10. So still 10 good enough or you Okay. Anything else?

Um, I wanted to ask uh you also um is there any way um I don't see a line item here um for it for opening on Saturdays? I know you've had a lot of people ask you about opening on Saturdays and I don't see a line item there that um you have budgeted for that. Tell me a little bit about that. We were open for 13 Saturdays. I did send that record those stats to Mr. Kramer. Uhhuh. We had um maybe five of those Saturdays that people actually attended. Most of the time we just we didn't have people.

It was um we tried it. We did try 13. We did um change some of staff. staffing for that and um it was decided that we were not going to continue since it didn't work out but there is um Saturdays at the branch libraries trying that out. Yeah. But here at the main so so in your opinion based on like the data you collected that it's not you know worth opening on Saturdays. Yeah. I would rather send staff out so out to outreach events. That's where we also bring the library to the people. So in my Yeah. In my opinion it's

okay. All right. Thank you. the department. It's police.

Mr. Paw, can I have a question? I'd like to see that study for the the police that you were mentioning about the the salaries and the range cop study. Yeah,

sure. You can all have it if you want it. I'll just I'll just have a copy made for everyone. Good afternoon everybody. These two are the match I was telling you about this morning.

Yeah. And I just changed this because right

um just as a a note on the capital projects request, the uh uh the police car purchase actually was a lot higher when we met and uh the the the the police department cut the size of the uh request down from from about 600,000. Well, actually from six to two cars. Yeah. From six to two cars. So

um on the capital projects the for fleet. Oh yeah. Yeah. He had his original request was for six vehicles and we cut that down to two.

No, it's the amount correct. Um, yeah, the correct amount is in your in your worksheet. The the the total that we have in U capital should match every sheet that I gave you. Yeah, I know they had they do have some uh vehicles on the grants, right? else as well if I could recall seeing that part of the of the grants funding. Well, currently there is vehicles, but they're not actually police patrol vehicles. There are specialty vehicles, if you may. Yeah. Is that part of this third grant request? Correct.

Okay. There are vehicles in that and that actually is a carryover from the current fiscal year. And so is the body warn cameras. A question on that, Chief Himemenz. On the body warn cameras, do you are you to have a someone there in position, an employee to like download the the film or the body camera equipment?

I'm sorry, I can barely hear you. Are you going to have an employee when you have the body cameras like to uh do the when they turn in uh the body cameras so they can see the footage and that is there going to be a specific person in charge of taking care of that? Actually, just to bring you up to date, council woman, we actually have them in implemented at this point and the process is when they have the body camera on uh on their person, then when they come back and they dock it at the I guess the the docking station, all the data is then uh transferred to like a server per se. And they do have access to reviews their their footage for pre or report purposes. supervisors have that also that authority to do that and we do have our records personnel. So when somebody makes a request for some video like let's say somebody that was u arrested and they say I want a footage of my arrest there's a process that they have to go through and then they're provided the the footage that is is viable. We don't provide everything because we there's a lot of redaction that has to come into play but that isn't in in uh I would say in its final stages. We're still tweaking out some of the little bugs in the system, but we we should be done here within the next few months and have it fully running.

It's like a records uh clerk or someone that's going to be taking care of that. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Go ahead.

In this area, obviously. So, just so it could be on record. Um so, what you're saying, um Mr. few minutes is that this body camera, like I said, I'm not an expert on it like you are. So, the body warn camera is not going to be fully utilized by the police department. So, if I get into an accident or so forth and my attorney requests for the footage of a the body worn camera, uh that will be provided. Well, assuming we follow all the legal ramifications and expectations and all of that, attorneys know what they're doing. So, will that be now available?

That is correct. I I'll give you a scenario which which the one you refer to, you're in an accident. When the office do arrive and actually prior because the body camera is is programmed to once they detect that the officer has his license and siren on, the body warrant camera activates. So when they get there, they're going to start seeing uh everything on scene and it's going to be recorded. It'll be, you know, attending to somebody that's hurt or investigating the actual accident with the process they go through. All that will be uh captured um the body warrant camera and then brought into the station and downloaded into our servers. So let's say like you said an attorney wants um a copy of that footage, it will be available, but obviously there will be some redaction because we don't actually want to

Sure. And they know that. So, and yes, so that's in the process and it's actually uh being done right now. Um, sometimes they take different avenues. Sometimes they reach out through the city clerk's office and try to do a public records check or sometimes they come directly to to us and do a records request. So, is it fair to say that um uh are we approving that that is fully implemented already? the body cameras as we if we were to approve that today then that means that it would be implemented at the city of Nales where this the residents and people know that we have uh cameras uh body cameras

and and actually yes you have approved it council did approve the first initial phase of this and now we're going to just finalize that process okay and we can make a notice saying you know our our our camera body wire camera system is full in effect and if you so desire to have footage available to you if you are involved because there is like I said restrictions um uh we can do that. Yeah. And and one more and that is the the additional 1334,000. Is that what you're requesting in this uh capital request? That's correct.

Oh, okay. So, and one more thing is that every policeman um that um is going to be equipped that is on patrol and excuse me if I'm not using the terminology correct, but every policeman that is on patrol that stops uh a a person will have a body camera on them. Actually, your terminology is correct. They're on patrol. Every officer that's out there that's in uniform. Yeah. Yeah. Um because sometimes like our non-uniform personnel like detectives unless they're on a special assignment, but to answer your question is yes. Every officer that's uh patrolling and some of our specialty officers that are assigned to schools and and those they'll have body cameras.

They will have a body warn camera that will be fully uh effective as it is right now. And uh that footage will be available when the request is made in case there the need is ever there. Mhm. So every year we have to um renew you know the um software. That is correct. Unfortunately like any thing else. Okay. So that we we're going to expect at least while I'm here another 134 whatever costs increases and stuff. Well hopefully they don't increase but it stays at this amount but we is it a fixed amount? Uh we hoping.

Is that in the contract? Okay. We don't know that. I haven't seen a contract but well we don't know. I'm sure it isn't but okay. Okay. So, it's good. So, um so people in the in in the in the community knows that every city of Noales police department officer has a body camera when they're when they're patrolling, if you will. Correct. Okay. Good. Thank you. I have a question for Chief. Uh Chief, um on this request that you're having for the two uh four police interceptors, I know you needed six. Am I correct?

That is correct. And I see here that it says several units are about 10 years old. Correct me if I am wrong. Um any vehicle after 200,000 miles it becomes a liability. Am I correct in that?

Yes. Uh you are correct sir. I mean unfortunately we have to do with less sometimes. Um I know that when we did meet for our finance meetings the request was made there but I understood the the Mr. Hawkins uh input when it came to um making sure that we all cooperate and collaborate to make sure that all departments have uh their needs met as best as possible. And we're also looking at the long-term um wage concerns that are going on right now. How many vehicles uh are over 10 years old?

Sir, I would probably have to get back to you, but I'm going to say there's probably over 10 years old. Um, I'm going to say maybe five to 10 because uh we've been lucky enough to have the support of the city council and mayor uh the last few years in getting at least a few vehicles per year and also when we do get grant funded uh opportunities to buy vehicles as mentioned by Mr. Pocket.

Mr. Pockin, I have a question here. Um I was if you get the six vehicles in so I guess you would just multiply uh 158 499* 3 uh that comes out to 475 497 that that's not is that not feasible to uh to get the six vehicles for the NA police department. I'm sorry I didn't follow that question. Talking about

Yeah, the the for the two uh the Ford police interceptors, he was asking for six, but it was cut down to two. Um if you get the six vehicles, it's $475 and $497. Is that not feasible to get the police department their vehicles? I I I think it's premature to answer the question until we've discussed how much we're going to pay people. Okay. Because I think that I I I keep hearing from everybody I've talked to that that's a one of the largest considerations we have. So, well, you know, public safety is always a large consideration whether it's on the police department or and

I'm guessing there's more police cars than there are police officers because they always keep more vehicles on hand and so the older cars tend to be used less than the newer vehicles. All right. Well, we'll continue discussion on this back line. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Bucket. But um yeah, uh you know what we're you know we're presenting the whole package here, not just one department. Mr. Humanis uh are do we have any uh grants on vehicles uh on hand?

Currently we we have but they're not they're specialty vehicles. And I'm referring to the the the the grants we awarded for our mobile command post vehicle which is about a $670,000 purchase. the one you see here that says uh under line item uh 0555 9110 for the grand carrier. That's the one that's uh we purchased already one K9 vehicle from that and then we provided what's called the mobile data spheres for approximately four uh 40 vehicles and then most importantly is the carryover for the the renovation of the the POC. So that vehicle in question there has been purchased along with actually uh a K9. So to answer your question, there is some but currently for actual police vehicles themselves uh we don't have any in in line. What are the what are the command response vehicles?

If you're talking about the the Senator Kelly and Gygo's uh grant fund that we're hoping to get at like I know Mr. Pocket has been instrumental reaching out to that office. We're hoping to get five vehicles on this. I guess you can call it a grant. And those are going to be command vehicle response which are basically unmarked SUVs that will be assigned to the staff. It's still kind of hopefully

that is in fact a grant. It's uh the congressional directed spending. Um what generation ago we used to call port barrel. Um now we call them congressionally directed spending. There there is a grant that has been approved for Ngalas PD to buy those five vehicles. It's just a matter of waiting through the red tape that it takes to get them. That is correct. We've been waiting approximately give or take two years and yeah, we're hoping Mr. Kelly doesn't get in trouble with Congress and and and anybody else. So I I I I feel pretty confident you're you're golden on that particular grant.

I hope so, too. So that'll drop five was it five new vehicles.

That is correct from the request that uh that type of vehicle the command response type vehicle not actually a patrol vehicle. So, one of the things that in the last five years has been pretty consistent is uh uh equipment, mostly vehicles for public safety, uh has has been right at the top of the um uh priority for congressional offices. And so, and I know uh everybody I know here in southern Arizona has taken advantage of some some sort of public safety vehicles and equipment uh through the opices of the two senators. So, um so it's out there. So, we're we're not going to be we're not going to be destitute. We've got vehicles coming. Go ahead.

Uh, I'm going back to the body warn cameras. I'm just curious. It says a small rural tribal bodywn camera. Uh, is there is a certain tribe that's uh that's uh supporting this program? Yes. It's actually comes from the Tona Hornum grant that um they offer every every calendar year. So, we've been lucky enough to get a few things from them and this was one of them that it's just that re reoccurring fee that we're now looking at. Good. So, so when we see the chairman, we can always say thank you for helping him out and let him know we we're interested in more. So,

yeah, Mr. Bird and Jose is a good friend. Okay. Please there there's just one thing I just wanted to clarify with SEO. I know in in in the line item of 6845 I know we discussed the fact that it was going to increase due to memberships and subscriptions to ESOF which is a software that's now being utilized. um section 6855. If you see there's an increase, that $24,000 increase,

the question I had is we that $24,000 increase also has to include the 911 system. Uh so the question I just had for you was I know we went up to 32,000 for ESOF and PARD DMS times two but also we needed to add the 911 um basically new generation that the state is is now pushing down to the to the to the agencies. So I thought that was going to be more in the area about 50. You guys gave us that number. It was already included. The forms that were submitted were

No, I think what you did is you doubled you added it, but it was actually it's two different numbers. It was the the original number we submitted and I know that Lieutenant Hernandez had also gave you two different forms, but the actual amount should be in total of 56,000. And what I'm referring to council is uh the state is now pushing down 911 uh next generation software to the agencies and in this case Santa Cruz County and Nell's Police Department and Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office have to share that cost which is a certain percentage and our percentage is 33% of that cost which turns into that 24 almost $24,000. So So I might might have confused you in that aspect

because I'm looking at the submitted number and it's 32,000 There's actually one for 23892 and that was for the next generation 911 call handling fee and then the other one is the one that had the power DMS, the ESO off and the other power DMS. Yeah, I remember there were a few of them. Yeah. But I was I'm looking at the numbers that was submitted and it was a 32,000 and that's what I entered and when we met that's why I said I thought it was part of the included amount. The 32,000 was those three things and then there was the additional 24 for the 911 system. Okay. So you want to add the additional two another 20 another 24 to the 32

but well you actually have it kind of here you have the 32 and then plus you put the increase of 24 but which actually be 56 instead of

it's got an increase from the eight and it's right here right? Uhhuh. So it went from 8 to 32 which is that increase. So this is if it was an additional then it wasn't included on it was right there. So it's another another 20. Yeah. The round number. Mhm. Which is 56 56. And that's a cost that unfortunately we can't say no to because that's the state telling us if you want your 911 passing down the cost to the city. Correct. Well, I remember that discussion. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So that goes from 32 to 56.

It's an increase of 48. Mhm. And while they were doing that, they actually eliminated PAPs and some of the smaller departments altogether. I think to answer that, I think that's what's going to be end up happening. I think the state is going to start reducing the PAPs, which is the 911 centers

throughout the state. And that could happen here eventually in Santa Cruz County where they might tell the smaller agency which in this case would be the sheriff's office to become part of our PAC and thus our POC will be able to absorb them because we now will have the availability to house more positions for other agencies. But there's a lot of issues that have to happen before that may occur for a fee. Correct. and they'll be paying their fair share if you take them on. That's what happened in Coochis County a couple years ago. Everybody lost their PAP uh in favor of one central PAC.

And here we have the advisor because we're we're going to have the the facility, right? That's correct. which makes it a lot more important that we get on it. Yes, sir. We actually will have a meeting today and the green light will hopefully switch on and tomorrow morning the wheels start turning even faster. Thank you. Any more questions for police?

Thank you, sir. We go to page 28 which is for fire department. Oh, good. So, one of the biggest increases I explained um it's pension uh the pension went down the same didn't mention it for police but the the percentage went down so that's and I think it was a percentage of the unpaid if I'm not mistaken so And another one is the vehicle reserve account. We had a carrying over amount for two ambulances. Is it two? And they should be getting here hopefully everything goes well before the the end of June. So that is why it's not being carried over. If by any chance they don't arrive by the end of June for X reasons, then we would have to uh move the because the money that didn't get budgeted goes to the reserve. So, we would have to come to U mayor and council to request it back into to pay it in case it doesn't come in within this fiscal year.

We had to really think about that one because we want to believe the vendor and right now he believes that we're going to get get delivery this year. So, So, any questions for the fire department? Okay. So, I'm looking at your um Hi, Mr. Liva. Hi. Um I'm looking at your payroll schedules and um it you have a couple of vacancies and I notice on the uh engineer part of it,

correct? And is those are uh pending uh vacancies or new vacancies that you're adding positions to? We added those last last fiscal year and they're pending to be filled. Pending to be filled, but they're not new. They're not new. That's my question. Yeah. Including the paramedic, fire, correct? Fire. So, you're without these positions, correct? Yeah. So, why is it are they hard to fill, Kenny? Well, echoing what the judge was saying, it's it's pretty tough here in Galis. We we need to really look at that wage deal which is separate from what we're looking at today and our operational expenses, but the attraction to keep people here and retain is so important.

Yeah. Also, um, if you go back here on the division chief, I know you don't I know you have these in your memory, but, um, there's a division chief, fire marshal vacancy. Is that just came up? I thought you had a fire marshal that just became vacant during this last fiscal year. And we have finished an interview this morning actually for the third candidate. So, we do have candidates that are in line and a request to fill going through the process of fit for duty right now. We hope to have that filled before the end of this fiscal year.

Do you have any positions that are in other areas in the city um that are um causing you not to hire a position at in your department? Correct. Correct. There is that. There's a battalion chief. The battalion. Okay. So is that impede in in your operational 100%. We all get bags over our eyes because we're working extra. Why why are why is that happening? Why um why can't they allow you to fill that position? My understanding is it can't be filled until it's vacated

and it's not vacated because it's administrative decision up here that it's not vacated. So I'll be asking that question to our legal department why that is not failed. I mean it's almost like the department is being penal penalized for something that's not being done administratively. That's my opinion. I'm not asking you to opine on that. But the the team and the morale that we have built for the fire department this year has really come a long ways and everybody's picking up a little bit of the extra pieces to be able to share that load. But yes, everybody is doing more work and making more ends meet by getting paid and compensated less.

Yeah. So it's almost like administer decision to not fill that position because they're figuring out what to do with this one position that was moved to some other department. That's at the same salary, mind you. Correct. Same salary at 81,000. Yeah. So 81,000 um dollars being paid to do something else, but yet it's affecting the the operational of the fire department. Okay. I I our tactical response has been burdened. Yes. Thank you. How many fire marshals do you have or how many battalian chiefs you have right now? One per shift. Three shift. That would be three. Mhm. And you need an additional one? No, three. Three is fine.

Mhm. They rotate. We've discussed last fiscal year of having a D-shift because every employee is blessed with ERRES and benefits. We have vacations and times off and everything else, but as far as the specialty searchs and everything, somebody else has to cover that responsibility when somebody takes time off leave and and that's a normal benefit, but we have not entertained a Dshift to cover those type of examples. But uh yes, the there is a burden on that. Okay. So you did you uh what are you asking for for this year for equipment and stuff that this year?

No, actually just touching on one of the line items is we did have budgeted also for the payments on the engines and we've been very saving a lot of on our vehicle maintenance and repairs because of that. So thank you council for all of that. But I think we're going to skip a payment in the fisc next coming fiscal year because we budgeted two payments for this fiscal year. Correct Sill. Correct. So it's a zero on that. So it gives us the margin to be able to address the immediate needs. Wow. That that's that's about a $480 savings in that regards.

Yeah. I have a question. You know, my concern is when I hear that the employees are doing a lot more for are they getting overburdened or are they I mean there the beauty of the fire department is is we're there for a reason. So we have identified the why and to provide that public safety as a number one for our citizens and our constituents and and we're just working more. So uh doing more with less is kind of the philosophy that we have. We're just here to do our job and to make the best out of it. We have not received morale is good.

We haven't received more this year. We were lucky enough to get uh some of those firefighters that were below minimum wage at minimum wage, but we hope to address with our actions the integrity that we will be eventually compensated the way we should be so that we can move forward. We can work with the budget in the city of Ngalis not to have that burden this year. We will fill those new spots, which is about $5,000 per new employee to equip them to be tactical response, but I think I think it's all manageable in the proposed budget that we have. Thank you.

Just to uh clear up a little bit just how we mentioned about how we had to increase some of the the the wages to minimum wage. It's minimum wage the hourly portion. you know like minimum wage of somebody let's say at public works it's about 32,000 about approximately 32,000 uh minimum wage for fire it's about 45,000 so it just so when you it's more the hourly amount not the yearly amount right so it's it's 3,000 hours opposed to 2,000 hours that's yeah that's the critical difference is you got a 2900 and something hour

2912 plus the average of 3033. The city accepts 3033 hours. So you've got so you've got built-in overtime before they work overtime before you get called in for another shift and and the overtime doesn't come in till after 114 hours because it's public safety. Correct. But it's it's already scheduled in their that's already taking care of that really well and and everybody's working well in that in that minimum category. Yes.

No need this. Uh the the actual equipment is fantastic. We're we're like I said doing more with less, but the equipment doesn't operate themselves. So, we do need staffing. So, I appreciate you addressing that question to staffing and and as as uh the baseball professional world would do, there's a lot of minor league teams out there. They're losing their players because they're the farm teams and they go out to the majors. So eventually if we don't address that situation, we will be a farm team fire department and everybody will have turnover and they will go looking how they can make their own men's meat. However, every fire chief sits in front of their council at budget time and gives the same speech. And and what that means is is that it creates a situation where wages go up because the next fire department over just did it. So they do it and then then the third one does it, then the fourth one does it. And uh it's it uh it's a leaprog game. And uh uh a couple of years ago, I had to get together with the other city managers in in in Coochis County and say, "Okay, people, enough is enough because you're either not getting enough or the other guy uh wants to match you." And uh so at some point, you have to make that the the game to be played fairly can't be in a vacuum. We can't be all by ourselves out there. Uh, you know, the fire departments need to agree amongst themselves and and Ngalas is not a small fire department as rural fire departments go. Quite frankly, it's one of the bigger ones. Um, and so we should be setting the pace and sticking to it rather than playing catchup all

the time. And and then once everybody has parody, then the scheme of well, you know, Ngalas is paying X dollars, so let's let's up ours a dollar an hour does does nobody any good, but and and same goes for police agencies. They do the same they do the same thing. Uh, one one thing to take note, thank you again for the support that we had with the community college and putting that EMT program that we're going to partner up with and help them with them with that. It if you look at the payroll schedule, we do not have anything budgeted in on our timelines as well for recruits. And uh that was a an expense that incurred in the past few years did not happen this year and will not happen next year because we find the ability to be able to train these new employees with the searchs that are required so that they can actually perform and doing that with other avenues such as Jed and Pima Community College cooperation. It brings it here to our hometown and it's directly reflected in our budget. I think the norm is about $17,000 that are spent on green recruits. And we're trying to to reduce that green recruit avenue by using the other avenues to get them their credited college credits and certifications that are required throughout the state. A lot of extra work, but I think it's it's showing to be very frugal for the city of Ngalos.

Yeah, there's a lot of growing that needs to be done there, but that's nothing but good. Good question on on overtime. Mr. Laro, you know, and sir, you know, if you look at past years, we've been above the 300, you know, 324, 352, and we're reducing it to 300. Um, I know to this up to this year you're at 249. Uh, but does that justify bringing it down all the way to the 300,000 or is it safe to keep it at 350?

It's a a very good question, mayor, that uh that overtime goes directly towards staffing in that regards. If we're not picking up the ball and doing our staffing within the people that do show up to work, there is going to be an increase in overtime. There was a practice in the past to have acting people to act up and get paid a little bit more. In our instance, when we have battalion chiefs and we have the administration from the top down that's tactically ready.

This year it's reflected in the budget as far as the overtime that the administration that is equally responsible and and talented to response. They're stepping down into those vacant seats. So, as I would step down into a battalion chief's role to fill that void when the battalion chief's not there or a battalion chief will step down to a captain seat role and ideally if they have the search of paramedic and whatnot, we're able to mitigate that overtime by not necessarily stepping somebody up and compensating them additional, but we have the ability to step them, shall we say, down into a seat. It doesn't step their payroll down, but it sure mitigates the overtime. uh we are targeted to have 14 on duty every day and and that's been tough to manage but it goes back to staff managing staff.

Yeah, Mr. uh Chief Lariva has been managing the overtime more uh this this this uh calendar year which is actually good because in this is the fiscal year that the the percentage of the pension our our percentage it was higher. So, you know, that that that helped the city save money by controlling the amount of overtime being used by fire department because out of police and fire, the percentage for pension is higher in the fire. It's about 92% or so of the gross. So, the city pays this fiscal year as up to June 30th, it'll be 92% of every every gross amount that gets paid to fire. And so by lowering the overtime that decreases the city's cost,

the majority, correct? So that's Yeah. Just to make a quick comment. It's because I I I harp on I harp on the unfunded liability. You know, I it is it's debt to the city of Noales and there's not much we could do about it. Um so we'll pay into it. We should be doing. Uh, thank you. Because that's for me that's pretty smart to say, you know, the cost rises when you, you know, use that over time. You don't use it wisely. And you, you've been able to do that. That that that uh

Well, I I appreciate mayor and council and and finance. We're a municipality. It takes everybody together, but someone's got to initiate that to say, you know what, I'm not going to use this overtime um I'm going to use this overtime, sorry, wisely because at the long at the end of the day, it affects our unfunded liability. Very, being the business is the best case scenario. When you're fully staffed, that's the best case scenario. Um but but there's always going to be overtime because uh because we give we give people fringe benefits

and they use them. So when somebody takes a two week vacation, Ken has to backfill it and that's that's where it is. Yeah. And their schedule's already has a overtime built into the schedule. So it's it's already part of of their schedule because they they have three shifts, right? It's 120, 96, and 120. Correct. So hours after 9 after 106 hours, it becomes overtime. So they're they only get 14 hours of overtime max. They're scheduled to work 120 hours automatically. They're getting 14 hours of overtime in that check. So that's the way it's budgeted then. The 14 hours is baked in. Uh excuse me.

So that's the way it's always been budgeted. Built in and their schedule. So when if we go back to the PSPRS, uh the PSPRS always fluctuates. One year it goes up, one year it goes down, and it doesn't really go up. I mean, in the big scheme, we're still unfunded at at at 34 million. So it's not like we we it it makes up years there's been some years that goes up goes down. Yeah. So So this is the first year at least that I've seen it go down for PSPs. Yeah. It's been going the contribution rate. Mhm. Not the amount.

Yeah. Contribution. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Okay. So, we're going to jump to page 30, which is Nogalas rights.

Kind of should we do the I'm Eric Stewart, public works director. I think we should because there's only one department because he'll handle all the engineer and public works. So, he's going to do all the public works. So, yeah. So, no reason. You've already made you cool your heels for two hours. Already throwing you out, Eric. So, we can jump through. Unless she want to do public house. You want to do your presentation? Mine's quick and easy. So we can skip to page 62 which is Malas housing.

Thank you for that. Actually here you you've had that look on your face. I didn't even think about it. So, just quickly, I'm not sure if you all know, but um our the public housing budget is all 100% reimburseable to the city. So, everything we do spend, everything here, we write a check to the city of Ngales. So, all these monies, none of it comes from the city. It all comes from um the feds. Federal, just so you'll know.

Quick question. What happens if um if they end up increasing the the let's say the employee salaries for housing? How um because I know you already had your uh your budget meetings and if will that change something will that be a problem? So in our budget with HUD I added a 3% increase just in case um there is an increase. So we have Mhm. Okay. Yeah. And if we don't if you guys don't give the 3% then it just stays there. Yeah.

Mhm. And that is why I'm like I wonder what how it affects if we end up increasing the salaries for employees. Yeah. Our budget is approved in December. Okay.

Any questions? You cleaned up buildings, you painted, you did a lot of you could say housework uh last last year. So I think uh the one thing thing I seen is building insurance. Is that general going up? Yeah, the it's it's an overall um cost and the majority actually of the building insurance is a lot of the buildings are for from housing for that they that they have and that's why they have a higher amount. We normally they tend to not have a f a final number and if I'm if I'm not mistaken I think next month they want to schedule a they're going to come down so I'll probably um contact you because they're going to want to go and

and to every single individual building that we have insured. Okay. Including our the two new buildings. Have a question. Do we have do we have buildings on housing since we're talking about insurance that are in the flood flood plane or flood zone? I don't know if we do. I wouldn't know. Yeah, if we do it probably be the ones the onsaw ones that are That's what I'm thinking. Was that on the blue also? Yeah, because if I if I could recall the map how they expanded the way they drew it at the

the flood map at the in the county, but um we were probably they're probably once they have the inspection, they're probably going to request that. I know that they they're they're looking into all that.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. because a whole street is considered. So, and then they they have it expand the drawing outside of the street and and and um legal and zos freeway. Yeah. Yeah, because and and we tend to increase it even more for those causing in case they say, you know what, this is this needs uh I think we added about 15% more than what they normally have just to make sure that we don't under budget and we have the correct

John's holding out on this. Look at what's sitting at this. That's why I saw We're uh after we uh after we finish public housing, we need to take a break. Sorry, Eric. So, you guys have any other questions for Judy? Good job, Judy.

Okay. Thank you. Get up. Move around. Take a 30 minute break or back. What time out? But back at 2 p.m. or not even food coming. Okay. Okay. Third 30 minute break then 30 minute break. Okay. Thank you. Two times.

re reconven uh to special session. Uh go ahead, sir. Okay. All right. We're going to do everything that Sergio says is Eric's responsibility. So normally no writes with her director of engineering. So he has engineering first and Mr. Eric Eric Stewart is doing public works and engineering both. Yes. He also happens to have a is a professional. All right.

He wanted to meet council first. It's not a bad idea. He said something earlier about waiting to make that decision until you've got him through the budget and see if you still want him. So, yes, we are. Would you like me to start, Sergio?

Uh, well, I just want to We were discussing that uh they had capital which was more actually to add the make it ADA compliant right the the for one of the vans and we had uh he just uh told me it's about roughly about $5,000 more. So he's requesting to increase line item 688 which is repair maintenance for vehicles from 20 to 25,000 and remove the 10,000 from capital. And so that that will be the change proced. So I'll go. So yeah, if you have any questions for keys, thanks J.

Mayor and council. So I just want to back up and and explain uh my first seven days here as a consultant to help as the interim public works director. uh we were faced with uh putting this budget together and Sergio is uh very instrumental in helping us understand things uh since I'm so new here and also Mr. Pawkins help guide us in the right direction to kind of even things out and not ask for more than that we can afford. most of these uh different funds or I'll say departments we're going to talk about are um pretty much uh balanced what they were last year or less and so we did our best to cut budgets where we're we thought appropriate. There are lots of things we didn't ask for and I I'll mention those as we kind of go to those different departments. Ngalish rise was um not one of those departments. It's pretty much um um what it was last year plus um some funding to improve the uh the ADA access for one of the the older vehicles.

Are there any questions on that? Is that the mini bus? I don't know exactly what it was, but it it's got a problem with the door in the ramp. Someone's got to jump out and kind of hand manually move things open and close. Yeah, it should be our old one. Oh, okay. Yeah. What what's happened with the the We purchased a van. Is a van being utilized of the um the for Niguel's rights. They have two vehicles. They have two vehicles. Correct. Two vehicles. And one of those is one that is this repair we're talking about for the uh ADA access.

Yeah. Because the the new vehicle had the new vehicle was okay. It was the older vehicle. Something about the ramp doesn't work right and the door kind of jams. So, they're looking at repairing that. At the end, two of the vehicles are going to be in in service or not. Two of them are in service now. One just needs a lot of TLC as it's operated. Okay. So, the operator the the driver has to get out and kind of uh put the ramp down by hand for the wheelchair access and so forth. Okay. So,

just my curiosity, um, and I'm asking this question because I really don't know the answer. Um, Ngalas Rides is funded by the city. Have we ever been federally funded for transit services andor has that ever been discussed?

No. because most, you know, most communities under the what they call the 5311 program um through ADAT uh a large majority of the expenses of running the system are funded. Um, and I don't know if that's something you want to assign somebody to look at, uh, for the future because, uh, that program will pay, um, a large percentage of your operating costs and also a large percentage of your capital equipment purchases. So, you know, a new and I and a new bus will cost you$1red to $150,000 depending on what size. Okay. Uh the only thing that um you know you got to be careful of sometimes u and and and a lot of people wish they hadn't done is um your your vans are small enough you don't need um CDL driver. You don't want to cross that threshold because then finding CDL drivers becomes a lot more difficult

and they have to be reertified annually. So, and if they get a traffic ticket, they could lose their CDL. So, um it might be something that uh want to sign somewhere in public works um sometime over the next year to look into that, see if that and you know, it it may or may not work for you, but if it does work for you, uh a lot of this money you're spending now goes away.

Thank you, Mr. Pocket. That's all I have. when you mentioned that they have to be certified, the ones that the drivers that we have right now, they just have a regular license. So, a van or a bus of a certain size requires a CDL, commercial driver's license. Anything smaller than that, it's not required. Almost like a truck driver's license.

Yeah. same thing as a truck driver only different a little bit different but um but yeah if if you can if you can operate the system below that threshold and I think it's either 16 or 18 seats uh per unit um then a CDL isn't required it's a lot easier to find folks because getting certified as a commercial driver requires some testing and it requires um you know an annual reertification test and it requires an annual physical and so it just you know it's easier if you stay small and I think you're doing I I think you're doing okay with what you've got. I

So are you going to be responsible of letting somebody take care of that? I think I just passed it off. You didn't call by name though. Oh, okay. made a note. Perfect. Thank you. Welcome. Any more questions on Nalis rights? Okay. Next is the next page will be uh page 31 which is the facilities uh department. So again, um you can put those on a smartphone.

Thank you. Thank you sir. center. So, so again on

under facilities maintenance we tried to maintain what we had last year. The big increases are utilities. So 6835 and also 68.885 which is repair maintenance for buildings. There's one capital um request or two multiple capital requests. the um we're looking at one new air conditioning system on the Yes, sir. And then also um new furniture for the admin building. I have a comment. Uh mayor,

go ahead. Um in the senior center, I I have requested the old city manager that if it was possible to add the other building that it's vacant right now and make it together so that the senior center will be a bit bigger because they do need much more space. So what happened to the other building, the one that is not going to be in use anymore? Is is are you talking about the one that the detectives are in? That's right. Um, well, once we vacate the building, there's no there's no plan. So, I I hear you sticking your claim.

The the Well, I I requested it and apparently they were, of course, that's the past. Now, it's your responsibility. So, um, Eric, you have you been over there? Have not to this. Okay. Um, I'm going to ask Eric to go over to the senior center maybe sometime if when you're there. Yeah, I would be more than happy. Why don't Why don't you and Eric Have you been there at the senior center? They're crowded

and there's a lot of people that want to join the center and there's no more space because what's there the the the people there is there they already have their own chair and their own seat and you're not allowed to sit in that particular place because it's so crowded. Well, since we are vacating that building. Yeah. Uh I mean that's an option to look at. I'll really appreciate it because they do need it. Yeah. Nothing to it. So that means that in the future I'm going to start going there. So I needed a a bigger space. There'll be Are you going to join me? Well, I might go.

We're all going there. That's true. Uhhuh. I'm I'm thinking, you know, I'm thinking that that building's probably not that probably needs new air conditioning, too. Of course. We may want to look at that right away. Yeah. Wait for that for that air conditioning. Uh can can you get over there and assess that? Yes. Because if we might as well put it in next year's budget. Yeah. We have to do it. Let's do it. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. because I'm guessing it's the same air conditioning you've got in the other one right now for the whole thing. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. You You visit the center. Hey, I'm qualified to belong to a

Okay. You're more than Oh, I fit the criteria. Just, you know, as a as a reference, I've seen other senior centers and my god, they're beautiful, big, and I mean, they have space for everything. And this one is a tiny little place for a lot of people and I think they deserve better.

Are there any more questions about Yeah, I have a question,000. That's for the Chase Bank building. Oh, this building. Yeah, the new the new administrative building. Oh, right. Correct. Now, is that was it all that u on the proposal of the remodeling of the bank building? If it was, I was not included in those meetings. I know that they had increased the the the line item from the past management because I know

we increased 1.3 from the original. They see that if it's included then we can scrap the line item from here. As far as I know it was using the line item from you know remodeled finished and done you know with furniture and everything. Okay. I don't recall honestly don't know if Yeah. I wasn't involved in those talks so I I really I can't say I I do know because I don't. Um but if they are we can we can scrap that. We can still budget it and not spend it if it's already and because I know there's still money. I think that's a good question for that McKenzie have a meeting on that building every Thursday morning. So if if Sergio reminds me on Thursday morning, I'll ask the question.

Okay. Please.

I have a question. Mayor, I have a question. So um I know that the time by the time you know we start moving into that building you you know and you won't be here Mr. Pin. So, I just wanted to talk to council a little bit about it. Just a few minutes here. You know, we I know that the finance department um cuz I checked online. Um you know, they spent an enormous amount of money on on furniture a few it wasn't even two years ago, right, Sio? You guys remodel that and all of that. So, there's a furniture and all that. So my question now is that this $50,000 I mean just so that we can all be clear here. We still haven't made like final decisions who's going there, who's not going there, what offices will be utilized and so forth. I know that's going to be a future discussion that I'll probably put on the agenda or one of us but or all of us. So this 50,000 is just allocated. It's just not, you know, we can move it around. It doesn't have to be spent or any of that. correct thing. It's just going to be

there. We got some estimates from uh uh Uline actually. And okay, where you buy that? And it was more like the basic uh having a desk with drawers and everything for every single office. That way at least we had at least that budgeted in case we moved in because according to them it might we can be moving in maybe by the end of June. But again June like this June. Yes. Um but we wanted to make sure we had I mean furniture. Uh we did re you know um bring it up to past management and say well we can bring these you know furniture and take it over but having maintenance move it just from one corner to the other end up breaking one.

Yeah. Yeah. Noic and eventually whoever moves in needs as well. So yeah. No, I was just wondering that I know you've allocated $50,000, but of course we are going to look at this all over again. Oh, yeah. What offices are And it's more just to make sure we we we had an an an idea how much it cost us to have an a desk in every office that's there.

But, uh, yeah, we wanted to make sure that we had that in there. And and like I explained to, uh, to the mayor is if that was already allocated in the original, uh, increase, then the cost will just come out of there. It won't it won't be and it can you know we can remove it put it in reserve or we can just leave it there and not spend it because I mean my my my experience of what I've seen we we we might be budgeting say 120 thou a million dollars and we just spent 50 million. So we whatever we budget doesn't really mean that we we end up spending it. Yeah. Anything else in facilities? So on page 33 is uh engineering. We were actually able to uh lower our other professional services uh 65.99 significantly. uh we now have a new staff member, an engineer in training that uh does CAD work and so the idea was to do in-house design on things. So that was a cost savings to us. That's the biggest change in this department.

In engineering, we have two. Well, we have three. Actually, there's there's three positions. Uh, right now Eric is doing two, right? He's doing engineering and public works director, but if we needed to hire an engineer, there would be an engineer, an engineering tech, and what's the third one? Um, I want to say like a like AutoCAD. Thank you. AutoCAD technician. CIV engineer, designer. And does he design or is he has he done any projects? So, or he just paying extra money for nothing? He's he's in training. No, because I remember when they when they did that it was supposed to be uh like a temporary to see how it worked out.

Yeah. But I've heard that there has that he hasn't done any projects. That's true. And I want to say he's been there about four or five months. Yeah. Just came from streets. So So does he need it? Very sharp. Civil engineering degree and um like I said, he's an engineer in training. No, but is he is he needed? I mean, oh, is he needed? Well, because are we paying extra money for just having him like employing him?

Well, so the the savings is that I've shown here under $65.99 is having an onboard CAD technician. And so, um the savings looks like it's about uh $90,000. And um he doesn't make $90,000. So there's a savings to the city by having an in-house staff member. Now with the city engineer on board, they can guide that person and seal the plans and um and we can have in-house professional services like other agencies do

and he and he is up to date on all certificate. I mean he's a qualifi he's a verified engineer. Well, he's he's a he has a degree and he's working towards his engineering training certification and ultimately uh wants to get his PE. So, and so I have my PE and as interim uh acting city engineer and public works director, I can help guide them on their designs and as and I can seal those as long as they're bonafide employees. So So, so you'll be on top of that thing. Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you.

I have a question on the payroll schedule for engineering. I'm a little um confused here. So, that vacancy you're filling in, of course, on the uh payroll schedules engineering on the back. It's the per I don't have that one. Yeah. Oh, okay. So, so my question would be to you. So, that's a city engineer vacancy. That's Eric, correct? That's Eric. I mean, I know that he's just filling in. And then you have a civil engineer and designer. Mhm. That's the cat that the person we were talking about. Okay. And then the senior senior senior engineer technician. What's that? Theita's position. Oh, okay. That's where um Okay.

Excuse me. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Is an engineer. Yes. She actually um she serves as a senior engineering tech. However, she does have a master's degree in I want to say civil engineering and a PhD in I want to say environmental engineering. Okay. Wow. Okay. But those those two I bet Mike the civil engineer designer and senior engineer technician those are in those are right now people. They're positions that are actually in body. They're there in engineer. You're just the city engineer is just you filling in for all the other

um public works director. I got it. Okay. I was wondering about that. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Great. So that's engineering. Okay. Great. We didn't defend you by calling you vacant, did we? Nope. Um page 34 is U cemetery. I'm not sure if that's mine or not. Uh no that's we have cemetery right now is part of parks and wreck. Okay. So it will be page 38 is okay.

Thank you. Okay. big changes in the uh her fund under streets is uh the big change is the $6.2 million from ADOT. Um and that's I was told that's not a grant. That's actually they funded that as a line item of theirs. Um Mr. Pockin, can you speak to anything about that? I did you hear that it million?

They were short this year and they wanted to pull funds. Well, I don't know if they're short, but that won't stop them if they want to. Um, yeah, we we got some intel last week through uh Sego that um the uh the majority uh in the legislature is uh looking to claw some projects back. And the reason that he told me was because he thinks that's one of the projects they want to claw. Uh, so as as luck would have it, um, we had, um, Stacy Hamilton, what's that? Stacy, uh, yeah, Stephanie Stephanie Hamilton,

uh, from the state legislature here on Friday morning. Mhm. And uh she had also heard about it

and uh so uh she's working on it and I'm going to send notes out to my friends in LD19 because all three of them are part of the majority uh to let them know that uh we've awarded a contract for construction on this project and we would prefer not to have it clawed back. So, um, now the optimist in me thinks that all we got to do is let them know we're using the money and it'll be okay. But, you know, I've been wrong about the legislature before. So, so we're not taking a chance. Thank you, Mr. Pockin. The other item we're going ahead with the projects.

We are. Yeah, we are moving forward with the projects. We have Yes. And we're Yeah, the the one that you approved on Wednesday night. Industrial Parkway. Yeah, Industrial Park. It's going. It's going. And I asked Eric this morning to step up the other two and get them in the pipeline. So that I think the one that rushes the most is the Laameia Laia, the one by the border patrol. And then uh and then Frank Greed. What's the name? Oh, Frank. Frank Greed. Lint. Lint is I would say number two. Okay. Yes. The one named after a hotel.

Well, um, so we're we're working to bring those before council in June. I want to be able to tell the legislators that these are working. These are projects that are process

in process. We're not sitting around waiting to spend the money. Um, in fact, we have our kickoff meeting for Industrial Park Drive this Thursday with the contractor. So, the other thing that changes here is uh other professional services 6599 that increases due to um we have some in-house projects, but uh things like geotech engineering and whatnot are are required for that. That and the $6.2 million. So, those are the big changes for this fund. Yes.

30,000. Any questions on that? And Sergio, I can't really speak to the um overweight fees on page 41. I'm not sure that the overway fees normally if the previous the engineer would either allocate it for any other in case they needed more for street projects

uh like as in the her we have about half a million for for any other projects to work on uh in case uh they wanted to add it to the any type of street street project they will um budget in the overweight as well in case they needed more. Uh right now it's just all budget in the reserve for Okay. For for the fund. Excellent. Okay. Thank you. Do you don't do you understand what it is? I understand what it is. Yeah. It's it's great. Not many agencies get one of three borders that has it exactly or the only border. It's amazing. Yeah. Yeah.

Eric, mayor, question. Um yeah, I was going to raise that um point that Mayor Malo brought up, but also um I How long have you been here? For a few months now, right? Or weeks. Seven weeks.

Seven weeks. I know. Okay. Um yeah, and now that we're budgeting for next year, um there are a lot of streets or plenty of streets in Ogalas that need to be fixed and um you know, I know NALS is an older community and so forth. Is there any way later on we can kind of get an update as to what streets have been worked on, what streets are badly um worn out. Um I'm not an expert in that area, but I do, you know, go on the road and people call me and some streets are really, really, really bad in certain neighborhoods. Um, and so just so that we can kind of talk a little bit about some of these funds that are allocated, exactly how they're going to be used. Um, and maybe we can even discuss it in a public meeting. And these streets will be will be um chipped or what do you call it, George, when you chip

chip seal

chip seal. Some of them will be totally um, you know, lifted up and and and uh sealed and whatever. I'm not, as you can see, I don't have the right terminology for all of this, but in other words, there's a lot of streets in Ogalas that are just coming apart. And so maybe we can get a list of like streets that are, in your opinion, badly badly destroyed and need to be fixed immediately. And there's got to be some action um so that the public can see we're doing something about their streets, if you will, because those are the things that people, you know, want to see immediately. You know, our streets being uh, you know, cleaned up, are they being fixed? Are parks being cleaned and so forth. Those are the, you know, quality of life services that the city right away should be providing. So, if we could do that and then maybe on in the future, yeah, before Mr. talking maybe in the June meeting kind of lay out some of the streets that will be the city will be fixing

to anybody's knowledge is do we have a formal pavement maintenance program established no we've been they were working on something like that and maybe there is I don't know I have no idea maybe there is Eric if I may interject I think it was 2017 does that ring a bell came in and reviewed the 32 two projects.

And so they did a promal assessment where they they drive a van through and it's got video cameras and they run the footage through a software and it kind of breaks down um the assets block by block and the paved assets being the streets. It breaks down a block by block and tells you what you have in in the city and where the hot spots are and where the good roads are.

So we have that data. I think it's from 2017. So typically in a city you do that every three years, four years, five. So it's been almost nine. So when I arrived here, so I've run pavement management programs for five different agencies. It's kind of my passion. Uh that along with um construction projects. When I arrived here, identified that and talked to staff and then um said, "Hey, I'd like to get a proposal from a firm to come rerun the roads with the benefit that they use the latest technology. They prioritize it so that we optimize our dollars. We don't just jump on the worst first and forget about the new roads that need the fog seals, the chip seals, things like that." And then it's also split between, you know, the really good roads and the roads that are not good, the ones that need overlays or milling fills or some full depth reconstructions. And then the ones that are really bad where we need to start over with everything. Um they'll break it out and put together a five and 10 year capital program for the city. Um and so ideally that's another reason we we talked about um leaving money in the reserves for these things so that whoever decides to sit in this chair and work for um the city can actually make that decision. But at this point, I'm focusing on getting uh roadway assessments done so we can create that pavement management program. So, we're optimizing our dollars spent and like you said, the seals and so forth. Um those are it's almost every agency has done this and it's no one's fault, but everyone always jumps on the

worst first, the alligator roads that are 35 years old. And so our goal is to address those, but also to um split our effort amongst the whole array of roads that are in fairly good shape, new to middle of the road to full depth reconstruction. So I hope that answers your question. It's on our It's on our It's on our thoughts and it's built into our reserves so that um when we get a new city manager and a full-time public works director and city engineer, we can move forward with these plans of action. So, and it's on my list of things to do, too. So, you're welcome. Okay.

Thanks, Eric. You're welcome. We'll guess sooner if there's no more questions. Okay. Yep. We'll move on to the deduction on on the S disposal fee is what is what's that pertain? So the reason that I removed the revenues for disposal fees, I spoke with uh Judy on Friday and um so the disposal fee is when you had a septic uh people that had the septic business would go in front of public works and will dump it. Uh I guess that was some type of uh issue that shouldn't be happening at the city. So they cut that service. So they have to actually go um somewhere else where they have the disposal for that. And uh so we're not getting those revenues. So that's why we have to remove it from our budget.

Septage is multiple times more sewage than what you get from your normal collection. And because of that, um certain loads of of septage can upset the balance uh in your wastewater treatment plant and cause problems for the process. And so um most municipalities have gone out of the business. I know when I was in Bisby, we went out of the business about 10 years ago because it was just totally upsell upsetting the chemistry of the wastewater treatment plant and uh causing us to have to make changes to the plant in order to deal with the the septage. So, um, believe me, th those costs exceed what little revenue you're going to get from septage. So, it's it's it's it's a good deal.

There were also high concentrations of metals and so uh with the um interest of um the IBWC, our pre-treatment officer talked about ways to mitigate that, which was to do introduce testing to every dump that occurred into this station and that just became cost prohibitive and uh don't have the staff to manage it. Except for that reason.

I know that we have a I read their water company here within the city limits and I know they store they have big tanks where they store and then they need to dump it into the system city system. Correct. Is that is that is that part of the problem also? Well, so the the Valverie they do a flushing of their system and they're they're under design now. I think they got um a grant to do a design for

but won't that overload our system? it will come to our system. And so they've worked with our pre-treatment officer to spell out what's required. And we've they won't be starting for another year on this. Um um I lost a word here. Welcome to the club. Well, in other words, they'll they'll be they'll be starting in a year and um we actually have sampling set up in the manhole downstream of this to to test as it as it comes in. We've given them requirements of um how much they can introduce into the system every day. Okay.

And so at this time now they've and they pay for all the testing here. they pay for all of it and so and they also pay a fee um per gallon to use our system. So um because basically they you know if no gallons would have bought this their system out years ago when it was for sale

um we would have been better off but but now they're they're using they're getting some of our grant money to do their own process. Yeah, I think their grant money came from um their um their water quality. And so I don't know if you've heard of P PA POS and PAS and so those are an issue now with with um they're calling um forever chemicals in the water, but but we're not losing anything by taking on their I I don't think so. Okay. No. In fact, and and and like you said, everything's organized in plans so that it won't overload the system, right?

And and of course, Mr. Light won't won't say you're contaminating us or anything. And we've been assured it's just potable water, you know, but we're sampling anyway. Okay. Yeah. And then charging by the gallon. So, everything's under control here. It is. And and I'll I'll tell you, our um our pre-treatment officer is he's he's one of the best. So he's tracking all of this stuff. Okay. Our city pre treatment officer. Yes. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. The only one we have, right? Yeah. I know. Right. The only city in Arizona that has their own pre-treatment.

Did he ever Did he ever get his new truck? There was I remember one time we there was a place where he was going to get a new truck cuz he was driving an old banged up vehicle. Did he Did Does he have a decent vehicle? I don't know. check on that because we we in the budget we had we had ordered two new vehicles not last year I think the year before. Yeah. A few years ago. Remember that they were the same. One for one department, one was for him. Mhm. And and I don't think he ever got it. I think one of the one of your public work officials sort of took it away from him. Yeah. I can't I don't know what they gave him. They they wanted something new. Anyway, that's Yeah, I can't speak to that. But I'll ask

goes to the bosses. Oh yeah. Um Oh, so that's sewer. Unless there are any other questions. No.

Yeah. Yeah. It's it's interesting to find someone with that level of integrity. Who's the person? Daniel Aris Mende. Okay. Yeah. Is it Mendes. Sorry. Thank you.

I can't roll my ars like you guys. I can't speak to the difference in the million dollars. Can you speak to that on this on this fund on this under sewer? We're down a million dollars and I you had mentioned about that, but I I didn't understand it.

Yeah, it's a cost. There's a couple of that went down. Professional service went down almost every single pension which affects the operating. Okay.

That's what we've been budgeting. Um this year so far December, March, I think September, but we never got I was looking for some notes here on that question. Yes,

with uh with Mr. Light down there at IBWC. Uh we pay 1.2 two million a year or or does that include uh the parallel lines that we have from Rio Rico from the warehouses that dump into the IO how is that broken down now that the waste water that's collected from

well actually I'm talking about the warehouses that that I guess uh like loves and those areas they they uh I think for some reason Ogalas was giving uh doing the permit process and everything else. I I I don't not sure but but uh but those lines are part of the flow that that end up there at the IBWC and are we being charged for that or how are we collecting? we charge I wouldn't think so but I think we we charge them we charge them and and that's part of the bill that we get from

who who do we charge we uh I know that uh when they set up I understand I think what uh Danny Mendy and she had explained is that uh it it goes into the cost when they're building the um but when they do when they do have an account with us they pay it if they have any any type of account with Rio Rico utilities. That's um we build a percentage of that amount also that we could build back to uh Rio Rico utilities and I think it it was part of the litigation but uh they don't handle the the the sewer flow or anything like that that goes not seeing anything that's site

it's more of the the user fees that we built um we utilities and and those warehouses would they be on on on pile there that not will It happen to end up at your department. Yeah, if they have if they have an account with us, they get bill from um by us. We build them. So, it's part of the utility user feed and and uh can we get that information? I can I can have uh Sure. I'll give you a list of the warehouses out there, then tell me who's who's paying and who's not. Sounds good. Because I think I think the city might be getting short short changed.

Yeah. And I mean it's hard when you have new people also that don't you know we're not aware of what was what contracts were done before of who has who pays what. I know at Danny at his mandate he's he's very knowledgeable when it comes to because he has to inspect those areas. So I know who uh about the lines. I know he mentioned something like that before when um when Jackie was still here but I don't uh I had mentioned it. give me the information. I had at one time, but she never really gave gave me the information. She just said, "No, everybody's paying." But I'd like to see it. If we build them, they pay. I want to see it in black and white. Yeah. No, no problem. Let me know and and I'll get that. Okay. I'll get you a list.

Such I have a question as far as payments with the IBWC. Did Did at what point uh did we stop paying making payments to the IBWC a few months ago? Not a few months ago. I we just got a bill in March for both uh two quarters already from IBWC and we paid them. Okay. Which shows that 611,000. Okay. Way back. Yeah. a couple of years ago when it was under litigation. It was still

I'm I'm talking about uh just recently a decision that I I just I'm just want to clarify that our former uh public works director had made a decision not to be paying into the I that's why I'm I'm asking. I think it was um it was well it was still deciding what was going to be the cost for the city because we were we were not maintaining it. it was going to go past. It was going to move everything back to them and then they were going to bill us because I know they they they have certain cost

and they they bill us um a percentage of us those costs is what they bill us quarterly and then from that amount that we get build that's how we determine yearly we determine how much uh a percentage of that again because it was an agreement with city nogalas and Rio Rico utilities that they'll pay back a percentage of that.

Okay. I just got to note that the the pre-treatment guide does have a new vehicle. can also answer another question. So the um Thank you.

You're welcome. Another thing was the um staff is aware of um maybe a loss I'm going to s say a loss of inventory of um sanitary sewer that exits into the IOI. And so I'm I'm going to say lost lost inventory. And so You say, "Well, it's one of those things like we think there's a connection here, but we're not sure here kind of a thing." So, what what we're what we're doing is we're um

Thank you. I like Thank you, mayor. part of our um water and wastewater modeling of our system is to go back and double check inventory for everything coming into the system, everything leaving the water and everything coming into the sanitary sewer. So, um by this time next year, we hope to have accounted for these things. So, and it it it'll answer a lot of questions that we all have about who's who's connected, who's not. Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. Make sure everybody right

$3,000. Yeah. Monthly bills operate the system. Right. So that was so needed. Also before uh we change to department on line item 68.99 which is other contractual services uh page 45 68.99 other contractual services

and this is to answer uh councilwoman Montiel's uh regarding the how much we pay it doesn't come out of uh finance it comes out of the enterprise funds to pay the for the billing So that's yeah that's what I I I got that information right now. So it's uh it the billing which is for the postage and also for the services of the billing uh it gets uh split between the three enterprise funds and it cost the city approximately about an average of 50,000 a year which is still less than an employee have let's say we hire another employee it cost le Yeah. So

that's sewer. That's sewer. uh and pre-treatment which is

47 is pre-treatment and that's just the one uh one person uh department that we have to have separate for that's still part of the sewer. go to page 49. That's water.

So, I wanted to mention that there are things that we haven't asked for and um Councilman Ben mentioned it earlier, but I wanted to talk about those. So, um when I first arrived, I asked staff to share with me some of their maintenance operation and maintenance processes. One of the examples I asked for was what does our um valve exercising program look like? And I was told we don't have one. Now, just so everyone understands clearly, um the valves are pretty much every city block, you have a valve in either end uh so that you can transmit water and then shut down that block so you can work on it to serve um and let let the rest of the city be served, but shut down that block. And so I was told 10 years ago we stopped to that program because every time they exercise the valves, they would break them. And this a broken valve or valve that breaks easily is a sign of a a valve that's not maintained. It's not exercised properly. So let's just say over 10 years ago, we stopped having valves that operated fully. Um, why that's important is when there's a fire or something and um if there's a a broken valve near hydrant where firefighters need that water pressure, then we're in trouble. They're compromised. And I've been in scenarios, not in the city, but in scenarios where I show up to a scene as the public works director and ask the fire chief, "What can I do to help?" And he says, "I I could use some water pressure." and he they're hauling water um to put on a fire. So, that's a program that we're not asking to be funded. If if I were, it would be a $6 million program, but it would be probably spread out over a 10-year period, but I'm not we're not asking for that right now. So, there's

things that we're not asking for, although they're on our critical list of things to provide. Another one would be a couple years ago uh there was a um a SCADA device that was not acting properly and didn't turn off the water pump that was filling the Crawford tank. That's a 2 million gallon tank. So during that weekend, it overflowed. I couldn't tell you how much it overflowed and it washed out part of the slope downstream of the tank. Um, I just got a proposal for I want to say $60,000 from a forensic engineering firm that would help us design, not rebuild it, design a slope in that or design a a repair for that slope. Um, that's not something we're not asking for. And so there's lots of critical items of things that we would like to ask for, but there's just no funding that allows for it at this time. So

I ask a question. Yes. So

good news, bad news. So the slope sloughing away seemed to stabilize and it did because the pipe network underground um where it was leaking and pulling the slope away that is now all solid ductal iron restrain joint pipe and so that portion doesn't have the same tendency to um have failures that the portion that's already washed away. So to answer your question, it's safe at this time, but it's on our critical list to find a way to take care of it.

The the monsoons won't affect it to that extent. However, it's on our critical list of things to watch and um as we start these road projects, we'll have leftover materials that we'll be looking at um possibilities of back filling the slope with. and then um through some line items we have in professional services hiring geoteex to kind of help us with that but no one's going to design it for us. We'll have to use our um sound engineering judgment for that. So,

and again this this is a tank that to replace it would be 10 plus million dollars. So, we don't want to lose it. I I think Eric that at this point, you know, I know you're not asking for the 60K, but I I think that should be taken care of yesterday. Um because like you said, between if that water tank collapses, it's, you know, we're going to lose the slope, we're going to lose obviously the tank, we're going to lose, so it'll be like maybe 1520 million to get it back to where it was, if we can ever get it back to where it was, right? that we should prioritize these these 60,000 on this budget, Eric, for that.

We'll find that. Okay. So, let's let's move there. And at the bottom of page 49, your total revenues projected for this fiscal year, next fiscal year, sorry, is three, let's just call it 3.1 million.

Okay. Uh and if you look at page 52, which is the bottom line for the expenditure side, um that number is 4.3 million. We have no carryover balance. It's all gone. So that means we are this projected budget is in the whole 1.266 million. But but who's you cannot balance that. I I I round to the nearest million. He gives me the exact number. It's not have no carry forward.

Right. So now um okay so a million two gets us everything on the expenditure side. Okay. Which was done pretty conservatively quite frankly

very conservative. Um uh in fact the three of us sat around for about an hour and a half just on this one uh trying to figure out the best road to hoe. Um so the question is uh if what we proposed here just keeps the system operating and doesn't make any repairs. If we're going to do any repairs, then you have to borrow more, which could be uh a solo money well spent, what you were just saying.

Um uh we would just have to transfer more in or or loan more in to to solve that one problem, which I'm not opposed to, by the way. But you needed to know the picture. That's the picture. Well, Steve, you proposed 1.2 two mailing get it from our reserves into the water right that's what you proposed 1.2 too. Did the auditor express a says there's no carry forward, so there's no reserve. No, but yeah. Oh, from the general fund. General fund. Did Did she express a preference at all if we were going to buy general fund? General fund.

Okay. So, what we would do is is work it out to have a a a loan made to the water fund from the general fund. And we'd have to have Joel work that up, the paperwork. Uh the question is how much?

Yeah. And one of the things that the the concerns that came up with from the auditors is if if you're going to loan money to any fund, you know, let it be for this instant like the water fund, they also have to be able to pay it back. And they're not feeling comfortable sitting at that's something that they express. are like we don't feel comfortable with this audit looking at the numbers because sanitation is right behind it and then sewer's right behind that one as well. So it all affects all um you know two months ago three months ago we had

three months ago we had an issue or or more where we had supposedly over 200 accounts that weren't even being charged. We had a construction company, street construction company that was had a open line on on a on a what you fire hydrant. Fire hydrant. Yeah.

How you know where are those numbers as to recovering anything as you know in in our budget or in our revenues of the all those accounts. So my understanding is from past management they were able to collect from one of the construction companies but that comes in as revenue for this fiscal year. Um so the deficit as per the count we collected for one year not for the many years that they were

no it's it's for the whatever balance that they had. I don't know if there was any type of adjustment again I wasn't included but I know that they they uh they were able to collect uh part of it. Um, we're I know we're putting locks and we having more reinforcement of uh making sure that when we assigned a a meter for fire hydrant to a certain location that they that's the only location, but they have a tendency of graving it, taking it over here, taking it over there. A floating meter.

Yeah, floating meter. So, but um they all I think I spoke to the fire chief. He explained to me that even if they put a lock and they put a meter that they can still get if they have the tools that can be able to take the water out of the place where there's no meter. So, you know, if they have the tools to to get water out, they can skip. So, they may be using more water on every hydrant.

Mhm. So it it's it's uh it's more of a self you know reporting kind of deal with and some of um you know we we have no control of and unless we have somebody policing the fire hydrants. I know they sell certain locks but it can be costly to replace at least for the areas where we we can you know we can have different options. One of the things that we discussed, we're like, well, if we end up getting locks, we would only assign instead of buying all the locks because I know it get costly, we can say, well, we're going to buy for certain fire hydrants and put the locks on those. And that's the only ones we'll let those fire hydrant meters stay. That way they they can't take it out of other places, but it has it's happened and it has happened in the past and we're just trying to see how we can.

Yeah. How many hydrants do we have? 937. Is that a round number? Roughly plus or minus one. Now, not all of them are operational. Um, sir, I have a question. Uh, it's been discussed in the past that for some reason they um some people think that if we will recover all these all these monies that these past accounts haven't these people haven't paid, it's not enough to offset the what we're we're Oh, no. No. No. It's not going to Yeah. It's not going to do a dent as a matter of fact. Right. No.

And and quite frankly, um while it's a good idea to recover whatever we can recover, um it's it's a very time consuming process and it doesn't really help us in the short run get back to square one. And uh if some of those people, even if you know who they are, you know, they're going to they're going to do everything they can to to avoid paying. And then if you take them to court, then that's another year. s Hill most of these people have been placed on contracts anyways right

some are are placed on contracts uh recently actually uh we've been uh staying on top now that we that I explained that we have been catching up and closing the day so now we understand by having that being caught up day by day we know now that we can say well we can run agent reports and say well we got so many people that haven't paid in sermon number of months when they weren't caught up to the close close of the day it was hard to deter determine which ones was was accurate. So now that we're we're we're at the point where we're we're we're starting to collect more because now we know exactly who still hasn't paid for either two months, three months or more. And we're closing accounts. We're having them re, you know, come in, pay a good amount, doing new contracts. So we're catching up. So, you know, we're we're getting back into the routine to to be up to date on everything. But again, still doesn't uh it's not a a million dollar extra that we're going to be getting.

And and then we go back to uh accounts that are connected with Verde Water. There's no way for us to we can, you know, we have our new uh collector uh uh specialist that he's been calling and and bringing in new contracts, people, you know, making contracts, but when it comes to the sewer, they can, you know, they can come in do a contract. that doesn't mean they they'll pay it because we have no way of controlling how we can we close them because they're they're just like well they just come in to I guess to get the to stop the collector calling. Yeah. So, but we we try to make sure that when they do a contract we collect a good amount also as much as we can. There will always be bad debt utility systems.

It's Can I say something? It's just like I know you're saying that it won't make a dent, but to me every penny that we get back from like warehouses, are you guys checking that out too to make sure that they're all connected and they are paying?

Yes. And and that is something that we're we're trying to be on top of it. And now that we're like like I said, we're back, you know, to date, then we can start uh because there was no um we can start collecting from uh let's see for meter violations because we did have people that would switch to meters. So we start going backwards. So we're, you know, it makes it harder for us to to build. So now we're putting locks, tags, we're doing everything that we can. And then when we close accounts and reconnection fees, it's increase of fees that we start collecting now that we're on top of it. So

So Mr. uh Steve, so what do you think or even Serio seeing that 1.2 two will just get us to where it get us, you know, but we still need to pay for some more stuff. You think 1.5 or 1.6 and I know the issue that that the auditors feel uncomfortable because we have to raise the water rates, right? And the only way they're going to feel uh comfortable after spending an hour on a phone with the auditor two Fridays ago, um the one thing that will make them comfortable with us doing this is increasing the rates. That's it.

And let me can I ask you something else? Uh I understand uh Steve that we can take care of this as as mayor and council to raise the rates. Uh there's another entity that will if we don't take care of this they will do it for us. Am I correct? We're at discussion with WIFA. Actually it was our consultant Willan Financial. Yeah. That's kind of leading us on along the path for with our WIFA program. Yeah. And he'll be he'll he'll be here probably before the end of the month. But he he did tell us he's still he's still waiting for the date.

Okay. So he he would like to one of one of the things that Michael um uh offer he said that he's willing to come down and and and explain everything that it comes to you know he can like I can sit down with two at a time or one at a time spend you know a few hours that way I can I make sure that when we bring the discussion to one of the council meetings that you guys that's not the first time you're hearing about it. That way you guys are more informed and he's willing to come down and stay the whole day here and then meet either two by two or one by one, however you guys want to. And he just asked for give me a date and and I'll plan it to go down to Ngalas and and that way I can inform them uh as much as so you so you guys can have as much information of what how it affects uh other other things financially.

And I think he'll want to visit a council meeting too. Correct.

And he probably will want to Serge and I are still working on the PSPRS issue u which by the time he we invite him down here we'll be able to talk to you about that as well because I mean there's two or three options there. One of which is to do nothing. Um but you know but but we want to we want to beat that one completely to death before he comes down here and talks to us about it. And so, but that's not the subject of the this is the subject. The question is um not if we need a to do a rate increase. The question is how much over how much period of time because you probably don't want to do it all in one year. Okay? uh you'll want to you'll want to get back within a within a period of time that the auditor's comfortable with um and that Michael's comfortable with because Will Dan will have a lot to say whether or not we can continue to do business with WHIFA in the future as well and we will need WHIPA in the future.

Yes, we will. So the question is what one of the the decision right now I guess from both of you is uh how much we have to transfer. Um I think which is kind of hard because we haven't raised the rates. So yeah. Well what what uh what I'd like to do is maybe um tomorrow answer that question. Okay. Because that way in the meantime, uh, Sergeant Eric and I can get together and decide what we absolutely got to do and then that way we've got a good number for you. Good. Yeah.

Other than that, it's just a basic everyday water system. Okay. Are we done with water? Sure. Go ahead. Michael. Okay.

Okay.

Um, sorry, Miguel. What do we have on May 19th? Oh, May 19th is the interviews with city manager candidates on the 18th or 19th 19th. 19th at 12. 19th at 12:00 in council chambers. Council chambers at an executive session. Correct. Yes. 19th 19th 19th 19th. Sorry. 18th You can put me at the same date, just a different time.

Well, two at a time. I wouldn't do more than two at a time.

So that's water. Sanitation. Sanitation. Okay. Sheet 54. Um, sanitation is 53 and 54. Not asking for any capital this year. Some of the big changes are other professional services. So there's I'm sorry. There is a small uh capital for sanitation, right? Oh, thank is that bin recycling bins? Oh, thank you.

Yes. Um, okay. So, the capital we're asking for is um for dumpsters and uh trash recepticles, right? Thank you. Capital is um Yes, thank you. 199. All capitals are 99s. Uh, thank you.

I have a question. What do you do with the old containers? The the ones that we're replacing have been destroyed really beyond use functional. they're not functional because I remember in past years we donated to well of course I don't know if it's possible again but to across the line some people they requested them and from what I understand if if they if they are donatable they would donate but I'm I'm told that these are these these are the small containers not the dumpsters yeah the small containers Yeah.

But what happened that time uh councilwoman Lopez is that we I made two as one for a church that you as me and another one for orphanage. But but those those containers they did us a favor of because most of them were not serviceable. So they got a little they oh it needs a a wheel. They put a wheel. They put a cover. But there was a bunch of them that were that were not serviceable. So they sort of helped us out and and made it functional. But these these containers were kind of like on their last legs. These ones that we donated that donated last time.

So these I just threw them out. It means that they were destroyed. They weren't any good. I mean, but that said, I mean, you know, I I mean I've done that before between Bisby and Nako. Mhm. Uh, you know, NACO's happy to have uh some of those. You hear the happy the same thing. But even if they're not totally serviceable, if they can fix them like Mr. Bonia says, put new casters on them or lids or whatever, or, you know, take one, take two and make one good one, right? Uh, I mean, if if if they're at all serviceable, we'd be more than happy to donate them. Oh, okay. Mhm.

Let me know and I'll find out some of the people across the the institutions that they're more than willing to accept them. Give us a feel for how many you're looking for. As many as you have. Okay. Yeah. Otherwise, you're going to get just get rid of them. So, we can donate them. Okay. Thank you. I wanted to mention one other line items that's changed is other professional services. Uh page 54.

54 uh item 65-99. And so we're requesting $100,000 for this line item. And what we're looking at is there's been lots of questions about sanitation. What do we do? How do we make it more efficient? Lots of questions. Um, we're proposing we bring in a consultant that specializes in this and says, "Okay, what do you got? What do you want to do? And give us four options of what we can do to make the system more efficient, how to operate it better." I've been in a scenario with the city of Prescuit where we did this and they gave us options A, B, C, and D and then brought it to staff and staff says we'd like D. And it it was I was surprised they did it because they eliminated all the holidays except for three and staff was on board with that. They also had uh where they were working um so many tens 10 10 hour days in a row and then they'd take so many days off then they would rotate in crews. They use less vehicles so they needed less equipment um and um there wasn't there was less holiday pay because they said we want you know Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter. And so, but we're proposing to bring in a consultant to help help us think outside the box to solve a problem that so far really hasn't been solved. Um, and that's what that line item is for. So,

Mr. Stewart is so that waste management um that we had considered that it's out the window to bring in the waste management company. Not necessarily. I I've heard mention of it and I don't I don't know if anyone can speak more about this but talking about it. Okay.

Um and in fact Mr. Bon and I have discussed it six or seven times already. Um I think we ought to examine going out of business and going to a contractor as an option. Um and like I told Mr. Bonia. Um, you know, there's there's pluses and minuses to everything, including having uh your your waste picked up by a contractor. Um, the the the biggest thing I worry about with contractors is do do we now and will we in the future have competition to keep the prices low? Okay. Um, now I know waste management dominates almost every rural market in Arizona right now. Okay. But that doesn't mean they're they're alone. Uh because I know Republic Services has been getting more and more um aggressive, if you will, uh at going after business. Um and so if uh I I think one alternative we need to examine is number one, does competition exist? Viable competition. Okay? Because if you know they're going to come in and bid one time and then never again because typical waste management contract, okay, a contract to manage waste is usually right around three years and then they come back and you have to bid it again. And if after the first time around we only get one bidder, then we're going to lose the competitive edge and the prices are going to go up. And now, while I can't totally guarantee that we're always going to have competition, um I I believe that um in in our environment here, there's enough household stops and they probably some

of them may already have commercial stops because we're not allowed to have a monopoly anymore as municipality. Um that uh they could come in and you know um It's hard for me to comprehend spending $4 million a year to pick up garbage. Yeah. Okay. But that's what we're doing. And so, so it has to be one of the options at the end of the day, right? Of the options.

And and lowering our costs without going to that option is also another option. But we we feel it should be looked at very carefully and not just kind of um internally but externally with consultants that do this for a living. So,

and if we do this, uh, I think one of the past discussions that that we had, I think I had it with with with Anna, is that, um, if we do this, if the city continues to to, uh, build the customers, uh, maybe we can come in with sort of with waste management and it doesn't have to be with them. It could be maybe with Republic, I don't know. Uh, but maybe we can have a some sort of a maybe a 5% leftover from every payment and and from there build down a little bit. I don't maybe I don't know that's possible. Um, but that's something that we looked at with uh with uh Mr. Kramer. Uh, but that was just a discussion that we had like very brief. It was he said that maybe it was maybe between 10 and 15, but we never got to really see actual numbers. But that could be a possibility too if we play our cards right. So I just like I said it could be one of the one of many possibilities.

Well, if we end up hiring a contractor that builds the city, then we will be still building the customer and the space in between. That's your call. Go ahead. Quick question. um how many residents um contract with uh an outside, you know, uh agency? I know I know that there's some businesses that do and I know some friends of mine do, you know, they're not um tied to the city of Noales for whatever reason, but um is that taking a lot of business from the city of Noales?

Has anybody ever looked into that? Um, so I'll have to find that answer out for you. I don't know that answer. Just curious. So, specifically, how many folks within the city do not come within the city limits do not do not

um have the city pick up their trash and they have um this business, what's it called? Um, waste management do it or any other, but usually it's waste management because I see some of the those trucks picking up some of our neighbors trash also. And this just another question I have. It's and I'm glad you're looking at I know Mr. Kramer did too. Um you know like our I haven't figured out like what day they pick up I know what dates they pick up our trash but which bin does this one go out. So here in the morning my husband just takes both bins. Sometimes they'll pick up one, sometimes they'll pick up both sometime. So it's so inconsistent. Um and I'm sure that's cost it's costing money too. Um, so I just thought I would throw that in. Maybe you're right. So to validate what you're saying, we we do we do need someone to look at this. I agree with you.

We can also share it on on our website to kind of show it in case uh the customers want to find out. We can we can have them uh we can have it update that information. The pickup dates and stuff like that. Well, not just the pickup dates, but we don't have recycling. So what's the what what difference? I mean, because I put up my trash sometimes are overfilled. So, I put the the blue recycling bin out and it won't be picked up because but it goes to the same place, right? And so, maybe changing the the way it's it's, you know, either put in all the the trash at the same time getting picked up. It just depends on how you you guys decide to do it and then we can promote it and put it on the website. So, we like she

changed she changed how how we normally do it. We put it out just because we're we're thinking, well, we don't know what they're going to pick up today. So, let's just take both of them out. Eric, how many do we know how many residential stops we have? You knew that other number. Yeah, that's a number I don't have. I I can get it, though. I'm thinking it's in the 5,000s maybe somewhere on a daily basis or No, no, total. Total total. Okay. Yeah. Well, here's something that happened.

Could be the same as a water by people smarter than I was when I worked there. Um, they ended up contracting uh for residential pickup and I think in their case it's Republic Services and the contract requires them to pick up every stop on the same day. So if Tuesday is your day, everything gets picked up on Tuesday. That requires more resources in town for one day. But if you think about it, rather than picking up garbage four days a week or five days a week, it probably cost them less gas and everything.

And they were also picking up the recycle bin on the same day. They'd get the trash in the morning. They come back around in the afternoon and grab the recycling bucket. So, I mean, there's all kinds of possibilities of doing this more efficiently. Our service is twice a week, right? Right. Yeah. Now, it all depends on the neighborhood. I I know in our neighborhood, Monday you could put both and Thursday you just put one. Then you could go to I mean you you need the state to agree, but you can't go to one day a week service as well. They'll kill us. That's that's exactly what I'm saying. Like

Well, you know what? That's what they said in in in in Winslow, too. They'll kill us. And guess what happened? Absolutely. They got over it. Cuz like in my neighborhood, we get our trash pickup Tuesdays. Oh, no. Mondays and and Thursdays. Mondays is trash. Thursday is recycling. Yeah. Recycle. It's whatever you got. So, it doesn't really matter. So, we could, you know, crunch it to one pickup all trash a week and that would save like that would save a lot of money, I think. And even most uh even in Rio Rico that when they have the people that have uh contracts, it's once a week. notice that, right? It's one sol. Yep.

Well, you know, it's nice having one one uh I think it's a great concept of one pickup. What we do didn't consider that we have I think it's 67 point some tons of trash. So, well, here it works. Okay. Uh I I think in hotter climates, yeah, you know, if you're in the valley, you probably want twice for obvious reasons. Well, if if council decides to go that direction, we we would start immediately. Do you need to put a number in here for that, Eric? You already have. You already have.

Okay. It was kind of a mid mid-range number. Okay. and and on that task force of okay um we would probably ask for an executive member on that too just to sit in to kind of hear the talks and the direction perfect we're getting close wait I don't know um Mr. Mayor, I've got a 4:00 meeting. Mhm. Do you want a break for till tomorrow? Break it till tomorrow. We're down to internal services. So, let's break it right there. Yeah. Uh 11 tomorrow, Miguel. Yes. Tomorrow. So,

okay. Thank you. Breakf till tomorrow. Thank you.