City Council - Regular Meeting

Or ordinance number 30003 is on the third and final reading approving the city of Alliance's annual appropriation bill for the fiscal year beginning October 1st, 2025. The proposed budget contains anticipated and estimated revenues and expenses for the next fiscal year. Mr. Mayor, I make a motion to approve number 303. Second. We have a motion and second. Is there any discussion?

Discussion. My name is Dennis 136 Avenue. So last night somebody handed me the line item budget for 256 and it appears to me that there's an awful lot of stuff in there that can be cut that doesn't place next year. Uh the number one thing would be to power plant. I think it is wise instead of requesting money that you're not entitled to above and beyond the city's needs to start a process on something that may or may not be a viable option for the new police fire department. my understanding. Maybe we can put that off a year and budget into the money that is allotted to the city. I can't really understand that would definitely shift from a budget deficit to a budget surplus. Not sure if that's the case and there turns out to be a5 $600,000 surplus for you guys to try to figure out how to spend it. Maybe we could just allot that to the next fiscal year budget and compensate for that and start to process that I own property right across the street of it. It is been sitting there for 40 years. There's got to be other options that are

being considered that for the facility. Uh I just would highly recommend that maybe that gets looked at again. Seems to me that that's one thing that take care of this whole budget situation without placing the burden on the taxpayers the citywise. Thanks. Mayor, may I address that? Yes, may.

So that is coming from an entirely different is not impacted in any way, shape, or form by the property tax. It comes from the electric fund tax. That building has been vacant for over 40 years. It's an attractive nuisance. You can tell by the amount of pigeon leings and dead pigeons that are in that building, unless people have been in to attack it, that it something has to be done. Prior to being able to do anything with that building, whether it's reuse or selling it or tearing it down, uh the biggest issue is the asbesus. We all know that asbesus works great. It's just not a health thing that we can allow. And so that decommissioning is for the abatement of asbesus and it is paid for out of the electric.

So that can't be shifted. It cannot at all. It is a enterprise fund that's specifically for that. Uh it was for the generation of power and so it only makes sense for it to pay for the electric. We are also looking for grants to help offset that cost. Hopefully, we can lessen the amount of impact to the electric.

Okay. So, I didn't understand that a lot of time actually go through, but it seemed like a very reasonable viable option. Absolutely. Um, so that being said, In any case, I don't think it's the right thing to do as you guys are doing. I don't know if it's happened in the past as far as a council vote. I just don't think that's a route that the city should take to push anything, especially what what is the shortfall? $260,000ish. that we're requesting an additional property tax.

Well, there's several reasons this that we we talked about last night. There's the we had to shift property tax back to the airport because we don't have the reserves anymore for that. That was the 260,000. We lost $100,000 in grant funds for the transit. We have an increase in minimum wage which creates a compression which makes us which requires us to hire people other people's salaries as well so that you know they're not being paid less than somebody that just gets hired at minimum wage. So there's there's several things that are so it's it's much more than the term. So we cut we cut some areas that's the additional

the additional

the amount over the the statuto limit is roughly 15,000 that's the amount that we're asking in addition to the statuto well I know you did express last night that you put it on the department heads to try to tighten the belt and it doesn't occur to me from the line items that I looked at from the 119 page report that I had that $150,000 shouldn't be that difficult to offset without doing what you're doing. If I had more time to look at it, I don't know who is that one that sits down and line by line and crosses out. Yes.

I would have liked that time to guess it is what it is. There's not really anything people in the city can do except except the fact that our elected officials cannot live within their budgetary constraints. That's allotted by the state of Nebraska. Granted, they did give you a means of the process that you're going through to do that, but has anybody showed up spoken in favor of doing this? I read a letter from Randy Wagner, former CFO of the city, who who said that he felt that he didn't want to see any of the services that we were preserving anyway. So that was that was you know it just seems like there was a lot of lines there or substantial amounts of money that could be rele time constraint. I just hope that that isn't the reason to not reevaluate what you're doing because like I expressed last night you say it's 10%. I must have missed this part when you express that it's 10% but all the cards that I had is showing roughly 16%. So the 10% is the amount of dollars that we're asking over and above what we received last year. Then how it falls on each individual homeowner depends on what the assessor did with their their values. Since values went up in general, our actual ley is only going up 6%. So some some properties didn't go up in value. I know mine probably like yours went up 10%. I know they did the assessor made kind of a blanket adjustment to a lot of properties and added 10% to their assessed value because mine also is 60% the 6% le plus the 10% that the assessor tax

just seems like it places an awful lot of burden on people that do taxes a lot of people because that's the only option there's houses. Those are houses that nobody would want to live with their family like these types of homes because they need a massive amount of work. We're coming in as a railroader taking a conductor's job here to our school system. is we want to take on that kind of responsibility with a rent out home or not upgraded home not knowing how long they're going to be here and with the risk that if they do do something with it they're property taxes because the valuation I mean it's just after I left here last night I it really is a construive place to go down and talk to fellow business owners and think of topics that I really wish I had addressed last night. This probably isn't the place for it, but you know, it happens. I mean, I'm trying to figure out, you know, the best example would be inspired. Why was that business allowed to leave the city of lights? I tell you specifically why they left because they w allowed to purchase the property. They wanted to purchase the property after the fire um before they were going to reinvest in rebuilding and the FAA controls that that area because that's that's all air base land and the FAA would not allow us to sell.

Mayoring we should just

I just really wish you guys reconsider. I know the time constraint is there to reevaluate the entire budget. I just my biggest problem is if you do this increase above your allotted amount the next year you're still 3% increase on top of the 10% 16% is really what it is. So I mean that's all the way down the line. It's not like you're ever getting that back. You're just increasing your money this year and then your 3% next year is based on the 16% increase this year. It just never ends. I mean, I don't ever see why property values have to continue to climb so we don't have to make hard decisions. We don't control property values. I know I tried to address that last night. We even said it was a county issue.

It is but we're directly tied to it as a city because we are part of I know we have no control. No, we don't. But if the city can find other ways to do stuff, maybe they can decrease that money increase property tax. I know every person would say that Nebraskans.

Thanks, Sheila Walker 1031 Streetwire. I apologize if I asked something that was answered last night, but your cameras didn't function so that we weren't able to watch what was going on. Um, one of the things I I'm asking about is what is the alternative power source that you want half a million dollars for?

Um, it's been the plan for for many years. Our only source of power comes from Waka and it comes in on the on the western side of town. If for some reason Waka wasn't able to deliver power to us, we would be without any power. And so we're been researching what another way that we can receive power and and the method that we're we are have decided to use is is to build transformers or a transformer

generator generator that would didn't kick on the way a household generator would kick on it if the city power went off. And so rather than building a line from another source that block has we would we actually have our own generator to to supply power to it just provides the backup and that all comes out of the electric fund. It doesn't come out of the property tax. So do I understand you correctly that this half a million dollars is not for building this transform or generate just for plans to do it. That's right.

Half a million dollars just for plans. So typically you take 10 to 12% for engineering costs and we anticipate it to be at least $500 per state. But again that comes out of the electric. It doesn't come out of property tax. Well okay and it would be spread out over many years would be So that we would we would buy it and spend all that money in one year. We would probably do a bond issue or some mineral in order to pay for that paid out many years.

Well, again, I'm not trying to be argued that I'm I'm really and truly honestly questioning. I keep hearing it comes from this budget or this one, but ultimately all of those funds come from us. No. Well, yeah, but in different ways. Like the electric fund, that's that's um that money comes from the electric bill that you you pay on a monthly basis. The and the water bill and those things, those funds are serviced out of that. And then the general fund is serviced out of property taxes, sales taxes, those types of

Okay, I'm going to try to My next question is about the airport layout plan. What are you trying to do there? We have to do that for the FAA to maintain our certification at the airport. We have to develop a layout plan for them so that they know how we're operating that. How is that how can that change after the last 900 years? No, I mean we we have an airport out there. The runways have been the same. It's it's all determined by the federal government. We don't have any control over. So it's it's what the federal government told us they have to do.

So if nothing's changed, why can't you just send them last not is not what they're looking for. They're looking for an updated that's also pay for 90% grant from the federal government. Yeah. The FAA actually pays 90% of that cost. We only have to put 10%.

Okay. And the next thing is equipment. that's primarily coming out of ARPA funds in the grant that we received. So, um, very little that's coming out of property tax and that's been on the plans. We are hoping to get it done this year, but unfortunately the the people operating the brand didn't have their eyes and prosper ordered this year. So, it's going to have to wait. And the last thing I would ask about is replacement control data. Could those be staggered rather than done all at the same time?

Yeah, this is only doing four. This one two three is this is only doing three three vehicles. So we are staggering it. We'll do hopefully a few each year as we rotate. Okay. So, three vehicles. I think I might remember the chief saying that he only had 12 officers. That's correct. We have 12. So, we all on duty at the same time. I'm confused about why the need for that many vehicles.

We developed a plan under the previous chief where we don't seat the vehicles. In other words, we don't have the the vehicles there at the station and the next placement coming on shift taking over in that same vehicle because that creates wear and tear on people's I'm going to defer to Chief Le to make sure I'm happy. Yeah, I appreciate that.

So, we have car program. We've had it since before I got here. Um, a previous department take home car program for 20 years. Um, the reason the take-h home car program works so well and it's even more important to my smaller department is because if I I'll use not cheap, I'll use shatter as an example. They've got three people for shift. They only got like three more patrol cars. They run 24/7. And when they have an emergency, they have to call people in. There's nothing for those officers to drive. And when things break down, there's nothing for those officers to drive. I do the time of training, there's nothing. So it becomes an issue. So if I run a car 24/7, it'll I'll blow it up in two or three years. By assigning the power of the officers, a they have all their equipment. The amount of equipment police officers carry compared to when I was working 24 years ago is exponential what it used to be. So they have all their gear in their car and they have their car at their house. Um so going back and forth that creates visibility. If they go to the gym, take their car, which we encourage them to do or whatever, um that creates visibility. And most importantly, when we have a major incident, which unfortunately we do once in a while, when I call people in, they have a car to drive to respond to whatever the incident is. Or as far as why we're buying three cars, I'm still trying to catch up to get the fleet where it needs to be because nobody bought cars for a long time. The cars they bought were already shot, but they bought them under the previous administration cases. And so half my fleet still now has well over 12 13,000 miles. So we're trying to catch up trying to buy two cars every year.

Yes. Did that help? It did. There were some things I had to consider. I appreciate the answer. When Sheila is done, I ask you that you explain what you did to fit this budget where it's at. I think that's an important topic for everybody to understand. Let's see. I just I just want to say

we really and truly think we need to look harder for some ways to reduce spending rather than bring this increase because this increase is the only it is a building block for more increases. So I appreciate that. So, in regards to the budget, this year was nothing compared to last year. Last year, I think I took the budget down. I want to say it was about $400,000 from what it was the prior year. And then this year, what we did is we looked at every one of our accounts. Police department had one of the larger budgets in the police department as far as the number of alcohol categories. We have a pretty complex, pretty involved budget. And what we did was uh my secretary and I, we literally looked at every single one of our categories. And there were some that we kind of ran out of money that we actually had to increase, but there was also a lot of categories across the board that we increase. And we've also eliminated a lot of programs that we just weren't using um from before I got here. say that um thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars that we were spending on AI programs that we just don't use and things like that. So I have cut everywhere that I think that I can cut and still run um a police department that's operating in the 21st century. Running a police department is very expensive. is always going to be, for example, every car that we buy, whether I buy it new, used, or however I get it to equip it to be a police car, tap out another $30,000 because you've got radar, you got a laptop, you got a printer, you got the partitioning,

you've got the lights, the sirens, shotgun rack, all that stuff. And it really adds up. It's about $30,000 on top right there. What did you do with for this year. So we are authorized were authorized officially for 18 positions right now including our gentleman we just started the training academy we are 13. So knowing that we don't anticipate being able to hire five officers in one year, we gave a couple of those positions back for the time being to help the city maintain. I think it's important for the public to realize that we did make a tough year. I would agree. We make cuts last year. We made a lot of cuts. And this year, as we all know, discussion was if we cut any more, we're going to have to reduce services.

Thank you.

It's Tom Roer. 723 Emerson. She covered most of the stuff I'm going to ask, but I just got a couple other questions. Um, okay. On your $500 toward your design and alternate power system, isn't there a generator out by the new Pizza Hut out here on here by the hotel out there? There it is. Okay. It serves Is it functional? It is. And it serves the downtown corridor. Okay. So, you'll see a lot of people on third street that still have lights. The rest of us are out. You were talking about another generator. What uh or alternate system? So it'll be another one like that at another place in town.

Hopefully eventually everywhere will be have a substation because that's the the section of the system that serves the wide area. That's that uh solve that question. Okay. Then the 33 million on the airport lighting. Uh what lighting are we talking about? safety lights for airplane landing or when are we talking about? Yes, that that is correct. Okay. And we're fortunate that actually I think we just got the grant paperwork for that this morning. We're going to get a grant on it and it's 100% grant which is much better than we usually give 90% and what going to convert them to LEDs so they're more sustainable longer lifetime lasting.

They'll be converting it. They'll also be running new wire just because the existing wire is well past. Okay, it's all

runway. Well, thank you for your time. My name is Andrew Shark Avenue and I've been resident lines for 10 years and I'm here to speak against this proposed budget and a proposed increase in the property tax cover. Last night I attended the meeting and I heard the city manager mention a zerobased budgeting process. I went back to my task from beginning tax year 2021. And so this proposed budget and for me it's an 82% increase in taxes over those four tax years. I don't see how that's zero based budget. Are you looking in your your total tax bill, Mr. Shers, or just the city portion?

Just the city portion of the property tax. There's no way it's gone up. Unless the value of your house has gone up substantially. I'm just talking about the property taxes. If if if the assessor has increased the value of your house, we can't control that. But our levy has not gone up more than 3% a year until this year. Well, Mr. Mayor, I'm looking at not this value, but what the city has taken for taxes. I can show you 2021. If you look at your proposed budget, that's an 82% increase over that time period.

Did your assessed value change over those four years? That also means that you got more tax, right? Not necessarily. It might it would it would from you from your particular property, but we can't control what the assessor does with the value of your property. I'm not referring to the the assessment. I'm referring to what your property tax just the city.

I'm just trying to explain that our levy. We've lived within the 3% statutory limit for years and so that levy has not gone more than 3%. So if your taxes have gone up more than that amount, it's because your assessed value has also gone up and and we can't control that. We and we work off the total dollars that we receive, not off the levy. So the levy doesn't go up 3% necessarily. The levy might actually go down if the assessed value goes up. I fully understand but so I'm just trying to explain that we could not be responsible for an 80% increase in property tax over four years just by our cannot be and I'd be happy to sit down and go through through well my pink card indicates again the estimated tax for the proposed budget compared to last year a 16 and 12% Are you going to argue with that?

No, I I know that it's because the assessor increased everybody by 10% this year. And if I go back through previous years, I can show you each year what percent went up. I'm telling you over this period, four years tax year 21, how much has gone up? I think it's irresponsible. I'm asking you to take another two weeks, the average or so to find places to cut what we might want versus what we need. Mr. Mayor, last night you asked for a suggestion on what to cut. In my view, that's why we have representatives so that you and we individual citizens don't have to delve into the weeds to try to figure out what's responsible budget, what we need versus what we want and how to keep that within a reasonable amount. 16% property tax increase, I don't know how that's a reasonable amount versus even a 22% overall increase in the city's budget is unsustainable. I I can't disagree with you. I I don't want to go through this again either. As for suggestion, proposed budget, if I read it correctly, uh offers a a general fund transfer to the golf course for half a million. Seems to me that's a good place to start. maybe consider looking at selling the golf course. It's a luxury. It's an expensive luxury. If we're dumping a half a million of the general fund just to transfer it over the golf course, I don't mean to pick up a golf course.

That's an obvious in my view that's an obvious chunk of money. Sure brings in revenue. So, I never bring in the revenue to cover costs. I have plenty of other ideas I would like the city to cover uh that would be better suited in my interest, but we can't afford everything. I would assume that a private entity if the golf course is a viable business, a private entity can do as well as a job running the place without the city having to develop funds to recover cost some more revenue. But I'm urging council making the council. Spend some more time. You have to October 1st, right? Spend some more time looking for places that because 22% overall increase is just not responsible. And that's why we have you folks who were paid measly amount of money to try to find ways of meeting their city's needs. determining what wants are our primary wants and cutting the ones that we don't need. We cannot sustain what you're ask what you're proposing. So I'm asking you to continue have another special meeting. We have to find some of

cutting cutting because you can't you can't do this. I just look at the census some census information. Our city's not growing in population and the largest group of people living up in poverty are the elderly. There's about 20 25% of them living in poverty under the poverty line and this isn't probably them. So that's what I'm requesting. I'm asking you to vote now on the proposed budget or vote to table it. Have another special meeting in a couple weeks. See what you can do now. I think for your time

the 22% increase in the budget. Are you talking about the capital improvement projects? Is that included in that? I believe that's part of the cap for the golf course. No, you had made a comment that we had increased budget by 22% and I was wondering if that included our capital improvement projects. I believe that includes everything. Yes. Okay.

16 in my view for my taxes 16 and a half% of that was property tax increase. The rest of it coming from other sources. Okay. So, the large increase in our budget this year was for capital improvement projects because last year we did street projects. We did no street projects. We t we pushed a bunch of capital improvement projects. So, I just wanted you to know that those are where the part of the increase in the budget was is because we're doing capital improvement projects

and and those are out of the enterprise funds like the electric department, the water department, the street department which aren't impacted by property tax at all. Those are all paid for out of those out of the user fees for those it's it's a difficult budget to understand. I understand. Well, is it accurate to say that the proposed budget will increase proposed increase in electrical rates and the refues?

Yeah, we approve those. So, increasing property taxes, increasing electrical rates, increasing revenues collection rates. It adds up to a significant amount of money% increase the last two years. Our our cost of power has increased 9% a year for the last two years. Last year we cut electric rates by 5%. This year we approved a 9% increase. So our cost has gone up 18%. The customer's cost has gone up a net of 5% over that over that two-year period because you got a 5% cut last year. So you know that's it's difficult to see and people don't see a cut in their electric rate. You know they just see hopefully a little bit But but I just you know to give some context on the electric rate increase the we actually 5% decrease last year even though our cost went up 9% and it's going to be another 9% this year and again that doesn't impact property tax call anyone Josh. Um, first let me say thank you guys. Today I spent the day training facility amazing facility. Great.

Anyway, uh long story short, I don't want to get down higher level. Um, do you know percentage wise just no offense for the officers? for the police. Yeah. Is this just for

everything? The entire department Josh operations due to change.

Yeah.

What I wanted is close to 44 million. So in a smaller in a smaller town that's just less revenue streams that naturally proposal 44% of our spend is going to publication. That's incredible. Um, that's our primary responsibility. I understand that. But I also understand, you know, cities of our size are running 30 to 30 38%. We're far above that park recreational proposal one of the issues that I think they face there's no growing city there unless they're retiring things of that nature see this work. I would like these guys said go back over and dig into the numbers and literally put them up against areas our size Iowa similar size 8,000 8,000 10,000 population it's it's public understand and I think as an entire entire atmosphere

that was everybody spending 1213 When you look at our budget year, it's on this rapid rate. I understand people more. I just really like the comparison numbers to areas our size also have businesses goddamn hard. I mean, what happened? was terrible. I was I got 40 jobs in Sydney and it's kind of nice that direction. So it just like to say just at a higher level your numbers your percent understand taking on all the responsibility of the bus. That's a good thing. On the other hand, I'm not going to charge charge somebody for something. I personally try to give a lot of my time. is out of control. Like I said,

All right. Appcate.

Hello everyone. Tyler Center. My mom spoke last night. I didn't get to hear more. I'm not going to cover any of that. I know she went over a lot. I'm speaking from just the re portion of it. I know we're kind of off. Um worked out there for six years. Former employee out there in the public service. Also, um, my opinion, the spending out there is ridiculous. They got escalators they don't use. They got a second burn box out there that serves really no purpose. They were going anyways. We had big fire out there. We took care of it. Fire department came out there. We did all this everything out there. Went through, did the survey on everything. It's always been a money pit out there. We're always losing money out there. So, just is what it is. When I first started out there, tried to fix 30 years worth of neglect out there. really what it ended up being. We did surveys on it, got it all taken care of, lined up everything. We went there and reurbed that entire hill with a couple more trash. I understand H&H's been out there. They create a lot. They bring a lot of trash. A lot of trash. But Troy and Ralph been really good to us. They take care of us really well. Um they pick up our doctors. They, you know, there's a lot of things that that are benefiting. We raise these costs. Yes, I get it. They bring in a lot of stuff. They make a lot of space. going to have potential other part. We've been talking about that for years, right? Have it in the plants. Same thing with the BOR. Have it in the plants. H&H right. We're going to lose. They're going to take it to overall. We're going to lose that. Our income on there is going to be going up. People aren't going to. We don't do a lot of services anyways. The dumpsters are falling apart. The alleys are falling apart. I mean, you got to beg people to get a new dumpster. It just is what it is. I don't know anything else about it. All the other stuff I'm talking about, but raising the prices out there, we really got to look at that on our spending. Do we really need that estimator for anything?

There's tires out there for that motor that we just that were supposed to be in the budget and then we just ended up buying them out of the blue. They weren't supposed to be bought. The conveyor breaks down. The bailor broke down. We're buying all this stuff willy-nilly and going, "Hey, man, this is, you know, we don't have a plan for this. Here we go. I understand the bail. I completely understand. We need it to make bail, right? Can't believe still up there. We're buying equipment out, right? We might as well be leasing the equipment and four years later, clean it up, get a new one. You know, we're putting a lot of responsibility or we're putting a lot throwing a lot of money at the landfill where we're going to be losing a lot. I mean, it's just the sellers million that everything starts from work really hard on that. So that's all I wanted to say. Thank you sir. Anyone [Music] else?

Hi. So, my name is Jess. And your address, too, please. Oh, 912.

I've only lived here for 16 years. So, I'm not a lier. I came last night. I've come to a few other ones and I sit back and I'm quiet, but I listen and I watch and I hear the people, the people that put you in the seats and you hold great power. You hold authority over our city. You have the right. You have the decision in your hand to be able to say, "Okay, reasonably, everyone that has come here has come here pleading pleading for you guys to heed the warnings, right? You guys were all elected, am I correct?"

Yeah. I wasn't just Mr. Gates wasn't what he was to do. by the people. No, he was appointed to fill a vacancy. So he No, I understand that. I'm asking we were we through Yes. Correct. We by the people, right? Yes.

The people have come forward except for the one alleged letter. Everyone else has come forward and they pleaded with you. They've said this community cannot handle this burden. you can make a difference. You can make a change and say, "Okay, let's go ahead and table this. Let's bring in some people from the community that have kept this community together and kept it going and moving forward in maybe, but it's still here. Bring us all together." Three minds versus a whole community has got to be able to come up with some answers. Table this. Will you table this?

That's going to be up for a vote here in a little bit. Right now, we're just having discussion on that ordinance. I hope that you listen to the community, to the people, the taxpayers that put you where you are. Please keep their voices. I was in the grocery store today. three people. How many do you think were sitting there in calculators because they didn't know what they could afford when they got up to the front of that grocery line and they didn't want the embarrassment of not being able to have enough money to pay for their groceries or are probably too proud to go get on any kind of assistance. That's where you're pushing the community. And I hope I hope that you go what's right. Do what's right. Take some time. Heed this. Heal this because if not, this community is it's not going to stand. And I would pray to God that he brings a changing of the guards with the boats because if you don't need this whole city, the people that were willing to come up here and speak their mind knowing you guys aren't going to listen anyways. You're going to just do what you want to do because that's been the general consensus. At least that's what's fallen on my ears. But they still came. They still showed up. One alleged letter that agrees with this. And I mean, how committed are you talking about budget cuts? Would you be willing to sit in your seat without payment? That's commitment. That's dedication.

Would you still serve this community if there wasn't a dollar attached to it? I would. I appreciate that and I hope that you vote accordingly. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. I'm Alex. I work and operate businesses that operate 124. So I was debating whether or not to come up here and talk because I already know that this is I already know timeline that no matter what we say this is actually going through and it sucks because my grants were cut this year too. I operate my grants but I have contracts that say that I can't put that in the back of the people that I serve and you guys cuts in the back of the citizen of this town when we are giving money to the golf course that half the citizens of this town can even afford to do that is a luxury that is a cut that is unnecessary if I mishandled my budget in this way my work would fire that would be what happened yet we're supposed to sit here and accept the fact that we're just having our taxes increase so unlike in this town. Others had it happen, but when I went home to family, I had three of them. Two of them for my business and one of them for my to shoulder the burden of the property taxes that are increasing because the budget is imbalanced and it is wasteful. We agree to that.

I not will agree to that necessarily. Okay. So, because I trust the department But you're free to free to disagree.

Um, as we start to like look at this, you're looking at our homes as if they're just dollar signs on your guys's tax. But to no one here are our homes, your guys's funded. They're where we raised our children or I started my business that required me to purchase another business in this town that has given absolutely no kickback for being here. Like to continue to operate a business in this town in comparison to other places makes no sense. You're not making it so people my age want to stay here. You're making it so we have to sit here and go, "What the hell are you going to charge us for this time?" No. And all I would wish for is you guys were required to listen to us last night as a statute. I wish you guys action and decided to take some of that as we're going to be willing to cut it and then you didn't let us answer. There are plenty of people that we would be willing to cut. There were plenty of people in that meeting last night who discussed their fed income who can't afford. There are places to stream this budget. You guys just pushed this and not you guys. Sorry that it's over there. But this was pushed to a point where there's two weeks to get it done now and there's no real time to work. Should have never been brought to us when we had two weeks. So there's nothing that can actually be done because at the end of this property tax is going to get pushed. It's already funed and that's that sucks for all of us in this town. Is there anyone wishing to speak?

A gentleman. A gentleman said last night that being on a city council should not be a popularity contest and he is right, especially when hard decisions like this have to be made. I do not like increases and this is a very unpopular issue. But I am on the city council because I'm strong enough to do what is needed for the interest of the city and the services that we provide. I heard several times last night that the council needs to decide what is a want versus a need. Our enterprise funds such as electric, trash, water, and sewer are our basic needs. They are necessary in everyday aspect of our daily lives and these funds have to finance themselves to pay for operations and improvements. The electric department has done an outstanding job of staying ahead of problems and with preventable maintenance such as pool replacement and the pursuing of an alternative power source. Public works knows that half the sewer and the water lines in this town are over aundred years old. To dig up and replace lines under streets is costly and inefficient. Alternatives have been pursued to increase longevity of our infrastructure in a budget conscious manner. Department heads are the experts in their fields for us. We are a community that relies upon them for their knowledge and their expertise and we appreciate their experience. Now, many of the things that are paid by the general fund through your property taxes could be viewed as wants. They all bring a level of value to our community, but not everyone uses them. Many of us have never used the fire department, thankfully, but their value is easily seen. I haven't used the golf course in a decade, but it provides value to our

high school and middle school students who use it as a sports activity. The daily golfers and those that playing thousands of rounds each season find value. I don't use the pool, but my son does, and it provides employment for my daughter. I don't use the senior center for meals or social activities, but my dad does. I use and love the library. I'm very passionate about the library. Does that mean only something that I use or something that you personally use has value and should be funded? No, I don't believe so. What I will support is not more important than what you will support. Together these examples along with many others that I didn't highlight such as the museums, carvings, bike path, many other ones work to provide a well-rounded, beautiful and safe community that I am proud to work for. They all work for the betterment of our lives and allow for joy. I did not come to this decision regarding an increase to the tax levy liabilities and I do not have all the answers. The only thing I do know for sure is that I need and want all of you at our budget workshops because that budget workshop is where we find solutions to our problems. we can find common ground by having conversations and working together. And we're going to start having those budget workshops early this spring. This is both an educational process and to decide what is valuable and important for everybody in our community.

I ask that you please come to work with us to help us find solutions that are sustaining for our community. Thank you. I'll just add I I would echo what T said raising taxes is not an easy decision for us. We went through two or three budget workshops. This is the third reading of this budget. It is the first reading. It is a last second thing. And in the first two readings, I read out explanations of what was involved in the budget. You know, what was what was detailed in the budget and what was kind of driving it. And so, I think a great amount of thought has gone into why this is necessary this year. Our department's heads have gone through their budgets very carefully to make sure that what they're doing is what's necessary. But we have that has an awful lot that was reference to the parks departments and and the size of the budget for parks department. But look at all that is included in that. Not just the parks themselves, it also includes not museum salvage museum that includes u the ball complex. And so it's not every community has those things that we have and that was a decision of this council to have those things the things that that we're now responsible for. So, it just it it hurts me to ask for this increase because I know it has an impact on people. And I definitely heard

especially the seniors last night they're on fixed incomes explain that this is going to have an impact on them because it isn't the only thing that's increasing to them or for me or or for any of you. You know, our grocery bills are going up. Our our cost of fuel sometimes goes up. It's been kind of stable lately, but it cost about everything has gone up. So, I am definitely sensitive to it. I have heard the comments. I don't know that there's anything that we can do in this year's budget to avoid the increases that we're going to we're going to ask for. But I echo what Mr. Smash said that we need you involved at the at the budget workshop level in the future so that we can hear your voices then as we as we develop the budget and your those things are always published in the newspaper. They're open just like these meetings are open and your input is allowed just as they are these. So I just just wanted to say that is there any other discussion for Please call

yes. Vice Mayor Mashford. Yes. And mayor. Yes. Next item on the agenda is resolution 25-124, the 202526 proposed tax levy request.

Four votes in favor of the motion on the ordinance have been received. being more than 3/4 of the council president. The motion is declared to pass. I'm sorry. Passing adoption boards number three having been concurred by majority of all members elected my responsibility. Resolution 25-124 will accept and approve the proposed 2025 2026 property tax request which contains anticipated and estimated revenues and expenses for the next fiscal year. And as unpopular as it is, but as needed as it is, I make a motion to approve resolution 25-124.

There's a motion and second. Is there any discussion? Councilman, yes. Vice Mayor Hashurn, yes. Councilman Yates, yes. And Mayor McGee, yes.

Final item on the agenda today is resolution number 25-125, Fraternal Order of Police Contract Approval. Resolution number 25-125 will approve the internal order of police with the city for fiscal year 26 through fiscal year 28 as those negotiations were recently completed. The FOP has voted to ratify the terms which are now pending city council approval. Make a motion that we approve resolution number 25-125 to approve the FOP contract. There's a motion and second. Is there any discussion? Please call. Vice Mayor, yes.

Councilman, yes. Yes. And Mayor, yes. That concludes tonight. Thank you.