City Council - Regular Meeting

is they get communities to commit. We need this much money, a fixed dollar amount, and the water resources board aggregates those needs, and they go out and do a bond issue based on their AAA credit rating, and they can borrow cheaper than anybody else can. They borrow that money, then they turn around and loan you that money at the rate they borrowed at plus 20 basis points or or two ten of 1%. That's the program you used uh when we did the financing in 2024. The Oklahoma Water Resources Board has another one that is going to close this year. That's purely by accident that you all happen to come in and be in a situation where you need more money right when they were getting ready to do a financing. There are seven 16 other communities with 17 with them.

Yeah. Including

uh it's going to be a very large financing. Um, and this would be a good opportunity to borrow money. It makes less sense than you asking the waterboard to go out just for you and and and do a bond issue and loan you funds. Okay. Unfortunately, you've missed the waterboard's timeline to be part of this transaction. That was the subject of the meeting last week. We met with the water board and said, "Here's our situation. You've already loaned the money for the the plant. It came in over budget. We need some more money. Can you squeeze us in?" at the last minute they basically said if you can do two things. One, if you can get us your financials, okay, your your audit and kind of draft form, not not with the audit letter with it, but the numbers as prepared u by your financial people. If you can get us that and if you can get us a loan application by today, we will consider your loan if you all decide to move forward with this this evening. Your financial advisor went ahead and has worked through the weekend, got the application submitted today. Your financial folks have have gotten the financials put together. That's been submitted to the waterboard. So, we we've checked that box. No obligation to move forward. It just but it was our only possibility of having this window open is to get that done. So, that has been done. we can become be part of this next program that the water board's going to finance which again would close in December which would work in this situation. What you have in front of you is the resolution that authorizes the financing. Again, it's not to exceed 37,170,000. We will ultimately close on the amount of money that we contemplate one that will be less than that. We anticipate right now that we need about 33,700,000

uh going into the construction account if your engineers are able to find some uh items that can come out or they can reduce the cost. As long as we pull those out before we do the the financing, we can reduce the size of the financing. We we don't want to borrow more money than we need. Okay? But we know unless we get those deducts or or alternates taken out that this is what it's going to cost. So uh this resolution beyond that authorizes the execution of the documents transaction is going to be secured by the same water sewer and sales tax revenue that your other debts been secured by. So this this resolution basically authorizes one the application to the water board and two the execution of all the documents associated with the transaction. So I will pause and please feel free to ask us any questions that you have.

How often does this water resource board meet and you know what if we didn't take the action tonight? When would be the next time or is there a next time that we would be able to come before this water resource board? you one, you would have to approve this tonight if you're part of the next transaction. Okay? The one that's coming in in December. There is not a schedule when the waterboard does these FAP bond issues. It's a function of when they have enough borrower interest that they can do a financing. I mean, at at this financing amount, you could go out and justify. We've done smaller FAP bond issues than we're talking about here. The problem is is that it's about a 90-day process. So, your bids aren't going to still be good unless you take advantage of this opportunity.

Okay. So, effectively, you'd have to re you'd have to rebid the project would be our concern. So, we're looking about a 45 to 46% increase over what we thought was going to budget. Is that about right? Being $37 million on top of 80. It's not 50%, so some around the 40. It's in ballpark. Ballpark 37%. So you understand my heartburn with this right now. Absolutely.

Uh and if we kind of had an idea that in 2023 and over the last two years that everybody's bid process was kind of off a little bit. Why didn't we kind of start looking at kind of where we were going to be on this? Why did we wait till the 12th hour to start trying to the 24th hour of the day to try to figure out when we that this was going to happen to us? I mean, you said over the last two years, everybody's over the last cities that there's been some issues with it costing more than what we thought it was. We thought it was going to be 80. Now it's 120, 110. I mean, I'm just kind of figuring out how do we get off 36%. I mean, I know they saying tariffs. Is tariffs really 36% of what we're what we thought it was. Is there any line items that we could look at and kind of tell us how that's happening? This I mean this is when your engineer gets to

I was getting ready. Finances and energy. So no tariffs do not equal 30% of the entire project costs. Okay. But they are 25% of several of the equipment components that we have to have for this.

They are not in effect. They keep going back and forth. They have done that since January. But none of the vendors are going to carry that risk of is it actually going to happen or not. So I'm sure those costs are in there. Like Avery said, it is a very competitive market right now. Um, we did have six vendors, biders come out and we talked to all six of them. We invited more than that out and we were lucky to get the six. We honestly thought we'd have three numbers come in. One of them dropped out the next day and then the second one that I assumed was going to be it, they let us know the day before question cut off that they weren't they were no longer interested. They had enough on their plate. They weren't going to chase this. So,

did you say one of them took the tition and go job? Is that Did you tell me that that come up? Um, maybe not. Yeah, I'm not sure. I know there's a lot of them out there that are just they're very now with cost. Yes, inflation has been astronomical over the last three years. I mean, look at your grocery bill that you pay for yourself. Construction industry is no different. Sean, would you touch on the concrete prices? So, I feel like that was very significant.

Yes. So, concrete keeps going up. Um, it will continue to go up until we find a replacement for concrete. And we're probably not going to do that because we build everything out of it. So, that price um 3 something.

Yeah. $370 a cubic yard. That is the highest we have ever seen concrete prices for anything. And this whole job is concrete. So, there are some ad mixtures in there. Um, we are looking at to drop some cost out of it already. We've already talked. I think we can get a million knocked out, but the numbers that we're talking about is not 30. We're talking a few million dollars. So, let me ask Can I ask a question? I know that u we're talking about putting this out for rebid, right? if that's a possibility. Um the consent order date.

Mhm. If we rebid, would we meet that consent order date? Because I think that is something that needs to be stated. Yes. Right. So, we will not the the first consent order date is bids by December 1st. Right. And and we've been running a couple months ahead of that this whole time. We'd like to keep that momentum. Okay. So, if we rebid, which we would go to the November meeting, I'm assuming to reject this um pushes that. Yes. To try and get it back out on the street to advertise by December 1.

And then, and then Council Cranford, the way the market is right now, we could possibly get a contractor that could bid it that could not start right then, right? And it could be put off. So, fortunately, this contractor can start right now. That's one of the things we looked at.

You know, all five of you up there, uh, it had been mentioned that surely you've heard this rumblings of this and this and that. I'm quite sure that all of you over the last two years and particularly this last year have kind of been nervous about where this might go. You can't know for sure, but you've been nervous just from seeing things. And and there's nothing you can do about it. You can't say, "Hey, we're going up 30%." Because you don't know that you are. And but you can be nervous from what you've seen out in the field. But until you get bids,

you don't know. You don't know. So I I know this has been coming on and I suspect particularly these two guys have been nervous nancies for quite a while but you don't know till you know. Yep. And they have been so and I think everybody out there and we Yes, we all have. And like Avery said we sat down over the summer because we knew we were above and so we did take stuff out. And to the fellas in the back, uh, apparently this Muscogee issue is not unique. Apparently,

it's and I'm talking to Nate. We've seen us communities all across the state. I mean, it's just, I say, it's hard to project how much inflation you need to build in over the course of a year. I mean, you can take a stab at it, but We've all been surprised by how much the number is and then throw in the impacts of tariffs that are as uncertain as about anything we've ever seen out there. And when did we the engineer when did we first come up with numbers? What year? The original was in 223. 23

23 was the first number and and since then we have always tried to squeeze this project into that number. But um but that number was probably a fairly good number until wrong or right Trump braced all the tariffs which is a combined 25% some of them are 150 but so in fairness to us just just the 25% in tariffs alone is a like you say 30% says project.

I just wanted to understand the whole picture. Thank you. Thank you everybody. So, so my next part of my question is going to be paying this lovely little thing off. Uh where are we going to look for the money to pay this loan off? Are we going to ask our water rates to go up, our sur rates to go up? Are we going to ask for our foundations to help pay for it? How are we going to do that? because I really am not in favor of jacking our prices up any higher than we've already have uh

to our community. I think uh you know if you look at it we got a medical foundation sorry Derek and we've got a uh Muscogi Foundation if you add them together they're almost $200 million. Uh, I think they should give us a little bit if they give us a little bit of from both, we could take care of this and not ask our citizens to uh, step up and foot the bill for this. I know that's not a popular deal, but I think that's the avenue that we need to take and if they don't like it, lump it, they need to give us some money because it does need to be on on our foundation in our population.

So, before you answer that question, you will probably be able to answer both of these questions at the same time. If we don't receive the loan, then what would our possibilities be? Because I mean, you're applying. So, if you did not approve the loan tonight, okay, then um I mean, from a financing standpoint, this is this is going to be your best option

as far as financing. I mean, you could potentially look at some sort of a bank financing or bond issue financing, but you're going to be paying higher interest rates and it's the total payment on the same amount borrowed is going to be more. So, this is the most efficient, cost affordable financing for you. Um, if you choose not to, then you're pretty much in a situation from a timeline, you're not going to be able to accept the bid. You're going to have to put it out to rebid. you know, you might get the same cost back, you might get a higher cost. If if I understand what councelor Cranford, part of what she was saying, I think, was what if we don't get the the money? Yeah.

What if they don't give us the money? If the water board Yeah. doesn't Yeah. The water board will give you the money. Okay. Well, that question you all vote directly this time. Is there a is there a penalty if we get I mean, we basically don't have a choice. We have to do this. We We have to We're forced to do this. If we get if we get this loan and then say that that one of those foundations, if we go to them, if we pay part of the loan, I mean, there's not a penalty, is there?

Well, there is. You can't you can't prepay the loan. But I will say this, this is the the purposes for which the water board loans money is very broad. It's basically for water, wastewater, and drainage projects. You the loan can't be prepaid for seven years. Okay? Generally, all right. If you ended up, if a foundation, as an example, said, "We're going to give you $10 million," you you'd have an extra $10 million. One, if they told you immediately, okay, in the next two weeks, we would borrow that much less. If they couldn't tell you that, we move forward to the financing and you under that scenario, you had $10 million of extra funds. You could take those extra funds and use those for other water, wastewater, and or drainage projects, which I'm absolutely positive you have projects that you could use that money on. So again, with the water board's consent, we could take some of the money that was going to go to the wastewater plant and use it for other authorized purposes,

but not to prepay the loans, but not to prepay the lo. My next question probably I hope my last one, but I have lots of notes here. If we don't do this and then we are fine because we missed that consent order date and you said like $7,000 per day going back out for a rebid process and going through this whole thing. What is the estimated time frame of that? Because we would be charged $7,000 per day. So let let me clear that up. Council Cranford the $7,000 a day is if the sewer plant isn't online and operating in April of 29, right? But

but if we change past and we're not trying, it looks like we're not trying to get this done. ODEQ can start putting fines on us any time, okay, for not following through with procedure. And they talked as much as 40 to $50,000 a day when we were talking about what if we decide we just don't want to build a plant. Okay. So it could can get very healthy. Okay. So go ahead. Go ahead. I was going to kind of go back to Dan's question with the with our sewer rates. If we put that on the citizens, they're already scheduled to go up another $7 and change next year. What are we looking at? Will that increase for next year or will that continue to go up x amount of dollars year after year

consistently instead of getting to after next year it was supposed to bottom out and no no more rate increases?

Kind of the short answer to the question is this loan once the debt service comes fully on would be about another 1.9 million per year. an additional debt service beyond what you already have. If you kind of divide that out among all the sewer accounts you have, that works out to be about $4 per month per account. So that's kind of, you know, if you have to do a rate increase and you have to do a rate increase to generate a full $1.9 million, it's about $4 a month. I mean, there's obviously some options you could talk about if there's supplemental funding or if the the size of the loan can come down, that can impact that, but that's that's probably the top end. From the waterboard's perspective, you meet their debt coverage tests already contempl including this loan contemplated. So, they're not requiring you to raise rates. You don't need to. I mean, like last time when we were looking at this, we had to look at the rate increase that needed to be put in place in order to support the loan long term. There's no requirement that you put a rate increase. Now, you could make decisions as council whether you wanted to raise all of it, raise some of it, and absorb some of it within your budget. You have some options there, but the waterboard's not requiring you to put a rate increase in order to be able to approve this loan. So, it's not on the agenda to consider tonight. quite frankly probably need to spend some time evaluating that at the city level with your financial advisor. Um, you know, kind of talking through what the best options are there, but that's a decision you can make down the road. And you would potentially have the ability, you don't wouldn't have to, if you chose to increase it further, you wouldn't necessarily have to put that in place right away either. That could maybe be a subsequent year after, you know, maybe in 2027 or something like that. you have some options there and you've got some time to really think about that

decision before you make it. But what we don't have any time left for is this. Correct. This is like Shirley said, this is tonight. Okay. So, my understanding is um so we're asking for approval. Is that committing us if we do this? Okay. So, okay. Because you kept saying approval. So that that's so approval is a commitment. It's a commitment in the sense we're going to move forward with the water

at this dollar amount and less in the next couple weeks we find that you can cut some more out of the project or you got some money from the foundation as an example. We we we up to the point the water board goes out and sells their bonds. Once they've sold their bonds, you're committed to take what you agreed to. This is the highest amount it would be if if your engineers can come back and we they can cut a million dollars out. We borrow a million dollars less. But once once they've sold the bonds, then we're How much how much time is there between now and then if we approached those foundations before we

Well, I think the foundations would really have a very very low interest rate loan to pay back then to pay a lump sum. I mean, that's what they've always done in the past is they just taken over the debt service. But how much? Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. How much time we have? We got two weeks basically before November 17. I mean, I think the water board for planning purposes when their underwriter starts to go out and market the

waterboard will approve this loan at their November 18 meeting. You got Thanksgiving the next week and then they'll actually sell the bonds the following week, Wednesday, December 3rd. So really probably about the 18th or so of November, that's when we need to have a decision on how much do we actually need to put into the project. Tonight, but we have that much time to decide how much we need to basing this down.

Okay. And then any modifications? We talk about modifications, but from my understanding what you said is that we have to have approval from ODQ before we could do any modifications. So, some of the things like cutting the polymer out wouldn't need that. But if we're going to change some kind of design or something that's more technical, yeah, we would need, but uh I think I'd lean on Sean, our engineer, to ensure that we're not uh changing anything that's ODQ approved through the plan set.

Okay. And I'm anticipate or I'm also just going to assume that risk mitigation was already placed in the bids. Is this not going to come out like if we come in and then all of a sudden they're going to be like, "Oh, we're another 20% over." Like this number's

I I think this is it. So we can We're not looking at anything technical as far as how the plant runs to treat your wastewater. We're not changing that. That is set. We've picked equipment. Operators are happy with it. The city's happy with it. We're going to move forward with that piece of it. But as far as ad mixtures in concrete, um, types of electrical cabinets that we're purchasing, things like that that do not have any impact on the overall wastewater design, we're talking about those right now. We started having that conversation Wednesday of last week already. So that's 5% contingency. Yeah. Our contingency.

Yes. So we would like to This one has this number has 10 and it can go down. Yes, I would like it to go down. We hope it go. Yes. Yes. So, the the number that was read tonight has 10% in it. Um when I was talking to your financial adviser yesterday afternoon, I believe um we were talking about decreasing that to five, which is typical in construction. Mike and I, we'd love to carry 10% through this whole thing, but is is it 33,700,000 that is estimated to kind of fully fund what we have right now. That includes a 5% contingency, 4.8 million, 4.9 million, something like that. Okay.

Cost costs are not going to go down. No, no, they don't seem like they are right now. I mean, even to go in right now to even like at the bank when people want to do things like just build a house Right now they're calling back in and saying, "I I got to have more money because the costs are going to do nothing but get worse." They're not going to get better. Our hope as they go up more slowly. Yes. Right. Yeah. And keep in mind, contingencies are built in for unknowns. In a project like this, we're going to run into some unknowns. We've got to have some money to work with. We're not going to be able to come back and get more

do this. I mean, it's not like we're trying to decide whether to do it or not. Yeah, we have to do it. We do. And my question is not if we build it or not or if we don't accept to build it. My deal is how we going to pay for it. That's my biggest concern and who's going to fit that bill. And that's where my concerns lie. I I know we got to vote to build this thing. I know we got to vote for the loans. I just want some answers on how we're going to pay for it. Well, I think that's for us to figure out. We'll figure it out.

But I don't want to figure it out. And it cost our population another $14 a month to do this. I know he said four, but figuring it out to a population that's impoverished where our poverty rates are high here may not look too bad to you or me, but there's some people in this community that $4 more a month is a big deal. And I hate to say it like that, but it is. And I know not having proper suer is a big big deal too and water and I'm just I just wish I had that answer already how it was going to get paid for tonight. It make a whole lot to figure it out.

I think the answer is the worst case scenario. All right. debt service additional amount of money is $4 per month otherwise I mean if you don't do that you're taking money out transfers that about $4 a month you can deb service this additional amount of money uh thank you everybody next before we uh step back we've got a citizen that would like to speak, Mr. Low, if uh you'd come up and just give us your name and uh you'll have five minutes.

Ryan Loa, sounds like I may be a little late. Uh good evening, mayor, council members, and fellow citizens of Mscogi. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak tonight regarding proposed funding for the wastewater treatment plant project. We all understand that investing in critical infrastructure like our wastewater system is vital for public health, environmental protection, and the future growth of our city. This project is important. Nobody no one disputes that. However, importance does not excuse the need for responsibility. When dealing with tens of millions of taxpayer dollars, it's essential that we make decisions decisions rooted in transparency, competition, and fiscal discipline. At this time, Muscogi has only one bidder for a project that was originally estimated between 70 and $80 million. A project of this magnitude should attract multiple bids, allowing us to ensure the best value for our citizens. Having only one bidder raises legitimate questions. Why did other qualified firms not participate? Were the project specifications too narrow? Was the project was the process rushed or restricted? Before we commit to any contract, these questions deserve clear and public answers. Now, we're being asked to approve an additional $37 million loan on top of the original amount. That's not a minor adjustment. It It's a substantial increase, and it puts our community further in debt. We need to know what specifically caused these escalating costs and whether alternative funding options, grants, or phased approaches have been explored. We not we cannot continue to make irresponsible and reckless decisions with taxpayers money. Every dollar borrowed today is a dollar that Muscogi residents will ultimately have to repay through higher utility bills, higher taxes, or reduce funding for other essential services. These decisions directly affect families, seniors on fixed income, and small businesses that already bear the cost of city spending. We all want progress, but progress must come with accountability. I respectfully urge the council to pause before approving any additional borrowing until these financial concerns are fully

addressed. The bidding process is reviewed and the public can be confident that this project is being managed responsibility responsibly. Let's ensure that Muscogee's future is built not just on good intentions but on good stewardships of the people's money. Ladies and gentlemen, the MMO for Muscogee and our leadership is to operate in crisis mode as we're doing tonight. We just spent tens of thousands of dollars, you guys did, to market uh a CIP continuence to improve downtown, add a new gymnasium at the Martin Luther King Center, spend money on the library. Those are all good things. But here we are just a few weeks later telling the citizens of Muscogee, not only is your water and sewer bill going to go up next year as it was scheduled already, we're going to do it again and we don't know how long that's going to take. You guys just admitted you don't know how you're going to pay for it, but you'll figure it out. The citizens of Muscogee pay for that. And you know, I'm trying I try to remain calm, but this is a serious issue and at some point you guys have to lead and be financially responsible because ultimately the citizens of Muscogee are on the hook. Why didn't we take care of this years ago? We don't maintain anything we have. If we can find the money to spend, if the foundation can pay $10 million to beautify five blocks downtown, then we can spend some money because evidently we're in an emergency here. We got we flush our toilet. We got to make sure it works. We have $200 million sitting and you're telling us that we have to borrow another 37 million. You went and got a loan before you even know how much this was going to cost. Now

we're asking the citizens to pay for this for who knows how long. And I preached this. Everybody thought I was negative. I I preached this when all you guys wanted all this all this stuff that you wanted these pet projects on that CIP. I said we need to be focusing on infrastructure only. Road, sewer, water. And here we are again. Guys, it's time to start doing the right thing for these citizens because eventually they're going to start pushing back. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Okay. Do we want to hop back to four and are we finished up with it?

We need to No, mayor. We would This agenda item was on the table, so we need to vote about it now unless someone wants to put it off. So, we need to vote to approve the resolution. Correct, Katrina? Yes, that's correct. Oh, I understand. Thank you.

Mike, uh, can you speak to any of the bullet points that Mr. Dlo has presented to us about the why we only have one bid and was there anything that we did wrong as far as in the process? I heard you guys say earlier that, you know, there's other ARPA projects, other cities that have, you know, taken these bids. Is there anything that we could have done differently in this process to attract our anything that we did to deter some of the um the biders from not wanting to bid on this project?

So, Deputy Mayor, to to answer your question, I feel like we've done our due diligence. I feel like our engineering firm has done theirs. We did have a pre-bid conference. We did have six biders at that meeting. We all left that meeting feeling good like we were going to get some competitive bids. Unfortunately, the two larger companies in the area um I guess made the other four decide not to bid and then at the last minute the other large one out of Arkansas decided to drop out leaving only the Tulsa contractor Crossman to bid on it. I wish we would have got more bids, but I am comfortable knowing that the bid that Crosswin presented was adequate. Uh we did uh have our engineer double check that bid with the local pricing to make sure that that's bid adequately according to other sewer plants being built in the area and I think Sean can get up and speak to that if you need him to. But uh he did check that. I think we did do did do our due diligence on trying to make sure we had the adequate amount of money prior to going out for the loan with Allen and Nate and their financial group. I feel like we had an engineering report that had that amount in it that was appropriate for that day and time. Unfortunately, the inflation got it and it did go up considerably high. But I feel like everything that we've done, we've done our due diligence. I don't like the situation we're in. I hate it. I hate it for staff and I hate it for the community, but unfortunately that's the times we're in and that's what we're going to pay for for this plant. I am very confident in talking to uh one of our local contractors who's heavily involved in this project who did tell me that if they had to rebid, their price was definitely going to go up and because that's what things are doing now. They're trending up and they're trending up quick. Uh so I think if we go back out for another bid, we're going to get a worse bid. I think we're going

to get in some timing issues with ODEQ. Um so I do feel it's appropriate to move forward with this. uh and then uh discuss how you're going to pay it back. And and as Allen and Nate both stated, uh the worst case scenario is a $4 impact to our citizens, which could be detained as as far off as a couple of years. But I do think uh we've all done our due diligence that have been working on this project, and I will defend that.

And let me say this as well. Um as far as you know, you're responsible. We're responsible for the upkeep of the water and sewer plant. It's outdated, but we couldn't and and my safe been saying that the flood is really what got us to the point where we are tonight. When half of your plant is underwater, 6 feet underwater for a considerable amount of time and all the electrical components in it are ruined and then shortly after that you go through a hard freeze that did almost the same thing to it. That's what damaged our plant. And then when we when we went to uh Oklahoma City, the manager, Avery, myself, we all went up to Oklahoma City with our attorneys at the time to defend our position on that consent order because we were trying to get that lesson. Of course, ODQ didn't care if it was underwater. They they wanted up in operation, but we felt like legitimately that's what caused it. It was underwater for a long time and then the freeze got it. Not to mention it's antiquated and it's aged. It's it's a 90. Uh that's why I had Avery start out with going through some history for you telling you how old that plant was. But the age of the plant, the conditions we went through, there's reasons why it's the way it is. And it does need to get rebuilt and we know that and so does ODQ and we felt like we were on a good path. Unfortunately, these bids just came in too high. And again, I'll defend that. I think we're we've all done our due diligence, Vice Mayor. And if that answered your question, I hope it did. If not,

it did. It did. It's a tight position that uh you know, we we're all in and you know, as council people, it's a tight position that we're in tonight, but tonight we have to make a decision. um that we we have to take some action and none of us wants to be here and none of us are saying and it's not fair that uh this is appearing to be a move that we're going to do and then later on down the line raise the wy increases uh on the citizens. That's not fair to this council, future councils to come. Any nine people that's sitting here today, elected or not elected, would have to make a decision like we happen to make tonight. And none of us wanted to be here, but here we are.

Here we are. Was it not insured? But it didn't insure it. I'm not sure what you're asking. Is it not injured? Uh, I think the whole question is that it's a drip system and it was going to have to be changed out either way because it's out of date and and the city is selfinsured. Correct Katrina? It depends on what item it is. So most of the components in the technical aspects of it are not structures are but that's not what failed right now. Yes,

there was there was that kind of went in to get it back to operational but to change it all out because the drip systems basically antiquated and they and then that's what got OD and Q involved.

I I jump in real quick. So after that 2019 flood, we did receive FEMA funds as Mr. Low was referencing. Uh but those FEMA funds are not to get you to a point of having a brand new plant. It's not this, it's not that. It's to replace what you can claim and the minimum of what you can claim. So as we went through those FEMA funds, we did repair the plant to the degree possible with the funding. We got it back running to the best of our ability. ODQ did not see it that way. They did not see the flood as a disaster that we could uh mitigate using alternative means of funding. We were limited in our options with what we could do after our negotiations with ODQ.

Again, I think going back to you saying you did your due diligence, I think that a lot of components have taken place, right? And so we we're looking at this whole final project, but then walking out in steps, you did everything that you could possibly do. I agree with Derek that it it is kind of misconstring to say otherwise, but I get it and it is it is a tough front to bear and we're going to have to make this decision tonight and being fair to our citizens since it's out here and it sounds as if we're doing this saying we're going to raise your rates, we're going to do these things. this was never the intent and speaking to the CIP and saying those projects should not have been done. Those library and all of those people, us as a city giving to them so that they could receive their grants that they had applied for was also something that we had to look at when we made those decisions. So, it was not like we just decided, oh, we're not going to do something to do something else. The library needed us to do what we did as a city for them so that they could continue with grant funding. Our minimal amount that we gave them to their grand project is minimal. And so to say that we did other pet projects, we did not. We helped the library and other entities to get what they needed by giving them a percentage of what they actually needed. So we did not we did not fund our pet project

while we were in an emergency and crisis that we knew about that we did not know about. Well, uh, let's before we make a motion to vote on this, whatever, I want to reiterate my statement a while ago, and I'm still going to hold the foundation and any of our trust avail uh to hold their feet to the fire on this because this is what that money is meant to do, right?

It is. We're we're in an emergency here. Then they need to step up and help us. It I mean, that's what that money's for. If you want to talk about projects, this is one of them they need to step up and help us with. Uh they may not like it, but I think it's this is the what that money was meant to do is fix these problems. And if these people think that those boards and stuff say, "Well, that's not what we're going to do with it," then that's wrong because this is what our citizens and everything look at and they keep telling us, "Well, there's going to be an emergency or something." Well, this is an emergency. Those foundations, those trusts need to give us that money to help pay for this. I will vote yes for this tonight. But at the end of the day, those found those foundations need to give us some money. Whether it's the medical one or the Muscogi Foundation or combine them both, they need to help us with this bill for our citizens. And that way we don't have to worry about the $4 or the $14, the $7. We don't need to nickel and dime our citizens anymore. We've got the money. They need to step up and help us pay for it.

Mr. Hall, I'm uh inclined to agree with your train of thought. Um we'll I know that we'll I'll I'll do all I can do with you to see that we can head that direction. Uh I want to remind this council tonight. I didn't know it was going to go this way or things. You never know. But um and the audience th this council tries to do their very best to do what's right for the citizens of Mscoe and I'm proud of the council and uh just remind everybody that statement. Uh do we have a motion? Move to approve uh item number six. I'll have a second.

I'll second it. We have a motion and a second. Roll call, please. Mike Broly, yes. Tom Martanddale, yes. Dan Hall, Melody Cranford, yes. Shirley Hilton Flannry, yes. Tracy H. No. Jamie Stout, no. Deputy Mayor Derek Reid, yes. Mayor Patrick Kale, yes. Uh motion passes. Now do we need to go back to four? Yes, sir May. If we if we can go back to items four and five, please. Okay. Uh item item four has been read. Uh did you have any other comments on item relating to item four?

No. And there was I don't think there was any action to be taken or we do need to either um to authorize the chairman of the Muscogi Municipal Authority to execute professional services agreement with MFS um in the Muscogee Municipal Authority. Make that motion. I'll second it. And we have a motion and a second. Roll call, please. Mike Raleigh. Yes. Tom Martanddale. Yes. Dan Hall, yes. Melanie Cranford, yes. Shirley Hilton Flannry, yes. Tracy H, no. Jamie Stout, no. Deputy Mayor Jar Reed, yes.

Mayor Patrick Hale, yes. Motion passes. Item number five, please. Consider approval to authorize the chairman to execute an agreement for bond council services between the Muscoi Municipal Authority, a public trust, and the public finance law group PLLC for services related to the series 2025 promisary note to the Oklahoma Water Resources Board for a loan or take other necessary action. Mr. Stewart. So again, this is Nate now and it's to approve the agreement with them and we'd recommend approval. Move for approval. Second it. We have a motion in a second. Roll call, please.

Mike Broly, yes. Tom Martanddale, yes. Dan Hall, yes. Melody Cranford, yes. Shirley Hilton Flannry, yes. Tracy H. No. Jamie Stout, no. Deputy Mayor Jerick Reed, yes. Mayor Patrick Kale. Yes. Item passes. This meeting is now adjourned. Thank you everybody.

Two more. Oh my gosh. Can you handle these? Hey, man. You got to stick it out with me. You got to stick it out with me. Next we'll have the Muscogi Redevelopment Authority October 27th, 2025. Roll call, please. Mayor Patrick Hale here. Deputy Mayor Derek Reed here. Jamie Stout here. Tracy H here. Shirley Hilton Flannry here. Melody Cranford here. Dan Hall here. Tom Martanddale here. Mike Broly here. Okay, we're going to strike item number one. Item number two, please

consider approval of MSGO Redevelopment Authority claims for the period of June 14, 2025 through October 17, 2025 or take other necessary action. Uh, Miss Bowdenhammer, please. Thank you, Mayor. The claims for the Msogi River Development Authority from June through October 2025 are attached. Do we have any questions? We make a motion for approval. Second. Roll call, please. Mike Broly, yes. Tom Martanddale, yes. Dan Hall, yes. Melanie Cranford, yes. Shirley Hilton Flannry, yes. Tracy HS, yes. Jamie Stout, yes. Deputy Mayor Derek Reed,

yes. Mayor Patrick Kale, yes. Item passes. Okay, we're now going to call to order the Muscogi City Council, October 27th, 2025. Roll call, please. Mayor Patrick Kale, here. Deputy Mayor Derek Reed here. Jamie Stout here. Tracy H here. Charlie Hilton Flannry here. Melody Cranford, here. Dan Hall, here. Tom Martanddale here. Mike Rolley here. Okay. Uh, approval of minutes. Move for approval. I'll second it. We have a motion and a second on the minutes. Roll call, please. Mike Broly, yes.

Tom Martanddale, yes. Dan Hall, Melody Cranford, yes. Shirley Hilton Flannry, yes. Tracy H. Yes. Jamie Stout, yes. Deputy Mayor Derek Reed, yes. Mayor Patrick Hale, yes. Item passes. Uh, consent agenda has items number one through seven. Does anybody want to revisit any of those items? Motion to approve consent agenda as presented. Second. Thank you. Okay, we have a motion in a second. Roll call, please. Mike Broly, yes. Tom Martanddale, yes. Dan Hall, Melody Cranford, yes. Shirley Hilton Flannry, yes. Tracy H. Yes. Jamie Stout, yes. Deputy Mayor Jerick Reed, yes. Mayor Patrick Hale,

yes. Item passes. Okay, going to the regular agenda. Item A, please. Hold a public hearing and consider approval of the preliminary plat for racetrack Hancock Street subdivision located at 2300 South 32nd Street consisting of 18.205 acres or take other necessary action. Okay. We will now open a public hearing. Mr. Brent Roberts.

Good evening council and good evening mayor and deputy mayor. The application was submitted by Racetrack Incorporated and indicated the property is being platted in preparation for a new gas station to be placed on the property. The preliminary plat went to subdivision review committee on September 17th, 2025 and was approved. In addition, the planning commission also reviewed the preliminary plaque in the 10725 meeting and recommended approval to city council. The preliminary plat complies with the requirements of the subdivision regulations and our recommendations is approval of the preliminary plat. Move for approval. Second.

We have to close the Yeah, we will we will now uh close the public hearing and no discussion I guess. Thank you. Council Stouts move for approval. We have a motion in a second. Roll call, please. Mike Broly. Yes. Tom Martanddale, yes. Dan Hall, yes. Melody Cranford, Shirley Hilton Flannry, Tracy H. Yes. Jamie Stout, yes. Deputy Mayor Derek Reed, yes. Mayor Patrick Kale, yes. Thank you. Item number nine, please. Item passes.

Item passes. Number nine, please. Hold a public hearing and consider approval of resolution number 3053, future land use amendment for the property located at 2300 South 32nd Street, City of Muscogee, or take other necessary action. Okay. We will now open public hearing. Mr. Roberts, again,

yes, sir. The applicant has requested a reszone of the property located at 2300 South 32nd Street um from I1 Light Industrial to C2 General Commercial. Um the proposed use of the property will be for a new gas station um to replace the existing gas station and car wash. The request does not currently conform to the Muscogee comprehensive plan and future land use plan, which is why we also requested the land use map amendment. Okay, it looks like uh no others have signed up. Uh we will now close the public hearing. Move for approval. I second. We have a motion in a second. Roll call, please. Mike Broly,

yes. Tom Martale, yes. Dan Hall, yes. Melody Cranford, yes. Charlie Hilton Flannry, yes. Tracy H. Yes. Jamie Stout, yes. Deputy Mayor Derek Reed, yes. Mayor Patrick Hale, yes. Item passes. Number 10, please hold a public hearing and consider approval of ordinance number 4276A. A request to reszone the property located at 2300 South 32nd Street, City of MSO from I1 Light Industrial to C2 General Commercial and if approved, authorize staff to update the official zoning map of the city or take other necessary action.

Mr. Robert. Oh, we're going to now open a public hearing. Mr. Roberts. Yes, sir. So, the applicant has requested a reszone of the property located at 2300 South 32nd Street um from I1 Lite Industrial to C2 General Commercial. Um staff recommendations is um we recommend to approve the ordinance of 4276- um as a reszone request. Okay. With no one signed up to speak, we will now close the public hearing. Move for approval. Second. We have a motion and a second. Roll call, please. Mike Broly, yes. Tom Martanddale, yes. Dan Hall, yes. Melody Cranford, yes. Shirley Hilton Flannry, yes. Tracy H. Yes.

Jamie Stout, yes. Deputy Mayor Derek Reed, yes. Mayor Patrick Kale,

yes. Item passes. Number 11, please. Consider approval of resolution number 3056 giving notice to the secretary of the Muscogee County Election Board and calling a city general election for Tuesday, February 10th, 2026 and a runoff election in the event respective candidates for the offices of mayor and council members do not receive a majority vote with said runoff election to be held on Tuesday, April 7th, 2026, establishing filing, withdrawal, and contest period closing the 45th and 61st voting precincts and establishing all the same pursuant to the charter of the city of Muscogee and the revised state election laws or take other necessary action.

Miss Bowdenhammer.

Thank you, mayor. This resolution number 3056 is the official document required to give notice to the secretary of the Muscogee County Election Board and call for a general election. This is for uh city council ward one. We have a two-year unexpired term and a four-year term. Ward two, we have a four-year term open. That will be open. In Ward three, we have a four-year term. Ward four, we have a four-year term. And for mayor, we have a two-year term. This election is going to be scheduled for February the 10th, 2026 with a runoff April 14th of 2026. I would like to point out that each one of our dates as far as filing notice um candidacy contest and withdrawals has been extended by one day passed what the charter calls for due to Veterans Day holiday on Tuesday, November the 11th. And happy to answer any questions. Oh, I'm sorry. Also, it's closing precincts 45 and 61 because we have no registered voters in those precincts.

What was that date you said due to Veterans Day? Due to Veterans Day, we have normally we have our like our candidates can file on the on Monday um November. It's the 10th through the 13th is normally it's Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. We have a Tuesday holiday. So, we have extended everything by one day to Thursday. So, what are those dates? The 10th, the 12th, and the 13th are the filing period 8 to 5:00 in the office of the city clerk.

They should go the 14th. 14 withdrawal. Yes. In the attached resolution, um, it also sets out all the hours and the dates. And then candidacy withdrawal has to be done by Monday, November 17th by 5:00 p.m., which is also extended one day due to veterans holiday. any contest for the CA against the candidates has been extended to November 18th at 5:00 pm and again that's one day extension pass what the charter calls for due to the Veterans Day holiday. Okay. Uh move for approval. Thank you.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Roll call, please. Mike Broly? Yes. Tom Martanddale? Yes. Dan Hall. Yes. Melody Cranford. Yes. Shirley Hilton Flannry. Yes. Tracy H. Yes. Jamie Stout. Yes. Deputy Mayor Derek Reed. Yes. Mayor Patrick Kale.

Yes. Item passes. Number 12, please. Consider approval of resolution number 3062. A resolution of the city of Muscogee, Oklahoma approving action taken by the Muscogi Municipal Authority authorizing issuance, sale, and delivery of a promisary note of the authority to the Oklahoma Water Resources Board, ratifying and confirming a lease agreement and operation and maintenance contract as amended by and between the city and the authority pertaining to the leasing of the city of Muscogi water and sanitary sewer systems to the authority. ratifying and confirming a sales tax agreement pertaining to certain sales tax revenue as security for the note and containing other provisions related thereto or take other necessary action.

Mr. Stewart. Yes, Mayor and Council. This is the same as item six in the Muscogi Municipal Authority meeting. Uh we can go back through it or staff does recommend approval. It's a council's decision. Move for approval. Second. We have a motion and a second. Roll call. Mike Broly, yes. Tom Martanddale, yes. Dan Hall, yes. Melody Cranford, yes. Tracy Hooves, no. Jamie Stout, no. Deputy Mayor Derek Reid, yes. Mayor Patrick Hale,

yes. Item passes. Number 13, please. Just a second. Consider approval of resolution number 3059, a resolution in support of incorporating the Muscogee Industrial Park into Port Muscogee South or take other necessary action. Miss Bowdenhammer.

Thank you. This is an item that's being put on behalf of the Port of Muscogee. They would like to instead of having so many different separate names for separate areas, they would like to incorporate parts of the park under one name, which is Port Muscogee South. It's simply branding on their part for advertising and to have a unified industrial park area. Um, it doesn't change anything as far as zoning fees or any rules or regulations. It's like a Cracker Barrel change their name or change their logo. It's the same type of thing. It's a name change for branding purposes. That didn't go over well for a Cracker Barrel. Go over. Okay. Not a good example. Yeah. That was my favorite example. Move for approval. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Roll call, please. Mike Broly, yes. Tom Martanddale, yes. Dan Hall, yes. Melody Cranford, yes. Shirley Hilton Flannry, yes. Tracy H. Yes. Jamie Stout, yes. Deputy Mayor Derek Reed, yes. Mayor Patrick Kale, yes. Motion passes. Number 14, please. Consider approval of a resol of resolution number 3058 and a citizens participation plan for the community development block grant disaster recovery 2022 grant relating to the Oklahoma Department of Commerce community development block grant program or take other necessary action. Mr. Stewart.

Yeah, this is a item that uh I take a little bit of pleasure in presenting to you tonight. It's a block grant, community development block grant uh disaster recovery. And what this particular uh one here is going to do is address the flooding in the meadows. And this is going to help us uh hire a engineer to design a plan to come up with a solution to it. Now, this is not to actually do the engineering work or any contracting, but to to develop and design an engineered plan to come up with a solution for the flooding in the meadows. And to get to there, we have to do we have to adopt their um citizens participation plan. This is an Oklahoma Department of Commerce plan that we just pretty much copied. So, I do recommend approval. And before that, I would really like to thank Katrina, our city attorney, for her assistance on these next four items because she basically did them while she was going down the road with me. So, thank you very much.

I do recommend approval. I move for approval. Second. Second. We have a motion and a second. Roll call, please. Mike Broly? Yes. Tom Martanddale? Yes. Dan Hall? Yes. Melody Cranford? Yes. Shirley Hilton Flannry? Yes. Tracy H. Yes. Jamie Stout. Yes. Deputy Mayor Derek Reed. Yes. Mayor Patrick Kale. Yes. Item passes. Number 15, please. Consider approval of resolution number 3060 to submit an application to the Oklahoma Department of Commerce for the CDBG DR 2022 grant, a grant for the disaster recovery from the May 2022 flooding for a voluntary housing buyout project addressing properties in the Meadows subdivision, or take other necessary action.

Mr. Steuart.

So, this is to actually buy some houses out in the meadows. They've got two in this in this uh grant. They've got the there are two separate funds. One of them is for up to 600,000, which is what we're going to apply for for the uh engineering portion of this and the other they've got 3.4 million to do actual housing buyouts. This is a voluntary program and all we're asking for tonight is uh the uh approval to submit the application so that we can get in line for it. Then we'll have to do some leg work to see what we can do to get some of the houses that flooded in that 2020 flood. Uh this again, this is up to 3.4 million and uh we'll do our due diligence to try and get that taken care of, but I do recommend approval. I'll answer any questions.

These houses been annexed. When do we annex this? I and councelor Hall I think it goes back to ' 86 but I'm not sure that for some reason that date that sounds about right seems about right. It's I know it uh has been quite some time and uh hopefully we can get something going to approve these last 20 24 houses that flooded out there to to get them out of the floodway. It'd be great. Did we know it flooded before they annexed all that in? So, you're going back to ' 86 to ask me a question. I really don't remember. You were here then, Mike. I was here, believe it or not. But I was, but uh I don't know that it actually flooded back then, but I do know that built in was doing loans back then. Yes, it did.

Yeah, I'm sure Mike thought about against the annexation. If I could, I would have. Uh, we had a motion approve. I second it. Okay. Roll call. Mike Broly, yes. Tom Martanddale, yes. Dan Hall, yes. Melody Cranford, yes. Shirley Hilton Flannry, yes. Tracy H. Yes. Jamie Stout, yes. Deputy Mayor Derek Reed, yes. Mayor Patrick Kale, yes. Item passes. Uh, number 16,

consider approval to adopt a citizen participation plan for the city's application to the Oklahoma Department of Commerce for the CDBGDR 2022 grant, a grant for disaster recovery from the May 2022 flood for a planning project for the for a subdivision drainage plan for the Meadows subdivision or take other necessary action.

So, this goes with the item that we just approved previously. I will uh tell you that this grant is for up to $600,000. And one of the best things about it is it's a no match grant. So, we don't have to come up with match money. Although, it does make our application look better if we do kick money into it. And I did talk with the manager and with Dennis Reid, our treasurer, and they both said that we do have some CBDG funding available where as we could probably put 10,000 toward each one of these applications, which will give us some points on our application, which makes it look better. Okay. Approval. I move for approval. Uh, we have we we need a second.

Second. Oh, second. Second it. We have a motion and a second. Roll call, please. I'm sorry. Who made the motion? idea. Thank you. Mike Crawley. Yes. Tom Martanddale. Yes. Dan Hall. Yes. Melody Cranford. Yes. Shirley Hilton Flannry. Yes. Tracy H. Yes. Jamie Stout. Yes. Deputy Mayor Jerick Reed. Yes. Mayor Patrick Kale.

Yes. Item passes. Number 17, please. Consider approval to adopt a citizen participation plan for the city's application to the Oklahoma Department of Commerce for the CDBG DR2022 grant, a grant for disaster recovery from the May 2022 flood for a voluntary housing buyout project addressing properties in the Meadows subdivision, or take other necessary action.

So, uh, mayor and council, again, this is just still more the Meadows deal. is actually approving for the um application to start the process for the housing buyout. That is voluntary. I want to make sure everybody's aware of that. So, if anybody's asked, they don't have to give their houses up. This is voluntary. Uh and I don't know all the rest of the parameters around that. Then we will get to those as we do the application process and we'll inform council better. But really think this is a good project. Move for approval. Second. We have a motion and a second. Roll call. Mike Pearley. Yes. Tom Martell. Yes. Dan Hall. Yes. Melody Cranford. Yes. Shirley Hilton Flannry. Yes.

Tracy H. Yes. Jamie Stout. Yes. Deputy Mayor Derek Reed. Yes. Mayor Patrick Kale. Yes. Item passes. Number 18, please. Consider approval to authorize the mayor to execute a corrective deed for the property located in Muscogee original town site south 50 lot 1 block 405 to the record owners to clear title due to a clerical error in the Muscogi County land records or take other necessary action. Miss Bowdenhammer.

Um thank you mayor. this circumstance was there are times that the city can go ahead and request that deed that property in the city be deeded over to us from the Msogi County assessor's office. For instance, if it doesn't sell at tax resale or there's some other kind of circumstance, we issue a letter to the Muscogee County Assessor saying, "Will you please deed this property to us?" And that's one of the ways that we acquire property. There's no cost to us. They've recently hired a new person to go through and research all the deeds that have been done. and they found out that the deed that was issued to the city in 2015 was not thoroughly researched on that property. So there was another deed that conveyed that property prior to them conveying it to the city. So we are actually cladding the title of the legal owners which are Abel and Marcella Diaz. They own that property. They have owned that property. U Msogi County assessor's office found that missing deed that was not researched before. send us a letter and ask us to please do that back to the record owners because we they should have never transferred the property to the city.

Great. And we may may have more of these coming up as they research the land records and all the transactions. Okay. I move for approval. Second. We have a motion and a second. Roll call, please. Mike Broly? Yes. Tom Martale? Yes. Dan Hall? Yes. Melanie Cranford? Yes. Charlie Hilton Flannry? Yes. Tracy H? Yes. Jamie Stout? Yes. Deputy Mayor Derek Reed. Yes. Mayor Patrick Hale. Yes. Item passes. Number 19, please. Consider approval for the Muscogi Police Department to accept the Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act grant from the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services Policing Services in the amount of $200,000 or take other necessary action.

Chief De uh Mayor and Council, this is a pretty exciting for the police department. It allows us, it's a two-year grant, $100,000 a year to allow us to continue with our peer support as well as health and mental well mental health and wellness uh programs with the police and fire. Fantastic. Any questions? Move for approval. Second. We have a motion in a second. Roll call, please. Mike Broly. Thanks, Chief. Tom Martanddale, yes. Dan Hall, yes. Melody Cranford, yes. Charlie Hilton Flannry, yes. Tracy H. Yes. Jamie Stout. Yes. Deputy Mayor Derek Reed. Yes. Mayor Patrick Kale. Yes. Item passes. Number 20, please.

Consider approval of the appointment of Cody Moore to the Planning and Zoning Commission to serve a three-year term filling the expiring term of Delby Walker beginning October 1, 2025 and ending on September 30, 2028 or take other necessary action. Councelor Broly. Yes. This is my appointment to the planning zoning commission. Mr. Moore has uh been active in uh city uh goings on so to speak and wants to become more and more active with us and with the city learn all what goes on here. So I recommend his appointment to the planning zoning commission.

Second that he'll be a great asset to our community. Uh roll call, please. Mike Broly. Yes. Tom Martanddale. Yes. Dan Hall. Melody Cranford. Yes. Shirley Hilton. Yes. Excuse me. Tracy H. Yes. Jamie Stout. Yes. Deputy Mayor Jarick Reed. Yes. Mayor Patrick Kale. Yes. Good. Good choice, Mr. Broly. Item passes. Number 21.

Consider an executive session to discuss and take possible action on the following. A. Pursuant to section 307B2, Title 25 Oklahoma statutes, consider convening in executive session to discuss negotiations with the International Association of Firefighters, local number 57, and if necessary, take appropriate action in open session. Move for approval. Second. We have a motion and a second. Roll call. Mike Broly. Yes. Tom Martale. Yes. Dan Hall. Melody Cranford. Yes. Shirley Hilton Flannry. Yes. Tracy H. Jamie Stout. Yes. Deputy Mayor Derek Reed. Yes. Mayor Patrick Hale.

Yes. Item passes. We're now in executive session.

Okay, we're now in regular session. Roll call, please. Let's return. Mayor Patrick Kale, here. Deputy Mayor Derek Reed here. Jamie Stout here. Tracy H here. Shirley Hilton Flannry here. Melody Cranford here. Dan Hall, present. Tom Martale here. Mike Broly here. Uh, Miss Vogue member, please. Thank you, Mayor. Item 21A, pursuant to section 307B2, title 25, Oklahoma statute, council did convene the executive session to discuss negotiations with the International Association of Firefighters, local number 57. An appropriate motion would be to approve the negotiated agreement as discussed in executive session. Move for approval. Second. Second.

I have a motion and a second. Roll call, please. Mike Broly. Yes. Tom Martanddale. Yes. Dan Hall. Melody Cranford. Yes. Shirley Hilton Flannry. Yes. Tracy H. Yes. Jamie Stout. Yes. Deputy Mayor Derek Reed. Yes. Mayor Patrick Hill. We are now.

Yahoo. We're done. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Oh, good.