Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Mayor Andrew. Mayor Andrew here. Here.

All right, everybody. Thanks for being here tonight. Two weeks in a row. All right. Um, so we have two items that we're going to add to tonight's agenda without objection. The first is 170526 request to vacate a portion of public rightway consisting of a 20 foot alley located between 115 Morris Boulevard and 117 Morris Boulevard brought to us from Mr. Pew. And the second item that we will add to the pre-consil agenda is 060526 which we have had in pre-consil before request to delegate limited authority to the city manager regarding budget transfers brought to us from Mr. Smith. Um we will start with our old business agenda which is 220426 request for consideration for a budget transfer from Mr. Seagris. We carried this item over and without objection we will also carry this item over again tonight. This is the water bill. We're still working through. We're still waiting for our letter from Argo. Is that right? Is that right?

Yeah. We're still waiting to confirm that Birmingham Water can't transfer the name of us invoice to us and that's not the case then we'll we'll find a work. Yep. Exactly. Okay. So, and did we I was asked this earlier, but I don't about getting uh some of the uh invoices like three four u months after from that day afterwards and also before just to see the difference there. Okay. The sewer bill is unacceptable in my

Okay, I am going to go to 06526. This is old business and we've discussed this before. So, we'll jump to this now. And that again is the request to delegate limited authority to the city manager regarding budget transfers. And I'm going to open that item back up for discussion. Councelor Sims and I had a good meeting with um Mr. Smith on Friday afternoon and he had an excellent suggestion which is to receive those transfers in our voucher reports bi-weekly. So, we will re we will see that. We will be able to monitor that. Um, what other uh questions or concerns did you all want to bring up to? That was mine. That was mine.

That was a good one. That was excellent. Well, I give you half credit, too. So, council council. Okay. I was talking to um Kale about this earlier. You know, we we we are doing a lot of things now where bank transfers, signing checks, everything's doing in duos, right? There's always somebody behind the other person. Correct.

I would like to recommend potentially once we have a finance director once that's approved to take the pressure off Kale is to have the finance director and Kale approve those department transfers together. So you'll always have oversight. just uh just a suggestion and good councelor Lane I agree with that point and just in the interim too until there is a finance director I think um that uh Mr. Seagris is acting in that role and so in the interim that it would be bow until the position is fil.

It would be great for the residents of Homer to know that's happening because there's too much verbiage on the street that's not Yeah. What what I intend to do is create a form that says I transferred money from supplies into tuition. Uh and then you know why we did it all those things and then I'll sign it and have both sign. And again, this is not new money coming from the general fund. This is money that's gone within the fund, right? Um and it is limited in amount and um this is not taking revenue or general fund money and putting into a different fund.

So the the way I like to think of it is we have about 24 funds that are individual spheres. And so uh I'm not allowed to grow that sphere or reduce that sphere any or to move money between spheres. So all I'm doing is is cycling money around inside the sphere. That's basically that a good visual like a current example which are we adding that to tonight's agenda the for Chief Broadhead. A current example is Chief Broadhead needs $2,500 for tuition assistance for one of his for the physicals. I'm sorry physicals. And so he's asking to transfer within his fire budget. Gotcha. So

that makes sense. but also excellent to be of course very cautious of course makes perfect sense those actually will those go through finance and into kale or does it go straight to this happens that's what we're trying to that's what we're signing over that's what that's what the resolution they would probably they would come straight to me from the from them and I would go to the finance department and I would say hey we need a budget amendment perfect good

and in relation to that too kale when looking at this resolution, there's a one, two, and three that kind of spells out the different scenarios. Um, it seems to me that striking provision one and just leaving two and three accomplishes everything we're trying to do. But I mean, is that because the way I'm reading one is is that it's kind of like internal for department directors um appropriations up to 10,000 and I think we we can just strike that and it all just just go through the same process that we just explain. Yep, that's right. Okay.

And I think the city attorneys may have drafted a resolution already that reflects your comments. Okay. So, we're good to move this out for tonight's vote. Is that correct? We don't have a dual signature. Okay. Okay. So, we will carry this item over in council tonight when we see it on the council agenda. We'll carry it over. I think that would be great just to look at a clean copy and let everybody sit with it. Um because this is a great improvement in efficiency, but we just want to make sure we're getting that right. That's fair. Thank you. Okay.

All right. Any more discussion on that item? Okay. So, if not, we will move on to new business. Um, item 100526, request to execute an easement agreement with McConnell White and Terry Realy to allow for irrigation and landscaping as part of the US 31 pedestrian tunnel project brought to us from Amy Zary. We will move this out tonight without objection. So, just want to let you know um because we are going out to bid on May 28th. So, if it's okay with everyone, we will move this out tonight. Hi, Amy. How's it going? Yay. This is exciting.

Yeah, this will basically allow us to install the irrigation and the landscaping um in the green space that is north of the pig's property um and this is in conjunction with our uh pedestrian tunnel improvement project. Great. Do you have a rendering of that? I do. I think it was was it at the last meeting? I can I just wanted to put it there. you had it, but not it's pretty rendering. I'll make sure to share that. Yeah, it's exciting. Okay, great. All right. Any questions for Amy?

Okay. All right. Um, next item 11:05, request for permission to consider an early retirement incentive brought to us from Mr. Smith. This will not go out tonight, so this is just for discussion tonight. Um, but it is a good one. So, Mr. Smith,

thank you, Mayor. Um so early retirement incentive program is designed to provide a structured retirement window for eligible employees who are already retirement eligible through RSA who might be hesitant to retire because of the cost of medical coverage um prior to Medicare eligibility. So eligibility is for employees that qualify for RSA retirement, meet service and age requirements, retire uh retired during the July one through se through the end of September. There's a window there that opens and closes uh and then they remain eligible for local government healthcare. Um Brian, I have a slide. Yep. So you guys have a packet that includes three sheets. One is just kind of a a written draft of what this is and the second page is what you see on the screen. You put it in the front flap of your Yeah. Uh is what you you'll you see on the screen. I'll go over that in a second. And the last is a 13-year schedule. So retirees will be responsible for a portion of their insurance premium. The retirees out-ofpocket medical premium contribution in the first year would be a would be $600 for family coverage per month and approximately 200 for single coverage per month with an annual increase in 5%. So on the third page, you'll see there's a kind of like an amortization schedule of how much it's going to cost in year two and year three. And that's just a 5% increase every year based on healthcare projections. Um I also want to emphasize that when you anal and you know this when you analyze a financial impact of an early retirement incentive program, it's

extremely complex and it's really hard to get to get right. So, um, this is only an illustration and an example of, uh, of like one person. So, this could happen a bunch of different ways. So, we just did we just did the best we could as far as the projection goes. Um, for this illustration on what I'm showing, we considered a police sergeant at grade 23, step 10, as the retiree, and then back filling that position with a police officer at grade 19, step two. Um, and so you create an initial labor savings, but over time that window begins to narrow as the 192 police officer grows across the pay scale um, and health insurance increases. So what we're looking at up here, I'll show it on the screen. So in year one, the annual savings is 30 almost 32,000. But then you'll see in year six that's the last year of savings that we get. And then year seven and this is only for for one one person, one job, right? Um so Jason and I think that this is probably going to have to be recurring every year um in order to make it in order to make it work well. But again, in the end, um it it's not a cost savings measure and not a and not a it's not a proven cost savings measure. We can certainly have improvements operationally and and financially u but the intent is it's a benefit for the employees right so I will say we took the outline and modeled it after what mountain brook did recently or this year um and our cost for family coverage is less than theirs out of pocket so

do you know the numbers that have taken us up on the last I know we offered this what two three years ago is that Yeah, I feel like 23. Okay. Do you know how many people took us up on that? I don't know about 23, but I think we currently have 32 total eligible who are early retirees and some of those folks are about to roll off when they become. Okay. Total. Okay. I think we've offered it at least twice since I've been on the council for nine years. That's the last years. Does Mountain Brook offer it or other jurisdictions do they typically offer it annually as well or is it by annual? I think Mountain Brook does every other year usually.

So, but having some type of regular routine offering of it is better than this how sporadic it's been. That's right. And and you know, I feel like I'm pretty late in pushing this out for this year. So, I don't know what's I mean, B's planning to retire. He's got to make some decisions pretty quickly. Yeah. Well, we won't let him do that. So, yeah, he's not eligible. But I would add though, the biggest pain point for anyone that's even considering retiring is the health insurance a lot of us.

I mean, that's that's the that's going to be the biggest pain point. if they see a way that they can afford health care uh to get them to, you know, uh Medicare age, then then I think that's that that's going to be the biggest one. So it it may or may not like if you roll it out, I don't think it it may not be too late. I think people like, man, I would really like to retire, but I don't know how much my cares. I think I think that's a good number, but but for them to but for them to feel confident that it's also coming next year that they don't have to rush a decision. And you already given them projections on year two, year three, year four, getting them to age 65. That's right.

And recovery increases. Yeah. Yeah. And and and to be honest with you, even 5% is I mean it I would just say this medical, you know, we're seeing trends of about 5 to 7% or even even double digits to 12%. Because you have to keep in mind, you know, a lot of um advancements in medicine, you got the GLP1s, those are the weight loss drugs. Um a lot of that stuff is extremely expensive. But but that that but I think that 5% you know 6% is a good number to project going forward.

What what is the target? What is the target point as far as early retirement? What age are we talking when you when you when you're talking about that? Yeah. So you have to have 20 plus years of service and qualify for retirement through RSA or have at least 10 years of service and be 60 years or older. Okay. So, a

and we're also saying that we will pay for your insurance for 13 years. So, it's it's possible that we have u a police officer that joined at age 21 who's worked for how 31 years and is now age 52. They could retire at age 52 and we would cover the cost for 13 years. But in the year 13 they would have to they would then have to pay a,077 per month. Are all of those scenarios included in the number you gave the 30 what was it 32 people that are eligible

the 32 people have already taken this over the over the past the previous two times their early retirement has been offered. And I'm willing to bet too though, even like if if you're talking about our first responders, fire um and police, they may retire here, but they may go somewhere else. And so that that benefit they can they can grab benefits there as well. So that could potentially happen. No, I'm kidding.

Absolutely. I tried to take a job to the city. Um, you have to have 25 years of credible service in the state before you come back as a contractor. If you go to another state in in entity, you have to freeze your benefits if it's a full-time position. Gotcha. Yeah. Gotcha. Okay. In this conversation to I think just clarifying what you were saying, counselor Simmons. So even if that inflation or increase on premiums of insurance is 8 to 12%, the city's still only paying that 5% of that increase and the retiree is taking on the rest of that increase annually. Is that correct?

I think it's the reverse, is it not? Okay. Say that again. So if if the retiree year one Okay, I see what you mean. It is the reverse. Yeah. So, so, so they're they're they're paying annually a 5% increase, right? And we're absorbing the remainder of the increase. Okay. Thanks. I just wanted to clarify that. Thanks, Councelor Simmons, for send me straight. What happens at 65? They become eligible for Medicare.

And at that point, actually, they probably need to go ahead and start that process maybe six months in advance. and and and apply for Medicare. So then you're you're already given part A, which is covering hospitalization, part B is doctor, and they're going to have to pick up a supplement like a part D coverage for the drug coverage, right? So that that would save us say somebody can they what I'm getting at 65 and they're still working. Do they have an option or do we have an option you know for them to go to the Medicare if we're paying we're paying you see where I'm going with that?

That is that's an excellent question. So the answer to your question is yes they have the option to either take Medicare and still actively work at 65 but you can't incentivize them to No, no, no. And I'm just asking what I mean when they go Medicare what are I mean we're not paying then we stop paying correct? I mean, they can technically they can fall off that pl off the plan if they wanted to, right? And go totally on I mean, perfect example. I'm on a I'm on eight. Okay. I've been doing a but at an income if you're staying at a higher income. Yeah. Part B,

it becomes Yeah, you're better off unfortunately to stay working instead of going to Dominican. It just that's just the way to But if you go full-time retirement, then it all flip-flops. Yeah. And it's so that's some things I was just curious about the incentivize people who are been there at the agency ready to retire what the benefit would be or the savings. Can they work both ways? I mean know that you had discussed with the employer. Ken and I talked about this earlier. It's hard. We as a city can incentivize someone to retire.

Yeah. Did that make sense what I just said? Other than early retirement retirement, right? Yeah. I'm glad we have HR director. That's a Yeah, that's a good question. So, I think what I in order to move on, I I think what I want to do is let you guys digest this. We I intended to have it out on Friday to you and to the department heads, but nobody's seen it yet because we just finished the math yesterday. Um, and so I'll send this to all the department heads who will distribute it. I'm sure that plenty of people will have questions and comments and then we'll come back here on June 8th and I'll tell you what I've heard. Okay. So, stay in the pre-cast.

I would like for it to Okay. All right. Everybody get that pre council. All right. Good call. All right. We're going to skip 120526 until the end of the pre-consil agenda. So, we will come back to the midyear budget review. Um, we're going to go on to our next item, which is 130526 request to execute agreement with pool and company architects for AE services construction documents for public works site at 187 citation report. This will not go out tonight, but Amy is going to talk about it right now.

Yeah. So, we're already under contract for their preliminary designs and this is just taking it one step further to get the full construction design documents. And this is the structure that'll cover this is for public works to cover their vehicles. Yes. So it's two new metal structures for their vehicles. One metal structure for material storage. Um an 800 foot storage building. Um renovating existing 800 square footage of storage building. And then associated site work and utilities. And this just shows you the breakdown of their fees. their basic services plus their reimburseable is the number that I submitted on job form 211,945

and the the project was budgeted over two over two years basically we knew that we would hopefully do half this year and half next year is that right that's right and so this architectural fee would be paid out of that first half Does that come out bond? Budgeted this two years ago at capital. It's 1211. Yeah, it's not bond. Yeah, it's 121, but it's already budgeted. It's already budgeted. All right. Thank you. All right. Next item. 140526. Request for consideration to sign FEMA HMP resolution for Mr. Seag. Also not going out tonight. Mr. Seagris.

Yes. So, we're going to carry this item over, but I'll go ahead and speak to it briefly. Um, this is basically just a uh it's a uh FEMA FEMA and the state EMA are requesting that each jurisdiction we do this once every five years and it's just that we have to pass a resolution uh saying that if we have any type of hazardous incident that we that our city will receive the funds from, you know, if whether it be tornado, flooding, whatever the case may be that FEMA will set set aside funds for us to use to help, you know, re rebuild, regrow So that's that's what this is. That's what this is. And um uh Jim Co will actually have somebody here

next next council meeting to speak on it. Yeah. Next council council. Uh well we I we can carry it over and and then talk about it again and then Mr. Coker wants to have somebody here if y'all if y'all have any questions. I think requested to present so precel but then we can send it out that night to council. Okay. So we'll do that on June the 8th.

All right. Next item 150526 request for consideration to allow a retaining wall to extend city rideway adjacent to 303 Ridge Road. Mr. P.

Thank you. This is a request to extend a retaining wall into the city right ofway. And Brian, well, uh, this survey shows the extent, the limits of where it will exist in the right of way. The heavy black line above it is where the property line is. And Brian, if you'll scroll, here's what that looks like in person that where where you see the the sort of like the the ivy or whatever climbing down that hill there. They're going to replace that with a retaining wall that's going to come down getting lower as it goes down into the ride of way um all the way down to the valley gutter. Um on the site plan you see where they they're showing a approximately 2.5 foot tall ledge rock wall extending all the way from the stairs up close to the house down to the valley gutter.

Is this aesthetic or is this structural? Um it it's it's aesthetic but it's also to help stabilize. I think they've had some issues with and whatnot. So, it's stabilization as well. That's their driveway, right? That's their driveway. That's correct. Very steep hill. Very steep hill.

Any other questions for this is not also not going out tonight. All right, Mr. Thank you. You can stay put. The next item is 170526. Request a vacated portion of public rideway consisting of a 20 foot alley located between 115 Morris Boulevard and 117 Morris Boulevard. Um we will send this out tonight only to set the public hearing for June 22nd, but we will hear from Mr. Pew. Uh and you can ask questions of Mr. Pew um about this item after his presentation.

Okay. Thank you. This is a request to vacate a portion of a platted alley between 115 and 117 Morris Boulevard. The petition to vacate was submitted by the abuing owners, David Platt and Julie Damron. Um, it includes a declaration, I'm sorry, a petition and some survey exhibits describing the area to be vacated. Brian, do you have that? Well, I have a ton of stuff, so one. Yeah, I'm I'm sorry. I sent you. No, it's okay. Which one do you want? If you'll just show There are two exhibits. They're actually

exhibit A or one. There are two exhibits. And just to explain while he's looking for them, the portion of the alley that they're requesting to vacate, they submitted surveys with the survey actually split up into two. Um, thank you. Yes. So, as you can see here, half of the alley to be vacated is shown on this survey. Then there's another survey with half to be um vacated here. They're working on combining that into one as per what we what you're normally presented with. Vacated and then they will reservey it for their own. That's why they submitted it like this.

Well, yes. I I assume so because when the city vacates, the city vacates half to one owner and half to another, but typically the survey that comes to you is just one. It just shows it just represents the piece of the alley being vacated along with a legal description of that and then of course the city's vacation. We'll send it equally to both parties. So anyway, they're going to submit that. But for purposes of tonight, so you can picture what's being what's being requested is this section that's outlined, but just imagine that it's doubly wide.

Does that make sense? It's just it's that it's just that area where it says alley to be vacated. Um so there's not going to be an alley. The alley would be vacated, Brian. If you have the capability to pull up an aerial, would you mind doing so? And the the petition states that the vacation will not deprive the other property owners uh reasonable egress or ingress to their properties.

Yes. between 115 and 117. That's correct. That's the section where he's moving the mouse. And then it goes into the Is that a drainage back? That's correct. Um, as per usual, I'm sorry. And what was the purpose of what is the purpose of the vacation? What are they trying to accomplish here? Um, I I don't honestly know that. Um I don't I don't know that they've even given a reason other than that other it's property that they want to use for their own personal

I mean personal I mean I was I was just asking I didn't know maybe they're trying to put it together when you first said I thought you first said one lot and that kind of threw me off I thought potentially knock down some build I see no it's not the size of a lot it's not a developable able. I mean, it's not what I'm saying. It's not developable, but if they were to sell it as combined combined lots, that's what I I'm confused a little bit right there. I thought potentially they would in buy that and sell and combine it as one lot one day. Anyway, don't worry about that. I totally misunderstood. Okay. Probably not, but it looks like they're already maintaining it and using it,

so it would make sense. It, you know, it's a typical type of request. Um, as per usual, a um, no objection letter has been submitted from Central Alabama Water Inspired. Alabama Power consents subject to reservation of its utility rights and Jefferson County has no objection um as to the sanitary sewer but does require a 20ft sanitary easement to be established because there is an 8 in countymaintained sanitary sewer that runs within that alley and the city doesn't

they want the resolution to state that they have the rights that the statute gives them Okay. Yeah. What does what does that mean? That means any utility has continued right to access any equipment above ground or ground irrespective. We can't change that, right? But but so they don't need an easement because that right exists. They don't need an e because it exists as it is. I I help them understand that. Okay. Okay. Okay. Does the city need an easement for that? We're not maintaining anything over there behind there.

So there's a storm. You see that inlet? There's a storm pipe. I would assume that goes all the way to the to the back, but I assume it's the same as the sewer issue. Continue right to access. Where's that? What if the house is there a driver for that house to the left? Is it covered up? Uh, I think they use like a gravel pad or something. I don't know. Looks like that's it. Is anybody mailbox? Anybody? Yeah, there it is. There it is.

All right, we will take this out to council tonight just to set the public hearing for June 22nd. So, thanks everybody for that discussion. Thank you, Mr. Pew. Y there was one thing that wanted me to point out there. They're the reason that they wanted to squeeze this on tonight because there was a time constraint related to a financing issue. So, that's why that's why we've got that's why that Okay. All right. Our last item for our pre-consil agenda is 12:05. Presentation of midyear budget review for information only by Mr. Smith. Thank you. Save the best for last. Fun for sure.

I'm going to stand up so I can flail around. So, uh, tonight's midyte budget review just includes an a high level overview of where we are between October 125 and the end of March 26. I'm going to talk about revenues, expenditures, and trends that we're we're seeing, and recommendations as we move into the budget season over summer. U the information you're about to see is unudited. Um but it gives us a pretty good snapshot of where we are. Will we be sharing this online after tonight? This presentation online after tonight with the slides or

um that's not something that we've talked about. We certainly can whatever. Um so on the right you'll see total expenditures to date is 41.65 65 million which against the budget is 49.5%. So when we're talking about expenditures, how much money have we spent? It's good to see that in the middle of the year year not greater than 50. Y

uh and then total revenues collected is 46.8 million which is 61.6% against the budget. Uh and I'll talk a little bit in a minute about why that is. And then of course we have a net surplus in the middle of the year 5.2 2. Um here what you see the blue line is the midyear actual and the and the orange line is the fullear budget. So sales and use taxes up property taxes are even which means that we've already collected just about all of the property taxes that we plan to collect which makes sense because property taxes are usually paid to the city December January. Um, total revenue 61.6 has already been collected. What's interesting to me is that at the same point in FY25, we were only 60.2%. So, we're trending in a better direction than we were last year, and we ended last year pretty strong. Um, I'll talk about licenses and permits in a second, but just remember that we've almost collected all of our licenses and permits revenues that we plan to for the year. You'll see here we have um a lot of dots and uh lines on a on a chart. So what this is is the light blue line is our midyear actual against these other lines represent year 25, 24, and 23. So we've collected more revenue this year, maybe a little bit more in property tax, but everything else is up. So we're doing better than we have as far as collecting revenues. vers versus the other years. All right. So, now I'm going to start talking about expenses. And I didn't do expenses against the budget yet, but what you'll see here is our expenses at

midyear versus the previous year's expenses at midyear. So, we're the light blue line. When I say we're the light blue line, that means FY26 is the light blue line. Um, and we are spending a little bit more money each uh in each department, but that makes sense. But it's also okay because we're only at 49 and a half% of our budgeted amount. The budget was higher. The budget was higher. That's correct. Yep.

Um, and then it's the same thing. You know, administrative is up because we now have an HR department. So, that makes sense. Fleet is up because now uh fleet buys all the fuel and lubricants and each department used to buy that for themselves. So that was a centralized function that has been changed. All right. So you have a packet. I think counselor you put it in your Oh, you got it out now. Can we get back to something really quick too? just as a quick take which is it um the decrease in that we we were we had a contract that was

costing us a lot. I assume that what that's what we're looking at is moving from contractual services to personnel there or is there another explanation? Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Where's this at? It Okay. Go going back to the fleet maintenance when you said that since we're doing it all where was the expenditure before it was in each department it was in each department it was spread out across each department and so if you go and this report is in one of the end codes report if you go to the fleet maintenance uh department in the general fund you'll see that last year their budget was about a million dollars and this year it's about $2 million because we've centralized the purchase of fuel.

Yeah. It used to be like public works would manage their or police adorers and now Blake has so reducing it that so the other departments be reduced. That's right. Okay. Yep. Exactly right.

Okay. So in your packet you'll have a letter that I wrote an executive summary. You'll have relevant fund summaries in Excel which um include fund 01, the general fund, fund 12 capital, go and debt service. And I'm going to talk a little bit about those in a second. And then the financial summaries for each fund, which are the endode reports, FY23 through FY26. It's the mid it's the midyear actual against the budget. And I'll show you what I what I mean. Also on the right, all the these are all the funds that we have. So we talked about the spheres a few minutes ago, these are all the spheres that we have. So here's what your here's what your end code reports look like. So in the top left it says 01- general fund or it might say 02-grants. So that's the name of the fund and the number of the fund. And then you've got three years prior, you've got FY23, FY24, 25, and 26. And then you've got revenues over expenditures. And then at the very bottom of the of the fund report, you'll see um the totals

and that's year to date on like when you look at 2023, you look at year to date on that. That's at the mid year. That's at the mid year. It's at the mid year. March 31. It's the actual at March 31 and then against the budget. Y So it's not the actual the actual right through the year. Y

All right. So highlights from the general fund that I've shown a screenshot of the Excel file I provided you guys. FY25 at the mid year. So, a year ago, we had a surplus of $4.3 million, and we finished the year with a surplus, which is strong. This year, we have a surplus of $5.2 million. So, we're going to continue to track revenues, of course, sales tax and and all those things, but right now we're in a pretty good financial position. Um, expenses in FY26 are 49 and a half% of the total budget, which is good news. And then revenues for licenses u permits are at 97.57% collected through March 31 of 26. And last year that we were at 81.34%. So that is yeah

that says a lot about what the revenue department does and what what Bose's folks are doing over there and also why yeah so yeah so that's all good news and I and I know this from talking to Bo over the past six weeks we've collected more in um in business licenses 31 I think the idea is that if you open a business in Homewood they're going to come find you and make sure you pay their business license So,

all right. And then capital fund. We slowed capital down pretty pretty quickly uh in the beginning of the year because we weren't exactly sure what the what kind of shape the budget was in. So, right now we're at 38.3% spent in capital through the midyear and most of that is in is in vehicles. So, we've only done out of this fund about 800,000 in projects, but Amy is ramping those up. We're we're being strategic in which projects are moving forward. We're being slow and methodical. So, we you guys know about the tunnel project that she just presented on Waffle House parking lot bids in 10 days. We've got the Central Avenue tap project that's happening. Um, so we're g gearing up to do more of that. And then fund 26 is the GO fund. um obligation warrants fund that we're also going to use for capital projects. We have money budgeted budgeted in there. Um and I think we yeah we've spent 1.6 million to date and so we've got a balance of about 2.1 million and we'll be able to use that next year as we identify capital projects that need to be done. Debt service revenue, you'll see this number and it it might look a bit um out of place. So, we have because of of of financial policy that was done decades ago, we have a lot of money going into debt service. And so, we've got 13.58 million collected in debt service. We only have another $8.3 million left to pay out this year. So, at some point this summer, I'm probably going to come to you guys for a budget transfer out of debt service into somewhere else that we need it. It's a capital on the slide and I support that.

So yeah, for sure. Yeah, certainly not salary. Can we ask some questions? Sure. Yeah, absolutely. This preview to the next.

Going back to on the debt service that we have and we're going to have access we have excess our surplus. What do we do? How much are you will you leave into debt services in case of the rainy day? I know we have a rainy day fund but it has nothing to do with that. Correct. I'm just say we fall short on our revenues from sales and and we we fall a half a million short of uh our bond bill. Where does that money where you go with that money? So that you're talking about debt service. How much money should we

plan on leaving? Yeah, that's a good question and that's a policy question. So, over the summer I will bring to you a new financial policy that addresses all of these things and it and and I think the um the rule of thumb is is 90 to uh 120 days of debt service left in debt service account. Okay. Right now we have like 370. Yeah. No, we're good. I mean, but he's saying like we need to we need to balance that out. We need to balance that. That's right.

And I got one other question prior to that. Sure. I I noticed on on the on the sanitation that I noticed you said we don't have anything for 26 uh in the expenditures. Excuse me. I didn't say that in expenditures we were looking at previously. Uh and it it's blank. Where did those expenditures go? Here the uh sanitation sanitation. Sanitation. Yep. Those expenditures got absorbed into streets. That's into streets, right? Because Yeah. Because that was salaries for our sanitation workers that now in the streets department. That's correct. So we don't have sanitation anymore.

That's contractual services now. Yeah. Exactly. I'm trying to see the difference in the price, you know, where we were saving at. Obviously, we're saving something there. Yes. I mean, I have to go back to historical information. I mean, I mean, I'm looking at it. I mean, we're seeing on 24 when you take the when you take say in 23 that $1.2 million taken out and it's going up, it's basically we're basically the same it looks like to me. Do you see where I'm coming? When you say those workers went there somewhere else, so you just swap some people left, but mostly they stay in public works.

Yeah. And and that and those went to the people that left that were saving that money was saved as far as pensions and things of that nature, right? But you won't see that anywhere around here. You won't see that. Yeah. Just let everybody know that the reasoning behind some of this madness. Yeah. I'm I'm afraid to say what I what I think. Um but back to what you I remember there being a presentation about how much money we were going to save when we went to Amwaste versus like what our contract was with Amway versus how much we were actually paying in sanitation services and it was a significant amount.

Now we don't pay for trucks anymore. We don't maintain trucks anymore. I mean that was That's right. It's not just the people. There's there's things there.

Yeah. Yeah. And I think I mean this is I think related which is when you go around town now as well you see public works being able and streets being able to do like a lot of sidewalk maintenance which is amazing. I mean it just seems like it's happening all throughout town right now and that just is awesome to see um ongoing. I would like to I would I would like to see us going forward on on the uh sanitation end of is to look at I'm not saying just to look at at one time. It'd be nice to have some kind of u community as far as this uh garbage being picked up downtown with the merchants. Okay. I know we got away from that. I don't know what cost savings it was and how much it would I'd like somehow another whoever meets with Amwaste to see what they got to offer

to have something uh the everybody the same because we got 15 different trucks coming in and out. The issue with that I'll tell you the reason why we did that was because of a downtown business owner was not getting picked up and it was pretty arbitrary who was getting picked up who wasn't. And so then the concern was that Walmart was going to come to us and say, "Great, the city's picking up trash now. You know, you're doing commercial trash. Great." Or Publix or, you know, one of the big boxes was going to say, you know, you're offering this service to other, you know, that that was the concern of um why we did it with commercial because it was not evenly um it was not an even service about the city. Um even downtown, it wasn't even downtown. Downtown.

It was like some were and some weren't. It was just like who had I mean I I really don't even know. So just a we've only got 10 minutes before council so I'd like to finish your budget. We'll take this up later. Sorry. So um just a few things we're going to watch over the summer. Thank you. Sales tax revenues.

We've got the pig under renovation. Clearly they're not providing sales tax right now. So we're going to we're going to watch that trend. Um we budgeted $3.8 million in carryover fund balance to support the general fund. We haven't had to use it yet. We didn't have to use any last year either. So, we're gonna we're going to keep a close eye on that and hopefully we won't have to use it this year. Um, we're going to accelerate capital projects. You'll start seeing more of Amy. Uh,

and then and then we'll do what we said earlier. We're going to I'm going to bring policies in front of you. Uh, and then we're going to clean up some of the funds. One of the things I didn't say was like we have we have an insurance fund which is 14. We have a sales tax fund which is 23. We have property tax fund which is 99 and all those are really a part of what the general fund is. Um so we're going to have we need to consolidate some of that stuff and I don't know if that's going to happen this summer in the budget process or if that'll happen when we transfer to encode 10 maybe in the next year and then we're going to maintain the reserve discipline. I think Chris mentioned that earlier. Um we have pretty significant reserve fund levels that I think we want to see maintained. So um that said I do want to thank the department heads. I mean, the the only reason why this is this is what it is is because there's been like really controlled spending. Everybody's been on board. Everybody's been really supportive of what we've been trying to do. Um, and then of course Bo and Kim and Hunter Martin and Melanie Jennings who who put all who they were able to put all this information together and with car rig support we were able to provide this.

Thank you guys. Thank you very much. Any other questions about anything that's not dumpster related? Okay, that's it. Without objection, we will adjourn and reconvene next door at 6 o'. Yeah. Thank you. And if y'all have any questions about how to read these reports or what's in them, feel free to ask. Yeah. This is need bigger fun.