Cc Meeting - Regular Meeting

Ladies and gentlemen, call the, I think we're a little live, or I'll just move it away a little bit. Call the work session meeting, 6 p.m. meeting, on May the 26th, 2026 to order. Roll call, Doug Johnson, absent. Mr. Kitchen? Present. um miss banks president miss copeland president mr mclemore and mr grizzard has said he was running a little late um ladies gentlemen please turn off your cell phones and we are going to uh have discussion items up for a couple of appointments that we're going to go into closed session does anybody have the verbiage it should be in everybody's I just got to change this perspective just to appointments, which is that. Are you are you lit up?

I move that we enter into closed session pursuant to 2.2-3711A1 of the Court of Virginia for appointments. The subject matter of closed session is confined to these specific matters.

I have a motion, I have a second.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Being none, I'll take the vote. Start with Mr. Kitchen.

Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye.

And ladies and gentlemen, we're going to step out for a little while.

All right. All right. Thank you. is is All right.

This gentleman called the meeting to order 7 p.m. for the regular council meeting on May 26, 2026. Nice to have such a lively, full gallery today for a meeting that's not on our regular day. Roll call, Dr. Johnson. Present.

Present.

Present.

Present.

Present. Present. Present. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, please make sure your cell phones are turned off. And if you will, join me in, oh, I'm sorry, we have to do the, we got to have, I need a motion to come out of closed session.

Pursuant to the requirements of Virginia Code 2.2-3712, I now entertain a motion that the City Council of Franklin, Virginia, reconvene in open session. This is huge.

Okay, I'm entertaining the motion, but then I apologize. now entertain a motion that city council frank virginia can reconvene an open session with each member to first certify that to the best their knowledge members knowledge only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements under this chapter and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion by which the closed meeting was convened were heard discussed or considered in the meeting by the public body any member of the public body believes that there was a departure from the requirements of clauses one and two. She'll so state prior to vote indicating the substance of the departure that in his or her judgment had taken place. That statement shall be recorded in the minutes of the public body. Matt, do I have that motion for that, please?

So moved. Second.

I have a motion and a second. Yes, I'm going to call for the certification. Certified? I certify.

I certify. I certify. I certify.

I certify.

Mr. Grizzit has to abstain, and I certify. All right, I'll take the vote. If there's no further discussion, Dr. Johnson?

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

All right. And an abstention from Mr. Griswold?

Abstain.

And aye. Thank you very much. Now we'll move on to the regular meeting. I apologize for that. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. move on to citizens time we have three people signed up for citizens time when you come up you'll have three minutes to speak keep an eye on the lights as they they will tell you when your time is running out I will start with mr. Tony Manley if you'll come forward and when you come forward please state your name we know it is but and and your address for the record mr. Manley how are you

I'm fine. Good evening. Tony Manley, 633 Oak Street, Franklin, Virginia. Good evening to the mayor and to all the board members. My concern is that I used the revitalization program to get some work done to my house. And now I have some issues with my floor and nobody seems to care or trying to do anything about it. The issue wasn't there before they started working on the house, but the issues are there now. So I have spoke to several members, even some of the board members, some tried to help and some shunned me away. So I'm coming down here to express my concerns over my house. The house used to belong to my parents, so I'm trying to keep it built up. And I just need to get something done for my house.

And that's 633 Oak Street?

Yes, sir.

Thank you. You got it. Okay. Frederick Porter. Sorry. Maybe it's not Porter. I'm having trouble reading it.

P-O-T-T-G-E-R. Oh, P-O-T-T-G-E-R.

I'm sorry.

Frederick William.

Frederick William Putker Jr. All right.

What is it? What's the last name?

Putker.

Putker. Yes. I apologize.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for giving me the time here. Water quality and utility bills have been an ongoing issue for years. Our unusually high electric bills a few months ago were explained away by the interim city manager, who said it was because heat pumps are strained in cold weather. That may be partially true, but what's not included in the explanation was the increase in fuel surcharge, which is a significant part of the bill. Recently, the fuel surcharge has increased to more than double of the last increase in fuel surcharge. Now, finally, our water wells have been tested in 2025. The range of contaminants is within the EPA guidelines, but they are near the higher end of the range. EPA acceptable range is not necessarily the healthy range. This must be addressed because we are paying two water bills, one to the city of Franklin and one to the stores that sell water. The explanation on the level of one specific item is somewhat misguided, and full scientific facts as it relates to it isn't discussed. As a remedy, we are told to address this to the personnel at Public Works. I called Public Works. I left a message. I didn't get anything. No return call. So 6,000 plus of my customers are supposed to go to Public Works? I don't think so. Our elected officials should be addressing this. Last time around, the opportunity to have input in real estate taxes was hampered supposedly by a firm doing the work that did not finish the job on time. Likewise, the Board of Equalization did not give us the time to go before them. The Uniform Standard of Professional Appraisal Practice, USPAP as it is known, along with the standard deviation, is what's supposed to be followed in all 50 states. What was the result of the last incomplete? And what is the current one? To the citizens of Franklin, we need to come to these city council meetings. Saying things won't change is pessimistic and unacceptable. Unity in the community starts here. Thank you.

Thank you. I wanted to ask you, did you say you're paying two water bills?

Yeah, I went to the city of Franklin and I have to buy water that I can drink from the store.

Your address?

221 Landview Lane.

Okay, thank you very much.

All right.

And Mr. Sykes.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council. My name is Ricky Sice, 401 Morton Street, this city. I'm here to – I saw a video. I sent that video to each one of you guys. I don't know if you got it or not. Well, I just done it today because I just saw the video today at 6 o'clock news. But, well, the video shows – a militant group, well, a white nationalist group down Virginia Beach, 30 of them wearing masks, white masks. Now, I can really care less about it. But my only problem with it is this, right? You have one person, Melvin Flight, wearing a mask, and now he's facing five years in prison. And yet you can get these other people within the same state of Virginia. But 30 of them walking without a permit, protesting, and they can walk freely wearing a mask. And yet there's one person in the city of Franklin walking down the street, and now he's facing five years in prison. Now, I was in court with him when the judge told him, Mr. Flight, you know you can get received five years in prison. That's not right. It's not right at all. And I think we really need to look closely at what's going on. okay and secondly my question is with the new gun laws in Virginia in Virginia I want to know if the is Franklin in the county going to enforce these new laws where assault weapons and assault with the magazine capacity so And then there we don't have any less say like come with attorney in the which I don't I'm not going to ask you that because I know we don't have it. But in a way so again. I think we need to look closely at with the mask in public and also and I knew that loss. See if we're going to be forced to know things. Thank you thank you.

All right. Move on to the approval of the agenda. Do I have any?

Mr. Mayor, I would like to amend the agenda to add Deer Creek Park. Okay. All right. For discussion.

Do I have a second for that? Second. Okay. Motion and second to change the agenda to add Deer Creek Park.

All right.

Yes, just right there. Any discussion on that? All right, I'll call for the vote. Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye. No. Aye.

And aye, thank you very much. Motion carries. All right, so now with the amendment, we have a motion to approve the amended agenda. So moved. All right, I have a motion, do I have a second? Second. Our motion is second, any discussion? All right, take a vote, starting with Dr. Johnson.

Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. And aye, thank you very much. As we move through the regular agenda, do I have a motion on the school board position?

I make a motion to appoint LST Cofield III, aka Trey Cofield, for the unexpired at-large seat on the school board vacated by Dr. Reed Harris.

I have a motion, I have a second. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion on that? All right, I'll take a vote. Dr. Johnson? Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. And aye. Mr. Cofield, I believe you're in the gallery. Congratulations. I want to publicly thank all three. Uh, I thought it was very, very, um, moving to me when, at our last meeting, when several of the appointees or excuse me, applicants spoke for each other. That was very, very fine time. All right. We'll move on to a public hearing on the proposed budget that I have any body would like to speak on the public hearing calling once. I'd like to speak on the public hearing. All right. Please come forward, Ms. Banks. Not Gates, right? Not Pearly Gates.

You call me that, I'm good. Good afternoon, mayor, vice mayor, to the council, to the city manager, to the attorney. My name is Pearly Banks. I am the chairman of the electoral board here in the city of Franklin. We would like to thank you for the amount of money which has been allocated for our budget. However, We wanted to ask for some more money, okay? When we submitted the budget, the General Assembly had not convened. And when they did convene, in the past, the local electoral board members were able to decide whether or not we would have Sunday voting. This electoral board decided not to because it was not cost effective. Effective July 1, the General Assembly has voted, the governor has passed it, that Sunday voting will be held the third and fourth Sunday before the election. We did not count that into our budget. So that means that we're gonna have to have, people at the registrar's office, and they have made it mandatory from 11 to 5 p.m. So we are asking if you will please consider giving us a little bit more money so that we can ensure that we are able to amend the office on Sundays. We did do it for Saturday, but we did not include Sunday. The next one is on- Can I ask you a question?

Yes, sir. So we have how many elections? We'll have the primary in- We're gonna have primary November and June.

And the next.

We do have one in June this year. Oh, yeah, June for next year, right, right.

Yeah, we're assuming if they do not give us another election.

And do you have an estimate of how much that will add to your?

We are asking for approximately 3,000 more than what you have given us, if it's at all possible. And if he's saying no, I'm just, okay, we're gonna thank y'all for whatever y'all give us, amen. And then the next one would be, In the past, our former general registrar did not go to training. And we are praying that by June 1st, we will be having the new Director of Elections, General Registrar, and we will be wanting to send her to training. And so we are asking if you will please consider giving us a little bit more money there as well. Right now we have, right now you've given us 5,000.

No, I mean, how much more would the training cost?

We are looking at maybe another $3,000. And if you can't do the 3,000, give us the best you can. And whatever you give us, I promise you that we will use it wisely.

And does the city manager think that that can be found in the general funds?

I don't think we'll need to raise taxes for that.

We say thank you if you will consider it, and again, we want to thank the city staff who have assisted us with our, allowing us to use their building for training, and those who, the IT person who has helped us with our logistic, electrical, election security system, we wanna thank them for it as well as the HR director. And again, thank you.

I think he's in the other room.

Well, we want him to know that we are very thankful. Yes, ma'am. Because we had to submit that to Richard.

Thank you very, very much. All right, anybody else? Second call for discussion on the budget, public hearing? And I'll make a third call. and I will close the public hearing. Can I have a motion to accept the budget as presented? Do I? I'm sorry.

I think is to close the public hearing.

I thought I did. Oh, okay. Public hearing is now closed. Any council comments? Yes.

I was looking at the budget and going over it time after time. And one thing I look at is basically raising the light field how they're paying more. And I have a question to ask, and that is, will any proposed funds granted for electrical rates increase to go to improve the electrical grid or infrastructure to prevent power outages when there are no severe storms. We have been getting a lot of power outages and those severe storms were around. And that's something that we need to look at, basically.

We have individuals who are struggling to pay their utility bills now. If we raise it 7%, what will they do? What will happen to those people? I'm very concerned about that. I want to progress the city, but if there is a way to make some changes to help those individuals, I feel that's very important, because raising 7%, if they're struggling now to pay, and we had devastations from the winter, and people are still struggling to pay that, what will they do now, approving this for an increase of 7%?

Well, you're done, I'm sorry.

so so so this seven seven percent is to cover and that was we had our finance director making that portion of the presentation of the budget But the 7%, to answer your question, Dr. Johnson, it would be to support the entire program, the entire programs and enterprise fund. So it will be going towards a number of costs, but it would also be going towards supporting the reserve funds as well. We're running through depleting the reserve funds at an unattainable rate at this point. So I mentioned during the budget discussion that all energy costs are going up all around the country. And so we really don't have a choice in that regard. We have to, it's a user-based system. while it may feel uncomfortable. One of the things that we are proposing is to come up with an increase in corresponding relief programs as well, but working very, very closely with human services, social services, and looking at making people aware of the programs that are available, if they qualify for those types of programs that are there, and actually had started up conversations with the social services director see if there's programs that we perhaps we need to add money to to expand programs to provide relief as well so I get that there's there are segments of the population that have a challenging time trying to you know afford utility bills so that's not that's not lost on me But I do have to respond to the market demands because it is user-based. So anything energy-related, including cars, fleets, and everything, is going to see an increase right now.

The thing I was going to mention is I talked to Mr. Wright. In fact, he mentioned it when he was here, and he mentioned, I believe, at 1-3, Mr. McElmore's office. at the industrial park is about five or six times the size of the one that's being replaced, and that's the one where we've had the most problems with with the outages. So hopefully when that's online, Nobody can control when a squirrel causes the arc, or a tree falls on the line in the county and knocks our feed off. But part of the reason of building that new substation is to hopefully cut out some of the outages. No guarantees, of course.

Well, all that's good. I understand what y'all said, but when you have people in our community that are struggling to buy medicine, food or pay their life bill, that's something that's critical. And I don't we need to come up with a plan to help that situation. and I don't, we need to go back and look at it and discuss some more things that would be profitable for the city. There are some ways of doing that.

Can I say something? I'm not sure if you had gotten there when we started the meeting tonight, but we did discuss and approved as a council, and I guess we would vote on it out here, that we will be establishing a utilities advisory board to address issues that will be made up of citizens. that we will allow the citizens to offer suggestions and advice to the council, how we can reduce these utility bills. So we are working on methods that not are just put forth by the council, but by citizens who create the citizens advisory board for utilities made up from council members from each of the wards.

And this was discussed at the retreat.

Yes, so we do have a method to do that.

That method right now is just a lot of verbiage. We're talking about people that need help now, not

What is your recommendation?

What is your recommendation? Obviously, it's going to cause a tremendous need of increasing revenue. The only way we could do it, I think, would be to increase taxes, which is not in the proposal.

So what's your recommendation, Mr. Johnson?

Well, would you still increase in taxes?

I'm talking about increasing the tax rate.

It is a surcharge to our citizens. The utility bill raising 7% is a surcharge to our citizens. It's just like a tax. But it's not 7%.

It's 7% of $0.11 a kilowatt hour. So that moved the kilowatt hour rate from just over $0.11 to almost $0.12. It was not quite $0.12 a kilowatt hour. Now, we do have the less than a penny per kilowatt hour. So if you burn $1,000, it would be a $10 difference in the bill. Yeah. It is a user fee. It's a user fee. Yes, sir. All right.

And we are experiencing what people, I've always said I'm one of the people. When we vote to raise taxes, utilities or anything, I got to pay it too. And I'm not affluent. So I don't want it going up. But I do realize that if we are in the midst of a war, utilities and an oil is going up and you need oil to produce electricity and Dominion is raising the prices for what they sell the oil to VMEA for VMA has to pass that expense on to us and in return we have no choice but to pass on a fraction of a penny to our citizens So I'm not for increasing taxes, utilities, and nothing else, but I'm going to be realistic also in regards to we can't provide our citizens with electricity if we can't purchase it.

And we're still significantly lower than what Dominion charges.

So I know it sounds good for campaigning, but realistically...

It's just a fact. It's just a fact. Mr. Kitchen, any comments on the budget?

Ms. Banks? I was going to respond and say that it is more than just verbiage. We did come up with a concrete plan to be able to have an advisory board It was established, it was actually recommended, I don't wanna take credit for it, it was actually recommended at Councilman McLemore's ward meeting by Tommy Council, a citizen in his ward who was very adamant about us having that. And I think that it would give citizens the opportunity to work with us and keep a pulse on what the community thoughts are to move forward, especially to find programs that can assist and help people with the high utility bills. So typically, let's be honest, since we're being realistic and I couldn't agree with you more tonight when you said that, it only happens like in the beginning of the year. That's when we see that major increase and we see an influx of constituents coming out to speak about it. The light bills become extremely high during the months of January, February, March, and then you see a decline. It's like people forget about it, and then when January rolls around again, that's when it's a complaint again. So if that is the case, to me is looking at it like, hey, during those months where we see that influx, those are the months that we need to have some type of relief out there because we know that they're expensive. We know that they are high. So we have to come together with our citizens to work on a plan on how to do it. And if not, we're just gonna keep on, it's gonna be the same cycle over and over and over again. So this time we're saying we have to do something different And that's why the advisory board was ultimately decided on by council. And we all have an opportunity to recommend someone from our ward and at large position to be on that advisory board. So I'm just making my plea now to award six citizens. If you would like to be on the advisory board, please contact your council representative so that we can go ahead and get this done before January, 2027.

now i yeah i was just going to say same thing ditto um we're each going to pick somebody or recommend somebody to the council to serve i'll pick somebody for at large to a point to recommend each one of us will pick somebody for our award to recommend and and if if you're interested we may be picking from two or three people from each ward which would be great uh to have to have that that representation um so if you're interested in serving on that on that advisory board speak up to your to your council person or to me if you're interested in the at-large position

I JUST WANTED TO SAY THAT GIVING CREDIT TO THE CITY MANAGER AND I WILL PRESS IT ON TO THE PERSON THAT IS CHOSEN FOR WARD THREE AND HOPEFULLY ADOPTED BY THAT ADVISORY BOARD. CITY MANAGER HAD RECOMMENDED THAT WE HAVE SOME SORT OF A PROGRAM LIKE IN NORFOLK WHERE WE ACTUALLY HAVE SOME PROGRAM WHERE PEOPLE CAN APPLY FOR TO GET ASSISTANCE that will be tax funded so we're a community we're a family here in franklin and we can help each other out so we have methods that we are going to try to introduce to help people with the relief on some of these utility bills thank you miss copeland

And also, I would like to see the budget amended to increase funding to the Electoral Board. The request is $6,000. I would like to suggest that.

And you feel like you can get that through the general fund without a formal increase? I think we can.

Second a motion.

No, we don't have a motion yet. I'm sorry. Is that a motion?

Move that I Move that we increase funding for the electoral board in the amount of six thousand dollars.

I second the motion All right, we have a motion on the floor any discussion on that Yes

What are we voting for? We were voting on the budget. Now, is that a part of the budget? Is that added into the budget?

Yes, we haven't, we've just been discussing the budget. We don't have a motion for the budget yet, I don't believe. Discussion. This is to add it to the budget. Discussion to amend the funding. Does that answer your question?

Electoral board So and after consultation with attorney he's asking if we can just consider that as guidance right now I think I got the marching orders, but I think the bigger picture is to get through the budget Process itself we can circle Yeah, and then seven days we can come back and cycle back. Okay, so I

I RETRACT MY MOTION AND I DO SUGGEST THAT WE INCREASE FUNDING OF SIX THOUSAND DOLLARS THAT'S MY SUGGESTION OKAY LIKE I SAID INITIALLY AND I AGREE OKAY NOW ON THE BUDGET ON THE BUDGET UM I HAVE A CONCERN I HAVE A CONCERN WE DIDN'T HAVE TABS ON THIS BUDGET SO IT'S DIFFICULT CAN YOU TELL ME POINT ME TO WHAT PAGE WE CAN LOOK AT FOR HUMAN RESOURCES

While we're looking for that, Ms. Banks had a question.

I don't want to deviate from this. I want us to stay focused on Mr. McLemore's question, but I do have one in addition after this one is.

Okay.

WHILE THEY'RE LOOKING FOR THE FUNDING, I JUST WANT TO BRING TO LIGHT OF THE BODY AND THE CITIZENS THAT SOMETHING OCCURRED IN TRANSITION BETWEEN THE INTERIM CITY MANAGER AND THE NEW CITY MANAGER. AND THAT WAS THE HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT WAS MOVED OUT OF CITY HALL OVER TO THE INCUBATOR I have issue with that because I can't think of any other city with the exception of Petersburg, I think it was, where the human resources department is not in the city hall. IF SOMEBODY WANTS TO APPLY FOR A JOB WITH THE CITY, THEY GO TO HUMAN RESOURCES, WHICH IS IN CITY HALL. IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN IN CITY HALL. OUR POPULATION HAS NOT INCREASED. AND FROM WHAT I UNDERSTAND, THERE IS SPECULATION OR SUGGESTION THAT THE PEOPLE WHO WROTE THE GRANT FOR THE INCUBATOR BUILDING WHERE THE HUMAN RESOURCES ARE NOW BEING HELD OR HOUSED THAT GRANT SAID THAT THOSE FACILITIES WOULD NOT BE USED FOR CITY BUSINESS THAT INCUBATED BUILDING IS FOR UP AND GROWING SMALL PRIVATE BUSINESSES NOT FOR CITY USE WE HAVE AN ENTIRE CITY HALL HERE FOR CITY USE AND I JUST DON'T THINK THE CITY HALL SHOULD Not have human resources in the City Hall I brought this to the attention of the city manager and I wanted to bring it to the attention of my colleagues as well as the city and hope that we will make Efforts or take whatever steps is necessary to bring city Human resources back into the City Hall. Did you find that yet?

page last appendix It's a breakout of the budgeted expenditures. I assume that you're talking about budgeted expenditures for the Human Resources Department? Yes, we're page. That's on page number 17 in the last appendix. It's very, towards the very back. You'll see page 17 on the back.

Yeah, you're right. There it is.

Yeah, there it is.

I think it's in a different, in the budget book, it might be a different book. I mean, that might be it.

Human resources.

All the breakdown for what we're spending for human resources.

Human resources. For the office of human resources.

For the office of human resources.

Yeah, it's not in 17.

Yeah, this is the office, the department of human resources.

Show me what you got. Show me what you got.

AND OVERALL IF I RECALL CORRECTLY WE ARE ASKING FOR AN INCREASE IN HUMAN RESOURCES FUNDING OF FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS NOW WITH CONSIDERATION INTO WHAT COUNCILMAN JOHNSON WAS SAYING I DON'T SEE WHY OUR CITY OUR HUMAN RESOURCES YOU FOUND IT'S CALLED YEAH IT'S CALLED IT'S ON PAGE 17 IT'S CALLED MANAGEMENT SERVICES AND HR THAT WAS A REASON WHY I COULDN'T LOCATE IT

Yeah, page 17, it says management services and HR.

Is that the total budget of $224,000 a year? $234,000.

THAT THAT'S NO THAT'S FY YOU'RE LOOKING AT FY 24 ACTUAL IT'S 234,000 THAT THE NUMBER YOU WANT TO LOOK AT IS THE PROPOSED IS 417.

WHERE'S THE 417 IT'S AT BOTTOM IT'S UNDER FY OH MY 27 $400,000 FOR THE RESOURCE HOMEMAN RESOURCE SEE THIS IS WHY GREG MCLEMORE CAN'T SUPPORT THESE BUDGETS THAT'S ALMOST A HALF MILLION DOLLARS FOR OUR HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT and our city has not increased in population any more than 15, 20% over the last 20 years. We've had 8,000 people, now we're up to maybe 8,300. I don't see where our employees have increased significantly to justify a budget of $400,000 for human resources, and that was a $50,000 increase from the previous budget. SO I CANNOT SEE THE JUSTIFICATION FOR THAT INCREASE OR ADDING MORE PEOPLE TO THAT DEPARTMENT. COULD YOU EXPLAIN THAT?

I actually support the increase and here's why because we have been complaining about the shortages in the city. We need to probably invest more in HR so that we can retain. So there's not such a high turnover rate. We need to make sure that we have people in place. I think human resources is a great place of investment and adding more. I would have department for our employees just for the reasons that you just say it. We don't have enough people. We don't have enough staff. in order to grow the staff and to grow the city, the Human Resources Department is the key to that.

IF THE IF THE HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT HAD BEEN PRODUCING BUT UM RIGHT NOW YOU CAN GO UP TO CITY UP TO CITY UPSTAIRS AND THERE IS A THING UP THERE FOR EMPLOYMENT TAKE AN APPLICATION HERE PEOPLE ARE COMING TO THIS BUILDING FOR LOOKING FOR JOBS NOT OVER TO THE INCUBATOR BUT THAT'S ONE THING THE OTHER IS JUSTIFICATION FOR THIS DEPARTMENT I WOULD HAVE TO GO THROUGH IT BUT You could say, well, we're not doing, you know, we could do better in other departments, so we need to throw more money at it to make it do better. I don't see where if we throw more money at human resource department, it's going to increase the productivity of the human resource department just because they want to add more people. You need to know what the duties and functions are of the human resource department and make sure that those obligations are being fulfilled to their maximum capacity before you just say, well, we're not getting it done, so let's get some more money. I don't I don't I just don't see it. We don't have more employees. We're not hiring people, we're using outside sources to hire people such as we did with the city manager and we're having to pay extra money and human resources. We had a discussion tonight about employees we need to search out and we're tasking it, I believe, with human resources to step up to the plate. It's human resources. The community development director came before us and he said that uh councilman kitchen brought up the fact that we had no one riding around checking for grass the height of grass and community development i said i asked him why don't you have anybody he said we don't have any people now having people is what human resource does now coming up with ideas to fill positions is the uh purpose of human resource that's their their world was suggested that if you take somebody from say sanitation and you give them a dollar more and train them in community development you can replace easily someone in sanitation who doesn't need experience so you're recycling your own employees and giving them an opportunity to grow within the city but we don't have people and if we don't have people to me that falls on human resources in every direction so i don't see where our human resources department is utilizing the funds that they already have effectively to justify giving them fifty thousand dollars more i think i'm gonna disagree to some degree and that is when when we're forced to keep the budget where we are and we're not paying people

the market their market value of their jobs and we're paying our people in each department significantly less than our neighbors are paying that's why human resources has that's part of why human resources has problem but it's not it's not a Franklin thing if you you talk to anybody in in human resources and in government anywhere, even places that pay well, pay better than we do, they have trouble filling slots. It's been like that ever since the pandemic. There's nothing unique to Franklin. And we do have significantly more employees than we did, say, 20 years ago. Look at the size of the fire department where we had four firefighters and we had a full-time equivalent of about 75 now. Yeah.

Didn't you just say we only got seven? Didn't you just? Seven that are trying to leave.

And part of that is money.

I just don't see where throwing more money is at is gonna help.

Well, I would suggest, I don't know if this isn't a plan because I don't run the day-to-day operations. That is our city manager's task, but I would think job fairs, we now can recruit with more money in the HR department. We can now broaden our searches to look outside of the region for people to bring in. So that's exactly like, that's immediately where my mind went job fair. different things to bring people in.

What about bringing city human resources back into the city hall? Are y'all opposed to that also?

I think that's the city manager's.

But that's the city manager's decision. What's your opinion on that, Manager Freeman?

Well, that decision was made before I started, and the location of HR was moved over there. I don't know that I've heard anybody I heard one council member mention it, but I have not heard a single peep from any other council member. So I wasn't quite sure how much of it was a priority with the entire council. All right.

Let's move on. I had a chance to tour HR, and it's a very good setup. I have no problems with that. I'M ON THE BOARD OF THE INCUBATOR. THERE'S NO PROBLEMS WITH HAVING HR OVER THERE. WE COVERED THAT DISCUSSION IN THE BEGINNING.

BEFORE THEY MOVED? BEFORE THEY MOVED.

WHEN WAS THAT DISCUSSED BEFORE THEY MOVED?

NO, NO, NO, NO, NO. THE BOARD OF THE INCUBATOR.

THE BOARD OF THE INCUBATOR. BUT WHAT ABOUT THE... YOU'RE NOT ON THE BOARD OF THE INCUBATOR. SO I'M ASKING YOU, WHEN WAS COUNCIL INFORMED OF THIS MOVE?

THE CITY MANAGER WAS INFORMED.

THE CITY MANAGER INFORMED US?

YES.

US TO BE IN THE COUNCIL? HE INFORMED YOU? WHO IS US?

HE WAS HERE AT ONE OF OUR MEETINGS.

SEE, DID HE INFORM YOU ALL ABOUT IT?

HE SAT RIGHT OVER THERE AND TALKED ABOUT IT.

BECAUSE, AGAIN, WHY IS OUR CITY THE ONLY ONE THAT'S DOING THAT?

I think, I don't think that our city is the only one. They source out space all over the place.

You just came from Newport News' human resources in the city hall?

No, well, it's in city center. It's located at city center, which is kind of like a... You need to speak up. I apologize. That microphone doesn't work unless I shove my mouth right up to it. But the city center is not in city hall proper. It is located at city center, which is in a mixed-use development, so around the circle where that fountain is. Oyster Point?

Yeah, Oyster Point, yeah. The city hall is downtown? Yeah.

And City Hall's downtown, the high-rise City Hall's downtown.

Several miles away.

Oh, yeah. It's about 13 miles away.

Yeah. All right. Let's move on to other topics. Anybody else have anything else they'd like to talk about?

I think we're still on the budget, but...

okay and as far as my opinion goes I think that's a day-to-day operation as long as you talk to HR y'all can make that decision together that's my personal opinion moving along though I had a opportunity to go to the school board meeting on Thursday and there was a concern there as far as when they were going over slides and I saw that there was a deficit of five hundred thousand dollars and and I see that we have the financial director here I think Franklin City Public Schools I don't want to call her up unless she feels she's that's on the agenda okay it's further down Okay, I'm jumping the gun, so I'll hold my comments. Thank you.

Okay, all right. Anything else on the budget? All right. I will take a motion. Did you have one more thing?

Yeah, I would just like to say to my colleagues, please explain to me how when people are on, seniors on a fixed income and other people on a fixed income, How are they going to pay this extra money when they're not paying the money now? If you give me that solution, I'd be very happy. Thank you. Other than that.

Okay. Do you have a solution, Dr. Johnson?

Well, I think we should go back. Nothing should be done haphazardly. I think we should go back and look at a solution. I would like to come up with some, but now is not the time to do that in the meeting. That's right. But we really need to look at this before going forward.

It's time of year we have to get a budget passed. If we don't get a budget passed, then we're in violation of the state. So let's go ahead. Do I have a motion to accept the budget as presented? So moved.

So it's closed to public hearing.

Oh, I closed the public hearing some time ago. We were just having. I did, but public hearing is closed. That was closed earlier. Okay. All right. Now I have a motion. Mr. Kitchen, have a motion.

So moved.

So go in, go in, go in, advisor.

You have a statutory period to wait 7 days after public or excuse me. So no vote is necessary to tonight.

No vote tonight, right. I apologize just to apologize.

I knew that was a school school board. I thought that was strictly school. No, no, no, so you're you open up over here in a public hearing has been closed discussion. So now we just wait.

OK so the next thing we'll do is the vote and in our next meeting, yes, OK. My apologies. And the next thing is the budget amendment for the $619,000, I believe. Ms. Morrison, do you wanna come up and explain what this is and how it works?

Mayor Kaplan, city council and those assembled here, good evening.

Good evening.

Thank you for the opportunity to present to you the budget amendment. This budget amendment is to reduce budgeted revenue by the 619,000 and that is because our average daily membership or our enrollment has declined and therefore our state revenues have declined. So the school division is required to reduce its budgeted revenue accordingly.

So we're just amending the budgeted amount. We're not appropriating additional money.

Right, we're reducing the appropriation. Okay, all right.

We're being asked to reduce the budget, yes. Yes. Okay, any further questions of Ms. Morrison? All right. Go ahead, doctor. I mean, Mr. Freeman, did you have anything you want?

No, nothing. Nothing else to add. I appreciate the finance director. Thank you for asking.

I had it earlier when I went to the school board meeting and I just wanted clarity about the deficit. That was like $500,000. I'm sorry.

I'm going to see.

So I wanted to get clarity about the deficit. How will you all be coming back to us in another couple of months?

asking for money you know how we get what's the solution to fixing that that's a good question and i'm sure you're not the only one that wants to know as you can see our recurring expenditures are more than what our recurring revenue is at this point that's because there are certain fixed costs that you can't really cut immediately when enrollment declines Still have to have buses, transportation routes, food, all of those things. And so that's what we've gotten into. We started the year as if we still had the 1057 enrollment. But when it came in, it was nine, eight, nine 99. So that's a large decrease to have absorbed right away. Um, so in the end of the year, when we do our annual audit, um, that will, if there's any deficit remaining, it will go against our accumulated fund balance account on the financial statements. you so much yes ma'am so ms morrison what was the reason that the estimates was so high the estimated adm we had last year um well the past two years actually the adm has grown steadily and we were at 1057 actual at the end of last school year so there we didn't really anticipate a huge drop over the summer

So 1057 now is 999, so it's 58 students. That makes a big, big, big jump.

But my question was, what is the cause of so fewer students?

That's probably a question for the superintendent.

He never shows up, so I was just asking you since you were sent here.

Well, we do have a lot of homeschooling going on. And parents just would rather homeschool and do virtual school than attend the school at this point.

And have a huge number gone to outside private schools, Christian schools.

Our director of accountability keeps track of that data. I don't have it in front of me, but I can get it to you.

And how do you guarantee this won't come up two or three months later?

I don't.

Was there, in our last meeting, I believe it was, or meeting, at last meeting, we approved several additions to a previous budget, is that correct? Yes. Those budgets had already balanced, had they not? Yes. So there's, is there money, is there money from those budget years that could be brought forward? Is there actual money there, or is it just?

We won't know if there's anything left for year 25 until our 25 audit is complete.

Okay. All right. But it was a significant amount, wasn't it, over a million dollars? Mm-hmm. Okay. That was my thoughts.

We had over $2 million in our fund balance that had accumulated over time. Okay. So it remains to be seen how much of 2025 we'll take of that.

Okay, but it could potentially be enough to cover the 619,000? Yes. Okay, all right. Okay, any other questions? Okay, thank you.

Thank you again for the opportunity to present.

Thank you for being here.

Mr. Mayor, do you want to recognize we have a school board member in the house tonight?

I'm sorry?

I want to recognize our school board member in the house giving us, being present tonight, Mr. Albrook.

Oh yes, I saw him come in, I'm sorry. John, you're hard to miss, I'm sorry. There you are, right there. Thank you for being here tonight. So, do I have a motion to accept the budget amendment that we just mentioned with the $619,000

So move.

Do we have a motion? Do we have a second? Second. Okay, I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? I'll say one thing. So this is, again, this is not money we're giving anybody. It's just adjusting the budget so that their budget for the school year is less than it was before. Okay, so no additional money in this case, all right? With no further discussion, I'll take the vote.

Aye. Nay.

Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye, thank you very much. Dr. Johnson, you asked for addition, adding Deer Creek to the agenda? Yes, Mr. Mayor. Could I have a motion for that?

Yes, and that's the move that we,

Yeah, we amended the agenda early. I'm asking for a motion to just, because you have to have a motion before you can do discussion. Right, but now we're going to vote. He's going to make a motion to accept Deer Creek. Yes. I think so. Yes, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Okay.

Okay, for discussion.

Discussion comes after a motion, doesn't it?

typically there typically there is a presentation of whatever's on the agenda and then after the presentation someone would make a motion to prove deny or whatever but there is a an opportunity to at least where what are we doing with deer creek is a valid question sorry

Okay, let's talk about it. Was your suggestion that we accept Deer Creek from the Franklin Parks Foundation?

That's what you call a leading question. It was a leading question, yes, sir.

Yes, it was, and I agree, yes. If you'll give me time, I'm gonna do that. Yes, sir, thank you. I would suggest that we... accept the gift from Deer Creek that they have given us because tourism is very important for the city and it's something that we need and adding that addition would be great for the city and we have talked about staffing it and so forth all those things are covered so we should move forward with that

all right um so now to discuss you want to make the motion and then we go to discussion then we go to discussion motion second discussion vote i'll second okay motion second all right now discussion um you've said what did you have anything else you want to add

I would just like to add that it's good for the city for us to move forward with that project, basically. Part of the project before the Blackwater Park is being toured constantly every day, and this would be an extra component for the city to grow.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We're going down the road. Mr. Kitch anything?

It is a gift and nobody's making money off of it. So I'm all for accepting it.

Okay.

So whereas people may not be making money off of it, it is going to be an additional expense to the city. such as staffing, such as liability, such as maintenance and upkeep, which is going to be additional cost to the city. So I just want to make it clear whether this thing is supported or not. I don't have a problem with it. I'm all about expansion, growth, tourism. I love it for our city, but I want the citizens to understand that when we use these terms like, oh, it's just a gift and it sounds amazing, in the long run, this is going to cost the city a lot more for maintaining it upkeep somebody has to oversee it and now it goes from a gift to being another line item in the budget since we were talking about budgeting today um so frankly I I think that it hasn't been transparent and clear it just it's made to sound like some extraordinary thing which partly it is but the other part of that that hey this is going to be an additional line item in the budget so when there are tax increases which will probably come down the line as well your tax dollars are going to service these gifts and that's all I have to say I agree miss banks I'm not in favor of accepting this pop it's a high-risk huge in liability so at this time I love gifts

but sometimes free gifts come with a price.

Yes, ma'am. Okay, Mr. McEvoy, I know you wanna speak.

I'm in agreement with my two female colleagues here, and mine is specifically, well, no, not specifically. The tax burden is one thing. It increases your taxes because we're gonna have to spend more money to take care of this new, we already got Blackwater Park. we don't need to add an additional 100 acres that we've got to be responsible for cutting the grass taken care of now another element that they want to put are camp sites camp pads what happens to the strain if some inexperienced campers go out there start a campfire it gets out of control do we are we really PREPARED TO FIGHT A CAMP FIRE THAT'S OUT OF CONTROL WITH OUR FIRE DEPARTMENT HAVING TO CALL IN OTHER FIRE DEPARTMENTS AND IF ANYTHING SHOULD HAPPEN TO THOSE CAMPERS WHO IS RESPONSIBLE THE CITY IS RESPONSIBLE AND WE HAVE TO BE WE HAVE ALL CARRY ALL THAT LIABILITY We've already got the majority of Blackwater Park to take this additional gift. We didn't ask them to buy this thing. Yes, you did. We didn't ask them to purchase this property for us. You did. No, we did not. we did not it is not okay right right and this is my time talking we didn't in my opinion we did not ask for this the previous mayor who was on that board asked for it and um the private uh um non-profit that has it they want to give it to us if it's so great why they want to give it to us i'm not in favor of it and i am mostly concerned with the firefighting capabilities or strain that it might put on our firefighters and the liability of somebody being out there in those woods and starting a campfire and we don't have that with the black water park that we currently have all right thank you all right mr prison

I agree to an extent of exactly what you're saying with the staffing is going to be an issue on all aspects, not just for fire and EMS. It'll affect police department, it'll affect parks and recs, the whole nine yards, garbage, everything. I am in favor of the park overall. The biggest problem I have with it, again, is making sure that we have the staff to take care of it. And that was the one question I had that we really didn't get a 100% answer on, but I am in support of expanding.

All right, I'll take a vote. Dr. Johnson? Aye. Aye.

Nay. Nay.

Nay. Aye. Aye. Motion carries. All right. City Manager's report.

WANT TO MAKE SURE YOU CAN HEAR ME THIS TIME THANK YOU UM COUNCIL FIRST OF ALL I JUST WANT TO SAY THANK YOU IT WAS REALLY A HIGHLIGHT TO BE AT THE RETREAT WITH YOU GUYS WORKING TOGETHER IN UNISON TO PUSH THE NEEDLE ON THE BIG PICTURE OF CITY OF FRANKLIN AND I I REALLY APPRECIATE THAT FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART ONE OF THE ITEMS THAT WAS HIGH ON THE LIST WAS, AND THERE WERE A NUMBER OF ITEMS, BECAUSE THE WHOLE PURPOSE OF BEING IN THE RETREAT WAS TO FIND OUT YOUR PRIORITIES COLLECTIVELY AS A COUNCIL AND INDIVIDUALLY, SOME OF THE THINGS THAT YOU BELIEVE THAT MOVED THE NEEDLE. YOU WANTED AN UPDATE ON THE CITY'S PAGUE CHANNEL. I'VE INCLUDED AN UPDATE IN THE PACKET HERE, SO IF YOU WANT TO TAKE A LOOK AT THAT, AT YOUR LEISURE, AND IF YOU WANT TO CONTACT ME ON THAT. apparently things are moving and I'm hoping to have more information as as we keep on moving the needle so I understand that was one of the things that you felt in previous administrations that you were not getting timely feedback on things that were important to you and I want to make sure that you get timely updates to the best of my ability and the staff's ability so hopefully you're seeing a difference already so thank you thank you for that I DID BRING UP BEFORE AND I THINK IT WAS YOU KNOW WE TALKED ABOUT SIPSA CANDIDATE I WAS APPOINTED TO THE BOARD I THINK THEIR MEETING IS TOMORROW ACTUALLY AND SO THERE IS A SECOND VACANCY ON THE SIPSA BOARD FOR THE CITY OF FRANKLIN AND THAT IS A VACANCY THAT THE GOVERNOR appoints and I think at the last council meeting council put forward a name the governor's staff have have asked if we could put forth at least one more name so if you would kind of be thinking about any additional names if you want to get that to myself and Shanna Shannon and we can try to put that forward to the governor's office so I just want to put that out there um and then um there was a question at the last council mayor did you you have something you wanted to know with the next item we could do a motion on that for for ronda

Yeah.

Oh, OK. Timely. And just for the record, I mean, because at the last council meeting, there was a question and a question was, does a council member have to be appointed and be the representative on the trustee board for the library? And they've responded and they said, no, it's not necessary. So if you do have a citizen's name that you want to put forward to the mayor's point that he just brought up, that you certainly can do that if that's council's wish to make a motion and go through that process for the vacant seat that's on the library board.

Would you like to make a motion?

Sure. I would like to make a motion to nominate Mrs. Rhonda Chambliss to serve on the library board. Second.

Motion and second. Any discussion? Being none, I'll take the vote.

Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. And unanimously aye. Rhonda, if you're out there watching, thank you. Councilmember comments?

Yes.

Mr. Mayor, I would like to comment on...

The CTE program, I attended at JP King, and at the school board meeting, they had the culinary department. They served food. They served food there also. It was excellent. The justice department, cosmetology department, and the other departments, everyone. The students did an excellent job, if you'd see, in cosmetology. So much so, I'm going to get a haircut and so forth.

You're not gonna get a permanent wave, are you?

I may get a permanent wave, you know. It's possible. But basically, the students did a great job with the project in presenting that. Thank you. Thank you. Let's get you anything.

I don't usually do any counseling comments, but I want to thank everybody that's here tonight and every meeting, the people that show up. I wish every seat was full. It's it's easy to sit at home and get on the keyboard and bash city council. And you can bash us from here. But at least you're here and you take an interest and you might criticize when you get home. But at least you're here to show support. Thank you all.

i'll second that even though it wasn't a motion i also agree with councilman johnson when i did attend the school board meeting the other night the highlight was that the children in the culinary department were acknowledged in their instructor mr lavelle evans who i know personally so i just want to shout out the students of franklin city public schools that are still striving to do something different i know oftentimes we get up here and we talk you know sometimes negatively about franklin city public schools but the children are they have some great things going for them if they apply themselves and some of them are doing just that so we give kudos to the students of franklin city public schools

I would just like to announce that tax relief for the elderly or disabled, the application period is June 1st through August 1st. 65 and older or 100% totally and permanently disabled. If you're interested, please call Ms. Roundtree at 757-562-4870 and she is the real estate clerk. Again, tax relief for the elderly or disabled. That's in the commissioner's office.

Thank you. I would like to second the comments of Councilman Copeland on the tax relief for our seniors. That's very important for that real estate tax. I hope that all the seniors that are property owners will take advantage of that opportunity. I'd like to also say the meeting for Ward 3 is going to be June 10th and this time we'll be featuring the young people in the sense that we will have someone from the school board and we will have the director of Parks and Recreation to explain to the people the programs that they're unaware of that we have with Parks and Recs and the progress to the new recreation center. UM SO IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN WHAT'S GOING ON WITH THE KIDS SCHOOL BOARD REPRESENTATIVE WILL BE THERE AND WE WILL ALSO HAVE PARKS AND RECS I'D LIKE TO ALSO COMMEND ONCE AGAIN MR ELLIS COFIELD FOR BEING APPOINTED TO THE FRANKLIN CITY SCHOOL BOARD I'm sure that he will be a well addition to help our schools move forward. I am particularly impressed with youth. You know, everybody up here I think is ON THE OLDER OLDER OLDER LEVEL WITH THE EXCEPTION OF MS. BANKS OF COURSE BUT UM I LIKE TO SEE PEOPLE OF YOUTH IN THESE POSITIONS BECAUSE WE MYSELF I AM A SENIOR I DON'T FEEL LIKE IT BUT MY BODY KIND OF SAYS IT IS BUT MY MIND DOESN'T um so we need young people and i i thank you for mr cofield for stepping up to offer his time and services to uh serve um as we approach this budget thing i am always going to be an advocate for saving money we have had so many occasions when we lose five thousand dollars here ten thousand dollars there 25 WE CONSTANTLY LOSING MONEY AND I CANNOT IN GOOD CONSCIENCE VOTE TO APPROVE BUDGETS THAT DOESN'T CUT AND SAVE MONEY. TO GIVE AN EXAMPLE, AND I BROUGHT IT UP ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS, WE USED WASTE MANAGEMENT SERVICES, A PRIVATE COMPANY, TO DUMP TRASH IN FRANKLIN AT A COUPLE OF LOCATIONS INCLUDING THE CITY HALL. don't think we need a dumpster because we don't have a dumpster truck why not put five or six garbage cans out there that weakened up and we don't have to pay waste management i think we should use a local bank so we don't have to pay an armored truck to take our money to suffolk in my opinion when we waste money A penny saved is a penny earned. I'm looking forward for the support for Juneteenth. Juneteenth is coming along. We have national speakers coming. It's gonna be a four day event. Once again, I'd like to thank my colleagues on council who did support it. It's coming along nicely. AND WE'RE GOING TO HAVE SOMETHING FOR EVERYBODY. WE'VE GOT BANDS ON AT LEAST THREE NIGHTS. AND WE HAVE A GOSPEL EXPLOSION, OUTDOOR TENT REVIVAL TYPE SERVICE, ACTIVITIES FOR THE CHILDREN. IT IS THE CITY'S ONLY FOUR-DAY EVENT. AND WE'RE TRYING TO ATTRACT TOURISM FROM OTHER CITIES TO COME TO FRANKLIN. and we appreciate the support we should get from the Parks and Recs, the city, and FSEDI. I see Mr. Heck is in the house. So I'm going to wrap it up with that, and I'll keep you abreast on some of the things as we move forward with the 2026 Juneteenth Cultural Celebration. Thank you.

I'd like to thank everyone that has been reaching out to me. I really appreciate your comments. I have forwarded them at our last session, which was our retreat. I will continue to strive to do things that you request of me. There are some other things that are in the works that we are working on, but we can't technically discuss right now. So thank you for sending your comments and suggestions to make this a better city.

I would like to, as I said at the onset of the meeting, thank, as Mr. Kitchen did, thank you all for being here. Tell your friends and neighbors it's a fun evening, isn't it? I didn't get much of a laugh on that one. But anyway, thank you for being here. And I would also echo the comments made about our retreat. I thought it was very valuable. I think that what happens at a retreat that cannot happen in this setting is that we talk to each other, we discuss things as opposed to trying to make points all the time and we get to know each other a little better and I think that helps tremendously. We have seven good people up here and we have different different passions But we're all here with one where nobody's here to to be a special person be here because we love the city and we we're here to serve the city and all seven of us share that and We thank you all for being here again, and I'll take a motion to adjourn So moved in the second second. I think it's just all in favor say aye All right. Thank you. Thank you again ladies gentlemen