City Commission - Regular Meeting

Uh good morning. It is now time to call the Franklin City Commission to order. Uh we'll uh open up with prayer, but before we do that, I would like to welcome each of you here this morning and uh we will go into our meeting. We have a lot to cover today. We have a long agenda because we were not able to meet at our last meeting that was scheduled because of incle weather. So uh we have a lot to get through today. So everybody bear with us and we will we will move forward and get through it. So at this time I will ask uh Commissioner Stewart to open us up with a word of prayer. Amen.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, once again I'd like to thank you for this opportunity for life. I know that it is your will that I sit where I sit today. I pray your strength upon this meeting today. I pray that you would bless each and every one of us today and whatever concerns that that we may have that it would be addressed, but most of all that it would be pleasing to you. We thank you for this journey. We thank you for where you have brought us. We thank you for allowing us to be where we are. and we ask you to just guide us as we go forward. We can never thank you enough for your many blessings that you bestow upon us. Although sometimes we may get out of your realm of of your guidance and and your word, but we thank you for your mercy that allows us to come back again. Father, we ask you to bless each and every one that's represented today. We ask you always to bless those that are sick, shut in. We thank you for allowing us to make it through a part of your your nature that you that you let us know that reality still exists within your power. And as we made it through and as we see today, we thank you. Father, again, we just we always just ask your blessing upon us and that your will be done under whatever circumstances that any one of us that meet that we are faced with that that your will be done. Again, Father, we thank you in your darling son's name we pray. For the sake of the world, amen.

Thank you, Commissioner Stewart. Uh we will move on to hear the public and I believe that we have one person that has signed up and that's Mrs. Fristen Bailey Wilson. and I think she is here to speak to permits and we will give you conditional use conditional use permitting and I've got a handout. I don't I mean there's a lot of people here so I'm just giving them to the commissioners.

Thank you. As in addition, I've got the list of names for removal of pardon me. In addition,

okay, I'm here to talk about use. Let me start my timer so be cognizant of time. As always, I come here with an ask. And my ask is that you will put the board of adjustments to work on the question of whether or not a conditional use permit is warranted on the OTN power plant data center development. And I'm asking you that because the planning and zoning commission has tabled it twice and the reason they keep giving is we think this should be conditional use permit. I'm also asking you that because KRC, Kentucky Resource Council, has a group of lawyers has sent you a letter. So, I hope you all have read it. They've sent you a letter, planning and zoning a letter and Judge Barnes a letter arguing that it is the board of adjustments that decides a question of what should be conditional use. It's not Carter Monday and it's not Bob Link. It's the board of adjustments that considers that question. Should it be conditional use? So, in front of you, you have the legal language, but I'm going to brief it up like this. If something is a risk to public health, safety, or welfare, it's time to ask the board of adjustments, should we get a conditional use here. So, clearly a massive power plant and data center poses those risks. In their letter to you, the condition the Kentucky Resource Council said, quote, "Neither the proposed data center nor the associated electric generating facility are permitted uses under the I2 zone under the Franklin planning and zoning regulation. It doesn't belong in I2." A group of lawyers reviewed all the

materials and the precedents and they've sent you the legal argument in full. At the text amendment meeting though, Carter Monday in testifying for the private interest when asked by Tim Crocker is this a legal permitted use, he said yes. It's outside of the scope of his duties and it's outside the scope of his expertise and he shouldn't be testifying for a private interest. So KRC noted in their letter that the planning and zoning administrator quote is not empowered to render binding interpretations concerning the application of a zoning ordinance. Who is the board of adjustments? And at that meeting, John Mayor said, quote, "There's no protections here. I think the conditional use per permit is the way to go with this." And the law backs him. The KRC letter goes on to argue, now it's a long letter. I'm only briefing it up, that the Board of Adjustments has been tasked by Kentucky statute to make quote, local quasi judicial decisions about what is and is not allowed. This question belongs in front of the board of adjustments. Please read carefully that legal argument. And I want to put out um also tell you that the board of adjustments has the power to call in citizen experts. Now, not all of you have attended the meetings. I know Larry and Wendle, you haven't been able to come to the meetings, but our citizenry is full of amazing experts, engineers, IT techs, water cooling techs, manufacturing techs. These citizens bring important questions and expertise to this question that should be considered and that could be done via the board of adjustments process. By contrast, in a 1022 email, Carter Monday said, "Oh gosh, I think this thing, I'm paraphrasing, is like cell

towers." And he asked a lawyer, "Can you help us? Cell towers don't emit toxic gases. Cell towers don't pollute the water. It's not like cell towers." And in that email, he demonstrated his lack of technical knowledge. The board of adjustments working with citizen experts could write actionable conditional use items that we could that would keep the public safe that would promote the public's health, safety, and welfare. We have a board of adjustments, guys. Uh we do. And when you press on that website, what you see is a 404 error screen. Now, I believe that's Carter Monday saying to the public, "Nuna." But maybe I'm wrong. None of your business. Now, we also have u minutes, agendas, and transcripts for each of the planning and zoning meetings. And those minutes, agendas, and transcripts aren't posted online. You get the the minutes I mean, you get the agenda outside city hall. They say they do what's legally required, but I want to point out to you that it's legal for each and every one of you to cheat on your spouse. That's legal. It is also legal not to cheat on your spouse. The difference between those two decisions is morality. It is legal to post agendas, minutes, and transcripts. It is also legal not to post agendas, minutes, and transcripts. In the middle of that is the choice to engage democracy or to stop democracy. What choice is being made here? This body has allowed a city employee to act outside of his expertise and push the planning and zoning committee to make a decision that's not in their purview. Conditional use permitting belongs with the board of adjustments. And because they've done that, it has indicated to all of us that this

commissioners, you're not in charge of your employees. You're showing a great deal of weakness relative to your employees. And there could be no better example of that than the advisory study committee. Every single one of you voted for an advisory study committee. And when the employees said they didn't feel like doing it, you said, "Ah, okay. You don't have to do it." no leadership strength. Today, you have the opportunity, you commissioners, the five of you, you have the opportunity to provide this public with the planning and zoning administrator who is technically competent, who is ethical, and who works in the scope of his responsibilities. You have that opportunity. Now, Lindel and Larry, you have not let the public know what your stance is. You're cowering behind the buzzer and I'm asking you to stop waffling. Make your position known and grow some hair. Today is the canary in the coal mine.

Your time is up. Your time is up. You have five minutes. Your time is up. we will uh move on with our with our agenda and uh we will have the approval of minutes of the uh January 12th, 2026 regular meeting and I think everyone's had an opportunity to look over those and uh I make are there any comments or questions? I make the motion we approve our minutes. Okay, we have a motion to for Commissioner Stewart to accept those.

Second. We have a second by Commissioner Powell. Is there any further discussion? All in favor? I I. Any opposition? Yes. Kelly, did you say yes? Okay, speak up. Uh, we have one opposition. I'll rest. Yes. Uh we'll move on to um recognitions and uh we'll have the recognition of public works department employees and I think Trent Coffee wants to come and speak to those.

Yes, mayor. Thanks for uh letting me come in and speak. U as everyone knows the weekend of January 24th uh Franklin was hit with a winter snow and ice storm. Uh the public works department under the leadership of Daryl Mallerie started preparing the Thursday before the storm. They spent two days brining and salting emergency routes and industrial parks and once the snow started falling. On Saturdays employees from five different departments uh volunteered to come and help street department, storm department, water department, uh wastewater and the scheduler uh started working on those city streets pushing snow and spraying more salt all all weekend into the work week. Hopefully you recall the city streets were very well taken care of during the storm. Besides the streets, they also cleared parking lots, the police department, the sheriff's department, the jail, the egg building, regions bank, the water plant, the wastewater plant. And I just want to recognize these employees for their dedication to the city and our citizens. Daryl Mallerie, y'all come up here when I call your name. Devonte Colton, Josh Gent, Dennis Link, uh Jeremy Pering, John Klene, Dan Wagner, Ryan Pry, David Scheler, Ben Goodram, Zack Chandler, TJ Miller, Nolan Schmidt, Deontay Butler, and Garrett Dinkens. So, uh, just wanted to let y'all know they done a great job for us. Thank you guys. We appreciate all the hard work and dedication that you put into keeping us safe and keeping us warm and keeping our electricity on.

Okay. Moving forward, we will have uh recognition of the wastewater department employees and Trent, I believe you have that also. So,

yeah, this was the water distribution department. Uh again, on January 27th, uh water distribution crew fix the 8 in water mane break on Grand View Drive. As everyone in the weekend before was a winter weather, snow and ice, cold weather caused the 8 in water man to split. water dist distribution crew in temperatures uh in the teens fixed this break hot which what hot means is they wouldn't able to cut off the water so while they were working water was in the ditch squirting out of the pipes that's what uh fixing hot means u this helps that we don't have to call in a boil water because uh none of the customers were affecting the boat pressure so again I want to recogize Nolan Schmidt, PJ Miller, uh Deonte Butler, and Randy Moore for their dedication to the to their profession and the city of Franklin. Just I think two of them are house.

Thank you guys. Mayor, I think I've got the next two or three.

You do have just uh Johnny uh was home with her daughter today. Uh her daughter Jean got sick. I think she stayed home and she asked me to uh read her uh read her memos uh uh recognize her employees. Uh I'm just going to read what she wrote. I'm very proud to recognize J water treatment plant class 4 operator for the customers during the weather weather event January 24th during that time we expected him to respond to any afterhour water treatment emergencies and he went above and beyond. He lived and worked at the water plant three days and two nights covering two teammates separate shifts. This not only ensured the community always had safe drinking water, but it also allowed his teammates to be safe at home with their families during the winter storm. I am very thankful to have him on my team and I want Jason to know the gratitude we all feel for his sacrifice and generosity.

Jason, come up here. Now he can't.

Thank you, Jason. So, I'll move on to the next one. Uh, this is for Caleb Williams. Caleb here, come on up. It is my pleasure to recognize and congratulate Caleb Williams for successfully passing his drinking water treatment class 2A certification test on January 16, 2026. At the beginning of January 2025, Caleb was transferred from city hall to the water treatment plant and and has dedicated the past year obtaining the STEM educational prerequisite and hands-on experience from first two drinking water certifications. Simultaneously, he has been Value valuable aspect. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.

Heat. Heat. Thank you. Thank you very much. Congratulate all of you. We will move on to Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Please

start as well. that heat. Heat. Heat. So like Heat up here. Heat. Heat.

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. resources. He for that uh to be installed. So basically asking the commission to approve for that to be installed. Uh I don't know if you have any questions. I know that uh about that topic.

I think it's a good idea. I'll make the motion. Second. Okay, we have a motion by Commissioner Powell, have a second by Commissioner McCquary. Uh, is there any further discussion? Do we know where this will be placed? No, sir. I do not. What was the question? Sorry. No, I just going to say, do we know where it'll be placed? Um, mayor Robert Taylor may be able to answer that. I think he's on that committee. Or Joe Bars, I see his hand up. heard location.

I think they do located at the fire department around on the back side of the building. What I was told is what was part of the conversation that we had and and I missed out the reading of the email. The fiscal court has voted to fund this. We just need authorization from the city to allow us to make those changes.

Any further comment? I mean, I I is there a reason it's at the back? Privacy more than anything. Okay. So, are we going to advertise some kind of advertising campaign to let people know that it's there? I mean, we hope that nobody uses it, but in the event that somebody does, I mean, that's that's my only issue is that they can't have a camera video on anybody that does this.

Oh, okay. But the the the Franklin Right to Life uh coalition along with uh and the name is escaping me of the facility that's in Logan County. The satellite office here now, they they put this information We have a plan to do information type advertising obviously targeting teenagers and young women. We will have to make sure that people are continuously aware the life choice pregnancy center was what I was trying to pull the name of that facility. We will ask for a vote. Uh Kathy, you want to do a roll call vote?

I will. Commissioner Stewart, yes. Commissioner McCra, yes. Mayor Dixon, yes. Commissioner Bush, yes. Commissioner Pal, yes. And that motion passes unanimously. Thank you, Kathy. Okay, we will move on to general discussion. And under general discussion uh will be possible action regarding letters of support for project cowboy and project target. And Jim Deessor is here to uh speak to that. Thank you Jim.

Thank you mayor, members of the commission. Excuse me. Um we have two new projects that are looking at Simpson County for location. The first one is project cowboy. Uh this industry is looking to take over the former PSI and shine lab facility in the Wilky Industrial Park. They are a food manufacturer who will supply Trader Joe's. This is about a $8.5 million investment. They will have 60 to 70 new jobs in the first two years and about 250 over the next 10 years. Uh the average hourly wage of that project be $24.50 an hour plus benefits. And then I'll I'll go ahead and talk about project target as well. Uh this is a rail project that'll also be located in the Wilky Industrial Park adjacent to RKW. Uh phase one will be about a 5 to7 million investment depending on land cost. Uh site preparation, earthwork, track installation, um about 15 to 20 jobs in phase one. Phase two will be another 4 to6 million investment for the building plus additional track and equipment. Uh that'll be one to two years after phase one is up and rolling, no pun intended. Um and will provide an additional 40 to 50 jobs. And then phase three will involve laying down additional track that they will be uh that they'll need for their growing business. The investment will be in the millions, but hard to pinpoint at this time. The uh average alley age will range from 23 to 32 an hour. will have 401k uh benefits and 100% medical insurance for all employees plus their dependent. And that both those projects will go to the KFA board uh on the last Thursday of this month at the capital. And we will need a we will need a motion to ratify the mayor's signature for the

letters of support for the Kentucky business investment KBI application for project cowboy and and project target. So do I have a motion? Mayor, let me let me just let me say this, mayor. This obviously this is just a this is formality and routine uh process we're doing today. uh cuz I'm sure that maybe people in some some in the audience may not have a complete understanding of of what it is when we give that give this u you know give way process.

So um under the um the cabinet for economic developments requirements we have to use code names until the project gets approved for incentives and then they become public. Uh but what the city is doing is they're going to uh match a portion of the state's match on the occupational tax which is 0.25% 25% and then the counties already approved their letters of support at the 75% uh rate which is the the KBI match and um and once they're approved the uh there'll be an announcement made on who those industries are and then uh once they have their approval they'll start to be able to make their investment. They cannot make any investment uh until they have their incentive package approved because we have this but for clause in our statutes that say there must be some competition between sites or communities and if they spend any money before their investments or their incentives are approved then they aren't eligible for incentives anymore

and this is nothing any different than what we have done with other industries that's coming to community. Yeah, this is standard process and I think the county's already approved these. Yes, sir. Yeah. So, if we clear, if the state approves a KBI, it isn't it factual that the city and county will have to go along with it anyway? I'm sorry. If the state approves their KBI, doesn't it mean that the city county will have to go along with it anyway? Is this just more of a courtesy vote or No. Um, they need the letters of support to do their state match. Uh, so it has to have local support to get state support. And I'm not a fan of KBIS at all. However,

do you have any numbers at all? The the amount of jobs it's going to bring in, the property tax, uh, every dollar spent in the county stays in the county six times over. My point is, I'm not a fan of KBIS, but does it appear this is well worth it compared to that what we're going to get out of a home deal? Yeah, because you you have uh two two sites now that are producing zero revenue. So with the with the jobs that will be brought in, you'll have new money coming into the economy that will be trickling down to local businesses including taxes uh that will benefit um plus their property taxes which will benefit the community. Thank you.

Thank you. What do we need, ma'am? We need a motion to ratify. I'll make that motion, ma'am. Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Stewart. Second. Second by Commissioner McQuary. Any further discussion? We'll have a roll call vote. Kathy, please. Commissioner Pow. Yes. Commissioner Bush. Yes, sir. Mayor Dixon. Yes. Commissioner Prairie. Yes. Commissioner Stewart. Yes. And that motion passes. Thank you, Jim. Thank you, Mayor.

We have a lot going on in our community. We're we're we're moving along and growing. Yeah. This this is uh for for the first quarter of 2026. We have uh one project that's already been approved. When these two approved, this will be three. And then we've got a couple more in the pipeline. And I hope to be seeing you all again soon. Yeah. And I'm not gonna stick around for the rest of the meeting. We're We're on a good track. Thank you, Jim. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Our community is on a good track.

Okay. Moving on, we will uh have discussion and a possible action regarding municipal order uh conduct of city meetings. And uh Scott, you want to

I guess I'm taking this by default, mayor, but we had a request by a commissioner to accommodate him by getting the commission packets out early. Uh we were getting them out on Thursday. We're now getting out on the Monday before the next meeting. And because of that, we have to by necessity amend our municipal order regarding meeting protocol to reflect that change and also to reflect the change in registration to the public. So if the commission finds it an order uh I would you will need a motion to approve municipal order 2026-1. Okay, you have heard the proposal. Do I have a motion?

I'll make you. We have a motion by Commissioner Powell. Second, mayor. Second by Commissioner McQuary. And uh we'll have a roll call vote. Can we have discussion about it? We can have discussion. Yes. So the the registration in section the standing rule section section 4B subsection B we're talking about that the residents need to register no later than the close of business on Wednesday one week prior to the meeting. Can we not can we not strike that?

I'll do whatever you want. I mean, we we put that in there to be consistent with what we've got now so that the commission has ample notice. I mean, no, honestly, you're doing it. So, but I have a hard time limiting if somebody wants to speak at a meeting. If somebody understand I I wholly understand it. We're We moved it back because of a request. I understand. I I I know you do. And so because of that, if we give less notice, I don't want somebody on the commission to be upset because they didn't get enough notice before somebody asked to speak.

I understand. So, but if somebody wants to address the commission like say today and they come up and they sign up, I feel like they should be able to address the commission. That's that's wholly on you guys. Okay. if you guys because worst case scenario, we could take their concern and then roll it up the next day. Again, that's wholly on you guys. I it makes no difference to me whatsoever. I believe that anyone wants to speak to a meeting that we are giving them ample ample time and all that that's asking this is for them to be there to sign up. I mean, and uh

the only problem and and I really don't it makes no difference. I think the public ought to have a right to speak anytime they want to speak. But all that aside, to put an agenda packet together and get it out that Monday for you all to have notice that somebody's going to come, that's the only reason we put it in there for that Wednesday so that the staff members, particularly our city clerk, has time to put the packet together and get it to you guys. But it makes no difference to me whatsoever.

No, I understand that and I appreciate that. I just think that the the citizens should be able to address the commission the day of if they want and then we can roll that over to the next regular meeting should we need to take action on. So I would be I would be fine with this if we strike out subsection B of section B of section 4 and move section subsection C up to B. I don't think we should limit when the residents should have a right to speak at the commission meeting. Again, worst case, we can roll it over to the next regular commission meeting if they have a issue that we need to deal with. But that's just me. Do you have a question with

No, I mean you just like you wanted to say something. No, I didn't. Okay. You the mayor today? Huh? He was the mayor today. No, you were just looking at me like I mean, well, I'm just looking at you. You're talking. I'm trying to be able to interpret understanding what you're talking about. So, I I'm a man to look at you in the eyes when you talk. I'm just Okay. I mean, that's okay. We're good. No, I'm just I'm I'm trying to process what you're asking as well. Just for the public's

That's all just for the public's uh notice. These are put in place. We as as you can see we have a you know we have a meeting to present. So we want to give people an opportunity to speak and the reason we have asked that you come and sign up is that so we can uh so we can move our meeting along and we will know how many people are going to be here to speak and that's the purpose of putting this in place and but I anybody here is always welcome to speak if you signed up to speak we will give you we have we it's in our bylaws here that we have three to five minutes. That's what it amounts to. So, uh we have a we also have a meeting to take care of when we meet. So, we want people to be able to speak, but uh we do have to have some uh we do have to have some regulations with it.

So, we've got a motion. We got a motion in the second, right? We have. So, okay. Well, then I would I would make an amendment that we strike subsection B of section B of section 4. You you can't do that. The person who makes the motion has to do that under Robert's rules or they have to amend their motion. We always we already have a motion and a second. So question, we'll take a vote. Kathy roll. Yes, Commissioner Stewart. Yes, Commissioner McCra. Yes,

Commissioner Pal. Yes. Mayor Dixon. Yes. Commissioner Bush, no. And that motion passes. Okay. and we will move on to discussion and a possible action uh regarding proposed ordinance amendment code of code code enforcement board meeting time and uh Scott if you'll bring that to us.

I will take that mayor. Uh at our last code board meeting uh well the last two or three we've got a member whose work schedule sometimes interferes with his ability to to attend on time. uh he asked and the rest of the board uh agreed to change the time by making it from 3 to 3:30 as a start time to allow him time to get there. And he happens to be our chairperson, too. So, it would probably be good if we could accommodate him at all. And that's that's for y'all that know him, it's really Tyler. But so, if you find it in order, we'll need two sponsors for this ordinance because we do set their times by ordinance.

Sponsor Jamie and Stewart. Yeah. Okay. I didn't I didn't see who all raised their hands. Okay. And I believe that uh I believe you have the next one too, Scott. That's a discussion of possible action regarding proposed ordinance uh relating to multifamily dwelling numbers. I do have that. I hope Nelson Slaughter is still here. Nelson, are you here somewhere? Nelson, would you mind to to take this since this is kind of your got a year your baby here and thank you for coming to to discuss this.

Not a problem. So, what this kind of came out of uh of was we have a large number of apartment complexes going up and in and the city and um the way we numbered them in the past uh was becoming an issue because we use letters for the buildings and we got to where we were getting we have a complex that if they finish theirs it'll end up being like JJ and then a bill or apartment number. And um there was no real way to determine how they were laid out. Uh and my fear uh as fire department, EMS, police, sheriff, we got to find them. And the way that this complex was laid out, there was no way to to be able to determine where this building was. So, uh, the chief and my the fire chief and myself, we did, uh, some research, went and looked at some of different apartment buildings and, uh, came up with, uh, what you have in front of you. Uh, so the way it'll be going forward if you approve this is the buildings will be numbered, uh, in sequential order as they're approached. um that comes to myself and I've got a few other people that I bounce it around to. Uh so when they have a complex that comes in, we actually look at it, we number them. Uh and then that way it it follows some rhyme or reason. Um then the next part of it is um so the way you'll name your apartments are by the first number is the building number. The second number is the floor number. Uh so if we do a three-story building we

this works. If we do town homes it works. Uh the last two digits of the number will be the unit number. Uh so if you get called to uh apartment 3201 you know it's building three second floor first apartment number. There is also verbiage in the ordinance to uh that they must the uh management of the apartment or the uh town homes whatever they have to have signs. So, if you're going into a large complex and it's not just two or three buildings and there's a split in the road, they you they have to put a sign that shows which direction to which apartment. Uh so the buildings will be listed. Then when you walk up to the apartment, we're seeing a lot of apartments where there's four units here, four units here on each floor. When you walk up to that, it'll have the building number. It'll also have what units can be reached from that stairwell. Uh that way there's no confusion. Uh it's not hard usually for the fire department to find what's where we're going because most of the time smoke, right? But for EMS and law enforcement, there may not be any outward signs. So we we put this together as a a method to allow us to be able to find the the apartments quickly. Um, any questions?

And we have approval from, you know, Bob Palmer. I think all our emergency personnel are are on board with this. I think personally it's a great idea, which is why Nelson did most of the heavy lifting with writing most of it. I just put it in legal form. But I do think it it's it's appropriate. And if you guys deem it appropriate, too, we need two sponsors for an ordinance to I think it's a great idea. Yeah. And you have mission two sponsors. Thank you, Nelson. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Nelson.

Okay. Uh, moving on, we will have discussion and a possible action regarding property tax software renewal. And Jennifer, will you come? And this is something we do every year, but we have to formally make it make it official.

We do. Um, of course, this year we need to renew the contract for Guts, which stands for government utilities technology services for the um, property tax software. Um, annually we have to do this each year to um, renew the agreement for the software support and maintenance. So, this year the price did not change. It is staying at $1,970. And I'm just asking that you all give the mayor authorization to sign the attached agreement for the calendar year of 2026. Third move. We have a motion by Commissioner Bush. Commissioner Pow. Commissioner Powell.

Second by Commissioner Bush. Uh, any further questions, discussion? Kathy, you want to take a vote on that, please? Yes, sir. Mayor Dixon, yes. Commissioner Bush, yes. Commissioner McCra. Yes. Commissioner Stewart, yes. Commissioner Powell, yes. And that motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank you, Kathy.

Okay, moving on. We will have uh discussion regarding the GIS update and John Brzano is going to come and bring that to us. While he's getting this set up, I'll I'll go ahead and introduce you. Most of you have already met Mr. Dan Wagner here um who is our scheduler for the city. Uh but most of you have not met uh Mrs. Cartel.

Good morning. Nice to meet everybody. He has recently graduated with his bachelor's at Western Kentucky University. He's been interning with the city uh doing GIS um for what since uh six months.

Yeah. So uh today we're going to talk about a little bit of some of the things we've done in the last calendar year um in 2025 within GIS. Um right now uh GIS for those of you who don't know stands for geographic information systems. Um this is our mapping software, our data software, our apps, our maps, all the all the cool stuff that we use on our phones and iPads and uh uh so we have geographic information system we have 1500 more than 1500 items that we use and that includes uh almost 300 maps um over 700 different layers and we have about 370 apps um that are used and that's between all types of uh departments. That's uh you know some of these are are used for emergency management response. Uh some of them are used for uh utilities. You know we have uh some people that uh in our utility uh let's say water distribution. We have somebody that's you know want to know where a water meter is so they can quickly find and do the readings. And then uh you know we have the management that really wants to do the bigger planning things like that. So we have a good variety of apps that allow everybody to do different things within GIS that they might need to do. Um in 2025 we added about 300 items. Um we have within our organization 68 users currently. Um and that includes 130 groups. So you some of these users might be in multiple groups and uh you know like I said these groups kind of allocate you know what what do you need to work on in this instance and then later in the day you may need to work on something that's shared with a different group. So we have a lot of collaboration between uh different departments and and different organizations. Um it's been really really useful and helpful for planning and uh and management of uh our

infrastructure assets. Um in 2025 we had over 45,000 views of all the GIS stuff that we use. Um some of that's internal. A lot of this is public. You'll see in the graphic there that um this was snapped on uh December 4th of 2025. And this is our zoning map. Um and it was getting about 43 views a day on average in 2025. So uh I just thought that was a neat graphic to share with you all. Um now one of the things about GIS is uh you know this is a a supplement to a lot of departments. This is a a tool for departments to use and individuals. Um in that we end up replacing a lot of things that would be costly software. Um for example we have a permitting and inspection software for the planning and zoning that uh we looked at a lot of different software options and the cost range from about 14,000 to well over $60,000. Um, so we essentially built uh a permitting and notification system within GIS uh at no cost. Um, so that that really helped us not having to buy any other software and we're still able to manage the permitting and and inspections efficiently. Uh, code enforcement uses GIS quite a bit. Um, mailing notices and and identifying property ownership and that's where the collaboration comes in. Um, we collaborate with other entities like the PVA to make sure that we're getting the most up-to-date information. Um, I mentioned emergency response and planning. Um, we have a lot of tools that get used. Um, we we share data real time with KSP and dispatch. So, if we add a new address, um, you know, if somebody builds a home over here, that's immediately added. If there's an emergency, the ambulance knows where to go. Um, so that's a really, really useful vital tool. Um, and then the reason Dan is up here is we we use this to track our work orders, uh, our cost and and equipment and everything that we

use doing all the types of different work with snow removal, for example. It was declared a an emergency, I believe. So, we can do FEMA reimbursement, but we really need to keep track of our time, equipment, and everything we're doing. So, our work order system helps do that. And with that, I'll let Dan speak. So, I'd say we have two main goals with our work order system. Um, the first one pretty simple. Uh, make sure work the work that needs to get done gets done at the right time, efficiently, and safely.

Uh, and we have some examples of some of the uh reports that we can pull up through our work system. Department heads can use this at any time. Again, just some more examples of of what the data we have in our work order system looks like, how we can use it. Um, again the second goal of work order system is to create a tool that can be used not only work orders but also for budgeting, for hiring, purchasing new equipment, all that good stuff. So when we create a workforce, we're looking for what is it costing us to do each and every job. So um so as we know what it's costing us to do different jobs, we can then um try and plan okay is it make cost more is it more costly for us to hire somebody? Is it better for us to contract things out? These are the things that we're using this information for. For example, you can see right here um our biggest expense right now for for 2025 was a payment. Second was our water leaks. So these are the things that we're collecting um and how we're using the data that we have on these work orders. the guys were able to put in um pictures and it's amazing to me how how many times they revert back to the pictures to remember uh why they were there, the features that they were working with. Um so again, a lot of different things that we have going on in the work order system. Um, but in short, the work order system gives us a better visibility into the workload, our costs assoc associated with each work work order, sorry, to

help us make better decisions with budgeting now and our processes. So,

all right. Hello everybody. Like John said, my name is Carter Pel. I've been here for about the last six months working with John and Dan. Um, wanted to go over some of our biggest modernizations and our GIS capabilities for the city. Um, in the six months that I've been here, we've been able to use this new Skaty Gold GNSS, a much more advanced GPS system than the small handheld one we had. Uh, using it, we've been able to get within about a single centimeter to place any of our GPS assets such as water lines or gas lines. Um, I've also been able to use a large map plotter and scanner to scan historic maps and georreerence them. I'll go more into that later. And those scans can be accessed by anybody from people inside city hall directly or field crews who need to use the some of the older maps for historic data. More in depth on the scanning and digitization. Um over the past six months I've been able to scan, sort through, and collect about 250 documents that can now be accessed by anybody who has access access to the network and the P drive. Uh these development and utility plans can be used by anybody who needs them both inside and outside of city hall. Some of the really important ones to note, we have an electric load flow diagram of Franklin. We have 1990s water and gas line maps, a storm drainage system from 1990, and even plans for the million-gallon water tank here in Franklin. Here's what it looked like before. about six months worth of scanning um sorting through going through documents that are three times my age and now we have just a single flash drive worth of thousands and thousands of pages if anybody there's multiple physical copies and like I said before anybody can access this information as long as you have access to the network at uh city hall

and like I mentioned before geo referencing um using the tools provided by by the city. We can stretch and shape the scan documents onto a uh online map. Zooming in here, I have a 1990s diagram of the city of Franklin gas lines. I can do something called digitization or pretty much drawing on the map. Right here, you can see where the gas lines on the scanned map can translate into gas lines in the actual city. If somebody needed to access this tool to see where the gas lines were in case they were paving more sidewalks or they needed to access a water line, they would know where not to dig. Again, on the geo referencing, we have a 1990s document of the water lines here in Franklin with the presently collected and updated everyday map of water lines here in the city. Even though the document is over 30 years old, you can still see it lines up almost exactly where we're still collecting water lines. If we get out there and we don't know where a line is before we start digging, we can use this kind of tool to realize where we can and cannot dig to save us lots of time and money in the future. I wanted to take y'all through a history of the maps here in Franklin. If you can see this, I have a map from June of 1923 of waterworks improvements here in Franklin. Um although it is over 100 years old, it still has symbols for the hydrants, valves, present, and even proposed water lines. Although it's not very detailed map how our water lines and water systems have progressed over time. You can see we have 6 in here, an 8 in here, some 4 in up top. Going ahead about 40 years, I have a 1961 document of the waterworks editions here in Franklin. You can see it's m it's much more extensive. It covers much

more of the city. And you can again see the present and proposed lines even furthering our knowledge of the past utility structure here in Franklin. Again, another 20ish years. I have a water development uh plan for Franklin in 1984. This was a handdrawn map. You can see right here, ranging from 4 inches or less pipes to all the way up to 16inch pipes. Stuff like this can show how our water lines have progressed and anybody can use these maps to update their own information if they need to. Going back to the new scanning, although it is a high upfront cost, I can guarantee you this device has already paid for itself tfold. Let's say for example you have three or four water lines on the same road. Take Wit Road for example. If you only need to access one of those lines, being within a centimeter is crucial. Using the old device on even on a good day, you could only get to about 3 to 5 feet where the lo where the item actually was. Even on a bad day, you can get within about two inches of the actual item using this new device right here.

Did you want to talk about the during this past snowstorm? Uh we had a real life example of of a situation where uh as he alluded to earlier, we had a water leak here down over the hill. Um and the the guys were struggling to find a valve to shut off the water line uh in the snow, the ice, and I think we were able to get it shut down that different way, but seeing that firsthand is the importance of not only just in the snow, we have emergency services. Uh there's a lot of different reasons to have our features after it and we have a lot of work to do there. Um but uh yeah, just another example here in this past storm, why don't we have our our features out here?

And to double up on what on what Dan said, it's like my father always told me, if you're going to do something, do it right the first time. You can we using the new device here, we can make sure we get all of our water lines, meters, hydrants, just about anything we GPS collect, get them right the first time so it doesn't become a problem later on for emergency events like this. some information sharing have been able to do um SOPs noting the proper use and upkeep of this device as well as the new map plotter have been created and shared throughout the organization. Anybody that needs to use them can contact me, Dan or John, if they need help, although resources are out there if they need to use it on their own time. I've also been collaborating with field workers, mostly Dan, on back backend asset management. Whenever he puts a new water line in, I've been able to make sure it's exactly where it needs to be and remove any previous versions that aren't entirely accurate. Doing that going forward can ensure we have the most up-to-date information. We don't have to go back anymore to edit any possible mistakes. Some short and long-term goals that I've had for my time here. Um, fingers crossed I'm almost done digitizing and scanning all the documents here. I think we're close to the end, but I don't want to speak too soon. um continuing to provide printing, scanning, and any digitizing information to those that would like it and increasing the accessibility to published maps and online .argis tools. Long-term, I do want to use those geo reference maps I showed y'all earlier to cross reference our present lines with where they should be. Although that would probably take years to do, it needs to be done eventually. I want to hold field collection to a higher standard moving forward using this and other GPS tools, making sure we know exactly where something is and never having to second guess. Continuing to build um these GIS tools and

applications um for the future going forward. Something like a updating our emergency snow routes or making an interactive income map for the city, stuff like that is fully possible. And I want to make sure that those kind of tools are publicly available to anybody that needs it. And I think John would like to close this out.

Yeah, sure. And I'll just I'm going to add on to what Car said. You know, we have some of our utility workers. Uh Jeremy, he likes to have the paper map from what the 80s 90s. Um and some of these maps, you know, you take them out in the field, they end up looking like lost pirate treasure maps. I mean, they they're falling apart. So, I'm really glad we were able to get a lot of this digitized and georreerenced. um kind of just in the nick of time because uh um but it it's been really really helpful and really useful um for all of our departments and um so thank you Carter. Um some of the long-term future plans that I have with the GIS and the planning department is going to be um you know we really want to improve where uh our assets are uh digitally because you know 101 15 years from now a lot of uh the experience may retire out. We're gonna have some new guys come in and, you know, they'll pull out their smartphone and they'll know exactly where to go to find these water lines. Now, where does that help us when we start digging and and trying to fix leaks and things like that, um, if we know where that water line is, if we know which valves shut off different water lines, um, that can save us tens of thousands of dollars. You saw when Dan did his presentation on the the work orders, uh, water leaks is our second biggest cost. Um, so really locating all of our utility assets and using the hydro excavator has been just a tremendous benefit to that. Um, we actually don't have to calling locates when we use the hydro excavator um, for simple quick jobs. However, if we don't have a good idea of where our stuff is, we might be out there using that thing for a couple hours instead of 10 15 minutes. Um, so anything like that to save tax dollars, I'm I'm all for it. Um, we also digitize a lot of forms. Um, I'd like to continue digitizing forms as you saw that big pile of papers we have in a closet there. Uh, it's it's hard to navigate that. It's hard to navigate a bunch of filing cabinets when you can just type in a couple of words and find what you're looking for instantly. Uh,

that's that's a huge benefit. So, we want to keep digitizing forms and um, you know, having customizable apps for not only the people that work here, but also the public. Um, so what you see here is, um, this is called the new stuff app. Um, we're really creative on the naming in our department. Um, but this just kind of shows you where the new stuff is. Um, we had a lot of calls saying, "Hey, are are we getting a Chick-fil-A?" Uh, the answer's no, not yet. But we want to have an app that says what what are we getting? Um, you know, what what are they building over there next to Lowe's? Well, with a click of a button, you can find out. Um, so we really want to to have that available to the public amongst number of other things. Um, and then like I said, you know, we have over 300 apps and tools our departments use. So, uh, every now and again we might get a worker like Ryan that says, "Hey, can we do something a little different on here?" Or Trent says, "Hey, can I draw a circle around that?" Well, yeah, we'll build you an app for that. Um so uh another big thing that uh I hope is coming in the future is hydraulic modeling and scenario runs for uh assets and uh infrastructure. Um you know if somebody wants to come and put in 300 apartments it would be really nice to to click a button and say well that's not going to work because of this. Um so things like that you know these are planning tools that could save the taxpayers thousands and thousands of dollars over time. So that's something that we really want to invest our time and resources in uh moving forward. And you know, as I mentioned, transparency and public access, we want to make sure that if the public has questions, uh we have the tools to answer them. Um so that's all I have. If there are any questions that think we'd all be happy to answer them. Um other than that, thank you all for listening.

Thank you, John. Thank you, John. That's a lot of good information for our city. Okay. From here, we will move on to a question. Yes, sir. What about property lines? Oh, that's a never ending chore, isn't it? Uh, so, um, the thing with property lines is you really need a surveyor to tell you where it is. You know, sometimes we'll get a survey in that uh you know, somebody will say, "Hey, we're doing a lot line modification." And at that time, we'll get a survey in. So, that's where this digitization comes in.

And you went through all these maps and put it on there. So, I disagree. Somebody decided me. So, if I did, then I should still be able to take care of that. That's something. Well, in property lines and all that, that's not that that's a PBA question. um you know they deal with a lot of the where the lines are and you'll notice on the PVA website uh it's a working map. A lot of times it's never going to be perfectly accurate. The only way to make it perfectly accurate is going to be a survey. Um we do try and draw in those as they come. Um but that's a a long-term ongoing effort.

The city has a scientist know where they Well, and that information is probably available. Um, you know, if there's a survey, it's as accurate as it can be. Um, so any other questions? Yep. Thank you, John. Thank you. Okay, we will move on and uh the next discussion will be and or possible action regarding Franklin Simpson planning and zoning administrator and Kenton Pal will speak to that.

Yes, mayor. Um, this memo I think the all the free world has it by now. Um so basically it's a what I've recognized as an oversight on my part in the forming of the planning and zoning uh do with their planning and zoning administrator. Um the the motion that as is to ratify a hiring of Carter Monday as the planning city planning and zoning administrator retroactive to July 16, 2025 consistent with the 2526 budget performance. So, we've not we do not uh we don't have documentation on this position being posted.

No. So, the position wasn't posted? No. So, doesn't that go against our personnel policy? Well, the the assumption is that Cardinal Monday was already an employee of the planning zone administrator, but but he wasn't. But then weed, as I said, it was an oversight. Our intent was, but it was the oversight on my part.

A lot of oversight. So, I mean, we don't we haven't we haven't put this out as a job. We haven't advertise. I don't see how retroactively hiring someone to do this job when they're supposed to be appointed by us is the right thing to do. So, I mean, I would I would move that we postpone this action until the next regular scheduled meeting until we have that information. What information?

The information that the job has been posted, that we have uh with administrator's duties will be none of that none of this documentation is included with this memo. It's just a memo. We have no documentation whatsoever to say what this job function will be doing. Where is his offer letter? We don't even know how much we're paying the person in here. This is just a blanket approval and I don't think that it's I don't think that it makes sense. So that's why we move her phone until that information has been provided. Is that your motion? That's my motion.

I'll second it. We have a motion on the floor to postpone this to further discussion. Further action. Uh we have a second. We have a motion by Commissioner Bush, a second by Commissioner Powell. Now, is there further discussion?

Clarify. I would like for you to restate your motion, Mr. Bush. So the motion would be to postpone this job to the motion is to propose postpone this agenda item until the documentation needs are met to hire this individual as the planning and zoning administrator. Just for clarification, the first time you said you wanted to postpone it until the next regular meeting. Do you not want to include that in your motion?

I don't think it should be. I think we need documentation before we make any kind of determination on it. Okay. I just wanted some clarification. That need to be included. And just for their benefit, do you mind to send in exactly what it is you're asking for? to whomever like I think you said a job description and yeah so it would be the normal it would be the normal information right so we need we need to have this posted it needs to follow our personnel policy we need to understand what this person's position is going to be understand the pay of this person so description salary

description salary and posting okay yes because right now and then I would also like a written your opinion if it's legal to ratify this fact July 16 and I understand

Mayor Dixon, are you ready for a roll call? We're ready for a roll call.

Okay. Wait, hold on one second. Oh, again, I'm I'm I'm processing and I'm hearing you. I I know the I know the the uh the concerns of the citizens in this room and and as it relates to what this is about. Um so I just want to be clear on what it is we're we're we're doing here. So, are are you saying are are you telling us that that are you voiding the position by creating a a description as it currently stands? Are we void are you are you making a motion to to void that out? Create this position with um all the descriptions, job descriptions, salaries and what have you. Is that is that

So what I'm saying is we've never done this we've never done this the right way. So procedurally we need to do this as if it was any other job posting. We need to look for candidates. We need to interview candidates and then we need to come back here as a commission and then vote whether to either hire or deny hiring to that candidate

because I don't I don't I don't think we can legally ratify this position back to July 16th because of the nature of the position. So the city manager, form of government, we we are the body that that does the hiring. Well, you can absolutely ratify it, but I'll put it in writing. I mean, you can you can ratify any decision where I mean, I didn't realize where we were either until we all saw this, but he's been That's not true. He's been That's not true. I told you. And your quote was we Yeah, we need to go back and clean that up. I told you. I don't remember you telling me, but if you did,

I got a screenshot of the call that night. It was like July 29th. It was a five hour call. Okay, I'm not going to sit and argue, but regardless, I mean, yeah, I mean, it's something that does need to be cleaned up, which is why this motion, if you're going to continue with it, needs to be made. Um, be that as it may, I mean, technically right now, I mean, he's either a de facto employee or he's, you know, an implied employee because he's been being paid for nine months, uh, without any any action.

So, where where was where was the meeting the budget ordinance? Which budget ordinance? It was in first of all we had the we had the meeting in March uh early March March 10th of last year. So, we had that meeting and

we had the meeting and I had notes that you guys authorized us to add him to payroll in I'm not sure the timing the next budget amendment which would have probably been June 10th was it June 10th amendment three we off we amended the budget to include his salary for the period from March to Jul or June 30th to cover that year. In that same time frame, we reviewed the whole budget for fiscal 26 and included um all the costs that we knew to be happening for the whole planning and zoning including that payroll. So what what meeting was that?

Uh we had two workshops. It was the second workshop. I don't know the dates off top of my head, Kelly. Um and then we the first reading would have been the first meeting in June and the second reading would have been the second reading in June. So that would have taken effect on July 30th or July 1st, sorry. And we started paying him whenever we got a notification from the county that they were no longer going to pay him. Right. That's when we started paying. And as far as what what we paid him, you guys authorized me to reach out to the county to understand what he was making and we just paid continue to pay him that same amount.

That's requested person attorney. Yeah. I want to make sure we're not kneejerking to do anything legally. My question to you is I'm sorry.

My question to the city attorney is I don't make sure we don't want to make a mistake. under unemployment law is an implied color of authority. Maybe since we agreed to do all that, how would one look at it? Is he employed or not? My opinion today is yes, because you've been paying it for nine months. he's an implied or an X facto employee and his actions would be his actions in the past would be still being protected under apparent authority or color of law or color of authority because

everybody here has acknowledged or at least held him out to be the planning and zoning administrator. No, I haven't. Well, you've emailed him and that capacity to get building permits. So, that clearly shows that yes, you kind of did, but regardless, everybody everybody had also delayed my building, too. Well, regardless, I mean, you still went to him, so you held him out to be that. And and I have, too. I'm not singling you out. I mean, it I mean, that's what has happened. So,

I have another question. And again, I've not made a decision yet as far. I just want to be clear that we're not doing anything wrong. So by what you said, if he is considered an employee in your opinion, isn't he also protected other under other other things being a government employee and and even age for that matter? Arguably absolutely. Well, I just want I just want to play Let me put it in perspective, please. Had he done something wrong? Like had he flagrantly done something wrong or had a wreck while he was in his class. Can you please let me finish? Okay. Thank you.

I I I I Okay, I get what you're saying, but you're want to argue with me when I'm trying to speak. I'm not trying to argue. Can Can I finish? Okay. Yeah, but you got to be factual about it. I am being factual about it. You You're not even listening to my hypothetical. you interrupted before I could ever finish. Done nothing wrong and that's not I was using I was trying to make a hypothetical. If you'd like to speak then mayor I'll stop.

There's also other stuff that he's done wrong that I presented to this commission before and after when he was an employee with the county or in the interlocal agreement. I've also presented stuff this commission and I've had conversations about things that have gone wrong while he's being assumed in this position. So, I'm just saying to be factual about it. There's not I wasn't stating a fact. I was giving you a hypothetical and you interrupted. Okay. If I can finish. My hypothetical is Commissioner McCra because you're the one that asked the question.

If he was out in his job capacity driving a city vehicle on that wreck, we would be liable in my opinion 100%. because he would be acting under color of authority and nobody in the world would not sue us because he did that. That was my hypothetical. I wasn't talking about actual facts because I don't know what all he's done and what he hasn't done. But my point is he has he he could create liability for this city commission and for this city because he has the apparent authority of work. He has the planning and zoning administrator. Therefore, to continue on to the next level, if you terminated him or if you did anything like that, yes, he might very well and probably does have protections under the law by the same token. So, we're kind of in a little bit of a precarious situation. And the main way to fix that would be one way or another would be that motion. But if that's not what you want to do now, I'm not suggesting that you do or not do it. The motion's on the table from Commissioner Bush to postpone it till whenever he gets the information that he's requesting. And that's where I'm going to stop for now.

My question is in the meantime between that two, is he still acting as the PNZ administrator to conduct business or not? I would say hired. So I'm sorry the crowd the crowd needs to I'm just trying to understand.

We I want to make a comment here. We're not taking comments from the from the from the crowd today. This is a discussion between the commission and and and this group. There will be time if later if but anybody that's going to belt out will be removed. And I want to make that clear. I will have you removed. This this commission is in discussion and this discussion is between this commission at this time.

So because because the of the issues that would arise, I would also amend the motion to say that we need to place in paid leave until we figure all this out. this motion at this point. It has not been called for a vote. He could, but I'm going to make a motion. Motion. Okay. We really don't need help from the car.

So, there's a motion on the table if he he can amend his motion. It has to have the second amended as well for it for a lack of a second. I second. So now the motion's on.

Okay, we have a We have Okay, we have a motion by Commissioner Bush. We have a second by Commissioner Power. Yes. by also with that until this situation is we've got a process that's obviously broken. So we need to understand why I want to clarify the second part. You want to also put Mr. Le on until the hiring process has been finalized. Um I know it's not your

I think that would be the most appropriate and then the person that was chosen to hire session

any further discussion there is yes so if we put this motion in place I mean it's it it stays in place until our next meeting.

I don't think you're special. I think that uh 6 months ago when we uh we put this in the budget um like it or not here we are 6 months later. How do we get to this point? I understand there's some things that has happened there. There's a very there's a very unusual peculiar situation that's taking place in this community. That's for another day to come to compensate about. But obviously I all know that that's that's what has seemingly expedited this feelings of this situation. So here we were 6 months in with this uh plan administrator and we have no we're we're somewhat of an impact. Um, I appreciate the fact that Commissioner Bush being on the commission. I appreciate the fact that in 6 months we bought this full. Uh I think obviously that is a good check to balance for us and and uh we don't always get it right but when we do get it wrong we do want to make it right in the way to make it right. Um how do we do that? How do we do that? Um I I'm not sure that that your emotion I I I'm not fooling your emotion. I understand the situation this planning is on administrative. Uh but I'm not voting for that motion. Uh I do what I personally know about what I personally feel like because the motion has been made and we have to carry that motion through. So you know once we get ready to do that we'll see where it goes and then if there's opportunity to move

forward with an additional motion then I would like to talk about that. Let's just see where this motion proposed motion. Where does that put us at legally? You're putting public correct been through it many times.

We got to do this the right way. There is a legal process and this function isn't that and yes the process is if you think he's done something wrong but we haven't talked about that so I'm well aware and the other thing that that I would say that's something I Thank you.

Yeah, we did on boarding. Yes.

We're going to call for question and we're going to have a vote. We're ready. All right. Commissioner Pal. Yes. Mr. Bush, yes. Mayor Dixon, no. Commissioner, absolutely no. Mr. Stewart, no.

We We'll move on to uh our next We've taken care of that. We'll move on to our next uh uh Hey, we're not taking from the audience. Uh, do you have a question of any nature? We've already voted for Commissioner Stewart.

Yes, I know. Yeah, I know we voted. Yeah, I'll wait for this vote uh to to commence to be able to for the next step that we can do. I would I would make a motion that we have our city attorney to investigate the process under which we are dealing with with our planning on management.

Hey commission commissioner Stewart speaking. Commissioner Stewart speak. I made it. So there's two questions that one is to hire him and then the second question. Say it again.

There's two questions inside this motion. One question is with the point of not made that motion on the table. The only motion that's on the table is the motion that you made. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Hey, I think I do know what I'm talking about. Uh I think you need to watch you need to speak you need to take your time to speak in order but neither of those motions is the only motion was before this board is the dual motion you just made and commissioner said.

This motion has not been presented before the board. If you'd like to present that motion, you can divide it into two. You can discuss it as you understand what I'm saying. I'm not so sure that there's there's none of that on the table. Okay. This is what I'm suggesting. Motion, right? Okay. This is going to be my motion. Considering what our city attorney has advises on him, it's pretty evident that people classified as a city employee because of the budget decision on board implied could lean heavily toward him. They're not doing this cautiously legally. That puts him in a governmental employee has a KRS for people have due process completely different problem. So I have to look at that. I like what commissioner Michael Stewart said. Here's going to be my suggestion. Everybody knows about the email. However, I believe in fair due process. I think you should put a plan in place. We have a not the city attorney. I want an outside third party nonbiased whoever will figure that out. I want him to look at all these emails. The legal aspect of possibly being a government employee for due process because we're going to get ourselves in trouble. This kneejerking and a quick decision is wrong. Not is it only wrong, it's immorally fair and not ethical. So, we've got to do the right thing and allow the due process. Now, if we find out that there's been policies,

ethical violations wrong, I'm the first one to not put up that. However, put yourself in the position that you would want fair due process. It's the right thing to do. So, that's my motion to leave it like it is completely and a third party outside to investigate it and return to the commission with the recommendations. That's my motion. If you can get all that don't interrupt the motion is to have a third party legal team, for better words, to investigate the recent emails from DNC administrator and make a recommendation ethically, morally, or legally wrong.

That's my motion. Part of that motion said first is to leave. Absolutely. You have to. You have to. That's my That's my motion. I'll call I'll call for a second. Second motion. Yeah.

I think if I motion is to have the third party investigate details of the plan existing plan to save our money to determine if they legally ethically improve and to allow him to stay in that role until such time as the findings are returned to responsible. Sure. He still stands as I say as I facto if the commission chooses to leave it here Mr. I hope you understand. I make conversations with you about this about employees. We just can't we just can't do that without we all were on commission with that month. It was put in the budget and we were all present and we were all there and we knew we knew what we voted on when we did it

and we we did a fair one. Right. So was there a second? I second I second. Yes. and we we haven't voted yet and and we've had discussion. So So I'll call for a question for I think we still got with the help of everything.

Oh, absolutely not. Scott, do we appreciate your question? The only thing you need to decide now or do something with this question. I want to make a quick decision to make it wrong. So I'm asking I mean you can you can know you don't have to decide it right. And I I I mean I I just I just had room to just make Well, next question. Can we legally talk about this after this meeting? It's like hey

I think you can talk about it further potentially session you're discussing some of these if you are discussing some of these actions you're discussing actions and trying to clarify investigating my problem is I don't I know for sure I like potential suggestions after with your motion. I think I'm good with your motion. I'm good with the second and I think we need the third. I think we need a third. Well, I don't think I need to think about it. I think we need We'll decide. We'll decide. We we'll uh we have a motion. We have a second on the floor. We've had discussion and I'm

going to call for fire. He has been deemed an employee. Is that correct? Yes. Yes. Then commissioner McCra is right. He he is a 40. He is due. He's he he is due process. Yes, he is. We We don't have choice on that. Yeah. Well, are we ready? We're ready for a vote. We're ready for a vote. All right. Thank you, Mr. Stewart. Yes. Mayor Dixon. Yes. Mr. Bush.

Mr. Yes. And that motion passes. And we will move on from there to uh Thank you, Kathy. We'll move on from there to uh public safety. And I believe we're uh going to have discussion of possible action regarding the purchase of a new uh police department police crew. Sir, before that, I need to talk about the insurance settlement. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I looked over that. Yeah, please do.

All right. So, um, as you have in your packet there, we've had a couple of accidents, one in July of 25 and the other in October, um, involving police vehicles, and both of those vehicles have more damage than, um, it's worth repairing. Mayor, maybe we should take a short break to clears out because there are people in the audience that can't hear me. Okay, we'll we'll take five minute recess. We'll take the five minute recess.

Well, you said whatever. Five minute recess. That's

Can I have a vote that we move back? Declare it back in session. We will now declare ourselves back into session. Carol, you may proceed.

Thank you. So, as I was saying, we've had two accidents with police vehicles in the last year. One was in July and one was in October. Um, both of those vehicles were damaged beyond the repable value. And so we have on the October 11th, we have the total loss declaration for insurance. I'm still waiting on the paperwork for the other one, but um with that paperwork, this is the first time we've done that with this insurance company. And there's some additional paperwork um to accept the settlement agreement, the power of attorney to transfer the vehicle to the insurance company, and an authorization for the insurance company to move the vehicle, and an odometer disclosure statement. And so what I'm asking for is to allow the mayor to sign any documents related to the settlements from the insurance company for these two people and that's to receive our money back.

Correct. Yeah. Okay. Okay. You've heard the proposal. Do I have a motion? No. We have a motion by Commissioner Bush. Second. It means either way. We have a motion by Commissioner Pal, a second by Commissioner Bush. Uh, any further discussion? All in favor? I I.

Any opposition? And that motion carries. Thank you, Carol. Apologize that I I checked it off. Okay. Now, Roger, we will move. Okay. We will move into discussion and a possible action regarding the purchase of a new um police uh cruiser. Yes, sir.

All right. Based off the conversation Carol just had um obviously one of our cruisers hit a deer. The other one got rear ended. Um did extensive damage obviously. Um for included in the packet for you uh you have an order from Freedom Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram and Lexon for the purchase of one Dodge Durango pursuit vehicle to a price of 43,798. The L & Wu output that is a cost of $16,100. The total cost is $59,898. The proposed action that I have today is to request permission to purchase a replacement crew cruiser for Freedom Chrysler Dodge Ram Flex as well as the uplift from LMW to price of $59,898 and have the mayor sign all documents.

Second. We have a motion by Commissioner Bush by Commissioner Powell. Any further discussion? All in favor? I I Any opposition? And that motion carries. Okay. And Roger, I believe you have the next also. Yes, sir.

Um I've also sent this uh with uh Texas State Police IA to Scott. He's looked at all the legal uh some language in it and approved it. Um, so basically, um, I need to get the approval to enter to get approval from the city commission to continue to be a part of the Kentucky State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. They're for me to authorize be authorized to sign with the ML. Uh, we've had people officers in the past, our detective every 5 years. They were on the Zack task force. Um, now that we've cycled in new detectives and also officer team, uh, There are all three on this task. So that's the motion. If there are not any questions we have a motion by Commissioner second by Commissioner Stewart. Uh any further comments or questions? All in favor? I

I. Any opposition? And that motion carries. Thank you, Chief.

Okay. From here we will move on to utilities and that will be discussion and a possible action regarding hydro truck warranty and train coffee is going to come to us with that. Thank you mayor. Uh we've received the paperwork from best equipment company for transfer the equipment and warranty registration for our new our new hydrovac um requesting authorization of the mayor to sign these documents. So close action request request the commission to authorize the mayor sign the forms the transfer agreement the market recruit contra we have a motion by commissioner pow second by commissioner Bush uh any further discussion and that's in our budget so we hear all in favor I and that motion carries thank you tren Okay, we will move on to ordinances and Miss Kathy today and ordinance number 2026001 ordinance amending a certain section of chapter 160 of the city of Franklin with ordinances entitled property maintenance relating to regularly scheduled meeting times. And we'll have first reading of ordinance number 20260002 an ordinance creating a new section to be known as section 90.02 2 of the city of Franklin's code of ordinances relating to multifamily dwelling numbering and signage amending section 90.99 to add penalties for violation. This concludes first reading of these

ordinances upon passage and publication. A full copy of meeting ordinance is available for request by contacting city clerk and city hall during business hours. Thank you very much Jackie. Okay. From here we will go into executive session and under executive session will be personnel and that includes discussions or hearings which might lead to the appointment discipline or dismissal of an individual employee or member under KRS61.8101F also litigation and that's discussion of proposed or pending litigation under KRS61.8101C 8101C and I will need a motion to go into executive session. Okay, we have a motion by Commissioner McCrae, secondary, second by Commissioner Stewart. All in favor? I. I. Any opposition? And we now move into executive session.

I will ask for a motion to come out of the executive session. So move, mayor. Second. Okay. We I have a motion by Commissioner Stewart and I believe a second by Commissioner Bush. All in favor? I And we now move back into regular session. And I believe we do have a motion to come before the board at this time. We We do, Mayor. You want me to do it? Go ahead if you want to. We need a We need a motion to accept the retirement letter of Chief Roger Solomon effective July 31 of 2026. I'll make that motion. Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Powell, second by Commissioner Bush. Any further discussion? He's too young to retire. I'll say that.

All in favor? I I Any opposition? And that motion carries. And from here we will move on to uh city attorney reports. Okay. City manager report.

Yes. I have one mayor. I'm just going to let you the commission know I've decided to resign effective uh be May 1st with my basically the contract and vacation time. So, uh, I'll be putting that in writing, uh, send it to commission to, uh, to review, but, uh, I just think it right now is a good time for me to, uh, to bow out and get some new blood into the the city. So, just letting you all know that, but there'll be a formal letter sent. Thank you,

Mr. Stewart. Oh, well, that was pretty good blow right there. Yeah. Uh I you know I know we talked about it earlier uh commending the city workers and all the employees and I I just want to personally uh commend you all for all the work you did. Uh I ran into some of our uh neighboring counties and uh they were very very complimentary of how our roads and things were. Know you guys was out there for a long time doing what you did doing those conditions and I appreciate you for all you did. Just wanted to thank you again. Commissioner Mcquary.

Same thing as Wendle. Uh my wife, she works in Mullen Green and drives to Monroe County. The comparison between counties on our road department is insane. You guys, hats off to you. Y'all are y'all are awesome. And uh secondly, I I've got blowed up on messages while we were in our meeting. We've got to look at our audio. Um you know those quotes I gave you a while back? Would you just take a peek at them? Yes.

Because we It's nobody's fault. We just got we got a problem somewhere in the system. Again, nobody's fault, but we definitely need to look at it, improve it. Uh I would first of all like to commend our uh our road department, our emergency management, all of for all the good job that they did again through the road work, the utilities worked. They all worked hard and you know while they were working we were all at home asleep in our beds enjoying some of the warmth and uh I just can't express my appreciation enough to all of our utility road work people again I want to say a huge huge thank you and also uh I want to extend another uh appreciation uh the Anderson family who lives in Portland Tennessee are very close friends of mine and uh a member of their house burned, the home place burned and uh our uh the response uh that they had from Franklin and and our fire department, they really really really appreciated that and I just want to say a huge thank you to uh they asked me to express that for them. I'm doing that. And again, they were so so appreciative of the uh of the support that they got from all the fire departments. So again, uh thank you,

Commissioner Bush. So we're having a issue with electrical inspections and it's been how long? Over a month. So So it's been a month. What are we what are we doing to get the electrical inspections? Are we talking electrical inspection or building? I don't know. I guess we just need to meet. I don't know if this is the same thing we're talking about earlier. So, I can't tell you.

Well, if it's expanded jurisdiction, then then there's there's an issue there. So I think if that's you're looking where you're looking to build that that's expanded jurisdiction. We don't have that certification currently. You have to go to the state. Could John Chandler do it? Yes. So can we not sign an agreement with John Chandler so that he can do something? He can go do an inspection. So why we have to sign an agreement? He's got expanded jurisdiction over Simpson County. If they ask him he does it, we'll do it. So wait, what was it?

He has expanded jurisdiction over Simpson County already. You don't have to ask him. They ask him. If he does it, we do it. But he's not on our list of approved vendors. He's been on the expanded jurisdiction. We never removed him. He's Simpson County. So we can ask John Chandler to be the electrical inspector. He did the electrical inspection for the school, but that's different. That was that was done before the split. So Scott, do we have He's still got expanded jurisdiction. That's what he's saying. So call John and tell him instead. That's what you're saying. Do that because he's not set up as a vendor for the city to be paid. No, no, they were talking about paying him.

Okay.

We were told that he couldn't do it unless the city basically speak the school. We were told that was because he filed a permit before he was I think it was filed before the separation. So he he could do the school. I the thing is I've spoke to numerous people and everybody tells me something different. We have no idea. And here's the other thing y'all don't know. We went ahead and filed with the state. I got I called the state Friday. We're not on file. They don't have our name, our address. He got on there and looked. He's an IT guy. He couldn't find it. It's not even been turned into the state. And we've already spent over $100,000 locally, might I add. All the equipment going in is local. So, I mean, we've already got a lot of that stuff in. Our walk-in freezer was delivered, I think, last week. We got over it cuz I mean, we're hoping to get open by March. We can't even get the power on. Jamie, I like I want to clarify something. Did you turn in an application to the RPMZ to turn it into the state? Eric, the franchise or Eric,

pardon, the franchise for the restaurant, Eric did turn in, he turned it in to an email. He sent them the zoning pl zoning for the on with our architect who's familiar with the process sent it to and we've heard absolutely nothing. Okay. I'd ask the city manager to explain the process for a permit for the state.

Well, you have to submit it to the state. If you're the one extended jurisdiction, you would have to submit it personally from the business owner. Uh that doesn't go through the city. Now, I don't know if you submitted it to the count through to the city. I do not know. If you did, we can find out. But from my understanding, as you were told to submit it to the state, you said you submitted for three weeks ago and nothing comes back. Is that the way I understand? Do you have the email showing you where you were sent? Yeah. Okay. I'd like to see that.

So, and then we go because typically it just takes four weeks once the state gets it. So, we've already wasted a month and the state should have already approved it theoretically. I don't know where the holdup is, but this is one of those things. It's one in a million extend expanded jurisdiction that we don't have control over. We can beat it to death, but that's basically the fact. Eric never did call me. I was trying to verify all. That's why I asked because I mean they're slam bowl and today's national pizza day. They didn't know. So, but will you Will you let me know too if he actually submitted to the state and the Just send me the I got your number. Send me the email where you sent it to the state

where he sent it. But it didn't really show the happened when it was actually. Yeah. Show just for me the email. Yeah. central time January 19th this year to to where zoning at Kentucky but that wasn't to the state you just sent it to city of Franklin what we're told to do I believe well I was still different from we just need to serve the way

we get we're getting misinformation well I don't want to say it's misinformation but what's been happening the past four or five days I'll talk to somebody they tell me something and then I tell the person, hey, blah, blah, blah. Well, that ain't right. And if the problem is you can't get the county and the city to meet together, I mean, I we I watched the meeting and Kelly made that motion and nobody second.

Well, I'll make the motion again within the next 15 business days. We set a special call meeting with the county properly advertised. The only thing on the agenda would be to talk about planning zoning issues and how we can work together to move forward to make it better.

Motion dies for lack of a second. What is it with y'all? not want to meet with the county. Like, we've got two meetings scheduled a year. Like, this is not hard. Like, it's not like I don't understand the issue. Like, what what what is the actual issue of not wanting to sit down and have a conversation with the county? Okay, y'all be bear with me. I'm going to be winded. I put this on put this off long enough. We don't know why. Yeah. I've had conversations with you guys for the last three years. Well, then articulate it. Don't just say we know why. Let's

Okay. Yeah, I would explain. Commission. Okay. Yeah. I don't know where to start. I'll try. Yeah.

So, when we hire employees, certain things are expected. When you have an employee that worked for the city and county jointly at one point and every and the county has policies and so does the city when somebody violates those policies and nothing was done. However, sometimes when some other people at other departments violate those policies, they get chastised. depends on if it's the fire department or wherever. I'll just use an example. Maybe maybe that's so maybe not. But if it's another person does, it doesn't apply to them. So when you ask me, do I want to hire a certain person? I have to be able to look at Trent Coffee, Daryl Mallerie, don't you guys do this. Don't you get on social media. We'll fire you.

We will fire you. Just use an example. So, you want to entertain hiring somebody to the city that has done the very same thing that I'm telling you I'll fire you for. Help me out. HR, you can't Oh, let me finish. You asked me. Let me finish.

You can't have a double standard just because somebody holds credentials. That's called being held hostage, is it not? over your policies that you have to enforce to these employees. I will not hire a person that has done all this disrespected the other organizations policies but nothing was done about it. Don't know why but it's facts. Everybody knows it. Then I'm going to turn and I'm not done. So, you're going to ask me to do that and look at those guys and say, "Don't you do it. I'm not going to be held hostage over credentials because I'm not going to hire people exactly what I said.

I don't I'm not going to disrespect our and as a employer we are. I'm not going to disrespect my 80 employees because if you do and you make that decision, I'm going use you for example, TR. Is it okay? Thank you. If we did that, you could go out and do whatever you wanted tonight. Blast us, social media, whatever. And I couldn't do a dang thing to you because you can't have it both ways. Or you're going to get your tail suit off. Am I correct? I'm asking. That's correct. For the most part, is important. That's correct. I won't be held hostage because of credentials. That's right. And people violating policies. So there we go, Kelly. There's your answer. That's not an answer. Sure it is. It does make sense.

We're being held hostage now because y'all don't get along and we just going to feed all y'all. I want to be left out of all this. I get asked every day when y'all open and I'm like waiting on the city. Jamie, you you know I try to do every last three days. But y'all got to get I explained why. It ain't about us getting along. It's about It's not about No, it's not. I've been an employer. I've managed people for 40 years. So, I'm talking that Every person around this table here knows exactly why. They know exactly why. And I can call it out if I'm forced to. I'm trying to not to, but I'll call it out.

Well, you're sitting right there. Well, yeah. So, I'm just Okay. So, my to clarify to clarify, can we move on? We'll move on. We'll just we'll uh I'm just trying to understand how that was an answer. Okay, perfect answer. We got your Cheerios or whatever. You got upset about it. No, why can't we get over it and like move forward? Okay. Like we're just trying to get I mean I won't hire an individual like that. I won't I'm not going to do that to our employees. Not going to Oh, wait. You're talking about John Chandler. I didn't say any names. I'm just saying what I said. It took me a minute. You're not talking about me.

You're a little late. We're doing that. We're We're moving on. We're moving on to We're moving on to It's still time. John going to be

okay. I have a question. City manager made a comment that John Chandler has jurisdiction in C County inspection. It's true that he does. It's true that he's still a county employee, but until we receive some notification from the city that he is allowed to do these inspections for the city, that cannot happen. Now, we're willing to do the inspection. We would be willing to do all of these

and and and a letter was sent to you on December 1st and again on December 23rd to have a discussion about this, but I got no response. So my question is we we would gladly do the inspections if the city would authorize that. Well, we're not going to authorize it. I would make a motion. So that we're not going to authorize it. So will that settle your would that settle? Was that settled for you? We're not going to authorize it. As long as I'm mayor, we're not going to authorize it. I would make a motion. We thought we went the right way.

Jeremy, what I beg I'll try to you just find out if it was I know you're out there. You check the citizen website. That don't necessarily mean anything. I I just want to call and say you have our information. What? I would ask the state personally just call and say you have our application. They don't. I did call. You talked to somebody. I called on Friday. They don't have our address. They don't have the name of the business. I mean, I'm like, geez, we're really We tell Eric to please call me. Oh, please. Or I can get it straight how he actually

I mean, we don't want to be pulled into this because I know I know every one of y'all. Y'all, some of y'all know me since I was five or six years old. We just want to feed all of y'all. We I'm telling you, we've already got a guy coming from Chattanooga. Going to have an arcade, something for the kids to do. We're going to have ice cream like Little Joe's used to have. I acquired. You know, I told you I acquired two footballs from James Munan. I've already had the uh the uh what is it? The historical society reach out. They said if you ever get rid of them, we want them. It's the two footballs where we won the state title signed by the whole team. I'm getting the FS neon light made. I mean, it's it's going to be great for the town, but we got help to get started. I mean, we're ready to go. Please tell Eric to call Kitten and I please the horse's mouth.

So I would make a motion that we send a letter to the county allowing John Chandler to do flood control inspections inside the city of Franklin case by case basis expanded jurisdiction for expanded jurisdiction because you obviously don't want him inspecting the garage that I'm building. So cool. Yeah, that's my motion. What's the motion? I I don't quite understand the motion. The motion is to send a letter to the county saying that we would allow John Chandler to do electrical inspections inside the city limits of Franklin for inspections that need expanded jurisdiction.

Well, there's got to be more to that. Will will there be agreement with the county? Will it be uh will the money be coming from the city? That's right. Uh, this is him. There's got to be more to that motion than just that he's delaying. Okay. He's going to die for a lack of second. So, Dale, that information was in that email date December 23rd. I'm aware, but I was listening to Mr. Bush's motion. Not sure if I understand.

I came today, too, because I I know this is on TV and I wanted I told everybody to watch today. I said, "You're going to see who's trying to help us and who ain't." Cuz I mean, I like I said, I don't we don't want to end this. I just want to open the thing. All of y'all come down here. That's why my mother wanted this. My mother's a she's owned a business here for years. I mean, jeez, she going to be alive by the time we get this thing built. I was at your place Thursday. I like Well, I Jeremy, I think you've been directed as to what to do. So, uh, have whoever you need to to call. Point of order. There's there's a motion on the floor.

I know, but that nothing's happen or nothing or do something. Can I say something one more thing? No, I'm not running the meeting. He just asking the mot the motion's died for lack of second. Okay. What would you like to say? I'm not done. We were told y'all would do that. Mason assured me we would be able to roll Wednesday. Y'all want to We We just took a motion. Jeremy, Commissioner Pal, I made a motion we journ.

We have a motion. Have a second. All in favor? I. And we're now journed to I think