County Commission - Regular Meeting

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So if you just touch pretty.

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like to call this meeting to order the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners monthly work session sir would you please call the roll 21 members present zero absent I believe that's the record I do believe would everyone please stand for the prayer led by Mr. Marcus Reed and remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance led by Mr. Sammy Solomon

Father, Lord, we come into your presence with thanksgiving and praise. Father, I thank you for this county that you brought me into as a citizen. And I thank you for being allowed to serve the citizens of this county. And Lord, as a person who I'm going to respect, that tonight, as a commissioner, we should serve with integrity. And Lord, sometimes integrity is a hard word to digest in the world that we live in. Father, I pray for each commissioner present, those that are new, that you would guide and direct them, that you would uplift them. And I pray for all of us, Father, that we would sincerely desire with an open mind, with an open heart, and an open being to serve the citizens of this county with that integrity. Lord, I thank you that you have given us the United States of America to be a citizen. lord i help want to remind people of what yesterday represented or two days ago represented by the people that we lost at the world trade center and in pennsylvania and at the lord i just pray for the families of those people at the pentagon award I thank you for the people that I've grown to know and love in this county. And Lord, I just thank you that we can be worshipers of you. And I pray that we would do that with sincerity and that someday we will inherit your kingdom. In your unique son's name I pray, Jesus. Amen.

Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Mr. Lance, you have a request to speak. Yes, sir.

So, I would expect to think over 7,000 individuals that we have lost during the initial phases of the Civil War in Europe, and in recognition of the sacrifice that Sanity's made and was recognized for the 25th anniversary of 9-11, I respectfully request that the moment of silence be acknowledged to us, their losses,

But everyone please bow today. i'd like to thank everyone for coming out to see them and uh next on the agenda we have proclamations and courtesy resolutions we have uh all of our uh commissioners that are no longer with us back to private life they will be honored in the next meeting next on the agenda we have approval and corrections to the agenda i think we've got an item or two mr clerk

I had a request from Mr. Arnold to speak tonight with the director of schools and then additionally without objection we had some surplus resolutions from them that get passed to you for information only no action required but I'd like to put those on the agenda for next week all right anyone else question comment Mr. Byrd

something that's been all over Facebook and here's the thing we're going to talk about and I want you to listen to the whole thing before you say anything because it's very it'll be very informing all right first off we got to have a balanced budget in this county we can't run a deficit we can't spend more than we bring in And some of the comments were made about people taking kickbacks and stuff like that. We have the state come in and audit our books. We cannot be doctoring books. Jessica does a good job with it. So that kind of upset me when you were accusing some of the commissioners of doing that. Second off, it was on the website Concerned Citizens where you were raising cane about the roads, how bad the roads were. And then later it come up where the head of the road department told you that he didn't have money to fix the road. So that got me looking for a way maybe to find some money that would be earmarked only for pavement, for black tops, for fixing the holes in the road everybody was complaining about. This money could only be used for it. Now, Like I said, road repair, potholes, etc. Now, how many of you go to Knox County to eat? Show of hands. Go to Superior County to eat. Show of hands. You know you've been paying a 2% food tax in both counties. Everywhere you go to a restaurant. Didn't know if you knew that or not. Knox County is a 2.75% tax on food. Now, this tax would not affect groceries. It will not, let's see here. You cannot tax food prepared for churches, senior citizen centers, nursing homes, boarding houses, or cost of food included in rental rate, and it doesn't apply to alcoholic beverages. It was just, you go to McDonald's, you buy a Coke, right now it's $1.10. It'd be $1.12. Two cents on the dollar. If you spent $10, it'd be 20 cents. You go $100, it'd be $2. And a 2% prepared food tax. So, here's the thing, though. This was just, I sent it out to all the commissioners. It was even on Facebook. Transparency, there's plenty. Everybody saw what I was looking at. Way to raise money to fix the roads. Now, here's the thing about it, folks. We can't do it. state won't allow us to do it we are not a tourist county even though we have lakes we have all this tourism we are not allowed to do this because we don't have an amusement park we don't have a hundred thousand people i mean i have went through the tennessee code and marked everything we don't have so we can't do it anyway this was something i just wanted to you know talk about and get out there as It's not a property tax increase. It's not another will tax. Again, will tax increase. This is something that if you didn't know it was there, you would never have noticed it, Harvey. Now, I would like to ask our attorney, did I not explain that right? The state won't let us do this. Yes.

That tax only is for the incorporated cities within Sevier County specifically. It's not designated, that's designated by population bracket. Anytime the legislature You may want to make sure that it affects a single county. They put a population bracket on there. So that affects. It doesn't even affect unincorporated areas of Sevier County. It's only municipalities with incidents. The short answer is no, Jefferson County cannot. It wouldn't apply to us absent a change in the law.

Thank you. Now, here's something else. Also, I was thinking about on this. As far as the, first off, you can always just look at me and I'm definitely not anti-restraint. I mean, I like to go out to eat and I lived at the hoagie shop for years. So, I mean, that was college hangout time. So all these people are saying I'm anti-restraint. I'm not. I'm trying to find a cheap way to raise some money for these roads. And like I said, at most, if you got a bill for $100, are you going to notice the $2 more? And I know a lot of, like I said, I know a lot of you go to Longhorn Steakhouse, to Cheddar's, to Chili's, because we don't have those big restaurants. Now, me personally, I'm not going to go there. I'm going to be able to see food. It's a lot better than Red Loft. But it's not anything anti-business. Like I said, I'm just trying to find a way around to help without affecting the most people. And anyway, you said something about everybody in the county eating out would have to pay for it. Guess what? Everybody that's in the county eating here that's out from the other counties from other states on vacation would be paying it too. All right? We can't do it anyway, so there's no reason to get this heated and aggravated. The only thing we can do is maybe get David working on it. If you really change your mind and think about what I've said tonight, get David working on it at the state, get Andrew Farmer, get on his high end, and Jesse Seals on their high end to try to get this thing changed to where we can do it. But I don't see it happening. Now, that's all I got to say about it. Like I said, I thought I would just, before everybody gets up here and starts hollering and screaming and pressing With the citizen's right to speak, I'll just address everything you probably had questions about. Anybody want to ask me anything right now? Did I help explain what was going on? All right. Thank you.

Yes, ma'am. Where is the wheel tax going and what is the purpose of the wheel tax?

You can't take questions out of the audience, Gary. Okay. Well, that's one thing that was brought up, too. I'm glad she said that, though. This would not go for salaries. It would not go for maintenance, repairs on machinery. It would be only for fixing potholes and fixing the roads. Now, I don't know exactly what you asked. That's probably for what I just said it's for. Salaries, fixing machinery, buying new machinery. The wheel types. So, that's all I need. I'm done.

Mr. Brunner and then Ms. Jan Linton. yes I would like to address County Commission that as new commissioners we have 90 days to to amend our policy procedure and rules so we have a time crunch on that I would like to amend the agenda for next week's meeting that we could vote on an ad hoc committee for getting anything that might need to be addressed in our nominating committee. We ran into some rules and procedures that need to be addressed. so i'd like to amend that we're able to vote on an ad hoc committee on next week on the committee agenda robert uh actually we would need to move that to the work session in october

so we could go through a work session because this is work session tonight it's voting meeting next monday would you be good with moving it to the next work session yes okay well i was going to do it i was going to do a point of order in regards to his statement

The point of order would be in regards to his statement about appointing an ad hoc committee. I believe what he's suggesting is that we add it to next week's agenda to come up that particular topic to appoint an ad hoc committee. next meeting our actual voting meeting correct correct right so they're wanting to nominate and appoint a committee next week at least put together an ad hoc committee next week i believe that's what he's suggesting okay see we can't make a motion to vote right now but we can move it till next week if nobody objects

Nobody on the floor objects, and I'm not saying we will move it to the agenda next week. It'll be new business.

Correct. Okay, I'm still.

Robert, you done? Jan, you done?

No. okay I would like to add to the agenda according our rules policies and procedures apparently now is the proper time to add items to next week's agenda and since there are so many new folks in my past experience has shown this is it possible that we can I would like to add an executive session for the purpose of briefing County Commission on the active litigation regarding any and all County business as well as any anticipated litigation is that proper sure And that we go under new business. Well, wherever. I don't know what your procedures are, where you put executive session on the agenda, but we'll go from there, okay?

We will place it. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to request if Ms. Leach would like to, could we move that to the first item on the agenda, please?

We can. I guess nobody has a problem with it. We just found it. That will come under... from the crutches of the jammies.

Actually, we need to let Dallas through first. What do you think, Brian? We don't. There's just the jammies. Where do you want to go to? The jammies. We don't. We don't. After.

It would have to come before proclamations if it's going to be the first item. That's something that I make it work. You do it with that or would you rather drop it?

You good? You're acting safe. Right after the pledge.

all right i got everybody jim and you still want to speak you good all right we will move right along uh on your agenda for next week we'll be election officers chairman chairman pro temp chaplain and parliamentarian next we have consent agenda and mr frank is going to give you a little song and dance on how all this works

I listed the Rule K and your rules on the agenda just for you to review. I won't insult you by reading it tonight, but basically it's short of the consent agenda. We started that a couple of years ago, and then we went away from work sessions, so it kind of became a new point. But there are several items on your agenda, you'll notice, that may be non-controversial, Very important but non-controversial, but of little importance that just parliamentary things have to be done. Approving your minutes, approving notaries and bonds. a lot of surplus resolutions, department reports, anything like that. Here, this work session would be the time, if you want that placed on the consent agenda, we can do that and dispose of all that with one vote. In years past, we've taken a vote to group things and then taken a vote to pass things, and so this would eliminate a lot of votes. I think one of our meetings a couple months ago, we had about five items that really hadn't been voted on. and we dispose of a lot of business pretty quick. No, you have to make a request at this meeting to put it on the consent agenda. And then if you put it on the consent agenda and Mr. Henry doesn't, he objects to it, it stays off the consent agenda. we've got to come to it first we have to come to each item we've got to come to each item and then you can be put on the consent agenda so any questions on that i'll be happy to fill now or at a later time but just wanted to give you kind of a little heads up of what the consent agenda is all about And the mock voting, I was asked by Ms. Huffaker, I believe, to have the computer set up. I'm doing a little voting tonight, just so everybody can familiarize yourself with it. We typically don't have the computers up at the work session, just because the only key up is just the initial roll call from the start of the day, and I collect that, and then I keep your timers manually up here. But I set up a few simulated votes. We can go through a little processes just so the new commissioners are familiar with what's going on. We come to an item on the agenda. You'll see on the screen up top and on your tablet says test question one. It's set up as a majority of full membership. At this time, if this is a resolution you're proposing or you're in favor of this, you can make a motion to approve it. And Ms. Leach made a motion. Mr. Parker provided a second. Anytime we request to speak, obviously, want to speak, it puts everybody in queue during our voting meeting. Open it for conversation.

Once you have a motion and a second, you're open for conversation.

Right. once once that is started and then miss huffaker just hit amendment because she wants to amend the motion wants to change something has a question in the middle of discussion so she can amend it if she gets amend and she says i didn't mean to do that frank all she's got to do is turn around and tell me i didn't mean to do that i can ignore it i can take it off but in this case i'll accept her amendment So there, she's amended it. Her amendment would require a second, which Mr. Byrd just did. And then if there's no discussion on it, we proceed to a vote. Everybody votes it up or down. Once all the voting is complete, then the tally is shown.

I don't know what you just did, Frank. It passed. It passed. It takes 11 votes to pass, by the way.

So that was Ms. Huffacre's amendment. Then we moved back into the original motion that she made. Let's see here. now you got to vote on the original motion as needed move into the original motion that ms legia made and mr parker seconded and now ms legia is requesting to speak when she's recognized she'll have a microphone anybody else that requests to speak will go in order from that point on we proceed into a vote And that vote is 15 to 6. It still passed. I will say with this, my favorite saying with computers is garbage in, garbage out. Good data in, good data out. I tend to make mistakes from time to time. And how I set the question up in here if i set it up for a majority of four membership and it requires two-thirds if it's something that requires two-thirds and i didn't catch it when i'm setting it up it may say it passed but it may really fail and we correct that with you know in the minutes this is not permanent record here this is just a tool but if i put garbage in it we're going to get garbage out i do my best to get everything in there correct but there are times that i do make mistakes Just ask my son, he'll tell you. Any questions on the voting system? Thoughts, ideas? To our new commissioners, I would like to introduce two very important people to our meetings. Mike Bolton, who does our audio visual, and Ms. Danielle Pullen, who leads the train of everything technology. Her team spent about two days updating all these tablets, and I think they're working a whole lot better than they were.

Just a brief bit of information. We are currently kind of tweaking the sound system tonight. So here's a couple things. If you're going to speak, Use the microphones, okay? That helps everybody out in the gallery, but it also helps us on the volume on our YouTube stream. Roll the thumb four to six inches away from the microphone. There's a few that like to eat the microphone. So let's not do that. Let's just four, somewhere between four to six inches away. So I would appreciate it. And then also let you know, we are looking to upgrade our video audio or our video system, getting some better cameras. So the technology department is currently working on that. Thank you.

Okay, I'm just I'm going to take this a minute while we got the voting machine going here and I want to explain something that I got a lot of phone calls this weekend about Mr. Rick Burns 2% tax on food. And a lot of people was asking me about the track that that would go on to be legitimately a tax. And while we got the voting machine up here, you know, to add a tax, you have to have a two-thirds majority. And that was the point that I had a lot of trouble getting a normal public to understand is that any time that you add a tax to the data, You have to have a super majority, which is 14 here. So that's what Frank was talking about, that a simple 11 won't pass it. Now, for a tax to pass, just like the will tax, those of you that was here when we voted on the will tax, it has to be consecutively in two regularly scheduled meetings. In other words, them meetings have to be scheduled so you have to follow a strict criteria for these votes for that to work for a tax. That's the only way a tax can be approved in this courtroom. That's the only way it'll work. So it has to be voted twice. So the emergency that I was getting phone calls about today, oh my God, they're going to pass the tax, that won't work that way. So I just wanted everybody to understand that it's got to pass twice by a supermajority. So in other words, two-thirds of this commission would have to vote for something before it is legitimately passed. Then it has to be voted on again and maintain the 14 votes. Does anybody have a question or comment about taxes? Let's move right along. You'll have a four-year regular monthly meeting minutes of July the 20th. Is there a question or comment? Next, we'll move into appearance of citizens. We have three. Does anybody else wish to speak? I only have three. First up, if you please come to the podium, you will have three minutes to give your name, your address, and what you'd like to speak about. You'll have three minutes to talk. Mr. James Johnson, you will be the first speaker. Please come to the podium. And on deck will be Chad.

I believe two of them left after I explained to him that the 2% tax wouldn't work. Oh, okay. That may be why you don't have them here.

We'll run right through. The next one will be Mr. Brad Toomey.

Thank you. I just wanted to first say congratulations to all of you. I heart-feltly wish you all the best in what you're embarking on for the next four years. Do your best with accounting, do the best with our money, because we can all definitely use it at home. My only comment I wanna make tonight really is around taxes in general. I appreciate that the subject was brought up because I think you're gonna feel the raw feeling of a lot of people out there that things cost too much and we're already taxed too enough and we pay too much in taxes across the board in our lives. And so as a first solution, please be mindful of spending with our money. That's my only answer that I have for you over the next four years. And I'll be here at your meeting, especially at the budget meetings, to make sure you're doing that. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Next, we'll move right along to nominating committee. We have new chairman, Ms. Jen.

Hi, Mr. Chairman. Jim, on the back of the back.

Ms. Jen Cardillo. Come on up, sir.

Good evening. My name is Chad Cornell. I live on Parkertown Road in White Pine. I wanted to speak briefly about the leadership of this commission. I'm not intimately familiar with the procedures that surround the topic, but I hope that this is the correct forum for the elections to happen next week. This is a substantially different commission than the one that sat here last term. More than half of the body is new. I think that creates an opportunity for this commission to take a fresh look at its leadership as well. From my opinion, I think that Marcus Reid brings an experience to that conversation. He's previously served as chairman of Pro Tempore and has experience presiding over this body. He knows county government, he knows how this commission operates, and he's shown a willingness to ask questions when questions need to be asked. I think Jim Snodgrass brings a different kind of experience. His work on long-range planning, financial management, shows an ability to look beyond this meeting and the next meeting and consider where Jefferson County is headed. Whether that place is either a commissioner as chairman or chairman as pro tempore, I think that you just deserve to be in that conversation when those elections happen. The makeup of this body has changed. It's an opportunity for this commission to establish its own leadership and its own direction. I ask that you take advantage of that chance. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Next, we'll move right along to report selected officials. First, we have County Mayor Randy Bates.

It's a little different standing on this side, I promise you. Y'all got a great commission here together. I look forward to working with all of you. I did put out a, I have a sheet made that's got all your contact information. Double check that and see if it's wrong or right. Just double checking if it's wrong, that's enough. And that way we can get that updated. Again, I look forward to working with everybody. I have some stuff coming up next week on nominations or people that I'm presenting for different positions. I didn't get it all done this week because obviously we had a little issue at the landfill. And we addressed that and working with TDEC in regards to that. But hopefully we move forward in this county in the next four years, all of us work together. I don't expect us all to agree, but it's a matter of working together to do what's best for the county. And that's something that I feel like everybody on that side and everybody in this room has a heart. Even if we don't agree, we need to work together. So look forward to that and appreciate everybody. It's a different job over there, I promise you. It really is. The ones that have been here for a while, they tell you the same thing, that I look forward to working with all of them. So thank you.

Question or comment for the lawyer? Anybody? Jan, you got four.

The nominating committee met this evening prior to our work session. Chair was, we selected our officers. Jan Leija will be serving as chair. Greg Berg will be serving as vice chair. And then Jason Bales will be serving as secretary. At our Monday meeting, our voting meeting, we will be submitting nominees for the personnel, finance, and facilities. There are a number of committees, so I would encourage, and the committee agrees with this, if you're interested in serving on a committee, please let us know. I'm gonna be calling a special meeting so that it's noticed properly, so that our nominating committee can really have the time and thought in putting the right people on the committee. So if you're interested in serving in committee, please reach out to one of the nominating committee members or to myself, okay?

Thank you. Anybody have questions at the moment? Sure.

who is the new rep from White Pine on the nominating committee or from district 3 rather Nick Mr. Leckie I think he showed up right I showed up but Taylor was on the paper okay all right so as long as we got someone good anyone else before we move on we'll move right along

They've got the county mayor out of the way. Chairman's comments, that'd be me. The only thing I have for you this evening is a seating arrangement. This is the work session and a lot of the commissioners have reached out and talking about the seating arrangement. That's facing the audience. If you want to face sideways, now's the time to talk about it. Speak. Who's got ideas? Who brought it up? Four or five different people. Jan was three times.

I ain't going to say what her nickname is yet. So the discussion was had by a few of the new members when we were training, and appears when you're sitting in the audience is that we're just playing this way instead of us communicating with each other as well as the audience and so a suggestion was made that if there was a possible way and I don't know if we can configure in here where our tables where we're facing each other we can see the chair as well as the audience a way so that we're communicating directly with each other instead of me just looking at the back of your all's heads all the time so that that was the discussion and it is the attempt is so that we can work together in talking to some of the leadership at training and I mean the the folks that were giving us training they encourage anything where if you're a horseshoe or anything else because it encourages our our discussion time so that we see each other and we're working together instead of just just trying to make statements and be a show horse versus a hard worker. And I know all these members up here want to work hard, but I'm just trying to find a better way that it's more conducive to us working together as well as being available for the audience, but also for the chair. So that was my suggestion.

Anyone else have an opinion or comment? The only other way that I see this could work is that just like on this side over here where you've got them on angles, if you do that on both sides and let the middle be this way in rows. But the audience will be looking, you would have to do this and then do this. So if y'all want to try that, we will look into the measurement of the tables and see if that is possible.

I'm going to turn it over to Mr. James. Yeah, Mr. Chair. Is it possible to have like a B configuration spread out? And then we could possibly have a couple of rows.

Well, you know, the problem we got tonight is we look like we're crowded here because it's been, I know it's been four years since we had 21 people. And, you know, I mean that in jest, but I'm serious. You know, I'm impressed. Take a look at this. You know, we've got a crowd. So, Katie.

Is there a way to do it this way and you have a little taller table in the back and a little shorter in the front? Yeah.

I mean, I don't know. Just a suggestion.

All I know is we're going to have to get with Jeff and maintenance and we're going to have to turn the tables and see what we can make fit. I mean, that's all I know to do. But I think everyone's interested, correct? Is everyone interested? How's that going to work with you guys?

Ideally, the problem is the columns here. That's your problem. And honestly, there's 21 commissioners here. and you know the front the front banister the front wall right there the v-shape might work but it's doing a horseshoe you probably don't know i don't think the horseshoe will work if you actually have you know the second row is a little higher yeah that's that's creating because they're still having the work here so

All I know is we'll give it a try. So I was going to say, we had video on the back and we could see each other from the video on the back. I mean, we're having to face this way. We're working on that as well, too.

I think when we get our new video, it's going to be pretty cool. All right, well, let's move right along. Next we got Mr. Doug Drennan. Doug, you got anything for us? We'll see you next week.

Frank, do you have anything? I have a request to write off some uncollectible debt out of our clerk fee account. We received, unfortunately, two counterfeit $100 bills. The bank was impressed with. I wasn't very impressed with. In speaking with our auditors, I have two options. I can ask you and you can approve for me to pay that out of... our clerk fee account and write that off as a as a uncollectible debt or you can say no and pay that out of my pocket so one of two ways there and your uh your pleasure next week jim we got a comment for that we can't go tonight like we can't vote tonight just out of curiosity how are your personnel trained directly no if you recognize the counterfeit currency we had the counterfeit pens And these two particular bills, in fact, did pass the counterfeit pen test. The bank was 90% 100% one of them was fake, 50% the other one. But it passed all their tests except for their high dollar counterfeit detector machines. It was a copy. They think someone washed down a $1 bill or $5 bill and copied over top of it. So very sophisticated operation. so we we do watch for it but you know with all the movie money coming around and everything else but we do watch for it and we've got the counterfeit pens in the office we haven't purchased the counterfeit machine all right question or comment

I got a motion. I haven't got a second yet to write it off.

I'm just doing a test. You can't get it out, can you?

Next on the agenda, we got the sheriff. Sheriff, you got anything for us? Anybody got a question or comment for the sheriff? I do. Mr. Coleman, sheriff, would you come front and center, please?

Sheriff, the guns that you're requesting to trade, are you planning on replacing those?

I think we withdrew that. Pardon? We withdrew that. You withdrew it? Yeah. Is it in the packet? Yep. Okay, well, that was an error on our side. We decided to withdraw that. Okay. That's all right.

everyone else will just end this i hope anytime you have some chair just real quick can i ask you one question but i noticed it seemed like to me there was an inordinate number of blocks that were on that resolution uh to be surplused out like there's like 52 do you normally face in a certain amount and then face out a certain amount or how do you do that

Yeah, well, Blockup, they have come out with a new generation of handguns. We bought two of them to test out. We've got some of the guns that have just been on the street for years. I think we're gonna wait probably another year. These come with the, the ones that we bought, and I've got one here, the optic we had to buy to put on it. Glock now offers that optic on the weapon with the flashlight. It all comes in one package. It's a better weapon, but I think we're gonna wait maybe possibly another year or two before we do this. uh some of our i think are maybe four or five years to do that but we've got uh but as we go we will be buying some more and we'll just keep these in reserve i think with my family some of my family members in law enforcement big fan of law enforcement making sure you've got the right tools for the job i just was curious as to you know that

To me, a large number, it was being phased out all at one time. I think it would be like any other capital purchase. You phase in a certain number and you phase out, just spread it out.

Yeah. If we do that, then that's probably what it's going to be, a phase out probably in a year or so. We'll phase out so many and then phase so many out at one time. But not all 50 of them at one time.

Thank you, sir.

Appreciate it. Thanks, sir. We'll move right along trustee Jennifer Hall. We've got department director reports. finance department, Miss Jessie.

Okay, so you have your June and your July financials in your packet. Does anyone have any questions on those? I'm sure you guys reviewed those deeply. If you do, just reach out to me. If you get home and you see anything, I'll be happy. You can email me or call me. You also have your Tennessee comptroller's fiscal year 26-27 budget approval letter in your packet. That's just for information only. There's no vote needed on that. It's just showing that the budget was approved by the comptroller's office. Are there any questions on that letter? could you uh comment on the part of the 900 and some thousand with the school board can you explain that please i'll be happy to so there's um two parts they did a budget considerations part and what commissioner reed is referring to it says a structurally balanced budget for general purpose school fund So we budgeted the use of TESA outcomes. TESA replaced BEP a while back. So TESA, that's their main funding from the state for the students. They received the TESA outcomes a little shy of $700,000 and so we budgeted using the TESA outcome funding as well as the TESA high performing. And Dr. Arnold can explain how they were awarded those funds, but we use those in the budget. I reached out to the comptroller's office prior to doing that and said, I plan on doing this. They okayed it and said, but we'll have to make a note in your budget for that. Worth it. We did not have to increase property tax taxes to balance their budget. And hopefully going forward, additional revenue or our revenue sources will cover that. But those items, that's what they're noting is because they said the $944,000 is being used to finance reoccurring expenditures. And that was the note on that. So where that funding came from was a little around $1.9 million was used from TISA funding. Hopefully we will receive the TISA funding every year, but if not, we'll sit back and reevaluate. Are there any other questions on that letter? OK, the next one is just the financial update. I won't. I won't really go through that because you you have the financials before you, but we did have a very successful year end role. For us, our County General Fund 101 is around $9.5 million right now after our year-end roll. I'd like to attribute that to local option sales tax and our property taxes, inpatient charges. Inpatient charges is kind of a revenue we don't really speak of very often, but it is through EMS. and where they invoice the patients, it's the patient charges that are paid back for their services. We also had interest earned within our county general fund that it was our very first year. There was nothing budgeted because I wasn't even sure if it would make it to that because the general fund receives interest at the very last amount. so interest earned the trustees office designates it it was designated through the budget goes to different funds and the very last portion was to go to county general fund so our interest succeeded and made it that far so we had four hundred thousand dollars of interest earned go into our county general fund that I wasn't even sure if our interest would make it that far. In our highway, I do want to commend Joe Patterson on the highway. They had a very, very well role as well, and their unassigned fund balance is around $7.2 million. As of right now, he's smiling. He's already spending that.

He's grinning right now like he snuck in here with something.

He is. That is restricted funds and it has to only be spent for highway. So obviously we won't do it for reoccurring. As you can see, the comptroller's office will say you can't do it for salary portions, but he can purchase equipment or one-time expenditures with the use of fund balance in the highway department. Anybody else have any questions on that?

One question on the

school what was the ending balance for the schools sure I've got that for you too it's very successful and the the contributions to that was definitely local option sales tax and just a fun fact for that the schools has a maintenance of effort on the local option sales tax so I can budget a certain amount And if I raise that budgeted amount, that does increase their maintenance of effort. However, let's say I budget a dollar and they bring in $5. We're good. It's the amount that you budget for it increases their maintenance of effort. It's their local taxes. And so you've got to be careful on how much you budget for that so we don't increase the maintenance of effort. But they had a very successful rollover, around $2.2 million. And now their, let's see, I've got their fund balance. I believe it's sitting around $9.5 to $10 million. I don't have it right in front of me, but that's unassigned. So that's above and beyond the required fund balance. So the County General Fund, we increased our required fund balance to 20% of the budget. So what I just gave you was above and beyond. So that's your unassigned fund balance. Any other questions?

Just a quick question. Not so much for you, Jesse, in the finance department, but for anybody from the highway department, do you know if the highway department has a priority listing of roads that need to be repaired?

That would be a Joe question.

That would be a Joe question. Joe, come up and visit with us a minute. Birthday boy. He's getting old on us, if everybody didn't know that.

Yes, sir. So does the highway department maintain a priority list of the roads that need to be repaired?

You can about pick any of them right now.

You can do what, sir? They all need to be repaired. Like any of them?

Yeah. The way all this building's going on, they're destroying them all over.

Hey, Mr. Joe, when will you issue the annual road paving pamphlet?

Do what now?

That booklet that we typically get once a year. It says here's all the roads that are going to be paved and the history and so forth.

You mean the ones we have paved? Mm-hmm. I don't know. Did it come out this round or not? Quarterly. Quarterly.

Quarterly, okay. I thought there was a large bound manual that used to come out to us once per year.

That manual is actually of all the roads, and it's actually earmarked in them, the ones that they just paved. I know what you're talking about. He normally does that in the winter, don't you, Joe?

I guess Leslie takes care of that.

Okay. We'll find out then. For all the new commissioners, it's a history of all the road paving and so forth. So it's a very good document.

Hang on a minute. Jeff Underwood, then Greg Bird, and then you, Katie. Jeff Underwood, sir.

Okay. Can you hear me? Um, Jessica, this is a question really for you, I guess. I don't know where Joe, but I'll go with you first. Uh, can you explain where the, I guess the fund balance is 7.2 million. Can you explain that in more detail? What is that and where did it come from?

I can, and, or I can let Joe try first and then see, he said, I'll go ahead. So let me, I've got notes as to what we... So the highway department in May, before I closed out the end of June, the highway department was around $6.1 million in their fund balance. So with their role... It mainly came from gas and motor fuel tax. They received almost $900,000 more than budgeted through gas and motor fuel tax. They also received interest earned on their funding, which was around $311,000. They received an additional $108,000 above and beyond property taxes, what was budgeted. There was some savings through their payroll and their associated costs, and that is mainly what the 1.1 million comes up with for the role.

So with that said, what is their annual budget total?

Is it six or seven?

Five point something, or is it more than that?

Hang on. We've got it. Hang on just a second. So their total budget, $6.3 million. Okay.

I guess I just have a... I'm going to have to do... I'm new, by the way. I'm going to have to do a little more research because, you know, the road conditions in our county is one of the main topics that a lot of people talk to me about. And... The answer that I hear a lot of is we don't have the money to pave the roads, but yet we have a fund balance of $7.2 million, and we run a budget of a little bit over $6 million. Am I missing something?

So the $6 million also includes salaries. Right. Associated costs. I don't want to take from Joe. Where do we budget for paving in your budget? Is it operations or asphalt right there?

There's two.

And, Jessica, maybe we can discuss this at a later time. Sure.

I'm fine with it. Oh, is that it? That's other equipment. So he has it. Oh, there it is, asphalt liquid. He has $650,000 budgeted, which we increased that budget $75,000 for this fiscal year. The one thing he does have to be careful of is spending – If he were to spend it, it would have to be if his personnel can handle it or if we bid it out for an outsourcing on paving. So the fund balance hasn't always been this healthy. So this is fun news to give to you all, but it's also work on our end at this point. We can smile about it, but that just means we're probably about to put some work in to utilize the funding that we now have for some improvements that may be needed.

Okay, so I just got one more question, and I appreciate it. What is the normal fund balance that is what percentage of your fund balance should be that we carry that protects the highway department so they don't run out of money?

They're not required to have a fund balance because all funding is for them. Personally, I would feel like 20% of the expenditures would be safe because that's what we're doing on our county side.

So 1.2, 1.3 million?

I would say, I personally, since I've been handling this, the highway department's been around $1 to $2 million fund balance. It started creeping to $3 million, and now we're trending very high. The gas and motor fuel tax you can see came in very well. They also received the hybrid, if you've have a hybrid vehicle, you know what I'm talking about. The hybrid fee goes to the highway department, only the highway department. So I would not recommend him going under fund balance under at least $1.5 to $2 million at this point. He has been budgeting to utilize... for capital improvements and for new equipment. Fortunately, he was budgeted on the county capital side. It's County Fund 171. I referred to it as the Penny Project because the amount started out as a property tax penny amount. But now that our property tax penny is more than what it started out, they received $275,000 a year and he is on that rotation. So he's been able to utilize that this fiscal year, 26-27, to purchase new equipment. He was the recipient of it. It's a three-year rotation cycle between three different departments. So now that we have the wheel tax in place to purchase the ambulances, this is alleviating that cost. So now they're able to purchase equipment, whereas they might not have been able to. So now that he's able to get some new equipment in, I'm hoping that will, and I'm speaking completely on behalf of Mr. Patterson, I would imagine that might help with production and work at that point as well.

Okay. Thank you very much. And, Joe, I know you do a great job, and I know everybody appreciates it. Thank you. I guess I'm new, so I'll press done, right?

Greg Berg, your turn.

Before you two step down, I want to ask you a question real quick. I've thought about this once again when all the things about the roads come up. How much money do we spend on, okay, the heavy trucks, yeah, they're tearing up the roads. Everybody knows that. But they're going to Sevierville, and they take it to a rock crusher in Sevierville. How much are we paying Sevier County for that crush and run and stuff like that for our roads? How many hundred thousand dollars? Just a guess.

It's what, $25 a ton that Whaley's selling?

Yeah.

And he's always said that if Jefferson County would let him have a crusher, he would pay 15, 20 cent a ton just for the road department, plus pay taxes.

Okay, that was my question. I was going, why don't we have a crusher in Jefferson County?

You tell me. That would cut all your road traffic down. Now's your chance.

Tell them what. Yeah. Makes sense, don't it?

Yeah. You'd be crushing it. And what's funny, Matt told me, is all of them fuss and gripe in Piedmont, but you know who they call to get the loader up? They call Matt to bring him a load of rock to Piedmont. But it goes to Sevier County, gets crushed, and then brought back to Piedmont.

So we could save a lot of money if we had our own rock crusher. How much would a rock, just a guess, how much would a rock crusher cost? Basically, it would pay for itself.

We've got our own crusher. You've got one? Yeah, we've got our own.

Then why are we not using it? We are. We are now? Yeah.

It's down right now. I just went today and picked up.

So why are we still buying from Sevier County? And I was told we didn't have one.

We don't buy from Sevier County, the highway department. But all the Jefferson County people buys Matt Whaley's rock, so they take the Sevier County crush it and bring it back here.

So you just answered a big question for me because I've been told we don't have a rock crusher. We've been having to buy everything from Sevier County.

No, we got our own crusher, our own asphalt plant.

Well, I feel a lot better about that now. I'm glad I asked that question. Thank you.

But that's something y'all need to think about, is letting Matt Whaley have a crusher in Piedmont. I mean, he's got all that rock traffic coming in and out there, taking it to Sevier County.

If I may add, there was two million ton of rock sold out of Jefferson County. It went to Sevier County. All the tax was paid in Sevier County.

Yep.

That's a milestone.

And probably a quarter of that come back to Jefferson County. Okay.

But we're still under litigation with that group, correct?

All right. Technically, we're not engaged. What we're technically doing is... Our lawyer just said yes. Yeah. It's an appeal. Okay, are we finished up? Okay, who's next?

Okay, so the fund balance, is our highway department maintenance of effort part of it? Is that why you said we could outsource like we did before, I'm assuming you're meaning like when we paved in Parrot's Chapel?

We do have a maintenance of effort with our highway department, and it's local revenues.

Okay, so all of this larger fund balance amount. Were you telling us, like, if we increase personnel with it, is that increasing our maintenance of effort?

So maintenance of effort with the highway department is salaries as well, I believe.

So what you're trying to tell us, with this larger amount, we can buy equipment, capital, or we could... potentially go out and contract with someone else, like if we have an area that needs hard to get to, multiple roads, like we did in Parrot's Chapel. We could potentially do something like that with additional funds. Right, Joe? And I just want to say that I've had several citizens that have reached out to me concerned about a road department and they want the commission to help you get the capital you need. People are aware our mowers are old. They don't work right. We're down a lot. And I know you have additional funds this year because of penny project and our second wheel tax but i just want to tell you thank you and citizens would like to see your department have newer equipment and be able to pave more miles each year and i appreciate what you all are doing with the funds that you have

On that, I do have a wheel tax update. I feel like that was a good time to move into that, and then I'll finish mine.

You saved me asking.

Let me get right back to my... I know it came up earlier with the the will tax. So it goes into three different funds. It goes into our County General 101 fund to go towards funding additional funding or funding for our fire departments and our rescue squad. We brought in $292,508 last fiscal year for our county general fund. We only spent $99,074 doing additional contributions at that point where we raised it. So we do have $193,434 left. Reserved because we can't just let that roll into fund balance so that is set aside reserved and that will help our Contributions to the fire departments and the rescue squad for next budget cycle that will alleviate us on what we're contributing in the school capital fund 177 there's a portion going to the school capitals for school capital projects and We received $244,612.55 last fiscal year in the school capital project. They did two projects with portions of those funds, Rush Strong Awning and Maury Middle Bleachers. They spent $86,227.50 out of that. So they do have some remaining that they are carrying over into projects for this fiscal year. They have $158,385.05 to carry over. Now our County Capital Fund 177, it goes towards the Sheriff's Department to help purchase his vehicles on his fleet schedule, goes to the Highway Department for paving is what it's specified for, and it goes to EMS to purchase two ambulances if we're lucky at this point, to help compensate that so we're not spending property tax dollar money on these items, these heavy items. The highway department, Joe was very gracious. I wasn't sure how much we would bring in, so... um paving wise he held off for projects so i believe he'll start it this year since i'll give him the thumbs up to go ahead and start because now we know how much they brought in for the paving for the highway department he has 285 851 dollars the sheriff's department vehicles We spent $318,666 on vehicles, but we brought in $342,115. So one of the pending budget amendments of $23,449 is to amend the additional funds in, which is going to help them purchase a whole vehicle at that point, because they only had portions since the state contract on the vehicles varies, goes up and down. EMS, we spent it all. We spent it all on two ambulances and equipping those two ambulances. $586,727.99 is what we spent. So there's an update on what the second will tax, the funding that it's going to. If it was not spent, it has to be reserved for that specific purpose only. It does not and will not ever roll into fund balance on this will tax. Are there any questions on that?

What was the total number added altogether?

It didn't print. I can do it really quick. Hang on. I'm going to ballpark range, $1,800,000 is a ballpark range. So $1.8 million that that will tax brought in for funding to go towards these high dollar items that's going to alleviate the property tax and a penny the property tax penny is valued around 250 000 right now so if we didn't have that 1.8 million dollars additional revenue we would have had to have increased our property tax rate to compensate for that or or find another source so we're running almost two pennies ahead

So we was guesstimating 1.4 million on that wheel tax. So we're 1.8 million. Wow. That's got a big whale.

So I would love to. I'll print the rest of my page, and then I can share this with everybody if you would like to have it. So if anyone asks, what is our property or our will taxes going towards? The second will tax that was just added right there, that shows you that it's going to amazing things to help pay for these high dollar items to save on our property taxes.

Okay, Ronnie. Joe, what does it cost to pay one mile?

I talked to Harrison. They're $205,000 a mile. And that's CMIX. You go with the EMIX, it's $245,000.

So with what you're busted for paving, you only got enough for a mile?

Well, we do it cheaper than that. I'd have to get you the number, what it costs us with our own crusher and asphalt. A load of liquid tar you get about 32 loads is $16,000.

All right, Mr. Nick and then Jan. Forgive me, I'm new here too.

I just had a question talking about construction and tearing up the road and stuff. I have a road in my district you all paved two or three years ago. Did a phenomenal job. I'd put your guys up against any of TDOT's contractors. I mean, they did an excellent job. But I had a guy unload a John Deere 850 dozer. how big that is, on the road. They could have loaded it somewhere else, but they unloaded it and loaded it a couple weeks later on the road, cleaned it up, tore it up. And I called your office very friendly. They said they'd send a road foreman out to check it out. The road, I mean, it's fine, but it's all cleaned up. It's just a shame, you know, to have a nice new paved road and someone cleats it up like that. I was just curious, what does your department do I guess really to enforce that or to an individual or construction company that tears our roads up like that.

Well, I've got one on Harbin Road. They tore it up and they're supposed to fix it. They ain't, so it's going to have to go to Doug to enforce it. What road are you talking about?

Brethren Church Road.

Brethren Church? Mm-hmm. I'll check it out and see.

Yeah. I think that's all I have.

All right, Nick, we've got Jan.

Okay, for clarification, because there are a bunch of, we're all new. Well, not everybody, but a bunch of us. The $205,000 per mile, is that a slurry or is that a complete grind down?

That's just coating over top of it. Okay.

And do we have any policies that you're aware of in working with the utility companies?

They do what they want.

So they can come in and grind it up and we have no recourse for them, a requirement for them to re...

They fix it back, you know, but once you cut a road, it'll never be back to what it was. Right. And I had gross close last year. Two weeks later, they come in and cut all the way across the road. And they ain't nothing to do besides just make them patch it back.

Well, maybe we could investigate that in the future of some other ways that we could assist in making them do more than just a patch job. Okay. Other than that, just a clarification, we do or don't have a pavement management plan?

What do you mean by that?

like for the next two years we've identified our high target roads that definitely need to be paved and then the next tier of roads need to be paved so it would be a strategic a pavement management plan over a period of time from the worst to the best and then you always have the roads that become severely damaged because of something out of our control. But do we have anything like that yet?

Just whatever I pick and what I'm doing right now is the worst of the worst.

Okay. All right. Thank you.

I've been there 32 years, so I pretty much know the worst of the worst. And I don't care who lives on what road, you know. I'm no politician. I just I know what needs to be done.

Well, I can tell you we all appreciate it because, you know, you go to other counties and stuff, and especially with the resources that you guys have to work with, you're doing a great job with that.

You hear a lot of people talk about our roads, but you get to Cox County, Knoxville, Morristown, our roads ain't as bad as you think they are.

Greg. Janet, are you done? Yes, sir.

Just one more thing I want to ask you. I know these new Horton subdivisions, they got to put the roads in when they build the houses, right?

Yep.

After they leave and go, are we responsible for the maintenance on those roads? Because there's a lot of roads.

The roads to them is in the city because they have to be with sewer and all that.

So it's not going to affect you that much?

No.

I was thinking about that because, like I said, you drive over there where the old Magnavox is?

That's all city.

Oh, Lord, that's going to be a mess.

Wait until they get the 200 houses behind Waggles. Yeah. And then the corner of Black Oak, they're doing that too.

So that's city's responsibility then?

All that's city.

Good. I hope they like that.

You ain't going to have no water because they're going to run out.

How you doing, Greg? Mr. Joe, thank you for your time. We're going to have a short recess, restroom break. I believe you made it back, sir. Let's see, did we get Jesse done?

Yes.

We got a director's, got a... Tommy. The Parrotwood Library Director's Report, and then Tommy.

Yup. That's where I'm at. Call this meeting back to order. Next we have the Parrotwood Library Director's Report. Question or comment? Not hearing any, we'll move right along to Mr. Tommy Arnold. You have the floor, sir.

Thank you for this opportunity. I just wanted to remind commissioners that Thursday we have the school board county commission joint meeting. We're going to take a tour for those that can be in attendance. It's going to begin. We'd like to leave around 630. So the first thing is the Jefferson High School AG building. Then we're gonna travel, and you're welcome to travel with us. We will provide transportation if you want to. We're gonna travel from the high school AG building to Talbot Elementary. That renovation is substantially completed. There's a few things they have left there at Talbot. Then we're gonna travel to Jefferson Elementary look at where that project stands after abatement was completed in the summer and what the school is functioning at this time. Then we're going to look at Jefferson Middle School HVAC addition. We've done this at other schools and it has been a great success to add those increase in air quality within our buildings, add those controls. Last thing I want to do, I love Appalachian Electric, but I don't want to pay them money that could go to our schools. So looking to improve air quality within our schools and save money there. And then I also just wanted to update you on Jefferson Elementary School. We ran into a little bit of a hiccup with... being able to put those plans out to the state fire marshal office, put that out to bid whenever we failed our flow test for a sprinkler system, didn't have enough PSI didn't have enough volume to pass that test, so we are going to have to add a tank to serve that fire suppression system within Jefferson Elementary School building. And we've done some research around us. That's not uncommon. There's a school being built in Anderson County right now at Claxton that has the same type of design going in, same issue. Large manufacturing has to add those, but just being on the end of the service line, they've not been upgraded at this time. But we should, looking at the plans for Jefferson Elementary School, We've sent those, came to us from the architect. We reviewed those, sent those back to the architect, and they sent those back to us today for final review with the exception of adding that fire suppression tank to serve that school. But that's where we're at. Just want to remind you of Thursday. If any of you are coming, if you could Be there, you know, 615-ish, we'll tour that Ag building, and then after you're through there, get on the bus and head out, or you're welcome to follow us, but it would go Talbot, Jeff Elementary, Jeff Middle for that tour.

Okay. Taylor Reed, you're number one, then Jan, then Katie, I believe. Is that about right?

No, we're...

Oh, you just bumped your butt. Oh, okay. I just see it fly up and I'm trying to stay on top of it. Yeah, but Katie was first on the hand raising. Yeah, I had that too.

If you can pull around back of the school, kind of towards the back loading dock area where the dumpsters are, down below the softball field, that would be a good location. yeah if you just come in the main gate down by the guard shack behind the football stadium once you pass those get to the back of the school take a left in that parking lot in the back Both. So we would be hooked up to the city water line and the water, the fire suppression tank at the same time. So we'll be hooked to the city water. There's just not enough PSI or volume to service that school for the size of that school. So it would require a tank to feed that also. If there was ever enough volume in line, we could abandon that tank at some time. All right, you down, Katie? Jeff?

All right, anybody else? Thank you, Mr. Tomek. That concludes up to reports of committees, boards, and commissions. So the budget committee, you are in the spotlight.

Okay, so budget committee met tonight. I was elected chair, Ripmore vice chair, Jim Lance secretary. And since now we're having a work session along with the voting, I wanted to take this opportunity and ask Jessica if we could go through our budget amendments and have the discussion tonight if you have questions on it. And then next week, we would just strictly be voting on them. In the past, we've bulked amendments together to vote, but we cannot do that if it includes fund balance or reserves, and almost every single one of these amendments does, so we'll have to take them separately next week when we vote. So do you care to go through them real quick, and if there's questions...

Okay, so we passed out a replacement one to replace what was in your packet, General Fund 101 Amendment Number 2. Did everybody receive that? And how you can tell is if in the right-hand corner, it has Fund Balance and Reserve Balance Total. The Fund Balance Total will be using $76,031.49. Yours reflects a different number. We have a new one floating around. It will be included in your packet for next week. So there's a reserve balance of $148,545.51. And I'll try to make it brief, but if you have any questions, you can slow me down and ask questions. So this is County General Fund 101. This is amendment number two. Amendment number one was presented during July's meeting. So this is amendment number two. Item number one is utilizing reserves. Item number three is just bringing in a grant that the mayor's office received and it's to build a playground and make improvements to Mossy Creek Park. Item number five is a large item. That's just a flow-through grant. That's called, we refer to it as the home grant. If you've sat on the county commission prior, we normally have this every year. So it just helps maintain and bring up to code certain homes in the county. There's a bid process. We do not handle it. Another agency handles it. We're just the flow-through of the money for them. Item number 10 is utilizing reserves. This one directly impacts you all, or not item number 10, I apologize. Item number 12 impacts the County Commission. Originally we budgeted $2,000, which is around $95 per commissioner for travel reimbursement or any type of staff development charge that you may have paid out of pocket. If you approve this, this bumps the budget to $6,000. which is around $285 per commissioner at that point. So I know some of you had to go to some required training at that point. If this is approved, you can request some type of reimbursement through the travel. We do per diems. I'll be happy to help assist, or you can reach out to the mayor's office, and they can help you complete that. Item. Sorry. Go ahead.

Yes.

We have not in the prior. This is actually our very first year budgeting any type of it. So with this funding, we would be able to reimburse up to $285 per commissioner. That includes the $95. no it does include that so it's just 285 per person if this is approved if it's not

making sure that our ministers are able to go if they can afford to or spend $100 million or something like that. And I thought we talked about that when we did this a year or so ago about Sure. Any other questions on that item?

Okay. Item number 13 is utilizing fund balance. Every four years the surety bonds for the elected officials renews. One of our bonds on an elected official is based off of a percentage of revenues that their fee office takes in. So it increased when I budgeted kind of like four years ago. So this is adding additional funding. We have paid for that, but I'm just trying to cover it through a budget amendment. Item number 14 is where a full-time position was approved and was budgeted for. However, part-time has been hired, and so we're trying to cover the part-time amounts that's been used for the salaries for the past few months. And then they will eventually go into full-time is my understanding. So this is moving some funding to part-time for right now as that person was hired part-time. Let's see here. If you have any questions on any of these, please stop me. Item number 19 is $60,000 utilizing unassigned fund balance. This is the purchase Eagle View software for the property assessor's office. Ms. Gass was here and spoke to the budget committee. Is she still here? She's aborted me. We listened to it through the Budget Committee. So my understanding is this will also help assist the Sheriff's Department and also help with E911. This is a program, and if anybody in the Budget Committee understood it differently, please speak up. But my understanding, it's a flyover program, and it will fly over and it will give the House plans for So if E911 needed to look at it, they could. She also mentioned any other county departments or cities that may need to look at it could utilize this. It is a six year commitment. However, I can only sign a contract for one year because we can't encumber funds for something we don't even have budgeted for next fiscal year. So the contract will state that. But the goal is to have this program for at least six years. And my understanding, the total for the program is $61,500 for six years. Does anybody have any questions on that?

How many other bids did we receive on that type of service, or are they the only ones in the area?

So I didn't shop for it. That's a different department. The property assessor's office shopped for it because she is asking for it. However, I did insure, since it's over our $50,000 bid threshold, that it is on a cooperative contract, and it is. So we are receiving a cooperative contract. pricing at that point. Now, if there's other types of softwares like that, I did not research this. Ms. Susan Gass would be the person to ask for that. Any other questions on that one? Yes, so Ms. Susan Gass' office will have this budgeted in their budget. However, my understanding, any county departments or city departments that could utilize this program can have access to it. I can't imagine the finance department would want access, but for the municipalities, that may come in handy.

Jim.

Just to share a few facts that Ms. Gass shared, one of the drivers behind this is because so many new structures are being built, which adds value to property, new homes. They do not have the person power to get out there and put eyes on these buildings. new buildings and assess properties also relative to safety some of the more remote areas that puts a person out by themselves or also relative to terrain this tool can cover the assessment process and she expects it to be able to easily without numbers but easily pay for itself each year in increased revenue because of what this program can see Actually, the flyby, it's better than a flyby, she said. A flyby will give distorted shapes. I don't know what technology it is, but this can get near-perfect shapes so you can delineate easier and assess.

I think she said they currently have a flyby, but this would improve.

You also mentioned that in the case of, say, like the unfortunate situation with the Helene hurricane where land shapes change along riverbeds and such, this tool, within 48 hours, they will have an overlay of the previous condition with the new condition in case something like that happens.

I did reach out. I do know Granger County has this tool. I believe they purchased it last fiscal year. I reached out. I think I was curious on this. Knox County, I believe, had it like 10 years ago. So I know we don't try to compare with them. But with Granger County having a similar the same thing, they said it was extremely handy. Are there any other questions on that one? Okay, the next item, number 20, right here, it was the funds were budgeted in prior year budget for the sheriff, so he wasn't able to purchase those items last fiscal year. So we reserve those funding at the end of the fiscal year. And the quote that we received back in the spring for this purchase or purchases, as you can imagine, has increased a little bit since like February, March. So we're also requesting the $6,230.49 from fund balance. to increase so we can do the purchasing. It is for tablets for the patrol and to outfit the sheriff's vehicles with those IT equipment needs. This does not increase his maintenance of effort. I know you've heard me throw that out there and we'll go over maintenance of effort another evening, but it is my job to let you know if it would. So this would not increase his maintenance of effort at all. The new one, item number 22, is reflecting two departments, and you will see this one probably every other month, if not every month. And we did away with compensation time for the employees a couple of years ago, and we went to just pay straight overtime at that point. So two departments, county buildings and the county trustee's office. County buildings is $462 and the county trustee's office is $4,939 and that's what we're shifting from fund balance to cover those and that's for July and August payroll. Any questions on the 101 budget amendment? The next budget amendment, Highway Fund 131, amendment number one, utilizing reserve balance of $1,886. And keep in mind, highway reserve fund balance, basically the same thing. Item number one and item number four are reflecting on that. And item number three is a large one, $1.5 million, and that is budgeting the Tennessee State Aid grant for design and construction of the Carmichael Road Bridge project. And that's $1.5 million. And that project has already been bid out. However, it has not been awarded yet. Any questions? Okay, the next one is County Capital Fund 171, amendment number two, utilizing reserves of $132,916.68. All of these items are utilizing reserves except for item number three. And those of you that have said on the committee Prior, you probably saw this exact same budget amendment back in like May, June. We amended the funds in, but we weren't able to implement the grant at that time. So we're bringing it back into the budget. And that is to purchase 10-yard compactors for the solid, it's the Hurricane Helene Solid Waste Recycling and Debris Management Grant. Any questions on those? Okay, the last county one is Landfield Fund 207 using fund balance of $5,000. It's to cover crane service and maintenance for the drum for the Tawna project. They have to bring a crane in to pick it up. So that's utilizing that. Any questions? Okay, so we'll move right into the school budget amendments. School general fund 141, amendment number one. This is a lot of cleanup. Item number three is the reserves, and that's where we're cleaning up our reserves where we budgeted back in the spring, and those projects continued through June 30th, and now we're amending those. So the reserve usage is $3,234,846.63. Any questions on this one? Okay, the next one is school general fund 141, amendment number two, item number one. There's no use of fund balance or reserves. That's just bringing in carryover from prior year on the public school security grant. And all of these school budget amendments I failed to mention were approved by school board back on September 3rd, and then budget committee has recommended all of these budget amendments. So the next one is federal fund 142, amendment number one. And on federal amendments, there will not be any use of reserves or fund balance. Does anybody have any questions on the federal grants? 142, amendment number one. Okay, the last one is the school capital fund 177. It's just like the county capital where we're amending our reserves and adjusting the budget. So this one is reserve usage of $1,420,089.97. We're just adjusting to actuals from prior year. Any questions?

across any over the week just reach out i'll be happy to help assist with that okay and i just want to say everything passed unanimously on through the budget so it'll come to full commission and also the chamber of commerce has a funding request we didn't take any action on it in the budget except to move it to the full commission next week mr chairman

With the sensitivity of that issue, should we give Ms. Wiggins another opportunity to speak to the full commission?

Thank you.

Oh, great, great, Mansco, thank you. Okay, you want me to start from the beginning or just give highlights? I will say this. I shared with the full budget committee questions. I asked the questions and I also answered the questions to help. better serve our committee. Basically, the gist is this, okay? About four months ago, I realized that we were going down a pretty fast pace. Chris Cates, he is our vice chair of our board of directors. Our chair could not be here this evening. He's out of town. And the gist of this is these are real numbers. The Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce, we have not, let me back up please. There are two sides of the house. Picture the chamber as a house. There's the membership side, okay. It's a 501c6. I failed to mention that to you all earlier. But then on the other side is the educational side. It's 501c3, those restricted funds, okay? So basically, we're waiting on our members to pay, okay? We have had an influx of members not paying for various reasons. One of those being the price, not our prices, but the prices of commodities, if you will, are going up. It's kind of like a luxury to be a member. So that's kind of put on the back burner. So therefore, we have been hoping and praying that our members would pay. And we send out letters, of course, make phone calls, emails. I do want to refer to Chris for just a second here. there anything you want to add to that In 25-26 fiscal year, we added 47 new members. And I just want to throw this out there, too. I asked the budget committee this. And I'm sorry. I'm one of those people who eats the microphone. So I apologize for that. Mr. Herndon, Frank, thank you for your office giving us this information. Currently, as of today, we have 7,973 current business licenses. Okay. The chamber members that we have currently are 327. So as you can see, we've got a lot of work to do, okay? I will address this. I'm sure some of you want to know the answer to this. I told this during the budget committee. We owned a building at the 417 for several, several years ever since. Well, not our existence, but we did. We did purchase that years upon years ago. While it worked well in the past, it is not conducive to our needs currently. We have tripled, if not quadrupled, the people who come to see us. So I do want to share this with you. Out of 95 counties in the state of Tennessee, all 95 counties have a Chamber of Commerce. If we do not get funded soon, then we will probably have to close our doors at the end of November. So I just want to say that to you all. We're looking at every way we have cut everything we know to cut. I'll defer to Chris on this.

Step up to the microphone, please. Thank you, sir.

She's taken over and kind of walked into the board's nest, basically. And so since then, she's been in this role. She has been trying to develop relationships with county commission, be active. She's attended all the county commission meetings, not only here, but all these ones in the county district county itself. And so she's been trying to develop relationships, build that trust back to the chamber with that. And so she's been very due diligence. The two members that we have full-time, we have two members that are part-time. They are all working very, very hard We're not resting on our laurels. We've been trying to do some great things with that. And so the better we can get, the more memberships, the better we can serve the community, which hopefully will generate more tax dollars and sales tax because we're bringing new revenue and businesses into the area. So we know this is a large request. but we also have not had any refunding from the county commission for the last two years except for one funding, I think of $3,700 for the education side of the house and that was to fund youth leadership for their trip to Nashville. So we're trying to be good stewards of the money and do great things with that. I would love for you to come by and sit down with us and ask any questions, open up any of our financials. We'll do that for you guys. So we want to be as honest as we can with you all.

Thank you, Chris. I just want you to know the urgency of this. We provide services. Let me back up for just a second. I know John's in here. Lauren, she's in here as well. Let me put it to you this way. I know the budget committee heard me say this. We are a trifecta, okay? John, with the alliance, he brings in the businesses, the industries, manufacturers, if you will, retail stores, restaurants, okay? Then we transition the chamber. We take over and we do ground breakings, ribbon cuttings, anything we need to reconnect these businesses. I told, I'm going to give you one example. Anderson Bowes in Jefferson City. They're a McDonald's distribution center, as most of you all know, or probably all of you know. We were part of the groundbreaking, the ribbon cutting. I met with the president of the company at the chamber. Then I also met with two HR people who flew down here from Ohio. I met with them and they wanted to see how they could continue to partner with the chamber and get workforce development, get those people to come and work for Anderson DuBose. So, when you're thinking about the trifecta, always remember the alliance, the Jefferson County Alliance brings the businesses to Jefferson County, the Chamber of Commerce, we engage and go right along the side of these businesses. for the lifetime of their business, okay? And Lauren and her team over tourism, they sell the county. So that's pretty much it in a nutshell. Okay. Yes, we want our members to pay and some of them will pay. They'll end up paying. But right now we this is crucial. Okay, so if you vote no, then we're gonna be the only county in the state of Tennessee that does not have a Chamber of Commerce. And I said this to our budget committee earlier. I come at this from two sides. Yes, I work at the chamber. Love it. But I am also a business owner in Jefferson City, in Jefferson County, Tennessee. And when I go to the polls and I elect my county commissioners, I expect them to take care of my business as well as all the other businesses in the county as well. So I just want to put that out there. If you have any questions, I'll be more than happy to answer those.

So you mentioned possibility of closing down by November. If you received $150,000, what does that do and how far does that get you?

Okay, thank you. Great question. Um, let me say it to this way, too. When we when we came up with a number of $150,000, we need time to go after all the rest of these businesses who have business licenses who are not members in our county. Okay, we don't have the luxury of time. Okay. So with that $150,000, you're saying to us, okay, we believe you. We trust you. I have sent someone from County Commission had requested our P&L. balance sheet Donna who works in our office she's our office manager and CFO I said sent it immediately it was sent immediately we have nothing to hide Chris would you like to say anything If you give us $150,000, that's what Chris is talking about. That's what I'm talking about. That buys us time to go after these non-members. And plus, still take care of the members that we have. I mean, we don't want to leave them behind. I mean, we are here for the lifetime.

of the businesses in jefferson county please ask yourselves do you want to give that up jim uh miss wiggins that your p l and your balance sheet could you send a copy of that to frank and let him distribute that to all commissioners so we can all look at that

Yes, yes. I sent it to Jesse, but I will send it to Frank.

Actually, that's fine, Jesse. Could you share that with all of us, please? Okay. And then, so I'm looking at your brochure here, this group that was over in the juror box tonight, that was the youth group. You guys own that program, right? The youth development program. So if you go away at the end of November, they're cut short in the middle of their program.

I'm looking at a way to transfer that to the high school.

Okay.

So just so you know, like we house Christmas in Jefferson County. We house Imagination Library. We house youth leadership, adult leadership. We will keep adult leadership. We have someone here. In our office, they meet once a month, okay? We'll keep that. We can afford to keep that. We are cutting left and right, moving things around so nothing gets thrown to the wayside. We just started in February. I'm so sorry. I was looking at Jim. Excuse me. Commissioner Snodgrass. But I just want to say this. In February, we launched the Young Professionals. It's ages 21 to 40. It costs $100 annually, okay? It is amazing, just amazing. I wish that one of our co-chairs was here to talk about it as well because she's really the heart and soul of that. And they meet once a month, one month. They met at the pub in Dandridge. We try to go everywhere, all over the county. They met at the pub. We do not pay for alcohol. We only pay for food. sodas water tea okay if they want alcohol they purchase that themselves okay um but i had bob charnigan come to the pub and discuss the history of jefferson county Loved it. Loved it. We try to do informational things and they're required. When I first wanted to have this program for us, I wanted them to do two service projects a year. And I wanted them to think outside the box, not do the normal things that we're doing that we already have covered. I used to be with the Jefferson County Habitat for Humanity for eight and a half years. Love them. Love all of our nonprofits. Love our for-profits. but i wanted this this these young professionals i wanted them to like i said think outside the box do things that other people are not doing let's serve more people so that's what they're doing just uh one more point miss jesse

Just to clarify, last year was zero contribution. And then we made a $3,700 payment at some point.

Two years ago.

Two years ago. And I think our last large contribution was about $25,000. And then before that, we were at $75,000 year over year. I think it was $65,000. I think they'd be good history. Okay. And then my final talking point. If we wanted to fund this, which fund would you recommend as a one-time payment?

You would need to stay away from the occupancy tax funding, so I would have to recommend general fund, unassigned fund balance for the one time this year. If it is reoccurring, it would have to hit property tax rate at that point.

Okay. Thank you.

Okay, Ronnie. You're next, then Katie, then Jan, then Brett, then Marcus.

It's an excellent question. It has just, okay, let me back up for just a second. So last year we asked for zero funding, okay? We sold our building. We asked for zero funding. I mentioned to our board of directors that I slash we were going to take a hard look at the membership side of the house and the educational side of the house to see how we could become more efficient. Well, basically, we've run out of time with people not paying. We thought people would pay. They're not paying. Chris, would you like to say anything to that? you're going to see results you're going to see results because we Well, hopefully they aren't going to pay. I mean, we're going to make every effort. If they can't pay, like say you owe $1,000 for your dues, okay, we're going to tell those people, tell those members, look, you can pay in installments. If you can't pay your $1,000, the debt gets to you. Let's work on a program, okay? That's one way we're going to do it. We're going to have a membership drive, okay? We've never had a membership drive. Of course, since I've been there, but I don't think we've ever had one in the existence of the Chamber. So that's not the best. I admit that's not the best answer, but that's the only one I've got. This is real, okay? I'm just telling it like it is. Not all. Not all. But they have. One thing about us is we are a rural community. Okay? Most counties are not. Okay? So that does hurt us that we don't have as much industry as we would like to have. But there's... 7,973 licenses as of today. And we have 327 members. We just don't have the capacity. I wish I could say something better. I really do. But we don't have the capacity to, I mean, like our membership specialist, she goes out every Tuesday, half a day, and she is going to the businesses who are members, and she's going to the businesses who are not members. But she can only do so much. We're having a presence in all parades just about, except the boat parade, because we don't have a boat. Maybe one day we'll get one. So we're having a presence in the parades. We're going to festivals. We just had a festival this past weekend. We're trying to show the best support humanly possible.

Okay, guys, we need to start moving along. Ronnie, do you rest? Okay, Katie, let's try to move.

This is for probably multiple people in the room, and it's multiple topics. Okay, so if we do this agreement, will we have an MOU with the Chamber where it defines what services we get, the length of time, like a contract, so we're not, if we do it this time, coming back next year with the same situation? So... Anyway, that's a question. Will there be an MOU? Okay. So you said you'll keep adult leadership, youth leadership will go to the high school, imagination library, keep or go somewhere.

Go somewhere. I'd like to see it go to the Jefferson City Library.

Okay. Christmas in Jefferson County. Keep it go.

Go.

Okay. So.

But not go away. Yeah.

I mean, go to someone else to house during the interim. I know what you're saying. Yes. Because those, to me, are programs that are beneficial to the county, and I do not want to see go away. They've been here for years and years. They're very important to our county. Okay. Okay. So if, I guess the question is, if we give the chamber monies, what services will the county get? Just an open question. Okay. Workforce recruitment development. When Oshkosh came in, who helped with the development? And then when they switched from making defense vehicles to the lifts, can anybody in the room tell me who did what? Who coordinated the workforce recruitment development for that company?

I was not here at the end. Chris.

OK. So I guess my question is, OK, Commissioner Snodgrass wants a dollar timeline. Through the years, the chambers housed economic development, tourism, we switched, shifted, we broke off, we structured our the way we do business differently so along with the dollars that the chambers received i would like to see the programs that were funded with those dollars and the movement of why things shifted and it's i'm not saying that i think we shouldn't fund the chamber anything or not i just think the history of how we've gotten here and how we can work together to make sure the Chamber is successful because it is important to businesses in the community. But I need to make sure that I can show either it's a one-time deal or there's what value, what return on investment are the taxpayers getting. Yes, we need our businesses. We need our businesses to grow. We need people to help them with their employee population. I just don't know the answers to some of these, like the recruitment and development. Where does that lie? Is it with John Turner and the industrial recruitment? I wouldn't think it's with tourism. where there are overlaps that I don't know because we've shifted things around. You don't have to answer it now, but if you could get us that information before our meeting, that would be important. Thank you for what you do.

Thank you. Thank you. You raised Jan? Yes.

For clarification, tourism. Tourism, correct me if I'm wrong, Mayor or Jessica, the tourism department is funded through the mayor's office?

Well, it's through occupancy tax, but they're in the mayor's office.

Okay. And so the chamber is not involved in that funding? Correct. Okay. Jefferson County Alliance funding. Where does that? Okay. So that's not related to the chamber either. Okay. Just real quick, we have to be really careful. So paying members, you said you have 327 members. How many paying members do you have?

Well, I can't answer that, but I can tell you that we're short 21,000, let's say 20,000 plus right at the moment.

Okay. The adult leadership program, I'm sure it's a great program, but how many of those that participate in it actually have businesses and are members of the chamber? Because they're getting a benefit, so... Was it a strong enough benefit that they wanted to be chamber members?

Each person pays for that. They pay $850 a year. Okay. Does that help?

I mean, that's the answer that you have. And I think along with what Katie was saying, it's important for us to know what services that you're actually offering that is a benefit to the county. Otherwise, it becomes a gift of public funds. So that's something that has to always be considered when you're looking, you know, is... What are you offering that we can see that direct line where it does benefit the county and benefits your membership as well?

Excuse me.

And I guess I haven't heard the answer yet to that tonight. So you might want to take a look at that.

I can give you the answer.

Okay.

Okay, thank you. And the answer is this. We're keeping those businesses, as best as we can, thriving. Now, I'm not going to stand up here and say there's not business that's going to leave or go somewhere else or fold. if you will, but I know on a day-to-day basis what we do, and we keep them for the lifetime of their business. I mean, I don't know any other answer to say to that. I mean, I think that's a pretty strong answer.

Do you have a rough number of the number of businesses that have thought about leaving that you've helped retain? Or maybe you could look at that and have it ready for us next Monday.

Sure, I can do that.

How can you assure

Well, I think you can't be assured of anything in this lifetime, okay, first and foremost. And I can tell you this. As long as I'm at the helm, I will do whatever it takes. Chris can attest, I have, you know, I've sacrificed a lot to keep our chamber going. um we we have a couple of cpas on board and myself well and to be perfectly honest this says when i first came to the chamber of commerce and chris can attest to this i spent the first few months trying to trying to fix things, if you will, then I spent probably the next six months coming to county commission trying to advocate for the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce. And when I say the next six months, I mean it felt like practically every Monday. It wasn't, but it felt like it.

Chris?

Chris, do you have anything?

I agree with what everyone said. I may have the questions I was going to, but I want to tell you one thing. I don't want to make you a newspaper. I've never seen a newspaper in an open... And I appreciate that time. And I have to ask myself more questions than any other. The mixture of $150,000 is a lot of money for this county. And I know hotel types can't be used. And I don't know if we can find it anywhere else. So come back with the answers, and we will go from there. Thank you very much.

Thank you all very much. I'll get you the answer you need to. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

We shall run along. Thank you. Jesse.

I just making sure it's you and Katie's done. all right county commission items for information you got attorney invoices and you've got the policy 5.1 public records policy update that's perfect i'm sorry that would be for a vote that'd be for about that yeah we got to do that old business we have none Now we're going into new business resolution 2026-33 resolution declaring surplus to authorize Jefferson County Sheriff's Department to surplus and trade in said equipment. Been withdrawn. Next one is resolution 2026-34 resolution declaring a surplus to authorize Jefferson City Public Library to surplus and dispose of said equipment. question or comment we could put these in the consent agenda could we not if that would be the pleasure of the resolutions so we'll put it in consent agenda the next one is uh we need to stick with them the 2026-38 which is a resolution declaring a surplus to authorize the jefferson county sanitation department to surplus an auction or destroy said equipment

Mr. Chairman, a question on that specific resolution. The library set the standard, and they essentially are telling us when they put an item in service and how old it is as far as ready for disposal. I would like to see the same thing from the sanitation department request. Sure.

I missed one. Can I go back?

You missed one what?

Well, the one...

We ain't got there. No, I was actually going through surplus resolutions and grouping them together so we could put them in the... Mr. Snoggers.

resolutions I'm sorry I'm sorry I was reading under our rules and procedures and this one stuck out to me for resolutions is I'm not sure we've been perfectly right in the past years under on page six online 11, which is C, roll call vote. It says resolutions shall be put to the board for a roll call vote. If more than one resolution is introduced in the same meeting, each should be voted on independently. So are we superseding our rules if we group these resolutions together? We've done that in the past. I just want to get clarity.

I started being chairman in late 2014. And we've always agreed, but it was always a gentleman's agreement. You are correct in what the rule says. But as long as nobody objects to what you're doing, you're fine. If one person objects, you get to do a roll call on everything. So if one person calls anything to the question, it no longer can be used that way. So it all comes down to this is a living body. And this commission can make its own rules. And that's how that works. That answers a lot of questions. So as long as everyone is in agreement, you can take some shortcuts with what we used to call baller play. stuff that really has no significance to what we're doing, but we need to vote on it. But if you want to take them all, we can do a straight-up roll call on everything. Problem solved. It'll just take four or five minutes longer.

Well, I just think we need to be careful. Group and surplus resolutions, no issue. We'll roll on. But not just all resolutions together.

Well, see, what I was doing was separating out the resolutions. So the surpluses, all of that. As long as nobody objects, you're fine. If somebody objects, then you've got the problem. You get to go back and do them all soon.

So we're grouping all surplus resolutions.

Mr. Chairman, on that item for the sanitation department, I'd like to see that data as to when each piece of equipment, the major equipment, was placed in the service.

All right. Mr. Eric, could you come to the podium, please?

You're asking me to do something that I can't go back 30-something years to do. Because some of this equipment has been there, I'm going to say, 40 years or better. I've been with the county 30 years. I can't tell you when half of this stuff was put in. And I'm sure Mr. Neen don't have any of that.

We can look, but this list is so big. Going forward, phenomenal. That's a great thing. I don't know if we can. We'll try.

I took a picture of a dozer when the fire was going on. that I hauled up there in 1980. That user has been there since 1980, I promise you.

Sir, the reason I'm asking is I'm trying to determine if this thing is truly at the end of its service life.

I'll tell you this. There's one, two, three, four, five, six vehicles that's been sitting there, I know, 20 years, have never been used for paying insurance off. They should have been gone a long time ago. Yeah, exactly. I commend you for that. a new liner for class one we have to start a new liner and instead of keep robbing from our reserve that's what these are for we've got that old leachate tank they come out they come out for our leachate holding area nobody wants it it ain't worth putting so you know there's no need to sell it we've got one truck that has been it was a total 10 year ago Roughly, maybe five. But an inmate stole and it was told insurance paid off. But since it's been in the county and nothing ever got done to it, we've still got to carry the insurance on it because it's on the county property. That's the reason we're trying to get rid of this. It's stuff in the county that we as a landfill cannot use.

We're going to clean it and get some money. So this will be our first, this will be our very first public auction that we're going to do now that we can through surplus. So this will be kind of a learning curve, but obviously we'll be advertising it, but Our main goal is to just clean up and get a little bit of cash out of these items and clear and clean up these things. But the in-service day, we will try going forward on them. But this one, I'm not 100%.

I mean, Bobby was, you know, he was our, some of these was our when he was our, and wasn't being used. I could ask him, but I don't think he's going to give me that.

That landfill opened in what date? It was the early 80s? Was it the early, mid 80s, wasn't it?

No, it was early. I don't remember when they sold the land, but.

We will try our best. If there's some we can, we'll provide. That's fine.

I just want to commend you for your leadership and your management since taking over the landfill. I've seen a dramatic improvement in the way things are operating out there.

So thank you, sir. If you'd hear some of the phone calls I've had over the last couple of days, my leadership ain't doing well. I will go ahead and give you this bit of information since I'm standing here. Everybody knows about the fall. Heaven forbid we had a fall. Class four is closed until further notice. I'm trying to work out something. Jesse and I are working on something to do transfer of class four. I don't know. We'll just have to see. That's where we're at. I can't take any class four. We've been sending everybody to GFL in Marshtown. And I'm going to tell you right now, the citizens of Jersey County have went to GFL the past week and showed their high needs. They've been up there and cussed the ladies that work at scale houses and everything. Tell them that I'm going to be the one paying for their trash to go up there. I can't help it because we had a fire that we've had to close twice before. It was either us or the state comes in and does it. We don't want the state coming in and closing nothing. We want it to be ahead of the state. We want to be proactive, not retroactive. So we're ahead of this game, trying to be. But there's going to be some other changes at our convenience centers. Folks are not going to like that. I'm sorry. We don't have the people. All convenience centers are open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, except for one. That's Highway 92 right now. It's open six days a week. It takes two people to run that 12-hour day from 6 to 6. On average, from 6 AM to 8 AM, we have about 16 cars on average. From 5 PM to 6 PM, we have about eight cars on average. it's going to inconvenience you know the ones in the county i'm sorry i apologize this is what the board agreed to this is what we have to do so that's that's information for you it's moving forward because we don't have a vampire i mean that's just straight up i don't know how we're going to fix that we need we probably need 10 more people but it ain't gonna happen today

How long will Class 4 be shut down?

All right, let me give you some more information about Class 4. Class 4, we have new engineers that are landfill specialists. That's what they deal with. That's our whole business. They're out of North Carolina. Smith & Gardner is who we went with. We told the state that if we were going to Smith & Gardner, it was just like the cloud went away and everything's going to be good. The state thinks that once Smith and Garner gets squared away with everything, they're going to have to go back to NOD number one that we got the very first time with class four. They're going to start from that point. We're looking roughly one year. I can kind of say that with confidence, but I don't want to be too confident, but roughly one more year. to get it back open. I know we've waited, this has been since 21, so I know one more year is a long time, but I want it open just as bad as anybody else, because the amount that we've lost has really hurt the 207 side of the landfill, which is, for most of you that don't know, the 207 side of the landfill is a business. It has to bring in money, we have to make money, Because tax dollars don't affect the landfill. The tax dollars affect all of our centers, our convenience centers. That's on the 116 side. So we, as a landfill, we've got to figure out how to make money. We raised our, back in June, we raised our commercial rates. We went up to what everybody else is except for Poplar. Poplar and Knox was $100 across the board no matter what.

Just make sure that all the new people understand 116 is different than 207.

Yes, 116, it does not supply 117 with nothing or the 207 with anything. Like I said, the 207 is a business. I have to run it just like I am the business owner. So we've got to make money. So the board is talking about some other changes as far as the 207 side. Nothing affects the 116. As far as any more changes, we don't raise that commercial rate to 60. That's what everybody else is around us, except for Poplar and Knoxville. Like I say, they're $100 across the board. I don't want to see $100 across the board, but if we've got to keep raising tipping fees to bring in money, we're going to have to do something. I don't know if it got hit on. We did get a grant on the 116 side. It's reimbursement styles for $351,000. That buys us 10 new compactors. And that takes us from right now all the compactors we have are 34 yard. We're going to 39 yard compactors. That's gonna help us slow down a little bit on running day to day. So I'm hoping it saves us fuel. That gives us new compactors, new hydraulic units for every center and leaves two spires. So that's where we are as far but- Anybody have a question before we move? Yeah, our fire, I wish I could tell you what happened. I wish I could tell you how it started, who started it, if it started. The T deck has, they come up, they've done the inspection, the fire is out, it was smothered out, we smothered it out. And the only reason we had fire departments there is because it got so hot so fast, I needed the flames knocked down so our dozers and track hose could get into it. That's the only way you can put a landfill fire out. You've got to take big piles, make little piles, put those little piles out, put it back together, and then smother it with dirt. That's the only way to do it. So it's going to constantly smolder for years and years and years underneath, but it's eventually going to quit. At least we're not going to have flames. And TDEC has... It was either us closing or TDEC closing. Like I said, we don't want TDEC closing anything we've got because that really hurts us in the long run because it comes to fines and everything else with them. And we sure don't want to start paying TDEC fines.

We shall move, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we have combined resolutions 33, 34, 38, and 51. Is everyone good with that? 33 is withdrawn, I'm sorry. I say my X now. That's my mistake. I get late. So it will be 34, 38, and 51. Next, we will go back to resolution 20, 2635, resolution recommending the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee protect private property rights by making amending law to limit the power of eminent domain relative to data centers. Do you have anything for us, sir?

Very briefly.

Mr. Seale.

Thank you, Chairman. And before I address this important resolution, I wanted to update some of the newer members on some of the grassroots organizations that work for us across the state. When you make a resolution asking the General Assembly to do something, I work with about 14 organizations across the state that advance that. They make the phone calls. They send the emails. They beat the bushes. They work the phone banks. They work to support what you do in terms of your resolutions with the state legislatures. We just added another one last week, Volunteer Patriots out of Knox County, and that's an important organization for us to have. It gives us a little bit more wind behind our sails when we go to Nashville on this. One other thing, I'll have some legislative training the last week of October, and I know people get mad at me. They don't get enough notice on it, so I'll send out the dates to you. It's always real popular. We've been doing it for about five years. Okay, concerning the resolution, it's a big issue and it's headed our way. Data centers are related to all the technology that we have and the president is pushing these. Our new governor is going to be pushing them and it's upon us whether we want it or not. The goal here with this resolution is to protect property rights. So I've got two very brief prepared statements and then I'll take questions. What the resolution does not do The resolution does not recommend a prohibition on data centers and it does not seek to prohibit eminent domain for legitimate utility infrastructure. We couldn't stop that anyway. What the resolution does, the one you're considering, is asking the General Assembly to simply enact legislation that would protect private property such that eminent domain cannot be used to acquire property for data centers. There's no good reason. Actually, it's also going to prohibit joint ventures between data centers and utilities and condemning authorities.

And there's a reason for that.

If you pay attention, if you Google what's going on in Georgia and some of the other states where the data centers are teaming up with utilities, they're using that to circumvent all kinds of rules, including your zoning rules. So we need that component in it. I've already spoken to multiple legislators who are willing to carry the legislation for us. Finally, if you all could ask the chairman to sign on as a co-sponsor, I think it would be a lot more powerful if I get to Nashville with this and we push it with 100% of you all on as co-sponsors, all 21 of you. The only reason that all of you are not on there now is because I got in a hurry and I had to get it filed for consideration, Mr. Walker, had to have it by timeline, so I would ask that you all to sign on, and with that explanation, I stand for questions.

Question or comment?

Mr. Chairman.

Sir.

I would just like for you to hear from David exactly what he does for the county. David is paid $25,000 a year by the county to do his work for us, and he Thank you

Thank you, Chairman. There's a lot of issues going on. The lobby contract technically starts in January and ends in April. I can assure you I work on it year-round. I've worked on it most of the week last week. So I've talked to bill sponsors that deal with getting some of our real estate transfer taxes back to the county governments, funding for the 911 system, maybe even some increased funding for the medical expenses for our county inmates. And I know if you all have done a lot of budget amendments on those, and that's a substantial amount of money. So... Please call if you have any questions, unless you have one now. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Next, we have Resolution 2026-37, Resolution to Record and Make Public Available All Jefferson County Commission Work Sessions and Voting Meetings.

Mr. Chairman, this is just an effort to increase transparency in local government. I HAD A NUMBER OF CONSTITUENTS THAT FOR VARIOUS REASONS THEY WORK SECOND SHIFT. THEY HAVE DIFFERENT OBLIGATIONS THAT THEY'RE NOT ABLE TO ATTEND COUNTY COMMISSION MEETINGS BUT THEY STILL WANT TO BE INVOLVED. SO MAKING THESE SESSIONS PUBLICLY AVAILABLE THROUGH REPORTINGS AND POSTING THEM ON OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL WOULD BE GREAT. SURE. KATIE.

I agree it's a great idea. I support it. I've talked to Mr. Lance about this. My question is on this. Because this is just a practice that we use for our commission, should this just be a motion in writing according to our rules of procedure that comes across a motion in a second and we vote on it? Because in this resolution it says it goes to the Secretary of State of Tennessee and also it has to have two-thirds majority vote. which I don't think either one of those are necessary based on the intent of this request, I'll say. So I support it. I think it's a great idea. I think they both should be recorded. I think everybody, I would think, will support it. But rather than having such a formal resolution, my question is, should it just be a simple motion where we vote on it.

I'd like to answer that. Again, this is proving to our constituents that we are serious about transparency in government and making all this information available in a public forum. So that was the gist behind it. As far as we've spoken about the two-thirds by a simple majority, I think this documentation solidifies our commitment to improve transparency in government, and I could definitely change that two-thirds to a simple majority, but I believe that we need this resolution.

Anyone else, question or comment?

team? What how does that sit with you relative to supporting all the subcommittees meetings and so forth? When you talk about nominating, that would be videoed or anything, ad hoc, whatever it may be.

Just work session only? Okay. All right.

Yeah, I was just fixing to make that point that it's only saying the two. Because if you got into subcommittees, you know, subcommittees really, they can recommend something, but they really don't decide anything. But you would get into one more scheduling conflict.

Greg. What you mean, I mean, I'm sorry. My classes enjoy watching Jefferson County County Commission meetings because we watch them all the time, especially when we make fun of Mr. Bird. What you mean, I mean, they're already on I mean, I can pull them up on YouTube and show them.

No, it's mainly the work sessions. Work sessions? Okay, I was just trying to figure that out. It can come from resolution, just what Jim's written up, or it can be a gentleman's agreement. You're telling your constituents, hey, we're going on record that we're doing this.

That's what my point was. All we need is a motion.

I'd like to stay away from gentleman's agreement. If it's in writing, it's real.

You know, what I'm saying is the gentleman's agreement will hold up in the courtroom the same as any of the rest of it.

I have a question.

If challenged.

If it's a written motion, it's not a gentleman's agreement because it's in the record. That's what I was saying.

It don't have to go to the states, what I'm saying. It don't have to do that. Okay. It can be a resolution that's in Jefferson County, Tennessee that says you're 100% right.

If the sticker point is sending it to the state, that doesn't have to be in there as long as we've got the rest of the resolution in place.

Well, you've got your resolution. Yep. Once you get a number, you're there. That's the key. All right, let's move right along. Let's try to conclude this night before 10 o'clock.

I think it's minimal.

Last but not least, we've got VSO and County Commissioner's role. Mr. Mike Parker, sir.

Yeah, I just have a few questions. There's so many of us that are new on County Commission. If we could just clarify, for me, as a new commissioner, I just want to know what is my role and responsibilities in regards to the VSO office? Who is in charge of that office? What are the protocols and procedures for our commission with the day-to-day operations of the VSO office? What does the day-to-day operations look like, and who in the commission oversees that, or is it commission as a whole? Who does the VS officer go to when they have issues, or who do they answer to if there are issues? Is there a procedure for that and a manual for us so that we know exactly how all that works?

All right. So to explain day-to-day operations of the VSO office, ever since 2014, my first day with the VSO would have been with Mr. Tim. And back then, nobody even cared what went on in the VSO office, and I thought it was pretty sad. So I always worked with him as the chairman. As the chairman because you are the body that the VSO works for. So to explain this, you've got to take a journey back that I have to act as the chairman or whoever who is the chairman. I have to act as that person's contact because you can't always have a meeting to decide if something just happened in the office, if there's a problem, if you're dealing with somebody that's unruly. We've run the gauntlet in the last year. I think anything that can happen has happened out there. You know, it's been a show. So the chairman has in the past been the contact. It was decided back in, I believe it was December, a December meeting last year. I have a copy of it that Mr. Snoggers asked the question to the county attorney and the mayor that who is the contact person. It was determined ever who the chairman is for day-to-day contact. You know, we've had different emergencies that have to make a phone call. Well, you can't call 21 people to make a decision. So therefore, that's how that works. Okay, your recourse is, if the chairman was to do something that you don't like, the recourse is, is it's called division of the house. In three days, if you circulate a petition with 11 signatures on it saying we want to have a meeting, you can call that to the floor. I think Mr. Doug, if you want to hear it from him, I'd be glad to explain it to you. But the point of it is, there has to be a single contact. If this person that works in that office has an auto accident, let's say they're going to see somebody and they have an auto accident, who is the person that has to answer to that? Who is responsible? It comes down to their direct supervisor. That's how the chairman is involved in this. That's the person that is responsible. for what happened. And it has to go back to the commission.

Did I say that pretty close?

Y'all are asking the question.

The question is the day to day operations. How does it work?

I think that what the chairman's referencing would be the meeting in December. I think that at that time, the the VSO had asked about, or there was a question as to whether or not there was a day to day liaison, obviously, it doesn't make candidly for 21 people to supervise anybody, we actually talked about that in that particular meeting. And, again, I don't know if there was any kind of formal determination. But there have been, as I understand it, there have been job descriptions throughout the years that have actually mentioned who that person would actually for whatever it is hey my phone's not working whatever that might be whatever that is there it would be kind of to be candid nonsense to to have a person try to answer to 21 folks So with respect to that December meeting, I know there were job descriptions at one time throughout, maybe a couple, and I know there was one discussed in that December meeting. But with respect to the the that contact person. If I think the chairman has performed that function in the past, I think the mayor at some point in form that had also done that too. But as far as which one at any particular time, I couldn't tell you, I didn't have anything to do with that particular job description. But to the chairman's point, Is it reasonable to be supervised? To be honest with you, the VSO, as I've talked about in the past, is by the Supreme Court of the state of Tennessee, a employee by contract, period. That's what they are. The county commission hires and fires the VSO. I will also say that Not a shot at who drafted that statute ages ago, but it's poorly written, and it's not been revised in a very, very long time. As a matter of fact, there's not been many courts, if any or more than two, that have even interpreted that particular statute. There's not a lot of jurisprudence when it comes to law that would help anybody figure that statute and the machinations of that statute, to be candid with you.

Mr. Chairman, just a comment, and I mean involved a county attorney, but is the Veterans Service Office not a department? Sure. Like any other department in the county? And so, you know, at Pulse, Knox, Sevier, other counties, and got the same answer. They all work for the county mayor. So, you know, why is Jefferson County different?

The short answer would be that the statute says they're an employee of this body. As a matter of fact, to be honest with you, That's really the only employee you have.

Right.

And I understand. You used to have an assistant.

You had a secretary. I actually worked for the commission also. The commission, but they only had two employees ever as long as I've been doing this. And one of them was, by statute, it's the VSO.

Right. So there's nothing really, if this body were to pass a resolution saying that the VSO works for the county mayor.

When you say work for, what do you mean by that?

As an immediate supervisor.

What I would tell you is this, and it's bad to leave it to a lawyer to give you a lawyer answer, right? Yeah, got it. What I would tell you is that there's no guidance from any court, okay? I'm just going to tell you that right up front. Can you delegate that to... But my gut is no. Just wondering about other counties. State law historically doesn't care for bodies delegating what they're for. I will tell you that whether or not you can place your only employee in a day-to-day, being day-to-day supervised by the county mayor, I'd have to look at that. I could probably have your answer by check. Again, my bill is they don't like the courts more than Northland, which is why we let bodies, especially legislative bodies, delegate what they're for.

But I'll check them. There must be a way of doing it in other counties.

charter camp okay they're not they're not I know I'm not saying I'm just want you but Knox County that once while you will hear things about Knox County they're different right they're a chartered it was it was discussed within the last 15 years, 20 years.

What brought it to light to me was I was the first chairman to ever have to let a PSA go. We actually had to let one go because of problems. It wasn't in the office, but it was outside the office. They came to the office. And you know, once we had to deal with that, that's when I learned about all of it.

I've dealt with a lot of federal service.

So what we can do, because I know there's some different interpretations of who can oversee the day-to-day operation. So what we can look at, and I know a couple of us are probably going to be making phone calls to find best practices from the other counties. And isn't there a state organization that you have to work directly with? with or or maybe even the feds uh to find out what best practices are and what other counties do and we'll just go from that point and we'll find what works for our county well your regional directors you know my biggest question is dealing with the pso issue is the fact that when they do phone visits

Who's responsible? Where's the liability lie? There's some serious questions there that needs to be answered. And the position that we're in right now is going to be really difficult to answer for a while.

And again, Mr. Chair, that's where it comes down to documentation and the standard operating procedures for every BSO office that will outline specifically what is responsible.

Mr. Gabriel Burns, he's your regional director.

I reached out to the regional CSO and he told me to inform the commissioners of Jefferson County do not call his office. They've been told by the higher up that the problem that we have needs to be solved by us. And he's exactly right. I know we got a executive session coming up where things could be said, things to be discussed. I do know that for a year, our chairman did not have any interaction with a DFO at all. Or he can correct me if I'm wrong. So I think we need to wait and see what we hear and talk about because I know that our county is under litigation and to me that's extremely serious. Thank you. All in, all done?

Motion to adjourn.