City Council - Regular Meeting

62. Okay. Happy Monday evening, everyone. It is 6:00 p. p.m. January 5th, 2026, and it's time to call the city council Franklin City Council meeting to order. Uh, Miss Jones, roll call, please. Mr. Austin, present. Mr. Shut, here. Miss McGinness, here. Miss Nally, here. Miss Price, Mr. Prime here. Mr. Taylor here. Mayor, you have a qu. Thank you, ma'am. Mr. Brian Reese, please put your blessing on us and absolutely help us with the pledge. All right. Invite everyone to join me.

Our father, we come before you this evening and thank you for just being so good to us. Thank you for your blessings on our city. And God, I pray for your blessings uh on those who serve and even tonight, those who take on additional responsibilities and roles. Just bless them and thank them. I thank you for bringing them to this city to serve in those capacities. I pray for any uh agenda items tonight for the wisdom needed and discernment to make the right decisions. And uh I pray also just that you'd be with our first responders. I think also of our nation and those who serve in our armed forces. Just thank you for the freedom we have here. It's in your name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Let's stand together and invite you to join me in the pledge. 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. You may be seated. All right. Thank you all for coming tonight. Um, under announcements and public comments, I think the first thing we will do is uh elect our city council president for 2026. So, we will open up for nominations. I would like to uh nominate Kenny Austin. Second.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. Is there any other nominations? Hearing none, we will close that. And we need a motion. Uh, we have a motion to elect Kenny Austin as our council president. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay. Hearing none, we will do the same thing with the election of our city council vice president for 2026. Move to keep Sean Taylor right where he's at. Second. Second. Then that chair, is there an option to move him down there as VP? Okay, we have a colorful nomination.

Um, is there any other nominations for vice president? Mr. Shook, did you Chef, did you second that? I did. Okay. I didn't I didn't hear it. I was laughing. Is there a anybody else? Hearing none, we'll close nominations. And we have a motion to elect Shawn Taylor as city council vice president. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay. Hearing none, we will go uh open up. Is there any other announcements or public comments that does not pertain to the agenda that somebody wants to bring up? Okay, hearing none, we will close uh announcements and public comments and we'll go on to the consent agenda.

Moved to approve the meeting minutes from the 12:15 2025 city council meeting as presented. Okay, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor? I Okay, there isn't any old business. We'll go right into new business. Move to read new business by title only. Second. A motion and a second to read new business by title only. All those in favor? I. Okay. Item number one, which is introduction tonight, uh, approval of the 2026 2030 park impact fee plan and fee schedule. Director Parks and Wreck, Chip Orner.

Good evening. I apologize to Irene for having to hear this again. So, she's already sat through this once. Um, this is a uh this is the new park impact fee plan uh that we do every 5 years. So, if you recall, if you were on the council 5 years ago, we had the same discussion exactly five years ago. Um what the let me explain to you what the park impact fee is to begin with if you don't know. So, the park impact fee is a fee that's tagged on to a building permit uh at the planning department when somebody pulls a building permit to build a new home or a new apartment complex or those things. It's not a fee that is if you want to go and renovate your house or something, that's not what this this fee is. This is a new home coming into the community that's going to make an impact on the park system. So, the theory behind that is is that those people then would with that building permit fee pay for the impact that they're going to now have on the park system. Um, you know, you think I would know this after 5 years, but I cannot remember off the top of my head. It's 11:42 currently um as we sit here today. Is that right? Thank you. Um, it's going to go to 24.90. Um, and then it has a reduced rate for an apartment complex and and a duplex and those kind of things. Those would be $16.90. So, I know that's everybody always wants to know what that fee is up front. Now, how do we get to that point? Uh, we get to that point because we the the plan requires us to take not only a five-year look because that's this fee that I'm going to ask you to approve at the next meeting is going to be in place for five years. And that's way if you're on the council five years now, you'll see me come back and we'll do the same process again. But the plan requires us to look 10 years out. So, we're trying to look, not only are we projecting at what the what, you know, the population will look like in Franklin in 10 years, but what will it

look like from a parks and recreation standpoint as we get all these new people into the community, we build all these new houses, how are we going to manage the parks and recreation growth, especially as we start to now get into uh the Senate bill, you know, that you all are grappling with that we're going to feel the effects of of the next few years. How are we going to pay for all these great quality of life things that we have done in the community? Not only for the past years, which I'll talk about in a second, but what how are we going to do that for the next 10 years, right? Um, historically, we have not collected a whole lot of money in park impact fees, mainly because the parks fee has been low. Uh, especially when I show you uh how we're going to compare to other communities here in just a second, you'll see where we stand versus a lot of other central Indiana communities. Um what we have done in the last five or even 10 years is we've funded a lot of quality of life and parks and recreation things on our own, right? We haven't relied on the park impact fee. Things that come that we all know about would be like Youngs Creek Park and the amphitheater, the new active adult center. Um all those really cool things that we have built have really come from city funding. They really haven't come from a whole lot from park impact fees. What we have spent the park impact fees on for the last few years have been really what I call small things that probably have you haven't even seen on your radar screen. Um we have bought property uh in Blue Heron Park that we didn't own. If you've ever walked out onto the trail at Blue Heron and walked over past the old playground that was kind of in the middle of the park, we didn't own anything to the right. So we didn't own anything from the trail to the creek. Uh we had the opportunity a few years ago to purchase that property. Uh we did that. It was about 20. It was just under $25,000 I believe is what we spent on buying all that property. Ended

up being like five acres or something. Uh we also purchased a lot that is um at the entrance of Province Park on a home avenue. So you'll see it. It used to be an old house that sit there. Remember the that was flood central where the water just went right through the house. Uh we bought that property a few years ago from uh the land owner that was selling it. Uh other things we uh Blue Heron uh shelter that you see, the big green shelter, that was paid for park impact fees. So we're not really talking about really major stuff. The most expensive thing we bought in that whole thing was about $80,000 for that uh shelter. Uh so if you have been if you read and I could go into as much detail as you want. I mean I'll stay here. I was 36 minutes I think at the plan commission. I can do that if you want me to. No. Okay. Um what what we did with this plan was we looked at what what standards do we want in parks, right? Do what how many ball diamonds do we want in Franklin, for example, compared to what we have compared to what it's going to look like 10 years from now when we get more population. There's a whole list of things on there. It's it runs all the way from nature shelters to skate parks to all those things. But it really comes down to um this fee that I'm going to ask you to approve will net about in the next 10 years about $4.6 million. So it's not we're not into the low numbers anymore. We're getting up there a little bit into more things we can do more things with. I really uh this plan really identifies really five different what I call big rocks that we will try to accomplish. One of them is we've already started a Scott Park and we know that's coming. and we know that's going to be a fairly large project. Um, the other ones, uh, Kingsbridge Park, if you haven't, uh, been keeping up with, I'm sure all of you have, uh, Kingsbridge Park will open this spring. Um, it's about a 20 acre park that has a shelter,

excuse me, a trail, a playground. The second dog park in Franklin will open up there. And uh what we may do from our part is we may build pickle ball courts up there um on part of that property that's up there too with some of the money that we'll collect. Um obviously that we all know 31 trails is a is a big one that you know that are coming which is a big thing. Uh the other thing I identified is we'll have to run the trail that currently is by um it's on hurricane um that runs that will run up to Winterfield. Obviously, we'll connect that then that neighborhood to the Greenway Trail. And then the final one is the one that we haven't talked about a whole lot, but the mayor and I have talked about because we know it's coming is uh the aquatic center. The aquatic center is uh was built in 1985. So, if we look 10 years out from today, that makes that facility 50 years old. Um it when we renovate that facility, we do good things, but we also do bad things. The good thing is is that we make it look brand new and everybody is excited and love it. But the problem is is that it really is the lipstick on the pig concept that what you don't see is what is becoming the problem, right? All the piping's 50 years old. All this infrastructure that uh that that we need to keep maintained is going to be 50 years old. That'll be about the maximum we can take it. So, we're going to have to look at how are we going to renovate that. Um we've already Mayor and I have already had some discussions about how can we start, you know, what does that look like? Um and the answer is we don't know yet. Um so just those are the big things that are coming uh down the pike. Um some of that is eligible for park impact fees, some of it's not. So we you know you I should have told you this. I did this at the same thing in the plan commission. I'm sure

not operational. It

it's not operations money. So, it's not staffing, it's not supplies, it's I can't fix anything we currently have. This money is strictly 100% capital projects. So, I can sink the money into Scott Park that's coming up or we can sink it into a new pickle ball court at Kingsbridge, but I can't go fix a playground that we currently have. I can't replace a playground we currently have. It's only what the new impact is. So, that's very important when we start to see these numbers. um it's really not a way to fix things or maintain what we have. So um I do find it interesting that um when I when this report was done on December 5th, our park impact fees were about 300 I don't know 80 or 90,000 is what we had in the account. Um thank you Joanna and the plan commissioner for approving some apartment complexes and I asked this morning and it's at 601 um in just a month or two. Uh, so it also tells you that when we anticipate what something might be, we don't know if there's another apartment complex coming in four years from now. We don't, you know, nobody knows that. So, it does currently have 601,000 can only be spent on things we identified last time as deficiencies or, you know, things we thought we might need. But rest assured that there's a huge long list as well. So, it can be a whole lot of things that we could spend the money on. Last thing I wanted to show you is a the question all of you uh should be wanting to ask me at the end and that's going to be how do we compare to other communities, right? What does our fee look like compared to Greenwood or all these other places? And even though our fee is going to go from 1142 to 24.90, that gives you an idea where we are in into the other communities. So, if you look at Planefield or Brownsburg or or Greenwood or, you know, people that are fairly close to our size or close to us, we're right in there. Uh we're not in the

Caramel uh $6,000 range. So, that's every house that's built in Caramel. They they attach a $6,000 fee to uh ours is $24.90 or will be if you approve it. So, so it's not out of line. I should also tell you that this plan also requires us to uh put together a committee of uh very specific people. Uh 40% of this committee has to be from the builder representatives or real estate industry. Uh we did put that group together. Um Eric Luggers, uh Deb Brownley, uh Les Tabling, Ken Kski, and Marissa Stout

Stout uh was the committee. U had a great meeting. that we had it scheduled for an hour ended up being about two felt like um and they had great ideas and and that's why you get that committee together is that they're going to analyze uh is that fee in line or out of line if you're a builder or you're a real estate person. Only other thing I would mention because I know the builder people were here at the plan commission. I did want to mention it one more time that if you'll go to any website for any developer or builder here in Franklin that is currently out there, um you'll find one thing on all their websites. And the one thing that they all tout is the quality of life of Franklin, the nice trails, the amphitheater, the uh sports complex. I saw one say, "Hey, they're getting ready to build a new sports complex." So they tout um our quality of life things here in in Franklin because we all know this. We live here. We have it pretty good in Franklin, right? We have pretty good parks and recreation facilities. That's one of the reasons why people want to move here. So they notice that and I don't think they should have any problem with um helping us pay for it then. That makes sense.

And and I would clarify because Chip and I have spent a lot of time on these things. That's why the legislation was created to allow local entities when this first started about 20 years ago or 30 years ago because it's it's a onetime fee for only new development. Um, and it only you can't use it for operational expenses because that's because currently we have our taxpayers that are paying that in their real estate taxes. But if when you have new development come in, they have to bear some of that responsibility. So, it's a onetime um fee that's allowed and that's why we do these studies have our financial advisor. It goes to our committee then it's reviewed by our plan commission and then it comes here for introduction and then next time would be approval. Um Chip also provided me uh over the weekend a copy of the proposed ordinance that's in your packet. I wanted to let you know that I reviewed it and there were a couple typographical changes uh with regard to dates and things. Um, we're this is introduction only, so we'll have the public hearing next time. Um, I provided Jan's office a copy of a redline version of your ordinance and an accepted one. And you'll notice next meeting that red line will be in there. It doesn't change anything substantively, but it will have a few corrections that um I caught that we needed to do to update the new ordinance. So,

okay. Thank you, Chip. It's been introduced and as Lynn said, we will have a public hearing on this uh January 21st. It's our next meeting and that is a Wednesday. I just want to make sure people realize a couple times a year we have Wednesday meetings and this happens to be one of them. So, January 21st. Yes, sir. May I ask a question? Absolutely. Thank you, sir. Is it mandated every five years? Yes. So, every every city is doing it every five years because it seems like a long time to change the fee.

Yeah. you can't um you can't do it any more frequently than that in terms of doing an ordinance. There is a provision in the law that you can review it to see if there's a desperate impact or um if you can review it and make modifications to it, but you can only have an impact fee ordinance once every five years. Okay? And we don't I know we always compare ourselves to other cities and what they're doing because I like to do that as well, but we don't use those numbers to dictate where our number is going to be. We base that on what we think we're going to be,

right? That's why we have Peter's look at Peter's financial consultants look at ours. Berserville, uh Greenwoods just was um approved in o in 2025. They revised theirs. Um Bargersville just adopted one as well. Okay. Yeah. So every every community is a little different on what their needs are. Anybody else with any questions? Okay. Hearing none, we will go on to item number two. Under new business, introduction of the employee handbook revisions, amending ordinance 2024-11. Clerk treasure Jan Jones.

Yeah, this is something that we will do yearly. It's part of our contract with new focus and they update it um with any new uh federal and state laws. Um we are also able to amend anything that we noticed throughout the year that may be changed. Um for example, we had never had the building healthy families program in the um manual before that talks about the car seat program um that our employees have. We also added um AI usage in there now. They also added the Indiana Child Educational Activities Leave, which is statemandated. So, it's just a great uh way for us to keep up on this instead of waiting 10 years down the road. So, we do it uh yearly now, and this is introduction only. So, if you look through it and have questions, I can answer those uh at the next meeting on the 21st.

Yep. Jan and I both asked, "Do we really need a three-page AI policy?" and we were told unequivocally, yes, um it's coming, so be prepared for it. So, they basically drafted that for us, which is good use of our money. Um Jan, I did want to note that on page 19 for our next one, if we bring it forward, um we have the ter we have the term beyond what the city if required, and I think it should be is required by law. Uh I think they she did change it because mine I just printed today says is. Okay. Mine says if. So, okay. Thank you. Uhu. All right. Anybody any questions for Jan?

That's a great service that we have. I don't remember what we pay for that, but actually the initial cost was I don't Jan, you'll know better than I, but the annual cost is not all that much. Um, it was well worth Oh, yeah. paid up front for sure. And they're at your Yes. I can call if you have to call them. They're amazing. We can email them anytime during the day and and we've revised this with these changes here um over the last two weeks and they've been great. Long overdue.

Yeah. And Jan and and um Donna in HR have kept a running list of things during the year like oh we never thought about that. We never thought about that. And so some of the other little things about how do you count it and that kind of stuff were just being accumulated after we put it in effect last year and let and worked with it. So that they were very helpful in responding to our issues.

Okay. Again, it is introduction only and just like the prior item that we introduced, um we will have a public hearing on this on January 21st on Wednesday. So, we'll move on to other business. Uh first item under other business, there's two one-year appointments for the redevelopment commission uh that the council appoints. It is currently Ann McGinness and Josh Prime. Uh so we would need the council to reappoint. It can be anyone. I'm just saying that's who's there now.

I make a motion to reappoint Ann McInness and Josh Prime both for the um redevelopment commission. Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there anybody else being nominated? Hearing none, we will close the nominations. So we have um we have uh two members to vote on an McGinness and Joss Prime. All those in favor? I.

Any opposed? Hearing none, we will go on to next item. Appoint a representative to the a representative to the plan commission which it is Irene Nally is who is doing it now. Um but again it can be anyone. So it's open for nominations. I move to reappoint Irene Nally as our representative to the plane commission. Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any other nominations? Hearing none, we will close the nominations. So, we have a nomination for Irene Nally. All those in favor?

I opposed. Okay. Hearing none. Item number three uh was a mistake on my part. Uh appoint a representative to the board of zoning appeals. Uh that was actually I think it's next year Joanne and I talked about that that will come to the council for that one. So we will just take that one off the agenda. We do not need a motion to take it off or anything. Um so that one's already filled. Uh item number four is the completed 2025 projects and the 2026 uh projects that we're looking to do. Um we don't need any kind of action on this. This isformational only and we've been putting this out for the last five or six years. Uh a yearly goal that we try to to get with some of these projects. And on the the 2025 page that you see there where the stars is at, that's it completed. That's what we got completed in 2025. Then the next next one is for 2026. And some of those carry over. So the reason we like to do this um I hear a lot of times people the city doesn't tell us what's going on here or the city don't tell us there every year this big master list is put out first meeting in January and it's talked about at these council meetings quite a bit as we go on so it's out there uh get on our website or look at the agendas and they can keep up on what's happening in the city. It's really hard to keep everyone informed. I wish Glad you guys come tonight. Glad to see you.

It is. Yeah. So, there's a lot of different u funding sources for that money too, by the way, Renee. So, anyway, uh any questions on the 2025 2026 project list? Of course, we'll talk about them anytime you want as the year goes on. have an open door policy. So, all right, that's uh all we have under other bit business. We will go to council member comments and Josh, I'll start with you tonight. Um just excited to get ready for this uh upcoming year.

Irene, I'm sorry. And eyes in the back of my head, right? I have no comments. Thank you. You can comment and be of attributed to Irene. Say whatever you want, right? I want to thank the uh the ladies and the men up here on the council and and putting me in a position of presidency. Again, I really appreciate it. It's very humbling. Thank you, Sean. Uh kind of echo what Kenny just said. Uh thank you for your vote of confidence, gave me as vice president, and uh looking forward to hopefully the ground groundbreaking there at Scott Park. That's been a long time coming. So, Amen. And uh think we're going to look at some plans here next week. Yep. Yep. So there's some stakes out there.

Yep. That's good. No comment. I'm good. Oh, sorry. I apologize. I'll wait my turn. Tom, now that you've said that, I guess. No, I'm good. I'm good. Thank you. Happy New Year. How about Ann? I mean, Irene. Um, I just want to say happy new year. And I also want to make a big shout out to our street department. Your work does not go unnoticed. Thank you so much, Jan. when no hers. No, nothing else.

I don't have anything to add. Just appreciate working with this group up here. And I think we have a a good group for the city and uh to run city business and I also think that we got a good group of people that works for our city. So with that being said, we need a motion to adjurnn. Yes, sir. I want to clarify something that I forgot to say. So I learned this from the last presentation with the planning commission. Thank you, Joanna. I want to make sure we're all crystal clear because if you read a Daily Journal article that came out after the Planning Commission Yeah. that said this fee was $24.90 and it's not. It's $2,490. Just so we're all clear. Thank you. Just an honest mistake by the journal. It's okay.

All right. With that being said, we need a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second. All those in favor. Thank you. No.