Common Council - Regular Meeting

6 p.m. December 2nd. We'll start with the public hearings. Public hearing number one. Is everybody here to speak to propose the local law relating to property tax levy authority? Call come again. Anybody here to talk about the proposed local law relating to property tax levy authority? Last call. Public hearing number one. Proposal law relating to property tax levy authority. Public hearing number two, proposed 2026 city budget. Anybody here speak the proposed 2026 city budget? Last call. Anybody here to propose 2026 city budget? Jade. Anybody online raising their hand? Good.

No. Public hearing number three, propose local law to allow the common council to set city fees, fines, penalties, and um by resolution. Anybody here to speak to that? And second call, proposal of the law to allow the common council to set city fines fees, fines, and penalties by resolution. Last call, proposal of the law to allow common council to set city fees, fines, and penalties by resolution. Public hearing number four, propose local law to establish rental fire and safety inspection and rental certificate of compliance. I believe we do have somebody. Mr. Pace, if you can grab that microphone, that would be awesome. Got to hold on to it. Okay.

Uh first of all, thank you for allowing uh public comment here. Um I just want I had a couple of just very simple points of clarification and a suggestion. Uh let me start with the suggestion. I think first of all the the proposed local law is very well written. It's very positive. It moves forward except for two sentences that I think under the the purpose statement right on the second page. Um I think it can potentially get you into trouble. Um it states that in the city of Courtland approximately 69% are residential owner occupied, 31% are rental properties. Over the past 5 years approximately 29% of police, fire boat calls are attributed to owner occupied while 71% are attributed to rentalless. That's the sentence that got me. Um, first of all, I don't think it's relevant in terms of the local law. Um, I understand that they look at justification, but I think it sets a a bad tone for what you intend. Uh, language is really important. As a former school teacher uh who worked with students on writing, I always tried to tell them that each sentence needs to advance your purpose uh your goal, your thoughts. And uh my first initial reaction to that was, is it attributed to the building or are you targeting renters as the problem and labeling them as undesirabs? Are renters less stable? Do they create more problems? Um, I I think that that opens you up to potential discrimination claims and things. It also adds to the tone in the community. I can remember the discussions about Parker School and

what people were saying in the neighborhood about potential uh rental property going in there and it was all those same kinds of things. It was very negative and I think it sets a bad tone for the community. We can change that by saying something much more positive that uh brings things forward. For example, what I came up with the first sentence was fine, but what I came up with after that over the past 5 years to cancel that and write in something like this. The city of Portland intends to require that rent for property profit properties meet desirable safety standards expected of all properties for habitation. I think it's said it's much more positive. It it completes the rest of the document and I think it sets the tone for why you're why you're doing this. You don't need to point out problems in this. You're talking about a law that's supposed to change something and I think that that does a better job of it and I'd like to see some change in those last couple of sentences and under purpose. Um other than that uh just a couple of simple questions here. Uh it's my understanding after going over this self-certification is ending.

Correct. That's correct. Okay. Um uh and everyone needs to register their properties uh and be issued an uh occupancy permit. Correct. That's correct. Okay. Um, and uh, is it required to have a lease on file with the city? I it kind of touched on that, but I wasn't sure. U, you know, I do a rent by month kind of thing because it gives me more control over the tenant.

It's recommended so that we could keep help with the tenants to hold them accountable. That's part of the So, you have to have an active contract to show that they're they're engaged into that contract. Otherwise, the onus goes back on the property owner.

Yeah, I uh uh I have exercised my right on that with uh uh one tenant years ago, but most of the tenants have been outstanding. I help take care of the property that St. Anony's Church has on Pomeroy Street. We've been renting that for close to 30 years now, and we've never had any problems with tenants. They've been very good. So, you know, I think we got to be careful about how we talk about renters. Um, they do have a right to live somewhere, to have a safe home. I agree with that. And, uh, I think, uh, our language uh, really needs to to say that and focusing on that. Um, I'd be happy to give you what I wrote here afterwards if you want an example of it. Uh, certainly you can change that if you want. Um, and I do want to say that on the east end of town, um, that whole section of the city is anchored by owner occupied, uh, homes, two and three family homes. Um, some people have purchased uh, homes in the neighborhood just to prevent out of town landlords from purchasing them and and only collecting rent. Um, it's been a very very responsible area when it comes to that. I know many people that have done that where they own several homes on the same street just so they can control it. Um, so they're on your side with this. Okay. So, thank you very much.

Thank you very much. But it warrants some clarification. The intent was to draw the attention that self-certification is not necessarily working all the time because those areas of problems were the ones that are being self-certified. But I agree with you. The language should be clear. Thank you. And thanks for your input.

All right. Again, uh, anybody else want to speak to the proposed local law to establish rental fire and safety inspections and rentals and compliance? Last call. Anybody here to speak to the public hearing number four, proposal of the law to establish rental fire and safety inspection and rental certificate of compliance. All right, with that we'll close the public hearings and we'll go to the call to order screen. Okay. Uh council council member Murker is absent. Council member Sllon is absent and council member Panel is absent. Council member Lane here. Council member Conland here, Council Member Carpenter here, Council Member Beckwith,

and Council Member Michaels here. I alsyy and justice for all. here that wants to speak further to the floor. Okay. Finally. Okay.

All right. For the year-to- date summary, I just wanted to draw everybody's attention. Uh we are still tracking of well within our expenses and all three funds. Uh collections are ongoing. The uh late notices for the tax bills went out at the beginning of November. So we're still continuing to collect on that. Um and there are a number of payments that we're expecting in over the next month. Um we get several things in the month of December always. We get a sales tax payment, we get our AIM, we've got chips reimbursements coming. So, we've got a number of things coming in. So, the the negative number there does look dire, but it is not as bad as it looks. We're anticipating a number of chunks of revenue to come in and cover that. Um, so what I wanted to kind of with that let everybody know that this year, um, we've managed to do, uh, better with our overall cash flow management. Um, this year we we've worked a lot, uh, with the staff to even that out so that we were able to continue, um, keeping up with our obligations, which we are doing right now. uh we aren't having any problems paying bills this year. Uh we also were able to get a lot of our reimbursements back in this year u that had been out at the end of last year. So overall our cash management has been a little bit smoother this year which is good. Uh the state got uh a lot better about reimbursing things. So this year we've been seeing a much quicker turnaround on our reimbursements when we send those out. So that's been very helpful. Um so overall we're uh we're in a pretty good place for this year. I anticipate at the end of the year that we should close um predominantly even across the board for our funds um when they're looked at holistically which is one of the things that the rating agencies were um wanting us to do. We are also u continuing to work on our 2024 audit um because 23 closed out so late and as you recall that was came to the council in July uh which is well well later than we would have liked uh since they had reopened 21 and 22. 24 obviously got started much

later than we would have preferred. U we're working with the audit team on that right now. We had hoped to have it closed by the end of the year. Um with the holidays, I think we're going to be pushing into the beginning of next year to be quite realistic. Um but we're we're close on that and uh so far so good. So um a lot of the recommendations they had asked us for um process uh we've been able to put into place. So I think we'll be in a better place with that as well. Um, just real quick, so close the 24 out. 25 won't hold 25 up, correct?

No, 25 will close the books on time. My my my goal in life here is to close out everything on 25, have our AFR filed on time and have our audit for 25 started in May. That is my goal in life. Um, I may be kicking and screaming to get there, but that is my goal is to get us right back onto the track on a time frame we'd like to be uh so that we're rolling through the year going forward. We get everything else done that without lingering. It should be a lot smoother from here as well. Exactly. And that's the thing. I mean, when you're trying to to catch up from behind, it's it's a you're trying to do the work and catch up things from previous, it's a lot of lift. Um, but we we've been slogging through it for a while now in our department and uh we're getting there. Um, so that's been very helpful. Thank you.

Yep. Uh if you flip over on the other side, the proposed budget for 26 uh reflects everything that had been done prior. Uh so as you're aware um with the option for the um healthc care for uh retirees to choose between the uh MS3 and the plan 4. Um we're waiting for the last of those um elections to come in. Tomorrow was their deadline. Uh we're actually doing better than that than I initially thought we would. seeing about uh 40% of the Dr. Paris take the plan 4 and about 60% take the NS3 which is good overall. Um we're uh I was I was happy to see that. Obviously I I think they're both excellent options. I happy when people take the slightly less expensive one. Um but uh people seem to be understanding their options and making good choices for their own uh fit. So that's that's good to see. Um my goal is once we have the final numbers on that and um for all our active and and younger retirees uh onto the bronze plan to make the adjustments uh to the budget and have a draft of what I'm going to recommend as the adopted budget out to council by the end of the week. Uh along with that um I've been I'm doing a deep dive into um what what we think our H utilization is going to be. I think my initial numbers were probably more conservative than they should have been. So, I'm going to u we've we've asked for some some data from the consortium on that. So, we're we're making some adjustments there. Um and additionally, just so everybody's aware of everything that ties into the to the budget, all these uh public hearings that are on for for next um meeting, like the uh the changes of the fee structures and whatnot, too. All that ties into kind of where these budget estimates are. Um, now that we've got the fee structure completely laid out, we're going to be looking at our revenue lines again and adjusting those where it's appropriate. So, by the end

of this week, I should have a better draft. Um, I do still anticipate an additional uh a little bit of a increase beyond where we are at the 5%. Um, I don't know exactly where that's going to be right now. Roughly, from what I'm looking at, I'm thinking seven and maybe a little bit. I'm not 100% certain yet. So, I will have that to you by the end of the week um with the best numbers I can get to. Um but but just know that that's you know all all of these various things that have gone into that all kind of mesh and um that's how we get to these numbers. So, that's all I have for now. I have questions.

Go right ahead. uh just uh how roughly how many bolds do we have at this point regarding the insurance uh signing up? Uh they're not due until tomorrow and I think we were under two dozen left to get back. So we're um but I know at as the evening went on we had faxes coming in and people emailing. So between that and Tuesday is typically a light mail day for us. So we expect to get the rest of the mail tomorrow. Yeah. Uh question two. Yes. Uh cannabis revenue. Yes. U heard very little on on that at this point.

Right. We just got a full quarter in. Uh it came in at just under 30,000 for a full quarter. So the the revenue uh estimate for next year looks like that should be u solid. Okay. Yeah. Which that was a partial quarter, right? This this one was a full quarter. that after they opened in June. Yeah, this was July, August, September that we just got. So they they rolled that into the June the June. We've gotten two payments. The first one was only for like a couple days and then the second one was a quarter. Yeah. So Mhm. Yeah. But we were we were hoping that that was a good uh a good estimate on the revenue and I'm confident that it is now having seen that.

120,000 this stage draw for one bill was pretty darn good. A question. Yes, ma'am. Um, thank you. You have a dozen. You said a couple dozen people you have not heard from. Yeah. Yes. What happens if you don't hear from? I promise to drive to their house as well. Yes. The mayor has and I have been out. Um, most people even if we don't have their actual paperwork in, we've had calls as people have asked questions. Okay. So, um, our goal is by the end of the day tomorrow if we're there are people, we'll have lists and we'll we'll start calling them and then the mayor is going to be hopping in the truck and driving

of North Carolina. People have been gonna say he said I'll go to their house airplane budget. Yeah, honestly people have been very very uh helpful with that and it's been quite good and we've given them options to fax to email to mail to whatever you know carrier pigeon at this point will take it anyway. Yeah. Do the numbers we're working with currently, do they reflect the increased borrowing and debt service with the fix downgrade or be

So, uh, no, because we have absolutely no way of knowing that. So, we know what we're owing like we know what our current debt service is. Um, the only thing that that'll affect is come May. um the the ban that we have out, we're our plan is we're uh using the WIA very low interest rate loan to pay down a large portion of that ban, but the portion of that that we roll will be affected by whatever our interest rate is at that time. Now, if we close out this year even like we were supposed to and we've got our audit in close to timely, even if we're a little late, I I will have the answer to my best ability when I talk to them and hopefully they'll take a little mercy and uh maybe adjust our rate for us. When will we have a better sense of that?

April. Yeah. Not fast. Sorry. You won't know that until you put it out the pit. Yeah. But again, two rates are dropping. It looks like, you know, it dropped. It may drop again from what they're saying. So that doesn't hurt either. Pay that sort of thing. Correct. So Anybody else? Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Mayor's report. So, um, so I think we did a press release, but the city was awarded another million dollar CDBG black grant for another pumper truck, the fire department. Um, that was set on the 20th. And I attended the u Smith school intermediate. They have family bingo and community fair that night. Um, was good to do that. Of course, we had the tree life ceremony over here. Mr. Beckliff was there as well. And it was a blustery night, but uh you know, it's great great to have a Santa and was a lot of fun for everybody that was there. Um, you know, ongoing collaboration with the downtown businesses as we prepare for New Year's Eve and midnight on Maine. So remember New Year's Eve is uh the new new 11 to one on Main Street with the X101 is going to be working on that help with that countdown uh balloon drop and it'll be a lot of fun and midnight on Maine of course is uh I think performance by Studio Z and the ball drop and fireworks food trucks. So that'll be fun as well. Prior to that will be the um on the 16th of December would be my Christmas party and we're having at the vault this year at 7. So after our meeting on the uh 16th, we'll go over there. So the staff and media are invited to that. Uh the 14th is a manura lighting ceremony at Courthouse Park, weather permitting, at the fire station. Uh that starts at 6 and u so that that'll be exciting. I think it's our third or fourth manura lighting. Um and then the 6th of December uh the uh high school class 126 is hosting a breakfast with Santa fundraiser at the outs lodge. So if anybody go by there on Saturday from 8 to 10 45 uh and 12 the 5th ATI is offering free gift wrapping

services with an option to drop off their gifts and pick them up later at a time. And that is uh Friday on the 5th. I'm sorry. Did I say the sixth the fifth at four to six? So again, they've been doing a lot of they had a nice meal there. I was unable to make it, but that was good to have that as well. Um and it was good for for those things that we got a lot of things happening in the next month. Um and I think it'll be it'll be good to have it figured out. Any questions on that? If not, we'll go to award reports and we should start off with Miss Lane.

Matthew used to go first. All well in the fourth. Thank you, Mr. K. Wow. Relatively quiet with the holiday. We do have a number of street lights out on Main Street that have reported DPW. Uh so waiting for those to get addressed, but that formal report I don't think was made until the 27th. So Thanksgiving. So back a couple days. South. Yes. There's like there's like eight of them. on the corner of the main street there one too. So I got the street light numbers so you'll pass that along but those were reported. Thank you. That'll do it. Thank you. Call it six. Thank you Mr. Beckham.

Um just a couple quick things. Mr. Pace, thank you very much about your positive about the seventh board. I know

you do a lot over there and it is a great community or a great east side. I'm not saying that because that's my word, but it is truly the people love each other over there. It's just great. I mean, I must say that. Um, real quick, this Friday night at 6:30 in the village of Homer is the hospice light of my life. I don't know. It's not not a Homer thing, but I've been doing it for 30 years, and somehow it ended up on the Homer Village Green, but it's open to everybody. And, uh, they'll accept donations. You can put your your loved ones name on the plaque. Well, I know will be there and introducing Santa Claus and I'll be there to flip the switch. All goes well, it'll light up. All I have. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Michaels.

Oh, I actually actually had the opportunity to attend the Youth Bureau's annual Thanksgiving dinner this year. And uh I also actually contributed to one of the dinner items, which uh is something I haven't done before. uh was was a Thanksgiving dinner without cranberry sauce.

Unfortunately, I I didn't realize how much to make. So, I made five bags of uh the cranberry sauce, which yielded probably enough for more than those individuals that attended to that. But it was a nice dinner anyways. And we had roughly less than 80 people show up for that. So, I was really surprised. I want to give special thanks for our uh youth services supervisor, Heather Johnson, as well as Matt Marcy, our youth services specialist, for for hosting this dinner every year. And uh it was certainly certainly nice to see those kids running around and uh actually entertain themselves without uh without much supervision, per se, but it was it was nice. It was nice.

So Tom, really did Cheryl make that or did you? No, I actually did. Okay. Yeah, I I I'm in charge of two items Thanksgiving every year. One's cranberry sauce and the other one's pumpkin pie. With the kids, you'd have had a better time shaking that stuff out of the can. Yes. And we we did provide actually the the canned cranberry sauce went quick. Nobody likes the traditional sauce, I guess. But yeah. No, that was nice. Thank you. Well, glad you attended that. That was nice. That's nice. Oh, and they also have an annual Christmas dinner coming up, too. I'll I'll announce that at the next council meeting.

Perfect. All right. Thank you. All right. With that, we'll go to approval minutes. Anybody have any questions on this? I get a motion to move the minutes. Mr. Be sorry. All those in favor? I carried resolution. Uh agenda item number one, authorized execution of collective bargaining agreement with the city of Coral Professional Firefighters Association, IAF AAF, local 737.

Resolve that the collective bargaining agreement between the city of Portland Professional Firefighters Association, IAAF Local 2737, and the city of Portland is hereby approved and ratified. And be it further resolved that Mayor Steve is hereby authorized to execute said collective bargaining agreement on behalf of the city of Portland with IAAF Local 2737 for a 5-year contractual term dated January 1st 2026 through December 31st 2030.

Back with Mr. Carpenter just a couple highlights I think I'd just go through u everybody has this in their packet. I think it was in our the end of the packet. So the term is for five years as mentioned uh 3% each year of the increase the health insurance which been working on uh with the bronze plan adjustment to sick days standardization on holidays which we're trying to get across globally and with percentage of match on insurance is trying to get globally remove of municipal training officer from a captain position to a bargaining unit management battalion chief along with corresponding reduction in captains by and increase firefighter by one. Uh just holiday uniform and gear provisions. Uh inclusion of salary enhancement for members with paramedics certification. Protective language for members leading the union to accept a management position upon approval of the county council. Uh the will remain the same on the committee. Put that posted on the website as well. I'll final here. Do we have questions on that? I think everybody's got that in their packet. Um appreciate firefighters in their uh negotiation discussions. So certainly uh we'll have five years to let somebody else deal with it. So with that, I'll move that.

Okay. Council member Lane. Hi. Council member Con. Hi. Council member Carpenter. Hi. Council member. Hi. Council member Mike. Hi. Thank you, M gentlemen. Agenda item number two, authorize execution of collective bargaining agreement with the city of Courtland Police Benevolent Association Incorporated. Resolve that the collective bargaining agreement between the city of Courtland Police Benevolent Association Incorporated and the City of Courtland is hereby approved and ratified. And be it further resolved that Mayor Steve is hereby authorized to execute said collective bargaining agreement on behalf of the city of Portland with the PBA for a 5-year contractual term dated January 1st, 2026 through December 31st, 23rd.

Mr. Carpenter, give it to you first and then Mr.

Um, yeah. Again, so the highlights here again five-year term u so ending at the same time uh the wages are the first year market rate adjustment is the wages basically going through looking at what county sheriff's department is so we're not getting a lateral transfer or losing members over that way and then 3% every year after uh adjustment on the on call detective rate health insurance and the switch to the bronze standardization of city holidays which we discussed earlier. General language cleanup to remove the gender specific pronouns inclusion of theou concerning the school resource offic uh inclusion of theou concerning the canine officers they were all done onus before now it's contract language protective language for members leaving the union to accept a management position upon approval by common council this execution of final documents again will be posted on the website. Does anybody else have any questions on that TV? Okay. Call please.

Council member Lane. Hi. Council member Conlin. Hi. Council member Carpenter. Hi. Council member Beckley. Hi. Council member. Hi. Okay.

Congratulations. Agenda item number three. Third amendment to the management plan of 2025. Resolve that pay bands on schedule A compensation and titles be updated as follows in accordance with the chart that is listed there. Resolve that the management plan section titled health insurance be amended as follows. I'll just summarize that basically to align it with the other contracts there going over to the bronze plan. Resolve that the management plan section titled retirement health benefits be amended as follows. and that is to um align with the change in the retirement plans to the option of the MS3 or the plan.

Can you explain the pay bands on the pay bands um which uh were in the original plan some of them because the percentage of increases pushed to the top part of that pay band. So some of those pay bands were changed to a lot and I believe there was some that were even lowered too so that somebody if somebody was moved to a different pay man so they're more reflective of what's what we're at

and the health insurance again the amendment stays the 20% all that stays the same. It's just elective coverage just basically explaining the same health insurance plan that we just did with those other two union contracts. Um and then how the retirement health benefits works out is all part of the same. Anybody else answer your question? Yeah, I just I just explain the pay bands. What is it like a payb one? What is that?

Okay, so if you had the whole management plan in front of you, pay ban, you know, based on the grade of pay. So, for example, um you know, the uh police chief and the fire chief might be in gay band two. I think I'm right. No, they're in one. They're in one. Okay. They're deputies. Yes. Deputies. The deputies would be in two and then not necessarily uh just because it's typically uh actually it's a cost of what your job is to move them from. So, the range is 112 to 168. That their range their range. Yes. Yep. Yep. Yep. So that's the lowest that range can be and the highest that range can be based on

and if we have to change that range, we did it by resolution, which is what this is because the bands changed. There's a listing actually in the management plan of which positions go into each band based on. So if we ever add a position, rather than have a different column for pay, we would put them into a band. Okay? So then the positions are listed in those bands instead of the opposite. Okay. Anybody else? Okay. Moment please. Council member Lane. Hi. Council member Connage. Hi. Council member Carpenter. Hi. Council member Beckas. Hi. Council member Michaels. Hi.

Agenda item number four. Authorize city fire department to overhire two firefighter positions in anticipation of retirement. Resolved that the city of Portland common council grants authority to the fire chief to hire two additional firefighters above their authorized staffing levels to lessen the impact of staffing shortages based upon pending retirements to the extent that such positions have been funded in the department's budget.

Mr. Miss Lane again this proved to be very uh successful in previous actually this past year when we had some trainings that had the kid come up and was good timing to that and and actually an injury I think it was a strike chief or something and it was actually beneficial to have those extra on and it just same with the police it just takes so long to get him into that position to not have that it's a pretty move any questions Please. Council member Lane. Hi. Council member Conland. Hi. Council member Carpenter. Hi. Council member Beckwith. Hi. Council member Michaels. Hi.

Agenda item number five. Authorize professional services agreement with Cedarwood Engineering Services for the Water Quality Improvement Project at the Corland Wastewater Treatment Facility. Resolved that the city of Portland common council hereby authorize Mayor Steve to enter into a service agreement with Cedarwood Engineering Services for professional engineering services to prepare technical scoping, bid documentation, and construction oversight for the water quality improvement project grant funded project at the Portland Wastewater Treatment Facility in an amount not to exceed $212,000.

Motion, Mr. Carver, Mr. back with again. Uh so this work is actually started this was uh we just when we did the resolution typically we would say and award that contracting but we didn't do that in this so it's a formality we have to do um and that process will help us get into more tighter compliance when we get this work done that'll be better compliance for our wastewater. So, we're excited about getting this moved and if we don't do it then the state comes down and it's correct. Yes. In case you didn't know that fine state. Council member Lane I. Council member Conlin. Hi. Council member Carpenter. Hi. Council member Beckwit. Hi.

Council member Miles. I. Agenda item number six. Accept and recognize donations. Resolve that the common council hereby accepts and appropriates the donations listed below and expresses its sincere gratitude for the generosity of the donors. Miss Lane, Mr. Colin. Yes. Yeah, this it's great to have all these people, you know, Gary Junkie and Jenkee and or Rick Jenkee again to the youth bureau. Walmart for Shop with a cop. I mean, shop with the cop's big. I don't know what our total number is. You don't cheat the funds. Yeah. How much funds we have and how many children we're going to hit with that.

We are doing 60 children this year and I'm not sure of the total funds because so much is coming, right? I think we have close to 10,000 right now. That's awesome. That's great. A lot of toys.

Yeah. And uh I I think it gets uh some good morale for our police officers, too. They get the city, you know, they get to see a lot of bad with the bad and to have the good with the good. They appreciate uh the new step up in the running of that. So we had 2,000 from Walmart for shop with a cop. Uh Rome 27 LLC for $450. John Ciserbo for $50. Sharon Torres for 300. The DAV is for,032. Theresa Noli for 125, Gators and Willows collision for 1866. Garage and Delaware for 150. Terry Gill Gillan for 50 and Paul Sandy 40 for the deer funk. So there's good amount for shop for the cop there. And again, I appreciate everybody's effort on that and all the good that that those items do. So with that, I'll move it.

Council member Lane. Hi, council member. Hi. Council member Carpenter. Hi. Council member Beckwith. Hi. Council member Mike. Hi.

All right. Anybody else have any other questions or better or otherwise? All right. So, don't forget our next meeting after that is the business party. So, make sure that bring your spouses and significant others there and we'll make sure that you place a wedding. If you get a snapshot of that, that'll be fine. All right, with that and motion to adjurnn charger in favor of these lovely reading That's such a great

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