Council - Regular Meeting

No, I don't. But I

All right, everybody. It is 5:00. Thank you all for being here. We will get started with our work session. Um we've got a few different presentations tonight um as well as an agenda to work period in preparation for our March 16th meeting. Um so the first update will come from the finance department. So Kyle de Mester and many of his team members are here to present. So Kyle, I'll turn it over to you at this time. Full house for us tonight. Looks like so I hope that doesn't mean everyone's concerned about the financial I hope not either.

Y'all better go. Uh, good evening, council, mayor, and residents. My name is Kyle De Mester, and I serve as the chief financial officer for the city of Decar. It's my privilege to stand before you today and talk about the three departments that quietly power so much of what makes the city of Decar function every single day. Finance, purchasing, and revenue departments. with many. While many people see the projects being built, the services being delivered, or the programs being offered throughout our city, what they may not always see is the financial foundation that makes all of it possible. Behind the scenes, these teams ensure that every dollar is accounted for, every process is followed, and every transaction reflects the trust our citizens place in us. I'm incredibly proud of the professionals who serve in these departments, some of who have joined us today. Uh we've we have an excellent group of public servants who bring expertise, integrity, and a deep commitment to the city to cater. Their work requires precision, accountability, and a constant focus on stewardship of public resources, and they deliver on that responsibility every day. Another thing that sets our organization apart is the strength of our policies and procedures. Our financial controls, purchasing guidelines, and revenue processes are designed not only to meet regulatory standards, but promote transparency, consistency, and accountability across the entire organization. These systems help ensure that every department in the city operates with the same high standards. What makes it even more impressive is how efficiently this this team operates with a dedicated but lean staff. These department these departments manage 18 individual governmental funds, two proprietary funds, and a reported $330 million in total governmentwide revenues. In addition to the millions of dollars in transactions, contracts, and collections each year, this staff also supports every other department in city government. Their ability to do so with professionalism, accuracy, and

responsiveness speaks volumes about the talent and dedication of the people on this team. Simply put, finance, purchasing, and revenue are the financial backbone of the city of Decar. Their work ensures that we remain fiscally responsible, operate efficient, and be prepared to support the continued growth and success of our community. I'm grateful for the leadership and the entire staff who make this possible, and I'm excited for you to hear more about the great work being done in these departments. Don, Jeremy, and Lori are here this evening to give you a quick deep dive into what specifically their respective departments do, as well as provide a taste as to what's in store for the future of these departments. So, first up, we'll have Don Runninger, our finance department manager. Oh, wait, I got that backwards. Lori Rosetti with our revenue department. [laughter]

Hi, Council Mayor. I'm Lori Rosetti. I'm the revenue manager. I'm going to tell you a little bit about our department. So, the revenue department consists of four full-time employees, including myself, and one part-time retired police officer who helps with my enforcement. The revenue department is responsible for the collection of the city of Decar taxes and licenses. Tax filers remit tax for alcohol by the 15th and all other taxes by the 20th of each month. Tax comes in either by walk-in, mailing, or filing using My Alabama taxes, which we download and import the payments into our system. At this time, it is mostly a manual process. The process brings in roughly $6 million a month. We have around 6,379 filers with six thou with uh 87% filing online. Now online roughly we have 46 delinquents a month which is really good for that many filers. We transitioned in October 2025 to a new system that allows licenses to be renewed online. We are working out the challenges with the software company and are hoping to move taxes to this as well. We have over 7,500 lenses and have collected a little over $8 million since January 1st of this year. Until now, other duties include auditing the accounts for license and tax accuracy along with delinquent collection. All alcohol, special events, taxi cabs, and carriages are handled by revenue and go before the council for approval. We also handle abatements. We track them. The exemption certificates are issued working handinhand with industrial development board. Other departments that work with us are planning, building, community development. We work together to ensure compliance in zoning, permitting, inspection, address accuracy, and ordinance compliance. We also work closely with revenue department in reporting for budget issues. What my enforcement officer works closely with the police department and the court ensuring compliance of taxes and licenses. The revenue department's vision for success moving forward is to

streamline this process, making all taxes and licenses online for convenience and efficiency, creating a one-stop approach by bringing planning, building, community development, revenue into one location where everything can be handled quickly and with minimal steps for our customers. I believe crossraining and working as one collective team will save the city and employees and alleviate confusion and stress for the public. Our main goal is customer service and we are working with the with the um public at this point to get feedback and find out what they like and what they don't like about our new online process so that we can streamline that better for them. And that's all the revenue department has. Do you have any questions?

I do have a comment. We all know what it's like to go on new software and they just went through the first season of licensing on the new software and Lori and her team did an excellent job. Thank you. Thank you. There were a lot of hiccups and we have to do a lot of apologizing, but we got through it and I think next year will be much easier for everyone. Okay. Thank you. I'm gonna hand it over to you. That's right. Congratulations. Thank y'all. If y'all get the screen, I can send a picture over. [laughter]

I will say he stopped me on the way in. He said, "One piece of business before the meeting starts." I was glad to see the picture of your your first grand for sure. Congratulations.

Ask me about him later. [laughter] Um, so while Lori and her department are busy collecting revenues, our department is always ready to spend it. Um, my name is Jeremy Cheryl, serving as the procurement agent for the city. Essentially meaning we oversee the city's purchasing operations. In simple terms, our department is responsible for ensuring the city buys what it needs the right way, at the right price, and in a fair and transparent way. You might say we are the city's professional shoppers. Except instead of browsing online deals at midnight, we ensure every purchase follows federal, state, and local laws, especially the Alabama competitive bid law. So, unfortunately, no impulse buying is allowed. A big piece of our job is managing the that competitive bidding process. When the city needs something from a paperclip to a firet truck or new seating and flooring in the council chambers, we develop those bid documents. We advertise them. We answer vendor questions. We collect bids, host bid openings, and evaluate those submissions to determine the vendor that offers the best value while meeting necessary requirements. Once the bid process is complete, results and recommendations are brought to council for approval. That's the moment where months of paperwork and spreadsheets turn to a twominute agenda item. So, I like Kyle mentioned like to think that we do a lot of behindthe-scenes work so that the city officials can make informed and quick decisions. I would also like to add that we are open for business u as a city. If you are a local vendor, please reach out to the purchasing department. We want to assist you in uh making sure you have a fair opportunity and local partnerships can be realized.

There isn't a city department that we don't work with at some point or another. For example, when public works has a major road project, we will also coordinate with architects and engineers and department leadership to ensure the procurement pieces of those projects run smoothly and comply with all requirements. In many ways, procurement sits right in the middle of everything, connecting the dots between our departments, our vendors, and our city leadership. We also operate with a very small staff, only myself and a buyer specialist who does a great job, which speaks to the efficiency and abilities of our staff. Not only do we procure items, but we also handle the sale and disposal of surplus city property. When a city no longer needs an asset, our off office office coordinates the process to sell or dispose of those items according to state law. So, we also get to turn old equipment into revenue, which makes our CFO smile. At day's end, the goal of our department is to help the city operate efficiently by ensuring we obtain highquality goods and services at the best possible value for our stakeholders while following the laws and standards that govern public procurement. So, while procurement might not always the be the most glamorous part of city government, it plays a critical role in making sure projects are completed, departments have the resources they need to get do their job, and taxpayer dollars are spent responsibly. And if everything goes well, most people will never notice the procurement process at all, which in our line of work is a really good sign. Thank you. Any questions? Thank you. And now for the most exciting part. Y'all try to stay awake. Uh the

accounting the the finance department. Um I'm Don Roner. You all know me. I'm the finance manager and I am the most blessed employee of the city of Decar because of those people back there and that one right there and all of our sister departments purchasing and revenue. There's a lot of experience and knowledge in our team and the city's very lucky to have them. Our primary responsibility is the tracking and reporting of the city's finances. The CFO along with the finance team is involved in all decisions affecting the city's receipt and dispersement of all funds. Uh we have a staff of 10 including four accounted twos, one accountant one, two AP accountants that is accounts payable accountants, two part-time accountants including one college intern uh myself acting as the finance manager. Governmental accounting is a little different than private sector accounting, which I learned uh very rudely when I first came here from the private sector. The city is a nonprofit organization. So, we have to use a specialized method of accounting called fund accounting. This requires us to track financial resources based upon restrictions and use requiring the segregation of financial resources into self-balancing funds for specific purposes. The city has numerous funds, dozens of designations uh within those funds and over a dozen bank accounts. As you know, just because there is available funding does not mean it can be used just for any purpose. And that's where we come in with the knowledge to inject into those conversations. Uh we deal with budget and that's not as you know not just a beginning of the year process but it goes on all year long. Not only do we work with department leadership in formulating annual budgets, but we also have our department liaison doing analytics on a quarterly and as requested basis to help our departments make informed decisions and spending. There's a lot of work that goes into budget formulation and that takes communication with our department leadership and analysis of past and current spending data in order to get us the most accurate numbers needed for

optimal operations. We are also involved in the formulation and compliance regulation of internal controls. The everchanging times present opportunities for us to draft new policies or revisit aging policies and procedures that may need change. For example, just recently we revisited the capitalization threshold due to the need to uh make a change this process to make it a little bit more efficient, less recordkeeping, less intensive recordkeeping uh to address inflationary effects on assets and um the need of things like HVAC and so forth. Uh so we didn't have to come to council every time we turned around for some funding. Uh this is a process efficiency. All financial pieces of software have to speak to the primary financial software the city uses and we help facilitate uh those implementations uh with uh you know as far as like city view the implementation of city view and we uh are involved in those process processes to help those outside software speak to the main financial software that we have a large part of the finance department's responsibility is vendor payment through accounts payable of course these are our monthly bills that the council is required to approve and those range between 1,200 and,900 [clears throat] invoices a month. Another process improvement that was was rolled out in recent years is the AC payment directive. Currently, we are processing about 80% of our vendor payments electronically, thereby reducing the cost of printing and mailing, providing faster turnaround for vendors receiving payment, reducing the likelihood of items being lost in the mail or potential for mishandling of our check images to perpetuate fraud. We handle the capital asset administration and reporting, coordinate with legal department regarding insured property, and we do all of the leased property recording and reporting as well. We are involved heavily in capital and operating projects with internal and

external funding like grants. Um and we do all the financial recordkeeping and budgeting of those. We assist all departments with anything externally build on behalf of the city and the landfill. We also prepare monthly reports uh for example for like community development to aid in their uh billing grant expenditures. Um right now is our most wonderful time of the year the audit and uh the preparation of our audited financials. Uh annually we are involved in an external audit and an external auditing firm works primarily with finance but also with other city departments to review the city's financial practices and security. Uh last year's audit was our audited financials was 195 pages. So if you ever have any trouble sleeping, our audited financials are posted online on our website uh as well as our detailed uh budget as well. Um it's not just as simple as pressing a button at the end of the year and running a report. The acter is a very complex document where the city's financial position uh is combined with Decatur utilities and Decatur City Schools. Um the report is not only submitted to GFOA for consideration in the excellence in reporting award program but also to EMA for reporting to bond rating agencies and to municipal bond investors. Uh this along with the city's annual approved budgets as I said are are available on the city's finance page on the website. Uh so what are some goals for our department? Um, we would like to continue to shape internal financial policy, engaging the city's departments and leadership and pra and best practices, compliance with the law, and prioritizing efficiencies and stewardships of the city's funds and assets. We would also like to present the city's annual budget and annual audited financials to the public in an easy to understand and transparent way. We also aim to continue our legacy of achieving the annual GFOA's excellence in financial reporting award through education on new standards and

reporting. We are at 32 consecutive years and counting for that award. And last but not least, to be the primary resource for mayor, council, and city departments regarding the city's financial position, you need to make informed decisions that affect tens of thousands of citizens. You need accurate financial data to base those decisions on. And that's our service to the citizens, stewardship, and an accounting of public funds in order to make government work more effectively for its citizens. Do you have any questions for me? And don't ask me what's in an assigned fund balance. [laughter] TBD,

I don't have any questions. You know, I'll just say, mayor, I think this is a good idea that you've had uh for us to get up as departments to kind of share what we do as you can hear that just a glimpse. Um these three departments are very busy every day. Um and you have three outstanding managers. I tell the mayor all the time, and no offense to other departments, they're the three best in the city. Um and our staff's amazing. So, I can't reiterate that enough. uh the citizens should have complete faith and trust in our financial abilities. We work hard every day to ensure that and if there's any ever questions, you know, we'd be we'd be happy to try to answer those for you. And I'd like to say, you know, this is the three departments that control the first strings of the city. And all three of the our CFO and the three department managers are [clears throat] all very professional and they all take their job very serious and the city's finances are in good shape with this group. Thank you. Yes, sir.

I would I would just say thank you to all of them. Um, you mentioned, you know, faith and trust, and I have full faith and trust, um,

in those three departments with your leadership, uh, your manager's leadership and everyone involved, and, you know, it's it's one of the most critical departments. You you you guys make every department better. Um, as well as the whole city. I I think y'all are, I think Jeremy said, um, you know, efficient and effective, and I think that's been proven year after year. Um, even even prior to many of you being here 32 years. um as far as audits go and being recognized for that. So um we're a better city because of all of you and I do think it's it is really important to remember with there's a lot of money that comes across this dis and it's not our money it's the the taxpayer money and um you guys are responsible for that. I know y'all take that very seriously. So we appreciate the work that all of you do.

Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Nothing else from them. The next we've got what I assume as many friends are here for. Um we've got a I think there's four that are here to present. Is that correct? Um for the judge James E. Horton Legal Learning Center and the Scott Boys Museum with Sota. So at that time I've got a video and I was so excited that Miss Francis was going to send it to me. Um I want to remind a lot of people and I'm I'm certain they will when they get up here. Um, this was no small feat at all to move the Judge Horton home here and I was proud to support that in the previous administration, but they got a really cool video um that they were willing to share tonight. And so at this time um whoever's I'm not sure who's up first. Um Miss Towns, I think you're up first. We'll play this video and then I'll I'll turn it over to you guys. Quiet boy learn through the halls of the farmland soul trouble. You face the stor your spark Till last freedom fire every

word your spirits go back to the land with timber stone. You build a little ungres. No fear, no favor. Your spark still lights the freedom fire. through valleyis freedom brea. eternal. The heart

Good way to start. That's awesome. Every time I watch it. Yes. I think it's easy to, you know, when you drive by and if you haven't been by the Judge Warden home recently, you should go by. Um there's been some really good work done. and it was great, but you forget about the effort that it took to get it here and uh I can't remember how many agencies and utility companies. It took a lot. So, it was neat to see the video. Thank y'all.

Mayor, council, I am Peggy Allen Towns, a CEO board member. The headlines, Scottsboro trials, March 27th opens here. It's 1933 and all eyes are on Decar, Alabama. The United States Supreme Court has ordered new trials. Uh change of venue was granted not to Birmingham but Decatur. Two years earlier, a fight had broken out between black and white hobos on a freight train leaving Chattanooga. The whites reported in Alabama. The sheriff calls the next town with strict orders. Arrest every negro on the train and bring them to Scottsboro. At Paint Rock, nine black youth from 12 to 19 years old are pulled off the train, tied with plow line, herded on the back of a flated truck, and carried to Scottsboro where a lynching party is waiting. Then the false accusation. Two white women disguised in men's clothes, caps, overalls, claimed rape. A rush trial. 12 days. Eight of the nine were convicted and sentenced to die in Alabama's elected chair. Bound by justice and history, they became known as the Scotsur boys. At Decatur, defense attorneys challenged Alabama's all-white jury system. Amid mob threats, intimidations, cross burnings, and fear, courageous black men testified that they were qualified to serve, yet they were not called. This laid the groundwork for the second United States Supreme Court ruling. A shocking twist. One of the accusers recanted her story and testified for the defense, exposing

deep racism and injustice in the legal system. On June 22nd, 1933, Judge James E. Horton chose justice over politics because Haywood pass Patterson had been sentenced for the second time to death. Judge Horton set aside that uh conviction citing insufficient evidence. His courage and principle cost him his career but his stand for fairness, justice, and truth still stands today. The Scottsboro boys trials were among the most significant in American legal history and the civil rights movement. Mayor council, this is our story. It's Decada story and it's told in every single civil rights museum and studied in law schools worldwide. It reshaped due process. It produced two landmark United States Supreme Court rulings that became the springboard for the civil rights law. Right to competent counsel during capital cases and a right to a jury of your peers. Yet few people know about our truth. They know don't know about our story. The first trial yes was held somewhere else. But all the remainder trials from 1933 to 1937 were held right here just across the street. Actually, we have the power. We have the responsibility to tell Decada story to educate, inspire, and challenge the conscious of generations. That's why we're building the Decada Civil Rights uh Museum and [snorts] the James Judge James E. important legal learning center to preserve that truth to confront the

injustice to ensure that defining chapter of our history decel to tell the full story, Decada story. Help us build that lasting legacy of truth, courage, and justice right here in Decar. the gateway to the Northern Alabama Civil Rights Trail. Help us, please. Thank you so much for the opportunity.

Uh, Mayor Lawrence and members of the Decator City Council, good evening.

I'm Dr. Brandon A. Owens, senior, executive director for the Decatur Scottsboro Boy Civil Rights Museum and Judge James E. Horton Junior Legal Learning Center. Uh my message is simple. We've made real progress and with the city's partnership, we can open the doors and grow this into a major destination for Decar. SEOTA has treated this as a true preservation and public use project from day one. Organizing the effort, stabilizing the sites, completing planning, and building a museum and learning campus meant to serve the public for generations. Here's what we've already accomplished. We've made visible exterior restoration progress on the boarding house. We relocated Judge Horton's home to preserve it as part of the campus. And the exterior restoration of Judge Horton's home is now complete. We also established Judge Horton Bay of Courage as an annual signature program showing the community is ready for this work now, not later. [clears throat] We also completed the interpretive plan which is our blueprint. It guides what we build, how visitors move through the experience and how the history is presented with accuracy and impact. Now our path forward is phased and practical. With the city's support, we can open the boarding house and the legal learning center first enough to welcome visitors, school groups, and tours. begin year-round programming and start generating tourism activity. Then with doors open and momentum visible, we will raise the remaining funds needed to build the centerpiece, a multi-million dollar interactive museum adjacent to the boarding house, which will increase capacity and allow us to welcome significantly more visitors to Decada. We also have strong momentum. We have

executed MLUS with Alabama&M University, Calhoun Community College, Sanford University's Cumberland School of Law, and the University of North Alabama. The state of Alabama has committed 1.7 million in fiscal year 25 capital support and $163,000 annually beginning in fiscal year 26 for three years for operating and program support through Alabama&M's budget. We also secured $150,000 over three years from the Alabama Law Foundation to support programming, internships, and partnerships. We respectfully ask for your support of this budget request because it's practical. It's a win-win investment for Decar, opening the doors to a visitor ready campus that will strengthen tourism, expand civic learning, and establish Decar as a northern gateway to Alabama's civil rights trail. Thank you for your time and your attention this evening.

Thank you.

Good evening. I'm I'm Robert Ball. I practice law in Birmingham, but I'm a proud 1975 graduate from Decatur High School along with our mayor. And it's [laughter] but it's not it's nice to be here. It it really is. Decatur's home. What we're doing here is we're really going to make Decar the northern gateway for the civil rights tourism that comes into the state of Alabama. So, as people are coming down 65 and right now they're going right past Decatur and going to Birmingham, they're going to Montgomery, Selma, elsewhere. And I think that we have just a fabulous opportunity to make Decar the first stop for all all these tourists, which really is the the the number one draw for tourism in the state of Alabama. And so when you ask what what are we really going to do? And so the the idea is is sort of a two-phase deal. And so the money that we're asking for tonight is to help us get the legal learning center open. And so y'all saw the film. This is Judge Horton's home. And Judge Horton really is the hero of this story. And so we're really going to be, you know, celebrating him. And so as part of that, we're going to build an annex next to the home and it will be for year-round programming. So this is going to be an opportunity to have legal seminars, judicial seminars, and we're going to we're planning to have a lot of programming for high school and college students. There are a lot of programs out there, uh, I civics, and others that provide civic programming for high school kids. There's mock trials, trial ad programs, things such as that that we'll be able to do year round. And so, for example, we have been working with Cumberland Law School at Sanford. Interestingly, Judge Horton went to Cumberland Law School when it was actually in Tennessee, but it's been at Sanford for a number of years now. And so, the Cumberland Law School has a natural affinity with Judge Horton. In fact, they have the Judge Horton ends of court there at Sanford. So their dean has been very supportive and a couple of their professors are going to come up here in the fall and we're going to have a seminar here and it'll be for lawyers and judges here and so we'll have it in downtown Decar but in the future we'll

be able to have it hold it in this this annex here that we're going to going to be building. Um the next phase of this will be to have the capital campaign that we're going to be starting up very soon uh to raise overall this project is about a $20 million project. It's going to take $45 million to get the the Horton Legal Center up and going and it's going to take about another 15 million or so to build the actual museum. That's, you know, assuming construction prices don't change too much. But that's the goal. And so that's the longer term project. And so that's what we're here to ask for your support for is to really be the springboard for us as we go out in the community. We're going to be raising money here in North Alabama with companies with uh seeking nonprofit grants and other other sources of funding really throughout the country. But it's so important for us as we go out to to raise this money to be able to say that the city of Decar has been supportive. And and look, y'all y'all have already invested over $800,000 in this project. You can't believe how much it cost to move those lines, the power lines, to move that house to come over here. And so it was a big deal. And so thank you for that previous support and we certainly appreciate your you're looking at support for us going forward because we really think this is just going to be a shining star for the city.

Thank you. Thank you Robert.

As you all know I'm Francis Tate. [laughter]

Thank you. Mayor uh Lawrence, council members, and to the citizens, to all of you who have supported us. There is something absolutely amazing being developed here in our city and each of you will be a part of it. Each of your constituencies will benefit from it because it is set to draw tourism and tax dollars. Successful cities with tourism provide great attraction to its visitors. Whether it's history which is the soul of your city, the uniqueness of a city or a unique event that happened in your city. Well, Decater has both. Our city is embedded in rich and bold history and a worldrenowned civil rights case. The second Scotsboro trial that happened here in our city, Decatur according to the Alabama tourism civil rights museum are the most visit. The city has invested broadly in sports, recreation, and musical festivals. This project will balance the attraction that a city has to offer, providing perpetual benefits because there is a void in social justice and civil rights. We are requesting $1 million annually

for the next five years to help open and sustain a landmark campus that deliver economical growth, civic education, and lasting community benefits. Council members, your support will open doors to public destination and position Decator to become the northern gateway to the Alabama Civil Rights Museum, Alabama Civil Rights Trail, excuse me, connecting to Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile, and Selma. History will not only tell how this story and this project came into manifestation. It also will recognize each of you and the roles that you have played. Remember today is history tomorrow. Thank you so much for your attention and your continued support. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Miss T. I will just say first of all, [applause] thank you to all of you for presenting tonight and for so many for showing up, I know, in support um but also for your work in this and and continuingly pushing this. Uh, Miss Tate and I speak often and I think every time um, this is the topic of conversation. So, appreciate the work and the passion that each of you have because it is important. Um, and you're right, the city has shown support in the past and I think that's really important to remember. Um, you know, this is this is a very it's easy to get excited about this project and Dr. Owens, you said something that I thought was really good and it was preservation and public use. Yes. And you know, there's a lot of a lot of projects, a lot of things that come up that that touch one or the other, but not as many that touch both of those. And those are two very critical aspects of any good quality community. So, um certainly look forward to having conversations u from here about how do we partner together? How do we help you guys and make this a reality and take that next step? I know you guys have come before when we moved the house. um had good conversations and so uh I look forward to continuing that and um helping helping you guys move this forward. So um I don't know that I have any questions right now but certainly looking you know maybe soon sooner than later we can um get together. Do you want do you want me to ask questions? I could

if you would like to ask questions. I'll talk the whole time. Does anybody else want to say anything or ask any questions? I I'll be glad to start with a few. I have an unusual question. The song when they're moving the house, where did that come? Tell me about the song. Well, it was professionally done by an artist. He knows the Horton family and he made the song specifically for Judge Horton and we choreograph it to the move. So, that's how it came about. It's beautiful. It is beautiful. Good job. Thank you. Anybody got any other questions?

Um, even though it's late, um, I do have a special place in my heart for the SEO board. Um, I've talked to Mr. Tate multiple times. Um, our family's kind of coincide a little bit. Um, so anything that we can do to support, I'll be glad to support um, the Cable. And I'll just say mistake, you know, I supported this process from the beginning. You sure did.

Well, thank y'all again. Um, I'll save my questions um for for another meeting. But it it's it's what we've talked about before. Love to know um what this commitment, you know, what would the timeline look like? What does what does it get? What's the end result? How quick can you move? Right? I mean, we'd love to see it as soon as possible. I know y'all would as well. So, and more about I'm interested in your capital campaign, what the plan is there, what the overall business plan, but I think the academic uh aspect of it is really critical. I think that is great. Um, I think any chance we can showcase our city to other people, specifically those still in school, you know, do we inspire them to move here, to study here, to live here, to work here, to build a family, etc. So I think it's really cool to bring people in to to display our significance in civil rights and and the role that Decar played and many people here. So we'll have those conversations. I'll be glad Miss Ted you and I can speak later and we'll get that we'll get that planned. So thank y'all again for being here. If nobody else has anything, we will get ready to move on to the next. Any any anything else, Mr. Hey? Last chance. You got anything else? I always have something else for me,

but we'll pass. Thank you. Now, you don't have to hang out for the agenda, but if you'd like to, you can. If you'd like to, uh, you can leave now. That is that's certainly up to you guys. Thank you all very much. Thank you.

Oh, yeah. Let's see. Good to see you. Let's see. What do you That's July 37th. Wow. See, my daughter ordered off the internet. Yeah. Oh, it is right there in Scottsboro. Yeah. headline. Thank you. Paved the way for me.

That' be fun. No, no, Hunter, your time has already come up. All right. Thank you for everyone that's uh still hanging around. We've got one more presentation. I will let uh Hunter Allen open us up for that. you want to give a little bit of background maybe how this came up what we're looking at considering I know you've got some presenters here from high level promotion go ahead and start

Uh, good evening, council mayor. Um, I have the honor tonight of introducing High Level Promotions. Uh, they're a marketing firm that we've been working with on naming rights, solicit solicitation of our facilities. Uh they're going to run through a quick presentation tonight on the potential naming rights opportunities of our asset at the Wilson Morgan Rec Center. Um so I want to first introduce Colton from High Promotions and if you have any questions um he'll take it away. Yep. Thank you.

Good evening, council mayor. How are you guys doing? How are you? Good. I feel a little underdressed. Uh please uh bear with me. I spent 16 hours in the Houston airport with a three-year-old and a one-year-old to then spend the night in St. Louis to fly to Nashville to find out there was no rentals. So, I took an Uber from Nashville to Huntsville. My friend D Black over here with Perfect Game picked me up and made the meetings and everything. So, I do apologize to everybody for being late.

It was perfect. Um, I'm Colton Steer, co-founder and CEO of High Level Promotions. We represent sports complexes, cities, nonprofits, professional sports teams. Oh, you name it. From Seattle, Washington to Boston, actually, to Maine, from Grand Forks, North Dakota to Texas. Uh we were the ones that struck the $1.1 million deal for Wind South and Sand Mountain Park and Amphitheater. We have been in operation about three years. um through conversations with Hunter and D and uh I mean um mayor I mean shoot I think I've talked to about 10 10 different city officials. Uh we think we have a pretty good opportunity to be cognizant of the cost of operating and the cost of attending a recreation center. One of the best things about a city asset is its accessibility. One of the hardest things about a city asset is its operating operating costs, cost plus labor, everything else. One of the things that cities usually don't lean towards is naming rights, sponsorships, and marketing. We've kind of struck that as our niche. Um, tomorrow the city of Arlington, Texas will take two of our naming rights to council vote for 1.1 million over 10 years and then for 355,000 over 10 years as well. Um, those are the first of about 10 deals that we have on the table for them. Um, down at Sand Mountain, the other reason I was late, there was a bad crash on the 67 down here, couldn't get by down there as well. So, almost everything jumped in the way, right? But I was always taught that God when uh puts a few obstacles in the in the way, it's always because there's good things on the other side. So, we sat in traffic and made it. But, uh, over at Albertville, we just finished up a conversation with Wayne Sanderson. Looks like we're going to be

doing $350,000 up front with $25,000 of supporting annual cost. Those $25,000 are going directly to the rec leagues that help out with activation fees, um uniforms, jerseys, everything like that. Um and that's only the second deal that we've done for uh them. I think we got about 29 in the pipeline that we're working through here for you guys. usually not this nervous by the way. So I apologize everybody like up here shaking.

Oh yes. Yes. We can get Yeah. Let's jump into business. Um well this is the reason we're here. So your guys' new recreation campus um when we were identifying everything that you guys got going on from Wilson Morgan Park to um Allen Park to the stadium to the awesome u not boat launch, the kayak launch that you guys are doing. all of the different things that you guys are game planning for, we have different models to be able to adapt to that asset. And what I mean by asset is it might be a stadium, right? Everybody knows AT&T stadium, Gillette Stadium, all of those recreation centers, boat launches, uh any of those are also assets. They just need to be pivoted and presented in a way that is beneficial to the public through its accessibility and to the city through revenue. So, this is going to talk about how I want to make you guys about $5 million. All right. So, these are the eight different slides. We can jump right into the opportunity. So, first and foremost, this is a super regional asset. You guys have some of the coolest demographics. And I do mean coolest because it's such a diverse population. When you're talking about you have 27% people an influx of people coming into town, but you also have a ton of people leaving town to go to work to then come back and live. You have a great balance. That's what a great city is, right? If you look at the actual zero cost and like the commission only, we want to support that through our successes, not through potential. What we mean by that is we aren't compensated anything unless you guys say yes, we'll take that naming rights. And the last one is is the year one revenue possibility. Um I think it's on the next slide. Would you go to the next one? Yes. Um our year one. So what we want to bring is essentially a million um to the city

gross $650,000 net. And that's in the first year of our operation. Our goal, as I uh spoke to the mayor, was $5.4 $4 million over a three-year period. This involves um there it does say exclusive representation. I know that's got to be actually changed because of Alabama law to first right of refusal, but essentially what we want to do is present your asset in a way that is that People State Bank, that Renaissance, that Huntsville, who we're working with over in Sand Mountain, not not just because they think, hey, this is great. this is a great heart project, but also that marketing and leadership and everybody else is like, "Hey, we can't miss out on this opportunity. It's on the beltway, right?" Speaking specifically about this one. Um, and then finally, we want to make sure that you guys are so successful that we're saying that we want to move one of our head of partnerships to the state of Alabama. And right now, we are deciding between moving her to Decar and moving her to Albertville. I will tell you that with your proximity to Huntsville and your accessibility to get other places, we are leaning this way. Um, but that's also if we get if we can represent you guys as well. All right. So, um, one of the things that High Level Promotions does is we use a lot of data. Um, I'm a biology graduate with a neurobiology focus. Broke my mama's heart by not being a doctor. Um, started my own business. All of these numbers right here come from Placer AI. And if you're not familiar with Placer AI, everybody in this room who has a cell phone, if you click into an app or and it says like allow settings or allow location tracking or anything else like that, our partners are able to take that data, take out all of the kids, anybody under 18, and then give us buying behaviors. So like your healthcare sector concentration, you have an extremely high amount of healthcare workers that live in and around the vicinity. your financial services is so index of 117

means you're 117% above state average. The 125 financial services concentration is also one of the reasons that we think that the best naming rights partner should be a financial entity um because you're 125% above. That's uh similar to like New York. I'm trying to think of some of the other um headquarters. Uh Seattle, North Seattle, like up in the Tacoma area. You guys have a lot of financial individuals working in and around the area. Um, that last little uh thing at the bottom, I said 27. It's actually, yeah, 33.7% daytime population lift means people like coming here to work. You wouldn't see that if they didn't. So, when we're talking about all those numbers and everything else, you go to the next slide real quick. They kind of lead to this. These are the categories of the actual dominant sectors of your population. And if any of these don't line up, we kind of ran over them a couple times with parks and recck and then also with the mayor's office, but happy to answer questions afterwards. Some of the ones that we want to focus on is that sophisticated city dwellers. That means that somebody is making over $250,000 a year um and likely have one to two kids. Sport utility families, that is somebody that is three to four kids. They are buying two to three vehicles every two to three years. That gets us in front of our automotive partners. You guys have a diverse population that we can go after each segment from financial categories to automotive to agriculture to manufacturing. I mean there are so many different things about this city that as we started peeling back the layers of the onion we were like this is incredible. So first off that's a testament to everything you've done. This next slide is going to talk about kind of the next steps on the valuation. So, we'll put it out there right in right in front. If you guys want to take this to market, I strongly recommend you guys take it to market at somewhere between $150 and $500,000 a

year on a 10 to 30year time frame. Reason that we recommend this is because once an asset is named, you're going to refer to that as that asset regardless if it changes names just subliminally. Right? I'm from Lincoln, Nebraska. I don't even know what the Quest Center now is called. I think it's TD of Merit trade the park where the College World Series is. I think they also took naming rights across the road, but to me it's always Quest, right? The city of Omaha before we came on with them, they were only doing 5-year deals. Well, that's that's perfect. But also, the city's already going to give that brand all of that value in their minds. You might as well extract that as well over a 10-year period. Our strongest recommendation is take nothing less than 10 years. The average dwell time as far as when you're talking about a recreation center, people in and around the facility from parking to talking to being in the locker rooms to working out to being on the track to playing pickup basketball, all of the different things is going to lead to almost 2 to four hours per week an individual will be there. That's 2 to four hours of brand exposure. People are paying millions of dollars for social media ads for you to look at it for one to three seconds. you guys have the opportunity to put a brand in front of your population for 2 to four hours. Our job is to make sure we make sure that partner is the right fit. I think on the last um um industry standard for a $50 million facility is anywhere between 1 to 7% on the on the actual naming rights. So, if you do like 1% $500,000 or um $500,000 would be like what the naming rights total over a 10-year period would be. 3.5 is the goal for us. That's why we set ours at 4.5. We want to do more than a million than everybody else is expected to do. Um, can you go to the next one? Thank you. Here are the different kind of types of tiers that we

foresee being able to be done here with the business. Um, I mean, shoot, you guys got a boom in economy. You got a boom in population. You have a really good chamber. We've already talked with the chamber as well. We will become chamber members. Um we do that every city that we go in um host events and everything else. This is where we're thinking um we can end up at for naming rights. We would like to take this to market somewhere around the 200 to $500,000 mark. The reason it is such a wide range is because we have a bunch of questions that we need to know. How many emails um do you guys have on your parks and wreck? How many other supporting events are going to be at this facility? Do they have the opportunity to partner um for your hot air balloon event? By the way, my wife still can't believe that you fly in hot air balloon by going up and down like with the currents. That's really cool. Um and she would be here, but she had to take the one-year-old and three-year-old back to Nebraska to be with my parents for us to then travel the rest of the week. Um your founding partners, the three to five, this is where timing is perfect, is impeccable for high level promotions to step into this space. You guys have yet to pay for signage. That is the most beneficial thing. All of those costs that are associated with putting it on the outside of the building, putting uh the walking track, all the way finding signs, everything else, you're at the perfect point that we can go find partners that'll then compensate for those, thus decreasing your guys' actual expenses and also increasing future revenues. Um, next one, please. This is our optimized um this is our conservative optimize and aggressive time frame for um expanding our relationship. Um we do believe that the conservative we could do just based off of the one asset being the recreation center. We can almost get to the optimized version of uh this as well with just the recreation center. The aggressive is finding supporting partners. Um, like the city of Arlington, they want us to be selective

in who they allow to do naming rights with obviously as they should. They are opening up the doors for parks partners where they get visibility at all of the parks. It's one of the things that we rolled out with the city of Lacy over in Washington that we rolled out with Omaha, Nebraska. Um, we think that that's also going to be successful. However, our first and most uh important focus is that recreation center. your super regional um attention asset. This shocked us. I'll be blunt and very candid here. For a city of your size, when you're looking at how many people actually come into your city every single day, that is an incredible uplift of attention and visibility no matter if they are a resident or if they are not. Reason being is most of the people we are going after are likely regional to national entities. That's one of the things I want to uh focus on right now. We are going to use regional and national dollars to make a local impact. Now, will we still want local businesses to be able to advertise and sponsor within these? Absolutely. You put you put somebody's local coffee shop or local tire shop next to Ford at a ribbon cutting and it's amazing, right? They're getting the same visibility standing next to them. Their logo's up there as well. It's so cool to see the local populace be able to raise their brands up with the brands that we bring in, right? A rising ship lifts all or rising tide lifts all ships. Um, the last one is your healthcare. Obviously, you guys know who has the grip on the actual healthcare around here. Huntsville kind of owns everything from the time that you enter the north part of the state till you get to Birmingham. Um, good thing is is we already have a ongoing relationship with their CEO and their CMO over at Huntsville, as I'm

sure you guys have relationships as well. This was one of the ones that we identified and kind of put forward as we're still finalizing our negotiations over at Sand Mountain. They said not only are they interested, but they want first option to get it. So, we know that they're interested already um in your guys' facility. Okay. um kind of our sequence and timeline. Um high level promotions likes to do things um quickly to show you guys a return obviously as well as we are not compensated on any of our efforts until we actually have success. So when we're talking about time is of the essence for you guys on construction time is always of the of the essence for high level promotions and we want it that way. We want the pressure on us to produce because at the end of the day if we don't produce for you you guys are out nothing. We are out everything. So, in the situation of like the public announcements within the next one to two weeks, our asset audit is almost complete. Hunter has been very gracious with his time um giving us different data and information on your guys' programming schedules. There are some more um work that we would like to do. As such, we are actually bringing our head of partnerships, Corey. Um she's going to be here next, is it the 16th? Is it 16th? Next Monday. The 16th through the 21st. um if we are able to execute or get approval on this, she's going to stay in Alabama that entire week to make sure that we have all numbers and then we are ready to go to market and ready to represent you guys in the fullest light. Um the 2 to six month uh it's it's it's hard it's difficult to say how quickly you can generate revenue. I will give you some historic instances of high level promotions being successful. We did 1.1 million in 32 days. We did 2.3 million in 60. We've done 720,000 in 16 days. And our largest one when we partnered with the Houston

Astros for the SciHop one was 2.1 million in 17 days. Um, next slide. All right. So on this, this is essentially what we're um proposing, right? The partnership and unlocking the revenue. You guys already have the assets. Uh, one of the things that we always tell cities to do is please go try this on your own. Not to be um rude, not to be um like, hey, look at like look what we can do. It's more so try it out, see how hard it is, and then give us an opportunity to come in. Well, I do believe that you guys have gone out to market, we saw on an RFP for naming rights of I believe it was the pickle ball complex or down in Point Mard. Is that correct?

Okay. um in that situation that does go to show like you have to go out into the community. Businesses are not going to come to you in these most of these situations. So when we're saying what you're approving, we want this extremely bad. So much so that we're willing to move one of our best assets in our company to your guys' city to represent and be here. The next thing is is like the actual what you guys are getting somewhere between two to 5.7 million. I gave the mayor my direct number. I believe that we can raise 5.4 4 million over our three-year contract uh just in 10 year in 10-year naming rights. And then waiting, this is one of the things. So, you guys have the hottest asset in the northern part of Alabama in that recreation center. 39.8 million impressions annually. Drive by that. There's a reason that all of those Lamar billboards are lining that entire way. Your opportunity to capitalize on a naming rights partner and be able to get the full value that it does deserve comes before ribbon cutting. Most of that value after it's open is about 80 to 90% of what it would be if you were able to take the naming rights before opening. And that's because of all of the media attention around it, right? Um, you guys with Renaissant, the Renaissant Recreation Center also sounds really nice. if they were to take the naming rights beforehand, they get all of that media value through grand opening, through programming, through all of it. I think that's it. All right. Questions from you guys or and also questions from many be here too.

Okay. Okay. You want to start? I'll start because you have a laundry list. Yes. So when you when you talk to when when you talk about doing this and and naming rights, what does this look like to name things that already have names that that have been passed by previous versions of this body like Jack Allen Jack Allen or Butch Matthews or J White Aquatic Center. What does that look like?

There are always multiple assets within that asset. So you can either do subassets, right? You can name individual fields. You can name uh individual pickle ball courts. If you are looking for the top um revenue generating one, you simply pivot from a naming rights to a powered by. So Jack Allen powered by Renaissance Bank. Jack Allen powered by Waterburger. I'll tell you right now that pickle ball complex that you have that's named Jimmy John's, I'm going after Jimmy Johns and getting Jimmy Johns to power Jimmy John's pickle ball court. So on Monday, I mean, we thought it was we were like, "Hey, how'd you guys get Jimmy Jones?"

It is a sandwich shop. U with with these sponsorships, it's obviously no cost to the city. It's just 35% take off the top. So what would the city be responsible for as far as physical naming? There's, like you said, there's way binding, there's signs, there's banners, there's courts, there's all types of things that go into it. So the price tag on renaming something can get on up there pretty quick. So sir, is the city responsible for that or is that part of y'all's what would what you take out of the commission?

All signage is factored into the actual asking price. If we were to go to market for just market value, right? When they do that at like NFL stadiums, they like the team pays for it themselves. Cities don't have the luxury of being in an NFL stadium. So we understand that and we factor that into the actual price. You can assume that somewhere between 20 to 30% 20 to 40% high-end of year 1's revenue will be allocated towards signage. That's also in the grand scheme of things 2 to 4% of their entire investment. So the projected revenue you're you're really using the placer AI data [snorts] compared with other cities on how you projected that that total revenue.

Yes. 36 different cities. We ran the comparison with our we have a um very built out AI um that helps us run analysises analysis on these types of situations. Your guys specifically with recreation centers from Colleen, Texas to the ones that we're representing in in in Texas to Washington to uh the Sanford um recreation center or excuse me yeah Sanford Recreation Center in Sou Falls. We ran 32 different properties and that's how we came up with that number. And then in one of the first slides, you had like a million dollar annually. The city gets 65 cents in the dollar. Yes, sir.

Is is that And then I thought I saw something a little bit different in in the in a later slide. But so that's based off one year or five years just to make sure I'm Our goal is to raise our goal is to have a million dollars in your bank account in one year from the day that we sign. What how many of our facilities I don't know if you've done a true like inventory or what percentage of our facilities maybe would need to be utilized or sold naming rights wise to hit that $1 million just your recreation center that's because that's based on the rec center just the rec center like and I got so you kind of you gave an example of the of the quest center that's next

all right you you use Renaissance banks I'll play along. So, say it's the, you know, Deca Recreation Center, you know, the Renaissance Recreation Center, whatever, and then 10 years from now that deal runs up, Renaissance says we're out. Well, you you just made the example that people will always call it the Renaissance Rec Center. How how do you resell at that point?

That's the fun part about when you get into renegotiations is you have to they have to do campaigns, right? They have to be involved in more than just a naming rights. Anytime that there's any type of change of the guard, right, there's got to be social media content with it, right? I'll give you a great example. We did the largest ever deal that Seattle Children's has done for a youth sports complex um up in Tuckwell, Washington. Their former healthcare partner was Premier. Everybody that operated there, from the Seattle Sounders to the um I mean, shoot, they got four different um four different professional teams there. Everybody used Premiere. Everybody knew Premiere. That was their campus. Seattle Children's is rolling out an entire campaign where they're doing three different video um content days. They're doing an actual ribbon cutting. They're bringing in Team USA. Uh they're bringing in a large uh soccer program that's going to be playing in FIFA. Um they're doing all of that to add benefit to let them people know that Seattle Children's is now the partner and we help them with that. That's like I wish my wife was here to take that question as the VP of client success, but that's how we do that on on renewals

and I I would assume there's a proposed contract the So say you do a million dollars in a year. Does all that go through you and then then you keep Alabama law states that you 65 or it all comes to us and then we pay you back. Alabama law states it has to come to you. In Texas, we represent and we chase down checks. Unfortunately, your guys's um precedent is set that we cannot do that. Like for the city of Arlington, we take the check first, then we that way you guys don't have to go out for RFP for signage or co-ops or anything else. Unfortunately, here you guys or or fortunately, depending on your opinion on the matter, you guys take it first. Walk it back. Yeah. [laughter]

Yeah. Um in the situation of this, you guys would take it first and then we would uh receive it afterwards. That's also part of our agreement that if somebody, say somebody goes under, our contract states that if you don't receive the funds for that year, we don't receive the funds. So there's no, we're not coming after you. We're not a bill collector saying, "Hey, we secured this. Hey, if that partner that we believed in no longer is a viable entity and they can't afford this, you guys shouldn't have to be the only one that's to take the loss." And we would retain full authority over every everything. So we have to do that on an individual basis term right for every

well what we're getting basically what's going to be required is he with their assistance it'll go out to the general public it'll be basically competitively bid but it' be more like proposals. Yeah. solicited because we can't grant exclusive basically exclusive permission without letting anybody that has an interest in it have a chance.

You know, you've hit on the local aspect. Obviously, that's a question. We got a lot of great local businesses, industries, people, etc. that may want to do a sponsorship. And obviously I think there's there's would be some concern there that you got somebody that plays a large part in the community that's willing to make a sponsorship and they feel like now it's going to go, you know, some large corporation is going to come in from wherever Arizona and buy up the naming rights. Um so just making sure we we still have the ability to solicit from our local um local partners.

Can I touch on that one real quick? So one of the things that um we implement in essentially phase two or phase three is assistance in the actual lower local level sponsorship opportunities. Meaning like for instance in Arlington for the active recreation center we helped them create all of their actual offerings showed to make sure that that value of what they're getting paid for is valuable to the local population. We then dropped our commission from our 35% down to 15%. We manage the contracts. We manage all the intake and everything else. We understand that those local dollars a um a $300 a month is a lot of money for a local small business, right? If we can still assist the city in making sure that that business receives the advertisement and the ROI, that's what we're about. We understand that at the lower metric, it doesn't make sense for us to take as much commission. So that's why we drop our commissions down. And that's almost essentially on a second. That's usually we send an amendment forward.

Great questions. These are good. You have some questions. I do, but I'd rather Okay. Yes. Later. Yeah. Yeah. We talked Yeah. on Friday at length. Yeah. No, I appreciate that. But no. Yeah. We've talked briefly last Friday and I like the Arlington contract much better than y what we saw. Okay. Y all righty. Y can we get a copy of this presentation? I don't think I've seen it before. Yes. It should be in your email. Oh, I didn't see it. Okay. So, obviously the request would be to to try to get this on next week's agenda.

One thing one thing you had to talk about is the bonus structure.

Oh, yes. Yeah. Yeah. So when we talk about we put in about actually we put our um equation is $44,000 worth of marketing efforts. So we come on site do drone work, flyarounds, um 360 tours, those things. The whatever is necessary for the facility that we are operating, we put it forward. When we ask for the payback on that, it's based off of success. It's the exact same metrics as we do for all ISDs. um across from Washington to Texas and anything else. And that is at a $100,000 we get $12,000 back. That is to recoup the first week's cost of like basically like Corey coming on site for one full week dedicated. The second one is after we've secured a million dollars in cash to you guys. I know originally we had gross value, correct, Herman? And then

Yes. Like a million to you guys committed. Yes. Dollars. Yes. has like uh say it's a um say it's $300,000 a year for 10 years. That would count as like the qualifying mark. Yes. Well, and you're you hit on this, but just to clarify, you are commission only. There's there's no monthly retainer. That's that's a driver for you, right? So, you eat what you kill. Um we got to produce or else it's a we're burning fuel. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. You got a question. Anybody else? I got to think about it. I got to look at this stuff. I got to process it before, but I'll have some next time probably.

Perfect. Well, thanks for being here. [laughter] We appreciate you coming to present real quick.

Um, so thank you, Colton, for coming and speaking. Um, so Colton's been speaking with us for over a couple months now. Um he sent a proposed contract to us about two weeks ago. Herman and I and Kyle have been working through it, trying to iron out some details. So um with what the the proposed contract that will be on the table, we'll send to everybody for you to kind of poke holes at and um and work through. If you have any questions, send them over. We'll make sure you have all these materials as well. the a as a group. Um, I wanted, you know, first this is I wanted to be clear like this is I mean we brought this to y'all for y'all to work on this decision. This is something that came to us. We feel like it was worth bringing to your attention and to for you to decide on this. Um, so we'll work throughout the week on any anything that comes up, any question to let y'all decide if it's something you want on the agenda or not. Um, but just to one of the reasons that I know it feels somewhat rushed, but the main reason of that is the rec center is roughly five to six months out from completion. Um, purchasing signage was fairly imminent. We were we were able to hold on that. U, we did obviously didn't want to purchase signage and then come back, tear it down, repurchase. Um, so that was the the main deal and obviously with what they do, it it takes some time to secure a quality agreement. So, um, that was the that was the reason we they came to present tonight. Um, but I'll get you all the information and we can work through it throughout the week.

Any other questions?

Let let me share I don't [snorts] I don't want to leave an impression. We we're far from getting something to send to y'all. I think it could be done quickly, but uh I didn't want y'all to think, well, tomorrow you're going to see something because that's not fair to them nor to us. You we We but we we we'll get there and present as quickly as we can. We understand the timeline, but we're we're not trying to rush y'all into something without you being educated. But we we first need to get something we feel comfortable with bringing to you. I'm not taking away y'all's discretion. I just want to try to meet the law is all I'm trying to do.

That's correct. And and if it if it gets pushed, you know, whatever meeting it makes is the meeting it makes it on. I mean, you know, we're not going to we we will not rush it through. Uh we'll give everybody time based on how that goes. Yeah. I I learned of this late last week. Okay. So, I mean, I I didn't want you to think I've been working on this two weeks. I haven't I like her has been great. Thank Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Well, now moving to the agenda. Yes. Would y'all like for us to move yours up?

Come on up. We're going to we're going to first go to resolution number 26062. Approve, revise, rename of Frasier Park to ODM Frasier Park. We've got the shippers back with us tonight. Uh we've spoken previously about it. Yes, I bought my other half with us. I know. Um but mayor, council members, um I'm basically I think amending the last petition to change the name of Frasier Park to I had initially Frasier ODM and then he explained to me about Jordan Hair Stadium and Bryant Denny Denny Stadium. Bryant Denny

Bryant Denny. So anyway, so what I would like to do is have ODM Frasier. I mean he if you need have any questions about where Ned Frasier came in there or whatever, I think Ken was responsible for that. So, I he wanted to come and

I don't I really just appreciate you guys bringing this forward and providing um some information for the for the council to need to know and understand and for the public to read. It's certainly a welldeserved recognition. Um so, I don't have any questions, but really appreciate you guys hanging in there with us tonight. Glad most interesting. Ned Frasier, he interviewed me for my Eagle Scout in his house on Church Street. And when we the council created that park, we were looking for somebody long time. He didn't have a thing to do with the park, but he lived in Old Decar and he'd been a, you know, a pillar of the community and that's how he came. The park wouldn't be what it is today but for June and Jim Odum. And seriously, if I had been a little quicker on my feet when Lynn was doing it the first time, it had come this way. And it was after she came back from the uh work session of the U that I said, you know, think about these stadiums. Think about this. And so I got in touch with Kent. And so I just think it was something reasonable to give you to consider.

Thank you for your Thank you all again for being here. Appreciate it.

All right. Now we'll move to the top of the agenda. Um, this will be approval of monthly bills approved February 2026 monthly bills. No changes. Any questions from anybody? All right. Approval of month of minutes approved February 24th, 2026, 5:00 p.m. Council work session. Approved February 25th, 2026, 10 a.m. Special Call of Council meeting. Approved March 2nd, 2026, 5:30 p.m. Council work session. Approved March 2nd, 2026, 6 p.m. council meeting. Anybody got anything there? All right. Resolution number 6057 authorize the budget amendment for the purchase of an artificial intelligence sorting solution for materials recovery facility.

Yes. Good evening. Got a copy.

Yes. Um uh Wanda Tyler Landfill and Recycling. Yes. I gave you guys some information about what I'm going to be discussing, but I'm going to give you a little small uh history uh about why I'm here tonight. Back in September of 25, I got a phone call at about 4:30 a.m. that uh told me that the Department of Corrections was uh starting an investigation uh at our facility due to one inmate who was in communications what he thought was a 14-year-old uh minor and it wasn't. It was the uh I think it was Lawrence County Sheriff's Department. Uh as a result uh that particular inmate was assigned to the recycling facility. They pulled all 14 of the uh men that were assigned to us and for eight weeks we had no labor in regards to the sorting. Um and that's why I'm here today. uh whether it's because of a incident like this or COVID or the flu or maybe even testing positive for drugs, we cannot have this going on. Um and as a result also we've with the other issues that we've had in regards to the equipment which we'll talk about a Baylor later. um we need a solution to help us uh at that facility. That facility is a regional facility. It takes care of not only our county, our city, but also Athens, Limestone County, and Athens is really growing right now, Coleman, and also Hartzel. So, I because I I've recently uh asked the mayor for us to to shut down the facility because we cannot uh uh sort and make that

recyclable trash into a commodity. Uh we've infected other municipalities. So, this particular AI system, which I gave you some information, uh will help us in regards to if they pulled the the labor. So, we're going to uh and you can see what we're about to purchase uh which will be one of these robots, these Max Air robots, which they call robots as you can see. It don't look quite like a robot, but anyway, it's it's we're going to put it strategically on the sorting line. And instead of having 12 uh people in that sorting line, we only need four. We'll have this one at the end. The first one that you see pictured and then then we'll put two more of the robots strategically placed that let's say normally I have two guys assigned to plastics. I'll need one robot assigned to plastics. Uh it'll use optical uh uh uh technology. It'll see is that aluminum can or is that plastic? And if it's plastic and they need to take care of it, it'll take care of it. Otherwise it continues down the shoreline. So this is the solution that we found um locally. Uh I also gave you some references locally. Indorama Athens has this uh particular solution in and there are some other references here also. Birmingham is hoping that we get it so because she wants to see how it works because they're planning on implementing the same system in Birmingham. Um also, uh what's being presented before you is only the equipment. I am seeking grant funds for the rest, the maintenance, the the installation costs. Uh right now I'm in talks with the can manufacturers institute and also the recycling partnership to help us with this funding

because I will need some other equipment. I'm going to need a new conveyor. So, those people I'm I'm in talks with. Also, on the next page, you'll see that we want to talk about return on investment. I think you just mentioned that, but um we um right now we spend $20 a day uh per inmate, which is about 4160 a year. Um with uh that's just with five sorters, which is uh $104,000. uh our return on investment with this type of technology is well over $580,000. Uh and that's being conservative, right? Last year I think we made about 350,000 uh with us, you know, hand sorting and we can do so much better. Um and so that's why I'm here before you to uh present the sole source technology. Any questions? Uh

more capacity you feel like this is going to be this is right now we um I think it was 3600 tons last year. This will double that based on what I was told. So and uh last year uh in 24 Athens had four trucks coming into us. Now it's six. Um because you know I'm always trying to find grant funding and we upgraded everybody to 96 gallon carts. Uh we alone have increased by 80 80 tons just in the past six months. So it's we're going to grow. We are growing.

What I know you and I have talked for years now the labor aspect has been really tough. Anytime there's been a hold on recycling typically been related to labor. Yes. I know it's extremely tough during CO as well. So yes, this will prevent that. And it is a it's roughly 742,000. Yeah.

Dollar. This is from the landfill enterprise fund. Um so I don't know if we've done anything since the new administration out of that fund. Um but it is a separate fund. Um it's not it's separate of our general fund. So um Wanda I will say this, Wanda never comes with anything that's uh cheap. So, [laughter] but she does a great job presenting it and and having doing a good job ensuring that she's getting the right equipment to uh to operate efficiently and effectively and does a does a great job. It usually pays for itself quickly. That's right. Go ahead. I I don't have any questions about this, but some others. Are there two of these? Did you say

there'll be three total? Yeah, we we're going to I don't know if you got the opportunity to go up stairs with the sorting line. I didn't go up there, but that's the question. Yes. Is it going to be um I would call it. Is it going to be Are they going to be up there? Yes. Will that support? Okay. Yes. It's going to support Yeah. They came out about two weeks ago just to make sure everything was right. Yeah. It would go up there. Yes.

So, we're going to strategically place one at the very end where we have the the highest price commodities and then we have one at the beginning. Uh we'll have physically you have to have a human as it comes up because we get a lot of uh wish cycling, a lot of medical waste. a lot of trash that shouldn't be there. They're going to grab that before it goes into the and if it does get into the uh robot area, they know, okay, that's not recyclable and they'll push it on through. The robot will eject it, but the human's job is to try to keep it from going.

Mhm. We'll [clears throat] still have someone on a on a uh Bobcat pushing the uh recyclable trash up the conveyor. And so that yeah, we will have some labor, but we won't need 14 people. Maybe four people. No, not 14. So with with that, would those people just be like moved around or would it be um a situation where they you just lighten the workload?

Yeah, it's lightening the workload, but also um right now we we have a a manager, a supervisor, and two, uh recycling maintenance people. We'll keep those folks. will um because we have to still bail. We still have to have someone to monitor what's going through the polishing screen, things like that. But like I said in regards to the the Department of Corrections labor, we're not so dependent and that's the key. So are there will there be moving parts? Do you have to have um something to keep like a screen or something to keep people from sticking their hands in there? How how does all that

No. In regards to this right here, no. And also there's there's buttons. There's a emergency stop buttons and things like that. No, they most of Yeah, they won't really go into this area. Um, in regards to the robots. Yeah, it looks like that to me, but I'm asking. Yeah, [laughter] you never know. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. All right. Resolution number 26058 approve change orders number one and two to the contract for woodwork construction design for park improvements at Jesse Lewis Smith. Alan.

Uh, yes. Um this is a contract that we did with Woodard Construction uh to do the parking lot at Jason Lewis Smith. Once they got in there, there was some sub grade um that needs that was not u what it needed to be. So this is just a change order to do some additional u structure and it is all funded by CDBG. So it's no effect on general fund.

Thank you, Alan. Any questions? All right. Resolution number 26059 approved Lily Farmer as human resource director effective March 17th, 2026. Good evening, council mayor. I'm Lorie Spitzer. I'm the interim human resources director is here on behalf of the personnel board that is recommending the appointment of Lily Farmer to the position of human resources director. uh salary range 26 at step 15 which would be 140,602 annually. Well, I was present during the interview process and I fully support the leaf farmer. Um and I think it was unanimous and you don't get that very often and the mayor can testify to that as well. So

very excited. You said 2615. Yes. Salary grade 26 step 15. Any other questions? Thank you. Oh, well, we got the next one. Number 260, approve new job classification of crime analyst for the police department.

So, this is actually um a position that was in effect a while ago. They got rid of it. Um the police department is asking um to put it back into um in into the active status. So, it is the recommendation of the personnel board um to adopt the new job classification uh for crime analysts in pay grade 20 which would be a starting pay of 55,000 um up to a maximum of 88,000. Chief, anything to add?

None. Uh crime analyst helps create u crime mapping. The crime mapping will help us develop crime trends where we can know where to shift our our resources at u help create a safer community for our citizens. All right. Thank you. Any questions on this? I'd just like to add that this is a a top priority for me as well. Public safety is my number one concern. This is something that really help the department to do a better job. All right. Thank you. Resolution number 26061 approved to K utilities electric modification between Highway 67 and Country Club Road.

Yeah, this is a part of our intersection project and the aid to construction. This is the aid to construction to move the electrical in that intersection. All right. Any questions on that one? Basically, it's 73,5 Utilities. We have a sharing program with them. Yeah. They they pay up to the first 9,300 or something like that and then everything else is split 50. The actual amounts about 155,000 total. We're paying 73. Correct. When is 67 number? Uh I think they're still going through getting ALDOT permits, but it should be soon. Mother there today.

Thank you. Thank you, Carl. Moving on. I don't need any more questions. Resolution number 26063 approved with the cater city schools resident storm shelters and less. Good afternoon. Afternoon. Just the Decater Police Department port of this is simply if we have to open up the high schools for a storm of shelter, we'll provide security, make it a safe space for our citizens.

Any questions? They've actually we've actually it's now shifted Chief Mack. It's going to be behind West Decator School. So that way it if it gets to be a major incident then the high schools like Deputy Chief talked about will be open but the primary will be the storm shelters at West Decar behind the prek. Uh the reason for that is because the school system if you if you go to the high schools they have to move assets, books and everything out of the way. This is it's and Chief Mack and I went last week. It's very impressive and it's it will work much quicker and it's more central located really. But yes, it it's an extension of what we've already been doing. Uh I would be remiss if I didn't share this this year again where they they can use Engles if they have a a situation where they need to regroup as a school system to get notice you got a school that they need to to regroup to another location they can do that. So that that's that's basically what this does.

You actually access these from the parking lot, not from Well, it's it's in between, but yes, there's plenty of parking in other words.

Yeah. Okay. Anything else? Thank you, sir. Resolution number 26064, approve signatorries for the CCI development rebate account. Yes, the 60 agreement that approved earlier this year we started receiving funding off the sales tax of the building construction materials and we needed to add a bank account for those funds.

Any questions? All right. Resolution number 26065 approve purchase of Baylor for recycling department in the amount of 115,337. So I had to make a real tough decision lately and and that was to close down the facility due to the fact we don't we did not have a bellor after you sort it. It goes to a conveyor. We make these uh the commodity into a block and that's the only way to sell it. So we have worn that bailor out. It's only 2 years old. is still under warranty. So, we're hoping, Kyle, we're hoping that we won't have a pay for any of it. But, um, we need a beller. Yeah. [laughter]

Yes, we did. And, uh, but, um, we're we're requesting another. We need another one anyway, but um um I wasn't expecting this. Um, but we're uh hoping that you'll approve this BOR for $115,337. What's the lead time here? Uh, two weeks. Two weeks. So, maybe in two to three weeks be back uh the installation. So, give me six weeks and I hope I'll be back in four weeks and say we're open. But yeah. So, we're pausing throughout the board. Yes. Okay. [laughter] I'll make sure I text you first. All right. Thank you.

Ordinance is first reading. Ordinance number 264640. Approve request to operate a chauffeur service by Dons Transportation LLC located at 46 Church Road, Clarksville, Alabama 35640.

I listed this as a chauffeur service because they're not a metered cab. So, what he's going to be doing is in his personal vehicle, which he has supplied us with all the documentation we need, um he will do a flat weight like transfer for people to go to the grocery store, doctor's appointments, stuff like that. Any questions? Boards and committees reappoint Jay Clark to the architectural review board with term ending March 19th, 2029. This will be Mr. Clark's first full term. I'm guessing this will look like [clears throat]

All right. Anything else from the council mayor? All right. We'll see y'all next week. Thank you. All right. You do like better. Yeah.