City Council - Regular Meeting

on Hotel Motel, please ma'am. Okay. Um, obviously council, you can make any changes to these that you wish, but basically what I did was I used what our budget uh is is proposed to be for this next year, $35,000, and it looks like we'll be close to that this year, and I didn't want to make a leap because we don't have a new hotel or anything yet. But I went into this with u trying to keep it flat, you know, I didn't want to use any reserves or anything like that. So, there were some you can see what the requests were and what they uh were awarded last year. And then this these are my recommendations for funding for this year. The Arts Alliance at $1,000. Historical association, they got 7470 last year. Um I recommended they get 5,000 this year. Uh Main Street was cut from 20 to 16. um tour to Cyprus. Uh they got a thousand last year, we're up to 5,000 this year. Their request was 6,500. Um so we're getting close, but everybody had to take a little cut. Um the Chamber of Commer commerce for the visitor center operations is $5,000, which is pretty much unchanged.

Um the uh uh Alamo mission didn't get any because it really there's no way to really indicate that I see heads and beds from that. Um the auction service was cut from 48 uh last year to a thousand this year. Um youth baseball uh they come and go. They don't really they don't really stay overnight. It's so but we feel like they do eat in town. So, uh, $1,000 for promotion and then $1,000 for promotion of the arts for Mount Vernon Music. And those are are my recommendations. And y'all can change those if you like, but I wanted something that would zero out with what we have budgeted. So, questions Thanks for being here. Hotel.

Yeah. And so will these numbers. They did not. They did not. They don't pay sales tax and they don't pay hotel. That's a good question for the state legislature.

I don't know why that is. You know, you would think that there would be some kind of benefit, but I mean, we the sales tax folks living out there eating and buying things here, but there isn't a sales tax for rental or or hotel mot there would be hotel. Thanks, man. Appreciate y'all. That's why we wanted to do that first. Yellow battery. Let's jump into the general fund. And um what I'd like to do is I'd like as I as we discussed last week, y'all wanted to see the impact of a HSA reduction. And I also think I said that there was going to be I'd also have uh information for y'all to look at a cola, the impact of

cola. Um I think you everybody got my email on Friday about um the um the cuts that were made. First of all, let me frame this discussion with this. Since August 8th when the first draft budget was produced, um staff has gone back through and made a total of $771,418,000 worth of cuts. 400 in in um general fund and a 370 in utility fund. So they've uh I really appreciate them sharpening their pencils and getting to it. Um the biggest change I think in the general fund budgets were those cuts in the and addition of a little more uh property tax income and a little more um uh sales tax income. And um when I sent you the email Friday, I kind of explained the with those. So, let's look at the um uh HSA. Is this HSA? Let's look at it first. Scroll down the bottom. So, so this is changing the contribution of the HSA from 1700, dropping it 500 bucks to 1,200. uh and it has an impact on the budget of $14,000 u is the impact that would have on it reduces the overall budget for the salaries by $14,000.

Now we can drop it more drop it down to a thousand but what I wanted to wanted us to see that that impact on the HSA contribution isn't all that significant um in big scheme of of looking at everything on that. Um so any questions on that? I mean, if you if the council likes, we can drop it down to a thousand. Uh you're going to end up with another uh maybe double that 20 22,000 $23,000 impact on the budget. I appreciate looking at it. I don't think I think the point is a lot of momentum coming up slow and so I think it's just and I think I do believe the staff has done a good job cutting it, but to go see where we can find it and then you know 12 months down the road it'll be gone and then we'll be gone again. So we just can't have another year like we had last year.

Absolutely not. So I don't want to appreciate you looking at it. But I do the last one the revenue was a million dollars and now we're million one for adorum tax because I think we're going to get a higher collection that was based on an 81% collection rate and I think we're going to get a higher collection rate. That collection rate is only debt. Okay. Um, if you if you take the value the total value and I'm going to give you five million for Starbucks and Fredo Lelay. I don't I don't think they're going to be that high,

but if they were, that would add another 22,000. Um, the highest would be a million59. So, you add 22 to that, that's a million81. We're going to fall somewhere in between there because doesn't take into account the um ceiling transfers or the over 65 exemptions. So, I would rather stay on the conservative side because if we budget that, we're going to put it in the expense as well. Okay. Well, we can reduce it back to a million. I mean, the way I calculated it, I got almost 1.3 when I calculated

what and I might have I might miscalculated but I calculated based on uh on um what the truth and taxation said based on our valuation and the total 5.8 5841 whatever but that includes your INS 58. So you can't include that in the because it's going into the debt fun going into the general fund.

I took that out of the calculation for and I probably miscalculated it. I took on the 2025 tax rate calculation from the Franklin County Appraisal District. The high-end number is 239,492 at the point.44239 tax rate for M. So like I said, if you add another five million in for Starbucks and Fredo, which I think that's high. I don't think they're going to be valued that high. Plus, I think some of it already in there. They were partially built, right? That generates a but we're only getting tax on the building

carrying inventory. Yes, correct. Yeah, but it's not fully taxed because it wasn't completed. Uh, and I talked to I talked to um Russell about that and last week and he said neither one of them were fully taxed. Right. But so that's why I'm saying if I added five million, which I think that's being generous because they were partially taxed, that only adds 22,000 more and we're going to fall between the total tax taxable value and then the amount for the ceiling transfers.

Okay. Well, we can back it back down to and if more comes in and then that's great. Well, if more comes in, then we're better off next year, right?

And some of the other stuff we need. Well, and and one of the points that I wanted to make here and I did in the emails that I sent y'all was that we're going to be monitoring this very closely. We're not going to go out and spend like we have all this money in the bank right now. We're going to be monitoring it very closely. And if we have to cut back, you know, for instance, the fire department, we're not going to gear up on the fire department October 1st and hire six new firefighters. That's not going to happen. That's going to be over several months. So we'll be watching that in each department accordingly. So but I'm

So is the budget added to like that? Is it built in that way into the budget? The budget is just the budget the projected revenue and the projected expenses are for the full year based on being able to fill those positions right away. Okay. But we're not going to fill those positions right away.

So I I'm learning only my fifth year doing this, so I'm still learning. But why wouldn't you do the budget like phase in, you know, one firefighter, eight months worth of salary, one six months, one so that we're looking at numbers that are actually showing what it's going to be rather than put the full years in there and now we're trying to make cuts as if we were going to hire them all tomorrow.

Well, I don't look at it as making cuts. I look at it is what would it cost for full years full of operation and then we phase into that. I would rather have a a clear picture of what the actual cost would be for full years of operation and it doesn't mean we're going to spend that right away. No, I understand. I understand exactly what you're saying. But when I'm looking at a budget for business, I'm buding in phases because then I know what my actual expense is going to be. Then I know what my revenue needs to be to match that. where if I put it in there for the full 12 months, I guess it's two ways to look at the same thing, but at least I know I've got a better idea of what my expenses are going to be.

Well, and and I understand what you're saying and I and I see clearly where you're going with that. But on the other side of that with the fire department, I'm going to use them as an example. We might advertise for, you know, six firefighters right now and we may not get it more than two qualified candidates for the first three months. You understand what I'm saying? So, and that's a real possibility. It's not going to be that because we're competing with a lot of cities around us that can pay a lot more money than what we can. So, I' I'd rather have the money there to be able to say, "Okay, we've got this there." Um, but I I really don't anticipate I anticipate that within six months we may have a whole group. I think it's going to be six months. Now I can produce a budget if council prefers where we it's going to just what I'm saying I guess Mark is that it's going to be really hard to project that you know I can't say that you know by the end of the first quarter we're going to have two people hire by the end of the second quarter we're going to have two

I don't think that that's what you're trying to do what what the budget if the budget's that way is saying is you know simply back to the grocery store you know if I want to have a state I got to plan my budget to have a state party so that if I want to have it on October

31st I've got the money there October 31st to do it. So what I'm saying is with the firefighters if you know we're going to take the applications right we're going to hire somebody and I know you know starting October 31st after that date I can hire one you know and then okay October through February I put it in the budget to hire two during that period. It's kind of the same thing as you're talking about except for the fact that the one that you hired in October you only got two months expense on it. Exactly. We don't have eight months expense. Exactly.

So when you're looking at the numbers and we're asking different departments to cut different things because we don't have enough revenue to match their expenses. We could have had that money, but we had a safe fund in case we wanted to hire some firefighters earlier. So I mean it's those are the kind of things that I'm talking about with with the budget just helps better understand for the different departments what what do they need to cut you know if we if we were to take for example just off the wall here if we were to take a firefighter off for six months the way we actually think we're going to hire him in six months there's your $14,000 and we're not even having discussions about Sure. So that that's all that's all that's the only point I'm trying to make.

I think we're saying the same thing and I think but I think we're just going about it in two different ways, but they're included in the budget. But what you're saying is they're including the budget, but I don't anticipate spending it. Well, if it's in the budget, if I give my daughter 20 bucks and I tell her, "Go to the grocery store. Guess how much change she's coming back with." None. because I gave it to her. And so if it's in the budget, that means it's approved to spend. It's approved by the council to have availability to spend. But that doesn't take away from fiscal controls uh and cash flow management. But if we know we're not I we may be but if we know we're not going to spend it, why did we put it in the budget? That's all I'm saying.

Well, it could be spent. It could be spent, but we're asking the department heads to cut because we've got We don't think we're going to we haven't Okay. No, the only I was just using the illustration of hiring phasing up for the fire department on the salary issue. Okay. The cuts that the departments have made are not don't have anything to do with personnel. They're all, you know, supplies, materials, equipment, and those types of things. Those cuts are all really there.

But we said we were going to we have $1,000 to share in this room to go what we need to buy, but there's 200 of it over there for expenses that we're saying we probably not going to spend the we're not going to spend the full 200. Am I am I thinking about this wrong? I don't want to keep you know I don't want to keep you show I get that.

But if we don't I think the But if we don't get the $185,000 grant money, well then we'll staff it based on the $450,000 we're getting from the county and the 450,000 that the city's putting in. And we'll reduce the number of firefighters. It's it's that simple. I mean, that's that's been the plan all along. You know, the the grant money isn't the grant money is a uh it's gravy. It it would be a great blessing because it would reduce the city's the city's burden. Well, it's not gravy because it's it's already included in the revenue and we're But again, Mary,

not breaking even. But again, Mary, we're not going to hire up unless we get that.

I I understand what you're saying. I just this year I' I've heard over and over, well, council approved it. Council approved it. So, I'm trying to be very careful this year that we're not approving anything that's not budgeted. If we budget, what's the number for the fire department? I don't I don't want to get in a pickle where

Yeah, I think that's that's what I'm saying. The budget's going to be the budget, but I've told somebody else to that feel like when we go over these numbers and we just we just always spend more what the budget is and if we approved this budget and it comes back that because this year is going to be crucial if it comes back that you know we're running low on money. Well, the council approved it. Well, I mean, but the numbers I I don't feel like the numbers are really representing what we're asking to approve. And that's why I don't mean to get hung up on one or two things, but if we don't have the money to hire the fire department staff right now, yes, we all want it. We want it as fast as we can get it, but we've got and all these other things that we're having to pay for. And so I'm just saying if if we know we're not going to have the money, let's let's hire the firefighters when we have the money instead of putting them on a credit card.

I guess that's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. Okay. We're not we're not going to hire Got them in the budget, but they're in the budget in case we need to staff up.

I mean I mean I I I want it's not a credit card because it's not spent unless it's spent. I mean, it's it's we're not going to spend the money unless we we have the the cash reserves to be able to spend the money. And I and you know, Blake were here, he'd tell you the same thing. And we had many discussions on this. If the safer grant doesn't come through, we won't have six firefighters. We will have more like three firefighters. And there's contingency plans or maybe we'll go down to three and then have more part-time. But I I feel like you need to have an accurate representation of what it would actually cost to have a fully staffed fire department. And that's what the budget says because that's what we based our agreement with the county on too. And that's what we based our agreement with safer grant on. That doesn't mean we're going to go hire six firefighters day one. probably know by the end of October. And at the end of October, if we don't get it, we can come back and do a budget adjustment that'll reflect exactly what you all, you know, to make it a to make it balanced. I understand part of it is that we had to have get the grants. It's just I'm still trying to use the government.

Okay. Well, I want to go back and firm up the revenue numbers because I felt like we had them firmed up last time and now we've added 200,000 more. So, I took the animal shelter donations. I took the budget for the animal shelter and the EDC salary and I made adjustments based on those expenses. So that's going to take away 14,349 and I want to reduce the sales tax by another 100,000 because if you look back on the history with Loves and Dukes the most we had was 813,000 star a typical a good Starbucks generates about a million to 1.5 in revenue. That's $10,000 in sales tax. So I think 900 is pushing. I think we're safer with eight.

Okay. So that drops revenue $214,000. So that makes us short $8,400. Does that not 800 more realistic than 900?

I just looked at the history like I I know I know we didn't have loves all year, but back when we did, like I said, the most we generated was about 800 and Starbucks is I mean maybe 10.

Okay. And I guess maybe the way that I'm looking at this is that is that we have solar folks coming in, which we didn't have before, staying at the RV park. We have Hallebertton that's going to start drilling in January. We're is going to generate more sales tax. We're going to have more people coming through that will generate more sales tax. And I probably I probably am a little more optimistic on that end than you are. But if you want it to be 8 800,000,

it's not that I'm not optimistic, but I just tend to be more conservative looking at the numbers. And like like I said, if we budget 900,000, we're we're going to spend that money somewhere because that showed a surplus of 200,000 and I I don't I don't don't think we're going to have that. So, I I would rather be more conservative and if we get the extra money, great. Then we can spend it on something. Okay. Well, we'll back it down to 800,000. Back that down to a million. I hope you're right. I really do. I do, too.

Because we can use the money Okay. And what was the other one? The transfer from EDC should be 284455.

That's just taking the salary the expense on the EDC budget right was 84455 not 9547. The other 10,000 came from Did you take the transfer to Main Street? Is that part of the 200? No. I didn't I just took 200 and then the salary was 84455 and then there was some transfers to Main Street from Main Street in there too. They got the 295

which puts the EDC in the hole for the year. And again, it puts the EDC for the year in the hole, but their EDC has a 700 $800,000 cash balance. And that money will only be spent again if the Park grant if the park grant moves forward fast enough for to be spent this next fiscal year, which is a very slim probability. 16. It's all Mayor, your question is it your numbers are 284,000 versus 295, right?

Yes. Okay, I'll check on that. I only showed the EDC. I mean, I only put 200,000 for the EDC for special projects in the park and then I just added the salary number. So, that's how I got my 2845. So, if you said there's another 10,000 for Main Street, Main Street should be that should be for the park in Main Street not 200. Okay. So then that's only $1,15 difference

and it may be when I calculated the U branches. Well, the the social security tax is too high on EDC. That has to be So that's the,5 difference. That should only be 4340 versus 5355.

Well, there you go. Thank you. 4340 for the social security.

I mean, if we It depends on when we hire up. Yeah. If we're going to be more reliant on volunteers, that's where we get the fire call. making the same call, but the county I think is thinking that they're going to fund it that they won't do that unless to me unless we've got volunteers running the call.

No, that calls. That's not for insurance, is it? Okay. I'm sorry. From the county. We got that software to be able to help.

Yeah, we're using it. Oh, I see. Yeah. 22,000. I see what you're saying, Brad. I'm sorry. 9,000 right there. What are we doing? What are those that we've never I mean 225 years ago $500 this year. What is that for? took it out this year.

Yeah, I know she took it out. I was just curious what it was. So if somebody wants to sell door to door anyway credit card process That was something I was curious about. We got nothing in credit card this year.

So where do you see that revenue? Does the court take credit cards? City court. know that you can I'm looking for revenue. I know Mount Vernon had three people pulled over.

I'll check into that. Mark, I just curious what I read on that deal. Okay. I just It might be worth looking into. It seems like you could reimburse what you're getting by the credit card company.

Well, I think it's Where I where I saw it is TML has a whole 130 page book I read yesterday on how cities can get revenue and that was one of the deals court fee and credit card processing fees but this might be worth looking at. I mean, we can get an extra 5,000 bucks off people paying tickets.

Now, is that a wash or is that the actual cost? My understanding is cost you how much a month and you collected 9,000. So, we're losing money. So then that means we should increase the rate. Makes sense to me. What I read said off of it, we're not even break.

Kathy, help me understand. Is there a specific company that we have to go with on that? So, and we have to use who they contract with. Okay. Okay. Next.

Okay. I have a question on the street maintenance. We took it out of the budget for this year or for the 2526 and you want to move it back to 24 25. But how are we going to pay for that if we move it back? The my thought on that was to use some of the money that we have moved into the to get the streets done. Go ahead and use some of the money that we have in the Techstar account just to get them done. That's going to drop your Techar account down to about $200,000.

Well, the other option is wait another year to do it.

Elmwood, East Elmwood is just as bad. Speaking of that, There's something in here that has to be done for a certain period of time only last four years. going back to those streets. That's totally up to you all how you want to do it. We can put it back in the budget for next year, see how it goes, or we can go ahead and get them knocked out. Um, I would I would offer that um under annexation law that was just passed by the legislature, um, a folks that have been annexed can petition to be deanexed if the city isn't providing the services that they're supposed to get within six months. We

know we got to go. And that's and that's why you know you have more. When we get to the utility, you'll see there's more.

Yeah. So, we need to find $160,000 is what we need to do. part of the city. Sounds like question for a year.

It doesn't have base, does it? I'm just I'm just Is there a way to get So there's no base. Three or four inches of asphalt on it or what's the plan? No,

I'm sure they'll do it, but we want it done, right? the same company that did you like

I drive off the same company that gave us a very good price for Carell None of that. Don't for So, I guess we'll decide on that next week.

Yeah. I mean, leave it in there. Let's see how it plays out. Are we putting it in the 2526 budget year? We're already over budget for 2425. My question is either wherever you put it, you have to come up with $160,000. Where's it going to come from?

That includes West. We're not doing Westwood, are we? Yeah. But but the 220 something includes Westwood. Your your sheet a while back showed 7 85,000 for Carp and Arington and 75 for East Elmwood, right? That's what

it's 160,000. West Elmwood wasn't included. 81 for Carfield and 71 for East Elmwood. West Elmwood. West Elmwood is on this bid. 227,000. What's West Elmwood? It has to be done too.

Not right now. Eastwood is Yeah. Eastwood is So, you're looking at 152,000. Okay. Well, I'll scrub the budget and see if we can come up with another 152. Where were you talking about

Techar? Four CDs that we transferred over to Techar. That's the final that we have as a reserve. That's all we have left. Okay, let me look and see if I can scrub some more money out here. I found 114.

Where's that? Well, on the main street the special projects 50,000. What is that? Main Street special projects for are basically uh the spring thing that they do, any other types of projects that they they endeavored to do. So that's not for a sound system in a Christmas tree. Oh, it was originally. Yes, I'm sorry. Yes, it is. But we're not necessarily going to buy those,

but they're in the budget. I didn't cut them out of the budget in case there was sufficient funds to keep them in there to purchase them, but obviously we can cut those. Well, I'm just I'm just saying that that that 50 jumped out at me.

I mean, if we can go without a sound system in the Christmas tree, that that's $50,000. Well, you found 50. Mary found 50. I go back to the HSA. If you drop it from 17 to a,000, that's $24,400. And then if you change the retirement to 5% with the two match, that's $40,000.

I would argue against that. What's What's the next one you got? I like it. That's all you got? I I would argue strongly against that. I mean, that's up to y'all, but I would argue very strongly against that because you're going to lose people. Well, I mean, I'm looking I looked up surrounding areas and they're at 5%. I It would put more money in their pocket. They go from 5% to 7%. They can go get a Roth IRA if they want to or a traditional IRA. Are you going to offset that with a raise for everybody?

Well, if we if we have some money in here, but it' be a wash, right? What do you mean it would be a wash? Well, if you if we drop it to 5% and reduce our our uh obl How much did you say? 40,000. It go from from 14% contribution to a 10%. That's about 40,000. I know there's a formula. It's not quite 14%. So that' be 40,000 more that you would add back into their salaries. Well, not right now because you need the money in the budget. Okay.

I mean, I I just looked at surrounding cities and And you can match one one, one and a half to one, or two to one. We're doing two to one. Um, and it's five, six, or 7% match. That 5% from 7% to 5% would go back in their pocket. That 2%. I'm just throwing out numbers. We have to fix the streets. Our payroll is 2.9 million

of our budget. We've added I know I can count seven there may be more than that. We've added seven employees over the last year. Our our cost is going up for benefits higher than what our re than what we're generating in revenue. Okay. Look at that. Let us run some numbers on. Dropped down to a th00and on the HSA.

Isn't that what you want to show? I dropped down to,200. He dropped at 500.

Maybe we can come up with the other I'm looking for I mean, we haven't even got to the deficit that we're going to have in the utility fund. So,

well, yeah, and that's a whole another discussion. I've got everything laid out on that. And that would offset some of the cost of the

if if we adjusted the rates the way that that it has was suggested by the by Grant who did the water rate study and $5 for water and $5 for sewer for residential customers. That's all. That would cover the deficit plus cover any debt service that we had on the new raw water line loan. I mean, yeah, that's a consideration, but what do we what do we need to vote on?

Why do we need to vote on it? When What do we recommend that we do on the last time I asked like you guys? It's it's all it's all in that it's all in the email that I sent on I saw but the commercial rates were like outrageous. So the email that you sent that had like $1300 a month for water or something like that. the the the 8 in meter and the 6 inch meter and the 4 inch meters are all apartment complexes. They're flow through and those those are the ones that go up the highest.

So make sure that flows but they're flow through but the meter goes out. No, I'm I'm talking I'm talking that what I'm saying is that it goes to the the landlord will just just uh increase the rent. Okay. Right now on our 8 inch meter um and help me with this, Angie, if you're still here, we're losing 42 almost $4,300 monthly because we're charging them for a 4 inch meter.

Okay. But when I asked about that last month's meeting because the council had approved on a rate for a larger meter. When are we going to do that as a part of the whole budget? What we're going to approve on the meter rates before we approve a budget? Will it be included as part of the revenue portion of the budget?

But we're losing $4,300 a month while we're waiting for the budget. Can we not approve the rate for the new meter that we put in this spring? Why? I'm just asking if if if I'm bleeding, I'm going to put a band-aid on my arm like now. I mean, I'm just asking is that do I not understand it? Well, we we had A year ago, May of 24, we had a rate study conducted that showed what we needed to do just for the operations of our

voted that we would go up in we voted to go up $2. Okay. But but that that's set aside from what we're talking about with the meters. When are we going to get people being build for the meter services that they have? That's the question I have. We can do that next week. That's what we said we were going to do last month and we were going to do it this month. I I I don't know. I just It's like if we're trying to come up with cash here and we're bleeding $4,300 of a a month and they've had this meter now for what since

June was one of the last ones we put in. because it took so long to get it. We'll be we'll be almost $20,000 by the time we get approved on what we're going to bill them for. I'm just I'm not getting on you. I'm asking the question, what do we got to do? Last month it was like council has to approve on the meter rate. Okay, I'm ready. Let's let's what's the It just made sense to me to do it all at one time. Water rates, meter rates, the whole nine yards. Okay.

And we didn't have an accurate we didn't I just got the numbers back from Grant on what the meter rate calculations would be as far as the the back end of that as far as how much more revenue it would generate. I don't know. I I just get the feeling like I'm not going to put oil in the car till I know how much oil it takes. In the meantime, the motor blows up. We'll get past this. Let's keep moving forward. What's next? Well, if we're on the utility fund, we're still not showing the payment for the assessment in there

in the budget itself. You're absolutely right, Mary. And it needs to be shown in there. So, that's going to decrease revenue by another the revenue. The revenue needs to remain the same. Okay. I think I said that in the email that I sent. you did and that we we really can't adjust. We can't do anything about that this budget year. Okay. I would like to take next year to get that resolved out, but we need that 1550 to help balance the utility budget this next budget year. Okay. But what I'm saying is if we're supposed to be paying that on the debt,

right? We're collecting that assessment to pay on the debt. The payment for the debt is not reflected in the budget. It's only showing $19,000 and it should be $197,000. Right. Yeah. So that's going

that needs to be shown as an expense and it's still being shown as a 2012 CO and it should be a 2021. It should the budget should accur accurately reflect the revenue we're collecting from it and the expenses coming out of it. So then that's going to make the deficit 177,000 larger for the utility because the expense is not being shown. If we're paying if we're paying the debt from the assessment,

how's that being? Either we have a transfer to the debt fund or we have a payment an expense for the note. How's that being paid now, Kathy?

07. Where are you transferring it to the debt? It's not being paid out of the debt because the total debt Well, we paid it out of the debt fund this year. Yes. Which is fine, but we didn't expense it last year or this year. We paid it out of the debt fund because we had excess funds that since we didn't have money in the utility fund, we used the debt fund to make the payment. Are we going to do that again this year and eat up our debt fund money or are we going to pay off something else in the debt fund? Because if we're going to use the assessment to pay the debt, then we need to show the expense in the utility fun. Okay, I'll add the expense to the utility fund.

I mean that that's my question. Is it going to come out of the debt fund? But that's 197,000 that we're going to

My plans for my thoughts were to take it out of the debt fund one more year and then try to get it squared try to get the rate squared away to where we can just commit 100% of that assessment fee to pay down that debt and not use it for operations. That was my plan for this upcoming year. So, we're having to use 390,000 out of the debt fund, which could actually go to other debt to pay the assessment that we collected the 1550 on. So am I right? Either way,

we're paying it either way. But if we're collecting the$,550, then we should be paying if we're collecting it for that debt. You're not objected to the debt. You're objected to how we're paying for it. question. My question

Okay. I'm not understanding where you I think Mary's more caught up with a bad word, but but how we're doing it, not the money's got to be spent one way or another. But it's like we're we're paying this bill with this money and then taking the money from here to pay this bill when this money pay out of the bill. I agree with you, but you can't tell that the way that it's laid out as revenues and expenses on on this budget, right? You can't track it. So, you know, that has to be changed and that's what I'm saying.

We change it now. I think that's what Mary's asking. Well, I will address that. I will try to change that now. Show see what and then we can decide whether we want to take it out of the debt fund or we want to take it out.

I mean, I had just that we could use that excess in the debt fund to pay off those meters or something so that we could maybe reduce the INS fee, you know, next year. I mean, I I didn't have a problem using the debt fund this year to make that payment because of all the excess expenses we had, but this year we can plan for I mean, if we're going to collect the 215,000 for that, then I think we should be paying the I agree.

Okay. Can we talk rates? Yeah. I just got another offthe-wall question for a little bit of money here, but I just noticed that expenditures general fund 195 code enforcement that budget's basically wiped away because we are out outourcing that now. There's $1,000 still. We're not outsourcing code enforcement. We're outsourcing building inspections. Okay. We're doing code enforcement internally.

Yes. I I misspoke, but the the code enforcement official we used to have. We no longer have a code enforcement official. Some has been some responsibility has been taken on by current staff and other is being outsourced. Okay. What is advertising for in code enforcement? Notifications. Okay. Notifications, not mail. That's all I need. More hangers. I was just curious why we were advertising code enforcement. It's it's more supplies

on the utility fund on utilities. 54145 page three. I'm in the utility. You're in revenue. Go down to expenses. Um it looks like to me there's meter supplies on here twice as 0023. Could we get rid of one of those or It says 09 says meter supplies and 023 says water meter supplies.

Yeah. So I mean could that be decreased? Is that duplicate? Chad, do you know what those are? Both of them. 23 doesn't have any in it this year. So, get rid of that five.

And then I noticed there's okay which on the number is that 514 023 09 and 023. It looks like there's two meter supplies that counts. Okay, once down to three meter supplies is 10 and then meters is three. Is that right? You look at look at 23. You got 09 and you got 23. One of them's 10,000. One of them is 5,000.

Okay. I said get rid of the 5,000. And then I noticed that we're going up on clothing allowance, but we're getting rid of uniforms. What's because it's cheaper. We're locked into that cents contract and that has it's ridiculous what we have to pay for uniforms. They're they just want to go get t-shirts with City of Mount Vernon or kind of polo or something on there. Saves money. So, we don't have a contract with We have contract with CentOS. We're going to cancel it.

What will that cost? Not sure yet. Not sure yet. There's different times you can cancel it. It doesn't cost anything. It's an annual contract. But you got to let them know like I've been locked in those stupid things before. You got to let them know like 90 days in advance. We're going to We're going to have the attorney look at it and see the best way to proceed on that. It's ridiculous.

Got to read the fine print. Once you get locked in, but you just got to let them know 90 days. Now, one thing you can do, you can't get out of it. Every one of them has it. You have to spend a minimum of like 100 bucks a month. I bought toilet paper for a way out of it. that we won't it won't cost us to get it. I I'll do my best to where it won't we won't take a big hit on it. How long's the contract? They're 12 months.

Well, it's indefinite because every time you change your order, if you add every news for five years, it's the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen in my life. I've not seen that. Yeah. Talk to the attorney. So if you switch from shorts to pants, you're locked in for five years again. Or if you get basically or if you

Yeah. Anytime you resign a contract for a change like we want to add jackets this year. We'll make money on that deal.

Storm water um 150 page five. Can Can that just be removed? We don't have any expense in there this year other than the bad debt. That's $44,100. Well, does it have to be $44,000? We haven't spent any money this year or the year before or the year before. We're looking for money. What?

There's no expense in there. Why would you put Cut it in half? Why not put $100? Cut it in half. I'll cut it down to a thousand.

That's $43,000 right there. Is there in 2020 and 2021 that we were contract street sweepers

but we spent 44125 and 44106 annual year 2020 and 2021 what was it what was that exactly the same off by 11 bucks. That's good. And then we didn't spend anything the next two years. You said it was what? I said that's because of the bad debt, the offset just Yeah. So I'm asking because does it need to be anything? Well, that's what I said. But she said that's what that $6 assessment or $3.

So So we just roll that into Let's just cut it down to just 43,1 um on the water um expense. They have sludge disposal on here, but we spent zero this year. Does The water have sludge or is that the waste water?

The last two years they've done it. It was Denali last year. That's the way it was last year. I mean in the year before

and then they just end up showing up. They give you like be there tomorrow. Yeah. Man, I should have to look at water.

Let's look at rates. Kathy, would you bring up the attachments? the TML waste and TM water fee summaries. Okay, this is water. This is average for our population size um that is produced by the Texas Municipal League. You can see the average fee for water at 5,000 gallons is $49 statewide. We're at $27. Can we look and also notice that the commercial rate is 281 for 50,000 gallons. Could we look at the wastewater fee there? The wastewater fee for our size for 5,000 gallon is $38. We're at 33 and accordingly 50,000 gallons is a 227. Could you bring up the spreadsheet that uh meter rates

that 38 we're at 33 minimum charge, but are you adding in the 375 for the 8,000 gallon? That's their that's that's their minimum charge. That doesn't mean that's the minimum charge. That does. So why does it say minimum for 5,000 gallons is what they based it on. They're comparing one city at 5,000. So they're not taking a minimum charge plus the usage. Yeah. Rate. They're not. Well, I think they would be because there's no free water anymore is what we're going to get at, right? So really we're at 36.75 versus 382.

Now waste water. That's that's for that's for waste water. Well that's I'm sorry. I'm looking at that's business.

Yeah. 28. We're at 32. Yeah. 38.

No, that's sewer. 32 49 32 49 This is the water 49 to 32. This is the waste water, the sewer. Most people No, it's the one that compares us with Cyprus and the one that's entitled Right. Okay. By comparison, just surrounding cities, here's where they're at. This is Winsboro. And they're kind of all over the board. We're the lowest. Yeah. Let's look at each.

Here's my understanding they just went up again. Springs Mount Pleasant. Then there's ours. Okay. Um, now let's look at let's look at grants. Um, spreadsheets. Yeah. Move it all the way up to the top. See where we are? Okay. This is the one that has been adjusted with two factors. It's been adjusted for the actual flow rate through the larger meters and you'll see a substantial meter cost.

It was in your email.

Okay. the one that I sent yesterday. Um the meters 4 in the 6 in and the 8 in there is a substantial increase in in minimum charge based on the meter size and that's based on the flow rate calculation. Um this one also has a $5 per meter water and sewer both increase for just residential but 5/8 inch one inch customers with this using the these factors if you go to the bottom and go as far to the right as you can. I'm sorry. There you go. It'll generate $417,730. It's a five. It's a $10 impact u to all the residential customers. This covers this covers the original deficit that I saw in it based on um what the preliminary uh budget showed. And it also covers the debt services requirement for the new water development board loan for the wastewater treatment plant and the uh raw water line. If you add five bucks and go with the other rates as they are, if you take the five bucks away, that number's cut in half. It pays for the debt service, goes down to about 240. It pays for the debt service, but doesn't cover any deficit that we have. Now, if you look at these

rates based on what we were told last year uh in our from our water rate study, you'll see that there's still not the minimum charge is still a dollar less than what they recommended for 2026. I'm gonna rip the scab off a wound. Um, if you're going through this and I I just when we look at the commercial rates, we're talking about residential and we're talking about going up $10 on the resial rates. I wish we didn't have the 15 thing on the on the water bill Wednesday. That thing will be gone, but it's there. So my my thing is have we calculated in once we begin charging for all the meters what that looks like on the budget then back into what this number needs to be also looking at what the commercial rates are

it's another one of the spreadsheets that's in there so is it this thing that I'm looking at right here it was in the email that I sent It was in the email I sent yesterday. I saw that was a long email, but there was no attachment on it. It was all in the email. It was in the body of the email.

The one without an increase in residential rates of $5 generates $240,000 more a year with the other with the commercial changes with the meter sizes and everything else. And that's maintaining the commercial rates at the same, the smaller meter commercial rates at the same, and the um rates for residential at the same $273 or whatever it is for sewer.

Okay. But we keep what I what I don't see anywhere is we keep talking about water rates. Okay. I see commercial. So like every these things from TML that I saw the commercial rate and I know what I'm paying in Winsboro right now the commercial rate is like three times that of a residential rate and yet we're saying okay we're going to keep them the same so I'm just trying to make the the boat level is what I'm saying we looked at that if we if we raised it's not exactly level because you can't say okay we're going to raise the commercials and that's going to fix it. No, because there's not as many commercial as there is residential. So, I get that. But like if I'm looking at the water rates here for I'm not saying we do this, but the cheapest water rate here is $281 and we're 33. So, what if we what if we raise that to 65. Does that help out? I just don't want to put any more money on the citizens. If they choose to go out to eat or they choose to go to Loves and use the bathroom or whatever, fine. They're going to pay for it. I'm just if we're if we're looking at level playing fields here, we keep talking about residential, but we but

but if you look at the commercial meters, the larger meters based on meter size, you can see that they are getting hit with much larger with much larger base. Sure, they are in these cities as well, but their their base rate is higher. I mean my I'm just saying this from a commercial standpoint. $653 a month and we flush points, but we've got to come. We're just trying to find out where we're going to come up with money. I mean, I don't want to be anti- business. We all got to have businesses, but I mean I mean, we can adjust these upward.

I'm just asking what your thoughts were. You You've been in multiple cities, including Lindale. I mean, I've never been in a city where the water rates are as unrealistically low as Okay. But what are they what are they compared to commercial in those other cities? Well, the commercial is always higher in other cities. Okay. But it's it's the same here. Base rates 33 bucks. You're right. And that was in that report because that's what they were. And he was looking at how to fund. We asked him when we did that report how to fund the system and it it didn't mean that we have to keep it at 33 bucks. We can increase,

right? That's what I'm asking.

But but the commercial meters, I mean, okay, you've got 856 uh residential meters. You've got a total move it back up to the top there, please. You've got a total of uh anything larger than a one inch. Um How many? 55. Okay. But we're talking about two sides of the of of a different of the same coin here because we're talking about meters are one thing. I get the meters. If you're if you're a restaurant and you've got a 3/4 inch meter, you're going to be 4950 and and No, we're not because multi-unit hotel meter is based off of that. The commercial rates just $33.

Yeah, it's ridiculous.

So, are are we talking about raising the commercial rate, too? I mean, we can raise it. All I tried to do was try to balance the budget here, but this, you know, I asked Rant to come up with what is it going to do to pay for the the debt service on the TWW uh Texas Water Development Loan. Okay. I said, "Show me what we can get away with." and he came up with a formula that if you adjust your meter size, we don't need to increase the rates on residential customers to pay that month. So with that, I said, "Okay, we also have a deficit of $211,000 or whatever it is. What do we need to what can we do to increase that?" I added five bucks to residential customers. Factor that in there, we can take that away from the residential customers and put it on an additional commercial customer. Here's what I'm asking out.

What if we raise the residents too when we raise the commercial eight? What does that raise 10? I mean because then your residential rates are going to be more expensive than your commercial rates. They at least if we're going to raise we got at least raise both of them. Well, I agree. And I think that residential should be raised five, maybe commercial needs to be raised 10. I mean, we're talking about $10 more a month for water when we have the cheapest water. I I understand. But what but we've also got that stupid $15. I need to keep bringing it up. And I understand that. But what we're proposing today was, if I'm understanding correctly, is raise $5 on residential

and commercial. It hits commercial. If you look at the spreadsheet, those both have gone up by

see it's not just residential. It's okay. Water residential. Just scroll down. Well, I promise it's five bucks on residential. It impacts the commercial the same amount. Now, we can increase the commercial. We can increase it by a factor, but

I'm just I'm trying to just make sense of it. Electricity cost more. I he said that's it from 33 to 30. So electricity cost more, gas cost more, water cost more. Um, so I mean I know it's not much as a gesture. What if we went up to 32 and put the other 25? Because you got way more resial than you got. It's not going to be the same. You can't know rates for the same size of $281 for 5,000 average fee and worth $33. There's a greater

Wasn't that for 50,000 gallons for commercial? It is 5,000 for res. That is correct. But that's that's not what was used. That's that's the capacity of what they have. So I I'm reading it to mean that the base rate. That's Yes, that's what I'm reading this. Okay. I I can factor in some increased base rates. I'm just saying I don't think we have to take commercial rates to 285 or $357 either or 281. That's not what I'm saying. But there's a bigger gap

between them than what we have. And so if we went up, you know, a dollar on our residents, but we could go up $25, does that fix it or is it still way more off than that? Well, you know, to fix it, Mark, I think to fix it is that we look at maybe going up substantially more on commercial, but go up also on residential. Yes.

The only reason I'm just going to throw this out. The only reason I don't want to do that is and we'll probably end up having to do it is because that $15 is going to go away. And when that $15 goes away, that rate's still going to be there where we could go up $15 right now. And I know it's it's the past and we got to deal with it today, but eventually that is going away and I just don't want to recreate the past. No, I get it. We got We got It's like you say, "This guy's jobs easier and this guy's jobs easier." And I get

Well, it's not just about their jobs. It's being able to provide service and not get in a situation like we have been the last several years where we're behind the a bar. We have subsidized everybody's water bill in this city from for probably from the beginning. And that's why you guys we got hit with huge expenses. You know, it's we we've got to get in a situation where we can be on top of that. We have reserves to be able to take care of these utilities. I mean, and again, it's y'all's decision, but it's it's SWEPCO increases their rates every year. Centerpoint increases their rates every year. Your cell phone carrier usually increases their rates every year. And people think that water is different because water's from a city and water therefore should be free.

Well, and it's not. There's a lot of water companies out there. It's not ariv ility. So, I'll I'll play with commercial rates and I'll ask what I'm asking. Is that what we need to do? Because I've thought this for a long time. This is just me. You've been quiet down there.

But we got to educate the people in town on what's going on because most of them don't even most of them don't even know what we're doing. They don't even know we fix 75 men all covered. They don't know all of the stuff that we've done. And I mean, $10 isn't a lot to me. Probably not a lot to you. There's some people out there $10 is going to end up costing them $75 in fines because they're going to get their water cut off.

So, so we continue to subsidize I don't I I just wanted to put that out there. I don't know that I got the answer to it. I think part of the other problem is is and where I'm not confident is that on the billing side of it, have we ever reconciled to the meters the new meters that we got or are we billing for all of those meters as I mean have we reconciled that number? I can't I cannot honestly say that we have married part of the problem this year that we didn't collect

the revenue and we got in this situation. So that has to be fixed. I mean that that's part of the problem. And I mean I don't know what what do we do to reconcile that to know that we're billing every meter that we should be building. I think that goes back to a top down evaluation of our financial systems including billing, including budgeting, including everything else.

Okay. I don't want to oversimplify this because maybe I am. If this is all electronic building bill building, I'm just going to pull a number out of my rear here. 1100 meters have 1100 bills and all of them have sprinklers. I mean that you have one bill and like I have one bill but I have 1100 readings regardless. Oh yeah, that signal should pop in right 1100 times it says hey we have built 1100 meters

it's it's just odd to me that when I started digging into this and we were charged for 1141 installations from Corin M and that was the number you gave me that we were being bu that were that was being built. So to me that says that whenever they set up that software or whatever, we're only picking up the meters that they installed, not the meters that the city installed. And I don't know how many meters that was. No, they four. Yeah.

So Okay. So we purchased,94 meters. There's eight in inventory. This sheet that you sent is showing 1154 active on meters, right? That's 1162. That's 32 meters unaccounted for. And we're still looking for those 32 meters. Okay. So, I mean,

we're trying to reconcile those. And it could be that we got charge for meters that we didn't receive. It could be that the contractor ordered meters. They could have been returned. We could have credit there. We're still trying to figure that out. It could be that the contractor said the way that that came out was that contractor would call and say, "I need x number more meters and it wasn't ever checked. Staff didn't ever check due to a an accurate count of inventory. Could be that the contractor walked off with 32 meters. We don't know, but we're trying to dig. We're trying to find that out.

So, how I mean They were going every 106. How many times did they find meter? I think they next got changed. But guess what? But I think that's what I'm saying. You'd read that meter being read. You should be getting a signal from that meter that says zero. You don't

have water to not find but when back up to one. I'm saying I think you don't find out because it charged me That's another I mean life lessons are experience. We've gotten a little bit of experience in the last year or two. Problem is we don't have a lot of different ways to generate revenue and they did not give us a map. I thought they did where they were going to do it when they gave us the budget or when they gave us the proposal.

I mean, if we spent $2,500 going through the whole town and counting every single If we raise the meter rate on the 4 in meter, we can still have $2500 over the revenue that go with it. So back to water rates if we what do you just what do you think it's going to do if we raise you know a dollar on the citizens this year dollar next year we raised it you know dollar sewer dollar water how much would it go up on commercial make up the difference

I'll have to calculate that can you by the balance. I'm not saying that that's even the right number, but 10 bucks. I just

Well, I mean, I know you don't want to drop the assessment fee, but I calculated it. You could drop it to 1425 and cover the no payment. That's and that's on based on this,60 build connections plus I added in 103 for Logan's point. They'll have Logan's point. This I'm looking at this spreadsheet. This build connections is,60 this right here. It was grants. I got it on Friday. There's 1151 meters. 12 belong to the city. Five belong to Cypress Springs. 74 are sprinklers. So that makes it,60 build connections. You add in 103 for Logan's point because they're being built on 14, not one.

Correct. This So that's um that generates 16,572 a month. That's 198,873 a year. and the note is 197. So that'll pay the note if you dropped it to 14. So you could drop it to 1425 and give them I mean we're cutting a$125 right there something. I mean we did refinance the notes and never went down on the assessment fee

or to whatever those connections. How many more years we got? 43.3 million. But as the note goes down, you could just adjust it. And really, that's the way it should be. I agree with you.

Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna adjust commercial. I'm gonna push back hard on that $5 for the res. I just feel like But you're not five, you're 10. I know. Five sewer, five water. And I'm not saying that we don't get there either. But I'm just saying let's take it. The economy is not doing well is what I'm saying. And I just I think you you can push the gentleman's agreement on it. You know, I think that everybody that gets water can afford $10 more a month for water. How many lake fee payments we have?

Well, is that is that a result of not being able to afford it or is that a result not be spending their money on vaping? You got to take that into account. I mean, this water is a priority. I mean, how many of those folks have cell phones? I mean, is it and it's a polic and you all get to do the policy decisions, but it's a policy issue. Do you have do you operate your utilities like a business? Would you operate your business like this? I wouldn't operate my business like a government. That's what I'm saying. That's what's got You're not going to You're not going to give away your trailer parts?

No. Okay. The only thing that bothers me is he did this rate study last year and and we didn't generate with the increase. We didn't generate even what we generated the year before. So I still go back to a billing issue. We have to make sure we have to make sure like I said before garbage in is garbage out. We can we can raise the rate $20 and if it's not getting build correctly, you're not you're it doesn't matter.

Absolutely. Right. And that's that's me. Once we have all of the numbers in of what the revenue is going to be, then we know what the revenue. Now, I agree with what you're trying to do. You're you're trying to go today and beyond with with what you're talking about. We need we need to build some reserves so that we have things to do things and I get that. I'm just saying that I don't know if the time is ever right, but I'm just saying I don't know if the time is right to go up 10 bucks. Maybe it is, maybe it's not, but we're also talking about taking the tax rate from 52, you know, we actually lowered the tax rate.

We lowered the tax rate. You can say the insortune. No, the INS went up. So, the tax rate went up. We didn't lower. We went from 54 cents to almost 59 this year because INS went up 5 cents because our debt went up, right?

All right. So, what what what are we doing with the water rate? I've heard what you said and we're going to have to do something.

I'm going to play with I'm going to take your um idea under the adisement, play with commercial rates, see what we can generate, see if we can lower the $5. Part of what's driving this, Mark, is that, and this is something I've tried to make clear for a while now, is that Texas Water Development Board came in and said they wanted us to increase rates by $13.50 to be able to pay the debt service, just the debt service. Okay? And they were they were hard on that. They want a resolution that says, "We're going to do this and then next increase them by $14. That did not sound palatable to me and I knew that wasn't accurate. I talked to our financial advisor and he didn't think it was accurate. Initially, they wanted us to raise him right away. It's $27.

So, I took this to Grant again and said, "Okay, this is what we need. This is what water development board's saying." He said, "That's not right. If you make these adjustments based on your meter size, you keep your residential rates the same, you're going to generate $240,000 which will cover the debt service. It does not cover the deficit. I saw, yeah, that's great that it covers the debt service. It has a little cushion there, but we also have to cover that deficit. So, I said the easiest thing to do is add five bucks in here, plug this in, and automatically you have another $200,000 and covers not only your debt service, but it also covers your deficit and it's across the board. Now, we can, and I think I said this in the email, there's a lot of different ways to do this. We can we can possibly increase commercial rates and at a higher level than we do residential rates and try to keep the residential rates lower.

Everybody's going to have to go up. I mean, there's no doubt, but I also know I wouldn't want to go if I had a business from $33 to $281. I don't want to do that. I and I agree with you. That's too drastic.

But I think that you know what I don't think I've seen yet is this is the number that we're going to generate revenue once we get all those meters correctly once we get all of the residential build correctly. I haven't seen anything that shows us that how much do we actually need to cover debt service. We've gotten things rep. We're using less chemicals. We're we're we're managing the whole process better. And we're even managing better now than we did when we first you first came on. And so what does that deficit now to cover versus what it was a year ago with all the new stuff that we put in and the recommendation of the new because I'm still not even clear. You Your your deficit is based too on on the proposed revenue

is lower than That's ex That's exactly right. That number is not right. We haven't adjusted that. And that's what I'm saying. That's where that other $200,000 based on that revenue were $200,000. No, but what I'm saying is you're I don't These numbers to me look like they're based on 2324. and we raised it $2 already. So, if we had been billing correctly all year, isn't that number going to be bigger? We're not going to have a $200,000. Well, if you look at the year to date, though, that's because we didn't because we didn't build correctly. So, that's what that was based on,

right? But but we shouldn't be basing it on that number. We should be basing it on don't know what the number if you look at the if you look at the first spreadsheet that I sent in the email yesterday that was based on the current rates of $27 and and for commercial and residential. Okay, good.

And it raises another $240,000. All I was trying to do was f close that gap based on what the budget proposal, what our yearto date said to bring it to where it all got paid for. Would it be easy to look at what we build for July? I just want to calculate the year. I mean, I think we the sewer and water revenue for July. And I know that's going to be a little higher because you got sprinkler usage in there, but

I just meant from the financial statements. I don't I don't have July. I I just thought if we could if we felt like we had a good month, if we build correctly in July, could we just analyze that number and see where we see where that put us for the revenue. And we may not have that $200,000 deficit. We may not. I'll recalculate that. I I just thought it was something she could pull up here, but I didn't mean for her. That's what I was asking. But she does it better than me.

Do what? That's exactly what I was asking. You're just more articulate than me. Well, I just feel like I think July we got a good billing. We felt like we got a good billing in July, right? Yeah, it was. I think it was. I think it was might have been the first only the first accurate one we've had. So, if we could annualize that number that

if you use that proposed budget. I mean that I think that would get rid of your deficit. I know. I looked at that. I don't remember. I would think that she should be able to pull that pretty quickly, don't you, Angie?

I didn't mean I thought it was readily available. So we use 180 that says July of 24. Yeah,

that would be low. But we could compare that to annualize that one and annualize July 25 and see where the increase the $4 increase got us. Well, I wonder if the current is this July of 24. Maybe that is comparing them. Yeah.

Oh, it is. Yeah, it is comparing. So, it's gone up. It went up. But this is if we're just looking at this, we have to just can only be the water in the sewer.

Water went up 11%. Storm water didn't go up that much. So all of it It' be it' be the same as the water, I guess. Or maybe probably

it's been low this year.

So on the billing assistant here the water is water and sewer. the on the on this print out the water is water and sewer combined. I'm not seeing sewer.

You got water. can't be combined. You just took those two. That's That's a $73,000 increase.

It has to be just water. Yeah. I got water for a year based on for consumption. Where'd you get married? And I have that as 771 256 total for the water. And that's that's both meters, secondary meter and primary.

I see where you're going. It's going to be off for sprinklers.

You probably double that. That's another 150,000. That'll take care 150,000 of that de of that $200,000 deficit. I need to go run those numbers again to make sure. And that doesn't reflect that doesn't reflect the meter charges the larger meter charges.

So we may be better off than we think you all spend. [Laughter] I I hope we are. I think we are. I I'm just going to have to

hopefully motion to adjourn pretty soon. If y'all are if y'all have questions,

I'm not either.

I do too. And I just want to keep the truck out of the ditch five years from now. Okay.

Oh, they fixed them.

But they're going to break again. And so we're gonna have to think Water get worse. There you go.

I think so. I I will keep If I have to meet with each of you all individually on Saturday night from 11 to midnight, I would be happy to do so.

I'm coming by your house. Sheriff and I are going to swing by. We're done. Yeah. Thank you guys. Thank you for your input. I do. I serious. I appreciate it. Thanks.

And that's what you should be. I want to bring

I've got an idea. I want to bring in somebody as a consultant to help us. But we've got to get cleaned up because we're getting the two loans next year. We're getting here. This doesn't make any sense to me. That's what I heard them say.

Did y'all hear that? Do you think that we're close enough to be able to say that we can adopt a budget and a tax rate next?

We had a holiday.