City Council - Regular Meeting

The scheduled Dunnellan City Special City Council Meeting Budget Workshop, August 12, 4 PM. It's now about four minutes after 4. And if you will join me with the budget leaders. indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Is there anyone in the audience who would like to offer an opening prayer? Thank you. We'll observe. It's a moment of silence.

Thank you.

What do you want me to bring up first? Oh, I'm sorry.

All right. Madam Clerk.

Okay. Mayor Green.

Here.

Councilman Inskey.

Here.

Vice Mayor Hanchard. I think we're here. Councilman Lehman. Here. Shawna McLean, finance officer. Here. Chad Ward, public works manager.

Here.

Michelle Leonard, assistant clerk. I'm here. We do not have a city attorney present for this meeting. The agenda for this meeting was published on the city's website and city hall bulletin board on Wednesday, August 5th, 2026. Okay, thank you.

Item number one, FY2026-2027 proposed budget.

Is that what you printed for us?

Yes.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, first of all, I wanted to start with, as far as the state revenues, I have only received the revenue share with the eight-cent gas tax at this time. We should be getting the rest of the revenue estimates from the state about the last week or so of August. I'm going to push to get them in before the August 31st workshop so that we can make any decisions we've made at that workshop because the next meeting after that would be the preliminary hearing. So if there's anything that you all wanted to change in the budget, add, take out, definitely by all means let me know tonight. Our deadline would preferably be the August 31st workshop. But as you can see, We are actually looking at $292,000. Sorry. $3,000,000. Go ahead. $623,367. as far as the expenditures i'm sorry i'm i'm not following along somewhere Okay, you can see the total up at the very top of the finance recommended column.

Right, that was 3 million six... You just said, right?

Yeah, I think your stuff's been updated that you're looking at versus what we have.

Oh, okay, thank you, Tim. I thought I was losing it.

I'll get the paper in front of you. More than me. 3,628,867 to the... General fund revenues. Thank you. And the expenditures total at this time are $2,939,892. That leaves a surplus of $688,975 to go towards our projects or anything else that we're needing at this time. As far as the TIF or CRA, we're looking at $597,400 with expenditures of $524,018 for surplus of $73,382. At this time, is there anything that anyone would like to add?

Mr. Mayor? I know we had discussed earlier in the year about traffic barricades. So I did some research. Because all I saw was a line item for $1,000. on the budget for, I think it was barricades and safety and something. I'm sorry, I'll have to look. But when I did, how many barricades do we have or do we need?

Is it the barrels or different types?

Yeah. No, what I looked at was the type two folding plastic, which was the, it was a type two traffic barricades, which I call them the Bob's barricades.

The folding ones.

The folding, thank you. Folds flat approximately 15 pounds. Those are the ones that Tim said were rusted, and if they fall on somebody's foot.

We have some big ones, and we maybe have under a dozen of them, and then we have the longer, like I saw horses and the board go through, we have a couple dozen of them, and then we have 15 barrels.

Okay, so... So this is what I did. When I saw that there weren't, because I know that's what we'd asked for you to do, was to put those on the budget for this year. I remember saying it. And so I looked at, I know that the, I made sure that I looked at the manual of uniform traffic control devices and the governing standard on the city, the FDOT standards and the FDOT approved product list apply when a closure affects a state road, such as 41, which would require a separate permit, of course. And, of course, these devices after December 31st of 2019 must be MASH 2016 cashworthiness site criteria. That's what I learned. So if we ordered 20 of them, is that too many, too little?

So let me ask a question. We went through barricade inventory after you brought that, after we had that discussion. and uh last i remember chad is we have everything we need that we don't need anything else for city work and the com maybe miscommunication whatever it is the conversation is not that our barricades Any barricade, as you use it, needs maintenance and whatever. I've been out there chatting with guys many times where the screw's loose, that screw's loose, they tighten it up and away you go.

Okay, well, again, I was just going from what we had been reported is that our barricades were dangerous.

No, they're not dangerous. They're not dangerous. Again, the city workers wear proper PPE when they use everything. We're at risk when somebody other than the folks that know what time to use them wear the PPE. We're at risk because we're the owners of them.

I thought I was told that they were rusty and that you'd even cut yourself or something so that that's why and I remember saying okay

Like a class we have to go through to be able to do them. Okay. We have to go through this class and get it off by MOT. It says they're okay to set the stuff up and put closed roads and do that kind of thing. Right. Was you saying there's a minimum? You said a number, so I didn't know if that was something you were saying. Yeah.

According to the manual on uniform traffic control devices, and I will, of course, give you my beautiful document here. And that is the governing minimum standard on city streets, FDOT standards, and the FDOT-approved product list apply for a closure that affects a state road such as 41, which would, of course, require a permit. But they, from my research, that I found that the type 2 folding plastic barricades would be more than adequate for us fit for parade sidewalk, like we had over here, those types of closures. So again, when y'all were talking about the barricades being, and I remember specifically saying, well, that will be on our budget. And you said, yes, that will be. And it's not. So now I'm being told that we have

enough and that they're fine and not in danger of hurting you or citizens we have enough for our city streets because we're on closing sections 41 44. now that would be fdot's barricades and them setting it up and marion county setting up stuff for our okay i mean some of our stuff is getting old but we have

So I'm just wanting it on the record right now that the barricades that we have, the ones that look like it's all horses, I call them bobs, they are in safe working order for our staff as we speak.

Yes. Most of what we have is the bigger barricades. We don't, them are more of a pothole, manhole, something or a little.

So we have more of a type three?

We have the bigger tripod that's going to be six, seven foot long and the big barrel. The littler ones are more if we had a pothole or we were doing something we'd set there or if we had a sidewalk, we would put them on there. Our bigger stuff will close the roads. The smaller ones just go on a sidewalk or something that's just closing an arrow path.

Okay. All right. Well, I just meant because we were told that we needed them, so that's why I was worried that they weren't on the budget.

Okay. It answers your record, right? recollection okay anything else on that not this time yes sir you have anything else

Councilman Inskeep, I wanted to ask you on the animal control, have you found anything about the $15,000 or what we're paying?

Mayor, you sent the information out. I've only kind of dabbled in it. I've been very good in the main budget right now. So that's going to be coming up for me to go through this weekend. I just want to be prior to this meeting, et cetera, et cetera. That one, looking at it, it looks like that we're probably going to... Pay $15,000? Pay $15,000. Okay. Can I get that again?

They're better at this than we are.

Right, I'm not agreeing that it's right. No, no, you understand what I'm saying? Exactly, exactly. and the other thing is chad i want to say thank you for sending the things for game time on the uh so i've been going through that i'm going to

try to i want i want to have a working plan by the by the time we come to our next workshop of an estimated park okay i have uh reached out to a couple different companies i do have them setting up they're actually the people that do the grant for the i have actually people who do the grant for the playground stuff that we're working on squeezing a meeting in With them to go over what our goal is what we're looking at what we could qualify for and then Just a all-around number kind of thing to put out to see what we're set.

Okay Did you see the the grant that I had sent you?

Little tights one.

Yes Oh, okay, and then there's one with the Florida Florida I Want to say it's like Florida wildlife

i've seen that one okay i thought i sent it to you when you sent us if you click on that go down the list about 12 or 13. okay and uh and talking to mandy last week we i was discussing the the horse barns because i keep getting the ads and the quotes are the quotes are reasonable and and i'm not really sure about it too i think it would be a nice addition to get something big enough to where people could be under. Because if the equipment isn't completely covered, it's going to be hot. But also, we need a place for the mothers to sit in the shade. Otherwise, they're not going to take their kids. So I do agree with what you said, that we might be better off looking at separating this into the playground and then looking at getting a structure later up around it that will accommodate it, rather than trying to do it all at once.

but thank you for the advice it was we get kind of all the areas and people they said I think every one of them set by a tree well and part of my reasoning for that was because we've run into some challenges before with where some of our playground equipment is set has to be things have to be so far from a fence or a structure or things like that run into that when our insurance company comes out to do our safety inspections. Like if you have a swing set, that swing set has to be set so far away from a fence. So I think if you were to try and do it all in one fell swoop, you might run into some challenges because you first want to know what your dimensions of your playground equipment is and what your

you know restrictions are going to be yes around that before you could really plan to put any type of structure over or around it most everything's times two whatever the height of a swing is it's usually times two yeah front and back so it would be and it's 12 foot it's 48 height from the height the height determines the set determines the setback So it's a 12-foot swing set.

No, I understand that because you don't want a kid getting in a swing and swinging it out right into a flat wall. That's what we used to do.

If you go over there and you have a 12-foot swing, you have to be 48 feet away from everything. Front and back, split in 24 and 24, both directions. So that makes us...

have to move the whole playground set clear up because the structure would have to be back because of where our property is yes well another thing to consider is right now it's just laid out on that 40 by 120 lot is we can move the lot like more over towards the training my very say like the east side and a little bit out into the grass over there and expand it out so you follow what i'm saying it's towards the shelter

instead of it going like this it could maybe go this way and then come around and be shortened on the front so but that would all proceed the only thing you'll run into is when you move that swing set up that way you have to take that distance and now we have to be 24 foot away from that swing which is going to put us pretty close to being on our building our concession stand yeah that's what i was just thinking okay

so do we need to tim do we need to do anything tonight to move money into that or to make or do or do we do it in a future meeting this is for earning goals yeah uh no good my opinion is no because we have all that money sitting in the cra in tip of phones so it's just a matter of uh figuring out what that cost is going to be during the cra meeting uh... uh... chakri okay for a fundamental expenditure test you know Sean or summary here she has her us summary right there of what this coming in with expenditures are the expenditure line item would just simply be larger than what that number is there but no problem because tip reserves are okay yeah Yeah, thank you for making it clear for me, and if anybody's listening out there, make it clear for them. Thank you. It's not a tough, very easy process. Okay. That's all I've got. Do you have a question? Yeah. I'm going to ask on the TV process because I don't have to do it. Sorry, John. I don't like that we word. No, sir. Nothing else.

Shana, so what you started with your earlier statement when we broke the meeting was the fact that you're looking for this last figure to come in from the state. And it will be here, you anticipate, a day or two before we have our next meeting. Correct. So we'll know exactly then. It will be right on target then. Correct. OK. Well, that gives us some time to go over some more, take a look at things.

Yeah, we have this meeting, and the next meeting that's scheduled is the August 31st, as far as workshops go. So we definitely need to finalize everything by the end of that meeting pretty much, because the next meeting after that, like I said, is the preliminary hearing.

Okay, Mandy, anything in your budget? I know you've got your hands full with trying to run the permitting department and trying to do the clerk's office, too. Is there anything in there that you know of that you'd want to adjust for your planning department? I know what you're trying to anticipate. Is there anything that we need to know about?

No, sir. I mean, if you mean like staffing or anything like that?

Well, yes. Just a general idea of what you think. If you have something you want to speak about, that would be fine. If you don't, it's okay. We're going to have that last meeting.

I think we're good. you know i i have not had an opportunity to go through every department budget line by line which i would love to have the luxury of time to do that but um i know that shauna has reviewed the community development budget tim's reviewed the budget i mean we did go through and review some comments But I will take the time now to tell you that we did have someone start part-time today in the permit technician position. And she's working 8 in the morning until noon while Alex is out with his medical leave. And at some point, Alex may be able to come back part-time. if that's the case you know before the end of his leave allotment then we would ask him to come in in the afternoons I would have her here in the mornings and then have him here doing the other things that that person is not able to do as far as entering permits and scheduling inspections and processing you know the everyday building permits, HVAC, plumbing, blah, blah, blah, that kind of stuff. What did you say? Stormwater. Oh, yeah. And we have Alex handling our stormwater work orders, keeping up with, which is very, very, very important that someone has a very good understanding of that so that when we are audited again in the future, We're able to produce those records in a format that the DEP is asking for, and so we're being very particular. So Alex has been doing a really good job of managing that. And the vacation rental piece, because this person that we're having here for four hours a day right now is strictly doing permits, not vacation rentals, not stormwater, not anything else that Alex was doing. We have advertised for the community development manager position, and so far we've only received one qualified applicant, which just so happens to be Ron Brown, who worked for us after Kelly left. Ron was here with us for a few months, and a better opportunity came along for him that he took advantage of and worked a contract for two years And now that's expired and he's looking to get back in more of a, you know, a steady position where he's not having to travel. And he's very, very interested in coming back to Dunellan. So I'm going to, I've made him a conditional offer based on the provision that, in the manual that allows me, and in the code, allows me to bring someone in under an emergency provision for 90 days and we will continue to accept applications during that time. If we get another applicant that I'm interested in interviewing then I will and then bring a recommendation to council at some point here in the next couple of months.

as far as filling that position on a permanent basis but ron is prepared to come to work on monday that's that's wonderful news that's a good job mandy and then like you said we'll have him under a 90 day He's already produced for us before. He left on good standing with the city. I think you're on the right course. I think the council agreed to that. Does that sound good?

Yes, sir. Mandy and I had already discussed it, and I thought that was the right way to go.

Any input on that, Jim?

No, I think it's great. It reps everything.

Mandy, I think he's... That looks great. I mean, we just all just spoke about it. Anything else that you have to outline that we might discuss a little before we get to it?

I will say that I'm desperately trying to find the time to get my evaluation out to you guys because it was due in June. And I know it takes you all a little bit of time to put that together. So hopefully I'll get that out to you before the end of the month. And that way we can get that on the September agenda.

Okay. Anything else?

I believe that's it.

What do you think?

Do we have anything more?

We pretty much covered everything that I'm aware of. I spoke with you all about the insurances across the board. I have not gotten any numbers from anything yet. We are supposed to get the medical this week, tomorrow actually, at least a preliminary number. Like I mentioned, the... workers' comp and liability and all that. They did software conversion. They're using all that user-friendly. So they're having some difficulty getting numbers out to everybody right now. So we're not knowing what is unfolding.

Is there anything else?

That's what I was going to ask.

Pretty much

we're on the list with the rest of them open okay well I know you follow through with that is there any other final statements you want to make during this meeting to increase that amount. So I'm just going through finalizing everything so I can have any budget for the next project.

Okay. Valerie, any final comments? No, sir. Do you have any final comments?

You and your staff, y'all have all done a great job.

And we appreciate it very much. At this point in time, I'll ask if there are any public comments to be made in this hearing. Anyone? All right.

I'll make a motion to close.

That's exactly what I was going to say. Second. motion on the floor in a second. Discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Okay. The budget hearing is now over, ladies and gentlemen. We will begin the regular city council meeting at 5 p.m.