Council - Regular Meeting

It'll be fine. I'll just crank it up. Yeah, if we have to go to the back, we might have to do that. I went back there. I bet you did. My office is in the back of the building, which is the far furthest away from me. So, this morning I went to the room, the little cubicle is located. Yeah, exactly. I think I think we'll be okay. So the second Yeah, we supposed to we do back or the second but I'm still really the day after

in the 80s right there. I know we've got you a staff member who spends her winters in Florida. Every single one of our staff over the last four days have basically text her going, "Can we stay in your guest room?" [laughter] Yeah.

Yeah. We usually get on like the January, but we had a couple of instanc.

Yeah, but we like the water. Yeah, watered. Very trful. Hey, how are you?

We've been to Arizona before. I will be in Arizona.

No, I've never been. Well, I know that heard. Yes. But that's an I mean if you want to go on vacation you have friends there. No no no. Well I have friends there.

Yeah. So we talk all the time.

She said I had no idea arts and culture. arts and culture. What I was working on, which is what is important because we had no grand.

What? We're going to eat at track. Cold water. Yeah. What' you have? I had a shirt linguini. Yeah. Ken had a kitchen cajun fetchini. There was no no from the pasta. No, no, no. What you want to get is what you want to get is the mahi tacos. You want to get any of the the grilled, you know, pulled pork. The Yeah. The pasta is just bored crap. Yeah. All right. It is 7 o'clock. I will call on that note. And that's on record. So [laughter] sorry Elizabeth.

Um if we can start with a moment of silence please. If we can stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Secretingo, if you'll take roll call first, please. Council member William preser here. Davis here. Branch here.

And Mary here. Do I have a motion to approve of the agenda? So moved. Support. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Public comment. If there's anybody in the gallery that would like to stand and address council in regards to an agenda item, you may do so at this time. Just come forth, give us your name, address, and three minutes is yours. Seeing no movement. Do I have a motion to approve of the consent calendar items? So move support

in your agenda. We have the December 1st study session and regular session regular session minutes. Any questions? All in favor say I. I opposed. Do I have a motion to approve of the attorney's agreement? So moved. support forward.

Um, so this is this basically the same retainer agreement that uh council has approved for the last 14 years. So the only modification is um obviously is the effective date and the annual retainers were increased to 115,000 from the 110 from the prior agreement. Effective date is January 1st 26 to coincide with movement. Happy to answer any questions. Any questions for attorneys? City clerk. Council member Williams. Yes. Green. Yes. Ross, yes. Davis, yes. Friend,

yes. And mayor, yes. Do I have a motion to approve a resolution 202520 R26 budget? Shapor the manager.

Yes. Madame mayor, members of council in our audience tonight. Um we have a resolution as required by charter. It's resolution 2025-20. This is an annual resolution for council to consider the final adoption of the fiscal year budget for 20 uh six 2026 I should say. Uh we've had several public hearings held on this. Uh in your u agenda packet is a breakdown of the fee schedules along with the different funds that this would be which would take effect upon adoption. The administration welcomes any questions or comments you have and we ask council to endorse the adoption of this resolution as presented.

Do we have any questions for our city manager? Council member Reed, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Williams, yes. And Mary, yes. Do I have a motion to approve resolution 202521 to amend our 25 budget? So move. Support. Shannon.

Yes. Again, madame mayor. um as required every year as we close out our fiscal year which will be on December 31st we realign the accounts um to make them balance and so we've uh created a uh budget revision and by resolution that is also required for your review and approval any major um revisions that were going to be made.

This has been an unusual year, mayor. I wouldn't say um unusual, but as you know, with all the construction that has taken place um and the elevator and a few other things, um those expenses have shown up. So, we have had to make adjustments. Um but fortunately we have had cash reserve that has more than been able to take care of those. So again it's a balanced budget we're ending the fiscal year with. So again I welcome any questions or comments. Counciloman Davis.

Yes. Um just for clarification and you might have already gone as I was reading through the special uh revenue funds and I you can see revenue appropriations and net and all of the net I mean I see there's a net that has not been used so to speak right and so a $431,597 total so Is that going back into the general fund or what happens to that money?

Any any of these special revenue funds where the money was will be returned back into those funds as a cash balance moving forward into the next fiscal year. So, anything like for example on major street if there's a cash balance at the as of December 31st that'll move back into the major street fund. Okay. I was concerned because we have a lot of questions regarding recreation fund the recreation fund. So that too will move back into recreation.

Um recreation is a general fund item. So it goes back into the actual general front, not necessarily under recreation, but we will because there's ample funds, the administration doesn't see many changes um in the dollar amounts. What we do see is we will apply probably the same process as what we did last year where the how would you say it the not the individuals but the groups who receive an appropriation from us what will end up happening is we ask them to apply we want to know what the turnout in the previous fiscal year was what kind of participation did they have and that's what we use to gauge whether or not we should give them more money. So,

but the application process will be in place. Yes. Any other questions?

Did you have a question? Yes. Yes. Yes. William, yes. Yes. Future agenda items. So order of agenda items. There was a title that Colin gave discussion on council with the order of the agenda. Okay.

Anything else? celebration of my birthday as an agenda item. Well, January 5th, [laughter] that's next city council meeting. Or are we going to have another one for the budget? Two for them. How do we celebrate that? Do we get agendas for the stone tablets like when Andy started? Wow. Provide. [laughter] I thought that too, but said that last year only did one. Oh, okay.

Usually when we have by ordinance, there's two readings. By resolution, there's usually one. Okay. Okay. Cool. Fantastic. All right. Anything else? Public comment. If there's anybody in the gallery that would like to stand and address council, you may do so at this time. Right. Do we have a city manager report? Wow.

Uh yes. According to um our DPW um director Kurt, the anticipated revenue or not revenue, the elevator completion should be somewhere around December 18th. Uhu. Um so as you know we were very fortunate to have this building um for access. We also had the Lingington Center as access. Um the mayor and I will be meeting um in short term to talk about other meetings that we might want to have to accommodate the public. And so what's that? Meeting spaces.

Yes. Meeting space. What

meetings? Okay. Needing spaces, I'm sorry. Um, so we are looking to align ourselves so we can have accessibility for the public and we want to welcome the public to attend all of our meetings. We think that's a good thing. So, that's about all I have. Again, we had a water bean break um the other night. And just for the public, I I mean to explain this, the freeze thaw in the traffic is what drives frost into the ground. Um the ground loses it its elasticity. When we have frost in the ground, the mo the ground moves like this, thus breaking water means. And so we want to be wary that and allow uh encourage our citizens that when they see pools of water that they should give us a call immediately so we can respond in case it is a water main break. Um we would be grateful to do that. Um we're currently at about 9% with the water meters installed. Um Jason and his crew are making good headway and I know that Jason is very anxious to complete this project. Um so we can improve the way we serve our citizens and hopefully going to a monthly billing cycle will be a great help to our citizens. So that's about all I have for right now. Mayor.

Right. Council member Kennets, Councilman Frost. Hey, mayor. Uh, just want to say one thank you to Miss Reed uh and everyone else who uh put together the uh the city workers lunchon on Friday. I was able to swing in briefly. It was wonderful. It's great to see everyone. Uh what one of the cool things to uh to have every year for our hardworking city employees. Uh so that was really great to see and what a year it has been for us and um what a a great year for our community I think overall and I want to thank our community me members particularly precinct 4 where a lot of uh like barriian street baroque street where a lot of our road work has been going on uh they've been uh uh for the most part really great about the the work being done and I think they're all uh much happier now we've got a lot to be grateful for. Uh I'm certainly grateful for all of you and the community that we're in. We have a great community here in Albian. And I wish everyone happy holidays, merry Christmas, and a happy new year.

Thanks.

Um any other council member comments? Yeah, I I think uh there were about 30 at least 30 employees that were in attendance last uh last Friday and seemed and the food was delicious. Thank you to the cook [laughter] or the cooks. Uh but it seemed like the uh the staff really enjoyed, you know, just being away from their work site and kind of just having a relaxing and uh enjoyable feast. And I don't know what did the um that the the gift cards were they all given out and did you distribute them all of they will be by Wednesday because when I check back to where the ones were they're still not going to be able to do so I notified them then that we would be purchasing them from another place. I had to go to the eye doctor this morning, so I didn't get it done, but it will be done tomorrow so that they can put up my appointments.

I would also like to thank Cullen uh for the the b the the turkeys and I'm a little late, but in your card uh the recipient uh wrote a thank you note, you know, regarding her appreciation for uh the donation. So that that worked out really well. is a new person to the Albian community I think with three children and so it worked out really well for her. Oh, good. So glad.

So for those um that are unaware or maybe listening online, uh Councilwoman Reed every year graciously cuts a fabulous lunch for our city employees. Um and like it was said, the food was phenomenal. It's always phenomenal when Mrs. Reed cooks. [laughter] Um, the employees were very appreciative. Um, and it's very much, you know, it gives them a sense of um, appreciation that you take the time, energy, and effort to say thank you. Um, I think most of us were in attendance. you know, mayor become French works out of town, couldn't be there, but the rest of us were also there to express our gratitude for our city employees. Um, because like I said last Friday, it is a thankless job. There are so many things that our men and women do that go unseen that make our city great. There are so many things that they do that I personally would not want to do myself. Um, when our city manager talked about having a water mane break, there was a water mane break across the street from me and it was below zero with windchill on Sunday morning when they were out at 7:30 a.m. and they did not finish working until about 5:00 p.m. That is a long day in the frigid cold temps. But they do that every time something big happens in our community. they go out there and they do the work regardless. So, anybody who's listening, if you see a city employee, please show them your gratitude because like I said, we are small in staff.

We really are small in staff and we still have so much of the community that we still have to service. So, I just want to take this time, you know, with the holidays coming to say how much I appreciate them, what they do. Um, and I hope that they all have a very merry Christmas and happy holidays. Um, happy Quanza as well that started yesterday. Not Quanza, Hanukkah that started yesterday. And then Quanza starts on the 26th. So for our residents, however you celebrate, may you all celebrate safely and that we will be back in January to do this all over again.

Anything else, folks? Do I have a motion to um Yeah. Yeah. I'm so used to sitting. Do I have a motion to excuse Councilman uh Stewart? Motion to excuse Councilman Stewart. Support. All in favor say I. I. I. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? So move. Support. All in favor say I. I meeting adjourned 7:18 p.m.