City Council - Regular Meeting

Yep. I will go ahead and call to order our May 14th city council meeting for the city of Long View. Uh always excited to have people in chambers tonight and glad you guys are enjoying talking and having a good time. So, we're we're glad you're here. Uh the Hey, Ray. The first thing we will do is our prayer and pledge. And I think we have some Laterno University aviation students. Are you guys Kyler, Nathan, or Jaden? Uh that's us.

First two. Excellent. And I believe that your class recently completed a Connect Long View project for us in District 4, and we are very grateful for all of your hard work. That's really awesome. Yeah. And um so they're going to help us with a prayer and pledge tonight. So you guys will please stand. That's all we please pray with me. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this evening um this beautiful Thursday. We ask that you be with us in this day. We know that we do not deserve this day and that you died on the cross for our sins and that's something that we do not deserve. We don't deserve to be here, but God, we thank you for that. We ask that you be with the people here um and today's agenda as we meet and discuss the the future of our city and the the benefits to our city to come. We ask that you help the people here to discuss what we can do to honor you and to honor this city. Um that we'd all speak with um with love and of a sound mind, God, as we seek to honor you together here. We thank you um for everything you did for us. We love you and we praise you. In your name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Now for the pledge. I pledge allegiance 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. Thank you guys. Um Kyler and Nathan, are you guys seniors or not seniors? Fresh graduates. We just graduated. Fresh graduates. What are we going to do now? Latero graduates. We're going to instruct at Laterno. Instruct at Avi instructors. Correct. Okay, cool. So, you're going to stay in Long View? We hope so. Yes. Yeah. Excellent. Where did you come from before LNRO? Southern California. I came from Oklahoma City. Wonderful. Well, we're so glad to have you. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you for having us.

Yeah. Thank you guys so much for being here. That's wonderful. Um the next item I have will be our oath of office, a presentation of oath of office to council member elect 4, Angie Sheepard, our city secretary. Come on up. And I know the newest dad family is here. Come on up, guys. What? Um, I don't have any cards, but I will remind. Yep. Sorry. Thank you. Yep. It's okay.

Welcome. I'm glad y'all are here with me. Thank you. Right. If you'll raise your right hand and repeat after me. I state your name. John Newstead. Do hereby solemnly swear. I do. Oh, I I need to say the whole thing. I do by solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute that I will faithfully execute the duties of the office the duties of the office of city council of city council of the city of Long View of the city of Long View in the state of Texas in the state of Texas and will and will to the best of my ability to the best of my ability preserve preserve protect and defend protect and defend the Constitution and laws the Constitution and laws of the United States of the United States and of this state and of this state. So help me God. So help me God. Congratulations. Thank you.

Good job, guys. Did they get sworn in this time also? I couldn't tell. Do Okay. Yeah. Three years ago when John got sworn in, all of his pictures had Vivian and Talon also being sworn in, which is pretty fantastic. So, lots of good Yes. Lots of good leadership happening. I skipped citizen comment, but I do not have any speaker cards. I only have speaker cards for specific items. Are there any speakers that would like to make a citizen comment and fill out a card afterwards? Seeing none, I will move on to our first presentation, which is a discussion regarding the city's market pay plan and preliminary findings with Matt Weatherly. Thank you for being here, Matt. I will turn it over to you.

My pleasure, Madame Mayor, members of council. Thank you for the opportunity to visit again. Um last month we kind of shared some preliminary findings. So we want to bring forth um and kind of wrap in some findings and recommendations as you work towards kind of your budget season. So I've got some highlights as well as a little bit of notes on methodology really for the benefit of the audience you and the general public as well in terms of how we come about our findings and our recommendations and what that might mean uh as you consider your budget cycle. Quick reminder, uh we have performed now a salary survey, uh gathering data from approved cities to establish an understanding of what the going rate, the market rate is for all of our job descriptions. Uh really intended to be a datadriven exercise that allows for kind of objective consideration around ultimately a market policy or a market philosophy. So if we react, we've reacted to that data. Uh we have proposed updated pay ranges for each position that basically realign the city's salary ranges and each job description to a consistent market relationship. And then we want to introduce uh the possibility of some policy language that would provide some staff guidance on a going basis uh for the implementation and for the ongoing maintenance um of the city's salary plans, salary tables, and salary structures. We started in December uh with a conversation about identifying I'll call them peer cities but effectively these are agencies that uh offer jobs like ours for the purposes of comparison. We consider their general fund their uh staff sizes uh their respective cost of living uh their proximity to major metropolitan areas. It did yield data for just about 300 of Long View's job descriptions. Um the civilian job classifications that I shared, you know, kind of last month

were the pay table for civilians is probably the furthest behind. Uh that pay table and those pay ranges have not moved through inflation in a similar fashion that maybe the police and fire pays have. Uh but we do have, you know, pretty good data that at least supports that the majority of our civilian positions are a little bit low, if not considerably low in spots. Uh those include a lot of our entry level positions, so laborers, uh maintenance workers, our business support and clerical positions. Uh and I'll share a few more kind of data points as we go. Um good news, I think, you know, is historically um you know, this body and the city has attempted to really keep up with Tyler specifically to police and fire. And when I compare to these cities, um Tyler has a fairly aggressive, you know, market mindset. And so trying to keep up with them either accidentally or on purpose puts you in line, you know, with the average of these 14 comparators when we do expand out that survey list. Um so a little bit of good news there. Um and we'll talk a little bit more or at least staff will during budget season about kind of the the FY27 planning and beyond. Survey examples. We had shared a couple last month. Um I brought this one in, you know, just for the sake of showing our work. You have about 20 maintenance workers on your payroll file. Uh the majority of them are pretty low in their pay range. And then it is an example of a pay range that is a little bit low if not quite a bit low. I'm going to use plus or minus 5% to define my cutoff as being competitive or not. As I mentioned, about 80% of those jobs that we have surveyed show up more than 5% behind market. It is a rangeto- range kind of paper-to- paper exercise to begin with until I start showing you the people you part of it. But effectively, we're using the market data to recommend pay ranges for each job classification. We do that typically by department. We

do that also by what I would call job family or career ladder so that we have sound logic if we understand what the going rate or the market rate is for an equipment operator or for a maintenance worker. we can also uh kind of offer perspective on those promotional opportunities. So, we have a senior, we have a lead. Um once we hopefully succeed at getting people into the door, uh I want to be able to develop them. I want to see the city retain those staff and also offer them promotional opportunities as they acquire more skills, more certification, more time in position, uh more freedom and autonomy and ability, you know, to act. So this is just an example on the left hand side. That civilian salary range table historically has been designed for flexibility. It allows us to place jobs onto a pay range that matches up with our market going rates and then also slot any jobs that we might not have as much survey data on, but then also on the right side kind of reinforce those career ladder or promotional opportunities from a worker to a senior to a lead to an equipment operator or a senior and then a crew leader. when I compare salaries to these pay ranges, that's how we're going to arrive at some of our initial fiscal impact. So, as I mentioned, um, out of our 20 maintenance workers, the average salary is about 33K and we're proposing a minimum of 36K. So, there are maintenance workers that will fall below the minimum of the range that we are proposing. When I look across all of the payroll and use that kind of illustration that's on the screen now to describe what I'm talking about for a pay range, the majority of our civilian employees are only a couple of percentage points above the minimum. As I mentioned, I have people below the minimum. I certainly have some people that are in better shape. Uh but on average our civilian workforce has been with us in their job about four years but they are only a couple of percent

above the pay range that we are proposing. I want to ensure that we don't cause compression. What can occur and just sticking with the maintenance worker example is if I have a maintenance worker that's currently making 35k and he's been with the city for four years and I have a maintenance worker that's making 33k and he started with the city in the last 6 months or year. when we propose that new minimum and place them onto the plan periodically or at least momentarily I would say that four-year employee and that newer hire are both sitting at the minimum of that pay range. I don't love that. I'm going to call that compression between maybe a new hire and a little bit more of a journey level employee. So what we're pondering in our budget proposal would be to move that for example four-year employee a little bit further into the pay range to prevent that compression with a new hire. I also want to really say I want to pay that four-year employee a lot closer to market than we currently are. So, there's room there for adjustment and correction. When I look across all of the funds, it's about a $2 million price tag. About half of that is general fund, half is spread out across those other enterprise funds. But our initial cost estimate results in uh a couple of notes here. There are about 500 civilian employees on the payroll file currently. About a hundred of them would not see an adjustment in reaction to the study. Okay? So they are paid closer to market than 400 of their counterparts. So 400 out of the 500 civilian employees on the payroll file will see some type of salary adjustment as a result of market correction or as a result of market study. Now I'm going to throw a few more numbers at you. Out of those 500, about 300 of your civilian employees are currently below $25 an hour. That group is going to see on average about a 10% salary adjustment. Now, that's as low as

three, but it's as high as 15 or 16%. So, you know, that average is always a little bit dangerous one to throw out. But what I want to illustrate is those individuals that are above $25 an hour, that adjustment is closer to six or seven percent. Okay? So the majority of the spend out of the 400 that are going to see a market correction are those individuals that are at the bottom and kind of lower area of our pay range and of our pay structure. So our more entry level workforce where we do have a lot of employees providing direct service, we could have 10 people with the same job description or 20 people with the same job description, those are included in these adjustments. And especially for those folks that are a little bit lower compared to market, we want to see those pay tables, civilian and public safety, adjusted on a regular basis. So in the future, what we're working towards here would be either some policy language or an opportunity for staff to have regular direction to provide those periodic and appropriate salary adjustments to each pay table. Uh adopt and align at average of market. So, in my language, it's 100% a market. Meaning, we're going to have out of those 14 cities, we're going to have seven that pay a little bit more than us and seven that pay a little bit less. But I want to try and see you pick a spot in a sweet spot kind of way if we can sustain being at market average or at 100% of the market. The purpose of that is pretty obvious. Now, I've got some stats if we get there, but at any given time over the course of the last 6 months, you've had 50 to 60 vacancies in civilian payroll. Okay, that's pretty significant. We're at about a 20% or more turnover rate for those civilian employees. So, I'm looking over long-term now to see us react to market and see that pay off in terms of vacancies, in terms of being able to fill vacant jobs and reducing that turnover. All right. So, hold me to it, but let's talk about it again in another

two to five years and say, is that something that was one of our triggers or one of our contributors towards our higher vacancy rate and our higher turnover rate globally? I always want to be careful here because we are sending a value statement to the workforce that we want to pay a competitive but obviously sustainable and affordable wage. um not propose you know regular tax adjustments just to you know accomplish what I'm proposing doing this within a sustainable budget model but we want to be fair obviously we want the salary plan to be motivating you know to the workforce and to employees and then periodically we'll make those adjustments either to the pay table or bringing in market data to be more targeted. You can always do sampling. Your staff does an amazing job in the off years of studying what's going on, especially when there are vacancies that are becoming hard to fill. They gather data. They study where jobs belong on the pay structure. They reach out to us, you know, and we study those and even those off years when you're not seeing me, you know, this regularly. So, you may periodically perform salary surveys as I mentioned or survey sampling. That can be us, that can be internal, you know, you're not married to us. But for those years where independent analysis has not performed I think over time what has occurred is that civilian pay table has not moved right and therefore those jobs have not really moved compared to market markets moved quite a bit. Certainly what you have spent on salaries the last 5 years really prevents my number from being even larger you know. So those adjustments that were in reaction to inflation, especially maybe 23 24 were some more significant salary adjustments. That was a spend and that was what was occurring in the market. But we're trying to get into maintenance mode here. But I want to see at any time when it is appropriate the salary range tables be moved with consideration for inflation, any other market factors, certainly your your budget capacity to do so. So I'll leave you with this and

then anticipate any questions. Nevada mayor. Um, with just some sample policy language, it would be the policy of the city to place its salary range assignments at 100% of the market rate and adjust tables for inflation and market when fiscally feasible or financially feasible. Okay, I will pause there. That was a lot. Um, what questions might I be able to answer?

Thank you, Matt. I'm sure we have some questions. I want to make one comment real quick. Um, I believe everybody on council has had a chance to meet with you individually and ask questions, too. So, just so people watching know, we are we are up to speed also on what you've presented. Um, a couple of things that you mentioned that I do want to point out because I I like talking about them and uh when Rand presented the budget to us this last year, we talked about retention a lot and the need to do a better job for our lower earning uh wage employees and how to retain them past that four years, not have those vacancies. Um, and then so I appreciate that you've mentioned a career ladder in that because I believe that was part of a retention conversation that we had. So not just adjusting pay, but also to keep them tenured so that we keep them for a longer time period. Um, and then that saves us money on training and all sorts of other wonderful things. Um, but I think you mentioned several things that we've talked about up here, lower wage earners, retention, and providing some sort of structure that will go past us just being here, but in the future as a system. So, um, thank you. That's I don't have a question. I was just a comment, but okay. Questions?

Thank you, mayor. Comments? I see Derrick's hand. Well, I do, Matt. Like like the mayor said, I appreciate the time you spent with all of us. I know that was uh in the detail and the preparation on this is I think it's a impressive plan. Can you just a couple questions on you said that the turnover rate and like Christian just mentioned that's the goal is to make sure we uh keep good people, take care of our people. Um that 20% turnover rate. How does that compare to the other comparison cities? Is that norm how's that is that typical? How are we higher than them?

That's higher than than it than it has been with the exception. the exception being 21 and 22 kind of postcoid there was a lot of moving around um there was a lot of uh movement in the workforce where it was I don't want to say just promp employee but they were they were kind of bullying the employers in those conversations around well I want to work from home and I want to work 312's or I want to work four days a week not five or that kind of thing and in some instances those cities were able to accommodate that that's really really difficult to do in a local government setting given the services being provided the boots on the ground, you know, the interaction that you have, you know, with your citizenry. What I see right now is about 12 to 15% turnover um out in the market. And that's just kind of from interacting with about a hundred different cities maybe over the last couple of months as we gather their salary data, we gather their benefits data, we kind of engage them, not just for your survey, but some of the other surveys that we're doing, you know, around. So, yeah, we have a little bit higher number, you know, here. Um, and that's always a combination, I think, of the pay. You know, I I would certainly put that there. Um, we talked a little bit last time, too, about the specialized nature of a lot of your positions. You're full service city. You have a lot going on just in utilities and enterprise fund, right? Not all of the cities have solid waste, sanitation, treatment plants, certified utility operators, and those are very, very specialized. And I bring those up simply because they're in my bucket. you know, positions that need market correction,

but some of that market correction might not fix it all just because of a scarcity, you know, I think of that skill set. So, it could be any combination, you know, of things, but historically, I think these these jobs have pinged a little bit low. Well, the other combination I appreciate too is that as you detailed that earlier that there's there's a progression ladder, so there's opportunity for advancement. You did did I hear it right? You said that we got about we have 400 400 employees that make below $25 an hour probably about 300

300 and then you cuz I missed exactly what did you say what what can we cuz that's obviously we want to take care of you mentioned the lowest especially on our scale the maintenance people the administrative staff the utilities what's the uh you said I think I I missed it but the percentage you expect that for those people the 300 300 people that were making less than 25 how much were you It's as low as three because there are some folks that are pretty close to market, you know, but there's there's some zeros in there, right? So, a hundred of the 500 are are closer to market or they're at market, you know, for their position. Um, but out of those um folks that are below $25 an hour, they're going to see anywhere about an average of 10 or 11. Okay,

there's a high there's a high number there, too. There's some 15s and 16s, you know, in there. We saw that, you know, some of those illustrations in my market examples, you know, this month and last month, too. But um you know it'll depend on the job that you're in you know too. So obviously if I have the employees attention it's it's not everybody's getting 10 you know or everybody's getting seven. It's some might need four some might need 14. Yeah. Well I do appreciate the detail. The last part of this was use that the word word compression and I do as you think about turnover a lot of a lot of it's culture

and as we're trying to be competitive and things change with our existing people not paying them like at a point where the the compression causes the culture to suffer because they're making the same amount as a new employee. Sure. That's been So how do you just how do you you mentioned the ways to correct it. How do you correct it?

Yeah, on this illustration, you know, I'm going to try and move a seven-year employee uh closer to midpoint, right? So, I'm really ascribing a position in this salary range illustration for each employee commensurate with their time and position. And so, if I'm zero to one years, I'm okay, you know, pretty close to the minimum. But if I'm getting into that five to seven year range and you're not at midpoint yet, I need to get them moving. And that's what generates you the fiscal impact.

That's the thing though that's kind of is that a deterrent for us as we we establish a budget allowing that those especially those 300 at the bottom and making sure they don't have that compression that how how much of a strain does that put on us overall as far as salaries because that's going to you know that's the thing that that's concerning. I mean, when you typically do that, is that is that initially to try to keep the compression that you have maybe a, you know, you have maybe a year or two that you're going to be over like over budget for nor like to catch up. How does how does that usually work?

Yeah. I think the idea behind some of the flexible policy language, you know, is to afford you a view at what the pay plan looks like and then what payroll looks like. Yeah. I want to see, you know, some movement of those individuals through this range. So in the future, yeah, we're not talking about moving the whole range by large leaps and bounds, but the goal would be keep people moving and moving faster than the salary range itself. So, in any given year, if you ponder a cola, let's call it a cola or whatever you might want to call it, and it's 2% or it's 4% or, you know, you've done as high as 6%, you know, I think recently, um, don't do all of that to the scale because that I think is what I'm waiting for the shoe to drop is in reaction to 2023, we had some clients that moved their entire scales like 15 to 20%. Wow.

I'm like, talk to me about 2030. Like, is that still required in 2030 and can we sustain it? So, I'd much rather get us on a path where we're right in the middle, right? We're seeking the average of the market or 100% of market average for our scale. And when we can afford it, we can move people between these goalposts that I've put up, but the goalposts aren't moving so fast that it gets away from us from an affordability standpoint. Yeah. And so, as affordability, I do remember now our conversation because obviously the biggest portion of our budget is going to be salary benefits. Yep. as a service organization it always

but as we try to take care of our people and cor correct this some of these issues you mentioned to me like the percentage I think there was a a data point about how much the percentage of our budget would this would to get this on scale how it's the the increase in budget was was you had a percentage I believe can you yeah I think on the general fund side it was 1% or just under 1% okay of general fund to to adopt the study recommendations all All right. Thanks, Matt. Appreciate you. Yes, sir.

Um, thank you. Thank you for the information. Um, I just have a couple of questions. So, I wanted you to give an example of the employee ranges that you said would not get any increase versus the employee that would. Yeah, I don't have any with me. In terms of off the top of my head, I believe that you were provided with all of the salary range recommendations so you could see which jobs need to move to a different range

and which ones don't. Um, I don't think in any of my illustrations that I have this evening, there's a quite a bit of movement, you know, in some of these job series. I was looking for maybe one of these jobs to say, hey, it was already in a 54 and it's staying in a 54. You know, that would be an example of a position that surveyed much closer, you know, to market. Uh, but with 80% of the jobs, you know, falling more than 5% behind, we do have quite a bit of movement, you know, on the on the pay table. I apologize that I don't I don't have an opposite example.

Yeah. I I mean because it would be good for the public to know. I mean I I mean I have a kind of ideal of it, but I would like for it to be more of what the public needs to understand about this pay study. And the whole purpose of this is to make make sure that we're getting everybody to market in the best way possible. And that is the goal I think of all of us is to get everybody to market but not also putting a crunch on the taxpayers as well. True. So, I mean, my goal is to make sure that we're doing that because I want to clarify, you did say that police and fire due to what we have been doing and the raises that we have been doing since around what 2023 that we have them at close to market or at market.

Yeah, they're within 1% of market. As we get into the command staff, there's there's some movement there that would be justified. Um, and then we haven't really introduced 2027 yet, right? So, I would say, you know, the world will continue to move. So as you do your budget, we want to consider yeah the appropriateness of are we going to budget for steps for those individuals in their existing plan? Are we applying any further cost of living adjustment to their plan? Knowing that probably over the next 8 months, my survey cities will be doing the same. Right? Even if it's modest, you know, this year, over the next couple of years, I'm looking for that to settle in. So it's not I'm doing five or seven or 10% to my pay table and I'm giving you steps because that's the way the world has moved really since about 2014

has been a a scale big plus a step in the public safety world. So the scale move might be appropriate to do some type of adjustment you know for 2027 which we'll work with staff on. Um but I don't have you know included in here a couple of other elements that I think will be introduced to you for the budget. Okay. And then the next question that I have just um looking at like as far as how we do like promotions with pay increases or whatever, did you factor that in what you were doing and like even creating new employ in new new positions just like the um the one that I just saw that came up for the tourist assistant tourist position or whatever? Tourist assistant. Okay.

So is that included in here? And yeah, I mean I would think so. Yes.

Okay. So, I just like to um look at things like that because I look at the employees that we have and then we create new positions like that and the ones we're trying to get at market and I want to look at those positions and make sure that we're doing the best thing to make sure that hey we're we're focused on the people because at the end of the day the most of these employees they don't want to go anywhere. This is where they want to be. most of the the lower level employees, they live here in Long View and this is where they want to work. So my main goal is as I told you and Maryanne Rollin, everybody everybody in here is to make sure that we we do focus on that and try to create a way that is not just simply the same thing over and over again so that we can sustain it and keep it, you know, because we've done a lot over the past years that I've been here to try to make sure that we do everything for our employees. But I want to make sure that we do something that is very sustainable this time. Because I look at me as an employee at my job, if I get an evaluation and you just evaluate me and then I don't get a raise, but yet my counterpart gets a promotion, it it it kind of looks it doesn't look right. True.

And so that's that's very concerning for me. So I look at things like that as I look at 20 plus employees getting getting um promotions which equals um raises and then I look at these other people that are getting evaluated but not getting raises. So those are the kind of things that I'm looking for in anything that we do moving forward. Great.

Thank you. Yeah, definitely want to stick with the system. And I love I love the police and fire. Will you go back Richard to that um one that shows the retention because I think that's actually really amazing. It's the first time I've seen that. So when you say we have civilian turnover of 23% but we have over the years worked towards fixing pay and culture with police and fire their retention is 7%. And I think that just demonstrates with the type of dedicated attention a system that survives us up here but just addresses what our employees really need um that we're moving in the right direction. So I'm excited. Thank you for that slide and that information. It's a marathon. I mean it doesn't stop. It seems right. I mean, as far as just the number of cities that want to take your qualified people,

you know, so knowing where they are, you know, being able to do a survey periodically, I think is super critical for, you know, at least having your bearings and then deciding, all right, where can we strategically find our sweet spot that allows us to recruit, retain, take all these other factors really that we've talked about, you know, during my visits in terms of those that influence city staff's ability to recruit and retain. Yeah. What what else goes into that that helps us land on some type of policy or philosophy? I think we have great people. We want to keep them. What other questions you guys got? Go ahead, Sydney. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. I'll let you.

Okay. Um, first, um, this is a Get this thing down. All right. This is a question for the city manager and the assistant city manager. I understand from conversation that if this pay plan is adopted, there will be no increases in taxes. Is that correct? That is our intention. Yes, it is. Okay. I want that on record. Thank you. All right. I like the question. All right.

I like the answer. Now, now this 23% turnover in the civilian is terrible. That means every four years literally you have a whole new staff and you can't run our businesses serving the public and you can't serve the public with a 23% turnover. I don't know how we're doing it. I mean, I I absolutely Anyway, that's that's that's just that's that's nobody would try to run a business that way. The 7% police and fire is excellent. We've got to get that 23% down. Um, that's it.

Thanks, Denny. Jody, did you have a question? Yes. Thank you for the conversations. We zoomed in. Hope everything was good in Arizona. Pleasure. But uh u Mr. Connley, he asked one of the questions I had uh but I I've got two really. When you talked about the benefits, how do we compare with benefits with some of these other cities?

Yeah, that you know in maybe in the form of an audit tends to be a wash your staff monitors and are part of some pools I think that share a lot of information on particularly the big ticket items like health insurance contributions for employees for dependent. Oftentimes TMRS is a wash. I'm hearing some rumblings that there are some additional enhancements that some cities might want to take on. Yeah. When it comes to pension contribution and service credits and ongoing cost of living adjustments. And there's even talk of being able to add to the 14 and seven formula. We have very few clients that are in a smaller formula, lesser benefit like as far as what the city contributes, what the employee contributes. All that to say, um, the price of being a municipality, fortunately or unfortunately, starts to ponder and include the price of those benefits. I think historically, cities have, you know, struggled to keep up with the private sector on pay. So, they've attempted to offer, you know, on the benefit side to offset that. Um, we see I think you know ironically here we've got positions that are low that are entry- level jobs and their benefits as a percentage of their total compensation is pretty high.

Right.

Right. You know, as far as if I'm paying for your health insurance and I'm currently paying you $19 an hour, your benefits might cost me another $15 an hour. Right. I mean that's a entirely different equation if I'm talking about a IT manager or a building official or you know something like that has a higher wage and their percentage of total comp is benefits is a little bit lower you know kind of number um but we work with your staff in these off years on some of these items just to make sure that we haven't trailed behind our scope in this particular case was limited to base pay so I can speak to these 14 cities on base pay more than I can on benefits and on total compensation. But your staff is amazing at both the the evaluation, the promotion, the career ladder monitoring when they do create a new job, as well as keeping an eye on other elements of comp. I mean, people love paid time off, right? Some of these other flexible things that you may or may not, you'll be able to offer. Um because periodically we do review your job descriptions. We can do focus groups with employees and they can tell us what they value as well. Um but those benefits as a percentage of total comp are pretty neutral buoyancy as far as city to city at least from what we've seen out of this sample.

Gotcha. Um the other one you know I kind of break things down in my own my mind the 1 to threeyear the the three to five year and five to 10 year. Of course you once you get them past 10 years you kind of got them in a good place invested anyway.

Yes. Exactly. And I I don't know if this will make sense, but I'll try and make it the best I can. So, we've got somebody that comes in entry level. We got somebody who's been here for a while. And of course, when you look at the long term, when we get towards their retirement, their investment and paying into the pension is a lot different than it's going to be. Do you see a lot of them older people um that's got a lot of time invested, do you see them kind of jumping out, going a new route to try and help themselves towards that end? Do you see him kind of hanging in there and saying, "Hey, I'm this far in. Let me go ahead and finish the job."

Yeah. And I don't know. I as I stand here as a 50year-old now, I mean, I've been doing this since I was in my early 20s. I think what people value depends on their age, right? If I have rent and truck payment and diapers, right, the light bulb hasn't come on

on the benefit side, you know, of that ledger. You know, I think there's probably a sweet spot where if I if I'm contributing to the state's public pension for a defined benefit in the long run, at some point I'm going to say, "Oo, this is important. This is a good deal." And now I can't jump to the private because I lose it or it's a fractional amount if I don't stick with the 20 or the 30-year whatever that vesting, you know, kind of scenario looks like. So I feel like it depends. Yeah. But I think to rightsize especially at the turnover discussion and the below 20 or $25 an hour discussion I really want to focus on pay I think for a minute just so that I get that right so I can get them invested. But I'm projecting I think a little bit about some optimism around trying to get them closer to market. You know when I look at things like living wage in Greg County it's up over $22 an hour. Yeah, it's you go through a drive-thru. We just pay more for that drive-thru, but

whoever it is, you know, Bucky's pay plans on their ceiling. God love them as a private organization. Uh, pick a retailer. Yeah, I don't know, you know, kind of what their price points are, but I have a feeling that sometimes that floor gets handed to you in the public sector. You, the school district, the county, you're almost at the mercy of whatever that local living wage is because the private sector hands it to you. Yeah. And sometimes at that pay rate, people are a lot more willing to jump and they don't really care about the benefits. But getting them invested on I think on the pension side, I don't know when that happens. If it's age 30, if it's age 40, if it's age 50,

it didn't bother me when I was 25. Yeah, exactly. But when let's say so uh the question when you're talking about trying to get them to the midpoint or a little better when you got these people who's vested time in you realize they're here is that the ones really we want to kind of slide up a little bit more maybe more so so that as they begin to realize hey this this end thing I really need to pay attention to and we can help them out at the same time kind of realize hey when I do retire I'm going to be all Right. Yeah. No, I think, you know, and tongue and cheek here, I don't think there's anybody that have been here 60 years and they're hiding in a closet and they make up the average of our four years, right?

You know, because everybody else is turning over, but these same people are on the hamster wheel, you know, kind of thing. But we're not taking anybody beyond really midpoint and then suddenly our language is going to start to match up. And that is midpoint is market is average of market is 100% of market. So, in this plan, I'm really only pondering even if you have 10 years in your job, I'm treating you probably the same as a seven-year employee. But initially, if you have seven years in your job, I'm going to treat you differently than if you have one year in your job, right? So, yeah, it kind of is a conservative approach to I will call it midpoint budgeting, right? But I'm really trying to spread people out somewhere between minimum and midpoint. That that starts to at least alleviate some of that compression, but then puts you on a path to say those people are going to keep moving in the range. And they might move faster than the range, which is great, you know, because periodically we're going to measure midpoint against market. Midpoint equals market equals 100% equals average kind of thing. But as long as I keep that up and then I try to maintain that standard of maybe a 5 to sevenyear employee getting closer to midpoint. Now I've started to match up my pay plan, the the external market and my payroll budgeting as far as getting those people into that into that range.

All right. Thank you, Matt. Yeah, thanks for your questions. Appreciate it. I got Derek first. I I just want to make a quick quick comment that I'm really appreciate the time that the conversations these questions that Matt's had and just be it you said something earlier about being reactive. I feel we are taking a proactive approach organizations and our service is about people

and retention of the good people but it's also about people that we represent and I'm just want to clarif I just want to love going on record is we had a we did have Sydney mentioned the manager and assistant manager 1% on the budget with salary no tax rate increase so I really like that point I just wanted to make sure that say it again another question Uh I want to make sure I u I'm a question here on our retirement plan not including the fire department for all others. Now it's a 714 cont 7 7% 14% contribution each year. We mentioned employees that have been here five 10 15 20 years. Is there any cap on the amount of their employee I mean their retent their u pay when they retire? Is there a cap on that or do they continue to pay in? I know they continue to pay in as long as they're employed here. Do they continue to draw more more money or is there a cap on how much they can draw?

You want to understand there so it follows the TMRS methodology and that's per dependent upon the employee. They choose the particular pieces that they want with their program and then it's paid out that way. So it's dependent upon the employee. But if he if you if they is there a cap on on other words if a employee stays 30 years an employee I'm just hypothetically an employee spa stays 20 years does the fellow that stayed 30 years get more money at retirement than the one that stayed 20 years. Yes sir. Yes. Okay. All right. That's my question. The actuarial in fact TMRS I don't know the

they're 96% funded. 96% funded. So, you know, we talk about pensions up here and and that's not the same shape we've always been in, but they're one of the most stable ones. So, they're doing something cash benefit for you staying longer. Absolutely. You got to be fully vested, I think. Would So, is I'm I'm sorry, Matt. This really doesn't But is there a percentage rate per year? And I'm looking at Maryanne, but I know R sitting here as well, like two 2.3% per year. Is there a percentage that goes into TR TRMS that hey once they hit say 20 years of retirement and they work another five five years well they've picked up you know probably close to 12% more

it is within the methodology that in the background of TMRS yes sir is there a percentage number per year I don't know that right off top but it's for every city that way it's based on the funding within the city okay and and and at what point would someone retire and make their full salary. What's the sweet spot? You've told me that before. 33 years is the sweet spot at which you are supposed to make in retirement what you were taking home on the job. Wow. It's pretty good. Yes, it's an awesome benefit if you stick with it. I think 18 and 22 year olds don't get that. I'm sorry. I was there one day. I was there long time ago. About 40 years.

There's a few in here. I don't want them to hear that. my green black thing.

I just want to add to that. Earlier, Sydney mentioned about the uh I think it was a 23% turnover rate that we have. So, a few years ago, us as a council, we made an assertive effort to make sure that fire and PD were competitive and not only competitive throughout the state, but mainly competitive to our neighbors to the west. And I think once we as a council make that same commitment to everyone on this staff, we wouldn't see that turnover. Obviously, no business can run with high turnover because you spend the majority of your time training and then that sweet spot you mentioned actually decreases a lot more. And so as a council, I think as moving forward as a staff, city manager, assistant city manager, you know, being able to make sure we stay competitive throughout the board and mainly we lose people to our neighbors to the west and sometimes smallly to the east. But if we focus on that, which I've always said that and I've always thought that that our competitors and our neighbors to the west are our biggest um ally to look for true

where we stand and that's for everyday neighbors. I mean, I'm sorry for everyday employees. Yeah. I think I would say keep doing what you're doing on police and fire. Sure. Right. We know PD and works, right? We know they work because we intentionally make sure we never want to lose out on that. But I'm saying as a whole, as a city as a whole, to focus on those other areas a little bit more so would be, I think, the advice of the council and the city staff. Very good. Thank you.

Yeah. You know, I just want to add for um one um you mentioned something about valuing employees and and I want everybody to know that we value every employee whether top bottom. Our goal as a council I believe um wholeheartedly is to make sure that our lower level employees get to a point where they can afford the health insurance premiums that we have people that have been here 37 years that are like y'all said fully vested that can retire right now today and still go home and collect the same paycheck. but yet we have an employee that can't even afford the health insurance. And I think that that should be the goal because those are the boots on the grounds. Those are the people that are making the city go round and round every day or whatever and go unnoticed. And so I'm I'm I'm agreeing with um what we're saying here is that we we do I really want us to be creative and to focus on those employees because we have we I mean when you have somebody making $200,000 $143,000 then I have this lower level employee making $37,000. It kind of just like hey those are the ones that I want to see at market. Those are the ones that I want to be able to see, be able to afford health insurance premiums to be able to go to the clinic because right now if you don't get and y'all can correct me if I'm wrong, if you don't get the health insurance, you can't go to the clinic.

Correct? Yes, ma'am. That's true.

So, that's what I'm saying. So, that is exactly what I would like to see happen going forward with these employees and adopting any play plan study or whatever. And that and that's I think that's the most important thing because we do go be above and beyond to make sure that our upper our upper and we value our staff. I've heard many times in conversations that I've had with everybody that make sure you don't devalue the staff. But as a director, as myself as being a director, I've often had to say, "Hey, let me let me take a chill right here because I'm good and think about the employees who are making who doing the work that I can't do because I'm directing them to do that." And so I want to make sure that this council understands that that's what I feel and that's what I want to kind of go towards is to making sure that we're looking at them as employees as a whole or whatever to keep us going.

Yeah, I agree. I think Matt's doing a good job pointing us in that direction. I for the actual next steps. I was going to Oh, I'm sorry. Do you have a comment? Yeah, I was just going to So, a few questions and a comment. Um, so on the question kind of with going to Shannon's point about the job positions because job positions will change. There'll be some changing in that as far as like our current headcount, do we any intent on increasing or on the headcount or staying where we're at? What's the What do y'all see that going? Not that we know of. We're currently going through processes as vacancies come open to make sure that we need to fill all of those positions and we have not filled every position that's come before us currently. So we don't see really an increase in a count in the foreseeable future.

That is not our intention to increase employees. And I just want to confirm it because like the um because when you increase the pay if you increase headcount that of course also then starts throwing the numbers a little differently. The other is the um y'all's numbers like it's the percent of the budget that is labor is like 80 85% 75 75% of the general fund budget of the of the general fund. So 75% of the general fund budget that we do spend is on labor. It is for staff there. And then the last time that we did the pay study was how long ago? 2023 we did one. Oh, we did the that was um that was a smaller one, but then prior to that was 2019 we did general government alone and then we backed up 2017 was fire and 2015 was police.

All right. And then what's like the last time we did something to this level of a pay study? We did do it in 2023, but Okay.

Awesome. And then um going on this like also kind of help explain a little bit. I know like I I do mortgages so I think in so we most of y'all if you have a mortgage there you get a you got a escrow statement recently back in March usually is when they do them and in that statement uh you either usually not happy and so what happens is you get the statement they say that we projected your taxes and your insurance to be this much and your taxes and insurance are now higher and you have a shortfall of this much and not only does your payment go up but then you have to make a catch-up contribution over the next 12 months to get there, right? And so with some some prudent and diligent planning in in advance or better projections would have eliminated the need of the catchup, which makes it easier to do. So this is something where there's going to be a little bit of a catch-up here, but if we get to the, you know, we'll discuss on what target and market pay and all that stuff is, but if we get to where that may be and we set those uh policies and those levels that are there, then we don't have to go through a process where we're having to do the catchup plus paying any cost of uh living allowance or whatever we may use. uh going forward on that. So, I do want to just commend the council, city staff that, you know, last the last quarter of last year, like we've been doing a lot of strategic things because we're and that's a great place for a council to be. We're not here, you know, putting out fires and we're able to think for the long term and to prevent to make where to Shannon's point, the city of Long View sustainable, uh, competitive, and valuing their employees. And so this right here, like we did the fire apparatus, we did the reserves, we did the fuel station, and now we're looking at the pay plan, which uh will hopefully continue to um allow us to do that and prevent us from hopefully playing catch-up going forward. But it's not a one and done. We'll have to continue doing pay studies and everything to make sure that we are uh competitive. Uh to Sydney's point, too, like you know, 25% vacancy. Apparently, that's been ongoing. I don't know what the the

numbers on the years, but at a four-year average time tenure, it's I mean, it's pretty much been there for a little bit of a time at least. And so, um, appreciate all the hard work, Matt. You've been you've been uh wonderful to work with as far as this. And I appreciate your time and commitment and thank the city staff and everybody for their time. I think Thank you. Yeah. I think so. My question Do you have a question? No. Oh, I think my question is on next step. So we're going to not bring this back at the next meeting but so this is discussion only today presentation discussion but so not next meeting but the following meeting we'll be voting on adopting a the pay plan and a policy related to it. Is that accurate? Yes. Okay. And is that policy what you had on a slide at the end? Was that word with staff? Okay. All right. But if you want to word smith it we sure can.

So the next thing we'll be doing is voting. And in voting we are not spending a million dollars but we are instructing them to include it in the budget next year without a property tax raise. Right. Yes. Yeah. Okay. All right. And I think it is the most progressive approach of long-term sustainability by a council that I've seen when in reviewing pay plans. How do we keep it from getting behind? I think that is fantastic. Yes. Very proud of us. Thank you, Matt. Thank you, Matt. Thank you, everybody.

Uh, next item is election item. Consider an ordinance calling a runoff election on June 13th, 2026 to fill the expired term of council member for district number three, Miss Angie Shepard, our city secretary. Mayor, council, and our city manager. Yes, this will be calling for an election for June 13th runoff for district 3. Those two individuals are Brandon Smith and Marina Cooper. The early voting will begin on June 1 through June 5th would be 8 to 5:00 at city hall and at Brotton. On the 8th and the 9th, that's the following Monday and Tuesday, that would be 8:00 in the morning till 7:00 in the evening. And election day would be uh on the 13th and that is at Broton only and from 7 in the morning till 7 in the evening. So that I'd be happy to answer any of your questions.

Excellent. Any questions for Miss Shephard? No, I just want to thank Angie um for listening to me and trying her you and Lily trying both because we did try to get those hours extended because 8 to 5 is hard for people to go vote. But at the end of the day, you know, y'all don't make that decision. So, I want to thank you for your work in that. And with that, I say a motion to approve. Have a motion. Do I have a second? Second. Second. All in favor, please say I.

Any opposed? Election item is approved. Thank you so much. Uh, next up is our consent agenda. What items would you guys like to pull off for consideration? We are removing uh item E and we will bring that back at the next meeting. And I am going to remove uh item F because I have a citizen comment on that. Any other items that we would like to remove for discussion, questions, comments? No. C and D. C and D. Got it. And I

and I. Yes, sir. Let's do any others. Let's do C first and D. Mr. Dietrich Johnson, come on down. Uh C is consider a resolution awarding a contract da da to Northeast Texas Habitat for Humanity for CDBG funds. Do we have a specific question?

Yeah, I would just I just like some information. I think this is awesome um opportunity for residential homes in low to moderate income areas and that just kind of get Norththeast Texas Habitat for Man. if you could just kind of give an explanation of kind of the plan with that and where the what what what what might transpire as far as where they'll be located and how that works.

Well, these are the contracts that we provide annually to those groups and entities that help us expand the community development block grant funds and all of the funds are supposed to be directed or directed to the directed at the target audience of low to moderate income individuals in this case. in uh item C that is to our Habitat for Humanity. They we provide them some of the CDBG funds and that helps leverage with some of the homes that they build um throughout the qualified areas within our community. And with D, it's the same thing. They have some we assist with funds with some of their emergency repair efforts. Sometimes like during the summertime, uh someone's air condition may go out and they can't afford that. So that's considered an emergency repair. Someone may have fallen and they're they're in a wheelchair and they need a ramp. So that's considered an emergency repair and they help us expend those funds through their organizations.

So if one of if any of our constituents needed that then they would who do they who would they would they contact? Northeast Texas Habitat for Humanity directly. Yes. All right. appreciate that service. Oh, sure. Absolutely. Good. And just a follow-up question. So, I just want to make sure so on those funds, it's not that's just some of the funds that y'all direct to the Habitat for Humanity, but there there is a way for the public also to access those access those same funds. Correct. Yes. Like we shared about two weeks ago, we have some in-house programs that they can contact us directly to see if we can assist with um any of those needs. Thank you. Sure. Do you have a question? Um, I'm not sure I'm correct here, but nitri. Yes.

On the homes that Habitat for Humanity builds, my understanding is the people that buy those homes do not pay uh interest. They only they only pay on the principal. So they that makes their payments considerably lower than what they would be otherwise. Yes, that is the absolute goal is to try to have the projects and programs that these funds are for is that homes are attainable. And so in terms of being attainable, as he was talking earlier, sometimes it's taxes, sometimes it's um location in in a few in a few instances, but over the years, you know, the the goal is to try to create a mortgage that they can afford and maintain because a home is more than just the mortgage. So

yeah, I'll kind of plug in for Lean real quick because we were just there. Uh so we just listen to one me was part of this uh deal but it was they had to like do like 200 hour community hours basically on the build um or and some of that towards the build 200 community hours and then it's uh they do have to put I believe 1% down payment there is no interest and the payment is not to exceed 30% or so of their uh which is the n national average contract. Keeps it well keeps it affordable in that in that way for them. Yes. Awesome. And then on the bill, it's also 200 hours on the bill, but they also have to volunteer to help another um family. 200. That's cool. Okay.

And and that's a goal across the line for everybody. You really shouldn't expend more than 30% of your income or mortgage. Good advice. Thank you, D. All right.

Uh next item is F. And this one is mine. consider a resolution electing and appointing council member Shannon Moore uh district 2 representative as our new mayor proim. She's already stepping into that role. Mayor prom is the role. Uh she would cover the meeting if I were not here. She would run the agenda and she stands in for me at public events and other things. I do have a speaker card on this one from Miss Chenra Shaw who wanted to come up and make a comment on this item. Hello, council. Thank you, Madame Mayor, and all council members that are present. We just wanted to take a moment to congratulate you for um all of your hard work. Um any unspoken battles we never see. We just see your smiling face. So, congratulations to you in reference to that. Um and on behalf of the NAACP, we just wanted to give you your flowers now.

A I love them. Um, just again to recognize you for all of your hard work and consideration for district 2. Well, that's very celebrating your birthday, TOO. Come on. Bring on up here. Okay. But yeah, this want to take a picture? Yeah, sure. You guys come on up here and take a picture. I'm going to put myself in this photo. I knew she said

all All right.

Good job. That was very sweet. Thank you guys. Uh I think the ne Do you want to say anything, Shan?

Um I guess I can. Um first of all, thank you. And that's what the first set of fly was for. I guess everybody is reading the agenda before they come up here. Um, I just really honestly want to thank everyone and even the city, you know, for the support that they give me because, you know, I I really felt like this um first almost 3 years was almost like a hazing. But um um I survived it and um e even with that, you know, the things that I'm able to do, the difference that I'm able to make in my community and in Long View, you know, is it's very important to me. So, I'm I'm very grateful and I'm very thankful for that. So, I'm going to stop before I cry cuz I am a crier. But anyway, thank y'all. Good job. Thank you for being willing to do it. I appreciate it. Uh, next one is I that is Chief Greg Grimes. Consider a resolution authorizing the city manager to sign an updatedou with Texas Department of Emergency Management. I'll stop there. Go ahead, Chief.

And a lot of acronyms.

Yes. Yep. So tonight we're requesting a continuence u of a partnership with the Texas Department of Emergency Management and the T-MAT. Um those are the the uh parent organizations that support TIFmas uh which is our Texas intrastate fire and mutual aid system. Um our EMTF emergency medical task force and our incident management team. So these state agencies that request help in large disasters. our teams go out uh assist with those uh get a ton of experience in disasters in somebody else's backyard. So when it happens to come to us uh whenever it does hopefully it doesn't but when it does then we have very wellprepared responders uh that have seen it and done it before uh and with that uh it is a large expense but it is reimbursed uh by the state uh and then sometimes we even go to the federal level we go uh to California for the wildfires we've been there before. So, uh, that that's really what we're requesting is just an updatedou and the signature to do that.

Okay. Super. And I'd ask I'd ask Chief Grimes if he would come up and explain that cuz I think it's great for people to hear, you know, we're getting valuable experience when we go. But our equipment, our men, we're reimbursed for that. And if something should ever happen in Long View,

they're going to send help whether it's on the state or federal level to help us out. and it's not going to come out of our pockets. So, it's a great thing. And like I said, our experience uh our recent the tower rescue, I mean, that that was unique. I I promise you without knowing that there's somebody else who's paying attention and asking questions about some of what we went through and uh the experience that we gain when we're out working, it's it's vital to our success here. So, I just wanted him to kind of come up and say it again so that people hear it and understand it. Chief Grimes, I think you guys do a great job. Absolutely. Thank you.

Yes. Thank you very much. Uh that is the end of our consent agenda. Can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda with the removal of item E which will come back next meeting? Motion to approve and a second. Second. All in favor, please say I. Any opposed? Consent agenda is approved. Thank you so much. We will move on to zoning items. Zoning item A, a public hearing will be held to consider application Z2608 filed by the city of Long View requesting a reszone with Miss Angela Choy, our city planner.

Thank you, mayor, members of council, and Mr. McI. Uh so the city of Long View staff is requesting to reszone the property seen here in the zoning map uh from two family 3 which is duplex zoning uh to single family 6 zoning district located along east Fleming Street and the south side of Kinwood Lane east of Pineree Road and west of Loop 281. currently uh some of the lots in the area do not meet the requirements um for this uh dup duplex zoning district. Also, most of the structures are not all the actually all of the structures within this area are actually single family homes that are located within this uh this area. We've had some developers uh want to build some single family homes in this area as well. Um, at the planning and zoning commission meeting, there was a property owner that did attend the meeting and request to withdraw his lot from this request. So, staff did withdraw that lot from the request. It is located on Kinwood. You can see it on the map at Pinereee and Kenwood right next to the vacant commercial property. There is a lot that we removed from this request. Uh staff finds that the proposed zoning change is consistent with our future land use map and surrounding uses. Planning and zoning commission along with staff recommends approval of this request. I'd be happy to answer any questions at this time.

Any questions for Miss Troy? Derek, I don't have any questions. I was really excited about this opportunity for uh district one and that that area and love to see uh some beautiful homes be u established in that neighborhood. Thank you. Great. This item requires a public hearing which I will open at this time. I do not have any speaker cards. Is there anyone that would like to speak on this item? Seeing none, I will close the public hearing. Do I have a motion? Motion to approve. Second. And a second. All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Zoning item is approved. We'll move on to zoning item B. Public hearing will be held to consider application M2602, an ordinance amending article B, section 303 of the UDC. Miss Angela Choy.

Uh, thank you. So staff has been approached to evaluate an amendment to our unified development code allowing outdoor display storage and sales within light commercial zoning district. Uh currently within our UDC uh this use is restricted to heavy commercial zoning district and light and heavy industrial zoning districts. This proposed change would allow this use within light commercial zoning district subject to an approval of a specific use permit by planning and zoning commission and city council. uh outdoor storage uh outdoor display, storage and sales is defined within our UDC as the placement of goods, inventory, raw materials, merchandise, vehicles or other items outdoors that extends beyond regular business hours. Uh these materials must be screened from the public. Um there are some exceptions to the screening requirements within the UDC. Uh these include items like automobiles, uh vehicles, boats, um Christmas trees, nursery plants, uh seasonal lawn and garden supplies, uh as well as construction materials. Uh looking at this permitted chart seen here on the screen, uh there are uses that are allowed within like commercial zoning district that typically have outdoor display storage and sales. These uses include building materials sales and feed stores. Uh this proposed amendment in the use chart would allow this use with a specific use permit within light commercial zoning district. By requiring a specific use permit in this zoning district, the city ensures on a case-bycase evaluation of each request. This process allows the

planning and zoning commission along with city council determine if this is a harmonious and sub uh harmonious with surrounding properties, mitigates impacts, and allows for public input. The planning and zoning commission along with staff recommends approval of this request. I'd be happy to answer any questions at this time. There any questions for Miss Troy? No, I'd like to make a comment. I believe Angel and I spoke about this before. May been Michael. I apologize, but this particular area was actually divided in half the way it was set up with heavy zoning or light commercial uh kind of straight through the parking lot. Am I

Yeah. So, that's the next case. Um, yes, that property has heavy commercial zoning as well as light commercial zoning. Yes, sir. So, it it didn't really make sense when you look at it, but uh Yes, sir. I'm good. Okay. Uh, this item does require a public hearing, which I will open to this time. I do not have any speaker cards. Is there anyone that would like to speak? Seeing none, I will close the public hearing. Is there a motion? Motion to approve. I have a motion and I'll take a second from Sydney or Jod. All in favor, please say I. Any opposed? Item is approved. Let's move on to item C. Public hearing will be held to consider application S2603 filed by Northwest Long View Investments LLC. Miss Choy,

thank you. So, the applicant is requesting a specific use permit to allow outdoor storage, uh, display and sales in light commercial zoning district. Uh, the applicant has a prospective tenant for this strip center that would be storing metal and PVC piping on racking outside within the parking lot. Uh the proposed storage area is about 75 ft by 100 ft and would be located as I stated earlier in the parking lot of the shopping center. They are proposing to screen the area with an 8 foot black coated chain link fence with privacy mesh and reflective material. Uh the applicant will also be restriping the parking lot to accommodate for this outdoor storage. uh staff uh along with planning and zoning commission recommends approval of this request. I'd be happy to answer any questions at this time.

Any questions for Miss Troy? One, can you distinguish um between light commercial and heavy commercial?

Uh yes. And so if you're looking here on the map, uh this property is zoned light commercial. Heavy commercial does allow allow for a lot of intensive uses. So, when we looked at this, um, the applicant and I looked at whether reszoning was better or maybe, um, updating the UDC to allow for a specific use permit. If he requested heavy commercial zoning, it does make sense because to the south it is zoned heavy commercial, but heavy commercial allows for a lot of uses such as nightclubs and very intense uh, uses that I don't we don't think are appropriate in this area, and the applicant agreed with that. Um, and so that's why we decided to go this route with updating the UDC and requesting a specific use permit through that process.

I'm happy for more business in that area and it's hopefully that'll continue and I appreciate your efforts, Angela. Good night for D1. That's it. Yeah. Uh, this does require public hearing uh, which I will open at this time. I do have one speaker card from Walter Northcut, but I think it's for questions. Any questions? Okay. Uh, thank you for your investment in Long Beach. Uh any questions or comments? If not, I will close the public hearing and ask for a motion. Motion to approve. Second. And a second. All in favor, please say I.

Any opposed? Item is approved. Thank you so much. We'll move on to action items. Our first item A is a public hearing that will be held to consider an ordinance to amend the UDC article F to repeal current construction codes and adopt the 2021 ICC family of codes. That is going to be with Mr. Michael Shirley, our director of development services.

Thank you, mayor, members of council. Uh Mr. MCI, uh the item we have before you is uh as stated to uh update our uh building code family from the current 2012 to the 2021 family. Uh as you may remember back in 2024, we started down this process. We initially started with uh adopting the fire code. We did that intentionally because we were going through uh preparations for our ISO audit and we knew that that would have a big impact on us obtaining the ISO1.

So uh just to kind of go back through our history back uh in 2024 we started we did hold a lunch and learn at the at ETBA East Texas Builders Association on the fire code. Uh the fire code became effective January 1 of 2025. Uh we did kind of uh press pause a little bit on the rest of the code family because during that time period we had a lot of school bond elections and there were a lot of um projects involved in those and there were some pretty significant changes in the building and fire in the building code as it relates to institutional uses that weren't really factored into their budgeting. And so we kind of held off, let them get uh their projects permitted and bested. And so here we are back to kind of get that across the finish line. Um we did on uh January 28th of 25, we did have a lunch and learn at the Builder Association where we presented the residential code and the pool and spa code. Um since that time, we really haven't had any significant feedback. We've had a few questions. Um, I did leave in front of y'all a letter from the ETBA um, where they expressed their support and appreciation for the collaboration and I just want to uh, express that sentiment as well. They are a very valued organization and and we appreciate their support in this process. We we certainly couldn't do it without them. Um, I do also want to take a moment to recognize our building official Todd KBA who's here as well. So, if you do have any specific questions about the building code itself, we'll direct that to him. He's the uh he's the authority on that. But he also spent a lot of time going through and looking at the 2012 and comparing it to the 21. They don't usually when you go from one code cycle to another, they publish what's changed, but when you go that many code cycles, they don't. And so he literally went line item by line item to make sure because we are not in the business of going through and wholesale adopting codes. we go through and make sure that we are very intentional about making

sure if we need to make a local exception or a local amendment that is appropriate. We did also use uh the National Association of Homebuilder, they they produced a toolkit and we looked at a lot of their recommendations um and and and made several of those. One of those in the fire code that I think will have a significant impact is the number of lots that you can have in a subdivision uh with a single point of access. Previously, uh that was uh capped at 30 and now we've increased that significantly. Uh especially the way that we develop kind of uh long long dead-end streets, that will allow a lot more flexibility in our development process. Um but uh just wanted to give y'all u a brief on the history and the process that we've been through uh and and am available for any questions. Uh if not, Todd's here.

Perfect. Thanks for doing that, Todd. Go ahead, Sydney.

The city council has in front of them here a letter from the uh East Texas Builders Association ad I mean dated May 14th, 2026 to mayor and members of city council u city of Long View. And what it is, it's a letter from them. Uh, I'll just say on behalf of the East Texas Bill Association, we would like to express our appreciation for the opportunity to participate in the review and discussion process regarding the proposed code amendments. Then it finally it says, "Thank you again for your consideration, continued service to our community. I would like to see this letter copied on the city's website so people out there in the community can understand uh uh how we're working together.

Yes, we'll we'll make sure it's on the website. Yes, sure. Thank you, Cindy. Any other comments or questions for Michael? This does require public hearing, so I will go ahead and open that at this time. I do not have any speaker cards. Would anyone like to speak on this item? If not, I will close the public hearing. Do I have a motion? Thank you. Move to approve. And a second. Second. Thank you. All in favor, please say I. I.

Any opposed? Item is approved. Thank you so much. Uh, next action item is action item B. Consider a resolution appointing Lily. Uh, Lily, why don't you will you come on up here? Come on up here. Um, I guess this is a appropriate time as any to uh announce that Angie Shepard will be retiring and we invite you to join us at her reception at 4:30 before our next council meeting. Angie has served the city very faithfully, loyally, professionally, um, and excellently for many years. And as part of that service, she found, recruited, and trained her successor, which you can't say anything better about a person that they are willing to figure out who will replace them and leave us in good hands. And Lily, we are very excited about that. I figured council would probably like to say a couple of nice things to you. Uh, so I'd embarrass you and make you come on up here. So, did you raise your hand?

I did. Go ahead, Derek. I just want to say just in my I think we've all said this uh individually with Angie and and Lily both. I mean, when you when you uh do an election and you've never done anything, you have no idea what to do. I just want everybody to know that the the way you guys make uh the council feel comfortable and asking dumb questions and helping through things and just this you know we we talked earlier about um taking care of our administrative people and our maintenance people and you guys are the model uh for how that should look in in the city office and I really appreciate all you've done in my two years here.

Absolutely. Nope. I can't see you over your flowers. Sorry.

I I mean, I have to really echo what uh Derek said. You know, I can't thank you guys enough for y'all professionalism because like you said, we we're kind of rookies to this, but I mean, being a candidate out there and having somebody that is professional, that stays professional and stays in their respective lane and and just take care of us with those dumb questions because we have a lot of them. We have a lot of them and it's every day and it's a lot and y'all do it with professionalism and you don't make anybody feel less than or anything because it's their first go around and I and I truly truly appreciate that and Angie I truly appreciate you modeling somebody and training and investing in your successor because that means that means a lot to the city because we don't have to spend a whole bunch of time on training and somebody can just walk into your shoes. So I appreciate that. I appreciate you passing your legacy on.

Thank you.

Absolutely. Lily, I would like to say that I appreciate so much. You are kind and gracious and loving and warm and just the perfect face. Um, I love greeting with you in front of city council meetings because you are kind and hospitable and that's what we want people to feel when they call the city. Um, I'm also very confident in your ability to run elections because I know Angie's been having you do that for a while. Um, there's nothing more important to us than running a fair, accurate, and honest election. So to be able to have this swap and have all of us so comfortable in the middle of a upcoming runoff election is amazing. And I also would like to just commend Angie. Um we have worked very hard, Shannon commented on earlier, to provide additional voting opportunities in the last couple of years. And Angie has helped open early voting locations that are outside of city hall to improve voter hours, voter locations. Um so that's something that your office has been trying to do and I just wanted to acknowledge and appreciate that. So Lily, we are very excited and John's going to want to say something, but we are very excited to work with you and we'll embarrass and acknowledge Angie at our next meeting as well. So this is not your only opportunity.

I I'll save repeating everything that everybody said, which is um true and more so, but I will say that I am the last person Angie is going to swear in. So, I'm sorry. I get that honor. And I'm also get the honor of being Lily's first candidate to fill out the filing as well. So, none of y'all can have that. So, appreciate y'all and so happy for y'all. Yeah. I didn't tell you I was going to ask you. Is there anything you want to say? Oh, Jody wants to say something. You can have say I think sometimes because we're in district five and six, we get the short end of the stick

and I really wanted to brag on them. uh cuz I was the latest one in and I can't I can't echo enough both these ladies how comforting they are and call like I said answer the questions do the things it's it's a great place and I I told Lily tonight and I got to visit meet with Gail and I said this is a great place you know you go around a lot of places and there's a place where you feel comfortable and you're like if everybody knew how it was this is where they would want to work. And I think that office that you guys have is is special. Thank you both. Nope. Go ahead. Oh, congratulations.

Oh, and Ray's going to say something to you.

Sure. Congratulations, Lily. I know uh you've worked diligently over the years and sometimes without the future actually being visible for you, you've committed to working. We all appreciate that. Um, we know that a lot of times you work not only internally but externally and that's a really difficult mix to kind of measure. And Angie, thank you so much for all the years. Um, I don't know if our last council meeting will be the same, yours and mine possibly, but I want to congratulate you and no one deserves retirement more than you do. So, thank you for everything you've done for the city of Long View and all our election processes and me even being elected as well. So, thank you.

Yeah, absolutely. Do you want to say anything? Well, just thank you guys for everything. Thank you, Angie, for being a great mentor and I appreciate your confidence and I appreciate you all. Thank you. We appreciate you. Yeah, I do need a motion to approve. I move to approve. Oh, I'm sorry. You want the whole I have a motion from John, a second from Ray. All in favor, please say I. Any opposed? Congratulations, Lily. You're our new city secretary.

Uh we will move on to action item C. Consider an ordinance accepting the conveyance of property purchased by Long View Economic Development Corporation as dedicated parkland as a portion of the match for grant funds related to the bring back teak park project. Mr. John Albertson and would like to note that Wayne Mansfield is in the back. So, thank you, Leo. We appreciate you always. And uh go ahead, John.

Yes, Mayor Council, Mr. MCI. Uh this is an opportunity for us to uh continue the project that our grants department uh got us uh to bring back Teague Park. This property uh would be the future home of our Long View Parks and Recreation Department. Uh on the map there it is listed. It's the former American Legion building. Across from that there is the lot that would come with it as well. Um and I'll take any questions that you may have. Yeah. Any questions for John? Very exciting. This is two years in the works or so. So, we're slowing bringing tea back. I like I

just have one question just out of curiosity. So, um this is the property that Lee Co purchased when Oh, because it was a while back December last year. Do you remember how much we paid? I mean, y'all paid we paid what $400,000. So, we committed a million dollars to the Te Park project. So, this would be our $400,000 of that commitment. Thank Thank y'all for that. I appreciate it. Yes, absolutely. Very important project. Uh any other questions for John or do I have a motion? Motion to approve. Thank you. And a second. Second. All in favor, please say I. I.

Any opposed? Item is approved. Uh next item D. Consider an ordinance authorizing the purchase of a tract with a street address of 1308 East Marshall Avenue for use as dedicated parkland. Same project, Mr. Albertson. Yes. This is another step to move forward with our project there at Teague Park. Uh this would allow us to build the to construct the entryway and also expand the Cargill Long Trail into Teague Park. Uh it's 1308 East Marshall and for a price of 375 375,000. Excellent. When would if approved tonight, when would all this work begin and complete, do you suppose?

So, uh we anticipate having it completed by next year. Uh let me check real quick. I will actually tell you uh the completion date that we have projected right now is around the end of June next year. Uh construction we're right now at the preliminary stage. Uh I have seen those plans working with our engineers. Uh so as soon as we can complete those we'll go to final um and then we'll move forward with putting it out for bid. Uh so hopefully we would be able to advertise uh somewhere around the beginning of July is the anticipation right now. Super. Derrick, do you have a question?

Yeah, you mentioned that 375. Is that the purchase? That's the pro total project purchase of the land and the that is the that is simply the purchase of that lot of 1308 East Marshall. Any other questions for John? Do you have a projection? Because that looks really good. That entryway looks awesome. Is there any idea how much that total cost would be to make that look that beautiful? Go ahead. That's all funded, right? Mhm. Okay.

It is. It's all funded through the grant and uh funds that we have gained for the match. Uh some of those are going to come from Greg County where they're going to assist us to build that roadway um and the trail, but you're looking at a cost of anywhere around 840 uh is the anticipated, but a lot of that's going to be in kind as well from the county. And I would like to say thanks to them as well. Absolutely. For their participation county. Yes. Yes. good partnerships. Oh, I just wanted to say, John, thank you. This is a project that's been on in the works for a long time, and I'm glad to see it go to fruition. Is that the word? That's the word. Thank you. Yes. Good job, John. Do I have a motion to approve?

Motion to approve and a second from Sydney. All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Item is approved. Thanks so much. Uh, next action item is E. consider a resolution awarding a contract to directing the city manager to execute any necessary documents with our northeast Texas regional MURF with Kilgore. Mr. Dwayne Archer, our assistant director of public works.

Thank you, Mayor, Council, Mr. McY. Uh, tonight I bring u that contract to you for your approval. So, currently our rate is $75 per ton. uh in negotiations talking with NITE, we came up with a rate of $90 for the remainder of this fiscal year and then we would move to $100 next year. Uh talking to them, their costs just continue to increase and they really need this. Um of course they are the only MURF in our region. Uh so keeping them viable is important for the recycling program going forward. Let me just real quick, I don't want to go all the way back into that we had a fire and so forth, but in June of 25, NEC opened. Uh then we began bringing our materials to them, but it was so contaminated, the levels were so bad that in November of 25, we made an adjustment to our collection program and said, "Okay, uh to make sure that those people that really want to make sure that their recyclables are collected and taken to the MURF, we'll do that the day following your garbage pickup." That has worked fantastic as far as we have incredibly clean materials now. Uh the only issue is that volumes have decreased. Not as many people are participating and so we are working very diligently to ensure that we move forward on that. Um just to give you an idea of the budget impact of these changes. Uh if we average 75 tons per month for the rest of this year that would be about $4,500 change in the budget. Um, and then for next year at $100, if we continue that same $75 ton number, uh, we're looking at about $22,500 as far as the budget impact.

Uh, while I've got while I've got a captive audience a little bit, let me talk about the blue crew. So, one of the ways that we are trying to make sure that people are involved is we've started the blue crew and using that QR code there, you can join the blue crew. That is a great way for us to communicate with the citizens and the citizens get more information about recycling. If you join the blue crew, we send a recycling packet that includes that sticker that you've seen on some of the bins along with a lot of recycling information, what can be recycled and what can't be recycled. And then just real quick, let me just cover that. It's cardboard and paper, plastics 1 through 7, and household metal cans. No plastic bags in the in the cart, please. that really creates problems with their camp with their uh machinery out at the murf. Um and so we want to make sure it's not there. And so with that, I will answer any questions.

Okay. Yes, ma'am. Uh yes. Um so will this and the increases that they're doing will this increase increase the rates of sanitation and water because we did do a rate increase last year. Can we do a rate increase? Th this will not have an impact because our volumes have been lower. um then we can absorb that fairly easily. Okay. And so you're saying if they go up higher then if we continue to grow those then it may in time but we don't foresee that in the next year or so. Okay. Thank you. This this contract is bound for year to year. It it is open for us to be able to withdraw from if we wanted to.

Yes. At at any point we can request a cancellation of that that kind. The last thing can I beat John? I know John got the honor with Angie, but uh I know you were going to have some gift certificates or awards for people that was in the blue crew. Have we?

Yes, absolutely. That's important and I appreciate you mentioning that. So, uh we are going to start the Bennett to win it and and we're going to award the first one tomorrow. Um, and so just in honor of the American 250, we will be going to an address that we have randomly selected and we'll check take a look at the make sure the recycling bin is out and then make sure that it is the correct stuff in there. And if it is, that household win $250 and we'll continue that through the rest of 2026. Okay. So, good. Also on that, the Ben influencer is genius, too. The Ben influencer, whatever. There's our Good job, Richard. You did good with that.

Good job, Richard. Uh, so I have a few questions. Uh, one is on that slide, we have the 300 on the before the rivers. Yes. Fire. Let me back up. You already there. Do we know how if that was contaminated or how that stuff There was real questions about contamination rate on there. I think we were over I think we're in 30 35% range. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, if you take that if we if we can figure that, then we're not I mean, we're still got a ways to go, of course, but it doesn't look as bad as like as far as going to 300 side. Um, the other side the other thing is on the the volume where we're at. I mean, is that sustainable long term for for them if we stay at this volume?

Well, I I I think that's an important thing to to mention that we need them to be in business and so we need to increase our volumes so that it becomes, hey, they're there and they're committed to it. But right now at these lower volumes, it's going to become a struggle for them, I think. Yeah. So the where with the volumes, is there somewhere they want us to be or you have an idea on? They'd like to see us at 300. I mean, so there's not a there's not a level of where they're just going to be capping. No. And and they're and they're not they're not struggling by any means, but this increase that we're doing will help that and also increasing our numbers will help that as well. And then will there be a reduc in cost with some efficiency gains by us having more volume o over time or does it does it get cheaper as you send more in or does it get more expensive as you get more in? I

I think right now we've got trucks going out to the murf that that don't that have very little in them and I like them to be full before they go out there. Compaction rates on trucks is just part of what we do. Uh you know our garbage trucks we design routes based on the compaction rate of a truck and we need those recycling trucks to to to be hitting those compaction rates as well. Beautiful. And then who all participates in the Murf? I I think everybody in the area. So I uh Republic does certainly. Uh I think Tyler brings some over. Um of course Republic with Kilgore and Marshall. Um I don't think Waste Connections does at this time. But as far as Republic and us are their two biggest customers.

What about the territories? I guess what I'm u So they go as far as south as Tyler. They go as north as what? Yeah. They'll take I know that the Rivers was in discussion with Shrefport prior to the fire. Okay. And so I would not be surprised if those discussions aren't taking place now. Okay. Appreciate it. Thank you very much for joining for all your work on that. All right. Shannon has a question.

Yeah. So I just wanted to give an example of what's contaminated um what they consider as contaminated items. So is it true that if something doesn't have a lid on it, things of that nature, what what are y'all considering contaminated and not being able to be recyclable? I I think what we were seeing is bags of trash in the in the recycling bin was what the contamination was that we were seeing. But if you have your even if you re put your recycling in a plastic bag and sit in there, they don't have time to open that bag and see what's inside. So they just that's cont considered contamination. Thank you. Good city. Do you have a question?

Oh, I I think Mr. Archer what is this Moore just brought up in other words it's it's a little cumbersome but when you put it in your bag in the house to put it together when you bring it out to your bin dump the bag out

don't put the bag Okay my next question I think John brought this up very well uh do where where is their break even point I mean what point can they substantially stay in business I we have we have not that had that kind of business conversation about what they do. Um I have I have just made a commitment to them that I'm going to get them the most volume I possibly can. Okay. I think that's that was but it's really it's up to the people that want to recycle here in the city of Long View to keep when they go out of business. We have no recycling program. It's done. It's finished. It will end at that point. Yes, sir. Yes. Thank you.

Yes. So, we need people to embrace it or realize that the program will go away. Yeah, I think that's fair. Thank you. Good conversation. Uh, do we need a motion? Yes. Yes. I need a motion, please. Motion to approve. I have a motion from Shannon, a second from Sydney. All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Item is approved. Thank you so much. We will move on to items of community interest. Mr. Connley. Yes. I'd like to uh recognize next Thursday night at Pine Tree Stadium hopefully with with good weather uh graduation. Yay.

Congratulations to Pine Tree High School graduates 2026. Uh if you're planning to attend, it's going to be as always. It's a packed house, so gates will open at 6:00. Um seating's limited. You don't need any tickets, but there's parking available at the stadium and then also into the um um over to, you know, the parkway and the middle school elementary parking. And um just want to say um uh when I came here when I came to Long 8 years ago, I was actually an elementary principal and that fourth grade class will be graduating this year. So, I'm really excited to be there and uh

uh congratulations to those kids and I know you guys will be uh we had district one's had a great night and you do great things. You come back and uh contribute to your community in Pine Tree. Yep. A great place to be. Perfect. Thank you, Miss Moore.

Uh first of all, I would like to talk about um Long Beach graduation is this um Friday. This Friday at Long View High School. Please go to LISD website because half of their school, half of the parking lot is under construction. So there are about four different areas that you're going to have to park at. So please, please, please go to the website to see how to even park. Good luck and congratulations to all the students. Um the next thing uh Junth is coming up next month. We again have along with parks dietrics Junth committee for for one thank all of y'all for y'all hard work this um Junth everything really I want people to understand that it these are community ideas these are people that really wanted to see things happen for Junth and this is the way that they want to celebrate. So please go to lumbutex.gov/junth so you can see all the things that we have planned and we will talk later about those things at another meeting. Thank you.

Perfect. Miss Wade. Yes. I just want to congratulate all of the uh seniors graduating at Long View High School tomorrow. Graduation date is always a big event. It's always a big time for LISD and everyone participating, the teachers, um administration, all of those. Congratulations. And Connley, I don't know what fourth graders eight years ago that mad, but I'll take your word for it though. But thank you. Confident about it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Your turn.

I just want to say, you know, it's an honor to continue serving District 4. Thank you for your trust and opportunity to serve and I'm very excited about the work ahead and very optimistic about Long View's future. So, thank you. That's all. Okay, Jody. Uh, Spring Hill will be graduating as well. We'll bring that up, but we're not leaving anybody out in that graduation thing. But I also wanted to tell Coach Meth and them, hey, keep it up. Got got a few more wins and uh maybe we can get them back here uh next fall and recognize them as state champions. Repeat. That would be great. Uh but again, hope everybody has a great uh couple next couple weeks. Perfect. Sydney.

Um, first off, I want to say I had the opportunity today to be out at Laterno University and I, uh, drove back in on Mobly and I want to say I don't know who the contractor was, but that overlay redo of Mobly is absolutely wonderful. I mean, I my goal is personally, I think all of our goals is to try to do the same for the rest of Long View. I mean because they did it. Now I know the U state has done a wonderful job on um Judson Road and now we're looking for their work on McCann Road which is in my district which is a terrible mess at this time. But anyway, we're looking for that. Now on a different note, I want to say it's it's been one year been one year and I want to say thank you for those who elected me. Um I've enjoyed I'm not getting off. Don't misunderstand me.

No, no, no. I have enjoyed working with the city council, the mayor, and I look forward to two more years. Thank you.

Glad to have you, sitting. Okay. I have a couple of things. First, uh, Memorial Day coming up. City offices will be closed on Monday, May 25th. Sanitation will not be affected. Please join us at 8:00 a.m. at Teague Park for our Memorial Day service. would love to have you there. Uh, Splash Day June 6th coming up, Splash Day at Ingram Park as we kick off our summer swim season. Big thank you to Mr. Albertson and his team for building us lifeguards, building us a new pool. Going to be a really exciting uh summer. I saw learn to swim lessons come up last week. So, we're very excited about that. Um, please take part and enjoy. Uh, National Police Week, May 10th through 16th is National Police Week. On Tuesday, we had our 34th annual Long View Greg County Law Enforcement Memorial Service and Dinner. Uh, this year, Chief and the others had a very family-friendly event. So, it was really fun to see all of our police officers and all of their kids had a separate room for games and everything. But, I really enjoyed that. I thought that was really neat to see all of our officers enjoying time with their spouses and families. Um, Friday, May 15th, is Peace Officers Memorial Day. And so, we have a proclamation that recognizes National Police Week. um that as mayor I call upon the citizens of Long View to observe this Friday, May 15th, as peace peace officers Memorial Day. Let this day honor our Long View police officers who through their courageous deeds have made the ultimate sacrifice in service to their community or have become disabled in the performance of duty. Let us also recognize and pay respect to the survivors of our fallen heroes. that includes Long View officers George Tabler, September 1886, Boyd Gaunt and BC Roberts, May 1948. Walter A. Connell, May 1971, Harvey L. Stevens, January 1972,

Marshall Sers Jr., November 1977, and Sergeant Randy L. Davis, January 1984. Um, it's obviously important to remember our officers and what they do daily. We appreciate their sacrifice and we want to remember and say the names of those that have lost their lives serving our community. Um so we take a moment to celebrate them. I'd also like to take a moment to honor the passing of our former district 2 councilman Gary Smith. Uh I met Gary working on animal shelter activities. So I know he was very involved there. I understand he was also very involved with partners in prevention and supported our city in a number of ways. So I want to honor his memory. Uh he passed away earlier this week. So we want to remember his family uh and our love and prayers and thank him for all the service to our community. Um nothing further tonight guys. So we are adjourned.