City Council - Regular Meeting

Hey, Will, this is John. Yes, sir. I was wondering, just go to the return page on here, if you would, with the comparison between the median, the Longview Fund, and the benchmark.

All right. I don't know if we can pull that up or not. I just wanted to let people know, when did y'all start taking over the portfolio?

Yes. So I just want to point that out. The performance is doing really well between that seven and 10. The 15, of course, was prior. So I just want to look at that and show the comparison between where y'all are actually been the managers of it. Thank you.

um so a lot of i mean a lot of it's going on so i appreciate you being here todd um so real quick i just don't want to put you on the spot too much but why but you're here why you're you're in it you're you're you're in recycling why is it important to you like what is the question well i mean we employ about 20 people that live here in longview and kilgore gregg county that's important we got trucks that come in from louisiana arkansas

Do you find that businesses and citizens expect recycling to extent to be available?

Yes. Okay. We only pick up the city. That's right on the side of it. But is there is downstream effects. Are we the largest customer? Well, I'm talking about the largest. The city was 68%. I'm sorry for that. But if we pulled out, there could be some downstream effects where the MRF, you know, could not exist. Yeah. If you're going to be fine, that's fine. But we don't know what... We could have a recession tomorrow. We never know what's going to happen. Yeah, we don't know what tomorrow is. I mean, losing any client, any customer, any business, losing a client that makes up 6% to 8% of their customer base is going to be impacted. That's the reality of it.

Well, it ends up being almost a quarter million dollars.

pretty good sum of money you know and sydney just respond i agree with you on all that so the the kind of the way that i'm like looking at it differently is if if we get more recycling as the way it stands right now more people participate it costs us more money right and so therefore the way that it's looked at as far as like the the community is that it's a quality of life item So quality of life item, the more people utilize it, the more expensive it is. So if we had any quality of life item in the city of Longview that had a 12% household participation in it, we would consider that a major

So is 12% of the households going to Ingram Park? You know, it's 12% of any of these quality of life items that do cost the city money. 12% of the households using the trail. All that.

You have it with the pool, you have it with the recreation centers, you have it with all of it.

So anyways, that's really the base of it. It is something like that. Is there options in other communities that are doing things like subscriptions or other ways that we can help offset the cost of the program? There's that. I do think there's opportunities for other things. We've talked about Republic. We've talked about all these different things. And so the other part of it is that the you know i think you know mr archer you're doing a great job with the blue crew and the communication i agree it is exhausting to keep always doing that i do think this is something that there's certain thing

Yeah. The only thing I have to say is just that, I mean, with the time that we've spent, I mean, if we're not going to increase the usage, And then we say what we're saying to the citizens, we're going to raise your bill, but this is not beneficial because nobody we don't have enough usage in recycling. I mean, that's basically what we're saying. And I get the whole trying to compare it to the quality of life. But at the end of the day, when we have people that are struggling to pay their bills and we're going to raise their bills on the service, it's not being utilized. It's not fair to the m

In the previous time that we did it, and I believe we've exhausted a lot of opportunities, but what has been the difference in the participation that we had in the past versus this time?

Yeah, I would think it's echo what others have said with only a few customers that are taking advantage of this service. And I think it's a great service. It's hard for us to make a rate increase for all the other 27,000 customers. Thank you.

Make them feel comfortable. I was just going to add, you know, the thing about it is, is I took a, I mean, I've been to green street plenty of times and I went there today just to go and see, you know, what, what the concerns were. And it's, to me, it's just upkeeping and that's the problem. you know the upkeep another building has not been done and and that's the major thing I mean and as far as it being in South Longview and people not feeling safe, I don't feel safe in for North Longview but they don't make me not go is a choice is a choice that you have a whatever and I believe that we can

So I'm glad I didn't have to follow Joe. So, Tamara, I want to say I've heard nothing but raving reviews about your programming and the things that you're doing there. And that's the key thing. And you can look at the chart of the users. I mean, it's a trend line going up. I mean, there's definitely a correlation that's there. And I think we know the cause. So appreciate the stuff that you're doing and continue doing that, please, for us. And I do echo Jody's sentiments on it. When you go in, it doesn't seem like, and you look at the outside and the safety of it, it doesn't seem like we value

Yes, Tamara, if you don't mind, is there any way you can start getting out more information about when these activities are going on, time, dates, and stuff like that, so we can kind of help? put this information out so we can get more people involved in what's going on.

Sean, I have a question. Yes. So on the 7 and a 2%, is that a city's policy, state policy, law? Which one is that, the 7 and a 2%? As far as how you divide it, like you get 7% here, 2% there. Is that a city policy or is that a state law?

through our state legislature petition to have that two percent authority and it was restricted for that purpose okay and then my next question i don't know if you're going to get to that in in the next slide but so when we did the increase from the 2025 to 2026 to the 1.2 million and you said that it was in what tourism promotion or whatever do y'all have that broken down now

Okay, let's stay on this slide for a second. So when, just for example, like the downtown advertising, 27,500, what would you say? I mean, because somebody came up with that number. What would you say you would spend 27,000? Because mostly I see is Facebook. I don't see any commercials that y'all have done in the past. Is this what we're?

Things that we've already used in the past, correct?

And the reason why I'm going so in-depth on this is because the hotel tax is really the biggest chunk of money that we as a council can kind of, better Longview to attract people to Longview. So when I want to see where these dollars are going, that's why I'm asking, hey, if you're going to spend $30,000 here, is it truly going to bring that? So I really want to look at where we're spending this money at because this is where we really can affect what we bring people to Longview with is this money.

Okay, so when we talk about the store, the downtown store, are we paying for the, because the rent is still $3,000, correct? $3,000 per month?

What funds are we paying that out of? Are we paying that out of the?

First, wait a minute. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

So I want to say, first off, I want to just brag real quick. The Visit Longview store, like, if you haven't been there, the selection is amazing, and it's always changing. So you walk in, it's like you're changing. You're going to a new store every time you're going. So it's definitely something. And I try to... I try to walk into somewhere with fresh eyes, because it's hard to look at it when we live here. But I try to see how it would appeal to a tourist. And it's something we can't fully do. But I go to other places and visit their downtowns. And I always go to their visit centers and see w

Yeah, or something else. All right. I believe that was all I had. Thank you. OK, go ahead.

Yes. You have it divided up in the 7% and the 2%. Is that how on these that you gave us? OK, so the 1.3 million on here on the budget line detail, add a repair, is that? That's exhibit building, right?

So on this 2%, I just want to make sure that I'm clear on it. So the 2% is set by... Can we go higher? Could you go higher? No, ma'am. No, like what I'm asking is, is the 2% set that we're going to say is 2% on mob cop and before anybody... get any upset. I'm all in favor of anything because that is one of our biggest attractions is my car. But what I'm asking is Is the 2% set to specifically go to mob cop? Is that a statute? Do we pick where the 2% goes? That's what I'm asking you, Robert.

But right now we want to focus on this one and get it to where it needs to be. And then we can say, hey, we're going to allocate and do 2% somewhere else later. Yeah.

It might be for Angela. So I'm looking on here. And so we're able to pay over time. We're able to pay into the looks like. their retirement, if they work at any of these facilities?

That's what I'm saying, including planning to their benefits. It's their health plan and all that.

No, I just want some turf. John knows what I want. Yeah, Lear wants some turf too. I hear about artificial turf all the time. I mean, it just brings more sports. That's all I'm saying year round. Yes, ma'am.

Yes, I have one question. So for the next round, since this round has ended, can we do some type of class to try to train people on how to apply for those art grants or whatever? Can we set up some type of training for that?

I think it's just not a lot of people understanding the process on their part.

I was just curious, how do you have the ability to determine for the grant?

So one thing on the, I think it's the Texas one, where they require... you to be in the arts cultural district to that be something that would be help promote that or how would that, what's your opinion on that?

Okay, but I think Texas requires that one, that little caveat or two there, but I don't know if that's the case, but I was just curious why they require it.

That's for that purpose? Yes. All right, thank you. That helps. Sure.

Other discussion comments. I don't think that says of course I I wholeheartedly agree with anything to you know, he'll follow them for employees because as I look at the at the pace day that we did and you know look at the numbers, the actual numbers of what it looks like with that pay study in place or whatever and adding the 1% you're saying on to what we're giving them along with?

I mean, that's what we need to get. That's what we need to get because right now, as it stands, when we look at the pay study, we average employees making from, and this is me looking at the pay study. If we go by the pay study that they just completed, we have employees ranging making part-time. You said part-time was $15? One person making $15 an hour all the way up to $154 an hour. So that's what I'm trying to get, what we're talking about right here, when we're talking about these monies.

So a little different thoughts on this, and this is just my feelings. I know that we have the best staff, period. So for me, like a couple years ago when we did the budget, we did a one-time bonus for pay because the fact that we didn't give raises. So we just went through the process of doing a pay study that we went through, got new peer cities, selected that council we went through, decided where we want to pay, which was in the middle of the peer city group. And this was to bring everybody into a competitive pay environment. So with like the pay increase, let's see, like for the average pa

Yeah, the average that we're going to give, $50,000 or less, is going to get a 10% pay raise this year, which is significant. It's bringing them up to being competitive. And so we're already doing this. And so kind of to show the point on this, how many – Under $50,000, you said there was 304 employees. How many under $50,000 will we have after we do this pay raise?

So it's already doing a lot of the heavy lifting, in my opinion. Doing this, it's also, you know, what's different this year from next year? What's different from last year? Things are hard. It's that way. If we're going to do this, I'd rather it be something that's predictable where the employees can have an idea of what they're going to expect every year instead of it being on the whims of council and what sales tax does or doesn't do or wherever we're at. So that way they can plan, they can know what to expect, and they can do better with stability as far as having an idea of where things a

I mean, and just to put it into perspective as to why, you know, probably certain council fields, certain ways or whatever, because when you look at it with the play plan study, the lower level employee that would get a 15, because they're so far away from market, that would get a 15% raise would only be $194 biweekly by this pay standard. But then when you go to the highest paid employee, theirs is a $7,000 biweekly increase. So that's the bigger problem to me.

And I do keep in mind. I keep in mind the job responsibility and all the support staff that they have when you have an assistant to an assistant to an assistant to an assistant and then we're talking about low-level employees and trying to do something sustainable that we can do every year is the goal here no no no i'm not talking about your five hundred dollars all right remember we're going to be respectful and not interrupt exactly so i'm not talking about that what i'm saying is is that if we want to look at then let's look at it wholeheartedly and look at the numbers and say, well, hey, w

But you're missing what I just said earlier. What I'm saying is, is that Even at the 15% bringing them to market, what Sidney is saying is even looking at that, he feels like that they need something else.

I mean, but right now, this is the right now. Sure. And I think that's why he's asking for it.

I mean, but it would be fiscal conservative, and it would be the right thing to do is to say, hey, it's okay for us to take a break for somebody that is going to get a $12,000 increase versus somebody that is going to get a $194 increase for one year. Because you're able to give a higher percentage to the lower, just because this is the market that y'all are talking about, this theoretic market that we're comparing other cities that we're not like other cities. We're not exactly, there is no exact job. These job descriptions change. This person may get a raise because they got more responsibilities. What I'm looking at right now, what we have,

I'm not trying to take away what the market is paying them. What I'm telling you that they're so close to market that their even marginal percentage raise is way more than the person that is farthest from market.

And that's why we have this as our employees. Yes, I agree.

But y'all were just willing to consider saying if they make less than $50,000.

I'm just saying, y'all, make up your mind. I'm just trying to come to a— Not what I'm saying. That's not what I'm saying. Either we're going to block somebody out or we're not. I mean, you just—I mean, it's on discussion. If you're making less than $50,000 to give them $500, then what's the difference?

It's their right to put it on the agenda.

Yes. So I will say, it's based on where you were, based on the study that we did, where you were to market. So those that are getting larger raises or percentage of raises was because they were underpaid more towards market than what their position was. Or if you did not get a raise, then it was to the fact that you were already at market. So as counsel, we did a great job of compensating police and fire in advance of everybody else due to the nature of that. And the competitiveness that was there, the needing to fulfill vacancies, the need for the things that were there, it had a purpose. The

I just have a question on the budget side. This is the you want to do a survey regularly, right? Going forward.

I know you've expressed that, and it helps you with the grants and all the benefits you get from that. And so my question is, are we looking at a way to budget this going forward so you don't have to come to council every time to get a pull from the fund balance to be able to do the survey, or is that not feasible? How is that?

I got them mic'd up right now. I do ask. I will express then for that would be my preference. If anything that we know that's going to be some sort of set ongoing expense that we're going to incur to do the best that we can to budget for that because it's not something that we're going to be unexpected that we're going to need to do for five years from now. So it is my preference in that.

Wherever that time is the budget, I'd rather not pull from the fund balance going forward when we need to do that. Thank you. That's what I wanted to say.

Yeah. Bring it up on the agenda, of course. Appreciate it.

uh just good luck to all the high school people going back well going back to play football so i'm glad football's back i love high school football i think freshman is in lufkin today for longview freshman and jv yep they're in lufkin so good luck this week for all the football fans i thought we were doing a live game or not a live game but oh yeah live uh-huh at the wreck i did see that i did see that pretty fun is that you good oh this

Speaking of the watch party, that will be for the Ruston game, which will be September 11th at 6.30 PM at Broadland Recreation Center. It's free interest to get in. They will have, there's no food or drink can be brought in, but they will have a concession set up to where you can bring, you can purchase an item at the watch party. It's some fun, first time doing this, so they will be watching from the Longview game day stream. Also, this Saturday, we have community outreach mission in Longview. We'll have their back to school drive. What time does it start? 12? 12 to 3? Yes. It'll be from 12 t

awesome i don't know which one is first also okay my town hall i got the uh this will be my fourth annual town hall and so we're gonna have the district town hall meeting uh 6 p.m thursday october 15th the location is changing so we're going to showcase a very great business that we have in district 4 jack's natural foods cafe and market and so we'll be there for that at 3110 neely way So make sure you go there. Prior before, I was at the Builders Association, so make sure you go to Jack's Natural Foods for this town hall. Looking forward to seeing y'all. Let us know. Want to hear your input o

Who? Oh, yes, always. The Lobos? Yes, always.

Go to Broughton Rec Center. Longview Game Day. Longview Game Day.

Or Spring Hill or whichever one of these other schools out here.