Council - Regular Meeting

Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic Mr. Williams, if you'll call the roll, please.

Thank you very much. At this time, if we can get the approval of the agenda, we did add an item to the regular agenda, which will become 12I. And it's for ham plumbing for an emergency water leak sewer line that we had to erupt. And that cost of that is $7,000. So we're adding it to agenda item regular 12I. I can get a motion. Motion by Mr. Spence, second by Mr. Bolling. All in favor? 6-0. Thank you. This time we'll have a message from the mayor.

Thank you very much, Ms. Simmons and Council. We were supposed to have a couple of other World Series teams, but they have other sporting events going on and other things, so they are having to reschedule. We may see some more of those teams in two weeks. I have about four items I want to try to update everyone on. First of all, a couple of things on Pine Street. Obviously, Pine Street there at the university is open and we have those new crosswalks that are raised. There's still some question about those. There is work that has not been completed. still having issues with some of the same ven

Thank you very much. And if Mr. Pendleton didn't see it, I'll make sure that he gets it. Okay, do we have any department head reports? Standing committees.

Yes. We had a Utilities Committee meeting on 925 at 4 o'clock. In attendance were Mayor Tyler, myself, Council Member Bowling, Mr. Tad Colm, Mark Lovejoy, and Mr. Will Haddock. It was about property discussion. Mr. Cole talked about potential purchase of the property located at 700 Paxton Street, which currently adjoins the Water Department warehouse. The property is appraised by the county at $168,720. The property owner was currently asking $135,000. the water department previously discussed purchasing the property in 2022 however the purchase did not make it to the City Council for consider

If not, at this time we have two public hearings. Ms. Bailey?

Thank you. The public hearing is now open. We'll take comments. Anyone to my right would like to speak for or against? In the middle? To my left.

Thank you. OK, at this time, we will have business from the floor pertaining to items on the consent and the regular agenda with a five minute time limit. You will come to the podium, state your name and address. To my left, in the middle, to my right.

Thank you. Anyone else to my right? Okay. If not, Mr. Williams.

Do you have a motion to approve the agenda as presented?

Motion by Mr. Boland, second by Mr. Hendricks. All in favor of the motion?

Do you have a motion for immediate consideration? Motion. Motion by Ms. King, second by Mr. Bolling. All in favor of the motion?

Motion by Mr. Spence, second by Mr. Bolling. Any discussion? All in favor of the motion?

Deerhill, motion for immediate consideration.

Motion by Mr. Hendricks, second by Mr. Bolling. All in favor of the motion?

Second. Motion by Mr. Spence, second by Ms. King. Any discussion? 6-0, motion passes.

OK. Chair, a motion for immediate consideration.

Motion by Mr. Hendricks, second by Mr. Bolling. All in favor of the motion? Do I hear a motion for the adoption? Motion.

Motion by Ms. King, second by Mr. Boling. Any discussion? By way of discussion, I'm not going to be able, I understand that everything is going up. I always understand that. I know people probably say, she said that every time because the situation that the population, the majority of it that I represent has not changed. In fact, as the increases, everything is going up and I'm just not able to support that because I get calls All the time, just this week, I got many calls of utilities or people don't have a place to go. Some are staying in a hotel because they can't able to move to get their

yes i just want to address this there has been several meetings regarding this and we've had a lot of discussion and i can tell you i have asked a lot of questions and we want to continue to grow our city we want to have the infrastructure we need and one thing we have to remember that makes us different than everybody else is we are also taking care of our county as well not just our city we have a lot we have to maintain we have tva also telling us you know what we need to do When we had the meeting, one of the things that we discussed and I said, you know, if we do not do this, what will ha

Thank you. Any additional comments? Okay. All in favor of the motion?

Do I hear a motion for immediate consideration? Second. Second by Mr. Bowling. All in favor of the motion?

Motion by Mr. Bowling, second by Ms. King. Any discussion? this particular rate increase this one is not for the residents this one is for commercial and the industrial on this one so any other discussion okay all in favor of the motion six zero motion passes

Do I hear a motion for immediate consideration? Motion. Second. Motion by Ms. King, second by Mr. Spence. All in favor of the motion?

Second. Motion by Mr. Spence, second by Ms. Dixon. Any discussion? All in favor of the motion?

Do you hear a motion for immediate consideration?

Motion by Mr. Bowling, second by Mr. Spence. All in favor of the motion?

Motion by Mr. Hendricks, second by Ms. Dixon. Any discussion? All in favor of the motion?

Do you hear a motion for immediate consideration? Motion. Second. Motion by Ms. King, second by Ms. Dixon. All in favor of the motion?

Motion by Mr. Hendricks, second by Mr. Bolling. Any discussion?

This general obligation warrant, this was when we barred the $35 million. It's just been rerouted to take care of paving so we can do our own paving. And hopefully the goal is to be able to pave more streets and everybody gets more streets in the neighborhoods and communities. Okay, any other discussion?

Nope. Paving is a huge priority, and so this is a very good vote. I'm excited about this. I'm ready to approve some more so we can get these right.

It is citywide. Okay, no more comments? All in favor of the motion?

Do you hear a motion for immediate consideration? Motion by Mr. Spence, second by Mr. Bolling. All in favor of the motion?

Second. Motion by Mr. Hendricks, second by Ms. King. Any discussion?

I just want to say for all the people that, you know, have tuned in about City Hall or upset about it, this is one of the reasons that we need a new City Hall and that we need to move forward. Seems like every week we are having to approve something for City Hall. So this is going to be exciting as we move forward with the next process. Any additional comments, discussion?

Do I hear a motion for immediate consideration? Motion by Ms. King, second by Mr. Spence. All in favor of the motion?

Motion by Mr. Bolling, second by Ms. Dixon. Any discussion? On this one, I'll be voting no on the budget. Not that I disagree with things in the budget, but the increase is in there as well as the escalator. So I didn't support it up there, so therefore it's in here. I can't support it, but I'm not disagreeing with the entire budget just because that's in there. So I just wanted to make sure everybody understood that that makes sense. All right. Any other questions? Discussion? No? All in favor of the motion.

Chair, I have a motion for immediate consideration. Second. Motion by Mr. Bowling. Second by Ms. Simmons. All in favor of the motion?

I have a question, Ms. Simmons, and you probably know the answer. This is not a change in ownership. This is an additional alcohol that's being added.

Right. No, it's not a change in ownership. It's just a... Right. Mm-hmm. Any additional comments or questions? All in favor of the motion?

Yes, ma'am. All right. If it's time, we'll have business from the floor from the public with a five minute time limit. The same routine. Come to the podium, state your name and your address. Anyone to my left in the middle?

Thank you. Is there anyone else to my right?

Thank you. Anyone else to my right? All right. At this time, we will have council members' reports with a five minute time limit, starting with Mr. Hendricks. Don't joke.

Well, thank you. Appreciate everybody here tonight, everyone that spoke, everyone that'll watch. It's important to play an active role, and thank you for doing so. This past weekend, I could not be more proud to represent District 2 for the city of Florence. Started Friday night with First Fridays. We had a lot of fun with the pumpkin drop. It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun to see the enjoyment with the kids. And I look forward to doing that many, many more years, whether I'm on the council or not. Just being there is a lot of fun. Some of us left there and then went to the ball game. F

Thank you, Miss King. Thank you for all of you who came out tonight that are watching at home. Mr. White, Mr. Foster, I heard what you said and you've given me something to think about. And I appreciate you coming because we need to hear that input. will say this because we create a new ordinance we can always go back and revisit that at any time if this is something that doesn't work we can always make change and like I said as long as I'm here I plan on being transparent with you so that you do know what's going on you can always call me at any time anybody that wants to talk about rate incr

Thank you. I want to say thank you for everyone that has attended tonight. Thank you for all your comments. As always, we welcome them. I want to say thank you to everyone who participated and sent 4,000 plus cards to our oldest citizen, Mrs. Lily Cunningham. She turned 112. years of age. She's the oldest citizen of Florence, presumed to be the oldest citizen in the state of Alabama. Mayor, thank you for your card. She did receive that. And she's sitting there every day just opening up cards. They sent me pictures of her doing that. So thank you all so much. And I still have another bin that I