City Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, everyone. It is now 2.09 p.m., May 19th, and I hereby call our budget hearings to order. Good afternoon, Chief Person. Good afternoon, everyone. It's so good to see all of you all this afternoon. We're going to move this, and I think you all probably have a copy of the agenda. We're going to move it around just a little bit. It says we're going to start off with the introduction of resolutions and review session. We're going to move that to the latter part. We're going to wait because we only have one resolution today and it's Councilwoman Green. So we're going to wait on her. And then we're also got some responses from finance. Thank you all so much for your diligent work, even through the evening after we left here with after five. So thank you all so much for your hard work. We got some responses today. Those responses are going out to the members. And so we're going to hold that review and go over some of those responses if necessary at the end. Also, council members, well, first let's call the roll. Councilman Dr. Warren? Here. Chair White? Present. And hopefully some of my other good council members join us. I know I saw Councilwoman Walker and Chairwoman Swearingen-Washington in the back, so I'm sure they'll be in here. The other thing I was going to say, council members, and if you all hear me in the back, what we're going to do today, and we're taking recommendations not only from council members, but also from you all, directors, on things that we can do better and improve in this process. We want it to be meaningful and productive. And so things that we can do to try to get out of the way beforehand, if there's information or the ways that you think that this can work better. Ms. Mauricio is open to the recommendations and so am I. The other thing we're gonna do today is we're gonna wait until after the presentations to ask questions. And by that, just by each division. So without further ado, we're gonna get started with engineering.

Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Manny Berlin with the Division of Engineering. I am accompanied by Mr. Randall Tatum with our traffic. He's our traffic administrator. So we'll start with page two. Illustrates the engineering organizational structure. Page three is our total complement for the division. We currently have 155. We have approximately 16 vacancies all in the process of being filled or being posted. That's roughly about 14% of the division's authorized complement. which is not uncommon. Our division is hovering around 12 to 15 percent in vacancies just because we have people dropping off and dropping on. So we're constantly working on trying to improve that, but again it's subject to attracting good candidates. Slide four illustrates what this budget and FY27 operating budget is focused on. We have four key budget priorities, personnel, material supplies, capital outlay, and miscellaneous services and charges. Slide five. This is a comparison obviously of our FY26 adopted budget versus what our FY27 proposed budget is. So under personnel expenses, you'll see that there is an uptick from the FY26 adopted budget of roughly $11.56 million to our proposed 27, which is $11,993. And that's roughly about 4% increase from FY26. And that's associated with just the mayor's budget and dedication of employees of 2% increase in salaries, as well as additional OPEB. Under the material supply, you'll see that there is a substantial reduction there. It's roughly about a reduction of 21% from FY26 adopted to our proposed 27 budget. That's reflected on the third column and the last column of this table. Capital outlay is another drastic change. So we, that's roughly about 75% reduction from FY26 to our FY27 proposed. And then lastly, from the total expenditures perspective, so we do have roughly a 5% total expenditure reduction from FY26 budget to 27. Next slide. So this slide is reflective of what our FY26 Q3 actuals versus what is our budgeted amount. So I think the big key item here is under the FY26 Q3, we do see for our actuals, it's $8.4 million on total revenue. We actually had projected 15 million or forecasted 15 million by the end of FY26 and that's associated mainly to Smart Fiber as part of our operation as we get that going. The next slide is slide seven. Again, this is showing what we're doing with the allocated operating budget that we are getting for proposing for 27. So we have our dedicated youth. We're supporting that relative to the traffic control devices throughout the city, clean and attractive neighborhoods. We do have art and culture, and that's been in the division for quite some time now. I do want to add that we do have public safety as well as a strong economy. So we support those efforts as well. And you're probably going to ask, well, what do you guys do for public safety? Well, you know, the speed hump program is one of the public safety items that we tackle. As well as additional traffic calming devices. strong economy, we support that through obviously our land development side. And so as developments comes through, we support that and we ensure that what the developers are proposing meets our current standards so that our partners in public works can maintain those. Next slide is a summary or a snippet. It's an excerpt of all of our performance metrics that the division maintains or keeps track of. So the first item there you'll see is a total number of land development plans received during the year. That is, we're keeping kind of a track of how much development is happening. That's a good indicator of how well the health of the city is relative to developments. And, of course, as increase in developments happen, that's better for us in terms of revenue for the city. Go down to the last item as a sample is number of miles of fiber installed during the year. As I mentioned earlier, we are administering our smart fiber, as well as other fibers within the city. But the really aggressive fiber is the smart fiber. Right now, we're about to approach our third year on that program. It has been pretty successful relative to the amount of fiber being installed. So the goal initially when the project was introduced was about 500 miles of fiber annually. So again, we're in year two. So the expectation and the goal is to have about 1,000 lane miles. And right now, we're above that. We're roughly about 1,200 miles of fiber in the ground. Next slide. It's more of a breakdown, a further breakdown of our metric for the division. So in this case, percent of land development plans reviewed within 10 days. Our target is 95%, and currently mid-year, we're at roughly about 90%. And again, this is kind of supporting the economy of the city. Next slide. is the total number of land developments. I kind of mentioned that already. The goal, as you can see from historical context, we're hovering around 125, 150 developments coming through for review. This year alone, our goal for 26 was 115, and we're definitely above that. We're at 198 mid-year of 26. Next slide. The next slide is the number and percentage of ADA curb ramps that we want to maintain within the city. Currently, we are about 70... Our target is 73% of our ramps are ADA compliant. So we're still quite a ways away. We're still about 27% deficient relative to our ADA curb ramps being in standard. So we're still working on that. Next slide. The next slide is a number of traffic projects completed during the year, and that includes restriping signs and signals, and those are itemized there on the table for your review. And I think this is the last slide for the division. So some of the challenges and risk. This has been kind of similar to what we have experienced in the past. So our traffic signal signs and markings are the funding obviously is an issue. Just the cost of materials have increased over time. And so we're always going to see that as a challenge. Combine that with personnel and so we're quite challenged relative to making sure that we meet our metrics in putting down what necessary infrastructure we need to keep the city going. Second bullet items there is our land development civil and traffic survey team. Again, this is part of our efforts for the city relative to the development as well as making sure our benchmarks throughout the city. We maintain roughly about 25,000 benchmarks throughout the city and often some of those get removed as part of development and so we have to re-establish those. Construction inspections team, those are individuals that once developers construct their infrastructure, we ensure that those are inspected and constructed according to our standards. And then the last one is working in tandem with our public works department. Again, this is addressing drainage issues within the city. We implemented the MSQ-2 several years ago, and that basically prioritizes drainage infrastructure and repairs throughout the city. And so with that, I conclude my presentation and open for any questions.

Thank you. Let the record reflect that Chairwoman Swearengin-Washington and Councilwoman Walker and Councilwoman Logan have joined us. Chairwoman Swearengin-Washington, you're recognized.

I may have missed it, but what is a total lane mileage of road resurfacing plan for FY2027?

for resurfacing. I mean, I could take that, but I would say Public Works is probably, I believe it's close to like 90 lane miles. 125.

125. The resurfacing plan. Drainage and flooding, would I ask that for Public Works? Wait a bit.

Again, we tackle a lot of our drainage infrastructure challenges combined. So if you want to pose that question.

And if I can't answer it, I will defer to my counterpart in public or which areas of the city have experienced the highest volume of drainage related services request.

services requests. We do have that record, but I would take a stab initially, I would say within the 40 and I-240, the inside loop, simply because that's the older systems that we have within the city. We can definitely, we have a map that illustrates a lot of our hotspots. Typically when we get flooding control, we populate those. So we have a map that identifies where some of those hotspots are. And in fact, that map is kind of a driving information for us to prioritize some of the projects that we are tackling as part of the MSQ2 plans. And so we take that data along with actual asset inventory conditions, meaning that we televise the system, we do surveys on them to make sure that those systems are, you know, in fairly good conditions. They're not cracking or anything like that. So that data along with the calls that we get from the public and just things that we see out in the field and analysis that we do based on, um the current uh environment all right so historically when the systems got installed back in the days we were using uh a degree of intensity of rain uh that were far less compared to what we're experiencing now so those systems that were designed and installed back then are really inadequate with the rain experiences that we're getting now the intensities of them And so we're always looking at increasing or upgrading those systems to prohibit flooding from happening.

Okay, and last question. What is the current backlog of unfunded drainage improvement projects?

I would say unfunded. Again, I will defer to Public Works, but we recently issued a stormwater bond. You want to talk about that or you want me to? Okay, yeah, so we've identified several, I think about 12 or 13 projects. that we are looking to tackle this coming fiscal year. And so part of that included a roughly $56 million bond for stormwater improvements. And so we can certainly provide you those specific projects. And in fact, I believe those projects are included in the CIP stormwater list. So you may have that list already and outlined as part of those projects.

I'd like to have it, please. All right. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman Logan. You're recognized.

Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon, everyone. Good afternoon. Thank you all for your presentation. And we talked about you coming back with more information. I'm sure you don't have that today. And I wanted to know, or do you? I don't want to assume the information we asked for yesterday. Okay.

We do have that information, but my understanding is that the process is we're providing that to finance and finance provides that information.

Is anything in the budget for a study or review of the arts and culture? aspect of your budget. We talked about changing the perspective on how we install or how we select to give us more bang for our buck as it relates to blight mitigation and beautification. And you all are gonna go back and look at that with Ms. Edwards. So I wondered if you all have baked that into the budget, and if so, where? I just saw her regular $400,000 for the next five years. Right, because that's not inclusive of upscaling the maintenance and or a change in the direction of the type of art. We talked about art that could be planters or decorative things, and I still see street painting, painting of the streets as what's going to be the art. So with the potholes and not paving, painting the streets is not very, I don't think that's very cost effective, you know, to be out here beautifying the pothole streets and things like this. So you may want to take a look at that because over five years, that's $2 million. And in this budget, we don't really have a lot of money. for $400,000 worth of painting stuff on the street. And that's just my thought on how we can find areas in the budget that we can maybe use it to partner with other departments. So if there's something that can be done with another department that could bring beautification with the art, like planters or things like that, then let's do that. But otherwise, let's take another look.

Thank you. I wanted to go back a couple of slides to slide five. And so for materials and supplies and then capital outlay, really mainly materials and supplies, we see that there was an adopted budget of 5.3 million. And then the forecast for FY26 is 9.8 million. So more than about 4 million difference and then the proposed for is now more than half of what the forecast is for 26 and even less than it was that you adopted in 26. How did you all make this adjustment?

Yeah, so it's a definite effort, consolidated effort to ensure that we keep in line with what our budgeted amount is. So what we're working with is what the mayor's budget is. And so this is what we're committed to doing. So I would say from the adopted to our forecast, you'll see quite a bit of a drastic increase between the adopted budget and the forecast number. But that's also included in there, our Smart Fiber, which is front-loaded. Most of our Smart Fiber is front-loaded dollars, and we basically use a method of, you know, once a permit is submitted, we just deduct it off of that front-loaded amount. And so that's what you're seeing there as a change in roughly about four years. roughly 4.2 million dollars.

So when you say front-loaded, does that mean it's going to now appear in the next fiscal year?

Yes, so the way the agreement is for Smart Fiber is they allocate roughly 2.6 million dollars annually for the next five years. Okay, so that's what we are budgeting. In this particular year, we actually budgeted in FY26 2.6 million dollars But then what we found through about mid-year of the year, they were pretty aggressive relative to their installation of their fiber. And so they drastically reduced that $2.6 million. So we had to ask them for additional 1.6 and they allocated, or at least we got some additional funding from that. So it's another $1.8 million. And that's what we're working with in terms of our permits for the smart fiber.

Maybe I'm not following. I'm looking at materials and supplies on page five.

Yes.

What's the correlation between the budgeted amount, the forecast amount, the proposed amount, and the fiber? I'm not following.

Let me get back to page five here. So we have the FY26 budget amount of $5,329,000. Is that what you're referring to? I'm sorry. Walter Persons, CFO, 125 North Main. Is that what you're referring to, Chair? Right. And then you had the FY27 proposed budget of $4,184,959. So when we look at that, what I believe the director is speaking to is that, much like we discussed yesterday, when we talked to the divisions, we went through a series of really evaluating what they're doing and what opportunities they had. In the case of engineering, like many other divisions, We looked at opportunities for reducing their material and supplies by a certain requisite amount. It wasn't done in a vacuum. It was done with full partnership with engineering. So essentially, they were allowed to look at it and see where cuts could be made. And that's a big part of the steps that they follow. And so we also looked at any vacant opportunities that they may have had as well to evaluate losses. But that wouldn't have hit the M&S line. But with that being said, relative to a smart fiber, what I think he's saying is basically it's prepaid. And when the expense or when the construction starts...

When you say prepaid, we prepay it?

No, the vendor prepays. And then they expense it over the course of time.

And so that would appear in you all's material and supplies?

Right, because that is an outside entity that's doing the smart fiber development. And correct me if I'm wrong, you all are providing the review and the permitting and basically the inspection processes, but an outside vendor is actually doing the construction work related to that.

That is correct.

Okay. appreciate the additional information. It was helpful because I didn't understand that part. But I think you all are still kind of, we're probably still missing each other a little bit here. And so I think going back, the answer was there's a consolidated effort to Stay within budget, basically. So my question though is realistically looking at these numbers, you have an FY26 adopted budget of 5.3 million. Right now your forecast is 9.8 million, meaning that you're forecasted to be $4.5 million over. what you forecasted last year. And from my understanding, these consolidated efforts started last budget season, if I recall, that we were starting this consolidated effort to stay within budget. We got new mechanisms, new technology to be able to do so. So the consolidated efforts have been going. So even with consolidated efforts, we're about $4.5 million over what was forecasted. Yet the proposed budget for next year is a million and some change less than what was even adopted this year, also knowing that costs are increasing. So my question is, other than we made a consolidated effort, how did we logically arrive at this $4.1 million number?

So I would say there was a... process and exercise that we went through, at least for my division, there was a request to a reduction basically of roughly 1.4% throughout the entire budget. Look at my division budget, reduce it by a certain percent and through that exercise this is what we submitted as part of our budget.

Okay, thank you. Well, I don't think so. I think the realistic thing is that when we look at this number, and probably as we get these other numbers, these are some of the patterns that we need to look for. Because I think these are places where we can pretty much place of we don't bet we're not betting people but if we were we probably bet that it's gonna end up coming back at the end of the year so but i understand um the other thing is i saw The division of engineering, this is on page 13, the division of engineering's current funding and staffing for traffic signal signs and markings are inadequate to address deferred maintenance. And combined with the anticipated increase in material costs, it will drastically impact the division's response. Can you give us a little bit more information about that and how that may need to be addressed in this budget season? because that seems like that's a significant potential issue.

Yeah, I would say, you know, that is one of the challenges.

Well, not a potential issue, it is an issue.

That's definitely a challenge that we are going to have to face. I would approach it in an alternative way, which is we do have our in-house fabrication team. We do have, obviously, personnel that... would typically make the necessary labor work for that. And so we can offset any sort of cost increases for materials. We may be able to gain some sort of savings as a result of fabricating those in-house and installing them with in-house forces. But we still do see some challenges simply because the way what we see from an inflationary perspective of what material costs are.

Okay, I guess the question, and maybe I should be a little bit more specific. When I see this, what are the concerns? And I guess it's like it says traffic signal signs and markings. And so is there, do you have kind of a comprehensive report as to where it is that we're inadequate in terms of these things that have been noted specifically? For instance, we should have 25 working ones and we have 10 working ones. I don't know if that's how that data is represented. But is there anything kind of comprehensive where we can understand where we are with this and potentially understand what the costs may be if we deem this to be a priority?

Yeah, the one thing I'll mention is another aspect of this and how it impacts our operation is from the personnel side of things. And I think our ability to respond is obviously subject to our available personnel. And what ends up happening is that we have to expand a fairly large amount in overtime in order to address emergency issues that we would be able to address without overtime forces if there was additional staff. So that's the biggest issue as far as our response. We typically are able to respond, but we're having to pay more because we're using overtime labor to address those emergency issues.

Okay, so is the solution to hire more? And if the solution is to hire more, is it that there are not more available? So let's do this. This will probably be helpful. I'm not going to use up the time. I think what would be helpful for you all's budget, and just because it's just, and maybe it's not as big of a deal as it reads, but to me it reads like it's not something that we should skip over. Seems like you all seem to be ringing an alarm here, and I want to make sure that we address it properly. And so what I would appreciate is to understand the severity of this issue that you've noted by way of some numbers to say this is what we have, this is what it should be, and this is what the cost is for it, or here are our issues, whether it be personnel, contracting, money. so that we can, as we prioritize the budget, determine if this is something that needs to go to the top of the priority list.

Yeah, we can certainly compile that information. So I would say our responsiveness is subject to how many drivers hit our poles. So that's a fluctuating thing. And so what we want to encourage is people just drive safely stop hitting poles and stop hitting our traffic signals and so that and so that and so that you know when we're responding to these we are required to respond simply because they're regulatory signs and they're regulatory you know traffic signals so we have to make sure that those are addressed within the guidelines for timing so I say that simply because it's real. I mean, those are real items that we have to address.

I understand that, and maybe I'm just not reading well, because this says deferred maintenance and current funding and staffing for traffic signal signs and markings are inadequate to address deferred maintenance, which I don't know. I just don't understand how that correlates specifically with response team. And maybe that's what I'm just saying. I just want to understand what the challenge is and what your solution is for it and what that costs. Councilwoman Walker, you're recognized. Then Councilwoman Logan, you're recognized.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for this. My question is simply this, and I would appreciate a yes or no response. Can y'all find some money so we can pay some overtime so we can get Elvis Presley Boulevard finished? I can't go nowhere in Whitehaven without people asking me about that. This is my life. I can't go nowhere. So if you can't find the money, I need three wigs, blonde, auburn, and brown, number four, some shades in different colors so I can disguise myself. I can't go nowhere. It's not a safe place for me. EH-4 mortuary is one of the few safe places for me. I don't care about no contract. The constituents don't care about no contract. I drove down northbound far right lane. That lane needs to be closed. It was somebody there today rinsing off this metal thing. Where the workers at? Where they at? Okay, can y'all help me find some money for some overtime for Elvis Presley Boulevard? Do I need to post up out there like Jacqueline Smith did at the Civil Rights Museum or something like that? What do I need to do? Tell me what I need to do. Thank you. I yield the floor.

Thank you, Councilwoman Walker. Councilwoman Logan? Councilwoman Logan is going to wait. Are there any other questions for engineering?

Vice Chair, I do want to make a remark relative to a question you asked earlier. We did discuss in the budget team, and it was discovered that for that particular element related to the forecast, I think there's a typo in that number on page five. So we're going to go back and investigate that $9 million number and come back with a revised number. Yes. And so we want to make sure that we address that particular question that you asked me.

OK, thank you. And I guess one last thing. So since we're doing follow ups, I don't know the full I don't know all of the full hiccups with Elvis Presley Boulevard would express the same frustration. So I think what would be helpful is to find out. I think what would be helpful would be for us to clearly have articulated to us what the issues are. And I know that in so many terms, you've kind of explained general delays, but with some specificity, what the issues are, and so that we can determine as a council if there are ways that we can potentially intervene to speed that process along. So if you could equip us with what your bottlenecks are and what the delays have been and what we can anticipate in the future to see as it progresses and how soon. Also, I would like to know if there's like a project manager over that outside of, is that done internally or is there someone outsourced to manage that particular project?

So there is an internal project manager for the city on that, but we do capitalize on other consultants to help with that project. That includes construction inspections. As you know, that project is already ongoing. It is a TDOT grant funded project. So we have reached out to the state relative to the option of doing an overtime process, but that may require some adjustments and amendments through the state, our state agreement. But again, we're working that angle. I know we've heard you from our last meeting. We have reached out to the state on that and we're waiting for answers.

Right around the corner. Somebody gonna come from there. What about public safety? What about public safety?

Okay, so Councilwoman Logan just brought up a good point. She was saying that it's not just apparently issues, I guess, with Elvis Presley Boulevard. If there are, and I don't know if you all have kind of an internal list already in engineering of projects that you all are deeming urgent that need to be pushed along or maybe brainstormed as to potential ways to get it pushing. If we could get a list of those because and if you don't know the list and you don't have an ongoing list it seems that Councilwoman Logan has some in mind and she'll get those to you of the ones that we would just like kind of a status on to understand what's going on. Well, what I think would be appropriate, I don't want to request TDOT to come. I would like for the directors to identify what the issues are, and then that way we can determine how we may need to intervene.

Well, let's allow space for things to happen. We'll provide the list of projects.

Okay, and then council members will be incumbent upon us to make sure that we don't let it fall by the wayside. Let's get that information and then let's take the next steps that are appropriate after that. Thank you so much, you all. Have a great rest of your day. All right, next we have Public Works, Sewer Storm Water. Okay.

Okay.

And are you all going to get us the corrected numbers on the materials and supplies?

I'm sorry, Vice Chair, can you repeat that?

I think you were telling me that there was like an incorrect number.

Yes, ma'am, that $9,886,000 on page five, you were referencing that earlier. So we're going to go back and take a look at that and get that addressed as part of our council responses and get that back to you all.

Okay, thank you. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

How are you all?

Good.

Good.

All right, thank you, Chairwoman.

You're recognized.

All right, Scott Morgan, Public Works Director, 125 North Main. So as you all are aware, I have general fund, storm water fund, and sewer fund. So we'll start with the general fund public works. So your first slide is we have under general fund administration and then our street maintenance department, which includes street maintenance as well as right of way maintenance. which would be your paving and pothole operations, and then your mowing and litter collection within the public right-of-ways. Next slide. Authorized complement for Public Works is 114. We have 16 vacancies, and currently, about last month when this was generated, 10 are either posted and or filled. So it's a good complement for that group. So our budget overview, street paving and pothole repair, including the preventative maintenance program that we started in July of last year. We'll continue to do that. Maintenance of the right-of-way, so that's the public right-of-way. So your medians that are grass, mowing, litter control, graffiti removal, and tree trimming. And that also includes any guardrail repairs. Our snow and ice emergency response comes out of this operation. So the event we had in January, all of those personnels came from street maintenance and right-of-way. And then any downed trees that come During the day or after hours or on weekends, all downed trees are responded to by street maintenance and the roads cleared from fallen trees. So historical budget, FY26 for personnel was around 8.5. Our budget for FY27 is about 8.2. Materials and supplies is a similar 10.9 to 10.2. We were looking at about a million dollar decrease in personnel and M&S for public works, which is about a 5% decrease. And within Public Works General Fund, we also receive the $6.5 million transfer from CIP, which goes directly to paving and pothole repair. And we also get the State Street Aid recovery, which is budgeted now for about 5.1, which is the gasoline tax that goes to offset our budget. For FY27, it's budgeted for 5.1.

So it's 5.1 plus the 6.5? Yes, ma'am. And so the 6.5 is from CIP, and you said the 5.1 was from where?

Gas tax. That's the state street aid.

Okay, and is that it for that first street paving?

Yes.

Okay, and what was it last year?

6.5 has been the same historically, but the gas tax fluctuates, as you can see on the slide. I mean, FY22 was 6.3. Which slide are you on? 5. Okay. So 6.3 to 8.8, and then FY26 was 5.5, budgeted.

I'm not either. What line are you on? What line are you on?

Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, ma'am. Expansion recovery on slide five. Okay, got it.

Okay. And so that's solely the gas tax?

Yes.

Got it.

All right, next slide. So as your historical comparisons year over year, as you noted with Division of Engineering, you will see the forecast being higher than the proposed budget. And I think that's mainly a function of carry forward dollars, as well as maybe a little overzealous on forecasting. Because if you recall, carry forward dollars account for any dollars that are obligated within contracts. So we have a lot of contracts for outside services, asphalt repair, contractors that help us repair the asphalt plant, things like that. And those get carried forward into the fiscal year. So we'll do a good job of looking at cross-referencing all that with our forecast to close out the year in Q4. So key budget drivers for Public Works will continue to maintain the balanced budget and deliver our core services, which is making sure the streets are clear and safe for all who travel. So potholes, street resurfacing, guardrails, and clearing trees from the roadways, snow and ice, if we do get inclement weather this fiscal year. And then maintaining grass, litter removal, graffiti and such so any anytime we get called or um you know see see these items with our own crews we handle those our performance metric one that we paid close attention to is potholes our average response time is two to three days and you can see the by fiscal year the number of potholes we have filled and as a reminder we fill far more than what is called into 311 we rely A lot on citizens to call in pothole requests, but we also, our crews are out there proactively filling potholes as well as when they respond to potholes at those particular locations, any within the area that they go ahead and address as well. Challenges for this budget, with the reduction, about 400,000 of that came from asphalt products. That'd be less lane miles paved. That would equate to about five lane miles. And as noted before, we're at about 124 for fiscal year 27 with a $20 million CIP request. And then the other modifications were based on historical trends. So a lot of our... expenses come when we have weather. So snow and ice, a big rainstorm, a windstorm where we have 100 trees down, where we're spending a lot of overtime and a lot of crews out clearing the streets. So over the past several years, those events haven't exceeded the budget. So that's where, between overtime and some professional services, that's why they would cut the remaining request.

that is it for general fund thank you director morgan i have a couple of questions um now see anybody else in the queue right now so um okay so let's go back to the paving pothole so right now it looks like there's is it correct that it's 11.6 million dollars allocated to paving and pothole is that right $6.5 million from CIP and then $5.1 million from the gas tax.

No, so $6.5 is directly attributable to personnel as well as materials and supplies for street paving and pothole repair. The other part of that just goes to the overall budget for street maintenance.

Say that again.

The $6.5 million?

With your pleasure, Director. So we talked yesterday a little bit in CIP about three levels of payment coming in for asphalt and paving in general. There was the 6.5, which is what the director is speaking to, which is the money year in and year out, I think for at least the five years I've been here, that we devoted to basically paying this division back from CIP for paving, which includes the pothole repair. About a million of that is personnel. Another five million or so is related to the materials and supplies related to that. And then there's a separate recovery that they also receive. And I think engineering gets a little piece of that as well, which is from, it's called State Street Aid. And that was one of the funds that we covered yesterday. And that's money that is allocated from the state. back to certain divisions like engineering and public works and others. We treat it as a recovery, but basically as a payment that they get and is based on gasoline tax and typically is related to road and maintenance, but it's not obligated to roads and maintenance. He's saying that it can be used for just general cost recovery within the budget.

Okay, so just how much is allocated to pavement and potholes?

$20 million, because that's the whole CIP request, and $6.5 million of that would go to Public Works, and that would leave $13.5 million that would be out of CIP for contracted payment.

For 13 1⁄2, for where?

Contracted paving, resurfacing. So those are your larger roads that's managed through Division of Engineering. So those typically involve intersection upgrades, traffic loops, restriping, things like that. So it's not just... So in-house crews, public works in-house crews, mainly we do neighborhoods and we go in, we mill the road, and we resurface. We do that, you know, all day, every day, throughout the summer, as long as we're producing asphalt. CIP paving involves other improvements to sidewalks, intersections, traffic signals, restriping, things like that. So 13 and a half of that 20 million will go to CIP, that's managed through engineering, and six and a half comes to public works for in-house paving.

Okay, and so what we're allocating this year is very similar to what we allocated last year.

Last year was 16 million, and this year is 20 million.

Okay, so we increased 4 million.

Yes, ma'am.

All right. At one point, I asked you to provide us kind of the levels of packages that we can get in order if we said that, and I believe that this council has an appetite to make paving and potholes a priority in this city for the reasons that we've stated many times as to how it saves constituents money. It saves us money from lawsuits and repairs. And so if we wanted to make this robust effort What I would like to understand right now is, and I've gotten a couple of different responses. I remember one time when we spoke about it, you said it's not capacity. We have capacity. We can fill more potholes. We just need to know about more potholes. But I want to go back even before that. It's my understanding, and I want to make sure that I'm accurate in this. You please help me because I consider you to be the expert in this area. Is the issue with the reoccurring potholes because of our deferred paving? Is that an accurate statement?

I would say that's accurate, whether it's deferred or just not enough funding put in place to resurface roads.

So if we put in funding to resurface the roads, then it's accurate to say that our need for pothole repair would decrease.

ultimately yes ma'am but keep in mind there's 67 6800 lane miles of streets within the city 6700 to what 6800 lane miles lane and the proposed budget for 20 million dollars is 124. and as you all know with the increase in petroleum and everything else so 20 million allocated today is not the same 20 million that is going to you know push out 124 lane miles in two years

This is good. Okay. So 6,700 to 6,800 lane miles. And right now we're covering 124 lane miles with $20 million allocation. And that's just for paving? Yes, ma'am. Or is that for paving and potholes? I think.

The $6.5 million is for paving and potholes, but we will be able to get 60... In-house is 61 lane miles with that, $6.5 million. It's about $80,000-ish per lane mile.

Wait a minute, you lost me then.

Take me back. So $6.5 million for in-house paving, so that's public works, city crews, is 61 lane miles. Mm-hmm. And then the 63 lane miles would be done out of CIP, and that gives us the 124 that we are scheduled for FY27.

Got it. Okay. Now, if you are in a city that you would consider the gold standard city, in terms of proportion to what we have lane miles, 6,700 to 6,800, or I take that back. Let's not even do the gold standard city. Based on what you know our paving needs to be right now, what would that budget need to be?

Well, right now with the proposed five-year CIP that was proposed last year, we went from 16 to 20, and then next year I think was 25, then the two years out were 30, which obviously increases lane miles, but it still puts us on about a 40-year, to get back to the same street again and pay. So if we pay one street, we're not gonna be back again for another 40, 45 years, which that's a pretty long time.

Is it reasonable to say if we increased our efforts significantly that the ability to do it would be there and not even in terms of in-house? Are there contractors that can be contracted for this work? Yes, I do think there's probably... Like is the workforce there if we decided to undergo such a massive effort? Is the workforce available for that?

Yes, I think it depends on the limit, because eventually you will hit a limit on, because we're fighting for the same contractors, TDOT, MDOT, Arkansas DOT, you know, all the municipalities. You got several large paving operations that are doing this work. So if you, let's just say if you wanted to propose $50 million, there's going to be a point at which you can't spend that much money. And I don't know what that is, but there will be a break point to where the amount of money you put at it might be more than what's capable of being spent in a year. Because you've got to remember, asphalt plants shut down December-ish through February, depending on weather. So that's another factor. So you get July through December and then February through June.

How long is the training for street painting?

Training?

Yeah, like people who do street paving, like how long is the training for that? Like is it a long? This may be a place where we can create workforce development. So this is what I would appreciate. Where's Chief Adam? And only if my council members agree. I think that paving and potholes are... are a priority and then we should treat it as such this year as council members. And so this is what I would ask, two things. I would ask that the administration through Scott Morgan, one, determine what the gold standard looks like for us to take an aggressive take on paving because it seems that we would reduce our need for maintenance in terms of potholes if we do the paving. So what does that look like in terms of a dollar amount? That would come from Scott Morgan. From the administration, I would like for us to determine what funding mechanisms could be used to do so, whether it's through a bond issuance, whether it's through additional CIP, how it is that we can actually fund what it is that Director Morgan presents. And then I would like from Director Morgan a comparison of any, I guess, equivalent cities that have done this kind of undertaking to see what the competitive market would be like for us to be able to get the contractors. I don't want us to allocate more than we're able to get workforce, but I would also like to know what the training is because this could be an opportunity through the administration to create a pipeline and create some new systems skilled workers for something that could last a lifetime. Just like tree trimming, we're going to need people who pave streets and do piles.

Yes, ma'am. I think, and correct me if I'm wrong, you are going to present some details of your CIP? Yes. Okay. So what you will see, Councilwoman, I'm sorry, Antonio Adams, Chief Operating Officer, what you will see in the CIP is a reallocation of some funds that are going to go directly into paving. But what you also will see is an investment, an intentional investment in our asphalt plant where we would be able to produce our own asphalt and we would then be able to have a grow your own operation as well as augment the operation externally as well. So you will see this year the beginning of that. And again, we'll come back with what the gold standard looks like, how we can get our paving cycles a lot closer, a lot tighter, where we're actually paving in real time. And you'll be able to actually understand how we'll be able to fill in the potholes as well. So I didn't want to be too premature in Director Morgan's presentation, but I wanted you all to know that as well.

Thank you. And I wanted to come back like we're trying to win the Guinness Book World Record for the best streets in the world. I want to know how much they cost. Thank you. Councilwoman Logan and Councilwoman, I mean, Councilman Dr. Warren, you're recognized.

How are, Director Morgan, how are you all factoring in or accounting for the state roads? Because all of our interstates and all of the state roads that are in our, like Third Street and Elspeth, Austin Peay. They are responsible for those. That should be in their budget. But can you separate those out when you do this analysis and bring that information back? You can include it, but also show it separate because that's something that they're supposed to pay for. And a lot of the streets in Memphis are state roads. And so we'll be paying for and borrowing money to pay for their responsibilities. It's in our city, and we need to look at what that looks like. But I would like to see it separated. You can aggregate it, but then on the side, do it separate. And then secondly, the larger companies or smaller companies that we're using, contractors rather, that we're using to do the work Is there a warranty? Do they give a warranty on their work? And if so, what is the warranty?

Yes, city standard construction is 12 months.

Four months warranty? 12 months. 12 months warranty. And so have we ever had to have any of them go back and fill in potholes for free without a charge? or have we ever had to utilize the warranty?

I know there's been some road resurfacing that has been done where there were issues with it where they went back and repaired sections. They do like cut and patch. As far as potholes, I'm not sure because that's hard to sometimes quantify because if we have inclement weather, just say they pave it in October, we have a snow or ice event in December, it tears up the road. Is that really their fault?

catastrophic storm or whatever, snowstorm or whatever, but just in general, is it our practice to maintain, I mean, to really look at the quality of work and how long it lasts? Because I know there's different types of filling in potholes. Some is with the cold or some is with hot, you know, it's different. So what do we use? Are we using what works best? And are we requiring them to give us top grade?

Yes, ma'am.

And are we monitoring their work?

Yes, it's simple answer. So construction inspections through the CIP paving, they inspect the contractors that are putting down the asphalt. So that's signed off on, that's inspected during the operation, as well as at the end of operation to make sure All of it went down properly. All the traffic signals were improved, sidewalks, whatever is in the scope of work. From a pothole standpoint, when the temperatures are above what it needs to be to produce asphalt, 40-ish, 45 degrees, we'll produce hot mix, which is a better repair method than what you're referring to as cold mix. So in the winter months where it's too cold to produce asphalt, We need to still respond to potholes to get something down, but a cold mix is more of a temporary solution because it doesn't adhere to the road service as well. But it does fix the problem as best as we can at that time.

So some of them are temporary. That's what I think a lot of constituents don't know, that you're just putting down some of it just for temporary. Some last a year, some last less. And if we're paying for a temporary fix, that should be the expectation. But maybe we need to figure out something else. For the streets of Memphis, a temporary fix is costing us more than a permanent fix or durable.

We produce hot mix as much as we can. Our asphalt plant is more reliable than a contractor because they'll shut down and then do wholesale repairs to the plant, we'll keep ours up and running as much as we can to produce asphalt. Now, we might not be paving with it, but we'll be producing small batches to continue to fill potholes with hot mix. It's nature-driven, weather-dependent, but we do produce hot mix as much as possible.

All right. And the plant that you're going to come and present about the plant.

I'll briefly touch on it. For CIP, there's a request for $3 million to completely rehab the asphalt plant. Memphis is one of the few cities in the country that has their own asphalt plant. So right now, the design for that is currently being paid for out of our operating budget. So if it's approved, we'll be able to roll pretty quickly into bidding that project and getting somebody to come in and do a complete refurbishment. It's been there 20, 30 years, it's taken a lot of wear and tear, replacing bins, conveyors, the bag house that filters the air. It will allow us to use recycled asphalt, so when we mill the road, we'll be able to use that material to produce new asphalt. And as Chief Adams was alluding to, at some point, we'll have to kind of get legal involved. But at some point, if we can produce more asphalt reliably, the goal would be to potentially get contractors under contract, provide the asphalt to the contractors, and then they just charge us for labor to put it down. We provide the asphalt. But we have, as long as our asphalt plant can produce it reliably and we can give like a, just say, a base tonnage per year, we should be able to get to that point. But that's several years away. We just have to work through a lot of logistics with that. Because we want to make sure they're putting it down in the right spots. You know, we need inspections. We don't want them taking asphalt and going somewhere where we didn't tell them to pave. So, but that's where we're heading. Yes, ma'am.

Thank you. Dr. Warren, you're recognized.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I share everyone's frustration with this. So I was just sitting here and I googled, what's the gold standard for city repavement cycle for roads? And it says there isn't a single gold sample. There's a pavement preservation cycle, which is what I think they're trying to explain to us. Every five to seven years, you're supposed to apply a surface seal. Year zero is when you put it down. Year 12 to 15, you go and you take an inch or two off. The asphalt they're talking about there, it goes back into the plant to go for resurfacing. and then you do another sort of squirt on top of it, try to preserve it. I don't know where we are in that plan, but supposedly that can get us 30 to 50 years before we have to do a major resurfacing. I would imagine based on where our roads are now, we're right at that 30 to 50 year point for a large amount of our roads, and that's what we're seeing. We're seeing the under part of our roads that had huge trucks on them, cars on them, multiple years, and they're deteriorating. So as we're thinking about this long term, part of this is rebuilding the infrastructure of our city and the roads, and it's not going to just be paving. So as we think about this looking forward, We're going to need these guys to bring us up a long-term plan that includes, you know, fixing our infrastructure. This is a national thing, but in Memphis, particularly the inner cities, I think that's what we're looking at, and that's why I have so many potholes. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Any more members in the queue? All right.

Did you all include the sinkholes repairs? I don't know if that's between you or the sinkholes that are present around. They're going to be fixed regardless, right?

Yes, absolutely. And sink, as a reminder, so when we say pothole, pothole is the surface piece that's missing, like Dr. Warren said, and you can still see the road surface below it, like the next layer. A cavity or a sinkhole is where you actually see a void in the asphalt, and there's nothing below it. So what that means, there's usually a utility, whether it's sewer, drainage, light gas, water, where some utility has opened up you know a separated joint that's allowing soil to go in that utility you lose the soil then you lose the asphalt so those will be fixed either by stormwater sewer fund or light gas and water if it's one of theirs but they didn't lose any funding right no okay all right thank you so much

I'm sorry. Yep, we still got to do sewer storm warning. And sorry, you all, we are behind and we acknowledge that we're behind. But I don't necessarily apologize because I think this was a very important topic that we needed to discuss. And I don't think we need to skip over it this budget season. But I do apologize in terms of your time. I, you know, do appreciate you all's time that you're taking to be here. You can proceed, Director Morgan. Thank you.

Okay. Okay, next up, Public Works Sewer Fund. Organizational chart, we have eight departments within the sewer fund. One falls under engineering, division of engineering, which is sewer design. And the rest are public works, which is your sewer collection and treatment, pre-treatment industrial monitoring, which is where we issue permits and monitor our industrial customers. And then our environmental administration, which handles all the capital projects. Authorized complement for public works, sewer fund 356, engineering is 12. Engineering has one vacancy, and public works has 58. We have posted and 23, and some of those have been filled. So if we're able to get all those filled, that'll probably put us at, I'll say, I won't say an all-time low, but a pretty good low as far as vacancies, because The sewer fund requires a lot of special licenses. We work 24-7 in some of the departments, so some of those spots are hard to fill. Budget overview, 25% personnel, 66% material supplies, 9% capital outlay. The key budget driver for this year is the proposed rate increase. And to finalize that, which will support expenses and future bonding opportunities for the system. Continued system-wide improvements in the collection system and the TE Max and wastewater treatment facility in Pigeon Industrial Park. So historical comparison, FY26, you will see the increase in personnel, which are attributable to the 2% proposed rate increase for employees as well as benefit adjustments. Materials and supplies, we were able to cut a couple million due to some various factors at the wastewater treatment plant. capital outlay is vehicles and equipment and projects throughout the sewer system so we we pay for vehicles through our operating revenue versus bonds like the general fund.

Does that account for the increase from 25 to or I guess 26

Yeah, we're getting there.

Okay.

Interest is our debt service payment on our loans and bonds, and then transfers out is the pilot payment and the general fund payment that the sewer fund makes to the general fund. Total revenue for FY27, 171, that does include the proposed rate increase. I will note that 26 adopted budget was 172. That includes, as part of our total revenue, not just charges for services, which is like sewer fees, which you see on your MLGNW bill, sewer development fees, inspection fees, things like that. It also accounts for reimbursements. So we have several loans, we have an ARPA grant, we have a WIFI loan, SRF loan. So that revenue, it's a little inflated because it does include reimbursements throughout the years as we make expenditures in our capital program. So from a charges perspective, we're at about 150, 145 to 150 million in charges for services. So the FY27, if you just do the math, it's about $20 million increase in revenue for the proposed FY27 budget. So year over, yes, sorry, year over year, you can see the expected charges for FY26 compared to actual years. We're right on trend as far as I think personnel was 68%, M&S was maybe about 65%. So we're right on track for Q3 going into Q4. depreciation, I'm sorry, interest and is right on track with our debt service management team. And then our transfers out will, those occur at the end of the year, the pilot payment and the general fund payment. Next slide. So this is going into the rate comparison for the sewer fund. So this is just a little history. On the right, you can see the historical table from a volume match. So let me back up just a minute. The sewer fees account for two types of charges. So we have a volumetric charge, which is paid by every person within our service area that has a water meter. So that's MLG&W Stahl's water meter. They read the units coming into your house. We charge you for those units coming out the back. The other charge is an additional treatment charge, which is charged to our industrial customers. And that's for high-strength wastewater that's above residential standards. So those are costs completely attributed to the industrial characteristics of the wastewater that 35 to 40 industries send to the treatment plant that caused the treatment plant more energy to treat that wastewater. Point of information, Madam Chair.

You recognize that?

Does that cost cover the amount of treatment? Does that cost that we charge cover what we pay to treat it?

With the proposed rate increases, yes. So, I mean, we haven't changed our ATC. There's three constituents. BOD, which is biochemical oxygen demand. That's the... amount of air that we apply to our systems. So it really directly correlates to electricity. So the more blowers that we use at the plants, the more air is supplied and the bugs react to that and treat the wastewater. The other aspect of that is suspended solids. And that's a solids managing process of the treatment plants. So after the bugs within the system digest the wastewater, the byproduct, if you will, is sludge or biosolids. So we have to manage that biosolids. So the more suspended solids we get into the plant, that's a process of managing those biosolids. And then the next constituent is COD, which is chemical oxygen demand. So we treat, we disinfect our wastewater before it's discharged into the Mississippi River. So that charge is directly attributable to that constituent. So as much as, the higher that COD is on the back end, the more we have to disinfect to meet our permit limits for E. coli. So those charges above the residential standard.

Is it unprocessed together?

Yes. So the industries have permits, the industry sample, we as well as the controlling authority sample. And based upon, they're called self monitoring reports, based upon their monthly reports of what the volume as well as the concentration that they discharge in, we send them a bill to treat that wastewater. But that's outside of what MLGNW would send for volumetric. So the last volumetric rate increase was passed in 2017. It was a tiered rate increase January of 2018, January 2020. You can see the increase percentages. And as mentioned, BOD and TSS, the last time they were changed were 2010. And COD was a new charge that was implemented when the state permit was updated for the treatment plants and we had to disinfect. So that's why we implemented COD. The current rate per CCF, which is 100 cubic feet, is 2.483. So next slide, so if you recall, sewer funds sold bonds in March of 2025. We're rated just like the city is on geo bonds by two agencies, S&P and Moody's. Due to the lack of cash reserves as well as no approved rate increases in the near future at this time when we sold the bonds, S&P downgraded the city from a AA plus to an A plus with a negative outlook. And what that does is ultimately it costs the city more money. Because if our bond rating goes down, the entities who buy the bonds, in their opinion, there's more risk. So then the interest rate is typically higher. So we wanna make sure the city's portfolio, which includes geo bonds, storm water, as well as sewer, is healthy to get good ratings. And if you want to add to person.

Walter Persons, CFO, 125 North Main. So essentially, I did see a little bit of a puzzlement on your face, Vice Chair. What the director is saying is the cash reserves, as he referred to it, or cash on hand, declined. And it declined, and I think he's going to touch on some of the reasons for it in subsequent slides. But what bond rating agencies do when they see that is, they tend to look at the portfolio as being riskier. And if they look at it as being riskier, then they may issue a lower rating for the bonds that are being issued. In this case, we had a reduction in our available cash. And that was due, again, to some of the things that will be coming up subsequent to this part of the presentation. It didn't necessarily impact that one particular issuance. To my recollection, we didn't have a material increase in interest rates, but it does position us for higher interest rates because you pay higher interest rates as bond issuances appear to be riskier to the market. So it's just like in your personal portfolio. If you have a lower personal credit rating, you tend to pay higher rates for the goods and services that you purchase.

I think we all understand that part. I think where my puzzle look came from was when you were saying that So you're saying right now there is no impact, but you're saying in the future there could be. That's what I didn't understand.

In terms of what you budgeted here. Yes, ma'am. So the ratings happened right before the issuance. So with that particular move to a negative outlook at that time, it did not adversely impact where our rates would come in. Okay. But it could subsequently happen is essentially what's happening.

Okay.

Yes, that's correct, Doctor.

Thank you, Chief. All right, next slide. So as you can see here, as alluded to, you can see our total revenues and operating revenues, FY23 through 26. There was a large... There's had several, two sewer emergencies, really kind of 21 and 22, and then one in 24, one in 24 cost 26 million. So that comes directly out of our cash reserves. So we were able to absorb the cost. I mean, this council approved that repair. But over time, that definitely decreases our claim on cash. In addition, FY25 and 26, it was specifically March 2024 through February 26th, MLGNW had faulty water meters. There's about 48,000 water meters that were faulty. They're in the process of replacing those, but what that does is it does have an impact on revenue because if the water meters are estimated billing, meaning MLGNW has to estimate it to get the bill out, I'm not getting appropriate charges. So MLGNW can lose water revenue, and then in turn, the sewer fund would lose sewer revenue. And then the goal for unrestricted cash or claim on cash is 120 days, which puts me in about 32 to 35 million. And as we closed out FY25, we're at 46 days, which would be about 12 million. So FY26 is also expected to decrease, and that's another reason for asking for approval for the rate increase. So next slide, so from our rate study with our consultants PFM, we're pursuing a multi-year rate increase. The first would be 35% effective January 1st, 2027, so be half a year. And you'll see it on the next slide, but the current households of household within the city is an average of $17 a month. And with this rate increase, it would increase $6, which would put you about $23 a month or an impact of $73 per year. The second increase is 25% would go into effect FY29, so we would skip FY28 and go in July 1st, 2028, and it'd be approximately $5.86 per month. or $70.32 per year. So with these increases, their cash reserves will increase to the recommended 120 days cash on hand at FY 29. And then it'll also show the bonding agencies that we have rate increases that have been approved by the governing body and will help increase investments as we sell bonds as well as respond to emergency sewer events. Next slide, you can see the comparable sister cities that are comparable as far as system size to Memphis, where they've historically been the lowest sewer rates across the country. That's the $17.38, and with the two increases, we're still lower than the next city. I'll just point out, Nashville's at 61, Birmingham, Alabama's at 104. And then there's some notes on the bottom. We have a minimum charge and a maximum charge as well. The maximum charge is only on residential customers. No other city has a maximum charge that I could find. So what that means is if you're really during the summer, if you're irrigating your lawn, if you're filling a swimming pool, Or if you have a water break, that sewer is capped. So that does help our residential customers in those circumstances. And those rates will increase by the same percentage as what they are now. And that's in the sewer ordinance. That goes along with the FY27 budget request. So that was volumetric charges. These next several slides are the additional treatment charges related to our industrial customers and kind of the same thing. We just wanted to compare other cities that had similar ATC additional treatment charges. for BOD, TSS, and COD. So the first, this is a combined slide of those three constituents, and you can see the current rates for those, so that's cents. So BOD is 0.0428 cents per pound. And we're proposing increasing it to 0.0856. TSS would go 0.0716 cents to 0.199. And then COD would stay the same. We're not proposing an increase for COD. Next slide, so these next slides just take into account, we're just separated, it's the same numbers, but we're separating just to make it a little more clear so it's not jumbled. So first slide is TSS, total suspended solids. Memphis is the lowest, and then with the increase, we'll be about fourth on the list. BOD, Memphis is the lowest and will be third of those customers that charge BOD. And then COD, we're the lowest and we'll remain there. And these are, again, these are for your industrial customers, permitted industrial customers through the city, and there's 40, 35 to 40 of these customers that generate high-strength waste. So in summary, the multi-year rate increase will help us improve our cash on hand, continue to do sewer improvements, make sure we stay in compliance with the state and federal permits that govern the wastewater collection system as well as the treatment plant. will increase, as mentioned, cash and restore the city's portfolio to hopefully a more favorable outlook. And then this is just a summary of the charges at the bottom, which we went through on the previous slide. So you'll see the minimum charge, the dollars per 100 cubic feet, as well as the dollars per 1,000 gallons. That's sometimes a little easier to grasp. And then your maximum residential charge, and then your increases for DOD and TSS. I got two more slides. So previously mentioned, probably 99% of our billing and revenue comes from the MFG&W utility bills. The rest comes from public works staff that bill our industrial customers. Last rate increase was January 1st, 2020. And a lot of the M&S increases are just due to inflationary materials for higher costs, but we were actually able to cut M&S. challenges and risks. The sewer system obviously provides critical and core services to the citizens. Ultimately, the city's bond rating, so we want to make sure we protect that. We want to avoid any regulatory penalties with sanitary sewer overflows or violations at our treatment plant that our permits are directly tied to. Be able to respond to emergency failures and prevent future downgrades to the city's bond rating. And with that, that is sewer fund.

Thank you, Councilwoman Logan, you're recognized.

How likely is it for us to have future emergencies like we had when we had to wipe out the entire fund? I know our infrastructure is getting old now.

I mean, we will have emergencies, there's no doubt. Probably in the last, let's call it 10 years, we've had three. We have 3,200 miles of sewer and two very large wastewater treatment plants. And those wastewater treatment plants are 45 years old. Now, while we have put a lot of investments into those, especially the south plant, the Maxson plant, You know, things break. They run 24-7. We do a good job of maintaining. We have a system that does a lot of PM maintenance, preventative maintenance at the plants, an asset management system that generates tickets. But with that, I mean, for example, something could come into the sewer system. We have screens before our raw sewage pumps. If it gets through the screens, it gets sucked up into the pump. It could damage the the bowl, the bottom of the pump, the impeller that spins it. So things like that just happen that we, you know, it's hard to prevent. Another aspect of that is our consent decree program, our SARP 10 program. We've assessed 99% of our sewer system, which that means, so a part of our consent decree was to assess 10% of the sewer system every year. So that means we stuck a camera in every sewer pipe, we cleaned every sewer pipe, to get essentially an assessment of the pipe cracks, separated joints, collapses, things like that. And then those all go into a giant database. And then as funding allows and The score allows, those are prioritized to be a certain chunk to be fixed every year. But remember, I mean, 3,200 miles of pipe, and sewer rehab is not cheap. While we spend, we probably spend 50 to 60 every two years on CIP. That's great, and we've done a lot of investments in the sewer fund over the past 10 to 15 years. But there's a lot that need, and we have a lot of large pipe, and that's very expensive.

So you would consider this the critical?

Yes. The sewer fund is to the point where revenues are slightly outpacing expenses and we won't be able to generate enough revenue to build our cash up for any large emergencies without a rate increase.

All right, is the MSQ2, is that the project? Is that the project you're talking about?

That's stormwater. That's stormwater. So sewer is SARP10, S-A-R-P 10.

So we're not putting cameras in those?

No, those are the ones we're putting cameras in.

In all of them?

Yes, ma'am. And like I said, we're about 99% done. There were some that... We couldn't locate a manhole, so you have to have the starting and ending points. So now we're going back to those ones that essentially we just skipped, going back, locating the manhole. It's in a field, it's in the woods, it's paved over, uncovering those and then finishing assessments.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Dr. Warren.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Colleagues, I think you recall that they said there was a problem with multiple readers that MLG&W was using to measure water intake for customers. And they essentially guesstimated what it was. And they guesstimated at low amounts. They wouldn't overcharge people. for about two years. And if you look at this data we got, you can see there was a drop in income that started about two years ago and is projected to, I think, come up this year. That, you know, hurt MLGNW in that they didn't collect that money, but it also hurt our sewer fund in that we didn't collect that money. And I had mentioned this as we were going through budget that one of the things I was hoping we would explore is to discuss with MLGNW about how they might be able to help make us whole with some of their cash on hand money as we move forward to help replace our sewer fund and the money that we lost out of it to try to build us back up and help our bond rating. So my question was, have we had a chance to have any discussions with MLG&W about whether they can reimburse us i think we came up uh running the numbers it was about 22 million dollars that we were in deficit is that correct that that was premature and high but go ahead with your what is it uh now we're probably so i have um now what do you have what did you run numbers what was it

All right, so originally when the information was given to me, I thought all 48,000 water meters were estimated. So what happens is, and Mr. Cleaves and Mr. Davis are here if they want to come up and clarify this, but for MLGNW to get a bill out, they have to estimate if the water meter is bad. I was under the assumption that all 48,000 were estimated at one CCF, which would be the minimum charge of 865. so they should have been charged the average to get the bill out, which is eight CCF, so I did that math, and like you said, it was, oh, the math, so we're not looking at 22 million, best case scenario, we may have four or five, right, the math was correct, but later speaking with Mr. Cleek and President McGowan, those guys over there, they're just so sticklers for And we're still working with them, but on average, there's about 6,000 water meters that defaulted to the one versus the eight. I took it under the assumption that all 48,000 went to one.

Okay, so 6,000 went to one. Others went to average. Okay, so average, so with the 6,000, what did that come up to in millions of dollars?

I mean, based upon historical trends, now, keep in mind, a lot of, A lot of customers might be over eight. I mean, we're just using... Okay, well, let's just do historical trends. Two to five million. How much? Two to five million. Two to five, so about five million. Right, based upon historical revenue. So we're doing budget.

We get five million in. That would help our budget. Yes, sir. I hope you said... We'll take that back to MLG&W and tell them we're really hoping y'all can see your way to help our sewer fund. That would be nice. Thank you very much.

We went from 22 to 5.

Y'all have just won the lottery here. That'll help us as we're trying to get our bond rating up and we move forward. Thank you, Madam Chair.

I will say one point of clarification. The rate increase is based on a historical average of three years. So we didn't take the lowest year, which would be last year. We did the average, so we'd be as conservative as we could with the rate increase numbers.

Thank you.

All right, thank you. All right, one more, stormwater. I'll try to speed this one up. All right, stormwater, so this is eight departments. One department does fall within engineering, which is drainage design. That kind of comes into play with what Director Belen was talking about, flooding complaints and any capital improvements through our MSQ2 program to help improve capacity as well as age of infrastructure. We also have our street sweepers, our stormwater program for enforcement. Flood control, which is related to controlling the Mississippi River with our levees and flood walls and flood stations, as well as our drain maintenance department. So authorized complement for Pellet Works is 186, engineering is 12. Pellet Works had 32 vacancies at the time of this report, and it's not on there, but we have been approved for posting and some filled for 20 of those. So that'll get us down to less than 10%, which is a great number. Budget overview, continue to improve the drainage through our MSQ2 program. So the capital program, as mentioned, the recent bond sale, identify projects for that, and as well as looking into the future, continuing to review our modeling and our drainage master plan studies to identify projects in two to three years for the next bond sale. And some of those are already in design. Continue the preventative maintenance program, which is the inlet cleaning and maintenance, as well as the street sweeping on designated routes. We're going to bid the construction of emergency generator for one of our flood control pumping stations, so Gayoso Pumping Station, which serves downtown. We're gonna put in a backup emergency generator for that station, due to the importance of that. And then continue our stormwater pollution prevention, inspection, and education. So historical comparison, slight increase for the projected employee raise as well as benefits for personnel, materials and supplies, slight increase. Stormwater fund pretty much stayed flat for the most part. There's several hundred thousand dollars. The biggest increase is our interest payment, so that'll be attributable to the most recent bond sale. That was March of this year. So as we start spending those bond proceeds, we'll have the interest accruing on those. Grants, that's our Clean Memphis partnership that we just passed, this body passed for a three year. And that promotes stormwater education as well as cleanups. Next slide, our historical trends. Stormwater funds looking very good. We got our Q3 actuals are trending below the 75% for personnel and M&S making our debt service payments. And we'll be able to contribute to the fund balance this year. So similar to sewer, stormwater fees are also imposed on the MLGNW bills. It gives for maintenance, operation, education, and enforcement, as well as capital debt for the drainage system. We do pay some out of cash, but most of the capital improvements come from the bond sales, as well as our WIFI loan. M&S slight increase due to inflation for materials and services. Some key performance metrics, so this is response times, drainage within five days as well as miles swept for our street sweeper department. And this includes our numbers from 311 citizens request as well as our preventative maintenance that was started in FY26. And challenges, we'll continue to provide critical services for the citizens of Memphis, maintain the budget as well as maintain our drainage infrastructure, respond to flooding, things like that. And with that, that is stormwater. No proposed increase for stormwater.

Thank you very much.

All right.

I don't think we have any members. Thank you. Appreciate you for your presentation. Have a good rest of your day. We have a break, but we're not gonna take it. We're gonna keep on moving. We have solid weights. That's right, just stretches you all need, and we're just gonna keep on chugging along. Good afternoon. Hello.

Hello.

You all ready?

Yep, ready.

All right, let's get started.

Okay. Phillip Davis, 125 North Main, Solid Waste Director. With me, I've got Monica Jenkins. She's our finance manager for the division. So I know we're running behind schedule, so I'll try to be a little deliberate but expeditious. Today I'll walk through the FY27 budget, focusing on how we are maintaining core services, managing costs, and positioning the division for long-term stability. This slide shows how the solid waste division is organized at the legal budget level. Our operations are structured around collections, disposal, recycling, and support functions. Each work together to deliver core services across the city. Our authorized complement is 628 positions. We continue to make progress reducing vacancies while aligning our hiring with equipment delivery to ensure staff are deployed effectively and efficiently. The FY27 solid waste fund budget request is approximately $109.1 million. This budget focuses on maintaining core collection services, supporting fleet reliability, addressing required compliance activities, and managing cost pressures across the operation. This slide shows the historical trend in the solid waste budget. While costs have increased over time, those increases reflect inflation, personnel costs, and operational needs. Our focus has remained on stabilizing and maintaining core service delivery. This is our historical comparisons that supports the budget request. The key takeaway is that most of our cost increases are tied directly to personnel, fleet operations, and contractual services required to deliver daily collection and disposal services. Our primary drivers for the FY27 budget are staffing alignment with our fleet delivery, ongoing fleet investment, critical infrastructure work at our Bellevue Transfer Station, a non-recurring compliance related activity at the Jackson Pit site. In addition, inflationary pressures, we're feeling those on personnel, equipment, and contracted services to continue service delivery. We measure our performance through response time, service delivery, and operational efficiencies. These metrics are based on service requests and response tracking, and they help us monitor reliability and identify opportunities to improve services. In FY27, we are continuing to advance our organics recycling through a budget neutral shift of our vegetative material from landfill disposal to composting. This approach diverts approximately 20,000 tons annually and positions the city for future expansion of our diversion program. The primary challenges we face are ongoing cost increases and maintaining service reliability under operational demands. We are addressing these through disciplined financial management, continued fleet investment, and aligning staffing with operational needs to ensure consistent service delivery. Overall, the FY27 budget reflects a disciplined approach focused on improving core services, addressing required costs, and positioning the division for long-term operational sustainability. And with that, I'll accept some questions.

Any members in the queue?

Can you explain or kind of give a little context to the personnel line for FY27? Are we, I see it's a little bit more than the FY adopted and forecast, FY26 adopted and forecast. Can you explain what the difference is?

You're talking about the increase in personnel costs? That's largely related to, I guess, budgeted increase in personnel costs, so wages that have been forecasted into the budget.

Okay, because I see that the compliment remains the same.

Yes, ma'am.

What do you have in place for Area E monitoring, support, management?

So we have a couple of things. We have our supervisory team that we have assigned to Area E, and we also are working with our community enhancement division. We funded 20 additional environmental enforcement officers with related equipment vehicles for them to go and police those areas. for code violations, folks stealing service, illegal rental set outs, folks that are basically stealing service or taking advantage of the system.

Now, that's for around the city, correct? Yes, ma'am, but it does include Area E. I'm specifically talking about Area E. What is in place to improve the quality of service for Area E? Is that waste? Waste connections. Waste connections. That contract, you know, historically we have had problems with every contractor we've had. So this is kind of it. But we still are not seeing satisfactory hiccups. So what do we have in place and what's baked into this budget to ensure that we have improved collection?

Well, right now what we're seeing in Area E is not actually poor service as compared to the rest of the city. When you look at the performance metrics across the city, each area has approximately 36,000 homes. And they place consistently second or third out of all five areas. So they're right in the middle of the pack. as far as complaint call volume with the city. So we don't see the data doesn't reflect poor service. Now we always know we can do better in all of our areas. But the data doesn't support that there's actually poor service in area E. So what do you consider poor service? Well, right now, I mean, it's not acceptable to have any misses. I mean, we don't accept any misses, but as quality service. But all we can, I guess what we do is we stay on top of our contractor. We have adequate supervision out there. We have regular, right now we've been having, because of this high volume time of year, we're actually meeting with them every other week. to talk with them specifically about their area E performance metrics. So we are cracking down on oversight of the area E, but we do believe that we're gonna see improved service, not only in area E, across the city, as we start holding people more responsible for the behavior change with this environmental enforcement team.

Right. In terms of out of the cart. That's what they're dealing with. I'm talking about cart pickup, putting the cart back where it belongs, not breaking the cart and picking it up on the day it's supposed to be picked up. So I know and you can send it to me personally. I mean, not personally, but through email. When you said that it's not poor service. So if you could send me what the standard is and what the expectation should be for quality service, so I'll know what you're talking about. Right now, I think we are on different, you know, understanding because when you discuss poor and I discuss poor, you're saying it's not poor. So I want to know what you're gauging about, what your metrics is.

And we can share that with you, what our performance metrics were seeing across all five areas.

I'm just interested right now in area E. Yes, ma'am. Okay, because I do think environmental enforcement is going to help tremendously, you know, the increase in that in the out of the cart for the city. But I'm interested in the contractor because that's the only area that pretty much has a contractor. So the contractor's performance in area E is what I'm interested in. So if you can let me know what is in here that's going to ensure improved service and also what your definition is of poor service. Okay. All right. Thank you.

Thank you, any other members? What I would say is, I think just from what Councilwoman Logan mentioned and what I wrote down on my notes is, and maybe this is something that we can talk about going forward in the future, is how do you measure success for solid waste? in terms of what are your metrics. So it's good to see the percentage of pickup in those things. But when you go through the city, how do you measure the success? In terms of the trash that we see, in terms of the way the city looks, in terms of appearance, how do we measure that? And what is the plan for it to be better? Because I think the budget kind of assumes that what we're doing is enough. And what I'm not seeing is how we're measuring what we're doing and what it is that we need to do to do it better and what that looks like. And so I think that's kind of what I'm missing in just about every presentation we've had so far is just really being able to see where we are. in terms of data that you all have collected to say we pick up this many on this day and this is how many we should be picking up. This many is on time, like I just got that it's on time. I don't have any data to really understand and put this into context, it's just a percentage. And so that would be helpful because you remember that we are having to balance a budget, but also determine what priorities are. And it's difficult to be able to figure out what the priorities are if we don't have the information that supports these conclusions.

And I will provide that data for you guys. But just to put it into context, the solid waste division has 181,000 customers that we service each week. We perform approximately 25 million touches of our customers yearly. I think last year we received about 30,000 complaints. Now, 30,000 is a lot of complaints, but by comparison, when you start doing the math, that's 99.5% or better did not call and complain. But I'll provide the data.

Thank you. Are you basing that on 311? Yes, ma'am. Okay, well, all right. You're basing it on 311. And number two... Because we're working on 311, getting a whole new 311 system because it has not been as efficient and effective as we need it to be. So those numbers, we take it with a grain of salt. Number two, and I do not dare diminish the work that you do because you all do great work. We have a huge area to cover. And, you know, it is what it is. So either we got to get the staff to be able to do it, we have to figure it out, because it is what it is. And we have to continue at it until we get the right recipe. Number two, I just heard you say we need to change the behavior. I totally agree with you. Chief Adams say that a lot and I totally agree. What are we doing or what does this budget reflect in helping to change the behavior or change the narrative? And if we don't have anything in there, we're gonna have the same behavior. So either we're going to have an aggressive campaign and marketing strategy to help change the behavior. Like I told y'all before, when Memphis was the cleanest city, there was an extraordinary marketing campaign. A citywide, the children in school, everybody, churches, everybody. They had a beauty pageant. They had banquets and all kinds of stuff. Signs everywhere, posters, billboards everywhere. Every commercial, keep Memphis beautiful, keep Memphis clean, and all of that. So either we're going to have an aggressive campaign to help change behavior and hold people accountable and do increased enforcement, have lobbyists working on it, or we're going to have to do the work ourselves and increase our capacity to get the work done. So one or the other, something needs to be reflected in here to... show how we're going to move the needle. Thank you.

Thank you. Seeing no other members in the queue, thank you so much, Director Davis. Thank you. Have a great rest of your day. Next, we have police. Okay, you all are gonna get that little break after all. We have a new presentation, so they need about three minutes to upload the new presentation. Council members, disregard the presentation. So is it correct, Chief, that the presentation that's in the book is no longer the correct presentation? The new presentation is the, okay, so disregard the one that's in the book and replace it with the new presentation. Is that the same for fire or is this the same? Use the new one, okay. what's in your book and use the new presentations. And if you'll give us about three minutes for them to get the new presentation uploaded. All right, we're ready to proceed. Good afternoon, Chief Davis, how are you?

I'm good, thank you, Councilmember. Thank you for giving us an opportunity to present our proposed fiscal year 27 budget for the Memphis Police Department. CJ Davis, 170 North Main Street.

Good evening, Vincent Eason, 170 North Main, Finance Manager.

Okay, so we're gonna begin with our organizational chart here. And our organizational chart has not changed. It shows the different legal levels in the Memphis Police Department, notably six divisions. And then one of our divisions is the communications division, which is led by Colonel Burford. The rest of the divisions are led by a deputy chief. All right, on the first slide here that really breaks down staffing, this is our authorized compliment. We have five legal levels that you see there. Executive administration, support services, precincts, which is all of uniform patrol, investigative services, and special operations. The total authorized compliment for the Memphis Police Department is 3,098 civilian and sworn employees. 799 of those positions are vacant. 354 positions are posted and they are funded and we are actively hiring for those positions that include sworn and civilian positions. And then 445 of those positions are unfunded. 360 of our unfunded positions existed in 2024. And then for this proposed budget year, we have 85 additional unfunded positions that we are adding to that bucket. That was part of our effort to target reductions in the Memphis Police Department. That was just one piece of it, 85 positions. And that is some sworn and civilian positions. Fifteen... Where the... So I guess, yeah, it's... Yeah, they're included in that 445. They're total 445 that are unfunded. I'm sorry. And so... For fiscal year 27.

Sorry, Chief, I guess just to clarify, just for, and I think I understand, right? So 360 of them are unfunded, but they existed, they were unfunded and existed in 2024.

That's correct.

And then you added an additional 85 to total the 445.

That is correct. Got it. That is correct. And that 85 was to help to reduce our funding for the fiscal 27 year. So the Memphis Police Department is authorized 2,515 positions total. So as you can see, right now, the positions for civilian and sworn are at 3,098. Because we are actively hiring, we have been very aggressive in our hiring, and we believe that it's a possibility that we may come before this body sometime in fiscal 27 to add more funded positions instead of slowing down on our hiring. We're sort of at a pivotal place. in the Memphis Police Department. It's a possibility that we may exceed the number of funded positions that we will have in the next fiscal year, just being very optimistic. We have classes graduating this week of 81, and then we have another class of 145 that will follow them in June. Okay, next slide. So our budget overview for police services The breakdown of major spending categories is 3,304,048,209. As you can see on the pie chart, the breakdown is personnel services is 91% of our budget. Basically, we're paying for human capital, for our manpower. And then materials and supplies is at 8.18%. And then less than 1% is capital outlay and grant subsidies. Our priorities have not changed. We have a five-year strategic plan that's been in effect for the last three years, and those priorities continue to be crime reduction, police recruitment and retention, technology and innovation, community outreach, and leadership development. Okay, next slide. So here's a historical budget comparison. This was the fiscal year 26 adopted, as you can see to the right. However, the four preceding years shows the trends of our budget in the Memphis Police Department. For fiscal year 26, the adopted budget was 274 in the personnel line, I'm talking personnel, that's where most of our dollars are, 274,010,563. And adopted total was 305,7177. We forecast to be at 273,952,306 in the personnel line, and we're proposing 278,694,483. That number jumps primarily because of the 2% increase that is going to be included in the fiscal 27 budget, and it also includes the increase in benefits Incentives are also layered on to that number. However, the Memphis Police Department, we had approximately $18 million in cuts in our budget this year, or what we're proposing. A portion of that was the salaries, a portion of that was cutting back in our overtime as well. And we anticipate, even though we're cutting back in our overtime, we have grant dollars that will help us continue to operate and have dollars for other resources as well. That's for this fiscal year. That grant will end in fiscal year 2028. Okay. So the historical budget comparison, year totals and actuals. So we actually spent for each year for the previous four years, as you can see, pretty consistent. And then as you can see also fiscal year 25 and fiscal year 27 proposed for the personnel line is very close, very similar. End of March, $210,471,534 was spent, and we're pretty much on target for this budget year as far as our expenditures are concerned. The total forecast for expenditures for fiscal 26 is $306,131,643. And proposed, you see that reduction again there, is $304,000. million 48 209 and it doesn't appear to be much because of all of the incentives in the layering of increases that number is also state stays the same as some of the previous years anything you want to add mr. Eason good okay So our key budget drivers in police services, as I mentioned before, is personnel costs. Staffing costs have increased due to union step increases requirements, which was that 91% that I spoke of, necessary changes in key position retention to meet service demands and operational support needs. Materials and supplies is about 8% of our budget. However, this year in the proposed budget, anticipate cutting approximately $6 million off of our materials and supplies as well. Next slide. qualitative and quantitative outcomes for police services. We had some very successful operations over this fiscal year, especially as it relates to crime reduction. Our Code Zero operations were consistent and focused. It was a focused initiative led by the Memphis Police Department to address areas experiencing elevated crime. That operation Went on through all of our precincts for the entire fiscal year. And of course, as we entered the month of October, we had the additional resources. However, the Memphis Police Department was well on the track of reducing crime with the resources that we utilized initially. in a very strategic manner. It also involved departments that deal with quality of life issues. We have been partnering with other entities in city government to help address problem areas, nuisance properties that breed crime, but at the same time, it requires us to partner with code enforcement and other entities in the courts to deal with nuisance properties. So we also have utilized our grant funding for overtime. Our grant funding has helped to supplement our overtime budget. And we do anticipate also getting reimbursements from the federal government in excess of about $2.5 million. Some of that will come in this fiscal year and some will be rolled into the next fiscal year as well. We continue to submit those invoices to our federal entities so that we can get reimbursed for the dollars that are spent utilizing officers for the Memphis Safe Task Force. Our results overall for part one crime, we have a decrease of 40.84% from 2025 to 2026. And for 2025, crime is down 18.34% year to date. Yes, and we are looking at sustaining the gangs. Even though those resources may at some point leave the city, we are pleased to know that we still have Tennessee Highway Patrol and other entities like a force multiplier for the city to have those additional resources on our interstates as well. We got support from our FBI office. We've been working various organizations and long term investigations with them. They plan to increase staffing here in the Memphis area as well. And we have worked internally to address as much as possible to be frugal with our overtime expenditures. and holding all of our commanders accountable for managing the dollars as opposed to not considering whether or not we need officers in certain times and places. So our performance metrics are as follows. The percent of police recruits who completed the academy In 2025, it was 83%. That was the goal. And the actuals were 76%. Fiscal year 26, the goal was 85%. And year to date, it's at 81%. But by the end of this fiscal year, we feel like that's going to be increased mainly because of the fact that we have increased numbers going into the academy. Our turnover of sworn officers who separated from the department, 5% fiscal year ago in 2025, 3% were the actual. So that number went down, which was really a benefit that we had less officers leaving for various reasons. And then fiscal year 26, our goal was 4%. And to date, we're at 2.70%, which is also a reduction in attrition. And support services percentage of incoming calls responded to by an officer within 18 minutes. We have set goals recently for our officers to meet that 18 minute threshold to respond to calls for service. And also a 10 second response time for our communications dispatchers to be able to pick up the telephone. when someone is calling for us. So our actuals for response to service in that 18-minute period was 94% in 2025. That was the actuals. And then our goal was 95% in fiscal 26. We believe we're going to exceed that as well.

Just one second, Chief.

Yes.

Thank you. How often is that response time monitored?

Monthly. We have what we call a monthly administrative track meeting. And during that time, we look at overtime, we look at calls for service, and that meeting is a collaboration of all of our commanders. We look at internal affairs reports, everything administrative in the police department. But the communications section, they report on calls for service, how many calls for service, and whether or not we've seen increases or reductions. We also look at how much time it takes our officers to respond to a call. And we can also break it down by precinct. which precincts have the shorter periods of time. And we have a little bit of a competition going on too. So the metrics that we're looking at, we're looking at them monthly.

What happens if they don't meet that standard?

We work with those supervisors to monitor the radio to make sure that officers, once they get that call, they're moving and on the way. And we also have technology that's helping us to monitor officers as they receive calls. Supervisors can monitor calls for service and see who's on what dispatch call and how long they've been on that call and whether or not they should have that officer to move on to the next call. And then number of Crime Stopper Tips. Fiscal year 25, the goal was 320, and fiscal year 25, we ended up with 3,287. We're gonna take another look at these goals, because we're getting more participation by our community members, and we have been intentional about communicating through marketing and other social media platforms to encourage members in the community to call the police department. So we've seen a significant increase in our crime stopper tips. And we have not determined what our actuals will be for fiscal year 26 as of yet.

Are they still financially rewarded for certain tips?

Yes, they are. And those dollars are also in our budget. Aren't those dollars in our budget? Yes, those dollars are in our budget. And they also get other contributions from other philanthropic groups.

Okay. Yeah.

Okay. And the next slide is also performance metrics. Part one, violent crime. This is incidents per 100,000, which is the uniform crime reporting measure. they measure by 100,000 residents as opposed to the way the Memphis Police Department. We keep this this way because we want our UCR numbers to match what the FBI report will come out and say later on. So in fiscal year 25, the goal was a 1% decrease. The actuals were 1,616. And the decrease for fiscal year 26, so we're shooting for 10%, but we're well past that already. And the same for part one, violent crime incidents, we're past that 10% decrease. So we plan to set some more lofty goals as we continue to see the decreases in crime. Part one crime incidents decrease for 25 was 3%. And those are the numbers there. In fiscal year 26, we're shooting for a 5% decrease. And then you have the total numbers in that category. Total part one crime incidents, 3% decrease. And then 5% decrease for fiscal year 26 goals. And those numbers are also decreased. illustrated there. Number of arrests of youth gun offenders age 16 to 24 Fifteen hundred and eighty three in fiscal year twenty five. This is a number that we hope to decrease. We don't want to see our young people with guns as much as possible. And then the fiscal goal was fifteen eighty three. And then the actuals right now, as of today, is nine hundred and forty eight. So there are reductions in the number of young people that we arrest with weapons clearance rates. fiscal year 25 the goal is 33 percent fiscal year 25 actuals were 26.8 percent a fiscal year 26 goal was 41 percent the actuals as of today for clearance rates for violent for part one violent crimes is 40%. The homicide clearance rate has increased significantly. The clearance rate is right at 77%. Clearance rates for property related crimes, 12% was a goal in fiscal 25, 11.7%. and were the actuals. And then fiscal year 26, the goal is 20% and the actuals are 20% for fiscal year 2026. And then community awareness has been a new focus, not just for us, but for other areas of department, the community engagement. tours that we've been taking. We have increased our neighborhood watches significantly, and we've also been involved in various other community engagement awareness forums. The goal was to have 330 of those type forums The actuals were 274 in 2025. And then a significant increase in fiscal year 2026 was 700 was the goal. And right now we're at 560, but they are involved in various community engagement events weekly. And so we think that number is going to actually meet our 700 goal. And then challenges and risks. Growing our police force is always a challenge, especially with civilian positions, ensuring that we have competitive salaries, but we work with HR in trying to make adjustments to salaries when at all possible. Juvenile crimes, we're also working with the juvenile court system on how we address the curfews and other juvenile situations, especially as it relates to juvenile crimes and gun crimes that are associated with the schools, not just in the schools, but also bleed off into the community. Repeat violent offenders, we have done quite well as far as our fugitive list. Our fugitive list has been reduced significantly, not just during the during the memphis safe task force but even prior to that we created a fugitive task force and they have done quite well with identifying and apprehending violent criminals that are at large thefts traffic safety and larcenies leveraging multiple agencies to support city-wide crime issues and utilize federal and state funding And automation and technology, we're using a lot of technology and implementing new technology programs along with our camera systems and the use of AI in various types of situations, especially with community in various communities using If we have an individual that, for instance, may have robbed a bank or whatever the case might be, AI helps us to identify any particular car that could have been in that area and helps to identify them through our camera system so that we can have quick tracking of those individuals. So utilizing AI also in our new body worn cameras as part of the body worn camera acts on package that we went into a contract with about three years ago, but the second phase of that is to incorporate AI helps with the actual writing of police reports. as the body-worn camera is capturing all of the individuals that are on the scene. It helps the officer to regurgitate that information and affidavit in that police report as well. Yes, they will all have that feature. And that concludes my presentation.

All right, thank you. Let the record reflect that Councilman Spinoza has joined us, as well as Councilman Smiley. And yeah, Councilman Canale is virtual as well.

Good afternoon.

For the FY2027 budget, it showed that it was reducing police overtime. Is there any way that we could get a precinct by precinct coverage analysis demonstrating how the service level analysis will still be maintained? under the reduction allocation. So even though it's being reduced to ensure that those areas will still be strategically covered.

So, Councilmember, that's a very good question, but I'll give you a short answer. The reason we felt comfortable with that about a $5 million reduction from $32 to $27 million is because we do have the flexibility to augment our overtime with that Violent Crime Intervention Fund grant. So you won't see a relaxation, if you will, in service delivery. Our officers will be able to continue to do the work with the dollars that we do have set aside for that. So we've had long conversations with Mr. Person about what was reasonable and what we thought we'd be able to get approved through the state. Okay.

One is regarding the accountability and litigation. What's the current status of the federal oversight? The consent agreement memorandum of understanding involving MPD and what is the estimated annual cost of compliance for FY2027?

Is that the First Amendment social media, the aged agreement that we've been under for many years, that one? I don't know that there, would that be a law department question?

Okay.

That might be a law department question. And we have been working with the monitors. We have changed policies. We have been in compliance. If that helps you. a little bit council member the department has had constant training and we have set up policies and procedures so that anytime our officers are using social media we put together a social media unit so there are individuals that are actually utilizing social media platforms on behalf of other officers when they need to do various types of searches social media unit ensures that how we utilize that information is in compliance with our consent decree.

Is there still federal oversight with the police department?

Yes.

It is.

That's what that is.

Okay. And last but not least, how many use of force complaints were filed against MPD officers for the 25-26 year?

I have to come back with you on that. I know we have had significant reductions. Okay. But, yes, I can get that information to you.

That would be helpful.

Mm-hmm.

I think that's it for me.

All right. Dr. Warren, you're recognized.

Thank you. Thanks. Thanks, Madam Chair. Chief, you mentioned the state violence intervention funds. How much money is that?

This year, there's approximately about $12 million left for this fiscal year.

There's 12 million left for this year. How much do we receive for next year?

Well, the grant itself, it ends at the end of the 2027 fiscal year.

So it ends at the end of this year or next year?

Next year. Okay.

So what's our grant for next year? We have $12 million left in our grant from this year, you said.

Well, let me correct that. We have, Mr. Percy, you want to talk about it?

Well, in Chief's view, you probably have a little bit better insight, but essentially it's a multi-year grant.

How much per year is that?

So I think the overall grant itself that's pertaining to this area is $40 million altogether.

And how much are we receiving a year?

But they have $12 million left. Well, it's multi-year, so they got the money and they're expending it over multiple years.

So we're expending it over multiple years. It was $40 million. So we've expended $28 million to present. Is that what I'm understanding with $12 million left? Is that correct?

No. And the reason why it's hard to explain that because it's a reimbursable grant. So those subgrantees that are actually spending money for the grant, they get reimbursed. And so there's never like an allocated amount per year.

So the subgrantees, these are our interveners on the ground? Is that where their funds are coming from at this point?

I know that Ms. Williams is working with the state administrator, the grant administrator, to ensure that they are able to receive some of those grant funds too. I think there's been some dollars earmarked for them as well.

So as we're looking at this, I'm still, the comment that was made was, we're going to use these violence intervention funds to handle our overtime expenses. And so we're going to pay the overtime expenses, debit the state or bill the state and get reimbursed from the state for that. Is that correct?

Yes, sir.

Okay, and out of that $12 million, what percentage of that $12 million that's left are you expecting that we'll be using for our overtime expenses next year?

For next year, it's going to be a little bit more than that, actually. We reduced ours by five, so it'll probably be somewhere between four and five.

four and five million are going to be from that year 20 20 27 that's correct and we still have this fiscal year like a month to go how much more are we going to spend on over time out of that 12 million for this fiscal year that we haven't already spent approximately about a million so another million yeah okay so now we've taken that 12 million and we're down to $7 million? $5 million that we just spent? So we have $7 million of that funding left that we're going to have to spend and request reimbursement for because I'm just trying to get some numbers that I can ask about. Does that make sense? Am I doing the math wrong?

Because you would probably convey that better than I can. Because, Councilmember, the dollars that we're spending in the Memphis Police Department are focused on...

Overtime.

Overtime and other items and resources that the state has approved us.

So on that, what are those items and how much are we spending there? So you've got the overtime that you talked about. So that's going to be $5 million out of the $12 million. What else are you spending it on?

There's some vehicles. There's a potential for a helicopter that the city has not been able to. How much does a helicopter cost? About $7 million.

So that would take up the rest of it, right? Right.

Now, actually, the way it's paid out, it'll be paid out over a period of time. So, it was an opportunity for us because the city didn't have the money, and we have sort of a broke-down helicopter. And so, there was an opportunity for us to at least enter.

We don't want a broke-down helicopter. I'm just saying, it's falling out of the sky. We don't need that.

Exactly. Mr. Person might be able to explain the trajectory of the state grant.

Before we had a reduction, so we're not getting any more, so we're not really having a reduction, we're just not seeing it occur again. Is that what's happening? The state grant?

Uh-huh. That is correct.

So we've got a $20 million state grant. It's going to be going into next fiscal year. There's been no recurrence of this grant for our crime fighting. That's right. So we hadn't seen any money coming from Mr. Taylor Moore after that. Okay, I just want to put that out. We could use some more, Mr. Taylor. All right, so I'm still trying to figure out how we can keep our group on the ground that are keeping our kids from killing each other. Because there's been a nationwide reduction in violent crime. And if you look at the number of cities that have introduced this group violence intervention plan model, it is nationwide. I don't want to see everybody else's murder rate keep going down and ours start ticking up because we take our foot off the gas because we don't have funding. So I'm trying to figure out where that money's coming from, and I haven't found it yet. So where is the police department? How much are you actually putting in from that grant into this fund, if any, or zero? Is there any money coming from that $20 million that we just talked about that are going to be for interveners out of your budget next year?

So, and that's the reason why I said Ms. Williams could probably answer that question, because we have not submitted money for sub-grantees at all. They don't want us to submit money for a sub-grantee.

Who would say the state doesn't?

The state, absolutely. We have assisted, though. We have assisted and tried to work to make sure that the packages were in compliance with the state regulations. And so has Ms. Williams.

So these people, so the group violence intervention plan people have to submit their own submissions to the state to be eligible for this pot of money you're talking about that's been given to the city of Memphis.

That's correct. Actually, it goes through the grant administrator, the person that was hired by the state to oversee all of the subgrantees. So there's a whole team of individuals that monitor and manage all the subgrantees. So that person is a state employee? That person is a grant-funded employee that was selected.

Working for the city of Memphis or for the state of Tennessee?

Working for the city of Memphis, but they answer to the state administrator and they report to the state administrator on all the metrics and the performance sort of guidelines that the state is requesting. They have regular meetings, sir. And we have really, I think they're in a good place where they will be receiving some funds, but we aren't the checkoff. The Memphis Police Department isn't the checkoff, but we have been working with our group violence interveners to try to ensure that they are included. in the grant opportunities.

It's complicated, isn't it? It is. Thank you. I just am trying to make sure that I understand it and the public understands it. Because I didn't understand that component of it. I guess the thing that we may want to hear, at least in this budget committee, is a report from that grant organizer, person to come and tell us where we are with this and see what we can do. Because If we don't have the grants, we still have the need, and this is budget session. So if we're going to fill this need, now's the time for us to do it. We can't fill everything else and leave that need blank and then come back and say, oops, no money. I understand. Okay, so please help us with that and guide us the way we need to go with it. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Chief. Thank you.

Any other members in the queue? Was there something else?

I just wanted to introduce Chaloris Isabel Hawkins, who is one of the senior managers in the finance department that works closely with budget and grants. And she works very closely with the visa grant. So she had some additional details that she wanted to share relative to that.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

So as of right now, Dr. Warren, your answer for next year is about $15.9 million. However, this year...

I'm sorry, could you state your name and address for the record?

Charloris Isabel Hawkins, 125 North Main. Your answer, Dr. Warren, for next year is $15.9 million as of right now. There is an expected carryover from this year into next year of about $3.5 million. That will fund the mayor's priority of the gun violence reduction intervention, and that is managed by the grant team that is housed in MPD.

We're looking at 3.9 million that is going to be going back to the intervener budget.

It is going to be, the expenditure is going to be charged against the visa grant. And it's going to be in conjunction with the joint office as well as our grants team at MPD. So it'll be funded out of the visa funds. Okay. So instead of next year just being 15.9, there will be an additional three and a half that will carry over from this year until next year.

So for all of these funds, but out of that, it's still going to be the grant person who's going to submit the grants for that $18 million for the budget they have. And in that, Chief, you're telling me that you've got that planned to be able to meet their needs when they submit that for this grant funding. Is that sort of how that works? That is correct.

That is correct. And just for point of clarification also, the police department, we don't work as closely with those individuals.

We know. Yeah. Yeah, we know you're not working with them. Right. These are people on the street. You're supporting a program that's trying to keep the kids from killing each other, but you're not out there dealing with them day by day. These people are having to do that on their own.

Absolutely. Yes, ma'am.

Thank you. Any other members in the queue? All right, seeing none, thank you all so much.

Thank you.

All right, have a great day. You too. All right, next we have fire. We did. Didn't I start with that? I usually start with that. Yeah. I try to start with thank you all for all that you do. Thank you for your service. Thank you all for coming down here today to attend these hearings. Prepare. Oh, actually, I apologize. I let Dr. Warren ask all his questions. I do have one, Chief David. Okay. Going to page five of the historical budget comparison, and this is the same that I had for, and I can't remember which other department, but looking historically all the way back to 2022 in materials and supplies, that budget has been about $30 million. And then looking at this past year, where it was the adopted budget for 30 million, but the forecast is going to be 37.2. So it's about $12.3 million more than what was budgeted last year. But then the amount that's proposed for this year is about 13 million less than Well, no, it's about 6 million less than what was budgeted last year, and then about 12 million less than what was actually forecasted for this year. And so how are you all, because I think one of the answers I got before was a consolidated effort. materials and supplies. And I appreciate the consolidated effort. And I think we've been doing that for a while. It just seems pretty unrealistic with rising costs as to materials and supplies. So my question is, is there something that you all are going to be eliminating in the future that's going to account for about this $12 million difference in anticipated savings in the materials and supplies lines?

So I'll start off, I'll let Mr. Easton jump in, too, because he knows the deeper dive. But I do know that part of, and it goes back to the question that Councilmember Warren was speaking of, our grant is allowing us to purchase equipment items that we would typically have to ask for the city. And what we've done is we've taken a close look to see what could be purchased with grant funds. What could be purchased? Where could we get overtime dollars in an effort to cut back as much as we could to reduce our expenditures in the operating budget? So some vehicles, side-by-sides, certain types of technology and equipment, those are going to come out of that M&S bucket, and we'll be able to take care of it through our grant. And it is approximately about $6 million. that helicopter we we are and we're hoping that we'll be able to get the helicopter but we've been looking at different different options whether it's a lease option or a purchase option we've been talking to mr. person also but it would be a great opportunity if we did have enough grant funds but of course a lot of different needs are coming right now with the visa grant Right now, it's a possibility. We may have to squash some other things, but it's a big purchase that the department needs. 320 square miles of city of Memphis, which is three times the size as many other cities. Drones can go, but so far we need helicopters. And unfortunately, we just don't have the kind of equipment that is reliable enough. Anytime you keep taking an engine out of a helicopter, you've got some problems.

Fire Department, can't y'all share one? Y'all be having plenty of money. I didn't know that. We're working on it.

Councilman Spinoza, do you recognize?

Yeah, just a quick question. Thank you, Chief. You may have mentioned it already. I got here a little late, although I was listening in the back. On the helicopter front, we had just talked casually one day. Yeah. And I think maybe I texted one of our Congress members, but like, have we looked into that? Have we looked into like a federal, had any conversations at the federal level? We could all help with that. Anything we can do to help. That's all I'm saying. You know, I couldn't remember if we circled back on it. And I typically don't like asking questions. Yeah, I thought we had. Yeah, we'll talk about it.

I think our partner may not be there anymore. Okay, cool. So we're going to have to find a new friend.

I'm here to help you. Thank you. Yeah, gotcha. Appreciate y'all.

Thank you.

All right, fire. All right, we ready? Good afternoon.

Good?

Yep. State your name and address for the record, and we can get going.

Good deal. So, good afternoon, Chair, Council. Colin Burress, Fire Chief, 2670 Avery Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee, 38112. To my right, I have Ms. Teresa Wilson. Pretty sure everybody knows her. She's got the money, Fire Financial Operations Manager. And behind me, probably one of the best Memphis Fire Command staffs across the nation. So before starting, before starting, I'd like to thank you for your continued support and for the opportunity to present the FY27 operating budget for fire services. So the first slide, in fire services, we have nine legal levels. Administration, apparatus maintenance, which consists mostly of our hydrant repair expenditures. No personnel in that legal level. Logistical services, they provide the goods and supplies to our fire stations. Fire training, they train our recruits and incumbent members. Fire Communications, which is our talented dispatchers. Fire Prevention, they provide the fire code enforcement, permitting, and public education. Firefighting and emergency medical services, where most of our personnel lie. And Airport Services, which is a specialized area. We staff the positions for the Memphis International Airport, and they pay for the personnel costs, fire equipment, as well as medical and household supplies. And that's a total of 37 positions. All right, the next slide. If you look at the end to the right of this in the bar chart, this slide shows the division's authorized complement by legal level. You can see the majority of our personnel, again, they fall under suppression and EMS, and they have response responsibilities. Our total authorized complement is 1860. We currently have 78 vacant positions. And you can see those listed. We're not asking for an ISL in FY27. Of the 78, 75 of the positions are posted. And the reason you have that variance there is because three of the positions were in admin and we're not going to fill those three positions. Next slide. All right, this shows the FY26 funded budget, authorized complement, summed by Bureau along with the sum of the FY27 requested budget by Bureau. And this does contain the 2% pay increase. The FY26 funded budget shows $212,444,808, and the FY27 requested sum, $219,307,637. All right, here on the left side of the page, you'll see 30 positions that fall under fire administration and the number of people that hold that position to include the director of fire services, the director of fire deputy, and chief fire deputies. To the right of the page, you have 25 logistical services positions and the number of people that are in those positions. Next slide. All right, to the left of the page, you have our fire. These are the positions on the fire training umbrella, and it's 24 positions. This group, they train our recruits and incumbent members. To the right are 72 positions of our fire communication dispatchers who take the 911 calls in the alarm office. All right, on this slide, to the left, we have the authorized complement for fire prevention, which is 51. This bureau conducts our fire inspections, fire investigations, and our public education efforts. It's a vital bureau for us because if things are done correctly, it decreases the potential for fire incidents and loss and increases safety for our personnel and our citizens. To the right is our air rescue authorized complement, the airport, which I spoke of earlier, which is 37. And again, Memphis Fire staffs the Memphis International Airport Station, and then we're fully reimbursed. All right, the next slide is where you'll see the bulk of our workforce. You have 1,143 in fire suppression, and you have 478 in EMS. And that's pretty much our boots on the ground every day. All right, the budget overview. 89% of our budget is spent on personnel costs, and rightfully so, because they're our most valuable asset. 11% is in materials and supplies. Our key budget priorities in the FY27 budget is to provide the right emergency response promptly and accurately every day to our citizens and visitors, be an innovative leader in our industry, maintain an ISO 1 public protection rating, which is used to determine fire department's ability to respond. This impacts fire insurance premiums. And the things that are rated when they do this is your water supply, your communication center, and your department. We take a lot of pride in being a class one department. Less than 1% of departments across the nation hold this distinction. All right, the next slide showing the historical comparison of our adopted budget from FY22 through FY26, along with the FY26 forecast and the FY27 proposed. So in the first category, you have personnel expenses. If you look at our FY26 adopted at $212,444,808 versus the FY27 proposed, $219,307,637. That's approximately a $6,862,829 increase. That's about a 3% increase. Materials and supplies, $27,228,995. Versus FY27, $27,874,497. That's about $645,502. That's about a 2.4% increase in that line. Capital outlay, $97,000. FY27 proposed, $30,000. You look at our total expenditures and look at FY26, 239,770,803 versus FY27, 247,212,134. Overall, that's an increase of about $7,441,331. Overall, about a 3% increase in the FY27 proposed. Right on the next slide, this is a historical comparison of actuals from FY22 through FY26 along with the FY26 forecast and proposed. On the FY26 and personnel expenses, FY26 forecast $213,378,671 versus the proposed budget of $219,307,637. Materials and supplies, $32,422,088. versus FY27 proposed, $27,874,497. And again, capital outlay, $97,000, and FY27 proposed, $30,000. Total expenditures, $243,649,017 versus $247,497. All right, our key drivers, which most of our people, our personnel is our biggest expense. It's going to be personnel costs. Increasing costs for EMS supplies, apparatus repairs, parts, and fuel. Our key accomplishments for 2026, slower attrition resulting in decrease in overtime. and the implementation of our Lieutenant and Battalion Chief Academy that provides real life role play along with education and critical decision making and strategic thinking. So our programs and projects above 5% of material and supplies budget You have utilities, which make up 10%, city shop charges 43%, fuel 10%, medical supplies 14%, outside vehicle repair 1%, and miscellaneous professional services at 24%. And we feel this budget will allow us to continue to provide exceptional fire and emergency medical services to all the citizens that promote our core values of focus, integrity, respect, and excellence. All right, on the next slide, you have the NFPA. So NFPA 1710 outlines response time goals for fire departments. 15 seconds for answering an emergency call coming into the alarm office, 320 second response time for the first doom apparatus on fire incidents, and a 300 second response time for ALS response, vehicle or ambulance. So as you can see, the average structure fire response time down below 265 seconds, basically four minutes. Average EMS response time, 378 seconds, roughly six minutes. 911 calls answered during that quarter, 103,553. And they answered the call with an answer time of 7.3 seconds. Next slide. All right, the next few slides will contain initiatives that we have planned for FY27, or they're either currently ongoing. And this one is the fourth option, and it's a mental health option when calling 911. Currently, when you call 911, they're going to say, okay, what's your emergency? Police, fire, EMS. The fourth option will be... a mental health option. And it will be budget neutral. The timeline, July 2026, the expected outcome to provide a mental health option when calling 911. The impact is to provide a rapid mental health response for those in need. And how we'll get this out to the public is Of course, through media rounds, social media, flyers, TV advertising, radio, and also we would ask that the mayor, when he's out speaking at engagements or events, push it as well. The next initiative is lateral dispatchers. Budget neutral, the timeline May 2026. The expected outcome, reduce overtime, reduce dispatcher fatigue. and also new dispatch hires will be operational quicker the impact operational efficiency and a balanced work environment all right this initiative cost recovery for false alarms the budget allocation the recovery uh for basically uh four hundred fourteen thousand ninety five dollars and that's a revenue transfer for metro alarms that will be counted as revenue in FY27. And that's an increase from last year, which is a $245,095 increase compared to FY26. So the expected outcome is to reduce fossil law volume, less wear and tear on the apparatus, as well as our personnel. The impact, more fire equipment availability for emergencies, and improved accountability. Next slide. All right, this initiative is the automated secure alarm protocol to public safety answer. And it's a budget neutral initiative timeline July 2026 expected outcome by alarm notifications transmitted directly to the cab. The impact reduce reliance on manual phone call intake. Improved speed of call taking and response initiation. And I think last year the council had a question about how can AI benefit dispatch and communications. And at the time, I really didn't know, hadn't done a lot of research on it, but just looking through it, You have the ability, and we're not doing it yet, but there is an opportunity there of real-time summarization, transcription, and translation, keyword and hazard flagging, and also intelligent call routing. So basically, if you have a disaster or areas impacted, you can geofence that area to where those calls will go straight to call takers as opposed to non-emergent calls going another route. And also non-emergency triage. But then again, there is still that human factor that has to be there. Everything or every call can't go to a bot or something like that. All right, lastly, we have our community engagement initiative. It's budget neutral, and the timeline is FY25 implementation. We're already doing it with continued expansion into FY27. An expected outcome is to strengthen relationships between fire services and the community through increased outreach, public participation, engagement to improve trust, collaboration, and public perception. The impact, increase awareness of fire service programs and resources, expand community partnerships, and advance long-term equity and outreach efforts by reducing barriers to participation. And some of those, I think it's the next slide. This is the next slide. Yeah, okay. So some of those days, the examples are like our Hero Day, where you have young girls who come and they, you know, they do a lot of things that help boost confidence and team building, things of that nature. And we've been successful with this for how many years now? Two years. 10 years. So it's been a success partnering with the Girl Scouts each year. We have our back to school drive, which that right there was really, really good. It was off the chain last year. We had breast cancer and autism awareness events, trunk of treats events, which was really good, and Hoot There It Is, which is a teen night for teens playing basketball. And the list keeps going, and we are very intentional about being interwoven into the fabric of the community because we're in every part of the community. All right, so some challenges and risks. Some of the challenges, and I have to preface it with this, a lot of our challenges are not just specific to Memphis. They are nationwide challenges. Recruitment and retention of licensed professionals to deliver services to our community expects Succession planning, strategies due to the high number of chief officers eligible to retire. Like right now, I think we're about 300 people that have 25 years plus that could walk out the door if they wanted to today. Fleet availability, Asian fleet with increased cost and delivery times. Inflation, the rising cost of goods and materials. The risks, and we like to come with a solution or something we're doing to try to counter the challenges. In terms of recruitment and retention, we require all candidates to have an EMT license to be hired. Thus far, this has been really successful for us because we've noticed that our attrition rates have dropped tremendously. Succession planning, professional development training, as I mentioned earlier, our Lieutenant and Battalion Chief Academy, fleet availability, explore alternative funding sources, prioritize projects, and look at possible leasing options. Inflation, identify ways to leverage purchasing power and inventory management. All right, serve in Memphis 24-7, 365. To do this, it takes a tremendous amount of work from the men and women of the Memphis Fire Department. As you can see, we logged over 490,000 training hours. We flushed over 23,000 fire hydrants to make sure they're in good working condition. Our fire code inspections, over 15,000. This helps keep our personnel and our citizens safe. Commercial pre-plans. This increases our operational efficiency because our people know what to expect when they get there. They have information before they get there. They're not trying to figure things out. That's over 11,000. Fire investigations, 516. Smoke detectors installed, 13,320. And we're very intentional about this, and the reason being is we know for a fact smoke detectors save lives. Public education contacts, over 138,000. This is where we educate our youth along with our most vulnerable population. All right, on this next slide, you can see we're a very busy department. We had 159,275 total incidents in 2025. We had 21,958 fire incidents, 137,317 EMS incidents. So again, it's about 86% of our call volume is EMS based. If you look to the right, the incident totals, you see response totals to the sum of 349,801. A response total captures the total number of apparatus or fleet that responded to an incident. For example, you might have one incident, but you got five different fire companies coming. So it just, that's the sum of all of those incidents. Each incident might have, one might have three, one might have one, one might have six. So that's what that is. And you can see, according to the bar graph, The 2025 incident totals by month and call type. All right. Also, Memphis fires and all hazards department. We pretty much do everything out there except fly helicopters. We don't do that one. Yeah.

Yeah.

All right. So this slide points out our fire suppression incidents and responses by type. You see we got airport incidents, commercial fire alarms, hazmat, specialized rescue vehicle fires, and so on. And our next slide. This one right here, where the bulk of our work takes place, displays EMS incidents by call type. 76% of the calls we make are emergent, meaning critical, life-threatening, requiring immediate attention, whereas 23% being non-emergent, no immediate threat. And if you look down at the numbers where a majority of our calls lie, you can see a lot of breathing difficulty, cardiac-related, and also motor vehicle accidents. We feel very confident of this budget and under this proposed budget, we tend to look at things from an internal and external perspective. And the first thing we'll look at from the internal perspective is reducing overtime, the reduction of accidents, and also inventory control measures. Make sure we're doing our best, making the most of our resources and taking care of our fleet. Also properly forecasting burn rates, not stockpiling items that aren't needed along with forecasting shortages. There is a such thing as you looking at the trends and there's certain items such as gloves or different things where The supply chain has an interruption in that supply chain, and it makes it hard to get. So we want to make sure we're doing our due diligence to get those things early so that our people don't run out of them and our community gets what they need. Make sure we're not wasteful with the EMS drugs and supplies, making sure we're checking expiration dates. Also, we want to be intentional about advocating for a safe work culture, leading to less time away from work. Slowing our attrition, which we've been successful at doing that. And we do also by hiring classes in a timely manner, which will curb the overtime. We want our members to have a good work-life balance and work satisfaction. And we feel like we can give them that satisfaction with transparency and also having a healthy relationship between management and our workforce. And also, we have to identify nice-to-have things first priority in terms of goods and services and personnel placement. And externally, which is a big one for us, is now entering into sound agreements while procuring goods and services. That concludes my presentation, and I'd just like to thank you all for letting me present and also thank the men and women out there that are in the streets every day.

Thank you. I would say that this is probably one of the most detailed budget presentations we've received. I mean, just really great presentation in terms of getting us an understanding of what's going on, how to be able to prioritize, what to look at. I mean, this is a budget presentation, so I really appreciate that today. Thank you.

I was going to say the same thing, honestly. I wanted to thank you, and I should have thanked Chief.

I didn't know. I apologize. I didn't realize the chairwoman swearing and washing was in the queue. Oh, I'm going to go ahead and keep calling. Sorry. That was my fault. I thought that was from the last time.

I'm like the children in school. You skip me. But they did do an excellent job. I had some questions and you answered most of them. But this one is regarding apparatus and facilities, and you may have to come back. But how many frontline apparatus are currently operating beyond their rated service life? And what is a multi-year replacement plan funded in FY 2027? And if not, you can come back with that.

I think I have some of it. I have some of it for you, Madam Chair. So engines, we have 55 frontline, average age 11 years, 19 older than 15 years, 17 reserves, average age 26, 11 older than 25 years. Trucks, we have 23 frontline, average age 13 years, 12 older than 15 years. Reserve trucks, average age 29 years, 8 older than 25. One thing, if you look at the standard according to NFPA 1901, as far as fleet, and it gives you kind of a basis, 15 years or older, the recommendation is to be removed or moved to reserve fleet. NFPA 1901 also states anything older than 25 years recommends be removed from service. As far as our ambulances are concerned, we have 35 frontline, average age five years, nine older than seven plus years. We have 17 reserves, average age 10 years. I have to say on order, we do have three engines estimated to be delivered May 27th, Is it 3 May 27th? 3 May 27th. Okay, okay. So we got two May of 27 and one January 28. We have four trucks estimated to be delivered May of 26. I say May of 26, October of 26, November of 26, May of 27, and one rescue truck estimated to be delivered November of 26.

Okay. What percentage of the MFD budget, no, not that one. What is the condition of MFD station facilities citywide? And are there any stations that are identified structural or safety deficiencies that have not yet been remedied?

Well, we've had quite a few renovations going on, and those renovations were all prioritized from needing attention now to it doesn't need attention now. But I think in totality, that's something that I would need to come back to you with, giving you. and what our plan is currently so that we can get out and also work in conjunction with GS to see what their priority is and what is the true need. Right now, I can't really speak to that.

Okay. When it comes to the EMS calls that are handled by MFD versus private or contracted EMS, how is that cost service split?

The cost service? Mm-hmm.

It's not split. So who's we have?

You're talking about the call that's coming in? No, the only time a private service would come in, that's if we were out of ambulances.

Okay.

And there's the need, then a private service will be called.

Other than that, you all are paying for it. Yes. Okay, and last question. Which neighborhoods or zip codes experience the highest fire and EMS call volumes? And how does FY2027 resource deployment account for those concentrations?

Right. Again, on that one, to get you true answers, I need to come back. But what I can tell you is based on our model, Fire and EMS, the model that we work from, we feel like our response times are in order and they're proper and we're getting where we're saying we're going to get on time. Case in point, when I was talking to our response times in the presentation, that's what those were referring to. Also with EMS, we have a firefighter paramedic on every piece of fire equipment. There's 78 pieces of equipment every day where we have 78 paramedics on the company. And the reason we do that, you have... You have external factors built in to things outside of our control, such as this. If we have an emergency right here and we call for an ambulance, based off of what is taking place right now in the city, there might not be an ambulance. It might be coming out of Whitehaven. Okay, the emergency might require, I need immediate life-saving intervention. But the way it's set up, the closest fire station or the closest fire apparatus will get that call and that paramedic gets here and they can start providing life-saving interventions. So, you know, a lot of times people ask why Does a fire truck show up and an ambulance? A lot of times we're taking calls from a third party. When a third party calls, they can say, hey, somebody's got a headache. That seems very non-emergent. But when you get there, it's a bleed. So they need that golden hour to get to that facility. And like I said, the firefighter paramedic can take care of anything that that unit can take care of, with the exception of transport. So that's how that's, and I hope that answers your question.

I just want you to come back and let me know which neighborhood or zip codes experience the highest fire calls, have the most fires.

Right, and I think we did that already.

Because community engagement-wise, they may need more support in knowing how not to use plug in heaters with extension cords or whatever that community engagement of knowledge that needs to be shared with their community.

Right, and that's what we try to do. Wherever we're seeing where you've got fire laws, definitely one person lost to a fire fatality is one too many and most of our fire fatalities they're like accidental they could have been prevented you know it's something like electrical or something like that so we do look at that by zip code by area and we saturate that area whether it be a smoke detector campaign or anything like that but i'll get back with you all right thank you

Thank you, Councilman Spinoza, and then Councilwoman Logan.

I'm good, good to go? Just kidding. Thank you, I wanted to say I'm impressed with today. And I think for the public, I think it's important to say, and Madam Chair, I wanna thank you too, cuz these meetings have been timely and impressive. Everybody's been prepared. And I think all of us do this, but it's a year-round process for me. And so for the public, we've talked about, you and I talk often. And I'm thankful you're in the leadership role, and it's good to see the troops. And same thing for Chief Davis. We've had a lot of conversations. I see Chief Adams back there. I see Penelope, Chiefess. So, yeah, a lot of work is going into this process today, and I'm impressed, man. Happy for you to be in the role. Appreciate it. Thank you for your support.

Councilwoman Logan. Thank you, Chair, and thank you, and again, I do appreciate you all, and thank you for what you're doing. You all are always efficient and effective, and we appreciate that. I do, I've only had one conversation, you know, that I wanted to see follow through on, and that's about the ambulance and the fire trucks and, you know, making certain that we, how we're managing that process, and so I wasn't sure that I understood it in the budget, so I wanted to find out if you all have given any more thought to it, and if there's the need to do something different that could reduce, you know, the cost. I remember you saying that there was a long wait at the hospital sometimes, a long wait at the jail sometimes, so is there any conversation or advocacy or discussions with coming up with a new process to where you don't have to wait hours and hours just waiting to get someone processed where they can receive in a different way because that ties up what you just said. You have to be sitting over here in emergencies over here. You got to send a whole fire truck. And so I know also you said that they used to have these little trucks, pickup trucks that you could, what did you call them?

A squad.

Okay, so instead of sending a whole fire truck, the big rear fire truck, you could send the squad. We do that. So my question is, are we looking at purchasing more of the ambulances and the squads as opposed to the fire trucks? And the reason why I ask that is because I do know in the city of Memphis, historically, people will call 911 for stuff like this. They need to go to the PCP, but because they don't have a PCP, they go to the emergency, they're going to call y'all. And like you said, it could be a headache. It could be, you know, I stung my toe and it's swollen. But we got to send a whole fire truck with firemen on it, with paramedics on it, with using all of that. gas and energy and the big trucks so they wear and tear and then they're not available if it's a 12 alarm fire god forbid but you know you over here with the stump tote so if if there's a way to get pickup trucks you know and ambulances that's what i'm interested in knowing and only you all know that i don't know so that's why i'm asking it's just logic in my mind but it may not be data so but

Yeah, I mean, it's a great question. And we always try to improve our efficiency and our processes and our response. It's somewhat complicated because of all the movement and the call volume we have. With 35 full-time ambulances, We are. They're running. They rarely stop. And we've tried to throw more ambulances into the mix. But honestly, you put more ambulances out there and they call while you're still there and it picks up. And you still diminish that ambulance fling where you're going to need either a fire truck to show up or you're going to need a squad. And quite honestly, when it comes to the number of people we need on the scene for certain medical calls, they can tell you sometimes it's the more the better. Some of them, no, all you need is an ambulance. But some of them, when it comes to difficulty breathing, cardiac related, and like I stated in the PowerPoint, those are a majority of our calls, those type calls. And what we want to do is when they are processing these calls, they're listening and they're saying, OK, based off of this EMD code, based off of what I'm hearing, this is what is needed. So, I mean, we're always looking for ways to improve. And if if we felt that just adding more ambulances was the key, I feel like we really would have moved that way. But I mean, I'm open to further discussion, but I just don't know if more ambulances right now is what's going to help Memphis. You know, in some areas you can do that. But we have a population, high poverty, the need is there. We want to make sure that we're getting to the people we've got to get to and provide them with the best service we can provide them with. So I don't know if that answers the question any better, but we've, I mean, I remember.

And you don't have to answer it today. I just want to know if you all have talked about it because you're, it's really not answering what I'm asking, but you can, you know, we've talked about it offline and you say you all were going to look at it and then. Just kind of look at it and come back, let me know, or send it the information once you've had time. And definitely reducing the wait time at the hospital and at jails or prisons.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. There are no other council members in the queue. Thank you all so much for your time. I want to make a couple of quick announcements. One, Ms. Mauricio has already sent out the responses for our questions from yesterday. If you have any additional questions before our budget hearing on Thursday, please submit those. The budget resolution that we had from Councilwoman Green, we're going to hold that until Thursday, but you all have it, so just take some time and review it.

Did I miss anything else?