City Council - Regular Meeting

Councilwoman Green?

Present. Councilman Dr. Warren? Present. Chair White? Present. Thank you so much. And so first we have a resolution number one from Councilwoman Green, but I don't know, Councilwoman Green, do you want to wait until the end? Do you want to do it now or do you want to wait until we have some more members here?

I can do it. Okay. You're recognized. Am I recognized? Yes, ma'am. Thank you. So my resolution that you all should have is to not increase the MATA budget. It's still at 32 million, open to changing that. But to answer one of the questions and concerns that the public transportation advocates and others have had for a while, which is making a dedicated funding source for public transportation. So I have, because we have seen less than stellar revenues from the clerk thus far, to dedicate 10 million of the vehicle registration fee to public transportation. There is a clause that says, because we can't bind future councils, that I encourage future councils to continue this process and increase that amount if possible. But this is the first step in having that vehicle registration fee become a dedicated funding source for public transportation. And I've gotten the agreement from the administration.

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

Yes, I'll go ahead and second that so we'll make it official. And my comment on it is, you know, this is a great opportunity. idea in that we do think there needs to be a guaranteed source. However, the problem that we have is the same thing as a wheel tax. You can say what you're going to use it for and then the next council can come and do whatever they want to do with it. I think we had Councilman Carlisle try to come up with a source for it, our first go-round. I'm not sure where that source is. We may have to ask him about what it was supposed to be coming from. This is something that I think administration has to be able to commit to and say, look, we're going to commit to public transportation funding at $10 million or $20 million or $25 million. And that's going to be our commitment and for four years. And that's all we're really going to ever be able to do. I think what this is saying is that we want a commitment and administration's okay with doing it from this source. I'm okay with moving forward with it. But I think that's the issue that we've got. It needs to maybe be its own funding body. it really wants its own funding sources and since it's a regional thing and not a Memphis thing we really need legislation from the state that allows it to become its own board and funding body and then it can raise its own money and do it but until it can do that it's a little bit like school boards or school systems as long as they're dependent on the county for their money they're never going to be as effective as they could be. So that being said, I second it, and hopefully we'll move forward with it this year. But we have to let the people that are pushing for this know, under our current system of government, we cannot guarantee them a funding source. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. And we're not voting on it now. It's just presentation now. Let the record reflect that Councilwoman Dr. Easter Thomas has joined us, Councilwoman Logan, as well as Councilwoman Cooper Sutton. So good to see all of you all this afternoon. Oh, and Councilwoman Walker has joined us online. Hello, Councilwoman Walker. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Madam Chair. Good afternoon, everyone.

Yes, Councilwoman Cooper-Sun, you're back. Yes, are we talking about MATA and the resolution? Yes, ma'am. We were talking about that, and that was very important. I think we also discussed at our last meeting the fee increase, and so we'll kind of get more into that after, because that was some dedicated funding that we, that Councilwoman Green wanted to make sure that that was part of some funding that we could utilize for a matter. And so we're going to do a presentation later, I guess, about that. We'll talk about that. That's what we're talking about right now. Right now. Yeah. That resolution.

Okay. So it should be in your packet as resolution number one. All right. We're not voting on it today, but she presented on it. and just kind of explained it. And Dr. Isha Thomas, you recognize?

I didn't want to cut you off.

No, I was just about to say this. I was just catching her up that this is what we were talking about right now. You're not that far behind. I'm not that far behind. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Chair.

Question. Well, one, I like the idea that it's given a dedicated funding source. The way that it reads... I guess it's a question of clarity. In the fourth, where it says the council further recommends that future councils continue and where feasible expand, is this solid enough to where it doesn't have to be brought back each year?

Does that make it... No, we can't bind future councils, so that's why it's worded that way. I cannot bind even one year over the next year's council. Every budget is a new budget. But you could if it was an ordinance. Yes. Yes. But for this year, because we haven't had the expected revenues, I am just trying to get us one step in the door and then move forward again next year. Okay. Thank you.

So this is just a presentation of it. We're not doing a vote on it today.

Just a presentation. I have something else to say. Thank you, Chair. I agree with you, Dr. Michelin, that we need to look at this in the future as an ordinance because when we raise the taxes, and that was the main reason for this funding, and we put this burden on the people to raise these fees, was to help out MATA. So we need to really research and think about what the purpose and how it needs to be utilized and dedicated just for that. That's what we raised the fees for. That's what this was initiated for when we did it, when we brought it, when our budget last year. So this needs to be in place. I can't worry about, you know, the... the next council group or whomever it is, but we put this burden on the people. And so it needs to be in an ordinance and we need to work on it with our attorneys or whatever we need to do to make sure we get it in an ordinance. So it will not have to change because of the burden that we put on the people with these fees. And it increased tremendously because my constituents are still having a hard time with more than one or two vehicles. So we need to just be trustworthy, do what we say we're going to do, and make sure it happens. Because this is a great resolution. I support it. I'm co-sponsoring it with you. But we need to make sure we follow through and make it happen before we leave these seats. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilwoman Dr. Easter-Thomas. Can you hear me as a co-sponsor? Yes. All right, seeing no other members in the queue, let the record reflect that Chairwoman Swearengin-Washington has joined us. Good afternoon. Next we have Park's presentation. Good afternoon, so good to see you all.

Good afternoon.

Yep, please state your name and address and you all may proceed with your presentation.

Yes, Justice Bolden, Memphis Parks Director, 2599 Avery.

DeShay Lorenzo-Parker, Deputy Director of Memphis Parks, 2599 Avery.

Okay, first off, you'll see our FY27 org chart, and this shows our departments. And so, from left to right, you'll see administration, planning and development, park operations, as well as centers, golf, and recreation. Those are the departments that fall directly under the Memphis parks. And then, also of note, you'll see some service centers, including the zoo, Liberty Park, and museums. Those are listed there. That allows us to track the material and supply costs for those particular service centers. And then also to the far right, you'll see managed properties. So the management fees for our managed partners throughout the city are parked in that service center. And we'll proceed. So you'll see our FY26 authorized compliment as well as FY27. The only change here is 1508 Memphis Botanic Gardens, and that's where there are no longer any city employees that are parked in service centers of our managed partners. And we'll proceed. And this here just gives you a snapshot of our authorized compliment. So you'll see here the Memphis Parks for FY27 has an authorized compliment of 269. Importantly, there were 11 positions that were unfunded in FY27, but we've still retained that authorized count as we move ahead. And there's one position of note that will move towards human resources, and that's the health and wellness, which we'll focus on with total rewards. Overall, we have 245 positions that will be funded for FY27. And just key priorities, key budget priorities for the Memphis Parks as we move into FY27. So first and foremost, that's youth and young adult programming. So that's all of the golf. We're looking forward to having 600 youth in particular participating in summer programs around golf. That's your Play Your Parks, our special events, Movies in the Park, Family Fun Fridays that we're looking forward to hosting during the months of June and July. our aquatics programs, which are set to kick off in the month of June, and all of our summer camps and forward-facing programs. In terms of maintaining clean and attractive parks, for us, that starts with park operations, and that's focusing on our 17- to 20-day cut cycle, as well as our litter abatement. And of course, we've had recent discussions about park maintenance, et cetera. And three, supporting cultural assets. So in particular, that is our managed partners, and in particular, our managed partner fees. So one of the things we wanted to focus on during this budget cycle not only was maintaining a balanced budget, but also ensuring that our managed partners were whole in terms of their contractual obligations and so that is reflected in this budget and managed partners represents approximately 25 percent of our fy 27 budget for the parks and then last but not least as we move forward certainly we'll be looking at continuing to offer some of the free programs that we provide throughout the city to youth adults and seniors But also, we'll be looking at some specialized programs that allow us to implement some cost recovery strategies, whether those are specialty athletic camps or adult sports programs. We'll be looking at some value-added ways in which we can implement cost recovery as we proceed. And just continuing on. So here we have a snapshot of our historical budget. And I'd like to point you first to FY24, just so we're all aware. That was the last fiscal year in which the Liberty Stadium was under the Memphis Parks. So if you look down at the bottom line for revenues, you'll see we're at 10.4 for that fiscal year. As we move ahead to FY25, in addition to the stadium not being under our purview, of note also was the renovation to Audubon Golf Course, which was undergoing at that time. And then proceeding toward FY26, you'll see that increase from 7.7 in revenue back up to 9.4. And of course, we're forecasting to be right at that target as we proceed towards the end of FY26. And I'll just also note, just so as we look ahead, if you're looking at the materials and supplies line, you'll notice a change in FY25 towards FY26. So we talked a little bit about that earlier this week during our roundtable. The managed partner fees used to be located within the materials and supplies line. If you look at the service charges line in both FY26, you will see that change where now those managed partner fees are now parked in service charges. That allows parks to accurately track And then, of course, as you look towards FY27, you will see that increase of roughly about 11%, and that boils back to what we talked about, making our managed partners whole and meeting those contractual obligations. And just proceeding forward as we look at actuals, so I'll take us right to FY26, that's our year total actuals. So right now in terms of expenditures on personnel, we're right at 16 million. Same thing for materials and supplies, we're at 11.6. And you'll see just to the right of that as we're forecasting for the fiscal year at about 24 million of personnel and then 19 for materials and supplies. Of course, we're moving into our busy season. So April, May, and June for the Memphis Parks is a busy month, both in terms of programming, but also where we have our uptick in park maintenance during the heavy growing season. Thank you. And just proceeding ahead, we wanted to highlight some of the key budget drivers for the Memphis Parks during FY27. Right at the top, utilities. And so that's roughly about 10% of our budget. As we're all aware, utility costs are rising. But what we've done in order to make sure we have a balanced budget is we're looking at those increased costs. but also making sure that our professional services are intact. So for our facilities, if you think about our 30 Memphis community centers that we have, our contractors are maintaining those on our behalf, and those are storefronts, making sure that cutting, trimming, blowing, litter abatement is happening on a consistent basis. And also pool maintenance as well as security. If you're out at a pool this summer, you'll see those sky cops and whatnot also there just to make sure we're ensuring security and we're also focused on drowning prevention. Looking at the next line, equipment and supplies, much of that pool chemicals, but also program supplies. And so whether we're talking about youth, adult programming, seniors, we purchase our program supplies and then also the cleaning supplies to ensure we're maintaining our buildings. Number three, I'll take you to cultural assets. So we'll continue to talk about the support for our managed partners through the management fees. That's about 25% of our FY27 budget. And then last but not least, in terms of key budget drivers, the FY27 salary increases. So we're projecting the 2% increase. And so we factored that into our balanced budget. And here, the qualitative and quantitative mostly focuses on those materials and supplies costs that are above 5% of our budget. And so we talked about park operations. Contracted mowing is right at the top. For Memphis Parks, where we maintain our outdoor spaces, our staff in particular focus on a 17- to 20-day cycle, but with our contracted mowing at our centers, that is a more frequent 7- to 10-day cycle, so that's important for us. Community centers, as we're all aware, utilities is an important cost, as well as program supplies, and here you'll see some of the other areas, recreation, that includes chemicals for aquatics, supplies, etc. You've got golf as well as administrative fees. And last but not least, I'll just point to the bottom, Liberty Park, those professional services include both utilities as well as you've got the facility management of those Liberty Park surrounding facilities, mowing, security, parking, and event management. And then, just proceeding, looking at our performance metrics, there are three key areas that we're focused on in parks as we proceed. Number one is reliability, and so that's showing that we're continuing to perform high-quality maintenance and being reliable and responsive. Two is our reach, and so that's us as the Memphis Parks making sure that residents throughout the city have an opportunity to utilize our 162 parks, our more than 5,600 acres of space, and that our key community assets are open and available to all. And then last but not least, quality. And so that's both our building and building conditions and cleanliness, customer service, making sure that we're providing a welcome environment and How do we do that? One, incorporating technology. So in FY23, the OpenGov asset management system was something that Memphis Parks put in place just to make sure that we're maintaining a consistent cycle. So when we talk about that 17 to 20 day cut cycle, or we're addressing litter abatement, those are something that it's programmed continuously Our foremen are able to go out into parks and take photos that are time stamped, entered into the system, and so we're able to continue to track how we're managing those outdoor spaces. But also, if you look at attendance, there were two important factors in terms of technology that we implemented. And one was the rec desk memberships. And so that's the membership when you visit a community center for the first time. We allow you to create a profile, take a photo. And that way we know who's entering and exiting our facilities at all times. And then also Placer AI. So Placer AI is the... system we use that actually tracks park usage. So if you're in our parks, we're able to accurately track who's attending those special events. So when we look back to last year and we know we hosted Liberty for All around 4th of July, we knew that 8,000 people attended. We were able to do that through the use of Placer AI. And then last but not least, for FY26, customer interaction was measured at 88.6%. How did we do that? Through the Secret Shopper program. And so residents have an opportunity to visit our community centers. to look at the entrance to the facility, the signage, the information that's available, and then they have an opportunity to submit a survey. We don't get to know who is actually surveying us, but we do receive the data in terms of the customer interaction. And so our key focus or I guess key performance indicators when it comes to that is just ensuring that we're continuing to focus on customer service with our staff and that we're being pleasant. So I guess you could indicate we'd like to be the Chick-fil-A of parks. And then just proceeding to 11, we'll talk a little bit about budding initiatives that we have for the Memphis Parks as we move to FY27. I talked a little bit about the cost recovery plan and how that helps strengthen our financial stability. Sponsorships and grants continue to be something that we heavily rely on, especially when we talk about expanding swim lessons and opportunities. Sponsorships is going to allow us to do that. but also the parks master plan. So in 2020, parks commissioned our parks master plan, but now we're coming up just past the fifth year anniversary. And so that means we have to now implement what we call the playbook. And so the playbook is the re-up to that master plan. And What that does, it allows residents to provide input on new programs that they would like to see, but also to just them to provide us feedback on how we're doing when it comes to maintaining our park assets, but also what are things that they would like to see improved. And then last but not least, community engagement is also factored into the Parks Master Plan as we move ahead. And you'll see some of the other key areas as well on the next page. Installing and maintaining burglary systems, fire alarms, and fire suppression systems across all of our facilities is important, and you'll see, of course, it's budgeted at $500,000 annually. Well, we do that to make sure that we're protecting our city assets, that we're ensuring compliance with fire and local city codes, but also we're increasing citizen safety and the perception of the Memphis Parks as a whole. Last but not least, we'll talk about a couple of different areas in which we feel that we're doing an exceptional job when it comes to wraparound services. So that's MIFA meals, senior meals at our senior centers. That's our meals that we provide to youth throughout the school year as well as during the summertime. and that's a partnership with the YMCA. Also with the Shelby County Community Services Agency, where they're located in our facilities, providing additional services that maybe the city doesn't provide that Shelby County does as well. And then also the hospitality hub. We all can remember back in January, when we dealt with the winter storms. The hospitality hub coming into our facilities and provided that much needed assistance to our unhoused population was really a key in making sure that we met residents on common ground. And then also, as we move forward, we'll be working closer along youth services as well as libraries. We've got some adjacent facilities next to libraries that we're looking at programming. And then I mentioned previously the partnership with First Tee. Now, challenges and risk. We talked a little bit about the unfunding of positions. However, Memphis Parks, as we move towards FY27, we have a plan, and that's to address these challenges through optimizing staffing, reviewing our contracts, maintaining our core services, but also implementing new technology. The Wolf River Greenway is a major asset that we maintain, as well as the Heights Line, which is located off of Summer and National. The implementation of autonomous mowers and new technology is going to allow us to continue to grow in some of those areas. But also, last but not least, fully supporting our cultural assets. And so that's our managed partners. They are the extension outside of the parks and just making sure that we're continuing to serve residents when it comes to efficient resource allocation, as well as meeting community needs. And so I think without further ado, I'm at page 13 and that's the end. So at this time, if you have questions.

We have Councilwoman Logan in the queue.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you all for your presentation. I didn't see anything in here about the park rangers, but I did notice that security was, the actuals was almost 900,000, and the proposed, the actuals for 25 was almost 900,000. Then it went to 500,000. And then the proposed is right at $500,000. So in light of the things that have gone on this year, can you kind of explain the figure, how you got there?

Yes. So with security, when we have our special events, those movies in the park, Family Fun Fridays, as well as at our outdoor pool entrances throughout the summer, we do deploy security. And so that is a professional service contract that we utilize. Now, when it comes to the park rangers, of course, we've had discussions about that, but also we're looking and exploring the implementation of the cameras that we talked about. So we're looking to really utilize technology to help us mitigate that absence of staff, I guess I could say. And so when we talk about the 162 parks, one of the ways to do that will be to increase the technology. So of course, We have those cameras used through Verkata in our community centers and also in some cases they're located strategically on the outside of the buildings. So if there is an incident, we do not only track who's entering our facility through rec desk, but we also can provide that information to the Memphis Police Department when we need to. But that's essentially where we're at right now.

So you're reducing your, you got rid of the park rangers and reduced the security because you have technology that's going to hopefully address any issues. But I do know that the issues that happen like in the parks and community center area, green area, or when people start gathering, you can see it on the camera. Are you all able to call in the police department to defuse or mitigate situations that may be ensuing? as opposed to just seeing it or recording it. And I say that because a park ranger is a body on the ground that could see what's coming or potentially coming and then notify somebody. But I don't know how the cameras are operating in that regard. And I do think that I'm asking because I do think security is very important, as you do too, I'm sure. but I just don't see it covered in the budget.

So security is covered in our CIP through the purchase of a weapon detection system. That is something we're looking to add up to 25 centers, but also we've made purchases that will allow us to deploy those during the summer season at our pools. Now, when it comes to the physical security, if we're talking about a special event, yes, we do currently utilize those. But in talking about, I guess, focusing on parks, That's where we would rely on technology. And also, we would look to, in many cases, with the Memphis Connect. So if you recall, when we took the tour of the downtown command center, being able to connect to those cameras and allow those to be monitored, whether it be through the real-time crime center, that would likely be our solution just to mitigate the manpower. But certainly, it's a challenge that we would look to want to continue to address.

Okay, the other question is, over time, I noticed that it's proposed at almost 550,000 in the actual for last year. was 108,000. What is the difference, the increase?

So, you have a couple different factors. We work to really project for overtime, just in making sure that we can maintain, especially in park operations, But also if we run into situations like during this past year in January, we did have an uptick in overtime during the winter storms. And so it's one of those things where we're trying to make sure that we're projecting to have enough so that we don't end up in a deficit. So it was a part of our balanced budget.

Yes. Councilwoman Dr. Easter Thomas, you're recognized.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Director. Thank you. I would like to say that I do think that reading through some of these new and budding initiatives, that these are very smart things to start thinking about or keep building on. So I'm glad that y'all included that in there. My question is routed towards the CIP for parks. which I don't think you touched on, but I know we touched on it Monday, but I want to come back to it, and you probably know where I'm about to go. On the line items for CIP for Parks, where it says North Frazier Community Center Improvements, it has it dissected in the FY27 and FY28.

That is correct. Yeah, so FY27, you'll see a funding amount there. I want to say, don't quote me, $200,000.

It says $250,000, and then FY28 says $3.5 million. But last year, when that was, and I know CIPs can be shifted, but last year, when it was noted to be North Fraser, it had the full amount in FY27.

Yes, so importantly for District 7, what we tried to do was work with not only community stakeholders, but your office to really determine what was the priority. And so we looked closely not only at North Raja to make sure that we could start with those design and architectural and engineering services. but also making sure that we could prioritize the use of the federal funding associated with Gooch Park. And so if you look back to FY26, you'll notice that the Gooch Park was there. But what we did for this fiscal year, moving into FY27, we looked to fully fund that project at $3.38 million, which is actually a match grant. So the

So you moved the North Frazier money to match the Gooch money for the federal grant this fiscal year?

You could essentially look at it like that, but what we tried to do was just make sure we could prioritize the use of those federal funds so that we could put the asset in place. Unfortunately, we're not able to.

But could we not have kept it? Could we not have kept North Frazier money? at that amount for FY27 or we couldn't have done it. I guess I'm looking at everybody over here because everybody looking at me. All right.

Antonio Adams, chief operating officer. So council member, director is correct. In order to maximize the dollars that are not first out the door from the city, we did need to make ends meet to activate that particular part. I understand your concern as well, but I think we needed to balance the rest of the budget out and then put assets in other districts. as well as this particular district in play. I think if you give us an opportunity and let's maybe talk offline to see if there's any other opportunities to reallocate to maybe start programming and planning, that's an opportunity that we can kind of look at.

And Noah Frazier?

possibly now i'm not not guaranteeing that but uh i think that's what you were mentioning uh director but one of the things i want to make sure that we do is if we do have federal funds we don't allow it to lapse no i i totally agree with it however yes ma'am district seven and this is not i'm not throwing nobody under the bus

There is not even a bus to be thrown under. This is just a statement, a true factual observation. District 7, when it comes to parks, we get the shortest end of the stick, pushed back, forgotten about, thrown away, and I can name a couple of things. And I just don't want North Frazier, which was very exciting to be able to put towards that line item in last budget one year ago, and so have been talking with the staff at North Frazier. They've been telling folks who have been coming in, pretty soon we'll be started on renovation, and now there's pushback another year the same way Gooch started. has been pushed back three years on just a pavilion. So I'm just saying I don't want, I understand that things have to be prioritized. Things have to be balanced. Oh, my goodness, there are six other full districts. Got it. However, it seems that nobody else is told that except me. So I would just love to explore putting, if not the full 3.5 million in FY28 back on FY27 for Noah Frazier because... It's not a lot of other districts that are told they need to wait another year, except for me when it comes to parks. Don't know why that is. You just got here a year ago, so I'm not blaming you, director. You've been here. I ain't blaming you either. But I'm just saying that there seems to be a pattern and that I'm not... Maybe it is happening in other districts, but I ain't hearing it. And so I would love to see how we can just kind of nip that in the bud now, finish everything that's supposed to happen before FY28 if we can. I mean, it's a CIP. We do have that wiggle room from what we looked at Monday to be able to put that 3.5 in FY27 CIP. So I would encourage that that happens. Does it have to go by resolution? Or can they just be altered?

So we hear you loud and clear, Councilwoman.

But I don't want to put a resolution until we all come to an agreement. Yes, ma'am.

So give us an opportunity to get with you, and then let's talk about it. Hear you loud and clear. You'd like to have both. You don't want to sacrifice federal dollars, and we don't want to sacrifice time. Understood. Right. Yes, ma'am.

Thank you all. Thank you, Chair.

Chairwoman Swearingen-Washington.

I just wanted to share with you, whoever had been doing the splash pads, we've been having some challenges with the materials that they've been using. So we may want to consider using another vendor.

Yes, what we've done is make sure that we have a contractor on retainer who can assist us when it comes to some of those maintenance issues, but also looking at just the preventative maintenance and making sure we're good on that. But certainly, we hear you. Okay.

When it comes to the facility conditions, you probably can't do it today, but if you could provide the most recent facility condition assessment for the community centers. And the recreation facilities. Will do, thank you. Including any deficiencies in estimated repair costs. Also, what is the total amount of the deferred maintenance backlog with the parks and recreation facilities? Do we have any parks or recreation facilities that were closed this year?

Any parks that were closed?

Or community centers that were closed?

No, I mean, we've had a couple of, well, we had the Bigfoot Aquatics Facility that we're getting ready to bring back online that was down for construction.

That's good. All right. And do you know how our park budget and recreational budget compares to peer cities of our size?

So compared to peer cities of our size, we're in a good place. Keep in mind, the Memphis Parks is one of the three accredited agencies here in the state of Tennessee and one of 300 in the nation. But certainly, as we continue to grow as a city and grow in, I guess, linear space in terms of the Wolf River Greenway, we'll be looking at some ways in which maybe the Memphis Parks also has dedicated source funding, et cetera.

Okay, last question. What is the ratio of staff to the population served during the summer for the summer programs?

So it differs depending upon what program you're talking about. If we're talking about swim lessons, it's typically going to be one to seven. With the youth programs in summer camp, I want to say we're probably in the one to 15 to one to 20 range. Is that accurate? Yeah, one to 15. Okay. Yeah, and keep in mind, that's typically going to be your part-time staff, but also we'll have those full-time staff on site as well.

And I still feel like we spend so many millions of dollars annually with landscaping and grass cutting. It just seems like if we had some part-time workers or something, it would be cheaper than paying all those contracts.

Well, keep in mind, part-time and full-time staff do cut in parks. So when we talk about the contractors, that's specifically the community centers. Because of the high and heavy usage, our goals is always going to be to maintain those at a seven to ten day, much shorter, similar to what you would do at your home as opposed to when we're looking at the outdoor parks and the much larger green spaces. We're doing a really good job of resource allocation and just trying to be efficient in those cutting cycles. And so that would be my response to that. But of course, when it comes to green space, you have to maintain it.

All right. Thank you. Councilwoman Cooper-Sutton, you're making that.

Thank you, Chair. I'm going to hijack your presentation for a minute, and I want to show you this. Back in May of 2025, I think it was on May the 14th, I've sent this over because the kids at Dave Wells in District 7, this is what it looks like. The meadow... Yeah, the metal on the bars where the babies would swing on or hold their hands on, all of that. The fence was, and I think when you came aboard, you and I did a tour. And so I'm going to say as a piggyback off of my colleague, Dr. Michael Hesron-Thomas, This is unacceptable, and it's always looked like it's something pushed back when it comes to District 7, especially as much activity that goes on at Dave Wells. Those children are not safe on those playgrounds. And you and I did a tour. We walked it, and we talked about it. We talked about the little gate over there just to get it secure so no one could be in and out. But that is very unacceptable, and I don't see it anywhere. The improvements, just to go put another pad out there. Just put some little rubber things over there to protect the children. But this is what it looks like for our children in District 7, in Super District 8, which is so unacceptable. And I mean, I've been dealing with this since May 14, 2025. And then when you came aboard, once again, we did a tour. And it's still at that state.

Yeah, and I think that does provide an opportunity when we're looking at these photos for us to sit down and really discuss prioritization when it comes to how we're going to address our park system. So we do have a couple different areas, whether we're talking about park maintenance or in this case, we may be looking at a repair or replacement of surfacing. But I would look forward to getting with you, Councilwoman Cooper-Sutton, as well as Issa Thomas. sitting down and just discussing is our priority a certainly as we move towards this fiscal year new community center do we want to look at the surfacing etc but certainly we hear you loud and clear

Well, you know, when you have summer programs and this is a very high volume community center where the children are playing and the children are attending all these programs and that is not safe enough for them to play. I mean, I thought maybe we would have done something to it by now. And it's 2026 and it's not even in the budget. I don't even see it anywhere. And so sitting down, I don't want to sit down anymore. You know what needs to be done. I've sent you the pictures. I can't keep, we just can't keep doing the same thing over and over and talking about, and it's visual there for you. So I really, in no disrespect to anyone, I just, I can't sit down. I mean, we've been sitting down. We send emails. We send correspondence and got a trail of emails. And we're going to do this. We're going to look into this. And I understand that prioritizing and it's always funding. But when it comes to our children and we talk about their safety, that is a priority. And that is important. So I don't want to sit down. I don't want to meet anymore. We just need action. We need action and we need something done.

Thank you, Chairwoman. I yield. Thank you. Councilwoman Green, you're recognized. Let the record reflect that Councilman Spinoza has joined us.

Thank you, Chair. That's horrible. I mean, I say as a councilwoman and as a mother who uses those parks, it's unacceptable, especially piggybacking on what Councilwoman Logan noted, which is you're forecasted over time, even with what happened in January, that you say is a huge event, is only 124,000, and yet you're proposing five times that amount. in overtime. Now, Walter, we've been here. It's our third budget together. How often do we talk about overtime? We have tightened up budgets everywhere on overtime. There's probably between police and fire who save lives every day who I want to support. We have been as tight as we can with them on overtime. I cannot in any way justify an extra 400,000 in overtime. I mean, unless we're expecting five natural disasters next year. When it's clear we could be using that 400,000 to fix parks up like the ones that were just shown. So I'm going to give that back to you guys to fix before we finalize this budget, because neither that park or an exploded overtime budget make any sense to me. Thank you, Chair.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair. We had talked, I think, about having some sort of presentation to the Council and the Parks Committee about our plan or your plans for maintenance and refurbishing parks as they're coming. So I think what I'm hearing from my colleagues is We probably want to have that plan coming up at our next meeting before we go into budget because I think as we're looking at that plan, that may affect how we're thinking about budget. So I know that's sort of rough, seeing all the stuff you've got to be doing, but see what you can do about coming up with a good plan. It's sort of like these are the things, this is where we're going.

Thanks, people.

Good afternoon. Thank you so much for being here. You let us know when you're ready.

Okay. Give me one hot second. Okay. All right, and thank you. Good afternoon, Council and Chair Ashley Cash, Division of Community Development, Director 170 North Main. So I'm here to present our operating budget for FY27. I do wanna share before I get into the numbers that this is our operating budget only. We will come back before you all And probably within the next month to present our federal budget, a lot of our priorities are realized out of our federal budget. The operating covers a lot of operational personnel, those types of things. But happy to get into any questions as they arise. And so this slide is really just our service center, HCD across the top, and then the four service centers that govern our work. You can go to the next slide. So this is our complement. We currently have 70 positions. If you see in FY27, we are actually reducing our positions by nine positions. Those are all vacancies, so we'll have a complement of 61. As other divisions have probably said, we will have the opportunity to bring those positions back if we see the need. But really, a lot of those positions are older, outdated positions. They are... Clerk, at one time, HCD, some of y'all may remember, had... three, four different site locations. So there was some redundancy in like office manager, office clerk type positions that as they were vacated were never filled. And then we actually had a couple of positions that had been posted a few times, but either based on how they were described, what we were looking for, we had not been successful in getting candidates. So we're looking at revamping those positions. But this compliment that we have now is gonna be 61. We also have, if you see over in the corner, 13 grant funded positions, those positions never hit the general fund. They're 100% funded by our grant. You can go to the next slide. Okay, and so requested budget, our total budget request this year is 5.6 million. This slide really shows the breakdown in how we spend across different categories. As I said, the majority of that 61% is going to be our personnel, staff, benefits, those sorts of things. 31% are grants, a handful of grants are funded directly through city operating. Those are our neighborhood partnership grants, some down payment assistance, and some homelessness initiatives and affordable housing initiatives. And then our next biggest category is materials and supplies at 8%. We'll get into the numbers on the next slide. And so, if you look across personnel for our adopted budget, FY22 through 26, you can kinda see how we've trended. We've gone up a little bit, but most of our categories have remained. There's not been a lot of fluctuation in that. If you look at that FY26 adopted budget, and we'll get into this on the next slide on the actuals, but we are doing 3.8 for personnel, and then our proposed is 3.4 for personnel. That's taking into account those vacancies, but also just looking at our trend and how we're spending within this fiscal year. Materials and supplies decreased a little bit in terms of the proposed adopted budget. and then grants and subsidies decrease very, very slightly, we're actually going to pick up that difference within our federal budget. And that's really on both our neighborhood partnership and our down payment assistance. Total expenditures, 5.6, and then we have revenue. We receive some revenue for a parking garage. We receive a percentage of parking revenue for Lee's Landing Garage. And then we also usually get about $20,000 in sponsorships for our annual Taste of Memphis event. So that's what is showing in the revenue. You can go to the next slide. So this is where we get into the actuals and you kind of see how things are working out. So right now, if you look at, I'm just going to go to FY26 Q3 actuals. Our current personnel is at 2.3 right now. Obviously, this was, I think this was as of March 30th. So we've got another quarter of spending, but we know in personnel, we're not going to hit that because of those vacancies. So we're adjusting our personnel budget, as you can see, to that 3.4. The same thing with materials and supplies, $280,000. There are some encumbrances and some expected payments that we'll have over between now and the end of June 30th. But once again, based on the forecast, we're not gonna reach that 534, and so we're budgeting 430 this year within FY27. I talked about grants and subsidies. We're actually increasing our proposed budget there if you look at where we are from the actual perspective. Yeah, our forecast is 2 million, and then proposed is 1.7, and we also have some encumbrances there. Within that, we have our down payment assistance and neighborhood partnership. There is gonna be some carryover neighborhood partnership grants. We have a couple that have a little bit more spending to do, and then they normally will submit a final invoice around July 1st, a little bit after their grant expires, which those grants end June 30th. I'm gonna go to the next slide. So the next couple of slides are just showing key budget drivers, giving you a little bit of flavor of what we've done this year, what those dollars look like in terms of an impact. And so down payment assistance is huge in our community. The community loves it. We love it. It's a great program. It provides up to 25,000 for first-time homebuyers to acquire a home in the city. And so FY26, we did 86 down payment assistance grants to individual homeowners. We are actually adding, I wanna say about 600,000 on the federal side. And so we think next fiscal year, based on our trends, we'll get up to about 130 down payment assistance awards, which is not quite double, but a lot. And so we think the community will be excited about that. You see that last note, we spent about $1.3 million total in FY26, $400,000 from operating, and the balance in, am I reading this wrong? Excuse me, $950,000 in city operating and then the balance in home funds. So we're going to increase that home amount, but hold steady that city operating amount. And then on the next slide. It's just where I've been talking a lot about our neighborhood partnership grants. These are community grants that we provide within the city. We've granted to Rise Memphis, Junior League, Young Actors Guild. There are a host of other organizations. I'm happy to share that with you all. But this past year, we did about 18 of those for a total of 223,000. This fiscal year, we're asking for about the same, but once again, we're supplementing or enhancing that through our federal grant as well. So we'll get to around, I forget the number, I think we're gonna fund, thank you, 27 partnership grants this year up from that 18 number. And if you go to the next slide. Home repair rehab. This is, you know, huge in your community. A lot of you all reach out with seniors with various challenges. And so in FY26, we completed 66 home repair projects that were around 22,000 per unit. That total amount is 1.4 million. We're enhancing those programs. We actually just had this morning a contractor workshop about eight contractors for our RAMP program, which is an accessibility modification program. We also are doing some rehab. And so we really expect that number to increase across the next fiscal year. And you can go to the next slide. Okay, again, budget drivers. So FY26, and we'll show this in a little bit more detail on number of units in the next couple of slides. We currently have under construction, this is saying 161 units. Of those, about 70 were completed recently with the opening of Peachtree Apartments in the Fraser community. And so the balance of those will be completed throughout June. This year, with many of them being complete early, housing development, those projects take about 18, 24, excuse me, 12 to 24 months, just depending on if it's one or two homes or if it's a larger multifamily development. And so they usually span across a couple of years in terms of being in progress and then to completed units. And then we talk a little bit about aligning our work and our efforts around the mayor's 10,000 housing unit goal. I'm happy to respond to any specific questions after this presentation. We've had a little bit of conversation with y'all about bringing a comprehensive approach. I think we're slated for the first meeting in June, but happy to provide a little bit of a teaser at the end of this presentation. But all of the work that we're doing within our operating budget, And as we reshift and align our federal budget, which we will be bringing to you all in other initiatives, is really helping to drive that 10,000-unit goal. The next slide, please, is just an overview of our homelessness support. And so homelessness continues to be a crisis, and so we try to meet that demand. We work through other agencies, and we work closely with Community Alliance for the Homeless around providing homelessness services. And so this past fiscal year, we helped support 87 families and 210 individuals who were dealing with various homelessness situations that could have been rapid rehousing, that may have been supportive services, that's likely to permanent housing. And so there are a lot of different ways that we have been able to support those families. And then this bottom line just shows the financial impact. And so about 3 million of that went through those various programs. $283,000 in our ESG emergency solutions grant. Once again, this is not quite mid-year, but three-quarters in. That number will get to about $500,000 by the end of the fiscal year. Our HOPWA, which is housing for persons with AIDS or other special needs. And then Home ARP is a special allocation. It expires 2030. But it was a special allocation through HUD, and so we actually have partnered with Room in the Inn, Agape, I believe Salvation Army is receiving some funds, and that's really around supportive services for people experiencing homelessness. And then we do, through the operating budget, contribute about $121,000 for homelessness services. The next slide just talks about personnel. Obviously, personnel is critical. Having people to talk to, people to address challenges, people to help ideas and solutions is critical to keeping our division going. You can go to the next slide. And this slide is just showing our housing trends. I kind of went through them slide by slide, but this puts them in a chart that might be easier to look at or compare. I want to call out in FY25, we actually calculated that number a little bit different. We calculated in this total units that were constructed. under construction and completed. So it is higher, but also we had some additional kind of a lot of our home, excuse me, a lot of our major ARPA projects were complete within the fiscal year and did various ribbon cuttings. And so that number is a lot higher, actually, than the other prior years. Right now, like I said, we're at the 161 mark. With Peachtree, there are some other projects that as we get through the end of the year, that number will continue to increase. And then I already talked about DPA and home repair. And we can go to the next slide, which is really our last slide, and I'm happy to respond to any questions. But it just talks about challenges. So any additional budget reduction can have a negative impact on our staffing, reduce operational expenses, decrease our effectiveness, and reduce support for the community. And so that is the presentation. I am happy to respond to any questions about the presentation or otherwise. Thank you.

Councilwoman Green, you're recognized. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Director Cash. I think the thing that's missing to me in this budget is... Frankly, Liberty Park. How much did we allocate to that project at the beginning?

So the inception of the project, the total that has been allocated to that project overall is $114 million since 2017, since it started.

$114 million. We still don't have a hotel. Okay. And how much are we paying in debt service this year?

I believe that amount, I think we've made one payment of 1.8 million, but the total will be about 3.6 million come end of June.

And so it'll be another 3.6 million by the end of next year?

Yes.

And so that's not reflected anywhere in this budget? And that's not a fault of you, you don't put together the budget book. But I think it's worth pointing out that that's an additional expense that we're all paying, taxpayers, we're all paying for our housing and community development, and we're not seeing the results for it. I just wanna make sure that when we're talking about all of the great things that you're doing, we love your homeless supports. We love how you help out the seniors with home repairs, all of that's great stuff. But we need to be honest about the things that are not working as well. And talk about how we're going to move those forward because they are also impacting our budget. over almost a decade now. I don't know how we reflect that in this part of the budget. And I tried to see if it was line itemed out in the debt service, but I can't find it there either. So it just seems to be missing from our budget that we're making these payments.

Walter Person, CFO, 125 North Main. It is in the debt service portion, especially related to the actual debt service, but it is not itemized. So to your point, we can provide itemization. It's typically not detailed as such.

I think that would be super helpful because I think people, especially the public, would like to know how much we're paying for Liberty Park, waiting on someone to actually break down. I think some people would like to know how much we're paying on the Sheraton. waiting for things to happen because it took us a year to get a contract signed. So I think getting that debt service itemized would be really helpful so that we can see when we're doing these projects, if there are the kinds of projects that we wanna invest in, because we can't really see the real cost at this point of these projects. So $114 million plus another $6.2 million, we're at $120 million and nine years in and not seeing any revenue from hotel and high five, et cetera, yet. That's problematic, to say the least. And it's just not reflected anywhere in our budget books. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councilwoman Green. Councilwoman Cooper-Sutton, you're recognized.

Thank you. It took a lot for me to come here today to attend this budget meeting. I watched a couple days online because every, since I've been here these past two years, we are repeatedly asking for the same thing over and over. And what I'm finding hard, not to you, not directed to you, I'm talking to Chief right now. Let me make that clear. I find it very hard for anyone in accounting, certified, to present a budget to us and not outline the things that we constantly and repeatedly ask for. I listened to, I think it was Tuesday, it was awful, I think it was Public Works. We should not have to be digging. And I think there is some software we were looking for this year to help us because these books that you all present to us are just empty. They're just empty. And we just have to dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig. for things that should be already visible for us to be there. And we should be able to go there and say, this, this, one, two, three. Our chairwoman is doing an excellent job. I get frustrated. And I said that I wasn't even coming back anymore because it's the same. It's repetitive. It's repetitive. And if you come and you listen to each department and We've been here since, I think, Monday. And you come and you listen to each department. You would think that the next department would go back and say, wow, I don't want council to come and ask me the same thing, so I'm going to get A, B, C, D, E, F, G in line, so we won't even have to go here. But I understand that behavioral change here in this city is very hard. It's very hard, behavioral change. And we talk about behavioral change with our constituents, but we set the example of what behavioral change ought to look like and what we should start. And so to hear my colleague ask about this, but you say it's in there, and I was looking at her when she was saying it in the book. I just get frustrated when I look at the book because it's just, it's the same, it's the same thing. I hear my grandfather, it's the same soup homed over with the same spoon in it, and it never changes. And so we got to do better when we're presenting these budgets, because we're presenting these budgets for the citizens, the constituents, those who are watching. And then we get an influx of emails asking different questions, Y, A, B, C, D, and then we're trying to build our trust with government and with our constituents. And so I'm just a little, I just, it's hard for me to sit here and we're trying to do this to be accountable, to be transparent, to be all those things. And then we come right back at another budget year and we present the same I just don't know. And I'm just, I'm trying not to be, get frustrated. I'm just trying just to be a real team player and listen and have my meetings offline, you know, to get a full understanding and to be fair and to, you know, but we just got to do it a little bit better. And I think this body requires a little bit more and we're more transparent with more accountability. So thank you, Chair. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman Cooper-Sutton. Chairwoman Swearingen-Washington, you're recognized.

Thank you so much, Chair. You may have answered this question. How many affordable housing units were produced in 2027? 2026 or will be produced in 2027? Will be produced in 2027.

So that will likely, based on what we fund, we typically, it'll be around the 500 unit mark. We are looking at some enhanced, I'm going to say opportunities through our federal budget, so I'll share a couple of them. Over prior years, we were not receiving our full home allocation. A portion of the funds were repaying an old issue. And so this year, we'll have an additional $2 million in home funds that will be applied. We also are re-pivoting some of our community development block grant funds for Enfield. And also, there's a special designation for new construction. You typically can't use that funding source for new construction. And that will be about $4 million. So that's an additional 6 million directly into housing. That should produce an additional 266 units above what we generally do, which is about 500 each year. And there are also some other things i'm gonna just say coming down the pipeline so there's a sewer bill that was passed that will provide a sewer fee the percentage of the fee will come back into the affordable housing trust fund and that should yield it'll ramp up but it should yield starting at around three million dollars and so typically about 25 000 per unit i think that number is 160 that's a lot of different numbers uh but i just wanted to share with you the baseline is about 500 but we do have different initiatives in place or ways that we're allocating our funds that are not operating funds to enhance that number.

Now, how many did we do in 2026? 2026, we are about 161.

So we did 161 in 2026. We're going to do 500 in 2027.

I'm just trying to see how we're going to get to 10,000. Yes. So the 10,000 housing unit goal...

So the 10,000 housing unit goal is what the city is helping to fund. So we don't fund, we typically don't fund 100% of a project, but it's what the city is helping to fund, but also what's happening in the private market. And so we are pivoting, like I said, some of those additional things, so that additional 2 million, that additional 4 million CDBG, that additional sewer bill percentage, all helps to add to that. I would, and I understand y'all's intent in wanting to hear that information. We are really trying to put together that comprehensive approach that we'll bring back to y'all in June so that we can really lay out, here's what the target is, here's what that looks like each year, here's what the funding sources are, here's where the challenges might be. And so we are prepared, well, we're not prepared today, but we will be prepared to give that presentation in June to really holistically share what that looks like. But we're shifting some funds. We're shifting some priorities and some ways that we work with some of our other quasi-governmental agencies to really help drive that number.

I would like for a committee meeting for Edge and Chamber and invite, have you all housing community development to come so that those new businesses that are coming, even if we're offering pilots, that they would have an obligation to invest in our housing and community development.

um how is well how are the concerns and the effectiveness of housing programs how are they monitored we um great question so we have a compliance department that monitors all of our programs uh one year after they close essentially so during the time that they're open most of them are one two years uh during the time that they're open there's direct staff that is going out, reaching out, whether it's a developer, a non-profit agency, or organization, they're talking with that group individually and kind of monitoring spending and activities. Then after that, we have a compliance department that picks up and will review and monitor the files, do an audit of did they spend on what they said they would spend, pulling files to make sure the people who were either paid or employed as a part of the project are You know, we've got job descriptions that we're doing the right thing. So we do that on an annual basis across our programs. And then your question was how are they monitored, essentially? Yes. So that's essentially what we do to make sure that we are spending the money in the way that we say we're spending the money.

Okay. What is the current wait list? for the housing assistance program?

We have, so we are trying not to keep a wait list. I think the closest you'll find is our home repair program. We have, and that's the one, I printed out a bunch of stuff to bring and that might be the one document that I didn't bring. So if you allow me to send you all.

It's not a wait list for the housing assistance program. You don't have a wait list.

Because we go, so our assistance is really home repair and we just, take the applicants that come in and go through the process. We give them time to submit their documentation and then if they don't submit, we deny their application and encourage them to reapply as opposed to just keeping a run and wait list. Okay. I think we have about 56 applicants in the RAMP program in particular On the rehab side, I would have to get you that number. But what we found, and really, you know, when I came and we have found this in the past, our repair programs, we never, if we keep a wait list, we'll never get to open to new clients because the wait list is just so long. I think at one point, We had when we rolled out this new repair program, we had like 480 people who had been in some kind of way such an HCD, but just not able to receive funding. And so we're trying to not do a wait list, but make sure that people have opportunities to reapply. We've even looked at ways in some of our repair programs where they have priority. So say you apply, you got denied just because we ran out of slots. then you'll get the notification about two days before it opens to the general public so that you're not just back in the whole queue. So we're trying to mitigate that, but we typically don't keep a wait list.

Now this question, I don't know if it's best for you or Director Neal. What is the current number of blighted or vacant properties under city ownership.

And I do not have that information.

Okay. Would you be able to get it?

I can get it, and I'll probably reach out to Director Neal and just kind of put all of us on an email chain together, or I can get it and share it with you. I'll email it to you.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you. Councilwoman Cooper-Sutton, you're recognized.

Thank you. I think I'm going to ask Director Cash. We can talk about this offline. I'm going to withdraw. I just thought about something.

I wanted to understand better how you all come up with the affordable housing units. Because FY25, it's a big number, 689. And then the years before, it seems pretty consistent with where we are now. But when did ARPA Fund start?

ARPA started, I might ask you to help me. I think, was it 22?

So there was home, I'm sorry, there was CARES initially at the beginning of, I think it was roughly mid-year, mid-calendar year 2020. And I would say that ARPA really, the first tranche, probably 22, 23. It was fiscal year 23.

And then I can, unless you, Councilwoman, I can start to respond to your question. So before, I think before CARES, perhaps, I think it was around 2020, We had the Accelerate Memphis Fund. Mayor Strickland at the time had allocated $7.5 million to affordable housing. A lot of those projects, those were funded probably around 21. And they, I would say that we started to be ready around that 22, 23 mark. COVID hit and slowed a lot of those down. And so in FY25, we actually had a lot of completed projects and ribbon cuttings for those Accelerate Memphis projects, which were larger multifamily projects. Plus with ARPA, we had our United Housing project complete within that year, our Habitat for Humanity, I think it was 10 units, Lincoln Square, 10 units. So we just had a number of projects that were completed through both Accelerate Memphis and through the ARPA funds.

What's the difference in allocation from FY26 to FY27 for affordable housing?

So that would be at the service center level, and I do not have the service center data with me for the difference between affordable housing and FY26 and FY27. We don't have service center data. Yeah, so we will have to get that difference, but that will be at the service center level. What we have able to present to you right now is just kind of at the higher level, the personnel cost and the grants and subsidies, just the information that I have on hand.

Well, that's what I'm saying, like the allocation difference between last year and this year.

So last year was $6.2 million, and then this year is $5.6 million. The bulk of that, about 700,000, are those vacancies that I talked about at the start of the presentation. And then the other, there's a little bit in materials and supplies and then a little bit in grants and subsidies that's making up those reductions.

Okay, so if last year we did 6.2 million, this year we're doing 5.6 million. Last year we were able to achieve 161 affordable houses. What's the path forward to doing 500 with about $600,000 less than we allocated last year? with increasing costs?

So those 600 would come from a separate funding source, that source being the federal budget, the home funds, additional $2 million with the home funds. our Community Development Block Grant, which is also federal, and we would allocate about $4 million across various infill infrastructure, new construction initiatives. And then the, I would say proposed increase to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which will be that sewer fee bill, which we're probably looking at between 1.5 to 3 million starting off the first year. So those additional houses are coming out of a budget that's not the operating budget.

So the numbers that we have here, are these including all funds or just funds from the $6.2 million?

These are including funds from our $6.2 million, but also some funds from what would be left over from ARPA, I believe, and FY26. And we didn't do any home project. We didn't complete any home projects in FY26. We didn't award any. And we didn't do any direct housing projects through our CDBG. So we didn't do any of those activities within FY26.

So this would include all?

It would include all funds, but we didn't use funds in that way during this fiscal year, if that makes sense.

But you plan on using them in that way in FY27?

In FY27 and probably going forward, yes. Okay.

Okay.

And you said we'll have a plan on?

I believe June 9th is the date that I think that's the next council meeting that we're planning to come and share with y'all. Y'all will probably receive some materials, you know, a week or so in advance of that. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. And we do, if I can, Councilwoman, we do actually have, you know, we're trying to meet the mission and work within our budget template, but we do have documentation that shows out of these 161 and various funds, what amount went towards each. So we can share that with you.

That would be great. And we wanted the itemization for debt service. It was one thing that, it was one more thing. What did you ask for, Councilwoman Swearengin-Washington? Yeah, I do want that. So can we get that number?

I do want that too.

Okay, thank you so much. Thank you. Have a good day. Appreciate you coming down. Thank you so much. Oh, Dr. Warren, you're recognized. I apologize.

One quick thing. Piggybacking on Councilwoman Green, when can we expect like a plan for what's going to happen to like fix the situation on the $3.6 million that we're paying every year without getting money in? I know that we've had a bunch of people come in. There have been presentations. It looks like it's been stalled for two years and nothing's been going on. So tell us what's going on at some point and when are you going to do that?

And I believe the last, so I think last council meeting, the actual council meeting, which might have been last week, myself and Chief Adams presented what was, at that time, agreed upon was in the next two weeks, we would do an attorney client and just share the things that the city was weighing in terms of options. And then from there, the following council meeting would be a full council meeting.

Thank you. Thank you. Have a good rest of your day. We have a break schedule. We're just going to keep going forward if that's okay with everyone. Next, we have the city attorney's office. I guess while we're waiting on them, if y'all want to take a... five minute. All right, we are back in session. Next, we have the city attorney's office. Good afternoon. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, Tanera Gibson, Chief Legal Officer for the City of Memphis, 125 North Main. Do I run this slide or do y'all run it from your side? You got it, okay, perfect. Okay, we'll just start, our budget's probably the simplest. with our work structure. The only change you'll see is that you'll see a delinquent collections section there, a department that we're building out as we prepare to take over our own delinquent tax collections. So you'll see that added and we'll speak to that in our compliment going forward. You can slide. Our division complement, we're pretty full. We have three vacancies. Two of the vacancies are being held for the delinquent tax attorney. So we're working through that and preparing to hire for those positions. And we're holding a position as we are looking to hire an attorney who we're in discussions with to collaborate and have serve in the U.S. Attorney's Office as a special U.S. attorney working on specific to the city of Memphis and crime in the city of Memphis. And so that reflects those three vacant positions you see there. As to our budget priorities, it's litigation management and risk mitigation. We try to resolve things with respect to claims as early as we can to try to mitigate risk where we can. Every claim, pothole claim, bodily injury claim is filed with claims. And we handled that there. The regulatory compliance relates to investigations like the ones we've had to launch recently that you all are aware of. Compliance monitoring like we have with the Kendrick Consent Decree and things of that nature. We provide counsel for the Ethics Board when necessary because they don't have budget. And so they don't have their own budget. And so that falls into the regulatory compliance bucket. The aggressive blight litigation piece relates to our expansion of our blight litigation efforts sort of citywide. Chronic nuisance closures, being more aggressive, filing in different forums. We've moved some leading more complex commercial litigation to the Chancery Court side in order for us to affect the different types of strategies to get behind the corporate veil in some of these instances with respect to these corporate entities that own blighted property here, particularly those that are not local. The technology modernization was particularly important to us this year, and you'll see an expense for that. We have three simultaneous software upgrades or purchases. One is for our cloud-based software. Our current software probably dates back to 2000, hard stop. So we're upgrading to a cloud-based, highly secure software. software that permits better tracking, stronger efficiencies there. Same with permits, the permits department that will permit better tracking of permits and make it a little bit more seamless for the community to handle permitting matters online. Not a lot of it's online now, but not all of it's online. We're trying to go completely digital. Obviously, you can still go to the window, but for people who want to handle things digitally, we want to have that option available for them too. And the other piece is that when we have purchased and implemented case management software for the Blight team, because they have so many cases, it's impossible to manage through spreadsheets and whatnot. And so that's that piece. Moving on to the comparisons, the increase you'll see in our forecast for personnel reflects some ISLs we've gotten, particularly an increase with respect that we were able to increase because of the ARPA funds that council allocated for blight. New blight roles, two new blight roles, and then we have the delinquent tax role. So you'll see an increase there, increased salaries where I can. We are still significantly below the municipal market for our pay for lawyers. And so even with the increases that I've been able to provide up to this point, we are still significantly beneath market there. And so that's an uptick, but it's still not quite where we need to be, just keep working on it. As far as materials and supplies, that includes all the budget for claims and lawsuits. So every claim, every lawsuit, we pay from that fund. We pay for outside counsel and everything in between. We pay all the property insurance for the buildings that belong to the city, etc. So everything is in our materials and supplies to operate as well. But that includes literally everything, almost every expense for our division in that $25 million number. Grants and Subsidies is the grant to the Neighborhood Preservation Act Clinic at the law school. We are increasing funding there. We're seeking increased funding there. They've been incredibly helpful, incredibly It's a great opportunity for new budding lawyers to get this experience and maybe help us on the ground with blight efforts when they graduate. Third year law students participating in the clinic, so we subsidize that clinic as well. And service charges are just sort of random charges and that's why it's just $6,000 fees and things of that nature. And so if you could, the next slide on the revenues is $25,000 that the council provided about ordinance for our service to our advising council to Metro alarms, which is our other service center. Next slide. The budget drivers is kinda, I hate to sound like a broken record, but it is increase in staffing, expansion of the services we're providing like the delinquent taxes and expanded blight services. Property insurance has increased, as you all know, across the board, across the country, and those are controlled costs we just can't control, and the software investments as well. So those are driving just about all of the increases you'll see, and the additional employees. You can slide. Overall, I know it looks like we trended high this year because we had some unexpected litigation. But for the most part, we haven't trended too high outside of software, which we started working on last year. But we didn't appropriately anticipate the cost, so we were over a little bit there. But otherwise, we've stayed within budget and expect to do so. And this speaks to the software again, which I just spoke to. On metrics, it's hard to measure litigation because litigation is so unpredictable. But we would like to focus on the fact that when we got here, we had a backlog of claims in public records in the thousands. And we've cleared the backlog in claims. So you'll see for FY26, the number of claims closed is greater than the number of claims filed, and that cleared the backlog. And now all of our claims analysts have a reasonable number of claims. that are pending, and so I'm very proud of them for that achievement and for our claims manager for that achievement. We paid 255 claims with $2.5 million, but they're varying in severity. Some are serious car accidents, some have multiple plaintiffs or multiple claimants and things of that nature, and then we pay pothole claims as well, which I know is a hotline issue. We can talk about that offline in counseling. And so the same with public records, we had a backlog of thousands. And we've cleared substantially almost all of that backlog as well over the last two years. And so we're proud of our metrics there as well. They've been working really hard. And I just wanna kinda recognize that also. Slide. This is about the technology investment. It's about $342,000 for all three softwares. One is a new software and the other two are upgrades or new licenses or whatever, just depending on the department. We also are doing upgrading claims as well to permit more efficient Medicare reporting. We're getting rid of all the old legacy software, which which we've found leads to too many opportunities for waste in many ways. And so the new software should increase efficiency significantly. So for blight, in spite of us looking for ways to budget efficiently, still dedicated around a million dollars to nuisance and blight abatement, we have about five blight lawyers in-house now and five outside counsel, and we're working to expand those so we can get, you know, more than one lawyer in every district and we're working on block by block initiatives in every district. And so that accounts for that number there. And then the next slide is, I think we've discussed multiple times, our challenges are just litigation is unpredictable. The costs are unpredictable. You can use access to the court so you can't stop someone from suing you. You can't stop someone from suing the city or whoever for whatever. Often we've got very long track litigation with a pro se plaintiff for about 18 months before the court cut that particular person off. It was a tremendous expense before the court cut off their ability to continue to file just innumerable pleadings that we had the obligation to respond to. So those are the things that we can't control in litigation until the court steps in. Also, again, software is kind of the same things. Ours doesn't really change for the most part. And our other fund is the Metro Alarm Fund. It's our revenue generating department. Obviously, they collect funds for alarm fees, false alarm fees and whatnot. Last year, I wanna say they generated, if you go to the next slide, $2.8 million that revenue about ordinance is is goes to police and fire pro rata depending on the number of resources each department spins responding to these alarms and so metro alarm costs us no money they're completely self funded, which is a positive, I think. And so that's it but i'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you so much, Chief Gibson. We have Councilwoman Logan in the queue.

Thank you, Chair. Thank you all for your presentation. I had a question about outside counsel. So how does that work with the division? So does all legal and outside counsel come through your office? Yes. Or are the divisions able to... Are they responsible for getting outside counsel?

Oh, no. We have to approve.

For contracts and things like that.

Well, so we... Outside of... we have to approve all outside counsel there were a few instances when we got here where it appeared that there was some outside counsel who were just kind of hanging on to divisions from prior administration so we had them send us a list of all their outside counsel we had to approve everything has to run through our office i want to say with the exception of The Housing Matters and HCD, we try to have oversight over just about everything. Or if they're outside council, particularly Public Works has an outside council who we have a lot of faith in. And so we can communicate with her, we're comfortable with them reaching out to her. She's good about keeping us updated. And so when we've developed those relationships, we're okay with it. But outside of that, we try to have oversight over just about everything in the outside council.

So if they need something, a contract for whatever, and it's something that's new or different, and they get outside counsel, so the outside counsel gets the document, and then they get the document to you, and then you say, okay, yeah.

We should be getting the outside counsel, though. No one should be getting their own outside counsel but us.

Okay. So would that be in this budget or their budget in terms of legal for outside counsel, for contracts, or whatever the case may be?

Yeah, if we're retaining them, depending on the matter, for instance, when we were, it depends. Like we retained the investigators in the matter that you all are aware of, and we pay for the lawyers, but for the underlying investigatory piece that didn't involve lawyers, they pay.

I appreciate that. Have a good rest of your day. Thank you.

Good to see you all. Next, we have general services.

Dr. Grady?

All right, good afternoon. Thank you so much for being here. Yeah, we're gonna get started. You can state your name, address, and start with your presentation.

Thank you.

Will do. Good evening, Melvin Jamerson, Director, General Service, 125 North Main. Now allow my staff to introduce themselves.

Good afternoon, Alisa Rankin, Senior Administrator, Finance.

Gerald Spencer, Deputy Rector, General Services, 125 North Main.

All right, thank you, council, for allowing me to present the FY27 general fund budget. Page 2, Jonathan. Page 2 is the division organizational chart for general services. It shows that we are a medium-sized division. But we have an impact citywide. Our general fund responsibilities connect directly to facility readiness, grounds appearance, real estate support, and daily billing operations. Page three. Page three is our division authorized complement. General service division show, I mean, the complement shows all general, all service centers and general services, which is the GS administration, property, building, maintenance, real estate, fleet personnel. We have 302 person complement, employee complement. 37 vacant positions, and 10 positions to be filled. Page four. Page four is the budget overview for general service. The total requested budget for FY27 is $27,752,047. This request is built around four priorities, operational reliability, asset modernization, proactive maintenance and planning, and technology and performance. The important message is that general service is shifting from a reactive repair model to a proactive repair model. The breakdown of the major spending categories and personnel is 64%, and material and supplies is 36%. Page five. Historical budget comparison, adopted budget. This page shows the historical adopted budget comparison, which helps to show how funding levels have changed over time for general service. Even when available funding has tightened, the challenge for us is that the service demands have not gone down. Page six. historical budget comparison, year-end total actuals. The year-end total actuals help explain the real cost of maintaining city assets and respond to service demands. Actuals often reflect the conditions we face in the field, equipment failures, building system repairs, emergency needs, and service requests from operating divisions. Page seven. Page seven is the key budget drivers for general services. Main key budget drivers are personnel costs, the property, full-time salaries, fleet, overtime, M&S costs, inflationary and external cost pressures affecting material services and contracts. Page eight, explanation of budget drivers. Some of the explanation of budget drivers are in property maintenance, we're still having a hard time finding licensed electricians. And when we do not have enough electricians, we have to pay out additional service for outsourced vendors or overtime to our employees. And the other thing we have is fleet overtime as a pressure point because of maintaining the city's aging fleet. So as older equipment breaks down, we often have to make multiple repairs between scheduled maintenance intervals. Page 9. material service on the key budget drivers. This is basically the thing that affects us most inflationary pressures from the cost of doing business. Now for FY27, we are also taking a more collaborative approach in talking with our managed partners as we will be asking them for cost-sharing opportunities. The goal here is to stretch our available resources, coordinate better, maintain essential service delivery while being physical responsible. Page 10. All right, so for the key budget drivers, the completion here, the main thing I want to take away from page 10 is the business model shift. Modernization supports a proactive model. Plan, monitor, and replace before failure happens on the building system. All right, page 11. Qualitative, quantitative outcome. This slide shows the Public Safety Building Elevator Modernization as a major modification, major project. This project is scheduled to close out early February, I'm sorry, early October in FY27, and it costs approximately $1.8 million. Page 12. Page 12 is just the performance metrics for general services, shows the total amount of work orders and property maintenance, and some key performance measures for real estate. Page 13, proposed new initiatives. So the new initiative that we have is to start to use the poor core software, which we use for our CIP projects. Its allocation is $25,000. We will start using the first quarter of FY27, and this will help us to track and to sequence our projects through construction. Page 14 are the challenges and risks that we face in property maintenance, Bayes Pro Service Center, ground service centers, and Operation City Hall. Any questions?

Councilman, Dr. Warren, you're recognized.

I think this may be sort of a common issue that we've got for all of our specialized employees. We're not paying market rate for people. So what are we doing to entice them other than just the goodness of their heart and them wanting to be here? How do we keep them and do we need to change our pay scale so we become more competitive? And if we're going to have to pay high money out, why don't we just pay it to our employees as opposed to paying a contractor? Then at least we have control of the time and hours. So as you are moving forward with this, it may be something you may need to bring to us because I know we've got pay scales that are in there. But if we've got pay scales that are not market rate, then we're not going to get people. And we may have to pay market rate for this, just like some things we used to have to pay them IT. And once we started doing that and kept people in, our consulting fees went down, and I think we saved money, and we just gave the money to our employees instead of to someone else. So I don't know if that will work for you, but if that information, and when the salaries look high, remind us, And what you're trying to do is keep it in-house. Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, sir.

Will do.

So I wanted to go through slide 14, your challenges and risks. All right. These are a little concerning for me in terms of what we're allocating in the budget and what you all are stating as to be the end result of not having more money. So the first one is property maintenance. And it says that you all are going to be limited in your ability to procure materials and secure specialized professional services at the level needed to fully support maintenance demands. As a result, response times, project timelines, and overall maintenance capacity may be affected. Is that a reality? Is that like something that is a now present issue? And if so, what is it that's being impacted in terms of property maintenance?

So what we've done is we have used cost sharing with divisions when we run into these issues. And thus far, we have had collaboration with them and cooperation with them. And we have not ran into a situation where we did not make the repair. But as we are faced with reductions, we know that we wanna make sure that that's understood.

When you say you're faced with reductions, what do you mean?

Well, I'm just saying from the budget itself, our budget went down from, it went down several dollars from 26 to 27.

What's the amount?

Three million total, that's the whole budget line, I mean, M&S and personnel.

And then Bass Pro, it says we remain contractually responsible for supporting maintenance and repairs in critical building systems. Are there any urgent things that are going on to which you think are gonna be concerning in this budget season or potentially in the next three to five years?

So with Bass Pro, we've had, year over year, we've had issues with Bass Pro. We have issues and we use some dollars from Bass Pro to make corrections to those systems. But when we don't have enough funding from Bass Pro, then we have to put the money in from the operation or from a contingency line. So now as far as what's going on at Bass Pro today, we're in good shape. But like last year, we had an electrical issue that caused a damage to the main chiller system that was $1.1 million. Luckily, that was covered up to some degree for an insurance settlement.

Okay. And then grounds. It says it's going to may require reduction in mowing cycles throughout the year, along with decreased weeding, trash collection, and landscaping services on city-owned properties. These adjustments may affect the overall appearance, upkeep, and presentation of public properties across the city. Tell me what you all are estimating that to be or to what extent that's going to be a reality.

So currently, Grounds maintains the properties on a 15-day cutting cycle. What we hope is that we can keep within that 15-day cutting cycle. If we are not able to keep within it, we'll try to still get those properties cut within a 21-day. But we are putting our best effort forward to keep it within 15 days.

And then the last one is reduced security and janitorial staffing may affect service levels within City Hall, including building coverage, routine cleanliness, floor care maintenance, and the overall appearance of the facility for employees, officials, and visiting citizens. Is that a true concern or not?

Yes. Yes, ma'am. It is. So we've already been met with the contractors and vendors to let them know that we will be reducing the staff at the janitorial and the security team. What that will look like is... One person at the 499 Hollywood address at the old Coke building will be limited, will be cut from the janitorial staff, one full-time person, and one full-time person from the city hall cleaning staff will be cut from the janitorial staff. On the security end, there will be one full-time staff reduced.

How is performance measured there? And the only reason I ask is just because in terms of like our particular office, and I don't know, I don't care if you told me this in-house or someone that we contract with, because we've just had overall issues with our just bathroom floor being mopped or mirrors being cleaned. So I can't imagine, you know, probably what it looks like in other places. How do you all go back to do you have some kind of monthly checks that you all do random checks? How do you all determine the performance of what it is that the janitorial staff is doing?

So certainly we look at complaints. When complaints come in, we address those complaints at the time they do come in. There is a monthly, there is, I'm sorry, not a monthly, there is a supervisor that's on staff daily that's in the building. And he goes around and he checks the staff to make sure that they are performing the duties as stated in the contract. And he also meets with the administrator of City Hall.

Okay. And my last question, in terms of security reduction, what did you say was going to be reduced?

Security, one security officer. Okay.

And that's from City Hall?

From City Hall, yes.

How many do we have now?

Five and one, six total. Five and one supervisor.

That's all I have, thank you. Any other members in the queue? No, you may proceed.

All right, we'll go into the police services file. So fleet management operates as an internal service fund, providing vehicle maintenance, repairs, parts, fuel services for city divisions, and recovering costs through shop and fuel charges. Page two. This is our organizational chart for fleet. And it shows the administration, fuel, parts, light shops, heavy shops, and the fire mechanic shops. Each one of these areas supports a different operational need. Page three, budget overview. Total requested budget for the upcoming year, $41,133,273. This will focus on the vehicle availability for a fleet for fire, police, solid waste. We know that those are the The main three, those are the ones that we concentrate on the most. Our priorities are preventative maintenance, facile repairs, replacing aging vehicles where funding allows. The breakdown of the spending is in materials and supplies, mainly, and in inventory. On the materials and supplies is our business operation. On the inventory is our parts and our fuel. Page four, historical budget comparison, adopted budget. This slide shows the adopted budget trend from FY22 to FY27 proposed. budget process. These budgets show rising costs to essential elements of fleet operations, fuel costs, parts costs, labor pressures, vendor repairs, and the age of the fleet. Next page, page five, the historical budget comparison, year total actuals. These are the real costs of keeping city vehicles in service, including fuel, parts, maintenance, and specialized parts. Our goal is to manage costs responsibly while protecting the city's ability to deliver essential services. All right, page six. These are our key budget drivers. M&S, professional service costs are going up. External vendors and support. An inventory fuel price, I mean, inventory fuel price, parts price are going up. So these things are driving our budget. Next page, page seven. Vehicle repair is becoming more complex due to sensors, electronic parts, emission standards. These are that increases the repair cost and requires the skilled labor. Aging and high mileage vehicles create more downtime and more repairs. Replacement as a cost control strategy. When vehicles stay in service too long, we pay more to keep them operating. Next page is the life cycles and the number of feet that we have here at city. So we have a total of 4,357 vehicles, and we have 50% of those vehicles out of life cycle at a total of 2,154. And this is the percentage of each division. Page eight, I mean, page nine. So page nine mainly here shows the division demands as what they need from general service on the availability of their fleet. And fuel costs fluctuating prices may impact our operating budgets. Next page is page 10. This is the performance matrix for general services. Matrix number one is the average turnaround days the vehicles stay in the shop. Matrix number two is the availability of fleet. And matrix number three is the target for maintaining parts in the shop, I mean, at our parts location. Page 11, new initiatives. The first new initiative we have is to get tablets for the mechanics. And the budget allocation is $15,000 for $500 per tablet. Timeline is to get these set up and get them going by August of 2026. Outcomes here, we have, our mechanics will use these to enter work orders in real time from their assigned workstations. And these will enhance communication and coordination between mechanics, foremen, and service advisors. Page 12. The next new initiative is to purchase snow and ice equipment. Budget allocation of $350,000. Timeline is October 2026. And this expected outcomes, faster deployment and equipment during winter weather events. Impacts is to maintain critical public safety operations during inclement weather with more consistent and reliable service delivery across the city. Page 13, challenges and risks. Challenges and risks are rising fuel costs, maintenance costs, vehicle acquisition, supply chain. Any questions?

Councilwoman Logan, you're recognized. Oh, Dr. Warren.

Thank you, Madam Chair. You know, as we're looking at this, and I think I've heard this before from you, Chief, is that taking things that are out of life and having to keep them up and running over time may cost us more money than buying something new, although we don't have the money to do it now. I'd like to know if there's a way we could run those numbers So we could look at it and then we could say, OK, it's obvious since we got to float a bond, you know, and we've got to take this system that we're using where we're paying for it and just keeping it going because it looks like it's cheaper. We're not spending as much money up front. to where we go and say, yeah, but we're spending more money over time, just smaller amounts, and getting a worse and worse fleet. And then we can take that and look at what the real numbers are. That lets us go to the public and say, we've got to float a bond to do this to get out from under this hole. Because we're in a hole. We've been in a hole. And I need to know, do we have a way out of it? And can we use numbers and data to show how that might work? I think from what you're saying, that may work. I don't know officially what it would look like, but I know you've got people who are smarter than me that are there that can figure this out based on that fact. Bring us that.

We will. We'll bring it to you.

Because I think if you do that, I know the councils, we're tired of hearing that you guys, the police can't get cars on the street because they're 350,000 miles on a car, 400,000 miles on a car. How many of them do we have? It looks like we got 68% of them is what your thing just said. So if that's the case, what do we do? So thank you very much, Madam Chair. I'm hoping that we'll get that brought back to us.

We will.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

General Services Overseas Citywide Procurement finance analysis shows contractor spending is the major budget issue. Why hasn't General Services required a cost-benefit analysis comparing contractor versus employee costs before approving the contracts?

So a lot of the contracts we have are for the augment services that we need and to make sure that we can have the availability for the divisions that's required. So while we do use our staff and we use our staff in a robust manner, They even work overtime when necessary. But there are still vehicles that, number one, that may have some specialty that needs to be worked on at an outside vendor. And we use them when we have more vehicles than we, well, we use them to make sure that we can't put out more vehicles and make more vehicles available. Our goal is to try to keep 90% of the vehicles on the street. And so we're trying to meet that goal.

Okay, the city operates 3000 plus vehicles, 200 buildings. No fleet condition assessment or facilities deferred maintenance backlog disclosed in the budget. What is the infrastructure maintenance backlog? Are you all doing assessments?

So we have right now, we are completing by the end of July, the citywide facility assessment, FCA. That will be completed at the end of July, and it will hold over 160 city facilities. And it will have all, not all, but many of the billing systems conditions in that document. As well as it will have maintenance costs, repair costs, deficiency costs. So we will know the state at where we are at the different buildings around the city.

Is there a plan to convert some of the contractors to permanent positions?

Some of the contractors? Mm-hm.

We have, what, 843 vacant city positions, but the contractor spending is two to three permanent employee costs. But we're trying to see how, do you all have a plan to convert some of those contractors to permanent positions?

We do not have a plan to convert the contractors. Our positions, when they come available, of course, we try to hire in. Now, some positions are hard to fill positions because of basically just competition on competitive salaries. So, but we, when jobs are open, we try to fill those jobs as soon as we can. And if it comes from a contractor, that's great too. But we're not planning to bring over, if I'm hearing you right, we're not planning to bring over contractors to fill permanent positions.

Cuz it's like we were saved. That's what I'm saying.

And also some of the contracts that we use, we don't have staff to take care of those like our heavy equipment for our trucks, tires. We contract that out. Our towing is also contracted out. So that's a big cost to fleet as well.

Let the record reflect that Councilman Smiley has joined us and Councilman Canale has joined us online. My question was related to what we talked about when we did our budget analysis. What did we do? Round Robins. Right, right, Round Robins. It was discussed about the fleet issue and whether or not we could get people from other places to come and start doing maintenance, like on a contractual basis. Is that something that we are considering at all, or you're not really looking into that due to budgetary constraints?

Well, we need to talk it out first and do the vision and determine if it would work with our business model now. I know, was this the one where we talked about, maybe Chief Davis said, maybe part-time people, something like that. We haven't had a robust conversation about that yet. Let me say that. But we will, and I can get back with you on that.

Thank you. I think that'll be good. I do think one reoccurring thing is in these budget hearings, we've identified a couple of things. One is street paving. That's going to require, I think Scott Morgan said right now, we have a dedicated... I forgot how much it was. I think it's $30 million. But in order for us to, with that same allocation, our rating would go way down in terms of streets. But to get to being just even good, it would require, what, about $100 million? Is that right, Chief Person?

It was $120 million.

Yeah, I think it was about $80 to $100 million. Looking at the affordable housing that the mayor has proposed, in order for us to do that, that's going to require significant additional revenue And I think that we've also identified general services in terms of fleet, outdated fleet that is going to require significant revenue. And so I've talked to the administration. I don't know, it doesn't seem that bonds are going to be our resolution in that area. I don't know what this council's appetite is for transformation and to what extent. I don't know what the appetite is to start talking about a potential tax increase. I know everybody hates that. But it seems like at this point we have some significant projects that I don't see a path forward for. two, by cuts. I don't see a path forward to it by way of issuance of bonds. It is significant projects. Um, and so I think we need to start having some conversations about what that looks like this budget season. And so I'll get with, um, Chairwoman Washington, um, her staff, and we'll have maybe some more conversations with you all and, um, Chair Carlisle to kind of lay out a path forward here because I think it would be negligent if not reckless for us to not acknowledge the space that we're in in terms of these significant investments that we need that we don't have the funding for. I don't think we can keep seeing red flags and challenges that are being put on paper from every department and just keep saying we're just going to move forward with a flat budget and every department is saying house on fire. But very, in all lower case as the young people say. So we'll see what, I'll go back and regroup You know, I just don't want to keep moving forward kind of the status quo and business as usual because what we're seeing is not business as usual.

Yes.

If that makes sense. And so we can act like, you know, all is well, you know, but we need some money. in a lot of different areas in order for our constituents to be able to even receive the same level of service that they were receiving, let alone some type of making things better.

Yes.

So right now, this budget seems like we're not even gonna be maintaining the status quo this year. We're gonna be falling behind. And so definitely not progressing forward. Right.

Let me say this. We will do everything that we can to, and we have, you know, keep up with what we can. It's not easy, of course, but that's why we're looking at some of the business issues. the way we do business, more preventative maintenance, touching, looking visually, looking at things, making sure we can see what's wrong with these vehicles and try to get them repaired, keep them on the road more. So those type of measures will help us well.

I definitely think we need to tighten up. That's for sure. I always think it's a place to reflect. My dad always says monitor and adjust. I think we should be doing that constantly. But the reality is, is even with the best of efforts, the math just isn't mathing. And the math isn't producing us the results that we're saying out of our mouths. We're saying 10,000 houses, but we don't have money to help subsidize even, I mean, 100,000. How many have 10,000? We don't have money to subsidize that. You know, we want better streets. We don't have the money to do that. We have aging fleet. We don't have the money to fix that. So appreciate your efforts. Really do. I'm just saying that we can appreciate the efforts and recognize that some action needs to be taken on our part.

Understood. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. We're all done today, everyone. You all should have received the responses from yesterday.