City Council - Regular Meeting

2.13 p.m. on June 1st, 2026, and I hereby call our budget committee to order. Ms. Mauricio, will you please call the roll? Thank you. Councilwoman Walker? Present. Councilman Smiley?

I'll be here.

Councilman Dr. Warren?

Present.

Chair White? Present. Thank you very much.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. Hi, Councilwoman Logan. Thank you for joining us. Thank you all. Good to see everybody.

We're being facetious.

So first we have an overview of CIP from our finance division. Oh, no, I'm sorry, you all. I'm on the whole wrong day. I apologize.

I'm sorry. Y'all forgive me.

Forgive me. This is what.

Okay, so first on our agenda is an introduction of resolutions and a review session. So we have resolution number two, which is Councilwoman Dr. Michael A. Thomas and Jerry Green. They're not here, so we'll hold that. So let's just do this. Let's hold the review of those resolutions to the end of this meeting, and let's just do that from now on so that we can... kind of go through everything and then see what we have and allow more members to come in. So next we'll do the presentation on debt service CIP discussion. And I see we have Deputy Chief Walker here. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. And so please state your name and address for the record and you may proceed.

Andre Walker, Deputy CFO, 125 North Main Street. So we're gonna talk about the city's debt cliff. We had a brief discussion about a couple of weeks ago. Presentation we have before you gets a little more detailed background information on how do we go from a debt cliff of $63 million down to about $36 million. And what does that mean as it relates to the city's capacity to take on additional expenditures? All right, so what is the debt cliff? The debt cliff represents reduction in annual geo debt service beginning in FY27. So in FY26, debt service up here. FY27, it drops down here. That difference is the debt cliff. Now, the debt cliff can change as the city, and it has changed as the city issued debt. Started off in 2001 right here. If the city issued debt service, level debt service, $10 million every year, 26 goes up and 27 goes up also, debt cliff stays the same. If the city issues debt and there's a partial year payment in 26, started right here and it goes up a million dollars, and the full payment in 27 goes up $11 million, then the debt cliff got smaller. If the city issue refunding bonds and put more savings in FY26 than it did in 27, 26 initially here, 27 here, you'll see a scenario. We got about $6 million in savings in 26, so the debt service of 26 dropped down to here, whereas the debt service in 27 only dropped down a little bit. That would decrease the debt cliff. So in FY, as of June 30, 2021, debt service in FY 26, $134.3 million. In 27, $71.1 million. Differences of $63 million. So that was the initial debt cliff that we spoke about. The next fiscal year, we issued three GEO bond series. On July 1, we issued the calves for Accelerate Memphis. Notice that the debt service on the calves began in FY27, $11.8 million. There is no debt service in FY26. So at the bottom, you'll see that the debt cliff decreased because of that one bond issue by $11,801,000. What was that bond? What was that?

I'm on page 4.

I'm assuming you guys have the... So we got the debt service as of June 30, 2021, in the first column, and then you'll see the next column, July 1, 2021. We issued the 2021 counts, and you see the debt service on it. It begins in FY27, $11,801,000. Every year, basically, through 2046. Because the debt service in 2026 stayed the same, but the debt service in 2027 increased by $11.8 million, that made the debt cliff smaller. We also, on August the 5th, issued the 2021 refunding bonds. We put most of the savings in 2022 and 2023, and after that, it's about $180,000 per year. There isn't much difference between the savings in 2026 versus 2027. So actually the dead cliff, we put about $500 more savings in 2027 than in 2026. So the dead cliff increased by about $500. Then also on August the 5th, we issued GEO bonds to take off commercial paper. We got a pretty most level debt service each year, but a point to a point $3 million, but the debt service and f y 26 is about $3,000 more than a debt service and 27 sort of dead cliff increase by about $3,000. So we got $11.8 million decrease, a $5 million increase, and a $3,000 increase. For the year, the debt cliff actually decreased by just under $11.7 million. Debt service in FY26 went from $134.4 million to $142.5 million. And the debt service in FY27 went from $71.1 million to $91 million. So as of June 30, 2022, the debt cliff changed or decreased from $63.2 million down to $51.4 million. Now let's go to page five. So in 2022, well, as of June 30, 2022, again, the debt service was $51.4 million. On July 13, 2022, We had another refunding bond issue that we had, which reduced the debt service in every fiscal year. Debt service in FY26 savings or was reduced by $5.8 million. The debt service in FY27 was reduced by $118,000. So 26, the start of right here, 26 dropped down about six, and 27 dropped down a little bit, about $100,000. So that had an impact of reducing the debt cliff by just under $5.7 million. We did a 2022-A geobond issue to take out commercial paper. Debt service is just under $10.1 million in every year. Debt service in FY26 is about $3,000 more than the debt service in 27. So there was a slight increase in the debt cliff. So we got a reduction of $5.7 million, an increase in about $3,000 more. Net impact was a decrease of just under $5.7 million. So the dead cliff went from $51.4 million to $45.7 million. The following year, So as of June 30, this is for FY2024 and 2025 on this slide. June 30, 2023, debt cliff $45.7 million. We issued this TMBF loan for solid waste. Debt service $914,000 in some change this year. $200 decrease, no big deal. Debt service about the same at the end of June 30, 2024. And then in 2025, we have two bond issues, the 2024 A bonds. Oh, I'm six. Oh, you know what? I'm sorry. I pressed the wrong button. My bad. At the top. So if you look at. All right, so the green highlighted section at the top shows the debt service on 2026 and 2027. But if you look at the columns, The first column shows the fiscal year. The second column on this page shows the debt service on a TMBF loan. Now we got the debt service at the end of fiscal year 2024. And then we saw the debt service for FY 2025. We got the debt service on a 24A GO bonds, which we issued August 7th. And we got the debt service on a 2024B refunding bonds, which we issued on August 14th. Now, this doesn't show on the refundings. It doesn't show the debt service. It shows the savings for the refunding bonds, and it shows the debt service on the new bonds that we issued. So, again, looking at page six, we got the debt service on a TMBF loan, $914,000. $200 difference, so the debt clip stayed the same in the FY as of June 30, 2024, same as it was in as of June 30, 2023, just $200 decrease. And it was $45.7 million. Beginning in FY25 on August 7th, we issued the 2024 AGO bonds, debt service in 2026, $13.8 million debt service in 2027, $13.4 million. So actually, the debt cliff improved slightly by $356,000, which you can see at the bottom of that column. A week later, we issued a 2024B refunding bonds. About $152,000 in savings in 2026, about $85,000 in savings in 2027. So I had a slight decrease in debt service in 2026 compared to 2027.

So the debt cliff decreased by $67,000 and change.

Not material. So at the end of June, at the end of fiscal year 2025, the dead cliff remained the same, about $46 million. $45,959,000. Not too much difference between the dead cliff at June 30, 2024 or June 30, 2023. Go on to page seven, make sure this is on the right. Yeah, I pressed the wrong button that time too. All right, on slide seven, fy 2026 we just recently closed the geo bonds on march the 4th at the beginning of the fiscal year the debt cliff was about 46 million dollars in this case we got a partial debt service in fy 26 just over a million dollars Full year debt service in FY27, $10.7 million. So the debt cliff decreased by about $9.7 million. At the end of this fiscal year, the debt cliff would go from a $46 million debt cliff to a $36.1 million debt cliff. Yes, sir. Yep. Slide eight. However, DebtCliff only refers to debt service on the GEO bonds, annual debt service. It does not include the debt service on the city's economic development bonds, which for FY27 totals about $10 million. We got the 22 refunded bonds for the Electrolux project, debt service, $1.3 million, 21 economic development bonds. For Accelerate Memphis, about $1.9 million. 24A bonds issued for the Sheraton Hotel project, $3.8 million. 24B bonds provided funding in support of 100 North Main project and AutoZone renovation. That's about $3 million. And also, it doesn't include or consider potential revenue shortfall. like Liberty Park TDZ revenue bonds. This year, we got about $200,000 against $3.6 million in debt service. So that's gonna be a shortfall of about $3.4 million. AutoZone Park's 2014 sports facility bonds shortfalled about $1 million. For the very first time, downtown TDZ, we're projecting a shortfall about $1.1 million. Those shortfalls total about $5.5 million. Now for FY26, this fiscal year, we're projecting a shortfall of about $18.5 million. 2.5 of that is related to the downtown and the Liberty Park TDZ. The rest of it is related to everything else. Next slide, page nine. So in conclusion,

Yep.

Oh. Well, that 3.4 and 1.1 is for FY27. That's for FY27. In FY26, shortfall was $2.5 million. Oh, because that's the death service for next year.

That is correct.

Yeah, that's going to impact the, it won't impact the debt cliff, but it's just to bring out the point that the debt service fund right now for this fiscal year is structurally imbalanced, meaning that the revenues coming in is insufficient to pay the debt service going out. Well, we're gonna have a positive in 27. We're going from a negative $18.5 million to a positive $16.2 million in 27, because we had a couple of bond issues pay off. I think it was a bond issue. I can give you the exact name of it. There was a 2016 bond issue that matured And I think another bond issue matured also. Debt service on those who are like about 55, I think just the principal payment on those two was about $55 million, just for those two bond issues. So because we got bond issues maturing, that matured this fiscal year, and we don't have to pay the debt service on those bonds next fiscal year, that's how we got the debt cliff. Yes, on various bond issues.

Is it possible, and I see it like continuing throughout the slides, is it possible to get on one sheet of paper the projects that we've issued bonds for? So I see it here, like you kind of do it like the Accelerate Memphis and then the next slide you show where it goes down. Is this the completion project? of those bonds, for instance, like series 2022 refund and savings impact on dead cliff. Like, is it a way to see specifically the bond issuances and what they were for in a list kind of form?

So most of the bond issues, except for the economic development bonds, most of the bonds, well also for Accelerate Memphis, but most of the bonds were issued to find out CIP projects. And each of those bond issues may have funded, I don't know, maybe 100 CIP projects or so. Okay. Yeah, because what it does, each bond issue funds about two years of CIP projects. We got a $150 million commercial paper program. It takes about 18 months to 24 months to expend that $150 million, and then we issue bonds to take out the commercial paper. But we can give you, if you like, we can give you, it may take us a few days to do it.

But I don't want like all the CIP stuff under it. I don't want that. I want like the, and this may be the totality of it. It's like the Liberty Park, the sports facility. But I would assume that there are more. Or is this it?

That's it for that.

In terms of the major projects?

Yeah, for that one is that sports facility as well as infrastructure for that project. But that's all for that issue.

Okay.

All right, so in conclusion, $36 million decrease in debt service. We're forecasting revenue of $181.7 million. Expenditures, $165.4 million. Difference of about $16.3 million. And that $16.3 million represents the additional spending capacity that we have due to the debt cliff. And I think that's the end of my presentation.

So the amount now is $16 million versus $63 million?

Yes. Yes, if we're speaking about excess spending capacity, yes, $16.3 million instead of $63 million.

It looks like that goes down every year and we have to replenish it every year. So, I mean, is it really a debt clip or is it just like accounting of that? We're not in the hole. but we're going to have to pay this off anyway, so we can't really spend it because next year is going to be more.

That is a good point, and you're accurate. So this year, $16.3 million decrease. Debt service next for FY27, just GEO, if we're just talking about the debt cliff, the GEO debt service, about $125.9 million. And FY28 is about the same, a little bit less, $125.4 million. But when we issue bonds to take out the existing commercial paper, in about a year, year and a half, the debt service is going to increase by about $11 to $12 million. So where you have a $16 million, everything else remaining constant, where you have a $16.3 million surplus, In about a year, year and a half, it's going to drop by $11 million and have like a $5 million surplus.

I guess my question is I don't understand. It seems like we've got these bonds out there. We're paying debt on the bonds. Okay, so we're paying the interest on the bonds. Okay, and we've got that money and we've used it. Where have we used it? In general funds or we used it in CIP? Or we've used it in a bunch of different places. Each one of these little areas that we're talking about is where we're using a bond. We're using a bond over here for the hotel. We're using a bond for the Liberty Park.

Right.

Okay. Now, once those things mature and we have to pay them back, then we refinance them because we don't have the capital to pay them all back. So we're paying interest on them for quite some time before we ever pay them off. Is that right?

So when we do a refinance, and it's sort of like you got your mortgage, you know, you got a... Yeah, it looks like we're paying interest mostly for the first five years on these things, right? Yes, that is correct. Just like with the mortgage, if you got a mortgage payment of $3,000, you may have... initially $2,000 in interest, $1,000 in principal, and each month as you pay principal towards your mortgage, the interest component decreases and the principal component increases so that when you get towards the end of your mortgage,

But we're never getting to the end. We're only going in about five or six years and refinancing all these things, right?

Yeah, we refinance debt. We're able to call or refinance debt about every nine or ten years. We can't refinance before then.

And these are 30-year notes, and we're doing them every ten years.

Let's see, the city issues or geo bonds, typically about 25-year debt.

So we're doing 25-year debt, and at year 10, we're refinancing the last 15, which is mostly principal at that point.

Yes. We're refinancing for savings.

How much do we have in principal in all these bonds that we've just sort of, it seems like we're just flipping them. How much do we have in principal out there on all the bonds?

We're talking about G.O. debt.

And GEO is just for our infrastructure?

Yes, just for your CIP as well as Accelerate Memphis. Okay. GEO debt outstanding as of today, about $1.5 billion, $1,454,000,000 of GEO debt outstanding. Okay.

And we spent all that money on our stuff already.

Yes. Over time, we spent all of these bond proceeds from all these bonds over time.

And if you look at how other cities run, they've got geo debt out there and they're doing the same thing as far as financing. And the reason we're a good credit risk is we have the ability to raise taxes or collect taxes on our citizenship and on the businesses that are here. So we're a steady ongoing entity with the cash flow.

That is correct.

And with that cash flow, we're able to float this debt and put the things out there that our citizens need as far as fixing the Sheraton so we can have a civic center that works and doing other things along that line. So being a simple family practice doctor, not necessarily a good businessman, I know this is how you do business. It's a reasonable practice and We are we're capitalized in areas that we need to be capitalized in. I guess the question I have is, do we really should we ever really look at something like a debt cliff? Because where was that money going to come from and how we're going to use it? And we just going to borrow it and act like we weren't borrowing it since we didn't have to pay as much back. I mean, that's what I'm looking at, you know, because we weren't really ever going to be able to spend that money, were we? Unless we spend it on capital, such as trucks and cars and police cars and things along that line. That's where that cliff was going to come in. We could spend it for capital expenditures.

Yes. Yes, we, in Tennessee, we cannot use bond proceeds for operating expenditures, only capital expenditures.

So as we're all looking at this, you know, thinking we're going to have money to do this program or that program, that's not really the way this was going to work. That is correct. We're going to be able to buy this product. We're going to be able to bring our average life of our buses down. We're going to bring the average life of our garbage trucks down, things like that, right?

That is correct, yes.

Okay, well, thank you for explaining that. I think I finally understand it well. I appreciate it. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Councilwoman Logan, you're recognized.

Thank you, Chair. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Okay, great. Good afternoon, everyone. And thank you for the presentation. My question is based on everything you just said, and I too appreciate you taking the time to break it down. How healthy is our economy? How healthy are we as a city based on the $1.5 billion outstanding debt and The revenue that is coming in, based on the trending revenue and the forecast for future revenue, looking at the fact that we have lost population has decreased the population. What is your Prognosis, I guess, for our financial future short term intermediate and long term.

Okay. Oh, I was going to say that is an excellent question, Councilwoman Logan. I'm trying to think of an answer, a good response to your question, because it is an excellent question. One of the things that the city, when we look at each time we issue bonds, we have a rating presentation. We speak with... Moody's and with S&P. And one of the things that they used to say is that the city debt is okay, but it's on the high side. And that is because they take a look at everything. They look at our unfunded pension obligation. They look at the amount of Geo debt is outstanding. The amount of economic development debt is outstanding. Obligation where the city has a potential liability such as the sports authority bonds. If the revenues were insufficient, the city would have to step in and, you know, the city and county will have to step in and cure those deficiencies. Thankfully, those bonds are in good condition. We don't expect to ever have to contribute a penny towards the debt service on those bonds. But they've expressed that we have a lot of debt outstanding. They also expressed concerns about the economic environment in the city and the relatively high poverty levels in the city. They also, when they look at the city of Memphis zero bonds, Moody's in particular take a holistic approach. They look at all the bonds outstanding that MLGNW has, the water bonds, the electric revenue bonds, the gas bonds. They also take a look at the sewer bonds when we issue geo bonds, storm water bonds. They take a look at everything when they consider the financial condition of the cities when it comes to making debt service on the city's geo bonds. So they've expressed some concerns. They also look at the appraised value of taxable properties. Thankful in the past few years or so, the appraised values have increased and the amount of debt as a percentage of appraised values has decreased. I think a goal is about... That is very good. I think the goal is about 3%. It used to be greater than that. Now it's much greater than that. Now I think it's maybe 3-point-something, like 3.2, 3.3%. So those are good factors that are in our favor, but... One of the things that they focus on a lot, average family, median family income in the city is low compared to the nation and compared to the rest of the state of Tennessee. Poverty level is high. They take a look at all of that when they assess the city's ability to pay debt service on the jail bonds. They also look at the fact that in Tennessee presently, There is no limit on the amount of GEO bonds that we can issue. But I was told there may be some push to change that. But all of that is being considered by the rating agencies when we issue GEO bonds.

Thank you. Okay. I had Part B to that, follow up on that, Chair Warren. Okay, so knowing that, is it possible for us to get an overview or inclusive look at the health, financial health, that includes what MLGNW is doing or the bonds that they have, that includes all of those factors that you said, because all of those impact the entire health, you know, the entire look at the health of our city. We're just kind of looking at it from one standpoint or one lens when, in fact, there are a number of things that are impacting our total economic health. And I think when we had like MLG&W comes and they give a presentation and they're talking about issuing bonds and all of this, we have to be cognizant that that impacts our bottom line or what it looks like as a whole. So I would be very interested in seeing a report on our health, financial health in totality, focusing on those things that they're looking at as well and what that looks like in general.

Hi, it's Walter Person, CFO 125 North Main. Yes, ma'am. We actually, when you get a chance to look at our annual comprehensive financial report, it does capture all the debt, including MLG and W debt in that document. But we'll take that information and put something together for you. Deputy Chief Walker, as he described very eloquently, it is broad-based and they take a broad-based look. But if you look at the ratings of Moody's, you can pretty much rest assured when you look at them, especially because of the approach they use, it does capture a look at the overall city. So he's right. We are constrained by a lot of natural things associated with population and median economic income. But I think that the big story that he's providing is as we stand now, we are in an adequate position to service the debt that we have.

Thank you.

I look forward to getting that report, even though it's, you know, it's really complicated. It's given to us and it's very complicated in that book you're talking about. But if you all could do a presentation and present it like you've done today, that would be very helpful.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you, Chair. You're back.

Thank you. We have, let the record show that Councilwoman Cooper-Sudden has joined us, Councilwoman Green, and Councilwoman Dr. Easter-Thomas has joined us as well. Councilwoman Green, you're recognized.

Thank you, Chair. What I don't see in this list, and I appreciate you giving us a breakdown in the list like we asked for, is what we were here on last week, which is the public works loan. Is that calculated into any of this?

I'm going to... No, it is not. That potential loan agreement, yes, it's not calculated in all of this. To be honest with you, we don't know it. Until we get authorization to proceed with it, then it's not reflected in our debt. But once we get authorization from the council, then we will update the report or update our information to include it.

So, again, as I said last week, a lot of the problems seem to be from us not planning. And I don't know how we as a council can plan if you can't show us the impact that what you're asking for would have. You're telling us that the debt cliff is non-existent now on one day. And on the previous week, you're telling us that we need to go out for more debt and add more to our debt service. I'm having a hard time, and I want to help. I don't want our sewer systems to break. But again, we started this with ARPA funds, and we knew that design would cost less than build. And here we are, external pressures aside, and I understand everything costs more because of the deer leader in DC. But we have to make sure that we're actually planning. for what the true costs are so either we can afford to take out another 28 million dollar loan and it won't affect our credit rating and we will be able to pay back the debt service or we won't but i can't tell that from here because you didn't even include it that is an entirely different presentation that will be presented to council i think next week I'm gonna say this to the council, this is why this matters. I want you to look at the list on the page that says however, dot, dot, dot. We have Electrolux, which is gone. We have the Sheraton, which I don't believe is in any different shape than when we started on this council. And they told us we had to get that done or else. We have 100 North Main. I don't know that anything's being done there. Last time I drove by, it's still boarded up. We have Liberty Park, as we continue to say, is not done, is not built. Every one of these, your total was 18 million, right? 18 million. And we did this math just the other day on how many pennies on our property tax that is. And if we do it again for public service, we're getting to 10 to 12 cents on your property tax. If I came in here today and asked all of you for a 10 cent property tax increase for the Sheridan and 100 North Main and Electrolux and Liberty Park, what would y'all say to me?

What I really wanna say?

That's where we are. And so like sometimes we say yes to these things and we're not seeing the consequences. So I'm trying to highlight this here now so that as we're taking votes on things like this loan that they're asking us to do for public works, we understand the consequences on the back end because it is affecting people. I know we have, you know, Tax breaks for seniors, for disabled, but it's not enough. And not in this economic environment with groceries and gas and utilities and medicine the way it is, they can't afford an extra 10 cents just so we can have a bunch of projects that don't come to fruition. I think it's important that when you're coming to us with the overall picture of debt service, and I think multiple people have said they want a list, they want a list. We can't leave off your most current ask of this body and how we should be factoring that in, if it is affordable or if it's not. Because I feel like I'm being told, debt cliff's gone, by the way, go out and take out more money.

And Luria, I'll take a little swing at that. Please.

Just as long as you're not taking a swing at me.

No ma'am, no ma'am, never, no ma'am. So to Deputy Chief Walker's point, we're in the process of working with an external consultant to try to put together specific cash flow statements and other items that were requested of us and of Public Works that weren't here and available for you all. last week but that debt number one is is has not taken place yet so he could not incorporate it in his presentation so he's very correct in that the other element of that is this When you talk about public works, there are two funds there outside of the one that is associated with general fund. And they're both enterprise funds, which means that they're associated with fees that are generated by sewer and stormwater. So though they will have an impact on the people that reside in this area, being Memphis and to some extent Shelby County, they are not tax-based, they're fee-based.

Right, they're fee-based. And right now there is a request to increase the sewer fees by about $13 per person. So again, I say to you, if that enterprise fund is also an impact on individuals, our paying off debt service is pennies on our tax rate. All of this goes back to the citizens paying for our poor planning. Every bit of it, either our poor choices in what we're investing in, like, you know, I wasn't here for Electrolux, so I'll just say that. I don't know how to explain more clearly that we've just got to be careful with these giant ask. And that's why we have slowed you guys down and said, no, give me more information on $28 million. No. We're not doing same night minutes. And it's not because what you're saying isn't worthwhile. We want our sewer systems to work in this city. That's a pretty basic need. But we also want to make sure that we are doing what's right by our taxpayers and by our fee payers. Like, that fee is not nothing, especially when we've increased the MLGW fee, we've increased the wheel tax fee. You know, every time I turn around, as Councilwoman Cooper-Sutton keeps reminding me, we are increasing fees on people. That is problematic, too. Yes, that fund might be doing well. Why is it doing well? Because we keep charging people more. So I don't know. I don't know how to really balance this with your ask. And so I would love any clarity and maybe, maybe public works has to explain it. Maybe deputy, you can explain it to me what that impact would be and what that impact would be on our credit rating, et cetera, so that I can understand if that's a good use of my vote and our money. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Chair. Bottom line is this is what I'm hearing, and I'm just going to just put it in a nutshell, and then you can clarify if this is correct. Bottom line is that the death cliff can absolutely trigger a future budget problem or can both be an opportunity and a risk. So is that what I'm hearing?

Okay.

It is, I would say that it is definitely an opportunity because, again, going from FY26, negative $18.5 million to FY27, positive $16.2, $16.3 million. So that is definitely a benefit to the city. If it wasn't for this debt cliff, if the debt service on a GEO bond stayed the same, then we will have another year of a negative $18 million. But instead, we got a positive $16.2 million. So that is like a 34.7, almost 35 million dollars difference. Negative 18.5 to positive 16.2. So I think it is definitely a positive thing. The debt cliff isn't... We're not gonna have $16.2 million in excess revenue in the debt service fund every year because, again, when we issue bonds, and we're gonna probably issue bonds in about a year, year and a half, debt service is going to increase About another $11, $12 million. So we go from everything else remaining constant, we may have a positive $5 million or something like that instead of a positive excess revenue of $16.3 million. So it isn't anything that we should like use this surplus of revenue to pay for ongoing expenditures. Maybe something that's kind of short lived or whatever, because that $16 million surplus won't be there every year.

So it won't be there every year. And I just want to just kind of piggyback off of what my colleague said, Councilwoman Green. And I know you said that that is going to be another presentation. But everybody that sits in those seats always bring us the good parts, the plush parts. And I understand that. But when reality hits and then we ended up right back. trying to explain or defend why we end up back where we end up at. And I appreciate the presentation. I appreciate the hard work. However, what is the risk? If all that right there, what you just said, all that good stuff you just said doesn't play into part, what is our risk?

And I'm just being realistic.

Because as a business person, having multiple businesses, and I know we want to project All the good opportunities and the positives. But we're here now. Even what Chairwoman Green, I mean, White was even asking for, you know, we know we can't use it for operational. We know that. It's only for, yeah. But when I look at 100 North Main, I think this is something that was done on, was this issued on some different type of bonds? 100 North Main and AutoZone?

Yes, those were economic development bonds.

Those are different bonds. If I can recall, they were issued under different bonds.

Yes, correct.

But however, I mean, look at it. Liberty Park, look at it. We never finish any projects that we start out or there's always some type of barrier that's there. And how the thing is that we don't want to add any more burden to our taxpayers, right? And how do we deviate from that? Well, where we are right now. And I want the honest to God truth. I don't want your professional. I want the honest to God truth. You know, you you do an amazing job. That's what you do. That's what you do. But we have to be realistic and really be honest. Because in 2023, the platform that people ran on was $50 million dead cliff, and we were going to be woo, woo, woo, woo, woo. That is what I remember people platforms were ran on. And there were questions asked. during that time on what that would look like for the city of Memphis. And here we are now, we are not nearly, we went from 63 to what, 39, I think? Is it 39?

It was like a decrease in debt service, 36, but surplus revenue, 16.

And our population isn't growing. Am I correct?

That's my understanding also.

Yes, my understanding. We're not growing in population. I think Councilwoman Logan indicated that in one of her questions about the population not increasing. And so I'm just it's. It's very puzzling. And what I do not want to do is, and what I do not want to see, whether I'm sitting here, not sitting here, but I live here. And most of the time that we've seen through the years here and through the decades and the previous leadership and the leadership where we are now, everything ends up on the back of the poor taxpayers. Even with the Sheraton Hotel. And so I still don't even agree with that, but we're here now. And I'm just prayerful for us here in this city.

One thing that I want to clarify, this $16.2, $16.3 million, that's not bond proceeds. That's just extra property tax revenue that's flowing into the debt service fund that is not needed in FY27. So there is no restrictions on the use of that.

Thank you, Chair. Thank you. We now have Councilman Dr. Issa Thomas. Thank you.

Question. I get what's going on. For the 16 that we're saying estimated surplus, is that already looped into the CIP budget that we received? Well, doctor, when you say looped in, we have... Are we accounting for it already in our FY27 projections for a CIP? Because it's only CIP usage, correct?

Well, no, and that was what Deputy Chief was clarifying. So when you have revenue flowing in, the revenue is flowing into the debt service fund, and he's looking at that against expenditures, and he's saying that that's excess revenues over expenditures. So in terms of being in this particular account, that would be considered capital pay go. The way we look at it. We're not looking at capital pay go when we do CIP. We look more at overall debt capacity. So that's why I was making that distinction. But I understand where you were going.

So is this is the surplus included in any of the expected expenditures for FY27?

In a sense, it is because we were looking at an initial debt capacity of about 101, maybe $101.5 million, but we went up to 106 to allow for additional projects to come on board because we were seeing that there may be an opportunity for some excess revenues. We didn't take it all the way up to full 16 because at that time we were not exactly sure because, again, CIP was really projected much earlier in the year.

So that means that as we're looking at this presentation, we shouldn't come under the opinion that the 16 is available. It's already been included in FY27 budget presentations.

In a sense, yes, ma'am. And that's what he was saying, because debt money can ebb and flow if he has additional projects that he has to issue debt against. That could eat into that a little bit. If there are other expenditures that come up like they often do with CIP projects, cost overruns, change in scale.

So it is available or it isn't available?

Well, everything in finance is always kind of temporary. What I mean by that is, if we stand today, yes, that money exists. It's just me and you talking. I know. But I'm just saying, finances are temporary. It's a very fluid environment. It is available in the sense that that's money that is projected to be excess revenues against expenses. But for FY27, if you're asking me, at the end of FY27, will we see that exact amount? No. I can't say that we will because most likely things will happen.

But for the end of FY26, we're projecting that amount.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay. I'm asking because when we present our resolutions for budgetary and I bring back up, and I told y'all, Wilson, no surprises, about moving the pre-K from $7 million to $8.5 million, it's there.

Yes, ma'am.

All right. That's all I need. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you. We're going to move forward with the CIP discussion.

Hey, good afternoon.

Hey, you can state your name and proceed and address for the record.

Jasmine Joyner Marshall, 125 North Main.

Thank you.

Okay, I'll go ahead. I guess this is gonna be the session where I get formal feedback on any amendments to the CIP. So, so far I have Dr. Jeff's requested amendment of 1.5 million in addition for the zoo maintenance project for FY27. Dr. Easter-Thomas, I have her request for North Fraser Community Center, as well as Douglas added to FY27. So I guess just solicit everyone's feedback as far as their FY27 amendments.

Okay, so then let's do this. Let's not have a discussion. Okay. You have those. And I guess once we, what's our next one? There's one more. I thought we had June. Okay. All right. So then do y'all want to just do this tomorrow with all of them in terms of CIP? and then that way everybody can submit theirs. Is that fine? Can you join us back tomorrow?

Okay, perfect.

And that works because we're already a little bit behind schedule.

Okay, perfect. I am going to have surgery tomorrow, so I will not be here. If you would like me to mention the zoo thing now and tell you why that's there, I'll be glad to. Or perhaps I'll be out of anesthesia by then.

No, go ahead. Go ahead today.

Thank you. So...

Yes, we will have budget wrap-up tomorrow. Thank you, Dr. Warren.

One of the things that goes on with the zoo is they have very specialized infrastructure where they've got a lot of pumps, a lot of things that have to be functioning to keep the animals and the fish alive. They have infrastructure that we don't really have the capability of going in and fixing because it's highly specialized. And this $1.5 million in CIP is to allow them to... to have the ability to have the finances to do that when we don't really have the capability to come in and do it to begin with. And that way we can move rapidly should we have a pump in an aquarium break. or should we have a problem with sewage in the elephant area, that they're able to get there and fix it quickly. And that's why that's been brought before us, and that's what they need it for for next year. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you so much, and we'll make sure that we get all of those. If you all could just check with Ms. Mauricio and just make sure that you have all the resolutions, and then you can just tell us how it fits into our CIP overview. Thank you so much. All right, next one. Well, our time cut off is by noon for the next day, so I think we should have all presentations by now, or all proposed resolutions by now. So I think your number four would be the last one.

Or by 12 tomorrow.

Or by 12 tomorrow, but we don't have another meeting after that. Okay. So yeah. Thank you. Next we have IT Presentation.

Do you need to be here or are you going to be over there? Okay.

Go ahead, name and address and go ahead.

Good afternoon, yes, okay. My name's Augustin Boateng, Deputy Chief IT for the city of Memphis. Today presenting the IT ops budget.

Okay.

All right, so the first page really just talks about the departments that we have in IT. We have ten departments consisting of operations, project management, enterprise application, telecom, data center, service delivery, network, information security, admin, and finance. All right. So total authorized complements for IT, currently we have 76 complements approved. Six vacancies that we're almost about filling now. We're in the process of filling them currently. But when it comes to the total staff that we have, so 76 is the city staff that we have, but we also have about 28 contract staff that works with us, bringing us about 108 total staff that we have working for us. So 76 internal, IT, and then we have about 28 working outside. We're working internally, but there are contractors that work for us. So our total budget request this year is $27 million, almost $28 million. And where we are focusing on is the way IT is moving towards AI and the digital services. We are trying to improve our infrastructure, also enable our infrastructure so that we can support more AI-enabled projects. And so what we're doing is we're modernizing and securing the digital infrastructure Also strengthening our cyber security. So basically the fundamentals, the basics that will help us improve and take the city to the 21st century that we want to go to. On the second note, also expanding digital services for residents and employees. The one I want to highlight is the training that we're going to be doing.

We're going to be focusing- Quick question. If IT is transitioning to more, I guess, more AI-enabled, it seems like the personal expenses should be decreasing if we're moving more toward technology-focused. Why the increase? Which one, sorry? I'm looking at the budget comparison.

Yeah.

I don't know, page five. And it says the FY26 adopted budget was 7.5 and FY27 proposed is 7.8. But I think you just indicated that we're moving more to an AI-focused system. But usually when we bring in AI, we decrease the number of jobs and decrease the amount of expenses. Why do these expenses seem to be increasing?

Well, so I think what we've seen with the research we've done, the misconception is that AI is replacing people. But what we do is we need the human in the loop. We cannot replace most of the work that our team does. AI is going to augment what they do, but not replace what they do. So that's where we're focusing on. And the increase that you're seeing from the 7.5 to 7.8 is we did a right sizing of our help desk, service desk, and increased your salaries to a more comparable across the city of Memphis because we were losing a lot of our help desk team because of the way our salary structure. So that increase is, that's what you're seeing over there.

How many more people do we have?

So we have 76 total internal city staff. But we've brought on some contract staff to help with some of the projects we're working on.

Okay.

So I was on page four, I was talking about on the expanding technology training and access to resources at senior centers, libraries, and community centers. We are focusing on, so last year what we did was we did training. It was once a year. What we are trying to do is now we're going to increase that frequency of training. So every month, we're going to try and pick a community center or a library where we'll be offering digital services training to the seniors and also to really every citizen who can come and get free training from the city of Memphis. All right, so going on the historical budget comparison, as I explained earlier, the reason for the increase for the FY27 proposed is the increasing in the salaries. And you see a decrease of $1 million in the M&S. We did some right sizing of our software and took away some overlaps, and that helped us right-size the cost for the software and the materials and supplies.

Do we have a breakdown of what's this $20 million?

Not here, but I can get that for you.

Could you send it over?

Yes, we do. So moving to page seven. So the major drivers for our budget is, of course, as I said earlier, the software costs and the personnel. Software costs, we see it go up 10% minimum every year. So year over year, software costs keep going up. And so we try to negotiate with our vendors, but they're also trying to make money. So it's tough to keep the software costs down year over year. So that's what keeps increasing. Personnel costs also, as I said, we need specialized skill sets in some of the projects that we work on. So bringing those personnel also affects our personnel costs. That's on the contractor side. And of course, hardware costs with tariffs and all that's going on, what we've seen, it's even now difficult to even do a quote for, say, a desktop. Because you do a quote today, tomorrow, it increases. And then we have to go back to get another quote, right? So especially Dell, who's our major partner, we have to always constantly budget maybe plus or minus to be able to ensure that we are within budget. All right, so on page eight, what we're trying to focus on is the enterprise software and cloud services. Also deliver stable, secure citywide systems with high uptime. What we don't want is some of the critical applications that we have keep going down, and we don't want it to continue. So investing in infrastructure, Okay, sorry. Investing in cybersecurity and network infrastructure, and also investing in our data center and our storage systems to help with the solutions that we host internally and even in the cloud to become more stable. This was our metrics for FY26. Our target for system uptime was 99%, and we achieved that. And then average call handling, that's our help desk. Target was seven minutes. We did achieve that and even did better. And then the mean time to resolve network outages. So we targeted that if a network goes down, it shouldn't be down for more than four hours. We're able to achieve that. And then the first call resolution should be greater than 85%, and we're able to do that also. Website uptime, we didn't even have a downtime on our website. And then security incidents, that's preventing any kind of malware. We're able to also achieve that. As I said earlier, one of the major focus is because if we don't keep up with AI and where AI is going and AI first applications, we're going to be left behind. So we are investing really heavily on the AI side. We are bringing people to train our staff. Also, we are getting licenses for users to be able to use AI and even the council can take advantage of those licenses. So if there are any interests, let me know. We are really investing in that AI part of technology to keep us abreast with what is going on with the rest of the world. And challenges and risk, of course, is competitive hiring and talent retention. As a city, it's tough to keep up with all the private institutions that are around here. And so, but we do our best to keep up, right? So by offering other incentives that will help keep our staff. Also, what is also driving this continuous software licensing cost increase, rising hardware procurement costs, and consulting and outsourcing expenses. That is the short of it all. Opinion to any questions?

Any questions? Anybody wants to take that? All right. Chairwoman, the floor is yours.

Thank you. This is just a follow-up with the question about the salary increase. From FY26 to FY27, that would be $755,000. If you could maybe give us a breakdown of what those salaries would cover, the position and the bonuses.

Yes. So that is for, we have 10 help desk staff. And when we did the analysis, they were paid less than $50,000. We've increased most of them to about $57,000. But that also comes with the benefits.

I'm saying that you could just provide us a breakdown.

I'll send it.

Yes, sir.

He's going to give us the breakdown right off the top of your head. I'll send it. All right. Well, thank you. Appreciate you.

Thank you.

All right. I don't know who's next, but if you want to come up here, shoot your shot. City court. Judge out in the hallway. Tell her if she wants to take a break, she can.

Watch what you say. Everybody give you like 40 seconds there. Oh, you have something else to say? Can I make a presentation? Can I go off the phone? Okay.

Yes. The weather got me when it was raining real bad and I was going to get the mail. I left the mailbox open and slipped on...

Okay.

Yes. All right. Ms. Rigali, can I go? Can I start? I got to get approval first. Okay. Judge Chandler, the floor is yours.

Good afternoon. My pleasure to be before you all again with our very small budget that really doesn't have any changes or updates in it from last year. It's just very minor. So everything is pretty much the same. If you look at There are three city court judges, Judge Hooks, Judge Cooper, and myself. And then we, sir? There are three judges, Judge Hooks, Judge Cooper, and myself. And we also have our authorized complement, a court interpreter, and also an executive assistant. And that remains the same. That has not changed. The budget overview for the city court judges, the breakdown really is personnel expenses, materials, and supplies. And that's pretty much... The bulk of the revenue goes to the personnel expenses and then the materials and supplies. The key budget priorities, but they aren't in this budget, but we don't really have an exact figure. I'm sure you all are aware that Shelby County has mentioned relocating the courts out of 201 Poplar. So that's kind of on hold, I was told.

We pay about a million a year for that, right?

As far as I'm aware, yes. Yeah, but our lease agreement is under the police department's lease. And at some point after this budget season right now, to work with... someone to have us removed from the police department's lease and the courts have their own budget so we can be responsible for our own lease and also have a more direct role Right, and location and where we are, because we've worked with real estate and looked at some buildings, but they aren't suitable for our needs. So I think because we aren't falling under our own lease.

Have you looked at any of the properties that are currently city-owned that may need some TLC? Um... The city has significant assets that may need some real renovation, but we're spending a million dollars a year to lease some property. I think there's better use of those funds.

Right. I agree. Years ago, I suggested that the old police precinct on Adams be turned into the courts and also have a police museum on the bottom level right next to the fire museum. And it was sold for a boutique hotel, but it has remained vacant for quite some time. But I still think rather than let the building continue to waste away, remain vacant, then perhaps with public and private contributions for a police museum that could be utilized.

I think, well, I got something on the agenda. I think next council meeting. Is it next council meeting? I'm going to the Jennifer Nates Council meeting, just ask the administration for updates, particularly as it relates to, now it's going to include their building, but also include the building right across the street from 201, was it 247, I don't know, 247 Washington?

The building next to the parking garage.

Yeah, but there's buildings, and we just got to figure out what we can do. So we need to hear from the administration about the cost to repair, whether it's conducive for any other thing than what we're using for, which is nothing. So we got to be able to do something better than what we're doing, which is nothing.

Right. But to look at the building, I'd hate for us to be in a situation like the county clerk where you have people lined up outside. And that building right next door to the parking garage, I think that would be a problem and it would not be able to house or hold the numbers that we see. And people would end up lined up outside and up and down Washington.

Hopefully they'll end up up in Washington, but I mean, we got to do something with those buildings.

Absolutely. Absolutely. But back to the old police precinct, public and private funds, I'm sure, like before, private donors donated for the police museum that was unpopular by Old Court Mall. Perhaps funds can come that way to help with those costs.

I'll be eager to hear from the administration.

Thank you, me too.

Is there something, doesn't like your budget change?

No, not really, except for what the, I guess, cost of living or increases that the city has.

It's de minimis, yeah, that's all.

Yeah, yes.

Well, any questions for the judge? No, everybody's always scared of the judges, gotcha. Dr. Moore? Yes.

The building that you had shown me in the photo, yeah, we were talking about that. I think one of the issues may be just what Judge Chandler was talking about, is that if we've got something closer to the courts, which the old police precinct was, I think it's a cooler-looking building, too. It would be nice to see if we could get that fixed up and used for them. I don't know. I'm interested in what the administration is going to tell us.

We don't know what the administration is going to tell us.

I don't know how bad the building is right now.

I don't know how bad either one of the buildings are, but both of them are in close proximity with 201 Poplar. We know we want to keep the judges close there. You know... I say this, I've been saying this since 2021 after I got schooled by Councilwoman Robinson and Councilman Jones about, you know, this body sets the priorities. The body ultimately chooses what they want the budget to be. I think once we hear from the administration, the body has to make up in its mind which way we want to go. When we hear, we get advice, and then ultimately we got to decide whether we want to take heed to that advice or if we want to chart a new course. So, yeah. We look forward to the information from the administration also in context hearing from the judges as well. But no other questions for Judge Chandler? Thank you so much.

Thank you very much. And I'm willing and able for any discussions.

I don't know how able you are with the show. I'm teasing. I'm teasing, Judge. I'm from South Memphis. Straight from South Memphis. I think I need to call my mama and put her back on the phone so y'all can hear. She's straight from South Memphis. All right. Thank you, Judge.

I'm gonna move over from Mr. Sainz presentation.

I know he stays but.

Trying to tell Meredith to get me but it ain't gonna work. It just ain't gonna work today.

Go ahead, go ahead. City Court Clerk's Office 201 Poplar. City Court Clerk is comprised of three separate divisions. Well, really one, two separate divisions, our court clerks and our auto photo enforcement. We have a complement of 58. We currently have five vacancies. I know the slide shows seven, but during the budget process, we lost two positions. We gave up two vacant positions. Our overall budget, most of our budget is coming from about 60% of our budget is coming from personnel expenses. The other 40% stems from materials and supplies, M&S. This year, we're asking for $7.4 million. Our previous forecast for FY26 was 7.9. The reduction is in the savings that we are seeing once we go live with our new court management system. But right now, we will have to run both systems simultaneously. Due to the migration, we need to make sure that everything that the current system does, the new system is able to do as well. I was waiting on him to go to the next slide. Okay.

I was about to be excited.

I can be over it if you want. You just go say approve. I'll keep driving budget changes. Increase the external cost for the new court reporting system and ticket management system. Like I just mentioned, we have two systems running simultaneously until the migration is complete. The division has also requested additional personnel. I'm not sure if we'll be able to do that because Our current vendors, they were doing all our reconciliation for us based on tier service that they were providing. However, they wanted to use a separate banking institution. From my understanding, the city is not going to allow us to use any outside banking institutions other than First Horizon. So we will need personnel to do the reconciliations on a daily basis for those funds that are collected through the photo enforcement system. This budget is going to help us improve our efficiency with dealing with the public and enhance our deliverables for the courts. We'll be able to, with the new system, we'll be able to hold a virtual court, which is something Judge Chandler has been pushing for, and also easier online payments. Again, the budget allocation, approximately 6% of the budget will go towards this initiative for the new court management system. This implementation period should take between 10 and 12 months, and this has been confirmed with the current vendor as well as the new vendor that we're seeking to go under contract with.

How long will the two systems run simultaneously?

about 10 to 12 months, maybe less depending on how well the integration goes. And I think that's about it. I went over these staffing. That first bullet, I'm not sure how much that applies in our current situation, but I did mention about the need for an employee to reconcile the revenues that's received by the photo enforcement. That's it.

Any questions? All right. You did a good job, or are they not paying attention? I don't know which one it is. Good job. Appreciate you. Thank you. Chief Luce, whatever regardless is, we're ready. Just do what you gotta do. But regardless, I'm not ready yet.

Thank you.

Welcome to the audio conferencing center. Please enter a conference ID. If you're meeting organizer, press star now. After the tone, please record your name and then press pound. You are now joining the meeting. This meeting is being recorded and transcribed.

Councilwoman Logan. Councilwoman Logan, can you hear us?

I can hear now.

All right. Well, you held up the meeting for about 10 minutes. But we love you.

Pardon me?

10 minutes. 10 minutes. We love you. Chief O'Shea.

You want to get up here?

The floor is yours whenever you are ready. Name and address.

Good afternoon. I'm Fonda Fouché, 125 North Main Street. Can y'all hear me? All right, I am going to present the three HR budgets today, General Fund, Healthcare Fund, and OPEP Fund. Today, we're gonna start first with the General Fund. This is our overall HR division org chart. We have 65 full-time employees in HR across three funds, and we also have 30 HRBPs throughout the division that report to HR. Our HR division complement is currently 63. We are asking for two ISLs in our healthcare fund, and I will discuss them more during our health care presentation. And this is our HR General Fund org chart. In the HR General Fund, we have 48 full-time employees. The next slide is our Division Authorized Compliment 48. All our positions are currently filled, and we are not asking for any new positions in FY27. Our total requested budget for the upcoming year is $9.671 million. Our key budget priorities include leadership development. We're gonna continue to enhance the employee experience through our E3 program and also our Say Yes campaign. We're gonna do a citywide employee engagement survey in FY27. We wanna continue to expand career pathways. And today we started 100 urban fellows. And so we want to continue to be able to keep that number in FY27.

How much are we spending on leadership development?

Leadership development right now is less than $100K.

I saw key budget priorities. I was thinking it was going to be more than that.

Well, you know, my budget is small. So we are implementing some new programs, but they're going to be done with our in-house SMEs. But our Emerging Leaders Program is probably our biggest contract with leadership development that Regali just graduated from.

She's your amen choir to my left and right. So we can't cut there.

Thank you.

So next up is our year total actuals. FY27 proposed budget is 9.6 million, which is a decrease from our FY26 forecasted budget. And our year total actuals on the next slide is the same information.

Okay. Okay.

Our key budget drivers for FY27 are personnel costs. Our personnel costs are driven by 48 full-time employees and 23 part-time employees. We are committed to providing core HR functions in FY27. We want to continue promotional test administration for public safety. We will still house, do our OJ admin costs. We're going to continue employee development and retention strategies, recruitment and onboarding, compensation reviews, negotiations and impasse, leave administration and drug testing administration. We'll also continue to do our pre-employment medicals for public safety and drug screens for our new hires.

Miscellaneous professional services.

Miscellaneous professional services this year is, is it 3.3?

Do we have that broken down somewhere? Yeah, we got it broken down. 3.3 million? We got it broken down somewhere?

James will pull that for you.

2.5 million.

2.5 million. Do we have a breakdown of where the money, like the different vendors, different folks who are contracts that we have associated with that? Okay. Well, can you just email it to Meredith? Meredith.

The total for materials.

3.3 million. But we can break it down by contract line.

Okay.

Our HR performance metrics for FY27, I am pleased to announce that we did implement an HR dashboard that we reviewed monthly metrics with, with our HR managers and supervisors, just to kind of take a look at what we're doing well and what we can improve on. And some of the things that we currently look at monthly are our time to field, our AP performance, how many employees are attending trainings, the number of calls we receive in our benefits call center and how quickly they are processed, and also safety audits that are performed throughout the organization. Our newer budding initiatives for FY27 in the general fund is leadership development. We do want to expand leadership development to include new programs. Also, we want to include, we're starting management one-on-one for our new managers and supervisors so they can just learn city government. But this is going to be done in-house working with our SMEs. And then we're going to still focus on emerging leaders and executive coaching, as well as offering our quarterly trainings that we offer to all employees.

with the managing one-on-one?

So we had our first session start in May, but we want to start doing it quarterly instead of once or twice a year because we want all new managers and supervisors to take it.

Extend to council office as well? Yes. Okay.

It's a new manager and supervisor, yes. So when Ashley will do it, when they come on for their onboarding and go to new hire orientation, we'll sign them up for the next available cohort. Our next new abutting initiative for FY27 general fund is our HR business partners. We have already, the HRBPs now report to HR. And so we're going to continue to develop consistency and continuity throughout all divisions as it relates to HR policies and procedures. And then we also have employee engagement as a buddy initiative. Like I said, we're going to implement an engagement survey. We're also implementing state interviews because we want to know what will keep our good employees here. We're going to still continue our E3 program and our Say Yes Awards. And that concludes my general fund. Does anyone have any questions for the general fund?

Here's our hearts and minds. You can get the next one.

Next up is our health care fund. So the org chart for the healthcare fund, we have 13 full-time employees in our healthcare fund. That includes an increase of two employees. In FY26, we had 11. We're asking for two for FY27. One, we are absorbing from parks. And the other position is that we had a recently vacated supervisor role that we're splitting into two analyst positions. Our total requested budget for the upcoming year is 121.192 million. Our key budget priorities include our employee health services, expanding our healthcare services at the employee clinic, our total rewards marketing and advertising campaign. We're also implementing a lifestyle spending account. And also our expansion of special benefits to include child care and adult care, thanks to Councilwoman Yolanda Cooper. If you look at our adopted budget, there is a $13.68 million increase. I'm sorry. It's a $13.6 million increase. $11 million of that is projected claims. That's the biggest increase in our healthcare fund, our claims. And this side, the actuals is the same as our adopted claims. Key drivers driving the total health care fund is that health care claims are forecasted to increase due to rising utilization and overall health care cost trends. And so our key performance indicators that we use to measure success is that we're going to increase utilization at the employee wellness center. And then we also want to increase participation in our wellness incentive programs. New or budding initiatives for FY27 is you should have received an invite to our clinic expansion opening for Thursday. We're expanding to include physical therapy, nutritional services, and we're going to be opening the clinic on two Saturdays a month to get more employees to use the clinic to ultimately reduce health care claims, improve employee health, and increase participation. Our next budding initiative is our total rewards marketing and advertising campaign. This is probably what I'm most excited about because great people deserve great rewards. And so we want to increase awareness, usage, and understanding of available benefits among full-time and part-time employees. We want our employees to know all of the great benefits that the City of Memphis offer. Our challenges and risks with the health care fund is that we do have rising health care costs and no increase to employee premiums. Premiums have not been raised for employees in nine years if they are on a select plan, and we have not raised premiums since 2023 for employees on the choice plan. And so some of the mitigation strategies around the challenges and risks is that we are increasing premiums and we're making plan design changes for FY27. We're going to perform a dependent audit during open enrollment. We are going to market our benefits and rewards better. And then we're going to employ strategies to increase engagement in various employee wellness programs. Questions for healthcare? Yes, I heard.

Thank you, Chief Foucher. Thank you, Chairman. A couple things. So, colleagues, this is more for colleagues, like when we talk about employee pay raises every year, well, in effect, every employee's gotten a pay raise for It was not stated since 2017 for those on the select plan and since 2023 for those on the choice plan, because we didn't charge any additional in premiums. So that, in effect, was a raise. Whereas if you compare us to sister municipal governments or the private sector, I'd be willing to bet that most all of them have increased the employee share of the premiums paid. So that being said, Do you have a dollar amount if we switched and we didn't give a choice anymore and we switched everybody to one plan, what we could save?

We looked at that. Moving all employees to the choice plan, if we move actives and retirees, it was only a cost savings of about $300,000. All employees just had a select plan.

300,000? Oh, wow. So, I guess that's not even worth talking about.

Because you have the HRA also, the HRA component. You don't have an HRA choice.

Right, right. So, but projected $11 million rise in claims for FY27. That's a huge jump. Are we, one, if you could just maybe explain why you think it's going to be such a big jump and also how our clinics are playing into that and how we think that we can forecast that they will save us in some of those areas for active and retirees.

So because the employee health center is a fixed cost, if more employees would go to the health care center, that doesn't hit our claims line. So that's why we want more employees to start using the health care, the wellness center, because you can also get your primary care physician there. You can also get your medicines there. So that's why we're trying to do this big push to get employees to go to the clinic. With the premium increase and the plan design changes, that will roughly save us about $2.4 million to the healthcare fund. It's still a big jump, but nationwide, healthcare costs are increasing by anywhere from 11% to 13%. And with us now raising premiums for as long as we have,

But I see this year we are going to raise.

Yes, we are raising premiums.

To what?

So we are raising premiums of 15%. And so that will be an increase to employees from $7 to $47, depending on what plan coverage they have.

Okay. So to increase the active and retirees using clinics, using the pharmacy, that's all about your ad campaign, right?

Yes.

Do you have, is there any way to project possible savings if you got X amount of employees or X amount of retirees to switch over and start using clinics? Yes.

We can actually probably cost that out. I can see if maybe do like a snapshot.

I mean, obviously, you're not going to get everyone to do it.

You're not going to get everyone.

If you could get 50% to do it out, that may be high.

Right.

If you could get 30% to use them.

So I can probably do a cost analysis around it to say if we got 20% of the employee population to go to the clinic, how much that would reduce our claims by. I can work on that.

And how many different options do we have on the clinics? Will you go over those real quick, the different locations?

So there's one downstairs, 1B, and then there's also one on Poplar Avenue right across from East High School. Yes. Yes, that's the one that I invited you all to on Thursday for the opening.

So those are the two options. Yes. Any plans to do anything north or south?

There have been.

Okay, so if it does go well and people start using those two options, is it possible to put a clinic in like a YMCA or something that's already established that we could just rent a space from and something that's kind of a neighborhood anchor that people and so if you put one in and you selected one in north memphis one in south memphis maybe one on the eastern north side and the eastern south side um is that an option yes that is an option we can look into that instead of running a stay either in a shopping mall or a standalone space we can definitely look at that yes okay all right that's all the questions i had thank you very much

I have one more budget.

Oh, I'm sorry.

My question is on your clinics that you have. So are you counting or is insurance being billed for those visits or are those visits free to employees?

It's free because it's already a fixed cost.

So it's our fixed cost. We're not... So if you're working in that clinic, okay, you're not making more or less money whether you see more people or fewer people, correct?

Correct.

So essentially we're paying people by the hour there. And how many people are practitioners actually seeing per hour in each clinic on average?

I actually don't know that.

The reason I'm asking that is before you look at expanding, you need to make sure that you've actually maximized your personnel and they're seeing people. So as we hire people, that's more fixed cost. And even though people coming through may not cost us anything as far as a bill coming from a clinic, That fixed cost, unless it's very efficient, can be high too, and we need to know what that is.

Right, and so right now they're fully staffed, so we're not looking to bring on any more staff.

They're fully staffed, and that means each clinic has?

So they have a nurse practitioner at each location.

One nurse practitioner.

We have three total nurse practitioners, and then we have front desk.

Okay, and we have a front desk. Do we have any nursing other than the nurse practitioner? Is there any other clinical staff? Anyone doing blood pressures? Anyone giving shots? Does the nurse practitioner do all of that? We have a lab tech. Okay, and do we have an MA? So the MA is the lab tech, or they're two separate? So we have a lab tech and a MA. We have a receptionist.

Yes.

We have a receptionist, and we have a nurse practitioner. So we have five people working, okay? And on an average day, how many people do we see in an eight-hour day?

I can get that information. Because I think we need to see that.

Before we talk expansion, we need to make sure that that particular thing is working, okay?

Dr. Warren is going to volunteer some hours.

But what I'm saying is that, you know, I'm not on the committee anymore. This is Chase's committee now.

So I can send you the HOC report because we present that at every HOC meeting, how many people.

Yeah, but I wanted my fellow council members to hear that. So I want them to know what that is before we think about expanding. I think we need to make sure we're full. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you so much. Chief, will you go over again the savings or the difference in getting their medicines from the clinics as opposed to going to a pharmacy?

So the savings is because it's all at a fixed cost already. That's also not hitting our claims line. So anything that goes on at the clinic, any...

But that's got to be limited, right, to how many medications they keep?

Yeah, some of it is limited. Some of it they have on staff. You know, they have at the clinic. But, of course, there's some medicine that they don't have. But a lot of it they do have in the clinic.

You have a ballpark of how many... options how many medicines are offered for like if i go in like your maintenance medicines are there yes so your your maintenance meds are there so say like blood pressure your allergy meds those types so they they keep they even keep cholesterol meds on

Do they keep cholesterol? I know blood pressure.

Yeah, I know they do blood pressure medicine. It depends on the types of medicine.

Mr. Byrne, Ms. ACO said give me an address. He doesn't have his address anymore.

Sorry. My name is William Byrd. I'm a total wealth officer here. I'm located at 2714 Union Extended. It depends on what type of medicine it is. There's mainly general medicine, right? So we don't do high-level medicine for that. They send it to the pharmacy, but they can't prescribe it. So they have general medicine for you, for your cold. They do the GAP medicine. They do general medicine. So I can't really say if they have cholesterol medicine or not because I wouldn't have been there for cholesterol medicine. I don't have a list, but I can give you some list of generic medicines they provide. Okay. Okay? Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else in the queue?

We're not in the queue? All right, we... Is that it? Oh, you need to start asking questions. That's right. The floor is yours, Madam Chief.

My last budget is OPEP, which is our retiree budget. We have four employees that are housed in the OPEP fund. We are currently at complement. All four positions are field. Our total requested budget for the upcoming year is $34.499 million. Our key budget priorities are to offer a retiree health program that provides meaningful retirement health care options, remain fiscally responsible, and manage an OPEB liability. provide ongoing well-being supporting tools to retirees, and also encourage employee wellness utilization. If you look over to the right, you will see that 69% of the OPEF healthcare claim is healthcare claims. 69% of the OPEF fund budget is healthcare claims and 25% is personnel services, but that's also where the retirees HRA is housed. If you look at our adopted budget for OPEB, there is an increase of $3.79 million this year for the OPEB fund. And of course, the biggest driver of that is healthcare claims. Are your total actuals and our adopted budgets are the same? So it's the same slide. Our key budget drivers for the OPEF fund is increasing healthcare claims. And then, of course, we always have new retirees joining the plan from Police and Fire. Some of our ongoing initiatives for FY27 is that we're going to host a Retiree Appreciation and Wellness Fair. It is August 14th. I think that should also be on you all's calendars. And last year we had over 500 retirees to attend, so we are getting a bigger venue and everything this year. But this is to increase engagement, to promote healthier lifestyles, and to just also show appreciation to our retirees. Another ongoing initiative is to increase utilization of the Employee Wellness Center for retirees and their dependents. And then challenges and risk in OPEB is the increase in OPEB claims costs. Our mitigation strategies is that we're doing plan design changes and increased premiums for retirees. We're going to increase retiree employee wellness center utilization, and then we're going to try to increase participation in wellness centers.

What's the wellness center?

So our employee, we don't call it the health center anymore. We call it the City of Memphis Employee Wellness Center. And so that's instead of the clinic. Because we want people to start going there for primary care and just not when they have a cold. So that's why we changed it.

I just want you to know we're going out loud and wrong. Yeah, that's the GM.

Yes, yes.

Because we want employees to use it like for office visits, primary care. We want them to take advantage of the dietician and just not going when they have a cold. Yes, yes. And so that's all for the OPEF fund. Does anyone have any questions for OPEF?

So total number of active employees, 6,800-ish? Yes. Total number of retirees?

Retirees, oh, we have over 5,800 retirees, but we have 1,100 that are currently on the plan because of police and fire. You know, police and fire are the ones that are on the OPEB.

Right.

Right.

50, say that again.

We have about 5,800 total retirees.

And 1,100?

We have 1,100 that are on, that are, yeah, police and fire to use the OPIP fund.

Okay. Yes. So for the clinics or the wellness centers, then we can get, they can get their meds there. What if they do a telehealth visit? Can they get their meds at the wellness center?

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

So I could do a telehealth visit tonight from my house, and I could call it in, and I could get it here tomorrow downstairs?

Yes.

To pick up the meds?

Mm-hmm. Okay. If it's something that they have, yes.

Right, right. And we want to encourage that through all avenues because it saves us so that the people that are doing our telehealth visits are aware of that instead of calling it into a pharmacy for certain drugs.

They can call it into a clinic, yes.

Okay. All right. That's all I have. Thank you.

We appreciate your questions. Anything else, counsel, since we're fully present today?

No, thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chief.

Thank you.

Ms. Myers, appreciate you too, brother.

Really appreciate it.

Councilwoman Logan, you still with us?

Thank you.

Anybody else want to come down? Community enhancement? No? All right, there's no community enhancement today.

Yes, there are. Okay.

Chief Adams, you going to help? We got a couple more things left. And council's getting answered. Don't worry about it. As you're ready to present. Don't come down there. Never mind, they're coming. All right, we're going to take, can we just recess until tomorrow? We'll be in a way. Okay. Nobody want to listen to me. All right. Five minute break. Councilwoman Logan, are you listening? Yes. Be sure to ask all your very good questions to the council staff as they present the city council budget. They have some things in there that I am highly concerned about. And I say that with all sincerity, I'm playing. I'm saying it again, Jess.

No.

She just told me no.

Ashley Hayes, 125 North Main Street.

Excuse me, Ms. Hayes.

Not yet. Well, let me know when you're ready.

Okay.

Ashley Hayes, 125 North Main Street, and I'm joined by Meredith Keaton, 125 North Main Street. Good afternoon, on the behalf of the Legislative City Council, today we're gonna be presenting the FY27 operating budget. This budget is inclusive of a $3.8 million request. Our first slide.

You can go back one.

You can go back one, Jonathan. Go for one. That one. Thank you.

Okay, so our first slide is our organizational chart. So you will see we have 33 authorized positions, and this year we're going from 31 to 33. So those two changes will include our new financial analyst position, and then we have one communications analyst.

Next slide. Our authorized complement is increasing from 31 to 33. This is inclusive of the financial analyst as well as the communications analyst. The financial analyst is a new hire for the first time. The legislative division will be dedicated to budget discipline, tracking projects, and financial accountability. This closes the gap we've had in oversight capacity.

And then for our communications analyst, this is not a new hire, it is elevation of an existing role.

So the total budget request is gonna be $3,878,218. This targets our four priorities. The first priority is gonna be engagement, amplifying Memphis' civic voice. And that's one of the responsibilities of our communications analysts. We will invest in our public narrative around Memphis, making sure residents feel more informed, connected, and excited about their city government.

Our second priority is fiscal stewardship and project accountability. So that is going to be in the wheelhouse of our new financial analysts who will give us real time visibility into how we're spending, tracking projects, and delivering value.

Our third priority is gonna be constituent services excellence. We are deepening our commitment to responsiveness, accessibility. Every interaction with the council should reflect Memphis at its best.

And finally, a digital first council operations. So we're moving towards transitioning to digital for our documents. And that will be instrumental in cutting costs and modernizing how the council operates.

So as you can see, the breakdown material and supplies is going to be 18 percent and personnel expenses is going to be 82 percent. Next slide. And the next slide kind of just gives you an overview of those priorities.

All right, the next one you will see is our historical budget comparison for City Council. You'll see for our FY27 proposed, the only elevation we'll see is personnel, like we mentioned, for the financial analyst and communication analyst positions, and our M&S will be flat.

All right, so our key budget drivers are inclusive of personnel, M&S, inflation, and leaner contracts, which we've already discussed. You can keep going, Jonathan.

Okay, I'm good.

All right, so outcome one will be civic engagement. So we will have our communications analysts in place, and we're committed to a measurable increase in civic engagement. We want Memphis residents to know more about what the council is doing, why it matters, and how to participate.

Outcome two is gonna be financial transparency. Our new financial analyst will give us real-time project tracking, no more guessing where we are mid-year. Council members and the public will have a greater confidence that funds are being spent more responsibly.

Outcome three is our constituent services. We are wanting to have faster response times, better follow-through, and more consistent services, as well as creating more cross-divisional collaboration.

All right, and outcome four is to sustain a budget neutral posture moving forward.

And finally, number five is our Memphis narrative. We are building something bigger than our budget here. We want to have a positive public narrative around Memphis and its government, one that our residents can be proud of. And we know that the communications analysts will be central to that outcome.

All right, in conclusion, thank you guys so much for your time and continued confidence in the legislative division. And we're here for any questions you may have.

Question, is there anything in our budget that allows each of the district members to reach out, like send mail to the district to inform them what they're doing? Because I know on the county commission side, each county commissioner has, I think, about $10,000. So they can do printed mail to the district to inform them what happens. And I think the only thing in our, I was talking to Attorney Owens, I think the only thing we have in our budget that would almost address that would be the printing line. I'm just putting it on your mind because the young lady to your left, Deputy Chief Keaton, she's going to be working on something to address that. Please.

Thank you. Thank you.

No point in recreating the will. Someone's already doing some good work. Okay, any other questions? We have a lot of questions for everybody but our own body. I think they actually like you a lot. All right, no questions. We have questions I'm sure the members will get with you all individually about the budget. Great job.

Thank you.

Community enhancement, is that okay? Community enhancement, ready? There's a word that I like to use, brevity. All right, now the floor is yours.

Thank you. Melanie Neal, Community Enhancement Director, 499 South Hollywood.

For our FY27 budget request,

Our first page just outlines our current structure. We did add three service centers for our code enforcement operation to ensure that we're tracking expenses specific to residential code enforcement, commercial code enforcement, and our special operations department, which consists of our board ups and demolition processes, as well as our court cases. So we decided that it would be better served for those particular employees, as well as that assigned budget. for each of those service centers to be broken into three different service centers. So that's why we have a few more service centers than we've had historically. Yeah? Yes, sir. For our overall division authorized complement, we currently have an authorized complement of 185 employees. We have several vacancies throughout the division, many of which are in the process of being filled. We have 14 environmental enforcement officers who started coming on board today and will be trickling in over the next few weeks. So we definitely look forward to expanding our environmental enforcement operation as well as the other field positions that are vacant in community enhancement. Our total budget request is $14,023,944. the breakout of our major spending categories, a little over $12 million in personnel expenses, a little over $4 million in materials and supplies, much of which is devoted to demolition, board ups, and grass mitigation services, and we have $43,000 in our grants and subsidies category. Overall, as you all are aware, our key budget priorities and community enhancement continue to be strategizing to transform our neighborhoods. Comprehensive blight remediation through aggressive litigation, demolition where necessary, boarding up properties, rehabbing properties, sending properties through an administrative process, a court process. So overall, our strategy is to be as comprehensive as humanly possible. If there are thoroughfares that need attention, we've launched our corridor revitalization program a couple of months ago. So we started in the Lamar corridor. We've moved to the Crump corridor, and we'll be moving to the Austin Peay corridor. So in order to be... up close and personal with the neighborhoods as well as the major thoroughfares. We are definitely working together. All of our city services are devoted in their particular footprint at the same time so that neighborhood folks, citizens see us out. We see Public Services Corps out picking up litter. We see commercial properties being rehabilitated, going through aggressive litigation. We see dump sites being cleaned up. as well as the grass being cut, just all things that are aesthetically showing a difference as well as behind the scenes. So on the surface as well as behind the scenes, we're looking to, again, aggressively address blight. Our historical budget comparison, of course, this dates back to last fiscal year as we were founded and put into place last fiscal year. For this proposed budget, we are showing a little over again, $12 million for personnel expenses, materials and supplies is 4.6 million. The capital outlay, we're not budgeting for that this year. We made some major equipment purchases. as well as some furniture purchases this fiscal year, as well as the past fiscal years. So that negative number that you see there is a reconciliation that we're working with the budget office to correct. Under grants and subsidies, we have $43,000. Overall expense recovery through our state street aid is a little over $3 million, which again equates to our roughly $14 million budget. As I mentioned, this page just outlines our current forecast for our current fiscal year, as well as our proposed budget for upcoming fiscal year. Our key budget drivers and community enhancements stem around education and engagement through City Beautiful. We are attempting to increase our Adopt-A-Series. We're working to launch an Adopt-A-Vacant-Lot program, as well as more education for all levels of the schools. We're looking for just any prevention programs so that people are more engaged, so they volunteer more, there are more events, just more beautification projects, so wherever we can get all hands on deck And we don't have to exhaust city resources, we're looking to grow those efforts. For code enforcement, again, our major budget drivers stem around demolition, site cleanup, and ultimately what will lead to redevelopment preparation throughout the city. As I like to say, we create the inventory of blighted properties that hopefully are transformed through a development process. Through environmental enforcement, they primarily address illegal dump sites, disposing of unhoused encampments, as well as we have a camera program where we are partnering with MPD to gather surveillance and evidence related to those who are choosing to illegally dispose of items.

So I'm trying to figure out if the folks who, I guess, go around the neighborhoods to address, I guess, extremely large grass. Yes. That falls under you?

Yes, sir. On vacant properties, vacant privately owned properties. Vacant and privately owned properties.

Yes. Okay. And what's the process to report it?

311. Definitely, 311, we wanted to go through a fair process. But we do have, we definitely have compliance specialists who are assigned to each council district. And they are also proactively identifying overgrowth over 12 inches as well. So if it's not identified through a citizen, then it definitely should be identified through an internal employee. And there's also assigned environmental enforcement officers as well as code inspectors, so I can break all of that down for you. Yes, sir.

Okay. Thank you.

Yes, sir. Ground services, again, we deal primarily with contractors. We have about 80 contractors who provide grass mitigation services on those vacant privately owned lots. We also have expanded our in-house crews so that we can realize efficiencies in-house and we're not solely dependent upon contractors. We've purchased equipment, grass mitigation equipment, tractors, smaller hand tools, so that when we do service a property, it actually looks like somebody's been there. Of course, we have complaints that sometimes when a contractor leaves or an employee leaves, that they don't leave it in a tidy state. So one of our efficiency opportunities is to be more comprehensive when we're actually servicing a vacant property. Our Public Services Corps, of course, they do corridor cleanups. They clean out storm drains. They pick up tires, mattresses, you name it. So we definitely love and support our Public Services Corps team. I think Mr. White is here. I have to give him a shout out. Okay, for our performance, key performance metrics for demolition and board ups just over the past few years, we're currently at 130 demolitions for the fiscal year. We boarded up almost 1600 openings on vacant properties. And of course, that number will increase before the end of the fiscal year. Our environmental enforcement team has picked up over 18,000 tires, and they have cleared over 6000 dump sites. Our grass mitigation time from either a complaint being created or reported is about 18 days to have it cut. So what that means is, again, we're dealing with privately owned property. So we do allow compliance time with the property owner and hope that he or she complies before we actually exhaust city resources to have a vendor to go out and cut it. So that process from start to finish takes about 18 days. Our public services core team has collected over 220,000 pounds of debris, which is very, very huge, 220,000 pounds of debris since the fiscal year started. Some of our initiatives and just areas of focus to change behavior and to not solely rely upon the city exhausting resources for mitigation is to attempt to change behavior. We will be adopting or enforcing our international property maintenance code, which allows us to charge fees for each violation that we commit. enforced in community enhancement. So we'll be bringing that fee schedule before this body to finalize those fees. And we're working with Paymentus, which is the company that will allow us to invoice and collect fees for bad property owners, for those who are in violation, along with the notice or the citation to environmental court. You'll also be on the hook for the cost of being in violation, as well as the mitigation services. For some of our goals, again, is to address chronic offenders wherever there's an opportunity to work with MPD or fire on chronic nuisance properties. We're definitely doing more of that. Very many properties that sit vacant, larger commercial structures, there's also a crime element associated with that. So we're looking for opportunities, especially along the corridors, to just ensure that properties that have set vacant and harbor crime and just other activities. We're looking to be more aggressive to just, again, tell the story of, you know, we're here, we see you. We want to ensure that property owners are held accountable and you can't just sit on properties and continue to see a steady decline in how the city looks. Again, I mentioned inspection fees, especially our commercial code enforcement team. Once they go out and issue a violation notice, they conduct quarterly inspections of those properties so that they're just not sitting there boarded up and warehoused. So each time we go out to do an inspection, there's an associated quarterly inspection fee. We're also looking to, again, partner for just any type of neighborhood development, any type of engagement, any opportunities that allow available resources for moving the city forward, for moving the needle, for seeing less blighted neighborhoods. And we're continuing to work on initiatives like our Neighborhood Impact Tour. This past weekend, we partnered with the team that did, the innovation team that did the empower your block initiative. So just anything comprehensive, anything strategic, we're looking to partner with city services, with other partners, so that we can truly, truly make a difference in each neighborhood. Again, I mentioned environmental court fines and fees. So that's definitely an initiative that we will be launching, again, as soon as we finalize that particular fee schedule, as well as implement an agreement with the contractor to provide that service. The last slide just talks about any challenges and risks to our overall division if there are budget reductions. Of course, it's mitigation services. It is truly seeing a difference. It's less properties that are being cut. It's less properties that are being cleaned. It's less homeless encampments that are being cleaned. So it's a budget that, in the grand scheme of things, is already cut. pretty small related to mitigation, but we are looking for other opportunities for court cases, for MPA processes, for anything that could be appointed or have a receiver appointed. Just again, looking to change behavior without having to exhaust resources frequently with mitigation. Please don't cut my budget. Yes, sir. That's definitely what that interpret is interpreted as.

Thank you, Chairman, for the opportunity. I'll be brief.

So, colleagues, I don't think that we could overstate how important this division is. I know that this was newly set up and Hats off to you, Director Neal, but also Tally White, as I've said many, many times before. But all of your team, Mr. Muhammad, how responsive you've been and the great work that your team has done. Asides from a city having a good, solid police force, fire department, maintaining its infrastructure and paving roads, a lot of their, how successful they can or can't be determines how residents and tourists alike feel about the city. So we need them to be successful. I would like to see, and I know that we're starting out and there'll be some changes and modifications as we go, but I would like for us, and I know money's tight, right? But I would like for us to look at ways to expand this department because of the importance of it. Like I said, just for the way that people feel driving through the city, whether you live here, whether you're a tourist visiting, is keeping our city as blight-free as possible and cleaned up as possible. and the hard work of your team and the responsiveness from when, whether it's a 311 complaint or whether it came from one of us on this body, is much appreciated. And it's appreciated by the residents. Although the residents don't necessarily know you face to name and get the chance to meet you and shake your hands, I can tell you that you make us look really good when we forward a complaint to you and it's handled quickly. And they are very much appreciative of the work that you do. So again, this is a very important division to me. It should be a very important division to all of us. It's a very important part of municipal government. in having a thriving city so that was all i didn't have any changes um accepted to say thank you and i would look to hopefully find ways in the future to increase the budget so that we can enhance this division even more thank you chairman i think councilwoman mature woman is gonna echo something the same since i'm gonna share everybody you got something out of your woman

I agree as well that this budget definitely needs to be increased. I just want to commend you, Director Neal, and your awesome team. You all do a wonderful job. Your response is just fantastic. And I was so excited to see. We asked them to invest in more equipment. She did it. I mean, they had some big old, big old. grass cutting and butchers and all this kind of stuff for the weeding have those for the cut down on the weeds so you won't have to cut as often beautiful first class equipment that we won't have to lease and we won't have to hire additional contractors and it was just awesome to see that investment in equipment but I definitely agree there are certain areas that need to be hit every day The airport, Graceland, Stax, Liberty Park, the zoo area. Those are some areas that we really need to aggressively and intentionally make sure that we're placing people in those areas so they will look good for our city, for our tourists and all of that. So we need to find them some more money in this department. It has to be a focus. I will quote Chief Person. This is a priority.

I will quote Chief Person. The value of opinion is 1.8. Chairman Martavius Jones would say that, you know, you know.

Gotta do what we gotta do.

So a couple, couple cents. Chairman Canale.

I'll let you make that money.

Oh, I'm just, I'm just letting you know it's coming. He's so kind. I'm just letting you know it's coming. Now you have a penny. It's 1.8. Councilwoman Cooper, so you want to take us home?

Praise the Lord, everybody.

Praise the Lord.

Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you for sitting in here for this. Thank you for sitting in here for this. I want to thank this Department, I know it's new, but you all have put forth so much hard work. I can call anytime.

Quick question. Yes, sir. Do you want to close us out? Because for some reason, we forgot Councilwoman Logan.

Oh, where is she?

Councilwoman Logan, my apologies. Apologies.

Yes. Yes. Thank you. I can wait till council on this. Yeah, I'm ready.

She have a lot of.

Okay. Well, I'll go ahead. I have three questions. One question is, well, first of all, I want to say thank you so much for all you do. I appreciate the fact that you all understand how important your department, your division is, and I'm grateful to Mayor Young for creating this division because it is just as important as some of the others. And so one thing that we all know and we all feel is the cry of the community and making certain that things are clean and making certain that every, you know, illegal dumping, every, all the things. However, we do need to help change the behavior. So there are a couple of things that I wanted to know. Does your budget include beautification along with blight mitigation?

We have primarily done beautification around volunteer efforts related to Memphis City Beautiful. So we don't have funds that are specifically earmarked for beautification.

Hey, Councilwoman Logan, you doing something?

Cut something off, please.

Cut something off, please.

We definitely need to know if you don't have beautification in your budget, who does have it in their budget? Because when you clear out blight and you don't replace it with beautification or you don't have an aggressive or structured beautification program or project for your city, it won't happen. And I know Memphis City Beautiful does not really have a budget for... large-scale beautification. I know we're doing some small projects downtown on Main Street, but when it comes to tree trimming, mulching, we're investing in the trees and all these things, but we're not doing what we need to do to maintain them. The next thing is, do you all have a digital way of tracking the projects that you're working on?

We currently do not. We currently do not. We currently do not.

We're always calling. We ask about something, and we'll call and say, well, what's the status of this? And you guys have so many different projects. I was thinking that that may be a lot of support for you and cut down on us contacting you to get follow-up on projects. I know you're just starting out. You don't have a large staff, so that's one of the things I think that would be very helpful. And the next one is, does your budget reflect weekend and evening crews?

We have a second shift for our residential code enforcement team. They work from 7 to 3 on Saturdays, and they work from 10 to 6.30 Tuesday through Friday.

Councilwoman Logan, my apologies. There we go. There we go.

Okay, thank you. Seven to what on the weekend? The reason why I asked is because the need for code enforcement when these parties are going on, the things that are violating code. They kind of happen after hours, like people using their garages for car repair and have six, seven, ten cars parked, you know, changing oil and all that kind of stuff. So I wanted to know if you are increasing your weekend and evening capacity in this budget.

We are not currently proposing an increase with the parties and just the activities that definitely we've seen an increase related to. That is primarily because of the permitting and just because of just the nature of a residential property being utilized for some unpermitted activity. That's actually handled through the Office of DPD, through Shelby County Code Enforcement. If there's any property maintenance issues, those issues fall under City of Memphis code enforcement, but we do partner with DPD on the Shelby County code enforcement side related to those unpermitted activities. With the mechanics and the repair shop, same thing. There may be, again, property maintenance violations that we enforce, but it's also a partnership with Shelby County code enforcement.

Shelby County code enforcement.

Okay. And you know what? I hear you on that one. Y'all all work together so closely. You know, Antoine and all of them. I'm thinking I always put y'all all together. Yeah, we work very closely, yes, ma'am.

We work very closely, yes, ma'am.

And the last question is about Volunteer Odyssey or volunteer groups. I know Volunteer Odyssey, people go and sign up for volunteer projects. that might be something to connect to to get more volunteers for projects that you all have. I thought I heard you say that you lean heavily into volunteers. So I know a lot of people go to Volunteer Odyssey to get, you know, for projects that are going on. So this may be a resource as well. But thank you so much for all you do, for everything that you're bringing to the table to help move the needle in black mitigation and remediation. We appreciate you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Councilwoman Cooper said, you know, I concur with everything that my colleagues have said, and I'm going to turn it over to the sitting chair and this meeting is adjourned.

You did, you did. Well, obviously we've learned something today that this is the favorite division within the city of Memphis. Thank you all so much. Y'all can go home. Wrap up tomorrow. We'll be at 2.30. 2 o'clock.