City Council - Regular Meeting

Call to order the city council meeting. Item number one is um A is roll call. Kathy Griffith here. Sid Porter here. Melissa Hunt here. Louie Williams here. Adam Webb here. Rob Clark here. Mark Ham. Item B is a pledge of allegiance. Please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. And you may be seated. Item number two is the consent docket. Make a motion we approve this the consent docket items A through E. Second. Have a motion and a second. Would you call for the vote? Sid Porter, yes. Melissa Hunt, yes. Louie Williams, yes. Adam Webb, yes. Rob Clark, yes. Kathy Griffith, yes. Item carries. Item number three is consider approval of a lot split located in lot 6, block one of the Armstrong addition to Moore, also known as 101 Southeastern, application by 1028 LLC. Mach Sud Chadri,

vice mayor and councel. Um this application is to split off the um gas station, the existing gas station at the corner of East uh Main and Eastern into its own separate lot and the strip center would then be on a different lot. Um the application um uh meets all of the C5 zoning requirements and staff recommends approval. Make a motion to approve. Second. We have a motion, a second. Call for the vote. Melissa Hunt. Yes. Louis Williams. Yes. Adam Webb. Yes. Rob Clark. Yes. Sid Porter. Yes. Kathy Griffith. Yes. Item carries.

Item number four. Consider authorizing the budgeted p purchase of one federal signal 508128 outdoor warning siren and controller with solar powered option pole freight installation from John Goddard Enterprises LLC in the amount of 35,000 25399 utilizing tips contract number 220105. Mayor and Council, this, as the item states, is to authorize the budget purchase of a storm siren, which will end up uh somewhere out on far southeast 19th Street. Uh adding to the protection we have for the Edgewater addition and some of the additions that are going in on the north side there.

This is an addition, not a replacement. It is an addition. Okay. Make a motion to approve. Second. We have a motion and a second. Will you call for the vote? Melissa Hunt, yes. Louie Williams, yes. Adam Webb, yes. Rob Clark, yes. Sid Porter, yes. Kathy Griffith, yes. Item carries. Thank you, Kaylin.

Item number five, consider authorizing the budgeted purchase of a 2026 Bobcat mini track loader for the streets and drainage division from Bobcat of Oklahoma City in the amount of 29,674.60 60 cents using NASPO construction equipment master agreement number OKSW192300. Mayor and council, this is a piece of equipment that we need to continue our construction and maintenance program. It's a new piece of equipment that we need to uh help uh repair some of the sidewalks and it's a mini excavator. It's uh funded uh completely funded in this year's budget and we recommend approval.

This got both the blade and the little front end loader on it or Yes, sir. This is the complete skid steer. All right. Motion to approve. Second. We have a motion, a second. Will you call for the vote? Louie Williams? Yes. Adam Webb? Yes. Rob Clark? Yes. Sid Porter? Yes. Melissa Hunt? Yes. Kathy Griffith.

Yes. Motion carries. Item number six, consider authorizing the budgeted purchase of one asphel asphalt cold planer skid steer attachment 26,950 and one hydraulic hammer attachment 13,000 for the streets and drainage division from CL Boyd John Deere of Oklahoma City and the total amount of 39,950 using source well contract bid 91515 JD number 011723 JDC C

mayor and council. This is these are tools that attach to our current uh John Deere skid steer. They're used to uh plane off some of the asphalts where we have bumps and stuff. And and the other one is for a hydraulic hammer to break up some of the cement and stuff we need to replace. So they're basically just tools fully funded and request approval. Make a motion to approve. Second. We have a motion, a second. Would you call for the vote? Adam Webb? Yes. Rob Clark? Yes. Sid Porter? Yes. Melissa Hunt? Yes. Louis Williams? Yes. Kathy Griffith? Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you.

Item seven, consider approval of application for stop loss insurance with HCC Life Insurance Company to be administered by Assured Benefits Administrators, Inc. Effective January 1st, 2026 through December 31st, 2026.

Vice Mayor and Council, effective January 1st, 2025, the council approved an agreement with Tokyo Marine HCC as our health insurance stop-loss carrier. When we received their renewal and alternative proposals for calendar year 2026, our benefits consultants at Gallagher recommended increasing our specific deductible in order to reduce premium costs and to move us back toward an optimal risk range. Renewing with Tokyo Marine HCC at our current deductible of $135,000 would was, excuse me, would result in a premium increase of 24.76%. Renewing at the higher deductible of $165,000 would instead produce a premium decrease of 6.61%. Based on Gallagher's recommendation, I am requesting your approval of the application for stop-loss insurance renewal with Tokyo Marine HCC with a specific deductible of $165,000. Daniel Summers with Gallagher is here to answer any questions you may have. Staff does recommend approval.

I'll make a motion we approve. Second. We have a motion and a second. We call for the vote. Sid Porter. Yes. Melissa Hunt. Yes. Louis Williams. Yes. Adam Webb. Yes. Rob Clark. Yes. Kathy Griffith. Yes.

Thank you. Uh item eight. Consider approving an agreement with Olsen, Inc. in the amount of 405,000 for professional engineering services for the Northeast 27th Street and Pole Road improvement project. Vice Mayor and Council, this improvement includes signalization at the intersection of Pole Road in Northeast 27th, left turn lanes along Northeast 27th. Uh, and then a full depth reconstruction of Pole Road from Northeast 27th to uh a half a mile north. Um, Olson is doing the design for us uh on the uh 27th Street from I35 to East to Eastern Avenue. So, it just makes sense to have them do the design for this also. And we would recommend approval.

Make a motion to approve. Second. Have a motion and a second. Will you call for the vote? Melissa Hunt? Yes. Lubie Williams? Yes. Adam Webb? Yes. Rob Clark? Yes. Sid Porter? Yes. Kathy Griffin? Yes. Item carries. This time we'll recess the city council meeting and convene a more public works authority meeting. Item nine is the consent docket. Make a motion to approve consent docket A, B, and C. Second. Have a motion and a second. Will you call for the vote? Sid Porter? Yes. Melissa Hunt? Yes. Louie Williams? Yes. Adam Webb? Yes. Rob Clark? Yes. Kathy Griffith?

Yes. Item carries. Item 10, consider awarding bid number 2026004 more WWTP digesttor building removal project to total demolition services in the amount of $424,213 as the lowest most responsive bidder.

Vice Mayor and Council, on January 6, we had a bid opening. We received four bids for the removal of this building structure over our clarifier um digesttors out at the wastewater treatment plant. The bids range from 849,000 as a high to 424,213. Um engineers estimate was 625,000 and uh that's about what the average was of the four bids that we received. And so, uh, we would recommend approval of, uh, of, um, total demolition services to do this, uh, demolition out at the wastewater treatment plant. They do have, uh, quite a bit of experience with, um, removing battle metal buildings at multiple uh, military bases and and I believe they've also their resume showed that they had done a a water tank for the city of Duncan.

Okay. there'll be no interruption of services or anything. Uh we we hope not. That's the intent. Uh uh but we're set up that the way they they do the demolition that uh uh they'll have uh either some netting or something to keep from uh items from falling into the into the units and and uh but you know obviously there's no guarantees but we yeah we believe that that and we're funding this through OWRB. Yes. Okay. Yes. All right. I make a motion we approve. Second. We have a motion and a second. Will you call for the vote, please? Melissa Hunt, yes. Louie Williams, yes. Adam Webb,

yes. Rob Clark, yes. Sid Porter, yes. Kathy Griffith, yes. Item carries. This time we'll recess the more economic public works authority meeting and convene the more risk management meeting. Uh, item 11 is a consent docket. Make a motion to approve the consent docket items A and B. Second. We have a motion, a second. Will you call for the vote? Sid Porter? Yes. Melissa Hunt? Yes. Louis Williams? Yes. Adam Webb? Yes. Rob Clark? Yes. Kathy Griffith? Item carries. Next is recess. Say yes. Yes.

Uh I recess the more risk management meeting and convene the more economic development authority meeting. Item 12 is roll call. Kathy Griffith here. Sid Porter here. Mark Ham. Louisie Williams here. Adam Webb here. Rob Clark here. Melissa Hunt here. Item 13 is a consent docket. Make a motion we approve the consent docket. Item A. Second. Second. A motion and second. We call the vote. Sid Porter. Yes. Mark uh Louie Williams. Yes. Adam Webb. Yes. Rob Clark. Yes. Kathy Griffith. Yes. Melissa Hunt.

Yes. Item carries. We'll now recess the more economic development authority meeting and reconvene the city council meeting. Seeing as everyone is still here, item number 14 is new business. Item A, citizens form for items not on the agenda. Mr. Russell McB, you've got five minutes. Please state your name and your address. Okay, thank you.

Name is Russell McB. I live at 1241 uh Greenley Chase West. Now, you have an addition that's starting north of us and we were concerned about the drainage, but uh I was here this afternoon and Elizabeth Wittman explained quite a bit. We couldn't find out anything on your site. It all said it was pending. So, we couldn't find out anything about the drainage or anything going in to our properties. and we were definitely concerned about it, but she answered about all the questions. So, we'll have to wait and see if it all turns out that way. They're already over there doing the uh they've moved all the trees out and the streets are already lined up and everything, but everything we saw is pending. Nobody had a permit. Nobody had anything. But that being said, well, we'll wait and see. We just wanted you to know we were aware of it. We were concerned about it and we're still concerned about it till it's done, but looks like it's going to be a nice addition. They gave me a plat.

Elizabeth's the right one to talk to. Do I? Yeah, I said Elizabeth is the right one to talk to. She has the answers. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Item B, items from the city council trustees. Anyone?

Item C, items from city trust manager. Vice Mayor and Council. Uh just it was mentioned earlier the OWRB loan was approved today by the OWRB board. So there we'll still need to sign documents and do things like that, but otherwise we will be able to begin to draw down on the loan and work on our repairs at the wastewater treatment plant. I also attended an event last Friday uh at the at the advancement center hosted by the impact for safety town and essentially uh trying to raise money for safety town and appeared of the corporate interests that were there. There was quite a bit of interest in in doing that. So that project seems to be moving along just fine. Our geo bond program has been in existence since 2009. the geo bonds that funded all of our arterial street and drainage projects and geob bonds were also used to construct seven residential streets geo and uh build the station and the animal shelter. So as far as the major infrastructure of the city of Moore, it's been heavily reliant on geo bonds. As we've discussed before, the council set an internal limit of 16.5 mills. The millage rates for the last four years, as has been discussed previously, 15.3 in 2022, 15.45 in 2023, 14.5 in 2024, 14.98 in 2025. All of the bond drawdowns that we've done over the years have been made with

the 16 12 millage cap in mind with the goal of keeping the mill level but also fairly close to the 16 1.5 mills. Now uh the one thing that when we do these estimates the the one wild card in the whole thing is the county assessor and what the assessor is going to the the assessment value that we have for the city of Morris. So that that ultimately impacts what the millage rate is in addition to how much we choose to draw down. So uh because of the values that the assessors come up with, we've ended up with lower millage rates than we might have had otherwise. So we've had this program since 2009. We've passed numerous bond issues since 2009. Many of those bonds have been paid off. other bonds are still uh uh still outstanding. So, we have $54 million in bonds yet to issue for street projects that were passed in 2024. Uh projects on Eastern Avenue, projects on South Broadway, Telephone Road, Northwest 27th and Shields, and some design projects. uh as has been discussed, Telephone Road and Shields uh will be ready to go once uh the utility relocations have been done and and maybe some other things. Some of the other projects are are waiting on the underpass project to get finished before we begin to move on those. So, as you can see on the screen, since the since the goal until just recently has been we've been dependent upon the GO bonds and the amount we've drawn down every year. If we're shifting gears, we're going to

need a transition period. And so, the transition period is going to take a year. So for 2026, based on our projection, our millage rate is going to be 16.4. And then in 2027, it drops to 14.6. 2028, it drops to 12.7. 2029 to 10.6. And to 2030, 8.4. And so I've had conversations with Chris Gander, our financial adviser, about what we think the mill rates would be. And so there we go. All right. So the average growth of our net assessed value in the city from 2001 to 2025, the last 24 years has been 7.52%. In the last four years, 2021 to 2025, it's been 6.96%. So it's been uh within a within a half point there. So it's it's been in pretty much in the same ballpark. So for two for purposes of this graph 2026 to 2030 uh Mr. Gander and I chose to use net assessed value increase of 5.5%. We went with the more conservative uh you know projection uh because you know we want we want to be as transparent as possible and for our residents to know okay this is you know this is what could happen and so if the growth rate for 2026 is 5.5 then we'll end up at the 16.4. If it's more than that, if it's if it hits the historical averages of the last four years or the last 24 years, then

it's going to be less than the 16.4. Now, we have mapped out how we'll issue the bonds to help make this happen. Again, the one wild card is what the county assessor is going to come back with. If the county assessor comes back with the historical averages, then the millage rates will be less than what I've presented in this in this bar graph. If the if it's the 5.5% then it should be pretty much right on the number. So I just wanted to uh point this out to the city council that uh there will be a transition period to because you don't a bond pro bond program that you've had for 17 years. You can't just immediately unwind it. So, uh, the the transition will take about a year and then after that you'll see you'll see the millage rate drop and unless we go out for another geo bond election in the future, which there's not one on the drawing board right now, especially if this sales tax were to pass, then ultimately the millage rate's going to work its way down to zero because without any new bonds to issue on once you get them issued and paid off, uh, the the millage rate will continue to go down. So, you know, any any concerns that, well, it's not going to really go down. Well, the the math indicates otherwise. It it has to. So, I just wanted to bring this uh uh projection to the council's attention. Uh let you look at it and happy to answer any questions. So the current bonds that we have issued thus far, they should pay out over what period of time?

Eight years. Eight years. So all of the uh from the issue date. So our our bond program has uh has historically I think with with one exception that I can think of off the top of my head, which was a shorter period of time, uh we've we've put an eight-year term on all of them. Okay. Okay. And you know, the thinking is we have the ability to pay them off quicker. It would be good to do that. I mean, we could always stretch them out, but there hasn't been a desire uh from the from the council to ever do that. So, eight years is eight years has worked well for us, so we've just stayed with that.

Well, and we we've always tried to adjust based on economy and all that kind of stuff, too. So, it's that's just normal. So, Any other questions?

And just so that my head is straight, our 16.5% cap that we have just randomly set by the board that this is where we want to hold everything at. These are the actual millage rates. The expectation of the actual millage rates. Are we going to pull that 16.5 back to match these as we come down? What's the threshold on the bottom end? Well, zero, right? I mean, if we don't ever pass any more bonds, it would be zero.

Absolutely. But that would not be our agreed upon cap because if we ever have to go back with another bond, then there's immediately going to be millage. So we have to leave some reservation there to be able to at least have that availability to us. The Is that true? Is that a fair statement?

That that's a fair statement. The the informal discussion that we've had in in previous meetings has been uh we we go from 16 to 8. So we uh you save half of the property taxes. So, uh, the the 16 and a half that was not done by any formal resolution or ordinance. It was just the council said don't go about 16.5, you know, and so what's been talked about in these meetings has been uh we will lower it to eight. And so if the you know the the actual number could be a little more, could be a little less, but we've never we haven't had that discussion yet

and we're uh we're a few years away from it. Yeah. And just so that everybody understands because I know we've got some people that are watching the video and everything. Our percentage of this of our overall tax that comes to the city of Moore is a small percentage of the tax as our limits come down. It's not going to make an overwhelming difference in your property taxes each year. So it will make a small amount but not a large amount.

Correct. There are four taxing entities in the in the city of Moore that our property tax goes towards. It's the Moore public schools. It's more Norman Technology. It's Cleveland County. And it's the city of Moore. Of the total millage rate, which is a little over 121, Moore's millage rate of 14.98 represents 12%. And consistently throughout the last several years of the property tax that's paid, 12% of it goes to the city of Moore, 88% goes to other entities. Right. Okay. Just want that out there as often as we can get that out there. So appreciate that. Thank you. That's a good one. Yeah. Any other questions?

All right. I appreciate your time. Thank you. Good job work. Yep. Item number 15 is adjournment. So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. Will you call for the vote? Sid Porter? Yes. Melissa Hunt? Yes. Louie Williams? Yes. Adam Webb? Yes. Rob Clark? Yes. Kathy Griffin? Yes. Motion carries. Meeting is adjourned.