Remarks by Joe M. Summerlin, Jr.
157 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 5 of 7
- Play at 35:32
“Yeah, I guess what I was just trying to get at, and 100% understand all of the variations that... An employee isn't just, I got a paycheck. Yes, it's all the other factors that go in. It's all the other factors that go into it. We need to be aware of that. So many of that, if we want to provide those benefits to our employees, which we do, those are control factors that are out of our hands. And really what I was trying to get to kind of goes back to What is the actual take home for them? Because a lot of people, benefits are benefits. Sometimes they, some people understand the importance of…”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 36:30
“It's a completely different thing. And so my only point, and I don't want to labor it any longer, was just to try to get to, what are our manageable? And are we doing the best program for doing that? And I know that I brought it up as an agenda item, talking about, do we reconsider our process? Do we take a look at our process? Do we need to make some changes? Do we need to modify it? Are we not paying enough? Um, you know, are we not, you know, as we just give someone a, you know, a program to raise and honestly their value is greater than that. We don't want to lose that knowledge or there…”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 37:38
“I was going to allude to that. You're in luck. Yeah. So I know that we're, but I wanted to just talk about it because these are considerations. We can consider the things we can change. Yes. Can't necessarily affect the other items if we want to provide them to our employees.”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 38:24
“Yeah. And the way we have it right now is our taxes is such a high dependency upon them performing terrific.”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 40:04
“That's the landmines right now, in my opinion, for what can come down from the state. We cannot plan that.”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 1:19:21
“I just had a question on, just one curious question. What is that, the capital project that was 299,000?”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 1:20:55
“No, that's 45. The next item you're going to talk about, I just wanted to find it.”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 1:25:11
“I'm trying to find out what you're talking about. Oh, the 52?”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 1:26:35
“Is there one plan to replace the meters?”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 1:26:45
“Yeah, that's what I thought. Those meters are very old. They're getting new meters.”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 1:34:39
“My question is, what does it cost us based on you know, what it has maybe over the last five years, how much have we had to put into the reserve to keep it at that $180,000?”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 1:52:09
“I just, more of, I guess I'm still trying to, I've been through different things of this, and so definitively, depending on who you're talking to, what industry you're talking to, haven't been, haven't done that here in this industry, and so I'm just trying to find out what's this kind of scope, you know, the tangible scope that you can grab onto, say this is, This is the vision of looking at what we want to do for the vision that we see. So there has to be so many different types of tangibles. You know, that's, so I guess I'm looking for the financial goals.”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 2:14:25
“Yeah, I think if you're carrying multiple certifications, we're making our people too marketable.”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 2:15:10
“Do we ever, have we ever, or can we? Honestly, we did this when I was in telecommunications when we put people through certifications that we had them sign a document that they're going to be around for at least a certain amount of time. I didn't know if that's, you know, you can do it or not.”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 2:17:48
“Yeah, you all probably should have already had this person. in place, you know, in reality because of the amount of work that those guys do.”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 2:25:56
“Last year, I don't remember the numbers in front of us, but how far out of the line were we?”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 2:26:13
“And that was from what number? I can pull that. Sorry. I'm going to pull that presentation up.”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 2:27:29
“That's why it's so yeah My I guess my question is And I tried to ask it the other day before But I didn't formalize that my words wouldn't come out of my mouth correctly. Yes You still can't get my last name, correct I But part of me is, now, as far as giving raises and things of that nature and having people reach the next pay level, especially in the police department, and excuse me, but that's, you know, You place your lives in danger every single day. And so I believe that means something, also. And the thing that I was thinking about, though, going back to it, is parity. How much, how…”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 2:32:47
“Yeah, and I and I Goodness, I appreciate one thing, your philosophy approach to how the Shenandoah Police Department should not be reactive, but should be proactive. And I think to have individuals like that, you want them to be of the highest caliber in their So, no, I'm just, you know, I'm just, I guess it's mainly for me, it's how we're evaluating it. You know, I want to make sure that, and I've even expressed this to Sam about, you know, performance-based and certification-based. And, you know, we want the right people.”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 2:33:31
“And the question is, but, I know and understand the necessity for, well, and this goes to, you're picking, your guys go through a probation cycle, so you're able to observe people, you're able to watch them, and you have an understanding expectation. And the thing that you say, if you stay here, here's how we're going to take care of you and your family. Correct. And I appreciate that. And I'm not to... saying and trying to say anything I just people are you know you're just two dollars worth you're worth two dollars an hour more right yeah whatever that's that's not the thing I'm trying to…”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 2:35:10
“Well, I think what I'm saying in performance, and I'm not saying in how many tickets can you write. That's not. So that would be, yeah. That's a word jumble right there.”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 2:36:25
“And I guess that's part of it. You used the term PIP, and I have no clue what that means, but I'm sure it's a performance improvement. And so my thing is there are measurements that we're doing. We're not just saying, I'm bumping you up, period, regardless of how you, I felt you, And a lot of my saying this and bringing this up is for our citizens who are listening. They're not sitting in here and hearing about this. And there's a lot that we're getting here in Shenandoah because we made that adjustment. But I don't want to see... I see these... I don't want us to be almost representing we're…”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 2:40:04
“Yeah. And One of the points that I wanted to make is that I just want to get some warning signs, because we got out of alignment. We just went out of alignment with pay. And then all of a sudden, we have this type of large crevice that we had to cross and build a bridge. And it was a tax increase. And if it makes sense, it makes sense. But I just want to make, internally, we need to have guidelines established like, hey, this is the exact same thing that happened that took us to where we were. non-responsive, if we have to do a parity evaluation every three years or whatever. I mean, if it…”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 2:43:30
“What happened? The nation definitely was an uncontrollable, unforeseen.”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026
- Play at 2:45:35
“The number you're asking for and the number you're just saying, at what stage in the parity plan?”
City Council · Aug 5, 2026