Remarks by John Nustad
70 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 3 of 3
- Play at 41:26
“You have it with the pool, you have it with the recreation centers, you have it with all of it.”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 41:38
“So anyways, that's really the base of it. It is something like that. Is there options in other communities that are doing things like subscriptions or other ways that we can help offset the cost of the program? There's that. I do think there's opportunities for other things. We've talked about Republic. We've talked about all these different things. And so the other part of it is that the you know i think you know mr archer you're doing a great job with the blue crew and the communication i agree it is exhausting to keep always doing that i do think this is something that there's certain…”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 1:09:59
“So I'm glad I didn't have to follow Joe. So, Tamara, I want to say I've heard nothing but raving reviews about your programming and the things that you're doing there. And that's the key thing. And you can look at the chart of the users. I mean, it's a trend line going up. I mean, there's definitely a correlation that's there. And I think we know the cause. So appreciate the stuff that you're doing and continue doing that, please, for us. And I do echo Jody's sentiments on it. When you go in, it doesn't seem like, and you look at the outside and the safety of it, it doesn't seem like we value…”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 1:48:30
“First, wait a minute. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 1:49:38
“So I want to say, first off, I want to just brag real quick. The Visit Longview store, like, if you haven't been there, the selection is amazing, and it's always changing. So you walk in, it's like you're changing. You're going to a new store every time you're going. So it's definitely something. And I try to... I try to walk into somewhere with fresh eyes, because it's hard to look at it when we live here. But I try to see how it would appeal to a tourist. And it's something we can't fully do. But I go to other places and visit their downtowns. And I always go to their visit centers and see…”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 1:51:33
“Yeah, or something else. All right. I believe that was all I had. Thank you. OK, go ahead.”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 2:13:32
“I was just curious, how do you have the ability to determine for the grant?”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 2:13:59
“So one thing on the, I think it's the Texas one, where they require... you to be in the arts cultural district to that be something that would be help promote that or how would that, what's your opinion on that?”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 2:14:38
“Okay, but I think Texas requires that one, that little caveat or two there, but I don't know if that's the case, but I was just curious why they require it.”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 2:14:58
“That's for that purpose? Yes. All right, thank you. That helps. Sure.”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 2:28:13
“So a little different thoughts on this, and this is just my feelings. I know that we have the best staff, period. So for me, like a couple years ago when we did the budget, we did a one-time bonus for pay because the fact that we didn't give raises. So we just went through the process of doing a pay study that we went through, got new peer cities, selected that council we went through, decided where we want to pay, which was in the middle of the peer city group. And this was to bring everybody into a competitive pay environment. So with like the pay increase, let's see, like for the average…”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 2:29:00
“Yeah, the average that we're going to give, $50,000 or less, is going to get a 10% pay raise this year, which is significant. It's bringing them up to being competitive. And so we're already doing this. And so kind of to show the point on this, how many – Under $50,000, you said there was 304 employees. How many under $50,000 will we have after we do this pay raise?”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 2:29:47
“So it's already doing a lot of the heavy lifting, in my opinion. Doing this, it's also, you know, what's different this year from next year? What's different from last year? Things are hard. It's that way. If we're going to do this, I'd rather it be something that's predictable where the employees can have an idea of what they're going to expect every year instead of it being on the whims of council and what sales tax does or doesn't do or wherever we're at. So that way they can plan, they can know what to expect, and they can do better with stability as far as having an idea of where things…”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 2:38:47
“Yes. So I will say, it's based on where you were, based on the study that we did, where you were to market. So those that are getting larger raises or percentage of raises was because they were underpaid more towards market than what their position was. Or if you did not get a raise, then it was to the fact that you were already at market. So as counsel, we did a great job of compensating police and fire in advance of everybody else due to the nature of that. And the competitiveness that was there, the needing to fulfill vacancies, the need for the things that were there, it had a purpose.…”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 2:46:07
“I just have a question on the budget side. This is the you want to do a survey regularly, right? Going forward.”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 2:46:25
“I know you've expressed that, and it helps you with the grants and all the benefits you get from that. And so my question is, are we looking at a way to budget this going forward so you don't have to come to council every time to get a pull from the fund balance to be able to do the survey, or is that not feasible? How is that?”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 2:46:49
“I got them mic'd up right now. I do ask. I will express then for that would be my preference. If anything that we know that's going to be some sort of set ongoing expense that we're going to incur to do the best that we can to budget for that because it's not something that we're going to be unexpected that we're going to need to do for five years from now. So it is my preference in that.”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 2:47:17
“Wherever that time is the budget, I'd rather not pull from the fund balance going forward when we need to do that. Thank you. That's what I wanted to say.”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 2:47:27
“Yeah. Bring it up on the agenda, of course. Appreciate it.”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026
- Play at 2:49:27
“awesome i don't know which one is first also okay my town hall i got the uh this will be my fourth annual town hall and so we're gonna have the district town hall meeting uh 6 p.m thursday october 15th the location is changing so we're going to showcase a very great business that we have in district 4 jack's natural foods cafe and market and so we'll be there for that at 3110 neely way So make sure you go there. Prior before, I was at the Builders Association, so make sure you go to Jack's Natural Foods for this town hall. Looking forward to seeing y'all. Let us know. Want to hear your input…”
City Council · Aug 27, 2026