Remarks by Tom Markert
46 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 2 of 2
- Play at 2:03:46
“Yeah, I'm also in favor of this. The applicant was very remorseful, and, you know, this won't happen again, I'm sure, on her watch, so I'm okay with it.”
City Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 2:54:05
“All right. First of all, Henry, I want to say thank you for all the hard work. I know, having been in the corporate world for a million years, the work that goes into setting these budgets up is monumental, and it's the hardest task, and it's a relief when it's finally over. We're not there yet, clearly, but we're trying to be. Thank you. I was relieved to see that we're not really out of step with the other cities around us. When you do the math the proper way, as you pointed out, I mean, we don't have – A fire assessment at some point, maybe that's something we should be considering. You…”
City Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:50:44
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:51:06
“Because the vendor should pay for it. I mean, where we have vendors, we should be billing them for that.”
City Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:52:02
“But if we could bill out the known overtime amounts. I know there's always unknown overtime amounts. Something goes wrong. Right.”
City Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 4:06:27
“I thought all along the way, I mean, I know we had some records that we lost along the way, okay, long before any of us were here. But it seems to me, and I mentioned this before, the families will have some records themselves. I mean, when my parents died, I've got all their records hidden away somewhere in the garage. But it's there if somebody needs it. And I think if we work with some of these folks, they can provide some of that documentation. And to Angela's point, I think the funeral homes might be another source. There might be some legal requirements to get all that. But if we could…”
City Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 4:11:32
“She said they claim that's what they do now.”
City Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 4:14:31
“Please don't say that. It will cost money, but that water can be directed into the wastewater system. So it can be. It can be fixed. It will cost every business a little bit of money. But the beef that they have is that the grounds, particularly around restaurants, have a lot of grease and a lot of dirt, and it goes into the wastewater system. None of us want that. But I think with a little planning and a little bit of money, you can divert that water in. I've seen it done.”
City Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 4:26:21
“That was number one on my list, too. I totally agree with you. Can we?”
City Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 4:33:39
“Yeah, just real quickly, the number one thing on my agenda tonight was to declare the cemetery historic, so I'm completely in line with you on that, and I think we should do that. That seems very logical, and I've talked to the people that know more about that than I do, and everybody seems... consensus on the e-bike thing I've done some work on that and as part of the Metropolitan Planning Organization I gathered information from other communities and towns and I would like to share that with you guys I've got what I've got Wellington all done yeah”
City Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 4:34:19
“Okay, I'd love to see it. It's not a one-size-fits-all for every community, I'll just tell you that. I'm with you. Wellington isn't really a city like we are. We're a little bit different. They've got horses up there they're worried about. We don't have those. And then there's all this stuff you have to decide, like what are we going to do in parks? Are we going to allow it in parks? And there's all sorts of issues with policing this. I talked to one of your officers yesterday about what they go through when they pull somebody over who's 14 years old on an e-bike and they have to sit there…”
City Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 4:37:00
“Well, you're an operating business. If you show income, you are operating. Right.”
City Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 30:49
“sir can i ask a quick question when you use the the word for attrition am i getting the definition right from my past that's when people leave we don't replace them right away and and and we absorb some savings that way it doesn't mean we're eliminating positions no no no that's correct we're talking about from a budgeting perspective that's what i thought historically yeah”
City Commission · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 44:29
“You're talking over each other truly hard.”
City Commission · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:10:02
“Yeah, you're out. I just want to declare that.”
City Commission · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:10:12
“I'll try to let you sit down, Sam. A couple of things on my end. First of all, I think the cuts that Commissioner Casale outlined are the right ones. I saw many of them myself when I was going through the budget. Those are where we should go. I think the challenge that we have sitting up here, and it was somewhat highlighted earlier, is two-thirds of our budget is police and fire, basically. And those are pretty fixed numbers, so it leaves us with about a third of the pie. That's left. So that's one of the challenge that we have and and I would say looking at the budgets myself they they…”
City Commission · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:39:48
“But those reserves, we can't forget this. Those reserves are not bad things. I'm not saying they're bad. They're throwing off 7%, 8% interest.”
City Commission · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:44:59
“I just have one. I think, and I know this is a workshop, and we're going to come back in a week or so on this. In a week. If there are cuts that we're contemplating, I want to have a reckoning of what those cuts are.”
City Commission · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:45:18
“I know you can only go down to a certain level, but I want to see the cuts that are sawing through the bone. And your department heads are going to know what those are.”
City Commission · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:48:05
“The only other thing I'd throw in is it's okay if we come in under budget, by the way. I always loved that when I was running big companies. We've done that a lot. Just because we've got a budget of X doesn't mean we've got to spend it. Along the way, if we can find savings and throw those as a surplus at the bottom line.”
City Commission · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:48:26
“Henry will start smiling again. No, we've done a good job doing that. We've done that.”
City Commission · Sep 1, 2026