City Commission - Special Meeting

We got a lot to do.

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to our special commission meeting, August 25th, 2026. The time is now 3.02. Madam Clerk, roll call.

Commissioner Irvin. Here. Vice Mayor Kelly.

Present.

Commissioner Santiago. Here. Mayor Taylor.

Here. As we stand for our Pledge of Allegiance. An invocation on our Pledge of Allegiance.

Precioso Señor Jesucristo y Padre Eterno, te damos la gloria y la honra y te pedimos en esta tarde de hoy que tú pongas las manos sobre cada uno de nosotros en este special commission and meeting. Just bless everybody here in this room today and your beautiful name. Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. 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.

All right, so we're going into public.

Oh, no, I see. It's no rules, you know, to praise in any language.

No. Okay. Public input and those of you that are speaking under public input, we ask that you stay remain to the topics at hand, which is the resolutions on the agenda only. So public input is open. Hearing none, seeing none, public input is closed. All right.

Madam Attorney, item 6-1. A resolution of the City Commission of the City of Opelika, Florida, authorizing the city manager to select and enter into insurance contracts with AvMed, Inc. and MetLife for medical, dental, vision, accidental death and dismemberment, AD&D insurance group plans for city employees, providing for incorporation of recitals, providing for scrivener's errors, providing for an effective date. This is sponsored by the city manager.

All right. Move by Commissioner Santiago. Second. Second by Commissioner Irvin, Madam Manager.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Commission. This is an item to renew our current health, dental, and vision insurance for our employees. And we would like to stay with AvMed for medical and MetLife for dental and vision. The rates did come back extremely high. So the option that we are seeking to go with is the alternate option one at a 13.54% increase. And that will equate to a total amount of $1.7 million. We also have our agent of record here if you have any questions.

Okay. All right. Do we have any questions to the manager on this item? Mr. Mayor. Vice Mayor Kelly. Thank you.

We can get whomever to come up and give us a general synopsis of the impact that this will be on employees in terms of their insurance and all of those impacts.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Good afternoon.

Any specific questions, Mr. I can't hear you. I'm sorry.

Any specific questions?

Yeah. Okay. Well, you want to go that route? Yeah, sure. The health plan has a 13%. assumed 14 increase in health costs etc so what was that attributed to and with the plans what what's the bottom line for employees what's going to cost them more including deductibles well um initially the renewal came in at 34 so i was able to get it down to uh 14 which is a 20 percent hold on a sec can y'all turn this mic up because i can't i can't hear

Well, initially, the initial renewal came in at 34%. So being able to get it down to 14% is a pretty significant lower, knowing that we dropped it 20%. We did have to do an alternate. Now, there are reasons for your specific question of why it happened. I can't state that because of HIPAA laws, but we do have three major cases ongoing that are not closed yet. And as long as those are still open, any carrier is going to have to take a look at it and project for the future. As always, we did go out and we looked at every carrier available. Unfortunately, we had every carrier that's available in Florida decide not to quote or take on the risk of the city of Opelika except for Blue Cross. But Blue Cross did come in uncompetitive. Now, when someone decides not to quote, that means they will not be competitive based upon the renewal that you are currently receiving because they look at your claims, they look at your data, they look at what's going on with medical history. And they said, right now, we do not want to take on that risk. OK, that's as far as I can go as far as without breaking HIPAA. I'll be more than happy to sit and talk with anyone one on one to really dig into the details of it. Now, when it comes to what it will cost employees because of your union contracts, you guys pay 100 percent of your employee only. And I believe you pay 50 percent of your employees. of your dependents. One of the issues that, and you guys have seen me, I've been here for a while and I've spoken with the city manager. One of the things with those contracts, and I don't think it's anything that can be broken, insurance doesn't go down. So every year you're going to receive an increase, whether it be car insurance, health insurance, whatever the case may be. But the fact that you guys pay or required to pay 100%, you guys don't receive any help. You guys can't say, pay me 20 bucks a month, pay me 40 bucks a month to offset any increases. So as long as that happens, that's just going to be an issue with the city. Now, the employee themselves will never feel the burden of it because you're always going to pay 100% of it. But the city will always feel that burden because insurance in our economy right now is definitely not going to be going anywhere for the next couple of years. So beyond that, just beyond that, I can't go into details of why I'll be. I have the claims data in black and white. I'll be more than happy to sit and talk to you one on one with it. I just in a public forum, I can't go into details of exactly why. But the most I can say is we have 100 some odd individuals on the plan and we have three individuals who are the majority of your claim spend and by claim spend mean they're they're a majority of your medical data so we have some insurance is what it is it's for people who get sick unfortunately um there we just have three major cases open right

Okay, I thank you for the answer. I understand the HIPAA law and all that. It's not one of your reverse details. What normally occurs is when we pass this and employees start going to the doctor, taking the kids to the doctor or themselves or to the dentist, they realize that they're copay and all those things are shot up. And they always say they didn't realize it was going to be that high. And I know you all have a period where they go and sign and all of that. So as a part of that, that's why I bring it up now, because I always hear that every year where the copay went up, you know, and they went to go and it used to be $59, $75, $100 or whatever. So how do you communicate to make sure that employees know if that's the case, that it may go up or whatever? Because as you said, insurance just... Goes up anyway.

Well, so this year, as far as your copays of your front, your front facing claims, that's what we deal with every day. No one's copay is going up. Everyone's copay is going to stay the same. Everyone's specialists, primary care, your preventative, all that's going to stay the same. What will change is your deductible will go up. It just has to unless the city wants to take the increase of the. the normal plan now. However, we do have a gap plan that the city has right now. Speak on which deductible that's going to go up. Which one will go up? The deductible on the first plan is going to go up from 3,000 to 5,000. Okay. However, we do have our gap plan that helps cover that. We do have great participation on the gap plan from the city. We have about 80 some odd people who take the gap plan now. So we do have the gap plan that offsets that a little bit. And we are looking at a second gap plan to add a little bit more to it. Now that's a voluntary. The city does not feel that increase because that is a voluntary plan for employees to take. But as far as front-facing co-pay specialists, no employee will see any increases in that.

Okay, so co-pays will not go up, but deductibles possibly, they're going to go up.

Deductible will go up, yes, sir.

Okay, so if I just take my son, my daughter to the dentist, that copay is not going to go up.

Well, that's going to be different. The dentists, all of the ancillaries, the dental, vision, STD, LTD, all of that stayed the same. We will not see an increase there. Okay. When we're talking about the medical insurance, when you go to your primary care or your specialist, right now you're paying $25. With the new plan, they will still pay $25. Right now they pay $50 for the specialist. With the new plan, they will pay $50 for the specialist. Nothing is actually going up when it comes to your front-facing.

Okay. So for the most part, the city's absorbed a lot of costs, particularly because we pay a hundred percent on the employee, but on this, but for the budget purposes, it's a 14.5 increase in health costs.

Yes, sir.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Samir. Thank you.

All right. Any other questions? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Well, um, I tried to understand, you know, the reason why that we're paying so high right now this year. And you mentioned in there that we have three case openings. Okay. And I say, what is the reason that people have insurance, medical insurance and everything? Because we get sick. There's nothing that we can do. And that's the insurance for it. But what I don't understand is why we have to pay after we pay in a lot of money every year for these policies. Then after that, we had three or four cases that insurance had to pay. And after the year passed, you're going to raise my price for the insurance because I already had three cases in the record. And let me tell you this, okay? That's going for housing insurance, medical insurance, and automobile insurance. Thank God that I don't have to go through now because I'm a very old person already. I'm over 65. But let me tell you, man, my fellow employment, they're going to be hurt, okay? Not with the copayment that you're talking about that they're going to stay. The same thing, but when the doctor will come, That's the way that they're going to grab everybody because the deductible is going to be very high. You're never giving to us what is the percentage for the deductible that we have to pay after we go and see the medical, the specialty or whatever. Copayment, that's very important. The deductible.

Well, the reason being when it comes to why is it an increase after you pay? Because so your insurance rates are based upon what they foreshadow, what they believe they're going to pay out in claims. So it's claims versus paid, what you pay to them versus what they pay out. So basically, if you pay them a million dollars and they only pay out five hundred thousand, then they make money. Right. Everybody's happy. However, this year, unfortunately, You guys paid out a certain amount and what they paid back in claims for the medical issues were more than what you paid them. So. Again, I'm not the carrier, right, but it's business like if I pay a certain amount. You know, I'm expecting a certain back. So you pay. They pay more out than you guys pay to them. So therefore, they're foreshadowing what's to come. And they have to protect themselves. Now, you guys do have a stop loss, right, because you're fully insured. So once claims hit a certain amount, it goes to pooling. Right. But it's still kind of it still affects you in a negative way when it when it goes to look at that. But that's how any insurance works. If you get in a car accident and they pay out more in your car than you paid them, your car insurance is going to go up. So I completely understand what you're saying. But when it comes to... Union contracts, claims history, and your monthly loss ratio running higher, meaning you're over 100%, it's going to be a bit of an increase. Now, again, it started at 34. It came down to 14. That's a significant increase from where they were trying to keep us at. And unfortunately, we didn't have competitive data because as you can see here in black and white, the other carriers declined to quote just because they knew they wouldn't be competitive.

That's it. I just have one question. What is the gap? You said what was going up, the deductible that was going up was the gap insurance from $3,000 to $5,000. What is that?

That's the deductible on the medical plan. But we have something that a lot of employees take, roughly 80 employees right now take it. It's called gap insurance. So what your gap insurance does, it covers you for inpatient and outpatient needs. So right now we have $3,000 for inpatient. So God forbid someone's hospitalized, the first $3,000 is covered. Right. So all you. So let's say so on the plan. Right. Your maximum out of pocket is eight thousand dollars. Right. So if you're hospitalized and your medical bill is two million dollars, the most you have to pay is eight thousand. Right. By law, you can't pay any more. The gap insurance will cover the first three thousand of that eight thousand. OK, so now you only have to pay five thousand. Right. So the gap insurance gives a little reprieve there. You also have outpatient. The outpatient is a thousand dollars. So for someone who has to go to the emergency room, go to the urgent care, let's say the emergency room is two hundred dollars. That outpatient gap that we have will pay the first thousand of it. So they go, they give their insurance card, they give their gap card. They don't pay anything. So the first thousand is covered. And on top of that, because they have that gap card, that thousand dollars actually eats into the maximum out of pocket. So even though it didn't come out of the employee's pocket, it still brings that down. So it's a very good tool to have. And if anyone actually has the gap plan and they say, hey, I went to the emergency room or I went to outpatient or urgent care and they forgot to use it, you can contact my office and we can actually help you get that money back.

Okay, thank you. Any other questions?

I just want to commend you. Thank you for getting it down to from 34 to where you got it because that is significant decrease. So I do applaud you for that because it could have been a lot, a lot worse. I'm not happy, but it's better than what it could have been. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. I was going to say what he said, but thank you.

Well, we want to do that because we have to establish a baseline because next year, wherever we go this year, that's where we start next year. So we just want to make sure we establish a baseline.

Thank you. Thank you for fighting for us. Madam Manager, any other questions for the manager? All right, Madam Clerk, we're ready.

Commissioner Irvin. Yes. Vice Mayor Kelly.

Yes.

Commissioner Santiago. Yes. Commissioner Bass. Yes. Mayor Taylor.

Yes.

Motion passes 5-0. All right.

Thank you, sir. All right, moving on to 6-2.

A resolution of the City Commission of the City of Opelika, Florida, authorizing the City Manager to execute a Memorandum of Understanding with 5,000 Role Models of Excellence Project, Inc., attached here to as Exhibit A for the Empowering Opelika Youth Crime Prevention through Community Engagement Initiative, providing for incorporation of recitals, providing for authorization and implementation, providing for scrivener's errors, providing for an effective date. This is sponsored by Mayor Taylor.

Can I get a motion? Move it. Moved by Commissioner Santiago. Second by Vice Mayor Kelly. So simply put, this item came to be with Dr. Bass in her other capacity. She reached out to the 5,000 role models when her students could not afford ties and shirts and pants and belts and shoes and stuff. So she reached out to all of the men here in the city of Opelika, some of us donated, we support it. But then we wanted to take it a little further and see what the government can do in order to help students who were in need get the resources that they need in order to be in the program and also to sustain themselves throughout their daily lives. So they created this plan, but Opelika is standing as the fiscal agent of this so 5 000 role models they're facilitating it we're just in all intensive purposes holding the money so we're standing as a conduit for the 5 000 role models and the fiscal agent so i do want to commend dr bass for this for bringing this for helping spearhead this through her other capacity as a teacher in miami-dade county public school system yeah so that's why you see this here so at this moment i entertain any questions myself or the manager at this moment mr mayor i would like to co-sponsor this um resolution please yes ma'am thank you mr mayor sir what is the other capacity that my commission has as a teacher in miami-dade county public school system

I'm a CLS.

Okay, thank you. That's how this came to be years ago. Years in the making.

Yes, I think all of us probably want to co-sponsor. Thank you for taking the lead on it, Dr. Bass, as well. The question I have is we're going to be the fiscal agent. I know that the role model is going to do the day-to-day management. So, Madam Manager, from your standpoint, I know you probably met with the mayor on it, but how are we going to do that? How does it fit in with whatever? Who's going to be assigned? Because it's quite a bit of... We want to make sure we get it right because it's a federal type of thing or the funding, I'm assuming, so congressional. So how are we handling that or how are we going to set up to handle that?

So we are still in the planning stages, but being that it is a large amount of money, our ask is to hire someone to facilitate the distribution of these funds and to run the entire program to utilize these funds.

Okay, maybe I misunderstood. I thought the mayor just said that the... responsibility for day-to-day and implementation is really going to be the role model. I mean, the 5,000 role models, correct?

Yeah, but I can explain that part. But we don't want to take away from our day-to-day to do this. So they're going to assign somebody through this program to run this program.

Yes, that's the intent. Our staff will not be actually running it. We'll have someone else actually run it to make sure all the documentation is proper. Everything is lined up because if not, we'll be taken away from one of our employees to be able to do this.

Okay. I got the responsibility day to day. I see that here. They're going to be doing that, but from the fiscal agent, because that's where the money and reporting side comes. So your intent is to hire someone to do that? Yes. Okay. Okay, would that come out at a million? Yes. That's coming out at a million? Yes. So that's going to just go through the, what, regular process of advertising for somebody to come in, or are there folks that do this already that are just going to advertise it?

The intent is, well, we're still in the very beginning, preliminary phase of it, but the intent is to hire someone with some experience who has already ran a program of this magnitude. Consultant. Yeah, consultant. Consultant. Exactly. Consultant. Consultant. Okay.

Okay. I'm only asking, you know, anytime I see federal dollars and things, I think of time constraints or timelines. So that's why I'm asking the question, if it's going to be on us to make sure reports or something is done. And I know, but if you're going to hire someone and that's going to be their own, their primary role of doing that. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Samira.

I mean, you had the exact same concerns because I told Madam Manager, it's a lot of money and it's very rare that a program would ask another municipality to stand as a fiscal agent. And I just didn't want to, in all intents and purposes, mess up.

Well, I'm saying the same thing because, you know, when you talk about federal stuff and somebody who knows about it, that could just that's their focus. And check off all the boxes. Yes.

That'd be their main focus because just like the mayor said, we'll be a consultant.

Okay. So that's all that they'll be hired to do. Okay. And you just said you're in the initial stages. So I'm assuming you already have timelines.

Yes, sir. It's in the packet.

Yeah.

Well, I just got the packet. I just got the packet. We just have to acknowledge the drawdown. If the commissioner accepts it, then we're going to move forward.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

All right. Madam, Madam. Clerk, oh, I'm sorry, any other questions? No, next question. Madam Clerk, so this is everybody's sponsor. If you can make the edit, co-sponsoring it, and then we can go ahead and call the question.

Vice Mayor Kelly?

Yes.

Commissioner Santiago? Yes. Commissioner Bass? Yes. Commissioner Irvin? Yes. Mayor Taylor? Yes. Motion passes 5-0.

All right, moving on to the third item, 6-3.

A resolution of the City Commission of the City of Opelika, Florida, amending resolution number 26-035 to include donated benches from the many community libraries at Sherburne Park, Ingram Park, Magnolia North Park, and Segal Park, providing for incorporation of recitals, providing for authorization and implementation, providing for continued effect, providing for scrivener's errors, providing for an effective date. This is sponsored by Commissioner Bass.

Can I get a motion? Move it. Moved by Commissioner Santiago. Second. Second by Commissioner Irvin. Dr. Bass.

Thank you. The resolution is plain and simple. Everyone know that we installed the many libraries and looking at our parks, I noticed that we don't have enough benches or benches in the parks. So I have an opportunity to receive benches and install without cost to the city. So I just wanted to make an amendment to the resolution so we can move forward with that.

Okay. Any questions for the sponsor? All right, Dr. Bass, I have one question. So the benches that you're ordering, are they attached to the mini libraries or just benches around the park? That's what I was confused about.

Around more so the libraries.

So just one bench per...

Not necessarily. We're going to get there on the amount of benches. Then we'll decide that way. Do you have a suggestion? No, no, no. Okay.

The benches that are coming in, is it in concert with what's already there? Because we have a certain style of bench.

That's a good conversation. Go ahead.

Oh, no.

No, because I honestly, I didn't think about that. I just was thinking ventures, not the design, what it looks like. So this is important. So we can. No, I'm not majoring in the minor. No, but it's okay.

But I just want to, if we're going to get this, if it's going to be scattered out and make sure that it's, or is it just next to the library, but.

That was my vision next to it, but maybe it should be spread out maybe close to a tree or something that's shaded if we have.

They're going to pay for it. We put a strategic place in that.

That was a question I had because actually in doing Feeding South Florida, they actually looked like putting some of the old benches back in the And I was saying to myself, we need some new benches. So when I saw this, I was like, this is a great opportunity with some benches. The other question is because I noticed where the one is at Segal, where it's placed, kind of near the walking thing. So I'm trying to understand. So you just, I think, clarified. You're not sure exactly yet where they're going to put them or how many it's going to be. Right. because that was another concern where they dug and whatever. And I know they put piping down for sprinkler systems or something in some of those areas.

So I wouldn't want to bench where people sit and read.

And I'm just referring really specifically now to Segal, but I'm quite sure we got sprinklers in some of the other areas of the park as you progress it. But hopefully they will have some kind of, Uniformity. I know, like I said, the ones that they put back at Segal look like me need to be painted or touched up anyway. So as you, I guess, work with the manager, y'all can get that together. But don't put them somewhere people are going to get wet up while they're reading.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. All right. And if any other questions or concerns, I do want to say, Dr. Bass, this initiative is great, encouraging literacy throughout our community. I commend you for what you are doing. And please come get them books out of my office. We got like three boxes. You can have them from the books and burgers event that we had. So no other questions are concerned. Madam Clerk, we can go ahead and call the question.

Commissioner Santiago?

Yes.

Commissioner Bass? Yes. Commissioner Urban? Yes. Vice Mayor Kelly?

Yes.

Mayor Taylor? Yes. Motion passes 5-0. All right.

And the last item for the day, item 6-4.

A resolution of the City Commission of the City of Opelika, Florida, approving a budget transfer in the amount of $12,000 from the non- the non-department non-contracted services budget line to the special events budget line to provide funding for the city's Labor Day celebration, providing for implementation and providing for an effective date. This is sponsored by Commissioner Santiago.

All right, can I get a motion? Move it. Moved by Commissioner Santiago. Second. Second by Commissioner Urban. Commission?

Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor and Mike Kelly. Very simple resolution too. I don't ask him for, you know, to go to Tallahassee and ask him for more fundings or something similar, the morning is there, it's morning that Ibis left for the budget that we have for our beautiful and wonderful newspaper, the thank God that we have it out. And I like to use the rest of the morning to that event that we're gonna have the whole city, the whole commissioner chamber for the Labor Day here in Opa-locka. That money is going to be used for covering up many things that we have, and that including the people that work for the city of Opa-locka, the people, okay, they're working for parking, recreation, public works that day. Let's remember that Labor Day Monday is a day, it's a holiday. The unemployment, they're not supposed to even be out there, but whatever, well, we're going to ask them, and they're going to get... If I can use the words by the manager, they have to be, you know, paid extra for that day. Time and a half. Yes, time and a half. And for my colleague to let you know, simple, okay, I need help, okay, to cover out this employment that's going to be there and the expenses that we have for our own celebration that we have, the 7th, the Labor Day, it's not going to be used for something else. It's for the... Event. Thank you. All right.

Any questions to commercial Santiago?

I do. I need a little thank you. A little bit of clarification. Um, I know it's time and a half is. The time and a half is coming from this 12,000 or Simon happens coming from the city's budget.

It would have to come from the line, the special events line item. Okay. I just wanted to make sure, um, normally. The city has not been applying staff time to special events, but this is a holiday. And I think that's one of the concerns that Commissioner Santiago had when I met with him, that since it is a holiday, the city will be closed and we'll have to pay the staff more to be able to come out. He can share, he can add to that, but I know that was one of the concerns that he had when I spoke to him.

Okay, I just want to make sure that we wouldn't incur more fees to the city in order to make this happen in addition to the 12,000.

Do you want me to answer that one? Yeah. Well, this is the reason why Commissioner that I asking, you know, Mike Calley to keep in mind that, yes, that's the money that we're going to use to cover all that to not add it to our budget. If the money is already there, it's already there. And The budget that we have is going to be limited. We're going to use whatever we have. We're not going to be over that amount of money that we already have in place. I think if something happened today, okay, we're going to have enough money to cover it out while we have to cover it out for the city.

I'm sorry. And that would include all of the activities and the fees? Yes.

What kind of fees are you talking about?

Well, when I say fees, the payments. The overtime. The overtime, yeah. Yeah, okay. Overtime, food, everything, $12,000.

Well, not a part of it, you know, the food, because we're going to have people that they're going to be vendors. That's what we're looking for, okay? That they're going to be vendors. The only thing that we're going to provide that they... is like the entertainments, like for the kids, you know, the bound houses, music. I think I included, you know, probably the young canoes and all that. Okay, it's going to be part of the budget that we have. Out of the $12,000, if this is passed, okay, we have also a budget for that, for $3,000. It's going to mean we're going to have enough money. to cover up everything.

Okay, so... How are you? No, I'm...

Yeah, let me go ahead and I went back to look at the YouTube minutes from the last meeting because when I saw this was coming up, I was trying to figure out why I came back because it was clear that it was going to be funded from outside. Now it's coming back. So Madam Manager, number one, tell me how much it's going to cost for staffing for that day. What is the cost? Do you have that exact cost for police?

I do not have that exact cost right now. We did have a meeting, initial meeting on last week. The chief did send out an email to her staff to see how many reserve officers we can get. And depending on that, then we'll know how many regular officers we would need. And then public works and parks, they're providing the number of staff that will also be assisting so we can have a dollar amount.

Okay. Secondly, And to my colleague, I'm always appreciative of doing things in the community, but I have a challenge with this because two things. This is one of those that's what I call commission-oriented because it's one of the major ones. I challenge to see, and that's why I'm asking the question, when I looked at the flyer, it said it's going from 22nd Avenue all the way down to 17th, which is the whole... street, the whole area. And so my question became not just staff or police, but I'm thinking safety, I'm thinking, what do you call those things, porta-potties, I'm thinking all those things. That's a lot of area to cover, blocking our streets and the like. And so all those things, went into my thinking as to how this is going to work, plus you're having a car show to go with it. So I couldn't even grasp how it would lay out. And considering we had 3,000 budgeted, and now we want to add 12,000 more to it, and we don't really know the exact amount that it's going to cost for staffing, Like the idea that I heard from the previous meeting that the mayor mentioned about helping out with half of it. But just because we have money somewhere doesn't mean we should necessarily spend it. Because there's always gaps somewhere in the budget that need to be filled. And those dollars could be used for that. I'm still amenable with the manager and an idea of half of that. I could be supportive, but I can't support the whole 12,000 for this because I think it's still too many gaps in it. Unknown of how it's going to work. And I really wish that we had had more clarity on it, because when these kind of things go out, it goes out really as the commission, not just one individual. And we all want to be supportive of things, whatever it may be. but I don't even have firm numbers to know. So I'm very reluctant. And again, I say this for all things, not just this, just because something may have funding left doesn't mean we need to spend it because there's always budgetary gaps somewhere where the manager's office has to spend more on something that they didn't think was going to happen that's going to come out of general fund. Is that a fair statement, Madam Manager?

Yes, we always do that during the budget amendment process.

Okay. All right. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Mr. Mayor, yeah, I understand the concern of Mike Calley, and the first time when you started your statement, you bring up, like, in the last commission meeting, I believe, okay, I mentioned in the We're going to have, you know, some help from outside. And, yes, it can be true that we're going to have, you know, some help, you know, helping, you know, from outside. And it's going to be added to that budget. What we try to do exactly is to make the event, okay, the shorter we can and the more – savings, okay, money for that budget. And it's not going to be closed from 22nd all the way down to 17th Avenue because I don't think 17th Avenue is going all the way out to the end by this door. They're calling Louis, Louis, Louis. You're a grocery store? No. We already be planning in my last meeting when they start for the city. Now we're going to close, you know, the section where the building, the city building is. What do we call in the building? I'm sorry. Well, the cultural arts. The cultural arts. Yeah. From there. And we're going to use like some field there to keep the children safe. Okay, not have it in the street. And probably isn't going to be all the way down to, you know, to the other side of the store. And the only reason that I want to add to that, I know that we have a lot of things to do, but in the past, I'm wanting to be putting there in the budget for something that we already, you know, putting out in the street. and it's not me that I asking for more money or I want to spend the whole thing. I hope that with the $15,000, if we have it, we can only use $8,000, $9,000, $10,000, and the rest is going to stay in the budget of the city. But it's not my intention to make something big and spend a lot of money and bring some kind of expense to the general funding. Thank you.

Okay. Mr. Mayor, and this is the last I'll say on this. I always look at documentation clarity. So, Madam Manager, you're saying culture arts. I'm looking at the flyer that says Alabama from 22nd down to Lowe's, which is 1731 Alabama. So tell me, which is it? the sponsor will have to provide. Okay. Well, the sponsor can ask because y'all get you, I'm hearing different things, but I'm looking at the flyer that exists. And that's to me is a long route that we're cutting off. Number one. And I don't, I don't know what's entailed in it in terms of, because I know you got cars and I know we've had them at the park. You got to have space just for them. And however, but I'm just going by what I'm seeing on the document. I just wanted to be clear, but I have no other questions or anything. Thanks mayor. Okay.

All right. Any other questions? Okay.

You want me to answer?

You want to answer? No, no, it's okay. No, no, it's fine.

what I tried to tell my colleague, you're right, whatever is there in the flyer, like I said, we had a meeting last week, I believe last week, and then we decided to cut the space and make it smaller to have more safety and less people working, especially the police. that's what we try. But if we have to fix something to my Cali and the flyer we're doing, it's not a problem.

Mr. Mayor, I have a quick question to the sponsor. Question, how do we come across the amount of $12,000? How did you come up? We don't know what it's going to cost for staff and stuff. How do we come up with the amount of $12,000 that you wanted to get?

Well, okay, did I understand what you, you want me to tell you how that amount of money came to the table? Yeah. Okay. Well, when we're talking, you know, with the manager and the staff, I think the police department and the planning event and the thing that we're planning to have, We covered out whatever we have with the $3,000 that we have. We're going to need extra money to cover out the time and a half or whatever the employment for the city need. Because remember that Monday is a holiday, national holiday. And that's what we figured out, what we tried to do. to see, yeah, the amount that we're going to spend with them. But, yes, remember that we're going to have also probably, you know, money coming from outside that is going to be added to the budget that we have. Yeah.

I think I can answer the question, if you don't mind. Yes. The $12,000 came up because that was the remaining balance left from the newspaper.

Okay.

Thank you. Commissioner, I mentioned it twice tonight. I mentioned it twice. What is the morning conference meeting? I don't asking for money that we don't have. Is money already there? Thank you.

All right. Was all questions answered? Initially, y'all know how I felt about this. But I spoke to the manager and she said it was for the payroll. Not payroll, overtime. Overtime. Because my concern was, it was a holiday. $12,000, is this going to be enough? Because I don't want you to have to come back for more. So if this is the ceiling... For overtime? And I think Commissioner Hess brought that up as well. I don't know. But then this needs to be the ceiling.

I don't know because that dollar amount has not been calculated yet. We still have to wait for the police to let us know how many bodies we would need to be able to provide that amount.

So there's a possibility there will be more. Even if we didn't pass it tonight, we still got to pass it.

The idea would be to keep it under this amount. Yeah, Mr. Mayor.

That would be the ideal, to keep it under. I'm sorry, Madam Manager. I know also you're concerned. But are we going to try the best? If we have to cut the time, okay, for the event, we're going to do it. If we have to, you know, reduce anything, I don't want to be over it. over that $12,000. We already had $3,000 that we're using for renting what we need, okay? The rest of the money, we're gonna try to stretch it, okay, to cover up whatever the city need. If it's something coming out from outside, it's something different, but we can use that too for that. But I'm not gonna go over OK, you know, for an amount of money that is going to be crazy. I know that I'm going to have a lot of, you know, donations, you know, for people like the car show. I have a bad news for the person who is in charge. Nobody can be out there because they all are busy that day. But I have some people from the city. They live here in the city that they have anti-cars that they're going to bring in. Free, with no cost.

Okay. Madam Manager, we can, Vice Mayor.

Yeah, let me just add this one point. I'm just going to say this, and I know it's not going to be popular. I think it's very challenging where we are. If we're going to start this, this is going to open up a Pandora's box where we're all going to be looking for money that's left from somewhere else to fund other projects. I'm just staying out on the record. I realize it's, you know, the dynamics of supportive, and I'm going to show up, but I'm not going to support it tonight because I think we're setting a bad precedent where we're going and finding dollars left from something, with this case, the newspaper, and we're automatically spending it. So that will have all of us going looking for, is this the dollar I'm sending to you? This money is left from this, from that, that. I want to now use it for something. And I think what we got to really do is look at what we're budgeting anyway for the amounts, whatever they may be. We set this at $3,000 for a reason because we're trying to get a cap on some of our things. I listened to that also at the last workshop of trying to get numbers down. This is my colleagues. I'll cut this. We'll cut that. So I want to just put that on the record because I think that's challenging since where we are financially. But we can vote.

We on the same page because I told the manager the same thing. Just because we have it, we don't need to spend it. But I understand it's overtime. But I want to make sure that if this does pass tonight, that that is the ceiling. Like we're going to have to budget this, that it doesn't go over the requested amount. And I know overtime is going to be a big deal because we have holiday events. So if this is to make sure that it stays, just because we have it, we don't need to always spend it.

I agree.

Note it. Mr. Mayor, if I may, to the sponsor, I think it's scheduled for 12 to 6, I believe. It's just a suggestion. If you're going to make an adjustment to the flyer, you might want to say, Two to six? Maybe that way we would cut it down to make sure that we don't go over the 12,000 and still have a nice time.

Yep. One to six? Okay.

Okay.

What is that? A list in one to six? Yeah, okay, to one to six. So, yeah, okay. That's what we're talking about, that we can make some changes, okay, to make the event, you know, to be sure. But for the record, too, I don't really, you know, look... for anything that is going to create in any situation or problem, you know, to our budget in the city. I'm very concerned about that. The only thing is, yes, I need a little help for my event or for our event because it's all the commissioners and everybody. And I think when we're talking about money, okay, this is nothing comparable for, you know, things that we are spending in the past, okay? And the money is there. because the money is left, I know, it's there, but I don't try to, you know, to use it for something or to spend it here in the city for my employment.

Got it.

Thank you.

Now, I got to have a petty moment. I'm sorry. And since you are going to change the flyer, can I put my picture on the flyer?

Yes, why not? Yeah, I can put everybody's picture there because it's our event. No, no, no, let me say that. Whatever event that we do here in Oaxaca,

Let's move on.

The first name, the first title that appear that is mayor, the mayor and commissioner.

But the mayor got a picture too, but never mind. You can bring your time through that. Go ahead.

Commissioner Bass? Yes. Commissioner Irvin? Yes. Vice Mayor Kelly? No. Commissioner Santiago?

Yes.

Mayor Taylor?

Yes. Motion passes 4-1. All right, we're getting ready to go, but I do want to make this quick announcement. I know the attorney's going to kill me because we're supposed to stay germane to the topics, but the Opelika newspaper is out and we rolled it out. Thank you, Commissioner Santiago. I believe it was last week. No, a week before that? Two weeks. Oh, so those of you that have not gotten your copy of this beautiful Opelika newsletter newspaper, please seek any member of this commission or come to, that's how they say it in church.

Yeah, and Mr. Mayor, I read it.

It's actually really good.

And I heard a lot of good comments, okay, for the resident and the people for the businesses about the newspaper. They say that, thank God, that we have back something that we haven't before.

And the only thing I will say, Madam, I do want to take a picture with the newspaper afterwards, but I do want to, Madam Manager, maybe add something about the business community, what we have here to advertise.

We will, but that was the first edition.

All right, so I'm good. Thank you, Commissioner Santiago.

Since you brought it up, I want to also commend staff on the great job that they did on the paper. I've been giving it out to residents and they've been accepting. So it's very nice. You did a great job.

Even though one of these pictures made me look really fat, but that's another story for another day.

The truth be the truth.

Everybody can't walk like you do now. Here we have a motion to adjourn.

Second.

Moved by Commissioner Ted DiAgo, seconded by Vice Mayor Kelly. This meeting is adjourned.