City Council - Regular Meeting

Have your attention, please. It is now 5 15 in time for our July 21st 2026 work sections are called come to order. Have your attention, please. I see. And tonight we're pleased to have. members from the east alabama conflict resolution and violence prevention initiative to kind of bring us up to stuff on where we are with this initiative we all realize the importance of it and we're looking forward to hear what you have to give us at this time the floor is yours good afternoon hello

Mayor and Council, I'm State Representative Jeremy Gray, as you know me. The last year around this time, we had a shooting that ended up in a murder. And in this same room, we met with stakeholders all across Opelika, Lee County, around what we could do to decrease violence in the city of Opelika, but Arbor, as well as Lee County. And so since that time, we've created the East Alabama conflict resolution about prevention initiative. We he so far three different counties we started in Lee County in opelika we made our way to macon county as well as russell county as well and as of lately paula wilson who's with me she's also been to chambers county as well so we're looking at east alabama region and when we first created this proposal you see places like montgomery birmingham mobile they spend a lot of money on public safety i mean because they are big city with 300 000 200 000 people and that is something that from a budgetary standpoint they really care about right when we talk about places like opelika arbor and lee county russell county these are small municipalities and so where these are priorities sometimes from a vegetarian standpoint they can't be there are other things that have to happen In the city. And so when I looked at it and talk to Paula, I thought more of a reasonable approach across multi jurisdictions will work because it would encompass the same kind of population of Montgomery, Birmingham and Mobile, and it would allow me as a lawmaker to kind of request funding and start having a conversation. And so when we looked at conflict resolution, everyone thought they needed. Right. We understand that not just even for like school age kids. Some people even talk about how even adults need it. Right. And so we looked at some data from Macon County and I think we just kind of got it from this area as well. But we do see where there's pockets of violence and it moves from city to city. county to county and we know that if we start off with at least conflict resolution whether it be in community organizations or schools that it can decrease retaliation 30 to 60 percent and so when we talk about our coordinators we have dr paula wilson we have mr niece we have anisha aisha connelly and leticia smith and that makes up kind of like this consortium and when we think about The goal of what we're trying to accomplish, if you look in your packet, you see on the second page is talks about the need. Why do we need this? Right. I talked about the crossover of violence that happens in rural rural communities that these is this is like violence that travels. Sometimes people are here from Union Springs. Sometimes they hear from Tuskegee. And so how do you keep up with that? And then we talked about the approach when we talked about the multi jurisdiction between Arbor and Opelika, Phoenix City, Tuskegee, Lynette, Lee County, Russell County. And then we talked about the partnership. And when we had our meetings, it was community partners. It was the Boys and Girls Club. It was the city of Tuskegee. It was different organizations that wanted to pour into this. So this is how we started it off. And then just like I said, from studies, we can say that 30 to 60 percent of retaliation were reduced based off that. And then the goal is really to have this to be community-led, not me leading it, not necessarily law enforcement leading it. They're working in partnership to help the community as far as them being trained in mediation, being able to deescalate situations in the community before they get to the point of violence or shooting. Or if there's something that happens, they're able to point it out really quickly and notify law enforcement. And so this is a kind of partnership between community and law enforcement, understanding that in order to gain trust in the community, it has to be led by the people on the ground. and law enforcement has to work with us to actually make that happen as well. And so as we took a year, so it took us a year, we went to different places to kind of talk about this conflict resolution as well as this violent prevention. So when we talk about a conflict resolution, this is more of curriculum based. This is more of teaching social emotional intelligence, de-escalation, mediation, mindfulness, and all those things. And so that's what we're gonna talk about today. But the other part, of that is a strict team, where ideally our goal at some point is to have a multi-jurisdiction of a strict team where citizens that are trained in de-escalation are in these pockets of the community And they are kind of be employed to actually do the job. So making sure the community is good, making sure that we're aware of everything that's going on and we'll be able to track the data and all those things. That's a lofty goal right now. We're going to talk about the echo curriculum. And so me and Paula were looking at different curriculums that we can deploy in communities where, you know, the average person can be trained as part of organization. And they could implement this program. It was just tough to kind of find something that we liked. And then Paula finally found ECHO. It's Every Choice Has Opportunity. It's based out of the University of Chicago. It's catered with decision-making curriculum for ages 13 to 21. And the reason that we liked it originally is because it is accredited. It is accredited by professors who really understand the dynamic of what they're doing, but it was free, right? The actual curriculum was free. Anybody could access it online. And so we had a conversation with Christopher and we talked about what this would look like in East Alabama. And so, of course, because the curriculum is free, that doesn't mean the training is free. And so one thing that I kind of had the forward thinking of being proactive. When I got my community service money, I just put like $17,000 to $18,000 aside in a community fund to look at this particular program. And so this ECHO program that we're trying to implement sometime in August or September, we're not sure, is going to be able to cover at least 50 people or more throughout the region. And so it'll be a two-day program, I think about five hours. It'll cover different topics. And at the end of the two day course, everybody will get a certificate to be certified and complete resolution mediation. And so that's going to be covered. We got a quote for fifteen thousand dollars. I already had gave eighteen thousand dollars. So that is covered on my part. Right. And so when we when we look at it from an approach of like, where do we go from here? Right. at some point we want to have not only just community buy-in we also want to have municipal buy-in from cities from counties and so if you look at that back page where it's a request from city council and mayor i know it's a big list of things and it's you know sometimes you got to kind of shoot for the moon and see where it lands but one thing we want to do We want to at least choose one member to be a part of the consortium. And that just is just like our group of people that come together and meet. And we would like to have some kind of stakeholder or skin in the game from the city council to have a member on that. And we also want you to look at like supporting things like providing data. Data is important because without it, how do we know that things are getting better? How do we know that kids are graduating at a higher rate? How do we know that violence is decreasing? And so some of that we're going to need some data. She was more than happy to provide us with some some data around heat maps and things of that nature. But we're also looking at maybe looking at city data and looking at disciplinary data when it when it deals with school. Right. How many kids are going to out of school suspension and what does that look like when we implement this program? All of those all of those things help ecosystem because without the data it doesn't really matter right without the data can get funding without the data it's just you're kind of shooting blind right, and so we kind of need that as well, and as we. um look forward to introducing this we really want to look at how do we come up with a plan and funds to implement this regional program this kind of street team and so this is something we're we're not asking today what we're asking from a long-term partnership as we start planning this out and looking at implementation across multiple jurisdictions can we bring you out to the table to kind of talk about what that looks like from a funding standpoint if every city gave a favorite county gave that's something we're looking at and other than that we we want you to consider kind of just joining the regional program we have a newsletter that goes out you can follow us on facebook and if i miss anything i'm pretty sure paula will let me know but for the most part the the dots of what we're requesting is on the page on the back page but that's kind of where we started, where we are now, and where we want to be in the future. And we see that when this is implemented correctly, you do see graduation rates go up and you do see ballots go down. Thank you. Any questions?

Jeremy, have you all spoken with Dr. Davis in the school system yet?

We haven't spoken to the school yet. We started off the first data that we got was from making counter, right? I think. And then we talked to chief about getting some things. And so the next thing we looked at, we do need to talk to the superintendent to see what that looks like. We're kind of in the early stages of like asking for the data, but we had to because It was such appetite for the curriculum and the mediation and the training. We had to kind of figure out how we got there first because we didn't want people to go out trying to implement on this on their own. And it doesn't work if you don't. If it's not cohesive, everybody has the same kind of curriculum. And so this is something that we worked on first. But we do plan on talking to every school system, every county, every city to try to get this data.

Well, I can tell you that. From the mayor's office, you got our support.

Thank you. I appreciate that.

Amen. Jeremy, this is pretty comprehensive, so I appreciate this and I appreciate all the work you've been doing on this. Is there a similar program that's out there or is this something that we're trying to create here and expand outwards?

Yes. So. In schools in general, we just passed a bill this year. So you didn't have unless your school was funding it. We didn't have complete resolution in the schools. We Senator Smitherman, he just passed that bill this year. And I can tell you is an unfunded mandate. So I don't know what this is going to look like, who's going to teach the course. And so what I want to do is kind of start this pilot program in East Alabama because it looks different in Birmingham or Montgomery or Mobile. and see if this pilot program can be something that I take to the state education and say, we need to implement this because we've been doing it in East Alabama and it's been working. And so we don't have a robust plan throughout the state. That is something that we're looking at, but we're just at the early stages of it. So we would be like the model for like rural, urban, suburban Alabama. Absolutely.

Appreciate it. Yeah, I really do appreciate your work. Um, the data that you need, is it, do you have a, do you have a pretty good idea of what the data set needs to look like? So if you go to a school, you, you, you know, the, yeah, how it's all laid out disciplinary, right?

Like whether that's, uh, fights, whether that's acts of violence, whether that's. in-school suspension, whether that's them going three days and get suspended, or who's going to the OLC. We need to look at that, because what that does is when we implement the program, we can say, well, we started here. This many people, this many kids was in OLC. This many kids was suspended this year. This many kids was in ISS. And we're able to track that. And if we're able to track it, we'll say, hey, well, The suspension decreased 30%. The kids going to OLC decreased 50%. Without that, we don't actually know that it's working. So we will need to look at things like that.

Sure. But the data sets are coming from schools, from, I guess, the police. What are the data sources? Is it just police?

It could be with us. I think it would just be. It'd be the two main one, because with with the police, you're looking at like the hot spots, right, of violence, looking at where you'll see that you'll get a heat map and like, you know, you have crime here, you have crime here, pockets or whatever. And you'll see over time as this is implemented, not necessarily conflict resolution, but it helps. But when you get to the, you know, the street team and things of that nature, you're able to target. And when you deploy those three teams members out, they know where to go. And a lot of times, they're actually in those areas. So they'll kind of know the news. It's one thing of knowing the news, but how do you then implement something to curb it? There's something that's about to happen. We don't have that. We don't have people that they're trained in social media and videotaping, but not necessarily in de-escalating the situation and making sure that they're calling the authority and things of that nature. So that's kind of what we're We're looking at if you look at models all over the state, Montgomery does it. Well, Birmingham has does it does it very well because we see that they decrease violence a ton in Birmingham. I think at one point it was in like triple digits of murder. And now they're, you know, maybe 50 murders or 30. I mean, any murder is a murder. But when you're looking at hundreds and a few, then it's a difference.

And are you done?

I think she was going to say something.

I was just going to add. I was just talking to Chief Clifton about this. The cognitive behavioral intervention approach that the ECHO curriculum uses has been used in multiple programs in the Chicago area. And the curriculum developer that will be here for the training has been highly involved in that. And they have shown results of a 50% reduction in violent crime arrests.

And I just wanted to say thank you all for the work that you do. As you alluded to when this incident first happened, this room was full with so many concerned individuals and day by day and month by month. Well, week by week, month by month, everybody kind of fell off the bandwagon when they didn't see any immediate things going. So thank you all for your hard work, Dr. Wilson and Chief and Jeremy and everyone else who's involved in this because we definitely need it. Um, even myself being in the community a lot, we see a lot of things that happen and take place and it, again, it doesn't just have to be in school age children. Um, it needs to be a community based thing like it has been. So I appreciate you all. Thank you for sticking with it and also being solution oriented, um, in this situation. And I also appreciate just your refusal to quit Dr. Wilson cause you have done a great job and you know, Working with community, it doesn't always be easy. Sometimes we have our way of saying, oh, we could get it done this way, this way, but you stuck with it and found that solution that we needed. And I think this is a great initiative. And again, like Mayor said, anything I can do, we can do. I'm sure we're all on board. So thank you.

And we do have additional time. So any of the other two, if you have anything to say, you're welcome to do just that. OK. Please, please.

OK. Well, I guess I could introduce myself. You know my name, but I am a volunteer for the largest grassroots gun violence prevention organization in the country called Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. I my current leadership role is as the leader of our chapter here in Alabama. But as I think I shared with Mayor Smith, I live in Auburn, so we do a lot of work here in East Alabama. Our organization is maybe best known nationally for work in legislative election work. But here in Alabama, we take a different approach and we are known as the national leader in Muslim in action and working with community partners. and working on grassroots problems that lead to gun violence. And so it's in that capacity that we partnered with Representative Gray on this initiative. And our organization is one of 12 others that are in the consortium. So I'm here today as my capacity as one of the coordinators for the initiative. And I'll tell you a little bit more about the ECHO curriculum So as I mentioned, it's grounded in principles of behavioral science, behavioral health, and cognitive behavioral interventions. And the latter has been proven time and time again to be very effective in violence reduction programs. The curriculum is designed to help young people develop skills to make thoughtful decisions in difficult, high stakes, and emotionally driven situations. The ECHO curriculum is designed for young people ages 13 to 21 who may have limited connection to school, work, or be at risk of involvement in gun violence. But many of the skills are relevant and transferable to other groups, including adolescents, more broadly, excuse me, and older adults at high risk of violence. So we're hoping bringing this curriculum to East Alabama, we can implement across a wide range of our population. The University of Chicago has produced compelling evidence that cognitive behavioral interventions are among the most effective interventions to improve opportunities for school age youth. The programs using this method have shown results of increased high school graduation rates of 20 percent and reduction in violent crime arrests of 50 percent. And that's been done for multiple programs. And often the effects of the program last for up to three years after it is implemented. So. Why we chose it here? ECHO does not require adopting a whole new program. It is designed so that existing organizations working with youth can use existing staff and infrastructure to bring this program into what they already do. All right. And then here's our plan, what the training will look like. So we are working to implement a two day in-person total of 10 hour training here in East Alabama. We have been talking about a location. We may be here in Opelika, but that has yet to be finalized. That ECHO curriculum developer, Christopher Jaffe, and another senior curriculum staff person will come and do the training. Mr. Jaffe is a licensed clinical social worker, and he is one of the country's most experienced practitioners in community violence intervention program design and implementation. And prior to them coming, Mr. Jaffe and his staff will develop a customized training materials tailored to our community here in East Alabama, our population here and the type of programing we have here in East Alabama. And then once the curriculum is the training is done, Representative Gray talked about how we will be working to collect data to evaluate its effectiveness and the partnerships we are looking to use in doing so. But that was covered. So are there any other questions?

Appreciate it.

Yeah. Chief Clifton, did you want to say anything? I can. I can real quick.

Mayor, Council. As you know, I'm Jonathan Clifton, and I love anything we can do to lower violence crime. A year ago, Mr. Gray said this is when this kind of kicked off, and we've had several meetings between now and then, and whatever we can do to support the community to help us lower violent crime, that's what I want to do. They have a great initiative, this ECHO program. What I like about it is, was talking about, Ms. Paula was talking about coming from Chicago, but it can be tailored for small communities like ourselves. And we can adjust it for us here in Opelika and around surrounding cities and counties. So I think it's a great endeavor and I fully support it and I hopefully it'll be worth our while.

Thank you very much. And you've enlightened us on a lot. And just to reiterate what's been said, we are willing to do our part. Now, I don't know what person on the council will volunteer to to be a part, but we'll make sure one is there. What would you not? Yeah, we will. OK. And thank you all again. And. whatever we can do. Once you get your budget together, let us know. We, I think you said four counties. We'll handle one for mayor.

Yes, sir.

Okay. Yeah. All right. Anything else to come before us?

President, I was going to ask some members of a second mission and lines to come up. If you, Don't mind? Is that?

You can, yeah, it's okay.

Is that good?

Yeah.

I mean. Yeah. What did we?

I was going to get Bill Schwenk to come up and just tell us a little bit about Mission Alliance. We've got a resolution on the agenda tonight for them on the consent agenda. And I just wanted Bill just to kind of give us a little information about their nonprofit and what they do, the work they do.

Hey, afternoon, mayor, city council members. Thank you for the opportunity to come up and show you a little bit of the heart of the mission. I'll make it quick for you. I promise.

Right. No problem.

So second mission alliance, you might ask yourself real quick. Why? Right. Why we create this. So a lot of times in the military, the mission, the purpose, the community is. hand it to us on a plate, on a platter, right? It's right there for us. It's easy. The military kind of gives it to us. They say, hey, here's your mission, here's your purpose, and that's your family, and follow them wherever they go. But when you get out, that kind of goes away. And I got out during COVID. I couldn't find a job. I couldn't even get an interview. I was told I should be making $100,000 a year. I should have all these jobs. I had to make my own review. I showed up to a job fair and said, hey, remember that job I applied for? And they were like, yeah, sure, we'll interview you. And so you lose that mission. You lose that purpose and that sense of community. And so one of the reasons we one of the biggest reasons we created this was to give people that community. Right. We've got some wonderful programs, but for sake of time, we're going to highlight one because we do have our equine therapy program. This is amazing. We have echoes of service and echoes of legacy. We're going to nursing homes and we visit veterans in our nursing homes and we honor Service members are KIA and officers lost line of duty. But one of our newest programs we have that it's crazy proud about and I think is going to be amazing is our canine program. We go into companies like Global and we save these dogs that have failed for some reason or they got hurt or they aged out and we go in and we save them. And I say save them because, like, my personal dog, Ness, was in a five-by-five run for a year and two months, doing no job, getting it cleaned out and taken out once in a while. And she's a Belgian Malwa. So imagine what that does to a lot of dogs. So what we do is we go in, and there was four of them I rescued that day because I just couldn't tolerate it. And so we rescued them, and we have four dogs in the last two months we've placed with veterans, 100% disabled veterans, one in Virginia, three in Alabama, and then my baby. And I'll be honest with you, I didn't want a dog. I didn't like Belgian Malinois. I don't like shepherds. It's my least favorite breed, okay? I appreciated and I supported my brothers and sisters who had service dogs, but I didn't really get it. And so I got attacked by a Belgian Malinois last month. And I was in the hospital. I was bit 30 times. And the dog had to be put down. And that dog did not leave my side for five days. And when I mean she didn't leave my side, I mean she would wedge herself between the couch and me because I was on Oxycontin and she knew it. And I was hurting and she knew it. And I will tell you that dog is part of my family. because you're not going anywhere. But now I know what God is going to do in people's lives when we give them these dogs. They love, they get so focused on people and they can love them the way they need to, right? And so now I see the value and I'm all in. And I'm excited about being able to build detection dogs and give to cities to help them save money too, right? But the mission is pretty simple. We want to be a place where we walk with people, we pray with people, we cry with people, we triumph with people, we battle with people, and we give them. And I think when you say we're going to do a resolution and we're going to support you and acknowledge you, I think what Opelika is saying is through veterans right down the street at Fort Benning, and you have plenty of them, right? You have plenty of them in the room right now. And we're losing 22 a day. Right. But what you're saying to those veterans as a city is you have a purpose. You have a mission. You have a community. And we love you. And there's a God that loves you. That's what you're doing. Right. And so. Humbly, I thank you for the time, and I thank you for that resolution, and I thank you for being my leadership, and I support you in that, right? And I can't wait to work with you more and help people. So thank you.

Well, we appreciate you, and if you haven't been out to see their place off of veterans, it's a work in progress, and we appreciate what y'all are doing for veterans and service members. So thank you.

Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

So now are there any council members that may have anything else on our consent agenda or regular agenda that someone here might be able to enlighten you on anything that's coming before us tonight? Well, there's one thing, Mayor, if you would kind of align us on our resolution, resolution number six on our consent agenda.

Thank you, Mr. President, if I may, I will start with that one, but I have several things I would like to. OK, OK. First of all, I'd like to invite Courtney Ross to come to the podium over here, if I may. As she makes her way up, Courtney is our new revenue director. Lily Finley, after 30 plus years of service to the city, has retired and we wish Lily all the happiness of retirement and where that takes her. We were fortunate enough to have Courtney who has worked at the city in revenue at one time and then went to Auburn and worked there for think six years and uh and then we were fortunate enough to get her back and so uh as Lily decided to retire it was a a perfect opportunity to promote Courtney and we have done so and she is our new revenue director and I'm going to ask Courtney to address the resolution number six where we are asking the council to approve us moving to the state to collect or to help collect our taxes.

Well, this is basically have well, let me first acknowledge each one of you. Again, my name is Courtney Ross and I'm just thrilled and privileged to have this opportunity to serve you all as well as all the citizens of Opelika. But in regards to this resolution, we are wanting to switch from Avenue Insights and Analytics to the state of Alabama. This change helps not only us, the city of Opelika, but I feel like the citizens of Opelika. For one, there are lower administration fees. Right now, we are paying a lot in audits. They're charging about $80 per hour in an audit. And sometimes audits can last from 30 days to, we've even had audits to last for three years. So you can calculate that amount is a large amount. Another reason I feel like is it's better tax recovery. When the state goes out to collect taxes, they collect for themselves and they can also collect for those that they have this agreement with. So when they go out to collect, if we sign this agreement with them, they will automatically collect for us. They have anywhere from eight to nine auditors that live within Lee County. So because those auditors live within this area, they are able to see from day to day the businesses and what they're doing so that they'll be able to bring those taxes in where it needs to be. So it's a lot of cross-referencing that the state of Alabama can do. Additionally, I feel like for the citizens of Opelika, the user experience is gonna be better. Right now, when we're dealing with Avenue Insights and Analytics and with the state, they are having to go out onto one spot and file their taxes out there for the state and the county. And then they have the option to file the cities as well but because they've been so used to filing with Avenue, they're having to file one place and then they're filing another place. And it would just make it more of a coherent situation for the citizens. So those are just some of the reasons. I have other reasons. Customer service has not, just being honest with you, has not been the best. We have received complaints and that's what our goal is to due right by the citizens. So we feel like this will be a perfect move because our contract ends December 1st. Does anyone have any specific questions?

Impressive, huh? Yeah. Welcome aboard.

Thank you.

So so we're cutting out the middleman, so to speak. Correct. Yes.

And the fees, most of all. Yes.

And it's going to save us money.

Thank you, Courtney. Thank you. Thank you.

A couple of other things, Mr. President, on a another resolution that addresses a tax abatement, Channing Street Copper Company. That is a supplier of Miele and they will be coming to town and creating 12 new jobs as a supplier and they will be investing $942,000. So that is on the agenda that I would ask the council for consideration on. I'll also remind you or tell you about the zoning ordinance update. on Tuesday the 28th from 6 to 730 at the library. We will have for discussion and everyone will get a copy of this. This is the details of the Smart Growth Matters auditorium information. So hopefully you can come. Even if you can't come, we'll make sure you get these documents for you to read. The state of the city. is going to be uh september excuse me july the 29th uh next wednesday morning at eight o'clock at oplocka high school i hope you can also join there and i will talk about the the number of new permits and the financial statement during the my remarks

Thank you so very much.

Yes, sir.

Anything else from any of the council that might be? If not, there's nothing else to come before us. We will end this work session and begin our regular meeting at six o'clock p.m. May I have your attention, please? It is now six p.m. in time for our and I will call out July 21st, twenty twenty six Opelika City Council meeting to order. Call the roll, Mr. Jones. So here, here, here, here, here, here, here. And tonight, we're pleased for our invocation to have with us Mr. Tom Tippett from Christian Care Ministries. And of course, we have our own Russell Jones to lead us in our Pledge of Allegiance. We all stand, please.

Father, we're very thankful for the privilege to be able to speak to you in public like this through your son. making yourself available as the creator God of all things, seen and unseen. We thank you so much for this council and for their respect for you, as well as the general respect for you in our community as the one and only true God. And there are no other gods. We thank you for this city, for the reputation of those that have gone before us, who have laid wonderful foundations for the value of human life, the value of personal property, for the authority of parents in the lives of their children, for the civil authority that we all have been benefited by for the safety of our streets. We're so grateful, Father, for also the respect for human sanctity, the human life, and also for the sanctity of personal marriage between a man and a woman. We're so grateful, Father, for all the things that you've done that give us these values and help us to live by them so that we can have a respect for you and for each other as we learn to love you with everything that we have through your son and also to love one another. We make these requests in your son's name. Amen.

Amen. Attention, salute, pledge.

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

Now we have the adoption of the agenda to the council. Are there any items that need to be added to or removed from our presented agenda? Having none, is there a motion to approve the agenda as presented?

So moved.

Second. Any discussion? Having none, call the roll, Mr. Jones. Solon?

Aye. Swallow? Aye. Mr. Beames?

Aye.

Mr. Raut? Aye. Mr. Allen?

Aye. over to adopt the agenda customer we've also received a copy of the minutes from our last regular meeting on july 7 2026 are there any correction additions or deletions if not our entertain a motion and a second to accept the minutes as presented so moved second thank you very much and at this time we'll turn it over to our mayor for his recognition and comments. Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. President. You all have received a copy of the city's financial summary report for June of 2026. If you have any questions, call myself Russell. And as the as Joey in is in London doing some recruiting, you also have received and I will mention the monthly building report for June of 2026. We had 132 new permits issued during June for a total of 21.7 million dollars and that brings our year-to-date total through the nine months of to 276 million 646 thousand dollars and 1,270 permits, and so things are still mighty busy in Opelika, and so we're blessed. I also would like to invite the audience to a zoning ordinance update community workshop, which would be held on July the 28th at the library, beginning at 6 o'clock, 6 to 7.30, and we'll have a complete update of our smart growth matters and talk about the ordinances that we're working on updating. Also, the state of the city is going to be July the 29th at Opelika High School at 8 o'clock. At this time, Mr. President, if you would join me, I've got a couple of things we would go down to make presentations on. We have a birthday lady in the audience today. And I would like to invite her and her family, the family of Ms. Annie Stinson. And I have a resolution that we would like to recognize Ms. Stinson We are here, and a member of Ms. Stinson's family, if you would come, and we will allow the family to come forward as well. Please.

Hi. Happy birthday. I'm going to get your blanket back, because it's cold in here.

Whereas Annie Pearl Stinson was born on July the 21st, 1926 in Opelika, Alabama to Thomas and Betty Buchanan. She was one of 14 children born into this loving family. Outside of her immediate family, the person who knew her best was her husband of 50 years, James Stinson. And whereas together, Annie Pearl and James built a beautiful family, were blessed with eight children, Betty James, Willie James, Edward, Thomas, David, Lily Pearl, Carolyn, and Benjamin. In addition to raising their own children, they loyally opened their hearts and home to help raise nephews, Alphonso and Derek. And whereas Annie was always impeccably dressed, reaching her vibrant personality and timeless sense of style, whereas throughout her career, Annie Peral served in a variety of roles, including homemaker, custodian, and caregiver, She worked faithfully at Independent Life Insurance, East Alabama Medical Center, Ease House, Auburn University, where she eventually retired after years of dedicated service. And whereas Annie is the proud grandmother of 33 grandchildren and a host of great grandchildren, great, great grandchildren, nieces, great nieces, and great nephews, her life has been a testament to faith, perseverance, love, service, and a legacy that will continue to inspire generations to come. Whereas a woman of valor is a phrase that best describes Annie Pearl Buchanan Stinson, she is a woman of strength and wisdom and unwavering moral integrity, celebrating for her courage, diligence, and devotion to God. And witness I, Eddie Smith, set on my hand this 21st day of July, 2026. So happy birthday, Ms. Stimson.

Mr. Mayor, with a feat like that, I think it will be on a proper if we all stand and sing happy birthday. Ready? One, two, three. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday, Ms. Denison. Happy birthday to you.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you. Oh, a long time. This time I'd like to invite the members of the character council to come up.

As you all are aware, each month a council member recognizes a citizen in our community that exemplifies the character trait of the month. And Genotica Homes is going to make that recommendation, our recommendation. Yeah, that's the right word, tonight.

All right, if Daryl Mitchell would come up and anyone who would like to come with you. Any family? Friends?

The babies?

Acknowledgement was the word I was looking for.

Sometimes it's a key.

OK, today on this evening, as Mayor said, we do get a chance to honor someone in the community that we think are very deserving of our character trait, which our character trait This one is courage. And one of the greatest honors that I have as a councilwoman is the opportunity to recognize individuals who make a lasting impact on our community through their character, service and commitment to others. This month's character trait is a trait that is often overlooked, but so very needed in our world today. When many people think of courage, they think of extraordinary acts or heroic moments. However, courage is also found in people who consistently show up, invest in others, who stand in the gap when needed, and who continue serving even when the work is difficult and often goes unnoticed. This month, I am honored to recognize Mr. Darrell Mitchell as our Character Award recipient for courage. A lifelong Opelika resident and proud graduate of Opelika High School's class of 1990, Darrell has spent years demonstrating what it means to serve his community with dedication and heart. For many, he is known, as you can see, as a coach with dog pound football program, but his impact extends far beyond the football field. As a coach, he has invested countless hours mentoring, encouraging, and guiding young people. He understands that building strong youth requires more than teaching a sport. It requires showing up, setting an example, instilling discipline, and helping to shape our next generation of leaders. Every moment he spends volunteering is an investment in Opelika.

Darrell has also been a steadfast advocate for Opelika.

Through his efforts to promote neighborhood pride, support community cleanup initiatives, and encourage a safer and stronger city, he has consistently demonstrated a love for the place he calls home. His willingness to partner with others and take action when he sees a need reflects a servant's heart and a genuine commitment to improving the quality of life for his neighbors and those around him. Courage is not always, as I said, a grand gesture. Often it is found in ordinary people doing extraordinary things, just like Darrell, through his service, his sacrifice, and his unwavering support. It takes a lot of courage to step up and to stand up like you have done, especially when others step back. It takes courage to give your time when no one is watching. It takes courage to believe in young people. to mentor them, and to help guide them towards a brighter future. And it takes courage to love your community enough to do the work for the betterment of it day by day. Darrell Mitchell exemplifies what courage is. He exemplifies this kind of courage. So for his leadership, his volunteerism, advocacy, and dedication to Opelika's youth, families, and neighborhoods, it is my honor to recognize Mr. Darrell Mitchell as the recipient of the Character Award for Courage. Darrell, thank you for your service, thank you for your example, and thank you for your continued commitment to making Opelika a good place for us all.

So Daryl doing that is with great pleasure. Excuse me. That we acknowledge for your outstanding character within the city of Opelika. Your goodwill towards mankind and our city has not gone unnoticed. We hope that others will see your good works and model your actions. Please be encouraged to continue making a difference in the city of Opelika and throughout the world. Presented this month of July, 2026.

This is my father, Reverend Jones. Amen. And I want to thank all the parents that came out and brought your kids out.

You know, I always say this every day after practice. I see y'all at Mets. to his brother. You know, y'all getting off work. I really appreciate everything y'all do. And you know my kids. You know I stay on y'all's shoulders. And this one guy here, he made me come out here and do this. He was at me for years. You want to come help? You want to come help? I said, oh, man, I don't want to be bothered with the kids and the moms. I was walking one day over there, and I was walking around the track, and he kept coming at me. I said, man, I'm coming, I'm coming. So I've been there five years. And every time I say, I'm going to retire, I'm leaving. One parent grabbed me and said, no, you ain't going nowhere. This ain't right here. So I guess I'm going to be rocking with that dog around until I retire, I guess.

No, I think there's another guy. I didn't recognize his name.

Hey.

Good seeing you.

Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We have no public hearing. Agenda-related comments, Mr. Jones.

OK, if you'd like to speak to the mayor and council about anything that is currently on tonight's agenda, please come to the podium to my left. If you have not, please sign the sign-in sheet in the lobby, name, telephone address, contact info. If you do speak, please state your name and your address.

Thank you, Mr. Jones. Next, we have the adoption of consent agenda. Does any councilman wish to remove an item from the consent agenda and address it as part of our regular agenda?

Mr. President, I'd like to pull number eight off, please.

Okay, we'll remove number eight and we'll make it resolution number one. Any others? Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda with the removal of number eight? So moved. Is there a second?

Second.

Any discussion? Having none, call the roll, Mr. Jones. Ms. Holmes.

Aye.

Ms. Watley.

Aye.

Mr. Baines.

Aye.

Mr. Rell. Aye. Mr. Allen.

Aye.

All voted aye to adopt the consent agenda without number eight. OK.

In the absence of Mr. Treece, I will ask Mr. Jones to present us with our resolution number one.

Thank you, Mr. President. Resolution number one now on the regular agenda is a special appropriation to Second Mission Alliance in the amount of twenty five hundred dollars.

Is that a motion for approval?

So moved.

Is that second? Second. Any discussion?

Yes, sir. Mr. President, I just would like to commend the men and women working for the Second Mission Alliance. I appreciate what you're doing for our community. Appreciate you, what you're doing for veterans. And I appreciate the council all standing together to support you guys. And we appreciate your your service.

In addition. Having none, call the roll, Mr. Jones.

Ms. Holmes? Aye. Ms. Watley? Aye. Mr. Bing?

Aye.

Mr. Routt? Aye. Mr. Allen? Aye. All voted aye to approve the motion.

Second roster public hearing.

All right. Again, if you'd like to speak to no counsel, this is about anything else, please come to the podium to my left. If you do speak, state your name and address.

Please keep it three minutes or less.

If you have not, please sign and shoot.

Thanks.

Having none, I will now entertain a motion to adjourn this meeting.

So moved.

Second. Call the roll, Mr. Jones.

Ms. Holmes. Aye. Ms. Whatley. Aye. Mr. Beans.

Aye.

Mr. Rowe. Aye.