City Commission - Regular Meeting

I have five o'clock. So, we'll go ahead and begin our meeting. I'll call this meeting to order of March 24th, 2026. I'm Commissioner Wilson filling in tonight for Mayor Bray, who could not be here. And so, I'll ask the city clerk to call roll. Commissioner Henderson, present. Commissioner Smith here. Commissioner Thomas, present. Mayor Bray, Mayor Pro Tim Wilson, present. And at this point, if you would stand, I'd ask Commissioner Smith to lead the invocation and then we'll have the pledge of allegiance. Father, we thank you for your grace and goodness. May your face continually shine upon us so that your ways may be known in our communities. 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.

City manager, are there any additions or deletions to tonight's agenda? Mayor Pro Tim Wilson, none this evening. Okay, great. Thank you. So, we do have a presentation tonight. I guess y'all are on a road show this week. I know that you did the same, I guess, last night for the McCracken County Fiscal Court. So, we do have the Maduka McCracken County 911 administrative board budget presentation and Jeff Parker is here to deliver that. Share that with us. So, Jeff, we're ready for you. I thought y'all saved the best for last. We got you first.

Speaking of which, you have a catering company. There's no food. I could have had you could Mr. Smith. All right. So, I think I don't know what exactly you have in front of you, but we'll uh I'll go over some of the high points and I'll go over some of the high points and then uh we'll go through the uh presentation real quick. So, as far as summary wise, fiscal year 26 and 27, your expenses are projected to increase from 3.34 million to 3.49 million, which would be a 4% increase. There's a few different drivers. Uh, health insurance, uh, approximately 40,000. Radio side insurance 33,500. Utilities 24,500. Security upgrades 70,000. Tire remediation and a few of the onetime costs will run around 75,000. Fiscal year 27 revenue 2.987 million and that'll be mainly from 911 fees uh which the CRMS um is is going to be about 47,000. There won't be any telecom tax or grant income which will give us a short call of 500 shortfall of 53,962. Uh so that'll be split between the city and county. I don't know what kind of questions you'll have. Uh some of the onetime expenses that were

the increases property insurance 33,500 uh fuel at the five shelters propane 3500 electricity 21,000 security at the five shelter sites which will be a nonreoccurring once we get them up and going be 70,000 and 911 tire remediation at the sites. again non-reoccurring 75,000. So, uh those two things will will not be there after next year. And then you've already seen the uh the changes we made to the collection side of it. So, I we feel like with a little bit coming in better on the collection side and and we know we're at a little more on the the spending side, hopefully that that that amount will will get smaller as as we go on over the next year or two. U any questions?

Yes, sir. One comment and a little bit of a question. The tower remediation is that are you tearing down old towers or what is a tower? I think so. I'll get Chief up here. He'll he'll explain that more to you. Could you go back to that slide? Yeah. The last bullet point. Yeah. The tower remediation is for the 911 tower. Um we need to actually make it a little bit smaller. So, engineering folks have said if we chop about 100 ft off the top of it, we don't have to do additional work to make it stronger on the bottom. The newer stuff doesn't have to be okay. All the way at the top. Okay.

So, it'll actually save us some money in the long run by making a little bit smaller tower. That's great. Thank you. And thank you for you all. I know this is a hard board to be on. Thank you all for been an interesting one really. What about the shelter sites? Can you explain a little bit more on that? Sure. So, there's five tower sites now. Um, each one of those sites has a generator, a small little shelter that's there that the equipment's housed in, and then they have a propane tank uh on site as well. So, some of those costs, the electricity, those are just kind of their budgets. They're a guesstimate. Uh, we don't know exactly what that's going to look like. So, we have to have an electric meter each one of those sites as well.

Okay. So the 145 is the non-recurring that would just be this one year. Correct. That'd be a good field trip for commissioners one day visit those sites. They're interesting. It is. I mean and then can you explain because you said it's going to be nearly 500,000 but that adds up to the 250 something that will be split. So how does that how's the math work for that? Well, those are just some of the highlights of of things that are uh increases in the budget like

the um property insurance. So that is to put insurance on the $7 million worth of equipment that we have. So if something happens at one of those tower sites, we have that insured. So we're just kind of showing some of those costs that have gone up. Um that 500,000 is the difference between what the parcel fee is bringing in and what the CMRS money, the cell phone fee money brings in and the budget. So that um that also includes the cost of living increases and things like that, other personnel costs. Okay. It's not a comprehensive list of the highlights. Lindsay, can you go to that slide?

So there is the or the revenue and then that maxes out on the the expenses. So the you go to that next one one more slide there. Yep. There you go. Y so that's about a $100,000 increase over what the budget was last year. And we felt like we were doing pretty good with that. Uh, you know, with all the additional costs, but if you take those non-reoccurring charges out, you're about the same, maybe even a little better. So, so you want to explain when how that will come out of our budget?

So, so yes. And so, what we do is um the 911 fees that that are collected are are the revenue is split equally into the or goes all into the budget. And so it's equated equally from the city and the county since we have equal share of the expenses. And so any delta that is there uh whether positive or negative well let me start on the negative. If there is a shortfall on the on what is collected between the fees and the CMRS um then the city and the county both budget that to uh cover that shortfall. Uh and that comes out of our general fund budget to go in there to make that shortfall up. Um if we got to a point where we would have um a more revenue over expenses, which would be a very good thing to happen, um then uh the state law that uh that um that covers the actual 911 um requires us to then look at the budget for the next year and readjust any of those uh partial fees that we have put on uh to try to balance it out. The goal is to try to get as close to equilibrium as as possible. Um and you know only 250,000 shortfall from either city and the county on that. Uh that is a far far cry from the 1 plus million we were putting in at

I think two years ago 1.2 something. Yeah. So any other questions? Sure. Hey, thank you. Thank you for your work on it. We really appreciate it. Go home early. Hey, one thing real quick. These guys are amazing. You've got a good team. So, uh, easy to work with and know their stuff. Can't say enough about them. Thank you. I know. Been a long road to get to where we are. So, thank you very much for your leadership. Okay. Do we have any public comments tonight?

Okay. I don't have any remarks, so we'll move on. Uh items on the consent agenda are considered to be routine by the board of commissioners and will be acted by one motion and one vote. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a board member so request in which event the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered separately. The city clerk will read the items recommended for approval. Would any commissioner like any item removed for separate discussion? No. No.

Okay. Great. I ask the city clerk to read the items recommended for approval. Approve minutes for the March 10th, 2026 board of commissioners meeting. Receive and file documents. Appointment to the civic beautifification board of Lauren Ashley Gentry to replace Leslie Haywood Moore who has resigned and Jennifer Code to replace Colleen Stokesan who whose term has expired. Said term shall expire July 1st, 2027 and July 1st, 2030 respectively. Appointment to the creative and cultural council of Kathleen McCainy to replace Chad Clark whose term is expired. Kathleen Muser to replace Basil Drosos who has resigned and Jesse Fletcher to replace Cheryl Sullivan who has resigned. These terms shall expire March 24th, 2029, March 24th, 2028 respectively. Reappoint of Manda Johnson to the Historical and Architecture Review Commission. Said term shall expire November 27th, 2029. Personnel actions. A municipal order authorizing and directing the engineering department to release an invitation to bid for the removal, repair, and replacement of pump station of pump 3 at pump station 11. A municipal order authorizing the mayor to execute a contract with Deote in the amount of $40,000 for fiscal year 2026 cyber security assessment. A municipal order authorizing and directing the city manager to release a request for proposals for cameras to support parks cameras phase one. A municipal order authorizing and directing the city manager to release an invitation for bids for electrical to support the parks cameras phase one. a municipal order authorizing an application for and acceptance of a 2026 through 2027 Kentucky household hazardous waste grant through the Kentucky Division of Waste Management in an amount of $58,85 to assist in funding the city county annual spring up spring cleanup day and authorizing the mayor to execute all grant documents and the interlocal agreement with McCracken County for said grant. A municipal order authorizing the approving and approving contract amendment number two between the city of

Paduka and Tetratech in an amount not to exceed $15,000 and authorizing the mayor to execute the agreement and all documents related to same a municipal order authorizing and directing the solid waste division of the public works department to release a request for proposals for municipal solid waste services. So move second. Would you call roll please? Commissioner Henderson I. Commissioner Smith I. Commissioner Thomas. Hi, Mayor Pro Tim Wilson. Hi.

All right. Our first municipal order to uh read tonight is municipal order A. I'll ask the city clerk to read the uh municipal order, please. A proposed motion of the board of commissioners to adopt a municipal order entitled a municipal order authorizing the application for and acceptance of a community project funding grant through the fiscal year 2027 EPA stag clean water grant program for the branch parallel pipe conveyance improvement project in an amount of 1,760,000 and authorizing the mayor to execute all documents related to same. So move second. All right, Greg, are you going to explain this?

Sure. Evening, Mayor Pro Tim, commissioners, city manager, city clerk. Um, so I'm going to skip ahead actually couple slides. This project is for the branch. I don't know how well you can see that on there, but this is the branch runs right along through here on um this is Westwood Hills subdivision. Here's the railroad 32nd Street. This project was identified in the uh 2018 uh comprehensive storm water master plan. This project uh involves an area that experiences um localized flooding during uh heavy rain conditions. So, this project is geared at addressing both some water quantity issues, but also water quality in the region. Uh the proposed project would include uh upgrading a or installing a new large diameter uh pipe to run parallel to the existing system. It would involve uh improving the inlet capacity at the upstream end of the project and reconstruction of existing detention basins both for like I said water quantity improvements but also water quality. Likewise, uh benefits would include uh downstream some of the areas Cruz, Levan, Trimble Street, areas that experience overland flooding currently. This would help invol uh provide relief also help provide relief to the combined sewer system in those areas um and help ultimately provide relief uh pump station one and Noble Park. This is just uh further upstream in that that system. So that's what this project is centered around. Um, we're working with uh we're proposing to look for the EPA stag program, the clean

water funding that's working through Congressman Comr's office. And you see on the slides the what the ask for of of 1,760,000 and the city of Paduka's match 440,000 with the project timing to be appropriated in federal fiscal year 2027. Um is there any questions with that? I would just say there's no guarantee we would get it. This is just really to make the official the application that we would like to have submitted. Yes. Do you all have any questions? Should be great to get. I mean, that would be a nice thing to have come up with $440,000 for a project like that.

Yeah. Yes. I think it was identified as one of our top 10. Yes. In the CSMP, it was one of the 10 priority areas. So, yeah, it would be wonderful to be able to pursue this project at that cost. This will relieve some problems like you said 11 Treble and Cruz cruise all all those streets that are just on the east side of 32nd Street there. This is just one element to help provide some relief there. You've got um it's all tied together as far as trying to do a little bit to provide relief all the way down. That's good. Thank you. Yeah. Anything else?

Would just uh recognize Mayor Pro Tim Wilson's uh work on on getting us to this point, too. So, thank you for for helping that and helping uh shepherd that through with with the with the congressman staff. You're welcome. All right, you call row. Commissioner Henderson, I. Commissioner Smith, I. Commissioner Thomas, I. Mayor Pro Tim Wilson I. Thank you, Greg. Appreciate your work on it. Your departments. Uh, next is uh municipal order B. A proposed motion of the board of commissioners to adopt a municipal order entitled a municipal order approving an employment agreement between the city of Paduca and police officer Jason Montgomery and authorizing the mayor to execute same. So moved.

Second. All right, Chief Lair. Good evening again, everyone. Uh what you have before you is an employment agreement for Jason Montgomery. Uh Jason retired from the police department in 2020 and uh we've selected him to come back to work inside of city hall as the uh security officer for city hall. I think uh we've had some previous discussions on that and but that's what this is. The Kentucky uh retirement system requires a one-year agreement uh for retired officers to come back. We have two other officers currently operating under that uh same statute as well. When would he start?

Uh, he's set to come on board. I think April 2nd is the start date. And then we have to get him some training. He's been out for almost six years. Um, so we need to get him reertified. Um, and we anticipate it take within a couple months. We'll have him full-time inside of city hall. What What would be some specific responsibilities? Some of the specific responsibilities include um he's going to be at the front um but he'll be kind of patrolling the inside and outside. He's going to work with staff on um some safety precaution things with with each individual department as well.

Okay. and and also commissioner at times u unfortunate we have uh uh individuals that come into to city hall that um uh overly aggressive and right now um you know we have to to pull somebody out of prevention or myself or some of the other staff have to go and engage with that and and we we hopeful that this will be a little bit of a deterrent to those type of activities but in today's society you know what we've seen um you has been occurring. And so we think that not only the safety aspects of the day-to-day, but also just uh you know, being able to work with staff and, you know, our finance department and the amount of money that they take in and things like that to be uh helpful. And uh this individual's been while he's been retired uh from us for a number of years, he has been working uh in the federal courts building. Um so he's not totally out of out of the loop. So

Right. Yeah. He's been employed at the federal courthouse as a security officer. Okay. for the last several years. And good. And this is not a creation of while it is a new position for us, we have reclassified one position in the police department that was no longer uh being utilized. And so it's not an additional full-time equivalent. And I know that we're already working on avenues to make sure that the people who are on the front line customer experience, those folk are safe. Y when people enter the building. Yep. Yeah. We are we're going through some some safety audits of this building. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Chief Ro. Commissioner Henderson. Hi, Commissioner Smith.

I. Commissioner Thomas. I. Mayor Pro Tim Wilson. I.

Okay. We're going to now adopt the ordinance amending the 911 parcel fee. If you would read that. A proposed motion that the board of commissioners adopt an ordinance entitled an ordinance amending the 911 parcel fee ordinance. This ordinance is summarized as follows. The proposed amendment revises the city's existing 911 parcel fee ordinance in order to clarify applicability, refine property classifications, formalize the appeals process, and update administrative provisions to ensure fairness, consistency, and long-term stability in the funding of the joint city county emergency 911 services. This amendment clarifies fee applicability by shifting the assessment standard from parcels that are occupied to parcels that are occupiable, thereby ensuring that all parcels capable of occupancy are assessed consistently. This amendment expressly includes residential storage structures and government governmental public housing units within the scope of a of accessible residential units. The amendment refineses property classifications by reclassifying medical facilities as commercial units, ensuring assessments are commensurate with similarly sized commercial properties. The amendment refineses and clarifies the definitions and classifications applicable to residential, commercial, public use, and mixeduse parcels and more specifically delineates residential storage structures, medical facilities, and government public housing units to ensure consistent and accurate application of the ordinance. Further, it provides that mixeduse parcels shall be assessed at the highest applicable rate based on combined square footage. This amendment adopts formal hearing procedures uh rules and procedures for the Paduka McCracken County 911 parcel fee appeals board and provides a defined right of appeal from a final order of the appeals board to the McCracken District Court within 30 days. This amendment updates certain administrative provisions by removing the expired firstear residential rental rebate language and clarifying that annual parcel fee adjustments shall be rounded to the nearest dollar.

So move. Second. I think they've covered everything in the last meetings and tonight. Any other questions? Okay. Roll call, please. Commissioner Henderson. Hi. Commissioner Smith. I. Commissioner Thomas. I. Mayor Pro Tim Wilson. I. Okay. If you would read the next uh ordinance for adoption, please.

A proposed motion of the board of commissioners to adopt an ordinance entitled an ordinance amending chapter 126 zoning section 3 definitions of the code of ordinances of the city of Aduka, Kentucky. This ordinance amends chapter 126 zoning section 3 definitions of the code of ordinances of the city of Aduka to allow medical cannabis dispensaries to use their logos, symbols, and branded colors on signage at their dispensary premises. Signage cannot be illuminated by neon lights and off- premises freestanding signs are expressly prohibited. The Paduka Planning Commission had a public hearing on March 2nd, 2026 and forwarded a recommendation that the city commission approved the amendment. So move. Second.

All right. Y'all read this had heard more about this at last the last meeting, correct? Yes. Any other questions? Okay. Roll call, please. Commissioner Henderson. I. Commissioner Smith. I Commissioner Thomas I mayor pro Tim Wilson

I and the next one we're happy to be able to introduce tonight an amendment with the askme American Federation of State County Municipal Employees. So if you would read that please. A proposed motion of the board of commissioners to adopt an ordinance entitled an ordinance authorizing the mayor to execute an agreement between the city of Paduca and the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees AFL CIO Local 1586. This ordinance is summarized as follows. That the mayor is hereby authorized to execute an agreement and other associated documents between the city of Vaduka and the American Federation of State, County and Employ and Municipal Employees, AFL CIO Local 1586. This agreement shall be effective from July 1, 2026 through June 30th, 2029.

So move second. Any other discussion? Again, I know y'all must have discussed this two weeks ago uh and had another discussion, but I also know a lot of work goes into getting us to this point. So, congratulations to all of those involved and thank you for your hard work on it. Would you call roll, please? Commissioner Henderson, I. Commissioner Smith, I. Commissioner Thomas, I. Mayor Pro Tim Wilson,

I. And we'll continue on the same with the PIA Police Department bargaining unit. A proposed motion of the board of commissioners to adopt an ordinance entitled an ordinance authorizing the mayor to execute an agreement and other associated documents between the city of Paduka and the Paduca Police Department Bargaining Unit. This ordinance is summarized as follows. That the mayor is hereby authorized to execute an agreement and other associated documents between the city of Paduka and the Paduca Police Department Bargaining Unit. This agreement shall be effective from July 1, 2026 through June 30th, 2029. So move second.

All right. No more not any more discussion then. Okay. Again, I know the representatives of both unions are here tonight. We're going to do pictures, I think, officially tomorrow of signing those. So, thank you again for all of your hard work. So, if you call roll. Commissioner Henderson. Hi, Commissioner Smith. Hi, Commissioner Thomas. Hi, Mayor Pro Tim Wilson. I thanks again. Good to have you all here tonight with us. Thank you. Congratulations. And I think the picture signing signing is tomorrow at

10 a.m. 10 a.m. The mayor will be back. Thank you. All right, we have one ordinance introduction tonight. If you would read that, please. A proposed motion. The board of commissioners introduce an ordinance entitled an ordinance extending the boundary of the city of Aduka, Kentucky by annexing certain property lying adjacent to the corporate limits of the city of Aduka and accurately defining the boundary of said property to be included within the said corporate limits. This ordinance is summarized as follows. The city of Baduca hereby approves the consensual annexation of a certain tract of property contiguous to the present city limits located at 224 Burger Road and containing approximately 371 acres. So move second.

All right, Josh.

Good evening, Mayor Pro Tim Wilson, commissioner, city manager, madam city clerk, this is about the most straightforward annexation we could ever hope for to tell you the truth. Uh it is uh 16,143 square feet at 224 Burger Road. Uh the property owner has requested an annexation for the property tax rebate and also sanitation pickup. They've since moved to uh Village Square Drive. So we anticipate another office type use going in that building. Something along the lines of another medical office, accountant, attorney, some kind of professional office. They have requested that the planning commission uh initially zone this parcel R4 which is highdensity residential which would allow that type of office use to continue and that'll be going to the next planning commission in April. So I'll be glad to answer any questions that anybody has.

So the building is currently empty. Yes. Is that right? Yep. And Josh, this is a consensual annexation. Yes. Um and so also kind of walk the commission through the next steps uh before it comes back to them for a second please.

Right. So we are in the midst of the 45day notification to the fiscal court that is up I believe on April 23rd or thereabouts. So it will come back to this body for final uh at the last meeting in April. I believe that's the 28th whenever that is officially run out. And then u about that time the 21 days from the planning commission will be kicking in. So it'll be zoned and annexed approximately at the same time. Great. Let's do more. Thank you. Well, we are working on those commissioner. Thank you Josh. Thank you all. We'll vote on that later.

All right. Now we're going to talk about the budget with Audrey Kyle. Audrey, I've already beat my one record of like a 17minute meeting, so we're not racing for that tonight.

Well, I I have my my 16-year-old cooking dinner. If I get home too early, I'm going to end up having to help her. So, I might need to stretch this out. Uh, good evening, Mayor Pro Tim Wilson, commissioners, city manager, city clerk. Um, the first thing I want to do tonight is introduce you to our new controller, Lauren Delaney. I'm very excited to introduce her to everyone. Lauren comes to us from Keer CPA Group where she has built her career. She started out as a tax and audit intern and worked her way all the way up to management. Uh, she's a certified public accountant and she's also a Paduka native. She graduated from McCracken County High School and received both her bachelor's and master's degrees from Murray State University. Uh Lauren has come to us in a very uh exciting and crazy time which is budget and she's jumped right in and she's already made a positive impact in a short amount of time. We're really excited to have her. So this is Lauren.

Welcome Lauren. Happy to have you here. And also, um, I I I wondered if if Darren might say this part, but for the next several meetings during budget season, um, we we're going to have a place on the agenda to have some sort of budget discussion discussing some aspect of the budget or budget process. But we thought we would kick it off tonight by um, taking a look at our financial transparency software, which is a tool that the citizens can use to look at our budget or actual data at any point in time. and Lauren is going to demonstrate that for you all tonight.

I'll follow up on that because I know that we will all be scheduling meetings uh with you all individually to talk about the budget as we begin to prepare for it. We're going to be planning to vote on that in June or June.

So, so statutoily uh I'm required uh to present a budget message to you um before the end of May. And so we have it targeted for our second meeting in May for that budget message to be presented and the first reading of the budget uh and then for uh adoption at the first meeting in June. And that gives the the staff and and our team the rest of the of June to kind of close out the year and not uh but statutoily you do not have to adopt it until the end of June. But so but we try to get it done before then. And so the fir the second meeting in May and the first meeting in June are the two scheduled um budget. So, this really gives us extra time, I guess, is why what I'm wanting to kind of say with you, too. We'll have our individual meetings, but then we also are going to be hearing from you during these next few meetings, the sessions. So, as we begin to prepare and think about the budget and think about our needs for income and expenses and all of that as we go forward. So, thank you for taking the time to do this.

Yes. And I'm grinning because it you say extra time, but it is so tight. Well, it it is. But you haven't always done, we haven't always gone into detail. So, it's very important, I think, for us to have as much detail. Yes. I really appreciate uh the city manager bringing this up and adding it to the agenda because it does give us some extra time to put in give some more details and give you all an opportunity to ask any questions you might have as we move along. So, thank you, Lauren.

Okay. Good evening everyone. I'm Lauren Delaney and I'd like to take a few minutes to walk you through our financial transparency software. This tool is available on the city's website and updates automatically each week. To get to the portal, simply visit the finance department page and click on the Paduka open finance portal link. That brings you to the homepage. From here, you can access the revenue budget and the expense budget by selecting explore. On this screen, you'll see the revenue budget displayed by fund. The bar graph shows actual amounts in dark blue and the revised budget in light blue. If you prefer to view the data as percentages instead of dollar amounts, you can switch between the two here. If a table view is easier to read, the same information, both actual and budgeted amounts, is listed at the bottom of the page. You can also drill down for more detail. For example, selecting the general fund brings up the different types of revenues such as property taxes and interest. Drilling further into occupational license breaks that category down into subcategories which includes payroll tax, insurance tax, and more. Over on the right hand side of the screen, you can switch between a bar graph, pie chart, or a line graph. The pie chart defaults to showing budgeted figures. Um, but if you'd like to see actual amounts, you can adjust that setting in the top corner. Just like before, you can drill down into a fund to see more detailed information. To do so, you can either click the fund on the left side of the screen, click on the pie chart, or you can select it at the bottom of the screen. Dollar amounts and percentages are also listed at the bottom for easy reference.

Now let's move to expenditures. To access the expenditure budget from this page, use the drop-own menu and select explore operating. This screen displays expenditure by fund, but you can change how the information is grouped by using this arrow right here. If you want to see spending by function or department, you can switch to that here. Clicking on a fund also breaks down expenses further by function within that fund. And just like in the revenue budget, you can change the type of graph or scroll down to view the dollar amounts and percentages. Another useful feature is the ability to view prior fiscal years going all the way back to 2023. Once you select the year, the portal automatically updates the data while keeping the same navigation features. There's also a search function on the homepage. You can type in a function, department, or program, and it will take you directly to relevant data. Apparently, I can't type. Okay. Once you um for example, if I type in public safety, I can immediately view those expenses. From here, I can switch the view to show the information by department or even break it down further to show division. Lastly, the portal also provides quick access to the city's budget books, audit reports, and popular annual financial report through the external links and reports menu. We are excited to offer this platform because it provides access to timely and accurate information in a user-friendly format. If there are any questions about using this software, please reach out to me or Audrey Kyle.

Thank you. That was absolutely excellent. Will our individual budget meetings be diseased? Those decisions to be made. That's right.

Yeah. What what I really like about this tool u because we have different levels as she pointed out you can get uh you can hit the link to to the paffer populating your financial report or the full budget or um our acter but what I like about this tool is that it's so easy to use and you're not going to break anything. um someone with a a low level of uh expertise in either a computer or or finances uh would can just get on here and click and drill down into the different funds and departments and you're not going to break anything. So, it's just kind of that level that's accessible to everyone to learn about our budget and what it includes.

And I'll say I've had several people that that has helped, you know, and even myself if somebody askked me a question about a budget item, I can just go search it up and provide the answer. So it's a it's a resource for not only the community but us as well. So it's very beneficial. Yes. I really like the ease of use of it. Yeah. Absolutely. Okay.

And so um commissioners wanted to to start uh the budget process uh in discussion with this one because that is our current budget. And so as you as we get to those meetings that you were referencing, Mayor Pro Tim, you know, in advance of that, we'll be talking about where we sit today. Uh and so I would uh ask you to, you know, to to get in there and look at that and so and familiarize yourself with with some of that because it does on the expense side. Um you know, personnel is always going to be our largest expense uh across all departments uh across the agency. Um and uh but on the revenue side, you can really see, you know, what where our big four revenues uh are and uh you can see where our big four expenses are. Um but you can also see going back historically and looking at that revenue is that you'll see a trend line that we're we're really not I mean our revenue is not jumping up real much. You know, it's it's pretty uh pretty consistent over the last several years. uh our expenses because of personnel are increasing and so uh that is going to be a a big part of our discussion during the budget process this year is is that uh while financially we are sound uh I don't want it uh to sound like chicken little here that the sky is falling because it's not our team does a good job of of allocating and being good stewards of the public dollars but there is a reality that you know the more that we take on the more uh activities that we have, investment in our own facilities, investment in community facilities, uh you know, the if we can get that grant uh to help to to your point, Commissioner Smith, you know, $440,000 investment on a you know, on a nearly, you know, $2 million project is is a good and we look for those uh but those are the realities also of finances versus, you know, revenue versus

expenses and and how do we move forward and continue to stay financially stable? And so again, wanted to to have the team start tonight with uh the transparency page. We've had it out there for a couple years. Uh and also wanted for the public to understand that it is out there. I'm glad to hear that that that we we are getting some some use of that from the public and they're sharing that with you because that was our goal when we when we rolled that out a couple years ago is to be more open. They are public dollars. uh we are the stewards of those dollars and we want to show how we're we're being judicious with those and so that's why we wanted to start tonight.

And just a quick thought whenever we like you know around tax time that's where people kind of get upset with the city. Do we put a queue or do we link that financial site to any the mail that goes out or anything related to tax time or can we in the future?

We are looking at um lots of different options right now with community engagement. Um we've actually been talking about property tax time. Uh we just yesterday we had um a class over at at the McCracken County Library on the second floor. We had a class on business license renewal. Uh we may have something similar to that during property tax time if people have questions about how their bill is calculated. Um and and perhaps something like that uh with the QR code or something to lead them to our website definitely is a good consideration. So, we're really uh my team right now is is awesome and especially that revenue side um they are really innovative and looking at new ways uh to engage with the community and to educate and so I will take that recommendation back to them.

Thank you. Mhm. And and and to your to your point also and one thing about our transparency side when you talk about those taxes, u I know I sound like a broken record to this body is that when our tax bills go out, we collect for Paduka Independent School System. Uh that revenue isn't on our transparency page because it's not our revenue. We just collect on their behalf. And so the largest portion of the city's tax bill actually isn't our dollars. That is it like four times as much. It was I think for this year it was 88.882 and ours is 271. Mhm. So four times. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Thank you. I'll look forward to the next presentations. Yep. We'll be talking about expenses next time. General fund expenses. That's great. Thank you.

Uh city manager, do you have any other comments tonight? Uh just uh want to again acknowledge as as you did earlier and rightfully so the the work that our team put in uh with our union contract negotiations. Uh appreciate uh the representatives from ASME and the police department uh being here tonight and then also but their work uh and the work of our team to get to a point to where we could go ahead and have those uh ready to to move forward uh at the first of the fiscal year. Those are those are three-year contracts. Um, and uh they don't come together uh real uh overnight. Uh and so all parties working together uh got us to tonight and appreciate their their efforts and and their hard work as well as um you know the police chief uh and our representatives from uh our public works and parks and engineering uh where we also have representatives from Ashby and then our HR directors. Appreciate their hard work to get us here tonight. Any city commissioner can comments?

Just a comment. You know, city's getting really pretty. Things are blooming out, you know, and I just uh you know, um just want to make a plug. You know, if you see litter or don't litter, but see litter, pick it up. I appreciate all the work that our ask me people have done. So, I just I'm very appreciative of everything that goes into making city pretty. And I saw yesterday u the street crew was um or maybe it was Amy's group were actually cleaning out the flower beds downtown. I know those are are a big thing for you and for all of us, but you've been a real advocate of making sure those beds look nice and are planted and all and I see that's going on too. So, it's a great time of year.

It is a really pretty time in our city. We're getting ready for the Dogwood Trail and then all the quilters that are coming in. So, I would urge all business owners to really uh spiff it up, put some flowers out, plant some flowers, and I'm glad we're doing that. So, thank you. We got to put out a PSA, Buzz Smith, don't litter.

I was just going to mention part of what Commissioner Smith has mentioned, and that is that uh we're getting a lot of positive comments about how the city is looking and the direction that the city is going in. Uh we just had uh last week or the week before last I had a guest here who has been in Paduka before and he talked extensively about the difference Paduka looks how it looks today than it did few years back when he was here before. So that's exciting. And then I wanted to let you know too that um our second year for the community gardens uh we did some planning on Saturday. going to even have some more beds this this time around. And certainly we appreciate Miss Amy and her uh team, her staff for helping us. She's sitting back there looking unfased and but we certainly do want to thank her for

her her team for being out there helping us. So things are good looking good everywhere you go. Yeah. Mr. Thomas, do you have anything? Disagree.

Great. Well, I know you all have probably already talked about the monoliths maybe two weeks ago and I I was out of town at the Energy Communities Alliance meeting and had some great discussion out there about everything going on at Department of Energy site, but the monoliths are gone. I drove through there Sunday. The mayor says, "How many times a day do I drive through the riverfront?" And I do drive through there pretty often, but it is a beautiful view. I want you to know that we did talk with the artists that had talked to us about a possible art project on that and they certainly understood um that we had decided to take those down and we will look for other opportunities to include art in some way in the uh build grant program. But it is looking amazing. It's huge. I love seeing all the cranes down there. So Greg and all of your team, everybody, it's doing just looks great. I can't wait to to get this summer. You wore this out this morning, too. So, I have my whole path that I go through. So, it's very exciting to see it.

All right. Well, if there's no other business, then I guess we Oh, no. I do have one other thing I want to say. Uh I I feel like the city should offer our condolences. And I know we did send something uh for the passing of Steven Rudy, uh majority house leader of the state house of Kentucky on the loss of his wife, uh this week. And you know, when they did the redistricting, Steven Rudy reached into the city more. So, he does car carry um cover quite a bit of the city and we've been meeting with him and talking to him. So, we just want to send our sympathy and condolences to him and his daughter Maddie and their whole family. Thank you. All right, with that meeting adjourned. Need a motion? I need a motion. Somebody want to make a motion. Mr.

Mr. Henderson, all those in favor? Ajourned. Not a record, but pretty good timing. Oh yeah.