City Commission - Regular Meeting

I'll go ahead and call this meeting to order on September 8th, 2026, and ask our city clerk to please call roll.

Commissioner Henderson.

Present.

Commissioner Smith.

Here.

Commissioner Thomas.

Present.

Commissioner Wilson. Present. Mayor Bray.

Here. I would ask Commissioner Henderson to do the invocation, and then we'll remain standing for the national anthem.

Our Father and our God, again, we're grateful for the day that you've given us and for the blessings that we right now enjoy. We thank you so much, Father, for the privilege that you've given us to serve this community. We pray now, God, that as we talk and discuss and share, that you'll be in the midst of our discussion, guiding our ideas, guiding our understanding. Father, we thank you again for this privilege. In Jesus' name we pray. 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 the agenda? Mayor, none this evening. Okay, the first thing I have is a proclamation I wanna read. Not gonna get up, nobody else is here. But October is city government month, and this is something that we recognize every year. We spend a lot of time educating school children about government, about city government. We think that's important. All the commissioners go out and talk at the schools when asked. And so we are going to honor this proclamation tonight. And it states, whereas civics education is important to ensure Kentucky children develop an interest and an understanding of local government and their role in the community, and whereas Kentucky academic standards for social studies require instruction on citizenship, and local government for entry-level elementary school children. And whereas involving and informing students of local government programs and duties can provide an opportunity for entire families to connect with vital city services and programs. And whereas City Government Month is a civics awareness campaign that educates elementary school students about city services by providing teacher lesson plans, students coloring and activity books, and classroom materials. And whereas City Government Month calls on city officials to get involved in their local schools in educating and engaging elementary school students and city government. Now, therefore, I, George P. Bray, Mayor of the City of Paducah, hereby proclaim September 2026 City Government Month. Okay, with that, we have one person that wants to do public comments. Marshall Davis, come on up.

Hopefully this won't be like a broken record. Maybe I'll have a little different tune every time, but maybe we'll get this done. Hopefully. I guess we'll see eventually. Thank you. Thank you. I'm Marshall Davis. I live at 7 Westvale, Paducah, Kentucky. I appreciate the opportunity to be here, Mayor, Commissioners, Manager, and Clerk. Paducah's current business license taxes the top line of a business, not the bottom line, but also adds a tax break to the largest entities in Paducah. Every dollar that flows through a Paducah business, whether it ultimately ends in a profit or loss, is subject to the levy. The phase threshold increase is a welcome administrative improvement, but it does nothing to address the fundamental flaw structure. A business that loses money still owes city tax, and small businesses continue to pay a dramatically higher effective rate than those large ones throughout the entire phase-in period. Every business with gross receipts at or below the threshold, the vast majority of Paducah small businesses pay the full Schedule D rate of 0.3% in every year of the phase-in. The threshold increase delivers zero benefit to them. while the relief flows entirely to businesses large enough to have receipts above the threshold and grows more generous the larger the business. By 2030, a business with 20 million in gross receipts pays an effective rate of .178%, less than 60% of what the small business next door pays on its 500,000 in receipts. The same schedule repeats across every schedule. or the same pattern. Under Schedule C, a small restaurant, the neighborhood diner at $400,000 in receipts never benefits from the rising threshold, while the regional chain at $10 million sees meaningful rate relief each year. Kentucky law authorizes cities to impose occupational license taxes on either net profit or gross receipts. But the overwhelming consensus among Kentucky major cities is to tax on net profits, the amount actually earned after legitimate business expenses are deducted. Consider these municipal taxes. Lexington-Fayette County net profit. Louisville Metro net profit. Bowling Green net profit. Ashland, Henderson, Hopkinsville, Covington, Owensboro, all net profit taxed. Paducah's gross receipts from .045% to a half percent. Every major Kentucky City business, every Kentucky City taxes businesses on what they actually earn except Paducah. Paducah stands alone in taxing what merely passes through the business's hands, regardless of whether that business ends the year in profit or loss. I urge you to reconsider the effects of the gross receipts tax and implement a net profits tax. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you for being here. So I'll move to the consent agenda. Items on the consent agenda are considered to be routine by the Board of Commissioners and will be enacted by one motion and one vote. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a board member so requests. 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 unless any commissioner would like an item removed for separate discussion. I would please.

I've got questions on F, H, and K. Sorry about that.

Okay. Okay.

Approve minutes for the August 25th, 2026 Board of Commissioners meeting. Receive and file documents. Personnel actions. A municipal order amending the fiscal year 2027 position and pay schedule for the full-time employees of the City of Paducah, Kentucky. A municipal order amending the job grade schedule for the employees of the City of Paducah, Kentucky for fiscal year 2027. A municipal order authorizing the mayor to execute a memorandum of agreement with the Commonwealth of Kentucky Department of Military Affairs, Kentucky Division of Emergency Management for participation in the Kentucky Urban Search and Rescue Program. A municipal order authorizing the mayor to execute an amendment to the agreement with Tyler Technologies Incorporated for Software Services. A municipal order authorizing the mayor to execute a memorandum of agreement between the City of Paducah and the Commonwealth of Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Department of Highways in the amount of $100,000 for the South 21st Street Rehabilitation Program. A municipal order authorizing and directing the mayor to execute a lease agreement between the city of Paducah And Paducah Film Society for lease of Maiden Alley Cinema located at 112 Maiden Alley, Paducah, Kentucky. Municipal order authorizing and directing the mayor to execute a lease agreement between the city of Paducah and River Heritage Museum for lease of the River Discovery Center located at 117 South Water Street, Paducah, Kentucky. A municipal order approving an employment agreement between the city of Paducah and Carol Galt for employment as the director of community development and authorizing the mayor to execute same.

So move. Second. Call roll.

Commissioner Henderson. Aye. Commissioner Smith.

Aye.

Commissioner Thomas. Aye. Commissioner Wilson. Aye. Mayor Bray.

Aye. Okay, let's take these one at a time. I'm going to take the ones that we pulled off first.

Item F, a proposed motion of the Board of Commissioners to approve a municipal order entitled Approving Agreements Related to the Fire Department Training Facility Water Main Project and Authorizing the Mayor to Execute All Documents Related Thereto.

Second. Second.

So moved. Oh, you took, this is what you wanted. So moved. A second. All right, then.

You don't want one of them all. I'm sorry. I guess I got too excited.

He's got a question he wants to ask.

He wants to ask it bad. No, just my question. It wasn't clear to me from reading the write-up. Is $280,000 for an enhanced water supply for the fire training?

Yes. Can you explain that? I can. So the new site that we have, it does have water up to it, but the water that we have up to it is a six-inch water main that's over 100 years old. It cannot supply the training field with water. the supply that's gonna be needed and hold up under the use that it's gonna get. It's very fragile is I think how Jason would cash it. But it does work today. So they're gonna run a new eight inch main from Caldwell up to the entrance of the training field. And what that proposes is that we split that cost. And then from the point where it ends, at the entrance of the training field on in. That is our cost as part of the development of the training field. But they're going to, we're basically splitting the cost of the water main from Caldwell up to Tennessee in the entrance.

So an hour half is $280,000 and I guess you're saying Paducah Water is paying $280,000?

They're paying up to $280,000 and anything over there is ours.

And then we will spend money, once that site is developed out, then we'll spend additional money to get that water main actually to our structure or structures on the fire.

Correct. That would be what they consider private development of a site. No, I can understand that.

Okay, so do we know how much this training, all total, how much our cost will be to develop this fire training area?

I don't have that in front of me tonight, no, sir. No.

Do you know when we could get that? Because, I mean, this is like the first part of that. It is. So we're kind of going down that path.

Well, and so we're getting ready to push out an RFP to do some initial development of the site. That'll give us, and we have a limited amount of money that's going to be left over because we weren't expecting to do the water main. Our goal was to do some development of the site and start the construction of the tower, if not get the tower constructed. I do not believe we're going to have enough money to construct the tower now. The goal is to get the site developed flat, get our water retention done, get our road network inside, and hopefully get the extended water main that we're looking to operate off of inside the site. That's what I think we might be able to get done with this first phase. As far as a build out after that, the biggest structures that we'll have sometime in the first would be the tower. And I've got an estimate of around three-quarters of a million for the tower itself. But we're not going to be building that today. It could be two years from now. So, you know, those numbers, we'll have to get them checked again. Eventually down the road, we want a classroom facility on the site. But, you know, that's so far out, I don't know when we'll get to that.

Well, we – I mean, if we're going to put – you know, a million or whatever it is in the site, will there be any kind of agreement with other fire agencies where we can share the cost of developing this, or have we done any work on that?

Well, I think we can get access to grant funds and make the site usable to others, but I don't anticipate getting any money from any other fire departments to develop the site.

I would like to propose that we pause action on this until we see a holistic plan of what we plan on spending and doing on this, developing the fire water tower.

Go ahead, Commissioner. I was just going to say, you said the Paducah water, $280,000. But our part could be potentially more than the $280,000.

A little bit, yeah. That was an estimate that BFW did for us for that specific part of the project, yes. I don't have a hard number on that because the project hasn't been let yet.

Yeah, but just for clarification, this part here is separate from the development of the site. And so what had been agreed by Paducah Water Board and what I'd shared over a couple of the briefings with the commissioners is that The estimated cost of this first redoing of the pipe would be 400 and some odd thousand, which was estimated, and it meant that Paducah Water was going to cover more than 50% of that cost on that estimate because ours was going to be up there, and we were going to use the funds from the sale of the current site to help to cover this. Offsite. Offset that cost.

Have we voted on some of this before? Yes.

Well, you voted on the purchasing, getting the land and doing the development and selling the current site. Current site.

So we have been voting to go down this road.

I'm saying this because I've not seen any dollar amounts. I don't think any of us know exactly how much it's going to cost to develop this site out, what we're planning on doing and all. It just seems kind of premature to be. going down this pathway. I don't mind going down the pathway, but I do would like to know how much we're planning on spending, how much development costs will be when we're planning on spending it, you know, just instead of just voting for the things, you know, one piece at a time without seeing a big picture. That's all I'm saying.

I'm not saying there's a... Yeah, this... Again, what we had talked about when this had come up on needing to replace, I had shared that in my briefings with the commission about this aspect of it and how we were going that. And so from that aspect, it's also similar to other economic development projects we've done with Paducah Water to where there is a failing portion of the system, and we split the cost of that. This also would allow for potential additional development in that area on the street side.

Still improve things for the south side development.

South side development as well.

Well, I'm just going to jump in here. I mean, I don't think it's a bad thing, you know, for us to take a pause and make sure that we understand what the potential of the long-term plan is. Um, I mean, I think it's, um, I think it's, I think it's a good, some good input. Um, because I'm not sure all of us really understand what's, I mean, we're just, we're voting on this and we don't know what the long-term plan is. And I think I'd like to see what the long-term plan is, what the estimated cost of the long-term plan is. And we could probably get that together in a, in short order, you know, within, um,

Is there a time issue on this vote? I mean, that's how, because Paducah Water took that to their board to vote for this agreement.

Yeah, we pushed Paducah Water along to get their side done so we could get started on work trying to get this thing moving. And the water line was unanticipated. I mean, the development of the site, I think I'll be able to address your concerns probably just in a smaller conversation maybe to help you understand the But the water line is hijacked here for us, and we've got to replace the water line in order to have water to the site. We can't do anything without that. And we have the sale of the current site to JSA dependent upon we've already done that. We're signing that paperwork tomorrow, I think, right? And that money is going to be used to do the water line for the new locations.

So regardless of what it costs, we still are going to end up doing this, having to do this. That's what I'm understanding. We're going to still have to do what you said.

I think you would as the south side developed. You'd end up having to do it anyway, yeah. It's just timing and whether or not the training field's accelerated to timing because we're developing, trying to get that developed. But the line that they have there today is over 100 years old, six inches.

There's no, I mean... I know we're selling the piece of property, we're going to use proceeds from that to pay for this as well as other development for the new training facility, but it's not like we have to spend this, I mean, that money can be put aside for A week, two weeks, a month, whatever, until we have the whole picture of what this looks like. Sure. I mean, there's no hair on fire. Well, mine was. That's okay. Actually, no pun intended. But, I mean, these are my concerns. They may not be the concerns for the rest of the group, but that's just... One thing that I just have never seen a whole holistic thing on the fire training, what we're planning on doing, the steps and all that. Any other discussion?

So are you making a motion to postpone?

I'll make a motion to postpone until we can see the holistic plan for the fire training. Is there another motion on the floor?

There is, but if this would come first, we would take a vote on postponing, and then if that fails, we'll go back to the original.

Okay. I guess one quick question before then. So would this throw off the timeline for getting this developed if we postpone?

Well, it does for the timeline I had, yes. But, I mean, I kind of feel like we're already behind anyway because we've – move forward in selling the existing site, not putting any more money into it. We've got to have a training site for our abilities to be able to train. A new tower is the most critical component of that, and I'm working as expeditiously as I can to try to get that done. Yes.

Lindsey, before we vote, would you clarify a yes vote or a no vote, what that stands for?

So right now we have a motion on the table from Commissioner Smith to postpone consideration of this item until we have an understanding of the long-term plan and estimated cost.

Correct.

That would need a second. A yes vote would mean we will postpone this item for a later date. Is there a second to that motion? Motion dies for lack of second, so we'll go back to the original motion, and that would be to approve this going forward. And we have a motion and a second on that already.

Call roll.

Commissioner Henderson?

Yes. Aye.

Commissioner Smith?

No.

Commissioner Thomas?

Aye.

Commissioner Wilson?

Aye.

Mayor Bray?

Aye.

Thank you. Now, let me just make this, I think we need to see a plan. I think we need to see something documented on what the long-term plan is for that. I think it was a good discussion and it shows that we've got commissioners reading our stuff before they come and so I appreciate that and so let's try to get something together.

We're already working. I mean, we've got you know, BFW under for engagement of services, and so that's the process already in place.

Cool. Good, good. I read, too. He's not the only one.

Me, too.

I said commissioners. I said plural. Yeah, I didn't mean it like that. Okay, let's move to the next item.

A proposed motion of the Board of Commissioners to adopt a municipal order entitled a municipal order authorizing the mayor to execute a contract for services with Paducah Junior College Incorporated for the community scholarship program in the amount of $100,000. So moved. Second.

My comment slash concern is one that we talked about before or maybe I've talked about before is that This fund, I believe, is pushing $3 million at WKCTC, and I don't think that they need the money. They may want the money, but I think they're overfunded, and I don't think that we should be making contributions to that fund until they're spending the money down to where replacement is needed. So that's my comment. And so I would propose not making the contribution this year, monitoring their balance to see if, I mean, because we could spend that $100,000 paving, for instance.

But that's my motion, and that may die from lack of second, too, but I just want to... Well, let's talk about that, because Commissioner Smith and I had... I had lunch with Eric Straub, who's heading up that committee, and Commissioner Smith is correct in that there's a lump sum of money out there in that fund, and they spend the earnings off that each year, but the fund is designed to be able to educate everybody from eighth grade on. So if the fund would go away, they could educate everybody that's in the eighth grade today through high school is the way I understand it.

Those five years, they would have the money to pay for them for their two years at WKCTC. Right.

You know, I've worked with WKCTC the last two years urging them to urging them to make sure that they spend as much of that money as possible, meaning that we need to make sure that we've identified people who can use scholarships and need scholarships because a lot of the scholarships that are offered go unclaimed because the people go somewhere else. You know, they go to college at Murray or Western or UK, whatever. And so there's something about it that I think needs restructuring. And I think at this point WKCTC has certainly listened to us, but they've not changed anything. And I'll point out that I think the county provides an annual... stipend to them of $125,000. I believe I'm correct. And we're at $100,000. But this comes up every year. And so...

I would just say, I think if we were going to pull it, and we should have probably had WKCTC to be here to give us their results. I know, you know, as far as what you're saying about the students, I know that they've had people, they have staff in the high schools working with them. They do. I think they have, I might be saying this wrong, I think they have relaxed the rule where they had to sign up as a freshman to be eligible when they graduate so that they could make sure that every student that qualifies can do it. There are certain qualifications as far as GPA, not being in trouble, all of those kind of qualifications to make them eligible for it. But it is an important tool that our community has to try to get more students to go to college and to complete some type of degree or certificate or whatever that they can at WKCTC. So they're at least getting one to two years more of school And I saw Bruce come in. I know that it's used in our promotion of our community that we're, you know, it sets us apart from a lot of other communities that we have this program, that some states have it. Our state doesn't have that program, but our community does, that we provide to your education for students in our community.

I mean, I just want to make sure that this doesn't get mischaracterized. I don't think there's anyone saying, I'm saying it's a good program. I'm just saying that they're overfunded. And to talk about it being such a great program and all, it absolutely is, but that is not the topic that I'm bringing up. My topic is that it's overfunded and that there's plenty of funding.

They would say they have to have that, a certain minimum, to ensure that they have the money to continue forward. That's what I've heard them say in the past.

It's not their guaranteeing. It's our money. We're the ones guaranteeing.

Well, us, the county, and then they have a lot of private donors as well.

But that's just what I'm saying is I'm just saying that it's overfunded. They have a lot of funds. It's a great program, no doubt about it. But I don't want to be characterized as if I'm saying it's not a good program. I'm a supporter of the program, too. I just think it's clearly overfunded.

I'm sorry. I think we've had this conversation before. We have. We have. And I think if we were going to defund it or take it away, I think shouldn't this have been a conversation that we've had with the school before tonight, before we are prepared to vote on this?

Well, not only with the school, but I mean, to me, the time to have this discussion is when we're going through the budget. And so we budgeted $100,000, and that doesn't mean we can't change it, because we can. But I think, you know, I think, you know, A, we should continue discussions with the school, and we should make them even more aware that, you know, that we need to understand better how they're going to spend this money and whether or not they really have to have this amount of money in a fund. And, B, this discussion needs to come up before our next budgeting session. is what I would recommend.

Well, I think that we should... I think my position the last time we talked about this was that we should make sure that we have enough money there to always do what it is that we're doing now. I don't know that we'd ever want to get to a point where we're at the bare minimum or it becomes urgent that we have to do something. Let's just keep putting it there so that they can keep accessing it as long as they need to.

Right. I agree. Just know that... They've got a lot of funds. The money is there. Yeah, the money is there. There's plenty of money there.

Keep on putting it in there. If the county gives 125, we ought to give 130. Oh, wow. Okay. So maybe we should just do what we're going to do, right?

Right.

So to be clear, the motion that's on the table right now is a motion from Commissioner Smith to approve postpone a vote to approve this allocation until?

Until next year. Until next year. I mean, that was, yeah.

So you're essentially proposing that we skip the payment for this year?

Absolutely, yeah. Okay. But I have a feeling that's going to die for like a second, too, based on the conversation.

We have a second.

Okay, we are back to the original motion to approve that has a motion and a second. Commissioner Henderson?

Aye.

Commissioner Smith?

No.

Commissioner Thomas?

Aye.

Commissioner Wilson? Aye. Mayor Bray?

Aye.

A proposed motion of the Board of Commissioners to adopt a municipal order entitled, a municipal order authorizing and directing the mayor to execute a lease agreement between the City of Paducah and Siemens Church Institute for lease of the Siemens Church Institute located at 129 South Water Street, Paducah, Kentucky.

So moved.

Second. My comment on this is that I believe this lease is at $3 a square foot. I think that's right. Michelle? Don't think that price has gone up in how many years. But when I go through research, which is mostly AI stuff, but generally stuff is going for $12 to $19 a square foot. I know that Siemens Church has gotten a deal on their lease. They've been around for 30 years, but it just seems like we should, not be renewing leases for the same amount. We should be getting a little bit more than just the $3 instead of just turn around and re-leasing things at the same rate. So I'd like to see the lease go up a little bit closer to market rate than just stay the same without even anyone considering or discussing what that rate is.

And I understand that their lease expires the end of this month? And is there a clause in their current lease to have them on a month-to-month? Okay. So do you have a motion?

Yes. I have a motion to pause this until we look at a better rate, a different rate, than just to turn around and renew the rate existing. So delay it for a month for us to take a good look at it.

Okay. I'll second that.

Ready for a vote on postponing for one month to take a closer look at the rates?

Just for clarification, and Michelle, you can... So we've already approved the other leases with Paducah Film Society and River Heritage Museum. Currently, this lease is all tied up into one, and it was broken out to... at the request of one of those leaseholders to be able to have themselves the River Heritage. And so that's how we got into breaking those out into that. If we pause on this one, I don't know what impact that might have on the others since those have already been approved.

Yeah, I don't know. We'll have to, I think, talk about that tomorrow and figure out what the best course of action forward is for everybody. I mean, everybody's amenable to these changes and breaking them out, so I think we can work through that. I don't know off the top of my head exactly how we'd have to think through that, but we can figure it out.

Have you already done a study of the lease? I mean, of the... So we did... Been working on this for a while, I guess.

We did some market rates, Chris and I did earlier this year, with another lease. What we focused on with these leases are separating them out and making them shorter and then reevaluating more of those, the rate in three years. So the focus was more separating them out and making them shorter. And we know it's historically been under market. I mean, that's the approach we've typically taken.

Did the rates for the other two stay the same? Yes. Yes. So we would only be raising the rate on Siemens Church Institute?

The River Discovery and Maiden Alley, they do that dollar a year to lease, so they don't have a cost per square foot.

They rent their space for a dollar per year for the whole facility? And Siemens does theirs at so much per foot, per square foot, so they already pay a lot more than the other two.

Mm-hmm.

And Commissioner Smith says the rates, the market rate, are anywhere from $13 to $19 a square foot. I don't think we... What I can come up with.

Yeah, I don't... I think, again, the point is we want to study. You know, just take a pause. I'm not suggesting myself personally that... I mean, Siemens Church Institute is a great benefit to Paducah. I mean, we're a river town. They do fantastic work. So that's been the argument from the beginning, you know, for a low rate was because of the – but I don't think it's a bad thing for us to evaluate where we are in relation to market.

But they're a nonprofit, right? So we would be looking at raising the rate or else we would just be approving it tonight, right? Are you – Correct.

I think, I mean, and we evaluate, we come back and say, okay, we're going to vote on the same thing a month from now, but I think we need to understand the market rates. And also we need to understand, make sure the commission understands Siemens Institute. I mean, they're a big, they're a non-profit, but they're a big organization nationwide.

Well, I know they were heavily recruited when they were located here, I think by Mayor Montgomery, because it was a Definitely an anchor for our community. The number of people that come in for the training definitely have a big economic impact on our community. I think there are other things to be reviewing as well. Right. To keep in mind. I'm not saying to review that. To keep in mind.

Okay, we have a motion and a second on the floor.

Would you explain? This is to postpone this item for one month. A yes vote will postpone for one month.

We say month. We just took the next to the October 2nd commission meeting. That's a special call meeting. Have it on that one.

Commissioner Henderson?

No.

Commissioner Smith?

Aye.

Commissioner Thomas?

Aye.

Commissioner Wilson? No. Mayor Bray?

Aye.

Motion passes.

Okay, thanks for the excitement.

Sorry, I'll be quiet. No, you won't.

All right, let's move on to municipal orders.

I propose a motion of the Board of Commissioners to adopt a municipal order entitled a municipal order approving an agreement between the City of Paducah, Kentucky and Northwest Tennessee Disposal Corporation for the transfer, transport, and disposal of municipal solid waste and authorizing the mayor to execute the agreement.

So moved. Seconded. Michelle?

Good evening, Mayor, Commissioner, City Manager, and City Clerk. Chris Yarber would typically be presenting this, but of course he is unable to be here, so he's stuck with me today. So this is an important contract for us. This would be basically doing business with Republic, is who they're more commonly known as. that maintains our transfer station where we take our solid waste and recyclables, and they're also responsible for transporting and disposing the solid waste and recyclables to the appropriate facility, and then also running our citizen drop-off services. So we did go out for an RFP. They came back as the lowest evaluated proposal. And the service date, this is similar to those others where we're shortening the contracts. So the service date under this agreement would start in September 27th of 2026. And it would be for five years with the option to extend for another five years. Really, day to day, the citizens and the businesses won't see much of a difference this is more of a back end of you know where we take our solid waste and recyclables that we pick up the biggest change would be the recycling drop-off location that would change effective on september 28th Another change in the contract is that the Republic will actually be contributing to our spring cleanup day. And so they'll be contributing $20,000 each year. Oh, another thing I wanted to mention is with the citizens not really seeing a change, the recyclables are staying the same that we currently accept both curbside and at the drop-off facility. I'm glad to talk a little bit about the drop-off facility, but we do have a representative here from Republic who I think would like to say a few words, if that's okay.

Please.

Good evening, Commissioners. For the record, my name is Todd Chamberlain, and I'm the Manager of Municipal and Government Affairs for Republic Services. We're very excited about the partnership with the city going forward, not just to manage the MSW, the trash and the waste that is generated and collected within the city limits, but also to work with you as a partner on recycling and expand that to drive additional diversions through the use of our transfer station that we have that is in very close proximity to your public works facility. In fact, we share a fence line. So when you look at things and opportunities to find partnerships, there's really some efficiencies and some productivity that you will benefit from with the proximity of this facility next door. But as far as recycling goes, our company feels that recycling and diversions are absolutely essential to the entire wholesale waste management process. So much so that not only are we focusing on just the keys of recycling, Plastics 1 through 7s, we divide it into fibers and rigids with aluminum and metal cans and that type of material. But what we have found is that through partnerships with our national accounts customers, such as PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, and a lot of large manufacturers, they simply can't get enough plastic. to meet their own post-consumer use goals. So what we have done is we have volume from a variety of municipal contracts throughout the country. What we're trying to do is figure out how to get that volume, source it out. So what we have done is we've created four polymer centers and the plastics that we collect here in Paducah and other contracts will ultimately be consolidated into volume that will go to these polymer centers where we will Color separate, wash, flake, and then provide back to these manufacturers who want an orange to make another orange Tide bottle. So that particular product and specifically in the plastic side of our business is really really important to these folks so rather than going out and having to create more material and plastic they want clear green for the squint bottles they want They want the orange for tide they want a variety of these colors so we have created these polymer centers and that's where we're going to focus on where your material as well as hundreds of thousands of tons across the country are going to be utilized in the same way. So we're excited about it. We're excited about the opportunity to work with you to expand recycling, not just in those aspects, but ones that make sense. I'm really, really big on finding diversions that make sense rather than just wishful cycling is what I call it. I would love to be able to recycle absolutely everything. About 70% of what we throw away can be recycled. The problem is there's no markets for them. Unless you have a market, unless you have volume, unless you can manage the transportation costs, it's very difficult to drive that. So we want to partner with you and look for other opportunities, not just in the ridges and the fibers that we have today, but continue to push that envelope as much as we can. Well, glad to answer any questions that you have.

Yeah, so thank you for being here. We're excited to get started with you. Glass is kind of a constant question from our customers. I'm sure there's more expense with that, but I know glass is recycled.

It absolutely is recyclable. As I mentioned, those things that you have to have a market for. I'll give you a good example. Across the river in Indiana, up toward Indianapolis, they have a certainty plant. makes fiberglass insulation. They're more than glad to take a lot of that glass. However, getting the glass from any point to there is significantly more expensive than the value of that. We believe that there is a recycling option for most items. It's whether or not the finances make it make sense. But I will also say this very loudly. Doing the right thing often costs more money. It's just the reality of what we work in. So if it is important to the residents, if important to the administration, it's important to our company, then we can entertain those things and look at diversions and see how they would fit. But glass is one that I get asked so often, Mayor. Out west, they will take the green, the clear, and the brown. They will crush it, tumble it, and it's used for ground cover. Instead of mulch, out west, where we use mulch of a variety of colors, they use that as ground cover. The trend just isn't that here. And I wish I had a better answer for you. We've done some test experiments in trying to find it, but you just don't have... Uses for it if you don't have an outlet for it, and it's difficult to make it make sense.

We'd love to see it So another question I have is that you know Paducah has in the last Four years, I guess you'd say three or four years. You know we've really increased our curbside recycling We've all worked on that staff has worked on that a group of us went down and actually toward where our recyclables go. Where will our recyclables go with you?

We will take the materials from our facility here in Paducah, and we will transload those into tractor trailers, and they will actually go to what used to be called ReCommunity in Memphis, Tennessee, but now it's just simply known as Republic Recycling. Um, and we have a facility there and it is at that point it will get segmented out and we will determine what materials go to which mills. If it is the plastics, uh, one through sevens, we're going to focus on trying to get those to one of our polymer centers, which the closest facility to, to our area or a region would be Indianapolis. Um, you have to have a lot of volume. There's one in Indianapolis, there's one operational in, uh, Las Vegas. Houston and Dallas are fighting over who's going to get the next one. And then there will also be one in the Carolinas. But there will only be four facilities.

So I would just say we've done a good job of increasing that. So anything you can do to help us increase that, educate our You know, our residents on recycling. I was talking to my niece the other day, and she called me when I was bringing the recycling up the driveway, and she said, we've got a recycling can, but we're not doing it. And so that made me very sad. One of my relatives wasn't recycling, so... My last question has to do with... where people take their recycling. It's moving from out in Littleville out to...

Yes, to 829 Burnett, which is, as he mentioned, right behind our Public Works. It's at 9th Street and Burnett. And the hours, the materials we're collecting will be the same. The hours will be Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 4, and Saturday, 7 a.m. to noon. And, of course, we'll work with Pam to get that message out, signage, all of those things. And that will become effective Monday, September 28th.

And the capacity to take those is going to be about the same as what it is now?

Absolutely, yes. In fact, if you look here at the slide, over on, if you're coming off of Burnett Street over to the right-hand side in the corner there, we will ask everyone to go across the scale so we can identify and make sure and basically ask the question, what do you have? Because we don't want to have a high degree of contamination. That's one of the things that's really bad on the recycling side. And they will cross the scale and then go toward the back line, fence line there, the forested area there, and turn right again and go back to this recycling facility where we will have containers available there. The intent and the plan is to have what's called A-frames. These are closed, topped, sliding containers. If someone's source separates them and says, I'm going to just put my paper in this one, my cardboard in this one, and my rigids in this one, they'll have that option. But then you don't have to separate by any means. You can put it in there. It's called single stream. You just throw it all in together and we will transport it and run it through the transfer station and then to the recycling facilities. And we can also provide as part of reporting, you know, the tonnages. I think in the RFP, roughly 1,600 tons is what was reported for the recycling side. We can provide you reporting to show increase, decrease, status quo, but obviously we want to see that increase.

You know, I don't want to go down a deep hole here, but I know that in our previous discussions we'd identified – You know, the fact that people from surrounding counties bring their recycling to us because they don't have availability. And we don't charge them for that. And so we're paying for that. So I think that's a future opportunity for us to take a look at. making sure, I don't know if you do that in other locations to try to verify residency. I'm sure that's complicated.

The reality is doing the right thing is often difficult, as I mentioned earlier. That said, provided that we can manage the volume inbound and that it does not disrupt any of the waste and collections. I don't see a problem because I think that the delta between what recycling volume is coming in versus what the trash volume that we would need to manage the delta is very of the difference there is very large. So I think we have plenty of capacity to manage a significant increase on the recycling side. And yes, I mean, there's a processing fee, you know, for the curbside volume, but we're not charging The residents or the administration for what a resident brings in in their own pickup truck or in their own vehicle.

So that's a discussion for a future day. Sure. All right. That was my questions.

I just comment that that's a very handy recycling location. We feel so as well.

Okay, thank you very much for being here. Thank you, Michelle. I'd ask the city clerk to call roll, please.

Commissioner Henderson?

Aye.

Commissioner Smith?

Aye.

Commissioner Thomas? Aye. Commissioner Wilson? Aye. Mayor Bray?

Aye. May we go to the next one?

A proposed motion of the Board of Commissioners to adopt a municipal order entitled a municipal order declaring certain city-owned real property located on Salem Avenue and Hampton Avenue as surplus property, authorizing the sale of said property to Salem Avenue LLC, authorizing the mayor to execute a development agreement, and authorizing the mayor to execute special warranty deeds and other documents necessary to complete the conveyance.

So moved. Second.

Good evening, everyone. We have a development agreement with Salem Avenue LLC for you to look at tonight. And Mr. Ed Cooper, who is the developer, is here. And there were 10 parcels located along that block on Salem Avenue that were for sale by a private owner. And the city had about six lots. We go six and seven. There were two 20-foot lots that really couldn't be built on. So we're going to essentially combine those and do a waiver of subdivision so he gets a good 40-foot lot. So it will lessen the number of lot by one. But he made a proposal to build 15 single-family residential homes throughout that whole block. And so this is the development agreement that follows suit with that. And we're going to reimburse 5% or 10,000 on each home, whichever is the least amount is what he's agreed to. And none of the homes shall exceed $250,000 in sale price. And he's just starting to build them one right after another. And it runs through August 1st of 2029. But he's here to answer any questions. We're pretty excited to have a developer come up and take a whole block and do single-family residential and do them at the rate he's doing them and the quality product that he's doing.

Well, we'd like to meet him, for sure.

We'll bring him up. Contrary to popular belief, I have not been in a fight. I had an allergic reaction. But when I saw him tonight for the first time, he looked at me, and I know he was thinking, you're even duking it out with him. But here he is.

Thank you, sir, and welcome. So tell us a little bit about yourself.

I grew up in Paducah. Graduated in 1978 from Heath High School. Left shortly after that, 79, to go to college. Was gone for a little over 40 years. I was in college the whole time. My wife also is Paducah native. We went to high school together. She came back and bought a house, actually bought Bruce's house in 2023, I guess. And I followed not long after. I travel a good bit. And I had a hole in my heart, atrial cancer. and that I've had since birth was repaired on the third try in January of last year. And as I recovered from that, I'm like, you know, I feel better than I have for a long time, need something to do. Technically, I'm retired for the third time. And so I was looking at buying some houses to rent as midterm rentals. Actually was looking at one on Salem Avenue that was for sale. Came out, Jeff Garner, who is my agent, I'm sure. I know Jeff. Was with me, and I saw these lights that had just gone on the market the day before, and I said, well, I'm going to do a 180 here on you, Jeff. And I'm not a builder. I've never built anything. My background is in the mortgage business. I've done a couple thousand construction loans, but had never... driven the nails. I'm still not driving the nails. Bought the lights, started working with Carol and her folks who've been great. They've given me an immense amount of information because, again, I don't know what I'm doing and have been very helpful. I-5 did a design with them. They've been very helpful. Jimmy Langston, who I'm sure most of you know, I worked with him years ago at Paducah Drug Company. So I've gotten a lot of good input from folks. And my goal is to build entry level homes over there so that people preferably who are first time buyers have not been in the market before we can get into the market. We broke ground on March 31st on the first one. And we would have finished it a little bit earlier, but there was a couple of material snafus. But we finished about two Fridays ago, I guess. Some folks looked at it on Sunday, made an offer on Monday, it sold. It's closing on the 22nd. It appraised for $10,000. I listed and sold it for $199,000. And they are first-time buyers that live out of town now but work in Paducah and are going to be moving to Paducah.

Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations.

So excited to work with the city, excited to hopefully provide some opportunity for people to get into the housing market and do something good for the place that I grew up and love.

Thank you. We wish you the best of luck.

Welcome home and let us know. Welcome home again.

Yeah, I've been there, done that myself. Thank you very much. All right, thank you for being here. All right, please call roll.

Commissioner Henderson? Aye. Commissioner Smith?

Aye.

Commissioner Thomas?

Aye.

Commissioner Wilson? Aye. Mayor Bray?

Aye. All right, we have three ordinances to introduce tonight. And I'll ask the city clerk to read the first one.

A proposed motion of the Board of Commissioners to introduce an ordinance entitled, an ordinance authorizing the mayor to execute a memorandum of understanding and residential infill development agreement with Chapman Property Development LLC for the Melody Lane development. This ordinance is summarized as follows. The city and Chapman Property Development LLC desire to enter into a memorandum of understanding providing for the construction and acceptance of eligible public improvements and the reimbursement of certain eligible costs through a residential infill development agreement. Reimbursement shall be limited to eligible costs actually incurred for the construction of public improvements to be acquired and owned by the city not to exceed the amount of city ad valorem real property taxes collected from the development during the applicable five-year eligibility period. I move. Second.

Good evening, Mayor, Commissioners, City Manager, City Clerk. As I said there, this is an infill agreement. for the Chapman development properties for the apartments on Melody Lane and to reimburse for the construction of the road to city standards.

Yeah, where is Melody Lane?

Nolan Road off of...

It's kind of behind the McDonald's on Lone Oak Road?

Correct, yes. Nolan Drive there, that comes off Melody Lane.

And how many apartments?

Eight buildings, four units apiece.

Okay, 32 apartments. Okay. Yeah, and that's the development where the previous developer passed away suddenly? Are we thinking about the same one?

Adjacent to that, part of it. Okay.

Okay, and Jim Chapman is a developer. He also sits on our planning and zoning board, and he's developed some, you know, he bought the Ritz apartments, Ritz, and developed those apartments, and he's got some other developments around town. So it's good to see, you know, one of our better-known developers jumping in to, you know, help us increase housing.

Questions, anybody?

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. That's the city clerk to read the next ordinance introduction.

A proposed motion that the Board of Commissioners introduce an ordinance entitled an ordinance fixing the levies and rates of taxation on all property in the city of Paducah, Kentucky subject to taxation for municipal purposes for the period from July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027 with the purposes of said taxes here and under defined. Purpose and rate per $100, general fund of the city. Real property at $0.253. Personal property except inventory at $0.34. Motor vehicles and watercraft at $0.39. Paducah Junior College real estate at $0.014. Personal property except inventory at $0.014. Motor vehicles and watercraft at $0.031. Property taxes levied herein shall be due and payable in the following manner. In the case of tax bills which reflect an amount due of less than $200, Some moved. Second.

Good evening, Mayor, City Commissioners, City Managers, City Clerk. As Lindsay said, tonight I'm here to talk to you about the proposed property tax rates for fiscal 27. This year we are proposing a decrease for both real estate and personal property rates. For real estate, we are recommending 0.253, which is 25.3 cents per $100 of valuation and is a decrease from last year's rate of 27.1 cents per $100. This is the lowest real estate rate since 2013 when the rate was an even 25 cents. For personal property, we are recommending 0.34, which is a decrease from last year's rate of 0.356. As most of our citizens are primarily interested in the real estate rate, that is where I'd like to focus the remainder of my presentation. The city's property tax rate options are calculated by a state-driven formula that compares the city's current total assessments to those of the prior year. The assessment date for the current year is 1-1 of 2026. This year we're proposing to take the compensating rate, which is the rate that will generate approximately the same amount of revenue as in the prior year. Because the rate calculation is driven by total assessments, the compensating rate can go up or down. So this year, based on the increase in assessed value that we had, the compensating rate is lower than last year's rate by almost two cents per $100. Total real property assessments increased for the city by $206 million. Of this, about $172 million was from reassessments, and the remaining $34 million was from new property and hired property sales. About 9,700 city properties, that is about 67% of city properties, were reassessed, resulting in 4,260 changes in assessment. And all of that information was, we got that from Bill Dunn of the PBA. This means that approximately 70% of city property owners will see a decrease for their real estate bills. And here's an example of what that change might look like. Assuming that you did not receive an assessment up, you've not been reassessed over the past year and your home value is $200,000. Last year, the city portion of your property tax would have been $542, and this year it will be $506 for a decrease of $36. One last thing I'd like to add is that the fiscal 27 budget was prepared with the expectation of taking the compensating rate, so this decision is in line with assumptions that were made during the budget process. Are there any questions?

No questions. I'll just make a comment. We get a lot of calls and comments about people concerned about their assessment on their house, and that's really not anything that We do we don't control that that's something that's done by another by. All that's done officers, yes, but we still get the call so yes, but I just it's always good to point that back out and people watching.

Yes, how that works. We receive a file from the property valuation office and load that file and apply the rates that we pass and that generates the bills.

The thing I'd like to focus on is that 70% of the city taxpayers will have a decrease in real estate taxes.

Actually, Stephanie's here tonight. Stephanie reached out to Bill, and he provided us lots of data regarding the assessments this year. That was very helpful because I was curious to see what percentage of citizens would actually see this decrease.

Ben, that needs to be your headline.

Thank you, Audra. And the rate is as low as it's been since 2013.

Now that, you know, John Perkins, we have the tax rate going back to 19.5 probably, but no, I looked to see when it was, and it was 2013 when it was last.

Not many tax, this time of the year, not many of these meetings are really that happy.

Well, I was going to make a joke when I came up here that usually I bear bad news, and I was kind of excited about this one, so glad to report this.

Thank you very much, Audra.

Yeah, that looks like a good headline. I want to see it tomorrow.

Okay, I'll ask the city clerk to read the last ordinance introduction.

A proposed motion of the Board of Commissioners to introduce an ordinance entitled, an ordinance amending the Code of Ordinances of the City of Paducah, Kentucky to create the Department of Community Development. This ordinance is summarized as follows. This ordinance amends Chapters 2, 18, 34, 42, 46, 54, 82, 102, 106, and 126 of the Paducah Code of Ordinances to create the Department of Community Development. and to update the code to reflect the city's reorganization of certain development-related functions. This ordinance also clarifies the respective roles of the building division, fire prevention division, and other city departments involved in the development review, permitting, inspection, code enforcement, rental occupancy, fire prevention, and related enforcement matters. The Planning Commission held a public hearing on September 3, 2026 and ported a favorable recommendation to the City Commission regarding the proposed amendments to Chapter 126, Zoning. Upon adoption, the ordinance shall be published in summary and shall include the full text of each section that imposes taxes or fees in accordance with KRS 83A.060, subsection 9.

So moved. Second.

Well, Lindsay did the heavy lifting on this one, to be honest. There's about 170 pages of code changes that were required to get this done. And she's been through those with a fine-tooth comb, sent them over to the attorney's office, and then we've all met with the attorney to walk through those. But this is, in essence, creating the Department of Community Development.

Okay. No questions from me. That's what we had to do. Okay, thank you very much for being here, Carol. Okay, any comments from the city manager?

Mayor and commission, and for the public's knowledge, referenced this a little bit earlier in the meeting, we will not have our regularly scheduled second meeting in September due to conflicts. We will have our next meeting as a special called meeting at this time on October the 2nd. That'll be a Friday afternoon.

Friday afternoon. We all have it on our calendars. Okay, comments from any commissioners down this way?

You may know the calendar better than I do, but I know Thursday at 6 o'clock we have the new sports park opening. The next week on Friday at 4 o'clock, Riverfront. Everybody can chime in here. And then Albert Jones Park the last week, and that's I'm not sure what time.

My calendar is messed up.

Oh, DeJuan, come on.

Technology.

What's that week? We got a lot of things going on. We've been working on a lot of projects. We got a lot of ribbon cuttings. I was at the Cobb Park just this last week. 1 o'clock on the 29th. I was at the Cobb Park ribbon cutting. This last week and you know that playground equipment. I was really impressed with the quality of the equipment. It's right there in the middle of the South Side. Actually, there was a couple there that were pregnant expecting their first child. So it was. It was good to be there and good to see the investment that's been made.

1 PM.

Comments down here we good. Okay, we will have an executive session tonight. We do not plan to take any action afterwards. And I would ask the city clerk to please read.

Proposed motion of the Board of Commissioners to go into closed session for discussion of matters pertaining to the following topics. Future sale or acquisition of a specific parcel of real estate as permitted by KRS 61.810 subsection 1B. Proposed or pending litigation as permitted by KRS 61.810 subsection 1C. A specific proposal by a business entity where public discussion of the subject matter would jeopardize the location, retention, expansion, or upgrading of a business entity as permitted by KRSD. 61 point 8 1 0 subsection 1 G and conduct of a performance review of the city manager as permitted by KRS 83 a point 1 5 0 subsection 4 D some move second Carl Commissioner Henderson. All right, Commissioner Smith. All right, Commissioner Thomas Commissioner Wilson Mayor Bray.

All right I'll run to the restaurant

Thank you.