City Council - Regular Meeting

Yeah. Heat. who um believe in uh transparency as a way of doing business uh and as a way of leading. So, thank you again so much for everyone coming and I'll just quickly go through um kind of what these are and add some context. I'm going to do my best to go through it quickly. We thought it best uh to reach out to citizens, to reach out to residents to serve um in a capacity where they could pull together information assisted by the employees and kind of work together to figure out what to recommend to us, what to tell us that you wanted from us. We already have our agenda. We, you know, kind of know what we are working toward. Um the three priorities that I ran on and that I lead um based on are youth investment, economic development with a focus on infrastructure and uh tourism and then uh public safety. So everything we do is going to have something to do with one of those three things if not more. Under each one of these headings are the recommendations that came from those uh committees of residents. And this very simply highlights in red those recommendations that we have either done or that we are in solid progress of completing. And the primary reason and this was the actual document that we um uploaded to our website, shared on social media, but we also uh had some printed so that we can share this information uh with

residents and with other leaders, with partners. And so this sheet is really a an outline of the re recommendations that came from this report. The main reason I wanted to share that with you is not only just to offer you an update as to what we've been doing for the last 10 months and 20 days, but also to point out that we are truly committed to doing the work to make better. We are passionate about it. We work late hours. We work well together because we're serious. Um we don't mention names when we have to critique what is wrong. um we don't attack, we agree to disagree, whether it's the mayor's office and city council or um residents or leadership over the departments, but ultimately work we we have aimed to and I think been successful at working together to get things done and that's what we intend to continue to do. We have worked hard to work on our own agenda while also working on the people's agenda. And that is the spirit in which we intend to operate across the board including um if we if the people see fit to vote um positively and affirmatively for this uh tax proposal. The second thing that um we thought it important to share tonight is this little pamphlet. This pamphlet is basically an overview of the city's finances. On the inside, you'll see a pie chart and a um a table that lists our revenues as well as on the right side our expenses. And what this does not only gives you numbers and

percentages about um the sales tax which is the primary uh revenue source but also the city licenses fines and fees. State of Arkansas is another source. Uh Sarah Casino and Resort is another source. Property taxes which is a small share of the property taxes that you pay to the county but we get a small share of that. franchise fees, which is what you'll see on your phone bill and your util utility bills. Miscellaneous other might be foundation uh um grants and miscellaneous fees or payments uh or revenue. And then the federal government, which amounts to about 2% of our uh total revenue that we receive. And then the same thing is outlined for our expenses which total 48,34,82 and then uh 46,68,560 respectively. You'll note that in our expenses uh we spend a lion share over 50% it's actually 51% of our budget on public safety. That is the very first role and the most important role of government. I don't care if it's federal, state, county or municipal. The first thing we have to do is protect our citizenry and that is why um 51% and it's expensive. Um 51% of everything we take in goes toward public safety. You also see quality of life that would encompass the aquatic center, our parks, um other events, uh anything that is dedicated toward um improving the quality of life of our residents. The administration would amount to all of us uh outside of uniform personnel who work to provide services and administer the um programs, projects uh and offices of city government. Capital projects um it self-explanatory. Our bond debt, I'll

point to that. It's on the back of this in a minute. Miscellaneous other and then restricted revenue. Um we have uh um reserves that is actually not on here. We we have uh by law must maintain $5 million in reserve funds. And so um and we actually have almost 8 million in reserve but that is of course for emergencies. So that is not for expenditure which is why it is not on um expenses. If you'll look on the back that's our debt. And also in walked uh officer Johnson, if you can raise your hand with the police department, thank you for coming. Um on the back you have our bond issues. Um much of what we're still paying for was refinanced. We have a A1 credit rating. City of Pine does and we have very um reasonable actually low rates for our bond debt. Um as you see the terms range from 10 to 30 years and we'll be paying on this for a while. Under that amendment 78, you see eight items. All eight of these items were purchased or funded and financed last year and that amounts to 6.5 a little over $6.5 million with interest rates ranging from 3.6 which was for our fire truck. Uh chief can tell you that that is something that was actually purchased 3 years ago uh and then upon uh delivery is when we had to pay for it and we financed it and purchased that at uh one a little over $1.5 million. Further down at the bottom of the list, you see um hotel 5 years, 4.5% uh financing the $3.3 million to assist with the construction of the uh convention center hotel. The rest of the items in between, which range from 6.99%

to 28.11% interest, is for leases. And unfortunately, these uh these loans and leases were not um contracted in a way that would allow us to pay these debts off early and then pay ourselves back the interest. That's something that we talked about doing earlier this year, but um this happened before my time and that just wasn't this just not the kind of contracts we have. So that's those are short-term loans that we just will have to continue pay on paying on for the next 5 years or next four years. Now um we know and feel very strongly that just like in your own households or just like any other um organizations or institutions that you might be involved in your churches where you have to raise money, spend money in order to provide services and resources for whoever the constituents are. Um, it takes money and in order for you to manage that money, you have to know how much you're taking in, what you're spending it on, or what your debt is.

In order for you to make um informed, wise decisions about the direction that you will go in and what's in the best interest for whatever, for your home and your family, for your church, for your job, for a nonprofit you may volunteer for or work for, serve on the board or what have you. And we felt very strongly that it would not be appropriate to have a conversation about a proposed revitalization and economic development tax without providing you this very critical information in order to be able to contextualize uh what we'll talk about next and be able to make ultimately make a decision or to be able to talk to your council member about um making sure that this gets put on ballot. Now, let me talk a little bit about that process. The process right now is not such that the next time we get in front of the city council that that's time to make a decision. This is all about bringing it forward and informing you so that by mid December, mid to late December, the council will have it put before them in front of the full council um once it's read three times in three separate meetings and they will make a decision as to whether or not they will put it on the ballot. That is not them making a decision to say, "Hey, I think we need to do this." That is saying, "Hey, this is a reasonable enough proposal that makes sense so that we can feel confident to put it in front of the people and then you will decide. From there, we would have about two and a half months to provide you with more information and to basically campaign for people who support it to say, "Hey neighbors, hey family, friends, I support this. I'm going to vote for this just like any other campaign." And by March 3rd on election day, but starting during early election prior to you'll

have uh two weeks leading up to March 3rd to vote and to make a decision. And so the the process is we introduce this information, we bring it to you through these war town hall meetings. We've been on the campus of CER and UAPB. We will also formulate another meeting to meet with um uh faith leaders and we will continue doing press, continue getting on social media. The next phase we will as m as much as we can answer every comment, every question um from uh the pages of our local media so that you get answers to your questions and so that when we have the second full council meeting, it will serve it'll be a special call meeting and it will serve as a um really a public hearing that will allow residents to come and make their voices heard to your city council members to say what you want And um from there we read a third time at the following meeting which will likely be the uh second meeting in December which is on the third Monday if not before. And um prayerfully the uh council will see fit to afford you an opportunity to make a make a decision and um that decision will be yay or nay. It it will require 50% of the votes plus one. And if it does get on the ballot and the people of Pine Bluff vote for 50% plus one, then we will be able to enact this proposal and get some things done. And we will all have done our jobs. We will have come up with some a way to manure resources for our city to do the things that over a dozen other cities are doing in this state. So, it's not just us. And we'll talk a little more bit more about um why we're at Wyatt Penny and what we'll spend it on. But um if the answer is no,

I will say okay and we will do the best we can with what we have. Okay. So um what we've tried to do with this frequently asked question sheet um entitled the revitalization economic development tax and we are tagging our efforts with revive the bluff. One of the first things that we outline uh in uh Roman numeral 1 and two is uh are the priorities that I mentioned earlier and then some examples. And we're going to kind of redefine this in a fact sheet that we will post and and continue to share so that you can have a better idea of the um the proposed the priority projects that will be associated with all eight of these categories. So, these are the eight categories that we would um place the funds in equally and spend your dollars on equally. This is based upon what we know and what we have heard from the people where we need to um address progress uh and improvements in our city. uh economic development, housing and blight eradication, municipal capital improvements and equipment, public works, uh public safety, tourism development and promotion, transportation, youth and senior programs. And what we tried to do is just site a few of the projects that would be priority according to those categories. And I'll touch on a few of them. Now, I have not been in one um town hall since I made my announcement for our mayor and the word pothole did not come up,

which is why I made it number one on this list. And and that's because um I mean that's a part of our infrastructure. is something that everybody's affected by. Whether we're talking about the streets in our neighborhoods on our major thorough affairs, uh what we have to drive over um and bump along over and it's not new. These potholes, especially in long neglected areas, have uh negatively affected our neighborhoods and our vehicles. Yes.

And and our sensibility and view about um what our city looks like and what it feels like. it that is something that would be priority and it's something that we would be able to attack in a very aggressive way. Now, since the beginning of my term, we have focused on this. We started a pilot project that used what's called a hot mix technology and equipment so that we could um repair some of these potholes. And every time this uh huge piece of equipment um makes a repair on the street, it covers a certain area probably about 23 the size of these tables. So it's not just like the cold mix where you pack it, you know, with um what's it called? Um

um starts with a

Thank you. Thank you. um it's not the the coldness. It basically uses heat to soften and in some cases melt the asphalt and it covers a whole large area. So you could be covering um two or three potholes and each one of those impressions is called a burn. And what we did is committed to actually it's a a little bit bigger than that but actually we committed to doing paying for 80 burns in targeted areas that was defined by our street department for every ward. We ended up being able to complete 80 burns in ward wards two and four. Uh we got halfway through three and the contractor uh his ability to get the hot mix that he preferred to use on his machine was no longer available. And so what we decided to do is take money that is available in the street department and purchase the machine ourselves. We found a way to access the hot mix out of Little Rock if we can't get it in Pine Block. We are going through that process now. Now we have pictures for the work we've done. We are serious about it. But the truth is, even with that machine and one to two uh personnel out of the street department, it would still take us at least two years, and I'm probably being generous to address every pothole in the whole city.

Okay. You're not going to get everyone. You You're going to they're going to miss. I mean, well, but but that's and that's my point. But I'm saying even if we were to get everyone, it would take time, right? Yes. And so if we're going to be aggressive about it and truly address the problem, we have to get third party resources to assist. That takes money. Like contractors. Contractor. Contractors. Absolutely. Yes. Chief. Okay. I have a question. I know I'm the chief of staff. I'm going to be I'm going to be a resident for Well, you're not a resident, but go ahead. Okay. So, am I hearing you say that in this sales and use tax act that you're trying to pass that addressing potholes will be a priority? It it is a priority. It I mean it is a priority.

It's on this list. It's on this list. A portion of this money is going to be designated for and okay, while I'm asking the question, well, I'm going to make a statement. trying to find the school tonight in all this dark school. I literally drove around 15 minutes. And when I worked with you during when you were becoming mayor, one of the key things that people talked about was what life was like. And I'm sitting there thinking, I really understand what they mean now. Yes. And so with that, lighting is going to be an issue.

And that's and that is a part of our a big part of our public safety effort. Um, we actually have spent a great deal of the budget that has typically been held and used to cushion the budget over the last several years. Um, we've we have fully staffed our fire and police department. We um hovered around 75 full-time uh uniform personnel for years. We now are at 97 and by the end of the year we will be at 100 because we know that we cannot adequately address our public safety issues, address and resolve the level of crime that we have been dealing with um for years without a stronger presence for prevention, for crime solving and for real time uh crime response by our police department. We cannot do all three of those things and have three, four, and five patrol officers on the street manning and womaning this whole city. And that's what we had. So, we spent the budget on what it was budgeted for. But what does that mean? That means we have less money for carryover. Carryover is what has enabled us to operate on a balanced budget. In 2023, we had a $200,000 deficit on paper, but it really wasn't a deficit because we had the carryover and we knew we had that carryover. Wow.

Same thing with the last two years where we hovered around $2 million. It It's not misappropriations. I'm not saying that. It's a way to budget so that you have enough money to

is to Well, let me finish. We have enough money to manage the city with the programs and the f and the and the staff that we have to do what we can do now and then we don't spend the whole thing because we don't know what'll happen. It's it's a tight budget. It's kind of like in your own house. You want to spend $400 on food, but you get you some coupons, you buy some generic, and then you plan your meals, and you save some of that money cuz you know you're going to spend more money for Thanksgiving. So, you have carryover. That's that's basically what we have been doing. And the point in that is not a criticism. It's a different way of budgeting. But I cannot come in here as in this office as a change agent. Like people, I'm very clear. When you are an elected official and people need you to respond and serve their needs, that's what you got to step up and do. And naturally, people are appreciative and excited and oh, you know, you're doing such a great job. You do a great job until you don't. Until you are not effective in helping people, until things are bad and they're looking at you like, "What you been doing? That is that's the true reality of politics and what people expect. You show up, you vote, you listen to people's promises, and then you expect them to fulfill them. People did not vote for me because they knew me. Everybody that know me in this city of almost 38,000 people, people did not vote for me because they know me. They may recognize my name, but they recognize other names on that ballot. people voted for me because I promised to come in and change the things that people said and that I recognized were wrong and where we could do better. And that's what I'm trying to do. That's the bottom line. When it comes to our sanitation, I made the decision that we were going to look at every contract we have, and it's a

tall order. I'm going to be doing that over the next three years. Not that there's anything wrong on its face or anybody did anything wrong, but if we are not engaging in competitive bids, particularly for those services that where we pay the most money where contractors are coming in making hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars. If we don't challenge that and say, "Hey, what do we have here?" Well, what can what will you, you know, charge? What's your estimate? That's how we try to get the best deal. GPS signal loss,

right? And in that, I'm just going to be real frank in that it was a hard process. And you know, one of the council members one night people thought I was being mean. I was professional, but I'm not playing. Nobody's going to accuse me of stealing, particularly with what the way my bank account looks. Yeah, you got that. And and and that is not who I am.

Yeah. I've been 10 years plus in politics. You can go to that state house today. People who like me, people who don't know me that much, people who don't like me. I give you names of all three categories. They will all tell you they respect me. And I'm I don't lie and I don't steal. Cuz at the end of the day, all I have is my name. The only thing you can say about me is that I'm late. And people who know me well can say I have a potty mouth but I'm going to be professional. Y'all not going to hear that. That's it. I'm here to serve you is the bottom line and to do the best. And everybody I'm going to say this too. People have asked me and I think that's one of the questions on here. You know that I was not supportive of the Go Forward initiative. And there were reasons why. I've always said we needed a tax. When I gave my opinion about what we should do in 2023, I said no, not now. I never mentioned anybody's name because the people who voted for it and the people who were behind it and trying to press forward did the best they could with what they had. They believed passionately that that's what we needed to do at the time. And when the people said no, that doesn't mean we stop. That doesn't mean we sit on our hands and do nothing and expect for things to still change for the better. So, I just wanted to be on the record and say that I believe that we need this. We need resources Everything we want costs money. We want pothole repairs cost money. We want citywide youth programming. We want our parks to be upgraded and safe and places where there's equipment and programs. We want these abandoned houses and these burned out houses torn down and removed. And we want development on the in those spaces.

Yeah. That cost money costs money. We want to expand our housing appropriately, right? We know we need housing downtown. We know we need affordable housing all over this city. So, we need to do it with transparency, right? And with investment and I'm sorry, you tried to ask yourself earlier. Go ahead. And and this may be off the subject uh but the question when you mention about you know development house and things like that. What what urban development urban renewal what's is that kind of

so urban let me say this. So the urban renewal agency is was created based upon uh state legislation. I was a co-sponsor once uh I was brought to the table. It was the the measure had passed. We needed a public private what is called a quasi public private agency of the city. It's funded by the city and it also is created by ordinance by city ordinance and it does uh it it basically makes it so that we can engage in projects with private entities or through that entity to make it so that with all of the sort of uh red tape that can often be involved in large scale projects you have a little more flexibility. Typically, city dollars can't go we the city can't give nonprofits money in partnership directly, but we can do it or uh private entities or nonprofits, but we can do it through the urban renewal agency. The bottom line is the urban renewal agency was was funded with the dollars that were being collected by the 2017 tax. Once that wasn't renewed, now in order for it to um exist, the city would have to fund it. The other thing is part of what urban renewal did was purchase a great deal of property for development, right? To help deal with the blight and spur development because there has been sole focus on the two projects. One that we just completed which is absolutely beautiful, the six and main project um which is now Simmons Bay Park and then the go-kart track which is still yet to be completed. There is no other money, not even to support the actual commission staff. Yet, they hold all of this city-owned property. If we leave it in the hands of what is now basically a defunct commission that can only be empowered by city dollars,

it's just going to continue to sit there. So if we want to see the blight removal, particularly the property that the city owns, how in the world do we expect private residents, private business to come in and invest in Pine Bluff, to purchase property, to develop property and the city not developing its own property? Make that make sense?

It doesn't and it won't. So that is why for now we need to dissolve the urban renewal agency, keep the position to staff uh Simmons Bank Park to work on developing our land bank which is where we would put our land so that we can work to get it developed, prepare it for sale or development and so that that person can also see the final project through along with existing staff and economic development. And doing that will also bring all of that property to the city including those uh particular projects that we just mentioned citizens bank park go-kart track and just by being a city entity we'll save money. We just did a contract and we have the same deal with waste management that we have with cards. City properties do not pay for trash uh removal and for dumping. So that element of the budget would not be a part of the budget. the staffing would not be a part of the budget because the position that we would transition would do that work. She's doing it now, right? We would save half on the phone system because of the citywide contract that we have with Ritter and Wi-Fi. So, the reasoning behind it has nothing to do with the politics of any of it. The reality is the people voted against that particular measure twice in 2023. No revenue is coming in. So we as we budget for 2026 with what is a tight budget, what kind of provisions do we make so that we can still see progress and save money where we can. That's the bottom line on that. Is that did I answer your question about earlier?

Yeah, roundabout. Yeah.

I was just wondering, did we ever when we came into office, did we ever look to shape a budget with things that are not necessarily productive and then prioritize the things that will make the city grow. Not based on, oh, we just want some pine holes. Yes, you want the pie mix, but the most important things need to go into first like youth interventions and programs for youth. And then I also think that the programs that we had before when they would pick up trash to pay off tickets versus and keeping it off their driver record. I think we need to start doing things that make us a society with some laws and some rules and try to get things in order so that we can improve. And the budget to me seems like it's all out of whack because there's a lot of positions and a lot of people doing not doing things that need to be done and we can revamp the whole system while we can't use our city to fill the potholes. I mean, we see them around. We we do um so yes and we do. But it is this is not a bloated budget and the people who work for the city actually perform roles that require service to the people. We have 17 departments. Some of those departments have three people in them. Our largest departments are police and fire. Those um police officers work are the patrol divided up into zones. We're really understaffed when it comes to investigations. So if you look at every department and look at the positions, everybody does something and as a part of our uh to answer your question about the positions, can we get rid of some positions? Um we we have worked on on doing that and being as efficient as possible. But it's not really about getting rid of people. It's how can we better use technology to be more efficient and be more effective. That's the first thing.

I'm not saying get rid of the people because we don't have enough workers. What I'm saying is revamp the the system where you put people in positions where they can do multitask and we are doing yes and we are doing that we are doing that making use of what we have in staffing and kind of taking a route to guide it into a direction where everything's we are doing that not only are we investing in in um technology but to your point an example I can give you is that the fire department and code enforcement have started working together to tear down some of these houses. Now, together in the last two months, yes,

they've torn down four houses cuz that's what they have the capacity to do. And uh another example, we really were understaffed in it. A great deal of the calls and the tickets come from fire and police just because that's where most of the positions are in the city. So the police department agreed to fund one of an additional position. So instead of two, we have three positions and they're able to do more. So we are doing exactly what you're talking about. Code enforcement um and inspection and zoning are starting to work together more. We have a plan to put them in the same building. Not necessarily to put them together, but to put them in the same building. Parks and Wreck has been assisting with um the aquatic center by doing some of its mowing, paying its electricity bill just because their budget is so so

that is fine, but I'm talking about making the people responsible. A lot of those houses belong to families that live here. I mean, I feel like they need to be biting the bullet and take care of their You're But ma'am, you are absolutely right. But just because they need to be responsible doesn't mean they are. and but there is something we can do but you can't we can't just go take people's houses because we feel like this one is irresponsible when there is a process the process takes a long time now there are some people who have contacted me they want to tear down the house and and I'm sure you know what it's like when you're dealing with their property is typically one or two people who are paying the taxes

and taking care of everything and so I had somebody call me just the other day and said that they had gotten an estimate to tear down a house that what no bigger than a little bit, $10,000. Okay. Part of what we can do to, and I hope this answers your question, and what we're trying to do is take resources and make it easier to work with private residents, but also deal with our own public property so that we're not going in and trying to take your property. We're trying to help you make your prop property marketable for sale or for development. you can't get a loan to develop on property that you still have to tear stuff down and then we know many of those properties are being um inhabited by swatters

and it's too much for fire and police to even deal with. So all like I have um gone on a uh a visit with GBI and one of I went on two visits to see how other programs work. One of them, I think this is the one in Michigan, approached it from an economic development standpoint and they talked about how their efforts to focus on the blight, to eradicate the blight help them with their crimeolving uh and and and crime lowering their e lowering their crime efforts. And it would do the same here. Whether you're talking about people breaking into somebody's house and squatting, whether you're talking about people breaking into those houses and cooking meth, or whether you're talking about people breaking into those houses and stealing copper, those are all crimes. If the houses aren't there anymore, that doesn't happen. And another thing that we have done and we did with carryover and some um targeted funds in the next year and a half is or two years is to fully fund opportunity house so that there is a place for the unhoused to go if we aren't and and and and that really is a matter of you know doing more than one or two things at the same time. being able to address the blight at the same time that we provide housing for the unhoused at the same time that we work to remove the blight housing at the same time that we put up cameras and really outfit our real time crime center which by the way so people understand real time crime center is not a structure you're not building a center you're taking space in the police department where men um where where officers and non-uniform personnel can use technology to work with police on

the street to prevent crime, to assist in crime taking place in real time, and to help solve crime. Little Rock is doing it, and White Hall is doing it. We in between. We can do it, too.

So, we have to make and and that has been underway, but we have to make it happen soon. We cannot continue to say, well, let's let's use that little pot over there. Let's we we deserve better than that. We know we have problems with light. We know we have problems with uh um population decline. We know we've had problems with crime and we and we know what works. We know what has worked in our own city. We know what works in other cities. So if the cities that are experiencing the most growth is the fastest growing city in Arkansas. They just passed a tax. two of them. 15 cities and counties will have attacks on their ballot next year, mostly in November. So, while we are pontificating about when and why don't we just use what we have now, you have in front of you the documentation to show we don't have it right now. So, if we want extra, we got to get extra. But to the expense of some of the people, I don't think that it's so much that we don't because we know the taxes are necessary. I think the thing is that people want to ensure that the taxes are being money is being used.

Yes. And I'm glad you brought that up. I'm so glad you brought that up. And it's actually you mentioned that on the first and that's that's that is a matter of transparency. It's a matter of accountability. It's a matter of trust. Right. So that's why I started by showing you what I've been doing,

showing you the progress. And I'm and I'm not saying listen to what I say. I'm saying not only watch what I do, but also take advantage of your power. So I'm not saying come to every city council meeting. I'm saying in doing this, we will use our website. We will use social media, but we will also report out to the city council every meeting. I think there's been one report this year by urban renewal just to update on the project and they're busy. It's not required. Not in the resolution, not in the ordinance. It's a totally separate commission. They answer to their commission. So, if I'm not required to do something and I'm working to get some stuff done, I'm not coming. Especially if I got to deal with a bunch of hostile commentary. So, I'm not it's not a critique. But that's where we are. So if what we do this time is say for example what's written in the ordinance is over the next 10 years every two years there will be a mandatory forensic audit. We will not wait until the end for people to not well and for people to be suspicious of something happening or to make a claim that something happened or for something to actually happen. We will along the way take a two-year look back and say how we've been doing with a third party just like we're about to do now. Before and after I got elected, I promised we would do we would invest in a forensic audit to look back two years for the city departments under the mayor's office and a couple of other ones. Commission wants want some of that too. And then we will look back at all seven years of the 2017 sales and use tax. And it's not a gotcha. It's not a because we know some stuff happened and that was dealt with already through the criminal justice system. Well, we want to know not only where did the money go,

how was it spent, not that it's a mystery, but the the reporting mechanisms and people shouldn't have to request a foyer, make a foyer request to see what should be available on the website. But if it's not a part of the legislation, if it's not a part of the resolution, if it wasn't a part of what was presented to you, then nobody's doing anything wrong. And then if it's contention and send me this, and if it is a part of how we do business, then we can all get on the same page and do business. And so what I'm saying is in the ordinance is the mandatory bienial forensic audit. Throughout the 10 years, there would be five forensic audits. And in the resolution will be, and I didn't even think about it, but we going to put it in the resolution, reporting requirements to the to the city council every meeting, just to update. We get it from the fire department every month.

Yes,

every month. We may not all read it all, but we know it's there. We know they're reporting out to us what they're doing. And that's I know that that's all people want. And once it's available, you can go back and say, I want to copy all of these. Okay, we can send you a link. It's right there at your fingertips. So, we can use technology, we can use our legislation to define what this what the accountability will look like. And at the end of the day, this would also be a measure where the city council and the mayor would be uh decision makers about how the money would be spent using our current procurement purchasing process. That's all the sunlight in the world. And it's not about what Vivian's promising. It's about what's in the law, in the ordinance, in the resolution. And then guess what? Because it is your elected officials doing this work. That's me. That's council member fails and all seven of his colleagues on that council. If we don't do right, you have the power at the ballot box and you can say, you know what, enough of this foolishness. Bye. Cuz that's where your power rests to be able to come to council meetings, to be able to get online, and to be able to vote. And that would be wrapped up as a part of um how we would roll this out and how we would conduct the revenue and the spending.

Yes, ma'am. I know you said that uh and I see that they are doing it tearing down these old houses. What about the properties that the grass is almost is outrageous and then we got dogs just running around loose, not on chain or no anything else. So, uh, those have been priorities and I I don't know off the top of my head, but I know that dogs have been picked up, stray dogs have been picked up and euthanized at the rate of well over a hundred for the last for several months. And, um, I know that there are a couple of hotspots that our director reported out um, just the other day at the city council meeting. So, that is an issue that we are addressing. uh code enforcement does a lion share of uh really all of the mowing for private property that has been abandoned and where people are not um uh taking care of their property. While you're talking about that and it's a real issue, if you if you would come to one of or just not even come watch one of our city council meetings, we get complaints on the other side, people saying that there's too many tickets and you all are indiscriminately mowing and we don't have to pay this. There's a whole process where they issue tickets based upon how high the grass is. They give you time to take care of it. If you don't take care of it, we do it. Then we send you the fine and you got to pay for what we've already done. And we we will have already done it. So, you know, and again, our capacity is not such that all of the cities, the dumping, the the grass, the overgrown grass with all of the we council member fails. We have some some somewhere in the neighborhood of over 5 or 600 abandoned houses.

Well, in the third ward there's like 300 something. So, times out. So, just in the third ward. Now, that doesn't mean that it's equally 300 in every ward, but that's a lot. So, it could be somewhere upwards of 750 at least, if not and I don't have the the exact figure in front of me. Um, I don't even know if we really know because it's so overwhelming, but I know it's a lot and we don't have the staff to just deal with it as staff and that's why we need resources so we can get help. Yes, sir. The dollar area um a lot of people I go to St. Luke over there we have meetings. Yeah. Okay.

And u a lot of people feel that way is not represented by the city. I know uh just Washington, she never she never came. She never got I can't I can't speak to that. I know. I know, but I'm just bringing it up. But I'm going tell you, I've been over there. Okay. Okay. And is it And is it in St. Luke? IS THAT WHERE WE'VE BEEN CHIEF? One of my houses to the neighborhood association. Wasn't that at St. Luke? Yes. I go monthly. Yes. But I've been at least twice since I've been elected just to that neighborhood association and have been as a as a matter of fact the investment with the our new sanitation uh uh company placed its hauling center in the way right across the street from Good Day. Yeah.

Okay. There are some things happening. As a matter of fact, our meeting on Monday since you mentioned it is at the Wilma Anderson um facility on what? the old son. And then if I can go further and brag, brother, my my special projects and communications coordinator went to school at Oh, okay. We we recognize Well, you know, people going to say what they you know, but that's why you're here. I'm glad you said that. So, I can say what I said and she mentioned the straight dog.

Well, back off what he was saying. Even though I don't live in the area, I graduated with Dolly and that's where I was raised. My mother, she still lives under in W 4. She's 97 years old. And so one of the reasons why I'm here also is just on the hat because the elderly they don't get out and so in that area I took a lot of pictures. It just bothers me when I drive down 14 street back with cars everywhere. Mhm. I think it's like a ladder home or something. I don't know. It's just all it's just it started out with five or six now look like it's about 50 vehicles and if you drive up and down 530 cars it's all wrong right for the railroad track right there. It's just

I contacted the alderman and both for for my mother and also uh the his name is lock council member. No, he's over

Patrick. Okay, I contact he says they have been working with it. I'm not trying to call that out but I'm just saying it looks horrible. It does. So when these that do area is that seem like it's been represented and that goes back to when we talk about taxes. We know tax on it and I'm taxes are necessary but at the same time if someone lives over here in the suburb another area then they're all paying taxes. So all of our area should be represent everybody's should be represent fixed and that's one of the areas and it's just an I don't know if you'll be trying to just write on their support.

I will get you my phone and I would like to see them. Chief Campbell will get your information so that we can visit about this particular problem. But let me say this, we have um several wards with those issues. I've heard the same thing on the north side um off a university um and some of the same issues of the third ward. part of a great deal of that is capacity. And and what I can tell you is, you know, one of the reasons that we have, whether we're talking about our town halls or the pilot that we did um for addressing the potholes, we set that pilot up, as I mentioned, to equally address potholes by committing 80 burns and starting with the hardest uh hit, most neglected areas. And that was off of Blake um off of Blake on the west side. That's where we started. And we plan to I mean that's why if you look at just some of the priorities, it is not these are not things that are addressing issues in just one part of town. We of course we need downtown development, but we need development across the whole city. That's what we're committed to. I appreciate your comment. And I know it's getting late now, you all. I'm going tell you something. I' I've been sleepy. I've been up since 4:00 this morning and I could go I can stay here and talk to y'all for 10:00, but I know then y'all can talk about um I'll take one more question and then I'll stay around afterward before we shut down cuz it is um 7:14. Yes, sir.

Neighborhood dream.

So, I want to thank you for that. Yes. I'll remind um everyone that we uh are in the middle of a uh USDA funded project to cover our watershed that will address about um 50 to 60% of uh our hardest hit areas with flooding. It's a flood prevention project that has received funding of or will have received funding by the time we get to the construction phase of over $50 million. Now, that's going to take a long time, but what we can do in the meantime and what we are committed to do, and I don't know how much of it um will work because we know that these um flooding issues are long-standing and have to do with a lot of the drainage system issues all over the city. But we do know some of that can be resolved um with uh cleanup and filtering uh some of our uh drainage system where we know that with flash flooding it's extreme flooding and again with some additional resources uh we can work to get that done. I don't know I'm not an engineer. I'm not telling you that that can happen, but we don't want to wait for the next seven years for that USDA project to get finished with its construction um phase. It's only in its second phase. They told us from the beginning that is something that would take uh anywhere from 8 to nine years and we are well into our second year. So, um we have that on our radar and we are looking to see what we can do about it and yes,

I just want to make a comment. Um actually we will be meeting with um the design the uh arts on black may be association and the organization that's doing the design of that design we'll be meeting with them Friday uh Monday next Monday. Yes.

Um but there is a question on here live. Um someone made a statement that um the side streets are very terrible. Um is there any way u in the text that the side streets will be addressed? Uh there there is a way and I I what I can tell you is that as far as the potholes, we are looking to address those across the board and we will prioritize the most neglected areas. The side streets, a lot of the problems with the side streets besides the potholes uh really has to do with how narrow they are and how there's no lighting. Lighting is a priority for us. how soon we get to and whether we get to streets where there's one house down the street, I'm not going to make that promise. But I think that um we will be able to do um a lot with a lot and and what what I mean by that is again we plan to cover the entire city with these initiatives around infrastructure and whatever we can do um depending on how many residents live on a given street we will do. Yes sir. I mean, you going to get the you get the last word.

Um, the trash is is horrible, man. I still believe that we have people that will do the right thing. If we just place dumpsters in each one, uh, if you have a old refrigerator, old chair, or old tires, if you don't know what to do with them, you will go in the loop and you will throw them in the ditch. I mentioned that years before. Let's place dumpsters forward. Let us let us clean up some of our No one has ever gave me that idea. I think that's brilliant. It is. It is. So maybe I mean we have the the dump date and it's just once a month I think once a and if you busy that day or whatever but put a dumpster there and we've been there 24 hours 7 days a week if I want to clean up and I want to get out and and make my neighborhood Mhm.

producer want to do I mean we could do a lot of daily living the citizens a lot of us want to do right there but we just don't know what to do throw it in here. Yes. That's good. Now I'll tell you some of them that anyway. However, I think that's a wonderful idea and um I am here with one of my council members and we can talk about that and we'll talk about it uh with cards. My pleasure.

That is a wonderful idea. Thank you for that. So, we ended on a very positive note, solutionbased. Please continue to take a look at this um if you will and um if you ever have any questions, don't hesitate to call our office. Thank you for your time and attention. And we have a town hall five books. Oh, and we have copies of the command to cover the report from the transition for Thank you all so much. Good night.