City Commission - Regular Meeting

I call this March 24th, 2026 budget work session to order. Tonight, we're going to be talking to property and sanitation. Good afternoon, mayor, commissioners.

Uh, I'll go ahead and introduce myself for those watching. Uh, my name is Dexter Nicer. I am the property and sanitation director. Uh in the property and sanitation department, we have several divisions. In that division, you have building services, you have codes enforcement, sanitation, and planning and zoning. Um again, my name is Dexter Nicer. Uh I have the same uh or I have the building official role. I also do the job of the zoning administrator, the flood plane manager, and I manage a department of 20 people. I brought a couple of them with me tonight. We have Malachi Cook, he is our senior building inspector. Tyson Shelley, he's our super uh sanitation supervisor and Kyle Davis is our sanitation coordinator. Casey Preston, which is our codes enforcement supervisor, is uh at training today. So, I think she's a manager training. Um, I kind of threw this up here. This is just the departmental purpose. I think this applies, this is right out of the international building code. This applies to our whole department. Whether it's sanitation or building services or codes enforcement, it is all about public safety. Everything we do is about the build environment and public safety. I don't know if you guys want to wait till the very end to ask questions or go through, but I'll be happy to do it either way. I think we've done it both ways, but I I kind of like going through it, asking questions if the eyes know. I have my first question is this is 2012 building code.

This is 2012. So, my plans this year is to adopt the 2024s. 2024. Yep. Okay. So, hopefully I can bring that to you guys this year. Um, I'm going to let Malachi talk a little bit about building services. Malachi really oversees the two building permit techs. He oversees uh himself and three other building inspectors, and they do all the permitting, inspections, plan review, things like that. So, I'll let Malachi touch on that.

Good afternoon, commissioners, mayor. Um, building services division focuses mostly on permitting and inspections. Um that's with new construction, remodels, equipment update, maintenance, things of that nature. Uh with that, there's also plan review for new permits, whether it's a new construction or a major remodel of any location, whether it's commercial, residential. Um with with that, you also have contractor licensing. There's several state statutes that govern uh your MEP contractors, mechanical, electrical, plumbing. Um, aside from that, you have just general building contractors. The permit technicians, myself and the building official, all review those documents as they come in to get those contractors licensed. Um, we also have enforcement hearings. So, if a property is deopdated or there's an issue with a parcel, uh, we may send you a letter. Depending on what it may be, it could be as little as your paint is chipping and blowing into your neighbor's yard or as much as shingles flying off down the block or the whole house is uh dilapidated to a point where we need to do something a little more major. Um we also have consultations that we go over with customers. We'll meet you at your house, talk about fencing, where you could put a shed, where your water line might or might not be. Um things of that nature. Um we also do special vent permits. That's something that's newer to me, but the building official has uh signed off on those for several years now. Those are to do with major events. You know, if you have a party that's, you know, going to close the street or something like that or involve other aspects of life safety for a large building or something like that, uh that's where that would come into play. Okay. Currently have around 726 active permits. There have been 597 inspections within the last 60 days and we currently have 97 active dilapidation cases. As I

stated earlier, that could be as simple as an issue with painting or guttering falling off a house, something like that, or a house that's been abandoned in derelict for several years. Here's a couple pictures of what we run into on a dayto-day. There's a breaker panel there that's not code compliant. We've also got a water heater uh similar in nature, not code compliant. There's a good picture of a underlying or underground gas line. You can't really see it in the photo. It's got its tracer wire on it. Uh there's a commercial building that was completely redacted. They recovered all the sheathing on the roof um prior to putting new shingles on it. And that bottom right is just what we run into with old houses. you know, sometimes there's hoarding conditions or they just fill everything that they can find inside of a home. And uh I'll let

this this is our our budget overview from uh for building services from 2022 to current. Um you guys have any questions on that? Okay. Seemed consistent. Yep. Why the why the jump from 25 to 26 extra? Oh yeah. On the which part on the or the overall? So the so the budget. Never mind. I I I'm sorry. I was looking at actual. That's the that was the actual budget.

Um some of the building service needs as we go forward. things that we'll need as we continue to grow in town are um we've already got a couple drones, but we don't have any inspectors that are currently drone certified. That would help us take a better look at taller two-story buildings. I believe we met over at 616. Had we had a drone that day, we could have taken a real-time view of the roof and the condition that it was in, but we didn't have that at the time. um as we move into the next set of code, we'll need new uh review software that's specific to that code year. Um so

I want to touch a little bit on that. So with AI and everything coming out with AI, there is a lot of software out now that will actually help us and speed that plan review process up. Our turnaround times for permit are anywhere from hours to a couple days. We ask for 10 days. We never really get there unless it's a big job like Best Hotel, Crossland, some of these bigger jobs. But that plan res uh review software would really help on these larger jobs. Sorry,

that's all right. Um some of the other things we need just updated equipment. We have some gas sniffers, but I'd like to see an improvement on that. Um really just says if there's gas or not gas, I'd like to maybe get something that shows parts per million. Um we're always needing training every year. Um, construction is always updating and so we should as well update our knowledge of said construction. So, um, I'd like to see the guys go to a training course every year for any new updates to what may come. Um, we also need better reporting. Um, currently our software does allow for that, but it takes quite a few man-hour to find specific information that you may request or someone may request through an open records. Um, automated or automatic reporting would give us a a faster option to get you the information you need.

That that crystal reporting would be very handy. We do have to pull a lot of reports, a lot of open reports. Even though Tamley is extremely friendly um on getting this th that information. It it it does gen it takes a lot of time to pull in open records. It takes a lot to go through all the software. So, uh crystal reporting would be huge for us. And then just on the same line, autoarchchiving our data. Uh we currently archive every piece of inspection history ourselves, but it would be nice if the software put that in a repository for us so that we didn't have to do the the leg work after the fact to close that out.

What about the old days when you had all the plans downstairs like sewer mains and things like that? So I think sewer mans things like that Matt has some. I think we've put a lot into Tammy. Didn't we have a lot put in by a company outside source scan those in? I think there was even some college students came down for a while and scanned them in. Um we have quite a bit of that information digitally saved now. I just ask you on this complaint response. What is when she gives a complaint, how how quick do you respond to it?

Um I would say it depends on the severity. If it's an emergency or sounds like life safety immediately. But if it's something as simple as, I'd like you to go by and look at this house. It's been in disrepair for years. It may be same day or next day depending on our workload. And some of that complaint is generated by our Cclick Fix. Yeah, a lot of it actually is. But we do get calls every single day, you know, from verbal complaints. But Cclick Fix is another one of those thing software that comes in and it gets rerouted to one or two different people and we have to assign it to the right person. And then again, like you said, it's kind of driven by how severe the complaint is.

Well, you know, like you're talking, see, click fix, but I also get uh calls and talk to people about a complaint on a something that's terrible shape. And I talked to you, Dexter, and you've already got a court case going. Y that most people don't know about what's happening, you know. So,

I think most people want immediate action, which I understand that, but there's a process to everything. And sometimes when you're or just about every time when you're dealing with private property, there are there are processes, state statutes, there are laws that govern us from just running out there and taking care of something. So, it takes time. But you're right. Just about everything you've ever called me on, I was able to tell you I think there's already a case on it. And people don't realize some of the complaints you go to, I imagine most of them, they're not too friendly when you come there. And uh it kind of like you said, it's it's your people's safety that sometimes it's a concern.

I appreciate you acknowledging that because we have had staff threatened uh whether it be physical or even I think a time or two for shooting. Uh we we do catch those threats on seems like a weekly basis from somebody. They're most people have the mentality, get out of my yard, get off my property, you can't do something. Well, you can't tell me what to do. But we do live in a town with rules. So, same with drone drones flying. Why are you looking at my yard when you're actually looking at something? But they see it hovering or whatever.

I'm glad you brought that up. We are not, you know, we talked a little bit about drones. We really don't want to do drones in residential neighborhood. It's not the goal of our drones. We have a lot of downtown buildings that are extremely difficult and unsafe to get on. That's the purpose we want to use the drones for. There's a lot of certified drone training that's available in the state of Kansas. Um I know there's some out in Salina. Have you guys looked at what it what's needed for your department to get the

train? I think uh Jay has actually put several people through within the city to get that. So what's the turnaround time once they're trained to actually applying going out using the drones for the purpose we have depending it's usually a selfdirected process usually a couple months it's just as needed to once something comes up then you can run it. So the police department currently has trained drone operators. Can you guys work with them on?

Oh, yeah. And we have It's just sometimes inconvenient to, you know, when we need to do something to work around two or three different department schedules to do that. So, we do have some drones in our department already that were previously purchased. So, if we could get a couple people certified, that would help. Anything else? Thank you. M Casey's not here. As I said, she is our uh codes supervisor. Um some of the things uh area focus for codes enforcement uh is obviously nuisance codes. That's tall weeds, grass, things like that. Uh complaint response, they're obviously complaint, you know, cclick fix is a big part of their workload. Uh they go out and do inspections daily to investigate the complaint. Then they they follow their process to get it written up and and the ordinance with letters and notification. and then they'll go back and do another inspection. So, sometimes it's two, three, four inspections. Um, for to meet that compliance and then uh case documentation is very important to them. Every little thing they do has it's good chance you have to treat it like it's going to go to court and they're in court seems like every Wednesday over here. Um, currently they have this year 761 cases going. So, when you say, "Hey, is there a case on it?" Probably. That's a lot of cases for uh three inspectors. Last year, they did a total of uh 248 cases, the three of them. Out of those those cases last year, the city had to actually go in and clean gain compliance for 451 of them. Out of those four,

can I stop? You got a question. We just passed an ordinance not that long ago on illegal parking and that's still going on. So people know that's not allowed. So do you go out or is it a police call that has the codes the codes officers go out? Mhm. I actually have that ability too. But the codes officers do go out and write those tickets because I've I've heard a lot of complaints about that. We have an ordinance and it's still happening. Oh, I'm glad you're not hearing the ones that are saying, "Hey, I got a ticket." Because they're mad, too.

Well, I had a guy call me and tell me he got a ticket to where he was parked and he had a warning ticket before that and continue to park there. So, and you know, the warnings the warnings weren't something we put into any kind of ordinance. That was just something that we we did trying to be nice, say, "Hey, get stop parking there." But we write them when we see them, you know, or if somebody complains about them, we go down and investigate and write them. So if they move it, do you find them for it being That's once we write them the ticket, it's out of our hands. It's now in municipal court. So what happens when they get over here? I don't know. We don't get a record of that. So I couldn't tell you if they're paid, waved, what happens.

Okay, let's do what you're saying. Yeah. the blanket uh policy that was in the paper two weeks ago that I read at the last meeting about grass and and that type of thing. How come you can't do that with the codes if there it's a violation? You can't just write a ticket and then they show up at city court to pay it or otherwise putting the ordinance on the ticket. I think that might be a question for blanket, you know, one time a year type thing. I mean that's I'm sure we've talked about this before. We went through this a few years ago. Um the problem with the ticket is the ticket is a warrant and so unless you have something that can pro was the

it's due process. So what you have so if I go cut your grass the grass is grass. The problem with anything on your property if I go and remove it I haven't given you due process. So and I believe and who's the ticket but the other thing is who's the ticket go to because you've got landlords. I mean, if you pull over a car, it's registered to somebody that's cars parked over the sidewalk and then that's an ordinance. Or they're parked on the water meter, that type thing. Or trailers parked the wrong way in in traffic or trailers unhitched from a vehicle, right? That's all part of the ordinances. So, yes, and we can do those, but to blanket everything else and maybe I misunderstood, but No, I guess the thing of it is so much paperwork for a simple be like

Yes, it is a lot. And that's why I was going to say my staff would love to just do that, but I think I I don't think we're allowed to do that. Oh, legally. Did I answer your question, Ch? Yes. Okay. On that one specifically, are there are you tracking what the violations are by category? Is it more of just parking or is Yeah. And and I have a uh I have a sheet coming up, pie chart that'll kind of show a little bit of that. I didn't break everything down, but we do track that. If you were to come in or ask for, hey, what's the numbers? What's the total for each one? We could give you that.

See, I think that would be something good that off what Cheryl's saying. Put it out. This is what we're seeing. This is what we're citing. You know, this is corrective action. So, putting it up. Where are you going to put it up? On our website. I I think that's a fantastic idea. City's website on the channel. I mean, yeah. Or, you know, it's against the ordinance. You can't burn trash in a barrel. Right. Right. And well, I think uh there's probably some rules to that. I'm not going to answer for the fire. Oh, I know. I understand. But if you burn leaves and as long as it's contained, you have something over. But trash burning, that's an ordinance. You can't burn household trash, right? A lot of people do. Yep. But it's against the ordinance. Y

I think if we we publish that, we put that out quarterly. I don't know how many times a year just to show people just the overall numbers, not addresses, not just the overall numbers. Yeah. this is what's happening is put in place. I think that would be helpful. So,

okay. Um, out of those 451 work orders, uh, 248 had to be assessed. That means they did not the occupant or the homeowner did not pay for those that clean up. So, uh, those get assessed to the city taxes every year and I believe you guys see that ordinance every June or May when it comes through. Uh, back to what you were asking a little while ago, kind of what do we see? High grass and weeds as you can see is the blue there. That is the bulk uh land nuisance that could be almost anything. Um just trash in the yard.

And with that, are we seeing more of private property or we seeing more like rental property that's causing those? That's a great question. I don't know that I can answer that. Casey could because they write the letters, but I I don't dive that deep into it unless they need me to. she could answer that question for you. I'll follow up with her.

Um, this map on the right, this year, you know, we always have summer help and and last year we had two guys that stayed on and we were really we put them under u the sanitation department, but these two gentlemen, I I can't give them enough credit. Every dot you see on that map, take the one on North Rouse. Um, and I think I can point at it. I'm not going to go to the website or anything, but this right here, that dot, that particular day, they they go from north side of Ralph's to the to southside all the way to the hospital, from the industrial park to the hospital, either walking it or one walking and the other bring up the truck, and they'll they will hand pick up trash. I don't know if you guys remember two years ago before we started the trash service or the sanitation service why we started and what the town looked like and how much trash was blowing around. You're not seeing that today. I'm driving around and not seeing it today. These that's because of these two guys that are walking around cleaning this up. So, not only are they cleaning up trash, but they're going up and down alleys trimming alleys for the trash trucks. So, the trash drivers are out driving and that they'll call them and say, "Hey, get down this alley and clean this alley." Or, um, I can't give those two guys enough credit for what they do.

I want to I want to follow up with that, Dexter, because I seen them on Broadway around restaurants picking up trash and I talked to you about this and most people don't realize that's what they do, you know. Uh, and also talk to you about people that has trash. I had a complaint the other day. It's just running over. It's falling over. Dogs are getting in it. And our guys have got to go chase the trash down. And I ask you why, you know, we charge for uh cutting your grass. If we got to pick up your trash, why can't we put that charge on your water bill also? Yeah.

So, that particular case, and you did call me the other day, and I went and looked at that, and that particular case was ex exactly like you had told me. I I immediately called uh the codes department and there was already a case on it. We were a couple days in. But it it was bad. That whole area was bad because of that. Probably the one individual letting it blow all over. But I think the hard the grass is attached to the earth obviously, so you know whose property it's on. Once it blows down the road, once the trash starts blowing, you're going to Well, I'm talking about restaurants. If you got trash blowing around your you should have Yeah.

people there picking that up. I think we did that last year. There was a there was a particular store up north that had a lot of trash complaints from behind it and codes department worked really close with them and obviously started the cases but they did get it cleaned up but we could yes same thing. I've had some phone calls on dumping um I want to bring that up today too to ask how you guys handle that. There's been it's generally somewhere close to the north side of the college. uh college kids get done with their furniture and they dump it out on the street or in somebody else's yard. If a resident has a case where somebody's dumped something on their property, it's obviously not theirs. How do they how do you guys

We just went and picked it up. It's back to what Darren says. At the end of the day, we started this clean up the town. So, you know, Tyson will tell you there's times he'll call and say, "Well, there's some extra trash here. We're going to pick it up. That's the end result. How do we bill for it? if we can bill if it's a if it's on their property and it's not hey somebody threw this out in my yard at 2 am we're we're going to bill you bulk item pickup that's what we started was a case by case bulk item not the big citywide but if it's DJ if it's thrown out and thrown out in the yard and probably nobody get a bill some that uh they have little low fences and stuff's been thrown over in the backyard they don't even know it's there for a long time probably not even less than a year but they don't know So the front yard seems to be the biggest thing. So

yeah, and we've had those. You know, I've had people call me and say, "I don't I woke up this morning. There's a couch in my out by the street. Know where it came from." But we'll pick them up. There is an ordinance too about dumpster diving also. There is um I think that's enforced by police department but um I think since we've started at least for ours what we're dumping we're they're not filling up. You know the big problem with that

was some of the other trash companies were not dumping regularly and these dumpsters were filling up and just overflowing and people scattering stuff all over. We're picking them up on commercial ones everywhere anywhere from once a week to five days a week same dumpster. So, we haven't had any problem, I don't think, with ours yet.

This is some of the things that codes uh people see when you talk about land nuisance. Here's here's some good photos of land nuisance. Whether it's tall grass and weeds or just trailers full of trash or inoperable vehicles, that's kind of what their day-to-day case looks like. uh codes enforcement budget overview from 2022 to 2026 I think is just like building services. It's pretty straightforward. We did add a add person out of one personnel at at the uh commission's request. I believe that was back in 2023. There's no questions over that. I'll move on. Codes enforcement needs uh as they go forward. Uh we're currently using uh and Matt's got these things on order. So when I put them up here on need, it's something that I think is already budgeted in and working. But uh we do need a one ton dump truck for these two individuals to go around pick up the couches, things like that. Those things aren't we don't throw those in the trash truck if we can keep from it. We drive around with a dump truck, pick them up. Uh every year we usually pick up two part-time mowing. Obviously mowing's a big deal in the in the in the spring and summer. Miscellaneous hand tools. They need everything from, you know, little cutters to lobers. And we've we've switched from a lot of gas powered stuff to battery powered stuff. It seems to be working better for us out in the field. We're not toing around gas cans and mix gas and regular gas. So, that's working out, but we'll always need to pick up additional blades and hand tools, things like that. training. There's always training available for codes people. You know, I there was one out in um I think Garden City last year, Malikica, you correct me if I'm wrong. Is that where it was? Uh

and it and it actually had a a whole course on how to take pictures for court. And I was really surprised by that. So, we sent a couple. But, uh, that's how important it is when you're out there documenting things for court is to to even I didn't know there was a training class on how to take a photo for court, but there is. So, continuing education for them would be very important. drone certification since we already have drones. I think again it would be extremely handy in in certain areas for uh not necessarily for them to run around town in residential neighborhoods, but there are cases where they could use a drone as well or at least have somebody from our department go over. Uh safety equipment is very important. I like uh the codes the codes officers to be very visible when they're out there. Sometimes when they get out, they get a code complaint at the end of the block. They walk the whole block. They don't go out. So that's another thing that people need to understand is I called in my neighbor. Next thing you know, I was retaliated on and got a letter. No. If you called in your neighbor, they're going to walk the whole block when they're out there. They they don't just hit one area. They'll they'll hit the whole area while they're there. So, we always want them to have safety equipment so they're well identified whether that's a vest or or whatever it may be. Uh crystal reporting and auto archiving, same thing for them. They do a lot of documents and it was sure help.

Speaking of Crystal, uh are we going to be doing fire hydrants again this summer? Um you know, that's going to be up to the fire department, but she did a great job last year. You know, we had her in the sanitation department for several months. Uh she walked around with a uh with a cart we provided her in a vest and she did a great job. Yeah. I again can't can't say enough good things about her. She wasn't any problem. She worked 900 some hydrants. She didn't surely didn't get them all painted in it. No. Yeah. I'd have to check with chief.

We talked to Crystal yesterday. Imagine that. Um ran into her and and asked if she was planning on coming back to work and she said yeah, but she thought she was close to being out of hydrants. And I said, "Well, we'll keep you busy somewhere outside. We're never out of trash." Well, she loves working for the city and and um I mean, talk about reliable. I don't think Crystal missed a day. And um other than having, you know, having to go find her eventually, we we I think we had to give her a phone or something. But she's great and she was really excited about she was having lunch at one of the restaurants yesterday and was just all, "Yeah, I can't wait." And the weather's changing and I'm ready to go. But I don't know if fire hydrants will keep her busy for a whole another year, but we'll see. success.

Yep. Moving into the sanitation areas of focus. Obviously, we started at clean up for town. I think we're making a pretty big difference out there. I hope that's visible to to the five of you. I know it is to most people we're hearing from. Uh our goal is just to continue to provide reliable and consistent trash service. Uh city of Pittsburgh sanitation, you know, do we know exactly when we started this? Was this October of 20 three or four. Let me look here. 24, I think. 24, I believe.

So, when we started this, we we really didn't know where we how we would even, you know, how many we would have are we going to start out and maybe have 5600. So, where we are today weekly, we're at uh 362 stops a week. And actually, it's probably another 60 or 80 above that by now since I did this. But out of that 3,62, we have 3,333 residential customers, 269 commercial customers. Average monthly signups are about 88 a month. On average, 88 every single month has been pretty consistent. The last six months, we've had 533 new customers sign up. So that might help explain uh this slide a little bit, this budget slide. Obviously 2026 was what we projected in 2024. And Missy, please correct me anywhere I'm wrong, but um we are we are doing and and let me skip one. This might actually help. So revenues kind of explain it a little better. We we obviously didn't think we would be at 707,000 in 2025. So, because we only estimated 661 in 2026. So, maybe that explains this number a little better, but we are growing faster than we thought we would.

I think uh I haven't had any complaints. Uh Kyle is our complaint guy. He kind of does a little bit of everything. So, him being the coordinator, if there's a phone call, hey, they didn't get my trash or hey, I need a polycart or hey, I want to set up service or I got a couch in my yard, Kyle's your guy. Um, Tyson manages the the three trucks, the drivers and all the employees that ride on them and does a fantastic job with uh safety and walkaround inspections every day just to hit back on those trucks a little bit. Uh, Monday through Thursday are extremely busy days for them. Friday is is we're trying to just keep that the minimal day and that's the day they service the trucks, they wash the trucks, they clean the insides. Uh I I didn't realize there was so many greases on a grass gas gas truck, but there is. So they spend all all the days cleaning the trucks. They do have a route they run, but after that route's done, they do that every

Are we okay on trucks? We're we're doing fine with trucks there. We're going to we're looking at a fourth truck cuz when we originally predicted this about two or three years ago, we said we'll probably wind up with four trucks if where are we on that? We've kicked it around. Yeah, we're we're probably pretty good through the end of the year.

Yeah, I think we're good till the end of the year. Um probably another 700 to a,000 customers, we're probably going to start thinking about another truck. Because if we have one breakdown like we did yesterday and today because we were here till 3:30 today trying to, you know, we usually work 6:00 to 2. We were here to 3:30 today trying to get everything picked up to make sure it was done because we were shorter truck this morning. So Tuesday is their largest route by far. I think there's over,00 pickup on Tuesday. Yeah. I I talked to one of the drivers the other day and they said 500 stops in one day. That's and that's that's where we're getting just about every day except for Friday.

We're getting there. Like I said, and we still have my commercial the commercial tractor that we can add to it still. But like I said, I think by the end of the year, we'll probably need another truck. But the bad thing about what he's saying is yes, we have a little room with that third truck because we run commercial. But if we have a truck go down, we do breaks down. It's hard. We had a blowout today coming back from the dump. We had a flat tire this morning

yesterday afternoon. We had a airpod go out on the first truck we got. So that was 11:00 today before they got it fixed. And then the other truck that he was using, he had two flat tires on it. So he had to take that and get it fixed. and the other truck that when they got the other truck fixed and I was taking it to the landfill, I had a blowout on the way to the landfill. So, we had to have a service truck come out and fix it. So, so to answer your question, probably a lot of maintenance on them, first part of the year sometime.

I've heard nothing but good things about this program um from so many people. It's it's been awesome. Customer service is getting a shout out tonight, too. People call and they get things done uh quickly and timely. if there's been delays, you guys are jumping on top of it quickly and letting people know. Uh some of my notes, the the texting service and the pickup time frames and all that stuff. People love that. They love the idea because they forget to take the cans out or put the extra stuff out. Um and that's an extra service, you know, that allows them to get caught up with it. So, community doing a great job once once a while when the when the when the program's not working, we have kind of problems with that and Kyle get phone calls people. I didn't put my trash out because I didn't get the text or I didn't get the phone call or email or whatever. How about employees?

It's usually not a problem. We can go back. How about employees? That pretty stable overall? For the most part, we've got a couple. We made it do we need to do some adjusting, but Well, I mean, are you able to are we able to keep up with recruit people when uh Yeah, I think so. You have the same guys driving. We do. We have three three drivers. Kyle's a backup driver, so he's, you know, if we get one sick, Kyle's licensed CDL. Plus, we have another young kid that's a backup driver. Yeah. They all have CDLs. Yes. You're riding five days a week right now. Yes. Monday through Friday.

I'm amazed. I know just with my when you guys come, you're like clockwork. You're maybe two or three minutes. It's 6:30 every Monday morning and you're there. I I'm nothing but good. And all I can ever say is thank you cards for being what? because we came in at the right time and that it's done nothing but sort and I can see that fourth truck coming sooner. Yeah, that's what I was going to say with employees. We could maybe get employees from other trash services because what we offer our employees is a decent wage, days off, vacation time benefits that I don't know if all the other services have that same.

The benefits are are hard to beat. Um, as far as the pay goes, I will tell you the other companies are are paying them more. So, you have to kind of pull them and try to pull them in with the benefits. So, and a lot of them now they don't use throwers like GFL and well well cards actually sold out to a different company which I think they only have a few throwers and they they're moving down to Del over by Jofflin. We we went away from throwers or we went back to throwers and away from the automatic because we've seen the mess with the automatic. The guys driving along and flicks it around and throws the trash can out the yard. So

that's where I think our success has come from from our employees and uh they've done great like you guys. Yeah, you always get a bad apple here and there. So going forward, some of our continuous needs are just safety equipment, standard safety equipment, gloves, vests, things like that. Safety training. Um, every time somebody's hired, we run them through a safety course. Truck maintenance, polycarts, and dumpsters. I've been through through here several times. I think we're good on polycarts at this rate to hold us pretty close to the end of the year. Um, what happened to all the the other ones in town that were just sitting there that were not ours?

So, a lot of those companies came and picked them up. Some of them we've actually found out in the street and took them and dropped them off out at the local their local place. So, we've asked citizens to dispose of them. Uh, some of the ones they owned, we've disposed of them for them. Mhm. We do get customers that ask us if we can get rid of them for them, but we don't cuz we don't want to get our our answer is if they own them. If they own them, we can dispose of them. If if they're another company's carts, we leave it to them. Now, if we find them out in the street or somewhere, we'll take them and deliver them. But

one of the things that I've noticed is the the city is a lot cleaner than it was two years ago, three years ago. The streets look better. I mean, there are some areas that are not and they're not never going to be, but it sure looks a hell of a lot better than it did two, three years ago. That's for sure. Thank you. That's that's this crew here. Thank you.

Uh long-term growth needs, additional trash truck we talked about. That'll need to be with additional employees. Um new facility. I put that on there because we all know about the freeze ups this year. We got to get them in during the the winter. So, um I think Matt's crews have offered to let us get them in those buildings temporarily till we get something down the road, but I don't think we have any more bad weather coming or at least at least for the next day or two. Might be 90 today and zero tomorrow. I don't know.

Routing software. I put that on there. Currently, we're using uh um spoke and there's good things about it and then there's bad. I think it personally I think it was designed for delivery and that's why you get the text and that's the part that gets the text. Most of these guys like Tyson Carl that have been in this business for 15 20 years all come from a different software that in their 15 20 years you feel like that works a little better. Yes, for sure. This this very clunky putting together now I lost the name of it. Trash flow. Trash flow. Right.

But they have a minimum of four trucks if you want to have their service. So that's something we can look at if we get a fourth truck down the road. What is it? It's called trash flow. Oh, trash flow. Yeah. This designed specifically for this. There's there's there's one I've got saved on my computer. I have to show it to Dexter, but they want you to set up like a like a trial where you can go and watch all their their videos and shows you how to use it, but it it's got all the same features as what this does, the texting and the and the emails or whatever. So,

that's something we'll look at going down the road. But if it their minimum is four trucks, when we get to four trucks, it's something we can look at. But I think cost comparison, it's about the same. So, what are we what are we spending on the current system? It's right around 1,200 a month. 12-,400 a month, but I think most of that is the tech service, which is expensive, but everybody likes it, right? Oh, it's had good reviews for sure. Um, moving on. Do you guys have any more about the trash? Did you have any problems with uh bugs on the water bill where the trash service is listed on there? I know for a while I don't think so. everything all

No, actually most people are very happy with it that I thought, "Oh, you can just add that to my water bill. Great." And they seem to be very happy with it. I think if there was a little bit of clunkiness in the beginning, I think it got resolved. I think most of most of our adjustments we're doing is because maybe there's been a change in the household. Um it's a rental and there's been somebody new, they didn't sign up for the trash service and it still was being picked up or I moved to another rental and took my can with me. That seems to be Yeah. So, it's kind of a challenge sometimes.

I had a call one time and here recently a man had uh been build for trash service that he didn't sign up for. I mean, we talked about it Dexter and it in the beginning he had questions, never got signed up, but it was put on his water bill and Dexter got on top of it and got him a refund back. Well, I'm going to give that to Kyle. You don't have to come up to speak about it, but I you called me. I called him and he got on top of it and he did a great job. So yeah, thank you.

I just had one more question. So you were talking about like bulk item pickups, couches, whatever. Not not all people don't call all the time and say, "Hey, can you come pick this up?" You know, we just have to be driving by and we see it and pick it up and take it. Is that something that they could that he can just fill them for? Or does it have to be notified first? I mean, that that's something we would have to work out. Right. Well, isn't the uh the park, we call it the parkway, isn't that belongs to the uh

it does, but that's back to de what DJ mentioned earlier. It's not always I threw it out there. It's sometimes and I and I know the individual that called me probably a year ago and said, "Hey, my daughter has this out in front of her house." I know it wasn't his. So, you you can't just We could, I guess, but it'd be the wrong thing to do in my opinion. It wouldn't be lawful to bill somebody for something they had nothing to do with that was dumped on their property, but it was still I mean there's eaches for each one of those,

right? So, also uh in our department, uh I'm the zoning administrator. We do the uh planning and zoning board, zoning board of appeals. Uh the zoning is here to protect the health and and safety and general welfare of the community. Um it's it's keep likeminded things in like-minded areas. Currently on that board, we have Kyle Michael. He's the chairperson. Bob Gilmore, vice chair. Mike Hanak as a member. Mike Wilbur, Blake Lullman, Martin Dickinson, Jeff Brooks, and myself, Indiana is the secretary. Be happy to I didn't put a whole lot in there about the zoning. Um I don't know if you guys have any questions about that.

U the the one question I have about is I know there's been stuff that was brought up last year about the the current status of the zoning for the city and you were going to make you're going to start working towards updating things, getting things match for the times. You know what's Yeah. So that's probably going to be like a I don't know if that's a master plan if we need to look at a city's master plan. So I think what correct me if I'm wrong DJ what he's talking about is you know there's other cities take Bentonville that that's changing their zoning completely. Um there was a name for that Jay. Do you remember the name that they used for the zoning? Oh yeah,

we were looking into it and we are looking into it. But I think it's a it's a bigger change than just amending a few ordinances. I think it's an overhaul, but we're working towards that just because it's needed. Oh, yeah. We've identified that. Just the time frame it's going to take to actually change it, implement the new system, and update. Right. Get everybody on board with it. Yep. Okay. I just want to make sure we were still working toward Yeah, we Yeah, we are.

And I know we had questions, but do we have any more? Uh it's not a question so much as a comment that uh you know I like that these departments are coming and talking about their department very good information but also I'm not trying to put you on the spot now but uh we need to look at how we can reduce cost in the department if that's possible because we got to cut some cost and uh I think we can you just from in for the from the departments. Another thing I want to point out is we started looking at credit cards and way to you know uh reduce cost and I have to tell you the last two departments I think it was memorial auditorium and the library I believe perfect you guys you have invoices itemized statements everything that you're supposed to have for a credit card purchase and you know we have a purchasing policy look like you I got it memorized cuz you know what you're supposed to do.

Thank you. Just want to commend you, Ron. I appreciate that. So, I was happy to see a lot of the information that was on there and that it's being done uniformally. You know, it's not different parts of the page. It's not small information. You guys are doing detailed things that that make sense for the receipt and make sense for what you're purchasing. So, yeah. Again, Jared pretty much cracks the whip on us, keeps us in line. So, you're an example of not to change the current policy. There's no reason to change. works for us making it work. I'm sure if you went through them uh in detail, you'll see Tyson runs and buys nuts and bolts or antifreeze or things like that and he pretty well documents every single thing.

Um so yeah, it it works for us. I don't know how we would do it if we weren't doing it that way.

I know going through uh these budget study groups like this, part of the intent is for the commission to understand better how you guys do your job, what your needs are. how we can help you. Uh and again, mayor saying, you know, looking at ways we can reduce costs or consolidate things that make sense. Um every department, I know even when I spoke to you the first time, you know, there's things out there that everybody can do. We just have to zone in on using that word as a pun to to find those things to get to where we're spending things more effectively. But I'd like to think we do a pretty good job of watching our spending, but knowing we all came on to be public servants. We all want to do a good job. Alls we want to hear is, "Hey, you've done a great job." Nobody wants to hear you're doing a bad job. Every time you're out there picking something up, whether you want a new shovel or a new this to make your job better, that's what they're buying. These are things that, you know, these want lists, it's to do a better job for the citizen. None of this stuff these guys take home at night. nothing benefits them. They could come to work and and do nothing for eight hours if they wanted to with horrible job or horrible tools and equipment. But the better tools and equipment, better things we buy them, the better they can do their job. And again, at the end of the day, like the map I showed you, these guy, I'm proud of what they do. They did a great job. So having those little tools to do it, I don't know where we'd make the cuts. Not saying we don't need them. I just it's not part of my slideshow cuz that's not what I want to do. I obviously need to

Nobody wants to. Yeah. One thing I I don't want to see us lose guys to somewhere else when it when he was talking about the pay. So it's kind of like dispatch that that we did a couple month a month or so ago. I don't want that to happen because a lot of these trash drivers and Megan, you can correct me if I'm wrong because I reached out and and interviewed. I actually had one walk out, stand up in an interview and tell me when I they said, "What's the pay?" They just got up and said, "Thanks. I can't do that." Literally 30. Mhm.

We're talking $9 more an hour. So, I mean, it's significant. Benefits will go so far. And I love the benefits here. And we have a great benefit package, but you can't pay your bills with benefits, right? And if you can't pay your bills, you can't work here. Do we do uh does your department do uh job sourcing like job fairs and things like HR? They go No, we've been pretty lucky um right now, but uh I I know Kim's here and if we needed to do any of that, we'd get with Kim. What is it? Just having having what they do and how they how the seeds process a job fair so we could recruit people to come work for us, but also show show them what we're doing.

Yeah. Yeah. you know, it's a more localized department than the great big, you know, cards that wasn't taking care of this community. So, I think that'd be beneficial, too. But

another thing to think about that is we have a young young individual that's CDL licensed and he's very, you know, he's learning. He's he's doing good, but they're they're still working with them driving these big trucks. You're not driving up down the highway or even side streets. You're driving through alleys. Um, I wouldn't want to do it. I rode on those trucks. I have a whole new respect for the driver cuz he could take me out on the back if he wanted to with a tree limb or a car. But it it's a whole different ballgame than than a CDL driving up down the highway. You know, we did hire a truck driver before. And and I said, "Well, he's driven trucks all across the country." Well, he hadn't drove him down. Until you do that, it's a it's a different thing. So, having some experience is what I was getting at with that is a is a big thing, too. Even when you trim vegetation, is is there any alleys in Pittsburgh that are just small?

Oh, yes. Yeah. Some are tight, some they've had to just back down. They can only back down. You know, they can't alleys. The idea of alleys was to get all these cans off the front of the street and get things in the back where because we do have an ordinance, you can't leave your trash can out. How can we police that with three people? You can't.

With everything else, you can't. So, we moved them back to the alleys. um which causes wres havoc for Matt and his sewer lines and you know the weight of these trucks and uh but the the positive side is it is cleaning up these alleys. It is starting to make it. We've had several customers call and say I can't believe you guys came through and cleaned our alley. Well, yeah, we had to, you know, get our trucks up and done it. But it's making a difference. Texture, I might mention, you know, when you're talking when Chuck's talking about the reducing expenses, the problem with that with sanitation is as you get more and more customers, I've noticed that your dumping your landfill drops. In January, we're about $7,000. By the end of the year, because of your more loads, more drop.

I mean, it's more like 12,000. So, it's doubled almost doubled from January to December because you're servicing more customers. Well, there's that and also the wet months. So, you got to remember too that these dumpsters fill up with water. All the rain, everything like all your trash weighs that much more. All the cardboard boxes soak up water. It just cost more. That's Henry Chuck. He's calling in. What I do? Just hit something green. I'm just telling my Could you hold on Henry? Well, maybe not. Oh, hey Henry. Hey. Hey. Where are you? We're right in the middle of our budget session. We're going to put you on hold. Okay. Oh, okay. Yep. Okay. No problem.

Thanks. Anyway, I know I'm pushing the time close, so you have anything else? Well, I appreciate you putting it all together, putting the details together. I know we're asking a lot from everybody to try to do this as as most efficient as we can so we can help the taxpayers, you know, level out what's going on with it. I want to say one more thing, too. I know uh Commissioner Mel has ridden with trash guys a time or two. I think that that probably gave you a lot more clarity. I'm going to do it again. Good. And I would encourage anybody, not just with trash, come on out. Malachi will take you I'm sure Casey or one of the codes enforcement ride with anybody you want. Get a better understanding what they do every day.

Another impressive thing going down in your office and you can see what stops next and where the trucks at. You can watch it live. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Well, thank you. And regarding the budget, there's going to have to be a discussion about fees in next year's budget because this is one of the operations. It's supposed to operate like a utility. So, the fees are supposed to cover the costs and we stood it up out of the general fund because we just kind of did it in the middle of the year and then we had some general fund money in it the next year. But, um, right now we're at 18. We are at 18. And is that the low for the market?

That is. So, I mean, that's the the alternate side of it is we don't want to get a bunch of customers and then raise the prices, but the whole idea is that it pays for itself and it doesn't have general fund money. So, that's going to be something to consider, especially if you add another truck and another crew and and more and more customers. There may be a point where we can't add any more customers without um raising the fee is something we're not comfortable with. So, we'll have to talk about all that this year on the budget as well. Good job, man. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Take a little break before the other meeting starts. Yep.