City Council - Special Meeting

All right, I'll go ahead and call this special meeting of the council together for July 23rd, 2026 for the purpose of discussing and possibly consenting to appointments, budget help matters, and clerk training potentials. Once again, it's a special council session. We need to stick to those three topics there on everything that we do. The first thing I will say is, as we did, did interview some people and would like to discuss with you all potential appointments there we would need an executive session for that before going back to that executive session I just in conversation with a couple of the different council members this week on a few different things I am going to say that I am strongly urging the council to have Jody Wade come down and do a budget 101 with the council. That way we can all understand the budget better, the divisions of the budget and every aspect that contains within the budget. Because there seems to be some confusion regarding how the budget is put together, what it means and what we're looking at number wise. And I think it could really help us all to get a better grasp through that budget 101 for the governing body. that she is intending to provide. It's two hours at $225. And of course she offers to help preparation classes for the city clerk also but even if we don't do that at the moment if we could do the two hours for the $225 for her to come down and instruct what that consists of and I'll just kind of read it so everybody is reminded of and those listening can see also the relationship among assessed valuation budgeted expenditures anticipated revenues and property tax requirements It would include also the basic components used to calculate the mill levy and how the city's annual expenditure needs influence the required property tax revenue. Another point is the effect of change in assessed valuation on the mill levy and the governing body's role in reviewing, establishing, and approving the annual budget. well as practical examples illustrating how budget decisions affect the mill levy and taxpayers so those are the points that she would like to come and walk with us through I think that'd be very helpful and I just want to throw that out there first and foremost to you all Because it's not just getting this budget done, but for next year, the year after, just understanding the budget as a whole. And if we're going to bring somebody in to help look at the entire city budget to redo it, I think it'd be really good for all of us to have a good foundation understanding of the budget itself. What are your thoughts? I know that's a lot.

I mean, I don't think that's a bad idea at all to help us to understand. I mean, there's a lot here. Now, maybe that would help answer some of the things that I'm questioning because I just don't feel comfortable right now with things that I've seen. So maybe that would help shed some light on it.

don't think so either but um would that are you wanting her just to do that instead of us doing the other for the 97 for somebody to come down and just look at our budget um so 97 an hour for someone to assist with the budgets putting it together and so forth when we already have a company that's helping us with the budget and some other people that have said they would help look at the budget and help us put it together i think that 97 an hour is kind of excessive for the city, especially if we're trying to be mindful of money in itself.

So what other company is helping us besides the auditors?

The auditors and then Mr. Tabert that I wanted to hear back from. He has received everything and he said he'd be looking at over and getting back to me. I haven't gotten anything back from him yet, but I can touch base with him and will be touching base with him again.

Now, did he reach out to you or did you reach out to him?

I reached out to him. And what company does he work for? He is part of... This was within the stuff that the council was given a few weeks ago. Dave Travert, Kansas Policy.

What exactly does he do?

Which was it with the council member that was talking about Dave Travert? He was the person that came and talked about the tax the property tax here at the city so when no one really no one none of i didn't was that the is that the same guy from up the community center yes okay yeah so um When contacted, he says, yeah, that's stuff that he does. He helps with budgets and everything else. And when I asked him what the cost of that would be and everything, he says, no, it's no cost at all because that's what they want to do and that's what they try to do. And that's the purpose of the Kansas Policy Organization that he's with. so i'll reach out to him again and see where he is i'm looking that stuff over also we do have that budget thing and then of course jody also is volunteering to be able to teach how to prepare the budget and so forth she said to the city clerk or the deputy city clerk who's in the office at the right now working on that so those are options that are in front of us also within that If you all want to go with the $97 person and see where that goes, I mean, that is up to you all. I would love to hear more discussion on that and everything. I know all this is important even with appointing a city clerk or anything right now. Someone's experience would have to be absolutely needed if we were trying to use just them for the budget and not get some help from somewhere beyond that.

My thing is, as I'm seeing some things in here that I'm questioned, you know, I think the only way we're going to get the city back on track is to have someone come in that has a degree in the financing and city budgets and look at this and get it straightened out. There's just some things, we've got people asking, where's money, where's money? I can't give them an answer because I don't know. And I think that the citizens of Pleasanton deserve to know just as well as we do some of these numbers and

where things are at where what do they have and what fun um i just think it's in the best interest of the city because i went through this and i compared it to the um i converted to the 24 25 26 and what i'm seeing on this side and then this side does not match So I don't think, cause the numbers you go back here and you look at, um, you look at the page and then the email that I went back to and you know, 25, 20, 24, 25, 26, they don't match. So where is he coming up with them? Because I mean, just let's take the, fire department. So in 2025, it says actual and they put it at 17. Well, on the email that I had for actual was 12,995. There's a whole difference there. And then last year, they gave the fire department 45. Right here, it says they gave it to 18. So these are these are not matching. So Where did you and the auditors come up with all these numbers that are on these pages? Because he stood up here and never explained that.

Missy, can you give me that stack that's from your copy of stuff that I was looking at? I believe it's in the last grouping.

Because I know I looked at some of the stuff and I requested some papers and I've, as of now, I don't have any of the papers I requested, but, because I had a whole bunch of other questions too, so.

So what we have been working with thus far, before they brought this in, is this paper right here. So on this paper that you're referring to, do you have it like this with the numbers on the side or without the numbers on the side?

I only have what the auditor gave me.

You said you went back and looked at the email paper.

Oh, no. I went back and I looked at the one with the 20, not with that.

Not without the numbers on the side. Without the numbers. Okay. So the numbers on the side here is the actuals from 2025 and they will match every single number here in the actuals from 2025. What this looks at is whenever you look at current year estimate for 2025 and you look at these numbers, they will not match these numbers because this And what Becky wrote here is the actual expenditures for 2025. And what's here in the center next between 2024 and 2026 is the estimated projection of expenditures. And when the budget is being looked at, the estimated expenditures or the estimated expectancy of expenditures is calculated by looking at what has been spent in that area up to the middle of the year and you times by two. And they say, if you've spent this much up to this point, then that's what it's going to take for the rest of the year. And then, from my understanding, they adjust that with a slight percentage increase because towards the end of the year, sometimes you come across other problems that arise. So those are projected numbers. They're not actual numbers. So then next to it, it says the proposed budget for the year 2026. And that is the proposed budget. just because a person's budget is $45,000 does not mean that they spend or will spend $45,000. An example for that would even be the police department whose budget You know, actuals for 2024 was under $300,000. Actuals for 2025 was projected at $315,000. Their actual ended up being $434,000 due to other expenditures that came up towards the end of the year and etc. So with that in mind, they're playing with potential numbers here. It's estimations, percentage rate, and potentials. And those are things that we have to look at because that's the only way that we can really get a good idea of what the budget could potentially be. Now we know with the fire department here, current year estimated for 2026. We know that $18,000 will not be it because we've already had some other expenditures that have gone through the fire department. But those expenditures went through after the date of the projection numbers that they got for the beginning of the year. Did that make sense?

So for instance, you're saying The current estimate for 2026 and fire was 18,000, and it's projected to be 23,000 this year. Is that what you're saying?

So right now, from the expenditures that happened up through what they had for the fire department, they projected that the fire department would only be spending about $18,200 this year. if they continued with the same spending pattern that they had had up to that point. But we know that the budget for the fire department is $45,000 because there were several other things that the fire department needed to get. But those expenditures didn't go out until after the mid-year mark of what they were looking at. So they took the projection of the $18,000 from their estimated this year and then they bumped it up a little bit saying prices are going up we need other things we know that hoses are needed and the few things that they had asked for within their emails that was given in respects to that they estimated well so 23 498 is kind of the estimate based on how the expenditures had been happening If you include the larger stuff that we purchased in that projection, then those numbers would change. But because they weren't, that's why they're so low. So what they give us is this proposed budget year. They give us all these numbers and they say, okay, well, here's our projection of what we believe it would actually be for all of these things. And then what the council then needs to do in a workshop is sit down and go through each of these departments and you get to like fire and you say, okay, well, no, $23,000 is simply not going to do for the fire department because we want more firefighters. Every firefighter is going to need gear. All the gear costs about $5,000 a firefighter. we put at least two new firefighters next year we did an extra ten thousand dollars in this budget if we want to say we say you know what they've had some hose that busted we just heard about some other hoses that didn't pass some of their testings we know that some other equipment is in need of repair the skaters that's us skaters yep those I'm going SCADA, SCUBA, no. The SCBAs, we know they're going to need to replace some of those and fix some more of those. So that's another expenditure that we need to add into that. So we say, you know what, we're probably better off leaving the fire department with the same budget that we did this year. So instead of $23,498, we need that to be $45,000 again. So if we take that and move it up to $45,000, then we need to look at everything else and say, okay, where do we take that money from? What budget do we lower for that? And then, once we've done that, and what we know every department absolutely needs is kind of what you put first, and you say, all right, well, that's going to put us at, oof, 95 mills. We can't do 95 mills. We've only said 92 at this point. We really want to be lower than that. So where do we start cutting costs? And then we cut down from each department that we can as much as we can to lower it to the mill levy that we'd really like to get to, even to revenue neutral if possible. And that's the process by which the budget is supposed to run. And that's why they gave us these numbers to work with here.

This is all fine and dandy. Until we have the numbers from every department, this is just numbers. I mean, we don't know what pool, city hall. I mean, Tristan put his in several times. We've got chief wisdoms. We don't have public works. We don't have wastewater. We don't have the water department. Until we get all the department's numbers in on what their proposed budgets are, We can spend bills with this all day long.

So the way budgets are generally done, particularly for parks and rec and public works that fall into this particular type of category here. There's a general budget that they need for operation that's based on the last year. So the budget would need to maybe go up or down based on whether there are more or less expenditures that are needed. For instance, in Parks and Rec, because what has been required in the past, the department heads and everything else, is give a list of items that are outside normal operation expenses that you are looking at getting. For instance, we got from The sewer department, we got that camera that they would like. So what we do is we look at the budget and go, okay, is there a way to squeeze that camera into the budget? So then we would raise that normal operation budget to try to cover that camera and so forth. None of the departments in the past have ever been required or know, they don't know any more than you on how to prepare a budget for their department because they have not seen the full breakdown of all the importance of their department.

But how do we get to that point to where we know which department is bringing in and spending out?

The expenditures are here and the actuals for each year.

Right. But we're also looking at their wants and their needs. That's part of the budget. We've got to know what these guys are expecting from us to put in the budget. And we can't do that if we don't know.

So that would be getting what they're wanting in each department. Wants and needs. Yes. Because there's a difference between I want, be great to have, and versus I need. Correct. Kind of like...

The camera was a need. It was a necessity for what we have.

Yes.

So... Fine.

I think on our accounts payable, I think we might have some things that have been taken out of the wrong line item as well that I've been looking at. I don't know, I just think we need to have some of the experience in government.

And there's two different aspects that I'm looking at within Budget Matters itself. Help in getting the 2027 budget composed and organized, and someone coming in to look at everything and completely redo it. Now, if the same person can do that, that would be fantastic. And it may be that an Internet Solutions person can do that. It would be something to try to attempt on that. I know that the interim solution person is a temporary thing. She's only available on certain days and her goal is to help us get the budget set. It may be on the side that she might go, why is there expenditure here or here or here when that doesn't really need to be as far as she could understand without knowing the city itself. So even if we have interim solutions come in to help with the budget, and everything at the $97 an hour, I would still like to see Jody Wade come down and do the budget 101 with the council, with the governing body, so that we can really get a better concept of it all.

I'd like to present this to you. This is a gentleman that did the Lynn County budget. This is Lloyd's. Lloyd's Incorporated did the budget for Lynn County last year alone. And they're a flat fee of $2,000. And they will come in and they will do a draft budget of what we have, a draft budget, bring it to us, go line by line by line by line until we all understand it. And they will also do workshops with the council to learn about budgets and how to do the budgets.

Okay. So it is giving us the same thing that Jared, Gilmore, and Phillips gave us. And doing that, which is Jody is suggesting, all kind of combined. Sort of. But they will do the budgeting also. I mean, this is, that's what this is.

Right. But Jared Gilmore and Phillips can't audit their own work. That comes directly from Mr. Gilmore. It's a conflict of interest.

So this is a $2,000 flat fee? A flat fee of $2,000. Okay. That is another way of doing it where we know the exact what we're getting and everything. Everything. And if we did this, then we wouldn't need the internet solutions? Either way. Because it would give us the budget. They'll give us the budget and do the training. Okay, so there's another option before the council.

great idea because this is this is their direct specialty and they've got a group a whole group of people that bind on that and but for me it's trying to swallow the $97 an hour you know do I support them absolutely but I still have a hard time swallowing the $97 an hour because that's to figure with their travel their wages and They're hotel rooms, stuff like that. You're $2,000 for the day.

Where is that company out of? Galena, Kansas, I think it is, or something like that.

Galena is what you would say.

That's funny. I looked up the company, too. I was looking up the same one.

Galba? Galba, Kansas. I know it started with a G. The other good thing about this is if they come in for this, they're in Kansas already.

And that gentleman has family in Iowa. So he's in this neighborhood.

So there's a possibility to budgets help. I like it. It can be all in one source. Helping with the budget, the training, everything. What do y'all think?

Let's do it.

Let's do it. Okay. We would need a motion.

Who's it for?

Lloyd Group.

I make a motion to hire Lloyd Group to help the city with their 2027 budget. Also good.

Can you stay for another two minutes?

for $2,000.

Sandy motioned. Rochelle, you seconded that?

Yeah.

Okay. Any discussion on that?

It's the workshop too, right?

Yes, it's all part of it. Yeah, 100%.

And is this the number that you would call him? Excuse me? Is this the number that we need to call him for that?

Yes, it should be. I should have his cell phone number on there in one of the pages. Right here? Yep.

Okay. All in favor?

So moved. He did ask that if we could get him all the information that he wanted, which was the 2025-2026 budget, the 2025 audit, the SS value of the county, and the motor vehicle information to him, he could have the budget for Wednesday next week.

A rough draft. I will get in touch with him tomorrow to see what we need contract-wise to get that done and get him all of that information.

actually don't thank me to thank the code of holding she's the one that uh introduced me to these people she's the lady that works for the uh county essentials yes

If someone will make a motion for an executive session for 10 minutes to discuss potential appointments.

I'll make a motion for an executive session for appointments. 10 minutes.

It's been moved and seconded. All in favor? We'll go back to 640.

$2,000 is a lot better pill to swallow than $2,000 a day.

I was about to ask what I called the cap rates. So, yeah, I created an editorial cartoon. So, yeah, I created an editorial cartoon. I posted it on my shirt. Remember, please attend, please.

That's where it is.

Because New York does that.

Do they really? New York is too for the pet market.

All the time. That's interesting. But of course they're union, so...

That's interesting.

It's just that they're seven and a half hours or something.

Yeah. Wow. That's not bad. That's a good way to have a good sleep in. Yeah.

So what town are you going to? She doesn't know who this person could be. You never know. You never know. She's great. What?

Why? No? Yeah.

It does. I put it in. Well, I could have put a switch up there, but it's fine thank you She only has four pictures.

I'm sorry. It's not a good place to turn.

Oh, I need to check something out. It's called slowly.

It's called what?

Slowly. Except we didn't actually know.

a cat with you in the middle.

And it.

I feel so responsible. Everybody gave me the story. The product was being amplified, actually. No, in the car exploded yesterday. Oh my gosh. I ran up to work. It was not before I just went to work at 930 to do something. Drove in. And just as soon as I parked, I heard this noise. I was like, I'm going to have to call my mom. I'm going to have to call my mom. So I went to look. I'm going to have to call my mom. And it shattered all the way down. I mean, the whole edge of it is jagged. And they looked it up and peeped. And so David says, yep, she's running from the sun. Well, then you can't see her.

And apparently they do that when it's really cold, too.

Well, that's what they're saying. I hold my air on high, and then they heat outside, and they are just in fires all the time. We lost another door on our freezer today at work because I looked at it. Steve called me and he said come to the closing quickly. And I go there. I hit the back of the aisle and it's always in front and I can hear it.

Executive session ended with a normal special meeting.

Can we make a motion for an executive session for non-elected personnel for another potential appointments for I guess another five minutes or so?

I got ten just in case.

Yeah, let's go ten just in case.

I second.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded for an extended 10 minute executive session for non elected personnel to discuss potential appointments. All in favor. We'll be back at 642 652. he's going to keep me straight.

And that's pretty good if she can solve it. yeah but he's like not in place i mean well they don't like their actors I did ancient mythology as one of my classes. That was probably an interesting class.

The capability of me. Just the capability, but you've also got one of the biggest thoughts. I'm not even with you. I don't want to do that. I'm never going to stop you.

You heard it. I'm not going to.

I'm supposed to quarrel with Laura. Oh, yeah. What time do you need to leave? I don't want to. Oh, I meant you were leaving home, not here, but leaving home.

Yeah, we have to be up there by then.

By then.

Yeah, by then. So.

Kind of, yeah. My sister didn't do well.

I can't. Yeah, she didn't laugh.

Okay, that's the hardest part. That's what I remember. Okay. Yes, that's true. That's true. Thank you. Still have to book it.

Yeah. two and a half hours ago.

I'm like burning in the eyes.

As we go along.

I bet you find out about a bunch more, too, when you're there and talking to the locals. What's the cost of one? Does it feel like $110?

So you have to pay, yeah, it's like $110 to put a paper on it.

Did you get it down at Jackie's? Because Jackie, surely she's not worried about us.

No. She knows us. So, well, to get your actual passport, you take your future parents' passport and ask them to post it on the street. So, we, my sister did that because she needed a new one and I never had a new one.

Did your mom have one? Yeah.

Yeah, my mom and dad, they got theirs. So they went on some excursion for the sled dogs, where they breed the sled dogs. And one of the people that went on the excursion with them actually put one of the puppies in the purse and turned the skin. And she made it all the way to the boat.

And say, that probably wouldn't be too good.

Oh, that would definitely be a film. Because that film was part of it as well.

Yeah.

I feel like they went to, I'm not sure if she went to Charleston. I don't know. I'm not sure what it was called.

It was your mom's sister travel. They were traveling together.

Well, when I thought this all up and started working on it, I actually called my dad and asked if he wanted to go with me.

that would have been that would have been horrible she she always well she always I think it's by my team because I've started it several times.

I have.

I do. I have. My life. I'm losing my hair.

Executive session ended, resuming normal special meeting. Okay, I'd like to request consent of counsel to appoint Julie Whitehead as the court clerk, the animal control officer, with the understanding of being office help also in a part-time capacity.

I'll make a motion to appoint Julie Whitehead as...

Consent to appoint.

Consent to appoint Julie Whitehead for animal control... Court clerk. Court clerk. And office help. Part-time. I second.

It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? All those in favor? Thank you. The last thing on the list here is core training potentials. And without actually appointing a city clerk at this particular time, what I will do is I will contact Inner Solutions and find out how much it would be for them to help us locate a permanent city clerk. I'll bring that back to the council or send that to you as soon as I get it so that we can continue to look for that and keep the city clerk Application receiving open so that we can hopefully get someone that can meet everything that we're looking for in the city clerk Does that sound appropriate for you all? Thank you.

Okay, does that need to be a motion?

It wouldn't need to be a motion because it's just gathering information to bring to you all at that point It would be a motion to actually move on So we have budget help being called and activated tomorrow and We have the new court clerk, animal control, being moved on tomorrow to see when the start date for her would be on that. And information gathering for what it would be for them to help us locate and get a permanent city clerk. With that, I would entertain a motion for adjournment.

I would be in accordance to the pay scale. It's the pay scale for what? Because you've got three different positions.

I forget with the multi-position thing, we don't have that listed within the pay scale itself. Next time we update the pay scale we should probably include something where a multi-position includes like a dollar extra or something or two dollars extra. That way it's consistent.

I would also like to have that sent to us so that we know the wages.

Peace. So the court's enforcement officer starts off at $17 an hour. That's how much? $17 an hour.

And then what did you say?

If it's a multiple position like this, which is court clerk and animal control, I would suggest maybe $1, $1.50, or $2 more an hour for the multiplicity of tasks. So if we did split somewhere in the middle of that $1 to $2, it would be $1.50. That would be $18.50. Thoughts?

Is it the $17, whatever, is that for the first year? Or is that, what's it, the... Because I know it was by experience.

17 is where it starts, yeah. She also has a paralegal degree there, which helps with that.

I would agree with that because of her education.

so yeah so 1850 yeah okay i just to solidify that completely can we have a motion for that since it's outside the pay scale in general i'll make a motion to agree to pay julie white at 1850 an hour off the pay scale okay Any discussion?

And that was budgeted in there for it?

It was originally budgeted for full time. Yeah.

The other, there was originally budgeted three people in the office for full time. Okay. So it is definitely within the budget.

Just want to make sure.

TO ADJOURN THIS MOVEMENT. A SECOND.

A SECOND. ALL IN FAVOR? ALL IN FAVOR? ALL IN FAVOR? FIVE. FIVE. FIVE. YOU'RE ADJOURNED.