City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Welcome to all. This Picosen City Council meeting is called to order. Got another good crowd tonight. We're very thankful to see everybody here. Uh look forward to demonstrating our listening skills in just a little while. Uh we work on those very hard and we also put a lot of effort into creating a a welcoming, cordial, positive, and pleasant environment. uh so people uh feel welcome and feel comfortable coming to speak. So thank y'all for being here and uh just a friendly reminder and uh have to remind myself as well in order to take full advantage of the uh benefits of our audio system need to please make certain we speak directly into it. So uh that being said uh thank you in advance. Uh also like to welcome uh Mr. Bill Bray with us tonight. uh he's an attorney uh the sitting in for our uh city attorney uh Mr. Wayne Moore. So, Mr. Bray, thank you for being here.

Thank you for having me.

Yeah, I appreciate that. Um moving on to item B on the agenda, invocation and pledge of allegiance, uh which will be led tonight by Councilman Carrie Freeman. Pray with me. Dear Lord, we're thankful we live in a city where we can have a free and elected government. We ask that you guide us and direct us. Help us work together with respect and understanding, striving for the common good of our city. We ask that you bless our military, especially those deployed and our first responders who serve our city. In your name, amen. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Item C on our agenda tonight uh our special presentations. We have two of them. Uh the first is related to the Colonial Behavioral Health Board. Uh I'd like to recognize uh two citizens that represent and serve the city on that board. Uh Dr. Dawn eyed and Mr. Gerald Pacel who's just been recently appointed. So we do appreciate their service. I'd like to welcome Mr. David Co back with us tonight. Mr. Co is the executive director of the Colonial Behavioral Health Board. So Mr. Co, thank you for being with us. The floor is yours.

Thank you, Mayor Hu, Mr. Wheeler, members of council. It has been 7 and 1/2 years since we've been here to present. Uh it seems like yesterday and forever ago all at the same time. Uh for about half of you then uh you'll be seeing me for the first time and I apologize that this is the best that you get. Um right up front, but we are honored and pleased to be able to present to you tonight. And I know you have a copy of our our slides. So for sake of time, we're just going to move right into it. You have a lot going on. Tonight, Colonial Behavioral Health is one of 40 community services boards in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Back in the late 60s, uh the General Assembly by by mandate created that all local governments would either form a community services board or join with other localities in supporting one. Um, Possen joined with James City County, York County, and the city of Williamsburg to form Colonial Behavioral Health. So, we are we were actually formed in 71. So, we are in our 55th year of existence, which is quite long. We we are one of your regional statutory uh entities like you have many that you share with other localities. Right now we we happen to be one of those but we're a little different also in that we are also a unincorporated 501c3. The way Virginia has set up the uh community services board or what we call the CSB system. You sort of walk around with uh you almost have like three three feet. Uh two of them are in the public world and one of them is in the private

sector. Sort of sort of dance a little bit in both of those. But the majority of the rules we follow, of course, are public rules. We'll let you know that our fiscal agent is York County. They have been our fiscal agent for uh longer than I can remember. I've been with Colonial now 22 almost 22 years. And York County was the fiscal agent long before long before that. As Mayor Hux has already shared, our two board members that represent the city of Picosen and I would say Dr. ID Aly, uh, Mr. Patesel, I've known him for a few years and he will be very able as well. So over the last, this is going to be an average over the last five years, we have averaged about 135 individuals from Picosen per year that we served. that was peaking at about 147 uh and then it dropped into the 120s during COVID. Everything we did the numbers diminished during COVID and just in FY25 have we gotten back up to the 147 148 number. So the average across that period of time has been 135 individuals from the from the city of Picosen. you'll find that uh a little over 1if of those are children and adolescents. The majority about twothirds are adults and seniors making up about 12% of that. You'll also see our the office that primarily serves residents of Picosen is located on George Washington Highway uh in the Harwood Way area across from the Earth & Dam there at the reservoir. our York Picosen office. It's been built since the early 90s. Um so hopefully you'll you'll recognize

that the services we provide. Uh it's a it's a long list. We will not I will go through them very quickly. Um not describing too many of them because I want to leave time at the end if you have questions or want to ask some followup along those lines. our emergency services, our crisis services, which now include in the last couple of years now include mobile crisis services, which means that you don't necessarily have to go to the emergency room. We can get a call, we can be dispatched and head out to an individual's home, to a school, to a business, wherever it might be to intervene with a crisis before it gets to the point where somebody might need to be hospitalized. our outpatient services, counseling, individual group um for all all ages. Psychiatry, permanent supportive housing is funding that we've received from the state that primarily serves individuals with serious mental illness. The state is putting some priorities around those for individuals coming out of jails or state hospitals, but not exclusively to that. We also work with the uh continuity of care uh group. So we have a number of community individuals placed as well. Case management services helping wrap around individuals with the needs they may have. Intensive outpatient services is primarily a substance use service but it deals with individuals with mental illness as well. We would sort of term that as in years gone by you used to either go to the doctor or you went to the hospital and then this urgent care was created years ago. But we consider this to be in the same continuum sort of the urgent care model for for behavioral health services where you can actually get an intensive

level of care and then go home and be be at home with your family at night. We are one of the more active community services boards in the state around veterans and active duty military. We were the first CSB in the state to create a military liaison to work with to work with our military bases and our veterans groups and then our prevention services as well. I want to highlight some of those. Uh you may have seen the red signs on the front of your food line cart. Colonial Behavioral Health. We have 60 of those. That contract has been extended. Um, this was the first year that we actually have set up a booth at the Picosen Seafood Festival. Uh, that experience was so good for us, it will not be the last time that we're there. And then National Drug Takeback Days. Um, the local coalition, the nest, the historic triangle drug prevention coalition distributed many bags that include a long list of items that are there uh to help folks with disposal, return of medications or ex or information explaining how to be safe using medications or avoiding dangerous materials. If you've been to Anna's Pizza in the months of May and September, you have probably seen those boxes. I've seen some heads nodding. So, some of you have been to Anna's Pizza quite a bit. Uh over 6,000 people have eaten those pizzas during those months in the last few years. And we uh we believe that is a great way to advertise 988. and then the athletic manner there on at field D1 here in here in the city. And then we have a number of services

that are provided to Picosen residents but are not located in Picosen themselves because they tend to be more facility- based. We do operate two residential group homes for adults with developmental disabilities. They are both located in upper York County. Uh but we those services are available to Picosen residents. We operate a a DD or a developmental disability day support program up on Marramac Trail in Williamsburg. We provide transportation to families and individuals who need that transportation. And that transportation ranges from the coast to Tueno. We we have we have routes that we we head that far and hit every direction. Psychosocial rehabilitation is a day support type of program for adults with serious mental illness. And then our part C early intervention services. I know you're all familiar with child development resources or CDR. We contract with CDR. So the part C work on the early intervention work they provide. We are their their pass through for for those services as well and of course they are very active in Picosa. Some of the service trends that we have seen is that as I mentioned before numbers decreased across the board during COVID people stayed home. Um there was an increase in in teleaalth services that came about at that time. Some of that has gone back in the opposite direction, but not entirely and probably never will. Um, but what we are finding is the individuals who are coming in our doors now have more complex and acute needs than they ever have before. Cases are more complicated.

When we're dealing with substances, the substances are much more dangerous because of COVID. A lot of times mental mental health conditions may have been let to go further they might had before. So we we get individuals that are more complicated on average than before. We therefore we have as our field has done increased our focus on trauma-based care. We find that a lot of the issues that folks wrestle with today are because of traumas they have experienced in their lives as ch as children observing others within their families within their community. It comes from all directions these days and therefore we have also have you seen we have increased our focus on our prevention efforts. Some things we're currently in engaged with Marcus alert. I'm sure you've all been briefed on Marcus Alert. And while Picosen is not a mandated locality, we're very happy that Picosen has been engaged with the other localities that we work with in supporting their planning, participating, learning what lessons can be learned from that. um but yet remaining true to the fact that you all are not have not chosen to engage with that although you could always do it at any time should you choose to. We are also among all 40 of us as community services boards in Virginia are are actively pursuing the process called becoming a CCBHC the certified community behavioral health clinic. It is a federal designation that resembles very similarly if you understand federally qualified health centers FQC's. A CCBHC

is a is a photo negative of an FQHC. Now I'm start with the acronym letter salad here. Um a CCBHC is mandated to provide a broad array of behavioral health services and a little bit of primary care. and FQC is mandated to provide a lot of primary care and a little bit of behavioral health. If you put those two photo negatives together, you've got a full picture. We are working at that right now, hoping to maybe have Virginia become start down the road of turning all 40 of us into CCBHC's over the next several years, which could be transformative in terms of funding. And when that occurs, it improves workforce retention, recruitment outcomes nationally based. That leads us to some of those challenges that we're dealing with. No one that comes up to present to you will say that their workforce issues are just hunky dory because they're not. They have improved somewhat for us in the last year or so. And therefore that's one of the reasons that some of our numbers are starting to go back up because we had so many vacancies it was difficult to serve people there for a while. I also don't have to describe to the city of Picosen about federal funding uncertainties. Every locality knows that but I know in particular you do. State funding in some cases is almost as uncertain as federal funding. And it's hard to find a place to look these days where you can be completely sure of anything in terms of funding. For our developmental disability population that we serve, it is almost entirely funded by Medicaid and the rates there have improved, but they've got a long way to go. And then accessing state hospital beds. If chief if the chief was here, he would

tell you how many times they have to access a state hospital bed. Eastern State Hospital has not admitted anybody locally in months. You need a state hospital bed in this part of the state these days. You're going to drive to Marian. You're going to drive to Northern Virginia. You're going to drive to Stanton. You're going to drive any number of places, but Eastern State is pretty much just full and it's full of folks in the forensic population. That's a challenge for this area. And then Virginia is redesigning its Medicaid behavioral health services. I'll run through these parts pretty quickly. Um, we are in the process right now. We are constructing a new crisis services center going to be called the center for support and wellness. You'll see an artist rendering there. Uh, the structural steel is up. We're starting to put the cover, you know, the the metal cover over it. Right now, we are planning to be open in September, October of this year. It is fully funded by the state. Governor Yncan put the money forward for us through the right help right now initiative. So, that is going forward. We will be the only such center that will have 12 recliners that will be able to provide up to 23 hours of care. Eight beds for residential care for those in crisis anywhere from 2 to 10 days. And then our CIT assessment center which will be able to accept custody on a short-term basis from law enforcement while evaluations are being done. A total of 24 beds or chairs. um you will all be invited to the ribbon cutting. We expect this should hopefully cut down on those number of trips that people are making to Marian and Stanton and places like that as well.

We are also planning years ago Colonial was in the supported employment business to help individuals with disabilities get jobs, get trained in the job skills and keep those jobs. We we got out of that years ago. We are looking to get back into that soon. The psychosocial rehab today model for adults with serious mental illness. I mentioned before we are reworking that model to sort of modernize that model. Uh we are working on a partnership engaged with a partnership with a federally qualified health center right now to provide integrated primary care behavioral health and dental services under one front with one front door. That is a that is a future arrangement for us. And of course I've already mentioned Marcus Alert. There's a lot more that we do. Um, so while we're proud of what we do, we would also welcome any of you who would like to come and tour any one or all of our facilities, feel free to give me a call, send me an email. The next slide there, you will you will find our website and my email. Be happy to take you on a tour anytime. Uh, we'll be taking Mr. Patesel on one here very shortly. So, if you'd like to come along, Thank you very much for your support and I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

I have a couple. Yes, sir. Um, on your I think it's the third or fourth view graph, you have a services provided. Yes. And there's a whole bunch of acronyms there that I do not recognize. Go ahead. Okay. Can you tell me what they are, please? Okay. Um, this is on the uh the one has MH and S U and all of those things. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Okay.

I apologize for that. My board even tells me to sometimes quit speaking in letters in alphabet soup and and actually use the words mental MH is mental health. SUD substance use disorder. And then you have ID slash DD on that on that page. Might be able to go back. That's your slide. I imagine that one's got most of the alphabet soup on it.

ID stands for intellectual disabilities developmental disabilities. Just the same group. Um and then we have the MHSUD. Again I skip forward. I think most of those are identified. That that was my main concern. And one other question is you talk about a drug takeback program. Yes.

Are are there are they identified when that's going to happen? Because I'm certain many people in the city have medicines left in their medicine cabinet that they haven't um used all of or or they wound up never taking for some reason or another. I'm one of those people and I'd like to know how to get rid of them. Okay. Those those usually occur a couple different times a year. Um they tend to be advertised with your law enforcement. I I don't I don't have the dates in the top of my head. I apologize for that. We can get back to you. We can send that that information to Mr. Wheeler and Mr. Hu. I

I think that ought to be published for the city. you know that I think a lot of people would like to take advantage of take advantage of that. Thank you. Great. I I I would agree and I I have some medications at my house I probably like to get rid of as well. I'm happy to answer any other questions you may have. Yes, sir. On that regard, I was going to say with a uh a spouse that's a pharmacist is don't throw him down the toilet. Don't throw him in the garbage. taken to someplace they can just get rid of them safely.

Yes, the the information bags that we mentioned that we hand out in there do have disposal bags where you can actually put in there and you can actually put them in the trash um that way. But but there there are approved methods for doing that. Um

any other questions from council members? I had a quick question and it's just from ignorance. Uh when you were talking about um East Carolina, you mentioned that people who uh were there long term and it's been a long time. You said they were there for forensic reasons. Now I understand forensic medicine from Quincy, right? You guys remember Quincy and forensic speaking with public speaking. How is forensic used in this case?

Forensic in this case is used. We have two populations that end up general broad populations that go to state hospitals. One is civil, which are those that have no criminal involvement, no criminal justice involvement whatsoever. The forensic population tends to be individuals who may be transferred from jails. They may um they may have court orders in other ways to send to send them there that are non not the civil like civil commitment sort of thing. Or it could be someone who has been through the court system and they are declared not guilty by reason of insanity or the NGRI to throw out the alphabet soup again. So those tend to be the groups that make up the forensic population.

Thank you. I appreciate that. Sure. I do Excuse me. I do have one uh the Marcus Alert planning. Uh I had to look it up. I had no idea what it was. Uh, and I think that's a that's a bad thing because if I'm the one that's trying to report someone that is in need of that service, it basically pushes me, but I need to know it pushes me to law enforcement who understands that more. But without knowing what it is, you know, I'm going to them not knowing what I'm asking for, right? Is there more of a way to announce that? I mean, we all it took a long time for the Amber Alert to get out there and there's several other ones out there and this a new one to me.

Well, the the Marcus alert actually is it's not really a program. It's a set of protocols and it is it is designed to categorize levels of threat and different types of response that could be that could be made when law enforcement engages with somebody who has mental illness or substance use or whatever. It's based upon a case from Marcus David Peters that happened in this part of the state. So, it's named after after an individual. It actually categorizes times when a response should automatically be law enforcement, dangerousness, whatever the issue might be. Or it could be that in a certain case it may be just that mental health needs to respond. Maybe in this case, law enforcement doesn't need to respond. But there's a lot of there's a there's a lot of cost associated with that. There's a lot of nuance with that with 911, 988 dispatches and so on. So it's pretty complicated and for smaller localities it can be quite challenging to implement. Therefore, the general assembly first said every locality has to do this and then the next year they they backed off and said localities with populations under 40,000 should have the option of doing so with the goal that they would they would eventually like to have everybody get there but I don't think we're ever going to get to that point. Um, Picosen is one of the localities. There are many in Virginia that said based on our size and resources and all that. It just doesn't work for us. But the chief has been very engaged in learning what he can about what what happens in other localities. So hopefully looking to glean the learning of that without having to necessarily take on the administrative burden and cost of it. So I think it's pretty wise on on Gerald's part. Thank

you. Other questions from council members? Mr. Co, thank you again for being with us. Your presentation is informative as well as interesting. Thank you. It's an honor to be here. Much appreciated, sir. Thank you. So, with that, we'll move on to our next presentation. Uh, like to welcome Mr. Kyle LS. Uh Kyle is our financial advisor from Davenport and Company and he's going to have a he's going to present to us tonight related to our strategic borrowing approach. So Kyle, appreciate you being with us and the floor is yours, my friend.

Yes indeed, Mr. Mayor, uh members of council, nice to see you, Mr. Manager, um and folks in the audience and at home as well. Um again, always appreciate being here in Pakosen. We've had the good fortune to do that for a long time. Um that's something we and my colleagues value a lot. Um to my left, Austin Saxs, one of my colleagues. He'll talk here a little bit at the end. We'll kind of get things rolling, try and move through the evening here, but certainly as you may, members of council have questions, by all means, feel free to jump in. Um so to mayor's point there, what we really have tonight is what we've called the 2026 school financing and strategic borrowing approach. So, um, typically this time of year as you're moving into your budget planning cycle for the next fiscal year, which will start July 1st, uh, we tend to come, which again we appreciate doing, give a little bit of an overview in history and also a plan to move forward with any capital projects that you as a city have identified. And so, we've got one of those, but we also have an opportunity, we think, in the current market to save some money by refinancing. So, we'll talk about that. Uh just a little bit of background there. Um again, in terms of our capacity as your advisor, it's not our our job necessarily to say which projects are good or bad projects. That's for you as a mayor and a council with your staff to tell us. And you've come to us with one of those projects. And so that's really the the nexus of why we're here this evening. U but as you look at that second bullet point, um the other thing we tend to do a lot is watch your outstanding debt portfolio and say, "Okay, as interest rates go up, they go down. They've been going down the last year. are there opportunities to refinance for saving purposes? And so last year, we borrowed about $3 million for some school projects. Um, and as we've been watching that over the course of last year, we think that loan we could actually refinance for savings purposes, meaning take the rate we got last year, make it a lower rate, and hopefully save money in the process. And so Austin's going to talk some more about that. We really have two purposes there in so far as we've got a new

project and also hopefully refinancing for savings purposes. Um before we do that, we're going to just a little bit of of history in terms of where you've been in a city the last five or so years. Again, we just think that's a good sort of perspective for the mayor council. Obviously, you know that um but the citizens as well. And then we'll get into some of the details on again this financing plan going forward. We always like to point out on page number three here the city's credit ratings. So, you have two very hard-earned and excellent credit ratings, especially for a city of your size. Um, you see those on page number three. Uh, the first is from Moody's Investors Service. We just shorten that to Moody's. Uh, you have a double A2 credit rating. It's in that green box up there. Um, when you as a city started down the path of needing and having credit ratings, you were in the high A range. It's that kind of yellow dot there in the middle of the page. Um, and so what you've been able to do primarily in the last 10 or 12 years is really get those credit ratings up. What that does is when you need to go borrow money, like you've identified right now, helps you do so at the lowest possible interest rate. So, it's a real money saver to you as a city and the taxpayers to have these credit ratings as strong as possible. So, you see that AA2 which is in the very strong category from Moody's uh on the right hand side. uh we saved the best for last year is the AAA credit rating from S&P or standard and pores. We just shorten it to S&P. That is the highest possible credit rating that any local government can have. Um and for you as a city your relative size which is relatively smaller to have such a credit rating that again is as strong as you can possibly have um is really really spectacular. um that again provides you one of the best ways

possible to go finance or refinance for savings purposes your projects when you as a city identify them and so kudos to you uh on mayor and council the disaster obviously um with Mr. Wheeler and Tanya running the the day-to-day of things to have achieved uh such heights in terms of credit ratings. Uh on page number four, we just give a little bit of a we'll kind of call this our our pizza chart here or pie or whatever your your mode is um in terms of what actually goes into those credit ratings. Again, as we're in that budget planning cycle, we like to kind of refresh this a little bit u make sure you as a council um and the public really understand what goes in um to coming up with those credit ratings. And it really can be boiled down to four basic slices there. You see that up on the screen. Um the top left is the economic base and so that's something that on a day-to-day basis you don't have a lot of control over as as the mayor and council. Um certainly long-term economic development you can help that but daytoday um you're really benefited by what is viewed as a very solid very stable positive local economy. And so that's kind of where that credit rating starts. Um and that's that's a good positive that accounts for about 30% of the credit rating. you take your eye to the top right hand little quadrant there. Um, and that gets to things that are within your direct control. And so the first of those you see is financial performance and flexibility. That counts for about 30 40% of the credit rating. And that's the things um that really flow through the manager, flow through the flows through the finance department in terms of do you have annual surpluses? Do you have fund balance that is in compliance with your policies? Have you been adding to that fund balance? Those are those types of things that count in that financial performance and flexibility portion of the credit rating.

The next is if you go to bottom right, the management concept there. And this is probably the hardest one to quantify, but uh with Mr. Wheeler at the helm um obviously with Tanya as well and the rest of the team, you score very very highly on the management side of the equation. What they're looking for are things like do you have structurally balanced budgets? Are you following your financial policies? Are you doing good long range plannings which is thing that uh things that the city has done for many many years and so you get very high marks there in terms of management. And the last quadrant there um is the debt side of the equation. And so that's part of why we're here tonight. talk about borrowing some money for some new improvements into city infrastructure, but it really only is a portion of how those rating agencies are coming up with your ultimate credit rating. They're looking at that debt, not so much in terms of the sheer numbers, but how does that compare to your policies, how does that compare to your neighbors and peers, knowing that you are unique, but can be compared to other cities and counties across the state and across the region. and you compare well. So with that, in terms of the credit ratings, we'll talk just a little bit of history here. Um I think it's helpful maybe to set the stage that way. What this page is showing is your last five years of audited financials um right out of the general fund um in your audit. I will say kudos uh to your finance staff. Your audits are on time annually. um they are unqualified opinions in so far as they're clean opinions. Um that is becoming more and more challenging in the world of local government. So we do not take that for granted. Um and you shouldn't um either. So you're in very very good shape there just in terms of the actual uh tracking and and production of those audits. Very important. Um what you see over the last five years is uh basically annual surpluses each and every year. So

starting in 2021 ending most recently June 30 of 2025 you as the city have produced a surplus each and every year. Um what you note there as you get to 2025 that surplus is a little bit smaller. And so what we're also seeing in the world of local governments is we're in fiscal year 26 really planning for 27. Um some of the things are tightening in terms of uh we've had the impact of inflation over several years. um revenue growth still seems to be positive, but not quite as positive it was a couple years ago. Um and so we're really seeing that in so far as managing through this year and really planning for the FY27. We think it's going to be more challenging for many local governments including yourself. You're obviously in very very good shape heading into that. Um but we do see that broadly both within the region and the state. Um on page number seven, uh just one or two more pages here in terms of the overview, but this is a very important one. This is the unassigned fund balance. And so uh if there's one financial measurement or metric as you're looking at your finances, you're thinking about the finance of the city uh that you would want to go look at to understand what is your relative strength, what is your flexibility in terms of your financial situation, it's this unassigned fund balance. Um what you see is your policy is basically to be at or above that yellow line right there. Um and so you see that over that historical period we want the green bars to be above the yellow line. Um the other nice positive you've had given the last 5 years is those green bars have actually been increasing. Um this graph is showing things relative to the size of the budget. It's not necessarily the sheer dollars, but how do those dollars compare to the size of the revenue base in the city, which has been growing? Um, and so this is arguably the strongest financial position you've been in from a fund balance standpoint, at least in our memory and history. And so that again

should be noted. Um given your track record here of management, conservative budgeting, um excellent management of the finances, to be in this situation set you up well to be thinking about dealing with what we expect will be a challenging budget situation going forward. Uh one more slide here. I'll hand it over to Austin. As we think about again the concept of borrowing dollars for new projects, we always make the important caveat here that when the city or any local government is borrowing dollars, it's to make an investment in capital infrastructure. So you are not really allowed to be borrowing for things like operations or salaries. It's much different than the federal government. What you're borrowing for is more analogous to a mortgage. U maybe if you've either purchased a home or made improvements to your home, uh that maybe is the best correlary to personal finance. that really is the way the city operates. And so, uh, the borrowing that we're talking about is to put a new roof on the high school, um, roughly 2, uh, about $3 million, um, excuse me, 2.6 million, um, in that range. And so as we're thinking about the borrowing of that, what you see is our existing debt service uh on that right hand graph. You just look at that visually, 2026, 2027, we're about level here, 27 and 28. And you've got a very nice decline that comes up in 2029. So, we have a couple years before we get there, but part of the borrowing plan we're going to talk about is to try and accelerate some of that decline and bridge that gap between fiscal 27 that you're planning for right now, fiscal 28, that'll be the year after, and a very nice decline coming in fiscal 2029. Um, so there is clearly some daylight and a very good plan, solid plan to move forward with the projects you've identified. Uh, so with that, I'll hand the baton over to Austin here to walk you through the plan.

Thank you, Kyle, and good evening, mayor, members of council. Um, in terms of the plan of finance, as Kyle made reference to, in terms of the new money component, what we're looking at is approximately 2.6 million uh in terms of replacement of the Kosen High School roof. And that second bullet point, you'll see what we call a dual track approach. I'll go into more detail in a couple of slides, but what that's really looking at is competitively solicited direct bank loans, which the city has had much success in recent years. And it's also looking at the Virginia Public School Authority Pulled Financing Program. That's a longstanding well-run state program for school projects. and it gives the city access to the public credit markets um cost effectively for a financing of this size. Um towards the middle and lower bullet points there, as Kyle made reference, we're looking at potentially refinancing an existing loan. Um, as part of being the finan the city's financial adviser will look at opportunities to refinance for savings and like Kyle said going from a higher interest rate to a lower interest rate and trying to achieve debt service savings particularly looking at FY27 and 2028 in advance of the existing debt service decline. Um, the last point that I'll make on this slide um is that we aren't extending the maturity of that existing loan. want me to look at refinancing. So, similar to a mortgage refinancing, just going from a higher to a lower payment but not extending the term of that loan. On this slide, um just looking at the two scenarios, um a key point at the top of the page, both of these scenarios um fit within the adopted city um debt management policy. So in terms of debt service to expenditures, debt to

assessed value, both these scenarios fit within those policies. Um, scenario one we labeled as the 2026 bond. That just includes the new money. This is taken into account via your budget process. So in terms of the payments, this has already been planned for um to take those payments on. And so in terms of structure, um, as we approach that debt service decline, trying to structure that new issuance to limit the payments in the first two years and then layer on the full principle and interest over the remaining term of the loan, which we're planning for 20 years for this particular um, long live asset of a project. In the blue box, we're looking at scenario two. And what this is is a current market estimate. So, our sense of what the public credit markets or a competitively bid direct bank loan might look for the refinancing of the 2025 bond. And so using the same structure as scenario one um and current market interest rates and we'll go we'll I'll show you on the next couple of pages but what that may translate and may look like in terms of new debt service payments and what those savings may look like. So visually on scenario one here this is giving you a sense of the impact to the existing debt profile. And the dark green bar is existing payments that are known today. And then in the light green bar, that's what the 2026 new issuance would look like or may look like with just the new money component, the 2.6 million for the new high school roof. Um what you'll see there is that there is an increase from FY26 to 2027. um roughly 285,000 for 2 years before that nice decline in debt service beginning in FY 2029.

When we look at scenario two in terms of the potential refinancing on this page, what we've shown in the orange line there is the projected debt service associated with scenario one. And going from a higher rate higher rate to a lower rate, we're able to potentially achieve debt service savings in those first two years. Um, in terms of this page, approximately 135,000 for two years. And so decreasing that um hail so to speak that the city has to climb in terms of debt service payments. Um, if you prefer to look at the the numbers, I know there's a lot on this page, but um, to summarize it in terms of the first scenario where the increase is roughly 285,000 for 2 years, the refinancing may decrease that increase or basically potentially cut it in half. So if we have to increase the debt service budget from 26 to FY27 by round up 300,000 potentially decreasing that required increase to potentially 150,000. Um, in terms of the dual track approach, um, like I said at the start, looking at competitively bid direct bank loans as well as the we've shortened the Virginia public state public school authority to VPSA poolled financing program. Um, what this lets us do is go out and receive competitive bids from potential lenders, get those in hand, and come back to you all with those interest rates that could be locked in at that time and also compare that to what the current market may be for the VPSA poolled financing

program. And so at that point, we don't have those bids today. pal will talk in more detail in terms of the schedule but give give to you all our recommendation on which appears to be the more attractive financing option at that time. Um importantly on the VPSA pool in terms of an application there's no cost to apply it's not binding and it's no commitment in any way. It really just um initiates the process there and lets us compare where that uh poolled program stands in comparison to the direct bank loan proposals that we will receive. And then on slide 16 here just to give a sense of interest rates um on this page it's called the 20 bond index. Um we'll look at this index to give us a sense or a general bellweather of where tax exempt interest rates are trending. Um this particular graph goes back to 1980 uh roughly the last 45 years and you can see a steady decrease in rates and so outside of the COVID all-time pandem pandemic lows in terms of taxexempt interest rates we still uh continue to be in a very favorable long-term uh borrowing environment. And then with that, I'll hand it back over to Kyle to talk through the proposed time schedule. So, Mr. Mayor, members of council, um I'll pause there, see if there's any questions, thoughts, comments, and certainly walk over next steps. I'll just pause there. There's a lot of information quickly.

Uh yeah, just a couple. Sir, just from looking at the data, it looks like based on the current data that we have here, the scenario two would save about $300,000 over the 2-year period. That's right. Okay. And but you want to do the comparison with the school program versus the current rates to see which one in the end will actually do the best. Correct. That's exactly right. Okay. Thank you.

So, all we're really doing, Mr. South Hall is today. We're obviously presenting this and getting your blessing to move forward. But we're to go through that whole bidding process like we've done in the past to go out and get the bids from the banks. We'll come back to you basically in March. I'll talk about the schedule here and we'll have results from the banks. We'll be able to compare those head-to-head to what that BPSA pool program looks like and then make a decision at that point once we have that information in hand. Yes, sir. Thank you very much.

I want to make certain I understood sir. But with that, we'll just kind of talk through time schedule. It's probably a good segue in terms of where we go from here. Um, on the left hand side, um, we've laid out we call the the bank loan schedule. On the right hand side is the the pool schedule for VPSA. Um, we are agnostic as to which one of these ends up being the selected provider. So, we're going to work through the whole competitive process. Um, but basically, we're just here this evening to get that process going. So you're not committing yourself to anything. There's no cost. There's no obligation to move forward till we bring the information back. Um the one logistical step we need to apply to this VPSA pool program which again is a school specific state funding program for schools. The school board will have to take an action against next week to authorize that application. That doesn't mean that we are definitively moving forward with anything. It's just a procedural step to to authorize the application to go in. um that what really happens during the month of March, excuse me, in February, we'll go through this bidding process. We'll go through this application process. We'll plan to be back to you as a council on the 9th of March with the results of those bank bids. We'll need to hold a public hearing. That's just the way the process works under either scenario, whether it's a bank loan or VPSA. Um and we'll have those results for you and a recommendation in terms of which of those options looks better in our opinion. And obviously that decision will be up to you as a mayor and council. And so really with the balance of February, we'll be going through that process, be back to you in March, and you can make a decision at that point um and plan to be in a bank loan scenario. We'll basically be done by the end of March. Uh under a VPSA scenario, it takes them a little bit longer to gear up their pool. And so they'll be locking in their interest rates um in April and basically done by around May 1st. So

between either uh beginning of April uh maybe 1st of May the whole process should be done. The dollars will be in hand and you can move forward with uh the project at that point. Sir, I'm assuming any cost involved with the refinancing is built into the numbers you have here. That's correct. Yep. So anytime we talk about that, it's always in added any cost that would be applicable.

Council members, any other questions or comments for Kyle? K would like to comment a little bit about the AAA bond rating that we are so thankful to have and company u played a huge role in in that achievement and just to share with the public uh how that benefit benefits each of us as taxpayers. The last two times that we've had to finance uh projects within the city, we had no less than six funding institutions competing for our business. Uh it's pretty good. And uh as a result of that we are able to get uh a much better interest rate uh than we would be able to get that AAA bond rating. That's right.

Uh and in I know the last two instances we've actually gotten a rate less than what we had planned for. Right. It really it's a moneysaver to the the taxpayers. Thank you for your contributions to that. And Kyle Austin, appreciate you all being with us tonight. and uh they come down from Richmond. So, we certainly appreciate all all your time and effort. Happy to do it. Really thank you. Appreciate it.

That brings to a conclusion our two presentations and we'll move into item D which is the audience for visitors. And at this time we will open the floor for public comment related to the city. We have four speaker cards and uh I'll call on those people and ask them uh please come to the podium and afterwards anybody else that might like to speak will certainly be welcome to speak as well. Um first card we got was uh Miss Lesie Neil.

Miss Neil lives at 7 Oak Drive just just for the record.

Uh welcome Miss Neil. Appreciate you being with us. Thank you very much. I will be succinct. Um, we had an opportunity to speak with Mayor Lux this afternoon. Uh, this is regarding the Big Woods North development and he was explaining that the process of studying this was in January 2025. We were aware through his conversation that there was also an off-site uh opportunity conference to also discuss the big woods north. Um, personally as neighbors, we were not aware of this until September of 2025. So, what I'm getting to is we're not just dropping in. We've been trying to follow as best we could starting in September of 2025. And I was kind of hoping that Mr. Quinn would go first because he explains it much better than I. But what I would ask is after you listen to his more detailed presentation and his proposals and his suggestions is that we ask as neighbors um and we are here in force because our street is being proposed as an access road. So, first we ask if you could please delay the vote on I believe it's the language that they wanted to use and um specifically we'd like you to reward it so that we don't have Oakmore that we consider other proposals that Mr. Quinn is offering. He is coming forward offering alternatives. We're not just asking to stop cold. We're just saying please consider please consider the questions that he is proposing and that's what I wanted to say. Thank you.

Thank you Miss Neil. Appreciate you being with us and I'm just I'm taking these cards in the order that I got them. Uh next on the list is Mr. Andy Neil uh Southern Oakmore. Mr. Neil, welcome back. Appreciate you being with us.

Um esteemed council. Thank you. Um I guess I have three things. First one is thank you. Um today I made phone calls to all of you and in any big city you wouldn't get a response. Before I even hung up or after I hung up, Mayor Hux was on the phone. 20 minutes or half hour of conversation and and genuine dialogue. Mr. Freeman called. Incredible. Thank you, sir. And Bud called. Thank you, Mr. South Hall. Thank you, Bud. Janine would have, but she was

I was working, which also highlights what Mayor Hubs told me about all of you. It's volunteer positions. I guess you're compensated $100. I understand. So, you're

taxes. you're up there uh representing us and it's it's a job. Um it's a full-time job and and you only have a little time to devote to it. Um that leads me to my second point. Um, last Friday, uh, the agenda was published and the agenda does have you voting on the strategic plan which mentions Oakmore specifically as an access road to Northwoods. Um, we did respond with an email uh that afternoon, but my understanding is how could anybody you you have families, so I'm sure you didn't have time to look at the questions and and we're voting on it. So, my request is please, let's just delay the vote for two weeks. that gives you time to look at the questions, answer them, and and see if if there's a a compromise that can be made. Um, my third point is why does Oakmore have to be specifically mentioned in a strategic document? I'm former military. I'm very aware of strategic documents. The more generic they are, the more options future council members will have. Uh if this truly is a strategic document and it's 5 years or 10 years in advance, you don't want to narrow it down to one road. You want to just use a generic access road. We don't even know what the traffic patterns will be by then. But what we are guaranteed is that they will be more voluminous and right now we don't have the capability to handle that. So the more generic the the document can be, the more options

everybody will have in the future. Um, so thank you for what you do. Please delay the vote for two weeks. Please consider removing Oakmore as a specific access road. That doesn't say eliminate it. It just says remove it from the document. Thank you, Mr. Neil. Thank you for being with us, sharing your thoughts. That much appreciated. Thank you.

Call Mr. Harold Quinn. Uh Mr. Quinn, welcome back. And uh for all those who might not know, uh Mr. Harold Quinn served on city council for 12 years back in the 80s and 90s. Uh he's a former vice mayor and also served the city on the wetlands board. And I remember specifically when I was a senior in high school, uh, taking government class, uh, Mr. Quinn was an answer on a test because we had to identify all of the, uh, council members. He couldn't spell Littleton. That was his problem. So, uh, glad to have you back, uh, Mr. Quinn.

Thank you for listening to me. Once again, uh, I hope you had a chance to read the email that I sent you. Uh I found out after uh in the conversation with the mayor on uh Saturday afternoon that usually when emails go to the council like that it's handled by the mayor for the response and there was some concern on the timing of my email and I can understand that. I wasn't aware until Friday afternoon that you were going to bring this up again for this meeting and I've been working with an 80 male to be as concise and conscient as I could be and that's why you got it over the weekend. I have brought up not using upwell drive as the primary access to the residential area of the Bigwoods North proposed language and the use of a feeder road system to enhance the proposed language. This has been done at past planning commission meetings as well as the planning commission public hearing and I've also brought this up at planning at council meetings as well as the public hearings related to this. To me, the feed system provides the following. It's a good start to provide conversations with land owners and city staff to create the master plan discussed in the September 15 memorandum of the planning commission. It would provide the capability to provide access to all homeowners or I'm sorry all land owners who have access to Victory Boulevard as well as Yorktown Road. If the city if the city purchases any green space, parks, walking paths, whatever, the Feder road system would allow Picosen citizens to access these purchases without due strain on any residential development area. The FEA system would also provide a secondary road access in case there are issues with Yorktown Road or Victory Boulevard. And e if either road develops initiative that prevents the use of that road, traffic could be rerouted through the feeder system to

either Yorktown Road or Vic uh to Victory Boulevard depending on where the problem occurred. as a request to not make Oakwood Drive and access to the traffic in Knocktown Road is based on the following. The land behind Oakmore Drive is roughly 14 to 16 inches below the road. The land holds water from early fall until late spring. If we have a large amount of rain during the winter months or early spring months, the water remains until the middle of summer. The the area behind Oakmore Drive has the largest percentage of non-title wetlands. These are de still denoted by the red bands that are still in place. There have been attempts to develop the acrets that Abbott controls. He owns the land around Oakmore Drive and Abbott Lane. These attempts have never materialized due to the non title wetlands and the drainagees that could not be agreed to by the previous city staffs and developers. If this were not the fact, that area would already be established and it would have been built. What has confused me and I apologize for this. When I was on council, we were allowed we allowed people to ask questions or we gave them a chance to respond if there was a question. Today I I found and I started reading usually the way you want to handle it is have any questions or requests in written form and provided to the clerk so issues would be addressed by council or city staff. Not putting my recommendations in writing and providing them to be addressed by council or city staff is my error. I would request that council delivery voting on the resolution pertaining to updating the language and the comprehensive plan to your next council meeting. This will give city staff time to officially respon respond to my recommendations uh that I provided tonight. I assume the

city staff answers these questions and council as well as myself will provide will be provided with the answers. Is city staff feels in any merit in my recommendations? I would ask that they enhance the proposed language as specified in your meeting. If there is no rush on complative on the comprehensive plan, I understand you want to do it the right way. If you decide to vote on it tonight, the only request that I have is you change Oakmore Road to Oakmore Drive, which is the true name of the street. Thank you for your time and I apologize. I know I can't ask you if you have any questions.

Mr. Quinn, thank you very much. Appreciate you coming back to speak with us. And the next speaker we have is Mr. Robert Carter. Carter lives at uh 11 Oakmore Drive. So, Mr. Carter, yes. Welcome. Appreciate you being with us.

Thank you. Appreciate your your time tonight. Um I just have uh two really brief points. Um the first is as uh Harold Quinn his presentation asked that you really give that time and consideration. um he spent a lot of time working through some alternatives and walking the land and I think it's well worth your your time to consider and also that you would uh delay a vote on anything uh until his list which he's proposed a list of questions in writing if they can be answered completely um so that we're all on the same page uh with those questions and answers. Um the other point I had was um regarding um tonight you're going to be talking about article 8.1 of the zoning ordinance and I don't know who's going to be doing the presentation but I would ask that when you talk about the planned open space conservation district this overlay um that someone could perhaps uh let us know if the city's intent is to take that overlay and put that uh on the Northwoods development if that's the intent of making these changes now to plan for that Northwoods development. So if that could be responded to in the presentation that would be great.

Thank you. Thank you Mr. Carr. Appreciate you being with us for your comments. Do we have any other speakers? Okay. Well again thank you all for being here. Those that did speak, much appreciated. And we will close the audience for visitors. And we will move on to item E, which is approval of the minutes. Uh, do we have a motion and a second to approve the minutes of the regular session from 2020 from January 26 of 2026? So move, Mr. Mayor. Second. Thank you. Any questions or comments on that? Christy, call for vote, please. Councilman Southpaw,

I. Councilman Freeman, I. Councilwoman Huard, hi. Vice Mayor Bunting, hi. Councilman F. Hi. Councilwoman EMTT. Hi. Mayor Hu. I. Mr. Mayor, the motion carried by a vote of seven to zero.

Thank you, Christie. Uh, moving on to item F, uh, public hearings. Uh, we have two tonight. So, uh, we have with us Mr. Wy Horton. He is our director of community development. And at this time we will open the public hearing uh related to a resolution recommending an approval to city council of a conditional reszoning request of tax map parcel 27-01-0000-0032 a.510 acre parcel to reszone a property from R1 residential to B2 business for professional office, landscaping, uh, and a storage yard. So, uh, Wally, I appreciate you being with us. Uh, please carry on with the presentation.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of council, staff, uh, those from the public, either here or at home. Uh, this is a request from Taylor Stewart. Uh, just want to point out one thing. You will, you will have an approval resolution available. The city council is being asked to approve this tonight. It's not a recommendation. We recommend for it, but you know, uh it's obviously up to the council. Uh this is a Taylor Stewart conditional reszoning. The request, as I think the mayor very well said, was uh it is a conditional resone from R1 residential to be to commercial. Uh tax path number 27-01-32. It's a 0 510 acre piece of uh property uh located on the southeast corner of Ashley Lane and W Creek Boulevard. Uh and it is addressed to 306A Creek Road. Uh the application was advertised for public hearing on uh January 28th and February 4th, 2026. a prop uh adjoining property owners were notified on the 28th of uh January 2026. The site can support the addition of uses as profered by the applicant which include as noted before professional office space, landscape contracting and a storage yard. The applicant has provided a concept layout of the property prepared by Anthony D. pots. Before we get to that, I want to uh cover some pictures. Uh these are basically taken clockwise from looking north on Web Creek Boulevard. Um and

they go basically from uh top to bottom, left uh left to right. This first picture here is looking north on W Creek Boulevard. The second one is looking along Aland Lane. Uh the third is the back of the property which shows the uh the storage uh unit in the back or the accessory uh warehouse unit. Uh the next picture shows the adjoining property. You will notice that there's an opening there. The applicant is going to put in a 6 foot uh tall fence. It's going to essentially wall that off. Um moving on, you can see the adjoining property. You can look across the street, you can see uh McFersonson's Auto Garage. They do great work. They've worked on my car before. Uh and uh and this last big photo is a picture of the building in question. Uh inside there's going to be professional office space. Like I said, that'll probably be an office for the land landscape contractor. Storage yard will be out back. Uh here's the plat. And it's very hard to see. Maybe it's a little bit easier to see on screen. I hope so. Uh at the front you can see the building. You see a vacant area in the middle. That is the uh going to be the yard area. And in the back you see the uh the garage. And like I say, that's all going to be surrounded with a sixoot fence. The applicant will be doing a site plan that'll that'll show all this in detail as well as as parking for people in the in the U office spaces. Uh if approved by the city council, the new zoning of B2 business would permit the operation of the professional office space landscape contracting and storage

yard. The applicant has obtained approval from the architectural review board for the proposal. uh and there should be attached an attached memo in the uh in the packet. Uh the comprehensive plan doesn't specifically mention the subject parcel. Uh however, uh it is designated as R1 residential right now. Uh you will the city council will entertain a motion after this is acted on to uh look at uh redesating that to general commercial. the general commercial district is about 870 ft to the north. Um, and of course the reason for that is as we've talked about several times before, I think is keeping the comprehensive plan and the zoning ordinance in alignment. Uh, getting back to zoning, uh, the pro parcel is boarded by R1, R1, if I can say that zoning on all sides. Uh, this includes McFersonson's garage. I'm not picking on McFersonson's. I'm just pointing out there's another business in the area. Um, the site is accessed directly from W Creek Road. It's accessed from there now and it will continue to be accessed from there. Staff has not received any concern from the public or adjacent property owners regarding this application. The planning commission did recommend approval of this proposal to the city council by a vote of 6 to zero with a modified condition number six that the maximum height be up to 14 ft to be determined uh at the highest point. The applicant understands that he is to remain in conformance with the ordinance and a lot

of these conditions you may recognize are from 10 to 13 in our B2 zoning for storage uh requirements and and the applicant just wants to make clear that he's going to abide by those. Um okay, let me Okay. Should the city council approve this request, staff recommends that it include the following nine conditions as profered by the applicant owner, uh, Taylor Stewart. Um, and if you'll forgive me, I am going to read through these. Uh, the user's request is solely for landscape contracting and associated storage as well as professional offices. The storage yard will be screened in accordance with city code and as approved by the architectural review board. No outdoor activity will permitted from the hours of 9:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. with the exception of a significant weather event or a government declared emergency. Now, an example of that would be if we had a big snow. the applicant does a certain amount of snow plowing and he may need access to his equipment outside those hours. Um, parking areas, if required, shall be surfaced in accordance with the city's site plan ordinance. Trees on the wooded portions of the lot will remain unless dangerous or diseased. Material kept on site will be shielded from public view in its entirety. This means any piles of any debris like mulch or gravel that will be completely screened. What will not be completely screened is the equipment and vehicles which would be screened from public view up to 55% again determined by the height at the highest point with a height no greater than 14 ft regardless of how high the

fence is. Vehicles and equipment kept in the storage yard must be kept in good repair and working condition. This is not a junkyard. Um, abandoned and/or unlicensed vehicles or equipment will not be permitted. No portion of the storage yard shall be located in the required front yard setback and shall meet all front yard setback requirements. Parking on the site shall be adequate for all uses as required by the site plan ordinance and all applicable sections of city code. And with that, I'll be glad to take your questions.

Just a couple comments, Wally. Um the uh garage across the street is another middle of the residential area. Yes, sir. And that business has been there longer than 90% of the houses that are there. That's true. Okay. And the other thing is if if I am correct, this site that we're talking about tonight to approve the measure on has been used as a business for many years.

Yes. Heating and air conditioning business before that. I think it was an insurance office. So, we're not creating a new business area in the middle of the resident. We're just citing, hey, it's been business for many years and and and we're going to tell it what it is. doing it accordingly. Okay. Correct. Thank you. And Wally, that was actually going to be my question, too. I thought historically this had always been a business and if it was in R1, has it historically been conditional use permit? There is no per conditional use permit. Not not now, but no, not historically. Okay. Not historically. And I actually looked at at the McFerson's across the street and and likewise it has not either.

Um, and this request is for reszoning. Yes, for resoning. And the reason for that is that the council will remember that uh last year in July, we did a an amendment to the uh conditional uses and we came up with a distinction of major conditional uses and minor and major includes uh review by the architectural review board and is not allowed in residential areas. Uh so and that's why I asked the question. Thank you. Appreciate that. Right. Well, you got one or a couple. What's the impact of the road widening and the addition of sidewalks have on this plan?

To my knowledge, very little to do with the plan. Um, you know, the applicant may have some other information, but of course, the Whiff Creek Road widening has been sort of tailored down as we've gone along, right? Um, but I know that But I mean, you know, if you put a sidewalk get in front of it, I I still think you would be okay.

I say we we got to enjoy about what 22 months of them getting utilities put down that side of the road. I was just wondering what the impact that would have on that. Along with that is um professional office space. Um, assuming there's going to be people that make use of that space, is there adequate parking going to be available?

Well, some we will do that through the site plan process. We will get the uh a list of the professional offices that are going to be in there and how many people will be on site at any given time. And we'll handle that through the site plan process. And I know it it comes later maybe next when we're talking about change of things because right now there's there's businesses up by Hunts Dental and there's a void all the way down till you get to formerly Harper's dental care down there. Everything in between is is R1, right? And this will kind of put a little spot in the mayor in the middle. Well, it will it will

B2 and of course the the hope is to do the same thing for the McFersonson's uh also from R1 to B2. I think you mentioned well I think when we look at the comp plan we'll take a look at that uh for sure. Uh but uh you know this is the request before us. So we're we're uh basically as as it's been pointed out before it's been commercial since 1985. So we're really not doing anything to to change the actual use going. I remember there used to be a an accountant in there and I made use of his services for a while. Right. Right. Okay. That's all I have. Any other questions from council members for Wally?

I have one. Going back to the condition number six about the equipment and vehicles uh shall be screened from public view up to 55%. Yes. Um that up to is that at the applicant's discretion? That is an ordinance provision uh that is in uh section 102 uh under 13. So can you help clarify what that would mean the up to 55% and with the height restriction of the 14 ft?

Well, let let's take 14t as an example. 14 * 55 comes out to about and I know because I I I did the math on this today comes out to about 7.7 feet which if you put that in inches is about 7' 8 and 1/2 in tall so the fence would be that that's in excess of of that that's the overall height that's how high it would be over the fence so if you had a 7 foot fence uh you would go up to 14.7. I didn't say that right.

Yes, you did, Wally. So, the idea got a 6ft fence, it would be slightly less than 14 ft. You have the capacity to build up to an 8ft fence, but what the planning commission's recommendation was is no matter how high the fences, the top of the equipment would be no more than 14. And the applicant profered that. So every we're all in alignment on that. So it won't get much bigger as the fence gets bigger. In fact, maximum will not exceed 14 regardless of the size.

But if the fence is lower, if it was 6 ft, it doesn't automatically go to 14. It will go to some calculation which is 13 and some change. I wasn't quite following all the numbers, but I got the point you made while Yeah, I did I did explain that right. Uh Miss Emtt and and Mr. Weer sort of got me on the right path again. But if you had a 7 foot tall fence, that would allow up to 14 ft because that's only 50% over. You couldn't have a 10ft tall fence and say, "Hey, I can get up." Well, you could have that by the ordinance anyway, right? But you couldn't say 22 foot piece of equipment. It's limited, right? Okay. Thank you.

Correct. Any other questions for Wally? Why? I do have one for you. That 14 ft maximum height that is to be measured from the existing ground level. Yes. From the highest point of the ground level that is at. Yes. Of course. The reason I asked that that's a lessons learned from a past project. We had to tighten up our ordinance a little bit to specify existing ground level. Yes. Yes.

Uh I'd also like to thank uh staff and planning commission for the good work they've done for us. Uh I think the the com the conditions that are identified herein are are fair and reasonable to all involved and we try to look out for the best interest of the greater good of all and I think with these uh recommendations we're doing that. Thanks again to staff and planning commission. And at this time I'll open the floor for speakers related to this topic. Okay. Seeing none, I will close the floor. Keith,

everyone's I watched the planning commission meeting that they had this and I heard that the uh applicant uh made a comment to the effect that it was the only piece of property in the city that could do. And I kind of take exception of that because there are a lot of parals in the city um that are available. It almost sounds like Picosen's so closed up that nothing can be put in here, you know, unless you find the exact ones. I fully ad admit that it may uh meet the exact needs for the cost and the land and the buildings of a set like that, but just the thought that it's the only one available and I heard that before with a a certain gun range that's going up the only piece of property available and that's just not true. It may be the one that perfectly fits their needs and I fully accept that but think that the there no other properties in Bosen that not really true. Uh, thank you, Keith. I appreciate your your input there. Um, all right. With that, I'll ask for a motion in a second.

Mr. Mayor, I'll approve a resolution approving the comprehensive plan amendment request of nope. X. Say it again. New business one. Public It is the one right before it. Do you have it here? No, this is the one. This is correct.

Okay, back to my motion. Finally, I propose a resolution approving city council of a conditional reszoning request of tax mount partial 27-01-0000-0032 a 510 acre parcel to resone the property B1 residential potential to B2 business or professional office landscaping and store yard. Second.

Uh thank you. Is it a B1? Do we need to clarify that

should be R1 correct? That should be R1. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. From R1 to B2 is the motion. Ray, are we in order on on how that was handled? I think he amended it. So, from to B1, but I think he amended it successfully to R1. Okay. All right. Thank you for your your your guidance there. All right. We have a motion and a second. Uh, any questions or comments from council members? Christie. Councilman Freeman. I, Councilwoman EMTT. I, Councilman Southhaul. I, Councilman Fi,

I, Councilwoman Hover, I, Vice Mayor Bunding, I, Mayor Hugs, I, Mr. Mayor, the motion carried by a vote of seven to zero. Thank you, Christie. Right. With that, we will close the public hearing for uh the first topic and we will open the public hearing uh for topic number two uh which is a resolution approving a comprehensive plan amendment request tax map parcel 27-01-00-0032 a.510 acre parcel to redesate the property from low density residential to general commercial on the future land use map.

Listen, take it away, Wally.

Thank you. Thank you. Uh this is the uh the second half of the conditional reasoning. This comprehensive plan amendment. It is for the same property uh 2701-32. Uh again, it's a 0.510 acre piece of property located at the southeast corner of isolated with Creek Boulevard at 306A with Creek Boulevard. Uh public notice like the judicial resoning public notice was sent out on January 28th and February 4th, 2028. Uh 2026. I'm accelerating my years here and uh request by letters were mailed on um January 28th, 2006. Uh a lot of this has been basically restated when I said that the board would be acting on this after the conditional resoning. Uh we know that it's uh it's it's res low density residential right now. Looking for a uh red designation to general commercial. The nearest general commercial is about 870 ft to the north. Uh but uh there's several business properties in the area. Um the site is accessed from W Creek Road and uh you know I think the clicker is still over there but uh basically that black dot where the property is with the arrow going there that is the uh that is the site. Uh it is u perhaps that black dot is a little bit bigger than the property is. Uh but uh but uh I I uh had originally had it green, but I changed

it because I didn't want there to be any confusion with the to be white district. Uh but it is it is black and you can see the purple up there uh on with Creek Road a little bit a little bit further north. That is the general commercial. So it'll essentially go to purple on the uh on the future land use map. Um well this you already know he he submitted a request for a condition of B2 uh comprehensive plan doesn't specifically mention the parcel however low density residential. We are asking for it uh to be uh general commercial as I've just explained on the map and if there any other questions I'll be more than happy to take them. Uh staff has not received any concern from the public. Uh likewise with this one as with the conditional resoning. Uh should city council approve the quest that nine conditions that are proper by the applicant for conditional resoning will be in operation even though it's not on your comprehensive plan approval resolution. I'll be happy to take any questions you have.

Any questions of Wally from council members? Well, I thank you for that. And we'll open the floor at this time for speakers related to this topic. Right. Seeing none, we'll close the floor and ask for a motion in a second. Mr. May I propose a resolution approving a comprehensive plan amendment request of tax map parcel 27-01-00-0032, a 0.510 acre parcel to redesate property from low density residential to general commercial on the future land use map.

Second. Thank you. Questions or comments? Christie. Councilman Fi I. Vice Mayor Bunting I. Councilwoman EMTT I. Councilman Freeman. I. Councilman Southall. I. Councilwoman Huard. I. Mayor Hooks. I. Mr. Mayor. The motion carried by a vote of seven to zero.

All right. Thank you, Christie. Uh, so that brings to a close a public hearing. Uh, Mr. Miss Stewart are here with us tonight. So, congratulations on the success of your business and best wishes moving forward. So, uh, we will move on now to to item G, new business. Uh, we have three topics. Uh, the first relates to a resolution to task the planning commission with updating language in the comprehensive plan and reviewing changes to article 8.1 of the zoning ordinance, which is index A, zoning of the city of Posen code of ordinances. Andy, could you share some insight on that topic, please?

Sure. With what we are tasked with tonight. All right. Well, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, so this is this is your first new business number one. So, I was trying to catch Wally's attention to ask him a question.

Yes, sir. Um so as as it was some of the speakers related actually this um the journey that we're still on as of this evening is the uh continuation of the strategic initiatives that you all approved uh last year uh in in early actually early in January and February of last year. And one of those was to take a look at the uh the north side of Victor Boulevard to be followed eventually by the central business districts. That kind of relates to what Wally spoke uh has been speaking about. And um pursuant to that, there was a joint session with the planning commission and council members of the EDA in in June with public safety building. Several land owners were there um as well. And uh the planning commission from there was was asked by council to begin to mature the kinds of things that was spoken of there at the retreat and to to come back and do kind of a mid-process check on the comprehensive plan aspect and they presented that uh mid-process check to you in December. The recommendations uh that are there uh reflected in your in your ordinance from the planning commission are recommendations from the planning commission. I know they've had several meetings. They some audience for visitors where people spoke of it and uh at which time they were asking for your reaction. Important to note that uh whether you whether you table it or amend it or approve it tonight, the next steps is to go back to the planning commission to to threat out uh the the full language which will then be subject to public hearings and can be subject to change and the planning commission then will make formal recommendations to you all. It'll come here. will have another public hearing at which following which

you can act on it, not act on it, make modifications to it as you as you see fit. So the the important point there is this is not the last step. This is just the next step and there are at least two formal steps beyond this action and those represent planning commission public hearings and city council public hearings. So whether you table them tonight or not that that process will happen at some point in the future uh but is but through this action this is only saying to the planning commission if you were to accept it that uh that at least as an initial reaction go forth and continue develop this it doesn't mean that that is what they will finally recommend. It also doesn't mean what that is what you would finally approve. The um the balance um what I was trying to get Mr. Horton attention on um the the balance is the mayor's recommendation for modifications to the planned open space conservation district. And my question for you while I just want to make sure I'm right it's it's right here. Um, the plan open space conservation district overlays all of our single family residential zoning districts.

And it I don't know when it was put in place, but it has been there for my entire 17 years. So, this is not new. What is new is the proposed modifications from the mayor. Uh, do you want me to speak to those or would you prefer to speak to them, sir? Uh, go right your own role, sir. I'm not, but I'll I'll do my best. And now I'll now I'll lose my place or something. Um, so the four modifications to the existing ordinance and council will recall you made some further uh initial modifications to this ordinance uh about six or seven months ago in February.

But the uh the ones in front of you today, the mayor is asking to remand to the planning commission. So if you were to do that, that would go to the planning commission. They would study it. They would have a public hearing. they would make a recommendation and it would come back to you for a public hearing as well. So again, not the last step, just the next step and it's uh four items. It's uh changing the minimum boundary buffers um from 40 ft to 50 ft um if it's buffering existing residential. So it's increasing the buffer

um increasing the uh the aotment for open space as a percentage of the overall development. Currently it's at 50%. This would take it to 55. So that would increase open space. Additionally, um our ordinance provides for a certain amount of credit for development unit potential based on the percentage of non-title wetlands. At present, it is at 50%.

This would lower it as proposed to 25%. Therefore, the uh the maximum amount of yield and properties that would have non-title wetlands would be lessened. And uh lastly, um the current ordinance um allows developments under 10 units in size to be developed on a private street. And what the mayor's uh recommendation, council members, to you to consider is to lower that threshold between a private street from 10 to six. So all um all larger developments uh would be on a on a public street rather than I

think I got it all. Did I miss anything? Sir, you did a wonderful job. Thank you very much, Randy. Uh appreciate that. And just to elaborate a little bit uh Ry's comments, the motivation to those uh additional amendments for the open space development. Uh in my humble opinion, I think that ordinance produces uh uh a very positive end result. And these suggestions are intended to take something that's good, tweak it a little bit, and make it a little bit better. It just puts a little bit more emphasis on preservation and conservation. And that's consistent with with what we identified in our mission vision statement last year. And uh it's also consistent with uh the existing uh language uh in in in the preserving uh and and conser conserving space try to save a few more trees but still not being unreasonably constraining on developers either. So, we're trying to to strike a a happy medium between those two things. And like Randy spoke to just a minute ago is yes, this this does apply to Big Woods North as well as uh throughout the entire community. So, that that's a pretty easy one to address. And if I could elaborate a little bit as well on on the comp plan, uh since Friday afternoon, I've had the occasion to to study up a little bit on all 218 pages of it. And uh I did go through it page by page, although not necessarily every word in in every sentence. Uh and I'm by no means a subject matter expert,

but uh I I can share a little bit of insight. The the comp plan is a strategic planning document and like the the the name suggests it provides guidelines, guidance uh for for the future based on uh the best information uh we have today uh based on uh the perspectives and the feelings that we have today. And it takes into account the uh the ability of humans uh when it comes to foresight and the ability to predict the future with with 100% accuracy uh is far from perfect. So therefore the planning the the the comp plan does not require rigid strict adherence. Uh it is guidance. It's a guidance document. uh and it can be amended moving forward at any time uh just like we're uh working on right now. Uh and also as Randy uh alluded to, this is this is a process that we're about 13 months into and it is a work in progress. Uh and we'll continue to tweak it. Uh we're not about rushing. We appreciate the the input from everybody. So, uh, council members, did y'all have did y'all want to share some thoughts on that as well?

I do. I do.

U, yes. Uh, it's my understanding that this just allows the planning commission to continue with their process and that this group of people here who have their concerns, want to bring up uh the questions and so forth, still have future opportunity in the planning commission before any final document is drawn. Is that not correct? Okay. And so this is not a final thing. This just allows the planning commission to continue with their work. Okay. You will have ample opportunity to uh work with the planning commission to answer all of your questions as they as they go about that. And I I spoke with Mr. Randy uh Neil today. Very pleasant gentleman. Thank you everyone for for paying attention to your city government. I think I wish more people would do that. Um he was he seemed to believe and and my if if by my impression was correct that mentioning Oakmore Drive made it a target for any road that might go through there and if it wasn't that that language wasn't there then it wouldn't necessarily be a target. I I I don't share his concern uh because I don't think it makes it a target because I think in the future if anyone ever developed that property, they wouldn't look at the names, the roads in this document. They would look at the current city maps and see where access points might be and might not be and what was usable and what usable, but would be usable based on whether or not it was wet lands or really low lands or so forth. So they wouldn't specify any route by the words used in this document. I wouldn't care if those words were struck from it. Um that's my feeling. Thank you, Mr. South Hall. Mr. Freeman.

Yeah, I agree with what U. Councilman South Hall said, but I'd like to propose somehow another we take Yorktown Road and Oakmore Road out of the document. And I don't know exactly how to tell the planning commission we propose that.

Yes, sir. Please do. Um the s most most simplest way when you're ready to do that whether it's denied or after having tabled it uh would be a motion to approve the uh resolution as presented with a modification of the planning commission's recommendation number three line three strike the parentheses section beginning parentheses such as Yorktown Road and Oakmore Road closed parenthesis and just make a motion to approve with with that modification. Yeah, just strike that out. That's fine. I'm good with that. I have a question as well. Yes, ma'am.

So, um, and when I was making eyes over here, I was like, what? What? You're using the word development. Uh, Randy, when you were talking about, and obviously we know you don't mean development as in to develop the land. It was to develop the plan. Um, but what I was thinking about in that time frame was sending it back to the planning commission so they can continue looking at it and continue down their path of understanding and fleshing out and so on. Um, but the questions that have been asked by the public via email and so on that they'd like answers to, um, would it be possible, uh, for staff to look at those and determine if they're planning commission questions or if they're if they're reasonable staff questions and just lies to get those to the right people so that when the planning commission does meet that the residents who are, you know, adjacent to the woods um, have answers to those questions so that they can participate in

Can I answer that? Yes, sir. Go right here. Um, we certainly can take those questions and work that through the staff staffing process with the planning commission and make sure that whomever it is that is best to answer that is all answered as part of that process prior to the public hearing being presented. So, everyone would have have the opportunity to see the answers to those questions. That would be great. Thank you. And and just for the record, I agree with um Car's suggestion um because I understand what you know, not that I've ever been there, but I understand the concept of feeling like a target when you see your name, right? And that's their name.

Thank you, Jeanie Keith. Uh yes, getting back to your your level of talk like when the something comes out as a change to the comprehensive plan, comprehensive plan again. Um, I did the same thing with this particular ordinance and came up with the fact that there's some differences in the ordinances that are published online than the one that we were taking here and then modifying and once again which I already knew but I confirmed it that because these are published online for us on annual basis uh and we made changes last summer those changes are in their summer which are actually about three or four in here different paragraph movements and things like that uh cannot be found online. Uh so if anybody I know everybody when you see one of these everybody outside's looking up going to the ordinances and making checks and stuff like that. So if you do you see some differences it's good thing to question that because those things may have already been changed which a lot of these were from this past year. So,

appreciate your due diligence, Keith. I appreciate that.

Council members, any other input on this topic. Um, I I can assure all involved uh the questions will be answered and there will be a followup. You can certainly count on that. Um, and you as as Randy had described, uh, our professional staff will be involved who have much better uh, insight than than we as council members do. Uh, not being ,, uh, professionals uh, like they are. I did receive an email uh this afternoon that I wanted to address uh from a resident of Oakmore and the concern that tonight council was going to take a vote to designate Oakmore Drive as the entry point to a planned uh development. I I think we've we've already uh made it clear that's that's not what the vote was about tonight. But I also want to express that at at this point today, uh there there's not any plans to develop that that I'm aware of. Uh I can't tell you what's going to happen tomorrow, but I can tell you that as of today, uh there there are no plans and we're not aware of any plans coming down the pike. So, that's that's that's a pretty easy one to put to rest. And also, I can tell you with 100% certainty, uh there are no plans uh to construct a new city hall in Big Woods North or anywhere else. Uh the the one one we're sitting in right now, uh seems to be serving us pretty well and and we're we're thankful for that and uh hope hope to get a lot more good use out out of it. So, uh, thank you for

for entertaining me on on on those subjects. Um, council, it before we take a a motion, a second and a vote on this, uh, it I'm I'm feeling that there's a consensus among council to strike the specific references to to Yorktown and Oakmore. Um, I did have a little little bit of time late this afternoon to uh to talk with Randy and and some of the council members on this. Um, it doesn't seem like that hurts a thing to do that. U, I person support it. Um, so I there's there's just no downside to to to doing that. If people would feel more comfortable, then then I I think we can do that. I think we'll solidify that in in just a minute. But with regard to uh to postponing the vote, uh I mean, as Randy has described, if we vote on this tonight, it's going to go back to the planning commission and there will be lots of other opportunities through that process before it even gets back to us to take a vote on it. So, is is there any is there any benefit to to to postponing? I mean is I I have no bet to to postpone it. It's clear that any questions they may have that we haven't answered about doing what we're doing. Uh they will have ample opportunity to work with the planning commission before anything is finalized and we and we vote on a final program. Uh having specific roads as targets is going to be settled I believe in just a few minutes. I think we should go ahead and do do the vote tonight as part of it and let the planning commission do their work.

And I agree because if we are already taking the concerns that Mr. Quinn brought forward and and committing to getting those answers for for the residents that um you know this is not a fast process. Um, and I think that, you know, thank you very much for that commitment to get it to the right person, right people to answer those questions to make sure that, um, they have a chance to read those and understand them and able to come back again if you need to to the planning commission who is the proper level at this point.

Yes. And you just to emphasize the questions will be part of the process. The planning commission will have it, will have it, staff will have it. and what we've heard tonight, the emails uh that we've received, the phone conversation we've had, that that's all going to be taken into consideration. You know, we're not trying to rush this through. But u you know, I'll I'll ask one more time, but is there any other input from council members on this? So, I see no reason to postpone. Well, I mean I I and then even when the the planning commission makes their recommendation and it comes back to city council, there will that will be another opportunity.

Yes. So,

your concerns at that time as well. I mean, we're certainly trying to demonstrate that that we listen and we care and we're concerned and taking everybody's u perspective into account and and I can assure you since I got home Friday evening at 7:00 and and got Mr. Quinn's email and I've really done nothing else uh little else uh since 7:00 Friday night in in preparation for this. Um, but again, I think we're demonstrating that we're we're listening, we're responsive, but we're trying to keep the process moving forward uh at a measured pace without getting ahead of ourselves. And I think we have lots of checks and balances in place for future input, uh, careful consideration. Uh so with that uh I'll ask for a motion in a second.

I'll try making a motion again. I propose a resolution to test the planning commission with updating language in the comprehensive plan and reviewing changes to article 8-1 of the zoning ordinance appendix A zoning of the city of Picosen code of ordinances and revise paragraph 3 of the proposed language sentence three eliminating the word Yorktown Road and Oakmore All right. Second.

All right. We have a motion in a second. Uh Christie, call for vote, please. Councilwoman EMTT. I. Councilwoman Huard. I. Councilman Fi. Hi. Councilman Southaw. I. Vice Mayor Bunting. I. Councilman Freeman. Hi. Mayor Hu. Hi. Mr. Mayor. The motion carried by seven.

Okay. Very good. And uh please think about all the words that we shared tonight and the questions will be answered. They will be incorporated and we'll continue to work through this progress process I should say. Uh our next meeting will be in two weeks. So I would encourage everybody please stay in touch. Please come back talk to us. Been a pleasure having everybody here tonight. Appreciate every everybody's input. So

yes sir please do. Um, Wally, correct me if I'm wrong, but just for the benefit of the folks that are there here and want to continue with this issue, the most likely time the planning commission would even begin this next round of discussion will be at their March meeting. And I would say that since they've got to talk about it, we won't be in a position to advertise it that evening. So, I would imagine the public hearing April and so it it shouldn't make its way back city council for a public hearing any earlier than May and it may be a couple more months after that if the planning commission wants to sort of chew on it for a while. So, but I would be on the lookout for uh the March uh planning commission meeting as as the continuation of the discussion.

Absolutely. Thank you, Randy. Thank you, Wall. And again, thank you all for being with us. Um, so we'll move on to topic number two under new business. Uh, which is a resolution authorizing the city manager to purchase a dump truck from Norol truck and a street sweeper from Infrastructure Solutions Group. Uh, we have with us tonight our assistant city manager, Miss Tanya Donald.

Thank you, Tanya. I think the mic's not either not on that one still working. They said they can hear me and they said the next I can hear you now.

Perfect. All right. Mayor, vice mayor, council members, city manager. Thank you. Tonight we have a resolution authorizing the city manager as you're aware is authorizations up to 000. So anything over 100,000 I need city council's approved to do so. We have an opportunity back in December to appropriate fund for adult truck um versus doing services.

Now that sounds better. Oh yeah. only has one bar that

so I'll just start over for the benefits of the public. Um tonight is a resolution authorizing the city manager who has the authority up to 100,000 to approve equipment and contracts. So tonight we have two things for you. a dump truck which you provided the appropriation in December um of 116,493. Um Bodina Wright has done the work with public works to um bid the project bid the dump truck out with three different vendors. The vendor that we have decided to go with has a 2024 model that's going to give us an extended warranty. And initially I thought it was going to give us about a $7,000 savings between 2024 to 2026. It's actually 12,000. Um, I was comparing the wrong model, so my information is corrected. But tonight, we're asking for approval of that dump truck as well as a a street sweeper. We have a 2016 street sweeper that is on the fritz. Um, it is a high model that they put all the bells and whistles on and the model that they're requesting is not having the bells and whistles because they found out a lot of things breaks and it's hard to get them fixed. So tonight they're asking for 270,24 two $2 270,249 to go towards the purchase of that freight liner. Um again we're going to use street monies for that. I do not need an appropriation because it already exists in the budget. I see Miss Hubbert asking that question. Each year you appropriate VOTE money and public works has the ability to put asphalt in to purchase equipment that keeps the street clean and we're able to do so with this appropriation. So again, Bodina is here for any questions you have of the two equipments, but here to answer any questions.

Can we sell the 2016 Sweet Reaper to somebody? Absolutely. We will put that up for auction as we do with all our equipment that we get rid of. In fact, we just had an auction. Um, if you recall, you replaced the two fire chief's vehicles and those just right recently, as of last week, I signed those titles to be sold. We got about 6,000 each for those two vehicles. Any other questions for Tanya? Uh, would like to make a comment. Certainly.

Well, thank you. Um remember a few years ago uh we were in a position where we needed to purchase uh numerous pieces of equipment uh to help support uh various projects. Uh, and I wanted to thank and compliment staff uh for staying on top of this because we've since since then we have being able to regularly uh upgrade and update our equipment to avoid getting in the position that we're in just a few years ago with having a kind of a a backlog of stuff that needed to be replaced. So, thank you very much for that. And Medina, she's our operations manager. Uh, she's here with us. So, uh, thank you staff for that.

Well, and we have to thank city council because because of the purchases, our fleet department has an easier job. They do not have to struggle to get the parts in needed to replace it with newer models. All right. Uh, thank you, Tanya. Thank you. Appreciate your help. Uh, we have a motion in a second. Mr. Mayor, I move that res that uh actually it's a resolution that authorizing the city manager to purchase a dump truck, Norfol truck, and a street sweeper from Infrastructure Solutions Group. Thank you. Questions, comments? Christie, Vice Mayor Bunting, I. Councilman F. Hi. Councilman South,

I. Councilman Freeman, I. Councilwoman Hover, I. Councilwoman Councilwoman Eth, I. Mayor Hu, I. Mr. demand. The motion carry by 7 to zero. All right. Thank you, Christie. And moving on to topic number three under new business. Uh this is a resolution to ratify the declaration of a state of emergency in the city of Posen on January 30th uh 2026. Mr. Mayor. Yes, sir.

Um thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh I spent my birthday weekend January 30th and 31st. uh like many of you waiting for a big storm which had the potential for tidal flooding and 20 degrees. Nobody recalled that happening before. Um and and a little bit frightened of it to be quite honest. Uh in anticipation of that, we declared I declared as your emergency services director an emergency in anticipation of the weather event that the National Weather Service was predicting for us. We were fortunate that it didn't happen. Um that's the second one we've missed. Uh but the question is sort of why do we do this? Uh the federal disaster or excuse me the state of emergency allows us to potentially qualify for federal disaster aid if we andor our immediate area u suffers substantial damage. It's more likely for us to be uh hurricane related than it is winter storm related. But can't go backwards. So we uh we get in that queue. The governor declared an emergency both of those weekends as well. It allows us to access the Virginia Department of Emergency Management uh resources and assets that we otherwise would not have um easy easy access to and it expands our mutual aid reach if we need it really through states network to the entire Commonwealth. So it was part of our getting ready. Glad we didn't have to do it. But um the code does require cut of Virginia that the council consider within 45 days really as soon as soon as practical but within 45 days uh to meet together and concur with the declaration. So good. Thank you, Randy. Uh council members, any questions for Randy? Qu comments.

Right. Do we have a motion and a second? Mr. Mayor, I propose a resolution to ratify the declaration state of emergency in the city of Pakosen on January the 30th, 2026. Second. Thank you, Christie. Councilwoman Hub, I. Councilman South Hall, I. Councilman Freeman, I. Councilwoman EMTT, I bunting. Hi, Councilman Fi. Hi, Mayor Hu. I, Mr. Mayor, the motion carried by a vote of seven to zero. All right. Thank you, Christie. Uh, move on to item H. uh comments of the city manager, Randy.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of council. Only one item tonight uh and this is really a public announcement. The city council will be meeting with uh senior staff the evening of February 24th for a preliminary FY27 budget retreat. That is the night after your regularly scheduled meeting. Um the in the preliminary budget retreat will be in the public safety building right down the street in the in the community room which is the middle room right as as you walk in where we had our uh retreat with the planning commission last June. That's all I have sir. And uh during those retreats the mean the public is is welcome and encouraged to attend. So uh we love to have some folks there uh during that discussion. Uh, thank you, Randy. Uh, moving on to item I, Council, uh, directives. Uh, Keith.

Uh, thank you. Uh, reminder for those that may need it or would like to help, uh, the Goen Mobile Food Pantry be this Thursday at MS Baptist Church. The distribution begins at 10:00 and goes till noon, but we ask volunteers that they're going to be there uh, to be there by 8:30 so we can get a safety presentation and then talk about what we're going to do. This month's volunteer group is city staff members and I appreciate them showing up and coming to that. Also on a on a related but kind of sadder note was the parish thrift shop food pantry will be closing for good at the end of this month. Um, and

yes, just the food pantry, not the the shrift shop itself, just the food pantry located there in uh it's kind of sad that uh there was no one to to pick it up on the bright side a little bit is that because um the Shine Ministry uh at Mus Baptist Church has created their own pantry that will be available other than on their distribution days. will help fill a little bit of the void uh but not level they had had in the past. So instead of a weekly thing once once a month thing but a sad loss the loss of the food pantry at the thrift shop.

Thank you Keith. Uh Deb just wanted to thank everyone that uh came out tonight to voice the community. Best wishes. It's always good to have uh businesses occupying space. And it was mentioned that that building um was a business um since the 80s. I remember that being a business back early probably even 60s7s. It was a hair salon. And the reason I know that was because um my sister worked in that building and it was a long time ago. I have no idea what it looked like but but I remember it may not that specific building. It may have looked like something else, but um that was a long time ago and that that was brought to I think that's a good area, you know, uh where a lot of cars go by. So, it's a good place for businesses to be drive. So, best wishes.

Thank you, Debbie. You're welcome. Mr. Freeman, I missed the time for the budget work session. It's 6 p.m. again. 6 p.m. 4 to 6. Okay. I'm sorry. And other only other thing I wanted to say, we had talked about a uh drug takeback program earlier. Uh we've been doing that in the city for a long time. Officer Curry with uh or Sergeant Curry is now with the police force at the Post Drugstore or what used to be pharmacy and very susceptible from what I understand. I just wanted to throw that out for people and it's usually in October I believe.

Thank you, Mr. Freeman. Uh Jeanie,

um you know, I echo what you were saying, Debbie. You know, again, thanking people for uh coming out and supporting uh city council, bringing your questions. Um there are people in our uh on city staff who know a lot of these answers. And while I enjoy absolutely getting the emails and having questions come to us, which is I'm the new one on council, so for me, that's kind of cool getting emails asking me questions from people who live in my precinct and sometimes outside. Um I turn around and ask those same questions to Tanya and Randy and and Wall-E. Tanya's like, "No kidding, Genie. Three times a week at least." Um so remember that city staff is right there and they they can answer questions for you. Um, and you know, their contact information is also available on the web, um, you know, on the city website. So, and they're wonderful. They answer my questions, they'll answer yours, too.

Yeah. All questions go to Wally Horton 304. And that's all I have. Yeah, I really appreciate that last appreciate appreciate that. Angie,

um just echo, thank you everyone who came out, who gave comments, everyone who's watching at home. Um I mention this often, but I know um if you are interested in getting all of these agendas for the planning commission and for city council, right to your email inbox, you can do so on the city's website. um there's a place to sign up and um I encourage you to do that and follow along and thank you again for everybody for being here.

Thank you Ando. Yes. U again I would like to thank everybody at home and everyone who came out here tonight to pay attention to the city government. I think it's very important. I'll remind everyone at home and here and tell your friends that we always accept applications for the various boards and commission sitting. Um I'll remind everyone this is the best city in the state. Okay. Probably the best city in United States and I love working here. U in spite of the fact that message point was named after my great-grandfather. Don't we go back a ways? Um, I'll also encourage you not just to pay attention to your city government, and I think that's very important. Pay attention to your state government and federal government especially. Um, many people don't even know that there's a couple of bills before the state that uh would take Virginia away from being the right to work state. Okay. Uh, I think you need to pay attention to that because my personal opinion is it would cost the state a whole bunch of money. cost contractors who were not union contractors in the city uh a lot of money because they wouldn't be able to build on the many contracts. And so pay attention to your city government, but pay attention to your state government and contact your representatives. It's important. I think Virginia ought to my personal opinion, not for the city, but my personal opinion is it's not good to do away with that right to work and I don't think we do it. If you share that opinion, let your legislators know. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, Mr. South Hall. Just like to thank Alisa Barefoot and Allison Croll uh for their IT support. Couldn't have the meetings without them. So, thank you ladies for the job that y'all do for us. And with that, we'll move on to adjournment. I'll ask for a motion in a second. So, move. Second. Thank you, Christie. Vice Mayor Bundy. I councilman Fi. Hi. Councilman Southhaul. Uh I Councilman Freeman. Hi. Councilwoman Hubard. Hi. Councilwoman EMTT. Hi. Mayor Hu. I. Mr. Mayor. The motion to carry by a vote of seven to zero. Thank you Christie. We'rejourned. Are you sure about it?