County Commission - Regular Meeting

We are now live hypothetically speaking. There's our sheriff coming in. Do you see what Cory got? Look at Cory. Show me you your new apparatus there. Oh, I thought you somebody drink. And guess what? Can you make phone calls? She can make phone calls. Not that I know it. Yes, you can. I can. It's a safety feature. I'm not going to do that. We getting too technical around here.

Used to could make phone calls on our telephone. Now we make phone calls on our laptop. Okay. Uh let's get started here today. Thank you everybody for being here today. We were few minutes late. We're at the St. Clair County Mayor's Association meeting in Ragland. And if it been still, we'd have been really late

but we' have had a good time. I'm sure still people were there. Had a good turnout at the mayor's association meeting. So that's that's a good organization there. And our sheriff was the keynote speaker and uh he said some things that even I didn't know and that's I made up most of them. I appreciate that for the comments you made on the commissioners up here way that try to work with the sheriff's department. We we know that our u main responsibilities in the constitution is one is public safety and all of it all of its areas of approach such as the jail and mental health. All those things are falling. Now in the sheriff's department, it used to be a lot simpler job than it developed into, but that that all falls within that category. And then the other one, of course, is is to design, build, and maintain public roads. Everything else we do is kind of kind of extra because we choose to. But those two things are constitutional, and we we take them very seriously. We're we're we're proud of both both items there. Uh before we get started, if you'll bow with me, I'll ask God to rest the proceedings of our meeting. Dear God, as we come before you today, we uh uh thank you so much, dear Lord, for loving us and for your grace. Thank you, dear God, for your guidance. Uh just give us the wisdom to apply that guidance, dear Lord, that you would for us in our lives and into the actions that we do in this meeting today, dear Lord. We thank you, Lord, for the relationships that we made here on the county commission and on the on the areas of government, dear Lord, that you provided for us. And we know that uh in your word you tell us that the responsibilities of these jobs are are are written by you and we uh we lift our actions up to you so that we can do the things that will please you. God we thank you for protecting us uh between the meetings that we have and and between the times that we talk to you. Dear Lord, we thank you for your ever protecting hand issues in our family and personal

family. Dear Lord, we thank you so much for watching over our mother. And God, we just thank you for that all the way through the people in this room. Dear Lord, we all are blessed by you and your your protection. God, now go with us as we move on forward with this meeting. Lead, guide, and direct us everything we do. In Christ's name I pray. Amen.

Ask Commissioner Rick Park to lead us in the pledge. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all.

Okay, you may be seated. Other than our corner, we don't have any real special people visiting with us today. You got that, didn't you, Garner? Thank you so much. I didn't I called you out today, didn't

Okay. And let's see here. I got a couple of items here before I get started that I don't want to forget. So, I was going to go back and look very appreciate you being here today. Also, some did so you uh don't miss our meetings here. I also uh did something today I hadn't done, but I'm going to try to do that every time. I put on my little Facebook page that seems to be a real big way of communicating with people that today is commission meeting day at 9:00 and feel free to go on uh sllarco.com and watch the live stream. So, we we do live stream our meetings and we record them. After we live stream them, we archive them so you can go back and look at a commission meeting and see what what we did. And uh our staff does a really good job as far as providing minutes, but uh this is just a a more modern and more exact way that we've done for years, which we used to use a little recorder laying out in front of of our county administrator. Now, we we we literally record every move that we make up here so y'all don't scratch or anything like that. Somebody Somebody put that on their Facebook page. And we've been working with our county engineer on some items in the last couple weeks. And so we're going to get a report today from Clay. Did you let Dan off today? Is that what happened or?

Yeah. Was he had to ask a couple times? We working pretty hard, that's for sure. So Clay, if you would give us your engineers report. I call us to order. Call us to order. Let's bring the agenda first. What if let's let's take that in order as it's written down here instead of me getting ahead of you play. I know that's why you look confused. First item on our agenda uh is to approve the agenda. Uh entertain a motion.

Uh second any discussion on that? Any additions, deletions to that agenda? I'm still in breakfast. If not, all in favor say I. I. All motion carries. Next item approve the minutes of the regular meeting March the 10th. And motion to approve those minutes. Properly moved and second. Any discussion, additions, deletions of those minutes? Not all favor say I. I. Oppose. No. Motion carries. Now then, Clay County Engineers report. Okay. Good morning. Good morning.

Okay, about four items here. And first, just want to bring you up to date on what the crews have been doing. Uh base crew have have been doing some ditch work on Blackjack Road and uh shoulder work on uh Sy Road uh for the Alba Power Pole project. They've been doing actually uh working on the shoulder for pole 12, 13, 14, and 16. this week. Uh the paving crew, they've been doing plant mix work on uh Pine Mountain Road and also Sullivan Road and Prophecy Road. Uh they're doing those today. And the the second uh item to go over is uh we just like to uh discuss the possibility of having a a special called work session on subdivision regulations on April 23rd. Uh it's a Thursday either uh 9 or 10:00 uh at y'all's y'all's choice.

Y'all look at your calendars here and see if that uh uh would suit the time that we would like to do that. discuss some of it in the work session and I've gotten several texts and a few emails and comments just on the street about this. This is a very important uh item for the commission to address of uh citizens caught hold on it and we've been looking at them now for years. But once we got it out there in the public realm and people could discuss it and pass on what it might mean to you if you own property, which is a lot of people, you know, most citizens constitutional issue, it becomes all kind of legal issues. So, it's very important that we get this right. And uh we had a motion to approve subdivision regulations as we had them written. the county engineers, staff and all that worked on it really hard. Commissioners had for several years and came up with a with a plan. Part of it based on a model plan presented by the association of counties. Part of it based on plan that we developed with the committee. That committee had uh some builders, some developers. It had some uh uh we thought that it had stakeholders representing pretty well every level of the question, but you don't ever cover all the bases, especially even if you have covered the bases, the people that weren't there didn't know whether you did or not. So now we're getting those questions. What about such and such? And we'll probably get those for several weeks now. But we did say we would uh one way to do it would have a special called work session on subdivision regulations specifically on April the 23rd and then set a time. So I think we're here already. It should just be earlier that day work session.

All right. I think it's a good idea time to publicize the date and time and give to show up a chance to show up and and uh discuss it. That's in Asheville. That's at Asheville.

April the 23rd, 900 a.m. Okay. Okay. To be sure everyone that's online monitoring this, I know that it probably caused several people to watch that maybe don't watch. We we knew this was the way this is supposed to work that if it's a boring session and nothing going on in the community, not a lot of people watch us. But if uh but if we're about to uh triple the salary of the county engineer, uh everybody wants to get on here and hear that before we do that. So uh so we want to be sure we want to be sure uh today that a lot of people are interested in this. So we thank the people out there for watching it. If this uh if this passes a motion to put it on April 23rd

second properly moved to second to set up a special call work session April 23rd at 9:00 a.m. Okay. Any other discussion on that? All in favor say I. All oppose. No. Motion carries. Okay.

Moving on. Um just an update on the Alabama Power Pole installation project. Uh I kind of stole the light of number three when I discussed number one. But uh this week is uh they're putting uh 12, 13, 14, and 16 in. Um and some of that work will be on in the weekend too during uh slower traffic days. And uh we feel like uh this project's turned out to be a pretty uh it's been a better project now and we're thankful that power company's been willing to work with us on safety concerns of of the road and citizens. Um and then lastly, fourth item is just to update you on the Wolf Creek cleanup project uh through uh we're getting funding through the NRCS Uh we're going to have a pre-bid meeting April the 2nd and uh the contractors that want to bid on it, submit a bid, they'll have to be to that pre- bid meeting. And of course, we're going to be opening the bid uh April the 10th.

Is this follow the guidelines that we some of the ones we had during the tornado damage in Shaw Creek Valley several years ago where they can't get off in the creek? We'll have some questions pop up. Wait a minute. They're going to go down there with a bunch of equipment. They're going to tear up the creek. There are restrictions in this in these uh uh requirements to bid that tells them what they can and can't do. So, they won't be a bulldozer down there in the creek pushing the creek out. That's correct. Have a grapple and they reach out in the creek and they lift stuff out.

Yes, they they're not supposed to be within 20t of the creek unless they approach it a specific way that we approve. Everybody I think was aware that it was here then that that way we know the environmental portion of that that creek's sensitive to a lot of people. So that's been addressed already. Yes. Okay. That's my report for Clay. Yeah. Why they know when they get back to work?

Uh yes. Thank you for bringing that up. We have a meeting uh on-site meeting tomorrow and we're going to be working out the uh the unit prices for the for the extra work that uh that the soft soil as that's in the insitu soft s soil has created more uh work and more items of work and and more items that estimated work and uh we're going to address those price issues and so they can uh hurry up and get get back working

because somebody hit just about every one of them barrels knocked off down that hole. Yeah, we're we're we're very anxious to get that yesterday. So dangerous situation down there. Pardon me. That's dangerous. Yes, sir. Somebody gets over just a little bit, they've hit them barrels, they went a little further, they've been off down in that hole. That and let me point out that's dangerous on a state highway. It's not dangerous on the county. It's dangerous on state highway, but Yeah, it's they dug that hole so deep down there. Somebody runs off, somebody going to get bad hurt down there. I'd like to see them get back to work so they can get

Yeah, let me know what happened. Is that what the issue was though? It saw soil that Yeah, they got they dug down and found D soil bad so they kept digging down dug forward. coming in there and started laying a bed of rock, but still ain't. They got to back up, regroup again. Yes, we're hoping to have that settled tomorrow. Almost like the one down the red light almost go wrong, it will. Any other questions for Clay? Update on your building since uh Roy's not here. or heard anything on the building that bids at a certain time. What do you got?

I don't um it's it's been um addressed some things uh was supposed to be added to the bid uh specifications and I don't know that it was advertised as of yet. Is that the next step? Do you know for the for the uh County Engineers building. It's out. It's out. You already laid out for bit. Did it go out with his changes in it? Okay. I copied you on the email where Dan said, "Okay,

but you may get a few." Oh, sure. Absolutely. Yeah. So, we're we're definitely looking forward to it. Okay. Good. in the sheriff's building should be going out soon. Next Thursday. Next Thursday. Okay. Anything he wants. He's bragging on us today. Yeah. Oh, yes. Only thing. Let me turn my mic on. Only thing I want sheriff do. We got to do something with them helicopters. What's the name of those helicopter? Bob and Ricky. Bob and Ricky. I feel like one.

They're old set in their ways, right?

And sometimes they just go whoopy whoopy whoop. Yeah, I feel like it sometimes, too. Okay, I think I think we've rung out of you. All we can, Clay. Okay, thank you. Moving on out in our reports. Tina Morgan, county administrator. Okay. First item, discuss the request of the city of Scramble for appropriation for $1,500 to cover the cost of equipment and supplies for the first annual St. Clair Junior Fire Academy. You heard the request from City of Springville. Have a motion. I second. Probably moved and second. Any discussion? Uh does that require a budget amendment or that covered in some of our Yes, sir. That will.

Okay. Make sure we put on there would require budget amendments. So the motion includes that and second I'm sure. Any other discussion other than that's a good call to be part of that. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. I. All motion carries. Next item is just anformational item to be recorded in the minutes. The city of Margaret will receive $7,568.90 for their 5% reimbursement for the P25 radios. This is pursuant to the county resolution 202418 that y'all passed. Okay. And the chairman, if you don't mind, I'll jump to items six and seven on the new business.

Yes, ma'am. Item six, consider resending the recommendation to hire Kelly Eritton into the vacant accounts payable receivable commission position. She declined the offer when Nikki called her. She had changed her mind. We had had action to hire the lady and she decided that she couldn't move for where she was. We had that at our last meeting. So we have a motion to resend that action. Motion second. Probably moved and second. Any discussion? Say

I oppose. No. Motion carries. And item seven, consider county administrator Tina Morgan's recommendation for the to fill the vacant accounts payable receivable commission clerk position with Angela Spelts. She um met that was Mickey's next recommendation. Nikki Major, our accounts payable supervisor. Okay. Heard recommendation from staff to have a motion to approve. Second probably moved and second. Any discussion? All favor say I. Oppos? No. Motion carries. Okay. Any uh commissioners have any questions for Tina? County administrator.

Okay, moving on now to our county attorney report from her. I don't really have much to add this morning, but um continuing to work on subdivision regulations. Um I've u a little bit of work for the sheriff's office and um we're looking to have the affirmed up version of the subdivision regulations to circulate for y'all to review shortly. Okay. That'll I'm sure we'll have some discussion on whatever proposals we make, including the legal ends of it on on that on the day we have that meeting. Yes, sir.

You may want to ask any questions about that or present anything publicly about those today to the attorney. One thing I had that people seem to be sort of surprised about is there is a constitutional question when when it comes to government setting restrictions on private owned property. There's so want to make sure that that's done and it's done in a lot of places, but there's a particular way to do that, right? Try to thread the needle. you think it's going to take before you before you'll have the document firmed up and you can circulate it to us and we can take a look at it. I hope to have it in within the next week. Okay.

For you. Um I know I was a little ambitious last week and overstated my position somewhat. So um I think within the next week I should add it to Well, that'll give us plenty of time to for us to take a look and also to get it posted up on the website where other folks can look at it. Give them an opportunity to go through it as well. Absolutely. Appreciate that. Yes, sir. Question. Thank you much. Thank you.

Okay, moving on to reports section. First one from the commission is from the chairman. And one thing I wanted to keep on our plate uh I know y'all sometimes get tired of me keep these things out there, but we don't we don't have them totally resolved till they're completely resolved. And one of them is our supernumery question that we had paid. We don't have we have two supernumemerries left in the county and that's all once those are gone there. We don't under the law that's been changed over the years we will not have any more super numeries. It used to be a choice where a lot of our elected officials could choose to be a super numery such and such. Uh I went back and looked at the code on super numeies and super numery sort of in a gap but you know there again it's my Jeff state legal uh study that's talking about this uh supernumeies are not an employee and they're not a retired person either they're super numerous it has its own designation account so uh

they're subject to recall

they are subject to recall so they're to me that means they are u I in my own mind I I compared them to u uh an employee being on standby and an employee being on call. There there's a area in the law that defines those especially in wage and hour law. I think it if you're on call you're you're addressed one way in your compensation but if you're on standby you're addressed another. And the simplest way that I was able over the years when I was a game board when we started getting into this, but we got sued by uh an employee that was was dismissed uh because he had worked uh overtime and didn't get paid. So he sued just it's happened to the county before. He sued for back back pay. Um so we ended up having to come up with some simple reason simple definitions so that all poor gang workers could understand them. And how did I keep how did I keep the the the idea of on call and standby separated? Well, which one of them can you drink a beer? I know that sounds simple, but a policeman, a sheriff can't go to work if if they're under the influence of alcohol. So, you could if if you wanted to. Which one is it though? Standby means that you could go home and have a beer, then you couldn't get called because all you have to do is say, "I'm sorry, I can't I can't answer that. I'm under the influence of alcohol." Uh, if you're on call, you can't even have a beer. So, I look at super numerous as being on call. They're they're they can be called at any time that the elected official that represents them wanted to call them up. So in in that category, I'd like for us to look at the legal end

of of whether or not they can be compensated the same pay raises as other employees. That's the main question here. Uh like if we gave a 3% pay raise this year, could we have legally given those two last lonely super numerousies 3% and we'd get that completely off our plate? I don't even know if that's going to take legislation, but Kirk, if you'll look into that and tell us, can we pay these last two super numeies uh whatever pay raise across the board that employees would get. So, does that make sense? The commissioners will look at that.

See, we can lay that aside. We've been we've been bumping that down to the legislature, let them pass legislation, and man, you let stuff get in Montgomery and it gets a lot more complicated.

Yeah, they don't pass legislation. They did, but it was it was to give them a raise as a retired employee. And one reason some of them, you know, might take to be a super numery was they didn't want to be totally retired. They wanted to hold on to a little smidgen of their career and so they became a super numerous. They chose to be a super numerous. So in that case, we would treat them differently than what we would our right now. We have to wait. Uh and you're right, the law was fixed where If the state of Alabama gave retired state employees then you uh in jail if if the state gave retired employees under the retirement systems a raise then the law was changed here recently to give the super numeries that also said they're a retired employee and the question came up not retired I'm a super numer which in my case is more like being a person on call. So, so Kirk, the question will be will will legislative action be required to to fix this or is that something this local body can can handle without legislative without a legislative act?

Okay, that would be the question. Then hopefully that set aside whatever the county commission can do, you know, and we'll be done with that. Like I say, there's only two left and the laws change. There will not be any more super numeries coming up. And for instance, our shares on a retirement system, they get the three and a half%. No, no. We kind of thought they did, but no, they only got it if if they're retired. Now, the state legislature, for instance, I think has a it wasn't there a bill in this retired employees raise again.

So, we didn't even So, another year didn't get one last year and didn't get one year before. So it's a long time between retired employees getting a raise and so every two or three years. Yeah. Three, four, whatever. Sometime longer. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes it's gone. Yeah. Okay. I would know. I never got one. Cut yours out, didn't it?

U Okay. That that would answer that. If we if we can get that question answered, I believe we'll we'll have that resolved. Uh the only other issue that I had on my report was uh let's see here something show up here. Not as quick as I used to be. Believe it or not, I used to be quicker than this.

Can you get me glasses? I think I think that was everything I've got to bring up today. I think the other had to do with subdivision regulations and that' be something that we could uh discuss on the 23rd when we get to that. Okay, that's my report. Sorry, took long. Commissioner Brown, I'm good. Thank you. Now, I told people this morning you kept that you were still in in hunting mode turkeys from from attacking. You told the truth. Yeah. Well, I saw one fly over that same place last year when I was coming back from Brunville the other day off the hill. Another that must be across both those ridges. Oh, yeah. You got permit up there?

I do. I just just walk on a walk on. Okay. Commissioner Parker, I had Commissioner Stevens, I'm just uh happy we're making some progress on the subdivision regulations. Look forward to that. session and hope that we can uh wind this thing up and get something workable passed very soon. Commissioner Bob M,

just a reminder to everyone children's place launching April 21st. We need to try to really get behind that and help every way we can. Okay, and that's all the reports from the county commission. So, moving on now to old business. We don't have any old business to address. So, we'll move on into new business. Let me point out here before we move into new business, we've got a candidate here. Probably going to have another candidate show up a little while that said they might be here. And if y'all would give three minutes at the end, so we'll wait till the end of the agenda to do that to be and that way those that are here can uh can watch the county commission in action so they'll have more to criticize us. We need we need critique occasionally. Uh moving on new business item one consider question Sheriff Murray to let a bid for the SWAT storage building on road department campus. So that's the first item we got coming up.

Motion have a motion and a second properly moved and second that we authorize the sheriff to uh actually yeah we authorize the sheriff to let a bid for the SWAT storage building road department campus to store SWAT assets etc. That's some of those trailers that have got stuff in them and all in it. Sheriff and that that we got a rendering of it and all so we know about what that that's supposed to look like and it'll be out toward I'm going to name that the toy building. That's where all the toys go. Are you going to pay for this? I fig you might do that. Both of you are too quick. Any more discussion on that? Did we have a motion to second?

We did. Any more discussion? All favor say I. All oppose. No. Motion carries to let the bids for the sheriff's swat building out Thursday. Finally. We got Thursday. Next Thursday. That's two buildings going almost at one time here. Item two, consider request revenue commissioner Ken Crow to create a part-time temporary GIS position at a pay grade 10 pending the county attorney's review.

Have a motion to do that. Have a motion and a second. Any discussion? This is going to the sheriff has some specific positions he has to to uh to uh train for that option do some of it ahead of time. In this case, same thing with the revenue commissioner. Our GIS program is quite complicated. You don't just go out on the street and find somebody. I mean, he has a vacancy GIS person. It you really need somebody you can come in and train. So getting him a position that he can bring some young people in and let them see what that position is might give him a pool of people to look at. Uh when he does have a vacancy in the GI that set that up pretty much you want to speak to this Mr. Pro say when you got the insurance policy sold you shut up. I'm sorry.

All in favor say I. All oppose. No. Motion carries. Okay. Item three. Consider a request for Sheriff Murray to renew Most Wanted Brooks Jeffrey Marketing Incorporated contract for one year in the amount of $2,995. Do have a motion? Motion. Second. Second. Probably moved and second. Is this a budget amendment? No, sir. Any other discussion?

All I know motion carries. Item four, consider the Civic Plus contract u in the prrated amount of $21,439.50 for the ADA title 2 web and mo mobile application accessibility rule. This will require budget amendment also and that's been reviewed by our tech people and everybody involved. I have a motion. Motion second. Probably second. Any discussion? You might want to mention what it's what it's about. I don't know. I didn't do that. Okay. Well, maybe our tech, if I get this wrong, he can't to make our websites and and mobile platforms

ADA ADA comp new rules that's been passed. It's a new rule that's from the federal level that requires all this to be ADA compliant or with. So, that's why we're having to do this. I could sit that if I wanted to. Any y'all want to put anything in there? No. I don't know exactly what it does. Glad he does. Well, we're just glad it does. There you go. Out of trouble. We got to comply with it anyway. And our attorney is happy. Any other discussion? All say I post. No. Motion carries. Item five. Thank you.

Consider request revenue commissioner Kim Crow to surplus and dispose of certain items there. Inventory 10988 which is design jet printer d purchase from reappraisal fund. So therefore when it's sold then the money goes back reappraisal right have a motion motion second probably move second say I no motion carries next two items have already been taken care of item eight consider request sheriff Murray to purchase a new copier from RJ Young in the amount of $12,696.70 and a $9 per month service plan for the Pel City Sheriff's Office. This will require budget amendment. When the printer goes out it goes out. It didn't tell us at budget time it was going to go out. So we have a motion to to buy this including budget member and a second.

Second. Probably moved and second. Any discussion? That means you won't have to hand write these things now downstairs and run them through the machine. All favor say I. All

oppose. No. Most car. Item nine. Consider request revenue commissioner Ken Crow for a service agreement with R.J. Young amount of $300 per year plus cost per square foot based on three tiers of the drawing and density for their new HP design jet Z6 mapping plotter. That's the thing that prints these great old big sheets. Is that that right? Okay. So that's why it's based on how big because we can print a pretty big map, pretty big drawing with this kind of printer. Have a motion to do that. Motion. Second. Second.

Probably moved and second. Any discussion need to talk about that? Ken, are you good? All favor say I post. No. Motion carries. Item 10. Consider recommendation of assistant property manager Lyn Crow to purchase carpet in the amount of $7,650 for the county building formerly known as the New Zeality. This work will be done in house. Uh the county plans to relocate Alabama law enforcement agencies uh license division in this county to that building to allow citizens to receive better access to those services. Do I have a motion? Motion second. Properly moved and second to purchase that carpet and we discussed that building. I think it's going to be a really really good good building for this and it's going to serve us well. All

in favor say I. I oppose. No. Motion carries. Item 11. Consider hiring an electrician to prepare bid specs for each of the following locations. Disconnect the current generator that runs central dispatch. I don't have any of that in here. this does back to share uh and determine the size and cost for a new generator that would need the generator that's down there now I believe was at that building when we bought the building and it's an old diesel generator we have to make sure it has diesel fuel in it I think that's the case

and we we need to upgrade that generator first for a lot of reasons one there's just more modern technology than a more efficient generator two we can put it on natural gas we don't have to worry about uh swapping it out there's gas line right at that. And then the other one is to determine the size for a new generator needed to run the cooler etc. uh and install a new generator in the corner's office. Uh so we'll we'll be doing that. It's a lot smaller generator than the other one is. But so we'll need the electrician one to tell us what we want the size of the one to be on central dispatch. Uh I call that building the operation center building and the other one for the coroner's office. Entertain a motion to hire that electrician. Motion second.

Probably moved and second. Any discussion? That person will be chosen using these specs by our property manager. Okay. I'm going to be involved. There you go. But it won't have to come back to us. Proper size. Y up that whole building the sheriff's in this pretty good size. Yes. It will come back to you if it has to be bid out once it's been right now. We're just going to prepare the specs from the electrician.

Okay. Out of 12, consider recommendation asset manager Ashley Hay to hire uh SCSI Southern Cleaning Services Incorporated to clean restrooms periodically in the amount of $550. U following county assets, the event center, the arena, and canoe creek boat launch. This basically is somebody to come in uh whenever Ashley determines that they need it, which is about once a month, and to and to to deep clean the bathroom somewhat. They they get uh sanitized and all that when that person comes in. Our staff and and and and the ones out there pretty well take care of their own bathrooms from a day-to-day basis, but occasionally we need somebody to come in there and sanitize the entire bathrooms, especially make it or did we not vote on that? All right, let's go on with this and I'll finish that. We got a motion in a second on 11 but didn't

backing up to 11. Motion and a second that's to hire the electrician. I'll post no motion carries. Thank you'all. Next one to consider recommendation asset manager that has to do with the cleaning deep clean. Correct. And you've heard her recommendation that we uh and we did put it out for quotes and uh the one that looked like would be the most suitable would be uh Southern Cleaning Services Incorporated. And that's $550 a month. A month if need if after each ro during her busy season, right? And she made it really clear that this was this goes beyond the normal regular maintenance cleaning. It goes like it's a deep cleaning sanitized

and things. Yeah. Yeah, I got you. That's a good price. That's that is a good price and we had a lot of interest in that and I'm not sure everybody understood that it's it's relatively small job and I think this was already in her budget so that wouldn't be a motion. Got a second. Probably moved to second. Any discussion? All in favor say I.

All oppose? No. Motion carries. All righty. U item 13. Consider request Sheriff Murray to approve contract between the county and sheriff to receive one half of the reimbursement that the county receives from Alabama Department of Corrections. The funds they send us pending the county attorney's review. And that's to resolve some issues that we had. We used some money that we were getting from one service out there that went away with a federal rule. Not that we broke it. It just all over the nation. People can't sheriffs can't use that. Neither can counties for that purpose. So, this will be to take part of the uh uh Alabama Department of Corrections money. Uh that will re replace the money. We still got to buy the items you were buying out the others. That's what this will do. Do I have a motion?

Motion.

Probably moved and second. Any discussion? Well, the thing that I would mention is it was through no fault of of anyone that that was lost. It was an FCC rule that required the um counties, municipalities, anybody that runs a jail that um you can't get certain reimbursements from for telecommunication equipment that's used over there. So, that's why this was necessary and that's why we're we're doing this. Um, it's another federal rule that we must follow that has cost us a little money, but this is a way to rectify it. Very good. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I.

All oppose? No. Motion carries. Okay. Next item, consider the travel request. You got a copy of the travel request in your files. to look those over. You may have already done that. Entertain motion to approve the travel request. Probably moved in and second. Any discussion on any of them at this time? If not, all in better say I.

All oppose? No. Motion carries. Next item, consider board appointments. Y'all want to look at these appointments real close and see if we've got an opportunity here to fill any of them. I think we talked about that. Three of those. Three ready to go. on the historical development commission. Okay. Uh do we have recommendations on the historical development? I got on that other thing. Is that what that yellow tab is?

Are we re Yeah, we're reappointing all three. that we're reappointing Robert Der, Elizabeth Sorel, and Brenda Riddle. She several things uh and those recommendations were looked at during the uh work session. So, I'd entertain a broad motion that approves these three. Motion second. Probably moved and second. Any discussion? If not, all in favor say I. I.

All post motion carries. All right. Let me mention one thing. Slair County Historical Development Commission is I use these little little tidbits to interject things that might have caused a question. Uh the St. Clair County Historical Development Commission is totally different than a historical society. Uh we get uh uh we got both in the county and some cities have one, I think. So, we can't give money to the Slair County Historical Society. We don't appoint the boards. They're basically I think they're like a 501c3 or something. Uh, but the historical development commission is a government entity that we appoint members to. Therefore, we could actually put money into the historical development commission. U, so if you have if you have citizens that, well, I'm a member of the historical society and I need $10,000 to put a roof on this historical building. I'm sorry. We can't we can't do that. Well, you did that last year. No, we gave it to the historical commission. And sometime we had to make sure those two groups get together. So that I just want to point that out that we can fund the St. Clair County Historical Commission, put roofs on some of these buildings to remodel, do whatever you want to. Uh and I don't blame some of these these entities for being a little cautious. Uh you lose some of your you lose some of your independence if you depend on a government agency to do it. So you want to so that Historical development society is is a good thing also as more of a community input.

Uh okay. Historical you might mention that that cemeteries eight of those are in our county. One has just been added. Robert Chapel Cemetery on 43 church added that just for information that 16. Yeah. That some counties had like twice as much as this and some counties didn't hardly have any. So a lot of that's a local 25 statewide. Yeah. We got eight in our county. Okay. Now moving on to payment of the county of the bills. uh entertain a motion to pay the bill. Second. Second.

Probably moved and second. Any discussion on any of the bills at this time. Uh understanding our policy of uh holding the payment of the bills until 5:00 today. Any commissioner can stop payment on any bill on the list until that time. So it gives you time to really look at those. Uh with that caveat, all in favor say I. All those no. Motion carries. And I want to u I want to recognize some visitors that we have here. We're going to allow some speaking to go, but uh one of them would be a surprise. When I mention his name, he's really going to be surprised. Walter Lewis, you running for something today? You running for today, but maybe in the future.

Maybe in the future. There you go. Uh Walter Lewis is here and he's a local resident. He uh he he comes and visits with us occasionally. The reason I said that, Walters, we're going to allow some uh uh people that are running for election to political office to speak in a minute, but I want to give you an opportunity to say hello to us also and uh tell us what we need to do to get a big beautiful bond issue. You want me to come to the if you want to? Yeah, come up here and visit with us. You haven't been here in a while. And uh here the other day, I had him listed as a as a councilman in Springville. You sure did. I don't know whether that was a promotion.

I don't know either. I was like wondering when I walked back to my office. I'm like okay. Who is this guy? Anytime Walter, I'm getting old. I'm sorry. I am too. I have those problems sometimes.

Hey, uh it's it's a pleasure to come before you guys to say hello. Uh had a opportunity to meet most of you. I know Jeff and Ricky and of course know you, Mr. Baitman. and Jo I hadn't had a chance to meet yet or either you Mr. But I would love an opportunity to do so. But I'm an investment banker uh here. I've been doing this stuff for 30 years and um would love an opportunity to do some work for this county. Uh there I've been living here since 2000 and u learned a lot learned a lot about the county, learned a lot about our state in terms of what I do and uh feel like I can serve you all in a in a manner to where you benefit uh not just on that particular deal but deals to come. So, I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to come before you if there are any questions that you may have for me. I work for a company called Piper Sandler. Uh actually have an office in Moody and uh it's a national firm. Um top five in the country. Uh just about every year in terms of deals done and and just servicing other communities outside of Alabama. Uh but uh would love an opportunity to do some work here. feel like it brings some value to you and be value well received. So, thank you so much for this opportunity to come.

See this guy from time to time and all, you know, Kurt and the legal staff that monitors our when we when we get into the bond area. There's a lot of things there. So, keeping up with them is a good thing. And and yeah, you may want to meet with these two right here. They they are they're all about got a big bond issue. I'm not sure what they want to spend it on, but I'm sure I would love to. So, I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. And if you if you hadn't if you didn't notice that name, Walter Lewis was the uh the quarterback for the University of Alabama for the last three years that Paul Bryant was the head coach. Is that right? That's good. That's good. Did a great job. That's right on right on schedule.

I just looked it up while he was talking. I looked you thought I had that right on top. Sorry. Didn't say took that. We We still got that touch. Yeah. Yeah. I played that one yesterday for someone. I watch that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you saw where we lost quarterback I mean a a lineman from Terrence City, Alvin Samples passed away here a few years. I saw that. Absolutely. He was a friend of yours and a friend of mine and Bob's also great guy. He was a little bit before me, but I I did see that he was the star person on the football team at Tarant the same year Tarant was the state champion, but he was also the validictorian of the senior class.

That's awesome. With 240 something people thought a lot of him too. Yeah, he kicked a 53 yard field goal against Woodlong. We won the game, wouldn't it? Three to nothing in J Valley as well. In J. Bear Bryant hired him to to work down there at Alabama and he never kicked a football. This guy can kick a 53 yard field goal in high school. No, I want him on offensive line. So then he ends up being a all-American defensive line. So having said that, I set the stage. Uh uh speaking of stars, uh we've got Manny here. She is on the state school board in our in our district, which is nine counties.

See, I had it seven. Now I got too many. Is it better for me to say it's two? You're adding two or We're very aware of of of Marie Manning's uh love for education and her expertise in that field and she is running for reelection for the person in 8 county area. So Marie, you got the podium.

Well, and I thank you so much, Mr. Chairman, commissioners, ladies, Kirk. I'm sure you're in charge here like you are at Wattsville Water when you come. I didn't realize it would affect me like it is to to be in this room. But I'll take a deep breath to start. Okay. And you're right. All of you know me. I don't have to tell you anything about what I've done education wise and how I enjoy education and how I have enjoyed being on the state school board. I found as a member of the state school board that having been in the position of teacher, librarian, a principal, a superintendent, local school board member, and then in having worked in some areas of our state in in contract positions, I've already thought it would be helpful. I didn't realize how helpful it has been. And I'm pleased with the responses that Alabama is now seeing in education. I know all of you and all of you and me, we all read the New York Times and so we uh but the New York Times has recently put out an editorial about is happening in deep southern red states and how well we are leading the way in education. We now have in uh our

I guess for the first time in history we now have more than 90% of our students graduating from high school. We have 88% of our students who are eligible for a degree, a career, or military service. And if we're not here to educate students for those purposes, then I think we have a problem. Someone that sits on our board said to me the other day, "Do you think we're putting too much emphasis on career technical education?" And I almost fell over. I said, "Not quite enough. Not quite enough." Because not everybody is going to go to college and make an engineer or make a lawyer or make a whatever we all make that had to do the four-year degree. But there are folks that are in career tech and I'm a big proponent of career tech. There are folks in career tech who make bigger figures than I did at the end of my career. Certainly not at the beginning of my career when I made $5,280 a year and thought I was rich. That paid a lot more than picking cotton paid back on Sand Mountain. However, as a member of the uh state board of education, we have eight members and the governor is a member who is president of the state board. A lot of folks don't know this. The governor is always the president by her position. I currently serve as the vice president of the state board and and operate in

her absence and uh and I I appreciate that opportunity that is something that is chosen by those who are on the board of education. many many many improvements in education in the last four years. When I came onto that board, and I'm not taking credit for it, please understand. I'm just telling you where we've come from. But when I came on that board, we had um we ranked 49th in reading. We made we ranked 52nd in the United States in math. We have how many states? But we ranked 52nd. We did even better than than the lowest could do. But uh now we're in the 30s. The governor's desire was for us to be in the 20s. We're hoping that we'll see that see that improvement start then. I have a daughter, you know, and who has followed in footsteps of education. She's married to a man who is in that same footstep and she will be your next superintendent of education. She's running unopposed. How you get to do that, I don't know, but it would have been nice. But she um she has two two boys. I have two grandsons. One of them is a fireman and wants and and a wannabe farmer. And the other one is a seventh grader wannabe golfer and he's of the opinion that the more you pay for a club the better you play and so we're getting to see some of that but based on all that you know me I don't need to tell you

anything else and I I appreciate what you all do I know what you do I lived a lot of what you did for many years and uh I would appreciate your continued support in my election. Thank you.

Thank you so much. And and and your daughter and and has follow along with some of your guidance also on this career tech thing because she she worked really hard at that. She did when she worked in that field and I'd like to just point out Ashley's here from the extension service. And we're we're we seem to finally have turned the ship a little bit back in the direction of of the the things we used to do in in cooperation with extension service with 4 and the and the FFA and the A program. But th those kids just seem to somehow or another uh uh take it a little little step further out than the other kids do. They've got something that's special to do. So, we're proud of that of that kind of uh relationship that seems to be coming back. And I think I think we're going to see that the old way wasn't wrong. It wasn't good just to change because we could. It's time to get back to what we used to do best and get these kids back to where they have good work ethics and and and then the the industries will help teach their work skills. So, thank you, Marie, for what you do. And Ashley, you do. And we have one other candidate here. Katrina Hennings is here and she's not new to politics. She's uh served on the city council at Springville for uh 27 terms. No,

close. Some days it feels like it, I'm sure. But uh I really just came by to see what was going on. Didn't come to speak, but I'm glad you're giving me the opportunity. Um I know most of you. I'm Katrina Hennings. There may be a few in here that I do not know, but I think I know everyone. Um, and is it okay if I go ahead politic a little bit?

Okay. Okay. So, um, I'm a lifelong resident of St. Clair County and before I started with the city council of Springville. I have a real estate background. Um, I've kind of worked the entire county with that. I started off in Asheville with Paul Kale and then brokered an office in Springville Moody and now I broker an office here in Pel City. So um and with that experience of the real estate I think I have a real good understanding of the importance of our infrastructure, the planning of it. We can't just say okay tomorrow we need this road or you know paved or new water lines. I understand how all that works. So, I think that would help me um to be up there with you representing the county. So, um what else do I have to say? And I also counted up last night because someone asked me this question and actually Stan asked me, did I think I could work with you? I'm like, I could work with anybody, especially if y'all remember Dave Thomas over the last five years. We all question,

but anyway, I counted up. I've been uh during my time uh with the city, I've been under three mayors or worked with three mayors and I counted at least 15 different council members. Um there could be a few I forgot, but um so I I feel like that's a quality of mine that I can work with. um agree to disagree, agree to agree, and still get along. So, but just in a nutshell, just wanted to say hi and introduce myself and thank you if you'll consider me on May 19th. Y'all have any questions for me? Jeff spot will be a hard spot to build.

Miss him. He's not leaving you hardly any potholes in that district. Thank y'all for allowing me to just say hello. Okay. U we got one other candidate, but he's running unopposed. Sheriff. Yeah, that's true. Sheriff, we appreciate you. I appreciate each and every one of y'all very much, and I'm happy to be here. Thank you. You know, you can come back anytime as long as you don't to give you any money that you tell us that before you get here.

All right. Only one thing left uh for the the the good of the board and that is to adjourn. Have a motion. I have a second move and second. All in favor say I. All oppose. No. Motion carries to adjurnn.