Board of Aldermen - Special Meeting

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This is our special call meeting. I'm going to do what I do, which is read that entire sheet related to the special call meeting on which we'll call to order. In accordance with the provisions of section 21-3-21 of the Mississippi Code Annotated in 1972 as amended, Mayor D. Lynn Spruill does hereby give notice of a special call meeting to be held Tuesday, August the 25th, 2026 at 5 p.m. in the second floor conference room of the City of Starkville City Hall located at 110 West Main Street of the Mayhem Board of Aldermen of the City of Starkville. The specific agenda item of the meeting is as follows. Discussion and consideration of individual budget items to be approved for inclusion in the City of Starkville fiscal budget year of 2026-2027 signed and then... Date, time signed, August 19th, 2026, 10 a.m. So, we are now in our special call meeting, and this subject matter is solely to do with the budget and the budget items that we sent out, or I sent out, with the help of those who actually know how to do this. I sent out an email yesterday so that y'all would have access to the budget considerations and then the budget itself as presented. proposed this is the one with the 34 mills remaining as it is and then there are other items to be considered as we want to go over them depending on what the what the board's pleasure is I'm going to turn it over to Alderman Systrunk, who, as the budget chair, can give a little bit of background. And if you have any questions of Webb, he is here. We have department heads here who are available to answer any specific questions about items. So Alderman Systrunk? Yes.

So the budget process is something that we work on starting usually in May and start talking with department heads about what their needs are for the coming year, that sort of thing. as we get closer to that time that that gets narrowed down we start doing revenue estimates and the budget that the thick budget that you have before you includes all the items that wound up on the list that we felt like would be helpful for the city to fund next year the total expenses were tad over what 32.4 million dollars Non-property tax revenues, $19 million, which means that we needed $13.4 million of property taxes to fully fund this budget. The millage that's required to do that is 34 mills. Most of the things that are in here that have not already been previously voted on by the board are listed down below. The things that are absolutely new are subtotaled. And that's on this sheet. Just make sure everybody's got that. This sheet. And they're subtotaled at that $1.2 million point. The next couple hundred thousand dollars, a little less than two hundred thousand dollars, are things that we could consider cutting. If you notice, as you would expect, the majority of our expenditures are related to personnel and to public safety. Once you get past that, there's less and less that is new or to be considered for not funding again this year so to that end I would like to before we get into discussing those one by one I'd like to just see if we are good with funding the budget at the 34 mills and so I will move for the adoption of a resolution setting the city's millage rate for fiscal year 27 of 34 mills

All right. I have a motion from Alderman Cisteron. Do I have a second for that? Second. I have a second from Alderman Moreland. All right. Discussion. Anybody want to have a discussion about this? Any questions about it? All right. I spoke my piece earlier.

Going over no more.

Okay. All right. Well, in that case, I have a motion and I have a second. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed?

So from here we'll go into these one by one and decide if you want to leave them in the budget or take them out.

the first set of new expenses those are well let's talk about our revenue first okay I had suggested that we start charging for the special events which is Cotton District Arts Festival uses almost six thousand dollars the Docks and Derby uses about five plus thousand dollars I don't know about the others because those are the ones that come that come before the board because they are in excess, according to our policy, they are in excess of the $5,000 limit that I can approve. So does anybody have any interest in increasing the charge for special events?

And one of the things to think about doing that is that that increases our revenues but it cuts the revenues that go to the agencies that are having those events. So the Docks and Derby would reduce the amount that they can give to the Humane Society. The Cotton District Arts Festival reduces the amount that they would have to be able, and I don't know if they could, I don't know how that impacts them if they start having to pay for that. I don't know, but those are things. That's the other side of this.

Yes, those are the things that I know from a revenue standpoint that cost us. They are in-kind services, but they do have a cost. Yes, sir. What are your fee to my charges? I'm sorry? What are your fee? You're talking about charges. well we would charge them for whatever it cost us I'm not talking about charging them in excess of but they would yeah whatever that in kind service would have been and in order in my bringing this just for a discussion point the amount that I looked at again were the two that were the most intense labor intense and that was Cotton District Arts Festival and the Docks and Derby what about other municipalities do they charge for the events

I don't know.

I don't know. I did not. I did not. I feel sure that some do if they are for profit, but ours have never been necessarily for profit because the profit has gone to the entity that is doing the, like the Humane Society, for example, is the beneficiary of the Dachshund Derby. Don't hear anybody rousing to do that?

No, I mean, I'm good with that. Are you good with charging them? Charging on the income services.

And I'm not, because, again, it's not going to move the needle particularly. If it were a lot of money, I would think about it. And it does impact those agencies that are external and just creates a need that they're going to have to fill in some other ways, perhaps by asking us for funding. So if it were a bigger number, I would certainly think about it. Okay.

All right. Mike, thoughts on it?

I mean, it looks good to charge, but I just did the percentage. The percentage is so small.

Oh, it's minuscule, but if you look down this list, we've got something for $1,500. We've got something for $1,000. If we're going lower, we've got to start somewhere. We're paying nickels and dimes. Any thoughts on that, Alderman Skinner?

I mean, I don't really see...

thing either I mean it's like he said it's just not blushing here so okay all right so I'm getting the sense of of no I see basically three no's here so that from a from the standpoint of pulling pulling the numbers I'd say that that's where we are so I will scratch that one off we'll move down the line so general fund departments pay adjustments 442 276 this is the number that Mr. Ashford came up with once he went through all the process of looking at the pay adjustments associated with the compression with the salary study with all the outliers that he took and so this is the number we had said originally we had said 400 but that was an even 400 and it was a It was a guest event. Swag at that time. Swag is probably a sophisticated wild-ass guest, yes. It was as close as we could get, but once he actually did the crunching of the numbers, these are your pay adjustments. And this is just the general fund?

Yes. And is Mr. Ashford on the... He fell asleep and didn't wake up. It does provide for and this while this is just the general fund it will also impact our enterprise funds, sanitation, water, sewer, electricity. If we don't do raises in the general fund it would not be appropriate to do raises in other departments. So this will allow everybody the general fund to have a raise it is not as much as we would love for it to be because it is having to cover about 225 people and there are some equity adjustments some retention adjustments but the bulk of it is going to just across the board pay raises within the general fund Everyone will get something. Everyone will get something and the majority of it will be police and fire because they are the majority of our general fund employees.

Do you have a percentage for kind of what it is across the board or an average percentage?

It's a flat amount per person. It's like $1,500? $1,500.

$1,900 after benefits. $1,900 and some change.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the big ticket item. And the remainder of that is equity adjustments and where departments have gotten out of line and you've got people doing the same job but being paid differently. Retention adjustments for departments where we're at risk of losing employees.

Okay. You know I'm not against that. I'm not... paying our employees. We got to pay them. So do we take a vote on this?

That's what we're about to do because this one is the big ticket item. So in that case, I need a motion and I'll need a second.

I move that we do fund pay adjustments for

general fund employees starting when October first payroll after October 1st okay just so we're on the record that's it that's a motion I need a second second I have a second from all in moral all right there are enough of us here I can tell who goes yay and nay so all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed well that was easy okay so there's 442 276 in the budget And Webb, you're going to... And that's a little over a mill. It is. Yes. The mill is 394.5. Where are my notes?

And I will say this study is probably as fair as we can get as a city. So it's legit.

Okay. So next we'll move. We'll just roll it this way. Parks. Next is non-utility increases. That is going to be the cleaning, the additional... Mr. Owen, I'm looking at you. That's the additional cleaning. Is it anything else in there? Because it's not the splash pad. It's not the water. It's not utilities.

Correct. Right. All right. So we're looking at Are we talking the increase in subsidy total?

Non-utilities increases. I'm assuming, who pulled that together? Sandra, was that you? That was just this year's budget list, last year's budget, minus utilities.

Okay. So that's the personnel for cleaning? And when we had talked, you had said that a good bit of it was for cleaning bathrooms and additional janitorial services. That's right.

I've got on my notes 75 and 100 for that.

Okay, so where is the fields maybe?

Fields, the additional is 50 for grounds. It includes soccer, softball.

Those are the improvements we're making to the soccer fields? Correct. Okay, so that's pretty much it. Yeah. In fact, that one's coming forward. That's the item he's going to put on the agenda next because we've got to buy $12,000 worth of sand to improve the soccer fields.

Cornerstone.

I'm sorry. Cornerstone. Okay. All right. Never mind. My bad. The soccer fields are... Soccer fields have been sanded. Okay. That's what it was. They have been sanded. Okay.

We're on a three-year plan locally with that.

Okay. All right. So this would be the cleaning personnel and then the...

And I'd like to say that I'm very supportive of this because this is the face of the city to a lot of people, our residents and visitors who come here. And while it is impossible to keep the bathrooms clean constantly, if you don't stay on top of them within a very short period of time, they are out of service. out of control and that gets talked up a lot amongst our residents and amongst people on Facebook and all across the state. I also know how critical it is that we maintain our fields. We've invested a lot in parks, and we need to continue to maintain those fields. And it's just a part of the process. So I move that we do fund the non-utility increases at parks.

OK.

I have a motion.

Do I have a second? Second. I have a second from all to move on. All right. Any further discussion? As a matter of fact, I do want to say, and I'm just going to piggyback on what you said, it has been probably a month since I have gotten any information or any pushback on social media about our bathrooms. for example we we had a tournament there this weekend my younger son played in and they were clean and we played till six o'clock at night and they were spotless yeah i guess my point is that they have been successful in doing what uh we need them to do in terms of keeping it looking like we want it to look and that we can be proud of it so i say that only to validate the efforts that have been made thus far

all right so you said 50 in grounds and 75 in cleaning there's still another 75 to 100 he said in cleaning okay still another 25 another 50 there would you like to question about that so with the cleaning um 75 to 100 000 i don't know what we charge on tournaments and special event that kind of stuff but i don't know if there's a back way to do some kind of recovery on that

Well, I think he's looked at the recovery and we are competitive and that's that's what we want to be because we don't want to run anybody off because we're overcharging or charging more than they're willing to come and have a have a tournament with us.

I was just trying to identify that other 25 to 50,000.

Yeah, so what I have on here, which includes on the 295 increase, it was 125 wars over 7500 custodians concession labor. 50 for grounds, and then I've got 33 for electricity, internet, and trash, 12 for dues and subscriptions.

12 for dues? Oh, for park? Yes.

And it comes to a little over 300, and we're asking less than that.

Yeah, and you roll out of that. All right, any other questions? All right. I have a motion. I have a second. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Nay. Okay. So that would be we add 179A50 back in. Or we don't take it out. I'm sorry. We don't take it out.

All right. Police. New fleet. This would be for rental cars as we're trying to replace our aging fleet. And I'll let Chief speak to that. I will say that if we don't

add new fleet we do need to add more money for repairs and maintenance because direct correlation there is a direct correlation well and I want to say I don't know that if we did it that way we wouldn't be replacing cars overall I don't own some of those if we raised if we don't invest in the fleet you know where I stand on this if we don't invest in the fleet we've got to We've got to because their repairs and maintenance is double what we spend on investing every year. And there's no way, I mean. And this is for how many vehicles, Chief?

Or web. Or web. Five. Five vehicles? And we really need 15. Come speak to that if you don't want to.

Well, let me take off my hat.

I don't know. That looked pretty official.

You go right ahead.

Thank you.

We recognized several years ago that our fleet was aging. In fact, I had an officer that was in third grade with the fleet that he was issuing. It was 13 to 15 years of age on average. National average is six. We have worked it down through the enterprise allocations, anemically, if you will, on what we could afford. to get it down to eight to nine, 10 year average in age, but still eating us up. Ladies and gentlemen of this board, what we're doing is we're running with these cars on emergencies and there's a certain standard there. They have to be able to keep up with When we get the speed racers, the drag racers, they have to be able to get to a location so that standard is pretty high. The maintenance is starting to eat up. You can imagine when we are going like we're doing from a first responder standpoint, the mechanical costs are there, and they're non-negotiable. there are certain type of tire you can't get the low end tire when you're talking about pursuit capable so what we have seen mayor is a continuation of mechanical cost growing and because the fleet we're trying to catch in front of the fleet what we wanted to do with the enterprise is adopt what other cities again first thing we do is look out what are other cities doing to address say contracts out the window these dealers recognize that cars are very valuable And so we realized it's quicker and easier and cheaper from a maintenance standpoint to purchase or lease vehicles rather than enterprise and rotate them out into a fleet to where instead of money eventually going into general funds and having to buy a vehicle and hold on to it for the end of days where we can generate our own fund to be able to be self-sufficient. And that's the mission.

Well, and we are, what, maybe 50% there? Are we that far along? Would you say, Webb? 30% there?

I can't remember how many we have under lease.

I'd say 15, maybe. Okay, so we're maybe 30% there? So it's an ongoing program.

And just to say, we did vehicle repairs and maintenance. We spent $202,000, and we're not through the end of that year yet. And we're only talking about investing $125,000. We're never getting ahead if we cut. So I'm a no-go on that one.

Okay. How long do you leave some folks?

Well, it's a three year to four year rotation. They let us know the market when we're ready, that the market is good. It's a rotation. So our standardized equipment, it's not just a vehicle. It's obviously computer radios, everything we rotate in and out.

And we've been very pleased, I believe, with the attentiveness that we get from the leasing agent and the approach that he's taking to making sure that we're staying ahead of the game.

That's great, Mayor. They've been very, very responsive to our request.

Okay. Thank you, Chief. All right. I move that we fund the new fleet additions. Don't sit down yet, Chief.

All right, I have a motion from Alderman Systrunk on funding the new fleet listed at 125. Do I have a second? Second. I have a second from Alderman Moreland. All right, I believe we've had a little bit of a discussion there. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? OK. Sergeant position. While you're there, why don't you just roll with the sergeant position and the code enforcement position both.

Yes, ma'am. Let's start with the sergeant position first. When I took over as chief, one of the accolades that we needed to do was I canceled the special operations group, which was by design to handle specific types of requests, specialty requests like traffic commands, DUI, stuff like that. it was a smaller unit but i did that to help find the funding for assistant chief and this board and mayor were very supportive and i'm thankful for that six years into this we now have a really a position where from our dui our motors um canine specialists in a position we call a striker they're all proactive units Crossing over and being more responsive what the number one complaints we get and I've received from each and every one of the board members here is traffic related right and by creating a special group that is focused on what the specific complaints are without having to change and go answer calls is something that is needed for better performance from citizen complaints whether it's running the stop sign That's probably the most numerous loud pipes in the neighborhood. It's different things that with patrol and the coal volume they have, it's very hard to stay focused. So the idea is not recreating the lieutenant position involved, but simply reestablishing the SOG, moving our K-9 officer, KJ, over to be director of that. So it's something that is a template that, again, that Chief Nichols had started. and figure out what we're doing. I know why he did that in turn would create a a sergeant position across and over and hiring position bring us to in a code position bring us 78 total and I remind the mayor of this board that our counterparts Everyone is growing. The city has been very, very fortunate in growing it. And I will use our university counterpart to North Mississippi. There are 109 officers, right? And I'm trying to ask for 78. And one of those other positions is code enforcement. We have the numbers and we talk about high crime areas and to be able to address with individuals that don't take care of property and allow their residents to be in horrific conditions. Each one of those is an individual case and that's why code enforcement is there. I'm seeing the expansion with Kratom. enforcement I'm seeing the expansion in entertainment ordinances this city is growing at a lot of levels and a lot of things come back to the police department code enforcement is a specialty that we need to stabilize we have you know being certified officers they go through the training they know how to do an investigation they keep the things lively safe but in doing so they've also became a little bit predatorial and what i mean by that is once they become certified officers these other agencies have already shown hey i've got police officers that i could offer a little bit more that's why the suggestion was to take it from a niche kind of pay to a p3 which is a third year officer pay regionally that makes us to where we can compete with anyone to recruit from them we get stability in that unit and expand it. And that's the code of a sergeant. So he'll be one of the corporals probably would fill in that role if we create the SOG sergeant. And again, we're ICS structured. And what I mean by that ultimate goal is, again, our supervision is one from six, seven, eight officers. And then a lieutenant's over no more than two or three sergeants or four sergeants at a time. It maxes at six for our policy. But that's what we're asking.

All right, and you've still got, down below this, we've got an additional police officer. Do you want to?

Well, yes, ma'am. So if we're taking, if we're creating an SOG unit that is specializing, doing a sergeant promotion within, and I've taken also one of those positions, most of you understand Lieutenant Lovelady as... kind of a go-to liaison. What we are being faced with is continual citizen boyas, which is fine. That's what it's for. It's beyond just our counterparts in the media, and they're hitting us with a lot of boyas. I think our other department heads can attest to that. It's time-consuming, and it's liable, and you've got to be able to do it when it's done. What we're seeing is Lovelady, from its public relations standpoint, being pulled with the documents in court preparations for lawsuit we had to bring in another officer into that position and that is a partita and she is doing an amazing job but also that's that's another individual off the street so that's what we're asking for a replacement there the workload on the administrative side of what we're feeling and seeing has not slowed down. This isn't a surge. It is been ongoing for some time. And so that's why the position is there as a transfer party that into an administrative role to be able to assist. And she's a hybrid. She sees all these things where if it takes place, you can change hats and go.

Okay. All right. We should have put police all together in this in this lump because we've got one more below it, which is the parking position. I know Curtis is a one-man army, and he's doing a great job. Yes, ma'am. But he also... Go ahead.

Sorry. He is, and again, our... and he is amazing he is and he can take on about six um but he's one person and what we have is a lot of parking and especially in alderman brooks area you know the district these these are complaints that come up regularly in certain these areas so having additional parking would give us more consistency in enforcement uh give us uh you know kind of a balance there to where you'll see the true benefits. This is a part-time position. Part-time position. That way we're showing consistency. Of course, he has a down day if Curtis is not able to come in. Well, he does get a vacation. He rarely takes it to his place.

No, bless his heart. We also expanded the paid parking out to Eastley and other areas of town. It's harder for him to do it by himself.

Well, and he also does the neighborhoods. Well, there's also handicap parking at Walmart and we get calls for all of that.

That's a lot of complaints there and I think association and I'll also remind the mayor and the board that some of the biggest crowds I've seen that have came into our board meetings have been people advocating about code issues and have been very clear you know on that, and so that's the strategy in going in with it, and we have the members to back it up.

And code also, you touched on it a little bit, but it's also a preventive thing in terms of crime as we maintain a certain level or standard of appearance Absolutely. I go with the broken window theory. Slippery slope.

Absolutely. I think that anyone, especially if they have traditional family land and places to take pride, in particular there's a lot of senior ladies that are in the neighborhoods that take care of their garden and everything, then right next door you've got an individual that grandchildren are no longer taking care of it, The parents or grandparents have passed, and it becomes a problem. And so the design is, again, just like you dressed nice for this meeting, it's to put on the best look. You get one shot at a first impression. And that's what we're trying to do here. All right.

Thank you, Chief. We may let you sit down now. What's the question? I move that we fund those police positions. I can get a motion and a second, and then we'll have a discussion. Is that all right? Okay. You've got a motion. Those are all police positions? All. Do I have a second to that?

That's why we're going.

Oh, okay. You want to second it?

Yeah, I'll second that just while we're going.

Okay. All right. Well, that's, I believe, where we are. So I'll take a second from Alderman Vaughn. Okay. So that would include the sergeant position, the code enforcement position, the additional officer, and the part-time parking position. Is that it? Okay. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. All right. So next we move down to, I can feel this coming on, but I want it anyway. The next item up is the comprehensive plan. Now Daniel's standing back there so I've got him on cue here. So it has been 2016 since we did the last comprehensive plan. We've annexed since then and we have opportunity now about every 10 years is when there is an expectation for a comprehensive plan in order to update our zoning and all the things that are based off the comp plan. So it usually costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $150,000. So what we've done is split it over two budget periods. This one would be the first half of it, and it takes about a year to 18 months, is that correct, to get it done, Daniel? Okay, so it would probably not get completed in that final payment, not due until the next budget year, which is one of the 75-75s. So that's what's in here. I think it's important to us and to our future and for our basic understanding of how we do our zoning and how all of us make those decisions based on things that are constantly coming to us for a change in zoning or a change in special use acceptance. I mean, those kinds of things.

Yes, ma'am. And there have been environmental changes since our last meeting. plan the the crypto facility was something not anticipated at all or a data center back in 2016 maybe we should have but we didn't so so things are constantly changing and these these are critical if we're going to be doing zoning

I think it also is an element that comes out of this, and I didn't realize it until I started doing some research on what all you get from a comprehensive plan, but one of the things you get is your housing. What is your complement of housing and what kind of housing do you need? What kind of opportunities? And where? Yeah, and where? And so I thought that certainly has value based on the concerns that we are constantly seeing about affordable housing in city limits. And so I just think it's something of value that we should consider.

Yes, ma'am. Okay. I... we need the comprehensive plan i do want to ask this question with it is utilities going to be roped into this because we can take this and do a long-term plan for like going underground with our utilities where it makes sense for us to invest

in areas for it'll probably be whatever we ask them to do daniel you want to weigh in on that a little bit that's part of it a lot of times it's just knowing what your capacity is to grow in certain areas to make sure you're going to recommend a growth residential in a certain area that you have the capacity to do it from transportation and utilities is definitely a part of it uh the existing underlying environmental concerns wetlands floodplains all that stuff kind of goes in in the consideration of what they're doing in the future or in our case a place like that

Any other thoughts? You know I'm going to vote for this. I see you shaking your hand.

I'm going to make the motion.

Because I think for the future growth of Sarkville this is huge because we're on the cusp of exploding and we need to know where we can expand and where we can't.

Okay so I have a motion from Alderman Moreland. I'm going to second it and I'm going to say that A lot of the problems that we deal with day in, day out, comes from a lack of planning decades gone by. This is just a smart way to think about our future. That's a big portion of what we need to be doing, is thinking about our future.

Can I tag off? Sure. Makes you wonder if we would have done this years and years ago, would we be in the bind we're in with some of our stormwater and some of our other issues that we have currently?

We did do it years and years ago.

I'm talking about years before you, Mayor. No, no, no.

I wasn't here for the original, for our comp plan of 2016. But it may have been something we didn't include in what we wanted them to look at.

And density and areas where we have problems with Lake South Montgomery. I mean, would that have helped us with the streams?

Yeah. Okay. All right. So I do have a motion and I do have a second. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Nay. Okay. It was predictable your face just gave you away. All right.

No poker for you.

Yeah, really. All right. So next on this list is the general 182 maintenance and that was based on Mr. Oh, wait a minute. That's not true. I was going to say that's sanitation based on how did we run that one?

so we looked to see what it was growing and we went private and then instead of going private we talked about sanitation and picking up somebody but that was the general fund

can pay that.

Okay, alright, so that's what we're talking about.

We're transferring the money from the sanitation to pay for additional sanitation positions that assist with their maintenance.

And that's a partial year because we won't probably take possession of that responsibility until next spring or summer.

Okay, alright, so that is to keep up our new road and all the things associated with it. All right. Discussion? Motion? Does that include landscaping? Yeah, that is landscaping. That is landscaping.

Is it going to enter our hands when they're done? Yes. Beautiful.

Yes. Well, that's... Our project manager back there is going to say absolutely yes.

Whenever you do substantial completion, and then with the plants, they have a growing period... and so then you have a warranty period so this would make it where like all weeds like whatever we hand over it'll be ours to take care of weeds but then we'll have a growing period for some of the trees and some things along those lines and two i will give props to chris williams because we have started tree trimming classes and stuff with sanitation and i think those guys are actually going to be able to do irrigation as well

And mowing.

And the mowing, but they do that anyway.

But I mean, the training, the luncheon learners have been really good. Okay, so I need a motion for the general maintenance. Move that we leave that in the budget. Okay. Second. All right. Anybody else need any clarification on it? All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Courts, expanding... We have part-time to full-time, so it's a half position. And again, if you recall, part of the reason for this is because we've added a day of court. And we have more people coming to court. I'd like to think we were decreasing the number of people coming to court, but we're not. So we've added a day of court. And so Ms. Larry, I believe, feels a little stressed. She's got folks that are working weekends to keep up still. Or did we get past that?

They're working on the weekend, and they stay at the back.

okay so pulling in some overtime is that everybody department have you been the same weekend as well okay but I have two days that's been coming in okay all right have we not gotten past that are we headed toward getting past that okay all right I knew we were working on it okay any questions

I'll point out that the reason that number looks a little fluffier than you might expect is that by going from part-time to full-time, we're now having to pick up benefits. PERS, health insurance, those kind of things that are a little more expensive.

And just as a refresher, PERS has gone up to what this year? 21? Not quite.

It's 19.5. Yeah, it's... I think it's at 19.2. Okay.

And that's going to continue to incrementally increase for a couple more years. At least a couple more years. Yeah. Okay. I move approval of that position. Do I have a second? Second. I have a second from all of our votes. All right. Any further discussion about it? All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed?

Nay.

All right. Let's try this again. So the ayes. I need a hand raise. Three. And then the nays are three.

And that's from the standpoint of overtime and our department heads.

And I'm breaking the tie to be supportive of the motion.

Mike, I didn't hear it. I didn't see it. It was a three to three. Yes, ma'am. It was three to three.

All right. All right. Outside contributions. That's dropped down next. Now, I took the liberty of just totaling them up just because. And they come up to 96.5. So you have the new spay and neuter request from the Humane Society. You've got the smart system asking for another 25. You've got the library request. Actually, they asked for 50. I'm sorry, we bumped them down to 25. Yes, they asked for 50, and we put 25 in the budget. Library asked for 10, 250. J.L. King Center is a brand-new one. They asked for 10. The community theater is also brand-new. They asked for 10, but there is some measure of offset there, as in the Starkville Area Arts Council no longer is in existence, and so that... swap or not. But anyway, it's new to the community theater. And then the Humane Society operations asked for an additional five. So that totals up to 96.5. Those are the new outside contribution increases. Well, new and increases. All right. So we want to go with these one at a time? Yes, please. All right. I need a motion.

I will move that we approve the spay-neuter voucher program that the Humane Society has suggested, mostly because it's the only way we're going to get ahead of maintenance of the Humane Society is reducing the number of animals out there on the streets. it's also going to be reimbursed so if they don't provide that service we won't actually incur that expense but but the anticipation is that they will and therefore we're budgeting it this is actually something too that some I mean anybody obviously take advantage of but especially our lower income people that have pets that can take advantage of this

Of course, everybody knows I'm a big supporter of the Humane Society. Okay. Is that a second? That's a second.

And I'll pull that out. You do? And I'd like to, just on a personal level, say my dog came from the Humane Society, and we had her doggy DNA done, and it turns out that she's about a third mountain cur, which is not even a breed I had ever heard of. But apparently her parents are out there still procreating because I get notification periodically that there's another one of those that's been shipped to Massachusetts from Octobah County. And so there's a need.

There's a need. Okay. So I have a motion and a second, and this is to retain the spay and neuter voucher request from the Humane Society. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed?

Nay.

Okay, I only heard one nay. Am I? Okay. Your nay? Your nay. I get to break that tie? All right. I vote in favor of it. I knew I was going to vote today. Yes. All right. So that one stays in. All right. The smart system. I want to speak to the smart system because I think it serves us in tremendous ways. Granted, Mr. Dumas former Alderman Dumas gets grants granted he gets grants that was really good but point being he has worked very hard over the years continues to do so we have benefited tremendously from it our community gets for the paratransit They get the opportunity to go to doctor's appointments. I watch our residents. Mr. Turner, for example, uses the smart bus, so it is a huge benefit to our community in ways that I think people have used to underestimate. They used to talk about empty buses, and if you recall the last time Mr. Dumas came to us, those buses are carrying large numbers of our residents, and so I think it definitely serves a purpose, and we are paying a very minuscule portion of the value we get for this. So I think bumping them up an additional $25,000 is worth doing. So I say that.

And we have not increased our contribution to them since 2024. So this would be 25, 26, three years. Three years.

OK. This would be the 27th budget I got. OK. I'm sorry. So I need a motion. Move approval. Oh, Yvonne, did I hear? I second. OK. All right. On Norman Vaughn, all those in favor, signify by saying aye.

It was POCO. Oh, I'm sorry. It was POCO.

The two of you. I heard you from back there. All right. My apologies.

It was POCO, and actually, I didn't say anything.

All right. Well, in that case, I will give you that ornament POCO.

Even though I'm all in favor of it. OK. Well, in that case, we get to vote.

All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. Excellent. All right, next item is the library. And Alderman Sistrock, I know you're the advocate, so I'm going to let you speak.

And this is a minimum increase in their funding. It may be 2%, 3%. It's minimal. It just gives them some additional operating funds. And we're currently giving them 185 or 195? We're currently giving them 320. We started out years ago giving them 180. And their funds come almost exclusively. exclusively from the city and the county they get very little money from the state and federal government they get some additional outside support from the friends of the library and grants and and so operationally they see the same in expense increases that we do and they serve a huge portion of our community and your children go there right all the time and

I'm just going to defend myself here. That was the Humane Society. We give like 185 to whatnot. Okay. There are days when I'm just losing it.

So I move that we leave that in.

Okay. Do I have a second? Second. I have a second. One more. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed?

Nay.

That's two. Your nay? I'm breaking it again. All right. Well, I'm supporting the library, so. All right. J.L. King Center. This one is brand new, and I don't really know anything about it. So I can't speak. Alderman Vaughn, are you familiar with what they're wishing the $10,000 for the J.L. King Center? By any chance? No, I'm not, but I know they're struggling with it. Okay. Do you have their application and their request, Mr. Corbin? I don't have it with me. Okay.

I don't have it.

Okay.

Sir, I'm sorry. I say I'm going to second because I'm going to make the motion because they need the funds because they don't have a lot of funds, you know, to participate and do things for the children that they need to do. Okay. All right. They didn't even make the trip this summer for them to get the funds.

Did they not get funded? I thought they got some donations to do that.

And I think they were waiting on an endowment.

I went in the county if they sold the hospital space to help support them too, but I don't know that that happened.

JL King Center, I will say this, I can't speak on them. They do great over there. Ms. Margaret and I don't know.

We've never had this request before, so that's my level of ignorance there. So I have a motion. Do I have a second? Second.

Yeah.

All righty then. I'm going to go with Alderman Skinner here. All right. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Starkville Community Theater. This one too is new and it's based on the fact that the Starkville Area Arts Council is no longer in existence and so they have they have asked for this to support their they're trying to get a grant and I don't know how this one weighs into that grant. I believe

I think they're trying to use this as the match for the grant.

As the match for the grant.

This is essentially a wash from what we did. Yes.

The Start Relay Arts Council, we didn't finish out the year with them, but we did allocate for them last year.

Okay. Do I have a motion? Leave it in. Okay.

Second. How's that for a motion? Leave it in. Take it out. Yes. Okay. Thank you. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

All right.

Carries. All right. Humane Society Operations is asking for an additional $5,000.

And again, that's operational. Their expenses have gone up. Their dog food costs have gone up. I move that we leave that in.

Okay. I have a second from Alderman Brooks. If I want to go to MMO bad enough, I'll fund myself.

But Board of Aldermen travel. And I'd like to say that I think this sets the tones for a lot of things. If we're not willing to cut our own expenses, then we probably ought not to be asking to cut anybody else's expenses. So I will move that we eliminate the Board of Aldermen travel.

Okay, can I second that and add something to it? Sure.

Okay, can I second that? Well, I'd say that if you need to ask her. Friendly amendment?

Yes, I'm friendly amendment. Okay. If we can do it. I think we can.

We haven't even gotten a second to hers yet, so just let it lie.

I second it with amendment. Okay.

We're loose here today.

Sorry. Let me see what the amendment is. What is your amendment?

Okay, so we cut our travel. What is it? It's at 10-5. Okay, 10-5. That's not enough to do anything right or wrong. Nope. But guess what? I mean, we didn't do the 12-5, so yeah. I know, but the police fleet, we need to fund it. I make the motion. for us to cut our travel and fund take it and swap it to the police leave principle.

Oh, okay. So it's what to do with it afterwards. Yes, correct.

Because we can sit here and cut and that's the truth of it. But 10-5 and that's the only thing we've gotten to yet that we're willing to cut. What's that going to do for anybody?

Well, I don't know that we're willing to cut it.

Well, I'm not willing to cut it. I just want to move it to a different allocation. But it's the principle.

Okay. I'm confused. Let's roll first with the travel itself. And if we can reallocate it, we can talk about reallocating it. So let's see how the...

all right so this is to cut the travel is that correct yes all right so I have a motion in a second to cut the Board of Alderman travel which is a ten five and I'd like to say that I'd like to say that while I've made that motion there is great value in attending MML and networking with other municipalities with the educational sessions that they have I think there's great value in it but but I If we're going to cut, we have to start with our own.

Are we going to cut all the employees that are traveling?

There's some other travel on there. But I'm not going to be disappointed however that vote goes. But I think if we're unwilling to cut our own, we can't cut anybody else.

Well, and I don't want to put anybody's travel, because it's travel and training, and some of it's necessary. And it's good. Like going to BOAM, like it's getting recertified for stuff. But anyway, okay, so we have a motion and a second. And this is training.

You go to training to learn the cost of municipality, the cost of changing everything. Yes, absolutely. So if you want to do the changes, you train under training, so you'd be missing something. So in other words, you want us to pay to go and service it? That's what you want us to do?

Well, I mean, that would be your option if you want it. I mean, if the reality is if you want to go, then that would be up to us to pay our own way. Assuming this passes. Assuming this passes. All right, so I have a motion and a second. That is to cut the 10-5 of travel for the Board of Aldermen. All those in favor of removing travel as an option for the Board of Aldermen, signify by saying aye. Aye. Out there on that island by myself? No, I said it. I said it. You did. All right. So that motion fails. So let's go with a motion to keep it in. We'll make that motion. All right. Alderman Vaughn makes the motion to retain the Board of Aldermen Travel. Do I have a second? Second. I have a second from Alderman Polka. Okay. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Nay. Nay.

That's my problem.

So I thought you wanted to keep everything in. You weren't going to vote against the other way? Okay, fine. That was a three to three?

Mm-mm.

Yeah, it was. What was?

Oh, Kyle, I saw it.

Yeah. I didn't realize that. Yeah, three to three. Break the vote. Break the tie. I believe we should travel. I think it's valuable. It is. All right, so in favor. All right, the mayor's going to cut her travel without us even talking about it.

Don't in that it is immaterial and you're going to muck up my millage calculation.

Now we're going somewhere.

Didn't even touch it.

Didn't even touch it. So there you go. Leave it right there. All right. Courts, travel and training.

They have mandatory travel training that they have to do annually, and I think it's important.

Motion to leave it in from Alderman Sistrunk. A second from Alderman Ball? All right. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? all right all right the next one is going to be one that I want to leave it alone these are the police purchases the 27 fives is five new ones we've got five replacements in the budget that we did not pull out because the budget is budgeted for 55 these are five new ones so I am approval to keep Thank you. Yes. Second. All right. I don't even have to answer the screen.

Elaborate on that for some people. They're not flock cameras. They're not flock cameras.

Yes. Thank you. They are not flock cameras. Chief. Come elaborate on your cameras because I don't need to be the one talking about them. The expert needs to be talking about them. They are Motorola's and they are used for criminal investigations.

That is correct. I mean, obviously it's 2026. If you have a child that goes missing, if you have some type of crime, some type of one person, this is technology that saves us. And the information that's different than FLOC, Motorola is CEGIS. And for those that are watching on Facebook and do their investigations, CEGIS information is stored a certain way that meets federal standard criteria for criminal investigations. And that's what- We have protocols and procedures in place? Yes, ma'am. And auditing policies, all of that's in- in place, and again, part of being nationally accredited, which I cannot stress enough. which in the next few days we will have a inspector that will be reviewing everything to ensure that we're not only putting in our policy, but we're applying it in real world case scenarios. So it is far different than the flock system that was created by an individual that ideally, to my understanding, was about neighborhoods in the general suburbs of Atlanta area for control or tracking with who's coming into the neighborhood for another crime way, but it's not nearly as skilled as Motorola. And I'll say this, we have a lot, a lot of each and every agency that comes on with MOUs, but include record services. We had an armed robbery that was solved within minutes. After the individuals were prepared to leave, they were going to knock off a local marijuana distributing type of place. And before they could get the suitcases into the car, the reason why we knew that location is because it was a Motorola that worked as a force multiplier with us. We knew that individual was there just an hour earlier and were able to track and locate. There was not really a good description on the vehicle, but we did get enough to be able to get the tag or get enough of description of the vehicle to say, check this location. Sure enough, it was where individuals trying to leave. So we've used it multiple times. But this is information that we understand. We are protectors of the Constitution, and we appreciate that. You can only put so many things in place to ensure that no one violates that, and we keep it at the highest priority of information that comes through.

Okay, thank you. And actually, I think, and correct me if I'm wrong, and Joel, you're in on this as well, these are the red and blue flashing ones, not the Motorola's that we're doing replacements for, is that correct? Yes, ma'am, that's correct. Okay, all right.

Thank you, Chair. And may I say, all of these things, the Budget Committee felt worthy of leaving in the budget, but as there was a push to try to reduce millage, we felt like the Board had policy decisions to make, and so that's why we're going through these. Yes.

I mean, if we want to stay at the 34, then this would have been. That's right. We wouldn't have been in this conversation. So I need a motion. Well, I have a motion and I have a second. All those in favor of retaining the 27.5 that goes to the new purchases, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Election poll workers and commissioners, we dropped that down 1,000 because we don't expect to have an election. So I thought of all the things that we would cut that this would be an easy thousand. Of course, that's probably not going to move the marker either.

Let's say what we get.

Okay. Reallocate. Well, let's go ahead. Since we're voting on all these, you want a motion to exclude?

Can I ask real quickly before the motion? I know y'all do incur some annual expenses related to elections, even in years when we don't have elections, some training and that sort of thing.

You left $1,000 in there. Is $1,000 you think sufficient? All right, so I have a motion. I need a second. Second. You're the motioner. Oh, sorry. I'm sorry.

We've never voted this much.

Well, I know, but this is our process here. So all those in favor of pulling $1,000 out of the election commissioners, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed?

Nay. Really?

Okay.

You're recording all this, right, Joanne? All right. We just had a drop. This is like watching CNN and the election results coming in.

Okay. Okay. City Clerk, office supplies and office, 1250 and we pulled that out. We were trying to be frugal. Alderman, not alderman, I'm sorry. Ms. McLaurin, anything? Mr. Corbin, anything about that? You can live with that budget if that comes out? We'll live. We'll live? Okay. Just giving everybody a chance to weigh in here, so. Do we want to make a motion? Make a motion. To take it out?

Take it out.

Okay. I have a motion from Alderman Moreland to take it out. Second? I need a second. If I don't have one, we're just going to move on. It'll stay in.

Second.

All right. Second from Alderman Skinner. All those in favor of removing this item, which is $1,200, thousand two hundred fifty dollars out of the budget signify by saying aye what did I say you said twelve thousand one thousand two hundred fifty yes I'm sorry twelve fifty yes all right signify by saying aye aye opposed nay nay all right that would be that would be a four to two so we will take it out all right contract services three thousand if y'all would give us a little I'm not remembering what that's for we pay for

Our investment advisor out of this, this would be over and above it. Sometimes we pay for shredding services, cleaning, carpet cleaning up here. Maybe not.

Yeah, carpet cleaning isn't working very well. We might as well forget it.

But you're saying that there are some unanticipated things?

It's not always annual stuff. There's like 1,500 that's annual. This is over above that. But there are things that pop up from year to year. So it is a little bit of a squishy number to look at.

I move that we leave that in. Second. All right. Second. All those in favor signify by saying aye, and that is to leave it in. Aye. Opposed? Nay, just because if Webb says he doesn't need it and he's our CFO, we don't need it, we can move it over. He doesn't know if he needs it or not. All right. Bank and credit card fees, we dropped that by 500 for whatever reason. We're just hunting for stuff, so...

We could probably drop it based on how this number is going this year, but if the bank speeds go up next year, you know, we just get charged.

We'll pull it from somewhere. Okay. Do I have a motion to take this out? Or leave it in?

Motion to keep it.

Keep it. All right. All in favor to keep it? Do I have a second to keep it? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Nay. Nay. All right, that sounded like a three to three for me, so I'm gonna keep $500 just because. All right, city plan or travel? Mr. Haviland travels, but we thought we could parse it down just a little bit. Do you think you can live? You can live without that $1,000?

Okay. All right.

So anybody want to make a motion to take $1,000 away from Daniel for his travel? I'll make that motion. All right. Alderman Sistrom makes that motion. Do I have a second?

Second.

Second from Alderman Vaughn. This is to remove $1,000 from the city planner's budget he believes he can still retain or live within it. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. That's to pull it out. city planner training. Got to watch webbing those zeros. I don't remember why we pulled that 1950 training. Do you remember that? What have you got for training, Mr. Haviland? Does that cover you without $1,950 in there, or are we being excessive?

One thing to take into consideration, previously it's just been me with the training for a while. I was going to try to take the AICV the upcoming year. Maybe it's going to incur costs, like studying for that, picking a test.

okay okay all right probably we'll leave it in okay I have a motion motion from Alderman Vaughn to leave it in do I have a second second I hear Alderman Brooks first we'll give it to him all those in favor signify by saying aye aye okay staying in cemetery repairs and maintenance We have been doing a lot of tree cutting, limb cutting, and that sort of thing in the cemeteries recently. I would like to think we've gotten to the point where we don't have to do that much, but we've got both of the cemeteries sitting in front of us, and we were trimming where we could, both of them at $3,000. Alderman Vaughn, you live right by that cemetery. How have we been doing in maintaining it?

We've been doing pretty fine. What about that other? We have some other funds that we want to use.

We do have cemetery funds.

There's an old trust amount that we can reach to if we need to.

Okay, you want to make a motion to take out both of them? Both of them. All right, we'll make a motion to take out both of them from Oliver and Vaughn. Do I have a second?

I think Webb has something to say.

I just want to remind y'all, we've got this out for bid for the maintenance. Yes, we do. We don't have those in yet.

Well, we don't, but if we're going to pull from a different fund, then we can revisit it next year.

And the contract depends on the bid.

Okay, so a motion from Alderman Vaughn. Do I have a second? Second. Second from Alderman Sistrunk. All right, and this is to remove both of these items from the budget. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed?

Aye.

All right. All right. Well, where are we? That didn't do anything for us? This is kind of fun. I thought you might like that. Okay. Then we have, all right. So, Chief, you're back up again, darling. So we have motorcycle rental, code enforcement gas and oil, code enforcement uniforms. And this was your additional motorcycle. Correct. And this would be gas and oil that we had put in there because they're going to be driving more and if you get another person they're going to need more gas and oil. And then the uniforms, a new person with uniforms. So that's what this was about. But

again we were searching for nickels and dimes to try to find a way to to get down some so do you have anything you want to share about particularly the big number is the motorcycle road and that's the one that's a replacement one or give us three right uh this this is what we've got this week we have uh insurance uh that's replacing the number three sorry i thought this would be taking us to four motors okay and that allows them to your special ops group

There's not any insurance. This is a lease. So the insurance was going back to hardly to pay for the lease. We just pick up the lease. And I think that's going to be up. Is that on this agenda? Yes, it is.

That's what I was going to say. It was on this upcoming agenda. So this is a separate and distinct. This gives you four. Yes, ma'am.

This will give us four again. But it's not an officer replacement. I think all we're asking is the motor and pulling out a patrol to put an extra there and that would be .

And these are the folks who do the large majority of your speed

They do, but that's the designs of the highways and where they are, and that's hard to see, and they're pretty effective. Okay. Yes, ma'am.

Okay. I move that we leave those in, particularly since we've agreed to leave the additional code enforcement personnel.

All right. So I have a motion from Allman-Sisteron, a second from Allman-Brooks. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. Fire. Building maintenance. Fire travel and training, fire station upgrades. And again, we were pulling where we could pull. And Chief? Building maintenance. We have $5,000 sitting in this that we suggested might come out. We've got $5,000 travel and training that we suggested might come out, and then $5,000 in station upgrades. Do you have any planned station upgrades for any of the fire station, any of the or fire station? Not at the prison. Okay, so it would not hurt you to move $5,000 out of there? Okay, all right. And your travel and training, is that as we're hiring new people, or is that ongoing training for remaining current and handling? All of the above. All of the above, okay. And then building maintenance. Are you seeing anything in particular in building maintenance? Do you have any HVAC problems? You moved to session five. Is it in good shape? Yeah, well, it's not capital, but yeah, okay. Anything that you see upcoming?

I think we can say within budget.

Okay so we so we have all the things of those three items you can do away with the maintenance and the station upgrades you still got them in the budget but this would be removing them by the $5,000. Okay.

Reducted by $5,000. Right.

I'm sorry. Yes. What about that travel and training? Well, I was leaving that one alone, but that's going to be a vote.

Particularly with the new people that they'll be hiring.

Yeah, exactly. So we have, do you want to make a motion to include station upgrades and building maintenance and remove those two items from existing? Remove maintenance and upgrade, leave travel and training. Okay. So I have that motion. Do I have a second? Second. Second from Alderman Moreland. All those in favor, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed? All right, so that takes two items out, leaves one in. There we go. Look at that. Look at that.

All right, so this one, yeah. This one, I'd like to speak first to this. We bumped up the equipment turnout number this year because the chief would like to have two sets per fireman for a variety of reasons and it hurts my heart to have that up there but we were looking for places to cut in an effort to try to get millage down so I would move that we leave that in and I'll let the chief speak to why it's important to have two sets it would be great to leave it in

One of the reasons we're trying to get away from that cancer-causing turnout gear, all of the gear that we're speccing out now does not have that P-box in it.

Oh, okay.

That's a good reason for us to keep it so we can go ahead and get out of that old...

So you won't have any more old...

uh turnouts if we are rotating out of it we won't get out of it this one entirely okay this will not get us out of it entirely how long does it take to get him out how many how many years do you have how many more budgets do you expect to be able to get out of it entirely this will get us about 15 sets and we need 50.

Okay, it'll be another couple of budgets.

I'll come see you next week.

Okay, all right. He's gotten grants for this sort of thing in the past. We haven't applied for one this year, though.

Okay, all right. So do I have a motion to retain the 25? Yes.

Sorry. We already did. Ms. Sandra made it before the discussion, so I second her motion.

Oh, really? Okay, I must have missed that one. All right. All right, and you were the second? Yes, ma'am. Okay. All those in favor signify by saying aye, and this is to retain the 25. Aye. Aye. Aye. Okay. All right. Building the reference publications, we, again, nickel and diming ourselves out. Mr. McMullen. Mr. Shortimer.

Yes.

Do you believe we can get away with taking $1,000 out of it?

Yeah.

Okay. All right. So do I need a motion? I mean, can I get a motion to take the $1,000 out? So moved. Alderman Vaughn, do I have a second? Second. Second from Alderman Skinner. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. Down we go again. Did it do anything? okay this is just getting to be a lot of fun okay so we have so we have civil defense and these have a storm warning yes these are these are the sirens and the sirens I would argue that the sirens have become redundant and are based on everyone having a cell phone everyone getting their information from cell phones these are not designed to be heard unless you are outside So they are not designed for you to hear inside your house, though there are some that are certainly close enough to people to be heard inside the house, but we have been paying maintenance and fees for them for how long, Ms. McLaurin? and and they are constantly failing constantly failing I'm just not I'm just not seeing the the value that comes with continuing to support these but that's that's not acceptable and and and by eliminating this this means when one goes out there's no money there to replace or repair it we have yeah and and they are There are people who... Oh, I hear from people when they're very important.

How much did we spend last year? And then ended up having to get Mr. Kemp over here's help and assistance with getting a bucket truck and everything else to save money to do that. In fiscal 25, we spent $96,000.

Who's your bucket truck?

It was a couple of years ago, wasn't it?

Was it not last year or the year before?

I'm assuming. So I've looked at this a little bit. So I helped with placing that one on these. We have, I think, a lot of redundant coverage. So what I think we can do is go to the newer styles and reduce the number that you've got. Whenever you look at a map of what they're doing. They overlay, for sure. They overlay. So what I'm saying is I think you can keep the system, but get it more... paired down because right now what happens whenever we add a new one the old one stays on and I feel like there's some overlap on it that you probably can look at and try to say okay hey this is an old one we won't replace this one but hey this location we need to keep that one so I think I think we kind of need to dig into it and and see what we've got as far as that coverage goes I think there's definitely from what the little bit I looked at it last time when we placed the East League one I think there's some spots that we can try to get it more straight line but are you suggesting that it is something that we need to continue that's a policy thing Whenever you look at the map of them there, there's a ton of them, and I think that we could sit there and come up with a plan to say, hey, here's how we're going to cover the city.

If we plan to keep them, and my argument would be that nobody, you know, the sirens are not the go-to anymore. Our phones are the go-to for weather, et cetera, et cetera. But, you know, if we plan to keep them, then I absolutely think we should take a look at how we have them spaced and what's the most ideal for that.

There's definitely some savings there, even if you decide to keep them completely.

Okay. All right. So, and again, we were just knocking out where we could.

Well, we don't have to. They're both civil defense. Yeah. I don't see.

One of them is for a grant match because we've applied for a grant match.

And not gotten them.

Oh, so we don't actually currently have a grant out. No. Take that out. Can we do that? Can I make a motion to take whatever we've set aside? That's the 21-8? Yes, and leave the 19-7 for... Okay, all right. Because if that's for a grant match... Split that baby. Yeah, if that's a grant match.

Okay, so I have a motion to remove the 21-8 and keep the 19-7 from Alderman Moreland. Do I have a second? Second. Second from Alderman Brooks. All right, all those in favor of retaining 20... I'm sorry, retaining 19-7 and taking out 21-8, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay, so be it.

That ought to give us a bump. Look, you started with an 8 now, 33.89. All right, guys.

If you can't have a little fun with this, come on. All right, so street signs and street trimming. And both of these... Mr. Williams, are in yours. And I took them out, and I took them out because I think our street signs have gotten to the point where we are in more of a maintenance mode than we are in a constant, for a while there, we were just replacing street signs like it was going out of style. And so you still have a decent amount in there.

Do you think this is to reduce it by 10? Yeah. So this year to date, we're spending 21, 6, 8, 2 is what we're at. And we're budgeted at 25. So I would think that would probably be, if we do this, we pull it below for what we spent this year. The previous year was 17. Previous year was 19. So we've been running...

Well then my premise is wrong because I thought we had gotten to the point where we were fairly stable and we had done a lot of replacements and gotten where we needed to be.

Got a lot of ads too. So whenever y'all say figuring out the striking, whenever we were fresh and we got something we need right now. I think you could pull that down some. I think you could go to five and then you'd be hitting, so you reduced it by 5,000. That would be hitting about what we're going to end up this year.

Okay. Is part of the road preservation restricting in with this or is it? No, this is signs. Okay, so yeah. Okay. I was just asking.

This is, and I know Alderman Polkup could talk about it. He's seen a bunch of signs around over this year.

I've got one of them. Yeah, me too. They keep hitting that stop sign by my, abode.

So it seems like it's running about that, you know, left wings. Okay. All right. I think you can take five out of it. You're going to hit close enough to be.

Okay. All right. Do I have a motion?

I move that we reduce the signs and paint by 5,000. I'm going to also at that same time move that we leave tree trimming budget in there because that's something that just no that's not Edwards tree no no it's no this is this is one that I forwarded you this week this is just random trees here and there and trees hit my windshield the other day

between today and yesterday I've had three requests for trimming on different stuff. The other thing that we've been doing with this is only dead removals we're still not catching up on trying to do some of our preventative maintenance piece of it so that would be I would I would also like to try to keep that one because I feel like we're not With the last couple years of droughts, like this year, the majority of it were dead pines. South Montgomery. On Old West Point Road. Yesterday, so it's, we're not, And what I'm hoping is the drought is we're not seeing the debts as much in the next couple of years and hopefully we can start gaining ground on preventative instead of reactionary.

Okay. All right. So a motion to leave tree trimming in and do reduce the signs of paint by five from Alderman Cistern. Second. Second from Alderman Moreland. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? All right, then streets, vehicle repairs, and maintenance, and then street machinery and equipment. You want to weigh in on that one, Mr. Williams?

Can I say something first? Yes, you may. On the vehicle repair and maintenance, this is a success story. I think that the reason we're able to think about reducing that is y'all have a new vehicle, and so you have less repair and maintenance costs. And we've got a mechanic. Don't we?

So Brandon is amazing. He's done a huge job on it. We actually had this discussion today. We've got five pages of equipment that he's taking care of. He's doing the fleet management for us. So a lot of this, they're doing it in-house now versus farming out. But we're about as far as we can go on that one. So I would say Brandon taking care of our stuff would probably be the bigger driver on that. on there some of it is leased but we haven't done a ton of leases in the street department we have done some um but i would say brandon's staying on top of the maintenance for the last several years um i would say and taking care of it's dripping that down you can pull it down a little bit um you can about cut that half so this year so we budgeted 35 we're at 27 um and so last year you're you know you're 32 so I think you could probably cut that in half and maybe hit your budget pretty good.

Maybe 37.5. I don't have a question. 37 to 80.

How many of your vehicles do we have on lease? Any? Two. Two out of how many? I don't know who's. It's a bunch. Okay. I was just curious. So that's something I'm just making a mental note for next year.

Okay. What's your motion? My motion is to reduce vehicle repairs and maintenance by three thousand by three okay keep us in line with this year's expenditures okay do I have a second second second all those in favor signify by saying aye

Okay, and some machinery and equipment, 10 streets on anything?

So this is the line that we're trying to use to get equipment for the skid steer and some pieces and parts for it because it's not going to buy a bulldozer, it's not going to buy a big piece. So I would love to be able to keep it because that makes it where we're able to do other stuff for other departments. So things that we were trying to look at this year is... I think also a Harley Raid, which would be able to be used with parts. We just graded out two different projects for them. Another one would be a power sweeper to try to pick up cleaning some of the sites that's a little bit heavier. So it just makes it where we're able to do more with the equipment that we've got. If we need to cut into the main budget, we'll do what we need to do for sure. Nothing's going to not get done. It just makes this a little bit more efficient. more capabilities.

Okay. I move that we leave the machinery and equipment budget as is.

Do I have a second? Second. Second from Alderman Poco. All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed? All right. Last but not least, at least from the list that I derived, was animal control small equipment and tools. And the only reason I pulled it was because it hadn't been used this year. It was at a fat zero, as I recall. So I thought, well, you know, if we need to pull it from somewhere else at some point in time. But, Chief, do you see some good reason for small equipment and tools for animal control? All right. Well, then anybody want to make a motion to remove that one from the budget? All right. Do I have a second? All right, Alderman Skinner, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? All right, that one's out. Now, that's not to say that there are not, we're at 3387, that there are not other items in the budget. Did anybody go through the budget and pull anything else out that we need to look at, vote on, have a conversation about? Anybody? Okay.

Did I see your hand? You're going to see my hand to follow up on what Alderman Moreland said later. So we've gone through this exercise. We've reduced expenses by $52,000. We've gotten millage down to 33.87. I would recommend that we take that 52.5 and put it in police fleet and move that process a little further down the road.

It's not enough to move a needle, and that is where we are lacking the most. Every time. And we've done it with Chris Smiley's living proof of that, the money we've saved with his fleet.

All right, so I have a motion from Alderman Sistrunk to take that $52,550 that we just worked our way through in $1,000 increments and move it over into police lease vehicles. All right, do I have a second for that? Second. I have a second from Alderman Moorman. That would retain the 34 mills as our millage rate. All right. All those in favor of everybody understand what we got? This would give the police two more cars, maybe three. Okay. All right. All those in favor of retaining 34 and moving that 52, 550 over into police, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? There you have it. Mr. Corbin, you will put that budget together for us, and we will look at it. We will have it as a part of our public hearing and then our decision on the budget for Tuesday night, the 1st of September. Okay? All right. Thank you, everyone. I know that was somewhat of an exercise, but I appreciate everybody sitting through it with us, and I think we got a good result. Motion to adjourn. I would love a motion to adjourn. Well, I think that came from Alderman Polk. How about a second from Alderman Polk? All right, thank you. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed?

All right, we are in adjournment, everyone, and we do have the work session at 11.