City Council - Special Meeting

We are calling to order our special city council meeting today, Tuesday, March 31st, 2026. And um if we could please rise for the pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence as we humbly seek for wisdom, clarity, and discernment in the work before us. May we be guided in service to this community with fairness, integrity, and responsibility. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. All right. First up today is new business and it is discussion and consideration of extending the municipal solid wa waste collection agreement with signature waste and Charlie you had provided us with um information. Can you recap that for us?

Yes ma'am. So our current uh municipal waste collection agreement with signage waste is set to expire on September 30th of 2027. Uh the item is before council for discussion and direction uh on whether we allow it to automatically renew for two years as per the contract uh or if we put it uh put a request for bids u out uh and solit solicit those bids and bring those back to council. Um at y'all's previous meeting uh council asked for uh some rate comparisons uh which I have provided to council from around the state. Um it's a everybody seems to do it a variety of different ways. Whether they do it in-house, they contract it out or um like our neighbors in Fort Mill, they split uh you know they do the trash collection uh in-house uh and they contract out the uh the recycle collection. So there's there's a lot of different uh different ways of doing things. uh our rates uh currently I would say are uh well within the range if not on the lower end uh from what we've been able to gather um you know from cities of all sizes from around the state. So um that's that's where we're at now um and council um as part of the conversation deferred it to tonight um in order to give time to to look into all that stuff. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to you guys for any further um discussion question or questions that you may have. We'll try to answer those uh at this time.

Okay. Um if it's okay with you guys, I'll just start at that end and kind of move this direction with any comments or questions or um direction that you each might have and that might get us to a place where we know where we're going.

Okay. So, basically just our where we stand on the this decision. Yeah. So, uh, based on the conversation we had at the last council meeting, I think, um, I'm inclined to move toward putting this out for a bid. Um, you know, it's been several years since we've had that competitive bid process take place. Um, I think especially the question was asked and I I believe, and you correct me if I'm wrong, that we don't have to accept any of the bids in this round. We could actually choose to or like to extend the current contract.

That is correct. um any anytime the city puts uh anything out for bid uh we reserve the right to reject in whole or in part any and all bids. So you you would have that that opportunity as well once once bids come back in. Okay, great. Uh and I know there was some concern over whether you know this current next this round of bids could you know lead to an increase especially with the increased fuel costs and increase in cost of everything essentially but I really see this as a as a low or non-risisky move to make. um we don't have to go forward with uh any of the bids, but at least gives us that competitive process. Um and I think that's in the best interest in terms of financial stewardship for the for the city. So that's where I stand.

And madame mayor, if I can jump in um just because uh it it was kind of brought up um we are going to be um incurring a fuel search charge of about 24 cents per customer per month uh until the fuel prices come uh begin to come back down. uh that threshold I believe it's like 475 uh per thousand gallons and uh on diesel it has to be over that for four weeks and it now has been. So we're looking at that fuel charge uh fuel search charge coming in. Also signage waste notified me the end of last week um that they are uh seeking for this coming fiscal year which they would be the provider for a good chunk of it. Uh well actually all of it um yeah that would be it for for the entire next fiscal year of a 1 and a.5% uh increase uh based on tipping fees. Uh originally it was discussed at about 3% but it uh they did come back at a one and a half for the coming fiscal year.

And to clarify that's is that the cola increase or is that the tipping fee increase? From what from what uh I have been told it is due to increases in tipping fees at the uh Fort Mill Transfer Station. Okay. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. So, that doesn't automatically include the 3% increase that was going to happen with the That is correct. It's just a one and a half. Just a one and a half. That's it. Yes, sir.

Okay. So, I don't really have any issues with what's going on with Signature Waste and where we're at with the contract right now. I wouldn't mind for it to continue for another two years. The cost is roughly $18 per household, which will go up um roughly 24 cents per household. That's that's not that bad. When you sent out everything to have the comparisons between all the other cities, I appreciate that, by the way. Um we are right in line and we are lower than most other cities roughly our our size and and that's great stuff. We we didn't really have any people come out of the woodworks to talk about any problems that we were having with signature waste until we put it on the the the agenda for the past meeting and then we had a few and I believe that a lot of those were actually were were taken care of and they were addressed. Um but with that I don't think we have any issues. I don't really want to put it back out to bid. I understand of potentially putting it back out to bid to see what we can get, but to save a dollar possibly or a$150 or something like that plus or minus one way or another, I don't really think that's worth the the staff's time and energy to do that.

Thank you.

Okay, got my microphone on. Um, so yes, thank you Charlie for that chart that you provided us with the comparisons. that was very helpful as Brian has noted and Jim um looking at just the contracted ones because again comparing us to municipal facilities is difficult because they have a different set of costs and factors by doing it in-house uh we we were for uh any city that's close to our size the lowest and even with this uh pending increase that we know is coming per the contract which would happen with anybody we're contracted with due to diesel costs and things like that um and tipping fees increasing at the county level uh we still are falling pretty much in the lower And um and just to echo, I had brought up I was concerned about going out to bid potentially putting us in a position where we actually ended up. So I am glad to hear that if we go that route um I am still leaning towards feeling I understand there's a community concern about how this happened previously. If a bid is what it takes to put that to rest, I see some value in that. But I also share council member Carter's concerns though that how much time, energy, and effort from our staff is going to go into the bidding process and could that be put to better use in other places when we have a lot of data that shows us it's good. Um the only question I received after we started this conversation from the community, uh Brian mentioned we had did get some emails after the last meeting um was about recycling. So that I just want to address that super fast. I'll be I'll be brief with this. um is that one thing that did come out was people saying, "Well, we feel like we are getting less because the recycling changed during the last contract process where it previously was all included and now is done on a optin 3-month cycle." Um just to address community members sort of directly, we actually have the best model out there. I actually had the same reaction initially when I moved here. I was like, "Wait, why is the recycling going away?" And that has nothing to do with the city or anything to do with the contract. That has to do with the state of recycling in our country. Um, I actually went and did a full tour at the York facility. The truth of the matter is the reason our recycling looks so restrictive is because very little

actually gets recycled. And that has nothing to do with our city. That has to do with the industry. Um, and the fact that what we've learned over years is that a lot of stuff is just getting thrown away. And a lot of people who said they were recycling were just taking it straight to the landfill. Um, the other issue was is that when we were uh all-in-lusive is that we were having loads contaminated by people who didn't want to recycle but had the recycling bin and were treating it like a trash can. That's incredibly expensive for the city. Like I Charlie shared the numbers with me and like it's insane how much that costs when you have a contaminated load that then had to go to the trash and was rejected by the recycling center. So, it wasn't fiscally responsible. And since we've moved to this model, I think we said we've had one contaminated load in years versus it was like a weekly occurrence. So, I just want the people who are concerned about the recycling. We have recycling. It's an opt-in. And I'm happy to talk because I don't want to spend everybody's time up here because Brian's heard my little soap box about recycling before. Um, we have a very good model. And part of that is that at the county level, they're very strict for a reason. And so, it feels like we're getting less, but it's actually because our stuff is getting recycled. So you are getting value for that money. Um so I would just say if the direction that the majority council wants to go is to put this back out for bid. I feel we should keep that same model for that component of it. I would at least like to ask for that instead of trying to change anything around that because I don't think trying to ask for all-inclusive is going to get us anything other than lying to the residents um about the actual service that we can provide. Um, so that's sort of where I stand is if the the will of the majority is that we want to put this to rest and say, "Look, we've gotten the data. Uh, we've done our due diligence. We've shown the comparisons." But I I do still lean more towards I feel it would be a better use of staff's time to just go with the continuation under the circumstances and I feel confident in the data I've seen and I would hope that the residents would trust us that we've all looked at this very thoroughly and had a lot of discussions if we go that route to extend the contract instead. So those are my thoughts on it.

Um, yeah, just to echo u what Heather just said that I know there was some concerns in the beginning about the change in recycling, but it it really it seems like it's it's worked better in that the people that want to recycle are and you're not getting those contaminated loads where people are using the recycle bin as a second garbage bin causing those contaminated loads. So, um it seems like that model is a good model. Um and uh I would like to see that continue whichever way we go. Um and as far as things are waste, I've outside of um after last month's meeting u or two weeks ago's meeting, I've received no complaints. Um had a couple emails since um but for the most part, it seems like everyone's pretty happy with what they're doing. And um uh so you know, this however this goes is nothing against signature waste. It seems like they're doing a good job. Uh but I'm kind of leaning towards putting out for bid just to see um you know if we get other biders in um and so that the you know the residents uh can see the the different options that are available that are that are that are put into you know potentially um be our trash service. uh and the uh um and then we do have the option, you know, if nothing nothing good, nothing better, no better options come in, we can we can continue with with signature waste. So, I I really think putting out the bid gives us the best of both worlds. Um because we can see if there's a better option and then if there's not, we we can continue uh as we are with signature waste. So, that's kind of where I'm at.

Thank you. Um my comments at the last meeting were that I felt that we had an opportunity and I also believe a responsibility to have a baseline of information. Uh we've had signature waste providing services for our city since either 2005 or 2007. I'm not sure which. Um, and we don't have a market evaluation of what that looks like outside of the service that they've provided for us and outside of the bid that was done in 2022. Uh, I also stated that this was not a conversation about service quality or um on or or complaint driven. Uh for me it's an opportunity to get validation of that data and those numbers in order to have that baseline. Uh looking at the pricing that was that was given to us um and identifying those those communities that are are most like us in in number of households. Yes, Signature Waste is providing the lowest service, but that is a a number that is is being shown to us without any recycling and some of the communities that have the higher highest numbers, actually three out of the four that I'm I'm looking at include recycling with their numbers. So, for for our residents that do recycle, and if I'm understanding that correct, um, from a question I asked, the the the number of of residents who use recycle or who have a second bin are close to or just over 50%. And when you add that extra $10 a month, it puts us very much in line or maybe in some cases a little bit above what is being charged for uh for customers that have the recycling included in their service. So because

there's in in my in my opinion there's a there's a discrepancy there and whether we are the lowest or not the lowest based on services. I would like to see that as an applesto apples comparison with other services. In addition um in addition to that um I just lost my train of thought. Um I do think that it is it is important for us to to have that. Charlie, you had mentioned that you could you had already the, you know, a a draft of the bid process already done. So, other than us looking at it and maybe maybe making a a few additional suggestions, there's really not a whole lot of additional time. And correct me if I'm wrong, there is I I don't want to I don't want to discredit that there is going to be time that staff has to spend on this, but the actual bid workup is already drafted.

Yeah. the the bid process itself would be minimal uh from a staff standpoint. Um the implementation if council decides to change providers is a completely different story. But uh the bid process itself, yes. Uh just anticipation if if council was going to go um the direction it sounds like you may go um Joey and I have already worked through the uh the draft of the RFB um and could send it out to council very very quickly. um for y'all's review and comments uh and get it published within the next week or two at the latest.

And again, to reiterate, this is not a decision that we're going to move forward with with a different company. It is it is um if if this is the direction of the vote to me, it's it's an opportunity to gather information so that we can validate a decision to extend. Um and that's that's basically where I am on this. Um I think that from any any other follow-up discussion on that. I

I have one more thing. So one other point um we do have at least one community in TK that has a unique situation in that they have alleyways um that were not constructed according to um you know street code or street standards. And so it appears they're experiencing some premature damage aging to their alleyways um caused by the heaviness of the trucks. So in a community like that, you know, they're looking at having to potentially replace that concrete 8 to 8 to 12 years before the life expectancy of it. So not that signature waste can't, you know, we need to have conversations in my opinion about that moving forward. um and whether there's some remediation or relief for a community that has unique needs. Um but what are the possibilities if we put it out to bid, you know, could something like that be worked into the language of the contract to find a a management company that can provide, you know, either specialized services or alternatives for communities that are impacted?

Thank you. That's a valid point. I know that's been a big part of uh discussion for for that community. Um would council like to present an motion on I believe the only motion we would need is whether we're going to bid or not because otherwise it would just follow a contract process. Correct. I would either need it I would prefer either a motion to let it extend or a motion to put uh to direct staff to put it out for bid. So that way it's very clear. Okay. As to what council's direction is. All right. Well, let's start with a motion um to extend. If someone would like to make a motion to extend, please.

Having failed with that motion, if someone would like to make a motion for a bid process, please. Madame Mayor, members, council like to make a motion to direct the city manager to initiate competitive bidding process for the municipal solid waste services, including development and issuance of Starting over. Like to make a motion to direct the city manager to initiate a competitive bidding process for municipal solid waste services, including the development and issuance of a request for proposals that reflects the service needs of all TUK neighborhoods. I have a motion. Can I have a second? Second. I have a second with all those in favor.

I. All those against? No. The motion carries 3 to two. Do you need to know who voted, how, or you got it? Okay. All right. Um, next item on the agenda is the start of our workshop, and this is a discussion of a 4-year capital improvement plan. And Charlie, I am going to defer that off for you to get get us started.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, members of council. Um, so as as the mayor stated, um, the department heads have put together their uh 4-year uh, for lack of a better term, I'll call it capital improvements plan. Uh, you do have some projects in there. You do have some, uh, staff requests. Chief, if you want to go ahead and Chief Hasty, uh, as Chief Hasty's making his way up to the microphone. Uh, we're going to start with, uh, fire department because Chief has a another, uh, worthwhile engagement to get to. Um, and then we'll uh we'll jump back in in department order. Uh, I've asked department heads council to uh come to the uh come up to the podium, give a a very brief uh somewhat overview and then allow you the opportunity to ask what questions that you may have of their department and then we'll go to the next department. All right. So, nothing for council to decide on or or vote on uh through this process. It's really more to just uh get you get your uh questions that you may have, get those answered, and uh give the department heads an opportunity to uh present their their plans. So, Chief, I'm going to turn it to you.

Thank you. I appreciate your uh willingness allow me to go first. Council, good evening. I appreciate you the opportunity to be here in front of you tonight. U so real quickly, I know you guys have all received the capital improvement plan that we've that we've worked on. Um and and I guess place the best place to start is all the way at the top. So the uh the biggest ticket item that we're asking for requesting is the ability to uh obtain an architectural drawing to expand station one. Uh there's a lot of lot of background there. Uh the building that we're in was built we moved in in 2017. Uh that was before my time. Uh it it lacks some square footage and it also lacks some other things. And I'll just start at the at the very at the very front of this. Uh the building uh is about 9,000 square ft. Uh it is at 1195 Stone Crest, which you guys all know. Uh we've got 24 full-time people. Thank you to you guys. Uh with three shifts supported by three administrative staff currently and then a couple of operational volunteers. the uh our call volume uh just to to go backwards a little bit, our call volume has uh increased by 215% since I've been here. Uh which is pretty significant. Uh the calls for service, those are emergency calls for service. That doesn't include the ancillary that we answer, the phone calls, the uh the different things that we do daily that require the staff man-hour to take care of those things. Um so the projected five-year projected for that in in this cycle that we're looking at is all growth dependent. Uh you guys can see in the seven years looking backwards uh we've had significant growth and we still have some significant growth to come as is evidenced all around us at the fire

station. Um so we've got some deficiencies uh in space. Many of you have been to the fire station. And y'all know our admin assistant sits in a lobby because there's just nowhere for her to go. Um the uh the biggest efficiency that we've got is training space. Um you guys know we have the second station's in the peninsula, right? It's at it's by Rundy Park. It's got a classroom in it. It's a small classroom. And I'll tell you that it it creates an issue for us. Uh the the biggest issue there is is that it's response times. So to get from the back uh from Rundy out to the manners is about 14 minutes for us in a firet truck. So it's not a central location for us, which creates a huge challenge. We need to be able to train our staff at the Stone Crest station. That way we make sure that we're centrally located and can get to both ends of our territory in a a quick and expedient time. The uh the other part of that is and and the reason that's important is is someone in if we're all at Rundy at fire station 2 and we had a call in the manners, heaven forbid it's a choking or a cardiac arrest or uh even a house fire, something like that, we're 14 minutes away from it. Okay. Um the difficulty there is is we don't last very long without breathing, right? uh you know so it's a life threat and uh so we've got to really stay tuned into that and try and address it. The other thing that's happened to us is our construction's changed right uh we've gone from the traditional construction that we see in the back in traditional TK to a very lightweight construction. Um what we've seen with that is fire doubles in size uh about every minute in this kind of construction which leads to

collapse much faster. So for us to to be delayed 14 minutes, uh we have seen significant degradation of the structure and uh have seen failures. Three times in the last couple years, we've had firefighters that have been involved in collapses, whether from a response side or uh we actually had one that was injured in a collapse. So training and that central training location is very very important to us. uh just timing to get to the delivery of service to the community and then to make sure that our firefighters are taken care of because we can make that quick attack and we can go in and save that life, the savable life. So um so some things with that our uh training space at station one right now we are uh shoehorned into a conference room. We can't seat everyone there. Uh we end up in the bay space and you guys know that bay space is like being outdoors. uh very difficult to hear. Uh not conducive to a recruit training program, not conducive to classroom training, which is very important to us. We can bring those training classes in. We're working with the state fire academy now for us to be able to deliver training in house. So we don't have to go somewhere to get that training. We don't have to pay someone to come in and do that. We can do it ourselves, but we need classroom space to be able to do that. Um the uh some of the some of the things we you guys know we deal with NFPA. NFPA is the group that kind of governs what we do. It's the the oversight board, right? Uh they make recommendations. So we don't meet uh currently we don't really meet NFPA 1550 which is it's a health and safety standards. It also governs training and those kind of things. So just looking back at that and I can share all this. I could email this to you if you like. I've got it all. So um so those are some things that we're

we're working towards. We don't have uh audiovisisual. It's it's very limited where we are now. Uh we need to enhance that. One of the bigger things that we have. Okay. Council, we we we'll provide staff can provide you with all this information. We don't want to sit here and have staff do 45 minute presentations each. So, I've asked Chief Chief to get to wrapping this up to give you all the opportunity to ask your questions.

Okay. So, some other things I'll just hit the high points. Uh sleeping quarters. Uh we're not we're not currently we're sleeping in uh a co-ed sleeping situation which we don't have any way around that. We can't uh sleep any more people than we currently have and we have a need to grow because of square footage, everything that's going on around us, right? And uh again, I'll send this to you uh so you can review it and we can answer questions. Some things uh again governed by OSHA and NFPA uh that dictate what we need as far as uh for hygiene, cleanliness, ventilation, those kind of things. So, I'll send this uh over to you so you can read it. The other thing that we need to address is a fire marshall's office. We don't have a place for fire marshall and the projection is by the time we get to the end of this capital improvements program that we'll need a full-time fire marshall to help us to stay ahead of uh fire prevention education and to take care of the inspections that we are currently missing. Uh we we typically have a part-time fire marshal, but that person's been out on medical leave for about a year and a half. So, we're trying to work through that. So, uh the administrative office space, I'll just hit the the rest of the high points. Uh you know, we we're short on space. So, what we've what I'm asking for with this budget cycle is the ability for us to utilize or to obtain money for architectural drawing, which does two things for us. It allows us to better identify the total number of square footage that we need as well as it gives us something solid and concrete to go back and to start applying for grants to try and fund this project. So that's that's the overview on the building. So what kind of questions do you have?

Um I've got one. Sorry. So you you mentioned um the NFPA and OSHA considerations as part of this. So, my understanding is the fire station is still we're still in paying off the original from when it was first built. Yes, ma'am. I don't know when that bond comes due. 2033. Um, at the time it was built, were we in compliance with these with the NFPA and the OSHA standards for the staff we had and things like that at that point?

At that point, how long how long would you say have we been out of compliance? When did that occur? So, we're in I encourage you to come by and walk through the building with us. Um, we're we're in a place now where we're we're in with a shoe horn, you know, just because of the staff we've got. So, this is a recent development with the compliance side of it, you would say, in terms of falling out of it due to the increase in staff and Yes. And and what our future needs are. So,

typically you build a fire station, you try and build a fire station, any community building, you try and build it for 50 years, right? in about two years, we were we were as tight as we could be in this building. Uh we've made some changes to both buildings to try and better that, but as I said, you know, we've got some challenges as far as training space and our admin assistants in the lobby. And so, as part of the goal of this architectural plan to get back to that projection for the space, so it's not just to meet the need, it's to project for the growth that we see happening. Yes, ma'am. So that we won't have to revisit this again. and five. Okay, thank you. That was my question. That's it. Exactly.

First of all, Chief, uh thank you for your service and uh for the service of the men and women of the fire department. We we really appreciate it. We're grateful community. Um and for a community that that takes pride in and values public safety, um we do definitely make sure you have the personnel, resources, and training facilities to do your job properly. So, I've taken a tour of the fire department. You led me on one. Thank you for that. And I can see how tightly cramped that is. So I believe that you need that space for training and for uh for your firefighters to to have a place hopefully, you know, not exist in a co-ed situation there, right?

Uh and so um I'm I'm I'm definitely support providing you with the resources that that are needed and I trust that these are resources that you do need. Um question not necessarily for you but maybe for our finance folks. Um so I see in the facility is the addition of station one. We've got uh you know uh in year one we're looking at a $280,000 capital expenditure and then in year two a $2.8 million. Uh my question is is there any way that we can spread that expense over the three years since it's a three-year plan uh to design and build this addition.

Um uh to do $2.8 million you probably do have to do actually I'm pretty certain you need to do some type of borrowing and that'd be spread over 10 years.

Okay. uh ba based on where what our finances are and how the this coming budget is looking and probably the next several budgets, that's the only way that I see feasible for us to spend $2.8 million to do any type of if that is the cost. Uh right now, I mean that that to me that's a placeholder. Um the 280,000 to me is a placeholder. Um you know, until we get bids from architects, engineers to see what that looks like. Um, yeah, th those are placeholder numbers. Um, to be quite honest, um, and yeah, your your 2.8 million estimated remodel cost. Um, granted, it's it's been a number of years, but I believe we borrowed 4 million to build the entire station. So, yeah, I I I know construction costs have gone up. I don't know that $2.8 million is the number. uh more than 50% of what we paid to uh build and furnish the existing station. Um but it could be um again we won't know until there's architectural plans done uh that can give us an estimate but yeah 2.8 million I would not foresee that uh I would not propose to council that that be a cash funded right yeah in one year type thing.

Um it just puts too much of a a strain on our finances. Okay was my assumption we could spread that out. I just wanted to make sure and thanks for that uh clarification. Appreciate it.

Yeah, let me let me offer a little bit of clarification to to Charlie Troy's point too. The uh our the the 280 is is a number, right? So, we what we did is we took took information that we were given. So, somewhere between $5 and $800 a square foot to add on to existing commercial space is the number that we were given. Right. So, and typical budget you you shoot for what your worst case is and then the architectural fees is up to 10% of that, right? It depends. Again, you'd have to go out to bid to get that number and to really hone in on that, but we needed a place to start and and that's what this is.

Go ahead. Um, Chief, any um, is there opportunity at the old station? I know you're tight on space in a new station, but is there opportunity there or space? I'm just the 2.8 million. I'm It's a sticker shock to me. Um, is is I think everyone here knows I've been pushing to try not to spend money because these

our impact fees long term are going away and it scares the heck out of me. Um, I'm just wondering if there's the opportunity at the old station for to move your admin or and yourself to the old station, get the new living quarters you need and then try to work outside the box and look at training opportunities like you got the beautiful police station with a huge training room. Is that stuff that could be used or just to avoid because I mean I know last time we met with Bob our revenues down um already this year and um lot lot of stuff in this capital improvement plan and 2.8 million is a big number. So, I'm just trying to think.

I'm not saying you don't need it, but is there a possibility to look at look outside the box and come up with another solution to instead of building onto a station we're still paying on? That's Yeah. So, we've we've looked at a lot of options, right? The uh and and we've got issues there, too. The square footage is is a problem at that fire station as well. Okay.

Um placement's the bigger issue. You know, like I said, response times is is what's the most important thing to us. We need to stay central in order to to make that happen. And you you bring up the police station, that's that's not off the table either. But even then, it puts us another five to seven minutes back. And you got to think about travel times in a firetruck compared to travel time in your car, right? So you you're you're not as fast off the line. you're not as fast in travel.

Uh station one is is the most central location to be able to do that. Uh we've got uh and you haven't been there in a while, but we've got training props and things there that are uh very important and and and I'm not I'm not downplaying that at all. I and and we have looked at a lot of options and you know you know manager fun and I have talked about what do we do? How do how can we make it work inside our footprint? Uh, even to the point where I had an architect who's a friend look at it and he's like, "You're maxed out." Okay. Where you are. All right. I appreciate want to make sure I ask.

But and and like I said, you know, this is to get us started and the hope is that we can turn around and I've got some grant opportunities, uh, rural development grants, uh, community block grant or brick grants. So, there's some grants out there that could help us with that. But I've got to have a plan before I can go out and try and solicit those grants because I don't have any idea today. I've got an idea how many square feet, right? But I don't have a a good grasp on cost or anything else to be able to start soliciting and start writing grants to try and obtain that money.

Um question on um funding. impact fees are allocated towards this type of of use. Is that correct? And right now from the fire, they're paying the bond debt on the current fire station. Okay. So, the use of any any impact fees at this point is off the table because that's what that's what's being used. I would highly discourage it. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Um, you state you you made a statement that you you don't have anywhere for more firefighters to to land to sleep. Yeah. So, how how does that affect your ability to hire in the next two four years if if that's the case?

Yes. So, what we're doing is we're so if you someone's on vacation, sick, FMLA, whatever, right? So, we've talked about hiring one at a time over the next few years and you don't there's no staff in this, you've seen the CIP. What we'd do is that person, the extra person would ride out of station two until we had a vacation of sick, something that would trigger the overtime that you guys talk about. Our overtime is what it is, right? But it that purse would help to fill that vacancy until we could fix our sleeping situation at station one. So the the day that we ride completely full is is not right now. Our minimum staffing is six. In the new budget, we're going to take our minimum staffing to seven, which gives us, you know, only one person on engine one. We're fully staffed at eight, right? But there's always a vacation a sick FMLA. You know, children, people have children. Our guys are young, ladies are young. So, you know, there's always someone off. So, right now you have space for one higher, but that would be it until something got corrected with this with the

Well, yes. Okay. Yes. So, we if we were at nine today, if we had nine, if if we were full 3, three, and three, we would we would shuffle that person off because there's going to be a vacation of sick. Got it. And like, so there's going to be a place, but we want to guarantee that we're putting at least two people on that engine as it rides out the door. does the you've you've you brought up the the logistics and the distance a couple of times. So where you are right now at station one on Stone Crest. Yes, ma'am. To get to the furthest new new Tig area. Mhm. Or to get to the the furthest peninsula area, right? Are you halfway on both?

We're we're pretty evenly split. uh in in order to be evenly split, we would need to be back this way just a little bit. Um but we we are it's it's a pretty long ride. If you ride from station one to the manners, it's probably well, I can't say when with a new main street going through or the Grove, whatever the the streets going to be called there, that'll help our response times in that direction a little bit. Okay.

Uh but we're we push our response times out to the edge there. I think that um like council member Heislip has said for me it it's it it's not a question of whether it's it's a need for now or or or the very near future is on the funding of it. If the impact fees that are allocated to the fire department are now being used to pay off our current debt, how much longer do we have that you know those for those impact fees to be used in in that way? And then with new debt, where does that come from, you know, from from a perspective of paying it? I would like to see what grants you you're you're um you would be looking at and what what those totals are because then it might help me kind of, you know, find find that that this makes sense place. Yeah.

Um, it's definitely not a conversation of, you know, we are growing and and there's there's there's going to be an opportunity and a need for for more, right? And I I I know how heavily you you plan on and use the training um that you your guys do and and that's certainly part of part of what makes you a great department. And what I do know about you is that you will find the grants and you will find the the the ways. So, we we want to be I want to be part of that. find the ways process. Um, but I need a lot more information on that on that part.

Right. Well, and like I said, and not to go backwards, but I we need a place to be able to start. I don't have a starting point, and I know a square footage amount, but I don't have any kind of design or cost or I don't have a way to go and talk to a builder because I don't know the what. How did the 280,000? So, it it's based off of 3,000 about 3,000 square feet and it works backwards. So, that's a 10% that's eight $800 a square foot. The 10% plus architectural fees. That's that's where those numbers came from using worst case numbers,

right? I had to have a place to start and that's what you do when you budget at home. in in everything you do. You that's based on the same square footage that the total cost came from. Yes, ma'am. Okay. I don't have any more question. So, Charlie, you mentioned uh so really what we're looking at is that this would go out to bid. Step one is the architectural review. So, just like any other bid, we'd have the option that if we don't like the numbers that come back to say no, we're not moving forward through this is my understanding. We would put the we would put the architectural in a nutshell. Yes, that would be correct. Um, but before we went out for bid, I would want to make sure that in our coming fiscal year that we actually have the money to pay for this,

which is what this number is the placeholder to make sure that if we decide to progress, we've got something slotted in for sort of a max. It sounds like you've tried to make this a max amount that you would predict. Um, we've covered that starting this. If this does go if this does get put out for bid and we have the architectural review done, how long is that good for? Is is there some sort of limit on it? So like if we have that done, you said this is sort of the the starting point for anything to move forward. Um but we say we don't have the money to actually build it. Is there a limit on how long that lasts before it could then be used for possibly down the line to do the building?

Building plans are good up until the international building code changes. Okay. So, so there's nothing that says that by committing review we're committing to the build immediately either. It's it's that then is sitting there available for use when the money either is found through grants or things. The biggest variable would be construction costs, labor costs. You um that Yeah, I mean obviously I'm not a fan of sitting on it, but I'm just saying it's not like we're locked into this starts a process where the ball starts rolling and we can't stop it if we need to.

Chief, thank you so much for presenting everything. um completely understand um what you're looking at. I know that this is just a placeholder. It'd be very interesting to see what the um architects would come back um with the building design and what they can do for um station one in order to increase the size and then obviously would have the the conversation about the cost of that and that would be down the road. But I think that's the first place to go. So, thank you for bringing it um to our attention and if we have it in the budget, we're hooking you up. Thank you. I will have more questions about the the um firet truck and the Tahoe and but I think that that we can leave that for another another time since it's not immediate. Yeah, that's that's fine. I've got fleet information and all that if you'd like to have it. I've got it. Thank you. Thank you, Chief.

Yes, sir. Thank you. Appreciate you guys.

All right. Next up, uh we'll have Nick Cton from development services um with uh with what he's he's forecasting in that department.

Good evening.

Hope you are doing well tonight. Uh so I will make this short and sweet and be available for any questions. And so I'll start with the uh new staff uh request and um so at this time just give everyone a little bit of background. Existing staff can only respond to issues as they arise due to other daily responsibilities which limits proactive code enforcement. Um also having an hybrid in-house inspector reporting directly to the building official would help uh our department a lot um and serve as a backup um for our building official. And currently the the city uses a third party to do all of our building inspections. Um so there could potentially be you know we would have a major service gap there if they were to unexpect unexpectedly discontinue services as our other provider did u recently. Uh and some of the other items that may not immediately come to mind with the code enforcement officer as well. Uh it's not just you know high grass or you know illegal vehicles. Um, a couple of the other items that I did want to mention, um, one is assisting our building official in fining out permits. So, for instance, a lot of people will come and get permits and they never call in any inspections. So, it's either they didn't do the work or more times than not, they did the work, the contractor leaves. You know, a lot of times homeowner does not know and it creates a can create a safety situation, but also liability. um down the road uh because you know there's no inspections. So uh that's one proactive measure um that you know additional staff member could could take on. Another item is business license enforcement. Um, and that could take a few different angles, but one um that immediately comes to mind would be contractors that don't need a permit and also don't have a

brickandmortar business in the city. Um, such as landscapers, pest control, painters, trucks that we see every day. A lot of these folks, I would argue to say I don't I don't have a percentage, but a lot a lot of these folks don't have a business license. we don't have the staff to, you know, track them down. Obviously, if we're on site, you know, doing an inspection and there there's another contractor there, we check that out, of course, and send them to city hall or send them away. Um, but there's a lot of additional revenue uh that I do think could be captured um with with a with co more code enforcement. Um, so I'll move on to the uh Well, I'll just I'll stop at that one. Does anyone have any questions about that that item specifically?

It looks like the code enforcement officer is for 2728 the fiscal year there but not next year. Do you think that code enforcement officer is needed for next fiscal year? So I know Charlene had that discussion about moving it up potentially.

It's really going to depend on council's direction. Uh and as as with everything that you'll see tonight, what the budget can afford uh to be quite honest. But um so I'll I'll take the blame for back when I became city manager in 2013. Um for years we had routinely heard from residents uh a phrase of welcome to the people's republic of TK. A lot of that was because of code enforcement um where we used to have a dedicated code enforcement officer and that's all he did was right around looking for things that were code violation, taking pictures, sending out notice of violation, uh issuing fines as maybe necessary and things like that. In 2013, we took a more reactionary approach. Uh somebody calls and complains, you go out and investigate. You do your job. If you're driving from point A to point B and you see a violation, it's your job to respond. Um based on some recent conversations um primarily with uh with Mayor Miller, we're we're trying to get a little bit more proactive um to where Nick's got u one of his team me team members that's going around uh at least once a month uh hitting uh a specific area of town. Um we don't get a whole lot of code code complaints uh in Lakes Shore or uh in the I'll call it the newer areas of town off the peninsula. It's primarily traditional TDK uh is where we end up having more of our code complaints, more of our code violations. Um and a lot of that's due to lack of an HOA. Um in the vast majority of the peninsula area um we've got Callaway Pines, Silver Gull, Beach Club Town Homes, and Daybreak Town Homes are your uh HOAs on the peninsula. So, um, you know, so we, uh, Nick and his folks, um, PD is has also been very gracious to to assist, uh, uh, as as they're able to, um, you know, kind of

putting that team effort. Um, but as Nick stated, we're only going to be able to be proactive to a point um, just based on bandwidth. Um, and it's simple as that. So I guess whether whether it really needs to be strongly considered for 2627 in that budget process or delayed till 2728 is really going to depend on how much council wants an emphasis on proactive code enforcement. Um yeah I I I hate to put it on you guys but um you know when we get complaints we we respond on those very quickly. Um, now some some folks don't understand there's a cure period with a notice of violation. It's just not all of a sudden you see something hit somebody with a fine. Uh, you got to put them on notice and give give them the opportunity to correct and that kind of thing. Uh, I know Nick's got a much easier way of tracking repeat offenders or where what what types of violations we're having with the evolve uh, you know, platform. And we do have the public facing side of that platform live where people can and they don't even have to give their names, but they do have to give us an address of where it is they they're seeing this uh potential code thing. Um and we're we're able to to respond on those and and is it at the level that that council wants? Um I will say what probably we started this back in February. Um so it's it's been on well two months at this point. So, um, and we'll continue those efforts. Uh, but we're only going to be able to take code enforcement up to a point and you with with the staff that we have. Um just to address that that um conversation, what I have heard from both you and Nick is that you at this point are comfortable in absorbing what you are doing when it comes to code

enforcement and that's why it was it was put in that 2728 timeline based on what you are doing right now. um to address the the complaint driven which is what you described happened of in in in my time speaking and and and you know two campaign seasons and in door-nocking and conversations this has been brought up significantly as an issue. Um, I think it's I think it's it's not this the type of statement that we want to make to say if you're willing to turn in your neighbor, then something might be done about it, which is sort of what we have. It's it's if you file a complaint against a neighbor, then something might be done. But we have ordinances that specifically address issues that and how they should be taken care of. So from my perspective and the conversations that we've had is that if if we have an ordinance, why isn't it being followed and if we have a need then then that's what we need to bring up and speak to um as as a council. If we're going to change the standards then that needs to be a council conversation, not a not a lack of enforcement direction that is not voted on or changed. So from from that perspective that those have been the conversations is we should not be expecting neighbors to turn in neighbors. We should we should be a standard driven not a complaint driven and we have the ordinances that have been in place for for many many years that that have set the standards of what the city is supposed to be when you don't have that HOA protection. So from from that perspective whether it's we need someone to take this role in 26 27 my understanding was that that there was enough enough uh bandwidth to absorb

that at this point and it wouldn't have to be um added uh uh personnel until 2728 but obviously it's it's it's a discussion that we can have depending on how how we want to move on on what you're saying which is add time. We we have definitely increased our efforts with with the bandwidth that that staff has at this point for sure. Um and we we've taken that and made that a focal point um for sure. Um whether it's to the level that council wants it to or not, I think it it might be too soon to tell. Um but it it is definitely a focus point for us, but it's not an every single day of the week type focus. we just that bandwidth just doesn't exist. But there is time being carved out on a monthly basis uh to to go out and try to be preactive uh proactive. I think Nick uh at least on one occasion when y'all rode around, we ended up doing what 23 24 some odd notifications. Um you know, so we're we're you were able to make those efforts. I guess the good thing is is this isn't citywide, you know. um it would take more than just a few hours of driving around during the day, but going and finding the the the violations is just one part of it, right? Um

yeah, the the significant time part of it's not identifying. We can easily ride around and you know find it's the follow through and also being uh fair across the board. you know, not we could, you know, pick a couple streets, but you know, we when we get complaints, we do that. Or if we know there's an issue, we do that. But, um, I don't feel that's personally fair to, you know, pick individual areas. But to really do to be proactive for the entire I'll call it, uh, city that that doesn't have HOAs is where, you know, we we struggle as is. So, you want to move on to?

Yes, I'll move on. Um, so the next item is the vehicle. Um, so the vehicle, I'll keep this very brief, but it's twofold. Um, we have aging Priuses um with mounting maintenance costs uh that exceed the value of the of the cars at this point. And um also our environmental compliance officer uh really needs to have a four-wheel drive vehicle um to to do his job um in a timely manner. Uh the next item is zoning a zoning code rewrite. That's this is pushed out a couple of years um but I do I want to give a brief synopsis on this. So um many times a a zoning code rewrite will secede a uh a comp plan rewrite. Um it's not required each time, but typically after multiple decades, um it's I believe around 2000 was our last um zoning code update or or creation. Um you know, it it makes sense to look at that and update everything from parking to landscaping um to the individual zoning districts to see if they make sense. And also after 25 30 years there's a lot of uses that simply didn't exist 30 years ago or um you know there may be a a completely different uh sentiment regarding that that use uh now. So there's a lot of different items that that the zoning code addresses like that. Um and you can certainly do text amendments for isolated items like we have done um since my time here. Uh but once you start getting into wholesale changes um you know instead of typically you would want to do an entire rewrite because once you start peace milling there's contradictions um you get into it can be extremely hard to interpret from a staff or citizen level and to enforce. So um that's that was that was added and then the last is the the comprehensive plan update um

which will come be time you know four to five years from now um due to the state requirement. That's all that I had. If anyone has any other questions be glad to answer. Yeah. So looking at the the cost um for both zoning code and comprehensive plan update um what are those figures? How did you uh derive those figures?

Yeah. So, I used the um the comprehensive plan uh you know factored in some inflation based off what we just paid um for this past uh rewrite and really best just my best guess as to what that may look like. zoning code. Um I talked to some colleagues of some some other places and faced in we are smaller. Um obviously it's a rough a rough estimate particularly three four years out but that is a very labor intensive process much more so than the comp plan because that's you know day one you know someone submits a permit everything's changed. So, you're really getting into the nuts and bolts of, you know, all of our our land use,

right? And and I guess for my edification, are we working with a third party consultant to do that? Yes. So for for the way that our um department is structured uh any type of major effort like that would have to be um we would have to hire a third party because we do not have a dedicated long range planning staff member or segment of our department to take that on in house. Okay. What made the year was it 2829? um yeah 28 29 the year for the rewrite and not sooner since this hasn't been done since the year 2000.

Right. So, I mean, my initial thought on that was just with the Grove really getting ramped up, you know, starting last year and and also, you know, we'd have River Falls closing up, Wendle Woods finishing out, potentially Alderwood. just a lot of the the items in the pipeline I think would you know in my opinion get would give us time to see that hey this is what we have you know um we may have some you know there could be some smaller annexations in the future but just kind of kind of a reset for us as far as major new development

about how long does the process usually take because then right after that we have the the next comp plan the the next year yeah that's fair Um, oh, it takes a year plus. Yeah, I would I would say long it really depends. It really depends. Uh, I've went through one um and at another jurisdiction. Um, I think I see what you're getting at there. It it may make sense to, you know, come time to marry those together a little bit where you Yeah,

you I would think you'd want to have the zoning changed before the next comp plan is is is being put in place because obviously one will speak to the other as as we plan for that. And and I will say then the the one for 2930 would be um an update instead of a rewrite, but sometimes those can morph into a rewrite. It just, you know, depends where we are. Okay. Yeah, that that would be my my thought on that. Yeah. One more thing. If we just back up just for a second to the um code enforcement officer and building inspector. So, this this the third party provider that we're currently working with. Is that just for building inspection or is that

Yeah. So, they um conduct uh all of our building inspections. our building official from time to time to, you know, we'll go out if it's an immediate need or um, you know, special projects like, you know, over here. Yeah. And is that a fixed fee? Is that a contract or what are we paying for that? Uh, yeah, it's a contract. Do we know how much that contract costs the city? I don't have it right now, but Okay.

Yeah, we're uh, so they're the only provider. Um we're paying them approximately um it's approximately $11,000 a month to they come to the city every single day because our load is so high. Um basically they they hired an individual because of us to um to come to the city every day to do inspections. So Wow. So we paid him 11,000 a month to do that for that service. Exactly. Okay. Great. Great. Um, no further questions. Nick, thanks for what you and your department do. We appreciate it. Thanks for the information. Absolutely.

Uh, this is just a silly note, but um, Charlie, the totals, it says $40,000 under fiscal year 2627, but it looks like it should be $45,000 from the car request. Just your formula on there. Well, I'll I'll make that adjustment. Yeah. Sorry.

Anything else for Nick? All right. Um, as we're waiting on, uh, Tim to come up to the mic, uh, I realized that as I was uh, scrolling to Nick, skipped admin, so I'm going to hit it real quick as Tim is coming up. Um, there's nothing real crazy in there. Um, you know, so the the, um, we do our server at city hall uh, is reaching its end of useful life. Um so we are trying to program that into the next fiscal year because that is a desperate we we won't be able to continue to survive without without the server. Um the financial software um with the utility billing package um that's we've been on QS1 or they're now public um for a number of years. It has a lot of limitations. Um we went with it uh years ago because of the pricing and the fact that they could uh pick up our utility billing. Uh and this was it back in 2014 uh/205. It's right after we brought on over 1,700 new water and sewer customers with traditional TK when we uh purchased the former TK water service and the accounting software we had just could not handle that many customers. So, that's your that's your admin uh software piece. And then the admin vehicle. Um that's just a replacement. I will say right now there aren't any mechanical or or serious issues with the vehicle. Um it is a 2017. Uh so it's almost 10 years old. Um with uh over 177,000 miles on it. Um and the current value on it listed at only 5,700 and change. Um but again, that's just a a placeholder in that year. um it will need to be replaced at some point. Um but right now it it is functioning as it should. So um knock on wood don't see any issues with it. Um and may be able

to get to 2728 and not have to replace that. Uh but the more miles it get on it and the more age it gets on it obviously the lower the value on the trade in once we do sell that. But that is uh that is the admin um those three items. Um and Tim come on up come on up to the podium. Any questions from me on admin? Good. All right. So, now we're going to jump um back down the line to public works. Um and Tim's got quite the list. So, he'll hit a quick overview for you and then uh give you time uh because Tim's also got um uh storm water as well. So, Tim, hey, how are y'all today? Good evening.

I just wanted to say that this is not my list. This is my team's list. We met several times to come up with this list and uh tried to be as fiscally responsible and pushed this where it needs to be as best we could. Um so I'm assuming you all have had this list and looked at it. Um I just wanted to highlight a couple things. Because of our recent um snow event, uh we have not had a plow on a truck for several years now. and and we feel that we we need that to help clear the roads. The the plow, what it does is as it angles, it helps push the the snow to the side rather than the machines that we have now just push it straight forward. Uh which allows for a not as well not as good of a clean push when you when you're clearing that debris. Um, we also have uh some things on there uh for this year that we'd like to add. Um, we need we thinking we would need a new team member. Um, the addition of this manpower will enable the department to be more efficient with our curbside collection as well as getting projects done at the same time. uh we cannot we don't have enough personnel to split the crew into two while we're doing curbside collection in order to get something else done. Uh so that extra manpower will help us do that. Um let's see. The big thing that's on there is the leaf collection vehicle. The one that we have now is currently out of service. It is broken. Is the really old one. Um the truck is in great condition. It's only got like 22,000 miles on it. Um, so we're hoping to get that old body taken off of it and put a new dump bed on it so we can use that as a a

future dump truck. Uh, which that would help our fleet out a lot. Uh, let's see what else is on there. I think that's all for now other than the trucks that we would like to replace as part of our vehicle replacement program because our oldest vehicles are pushing 200,000 miles and are more than 14 to 15 years old. Is there any questions you would have as far as my list goes today? Tim, what about about the team members? I just want to clarify. I know when we the last couple years We got the grapple truck and last year during the budget workshop we were talking about the efficiencies the grapple truck and new dump trucks so that we wouldn't need team members but now we need team members. So I'm just trying to clarify from last year's conversation to this year's the change. Um, it wasn't you. I believe it was Joey was discussing it with us about anyone else remember this. The grapple truck plus the dump trucks would would enable them to be more efficient and free up team members to do other stuff.

Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. I was just saying so if you couldn't hear me that I thought last year when we talked about it we got the grapple truck two years ago. Last year we got some dump trucks and the you know the uh selling point was increasing the efficiency so we wouldn't need team members because it would take I I can't remember it was like they're doing it with four people but with this grapple truck and the jump truck they can do it with two but now we're saying we need team members to do what we're

well as as we go year to year uh and I I I've experienced this before I was city manager your your your volumes uh continue to increase year after year. Um, Wind Haven is now coming online. Are we going to be picking up a whole lot of brush in Windhaven? No, not not yet, but we will be picking up some. Um, and I think as what what Tim said was this allows our curbside collection process to continue while being able to split the crews up to where other projects can be done. that right now everybody gets dedicated to curbside collection for three days out of the week minimum. Sometimes four

sometimes four. Um and that that's something that that Tim and his uh his his team tracks as far as average number of days that we're picking up brush and things like that. But um you know there's there's project you know there there are a lot of weeks where we get put into a position where you can't start a project until Thursday to where you've got enough staff to be able to start tackling that project. So this is just being being prepared before we're behind is is what uh Tim's looking for here. Um he's showing one in the coming fiscal year um and then the other two not until 2829. Um yeah, and again that that would obviously get a lot of evaluation through the budget process as we as we lead up to those as to okay is that still a need for two or is it a need for just one at that point based on what we're experiencing what we're seeing in the field.

I just I distinctly remember last year though that we were told if we bought this new equipment it would reduce the number of people needed to free them up. That was when we bought the grapple truck two years ago. Yes. the the dump trucks that we got for this year were because we were basically out of dump trucks. Yeah. So, we needed we needed the dump trucks for this current year so we could continue to the grapple truck did save us and it is a fantastic tool and uh we get a lot of use out of that for sure. I I remember I I'll have to go back and look, but I do remember last year we talked about it. you had the grapple truck and then we had we needed these other vehicles because the other ones were too big and we needed some small ones and it would

do exactly what we're saying we need to do now and I I know we're growing and we're going to need more team members. I'm just trying to reconcile what we yeah did last year. Obviously the videos are there. Sorry if I can just chime in. I I remember that discussion from from watching it. Um

one of the big points I took away from it that I'm remembering from my memory and I'll go watch the video too was it it wasn't just about freeing up team members. It was about the health and safety of the team members was a big component of that that you guys had the discussion about so they weren't getting injured. Um but I remember there being discussion that this is a patch to try and stretch like we're still running at full capacity for our staff was was the way I remember that conversation. I mean we can go back and it's all online so we can go look at the YouTubes you know with all our copious free time. Um I noticed sorry I'm just going to ask you so you mentioned the leaf truck. Uh, are we discussing stormwater right now too or did you want to stick to public works first? But it just since it got mentioned because I know you're doing kind of

You can go to storm water if you would like. Yeah. So you mentioned that the the leaf truck this would be the older of the two. Yes. And this one was pretty much out all season was my understanding. I mean it was down the first week and it was the internal parts for the uh vacuum machine that's on the back of the truck. Yeah. Because I see here what you're saying is that the truck itself is also old, but that they could be repurposed. But so, right, because of that though, it's still that the back part, the mechanism that actually does the leaf vacuuming is what's basically hit the point. And I know there's a very limited market for

like I think two providers for leaf trucks. Everybody has to buy from the same place. So, it's not like there's a huge market for leaf trucks, but um are there concerns with the because we have the newer one. How was that one holding up in terms of how often it was down? I mean,

it made it through the whole season and it seems to be we haven't gone through it to replace some of the wear parts yet. Uh, but we will this summer and get it ready for the next season. Uh, we hope to have two trucks running if we're allowed to purchase a new one. The old one is not going to be back in service anytime soon. They've sent the wrong parts twice. Uh, and the parts are very expensive. Okay. So, this is a maintenance cost issue in terms of like if you can even get the parts. Um, right.

And I remember when I first moved here, one of the issues, too, was even with the newer parts, there was just such you were having trouble predicting when they would send you the parts. Is that problem seemed to have resolved with the newer one where if there's issues with it, getting parts is not as much of an issue as it used to be. Not as much of an issue, but because I know some of that was related to the newer one is a different company, but the old company has bought the new company, so it's all one company now. Uh, so it's one leaf truck company that's buying up all the others. So that's part of the issue is that part of the issue if we're committing to this, we're committing to the monopoly of the leaf truck empire. So, okay, thank you for that clarification.

Looking at the request for the street sweeper. Um, that's a that's a new we don't have.

We've been putting that on for a decade or so and it keeps getting shot down. Um, ever since Bob Barkkins started living here, he's wanted us to have a street sweeper. And right now, as I ride around and I look at the different intersections around the city, especially Hubert Graham Way and the circles and the different places on Stonerrest and uh, Winward and some other places, all the intersections have debris in them. Um, and it that right now we have to send somebody out there with a a broom, a flat shovel, and a bucket, cones, and safety vest galore. Uh, that's the only way that's getting picked up unless we have a street sweeper. Um, and that will also help with our storm water maintenance because it helps keep the gutter clean and keeps our storm water infrastructure from accepting so much debris, uh, which helps with the clocks. and it's so far out because it's a large item. Um, we're hoping that one day we can be able to afford that and that would be super great.

Charlie, for for these these expenses that are, you know, 28 29 or even 27 28 definitely 2930. What's what's the plan? Like what how are we going to know that we are able to say yes, we're going to be able to um fund that in in that $275,000 sweeper in 2028. So right now um the way we've always tackled vehicles and equipment is what what can the budget afford? What can it absorb from a cost standpoint? Um you know over the last four years we've eliminated all but one um all but one lease and that one's uh still remains in in TCUD. Um, and it gets and that was on a uh water when we replaced a we took out a a loan to to basically replace systemwide uh the majority of our water meters. Um, so that one that one comes off in December of 2027, but that's again in T-cut and general fund. Um really the only fleet consistent fleet replacement that we've we have focused on at least it's um over the last 15 years uh has really just been in PD with patrol cars uh and getting that on a replacement cycle to where and when Chief Crosby comes up and you'll probably hear him say we basically have to replace three vehicles in three patrol vehicles in PD every year. Now, last fiscal year during the budget process, staff was challenged with having the same type of plan for our maintenance vehicles. And so, that is something that we're still working through. Uh, but how do you Yeah, if you were to ask me right now, how can we afford a a $275,000 street sweeper in 2829? My honest response was would be we can't

unless we do a short-term capital lease on it. Uh, you know, one of those four-year notes. Um yeah, that's I mean that's where it sits right now, but that is something that you right now our department heads have done a lot of heavy lifting if you will. Um and a lot of it's because of changing the fiscal year. You know, we got to October and there wasn't really a whole lot of time to breathe. Hey, we're in a new fiscal year. Now it's oh, we got to hurry up, get ready because we're about to be in budget workshops again, right? So, uh a lot of that plus putting this together. Um, you know, Mayor Miller and I uh have have exchanged some emails. Um, there great ideas uh coming through that um as far as trying to target um you know, the the the fleet replacement specifically, you know, and how we can cycle that through and things like that. And it's going to come with growing pains. It did with PD. Um before Chief Parker got here, we didn't have a fleet replacement program even with PD. And it took him I mean he was chief for seven years and it took him to about halfway through before he was able to get it on a cycle where we were able to get some things paid off and okay let's replace a couple things a little bit early so everything's not at the same time right um to try to avoid those large loans or you know geo bond debt and things like that you know so um if I recall correctly I think the last time we uh a council did a geob bond debt uh was related to the 18 greens when they all died at the same time. Um that was the last geo debt that was issued by the city. Um now there's been some bonds since then uh but not geo debt. Um you know so um you know with the fire station, the police station, Kataba Park, that type thing. Um you know, when uh Mayor, former mayor Gray came on council, the direction was we want to pay off all the we want to pay cash for whatever we're getting and we want to eliminate the short-term leases. And

that's what we've done over the last four years. Um, you know, so you we hit that mark. Um, how much of a bond does that put us in now? I think it just depends on how you want to look at it. Uh, honestly, um, you know, we council did afford us the opportunity to do a short-term lease this past year. Got a lot of new, uh, needed equipment. uh most of which we've been able to uh deploy um from I say equipment primarily vehicles um we've been able to deploy a lot of those and it's that's been very beneficial but um you that that's how we've historically looked at it is what can the budget afford without increasing taxes without increasing this without increasing that what can we afford to put in um you know so council's obviously going to have a big stake in that uh as far as uh that direction and what you want to see as a council um you know what during your term on council um it may be the same as what it's been the past four years. Okay. Then that's our job to try to figure that out um you know through the budget process. Um you know as I told as I told department heads as we've met um since they put this together if something doesn't get forwarded in the or afforded in the budget process it doesn't come off the list. it just scoots back one year until we can afford to put that in or or identify that funding to be able to put that in. Um because you know I there's there's some onetime cost in there for sure just projects and things like that but for the most part you know from what I can what I've seen out of their list it's it's needs um you know but you without coming up with new revenues without with the with the growth having slowedown growth not growth as the growth has slowed down uh which it has uh you know you go back to 2010 to probably 2019. Yeah, it was it was going like gang

busters, you know, but we haven't done a whole lot of annexations. Uh Alderwood, uh not counting the two individual lots that council recently did. You got Alderwood and it's 55 homes. Now granted, they're going to be very big homes, very, very expensive homes. Um you real estate's slow down, uh from what we see. Um you home the the new homes aren't going as quickly. Uh so we're being very cautious in the upcoming fiscal year. Um and you know when we get to to those budget workshops, you you may see my recommendation that we don't fund any of it. Yeah. But that's why I've been locked in my office with Bob and Dana for the last week and a half just crunching numbers to see what we can do.

So and I'm going to use the street sweeper as as just kind of a a an example. So if if we were to say, you know what, our our town cannot survive without the street sweeper in 2829 is an option to say, okay, over the next three years until that that item comes up to actually be purchased that your budget will include just like you have the $150,000 across the board for the uh vehicle replacements, that budget will include $100,000 that is going to be put to towards this this cost because we've determined that we have to have that expense.

It seems like that type of planning is is something that we I would like to to know and and see so that we're not sitting at 28 29 and saying well you know was it was a nice thought but Tim sorry it's going to be another 10 years before we we look at it again. Um and and I I guess that's what I'm looking for when when I look at these big expenses that are, you know, three, four, five years out. What are we going to do now that are actually going to get us there? If as a as a council and as staff, we are deciding that these are absolute necessities that we need to look at as we see them today.

So, um two I I think I I would say I've got two thoughts on that. Uh and and you and I have have discussed that specifically as far as trying to put money aside and building a capital reserve fund, if you will. Uh would love to would absolutely love to. Um but I got to be able to afford it to put it in there, right? Um and that's that's more of a April budget workshop type conversation. Um but I'll also say um and I will say this since uh Bob went to go watch his grandson's baseball game uh and he's not in here. I mean, we're $3.2 million over our minimum threshold uh in reserves. We've got $7.5 million sitting in reserves right now based on the 25% uh that we put on ourselves uh in our code. Technically, you only need four million in change in there. And I'm I'm using round numbers at this point, right? So, you're about $3.2 million to the good over what we require ourselves to have in the code. Maybe a portion of that goes towards capital, right? Or a capital reserve fund to because right now what we've got in in reserves other than the funds that are um and I don't even know that these are included in there. I'd have to I'll retract what I said. I wish Bob was here because he could he could absolutely say, but um we do have earmarked funds u for Winhaven Park uh the developer donation, right? Um that they had to they had to pay us as part of their PDD. Uh but outside of that, it's unrestricted cash. Yeah. We Bob and I specifically have budgeted since 2007 2008 to build that up because we used to not have much of a reserve if any at all. Uh and now we're sitting at over $7 million which is great. uh every year we're putting between

100 200 $300,000 back into reserves at the end of the fiscal year. Revenues over expenses, you know, uh to where we don't need to budget to put into reserves uh the way we used to. Now, we just try to keep a uh operational contingency in the budget for those uh oh's uh you know really big uh oh's well that's that's you we've got reserve funds there and we had a really big uh oh uh in Septe uh what September two years ago year ago 24 I think it was with Helen right so we were able to pull some of those reserves get some get get you yeah you know specifically get the soccer fields repaired before the um while we're waiting on the insurance and FEMA reimbursements All right. Um, and as we sit right now, we are in the hole uh off of everything with Helen by about $373 and we have another check coming from FEMA for about $20,000. Um, so we'll be on the plus side at uh at the end of the day, but we had to get there, you know, so reserves do come in handy. But on the flip side, that's why you've got almost $9 million in your 8% debt limit that, you know, the council could issue a geo bond for for a big uhoh, right? Um a big unexpected type thing if if if it came to that. So, I think those are a lot of good conversations that are probably best had during our budget workshops as we're looking at those. But yeah, I I heard you loud and clear when when you and I met about it and I'll be honest, have not gotten to that point with this with this uh upcoming fiscal year yet because I just I mean we're still playing with with the revenues and take taking even deeper dives into the into the operational expenses and I I think you'll be very pleasantly surprised at the level of detail that you're going to get and I'm going to go ahead and apologize. is a lot. But our department heads do a great job of operating very very lean budgets, you know, um to to

make the I'll call it make the magic happen year after year. And they have for a long long time, but you know, the way we've accomplished this in the past is we've done those short-term leases and you know, growth has been able to help us, you know, because every year the tax base kept growing, right? So, these are all things that that um make it difficult in budgeting. You know, we're we're forecasting out through June of 2027, you know, that's that's that's a hard thing to do, you know. Um there's there's a lot of variables, you know, and um it requires a lot of work for sure. But yes, um would love to be able to start a capital reserve fund where every year we're sticking money, you know, some sum of money, whether it's 50,000 or 200,000 or whatever the case may be. This is for future capital that's identified in the capital improvement plans. Um even if it's just limited to, you know, fleet and equipment, you know, replacement, that kind of thing. Um you know, but those those are definitely uh good budget workshop conversations for sure. Charlie, just to excuse me, u build on what you said. I know the four years I've been here, we've had between like 200 or half million dollars at the end of the year that we had more revenue than we expected

minus expenses that potentially as we go into the budget workshops, we could look at even if it's just a portion of that going to a capital reserve fund, the rest going to the regular reserve to identify these specific purchases. Absolutely. Absolutely. Keep that, you know, good train going.

Yeah. I mean, Bob Bob Barkin would probably slap me in the back of the head for me even mentioning the reserve fund that he's built up and even touching any portion of that. Um, but at the end of the day, you know, if if there are needs, there is there there are funds there, right? Uh that could absolutely be used. But again, that's not for tonight's conversation, tonight's decision, but um definitely something that will probably be discussed at at your April budget workshops for sure.

Thank you. And and I think that same thought process goes towards the additional big dollar expenses that are listed on here um with parking lots and um well actually I think all of them are parking lot related.

Yes. Um, again, understanding that there's a need. There's there's, you know, we we want to focus on on reinvesting back into our infrastructure, into our city. And that's important. It's it's it's important to me to know that what we're doing today is going to impact the city in a good way in 10, 15 years. But it would make me feel a whole lot better to know that we've we've also taken steps to to at least minim, you know, mitigate some of that expense to so that it's actually

a doable rather than just a wish list. Um, and I apprec I do appreciate how much time and effort and thought has gone into making these. I know it's I know it's not a a process that that has been gone into into this much level of detail in the past. So I it is a learning curve. It is it is a process. And I know that I appreciate being able to forecast and see it to know that this is what we're looking at today, but we have four years to look at these other things. And how do we how do we account for that? So thank you very much to all of you guys for for having worked on that. I I definitely know it's a process.

Any other questions for Tim on public works storm water at this point? All right. Well, thank you. I haven't looked at storm water, so maybe part of my 38th budget presentation. Thanks, Jim.

So, we've done storm water. So, Chief Crosby, you're on your up, sir. Good evening, council. Thank you for the opportunity to talk to you tonight. Um, a lot of the information I'm going to give you, you're going to have a substantial amount more in the budget package that you get. Um, but to talk to you about what's in capital. Um, I I come before you and I have some flexibility in what we're talking about as far as the request for the police department. Uh, the critical mission requests are obviously the patrol cars. If I've told you year after year, you can anticipate four three to four patrol cars each year. Uh, we anticipate a life expectancy between 100 to 120,000 miles on those cars. uh when they need to be re uh taken out of rotation. I don't think I've done a good enough job to explain very briefly something to you. Each day we have an officer that does an inspection sheet on their cars inside of our Zurker system. And so they're answering some simple questions about the condition of the car, how's the car operating, or any type of needs that the car may have. That goes into our Zurker system which we then uh take the car out for maintenance and repairs. And then we have an Excel spreadsheet in which we're able to document the mileage on the cars, condition of the cars, uh expenses on the cars. So we're able to see which cars we're forecasting are going to happen to have to be ex uh taken out of service each and every year until we have something that happens like we had this week. We had a brand new car this week. Engine blows because it had an internal leak, oil leak inside. It was not noticeable by anybody else. But luckily that car is under warranty. though, we're going to get that car repaired and replaced at no cost to us. But sometimes things like that happen with an older car or unfortunately if we get into an accident. Those things influence what we ask for. So in the budget years that you see, we're typically asking again for three or four vehicles as you see in our request. Uh

it is for three vehicles for next year. Uh the the mileage on those vehicles that we have range from 118,000 and these mileage are when we're anticipating getting the new cars uh in November. The mileage for these vehicles will be up to 118,000 104,000 and then another 104,000. One of those cars has $10,000 worth of maintenance on it already and anticipate another $4,000 worth of maintenance and repairs that need to be on that vehicle. So we're looking at $14,000 on one vehicle uh that we're asking to take offline. Um, we also have the upfitting cost that went up a little bit this year. $21,000 for patrol vehicles, $9,000 for admin vehicles. Uh, fortunately for us, one of those vehicles that we're replacing this year is an admin vehicle. Now, the rest of the things that you see on our capital are pretty much, as I told Charlie and Bob and Dana when I met with them, somewhat flexible, if you will, with the police department. They are needs, absolute needs. Uh you may see at the very bottom there's a line item for RMSJMS CAD $350,000. You can breathe. We are not asking for that this year. Uh we are asking for a grant from the state of South Carolina. Uh we've put in for a grant to see if the state will give us that money from Miss Jackie Terrible's office. And so we're waiting to hear back that we see that. The reason why we're asking for that is that's our RMS, our record management system, our general management system, and our CAD. Why is that significant? You've asked us for a lot more data. I can only get you the data that I have in our system and I'm tapped out on what I can give you right now. Uh I'm not able to give you more data than what I give right now. Our citizens want more of a forward- facing system. They want to be able to go in and get their reports. They want to be able to see what's happening in the city. I cannot do that with our current system that we have right now. Third thing is we want to keep officers on the road as much as possible. Uh our current systems today, even though we have laptops in the car, uh this system is rather a little bit older. uh it was done before I got here. Chief Parker

entered into an agreement with York County Clover um and to have this system and so we are limited on how we can navigate and limited how we can structure this system. So that's why we're asking for the evaluation of a new RMS JMS and a CAD system. This year we are asking for the uh victim advocates person. That's at the request of members of this body. As we sat in the meeting, we discussed that that position. Uh that position is more than just calling someone and letting them know that there is a bond hearing. A victim advocates person will help us in so many ways when it comes to giving our victims the services they need. If you can imagine right now if your son or your daughter was the was the victim of a violent crime in our city. Fortunately, we don't have a lot, but we're then turning them over to York County. And I have a big problem with that. We're here to protect and serve the citizens of our community and I'm turning them over to your county. I should be providing them the services that they need to make sure that they have what they need to get that through that most traumatic event that they've ever had in their entire life. It's a lot more than just calling and letting somebody know there's a bond hearing. There's domestic violent plans that can be done. There's money that that victim can recoup for their loss that that victim advocates person can help them through the paperwork through the state of South Carolina. There's data that shows that your prosecution rates go up when you have someone that is accompanying the victim and they're with them. If we have a domestic violence victim, whether it's male or female during the overnight hours and they need an immediate shelter, yes, the officer tries to help as much as possible. When when you have a a victim advocates person, that person comes on scene. They make sure that person gets to a safe shelter. They also make sure they get their needs met beyond just that day. So, it's not about just answering a phone call. It's not about just letting

somebody know in a bond hearing. There's so much more to that that they could be offering our citizens here in TIG K. You see the request for two patrol officers and we forecast at least uh in the 2728 2728 2829. That's anticipation of the development of the grove. Uh I spoke with Nick and the first year the 2728 is when we could he expects we could sus expect a substantial amount of growth that would be impacting the city from the grove and then the next year would be the final buildout phase to where again we'd be looking at adding additional officers. So again we have some flexibility there depending on the growth of the grove when it comes in. Uh do I will I may I need that person next year? I might not. depends on what's happening. It might be able to wait a year. So, I do have some flexibility. I'm just trying to prepare ahead, forecast ahead to see what might be impacting the city. Questions or thoughts?

Thank you, Chief. Um, appreciate that. Um, I have a couple quick questions and then a couple um things I'd like to state. The um the two requested patrol officers um for 145,000 for for each one of those. I assume that's for the um the patrol officer and um equipment, vehicle, everything, the whole nine. get them suited and booted. Okay. And then the and that I'm sorry, sir. That is as long as everything stays price it is today.

Gotcha. Gotcha. So, we're Okay. Um the victim's advocate. Um I know that there's been discussion about that. I would like to see that instead of being 20 um 2930. I'd like to see that pushed up to 26 27 if possible. I know the city's not made out of money, but that is a position that would um be really beneficial to your point of what you just stated um just a little while ago. The last thing that I'd like to say is the interactive um simulation training system. I think all police departments need training and anything that we can do to make our officers that much better. I would not want to put it out to 2930. I'd like to push that up to 26 27 as well so we can get that implemented and have our officers trained um come next year. In fact, sooner sooner is better than later. So in my official request to the manager, I have requested for the cars and for the victim advocates person for this year.

Okay, good. So you can prepare for that and then with his approval, I'll add the other stuff that you want as well. Perfect. Thank you, sir. Yeah. Thank you, Brian. You beat me. I think the reason for that, you mentioned you were asking for the victimate this year, but our sheet showing it on a different line for that. So I appreciate that just clarifying the adjustment. Um for the RMS JMS CAD mobile, you mentioned that's a grant. Is that through the um the community impact? No state state appropriation. Okay. So that's through the that's it's strictly if if the general assembly does appropriations. Uh word came to us that they were looking for public safety and infrastructure type things to potentially consider.

We won't know until probably mid June. That's the one I was thinking with what we had talked of. Yeah. I just wanted to make sure that was the one that I was thinking of that we had heard of during our Hill Day because I'm very glad to hear we're going for that because you miss 100% of the shots you don't take when it comes to grants. So, I'm really glad that that's and that was one I thought of. So, I'm really glad to see that that's already in there and you're already ahead of the ball trying to to put that request in. Pap has been submitted

and if there's things we can do as council to support that since that's at the state level, I am all in for supporting grants and things like that to to bring and I know that public works, public safety was definitely one that they were more amanable to. So, I'm glad to see that alignment with something that creates public facing access meets that need that you've discussed before. So, um, thank you for pursuing that. Chief, thanks for your service and the service of your men and women in the police department. We greatly appreciate it. Um,

so agree with everything that's been stated so far. We definitely need to resource you with the the the personnel, equipment, resources, the training to make sure that we stay one of the safest cities in South Carolina. Um, so for the CAD uh RMS GMSS system, that might be another one of those things where if that grant does not come through, maybe we can have conversations and prioritizing that for some of the um the capital funds surplus that we uh we have. Uh we definitely want you to have the the best equipment you the equipment you need. Um obviously we need to prioritize. We're going have to make some tough decisions. Um, and as a general statement too, I think um it would be nice as we as we go through this to to try and maybe get a little bit more of an idea on how um how we prioritize some of these items um whether we we I know it's difficult to do right and again it's a general statement has it's not related just to you chief but as we make these difficult decisions determining how urgently we need things are we talking about a work stoppage uh significant deficit in in services The nicest thing, you know, the street sweeper, it's one of those things that's been kicked down the the the cans been kicked down the road several times. Um, and the point I'm trying to make is that it would be nice if we had a little bit more uh guidance on how high of a priority uh items are. So, if we have to draw the cut line and not approve certain things, we know that that's not an urgent item that we're that we're again kicking the can down the street. So, uh, and again, that's just a general statement. So, but back to your your needs, chief. But, you know, definitely I I agree with everything uh that's been said so far. Uh really would like to get to that equipment. So, if that fund uh excuse me, that grant doesn't come through, we'll we'll we'll keep an eye on that.

Yes, sir. Thank you. Uh two things, Chief. Um the uh victim's advocate, I know we talked about it a little bit a couple times. Are you able to provide us with statistics of how often we went to the county for uh the use of their victim's advocate? How much time do I have, boss? Okay.

So, yes, sir. And to save some time, I do have some packets that I can give you. In my summary, I've talked about how many victims we've had per year. Uh last year, 280, 281, 2024, 280, 2023, 412, 2022, 461. So, uh, so for a four-year total of 1,434, an average annual average of about 358 if you divide those all together. Um, and I think the big thing here that through our conversations, we really focused in on just that notification. And I do want to share a good victim advocates and I've got their role here in South Carolina. And just I'll read those quickly. Respond to the scene. Provide crisis intervention and emotional stab stabilization. uh crisis intervention and trauma informed support domestic violence safety plans. Explain victim rights and inform the victims about the criminal justice process. Assist in prepare preparing submitting victim impact statements. Help victims understand protections such as restraining orders in order for protections. Uh court accompany accompany the victim to court and bond hearing. Advocate for the victim in proceedings such as bond hearings because a lot of times the victims are so scared just to even make a statement against their defendants. uh victim rights compliance and provide referrals to social services, counseling, shelters, medical service, and others. You would be surprised how many medical, I'm sorry, mental health related calls that we get. And just to have a victim advocates person that we could have them follow up with that individual to ensure they're getting the help that they're getting would help us tremendously because EMS does not respond to those calls. They say it's not a medical call. So, the police, I can't respond to them. I don't have the services that I need. uh I don't have the training that I need. If I do that, then I have to do a um a pickup order and then take them somewhere against their will by the judge's request. So, the victim advocate person would really help build a bridge in that aspect. And then ongoing followup and repeat reduce repeat

victimizations as well. And again, this was not something that just came about for those of you that may not know it's been in my three-year plan. It's in my objectives for this year. And then through some other conversations, it came about a little bit more quickly. And I noticed you have it as an officer/victim advocacy. Yes, sir. Is there a a reason you want an officer versus a civilian?

Yes, sir. So, one, we talked about this a little bit in our meeting is that we wanted that person to do a dual role. Uh, if you have just a civilian, where do you put them at in the organization? U, then they need to know the ins and out of law enforcement. They need to know the ins and out of what resources are available. They may be asked to drive a police car because it just said they got to respond to a scene. So what we would do is we would put that person in investigation because that in investigations they work with a lot of our victims but it gives them the freedom to go deal with victim related things but then also we're able to use them for other things if we need to to make sure we're getting the value out of our dollar like you and I talked about. They could assist with other investigations. They could assist with some property and evidence. They could assist with other things and they're not just stuck in a box doing one thing and we're not getting the value for our dollar. And then the the final question I had was about the interactive simulation training system.

Yes sir. Is that like a fat system? So these are the VR goggles. U we did at one time have one within the department but of course it's it was many years old antiquated and tried to get the new scenarios was going to cost us an outrageous amount.

So I'd like to go back with the VR goggles. The reason why FAST as you know and for those that may not know FAST is when you look at a screen and that screen projects an image. It projects a scenario. you respond to that. If you have the VR goggles, you're having it 360 degrees. So, that officer is having to look all around, monitor things that are happening. It gives them more of a true life scenario. But it's more than just their response to that critical situation. We can put an officer in a situation, stop it before it gets to like a deadly force situation that what they're typically used for and evaluate them on. We can stop the scenario ahead of time and say, "Okay, write your report. Let's see how you do in report writing." and from there create a fictitious report, but we're measuring their skills and increasing their competencies in report writing so we're better serving the community. So there's a lot more function than just those deadly force situations that those are typically used for or shoot don't shoot if you will that civilians hear quite a bit. It will test a lot of other skills and competencies that we can measure with the officers.

That's all I had. Thank you. Yes sir. You had um mentioned with the victim's advocate that um fire department can't handle the certain calls that because they they're not medical, they don't consider them medical. Um, and then you said you as police can't can't answer to that because what are you going to do? Put them in take them and put them in somewhere that is, you know, something they don't may not want. The victim advocate that you're you're suggesting is a police officer. So, how is that diff? How is is that person able to do something different than than what you're able to do now?

Definitely. They wear a badge with their counselor. So, they're able to network, create those networking resources with other individuals. Uh I often say one of the greatest tools that we have as a cop is our mouth. Uh if we learn to use it, it'll get us a lot of places. And so when you have that person that is not dressed in a uniform that's able to can make that connection with that individual during their most crisis time of their life and you're sometimes able to talk to them and they then agree on their own free will. I need help. Let me go. I give you an example the other day. We had a person that called us. Same exact situation. Wanted help with u alcohol abuse. We had an officer that just happened to have some connections. Made a phone call. Gave them a ride to the place. Now, that's one uniform, but can you imagine if you're a female that just been a victim of a rape? Do you want a male cop in front of you? You want a female victim advocates person? Somebody's going to show you compassion and empathy of what you've been through. And so, it's through those connections that we can get you a greater service.

So, you're going to hire a female victim advocates? I'm gonna hire whoever's qualified for the job. If they happen to be the example that you gave me, that I'd want a female. I mean, and typically you would you'd want a female as I've seen in my experience, but I can't just hire for that. I will hire for the most experienced and most qualified for the job. You're proud, Miss Do. Thank you, Mr. Door. I I don't have any more questions right now. I'll have a lot more when we actually go through that budget process

and I'll have your answers. You'll have a great night. Thank you so much. All right, next up is Parks and Wreck. I think uh Mr. Overton wins the award for the longest list, but a lot of really really good things. Um so I will turn it over to him. Dustin,

good evening, council. I was going to talk about all those things, but uh Chief had me at VR goggles, so I might add that to my list now. Um, appreciate y'all's uh, attention to this and I know listening to all these and trying to work through this is a tough business, especially each department sharing with how important everything that that they need um, you know, is. So, I'm going to touch on a few things as we go through. I really want to focus on the more recent requests or the more current requests versus the ones that are further out. If you want more explanation on anything, you know, feel free to let me know and I'll I'll be able to elaborate more. Um going through your your staffing um again your maintenance team member is more contingent on further out uh growth with Windhaven Park and some of the other things that are coming through. Uh the marketing tourism manager again that is also a little bit um you know contingent on our growth in terms of the grove and being able to really um enhance what we're able to do with our marketing and tourism with the city. Um so with Kataba Park, the Grove, um we see all those working into conjunction and being able to really um you know bring people into the area to really bring that hospitality tax into the area as well. So we're talking about revenues and things of that sort. Uh some of the other ways that we look at it is again is going to be your marketing. How do we tell our story with the city and working on those strategies? also with those sponsorships, building relationships with the uh businesses and things of that sort, all encompassing on really, like I said, bringing that tourism into the city and and really trying to focus on um some additional revenue streams. Um one and I'll like I said, I'll go through each one a little bit more specifically in terms of of the the priority I heard, you know, what's the most important, what's the need. Um so, we'll jump right into vehicles and our our priority is going to be that that F250 four-door. So to give you an idea, um we would be looking at replacing a 2007 Chevy Silverado. It has about 140,000 m on it. Uh it's almost to le leg legal drinking age right now um at almost 20 years old. Um so it is a a

vehicle that has been passed around to multiple departments. It finally landed on us. You've heard a lot of you guys have heard me say that, you know, we were a department that was kind of grown and put together. And as we've gotten bigger and have taken on more responsibilities, we've seen our um, you know, we've needed our department to grow and really focus on those vehicles and equipment, which is why you see a lot of those in this plan right here. So, that is a very important need. Um, I will share a positive. Um, that is that number is actually 55,000. So, the person that we asked for the quote thought that we needed a diesel truck. We do not. Um, so that is actually 55. So, a little bit less uh expense there. Um, going through uh equipment, again, I'm going to focus on the most important one. It's going to be that front loader. Um, so I heard someone mention that we wanted to look at ways to get creative and really try and stretch our our money as much as we possibly can. So, one of the things that we looked at is that's an existing piece of equipment that public works currently has. Um, we actually got an ex a um an inspection done on it and I don't think I've seen so many things say oil leak or leaking fluid um in anything I've ever looked at before. So, it's not a very um it's not an operating piece of equipment right now, but we're still forced to use it um because with public works doing everything that they need to do with us again those change responsibilities, sharing those pieces of equipment is not a realistic way to go about our week. if a piece of equipment that's usable is used four days out of the five days, we're not able to do the things that we need to do. So, going back to that, we had at first looked at just going a full through inspection and trying to repair everything that we possibly could. However, a staff member um through conversations um that we had at one of our meetings was what does it look like if we potentially trade out the current machine and look at purchasing another one? And a staff member went through and looked and that's entirely possible. Um,

so for right now, the current machine is a 2012 um, CAT with 7,200 hours on it. 7,200 hours. Um, and we can get a used one for about 1,200 hours a year um, newer and a better model um, for within that price range. So, there are ways that we can again get creative and make things work as long as we have some additional funding there. um working our way down to our facilities. Um madame mayor, I know you mentioned we have a lot of parking lots on the list. Um but that is something that we need to focus on. Um again, something that I've heard from council is aging infrastructure and that's a very big focus on those facilities that are listed there. Um you know, my pride and joy, the Runy playground, we are still trying to work on that uh through a grant right now. Madame Mayor, thank you for your assistance on that. We're still hoping that we can get that passed through. Uh some of the other ones again are projects your uh power in the in the median down Stone Crest. And um one of the other ones that I do want to to bring to light and explain a little bit more um pickle ball. I know some people are like, "Oh my go goodness, we're going to talk about pickle ball again." Um but that is actually a three different projects wrapped up into one. Um so I'd be remiss to say that we received our first 88 complaint. And by complaint, I don't mean someone just saying, "Oh, I can't believe it's not like that." It was a how are we going to be able to get someone, our family member, to the courts in a wheelchair. Um, you know, we just want to use the free course on the other side. So, making sure that we're able to do that, making sure we're under code compliance. And the final part, uh, I asked him, our city historian, how long has that light box been over in the corner of the pickleball courts? He said, "Well, it's been here since before I got here." So, we're looking at the 1970s um that that electrical box has been installed there. So, the last time we had it fixed, it's

pulling too much power. We would need to completely redo it. And it's more so of not is it going to happen, it's when it's going to happen. So, we want to make sure we can take care of all of those one things uh or all those things at one time. The last part of that is replacing all the fencing which is currently rusted and it's going to uh install additional uh exit doors with panic bars so that it gives you that code compliance that ADA accessibility uh for the entire facility. Um one of the things that I'll commend council on uh previous council and and working with the parks and recreation department is we have been able to bring in revenue through the pickleball courts. Um, so this is something that we can also continue to show that we're going to invest in them for the people that are also investing back in into purchasing the memberships for the courts. Um, so I just want to mention that. Um, the last part that I will say is the park action plan. Um, it is listed at 50,000 a year. That can change, that can go up, it can go down. That is just an average. For example, last year was only about in the 30,000 range. um this year would be a little bit higher, but that is going to include the uh the Rundy Park uh fencing that you see right underneath it. So, um and again, the next part is is going to be all of your parking lots. Um but again, that's that's investing in your agent infrastructure, making sure you're fixing a lot of the drainage issues that exist in uh like Picaran Park uh as well as Turnerfield. Um, the last one I will I keep saying last one, but I just keep going down the line. So, I guess we'll just buckle in for that. Um, is is the Turnerfield lighting. Um, it it is a a 20 plus year old facility. Uh, the lights have miraculously worked for that long. Uh, however, we are dealing with underground line issues. So, anytime it rains, anytimes there's a, you know, any type of jostling underneath, we run the risk of those lights not turning on. Uh the box itself has been reworked probably 10 times since the time that

I've been here. Uh we again the last time we got it fixed, they said it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when it's going to happen. And we still continue to use Turnerfield 7 days a week. So if we do not have those lights, it would severely uh hamper our ability to put on recreation programs. Uh the last one I will Just kidding. I'm just kidding. Uh moving over into the beach and swim center, there are two items uh for your review at the beach and swim center. Uh one of them is going to be your replastering of the main pool. Um council was uh very um forward thinking in making sure we're able to take care of the baby pool. Um this is going to be your routine maintenance of the large pool. One of the caveats with the with the big pool is that as we get closer to that end of life period, there's a possibility that it could pop at any time and then that's an immediate replacement or you can't or you can't use the pool. You would have to drain the pool, keep everyone out until the pool is completely uh replastered. So, that's at that point where it's at its end of life. It's not fully there, but I just want everyone to understand that there's a possibility that it could happen between this year to next year. So, we just want to make sure we're preemptive so it's not a pre preemptive so that we're not in the middle of the pool season and all of a sudden we have to cancel it for two weeks or close it for two weeks and make some very unhappy people um members. The last part is uh is going to be the pool deck resurfacing. This has been something that we have tried to continue to push down the road as long as we possibly can by just making minor fixes. We're getting to a point where each part of the pool deck whenever you're um you know resurfacing it. It starts to get uneven. There's different colors. There's different wear. Um so it starts to become an aesthetics and that also becomes a safety issue. So DHCK also when they do their inspections, they do look at the um any curbing or anything like that on the pool deck. So making sure we're resurfacing all at one time

that will make sure that it it takes away any of these those safety concerns. So, it is a large um undertaking um because of not only the price, but because um as they so eloquently put it, once you start tearing things up, you don't know what you're going to find under under a pool deck. Um so, that is something that we have tried to continue to piece mill together by doing sections at a time, but there is there is a point that we want to uh very consider to to redo it as a whole. Um that was my last one, so my final joke. Um, but if you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them for you.

You mentioned, I think, three different things that are critical in that they could go at any moment, right? The pool, the the lights at Rundy, I mean, at Turnerfield, and then I think you had one, the pickle ball. Um, if we're looking at this as a prior prioritization, you you brought this up. Are they prioritized in that way? Um, currently or can they or do they need to be looked at again? Currently in this order on the sheet, it's not prioritized in the sheet outside of the timeline.

I I'm talking about the timeline. Um, so you've got I mean, for example, on I just lost my space, but uh Turner Lights I think you had it for the 28 20 maybe 27 28. Should that not be 26 27 if you've had issues with it and you've been babying it for so many years? Because the the implication is that if if those were to go out and it's in the middle of a season, then you no longer have a season. So that means that you're putting out your entire um team structure. Yeah. Right. Same thing with a pool. If if whatever you said happens, then you're looking at an entire pool season that is is scratched off. I guess that's what I'm saying is if you have them in different years other than these items if if it breaks it's going to have this huge impact. Shouldn't they be in 26 27

um rather than 27 28 or 28 29

and I think that's the the great part about it being a var variable. Um there are ways like if the lights were to go out there's a possibility we could patch it again. Um there's a possibility that we could get an extended period of it. We're just at that time, that time frame where it could last us another two years, three years, but it could go out tomorrow. So to answer your question, yes, it is a priority timelinewise. Unfortunately, a lot of our infrastructure is is a priority. So trying to see what are realistic options that we can take on at this point is what I try to do in terms of the timeline. Um the lights itself is going to be a massive undertaking in terms of we need to do it outside of our recreation sports time frame. Uh it would be obviously a bid process. Um so we want to make sure that we we're able to do it correctly and and and take that time to do it. So I know I'm not answering your question directly with a yes or a no. You are

but there is a lot of variables involved with those ones.

I guess the followup to the lights is also like you said it needs a bid process there. And it's a t, you know, timing based on season and whether it's being used or not. So if all of those things are, you know, what what's going to drive how this this comes together, then what happens if they go out in the middle of a season, right? So now you're reacting rather than planning for it. So I guess my question still is why are we waiting to plan on it? Kind of tempting fate that we might be having to react to it and or not have a season. And it doesn't I don't need to have a specific answer. I'm just saying that that seems to be one of those those questions, right? Um Runy Park, I know it's it's like your your golden child and I and I'm I'm really hoping that we get that taken care of through through PARD. Um but you've it's been stated that there are parts that can't be replaced. So, and that, you know, we're we're run we might be running into safety and compliance issues.

If we don't get that funding, how big of a safety and compliance issue is that? What risk are we opening the city for that? Those are things that we're going to have to know because if we don't get funding, then is that going to be realistically have to be a mustdo? because it it does have um insurance risks or safety risks that are are attached to it. You know, is it a part that is not really doing anything or is it a part that could could actually be a risk? I I would like to know more of that detail as as we look through this in in deciding how to um assign those funds.

Sure. And and I think anything could technically be a risk in terms of the the Runy playground. Um there's not currently anything that is a um a noted risk that we would be under pressure to fix immediately or you know face any type of um you know legal action or anything anything like that. But with the Rundy playground like you mentioned we are getting to a point where it would be basically a useless space if we as we continue to lose pieces of it. Um, it's not necessarily that it would cause catastro catastrophic harm to people, but it would be a playground that is essentially useless and just there. Um, now the other part of that too is we would continue to maintain it to ensure that we don't have any of those type of safety issues. But at that point, you're maintaining a playground or a facility that you're just spending money just to spend money so that people can stand around or run up and down one side. So, in terms of the the need for it, you're looking at a a park and a facility that's used seven days a week. We still it's one of the one of probably the main three epicenters of the city in terms of our events where people go, where people play. It's one of the it's one of the best facilities or only facilities in the back end of the peninsula. So I think it's more so of a quality of life and and and really investing in that section of it because again we still have our events. We have the um you know the the Easter the egg hunt this weekend. We have our concert. So those are reasons that we need to continue to to keep those up and it's a you know 25 year old playground. So, I I want to assure that we're not going to get to a point where staff is going to allow it to get it to um a catastrophic level where we're hoping that kids don't get tetanus every time they use it or they're falling, you know, off of, you know, off the top of it or whatever. But, um that's what we want to get to. We want to make sure that we're continuing to enhance those facilities and keeping the standards that we want for the city.

Thank you.

Yeah. Not to um just to sort of dovetail off of that. Um I do appreciate this is probably one of the more complex ones with the moving parts. I mean everybody's is very complex, but you've got the most pages definitely that I've got spread in front of me. Um I do think it would be helpful. This is not something we need to address tonight, but for the budget you mentioned because I was that was my first thought was we have a pool at my house and it's like you have to time everything for downtime. there's lead time on bids. There's time that if when we go into the budget section, we can have some idea of those just because that would help because my first thought actually was like, well, it's in not in 2627 because that's clearly when we'll be starting the process so that it can happen in the next year. Um, but having that pinned down would be very helpful in terms of okay, if this is something that has to go up for bid and it has a seasonal contingency on when that work can happen as to be least disruptive to our community. Um, knowing that as part of this data would be very helpful when we're looking at the numbers as well because that is going to impact when we might say this is when it it should be prioritized.

Absolutely. And generally what what happens is at the end of the pool season, we'll get a a maintenance review sheet or maintenance review form on things that are getting ready to be um needed to be updates or fixed or things of that sort from our pool company. So, typically if I have that, I'll be happy to share that with you. We were able uh we were fortunate over the past couple pool seasons that we were able to do a lot of upgrades in terms of like our pump and our baby pool and things of that sort. So, these are some of the few remaining items that we need to make sure that we tackle like you said because it's always timed and making sure that the pool is uh you know safe and and it doesn't interrupt the pool season interrupt the pool season.

I just had one question Dustin. a couple years out, but the Windhaven Park, I know we did, we got the drawing or when it was a year or two ago. Um, and I said it then, I'll say it again. I think 1.5 million is way too much money. We got 400 grant from the developer. We're hoping to get a grant to match that. And the fact that the majority of it's going to be green space, it I just think we're going a little expensive on on a open design park. Um, so again, I know it's not a couple years out, but I just wanted to put that out there to myself.

Yeah. And and that and that number there, that was based entirely off the engineering and and their estimated costs. Um, we we did try to minimize as much um I guess structures that we could, playgrounds and things of that sort. So, a lot of what you're seeing in that is going to be your green ska screen space, your trails, the the restroom facility, the disc golf course. So, um, you know, as we get to that point, there is still that process of being able to bid it out as well. So, that that number may come back lower, it may come back higher. So, it's just that's what their estimate was in terms of the the They went crazy though. That thing was out of control. This is where the possible dog park would be.

Yes, that's correct. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you.

And if you need to shift from two years out to now because it is a priority, then I'd like to absolutely. Anything else for Dustin? No, Dustin. Thank you, buddy. Thank you'all. Appreciate it. Um, we are now to our final one. Uh, last but certainly not least, uh, Antonio Muro, uh, with Tacut.

Good evening, Mayor and members of council. As always, pleasure to be here. Um, so the way it's broken down, heard a lot about reinvesting into the system, right, back into our infrastructure. So you'll see a lot in here is is is all of that is reinvesting into back into our system. Uh so first and foremost infrastructure investment, system reliability and risk reduction reduction, compliance and operational standards as well as some um support on asset maintenance, operational capacity and vehicle replacement. U so I'll start from the top of this list. Um going with the first the staff member uh you can see that's pushed out to 2930. Uh we just added two thankful uh to the to your approval and all. Um this here is as the new developments come in. This will be able to sustain that additional growth on that ignous individual. The next section there is for the for the vehicles and that's part of our vehicle depreciation. Um, as with the problem with the rest of the departments, we're having that same thing where we've got mileage exceeding 140,000 miles, you know, 12 years or older on the vehicles. U maintenance costs starting to starting to exceed. We've probably somewhere in the in the vicinity of $15,000 or so uh over the course of the years that we've had uh to the at least two of the vehicles that we're asking in this upcoming budget. and we'll talk about that uh in the months to come. Um you'll see on there uh the an easement machine and a trailer. Uh that's just to give us better access to get into some of the tighter, harder to get to areas uh in the woods as you know in traditional TK. Um there's some difficult a lot of manholes and lines that are way in the woods and and in people's backyards and whatnot.

Uh but here comes the reinvestment portion of it and it's through the manhole lining, the lift station upgrades, uh the cured inplace pipe. Uh those are all reinvesting back into the system. Those are some of our larger numbers. You'll see how um especially with the cured in place piping, that's $200,000 each year. Uh but as well as some of the other departments, we did chase after the state appropriation funds. Uh we've asked for $1.5 million. That'll give us approximately about three miles of uh CIP cur or CIP cured in place piping. Um if that funding were to come, if it doesn't um like you heard some of the others, these are some placeholder numbers. Uh the 200,000 per year really won't give us much. It'll give us about a half a mile perhaps of of of piping replacement. And this is all non-exavation, right? This is all slip lining of the piping is how this is. So it's a trenchless uh replacement of pipe. Um however um we are currently have an open grant. We can't apply for another grant until that grant is closed. So once our wastewater treatment plant is done uh then we can apply for the next one. uh we're currently working on with our engineer a uh a per that way that can give us um the the opportunity to to to ask for the additional uh grant funding. Uh so we hope to have that in place by by next March to be able to to put in for that grant and of course still keeping our fingers crossed that we will get that those state appropriations. Uh you'll see also on there is the uh lift stations. you'll see 50,000 straight across the board on that. Um that that'll come through our operational budget that'll fit within there. Um as long as you all approve that to happen. Um we also have

uh let me see the manhole lining. So that'll kind of be part of that'll go handinhand with the CIP. So depending on how those those grants come in. If not, uh that'll be an additional $50,000 that'll give us that $50,000 depending on the depth of the manholes will give us somewhere between a range of eight and 10 manholes that we'll be able to to line and remediate. Um there's let me touch on that uh Winhaven Tower. Um this one here, it's on there. Uh this is really not an optional um ask. It's actually a compliance thing. So, it's something that we definitely have to push through on that. We've gone as far as we can until we until we cannot go any further. This is to add the new tank that we that we added in the Wind Haven tank. Uh so, that's just extending our contract, adding to the contract that we already have in place for that Wind Haven tower. We have we are asking for two standalone bypass pumps. Uh, one is at our grey rock lift station outside uh on the outer part and one is at lift station number 12 that's located off of the golf course. Um, what those are going to do is instead of if instead of a generator um at those stations, um, this standalone pump, what it'll do is whether we have a power outage or we have uh both pumps go out, this pump can take its place and continue the operations. So, it covers time and time again on what we need to make sure that we keep that water or that sewer in those pipes and delivering where we're has to. Uh, currently we're looking at these two stations. U, the one on the outside, which is Grey Rock, that takes multiple lift stations to it. Uh, that's our last source before it gets pumped out to Rock Hill. uh number 12. It's got about uh three or four consecutive lift stations that goes to that one before that's the N1 before it goes over to our treatment plant. So, those are two areas that are that are highly important to us to get those standalone bypass pumps,

too. Um also in there, you'll see some additions. Um one is a um well, kind of an addition slash renovation. Uh one is to our wastewater treatment plant number, not really a treatment plant. uh on record treatment plant, but it's number four. It's one of the offices that we have done off of Timberlake. Uh that's to add an addition as well as uh renovate our our lab that we have within that that facility just to kind of keep us within uh compliance with sedes. Then you also see uh an addition to the grey rock lift station. Again, hearing you loud and clear about protecting our infrastructure. That's what that's all about. It's giving us the additional space so we can house some things in house and it'll give us the ability, you know, currently right now where our building is on TK Drive. Uh it'll also give us the ability to to have some equipment on the on the outer part. So, um listen, a lot of our a lot of the work that we do is unseen work. It's in the ground. We don't see it. However, we are the police and fire of the water and wastewater, right? We are the police and fire of safety uh when it comes to that drinking water. So, um I know our people, our staff really don't get that that embellishment of being recognized and whatnot. Um but they do they work hard on with everything that they do every single day with the limited resources that they that they have. So, everything that we're asking for is is definitely not a a wish list is that it's truly is a need list to make sure that we continue to do uh what we need in a on a daily basis as well as reducing cost. Um when we talked about when we talk about cure in place pipe that's reducing cost anytime we can reduce I in I so inflow and infiltration coming into our system reduce the cost it reduced the cost of treatment it reduced the cost whether we're sending it to Rock Hill whether we're sending it to our wastewater treatment plants we're

reducing c cost of treatment and we're reducing electrical cost as well of that treatment process. With that being said, uh, any questions?

I'll go first. Uh, so thank you for sort of noting the ones the especially the water tower with sort of the mandatory compliance ones because obviously your department's got that component. Um, you know, we talk about how lean our city runs, but yours is the one department where I would I love redundancy because, you know, everybody, as you said, this is an unseen thing. This is something my family dealt in was public health and sort of this side of things. And my dad's big thing was always saying, you know, if I'm doing my job right, nobody knows I exist. But it's a really bad day when suddenly I'm out there and people know who I am and what's going on in in my world. Um, so I appreciate that a lot of this looks like it is geared towards keeping you guys out of the public eye because everybody sees when the trucks are out and there's water flowing on the street and the gravel's going getting put in over a patch. Um, and it's a challenge especially in the older parts. I know with these pipes uh some not even existing, it's like a hollow in the ground. So, uh thank you for the very detailed thing. So, uh just to make sure I understand, so obviously we have the grant for the the wastewater upgrade that's happening over off of Marcasus. I'm forgetting the number for which plant that is, but they've got the tank in. Um so, you said that that grant the earliest because of the inability to get two at the same time would be March next year is what we're looking at. would be the soonest that you could apply could apply or achieve another grant. Okay, thank you. That helps for

knowing like because you've marked some that could be potential grant ones, but that helps to know what the timeline would be that those could potentially be an option. And that and that's through RIA. I mean, we'll be we'll be chasing some other grants as well, whether it's through the EPA, whether it's through FEMA, we'll be we'll be chasing others. Correct. Go ahead.

Yeah. Um, so Antonio, thank you for what you and your your whole team do. Um, absolutely love it. Um it's it's it's wonderful and I echo what um Council Member Jones just said about um everything and investing in the infrastructure of our of our system is is absolutely great. My my question to you is I don't want to run this section lean if there's something that we need um you know and there's $200,000 as an example from the cured in um place pipe. Um, if you need 225 or 250, like if there's something else that you need to make sure that the system operates efficiently and effect and it's safe for our community, please u make sure you focus on that and and provide that to us to make sure and there's a justification to make sure that we stay safe and there's no, you know, boil water advisories or sewer all the the stuff that way. So that's that's the only thing I want to say. Yep. your budget are all um enterprise funds, correct? That you're you're self-funded, so everything that you've you've put on here is from the fees that are collected.

Correct. um for from our residents. What I appreciate is the fact that you've got thing you you you are so consistent in putting out your your projections over over a number of years for for those repetitive um improvements. And that that ties in so well with how I would like to be able to to look at a budget and know know what to expect going forward. um I don't think that you've ever had an issue with going over budget uh with your planning. So I I appreciate that and I do appreciate the the thought that you've put into this and yes aging infrastructure is something that is is a huge concern. U how how our infrastructure is tied to the health of our lake and the the service to our residents. All of that is is very integrated and it's all very important. So between you and storm water, you know, it just seems like that that those are those are when something bad happens, like Heather said, everybody knows about it. So to be proactive rather than reactive on your planning is something that I really appreciate seeing and I I do think that you are probably the most consistent in being in being proactive in in looking at that at your budget and how it affects your year year-over-year. Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah, I would just echo that. Uh, you know, please thank your staff. Uh, you know, the unsung heroes who do all the work that we don't see day dayto-day. We're we're parks and wreck is very visible. You said it. We don't really see the equipment that you guys put in place, but it's it's so critical. And so, and we all know that putting off um, you know, repairs and maintenance for infrastructure just costs more money down the road. Uh, so I definitely appreciate you staying on top of that and and and putting see this detailed projection. Um so uh is there so in terms of the fees that we charge so are we able to adjust the fees that we charge residents if we if the infrastructure repairs we have um are I guess exceeding the amount of capital that's available in other words do you adjust that year to year based on yes the cost of

we bring we bring the fee schedules for everything in the city uh council approves those on an annual basis as part of the budgeting process. Okay. Okay. Great. Um, no, I don't have any questions. Thanks for the information and uh, yeah, keep up the great work. Thank you. Want to echo and say, you know, thank you to you and your team. Um, you do a great job and, um, the nice thing about TUD, you just make it easy to say yes. So, thank you for that. The alternatives are not good. Yes. Thank you. Thanks, Attorney,

council. That that is it for us for this evening unless y'all have any other any other questions or thoughts or anything.

I appreciate all the work that's gone into this. Um I know that as as we get into the budget and actual specific conversations. There'll probably be more questions. Having a prioritization schedule to me is is something that would be helpful not just in within each department but across the the entire pro like the entire budget. How does the city see this as a priority um critical versus a a want and a an a a an improvement. That would be that would be helpful to when we're looking at it as the overall budget. and then also with each single department. Okay.

And I just want to say we've said thank you sort of peacemail meal but thank you so much to all the department heads. This was I know you put a lot of work into this and we ask a lot and thank you for taking our questions and continuing to give us all those details we ask for whether it's because we don't understand something or we're trying to understand your priorities um so that we can all work together to do what's best for our city because I know that's where everybody's heart is and it does show and I do really really respect how much our city does with so little. Um that's huge. I don't think people truly understand when when Charlie says we run a lean ship, we run a lean ship. Um, and the fact that we're we're nitpicking is a good sign because it means you guys are are getting it right more often than not. So, I appreciate that. Thank you.

I'll just add real quickly, thanks to all the department heads and I know this was a a new ask this year. I know Charlie and staff to put this together and I know it took a lot of time and effort. We really appreciate it. It really helps us understand the budget in a longterm view so we can hopefully get you what you need. And uh so, thank you. Yeah. And and thank you again. Yeah. to the department heads and please thank your staffs for us on on behalf of the council. Uh we truly appreciate what you do each and every day for us. So thank you. Yes. Thank you Ditto. Exactly what everyone just said. Um with that, thank you guys for being here. I'd like to make a motion to um ajourn. Second.

All in favor? Should I call for a motion to adjurnn? You don't have to call for the motion, but you got to call for the vote. Can I vote vote for adjourning? Please say I. Thank you. There you go.