Mayor and Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening.

Thank you for joining us for our city council meeting, our last one for the month of January. We're going to get started with the opening prayer to be led by Norris Copelan and he led and organized the 8-day read through the Bible that took place at the in the county and also the pledge of allegiance will be led by Lieutenant Brian White with the Wana Robbins Fire Department. I will ask everyone if you would please stand as Mr. Copelan starts us off in prayer. Uh before I pray, I'd like to say uh mayor um council members um and and your whole staff, we thank you for for the job you're doing. It's great. Don't think it don't think it um doesn't go unnoticed. you know um from Romans chapter 13 verse one it says um for there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. And I think I can speak for the whole city of Warner Robbins common that we are thankful to God that he has ordained you and your team to be the ministers his ministers of this city and we thank thank you for what you're doing. Let's pray. Father God, we love you and we thank you. We praise you. We worship you. We magnify your name. Lord, you alone are worthy to be praised. And Father, we just give you thanks. We give you thanks for all things. Guide us and lead us. Help us, Father. We thank you for this city. Father, we

thank you for for everything that's going on here. We thank you for uh this this leadership team that we have together here that's doing such a wonderful job. And father, we thank you for your son Jesus Christ who gave his life for us. We thank you that you even consider us that you do such a wonderful great thing, Father. We're so happy and thankful to be your children, Father. And we just ask you, Lord, to anoint the the members here and the whole the whole congregation, Father. Just let them feel your righteousness and your spirit and uh your willingness, Father, to to dwell in them and guide them and lead them in everything that they do and everything that they say. Father, we worship you. Bless this meeting anointed Lord. Father, let your spirit rain. Uh we ask you to establish your righteousness upon this city that the kingdom of God will cover it even as the waters cover the seas. And that the Holy One of Israel, Jesus, our Messiah, will be a banner and a shade and a comfort to all people who call upon your name in holiness. Blessed be the name of the Lord in Yeshua's name, in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Amen.

I pledge allegiance 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. You may be seated. Council, we take our photos. All right. Thank you, Mr. Norris Copelan, for starting us off in prayer. And thank you, Lieutenant White, for leading us in the pledge. We'd like to take a picture with each of you. Three, two, one. Three. There you go. You going to stay right here.

That's right.

I check two months ago. Oh. All right. I officially call today's meeting to order. We will first start with an adoption of the agenda with the following revision. We need to remove the executive session to discuss personnel.

Thank you, mayor. I would like to move to adopt the agenda as is with the removal of the executive session for personnel. And I second it, mayor. Motion by Councilman Lawrenson, seconded by Councilman Mack. All those in favor, please state I and raise your hand. I

motion carries. Now we've come to the part of our meeting that is for proclamations, awards and presentations. We do have three proclamations that'll be given today and also some employee service awards. Individuals who are here to accept a proclamation. Um please come forward when I start your proclamation and make sure you're able to uh get a picture. So, I'm going to go over read the proclamations starting with the Fort Valley Cap League. Is that right? Starting with the Cap League.

The Warner Robbins Catholique. We will need to update our agenda to reflect uh Warner Robbins Cap League instead of Fort Valley Capital League. We apologize for that uh misprint. That's the first one, right?

What's on here? All right. As they're getting situated, I'm going to go ahead and start with this proclamation. And this proclamation is for the Warner Robbins Kappa League month, January 2026. The gentlemen you see in front of us, these are members of the Kappa League um and also some members of the uh Kappa fraternity. All right. Whereas the guide right service program was started in 1922 to encompass many youth oriented programs such as mentoring, college preparation and tutoring. However, the flagship initiative of the guide program is the kappa leadership development league called kappa league. And whereas Wner Robbins Kappa league is a subset of the guide service program our national service initi their national service initiative. The Kappa League was founded in February 12th, 1969 by the Los Angeles Alumni Chapter of the KPA AlphaSai Fraternity Incorporated. And whereas the Monner Robbins Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alphasai is part of the Guidewrite program sponsoring the Kappa League and Warner Robbins, which was formed in the fall of 2008 under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel William Johnson and Vincent Stewart. The Wner Robbins Kappa League has mentored over 60 young men and whereas the Wner Robbins Kappa League is is designed to help young men grow and develop their leadership skills in every phase of human endeavor. Polemark appoints the advisor who are Jason Pinkney, Rodney Johnson, William Babsy, and Morris Coleman in 2023, and they

continue mentoring young men. In August of 2024, Jonathan Mcnite joined the team of mentors and Joz Harris in August of 2025 under the leadership of the God Right Director Gerald Larry and Pullmark Carl Tims. These six mentors ensure that Warner Robbins Capital League is sustained and engaging in the lives of young men in Hston County, Georgia. And whereas the one Robbins Capital League members are here to be a model citizens and leaders in our schools and community, we are also they are also there to be of service to our community. During 2025, they donated books to various schools and read to younger students in conjunction with the ReadAcross America initiative. They volunteered at community church events such as the harvest fest hosted by word inseason ministries and created care bags for the homeless in conjunction with the lending hand incorporated and started a clothing drive donating their personal clothes for those in need in an initiative called Kapali closet. And now therefore, be it proclaimed by myself, mayor of Warner Robbins, on behalf of city council and the citizens of Warner Robbins, we do hereby proclaim the month of January 2026 officially as Warner Robbins Kappa League month and call upon all residents to support the Kappa League and their continued pursuit of preparing young minds for growth, development, leadership, and success. Let's give a hand to the Warner Robbins Capital League, congratulating them on their month in our city.

Good evening. Good evening.

Is it an it is an esteemed honor for the winter office capital league to to stand before peers, leaders in our community. This proclamation affirms our purpose, duty, and achievement. For the second consecutive year, the city recognizes Capital Leaguers for their outstanding works, honoring heart, conviction, and excellence. For greatness is never accidental. It is intentional. We choose to serve, to uplift, and inspire so others may rise within their communities. So the youth of this nation and of the world may see examples worth following. Some may some may merely see us as young men. I see scholars in training formed by the members of the distinguished capacity incorporated who model virtues, discipline and shape great men through achievement. They prepare young men for the world cultivating leaders leaders who govern, guide and serve not only as citizens but as visionaries for the world. President Barack Obama reminded us we rise or fall as one. Leadership is collective through through service and responsibility. Capital Leaguers learn the pillars that inspire our future and generations to come. For our mayor of this noble and worldrenowned city, W Robbins, you remind us that leadership makes us safer, stronger, and supported. By courage, wisdom, and with unyielding heart, you rise as our Wonder Woman. At this time, I ask all city all all city all council members to stand. honor our council members who are champions of the civic leadership for our city. Let's give them a big round of applause. Thank you council members. You may now be seated. Now to our honorable mayor Loranda W. Patrick. Today the one capital league asks you to stand before us in for this in front of the center of this gathering. As a tok of humble appreciation for your service and leadership we give to you flowers. Before

the citizen of One Robbins, Capalagers and Cap Offasai Fraternity Incorporated, we honor your heart, your service, and your unriving patronage. We bestow to you a crown with dignity and pride, the queen of the city. Mayor Patrick, with our deepest gratitude and admiration, we honor you from the bottom of our hearts. Thank you. You want to Three, two, one. Congratulations.

Thank you so much. See if there are any links in here. All right. Thank you so much to the Kappa League and for the leaders of Capasai Fraternity Incorporated um for being here, for all the work you do in our community and for those young men being trained to be future leaders. Next up is a proclamation for National Human Trafficking Prevention Month. Is there anyone here to accept this award? Any members of the Fort Valley chapter of the Lynx Incorporated? Okay. All right. So, we'll move on to the next proclamation, which is a proclamation on unity in recognition of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, January the 19th, 2026. Whereas Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a native of Georgia and a hero of the civil rights era, is one of the most influential people in history. Dr. King became the first private citizen to be honored with a federal national holiday, bracing a person's name. And whereas on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we as a nation celebrate Dr. King's memory, but also preserve his legacy, one that calls upon all of us to exercise our moral authority, stand up against injustice, and live up to the founding principles that all are created equally. And

whereas Dr. King devoted his life to advancing equality, social justice, and opportunity for all and challenged all Americans to participate in the never- ending work of building a more perfect union. And whereas the city of Warner Robbins recognizes a profound impact of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a visionary leader and champion of civil rights, whose unwavering dedication and tireless efforts continue to inspire the pursuit of equality, justice, and unity within our community. And whereas we acknowledge the strength that diversity brings to our community and we celebrate the richness in our shared experiences as we work to foster inclusivity and understanding. And now therefore, I Londa Patrick, mayor of Warner Robbins, on behalf of city council and the citizens of our great city, do hereby proclaim January the 19th, 2026 as Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Warner Robbins, Georgia. encourage all citizens to come together for the promotion of unity, respect, and equality within and beyond our community. So, Martin Luther King Day was officially uh recognized yesterday. This commemorates it for the city of Warner Robbins, but let's still give a hand for the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his impact in the movement he made across our country in advancement of unity. Thank you. Okay, next up are the employee service awards. Miss Melanie Byer, the director of human resources, will come forward for this part of our program. All right. Thank you, Mayor. We have four employees that are receiving service awards this evening. It's our

first one. Our first employee is Jason Grub. He's our grounds maintenance worker three with our recreation, parks, and cultural services department with 15 years of service. Thank you for all the work that you've done. Here's your Greatly appear.

All right. Next we have Chris Fussell. He's a sergeant with our police department with 20 years of service. This is for you. Thank you so much. Next we have Eric Gossman. He's a captain with our police department with 30 years of service. service years. Appreciate

And our final award this evening is Mr. Mr. Kent Jordan. He's our street operations superintendent with our public works department with 35 years of service.

This is show you. 35 years. We appreciate you as well. I guess three, two, one.

Congratulations That's it. Thank you. Think we're good. All right. Now that we have completed the proclamations, awards and presentations, we move on to our work session items. We have two things listed here. One is the typical going over the current agenda and having a discussion where necessary. The second is the annual financial report year ending June 30th, 2025 um given by Nichols Collie and Associates. We will start with item A, the discussion of the current agenda. U Mr. James Drinker, our city administrator, will um conduct this portion of the council meeting for us or of the work session. Um gentlemen, do we have any items we would like to discuss on this agenda?

Council members, if you'd like, I can run through all of it pretty quickly. It is a pretty light agenda. You'd like me to do that? Okay. Very good. Um, so on our consent agenda this evening, in addition to meeting minutes from the your January 5th meeting, we have a resolution uh securing a vendor for our uh Independence Day celebration fireworks. Uh that is a $65,625 uh contract for a 25minut show. That's a little larger than last year uh by a few minutes, but 250th birthday. uh we uh we need to show out a little bit and we are Warner Robbins so we want to make sure we have the best uh Independence Day celebration uh in middle Georgia if not the state. Uh following that uh moving into purchasing items, we have three on tonight's agenda. The first is for the Lexapole system. This is used by our fire department uh to manage, disseminate and track uh their policies uh personnel policies and operational policies. In addition, Lexipole uh is a content generator, so they do uh provide us with policies to make sure that we are up to date at all times. We have a $32,500 purchase from a cloud auto company that is for a uh 2022 Ford F-150. It is replacing a vehicle within our public works department. Um and then uh a $10,325 purchase from tracks and trailers uh doing business as the trailer shop. Uh this is for an enclosed 16 ft trailer to be used by our grounds maintenance crew and our parks and recreation department uh as they're moving equipment uh from one park to another to maintain the grounds. Um that uh went to the lowest bidder which was also the only bidder uh from Hston County. Um, moving on, we have uh three regular business items. The first is an intergovernmental

agreement. This is between the county uh and the three cities of Hston County uh for the floating local option sales tax. You will recall as part of House Bill 581, which was the statewide uh floating homestead uh property tax exemption. uh if the county and all of the cities within a county uh opted in to that uh sales tax uh uh exemption. Uh then we had the ability to go to the voters uh for a 1 cent local option sales tax uh that would be used 100% to buy down the millage rate the property tax millage rate. This is additional property tax uh uh forgiveness or or uh uh credit. Um the way this one will work um each of the jurisdictions under under the uh plan that has been put together would see a 3.54 millillage rate reduction uh directly uh benefiting uh homesteaded properties. that this is a direct benefit to residential properties that carry homestead exemptions. So again, we've stressed it multiple times when we're up here talking about property taxes. If you are a homeowner in Hston County in the city of Warner Robbins and you do not have your homestead exemption, please get your homestead exemption. That is uh something you can file for right now uh through uh April 1st. Uh so please go and do that. We do not want you to pay any more in in property taxes than you should be paying.

Mr. Dinket, in case anybody missed it, can you repeat that again

one more time? Yes, sir. If you are a homeowner in the city of Warner Robbins or Hston County and you do not have a homestead exemption on that property, please go to the county, file that homestead exemption. You have until April 1st to get that done. Now, once you have filed for a homestead property tax exemption, you do not have to refile until you become eligible for the senior homestead uh tax exemption that is offered by the city of Warner Robbins. So, but please get those homestead tax exemptions filed. Okay. Up next, we have a budget transfer. This is uh a $1.3 million budget transfer. You will recall uh back in December uh your first meeting in December, you approved a contract uh for the um rotary drum thickener replacement at the Sandy Run Creek Water Pollution Control Plant. We approved the contract. We did not approve the transfer of the funds from unallocated fund balance in the enterprise water sewer enterprise fund to the correct line item uh for uh equipment so that we could actually pay for it. So this is cleaning that up. Okay. So this is something you already approved. We just have to allocate the funding from the appropriate line item.

This is the one for Paris Construction, correct?

That is correct, sir. Um, and that contract has already been approved. And finally, we have a classification plan update. Now, this one is a little unusual, so I want to take just a second to call this one out. This deals with uh the tax operation or the tax office is currently in our finance department. Um, this will temporarily relocate that back into the clerk's office for one year. And there's two reasons for this. Uh the primary reason deals with we have thrown a lot of stuff at our finance department right now. We're making a lot of policy updates and changes and we have the uh very uh significant uh implementation of our Tyler Munis ERP uh which is a massive uh change. Uh and so I really need them to be able to focus more on that. And so we're going to take the tax office out uh for a 12-month period, work on some things there, and then move it back because ultimately it needs to be in the finance department. We need all of our uh financial operations in a single department so that we have uh the best possible fiscal controls in place.

Uh Mr. drinker. So if if we're saying one year, is that in here also or we going to have to come back and vote to move it back over? You'll you'll have to to move it back because of the way we're set up. We have to it's it's two separate actions. So this is just basic level loading of your workload. Say that again. Level loading of your workload.

Yes, sir. And there are no fiscal implications to it. Everything stays the same. We're just temporarily realigning it. Um, so that for the next 12 months instead of uh answering to Dr. Hall, it'll answer to Miss Stella and her office has handled the tax operation prior to this. So, it's not something that is foreign to her by any means. Um, those are all of the items on tonight's agenda. If there are any remaining questions, I'll be glad to respond to those. Mr. Drinker, I have one. Yes, sir. I would like an update on the the caution lights. I noticed uh for the schools. Yes, sir.

I noticed um what progress we at, where we at, what progress we have made on that, where we're at, and have we got um any information of the cost on that? I noticed going down Dumbar Road that they have some um caution lights for the school system over there on that side of town that are actually operated through sale. um um yeah, cellular data, cellular um lights. And I noticed that I didn't know if we had taken that cost into consideration to put those look like they were be a lot would be a lot easier to acquire. I don't know the cost on them, but

I'll have to take a look at that. Obviously, there'd be an additional cost for that cellular data. um this, you know, this is not an item that was budgeted for. So, we're looking to uh at where we're going to pull the dollars from to be able to implement that, quite honestly. Um but that's that is where we stand right now. Uh I don't understand why we couldn't pull the dollars from the cameras themselves. That's what they're for. The cameras themselves were for school safety, and I don't get that, sir. We voted on those cameras to make the school safety and I'm going to say this not as a money grab to our citizens. Yes, sir.

Which we have generated a lot of money through those cameras and a lot more to pay for these lights at every school system we had. I probably

if I went back and looked amount of money that we've drawn in for those cameras to pay for every school that we've had to put lights up on all of them. And if the cameras were about school safety, I don't see why we're pushing those funds to any other place but the safety of our schools. And I think we need to take a big look at that, Mr. Drinker. And I think we need to re-evaluate that. But I also know that there's a bill going through the House that those cameras can be snatched out too if they vote against those and we're going to lose all that funding anyway. So there are there are currently multiple bills working their way through uh the general assembly process again this year uh related to school zone cameras with respect to how the funds were allocated from those cameras into our public safety operation. They are focused around the schools and for public safety around the schools and that's how those dollars have been allocated. What we're trying to do right now is make a determination which allocations that were originally made uh into our public safety department uh with respect to safety around the schools should be reallocated towards flashing beacons uh as opposed to their current allocations. We do not want to inadvertently uh take something away that has safety implications. Um and so we're being very cautious without doubt. We have not forgotten about it. We are not ignoring it,

but we have a possibility of losing them all together. So, we're gonna we have a possibility of losing that funding allto together anyway, what we've already allocated for, right? Pot potentially. Now, another part of that quite honestly is do we want to go ahead and put flashing lights up and make those investments if we're going to have to turn right back around in a couple of months based on an action of the general assembly and take it all down. We don't think we have to take the flashing caution flashing lights down. We have to take the cameras out, but not the caution flashing lights. Those lights that I see on Dumbar Road, sir, do not have cameras on them. Okay. They are they don't have cameras on them. Okay. They are just caution lights that that alert the traffic to slow down. Okay.

All right. Any other questions? All right. So annually uh every city in the state of Georgia is required to have an uh independent audit done by an outside auditing firm. Uh city of Warner Robbins obviously does that for the past several years that has been done by the firm of Nichols Collie. Uh they have again performed our annual audit. Uh and representatives from Nichols Collie are here this evening uh to present uh the audit findings for you. Uh if there's no objection, I would like to bring them forward at this time so that they can proceed with that presentation. Thank you, gentlemen.

Could have done it better myself. Good afternoon. Uh, I'm Chris McGuire. I'm with Nichols Calling Associates. While we're waiting for that screen to come down there, uh, I've got some good news and bad news. Good news, this is probably the earliest we've ever presented your guys' audit. Um, we have gotten it out before December 31st before, which is the state deadline, but uh, I do believe this is the first time I've ever done it before. The IRS has opened up to accept, uh, tax returns, so kudos. Second bit of good news, I didn't trip walking up here. Bad news, we got it done so early, some of the metrics that I use across the uh, comparable cities isn't available yet. So, my presentation should be short and sweet. Good news. Bad news, I got to walk back that way, so I might trip again. So, um, again, uh, Chris Magcguire, uh, presenting the 2025 audit presentation for the year ended June 30th, 2025. Um, I think everybody knows our firm. We are, we have an office here in Warner Robbins, uh, one of several offices across the state. Um, we do a lot of work for governments. We have a lot of employees. These numbers that I have up there are a little outdated. We've recently announced some new news that we've expanded. Uh, but uh, me, Chris Magcguire, partner, I haven't changed. Greg Chapman, the uh, government audi audit control quality control partner hasn't changed. And then uh, Cole Henson, the manager has not changed. Uh, getting straight into it. Uh,

results of the audit. our audits to perform uh our responsibility to perform an audit in accordance with the auditing standards gen generally accept in the United States of America and government auditing standards and then uh our objective is to provide a reasonable um not absolute assurance that the basic financial statements are free from material misstatement. lots of words. Um, unmodified clean opinions. What we got uh means we did not have to modify the opinion for any uh departure from GAP or any compliance issues, anything like that. Uh we did determine that they're presented fairly in accordance with the accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. And then obviously our responsibility doesn't extend beyond these financial information contained in the report. There is also a report on federal expenditures towards the back of the uh packet that you each have. Uh again, the ARPA funds were your guys' major program. The threshold for a major program is going to change starting this year. It used to be $750,000. It is now up to $1 million. Based on your guys' ARPA grant money and what you have left over, you'll still most likely qualify next year. Uh but then moving forward, we'll have to look at that on an annual basis. Required communications, there's a couple things I have to say. Uh significant accounting policies are located in note one in the financial statements. Lots of words, but if you want to learn how the city does and or what it does and how it does it, read that. Uh management judgment and accounting estimates. Uh I have listed up here the pension and oped. What these are are basically management's estimates to record some balances. Uh not included here, which was new this year is GASB 101. Uh they changed the way that uh they didn't really change it. They updated the language on how compensated

absences are recorded. Uh we did go ahead and implement that uh new Gazsby in the financial statements. happy to announce that the way the city was uh recording the compensated absence in the past, there was no prior period adjustments for that new uh standard. And then the financial statement disclosures uh just got um basically your guys' big important disclosures, what what you want to look at. Look at your fixed assets, look at your debt. Those are probably your main ones. And if you look at the compensated absences, uh you can see the changes for the new Gazsby 101. I'd be happy to go through that, but it's like a hundred million pages and I think everybody would get bored if we're not already. Relationship with management. Management helped us out. Uh full cooperation. They didn't hide anything from us. They didn't yell at us. Uh they gave us what we wanted when we wanted it. Um so that we were able to meet the deadline uh that the stated that is required. Uh no disagreements with management. We didn't tell them they had to book something or they didn't want to book something a certain way that wasn't in compliance with the standards. Um, audit adjustments. The audit adjustments are attached onto your governance letter. Uh, most of the adjustments are pretty standard reclassifications, moving things from long-term to short-term, short-term to long-term, making sure the debt payments are classified properly. Uh and then also going from a modified acral basis to accounting to a full acral basis in the full governmentwide uh past audit adjustments. We don't have any. Uh typically when we find something we notify the finance team and they uh 9.9 times out of 10 want to correct it. Um more required communications. We did obtain representation from management that they didn't lie to us. they g, you know, gave us uh all the statements they gave us were true and accurate. They didn't withhold anything from us and that everything they were aware of uh

from a financial standpoint was in fact brought to our attention. And then finally, auditor independence. We are independent with the city of Warner Robbins and all of its employees. Uh you know, Cole or I aren't related to anybody on council. We're not related to the mayor. We're not related to anybody in management that I'm aware of. Uh so we are happy to announce we are independent financial trends. So this is just the city of Warner Robbins and I've got the last five years up there. That might be a little bit hard to see but uh generally blue line's your revenues, white lines your expenditures and then you've got the fund balance on the yellow line. As you can see in 2025 we've increased our revenues, increased our expenditures which caused our fund balance to decrease. um because the uh increase in expenditures outpac the increase in revenues. Breaking down the expenditures by general fund, I've gotten basically the main classifications, general government, public safety, recreation, public works, and city development. Um and if I I have it on uh last year, so the changes from last year, general government last year were 25% compared to 21% this year. Public safety last year was 54 compared to 57. Uh recreation was five verse4 and then public works was 11 compared to 14. So what that means is overall the expenditures are kind of moving around in those different buckets. But you got to remember in the general fund uh fixed asset expenditures, things like that are included in here. So if we're spending uh for equipment purchases, things like that in our public safety coming from the general fund that can adjust those. It's not just operating expenses, it's overall. Uh so this was my city A. That's a comparable city to the city of Warner

Robbins. Uh like I said, their 2025 information wasn't available as of this morning. So, all I've got is last year's, which you can see with public safety, you guys are tracking pretty in line with them. Uh, which is also their major category. And then if I go to city R, uh, their public safety is slightly less, but their recreation's a lot higher. Um, which there's a good reason for that if I were to disclose the city. Uh, but public safety again is their largest uh, bucket there. Disclose the city.

No, I think we talked about this last year. I don't need it in the newspapers that Chris, you know, said something wrong about a city that I've probably never even been to. Uh, financial trends, revenues. So, this was going to compare the different cities against each other, just how the revenues are shaping up. Uh, a lot of this can depend too on the the where the city's located, the value of the homes, the property taxes. So, uh, I'm just going to skip these next couple because I don't have the other cities, but, uh, I'll stop on them briefly just so you can see your guys's numbers, which is just, uh, highlighting what I've kind of already showed. Uh, there's our fund balance, uh, which you can see the slight tick down there towards the end. Uh, and then months in fund balance. This is always something you guys like to talk about. Uh, as you can see, we're right at about three months in fund balance, depending on which way you round that dollar. Uh, so just wanted to highlight that as well. 2025 capital investments. So, we've got the special purpose local option sales tax. Uh, 4.7 million in purchases on public safety, public works, water, water and sewer systems, and other improvements. You've got the other governmental funds which includes the ARPA public facilities authority and recreation about 2.2 million in purchases on other types of capital outlay. And then your enterprise funds which is your water and sewer, natural gas, sanitation, storm water. I've knew I had that last one. Uh 8.5 8.6 million in equipment and infrastructure. Um enterprise funds. These uh are all your what I like to think business type funds. Uh you've got the natural gas, water and sewer, storm water and sanitation. Uh again, you've got their

uh net position over time. As you can see, uh most of them are pretty flat, running right about where we need to do. And then you've got the water and sewer kind of a little little slight intick there at the end. Uptick, excuse me. That's the end of my show. Uh, sorry that I didn't have the other cities, you know, available to put in there, but I think that is a good thing and I'd be happy to update it when it's available so you guys can see it. Questions, comments, concerns. I'm going to bring Cole up for this part. I'm kidding. Thank you for your presentation. You're welcome, sir.

All right. Looks like you have no questions. that means you gave us a thorough uh report. We appreciate uh you all for always being there to support the city and making sure that we are financially sound and um get our stuff in timely. So, thank you so much for your service and we appreciate you all keeping us straight and thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you. Madame Mayor, if you don't mind, just quick question from the U. IGA that we've got before us today. I know that represents Hston County and the cities involved. Could you refresh my memory on where we're at with the Peach County side if there's any option on that or did they opt in on both? I cannot remember.

So, Peach County has an IGA in place. They have called for an election. I do not recall the date of that. Um, basically the way the calling for the election works, they have to get 50% of the population uh the the the agencies. So, um, uh, the other cities, uh, uh, so, uh, Fort Valley, Byron, uh, and Peach County came together, that was more than 50%, they went on ahead and signed the IG. We get swept along with it. Um, you know, so we it required no action on our part. Um, but yeah, they they will be calling for the election. One thing I did uh neglect to mention, the IGA uh on your agenda tonight would set the date uh for the election as May 19th. Um yeah, I I was looking for her too, you know, line and sir, I'd like to ask you the conversation prior to him triggers some thoughts in my head about um what Mr. Trump Councilman Bill was talking about as far as the funding from the cameras and stuff. If legislation bans those, how long would it take or how soon would we have to remove them from our streets and our school zones?

So, it depends on what the legislation says, right? Some sometimes they'll say a July start or effective date. Sometimes it's January. Usually, it's one of those two. Uh they could also say immediately. Um you know, now we would we can shut it down before we remove the cameras. Uh so we can we can respond to whatever legislation the state passes pretty rapidly. Um you know like say uh on Friday I want to say there were four different bills dropped on uh last week uh dealing with uh with the red light cameras in one form fashion or another. Uh some of them conflict a little bit. Um so there's going to be a lot of give and take uh at the general assembly. We'll see what if anything they pass. Um it does make it a little difficult to predict. Uh so um

thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Drinker.

All right. Seems like all items have been fully discussed in the work session. Uh so we'll move on to item number two on the agenda which is the public the formal public comments pertaining to current agenda items only. If someone is here regarding an item listed item number three through item number six. You have an opportunity to approach the podium. Please be sure to state your name and address for the record. Um if anyone has a general comment or concern to make, you will have another opportunity at the end of the meeting. But this current public comment section is specifically if you have a comment or want to make a statement about item 3 through six of the agenda. The floor is now open. Going once. Going twice. The door is now closed. Moving on to item number three. The consent agenda will be discussed by Councilman Mack.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, I'd like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. Item A, January 5th, 2026 meeting minutes. Letter B, resolution the pyro shows East Coast Incorporated. And number and letter C, purchasing items. One, fire department Lexipole at $17,6242. to Public Works Mloud Auto Company LLC for $32,500. Recreation Parks and Cultural Services Tracks and Trailers The Trailer Shop LLC for $10,325.

I'll second that. Mayor motion by Councilman Mack, seconded by Councilman Bib. Any discussion? Yes, Mayor. I'd like to um recognize the fact that um I'm excited about the addition or the pyro show um resolution that we have because we got so many compliments to last year's Independence Day and from what Mr. Drinker has described, this is going to be bigger than last year. I'm excited to see it. All right, thank you. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please state I and raise your hand. I

motion carries unanimously. Item number four is a resolution for an IGA regarding the floating homestead local option sales tax referred to as floss to be discussed by Councilman Bib.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. I make a motion to approve the res resolution to authorize Mayor Loranda W. Patrick to execute the attached inter in intergovernment agreement for the imposed of the floating homestead local option sales tax floss. I said that right, Kevin. Got you there. among Hston County Board of Commissioners, the city of Warner Robbins, the city of Perry, and the city of Centerville. Upon execution by the parties fully full fully to statistics the conditions proceed into the issues of the call for the referendum to impose a floss within the special tax district and if approved by the majority of the voters to levy and distribute the uh said tax under the terms of this agreement and state law.

I second it. Fair. Motion by Councilman Bib, seconded by Councilman Mack. Any discussion? We've heard a good explanation of what flo is and how it will benefit the taxpayers in here in the city of Warner Robbins. Um, but I will ask if there's any further discussion. All those in favor, please state I and raise your hand. I motion carries unanimously. Item number five is an ordinance for a budget transfer to be discussed by Councilman Holmes.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. I have before me a motion to approve ordinance of the governing authority of the city of Warner Robbins, Georgia. that $1,36,520 be transferred from unallocated fund balance to the water and sewer enterprise fund to the machinery and other equipment budget accounts of the water and sewer enterprise fund for the purpose of funding replacement of the rotary drum thickener at the Sandy Run Creek Water Pollution Control Plant. said said funds shall be taken from fund balance reserve account number 533 2081 and placed in 53 53.005433000 Z54330.0000 54121 machinery and other equipment. I move and I'm wishing to wave the second reading. I move for the adoption.

I'll second. Motion by Councilman Holmes, seconded by Councilman Lashley. Any discussion? All those in favor, please state I and raise your hand. I motion carries unanimously. Item number six is an ordinance for the city of Warner Robbins classification plan update to be discussed by Councilman Curtis.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. I motion to approve an ordinance of the governing authority of the city of Warner Robbins. The governor authority of the city of W Robbins that the city classification plan be amended as follow. Move the position of tax manager job class 169 grade 21 authorized strength of one to the finance department to the city clerk's office. Move the position of tax supervisor class number 155 grade 19 authorized strength of one finance department to the city clerk's office. Move the position of business license specialist job number 144 grade 16 authorized strength of one finance department and the employee in the position to the city clerk's office move position of tax specialist job number 156 grade 16 authorized strength of one finance department to the employee and I'm sorry and the employee into the position to the clerk's office. Move the position of tax assistant job number 140, grade number 10, authorized strength of one, finance department, and the employee into the position to the clerk's office. Move the position of cashier tax job number 128 grade number nine authorized strength of one finance department and the employee into the position to the clerk's office. Be it further ordained that the city finance department is hereby authorized to transfer funds between departments and between line items within a department in the fiscal year 2026 budget as necessary to facilitate the changes to the city

classification plans listed in this ordinance. And I would like to wave the second reading. I second that. Motion by Councilman Curtis waving the second reading. Seconded by Councilman Holmes. Any discussion? All those in favor, please state I and raise your hand.

Motion carries unanimously. All right, we have reached the end of our agenda items. We have now made it to the citizen comments. So, this is for you all. If there's anyone who would like to make a comment, uh, have a question and voice your concern about anything in general regarding the city of Warner Robbins, you have your opportunity. Please approach the podium. Please state your name and address for the record. You will have you will have three minutes on the clock. Um, right there at the top of that rotunda, the door is now open for anyone who would like to approach the podium. Going once. Going twice. The door is now closed. Thank you all for being here. All right. Now we have council comments. And I believe next up to go first is Councilman Bib.

Councilman Bib, you have the floor. Uh, great meeting. Y'all have a good night. God bless. Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Lawrenson. Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, keep it short, but I don't want to neglect this. I want to congratulate Mayor Patrick on being um one of Georgia Trend's most influential Georgians, and we look forward to acknowledging you next week. And we we really notice we we know what you do, and we're glad the state of Georgia is noticing it as well. And we appreciate you and look forward to celebrating that with you next week. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Next is Councilman Lashley.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um yeah, great night. Short meetings always good. Um just be careful this weekend. Mind your uh travel. Pay attention to the warnings. Uh GMA. And uh then from there, you know, I hope everybody is safe and happy and uh enjoying the warmth of their home this weekend and the following week cuz it's going to be pretty cold. So, good night. Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Holmes.

Thank you, Mayor. First of all, I'd like to thank Mr. Drinket again for the update you give us bi-weekly. uh it makes the mo the meeting move much faster. Uh I want to thank Miss Stella for uh the your response to our request. Uh I did request some information, some materials for the meeting next week and she got it to me right away. So that you know we go to these meetings and everybody's sitting there flipping pages and flipping pages and I'm sitting there listening you know. So, I have the pages to flip now myself. Uh like to uh recognize our young people that was here earlier. Uh the Kappa League. Uh the fine bunch of young people. I'm proud to say that I've done 63 years in that organization. Uh so far, uh thank you. That I thank you. I It's been good. That's good. It's not hard at all, but uh they see the young people uh and each organization has somebody like that in their organization that they're working on. When I say somebody like that, I'm speaking of the youth. Uh we need it. We can't do enough of it. Thank you so much for that. U congratulations to the employees, all of the employees that was recognized this afternoon. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman. I have to ask, did you join Cap Alpha Sai Fraternity Incorporated when you were one or two? One and a half. Okay. All right. Now for Councilman Curtis.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. Uh again, it was nice to see the young men in suits, clean, well-dressed. It it was truly an honor and a blessing just to see them as a example for many other men, young men that see that. Uh, also again, congratulations to everybody on their service award, especially Mr. Kent Jordan. 35 years. That's amazing. And, uh, I know for a fact that he has a story to tell. So, if you ever get an opportunity to sit down and have a conversation with Kent, I strongly encourage that you do that. And, uh, again, everybody have a great night. Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Mack.

Thank Thank you, Madame Mayor. I'd like to echo everything that everyone else has said. um our service award members um Mr. Ken Jordan 35 years that's a lifetime to some. So your diligence and your um will to skill and remain committed to serving this city for that long says a lot about about you. So thank you for that. And I want to also recognize the fact that the city of Warner Robbins is coming up on a year of accepting the pledge of civility um that we got last year in Atlanta and coming up on a year and I just wanted to recognize some things or say some things especially with the climate of our country and our communities just to remind people that um building bridges of civility means choosing connection over conflict especially when it's hardest. Uh a few uh examples are listen first, seek to understand before being understood, humanize your disagreements, argue ideas not identities, assume good content. Most people aren't your enemy. They're your neighbor with a different story. Speak with respect. Tone carries as much weight as truth. Practice restraint. Not every provocation deserves a response. Look for shared ground. Values often overlap even when conclusions don't. Civility isn't a weakness or silence. Is discipline strength. Bridges don't erase differences. They make crossing them possible. So, I just want everybody in our community to remember that, especially with the climate of our country today. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Councilman. All right. Now, it's time for my comments. Um, I do just want to make a a quick note again about the holiday which we all recognized yesterday, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Um, there was a weekend full of events across our city and our countition of the unity and the message that he preached. And part of that message uh outside of the progress that we have made as a nation in moving forward towards a more perfect union, I do want to mention the importance of pulling forward the younger generations and the fact that the members of Kappa Alphasai Fraternity Incorporated were here with the Kappa League today. It embodies one of those principles that Dr. King preached. So, thank you to the the men of Cap Alphasai Fraternity Incorporated for what they do in our community and how they are pulling up the generation behind them. We need more of that in our in our community, more mentorship and again all of us joining in unity uh touching hands and agreeing that we are stronger together. I also want to recognize National Human Trafficking Prevention Week. You heard me mention the proclamation at the beginning of our meeting. This particular um subject is extremely important across our city, our county, our state, and our nation. And I want to recognize the members of the Fort Valley chapter of the links incorporated who are here to accept that proclamation. And I want to thank them for the work they do throughout our region to stress the importance of being aware of human trafficking that it is happening inside of our community and ways that we can educate ourselves on how to realize and recognize someone who may be a victim of human trafficking. I

know the links incorporated will do more and more um each year to help push this fast forward, but I do want to acknowledge the women who are here today um of the Fort Valley chapter. And I'm going to ask if they will just stand so that we can give you all a round of applause for all the work that you do in this subject and many others in our community. Thank you all so much for being here and we'll take a photo uh with you all uh once the meeting adjourns council we invite you to also join in that photo and I am a member of the links incorporated Fort Valley chapter as well. So those are my sisters that stood up. All right. And with that, I'm going to say thank you all for being here um today as we close out our meetings for the month of January. We'll see you in February. Bundle up. Keep warm. Look and follow the news reports, our social medias, our website, our apps to be aware if there's any inclement weather we need to be aware of. Please listen if it says to stay off the roads. Um, we may not have a big a big snow again, but if we do, we care about your safety always first. And to the men and women who will help us during those times, thank you so much for your service. And with that, the meeting is adjourned. Thank you so much.