San Angelo City Council 8-29-23

[0:00:00] art by this special meeting agenda notices hereby given up a special meeting of the city council of the city of San Angelo to be held August 29 2023 at 8 30 a.m at the McNeese Convention Center which is where we're at today and it is officially called to order we will open it up for public comment issues or concerns not on the agenda may be raised by the public at this time citizens should speak from the podium address all comments to the DS Begin by stating their name and address or single member district number and limit their remarks to less than three minutes any public comment today seeing none we will now go into the workshop itinerary receive presentation from specialized Public Finance Incorporated regarding proposed plan of Finance for city of San Angelo Texas tax notes series 2023-a and direct specialized Public Finance Inc to proceed with such plan of finance and Tina you are on thank you mayor or not Vince vial is here from specialized Public Finance as well if you have any questions on this but we do have excess capacity in our debt service fund going into fiscal year 2024 so we are looking to issue a short-term note in the amount of 1.875 million dollars uh the purpose the proposed purpose for this uh short-term note is currently to offset a grant we may receive for the Chadbourne Street phase B project although we are going to leave the language open so that if we don't receive that Grant we can use it for another purpose of council directs good morning for the record my name is Vince Villa with specialized Public Finance for the city's financial advisor as teen has indicated what we're seeking this morning is authorization to pursue a tax note issue for the county this will be a one-year maturity on this tax note issue we would do a bank bid on this in other words we'd put this out to bid and they would bid the interest rate on this tax note we would bring this tax note issue back to City Council on

[0:02:04] September 19th at that time we'll have the bids in hand we'll present the council with the results of the bids let you know who the winning bidder was the interest rate and we'll be looking for you at that time to consider the ordinance authorizing the issuance of the tax notes so if we get direction to proceed from the council this morning that will start the process and we'll we'll get on with this you have any questions for as today move approval is presented moved by Tommy second by Harry any public comment on this item saying none hearing none will take a vote all those in favor say aye aye with none opposed motion passes seven zero thank you thank you it's how far do you have to drive to make this for your 30 seconds of Fame I would go a lot further than I needed oh wow what a guy what a guy he's from Cisco right lives in Weatherford who lives in Weatherford now do I have a packet for today you can have mine mayor you don't have them Michael you should have retained all of this I have oh you got that well no I don't have this it's just the slides from that we went over we can do those with me yes with me I don't have a slide packet for this meeting Kimberly's going to get one printed so the first slide is the budget

[0:04:07] preparation general fund revenues expenditures and considerations ready okay all right so um next slide okay do you want me to do it okay so this is just a reminder of how the property tax is divided amongst the different entities the school district the city and the county and of course the Tom Green County Appraisal District sets the valuations the entities set the tax rate a separation of responsibilities there certified estimates this year at 7.6 billion dollars are a 15.1 percent increase from prior years revised values new property added to the role is 117.7 million dollars that's important because new properties that are added to the role are not capped by the three and a half percent that was set by the state the value of one penny is 726 thousand dollars and we're confident that this number is a correct number that we don't won't wake up and have a two million dollar shortage we're as confident as we can be when when do we get again these are certified estimates that we're working with this when do we get real numbers uh Tyler said that he should have all he expects to have all of the reviews finished by the end of September and to be sending out the actual tax bills by the end of October so we can come back with an update at that point our budget year starts October one right yes ma'am but we expect that this estimate is a conservative number so if anything we would expect that it would increase rather than decrease but yes we can come back and give an update and if anything changes we can address it at that point we're sure on this number the 2004 ordinance that was passed this is net of the freeze for sure for sure yes questions for Tina on this first page of property tax collections move on okay so that increase in valuations did require us to decrease the tax rate

[0:06:10] again this year you'll recall that last year we decreased it by 3.8 cents this year we'll be decreasing it by 3.38 cents on top of that when we look at these numbers it's not clear or obvious that when we're at 0.776 we reserved a part of that to go into a infrastructure Street fund second line there so that .0060 yes ma'am and we'll we have a slide that will show what the street infrastructure funds budget will be for next year as well later on and how much we've accumulated so far yes ma'am so that but that stays constant regardless of what the new tax rate is is that correct okay just a reminder of how sales tax works of course six and a quarter percent goes to the state uh one percent comes back to the city's general fund a half a percent goes to the Development Corporation and then the remaining half percent goes to Tom Green County sales tax was up two and a half percent in August compared with the same month last year year-to-date collections are over the prior year by 9.4 percent and we're over our Revenue budget by three million dollars year to date um so that was what we would usually consider Surplus sales tax moneys that could be used for one-time projects or other things I will point out though that we would probably want to use a net general fund Surplus for Revenue instead of just the sales tax number to consider any other projects for example some some of those Revenue sources in the general fund are underperforming and so we'd want to net those out to a more realistic number Point those out specifically as we go through this correct yes I can point

[0:08:13] those out if you would at any point that you'd like our sales tax chart showing year-to-day FY 23 projections and showing that we are proposing a budget for next year that is lower than current year and projections we are projecting the current year end at 24.3 million dollars and so we are proposing a sales tax at 95 percent of that or five percent less than current year expected and that's based off of current year projected yes ma'am five percent of that becomes the new number that we put in the budget so we're projecting 24.3 million dollars and we are proposing a budget of 23.1 okay questions for Tina on this this information okay move on okay so moving on getting into the numbers general fund revenues um thankfully property tax came in strong enough that we were able to cover that 1.9 million dollar deficit um and still uh see a little increase there of 277 thousand dollars sales tax while we are projecting conservatively at 95 percent of current year it still is up a little over two million dollars alcohol and bingo tax of just a little bit there at 21. but remember we got to explain that two million dollar number because if you plan five percent down from actual projected sales tax you would not show a sales tax increase and yet this shows the sales tax increase right so you have to explain why that is so because sales tax is performing so strongly and we are seeing a surplus of our over our current budget of three million dollars uh even though we're projecting down we still see an increase in sales tax for next year franchise taxes up two hundred twenty five thousand dollars that is due to the electric and gas franchises combined are

[0:10:16] up almost five hundred thousand dollars but it's offset by a decrease in the TV franchise of 245 000 what about the um fiber optic people from what we've learned Teresa and I have looked at it and it's really the onus is on the fiber companies to remit those Monies to the city I don't think we've started seeing a stream of that quite yet but we expect that to once it they get the fiber in place and start generating revenues is when we would start to expect to see that so and do we have contacts to ensure that we have a communication line so that we receive those numbers those dollars yes because we certainly are seeing a lot of damage to our streets our broken water lines a lot of water on the streets so we need to make sure that there's no lack of owning holding the application to franchise taxes yes ma'am we'll follow up on that regularly so yes Larry isn't Frontier done with our installation already don't know well they've been doing it for a while so Frontier well they've been laying fiber longer than anybody has right I just assumed they were completed already good questions so if they are where are we on starting to collect franchise taxes and how do we follow up on that and make sure it happens we'll make a note to follow up on that and get some information out to you thank you Larry does that also include Optimum they've always been in there okay thank you that's why she was referring to the fact that TV cable is down because people have options and so what we used to get as a primary franchise fee was the cable and now it's reflecting people making other choices yeah Origins for services up over three

[0:12:18] hundred thousand dollars that is due to council adopting fee increases earlier in this fiscal year so those are reflected in next year's budget and then other sources includes excuse me it would seem that based off of the increase in fees that we approved that the amount would be larger than 309 000. some of it is reflected in other funds such as Fort Concho and the cemetery fund and we'll see that a couple slides later so will there be an opportunity to see based off of all the different areas where fees were increased that we would see a total net amount due to increased fees spread out among different funds so we don't have I mean we could get you a total but we don't have it anywhere on one page at this point I think we need to do that not and it's okay that we don't have it today the following ultimately we need to see the impact of fees as a total on the city budget even though it's in separate areas sure we can make a note for that other sources includes interest income and indirect costs from other funds that help support the general fund the bulk of that is 100 615 000 projected increase for interest and the remainder is from the indirect cost questions for Tina on any of these line items okay okay moving on to general fund expenditures Public Safety is up almost 1.7 million dollars of that amount 1.3 million dollars is related to the police department of that 1.3 million dollars four hundred thousand dollars is related to the cops Grant coming fully into the general fund that is offset down there at the bottom by a 320 000 decrease in transfers out um that that Grant was accounted for in our grant fund and now it's fully into the general fund this year another 400 000 of that is related to Target increased requests that were approved and included in the original budget 245 000 of that was Fleet Services and then

[0:14:22] there were some other I think overtime and some other things that were approved for the police department the remainder is uh let me get to that page um dispatch the final phase of the hexagon system came in 135 thousand dollars fire increase in loyalty pay of 95 000 and then we did approve a cancer screening program in the amount of 25 000 for the fire department well will we be going through these individually today these various lines just whatever questions you have and we can discuss at whatever level you'd like but there's no additional slides on these no ma'am so this would be where we would want to discuss any questions I think the number one thing that I hear from everybody is the usual conversation about the Municipal Court and better understanding that issue because we keep planning the municipal court at a number and we've been planning it at a number for over well since I've been mayor seven years six years and we never hit that number we keep putting a number in there that we never hit Mesa municipal court Revenue budget by 275 000 this year it's great from a budget perspective we've decreased it but the reality is if you take a look at the number of citations written in the number of warnings and the number of Revenue we consistently are decreasing the number of citations and the number of warnings and we all understand that at one point some new laws were put into place that impacted those citations and those warnings but at some point you've got to be anniversary in that number and yet we're not we continually go down

[0:16:26] do we want to see those numbers or you just want to talk about them or do you have a slide for that so that's the slide shows graphically the trend and citations warnings and revenue and I do actually have actual numbers you know here in my notes so five year when we go from 25 000 citation oh sorry so in five years we go from 25 000 in citations down to um a little over ten thousand and I guess the the question is why is it continually going down at some points you should anniversary the impact of new rules and regulations and laws and I think the biggest concern is the following and that is fewer tickets Fierce citations what impact is that in terms of Public Safety because we know running a red light is dangerous it kills people speeding is dangerous it kills people and so I think the question would be concerning what impact does sheer citations and warnings and then that affect actual receipts decreasing what impact does that have on public safety just my comments does anybody else have a comment I do have a comment mayor I've been working with with Chief Carter and assistant Chiefs as well and I know

[0:18:27] these numbers have been going down and we've been talking about it every year mayor and um so we do we do when we do meet we do address these numbers I know that uh recently they've had a plan to really address this and we're not seeing the numbers yet but uh this past month those numbers have been going up and we'll continue going up uh and the the important thing that keep delivering as far as the message to the to the to the chief is um and he understands this that when these revenues go down we have there's such a need in the in the police department that needs to be taken care of him from police stations to you name it uh you'll see some of them can pop up here in just a little bit but when these revenues do go down uh it's concerning because we want to make sure that if we set up a budget any marginal revenue that goes above that amount uh that I've actually addressed is that we'd be more than willing to dedicate that toward the police department and to assist them on all the needs that they have so when you see the numbers going down like that it is concerning like I definitely agree with that mayor but I know that at this point and I've been working very diligently with the Chiefs I started meeting also with the association I do I will be monitoring these numbers to make sure that they start continuing going up it's not just going to be this past month But continuing after that but it has been problematic and we have talked about it over the years I know that the chief and of course they've talked about the impact of code what past covet now and it's it's time to start seeing these numbers uh start going up again and it goes back to safety it's not a matter of we're saying the quota we cannot set a quarter that's illegal but we do want to make sure that our streets are safe and we want to make sure that that individuals that are breaking the law are pulled over and either receive a citation or a warning but again this is something that I'll continue working very closely with them again there's a plan that they did have that they've implemented and this past month and you'll see in the future months these numbers start going up because we all understand that we can't

[0:20:30] do quotas but my assumption is the following that we couldn't do quotas in 18 either fiscal year 18 right so we've never been able to set quotas that is correct so the five-year trend is reflective of never sitting quotas new laws which have impacted issues and yet we're seeing a million seven increase in the public safety dollars and we are continually seeing a decrease in number citations and warnings and revenues so the general fund keeps picking up those dollars and having to cover those dollars and that is an issue yes ma'am any further comment from Council okay move on Public Works there's an increase there of 177 thousand dollars um some of that is due to a reorg in the engineering Division and then there's also an increase for converting a lower level position to a CLD coordinator position today I had a truck driver's license the CDL yeah yes shame but I'm pretty sure that's what it is yeah we're we're having a train um one of the biggest problems that we've had is we've lost staff and some of those CDL drivers that we had on staff went somewhere else other organizations that were paying more money and so on our end we decided that what we need to do is train from within we have a loyal staff that's been with us for a while and we'd like to get those individuals certified in CDL those individuals that have been with us that have benefits with the city they've had him for years and we feel that by training these individuals we can have them stick around with the city and provide that CDL Service that we

[0:22:32] actually need the truck driving service Tractor Service all the the things that they do for us so again this is an effort on our end to trading from within and keep staff that we currently have that have been loyal to the city well in the past I'm assuming they were trained by somebody else but we paid for that training correct that is correct and when we paid for that training did we have a commitment for a minimum amount of years they or months Etc that they would have to give us in order to us paying for that CDL so we train them and then they can leave in two days we didn't but we had Veronica up here that's yes Veronica Sanchez assistant HR Director there was actually a legislative change in the last probably year that requires a different certification um a different trainer for the CDL certification currently I believe there is one or two trainers locally and they charge about five thousand dollars per person to train it takes somewhere around three months so it would be more efficient if we had our own trainer and the question as far as legally committing individuals once they they go to that to the actual training Tracy you want to talk a little bit about that we do have some programs at the city I think fire perhaps when they go through training they are committing to staying with us for a certain period of time or they're going to pay that back I don't I know there's been discussions about other departments but we have not done that yet and why haven't we um our pay for CDL Drivers is well below what a private company can pay and so even if we had some sort of agreement with them um I imagine that you know they would still they would still leave so um the best thing that we can do is do

[0:24:34] in-house training for that and obviously through our benefit package try to retain them and then obviously uh one of the biggest benefits is as a CDL driver is that you know you can stay here you don't have to go out of town you don't have to you know not on the road all the time yes correct the question yes seriously I'd like to add one other thing I know that in not necessarily in CDL Drivers but then in other areas we are seeing employers who will buy out those Provisions to hire people away from us as well so even if we had that program in place it doesn't mean we're going to keep people any longer that was going to be my question was about is there anywhere where we could put the reimbursement if they were to leave that they would pay us back for the for the training they received it is possible any other questions Larry I believe Mr valenzuela's addressed in the past that we're in investing the CDL certification in people who are long-term employees of the city so they're less apt to bolt because because they have strong reasons to stay here rather than to so I would stick with that as training those drivers who have I don't know six seven years already with the city rather than somebody who's just off the street yes Tom um it's a very complicated issue and a CDL driver is somebody uh that's highly sought after now but I think in discussions that we've all had in the past kind of period of six months when it comes to retaining a CDL there's usually a window if they're here just for the training and then they exit shortly after that training we're looking at that window I mean to lessen the cost of the burden of everybody if there's a way to maybe secure that that's fine we we got to stay with what's legal hang on I made a comment

[0:26:36] yesterday like if somebody doesn't want to be here we understand that and you're probably better off without them here but if there was a window if they leave within three six nine or twelve months of receiving training that we spent what five thousand dollars on so you know it's I'm with the mayor on it'd be great to be able to retain some of those funds it's something that's hard to look at but it's just something that we want to make sure that we're doing the best thing for the citizens and we don't want to be the training and the launching pad for eight other companies in town sure we understand that and Brian made a good point we did approve or council did approve the CDL ad pay last year and so that's been implemented as well for retention other questions yes Harry let's make a comment the city's no different than any other business in in the community the surrounding area when it comes to CDLs uh but if we can find a way that will help retain them put some onus on them before they go through the training in some way to to retain them then I think I think we ought to take that particular opportunity but I can tell you for a fact anybody that that has drivers with a CDL they jump ship all the time you know in a meeting with Roger Albert at one point on um he said he wishes that we would stop recruiting trucking companies because every time we recruit a trucking company they recruit from Reese Albert their truckers so it works both from the private to the economic development when you have a field of need um and CDLs are of need so yes go ahead Brian and I was going to say for uh retention for you

[0:28:40] know a certain group of people uh the city is very attractive it was mentioned before you don't have to go out of town most most of our jobs are Monday through Friday uh if you're a family person or if you just lack a work-life balance there are things that we offer here at the city that that you don't get at other places now if you're just going for the money there's no way we're going to be able to correct compete with that but quality of life change we see the news from UPS like last night with that new contract that they just signed I mean there's no way we can compete with with people who are willing to go non-stop in those kind of situations but for those who value work-life balance and value the kind of you know Public Service uh attitude I think we we do we are attractive to a certain group of folks do you know long-haul um truck drivers today are limited to x amount of hours a day so they can't work around the clock the law does not allow that right I think that's where UPS is a little bit different because it's you know there's Seasons 18 wheelers yeah yeah okay so Larry please uh I I'm curious about what we're doing for incentive for the trainers because if I was a trainer and it's five thousand dollars a pop to train a person is there any movement among them to go out and search for another job that pays more well um so those trainers are not getting that money directly because they're doing it uh I think is there an employee biggest one we have is through is through Howard College so that's the cost through Howard College to do it so that person that trains as Howard College is also on salary just like we're trying to create this position so I think I think we'll be competitive there yeah okay any other questions or comments in England would like to make on this item okay so

[0:30:45] um where where are we we're on uh we are finishing up Public Works moving on to Public Services um the big the bulk of the increase there is in the parks department for addition of the Chadbourne Street maintenance program in the Chadbourne streetscape and then there was a decrease that offset that for the Nature Center so it's down a little bit at 916 916 decrease any questions on that line okay so um development services um had a new planning Tech added you'll remember that you approved a conversion of one position to two positions and there was a slight cost associated with that and then there um also a from loyalty pay they had a an employee with tenure transferred into their department so there was a little bit of an increase for that as well neighborhood and Family Services is up due to code salaries and animal services salaries health is up just slightly let's go back for a minute because I and this might not be the appropriate time to talk about it but Animal Services we keep getting lots of questions and comments and issues on animal services so are we going to dig in further into detail in this category or is this it we we can't dig in as deep as you'd like I think Morgan is here if you have other questions or concerns yeah I think the council has some questions and some concerns so that would be good Morgan just stepped out but they're gonna go grab her there's nothing worse than going to the restroom and then finding out you need to come back without a panic we planted that how it works now you want me to move on to the couple

[0:32:56] more and when she gets back or do you just want to wait a few minutes wait I doubt that'll be that long you know what all is in development services all the categories hold on I have a list here maybe the top five there are four categories under their budget or Administration planning GIS and permits and inspections so how's the head Camp Brenda if you don't mind me how's the head count in planning and permits for John I mean because the number one thing I heard when I came on at 17 was the lack of head count to get things done and it's a turnover issue yeah I don't know off top of my head I have the exact numbers but we have about 25 employees uh total four of those are in GIS five in planning about 14 15 and permits um and then at the admin and development services uh that the front line folks I think we have four in that so how many holes do you have in there right now what's your what's your what's your head count or what's supposed to be your head count I think right now unless I'm missing something I think we only have one vacancy at the moment uh there's been something we've recently filled a couple um so well the other issue Tom and and is that we have gone to a system where more things are supposed to be submitted online unless about people coming in with the plans in hand and sitting there and going over it the question mark is has that created any efficiencies that are notable or is it just a different

[0:34:59] process but it hasn't changed efficiencies or time that is required I the way I would answer that it hasn't created efficiencies in terms of now we need fewer people um it's just changed the role we have people now who process the online we have a software person that that does some of the online application processing versus you know a few years ago it would have been somebody at the counter helping helping someone um it has over the last eight or ten years total but especially in the last three or four since we've rolled out the online applications that has generally reduced our time frames for reviews that's a little higher right now it they reduced and then over the last year it's increased a little bit we're still processing things faster than we did say five six seven years ago but it's a little slower than it was say two years ago but a a large part of that is attributable to the online applications and the online reviews well just I was in there last week in and out you know no gripes complaints everything was quick and efficient and I left there going I don't know what it was then from a personal experience but I know you walked in there you got it they filled out the form and you were in and out and I'm just hoping the steps that we did like Brenda says make you more efficient and expedited some I don't know if we ever councilman Tom Thompson might have speed no idea nope didn't know me from a large load of hay so it was all good thank you John the other questions for John okay Morgan is here now yeah I think we've all received this email chain of the Jackson Street scenario and it's very concerning and so I think Council has said to me we need to talk

[0:37:03] about that because that scenario was was not good and we know that there's a problem with people relinquishing their animals at a greater level than they've ever done before all cities have found that their animal shelters are at capacity and then people say well the no kill thing isn't working so the question mark is it or is it not and how do we ensure that the episode that happened this past week doesn't happen again so I think there are a number of policies and and items included in traditional no-kill language that don't always make sense in every Community right and so I think what's really important about our staff and our team is we stay up to date on the latest like data proven towns like us what are they doing to offer life first right it's not intended to say we're going to shut down until we make sure we hit 90 percent it's our plan to make It's Our intention to make policies that serve this community well that serves San angeloans well we are operating with limited resources like like all City departments and I recognize um that that everyone's asking for additional budget additional people um but that is we're very limited we have four Animal Services officers to cover our community um all we're a growing community of a hundred thousand citizens and their pets and we cover almost 60 square miles of uh area to patrol and respond to calls for service the um and we respond 365 days a year we go to all bike cases cruelty cases police assist fire assist we go to those around the clock any if it's a Sunday afternoon if it's a Monday at two o'clock in the morning those are calls that we're at with four Animal Services officers so I

[0:39:07] think what contributed to the case at North Jackson was limited staff limited availability in that response we do of course have the animals in custody now I have no expectation that they're going back to that household in that area um the it's largely driven by the resources we have available for the response time calls for service for animal related items are up 50 percent um year over year it's um it's a it's an issue that gets a lot of attention and gets a lot of calls to our area to our division that we don't always have the resources to cover so the very first time we had a report of a bite we were of course there within minutes um we do have reports there of the dogs at large a number of times over the summer and we did respond each and every time but when we're at other bite calls there might be a delay in that response and I'm pulling that information now to have really good data to report back to y'all but so far you know we spent all of Sunday all of Monday a good bit of Friday at this location addressing these issues and of course do have the animals in custody questions it Karen good morning I'm curious whether or not the animal shelter has contracts with best friends American Pets Alive or the Haas model which is human animal Support Services and I'm curious because a number of these organizations are being pointed to as as culprits in other communities that have been sued for their policies I can I can name them if it matters El Paso is one there's been an issue in Abilene New York uh but they're a nation

[0:41:10] these are nationwide organizations this is it doesn't have contracts with any of those organizations um as we set policy to to offer life first and then the math is the math right it's not that we're trying to hit this magic number of 90 percent um we are looking at a number of peer cities other organizations what they're pursuing but there's no contracts with with any animal welfare groups the ones you've listed are others uh what about pause your contracted partner do they have contracts with any of these organizations not that I'm aware of but I I really couldn't speak to their legal status I think we would like to know the answer to that because there have been social media posts that indicate that they've received Grant monies or donations from some of these organizations and and it's it's worth our scrutiny we don't have enough information at this point to address it further but I think it's worth knowing meaning that Paul's received Grant monies and you're asking how those Grant monies were utilized yes for example here's a post made by Concho Valley Paws and it says a big thank you to our friends at Best Friends Animal Society for a generous Financial gift of so many thousands a certain number of thousands of dollars so pause is not really under discussion here but we do have a contractual agreement with them so hence my question didn't pause the non-profit it is and and they are entitled to collect money the concern is that some of these organizations are very much Under Fire Across the Nation and they're under Fire because policies programs and policies that have basically failed multi-million dollar lawsuits in some of these communities

[0:43:15] well I you know yes go ahead Tommy um question and then a comment for for from a question for Morgan then I will have a follow-up comment Morgan um didn't we I don't know a year 18 months too whatever approved uh one time I don't know five thousand ten thousand dollars for additional yes we did staff we did a directed Patrol city council funded some overtime for after hours weekend a patrol of certain pockets of town where there were reports of packs of dogs at large the um we fully expended those funds and provided weekly updates to you all of our activity there um problem was that Tommy was that you know what they followed up and sent us reports on specific areas that they went because they were reported and consistently the report came back they found nothing well and that was the report well there was more to it than that but that was part of when they made several calls to the North Jackson situation there was no activity on some of those calls that they made so I'm not discounting anything that happened there but I'm my my really my question is is that something Morgan that was helpful enough when we did that that we should do that again is that something that would be helpful for you would it be something that would need to be let's say a permanent situation or could you then come to us may if it wasn't permanent come to us and say we're seeing certain things happen that we may need some of this assistance with additional overtime so maybe that's something we could consider too if in fact it was I'll say successful enough in your opinion when we did it that it would be helpful again

[0:45:18] sure there were there were a number of weeks that we reported back under that prior program of no activity or no activity at certain neighborhoods but we did have a number of chronic areas that you know the dogs are at large from this specific household each Saturday morning well of course we're not catching that during the week and so we built important relationships in compliance with those households so it's something we could for sure consider you know it goes back to the same issue is the animal shelter and the issue with the aggressive dogs goes back to people people own these dogs people don't control these dogs as long as ownership of pets is not taken as a responsibility by the public we're going to We Can't fund enough these issues because that money that we gave I promise you ninety percent of the reports came back said they didn't find these dogs and that is you know where the dog sense it I don't know but here's what I do know is it's about people taking responsibility we can't increase the shelter large enough we can't increase the staff large enough we can't do a lot of these things if the public doesn't understand their responsibility particularly when it comes to aggressive dogs or feeding cats yes Lucy okay Morgan on these ordinances I think that that was one of the concerns that a lot of constituents have that they're not enforced and we're talking about like the number of dogs that a person may have we're talking about the spayed and neutered ordinance there's a lot of ordinances that are not being followed through do you by any chance have any kind of of reports that have the percentages of the of the citations that have been issued and that

[0:47:20] you have followed through you know after after sanitation is given do these people do what it's supposed to or like how did we track these citations is what I'm asking I can I can pull some reports I I wouldn't be able to speak um to that information today I don't have it with me today um and once they enter the court system um for example there's a property we issued eight citations for tether dog more than two hours and it's going through the lengthy process of a jury trial through municipal court so while it's going through that process and they're having their due time through the court system we can we have to Halt all enforcement until the court hears that first case so I can I can get you all some information on that though and report back well I think that there had been a [Music] we did something that gave a little more power to the municipal court if that's the right word for these citations and making people show up or they lose their animals what was that because I know we tried to address some of the issues with municipal court and animals citations I'm not familiar you just did this last year we got a memo on it I believe it was the speeding up the process through Municipal Court uh eliminating some obstacles so we could quickly get to the court get them in and get them processed I believe that's what it was I think it also doubt if I remember correctly with those people who um were the animal was released into their the owner's hands and had x amount of days to spray or new sprayed neutered and if they didn't within that

[0:49:25] time frame then it went quickly to the courts is that correct that's the backlog that I'm reporting back to y'all quarterly of the volume of unaltered pets returned to owner that were filing through the court um so it's it's instead of writing a citation in front of the person or giving them a warning in 10 days hey you've got to comply with this we can then go back and file uh In Absentia and they get a citation essentially in the mail so it's a filing a complaint that's a new process we did Implement last year but it wasn't a change on the municipal court side and it it wasn't a more Speedy court process it was just an additional allowance that we can cite through the mail in a filed complaint instead of a ticket right in front of the person when we receive the information that the animal shelter is at capacity and we call ourselves a no-kill facility have we I hate to ask for this information but have we had to euthanize a number of dogs and cats with the lack of I mean over capacity issues I don't call us a no-kill facility we have no such assurances we take it day by day Case by case it's Our intention to offer reasonable Resources with the amount that we have available to us and so um as far as achieving a no-kill status that's not even language we really use we try to implement and apply programming that offers life first to animals while still providing for the public safety so we've not yet had to euthanize four space when we do publish a list of a euthanasia list these dogs shall be euthanized by this date if not fostered adopted rescue transferred to date each of those animals has been saved but we of course euthanize regularly for aggression reactivity illness or injury Beyond reasonable treatment

[0:51:31] that hasn't stopped and and will continue well I know this the public constantly and I get these emails believe we're a no-kill facility and they and they say that they use that terminology so and they think that's part of the problem so it's important that you explain that we are not a no-kill facility but what we are is what you just explained and you might explain that again yes it's you know life-saving's a community ethic and we're we're the shelter that this community wants us to be and so to the extent that San angeloans are adopting fostering coming and claiming and reclaiming their pets uh from the shelter then those are live releases that will document as such but to the extent that we do have to euthanize as I mentioned that the math is what the math is we don't make decisions on euthanasia like well I'm not going to euthanize this pet today because it's the end of the year and I'm at 89.9 percent so I want to make sure I hit 90 for the year um each case we used to talk about those numbers well it was a goal and the but the more important goal is that each animal in each family is getting the appropriate Services whether that's enforcement or resources or whatever in between that families are being served well the community is being served well and as a result animals get a chance a reasonable chance at life first questions Larry I wonder if you could talk to your Staffing if you have problems it sounds like there's problems with issuing citations can you talk to that please your Manning sure and I'm sorry to clarify issues with issuing citations you're not police staffed at this moment

[0:53:33] you explained to me before the meeting that you're going to be at 100 percent but is that still adequate I don't know how far that Staffing goes back but the city's grown considerably and I'm curious if we've kept up with the needs sure so the um we are expected to be fully staffed as of September 1st we have some new staff on two new team members onboarding on that day but even at fully staffed of new hires that aren't certified yet um and and as you mentioned we are serving a community of a hundred thousand people we did have an increase to our staffing last year with the additional of an office assistant to be able to better track data but beyond that there's uh the the amount of care for the amount of staff available for direct Animal Care and the number of Staff available to respond to calls for service and Patrol the community have been unchanged for perhaps eight or more years um calls some of them longer than that the animal services Zoe just said the number of Staff available to respond to calls for service have remained flat for better than eight years we added one last year no we added an office assistant to be in-house for admin administrative work the number of folks in the field patrolling responding to call store service is unchanged at four Animal Services officers for at least you can give us statistics then that said over the past five years for example the number of calls service calls asked for is 50 yeah so I think that's what Larry's kind of asking for maybe is what's our history here okay so in in year one we had those many calls for service year two this many calls Etc and then the question mark too because it was brought up before is that Nationwide there seems to be after covid many cities finding that people have

[0:55:38] legal have relinquished their pets and that there's an over pet population now and with that said have those individuals who before would accept some of our animals and we would have a person drive them to that City Etc and I know last year recently you said that those Services have stopped because all cities are feeling the pain of that is that changed as as the Nations embraced offering life first and and pursuing opportunities for animals to be saved in a live release those receiving agencies have dried up we were Aces at it for a number of years we saw any Hoops that those receiving agencies asked to jump through our our staff and our team at Paws did so and so we did see that decline in 2020 and now down to I believe we have one receiving partner that's consistently pulling from our facility whereas it used to be two and three a month with dozens of animals leaving out of our facility so we knew that the transports were higher than the norm higher than the industry standard and it left us vulnerable too when these in receiving agencies dry up what are you going to do and we knew that that was coming yes further question yes Harry first and then Tom Harry you're first appears like I'm seeing more pets on the street generally not aggressive but they're running loose probably gotten out of somebody's yard wherever the case may be shelter's at capacity we're adopting pets out on a regular basis sometimes multiple weekends are we at capacity in San Angelo for the number of

[0:57:42] people that want to adopt and we're you know we're we're still limiting ourselves as an no kill unless it's necessary we're not being able to transport animals outside of San Angelo is it time to think differently about what we're doing and how we're doing it sure and we and we yeah we're absolutely rethinking you know what are our opportunities what tough decisions have to be made but options are down locally return to owner as a percentage or up year over year so they're it's one of many yeah for sure we can absolutely and do can reconsider that regularly Bob I was going to say um maybe it's time to re-look at our processes again we do that uh certain periods of time and maybe it's another one when we first took over the animal services in my department we had a high kill I would reduce that to 50 percent there was still too many animals being killed so we made some changes we try things sometimes they work sometimes they don't maybe it's time just kind of look at our um at our processes now and our policies and maybe we can alter alter a little bit change a little bit and see if we can come over on a hybrid solution to deal with some of those problems now animals lose let me be anecdotal I'm not sure if we have hard data on whether or not there's actual packs of animals running around loose there's no Census count on that say what no Census count on that um so but but the point is I think is there's so there's always time to take a look and open up a dialogue and let's

[0:59:45] let's take a look at it to see if there's things we can change and we're always doing that we are a change agent we try to do things differently if they don't work we change so maybe it's time to do it again um Morgan I think at one point in time how many of the pets you see that you bring into there that you pick off the street are probably repeat offenders if I'm using the right word this year our repeat offenders are quite down quite decreased there are some Usual Suspects that I haven't seen in a good while because we did that case management we invested in that household got him matched with spay neuter low-cost vouchers things like that so this year and I'm sorry I don't I couldn't tell you the exact number but this year 2023 our repeat offenders are uh larger largely decreased from prior years well I think it's good to hear well it's good to hear but I you know number one it's it's an animal they're hard to control they're never at the same spot I mean you can ask the police you can ask Frank anybody if you know hey there's a problem going over here with a group of people by the time you get there that crowd's kind of gone they migrate we get that I thank you for coming up here and giving a report which you were unprepared or you know you didn't have to give but it's it's something we need to look at further down the line and try to help you and assist it but it's still one of the biggest expenses we have and the revenue that you get to provide for that it limits your capability what you can do and we understand that we want to thank y'all for doing a nice job but it sure be great to look at some policies to where we could reduce the repeat offenders and try to maybe hold some owners accountable for what they have I think particularly right now Tom and the rest of council is with this episode on Jackson Street you know lose having one child attacked I mean we always see on the news about an animal that was an aggressive dog bit of family or built a child or attacked a child we don't want to be a community where there's a story about that happening so when we all got this email this over the weekend and

[1:01:51] um about the Jackson Street episode certainly red flags have gone up for all of us and um and even though it was one instance one child being attacked is too many and so we're concerned the public is concerned and yes I'm sorry that you weren't expected to come forward but this recent episode has put a lot of red flags out there and I'm getting lots of emails and text messages from people about what are you doing why aren't we managing this why does this happen so we as counsel have to have some answers and some information to share with the public and so today was necessary to ask those questions in a public format so that people have the information you've provided and the questions have been asked by Council that are necessary may as well I can tell you right now as far as conscientious I mean I think Morgan and thank you Tom for saying that um Morgan's a very conscious individual she does really good work I know the challenges are there and with her coming in my office used to receive calls every week emails every week and those have pretty much gone away these are the occasion occasional situations that we face is like this weekend you know where you have a packet of animals and they're responding and trying to do the job that they can the best they can but um I just didn't want it to move on until I had an opportunity to say that Morgan's doing a great job and I do appreciate her with the resources that she has or the lack thereof I know in the past couple of years we've put more resources toward the animal shelter to make sure to make sure that it it runs better that it has what it needs from the ventilation system to just pretty much everything that uh that needed a lot of work for the past several years so Council thank you for doing that but again I just wanted to make sure that as we move on uh I know that that she's

[1:03:54] doing the best work Morgan's doing the best work she can at this point with the resources she has and we do appreciate you for that Morgan thank you for the work that you're doing yes and I think all of us so probably received fewer emails than when we did in 2017 when we really had a crisis on our hands some of you as new council members don't know that time period but there was a time period when it was really really really bad so it is not to diminish your work and your effort and your review of the issues so don't take this conversation as a criticism but as an opportunity to better explain to the public what you're doing why you're doing it what you're looking at Etc and unfortunately one instance where a child's safety was at risk brings up lots of questions and I think you've addressed those I'm sure we'll hear from the public again today on our questions and answers Etc we're here to help support but your work and effort is dynamically different than it was in 2017 and the the issues that existed out there so we've made progress but as they always say that's yesterday now what are you doing tomorrow and so that's really what we're saying today is a lot of progress but what are we doing tomorrow to continue to improve the situation and that's really the question any other questions or comments thank you for coming forward I'm prepared did you want to add one more thing because you sound like you did thank you so much the although we've changed a number of policies and done so much research our main goal over the last six years has been to professionalize the department that my team members are trained and educated so that they have the necessary information and discernment so that there are less complaints coming to you that they have the latest information that they are sharp individuals and they invest heavily in their job and they

[1:05:56] hear this they hear this feedback from y'all and so I I appreciate the continued investment I appreciate the direction and support and I have a number of deliverables that I'll certainly get back to y'all you always do thank you okay let's see we were now moving into Health oh any other questions on neighborhood um Family Services none so we move into health slightly that's due to just real allocation of salaries as the grants that they receive fluctuate government is down seventy eight thousand dollars that's due to the conversion of a position out of that grouping and into the administration line um and then Administration is up 434 000 140 000 plus of that is due to the increase in the contract with the appraisal district um the remainder is due to is that negotiable that is not negotiable we did immediately I was asking we didn't meet with Tyler Mayer and that's a good point um one thing that I did ask of him is that he needed to reduce that amount of the 140 000 he did go back and review his budget and I believe he had reduced it for by a certain number by 65 000. but Tina there was a requirement uh the from the state uh that caused him to actually raise the amount he had he had rolled over 65 000 then um he had to actually raise that amount back up and said actually it's going to be a little bit more than what I was requesting I understand that they have a new requirement to have an election for three additional board members and so according to Tyler that's going to cost an additional 75 000 into his budget to run that election so the public will vote on those three additional people that's what I understand yes ma'am so do people campaign for these jobs main or what happens because it's an election which means somebody's got to

[1:07:58] put their name out there to be voted on that the state set that loss so all right so with that the balance of that board happens to be people we vote on as a council for x amount of positions so the three elected will go into effect when when's that election when do they go into effect I did not get that information from Tyler but I can follow up and find that out for you and then the question would be those three elected officials what Authority do they have over the ones that are appointed are they superior to the appointed ones I'll get some time with Tyler I'm sure he understands how it works and we can get a memo or something out to you to help you understand it but the nature that some are elected by the public some are appointed by us one would assume some of the elected would have priority over the others Tom your smiling so you're thinking something that you need to be vocal about maybe not Tommy's going to be campaigning they were questioning the I would say accuracy and authenticity of the numbers that were given to discuss and we're just going to leave that alone at this point and forty thousand or what do you mean we're talking about the numbers The Source we were getting for the numbers yeah yeah so we're good all right so 140 000 out of the 434 what's the ballots so um a hundred thousand of that is related to the position for the finance enterprise software that you all approved last year again that's offset by the decrease in the government line and then the balance is contractually obligated increases to software type contracts throughout all the Departments questions for Tom you're smiling again so something's going on now I don't know what it's going to strike me I think man okay well then you talk Tommy so no I'm not oh no I'm not going to bother him

[1:10:02] we're good with this slide okay then um asterisk transfers okay so transfer is out I have a breakdown right here on this next slide um the intergovernmental line again is due to the cops grant that 320 000 is no longer being transferred out and fully in the general fund about a hundred and fifty thousand dollars decrease in support to Fairmount Cemetery in Fort Concho again that's related to the fees that you adopted earlier this year which lessens the impact on the general fund and requires less support to those funds all right one of the questions that or one of the things that we always talk a lot about is the percentage Public Safety represents to the general fund um the last time I think we looked at that number it was 54 of the total sales tax and property tax dollars is that right Daniel sounds correct I know that Public Safety has more than 50 percent of the I think it was always it's been a choice so can you give us a history on that Kimberly's created a quick chart on that while we've been chatting and it looks like it it stays fairly around the same percent over over the last 10 years with the general or other other than public safety remaining between 42 to 44 every year and then you know police and fire again just a steady trend line increasing as we give raises I think that yeah I think the number we always refer to as police and fire as a percentage to the general fund she is creating that right now you want to take a break while she's looking for that let me ask a question sure I want a little more clarification on the fort Concho situation since we're taking a hundred thousand dollars out of that budget I'm a little biased because I was on that board before I was a

[1:12:04] councilman but I needed I need to have a clearer understanding what that is and why it is so because their fees increased they're able to better support themselves as a fund and require less support from the general fund so we are supplementing them less Mr Blue heart [Music] I think uh Bob can also speak to the State Office Building and that debt falling off as well yeah their total budget is not going down to clarify we are just sending less from the general fund so their revenues increased in the fund so the offset some of their expenditures good morning mayor council um there are many ways to address this so if I may let me give you a brief overview and then we can take questions um 97 000 is a lot of money and I will admit it's more of what I saw in my draft budget of several months ago so I'm a little surprised the fee increases that Council approved uh recently are going to take at least a full fiscal year to have an effect the fee increases for the rentals of the buildings which is a good income source for us we are already at 50 percent capacity for fiscal 24. so we're only going to get a piece of that so fiscal 25 would be the first year but those fees would come in in full Christmas event we were authorized to increase two dollars across the board for admissions and for the um vendors but again we're tied to previous information that's out there we have thousands of rack cards that still have

[1:14:08] the old rates and so we're going to have to defer that until 2024. now the bottom line is the bottom line we can make the budget work if we're allowed to do a little value engineering and if we're allowed to look at the state fund which is one of our Revenue sources and I can work with the budget office and with Finance but I will admit this is a larger hit than I was anticipating no fault no criticism but I just need some time to work that out what were you anticipating the impact would be not the 97 000 60 65 545 and that number was before we included the fee increases and that number was of course predicated on the full implementation of that for fiscal 24 which I've explained that is not going to occur so if and again no criticism here there's a lot of back and forth on this the forts budget is a complicated array of earned income donations rental and a lot of variables but if I'm allowed to work with the budget office and finance office and with the state fund we can close the gap on this and relatively make it work but I just want Council to know that those fee increases are not an automatic October 1 fiscal Nirvana it just doesn't work that way correct it's actually good in that in fiscal 24 we're already 50 booked congratulations good that's good but it doesn't work that when you raise fees it automatically just clicks in on that October one so I should be around for fiscal 24 I should be around for fiscal 25 so hopefully we can make that work then Harry would you like to recommend that we add back into his budget forty thousand

[1:16:09] that's my recommendation uh it is in my district also so you know I want to do everything we can do to make sure that we're successful at Fort Concho uh it's one of the biggest Assets in the city best restored for west of the Mississippi and I just want to continue to invest in that that organization so that is that recommendation you have a comment I understand the recommendation but I think that what Bob talked about working with the finance department is a good solution instead of going 40 000 right now we know that there will be an impact with a fee increase it won't be October 1st but it'll be throughout the whole year right Daniel we can work with Bob to probably just supplement that with the State Office Building funds that are freeing up so we can definitely work with him so we don't need to change it they're going to figure out a way to solve it Harry thank you for bringing that up thank you Bob thank you unless there's other questions for Bob counsel any for the questions or comments it is an important part of our history and it's part of our authentic Financial which I'm talking a lot about authentic experiences and that is one we appreciate your support and I'm by Nature rather cheap so I will not overspend the household budget so if all of you have an upcoming event book a facility okay you need two of you are members so the others Saddle Up mm-hmm well um this is all we have for the number so if you did want to take a quick break this might be a good time to do it before we get into well you were going to give us the percentage on oh okay Byron please she has it manually I can just read them off if you want we don't have a slide for it is that or we can break and Frank and add it to the slides whichever is most efficient probably that that way he can get it loaded up let's take a break let's take a 12 minute break maybe we will call Lucy are you ready to call this back to order I'm so sorry you're not through with a conversation

[1:18:13] with Karen I'm Randy you're ready we'll pass notes she's busy funding the Arts okay okay so it's 10 18 um we're gonna move forward and continue with this conversation so what page oh okay go ahead mayor this is just that showing that trend line of increases to the budget over the past 10 years the blue line is PD the red line is the fire department and the green line is everything else the spike in 2015 I believe is due to implementing the seal cope program is the only thing I can think of in that year but other than that it remains pretty steady over time I know what bar chart and you are referring to and so we can get that out to you all in a packet um I think the important statement is that with the end because people ask about the dollar increases in some of these categories but the important part is is that our Revenue has grown at the same level or more or same level as the budget increases in various categories so the percentages are not changing they're maintaining and that's right that's the key yes okay okay good all right okay so the next slide would be what's already included um WIC peer counselor that is fully Grant funded but we just pointed out because it will be in addition to the FTE total count and then we're including for police year three of the body camera contract which is just over seventy thousand dollars and that will be included in the original budget so here's the total revenue and total expenditure comparison for the general fund you'll see that bottom line there marginal revenue is just over 1.8 million dollars and here's the street infrastructure fund mayor that you asked about earlier showing that the revenue and expenditure budget for next year are 443 thousand dollars which is an increase of forty

[1:20:15] one thousand dollars we have expect by this fiscal year end to have built up to about seven hundred and forty thousand dollars and so that will be added on top of it um to date they haven't spent very much out of that fund so that is continuing to build up well and that's the key that was the intent to have it in case we have any projects projects or something happens that there's some money there that we can tap into so it it's it's functioning like we and wanted it to okay okay and here's where we get to Department requests or considerations for Council the police department has requested a new taser system I won't speak to that I will let them about how that works and what that is if you have questions about it I'm sure people have questions about that oh okay fine it says Police Department request tasers but what's the dollar amount what are we talking about how many um I think the first so it's a five-year um a great proposal and the first year is about in the 450 000 range and years two through five I think we're like 778 thousand dollars per year and for how many and what do we have now I need one of the Chiefs to come talk about that that was 778 000 a year yeah I'm going to pull up the actual proposal let me get you the correct numbers here okay so we currently have tasers is that correct yes ma'am we do um Tracy Fincher sapd what this is is we currently have a five-year contract with the Exxon body camera taser program what this is is an upgrade of the tasers

[1:22:17] we have in a continuation of the five-year contract for another five years is what we're talking about so it's no more tasers same amount of tasers as you currently have it may be a few more for growth that we added in there basically we have three different types of tasers that we're maintaining some of them are running out of warranty out of service this is a new the latest taser that's came out it's a 10 shot taser and we want to replace all of the older ones with the new taser system Chief Fincher go please go ahead somebody has a question she ventured do the do the tasers tie in with with the with the body cameras they will activate Okay body camera um there's several things that will activate a camera but the taser will there's also a program I would like to eventually get that when you unholster your firearm it activates it also but that's down the road okay okay all right good thank you so the request that dollar amount if you'll repeat it Tina so in the first year the fee is 416 000 but there's an offset of 178 000 that first year um and I don't know they're giving us credit for something I'm not sure I believe they're taking the old tasers back I'm not positive though I don't have that that might be what that is and then you know there's 178 000. so 416 minus 178. I Michael can you do math that fast it's 238 000 difference okay um so that's the first year and then years two through five I was correct are at 778 000. um the total price tag over the five-year period is three million three hundred fifty thousand 715 dollars repeat that number three million three fifty Seven fifteen just to clarify that's for the entire

[1:24:27] axon system that's body cameras and car cameras video evidence all of our storage for body camera videos pictures everything we do is captured in this system and that's that's not just tasers it's all of the axon system so what's currently in your budget to to pay for this stuff is there anything in your budget I don't know I don't do budget no there's nothing currently in the budget so this would be 3.5 million over a five-year period so 700 000 annually basically starting in FY 25 yes yes please Lucy tasers are we talking about I believe it's around a hundred because it's a hundred tasers or a hundred systems it individual body systems this is a taser upgrade added to a five-year existing contract in another five-year contract for everything it's a complete system body camera in-car camera evidence storage the whole nine yards it's not just a taser system and I'm sorry I looked at this and just thought tasers and in my prep I thought it was just taser am I so I want to ask that one how often do we tell you somebody it's it's gone way down um I could pull that down I don't have it images yeah yeah roughly they have a variety of use of force options and that's up there a little bit on the force but it it does prevent officer injury as well as suspect injury

[1:26:31] so are we coming to the end of an existing contract yes ma'am and when does that contract end 25. so we still are covered in 23-24 budget that's correct so we don't have to do anything for this year but we would have to in the 24-25 budget next year so this is a heads up beware that this is coming forward well I think the impact would be that 238 000 that you calculated for the current fiscal year Well it wouldn't if one was 178 000 to replace the 416 it wouldn't be I think they're terminating the existing agreement early and moving into this new agreement understanding that's correct it would in one year early and start a new five-year it's not required um we were trying to do that in order to get on with the new tasers and the new in-car video cameras but it's still 3.5 million so it would start in this year so the 238 000 would start in the 23-24 budget year and you'd move into 700 000 in the 2425 budget so what you're asking for right now is 238 000 if we agreed to end this contract early budget or we could live leave leave the existing contract as it is and budget the 238 000 and 23 20 I mean 24.25 yes those are your options no he said it's not required but yes those are the options so question Chief Fincher is the systems are tied together the camera uh in in the vehicle uh computer system in the in the taser so is that an upgrade to the to your computer system as well or is this no

[1:28:36] okay we have actually applied for a Federal Grant that would upgrade those okay yes Lucy is this the same company that we're going to renew the Contra if we were to go ahead and approve it are we doing this with a different company or are we staying with the same company it's the same same color okay so really if we waited till 24 25 it would be the same company is going to be doing giving us the same service as they are today that's correct okay okay so right now we can leave it as it is let's continue to move through the additional slides and then we can come back and I guess decide totally what we want to do when we hear everything yes Tom so do we lose the opportunity if we don't do it this year on the 238 no sir we won't lose it can you make it a seven year contract instead of a five I mean 778 every year is a pretty big bite it is um talk about I mean we've talked about this in many categories if you spread that out it's not near the beat on the fund we would have to get with the company and see if they're willing to spread it further I think five is about the max they go I could be wrong on that any other questions or comments this is real quick mayor on the the life of the tasers Chief I mean how long did it last that that's a good question I I think they're under warranty for three years I'm not a taser instructor um we have some that are 10 years old that are that are just at the end of their life cycle um we can each year what we've done and we bought new tasers every year and

[1:30:39] that's been a part of this this uh contract is buying new tasers to the tune of thirty thousand um or so each year because we have to to get new ones each year for the questions okay thank you thank you next next stop the fire department requests uh they are requesting continuation of the peak hours ambulance um which we are again recommending one-time funding source of the charity care money that they receive and then the annual fire truck replacement contribution also recommending getting some one-time funding for them for this year and then looking at increasing that annual allotment in next fiscal year I thought we always had in the budget a dollar amount like 250 000 for fire truck replacement yes ma'am and we still do um I guess Chief Brody is saying of course that is not I'm going as far as it used to and and replacing fire trucks but we do have it we still do yes ma'am okay so the question is traditional on top of that what is that additional request because we do have 250 000 in the budget for a fire truck replacement good morning Council mayor morning um y'all heard me come up here and talk about this before uh we cash flow or fire trucks and we've done that for a little over 15 years and that dollar amount that allocation has not been adjusted and that since the Inception of that program so 15 years ago a fire truck cost about 250 000 so the schedule was by by truck by truck take a year off and that by taking that year off you accounted for vehicles that had a higher cost value other than that 250 000 example rescue truck and a ladder truck very expensive apparatus so that schedule was working great until inflation has been beating us up especially over the last year brought to council a couple months ago the purchase

[1:32:44] of a new engine eight hundred and fifteen thousand dollars and uh number one I was sticker shocked when I got that price but with the current allocation of 250 000 a year it's going to take three and a half years to purchase one vehicle we have 10 fire trucks in our Fleet and just basic math three years ten trucks 30 years to replace a vehicle 30 years a fire truck is going to be 30 years old before it is set to be replaced we have two trucks coming up that are scheduled for replacement the National Fire Protection Agency and FPA so they recommend 10 years on a fire truck in 15 years on a on the ladder truck we've pushed that out sorry we've pushed that out because of our maintenance program and our decrease of our lower call volume we've pushed that out as far as we can 15 years on an engine and 20 years on a ladder so we have two trucks coming up for re replacement rescue truck which it is 12 13 years old as of today and in 2025 it'll be 15 years old and that truck's about 1.3 million dollars ladder one which is a 2010 it's also 13 years old it is set at a 20-year replacement so in 2031 or 20 20 30 that truck will be set to renew and it'll be close to 2 million dollars dollar amount right now to replace that truck's about 1.5 1.6 million so escalation in the next five to seven years is going to push lighter One's price over 2 million so backing backing out from those dates but of 2025 I'm going to need at least 1.3 to 1.5 million to replace rescue one in 2030 I'm in need about 2 million dollars to replace engine or lighter one and at 250 000 we won't make it so my recommendation is to raise the capital allocation to 300 000 a year by 300 000 raise it 300 000 a total of

[1:34:48] 550 000 in three years we'll have 1.5 for rescue one it'll be slightly behind schedule and then by the time we get to 2030 we should be very close to having the funding for later one correct depending upon inflation there's been some big contributing factors that rise the cost of fire trucks number one uh this happened probably about five to no probably longer that about seven to eight years ago EPA regulations okay everybody knows that a diesel engine now has to have death in it uh diesel exhaust fluid every fire truck every ambulance every vehicle owns to be legal just to be legal correct so all of these EPA requirements that did nothing but it added about 100 to 150 000 to the cost of a fire truck well this last year not only did we get beat up by inflation we also had another contributing factor uh accident avoidance safety features built into every single fire truck if you go out and buy a new Ford pickup today it's got crash avoidance it got it has backup cameras it has steering guidance well all of those safety features have been added to a fire truck too a lot of electronics very often they're just more distracting than they are so so everything comes on and you're like well you're right some of those safety features are distracting but all that is done is continue to raise the price of a fire truck so what do you have accumulated right now in terms of dollars because we purchased uh just a few months ago we just finished purchasing another vehicle we have about if I guess about thirteen thousand dollars sitting in that account the you cleaned it out yes ma'am and it was scraping nickels together to pay for this new engine and then it's a uh the vehic the engine that we just replaced is 17 years old it's behind schedule but we're trying our very best to keep our Fleet as new as possible as your Fleet ages so does your cost to maintain that Fleet something we've discussed mayor is with

[1:36:50] some of these bigger ticket Capital Public Safety items is implementing um what the city used to have as a rolling debt plan and so moving those expenses off of the m o rate and into the ins rate and so that's something we could certainly bring back and you know towards the beginning of the fiscal year and see if Council would want to consider something like that as well to to help cover when we're having our hands tied on the m o side by the state to help cover those expenses that we still need to provide for Public Safety it sounds like a good game plan I think I'm a little ignorant about exactly how that works in terms of moving it from one place to the next and creating funds to pay for these which sounds like a great plan I just think we need it better explained in the statistics to show how that works yes and as I said we we've had that plan in place before here at the city and so we could have Vince come in and kind of explain to the city council how it works and what it does to our debt capacity and what it does to our ins right as well does that apply also to the police ask as well okay so it would be it'd be something we could look at for addressing the police and the fires request yes ma'am and so if if we want to do that I would recommend giving some one-time money for the fire truck for this year and then looking into that for the next fiscal year so you're all right so that would mean asking for 250 000 more added to the budget that into a one-time Source such as marginal sales tax or other marginal revenue all right I just want to keep in mind we have a lot of things that everybody's using marginal sales tax and funds for so we have Grant requests out there that are going to require four million dollars if in fact we get the Grant and that's just one grand alone that will require that yes and then we have the big grant that Shane has applied for there will be a match request on that as well so I get it but I also understand the things we've already applied for that we're going to be obligated if we get

[1:38:53] them to these funds so if council is amendable to The Rolling debt plan when we bring it back there's no reason we couldn't do it sooner rather than later and just wait until then to allocate that money to the fire department and to the police department so doing nothing now if you're open to that and having that discussion and seeing how it would work Council like that do you understand it it doesn't change our interest income off this does it like interest income yeah so like if we Bank the money which we've got in a fund and we're earning interest on that it doesn't change it by moving it back and forth correct no if anything it brings more cash into our combined funds and earns a little bit more interest you know depending on cash flows I think it sounds like a plan I don't understand it totally so I need to see it on paper to better understand it but obviously it provides the financing and the funds for the requests okay yeah we'll get together with Vince and bring something back um pretty quickly further but yes okay thank you other considerations or requests have to do with the Ada program so Teresa I don't want to put you on the spot but do you want to talk a little bit about the coordinator since you are the coordinator currently and well I just want to compliment Teresa number one on the work that she's done on Ada so far she has quickly jumped into this Challenge and this Ada issue and I am very pleased with the work that's done how much you've gotten done in a short window of time and how much time and energy you have spent on understanding the complexity and the needs attached to that so I want to thank you for that because I a lot on top of what you're doing thank

[1:40:57] you yeah I appreciate that I mean I am very proud that I got my coordinator certificate in three months when they give you three years so I do want to brag on that a little bit um you know I have a lot of conversations with the Ada committee that you guys designated as well as some members of the community regarding an ADA coordinator and at this time I'm not sure what a full-time Ada Coordinator would do can I use more help absolutely I mean could I do more if I had a person absolutely but I think at this point in time we seem pretty stable as far as the Ada is concerned I know that I get a lot more questions from staff they bring a lot more things to me which makes me know that they are more aware of what the requirements are and that they're thinking about these things you know on the front end of projects as well I had coffee with Larry and Kim Henry the other day and Kim and I are working on doing combined training together for the business Community Brian is has agreed Kim doesn't know this yet but Brian has agreed to do videos with for that so that we can post it on channel 7 so we can kind of get ahead of some of the issues that we don't directly have input into but that could provide good education for other people as far as a budgetary request I did request a legal assistant that would focus primarily on the Ada but then would also assist um with other aspects of my office such as public information requests that were increased but as far as the full-time Ada coordinator at this point in time I'm not sure but you really want an additional staff member that would be a legal assistant as well as a support in the Ada category but also support the city clerk's office relative to public information request is that correct I have some support for the city clerk's office but really it's my office that processes a lot all of the the things that go out for an opinion from the Attorney General's office primarily body cam takes a lot of time to review those processes and review the video and get the video although we're working with PD to make some of that a little bit more efficient they have a direct line to download videos now which was taking a lot of bandwidth from my legal assistance computers when they were

[1:42:58] trying to do that but primarily the Ada position that I asked for would focus on more of the clerical things related to the Ada coordinator they would would watch the complaint line and they would organize those sorts of things we are in the process right now of securing somebody to help us with the transition plan once the transition plan is put in place I think there will be a lot more day-to-day stuff that would need to be done by an ADA coordinator so I would a full-time coordinator so I would encourage everybody to consider that again next year to see where we are on that but you don't need that now not I don't think a full-time position is necessary now no good to hear okay thank you and then the Ada curb cut program is something I think did you already speak to that did I miss it no but I've been talking with Shane um and Daniel about an ADA curb cut program it is one of the Department of Justice things that they ask you when they come into your city and they're doing an investigation do you have a curb cut program it is in the information that people are submitting online to us this is the number one concern is that there aren't curb cuts at places like apartment complexes where there's a bus stop or even buy our own pool and currently there is not any money specifically dedicated to that Shane and I have talked about it and he has supported the idea that we would create some sort of program for that so when that issue came up we could look at it but I'll let him talk about a lot of the details if you'd like and I've looked around just a little bit and there are some cities that have curb cut programs where it's a partnership where the adjacent property owner pays for the materials but the city provides the labor that would make sense because obviously apartment complexes are required to be ADA Compliant as well correct or other businesses if you will and so it would make sense to partner with people to make these curb Cuts happen in Partnership and covering some of the costs yes ma'am and what we were looking at

[1:45:00] that's kind of starting off this year would be to designate a fund basically that we can put um some funds in to to actually start covering some material costs for the city because you know we will at some point probably work with the business community and some of those as well to try to partner as best we can right now though I mean we're kind of it's one of those as we're transitioning into a program I think having some dedicated funds and we were looking at maybe 200 000 to start from materials but creating its own funds so if we don't use those funds if if all those those requests don't come in we don't utilize all those funds they're carried over into that same fund year after year so that one they're dedicated to that program and for that program and so that's kind of what we were looking at from there not actually and trying to absorb it this first year or two in with our existing staff and not create basically another burden for the city with more staff but that's kind of that's kind of where we were starting and kind of what we were looking at to kind of get a program started and so that was our recommendation as we were moving forward into into this year and really 200 000 is just an arbitrary number Shane really doesn't have a good grasp of what that really looks like at this point until we start getting all the the requests in and and we start formalizing this more and more we don't necessarily know how much product it's going to take or how much uh time or labor is going to take to actually get around to all of the all of the requests that we believe that we may get we we are starting to see with with more um here here of recent with uh uh with um I guess the more media attention or the more attention that's been focused on that we are starting to get more requests out there we are starting to see especially around um the bus stops in those areas like that where we are seeing problems um we've got one on board guard right now that just came in the other day and so

[1:47:03] uh working with that we're also working with cvtd to try to address some of those issues and and maybe even change some of the placement of the bus stops to to make it more um a common I don't even know if they're accommodation yeah uh accommodating uh for those needs uh we we have a couple of areas uh over there well close to the Village shopping centers where this one area came in and where the bus stop is is on a very narrow uh Little Island and so it's not accommodating uh for accessibility and so again working with cvtd and also uh with the the neighboring Property Owners to try to create something that is more accommodating um and and get these curb ramps in place if if they're necessary if not then look at other accommodations as well I think certainly on property that the city owns and Facilities that we own we bear that cost Etc the question mark is for example if you're talking about apartment complex as we're trying to address Ada issues I would assume that those apartment complexes too legally have to be addressing the Ada issues which isn't on our back but it's on there by back correct on their property as well but as they are trying to connect their properties in in this one this one um I'm not sure I guess it was complaint and or a um and or an Ask uh for to help accommodate was from the apartment complex over there in that area as they are redoing their sidewalks in their area around their buildings to um to be more accommodating than you know they they had asked the city because of how how it set up the actual bus stop is across the street yeah and so they were asking if we could come in and help put in the curb Cuts they're on the street to get to the ramp um however that even at that that didn't really make sense with the how it was how it was was constructed originally and so we're working with them to try to to try to move it back on adjacent to their property as well and work through

[1:49:06] issues like that but again I think that's one of those where we may have to come in there and whether we do a curb cut now and place a ramp or we look at how we actually have the actual bus stop set up those are improvements that we need to make within our right-of-way uh to help accommodate those and again that's what this it was basically an arbitrary number that we threw out for material because we don't know how many requests we don't know what those requests are and um again just trying to start a program and again that's why we wanted to or my suggestion was to create its own fund that way those daughters would automatically roll over every year and so they would be used strictly for that program well I want to make sure at the mpo because we keep talking about adding more bus station bus stop shelters Etc that we do a better job if you will working or that the council Valley Transit really looks at the Ada issues as we select locations for that so we don't end up with this Oddity that is obviously not correct yes ma'am and and it's and it's one of those that that bus Stop's probably been there for 50 years and so that's I know that's where it's been and so but you know it's just Logistics and moving that from this block over to this next block and and things like that that'll be more accommodating for especially folks with disabilities okay I would like to add one more thing that I think we're doing a better job of indicating in projects when there are funds that are being allocated to upgrades that do affect the accessibility of projects I know there was one recently that you approved that they completely separated out those components and all of the new streets projects we have you know if I don't see it I always ask you know what part of this is ADA compliance are we doing sidewalks are we doing curb Cuts whatever but then also I've had a number of comments from the community that they would like to offer suggestions but they don't really like it being termed as a grievance so on our website we now have a new form that Brian created that

[1:51:10] allows people just to give us suggestions basically so if you don't want to file formal grievance with the city because that is confrontational then there is an opportunity for people to go to the Cosa TX dot us backslash Ada and there is a box where you can just give us a suggestion okay questions yes Tom I agree with you on everything the curb Cuts it's fine but and setting the money putting the place marker that that we will and will not spend but I I don't want the taxpayers to Bear the burden of commercial real estates things they need to do I don't want to share that at all Shane I mean if if I don't want anybody to look at this and go oh well I'll get the city to pay for that you know on Commercial adjustments and cuts that's their own burden that shouldn't be buried by all the citizens of San Angelo correct and this would just be specific areas within our right-of-way that we would that we would look at and and be working with either a commercial property uh and or even a private property owner if it's not a commercial business to uh to work with them again only in the right of way we would definitely not ever touch a personal private property okay thank you all right next page just a reminder here that the budget and property tax levy ordinances will be introduced on September 7th and final adoption on September 19th final slide for this part of the presentation is of course marginal revenue coming in at just over 1.8 million dollars staff is proposing a three and a half percent across the board salary increase for our employees [Music] okay you know where and maybe I see it in a minute here but where do we discuss health insurance we usually discuss it on this slide but I'll let Brian speak to that so um as part of the budgeting process we we when

[1:53:14] we entered our budget we entered what we where we thought we were going to be and we've had some some good years and so it is there's actually no requests for additional funding at this time but I will say what I said last year and I know you are not asking for guarantees but past performance doesn't guarantee that next year is going to be you know a a good year or or whatever so there there might eventually be a time where I'm going to come to y'all mid-year and say the fund is struggling but at this time we're not asking for any additional okay so in my opinion the 3.5 percent increase across the board is really good and i would support it and I think it's kind of cut and dry I think is good questions comments I do have a question um I think we would all have a preference to do more but that that we're doing what we can within the means that we have my question would be Brian are there any soft dollar or low lower cost benefits that we could we could consider that um you know we're not seeing here that that you have thought about maybe we might offer yes sir actually sounds like a loaded question unless there's been this conversation beforehand it is so it is right it is loaded because I asked the question last year um so yeah it is a loading I told Brian I was going to ask him again this year so it is a loaded question it is and um so I appreciate the sentiment I think you know I think as people who sign up for public service we understand that we've got to live within uh the means of the city and so um I think we all understand we're

[1:55:15] grateful for for what you're proposing here um I would you know from my position acknowledge that um we look at Willis Towers Watson looks at this information about raises over time and so does world at work reporting and for the State of Texas I'm sorry who are they that you talked about um they're a group that is used by public sector Personnel Consultants I met with um Matthew Weatherly because again we don't necessarily want to spend money on Consultants but when I have access to one I'm going to try to bump in for information so when we were at the uh at the tmhra convention I grabbed him and kind of stole some of his time and asked him about some of these questions that might come up that was back earlier in the summer at that time Willis Towers Watson and world at work reporting which are the two groups that monitor wage increases over um you know state by state at least the state level they are they were saying at that time that we're probably looking at about a five percent increase across the state this year and they said that that would likely increase as it gets closer to October um you know that's normally the way that works so I appreciate the sentiment I think we acknowledge that we're probably not going to move the way some other positions are going to move this year so but we are grateful for three and a half percent because I think it when we first heard about the snafu with the with the Tom Green County Appraisal District that a lot of us weren't anticipating anything so three and a half percent is a whole lot better than nothing uh with that being said I do think there are some uh low-cost benefits that you did ask last year and and we had kind of done some research on what other cities are providing um one of the things that I would put forward is to align our city holidays with the Tom Green County holidays I

[1:57:19] think that makes sense from messaging standpoint I think it's a win-win a lot of times what folks they don't really understand the difference between what the county provides and what the city provides and so they might go to County vital statistics to get their birth certificate the county might be closed then they come to city clerk's office I know because I used to be there that that is the second place they go and then they get upset with us because we're open but we can't provide it to them um and so I think from a messaging standpoint there's some there's some there's a win-win there what does that mean uh just that we're close at the same time that the county is so they don't go from building to building trying to figure out and I get that and I think it's well said so I understand that my question is what is the difference in terms of holidays in total if you align with the county are we giving our city employees two more days off or or the county gives what are you saying the the county provides for 13 holidays every year the holidays that they acknowledge that we don't are President's Day and Columbus Day AKA indigenous people's day I think there's some struggle there over how that that holiday should be named they call it Columbus Day we might we might name it as indigenous people's day um but basically it's those two holidays per year and that would be more in line again when we did a benefit survey uh what we found I believe it was 13.3 uh oh it was the average of uh municipalities throughout Texas what do we give currently 11. so so moving to 13 it wouldn't lead the pack but it would be competitive it's a it's a it would be a good benefit I think to add especially in a year where you know we're very limited on raises I think that would be a a great uh thing and if you are supportive of that

[1:59:20] I could get a resolution on the next council meeting to to adopt that and then we would just again just align with the county our messaging would be simple on on I know it would help Brian Groves on questions that he gets as well so and and city clerk's office for sure I would suggest we do that to the council I would suggest we add those two holidays are there more issues uh what the the the second thing that I would recommend basic based again on the benefit survey that we did uh currently we um increase uh your vacation accruals only once it's at five years um a lot of municipalities move more than that like at 10 years and at 15 years they'll they'll change uh I wouldn't necessarily want to make it too complicated just you know maybe one more increase at 10 years um describe how that works so currently if you're with us 10 years you get or if you're with us five years you get why at five years you get three weeks of vacation per year if we were to adopt a full week um then at 10 years you'd get four weeks and again that would that would kind of cement again it's more of a retention tool I think because you've built that up you don't want to leave four weeks a year um I think currently we have whether you're five years or ten years it's just three weeks three weeks the average that that we saw that City again we're not asking for something that's that's going to lead the pack the average we saw was closer to 20 days per year um overall so we're not asking any days for what amount of service I'm sorry 23 23 days per year 23 days for what level of service uh if you're 20 years plus or is it 15 years plus yeah it's usually 15 that that's one and it's usually only three

[2:01:22] it averages out to about three days uh it's different throughout on that last jump I'm not sure why I mean I think five weeks is a lot so I don't think anybody wants to get to five weeks so there's there's another jump that that goes beyond that behind you when you say that I'm sorry well okay maybe some people want to get to five weeks I'm not asking to again I'm not asking to lead the pack but I think if we could move up our accrual at uh at 10 years to one more week that would be a just a tool in our pocket for retention you know I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna say out loud how ignorant I am I didn't know we had that little vacation that that to me candidly is is somewhat embarrassing for our employees um my familiarity in business I realize we're talking uh we're not talking private business but my my familiarity with vacation is you get two weeks and then at five years you get three at ten years you get four at 15 you get five at 20 you get six now that that in in private business is not uncommon at all in the companies that I've worked for so I I'm going to say I would whatever the council would go along with I'll go along with moving up to whatever that that to me is rather appalling what I what I would say is I'm I'm a pretty practical in my Approach um so what I would say is like if you look at Sherm or hrci or a lot of other Publications that kind of watch these sort of things like how how does vacation um how does the increase in vacation relate to productivity and to for US Health claims because I mean other people obviously they have to go to renewals and but it's but we're self-insured so it impacts us you know front line and so I think my question there Brian's already cut you off is so

[2:03:25] because this also plays into it so you're going five years three weeks but you also get an addition to those three weeks 13 days which is another two weeks so legitimately if you take the holidays plus your it's like it's five weeks you're getting as a five-year employee and I know from my experience in public in private business that would never happen you would you would be three weeks up to ten years and maybe three days of because the other thing you're not talking about is is and you probably are going to get there but is how many days do we get do we give for sick pay a sick pay never changes from from the get-go but it starts it starts at three weeks per year so you can also get three weeks a year for sick pay yeah I mean we don't use that as a PTO though I mean that is uh most most everyone is is kind of banking that just hoping that something tragic doesn't happen down the road um I carry that from year to year you carry it from year to year just just in case something happens because I would say most of us don't use anywhere close to I mean we probably use less than a third of that on average per year you have personal days on top of that no we don't know um those are unpaid right I mean I'm sorry sick time and so is your holidays so you're really getting five weeks paid vacation if you will for up to five years year one to year five or not till year five does it start uh I'm sorry your your five is when it increases to the three weeks so the very day you're employed year one you get three weeks no you start earning it or you're talking about

[2:05:28] sick or vacation sorry no um vacation vacation uh when you start you start earning vacation at two weeks per year that doesn't mean you're given two weeks to start off with uh so at the end of that first year you will have earned your first two weeks um so you could take that as soon as you I mean soon as you get through the probationary period at six months you would have one week that you could use but it takes the full year that full first year before you would have earned the two weeks what I would say is um again to just make sure that we're comparing Apples to Apples other City Holiday other cities municipalities like us they do average about 13.3 holidays the sick time is pretty standard across the board um it's you know and then in the vacation are cruel we're we're good all the way up to that five-year even maybe up to 10 year but at 10 years people start to leave us behind so I mean to compare apples to apples uh it's kind of a two-pronged approach but uh you know whatever the council because really what you're looking at then by the time you get to year 15 you're looking at um seven weeks a year with your holidays right so I might have my note I could maybe I can't read my notes but uh with holidays so being 13 days you would have those plus 20 days so you'd have um you'd have 33 at 10 years you'd have 33 days off per year um but again that's you know we would not be leading the pack at that we would be somewhere around competitive it's my view that an employee earns their vacation when they come to work they earn their vacation so and and what I was getting to a second ago I appreciate that um

[2:07:31] you know the studies show that the more vacation time tends to positively impact the organization from productivity uh from retention from Health claims um vacation is an important part of maintaining your health and so what we probably will see what I I would probably anticipate is we'll have less unscheduled sick time which is very difficult to account for in more scheduled vacation time which is easier to plan for if you know somebody's going to be out for a day or for a week you can kind of plan uh plan to you know how you're going to manage that that week within your given staff uh yes Tom and then Lucy or Lucy then Tom I don't care ladies first go ahead Lucy you're on I just have a question on your sick leave or vacation does that if you were to leave the city does that roll over do you cash that in or how does that work or do you just lose it um there's a certain uh certain amount that you would be eligible for but you would lose any additional most of the time people lose quite a bit of sick time not vacation time no they'll get paid out again or certain days and they have to be here three years before they get that paid out and my other question is do you carry over your vacation time say you don't take your two weeks or however many weeks you have say you just didn't go on vacation when you does that carry on to the other year to the next yes it would carry on uh we do have a limit at 240 as to the most that you can carry on from year to year um so after that again and a lot of people over time have lost a lot of vacation period time over over 240. so not everybody's going to use the vacation time uh but it is it is a good

[2:09:35] benefit to have and we would want to encourage people to use it because again it does kind of help manage that uh not just mental health but really physical health we you see a lot of heart studies um vacation really does impact that so and that's one of our biggest areas of claims is that uh hypertension and heart related claims my I have another quick question is do you say for instance on your vacation time um oh my gosh I lost my train of thought um go ahead Tom let me build that back in I'm going through it okay so what does so I'm I have the discussion I'm moving from 11 to 13. I have no issues with that just for sharing that with council is there an expense to that um there is a manageable expense but yes there will be a low cost um for example like the the airport you're open 365 days a year um so there's going to be some additional holiday pay on those days on those two days um but it's I mean it's it's very marginal uh yeah it's it's it's a small amount but there is there is a little cost but I'm going to side with Brenda and we need to look at the long-term effects of you know going to once you exceed three threes to standard I mean I've hired five people this year and you can't bring them on board unless you get a three which is what we do here getting out to five six seven weeks of vacation oh no no we're I'm not asking for that I get that but I'm just saying before those things go with those long-term employees I realize you earned that but I think there's periods of time and we'll carry over we give you vacation to take it under a certain time of the year I didn't know we had a limit I'm glad we do I have a limit on how money I can carry over but back to the point I think I don't want to see a decision made on the long term either I think it's made today I have no problem on the 11 to 13. going at 13 but all right and I can I

[2:11:39] can get together a presentation maybe for mid-year or something if y'all when y'all ask for it to be brought back or if you in preparation for next year's budget going from going from 11 to 13. he's good for this year but I think we need far more conversation on vacation I think that's that's good so I'll plan on bringing that forward to y'all next budget cycle then Lucy thought of it I thought about it and I wrote it down okay so like I said let's say you take vacation do you have to take vacation all consecutive one week at a time or do you take days off whenever you want I would say the vast majority do take the the majority of their time that uh in full weeks uh I think they're except around holidays around holidays they do you do try to use you know what's nice nice on Thanksgiving week to spend three days a whole week vacation so I mean there's there's all kinds of things like that there are people that would take advantage of you know if July 4th uh was a Wednesday like it was this year which was weird um you saw a lot of people maybe take the first two days or the last two days off of that week or or maybe even the full week off so that you're open to you yes we're very open that's always up to the supervisor to approve vacation based on the needs of the organization yeah because they have to cover the office right so they have to make sure their staff's there but uh yes Larry I'm unfamiliar with what your maternity leave policy is too I wondered if you could explain that the real I couldn't hear that would you just speak a little louder I wanted to find out what the maternity leave policy is for the city is it does the sick leave essentially work as an umbrella over that or is there a separate women should have asked that question we consider that as part of the FM 's covered under the FM so they are qualified for leave under

[2:13:42] that and so they would have access I'm sorry both men and women uh yes and they would be uh it'd be accessible to use their vacation or their sick time one final question do you have a policy of transferring sick leave days from one employee to another yeah in extreme circumstances where if somebody was hit with something tragic occasionally that occurs uh we'll send out an email Citywide and allow people to donate we don't allow huge donations at a time so if it's extinuating you might see that same person ask for you know a couple of times but we want to make sure that we're not just you know banking a bunch of sick time somewhere so we try to just manage through those processes or through those times with those processes thank you very much for the questions thank you Brian I'll bring that resolution back to you all next meeting thank you thank you okay here yes please before we move off of this slide I'd like uh to uh just um verify or achieve Clarity we are in the process the meet and confer process and one of the things one of the concepts we have we went in with was the idea that an amount of money allocated to PD could be tailored to satisfy the terms of meet and confer the meet and confer agreement Daniel what do how much Clarity do we need on that in this I might can offer something there so um obviously with the meet and confer kind of influx at this point we don't actually have a contract signed there's if you set aside this money if a meet and confer agreement is achieved then this would go

[2:15:44] toward meeting that meet and confer agreement if no agreement is ever settled on then Civil Service law would would essentially take effect and make sure that you have three and a half percent across the board so it will either be three and a half percent across the board or that funding that you're designating that 552 307 would go toward their plan I think that's probably the best way to say that we want to make sure that that is that that is the concept that we talked about as we went into meet and confer that we might try to develop something along those lines we'll make sure that's that Clarity exists across the days I guess so we're just giving him the 552. yeah it's just the fact it is just the 552. we're designating that amount either toward meet and confer or or if Civil Service law takes effect and it would go to three and a half percent across the board thank you thank you we're done just a reminder that we do still have 5.7 million dollars left under the arpa the American Rescue plan Act the funds have to be encumbered by the end of 2024 and used by the end of 2026. much that's all I have thank you everybody good job thank you for being well prepared I was shocked we didn't have that big long table in front with the black draperies on it like in morning and uh because normally it's that old I never thought of it that way mayor yeah okay meeting is adjourned unless someone's opposing that and I think we have lunch lunch early well so we can sit and visit we

[2:17:49] can

Captured 2026-07-26 · source: youtube.com/watch?v=1BkNYt9ps8I