San Angelo City Council Budget Workshop 8-5-25

[0:00:00] Morning everyone. It is uh 10:30. We're going to start the budget workshop for August 5th, 2025. Um notice is hereby given of a special meeting of the city of St. Angelo to be held August 5th, 2025 at 8:35 a.m. Um time's a little late on that one, but epise south meeting room for the purpose of considering the following agenda items. Number one, we're calling this meeting to order. And number two, this is going to be a workshop itinerary. We'll first start with item A, discussion of matters regarding the fiscal year 2025 through 2026. Budget preparation including but not limit to general fund revenue and expenditures, enterprise funds, revenue expenditures, and other items needing council direction. Presentation made by the lady with the great voice this morning, Miss Tina Derski. >> Thank you, Mayors Council. Um this first uh slide here is just giving you an overview of what we'll go through um during the budget workshop. Uh first off, general general fund revenue expenditures and considerations and then of course um several of our enterprise funds. Oh, I'm using my computer. Uh this next slide is kind of reminding um citizens as well as those present that the Tom Green County Appraisal District sets valuations for properties within the city. Um and then we have three different taxing entities that set their rates as they see needed to provide for the budget, the city, the county, and the school district. Next, a reminder of property tax challenges, most of which have been um mandated by the state. The 3 and a.5% revenue cap limits the ability to increase our property tax revenue for existing properties to 3 and a.5%. There is new legislation that is being um submitted um that is uh in an effort to actually further decrease that amount to 2 and a.5%. >> And let me let me have filed letters of

[0:02:03] opposition to senators and and elected officials that we oppose Senate Bill 9 that looks to cap our three and a half% gain annual gain. And I will I will tell people right now if that was to go through how that would affect our public safety and this structure here would just be is very detrimental and it would be a a major loss to the city of St. Angelo and so I joined with all other cities within the state our opposition to Senate Bill 9. So if you have a chance to convey that please do. >> Mayor if I may. >> Yes sir. the um so in reality when we started looking at the cost of doing business and for the city to provide business we have what we call a municipal cost index was actually shows inflation inflationary rates for rate for a city and we on average go up about four and a half% uh for for providing services so when you're limited to three and a half or even two and a half% that's very detrimental >> three and a half is a handicap >> it is it but do two and a half and then you're really strapped at that point so I just wanted to point that The next challenge is the medical exemption changes um where they uh provided exemptions for business personal property for um uh organizations that use medical equipment in their production. Um that removed $116 million from our tax role which equated to $800,000 per year. Um the homestead or circuit breaker cap provided for an exemption for properties valued under $5 million of 20% that removed about $900,000 from our tax roles. The over 65 freeze um that is somewhat unique to our city. That's um typically school districts offer that but uh back in the early 2000s the city voted to implement an over 65 freeze. The value of that freeze this year for the property tax revenue would equate to $4.3 million and it is on the increase this year alone it increased that amount increased by 9%.

[0:04:05] Um the nonprofit exemptions of course when we have nonprofits purchase large properties um and remove those valuations from the tax roles that's a challenge. And then of course the temporary exemption for flood disaster property damage. Um, we want to remind our citizens actually that those that were impacted by the flood can apply to the appraisal district for an exemption. It's a temporary exemption. Um, but it would uh help them this year, but of course it will impact our general fund as well. But thankfully, it's just a temporary exemption and and impact. Um, the appraisal district has created a website strictly for those applications. Uh, Jonathan, do you have what that form number is? The form number is 50 is 50-312 and the website for more information is sangeloflood.com. >> Okay, hang on. Okay, so existing valuations increased by 3.3% this year. Um, new values increased by 21.8% to $110 million. Um and TI's values came in at $240 million or 14%.6% increase. Um existing values are capped at the 3 and 12% currently. New values are not capped and so that's why we show you what those values look like from year to year. Um those are new properties that are added to the tax roll in that first year. They're not capped. And then tiers values. Um that's just to show you the amount that um we'll come back to the general fund once the tier sunsets. Um in that year that would have equated to about $1.4 million. Reminder that sales tax is 8 and a4% of that. The state receives six and a quarter percent. The city's general fund requ uh receives 1%. Development Corporation type B sales tax one half percent in the county 1 half percent.

[0:06:11] Sales tax increased for July 6% compared with the same month in the prior year. Um our year to date collections are over the prior year by 3.6% which is pretty strong growth and we are over our revenue budget by almost $1.5 million year to date. This slide showing our FY25 projected year end um in the growth over 23 and 24. For next year's budget, we're looking at budgeting flat at 100% a projected year end. Um so this is just kind of showing um that graphically. >> So Tina, let's touch base on our aggressiveness for our budget for 2026. All right. So, in conversations with staff, Daniel, Tina, we've been very, very conservative, but we have a lot of construction that's coming in 2020, the tail end of 25 up to 2026. We're going to have the all the construction at the schools through the school bond. We're going to have construction with the renovation of the coliseum, lots of outside contractors. So it was a thought and a consensus among the group that it is very um it was very prudent and give us some opportunities to put some things in the budget. I wouldn't say to heal but to bring things back to a level that we think is not risk and we're going to run with the projected budget that we have here and going and I don't think we need to be in reserve and if we should come into something of a shortfall. Can you tell me steps we would take to amend that? We're very focused especially on sales tax because it is a volatile source of revenue. But if um we we look at it weekly and definitely monthly when we get those um values in. Um if we started to have concerns about not meeting our sales tax budget um into the next fiscal year, we would look at ways to cut expenditures um such as hiring freeze, uh travel freezes, training freezes, those kinds of things. Um, and

[0:08:16] and Daniel and I, we look at that very closely on a regular basis. >> Yeah. I'd like to add that back in 2014, we were I mean, we were expecting like a $2 million shortfall and we caught that in our budget. We look at on a monthly basis and we we uh made some quick adjustments. We ended that year in the black and basically the same thing here. While Mayor, I would admit that this is more of an aggressive projection for sales tax revenues is still conservative. I think if anything it's a doable and uh we definitely didn't want to we didn't want to didn't want to scale back and say well let's do 3% below uh that actually would be way too conservative and we really feel that this is achievable but again thank you for asking that question but yes we're always aware if in fact our our revenues aren't coming in as projected we will affect our expenses to make sure that we even out >> well and I we've dealt with some of those like when they took ethicon off the tax roles and some of these things just projections won't get I have seen the city and council react very prudently, very efficiently, and be able to manage those things without going through the taxpayers's budget. And I would say what you've prepared and what staff has brought forward, I see that same thing again. But I just wanted to make sure all of our constituents had a chance to hear that. >> Yeah. And and to touch on what Daniel said about this still being conservative, you know, you saw in the previous slide that we're seeing 3.6% growth year to date. That's what we typically would expect to see with sales tax. So at 100% is still fairly conservative. >> Cool. Thank you. Yes, sir. Okay. So, here we're looking at an increase for property tax revenue of $2.5 million. Um, based on the methodology we just discussed, we're looking at an increase for sales tax of $1.4 million. Other taxes includes bingo tax, alcohol tax, and franchise fees. The main decrease that we're seeing there is related to the television franchise fees. Um that's we've seen that steadily and aggressively decline over the last five or six years and we expect that to continue and so we're trying to be realistic with what we expect to receive for that. Um we do have some legislation that we're

[0:10:20] involved in um that is trying to recoup, you know, that loss in revenue from streaming services because people are moving away from cable and over to more streaming services such as Hulu, Netflix, those kinds of things. Um, so we're watching that very closely. Um, trying to get that loss of revenue back. But in the meantime, we want to be a realistic charges for services. Oh, I was like, what just happened? Charges for services. Um, that includes things like um ambulance, planning, permits, code, municipal court fines, and fees. But the biggest driver of the increase you're seeing there is the school resource officer program. Our police department has an agreement with the school district to provide officers on their campuses and so they're uh planning to reimburse us for those costs. Um we expect that to be a wash on the expenditure side. Um and that amount is um a little less than $1.2 million. Um and then >> did you say 1.2? >> Yes, I think it's 1.15. Close enough. >> Okay. And then other the increase there is related to um projections for interest income. Okay. So over public safety again that 1.15 is the biggest driver of the increase. Um there there's also um an increase related to a a significant increase in the ambulance revenue budget. um their budget increased by $652,000 this year. We have a third-party vendor that um provides billing services for us. So, anytime we see an increase um on the revenue side, we're going to see an increase in correlation on the expense side for that agreement. Uh let's see, public works. Um the main driver of that is related to

[0:12:22] electricity. Um Jonathan is protect project projecting a $200,000 increase uh in the general fund just related to electricity and we are seeing cost increases of about 10% for next year. Public services just a slight increase there that includes parks and wreck and the swimming pool pool development services uh 58,000 there. Most of the increase there is related to software cost increase um offset by um some decrease in permits and inspections. And Jonathan, is that related to personnel? >> Yes, that's just related to personnel moving from one division to another. >> Okay. Neighborhood services. Um the main increase there was related to social services, um related to full-time salaries and retirement. And I think that was related to some the same type of thing moving employees from one fund to another mostly related to reductions in grant funding. Health just a slight increase there in the health department. Um government is increasing due to I don't have a note on that one. Jonathan, you want to look that one up? Okay. Admin services. Um the main increase there is um for human resources, the $292,000 uh due to right retirey insurance premium increases. There's an $88,000 increase in contract services for the appraisal district's contract. Um and that's the main um changes related to the admin services line. Transfers out is decreasing. We are proposing um a a change in the way we support Fort Concho in the sports

[0:14:24] complex. We're looking at providing more funding from the uh state office building to support the fort. And we're also looking at more funding from hotel tax to support the sports complex. And you'll see those changes on the next slide. Is it we have to wait till the end or can I ask a question on this >> about a month ago when the food part for the meals with um senior citizens and they had those two satellite offices there at Oakrove Senior Living and then um Christian Village when they got their funding cut in about 10 days prior to when it is actually going to go into effect. We picked up that that slat that um gap the stop gap measure and I believe it was about $8,000. I don't know which of these departments that would have come from, but that would be a one time a one time only expenditure. So, I I don't I don't know if that accounts in the neighborhood services or just what budget uh department it is, but we could I mean, that's a may not seem like a lot of money, but it is. >> I just want to make sure that that that we didn't u go over budget because of that one measure that we that we took. >> I can answer that. We did not. We Carl addressed that from a parks and recreation standpoint and sometimes they have savings from when positions are not filled because we're lacking employees, we can't fill positions. So, they were able to take some of those cost savings for the year and cover that expense within the existing budget and it was a one-time this current year we're in, they were able to cover it. >> Okay. >> So, it has nothing to do with any of these things. >> Okay, good. I'll stay in my lane. You tell me what happened.

[0:16:25] >> No, Mary may we we actually asked about that yesterday as same question. That was good. It's that was a time where the city stepped up and covered a a hole in a gap and it was it was a great thing we did with that >> and that was in district. Right. So, >> but that was a good question Mary. >> This next slide is just showing that um transfers outline that we talked about in the last slide in more detail. We transfer out some money from general fund as matching for grants. Um we transfer out $2 million for um equipment replacement that goes into fund 501 to replace things like police vehicles, ambulances, parks vehicles, any any general fund type department. Um Fairmont Cemetery, some increase there just related to benefits. Texas Bank Sports Complex, again a decrease there, mostly related to uh supporting that more from hotel tax. Fort Concho decrease there mostly related to more support from the state office building and then that transfer out for storm water um is related to uh mowing in our right ofways. Any questions there? No. Excuse me. Okay. This slide is just showing that 50% of our general fund revenue does come from property tax, 25% from sales tax, 7% from other taxes, which includes the bingo, alcohol, and franchise fees, 12% from charges for services, and 6% from other sources such as interest and indirect cost. The expenditures by department, 59% of our general fund expenditures in this proposed budget will go towards public safety, 12% towards public works, 6% for public services, and 23% for other which is mostly admin um related services such as legal, HR, finance, purchasing, those types of things. Tina, will that expenditure by

[0:18:27] department I know we've got a lot of software improvements coming in 2025. Is that where that falls into is kind of that category by department as expenditures >> if it falls under the general fund? Yes. >> Okay. Mayor, again, I want to point out that um 59% again goes to public safety. So, um the the amount we collect right now on property taxes is not even enough to cover public safety at this point. And that was always a goal in the past. uh we're at 50% uh revenue and 59% for public safety. So any drop three and a half% limitation of two and a half% again just makes the situation worse and it's going to make that expand out further. So just want to point that out. Okay. So funding requests that we've already included within the proposed budget include um fire that fire department third party vendor contract increase uh some police software package increase related to real-time crime tracking uh the development services software package increase the increase for the appraisal district as well as for retirey insurance. Any questions on any of those? the retirey insurance. I brought up this question previously. That's that's a segment that only retirees get. Current employees do not get that, but we're that's becoming a sector. And can you explain when they're in that group and then when they fall out of that group? So, what we're expecting this fund and how we expect that to wave. >> This specific increase is related to retirees who were hired before the year 2000. I believe there's also a 10-year date with that. >> I think Kimberly was well connected. >> Yeah. And then it's also related to the over 65 portion as well. >> Good morning, Kimberly Holly, assistant director of HR and risk management. Jonathan's correct. It would be for employees who were hired prior to the year of 2000. So, we do have some current staff still eligible for that benefit. Um, excuse

[0:20:30] me. But the majority of those have already retired. >> When do they move out of this fund? >> Never. Okay. >> When they die, >> right? So, I mean, but as this this fund over a period of time will decrease, but it's going to get a peak. Do we have a time where we think it'll max out the maximum number of people that will be in this fund? And then when can we >> So, we only have 66 current employees who are eligible for this benefit. And that number's several months old. So, it might be a few less at this point. Um, so once those 66 retire, we will be topped out. That's as many who can join our plan. Um, >> but that includes those that have retired and those that are still eligible. Correct. >> Those that have retired and the 66 that are still eligible. If they retired as a general fund employee, you will continue to see that cost here. >> Okay. >> You will see the full amount in the health insurance fund as we go later through the presentation. >> All right. Thank you, Kimberly. >> Yes, sir. >> On this next slide, we have some opportunities for one-time funding. Um, a couple of these you saw in a budget amendment earlier in the presentation. Uh, but these are um just recommend recommendations um from staff on how we could fund some one-time needs from some of our departments strictly up for council discussion and direction. Uh, we have funds available in excess fund balance in the general fund of about $4.4 $4 million as well as marginal projected sales tax revenue of almost $1.5 million. Um, most of these requests came from target increase requests that were submitted by departments for needs. And when we go through those target increase requests with Daniel, we try to look at things that could be funded with one-time funding, not necessarily needed in their annual operating budgets. So, this is a proposal for that. Um, again, up to up to council direction. Um the the police department has requested a portable building uh for the amount of $250,000.

[0:22:32] I know when we were discussing this with some of the council members um previous to this meeting, there are some questions on what that looks like, what that includes, and that kind of a thing. So, I think Chief Griffith is here. If y'all have questions for him on what he's wanting to do there. >> Yeah. Let's let Chief Griffith, if you'll kind of come up and go down this itemized list here for us, give us a brief synopsis, and then if council has any questions. Yeah, I want to say thank you out to the council for working through this. I know it's a lot of stuff going on, a lot to work through. So, I commend you for doing this. Uh, when it comes to the portable building, the we are in a space of a size of a department for about 45 men. We have a total allotted number of 174, which I'll be asking to go back up to 180. Uh, that's a another another line item. Uh, we we need that staff and and ability to be in one place. We're fragmented across uh all across the place. Um, this would be the ability to put a portable building next to us to limp by to get to where we're about four or five years down the road looking for an actual new police department, maybe some sort of government build that's together of some sort. Uh, that that will give us the ability to do that. And then with it being a portable building, they can be moved. Uh, my idea would be like lake operations or uh to the lake police department. So that building's not going to be a waste. U, we found one out of Colorado. It's looks pretty appealing to the eye. It has an additional uh support structure because they're used to the snow up there and we think that we can we can make that work. Um and I'll address any questions on the portable building, >> but it does have residual residual value. We're going to pay the quarter up front and then when we're done, we still have other ways to use that. >> Yes, sir. And I think it will work. It would be wise for the city in regards to have that because there's going to be plenty of other buildings inside of our infrastructure that's going to need to be replaced and this would provide us the ability to have temporary housing for those uh to be remodeled, added on to or whatever. This is not a not a net loss. >> All right. Does it tie into any of your evidence?

[0:24:33] >> Yes, that's the purpose of we would be removing our entire patrol division to make room for evidence. Uh uh right now we have evidence stored in in 15 different locations across the department and we're we'd be working to consolidate that down to to three. >> Awesome. >> Travis, I'm sorry. >> Go ahead. >> How how large a building are we talking? >> Uh the one we're looking at is just under 4,000 square feet. I think it's it's slotted at 29,000 20 I'm sorry, 2,900 square feet. That'd be very large. >> It's all one story. >> Oh yeah. Single single build. we have a parking lot to put it in. U it would provide us the ability to again we're putting we're putting band-aids on bullet holes right now. Uh there's no other way around it. The other option is to buy a bunch of seed containers. Uh that's really problematic for evidence and what you're doing with that and it's a we've looked at every angle we can. This is the simplistic and I think it's the best approach to meet both needs with one purchase. If we ever got into got in a bind and we had another another area that needed that space, would what if you're in there? Where do we where do the other needs go? Well, I I really I believe we can all uh I don't want to speak for y'all, but I can tell you that the infrastructure of the police department, you know, from 1962, prior to President Kenny's assassination for a building of built for 75 people, which included a municipal court and a jail, um we we're at capacity. It's I think it's listed on number one on one of the priority list for infrastructure. Uh, I think that needs to be the priority moving forward and this building would have the ability to be used uh outside of the life of of the current building. Uh, I can't speak to what you know what if factor, but I would think that um there's lots of different things we can do with that building afterwards. >> The the city as a whole too. >> Yes, ma'am. 100%. >> Okay. Thank you.

[0:26:34] >> Harry, did you have a question? >> Just going to make a comment. Since the next four items belong to the police, I I would prefer that the chief stays right where he is. >> Sure. >> Why don't you walk through them, Chief? >> Sure. >> Hey, real quick. >> Joe, the the portable building, is that finished out that price? >> Yes, sir. Uh, it is currently finished out. Um, we're looking at several options and and we're going to look at the most the the most cost effective and we have two different locations on the property. The I I didn't want to do this. I'm going be honest with you, but there's really not much of an option. We know that uh it's going to take money that we don't have and whether that means a bond or something else to build a police department in the future. We have to have something that number one shows our our employees that we value them and number two that we can make some space that's usable and to get us limping down the road. >> Yeah. No, I totally understand you need it and just make sure there's not going to be an additional cost to to finish it out or anything. But no, that that's good. >> Yes, sir. >> Anything else on the portable building? Okay. Uh, so this is police district mapping. Um, we haven't had a a strategic actual company come in and redistrict our maps based off of geographical areas. Uh, so like our river and our uh that runs through town and then also the Houston Heart. Those those make geographical barriers that prevent you from be able to respond appropriately. We're we're asking for that to be paid for to have a company that comes in and looks at our calls for service. It looks at where the priority calls are at and then they they use the the geo data to be able to come in and uh redistrict as appropriate for the closest best response times. So that's pretty straightforward and I'll take any questions on that. >> Okay. >> You said you said redistrict. Does that basically mean you'll station officers in those areas that are kind of spread out throughout the city? >> Yes, sir. Right now our our police districts, which would be kind of like what we see with fire stations, right? There's different fire stations that have different mappingss. Ours are currently very large and so we're looking to make that a little bit more succinct and bring that to an area that's manageable and try to keep the same person in the same district to be

[0:28:36] able to build relationships, keep them to a place where they can respond quicker. U but we need that we need somebody that comes in that that they do this for a living to be able to say, "Hey, uh we're going to we're going to separate basically the districts based off of those geographical areas and plus the amount of calls for service." Okay. Um, so we've been going through trying to to bring the San Angel Police Department up in a more professional manner and one thing we found is that there's we haven't had an audit of our evidence uh that we can find at all. Uh we've talked to some retired officers and try to find why that is important is that we have homicide investigations from you know 40 years ago. uh we have cases that are still open that that that we we need to make sure that we have tracked all this evidence. So we're looking at bringing in a company to audit us to make sure that we can say hey all this stuff is in the right place and we would like that to go and coincide at the same time as us moving those evidence down to three spots. So that way we're we're we're we're we're t taking out two birds with one stone in that we could we could um address any shortcomings, which I'm I'm hoping and praying we have some great staff that we're not going to have any, but at least to know, hey, this was the issue and work through that. So that's the idea behind to have the third party come in and um reduce that as well. So that's one of the things that they can do is they can reduce the amount of evidence uh based off of going through item by item, line by line. So, let me ask a question. As far as evidence any as as things have progressed and technologies increased, can any of that go digital where you don't have to create that storage space and it's I mean a picture of me holding a bag of something I shouldn't have versus having the bag. I mean, >> which we've already and I think y'all we've already really done that with our digital evidence. We store everything through evidence.com u which is really becoming a lot. But when it comes to uh physical evidence, there's no way around it. Um, one thing that we're trying to work through options and researching is personal property, which is our biggest

[0:30:40] our biggest hurdle is that people will get arrested and they will never come and get their stuff. We have to get an order to go through and they it's abandoned property and there'll be old uh well, I'll go ahead and tell you we're we're dealing with some rodents and some raccoons that are trying to get in and get to food and stuff like that into our current storage spaces for that. So, it's uh it's it's not a good spot. So, we're trying to address that. Uh uh any way we can size down, we're going to the one thing that I think would make the most sense is records. Uh we can digitize some of those records and bring those down, but right now it would take years for us to to work on that project. Got >> all right. Thanks for >> Yes, sir. Any questions on on the external audit? So police ammunition um when we first took over this was uh minuscule in the grand scheme of things and this is a perishable skill right so for you to carry a gun there's no other employee I've done lots of different jobs for municipalities there's no other employee in the city that has more um liability laden job than a police officer we can take people's civil rights right legally and if we mess that up then we would do it illegally and that's a problem right that goes into what the court's rule is a a seizure of that person when you shoot them. Right? So, we want to make sure that all of our our officers are equipped to do the job that they need to do at any given time. And we've seen shootings all around the Koncho Valley, Abalene, um some of the counties to our south and to the west. Uh at any given time, this will occur. Um and so we want them to be prepared. This is an incremental. Everything I put forth in the budget that I presented to y'all guys is a is a need. And I didn't I didn't use car salesman this. It's a straightforward approach to say this is what we need to get this job done. Um, in this regards, we're stepping in. Um, when we look at our comparables, and I've already shared this with you to to some of the uh the closest cities in Texas that match up to St. Angelo, we're millions and millions of dollars below, seven in in most regards. Uh, their their functioning budget versus the

[0:32:43] functioning budget of us. I didn't come in and request $7 million, right? I came in and said, "Hey, this is what we need to get by. Um, we're going to phase in some ammunition because I don't think it's financially responsible to come in and request giant amounts of money. And we did a lot of one-time working with Daniel and I appreciate his work on this. Uh ammunition is another one that we we need to phase that in over the course of the next few years, get that up to uh closer to $100,000, but we're asking for this uh as we start to do inservice training uh we're getting those guys and gals out there trained on the regular uh to keep them fresh in their abilities. So that's where they the request for that because it hasn't been a priority. Any questions on ammunition? I can tell you most of our comparable cities are spending between $120 and $150,000. When I first took over, most SWAT teams like say Abene or Midland uh are spending the equivalent of their just their SWAT team on the total budget for the city of St. Angelo's Police Department. >> It's one of those expenses that goes up 10 15% every year anyway. >> Yes, sir. Nobody's had an issue with that. um body armor. Uh we do try to offset cost and I think y'all guys know from from what we've done so far in the administration is that we've been trying to find every bit of money we can. I don't just come in and say, "Hey, I I need this. Fix it for me." Um we've brought in we're we're right about $4 million that we brought in over the last year and few months uh that we're lined up to get or approved to get. Um, we work we do have a a grant on this, but this is an offset cost for body armor, and we're trying to get the best equipment that we can. This is what I would almost call the equivalent to a fire department's bunker gear. You need it. Uh, you need to be comfortable. You need to be work appropriately. Uh, and we're seeing that this is a this is a perishable item as well. last of five years and we we want to make sure that we're we're placing those on the regular and and and have some extra because right now we've had two officers that

[0:34:45] are just waiting because we don't have those. There's they're backlogged on orders. Um we're not the only police department and with all the different conflicts across the world, body armor has become a little bit more uh tight. >> I believe you skipped the additional grid smart detection cameras. >> Stop. I'm sorry. >> That's public works. >> Okay. That's why it has the PW. >> Sorry, we meant to update the slide. >> Yeah, it still has police on there, but it's not police. So, >> I'm just making sure nobody knows. I don't want a camera that takes a picture around the stop line. >> I will take any type of cameras, though. Um, >> I have a question in there on your on the body armor. >> Sure. >> I I don't know who those vendors are, but most would have like a the larger the order, the greater the the discount. Are there neighboring counties or can we maybe shop that with the sheriff's department uh just trying to get maybe a a volume discount? >> Yeah, that that's a great idea, but I think when it comes to the purchasing side of and this is where I'd probably rely on maybe Tina on this is that there's there's certain rules we have to follow. We do try to use um co-ops which lower the prices basically buying together um and and that's why we try to use those co-ops to be able to bring down those prices where it's but I'm a little bit outside my lane on that if you have anything to add. >> I don't I'm not sure exactly on the restrictions with that but it's something we could look into. It's a good idea. >> Well, especially with you know Tom Green County you know do that with the city but >> Sure. >> I think I think it's worth a worth a look. >> Sure. Thank you Travis. Anything else? Okay, we're going to roll into the um well, as I close out, that's actually getting into fire. Um you'll see it in the in the coming uh city council, but we're also requesting for uh we were approved on multiple grants. We're doing everything we can to to have force multipliers. So, one of which is is uh the Texas Motor Vehicle Theft uh task force is what we've gone into with them.

[0:36:49] That's the crime prevention task force that Texas operates. They're going to fund two full-time positions. And with that, they're going to give us uh what's called drone as first responder. Uh so we can actually have a eyes aerial drone on the target of whatever crime that's ongoing within about 45 seconds roughly. Might be longer depending on where they're at in relation to the the landing uh of the landing and uh takeoff points. With that though, you know, I've had the question of can we can we offset because I have six frozen positions right now. Can we offset that? Uh, you can always offset everything, but I can never replace bodies, right? And every comparable that I've seen, every department that we've compared to, everything from mediumsiz, and I don't I don't get anything any past 110 because I don't think it's a fair comparison. Um, so we stay in in our in our zone between 85 and and 105 that that we are by by capita and by the total numbers. My C is is half of that of other places. We have property crime that is that is we lead the way and just about every type of property crime, whether it be theft, whether it be burglary. The only thing that our guys are doing a great job on is is violent crime because we are outside of our capacity. So, we need those bodies and I know that that that is one of those situations that you're strapped for cash and we have these issues with the um with the with the being capped at 2.5. I get that. But I'm just encouraging that if you can find a way to find a mixture in there to give me four of those police officers back and a couple public safety officers, which are cheaper, um we need that staff to push back on property crime. Um, at some point in every type going back to the 1800s when the first books on law enforcement were being written, the broken windows theory says that when you have crime in an area, right, that the more that that crime stays in place without being addressed, the more likelihood of other crime creeping in. I don't want to see that happen for us. We're doing everything we can. We started a drug task force where it's a

[0:38:51] combination kind of what you're talking about, Mary, to save money and not silo our work. We're work working in every aspect we can with our federal partners to get good u uh investigations on major crimes and we're working with the with the Texas Rangers to look at maybe them starting to maybe look at some of the um um cold cases because we don't have the staffing to put it there. But I just want y'all to know as a governing body and those to control the the funding, we've done everything we can, but I need your help to be able to have those personnel to be able to fight back on against a a a major issue. So, we're looking at five related shootings in in the last month, well, two months of younger younger uh juveniles. And so with that, uh, we're we we have had some great investigations, but that's taken everything away from those property crimes to investigate those violent crime. So, I just want y'all to be aware of that. I do want to point out that uh Chief, I know that um working with you this past year, my my goodness, your numbers are way down at one point and we we've done a lot, you know, to address lateral transfers, to address incentivizing >> and you've you've probably done a you probably done a lot more than I had expected as far as the number of police officers you ended up with. Yes, sir. >> And so, you've done an outstanding job there in the area. I just wanted to make sure I pointed that out. Also, >> thank you. And I I want to say that that's by the grace of God and a wonderful team. Uh I can't tell you how much um I it's a miracle to be able to govern the staffing that we have today and and I'm hopeful that as we move forward that you know we're trying to get funding for school resource officers and these additional positions that I'm not just relying on y'all guys. This is a team effort and I believe wholeheartedly in the approach that together this city will be able to make a better future for tomorrow. >> Travis, I haven't mean to be beating you to death here. Are all of your employees in the PD, are they all police officers? What I'm getting at is uh if there's any administration work that where they're they're not going to be on patrol or you know u so do are every employee you have

[0:40:56] are they all certified policemen? Okay. >> And and and part of the idea on what's called the public safety officer is to be able to have something that we could put at the front desk and and make phone calls that are non-certified. So, we have lots of people that want to be the police that maybe through a religious uh exception that they have, they can't carry a gun or take somebody's life or some sort of physical impairment, uh they can't be the police, that this would offer a a a perfect place and a cheaper cost to be able to accomplish some of the same roles. Uh but we're still the thing to highlight there is we have 223 employees total and we have 174 of those that are allotted for police positions. Um, in comparison to guess say Witchto Falls, that's 30 positions below in in police positions and about 39 positions in support staff. So, we're still across the board well below any comparison city. Um, and we find that per capita in even smaller cities. So, we're doing the best we can to work with with what we got and I'll continue to look for ways to to do things more efficiently and find force multipliers and that's why we're looking at every grant doing everything we can. But the primary goal of the police department is to be able to push back on crime. And I'll go ahead and tell you the amount of property crime that we're seeing. Uh we have to have those bodies to be able to do that. And we've we've consolidated we've removed positions that and we replaced them with civilian positions that we we uh put every gun back into the street I could. Uh but I don't have anything else I can really chip away yet right now. >> Okay. Yeah. What what you're currently doing um answered my question. So thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. Thank you. And with that, I want to say thank you all. I know this will be a tough decision. I'll be here the rest of the day. If you have any questions, be glad to answer them. Thank you all very much and God bless. >> Thanks, Chief. >> Next, we have, excuse me, uh the fire safer grant match of $360,000. And I think Chief Brody is here to talk about that. Good morning, council. So, the safer

[0:43:08] grant, if you recall a couple months ago, we came to y'all asking for authorization to apply for this. This is a staffing grant through FEMA. We're requesting 20 additional firefighters for the anticipation of fire station number nine opening in the next three years. Uh, our training staff is bottlenecked. It takes approximately 16 months to train 15 firefighters and uh to get the adequate staffing for 20 new personnel. It's going to take three years to do that. So, we applied with y'all's approval for this safer grant just north of 1.4 million. And it's a 7525 25% match for that number of 360,000. So, this grant is not guaranteed. From what I understand, it's about a 20 25% 20% success rate. So I don't know that this will get approved in this next budget year. >> So basically we're budgeting for the matching component at this point. That's what you see there's a $360,000. >> Yeah. >> In the event we do get approved for it. We should know September to October time frame. >> What do you think your odds are getting that? >> Well, nationally it's about 20%. >> Okay. >> So I'm hopefully optimistic. >> Good luck. >> Yes. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you. Um, the next two and the last one on this slide are related to public works operations department. If Patrick Freric wants to go into what's needed here. All right. So, I want to say thank you'all for including this the additional equipment replacement on this list. Um, we've been for years now advocating the condition of our equipment replacement budget. It's one that has been relatively stagnant short of, you know, one-time funding here and there. Um, naturally, the cost of our

[0:45:11] equipment is growing. The cost of um making those purchases and and maintaining that equipment is growing as well. So, we've done some things to help try to right size or reduce buying GPS units and making sure that we're utilizing our equipment appropriately, some of those type of things. Um, but unfortunately that the need for equipment replacement has outgrown um what funding is available for that. So, this 250,000 will will go toward um both vehicles and equipment throughout our general fund department. So everything from our street and bridge, traffic ops, code enforcement, um cemetery, parks, um it touches a multitude of divisions um to help get some of those older pieces of equipment replaced, some of those that are very very costly on our annual budgets, on our annual equipment replacement budgets, and try to flip that just a little bit to help out help that burden. >> And the ones you're replacing will go into our annual auction and something like that. Try to get your residual out of. >> Yes, sir. Just like any of our replaced equipment that does go through the auction process and those proceeds are budgeted for um in the annual budget. >> All right. Thank you. >> Is that equipment that we just approved in council earlier, does this 250 does that include that? >> No, ma'am. So, the equipment that y'all purchased earlier that was through our storm water department. Our storm water department is funded separately from the general fund. We they earn their own revenue and they have their own equipment replacement program. So equipment replacement is a component of the storm water fee. We use that, we put that into fund balance and then we draw down that fund balance to purchase equipment for storm water. >> Okay. Thank you. >> For the fuel site upgrade, um the fuel site is one of those things that's it's behind the scenes and it's unknown. Um it's not um a very flashy thing, but it is extremely vital to keeping the city going. No matter no matter if you're in public works, public safety, fire, um

[0:47:16] everybody use utilizes the fuel site. Um our fuel site was put in, I believe, in 1992 and has not been upgraded since then. Um the capacity of the fuel site the city has grown since then since it went in and so we are really limited on the amount of fuel that we can store. It would be extremely scary if all of you were aware of the number of times that we almost don't have fuel for the city and we are cons we as a city are considered a distributor which means we get first buy in for for fuel. So we'll get it before Stripes get it gets it before Walmart gets it before some of those get it. We get fuel on a basis and we are still extremely at risk for running out of fuel on any given given basis for the amount that we have. So not only do we have old infrastructure, we have a lack of capacity. What this funding will do, it'll allow us to buy additional tanks and tie into our existing fuel infrastructure. So we're not abandoning what we have. We're going to add to it. We're going to add capacity. We're going to add some resiliency. And we're going to make sure that in the times of crisis or in the times of need that we can purchase fuel and have it have it readily available to us. That we're going to be talking about resiliency a little bit there. Um some redundancy um if you will. So if one of our fuel sites go down, we will have an alternative fuel site for some resiliency there. We're going to so we'll be talking about how we replace that or where we place this fueling site, but it is additional storage capacity as well as ensuring if our underground tanks go down because they are you know 30 something years old um that we will still have fuel available for our operations. >> Is that are those uh additional storage are those going to be in ground as well? No ma'am above ground. >> No, they will be they will be a self-contained above ground. So they will have their own um safety containment. So it'll be a tank within a tank. Um so to prevent any leaks or anything like that, the environmental um

[0:49:19] costs and hazards that go along with inground tanks just aren't worth it um for us. So we can put an above ground tank in for cheaper. We can monitor it better and and get more capacity, more bang for our buck, if you will. >> Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. Um the final one that we have here is the additional grid smart detection cameras. The grid smart detection cameras are the camera systems that are mounted to our signal infrastructure. So it's the cameras that actually when you pull up to a intersection it it not it notices that you pulled up there and it starts to cycle for some of those intersections. So um we've gone through and systematically been replacing all of our cameras systems on our signalized interstructure in intersections um to the grit smart camera so that we have a comprehensive system in place um to look at that. So this is just an additional camera uh I believe that's two additional cameras um to get in there and replace some of our older ones on our intersection so that that detection is is part of our cohesive system. The only human it takes a picture of is the mayor. >> That is correct. Yeah, we program it. >> No law enforcement is tied to these cameras. >> Thank you, Patrick. >> Yes, sir. Thank you all. >> The next four requests are from HR. I think Kimberly Holly is here to address them. Good morning. All right, the first one we have is our HRIS system. We talked extensively about this during our strategic planning workshop. This is a software that will allow our department to move from paper files, several different systems, some Excel sheets, all into one system. It will allow an applicant to go from applying with the organization to enrolling in their benefits to filling out all of their

[0:51:21] pre-employment forms to um enrolling in their health insurance premiums and then move them through their employment career. They'll do their performance appraisals and um I know I'm missing a component but essentially it will move us out of paper forms using several softwares into one system and then it will integrate into our payroll software that we are in the process of upgrading right now. >> Um >> you brought this up earlier in the year. Is this the software you wanted or is this just the one you can afford? This is one of the two softwares that is recommended through central square um that part so it will integrate with our financial system. So I do think this is our best option that will tie together and require less manual entries. We will be maintaining use of time clock plus for our timekeeping for civilian staff. We will be looking into using the new software for timekeeping with fire and PD staff in order to have that integration through um central square payroll. Um our next one is the comp and class study. Um y'all have already approved that and so I just want to thank you for that and give you a slight update. We have sent out emails. We're working on doing some surveys. We will be starting in-person meetings in the next week or two. following by those staff surveys. The consultants will take that information, review it, and come back to us with with recommendations late this fall or um but surely by January, we'll have some results to bring back to you guys. >> Tommy, >> you had some questions about the timeline on this. Yes, >> I hate to bring that back, but I thought that was an excellent question yesterday, and I'll present that to Kimberly. I'm not sure who this really falls on, Kimberly. It would probably be y'all's department to also push the issue, but we talked about in our um

[0:53:26] strategic planning session at doing everything we could to move more at a pace that business moves rather than a pace that government moves. I I think all of us realize there's some things we can't speed up, but to the extent we can encourage whomever the vendor is with with which we've contracted to still do excellent work, but get this to us simply because it affects every single employee in terms of pay. If at all humanly possible, as one council member, I would like to have that data so that if mid-year adjustments can be made that we have the ability to do so with the data to back up those adjustments that might be made either with respect to salaries or with respect to the organizational structure andor uh revised job descriptions, etc. So I I guess my request is to the extent we can encourage those folks to still do good work. See if they can get it to us before January. >> Yes sir. We have had those comm um conversations with the consultant already. Um we know we have requested some expedited for certain departments. We know we have some structural issues in the water department. So that is one that we have already brought to their um attention that we would like to review and I believe we've also mentioned police to them. Um they have requested some structural changes and so we've u mentioned that to them that we would like to compare their structural request to other departments and how we compare of course through all of the levels of their organization. >> Thank you. Um to your other point, we have had conversations with finance and Daniel um based on wanting to do an

[0:55:30] implementation midyear with those results. I would hate to get the results in January and say thanks for the results. We're not going to do anything with it for another 9 months. Um, so we have mentioned if possible within the budget, if we were to allocate a 6% raise, possibly reserving 1% to hit some of those major pain points come January through a mid-year increase. Um, so that would be something that would be y'all's discretion and city manager's discretion if we have the ability to address. >> I encourage you all to keep moving down that path. >> Yes, sir. >> Thank you. The next request is retirey insurance. Um I think we've discussed that one before. This is again those employees who were hired on prior to the year of 2000 and um were promised health insurance through their retirement. Um last year we presented a plan design change for post65 retirees. Due to an error on the consultant's part, we were unable to implement that plan design change. So that would be something that we would be looking into this year. >> Did you fire that consultant? >> Yes, sir. That consultant is no longer with us. Um I am excited to introduce u we have our new consultants here with us today. Hub International is our newest consultants and so Julian and Corey are with us. If you have any particular questions related to the health insurance, um again, our over 65, we should be getting results back in September potentially. And so we should have a recommendation to you fairly shortly, at least earlier than we were looking at last year, um to see what that plan design needs to be in order to keep that benefit for those retirees affordable for them and affordable for the

[0:57:33] organization in order to continue that benefit. As for our current employees and under 65 retirees, we went out to bin for all plans. We received results last Thursday. hub is currently reviewing those bids and we are planning to bring you back a proposal I believe September 16th. So, um, yes, it will be a little bit late in the budget process. I think the conversation we've had with finance thus far is to set aside a amount of money that the city can afford and then we'll do some plan design changes in order to keep the cost for employees down to a minimum. Um later in the presentation you will see um a little bit more information on that and a slide talking about those employee premiums. >> Do you have any other questions for me related to those two? >> I'm good. >> All right. Thank you again. >> The next item that we have is for a development services comprehensive study. You saw this in your regular session as a budget amendment. We wanted to make sure Aaron had the opportunity to speak on this item. >> Good morning, city council. Uh just wanted to give you an update that we are still uh pursuing the resilient communities grant opportunity. We feel like we're about two weeks away from submitting that to the state, which would help supplement the dollars that are being potentially set aside through this budget cycle. We're going to be requesting up to 300,000. Now, it specifically goes back and helps tie together uh an item that was on the previous agenda today that the um emergency mitigation um review process. How does that in uh work into the comprehensive plan? As you see all of the items there today, the comprehensive plan, ours is very dated. It really starts bringing all these together as a

[0:59:36] comprehensive document for our city council to make decisions on purchasing and studies and and where they're moving forward the community. Uh we know that we have a housing study that's going to be coming out here in the next probably 6 to 8 weeks. Uh that is going to help be put into that comprehensive plan and help us start focusing what our community needs to do. Which in turn hopefully in about two years, 18 months, two years, we start looking at our other ordinances all the way from our zoning ordinance and how we adopt our building codes and other ordinances that come into play. Our land development subdivision ordinance. Are those being pointed back to our comprehensive plan to move our community forward? We know we have some housing housing shortages in certain areas. We're trying to put some band-aids on it, but we really need that comprehensive plan to really tell us this is where and how we're growing, why we're growing, what our median income is, and where we what price point we really need to be at for different things in our community. >> Erin, how long will this take? Well, if we get the grant, the grant has a very specific timeline for their piece, but it's normally with good community engagement, and this really should be the community's plan telling us what they want is going to be 18 months to 24 months total. This really gets us started uh gets the gets the folks working on the ground, starting to do public meetings and finding out. It'll help us tell us if we need neighborhood plans for different neighborhoods. Uh but really to do a real depth in study, it'll take 18 months to 24 months. We'll try to get them to move quicker uh as possible, but we also don't want cookie cutter for our community. We want what our community works, what really works here. >> I know that we by law we have to announce when town halls are going to be. We got to go through the the steps to send the letters and all. I'd like for us to put some real thought in how to increase that uh effort and maybe there's some followup or accountability

[1:01:39] is uh too strong a word really but how we can I don't know do better than what our our voting record says. You know we six to 10% of the people show up to vote. Well, I really think we need to actively pro um put put that out there. Make make sure even if it requires purchasing uh you know advertising uh to get more involvement from and more a bigger better conversation with with the communities. And if that requires town halls in each of our districts, so be it. But I really want to get ahead of that and make sure that we get the right message out cons, excuse me, consistently. Ideally, it would be as good as the flood um our our that was updated on our, you know, Facebook and and website and all. Uh Laura and Brian did a fantastic job of of doing that. So even if it's something similar, but this is a huge, very expensive item and I want to make sure that when we all do make sure that it's done right and marketed u appropriately and I know you will, but I just wanted to go on record and saying that. So anyway, thank you Erin. >> Yes. Yes, ma'am. >> Thank you. You've covered the comp study. >> Yes, sir. And just as a reminder, these are one-time funding items. So, we'll take these uh we'll bring these back to you guys in the form of >> I think Karen had a question I missed. >> Just a quick uh housekeeping matter before we leave the one-time funding slide. Um GIS, the GIS upgrade, is that a one-time funding item? Is it moving to public works? I believe Aaron handled that with maybe a reorg one of his positions. >> We did with a development services

[1:03:41] position. So we have a GIS analyst within our department, but it's really only for private development. Not sure how that impacts the full GIS that works for the entire city government to do their aspects. Um I know that they may have had some requests at some point, but we're trying to address it on our department level. uh just because development moves every day and we're making decisions every day that we want to be as accurate as we can for our developers and and homeowners that we're not making a decision and then a few weeks later coming back, oh, we made the wrong decision. You have to change something. So, we thought that very critical and we did that with a current staffing position to reclassify it into a GIS analyst position. So Erin, stay stay there. >> Yes, sir. >> Where does G >> Don't go far. >> Where does GIS live? Does it live in the planning department? Where where does GIS live? >> It it does not. It lives in our uh IT department currently. Um they're they're under that and I believe that's under Michael Dayne's purview through Bucky. Um but that's where they h are housed currently. Well, so I don't intend this to be inflammatory question, but it may be unintentionally. Why didn't it in planning? >> I can probably give a little more history on that. So it was originally um that over the last I don't know three four years has been discussed with at that time Mike Smith was our GIS director and because uh it works globally throughout the organization with that type of infrastructure and data and so forth u Mike and everyone agreed and most cities have moved it to it. We were one of the only ones who didn't. So they made a good case of why that works. the importance that at the end of the day is that they're able to work with all departments and provide the data and the data is getting into that area whether it's coming from

[1:05:43] public works or whether it's coming from planning and so it is just a good hub to house that information and like Aaron said in their case what we're doing to ensure that data gets there is now he has restructured very creatively with his existing positions basically to have a person who specializ izes in making sure that data is put in. So that department is not trying to have everybody everywhere, but someone within the department on the ground who gets that data into them and then they manage it accordingly. >> Okay. >> Are we fixing to wrap up the one-time funding? >> Yes, sir. >> Pardon me. It's I just want to point out to everybody, we don't get these opportunities often and because of what the council did in the previous year, a very conservative budget led to this one time punch. All right, it's great. Usually at the end of the year, we have a little bit of funding left over in sales tax, but I just want to commend the previous people, the previous mayor, a lot of people stepped in and because of how conservative our budget and our fund balance, it's not many people that can pick up a three and a half million health, you know, shortfall and some things. I just say y'all y'all deserve a, you know, an attab boy for a job well done. And in eight years, I've never seen us have been able to reach in and go this deep to fix a lot of problems and cover some band-aids. I want to say nice job to all of y'all. >> Mayor, and I do want to point something out as well. Thank you for that. We appreciate that. As far as staff, um the the dollar amount, the excess uh general fund balance of $4.3 million, almost $4.4 million. We're pulling that out of the the the fund balance, but it still leaves us 90 day 90 days in fund balance, which is really a best practice to keep that that dollar amount in there. So, thank you for that. We appreciate that. >> Staff's done good. All right. And I did just want to make sure that u we are going to be bringing back some of these items in a future budget amendment for you guys for subsequent approval. The next slide that we have is the slide

[1:07:50] of the summary of revenues and expenditures. As you can see here, we are currently budgeted revenues over expenditures of $3.5 million. This is kind of what we have to work with with some of the items that have kind of been brought to you or that we're going to present to you here. On the next slide, we have a uh some funding requests here. These are high level funding requests, kind of items that are above $20,000. Um the first three are for public safety. The police department um is asking for additional funding for training in in the amount of $60,000. And I think if you guys have any questions on that that item, Chief Griffith should be able to answer. >> I think nobody had any objections to it at all, Chief. I think it's in and it's plugged in. Good. I did have as we get into fire department overtime, I'm going to want a little explanation of why we're incurring that. >> The next items are for fire department overtime of 100,000 and then an additional uh contribution for fire apparatus of 150k. Good morning. >> Are these one-time requests or are these ongoing? This would be an ongoing revenue stream to fund these requests. >> Yes, sir. That's correct. There'll be ongoing costs that will be built into the budget. >> Thank you. >> Good question. >> Are not one time? >> No, >> no, ma'am. These aren't one time. These these will these are amounts that will come out of the marginal re revenue of 3.5 that we that we currently have. >> Chief Broy, just as we deal with fire department overtime, tell me how your plans to add people will help mitigate or reduce some of the costs we're sitting here. >> So, this overtime figure, it it it's a little staggering at first, but I want you to know that this has been festering over multiple years. Okay? We have been uh run over our overtime budget multiple years in a row. We put several uh systems in place to kind of control the

[1:09:53] overtime, but bottom line is we have uh 43 personnel that we have to have on duty every single day. And in order to accomplish that, we have to hire overtime to do it. U we've been able to offset some of those costs with salary savings that we have seen in the past. Um some of the things that contribute to overtime is I mentioned to you about the uh the extended training period. Uh it takes 16 months. even though we may be fully staffed, I may have 10 to 15 people in the trading academy and they're unable to work shift work and we have to backfill those. So again, um I'm forecasting that this should be a very close number to bring me in line next year. The overtime budget hasn't been adjusted very much to account for inflation and increased salaries. Last year we got an increase and I'm hopeful that this will cover me for next year as well. >> Great explanation. And number two, while you're here, why don't you talk about the apparatus? So, this is a subject that uh those of you that have been on council have heard me stand up here and preach. With the rising cost of vehicle replacements, you're looking at a million dollars for a firetruck. And currently, we uh cash flow that $250,000 a year. Um it's going to take four years to save up enough cash to purchase a million-doll firetr. And then it takes three years to build that firetr. Uh our manufacturers are that far behind. We have 10 vehicles in our frontline fleet and simple math takes four years to save up the money and 10 in the fleet. That's a 40-year replacement and uh I don't think anybody wants a 40-year-old fire truck pulling up to their house to put out their fire. Thanks, >> Chief. I think this is going to help us. It's not going to get us to where we need to be, but again, this is an incremental step in the right direction. >> Any other questions? >> I have just kind of a random question. We've talked about this with some other departments and stuff on the overtime. Um, from your guys, do you think they and girls, uh, do you think they do you need more staff or do you think

[1:11:56] your people would want more overtime? Like if there was only a certain amount allowed in the budget, which one would your people want more? >> So long-term, uh, more staffing costs less and, uh, more overtime. you know, in the long term, it's going to cost more money to have that overtime. Um, this additional 100,000 that is with the current staffing that we have. And the reason why it has caused this overtime figure is because I do have personnel in the academy and I don't have them on the floor. Um, you know, that overtime is great to an extent um because at some point you're going to get burned out and you're not going to want to work more. Uh two years ago we were having to go to mandatory overtime meaning you did not sign up you could not work that day but you could not go home. Mand mandatory overtime is a morale killer and two years ago we were eat up with it and we've made huge steps. We got several people out of the academy uh made huge steps in the right direction to reduce the mandatory and of course uh our deployments have slowed down a little bit as well. So that reduced our mandatory. Do you with our uh not trying to get in politics here but with political climate do you see tiffas being needed more again towards was was down the border stuff was that tiffas or was that a completely separate deal? >> Yeah the border stuff was part of the tiffmas. So we are um being things are being forecast for this fall this winter to be a very very active wildland season fire wild wildfire season. Um, it is very similar to what we saw in 2010. And if you remember the Wildcat fire in 2011, we had excessive rainfall during the summertime and then drier conditions hit late summer and then in 2011 it was just a giant tinder box. We receiving those same conditions right now and forecasting the winter fire season and the early spring fire season to be incredibly active. So, let's hope it keeps raining. >> Thank you. >> Yes, sir.

[1:13:58] Can we hear you? >> Nope. Is that all? >> I'm sorry I interrupted your speech with my phone ringing. Somebody must have snuck up here and turned on the ringer. My fault. Be there with the chief. Thank you very much. Yes, sir. >> The next two items are related to uh animal services. The first item is an additional animal services officer. I believe during this fiscal year, we were able to convert an FTE for an officer. This is an additional officer in the next year's budget which should bring us to a total of six and then uh an additional 24,000 for rescue services. >> Hello. Yes, thank you. Morgan Chegwin again, interim director. Um that is exactly right that we had talked about adding two animal services officers to the roster to have an appropriate response. Um this funding before you would get us to that staffing of six uh folks working in the field. Um and the animal services rescue services agreement is a wag admittedly. Uh we currently are are publishing that proposal um to get feedback on what if any um participants want to do with that. So this would be an increase to the existing budget uh for our best estimate of what those proposals would come back at. Um but certainly any change or variance from that would have come before this group again. think we're headed in the right direction? >> I think we have to try for sure. I think we're uh we have to explore all of those options and uh we're not in a position to take on those programs themselves. I think the the biggest thing weighing on animal services over the last year certainly has been an emp emphasis on field services. And so to to continue to allow this team to um provide outreach, provide enforcement, to do all of that case followup, um I think we we've got to consider continuing the some kind of contract, >> right? And we we put a committee advisory committee to come forward and

[1:16:01] what they suggested was millions of dollars of change. I think we picked out the primary ones that were obtainable and we could execute and we're moving forward with that. But it it's a hot button in city of St. Angelo and we've plugged in a lot more assets to it than what we have done in the past. I mean, it's, you know, five to six times what we spend on health services. So, I think we're I I just want everybody to realize we are making a focus on it. We hope that it no longer becomes a hot button and eventually it's just a standard part of what we do. But, I want to thank y'all for coming through there and helping pick out the two that we're going to move forward with the options. >> Thank you. and and and that's our vision as well. >> Right. >> Ken >> Morgan, um does the RFP that you have published cover spay and neuter services? >> Yes, we did ask for uh a proposal to include that. >> Awesome. Because that's the only thing that really is trackable uh or one of the only thing that's trackable. The result of that work is measurable. So, thank you for that. >> We'll see what the groups are willing to provide and what that cost would be. Um, but that that was a component that was included. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> All right. Thank you, ladies. >> Thank y'all. >> The final item on here is the HRS software. You saw this in the one-time cost. That was for the implementation portion of this software. This is the ongoing reoccurring cost for that software. there's any questions on the on that software? >> I do not. I think she covered it well the first time. Anybody have any questions on this? >> Yes, that that 116,000 we we pay that annually. >> That that is the currently quoted annual amount to the general fund. Yes, ma'am. That would be the annual amount. >> Get in the software writing business. >> Well, Kimberly, how many people is that? How many people are you covering with software? How many employees? That would be um everybody who applies for the

[1:18:06] city. We currently have 34 positions open. We're projecting to post another 11 to 12 jobs this week. So that would be taking in all applications along with the maintenance and managing the employee profiles of about a thousand employees part-time and full-time. >> I understand. I mean, I'm I'm just it's just a lot of money. >> Yes. And I will let you know this is the initial cost. Of course, each year softwares go up. Um, and we also are only putting our fire and police departments on it for timekeeping. Right now, we currently have a separate software that's doing timekeeping for civilian staff. Eventually, we would likely move those over all to one software. Um, and so at that time, we'd be seeing an additional cost, but we would have some savings from the other software. >> Did we Thanks. >> I assume yall tried. Did we try to see if time clock could match what they what the other company can do? >> Time clock is only capable of doing a timekeeping component. This other software would do from an employees um application to their retirement. So it's full, right? They didn't have what we needed. >> Correct. Yes, sir. >> Thank you, >> Kimberly. Would it be preferable to have uh the timekeeping function for all employees in addition to police and fire on this system? And is is it due simply to cost that we're not doing that now or other considerations? I'm going to say other considerations largely in order to make that transition of all staff from time clock that we still have some struggles with getting staff to approve their time and submit their time all of those issues and then also onboarding and implementing it with firearm PD who have not used any form of timekeeping software in the past. Our staff is just not capable of doing that

[1:20:09] at one time. taking on this project will already be a huge hurdle for our staff to get through. So, we're actually going to do a phased implementation. So, this 116,000 will get us started. Um, and we'll be implementing those modules of the software a little bit at a time as we're capable of doing it while maintaining our current workload. Okay. >> Thank you. I >> think we're good. Thank you, Kimberly. Thank you. >> The next slide I believe is is also Kimberly's uh she just >> don't go too far. >> Okay. So, just wanted to go over um some of the challenges that we're currently facing. I just mentioned um we have 34 positions currently posted. I counted them last night and I think I have maybe 11 to 12 in our queue waiting to approve to get posted and the difficulty we're having of attracting qualified candidates and retaining qualified candidates has been a major struggle across our organization from mechanics and fleet services to our assistant director in water utilities to engineering staff. um down to um our maintenance staff and administrative assistance. So, it's really not one particular area. We're kind of seeing it throughout the entire organization. Um the applicant pools remain limited and as positions are getting posted and people apply by the time we are making job offers, they've already taken positions elsewhere. Um we have high turnover rates repeating leading to repetitive training. Um again the moment you hire somebody you train them they get their CDL license within less than 5 years they're gone to the oil field and

[1:22:12] we have paid to give them a CDL license. Um and that's not just with CDL again that's across the organization. Um, and then the strain that that leaves on our staff who is loyal and dedicated and continues to stay with us and we greatly appreciate their loyalty and so we want to make sure that we are compensating them but not only compensating them but trying to relieve that burden so they don't have burnout. um goals from the um comp compensation classification study again that will correct those pay discrepancies, ensure there's equity. They are going to be helping us rewrite job descriptions, verify grading and um organizational structure is correct. We will benchmark against industry standards, not just other cities but other organizations within St. Angelo that we are losing employees to. And then that will provide leadership, our HR staff and city management and council with the data to make appropriate decisions so that finance can work on a funding plan for those. Can you Thank you. Um, as for our health insurance fund, I think we've already covered this a little bit and again I do have our consultants with us here today if we want to discuss the health insurance plan in more detail. Um, but we did go out to bid. We received, I believe, 13 bids and they were came in last Thursday. We've started reviewing those and we plan to come back September 17th with a recommendation. Of course, we talked earlier that we needed $3.5 million to fund the lapse in our current year. I would project that lapse plus probably more depending on how our bids come back and how we have a plan design in next year's budget. Okay. >> With where we're at, is this a good time to bring a representative up of the new

[1:24:15] health insurance fund to maybe give us a and you may want to do it after this slide. Kimberly, entirely up to you. >> This is the perfect time, Julian or Cya. I want to hear the headwinds, the obstacles that we have to deal with and maybe benchmark these or compare this to what other cities have to and where I'm looking at is where do we as St. Angelo sit on the progressive ladder? Are we where we need to be, which I don't think we are. Are we taking the right steps to get where we need to be? And health insurance is one of those things that over the past 10 years that has just become one of the expenses that's the hardest to manage. I know the uh inflation reduction act when that came off last year, that was a a very expensive surprise that slapped us all. So, number one, thank you for being one of our new vendors and maybe give us a little heads up on where we're headed. >> Sure. And thank you. My name is Julian Fontana with Hub International. >> You're good. >> Okay. Um we came on effective uh April 1st with the city and so we have been doing a lot of uh um discovery and uh uh validation of of the plan in terms of what's going on. I think the infrastructure in terms of the administration of the plan is is solid with what's in place. Uh we have done benchmarking um hub does a uh annual benchmarking of all public entities uh across the state and so we have done comparatives of what the benefit uh plan offering is compared to other entities and it's relatively on par with uh where you need to be. Um but we do have some recommendations that'll be forthcoming with the uh RFP that we're looking at. um you know, the medical is a it is a self-funded plan, partially self-funded with stop-loss reinsurance. And so, uh the issue that we're running into or the city has been running into with regard to the funding of the plan is that the um total plan liability is not being realized with what the uh budget amount

[1:26:21] um put in place is. And so, that's where the deficits occur. And so we've been chewing that up with uh the HR team and staff um to give a better projection about what that is uh so that um you know there's transparency in that process and and everyone knows what's going on. So um the uh millamin or seagull forecasts for uh medical and pharmacy inflation is uh 8% on on medical and 12 to 13% on pharmacy. Um, so those are those are costs that just are going to naturally um have to be managed through either plan design or uh utilization review and management protocols with inside each of the programs. And so we're looking at um both on the medical side as well as on the pharmacy side what those uh management programs that are embedded inside the plans are um in an effort to make sure that uh we have all the proper protocols in place. >> I think we we all hate surprises and like this year we had a $3.5 million surprise. Could you tell us what factors went into that as how that came to be? Um I believe it's purely um a budgeting stand you know a budgeting perspective you know um there's a combination of uh fixed costs the administration of the plan as well as the uh reinsurance costs those are the fixed costs and then there's a claims amount the claims liability is driven by the stop-loss reinsurance which sit sits on top of the plan and protects the city and so when you add the uh expected claims liability and the fixed cost together you know what the total plan liability is and that's how the uh funding rates or the premium equivalent should be derived and those are probably about 25 to 30%. they don't really reflect the plan liability. And so we are um in, you know, in the next iteration of this when

[1:28:23] we go into uh the plan design and review, we're going to be making sure that it's communicated that the rates that are established um do fund the plan liability um in total. and then you guys can decide how much you know you want to fund um through the budget and or through reserves uh that are allowed for the plan. >> So where I'm going how did we miss three and a half million? Did we have some unexpected claims this year and was it significantly more than prior years? >> We have had several really high um claimments. I think we usually hit about four to five hitting stop loss. This year we are at nine. Um, so that was a major hit, but historically the plan has not been funded appropriately. I think we've all known that for many years. Um, and we kept kicking the can down the road and to the point where we're at $3.5 million to make it through this year. If we were to have a few more high claimments this year, we could easily be looking at significantly more than the three and a half million. >> Well, and thank you for your honesty there. I mean that's transparency. We missed it and I wouldn't say it was a huge error in anybody's specific fault, but addressing it to where we don't have those problems is what the what's passed is behind us. we need to look at trying to prevent these things is I we all hate coming at the end of the year and going we we've gota I mean because of our conserviveness we've been able to handle these steps but we need to try to mitigate them or loan them as best we can and it's always health insurance that has just for seven eight years there's always been a huge surprise and at the end of the year it's like this is more we're going to put into that bucket >> right and you'll see um Jonathan if you'll move to the next slide the city has absorbed the majority of the increases over the last 10 years. Um, in 2016, if you were an employee, um, the employee only low plan, you were paying

[1:30:26] $6.15 a month, today, you would be paying $2044 a month for your health insurance plan. So, where the city went from $453 to $582, um, so the organization has been trying to pick up that cost year after year. Um, I think we are to a point where we're going to have to share that burden with the employees. >> Kimberly, is there a a way to could we combine with a group? You know, uh, we were talking about yesterday. It's almost like an aggregator, but if if the third party administrator and the company itself would allow to to I think the chamber may have been included in that at one time, but if still on our plan. Okay. Uh, you know, everybody knows the larger the group, the lower the premiums. So, could we consider putting the sheriff's office on that andor some of these smaller communities, you know, Ballinger or Broad just to make that group uh larger. Now, obviously, we wouldn't be contributing to those other uh just at just just our city employees, but uh is that feasible and worth looking at to increase the size of our group? >> Kimberly, >> yes, >> let me jump in. Um 30 years ago when I was on the council, that very very same issue arose and we had conversations with the school. I was involved. We had conversations with the school district and the county and what it came down to, Mary, was it became very territorial. People wanted to manage the plan, but they wanted them to manage the plan and not us to manage the plan. There's a lot of things that go on behind the scenes

[1:32:29] that are specific to our group that don't affect the other group and you start co-mingling some of those things. It is the that the the idea at the philosophical level is good. The theoretical part is true. Um, insurance is based on the law of large numbers, but people want to control what they want to control and don't want anybody else messing with it. We never could get past that 30 years ago. Now that may change now, but then you have also then it comes down to Julian's firm having to somebody's got to say, "Okay, this is your stuff, your people, your claims, your stop-loss, this is ours. Oh, and here's your this groups." It becomes pretty unwieldy to do that. Um, now can it be done? Yeah, probably. So, um I don't know that y'all I would seriously doubt y'all have surveyed other cities to see if any other cities do anything like that. It would be I think the closest thing might be TML used to offer a plan. Do they still? >> Yes. >> Um it's not affiliated directly. >> Yeah. It's not affiliated directly with the Texas Municipal League anymore. Um it's primarily for small groups um smaller cities you know of a 100 lives or less and so that's the mechanism okay for that um you know typically we don't see um cities or counties you know school districts uh collaborating you know for a plan because of the control issues that you you said and then balancing you know the sub you know who's subsidizing who you you know, the

[1:34:32] school district's running well, but the city's running not as well. Uh the county, you know, so you you have to be able to develop a cost sharing arrangement and how the the claims are ultimately, you know, validated and how each each uh party's uh costs are are assessed. I think at your size, um it the plan can be managed appropriately and effectively. um and under our model and the way that that we plan to uh facilitate the the plan uh administration and the cost management, I think that uh we'll be able to create some stability for the city and some transparency in terms of what's going on in the plan while still providing a high quality benefit program to the employees. a third party administrator worth their salt. We'll find out about Julian's firm to >> work for one. >> You know, we'll find out. But a quality TPA will will serve us better. Julian hit touched on something there. One of the one of the issues really is if you got everything in one group, there's going to be one of those groups that's running hot and the claims are just they're not out of control, but you've got a lot of sick people in that particular organization and the other organization or other organizations may not be they may be running really well. And to Julian's point, trying to allocate how you share that and how because that affects the rates you pay for your stop-loss insurance. >> Yes, I understand how how this all this works. Have you is this your first year with the city? >> We started in April. >> So, this is your first year. Okay. That that was going to be my next question. if if y'all overlooked the three and a half million. So,

[1:36:34] >> um I'm glad to know that >> you're on top of this, >> right? Yeah. So, >> and Mary, to further um elaborate on your question, we do work with the chamber. The chamber does buy into our health insurance plan and we do have a contract with Tom Green County for clinic services. Um so, where it is possible, we have looked at those partnerships. >> Well, I'm I'm glad y'all are y'all are on top of it then and you're we're thinking a lot. So, good. Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. >> I have no further questions. >> Thank you, Julian. Thank you for coming up. The next slide is uh illustrating our property tax rates. This is the rate up at the voter approval rate basically capping us at the 3 and 12% plus you'll also see the debt rate is also increasing and that is related to the coliseum bonds. uh overall an increase of our tax rate of 00403. Um we did pull up some medium homestead taxable value numbers at a home valued at a taxable value of 143,000. This increase would be about $58 a year. $9 of that would be attributed to that maintenance operations line and $49 would be um uh related to the debt rate which of course is increasing because of the coliseum bond that the voters approved >> but the medium household was 60 bucks a year in their change with this proposed 7947. >> Yes, sir. And that goes back. We're leaving the 7544 as it's been the past 10 11 years. >> Yes, sir. >> Cool. And this is just add-on. Okay. >> The next slide is our marginal revenue slide. Um like we showed before, we have marginal revenue currently of $3.5 million. Uh proposed TIS totaling up to 652. This is made up of some of those

[1:38:36] items that we saw previously. And then right now we currently have a line item in here for 5% raises totaling 2.8 million. Uh this gets us to a balanced budget. Um and willing to take any questions or any >> is that 5% is that um all departments, city, fire, police or is that just city? >> This would be just general fund departments. So your parks, fire, police. Um although we would apply this our current plan is to apply this citywide. So this would also apply to water. Um the utility funds, the airport, all the other funds that we have for Concho, the cemetery. Um every city employee would be impacted by that 5% raise, but that cost that 2.8 is just for the general fund employees. >> That's what I was going to say. Cool. Yeah, >> the next slide is just a uh just some information for y'all. Um we are planning to bring this uh budget back to you guys on the 19th council meeting and we'll also have a record vote at that point on the tax rate and then we will uh tent tentatively have the adoption of both the budget and the tax rate at the se September 2nd meeting >> and that gives us a twoe cushion in case anything goes ary. >> Yes sir. >> But so questions let's go down the road starting with you Tommy. Do you have any questions about what's been proposed? >> I I think we've done a good job. I think I want to say thanks to Daniel and the staff. They brought us some some decent numbers that we can work with and we're taking care of some of the things that we need in the city. So, I I'm good. >> Councilman Self, >> I'm good. >> Young self. >> Patrick, >> uh I mean I think we're on the right track. is does any of this need to be and and this is a deeper conversation.

[1:40:39] Does any of this need to be looked at for the NRCS? Like we talked about trying to figure out a way to fund that as well. Does any of this need to be um can it be adjusted any? >> Yeah. Not not in not in this budget. I think with that project we try to find some onetime funding for those properties or for whatever level we decide to participate in that program. >> Perfect. Thanks, Karen. All good. >> Mary questions for this, but this is just it's not talking about the any of the enterprise funds. >> No, >> no, not yet. With that, nice job, y'all. Let's move forward with that. >> Yeah. So, then just the next slide we have real quick is the street infrastructure fund. Um, this is the 00072 that we've dedicated from the property tax rate to uh street infrastructure and the maintenance and rehabilitation of our streets. uh we are seeing an increase of 70,000 almost 71,000 this year and that is mainly just due to property values increasing >> and with that I believe that's the end of our general fund session if we'd like to take a little bit of a break before we jump into enterprises or if there's any questions on the street infrastructure >> I think we need a break right now >> believe we're going to take a break 30 minutes I think sounds good I will sit back in this seat at 12:40 and we'll move forward right then >> having a problem >> all right It's 12:41. We'll call this meeting back to order >> as we move into the enterprise funds. Jonathan, we're glad you're back here as the voice of the table. >> All righty. I think we're going to want to jump to the hot fund only because we have some people who may want to speak to some of this if you guys have any questions. >> Absolutely. So, for hotel occupy tax revenues, just this little slide just kind of showing

[1:42:42] we're projecting somewhat flat with where we're at at fiscal year 25. Um, we kind of expect hotel revenues to kind of stay at that same level for the next fiscal year. Um, here's a slide of the revenues and the expenditures. Of course, hotel occupancy tax only going up $1,000. On the budgeted side of things, interest income being budgeted at 25,000. And then we have external partners contributions going up 103,000 and transfers to other funds going up 29,000. We have some more detail on that next slide if there's no questions on revenues or expenses. So, when we there there are people here. We're we're looking at pretty much going flat with it, but I think there are some people here that wanted to speak about their budget. >> I don't we don't it's >> if you're good with it, >> it's all good. But if you want to make a discussion here at this point, I would say we'll dedicate three minutes to it, but we can't have a a long show. And I don't expect maybe but one or two of these people to come up and speak. And and I think it's if you if you guys have really any uh questions for the organizations themselves, like you said, for the most part, most of these programs are staying flat right now with exception to the ARCH program, which is mainly just to cover administration cost costs for that program. Okay. >> Um right now we have a $100,000 increase to the contra celebration as well as an increase to civic events of 149,000. and that one's meant to cover um some of the shortage in revenue that we're going to have with the coliseum being closed. And then we have an additional contribution to the sports complex of 150,000. Um that's that's going to help reduce some of the uh funding support that the general fund gives that sports complex. So if there's any questions on on any of these specifically or if you want any any answers from any of these organizations, I think we can go through those. Um, but right now this is currently where we haven't budgeted. >> Well, I will say the first thing I brought up yesterday in a in a conversation with Daniel was over the

[1:44:44] console Christmas celebration and I I did talk with Mr. Fluger this morning about there's a difference in the funds there, Daniel. >> Okay. >> And so we at least need to bring that up and say while this is not the final number, this is pretty close to the final number. We just have a couple weeks to make sure we get everything and I would love for it Daniel to be itemized and lined out and we know exactly where we are moving forward. >> Absolutely. uh think of anything. Um he and I had discussions in the past and there's a dollar amount that we had talked about that I want to make sure that is addressed. Uh the the initial request I thought was I know for a fact was too high. So I want to make sure we maintain. So yeah, we'll get that resolved. >> Well, and I think there's there's a difference between there where the starting money is, where the sponsor money is, the revenue, how that all comes back in plays into the big picture. When we took this over last year, we were under, >> correct me if I'm wrong, but we were under the thought that it would be about 200 to 220,000 would take to run that for one year. >> For one year. That's correct. For one year. And then after that, we would build a a working capital fund or a fund that would that would carry over and allow them to start the next event and have those monies already in there because they do bring in revenues anywhere between 180 to $200,000 per year. And so my question is I know some of those monies you have to have up front and there's some things you're always prepping for. I think there's going to be some issues with storage to move things out of >> um flugers over to downtown San Angelo will be taking over a lot of this Monica. So I know there are some questions there and I I brought that up yesterday. I talked to Lee this morning. He had to go to a funeral. I get that. But I think there's at least a meeting that needs to happen to line out that one. Um Jeremy Barts, while you're here, um you submitted a a budget that was about $100,000 more >> than what we have here. Can you maybe elaborate the request for that? >> Yes, sir. >> There we are. Good afternoon. Uh Jeremy Barts, vice president, destination marketing, convention, and visitors bureau. Whatever you want to call it, I'm good with either one. Uh Discover St. Angelo. Uh in terms of the budget request that's been submitted, one large

[1:46:48] piece of that is for additional marketing opportunities for us through our website as well as uh through some of the publications that we're utilizing as part of our contract. We obviously need to make sure that we hit uh as many different places we possibly can get as much as many heads and beds as possible here in town in every way that we can. Website redevelopment, as we've seen through other departments, is fairly expensive. So, in order for us to redevelop this, we're looking at about a $50,000 increase to that, as well as roughly about $40,000 in our overall publication and advertising and sales. So, that's that's essentially where that was going to be eaten up. >> Okay. Do you see the improvements in that website? I mean, is there a way to track what that would gain? >> There are. And in fact, we're we're utilizing a new tool this year through Datafi that allows us to target ads to people that has blown our website up. It's it's been phenomenal to watch the number of people who have actually come in and seen our website and actually correlated to come to this city and stay in our hotels. So, uh when you put all of that together and you make the website more appealing, it gives those people something more to look at when they're coming down the road. >> All right. Well, and that's one that we're going to have to look at interest. We we have our budget here, but long story short, I needed to know what your request was. >> Yes, sir. >> What you had down on the money and how you expecting to gain that back to make sure we had a net positive and to go forward. >> Yes, sir. Absolutely. And that's that's ultimately our goal is to be net positive. We never want to get to a point where we're losing money. >> All right. Okay. And that's that may be something we address more in the next couple weeks. Okay. Thank you, Jeremy. >> You bet. Any other questions? >> We good? Hey, I think Patrick might have >> Well, mine we kind of went from hotel taxes to this real quick and so this kind of ties a little bit together. >> Do we know hotel tax revenue has actually dropped the last three years? Do we know why that's trended down instead of the other direction? >> What we're seeing for 2025 so far is that actually occupancy is up, RevPAR, which is revenue per available rental is

[1:48:51] up and average daily rate is up. So when you talk daily rate, that is not inflationary. That is 100% demand driven. So that means that more people are coming due to what they want to be here for. It's not driven up by the inflationary costs of of the regular economy. And so with that, what we're able to deduce at this point is that again, I don't want to knock on wood and I don't want to jinx anything, but it's it's turning out to be a better year than it was even in 2019 or 2023 if everything stays the same. >> Okay, Tina, are we seeing that? Do you see what I was talking about on the the trend down? Yeah. >> Yes, sir. Um, a lot a lot of the prior years we've received um lumpsum payments for some of the audit activity that we've had in previous years. We're starting to see that dwindle just a little bit more and more. So, we're not seeing those big lumpsum payments, people getting caught up on their hotel occupancy taxes, which is why you're also seeing us kind of budget kind of flat for the next fiscal year as well. >> Okay. Do we um for 25? Are we on track? Are we above? >> We're We're on track. We're on track to hit that budget. Yes, sir. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay, >> thank y'all. >> So, some of y'all might have come in late. We're going over the hot tax fund right now. Um this is the budget we have down. It matches last year. If somebody needed to come up and and talk for a moment, I've got two or three minutes here that we'd like to share. If if you need to talk, Yuki. Hi everybody. I'm Yuki Kunyuki, the director for the San Angel Performing Arts Center. I'd like to welcome the new council members. If you haven't come by the performing arts, we like we would love to have you come by. The only comment I have is for um a recommendation as you look. I know that the public art commission is the entity that's going to review the hot

[1:50:54] fund requests for the other arts organizations in the town. My recommendation would be taken re reooking at the public art commission so that it's not only a visual arts uh board but one that serves the uh performing arts as well because right now um the members of the board are only visual arts people and I think that would be be I think it needs to be evolved so especially for the comprehensive plan that you have in place because we need some commission that oversees all the arts in St. Angelo and provides the council with um an understanding of where we are as a community. You know, how many art organizations do we have, how many have we lost, and where are we going to go in the future? Thank you for your time. >> So, Yuki, don't leave. >> So, from what you just said, you don't think performing arts is maybe getting the best rep representation out of what we look at here, right? You would like to see the little broader view of that that includes some of your group. Well, I think I think it will serve the city in the best way if we expand the public art commission to include performing arts. For example, if a musician wants to busk in St. Angelo, play on the street in St. Angelo, they don't know where to go. And I think the public art commission could be answered to the council and help identify the best ways for people to perform in public spaces or have art in public spaces. For right two years ago, I went through the process of figuring out how to busk. For example, you have to get permission from the business, then go to the plans department to get a letter to take to police department to pay your itinerant workers fee and then go back to permits. And so it's a really convoluted process. And if we're a music friendly city, I think having the public art commission expand its kind of role to not just be visual arts but also performing arts, it would be in the best interest of everybody. >> I think that's very well spoken. That doesn't really pertain to what you're going to need on funds, right? >> No, no, no. It's not for my funds. I'm just I know I've spoken to some of the

[1:52:55] other arts organizations that are not here and that was one of their concerns was representation on the public art commission, but I think when we think about the long-term goal for the city and the upcoming comprehensive plan, if we had a public art commission that represents all the entities and, you know, cultural, performing, and visual arts, that's a great way to infuse the plan with where we want to be in the future as a travel tourism destination. >> Okay. you. While the performing arts is not my superpower, I think just what you said made a lot of common sense that we kind of need to have a fair representation and maybe spread that out. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Well spoken. >> Is there any come on up? Hello, I'm Laura Huckabe. I'm the curator of the St. Angelo Museum of Fine Arts and I'm joined here by Allora Henderson, our development manager, and also um by Lynn Shipley, our operations manager. We just want to thank the city for supporting the arts. Um it's I'm uh I'm honored to live and work in St. Angelo, a community that values the arts so much and especially to work for the St. Angelo Museum of Fine Arts. Um, we just had some brief statistics we wanted to share with you guys. We have lots of events every year that bring in um multiple multiple people from all over the state. Um, our ceramics events which are annual, but our um our upcoming ceramic competition is bianial. We will be doing that in the spring of 2026. We're anticipating um 1500 visitors not just from out of state but also well within the state out of St. Angelo but also out of state and even internationally as the reput as the

[1:54:58] reputation of our ceramic competition has grown and also our ceramic collection we have seen more attention internationally and we are we're excited that that's coming up. Um we have internationally known artists coming in as our juror as our invited artists. This is happening in the spring. And just our regular gallery attendance, just our ordinary exhibits on an ordinary day when we're open during ordinary hours, we tracked over,00 um was it outofstate and international visitors. Last year, and that doesn't include the out of town visitors within Texas. We have quite a bit of those from Midland, Odessa, Abalene, and I35 corridor. And I would just like to add to that a little bit. >> There we go. Let's make sure you're >> I'm um I'm the development manager. And one of the things I did this year was a compilation for our cultural district because the St. Angelo Museum of Fine Arts we founded and we manage the cultural district for the city of St. Angelo. And within that, just to sort of give you a quick synopsis, we have the Fort Concho. Um, we have the railway depot. Um, and we also consider the chamber of commerce part of our group. So I do a report every year. Um, so that and we also have our own website which is managed by SAMA. Um, so this is part of what we appreciate from the hot fund tax. Um, this helps maintain a lot of a lot of what we do here. But altogether if you total the cultural district outofstate visitors between those four entities which are in the cultural district that that was almost 2200 >> 22 >> 22,000 visitors from out of state. All right. So 22,000 21,48 exactly. Um, so we we just feel like, you know, it's nice for you to know that we are combining a lot of the resources and driving a lot of visitation to the

[1:57:04] cultural district. >> We love to see people come to town and all of us have different passions and interests. I'm probably not the best ceramic guy, so you may not want me for a judge. Maybe Shane Kelton could be your next ceramic judge. But anyway, the the point is you bring up things that sometimes we don't see. And that's the whole part of having the best people in the room is you make sure what parts aren't covered are now covered by that group. So, number one, anybody that can help assist and bring in 22,000 people is always welcome. And we thank you for your efforts and what you've done. >> Thank you. >> Is there anybody else on the list? Monica, next >> I really just want to ask a question just to verify on concho Christmas since Mr. Fluger is not here. Um this $100,000 we will be revisiting that in a conversation after today. Is that what I understood? >> You understood that correct? >> Okay, good. I think we do need to revisit that subject al together um with Mr. flu in attendance and I'd like to be there as well at that meeting >> and you know he would be here. He's got that funeral to go to but I spoke with Daniel and spoke with you. We've got the >> perfect >> key partners in that to help line that one out. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, Monica. With that said, I think we've covered everybody on the hot tax board right here. Is there anybody else that needs to speak? If not, we'll flip to the next page. We're going to move back to uh the water fund. >> Okay. And >> we'll take these in order. >> Hey Tom. Tom, there's 2.7 million in the fun balance on hot tax. So if we have to adjust. So to go over the water fund, currently right now there um is no increase to the sales line for the water fund. Right now

[1:59:09] the uh water department is going through the utilities in general is going through a water rate study, a rate study to go over um what those rates are going to need to be in the future. So I believe we'll be taking we'll be bringing that study back to you guys as well as a recommendation for increased revenue if we if we see that at that point. And if you guys have any questions on that, I believe John or Shane are probably here to answer any questions related to the water rate study. If not, we can move on to the next line. >> So, I don't know. We we talk about inflation, everything happening every year. I don't see how our sales can stay the same. Shane, I mean, if you want to come up here and 329 going to 329 and just tell me why you come up with that number. I'm not griping about. I'm just saying I would expect that number to go up a little bit. >> We would normally too. Of course, this year I we're not it's been wet. We've had a wetter July. And of course, our norm normally our sales are uh this is normally when we see the majority of our sales. And so, um we're probably going to see something very flat and and again, we're we're watching our budget very closes to make sure we're actually going to meet our projected revenues this year. Uh based on this, as we're moving into next year, we chose to keep everything flat, we probably could see a small uh increase in sales depending on again what the weather does to us as we move forward. Uh but again, as we're looking at the rate study, um and of course um wish it was we were moving along a little faster, but with recent events, um the study has kind of taken a backseat to some of the other things we've been working on. So, um, as we move forward, again, we were just projecting a flat rate just to >> It's a sandbag. It's a safe sandbag. >> Yeah. It's just a a safe a safe place to stay. So, that's that's where we are now. Of course, you know, we do have a lot of the projects that we have included in the rate rate study as we're moving forward to look at a lot of these things and some of these future expenditures that we're going to need to be looking at um when we when we start talking about securing uh additional

[2:01:12] water for the city as we moving forward and and some of the other things that are in process, infrastructure, those type things. And so again, as as we work through through the remainder of this rate study, we will be bringing some recommendations for uh proposed rate increases as we're looking to move into the future. And then also again, as we uh come into the end of this year, we'll kind of have a better determination of of what our revenues look like. But again, right now, we're, you know, we we still have, you know, 60 days that could turn out really hot and dry and we can meter our expected sales. it again. We're we're a little we're running a little low right now. >> I I'll boil it back. That's your number and that's the number you put on the board and you have a reason for that. It's a conservative very conservative. So, this is just a revenue. I mean, it's it's not an expense. So, we're pretty good with any projection there. All right. Thank you, Shane. >> Anybody have any questions for Shane? >> Mayor, you talked about inflation. Inflation on this slide has its impact on that on&m line. Yeah, we and and there is inflation and of course we saw a huge increase in our electrical costs this year especially at our plant um water water treatment plant. Uh huge increase there. We we are again continuing to see inflation but again want to be uh again very cautious on the on the uh on the sales side as we move uh move through this process and and again we will be bringing recommendations further in into the year uh as we move forward. Right. >> Thank you Shane. The remaining increase or the increase to revenue there of 682,000 is primarily due to the increase in interest. We're seeing an increase in interest from Lake Nazworthy fund as well as just an increase in interest to this fund in general. um the personnel line. Uh there's not there's not an increase. There's a slight decrease there and that's just related to um moving some of those FTE distributions between these different

[2:03:13] utility funds. Operations and maintenance is going up 1.4 million. That is primarily due to um uh building and maintenance and chemical and medical at the water treatment plant. There's also, I believe, an increase of 500,000 for contract services related to testing um and some testing that I think we do for TCQ. There uh the capital line there is decreasing and that's primarily a decrease due to um the increase in the operations and maintenance line there. Um and then other expenditures is decreasing related to uh debt service payment that is decreasing in the next fiscal year. Any questions on the water fund? >> On the water reclamation fund. Um fees are budgeted flat here as well. The other line is also um related to interest um and a little bit of an increase in auction proceeds as well. The personnel line there is increasing. That's mainly due to benefits as well as uh again some of those movements of those personnel distributions. O&M is increasing as well. This is related to stationary equipment, building and grounds maintenance and some indirect costs. I believe those stationary equipment building and grounds are related to the wastewater treatment plant as well as a small increase to chemicals there at the wastewater treatment plant. The capital line is again a little bit of a decrease due to the increase in operations and maintenance. And then there is a small decrease in other expenditures related to debt service. >> Is that the $274 line? That $274 >> just killed me. All right, >> that's that's Tina's line. >> That's Tina's line. >> Down to the penny. >> It's got a balance. >> Uh the next fund is the storm water

[2:05:16] fund. There is a little bit of an increase to this fund for the fees and I believe this is just because of the added um properties, the added land that we're managing for storm waters. Um the other line is decreasing mainly due to auction proceeds. We're predicting a little bit less auctions in this fund next year. Uh the personnel line is increasing. That's mainly due to benefits um retirement and loyalty pay, those kinds of items. ON&M is decreasing um by 25,000 and a majority of that decrease is related to software maintenance. Um and then the capital line is increasing for some uh smaller uh smaller items basically moving some money around into land and improvements not building. Uh and then the other expenditures line is increasing mainly due to the indirect cost plan. The indirect cost plan is um around 9,000 of that $10,000 increase on the other expenditure line. Shane, do you see any long-term effects from what's happened here during the flood that's going to affect this fund? >> That is exterior to what you can get back. >> Yes. I mean, there are going to be there are going to be additional costs as as what Patrick's presentation up here earlier and we we start talking about acquiring these properties and uh if if they come online, of course, there's going to be routine maintenance that's going to have to occur on those uh mowing and and and maintenance and trees and different things like that. So, of course, that is going to increase our expenses that this fund would would oversee in those. And so yes there the effects of today and what and how we move forward in the future will definitely affect this fund. Of course this fund other than uh two years ago we have not we have not seen an increase in our fees in this fund except for the one small 4% that we saw two years ago um since its inception in in 2010. So um this is a part of the rate study as well

[2:07:18] uh the storm water fund as well as part of the rate study and so we will be uh bringing back some recommendations uh for this fund as well too. >> Right. >> This the revenue in this fund would be affected if you have properties which are no longer can no longer be occupied. >> So if you have 100 >> that is true. Yeah that is true. as we take a as structures are removed uh from these properties that will uh again that lowers the um area the um impervious area that we actually uh charge or that our fees are based on. So our fees will actually be reduced as well. So correct >> any questions? If not, let's roll ahead. Jonathan, >> the next fund is the solid waste fund. There is an increase to the landfill fees and that's mainly related to the contract that we have with Republic Services, those contract fees going up. And then the other line is uh 42 is mainly an increase to interest of 42,000. The personnel line here is decreasing and that's also related to positions being distributed and being moved around a little bit. Um contract services line is going up. Um that's being offset on the operations and maintenance line by a software maintenance decrease as well. The capital line is increasing and that's that's mainly set aside mainly because of the increase in revenue. And then the transfers out is increasing primarily due to additional franchise fee transfer and some indirect cost adjustments as well. And then legal fees of $300. Who puts that in there? I that's a teen line. I just look at that and giggle. Anyway, okay. So on the transfers out the franchise fees, can you elaborate on that? I don't know if I've ever really understood that. And I hate to drag this out, but give me a 30 second.

[2:09:20] >> Yes, sir. Similar similar to the franchise fees that we charge for telephone and TV and gas franchises, these utility funds also have a franchise fee that they pay to the general fund. Those are based off 5% of revenues for both water, wastewater, and solid waste. Um, so all of those funds pay a similar franchise fee and that's kind of um the goal of that franchise fee is to cover the ride ofway maintenance that the general fund has to cover for the most part. >> Well, it's it's a million dollars one one and is is it at risk? I mean, we talk about franchise fees like the peg fees. I mean, are we at risk anywhere of losing that one? Because it's it's hard to plug a hole a million dollar hole. And I don't think that's the case, but I'm just trying to make sure. >> No, sir. Um the the reason why peg fees are down is because those fees um are tied to the usage. Yeah. Streaming. So as people move to streaming those but I just want I want to make sure nothing at >> at risk. We hate surprises. >> Yes. So the other thing that's in this transfers outline is so it's that franchise fee. There's also some indirect costs in this, but also in this line is a billing charge that the solid waste fund pays the water fund for actually putting that charge amount on your water bill every single month. So, customer service receives the benefit of of billing out those charges as well. >> Okay. I think we call that robbing Peter to pay Paul, but we're good. Taking care of your brother. I'm good. Thank you, Jonathan. >> The next fund here is the airport fund. There's an increase in leases and concessions of >> just set aside 45 minutes. >> There's um the increase here in the leases and concessions line is 350,000. The majority of this increase is related to the US customs and hangar um lease that I believe you guys saw a couple uh last month. And then there is a little bit of a decrease in the other line mainly related to interest fees or interest revenue. And then the personnel line is increasing slightly due to

[2:11:23] benefits. Um the operations and maintenance line is increasing mainly due to electricity. And then the capital line is increasing mainly due to the ability for us to collect some of those revenues and the leases and concessions line. That should allow Justin to do some uh additional projects as well as fund some additional vehicle replacement. And then on the other expenditures line, that is a decrease for indirect costs of 11,000. >> Justin, I know you've got some insurance concerns that are going to come maybe on some roofs. >> Where do those play into the budget? >> Uh we're currently working with the city's insurance provider uh to assess six hanger roofs out at the airport. uh with this rainy season we've had, we've had significant water intrusion on several of these hangers. Uh so he's done two site visits so far. He had to take leave for a death in the family, so he's coming back. Uh but we're we're expecting a written assessment on the roost at any time. And then, you know, when I'm on the roof with him, one of the things that we're looking at is what's wind, what's hail damage, and what's age. And that's something that we're going to have to navigate once we get this assessment. That's something that we need to have a conversation about when we're looking at these roofs and how do we get them repaired, replaced, what the conversation's going to be. >> I think it's important to our our vendors and our leasees that we we just need to fix it. >> Yes, sir. >> I mean, how we point the fingers irrelevant to me. I mean, just look at the fastest way to fix it to take care of our tenants. >> Yes, sir. >> All right. as far as I'm going to go down the airport. >> If I could introduce our airport director who recently uh got the south taxiway project off High Center, got the uh border protection contracts off High Center. We've been working on both those for years and Justin got them done. I think any difficult project we have along have come along, Justin's the man. >> I think we're going to have to make a bigger door in his office to get his head through it, but it's all right. That'll be two doors they have to fix. Leard, nice job. The next fund is the KOSADC economic

[2:13:25] development fund. Um the first line there is sales tax revenue. This is budgeted in accordance with the same way that we budget for sales tax in the general fund. So this is going to be at 100% of our projected collections. That is going to be an increase of 200,000. And then we're seeing an increase uh decrease in interest for next year of 26,000. Um the operations and maintenance line is increasing 32,000. This is related to additional building and grounds maintenance needed. And then the COCDC staff line. This is related to benefits uh for the staff out of the at the development corporation city services and is increasing 11,000 and that is due to the indirect cost plans um the results from the indirect cost plan. And then there is currently a placeholder in the marketing chamber of commerce line of 325,000 that is going to be uh used for the renegotiation of that contract with the chamber. And then the capital line is decreasing $5,000 and then future projects is decreasing and that's um a function of the revenues plus the increased expenditures above that line. Could you give me a breakdown on the um >> So, I'm going to ask >> She's asking a question, right? Okay. >> Yes. On the chamber portion, could can you give me a breakdown of that of that 325,000 increase >> that contract that is that 587 is a placeholder. It's based on a proposal that they made and we are in discussions with them to get a better understanding of that breakdown at this time. We've got the placeholder in there because a budget needed to move forward. But we're continuing the discussion about what needs to be in that contract and what amount needs to be tied to that and we will be bringing that back to you at a later date. >> Thank you, Michael. Appreciate that. >> But the place at the 587, right?

[2:15:29] >> Pardon me. Yeah, we're we're both >> the 587 was what they what they proposed up from the 262 and uh we are in discussions to determine it. It included some step up in service levels and we're going through that with that with them now. We anticipate being back in front of uh the uh Kosa DC board next week and before then we've got a small group that's going to we're going to talk to about that and uh we hope we hope that lines the ducks up perfectly so they all go the way we need them to go. >> I will Mary did that answer your question? >> Yes. >> I'm just going to put a little input on that. I mean, this group is dealing with people that are talking about projects that are two, three, four, five, six year projects, and we have people that are coming here just because of some of that staff. Now, I'm trying to take a balls and strikes path here, but it's my point. We have we have handcuffed them some the past couple years. I would love to give them some rain and some rope to go out and do some things that they hadn't been able to do before. Just my input on that. I'd love to see that thing move forward. >> Gotcha. >> Any other questions on the coast of DC? >> It is the highlight of the day. >> Yeah, it is. It is. All right. >> The next fund is the 72% portion of the sales tax that's dedicated to the development corporation. Again, this sales tax is budgeted in accordance with the same way that we budget the general fund. That's going to be an increase of 524,000. We have a slight decrease to interest on investments for next year. The main change on the expense side of this is a decrease in debt service related to ballot projects um that the voters approved uh at the ballot. And then future projects is again that increase due to revenue as well as that decrease in that debt service payment.

[2:17:32] Recall that this is restricted for items which were identified on the ballot as those items have become complete. What the eligible uses for this side of Kosa DC are affordable housing which is restricted in its total amount per year and the rest of it is restricted to water supply related issues. We typically call it long-term water supply. And what you see is as those other things decline against the an increasing amount of revenue that future projects line has begun to grow again. That's the the amount of money the amount of the revenue which is not yet programmed. It has not been assigned to a project or task because there isn't one. Its eligibility is for those water supply related issues. And uh so we have talked to the board about that and they show a keen interest in partnering with the city on some of the uh uh issues that the city's facing related to water supply, water distribution, water treatment. I think I think when Shane is ready for uh to move forward with something, you'll find a partner in Kosa DC for utilization of this money for its eligible purpose, which is money Shane would no doubt spend for uh water and infrastructure related items that were that legal would tell us was eligible under the ballot language. So the key there is there's some resource here as you move forward with projects related to water supply and distribution. We have talked about distribution needs and we just need to keep sh keep Shane busy. Love do I mean there but there's there's some things there. The water partnership um some for stock there's some things there that we we have yet to see fruition and we continue to to invest in it. I won't say divest, but we continue to invest in that. And I think at some point in time, maybe those people would like to see some clarity on what those

[2:19:34] expenses are and what they're for. >> Well, those expenses will far outstrip anything we've got here. But the board did surprise us with their keen interest in seeing those initiatives move forward and how could they help. So, >> we're in it for the long game, but I think we all need to be lock step and on the same page as we move forward. We don't need anything in between. Let's all get on the same page and let's all go forward. The last fund that we have for you guys today, I'm going to skip over these hotel occupancy tax slides and jump to the civic events fund. This fund has an increase from the um hot fund of 149,000. This is uh added here to make up for the revenue lost in the other line. The revenue that we're losing in that line is related to the coliseum and this is as conservative of a projection that we could make as far as the revenue impact uh due to the renovations out there. Um facility use fee is also decreasing a little bit related to the coliseum renovation as well. The personnel line is decreasing 15,000 and that's mainly related to part-time salaries. We're taking some of that money and using it in the operations and maintenance line for things like electricity and some indirect cost increases as well. Um the capital line, we're also budgeting a little bit there in capital there in this fund this fiscal year. >> When we look at the coliseum as far as I met with the executive director and the president's association yesterday, not by choice but accidentally at the same place for lunch. So anyway, the table went from one to three, but I I did bring it up that we need to sit down with them. We need to get it all lined out on when the construction would start. The original plan is to work on the exterior of the coliseum, then move to the interior. So I want to say that the effect on the 149,000 may be minimal

[2:21:39] in 26. they've kind of got together and get some timelines and I would hope that we we get that and it's not staff's fault. It's it's the issue up there. It's all a first time to navigate through that. And now that I told them we're at the point where we need to sit down and figure out what some of those moves are, but I do think there's going to have to be a lot of infrastructure, I would say, moved from electrical to sewer and septic. And Joe, I think you're going to be important on this one as it's in your neighborhood before they even get close to starting next year. But I just want to say hopefully we can mitigate that 149 for you. >> You were going to say something that it's Yeah, at this point we have cleared the schedule based on what they have given us as directive. And so if they want to add back into that schedule, they can. But at this point, we were we've stopped bookings and we've we've cleared the schedule. what we've done here on the city side extremely safe. We'll see if we can't mitigate that and then maybe free up some funds for that one-time funding deal on this same date next year. Any further questions? >> I have one on the I know that just pertains to the coliseum, but and I understand that the stock show and rodeo has is taken over the uh marketing part of it and event reserving for the event. Is that correct? >> No, not until a renovation's complete. >> Okay. There's not smaller things that we can do in there. >> And I think that was a conversation we just had. There may be some smaller things we could do. This is a worst case scenario is losing 149,000, but if they can find smaller things to put back in there, they will. Miss Coffee. And does that just pertain to the coliseum building per se or is it the any of the other >> it's just buildings >> coliseum >> red barn and all that's not included? >> No, that's does not have anything to do with this revenue line. Right. They already operate those or we have another

[2:23:41] agreement for instance with the red barn with Angelo State University. >> Okay. >> And the rodeo uh rodeo group. >> Perfect. Thank you >> Jonathan. >> That's the last fund. So, we'll bring this budget back to you guys August 19th for the first budget hearing and then we'll bring it back for adoption on September 2nd. >> So, before we wrap it up, let's go down the line. Tommy, any suggestions or directions or things you want to see specific? >> No. >> Councilman Self? >> Good. >> I don't have any recommendations. I'm It's been very >> neat and interesting to go through and Yep. Very good. >> Harry Thomas, Daniel, any >> I'm good. I think this is a a really good this is we the first time we combined the two workshops together. I think it went very smoothly. So, thank you for >> trying to beat my 12:40 lunchtime under an >> Patrick. It's educational. It is. Anyway, I thank y'all for your patience on that. Karen, >> thank you. >> Mary, >> yeah, keep your seat. This is going to take a minute. I'll just go down the line because it it applies to different departments. Considering that the debris still is being picked up, the overgrowth of the uh vegetation throughout, is it prudent to have like a one-time uh contract with some out outside vendors to help get us back on track and to get us into that uh systematic normal rotation as as possible. The uh one thing too I've noticed and I don't know if this has anything at all to do with the traffic accidents or anything, but it seems that every street that I'm on, the stop sign or the street sign is uh stopped with or covered up with brush. You know, just the overgrowth of the trees to me that that's not good. I know I've uh in my former house, I got two tickets because of it. So to get us back on track so that we can get back to the business of

[2:25:46] being there for the citizens, can we look at doing this just to get us get us over the hump? Um the CIP plan that really doesn't have anything to do with this part. Um, is as far as the grants, it's almost like every department has uh we're always applying for grants. Does each department have their own either designated or uh hired specifically for for that? Do they have their own grant writer or do we how is that done? >> In in a lot of cases, yes. A department has somebody who's handling the grants for them, applying for those grants. In some cases, I think with regards to some of the health grants, I think we have some pulled resources. Um, and I can't think of any other resources. >> We have a police department has its own uh grant writer as well that's very um uh she's very experienced in in that type of grant writing as far as public safety and uh public uh works has their own grant writer as well that's very again it's very focused on the type of grants that they apply for. So, we do have it broken down to the different departments as Jonathan mentioned, the health department, Sandra has hers as well. So, uh we we do look at pretty much what's available to us and and and even determine whether they're even worth us going after because some of the requirements of those grants, you know, uh Mary, they're pretty tedious, right? So, but we do have different groups that actually work within the city that look specifically for grants for their departments. Okay. I'm certainly not trying to create any more work for anyone, but I didn't know as to how much time that some of these excluding police, excluding the others that have their own designated grant writer, if there was an extra amount of time that is spent uh that person in that group, taking time out of their out of their normal operations. Would it be feasible or even worth looking at having a design

[2:27:53] or a grant writer for the rest of the funds that and that's all they did uh with the exception of of police and public works is that even realistic to conser and the point the reason I'm trying the reason I'm going there is however much time that takes for that person to do that would that add up enough to actually give us some break with our other personnel. It's one of those deals. Let's do more with less. >> Uh it it main it's mainly a time saving different catchphrase for that, Mary. But anyway, it's >> the uh Did did you did I did you understand my question? You know, >> I did. and Mary I I think what we would see I think we have maybe one position in the whole city titled grant writer and that's with Shane they did just what you said they were they were applying trying to get grants they thought they saw a lot of opportunity and so they did kind of focus create a position that was focused on that but everybody else it's it's a sideline for him right >> Sandra's name came up Sandra's great at applying for grants the health director ctor >> and so it's a piece of what she does. So it's a little bit all over when when key people see there's a grant available they'll make application for it. Um but in in the case of the uh public works folks they were seeing enough of them they thought they could keep somebody busy doing that and supplement that work with some other work. So there's already some of that thinking going on. >> Good deal. Yeah. just trying to make it most efficient use of our time. Uh, okay. on payroll throughout. I would like to see and I re I realize

[2:29:57] that asking for an additional line item is not practical even other ga under Gatsby standards but could we have in that main personnel line the actual FTEES or part-time just the actual people that are have are hired and on board now uh I understand the the thing of placeholders but could we not just and this does go within Gazsby standards ards have uh just notes to the financial statements that say this this personnel thing, let's say we it say it has $100,000 in it. Well, that's contains 10 people instead of eight people which are currently hired. So then we could make a note to the financial statements that that looks like we're under budget and that seems really great, but to me it's not apples and apples. I'd like to see a note to that stating that no, this we're under budget because this person hasn't been hired yet. Um >> yes, ma'am. Yeah, I we you're right. We currently show uh numbers of FTEES as they are approved. When it comes to analyzing if there's um savings for that department based on their under underhired, they haven't hired up to that limit. Uh we we do that through our monthly financials as well. We look at those personal lines there and kind of judge them as a percentage of the budget for the year. So that's kind of how we go through and and identify those areas where a department may be underhired. >> But let's have clarity. Is that because of turnover or is that because they are authorized and funded 10 and they are only filling eight? >> And in some situations it's because there's turn turnover and in some situations they're they've only hired up to eight. They've only been able to hire >> I'm only aware of one department that's

[2:32:00] doing that. municipal court and I think they're filling all they're funded for. They may have account approval, but who else is not filling by intent not filling all of their positions? >> And uh one of the departments that we have is the police department. Right now we haven't funded, we have them at 180 personnel, police officers, um civil service personnel, but we have not funded six of those positions. And so you wouldn't necessarily see that in in those financial >> in Mary's example, there is no savings there. >> There would not be any savings there, but there are two there are six authorized positions and we can get that additional detailed information. >> See, that's the key, Mary, is uh PD has that situation and I think municipal court has that situation where they're authorized a higher number of positions than they're actually funded for. Right. >> Yes, sir. >> And so there's not a financial gap there. Any financial gap that exists has to do with turnover uh and the savings that exist while the job is vacant. There's not a design to budget fund and then not fill. >> That's the key what you said budget and not filled right. That's nobody's >> that's the exact language I was looking for. >> Every job that is funded is intended to be filled. We're not aware of any situation except on Kosa DC. >> Right. >> I was talking out of both sides of my mouth. Except on Kosa DC where we have that director position funded. We don't intend to fill that in the next several months. Maybe in the next several months. We'll talk about that. But that's the only one that I'm aware of where it's actually funded, but we're but the director or whoever is in charge doesn't intend to fill it. >> Okay. >> So that does that give you comfort that that

[2:34:01] >> it does. It does and I wasn't suggesting any anything other just u clarity or a little more you know >> well it's a good question because there are a lot of savings that they sweep and uh and that is totally related to turnover and I think we've heard some talk from HR about >> keeping jobs filled and what they do to try to make that happen. >> Okay. Um, the other, and you know, we spoke about this yesterday, Michael, the uh I'm a big proponent of making our assets work harder for us and, you know, we're looking at at maybe even per having to purchase those properties that are in the flood plane and all and that could be, you know, 12 million. I think I heard that number. Could we look at and identify unused city property that either even if it's a green space or whatever you know that we're just mowing but we're getting no benefit no income certainly because it's not on the tax roles but we're spending money and time maintaining those. I really think that we could because some of these are in really prime locations. I I would like to see us I I well I know that it would be worth it at least because surely we could find one piece of land even if we sold it for a dollar that's one more than we had but I would like to clean that part up. I'm not talking about anything on the river just our unused land that's got no benefit to us other than mowing the weeds. what we're dealing with today is enterprise and general funds. You're bringing up future agenda items. >> Well, and there's a few people that need to wrap up. >> May it may be that, but I'm I'm geared on revenue and expense and this is a a revenue item that could be generated if we if we look at at that. And no, I I

[2:36:05] understand it's not specific to any one fund. I'm just trying to figure out a way to make money without hiring more people. I think all of us would love to be out of the real estate business and and many other things, but I say for for the hearing today to keep it on legal, we need to stick with enterprise fund, the general funds, but I think y'all just heard several future agenda items from Mary. >> And uh has anybody else got anything? I think we went all the way down with that. At 1:35, I will call these budget meetings to a close. Thank you'all very much. >> Thank you.

Captured 2026-07-26 · source: youtube.com/watch?v=6noA_H2_TP4