We want to get started with the Human Relations Administration and Appointments Committees.

Mr.

Hanlon, can you call the role?

Ms.

Santos.

Ms.

Appa here?

Chair, everybody's here.

Thank you.

Bill 3?

Bill 3 amends the 2026 grant fund budget to accept 50,000 in grant funding for the Uber philanthropies through John Hopkins University or the Love You Live grant.

Does anyone from the administration want to elaborate?

Care to elaborate.

Okay.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Gotcha.

Good evening.

Good evening.

So low, my block is uh Bloomberg uh philanthropy grant.

This is um, I believe a year um two years and few months in uh that we have received this grant and uh every year we have received 50,000 and we anticipate uh receiving this for one more year.

Um and this is just accepting the grant we are receiving from uh Bloomberg.

And is is it a matching grant?

No, this is not a matching grant.

So we'll receive 50,000 up front.

Okay.

And we use this grant to um uh uh for certain blocks in the city.

We have an employee that's being paid out of uh uh this grant as well.

And uh so in the past what we have done um is that uh certain blocks we planted flowers, planted trees, had um uh uh what makes uh citizens feel uh welcome in their block makes them feel good living in their um uh uh on their block, and that's what uh this grant is for.

Okay, and then out of the so this is the 50 out of 100 that's that was the total per for this year?

Or I thought I thought I was reading earlier on that was 100,000 was the total for the year, but maybe I'm missing that.

Um I think this is uh 50,000 now.

We uh had received 50,000 before also, but twenty for 2026 is 50,000.

Okay, so both of those 50 went were allocated towards a fellow, so they were for a staffing position.

A fellow that's that's managing the program along with we had an employee that recently departed from the city, but uh she was overseeing that fellow and overseeing the grant program.

Okay, and then out of the love your block grant, how what percentage of the actual grant went to communities versus staffing?

Just so I understand.

If you know, sorry.

So staffing is it this fellow is uh as a part-time uh fellow, works less than 20 hours for the city.

I I can get you the number.

I don't have that in uh uh I I don't have that in front of me now.

Okay.

And then you're saying you're anticipating one more year of this?

Yes, one more year of this grant.

Okay.

That's all the questions I have.

Anyone?

Yes, if I may, sir.

I would beg to differ a little bit with Ms.

Patel.

I think last year's money went largely toward programming and awards to the neighborhoods, like Franklin Park, I'm I'm sure got some money.

Um, to carry out whatever plan they had.

This year's appears to be going to personnel, so it's an allowable expense.

But you know, we can double check that for you.

Okay, and do you know if the grant mandated a certain percentage go towards a fellow versus towards direct grants to neighborhoods?

I don't believe Grant has any stipulation that funds must be used for this cause.

It's it's yeah, it could be used for uh personnel as well as um for the residents and uh the block uh the um the goal uh is to make the a block uh feel invitable for residents and and it if that means that the a portion of that cost is allocated for personnel, they do allow that there's no stipulation that you cannot use for personnel.

Okay, all right, thank you.

Any questions from the public?

Do I need to motion to move this forward?

No, you should take a motion.

Okay.

Does anyone want a motion to move this forward to council as a whole?

Okay, all right.

Um, all those in I'm sorry, you you call that.

I apologize, Mike.

Do you call the voter or do I say all the economics forward and build to the next council?

I have to report it.

Okay.

It's forwarded unanimously then.

Thank you.

Um, I guess hearing no other businesses concludes the human relations.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Are there any updates for either three of the committees?

Well, so I think Marty and Jerry are here to talk about their priorities.

Perfect.

Good evening.

Good to see you all.

Um, first of all, let me thank you and uh council and as a whole for supporting uh some of the staffing that we need uh in HR.

So that's like top, it's actually at the top of my list, is to try to bring some of the staffing in that we need, and uh, we have one person who just left, and we will be replacing that person as well.

So that's a top priority.

We're we're continuing to improve the way we uh handle all types of issues that come our way, and we're looking to move as much to digital for everything.

Uh jury's still out, you know that I'm looking for a case management system.

You know that that's an important component to what we do, it will help us with reporting and being able to be uh very specific about how we're doing in areas of handling different all kinds of cases that may come our way, even consultations.

Uh managers call us all the time for you know what do we want to do uh with this performance issue or that performance issue.

We should be tracking that, and that's information that informs us that.

So if we have a system in place, then we can use that data to help us identify.

Oh, it looks like we could use uh uh some help or assistance and maybe helping to explain policy or procedure with this team or that department or however.

So um, I'm hopeful for that.

Still waiting though.

I mean, this is the other one of the other things that we're we're doing this year, and that is uh trying to get ready for transition.

It's gonna happen.

Uh, we're gonna have to transition, I think around June or July uh time frame, uh somewhere in there.

And uh, if anyone's gone through a systems transition like this, it can be challenging.

Um, and you really don't know if you've done anything right until you start testing it.

Uh and that's that's where we're hoping to get sooner than later.

That way we can catch more of the issues.

Um the um we're I'm I'm gonna skip the next thing and go back to it real quick.

Key projects, we still have a PPM.

We're trying to finish up.

We extended the contract uh in order to do that.

Uh of course the SCIU contract, the um FOP contract is coming to be too.

Uh we'll we're preparing for that.

FMLE transition.

We when I came, we had um a request to um to actually put out an RFP to outsource FMLA.

Uh we were successful finding a uh vendor to do that, and now we've got to transition that.

Um just waiting for one more signature.

Once that's done, we should be able to move that forward.

Um, training and development is the next thing I really wanted to get to, and that is uh it's gonna be top on the list of things to do this year.

We had EAP.

Uh, I think I mentioned that our existing EAP program has in the contract uh the ability for us to utilize them to create training.

Unfortunately, they were delayed, but we finally got the harassment training done, and we're using it now in orientations.

We're uh doing the next one is conflict resolution training, which I think is a very important training tool that we need here.

Uh managers, how to deal with those conflicts within our you know, departments between individuals.

Um that was slated for, and it always seems like something happens, right?

That was slated to start next week.

No, this week, I think it was the it was the end of it, it would have been this week.

Uh only the person uh that was going to facilitate had an illness.

Uh so we pushed it off now to uh the second week in February, I believe.

Um, but those two are very important training components that we will want to do every year.

So we're now looking for ways that we can track that and ensure that what we're training, that people are actually availing themselves of that training, and there are other vendors that we're looking to actually um consider so that we can do management training, and I obviously we had to wait for the budget.

We didn't know what we how things are going to work out, and now I already have a short list, but a list of vendors to look at to see if we can provide especially management training for individuals who never been a manager before.

We have good people who want to do a great job, but we need to give them the tools that they need to have in order to do that.

So those are those are some of the top items.

I'm doing a little restructuring of the department as well.

I'm establishing what I call subject matter experts.

Individuals will have responsibilities where they would be the point person for certain topics.

So instead of each one of the my team members having to keep up with the latest and greatest in recruiting or the latest and greatest in employment law, one person keeps their ear to the ground on those issues and then updates the team.

That's a subject matter expert.

So we're dieting that out.

So we're getting there.

It's taking some time, but we're getting there.

Those are the key ones I wanted to mention.

Thank you very much.

Well, anyone have any questions for Monday?

No, I would just like to say uh thank you.

Okay.

We desperately needed someone in charge like you.

And I have uh really a lot of faith in how we're gonna move forward.

And the HR department, and um I appreciate that.

You know, we lots of them.

Anyone else from the docs?

Yes.

I'm not on the committee, but I don't know if anyone else.

Good.

All right, cool.

Um have a couple things.

Uh just you might not have them tonight, but maybe just for the future.

Yes, yes.

Okay.

Uh so I'll start from the bottom.

All right, so um the people and culture position.

At one point we put it in HR, but in all reality, the position was functioning out of the mayor's office.

Who else?

Where is it functioning now?

Out of my office now.

Okay.

That that was a change that occurred with this new budget, and including risk and benefits are now in the risk and benefits.

Do we still have people in the risk office?

I thought he was okay.

We we have an opening now, of course.

Yeah, we have the fill, and we're in the process of doing that.

Okay, all right.

Um the reimbursement for the uh college courses or not just college courses, courses.

Uh, I remember one time during the controller's report, there was some sort of issue with people getting too much reimbursement or maybe reimbursement for like courses that they shouldn't be taking.

There was an issue.

There was uh a reporter's uh a controller's report that pointed out issues with reimbursement for courses that were being taken.

Do we know if there's been any speak to exactly what that may have revealed, but I can tell you now that I am involved in and making those authorizations, I sign off on those, and so we're staying within the the confines of what is stated in the contracts and the budget.

We haven't seen a reimbursement come through in quite some time.

So um based on that, nobody's gone over the allowed the allotted amount.

Yeah, there have been a few though.

I'm surprised you haven't seen any.

Um but but it it could be just a matter of time, yeah.

But we're staying within the okay.

That that was the main point.

All right.

We've also I'll I'll just add to that really quickly.

Part of the part of the not only reimbursements for tuition but other items as well.

We've always had sort of an understanding through whether it was ordinance or policy that if you leave the city within a certain period of time, you must pay it back.

Um, we are now we've established a process protocol in order to start that those wheels moving.

Um, we're just getting up and running, and um, you know, I it's a necessary part of what we need to do.

Okay, thank you.

And then uh skipping up on my list, uh, affinity groups.

At one point there were affinity groups going on, and then that leads me into sort of I guess reimbursement for courses.

If there is an employee that is just really into like peer mediation, conflict resolution.

Um it's cool to have like a one-time thing, but you know, that's a one-time thing, you check it off the box, you go on about your day.

Are there opportunities for like ongoing kind of education for folks who really are just into a certain thing?

Yeah, I don't know that there's a formal process set up where um we have an affinity group category, if you will, and these are all the courses you can you can achieve, and then there's there's there's nothing that I'm aware of like that.

Um, because people they make the decision based on their personal desires and needs and their career goals, as I if I'm understanding you correctly.

I am not as familiar with the affinity groups.

I've heard of them, I know about them, but I don't know how they're working today.

Yeah, so these affinity groups um came out of the like discrimination allegations, but I'm thinking about it.

And they can go and beyond that.

Um just you know, there I'm like at the school district, there are teachers that are really into anti-racism.

So they have book clubs and they they learn, and it's all volunteer, they do it like on their lunch hour.

We don't have any do we have anything like that for people who just happen to be into I don't know, a certain issue.

Sure.

Well, the approach at this point, because I'll need to look into can we do more specifically focused items like that?

Because I'm not aware of anything going on right now.

Um I'll talk to Kumari.

Yeah, that might be good because you know we've been through some things, so our conversation.

Oh, I know.

Our conversations with her, though, have taken sort of a little different approach, but still with culture and race and all of those things in mind, and that is to ensure that training that we bring in-house has components that match the need of our community, and that includes things like unconscious bias, right?

Microaggressions.

Do they have coupled with them like a conflict resolution training?

We should understand that those concepts and how they can actually add to the conflict that exists in that department.

It should be combined, and so we're we're looking to make sure that what we do bring in-house has those components in it, so that we're we're considering that as well.

Because you can't ignore, you can't just work on one thing and not consider the whole.

You got to consider all the whole.

Yeah, no, it does it does.

Yeah, I mean, um, maybe I'll see if I can talk to Kamari, because I I definitely know that there are staff who either have worked here and no longer with us or currently work here, who this these topics are of interest, they're very like justice focused, and it would be great if they could have a way to lead in the city.

And and maybe there are.

We just oh, there are, yeah, maybe there are ways to do that.

Yeah, and something just came to mind.

I won't share it here because I'm gonna talk to Kamari a little bit before we do that.

Yeah, all right, cool.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you for the question.

Anything else?

Um just for the um we have some new colleagues.

When you talk about the PPM, can you go into some detail what that is and why it's so important that it needs to be addressed?

Because I know what PPM is, they may not.

That's basically your personnel manual, is what it is to make it as simple as possible.

And it is something that is governed and required by the charter that we should have a personnel manual.

Uh, and that includes those kinds of things that typically reside in that, you know, our discrimination policies and you know, um things with respect to benefits and and those kinds of things, uh pay and sick time and all those things, but the PPM is primarily focused on non-bargaining personnel.

It has some other things that can dovetail or you know, overlap with SCIU contracts, because as you know, we have contracts, right?

And a lot of the things that are already in the PPM are also in those contracts.

There are a few things that are only in the PPM.

So the fundamental rule of thumb is if the topic you're you're trying to get some information on is not in the SEIU contract, you would then go to PPM and see if there is language that helps govern that issue, whatever that issue is, and there could be many things, but the contract is first, and then the PPM in those situations.

I don't know if that helps.

It does, I just want to make sure, and it knows last updated 2009.

Nine was almost like in a minute.

I thought there was a I thought there was a number of years that was required, but I didn't find it in the it just needs to be revisited with yeah, and it was just woefully out of date.

When we would audit certain things, we audit to whatever the city's rule is, or rule made in 2009 and these fast changing times.

I mean, that's what we have to audit to, but it really didn't reflect reality uh that we face today and our employees face today.

So you know, it's the administration is certainly be commended for making this a higher priority so we can have it a document which will come to you guys for approval.

Yes.

Um that reflects the current reality and gives both uh HR and administration in generally a good tool to use and a good resource.

Yep.

That's why I just wanted to highlight the importance of why of especially to our new colleagues.

Yeah, thank you for that.

We had a lot of people involved in this too.

I I'm a great believer in getting folks to um screen.

Crown's office.

Yes to take a look at things.

So thank you.

And I also want to just thank you so much for taking the time to meet with me this morning.

Um give me a lot of information about HR, so I really appreciate that.

I enjoyed it.

Thank you very much.

And I want to keep those communication lines open.

Yeah, it's important to be anything else.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Good evening, Council.

Uh I promised to be a little quicker than Marty.

He likes to talk, I don't.

But I will uh talk about a few of the topics that he brought up a bit shot in the back.

So, you know, IT, not much has changed since we had our discussion during budget season.

Um, the technology modernization is a huge thing for us.

So we got to stay up with the time.

So we continue to upgrade servers, we continue to upgrade storage, um, ever growing demands.

I mean, we have more and more cameras on the street, we have more and more cameras in the house, all requiring storage space.

Uh we have the capacity of 1.4 petabytes now of storage with the city ballot time.

Um, and that includes backups and things.

We have backups in multiple locations, so we're meeting all of the um best practices for you know any type of cybersecurity.

Um cybersecurity is something I do want to talk about.

So that's one of the initiatives that I have for 2026 for a department is to change how we handle those things this year.

So right now we're pretty much in a reactive mode.

Um we deal with issues as issues arise, we get alerted to issues, let's call it after the fact.

And I'd rather be a much more proactive department rather than a reactive department.

So that's something that we're gonna put a lot of emphasis on this year, and changing our model and how we handle things.

Um we continue to replace aging hardware for all the end users in the city, laptops, desktops, printers, anything that the end users have in hand, cell phones, you name it.

We have a regular um inventory, and we go by you know, two practices aging for one, and then you know, whether it's a grid fix replacement.

So we typically will replace laptops every five years at the maximum.

We like to do four, depending on the budget.

We typically end up pushing it to five.

Desktops can go a little bit longer, six years, that type of thing.

Cell phones every three printers.

That's really on an as-needed basis.

I mean, today we're not printing as much as we did five years ago, and hopefully, five years from now we won't be printing at all.

We'll see what happens there.

But uh so that's that's another thing in the technology modernization.

Um software eat and immunish transition.

So Marty brought it up.

There's a lot to do.

We've done a lot, we've been working on this since 2024, and we are on track to finish in July of 2026.

So we just had a meeting with our project manager from Tyler Technologies, and we are on track, and she expects to come to complete the process by that time, and so do we.

Now, payroll, uh, everybody that is involved.

I know um finance is gonna get involved in budgeting and all that for this coming year.

Um so Marty will be very excited, and I believe he knows about it already, but we are launching an e-signature solution for a city valentown.

So I I know you and I have talked about this, Santo, and um it was an important thing, and important enough that I kind of shifted a few things around in my budget to make some money so that we can roll out an e-signature solution.

I've already brought it out to several departments, kind of doing it department by department, and um I hope to finish it up by mid-February so that all the departments are now sending forms to you for signature by electronics rather than paper.

I know you'll be happy now.

Yeah, um, we're also finalizing the integration of environmental health into the energy environment and finalizing the integration of special events in Nerdov.

So that'll take all of our permitting in the city and put it under one umbrella.

So now everybody that's doing permits will all be working out of Energy.

Um we're gonna launch the right to know application the first quarter of this year.

We're in final stages of testing, doing a lot of a couple of last little tweaks.

That'll give the public the ability to actually pull some of their own information for a right-to-no request.

And then the last thing that I wanted to well, one of the other things that's come up recently is um we've started to work on modernization within this this environment here in council chambers.

So one of the things that we need to do is we need to um some of these cameras are up to 15 years old.

Way outdated, they're in the blood.

So we need to modernize our audio and video system within this environment for this meeting room, but we also need to look at the software that we use.

We currently use uh product called from Grand Cus, and we want to look at all the vendors around.

So you have the best offering for us so that we can run our meetings in most efficient manner.

We also have um ADA requirements that are coming to a city greater than 50,000 residents, which will hit us in April of 2026.

So, right now, we currently don't hit those ADA requirements for this meeting.

Uh we're missing one key component, and that is closed captioning at the bottom of the screens during a meeting.

Uh we can easily add that, but we want to do a complete modernization of this facility.

So that's on my radar for this year.

And the last thing that I want to talk about, um, and then I'll entertain any questions is we're finalizing the completion of 34,000 plus tax bills for the residents of the city of Valentine.

And they need to be postmarked by Friday.

We'll finish them tomorrow and get them to the post office on Friday.

So we'll meet that schedule.

Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you.

I'm I know we're up a meeting for tomorrow morning.

I'm gonna probably go through a lot of those things, and then when I one after that, I'll at our next HR uh or our next committee meeting, I will surely have a whole bunch, but um I think for now I'm I'm okay with that.

Um, for anyone else on the committee, Natalie.

I don't have anything right now, thank you.

Okay, anyone else from the dice?

Thank you.

All right, thank you so much.

And with that, that oh, I'm sorry.

I I apologize, Jeff.

You're you're on this uh Mr.

Chair, what is it exactly you would like to hear from or to learn about the controller's office?

I was just entertaining any um priorities for the year, any information that you want to provide for the committee.

Um basically we're gonna continue to do what we've what we've done.

I think I spoke a little bit about it at the last meeting.

Is you know, we put out a minimum of three audit reports every month, pay payables, uh P cards, and bank recks as time permits.

We'll continue to do other things.

Um face at the moment is that uh doing P cards in Munis is laborious, and I I think the technical term is time suck.

Um and it really takes away from our ability to um work on some more interesting projects and things that might have a little bit more payoff for the city.

Um we continue to look for more efficient ways to do it.

The summer brings interns uh season.

Uh we've had over the years a very, very good internship program.

Uh, we generally hire two or three, and uh these interns were assigned a project uh in one of the city's departments, and the first thing they'll do is uh a process flow to understand the steps, and then they will audit against that process flow and and against the you know the ordinances to see how well we do.

You know, last year we did the swimming pools.

Um in years past, we've done police issue tickets for the parking authority.

Um and everything we do is a recommendation to the administration, and some departments really want to partner with it and make though take those um advisings and put them into reality.

I think last year's part of the swimming pool thing, there were a number of um findings that interacted with the personnel department with Marty's department, and we're hopeful that you know this hiring season, some of those um findings can be put into practice uh to have the city be more efficient and have a better process for the young people who want to come to work for the city.

Um it is a small department.

Um I have an audit manager, I have a um part-time administrator, I have a dog, and there's me.

And I think if we go back and look historically, in the past, uh the city had multiple auditors uh that probably weren't deployed very efficiently, and now with one auditor, we're deployed very efficiently, but also of interest is that past controllers didn't get their hands dirty in terms of the you know the daily work, the monthly work.

Um as far as I know, you know, we review checks now every Monday.

Past controllers didn't want to do that, they left that to the employee to the to the regular employees.

They left that to the employee to the regular employees.

I'm in there, and I think I'm there because if you want to be a good controller, you need to know the business that you're you're dealing with.

And looking at the checks and looking at the P cards, I may have a better idea than some department managers what they're spending money on.

And it helps uh to me to be informed, and so that when I'm asked the question, you know, I can give you a pretty good response to it.

Um we are beginning to look at some succession planning.

Um my term is a little bit less than 10 two years.

We don't have a whole lot of control over what that looks like.

Um my audit manager is eligible to retire, and we're having discussions about um what that's gonna look like.

Um at some point, and I don't know when that'll happen, there's gonna have to be some overlap in terms of hiring additional people so that they can or additional person so that they can work for the my the audit manager so that when uh they retire, this person's really fully experienced in the process and the nuance of what we do.

If you have any questions, I would be happy to answer them.

Thank you.

Um one question I did have regarding the the P card stuff.

Um is the consultant from Yunis have they provided any guidance with process to make it easier or any additional are there additional modules that they have in the software?

I don't know the software that well, but um to to make that process less burdensome.

I've made my unhappiness known uh to others in the administration who have checked with Munis, and the answer to that is pretty much no.

Um Jackie, my audit the audit manager, um, is going to the um Tyler conference whatever when is it coming up, isn't it?

May I believe in May?

And you can you can be assured that that is gonna be number one on her hot list.

Okay, tell me how to do this better and more efficiently.

Um part of the issue is that it's now web-based, and you have to open a lot.

You can't just open all your windows at once and click through it.

The other part of this is we brought the shop, the garage in-house.

Um so that added on a monthly basis in P cards alone, between 175 and 275 additional invoices to review every month.

Well, that's a that's a fair load.

Um, and I don't think anybody thought about that when we talked when we made the decision to bring this in-house.

And the cautionary note is that if there's any discussion about bringing, for instance, solid waste collection in-house, you're gonna need to look at some additional in-house support, whether it be in finance or whether it be in my office to support this operation.

Um I'm hoping that when um Jackie goes to to Vegas that she finds a magic key or part of a magic key to help us do this quicker.

Um there is upcoming, we're doing a seminar for um the various departments on the 11th of February, I believe.

Could be the 17th, but about what we do.

When we look at a check or look at a P card, if it's okay, it's down the road.

If it's not, we send a famous controllers note to the clerk or the person involved with it that lists what the document is, what it's for, and what our concern is with it.

Was it does the amount do the amounts not match?

Uh was something expensed to an improper account or an improper fund.

Uh and we asked for an explanation, and um we asked them, you know, how they're gonna correct it.

Um so it's important, and we're doing this seminar, and we've done one, we did the thing, this seminar, I don't know, two or three years ago, is so that the folks in the field understand what we're looking for when we review P cards and when we review checks.

Um and council is invited to that.

Um if you guys can't make it maybe one uh Wednesday evening, we can do a quick an abbreviated session prior to the meetings so that you guys understand, and it comes for you guys, it plays out in when I give my audit reports.

Okay.

Um if you don't read them, you should.

And if you read them and you don't understand them, then by all means give give me a holler.

There you go, sir.

Thank you very much.

Anyone else?

Oh, Mr.

Glazer, I want to touch on the uh in-house services that uh we vote on uh how many times we we talk about having uh services like the the garbage possibly being in there and what we did with the in-house.

We did have miss, I remember uh Craig Messinger having individual council people coming and and showing the numbers and how much it would cost us to bring it in-house.

And I you you mentioned that we didn't um weren't aware of, but we were aware of it.

And and my concern is do you have any input in this when uh these are brought up to us uh because it's so important.

I know I I I really voted against it because I remember what Mr.

Uh what Craig had to say.

And if we start with the the garbage bringing that in, how much more um that that costs us a lot of money bringing that everything to the garage, didn't it?

Um I think there's some nuance there, Ms.

Affa.

Number one, I think that the model that we were using had about run its course because at that point we were in a very inflationary time, and the current contract didn't allow the contractor to recoup uh parts costs, let alone be able to pay uh employees a competitive wage.

So removing them put us very much in the free market.

I think the um it's been a learning experience, certainly for the shop in terms of how much they budgeted for parts because you guys know you've had to do some transfers from time to time to cover the additional parts.

I'm I'm staggered by some of these costs.

You want to throw a new turbocharger on your Peter Bill, that'll be $7,000.

Um, because once again, all these bills across my desk.

Um I think the payoff is that it costs more money.

Um or cost more money than it did, but I believe that we have a pretty good staff, and um I'm hopeful that that that results in the departments getting much better service.

We can turn around vehicles to the police and to public works much quicker, and um having the work done right the first time.

Um but you know, it really took a couple years of experience to understand what all the costs were.

And in the um the city paid for a study uh of what those costs would be and what the expected costs would be.

And I I look I it's still on my desktop.

I don't think they looked at administrative costs in departments like mine or in finance for that matter.

Um, but those are things we discover, and we know we certainly manage to make it work.

Anyone else from the docs?

Later, Jeremy.

So Mr.

Controller, you you alluded to just the sheer volume of invoices, and I'm curious if and it you know, if we're still investigating it.

I mean, is there any strategy we can employ to kind of minimize the number of invoices?

Can we you know procure ahead of time and quantity, or is that just really as needed?

There's really no real way to kind of minimize some of that.

Um the answer is possibly at the margin.

Um what we've encouraged the department to do is instead of charging everything is to try and run an account with some of the vendors and then get a statement every month where everything is listed, so it's one check.

But we're still we've still got to look at that statement to make sure everything adds up.

Um you know reviewing an invoice for a light bulb for a dollar twenty-nine takes me the same amount of time as reviewing an invoice for that turbocharger and the gaskets and everything else for for seven thousand dollars.

Um and and these guys they've had some turnover in uh in fleet, and I gotta say that what I think now they've pretty got a pretty good team.

Um doing a good job, and they're doing the best, and they're certainly receptive to any suggestions or um or corrections that my office advises them to make.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I don't think anything else.

Thank you, controller closure.

More than welcome.

I think that concludes the meeting.