This meeting of the Finance Standing Committee is called the order at 8 30 a.m.

At this time.

I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda.

So moved.

Second.

Okay.

We just so you know, Autor Roman O'Neill, we can't see you, but we can hear you.

Okay.

And okay.

Um all those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Great.

Motion carries.

And is there a motion to approve the minutes from the last finance committee meeting?

So maybe second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

All right, with that, we're jumping into our first presentation of the finance committee budget season.

Get excited, everybody.

Uh, thanks so much for going first this time, city manager team.

Appreciate you guys.

And uh with that, I'll just say, Ms.

Jackson, can you put 15 minutes on the clock?

And then I'll turn it over to you guys.

All right.

Thank you guys so much.

Um, today we're gonna talk be talking about both the the core city manager's office as well as the Harbor Master's Office.

We do not have the Office of Community Services with us today.

They'll be with the discussion around community grants, since that's a big part of what they do.

So we're just gonna combine those.

Um, so for today.

Um obviously for the current year.

Um the one of the the big things, of course, has been um transition between the um former administration to the new administration, onboarding of new council members, um, and then um hiring of key positions.

Um the work of the city manager's office.

Um, there's the core oversight, and then there's there is direct programmatic work um that's overseen by Jackie Guild.

And so what we have here is a little bit of a combination of both both of those things.

So I'll let Jackie talk about her parts of that.

Okay, so um we did to do our work because there's only three people in the work that I do that's resilience and sustainability.

Um, we heavily rely on grants.

So you can see that we secured um over a million dollars in grants and technical assistance in the past year, which go towards the many energy efficiency and pollution reduction projects that I talk about throughout the year.

Um, a couple of the major projects that we've been working on throughout FY26 that we'll finish up is a climate action plan and the updated greenhouse gas emissions for both the community emissions and the city facility emissions, and that's very important.

We have not done one since 2008, and it it needed a lot of updating technologies changed a lot along this way.

But this will help guide us in our infrastructure transportation and planning um projects, and then we've also secured a community solar contract, no cost to the city, potential to save the city 100,000 a year in utility expenses.

All right, for performance measures, the performance measures here are all around um the resilience.

So again, Jackie.

Okay, so I'm not gonna go through I think all 15 or 16 of my performance measures, but you can see that because of the nature of what we do in the resilience energy and environmental space, there are quite a few.

And they we end up sometimes partnering with other departments, and then also um taking on some projects initially ourselves and then moving them on.

Um, but I will say that in the last year, um, we have plastic waste reduction, we've got um composting, we're pushing forward, land preservation, habitat protection, there's um community engagement.

Yeah, you can move it on, um, zero emissions policies, IPM policies, um increasing adoption of EV vehicles, which we're working a lot now with central services on, and um decreasing food waste um as well as pollution.

So um that's kind of where you see a lot of that million dollars over a million dollars being spent sometimes on consulting services, some of that's in um technical assistance we've received at no cost or very low cost to the city, but it it's resulting in things like saving um uh we got potential to save 20 million dollars in lighting expenses if we owned our own street lights.

We've explored that.

We're diverting about 45 tons of waste to the landfill, so carbon emissions capture there as well as savings and tipping fees, and then um we have um partnerships with the resilience authority.

Um you'll see later.

I don't know if it's in this presentation, but I'm not but the resilience authority on behalf of Anne Rendel County in the city has um saved us around 65 million dollars in deferred expenses we might have to spend on infrastructure, infrastructure or stormwater related things or flooding related things over the 50 or so projects they've done since their inception in 2022 projects really got going in 2023 through 2026.

So I'll let you read the rest of that on your own, and if you have questions later, because that's a lot to go through.

We can move on.

Okay.

Um so the um so the other um kind of major piece of work that sits inside the city manager's office is special events.

Um so I have some just in terms of just other workload that sits in in our office.

Um Felicia Nolan, who oversees special events, um, she coordinates 120 to 130 special events a year, um which is a fair amount of work because she also actually coordinates then all of the um all of the work between the organizer and city departments, um banner permits, she directly takes care of the Fourth of July Memorial Day parades, directly takes care of fireworks for New Year's Eve and Fourth of July.

Um for us, obviously um just to give you a sense of our commitment to you guys.

Um we attend more than 120 meetings every year of the city council and various committees, which is not including the various boards and commissions and and stuff like that that um that both of us participate in.

Um so there's a a very heavy commitment and involvement of our office with the city council.

Um so and also doesn't include our the budget sessions and stuff like that.

Um so the couple things I'll break out here that are particular to the resilience and sustainability work is one that uh Alderman Huntley may be particularly interested in.

Um we have the rebate program for the electric leaf blowers.

We were allocated 105,000 by the city council to run this program.

We had a consultant to help us devise it for 10,000 initially through the resilience authority, then the trust charged us um on the remaining 95,000, a 10% fee which I negotiated, they wanted 20%.

I got them to 10 for the first year, and that was $9,500.

So we were left with 85,500 for the actual rebate program.

To date, they've spent about three $36,000.

That figures a uh, you know, maybe a month old, and then so we have 49,500 um encumbered already with the Chesapeake Bay Trust to run the rebate program for us.

We're gonna be pushing to get that out.

That number tells me that either it's not as painful as people may have complained about initially to go buy electric leaf blowers, and also that the um contractors, the landscape contractors who are the most vocal, are not been available themselves of the program, although we've made many efforts to get information about this available program out.

So we have money left for this year going into 2027.

Um, and then in community engagement, education, outreach efforts to change behavior to help people with energy rebates, etc.

Um, we had a goal of 13.

Um, we did nine such events in 2025.

This year we're already at 19, and we hadn't determined 2027.

Part of that is due to the fact that we added another environmental program manager in FY26.

So that's been very helpful to all of our efforts.

We need to talk about that particularly.

All right.

Um so as far as the budget enhancements that we had put in.

We had only put in one personnel enhancement.

Um, that position that Jackie just talked about, that environmental programs coordinator in the current year was actually funded out of out of um savings from the city manager position being vacant.

So it was not independently funded.

So our big ask for this next year was that it be independently funded so that we could retain it.

So to essentially stabilize that team.

Uh on the non-personnel side, there were three things that we had put in just related to the city manager's office.

Um was adding um a smaller tranche of additional money for the leaf blowers.

That is not what was is in the that is not included in the mayor's proposed budget.

Um there's a little bit of money that was asked for by the Annapolis 250 commission to complete their work related to the celebration 5,000 that is in the proposed budget.

And then um we did the national community survey three years ago.

Um, and um typically you'd see about a three-year cycle.

So um I'd put in a request for that.

Given the other strategic planning that's going on for FY27, we're we're actually gonna push this off a year, and um uh so that also then is not included in the mayor's budget.

And so that also then is not included in the mayor's budget.

So I'm sorry.

Yeah, can you just go back to that slide?

Explain this slide again to me.

Is the first time we go through this?

These are things that are not in the budget, you're saying.

So in the far right column.

It's a yes or no question.

Was it included in the FY27 budget or not?

So two of them were not included.

Just so you're aware, this is one of the questions that typically gets asked, right?

What did we ask for?

There's all the stuff we asked for.

One of those things is included in the budget, two of them were not.

Thank you.

Yep, no worries.

All right.

So looking at overall budget trends in the city manager's core city manager's office.

Um you're gonna see a lot of variability here.

Um part of the reason for that has been some additional personnel.

We've had a little bit of in and out of personnel.

We had one um position for FY26 that we actually moved to central services, you'll recall.

Um, and then of course, we've got like the additional um uh environmental programs manager, and then council for this year added a legislative assistant position.

So there's there has been a lot of variability.

Um you see that in the salary line where there's a lot of up and down, right?

So um obviously for 26 projected, um, it looks really low because we had a very key vacancy, right?

Um but what you see in 27 then is now the result of we've got these additions, they're fully funded in the budget, right?

So that's actually what's what you're what you're seeing.

Um, and so the percentage changes look a little bit weird as a result, the year to year changes.

Um it's a little bit more steady than it looks just because we had that very large key vacancy for so much of fiscal year 26.

Um then finally you'd asked about just other additional information that you might want to know.

You want to talk about these things, and then we're gonna turn it over to Harbor Minister.

Again, these are just the resilience and sustainability part of my work.

Um, so they're not reflected in some of those earlier slides.

So we did work on LED conversion for the whole city, and that's through $300,000 in grants.

Um, we have something I wanted to do with consultants is the second item for a long time, but um had taken it out of budgets, but we were able to get a detailed fleet inventory, which will allow us better planning for the fleet, and um much better idea with software of um how much money we're spending on each vehicle, miles traveled, maintenance, et cetera.

Again, better for budgeting and planning, but we're and also for our EV transition.

We got that from only 2,500 through a relationship with BG ⁇ E.

As soon as we buy one EV, that's reversal.

The 2500 is reimbursable, and this was an inventory worth $30,000.

If I had asked for it to be funded by council, um, also resilience to sustainability continues to lead the e-Ferry, which is now a hybrid ferry RFP um process.

Um, again, this is grant funded in 2023.

Um, and I'm leading the electric trolley system feasibility study, which was a joint city county Denker Foundation funded effort to um study the feasibility of a trolley system, bringing back a trolley system to Annapolis, and then the last one in the last thing um one of the slides that's in the template but that's not here uh is about revenue, and the reason is the only revenue that we really bring in is a special events permit, um, which is typically less than about three thousand dollars annually.

It's not a very um expensive permit.

All right, so I'm gonna switch over to Harbormaster.

There we go.

Take it away, guys.

Morning.

Uh Tyler Norfield, Deputy Art Master.

This is Jacob Noel, our shore size operations manager and Tim Jacobs, our waterside operation manager.

Um I just want to give you guys a quick time check.

You got about two minutes.

Oh no, I'm sorry.

Sorry, we'll go quick.

I think the biggest accomplishments for FY26 this year is the House Boat Task Force.

I think that's our number one, besides working through construction, both moving our office and work uh working with visitors and voters and lisees.

Uh yeah, just real quick about performance measures.

I would say if you look at our benchmarks, everything is increasing or steady, with the exception of uh the benchmark that's second from the bottom there, uh, which is abandoned votes.

We're working very hard to educate and identify those potential voters and uh nip it in the bud for lack of a better term.

Um the unknown is the FY27 proposed when we're looking at the city doc instruction and how that'll impact stays and uh you know voters' usage, but we're doing everything in our power to to maintain our availability for the voting public.

Um and we did not have any enhancements in this budget.

Yeah, they didn't ask for um the operating budget, as you can see, has remained pretty steady.

Um you can see in fiscal year 25 uh salaries and benefits jumped up.

It was a conversion from um contractual for two employees, myself and Tim Jacobs.

Contractual to civil servant.

Um, and then capital outlay in FY25 and 26, this kayak rack program, which is um doing a lot better this year.

Um we've called St.

Mary's morning.

And uh Yes.

Um, and then we also um apply for a bunch of grants each year.

Um we have annual pump out grant, which is 90K, about um derelict and debris 25,000 to clean up the harbor, um, and then also occasionally waterway improvement funds, which is 250,000.

Um recently St.

Mary's configuration and the power pedestals for the new city dock.

Um next slide.

Um our revenue stays about the same.

Um we're expecting it to kind of go down a little bit with uh City Doc.

About half of our slips are are not usable.

Um so after that, I think it'll increase drastically.

Um, and then our operating costs are fully covered by our revenue.

This number's generally higher.

Um, but again, City Doc construction is kind of reduced that.

I want to acknowledge we hit time, but why did you guys this year last slide, right?

So why don't you just go through this from Walking?

Thank you.

Um we coordinate with multiple departments and um agencies for eight special events each year.

So Blue Angels Air Show, Fourth of July Fireworks, um, New Year's Fireworks, we go pick the barge up down in the West River, bring it up, um, do all that coordination.

Um this year, boat show.

We installed a temporary dinghy dock.

Um that was a huge issue the past five years at least.

Um, and it was a drastic improvement.

Um we implemented a uh customer survey, but also a supervisor um log that the supervisors fill out and they'll compile data.

Um that way we can essentially see where we need improvements.

Um or yeah, essentially that um the kayak rack program last year when we kicked it off for the the first year, the pilot, um we only had two customers.

This year we're already up to six, so it's it's a good improvement increased um social media postings and advertisements for that.

I think has helped.

Um, and then we did a whole bunch of community involvement um opportunities.

We had touch a truck um at the recenter.

Um we did a water safety training at local camps where we'd bring the boat to uh a kids' camp and kind of did a whole bunch of different things with them.

Um and again, the customer service um survey was added.

And then lastly, with our new office that we're anticipating, I think it's gonna be a good opportunity to do some community outreach and training um in a nice facility located downtown.

So thank you.

Thank you guys.

Thanks, all of you.

And uh, yeah, that's exciting.

Uh I'm excited for that.

Uh before we jump into our main question, auto Roman O'Neill, Otterman Thorpe, anybody yawning just pure clarifying questions.

Something that got missed.

No.

Ms.

Paclano, anything you want to add?

Okay, sweet.

Uh Auto Roman O'Neill, question to go to you.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Um, my first question is in regards to um Jackie uh Miss Giles, the um leaf blower program.

Um, and I realize that we have not had um as many people take advantage of the rebate program.

And I'm wondering if we could turn our efforts into actual enforcement better enforcement.

Um I have a lot of residents who are trying to help with enforcement that are really really frustrated by the fact that in order to report a violation, you're sending it to an email.

Um so that by the time the email is read, most likely the person who is violating the ban is long gone.

So I'm wondering if in the rebate program there could be additional resources or using some of that additional resources for enforcement.

Yeah I hear what you're saying I understand.

So the money has already that for FY26 has already been allocated to the Chesapeake Bay Trust and we are plan we plan to push that program a little harder especially with the businesses to make sure that they realize it's there we haven't had any complaints or pushback about the requirement since we started it but as you've seen today you know people aren't availing themselves of it.

So I don't think we can use that money for increased enforcement we already have a funds that we had uh put aside to hire a temporary enforcement officer um I was far along in that process along with planning and zoning with our former HR um director and then the project dropped so um the timing in between in summer and is not a good time to hire somebody but um spring we're pretty much in it already so I don't know if we can hire somebody quickly enough but what we thought about doing was hiring an extra inspector for the fall season um with those funds we already had um move forward with that that would be a person who would work after hours and on weekends right now um planning and zoning did pick up quite a bit with their enforcement um they have um allowed all their inspectors um to work overtime to do enforcement and they and their employees have taken them up on the offer and have been doing extra enforcement so we have six to seven inspectors that as they're out and about doing their duties they can do enforcement but also they can pick up overtime um after hours and on the weekends to do it as well so it's true that people just like tree cutting you know the trees are down before we actually get the complaint sometimes or branches are already cut you know coming off so that's just something we're trying to respond to as soon as possible weekends are the biggest problem and I will add that um planning and zoning had some concerns about um supervising a new contractual person um when you were outside of core hours so this was the that's this is why we landed on offering overtime to existing employees because they had you know they had some history they already knew the the kind of knew the ropes um and so and they have been like I said as Jackie said they've been picking up those those extra um that extra time for targeted enforcement okay we'll talk more offline I don't want to take up any other time for additional questions about one specific program um those are all the questions I had okay Alderman Thorpe yeah I would actually like to continue the the leaf blower question um I think it's a good one um how how is enforcement done in that who is cited um and do we uh can you tell us how many citations have been given since the implementation of the program okay so um the enforcement is done by planning and zoning inspection inspectors they have to um there has to be either a picture or you have to catch someone doing the um leaf blowing with a diesel or a gas powered leaf blower um the operator because that is the way the statute is written it's ill it's not illegal to own a leaf blower um but if you're operating one that's so we have to find the operator so sometimes it's the person who owns the house that's doing it and sometimes it's the company um one thing we um talked about internally was doing um targeted letters to companies that we've had complaints about because we haven't seen them doing it we have no proof of them doing it um other than by you know the person who called it in um so we would we're gonna target some of the ones that we know we're doing it and tell them we would there is a fine associated with it which they already know um so to be clear there there's a lot of talk on social media about houses getting cited for contractor work and that's not the way you're doing it.

No it's up it's who is operating it because that is what the statute says and I checked that also with the office of law and that's also the there they concur with that.

Um that is planning and zoning's normal practice is for their other citations to go to the homeowner.

Um, and so of the problem that Alder Roman O'Neil um talked about of you know, we got a report, but no one's there.

That warning had been going to the homeowner, but as Jackie said, that was a clarification that we had with Office of Law and Planning and Zoning.

So everyone understands that should be going to the operator, not to the homeowner.

Okay, so in those are any citations, then if you want to bring them to our attention, somebody actually got cited that wasn't operating, but just own the property, we can deal with that.

Okay.

Okay.

And as far as numbers citations, um, I don't have that figure today.

I have to every time we want to know that we have to call planning and zoning.

And I've already talked about how the county does it, um, at least for their plastic bag ban, they have a website you can go to and it shows how many citations have been issued to date, and we don't have that, and I think that's something public facing that we we should do.

Okay, could you get back to us on that?

Yes, I will on the number of citations.

Uh okay.

Um the other thing on leaf blowers is it sounds to me like this has become a classic program where we where we budget a certain amount of money and then there ends up having to be external uh extra expenses, i.e.

planning and zoning and it inspectors.

And as we move forward, and I won't put anybody on the spot now, but as we as we move forward, I think it's really important for the finance committee to focus on the the cost of an entire program.

So if we could look at that uh going forward, and that'd be a uh logical question that I'll be asking.

Yes, I agree with that entirely.

We see that with several of our initiatives as plastic bag ban, polystyrene foam ban, other environmental initiatives that the cost of actually implementing it, whether we need a contractor or finances um to do the work is not considered.

We do put it in our staff reports, those kinds of costs.

Yeah, okay.

Um thank you.

So on to the uh uh the environmental program manager.

Can you explain to me how this works?

So we hired somebody without the city council authorization to add a person.

No, we that was the position was authorized.

Yes, but we used funds that were available due to an vacant position to do fund that for the first year.

So if you look at the personnel complement in the FY26 budget, you will see that position authorized.

Um the dollars independent of the city manager position, were not in the budget.

We obviously at that time we already knew that that position was vacant.

Um, and so that position uh didn't receive its own funding allocation.

We knew that there were gonna be savings in the city manager salary.

Um so but the position itself with was authorized in the personnel complement.

Okay, but in this year's budget it adds one.

So is it the same one that we're adding again?

No, that should be steady.

Yeah, it goes from one to two.

Yeah, I I think there might be an error on the staff.

No, it's not the legislative one either, because that was authorized as well.

Yeah, we just didn't know it that might be an might be an error.

It was authorized in 26.

Okay, so there's actually because according to the budget, there's an increase in one in the city manager's office.

And what you're saying, Ms.

Buckland, is there's no increase in staff.

No, and she's she's working for the city, she's here.

That position is filled.

It's a regular civil service position.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, that's that's an important point as we move forward um and review the entire budget of any personnel increases that there actually isn't one there.

Okay, thank you.

Um if I could move to uh the Harbormaster, um is there overtime in the world of the Harbor Master?

You not have an overtime budget at all.

We kind of Jacob does a good job at tracking that we send guys home that are at that uh what is it 35 hours?

30, 29, 29 point, yeah, 29 hour mark.

We sent them home.

I'm sorry, say that again.

The 29 hour mark in the pay period, we send them or uh per week.

We send them home for part-timers.

All right, that is tremendous management, and I know that's not easy from my own experiences.

So thank you very much.

And that's notable that we do that, because that's an expense that could clearly pop up there.

Um the St.

Mary's Mooring Field.

We have not spent any money on the St.

Mary's Maureen Field.

Is that correct?

That is correct.

We have not touched that grant yet.

Okay, because it's not authorized.

Correct.

Is that right?

Okay.

Um stay staying on the the uh Harbormaster.

Um the classic question that the Active City Manager mentioned earlier.

Um, if we gave you five percent more in your budget, what would you do with it?

We would probably uh get a community outreach person, do more training for local residents and visitors, that kind of thing.

Voting safety.

Yeah, I think uh especially as we look forward to our new building.

One of the big holes that I think our office has being able to hold some training, uh, whether that's safe boating classes or kind of being the front person in the lead for a lot of the we had a lot of requests for field trips and a lot of like summer camp visits where we do talk about you know voting safety and water safety in general.

Um maybe dating the old rec center that used to be downtown.

I remember there was always safe boating classes down there, there was always first aid classes, CPR classes down there, and it's a really good part of the community that I think we would benefit from uh as a community.

Okay.

The other end of that question, if we took five percent away from your budget, what would you give up?

So I guess this budget we're dealing with, I guess there's me an amendment coming up, supposedly.

Um our seasonal salaries got cut massively this year.

Um so as of right now, as it's proposed.

I don't see us having enough seasonal money.

We went from uh one nine hundred ninety-nine thousand to sixty-eight thousand dollars.

Um so I think that's gonna be our major issue for this coming budget.

That was not proposed by the Harbor Master's office.

Yes, it was.

We didn't they wouldn't have cut their own seasonal salaries that much.

Yeah, and I think maybe directly I don't want to talk out of line, but maybe the direct to answer your question directly, we would have to cut our availability of hours for the office.

We wouldn't be able to run seven days a week.

Yeah, um, I think a lot of people think that the construction kind of cut our seasonal budget in half due to the construction.

Um but that part-time salary money is used for assistant harbor masters, so anything on the water with enforcement efforts, street end violations, our office still needs to maintain a seven days a week opening from 7 a.m.

to 9 p.m.

daily.

Um, I think if we did do the five percent reduction on our normal budget year, we would have to cut services, at least hours of operation.

Okay, thank you.

Um did I uh Ms.

Gyeld, did I did I hear you say you're not gonna do the the survey in fiscal year 27?

You didn't ask for it in the budget.

The national sur community survey.

Yep, I I said you're not gonna budget it.

Correct.

And if you did, who would manage it?

Uh it was I was the one that coordinated it last time, so I assume I would coordinate it again.

Um there's a strong component of that that um the public information officer played a role in um in terms of putting materials together for for advertising and and putting up signs.

Um we still have all of those artifacts, so I that hopefully wouldn't be quite as much effort.

Um but since I have more of a stats background, um, I was the one who who coordinated it, I'd probably do it again.

Is it fair for me to say um that as you tackle performance metrics and the PIO is maxed out that it's probably a good idea for that not to be in the budget for this year?

Yeah, and and I think that um I know that there is uh a lot of work planned for FY27 um for community outreach that's more targeted.

Um and so I also view it a little as a little bit duplicated.

I'd rather wait a year until we're deeper in um and can really make full use of that information um get past this initial this initial period.

Okay, thank you.

That's all the questions I have.

Great, thank you.

I want to start by talking about this development and event specialist program.

Not program, person.

So I'm just trying to understand.

Is this a new position or we're moving it from the mayor's office?

No, it's a good one.

Okay.

It's a position that you already have.

Who sorry?

This is always kind of awkward question, but who are we talking about here?

Yeah, Felicia Nolan.

Oh, okay.

I thought she was in the mayor's office.

That's that's on me then.

She's been in the city manager's office for a fair while.

Okay, great.

So nothing new there.

Um we heard the environmental program manager is not vacant.

Uh I wanted to talk a little bit about the supplies and other category.

And there's some, I think that's always kind of a variable category, but it looks like we're seeing a big decrease in the special projects area.

I went in, and it's actually for some reason this isn't all in our budget book, but it's in open gov, thank God.

Let's go open gov.

Uh and um, so I just wanted to walk through a couple of those things in particular, but more broadly understand so this is my question to you to start.

Why are we having such a big decrease in that special projects category from year to year?

Um, so the the special projects category um it incorporates you you'll see changes over time in both contractual services and in special projects.

Um some of that is related to items moving in and out of the city manager's office.

So um, like we had had lobbying, for example, that moved out this year.

Um there are funds that have been traditionally set aside um in there for some of the special work that Jackie and her team have done related to greenhouse gas emission, the climate action plan.

Those particular expenses, you know, are episodic.

Um, and so some of that is drawing to a close and now planning the the use of that information and planning the next steps.

So what the FY28 budget looks like is a different question.

Um, but those lines have tended to be episodic both for that movement in and out reason and because some of those major initiatives on the uh environmental side are also somewhat episodic.

Great, thank you.

Um, I have a note here before I jump on to just say congrats to the Harbor Master's Office on having so much more grants than was planned.

It looked like your projected was way higher than your uh your budgeted for, so good work on that.

Um so drilling down on special projects.

There were are two areas I wanted to ask you about that are both kind of cross-cutting.

And so I'm I apologize, I'm asking you about money that's outside of your budget also, but if I was gonna do that to anybody, it's only fair I'd do it to you guys.

Uh or maybe Joel.

But um the first is that lobbyist line item that you were just talking about.

So in past last year we had a whole debate about should these be under the city manager, should they be under the mayor?

It seems like they're not under the city manager anymore.

What uh what happened?

Are would we getting rid of them?

Are they I think one's going to the mayor's office, right?

So, yeah, council council moved that money to the mayor's office.

Um so that's where it has resided.

Um so there are a couple of things that that have happened to that.

Um, one is that um I didn't feel like we were really getting the full value of the federal lobbyist.

It's not that we weren't getting any value at all.

I just didn't think we were getting as much value as we were putting into that.

Um, so we discontinued that.

Um obviously we have the um we've got a couple of other positions that are coming online where some of that work in some sense is getting brought in-house.

So um the part of the task uh and duties of the deputy chief of staff will be a certain amount of liaison work with with various levels of government.

Um mostly at the state and county, but um, you know, the knowing that federal delegation is is part of it.

Um we have a particularly active federal delegation and a strong relationship at this point, um, which helps.

Um, and then of course we've got the legislative analyst.

And so some of the kind of core work around um staff reports for the state legislation and stuff like that will be picked up by that person.

Now, this year, given how busy I was for I I love her to death for this.

Ashley Diaz, who works for Jackie, picked up that work this year, which was an absolute invaluable help.

But that was in addition to her other normal normal work.

So when that's that's work that'll go go to that legislative analyst.

Assistant.

Assistant, I'm sorry.

Yeah.

Legislative assistant, not analyst.

Um there is still some loss, still some money in the mayor's office, doesn't sit in the city manager's office anymore, but then there are also these two staff positions that will pick up pieces of that.

That's great.

Um thank you for explaining that.

And it makes sense once you explain it.

The so the other one is under city manager's office, we have holiday decorations.

And I noticed we've got that's higher this year than last year, which is great because I think the costs on that keep going up.

There's three different line items, and feel free to say, because again, this is kind of one where you only you can feel free to say put a pin in this for planning and zoning.

But there's three different line items where we're giving money to the downtown Napolis partnership.

And they're for very different things.

The general operating holidays, and then Annapolis and Bloom.

And it's like we're increasing some, we're decreasing some.

There's how were those decisions made as to how we're supporting that organization overall and how we were choosing to increase or decrease support for particular things.

Uh so with respect to downtown Apollo, so I'll encourage you to ask planning and zoning that question as well, but from my perspective.

Um, the the those different pots of money, they do have different purposes.

The amount that's the $50,000, there's a contract with the downtown Annapolis partnership that is there to implement the main street program.

Um that contract actually specifies $50,000.

Uh the past couple of years, the city has voluntarily upped that amount.

Um we for this year went with the contractual amount.

The department um and and Adam Straud in particular has been investing a lot of time with that organization to help to help sort of bring it along and make sure that it's really um fulfilling its the obligations and expectations under under the main street program.

Um so there's a lot of county or um sorry, city involvement with that organization that I think uh sort of makes up for the the dollars in some sense.

Um as far as the other things are concerned, those are contributions the city has made to frankly sort of city beautification.

Um those amounts um are more of a reflection of what have we historically done.

Yeah, I think the to ask you more targeted question.

Why did we increase the holiday direct decorations?

Why do we decrease the flowers?

And would there be any downside to shifting some of that?

You know, if we're increasing one by 10,000, decreasing one by five, can we just shift some money from one to the other?

I don't I don't see any particular reason why if there was a desire to do some shifting.

I'm not sure why we couldn't do that.

Um not sure I can, I'm not sure I would have to get back to you with an answer about why those particular amounts for those particular line items.

Okay, thank you.

Uh yeah, I just want to I I care about those beautification things and want to make sure that they have the resources they need.

Uh most of my questions were actually about the Office of Central Services, so I'm relatively uh short today.

Uh Altman Thorpe, Auto Roman O'Neill.

Any last things before I turn it over to Otto Roman also Johnson Auto Woman Conte?

Either you guys.

I'm all set, thank you.

Okay.

Auto Roman Conte, anything?

Auto Roman also Johnson, you got any questions?

Not at this moment.

Okay.

Um wow, we might have actually wrap up our first one early.

Uh I'm sorry, I made you guys rush through.

You got anything you want to go back and go to?

No?

Um, then I have a couple lower value questions that I'll take the time to ask you.

Ms.

Cow, can you tell me more about the composting uh performance metric that you were talking about?

I see we're sending our facility food scraps.

What facility is that?

I'm trying to think where we even serve food.

Oh, or maybe that was just our metric was that we would have one sending food scraps.

I'm just interested in composting generally.

Whatever you want to tell me on compost will be appreciated.

So we have right now what we do is we have the composting drop-off point in Truxton Park in the parking lot.

So that's what I'm I'm focused on here.

You know, um we have goals to encourage more composting among residents among businesses and in city facilities as well.

Transportation, if you're referring to city facility, transportation at one point was the only city facility that was composting and was part of our contract with Annapolis Compost for pickup.

We want to expand that to all city facilities that um would like to participate.

And so as an example of the city leads and shows the way.

So we're adding additional, we're going with a different company in FY27.

Um we're adding one bin because the bins are always full.

We think we get there's more capacity there.

And so are my compost bins, I hear you.

So that's that's where we're at with that.

And that that's where the metrics come from.

We we know what we send to the landfill from the composting company.

I mean, excuse me, we know um what we're diverting from the landfill from the composting company.

Thanks.

Yeah, so since we have some time, can I go to slide four, please?

Um, is there any possibility to put some granularity in the FY27 goals on this page?

Uh specifically, like what is our tree canopy goal for 2027?

It's 50 percent.

I thought I had that on there.

Yeah, there it is.

It's 50 percent by 2050 and for FY27.

That's something um that the um city forester is working on.

I've talked to them like they know what they need to do as far as tree planning to reach that goal by 2050, but they haven't broken it down into what needs to be done each year.

So I think that's something that I've talked to the city forester about.

We need to, you know, even if they're aspirational, we need to set some goals for each year in order to achieve that.

Yeah, it it would be great if at some point that these because these are tremendous performance metrics.

Um decreasing the food desert um is something we talk about uh quite often and would love to know what the what the objectives are for 27 to get done.

So to that point, um that's something that's been an objective for a few years.

We haven't had the manpower to address it.

Where resilience and sustainability staff are talking about how we can actually start to engage some partnerships around food deserts.

We're really um with the current situation in the economy with the rate of food prices and energy costs.

We're really focusing in FY27 on what we can do as a city.

Some of these things are beyond our control, but we can do some partnerships, some rebates from the city to address both the cost of food and energy.

And so we're trying to get ideas for FY27 around that.

Yeah, I mean, that's a great objective.

And sometimes it's important for the council to know that we don't have the capacity to do anything in this objective.

So that's not necessarily a bad thing, much like uh in the other slides who that said we're not gonna do this, not in the budget.

Right.

Um but uh it is it possible to set a date when these five will be filled in.

Yes, we can um we're in that planning stage right now.

So by the end of by June, um, I plan to have some goal the goals set up for FY27.

Okay.

Um acting city manager, that's probably a since this is our first meeting, there's probably gonna be a lot of these do outs.

Is that you that tracks these, or is that my colleague to my right?

Or who who tracks these?

Uh these these particular asks like when yeah, when when somebody says we'll get that to you by tomorrow, we'll get that to you by June.

Yeah, I think between the between the two of us, um we'll we'll try to try to coordinate.

The way I'd like to see is that at the very least that it's an action item within our minutes, and then that allows the city manager to go back and see the minutes and see what's needed.

But I think it doesn't hurt also for us to very explicitly say, hey, Ms.

Jackson, let's make sure that's written down as an action item.

Yeah.

So just keep in mind, I mean, this is something we very much want to address.

We think this is forefront in the minds of our residents is food scarcity and food costs and as well as energy costs, but there are two people that are doing most of this work.

And you'll hear from other the mayor's office and others say they're over capacity.

I've been over capacity working those kinds of hours for years, and you can see how much work I generate and by my monthly reports.

So just Yeah, and I just want to put a fine point on that.

I think we've got to the council specifically has to be able to support the staff in what we're gonna do and what we're not gonna do.

So my goal is not to give you 12 pounds of potatoes to put in your 10 potate 10 pound potato sack.

And so I think we need to create an environment of openness and honesty to say I can do that, but something else needs to give.

So thank you.

Um okay, two last questions from me.

One uh, and this is sort of more of an overarching budget question, but it was prompted by talking about the LED lights.

Where do we see the uh utility cost within?

Sorry, maybe this is really to you.

Where do we see the utility cost?

And in particular, I know like sometimes we'll see it within police, right?

Because there's a dedicated police station.

But for something like the city manager's office where you're within City Hall, are we carving out like your portion of the utilities?

Or can somebody just walk me through exactly where that is that's all gonna get moved toward central services, but uh the today of it all is historic is it all okay Capri Center budget analyst historically it has been allocated um between each department for FY27, everything has been centralized to essential services.

Gotcha.

I'm sorry, Capri, before you go, would you mind explaining why we felt like that was the right choice?

Again, like there's some places where it seems like it's hard to split it out, but then others it seems like we pretty obviously could split it out.

So I'm just curious why that decision was made.

Um Vicky may be um city manager, I'm sorry, act the acting city manager buckley may be better to explain this, but in theory, I believe the central services was that was the intention of central services being created for central service that handle the things for all citywide, like utilities.

And I think the the question ends up being what's the what is the value and the point of allocating it, right?

Um having it in central services and having it all in in one place allows them to manage it building by building, which is which is what we we want to see.

I think that if we had a situation where you know, one particular building's um energy use or other things went through the roof, that potentially has a whole bunch of different reasons associated with it, only one of which is there was a fundamental change in the use pattern of the department.

More than likely it's related to actual facility issues, age of equipment or or other things like that.

Um so I would just speaking for myself, I would rather see us really track it by building by building, and how are our buildings performing?

And if we need to drill down and we think there's been some fundamental change in in the use pattern of the occupants, we can do that, but that starts with what's happening with our building.

Got it.

Thank you for explaining that to me.

Oh, to Roman O'Neill, did you come on camera because you had a question?

No, I don't know why uh I came on camera again.

That's okay.

I just want to give you the opportunity.

All right, I got one last question for you guys, and then we'll let you go.

So if I'm looking at the salaries and benefits for city manager budget, it's increasing by 25%.

We have heard a couple different reasons for that.

We we're having a new city manager who's gonna get paid more than the old city manager.

We are taking care of that weird vacancy savings thing.

Um, there's a third one that I'm not remembering.

Oh, just like general performance increases.

If we've got 25 chits, can you help me understand how we're allocating that increase across those different buckets?

Like is it 10 to higher city manager salary and five to performance, or how does that work out?

Um I would actually have to dive into the the relative contributions of each of those elements.

Um as you know, the merit increases very, you know, three to four percent.

So that's that's that portion sort of right off the top.

Um the other the other increase is the salary for the environmental programs um coordinator.

That's that's a fair chunk of that, right?

That's a that's an entire salaries and benefits worth that's that's being added on the top.

So out of out of that 25 cents, probably at least half of it is that.

At least okay.

That that answers my question.

Yeah.

Um, all right, cool.

That's close enough.

I I think I was debating if I need a more specific answer, but I think that pretty much explains it to me.

All right, that's all I've got.

Sounds like that's all my colleagues got going once, going twice.

All right, thanks, guys, for sending such a great example.

It's been a good one.

Appreciate it.

Um at this time, we will take a five-minute break.

So uh, I'm just gonna recess us for five minutes and then we'll come back at 9 32 so we can get ahead of schedule.

So, you need a motion to recess.

Right, Julie.

So moved.

Second all those in favor of recessing until 9 32, please say aye.

Motion carries.

421.

Um, at this time, I'll turn it right over to our director of Rackham Parks, and uh hopefully we can get your slides up, and then when she gets started, Miss Jackson, would you just start the timer?

It's 15 minutes.

Go ahead.

Good morning.

For the record, Rosalind Johnson, director of recreation and parks.

To my right, I have Miss Lakeisha Simmons, um deputy director or chief of recreation.

And to her right, your left, Ronnie Diller, Chief of Parks or Deputy of Um Parks.

And then to my right, your left, I have Haley Stern, who's our marketing coordinator.

Also the only 30 under 30 um professional recognized in the state of Maryland for National Recreation and Parks Association.

Um, she's been knocking it out of the park, so a huge honor, huge award.

Kudos to her.

All right, so FY26 accomplishments.

Uh revenue for FY26 was almost 1.9 million.

Pip Moyer um brought in uh three-quarters of a million, uh, 705,000.

Uh facility rentals, 387,000 programs and activities, 285,000 dollars.

Um, we started doing surveys for our programs and events, and so satisfaction with programming is 87%.

Parks and recreation program facility registrants per 100,000 is 190.

Um, and then percent of registrants that are city residents are 61%.

Percentage of housing units within a 15-minute walk is 100%.

National Community Survey of respondents selecting good or excellent, of course, 70%.

Number of staff hours of training per staff for latchkeys 30, and number hours of training per staff, all others 91.

Um, and I do want to say these are new performance measures.

Uh our other performance measures weren't really measurable measures, so um, this is our baseline year.

Budget enhancements.

Uh so convert two part-time maintenance worker one positions into full-time.

Um, and so that cost was 34,000.

That was not accepted, and then qualified child care staff to hire child care director and child care teacher, 40,000 that was accepted, and that's for an additional location.

Briefly, is that maintenance worker within Pitmoir or within parks?

The whole the parks, the whole entire city.

So two for the whole entire city.

Over the last two years, we've gained a considerable amount of acreage, and then of course, demands have become more and greater for our small team.

We have um 10 full-time um staff uh maintenance workers, so um it's surprising and amazing what they do with the small number of people.

Uh permanent expansion of programming, 11,000.

That was not accepted.

Um, an increase of food line items to accommodate the additional uh child care sites, 10,000, um, and then opening a new latch key site, 24,000, and then um no dugouts to provide shade and sun protection on the baseball field.

So we wanted to do a new dugout, and that was 10,000 that was accepted.

And then keeping up with recreation trends and technology through esports, um, that was 20,000, and so that was um accepted or continued.

Um, increasing programming 12,000, that should say no on that one.

So that one was not accepted.

Um, and then increase in recreation programming budget line item 28,000.

Um, that was accepted.

And then our budget trends.

Um, so here's our budget trends, salaries and benefits, contractual services, supplies, another, and then capital outlay.

Um, and so we are kind of on course.

The salary and benefits is a little bit uh higher.

Our contractual services went down a bit, and then supplies another went up a little bit, um, and capital outlay, um, that was just moved to a different category, and our our um projects are underway.

And then here's our revenue bringing us to the 1.8 that I discussed briefly earlier, um, memberships, uh, facility rentals, program activity and registrations, pool memberships and the snack bar, and child care.

And then what do we spend versus what do you get?

So we looked at our operating FY25 operating total budget, and then our revenue, so the net is about 4.3 of city um taxpayers' dollars, um, which totals about 2.15% of the city's total budget.

So the residents and the taxpayers get a lot for that 2.15%.

So here are the events that have seen record numbers.

Um, our community fund day, our harvest fest, our kids' day this spring, saw 157, girls play initiative, 157 girls, adult Easter egg hunt broke an attendance record.

Our kids Easter egg hunt um broken attendance record as well, um, and that was just extremely um amazing what happened.

That was a testament to our team.

During the event, we had the main uh the water main break, which left us with no water.

So we had about a thousand people, probably about 750 at that time, a huge baton event inside of PIP, so people were everywhere, every parking space was filled, um, and we had to immediately shut down because we had no water.

So that went really well.

We were able to finish the event, just escalate the schedule up a little bit earlier.

Every child who showed up got to participate in the event, but that's thanks to our amazing team.

Spring of 2025, our field saw over 1,500 hours of playtime, equivalent to 62.75 days.

Kudos to Rodney's team.

Um, that's what the fields look like.

They shut it down.

We've been getting a lot of complaints about our fields.

So Rodney scoured the whole entire country and figured out what we should do and best practices.

So that's the before, that's the during, that's um after, and you can see it's a major improvement in our fields, and all of that was done in-house.

Additional information, Dunn municipal pools, saw 13,400 participants.

Um swim lessons were provided to 133 youth, thanks to Jennifer Paulette and the team.

Um we anticipate more youth learning to swim this summer with Stanton Swims program.

Summer camp saw 2,819 campers.

Um Greenscape is getting ready to kick off, of course, this weekend is um when Green Greenscape is, so they're gonna start picking up tomorrow.

Um so that's a major volunteer program that Marissa and Rodney um do an excellent job, and all of our parks guys do an excellent job with back to school in session.

400 people, including students, parents, and faculty were um at our back to school events with reshort when we were at resource tables.

Um, and then we hosted the Hispanic Heritage Festival at Pit Moyer, continuing that.

Um, in previous years they had 1200, but with everything going on in the country, I think 928 attendees is a huge testament to the people who organize it.

Of course, we had our new logo.

Um Stanton Community Center held its first open house with close to 250 attendees.

I think Alder Woman O'Neill will have some questions about our late nights, so I'll save that for her questions that we'll share about that.

But a hist history of Stanton was on display.

Um we work with close community partners, and so that was a major um event, and the community really appreciated it.

And um Teen Night still continues to go exceptionally well.

We had over 214 teens.

We have 80 new members, um, and we started implementing our ads, so it's a cost-saving initiative to work use Facebook and Instagram to do our um to advertise.

We saved a lot of money, um, which allows us to do other um things with that funding to support our programming, and that's kudos to Haley and Kendall and her team.

Uh we explained our first adaptable programming, and that was a major piece.

So we call our therapeutic rec program our superhero program.

And so that started because I was sitting in the parking lot and I saw someone um who brought their clients over and they were playing basketball and they shot around for a while, it was starting to get cold.

And I said, I wonder what they're gonna do when winter starts.

So talk to the team.

The team was like, oh, we're gonna do an indoor basketball program.

I think we got more out of it than they did.

Um we had everyone participating, cheering everyone on.

It was just an awesome um really feel-good program, but I think the participants really enjoyed it too.

We even had um some of our staff do cheerleading in case someone didn't want to play basketball, but the caregivers, the participants, and the staff had an amazing time.

And then, of course, we had Pam Turner retire after 36 years of dedicated service.

So we miss her and the work that she did.

She was kind of our voice of reason and the hey, why are we doing it this way?

Maybe we should do that.

So we we truly miss her.

Uh, we um also celebrated International Women's Day.

We again I talked about our Easter egg hunt and for Women's History Month.

We had women in Wellness, um, an event that was designed to promote physical and mental health and well-being.

And our Easter egg hunt, and then our largest kid day in was 157 participants, and we're on track to have another largest kids' day in coming up.

And the parks team has been very busy, trucks and park tennis and pickleball courts have been power washed, lights in the courts have undergone relamping maintenance.

Griscom 1 and 2 and Collison have been mowed, and they spread 75 tons in new ball diamond mix um that's been laid and breaks.

So we're trying to figure out ways in which we could have our fields more playable, um, given the super rainy seasons that we have.

So we have some things we're testing, but I don't want to put it out.

We like to underpromise and over-deliver.

Um, social media numbers have increased.

Um, we have more followers, more people engaged, more people that like us, more people that reshare our posts.

And I think that's is that 15 minutes?

Yeah.

Oh, 11.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um, I'll say at some point, I would love as a follow-up if we can get for all those amazing things.

Can we get some dollar figures behind them?

Like how much, like one of the examples was the adaptive basketball.

Like, I don't think anybody here wants to get rid of that, but it would be worthwhile for us to know how much did that cost, and so we can be able to uh balance it against other things here.

So for each one of those bullets, can we get a rough dollar figure for them?

Um that'll take us some time.

We could possibly do it.

Um we don't track by program, so we'll have to go back and you know, and so it's saying's a budget person.

Um I will ask our budget person who's already um slightly um inundated to assist us as well.

Okay, but I can tell you that program was um minimal cost because it was during the day.

We didn't have to have additional staff that weren't currently already working, um, and so we already had the basketballs.

We may have purchased new pennies, which was maybe about 200 if that.

It sounds awesome.

I don't mean to hate on that one.

I just am using it as an example for this first one that came to my mind.

You have something to say, Mr.

Palicole?

No, just trying to make sure nobody picked up your cough.

All right, uh Alder Roman O'Neill, you got any questions?

Thank you.

Yes, I have a a couple.

Um that was a whirlwind of a presentation, so thank you.

Um, my first one is of course, in regards to Stanton Center, and I know in the past we've talked about staffing and whatnot, but I would really love to see us putting in staffing um and budgeting for keeping Stanton Center open, most especially on days where school is closed.

That is the number one thing I hear from the community is that when schools are closed, the children often don't have a place to go.

Um, and many of them are children who partake in the after school program, mostly because their parents are working.

What can we do?

Um I'm gonna take Alderman Thorpe's uh question.

What would it take to increase the number of days that Stanton Center could be open?

Um, especially those school closed days.

Uh thank you for your question.

Um Stanton is open on the days that schools are closed as long as it's not a city holiday.

So when it's a city holiday, it's a little bit different.

So the only time Stanton is closed are on city holidays.

So you're talking Christmas, um, any type of Christmas Eve, New Year's Day, um, or um Maryland Day.

So days such as that, Stanton is closed.

So Stanton doesn't have the same cadre or staffing that Pip does as far as part-time.

So we don't have an internal group of part-time staff that would be able to run the facility absent um any type of presence from management.

So that's part of the challenge.

Um, thank you, Alder Woman, for putting $7,000 in our budget so that we could extend the hours.

So we've been focusing on programming to get um the community used to us kind of being open, um, particularly in the winter during um our warming center, our facility had closed around 6, 6:30 after the after-school program because um we had the unsheltered population who was participating in the warming, the warm nights.

So um we've worked on that.

So now um the building does close at 8 p.m.

in their activities until 8 p.m.

For example, we have usually about 20 to 25 youth in the gym um until 8 p.m., which is unheard of and unusual for us.

Um, we've been working on building that up so that uh the community starts to know, hey, we're open, you know, this is things have changed.

Um, and so we're anticipating that we'll be open, we'll be able to open Friday evenings and Saturday.

We've opened one Saturday so far to test it out, but Friday evenings and Saturday will now be opening um starting May.

Um, and then I think once we get a permanent uh center director in there, and once we get another rec recreation leader, we will have um better staffing to be able to do more programs.

But um the peak the piece for us is to be able to pay someone overtime, um, a part uh full-time um rec leader or center supervisor over time so that they can open the building on city holidays.

You're good.

That was just for the presentation.

Okay.

Okay.

That's helpful.

Thank you very much.

Um, my other question is in regards to um the pool and lifeguards.

Um can we talk a little bit about that?

Is there I know that there's been some groups that have asked for pool use, and is there any plan for us to work with some of those groups?

Like the master swimmers.

Um is there any option to work with those groups?

So something we'll have to give.

Um, we're looking at it.

So last year, as you know, we had to do um we operated the hack a pool.

We didn't anticipate that the person with the pool operator's license would be going out for surgery.

So we have one pool operator, well, two pool operators, but we had to work between the two pool operators we have, one being Jennifer Rafik, and the other being someone on her staff.

So um we were inundated with programs, activities, and events.

So the master swimmers, I believe we looked at the numbers and they want to swim.

I think it's 6 a.m.

Um, and the pool did not open until 7 a.m.

because of staffing challenges that we have.

And those staffing challenges are continuing this year.

Uh well depends.

Um, we're still in the hiring process.

We're still looking at our number of lifeguards.

I know Jennifer was shaking the trees, and she was a little concerned that she wasn't where she normally is this time of the year.

Um, I'll ask Jennifer Rafik to come up if she has anything else she wants to add.

Good morning.

Morning.

Um currently I'm at 28 lifeguards.

I'm sorry, can you just identify yourself to start?

Oh, hi, I'm Jennifer Rafink.

Oh, and what's you my position?

Um, the aquatics supervisor.

Thank you.

Fitness manager.

I'm gonna add one more.

And acting standard director.

Okay.

Um, so currently I'm at 28 lifeguards.

Is that for for trucks and park pool, or is that for the trucks and park pool.

How about Harbor House?

I currently do not have any for Harbor House.

Okay, on our staffing list, um it says 20 uh for both.

So at 28, then we're over the number required.

What staffing list are you referring to?

I don't think we have that staffing list.

The one in our budget book.

And maybe Miss Bucklin, this is this uh disconnect maybe related to what we were talking about about uh part-time versus full-time equivalence.

Could that be where we're having this disconnect?

You know what I'm getting at here.

Where we were doing FTEs instead of sort of don't take the uh seasonal part-time numbers too seriously as far as the budget is concerned.

It seems like maybe the answer to how can we have 28 positions when we budgeted for 20 is perhaps people are working a third fewer hours per position.

So those are not FTEs.

Uh well, I mean, those are 20 FTEs, but Jennifer operates part-time staff, which you know, some may work four hours a day, some may work six hours a day.

Um, so it's just um kind of interdependent.

We look at the bottom line.

Jennifer looks at her numbers and how much she's spending for staffing, not necessarily um the full FTE complement.

We might have one person who's taking up a slot, but they're working maybe two hours on Tuesday.

So it just, you know, it's it's a it's a shell game for us as far as covering our staff.

If I run with 20 lifeguards, we won't be able to operate seven days a week, 14 hours a day.

So it takes with the rotation, it takes there's seven stations, and depending on how many people are in the facility and what the environment's like at the time with outside camps, inside camps, the patrons, the level of the swimmers.

I might have to add in additional stations.

So then you have to have a safety team because if something happens and somebody's jumped in the water, then the team has to shift, somebody has to get the AED the to-go bag, etc.

etc.

So we can't stay staffed at 20 for the whole season.

So what is your goal number?

You say you have currently 20 uh my goal number is 32.

All right.

Um I would like to continue a discussion offline to see if we can work or reach out to some local community partners to help get that number up because at 28, we're not staffing the Harbor House pool.

No, we're not.

Jennifer um has traditionally staffed the pool herself by herself.

Um with addition of Sammy.

Sammy's there as well.

But she's the only lifeguard.

Okay.

And I'll just throw out as a related action item on that.

Let's make sure that our budget book gets updated to be the appropriate number.

What what you need, what we're authorizing, not changing the funding, but making sure that if we're giving a pot of funding for however much that it can support that our book says the number of people that can actually support.

So that's my action item.

Well, I think that, and that is the FTEs, not the number of bodies.

So it might equal 20 FTEs, but some years she will have 32 bodies, some of you she'll have 34 bodies, um, but it's still the FTEs that throws people off.

Yeah, I know we heard on Thursday that some of these numbers are squishy as we're transitioning.

Back to you, Auditor.

I didn't mean to jump in too much on your questioning.

No, no, no, that's that's okay.

I appreciate that.

Um, I'm gonna hold off on the rest of the questions because I know that um Alderman Savage had many of the same questions I had.

So I'm turning it over to the next questioner.

Alderman Thorpe, that's you.

Thank you.

And uh and thank you for everything you all do for our city.

The the uh the smiles that you bring to faces, I'm stealing your line, director.

Um the the smiles that you bring to people's faces and to their minds is tremendously uh impressive and important.

Um I am new to the council, and um I said I I started by brief by telling you that I love you guys a lot.

Um but the next thing I'm gonna tell you is we just have to be more data-driven in recks and parks.

Um, and I look forward to working with you over the next four years to be able to do that.

Um it is not easy.

Um, but as I go through the book, uh, the budget and your brief, I'm really falling short of being able to support an answer to taxpayers that says that um truckston park pool is worth spending every dollar we're spending, other than the emotional reason that it's obvious that it is.

Um and so just to use that as an example, um, we've got to be able to explain what that 20 number is.

I don't think anybody in the finance committee is challenging you whether you need 28 or 32 by your reputation.

Um, if you ask for 40, I think we would work to get 40 if you said you needed 40 to be safe.

Um, but we've got to be able to defend the budget.

So we want to work with you because if it's 20, we're looking to budget 20, if it's 28 or 32.

So just as a start, I very much look forward to working with you and Ms.

Bucklin uh in the years ahead to put some more data uh to support um your effort.

And the way I look at it is I like to reverse the leadership pyramid in that we work for you.

Our job is to get you the tools that you need to do, and in your case, uh to just bring incredible recreation and park facilities to the city of Annapolis.

So uh having said that, uh, let me jump into some questions.

And I have a lot, but um uh and I'm gonna um if I could go to slide two.

Um Chairman, how much time do you want to?

We're here until 1035.

I've got some questions, Alderman Savage has some questions.

So say certainly don't spend more than 15 minutes if that seems reasonable.

So sounds good.

Um so let's go to um page two of the brief, please.

Um these are phenomenal numbers.

Um what were the goals for these three numbers and what are the goals for for the next budget year?

So we're not um driven by revenue goals per se.

Um we try to increase our memberships, um, and we try to have people come back and increase their memberships, but we don't necessarily have goals because we are more of a service delivery, not necessarily kind of looking at the dollars and cents as far as cost recovery is concerned.

Um so that's a new type of thinking um for our department if that's the direction that the administration wants us to go in.

Yeah, so I I can go two different directions here on this.

I I like that, right?

That we shouldn't be maximizing revenue in Pit Moyer and our rec center in order and then lose quality or whatever.

But I think there's got to be a connection between members, the the number of memberships that your uh your goal is or your objective is and the revenue, and then that should also be tied to um the number of staff and the number of employees and the usage and all that.

So I if it is a change, I I want to be really clear that um if the revenue goal is 700,000 um or 800,000, that doesn't it doesn't put a grade on it, it just puts a a learning tool that we staffed Pit Moyer for this many members, and this is what we got.

So it's a longer conversation, and we can take it offline.

But but I'm I'm definitely looking for as we move forward.

There's got to be budget numbers in this budget that says these are the revenues we're looking for.

Well, um, we like to deal with things that are in our direct control.

So we don't have a salesperson to sell memberships or kind of follow up with memberships.

We um will accept people's memberships, we'll set them up and all those other things, but we're not necessarily pay-for-play.

That's more of a YMCA.

Traditionally, your recreation and parks departments haven't been pay for play.

Um, we can certainly look at it, but we don't have anyone who's out selling our facility rentals.

We don't have anyone who's necessarily selling our programs.

We do advertise and market our programs, um, but we don't have a direct relation.

We do determine whether or not programs can run based on the attendance.

For example, for our after-school program, we need 10 people for it to even be feasible.

Part of the challenge is that the revenue that we bring in goes to the general funds.

So the more, for example, if we want to say we want to have 10 more summer camps, well, that's gonna decrease our our staffing for the rest of the programs that we offer.

So it's a little bit difficult for us to do the pay for play model when the more we spend, the less we have to work with in the future.

So um we're kind of penalized, if you will, budget-wise, if we have more programs and we have less more less money to last us through the rest of the year.

I want to take a moment on that and just say I I really hear you on that.

And it's something I've heard from other departments.

I think it's something we should maybe we're we're not gonna solve it in this budget, but I I wanna add that as something that the finance committee looks at in the the time in between, because uh there's a real feeling of we do more, we generate more revenue, and it's not necessarily coming back to our department, and and I'm sure that's hard.

So I I just want you to know I really hear you on that, and I want to think about it in more detail.

But thank you.

And we don't necessarily want it to come back to our department for us to keep.

We want to come back to the department so that we have more money to work with for other programs, so it kind of lasts longer, so to speak.

So I just want to clarify that.

And I didn't think you were saying that, but just for people who might not understand where we're coming from.

We're not trying to be greedy, we're just trying to be able to have the funding to work with to do other programs and continue programs.

Yeah.

Uh but to put a final point on it as we move forward, whether this question is for you or for the finance director, there's got to be a planning figure for how much we bring in in revenue for memberships in 2027.

I mean, uh otherwise the budget, the the confidence in the budget is can't be very high.

So again, that's not to evaluate to your point, you know, you don't have 100% control over it, but there's got to be a planning figure.

Yeah, there is a plan figure.

It's just that because of the whole nature of not allocating revenues down to specific departments, you'd find the revenue number in that non-allocated figure.

Yeah, and I think that's that's with working with Ms.

Buckland and the director and the we'll we'll get to that.

Okay, I I've made that point.

I don't want to drill down into that.

If we do it a page eight.

Can you tell us about our child care programs?

Sure, what would you like to know?

I don't know.

Just in general, yeah.

So our child care programs, we have one site that's before care, and the rest of our sites that are after care.

Um, we need a minimum of 10 children or to run 10 children or to run the program.

It is licensed.

Um we work with the schools, so the schools will say, Hey, you have this council chamber to do your pro your after-school program in.

We say, okay, well, thank you for this space.

We'll call in licensing, which is a state department, and they'll say, Oh, it's this many square feet, you could have 10 kids, or well, 15 kids, or you could have 25, or you could have 45.

They determine the space.

We say, okay, great, thank you.

Then we say, okay, let's advertise it.

So we advertise at the school through the PTA, see how many people sign up.

Um, and if they sign up, and let's say we get all 15 people this year, we say, Wonderful, we go through the year, we have the program.

So when we sign up for next year, which is about this time, we say, okay, you 15 people who participated this year have first rate of refusal to participate next year.

And they'll say, Okay, well, one of my children are graduating from this elementary school, so there's one space that opens up.

So we give them the first week or so to register, and then after that week is gone, then we open it up to everyone else at the school, and they'll say, Okay, great.

Well, we only have one slot because licensing only allows us a certain number of children, it's beyond our control.

The schools give us the space, and they have many competing programs that are happening too, so that's somewhat beyond their control.

And then we open it up, and people uh, you know, get false hope.

So we have, you know, let's say we have a family, they're first in line when we start the registration at 10 or 6, depending when 10 a.m.

or 6 a.m.

Um, and then if they have two children, then there's one child who's in and one child who's on the waiting list, but nobody's leaving the program.

So they're like, oh, I'm number one on the waiting list, I'm definitely getting in.

Well, probably not.

Um, and so we hate to give that false hope, but that's a situation where we're that we're in, and we have no control over any of those pieces.

Um poor Lakeisha takes all the um frantic calls from parents um who don't understand who um just beg her, you know, can you please find more space?

But we'll lose our licensing if we do.

Um Lakeisha, did you have anything you want to add about the after school program?

Nope, that that covered just about it unless you have any other questions.

So how how many children did we take support with uh or would we support with the 40,000?

So it depends on the location.

Um we have to have a child care director and we have to have a teacher at each site.

So if it's a site that has 15, then it would be 15.

All of our sites are full except for Annapolis Elementary and Mills Pearl.

How many then how many are we supporting now?

About 130 children.

Okay, so I'm channeling Alderman Chandelmeyer a little bit here, whose focus is on child care.

Um back to my example of what the council can do for you.

Do you have capacity if you had more resources to increase the 130?

So the challenge we have with the after school program is finding qualified people who are willing to work because the hours are horrible, uh, meaning they're like if you have a traditional part-time job, you get off at five.

Well, our program starts at two, so you're two to six.

So you need someone who either works third shift or second shift, because at two to six time frame, two to six thirty actually, is the time where we need someone.

So you're looking at like a niche market almost.

You're looking at maybe a parent who was a homemaker and her children just gone back to school and she's looking for something to do part-time or someone who's in between jobs, or someone you know, has some other um part-time jobs and they cobble together a whole job.

So the challenge is really finding um qualified staff who are willing to work these hours.

But for care makes it even more difficult because you're looking to hire the same teacher who's willing to work an hour and a half in the morning, and then some hours in the afternoon.

So that that's the challenge, the initial challenge.

Then the file the next challenge would be space, because we rely on the schools to give us space.

Um, so if the schools had space, that's another resource challenge.

Um, and then um the funding to go along with it, you know, to support the meals and the other things that we do.

So there are three major challenges when you're looking challenges when you're looking at child care.

Um, and then if we look at licensing, um, they are not easy at all to deal with.

Lakeisha will tell you.

Um Lakeisha takes a beating, um, but she's like a timex, she keeps on ticking.

Um, because the licensing, um, we have to send things to them multiple times.

Um, they will lose things.

Um, and we know they're busy and they have sites all over the state that they're looking at, but um it's something to stay on top of.

So um this year we've done a pilot where um Eastport did not have any space, and Germantown did not have Georgetown East.

Sorry, I get it mixed up every time.

Georgetown East did not have space.

So schools are willing to bust them to us at Pip, um, except for um George except for um Georgetown East.

They were not um willing.

Well, transportation wasn't provided there.

So we had one parent who got her own children there.

Um, and so we had a non-licensed program because as recreation and parts, we can have non-licensed programming.

Um, and that seems to have gone really well.

We have an average daily attendance though of about nine.

Eight eight, sorry.

Okay, if I may, Lakeisha, can you talk about the um so the the number of students that are allowed is set by licensure?

Can you talk about that?

Sure.

So they come in and they measure the usable space.

Um we have no control of that.

They have the matrix that they use, and they tell us that this space can only accommodate this amount of children.

That is something that's a standard that they have throughout the state.

And so we can't, even though we may look at a space and say it clearly could accommodate 50 kids.

If they come in and they measure that usable space, they say this is the only amount of children, the only number of children that you can have in this space, and that's again a matrix that they use throughout the state that we have no control over.

Okay, thank you.

Um I'd like to shift uh and and uh follow up with uh on uh older woman O'Neil's points about pools.

Um what are the hours again for the pool at Truxton Park?

7 a.m.

to 7 p.m.

seven days a week.

Okay.

Um are those the hours that you recommend, or are those the hours you're limited to?

Okay, and I'm looking at whoever you all want to, you know, whatever you want to.

So that you so you're comfortable with that.

Yes.

Okay.

Um the the number of people that used uh the pool at Truxton Park was 13,400 in 2025.

Is there a is there a goal or objective for 2026 or 2027?

Are you looking to increase that or was that high high?

Well, it's it well, go ahead.

I'm always looking for an increase.

I'm sorry, always looking for an increase.

But there's several factors too.

Um for heat advisory days, we open up and it's free of charge for everyone.

So we do two hour shifts.

So it, you know, the heat advisory days would increase our attendance.

So some of it is you know, inside of our control, some of it's outside of our control.

Summer camps come to us.

Um we don't the pools are an area that um my professional opinion would not be to try to increase, increase, increase, because then that's the number one, that's the largest liability any jurisdiction has is the operations of the pool.

So the more we try to pack in people or have people come in, the more challenges we have.

So we don't try to, for example, get more summer camps in.

Some summer camps are better than others, some come with many staff, some come with very few staff, and some of the staff when they come to the pool, they think, oh, it's the lifeguard's responsibility.

Well, these lifeguards, it's you know, two of them, three of them dependent on the pool or how many um we have, but they don't know these children, and they tell them, hey, do this, do that.

So it it becomes a challenge.

So um packing in a pool is not something that I would feel comfortable with.

I know it's not something Jennifer would feel comfortable with.

We utilize her pool operators license, and so um I always defer to Jennifer on what she feels comfortable with.

Yeah, to be clear, I'm not looking, we're not looking at packing a pool.

I just don't know.

No, we're gonna be able to do that.

So let me shift to the pool at Harbor House.

Did I hear us say uh so actually let me ask questions?

When are you what are you planning to do at Harbor House Pool in 2026?

So we put in the budget to um increase the budget as we traditionally have the last two years to run Harbor House Pool.

So that's what we would like to do.

And traditionally that's been Monday through Friday that the pool has operated, um, and that's been with Jennifer going down to operate the pool.

We um are we believe that they will have a pool operator Monday through Thursday because the pool operators off on Fridays.

Is he still off on Fridays?

Yes.

Okay, so we're not sure yet.

We're still in conversations with them.

We usually wait until after our budget is approved to try to kind of move forward with the plans, depending on whether or not council supports um that.

But Jennifer actively tries to hire lifeguards, but there's a lifeguard shortage all around the country.

Um so she even partners with Annapolis Pediatrics um to shake down their children that they have who are of age who um she can do she can teach to swim.

She even has a learn the swim, I'm sorry, a lifeguard class um Memorial Day weekend, I believe, and the weekend before because children are coming back from college and you know, so she Jennifer and her team try to create um a scenario where they've removed all the barriers so that we could have lifeguards um at our pools.

So I I'm pretty confident that the sentiment of the city council is that we would like Harbor House Pool to be open seven days a week.

Um maybe not 12 hours because Harbor because Truxton Park has other capabilities, but but I would like to add to the do outs to come back to us in what it would take, what what are the ideal hours for the Harbor House pool to be open and what it would take, what it would cost to do that.

And um, and I would ask to include uh not not only to to get it done, but I would open our aperture and ask you to include hiring a pool management company so that we don't ask our superstar here to be in Truxton Park, Stanton Center, and Harbor House all at the same time.

If we could clone you, any of you, I would do it.

I'm just incapable of doing that.

And so I would ask to come back to us.

It is I have not met uh I've not talked to a city council member who doesn't want Harbor House Pool open seven days a week effectively and and become a real community pool.

So I will share one that's a paradigm shift because Harbor House Pool has traditionally not been open on the weekends, even when Hacker operates it, uh operated it.

Um so that's new.

Um and with pool operating companies, um, we have seen failures um where they say they can do something, and then they have the same, I mean they're who are they pulling from?

Um and with pool operating companies um we have seen failures um where they say they can do something and then they have the same I mean they're who are they pulling from this summer is going to be even more of a challenge with the whole um immigrant scenario a lot of times they will hire people from out of the country which proves a whole nother cultural competency issue um when working at the Hacker pool uh because there's a vast difference in um I won't say values or morals but in the way um that people from different countries sometimes operate um and it's a way that our our community is not used to um so that will prove another challenge and then we've seen where they abandon contracts mid year through or charge exorbitant rates and costs and fees um so that I do want to share those challenges um going in.

I don't want to say that it's gonna be easy um because it's not because either they're gonna pay two dollars more than we pay and they'll steal our lifeguards and then instead of us paying two dollars more we're gonna end up paying $10 more because we're paying that um convenience fee um with that type of contract um jennifer can tell you other stories of other um HOAs that have them run so um I'm just asking it's a challenge I'm I'm just asking to include all options in your seven days a week plan and if I could just ask one more question on Stanton Center.

Hold on before before you go to Stanton Center I think Holderman Conte had a question about the pool hi um so big big on what you said about the pool not being open the pool definitely was open on Saturdays for a long time I think like 2021 was like the first set of when they haven't been opening it on the weekends um I know that you were saying that y'all have 28 people who are operating a pool so if we're having to take away from Harbor House being limited on getting pool access why can't we take from Pip and some of them go there and then Pitmore hours get limited.

So you're talking about Tuxton pool?

Yes we've tried that um there's a perception that HACKA is not a safe place and so when Jennifer's tried to transfer her children I mean I'm sorry her lifeguards to Hacka they have refused parents have refused and they've threatened to quit if you just want the truth so you know that's a challenge for us and I hear you because you don't get to determine where you're gonna work um but that's the truth of it and that's what we're met with.

Jennifer did you want to weigh in so basically um so like at Pitmore I know like the pool is good but when you have the days like your free days and stuff like that so you have majority of like your white population of people at their pool and on those three days you have a lot of your predominantly black people there and they don't always get treated good either and I've witnessed that myself so if we were able to kind of like leave our Harbor House kids there and be able to let them get access to the pool then I think that's the best option versus having them mixed and them get treated bad too.

Okay well I think we've talked about um the treatment and I've shared please reach out directly so that we can address um any concerns right then and there we have the cameras we can look at it and we could um be sure that we you know handle any type of conflicts or anyone being treated differently um I can say knowing Jennifer that that's certainly not on purpose that's nothing that happened directly um so you know we'd love the opportunity to address it when and where it happens I think that's that's uh appropriate and I just want to bring us back to the budget conversation that there's going to be a proposal that you guys will bring us of what would it take to have the Harbor House pool open that's the request from Alderman Thorpe.

So I'm gonna give you a couple minutes for Stan Center but we we've got other questions.

So one question I have for two questions I have for Stan one is of course at a couple minutes so uh but I'll be quick and and I think these are these these may be questions you take with you and come back to us or what but um as you and I have talked about I'm very focused on Stanton Center being and and many of us on the city council are very focused on uh increasing use of Stanton Center and I want to applaud what you've done at Stanton Center.

Again I'm not sure how you're in three places at one time but you're capable of doing that.

But I'm struck that the budget for Stanton Center um the projected budget for 26 is 78000 and the budgeted number is 6500.

That's more than a 20% decrease in the cost of a facility that I believe should be increased that it I I would applaud the opposite direction.

I'd like to, I'd like to start counting how many people use Stanton Center, like we do at Pip, knowing it's never gonna be a hundred percent accurate number, right?

But but I I'd like to increase the use of Stanton Center.

Um, and so uh I think for purposes of time, um, perhaps a do out is what with this decrease of twenty plus more than twenty percent of the budget for Stanton, what is changing at Stanton, and then what would it take to make Stanton the equivalent of Pitt Moyer, realizing it's smaller, but but to bring it up to scale so that when when you when you walk into Pip Moyer, it's Nirvana.

When I walk into Stanton, it's sometimes empty.

And so uh so if if I could ask you to get back to us on on that, um, I would appreciate it.

Um we'd be happy to, and let me share that.

We're taking baby steps.

So right now we have the um there was never a computer at the front desk, so we have a computer at the front desk.

We um now have a a scanner, a scanner, and we have staff who have been trained to be able to register people so that we will have the same scenario that we have at Pip.

Um, so we're working through that, and it's a culture shift with the community too, because it's like, what do you mean I have to you know scan when I come in?

It's like it's free, you know, we won't charge you, but you just have to scan when you come in and then scan when you go out.

That way we'll be able to quantify how many people come in per day.

Great, thank you.

And then uh what is the status of the glass floor?

And and specifically, how much money has been put has been spent on the glass floor, and what is the plan?

What is your current plan for the glass floor?

Uh nothing has been spent on the glass floor.

So um the current plan is that um unless we try to internally raise the funding for it, we won't do a glass floor.

Okay, thank you.

That concludes my questions.

Thank you.

My start of my questions actually probably go to Miss Buckland or uh Miss Turner.

Handful of ones.

Why is it that with Parks and Rec, it seems like we don't have an overall budget in OpenGov.

It's it's a bunch of different individual ones, whereas other departments I think we can see the whole thing.

Is that just me?

Feel free to tell me if I'm wrong and it's in there, Capri.

No, it's not in there.

Um, I don't know why.

Since I've been here, it hasn't been, but it's something that we can add.

Okay, yeah, if you don't mind, thank you.

Um and then for the the converse of that, and I think we are hearing about this a little bit, but it's a breakdown for revenue.

It would be great to see how where the revenue is coming from for each one of these programs.

We saw it a little bit on here, but yeah, Miss Buckland, you want to answer that.

Yeah, I just I just sent the you you actually can see all of that inside OpenGov.

I just sent the link.

I sent it um uh to you, Roz as well, so you can see it.

Um where that is in the budget.

Um actually we send it to you too as well.

Uh the individual line items.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

Yeah, that one I'm sure is in there somewhere, and I just haven't found it yet.

Uh third one I've got that's for you folks is the building materials for dugouts, which awesome.

I I bet the mayor's very excited about that.

But uh, why is that not capital outlay?

Why is it I think it's under supplies and other uh it's $10,000, it's not a huge um cost.

We could use um one-time funding for that.

Um I don't think it's the I think the budget people thought is not in the best interest of the citizen of the budget to pay for it over 20 years.

Um we normally will partner with public works, and when they have some extra concrete, we'll have them you know kind of put it down, and then we'll do the fencing.

So um that has been a great partnership that Rodney has worked out.

Oh, but anything to add Mr.

She's correct.

Anything that's one-time funding you're gonna find in special projects.

That's why historically you'll see the trend go up and down because it's one time funded.

Gotcha.

Great.

Okay, uh back to you guys.

So I got a couple, let's call this like uh lightning round where I'm just asking you why something's going up or down within a couple of these different categories.

So uh contractual services to Pip Moyer going down by like 75%.

Why is that?

We do not um you can say pass.

Okay, pass.

Okay, pass.

So we'll add we'll add those to the do out list.

Yeah, which you mean specifically.

Oh, yeah, you're gonna see that throughout all of the departments because of the centralization.

Uh moving software to IT, telephones, um, Gmail, postage, um, and utilities.

So then in this case, oh oh utilities might be the answer.

Yes, utilities.

Yeah, okay.

Because I was gonna say you don't see it, certainly not to the same extent among the other uh yes, it's gonna be heat and electric um repair and maintenance budget, um, buildings and structures for majority telephone.

That's the all in contractual services.

Got it.

Um I think we we touched on this already, but if you can give me like a one sentence answer here, I can easily explain to somebody else why the big jump from FY25 to 26, then 26 to 27 under latch key.

Uh salaries and benefits, I mean for latch key.

The big jump in salaries for latch key.

Yeah, we're going from over two years, 374 to 72.

We're about doubling it in two years.

Um before they had contacts or contract, I'm sorry, positions.

Three of those positions, uh, sorry, last year, one of them converted.

Since we have to convert once they get to five years, we have to convert them to civil service.

One converted last year, this year, three are converting because they reached that five year mark.

That's uh that's maybe a bigger question is how do we address some of those added costs?

Because forward, we're essentially like we're doubling the cost here.

What I'm hearing is we have the exact same people working doing the exact same thing, but we've now we're now paying twice as much.

Um I don't know, Miss Bucklin, is there like some solution on that?

That sounds when I put it like that, that's a real bummer.

Well, um, if I could share, we haven't had that conversation about the three converting.

There are two that we've agreed to convert because they're converting to full time, which means um they have to have work during the whole year, not just that period of time.

So the three converting, we do have an option to go to part-time, and I think that um maybe our option that we would choose to go to part-time.

Um, and the two converting will help us because then we have permanent summer help as well.

And if we go to part-time, then these staff could still do um the hours that they currently do.

Yeah.

Okay.

Believe it or not, we have some people who don't want to be full time.

Sure.

No, I do believe it.

I it yeah, it just seems like not a you fault, but a problem of we're getting the exact same thing and it's costing us twice as much money.

The the delta between an employment agreement and full time is not twice, right?

It's not twice the cost.

But our cost is doubling.

Over two years.

Yeah, so the the movement of the type of employment.

Um, and then we we have added we've we've added some sites, right?

Well, we will be adding some sites, hopefully.

Okay, so that's also part of it.

Um, and let me share.

Are there any questions for Rodney Dillard, our chief of parks?

He has a funeral he has to get to.

Oh, I'm so sorry, Ronnie.

Yeah, I would have started because you're actually like I I got a lot of great thoughts on your work.

Um, first of all, thank you for all you do.

Thanks for how hard you guys work over in parks.

Uh I want to get you guys set money for additional maintenance people.

And so my question to you is do you have a recommendation for how we could do it?

So we did.

Um, we did talk about it.

And it what we do have is three um part-time staff.

And what we was gonna do is use the money that we um paying the part-time staff to add to that.

So that's why we came up with 34,000.

So in the 34,000, I think is the benefits from from that.

Am I correct, Cooper?

And so it's just the benefits that those new guys are gonna get.

Believe it or not, it's a is the um investment, it's a good investment for the city to turn those guys over because we have we have bad turnover with part-time staff, and then not dimension.

We lose them sometime at the end of November all the way up into March.

And so what we when we faced with the storms that we was faced with this year, we wouldn't have had the part-time staff if we didn't we didn't hire one of the um part-time staff to let the two roll over through the winter time, and we had to use that strategy just to have more boots on the ground.

And luckily we did that because it was beneficial because this storm was a different storm, and you know, the city was faced with a lot of challenges during that time.

And with those boots on the ground, it proved us right that we do need two full-time staffs, 34,000.

Yeah, and you have is uh is a great investment for the city, and I think that um I think that's something that we should say, okay, let's let's get this done.

And I think that um I think that's something that we should say, okay, let's let's get this done.

So I oh you look like that.

And it's difficult to let someone um go for four months and then have them come back.

So you're losing all the training and the investment that you've made in them and then hope that they you know find something due for four months and then come back.

Right before Christmas.

And and usually we wind up sometimes we wind up with some dedicated people, but usually once we make that uh that layoff in November, we have the rehire all over again.

And rehai and all over again, what it does is it sets us back in the spring months to be able to do everything that we need to do during the spring.

We might we might get some um some new people in, probably like in uh May or June, but you know that that puts a lot of strain on the uh full-time people.

Yeah, so if I walk down the street and asked one of my constituents, they would totally tell me we should put more money into keeping the parks maintained.

And the the converse that I hear from folks a lot is why do we have so many people monitoring the front desk at Pit Moyer?

And so my first thought off the top of my head is Director Johnson, could we say we're gonna have one fewer person monitoring the front desk at Pit Moyer and use that to pay for this additional uh park staffing?

So it doesn't work like that because it's part-time staff funding that we're pulling from.

Um but I will say that we don't have too many people at the front desk because when people come in, um they don't like to wait a long time.

So if we have two people and two people are signing up, then the line gets long, and they have to make sure that everyone signs in, which is why we have that kind of quick pass desk over to the to the left when you come in, and that's where you just scan and go, scan and go.

But a lot of times I'll hear beep, and that means you have to go over here and you have to register.

So we have summer camp registrations, we have people who want to rent the facility, we have all those things going on.

So when someone comes in, all three people might not be dealing with someone, but there are times when we have lines out the door of five people, six people.

So um, I would say that we are not overstaffed um at the front desk.

Oh, and the calls, because they have calls and people will call the front desk like a switchboard and say, hey, can you do this?

Or they'll say, Hey, uh, my water is not running or you know, whatever, and my our team will have to forward them wherever in the city.

We are running out of time.

I think we're gonna have some questions we'll send you guys for follow-up.

Uh the bottom line to me on that is let's come up with if we need additional parks maintenance staff, and I really do think we do, where else could we uh look to get that funding from?

Maybe it's from somewhere else in the budget, but you guys are wrecking parks, so I'm asking you where within Wreck and Parks uh can we have that?

Last question I've got for you, and I apologize to all of my colleagues who haven't gotten to ask any is the security guard.

We have 28,000 for security guards.

Now I have a bit of a bug be in my bond.

I'm sorry, Mr.

Dillard, thank you very much.

I'm sorry about your loss.

Um security guard.

I got kind of a be in my bonnet about this in terms of how we've done it in City Hall.

I think it's made us a lot less welcoming.

But could you describe to me why you feel like that uh funding is important, where it goes, why we need it.

So security guard is at one location, and that's at the Truxton Park Pool during their peak times and their um high times, and the security guard is definitely needed.

Um, one, they have their outdoors and they carry a lot of well, they're outdoors, and so it's good for them to have a security guard there.

Um, but there are also a lot of patrons and participants.

The other part I could tell you about offline because it's probably not good for me to say that out loud.

So okay, yeah, that'd be great.

I'm just uh like I said, I think too often we we worry about oh my god, there's something horrible going to happen.

Let's spend a bunch of money on a security guard, and nothing horrible is actually going to happen, and all it happens is the people who walk in, the first thing they see is a guy with a gun, and that's not very welcoming.

All right.

Uh yeah, sorry, I'm laying.

I'm talking about city city hall, but yes.

And they're there, and you don't see them.

Um, you have to go through the gates and you know, to the left.

I'm sorry, to the right.

But um, they're not the first thing you see at all.

Thank you.

All right, we're at time.

Um, we I'm gonna work with Ms.

Jackson to put together a spreadsheet of remaining questions.

We heard some follow-ups.

I appreciate you guys very much being here.

And um on the, you know, I asked you kind of a big follow-up on the presentation if you'd like to come back and you know, talk about that for that follow-up.

Totally go with us.

Just we can when we send it out to you, just let Ms.

Jackson know whether you want to come back and talk or you just want to send it to us written.

Any last things for the good of the order?

No.

All right, thanks guys so much for being here.

Hey Carmo SAFT and then the fee step the the um city supported um let's put a pin in that uh auto woman o'Neal we've got a couple supplemental appropriations that the city had asked I know you have a hard deadline are you okay with me and Alderman Thorpe handling them or do you want to stick around or we can push it to another day would it be possible to push it to tomorrow sure that's fine with me is you you made a face is it fine to push with it tomorrow so much you don't even know what we're talking about that's fine.

We're gonna push them with it tomorrow.

Yeah that was mine.

All right with that uh can we get a motion to adjourn okay thank you so much uh motion to adjourn all those in favor please say aye aye aye thank you questions