The time is six ten.

I'm welcome everybody to unify Aston's Clark County special call session.

It's Thursday, June fourth.

The time is six ten.

This particular time I'd like for the clerk or commission to do roll call.

We have a core.

Thank you, madam court.

The purpose of the meeting will be to conduct cover here number three on the proposed FY Twenty Some budget as required by a taxpayer bill of rights passed by the Georgia General Summit in nineteen ninety nine.

The FY Mail recommended budget can be reviewed on the Ascart County website.

A budget summary section is available as part of overall budget document.

So at this particular time, if we have any comments from the public, please come up to the poly.

Hello, my name is Patrick Howard.

I'm a neighborhood leader with Family Connections, Communities, and Schools.

I serve the follower zone.

I'm located off of Millich Avenue.

And today we'll like to uh have a conversation about the budget.

Me as a neighborhood leader, I really love what I do, and as I was thinking about what I was going to say today when I volunteered to stand before you, I thought about all the stories that had already been shared about my co-workers, by the residents, some of the residents that we served, and what it took me back to is my own story, my 49-year-old story.

And I thought about just my life, and I was looking through those pages, and as I was looking through those pages, I saw romance, I saw love, I saw action, adventure, drama, horror, and uh, and I saw some comedy, and I was thinking about just how the fact that my life is still unfolding, and I'm in a good place in my life, and I was looking at the factors that put me in this place, and one of the main factors was the fact that I had a support system.

I had a support system when it came to my family, I had a support system when it came to my faith-based community.

I have a support system when it comes to my close friends and relatives, but then I also thought about the people that we serve, and I feel like most of them don't have that, and that's why our program is essential.

We are that extension of the family member with extension when it comes to support, with extension when it comes to resources and services.

Uh, we're in so many ways viewed as that walking Google.

Uh, you know, you can go on Google and find anything, but you can get lost in that too.

So it's great to be able to have someone that can help you navigate that information, and so one of the great parts about our job is that we're able to help those people navigate that information.

But the other piece too is that just like we're support system, you all are support system for us too because without your money, we can't do the work.

So all I'm saying is that if you will continue to support us, we can continue to support the community, and the community continue to move forward.

Uh, we've shared all kind of data over the times that we stayed at the podium, and we know and you know uh that if we help people now, which is preventative, then it'll save the city money later.

And so I'm just asking that you all consider that.

Continue to offer us support, but I also want to tell you that I thank you for the support that you already offered us, and that's all I have to say.

Also, my resident was supposed to be here, but life happens, which is a prime example of who we're working with, and so I didn't want to pressure them or make them feel bad about not being able to be here, uh, but they couldn't be here because something came up very important that they're dealing with, and tomorrow I'll have to jump in and help them out with that too.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Howard.

Good evening.

My name is Alice Kenman, and I live at 457 Sunset Drive.

I'm here tonight as the board vice president of family connection communities and schools of Athens, and I'd like to comment on the proposed funding for the neighborhood leaders program in the FY 2027 budget.

You've heard a lot of stories over the course of these hearings from neighborhood leaders and the residents they serve.

These stories are essential because they humanize the data that uh that around the need for these services.

The data are important, that's why we collect it and you ask us to collect it, but they can overwhelm us.

You've been told, for example, that neighborhood leaders field around 385 unique phone calls, emails, and texts every single day, and that the need for services is actually increasing in the current economy.

This can feel like water rushing over a dam going faster and faster, and there's no way to slow it down.

But when we hear from the actual people, we're able to reimagine that metaphor.

Now those 385 calls, texts, and emails aren't some catastrophic force, but voices of fellow humans who live and work and raise their children among us.

We realize that they aren't just bundles of need, they are our neighbors who contribute to the fabric of our community.

They're workers, they pay bills, they feed and nurture their families.

They are not even they, they are us.

When I joined the board of Family Connection Communities and Schools, I was a recently retired Athens Clark County Commissioner.

At the time, the neighborhood leaders program was brand new, but I could see it had potential to play a crucial role in our community.

I know I don't have to explain this to uh to you all, uh, but I learned a lot about the power of uh local action when I was on the commission.

Uh, I'm probably describing your own lives to you right there.

Um, I learned that we have powers at the local level that governments don't have at higher levels, um, specifically the power to see each other and to extend extend a helping hand.

It's only at the hyper-local level, at the neighborhood level, that we can physically see a neighbor who's teetering on the brink of catastrophe.

And it's from a neighbor that that person is most likely to accept help in averting that crisis.

Since I've been with family connection communities and schools, the neighborhood leaders program in partnership with this government has evolved from a band of caring neighbors into a trained network of resource brokers who have open door access to the communities they serve.

And while they certainly do connect residents to resources, they also do something equally, if not even more important.

They connect strategizers and decision makers like the people in this room to real-world data about what our neighbors need first to survive and then to thrive.

While I understand and accept the significant budget pressures you are all operating under, I hope you will decide to continue the partnership between Athens Clark County government and the neighborhood leaders.

This partnership provides a unique local safety net that protects all our residents.

It improves quality of life, promotes public safety, and protects neighborhoods.

I strongly believe it's a wise investment in our future.

Thank you for your time and your service.

Thank you, Ms.

Gibbs.

So this is the resident I was just talking about.

State your name and your address, please.

My name is Danielle Shields, and my address is 2360 West Broad Street.

And I just want to start by saying good evening to the mayor and the commissioners.

My name is Danielle Shields, and I'm here tonight as a mother and as a member of the community.

And as someone whose family has been directly helped by family connections and schools through Mr.

Patrick and the advocates that whom he works with.

I just want to speak from the heart for just a moment about what this about what this program has done for me.

As a single mother, I deal with life and life just happens, you know.

But between with family connections and schools, what they helped me with is they've helped us with food when we didn't have any.

They've helped us with resources when I didn't know where to go, and they were just really just a listening ear when I needed somebody, you know, to talk to without being without feeling like I was judged.

Um my daughter also goes to Clark County Schools, and she also has a uh community leader in her school, and she loves them.

That's like her favorite person.

She's like, mom, we went to the uh I went to go see the other day, and he gave me all kinds of treats and stuff like that.

So I just wanted to speak for just a moment to let you know that I think that this program is definitely vital um to continue because for me personally, I don't know what I would do sometimes with it if I didn't have somebody to talk to or somebody to ask for help, or I know we've been in some pretty tough situations, but it seems like Mr.

Patrick always goes through, and if he can't go through, he'll find somebody who can.

So I do um just want to take a moment to say thank you to Mr.

Patrick and to the advocates um for all the help that you've given me and my daughter.

I am nervous, so I do apologize.

But other than that, I think that's it.

I think that y'all should just keep supporting this program because it does make a difference in the community and in our lives.

Thank you, Miss Shields.

Thank you.

My name is uh Keegan Brooks at 291 South Finley Street.

Um, here to talk about the budget.

Specifically, I wanted to come to kind of thank the commission and ACC government for continuing to implement fair free fare-free transit with the Athens County Transit System.

Um, it's something that has benefited me a lot.

It's how I get to work, it's how I get to school, it's how I get groceries, and it's also something, my experience kind of talking to members of all walks of life across Athens, how it's benefited them, um, residents who don't have a car, have an unreliable transit.

I talk to a lot of underpaid workers at UGA working in janitorial or custodian or dining positions who rely on Athens buses to get to work.

Um, and it's something that I've seen kind of benefit people across the community, whether that's my friends or family, or people I meet just once off on the bus or see every day, and I think it's been enormously beneficial.

I've had the privilege of, or the not so much privilege of experiencing transit systems in some other cities that I think suck a lot worse.

And I'm really glad that we have this fair free transit in Athens, and I think it's a very worthwhile investment of our local government.

And since I have some some time on the clock, I also want to bring up something I believe, not directly in the budget, but I believe at the next commission meeting a proposal to have a floss put on the ballot for November will be voted on, um, which will create a small decrease in property taxes and the creation of an additional one percent sales tax.

Um I would call I think this is an idea that sounds really great, lowering property taxes and helping lift that burden of the cost of living of homeowners.

But I would caution commissioners to look into some more of the details of how these floss when they're implemented actually impact Georgia's working families.

Sales taxes are inherently regressive, and a 1% tax on kind of sales tax disproportionately affects lower income families and households that spend a higher percentage of their total income on kind of these essential goods and services, groceries, et cetera, that the sales tax is on.

And additionally, um renters don't receive the benefit of this.

Um there's the argument that implementing this kind of sales this property tax decrease will help lower rents because landlords will be incentivized to lower rents just because their property taxes go down.

Um but I think that's a little bit of a fallacy that has not happened in a lot of communities where these are uh where this has been implemented, and it sort of makes sense as a landlord, like you know, why it is no reason for landlords to lower those rents just because their property taxes go down.

And in a city where 59% of our housing units are renters, I think that's something super important we need to consider when implementing things like this floss and deciding whether or not to put on the ballot in November.

Um thank you to the commission.

Thank you, Mr.

Brooks.

You know, the members of the public would like to come speak about the budget.

Good evening.

My name is Leslie Siniard.

I live at 710 Millage Circle, and um just want to address the budget as it um affects property taxes.

It's all rolled there together.

So all these things that we spend more and more and more and more money on are what's driving the we're driving the property taxes up.

And so I'm I forgot my sheet of paper, I've left it back out there, so I'll have to go from from memory.

But um I appreciate all you do.

I appreciate so many of the things that my tax money goes to.

Um fabulous, there's ball fields, there's libraries, there's events, there's so many good things that it goes to.

But then it's there's also so many frivolous things.

And so I wonder sometimes do we do you ever say no?

Because I know that because of the good things.

There's good good bus systems, you just heard that.

Do we ever say no in the name of we need to free some property taxes for people?

It's gonna hurt this community in the long run if we don't start getting control.

Um, the county has more money than they have ever had that they've ever had.

I mean, you've got we've we've raised water sewer over the years.

We pay more for water than any pretty much any county, I think, in northeast Georgia.

We now have a tax in the form of a of the um the sewer charge, the extra sewer charge.

So we have that.

And I'm not sure where it's going because we have a mess of a sewer system, to the point where now we're partnering with private companies to build supposedly more affordable housing because they say, Well, we'll um we'll help you with your sewer system.

And we know that that's been a little messy too, right?

So we have that.

We have um a SPLOST that's general for the county.

We have a SPLAS that's for education.

Not sure where all that's going, because they're asking for another four percent, right?

We have a SPLOSS for transportation that is now going to repair roads.

Where did my tax money go?

I thought my tax money was supposed to repair roads.

Now that's what that's going for.

Yes, some things for firefly trail, greenways, things like that, those are other great things.

We also you also have so much more money because of the crazy increase in home values.

Some of that's just the market.

But guess who benefits?

Our county, because when those values go up, you get more tax money.

So there is so much money.

There are grants, there's federal grants for all the things that we do for underserved.

So much money, and I can't figure out where it's all going.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Thing.

Any other comments from the public?

Okay, if not, we would take comments from uh my colleagues.

I'm gonna step down, I'll pull the um screen down and um see if we got any comments or any talking points that we need to talk about before we adjourn.

And when the screen comes down, what they're gonna what's gonna be portrayed is the uh the spreadsheet that Sarah has been sharing with um with you all and stuff that is captured hopefully what it is that you all have said that you would want to see going forward as an amendment to the mayor's proposed budget.

So the the items that you have on the screen are those items that and we've shared these with you.

They're in the facts and issues, they're what has been put out publicly as well, and they're the ones that based off of the previous um discussions you all have had, there appeared to be um either consensus around or there was a need that had been identified for um for that, most of which came about through the rebalancing, if you will, of the tax digested once it once we got the real numbers in, it gave us some some dollars that we could apply to other um other purposes that you were interested in.

So that's what these are or either comments um for my colleagues about what we um taking a look at right now.

Curious, did um did the manager's office reach out to the public defenders, John Donnelly and um wondering if they were they thought they could use that.

Yes, they can.

And I think the dollar mounts they felt comfortable with as well.

So the two things we wanted to check was make sure that if provided those funds for investigators, they would they would benefit from that, and then also making sure that the dollar mounts were accurate, and both of those have been have been the case.

Tim, can you scroll down just a little bit because I think it there were a couple of one time?

Is that it?

Um was there anything else below that?

Yeah, yeah, the fuel.

That was that was the other piece that we talked about the last time was the that we get a um, I know we talked about that in the last meeting.

Did we get sort of the idea what that fuel cost may look like?

That is kind of our best guess at this point.

It really is gonna be largely based on how long does the elevator price last and or does it go up any any higher?

Um there's a yeah with four hundred thousand dollars more in there that that could be enough, or it could end up being we'd have to come back and ask for um further adjustments.

We feel comfortable that that's at least gonna increase it enough that we have a reason to believe that that'll carry us um some distance uh with it, but again, a lot of it depends on how long it lasts.

And just for the public um knowledge, we do um get our fuel discounted rates.

We don't pay what other people pay, so I just want the public and now we do get our fuel discount discounted rate.

It'd be nice if it was discounted more.

Other thoughts, comments.

Do you um scroll down?

Um with the concern of the additional full fuel costs.

Yeah, that's right.

They're right below 20.

Yeah, right there.

But below it said two hundred thousand.

Scroll down.

If you scroll down, there was another right there.

Yeah, that one hundred thousand for the general fund, the other two hundred thousand is for other funds.

Okay, okay.

That's okay.

Yeah, so uh what you're seeing here, and the reason why you see it in two different places is that 400,000 is what we're anticipating to be allocated to the general fund for fuel costs.

We of course have other departments that don't have their funding in the general fund.

So you have 200,000 that'll be for other funds.

In total, you're looking at 600,000.

That's why it's in two separate places.

Thank you.

Okay.

So if you describe that the 1,026 total expenditure changes, is that uh where is that coming from fund balance or no?

That is so the 1.6 million dollars that was additional the additional from the tax digest, and so what that has uh allowed us to do is to add a few of the items that you all were interested in and still have about 500,000 roughly that will go into the fund balance associated with it, because I don't believe, you know, we had we had proposed and then the mayor further proposed some reductions in the budget, which all set, but there were no other reductions in the budget that you all proposed.

So this is really just an allocation of that 1.6.

And Bob, what would that put us for the my fund balance balance processed?

Yes, we'll have our budget folks in the room to try to pull that up.

We had that number, so let me see.

I don't know if I have it on my notes.

Because it puts us, I know percentage-wise, it pushes it like seventeen, eighteen percent.

Um, you know, and I had said that it would be ideal the closer we can get to that 20% going into any borrowing that we would anticipate, the better, but the actual dollar amount.

So the available fund balance is somewhere between uh 13 and 14 million, and so we if we make this adjustment adjustment, we'll be using about seven and a half million.

Okay, thank you.

No, I I think it's great.

I think it's good.

And just for the you know, for those historical sake, I mean the fund balance here, the most of this is coming at the recommendation of the recommendation of the manager's office.

Um, and and so I think we did a really good job during our meetings to talk about things, listen to some of the offices and especially in the courts and address the the issues there.

So I feel really good about this.

Yes, Commissioner Lake.

Yeah, um, I'd like to know where in the budget are the parking revenues, um, um, yeah, because I am interested in in taking a look at that to supplement the CEP fund, um, and see if we can increase that fifty thousand, you know, maybe get it up to seventy-five.

Um, and I'd like to take a look at the parking revenues to find that money.

You got that okay, you know.

Yeah, I have the other available.

Yeah, we so what Andrew was just mentioning is of course those revenues come into the general fund, and then there's an agreement as to a return of a portion of that that goes back to ADDA for their operations.

Um, if we don't have the exact dollar amount of those, no, they're all accounted for.

I mean, everything, so it would require a reduction in another category in order to allocate those to another purpose because they are accounted for elsewhere in the budget with it.

I mean, I know in the past we've gotten kind of creative with those parking revenues to fund things that kind of come up at the last minute, and it seems appropriate to fund you know community events with those revenues.

Commissioner Wright, um, yeah, I I think some of that too, um, Melissa might have happened before some of the reproportionate a part, some of that stuff with the improvements for college square.

Wasn't that done, Mike?

And in with the parking, so there's not as much from another time where we're increasing.

So it's been committed.

And for me, I'm not gonna pick apart the increase that has happened, but for the community events program, but it it started with 250,000, and now it's up to 300,000.

We have neighborhood leaders here uh wanting their funding restored, and I think that of long-term improvement for our community events programs, and the current way that it's done, it can only be downtown special events, and we have a whole community that deserves the attention that special event funding and locations can be.

For me, a long-term um approach that this little pie chart could help with is the visit Athens that gets hotel motel.

If we could move community events funding under them, move visit Athens or convention visitors bureau out of the classic center, then they would be able to appropriate to special events that are throughout the community and not just downtown at the ADDA.

So that's like a long-term thing that we can look at.

It's not something we're gonna solve here, but um, I I get it, but they are getting a lot of money for only downtown events, and that's my district.

I'm I'm kind of embarrassed that we're not able to be supporting more of the uh events in other areas of the community, but it's a pretty big chunk, and with the new ways of the festival zones, there is money to be made with those bracelets, as we saw with Jamper Cam.

So I think that there's also some upgrades that the events, the ones that have the beer festival areas um can make the money that um that they're seeking, but I I'm I'm not interested in us changing out of what's already been discussed by you guys with the 300 um from hotel motel into I think we we did mention also um because there's been a couple of items related to that piece.

There, there are several items that through your discussions have come up that we've said we need to talk about kind of between this budget and the next budget, and I think the you know that there's been several discussions of ways in which ADDA and others could generate additional revenue for events.

There's been discussion of the CVB component.

Uh the mayor has talked about you know that we have a one cent less uh hotel motel tax than what could be possible.

So those conversations are perfect conversations kind of in between the budgets also.

So I don't want anybody to think that because we arrive at a budget related to that here that it's done because there needs to be subsequent conversations relative to that between the two budgets.

So I just want to make sure that was out there, and they're not alone.

And I do have a page reference for you.

So uh Commissioner Leak, you asked where it is in the budget.

So in the mayor's recommended budget, you can find the downtown parking fee revenues denoted on page 24 of your PDF or on page B11 of your packet.

So we are anticipating to generate 4.8 million dollars in park downtown parking B revenues in FY27, and of that, as already noted, 40% of the net revenue does go back to ADDA per contract, and of that 4.8, we are using a lot of that for the operations of the Washington Street parking deck, college avenue parking deck, on-street metered parking spaces and parking lots.

Sure.

And Bob, I'd like to add this to that list of things to talk about in between this budget and the next budget.

And that isn't uh Commissioner Ling brought up the parking.

And I know, you know, I know the system that the uh downtown development authority uses in order to enforce the parking, but I'm not real sure about what happens outside of downtown that perhaps the police officers uh write a write a parking citation for for being on a yellow curb or or uh parking in a um neighborhood um uh residential residential streets.

So I think I think once we look into that, there may be quite a bit of fines that are still outstanding that uh couldn't could need enforcement for one because it's on the books to enforce them, but also you know, yeah, because the funds would go into the general fund, obviously.

But I think here your part of your question is what is our collection rate?

I guess is what I was saying.

Well, I I guess I get in the past they gave us uh not only collection rate but the total amount of outstanding fines that have not been paid.

And that's kind of what I mean, like how much of the fines have actually been collected.

Right, because if we're not if we're not following up with it, then people are still going to continue to to uh park on the yellow curb and all sorts of things that Commissioner Myers.

Yeah, I'd like to you know emphasize on that list and and manager cowell mentioned this the hotel motel tax.

Um I think I feel um that's a that's clearly a tax that would be on people coming to Athens, not on people's grocery uh bills as um is the case with our our possible flossed tax.

So the hotel motel tax in terms of the process, and I think you have to get the state representatives involved in that and such.

Um, you know, and hopefully this fall we can late fall we can actually have a formal meeting with our state representatives again on this and see if they could help us with this and other issues.

Commissioner Link.

Yeah, um I would like to explore um increasing parking revenues for the long-term parking in the decks.

In the past, we've increased it for on-street parking.

But um, from what I have I understand is are we charging $80 a month for a permanent spot, Mike?

You no, it's not that much.

Um, and I would say I would say this, Commissioner Link of the downtown development authority is in the process of changing over how we how we uh operate uh the parking and generate the parking revenues, and our our thinking is let's let's see how that rolls out as far as the um paying with the app and whatnot before before we can take on.

I mean, this may not happen for this budget, but those are untapped revenues there, and from what I understand, a lot of our parking decks, which we spend a lot of money on are basically serving as car storage facilities for students who be home.

That's not that's not totally accurate.

I mean, there are plenty of people who park downtown who work downtown.

And I would love to see a discounted rate for cars that are registered in Clark County.

Because I've asked that question before too, Commissioner Link, because I know it's come up a lot.

I think all in total of our parking spaces in our decks.

Oh goodness, there's maybe 800 spaces to that effect, maybe not quite that many, but uh roughly around a hundred to a hundred and fifty or are uh exactly what you described, but but they're um, but they're rented by places where there is no available parking.

So we don't, yeah, we don't uh we we typically avoid doing that.

So and we do have in the proposed fee schedule there are some adjustments upward on um some of the parking fees in particular for events because definitely one of the things we've noted is that the event parking in our garages is significantly lower than what everybody else is paying around, so there is a proposal adjustment associated with that.

Yeah, I mean I I do believe we should, and I this is, I guess, would be directed through the ADDA.

Like we really need to look at that long-term parking.

And to Bob's point, we are looking at the ADDA on on like game days, for example, you know, to pay to for for folks that are parking in the bank to pay more, but also it uh to on those heavy days to do that.

And I will say about events, and you know this, Commissioner Lincoln, and Commissioner Wright does as well from serving for quite a while, that um we started um with CP a few years ago, maybe three or four years ago, is that sixty thousand dollars, and and we have increased it to fifty.

But not only that, if you remember, we uh we did um we did waive uh remember we used to charge like um like um um twilight and any other event if we had to close a street they would have to pay for whatever parking revenues were lost out of that.

So um so now we absorb those costs.

And uh I know in Twilight we absorb the cost for for a I think it was college avenue deck that wasn't able to utilize so there are ways that we try to work with them to save them money uh that uh that could um could do it.

It's not it's not coming back to us.

The insurance is another example of something we worked on with them to uh to try to try to help them with that.

So but to your point, I I think we could find ways during the next year to help help out even more.

I mean, I also want to initiate a discussion about the neighborhood leaders and and you know seeing to it that we can assure that that program is fully funded.

Um, you know, the economy is in dire straits.

I mean, there are three families on my block in Boulevard that have seen job losses due to developments in AI and the economy.

Um a wave is about to crash, and we are gonna see families that are in dire straits that we wouldn't typically have expected.

Um, you know, and and these folks have their hands full as it is, um, you know, to cut that funding.

Um there are people who have never ever had to ask for anything who are gonna need those resources and are gonna need that assistance on where to turn.

Um I mean, that I see what's coming, and to cut to have any cuts to that program at this time, um, you know, I feel like it's really unethical.

I guess Commissioner, just a general question.

Um with the budget.

Um I may have missed this, but um, when it comes to we use Microsoft, right?

Um, we get a license to for all of our computers.

Can that be shared with the sheriff's department?

Or why do they?

I think all of our IT platforms are all managed across the entire enterprise.

Now there are also specialty softwares that some of the individual departments have.

I'm certain that the sheriff has some of those that will carry their own license, but in terms of things like Microsoft and stuff, we would carry those across the entire enterprise.

So, yes.

And that also includes the ones that are enterprise operations are paying for those, not out of the general fund, but out of those enterprise funds to try to so the impact isn't all born by the general fund as well.

Didn't um Chef John Q say that he was running Windows 95 or something?

That's his so he has his operating system on his jail on his jail technology, so it isn't actually on the general computers they have with it.

It's because frankly, it's because the jail technology is as old as it is, which is why you've got in the proposed budget, the mayor has, and you all have talked a little bit about um there's a fairly decent expenditure going toward modernization of those of that technology.

I think I had mentioned it's probably at least two years of funding similar to that to be able to completely turn that over, but but yeah, that's part of his challenge is that the technology he has is so old it can't run on the newer versions of the software.

Okay.

One thing I had proposed, we kind of said this publicly, since you just made me think about it all.

Uh, enterprise fund.

Could you all just go down and just if it's up here, I'm not sure if it's available just the enterprise funds that we use for all different departments.

We could talk about that a little bit for the public.

Um how little dollars are spent if possible.

Which one?

Which one?

I don't think there's any real changes proposed that wouldn't be on this spreadsheet.

Yeah, the only that's probably the the largest change of any of the enterprises is obviously with the projects that are included in the service delivery plan.

Um so all the infrastructure improvements for water and sewer, there is the continuation of a proposed year-over-year three percent increase in those in those rates in order to be able to actually fulfill those capital obligations.

Um but we certainly, you know, the budget has it, we can certainly provide references to the pages associated with, you know, we have a few of those, landfill operates as an enterprise, water, wastewater airport.

Um, so there's a handful of those.

There's a few service charges that are going up in the airport.

I think also for like hangar fees, those kinds of things.

Um really the expenditures.

Uh there's no um, there are no, I'll use water wastewater, for example, no increases in personnel associated with it because the positions they requested, we were able to adapt from existing vacant positions.

So really their rate increase is almost exclusively driven by the capital programs that are going in place.

Um, and I and I do think because of this come up for it, I do think it would be beneficial to have a work session where we focus just on discussion of the enterprises.

Um we may not do it all at one time, but I do think there's always the public always has a bit of confusion about how we have some of these operations that we operate as a business, and so we actually extract dollars from it to help supplement some of the general fund costs, but but generally don't go the other direction.

So water and wastewater is operated and paid for by our utility bills, and similarly the landfill is operated and paid for by people coming and depositing things at the landfill, and the airport, of course, by users of the airport and so on.

So, I do think there'd be benefit of having that as a work session to dig a bit deeper into those budgets so that folks understand that a lot better.

So I come to one minute, Commissioner Thor.

So if I mean if possible, and I know we got one more of these here, we're just to bring I guess just to show the public, I don't want to get into the rules.

But you have to show the public.

Yeah, Commissioner.

I don't know if that's the easier, but I know that we have asked this question about the enterprise fund forever in a day.

I don't know if just like we're looking at this sheet right now, all we would like to see is the enterprise what it is, what enterprise it is and how much it is.

I don't think that the viewing public wants to go through the mayor's budget and try to find it.

And I know that's not what I want.

It just seems like it's elementary third grade to put in a which what enterprise it is, and how much money is in there, and if this was not the first time this question was asked, I probably wouldn't feel a little bit like chase and can we just get it like that?

Can we just break it out?

Sure, just break it out and put um uh pu uh public utilities, and what that dollar amount is.

I mean it's I mean, just can we just do it just yeah, it's four pages in the budget.

So, I'm just saying list the things and just put the amount, yeah.

Yeah, and what we would do is show you the one page in the budget that does just that because that it shows just that.

Well, just do all the enterprises on one.

I think I think probably for the public what would help is because it's very easy to find in the budget.

What's difficult I think is for the public to know which of the departments, if you will, operate as enterprises.

So I think what we would do is extract out of the budget those pages just for the enterprises.

Then we would show up.

And you would list them, yeah, and then we would see that dollar amount, and it'd be a lot clearer.

So the five enterprise funds are listed on E4, just the budget, the recommendation, the change amount, and then you would look up each one of those and get their page.

Correct.

So the airport fund is on E30, it's page 287 of your PDF.

You have the landfill fund, which is operated by our solid waste department on page 288 of your PDF.

It is page, as I scroll down, E31 of your paper copy.

So water and sewer fund, which is operated by our public utilities department, is on page E32 or 289 of your PDF.

Um, the solid waste fund, which is uh also operated by our solid waste department.

That is on page two ninety-one of your PDF, or if you're on the paper version, E34.

And then lastly, we have our stormwater fund, which is uh maintained by our transportation and public works department.

That is found on E35 or on page 292 of your PDF.

Bingo.

But I think you make a great point, Commissioner Thornton.

We can break that out, yeah.

Very great, and it's probably not even a pretense right now.

And I think the public uh probably don't think much about the enterprise funds, I think for again, and that's one of the things I mentioned though when we first started talking about it.

Snippet of what the enterprise would like.

So we need to ask that question sometimes.

Yeah, and just so you all know.

If if, for example, there were major changes proposed to any of those enterprises, we would have a completely different discussion.

The enterprises this year really are effectively following through with just very routine changes.

So I don't want anybody that get the assumption that the budget goes through without discussion of enterprise.

If there were big changes in enterprise, they would show up.

But yeah, it's really easy to pull those individual pages out and show those.

Thank you.

That's Commissioner Taylor.

Is the neighborhood leaders in the budget at all?

Yes.

Okay, so I'm sorry.

So the funding, the funding previously was 1.1 million dollars that went to neighborhood services, and the mayor's budget proposes reducing that to 722,000.

So there is there is 722,661 dollars going to neighborhood leaders.

What page is it?

Oh I don't know, I just wrote that in my notes here.

It's in the it's in the housing community development budget.

So it's in H and D.

Okay, so C52.

If you are looking at your paper version 89, if you are in your PDF.

Thank you.

And just for clarification, that is that was done this year.

So in the previous budgets, if you go look for where's the neighborhood leader budget, it isn't you can't see it because it was actually just buried in the overall HCD budget.

We extracted that out knowing because there's changes, we wanted to make sure that everybody understood what the dollar amount is that's in the funded program.

Now ultimately what what they do in terms of the number of employees and stuff will be up to them.

The indication is the number of employees funded from this source will be eight employees.

That was the indication I think is referenced in the budget as well.

But they weren't they're not our employees.

That's just the indication that they've given us.

I don't see this here.

Any other comments from my colleagues?

Okay, so what we will, as we mentioned at the last meeting, then what you will see is the agenda report will include the options of um approving the recommended budget with the changes that we've discussed.

None of that precludes you all from introducing at the meeting additional adjustments.

We that's just where we'll start because these are the ones we have consensus around.

We will include, we'll continue to add to the list that you've all had before in case any other questions come up, and we will include in the presentation of the budget the discussion of the pages of the enterprise funds so that you see those as well so that folks know.

Um, that's extract the enterprise funds.

What what did you say?

Pulling those out of the presentation.

So there won't be a lot of budget presentations since we've been through those, but since you want to extract those, we'll extract those out so you can see those.

The question I have for some of the things that were not originally included in the budget, and you're tweaking it and working it.

Um, are you trying to find ways to fund some of those things?

And the one that I think that uh Commissioner Taylor were talking about, like the uh investigator for public.

Yes, yes.

So that's in the amended.

So it is already covered in the proposed budget.

Okay, so yes, yeah, those dollars have been identified.

Everything I should have said that everything that's on this list has already had funding identified for it.

I'm good.

So yes, and that's why we we was calling this an amendment um budget instead of a um doing a little CDO, so that's why we're just commissioned.

Because we all worked on it together.

Right.

Versus two teams, three teams.

One team.

Just so I can clarify something.

So we generated an extra 1.6 million dollars in the funds.

And so it's about $500 something thousand dollars left over.

Um and I'm uh I'd like to just throw something out there in regards to y'all thought I was y'all thought I was dead.

So it just throw something out there as a way to maybe be a bridge to uh to next year um in with in regards to the neighborhood leaders.

Um would it be possible for this body to consider uh you know funding them at the same level they were last year using that using that uh 500,000 with the understanding that this has to be a one-time expense so that so not not this year, but next year is when when we have to kind of examine how we're uh how how you're serving uh delivering your service if that makes that makes that that helps.

I'm I'm trying to try to help with the transition uh for another year or something.

And I think that equates to 380,000 dollars.

380,000 dollars.

Can we is that something y'all would consider or not?

Well, I uh I think that that we need to commit to talking to the school district in earnest.

I agree.

Um I think that that uh we've we've talked about that several times and several cycles, and I think the new teamwork, the new team that we have here with the new manager and the new um operations that that um that that would need to be a commitment to to get the school district to join in.

I agree, I agree, but I'm looking at you know, and that would be I mean, for for next year's stuff.

I guess I'm just looking at a bridge for for this year with the neighborhood leaders program, understanding that uh that that we have to we we with the way our budgets are these days, we have to look at a different way where we funded not only them but some other really great partner organizations that we have that do a lot of good for this community, and we also need to have that conversation with the school board because I was thinking of the same thing, Commissioner Wright, that that this certainly helps uh helps a lot of uh kids that are going to our school system to we already have a partnership with the uh youth development um and after-school programs too.

So we can start talking about the mayor's and I'm not suggesting that you change this, the mayor's proposed budget reallocated the $380,000 that was removed from the neighborhood leaders.

So what and so when you mentioned the youth, the youth sports program, for example, there were a couple of programs that were slated to be unfunded because of ARPA dollars.

The mayor proposed taking that 380 savings and applying it to that piece.

So if I hear right, if ultimately it becomes a consensus here, what you're saying is keep those intact.

They were repurposed, but keep those intact one time restore the 380 effectively out of the fund balance piece that what we would be sending back to the fund balance, right?

And spend the next year really working with the with the school board on that youth development money and on helping us uh with the work that the neighborhood leaders do.

All right, are you adding that in there so we can see how that looks?

Um yeah, I mean I just want to point out that 380,000 dollar loss from the neighborhood leaders program is a 35% budget cut.

Right, we're trying to work on getting it back in.

Yeah, I mean, that's astronomical, and you know, I I really feel like it's just um it's really unethical to ask them to take that kind of cut all at once.

Yeah, I guess I the only the only comment I'd make, and I'm certainly not arguing against or forward.

The only comment I would make is that this program wouldn't originate it was a three year program.

Yeah, yeah.

It was to be phased out, and it it originated and I mean the world has changed a lot.

Yeah, um, but um, I mean, in addition to approaching the school board, I really think, I mean, being that communities and schools is a nonprofit.

I would hope that you know, some private entities could be approached and in other communities.

Often programs like this and you know, youth development programs get generous assistance from corporations and and other community partners, and um, you know, the school district, but you know, I really think we need to start asking some of the major employers in our community to start contributing to these needs.

Yeah, and I did I did want to mention also that there is and again this can be part of the conversation we have after the budget and kind of in between budgets, but there is a companion program similar to the neighborhood leaders piece that is done by the schools.

So this is a two-part program.

There's there's a staff, you heard somebody make reference to their neighborhood leader inside the schools, because there is a similar program that's actually funded by the state and funded by the schools that's alongside the neighborhood leaders.

This is our kind of local version for those three years to kind of get it stood up, and actually the intent as I understand it was to get it set up in those three years so that there could be those private dollars and those grant dollars secured to fund the program, that hasn't happened.

But if it's in here listed like you just did as a one-time allocation, because this is from sales tax, uh, revenue increase that is not going to be for sure.

Well, it's funds we it's funds that you could count on from year over year.

We were just putting it, we were proposing to put it into the fund balance, which would be generally not some place you would rely on year over year expenses.

Gotcha, which is why I think having it up here is a one-time funding portion.

Yeah, and the other advantage of having is one-time funding is that then come next year when the budget is put forward, you'd have a reference point to come back to and say it was clear that those dollars were put in as a one-time bridge from this year to the subsequent year, um, rather than it getting baked into the base budget and having to view it as a cut.

It wouldn't actually appear in the uh a good example of that is the um the food bank.

The the food bank was a one-time investment you made last year.

It is not in the budget because it wasn't in the base budget.

This one would be treated the same way that the base budget would still stay at that 722 661 380 would be added to it one time.

So next year's budget would show up at that 722 661 number up until the point anybody wanted to add to that.

So yes, that helps.

And it also speaks to the fact that this funding in this um listing is funding that came up when the budget was handed over to the commission too.

So it also speaks to how it wasn't available in your process or the mayor's, but you know, our process.

And speaking of school district, and again, I uh I like our partnership that we got, but I really would like for them to share more data with us on um on a youth development program.

We don't get much of that, and uh, you need to if we're gonna be partners and we'll you know, give them money, I'd like to see more from them for how they would those youth development programs like impact from an academic perspective from after team perspective.

I go to local pay, the place is back.

Yeah, okay.

I mean, it's a good thing about thank we at least I have seen anything from them.

I think that was some of the questions we could be asked.

Our neighborhood leaders, they come and present outcome input, you know.

We're cutting them, you know, and we give it a good school district again.

And I want to be good partners with school, but also I want to see how dolls that we're giving them impacted on those young people in those youth development programs.

That's a good idea.

So any other comments, motion to adjourn.

So move.

Um we'll adjourn.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Next Tuesday.