We have a few more

members uh of the council

here.

Uh

I'll go ahead and call the meeting to order uh and note that we do have a quorum of committee members uh from budget and finance committee.

Can I get approval of the minutes from last meeting?

So move.

Uh without objection, they'll stand as they are recorded in your finder.

Um I've moved the budget amendment up to um the first in discussion uh this afternoon and what um what I would like to schedule uh and I'll talk to administration about this, what I would like to schedule is having our uh public hearing uh on the budget amendment on the 20th of October, and then that would put our first reading on the 27th of October.

Uh so that are that's the two dates that I would like to shoot for uh for our budget amendment is uh the 20th of October for our public hearing and the 27th of October for our first read.

So um I've asked uh Chief Chambers to join us uh here today.

The first thing that I want to talk about is the uh mediation that needs to take place at the police service center.

Um when we when we talk about this in council, I think you have at your uh at your desk um little handout here.

There's there's basically three options that we want to examine and consider.

Number one is just basically replace the building as it is, uh which would run us about 17 and a half million.

Uh we do have an option in here for an expansion that would give us about an additional eighteen thousand square feet that would total about nine million dollars and what that would do that would allow CPD to vacate the uh fire training facility and bring them over to one building and give the fire training facility uh much needed space uh that they need there at that building.

Uh it's my understanding that there hasn't been some discussion about

at

least at one point having to add on to that building just because we need the additional space.

So it looks like we're gonna be doing an addition to one or the other of those buildings.

So uh this gives us a a second option.

The third option, which is in your little handout here is to build a new building uh that would give us about I think twenty thousand more square feet, and I believe that cost estimates running at about thirty thirty-five million, thirty-six million uh and some change.

That would give us an additional twenty-five thousand uh square feet.

So I'm gonna ask Chief Chambers if he would join us at the tables.

Um kind of Chief walk us through the from the beginning of this um just so that the council understands how all this started, how we got here, and then obviously uh then we'll need to discuss uh uh the options going forward.

Yes, sir.

Uh first, thank you for the opportunity.

I truly appreciate um the fact that we're actually having this conversation.

Um I believe it's a true testament to the belief that we need to protect our employees, they should have a safe space and a clean space to work.

So thank you all so much.

Um so when I was I was appointed chief uh in September of 2024, um, which was in the fall, and typically when we you know see issues in the South with you know moisture in a building, it it pops up in the spring and summer when things start to get warm.

And uh between the May and July time frame of 2025 is when I noticed when I would walk over to that north building, I could you could feel moisture like it was just it felt a little more humid than it would normally feel.

And as you all know, I've kind of grown up with it with CPD, so I've been in that building for over 25 years.

So I know what that feels like on a day-to-day basis.

So I started asking questions, you know, about why does it feel humid, what's going on, and at the time and and even still um our all of the the computerized technology that keeps up with that was managed by an outside vendor.

We didn't have direct access to to what that looks like, nor did we have any type of technology that detected on an automatic basis the level of humidity in that building, it did not exist.

Um our our uh fleet facilities manager um was reaching out to the vendor multiple times and had them come on site multiple times, um, and I still never could get an answer as to what was going

on.

Um, so I believe it was probably the the August time frame is when I actually reached out directly to the owner of of our contracted vendor and spoke with him and asked him like what has changed.

Something has changed, what has changed?

And it was that point where he explained to me that someone um requested that so we have this system called a makeup air unit, a makeup air unit brings in outside air into a building, it's required for all commercial buildings, so it brings it in, it's supposed to bring outside air in and remove the moisture and then send it directly to all of our our HVAC units that then distribute it throughout the building.

So you have clean fresh air coming in or fresh air coming in from the outside in, and it's not just recycling you know carbon dioxide, right?

That's what it was explained to me.

Um and someone called and changed the setting on that, what's supposed to be set at somewhere between 52 to 54 degrees and changed it to 72 degrees.

So

what was happening, it was bringing outside air in, and it was not cooling it to the point to remove all of the moisture from the air, like it should, and then it was distributing that moist air throughout that north building, and that was what had changed.

And to this day, he cannot recall who whether from us or his company who made that call or made that decision to make that change.

Nobody could tell.

Um, and at that point, we started getting a series of complaints.

Um, it was sometime during that June, July, August time frame of 2025.

We started getting several complaints that uh and I'm about to turn it over to our uh director of uh police HR operations because at the time she was in charge of occupational safety.

So it was that the complaints were were coming in like through chain of command and then over to fleeting facilities, and then at some point it transitioned to her shop, and then that's when she got involved in answering and responding to some of the complaints.

And if I could ask uh director Teller Walker to speak to that, would you like her to come up here or just take my space?

Sure, sure.

Um,

she come up.

She's it right here.

I can move sure.

Okay,

oh yeah.