Okay, everyone.

This is not a formal business meeting, but this is the beginning of our budget workshop.

Yeah, so we're gonna let Steven start and thank it away.

Or take it away.

Thank you all for being here.

Also, just to note, I will be leaving promptly at 6 30 for an event I need to be at.

So just letting you all know.

Get to ours.

Thanks.

Go ahead, Steven.

Thank you, Mayor and Council.

I'm gonna start out with a general overview of the city budget in total.

Before we get into more detailed information in our primary funds, I know you've all been through the budget process before, and some of you experienced this many of times.

I'd like to go through the presentation and then leave time at the end for uh the most important part, which is council questions.

And what we're gonna have our department heads available here and at the agenda session and at the council meeting to answer any questions if you think of anything else between the time of this presentation and uh and those later meetings.

Uh let's see if we can't get uh provide you with an answer to your questions tonight.

Uh, we'll certainly be happy to get back to you.

Uh you can feel free to give me a call or send me an email, no problem.

Either way.

Um, I also want to point out that we're going to be discussing the operating budget here tonight.

Um, as a reminder, we also have significant carryovers of programs that are already in in progress from uh other fiscal years.

And those carryovers include things such as uh capital funded projects, significant grants that might span multiple years, um, CDBG funding, things of that nature.

And those carryovers can be as much as 200 million dollars.

And we do discuss those items with council when we bring them forward to you in January, and then again when we bring forward our uh carryover reconciliation reconciliation items to you uh in April.

And with that, I'll go ahead and jump right in.

The 2026 total proposed budget is approximately 273.8 million dollars, and that is an increase of 7.7% or roughly 19.5 million dollars over the 2025 budget.

Go ahead.

This slide is a visual representation of that uh 274 million dollars.

And I like to comment on a couple of the uh major items here.

Approximately 30% of the general of the budget is in general fund, which is the city's largest fund, and that's used to account for for all of the financial resources that are not specifically accounted for in another fund.

Another 25% of the budget is our water and sewer fund.

And that's not going to come as a surprise to you.

You're used to seeing the magnitude of the transactions that we run through for water and sewer purchases.

Another 12.6% of the budget is our sales tax bond fund, which accounts for the accumulation of resources to run our bond projects.

We also have recycling and trash up there at 7% and our sales tax capital improvement fund as well.

Next slide, please.

Also, Steve, if it would help any members of your budget team to have a surface, if they want to sit at either one of these, y'all are welcome to.

Just you're fine where you are, but if you need it to be able to follow along, come on up.

This slide here is a numerical representation of that graph that we just looked at.

And uh I do want to point out some key information uh on the growth of these funds overall.

Uh, in the in the general fund, we're projecting an increase of $3.6 million, sales tax bond fund an increase of 1.5 million, water and sewer increase of 7.6, and our shop fund 1.7 million, and stormwater utility, it's our new fund, approximately 3.2 million this year.

And we'll get into more detail on those when I get to the individual uh fund statements.

Next slide, please.

Uh as noted in this slide, 2026 uh projected expenditures by category 35% of the total expenditures uh in all funds are for personnel services, and that's to be expected as the purpose of the city government is to provide services to residents.

Um we in turn uh would see uh corresponding personnel uh charge increase as well.

Other main categories of these city expenditures include services and charges, purchased water, debt service, and capital expenditures.

If you were to compare this same slide to to the same slide we looked at last year during the budget workshop, you're gonna see very little change in the total percentage of of these expenditures by category.

It doesn't tend to fluctuate much year to year.

Next slide, please.

And here's a numerical representation of that same information we just looked at.

Now, your primary increases are in personnel services, and part of this difference you're seeing it does relate to the addition of 18 personnel that we did add mid-year in 2025.

So they would not be in the adopted 2025 budget, but they are certainly reflected in the 2026 proposed budget that you see before you now.

And you can find a discussion of those 18 FTEs on page 230 of your budget document.

One of the other key differences you're going to notice is the increase in purchased water cost.

And we'll talk about that a little bit more when we get to the water and sewer fund.

Next slide, please.

This slide highlights the total citywide proposed budgeted expenditures by operating activity for 2026, which does include 28% for water and sewer expenditures, another 27% total for fire and police activity, recycling and trash is at another 9%, and then transportation and parking at 8%.

And although the dollar amounts, like I said before, the dollar amounts in these categories will change to reflect the overall additions to the budget.

The percentages that you see here really don't change all that much, with the exception of that new fund, the stormwater utility.

From this slide, you can see that our total FTE count in 2025 was 968.3 and is proposed at 968.1 in 2026, which actually represents a decrease of approximately 0.2 FTE.

Administration felt that during the year coming off of a significant adopted budgetary deficit, that we should uh look to reduce the addition of new personnel expenditures.

We are adding two FTE in the police division, and uh that will be for the SRO program that is covered by those grant funds.

In addition to that, we're adding uh 0.5 in media services and 0.2 in animal services, and those are gonna bring those positions up to full-time positions.

We're finding that it's difficult to hire part-time in both of those departments and to make those positions more attractive.

We're gonna bring those up to full time.

It is important to note here uh you'll see a reduction there in community services, community resources administrator.

That is actually not a net reduction.

Uh, that is offsetting one of the positions we did add mid-year in 2025 for the uh the housing director.

Next slide, please.

For comparison purposes, I wanted to show you the personnel adjustments that we've had over the past several years.

Um as you can see from this slide in years 21 through 2025, we did add uh over 145 FTEs.

Um if you took a look at the previous five years, um, prior to that, 2016 to 2020, uh, during that time span, we had only added 56 FTEs.

So really uh this kind of goes to show that that we have added a significant number of personnel over the course of the last five years.

Uh and at this point, uh, you know, as I mentioned earlier, and coming off of a year with an adopted budgetary uh deficit, we feel that it's reasonable to not add new personnel at this time.

However, I will say that uh the mayor, the chief of staff, and myself, we are in close contact with uh you know department managers on a daily basis.

And if we do get to a point during the year where we're noticing that it would be necessary to add additional head count, we would be bringing something forward to you.

So this isn't us basically slamming the door on the addition of new personnel.

It's as at this time we feel that we are adequately staffed and that uh you know for budgetary reasons we would like to maintain the level that we're at for right now.

So at this point, uh we've talked about the total 274 million dollar um budget overall, and uh looked at the proposed budgeting for both revenues and expenditures as well as um discussing position control, and now I like to kind of get into a summary of our our major funds, and these funds are the same funds that I present to you when I when I present my monthly financial report.

These are the major funds of the city.

Obviously, we have many more funds, but these are are the key funds where we have a lot of activity going on.

In the general fund, we are presenting a balanced budget this year with uh 80.9 million in both revenues and expenses.

Our revenue estimates of 80.9 million do show an increase of approximately 6.6 million compared to the adopted budget in 2025.

It's important to note that we did begin 2025 with that uh budgetary deficit that I mentioned before.

Um and that was covered in the general fund by reserve fund balance.

In addition to that adopted $3 million budgetary deficit, we also added another $4 million to that deficit over the course of the year.

Those additions included uh 2024 reappropriations of $1.6 million, additions of the pay plan study in 2025, and that was approximately $1.7 million.

And other council approved items, such as uh the Joyce Boulevard uh cost share at $400,000.

We added some FTEs and the general fund and development services, and uh we had the uh Fayetteville Housing Authority donation of $200,000.

Uh so at this point, I would estimate that we will be down approximately $4.7 million in the general fund for 2025 at year end.

And I believe you asked me the other night, Councilmember Turk to provide that information.

That's the best estimate that I can provide at this point.

So that's going to put our undesignated ending fund balance at approximately 32 million at the end of 2025.

And when you allow for the 60-day reserve requirements of over $13 million, um, that'll projected to leave that is projected to leave our estimated ending fund balance after those reserves at approximately $19 million.

Some of the key increases on the revenue side this year include a projected additional $1.9 million in sales and $1.1 million in property tax revenue.

Licenses and permits, those are projected to be up another approximately $1.4 million, and that's led strongly by what you're seeing in development services department.

As you recall from those discussions, mid-year, we did add those personnel to help streamline some of the processes and move projects through.

And I think that we're seeing uh you know the results of that on the back end.

We're also factoring in a transfer from the sales tax capital fund this year of $867,000.

As you'll recall, the city sales tax is split $60,000 between the general fund and the sales tax capital fund.

This year, in a year where we are coming off that budgetary deficit, we are budgeting for the use of that $867,000 in the general fund.

And that's going to help support the general fund programs that we operate here in the city.

The city has performed this type of transfer in the past, and this transfer is still going to leave the sales tax capital fund with approximately $2.45 million in projected fund balance reserves, which is going to be adequate to uh to address any unforeseen capital project needs as they come up during the year.

And we'll get into that a bit more when we get to the sales tax capital fund.

A couple of other things to note on the expense side of this slide.

We have budgeted an additional $220,000 in our community partners.

These are our uh what used to be known as our outside agencies that we provide funding to to provide services to the residents of Fayetteville.

And this year we're providing an additional $210,000 to the Central Emergency Medical Service to provide ambulance service to Fayetteville residents.

The cost of that contract, we are in a uh a joint contract, and those those costs do fluctuate and they have increased this year.

We're also providing an additional $22,000 in funding for the senior center.

Next slide, please.

This graph right here represents uh a summary of the personnel expense in the red line versus the total revenues and the general fund on the blue line.

City operations are primarily driven by personnel expenses, especially in the general fund.

And as a result, approximately 81% of those general fund expenses are for personnel expenses.

But you'll see this line charting that trend over time, and we we like to see uh those personnel expenses basically in the same relation that we have right here to our general fund revenues.

This slide shows the breakout in revenue by source for the general fund in 2026 compared to 2025.

Based on an analysis of where we're at right now this year, we're projecting a 3% increase in sales tax revenue, 1.8% in our franchise fees, 6.1% in our property tax revenue.

Another 5.7% in our pension insurance turnback.

As I mentioned before, our building permits are up $295,000 we're projecting there, as well as an additional 1.6%.

I'm sorry, 28,000 in our alcohol taxes and licenses.

And you'll notice the all other revenue category right there.

That is down 2.29 million dollars.

And what that is is that's comprised of grants that the city receives, and we we don't recognize those until we actually receive uh we actually receive those awards.

So those aren't something that you're gonna see in the budget right now, but but that number will be made up throughout the year as that revenue does come in.

And then finally, you'll see that uh transfers in item down there below at $867,000.

That is the transfer from the the sales tax capital fund that I mentioned a moment ago.

Another key way of looking at the revenues and expenses is to analyze uh what's making up the difference between the adopted budget last year versus the projected budget this year.

Um as I mentioned, the general fund contains significant costs associated with personnel expense, and that's always reflected in these comparisons.

That's always the top item that you'll see looking back from year to year.

Um, and again, we're providing some additional funding to our community partners as well.

Our services and charges were projecting those to be up motor pool costs as well.

Some of the key reductions that you'll see on there, we did have a one-time uh additional cost in 2025 for the Fayetteville Public Library.

That was a one-time expense, so we are uh reducing uh the expense correspondingly in 2026.

All in all, in the general fund, we are presenting a balanced general fund budget this year, uh, along with an estimated ending fund balance reserves of approximately 32 million dollars, and that does put us in a good financial position for 2026.

And moving on to the street fund, you can see uh on the left side of your screen that the by far the largest source of funding here is the state turn back at roughly 68 percent.

Uh, as all as we've all discussed in council before, um, there are state laws that govern what the use of these funds uh what these funds can be used for.

Um so that's not something that we uh we have a whole lot of control over, although we do we do uh fund some things out of the street fund that I'm gonna mention here uh shortly.

On the right side of the screen, we do uh show the use of the street funds, the bulk of which is for operations and street maintenance.

Go to the next slide, please.

At the end of 2026, uh, we're gonna project an estimated ending fund balance reserves of roughly 7.5 million dollars.

This does include a budgeted loss in the fiscal year of 504,000.

You can see that the bulk of this loss is due to additional funding that we're providing to our transit agencies this year, uh ORT and Razorback Transit.

This is this is gonna be a 1.77 million dollar increase, and that's a 40% increase over 2025.

Staff are currently working with ORT and Razorback Transit to find out the best ways to maximize our investment to expand that transit service.

And from what I understand, uh this investment is gonna put Fayetteville at twice the investment of uh in transit services of any other city up here in Northwest Arkansas.

So that's one of the key changes that uh you'll see in the street fund this year.

Next up we have uh the parking fund.

The primary sources uh of funding come in here from the downtown district and entertainment district parking revenues.

On the expense side, uh, those include cost for personnel, riding tickets, maintenance of the parking facilities, equipment, that kind of thing.

Uh we also do have the parking deck bonds.

Go to the next slide, please.

Parking deck bonds, and we are using parking deck revenue to pay off those bonds.

In the parking fund, we are estimating an ending reserve fund balance for approximately 2.1 million dollars at the end of 2026 with the balanced budget in this fund.

The parks development fund captures the revenue from our 2% HMR tax that's to be used for parks development, which includes capital projects and maintenance activities.

And you'll see that on the right side, our use of funds is parks maintenance and parks development.

Next slide, please.

The primary uh, as I mentioned, the primary revenue sources are 2% HMR tax, of which the city receives a 1%.

Um we're projecting uh an ending fund balance, like I said, a $5.4 million in that fund and a balanced budget this year.

In the water and sewer fund, the key revenue sources here are water sales and sewer service charges.

For the expense side, almost 60% of the total expenses are made up of water purchases and expenses to run our wastewater system here in the in the city.

Uh, in looking at the purchase, you want to go to the next slide, please.

In looking at the purchased water uh line item here year over year, you're going to see some some significant differences.

Uh, if you recall from last year's budget workshop, um, the present and the presentations from Beaver Water District.

Um, the increased cost of purchased water took place after our last rate study was performed.

So those are currently charges that are not included.

That increase in purchased water that the city has to pay, that is not included in what we're currently charging our rate payers right now.

And so that was one of the primary reasons why uh we went out for a rate study in 2025, and we are projecting to bring that forward to the water and sewer committee here next month.

So that's something that uh we we really need to keep an eye on.

Can you go back a little bit?

Yeah, no problem.

We discussed um, like I said, water and sewer issues last year's budget workshop in detail and at the water and sewer committee, and you can find a recording of that discussion on the city website.

At that meeting, um, administration did point out that the city would need to be going out for a sales tax bond in 2026 to cover the costs of the Nolan plant, as well as some other water and sewer items that need to be funded.

And that is what we've uh recently been talking with you all about and what we're planning on going forward with in 2026.

So I just wanted to kind of remind you, and and one of the key things that came up during that discussion this year when we were talking about those bonds is what would be the effect if we we didn't go out for a bond issue, what would happen to the rates?

Right now, like I said, we're still in the preliminary phase of the rate study, but what we're projecting is if we didn't get that funded through a sales tax bond fund this year, it's going to effectively double both the water and the sewer rates over the course of the next five years, which would be a large increase to our rate payers here in the city.

So that is one of the key reasons why we are pushing to move forward with a uh sales tax bond at this point in time.

And we'll be discussing that quite a bit more when we get to the uh the rate study and the impact fee study at the water and sewer committee.

Next slide, please.

We added the stormwater fund in uh 2025, and this is the first time we're truly budgeting for it in 2026.

Those uh those funds come directly from stormwater fees, and they are used on stormwater drainage maintenance, stormwater projects, and stormwater operations.

In 2026, we're estimating uh estimating ending unrestricted fund balance net assets of approximately $586,000.

Now, some of the questions that had come up recently on the stormwater fund was uh basically the scope of the loan that we were required to provide them from the general fund to set this up.

As it turns out, we're really not going to need to be loaning them much in terms of funding at all.

Approximately uh maybe $60,000 at the end of the year, and that will be paid back by revenues in January when we get there.

Um, so there the revenues are coming in uh as projected.

Um, we do have about a million dollars worth of equipment that was funded out of the shop fund to purchase the other trucks and machinery, and uh that is being paid off from revenues from the stormwater fund.

Um, all in all, we're we're not uh a budgeting for for any sort of loss at all in the uh the stormwater fund, and and that fund is operating.

We're projecting it to operate as we had intended uh going forward.

We recently performed a rate study in the recycling and trash collection fund, and we did uh discuss both the revenues and expenses of that in in great detail during that uh rate study that we we all discussed about two months ago.

Um, as you can see from from these slides, solid waste fees uh represent the bulk of the source of funds uh in recycling and trash collection, and then uh obviously the cost to offer those services are our use uh use of funds, commercial collections, recycling programs, uh operation and administration, as well as residential collections.

In uh 2026, we're estimating that the ending unrestricted net assets of the recycling and trash collection fund will be approximately $4 million, and we are going to have a budgeted uh gain before capital of approximately 1.1 million dollars.

We are gonna have capital expenditures equaling roughly that amount, so we're budgeting for a pretty flat budget in the recycling and trash collection fund this year.

Over in our airport fund, this is another uh key fund that I I report on in my monthly financial reports to y'all.

And the bulk of the source of this funding is from our jet fuel sales.

Um, and the use of the funding is uh correspondingly the purchase of aviation fuel.

So this year we're estimating to end up in 2026 with an estimated ending unrestricted net assets net assets of approximately 347,000 dollars.

And this is going to we are gonna show a loss, so that's what we're projecting.

Um, as you can see, we've got some capital expenditures of approximately 250,000 that are going to outpace our our budgeted gain in the fund, leaving us with a budgeted loss of approximately 116,000 at this point in time.

I'm not really concerned about that.

I think the airport fund is going to be in in okay shape.

We currently have a business plan study underway that came forward you uh to council for discussion.

That project is underway right now.

They're going to take a look at our operations out there as well as what we should be charging for our rent revenues and uh some of the other uh things, and I'm I'm pretty excited to see what that study is going to turn up.

Hopefully, we'll have that to you in 2026.

So, next we have the shop fund, which uh, as you all know is one of our internal service funds here in the city.

Um, it's funded by a replacement charges, fuel charges, motor pool that is charged to other city departments to run the fund.

Um, and this provides services to our departments for vehicle maintenance, vehicle purchases, uh, gasoline uh purchases as well.

We have a fuel farm out there.

Our estimated ending unrestricted net assets in the shop fund at the end of 2026 are projected to be approximately 29 million, which is roughly in line with what we've seen here in the past.

We are projecting uh a budgeted gain here of approximately 3.4 million dollars.

Um, as you've seen over the course of the last two, three years when Ross brings these items forward to council.

I mean, it's kind of bouncing around when we're making these purchases for new equipment, new vehicles.

Um, you're seeing long lead times still, even this far after COVID.

You're seeing uh month over month, it seems like increase in costs.

And I know that the recent tariffs are having an impact too on some of the raw materials that go into the to the construction of these assets, and that in turn is coming through as additional costs to the city uh when we when we purchase these vehicles.

So this is something that we are keeping an eye on, and uh we're gonna continue to keep a close eye on on what's happening in the shop fund in those purchases over the course of of the next uh fiscal year.

That brings us to our sales tax capital improvements fund.

Uh as you'll recall, we did a our extensive CIP study this year.

We did that earlier in the year.

That we do that every couple of years.

Um at this point in time, basically we only come forward to you for uh significant changes in the CIP fund.

This year we do have a couple of changes.

We are reducing the uh library technology equipment replacements by 100,000 in 2026, and our plan for the Happy Hollow Campus Master Plan.

We were gonna do that study in 2026.

We may need to be moving uh that item off.

We well, we will uh to it to a different year in the CIP.

So those are the key changes uh that we're gonna have this year.

You know, once again, we do have changes in the CIP, and we do bring those forward to you during the budget process this year, and and these are the changes to uh to that fund for this year.

Next slide, please.

So I mentioned the transfer to the general fund from the sales tax capital improvement fund.

You'll see that uh down below on that bottom line of $867,000.

As I mentioned, that's gonna leave us with an end estimated ending fund balance of $2.45 million dollars, and and that should be um sufficient to meet any I guess unbudgeted for capital uh improvement needs during the course of 2026.

I'm not really concerned about that.

Um, this type of transfer is something that we have done before.

Um, as you'll as you can see too.

I'm not sure if uh the picture up there is blocking it, but we are projecting some increased revenue as well from our city sales tax, which is this is the other the 40% of the 6040 split um of that one since sales tax.

And with that, uh that is uh brief overview of what we have uh for the 2026 budget.

Umce again, uh you know, I'm here, we've got staff here tonight.

We have the budget department here tonight.

Uh I know you've had some time to take a look at at the budget document that we've provided, but uh that is a lengthy document and we understand that.

So we're we're gonna be available at the agenda session at the council meeting the following week, and you can certainly contact me at any point in time between now and then.

Happy to answer any questions for you, and we're happy to open it up to questions here tonight.

Thank you so much, Stephen.

I just want to take a moment to thank you.

I know this was my first year in putting together the budget and also um your first year in this role, and I really appreciate you and Kevin and Holly and April because I know I asked a lot um a lot of you this year, and I know I um brought sort of a different perspective to what I wanted to do.

It was very important to me that we present a balanced budget.

Um that meant making having to make a lot of tough choices, and um it's not something that I goal is to be able to get to a point where we can grow, grow our programs, grow our personnel, and be able to say yes to so many of the good requests that we have as a staff.

So this was really a reset year, but I look forward um to the next couple of years of being able to um being able to to grow and and and implement some of those programs that I know are important to all of us.

Um I think I'm gonna I know there are gonna be a lot of questions.

There's a lot that I want to say about the budget, but I'm gonna be quiet so that we can we can hear questions from council.

Well, I can keep I can keep talking.

I mean I can I have lots, so I'll start with three or four and then I'll get back in the queue.

Is that still fair tonight?

Okay.

Uh uh.

Yes.

Okay.

Um I'm on page 297.

Oh, sorry, of our budget book.

Um, I wanted to understand on the line six for Fateville District Court fines costs collected.

The budgeted fines costs collected for 2026 shows 3.5 million dollars versus 2025 estimate of 1 million dollars.

And I wanted to understand if anybody could explain why that was so significant.

That's a great question.

Just give that yeah, budget team.

Because what I understand is I mean those money is dumped directly into our general fund.

While they are looking, I also want to say not in a not in response just to that, but in general, um, so this really is a work session, and so we have done our best as a staff to be prepared for questions.

Sure.

I just want to go ahead and and set the tone with you all that if we don't have an answer, we may not you may have questions that we don't have answers to, and so we're taking good notes, and we know we can get back to you if we don't have an immediate one.

So I don't want staff to feel like they're on the spot.

It's perfectly okay as we've talked about to say that's a really good question.

No problem.

And I think we are gonna need some assistance from courts to help us uh answer that question.

So that might be something that we we get back to you on.

Okay, that's a big one.

So if we can make note of that and then and we can email that out because you're right, that is a significant um yeah, increase.

Um the other thing that I didn't know if if I don't know if the courts are gonna come and be a part of the conversation was if you knew whether amongst their budget um they had included courts reminder of Fatewall District Courts, one of the only courts in Washington County that has not been doing like um ongoing court reminders, and so I didn't know if they had put that into their budget for 2026.

It cost it cost a thousand dollars per individual that misses court according to a Pew research study, and so I know that we've been seeing failure to appears increasing in the court.

So what is that?

Is that courts reminder a software that's used to remind people of that?

I just didn't know if it's included in their budget.

I don't know either, but I know Keith, I know you've been doing a lot of work to help efficient improve efficiency down there.

So you know, yeah, I can just make a comment on that.

I thought with the recent change in our administrator, I think there's a lot of moving parts down there in our IT departments met with them several times already, and I'll make sure to that's added to their next the next meeting they have to talk about.

Okay, thank you, Keith.

To mention courts reminder specifically, if you can.

Thank you.

Uh thank you.

And then um on the next page for um economic development.

Um looking at line five for the number of businesses licensed.

I was just curious.

Um, is there any additional breakdown that we're doing because you know businesses have such variety?

Sorry, you might still be getting there, have such variety, and I know I was thankful I didn't ask to that department to try to understand.

Oh, I'm sorry, page 298, just the next page.

Thank you.

I apologize.

No, you're good.

Um because I got a snapshot, I think, for a part of the year, and I think um, you know, I was surprised about the types of businesses um that had um been licensed at that time, and so I didn't know if we break down that goal in a way segmented for certain types of businesses potentially, because you know, an office building is a lot different than a retail space or a restaurant, and so I just didn't know if we looked at it in that that way at all, or if we just looked at in total, I wasn't sure.

Yeah, and uh we'd be happy to get that information for you as well.

As far as the specific breakdown, that's not something that uh that I know offhand, but happy to get back to you on that one as well.

Okay, and then my reasoning is just thinking some of those obviously drive more sales tax and HMR, and so I'm just trying to get an an idea and a gauge of how we might be looking at those targets.

Sure.

Okay, these are some good good questions somehow.

You've stumped us twice.

All right, I'm not trying to stump you, I'm sorry.

Um, let's see.

We're not just uh one thing too that I do want to point out is um and just commend so um Blake Rutherford Chung Tan and Devin Howland have really taken a more proactive look in how we think about economic development, and so I'll be eager for um to discuss this with them so that we can get back to you with more information about about that.

And the budget book is phenomenal too.

I want to say that too.

Part of the reason I have questions because there's such great information in here.

So thank you, Stephen and team.

I mean, it's phenomenal.

You haven't stumped us for just getting more information, right, Steven.

Yes, we'll be able to provide that information to you.

Um and I'll ask one more question, I'll get back in the queue.

Um I'm on page 302 um and was am looking at um under human resources, um, under work uh line item four and performance measures, workers' comp injuries with medical treatment.

Um, I just wondered we're budgeting that to be up, and I just think about we've adopted like vision zero to have you know less injuries around our city with like automobiles, etc.

And I was just curious um how we would be projecting to have more folks injured in the city.

I just I didn't know if there was thinking on that, or I can take that one and then missy if you would like to come up and add in, or if you don't you you don't have to if you don't want to, and just that it I certainly wouldn't ever want to say we are projecting to have more injuries.

I mean, certainly we don't ever want to have any injuries.

I think we are looking at what we budgeted for 2025, and we're actually decreasing that because maybe that was a little bit too high, but we can't be in a situation where we're not prepared to take care of people if needed.

So we are looking at what was lush it last year and then making in a what we feel like is a reasonable, we don't ever want to be caught not having sufficiently prepared.

So it would be wonderful if there weren't that many.

Okay, all right.

I'll just that fair enough, Missy.

Do you want to add?

And also we pay workers off in our readers, isn't that right?

And we'll be our bills at the end of the year.

We have a three or um premium is set on past history.

Right.

So we just want to budget to make sure we're looking more in pace or more people or more.

So it's just anything about first day is like okay, all right.

Thank you.

Oh, I'm sorry, Tracy.

Um I'll pick up where Sarah left off.

So um thanks for um giving up the getting in the queue.

I appreciate that.

So um I didn't get a chance to go through this uh as as carefully as I usually do, but um, and so I may have missed this.

Usually there's a sustainability department, and I didn't see this in there.

Maybe it's in there and I just missed it, uh, where they identify the pick me up program and some of the other uh items.

Well, we've had we have Peter here tonight.

Be happy to go ahead and answer questions on that pick me up program uh if you've got any, but that that's uh something that we I think we discussed through our throughout the budget book, but I don't I don't believe that we report on that program specifically in there.

So I don't think that's something that we ever have in the past, if unless I'm mistaken.

So um where would that funding be located?

What uh funding group, how would I how would I ever know where it is?

That's recycling and trash or sorry.

Do you say general fund, yeah?

Page 34 of the budget.

Okay.

Page 34.

Is that what you said, Kevin?

Yeah.

Okay.

And then 60.

Oh, and then it is.

I see.

I see it.

Thank you.

Sustainability and resiliency.

Um I'll make a note on that one.

You're gonna see a decrease for Kevin.

Will you turn your mic on, please?

Yes, probably not even speaking in it.

Can you hear me?

Okay.

Okay, can you hear me?

Okay.

You're gonna see a little bit of a decrease.

Well, you're gonna see a decase decrease of about 200,000 uh for next year.

We moved the pick me up program to our miscellaneous program.

It wasn't a didn't quite make sense to have it in sustainability, and um part of the you know, of the mayor's goal to get everything in balance.

Um we looked at the 200,000 that was budgeted for the pick me up program, but we weren't in reality spending that much money.

We were spending about 175, 170,000.

So we moved it over to miscellaneous program with the hopes that if it actually went up higher than 170, we could cover it, you know, when it comes about mid-year, three-fourths of the year.

Okay, so the program uh remains intact as it was in 2025, and you've just kind of moved it to a different location.

Um what about let's see.

Um the green, I'm calling it the green space fund.

Is that also a miscellaneous, or where would that be located?

I think Steven, you and I talked about this, I don't know, a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't know exactly where it would be found.

Gotcha.

That's in sales tax.

Yeah, that's in our our sales tax uh capital fund.

Okay.

Oh, thank you.

Peter's here too if you want more info on pick me up.

Umwards the bottom of page 271, you'll see that green space preservation.

Excellent.

Uh okay, thank you so much.

That's that's terrific.

I think last year we talked about the pick me up program being expanded to two groups, and I did not know if that happened in 2025 or if that was for 2026.

I'll be glad to address that.

Yes, we did expand it to two um teams essentially in 2025, and we intend to continue that uh going forward into 2026.

And one of the things we're actually uh gonna uh pilot next month is one of those teams working part-time, um helping to support an expansion of household hazardous waste drop-off as well.

Great, excellent.

Okay, thank you.

Mr.

Weekend, thank you.

Um years ago, um Steve and I looked at an analysis of staff versus population, and was surprised to find that we had fewer employees per thousand residents than we had 25 years ago.

And so it might be helpful in the budget presentation and process to show us both the growth of employees and the population because I suspect we're we're not close to keeping up, and um any comparison to other communities may also be valuable.

Thank you.

No problem, I can add that in.

No problem I can add that in more okay okay.

Okay.

Uh let's see what page am I in oh um page 306 for the information technology um I was hoping if we could get some more details on the 26 objective number for the continued migration of video security cameras to a single vendor to improve quality and management and just was curious kind of like what policy oversight too we're having conversations about that I know Flock and other companies are aggressively pursuing uh many cities across the country and so I'm just kind of curious which vendors and kind of what we're we're looking at when we're looking at that migration.

So we continue to move over to a vigil on which is what we've kind of standardized probably four or five years ago.

At one point I think we had seven different video security systems across this the city when I started in 2015 so we've consolidated that down I think we're down to for the most part two so uh yeah it's a vision and that's uh the few that we have left on something called Cisco Meraki we're transitioning to those as funding allows and we do have a city uh I think it's an SOP and not a policy that kind of defines uh how long that we keep uh video and then kind of what we do with that video who has access to it and that type of thing and then how many um security cameras do we have in the city both permanent and then temporary I'd have to get back with you if I was guessing it's around 170 but I'd have to get back with you with that number.

And do we have those somewhere like on a map on our GIS maps or something too to be able to look at or is there a layer um I do not think we do.

Okay.

Thank you.

On the next page on page 307 for central dispatch um I just there was an objective about achieving a successful ACIC audit and so I didn't know um if there was someone that could give us additional information on that it looks like looking at the estimated calls for 2026 we're looking for those to go up and I think I noticed the head count had gone down maybe by a staff that's in dispatch and so I just was um curious um I don't know if that ACIC audit is a a regular thing that we do um this on page 307 yes um item five under 2026 objectives got it there you are go ahead happy stalker dispatch manager so we are audited by ACIC that's the Arkansas Crime Information Center every three years and basically that's all of our entries for like stolen property warrants uh stolen guns uh they come in and audit our records make sure that they're accurate uh we have a validation process that we have to go through they want to make sure that we're following all those rules all the CIS rules for uh making sure our employees have background checks and and you know just following the rules that they have in place for disseminating that information okay and so that's not new that's just every three years no it's every three years okay uh we have not uh gone down in head count uh we have 27 okay uh on staff um I'll go back and look at that then maybe I'm correlating that those are projected up uh they are up for this year and so um they are uh they always it's kind of hard to project these calls um you know you just don't know you know what events are gonna happen that that create the calls but they are projected up slightly I don't think they're projected up a lot right okay thank you very much all right you're welcome if I can make a quick comment on the ACIC audit I think uh Kathy didn't brag as much as she should have I believe the ACI auditor said that they were the best audit they'd ever seen because I I think that's accurate correctly I've had some relevant audit no that's a that's a big compliment because I believe ACIC is actually audited by the FBI and the state of Arkansas was one of the only perfect scores I think a year or two ago.

So that's that's pretty big accolades so well done.

Yeah.

Um okay I'll ask one more then I'll see if anybody else wants back in the queue.

Okay.

Um on the fire department I don't let's see there's the um I was just curious if you guys are able to give any flavor on page 309 the fiscal year 2026 objectives it says begin implementation of the EMS program with advanced EMTs and I didn't know what kind of um cost impact that might have and then just to kind of understand kind of the benefits that we're getting from that.

And I didn't know what kind of um cost impact that might have.

And then just to kind of understand kind of the benefits that we're getting from that.

And I'm sorry, can you repeat part of that?

I didn't hear all that.

Yeah, on the um fiscal year 2026 objectives, it says begin implementation of EMS program with advanced EMTs.

I just wasn't sure in the budget what the cost impact was on that, and then just what results, like what were we thinking, what's gonna change or what the impact is for that.

So I I actually don't have the the budgetary numbers as far as costs associated with that.

Uh I can tell you a little bit more about the program that we're trying to do.

It's a it's a step between EMT, which we all have and paramedic, and just the the service that we can provide.

Um that's uh we're that allows our folks to to administer medications and assist with some with some other things uh that that emts can't.

Um it's just uh we're just an attempt to increase the you know the service that we can provide to the public.

Well, how does that work in conjunction with like central EMS with that the role that they play in the contract we do with them?

So we we respond with central EMS.

Um obviously they have two people on an ambulance, so anything that is a serious call for specifically if someone's in cardiac arrest, it takes um it takes all hands to you know it takes a lot more than two people to work that.

We're also our distributed to where our companies can typically get on scene a little quicker than they are, and so this allows us to provide a higher level of care until that paramedic gets there to take over and and intervene, if that makes sense.

Okay, all right.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

Nobody okay, I've got more.

Do you I'll I'll re okay.

I was gonna try and give everybody else another opportunity.

Um their lights are Tracy, you go ahead and then we'll go back to Sarah unless somebody else has so Stephen on page 206, it's the stormwater um management fund.

And I know we're transitioning this year, and so I just want to make sure maybe I understand that um what these costs are and um I I think in the past the cities uh provided 1.5 million dollars, and it looks like that's gonna continue, but could you explain all the other um sort of like uh cost allocation?

I didn't understand what that what that meant.

So did you say page 206?

Yes, page 206.

Uh-huh.

I can answer that.

Okay, that'd be great.

Cost.

So stormwater is set up as a proprietary fund.

It's it's essentially a business.

And they have to pay for services that the general fund provides to them.

Now, when they uh when we first established the fund, we had the need of uh part of a utility billing clerk and a GIS analyst.

And so part of their salary is kind of gone through the cost allocation model where they're getting general funds getting reimbursed a little bit, partially for the GIS analyst, and the water and serve fund is getting reimbursed for the uh utility billing clerk.

And then the other stuff is accounting, finance, HR, all the other central services that is part of the general fund.

So you're basically just paying back the other departments uh because you had these people on loan, I guess.

Is that yes, and plus we're doing work for them.

They you know they they've added more staff, they've increased uh the work that we're doing, uh, especially in this building.

And so it's just kind of you know, trying to recoup some of the cost.

Okay.

That makes that makes total sense.

Um I think I'll hold off any more questions.

Go for it, Sarah.

Thank you.

No.

Okay, go ahead.

Um, back to the back of the book.

Um, back to 308 with the police department.

Um I wanted to uh there are a couple of questions on this page.

Um, one, there was fiscal year 2026 objectives that it said on number three enhanced training and professional development opportunities for a less experienced workforce.

And so I was just kind of puzzled on that one and just hoped to understand that better.

That's just talking about the workforce in general has less experience that's coming and applying.

I just wasn't quite sure what that meant.

Yeah, we probably could have worded that a little bit better, uh Councilmember Moore.

So uh, you know, we've had a number of uh positions that have turned over within the police department with retirements, and so it's just a uh uh way of trying to secession plan uh for the future and making sure that our folks uh both sworn and non-sworn have leadership training, and so that's really where our focus is at is to to build on that leadership.

Thank you, Chief.

You're welcome.

Um, then my questions under the performance metrics.

Um, I was looking at um the investigative cases assigned number eight.

Um that showed budget of 2025 1201, and then it says estimated for 2025 is 498, and then 2026 is 513.

And so I was just trying to understand what changes have happened there, what's driving that?

Yeah, it's just growth.

And so with the growth of the city, we anticipate that we're we're gonna have more cases, and so we're just looking at an increase there and try to do the best job we can to forecast, if you will, just like Kathy had mentioned with 911 calls, it's hard to forecast if the the calls are gonna go up or the calls are gonna go down, and the same thing I think is happening with that particular item, is just trying to forecast the number of cases that we will assign uh and that we will receive from from the community.

Well, and it looks like it was budgeted at 1200, though, and 2025 is coming in at 500.

So I understand then that 26 is 513.

I was just trying to understand what's driving the investigative cases assigned to be so much lower.

I I'm not exactly sure what that captures, I guess, since that's why I was just trying to understand.

That number is about half of what was projected.

So I just give me that page number again.

Oh, I'm sorry, um, page 308.

308.

Yeah, and it's okay, it may be for the future, maybe to follow up.

I don't know no worries at all.

I'll send you an email on it and I'll give you a follow-up.

Page 308, correct?

Yes, yes, please.

Um, because directly below it for drug task force cases, I just was curious because those align entirely.

So the drug task force cases for estimated 2025, say 498, which match matches the line above it as well as the 26 at 513.

Okay.

So it sounds like potentially this is only drug task force maybe projected, but anyway, I'll I'll wait to hear back.

Yeah, yeah, I'll be happy to follow up with you.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, you're welcome.

Just turned on your line.

I know I'm okay.

Oh, yeah.

She's gonna keep talking about okay, just I just don't want to my other colleagues, you know.

So um, okay, I have a question on page 75.

That way we can go back and forth.

Maybe you can give page 75.

75.

It is.

Sorry, I'm bouncing around a lot.

So my question is um, it's about impact impact fee collection.

And you know, I know we're doing a rate study for both a water and sewer, and so I looked at the impact fees that were projected for 20 2026, and they stayed the same as 2025.

Is are you just being conservative because we don't know what the impact fee and rate study will will uh what the results of that would be?

I think that's a fair assessment.

So we're doing impact fee studies in water and sewer.

We're gonna be starting police and fire here shortly, and uh impact fee study as well in uh parks.

We're gonna be bringing that forward.

So we've got impact fee studies going everywhere, and uh yeah, and in this scenario, we are being a little bit conservative there in water and sewer.

Um that impact fee has been on the books uh unchanged for a very long time now.

And so uh that that number will be changing when uh council, if and when council chooses to adopt the uh proposals that we'll be bringing forward.

So what caught my attention was that in 2023 and 2024, they were a lot higher for sewer.

So I didn't know why they kind of declined in 25.

So that that was why I didn't quite understand uh because you wouldn't think that we would have a decrease uh there with our impact fees.

Is it possible that that is to date of just the time in which the point in time, Stephen, in which we pulled the data as opposed to projected through the whole year, and that's why it looks smaller.

Okay.

Go ahead.

We we project throughout the year for the whole year, but okay.

We take a snapshot, June or July, and we try to go, you know, project it out for the rest of the year.

Okay.

Conservative then never mind.

That was so I'd say that's a I'd say that's another case of uh a conservative projection, and you know, obviously we're gonna hope that that that will be increasing, but obviously it will be changing when when the rates change as well.

Okay, thank you.

I don't have a page number, but we adopted development services fees, and we chose as a city to implement a third of those, or I should say to step them over a three-year period.

I'm assuming because we haven't adopted the next third, and we could choose either not to adopt it or adapt all two-thirds, that it may not appear as a revenue increase in the budget.

Is that an accurate statement, or are we anticipating uh increasing the second third of development services fees?

Go ahead and then I'll go.

We are anticipating the second phase of the development fee increase.

So part of it is in the budget.

Okay, thank you.

That was a good segue because I wanted to go to development services.

So thank you, Mike.

Do you have a page number?

Um, page 310 uh for development services and also three twelve, just looking at long-range planning.

Um on long range planning, it says um on number five early input and set up for comprehensive plan, city plan 2440 update and UDC rewrite.

Um I believe in the CIP that I'm gone off memory.

I believe that the funding is mostly for downtown master plan and maybe there's CIP monies for the um UDC for 27.

But I just was curious about any possibility to um accelerate and to look at getting the development code potentially dual pathing um in 2026, as we're kind of getting the feedback from the downtown master plan, just knowing, you know, in particular, we talked about efficiency with our meetings.

I mean, the majority of what we do here is land use.

And so um, and just hearing a lot of feedback for folks too about just the tedious nature, obviously, when they go to look at a project and they're trying to determine, you know, what code what um zone should I potentially look at, seeing if there's any potential to shorten the timeline to get some relief on that.

I will say, and I also want Jonathan to come up to an ad is that I would love, I mean, I think we would all love as soon as possible to have a new code rewrite.

I think we want to be very respectful and mindful of stat limited staff time, but I certainly think if there's a way to accelerate it and do it before 2027, we'd certainly be open to it.

But yeah, and I think what you're seeing, Councilmember Moore is exactly that in that fifth option.

One of the uh positions that we were able to fill as a result of the fee changes earlier this year was a long-range planning communications position, which has really afforded a much more robust ability to have input, uh especially early on in projects.

Uh, that has afforded us the opportunity to have significant savings that would otherwise go to flying uh uh out out of towners outside consultants in when we could have that capacity in-house for these series of projects that we have lined up.

So we absolutely plan on using the downtown plan to uh uh the I guess leverage into those other projects as we go forward.

Okay, thank you.

Thanks.

No.

Um on building safety page 315.

Um under the performance measures for building permits issued, it says on uh line two that it's uh our budget for 2025.

I think we came in, uh we're looking to estimate at 1600, but budgeted for 2026 is showing a decline of 1500.

And I thought um again, going off off memory of what we've been reported.

I was thinking that our building permits have been going up.

Um, and so um I didn't know if that was just a conservative estimate or what made me driving that for us to um potentially be calling those to be down.

I and I can feel that one as well, if mayor, if that's all right.

Uh there's there's a few factors that go into that.

One is that our fees went up, which may give a false impression that permit numbers have also gone up.

So that's one piece.

I don't mean to alarm you though and suggest that permit numbers are in decline.

Uh another piece of this is that permits do not always permit numbers do not always capture the scope of specific projects.

Uh for instance, a multifamily permit could fall under one permit, but that could represent dozens of units.

Uh and that is the trend that we've been seeing is that we see more units captured within fewer permits.

Okay.

Thank you.

No, that's helpful.

Thank you.

Uh on page.

Turn on their lights when they're ready.

Just keep pausing.

Um, page 316 um for housing and community services.

I know that we've had we have a I heard the comments about a reset year, you know, and and working towards I know there's some areas we probably want to additionally focus here, but I um wanted to just bring up for consideration on the performance measures.

And will you give us a page I'm sorry page 316?

Okay.

You may have said that up no yeah no page 316.

I appreciate the performance measures that were there you know in regard to you know community organizations assisted and engagement events and meetings.

Whenever I know hearth um is really dictated the numbers that we can perform there is based on the funding and obviously the funding is just very like plateaued.

But I wondered one of the areas that could be of great assistance for our residents is with more properties taking vouchers.

And so I was curious if we might potentially be willing to look at creating some metrics around that and and tasking um our group with that outreach of trying to encourage additional properties to be voucher participants just because we know that those are um in such potential um loss in our city as we have older properties that might get redeveloped.

And I know that's a challenge when FHA has vouchers available that folks are struggling to find properties that really will take them.

Yeah.

So is that encouraging of the l of the owners to take them as being a metric of of our performance is that something that I think that's a great note and something we should take back Marley is that something you're able to speak to if you'd like to I think this is a very well timed question.

So we're working with um Shauna at Cable Housing Authority right now to sort of compare um some of the data that we have around that from the landlord registry and kind of comparing that with some of their clients that are currently using vouchers.

So definitely love the idea of including that in the I know COC at one point had a landlord engagement subcommittee and part of that that was trying to encourage encourage more landlords to participate and I know that they maybe had um minimal maybe success with some of that but that they were looking at a um trying to create a almost an insurance pot of money program of available monies in the event that someone that was a low income resident that they had allowed to participate there you know there was damages that they would have an easy access pathway to um refurbish and so I also it was off off of a lot of voluntary members of the COC and not any paid staff and so that might be why it was limited maybe success.

So I just didn't know um if that was something potentially that could be discussed.

Thank you.

Stephen I've got more of a 3000 foot view of when we're we're talking about the overall budget could you refresh my memory what our projection from uh increase from 24 to 25 was we're talking the overall budget or general fund yes do we bring those numbers let's see you you can send it to me later is fine.

No problem uh I could either pull it up or maybe I'll just send it to you okay so I can our on page 35 but I don't know that it's folding the wall yeah I don't I don't think we have that in this this budget document but I can certainly give that to you 22 okay I was just trying to compare year over year and and to kind of grasp how we came up overall with our overall number of of increase.

No problem you know what I'll put a slide together and we can hit that at the agenda session.

Okay thank you.

So um on page 321 uh which is um parks natural resource and cultural affairs activity page um 321 321 sorry if I'm mumbling 321 um so um I noticed that the number of trees planted has gone down or at least for the 2026 budget and I know that um we get trees from a variety of different places and and through different funds um could Alison could you maybe explain or or somebody uh why um you're projecting trees uh the number of trees planted going down and when we have lots of development going on and we've got the climate action plan that wants to increase um um uh our coverage area our canopy area yeah these so these numbers are based on the trees that we actually contract to plant so it doesn't include the tree giveaway and the invasive bounty and all the other types of trees so these are the larger trees that we contract to plant.

Yeah, these so these numbers are based on the trees that we actually contract to plant, so it doesn't include the tree giveaway and the invasive bounty and all the other types of trees.

So these are the larger trees that we contract to plant.

Excellent.

Is there a place somewhere in here or where you have all of those various tree um sources uh identified?

It's it's not in this document.

We have a work plan that we put together every year, and I can um provide that.

That would be fantastic.

Thank you.

Ms.

Bunch.

I I didn't catch Allison before she left.

Sorry.

Um I have a question about the um just a just a quick one about the Gully Park concert.

Um what page, Sarah?

This is on 321.

Oh, it's still on okay.

Forgive me.

321.

Um so we have our actual and our budgeted.

So it looks like we budgeted for 2025, 13,500, but we actually had 15,000.

Is that right?

Uh yes, people, those are estimated people, estimated people.

Okay.

And so we're we're estimating a higher amount for like substantially higher for uh 2026.

Yes.

So those are really nice things to have.

Do we do we have do we get any other return on investment for that?

Uh like so what what are what are our returns on investment for these concerts?

Yeah, we so we seek sponsorships to help pay for this um for one, and it's really a quality of life um activity for for the city.

This is the 30th anniversary, so that's why we've projected a larger attendance.

Yes, um, because we plan on trying to beef it up a little bit for this year since it's 30 years.

And then we also have like, don't we have like vendors and stuff too?

So food trucks, yeah, sponsorships, all that.

Okay, so that's what I was getting at.

Is do we have you know, so we get of the food trucks and things like that, you know, they pay sales tax and we get yes percentage of that.

Okay.

Uh do we have any we ever have any plans of doing anything like that in any other parks?

We do.

Um, yeah, so we're planning uh potential music venues in both Walker and Underwood, mostly our community parks, so we at least have the infrastructure there to host that once we're able to develop that type of program.

Okay, okay, thank you very much.

Question about the music.

Um, if that's kind of like okay, Teresa.

I know you have maybe have something else.

Um I was just curious on the sponsorships, um, kind of what our guidelines and parameters are around that, because you were saying once you said ROI, you said sponsorships, and so I was just curious.

Um I noticed maybe there was one from not inside the city limits of Fayetteville, so is it people at large and the region can um have their businesses there, or do we have certain criteria around who might be a sponsor?

Historically, we have put together a sponsorship packet for Gully Park, um, and sometimes that comes from historic sponsors, people that have reached out to us who want to be um a part of that activity.

Um next year we're looking to see if we can't look at sponsorship a little more broadly across the city, but historically we've just sort of worked with either folks who have worked um reach out to us or folks who have sponsored in the past.

Okay, thank you.

Got another question for you, Alison.

Yeah, thank you for being up there.

Um the same page 321 under um item number six under 2026 objectives, it says begin construction at combs park upper areas.

So could you kind of remind us or explain um how that's gonna work?

Sure.

So we're hoping that we can start on that project.

We've moved the construction documents forward for the combs park park development, um, the piece that's in the bond that is contingent on the stream restoration happening.

So we we're we are ready to do that park work once the stream restoration work is done.

So the street restoration work can um I'm sorry, um, so getting into pump uh getting into that pump station road, that restoration there or the the down stream, yeah.

You said street.

I'm sorry, then yes, okay, great stream.

Thank you.

Sure.

Mind if I respond to a question, Councilmember Berna asked.

You asked about uh comparison of those uh budgets uh going back.

If you look at page 16, you can see what the total budgets were for those years going stretching back to 2022.

But I will provide that slide on uh information on how we projected those revenues.

I don't don't really recall what uh what percentages we used to to base those projections off of in those prior years.

So I'll put a slide together for you.

But this will at least uh give you a ballpark number of what those uh those budgets were in in past years.

Can we add in a column, Steven, to that that has the increase, like adopted and then a person increase for each year over year?

Thank you.

Ms.

Laura.

I I should have gotten sorry, Chief.

Probably should have gotten you all in one.

So if I forgot, I had another note over here.

Um, and this may be something that we have to get the information later.

I'm not sure if you have it with you, but when we adopt um additional um SROs into our budget, they are covered by a grant for only so long.

And then I'm pretty confident we haven't gotten rid of those.

Um, where we've probably taken on the full assumption of that um cost.

Are you able to provide us over the years as we've added those head count?

Um, wait at what points where we started to see, and then for instance, in the 26 budget, how many of those now are adding into the cost of personnel additionally in the 26th budget?

Yeah, so we currently have 13 uh school resource officers uh for for this school year, and we don't have any that are on a cops hiring grant, so they're all being 100% funded uh by the city uh with a obviously a cost share with Fayetteville Public Schools as well.

Um the additional head count that we're asking for in the 2026 budget, which would be the 14th and the 15th SRO.

Uh we did get the award for the cops hiring grant, and that is on your agenda for next uh Thursday and your council meeting for next uh or sorry, Tuesday, November 18th.

Um could would you be able to provide us then what the 100% is that we pay for those 13 years?

Yeah, okay.

Absolutely.

If you want that provided to you, I'll be happy to provide that as well as your question when it came to our performance measures.

As I sat down there and I looked at that, uh the explanation's pretty simple.

We made a clerical area.

Okay.

If you look at that, you can see that we entered 498 twice and we entered 513 twice.

So we see we double entered that DTF uh case number into the investigative cases.

So we'll get that corrected and get that to Stephen and amend that in the budget.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

And then um, I just as a follow-up, um, you know, you're not one of the only departments probably over the last handful of years that's had pretty double digit increases um in budget and and had had substantial staff increases.

And so I heard the mayor tell us that um, you know, this was a a reset year, really working really hard to balance a budget.

And so it's really helpful to see departments, you know, playing a role in that.

And so I was very curious about whether or not there was the ability for your department to look at with your adding of the two SROs.

We know we've now taken on additional costs with the 13 100%, um, that that then increases your head count by two.

I didn't know if there was any way to potentially pull out two staff somewhere.

I know I saw that you do still potentially have um positions that are still open, even though you have you know reduced um the openings that are out there and didn't know if there might be an ability for your department to kind of help for the full general fund because we have things like housing and other areas that help to keep us safe that we haven't been able to make those investments at this time, and that might give us some wiggle room to do some of those things.

Yeah, certainly very sensitive to all the needs within the the city and certainly worked hard with the the mayor and and certainly with our our finance director.

Uh the short answer is no.

Um I uh I have come before the council many, many times.

I've talked about, you know, I think we talked about this just a few minutes back when uh council member Whitaker asked about you know what are we doing as the population increases, and for the longest time we didn't do anything with the with the police department.

I could speak specifically for that, and that's where you've heard me talk time and time again in front of council when we only have 1.31 officers per thousand when I took over as the chief, which was the lowest in the state when you compare us to the 13 comparable cities within the state, the average was 2.26 officers per thousand.

Uh the FBI recommended that we have two officers per thousand, so we were grossly understaffed.

And we all know how important it is, especially when you're losing employees because they're a most valued asset, and you have these exit interviews with them, and they're telling you that the workload demands are too much for us to meet.

Certainly crime is important.

Uh we know that crime was up in 2021, 2022.

Uh, we only had the 1.3 officers per 1.31 officers per thousand.

You saw us drive that crime rate down, and that's uh certainly attributable to the amount of uh officers that we were able to put out on the street and certainly demands that we had on our officers when we were only staffing from 12 officers on a patrol shift, and now we're staffing from about 15 officers or patrol shift as well.

I think the numbers you're speaking to in 2021, um, 20 and 2021, not nationwide.

Everyone saw a surge.

We were going through a pandemic, and so uh definitely there are a lot of things that contribute to bringing that down and contributing to public safety.

So I think we could have a lengthy discussion about that, but I'll kind of leave it at that.

Sure, absolutely.

You're very welcome.

Thank you, Chief.

I appreciate you and I appreciate what a team player you were this year.

I know that that you and as many department heads did wanted, you know, could have certainly used more staff, and I appreciate your your attitude and cooperation about that.

It was thank you.

Very well.

Oh Ms.

Turk.

Um I have a question for for Tim on page 324.

Page 324.

Um, so I just so you know, clearly the metrics are really impressive about all the all the uh water leaks that have been fixed and repaired and 1500.

Looks like you're gonna go for 1800 um in 2026.

I was surprised though, um, and and maybe it's just that you moved all your staff toward repairing water leaks, but it looks like there's no sewer line um that's been replaced um in 2025.

Is that correct?

Well, our sewer lines uh when we had the WSIP years ago, which also attributed to the construction of the West Side plant, there was a lot of maintenance done on new lines.

So we've been in good shape for the past several years on our sewer lines, only with the exception of point repairs.

So uh the sewer lines are not in as bad shape as what some of the water lines are.

That's why you see the metrics more focused on the water lines.

Okay, I just wanted to to check because I was like, wow, that's pretty impressive that you didn't have to do any sewer line uh replacements.

So um, so we've at least that's been going well.

So okay.

Thanks, Tim.

And do you want to have an active fact?

Sorry, Sam, I wasn't fast enough.

I was still thinking about the number I was looking at.

Um, I was just hoping.

Can we get an update on um the same page 324 on the meters installed with the estimate for 25 and then what we have budgeted for 2026?

Uh, with us making all those um changes to the new ones, where does that put us at um getting those updated?

Well, right now we're we've just went over 50% of our mirrors are now smart meters.

Uh we've put uh 1.7 million dollars in next year's budget to to cover smart mirrors, I believe that's the figure.

Um we uh always keep ourselves stocked with meters and we do install them in-house, which saves us considerable amount of money compared to having a third party do it.

Uh it's been very successful.

We're further ahead than we thought we would be at this point in time, and uh we'll do the same thing next year installing more smart meters.

If you um do that projected amount, would I just do a straight analysis if you're at 50% right now?

That basically then you'd be close to 75%.

Would that be correct?

Or well, it depends how many more connections we get in that period of time.

Oh, okay, that's true.

I think about that.

Okay, thank you.

I have just one comment about that.

Um, Tim, I uh I appreciate it that on your water bill, it actually says how the water is measured if it's if it's a um if it's automated or whatever, so that's really informative, I think, for the public.

So uh thank you for having that piece of information on there.

Certainly.

Amazing.

I just have a general comment.

I did want to just say thank you.

Um I for your comments at the beginning for the work that's been done.

You know, it's obviously a challenge to start a year in a deficit, not knowing what else might be faced.

And so I do want to say thank you to the departments to the mayor's office for creating a balanced budget because any overages, which it sounds like we have some potential for headroom, that if we have those happen, those are opportunities that we get to invest and get to make strides towards the improvements we want to see.

So thank you for positioning us in that way.

And each year I continue to be astounded at the quality of the document, the amount of preparation and the detail of work that goes into it.

And then when I have questions, I find that if I just read a little bit more, 90% of them are answered.

And so I want to commend this organization yet again for a remarkable document that you've prepared and how helpful it's been.

And when I get asked questions out in the community, I'm able to say, let me get back to you.

And it actually is contained here.

I know that we've had to um, and this goes for the mayor as well.

Um I appreciate what it looks to me to be the fact that while we are having increased costs due to uh salaries that are going to be increased and benefit load that are just inevitable and beyond our control, that you're managing those without the devastation of layoffs in the organization, which uh just is such a a trust violation of people that we attempt to hire the very next year down the road.

And I want to commend you guys for that kind of management as well.

Um they are our most valuable resource, and so you know, once again, I have not given the document the the read that you hope that I'll give it before now and when we start voting, but I can assure you that I will read 90% of the pages, and I want to commend you again for the sleepless nights that you caused me.

And thank you.

Thank you for that that you do.

Thank you, Mike.

I want to say I I think I've said this before, and I know I just said it to Chief Reynolds, but it the um department heads.

One of the things that Stephen and I set out to do was to um really involve them more in this budget process.

And I know that I personally um fell short of doing that this year to the extent that I would like.

And there were some notable um misses, and so I want to now say to all of the staff and department heads that I think Keith and I both want to continue to improve our communication in the way that we involve you in this budget process.

I think we made a lot of headway.

I hope that at least for the most part, you recognize the strides that we took to be able to be more engaging in it, but I think that we can always get better.

Um, and I also know uh council person more that you've had a lot uh to say over the years about participatory budgeting and and bringing in people into the process earlier and earlier.

Um, that is something that we've also talked about with the budget team about what does 2027 look, what does the 2027 look like and how do we start that process even earlier with even more input?

And um the team has been really receptive to that, and we're we're excited about taking.

I mean, and we take that seriously.

So thank you.

I um I know Steven's gonna love this, but I I really appreciate it at the beginning.

Um, where you talk about our budgetary challenges that we need to consider for the general fund in the future.

I just wondered if you could give us maybe a little bit more um flavor around that potentially.

It's you know, three bullet points, but you know, trying to as we're getting our psyches ready for going into 2026.

I think it'd be helpful, you know.

You talk about a consistent long-term method to incorporate the annual wage increases and the adopted operation budget based on the salary surveys, um, a continued examination of the city's overall long-term revenue stream to match required maintenance expenditures, which I really appreciated.

And so I just didn't know if you maybe had any additional information you could expound on those because I thought those I appreciated those call outs and just good things for us to have food for thought as we continue to kind of take in more information.

Sure.

And you know, thank you for pointing that out.

Um, you know, we've we've done a lot this year to kind of address those things, and we plan to do a lot in 2026 as well.

One of the key things that we have going on right now is is that salary study that's gonna really inform us as to where we are and where we need to go in terms of compensation overall for the city, and that's something that uh we're we're hoping to be uh wrapping up sometime around June, July, and and bringing that that forward to council.

As far as capital expenditures go, I mean that's that's something that I think the well all cities struggle with.

We did some significant work this year with our CIP plan.

Um we we funded things um I think to an extent you would find that that we haven't funded them before, and that is in recognition of the need to increase uh what we're doing um in our capital expenditures to maintain what we've got here in the city.

Um you know, and I talk a little bit about that tonight in terms of uh what's happening with water and sewer specifically, but it's not just that fund, it's all the funds.

Um, and so that's something that we're gonna continue to keep a close eye on.

I know that was something that was very important to Paul, and uh that is something that we are we're gonna continue uh to keep a close eye on because we we really do need to spend the time and money to maintain what we've got.

Um as far as cost escalations go, um, this has been an interesting couple of years.

Uh we're doing the best we can um to project out for those cost escalations and include that as part of what we're asking for here in the budget.

But there's only so much um we can do is as far as that goes.

You know, I I've been like, for instance, water and sewer, I've talked to them, I talked to them one month, and they'll they're telling me the cost of copper has risen 30 percent, and then I talk to them two months later, and it's up 50 percent.

And it's uh the same thing you hear from Ross when he comes up and we we talk about ordering those vehicles that I mentioned earlier tonight.

We're just seeing cost escalations uh all over the board.

And so I'm not really sure what the future holds there, but that is something that we are keeping in mind.

We're allowed to end early, I think.

So if there aren't further questions, I'd I hate to I know must my staff was actually really excited about being here on Thursday after being here on Tuesday.

So if you all want to stay, please feel free.

Um, but I I think that if we have no further questions, I know there'll be a lot more, and and by no means do I mean for this to stifle the conversation or be the end of questions, but I think that we could all um you know use the time to go home and study the budget and then come back with more.

So all right.

Thank you so much, Steven.

Tremendous work.

And Kevin and Holly and April.