Good evening and welcome to the Fourth Miss City Board of Directors.

Our regular meeting this October 21st of 2025.

Again, these meetings are being televised live for the benefit of residents who cannot be with us in person.

Okay.

But this time, I will do the implication and I'll ask Director Josh Gosavis to lead us in a pledge.

Most gracious father, we come once again thanking you for this day.

Father, we thank you for the many blessings you've placed upon our city, and we pray that you will continue to do so.

Give us the guidance and wisdom we need to conduct the business of our city where it will continue to prosper.

These and all the other blessings that we ask in his son's name and for his sake we pray.

Amen.

Madam Clerk, if you would please call the roll.

Here.

Good.

Here.

Kemp here.

George Kit Savis.

Christina Kit Savis.

Kevin Settle.

Neil Martin.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

If there's any presentation from a board member of any item uh that's not already on the agenda.

Mr.

Mayor.

Yes, sir.

I would just uh make a request uh of administration.

Could we uh revisit at a future study session the uh non-consent towing issue?

Uh I know we talked about that uh perhaps last year or maybe nine odd months ago.

Uh I think it's something that uh we need to uh look at again when there's an opportunity to do so.

Okay, so noted.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anything else.

If not, we will ask for the approval of the October 14th 2025 regular minutes.

So moved.

Aye.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

Just a couple of reminders uh that we do have to have a motion and a second to adopt each of the following items on our agenda.

And also for public comments on items must pertain to the presented item only.

With that, we will go to the first item, which is the consent agenda.

Thank you, Mayor.

Tonight's consent agenda consists of five items as um as follows.

A resolution authorizing a contract for construction of a vehicle wash bay at solid waste.

A resolution authorizing the purchase of renewable natural gas at solid waste.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Matt, are there any citizens' comments on any of those items?

Yes.

We have Joe Elskin for item one B.

Joe, you're recognized.

Just uh a general concern about every time I see that there's no competitive bidding.

Um, you know, I know we're pinching pennies and we're we're clawing back money everywhere.

And and that's the way it is right now in our city and across really nationally.

But um, yeah, that that particular item.

I thought that it was the question was raised earlier, and it was tabled because asking for competitive asking for more bids.

And so I just my concern everywhere on the agenda that talks about spending money.

Why?

Where is the return in investment?

And uh have we done everything we can to cut costs?

Thank you for all you do.

Okay.

We appreciate that.

Unfortunately, sometimes we don't have any options.

We must have the chemicals to treat our water.

So but again, thank you for being here and and uh speaking.

Uh Director Good, you recognize.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um thank you, uh Ms.

Elskin for asking the question.

And I do remember the conversation the board had, I believe it was uh director um Christina Kasavis that had the concerns on the cost.

She had done some uh preliminary searches on our own to try to find a better cost for uh the chemicals that we were researching, and I believe Lance had followed up with that.

Lance, do you mind coming to the podium and just refreshing us on that?

Yes, sir.

Um we actually did bid those out.

So we actually contacted uh three different chlorine suppliers and asked them to provide us with a bid.

Um two of those, one of which I had also talked to directly at a conference, decided not to submit a bid for whatever reason.

So we actually, and this was when I say we, I'm misspeaking, it was actually finance and purchasing that that did that work.

Um we can't force people to bid on on stuff, but we did personally contact them, sent them packets.

I believe uh Mr.

Richards could answer more on that.

But um this chemical is needed for treatment, as the mayor said uh for the water.

Thank you, sir.

Okay, thank you.

Any other item for discussion?

Uh yes, Mayor, I would like to uh pull items 1A for a comment and uh one D for a question.

Okay.

You go ahead, you recognize.

Uh with 1A, I just wanted to point out uh as this relates with um employee insurance coverage, and we talk about the budget season and and costs that are fixed and costs that we can control versus costs that we cannot, you know.

You look at uh item the first item in uh 1A for the memorandum when you talk about the Everest uh reinsurance company for our excess insurance um carrier.

I mean that's going up 49 percent uh this year.

And I think you know, if you look and read and see things in your own life, you know, there are insurance costs that are increasing regardless of the um service that you're providing, you know, regardless of any additional service or people or things like that, even if you're not providing those things, the cost to provide insurance for even the same exact things you are doing from the year before has gone up, which is a um cost driver.

And then as it relates to 1D uh in the materials, and this is 1.6 million dollars a little bit over for the construction of uh wash bay in our uh solid waste service, it mentions in the materials that there were multiple um bids submitted or contracts, but we only see the one in our materials that are given to us here tonight, and so um you know I would certainly uh not be opposed to uh if my colleagues agree uh tabling item one D so we could see the other proposals that were uh that came into the city.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Director Good.

Thank you, Mayor.

I actually wanted to uh pull item D also and ask uh DeWayne McDonald for some further information because I had heard either I had a conversation with a staff or heard the proposal on this months ago, and had agreed then that it was something that that I would vote for.

Can you refresh us on um this item?

Yes sir good evening the truck wash is uh an item that was approved as part of this year's capital improvement program in uh December of 2024 and the uh funds for it will be coming from the um equipment sinking fund and solid waste so it's money that's been set aside from our revenues to pay for future um facility improvements and and truck purchases and so on the reason it's uh needed is to uh basically improve the uh appearance of our trucks and the maintenance of the trucks currently they're washed outdoors with a hose and a brush and uh you know throughout the year and in all sorts of weather and basically the the parts of the trucks that get washed or whatever the driver can reach with the hose and the brush so as you can imagine it's somewhat incomplete a truck wash will allow us to wash all the way around the truck including the undercarriage, the tops of the vehicles, maintain those vehicles that we're you know spending a lot of money on much better.

It will also improve the working environment for the drivers and for the mechanics who work on those trucks which you can imagine sometimes you you climb under a trash truck to do some work on it and it's been in the landfill sometimes they have to clean down from underneath it pretty well before they can even get started working on it.

So with that I'll I'll ask if there are any other questions.

Thank you Dwayne it seems like um the conversation I had when I took a tour out there Mr Lugin had also talked about the the street conditions how it would help improve the street conditions without uh you know it keeps from dragging mud trash and and so forth along our um streets through the neighborhoods and that's correct as well uh one of the things it's it's got a like I said an undercarriage wash tire wash it means that the vehicles that are leaving the landfill particularly under muddy conditions like we saw frequently earlier this year will be leaving the landfill a lot cleaner they'll be dragging a lot less mud and maybe waste that gets underneath the vehicles dragging that back out onto the streets of the city and and you know potentially carrying that out into our neighborhoods.

Thank you sir.

Director Josh Kasavits sir is is this is this are you talking about automatic car wash?

Or will they still have the hand hand wash?

No, it will it's automatic so we uh uh we're looking at equipment now to install inside the building but it will wash the truck all the way around from front to back top to bottom while the driver just pulls into the bay and stays there for a few moments while you look at a normal car wash.

Exactly and it's an it's a no-touch system so it's just it's simply heated water that will be washing the debris and the and the dirt off the trucks.

How much water do you think it would take to wash a truck?

Have you ever looked into that I'm just curious.

I've not so I I don't have a great answer for that um and I don't have anything to compare it with.

I we actually don't have a meter on the current hose that we're using but that's something that we can include in this installation so we'll know.

Okay thank you.

Yes sir Duane if you don't mic can you speak some to the bidding process that this went through certainly we had three bids on this process um the low bid from the qualified bidder was a little bit over 1.6 million.

My recollection is that the high bid was about 2.3 million and we had and that the third one was in between most of the cost for this is actually going into the concrete because the slab for this building it's it's on a undeveloped piece of land the slab needs to be able to support heavy truck traffic of course so it's eight inches thick reinforced concrete same thing with the driveways the metal the building itself is going to be a fairly simple metal building but we need that uh that slab and the utilities run to that area including water, sewage, power and so on and and those things all kind of add to the cost of it.

The the expected lifespan of this truck wash would be between 20 and 30 years.

Okay.

I hope other departments in the future is we can get to the place where we do this as we not only are getting equipment that we need, but thinking about the future.

The only question I have since we're talking about it is there any equipment that will be delayed by saying yes to this that would delay other equipment that you're gonna need.

And can you speak to that priority of that?

I don't think so.

Um we have not um uh contracted for the actual machinery yet, and that has a shorter uh timeline than the building itself.

So I Jeff in terms of doing this truck wash, does that defer any trucks or uh collection equipment or anything else like that?

Yeah, thank you for clarification.

That's what I'm asking.

Like, you know, if we do this, and then are we gonna, you know, in three months, four months go, yeah.

Well, you know, we need some extra dollars to get this other truck, you know, and we bought this car wash when we really should have thought about the trucks.

Uh no, sir.

It's really a standalone project.

I don't think it uh impacts anything else that we're doing.

Okay.

In that terms.

That's what I want to do.

Thank you for your leadership.

Okay, thank you.

Um with that explanation, uh is there still an interest to pull item D off?

Well, I mean, I I'd like to make a motion to uh table uh item 1D until the next regular meeting just so we can receive uh all the bid information and have a chance to look at it and see what kind of went into some of that big difference uh in cost amongst the bids.

Um I think generally in in principle it's a probably a good project to have, but typically we get a chance to look uh and review those things.

So you know I just can't make that motion.

Okay.

I'll second it.

Okay.

Thank you.

We have a motion to second to table item D for further discussion.

Okay.

Mayor.

Yes.

Just to be clear, this is this was the low bid, correct?

The low bid of the all the bids.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um Madam Clerk, are there any citizens' comments on any of these items?

Yes, we have Lavon Morton for item one C.

Okay.

Devon, you recognize.

Well, let me just say I I certainly agree in ta on tabling this for further information.

I think the board actually needs to see the numbers for the other bids.

And I think the board also needs to look at the engineering estimate for this.

And and something that was just stated, it also the board should be aware of.

It sounded to me like, from what I just heard, this is the bay only.

This is not the equipment.

So I think the board needs to know in aggregate what's the cost of this, not just the frame, if I understood that correctly.

It includes the washing equipment.

This includes yes, sir.

Well, I I thought I just heard that we had not contract contracted for the washing equipment yet.

Steve Beams can company is a construction company.

They don't own this kind of equipment.

So are we right or we are not on this?

The bid that's under consideration this evening does not include the equipment.

It's just the building, the slab, and the utilities.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

Excuse me.

Well, again, I I don't mean to be difficult.

I think that that in general, if we can afford it, this is this is a good idea.

You know, and it's the if we're having to repair the trucks and try to clean the stuff out from under them, uh, when we do that, that's that's a problem for the people doing it, and we need to make working conditions reasonable.

But the equipment for this is gonna be expensive.

And if we're you know, if the board decides to do that, you know, I'll I'll go along with the board.

But I just we need to know all the information at one time when we approve something like this.

Okay?

Okay.

I think we we've got a motion second.

Mayor Mayor, excuse me.

Yes, go ahead.

Did the other bids include the equipment?

Did the other bids include the equipment?

There's a reason they were higher or no, sir.

Um the the item that was put out to bid was just the building, the slab and the utilities.

And what do you estimate the equipment to be at?

Probably on the order of 400 to 500,000.

And that's that's another item that would come back for a board approval.

Okay.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

We did have a motion to say I'm sorry, Director Christina.

I'm sorry.

I know we've got a motion and second on the table, so I'll be I'll be brief.

Uh you know, I'm coming into this discussion a little bit late, but we we just had a study session where we were, you know, presented with a lot of information, a study, you know, kind of advocating for a rate increase, and then to bring this, and I know Steve Beam, they do great work.

They do a lot of work for us, they do great work.

We've always had a good relationship with them on the sidewalks and things they've done.

Um but a two million dollar car wash and we're telling people we got to raise rates?

I mean, this is why people hate government.

I'm sorry.

That's it.

That's all for me.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other comments?

I'm sorry.

I just have one for one A, Mayor.

Go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um administration or Jeff, uh who can weigh in on this?

I know that the insurance costs and things are going up, and obviously that's uh probably a factor nationwide for a lot of people in in tow.

And I know that we were self-insuring essentially.

Have we ever looked at other routes and explored what those costs would look like on the increase?

And then also, is there ever an increase certain size where we would know we need to look that way?

You know, I mean, is if somebody could just kind of weigh into that, uh see Eric standing in the back.

I just I just had a question about that.

Certainly, and that is an evaluation that's done each year uh through a third-party consultant.

Uh but also I'll introduce Eric Garvin, our director of human resources to speak to that item.

Yes, every year, whenever we renew our insurance, we have our broker go out and uh they scour the market, receive back bids, and this was actually one of the lowest bids.

This is the existing provider that we have on our on our uh stop loss.

Uh the reason for that is that we had a very, very large claim this year uh that was in excess of two million dollars.

We will get a majority of that back in stop loss, but as it stands right now, we're still out the expenditure for that until we receive the reimbursement.

Uh and we've also seen a large increases in our pharmacy expenditures as well, and that's a big part of that uh is driven by just uh the economy at current.

Um pharmacy expenses are very, very high.

Uh we're up about 35 percent on on pharmacy expenditures as well.

So this was the best look we could do, is what I are you saying.

Yes, I I still feel like being a self-funded plan is way better than uh fully insured plan where we're at the mercy of the insurance company.

Basically, we're working with our TPA as the insurance company.

Was there any other outside optics of things that we can use to implement that would help us maybe uh offering up some sort of incentive program to this that the companies might see that as a uh a token of improving the health of our employees and sort of a reward system so that maybe we could drill down premiums?

Uh I mean, again, we set the premiums.

The the insurance company is not saying premiums now.

For our stop loss, that is basically just the claims exposure.

So what that is is based off of how much we had in claims and what the high dollar claims are, and then when we have uh employees that have maybe chronic illnesses or things that are going to be something that's going to be continual year over year, they look at that and all of those things factor into the stop loss renewal here.

Okay, thank you.

Are there any other questions on any item?

Um, did we have any other citizens' comments?

We do not.

However, we still have the motion for one D out on the table.

Right.

We do have a um motion or second to to pull uh to table D.

So do we need a vote on that?

Yes.

Okay.

Madam Kirk, call the roll.

Director Rego?

Yes.

Good?

Yes.

Kemp?

Yes.

George Kit Savis?

Yes.

Christina Kit Savis.

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you.

Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to approve the remaining consent agenda items.

Okay.

Thank you.

Are there any further comments on the consent agenda?

Seeing none, please call the roll.

Director Good?

Yes.

Kemp?

Yes.

George Kit Savis?

Yes.

Christina Kit Savis?

Yes.

Rigo.

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

At this time we will go to the officials' forum.

Uh I don't have anything for this evening.

Um Director Christina Cassavers, do you have anything for it?

Um nothing for me this week, thank you.

Director George Kasavits.

Um Jeff, you know, this water slide deal has really turned into something.

It it's you know, people uh people are are uh just making fun of us.

Just it's like we're just so disorganized and that that was like they were just the slob just thrown out there on the ground with no you know concern or anything.

Uh would what tell me what can we do to correct this?

I mean it is it's just an eye sort.

The I mean that is that is the question of the day, George, and and this is something I'm putting together to to relay to the board, but uh since you asked the question, I'll tell you on Friday we did take bids on put er wrecking the slides.

We have a we we've we've gone we have the four point two million dollars, we had two point six million of that that we spent on uh um purchasing the slides, getting them delivered and all and all of that from from the manufacturer and got the slides here.

Then we had uh design contract for about a hundred thousand dollars.

Then we had a uh a contract with a uh waterworks company to assemble the slides and get the fiberglass in shape and put them together.

The last piece of that is the construction, building the concrete foundations, erecting the steel.

How much was for the assembly, Jeff?

That contract was five hundred and nine thousand dollars.

So we're over four point two million, correct?

Not yet.

We have about uh out of that uh we have about six hundred and fifty thousand dollars that is left because the two point six million dollars, there's also sales tax that applies to that amount or much of that amount.

So we have out of that four point two million dollars, we have six hundred and fifty thousand dollars left that's unobligated and unspent on this project so far.

So then we took we have that last piece of the puzzle, which is the construction contract to install the concrete foundations, like I said, erect the steel, install the plumbing, do the the install the pumps and all of all the things that are required to um to operate the slides.

Okay, what about the electrical utilities and all of that?

We took bids on that particular project on Friday.

What about more parking?

Parking is not part of the slide project.

What were the bids for the construction?

We got two bids.

Um we got one bid for $3.2 million, and we got another bid for $2.8 million.

Just to put the slides up.

Yes, sir.

Oh, that was Jeff.

That's crazy.

Yeah, that that's uh so that is so that is our current problem.

We have six hundred and fifty thousand dollars and we have two bids from I mean one of them is from a company that we've used, and other is from another aquatics company.

Um but the I mean we have a we have a big difference in the amount of money we have left and the amount of money it's gonna take to erect the slides.

Jeff, that that's that's that's unacceptable.

Uh let me I'm gonna uh uh I'm you know what I'm ready to do, Jeff?

And I won't go on record saying I'm ready to sell those slides.

Take uh take our loss and be done with it.

There's no we can't afford there's no one who can afford that kind of money.

That's what I was advocating for before the 509 for the assembly was passed in April.

I mean, I know Director George Kit Savis and I have been knows all along, and I still get a lot of calls, very hateful, even though I didn't vote for this, but I understand people's frustration, but how how was the estimate so far off?

I mean four four point two million was supposed to include everything.

And I believe there was a director here that said he would personally guarantee it for the four point two.

So how were we so far off from the very beginning?

I I I can't answer that.

I did not originate the estimate.

Who did that uh definitively I I don't know.

I mean I know the um the previous administrator consulted with the with the management company on on costs that they've seen in the industry on other parks and projects that they've had, and I believe the the dollar the dollar amount came from from that discussion.

Okay, thanks.

Jeff?

Yes, sir.

Excuse me, right?

Can I talk go ahead?

You know, from from a business standpoint, all the all the all these costs should have been brought up front before we bought the slides.

You know, we we we rushed into that.

I mean, discount, what I don't know what kind of discount we got.

But we should have had every penny accounted for to see exactly what this is gonna cost.

I mean, y'all think.

So I like again the I uh I didn't want to hurt my feelings and sell those things.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um Director Kemp.

Thank you, Mayor.

I did get a call this uh today that I actually think is a valid concern I wanted to bring on just public record and ask administration to look into it.

The uh railroad crossing at Zero Street by the Walmart and that uh cafe there, the interchange around seventy-one highway and zero there.

That crossing is numbered four three four-five four seven T as in Tom.

It has a phone number on the sign that is not in working order.

And so this resident has spoken with our street department, which they said, you know, you need to talk to the highway, which they did do, and then the highway said, Well, you need to talk to the railroad.

Well, then they go to the railroad sign, the number's not even right, but then he's persistent enough to finally get a hold of someone with a railroad company, and uh, they even acknowledge to him that they didn't do a good job fixing it.

And uh, you know, they don't know when they're going to do this.

And I just I know that this may be out of our purview, but sometimes the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

So I'm here to squeak that that railroad crossing needs to be addressed.

He even commented as he drove over the railroad crossing, uh, a semi was traveling beside him and bounced, you know, being in that air ride seat, uh, bounced up noticeably in the vehicle as he was trying to document the sign.

So uh I just would love for this to be looked at.

I mean, the signs labeled Fort Smith Railroad Company.

I'm assuming they um are the ones that we need to be holding accountable.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Nothing to nightmare.

Thank you.

No.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh Mr.

Administrator.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

At this time, we're going to go into executive session.

Uh, and we will be making the following appointments to the advertising and promotion commission, to the Fire Code Board of Appeals and Adjustments, and also to the National League of Cities.

We're going to reconvene uh director Lee Kemp has something.

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

I I uh in the spirit of railroad talk, I forgot to talk about another important item.

Uh so the city administrator application process did close on the sixteenth.

And uh the HR department has been forwarding those resumes to us as a board of directors.

Um next steps.

And the one thing that I as a liaison wanted just to throw out there for us and just get a temperature for us as a board is to allow the HR department to identify the top five to eight candidates and then alphabetize that and then include that in a combined file to the board for an easy view with the remaining applicants being alphabetized in order as well.

But if they can also identify the top five date based on experience related to government and executive leadership, and allow the HR department to do initial screening interviews.

But if they can also identify the top five to eight based on experience related to government and executive leadership and allow the HR department to do initial screening interviews, and then as we focus on the budget and as we get the budget hearing done by the 14th after Thanksgiving, we could have an executive session uh taking the gleanings from the HR department and then have an executive session to come up with uh our next steps as far as either applicants to interview or whatever the board so wishes.

So I'd like to mobilize HR to be working while we're working on the budget, they're working on these candidates and the candidate pool and identifying the top five to eight and doing initial screenings.

But is there any feedback from the board?

Sounds reasonable to me.

Okay, thank you.

I agree.

Go ahead, I just said I agree.

Yeah, but I I would I would like to give HR some criteria what the what the board is gonna be looking for.

Yeah, so the initial screenings would be like do we need a business-oriented person, a conservative person?

I mean, it's you know, whatever the board thinks is the best.

Yeah, at this point, the only criteria which we can ask them to do that if we'd like to talk about it.

The only criteria I was having them start with was sheer experience and executive leadership experience and government experience.

But we can obviously we'll have the full pool to look at.

It's just having them to do some of the work on the initial of it.

The initial screening interview would be more like why Ford Smith, what would be something you'd like to see?

Um, and then also them maybe asking clarifying questions about their resume experience that they've noted.

So it'll just be a soft initial screening.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, thank you very much.

Uh at this time, uh the advertising promotion commission uh director Kemp is going to serve in that position.

Fire code board of appeals and adjustments, uh, Mr.

Carl Nevin, and on the National League of Cities uh voting delegates, uh, I will be serving on that position.

Uh at this time, uh I'll ask for a motion.

One more reminder if you don't mind.

Yes, we'll check.

Um the just a reminder the next uh weeks we'll have a study session on October 28th, next Tuesday.

That study session will be held here in the main room as opposed to the background.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, thank you.

With that, we'll understand a motion to adopt all appointment nominations.

So move.

Second.

Thank you.

All in favor?

Aye.

Okay.

With that, entertain the motion to adjourn.

So move.

Thank you.

All in favor?

Aye.

Okay, have a wonderful evening.

Thank you.