The City Commission met on May 12, 2026, for a regular meeting that included a public hearing on the proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budget and fees, several ordinance amendments, and extensive public testimony on police funding, traffic safety, immigration policies, and affordable housing. Mayor LeGrand presided, and an interpreter was present for Spanish-language public comment.
Call this meeting of City Commission to order and ask you all to join us as is our uh habit with a moment of silence. Please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Um Mr. Clerk, if you could call the role. Commissioner Kilgore. Present. Commissioner Knight. Commissioner Balchak. Here. Commissioner Purdue. Good evening. Commissioner Sasi. Mayor LeGrand. Present. And uh if our interpreter could come up and introduce himself, uh and explain his role in Spanish. He's here to interpret from Spanish to English and English to Spanish as needed. Good afternoon. Um, Frank, and I'm here to assist people uh to give public comment in Spanish. But me llamo Frank is toy aquí deponibile atrás en la sala. But I darles a da su comentario público andepani. Thank you. Um, and that brings us to our first opportunity for public comment. This is for public comment on items that are on the agenda. Um, so if you could reference the item you're uh addressing and limit your comments to three minutes. Um thank you. Can I add one thing just so we're clear on what's happening tonight? We do have a public, we do have a public hearing later on the budget and on fee a budget and fees hearing. So um just so you know that there's a different time for a public hearing, because that wasn't voted on today, but we have a public hearing for the budget um later on in the meeting. All right, just for uh clarification. Uh can I speak on uh committee of the whole item number four, which is approving the neighborhood investment plan? Is that something that I can speak on? Alright, cool. How are y'all doing? I'm D Jones, and I am a passionate entrepreneur and visionary. And uh, I like for the city government as they have adopted 3D printed construction or 3D printed houses. I like for them to continuously and annually make funding available to 3D print houses. The reason I say this is because I had a conversation with the 3D printed construction company that is in Ohio. This company actually helps high schools get high school graduation credit for learning 3D printed construction. I'm going to read some of the benefits so you understand the benefits and how this plays into the community because we can actually build a workforce. You can continuously have funding available for our local community to actually 3D print houses, and the students can actually earn graduation credit that actually can go to their high school uh graduation. And so who do they serve? They serve K through 12, seeking early career paths, incumbent workers seeking skill upgrades, justice involved individuals re entering the workforce recovery for community members and displacing workers from displaced workers from declining industry. What uh what participants earn industry recognized credentials, IRCs, apprenticeship certifications, high school graduation credits, and direct employment pipeline access. The revenue sources, school districts, and workforce contracts, state and federal workforce funding and tuition and employer training agreements. So I'm going to ask uh my state government and my federal government and my city government and my county government to continuously invest into the community and make 3D printed construction on the plan continuously after 2031 because I've already connected Jennifer Brock, who's the director of curricula, and uh Eric, who's the supervisor of curricula to this 3D printed construction company that's in Ohio, and they're already having conversations about how they can actually add this into the school district's curricula so we can actually have a good infrastructure that actually starts from our local community because education is so vital and our education system is broken, and people don't believe in GRPS how they should, but I believe in the things that I've been doing and the continuous passion and energy that I've been putting into this community. Also, uh just to say I'd like to thank JL because they did recommend the West Grand Neighbor Organization to purchase the school, the stock in school. So we did uh be uh get recognized as the uh neighborhood organization to purchase the stock in school where we can actually utilize the school to educate students on 3D printed construction, uh streaming digital assets, decentralized finance. So as you guys are going to be having fiscal plans in the uh future fiscal budgets, I ask that you also consider investing into the stock and hub once we actually get to close down on this school and actually be able to truly show the community, the globe, the united nations, the united states of what the community can be and how what true grassroots efforts and what true uh stand true to yourself actually brings to the community.