Good evening, everyone.

It is Thursday, April 23rd, 2026, and this meeting of the Huntsville City Council is called to order.

We are met in the chambers of the Huntsville City Council in Huntsville, Alabama, and all council members are present.

We welcome everyone who is joining us here in the chambers, and also those who are joining us on our many streaming platforms.

We will begin our meeting as we as is our practice with an invitation given by one of our Huntsville police chaplains, Dr.

Sonny Hatcher, which will be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance, which will be led by Councilmember John Meredith.

All who would like to join us in the prayer and invitation, please, uh the invocation of pledge, please stand.

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for bringing us here uh together tonight.

Your word reminds us that though we are many members, we are one body, each with a purpose, each needed.

Lord, let unity be present in this chamber on tonight.

Guide every decision with wisdom, respect, and compassion for one another and for those represented.

We ask that you watch over our military and our first responders, protecting them as they serve.

Bless everyone here and under the sound of my voice.

And when we leave this place tonight, grant us safe travel back home under your continued covering, allowing each of us to reach our destinations and find them better than when we left in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thank you, Dr.

Hatcher.

Thank you, uh Councilmember Meredith.

We have a lot of guests joining us tonight.

We welcome you, and we will be introducing you uh shortly.

We will move on to the approval of the agenda, Council members.

Item 10C has been withdrawn at the request of the uh sponsor.

Are there any other changes that need to be made to the agenda?

Hearing none, is there a motion to approve the agenda?

Motion from Mr.

Little Second from Mr.

Kling.

All in favor, please indicate.

I imposed uh the cat the uh agenda is approved.

Council members, you also have the minutes of the regular meeting of the city council held on April 9th, 2026 in front of you.

Are there any changes or additions to be made to those minutes?

Hearing none, the minutes will stand approved.

We have a couple of recognition from our mayor.

Um we the this is like our favorite part of the meeting.

We'll get to recognize really good work that's being done.

So we'll start with 5A, a proclamation declaring April 2026 as Fair Housing Month.

Mayor Battle.

Thank you, Madam President and Council.

If I could ask Alan Moosney to come forward, uh he is our uh building, our inspections director, and um wait, you're gonna come in a minute now.

I'm gonna I'm gonna get Scott Irwin to come forward right now, and we're gonna talk about fair housing.

He's got buildings, okay.

Scott, have you got some people with you?

I do, thank you, Mayor Battle.

So a couple of remarks of the Fair Housing Act was designed to ensure that every person, regardless of their background, family status, or physical ability, has the freedom to find a home and a neighborhood that meets and needs their needs and aspirations.

Fair housing is the heart of a vibrant and healthy city.

As we recognize this month of April as Fair Housing Month, we celebrate the progress we have made together and the inclusive future we are continuing to build.

So Miss Regina Mitchell, the President, and then Mr.

Tim Brown, which is the uh board member and the government affairs uh chairperson, uh Ms.

Lorraine Cordule, which is the treasurer of the Huntsville Area Association of Realtors, and also Miss Sharita Whitehead, which is a member of the North Alabama Black Realtors Association.

So it's partners like this these great organizations that allow us to continue to uh you know expand and enforce and make sure that fair housing is an opportunity and a right within the City of Huntsville.

So, Mayor Bell, you want to give some comments about the proclamation itself?

The proclamation hits pretty much what Scott was just talking about.

It talks uh talks about uh the NFL of the site.

This is the anniversary of the signing of the National Fair Housing Act, which was done in uh 1968, and the city supports the efforts of the Federal Government and the State of Alabama to assure equal access to housing opportunities, and whereas the City of Huntsville supports programs that will educate the public concerning their rights to equal housing opportunities to participate in efforts with other organizations.

Now, therefore, I, Tommy Battle, Mayor of the City of Huntsville to hereby declare April 2026 as Fair Housing Month in the City of Huntsville.

Guys, thank y'all so much for the work that you do day by day by day, and y'all are kind of the tip of the spear in this.

So I present this proclamation to y'all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I have a couple of words.

All right.

Thank you, Mr.

Earl and Mayor Battle and the Council for the advancement in fair housing in our area.

The city commits to equity in housing, ensuring that our neighbors remain a place where everyone, regardless of their demographics, has an opportunity to thrive.

Realtors do more than just sell homes.

We are neighbors invested in the city's integrity, and we couldn't be more grateful to have a partnership of our local leaders.

At the Huntsville Area Association of Realtors, we look forward to working alongside of the city to identify and eliminate any remaining barriers to fair housing.

The Realtor Association will continue to educate its members and work with our partners at the city towards an equitable future to all.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Guys, thank you all so much, and thank you for your support.

Thank you.

Okay.

The next item on the agenda is a uh 5B, a proclamation declaring May 2026 as Building Safety Month.

Now I'll have Alan Moosney come up to talk to us and talk to us a little bit about Building Safety Month and why we do building safety month.

Um I could tell I had the wrong proclamation at the wrong time when I saw the deer and headlights look in your eyes there.

Yes.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good evening, everyone.

Um want to kind of do a summary of what Building Safety Month is, but um we recognize Bill and Safety Month this May to join an international effort to uh dedication to one essential idea.

The places we live, work, and gather must be safe, resilient, and built for the future.

Building Safety Month reminds us that strong modern building cones aren't just technical documents.

They are the foundation of public safety.

They protect our homes from fires, our businesses from weather and severe weather in our communities from possible structural that can change the lives of an instant.

For more than four decades, we we correlate with International Co-Council along with the Board of Coalition of Professionals, uh government leaders, all of the city departments, and a vast number of safety advocates.

They have come together to promote this mission.

Working together reinforces the simple truth.

Building safety is a shared responsibility.

For every from every inspection, every ordinance to every updated code and every informed decision that helps contribute to safe, more sustainable structures and a brighter future.

This month we honor everyone's dedication as we ask each of you to commit yourself to help supporting safe, sustainable, and affordable buildings and for all of our communities.

When we invest in strong building practices that commit that commitment helps create a safer tomorrow for families, businesses, and future generations.

Thank you for your contributions and supporting and building safety and for helping to strengthen the place we live, we call Huntsville.

Thank you.

You know, this proclamation is as uh Alan was talking about it.

It makes you realize that we have so many departments in the city, and that's why this proclamation comes from the city that work on safety, work to make sure that your uh that the structures that you live in are safe, that the structures that you walk in are safe.

Uh that uh that we as a community uh you know that when you leave that you can come back, you'll come back home in a safe manner.

And so uh this has a lot of whereas is which most of them were hit by Alan talk, but this uh says now therefore I, Tommy Battle, mayor of the City of Huntsville, to hereby proclaim this month, May 2026 is Building Safety Month.

Alan, thank you for the work that y'all do day to day to make each of us safe, whether we're in our home or business or or just driving around.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman.

Thank you for your work.

Uh we now have several uh special recognitions and resolutions to be offered by council members.

6A is a resolution recognizing and congratulating John Blue Company on reaching 140 years of operation in the year 2026.

Uh, the chair moves for approval.

Second from Mr.

Kling.

All in favor, please indicate.

Aye.

And he posed the motion carries.

Uh, would John Blue, uh the John Blue team come forward.

Oh, I get the color code now.

You all planned that, didn't you?

Um we have uh Marty Gray, the CEO of uh the John Blue Company, and would you like to introduce your team?

Yes.

So today I have with me Brian McGee, we have Brendan Brewer, Kim Doggett, we have Elizabeth Van David and Craig Maspring with us today.

Wonderful.

And the reason we are here is we are celebrating 140 years.

So let me read a little bit of this resolution.

Whereas the City Council and the mayor of the City of Huntsville, Alabama wish to recognize and congratulate John Blue Company on reaching 140 years of esteemed development, workmanship, and integrity in the year 2026, creating trust and connections with customers, employees, and partners alike.

Originally founded in Lorenburg, North Carolina in 1886, the company relocated to Huntsville after a fire in North Carolina.

And the company has since demonstrated a continued commitment to meet the ever-evolving needs of farmers, applicators, and industries throughout the United States.

And whereas the legacy of the John Blue Company established by the company's reputable consistency and dependability continues today as innovation is evident in their products.

Which whereas throughout the year 2026, John Blue Company will recognize this milestone with new marketing initiatives, historical highlights, and continued investment in cutting-edge product solutions that will last for centuries to come.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the City Council and the mayor of the City of Huntsville to hereby recognize John Blue Company for 140 years of continued innovation, quality, and reliability in their company, demonstrating a legacy that has stood the test of time and will continue to deliver caliber products to consumers for generations to come.

We wish you a very happy additional 140 years.

Thank you for all your contributions to our communities.

I would just like to thank you and the council and mayor battle for this recognition.

It means a lot to our company.

In 140 years, we have seen a lot of things.

Our company has seen a lot of things.

The Great Depression, two world wars, and COVID.

And so is through the employees that we have in the past and the present that have carried on that has allowed this company to be so successful.

The City of Huntsville has been a great partner.

It has we like to think we have played a small role in the development of the city through the citizens that we employed and the innovations that we brought forth.

And so very thankful for this opportunity and really can't wait to continue on to be a part of this community.

Thank you for the work that you all are doing.

Let me present you now with this resolution.

And smile.

Thank you all so much.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Thank you for being here.

Oh, you're gonna get another.

Please go ahead.

I'm gonna scurry up here.

All right, Ms.

Watkins, are you ready?

We've got a bunch of them now.

6B is a resolution commemorating the 65th anniversary of Drake State Community and Technical College.

Is there a motion to approve?

So moved.

Motion from Ms.

Watkins, second from Mr.

Little.

All in favor, please indicate.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Ms.

Watkins, would you like to make that uh presentation?

Good evening, everyone.

Dr.

Sims.

If you want to bring anyone up with you, you can so I'm honored tonight to recognize J.F.

Drake, State Technical and Community College, and Dr.

Sims, who's doing phenomenal things.

You're doing some great things there, Drake.

Awesome.

Okay.

So whereas the City Council and Mayor of Huntsville, Alabama recognize the significant role of J.F.

Drake's state community and technical college, has played in expanding access to higher education and advancing workforce development opportunities for the citizens of Huntsville and North Alabama.

Whereas J.F.

Drake State Community and Technical College was established in 1961 in Huntsville, Alabama, as Huntsville State Vocational Technical School, opening its doors with 27 students enrolled in four technical programs.

Whereas in 1966, the institution was renamed to honor Joseph Fanning Drake, a distinguished educational leader and longtime president of Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University, whose leadership and vision contributed greatly to the advancement of higher education in Alabama.

Whereas in 1973, Drake State achieved technical college status and began awarding the associate in applied technology degree, further expanding its mission to prepare students for high demand careers.

Whereas in 2013, the institution became JF Drake State Community and Technical College, uniquely combined comprehensive community college academic transfer programs with advanced technical training and workforce development programs designed to meet the evolving needs of the community.

Whereas for 65 years, Drake State has served as a critical workforce development partner with House Fund North Alabama, offering associate in applied science, associates in art, associate and science degrees, as well as short-term certificates and industry recognized credentials aligned with high-demand fields such as advanced manufacturing, aerospace, health care, and information technology.

Whereas Drake Stake has demonstrated leadership and workforce innovation, including early designation as a Microsoft Authorized Academic Training Partner, serving as an EPA HVAC certification testing site, and participating in employer-driven training initiatives such as a lot.

Whereas the college continues to expand its capacity to train the next generation of skilled professionals through investments in modern facilities such as the LIDOS Advanced Training Complex, which they you cut the ribbon on last year, right?

And it's a beautiful facility too, supporting aerospace and advanced manufacturing education.

Whereas Drake State has secured competitive federal and workforce grants that strengthen students' pathways into science, technology, and other high-demand career fields, including becoming the first institution in Alabama to receive a United States Department of Labor Strengthening Community Colleges training grant.

And as the college celebrates its 65th year during the week of April 27th, this milestone represents six and a half decades of educational access, workforce excellence, and sustained contributions to the economy to the economic vitality of the City of Huntsville and State Alabama.

You see, they had a lot of stuff for me to read.

Dr.

Sims, would you like to say something?

She read all the way as is, so I don't have to say much.

But um, Councilwoman Watkins, Madam President, Mayor, and City Council members, thank you.

It's an honor for us to serve this community for over 65 years.

We've been providing workforce development to strengthen our community, North Alabama.

And so we're really excited to continue this partnership and look forward to the great things of the future.

I have an amazing team, some of my team members here.

And so we thank you for this resolution.

Oh, no problem at all.

Mayor, would you come down and take pictures with a week?

We can't leave the mayor out.

Not when you got Drake in the building.

Alabama and him up next if you want to stay down.

All right, everybody.

All right.

Six C is a resolution honoring Alabama Alabama AM Men's Tennis Team 2026 SWAC regular season champions.

Move to approve.

Motion from Ms.

Watkins, second from Mr.

Little.

All in favor, please indicate.

The motion carries.

Ms.

Watkins.

You're gonna be getting a workout tonight.

You could be playing with the tennis team after we're done.

Yes, yes.

Um can I get the Alabama AM University men's tennis team to come up, please?

Mayor, you want to come down?

So you all know anytime it comes to Alabama AM University, I get super excited, and I'm always happy to have the Bulldogs in the house, but I'm especially happy tonight because they're being recognized for being the 2026 Southwestern Athletic Conference, also known as SWAC, men's tennis champs.

That's the book of confidence.

So are you the coach?

Willis I'm gonna let the coach speak because I'm gonna let him tell a lot of these great things.

And our extraordinary Athletic Director and VP Paul Bryant.

Uh our support staff, sports medicine, academic enhancement.

It's always a group effort.

But most importantly, I'd like to thank this wonderful young man for all the effort they put out throughout the year, early mornings, late night, and just laying it all on the tennis court day in, day out, with uh me demanding always more and more from them.

You know, um it's great to be recognized by the city, and thanks for reminding us that it's not always about Alabama AM, and it's also for the City of the Hospital that we do this great job.

So thank you very much for this recognition.

Again, we want to I like to echo his sentiments and also say that uh mayor, we truly appreciate all the support.

Councilwoman Watkins, again, we thank you.

You are an alum and we appreciate all that you do.

Uh we are Huntsville's only Division One program, and we know the support that you give, so we want to thank you.

Say thank you.

And as always, our family, you can come up and take the picture with us if you want.

Thank you.

And because one championship wasn't enough, we have 6D, a resolution honoring Alabama AM's women's bowling team 2026 SWAC Tournament Champions.

Is there a motion to approve?

Chair makes a motion.

Second.

Second from Ms.

Watkins.

All in favor, please indicate.

Any opposed, motion carries.

Ms.

Watkins.

Yeah.

Bring it down.

Can I get the women's bowling team to come up, please?

So I think it was it two weeks ago, we had the women's basketball team who won the swag championship, and the coach was the coach of the year.

And then we turned around and the tennis men's tennis wins SWAC Championship.

And now we have the women's bowling team, SWAC champions.

Can I say that the Bulldogs are really showing up this year?

So where is the coach?

Coach, you want to come up and say some things?

Thank you very much, Councilman.

Thank everybody for being here.

Um what can I say that my team here at these girls are amazing?

Um we fought up fought up heel the whole weekend, and um each time we we were on the ropes each time we pulled it out, and it was something to be a part of.

And it was an amazing run.

And I'm so proud of these kids.

They never gave up.

These young ladies, they never gave up, they fought to the end.

And before we knew it, it was over.

We had it won.

And it was something that it was an amazing run.

So I want to thank them for supporting us, the team.

I want to thank the council, council, um, mayor, and uh AD and President Wims are also for being part of us.

But it's something that uh once in a lifetime get a chance to enjoy something like this, and I I was being blessed to be a part of something like this.

So thank you very much, Councilman.

Again, we thank you.

Our women's, it was interesting.

Uh they were picked not to win it.

And so it was it was just an honor to see how hard they fought, uh, how great they are, and how well they represented Alabama AM.

And so, again, from me and from the president, I again say thank you and congratulations and go Bulldogs.

Bulldog family, come on up, I don't talk about the point.

Congratulations to the whole Bulldog family.

Those are great wins.

And then finally, because they have to eat sometime.

Six E is a resolution recognizing G's Country Kitchen for 30 years of outstanding service to the Huntsville community.

Is there a motion to approve?

A motion from Mr.

Kling.

Second, second from Mr.

Little.

All in favor, please indicate.

Motion carries.

Can I get um Maurice and Greta Russell to come up, please?

And anybody that's here with G's.

And Greta.

So you cannot have lived in Huntsville, even if you've been here two years and not heard of Gee's Country Kitchen.

If you haven't, I'm just gonna tell you you missed a treat.

I remember 30 years ago when they opened this business, and I came like the second or third day because the line was out the door.

And I I've been a customer ever since, but I didn't bring them here because of that.

I brought them here because I don't think people understand 30 years in the restaurant business is a significant milestone.

Not only that, our entrepreneurs drive the workforce.

They create jobs within the community.

And they are in District One, and that's one of the reasons I want to recognize them.

They could have taken up roots several times, moved somewhere else, but they stayed planted right in District One, and for that I appreciate it.

So I'm going to give you a little background.

Whereas the mayor and Mayor, you're going to come down again, aren't you?

Because the mayor eats there a lot too.

Whereas the mayor of Huntsville and the City Council proudly recognize G's Country Kitchen, a beloved family-owned and operated restaurant that has faithfully served the community for 30 years.

Whereas under the exceptional leadership of owners Maurice and Greta Russell, G's Country Kitchen has become a true cornerstone of hospitality, known throughout Huntsville for its welcoming atmosphere, quality food, and steadfast commitment to excellence.

Whereas a family operated establishment, G's Country Kitchen represents the very best of small business entrepreneurship, reflecting the values of hard work, perseverance, and a lasting family legacy.

Whereas for three decades, G's Country Kitchen has provided more than meals, offering a place of fellowship, connection, and community engagement.

This has become a place where residents from all walks of life gather to build strong connections, exchange ideas, discuss business, and enjoy genuine commodity.

Whereas the Russell's dedication of service extends well beyond this restaurant, contributing to the economic strength and cultural richness of the City of Huntsville.

Whereas the celebration of 30 years in business is a significant milestone that reflects an enduring commitment to excellence and continued support and loyalty of the Huntsville community.

Now, therefore, let it be as resolved that the City Council and Mayor of Huntsville do hereby recognize and congratulate G's Country Kitchen on its 30th anniversary and commend Maurice and Greta Russell for their leadership and contributions to the community.

We express sincere appreciation for their years of service and extend best wishes for continued success in the years to come.

And I'm going to pass the mic over.

A lot of people know my Reese, because Maurice is out talking and joking and making sure you're good.

But this is the cook.

Maurice will be no good without the cook.

But they will be no good without each other.

So I'm going to give them the mic.

You said it all, Michelle.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dummy Battle.

I just want to thank each and every one of y'all.

It wouldn't be no G's without y'all.

And I got to get back to work before I get fired.

Thank y'all.

And now we'll move on to some other business.

It's always fun to celebrate good things going on.

Item agenda item seven is announcements and presentations.

Before we go on to the presentation that I know everyone is waiting for, let me make one quick announcement, and that is that the City Council will hold a joint meeting with the Huntsville School Board on June 1st, 3 to 5 p.m.

in these chambers.

We will be looking at development review and demographics in the city and how future growth is going to impact the school system, and that will be open to the public.

So now we will go on to 7A, an update from Huntsville Hospital regarding the Huntsville Health System and Crestwood transaction.

We welcome the CEO, Jeff Sams, who is joining us tonight, as well as the Crestwood board chairman of the Crestwood Hospital Board, Mike Gillespie, who is no stranger to many people in the city.

We also have a number of members of the Huntsville Hospital team who have joined us tonight.

We should, I should, as an introduction say that Huntsville Hospital operates independently of the City of Huntsville.

And we have invited Mr.

Sam's to come and make a public presentation to the Council tonight, and we hope that this presentation will answer questions that residents have asked asked us and provide much needed information that the hospital was not able to release previous to the merger.

So uh and I've also been told that uh Mr.

Sam's will be staying after he concludes the presentation and after citizen agenda comments out in the foyer if anybody wants to have a private conversation has still has questions.

So, Mr.

Sam's team, welcome.

Um the time is yours.

Thank you.

Uh we're delighted to be with you tonight.

We appreciate your time.

Uh as President Robinson mentioned, we were unable to share these updates until the transaction closed.

And we're delighted to be here tonight to not only explain why we believe Cresswood joining our system is the right thing for the community, but also share updates from the community about the work our health system does across North Alabama.

I will introduce just a couple of people that are here with me.

First, on the left here is Tracy Doty.

Tracy is both the president of Huntsville Hospital and executive vice president of our Madison County operations, responsible for all of our hospitals in Madison County, including Crestwood, and I am delighted he is here tonight.

To his left, uh Don Webster with Hemse, no stranger to many of this room who has been a leader in EMS for longer than he probably cares for me to admit here with you today.

Mike Gillespie was kind enough to take his personal time to join us.

He is well known in the community, and I am delighted Mike would be with us today.

Kyle Buchanan, Kyle started as the president of Crestwood Medical Center on Monday.

This is his fourth day.

He was with us previously at Helen Keller.

He is a native of Alabama, a wonderful leader, a man of great integrity, and I am delighted.

I think the community will get to know Kyle and enjoy having him here very much.

I think that oh John Howe, I cannot forget John Howe, the president of HHEMS in Himsey.

John is uh John's an amazing leader, and the community is lucky to have him.

I appreciate all of them joining me tonight.

So I'm going to talk about Crestwood.

I am going to talk about some positive things, and then we're going to welcome some questions.

Okay.

Our board.

So we treat everybody that walks through our door.

We are locally governed by the health care authority, these 11 people up on the screen.

They are volunteers.

They're not shareholders.

They volunteered their time tirelessly.

This is not an easy board to be part of.

Amazing community service.

Dr.

Pat Sims is here tonight, and I am grateful for her leadership along with the other members you see on this screen.

In addition, um, in addition to these folks, we have hospital boards at all regional hospital boards at all of our hospitals and at Hemsey.

Together, there's 130 volunteers helping oversee what we do.

We've taken some criticism that we are not transparent enough or we're not volunteer-led enough.

I think many of these 130 people who are involved in our governance might disagree with that.

They are volunteers, they are wonderful people, and we have been serving the community for 130 years.

This is our footprint.

It stretches across North Alabama from from Red Bay to Sheffield over to Scottsborough and Fort Payne.

We're equally responsible for every hospital on that map.

We're just as responsible for what we do in Red Bay and Sheffield as we are in Huntsville and Marshall County and Scottsboro.

We take that obligation very seriously.

We are very proud of the work we have done to maintain rural health care in North Alabama.

There is a rural health care crisis in Alabama, but we like to say not in North Alabama.

We are proud of the fact that we have kept these hospitals open.

With the growth of the Huntsville community, there is no way we could care for everybody in Huntsville.

We need strong rural hospitals if we're going to provide the service people deserve in Huntsville and allow neighboring communities to have the health care they need to grow and thrive.

We're really proud of that.

Our footprint creates a unique opportunity.

There's nobody else who has this footprint in Alabama, and we think it's the right thing for the community, and we are delighted to try to describe that to you tonight.

By the numbers, just a few quick stats of who we are.

We see 363,000 patients in our ERs every year, over 100,000 admissions.

We deliver over 10,000 babies, over half those babies at the Huntsville Hospital for Women's and Children's.

That is the busiest delivering hospital in Alabama.

Huntsville has become a regional hub for health care.

Over 41 percent of the patients we care for in Huntsville come from outside the county into the county for health care.

That does a couple things for the local Huntsville community.

One, it creates a lot of jobs here.

We will show you that in just a minute.

We have a lot of employment, a lot of economic growth is because people drive in here for health care.

It also allows us to have advanced medical care that is only possible if you have the scale of a regional medical center.

Our neonatal ICU, trauma, heart attack care, many other programs that the community only has because of this scale.

A few more of those up here on your screen.

We are very proud of our trauma program, pediatric ER, pediatric ICU.

A lot of these things they require both scale and they require subsidies.

And if we don't have the footprint we have, we can't offer these things to the community.

Now let's talk about Crestwood for a minute.

Wonderful people at Crestwood.

I want to talk for a minute about their ownership.

So Crestwood was previously owned by community health systems.

Community Health Systems is a publicly traded investor-owned company.

They operate about 80 hospitals across the country.

They have shareholders.

And reasonably, until we close the transaction, they didn't want me and the media talking about their company.

That's why I couldn't talk about this until tonight.

There is wonderful people at Crestwood, and I wish anybody who is concerned about this could be in the hospital with us seeing the interactions between the Crestwood staff and our team.

We learned shortly before Thanksgiving through representatives that Crestwood was was on the market and was going to be sold.

And when they approached us about the possibility of that maintaining over local governance, we work with that board you saw and made a challenging decision that we felt like local governance over something as important as health care was the right thing to do.

We're proud to make the investment.

We think it gives us an opportunity to use capacity at Crestwood to better serve the community and make sure every dollar is reinvested locally in our hospital.

Wonderful people we've met at Crestwood, the board, Mike, everybody.

The ownership structure is different.

Crestwood is a very financially successful hospital.

Most of that money was leaving our community.

Of the cash generated from the operation of Crestwood, well over 90 percent was leaving our community to go to shareholders or retire their debt.

That changes going forward.

All of those dollars will stay in our community, and every dollar will get reinvested in the hospital.

Talk a little bit about, we knew we would find some some deferred maintenance needs, and we want to just describe this.

So in the first 90 days we've been there, we have already committed $4 million of capital investment in Crestwood.

That's four times what they have received annually the last four years.

If we just maintain Crestwood's historical financial success, keep that money in the community, we can fully service the debt of the acquisitions and more than 10 times increase the capital investments into the hospital.

A few examples of what is already up there.

We've approved funding for a new roof for backup water heaters, for clinical equipment.

There's amazing staff at Crestwood, and they deserve to have the latest equipment to take care of their friends and neighbors.

And just if anybody wonders, just one point of question I get does my compensation or anybody on our team influenced by this transaction?

There is nobody on our team, self-included, that makes an extra dollar due to the Crestwood transaction.

Our compensation is completely disconnected from how we perform at Crestwood or the acquisition itself.

There is also a lot of comments about quality ratings.

A lot of this is generated by the Leapfrog report, where we believed it was inappropriate that they gave us a poor score for a survey we didn't complete.

Hospitals in Florida felt the same way and filed a lawsuit and recently won that lawsuit, and Leapfrog was forced to admit that we were right, that it was inappropriate to grade us that way, and that that grade has been removed.

Now we're preparing to complete the leapfrog survey.

It's it's our staff deserve to be recognized for the great care they receive, and we don't want the community to have that mark.

So we're preparing to complete in the survey, and we're we're we will do that in the future.

But we felt good that that was taken away.

We're proud of the quality we deliver.

U.S.

News considers us the second best hospital in Alabama to UAB.

And our CMS star ratings in the latest ratings that we'll soon post.

Huntsville Hospital will become a three-star hospital.

Crestwood already is.

We're proud of the quality we deliver to people every day.

I'll also make a brief comment on our high reliability training program.

We have spent an enormous amount of time.

Every day in the morning at every hospital, leaders are on a phone talking about patient safety, making sure we provide great care for people.

Really proud of the high reliability training we have done.

So we went from 14 hospitals to 15 hospitals, and it generated a lot of commentary that all of a sudden we could dictate what people pay for health care.

So, in order to try to put that to rest, I'd like to talk for a second about how we get paid.

So if you look up there, the the far two right parts of the of the chart, Medicare, Medicare and Medicaid, that money comes from the Federal Government primarily.

That's over half our reimbursement.

They pay us below cost, and I have a rate taker with the Federal Government.

They tell me how much they're going to pay.

We have to treat every single patient that walks through the door, and we do it below cost.

That's Medicare Medicaid.

There's almost 10 percent that's self-pay.

Again, we treat everyone.

Caring for that self-pay percentage generates 172 million dollars of uncompensated care.

Care we do for free to make sure people can get taken care of.

Then the remaining 37 percent is commercial insurance.

In Alabama, that's predominantly one payer that has over 90 percent of the market, and I assure you I cannot dictate what they pay us for care.

We are a larger regional health care system.

We feel like we have leveled the playing field a little bit, but I assure you I have no ability to dictate what people pay for health care.

We do have the scale to make sure the resources are available in our community, and they all get reinvested to make sure people can get the care they need.

We do a lot of things outside the hospital walls, we're really proud of.

We put $14 million a year over the last few years in a community health initiative funding things like CASA, the community free clinic, and others.

I'll call out one at the bottom our athletic trainers.

We're really proud of this, and I don't think it gets enough attention.

Between Huntsville and Crestwood, we spend almost $4 million a year putting athletic trainers in the school system.

That takes a financial burden off our school system and allows those tax dollars to be used to make sure children get a great education.

We're proud to do that for the school system.

We think it's an important investment in the community.

Now I'll talk about workforce for a minute.

So we we're proud of the jobs we create and being an economic driver.

We have over almost 22,000 employees right now, 63 percent of those in Madison County.

We updated our economic impact, our health system taken together has a $7.4 billion economic impact on the regional economy, and second only to Redstone Arsenal, we're the largest employer.

So let's let's talk about how we invest in people and where our money goes.

The bar chart on the excuse me, the pie chart on the left, 56 percent of our expenses goes to salaries.

We're a people business.

If we don't have workforce, we cannot run the hospital.

So 56 percent of our money goes to people, 21 percent to supplies, pharmaceuticals supplies, uncompensated care, you see that now have left almost six percent.

Our operating margin is two percent.

So we keep two cents on the dollar, that's our profit margin, two percent, to do all this stuff for the community.

You see on the right are capital investment.

We're spending seven and a half percent of our revenue on capital improvements, and we have dramatically accelerated that over the past few years with projects we will show you just in a minute, to make sure this growing community has the infrastructure it needs.

If there is any financial people on the call or in the audience, you take a 7.5 percent capital investments compared to our depreciation and amortization, we're spending over 150 percent of our depreciation to replace our assets and make sure we are able to grow.

Again, every dollar we collect is being reinvested in our community.

We also create a lot of jobs.

Um the line chart is our growth, including acquisitions if we've grown.

Um, preparing for this presentation for the first time, we went back and looked and said, look, if you take away the the acquisitions, how many jobs have we created in the last four years?

It is 2100 jobs we have created providing health care in the last four years, 70 percent of those in Madison County.

We think we play two roles in economic development here and in the region to one, create jobs.

Health care people, they pay mortgages, they pay taxes, they're here stimulating the economy, and helping recruit industry.

If you go to Scottsburgh and they are trying to bring people to Scottsboro, they need a hospital.

And we will work with Mayor McCaymie and folks in Scottsburgh, they have to have their regional hospital, and they might not if we weren't there to help them.

We have got amazing educational partnerships.

Some of them are here tonight.

I won't go down this.

This is just some of the logos of the hundreds of institutions we work with.

I don't have to tell people in this room how blessed we are to have educational partners like this across North Alabama.

We also run a bunch of our own schools.

At any given time we have more than 200 students that are going to school in our facilities, getting a free education and a job when they graduate, pharmacy technicians.

We had an EMS graduation last week where 10 new EMTs went into the workforce.

They get that free education and then they get a job when they graduate.

This happens all the time.

It's about a $6 million commitment.

There's more physician training in Huntsville than I think people realize, and this is something I think we need to talk more about.

First of all, recruitment, we have recruited 154 physicians to Madison County since 2022.

Together with our primary partner, UAB, we have 137 medical residents training at Huntsville Hospital right now.

Crestwood has a residency program with 60 additional physicians.

I want the community, there's nearly 200 resident physicians right now in Madison County getting trained.

Critical for our community's growth.

We are also delighted we will start a residency next year in Marshall County, again partnering with UAB.

And following that, we plan to start when in Decatur.

That's well along the way.

When that's done, we're looking at more than 250 residents learning and training in North Alabama to support rural community.

It's so important because over half of physicians stay where they train.

And if we want to have the physician workforce we need, we've got to fund these programs.

So nurses, let's talk for a minute about nurses.

My mom is a nurse, and she might be watching right now.

So I gotta watch my P's and Qs here.

The Crestwood acquisition generated a lot of discussion that now we can control nursing labor and we don't pay nurses enough, and we never will.

Let's just try to use some facts to address that head on.

Since 2022, we have hired over 4,500 nurses that accepted our offers of employment.

Our vacancy rates are three are below the national average at 3 percent.

And our turnover rate is consistently below the national average.

So we are hiring thousands of people.

We have a vacancy rate below the average, and our turnover rates, more of them stay with us than average.

And then our compensation.

We have a lot of nurses.

And when we go make a compensation adjustment from nursing, we're spending a lot of money, and we have to be thoughtful and we have to plan those investments.

We have done it three times since 2021, $65 million.

The next one goes into effect in July, and we will spend nearly over $30 million increasing nursing compensation.

When you take it all together, how much we pay nurses, if you take so the initial rate is not the whole story.

We pay more if you work a night, nights, weekends, shift differentials, if you'll train someone.

When you take all that together, you take the amount we spend on nursing and the amount of hours people work, our gross pay per hour across all our nurses is over $45 an hour in July.

So we are hired over 4,500.

Our vacancy rates are lower than average in our turnover, and we're paying nearly $45 an hour on average in July for our nursing labor.

Up in the upper right, 53 percent of Madison County nurses work in hospitals.

The rest work in clinics, and in physician offices, in surgery centers, nursing homes, and elsewhere.

I I understand the perception.

We're the largest nursing employer, there's no question.

I understand the concerns, but we don't control the market for nursing.

We're trying our best to support nursing, to support training for nursing, and make sure they are compensated fairly for the amazing work they do.

A few other quick things on workforce.

We've got a wonderful group, amazing team, a child care clinic, employee health care clinic.

I'll go through these quickly in the interest of time.

We're proud to partner with the city at Mill Creek to build workforce housing in Mill Creek.

I was delighted to drive down governors and see ground moving in Mill Creek, and we will come along in a later phase and build a workforce housing for our staff and be part of that amazing community.

I want to talk quickly about a few projects.

The Madison Street Tower expansion.

If you drive downtown, you'll see this.

We're right on track.

At about a year from now, we'll be caring for patients in there.

This is 120 million dollars of construction, 30 million dollars of equipment.

It's made possible by a 10 million dollar gift, the largest in our history.

There's some really amazing people that live in Huntsville.

Inside that building will be 120 new patient rooms, state-of-the-art ICU for cardiothoracic neurosurgery.

It will improve our ER wait times.

If you are waiting in our ER, more than likely, it's not the ER.

It's their people waiting for a bed.

This addresses that issue.

We're also we've opened a lot of clinics in the last few years.

I chose to highlight too.

We constructed a primary care clinic at Redstone Gateway to better serve the Arsenal.

In the very near future, we'll open a clinic on Alabama AM's campus.

The photo in the right is not Stark Art.

I'm going to get the name right here.

That will be our first provider.

That's Alabama AM alum Tammy Smith, who will be a physician's assistant serving her community and the broader community in that clinic.

So we look forward to a ribbon cutting very soon at Alabama AM.

On the lower left, you'll see our children's hospital.

It is very busy keeping up with the growing community.

We're in the process of planning for an expansion of the children's hospital now.

We'll come out in the parking lot and get more space for babies and our children.

One comment about mental health care.

We're proud of our role in that.

It's a tremendous challenge for the community.

What I would like the community to know is we're the provider of last resort.

We're the people that don't say no.

We got great partners, Wellstone and others.

But when somebody is having an acute mental health crisis, they come to us and we don't say no, no matter how full the place is.

We're involved in over 90 percent of the intent to file patients brought through the ER.

We have a 30-bed acute unit in Huntsville, and we operate a freestanding emergency mental health facility indicator.

Quickly emergency care.

People waiting in the ER get a lot of comments, so let's talk just a minute about that.

The HHs you see on that graph are the three Huntsville emergency departments.

We add Cresswood and their free standing ER they have in harvest.

We have recently committed to building two free standing ERs, one in North Huntsville, one in Hampton Cove.

Our last regulatory approval is in a couple weeks.

We expect to start construction on those in the fall.

We'll follow that by following through on the FED that Crestwood was planning to build in Madison.

At that point, you get that map.

That is what this growing community needs to provide emergency care close to your home and transfers into our hospitals when you need it.

I want to recognize Himsey.

We're so proud to be part of the first responder community.

They drive over five and a half million miles across North Alabama.

Incredibly proud of these folks in the middle of the night get to answering the call, showing up to take care of their neighbors.

We have done a lot of work to try to get those trucks back on the road.

This chart people can look at later.

What this means is wall time.

So if you come in the ER, we need to get that ambulance unloaded and back in service as soon as possible.

We have dedicated beds to reduce that wait time by 75 percent.

And the main ER in Huntsville, subject of a lot of comments about delays, they have a fast track area.

So if you are lower acuity, you can come in and be seen.

That's reduced our left without being seen rate by nearly half.

Finally, a whole blood program.

I'm so proud of this, and the whole community, John Howe and Don Webster and their team deserve so much credit for this.

It started in Hemsey.

We're expanding it to all of our services across eight counties.

This makes whole blood available on the scene.

The gentleman in the picture is a hunter in Sheffield who thanked us for investing in this to save his life.

That is because of these work of these gentlemen behind you, and uh we're so proud to support them and bring this across North Alabama.

I'm almost done.

Telemedicine.

Uh we can't do what we do across the region uh all from Huntsville.

We have to use the resources we have in our regional hospitals.

Technology opens the door for that.

The graph just shows you the growth of our telemedicine program, the most recent addition being cardiology consultation in Marshall County.

So now if you are a patient or Marshall Hospitals, a cardiologist from Huntsville can do a consultation, and you don't have to leave Marshall and come to Huntsville to see the doctor.

Ninety percent of the time when we do that, people stay in their local community.

When our scale and footprint gives us an opportunity connecting our EMR using telemedicine to make sure this is fully optimized.

Last slide, and I welcome your questions.

Here's what I want you to see in five years.

I want you to see connected hospitals where patient people get care close to their home when they need it.

Your medical information is in one MEMR EMR, your medical images are in one database, and you can get care close to home when you need it and have a bed in Huntsville when you need advanced specialty care.

We have a unique opportunity to do that because of our footprint.

Cresswood joining us makes that even stronger, and we are delighted that they are part of us.

I really appreciate your time.

I would welcome any questions council members may have.

Mr.

Clean.

Thank you, Madam President.

Mr.

Sams, thanks for coming down here.

Uh you did explain something that I didn't quite understand at the beginning, but uh I think being out here, I think has been good.

This is a good forum.

It's public and we're being televised, and we're being streamed over the internet, so I think you know, getting information out.

Uh a question, a couple of questions I have received from people, and you know, we just read about things and try to, you know, make questions of your own to ask about.

Um the compensation from nursing.

There seems to be some concerns that uh you're going to have a bunch of Crestwood hospital nurses uh coming in.

What's going to happen to their salaries?

Are they going to be dropped to a lower level, or how is that going to be addressed?

That's a great question.

No, none of the nurses and actually none of the staff at Crestwood will see any reduction in their compensation.

They all came over at comparable compensation.

Um, just other numbers where in July, we're raising our new grad starting rate for inpatient nurses across the health system to $29 an hour.

And again, the gross when you take it all together across all of our nursing in July will be about a little over $45 an hour.

We believe those rates are competitive.

We compete with Birmingham, with Nashville, lots of physicians' offices for nurses, and if we don't pay competitively, we won't have the staff to execute.

The um Crestwood Hospital, you kept talking about Crestwood.

Uh is that going to be changed?

Is that going to be known as Huntsville Hospital?

Is there going to be a big sign?

Huntsville Hospital and Crestwood hospital sign comes down or it's a great question.

I'm glad you asked it.

I was supposed to cover it when I was on that slide.

Um, Crestwood is staying Crestwood.

A lot of people like it.

It's uh there's an incredible culture there of it's a little smaller hospital, parking is a little easier.

We're going to leave it all alone.

Um I have a Crestwood badge I wear when I go over there.

We respect the history.

People like Mike, uh Dr.

Pam Hudson and others created there, we respect that.

We're going to honor it, we're going to keep that hospital the same.

And people like going to Crestwit, if you are doctors there, if you like the look and feel, it's going to be there for you unchanged.

Are the uh employees at we'll call it Crestwood?

Are the employees at Crestwood, are they going to stay there?

Are they in danger of losing their jobs or everybody at Crestwood came over and got a fresh start?

Now, just like every company, we have policies and procedures people have to follow.

Every Crestwood employee came over and everybody gets treated the same going forward.

So we hope we keep them all and we're delighted to have them.

It's really been an incredible experience being in the hospital.

One thing I have learned there are different doctors that have what do they call it, privileges or relationships?

Some are at Hudson Hospital, some are at Crestwood.

What happens to those uh relationships that the doctors have that you know are currently involved with Crestwood Hospital?

Yeah.

When a physician works at a hospital, they apply for privileges at that hospital.

Huntsville and Crestwood are separate hospitals in that regard.

Some physicians have applied to have privileges at both, and some work at one or the other.

None of that changed.

So the medical staff at Crestwood on March 31st and April 1st was exactly the same.

It is the same folks, and they govern themselves.

So it is no change in that, and uh doctors that work at Crestwood will stay there, and some work at both places.

Can you explain, I guess, exactly what it is mentioned by privileges for a doctor at a hospital.

I have just seen that.

When a physician wants to work at a hospital, they have to apply for membership and demonstrate that they have the clinical competence to do what they want to do care for patients effectively.

Within the organization, each hospital has bylaws where physicians govern each other along with the governing board to make sure they can do that safely and they have the education and training to be safe, and they have to get re-credentialed periodically.

So that happens in every hospital.

It is really a neat way, I think physicians deliver a lot of credit for self-policing their quality.

Okay.

And one question, and I hope this isn't impolite, but uh what protection is there going to be to, I guess, keep um the fees that are charged from going up?

So I I it's a great it's a good question.

Uh we understand the concern people have about that, but again, with most of the people we get we treat everybody that walks through the door.

We have to cover it no matter what.

The Federal Government pays us below cost to care for people.

The only place we have to try to make that up is with commercial insurance, and I am negotiating with a commercial carer that has 90 percent of the market.

They're a lot bigger than I am.

So we think we've we've given our community a fair shake to make sure we get our share and can have the health care resources we need, but there is no circumstance where I can dictate what people pay for health care.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam President.

Mr.

Meredith.

Thank you, Madam President.

First and foremost, what was the uh purchase price?

Uh 450 million dollars.

Thank you.

Um you mentioned four million, I believe, have been reinvested in one of those in Crestwood specifically, um, and one of those was uh blood bank.

What are the improvements that have been uh made to the blood bank?

So we uh we've we've we've made a number, we have approved investments.

Those are we have only been there three weeks.

So we have approved four million dollars.

Those purchases are on order to get in.

So we are actually bringing in a whole new blood bank system to make sure the software and the software we use to control the disposition of blood is effective and state of the art.

So it's just um bad.

It's not machinery or equipment that actually process um what the techs do in order to match to make sure no one is.

So they come in match.

I believe the system, and I would have to call on Mr.

Doughty here to be more specific with it.

I believe what it is is the the technology we use to make sure when you're with the blood you receive is very carefully controlled so you get the right type that matches you exactly.

Every hospital will have a blood bank, and the one that was their legacy at Crestwood was out of date and needed to be replaced.

Mr.

Doty, could you uh elaborate on that for me?

Yes.

So your question is is what type of equipment we are buying?

Well, no, my question is if you're if you're giving blood transfusions, there there is a bottom line that you have to do.

So if Crestwood was, we'll say was at that bottom line, what are you doing to raise it?

What are the improvements?

Is it just um IT stuff, or is there actually uh other components?

It's IT and processing and safety.

Can you elaborate on processing and safety?

Yes, sir.

So the the machinery will help with the the staff when they get ready to give the blood to make sure it is the right type of blood.

Not that the current system didn't the current system didn't go ahead I am sorry.

Machines don't do that, people do.

Correct.

Machines will help you.

I have typed a lot of blood in my life so I I don't understand what you are saying but that's okay.

We will we will talk about it more offline.

I don't want to take up too much time here drilling down that deep.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you, sir.

Sticking with blood, you said Hemsey can now give whole blood.

Correct.

MC has been doing that for some time.

Is there any desire to give PAC sales?

I I would have to defer to Mr.

Howe to come answer that question.

Mr.

Howe Yes, Councilman Meredith, we do carry pack fred blood cells as well.

And also we are carrying fresh plasma liquid plasma in our units in the in the regional services.

But whole blood is is the best product according to our trauma team that they would like to see us administer when someone needs blood.

So we we that's our number one desire and then we will refer back to packed blood sales if we don't have whole blood available.

Thank you, sir.

Mr.

Kling touched on it, but why every other um hospital that's been acquired has been rebranded Huntsville Hospital.

Why is Crestwood an exception?

So in many cases when we went into some of the communities I'll use Scottsburgh as an example they want they welcome the HH logo on the hospital because they believe it inspires trust in the community.

In the case of Crestwood, there is so much pride in the brand and logo and culture at Crestwood, we felt like it was appropriate to respect that and leave that brand in place.

It really wasn't more complicated than that.

Thank you.

Yes sir on the EMS side of your training you you trained certain things and EMS was one of those is the E is the EMS that you guys train for is it basic or advanced license?

It's EMT ones.

They trace basic EMT and get them started and they have the opportunity to continue their education on up on up to paramedic?

So we do EMT ones I believe?

We do EMT basically EMT basic is what we provide in the class and then we will work with the community college system to train EMT advanced and our paramedics.

Are any um Huntsville firefighters been trained through your program and if not is that something you would be hoping to we have a number of Huntsville firefighters who work part-time for us and a lot of them did get their initial trial or their primary education when they were working for us but uh Huntsville Fire has not uh they don't they have their own EMT training as part of the fire academy so they're basically mimicking the same thing we're doing for the fire academy and then if they want to go on to the advanced EMT and paramedic curriculum of Huntsville Fire will also support them to go into the community colleges I believe.

Okay.

Thank you.

What's the retention on all of the different schools that you conduct how long do they have to work for Huntsville hospital system in order not to have to pay it back?

It varies by job and I I can't quote them all I I'm happy to get that and follow up with you.

Generally speaking I'll say for nursing our expectation is we're asking for about a year of service if we make a $5,000 for each $5,000 investment.

That's a generality just as a general frame of reference they vary by by description.

That's fine.

How does uh workmen comp work within the system?

The patients we care for for workers' compensation we work with with many of the physicians' offices we have a a workers compensation management company and we we are the physicians' offices in town play a huge role in that in helping direct the care of those patients so they get cared for just like anyone else following all the regulations for workers compensation.

I know I should know this one but um does the City of Huntsville send its folks to your system for treatment as far as I know but I I again yes I am getting a yes sir thank you.

You had talked about not being able to set the prices Blue Cross Blue Shield and others do that.

As you have acquired more hospitals aren't you able to leverage that to get better rates?

We benchmark other hospitals in the State, and I am trying to make sure a hospital in our system has a level playing field with other hospitals of similar size.

So we do work together to make sure we get paid fairly.

We also take very seriously, not trying to take advantage in any way of our position on rate reimbursement.

So it does benefit the community, but in no way do I dictate what those prices are.

We negotiate with Blue Cross, along with other payers for what those rates might be.

For the whole system or for individual hospitals within the system.

The whole system.

Excellent.

And finally, you had mentioned delivery services and how many are delivered here.

Are there delivery services in all of the hospitals?

We have delivery services in all of our hospital.

We do not deliver babies in Red Bay, small hospital in Red Bay, Alabama.

Trying to look at my team.

I think we deliver babies in all of our other hospitals.

We do not in Parkway.

So in Morgan County, we deliver babies at Decatur, but not at Parkway.

But except for Decatur West, which is Behavioral Health Parkway and Red Bay, we have delivery services in each community.

Thank you.

I am not surprised about Red Bay A.

Don't suspect they have a whole lot of need for it.

Thank you very much, Mr.

President.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

And thank you, Madam President.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor Death.

Mr.

Little.

Thanks, Madam President, and thanks for the great uh presentation, Mr.

Sams.

Thank you.

I think a little personal privilege.

My family has uh had everything from cut fingers because they didn't know how to cut an onion to broken bones, heart valve replacement, trauma patients, babies delivered all at Huntsville Hospital.

And uh we have never once thought about going anywhere else.

And I just obviously wish y'all all the continued success with this growth, um, especially from a regional aspect, which is the one question I have about ambulance service.

This is actually something Tracy and I talked about a while back.

This is before the expans before the acquisition of Hemsey.

But if uh somebody was being transported, say from Scottsburgh to Huntsville, and then that ambulance has had it back empty and they pass a wreck because they're not they they couldn't help, right?

Something like that, like because they weren't either licensed or cleared to work, but now with the broader scope of the ambulance service, that care and response time, I would assume is improving.

Can you Yeah, we have a incredible we have an incredible opportunity to share resources across the EMS services.

It is still connected to each community due through the 911 centers.

An example of how that might help keep an ambulance on the road.

So if an ambulance is going back to Marshall South, which is in Boaz, and we have a patient who needs to go to Boaz, we can try to make sure we send that patient back on that ambulance that brought a patient in instead of taking a HIMSI unit and driving to Boaz and back.

There's incredible efficiencies what can generate.

We are just scratching the surface of that, so many more opportunities, and I'm lucky to have people like John and Don to help lead that effort.

That's great.

And then this has popped in my head.

Uh Alabama isn't the best state for private hospitals to be successful.

Is that kind of the case or could be the case?

Alabama is one of the most difficult hospitals to operate a hospital in.

We have some of the lowest reimbursements in the State.

Our Medicare rates are low.

We're in non-expansion state for Medicaid, and we have a dominant insurance market dominated by one payer.

We are proud of the care we deliver in that context.

We think we deliver affordable health care for the business community that lets businesses compete and provide affordable insurance premiums while delivering an outstanding and complex care.

So we are proud of it.

It's not easy, and I appreciate the team we have to make it happen.

That's it.

Thank you, Madam President.

Thanks, Mr.

Sams.

Ms.

Watkins.

Good evening.

So I must say this is a little late in the game for us to be talking about this, because constituents had questions from the beginning.

We received numerous emails, numerous phone calls, not just myself, but other council members.

And all we could tell them, well, I could tell them was I made requests several times, and all I was told was there's acquisitions in place, so we can't discuss it publicly.

But as an elected official, and as a representative for my district, operating transparency at all times, even when it is difficult, even when it is controversial, you have to stand in your truth.

And I am disappointed because Huntsville Hospital did not offer that to the citizens.

And they wanted those questions answered, and they just wanted simple questions answered.

You didn't have to go into the weeds, but you didn't come and show up for debt.

And for that I am disappointed.

I even more so disappointed that on several occasions.

The last email I sent you, I said I need a timeline.

And there was no timeline shared.

You just told me that sometime in April you'll come to the council.

That's just so unacceptable to me.

And I have to stand and tell you this in front of the citizens because you having a meeting with us last week and asking us what questions we have.

That's all well and fine.

But the citizens have questions.

When I operate in a back room and I don't come and tell my citizens or my rep the people that I represent, that puts me in a bad light.

And I don't like that.

So moving forward, I remember you and I never really started on a good foot anyway.

Because you know, I'm just being transparent because I asked for someone that lived, a resident of my district to be on the board.

And your response was there's a certain skill set.

And Ms.

Robinson even repeated that on the microphone here.

And so I communicated with you several times because I was trying to work with you.

I was trying to build a relationship.

I even went to the mayor and said, Hey, can we can I offer four or five names from my district that are more than qualified, that have a skill set, that have the education, that have the background.

Because see, when you talk about skill sets in my district, I don't really know what you are talking about because my district has GEDs and PhDs.

My district has zero income to multimillionaires.

My district has business owners.

My district is hardworking individuals who deserve respect.

And I feel they've been disrespected.

So with this new merger, I would like to know is District One gonna be considered to have someone, a resident of District One, not someone that works in District One, but a resident of District One on the board.

I'll try my best to respond to all of that.

First of all, I want to have a great relationship with you and all members of the council.

You got one with them.

I I hope I You just don't have one with me, but I would like to have a great relationship with you.

I would too.

We're proud of the work we are doing in North Huntsville.

The free sending ER will be the largest health care investment made in the in the history of North Huntsville, and we're proud to do that.

We're proud partners of Alabama AM.

We have a lot of staff to work there, and we wanted to work extremely well.

Regarding the transparency, we signed non-disclosure agreements.

CHS is a publicly traded company.

I was not allowed to answer questions.

I would have been violating a contract I signed.

All the media information we shared, and we went to great lengths, had to be vetted and approved by them before I could put it out there.

It's what I had, I didn't like it.

As soon as the transaction closed, we went on TV the next day to try to address questions, and I'm here tonight to address any question you all have, and I'll be in the lobby when I'm done if anybody in the audience wants to talk.

We want to be transparent.

I'm sorry I couldn't answer the question sooner.

As far as the board, I absolutely agree with you, there are people in District 1 who are qualified to serve on our board.

We have 11 members on our board, I have tremendous respect for them.

They're responsible for a 10 county region across North Alabama.

When we have a vacancy, I would welcome the opportunity to look dialogue with you about I'm certain there are qualified people in District One who would be great board members, and we'd be happy to build a relationship with you going forward.

I appreciate that.

And I'm going to hold you to your word because every every council member sitting on this desk has someone or more than one person in their district representing them.

And I know before anyone goes into the weeds and say it's not district specific, but there's a perception.

If every district is represented except District 1, and I'm always going to go hard for my district.

If you don't know, you need to just research a little bit about me.

I'm going to go hard for District 1 every day of the week.

I'm not going, I'm not going to let the gas up on nobody, and that includes you.

I respect what you do for District 1 and your leadership of it.

I I get the same the folks in Decatur would like to have a member of our board where we have a hospital there.

But it's called Huntsville.

It's called Huntsville.

We served 1.5 million people across all these counties.

It's my responsibility to take care of my wall.

But maybe you should take some of them out of the district that have multiple people in the district, then you'll be able to expand it out and give it to other districts that is not represented.

Again, I welcome the chance to build a relationship with you.

We welcome your input about our board, and I am confident there are qualified members in your district.

I'm going to take you to your word on that, because what I really feel like, I don't feel like I know it was what happened.

You were bucking me when I wanted someone from District 1.

And you were going to prove to me that you weren't going to get one, nobody on District 1.

It is a fact, and I'm just saying that's what happened.

But I'm just telling you going forward, I want someone on that board that lives in District 1.

Ms.

Ms.

Ms.

Robinson.

I am having a dialogue with him.

I am not being heard.

It is disrespectful.

It's not disrespectful.

It is disrespectful to you.

No, you are being disrespectful by cutting me off when I'm up here having a conversation.

Now you might not agree with what I say and you might not like it, but I'm not being disrespectful.

Mr.

Sams is here as an invitation as our guest to give us information.

And as a council member, I have a question.

And if I have questions for the question, you don't need to determine what is disrespectful because you are disrespectful.

When you said district one had needed a certain skill set.

Please.

Was that not disrespectful?

Were you being disrespectful when you said that it needed a certain skill set?

Were you being disrespectful?

Let's talk about disrespect.

Madam President, I would like to ask for a five-minute recess.

I think that's a wonderful idea.

We will take a five-minute recess.

We will reconvene at 655.

We will reconvene at 655.

We will reconvene the meeting.

Council members Kling, Little, Watkins, and Robinson are present, and a quorum is established again to continue the meeting.

We were at the point of asking questions of Mr.

Sam's regarding the Crestwood acquisition.

Are there any other questions anyone has?

I do have a question.

I was wondering if I could finish.

I wasn't done.

Do you have a question?

I asked if you had a question about the Prestwood.

You snapped off real quick.

So I I was asking questions before you adjourned.

Please ask your question.

Thank you.

Please don't interrupt me.

Since the health care authority for the City of Huntsville is now operating facilities in multiple states, Alabama and Lincoln Health in Tennessee, are you now interstate entity and are you subject to our oversight, State Oversight, or Federal oversight?

I am not an attorney, and I am not sure I am the best person to answer that question.

We are incorporated as a health care authority in Alabama, and our governance comes through the Health Care Authorities Act of Alabama through the 11 member board I shared.

Anything more technical than that, I would have to get a legal opinion.

I don't want to say something misleading up here tonight.

Well, when you get an opportunity, I would like that question answered, and you can email it to me.

I'll have to get the transcript, make sure I get the screen.

I will email you the question.

Very good.

Thank you.

I am done because I might get interrupted again.

Let me ask one more question about governance.

How is the uh Crestwork currently has a governing board?

How will that function after the as a result of the acquisition?

Each of our hospitals, our our primary 11-member system board or authority board that we showed you the pictures of is our fiduciary board that oversees the financial matters of the whole health system.

At each of our hospitals and with EMS, we have a hospital board or an EMS board that oversees quality medical staff credentialing.

That will be the case at Crestwood, and we are excited to have Mike back on that board along with most of the other members that have been there in the past.

Thank you again, Mr.

Sams, for your presentation.

Thank you to the entire Huntsville Hospital team.

We appreciate the information that has been shared tonight, just not just about the Crestwood acquisition, but about the function of the entire system and how it benefits all of North Alabama.

We appreciate your time and your presence here.

And thank you for offering to stick around and answer any questions anybody has out in the lobby.

We appreciate the opportunity.

Thank you so much.

We will go on then with the business of the city to public hearings.

We have no matters with outside local representation.

We will go on to public hearings to be held.

9A is a public hearing authorizing community development to assess the cost for cleanup and removal of a junk public nuisance located at 2407 Oakwood Avenue, Northwest Huntsville, Alabama, and consideration of a resolution pertaining to the same.

Mr.

Irwin.

Yes, Mayor Battle, Councilmember Scott Irwin Community Development Department.

As President identified this is a public hearing authorizing community development to assess the cost of cleanup for removal of junk of a public junk public nuisance at 2407 Oakwood Avenue.

The total amount of the lien assessment for the junk removal was 1,712.13 cents.

Thank you, Mr.

Irwin.

The public hearing is now open on the matter of 9A.

Is there anyone here who wishes to comment on this item?

Is there anyone wishing to comment?

Seeing none, the public hearing is closed.

Is there a motion to approve the resolution?

Move to approve.

Motion from Mr.

Little, second second from Mr.

Kling.

Is there any discussion or questions?

All in favor, please indicate.

Any opposed, the motion carries.

9B is a public hearing on authorizing the demolition of an unsafe building constituting a public nuisance located at 1302 Boxwood Drive Northwest, Huntsville, Alabama, and consideration of a resolution pertaining to the same.

Mr.

Irwin.

Yes, Council members.

But this item 9B is the demolition of an approval of the public nuisance for 1302 Boxwood.

There are four items related to one parcel with separate addresses, so you will deal with these individually.

So again, 1302 is similar to 46 and 8, but this property has had multiple owners over the last eight years.

Owners have come in with the intent to renovate and remodernize the project.

Find that it is not economically feasible to continue with that kind of a plan.

The property continues to be a nuisance, a hazard, and a blight to the neighborhood.

We had an independent contractor evaluate all four buildings, but particularly 1302 was deemed a 100 percent loss, so wasn't economically viable for any additional rehabilitation.

In addition, this property has been used as a homeless encampment.

The homeless services team has been on site to share information about available resources and services, including shelter options, transportation assistance, behavioral health resources and housing.

And our goal with that respect is to ensure that every individual is aware of the help available to them and connect them with the services that best meet their needs.

This afternoon, an attorney representing the owners contacted me.

Their intent is to complete this demolition in the themselves.

Upon your approval of these public actions tonight upon your approval, then I have made an agreement with the owner of record that we would give them six roughly 60 days to complete the demolition themselves.

But upon your approval, if they have not completed the demolition by June 30th, then your effect of the law authorizing the demolition would go into effect.

Thank you, Mr.

Irwin.

The public hearing is.

Thank you, Mr.

Irwin.

The public hearing is now open.

Good evening.

My name is Roland Lesk.

I am the attorney that Mr.

Irwin referenced.

And could you just give us your residence for or your city of residence for the record?

Well, I so I live in the county.

Uh, but I've got practice here in non-stop.

Thank you.

This ma'am on Church Street.

Um I was retained about six hours by the proper six hours ago by the property owners.

Um, but I had a very constructive conversation with uh with Mr.

Irwin and Mr.

Riley as well.

I certainly appreciate the city's uh willingness to uh give my folks a little bit more time to get their own contractor in for this uh demolition.

Uh they have put out uh my understanding is three bids, and all that remains to be done is is to hire someone to come in and start work.

So I believe the 60 days uh will be more than enough time for uh uh for the property owners to get in and get busy.

Thank you, sir.

Is there anyone else who wishes to comment on this item?

Seeing none, the public hearing is closed.

Is there a motion to approve?

Motion from Mr.

Meredith, second from Mr.

Little.

Do you have questions for the question?

I would like the attorney if he could contact our office.

I would like to have a further more in-depth discussion with you.

Thank you, sir.

And Mr.

Mr.

Irwin, again, if you could just clarify this.

So we are voting on this item here, but the successive three other three items are also going to be part of this part of this consideration here.

Yeah, actually, so this is 1302.

Item C will be 1304 than six and eight.

But at the moment, yes, you are voting on the demolition approval of the public uh nuisance for 1302 Boxwood Drive.

Very good.

Any other comments, questions?

Question or comment or just as a question first.

Okay.

We got an attorney, we're hearing 60 days, that's great.

If uh nothing happens in 60 days, uh, does Mr.

Irwin have the authority to lower the boom immediately?

Is that what we are doing?

Yeah, that's what we state.

Mr.

Irwin, would you like to reply?

So is my honor once you approve this tonight if you authorize the public news and the demolition, you'll give me the discretion to work with the owner to in a timely manner to make sure that it does get indeed get completed in that timely manner.

I just want to make sure we had everything clarified for the record, and I am assuming that what we are saying for this motion will carry over for the other motions also.

Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

All in favor, please indicate.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

9C is a public hearing on authorizing demolition of an unsafe building constituting a public nuisance located at 1304, Boxwood Drive Northwest, Huntsville, Alabama, consideration of a resolution pertaining to the same.

Mr.

Irwin?

Yes, Councilmembers.

1304 video is before you on the screen.

And again, same conditions apply.

For 1304, we are seeking your authorization to declare a public nuisance and abate this nuisance.

The public hearing is now open.

Is there anyone who wishes to comment?

Seeing none, the public hearing is closed.

Motion to approve the second.

Motion from Mr.

Meredith, second from Mr.

Kling.

Any comments?

I did have a question.

What is the percent loss on this one?

Or are they all they were all 100 percent?

Thank you, sir.

Any other questions?

All in favor, please indicate.

Opposed, motion carries.

9D.

9D is a public hearing on authorizing the demolition of an unsafe building constituting a public nuisance located at 1306, Boxwood Drive Northwest to Huntsville, Alabama, in consideration of resolution pertaining to the same.

Again, uh Mayor, Councilmembers, the 1306 box boxwood video is before you on the screen.

We are seeking authorization for declaring a public nuisance and authorization to demolition.

Thank you.

Public hearing is now open.

Is there anyone who wishes to comment?

Seeing none, the public hearing is closed.

Is there motion to approve?

Motion from Mr.

Meredith, second from Mr.

Little.

Any questions?

All in favor, please indicate.

Proposed motion carries.

And 9E is a public hearing on authorizing the demolition of an unsafe building constituting a public nuisance located at 1308.

Boxwood Drive Northwest Huntsville, Alabama, consideration of resolution pertaining to the same.

Yes, Councilmember's 1308 conditions are on you on the video for your review.

And we're asking you to authorize the public, the conditions of a public nuisance exist and authorize the demolition.

Public hearing is now open.

Is there anyone wishing to comment?

Seeing none, the public hearing is closed.

Motion to approve.

Motion for Mr.

Meredith, second from Mr.

Kling.

Any questions or comments?

All in favor, please indicate.

Thank you, Councilmembers.

Thank you, Mr.

Irwin.

9F is a public hearing on the zoning of 2.80 acres of land lying on the south side of Capshaw Road, east of Balch Road to neighborhood business C1 district, and the consideration of an ordinance pertaining to the same.

Good evening, Council members.

Mayor Battle Thomas Nunez, manager of plan and zoning services.

This item was recently annexed into the City of Huntsville.

Is located south side of Capshaw Road and east of Bulch Road.

Petition seeking to zone the property neighborhood business C1 district, which is consistent with the adjacent properties as well.

Is overall 2.8 acres and seeking to come in be zoned for a commercial use.

Thank you, Mr.

Nunez.

The public hearing on this item is now open.

Is there anyone wishing to comment?

Seeing none, the public hearing is closed.

Is there a motion to approve the ordinance?

Motion from Mr.

Meredith, second from Mr.

Little.

Any comments or questions?

Mr.

Meredith.

Do we know what commercial use is going to go in there yet or an office component?

Thank you, sir.

You are very welcome.

Any other comments?

All in favor, please indicate.

9G is a public hearing on the rezoning of 59.21 acres of land lying on the west of North Memorial Parkway, south of Bob Wade Lane from residence one and residence two B districts to highway.

Business C4 district and consideration of an ordinance pertaining to the same.

Councilmember, this request is a petition to rezone from residents 1 district and residence 2B district highway business C4 district.

It is overall 59.21 acres.

This property is just south of the North Village, North Huntsville Village Development, and is the future site of Huntsville Hospital North Side location.

Thank you, Mr.

Nunez.

The public hearing on this item is now open.

Is there anyone here wishing to comment?

Seeing none, the public hearing is closed.

Is there a motion to approve the case?

Motion to approve second.

Motion from Mr.

Meredith.

Second from Mr.

Little.

Any comments or questions?

All in favor, please indicate.

Motion carries.

9H is a public hearing on Thank you, Mr.

Nunz.

9H is a public hearing on a vacation of right-of-way at 2204 First Street.

Mr.

Nunez.

Absolutely.

This item is located just north of 9th Avenue and west of First Street.

Petition is seeking to vacate an alleyway that was established via Plat Book 1, page 166 in November of 1936.

Bear with me as I turn the zoning districts off and you get a better view of what is actually transpiring on the property.

There's an existing church there, and this church had there is not a built actual infrastructure.

The church has been occupying this area.

The church has been occupying this area, they are looking to advance and do some improvements on this property and seeking to vacate the property uh for future expansion of the church.

Thank you.

Is there anyone here who wishes to comment on this item?

Anyone wishing to comment?

The public hearing is now closed.

There will be no motion or action taken on this item until we get to 18 C and D.

That's correct.

Correct.

Thank you, Council members.

Thank you.

So we will move on to public hearings to be set.

10 A is a resolution to set a public hearing on the proposed creation of a tax increment financing district tentatively named TIF 9, pursuant to Alabama Code Section 11-99-1.

Um at sequent.

At any rate.

Is there a motion to set the hearing for May 14, 2026?

So moved.

Second.

Motion from Mr.

Kling, second from Mr.

Little.

All in favor, please indicate.

Motion carries, and the hearing is set.

10 B is a resolution to declare a public nuisance located at 4109 Royals Avenue Southwest, Huntsville, Alabama, to set a date for when objections will be heard.

Is there a motion to set the hearing for the May 14, 2026 regular council?

Motion for Mr.

Kling, second from Mr.

Little.

All in favor, please indicate.

Opposed.

The hearing is set for May 14th.

10 C has been deleted at the request of the sponsor.

This brings us to 11 agenda-related public comments.

This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the council on matters relating to the specific content of items on the meeting agenda.

These individuals have signed up before the meeting.

And when called, please approach the microphone, state your name, home address, and city of residence.

Each speaker may address the council for three minutes.

Speakers shall refrain from entering into a dialogue with council members or city staff and from making comments regarding the good name and character of any individual.

The per first person to have signed up is Nick Freevid.

Freevold, thank you.

Nick Freud, the subject is um item 20 AB, the rail study.

Mr.

Freevolt, please come forward.

Hi, I'm Nick Friedold, 3903 Cypress Avenue Southwest Huntsville.

Uh I support the passenger rail study for uh Huntsville to continue to grow and be the best city in Alabama.

We need high speed and high quality passenger rail.

Uh high speed rail is something all the best cities around the world have, and it's something that Huntsville deserves.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

The next person to comment is Turney Gaskin.

Subject is Huntsville Hospital.

Hello.

Uh my address is correct on the sheet.

My name is Tierney Gaskin, and I live in Huntsville, Alabama.

Very good.

Perfect.

So I would first like to say thank you to Michelle Watkins for bringing up the points we all were thinking, but none of you are asking except for Councilwoman uh Watkins.

Uh but with the acquisition of Crestwood Medical Center Huntsville Hospital has successfully built itself a monopoly on the health care services in Northern Alabama.

They now have 13 hospitals across 10 counties, and I'm not going to bore you with all of the details, but they do own all of the hospitals in seven counties, including the one above us in Tennessee.

You can't even escape the Huntsville Hospital system by leaving the state.

The next closest hospital that you can go to that isn't Huntsville Hospital owned is 55 miles away in Coleman.

Who's going to Coleman?

Respectfully.

Okay.

Huntsville Hospital is blatantly in violation of several antitrust laws.

Let me be quite clear.

This is a crime.

It is against the FEC.

It is against the Clayton Act.

And to summarize the Clayton Act, an illegal merger occurs when two companies join together in a way that substantially lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly in a relevant market.

This reduction in competition can harm consumers by potentially leading to higher prices or fewer choices for products or services.

It can also harm workers by potentially leading to lower wages or fewer choices for employment.

And this is just one example of the laws broken by Huntsville Hospital and their uh very large system.

The monopoly increases risk for patients and staff alike, with staff too afraid to speak up when management demands unsafe ratios.

And when staff can't take off medically recommended time to recover from their own health issues due to restrictive time off policies, it is an increase of accidents in patient care.

How can we expect them to be able to take care of us if they can't take care of themselves?

The maternity floor cannot take the recommended time off at Huntsville Hospital because they have no paid parental leave, maternity, or paternity at all.

It's all unpaid.

We cannot reasonably expect people to be able to take the time off in this economy without paid leave.

And that's one of the that's one of the several ways they under uh uh underpay their employees, on top of the fact that new nurses make more money than nurses that they are studying after.

They when uh when the pay bump goes up, the nurses that actually work there currently do not receive that pay pump in their base pay.

That's that's not how that works.

So the new nurses who come in get paid more than the old nurses, so then the old nurses quit, leave the entire region of this state, and then all we have is new nurses.

Hey, I'd rather have a nurse who's been in the same place for 15 years working than a nurse that's been working for two years, who is just here to collect years of experience so that they can leave too.

Thank you for your comments.

Thank you.

The next person to comment will be Jerry Cox.

Subject is 20 A.B.

Is Mr.

Cox here?

Don't see him.

And then the last person to sign up is Alan, it looks like Alan Marshall, and it says the agenda item is visitor.

I think that may be a mistake.

It's Mr.

Marshall.

Here.

Then we will move on to uh more comments.

This comment, first comments will be from the mayor and then council member comments.

Mayor Battle.

Uh thank you, Madam President, to keep it brief.

Um just remember Panoplay is this weekend.

Uh I think it's gonna be a great weekend.

There might be a little bit of rain, but it's Panoply.

We are used to it.

Uh we'll we'll get through that.

Also, the Council of PTAs is meeting Sunday night and uh uh has a meeting, and it's a great time to say thank you to our our teachers uh for a great year and for all that they've done.

And also uh thank you to our our school administration for the work that they have done uh to make sure that uh our our young people are educated and educated well.

Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you.

Um Mayor Battle.

There's no way to cure a statewide better way to cure a statewide drought than to have Panoply.

It's gonna rain right away.

Okay.

We will now move to Councilmember Cummins, and we will start with Ms.

Watkins.

Good evening.

On May 8th, Vulcan will have a barbecue competition in District 1.

It's a free community event.

It will be at 4210 Stringfield Road across from Stoner Field.

They are inviting the community to come out is from 2 to 5 o'clock again on May 8th.

Um they're gonna have activities for the kids, they're gonna have barbecue competition, and they're even going to do tours of the facility.

So I would definitely encourage you, if you have time, to please go out.

I went on a tour and I got to learn a lot about the facility.

Um my last comment uh want to say, Madam President.

I would like the record to reflect that conduct which silences or diminishes an individual, even when presented as procedural or censorship, undermines the principles of respectful discourse in this chamber.

I have made multiple requests with you to please stop interrupting me when I'm talking, and you continue to do it every time.

Councilwoman Robinson, I am formally reiterating that request and expect it to be honored moving forward.

I do not interrupt you and anyone else when y'all are talking.

I expect that same respect, whether you agree with what I say or not, you are trying to censor me.

And I'm not going to allow it to happen.

Thank you, Ms.

Watkins.

We'll go on to Mr.

Kling.

Thank you, Madam President.

Well, this uh past uh weekend, early part of the week, uh myself, councilmembers uh Robinson and Little Mayor Battle came back from Chamber of Commerce Washington, D.C.

trip, and I'm sure others will be talking about it in depth.

What I think is really a good thing to point out about this thing is the fact that we had over 200 elected officials, uh civic leaders, business leaders from Huntsville, City of Madison, Madison County, and several other North Alabama communities all come together to go up to Washington, D.C.

And after looking at what goes on on the network news with uh Washington, D.C.

and perhaps even a little bit down in Montgomery, all the infighting that takes place, all the squabbling, one party is in favor of something, the other party automatically is going to be against it, all the lines that get drawn in the sand, so to speak.

Here was a chance where we saw numerous people representing their best ideas, paying many of them paying for the trip out of their own pocket, going up to lobby to advocate to state our case as a complete team of 200 plus people all working together.

And I think that was very refreshing.

It was something I was really happy to see.

Additionally, I on a more somber note want to point out that tomorrow night, Friday night at the Davidson Center at 5 o'clock, the community is going to be saying hot saying goodbye to Deborah Barnhart, who has been the former director of the Space and Rocket Center.

We certainly miss her passing.

She was a great person with what she had done to help perpetuate the interest of space exploration in our community, and she will be greatly missed.

So again, that is going to be going on for the community.

5 o'clock Friday night at the Davidson Center at the Space Rocket Center.

That's all I have.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Kling.

Mr.

Little.

Thank you, Madam President.

Next Thursday at 5 30, we will be holding a town hall meeting out at the residence at Well Point, that's in uh Hampton Cove, along with Dr.

Sutton and Holly McCarty from the school board and the superintendent and some other representatives from the City to talk about uh what all is happening in the Cove.

I look forward to that.

And I hope it doesn't rain on Panically.

That's all I got.

Thank you, Mr.

Little.

Mr.

Meredith.

Thank you, Madam President.

There is a road issue has been brought to my attention by several people on Burr Green Road, kind of in the vicinity of the new fire station.

I want folks to know that the preliminary work on fixing that has already begun, and in about a week, weather permitting the new asphalt will be laid, and hopefully that will be taken care of for a very, very long time.

Earlier this week I was notified of some serious road issues on Waltriana Highway.

The particular issue are a number of very large potholes on a stretch of road.

We sent our public works department out there, and they have already filled in those potholes, but the issue is all of them were not filled in.

But the reason all of them were not filled in is because that portion of the road is one of those multi-jurisdictional roads in District 5.

So we are notifying the other jurisdiction of these potholes.

But that is, if you're traveling that stretch of road, that is why those other potholes are theirs, because they're not ours to fix.

The City Zoning Department has been notified, uh, will be notifying all the businesses in the area that despite what the developer has told them, there is to be no parking in the road for pickups, deliveries, andor any other purpose.

More importantly, parking enforcement has been made aware of the flagrant violations and will be spending far more time in the village in order to issue citations to delivery vehicles who continue to block an already already challengingly narrow streets of this community.

I was lucky enough to be able to attend a two-day innovation showcase hosted by Columbia High Schools, featuring their students.

This two-day showcase was a huge success and reinforces that Huntsville City Schools is indeed producing not only cognitive thinking graduates, but future leaders for our city.

I want to thank all the students who voluntarily participated in the showcase, as well as the faculty and staff who made it all possible.

I want to give a big thank you to the folks over at Abaco Systems for inviting me to participate in their ribbon cutting for their new state-of-the-art facility in District 5 yesterday.

Not only is it a first-class, was it a first class event, but now that we are participants in an active war, their contributions will help to ensure our nation's war fighters make it home alive, whether their theater of operations are air, land, or sea.

I also want to thank the Committee of 100 for taking an interest in the potential for shared services among the multiple jurisdictions that comprise District 5, and inviting me to share my thoughts on how those services should move forward.

And inviting me to share my thoughts on how those services should move forward.

And I finally I want to thank the Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering for the invitation to their recent ribbon cutting and groundbreaking.

It has truly been a pleasure to support this venture at every turn, and I witch and watch the tremendous growth of this institution.

Thank you, Madam President.

And thank you, Mr.

Meredith.

Yesterday was Administrative Professionals Day, where we have the opportunity to thank our council staff in particular, Sarah Powell, Samantha Sconnell, Lily Winborn.

Any of you who have called the council office, who have had the opportunity to visit, know that they are incredible professionals, and I just want to publicly thank them for the work they do for us and for our citizens every day.

We also have the opportunity today to attend the longevity luncheon for our employees who have been with the city for 25 years, 30 years, 35 years, 40 years, and in one case, the case of David DeLisser, who works in our parks and recreations department, he's been with us for 44 years, doing a wonderful job.

And anybody who has participated in any city events has seen David out there directing a crew to set up and take down for those events.

So we thank all of our employees because they make the rest of us look really good.

As Mr.

Kling mentioned, Mr.

Little and Mr.

Kling and I had the opportunity to uh go to the on the chamber trip.

I haven't been since 2019.

I had forgotten really how valuable those trips are.

We heard from leaders in DC, including uh Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, and the majority leader, Steve Scalice.

And everyone talked about how there is something special happening in North Alabama, and we see it every day here, but I'm gratified to see that there are that others see it as well, particularly at that leadership level, and that they recognize that there are really good things going on here, whether we're talking about Artemis, our part in the Artemis launch, Space Command, the move of the FBI, the work that's being done on various DOD projects.

We all were recognized for that work and uh felt a very strong commitment, again, from leadership at very high levels for the work that's going on here.

So we can all be very proud of that.

But I think one of the things that touched that I found most interesting was when Senator Katie Britt brought along one of her fellow Senators, Senators Chris Coons, who is from Delaware and a Democrat.

And they talked about how they work together and how they have been able to set aside their differences to accomplish the work that needs to be done.

And Senator Britt said that this is not how work is normally done on the Hill, but they have been able to set aside their differences, work together, and as a result, get more done.

And I think that's a good model for all of us.

And then finally, I will be hosting a town hall on May 7th at the Sandra Moon Complex at 6 o'clock.

Our focus is going to be on uh develop the uh the development review.

We have our city demographer, James Vander, who is going to be presenting that.

And as he always does, he comes every year.

Uh, he will drill it down to District 3.

And what we're seeing in District 3 and what we can look at for growth and and what that what impact that is going to be having there.

So I will hope you can join us.

Uh that concludes comments.

We will excuse Mayor Battle.

He had another commitment tonight and has left us for that, but we continue to have the all the council members here, and we will go on with business to 14A, the Finance Committee report.

14A is a resolution authorizing expenditures for payment.

I move for the authorization and approval of expenditures in the amount of 33,866,708.71 cents.

The motion was made by Mr.

Meredith, second from Mr.

Kling.

Any questions for Mr.

Meredith?

All in favor, please indicate.

I oppose the motion carries.

14B is an ordinance approving appropriations, goods, or services for District 1 council improvement funds.

The Chair will make the motion to approve.

Is there a second?

Second.

Second from Mr.

Kling.

Ms.

Watkins, would you like to share with us what you are doing with those funds?

I have 11 schools in my district, and I am donating 1,000 per school.

500 to principal books, 500 to PTA.

Anyone that knows me knows I am a former educator.

Schools mean a lot to me, and PTAs need some funds so they can get parents involved.

Anytime you have parental involvement in schools, schools excel, schools.

Kids learn.

Kids want to learn.

They want to be involved because they want to be pleasing to the adults.

So I'm donating this money because I feel this is a much needed cause in my district.

And just want to support the schools.

Any questions or comments?

All in favor, please indicate.

Opposed.

Motion carries.

14C is an ordinance approving appropriations, goods, or services for District 3 Council Improvement Funds.

The Chair moves for approval.

Second.

Second from Mr.

Little.

I am I'm trying to make it easier.

I know I appreciate that.

Maybe somebody's watching.

So this is a $15,000 allocation that is being made to support Ditto Landings Independence Day celebration.

This is part of the city's uh 250th celebration.

We are celebrating nationally, and we were reminded of this when we were in D.C.

We are celebrating the signing, the 250th celebr anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

It's a celebration of the foundation on which all of our freedoms rest.

And so I think it's important to support that.

And this will be a very special celebration in District 3.

It will be the Saturday before July 4th.

And so everybody come to Ditto Landing.

There will be fireworks, food trucks, concerts, all kinds of things.

We can all come together to celebrate 250 years of freedom in the United States.

Is there all in favor?

Okay.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

We have uh three board appointments to be voted on.

15A is a resolution to reappoint Mark McDaniel to the educational building authority from Madison Academy to his current seat for a six-year term to expire, November 12, 2029.

Is the motion to approve motion from Mr.

Merritt, second from Mr.

Little.

There was a question, Mr.

Riley, that was asked at our last meeting regarding why are we approving an action for a private school?

Could you answer that, please?

I looked that up to generally what the situation was, but looked up for the statutory background.

It's found in the Alabama Code section 1617-2 and a few sections following.

Basically, what the Alabama Code provides for is or authorizes the incorporation of educational building authorities, which is what this is, as a public corporation and as political subdivisions of the state for the purpose of providing ancillary improvements for use and connection with educational institutions, and to invest those authorities with powers that may be necessary for them to accomplish their purpose.

They uh include without limitation the power to lease their properties.

But more importantly, in my limited experience here is for issuing interest-bearing revenue bonds to raise money for building the school buildings and things of that nature.

The city doesn't regulate those entities or participate in their government, other than being the uh authority or or the governmental entity that when the authority is created approves that, and there's a statutory provision, which I won't bore everyone with uh with regard to that, but it's relatively simple and straightforward.

And then they also uh approve uh as the governing body the uh uh board of directors, the members of the board of directors, as that goes.

So the easy answer is this is state state code has set it up for us to do that.

This is state code is very good.

Any other uh discussion?

All in favor, please indicate motion carries.

15 B is a resolution to reappoint Robert Burton to the educational building authority, Madison Academy to his current seat for a six-year term to expire November 10, 2031.

Motion to appoint motion from Mr.

Meredith, second from Mr.

Little, and this is the same sort of situation.

Any comments?

All in favor, please indicate.

Imposed motion carries.

15C is a resolution to appoint a band bill to the Bingo Review Committee to the seat previously held by David Driscoll for a two-year term to expire April 8, 2028.

Motion to approve the motion from Mr.

Meredith, second from Mr.

Little.

Any comments?

All in favor, please indicate.

Any posed?

Motion carries.

Uh we have no board appointment nominations.

Are there any nominations from the floor?

We'll move on then.

We have no Huntsville utilities items and 18A is an ordinance authorizing the vacation of a utility and drainage easement at 13904 Chimney Rock Circle.

Is there a motion to approve?

Motion from Mr.

Little, second from Mr.

Meredith.

Any discussion?

All in favor, please indicate.

Opposed.

Motion carries.

13.

I'm sorry.

It's not 13.

18.

B is an ordinance authorizing the vacation of a portion of a utility and drainage easement at 12 Shields Road Northeast.

Is there a motion to approve?

Motion to the first time.

Motion from Mr.

Meredith, a second from Mr.

Little.

And council members, um, this is not the one.

Uh all any comments?

All in favor, please indicate.

Imposed, motion carries.

Uh 18C is a resolution consenting to the vacation of a right-of-way at 2004 first street.

2204.

2204, thank you.

2204.

Motion to appear to be able to do that.

Motion for Mr.

Meredith, a second from Mr.

Little.

This is the item that uh we have public hearing for earlier.

Is there any uh comments?

Discussion.

All in favor, please indicate proposed motion carries.

18D is an ordinance vacating the right of way at 2204 first street.

Motion to approve.

Mr.

Meredith, a second from Mr.

Kling.

Again, public hearing was held at 9H.

Any discussion?

All in favor, please indicate.

Imposed, motion carries.

And that brings us to 19 unfinished business items for action.

19A is an ordinance to amend Section 8.2 appointment rate of ordinance 04-315 personnel policies and procedures manual.

Motion to approve.

Motion from Mr.

Merritt, second from Mr.

Little.

Mr.

Hamilton, share with us what we are accomplishing here.

Good evening, Councilmembers.

Uh John Hamilton, City Administrator.

So what is before you is an item that I would I would describe it as corrective.

It is something that we should have brought you some time ago related to the entry level step, so on the pay scale for our police and fire uh candidates that come in as lateral transfers.

And so what we mean by lateral is uh we have a fair number uh of both officers, police officers and firefighters who had served uh in other cities, other other uh either law enforcement or fire service positions elsewhere uh and had some number of years of experience, wanted to transfer into Huntsville, and so we hired them in uh relying on that prior training and that prior experience.

We're bringing in more experienced personnel through this system.

So uh a few years ago, uh we uh we brought you an action to set by ordinance the minimum entry step for brand new candidates.

Okay.

And so that first section, you see that on that spreadsheet where it says COH from the beginning.

So that is what the ordinance currently does for a candidate who is never served previously in law enforcement or fire, brand new you know, rookie coming into our school.

So what happens right now?

Uh they uh for both those departments, they go through a rigorous hiring process.

Uh when they start the academy, they come in at step eight within the appropriate grade.

Uh and once they have completed all their training, the academy as well as uh as well as other in-service training required, uh, and they're ready to uh to actually go into full service for our city, they are promoted to a step twelve.

And then, like every employee in the city, when they hit their one-year anniversary, they get a step increase, second year anniversary on down.

So that first row is that is as the ordinance currently reads for for uh police coming in who uh or for police or firefighters coming in in that circumstance.

What is below that is the current situation for someone who is coming in as a lateral.

Uh so we could have somebody who is you know in another city, uh, Alabama or otherwise.

We we have folks come in from other states, uh, but most of our dollars come from other parts of the of the state.

And they could have up to five years of experience, and right now they come in as a step nine.

Uh and that's the way it was prior to the amendment that you all did a few years ago that set that top break.

So what when I say it's corrective, we should have at the time that we uh had you uh change the ordinance for brand new uh candidates.

We should have also made a a similar change to those coming in as laterals, and we failed to do some.

So this is us coming in trying to fix uh what we should have already done, quite frankly, just to be completely transparent with you.

But right now, today, as you see, a brand new officer who's gone through our academy, uh, has now going his very first day ever serving in law enforcement as a step twelve, but someone who might have served uh in some other city with five years is coming in as a step nine.

Clearly, step nine is not in within our system appropriately acknowledging their service.

And we're only bringing in someone who has served well, who is highly qualified that we very much want to add to our department.

And so we are failing to acknowledge that service in our current structure.

So that is what you see there on the step 12 for a brand new as compared to 9, 10, or 11, depending on their years of service in our current system.

And so if you look five years in, one of somebody who's had all five years of service with us is now a step 17.

Someone who had five years of service previously and now five years less is still only a step 14.

So you see that within our current process, we are failing to acknowledge that prior service and that experience they brought to our team.

So go into what is proposed, what is before you right now.

That top line stays the same.

That is the ordinance as it currently reads for someone who is coming in brand new into that service.

And what is before you is sets a new salary, entry-level salary structure for those that might lateral in.

And you see we we actually break it out by year service.

So they have to have completed those years.

So for example, somebody has two and a half years, we're going to give them only credit for full years of service, so they would come in as two years of service, three, four, five on down through eight.

And what we set out to do here is one, appropriately acknowledge that service that they previously provided and the experience they are bringing to the team, but also acknowledge that there is value in someone who has served all those years in Huntsville.

So what this does, uh so someone who came in brand new to the service with the City of Huntsville, three years in, there would be a step 15.

Someone who is latering laterally in with three years of service would be one step behind that.

So we could, I've given you one example there.

You could we could do this for every single uh one of those examples.

A brand new person coming in with prior service uh would be one step behind where they would have been if they had had all those years with Huntsville uh acknowledging there is a learning curve, associated with just learning the community and things, but we also want to acknowledge that prior service.

Now, there's really two layers to this uh that we have got before you.

One is within our system, within our structure, we believe and we recommend that this better acknowledges that prior service and that experience they bring to the team and better you know aligns their compensation with their fellow uh police and firefighters that are in our service.

The other thing that it also does is makes us more competitive.

What we have found uh and and I think y'all are well aware of the challenges of recruiting folks into public safety across our country right now, but we we have experienced that issue here.

Uh this is an example where we have fallen behind in our compensation package with our surrounding communities.

And so what this does is uh much better aligns us with with all the other departments that we partner with that surround that surround us, but they are our partners, but they're also our competitors in terms of hiring highly qualified people.

Uh and so this will also align us much better in terms of being able to recruit uh highly qualified folks, both police and firefighters into our service.

So that is the amendment that is before you is to uh to set that new structure, uh a new entry-level pay for uh for lateral transfers.

Thank you.

Questions from Mr.

Hamilton, Mr.

Meredith?

Thank you, Madam President.

Um could you remind folks how long each of the academies are?

Uh so I probably don't have the exact number of weeks off the top of my head.

Uh I believe the uh you know the the we will start with the fire academy, it is really two components.

They first, as was discussed earlier, they go through an EMS training.

They have to be fully certified as uh as EMTs, and then they go into the fire piece, and I believe uh that their total time uh in the academy is about 18, 19 weeks, something like that.

Uh and then they uh go into service, and obviously there is some then some training that happens at their station that goes beyond that, which is similar to police, which their the academy piece is about 19 weeks, and then they go into uh you know uh a couple months of their what they call their field training.

So they are actually paired up with multiple different senior officers uh that do in the field training with them.

And so their their training and their their, you know, what we will call their full certification is not complete until they have graduated both the academy uh as well as that FTO phase.

Thank you, sir.

And I presume that this is being done.

In addition to what you said, but to help with uh recruitment.

Absolutely.

So that we can up our number of sworn officers and firefighters.

Absolutely.

Could you um come back in a I guess a year and let us know how this is if this is working for us?

And and what I can also do, uh I didn't include in this presentation, but could kind of go through the historical numbers and we can see where you know surrounding departments made changes and we did not, where that that lateral had fallen off.

You go back about four or five years ago, and we actually had a very healthy number of laterals coming in as compared to the last couple of years where that number has gotten really close to zero.

So this we expect this to really improve that.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you, Madam President.

And as a follow-up to that, since we were approved a new recruiting package last week or a new recruiting consult next week, perhaps in a year, have a report altogether on recruiting, including this piece.

And I would also say just you know you are absolutely correct.

I mean all these things are linked to each other.

Obviously this this helps us with the potential candidates that would be lateral transfers.

But we are also you know even a bigger number going after is brand new rookies as well.

And you know we we do know that that we have got to continue to look at some compensation things.

I do expect later this year to come back to you all with some additional things that would that would affect all uh all aspects of of the public safety.

Uh so more to go if we got a team of folks that are kind of studying that so we do have some more things that we need to bring back to you later.

Very good thank you.

Any other comments or questions, Mr.

Little I think I will just echo what my colleagues said but this is just great to see we all know how competitive the hiring environment is out there and um doing anything we can to sweeten the pot for lack of a better way of putting it to get qualified people in is great.

So that tip you offer working on that.

Thank you.

Anyone else Mr.

I guess I think this is why we're all pretty much in agreement we have a large land area community and having all those police officers and all those firefighters having to you know cover all that area the training the expertise and what they have to do.

So we certainly want to have them and certainly our manpower and recruiting are very important.

Thank you.

All in favor please indicate any opposed motion carries.

19 B is an ordinance to thank you Mr.

Hamilton.

19 B is an ordinance to amend ordinance number 89-79 classification salary plan ordinance.

Motion to approve motion from Mr.

Meredith second from Mr.

Little any questions about this Mr.

Meredith question.

What are the two new positions that are being created?

Yes Byron Thomas Director of Human Resources one of the positions that we are creating here.

Let me get that for you council so one of them is the project funded and specialist position going in our engineering department.

They're actually going to help Cathy Martin as director working with some of the different contracts and funding and making sure the allocation is correct.

And the other one we had was um actually in community development we got a real estate record specialist position that we created that is working with Scott Irwin in the community development.

Are you at liberty to tell us what those price points are yes so the uh funding project's funding special is a grade 16 I have to get my chart I don't grade 16 and then the uh real estate um record special is a grade 12.

Thank you sir any other questions all in favor please indicate opposed motion carries 19 C is an ordinance to amend the budget ordinance number 25-744 to modify the authorized strength of departments from Mr.

Meredith second from Mr.

Little do you have any questions?

All in favor please indicate the motion carries 19 D is an ordinance annexing 2.41 acres of land lying on the west side of old Big Cove Road and south of Worley Drive.

Good evening Councilmember Thomas manager of planning and zoning services this item is located west side of Old Big Cove Road and south of Worldly Drive.

It is overall 2.41 acres is um coming in for future home single family home that shows the contiguousness for Mr.

Did uh you may say a single family home or single family homes.

A single family home maybe one good one one.

Any other questions?

All in favor indicate any opposed motion carries.

Thank you.

19E thank you Mr.

News 19E is an ordinance to declare a certain property surplus and authorizing the mayor to enter into a purchasing sale agreement between the City of Huntsville and Averett properties Inc.

for the purchase of the same motion to approve motion from Mr.

Meredith second from Mr.

Little Mr.

Davis Good evening Councilmember Shane Davis, Director of Urban Economic Development.

So Councilmembers this is uh property that uh the city purchased uh back in 2018 it is actually a small sliver of the Eli Lilly site so it's at exit three so in working with Averid Express they have continued to grow certainly with the logistics of target distribution both Amazon facilities, Mazda Toyota, the list polaris goes on and on.

But what it really does for us is the amount of truck traffic that they are having to do through that intersection to go from one piece of property to the other to transfer tractor trailer trailers.

All that will can handle internally, which takes a tremendous amount of truck traffic in that congested intersection there, exit three, and create some safety.

So should you approve tonight?

We would sell them uh four acres.

Uh the purchase process sixty thousand dollars an acre for 240,000.

Uh so we did get the appraise.

So when we bought the property back in the day was around $38,000.

So Mr.

Meredith.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um, Mr.

Davis, I assume that's market value.

Yes, so based on appraisal, that's that's what we were able to say.

Yeah, absolutely.

Um explaining why the mayor was needed in this.

I was puzzled as to why the mayor would be a part of Averett's properties.

Um I wish you had a graphic to show me.

I I'm very familiar with that area, but when you're talking about them taking truck traffic off or reducing the inconvenience of truck traffic, where is that traffic going to be coming out?

Is it going to be coming out closer to the lights by, say, the Redstone Federal Credit Union or further south down toward, say the target um uh distribution center?

One second, yes.

Because I assume they're not going to be coming on to 20.

So I hope this helps illustrate.

So you see the two red boxes that have the logo of Averid Express, the green shaded area is the area that uh you're voting on to sell.

So you can see how we now they have an interconnected campus.

Uh so if you see the the the red box on the left is is front of Greenbar Parkway, uh kind of the the reverse L shape that uh actually has ingress egress from Alabama 20.

So as they uh get tractor trailer trailers that need to come around uh so uh to the Greenbar Parkway, so they're having to go ferry back and forth through that intersection daily, multiple trips.

Through which intersection specifically.

Uh so the intersection that you see Alabama 20 where it comes out on green.

Oh, so it is 20.

Well, yes.

So uh let's see if this arrow will actually show up screen.

So yes, it does.

So if I can get it uh here.

So if you see that intersection here with this arrow, so they are coming up and down.

And there is a direction we are having to make left and right-hand turns.

And there is a light there, right?

There is.

Okay, with all the growth, this is a very active intersection.

Yeah.

Uh so to be able to reduce the number of 53-foot tractor trailers making multiple left-hand, right-hand turns, now all that can happen internally to their campus is a great safety benefit for the traveling public and 14,000 jobs of of double shifts that we have created out in this area.

What is across the street?

Is that Polaris?

Uh that's target.

That's the that is the target distribution.

Yes, sir.

Okay.

Thank you, sir.

You are welcome.

Any other questions?

All in favor, please indicate.

Motion carries.

Uh 19F is an ordinance declaring a certain equipment surplus and to be sold at public auction.

Motion to Mr.

Little, second from Mr.

Merida.

Are there any questions?

All in favor, please indicate.

I posed, motion carries.

This brings us to item 20, new items for consideration or action.

These items will be approved in one motion unless any member of the council wishes to remove an item for discussion.

The reading of each item will be waived unless a council member requests otherwise.

Council members have informed me that they would like to hold the following items.

Excuse me, I need to add E.

E.

Council members uh wish to hold items C 20 D, 20E, 20 G, 20O, 20Q, 20 S, 20T, 20U, 20Z, and 20 AB.

Are there any other items any council member would like to?

Not much left.

Yeah.

Good point.

We're going to be here for a while.

20 F to N, 20 P.

20 R, 20 V to X.

2020.

To Y.

To Y.

Come on, put my glasses on.

V to Y.

Right.

20 double A.

Yep.

And 20 A C and A D.

Yes, ma'am.

Second.

Second from Mr.

Mayor.

If all in favor, please indicate.

I proposed motion carries.

We will go then to 20 C for separate consideration.

20 C is a resolution authorizing the President or President Pro Tem of the City Council to make written or other submissions as required, give notices or notifications, and represent the council in meetings as required by Alabama Code, Section 11-99-1.

With respect to consideration of tentatively named TIF 9 on behalf of the City Council of the City of Huntsville, Alabama.

Is there a motion to motion from Mr.

Kling, second from Mr.

Little?

We are going to be hearing a lot about TIF 9 in the coming month or so.

So Mr.

Shane and Mr.

Davis, would you please introduce this boy?

Thank you, Madam President.

Shane Davis, Director of Urban Economic Fund.

So you are correct.

So tonight you have approved a set of public hearing for May 14th to consider a project plan for a new TIFF district.

So what I want to do is walk counsel through item C and D and answer any questions.

So give a very if I can interject the question.

Item C first.

If you'll just let us know about item CO2.

Okay.

So item C gives you as a council president or pro TIM by state law to set dates to go through to create a TIFF district.

Very simple, but any questions from Mr.

Davis.

So my initial thought is why doesn't this fall to the mayor?

Why are we asking the President and the Pro TIM to do this when this is something of truly of the administration?

So that would be item D.

And I can get to that.

Your question would be related to items.

Yes, sir.

We're happy to.

That's why we wanted to go through these.

So under the state law, under the TIFF statute, uh there's three primary things that the City Council has to do for the administration or mod department under the guise of the mayor to go create any TIFF district.

Certainly we have done a lot of these in the city.

Your district has been a benefactor in recent years, right?

And good things have come out of those, right?

So tonight you did pass one step, and that's to go create a public hearing.

That public hearing would unveil by the administration, proposed plan or proposed projects that would be in that TIFF district.

Certainly it will be this council's determination to choose to move forward with those project or that project plan.

The second step is uh this council must authorize the council president or pro TIM because there is a series of public meetings, public notifications, both in the legal paper, there's uh communication with the Madison County Commission in this case, because this will be in Madison County, uh such to provide those notices.

So state law says that you we must designate the president or the pro tem of the council at that current time to have the authority to allow the legal department or direct legal department per schedule.

So there's calendar days within the state statute, things must occur.

Some of those may occur on a council meeting, some may not, but it's simply a public notice of a public hearing that's coming or just to get a legal ad run.

It must run two times, maybe in a paper, so someone has to sign for that to run.

So that's what this item C that you are voting on is.

Um item D, to answer your question, I want to go through each of these very quickly.

We can't do D yet.

Okay.

I appreciate it.

I haven't answered your question yet, but I will answer it in D.

No, go ahead then if you have an answer.

I thought you did.

No, okay, I'm sorry.

So you you asked why the mayor.

So under the statute, the third thing that in setting a TIFF district is this council body must direct direct the administration to go and create a TIFF project plan to present to this council to consider.

That is answering your question, you know, why the mayor.

That's what item D, and that's all per state law.

You had me with the prior defin um reasoning being that we're talking about notifications for public meetings.

That makes sense.

For C that makes sense.

The other part, not so much.

Okay.

Um but um if it's state law and state law.

Um I have been, I guess, involved with TIFF since non-council, but this is the first time I have been involved at the creation level.

So it's the first time I'm seeing President Pro Tim being involved in having to do something other than voting for it related to a TIFF.

So it's nothing about the President of Pro Tim's doing nothing to create the district at all.

That will be the council body as a whole.

Right, because TIFFs are coming from the administration, not the first time.

Yes, so we have to present this body a project plan.

We have not done that yet.

And should you vote on C and D, we will do that on May 14th.

Thank you very much.

You are welcome, sir.

I appreciate your the level of your answer.

Thank you.

No, thank you, sir.

And I think we will have more clarity as we go on to the next item.

Uh any other questions?

All in favor, please indicate.

I oppose motion carries.

20 D is a resolution authorizing the City of Huntsville Department of Urban Development to prepare project plan for the development of a proposed tax increment financing district, tentatively named TIF 9, which district encompasses approximately 3,689.51 acres, more or less in accordance with Alabama Code, Section 11-99-1.

Motion to approve.

Motion from Mr.

Meredith, second from Mr.

Little.

Now, Mr.

Um Davis, if you will enlighten us.

Thank you, Madam President.

So uh to further that discussion that uh Councilman Merritt really uh wants to dive into, and so do I, and uh he's asked good questions.

Um, per state law, this should you vote for this, you are directing the mayor, the administration, uh, and the team behind that, the departments to come before this body, this public body, and present you a proposed TIFF 9 district plan.

So, what would that entail?

Um, that would entail project plans, public improvements uh for the most recent TIFF six and seven uh that we've seen uh predominantly in District 5 has included roads and it's included utilities and uh you know uh what we have done in the city in and around Huntsville High.

We've helped build educational facilities for Huntsville City Schools.

It's all got to be public improvements.

So uh should you move forward with this?

What uh the administration will do is bring you a plan uh for this boundary that would be created, just under 3,700 acres in predominantly their central business district, plus or minus, you know, uh a few blocks north and south.

We'll we'll go and start looking at that.

And why are we asking for this or you know, trying to partner with with the City Council to do this?

We're seeing significant private investment downtown.

Uh we are always needing public improvements.

Uh TIFF districts are a great way to allow private new development that sometimes can be taxing on our public infrastructure to help pay for that.

It rather than take an area that we may want to build a road in one of your districts, and we say, hey, downtown is growing, we need a public parking garage, or we want to connect the greenway or whatever that case may be, uh, we're going to delay your road project because we want to shift those funds to help support this.

The TIFF district allows us not to have to do that.

We are able to take the future proceeds from these developments, not taking the tax base away from our schools or county or city uh budget on all existing taxes that are being paid within that district.

Those go the tax recipients as they are today.

So we're not taking any revenue away from anyone to go create this district.

What we're taking is creating a boundary of private investment that we know that is occurring that will come on the tax rolls and allow that revenue to help pay for public infrastructure within that area that that investment is occurring.

So that's the plan we need to come back to this body and publicly and explain to you and say, based on uh the grade of uh investments and momentum that we are seeing downtown is take advantage of that and advance public infrastructure within this boundary.

I hope I'm at answering any questions.

I hope that gives a brief overview of what you are voting on.

Is in your question was why not the mayor?

You're about to go direct the mayor.

Thank you, Mr.

Davis.

Mr.

Meredith, do you have any other questions?

Um just a comment.

I had no idea.

I I know a little about where we're going.

And I had no idea it was that many acres.

That's a lot of acres.

Uh yeah.

And and for a TIFF district, it's actually uh pretty balanced of what we have done in the past.

Um TIF 7 in your district is much, much larger than this.

TIF 6 was about this, a little larger.

It has since closed out, it accelerated.

Uh but uh the reason we do this is one to some of the investment we know is coming.

We want to capture that.

But also, based on this investment, a lot of times when we go do these TIFF boundaries, is we know things of public infrastructure that you want, the public wants to see.

Well, we want to we want to go build that.

So it's this balance of capturing that private investments currently in downtown, and how can we take that and take those revenues to advance public infrastructure we all need in this community?

And you can't just I couldn't go all the way to the Tennessee River all the way to Alabama AM with this, but we try to stretch that envelope as much as we can to go do as much public improvements, take advantage of this moment of growth in our city.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam President.

I believe Mr.

Kling has a question.

The uh investment in central city.

You want to get close to your microphone?

I think there would be a problem hearing me.

Uh I like the investment in in the central portion of the city.

All these other guys, they get to talk about their outline annexations and everything.

And I'm the guy, I'm sort of like literally the guy in the middle.

But it is good because you know we are doing a lot of good revitalization for downtown and the central portion of the city.

We talk about quality of life and you know, we talk about doing new things, but at the same time we can take care and make the areas that we have for the people that we already have just a little bit nicer and do some things that could help show off Huntsville.

So I think that's great.

Uh one question, and I think I know the answer, and I think it's a good answer, but uh the history that we have had with TIFFs.

Um don't they all haven't they all worked out financially where you know everything got paid off the way it was supposed to?

Yeah, so um you you may think this is TIFF 9 would be the you know, the ninth TIF actually would be the tenth.

There's a eight coming for District 5, maybe that we're trying to work on also.

But uh I've been here 25 years with the city.

Uh I cannot recall a a TIFF district that has gone the full term, if you will, the 20 years they've all accelerated and paid off.

Well, so we are very conservative with these.

Uh certainly we want to get public infrastructure built that we need.

Uh but we also want to get that those bonds paid off with these new investments, and as soon as those are paid off, take that new revenue that has been created in that district and get it to the tax recipients.

One City Hall, the other one is private, I mean uh uh county government, Basin County government, and then our school system.

So if you look at the ones we just recently closed off, I think the mayor and the council had uh the Huntsville City Schools here and we presented them with check.

I remember when we uh paid off TIF six, I called Chairman Daly Limestone County and said, hey, just want you know we're about to pay this off, and I gave him his proceeds amount, and he said, Man, we could really use that, and I said, Well, that's forever.

You know, you'll get that next year, and here's the limestone county schools.

Uh so everyone wins.

You know, it's a little moment in time that you got to give up some revenue, but everyone that I have seen closed out.

That little bit you gave up for that short duration is typically a 2x, 3x, or 4x return uh pretty quickly to all of our tax recipients.

Any other questions?

Is there a limit to the number of TIFF districts we can enact?

There is not.

And they can overlap.

So actually, uh in Council Mayor's district TIF 6 and 7, they overlap somewhat.

Interesting.

All right.

Any other questions?

All in favor, please indicate.

Okay.

Opposed.

Motion carries.

We will be hearing more about TIF 9 in the future.

Uh Councilmembers, thank you.

We will give you Shane.

Give you some preliminary data on that count uh May 14th public hearing.

Thank you.

Very good.

Thank you so much.

20E is a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter an agreement between the City of Huntsville and New Stone Commons LLC for the development of the New Stone Commons with home investment partnerships program, American Rescue Plan, home art funds.

Is there a motion to approve?

Second.

Motion from Mr.

Little, second from Mr.

Meredith.

Mr.

Irwin.

Yes, Councilmember Scott Urban Community Development Department.

Uh thank you for opportunity to hold this to discuss because whenever we have opportunities to increase our affordable housing stock, Huntsville, we'd like to come before you and actually sort of brag on that a little bit.

So this is when the E is a final agreement to use home ARP American Rescue Plan funds to develop New Stone Commons, an affordable multifamily project located at 3450 Vinona Avenue.

Cities are able to create affordable housing by using grant funds to fill the funding gap.

This is the gap between the construction cost and the lower rental income usually generated by projects based on the affordable rental guidelines.

Huntsville, like many cities, rarely directly build.

Instead, we act as a conduit.

We use grant money to partially fund the development to create affordable housing options.

This project is a collaborative project between the City of Huntsville, the Alabama Housing Finance Authority, and neighborhood concepts to create 42 affordable multifamily units that will serve families who will reside in the Bonona neighborhood.

The total development cost for this is $15.9 million.

The home ARP program fund supporting this project you are asked to commit tonight is $2,303,834.

Questions for Mr.

Irwin?

Is this the property over on Monroe?

You might have said that.

It is not.

This is on Venona up off of Maston Lake.

Okay.

Sorry.

All right, thank you.

Any other questions?

How are we doing as far as affordable housing?

How are we doing as far as affordable housing needs in this community?

I hear of needs, and then I see things that say we're doing good on a in a magazine article here and there.

But what is your evaluation of where we stand at this point?

I mean, comparing Huntsville against you know comparable cities around the nation.

We're toward the top, obviously, before we are done.

But what we do daily is work to try to bring new projects like this into Huntsville that create the opportunity for families to have lower income, lower based on lower income, still have quality affordable housing.

So this is one more effort in doing that, whether we're doing single family development, homeownership assistance programs, or developing an increase in the stock of affordable rental housing, which usually in other projects, and as Mr.

Little mentioned on uh Meridian Commons, which is to be uh more information on that to be to be coming.

But we're very intentional, and I believe we are actually making differences.

Creating the supply is a big issue, but also things under the planning department and other uh tools at the disposal of that uh department will actually continue to provide more available affordable housing.

Thank you.

Is there Mr.

Davis, would you like to add to that?

Just very quickly, Councilmembers, I am sorry, but uh to uh add to and answer your question, Councilman Kling.

Uh kudos to the planning staff and the engineering staff of modifying some of our zoning ordinance to get uh different lot sizes and setbacks such to introduce new price point housing.

So we have worked with our developers and our home builders to say, hey, what do you need to see from a zoning perspective and a lot creation lot size to create price points of X, Y, and Z and deliver that into our community so that it is that partnership to make sure we can get uh price points in the upper twos and mid-threes and so on?

Some of that has taken us to change the way we allow business to be conducted.

So uh as Scott said, you know, we're turning every knob we can to try to uh provide as much broad base of affordability as we know how.

Okay.

Thank you.

Madam President, Mr.

Bayer.

Well, I've got you there, uh, Mr.

Davis.

Is that why I am seeing in my district?

Um houses really packed in there, really tight.

You are.

Okay.

Thank you.

So so it's he brings up a great point.

So you think about for sell product.

You know, uh the Mill Creek is a for-rent product and it's income-based, but a for sale new home, someone wants to purchase the American Dream.

Think about what you can control and you can't control.

Uh labor cost, can't control that.

You know, you have got to pay the right ways to get the right people on site to go construct a house.

Uh building materials, that is a market rate that that no community, no government can control.

Uh so the other piece is land cost.

We don't control the land market of a private transaction, so all those are fixed.

So, how can we adjust because that all gets passed on in that house?

So, how can we make a narrower lot so there is not so much pass through of that land cost?

You get a little few more lots, and you can spread out those fixed costs.

So that's why you are seeing you know, some side yard setbacks a little closer.

Uh we didn't want to give up rear yards as much.

So we want people to have a backyard and a front yard, so just really work in those lot sizes and shapes just to spread that cost and get it a little lower.

Thank you, sir.

You are welcome.

We we have had a good conversation here about affordable housing, and I permitted it as a point of information, but we need to get back to the actual agenda item is on New Stone Commons.

Does anyone have any questions about that?

All in favor, please indicate.

I oppose the motion carries.

Uh 20 G is a resolution authorizing the mayor and entering an agreement between the City of Huntsville and Community Action Partnership of Huntsville Madison and Limestone Counties, Inc.

for the use of a DECA fiscal year 25 emergency solutions grant funding.

Motion from Mr.

Meredith, second from the Chair.

Mr.

Irwin.

Uh yes, Councilmembers.

This is the agreement between the City and Community Action Partnership of Huntsville and Limestone, Madison and Limestone Counties.

This is for the FY25 emergency solution grant funding, which provides homeless service providers and homeless resources within our community.

This particular agency is receiving a $25,000 agreement for the homeless prevention to actually keep individuals from becoming unhoused.

Are there questions from Mr.

Irwin?

Any discussion?

All those in favor, please indicate.

Thank you, Council Members.

All right.

We'll go to 20.

20 is a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into a contract between the City of Huntsville and a parent low bidder, Rogers Group Inc.

for the old Monrovia Road improvements, base bid and option number one, project number 71-21-RD 07.

Motion to approve.

Motion from Mr.

Meredith, second from Mr.

Little.

Are there questions or comments that anyone has?

Mr.

Meredith.

Welcome back, Mr.

Daines.

Could you tell me what the specific improvements are going to be?

For the Old Monroe?

Yes, sir.

Yes.

So these are the planned improvements we've been working on for a couple of years now.

So we're creating a complete street from University Drive South into Research Park Corporate Drive.

So it's on the east side of the Mid-City district.

So creating some multi-use paths that will get you into Research Park, connect to some internal paths to Mid-City, and also get you to the Ryan Amphitheater and through the park.

So from a pedestrian standpoint, upgrading lighting along Old Monrovia.

The character and the condition of that area has changed drastically from a regional 1.1 million square feet mall where we're trying to get you know 10 or 15,000 cars into a retail center and back out.

Now it's a much more walkable area and one of our northern gateway entrances to Research Park East.

So, you know, back when Massa Square Mall was there, it's almost six lanes wide.

Certainly doesn't need that.

So we want to slow traffic down.

We've seen some high speeds in that short section.

So we're doing some on street parking, and then heavy landscape, more pedestrian facilities, bike lane facilities, really to just change the character of that area as you go into Research Park in the mid-city district, more conducive to way it acts today, rather than a big regional mall there.

So excuse me.

It's going to essentially be a road diet.

We're going to reduce the number of lanes coming through.

We're going to add more walkability.

I assume this is going to tie into some sort of greenway or bike trail or something into UAH as well, correct?

That's right.

So the next phase would be to take Sanderson back into UAH, the executive plaza master plan that UH is working on.

So all this has been kind of master planned, if you will, and rolling it, roll it out as development and the plans like you just mentioned, UH starts to come out.

So this old Monrovia is the first phase.

Over the next few years, you'll see us continue to kind of move towards wind drive and then on in towards you know Holmes Avenue, the complete street from downtown to UAH is part of that linkage.

So this is one of those pieces just to really make it more pedestrian-friendly.

You know, research park in that area is 60 years old.

And a lot of things that remain unchanged from public road infrastructure, and we're a much more mobile society in the way we're starting to allow different uses in research park east.

I mean, you have seen what's happening around the cyber school.

We have got now livability in research park east.

So just really updating the way people use that area of the city.

One suggestion I know my constituents would want me to ask or make a comment on it, is can we not have back end diagonal parking on this street?

Just do it, either pull in or parallel.

The back end thing is issues.

Yeah, so uh you know it was something this committee had not seen.

Uh I'm starting to see in the mid-city district, people getting used to it.

And really uh the reason we use it, you're starting across the U.S.

start to see angle parking convert to this.

It's actually a safer movement if you really look at regular slant parking as more of a European style.

Uh certainly we are we are on the left side of the car driving, so you get in those long, you know, kind of angle parking, and the first thing you are trying to do is back out in the car beside you, you're on the wrong side of the car to see.

So we have done that.

We knew it would be a learning curve.

Uh for this road project is parallel because the angle parking would have just took too much of the pavement up.

We wanted to make capacity to get through.

Uh, but uh, you know, uh we had put up some signage in mid-city, and and uh I'm proud to say the more I'm out there, the less I see people parked in on the wrong way.

So thank you.

Final question.

What's strictly on on um Old Monroe improvement?

What's the timeline on that?

So should you approve this to tonight?

And about six months.

They should finish by the end of the year.

Thank you very much, Mr.

Wilkins.

Any other comments or questions?

All in favor, please indicate.

I oppose the motion carries.

20 Q is a resolution authorized mayor to enter into fixed price agreement between the City of Huntsville and Butler Construction Company for the public safety facility renovation.

Motion to approve.

Motion from Mr.

Meredith, second from Mr.

Little.

Mr.

Wilkinson.

Good evening, Ricky Wilkinson, Director of General Services.

So this is a construction services contract with Butler Construction Company for the public safety facility renovation.

The amount of this contract is $3,177,300.

This is renovation of the former Bailey Cove library location in South Huntsville.

We will primarily be converted into office space for HPD.

This will allow us to vacate some lease space that they are currently occupying.

It is a one-year construction contract.

Any questions?

Mr.

Meredith.

If we are going to relinquish some leases, how much are we going to capture from those leases that we are not paying out on?

I don't I don't have the exact numbers in front of me.

I'm certainly.

If you are not comfortable, you can do it later.

But let me work on that for you so I can give you an accurate number.

That's that's fine.

It will be a savings, obviously, for the lease dollars going out, there will be a savings back to the city to help help with this.

But probably nowhere close to over three million.

Uh not certainly in the initial near term, uh, but for the life of the building, I think we would probably be comparable to that, plus you consider the the value of the building being occupied versus it being vacant currently.

Um it's not a bad deal.

And um I know we are talking about renovations, and you did mention um office space, so we are going to essentially gut the interior of this and produce office space.

So what is kind of interesting, this was a library branch, so there's not a whole lot to be gutted.

Uh libraries are obviously open floor uh very minimal office space enclosed.

So really, this is is primarily a build-out.

There's not a whole lot to gut just based on the previous use of the building.

Thank you, sir.

Yes, sir.

Mr.

Little?

I was making sure I understand this is going to be a this is a new South Precinct.

This is not the new South Precinct.

So we did evaluate this.

Uh unfortunately there is not enough uh not enough parking, not enough building space for the South Police Precinct.

Yeah, Council did approve, obviously, some purchase for a future uh South Police Precinct last year timeline to be determined on that.

No, I got it.

Uh Dr.

Robinson helped me understand.

Thank you.

Good.

Any other questions?

All in favor, please any tape?

I opposed the motion carried.

Thank you.

20 S is a resolution to adjust the salaries of employees in certain positions in assigned departments.

Motion to approve.

Motion.

Uh motion from Mr.

Meredith, second from Mr.

Little.

Yes, Byron Thomas, Director of Human Resources.

This is a routine resolution where we adjust the steps of employees within a certain department based upon sometime promotions where another employees come in and we want to evaluate the employee and make sure we have them equitable.

Any questions or comments?

I have questions.

Yes.

Um you tell us, share with us which employees are going to, I presume, get in this increase.

Yes, sir.

On the uh resolution, it does identify the uh Ms.

Betty Collins, our parking attendant coordinator, and also Mr.

Lois White side in parking as well.

Thank you very much.

Um in honor of administrative assistance.

Could we look at the council and see what we can do about getting them?

And there are procedures for that if we do an audit.

Well, formally requesting an audit.

Again, that's not germane to this discussion.

Um questions regarding this item?

Anyone?

All in favor, please indicate.

20 T is a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into a confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement between the Premise Health Employer Solutions LLC, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama, Deerwalk, Inc.

doing business as Cedar Gate Technologies and the City of Huntsville.

Chair makes the motion.

Oh second.

Second from Mr.

Little.

Yes, Thomas.

Byron Thomas, Director of Human Resources.

This is a routine agreement between City, Blue Cross, Premise Health, Health and Wellness Center, they share data just to make sure it maintains confidentiality and non-disclosure.

Mr.

Meredith.

That is pertinent to this particular issue.

Why don't we have the responsibility to approve all the nondisclosure agreements?

Well, this is a combined one.

It includes all of the agents entities on this one agreement.

So whenever we have a separate contract for them, we will put a what we call the business associate agreement in there, and you will approve it at this time.

These organizations share data with the collecting agency doing business like Cedergate.

So this is just a routine which we have done in the past to make sure they all understand that information needs to be maintained.

I guess the question then needs to go to legal.

And you know, this is the first time in all of the nondisclosure agreements that the mayor enters into.

Why is this the only one that has come before the council?

Half of them we don't even know existing.

I will be happy to look into it.

I don't have an answer for you right now.

Please, let's do that.

Thank you.

Anyone else have a question?

All in favor, please indicate.

I oppose the motion can't be a good idea.

I would stain on this one.

All right.

But the record show that uh Mr.

Meredith has abstained.

Uh other council members voted in favor.

20U, is a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into a three-year renewal agreement between the City of Huntsville and Microsoft through Software House International, SHI identified as licensing program signature form and end customer agreement for Microsoft Support Services.

Chair moves for approval.

No second.

Second by Mr.

Little.

Good evening, Council members.

It's uh Gene Yule, uh Director of Information Technology Services.

What you have in front of you is a renewal agreement.

Generally, in the past, this has been done in two separate uh entries.

But what we did is we combined it this year because we were able to realize a savings with that.

So with the Microsoft Agreement, this is probably our fourth, this is our fourth iteration of renewing this particular agreement.

Uh and the cost in front of you is the uh enterprise agreement is uh $3,509,187.58 cents, and the unified support agreement is $1,090,338,000 uh $338.35 cents with a grand total of $4,599,525 and $93 cents.

Questions?

Mr.

Meredith?

Yes.

Um it is an awful lot of money.

What are the taxpayers getting for this?

Essentially, Microsoft is our critical business processes, right?

It's the it is what we use within the city to uh to handle all our day-to-day processes.

What we get is the the functionality of the Microsoft products, which would be your Word, your uh Excel, which is a flagship standard when it comes to accounting process uh accounting practices.

Uh you get your PowerPoint solution, your PowerPoint solution, and also the uh identity management.

This is something that is critical within the city to maintain day-to-day operations.

So it's it's nothing new.

We are not getting anything in additional to what we have always had.

Well, there is, because what happens is with the advances of technology and things, uh I there are certain uh levels of of uh licensing that we have to improve.

Like we were we were running a G3 licenses in the past.

But right now we have to upgrade the G5 licenses because one of the add-ons that we were going to add to the G3 licenses was data management and data classification.

And the reason why we had to implement that uh that feature set is because of the uh implementation of uh uh technological advantages like artificial intelligence.

So when we looked at uh adding that feature set to the G3 license, the pricing was equal to purchasing the G5 license.

Now, when we get the G5 license, we get a lot more features with that for the same price.

I can get technical, I will be glad to explain it to you, but we get like into entropy two uh categorization, which is the advanced identity management uh and protection services that Microsoft offers for uh for our data around our infrastructure.

We get uh uh the data classification aspect of it.

We get Intune, which is mobile device management, which allows us to keep control of all the mobile devices that people have uh around.

Uh the laptops, your cell phones, whether it is an iPhone or an Android.

So it was just more beneficial to actually purchase the G5 licenses and get all those extra feature sets, as long as the uh as law as well as the uh advanced analytics that we get uh to report on the use of our technologies that we are paying for.

What I guess percentage of this is uh related to artificial intelligence.

Generally what this handles is all our employees but when people want to get into like copilot it is a separate license that we purchase and we we are stair stepping that we are not just going to fully deploy it because we have to put up these these uh uh the barriers the guidelines right uh because the implementation is very sensitive on how we want to do this so we buy them piecemeal as we utilize that so this is not going to implement AI through the entire infrastructure of the city what this is is this is going to afford us the technology that we need that when we do implement it we can maintain controls of it.

Thank you, sir.

Madam President Any other questions?

All in favor please indicate or opposed motion carries.

Thank you.

20 Z is a resolution consenting to certain actions of the Huntsville and Madison County Railroad authority with regards to purchasing locomotives and other equipment to facilitate rail operations.

Move for approval motion from Mr.

Kling second from Mr.

Little Council members do you have any questions?

I have a question define certain actions so is there someone who would like to comment to this I believe we have the board chair of the Huntsville Madison County Railroad.

Mr.

Lum welcome if you would like to introduce yourself for the record and then tell us uh why you need this resolution approved by the Huntsville City Council members.

As stated Mark Loam, Chairman of the Huntsville Madison County Railroad Authority Board of Directors the original 1984 authorizing legislation requires us to come before the City Council and the Madison County Commission for any capital expenditure in excess of 100,000 I don't think 100,000 bought much in 1984 it sure doesn't buy much in 2026 accrues no financial liability to the city or the county in any way and what we are what we are anticipating is the need for at least one possibly two new locomotives or actually additional locomotives right now on the used market they go for about $250,000 apiece.

We are also anticipating the need should St.

Gobain come back up online that of course is the company at the end of the line the reason the railroad was created back in 1984 chiefly to buy some material handling equipment should they need us to transload.

So we are asking for approval and ahead uh ahead of the need to purchase so if we find a good deal we can go ahead and act immediately.

And I would add to that in addition to seeking or requiring approval by the City Council the uh enabling doc um documentation also requires approval from the County Commission.

It does and that will take place at their next meeting again what are certain actions?

Are you talking about negotiating or what are you talking about actually doing?

This is about approving debt Okay.

That's not certain action this is this is approving approving debt we are required to approve debt it's just like hungsible utilities and then that debt is going to fund potentially two locomotives and conveyor okay but describing it as certain actions is very agreed the wording might have been a little vague.

It sounds great.

Thank you Mark Okay any other questions?

Yes.

Yes Mark we got two train items on the agenda tonight I am all ginked up I'm just curious if the the power you are thinking about buying do you know what it is yet?

Similar to the power we already have I don't want to get too technical.

Well you can tell is it jeeps?

I'm sorry?

Jeeps?

No, they're they're they're General Electric Okay.

All right.

That's all I have.

Yes he really is a train nerd.

Anyone else?

All in favor, please indicate posed motion carries.

Thank you Mark for being here tonight.

And then 20 AB is a resolution authorizing mayor to enter into an agreement with DB ECO North America Inc.

for professional services related to the Huntsville area MPO intercity passenger rail study.

Motion to approve motion by Mr.

Meredith second by Mr.

Klingon Good evening counsel thank you for having me Dennis Madsen at the planning department I am going to talk real quickly about the item and then entertain any questions.

So this is an MPO study.

I want to start with a quick graphic.

This graphic is a clip from the national rail map it was a plan that was updated in 2021 as you can see if I can zoom in a little closer there is a certain city in Alabama that has not included on the national rail plan.

There's a certain city in Alabama that has not included on the national rail plan.

This was not necessarily a deliberate oversight by the Federal Government when they updated the plan.

They were simply taking existing state rail plans and incorporating them.

But we do think that is something that needs to be remedied going forward, especially as the government continues to consider the expansion of passenger rail nationwide or even on a regional basis.

So the MPO issued an RFP.

It closed on December 2nd.

We had four proposals.

DB ECO, DB is Deutsche Bahn.

They know trains.

The total contract cost is $348,874 and 55 cents.

Those are all exclusively MPO funds.

They're PL funds specifically used for conducting studies like this.

The goals, the key objectives are really look at existing trips from or among Huntsville and other regional communities to recommend quarters that would require subsequent study.

Look at potential grant sources.

This is not the type of project I think you can imagine that is funded or really facilitated at the municipal level.

This is something that typically involves Federal Government, State Government.

This is a significant infrastructure investment.

This is really the first step in that.

So we're looking at taking about 16 to 18 months to complete that.

We do want to make sure we're fairly clear.

This does not involve Huntsville-Madison County Railroad Authority.

This does not involve local transit.

When we talk about intercity rail, we're talking about Amtrak style rail.

We are talking city-to-city rail.

So it's not light rail.

We had some questions about that as well.

If you are thinking street cars or things like that that are moving locally, that's not those.

And it also does not involve the Huntsville depot, because I know we have been talking about planning for that.

This is not that.

This is really looking regionally.

We do have a couple of peer cities, Chattanooga and Birmingham have both in the last six months, stated an intent to engage in in passenger rail studies, mostly geared towards linking them with Atlanta.

But this was this was an effort.

I think we want to be clear that this study will not facilitate passenger rail by itself.

What this study does is that as the Federal Government and the other related transit agencies start to have those discussions, that Huntsville is included and is at the table in any development of a national passenger rail plan.

Are you going to be advocating any specific routes?

I know you have got up here Birmingham, Nashville, but like the Huntsville, Nashville, Huntsville, Birmingham, Mobile.

I have my own personal places that I would like to go.

I would love to see a you know a beach train because we spend but no, this actually we we will pull back.

We are relying on the experts to actually look at this and say what are the ones that make sure.

We don't give many parameters as far as this you work for us, this is what we're precisely.

They're gonna look at data and they're going to see what makes sense.

And a lot of it has to be what is economically viable as well.

You you don't you want to run a route that actually makes sense that moves people?

Other questions, Mr.

Mayor?

Umone mentioned earlier a public comment about high-speed rail.

This is not gonna be high-speed rail.

It might be.

What we frequently hear of uh discussed in uh American National Rail Circles is not necessarily high speed rail, but we call high efficiency rail.

Yeah, um, where you are looking at at quick movements, city to city, not a lot of uh intermediate stops, um, so that you could make it, say, from Huntsville to Mobile in three hours.

Um, you are moving, say, faster than traffic, but no, you're not talking.

As much as I love the videos of them, and I, you know, Dave and I have talked a bit a little bit about this.

Um, we're not talking MAGLEF or the 300 kilometer an hour trains.

Yeah.

Okay.

The other thing is we talk about the MPO in here.

Um, how much is the MPO putting up for this?

The MPOs, this is all MPO funds.

This is all PL funds.

Um exclusively MPO funds that are going to focus on the notations we have on here says it costs.

Yeah, that's what I had understood that that is incorrect.

It's all MPO planning funds.

Awesome.

Thank you for that clarification.

Thank you, Madam President.

Mr.

Kling.

I mean, I'm sorry, Mr.

Little.

Um I assume the Southern Rail Commission is still in existence.

They are.

Do we have a North Alabama representation on there?

It seemed like there was some chatter about that a while back.

There had been.

I hadn't heard anything since then.

I do believe we have representation on there.

I do not know who it is.

I would that would actually come out of the mayor's office so I can check with him and get you an answer and see if it's on.

It is troubling to me as we're the biggest and the best city in the whole state.

It should be there.

So I'm glad that uh we are a part of this, like we said, so we have a seat at the table, whether this is 10 or 20 years from now.

And you are seeing rail movement regionally in other spots.

Uh there's what is known as the Mardi Gras line, which goes from Mobile to New Orleans, which has been running, I think, since August last year has exceeded 100,000 riders.

So there is there is demand out there for it.

Um we are, and again, I have to really caution us, this is the first step of a fairly long journey, much of which is outside our control.

We just want to make sure that when the discussion of inner city passenger rail is being advanced, that we have a seat at the table.

Right.

All right, thank you, Madam President.

Ms.

Watkins.

Okay.

So after the study, you receive it back.

What's the next steps, which you plan on doing with the study?

So the next steps are depending on what comes out of the study, um, look at investigating corridors in more detail.

They also talk about potential funding mechanisms.

Um, but again, I hesitate to put too much detail on that because that is really what the study is going to do is say, what are your logical next steps?

What are the routes that make sense?

Um, do you need to engage state agencies, federal agencies, um, who would actually be the big partner in facilitating this?

And I I know as a MPO representative, you'll probably be one of the first to see it because this will end up being reported to the MPO.

Will this go into the MPO plan as a visionary project?

That may take a while.

Um it it could be part of kind of an appendix, the way we have things like the bike plan.

Um it may uh may fall into it uh in kind of a similar fashion.

Any other questions?

All in favor, please indicate.

Any opposed, motion carries.

Um that can oh, let's see.

We're now that concludes our items for action tonight.

Uh we will move on to new business items for introduction.

These items will not be considered tonight.

They will be considered at the May 14th meeting.

21A is an introduction of an ordinance to amend ordinance number 94-523, which establishes precinct boundary lines for municipal elections.

21B is the introduction of an ordinance to amend Chapter 3 Alcoholic Beverages, Article 3 of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Huntsville, subsection A of Section 3-133-hours of sale and operations.

21C is the introduction of an ordinance annexing 2.47 acres of land lying on the south side of Highway 20 and east of Greenbyer Parkway.

That concludes the business of the city.

The next item on our agenda is second roster public comments.

We have 12 people signed up.

So uh I would like to ask uh a point of privilege that we take a break for five minutes and we'll come back for um the um the citizen comments.

So we will come back at 846.

Speakers shall refrain from entering into a dialogue with council members or city staff and from making comments regarding good name and character of any individual.

The first person to sign up is Ashley Dowffit.

Ashley Dalphit will be followed by Robert Clifton.

Is Ashley Dothitt here?

She went back to our member.

All right.

Well, I assume they are taking care of whatever her comments were.

So, Mr.

Uh Clifton, uh is is Robert Clifton here, and Mr.

Clifton will be followed by Christopher Leoi.

My name is Robert Clifton, 101 Fowler Creek Way, Hazel Green, Alabama, 35750.

I'm really new at all this.

I really I'm just trying to figure out which which way to go to try to get some results.

Um I'm uh I come to a dead end.

People scared to death, people don't want to talk about it, don't want to comment about it, don't want to do nothing about it.

I've talked to uh Mr.

Reynolds, I've talked to the uh district commissioner of District 1, uh Brian or whatever his name is.

You know, he's like, you know, what do you want me to do?

It's about our sewer bill, you know, out there.

You know, I talked to Ms.

Watkins, Ms.

Watkin told me that you know there's I'm in the wrong department uh to bitch about this, but uh you know I've been here for three or four hours, so you're gonna listen to me.

Um I don't understand why no nothing can be done about this.

You know, we're sitting out there, our sewer bill has went from 47.50 cents to fifty seven dollars and fifty cents to sixty dollars and to s now sixty-three fifty all in a one year with no explanation, okay.

And the woman that is in charge of it and everything, uh Ellen uh Melanie Wood and everything, you know, I moved our five years ago, my ball come backed up four times within six months.

My builder dug up my yard three times, and uh and just like the lady told me with uh high co utility told me, you know, until you prove that it's my fault, I ain't gonna do a D thing.

Live with it.

Come and find out after three years, I mean, three times my yard was dug up, it was her fault.

Do she apologize to me?

No.

What she does is uh, you know, she don't send us any bills or anything.

The day the due date is on the ninth.

She sends our bills out, it gets to us on the second, third, and fourth.

She charges us a late fee and everything, ain't nothing we can do.

She comes and cuts our if you don't pay you bills, she comes and cuts it off.

She shows up on a Friday evening at seven o'clock at night, cuts it off, you either got a thousand, fifteen hundred or two thousand, whatever she feels like she wants to do.

That's what you gotta pay, and then to cut it back on, it's another thousand and fifteen.

One person out there is up to twenty-four thousand dollars.

Okay.

She does what she wants to do.

You know, I everybody I talk to don't nobody want to do nothing.

You know, and I I'm in the wrong place, so like I said, y'all gonna hear me, you know.

But if it was in y'all's district, I guarantee you'd do something about it without a doubt.

If it was in Tommy Battle's district, all hell break loose.

You know, but uh, you know, I don't I don't know what to do.

Hopefully I'm gonna email Miss Watkins and see if she can help me and everything.

It seems like that, you know, she's kind of poor like me and everything, and maybe she'll get something done because I don't see anything unless it's a sidewalk, Bill Kling will probably do something.

Unless it's uh backing in backwards or something in a space, maybe Mr.

Meredith or John Meredith would do something about it.

Mr.

Little, I don't even know anything about you.

I don't want to ever hear anything about you.

You know, uh Mr.

Battle, you know, if it ain't about kneeling or taking statues away from us, he ain't gonna do nothing about it.

Sorry, sir, your time is up.

Um the the county commission gives uh opportunities for public comment.

You might want to go share your comments at the county commission meeting.

Uh the next person is Christopher Leoy, followed by Molly Cluck.

Good evening, uh Christopher Leoy.

My address is on the sheet.

And you're a um resident of Madison, the city of Madison.

Um I'm here this evening because uh this week is the international BDS boycott investment and sanctions campaign week of action against Elbit Systems, a company which is represented in Huntsville.

Um, in order to hopefully uh begin what I hope and intend to be an ongoing public conversation about an entity that, even among the many morally dubious companies that are responsible for this town's prosperity, is a repeat offender in some very serious crimes.

Elbett Systems is an Israeli military contractor, which after a series of mergers and acquisitions has become, as BDS calls it, the cornerstone of the Israeli military-industrial complex.

It's subsidiary in the U.S., Elbit Systems of America, has offices and production facilities in several U.S.

states, and a quick search shows that Alabama is the only state that has more than one, one of which is in Talladega, one of which is right here in Huntsville, just north of Redstone Arsenal.

Um most of the companies in and around the Arsenal, Lockheed, Raytheon, all the rest of the so-called defense contractors are no such thing.

They are war contractors.

These companies sell war.

That's about enough.

But Elbit System sells genocide.

Its business model may as well be we will sell you the tools to commit crimes against humanity.

Its predecessors sold weapons to the South African apartheid regime in the 70s, to the Guatemalan regime in the 80s that used them to massacre hundreds of thousands of indigenous Mayan people.

In 2016, it sold weapons to the government of Myanmar, despite the ICC's finding that they were responsible for the genocide of the Rohingya people.

And of course, it is responsible in large part for the weapons that have been used in the genocide in Palestine.

For quite a while, uh there had been a community effort to try and get the city council to pass a ceasefire resolution in Gaza.

Uh you declined.

You declined.

Even after months of publicly documented murder, despite immediately passing one in support of Israel in the wake of October 7th.

This is not an idle issue.

This is a public alignment of the city of Huntsville with the people who are responsible for the destruction of an entire Mediterranean civilization.

I recognize, having said that, that I'm not going to convince you to evict this company with a single speech in a single meeting.

And just personally, it annoys me that I have to come to these meetings that are invariably opened by Christian prayers, by people who ostensibly believe in the teachings of a man who said, blessed be the peacemakers, who cannot be bothered to even make tepid statements against our own grotesque economy of war.

Thank you.

The next person will be Molly Kluck.

Ms.

Puck will be followed by Thomas, and you're going to have to excuse me, Carvalaris.

My name is Molly Kluck.

My address is correct on the sheet, and I'm a resident of Huntsville.

Thank you.

I grew up with the belief that this country was built on a promise: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Yet what does that promise mean today when Brown families live in fear of a knock at the door?

When people disappear into detention without due process, when enforcement agencies act with a level of force that leaves communities shaken, grieving, and distrustful.

When I have been here before, I've mentioned the people murdered by ICE early this year.

But just because those shootings happened back in January doesn't mean they aren't still terrorizing people.

More recently, an ICE agent was charged with assault after pointing a gun at civilians during a confrontation while driving a car.

These interactions are symptoms of a system that's not built to obtain its stated purpose and constantly marches towards something colder and more indifferent.

People do not encounter the system and walk away untouched.

Families fracture, trust erodes, communities learn to live with a quiet and constant fear.

People act like it demonstrates strength to accept that fear is a cost of doing business.

But it's not strength, it's callousness.

And callousness left unchecked becomes something closer to nihilism, a belief that human dignity no longer matters and at some lives are by nature of race or creed expendable.

Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness.

If those words are going to mean anything at all, they must mean something here.

They must mean something now.

Because no one is free until we are all free.

And that's not a slogan or some dumb talking point.

What it means is that if even one group can be denied safety, dignity, and due process, then those rights are not secure for anyone here.

So the question before this city council is not abstract.

It is immediate and it is local.

Will this city be complicit?

Will our resources, our law enforcement, our institutions be used to assist in actions that undermine the very principles we claim to uphold?

Or will this City Council adopt a policy of non-cooperation with ICE, no sharing of local data, no use of city personnel to assist federal immigration enforcement, no participation in this ethnic cleansing which separates families and erodes civil liberties.

Do not cooperate with injustice, do not normalize fear, and do not stand by while the promise of this country is narrowed piece by piece until it belongs to no one at all.

Make the decision, draw the line, and refuse cooperation with ICE.

Thank you.

We will now hear from uh Thomas Flaris.

Excuse the writing wasn't real clear.

That's my best guess.

And we'll be followed by Howard Ross.

What was the name?

Thomas.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I I yielded my time.

My question is already been answered.

Thank you.

Okay.

So we will not have Mr.

Clark.

Now we will hear from Howard Ross.

Howard Ross will be followed by Forrest Satterfield.

Howard Ross, 2617 X-Calber Drive.

Uh, following up from the uh I was at the last uh City Council meeting it uh about the uh uh police allowed a trespasser in at 6016 Ellington Road and trying to find out how we can alleviate the situation and uh brought in all the documents and trying to get a follow-up.

Uh is anyone gonna do anything about it?

I guess it's in District One and uh We don't know what to do about it.

Uh we haven't heard back.

Uh we got a call from HPD from Internal Affairs.

They said asked if we wanted to get the police officers in trouble who did it, and we said, No, we just want to get the property back and uh get the house back and get the furnishings back, uh trying to find out what we can do about that.

It's anyone we can follow up with.

Does it have a lot of people?

Okay.

Mr.

Eiley, if you'll go with Mr.

Ross out in the foyer, perhaps you could have a conversation about it and he can give you an update.

Next we will hear from Mr.

Forrest Satterfield, followed by Taylor Miller.

All right.

Hello, y'all.

My name is Forrest Siderfield, uh 740 Constellation Place Drive, Huntsville, Alabama.

Thank you.

I was born in Huntsville Hospital, and I volunteered at the Heart Center.

In fact, I became a biomedical engineer in part because Huntsville Hospital showed me what health care could be.

I have real love for the Rocket City and for this institution.

If we do not address our current reality promptly, this crisis is going to get exponentially worse.

We are caught in a health care death spiral.

Like ants trapped in an endless circular march, our health care system is exhausting itself while going absolutely nowhere.

For patients, the distance to receive health care keeps growing, whether it is due to facility closures or gridlock traffic.

Meanwhile, we are bleeding health care workers.

Why would new doctors or nurses move to North Alabama when they are offered worse pay and grueling hours?

The health care workers that remain are burning out and leaving the prep profession entirely.

The result, we don't have anywhere near enough specialists.

If you are having a life-threatening emergency today, you might drive an half an hour to the local ER, wait for hours to be seen, only to be told you need a two-hour transfer to Birmingham or Nashville to actually receive treatment.

We are not acting with the urgency this issue demands.

Huntsville Hospital recently paid 450 million dollars to an out-of-state corporation to acquire Crestwood Hospital.

Let me reiterate that.

We just sent nearly half a billion dollars to Tennessee in a move that does nothing to fundamentally improve the care we receive.

I can't help but ask what could we have done with half a billion dollars if we had invested it in our people?

We could have built new accessible facilities so we don't have to wait hours in the ER.

We could have attracted top-tier medical talent to North Alabama, and we could have supported our existing health care workers who are already exhausted with the pay they and resources they deserve.

We have to stop prioritizing corporate consolidation and market monopolies over human lives.

It's time we return to the kind of patient care that inspires people to enter the medical field in the first place.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We will now hear from Taylor Miller.

Taylor Miller will be followed by Susan Stewart.

Is Taylor Miller here?

Then we will move on to Susan Stewart, who will be followed by Liliana Painter.

Hello, I'm Susan Stewart.

My address is correct on the sign-in sheet.

I live in Huntsville.

And um I didn't I got here too late to sign up for first agenda, but I am also um came here to talk about health care tonight instead of immigration.

But also be sure to look at that 85-year-old woman who was taken into custody by ICE in Alabama.

We made the national news again.

I'll be back to talk about that stuff later while I'm wasting all my time.

Anyway, um in general, consolidations and mergers, whether they are uh media, um newspapers, uh restaurant corporations, uh and hospitals generally do not lead to an improvement in quality.

Generally, it there's a a decrease in in quality and accessibility.

But I actually had a chance to talk to Jeff Sams out in the hallway after he was in here.

And I mainly talked to him about things based on my personal experience as an RN at Huntsville Hospital.

I wanted to talk to him about the staffing, uh specifically the nurse-patient ratios, which while they are at sort of the standard are still below what the recommended levels are.

And I wanted to talk to him about the patient care techs who we have difficulty retaining because um they could make more uh working at one when I was there, they could make more at Walmart than is patient care techs.

Those folks that come into your room and bring you your soda and your sandwich in the middle of the night, help you go to the bathroom.

They're also checking your blood sugar.

They're checking your vital signs.

They are on the front lines and are often responsible for life and death decisions, supporting the nurses.

And the nurses can't do their jobs without it.

Um by the time I finished uh working at Huntsville Hospital, there was such a deficit of patient care techs that um I was terrified going into work every night that I would have patients who weren't getting what they needed because I couldn't do it without them.

And I feel like this what's going on here now with how huge Huntsville Hospital has gotten and all the um resources they have, and it looks like they're doing great financially, that this really is a watershed moment.

It's an opportunity to do something about this to increase our low pay across the region.

Nurses make more if they leave this area and they do leave this area.

So I ask him to use the leverage he has now as this giant mega um health care corporation to negotiate better rates, as Councilman Meredith suggested he might do, and to get better um, you know, returns so they can increase the numbers of staff and increase the pay for those staff.

And to use his leverage then as this giant corporation to demand and I know it's a public hospital, but anyway, uh to demand Medicaid expansion.

They had 172 million dollars in unreimbursed um patient care last year that gets spread out then among the remaining patients and health care companies.

We really, really need this.

Um and those are only the numbers.

The human cost of the uh lack of expansion of Medicaid is something I saw every night when I went into work.

And I wanted to ask you, please use your voices as elected officials to demand the same for the people of Huntsville.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We'll now hear from Liliana Painter, who will be followed by Nadia Pandera.

My name is Liliana Painter, and I am a resident of Huntsville.

Um my address is correct on the sheet.

Uh good evening, Madam President and Council.

Um I appreciate the continued investment in um in community events across our city.

Tonight's agenda included a $15,000 allocation of council improvement funds in District 3 for Independence Day for an Independence Day celebration at Ditto Landing.

Events like this matter.

They bring families together and strengthen community pride.

At the same time, I want to respectfully raise a broader question.

How are district level funding priorities determined?

Residents use Ditto Landing year-round.

In addition to events, residents want to see practical improvements like bathrooms, uh dog stations, and possibly a pavilion so families can have more usable, comfortable space.

And on that note, I would also like to encourage us to think about shade and gathering spaces at places like Weatherly Elementary, where students and staff rely on a line of trees closer to the road without fencing for coverage.

These are the kinds of everyday quality of life improvements residents notice.

Events are valuable, but long-term investments in safe, usable public spaces matter even more.

As our city continues to grow, residents deserve a clearer way to understand how district funds are allocated and how they can provide input on what their neighborhoods need most.