All right, good afternoon, everybody.

It is 1003 on Thursday, August 13th, 2026.

103, thank you.

I appreciate it.

We got our numbers guy keeping me straight.

And yeah, we we've got a marathon of a meeting today, so I'm excited to go ahead and begin.

Today we were here from uh the chief of police, we hear from the chief of the fire department, and we were here from our public works director.

Um as always, I will let uh y'all duke it out in terms of who we hear from first, if anybody has any preferences.

We already did.

You've already duked, so you have the order.

Okay, so I see the police chief uh deferring to the fire department.

Am I to take it that y'all are first?

Great, please join us.

Mr.

Chairman, uh if I could make a couple of comments.

Yes, please, Mr.

Mayor.

Um Mr.

Chairman and uh to the folks in the audience, the department chairs and directors.

Um this is where the rubber meets the road in our city.

Uh these three agencies, our public safety entities and the entity that is in charge of uh trying to keep uh streets cleared, surface uh uh paved, uh our water, wastewater, oversight, uh and and just making the basic services that we depend on in the city work.

Um and uh we're faced with a uh tight budget of trying to figure out how we're gonna do all this, especially for these three agencies with 112 million dollars in our general fund budget.

It's going to be a challenge.

Um I think though that we have good leadership in these departments and that that we'll we'll get there, but it's it will not be without gnashing of teeth and and uh um a little bit of grimacing as we try to get through this.

One of the things that that uh as an alternative to the general fund budget is that uh these three agencies have been tasked with looking at other non-general fund options that we might have uh as it relates to carrying out the duties and functions of each of these departments.

Uh we are working vigorously with our grant making and grant-seeking uh staff to help help us find other resources that are non-general fund resources.

If we were to try to deal with this through the general fund, we would be talking about a lot of attrition.

Uh and uh and um I don't want to do that.

Uh I know uh most of us don't want to see that happening.

We want to be efficient and we want to use our personnel as wisely as we can.

Um, but the only way that we're going to be able to meet the needs of these three departments in particular is we've got to be creative, we've got to be nimble, and we've got to seek other resources that are non-general fund.

Uh and so I've tasked my uh department directors and the chiefs of the various departments, the fire department, the police department, public works department, uh, to look at at how we can work faster and better and more efficiently, but also where we can find federal funds, where we can find foundational dollars, where we can find corporate support.

You're not gonna hear a lot about that today, uh, because we're talking about general fund budget right now, how we're gonna make this this uh situation fit within our general fund.

But I do want to let you let uh the committee know that we are uh aggressively trying to find other alternatives beyond the general fund uh that will help us meet the goals and objectives we have for these various departments and for the city of Jackson.

And having said that, I will uh uh defer to uh the committee uh in terms of how you're gonna proceed, but but know that that the only way that we're going to uh really accomplish what we as city council persons want as uh the city administration want uh is to creatively go after other resources beyond our our general fund.

And as I say, the only way we're gonna be able to grow the general fund right now uh is through attrition.

And and we we want to avoid that as much as possible and and seek these other alternative sources.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

I appreciate that framing and certainly agree with you that the three departments we're hearing from today are essential departments for us to be listening to.

And I also hear you loud and clear that um it's gonna be tough to make what we want to be true true given the limited resources that we have at our disposal.

And that's gonna be difficult for us to work through, but we've all got to work together.

Um I I think uh all of us wish we were in a situation where we had uh twice, three times, four times the budget that we do.

We we're just not in that shape.

So um we've we've got to work collaboratively, and it's it's not gonna be easy, and we're gonna have some disagreements about where we should put things, but hopefully, if we work together, we can make the best happen for our city.

And then that last point I think you make is a really good one.

That uh the focus of our presentations, and and we talked about this when we we first met on Monday.

The focus of our presentations are are largely centered on the general fund.

Uh, but I think you're right.

There that doesn't have to be the extent of of the resources that we have available to us.

And so um, we might not see everything that we hope to accomplish reflected in the general fund, but that's not to say that it's not happening, and that's not to say that that uh there won't be more opportunities available for us.

And so we appreciate your team seeking those grants.

Um if if you're the praying type, prayer is up that we are re awarded these grants, and uh, and hopefully uh as a city we can we can get the resources we need to do a great job.

Appreciate that.

All right.

Without further ado, uh I'm pleased to welcome the fire department.

And does uh Mr.

Grizzell have the uh necessary documentation?

Thank you.

Okay.