All right, good afternoon, everybody.

I do show four o'clock, so we're gonna go ahead and we are going to call to order the Capital Improvement Bond Task Force meeting of the City of Jonesboro, Arkansas.

First on our agenda is the roll call.

And if you are currently present today, if you will mark that on the device in front of you.

Okay.

Do show five members present, so we do have a quorum today.

Moving into our next item of business, we have approval of minutes from our last bond task force meeting.

Move to approve unless there's noted change.

Okay.

I have a motion and a second to approve the minutes as presented from the previous meeting.

If everything looks to your favor, if you will denote your vote on the device in front of you, please.

Okay, which brings us to the next item today.

Um we were going to begin with public comments, but we're going to be moving that to a little bit later just because we do have some discussion to go through today.

And first, I do want to go ahead and I do want to read a letter that's been prepared on behalf of the mayor today that he submitted since he is out of town.

So it says, and I quote, first off, on behalf of the city administration, I want to thank each council member on this task for taking time to discuss these options for the real-time crime center E911 Center.

I appreciate each of your attention to the facts and want the public to respect that your decisions are based on what you feel is in the best interest of our city.

During the bond process, it was clear that further discussion on these options were needed.

And this task force was created to ensure those discussions were had in total transparency and honesty.

I can't think of any more transparent way than to talk about this in a public forum with factual information.

From the inception of the task force, I have stated I will support whatever recommendation is made.

I instructed city staff to provide information requested by the task force, such as development cost estimates, property offer paperwork, and economic impact analysis by the city's selected master growth planning firm and other various items so members could make an informed decision.

All of which is available on Legistar or has been discussed in the meetings for the public to review for themselves instead of taking a second or third hand opinion, which may not be accurate or worse, intentionally biased.

For those in the public who do not know, it is the mayor's duty to receive offers, negotiate offers, and then present offers or contracts to the city council that merit their discussion.

After talks with police and 911 leadership, the initial thought process was since the current police station property on Caraway can't be sold due to deed restrictions.

That locating the 911 real-time crime center with police admin and CID would allow them more efficient access, and eventually phase two would include construction of a patrol building and the additional Caraway property if purchased.

Ultimately, this would lead to the selling of the Washington property, offsetting new property cost or possibly turning it into a net positive from a financial standpoint after the property sale.

If the Washington property is selected, we will work to create a construction plan that creates the least destruct disruption possible for the current operations.

Just to be clear on a couple of items that may or may not be relevant to this task force, but have been stated by residents in one form or another, and the public deserves clarity on.

One bond funding can only be used to purchase property.

What was said multiple times during the bonding process was that a bond ordinance does not authorize the purchase of property.

A property purchase still requires a separate resolution to approve a land purchase agreement.

Paul Phillips counsel was contacted this afternoon just to triple check on this item.

Number two, I've seen statements that a possible children's museum would somehow be a city project that we would spend taxpayer money on.

It would not be.

Representatives of the museum effort simply stated that they were interested in the property.

Three, some had stated the cost of the Parker property is overpriced.

I believe the average is about $13 a square foot, which is in line with the appraisal of the city ordered property.

If you figure in half the cost of the road and utilities, it's more like $16 a square foot.

Just to provide comparison, recent appraisals on the city owned C3 portion of the property on Johnson were roughly $4 to $5 a square foot.

A recent appraisal on the tower portion of the Citizens Bank property was roughly $70 a square foot.

Obviously, both of those are notably different situations, and downtown property will bring a premium, but it's probably a fair assumption that the property falls somewhere between those two land values.

There have been statements that it should be priced at what the recent mall property auction was.

That was a private auction with multiple other factors that make it unique and is not an accurate comparison.

Number four, a lot of the initial stipulations requested by the seller were removed.

I do think we are down to the bare minimums the seller will accept.

So the latest offer that includes a shared road and utilities that has been shared and placed on Legistar is likely what would be presented to council.

These requests are not secret or hidden.

They are listed in the offer, and it is up to council on if those will be considerations that are worthwhile.

Now on to the Washington property.

One, any new building foundations can be built up enough to avoid flooding concerns.

Cost estimates were based on elevating the building pads several feet to avoid water getting into the building.

During high water events that shut down Washington, the Monroe entrance would be passable.

Number two, estimates were prepared based off city code, which requires that any new construction not increase flooding.

Site plans created meet those requirements.

We would not require that a developer correct larger drainage issues in that area.

So it would have to, it would have been unfair to inflate development figures to address those issues.

Three, at either location, the current justice complex will have to remain intact until the new E911 center is ready for occupation to ensure continuity of emergency services.

And finally, during all these discussions, it is important to not lose sight of the fact that this is a good problem to have.

We are debating about where to physically place an expanded center and add more life-saving personnel to our great 911 department and create a permanent home for a real-time crime center that has proven its effectiveness over the last couple of years.

Jonesboro's growth is why this is necessary.