All right, good evening, everybody.

We'll go ahead and start uh City Council.

This is Tuesday, May 19th, 2026, and we're gonna go ahead and call the that to order.

I'll begin with the uh Pledge Allegiance, and then Dr.

Anthony Coleman will lead us in prayer.

I pledge allegiance to the United States of America and the Republic for Nation and Liberty and Justice.

Yes, if you would, Lord, we thank you for this day and this time that you've given us.

Thank you for your grace that is new every morning.

And so as we come together as one on tonight, I pray and thank you for the safety of our city.

Thank you for those men and women who put their themselves on the line for us.

Thank you for the administration and others that continue to lead and guide the city.

Well, Father, your word declares in Psalms accept the Lord keep the city.

Watchmen waited, but in vain.

And Father, we thank you that you are watcher, watching over our city, and we appreciate you for it in Jesus' name.

Amen.

All right, counsel.

If you would please go ahead and mark your attendance.

All right, and we do have 11 members present this evening.

So next we'll move on to item number four, and these are items under special presentation.

And Mr.

Fowler, if you would uh please come forward, he's um uh support of the guard and reserve.

I'll meet you down front with uh Marty Hamrick.

He does have an award and presentation to provide good afternoon.

It's uh my pleasure to be with you this evening.

I'm Lieutenant Colonel Retired Gil Fowler, also known as Santa Gill.

And uh tonight I want to make a special presentation to the Golden Helmet, I guess, division organization here in Jonesboro, their fire department.

Uh basically I represent a group called the Employee Support of the Garden Reserve.

We're a group of uh most of us veterans whose job it is working under the Secretary of I think it's defense, but maybe a secretary of war, nonetheless, to uh address the importance that our citizen soldiers bring to the local community.

Uh ESGR has chapters in all 50 states in Australia and Europe throughout the world, and our job again is to basically help support our men and women in uniform and recognize the importance and value that they bring to the local community.

Our all-volunteer force today basically has a lot of challenges.

Being away from home, being away from family, being away from community, and doing the things that are necessary for our society to exist and continue.

Since 9-11, over a million citizen soldiers have served our country.

In addition to, of course, the regular force, 24-hour all purpose uh soldiers.

Today I want to pay special attention to Chief Marty Hamrick and present him with what we call my boss is a patriot award.

He was nominated by Spencer Saul, one of his uh employees who serves with the 1036th Engineer Company here in Jonesboro.

Basically, in his nomination that goes forward to the Secretary of Defense, Secretary of War's office, and it takes several months to, in essence, be evaluated to ensure that one he's a legitimate person, and at the same time, Spencer Saul is a legitimate soldier.

We want to ensure that both of those components fit together in making that nomination.

But he says Chief Hamric ensures that all rules and regulations pertaining to service members are followed, and is very supportive of the employees who serve in the Arkansas Army National Guard.

They recognize the work with me when I have a military commitment.

The chief is a one-of-a-kind manager who goes above and beyond.

He helps facilitate times that I have to be away, and is fully supportive of my service.

Having a supervisor like that makes being a military member easy.

He's done a fantastic job making guardsmen and their families feel welcome and appreciated.

He's a true patriot, an outstanding supervisor, a professional at what he does, and yet he gets he takes the time to get to know you and your family as a person.

Our workplace is both a team and the family.

So tonight it's my pleasure to recognize Chief Hamric with what we call my bosses of Patriot Award.

Now it's a three-part award.

The first part is basically a certificate specifying that he has been recognized by the Secretary of War and by the state of Arkansas and our soldiers as being one who truly respects and understands and works with our citizen soldiers when they're not here.

Secondly, we have a what we call statement of support for the Jonesboro Fire Department that we hope he will put up in a prominent place so that when soldiers and guardsmen and their families come in, they will see the seals of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, etc.

And say this must be a good place to be.

And thirdly, we have a patriot pen.

Now these are controlled items.

You all know what a controlled item is.

It's very simple.

You don't lose it.

You sign for it.

This has been given to me to give to, if you will, someone who's been recognized as a true patriot.

It's my pleasure to pass it along to him so that I am no longer responsible for it.

Because if I lose it, I'm accountable.

Now I'm going to make him accountable.

I hope when you see someone with one of these patriot pens, you too will say, thank you for helping our citizen soldiers.

Now in the same process at the end, I want to congratulate members of the city council, members of Jonesboro and our citizens for also being patriots.

Whenever a soldier is called to duty, whether it's training, active duty, or whatever it has to be, someone has to step up and take their place.

Certainly, we have the statement of support to the Jonesboro Fire Department, and I couldn't get Golden Hellman on here quick enough, but nonetheless, we are most pleased with your recognition statewide and nation nationally for what you're doing in leading that department here for Jonesboro.

And certainly the certificate that I hope you'll put in your office in a special place, saying, in essence, I have been recognized not for myself, but what my workplace does to support our citizen soldiers.

Sir, thank you so much.

Sure.

Brings back the foundation of our country of the 250th year approaching sacrifices that many have made before us so we can enjoy the evening that we have here in our community.

That's each and every night.

So Gil, thank you again for your service to our community and our country as well.

Thank you.

Next council.

She is the manager of the Matrix Consulting Group.

And if you remember, last year, City Council contracted with a development advisement group named Matrix Consulting to review our processes from a planned submission to final inspections of construction projects in Jonesboro.

Now, this goes way back.

I mean, we've always had questions on how we can make improvements.

And so I'm excited to say that uh Miss Allison is coming forward tonight after a long period of time in conversations and in-depth detail for this.

I'll be leaving after her presentation, and uh uh Councilman Moore will be taking over the meeting from there.

But the primary goal of the study is to make Jonesboro a clearer, more defined and efficient community to invest in from a construction and development perspective.

The firm dug up in and really went into detail in our codes, our processes, our structure, and our strengths and weaknesses.

We should expect that we only allow safe quality structures to be built in Jonesboro, but we want it to be clear and an easier process on the front end.

At the same time, we ask that if we are not overly burdensome in some areas.

So we wanted to hopefully uh have her presentation this even this evening, which you've all received.

We're gonna ask that if you have questions to hold to the end of her presentation.

And uh so Ms.

Breck, the floor is yours.

Thank you so much, Mayor, and thank you uh not only to the mayor but all council members for having me here tonight.

My name is Alison Brecke, I'm a manager at Matrix Consulting Group, and I'll be presenting the findings and recommendations from our permitting process efficiency study for the city of Jonesboro.

Matrix was retained as the mayor said already to conduct a comprehensive review of the permitting and inspection activities within the city.

Uh the work that you'll hear summarized tonight reflects several months of analysis, including staff interviews, customer surveys, a review of workload data, benchmarking against comparable jurisdictions, and analysis of building codes.

And the result is a prioritized actionable set of recommendations to help Jonesboro deliver faster, more transparent, and more consistent permitting services.

So we always like to say at Matrix it's it's a very important step for the city to actually do the study because that's the exciting uh beginning of lots of uh good change.

So quick just agenda for tonight is going to be a really brief background about matrix consulting group and why you're selected.

Then we'll walk through the scope of the study, deliverables and methodology that we took, key findings.

Um that's really um I'm gonna identify what you all are doing well and some top areas for improvement or opportunities for improvement.

And then tonight's discussion, and I do recognize it will be lengthy, but we are gonna just focus on those high priority recommendations and then have questions and discussion to follow.

So, real quick Matrix Consulting Group, we're actually based in San Mateo, California, but we've been doing uh work uh have completed 200 plus dedicated studies evaluate evaluating development review, permitting and inspection operations, code enforcement too, across the country.

Um I think one of the top features about uh matrix consulting group is that we were past government employees, so my bulk of my career is a professional planner in local government, both city and county governments.

This is the largest council I've presented to, so congratulations there.

Um but uh we do have that real life experience that helps us as we engage with our clients to ensure uh we know what questions to ask and and uh can identify issues and issues pretty quickly.

So, as the mayor already mentioned, uh really some top priorities here was to enhance the process, make it more efficient, make it more predictable.

Probably the top thing that we hear from your um from customers anywhere really is to make the process more predictable.

I just need to know how long it's gonna take and what steps are required.

Uh so that was one of our focuses.

Uh also to improve the customer experience.

We certainly understand that's very important here in the city of Jonesboro, making sure that the development and business community uh find the city is easy to work with.

Third, to identify opportunities for technology integration and workflow improvement.

So that's really what we talk about now for that that process step of uh the steps of a process.

It's very technology based now, um, really post-COVID, and so it's just making sure that the system is as as integrated as well as it can be.

Uh, fourth was to assess the staffing capacity relative to workload, ensuring the city has the right people and the right roles as well as the right number of people uh to handle the current demand.

And then there was also a unique analysis of your local building and fire codes, a very in-depth appendix that you can read later.

And so the city can work on those efforts into the future.

So deliverables, we really ensure that we have deliverables throughout our entire study that staff can review and ensure that we're getting accurate along the way.

We don't want to end up at this final stage without these interim deliverables for staff, and we really keep that communication line open throughout the whole process.

So initially we create a current state profile and best practice assessment.

We built a detailed profile of current operations, so identifying staffing levels, roles and responsibilities of staff, workload volume, so that's permit numbers, application numbers, and performance metrics metrics, and then we compared those against industry best practices for permit review technology, customer service, and management.

These are industry best practices that that Matrix as a firm has created, not only from our experience across the country, but also through our membership with professional organizations like American Planning Association, Public Works Association, and the International City and County Managers Association.

Next, we did a comparable jurisdiction.

So we compared Jonesboro to five comparable jurisdictions and primarily looked at review timelines and then also looked at the software that the other cities were using.

We also had a customer input stage.

So before, when I was here on site, we did in-person focus groups.

We also had an online survey.

We sent this out to past to past customers, so past applicants.

And we also just had some individual conversations, but it's really important to note that these recommendations in front of you definitely have perspectives that we receive through that customer outreach effort.

As I mentioned, we did a building code analysis, so conducting an analysis of the city's existing building and fire codes to identify gaps in state requirements and best practices.

Then we really analyze staffing capacity.

We actually did an internal survey to staff, just really asking them to explain how they spend their time reviewing the workload and permit counts just to help us understand the percentage of and breakdown of how staff is spending time.

And that helped us evaluate the overall organizational structure of permitting functions even more.

We then go into further analysis to create final findings, and that's compiled into that report.

And then we have a prioritized implementation plan, really giving the city a roadmap for action into the future.

So it's really important to before we talk about challenges and recommendations.

It's really important to recognize what you as a city is doing very well.

So the first thing that we recognize was that you're utilizing a permitting software system.

That is absolutely best practice.

So you're implementing both project docs for project, excuse me, digital plans, submittals, and review, and then also IWork for permit tracking and issuance.

And so the city has made a meaningful investment into this technology, and staff have incorporated these tools into their workflows, and that's a really good first step.

So now the next task is just to make sure that those tools are being used fully and consistently.

Also, your staff is meeting development leadership is meeting weekly to review current permitting reports and address stalled or delayed projects.

You're proactively actually reaching out to applicants that aren't responding.

You have a staff member that is specifically tasked in doing that, so that's very customer front-facing and absolutely a strength.

You're also doing same-day inspections, actually, that came out of the comparable jurisdiction.

That is a best practice, and also you are exceeding when you are compared to those other jurisdictions.

So that was one we wanted to call out.

And then, as I mentioned, just previously, you do have a dedicated construction outreach coordinator position.

It's actually a really unique position.

We don't see this type of position in most of the cities we work in, but you have actively created a position to help the development community navigate the process, and that's absolutely should be called out as a strength.

It's a real asset that you can continue to build upon.

So with strengths, there's always opportunities for improvement, and of course, that's going to be the bulk of our of our report and recommendations.

But the top one I want to talk about here is just that you have no defined performance objectives.

So what does that mean?

You have no really goalposts or understanding of what you're trying to aim for, and that's really important not only for your customers to have that predictable process, but for your staff, so they understand what is expected of them.

So right now, city currently lacks clearly defined performance targets for permitting timelines and management dashboards are not consistently used to track progress against goals.

We are continually seeing how dashboards and pushing out information to the public is very helpful for a city because you're being very transparent with your information and it helps educate really the community as a whole.

But without data driven oversight, it is difficult to identify where delays occur, how you can hold staff accountable and demonstrate improvement to applicants and leadership.

So this is really what you have to institute so you can keep looking at how you're improving and the metrics that are changing.

You also have a very fragmented application intake, and it's and it likely just happened, you know, over time and especially as you move from a very paper-based system to a digital process.

But you have four different positions and three different departments engineering, inspections, and planning, and that's they're all in charge of the intake process.

So when that frontline level of staff, when a permit or application comes across the counter, even if it's a digital counter, you have four different people doing that, and that is creating inconsistencies in how applications are received and reviewed for completeness, and applicants may receive different information depending on which staff member they contact.

So our report is recommending a consolidation intake center into a is basically a centralized permit center.

You have an outdated fee schedule.

Fee schedule has not been updated since 2017.

Um we also indicated and note noted that the plan a plan review fee is not collected before permit issuance.

So what's essentially happening is your staff is reviewing permits.

They may be ready to be issued, and then the project never happens.

So staff time was spent before actual fees were collected, any fees.

Also, the the other thing we identified is just the parallel operation of project docs and I work is as creating some inconsistencies.

Um, staff has been spending a lot of time in trying to address those inconsistencies.

So there's essentially the recommendation is to figure out with maybe some customer support from each software system how to better integrate the two, or consider replacement.

But these challenges are interconnected, and the recommendations throughout the report talk about that.

Okay, so we're gonna move into the next section of the presentation where we're gonna talk about the high priority recommendations.

Um and each one is categorized essentially, it's very it's meant to be parallel to the report, the order of the report.

So we're gonna start with the permit review process and the high priority recommendations, and some of these I've touched on just with my opening remarks.

So the first one we see as being a really uh important recommendation, hence why it's high priority, is to establish a centralized permit center as a single intake point for all applications and permits.

So talking to staff, we did hear that it's still very important in the city of Jonesboro to have a physical counter to have a place where customers can come in and know where they can start the process.

Okay, you're gonna also replicate that in the digital world, but it's also very important for the City of Jones Borough to have that in-person interaction.

The good news is you have space in this building to do this, it's just a matter of actually improving that space.

Um, so you can also create kiosk or basically little computer areas to help people with intake because the goal is to have all intake of permits and applications be digital and not paper.

So there's just ways that you can do that, and it could basically becomes a public-facing space in City Hall that's known as the permit center.

Um, the next thing was just reducing or replacing, excuse me, a double completeness check.

So you're having this intake process take longer than it should linked with the multiple staff people that are doing the intake process, but you're creating redundancy and delays without adding value.

So the report recommends replacing this with a single clearly defined completeness review that you can clearly document for the record, and then one accountable staff person who makes that final call before it moves into further review.

So review comments, these are comments that staff are making during the review process.

These comments eventually get to your customer to your applicant.

So all review comments and project communications should be consolidated across departments and documented within the permitting system.

So two really important parts to this.

It's not only having your staff making those review comments and making sure that they're consistent with one another, it's also making sure that they're in the permitting system so that that can be your database, your record of the process that goes back to that metric that data-driven phase four, it just making sure you're having the data there to check how you are performing.

Applicants should receive one unified set of comments rather than fragmented feedback from multiple reviewers.

So as I mentioned, you're doing same-day inspections, but the scheduling of inspections could be improved.

There could be establishing some minimum request time frames just so that people know when they have to actually get a request in for an inspection, and then also making sure that there's just a little bit more predictability for contractors, giving them the option if it's a morning or afternoon.

Also, we looked at the certificate of occupancy signatory.

Right now, you have actually two people acting in that capacity, but we recommend you designate the chief billing official to be that person, and then you also should be defining temporary C of O certificate of occupancy eligibility criteria.

The staff is using criteria, but it's not documented.

So temporary C of O is when you might have something that's outstanding and but you're able safely to allow occupancy or partial occupancy.

It's very important for the city that you establish a very clean line in the sand of what it is gonna take for the applicant, the owner to get that full certificate of occupancy.

It's one of those areas where you want to be customer friendly, but at the same time is to protect the city and make sure that you have documented C of O's in place for all occupancies.

Okay, moving into technology.

So this is where we're gonna talk about those two permitting software systems that you're currently integrating.

That's Project Docs and iWork.

And so the recommendation is essentially to either better integrate these two platforms together or move to a single unified platform.

I know that that's a it's a big recommendation and can have even multiple pieces to what that looks like, but just from our discussions with staff and just seeing how the how the two are in are working together.

Um we think first of all, to start with just working toward better integration and then seeing where the gaps remain.

You want to enable paperless submittals, so paper-free for all application types.

Um some permit types are still requiring paper submittals to be coming in across the the counter.

Of course, when we say paperless submittals, you're always going to have exceptions for someone that doesn't have access to a computer.

You're gonna have you know exceptions to just whatever the case might be, but the standard should be paperless and coming in digitally, so over the digital front counter.

Um they should all be coming through project docs, and that's going to reduce manual steps and improve tracking of permits and applications.

Um, also, you should activate online inspection scheduling.

That is a feature that is available to you in in iWork, I believe.

It's just a matter of turning the switch on and having that be an option for people so they can schedule in the freedom of their own time to schedule that inspection rather than calling.

So all inspections are coming in via the phone right now.

Staff training, so it's just really important as technology becomes more complex that you are ensuring that your staff understand how to use the systems that they're not just learning from each other, of course, they can always improve and build upon their skills by by their fellow employees, but it's really important that the city provide standardized training, and you typically work with the customer support of each software system to look at options there.

And then lastly, it's consolidating the application categories.

So these are options that are coming up in the system for your customers to choose from.

Basically, there's there's too many types, too many categories, it's become too granular, and this just creates automatic confusion for applicants, and immediately is why someone feels like they have to call a staff member to help them.

So streamlining and consolidating these categories will simplify the submission process and improve data reporting.

Okay.

So next is customer outreach, um customer service and outreach.

So, as I mentioned, really important for the city of Jonesboro to have that in-person aspect, that permit center where people can come in and receive customer service, but you also need to create that on your website and have a digital front counter essentially.

So right now applicants must navigate multiple departmental pages, so individual web pages on the city website to find permitting information, forms, and checklists.

And so the report is recommending you create a single comprehensive development service website or web page.

You could call it the digital permit center.

There's many ways the city could choose to brand it, but you basically have a one-stop shop where everybody can find the resources in one location.

This is becoming even more important as people are using cell phones and tablets for their primary system.

So having to navigate through multiple tabs or web pages can become very complex for your non-savvy developer.

I always think of my dear mother who thinks you know who would apply for a permit.

She wants to make it as simple as possible possible.

But this page should include links to all application forms, your checklists, your fee schedules, contact information, and status updates.

It's where you could put dashboards showing progress for current permits and applications that are being reviewed by the city.

Also, you want to make sure you have staff that are assigned to update this website.

So making creating the web page is the first step, but you have to make sure that it stays current.

That's becoming very it's if it's a big responsibility, especially as cities and counties are being asked to ensure their website is accessible per federal law.

So it does require someone to ensure that you're keeping it current and accessible, but just designate that ownership up front.

And then comprehensive checklists.

So what we mean by this are documents that can help an individual that it's basically the document they're going to review before they submit.

So, yes, and the paper world, you used to print out these documents, you would have boxes and check them off and then attach the papers of the of the components that you have checked off.

But you still need to have this guidance we have found.

It's very important for applicants to have this.

It's basically providing that predictability of what is required.

And essentially, if they're able to put that into the system digitally, then they would be able to move through the completeness check process faster, which is a good thing for the applicant and staff.

Okay, we're gonna move into management and administration.

So these next two sections, it's management and administration and staffing and workload, they're they're complex, and they're some, you know, sometimes some deep-rooted issues, but it's important that we still talk about them.

So we did see that job descriptions are not kept up with actual responsibilities.

Um these staff members, so that's it's this it's the responsibilities your staff is carrying are not in alignment with their jobs description.

So we're recommending that all permitting position job descriptions is are updated, and then of course, as HR would likely recommend evaluating whether compensation is appropriately aligned.

This is foundational to recruiting and retaining qualified staff.

I know it's a very budget high budget reality for cities to do this, but it's also very very important that you can keep making sure that you have the best qualified staff.

We also need to standardize the supervision and backup coverage in onboarding.

It's all grouped together.

But basically, there's no formal onboarding program for new permitting staff, and training is inconsistent across departments.

The report recommends implementing a structured onboarding program.

Um it might be something that is developed for the city as a whole, but then something that is specific also created for permitting staff members.

You also need to make sure that you have backup coverage for your critical functions that is not in place right now.

And you need to make sure that you have standardized supervision expectations across all permitting departments, so that's making sure that staff is being held accountable when you have that supervision in place.

You're also going to define you need to better define the application coordination functions.

That's a mouthful.

But basically, uh, we would like you to just really understand and making sure staff understand their roles in the process.

So you go through a responsible, accountable, consultant, and informed matrix that can clarifies who owns each step of the process.

As we do this work, we are finding more and more than ever, especially after COVID when we were all not communicating as well as we could have.

There is this tendency for staff just to start creating their own responsibilities.

And so it's very important that as a collective group, each staff members understands their roles and responsibilities.

It will make them feel more comfortable reaching out to their supervisor when they need to.

Also, as I mentioned, probably near the beginning of the of the presentation, just making sure that you have formal performance metrics.

So making sure that you are able to tell an applicant how long it should be expected for them to get it approved.

So target review time frames.

These should be provided for all permit types, all application types, and then making sure that you're tracking those the performance against these metrics consistently.

And that's again going back to the dashboard concept.

You can start with dashboards that are just internal facing.

Again, going back to that leadership group that's meeting weekly, making sure that they are keep seeing you know the progress of the time frames, making sure that they are being met, finding out one when they are not, but then also this is where you can push out information to your community to better inform them.

But based basically, we without defined targets, you don't have a way to measure how you're improving.

I think that becomes very important to you as a council, right?

Just to have those metrics to know how you're improving.

Staff can come to you and report on those metrics.

You are able to report back to your community members.

That's where it works.

The other thing that we would see is very important is really creating a cross-departmental management lead.

This is going to be linked with the restructure we are recommending or re-org we're recommending.

But you need to have a designate designate a single leadership position, excuse me, with cross-depart departmental coordination authority.

It's not in place right now.

But it is informally but not formally.

So staffing and workload.

Really linked to initially, it was the findings that we saw with the multi-the layers of intake that are occurring and over different division lines.

We led to it led to us to recommend an organizational restructure of the permitting functions within the city.

So right now they're all in different departments, and we are suggesting that you have a slight merge to create a true permitting department.

This is going to, of course, be linked with a structured transition plan with updated job descriptions, staff engagement plan.

But that is our top recommendation out of the staffing and workload category.

The report recommends creating a new development services department.

Again, the name can be called whatever the city thinks is best, but you're consolidating key permitting functions under a development services director.

We present two alternatives in the reports, alternatives A and B, but both alternatives address three core gaps: the absence of a designated cross-departmental management lead, the fragmented distribution of intake, technology management and coordination responsibilities, and the lack of a unified really institutional identity for the permitting function for the city.

Definitely engage with staff and see how they think they have ideas, is what I will say.

Also, we we found the need, and these two are really joint related, but right now it would be best to reduce the chief billing officials' actual plan review times, the time that they are spending on reviewing plan sets and actually pass that workload over to a commercial plans reviewer.

But right now, it would be best to reduce the chief billing officials' actual plan review times the time that they are spending on reviewing plan sets and actually pass that workload over to a commercial plans reviewer.

This will allow your chief billing official to become a true manager.

Again, they are obtaining that greater oversight of the certificate of occupancy process, as I mentioned before.

But basically, it's it's offsetting some roles and responsibilities from your chief billing official to a commercial plans reviewer.

Okay, this is a lot.

I appreciate you hanging in there with me.

So I created some slides just to show you, you know, really what this looks like in terms of implementation for as soon as quarter three of 2026.

Um you know, I have the gold highlighted because that's the org restructure.

I recognize that was at the end of the report, but we felt that it was actually good to have it there because all of the findings and recommendations building up to that really supports the re-org.

So again, that's a new commercial plans reviewer, that CBO reallocation of duties, a transition plan that's very much linked with the idea of creating a centralized intake, um, permit center, so that having that physical presence within City Hall, as well as having it on a website, that's your customer service and outreach.

Um, and then linked with that, of course, is the technology and ensuring that you have the best integration of those two systems that you can.

I work in project docs.

Um, but linked with that is just making sure you enable paper lists submittals and activate the online inspection scheduling.

Um that was just two things that can be uh uh very helpful for the customer, just knowing to expect that.

Then in 2027, um, you know, we still have some things you you know, start with the permit center, but then you can work on that development services web page, um making sure that you have service goals for that new uh centralized permitting function in the city, um then again that technology that's gonna be just an ongoing, honestly, recommendation moving forward is just making sure that you really ask that software representative to to do what they're supposed to do and ensure that they that you have staff that can fully integrate their system as they promised you.

So, budget impact, and I should really want to emphasize of course you all will have total control of the true budget impact.

Um, this is just what was assumed by Matrix, uh, just with our work across the country.

Um, but we can see actually a lot of the high priority recommendations could be implemented through process changes, policy updates, and reallocation of existing staff responsibilities with minimal or no budget required.

But the ones that we see likely to carry budget implications that you should be aware of is the establishment of the permit center.

So you do have the physical space, that's a good thing, um, already exists in City Hall, but that just might be modest costs associated with kiosk equipment signage and any reconfiguration needed to formalize the customer service hub, basically.

Um enable paper list submittals and online inspection scheduling.

Again, these are really software configuration realities, but it may require some additional vendor support and that sometimes can trigger system modification fees uh per your contract with that software.

Uh staff training program, uh, you know, there's there it can really be a high or low budget implication, but just making sure that you develop a formal training curriculum and having that as a part of the budget moving forward.

It's there could be costs with associated training materials, or sometimes you have external facilitation support that comes in, and you are a university city, so there might be some opportunities there for you to partner.

Um hire one dedicated commercial plans reviewer.

This is a new full-time employee, represents the most significant near-term budget impact, um, but it is a position that is expected to accelerate review timelines and improve cost recovery through fee collections in in theory, so that's partially offsetting the investment.

And then the system integration again going back to technology, um, but that would likely be a capital investment that you need to be thinking about tracking in the future, because if you do have if you go the route of having a replacement uh program that that is a cost that is absolutely um a reality.

Okay, I think I'm I've made it to the questions and discussion slides, so I appreciate you hanging out with me for the past you know, hour.

Uh but I'm here to answer any of your questions or concerns.

I have one question.

The hour work system is there a standard nationwide or across the board standard uh system for implemented documentation that you're for the for the permitting software, yeah, council member.

Um there are many options out there right now.

Um, and I I always tell staff when I start to interview them, unfortunately, none of them have easy buttons.

Um there's certainly and and you're also seeing a lot of these larger companies buy smaller companies, which is kind of creating the problem because you start with a customer service group that changes once they're bought.

Is that am I misunderstanding your question?

Yeah, but can the city also uh I guess hiring analysis to to make up their own software?

Oh, um, so we we have seen that occur, but that typically is just not it's it's not long lasting.

It doesn't, it's it's it's a huge cost for the city, and what we have seen happen is that the city is then spending so much money and trying just to keep updating it themselves.

Also, you're in a way creating a very unique system that customers aren't interacting anywhere else, and that's not necessarily a good thing in the software world.

So I would just recommend you look at the other software systems that your comparable jurisdictions are using.

Um it is absolutely the first time we have seen project docs and iWork used together.

Now, I'm not saying that that means it's a bad option, um, but it was the first time we've seen it.

Um I'd like to I'm sorry.

I'd like to uh expand on that conversation because that was really one of my questions in that software system itself.

Um does that software one of those softwares, can they be updated or handle the capacity that you're referring to to a streamline a lot of this process?

So I think um from what I know, you actually have most options purchased for iWork.

So it's a matter of literally turning on the switch for some of the integration.

Project docs is couldn't be a little bit tricky for becoming the intake for building permits, but you do see cities making it happen.

So I think the answer I want to provide you is yes.

I mean, I we are absolutely recommending to start with what you have right now because we recognize um the monumental process it would take to start over with something else.

I think it's just a matter of really getting the right people in the room.

You have some highly qualified staff.

Um it's not their full-time job to be doing this, but they are very much improving the workflow systems behind the scenes on the on the technology side.

I think it's just a matter of seeing how you can get some assistance from customer support, having some vendor support and maybe potentially paying a little bit more for that training aspect and having them actually come on site and see how you're utilizing it too.

Sure.

And one last question, and I'm I'm sorry, Chairman.

Um I saw on the first slide it said 85% implementation.

I'm assuming that's implementing what you all recommend.

Correct.

But I did not see uh any success rates, follow-ups or anything like that regarding that 85% implementation.

Yeah, fair.

That's a great point.

Um we have it.

I just didn't put it on the slide, but we really actually celebrate being available to staff after we are done here tonight.

Uh we want it's it's very important for us to receive feedback on recommendations that didn't work out for you all as one as well as the ones that are working out well for you.

Um so we just actively want to make sure that we're communicating with staff forward and just having those questions you know come back to us as you're implementing it.

We are available.

I am certainly available.

Thank you.

Thank you.

What else have a question or comment?

Mr.

Mayor.

Uh kind of a couple related questions as we think about a few different topics.

We think about AI and fertility and population changing, and we've seen our growth slow down here, Commonweight's growing twice as fast as us.

We're no longer in the top 10 fastest growing cities.

So as we consider some of those things, how do we and even in the permit data, our permits, and granted, things have changed across the country, don't get me wrong, that our single family permits are down.

All of our permits are down.

So how do we weigh those things against making these investments?

Yeah, that's a great question.

Um so tracking tracking the growth is of course the first step.

Um, but we certainly were looking at current workload, and actually it was the trends in the last three years.

So even if you're seeing a decrease, we're still factoring in current workload.

Um recommendations are really to improve the process.

Um you are gonna continue to grow.

It might not be the fastest growing area, but when you start to become the fastest growing area again, you are gonna have these tools and these systems in place to ensure that you can continue to address the interests that you might have from developers.

Um the technology is a reality that you will need to be addressing no matter what.

Um that is how applications and permits are submitted to cities and counties now, and so that investment is a is a ongoing reality, I would say.

Of course, for additional staff, um, you know, that can that can be further discussion just on uh it's really that one's uh commercial plans reviewer.

You know, is that justified?

Um you have a vacancy, I believe, right now in in the inspections right now.

Um but our recommendations are really to address the current realities.

Um yes, Jonesboro might not be a high growth area, but it would just um I'm trying to just quickly think of ways that you might typically when we have those types of communities, uh, you are seeing a larger number of FTEs being recommended because you just don't have enough people and the hours available uh to do the actual review that's required.

Did that answer your question?

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Seeing none, thank you for your presentation.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate it.

All right.

Moving on, item five, the consent agenda.

Do I have an offer?

Move to adopt unless changes are noted.

Second.

Offer in a second to adopt the consent agenda.

All in favor, say I.

I would I was trying to jump in.

I'm sorry.

Gotta be quicker, Dr.

Come.

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

Uh resolution 26043.

I have a question about this.

043?

Yes, sir.

Anyone else have one to remove?

Mr.

Gibson, you amend I'll amend my motion to reflect that removal of 26043.

Do I have that would be my second?

Thank you.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

All right, we'll move on.

Resolution 26043.

My computer's locked and won't open it.

Do you have a copy?

I've got just the title.

I don't I've got it on my I've got the full copy if you need it at my desk.

I've got the package.

I mean, for whatever reason it's locked and not wait, there it went.

Never mind.

Everybody remain calm.

Just in case.

Okay.

A resolution of the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas, authorizing the mayor to enter into an agreement with United Way of Greater Jones World at least space at 407 Union Avenue.

Whereas the City of Jonesboro, Arkansas, and the United Way of Greater Jonesboro desire to enter into a lease agreement for property located at 407 Union Avenue, Jonesboro, Arkansas.

And whereas the United Way is a local independent nonprofit in good standing with its own board of directors and bylaws.

And whereas the said lease agreement is attached here too and the terms set out therein.

Now therefore be it resolved by city council for the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas.

That a lease agreement between the City of Jonesboro is approved with United Way of Greater Jones World for property located at 407 Union Avenue, Jonesboro, Arkansas, that the term of the agreement shall be for a period of 10 years, and the rental cost for the space shall be one dollar to be paid annually.

All other details of the agreement are set out in the attachment.

Mayor Ho Copenhagen City Clark Eperleggard are hereby authorized by city council for the city of Jonesboro to execute all documents necessary to effectuate this agreement.

Move to adopt second.

I have a motion and a second.

Any discussion by the council?

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Um that I was just had a question about the dates on that contract.

That agreement, it's now 26 and it had December 1 of 25.

Would that be in a would that affect anything or it's all right?

It'll be okay.

It's just it we had been going back and forth with it for a while.

Um I mean, obviously they're leasing the building currently as a holdover tenant from a previous lease, so I don't I don't think it would make a difference that it that it's I just notice the dates and I didn't want it to hurt us.

Anyone else on the council have a question?

Mr.

Mayor, quick question for the city attorney.

I flipped through it and the answer may be obvious, but it didn't wasn't obvious to me.

Let's say we decided to demolish that building for some random reason in the next 10 years.

Do we have the ability to I believe there's an out clause in there that if there's something going on where the building is no longer usable or I do think we have an out in the contract?

I'd have to look to point you to the paragraph, but I do believe we have an out on that lease.

Anyone else on the council?

Anyone on the public have a question or a comment about this item?

Right, hearing none, madam clerk.

Positive.

Thanks, Dr.

Cone.

Ponzi.

All right.

The ayes have it.

Moving on.

Resolutions removed from the consent agenda.

Resolution 26045.

Resolution by the City Council of the City of Jonesboro, Arkansas, Arkansas to condemn property located at 1205 North Floyd Street, Jonesboro, Arkansas, 72401.

Parcel number 01-143123-01200.

Owner Dave A and Melissa A.

Matthews.

Legal description follows.

Whereas the above property has been inspected and has been determined unceded for human habitation, whereas all the stipulations have been met in the condemnation process to proceed with the condemnation of this property.

Now therefore be it resolved by the city council of the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas that the city should proceed with the condemnation of the property located at 1205 North Floyd Street, Jonesboro, Arkansas 72401.

Voted to adopt.

Second.

Anyone on the council with question or comment?

Hearing none.

Anyone in the audience wish to speak on this item?

Hearing none, Madam Clerk.

All right.

The ayes have it.

Item six, new business ordinances on the first reading.

Move we suspend the rules and offer ordinance 26016 by title only.

Second.

I have an offer and a set or motion and a second to suspend the rules and offer by title only.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

An ordinance to authorize the issuance of industrial development revenue bonds under the municipalities and counties industrial development revenue bond law for the purpose of securing and developing industry to authorize the sale of the bonds and the approval of a bond purchase agreement and a payment in lieu of taxes agreement in connection therewith to authorize the execution and delivery of a trust indenture securing the bonds to authorize and prescribe certain matters pertaining to the project, the acquisition, construction, and equipping thereof, and the financing thereof to authorize the execution and delivery of a lease agreement relating to the project and for other purposes.

Anyone on the council with a question or comment?

Okay, it is the right time if we're gonna waive it.

It's now instead of doing it on the uh next reading.

So all right, I have a motion and a second to suspend the rules and waive the second reading.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

All right.

Anyone in the audience wish to speak on this item?

All right, hearing none.

Item seven, unfinished business, ordinances on the third reading.

An ordinance to amend chapter 117 known as the zoning ordinance providing for changes in zoning boundaries from I1 to C3 LUO for property located at 5925 East Johnson Avenue.

Move to adopt.

I have a motion and a second to adopt any discussion by the council.

Hearing none, any discussion by anyone in the audience?

Hearing none, madam clerk.

Right, the ayes have it.

Ordinance 25, ordinance 25015, an ordinance to amend chapter 117 known as the zoning ordinance.

Yes, it was councilman.

Uh I've had a request if we could hold this till the next council meeting.

I believe it has to be referred back to the zoning board for another approval and the requesting it could be held until the next meeting for two weeks.

Motion is to postpone until the phone till the next meeting.

Do I have a second?

Second.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

All right, that concludes our business.

Item 8 will be the mayor's report.

I'll read the mayor's report as it was presented to me.

It's nine pages, Charles.

It's not going to be short, but you're lying.

Mayor's comments.

Good evening, everyone.

Since our last city council meeting on May 5th, there has been a great deal of activity across the city, and I'd like to highlight a few important updates and community events.

First, I want to encourage everyone to participate in the Plan Jonesboro comprehensive planning process.

The community survey remains open at PlanJonesboro.com.

I encourage all residents to share their thoughts and ideas about the future of our city.

Public engagement continues to be a major part of this effort.

A public input meeting was hosted by the West End Neighborhood Association yesterday, May 18th, at the library, and additional meetings are scheduled for June 4th, July 25th, and July 16th.

There will also be webinars and additional community engagement opportunities throughout the summer.

Stay engaged and help shape the plans for the future of Jonesboro.

I also want to remind students and families that applications are now open for the Youth Advancement Council.

Students in grades 9 through 12, including public, private, and home school students, are encouraged to apply.

Applications are available on the city's website at www.jonesboroar.gov for both new and returning members and will be open through July 1st.

We have some fresh ideas and are looking forward to working closely with the city leadership for the upcoming year.

On May 7th, we recognize May as specialty court month and highlighted the important work treatment courts do in reducing crime by addressing substance use and mental health disorders.

These programs continue to make a meaningful impact while also saving taxpayer money.

Approximately $6,000 per individual served.

I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to all who served to make this option possible, including our city attorney.

On May 11th, we celebrated the 125th anniversary of the Salvation Army and recognize their long-standing partnership in serving those in need throughout our community.

We also want to thank Captain Charles and Terry Smith for their service to Jonesboro as they prepare for reassignment to Louisiana.

We wish them all the best in their next chapter.

I had the opportunity to welcome attendees to the Arkansas Community Action Agency Association Spring Conference on May 13th and the CRDC Prevention Conference on May 14th.

Also on May 14th, a group of city employees attended the FOA LEAP program event featuring an impressive showcase by clients from Abilities Unlimited.

We are grateful for their investment in our community, and our city employees support all our community partners.

Community events have continued throughout the month, including the Fisher Street Fish Fry hosted by Dr.

Coleman on May 16th.

I hope you were able to stop by and grab your fish plate before they were gone.

Today's city staff attended multiple events throughout the day.

The 10th annual nonprofit summit of the Northeast Arkansas, hosted by Kerras Consulting Group, the law enforcement luncheon at Central Baptist, and the Arkansas Rural Development Commission conference.

I was pleased to share in a panel discussion alongside Andrea Allen and Judge Marvin Day to kick off the three-day conference.

Mayor and Chief Elliott are beginning discussions on the incentive incentivization for recruitment to the Jonesboro Police Department.

Public safety is a priority for our growing city, and we must continue to work together to encourage officers to protect and serve in Jonesboro.

We've celebrated several ribbon cuttings and business milestones with the Chamber of Commerce.

These investments and expansions continue to reflect the momentum and growth happening across Jonesboro.

I know many are pleased with the addition of Raising Canes.

It was a whole celebration.

Looking ahead, we are excited to welcome visitors and cycling enthusiasts downtown for the Skirmish Delta Gravel Festival taking place May 28th through May 31st.

And on June 6th, the next neighborhood cleanup event will be hosted at Fisher Street United Methodist Church as part of continued efforts to support beautification and neighborhood engagement.

Please also note city offices and services, including sanitation and the Gojo Transit, will be closed on Monday, May 25th and observance of Memorial Day.

The adjusted sanitation schedule is available on the city's website and was posted to social media outlets as well.

With that, take notice that the incinerator location will be closed on Saturday, May 23rd to allow our sanitation employees a holiday weekend as well.

Back to business after Memorial Day holiday.

We do want to pause and take a moment in honor of all who have served and sacrificed for our country.

This Memorial Day, we remember and honor the brave men and women who gave their lives and service to our nation.

And thank you to all our residents, community partners, volunteers, nonprofits, businesses, and city staff who continue working every day to make Jonesboro a stronger community.

God bless Mayor Copenhagen.

All righty.

City Council reports.

Madam Clerk.

Mr.

Street.

No, thank you.

Mr.

Miller.

No, thank you.

Mr.

Bryant.

Uh just two quick things.

I think Mr.

Richardson and I've talked about this at one point.

You know, if you Google the park ranger program, but to me it's still not clear how to get a hold of folks and how that works.

I think we need some public education around the park ranger program.

And the mayor just referenced it in his report, and I know Chairman Emerson's worked on it some.

We've got the open positions in the PD, so we've got money out there, so we need to figure out how to reallocate the money to help the chief.

I mean, it's happening all over America, and it's only going to be worse in the summer all over America as kids are out of school and stuff.

So we need to make sure the chief has what he needs from us.

Mr.

Hafner.

No thanks.

Dr.

Anthony Coleman.

Just wanted to uh reiterate that while this is mental health awareness month, uh to thank all of our health professionals that uh are out there, and I do advocate uh seeing a therapist uh if you can and and desire, but uh I just want to say thanks to all of those hard workers.

Thank you.

Mr.

McLean.

I had a questions, I think really for Jim.

I know he got he presented uh at finance last week and spoke a little bit about uh the gun range being something that is losing money.

Um I think to the tune of uh 400 over 450,000, I believe is the number uh a year.

And so had a few questions if he wouldn't mind uh coming up and just answering a few a couple of questions real quick.

And correct me if I'm wrong, Jim, on those numbers.

Um, sir, you're correct.

Okay, so it's 450, 450,000 a year.

2025 loss was 497,000.

2024 is 506 and 2023 was 412.

Have we talked a little bit or have we discussed a plan going forward maybe to help stop that bleeding?

And I'm not meaning to catch you off guard, but at the same time, um just trying to brainstorm about what we can do to stop that, maybe stop the bleeding there.

That's the question of the day, yes, sir.

Um, we're we're looking at different ways to attract more tournaments to the to the facility.

Um, I can give you a report on how successful tournaments have been the past year.

We still lack in a facility as far as a conference meeting room to really host larger tournaments.

Um, that's one potential way.

We've already kind of we've kind of slowed down our projects and renovations and and landscaping projects.

We're trying to cut those costs and limit that kind of stuff.

We've done a lot of work on the range.

Um we're challenged a lot with the EPA requirements of being a wetland, and so we're really trying to make sure that we're we're living up to that that agreement as well.

I know when I was on AMP, we talked a little bit about using some funds made before.

You just talked about a facility maybe for the um, I don't know if the clubhouse is that what you're referring to, maybe the clubhouse are um to finish out to build one.

Okay.

Uh have y'all had any discussions any more about about that?

We we've had very little discussion about that.

We've just started to kind of reproach that now.

As Mr.

Morgan mentioned that a couple of months ago.

Okay.

We also looking at hopefully um adding a camera system to the pistol rifle side to maybe reduce the number of staff that we have out there until we improve our numbers.

So we're looking at that option as well.

That's one of the projects we're kind of looking at.

Okay.

Uh last thing, um, and I don't know if we can do this, but I hope we can.

Um have we looked at um maybe outsourcing and having someone else run the facility?

Maybe a like we're gonna have a um company run our um rack.

Uh have we looked at having someone else?

We we have not okay.

Um to my knowledge, I mean I I've really been here five months, but yes, y'all have.

Okay, okay.

We it's doable.

One is it doable first, and then second, are we uh this is obviously a discussion that happened prior to Jim.

We we did have some discussions with the um sports facilities group that is going to be running the uh the Ridge Athletic Center, and they did some kind of some preliminary research.

Um course, a lot of their determinations are that in order to actually live up to what that facility was probably proposed to do back when it was originally funded.

You do need some sort of centralized clubhouse to to intake tournaments and and to allow for registration and vendors and and food service and all that kind of stuff.

Um they had their doubts that it would be on paper, you know, self-sufficient and profitable along its own, just based off of that one centralized building.

It would give you the opportunity to reduce that loss issue.

And you know, you're kind of hamstrung with the shooting range because you can't de staff it to the point where it's unsafe, it's a city property, and the last thing we want to do is a city owned property to be unsafe because of lack of staff.

So, you know, Jim's done an excellent job of kind of going through that.

In fact, whenever he came on board as assistant parks director, that was kind of one of his first assignments was to figure out where we can cut and where we can make it more efficient and and help reduce the loss over here because it I do think it is important anytime we talk about parks that you know I I know that that the shooting range is often viewed as kind of different because it is revenue producing, but the ultimate goal of all parks is not necessarily to make money, it's to help with the overall economic development and and get people in the town and and where they're spending money at hotels and restaurants and and and everything that the ridge is going to also do.

So it's kind of finding that balance line of how much do we have to spend to be able for the facility to function as it was originally proposed.

Is that possible?

Um where's the money gonna come from?

And at what point are we satisfied with are we satisfied with losing 200,000 dollars a year if it's generating X amount of million dollars in economic impact?

Um, and you know, some of these were formulas obviously that were probably worked through 10 years ago.

Um and you know, some of that stuff has been has been kind of looked at by the sports facilities group, and so outsourcing is an option, but in order to outsource it, you're gonna have to either complete it or work out some sort of funding agreement that allows funding to complete that.

And uh, you know, it's that's a that's a hard ask to come before city council and make until you can show that you can cut as much as possible and still be a safe facility and effective facility, and so that's what Jim's been working pretty hard on to try to make that a presentable opportunity.

And we're also seeking some outside funding.

I know there's been discussions with the Game and Fish on some some possible supportive funding because again, it's hard to ask for more public dollars to go in this without bringing some private investment or some third-party investment into this.

So we're certainly well aware of the realities of where we are on this project.

I I don't think you can cut half to half a million a year.

I honestly mentioned cutting some stuff, but I really don't think that's possible.

I mean, you'd have to I mean I in my thinking you'd have to lay off staff and a few other things, and I don't like you said we can't do that.

So I I would um encourage you know discussion to happen with A and P and then um also if we can figure out a way to get with sports facilities group, then I I would encourage that as well.

Well, and ultimately what we want is a safe facility that produces the type of economic impact that that was originally kind of proposed and envisioned with this project, and um, you know, we've re actually kind of redesigned the building to help reduce the cost.

I think originally the proposed is a 6,500 square foot or so uh main building, and it was you know, even at that construction time it was a six or seven million dollar building, if I remember right.

Um and we've kind of worked back through it and tried to engineer just the essentials in there, enough uh meeting space to to make it a viable facility.

And I think the last estimate that we had on it was somewhere just a little north of three million.

But you know, you start going below that, and are you building what you actually need to make that facility successful?

Yeah, so it's uh you know it's it's it's definitely a complex problem that doesn't necessarily have an easy button answer to it.

Um because again, this is a crank and force doesn't make money, but we know how important it is to the community.

So where's that trying to find that that fine line is is uh is a is a constant uh challenge that's placed at Jim's Jim's hands.

Okay, thank you.

Unless you want to unless you had something else, Jim, you want to okay.

Thank you.

Mr.

Gibson.

Uh yes, just a couple of things.

Advertising and promotions met yesterday, and I would like to suspend the rules and walk on resolution 26057.

Second?

I have a motion and a second to suspend the rules and walk on resolution 26057.

Uh Kerr, we confirm there was unanimous decision at that confirmed.

Earl confirmed there was a unanimous decision, which is the prerequisite.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

Resolution by the city council of the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas to make a reappointment to the advertising and promotions commission is recommended by the commission.

Whereas the following reappointment has been recommended by the advertising and promotions commission.

Now, therefore, be it resolved by the city council for the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas that the following reappointment be confirmed.

Reappointment of Jerry Morgan to a four-year term ending 518 2030.

Move to adopt second.

I have a motion and a second to adopt any questions from the council.

Anyone in the audience have a question or comment about this resolution?

Hearing none, all in favor say aye.

All opposed.

The only other thing I had is um we had a conversation a couple of weeks ago about the parks advisory committee wanting to reconvene with the public services committee, and I think that I want to try to do that on our regularly scheduled meeting date on June the 16th, but I would like to move that up to 3:30 just to allow adequate time.

I wouldn't think so yet.

All right, do we noted?

Anything else, Mr.

Gibson?

That's all, thank you.

Dr.

Charles Coleman.

Uh I only have two things.

Um I spoke to Ronald Shaver, he's at home.

Uh he's doing a lot better.

He's also watching.

Huh?

He's also watching.

He sent me a text.

Yeah.

Uh the other thing is to uh thank the uh Dare program for helping uh the fish uh program that we had this weekend.

Uh we done real well.

Uh we uh gave uh 365 75 plates and three and a hot dolls, but at the same time, some certain city council people didn't show up, and certain uh administration people didn't show up, and I was so happy.

All right, thank you, Dr.

Coleman.

I'm done.

Mr.

Emerson.

Only thing I have is I want to reiterate on the uh mayor's comments and um also to um LJ's point that um did have an opportunity to sit down and talk with the employee reps for the Jonesboro Police Department, and um think that we've got a lot of good options for us as we proceed forward as we look at what benefits that we're able to offer the Jonesboro police officers because Lord knows they make it where we can go to sleep and we can rest every night, so we it's our opportunity to take care of those that take care of us on a daily basis.

Um was set up, and me and Chief were gonna try to get together last week.

However, there was um there was a scheduling conflict, and I think this is a good opportunity to um brag on Chief and brag on some good initiatives that we have going on in Jonesboro right now.

Chief, I'm kind of putting you on the spot here, but would you like to come up and tell us about the uh blue envelope program, please?

Uh this past week we participated in a uh mock traffic stop drills for people with autism.

Uh, we're the first agency in the state to uh put on such a project like this.

Uh this is autism awareness month, and I've been working with uh several people at the university and uh with the governor's uh council on develop developmental disabilities, uh John Taylor out of Little Rock.

Uh we started this project back in May.

As we all know, uh traffic stops generate stress as it is, and then with people that uh have autism uh that increases their stress levels even more.

So uh we uh as an agency got to learn how to deal with individuals, and uh but more important the blue envelope program and green envelope program was something that was passed by legislation went to effect first the year.

And essentially, when an officer makes a traffic stop, and if a person has autism, they'll pass a blue envelope to the officer.

They'll have directions that hey, I have whatever, and inside that envelope will be their license, their registration and proof of insurance.

They may be stressed to the level that they can't communicate to the officer, and failure to communicate with an officer's approach could lead to unfortunate things for the driver.

We may think they're impaired or a million other different reasons, so they just kind of cut down any and anything would be unfortunate.

So that works.

Uh so we had this demo, and again, everything worked according to plan.

Uh, there's some changes that we're looking to take back to our state legislators on this.

Uh, we learned a lot from that and looking to move forward with some more changes.

But again, I just pride the department and being able to participate this in this program along with state police and ASU police, like I said, we're the first in the state to do it.

And ironically, um, two days later, uh, one of our traffic officers worked an accident on a person with autism, and the first thing he did was presented the blue envelope.

So he was stressed out uh because of the accident, and just he knew to hand the officer when she approached the blue envelope.

So the program across statewide, uh, it it hopefully it'll grow.

It's an educational piece right now because law enforcement just learning about the program, starting to how to implement it and how it works.

But again, I'm just proud that uh we are the first in the state to kick this off and uh could continue to work on the local and the state level to make this a go across the state of Arkansas.

So thank you.

Thank you, Chief.

Anything else, Mr.

Brown?

No, sir, thank you.

Sorry, Mr.

Parker.

No, thank you.

All right, that concludes our regular business.

Item 10, public comments, public comments.

Anyone in the audience wish to speak.

Please state your name and address for the record, sir.

Uh Jonathan Carvel, it's 4474 Highway 163 in Jonesboro, Arkansas.

Speak up just a little bit, Er.

4474 Highway 163 in Jonesboro, Arkansas.

Um good evening.

Thank you for your time.

Uh I'm here as representing the SWAT swim club.

Some of the parents asked me to come speak about the situation that we have at the city pool.

Um, I don't know how familiar you are with the situation, but uh a few weeks ago we were told that rather than splitting the space at the pool with the other team in town, uh, we would have to uh allocate more space to the other team because it wasn't gonna be safe for them.

They had so many swimmers, it wasn't gonna be safe for them to swim with just five lanes, and they were gonna need more than that.

Um so I'd like to address that specifically the safety aspect.

Uh, first, as a parent, we all want our kids to be safe.

Um, that's our primary responsibility.

It's a secondary response, it's a secondary responsibility for the swim clubs themselves.

It's really when we give them over to them, it's their responsibility.

I don't think the city has a safety issue, I think we have a space issue, and that's a good problem to have because it's exciting, it means that the the new facility is gonna be viable as a safety professional.

Uh uh I had that that role at A-State as a safety officer for nearly 10 years.

I solved a lot of safety issues that came to me collaboratively collaboratively with some of the people in this room, and I prefer to do that that way collaboratively as a community solution.

Um we weren't given the opportunity to do that.

So I'm here today to hopefully uh let you guys hear us out, and again, thank you.

Um, so a lot of times what we see when people bring safety issues to us as professionals is that we can't eliminate the risk.

The best thing we can do is we can shift it, transfer it to another entity.

Risk transference usually involves insurance.

In this case, I would submit that if five lanes is unsafe for one team, if six lanes is unsafe for that team, and we're now going to be squished down to three lanes for our team, that's going to create an unsafe situation for us.

And again, we're going to address that.

We're going to address that probably with some extraordinary things and some gymnastics that we're gonna have to do in our schedule.

The other team's not gonna have to do that.

We but we will because we want our kids to be safe.

The other thing that happens with safety issues often is someone will come to you with a solution that sounds viable, it sounds like it'll work, more kids, more swimmers, more lanes.

That makes sense.

Um, but really what it does is it creates a perverse incentive for both teams to load up their rosters and justify their space in the pool, and that just means more and more kids in the pool, and it exacerbates the space challenges that we have, and that's probably why you don't see this type of arrangement very often.

Usually the split is along time instead of space, so that so that you don't have that perverse incentive, and so um the other thing that can happen is that we've trans again we've transferred this risk to another group of kids, really.

Um but the other thing that can happen is people can cry safety, they can say, hey, this is gonna be unsafe for us because they have a goal in mind, they want more space.

And I've I'm afraid that's what's happened here.

And I wouldn't say that if the other team hasn't already been given seven lanes, we were told we were gonna get at least four.

We had some details we wanted to work out, but apparently now they have seven lanes, and we're gonna be down to three.

Um it seems inherently unfair.

Um and so just uh as a parent as as a safety professional, if you've got uh any anything to say about this situation, if you've got anything that can that can make it so that we feel welcome at the pool and that we can use that facility in that way.

Um I'd really appreciate it.

So I've lived here for my whole life, and and I think we can I think we can work this out.

I really do.

So thank you again for your time.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Anyone else in the audience wish to make a comment?

Hearing none.

Item 11 adjournment.

So moved have a motion and a second.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, we stand adjourned.