Good afternoon, everybody.

It's four o'clock.

I'm gonna go ahead and call today's Finance and Administration Council Committee meeting to order.

Um please go ahead and uh confirm your attendance.

Do have a quorum.

Next up is approval of minutes from the finance committee meeting on Tuesday, June 9th, 2026.

Move to approval this there's noted change.

Second.

Motion second to approve any comments or questions on the minutes as presented.

If not, please cast your vote on whether or not to approve the minutes.

We'll move into new business.

First up is resolution 26063, a resolution authorizing City of Jonesboro grants and community development department to apply for the United States Department of Transportation FY26 Bridge Investment Program Planning Grant.

Whereas applications are now being accepted for the United States Department of Transportation FY26 Bridge Investment Program.

Whereas the City of Jonesboro owns and maintains numerous bridges and structures that are critical to the safe and efficient movement of residents, emergency responders, freight traffic, pedestrians, and the traveling public.

Now, therefore, be it resolved by City Council of the City of Jonesboro, Arkansas, that section one, the City of Jonesboro, Arkansas supports the submission of an application to the United States Department of Transportation for the FY26 Bridge Investment Program Planning Grant for the development of a comprehensive bridge prioritization and asset management plan.

Section two, the mayor and city clerk are hereby authorized by the city council of the City of Jonesboro, Arkansas, to execute all documents necessary to effectuate this grant application.

Section three, the grants and community development departments hereby authorized by the City Council of the City of Jonesboro, Arkansas to prepare and submit all required application materials and supporting documentation for the FY26 bridge investment program.

Section four, the City Council does hereby authorize the mayor and city clerk to execute all agreements, contract certifications, and other documents necessary to accept and administer any grant award received through this program.

Moving forward to full council.

Second.

Motion second forward to full council.

Any questions or comments from the committee regarding this agenda item?

Specific bridges that are being uh looked at or are a focus of this.

I was wondering about what I was wondering about is uh bridge the bridge street bridge.

Is that in it would that be part of this?

I will Craig says it is.

He was shaking his head.

We uh we went through the list that we get from uh the national bridge inventory in the state of Arkansas and tried to pick the 17 most critical bridges that you know based on their different evaluations and uh pick those to do a study on this um so that eventually then we could use that to apply for another grant for you know the funds to replace and build bridges in the future.

I know that it's been a subject of concern for a while.

Sure.

Yeah, so that's why we yeah, we need to get a study done so that we can come up with a plan.

Any other questions from the committee?

Anything from the public in attendance or staff.

If not, please cast your and let the record reflect that Dr.

Anthony Coleman is present.

Um go ahead and cast your vote on whether or not to forward resolution 26063 to full council.

All right, next up, resolution 26068.

A resolution by the City of Jonesboro, Arkansas to accept the attached fee proposal for construction engineering and inspection services for the South Caraway Road Widening Project, whereas Pickering Firm Incorporated was selected for the South Caraway Road Widening Parker Road to Fox Meadow Lane project, whereas the City of Jonesboro desires to accept the attached fee proposal in the amount of 374,157.81 cents for construction engineering and inspection services, and whereas funding for the execution of the fee proposal shall come from the capital improvement revenue bond budget.

Compensation shall be paid in accordance with fee proposal.

Therefore, be resolved by the city council of the city of Jonesville, Arkansas.

That section one, the City of Jonesboro hereby accepts the attached fee proposal, the amount of 374,157 for construction engineering and inspection services for the South Caraway Road Widening Project.

Section two funding for the execution of the fee proposal shall come from the capital improvement revenue bond budget and compensation shall be paid in accordance with the fee proposal.

Section three, the mayor and city clerk are hereby authorized by the city council for the city of Jones Road accept the fee proposal and direct the purchasing slash finance specialist to issue a purchase order.

Move forward to full council second.

Motion second toward the full council.

Any questions from the committee on this one?

I just wondered what's the timeline on that.

What's the timeline on that?

The bids are scheduled to be opened on July 15th.

Um it'll take us.

That's kind of the tentative timeline for it right now.

I don't know if you can answer this, but um possibly I was thinking about the bond itself.

Are we on schedule as relates to the financial portion of this the bond uh with the road and all the other uh projects that we have going?

Yeah, with with this particular project, yes.

I mean, we're we're at one year, roughly one year into the bond, and we still have another two years or so to have the funds expanded.

So what about the cost itself?

Is it still in line with the it is you have for that?

We'll open bids on the uh July 15th, and we'll know exactly what the construction cost is at that point.

But the estimate is yes.

Okay.

And then ask from the committee, and then else from staff for the public in attendance.

On there, so Patty Lack 4108 Porsche Hill Road.

I know on one of the bid proposals from the company is that um my understanding from the last one is that it's gonna be five lanes down to um I can't think of that one street, and then is it gonna be three lanes all the way down to Fox Meadow?

Because on the one proposal it said Fox Meadow lane there.

So is it gonna be like a center turn lane down to Fox Meadow?

Because it set it on the proposal sheet.

The current construction drawings is the five-lane from uh Parker Road to Laterette, and then it transitions to a three-lane and it'll continue three lane south to uh Glenn's place, and then it'll transition back down to two-lane road section at Glenn's place.

So it does not go all the way to Fox Meadow.

Now the 10-foot side path on the west side of the road will continue all the way to Fox Meadow, but that'll be the only roadway improvement uh south of the Glen's place, other than that transition.

So it'll transition out around the driveway, northernmost driveway to the links is where it'll transition back.

And the Elsterm staff or public, all right.

If not, please guess your about it on whether or not or your vote on whether or not to forward resolution 26068 to full council.

Uh resolution 26069, um, this is municipal lien.

Resolution by the city council, city of Jones for Arkansas to place the municipal lien on property located at 2410 West Matthews, parcel 01-143, 143-01900 owned by George Hannis Senior in the amount of $5,566.

Move forward to full council second.

Motion second, any questions or comments from the committee?

Anything from staff or the public in attendance.

All right, please cast your vote on whether or not to forward resolution 26069 to full council.

A resolution by the city council of the city of Jonesburg, Arkansas, to approve the attached proposal for additional services for the park located along Disciple Drive, whereas resolution 25027 approved half to provide professional services for the park located along disciple drive project, whereas the city of Jonesville desires to increase the original professional services project scope with the attached proposal and the amount of 136,040 for additional design support services, construction documents, and architectural construction documents, and as funding for the execution of the agreement shall come from the capital improvement budget and compensation shall be paid in accordance with the agreement.

That section one, the city of Jonesboro hereby accepts the tax proposal and the amount of 136,040 for additional design support services, construction documents, and architectural construction documents for the park located along disciple drive project.

Section two that funding shall that funding for the execution of the fee proposal shall come from the capital improvement budget and compensation shall be paid in accordance with the fee proposal.

Section three, the mayor and city clerk are hereby authorized by the city council for the city of Jonesboro to accept the fee proposal and direct the purchasing slash finance specialist to increase the purchase order amount.

Before the full council second.

But we also have some pretty serious maintenance decisions that we need to make on the you know the YMCA pool as it continues to age.

So I think you know we could we have to realistically think of ourselves having one working public pool pool right now, and so that puts us in pr kind of a crisis as far as public swim facilities for a city our size.

Yeah, about a quarter of what's recommended by the parks and rec, you know, association.

And I think as we continue to look at future budget cycles, and you know, we we're gonna need to identify one, you know, it is a body if we're gonna prioritize a pool and two where that funding is gonna come from.

You know, you're probably looking at the Parker Park pool at the time we built it, was somewhere around a four million dollar pool.

You know, I think you're gonna probably see at least that for any other pool facility that we build, so you know, we'll just have to decide what takes a you know a back seat to be able to create funding for that, and you know, we're thankfully we have a pretty skilled finance department that can look and really try to kind of cut anything that might need to be cut or reduce anything or or look for excessive, you know, areas that that maybe we can help promote efficiency.

I know that you know, last finance meeting we kind of worked through some staff realignments that actually saved a little bit of money, so it'll it'll take a lot of small bites, uh, but at the end of the day, it's just a matter of resources, and we are not necessarily blessed with the the strongest uh sales tax percentage of of you know cities around here, so we have to make do with what we can and and we'll have to seek out grants as well to help offset some of those costs.

So it certainly is a priority to to continue trying to find funding for more swimming, it's just where it's gonna come from and what expense, right?

You've seen that there's uh demand we've you know, as far as lanes for competition swimming practice and all, but we also need plenty of access for young children to be able to learn how to swim.

To grow up some lifeguards for these pools, you know.

And our priority of the city is recreational swimming for all the you know the the kids in Jonesboro to have a place to learn to swim and to enjoy to swim, and you know that's it obviously very evident at at Parker Park, it's a very popular pool.

Um very proud of that pool.

Um, and we all should be, and we'd really like to see that replicated elsewhere.

It's not really made for like swim team competition uh practice, so it's made for the community to enjoy, yes and and swimming lessons to some extent, yeah.

Yes, and and swimming lessons to some extent, yeah.

But uh we have to be realistic about the various needs we've got.

And we don't have the facilities currently to really meet those needs.

That's all.

I do, thank you, and I I agree with you and um on that in prioritizing approvals pools, but my question was I was looking at the the actual contract itself.

I can't pronounce that name, how far half and associates.

All right, great.

Um I'm not too familiar when it comes to construction or even commercial construction in that regard.

Uh, but uh part of that that fee uh was in that first phase a meeting for six thousand dollars just for the meeting, the first meeting.

Is that realistic?

I mean, I've just I just so happen to see that.

Yeah, I'm I mean six thousand dollars for an emission initial meeting.

Now I know that they came up and they spent some time here on the ground um doing an evaluation of the site.

Um I'd have to look at the exact details of of that of the contract.

I don't know if Mr.

Lyte is still in the room, but he was the one that kind of worked with them on that.

I mean, it's literally the one of the first things, it's over 10,000 dollars for a meeting and then 4,000 for a tree survey or something like that.

They like I said they they didn't come here for several several days on site inspections.

Um, but I can definitely get some more detail about exactly what that what that consists of.

Yeah, because it's it because from my understanding, this phase is literally, and you can correct me.

This this proposal or this resolution is for us to pay for them to come in and basically give us a plan.

Right?

It well, it's a it's a plan and it's also to manage the actual construction of the project.

To manage the construction.

Oh yeah, so so doing all the uh you know, the the different engineering designs and drainage and layout, um, obviously the so it will include all of those, all the excuse me for my lack of better uh understanding, but the pool plants it'll include all of that.

And this yes, this will, you know, currently we're at about uh 60 percent plans and and this will get us to basically construction ready plans.

Saying basically, I'm listening to your words, yeah.

Well, I mean, it's uh you know, obviously, this is a pretty in-depth uh design and build, and there's a there's a lot of intricacies that come in and out to make sure that we don't damage any any of the ecology or cause any kind of runoff issues or actually retaining some little bit of water and some green space and and also to make sure that we save a you know as many significant trees as possible during the build of it.

I'm not questioning the validity, I'm not questioning that.

I'm just questioning the amount to make certain that it makes sense for what it will produce.

And just I'm just I'm just asking, I'm just looking at that to see a project management of six thousand dollars in a tree survey.

Survey, okay.

Yeah, but kick off for a meeting.

That six thousand dollars is for the kickoff and project management of the entire contract.

So that is not just a one-time meeting, that's for managing the completion of the project um to get it to 100% construction drawings, get it bid out, get it awarded and get it constructed.

So that's that's what that fee is.

It's not just one meeting.

Okay, just sorry if I sound ignorant, ignorant, but I just it's the other question from the sample.

Anything else from staff or the public in attendance?

I'm glad Patty Lack 4108 Forest Hill Road.

I'm glad that you brought that up because I was kind of confused.

So as of right now, there is nothing out there, then I have not had the chance to go out there.

So is there anything being done on that property yet?

Nothing.

Okay.

Thank you.

Anything else?

All right, please class cast your vote on whether or not to afford resolution 27070 to full counsel.

All right.

Last time under new business is resolution 26071.

A resolution to approve Jonesboro Police Department terms and conditions for new higher incentives.

Excuse me.

Allocated funding for a total of 175 uniformed police officers.

Excuse me.

Whereas as a 6126 payroll records identify 151 field positions and 24 vacant positions, whereas the 14% staffing shortage has created a surplus in the FY 2026 police personnel budget.

Whereas the 14% staffing shortage has created a surplus in the FY 2026 police personnel budget.

They will be redirected to incentivize the hiring and recruiting a P1 level patrol officers for the Jonesboro Police Department, whereas hiring recruitment and retention incentives are required to operate within current year police personnel budget, and whereas new hires are required to agree to a multi-year employment agreement to encourage retention or as detailed information incentive amounts and commitment requirements are included in exhibits one and two attached with this resolution.

Therefore be resolved by City Council of the City of Jonesboro, Arkansas.

That section one, this Jonesboro City Council endorses the attached terms and conditions of the police hiring and recruitment incentives as described in this resolution and the attached exhibits.

Section two, the Jonesville City Council authorizes the creation of a restricted account consisting of that excess Jones Row Police Department personnel funds necessary to fulfill multi-year hiring and recruitment incentive commitments executed in FY 2026.

Moving forward to full counsel second.

Any questions or comments from the committee?

Yeah, I do.

Chief, can you give me a kind of an idea of what these um incentives would look like if I was an if I was to apply and what it would look I'm assuming for as applicant?

Yeah, I don't have the breakdown sheet in front of me, but in short order, if you're a non-certified officer, uh there's a five thousand dollar uh incentive, and upon hiring, you'll receive a portion of it, and then as you reach uh certain milestones like graduating the academy, you'll get part of your incentive as you complete your FTO, you'll get another part of your incentive.

After uh your first year anniversary, there's another part.

So all these incentives are spread out over multiple years, it's not all lump sum.

If you're a certified officer upon hiring, uh you will sign a contract, all these will be uh contractually signed by the applicant for a certified officer upon completion of the contact, there's a five thousand dollar uh hiring on immediate incentive, and then after they reach the their first milestone of uh FTO completion, or the one and the one year, there's 2500, and then the second year 2500, and the third year uh two thousand.

So for a total of twelve thousand dollars for certified officers.

Certified over two years experience, right?

Certified over two years or more experience.

It's like a certified less than two years is three thousand upon hiring, and then a thousand thousand thousand on their anniversary day, so six thousand time.

Correct, yeah.

I know you're just not you're at a disadvantage.

Yeah, well, I've Keith handed me a sheet, so I was trying to remember off the top of my head, but you should have the sheet on your screen at this point.

So that's a breakdown of it uh at this point.

Then on the second part of it is a recruiting bonus uh to incentivize officers to get out and talk to people individually uh to recruit applicants.

And we have found that's the best way to get officers in the door, uh is just one-on-one conversations with individuals and talking up to the police department and policing itself.

Um it works the best.

We have advertised uh by radio means, uh, social media means it brings in applicants, but uh you know it's getting the quality applicants, and when you have a one-on-one conversation, you generally initiate that conversation because that person has character traits that you identify that probably a good police officer, and that's probably having good people skills, good social skills, talking to the public.

So uh officers tend to recognize individuals that we encounter that would probably make a decent officer.

So to incentivize that uh we offered this uh a five thousand dollar recruiting bonus, and again that comes in increments as the recruit uh reaches their milestone, then they get part of their incentive also.

So it creates uh relationship between the recruiting officer and the recruit kind of uh you kind of have an investment to make sure that recruits gonna make make their milestones you know through the incentives.

So right now, um go ahead with you.

You had a question.

No, no, no.

No, no, no.

But uh with with this coming to light, uh we have kind of begun to publish this information uh and it's immediately had the desired effect.

Uh currently uh we're working at or we're looking at about 14 certified in the background process.

I'm hiring two at the end of the month that's already completed backgrounds, and one of them is from Knoxville, Tennessee Police Department.

Um, and then in the upcoming test uh on the uh in two weeks, uh there's another seven certified that have recently applied.

And so right now, as of today, we have 34 scheduled to test uh in two weeks, and just a few weeks ago we did a test, and we're doing backgrounds on 20 out of that pool.

So in the past month, this is the biggest recruiting cycle we have seen in quite a while.

Uh you know, historically the past year we processed close to 300 applicants, and I got seven qualified out of that.

It's not that I'm short of getting applicants, I'm short of getting quality applicants.

So with these incentives, uh, I think we're we're hopefully going to get some quality applicants uh come in.

All we'll still have to go through extensive background investigation.

Uh everything that we have on queue, you know, they may not pass our standards.

But uh the fact of the matter is that uh the numbers are coming in uh you know at a better rate than we've seen in a long time.

So I think once we get uh fully staffed uh this program, you know, we can re-evaluate it, we can re-evaluate the numbers if we need to stay in existence or lower the numbers.

But uh my goal is by November 1st, hopefully at the latest, we'll be fully staffed with a list of uh eligibility list.

Wow, that's major.

I I just thought, and I I read this, but I just thought the question warranted an opportunity for um the chief to to really address this openly because everybody don't read, so I just want to do that.

You're correct, and I'm I'm sorry, I kind of you know I tend to go more off into it than normal, but I know there's people listening uh besides y'all, and uh but at the end of the day, you know, we're 25 short today.

I just had another uh retirement last week, so that put me back up to 25.

But uh as they say, there's light at the end of the tunnel, and uh light's getting brighter every day right now.

So uh things are looking very promising, and uh my staff's been advised.

It's all hands on deck, uh get these backgrounds done and get people on board.

Thank you, Chief.

It's great to hear.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other questions or comments from the committee?

Mr.

Chairman, I was gonna wait for other business, but I feel like this is a good time to ride this wave since we're talking about all the all the good from the recruitment efforts that we're having here.

Chief, I know that we were talking about a 14% deficit in the staffing model that we've been carrying over the last six months to a year.

Um on that, I know that we've had 151 officers that's been picking up that slack in the meantime, and a point of conversation that we've been having and been talking about is you know, doing something for those officers, more focusing on the retention component of this.

I was playing around with some of these numbers just a little bit earlier today, and you know, looking at it from uh from an annualized basis on the 24 vacancies, even if every one of those officers would have been at the P1 level as a recruit at 51,000, that would have landed us at about a 1.2 million dollar budgetary savings from the salary line item on that side.

And even on the recruitment and incentivized efforts, even if we max those out, best case scenario, 24 recruits that are fully certified with more than two years of experience along with 24 officers that we paid out for those 24 individuals.

That comes at a cost of about 168,000 dollars that I was looking at.

And I mean, if we look at that minus and doing some kind of one-off bonus for the officers that we currently have that's been picking up the slack over this entire time and working over time, protecting the streets, making sure we all sleep well at night and everything else, those 151 police officers that have been holding the line and been protecting us.

If we did something like a one-off bonus, let's say it's something that would be in the neighborhood of like $2,000, that would land us at approximately $32,000 to be able to do a one-off bonus to say thank you, the appreciation for those officers that have been working in this minus 14% category here.

I mean, that still would allow us, which we know it's not going to be the full annualized um visual of this, we would still be able to bring roughly $730,000 of unrealized expense and salaries back to the general budget.

Is that something that you think that would help us retain the current officers that we have just trying to get a pulse on our on our on our men and women out there in the field?

Well, yes, sir, uh certainly do.

Um you're correct in everything you stated that uh you know there's 151 that's been towing the line, and the call volume is certainly not decreased, and there's certain divisions that uh I've had to shut down uh because of staffing shortages.

And I think that if we could do something like what you mentioned we'll certainly go a long way with the current staff that's uh been out there day in and day out and working over working uh multiple shifts just to help uh keep our staffing minimums there's times you know we're we're running seven or eight officers on the street instead of you know the 18 or 20 and uh it's kind of a safety concern but um I commend the uh men and women of the department to uh that have stepped up and have towed the line during this whole process great and I know that we've got a a very skilled finance department I know some of these aren't aren't necessarily realized savings or expenses at this point but I'd like to continue this conversation and see if there would be something we'd be able to do maybe in the in the near future for them.

And I just wanted to point out a quick clarification councilman uh if you recognize the uh I guess the the full possibility of kind of like you said everybody gets the 12000 dollar bonus and and all the retention stuff is is taken care of in order for this to not be a budget amendment and to not I guess impress on next year's budget we're going to actually all of these multi-year commitments will be committed to a restricted fund so you know theoretically you could be looking at somewhere around a 400 thousand dollar budget impact for this year um so there so it will be a little higher than what you'd mentioned but I understand the the methodology you're talking about this year then next year's money goes on next year's budget but we're we're trying to make sure that we don't do anything that restricts next year's growth potential or next year's um funding and by if you if you're an applicant and you apply for the and you qualify for the 1200 and there's a five thousand dollar incentive so you're talking about a 17 thousand dollars that we're gonna put over into a restricted fund and that's what we'll pay out in in years 27 28 and and and so forth so we're trying to to secure this program all the leftover funds or or additional funds that are available from that 15% shortage this year.

Sure definitely and that $2,000 was just uh just a shot from the hip number on that I just I think that it'd be great if there's any opportunity at all for us to say thank you to those men and women I would I'd like to see us move forward with that.

Sure and like I say I just I wanted to clarify there's a good opportunity for me to point out why this is not a budget amendment because the the funding exists and and again not to not to uh put any kind of limitations on next year's budget or make any commitments towards next year's budget until budget time comes around.

Gotcha.

Thank you Brian Chief the only question I guess how many officers would uh in this situation would would move up the ladder is that been a part of what of the incident plan to move up the ladder yeah well in order for somebody to move up in rank there's somebody in rank would have to uh retire and uh so over the past couple years there has been some movement up in ranks uh in the next five years there will be a lot more movement up in rank as in uh the upper administration or the upper level supervision in the department's gonna start seeing a major turnover uh there's eight of us right now can retire any time so I'm trying to set the department up for the future and uh develop those upcoming leaders uh getting them prepared in leadership classes and things like that and ready to take over to uh continue running this department so it's important that we uh keep what we got and um you know so uh thank you for bringing that up again I think uh in those officers that are watching I think we'd be certainly uh appreciative of of these efforts thank you chair thank you I just want to say what coordinate what I appreciate your comments on that uh councilman um I know I've talked to officers who've gone when the call volumes high several weeks without a 94 or uh an evening meal break or a break in the middle of their shift to eat the call volumes have been so high they couldn't even take off to grab a sandwich or anything so we got a very dedicated bunch of folks and uh I think if we can't afford to do something like that it'd let them know that we do appreciate them for their dedication to the city we're lucky to have them and I always we we always try to take care of those that take care of us.

Yes.

We appreciate what you do.

That was the last item under new business.

We'll move into pending items it's resolution 26061.

It's a resolution by the city council city of Jones, Arkansas placed the municipal lien on property located at 300 East Pine Street, parcel 01-144-183-2100 owned by Unicorn LLC amount of 865 dollars.

Mr.

Roper has asked that this be um tabled indefinitely move to postpone indefinitely second.

Motion second all those in favor say aye you want to do aye or do you want us to I can do voting oh she can do voting let's do voting please cast your vote on whether or not to postpone indefinitely 26061 no other items under pending any other business for the committee today from anybody all right we'll move into public comments gives it public all right Mr Richardson are we going back to other business now it was just an announcement.

Okay.

Uh just I I think each I got the email earlier but just for the the the public watching at home and and if you haven't got it we are going to have a groundbreaking on Thursday at 911 a.m for the 911 center downtown so um hope to see everybody in attendance and uh look forward to getting this project started and um I do have to correct something I think earlier Mr.

Richardson referred to it as the the rack or the ridge athletic center.

I think that may have a new name now what was that name Mr.

Emerson?

I don't know I hear here it in my dreams the uh first community bank sportsplex thanks to the first community for stepping up and doing that um so back to public comments no public comment from anybody all right next items adjournment second all in favor say aye aye any opposed