Well, we'll be able to do it.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

This special meeting of the Richmond City Council will now come to order.

Mr.

Clark, if you'd proceed with the chamber emergency evacuation announcement, followed by the intro legislation.

Upon activation of the emergency alarm signal, all persons should immediately exit the building.

Please use the exits to the left or right front of the council chamber or the north or south stairwell outside the rear doors of the chamber.

Do not use elevators or escalators.

After exiting the building, security will direct everyone down ninth street to the fenced area located between Clay and Lee Streets.

Thank you, Mr.

Clark.

Let's proceed with the introduction of legislation.

Members, the list of legislation for introduction this afternoon, consisting of items one through six has been provided to you, and the legislation on this list is hereby introduced as presented.

A copy of the list is currently available for public inspection at the rear of the council chamber, and an electronic copy and copies of the listed legislation will be available on the city's website on Tuesday, July 7th.

Thank you, Mr.

Clerk.

With that introduction, the agenda for the special meeting has been completed.

The meeting now stands adjourned.

I've said good evening already or good afternoon.

He's he's doing the good afternoon.

Yeah, before he starts.

Good afternoon again.

Mr.

Clark.

Madam Chair, the minutes to be approved are from the Monday, June 1st, 2026 Organizational Development Standing Committee meeting.

If there are no corrections or amendments, then the minutes will be approved as presented.

Those minutes have been approved.

Thank you, Mr.

Clark.

Let's proceed with the reports for today's OD meeting.

Don Olesky Energy Program Manager Office of Sustainability.

Good afternoon.

I'm Don Olexe, the Energy Program Manager from the Office of Sustainability, and I'm here to tell you about a no-cost opportunity to get solar panels on city-owned buildings so we can both mitigate the rising electric costs and get closer to our carbon reduction goals.

We have been looking at solar power purchase agreements for over 10 years, exploring ways that we can use this as a financing mechanism.

However, legal hurdles have prevented us from pursuing this until now.

We have extra motivation right now with the expiration of the federal tax credits with up to 50% of project costs that will make these projects more economically viable, meaning we can get cheaper electricity from our own rooftops rather than we would be paying Dominion.

Staff has been working collaboratively and creatively going above and beyond the past several months to find a solution that will work for Richmond.

So in terms of the project background, the community climate collaborative partnered with us to apply to the municipal investment fund.

And we are one of 48 localities selected across the country to develop a clean energy pipeline that would drive the local economy toward an investment in our workforce, uncover financing opportunities, and identify clean energy projects in the commercial, residential, and municipal sectors.

So over that period of time, over 50 stakeholder interviews were held with financing partners, solar developers, and installers, representatives from the housing sector, nonprofits and faith-based institutions, workforce development advocates and specialists, and multiple city departments and state agencies.

We really did our our homework here.

What was found is that here on the city owned buildings, we have over 10 megawatts of solar potential.

But due to the short timeline with the expiring tax credits, we would have to find a cooperative procurement to ride.

So let me tell you a little more about what is a solar power purchase agreement.

This is when a third-party solar developer installs solar at no cost to the city on our our buildings, and they continue to own the array through the contract, the 25-year contract term.

And then during that time, we use the power generated in our own buildings and pay a rate for that electricity to the developer.

This wouldn't be budgeted separately.

It's just paid through our regular utility budgets.

This slide shows you the pros and cons of third party ownership versus direct ownership.

Obviously, the solar company owns and operates and maintains the panels.

There's no upfront cost to the city.

Contractual simplicity, we don't have to manage subcontractors and all of the complications that can come with multiple contracts.

And then, of course, project aggregation.

We wouldn't have the upfront capital to put solar on this many buildings.

We're talking 27 to 30 plus buildings.

There's an economy of scale here.

Right now we have solar on TB Smith, that one building, and that that took a long time to do.

So direct ownership on the other hand, there would be zero energy payments.

So TB Smith, we're just reaping the benefits of those solar panels without a contractual agreement, and of course, direct ownership provides maximum flexibility, but it also requires 100% upfront costs.

So this current opportunity, we looked at all the potential contracts in Virginia and selected Prince William County public schools because it allows for multiple sites, it allows for the five year lease renewals that are required for the municipal lease act.

It's an active contract and it has the cooperative language.

So what we learned about it is that they put their RFP to bid in 2022 and received 10 proposals, then they narrowed it to five for formal vetting and ultimately selected secure solar futures for their experience, extensive experience in Virginia, their competitive pricing, and their strong educational offerings.

We did our own research, of course, with Secure Solar Futures.

We learned that they co-founded the RVA solar grant program with Greater Richmond Community Foundation in 2018 and executed a power purchase agreement for 10 Richmond Public School buildings in 2019.

They also did the first commercial solar installation in Virginia under a PPA with the University of Richmond, and they've installed the solar on Caritas, just to name a few.

So a great track record.

In terms of the sites that we're talking about, we started with all city owned buildings and we narrowed it down.

We looked at the age of the roof, shading potential of that rooftop, future plans of the building, the height of the building, potential roof obstructions, and the on-site energy usage.

Then we met with the department directors of the buildings that were viable and spoke with dozens of city staff to confirm the approvals of each site and address any potential barriers, all the way down to does this rooftop have an antenna on it.

We ran preliminary site feasibility studies, mocked up the arrays, and calculated the solar potential throughout the year.

So as long as the financial modeling allowed for the pricing structure to offer electricity rates lower than we're paying Dominion, the buildings were kept on the list.

In terms of alignment with the five with these five pillars, we're talking about an efficient city hall that gets things done, affordability, sustainable infrastructure, community resilience, public health.

And because of this, we have and more, we have tremendous opportunities for community engagement as well as opportunities to educate Richmonders about solar panels, solar job trainings, resilience hubs, carbon reduction, and utility cost stability.

When we're talking about priority alignment specifically, solar workforce training is a specific strategy in RBA Green 2050.

We've been supporting that through several solar training programs, and we're really excited about this because it brings a catalyst opportunity for employment.

It aligns with the RVA Green 2050 greenhouse gas reduction goals and the renewable energy targets that we've set.

It's also a market building activity.

It creates an enabling environment to bring more solar to additional sectors.

So it's both a first step for us and a lead by example opportunity for the community.

Here's we can educate about the importance of clean energy as it relates to public health.

We can upgrade and protect our infrastructure at the same time.

The solar panels help with that, the UV penetration, and then many will be designed for battery backup, which is the necessary first step as we plan for greater resiliency.

When we're talking numbers, last year we spent 18.7 million dollars in electricity expenses.

We just saw a rate increase of 23.5% as of July 1st, and that is with the new VEPCA contract, and that is now projected to be an additional increase of 11.5% next July.

So with uh this project that has been is being proposed is projected to see utility cost avoidance of more than 12 million dollars over the 25-year term.

So we're talking affordability for our own DPU ratepayers because our DPU electric costs are directly passed on to our customers through our DPU utility rates.

And I know the Public Utilities and Services Commission sent a unanimous letter of support to city council a couple weeks ago in recognition of this.

The timeline, we do need to have this passed by the end of September if this is something we want to move forward with in order to meet the timeline requirements associated with the expiring tax credits, the permitting, and the utility interconnection wait times.

So along with procurement, legal and legislative review, we are conducting ongoing stakeholder engagement, and we're hopeful that with all of the early due diligence, we will be able to meet this timeline.

Once the contract is approved, we'll move into the design installation and operation um period, and then the leases.

Important to note the leases are up for renewal every five years as required by the municipal lease act.

So as we meet each of these targets set up on the slide, we will know that the project is successful, and this will be shared through regular reporting.

We'll have dashboards in our community centers, and we'll have a web page for transparency.

And we've been learning from colleagues who have gone before us.

Prince William and Roanoke have been very pleased with the results of their contracts, and they're both very glad to hear that uh Richmond is also considering this power purchase agreement contract.

Richmond Public Schools has been very happy with their experience and has saved over a million dollars in utility costs so far.

And C3, our local community partner, is glad to see Richmond making strides to proactively address energy affordability, and um other partners at the state level have acknowledged support of this tremendous effort in alignment with state goals.

So with that, I would be happy to answer any questions.

Members, any questions?

Councilman Brighton.

Thank you.

I'd like to know more about the way that we model the savings, like the assumptions about what the electricity rates are in our base case versus the rates we're gonna pay uh in the solar agreement.

So the rates, the 12 million plus that we're projecting over the 25 years, the first year we included the Dominion increase that we have now, and then the 11 and a half next year, and then going forward, there's a 3% assumption that the rates will dominion rates will increase an average of 3% per year.

And what are the rates of the rates for this deal just fixed for the full term of the 25-year agreement?

Each uh each project has their own math that has gone into this because every site is different.

The sizing, you know, the financing model is is the same for all, and because we're riding the Prince William contract, those variables have already been negotiated and set, but we do have it spelled out every year for each of the sites.

Okay, and um, is three percent even a high enough assumption for how high the energy rates will go up in our baseline assumptions?

I would like to say it's conservative, but um who knows it's I feel like it's at least a base level.

Yeah.

I mean, I I'm very um excited about this opportunity.

I mean, the fact that we have our shutting down events in the city because of heat waves.

Um, I mean, climate chaos is here, and everything we can do to mitigate it is fantastic.

I'm really grateful to see that our Office of Sustainability is finding opportunities like this to save the city money and also do our part to reach our um our climate goals.

So um yeah, I'm really glad to see that we're moving quickly on this.

Great.

Councilwoman Alberbacher, yeah.

Thank you.

Um I don't know if um everyone saw it, but the Henrico Citizen recently reported that um uh their county manager is anticipating an additional five million dollars in electricity costs um thanks to Dominions rate hikes.

Um you know, just thinking about long-term planning.

I mean, 12 million is significant over 25 years, but it's not it's not that significant.

Are there other sort of mitigation um practices that we're working on to reduce our consumption overall and not just offset it?

Yes, so we're always looking to um improve our energy usage through benchmarking.

We have the joint energy team that um meets regularly.

We have five committees looking hard at all of the opportunities to save energy costs for Richmond.

Um we're looking into an energy uh savings performance contract uh that will really address some some of the bigger opportunities we have, and of course, through the CIP, um general services and parks and DPO are always looking to improve efficiencies.

Is that um is that services contract that you're talking about with Dominion?

The is it incentive contract you were just talking about?

Um I missed that, I'm sorry.

The um you said that there's uh you have like a was it an incentive con yeah.

So the energy performance contracting that we're talking about is uh it's something that staff is looking into now.

We'll be putting out an RFP for that.

Okay, that has not come to council yet.

Okay, and then um just uh another question around um sorry if this was in your your presentation, but how many um buildings are we going to cover with solar?

I know you mentioned the factors.

So here um these are 27 sites, actually 30 properties because we have four buildings at the wastewater treatment plant, too, that are going to be constructed in a couple years, but there's that's four megawatts.

We have the opportunity to do up to five megawatts, and so there's another maybe 10 buildings that we could add to this as well if we can get it all approved.

Okay, thank you.

Sure.

Councilwoman Schrammel.

Yeah, Madam President.

I'd like to um have more information on this, and also has Scott Moore's um, the director of public utilities has he um give an opinion on this too.

I would like to have more input on this.

Absolutely.

Yep, we've done a lot of due diligence with all the directors and all the staff that would be um, you know, this is on the buildings that they operate.

Uh so uh we've answered all the questions and we've been um including them in all of the conversations and looking forward to ongoing conversations.

But as far as what director Morris has to say, you'll have to ask him.

I just don't think that we've been briefed enough on this.

This is the very first um time we're bringing it to you.

And we're not taking any kind of action today.

No, okay.

All right, thank you.

No, it'll come to back to you for introduction um at the September 14, and then we're hoping for adoption at the 28th.

That's the goal.

Okay, thanks.

Vice President Jerry.

Thank you.

I just want to um extend gratitude to the staff who've been working on this, that we do have something to consider.

And I know we've heard from a lot of constituents who are interested in the city take advantage of these tax uh programs before they expire.

I know it's a really heavy lift.

Um, I'm impressed by what I've heard about the provider that you're looking at and encourage that there's someone who already has experience in Richmond with uh our Russian public schools so that they understand some of the you know the special procurement special uh considerations of working with municipalities.

So um look forward to hearing more and certainly appreciate the sustainable um commission giving their endorsement of it and um echo the interest in hearing from our DPU director uh as well before we take it under further consideration.

Thank you.

Miss Olesca, I want to say thank you.

I am very pleased to see especially the benefits section of this.

That certainly has impact in terms of the environment, et cetera, and cost savings.

I'm uh also wanting to focus.

There's one area here with workforce development.

Is there a commitment to hire um trainees?

Because I know with the in the Office of Community Wealth Building, we have an individual who's worked with, because I've gone to at least a class graduating class of folks who were trained in solar installation.

So will we be targeting some of those individuals as well as using this as a training and employment opportunity?

Yes, those are those are great points, and you'll be happy to know that through the municipal investment fund, uh part of the dollars went towards a workforce development needs assessment and bridging the gap Virginia one that they were selected to based on that RP and their proposal.

So they were right there with us developing this project, and we will certainly be circling back to continue to you know partner with them on ongoing opportunities.

Thank you.

Um I think that uh may create certainly a win-win for our city, certainly looking at the environmental impact, but also the impact in terms of individuals and uh providing uh employment opportunities that impacts their economic well-being.

Thank you for the presentation and look forward to the additional information and legislation coming forward subsequently.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Thanks for having me.

Okay, the next presentation for OD meeting is the transition of emergency medical call services to the Richmond Ambulance Authority.

And Mr.

Decker, welcome.

You're going to give us a update.

Well, thank you, Madam President, members of council, Chip Decker, CEO of Richmond Amus Authority, you have to be a brief update on where we are in the transition to emergency medical dispatch call taking.

So what we've done at Dammit's authority is that we did a call volume analysis, uh, to look at the historical amount of emergency medical calls that were transferred to our agency and that we're currently running, um, to determine all right, what do our staffing schedules need to be?

Do they need to be modified?

And uh just to make sure all the calls are answered promptly and processed accurately.

Um, for the implementation, we're gonna be assigning additional staff and scheduling the agency more seasons and veteran call takers across all shifts to help with the initial transition.

This will help ensure all staff members are knowledgeable and successful in meeting the NENA standard and the International Academies of Emergent Medical Dispatch or the IAED standard.

Um all EMD certified staff have completed a refresher course that uh we taught in-house by our certified emergency medical dispatch instructor.

Um neat thing that they're also using, particularly for the folks that we've hired in the last two years, is um the International Academy of Emerging Dispatches AI skills lab, where the computer calls and asks questions, listens to your response, comes up with more, tries to trip you up, and then uh scores you on on how well you uh followed the protocol, and if you deviated uh at all, because the script is is very specific.

The first question um when it gets into the uh the medical side of it is tell me exactly what happens, and what we find out is people will say, can you tell me exactly what happened?

Well, the answer to that is yes or no, and so you actually uh get scored off if you add the one word can in front of it.

It's part as far as our credit accreditation scores go.

So it's got to be done according to the script, it's gotta be done exactly and without any deviation.

Um in-house certified quality assurance administrators will maintain availability with the call takers.

We have the ability to um have our QA folks listen to recordings of what has just transpired and give immediate feedback.

If uh someone makes mistakes, something can be improved.

And uh we found that to be you know, immediate feedback, whether it's you know, the next day at the latest, is the best way because if you only give the feedback you know once a month or whatever, then they're not going to remember that particular call, and so timely feedback has been uh an important part of our success over the years, um, so uh to be clear RA is prepared to receive the emergency medical calls, um, and until it uh gets running smoothly.

We're um assigning additional staff.

We're gonna be doing continuous training, continuous feedback, and now we're um relying on DCPR to transfer the calls just as they did for the prior 30 years before July of 2024, and uh always stand ready to assist in this whole process being successful because the success of the process means that the citizens are being served appropriately with the right resources in a timely manner, and so it it behooves all of us to make sure this is implemented and uh work seamlessly.

That's what I have so far.

Thank you, Mr.

Decker members.

Are there any questions at this time for Mr.

Decker?

Councilwoman Opabaker.

Uh yeah, I think the big question is have we set a date for those transfers to begin?

Other than what was in the ordinance, I have heard no other update.

And so have has RAA and DEC been meeting, communicating to effectuate this transfer.

We have had two meetings that would have been really good to discuss this, and both of them were canceled, and so we have reached back out to the leadership of DEC and expect to hear back from them any moment.

Let me um interject that the mayor's chief of staff, Ms.

Wassett Ross and Wade, Jay Saria will also provide um some comment relative to that very thing you're asking about what will come from administration and working with RAA in terms of plans.

So if you want to hold a bit, she's.

Yeah, that sounds good.

Ms.

This wait, would you like to come forward at this time?

Yeah.

Good afternoon, President, Vice President, Council members.

I'm Chief of Staff, Watson with Jay Saria.

Thank you so much for having me here today.

Thank you, Mr.

Decker, for your update and all your work as well.

The CAO is not able to attend this meeting in the DCA O'Wiggins is on vacation, so y'all are stuck with me.

But I can share some updates and then ensure some next follow-up steps that you all can expect.

Um passing this legislation.

And so yeah, we've been active at work.

And so I'm gonna provide just an update on some things that have been completed and then some next things.

I probably won't be able to answer a ton of other questions off of what I've been given, but we of course will um follow up when the leadership is back in town.

Um, so the um, yeah, so actions completed a date and then outlining remaining steps necessary to successfully transition medical calls for service from DECPR to RAA.

This process will require coordinated planning and formal agreement between the affected parties to ensure continuity of service and compliance with applicable route regulations.

So DECPR has developed the draft MOU that outlines roles and responsibilities of both agencies as we've moved forward for implementation.

Um the draft MOU currently is under review at the city attorney's office.

Uh we are optimistic to have that finalized to be able to share with RAA.

I think we were hoping that was going to happen this week because I don't have the people I'm gonna promise it by next week.

Um, hopefully it will happen this week, but um, we will make sure to um get that to RAA by the end of next week for their review.

Uh the proposed implementation timeline requires the coordination to ensure all internal and external review requirements are met.

So the city attorney's office has advised um that the MOU will require city council approval um prior to DECPR actually transferring the emergency medical dispatch calls.

Uh so that timeline, as we expect right now, hopefully, if all of those um agreements and reviews by all parties involved.

So one second lost Mr.

Decker, you're not departing, are you just in case there were more questions?

Okay, thank you.

Um, so what we expect if all parties involved in that MOU get to a good place by August 1st, which is our hope, that then we would be on a timeline where it could hopefully be prepared for introduction at the September 14th meeting, heard at public safety and then passed at the second September meeting in order to move forward.

So that's our goal to have all of that ironed out uh by August 1st.

And then the other just operational considerations of implementation that need to be considered.

There will be seven policies that will require revision and then of course retraining on those policies.

So these are things um, you know, written in our DCPR policy manuals that will so quality assurance call taking, um, referrals, entry, you know, they're all listed here.

Um, and I will also tell you what you will get in writing after this as well.

Um, so about 75% of our current personnel have never processed medical calls using a transfer uh to EMS model before, so that will require retraining um of them as well.

As I think you guys knew that uh when we moved to this effort after 2024, um that was kind of a whole part of the certification process is um making sure that the the callers could do a call beginning to end.

Um so some of our call takers just haven't done this model um and you know, we'll just it'll be fine.

I just need some um instructions and some changes uh to their uh SOPs.

So uh following this, um, I can commit to a written memo of what I have just like provided to you all um by July 15th, so that you all can digest that um information, and then um offering and uh another update if it's desired for you all at informal on the 27th, so that you have um access to a more um back and forth, should you desire it if that works that will still be ahead of the formal process with the MOU so any considerations could be taken into account.

So those are the basics of what I have.

I'm happy to um attempt uh questions and or make sure that they get answered when we reply in writing.

Sure, I appreciate that.

And certainly, as Mr.

Decker has um referenced the need, there will be the meetings, the joint meetings report, and those will get scheduled, and that'll be codified in the document that you share.

Okay, yep.

Um, councilwoman Albenbacher.

Yeah, just to follow up.

So um it sounds like a lot of this is happening without the meeting uh with RAA.

So I do think that there should be sort of a yeah, strong impetus for those meetings to be scheduled and committed to and and followed through all agreed.

Yeah, I think the next step is to discuss the MOU.

And so my guess is we just we need that draft document to then that can be the content um of the meeting.

So uh, but yes, I um heard that as well, and very much will impress upon um the need for that meeting to happen asap.

And then I mean, I think that the headline is that this is you know, this is well outside the the timeline that was um, sounds like it's gonna be implemented outside of the timeline that the the ordinance listed.

Um it sounds like a lot of this is based on the the necessity for an MOU.

Maybe either you or city attorney did we do this similar process within an official um that went to council when we switched on July 1, 2024.

Well, we were bringing things in-house, so it would not have been a MOU with an external partner.

I would I'm guessing I wasn't here, but there was a I mean I'm sure that that was a change in in process and all of that.

So I'm just curious as to why one requires such a lengthy legal and binding process versus one that just we woke up and it was it was switched, Madam City Attorney.

Do you have any city attorney jury?

Any comment?

Can't hear you, okay?

And then um, so I will wait to hear from the city attorney on why one is requiring legal process and one did not.

Um and then my last question, sort of a comment.

So you said 70% of your call takers will have to be trained, which means that I guess DEC has had 70% turnover in less than two years, because everybody who had you know has been with DEC for longer than two years would know this process because it was the process before.

Yeah, it's not one I want to speak out of turn, obviously.

So um I would I would I would want someone else to answer that, but yes, I believe we had to upstaff significantly when the change happened, and so most of those people have been trained on the non-transfer system, as I understand it from what I was given.

Councilmember Albacher, I'll certainly ask and certainly loss and ship that our city attorney will um research and weigh in in terms of your inquiry about MOU.

That'd be great.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Trammel.

Thank you, Madam President.

I know that several years ago when it was changed from it was like taken away from the Richmond Ann Lamps Authority and given back to 911.

Council members knew nothing about it.

I was chairperson public safety den.

We did not vote on this, no discussion whatsoever.

It was the previous mayor and the CE CAO that did that.

I knew we knew nothing about that.

Was going to happen or how it was going to happen.

And now here we are.

Nine council members just voted when June to 8th for this ordinance to move forward and give Chip Decker back the 911 calls.

I mean, vacation, how long?

How many how long has that person been on vacation?

He could have still reached out.

I mean, my God, I've been out here seven days this week, all weekend, past night flyers talking to people, not taking no time off.

And you mean to tell me he didn't have the courtesy to call Chip and say, hey, I'm on vacation, I will be back, and we can continue this discussion.

I want this done Wednesday.

We don't need no MOU or whatever you want to call it.

Don't need it.

We didn't have it before.

He's already doing the work.

His people already trained.

Your people in 911 needs more training.

Because I will tell you right now the calls that I got yesterday about the fireworks and this and that and the gunshots.

And when somebody, when a dispatcher tells a citizen in my district, we're not sending the police because you won't tell us who you are or where you live.

I think Major Ronnie Armstead's already got that call this morning.

Then a supervisor called back and said, We'll send one, we'll send you an officer, but we don't know when.

Suppose this had been an emergency, and a person didn't want to say where she or he lived, afraid of retaliation from the neighbor.

That goes on all the time, not only my district, but all over.

So I'm gonna ask, I'm I'm not reading from the computer or whatever, I'm reading my notes.

I've been getting reports about delays in response to police and fire calls to 911.

I now want that on the public safety committee agenda.

If I can't get into well, we're not meeting in August, but I want it for July.

Why not?

You've got plenty of of notice right now.

Also, I don't know Miss Trammell.

Could you restate?

I just didn't hear what you were just saying in terms of the public safety committee.

You want what on the agenda?

We can that's for the police and the fire.

Okay, I'm just asking, I didn't know thank you.

Yeah, yeah.

I couldn't hear you either, but anyway.

I'm sorry.

Thank you.

Yeah, Madam President.

Also, when nine council members, which you know, sometimes it rarely happens with me, when we get nine council members that voted for this on um June the 8th, and now we're being told in September, no.

No, we need to do it now.

We said 30 days, it says 30 days.

That's what my notes say.

30 days.

And she's talking about September.

No, 30 days would be um, what, July?

Excuse me.

It would be this Wednesday, July the 8th.

And I don't think it's right to blame the city attorney when she's got so much stuff going on in her office with you know, with less help, and then us putting so much demand on her from us nine council members and then from the mayor and his and in his office.

So I don't think that, you know.

I was really just asking that she would uh in response to the query, uh really.

So we already said that there was no, we already said there was nothing, it didn't even come to council when those calls were taken away from away from CHIP and given to 911.

There was no vote on this council.

I was terrifying public safety and never even came before me.

I just found out after it happened.

And when I questioned, I got no answers.

And here we are two years later, and it's in more chaos than it was two years ago.

And he's already doing it.

His people already been trained.

We saw the the video up there.

They're already being trained.

They already knew how to do the job before we got taken away from them.

So why do we have to we're gonna be voting in September?

No.

We should give it back.

It says 30 days, right here, 30 days.

Normally our order our ordinance say affected upon adoption.

We built in 30 days effective date when staff and attorney were drafting this just in case.

30 more days than usual.

Yeah, and we can revisit the timelines.

I do think it was our understanding when the discussion happened, which we can look back at that discussion.

We we brought up some concerns about the implementation timeline, and I I've I feel like the spirit of the conversation was knowing we would need to to take some steps um for proper implementation of something of this scope while we were also talking about co-location.

We had a pretty robust conversation about that, um, but but understood and um I think yeah it's it's the city's responsibility to contract the work that we need to get done, and we're just trying to do that in order.

So awesome.

I don't know if you know the little history.

Let me just tell you about this.

Because I've been doing this 26 years.

RAA has been a good thing for the city.

You want to know why?

Yeah.

You know why we have RAA?

Let me tell you why.

Because the old ambulance services that we used to work in a city would not go into the poor neighborhoods, the black neighborhoods, like in Black Willow Grove.

I'm familiar with that.

RA exactly.

Was created to fix that problem.

RAA does not turn down people because of the color of their skin or how poor they are.

And I know that I've seen it a thousand times.

We had that much discrimination in the city, and RRA, RAA has been the cure for it.

Now we just have a city department delayed medical attention to the people.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Trammel at the discussion prior to the vote last meeting.

There was, I know I had a question about the implementation plan and making sure, and I asked about that, but we decided to go forward with the vote on the paper at the time.

And so I would like to make sure that this is solid in terms of the implementation plan.

I'm not saying 60 90 days, I'm not looking at that.

And I'm you're coming to when is public safety?

My next public safety will be the fourth Tuesday be the 28th.

Okay.

But that's not that's not that was for something different that I asked for.

That's for police and fire.

But I'm asking, are you trying to say that maybe I mean we why can't we?

What?

I mean, we're supposed to it said 30 days, so that would be the 8th of July.

And that's that's I mean, if you if we can't go by what council passes, why do you need a council?

We don't need a city council.

If we're not gonna go by what we pass, and I'm not suggesting that we not that we deviate from that.

I was just trying to get clear.

I thought you were saying something about bringing something back to public safety.

That was when I got something completely different.

After I got those calls this weekend.

No worry with that.

Thank you.

Ums Lawson, um, can we get from you what you shared with us here as well as the that in response in terms of plan moving forward?

Yes, okay.

Any other questions and or comments?

I'm asking you, Madam President, you are the president.

What do we do today?

What are do we let this go on after we did to do that?

We said 30 days.

Okay, that's Wednesday, Wednesday.

That's correct.

Yes, okay.

Yes, we're looking to get from you.

In two days, right?

Yeah, I think this is referring to.

I mean, the the actual calls will not start transferring on Wednesday.

We are we are not prepared for that.

Okay.

Um, but I think let's uh yeah, we we obviously need to discuss when when the actual calls can happen legally through the process of having an agreement with uh another on Wednesday we can have you can have had that discussion and we can get back in response exactly when this will be in.

Can you say that one more time on Wednesday?

On so in two days, that's correct.

Yes, what's the expectation?

That there would be the meeting and discussion with our RAA with CHIP, and that we would then be able to say back when that transfer is going to happen, even if it's not Wednesday, I can work as hard as I know how to do that.

Okay, but I do think we all of us need to seek the, you know, just seek legal advice on that to figure out, figure out that timeline.

Okay, madam president.

Yes.

So I'm looking for you're gonna give us what you you're gonna capture what you have um shared with us today and then to councilwoman trammel's point and uh what's been raised in terms of the 30 day response having something substantive to say on Wednesday in terms of which would require that meeting with um chip and I guess uh Mr.

Willoughby, so that we know exactly when we'll begin this.

I can lead those conversations, but the leadership um in this department is not or they are on vacation this week.

They are not at work this week.

So, but I can I can move forward as much as I'm able to, Madam President.

Can she please talk in a mic?

Somebody just said you can't hear oh sorry, I just said I will do I will have those conversations at my level, but the leadership in DECPR and at the portfolio lay level, and I will have I will be able to speak with them, but they're they're they're not at work, they are on PTO and medical leave, so okay, and so when can we expect I am going to report back by Wednesday an update on this conversation?

I don't I don't know what else to promise, other than what I've shared.

Please, if you will provide that by this Wednesday.

Thank you.

Madam President, I'm gonna say one more time, one more time.

We all nine members of us, we passed that on June the 8th, 30 days.

We know how to count, and y'all have had plenty of time.

Your your office has had plenty of time to reach out to chip or to us and and to get it worked out, and here we are today talking about the same thing that we passed on June the 8th, with no really not really something in concrete that says yes, they're gonna have it 30 days, as this said, 30 days.

Now you're saying you're gonna probably what talk maybe in the next couple of days to whoever you got to talk to.

So when and you still haven't stood up here and gave us an a final date of when we're going to know.

We're council members, we're elected by the people.

We answer to the people, and this is a big letdown that what's done stood up here and happened today with this.

This has been going on months and months and months since last year talking about this at our public safety meeting and she knows she's not missed one.

She's been right there with me.

And who we are today, oh, we need more time.

No, you don't.

You don't need more time.

You should have worked it out.

So, Ms.

Trammel.

Thank you, Matthew.

We were understanding.

I'm upset because I feel like we got let down, and I feel like that we're being disrespected because we're council members.

I hear you.

I'm also hearing what is being shared, and we're asking for a substantial report on this Wednesday relative to this matter.

Okay.

Thank you.

And we we did share initially that we did believe this would take us longer than 30 days.

We we we did articulate that before.

Thank you.

And I've said we've been talking about this since last year.

Thank you.

Thank you, Larson.

Yeah, thank you.

With that, members.

Excuse me.

I when I can get my paper back.

We had anticipated a special meeting.

Um today.

We will not have a special closed session meeting today.

We will have in the future.

With that, the agenda for this meeting is concluded.

And this meeting now stands adjourned.