Uh Counselor Tyler, could you lead us?

I point to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

As we always do, we'll start with a moment of silence for all of our workers in the community, emergency response in our city and across this state.

Thank you very much.

You may be seated.

Please take this opportunity to silence all electronic devices while in here for the governing body meeting.

I'll be running the meeting tonight as the mayor is not able to be here.

I'm going to go ahead and uh announce the uh folks that are in the room.

We should have counselor uh list joining us online shortly.

And so when I say your name, please acknowledge your presence by saying present.

Counselor Dabson?

Present.

Counselor Tyler.

Present.

Counselor Weimer.

Present.

Counselor Colbreth.

Present.

And we don't see Counselor List yet.

If she comes in, I will make sure to announce her at that time as well.

Okay, uh, we don't have any uh proclamations or awards of merit at this time.

However, we do have one signed up for public forum, and that would be Mr.

Van Horn, and we'll give you uh two minutes there, sir.

Thank you so much for signing up to speak tonight.

Good evening, counselors.

Yes, sir.

I uh would like to speak to you this evening about the uh the next consumer confidence report, the the water quality report that should be coming out this week or see this month.

And um this page in this report, it tells about the the issues of using tap water if you're immune compromised or if you're undergoing chemotherapy, or if you have had transplants or HIV AIDS or other immune system disorders, if you're elderly or an infant with uh risk of infection, it's a precaution saying you should probably use bottled water, you should not use top water.

Well, what I gave you is out of this paper that's up north.

I happen to be in Santa Fe, and on page seven of this paper, is this announcement by the New Mexico Department of Health that's cautioning private well owners in Mora County to have all their water tested because they've they're finding out four years later that the fire suppression chemicals they were using for the Hermit Peak Fire is contaminating the groundwater in those wells and they can't use it.

The reason why I'm telling you this is this picture on this page that's saying be careful about using tap water.

If all you do is scan this and you see the pictures of these happy smiling faces, everything seems okay.

And I was taken by this is Department of Health.

How they if you look at the graphic, it's saying be careful, don't drink the water in this case if you're a private well owner, but this would be something I would ask that you would consider that you put in this water quality as a visual warning, right?

If you need to be concerned and draw attention to the possibility that you could be harmed.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Van Horn.

Okay, ums by counselors at this time.

Uh I just wanted to say that we got the new uh for the first of 2026 um city newsletter here, and a great job again by the team putting this together.

Wanted to highlight it because in there there's some road improvements to talk about uh all throughout the city and major roadways also gives a really helpful property tax breakdown.

I thought was really great, and then city budget, kind of how are you spending your money, and then also uh those new uh photo enforcement speed vans that everything that you need to know about and slowing down so that you don't get a hundred dollar fine.

And so uh that's something really cool.

Also, all of the election day stuff is in there, which is really helpful, and uh so pick up one of those if you don't have one already, and there's probably already one in your mailbox, or you can get them at any of the uh public facilities around town here.

Moving on to the consent calendar.

Uh I'll take a motion on the consent calendar.

To approve the consent calendar.

Very good.

Uh any discussion on the consent calendar.

Seeing and hearing none, Ms.

Davis.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

Councillor Culpret.

Yes.

Councilor Dabson.

Yes.

Count Councillor Weimer?

Yes.

Deputy Mary Lennon Time.

Yes.

Councillor Tyler?

Yes.

Thank you.

The consent calendar is approved.

Thank you.

Okay, nothing for boards and commissions, uh, nothing for public hearing, second reading voidances, nothing for first reading ordinances, which brings us down here uh to discussion and deliberation.

Uh this is R 5.

Uh starting over again with numbers here.

Resolution adopting fiscal year uh 2026 mid-year budget adjustments.

And uh for that, uh it's not Stephanie Yara.

Uh in our absence, uh, sorry, uh, what's your name again?

Hi, uh Mr.

Deputy Mayor, members of anybody.

My name is uh is Don Martinez on the budget and grants division manager in financial services.

Okay, all right.

Sorry about that.

It was not noted here.

I apologize, Mr.

Martinez.

Okay, Mr.

Martinez to present.

Okay, great.

Uh good evening.

The item before you is the fiscal year 2026 uh mid-year budget adjustment.

It amends the budget for the general fund, various special funds, capital funds, debt service funds, and the utility enterprise funds.

The purpose of the mid-year budget is to review budget estimates, both revenue and expenditures to address unforeseen expenditure needs and to adjust priorities to meet goals and objectives.

The proposed adjustments are necessary to implement various city programs to fund ongoing operations and service delivery and to fund projects and initiatives for the remainder of the fiscal year ending June 30.

The cover page of your agenda item outlines all the significant adjustments being proposed, and your agenda packet includes schedules detailing all of the proposed changes to the budget.

Sources and uses in the general fund will increase by 2.15 million.

Significant adjustments to the revenue include property tax 529,000 or 2.1% increase.

That's to reflect certified values and mill rates.

Grocery seats will increase by 1,363,000 or 1.8%.

GRT is slightly ahead of estimate, and the proposed increase reflects a conservative approach to recognize only the positive variants in hand through the November distribution.

Increasing revenues in this way allows the city to address expenditure needs.

For example, uh uh safety-related park maintenance items are in this mid-year's budget.

Um we addressed those sooner than we could have if we just leave the estimates alone.

Reserves in the general fund will remain above target level at 25.8% of expenditures.

Sources and uses in the special funds and the debt service funds in the capital funds will increase by 8.1 million.

The lion's share of that is recognizing state grant awards for road projects and for a new uh bay edition at station fire station three.

Sources and uses in the utility operating fund will decrease by 283,000.

Reserves will be maintained at target level 90 days cash.

The combined impact of a proposed mid-year adjustments to the city's two main operating funds, that is the general fund and the utility fund is less than a one percent change.

Staff will now stand for questions that you might have for us.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Martinez.

Okay, uh, we do have one signed up to speak.

Oh, yeah, that's right.

Okay, I'll take a motion on R 5.

Second.

Okay, and sign up to speak on this item, I believe is Mr.

Van Horn.

Yes.

Um, the question that I had is um there is a body that uh an advisory body, the public infrastructure advisory body board that uh hasn't really been asked to provide any input to the council and you know, according to if you go on the website, and the purpose of this body was to give advice really primarily I think on budgetary items.

So the adjustments that you're making here have not really been reviewed by any anybody except city staff who is also the the proposers of this.

And so I I just want to draw to your attention that we have these advisory bodies that don't really seem to be used anymore in the city.

And I'm not really asking you to reconsider anything.

But especially since this is an election year, I think it's important for people that are running for office to understand that right now the city is not using several of its boards the way they're supposed to.

And this is how there's accountability in the system is that you have independent bodies through appointment, that's fine.

But they are are supposed to give citizens a voice in and have somebody else looking at these things rather than just getting from staff recommendations that nobody else ever looks at, bring it to you, and you make a determination solely on what's the staff's recommendation.

Specifically, this is about water and and that advisory body is also supposed to give advice on roads.

So I just want to draw to your attention.

This has not been working as it's supposed to.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Van Horn.

Also want to call attention, Councillor Liss is joining us online.

Good to see you this evening.

Okay, I'm gonna open it up uh for any comments or questions uh for um either for Mr.

Martinez or any of the other uh department heads in here to my colleagues.

Uh Mr.

Deputy Mayor.

Yes, Councilor Colbrigh.

Thank you.

Um I just uh one thing I just wanted to uh call attention to and get clarification on probably city manager.

Um there is an item uh for the 19th Avenue drainage facility um that I believe is related to the pond that's on 19th Avenue uh that occurred after the the previous geobond did the repair for that road.

Could you talk a little bit about what that's going to provide us?

I know there's been some complaints about the um the pond and and and the um the foilage that grows up around the pond and all of that.

Can you explain a little bit about that?

Mr.

Deputy Mayor, members of the council, counselor Colbert, uh I will do my best, and at some point I may uh ask uh uh Minerva Chavez to fill any blanks uh that um to round out.

Um so the 19th Avenue, yes, was a geobond uh project in our last geobond cycle uh between uh 528 and uh and golf course.

Um along that pond, along that road, we have a retention pond.

Um, and uh, you know, lots of times we use interchangeably the terms retention and detention.

Um, and uh most of the drainage bonds, about 99% of the drainage bonds that you we see across New Mexico actually detention bonds, which means they hold the water temporarily and then release it over 48 hours back into the overall ecosystem.

That pond predates uh built in the early 60s, uh, predates many of the uh um the the rules and regulations around uh the the release of water.

So it is a retention, which means water only leaves through evaporation.

Um and prior to the road work and we we did some work on the pond, um a lot of vegetation had been had built up in that pond and also uh lost what they call capacity because sediment sinks into it.

So part of the project was to dig the pond back out, um, restore its capacity, which also removed a lot of the the the cottonwoods and the vegetation in there um with a very wet winter and lack of vegetation, the presence of uh mosquitoes, or excuse me, very wet summer.

Um the lack, you know, presence of mosquitoes was uh you know uh was more prevalent, and it's actually uh an issue that uh you know Albuquerque's been dealing with as well.

There's been just more mosquitoes in the metro area.

Um so um went through the process this summer of renting a pump to pump the water out and push it towards the storm drain, put it into the storm drain system, let it flow away, reduces the you know, reduces the amount of water in that pond, then we can throw in the mosquito pux and helps control the mosquitoes.

So two things here in the budget.

Um so like some context and background, I suppose to get to the questions you're asking.

Um about 98,000 uh to uh acquire, so we would no longer have to rent a uh mobile pump, a hose, and a sound wall.

Um, and that will again just allow us to have that resource on hand.

We use it at that pond, but also since the mobile pump, we could potentially use it in other situations uh if needed.

The sound wall piece of that is hopefully uh reduce the the noise that that it generates.

Uh and then further on down, there's a non-recurring transfer um of five hundred thousand dollars uh for feasibility study planning and design of a permanent pump house.

Uh so the first step there will be uh the feasibility to see if that works, having a permanent pump house as part of the solution, or do we stick to the uh to the mobile uh pump?

So thank you.

Thank you.

And that's certainly been something that the neighbors in that area have raised lots of concern about uh related to the mosquitoes um and the overgrowth in that area.

So I appreciate you um bringing that forward.

I think the other thing that I just wanted to call attention to is that we do see um an increase in uh funds that we'll be receiving from the state for uh the reconstruction and improvement on uh Barber Loop and R Western Hills.

Um and so those are two roads that definitely need some additional uh uh work on those, and so I appreciate the efforts uh by uh Director Gottlieb um to get those state funds to improve those roads.

Um I think that's all that I have uh at this time.

Thank you, Mr.

Deputy Mayor.

Thank you, Counselor.

Uh anybody else, Mr.

Deputy Mayor, Councilor Tyler.

Uh just real quick, you know.

I've I've heard a lot about the budget and I'm listening to folks.

My thing is is in my district I have um some serious issues on Nativas and some of the other roads that if this mid-year budget isn't approved, those uh nine roads are not gonna get repaired.

And uh I have another one that uh is gonna get a hybrid the the mill and inlay for that whole stretch, and uh it's about one million dollars worth of road work that I've been waiting four years to get accomplished, and so with the mid-year budget being the way it is, I think that that's a good a good place for us to be spending our money is fixing a lot of these roads that need to be repaired.

I think the total cost for Vista and Trata, and and I I don't know if any of you all have been over there, but it's not a very good uh neighborhood to drive through with a lot of damage.

And uh the mid-year budget proposes a request to totaling about 1 million uh 55,000 dollars uh to get a lot of those roads repaired.

So it's something that uh I really want to see uh approved and and forwarded.

The other piece is and uh I know the city of Rio Rancho does does a really good job, and we're trying to do a better job on our weed control and mitigation, and a lot of that starts in March, and some of that mitigation is not just picking the weeds and and controlling it that way, but also going out and spraying.

Um, and there is a request because of some of our vendors and some of the things that are going on to get more folks and get more money approved to keep the weed mitigation down, and it's in this mid-year budget thing.

So those are those are items that within the mid-year budget, and correct me if I'm wrong, that we need to get we need to get going.

We need to get these approved because we're gonna need these to keep the city moving forward uh in the future.

And I think that uh with the weed mitigation, folks can say what they want, but I don't want to drive through the city with a whole bunch of weeds.

And I'm always I'm always on BJ about weeds, and it's something that uh you know we're gonna put a little bit of extra money into it because everyone seems to want more money every single year we go by to do services that they used to do, but now they don't want to do them anymore, and then we got to find new contractors every single year to do things.

So I'm in support of the mid-year budget uh approval.

Uh I think that there's a lot of items in there that are going to benefit both my district and the city of Rio Rancho as a whole.

So uh I just want to say that to my peers and and I appreciate your consideration.

Thank you, Counselor Tyler.

Yeah, well, we talked about the weed uh mitigation before and going for vendors, but I don't know if it's still the case, but back then BJ said that there was one vendor uh that applied for so it's not that there's um not that we don't want to do something about it, but you have to have people willing, and then you also have to have the money there.

Uh Mr.

Martinez, could you just uh I know that there is a surplus.

Could you just talk about uh why we find ourselves in the healthy position of having a surplus here at the mid-year?

Um I'm sorry, uh if I understand your question, you just want a general overview of uh of why that is.

Okay.

Yeah.

When so many cities don't, why does Rio Rancho always have good surplus at the mid-year?

Um well, the first thing is we use conservative budget practice, right?

So our represent revenue estimating is is very conservative.

Um we vet we vet uh expenditure requests um very um in depth, and that um is obviously what we bring to the city manager um when he makes decisions.

And so I think those two main things is on both sides of the ledger there is is what puts us in a good position uh each and every year.

Um so that's reflected in the mid-year budget where we're only recognizing that positive revenue variance through the November distribution.

We don't want to um put our neck out too far in terms of increasing revenues too much in the event that that those don't come in as we expect.

So uh I would say overall it's it's our conservative approach.

Good.

That's awesome.

Okay, I see counselor lists.

Do you have your hand up there?

Well, maybe I don't know.

But thank you for uh recognizing me, Deputy uh say mayor, sorry.

Um, and I'm I'm not in person, so this is a little like I'm looking both ways at a screen.

Um anyway, I want to say thank you guys so much for all the work on this.

I um am in support of this mid-year uh budget revision.

I think that it's really important.

You don't always know what's coming your way or what availability or access you have to other things.

I love seeing on here some stuff for parks and rec.

I know I hear from a lot of people a lot of times about just the little things that are going on, and we're gonna be able to maybe um take care of of the things that we have and and add some things, and I think um, you know, the stuff that my colleagues have already addressed is very, very important.

I think these are things that people in our community are talking about on a regular basis.

I also wanted to acknowledge the um previous statement regarding the surplus that we have.

I think that it's something to be very proud of that we have been smart planners, and and I can't take credit for that.

This has been something that's been ongoing for quite some time, but I appreciate that the city has been thoughtful in what they're going to do with money, and so that we are um in a position that should the sky fall out, we can or the bottom fall out, we can take care of our city and not have to all of a sudden do some drastic things.

So I think that we're being extremely responsible, and I appreciate um our city for doing so, and I think that the residents should be appreciative of people um being accountable and being responsible with our dollars.

So thank you.

Absolutely, thank you, Counselor List.

And I want to drag Director Peterson up here, but I do love all the stuff that you've got in there for parks and recs and how we're using that uh here at the mid-year as well.

So thank you for that.

Okay.

Counselor Dabson?

I just have a maybe um ignorant question, but um does for you does it it are some of the extra revenue that we're talking about was because we got more property tax and gross receipt tech, correct?

Uh Mr.

Deputy Mayor, uh Council, um that that is correct.

In regards to the property tax in particular, um, the budget at the moment reflects our best estimate of what the assessed value would was going to be for tax year 25.

Um in August, September, we get certified values from the from the county, and then we're able to then um have a finer estimate, a a more accurate estimate.

So that's what we're bringing before you right at the moment.

Okay.

So it wasn't because any extra tax was levied or anything like that.

It was just because we had an increase in gross receipts tax and an increase in property tax.

Question is um is uh there a way to correlate that between um amount of services needed because you have more maybe people living here or more people buying here.

Is that a way a good way to correlate um why we have more expenditures along with we're able to give ourselves more expend more money, put it that way.

We need to spend more money.

Mr.

Mayor, uh Mr.

Deputy Mayor, sorry, and counselor, um I'll try to answer the question I might defer to Matt a little bit there.

Um yeah, as our tax base grows, um, as our population grows, there is obviously a need for uh you know additional services.

Um the mid-year budget also includes um accounts for rather um cost escalation, price increases, all the natural things that happen, and so you know, pop population growth and um inflation growth and and things like that on the expenditure side, um, this is an opportunity at this time of the year for mid-year process to go ahead and account for that and get things in the budget um that were either a unforeseen or just the natural sort of progression of um you know of of activity that happens and in running a city.

So I don't know if you want to add to that.

Mr.

Deputy Mayor, uh, Counselor Dapson, thanks uh thanks for the question.

Yeah, if I may I just want to also take a step.

I think it's it's a roundabout as part of you uh to to the question of Counselor Dapson and uh building on on Don's point on the conservative budget practices.

Um City of your Rancho, along with a lot of the other governmental entities, uh use the service from uh UNM.

They have uh an economic forecasting group at UNM called Bebirds, the Bureau of Business and Economic Research.

And they provide economic models and a lot of macroeconomic uh economists that work there, and then they do kind of you know, there's kind of a prediction of they have a base case scenario, which they um they call that the baseline, and I think they allocate a 55 or 60 percent probability of the baseline occurring, then they have an optimistic and an optimistic too, and then they have a pessimistic and a pessimistic too.

Um the pessimistic scenario is I think fifteen percent um and p pessimistic, you know.

So it's on the low side, it's I'm looking at Donda correct me on the percentages that they allocate, but we always budget, long story short, off of the pessimistic scenario.

So we're basically bet we're always but we've been budgeting for the last several years, as if we're going into a recessionary environment.

Um and so we build a budget around a recessionary environment, 20 for 25% ending fund uh reserve any ending fund balance reserve, state law requires us to have an 8.3% ending fund reserve, so we're three times the what state law requires in our ending fund balance.

Um building around uh pessimistic scenario or recessionary environment.

And if we have any even just moderate economic growth, our revenues are gonna exceed what we b modeled and you know built into the uh into the the economic for into our for revenue forecast in the model, which then you know commonly generates excess revenues, and one of the you know, one of the things that we've done over the last several years, and Don's been part of this and prior to Don uh one is looking at one time expenditures.

Um of that money in the past has gone into the permanent fund, some of it's just stays in our rainy day fund of the ending fund reserve, one time expenditures, not trying to spend it as a recurring revenue.

Yes, we have some recurring expenditures here, but we also have these one-time transfers as exemplified by Councillor Colverse's question of $500,000 to look at to look at something.

So we're you know, using it on a on a on a one-time basis as as reference, you know, Director Peterson has 259,000 that's going into picnic tables and new picnic tables and new trash cans and new grills and new mulch in the park.

That's a one-time expenditure that allows us to to get out in in in front of it.

So that's part of the way we we we get there.

Um start, you know, starting small, ensuring that we're working on the the core, you know, delivering those core services, and then being tactical uh when we see those excess revenues and you know, not getting out in front of our skis as an example of getting out in front of our skis, I think uh something I've heard, I don't know if it's really finally landed on it, but uh I think oil is trading at last I heard fifty-eight dollars a barrel.

Uh state of New Mexico is building the budget at $64 a barrel.

So they're six dollars in the hole per barrel out the gate, if that's what holds.

Now, oil's very dynamic.

I understand why they're anticipating it may go up later in the year, things like that, but they're starting on they're betting on the cum that oil is gonna go up to be able to get the balance the the budget there.

Mr.

Deputy Mayor.

Yes, Counselor Weimer.

Mr.

Martinez, I have a question.

I uh I'm looking at the general fund summary sheet, and I think I I'm reading this right, but I just wanted to to get a check from you.

Looking at the total uses, it looks like we have we were within one point two percent of our estimate.

Is that is that the way I should interpret that?

So we we actually ended up with one point two percent more income than we had expenses.

Uh Mr.

Deputy Mayor Council, uh the one per two percent is the reflects the change and overall sources, and so essentially we're increasing the budget by two point one five million, and that's that number divided by our original estimate.

So we are again being very conservative in the fact that we're increasing revenues, but we're only increasing the our estimate for the remainder of the year by one point two percent.

Okay.

I just wanted to make sure I I understood that.

It's like you know, looking at our estimate and comparing it to where we're at today, it seems like we're pretty darn close as far as our initial estimate was X and we are at Y, and there's a very small difference between the two.

Is that accurate?

Uh Mr.

Deep Mayor Council, um, yes, that is that is uh somewhat accurate.

Of course, you know, we we don't have a uh crystal ball, I should say, for the next six months, five months.

Um however, we feel confident that we are not uh, as Matt says, um, putting uh well, what's the saying, uh getting out in front of our skis in terms of increasing uh and that reflects our conservative approach.

So again, GRT itself is you know slightly above estimate, and we're only wanting to recognize um the positive variants that we have that we have actually in hand in our in our bank accounts that we've already collected, right?

So we're not making uh assumptions about the next several months.

Um and again that reflects the conservative approach.

Um one thing, other other thing I want to point out to to Matt's point, um, on that same summary sheet.

If you look at the recurring revenues of 123.9 million, um, and this this is not just for mid-year, but this is for every budget that's in front of you.

Um compare that with the total recurring expenditures of a hundred and three point eight million, and you can get a real sense of how our budget is structurally balanced, right?

We are twenty million dollars.

We received twenty million dollars that we expect to uh more in recurring sources than we are spending.

Um so that is very important for us.

Every time we look at the budget at a summary level, we always want to see that.

We always want to see that we're taking in more on a regular basis than we're actually spending out on a regular basis.

Thank you, Mr.

Martinez.

Appreciate it.

Thank you, Mr.

Deputy Mayor.

No problem.

Okay, um R five.

No, okay.

Seeing and hearing none, Miss Davis call the roll, please.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

Councilor List.

Yes.

Councillor Tyler.

Yes.

Councillor Dabson.

Yes.

Deputy Mayor Lennon Time.

Yes.

Counselor Weimer.

Yes.

And Councillor Colbrand.

Yes.

R five is approved.

Thank you.

Moving on last year to the city manager's report.

Mr.

Deputy Mayor, members of the governing body.

Uh handful of things to uh look to go through this evening.

Um our HR department uh with uh several departments uh is hosting a hiring event, uh fast track hiring event uh this weekend at the hub uh from 11 a.m.

to 2 p.m.

Uh for positions such as uh uh streets and right-away worker, heavy equipment operator, truck driver, uh park maintenance worker.

Um, you know, just created uh a position in the budget, and there's a hiring opportunity this Saturday.

Um so thank you very much also, police officer, and then also great opportunities to get general information about uh career opportunities uh with the city.

Um and then before too long, also I'll take a moment just to plug that we'll be doing our seasonal hiring for the summertime for uh for summer camps, lifeguards and things like that.

They'll be coming around the corner before too long.

Um after uh the hiring event, uh fun thing happening at the library this weekend that caught my eye.

Uh the library is always showing, has lots of great events, but uh they have a jazz trio.

Um, so maybe I'll make for a different type of quiet reading.

Um, but there's a jazz trio playing at uh at three o'clock.

Uh the name of the group don't know anything about them, but the uh Terry Terry Burns jazz trio, Lomo Colorado Library, Saturday, uh 3 to uh 4 p.m.

So a little relaxing.

Uh cities produced an informative brochure uh about the upcoming election.

Uh has information on uh how to register for vote, the uh the bond questions, uh, and general information on the the three general obligation bonds of the road bond, public safety bond, quality of life facilities with detail of where that money would be spent, uh, as well as the municipal officer elections and the meet uh and the uh municipal judge.

So encourage folks to grab this.

If you don't grab this at one of the city facilities, you can also find it at RNM.gov forward slash RR votes.

So that's lots of Rs.

So RRs and Rio Rancho, NM.gov forward slash R R is in Rio Rancho votes uh with an S.

So third person um plural, I guess, there.

Uh the last thing, um, you know, with that brochure, I would say it's uh, you know, I think we all know uh, you know, we are in election season.

Uh the city's municipal election is on uh in March 3rd.

Um, and uh I think as we see with elections, um, whether they're state, local, or federal, uh, they bring out a lot of emotions and folks and a lot of information.

Uh would just really like to uh encourage the public um when they see information out there, uh, we encourage the public to uh to to to to do research, fact check, source check the information that's being uh uh pushed out.

Um it has since been retracted, but by way of example, earlier this week, uh there was a social media post speculating about the future of one of the uh the the members of our senior leadership team, um, and you know, questioning whether that the individual uh had been removed from his position, whether the individual had been had retired, and why wasn't this made public?

And it was from what I can tell, just based on pure speculation and pure conjecture, where I think some simple fact checking, a phone call, some source checking would have clarified that and uh would not have made for a sleepless night for that individual, their family, and a bunch of uh I think phone calls to you folks the next morning as people started to see it.

So again, just um excited that people are excited that people are excited about our municipal election and they care about our community.

Um, but uh encourage you know that's all you know, encourage folks to look, you know, again, fact check, source check, look for the facts and the the correct information.

Thank you very much, Mr.

Deputy Mayor.

Not a problem.

All right, somehow we uh you're able to take a one item agenda to a 35 minute meeting, and so that's good.

Uh but with all that important information for this evening, we are adjourned.