The meeting opened with a public hearing on the St. Albans Fire Department Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP) ordinance, which no public spoke on. The regular council session followed, including praise for a magistrate candidate, approval of minutes, a broadband project change order, adoption of a safety levy resolution and mutual aid agreement, multiple ordinance readings and adoptions, finance committee payments, and announcements about upcoming city events.
Public hearing to order ordinance regarding St. Alban Fire Department deferred retirement option plan the drop program. Do we have anyone here to speak for or against well with no public here to speak for or against? I will entertain the motion for adjourned. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed nay. Motion carries. Meeting adjourned. 15 minutes and we'll start counsel. Stand please. We'll have Councilman Close from the leaders in the invocation, please. Lord helped us to make wise decisions, Lord, and help us financially work or protect our first responders, Lord, and protect our children for it. Thank you and everything you do. Amen. Amen. All right, uh Rex, lead us in the place, please. Under God. I called me to order. Praise in recognition. Michael Jerouge, who's running for State Senate, cannot make it tonight. But Delbert Rousse, who is a present uh magistrate that's running for re-election, uh, is here to say a few words. So now you stick step up to the podium and say what you need to say, and you know, Senate Council members, uh it's a pleasure to be here. Um really appreciate the fact that you know you're giving me the time to speak. Um I move politics, so it's it's kind of weird. I'll give you background on the briefly. Uh come from a long line of uh law enforcement and firefighters. Going back to my grandfather, my grandfather was Charleston officer, shot and killed in 1981 in Charleston. My dad was on a police department for a while, and uh got smart and went to the rest of the fire department. So as a young man, I always wanted to either be a firefighter or law enforcement. Firefighters always get to sleep at night while we drive around and just kind of look. Councilman Hoodington knows that too. Um so I was uh an old county deputy for about 26 years. Did he say we have to sleep at night? I was gonna carry deputy for about 26 years, and uh I started before we did any rotations, I spent my first seven years on night ship. And uh I worked every area in the county. I first started in Quincy, went to Sissamille slash elk, we did SILF back then, there was only five deputies per area. And uh that was always interesting. Then I came to Royal Slangs and finally at St. Albans and Mike or Johnny, I can't remember what should the time uh called me and they said, hey, we uh got a position in judicial. I'm like, what do you do? And they said you work Monday through Friday for and bring prisoners in and out of the courtroom. You got well experience. I was like, okay, that sounds good after seven years on the night shift. That was that was a treat. So while I was in there I learned a lot about how the legal system I got. Uh watching attorney was like this goes up here and uh prosecutors and ask them like it became really interesting. So I uh I thought man, that'd be neat, but you know, who's got time to go to law school? So I spent a few years with Judge Duke, learned a lot from the man, and it's amazing how much you can learn just by listening.