Take a look at the um minutes from last week and if there's a motion to adopt those, we'll entertain that second.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Okay, minutes are adopted.

Item number one, Mr.

Green, approval of a minor public works contract with tri-state abatement for best disciplines.

Who's in charge?

I thought it sounded familiar.

I thought we're doing finance and projects on that.

That was a double gavel for you, Mr.

Okay.

You'd like to make me there.

Councilman Lanier.

Approval of disbursement from District 7 improvement funds.

Tell us what you got.

1500 bucks.

Yeah, regular donations to South View on the minimum for teachers' depreciation.

Simple.

Okay.

Motion.

There you go.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Okay, item is approved.

Number two, Mr.

Lamair.

Okay, this is uh Central High School Girls Flag Football.

Yes, let me and uh uh Councilman Eden Howard.

We were we were putting this together for central uh girls football team like me and Mr.

Phil D for Bryant with band and uh football bashers.

So we just kind of don't need that little bit 1500 for me and then they'll get it get able a little bit that you uh go ahead and vote that in for Ms.

Didn't you we can keep it right?

Second all in favor say aye.

Aye item is approved.

Item number three, general fund budget revision number seventeen, Miss Stanley.

Good afternoon, council.

Good afternoon.

Um the same as Mr.

Eatman's request for district improvement funds last week, Mr.

Lanier's district approved request request this week to require us to reach back into reserves from prior years, and so that is just what this budget revision is doing.

It is asking to move um sorry, uh asking to move two thousand six hundred dollars from the district seven prior year balance into the current year to be able to activate the two requests that he just mentioned.

Any questions?

Comments all in favor say aye.

Aye item is approved.

Item number four, authorization to execute a grant agreement with Southwest Alabama Highway Safety Office, uh 2026 communities traffic safety program, chief.

Yes, good after mayor and council.

Uh we do this every single year, so basically we get uh different allotments of money, and officers go work the high traffic enforcement um areas that we have a lot of recs and they reimburse us.

How much is it, Chief?

It depends on uh different communities of how many how many different people take it.

It'd go in from 10,000 to 50 or 60,000.

It goes throughout the year of how much money is left in the grant.

Okay.

It costs the city nothing.

Okay, but we don't we don't know yet how much it is.

We just uh um there's a motion is there a second.

Second all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Okay, item is approved.

Item number five, Mr.

Holmes authorizing renewal cities annual mortility canine insurance.

Yes, sir.

This is our life insurance for our canines.

Uh the premium amount was uh four thousand five hundred and eighty-five dollars last year.

It is five thousand nine hundred and eighty-five dollars this year.

This does reflect the increase of coverage of one dog.

Um this covers our canine uh nails for twenty thousand dollars, Thomas for eleven thousand dollars.

Thomas has an exclusion in case his injury is due to his arthritis.

Uh Mary for uh 15,000, Leo for 19,500, and Bach for 20,000.

Um, these are generally about 20 to 30,000 dollars that we buy them.

Can we have four tough?

We have five.

Uh we had four last year, we have five this year.

Any questions, comments?

Better approve that fast.

Motion.

Second.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Item is approved.

Now the part look at this.

We hadn't even busted the star chunk yet.

Isn't this pretty?

So we're gonna start working our way through.

We've got um we've got multiple white space uh places on um various finance uh agendas before we get to I think uh 22nd.

Ms.

Sanders, is that when we were looking at a committee vote or first vote?

Yeah, the 23rd.

And then we've got two work sessions on uh Tuesday and Wednesday the uh morning of September 2nd and 3rd.

Um 8 30 to 10 30.

1045 1045.

I said no, I wanted to get kind of limbered up and loose.

So uh we're starting with what I hope will be some of the easier ones.

Um who wants to give their book report first?

I'll go.

Chris, you're I mean, your universal acclaim.

I don't I don't know what you've done.

I mean, who doesn't want their garbage picked up, right?

You gotta have the garbage I just brought a horror chart because I know it's hard to imagine.

We appreciate that.

What crack are you uh pictures?

87 and pictures, all right.

That's just a breakdown of how ESD is structured.

I know it's hard to picture where a hundred employ 101 employees can sit, so I brought that just for a visual, and you can see some of our vacancies, and those we do have a pretty stout turnover on uh crew workers for um ESD, which we all do.

That's not a bad thing.

We want them to come in as crew workers and work their way up the ladder.

So a lot of those you see are crew worker positions there.

What's your total head count?

101.

101.

Yes, sir.

That's including admin staff.

So uh any questions on the organizational structure or just are you have what I say, three vacancies?

Uh I think we have about five, yes, sir.

Okay some of them highlighted, some of them aren't.

Okay, yeah, I see them.

And what what what's routine for you?

You're actually that's low number, actually.

We usually stay somewhere between nine and ten crew worker vacancies that are always posted.

Uh we've closed that gap over the last year.

So uh we have actually 28 employees on probation, so that's how many we've hired in filled positions and within the last year.

Wow.

Um your total authorized is what?

Sir, your total authorized employee-wise, yeah.

Uh 101 full-time positions, yes, sir.

101 full-time plus your vacancies.

Sir, plus your vacancies.

That would all be in the budget, right?

It's all that's included, yes, sir.

The vacancies are included in the 101.

Yes, sir.

And they're uh they're posted down on the board, you know.

I think we had some interviews today, actually.

What kind of budget you're gonna need this coming year to run that?

Uh the only thing different you'll see than uh last year, the previous year is uh with the addition, of course, with the health insurance and the uh 3% cost of living and the step raise.

Uh in addition, we brought over a street maintenance crew uh a few months ago.

Y'all remember they transferred to ESD from public works came from Selvin?

Yes, sir.

So we'll uh that that cost is also coming to us as if you'll see it in addition to what we had last year.

So a million uh 11,396 is an increase in our salaries and benefits, and that's the raises plus the additional guys coming to ESD from public works.

Uh you'll see 147, 132 increase in our auto fuel and maintenance.

That's reflect the trucks and the maintenance that come over from public works to ESD.

That's the fuel it takes to run them, the maintenance it takes to keep them going.

Uh more vehicles, more mileage, but higher price gas.

More vehicles added to our fleet is the main thing you see.

Yeah.

Uh and then the next thing would be 66,000 in overtime expected uh for the sweeper crew.

Is that crew that came from public works is on call 24 hours a day?

So when they get off, there's a certain amount of the two guys are on call every day, seven days a week.

So if we have an accident, we need a sweeper truck to go out and clean a spill up, or we have a tree fall, they clean it up and we need to go pick up some debris or a water line bus, and we need to clean the dirt out of the road, those guys respond to all that.

So that's the expected cost that we've tracked that we think we're gonna add to our overtime to take care of those uh issues.

And then the 15,524 that you'll see is an increase in uniforms and telephones.

That's the all set those guys coming to us.

That'll be their uniforms yearly going forward.

That includes their uh pants, shirts, hats, boots, and then also their Southern Link phones that we pay for.

Why don't we buy them phones?

We have to be able to communicate with them in the field.

Just people riding trucks, yeah.

So truck uh they're all operators, yes, sir.

Everybody has a phone, yes, sir.

I think it's our higher level operators have a phone, crew workers don't, but yeah, yes.

That's how it's two-way radio with a cell phone attached.

That's how even when they're on call, they take that home with them.

Uh other than those things, we were uh on track with everything from 2025.

And uh walk me through one what came over from Mr.

Green's former.

Sweepers and flushers as well.

We call it a street maintenance crew, so 11 employees.

Um, so it's four sweeper trucks, two flusher trucks, and then uh crew worker operator, which does weed eating and the gutters and stuff like that, and that came with nine vehicles.

Um so pickup trucks, squad trucks, and uh the sweepers and flushes.

Well is that correct?

They come to uh why do they come to us?

We transfer them over.

We need them more in line with our garbage and trash routes because most of the majority of the calls you're gonna get is because of garbage trucks leaks some garbage truck juice, or we've left debris in the road, so it makes more sense for them to follow our routes because we were constantly calling and requesting for his guys to come over and does that leave any over there for him or is that all of them or it's all of them, yes or and if they need us, they call us.

But uh, we needed them.

I I hate to say more than anybody did, but we really did.

Um, for my district, which is if it's not done well in my district, it'll be very clear, very quick.

Yeah, we sweep a lot in your district.

Y'all y'all are doing a tremendous job.

Thanks.

Tremendous job.

Um what's your biggest constriction point financially if you have one?

Um the the price of our trucks going up is is gonna cause an issue.

Well, I mean, I wouldn't say an issue, but that they do put a burden because you know that big trucks oh yes, or our garbage trucks are 500 grand.

I mean, and they continue to climb here.

Uh we bit we bid them, so the lowest bidder usually gets they come from all over.

We've got three different uh vendors that we can buy off of you know, go government contracts, but they all bid and uh they're very competitive bids, so you never know who really is gonna get it.

But I would say that's the biggest thing we face that we're working on.

I've actually sent Carly a little um I'm working on a proposal to have an eight-year rotation to where these trucks are replaced every eight years, one a year, and then every eight years your fleet's new.

So I'm working on that.

Then I think we're gonna need that just because of the price of the trucks and budgeting for them.

You know, when they go down, it's not uncommon to see an $80,000 repair bill.

I mean, they're very technical.

You know, you see them and you don't realize what it takes to run them, but they're actually running them in there from a joystick.

So if the joystick goes out, that's a costly repair.

So that's that's probably the main thing we're working on.

Selvin and I are working on it together, and we're gonna have something for y'all to look at before long.

What kind of flex do you have, if any, in the trucks?

We are building some flexibility to where we have spares when they go down, but with the amount they cost, I mean it's hard to have a $500,000 truck sitting on the yard.

But yeah, we're working on that.

We do have we have two extra ASL, which is the side loaders, and we have three extra rear loaders on the yard.

So when they do go down and sell them tell you they go down multiple at a time.

I don't know why.

One goes down, six of go down.

So we are always running our spares.

One thing we're trying to work on is keeping a few more, um, and you know, not sending them to sell so quickly, keeping a few to build up our our backlog, you know, what we got sitting on the yard.

So Chris, the the nearly 15% increase in salaries and benefits, that's attributable to the the crew coming over.

That's some of it, yes, sir.

The other part would be the just the raises, the cost of living raises and the uh insurance, and then the step to go with it, yes.

Okay, from so Carly, is that 2025 actual is that through June or July?

June, yeah.

So we got one more quarter, right?

To go.

Yeah, yes, sir.

I mean, you can you can uh I guess guesstimate to one quarter, obviously, every single department's gonna have different spending levels at different times of the year, so approximately a quarter.

Yeah, but it's just actually June at to this point, right?

June.

Yes, okay.

Um, Chris, I was just gonna say, you know, everybody at the city that I ever deal with is responsive, but it just seems that a lot of times people in the district, when you and I talk, it's an emergency about something right.

And I will say you guys are pretty quick at getting out there and taking care of whatever the issue is, and I do appreciate that.

And the crews that you have are very professional, and they they do a good job because you know I don't ever get a complaint about any of that.

Well, thank you debris and the stuff that happens, you know, that's it but you guys take care of the problems, and I appreciate that.

You're welcome, thank you.

Hey Chris, I'll last thing before you go.

Walk me through the old chart.

All right.

You on the is the second page just a further breakdown of the first page, or is that yes, sir?

So you'll see the supervisors listed on the first page.

All right, and then on you when you flip to the second.

We got a deputy check, yes, sir.

That's service manager.

And then Rebecca Adams.

We've got the Josh McGaui out to the side.

That's our CDL trainer.

Uh we also run CDL training through the ESD.

So all the new hires that come into the city that are required to have a CDL, we train them at our facility uh through FMCS A training course.

Okay.

That's all talked through.

Uh he works at ESD, and then below that you'll see uh our five supervisors, um, Reginald Smith, Travis Thompson, Barnes Heath, Vincent Ellis, and Chase Watts.

And then under that, you got Alfonso Plott, he's our uh plant leader.

He he's the leader of our recycling plant, and then the admin support is Kimberly Bullard and Stephanie Scott, those are the two that sit in our front office and uh take our calls and uh run our daily logs and keep our stuff up to date as far as ADM and stuff like that.

Okay, and then when we go over to coach two, and and I don't want to go to each one of these individually, but how they're they're built.

Yes, sir.

So those that's up up at top uh garbage cat garbage carts and litter that's Reginald Smith, and everybody under him in that column, it works for him, they report to Reginald Smith.

Uh same thing for Travis Thompson.

So you'll notice trash is broke down into two groups.

That's because that trash division uh is that's 41 employees in one division, so we broke it down to two supervisors, so you got about 20 under each supervisor.

Say that again.

Trash one and trash two.

Yeah.

So trash division has 41 employees.

So we broke that down and split them in half.

That way, trash one has five routes and 20 employees, trash two has five routes and 20 employees.

We just tried to even it out so one supervisor wasn't responsible for 42 men at one time.

And then over to the far right, the street maintenance crew.

Yes, that's the one that came over from you've got in the bottom left.

You've got two people devoted to cart repair.

Yeah, and that should be two devoted to litter, uh, one of them's vacant right now.

So those those guys do nothing but cart repair, and then the litter guy, he does nothing but pick up litter on designated uh areas of town every day of the week.

Like where?

Uh we pick up certain streets in every district, so it would be the most um littered area, like on Mondays is Calton Road or something like that.

So we pick whatever we've had the most calls on, and we send them to that area to pick up things.

Do those streets rotate in every district or it stays the same.

We try to rotate them.

Uh some of them do say the same because it's the most called in.

They're just recurring problems.

Yes, sir.

Yes.

Um the military DNA in me.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Good presentation.

Um, let's see what we've got.

I think was it IT?

IT.

Yes, sir.

All right.

All right.

Um what page do you have?

Let's see.

This appears to be 105 on my printout.

Uh so for the big picture.

Well, for the for the large part, most of our expenditures are the same from last year.

We did uh decrease across the board some portions of our budget that are dedicated to the uh life cycle maintenance of electronics and hardware that would be replacing things that are end of life are older.

Uh we uh started this process when I first got here in 22, and so we've spent three full years now uh catching up, and so we felt like that is somewhere that we could you know pull back on the throttle just a little bit.

It's not something that we we will ever stop.

You're always replacing old items and things, but we've we've almost caught up uh to a point where uh we're we're we're we're not we're only about a year behind at any given time.

Uh that that was so we we we decreased all along the the physical stuff buying for lack of a better word replacements on the increases side, our maintenance contracts uh rose about roughly five percent this year across the board.

That is for a variety of reasons, both well maintenance contracts up 393,457 or 17 plus.

Yes, there's kind of two parts to that.

So the the the ongoing year to year was up, I think roughly around five percent.

That's from existing contracts that we had expiring and renegotiating.

Also, most of them go up kind of roughly five percent per year.

Uh in previous years, we have pruned and been able to reduce some uh over the years.

There's only so much squeeze that you can get from that from reduction over time.

So we kind of hit a plateau point from the removal of new items or removal of existing items that were less used and stuff this year.

So there was a slight bump up in that.

Uh a portion of the additional portion of the maintenance contract increase is due to the uh addition of the uh the peregrine tools and the AI tools that the mayor mentioned in his presentation last week.

That I I believe Mr.

Moore is gonna brief you on at some point.

So we're uh refresh me.

The pyramid is our member.

Is this what we've already added or what we've added?

This is what we're what what will be added on the uh the general fund side.

Police has already added and that's how much that is ballpark.

That is uh 231,000 on the general fund side and 119,000 on the water sewer side.

And that's for the peregrine and the AI tools, yes, sir.

The AI tools briefed in part of the budget, yes.

Any other questions?

Yeah, any other questions.

I'm gonna make Mr.

Foster stand up here and answer for one of my requests if there's any additional I don't know.

I don't have detailed parts about that, but we probably will during your operations section.

Yes, sir.

Um, we'll say for peregrine TPDs had a successful deployment um customer service.

CPDs was it peregrine or an offshoot of paragraphs?

This peregrine how and here's the uh company you would recognize the founders of paragraph former employees of Paragraph.

And that's the one we did, it was like 127,000 correct.

Yes, sir.

We're gonna trade off one officer for that, right?

I can't speak the exact I know the funding amount, I can't speak to how they pay for it, yes sir, functionally.

But this would be the general fund side of the house, it would be uh financials, utility accounts, um, 311, our S remapping system, Lucidy, uh videos that relates to our piping permits.

We're going through a full data review right now.

I will say the number Jason quoted.

Hopefully, we may come in a little under.

Um that's gonna depend on our team's due diligence over the next two weeks just to kind of finalize the data side.

There is also the open AI component, I believe that's 24,000.

24,000, yes.

24,000 for 50 seats, which is slightly separate.

I wouldn't look at that as a whole 24,000.

We have multiple accounts across the city right now, so those would just be consolidated within that 24,000.

So don't look at that as that pure net increase, it would just be housed within IT's purview, and also open up a lot more potential within the product due to the security uh that's provided under an enterprise license.

Did I say that?

Yes, sir.

That'll cover that.

So Jason, what um thank you, Red Under various personnel movements.

What what are the personnel changes in your department there are this past year that is reflected moving forward in next year?

That is reflected in three positions.

One is the adding of the additional uh security technician to do access control in-house that happened.

This is the one stopped contract.

Yes, sir.

Yes.

Outside and brought in, right?

Yes, sir.

So that's done that that is on board.

Yes, sir.

They're they are working, and if you've noticed here in the hallways, those those have been replaced, and the uh uh the tags we were talking earlier as a result of of that as well.

Uh two positions in addition to that uh are the audio visual technicians that were under strategic communications have been moved uh to uh our department as part of this budget process.

Which audio visual technicians uh that would be uh uh uh Jordan over here who is running that and it and then and then uh Tyler's Tyler Smelling and then in the council chamber?

Yes, sir.

So those came out from strategic communications and are in IT.

Yes, sir, as as of 10-1 as part of the budget.

So those that's the three additions to uh positions that are included in this.

How many people do you rate in your department?

I have uh 45 45, yes, sir.

45 and how many do you have?

How many physical yeah?

How many how many people can fog the last?

Yes, uh right now we have three vacant positions.

Then there are 42, 43.

45, you got three vacant that's correct.

Yeah, 42, yes, sir.

So and those are the three vacancies or what?

Uh one is a uh the an upfitting technician, the we get the vehicles for uh public safety directly from the dealership, and we're the ones who put the the lights, the sirens, the radios, the computer, uh all the fund toggles and switches and buttons.

So that's one of those uh technicians, and that's in the hiring process at the moment.

So I I'm hopeful that we're we're close on that one.

And then we have a uh systems analyst, which is uh on the public safety team that runs the uh back end public safety systems that the police officers use, and then a uh a GIS administrator uh that that does uh the general GIS for the entire city.

Um is that who I mean is that who we work so closely with back here in the uh the redistricting hospital?

That is that is the same position uh but Lauren is still here.

So that but it's so we have two of those for the we actually have three three weeks one that supports mostly uh Miss Crite's team on the the the kind of urban development and planning side, one that supports mostly the public safety side, and one that supports the uh I'll call the the infrastructure kind of departments, water sewer, uh uh CFG public works, uh those sort of things.

Uh ESD.

Okay, Mr.

Crowe, Ms.

Howard, anything you want to ask you asked what I would have asked, Mr.

Chairman.

You go I think I think that's good for the presentation.

Thank you.

Let's see whose book report was next water and sugar.

You didn't jump up the chair was extra confident what pride you on camera?

197 so we like the other departments level funded, but we did have a couple of exceptions of things that we added um to the department, and I can discuss a couple of or go through some of those with you, but I think our overall percentage increase is uh I think it was five percent.

Yes, five percent the overall increase for water and sewer.

Um the majority of the increase would be in the administration side, and that's where we've added um during FY25.

We added a project manager piece and the our personnel which is layered with our capital projects division, and then also in here is the request that we just uh did two weeks ago, and that was for the linear the linear assets director, where we created the job description, but we said that we would be requesting it in FY26, so that's also reflected in this, and then we have also two additional operations assistants, and those work at the water and the wastewater plants, and so those are um two additional ones that are also in here.

So the difference in last year's budget versus this year's budget is four additional employees, but one was already funded in FY25, but it wasn't there initially in the budget.

So we did reorganize some positions to fund that one.

They just moved from a different the money side of it moved from a different part of the division into the administrative side.

Um so that's where those the where the 27% increase is on the salary, but you'll see that those decreases are reflected within the other parts of that.

Um so that's I mean, that's the main piece of the increase in the salary.

You know, but we have the the same as the other with the 8.3 uh insurance increase, the 3% cost of living, and then also the one and a half percent or the one-step increase as well, which is also reflected in this.

We have 199 employees currently.

I believe the number today is 17 vacancies, all of which are actively posted with the exception of the three that were requesting additional for FY26.

Um, so they're active active in the hiring process.

The majority of those are going to be crew worker and equipment operator, equipment operator senior.

So those are positions that similar to what Chris said that they start out and then they get promoted.

Um, and so those are the ones that we typically like to have to fill more routinely than some of the upper level ones.

So are there uh out of the hundred and ninety-nine um 17 or 18 vacancies, so small part 10% vacancy, is that pretty routine?

Yes, sir.

And um those cluster in any particular place or category.

Yes, so the majority of those positions are gonna be in the linear side, and so the linear side of water and sewer is like the what is the linear man?

It's the the horizontal piece of water and sewer, so it's the water line, it's gonna be like your water lines, your sewer lines, your meter group, it's those components.

So that's we so that we have so we're broken into horizontal assets or the linear assets, and then the vertical assets is what we call them, would be your process assets, so your plants and your lakes, things like that.

Are there any critical uh vacancies?

The one I would say the one critical vacancy right now that we have is the one that we just approved a couple weeks ago, and that was where we uh retitled the um it's the water business operations director position that was in the business office that's a vacancy, so where we reworked that job description, but that job is uh currently posted.

Umberly, I'm sure you can answer this question, or I know Carly can pretty quickly, but when I was looking at this, I think the difference part of it is the the debt service, but as far as revenues go, revenues are up 14.9 million dollars in this budget, and when you look at on the expense side, I mean 11 million dollars, but most of that is in other operating is that what's the majority of that is the debt service, yes, that service that's the new 75 million dollars that we just closed on yesterday, and so that's the debt service for that issuance.

It's about four point six million dollars.

Okay, is the is the majority of that revenue increase.

Are we talking is this usage?

Is it new customers?

I mean, because that's 14 million dollars.

I know all that's not an increase.

Like an increased charge.

No, I think that the revenue generation side is probably half me and half Kimberly because she is going to be on the actual generation side, and I will be on the rate structure side.

And so I can tell you that about 10% of that is going to be your rate increase.

We did do a 9% rate increase last year, and so you know, taking into account the 9% rate increase, and then a little bit of overtime issue.

I think 10% of the actual increase is rates, and then the 4% of that 14% will be on the increase in capture, which is what she's doing.

Efficiency, which kind of means is it.

We've gone from I mean, we've gone from around 5,500 damage meters to like 2400 damage meters this year.

So we're we're slowly beginning to to, you know, we're still recovering from a lot of the things that happened during COVID where we weren't actively replacing things.

Um, and so that's a lot of it is that we're actually capturing uh water sales.

A meter bond.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

I get because I think that one of the questions, especially we were asked by the um bond rating agencies was you know, are you experiencing a balloon?

Are you experiencing a ballooning in um customers?

No, no, we're really not.

It's really going to be about their efficiencies and capturing the data to be able to build.

And we also have gone in, and as we've been doing the AMI project, we've used that as an opportunity to go through and audit accounts because we're having to touch every single account.

And so while we're in there, we're doing things like if you're in the PJ, we're making sure that you have the 25% surcharge.

We've even found some that had the surcharge that should not have had the surcharge.

We're capturing if you should be charged sewer and you have sewer and you don't have the charge, then we're adding those charges.

But it's so we're doing full audits of accounts as well, getting our data correct, we're trying to update addresses and those things also as we so we we're using the AMI project as an opportunity to just do a general audit of all accounts on an individual basis.

I don't have it in front of me, Carl.

Do you remember how much the percentage increase was the year before in the last budget?

Oh no, we were actually down, we're I think was a seven percent increase the year before when we did a full 11% uh rate increase.

So, you know, that that was one uh and and I will I will say that while why water and sewer revenue is so much more over budget is because we very conservatively budgeted for the 10% rate increase that's last year because they were all sorry, can we like they were underperforming in the revenue generation from the previous year rate increase?

And so I think that just kind of go again goes to show that this last you know 10 months has really been the height of their realization of the work that they've put in for the efficiency side of things.

I will say a lot of that is now that we have 30% or so of the system on AMI, we have additional time now that we can actually start dedicating staff to replacing meters and and doing some of those other things that we weren't able to do when we were so far behind with constantly reading meters, trying to read damage meters and things like that.

So there's a lot of changes in process efficiencies that we've done to help with that to be able to start capturing some of those readings.

That's good.

Um those were the bigger things kind of stuck out to me.

Because that was a big increase.

Yeah, no, that I will say that the water and sewer revenue side of things is the very happy picture for the for the upcoming fiscal year.

Hadn't been happy.

There's a smiley face on that ball.

I mean, it's taken a while.

You're raising the bar.

No.

Ms.

Howard's got any questions?

Comments?

Yes, I'll get news.

Yeah.

You asked Chris the question about what was like your biggest hurdle, you know, coming in.

Would you like me to ask you?

I would like to ask that.

What's your biggest hurdle?

Um I I just one of our biggest hurdles I think we're having is that we are in a lot of transition between the AMI project and that that there's a lot of changes that happen behind the scenes with that, but then also with a lot of the capital projects that we have going on, which does take a lot of staff time dedicated to all of the projects, which are great, great news, but those are all things that you know, it's a it's taken a lot of time to get the system back where we're going.

So there are hiccups along the way as we're in transition and trying to get processes, you know, when you have construction projects, there's usually things that are not going the way you want them to go.

So we're constantly working with ADM while we're doing projects at the plants to make sure that we're still meeting their expectations while knowing that we have processes that aren't operating as they should be while we're under construction.

So I just that's one of our biggest hurdles right now is that while we're making improvements, it's a large hurdle getting there to get those improvements done.

So we do feel like that while our numbers and stuff look great, we still very much feel like that we're in transition and we're looking forward to the next for the revenues increase for the next year and then ultimately the next three to five years.

So is the remedy for those hurdles time or labor or money or what?

I don't I think that w because of the transition that we're in, it's it's it's just the process it takes to get projects accomplished.

So I think that, yeah, I think it's it's the time.

I think that this council has done an amazing job with helping us really focus on getting our assets back where they need to be.

So I feel like that you've that you've really funded us the way that we should be funded and to get back to where we need to be.

So I think it's just you know, getting to that point, and so I mean, time, yes, but it's in labor is always good, but it's one of those things where we're just kind of in this state of constant movement right now that it's hard to you don't want to add labor knowing that it's not gonna necessarily be needed, so we know that we're this transition period has really stretched us thin, but we know that in a couple years we're gonna be really sitting pretty like we're really excited about the future.

So and remind me when we expect the automated meters to be complete.

So the um the current phase that we're in, we expect, and that's an additional 18,000 meters, so that'll put us right at half of our system, just under half the system with the ones that we already had in place.

Um it'll be around 22,000, 23,000 that we'll have.

Um so that phase is expected to be complete in October, but in early September, you'll see the next phase come in, and so that's about 24 months on that that phase.

So we're looking around two more years.

Okay.

I I don't have any other questions.

Uh I'll reserve uh a save round if I need one for another session.

Thank you.

Thank you, Kerish.

I think I'm next.

I'll go ahead and walk.

I think so.

Um I I can I can just kick off the um discussion.

I'm on page 43.

Um for the accounting and finance department.

Obviously, you know, I think that uh there will probably need to be questions about the revenue side of things, um, which we will be able to answer also.

Um, but I assume that this is just for department discussion.

So I can open up by saying that the uh growth in our budget from 25 to 26 is the same as what people other people have said it is the COLA um the health and insurance increase.

And then if you'll recall last year, the revenue code enforcement division um had some investment with new employees that were staggered out over the year.

We weren't gonna hire a couple of them until December and another few of them until March, and then another few in June.

And so you'll have to remember that the fiscal six total.

It was six total, yes, sir.

And so the the full realization of all six of those employees for a full year is a part of why there's that increase as well.

What sort of personnel changes have you had, Ms.

Seton?

Um I have not had any.

Not mine in terms of change out of different people to a different job, but other than the six.

Um the six for code enforcement.

Um we've really had no changes.

Um except for like you said, we've had some people you know be promoted and and new hires come in, but that's really that's really the gist of it.

We've had no positional changes.

What do you normally run personnel-wise in what compartment?

With the new people of uh 45.

45.

Yes, sir.

Um what are you at?

I think that's a vacancy rate you typically run.

We we typically run about two to three vacancies.

Um right now we're sitting at two.

Um we have one offer out for one, um, just kind of waiting to hear back, but generally we run about two to three.

Yeah, that's probably normal.

I would like for that to never ever be normal, but yeah.

Sounds like a place to be.

I like to think that we have a really good operation, yeah.

And that people are happy.

Um I certainly want to you're a lifesaver for us, I can promise you.

Oh, thank you very much.

Um I will um I'll take that opportunity to say that if it was not for the team, the rest of these positions that are on here that are actually people up there doing the work.

You know, I I I don't I always say this, I don't do any real work, but I will pull a lot of I'll pull a lot of their work out and and do my own configuring of my own thinking on it.

But if it wasn't for them doing the real work, I mean they are they're the ones that do the real real work.

I could not rely on the information that I pull to be accurate to be able to advise anybody appropriately.

So really it is it is that team up there that does all of that effort.

I believe under the long and short-term goals that y'all put in here.

What what are the ones we should be um re aware of?

Um, so our main uh short like what I would like to accomplish in the short term, which I think that you saw a couple of weeks ago was really get business license renewal online and available to all customers without having to walk into this building.

Um that is one thing that I can tell you we are not in the 21st century on.

There are a number of other organizations that are well ahead of us on that, and that's not something that we're okay with with our standards.

And so implementing online payments and online renewals for business licenses is a number one on our um agenda.

I think that uh getting the revenue code enforcement team really uh trained up and operating efficiently is up for this upcoming year is number two.

Uh they have they are uh tasked with raising about a million dollars in their audits and their um and their enforcement reviews.

On what kind of base?

Uh so a million out of what I mean you could probably say out of our 200 million dollar you know general fund revenue budget, they will uh generally be able to audit out about a million dollars with that.

Um but I we are working really hard to put in new uh data capturing procedures to be able to know how much of our business license revenue they also generate because you know people will come in and renew on their own and then we'll have a list of delinquencies, and we send our revenue officers out to talk to the people that are in delinquent um mode to try and get them paid up.

Well, that goes directly into a business license revenue line and doesn't necessarily go into their audit uh revenue line.

So being able to capture what they're really being able to go out there and get is one of our goals also.

Um I will say that with the uh transition from Miss Chief to Miss Hornsby, uh there is all of the the new staff that needs to be trained on the accounting and financial reporting side for it is a new audit year coming up.

Um Brendan Bush is the new director of accounting and financial reporting.

He was Savannah's associate previously, however, running an audit all on your own is uh an arduous uh task and takes about three and a half months to really complete, and so um supporting him and making sure that the staff is really trained up on that.

We also have a uh somebody who has uh been a huge asset is gonna go out on maternity leave right at that same time.

So really working through the audit this upcoming year, making sure that the staff is trained is another one, another goal of ours.

So this is not strictly a budget question, but it definitely is a line there as IT director and operations director have talked about uh the the bringing in and integrating of AI into our city operations.

What do you see as the big lead there?

I think that I mean I'm sure I'm kind of assuming that your field is the one of the ones most right.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

I do think that we'll be able to gain a lot of efficiencies, especially in the accounts payable uh realm and the payroll processing realm that will hopefully in the future pay off dividends in and and possible repositioning of employees.

Um, I think that when it comes to uh you know data mining within our current database, we're actually already pretty good at it.

Uh just an example for data mining.

Um so I mean, Jason Foster can probably go into how large the Munis ERP database is, um, but we build queries and and you know, and dig reports.

We can go all the way back to 2004, 2005 and pull out anything to and find the details on it.

So we're really pretty good at that anyway.

Do I think that AI could provide another level for us to use?

I do.

Um, what that's going to turn into, I think we'd have to wait and see what Peregrine really offers as far as usability for us.

But I definitely think on the AP processing side, the payroll processing side, um, those will be two heavy uses for AI.

We've got business license.

So whether or not AI can really replace customer interaction is really going to be the key.

Um, we again the a lot of the stuff that we have now is already automated.

If you don't pay by a certain date, you already get automated delinquency notifications.

So that's not really going to be that much of a leap for us.

It's really gonna be whether or not we can do customer exchange use with AI.

And whether or not this the citizenry uh will take to that.

I think is another thing too.

Mr.

Crowe, Sarah.

This shouldn't this shouldn't just out of curiosity.

I'm looking for what is the short answer for an enforcement manager?

What's the short answer for an enforcement manager?

Yeah, what is an enforcement?

So they're the ones that uh supervise all of our enforcement off like our field enforcement officers.

Yes, sir.

So they're the ones that are doing the dispatch out to all of the um the delinquent uh areas that we talk about.

There are plenty of times that um that council members will have issue with a business operation in their district, and they will call Trent and that's and and they will relay it out to have a dispatched revenue um officer go with them.

A lot of times code enforcement with urban development will have will recognize that there are business issues in the area, possibly that somebody's operating a business without a business license, and so then we will dispatch from that.

So the manager is the one that handles all of that dispatching, um, and that also supervises all of the officers that are out there and their information input, their money collections, things of that nature.

I've just called code enforcement when I thought there was an issue.

It and that is totally fine.

We work, we they work hand in hand together, and they're supposed to.

Okay.

Nothing else.

Thank you for everything.

Uh Mr.

Johnson got a lot of questions for our page.

All right.

I I honestly I'm not asking for a whole lot of anything.

Um other than what a lot of our other departments have already mentioned, as far as like salaries and benefits with the insurance and cost of living.

Um you'll see an overall decrease in our operating expenses.

A huge part of that is gonna be tied to election expenses.

Um, so we are pulling a lot of that out and kind of sticking it and sticking it into the council budget.

Um, since hopefully, if if we hopefully we don't need it, but if we end up having an election next year, um all of that will be captured within the council's budget and not within the clerk's office.

Um we have a very small increase in overtime and wages um to cover any cost related to interns, but that's really about it.

So various personnel movements.

What personnel movements?

Um, so for fiscal year 26, you'll see that there will not be a uh an assistant city clerk budgeted.

Um, and then you'll see the director of government relations, external affairs, and crisis communications within that budget as well.

That's in the city clerk budget, the mayor clerk budget, yes, sir.

You're just briefing the city clerk budget, right?

Mayor clerk, yes, my division, yes, sir.

Okay.

So specifically, my division is gonna be on page one 35.

That breakdown for my office.

Okay.

Okay, so you say it this year, your budget.

I mean, in fiscal year 26, there won't be an assistant city code.

Correct.

Okay.

What would that position be?

Eliminate it.

It was part of our budget cuts to help us with RSA converted.

Okay, yeah, I remember.

Okay.

What's strictly your budget?

My budget you just me.

You and some interns.

Um, as of right now, it's just me.

Well, it's pretty simple.

Yeah.

I don't ask for much.

So what what is the budget look like for just one election in the event that we have it?

So it really depends on the district.

Um, so what you're gonna look at for if we have a district three election, you're gonna look at your costs for the contract with ESNS to program machines.

You're gonna look at any expenses related to poll workers, um, any expenses for advertising, legal notices, any cost, um, Church of the Highlands is our usual district three polling location.

They don't typically charge for use of their facilities, but in the event that anything comes up, that would also be tied within to within that election expense.

Um, but the the biggest portion of the budget for an election is gonna be tied to the ESNS election systems and softwares contract for them to program the machines and um print all of the ballots and any of the additional election supplies we'll need.

Okay, okay, Mr.

Crowe, Ms.

Howard.

I wish I had a bunch of questions for her, but I don't okay.

Ms.

Johnson, thank you very much.

That wraps up what we had planned to do for today.

Mr.

Chairman, can I ask a question about this procedures for next week?

Yeah.

Do you know or do you have a plan on what we will discuss on Tuesday and Wednesday, or will we get an agenda?

Tuesday morning uh to do more staff sessions, like we've been doing today.

And Wednesday morning, if each council member has an agency that they want to showcase during the session on Thursday or Wednesday morning, that'll be the time to do it.

Let me know who it is, and so at max we'll have seven uh agencies which you can showcase if you think they need more attention.

Does that include just the the big ones or what do we have for questions?

That includes any of any of them uh yeah, and I will look at so of the big ones I already know one does not want to present, they're content.

Uh another one we talked about.

I don't know that we're gonna need to.

So I will look to work some of the big agencies into a finance committee agenda.

Any other questions?

And by the way, you don't have to bring an agency, but every you know, usually somebody's got somebody else.

I want you to hear about what they're doing.

If you do, let me know who it is, we'll get it on the agenda.

Okay, anything else to be brought before finance committee?

Is there a motion to adjourn?