That will entertain.

Motion.

Raven, are you good?

Yep.

Um second.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Okay.

Minutes are adopted.

Item number one under new business.

Um approval of disbursement from District 6 improvement funds.

The crossroad angel tree program, total thousand bucks.

Yes, sir.

What this church does, they provide Christmas for uh children whose parents are uh in county jail, state prison, federal prison.

They're Tuscaloosa kids whose parents are incarcerated, and they do Christmas for them.

They do a good job.

Okay.

Motion.

Mr.

Holmes, we're we're cleared on that, check.

Yes, sir.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Item is approved.

Uh item number two, Mr.

Holmes resolution authorizing binding coverage and payment of premium for police and fire supplemental pension insurance.

Yes, sir.

This is uh this says for FY25.

Uh it's probably just a type of um the I'll I'll double check it.

This is our renewal for our police and fire supplemental pension insurance.

This is our uh insurance that covers that covers uh Miss Standards of folks that have to deal with this.

Uh the renewal, the premium is actually the same as it was last year, which is uh five thousand seven hundred and twelve dollars.

But we are insuring for FY26, correct?

We're insuring for the next year.

We're renewing for an additional year.

It's not so in the minutes, Picky in the minutes.

Make sure you note that okay.

Questions, comments?

Motion second.

All in favor say aye.

Aye, okay.

Item is approved.

Uh item number three, uh, Miss Standridge.

Appalachian Regional Commission grant.

Yes, good afternoon, council.

Good afternoon, um, a couple of months ago we requested to apply for two ARC grants for the Sabin Center.

Both were a million dollars.

Um, one of them was uh denied to move forward.

Um we have gotten some feedback from the ARC and from ADECA on the reasons why we were denied to move forward, and we have tweaked the grant and we're requesting to reapply for that exact same one.

Um this is going to be for um the uh some educational classroom and labs um within the savings center.

It is a 50-50 uh grant to match ratio, so it is a million dollars coming in from the ARC.

It is a million dollars that we would have to pay for in match money, but that million dollars is already scheduled to be paid for in the Savings Center project already.

So really this is just kind of like a good free million dollars if we were to get it in and to be able to add to that construction.

Okay, what's the time?

What's the timing?

Of that once we reapply, what will the timing be to be awarded or they don't yeah?

Usually it's gonna be a couple of months, and so it has to go through multiple multi-step program.

Adeca will review it first, and that's where it will get passed on to the ARC or not.

Um, and that usually happens in about three months.

I don't know whether you or Ms.

Buck would be the correct one.

Why while did we not get the first path?

Um I actually'm gonna look at Lawnon for that one.

It was like generally for um like they said that we wrote too much about Saban Center and not enough about the specific space that we're asking the money for.

And they said they had a lot of competitive other applications as well.

That's good.

Okay.

Any other questions, comments?

Motion, second, all in favor say aye.

Aye aye.

Oh, let's see.

You up next, Ms.

Standard.

Yes, yes, sir.

Agency funding agreement with para.

Uh so this is just um approval of the uh funding agreement for the project that was briefed just a few moments ago in projects committee for the match amount for the um total parts lighting project.

Uh the amount that Miss Clecker uh presented the 24,6350 is what we're requesting to execute a funding agreement with uh para four.

Um as mentioned this will be paid out of the tourism capital fund.

Um as of the end of this year, we're projecting uh about 420,000 dollars of um of a contingency balance within that fund, and so this would come out of that that amount 420 ish as contingency in the capital, yes sir.

Okay, any questions, comments?

A motion, second, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Item is approved.

All right.

So we we're gonna use the remainder this time to finish up with any staff sections or cats and dogs we haven't talked to that we wanted to on the um budget coming up.

Ms.

Tandridge, can you go down the roster of who we are looking at today?

Yes, sir.

So the remaining departments that you have yet to staff departments that you have yet to hear from are municipal court and airport.

Um, and then after those will also come the uh general fund revenues.

We have not gone over those yet.

Um we also have not gone over elevate and any of the projects within Elevate.

Um then also we have a recommendation for an addendum to the mayor's budget recommendation regarding um a health insurance stipend.

So we have those kind of hear about uh today in whichever order you would like to press on.

Um mayor, what do you think on the uh I know you've got to brief the uh the proposal for the situation in the fire department?

Is that how long a deal you think that is?

Is that 10 to 15 minutes depending upon your questions?

Well, I don't I I'd like to go ahead and start with that.

I think that's uh has more immediacy uh to it, and let's make sure we get to that first, if that's all right with you.

Yes, sir, and I I will begin by introducing it and turn it over to Ms.

Standridge and uh Miss Herbert to discuss really more of the details.

So when we completed our budget work, it was around the first few days of August.

Um we have to formally submit it to you by August 19th.

But as I told you in an email over the weekend, uh we still continue to work on one of the things that we thought was an issue that the council and and we as a team wanted to see work through, and that was the health care, the insurance costs, the health care impact on our employees.

We roughly have about a thousand employees that take our health insurance plan out of 1300 plus.

Um you look at how the pay increase uh was recommended to you, there were going to be a certain group of employees who are going to be impacted.

Um when I mean impacted, I mean may not get any cost of living or step movement, and they would see an increased cost of health insurance.

So we knew that this was something we would need to continue to work through.

Those employees were primarily or only in police and fire.

So on the non-public safety side, we did not have any employees who would see a cost of health insurance exceed the amount of cola or step movement or both on the public safety side.

We had roughly 16.

146, 146 that were going to be impacted because on the public safety side, we provided for two steps.

The majority of our police officers, firefighters were going to see the full benefit of it.

Those with seniority who had topped out in their particular grade would not.

The for us then trying to craft a solution that then met tax code, met best practices, met a standard of something we don't want to necessarily get into the habit of doing every single year, became our work.

Um so what we settled upon, and what we're recommending to you, which Ms.

Standard is just passed out, was providing a one-time supplemental pay that would ensure that no employee saw that health insurance cost made their paycheck be less than it was in fiscal year 25.

I though felt strongly that this not only applied to the 140 something employees, but also to every employee.

What I mean by that is the majority of the employees who were impacted by this are making very very good salaries.

We know on the opposite end, we have crew workers and environmental services, CFG, water and sewer, who yes, their COLA or step movement or both may exceed what the cost of health insurance is.

Their ability to absorb that is gonna be a little bit more difficult than someone else.

Their ability to absorb that is going to be a little bit more difficult than someone else.

So what we recommended when I say we, um, Ms.

Herbert, Miss Standard, and ITU, is that we provide all employees, regardless of whether they're on our health insurance plan or not, who are non-public safety of a stipend of 250 dollars, and for those that are public safe safety, a stipend of 500.

And the rough cost of doing that is in the range of 400, what was it, Carly?

Four is 425 for the general fund and about 50,000 for the water and sewer fund.

So if the council were to adopt this recommendation, it would move our contingency amount down to 713,000 on the general fund side.

Um that's a rough outline of the plant itself, and so I would ask Ms.

Standridge or Miss Herbert to please layer on anything that I missed or any additional details the council needs to be aware of.

Mayor really covered most points, so any questions that you have, we'll be happy to answer.

Um, like the mayor mentioned, this really uh was a something that we recognized in the pay plan proposal initially.

Um, back in you know, early August when we had the final uh salary projection amounts, we realized that this was going to possibly be a scenario, and we started working towards an idea about how to fix things.

Um we kind of we ran out of a little bit of time when the budget needed to be proposed to council, but we continue to work on the idea that there should be something in an addendum fashion that that should be able to take care of this.

Um, and like the mayor mentioned, uh, the only people that were impacted are police and our sworn police and fire.

Um, is those employees that are uh paid under the public safety pay plan, and then narrowing it down, it would be people that were topped out within their grades.

Um like we mentioned that was about 146 individuals, um, and they were at varying um, they were in they were in varying uh ranks, however, most of them were of the higher rank, they were in captains in fire, they were in battalion chiefs and then and assistant chiefs and things of that like ranks of that nature.

Um the majority of the firefighters and the majority of the um sergeants and uh apparatus operators in fire are going to really see a nice benefit uh on their anniversary date.

However, coupled with that is the idea that steps only um only become recognizable to the employee on their hiring anniversary date.

And so let's say that a um a firefighter who would get their full two steps, does not have an anniversary date until May of next year.

Well, the health insurance increases do take impact on October 1st.

So they would have a number of months where they would possibly see also a little bit less in their take-home paycheck because of the health insurance increase and their step hadn't um hadn't come into play until their anniversary day.

So it's really to help is help people across the board when it comes to the idea of public safety, and then like the mayor mentioned, knowing that there are crew workers in numerous departments and um you know that our custodial workers and things of that nature where their income is less, knowing that their health insurance or or health costs, regardless of how they are paid, whether through our health insurance plan, possibly another health insurance plan, or even just health costs in general, are all escalating at a crazy rate, and so it's in finding some way to invest into everybody.

Um we came up with this plan.

Now I will say one thing that it will not it will not correct.

If you are a topped out public safety employee, and you have the highest level of a health insurance plan, it will not cover all those.

Um the total increase amount for that person over the entire year will be a little bit under 550 dollars, um, and this is 500.

And so you're gonna you all there will be some people that won't cover completely, but in order to be able to spread it across all departments, as we have mentioned the need for before, this is really kind of where the compromise landed.

You're you're talking probably around, I think off the top of my head, 87 employees to go higher drops our contingency rate below 700,000, which I you know again, there's nothing magical about that, but it's you know, we we normally try to keep it at a million to do this, we're dropping it below a million, so now we're at 712,000.

So now we're at 712,000.

The to me, the reason why the non-public safety is important is more of um one is certainly what Ms.

Standards echoed that I firmly believe our crew workers are custodians, our people who make the city run every single day.

Health insurance increase that impacts them proportionally more than any other group within our own team.

The second is just internal of the day to day, we have 19 departments of the city.

Um 17 departments feel like that sometimes they don't you know they don't benefit as great as the other two departments in public safety.

So I think to do something just solely for public safety just creates a morale issue on the other side, and that's one of the things we try to balance every single day because every employee is essential for success at the city.

But I'm I'm sure you can appreciate that internal, you know, that what we deal with every single day and making certain that all of our employee groups feel valued in the process.

Yeah, yeah.

Can I just make a comment?

Mayor, I can't tell you how much I appreciate this as a former city employee because multiple years our insurance went up more than our raised in.

And and we were just told be happy to have a job.

And I'm I'm really pleased that y'all are doing all this for our employees.

So what's the fundamental cause of what I'll call this inconsistency?

Where you're where some employees are getting raises, but and it's taken on top of the health care raises, they're still getting a raise, but some are not.

Well, it goes back to let's go.

So what how do we not what keeps it from happening next year?

You may have read a letter uh that I sent a couple of weeks ago that really went into the history of our public safety pay plan back in 2021, which it was implemented in 2000 for fiscal year 2022, we implemented a new public safety pay plan.

Um, that public safety pay plan had seven grades at the time, 15 steps within each grade.

And the thought process was as we and it wasn't done in isolation, most of you were a part of that.

Um, one of the things we heard loud and clear from public safety was we want step movement.

Step movement is important to us.

Step movement as opposed to colas.

Why because step movement is a way of progression, it also would encourage promotion.

So if you are a grade one police officer, you get to step 15, then we want to motivate you to get promoted to sergeant so that you get onto the sergeant's pay schedule and start that movement again.

So let's guarantee that step movement, and by the way, that step was at two and a half percent versus the non-public safety of a step at one and a half percent.

So one was let's create an incentive to move people with the 15-step plan.

Um by the way, when we move people from the old pay plan in fiscal 21 to the new plea pay plan and fiscal 22, there was a significant financial benefit across the board.

Well earned, well deserved for our public safety sector.

On the non-public safety side, the steps are only one and a half percent, and what we've done on that case has been more likely to say, let's apply COLA here because your step movement is so low on the public safety side, let's apply more of the step movement because that wasn't that was what was encouraged when we talked to the different employee groups.

So that's how this year you fell into it.

The other thing that we have happened, especially within the fire service, is our fire service is as we've talked about.

What's the number?

25% of our fire service could retire today.

And so you have a lot of senior personnel within the fire service, which is really a good thing, right?

We've got people who stayed a long time, made significant investments and contributions to our city, but we do have a lot of people that are topped out, especially in the ranks of battalion chiefs, captains, and lieutenants.

Um, off the top of my head, only 14% of our firefighters are topped out.

So the good news about our recommendation is that 86% of our firefighters actually saw a two-step movement, and that that's a very very positive thing.

So I don't think in the future the chances of this happening are high, because I think over the next two years, or I believe in the next two years, you're gonna see within the fire service a higher rate of retirements.

Juxtapose that with police, where we are a very young department, as we discussed, and so there is you know, the likelihood of this happening in future could grow with police if we continue to retain our personnel, which are really doing a good job of doing that.

And so there is, you know, the likelihood of this happening in future could grow with police if we continue to retain our personnel, which are really doing a good job of doing that.

But in the near future, next five or five years or so, I don't think we're going to run into it.

So to answer your question, ultimately, I'm sorry for the long answer, is I don't see this happening.

I think the chances in the future are happening are less, but not impossible.

And again, Ms.

Herbert or Miss Standers, please jump in or correct me where I'm off, or there's a piece of information that needs to be layered in.

Only yeah, only two points to possibly add on for your consideration of what could happen in the future.

Um so you know, first thing I I guess I kind of want to um go on what the mayor was saying with why they pushed for steps instead of COLA during the negotiations for the new the new Pellet 50 pay plan.

Um people like to term it salary compression.

One of the points was that if you are a police officer that has been here for 10 years, but yet you have not gotten step movements, you really have no disclosed seniority between somebody that gets hired and is there for their first year.

You know, there's really very little separation between your pay amounts, but yet you have been here for a decade and should know a lot more within your field than the person that has just been hired.

Um, and so I think that they were really there.

One thing that they were pushing for in the step movement category was to release the release from that salary compression and the internal politics that that creates.

Um, and then the second point that I want to layer on is that uh next year.

Well, I this is why I do not think you'll see it next year.

Next year we convert to RSA.

When that happens, the um the employee required contribution rate for the police and fire pension is 13%.

Um when they transition to RSA, that's going to drop, and even at the highest rate in tier two, that's still going to be it's gonna be eight and a half percent.

So from 13 to 8.5%, their employee required contribution withholding amount is going to decrease significantly, so they will automatically see a jump in their take-home pay starting October 1 of next year.

So, even regardless of what the pay plan scenario is next year, they should still see an increase.

So from an implementable from implementing this agenda.

What is the only thing that's becoming a part of this?

Is this that's the only thing that's no yes?

Yes, sir.

That's additional for that.

Yes, sir.

And if this were authorized by the council, our goal would be to issue these checks sometime around the Christmas season.

So the authorization mechanism is but it's simply the budget approval.

Yes, sir, unless again it's our burger and standard.

Yes, sir.

And it's a lump sum.

Yes.

We would like to do it in one lump sum, yes.

No, it would be tax.

And again, that's the other, you know, we have to deal with the tax implic implications, and Mr.

Holmes had to research our ability to provide compensation under our local and state laws as well.

We believe this meets all the thresholds.

Even though I thought for health care can be a four-tax count.

It's going toward so what these are I don't know, I just kind of wondered these are these are regular earnings.

These are um that this is not a bonus scenario, and this is not meant to pay directly for your health insurance premiums.

This is to provide for the increase in inflation across all health costs.

And while yes, this these will be looked at as regular wages and will be taxed as such.

Um, that's why I kind of give the caveat that like it's not going to make everybody whole, but it is something to try to apply in every scenario.

Okay, it helps reduce that cost.

So thank you.

Um appreciate it.

Ums Herbert, we're from here.

Okay.

Well, what what did our health care go up?

8.3%.

83?

All right, thank you.

Um, I know, Mr.

Fayel, I think you've got a robust admin and policy homework to get out of here in 15, 20 minutes.

Um, I do I think I'd like to hear from elevate next.

So that'll be the next one.

Are we voting on anything?

No, no.

Would you like this though included as part of next week's the goal, I think is to have this on next week's council meeting.

This the addendum, yes, sir.

Okay, I was just gonna treat it if if it's not excised or amended, it is a part of the top of it with all the budget resolution.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, who's doing L but well?

Well, we have multiple project managers within elevate.

Which uh area would you like to discuss what are my options?

Um, well the revenue at the top is one that we can talk about, or um the let's see the first uh new project that's listed.

You'll see highlighted in yellow on the 2026 column is the Freeman Park and Pool at 250,000.

Um that really is kind of like the only new thing.

We have uh updated the Savings Center Capital Campaign uh collections across the board and then added the addendum uh the added amount for that to the project line.

So there's the savings center that's on there.

Um University Boulevard corridor, that's the planned increase for the project that we've had for the last three years, I think.

Um, and then we have also updated the bond issuance for 2026 and those the bond service, the debt service amounts.

So really anything.

Well, how where you would like to start?

Is Katie Beth around there behind the things?

No, but Mr.

Moore is.

I'm here as big on projects they and I's taking up the full budget.

Hey Brendan, why don't why don't you come up and give us the just the overview?

You know, coming up in 26, elevates juggling this, this, this, and this.

Here's where we see the big sources of money going.

And here's the things we anticipate.

Obviously, you have the airport items, which Mr.

Powell handles in the savings center, which Ms.

Buck handles.

The biggest items I think you'll see coming up is you have um Linton's barber shop under construction.

Um the what I think of is the Alberta section of the corridor.

We will have to have a design discussion on the University Boulevard corridor section closer back to campus and downtown.

Um Bowers Park Pickleball will be wrapping up Bowers Park Belt Center pool.

I believe Mr.

Thompson, we're close to 100% design.

So that item will be prepared for bid.

Um Northern River Wall and Greensboro will be project, will be your other two large items up.

Okay.

So I'll have to miss Stanford will have to discuss the financial aspects of how we'll move forward with that.

But project wise, those are the bigger ones in the queue.

How much money you got to work with?

For so the total amount how much elevate revenues coming in.

So total revenue planned for the year is 37.6 million.

That is a majority based on the sales and use tax, the extra one cent that was adopted in 2019.

That provides for 27 million dollars.

Um there's about 4.3 million in the savings center capital campaign planned.

Um, and then there's just the prior amounts that have built up and are carried forward at 6.2 million.

So 27 coming in from the elevate portion of the new taxes.

Correct.

I assume and then another four and change 4.4 uh it is capital funds from savings center being released into this the process, right?

And then about seven left over?

Six point two left over.

Six point two, so thirty-seven total.

Yes, sir.

And the the five that we take out, does that take out before we color it elevate?

The five that we reimburse for garbage.

Oh, yes, sir.

Yes, I well, it does so that never is colored elevate.

That's comes out before it goes to elevate.

We don't put that into elevate and then take five out.

We do actually.

We put it into elevate first, then we take five out.

All right.

So after that's 37.

Yes.

Well, oh no, I'm sorry.

I guess I I was unsure about like you were asking about process or total dollar amount.

37 is before we take it out.

Before we take it.

Before we take it out.

So after we take the five out, we're down to 32.

On your spreadsheet is three rows above the green fiscal 20 debt service.

It's three rows.

When I get this, I feel like you could type put string on it and apply.

Give me go ahead.

It's three rows above, and you will see it's five million a year across the board and the projection.

So if you go to fiscal 20 debt service and then work Noah's Arc 2.0, public safety investments, and then environmental service fee reduction.

That's the five million being taken out on the expenditure side.

We're gonna have to do it probably.

Okay.

You and you you can get me tracked over.

Sure, sure.

So so you got 37.

We got 37 going into the big chunks going.

Big chunks coming out.

So we'll start with your environmental service fee.

Um they in order here.

No, sir, they're not going to be in order there.

Do you want me to go in order?

No, I'm fine, just big chunks.

Okay, so big chunks.

Um, so the environmental service fee gets transferred back to the general fund.

That's still five even ish five every year, absolute even.

Um, the next large chunk is the public safety set aside.

So the public safety amount that is 20% of the total overall elevate amount, 20% gets transferred to the public safety fund, which is that seven too.

Is it 20% of 37?

No, it's 24 million.

It's 20.

Yeah, it's 20% of the 37 or it's 20% of the 27, the total sales tax, less the five million dollars of environmental services.

Then take 20% of that number, and that gets pushed over into public safety.

That goes into the public safety fund that pays for the pay plan and RSA conversion save up.

Um is there this um uh the adjustment we just talked about that that wouldn't be appropriate coming out of there.

No, I wouldn't think so for the public safety portion of it.

You could you could I mean I only asked because it arises from a choice of step versus coach you you could and and this standards may have a totally different opinion, but you could pay for the increase theoretically, I guess, for public safety, and or the employees who are covered by elevate.

Okay, all right.

Let's I you can tell me.

We don't need to hang out, I just let's keep I only work here.

So okay, so that so the next large chunk is going to be the um operations and maintenance set aside.

That's 15% of that net amount gets set aside into what we call OM that that pays for the operations and maintenance of the already completed elevate product set, it's 3.3 million.

Yeah, um and then we have the debt service payments.

Okay, uh that's the next large one.

2020 A that was Northern River Walk, River District Park, and Western River Walk, that's just over a million.

2022, that was um the Benjamin Barnes YMCA, uh Burrell Odin Park, and um, and those is 2.4 million, and then the new bond districts that we just did is 5.75 million.

Um, 2.7 of uh is going towards that this coming year.

Yes, yes, sir.

Um then I mean, really, the next largest ones are going to be the um the the agency funding amounts where we have a piece going to transit, a piece going to the school systems for dual enrollment, pre-K, summer learning, and then the Athletic Excellence Fund.

Um one second.

So a port so we we've got uh I haven't looked at 14 million ish of agency funding.

Oh, in general fund, yes, sir.

Yes, does that and we know some of that that's shown in there is tracking in from opioid funds.

Is any of that tracking in from elevate, or is that not counted in that 14?

It's not counted in the 14.

This is completely separate.

Um, and so that is so yeah, so there's 150,000 for transit, and then um let's see, I'm gonna try and add these up really fast, and I had one.

There's about about 1.8 million total goes to the school systems for like I said, dual enrollment, pre-K, summer learning, and the Athletic Excellence Fund.

And that's really it.

And then the project.

Well, I guess so.

Then we have the Freeman Park and Pool Project.

Um I do think it's important to note again, we've put the line the L the line of credit for NOAA's ARC 2.0 already in here.

That was out of the authorization from this summer.

What's what's the timeline on that?

Do we have a timeline on moving forward?

We're waiting for final approval of the NOAA's ARC projects from the council itself.

Well, I know we've approved the short-term projects.

Well, and and Mr.

Busby is correct.

I think that we were originally planning on having a financing discussion, a financing timing discussion on the way to finance the short term, the line of credit, but because of all the budget hearings, we've pushed that to the I think September 30th.

So but the LOC is included in here.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah, but that'll be ultimately the council this fall to decide the time what project is and how to fund it.

But I know if the projects are approved, we've got some things that could get started, Joe.

Do you're like as soon as the budget's adopted, honestly, because I think engineers got several things that are ready.

Correct, Mike.

We've got some projects that are close to being ready to go.

Yes, sir.

We have some relatively close.

Yeah, that are close.

That we've been working on.

So I think that we ought to start some of us as quick if we can.

Maybe put it on an upcoming agenda once we pass the budget and let's get them.

I want to make sure we're on the same page with the council.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

We just need to get projects.

Get it done.

And as I think we're all in agreement with what's there.

Yeah.

As far as the cash availability for NOAA's Arc, I just want to make sure that everybody's aware.

So a line of credit issuance is no different from any other debt issuance.

We will have to take it the same the same general pathway.

Um we will have to do an RFQ for uh if a number of banks want to offer that whatever their interest rate is.

Usually we will advertise the uh request for qualifications for about two weeks.

Um we'll get them in, we'll bet, and then we'll present to council again.

So that will take you know the the original prep presentation to finance committee and then back to council.

So I would say it's going to be about a month to a month and a half before we will have cash in hand to be able to start executing after after we approve by another month before we'd be able to move.

Yes, sir.

By the November, probably.

That sounds true.

Yeah, that's fair.

Okay, but but conceptually uh fundamentally the notion of going forward with that is approved and the projects are identified.

We got we got some bows to tie up on it.

Yeah, I think we just have some procedural things to start checking off the list.

And they and they are in QR time and our processing timeline.

Um the only thing that I wanted to mention last on Elevate is that there is a contingency amount for the entire year of 5.2 million purely in elevate, purely in elevate, yes, sir.

Um, and like Mr.

Moore just mentioned, there are projects um that are slated for an upcoming bond issuance that is Bowers Park, um, the terminal uh which is the $13 million that um Mr.

Powell mentioned in projects committee, Northern River Walk phase two, um, and then Greensboro Avenue.

So you know, no please know that another financing is required for those to move forward.

Where are we on Greensboro Avenue, Brenda?

Greensboro Avenue and Mr.

Gardner, feel free to jump in.

But uh, we have 100% plans.

Um, our plan assuming funding is secured is we're gonna drop the project and get ready right after graduation of UA in May.

It is about a 90 to 120 day project.

Uh big credit to Duncan Coker for sequence sequencing that in a manner that will not disrupt the fall.

So we're optimistic as if we get going with that schedule that as we approach Labor Day of 26 that the project will be complete, we would be essentially on punch list items.

Mayor, yes.

So that project is ready to go.

We're just waiting on that window of time in summer to actually get a problem.

Mr.

Bow, I think it's important.

Um, one of the things after we get finished budget, we've got to turn our attention to two things audit, but also how we want to cash flow these projects last year, thanks to the work of our Treasury Department and ANF and their leadership team.

We were able to cash flow a lot of these projects before we actually even went to the bond market to we could begin those projects with the cash flow, then go to the bond market.

We're gonna have to begin making those kind of decisions this fall and come to you in early part of 2026 to you know, is do we want to go to the market?

Because the goal would be to bid the Greensboro Avenue project in March, right?

Brendan, because the project the contractor has to be willing to hit the ground running the day after graduation, which means we have to before we can bid a project, we have to have the funding secured in place.

My goal would be now again, it will depend on cash flow, would be to begin that project with cash flow and then ultimately reimburse ourselves from a a bond issue.

Those are the type of things we're gonna have to begin looking at sequencing once we get through budget as we get ready on the 27 projects.

Um we could have something hit on the terminal.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that we're the 27 bond issue, maybe one of those things that we might pop early, just depending upon circumstances beyond our control, or we might actually wait a little bit later, depending upon cash flow, and if we don't get a grant.

I know all that's conceptual and theoretical, but I just wanted to give you a sense of but that gives the conversation, right?

That we've been talking about having.

I mean it yes as we move through identifying what was coming up the with the Noah's Ark to and those type things.

We had that we had that conversation that you know how much can we cash flow because you got to pay for them as you go, and you don't want to borrow the whole.

I I thought all of that that we've just been talking about was that conversation that we said, okay, let's get the budget out of the way.

And then the other I think we're in violent agreement.

Okay, and the the other variable is MLK phase three.

We we are very very close on that one.

Excruciating close to being able to proceed to bid process.

Chances are though that it wouldn't, if we started the bid process, we've got to look at timing.

So you know, we could possibly hate to say this because this is a complicated project.

We could be under construction in first or second quarter of 2026, calendar 26.

So I say that again, Mayor.

We could be under construction sometime in the first or second quarter calendar year 26.

Okay.

Okay, that's good.

That will be a project.

Now you know that's reimbursed from Tickery.

So that will be a project.

We can't cash flow.

We will we will need to go to the market immediately on that one.

That is another variable that as we start thinking about end of September, October.

We've gonna we're gonna have to put in our discussion as well.

You know, if we're gonna already go to the market on MLK phase three, should we just go ahead and move on, you know, put money in on Greensboro?

Would it be better for us to go ahead and bond out for Greensboro Avenue at that time?

Those are going to be the types of discussions that we're gonna have to add to the mix as well.

Um, so you got NOAA's Arc, MLK phase three, then the elevat projects like Greensboro, potentially terminal, and I think a couple of others.

Um I am gonna try to begin bringing this to a close so that admin policy members.

Any other questions or comments for LA?

No, okay.

Thank you all.

Um, Jeff, we got you here.

Yes, sir.

Let's take advantage of that right quick and just ports where you're gonna get you a couple of minutes to Jeff.

What pages you on in the budget book?

Leave it's 53.

I wasn't sure if you'd have it available, so uh thank you.

Some of our documentation in the second page of our packet, it'll show our organizational charge.

Show kind of how our makeup is for the airport staff.

Eight full-time employees, one part-time, and what what types of those, Jeff?

So we have uh four maintenance, we have a maintenance supervisor and three line employees, and the rest are admin of a senior secretary operations manager, assistant airport manager, and myself.

Okay, all right.

And you're asking for uh 26, a little over a million dollars, million 29, just over a million.

Um it was interesting when we're looking at our budget that we had control of just a little under 200,000 that we could uh modify through outside services, repairs and supplies.

A lot of our expenses are salary or uh airfield lighting, not a lot of movement from year to year.

So we've tried to optimize that budget as much as possible.

The biggest changes we see in our expenses are usually our capital improvement projects, not necessarily our general fund.

What are your other operating consist of typically?

Uh outside services, air traffic control overtime.

We we pay for that uh on game day weekends.

Uh we do airfield herbicide treatment on the airfield, EDCO.

Uh, that contract just got renewed.

That's one that we we share with public works.

Uh we have TTL that supports us in ADEM water sampling.

Uh that budget is is just under, I believe, uh 80,000.

Not a huge expense, but those are a larger some of our larger contracts.

Uh, we have outside legal support that looks at FA compliance.

That's probably our second biggest contract.

Jeff, where are your revenues shown in here?

I mean, you you you generate revenues in what for we have a variety of fees on page three in the packet.

You'll see kind of the chart that we've made progress uh since 2020.

Our largest revenues are our hangar leases.

We have just over 40 acres that we lease out to tenants.

We have special event fees, our game day parking landing fees, which is per aircraft, fuel flowage fees, so a per gallon fee.

We'll be talking more in detail during admin committee.

We have a recommendation to make updates based off a recent rent study that we looked at comparable airports.

Okay.

But we've we've really focused hard to be more business-minded to make sure that we're offset offsetting the level of subsidy at the airport.

Okay.

What is that subsidy?

Uh for our this budget at a million, we're currently generating 550,000 in revenues.

Uh the rent uh proposal, the fees, there's a potential that we could generate an additional 300,000 depending on how we negotiate our leases.

The larger acreage leases, the more immediate impact.

Uh but the fuel flowage and the landing fee, that probably would generate an additional uh hundred thousand each year.

But our goal is to try to be fully self-sustaining on our general fund budget.

So a million twenty-nine to operate, five fifty-ish, you're pretty sure you can generate, right?

Yes, sir.

Last year we generated up to maybe another three to four three hundred, maybe.

Yes, sir.

Uh, if what happens, depending on how we negotiate the FBO agreements, they control over 29 acres.

So how we negotiate those lease rates has a huge impact on the number of revenue, the amount of revenue that we generate at the airport.

Okay.

They they make up about 70 percent of our total leases that are leased out.

That that subsidies as a proportion of the the cost of operating function out there, what's it been doing the last four or five years?

How the subsidies grown or reduced?

The proportion, yeah.

Um if if we're if we're we're we're covering about half as of last year, and you've seen since 2020 that that has grown about 17 percent each year to where we've offset the number the amount of subsidy.

Uh it's not been a fixed number, it's grown significantly in the last 10 years where we've reduced that amount of subsidy.

All right, so that's what I'm trying.

When you say it's grown, you mean, and then you say we've reduced you you mean the proportion that the city is subsidizing is shrinking about 17 percent a year?

Is that yes, sir?

In our general fund budget.

Okay, okay.

Um Norman, you have any questions, comments you want to ask Jeff about self-explanatory.

Jeff looking across into 26.

What is your big challenge this year?

Most difficult challenge that we face, I would say annually is how strong of a business mind do we want to operate the airport?

The more we say we want a cost recovery, the harder it results in our negotiations.

Do we want to accept the airport as a loss leader, or do we want to do all things possible to reduce the amount of general funds that go back into the airport?

It's easy to look at rent studies and what rates we could do to get to 100%, but sometimes those are very difficult uh negotiating conversations.

So if we want to be aggressive, we can do more.

If we want to be okay that we you know we have some level of subsidy, but our overall economic impact is worth that, we can do that.

We can take that strategy.

But isn't that a market-shaped decision?

I mean, I would think the stickiness or resents resistance of customers accommodating the model that gets us to uh uh cost independence is the arbiter there, not here.

The the key piece is where do we fall in the market compared to the other airports?

So if we're if we look at comparable airports and we're supposed to be generating 500,000, but we're only generating 200, then why would we want to accept that amount of uh rates that generate you know under performance or undermarket revenues?

The so we're not saying we're gonna charge until we reach self-sustaining, but we want to say, hey, if other airports like us are charging this this same number, why wouldn't we want to?

And we we've done that in 2016.

Uh we just did it again here in 2025 to look at where what changes we've seen in the markets as other comparable airports are doing.

Uh so when we get into negotiations or we operate a fee, we can say, hey, we've we're not just throwing a random number out there.

We can say, hey, we're like other airports, and then the discussions become a little more clear.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr.

Course, come on up for a couple of minutes.

This is just a copy of our organizational structure as you can see the breakdown.

You're gonna get the quick version, Mr.

Fail pulling his watch out like this.

We do have counsel at five.

No, I will I will have taken 55 minutes.

I'm leaving you 60.

Where would you like me to start?

How much money do you need?

All the money.

No, no, our budget's level funded.

Um this is the change you see on here, there is an increase, and that includes the two personnel that we brought in for the court referral program.

This program has been built kind of in the transition for the budget, so it's not all gonna be shown as it normally would, like it would next year because we're implementing the contract kind of as budget preparations are happening.

Okay, but what does it cost us to operate our municipal things?

So the operating budget is right at 1.5 for the for this fiscal year.

Most of that is going salaries, benefits.

Do we pay uh we pay administrators?

Do we pay judges' salaries?

We have our municipal court judge, we have part-time judges that are brought in on an as needed basis when Judge McKinney is out.

So if he's out sick at conference on a vacation, we limit those to when it's a necessary cost to keep that cost at a maintained level.

What portion of the cost of operating our municipal courts is shared by other entities?

Any so there's no there's no state slice of that?

No, so when the only money that comes in through the municipal court for a ticket or a criminal case, a small portion of that is kept by the city.

The remainder is all sent to the state, it's all set out by the state on how much the court costs are diverted into other funds.

So we keep a small portion of the court cost, and then we keep the fine amounts, but the majority of your court costs go back to the state.

But what we bring in over the past few years has been a self-sustaining for the department.

Do you have a breakdown on how much of that actually goes to say the district attorney's office?

And I can get that for it's all broken down per fund.

So you'll have the district attorney's office, you have the citizens' trust fund, a DECA.

Okay, you have the and you have that break.

Could you get that?

I can send that to you.

Thank you.

Is that to the local the local office director again?

The state where it's allocated.

District attorney.

District attorney is sent straight to the district attorney's office.

We kind of check months per month when all of our state checks are cut.

Well, what is that average of care?

No.

I want to say don't hold me to this completely.

I want to say it's around 15 to 17,000 per month.

It's a couple hundred a year.

It was a little over 300,000.

300,000 yes.

What's your biggest challenge?

Um, I wouldn't even say really a challenge.

We're working, we're very excited to work towards getting this court referral program up and running.

That's our main focus at this point.

Um but there's no change to the function of it.

Is there's just a change of who's being paid to do it?

It's the same people contracting, we hired somewhat.

So it was all like um alternative sentencing, so they were a completely separate entity.

We brought all of the administrative part of it into our department under me, and then hired two staff to actually administer the program.

But it has been a brand new path for us.

So this would eliminate all barriers for the individuals and need to utilize this program because now there are a lot of things.

It is all in the house.

Yeah.

They can walk across the hall from the courtrooms and access good those personnel and the standards of City Hall and the city will be implemented to that program.

We've hired one, she started two weeks ago, and we finished interviews today for the other.

I have lots more I would like to do.

Understandably, he's got a load today.

I appreciate it.

Um catch you on this.

Thank you.

Are there any other items to be brought before finance today?

But before we leave, what's our plan for next week?

So next week we will come and uh the plan is for count um finance committee uh to pass forward uh its version of the mayor's recommendation.

Okay.

Uh and that be at counsel the following week.

Is it suspicious?

When I say its version at the moment, that could either be untouched or mildly.

There's I mean, we've talked amongst ourselves about what's in there to be massaged, but Mr.

Crow, my sense would be well there's very little to fight over.

There's some some tweaking here and there.

Do you need anything from our colleagues between now and next Tuesday?

Yeah, we'll talk separately.

Okay.

Sounds good.

Anything else, Chairman?

Motion to adjourn.

Second.

All in favor.