The meeting convened to approve the previous minutes, approve routine business items regarding liquor licenses, address a request to extend entertainment district hours for a half marathon, and review an overview of the proposed TPD Cadet Program aimed at improving recruitment and retention.
Can I get we have all our members? Yep. Yep. Can I get a motion to approve the meetings? Second. All in favor? The minutes stand approved. For our new business, we have Mr. Woodson. All right. This is uh quick one. This is the half marathon sponsored by Fresh Junkie Productions. And it's gonna be a government plaza. And they want to extend the hours of sale for the entertainment district from 7 to 11 and normally starts at 11, and then we want to start at 7, then done that for several years now with no problems. All right. So it's 7 a.m. 7 a.m. Okay. If you want to get out there and support them, just I'll just make alcohol at 7 a.m. I don't know. Well, you you can't take it with you, Jackson. Okay. I'll be busy at 7 a.m. You're not supposed to run with either. No, don't worry. I'll make a motion. All right. Second. All in favor? I motion passes. Next we have Chief Sanders with CPD Cadet Program overview. Good afternoon, Mayor Council. I'm here today to speak to y'all about an avenue that we think can help us on our recruiting with TPD. Everyone knows I'm a big advocate of law enforcement and make sure our city is safe and Mr. Theo laugh. I guess he's a good idea. Sorry. Well, you know, nationally in law enforcement, our employment is shrinking. It's harder to get good candidates to come in to protect our city. And one thing I always say that Tusaloosa Police Department is the best police department in the Southeast. And I'll stand on that. And me and Chief Blackley and our staff have come up with some ideas to try to help with our program. With our cadet program, you know, we got some challenges, you know, like most departments across the country, we are facing a shrinkage in law enforcement. Now I think the cadet program would be a great program for us to go out and recruit and to be able to come in and bring young men in our city at our local schools or just in our cities here to uh TPD. Our opportunity to proactively develop homegrown lawyer workforce, improve representation and retention, create a true career lateral from high school to sworn officers. Program overview. Most uh cadet programs start at the age of 18 to 21. In the state of Alabama, you can be a police officer at the age of 19, but that's gonna be evaluated by us at the time. Uh our benefit, a starting salary, we recommend 35,000. Benefit RSA retirement and health insurance.