Come in top forever.

Come on on.

Come on now.

Okay, well, Matt.

Meg, you didn't say that when I didn't so I was gonna go first.

I'll go first.

You can tie on and everything.

That's right.

Good morning.

Good morning.

So I believe you have the distinction of being our second largest department dollar wise.

Yes, sir.

How about employee-wise?

How do you stack up there?

So we're usually running about a 10% deficit, but uh right now on roll, we've got 126 positions.

Uh broken down.

I'm sorry, what was that?

Out of out of how out of how many funded?

So I would no, we're funded for 126.

Funded for 126.

Yes, sir.

Have 126?

No, sir.

Uh usually we're running about a 10% deficit.

Right now we're down 10 people.

Um, depending on where a lot of the so grounds is the largest division in CFG, depending on where we are with people getting promoted.

Um that's usually where we've got the uh biggest deficit as far as employees.

What is your biggest challenge manpower wise?

So it goes with uh I think a lot of the other uh groups that you know work out there in operations, getting some of the uh I guess lower paid positions in and then being able to retain them.

So it's lower paid position?

Yes, sir.

Isn't that the most difficult?

We've got some good ones, and you know, when we get them in, we like to promote them as quickly as we can, but being able to get some of those guys in uh at some of the lower positions is usually a challenge.

So what are the seasonality challenges that you have to deal with?

Cutting grass in the 100-degree weather is difficult.

I'm not interested in how hot or hard about keeping employees, keeping them employed.

I would think that that seasonality, right?

Yes, sir.

And so you know what we also have seen is some of the people coming in want to get their foot in the door, and then they might go on to another department, uh, come in and get their CDL license, and then they could move up to say ESD, water and sewer, public works, and you know, just be able to move up the uh career path.

So you see some upward migration towards Chris's group?

Uh two several different groups.

But you know, we're happy for them.

We want to see them progress.

What structural changes?

What structural changes between last year's comps and this year's do we need to be able to do that?

So we're looking to utilize contractors more.

Uh, we think that there's some cost savings in there.

Um as far as you know, the city growing, getting bigger each year.

Uh we've got 126 FTEs.

Uh you know, certain groups we feel that that's enough, and being able to take on some of the seasonal challenges.

Uh I'd like to start utilizing contractors more, cut down on the FTEs, and then have uh some of the FTVs we do have uh do more of a supervisory role.

Capital-wise, what all did you have a bucket truck and so I have uh I've got a few trucks, so I've got a bucket truck and a box truck, both are 2006 models, both have you know almost 150,000 miles on the bucket truck.

Yeah, while it does have 148,000, I believe.

You also have to look at the hours on that because it's not always you know, driving down the road.

A lot of times they'll drop to wherever they need to go get a tree, it's on the tree crew, and then that uh bucket truck's gonna be running uh for several hours while the uh men are operating the bucket.

What other what other big capital needs do you have that aren't in here that's really it?

You know, we we've got uh pretty good rotation on the zero turns.

I know I'm asking for two more, uh actually surplus one yesterday that was at 2012.

So you know, getting 14 years out of a zero turn that's running, you know, eight hours a day for you know the majority of the days during the year.

Uh for several hours while the uh men are operating the bucket what other what other big capital needs do you have that aren't in here that's really it you know we we've got uh a pretty good rotation on the zero turns I know I'm asking for two more uh actually surplus one yesterday that was a 2012 so you know getting 14 years out of a zero turn that's running you know eight hours a day for you know the majority of the days during the year it's um you know we've got a good maintenance schedule I will I will say that uh we've also got tractors on the ground side um asking for another one there uh you know again those things are running constantly and they just wear out but we have looked at some things as far as grounds go where you've got the bigger squad trucks some of those are gonna require CDL you can get one that's a step down still the same size but doesn't have the same I guess load requirements uh doesn't require a CDL and it is cheaper so you know where we can save money we are uh looking at some F two fifties F 350s instead of going with a squad truck when we can Eric excuse me when when when your bucket truck can we have somebody that can maintain it yes sir so it fleet does a great job working with us that truck is in and out of the shop right now just because of how many hours it has on it obviously there's some things that go into the bucket that fleet you know isn't going to be able to work on so it gets sent out to you know a local group to work on it does that slow you down yes sir so uh the the tree crew is constantly working they've got a backlog that they keep you know working through uh when that truck goes down we can pull one of the mini buckets over they just can't get some of the bigger trees but they'll just save those until the big uh larger bucket truck comes out of the shop by the way I think I told you but say it again folks in woodland for us really appreciated what y'all did for them this well thank you I'll make sure the crew knows that they were on the river walk this morning on the way in they're everywhere so Eric or actually Miss Standard maybe there's something in the note down here at the bottom of 73 that I don't fully follow so is it is it's outlined your budget jump like just under 10 percent yes sir um increase of a million two hundred and sixty one thousand attributed to a 10% rise in health insurance premium no harm no fail a 2.2 percent cost of living adjustment a two step increase again all kind of tracking with the big picture that we knew an increase in state pension or public safety RSA conversion is that the the fire and police that we talked about okay the recognition of the full cost of prior year steps what does that mean so sorry Eric so the way that our uh pay plan works for step movements is that a step movement within the within the pay grades so that's your raise your merit raise for the year you get that on your anniversary date you don't get that at the beginning of the year.