Test one test one, two, three.

Hi, everybody.

The clerk will call the role for city council meetings started at six oh four PM.

Mr.

Snappy, Mr.

Delouise, Mr.

Bowley, Gephot, Mr.

Kirby, Mr.

Ladissa, Mr.

Munham, Mr.

Napa, Mr.

Rix.

If Councilman Delouise will please lead us in a salute to the flag.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic of which is stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

And now if our special guest, Michael Bassett could please lead us in the national anthem.

Um it is with great sadness.

He served in the position of the um head administrator.

And it is a great loss in the passing of Mr.

Murphy.

So I would request a moment of silence, please.

An ordinance amending section sixty dash five zero zero.

Oops, maybe my cross out doesn't cover it.

Of the code of ordinances to provide flexibility and city OPEB contributions that would exceed those matching employee contributions for the period until the state reimbursement on school construction debt service begins.

So this is going to be before the full council.

However, the the hopeful path forward is that we'll first have uh introduction of a potential amendment, and then have it so that the administration can explain and then also have it so that the public can then speak, and then after that, we'll close the public comment and then be able to do the councils and bear in mind that's the plan for all three of these items, not just for this one.

So we're all clear.

Uh for this one, again, just to help orient everyone before we get into the discussion.

Bear in mind we're here to discuss the option to allocate uh the funds above and beyond the contractually agreed to funds to go into the OPEB trust fund, which would be approximately five million for this year.

The purpose of which would be in this case to allocate that money towards the school bond debt.

The reason for that is that the alternative would be to as uh stated so far.

The alternative would be to either take from the budget, so a loss of services, and as at least one that the mayor pointed out the last meeting, would be the for instance a loss of service doing trash pickup, uh half as much was one example, or alternatively, we could take it from the rainy day fund.

The problem with taking it from the rainy day fund is that we would lose interest that would accrue, and more importantly, it would be a potential hit to our bond or credit rating, which could have financial impacts of it of itself.

And to be clear, we're not talking about messing with any of the collective bargaining agreements at all.

Far from it, especially because we don't actually have the ability to mess with them here.

Uh we are talking about specifically the ordinance that was giving money above and beyond that.

We're also not talking about interfering with benefits guaranteed to current employees or retirees.

We are strictly talking about OPEB.

We're not talking about pension.

Again, we have no authority to mess with the benefits regardless of what happens here tonight.

The benefits for retirees and anyone else who receives OPEB will still happen.

If it's not paid via the trust, it will be paid via the method that we've always done, which is the pay as you go model.

And indeed, that is the method that we would be using anyway for probably decades, because you have to wait till the trust gets up to a certain amount before you can pull from it anyway.

So doing this diversion temporarily doesn't actually hurt anyone.

It's only the alternatives that stand to hurt.

Uh that being said, there is a the one impact that's not ideal is that by doing a diversion of funds each year, should we choose to do so?

Because again, this actually only gives the option for such.

And then when it comes time for the budgets, we'll actually be discussing it further.

Then we will lose out on the interest that would have accrued from that.

So that is a fact.

That is a fair point.

If anyone uh was going to mention it, that is arguably the only financial hit we take in that regard.

And so it's important to note the financial hit on the other end, far as if we took from the rainy day fund or the credit bond rating hits.

So those are all realities of the situation.

Uh all that being said, first a proposed amendment, councilman Gebhart.

Mr.

President, point of order, please.

Yep.

I would like to at this time make a request to suspend the rules, given the significance, financial significance of this particular item, and not just in the short term, but in the long term, and suspend the council rules as it applies to the um 10-minute limitation on uh individual comments.

You said the times, right?

I'm sorry, you said timed to suspend the um 10 minute all right.