Okay, seeing that it's six o'clock.

We're gonna start our finance committee Tuesday, June 30th.

I'm gonna call the order.

Seeing everyone but Joe Piper here today, we have a quorum.

He's on vacation.

So we'll stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance.

To the flag of the United States of America.

And to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for law.

With that, I don't see anybody here for public comment.

So we'll move on to approval of the minutes.

Does anybody have any objections to the minutes for June 9th, 2026?

Seeing none, we'll pass that by unanimous consent.

That brings us on to the business item, ID number 2603985.

Review on possible action on a budget amendment to increase the capital expenses for the City Hall Security Improvements Project.

I will start us off.

Yes, thank you.

So yes, Rebecca Peterson, Communications and Engagement Manager, and then I am joined by Chief Thompson and then Joe Walter, who is our facilities and construction manager for the engineering department public works.

So I wanted to start by just giving a little bit of background on this project.

So yes, we are asking for a budget amendment to increase expenses or to have expenses for a security hall security project.

And really how this started is that over the last several years we've seen an increasing number of incidents taking place here at City Hall.

So there have been disorderly individuals that have come into City Hall space and made direct threats, honestly, to employees or the space or um, you know, call it um threaten physical harm um to employees in the building to the level where employees have had to push their the panic button that is installed in certain areas and called the police department.

Um obviously the police department has responded uh swiftly, been able to assist us in those situations and um issue citations and and handle the individuals in the situation.

But certainly each one of those incidences has left employees feeling extremely fearful, um, I'd say scared and unsure, unsafe in the work environment.

And certainly that's not something we want employees to feel you know all the time that they are that they are unsafe and that we are not caring and concerned about their safety in their workplace.

Um so it's something we're taking very seriously.

So we um the city administrator reached out to the police department um and our public works department, and um specifically for the police department sort of asked for a review of the building and the security.

Are there things we could do that would just make the building more secure?

Are there practical steps we could take to help employees um feel safer and be safer in the building space?

So um they did a review of the building.

We've worked with the public works department to think about kind of what that would look like, obviously, in terms of of costs and actual, you know, um certain elements of that.

Um and so what we're proposing are are four different things that we think will help um employees and help increase the security of this building.

So um I'm just gonna run through them quickly and then Joe Walter can obviously um address some of the more specifics of the construct, you know, if you have questions on some of those pieces.

But um, so one of the things we're looking at is updating the access levels um on all floors of the building.

So there are certain areas that were always intended to be employee areas, like um meeting spaces and rooms that currently now are not behind locked doors.

Um, and so the intention would be that we will just secure those areas that were meant to be employee areas.

Certainly, if there are public meetings or things in those areas, employees would, you know, would escort people back, and they could still be used, but day to day they're used for employee spaces, and they were always meant to be employee spaces, so just making sure that those um security elements are in place.

Um a second piece is installing barriers to protect exterior utility access points.

There's just some um some areas that the police department identified that maybe you know something could happen to those exterior areas that we maybe we want to just better secure, so we're not um opening the building up to some of those possible um possible issues.

Um a third thing is just numbering.

So making sure that all of the numbering and signage on all the doors and spaces here is clear and that they are numbered.

There's a lot of rooms that currently do not have clear numbering.

Um, and as you would see, if you went into any school or most office buildings today, they are clearly numbered, really for the purpose of making sure that police and firefighters and all of our first responders can clearly identify where they're going in the building if someone were calling for an emergency that they can say which room clearly which room they're in, and that it like I said, police and fire then can be able to respond to that specific area.

So that is a piece of this project as well.

And then the final piece, which is the largest piece, um, we are proposing installing um a glass security barrier at the clerk's clerk treasurer's office desk, which is located right here off the lobby, and then also on the second floor where the engineering um public works and community development customer service desk is located.

So those are our two public counters um where we are interacting with the public all day long that do not have any sort of um protective barrier.

Um it's important to note that municipal court, which is also located here on this floor, does have the glass protective barrier.

So if you were going to municipal court to pay a fine or a citation, you would be interacting with the staff, you know, thro through that glass barrier.

Um, but just steps away, as staff know, steps away is the clerk treasurer's office space, which does not have that protective barrier.

And so the same people that are in this building for you know, municipal court and other other services could be interacting at any one of those desks without you know the staff having any level of protection.

So um and I I should point out one thing I I did not mention is that the fear and has gotten to the level that we have had employees actually resign from their position, stating that they did not feel safe in in their work environment.

So um again, something we want to take very seriously.

We want to show employees that obviously we value their lives, we value their safety, we care about this work environment, and we want it to be a safe place.

Um we know all of us we are in public service, so certainly we are here to serve the public, so it's not an intention to make it that you know, we're trying to put up a barrier or you know, you know, limit our service to the public.

We will be doing the same tasks and the same functioning really in the same way.

Um, but it would offer a level of protection um for employees um to feel safer and more secure um in the workspace.

So um with that, I don't know, Joe.

Do you want to talk a little about the specifics of those four elements?

Yeah, absolutely.

Um Joe Welter, facilities and construction manager in engineering.