4/2/24, 10:15AM  City Council Special Meeting  HITE  1833  MINUTES  City Council Special Meeting 5:00 p.m. Tuesday, March 26, 2024 317 S. Madison Street, Whiteville, NC, 28472  The City Council Special Meeting of the City of Whiteville was called to order on Tuesday, March 26, 2024, at 5:00 p.m., at 317 S. Madison Street, Whiteville, NC,  28472. 1)  ROLL CALL PRESENT: ABSENT:  Terry Mann, Kevin' Williamson, Jimmy Clarida, Tim Collier,  Joshua Harris, and Helen BI Holden  Vickie Pait  OTHERS IN ATTENDANCE: Darren Currie, City Manager; Heather Dowless, City Clerk; Colburn Brown, Finance Director; Douglas Ipock, Police Chief; Hal Lowder, Emergency Services Director; Robert Lewis, Planning Director; David  Yergeau, Fire Chief; Joseph Williams (The News Reporter)  2) 3)  CALL TOORDER Call to Order by Mayor Mann at 5:00 p.m. BUDGET WORKSHOP Budget Workshop Preview  Darren Currie, City Manager, presented Council with a chart of Revenues and Expenditures for FYE 2023. He noted this was a breakdown of General Fund Revenues and Expenditures for the City of Whiteville. The largest revenue items are Intergovernment Revenue and Ad Valorem Taxes. The largest expenditure items are in Public Colburn Brown, Finance Director, presented Council with information regarding the FYE 2024 Financial Forecast for the General Fund, Sewer, Sanitation, Water, Storm Water, Powell Bill, WDDC, and Vineland. Revenues and Expenditures were detailed for these areas. Mr. Brown also noted the Headwinds and Tailwinds for the City of Whiteville. The Headwinds included inflation, supply chain lag, energy cost, technology advancements, contractor labor and availability, and no further ARP funds. The Tailwinds included city-wide business development, personnel attraction and retention, technology deployment, benefits of completed capital projects, highway improvement construction (long-term), and community engagement. Mr. Brown noted the City wants to move into the next phase of the Market Adjustment for employees. The City is also looking at the Property Tax' Valuation Cycle, while considering inflationary adjustments, Mayor Mann asked about the sales tax difference between the City of Whiteville and Columbus County. It was noted there is a distribution formula that is used to determine what each entity receives. Point-of- sale tax is given to the jurisdiction for those sales. The City benefits  Safety.  structural adjustments, and maintaining parity.  from traffic headed to the beach.  httos: llwhiteville. aranicus. com/MinutesViewer: nhn?clin id=241&doc 4-48ma86-07-tieei991835A  1/3    4/2/24,1 10:15AM  City Council Special Meeting  3.1) Police Department Presentation by Police Chief Ipock  Chief Ipock presented Council with the Police Department's requests for the FY 2024-2025 Budget. He detailed the Department's 2023-2024 successes. The License Plate Readers (LPR) are averaging 33,000 unique reads every month. With the use of ClearView Al (facial recognition), an average of 10 searches are done monthly, with nearly a 50-percent case closure rate. Verkada Security currently has 28 camera feeds, including through the City's parks, Vineland Depot, etc. These cameras also have LPR and facial recognition built into them. It was noted with Duty Weapon Transition, that scores have increased 8 points on average. The Whiteville City Police Department has also Community partnerships were noted, including being a Premier Partner with the American Red Cross for Blood Drives and holding a Community Chief Ipock stated the Whiteville Police Department ranks #5 out of6in the county for base pay. There are limitations with recruiting, including reduced applications. Institutional knowledge is an issue, with 95- percent of all patrol officers having 2 years of experience or less. It was noted WPD did have a total of 5 in the agency with over 10 years of opportunities, competitive salary, compensatory time, and vacancies. The Workload Analysis Formula was discussed, with this formula calculating a need for 5.344 more officers. The department is requesting two new officers and one lieutenant's position. The lieutenant's position would supplement patrol and would not be an additional person. There were multiple proposed incentives for the department, as there is currently no allocated money for incentives. To provide more time for the Fire Department's Budget Presentation, this presentation was rescheduled to the next Budget Workshop on April  successfully completed its 3rd year of the CALEA audit. Health Fair, Halloween Bash, and National Night Out.  experience.  Other limitations with recruiting include limited  3.2) Fire Department Presentation by Fire Chief Yergeau  9,2024.  3.3) Emergency/Services. Department Presentation by Hal Lowder,  EmergencyServices Director  Mr. Lowder presented Council with the Emergency Department's requests for the FY 2024-2025 Budget. He detailed staff in the department, including a full-time Building Inspector and Fire Marshal. There is also a part-time paid Fire Inspector and a part-time volunteer Fire Inspector. The department is responsible for emergency management, plans review, safety, OSHA compliance, etc. Mr. Lowder stated it was forecasted to be an active hurricane season. He referenced the push to EV/hybrid vehicles for fleets and stated these vehicles would cost more and do not provide the performance The only additional budget item the department is requesting for this upcoming budget year is funding to replace an older drone for the UAV program. Mr. Lowder noted the current drones were paid for with grant funds. Drones are used for inspections of the Wastewater Treatment Plant and towers, as well as fire inspections, officer safety, search and rescue, etc. DroneSense is used for the UAV program. Mr. Lowder noted that two lost children and an elderly man had been found with this technology. The additional funds requested of $6,000 would update the  necessary.  City's drone fleet. ADJOURNMENT  4)  Mayor Mann adjourned the Budget Workshop.  Toiks MMMau  TerryL. Mann, MAYOR  httos:!/whiteville. aranicus.c comMmueaVewerohoain, id=241&doc d-48m9a86-07-lieeb231-00505891835a  2/3    412/24,10:15AM  City Council Special Meeting  Noollon Bulena Héather Dowless, CITYCLERK  CITY  httos:!whiteville. aranicus. comManueavwerohopain id=241&doc d-4819a86-07-4len-b231-00505891836a  3/3