MINUTES WAYCROSS CITY COMMISSION PLANNING & INFORMATION SESSION MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2025, 5:00 P.M. WAYCROSS CITY COMMISSION CHAMBERS (417. PENDLETON STREET, WAYCROSS, GA) I. CALL TO ORDER: The Waycross City Commission Meeting was called to order on Monday, March 17, 2025, at 5 pm by Mayor James. The meeting was held in the Commission Chambers of City Hall. Present were Commissioners Shawn Roberts, Alvin Nelson, Katrena Felder, and Mayor Pro Temp, Sheinita Bennett. A. Invocation: Mayor Michael-Angelo James Invocation was led by Mayor Michael-Angelo James B. Pledge of Allegiance II. GUESTS: Ms. Fullford, 403 Preston Street, Waycross Ga. is here advocating for a special election for the District 4 vacancy to be held in June instead or November. Mart Hopkins, 101 Plantation Drive, Waycross Ga. came to express his dismay in the way the Dedication Ceremony for Monroe Park in honor of his mother was handled. III. TRAVEL/TRAINING SCHEDULE AND REQUESTS IV. PLANNING & INFORMATION SESSION A. Bids: 1. Bid # FY25-06 Alice Street Warehouse Renovation There was a consensus to place this on Tuesday agenda. 2. WAYXL 24-05 Offer on Colley Street Property There was a consensus to place this on Tuesday agenda. B. Discussion Items: ***SEE DISCUSSION NOTES*** 1. Coastal Pines Technical College-Adult Literacy 2. TYLER Update Page 1 of3 3. Streets & Parks Update 4. ARPA Purchases Update 5. SPLOST FY2023 Request Update 6. Residential Inspection Checklist Approval 7. Utilities Fee Increase 8. Water and Sewer Service Resolution Update 9. Bazemore Park and Way Green 10. Ethics Update C. Privilege Licenses Renewals: n/a D. Privilege Licenses: n/a E. Proposed Ordinances: 1. An Ordinance To Amend The Code OfThe City OfWaycross, Georgia; To. Amend Chapter 34-Taxation, Licenses and Business Regulation, Article IV,-Occupation Tax, Section 34- 88 Pertaining To When Occupation Tax Due and Payable and to Add Stricter Enforcement Provisions; Section 34-97 Pertaining To Subpoena and Arrest Powers; Section 34-103 Pertaining To Payment of Occupation Tax By Newly Established Businesses; To Repeal Conflicting Ordinances; To Provide For Severability; To Provide For An Effective Date; To Provide For Renumbering or Relettering; and For Other Purposes There was a consensus to place this on Tuesday agenda. F. Proposed Resolutions: 1. A Resolution of the City of Waycross, Georgia To Award Contract For Renovations To Alice Street Warehouse To B. James Construction, LLC of Blackshear, Georgia and for Other Purposes. There was a consensus to place this on Tuesday agenda. 2. A Resolution of the City of Waycross, Georgia To Approve The Sale and Transfer of Certain Surplused Real Property Located at 1200 Colley Street Consisting of 9.09 Acres, Map & Parcel Number WS0710 076A; and for Other Purposes. There was a consensus to place this on Tuesday agenda. G. City Attorney Report: H. City Managers Report: I. Last Call Page 2 of3 J. Adjourn to Executive Session There was a motion made by Commissioner Felder to go into executive session, seconded by Commissioner Nelson for the purpose of property. All voted in favor, and the meeting adjourned to go into executive session at 6:47 pm K. Adjournment CITY OF WAYCROSS BY: - - - lu , kn um MICHAEL- ANGBLO1AMES, Mayor ATTEST: oualis Aroeu JACQVALINE POWELL, City Clerk OB0uD Page 3 of3 ***DISCUSSION NOTES*** 03172025 WS MAYOR: We thank our guests for their presentations. At this time, we look to our CDs manager for our travel and training scheme. CITY MANAGER: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This time we're moving to the information session. We have no traveling training schedules at this time. We're moving to the planning session bids, starting with Miss Jackson. MAMIE JACKSON: Good evening, Mr. Mayor, and commissioners. Purchasing has two items on the agenda. The first one is for the renovation of the Alice Street warehouse. For those of those, for those of you that don't know, there was a heavy rain. Not the storm, but there was a heavy rain a couple of a month or sO after that. And downtown flooded. One of those buildings that flooded was the warehouse. Um, we have since had that building remediated. Um, they've come in and gutted it and cleaned the mold and bacteria that were growing. Um, and we sent out a bid to have that building renovated. The three offices in the building renovated. Uh, we put out a bid. We received two bids, one from B James Construction of Blackshear, Georgia, and one from Tyco Construction of Blackshear, Georgia. Uh, after review of both bids, the lowest and best bid came in from B. James Construction. And that bid was $45,000. And we are asking, uh, the commission allow us to move forward with awarding this bid. MAYOR: So, we need consent. T'lI start with district one. Yes, sir. District two. Sir. District three. FELDER: I have a question. MAYOR: Go right ahead. FELDER: Um, who was the other JACKSON: TyCo construction. FELDER: And what was their bid? JACKSON: Their bid was $143,000. FELDER: And the other company. You said 45,000? JACKSON: Yes. Be. James's construction of Blackshear. Their bid was 45,000. And Tyco construction. Industrial. Their bid was $143,700. FELDER: That's a that's a big difference. So even though there is a difference in terms of the bidding, what made the construction other than it was the lowest and oftentimes the best bit that was thrown into consideration for this, just because it was it because it was a lower bid, is that what made it better? JACKSON: It was the lower bid. It was it was a little more than what we originally estimated the cost would be for the renovation. Um, and the other thing was we had a pre-bid meeting which allowed any contractor that wanted to bid on this project to actually come in and walk the building, physically take measurements, ask questions to myselfand the warehouse coordinator that's actually housed over there. Anything that they needed while they were there. So, they all had the same level playing field when they were there. FELDER: Thank you. Page 1 of 23 **DISCUSSION NOTES*** 03172025 WS MAYOR: Is there a consent from the three? FELDER: Yes. MAYOR: And five. Um, Mr. Mayor. NELSON: Um, I'm looking at the sheets that you sent out on Friday. It appears that the material is. About the same. But the only difference was the cost. Really? That's the biggest difference. They're up here on labor and they're down here. So, I'm assuming that's the big difference in the two. JACKSON: That was that was uh, and we originally did not ask them for a cost breakdown. I did ask them for a cost breakdown later. Mhm. Um, I do have a copy of that ify'all would like to review it. Okay. MAYOR: Five did you give consent? Yes. You have for consenting. Yes. JACKSON: The next item is the Colly Street property. Uh, as you all know, there was an offer that came in on a Colle Street property, and the commission accepted the offer on the condition that the buyer, uh, complete the removal ofthe asbestos and the building within 12 months of the closing. And he has agreed to that. And the offer is still 175. He made the full offer of 175 on that on that property. And we're asking ifthe Commission would approve with the condition that was added. He accepted the condition. We're asking if the commission would approve us to move forward with this purchase. I'm sorry, with the sale. MAYOR: We'll start with district one. ROBERTS: I do have a question. Yes, do we know What It's Going to be? It's going to be built on the property. JACKSON: That I do not know I was I was informed I did not speak to him personally, but I was informed that it will be residential because it is actually a I think he's going to actually request that it be turned to residential or zoned residential. Um, SO that he can build housing on that property. ROBERTS: Thank you. Okay. MAYOR: Commissioner, did you want to consent or. ROBERTS: Yeah. Yes, sir. MAYOR: Yes, sir. Okay. Perfect. And district two. BENNETT: Yes, sir. MAYOR: District three. FELDER: I have a question. MAYOR: Go right ahead. FELDER: Um, who's the buyer? JACKSON: Mr. William Gross. Page 2 of 23 ***DISCUSSION NOTES*** 03172025 WS FELDER: And, um, you said that he's requesting for the zoning to be changed to residential. JACKSON: I believe he will, because at the current moment, I don't believe it's zoned residential. It's zoned C-1. FELDER: Is that what the public hearing is for tomorrow? For this particular property to be requested to be resumed. JACKSON: I don't know. I don't have knowledge of the public hearing for tomorrow. FELDER: Mr. City manager. CITY MANAGER: It is not public hearing. MAYOR: Tomorrow we'll be dealing with the zoning ordinance for the city ofWaycross. FELDER: And he stated that he agreed to clean out the asbestos. JACKSON: Within one year ofClosure. Within one year of closing. MAYOR: Will you consent? FELDER: I have a follow up question. So, ifhe doesn't meet that deadline. JACKSON: Then the sale will be null and void. FELDER: Thank you. MAYOR: And the last time we had this conversation, we all consented. We just needed to have the other condition. Condition added to it. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. So basically, we're just saying we're consenting that he will go forward once he has done what he said he was going to do regarding that asbestos. Yes. Okay. All right. In district five. Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you. JACKSON: And we actually have one other item. But, um, with the city manager's permission, I would ask that it be spoken ofi in executive session because it is another property. MAYOR: All right. Mr. City manager. CITY MANAGER: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Jackson. Mr. mayor, before we move into the discussion items, I'd like to move, uh, request permission to move one of the one of the topics up. Um, I think that bays Moore Park and Wade green representative are here. Ifthey could immediately follow the Coastal Pines Technical College, um, presentation, uh, just for purposes of getting them out of here. We do have a lengthy agenda and didn't want them to stay the whole time. This was our era and having them sO far down SO we can make that change. MAYOR: That's fine with. CITY MANAGER: Me. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And then we'll go ahead and start, um, the coastal plan. I don't see. FELDER: That. That'll be tomorrow. Page 3 of 23 ***DISCUSSION NOTES*** 03172025 WS CITY MAMAGER: Okay. Um. Okay. Mr. mayor. We'll go ahead and move in with the baseball park and, uh, Wade green discussion, ladies, ifyou would. CONNIE OLIVER, WAYGREEN: Uh, let me introduce myself. I'm Connie Oliver. I am the founder and executive director of Way Green Incorporated. We are a local 501 C3 nonprofit, and our focus and mission are to facilitate access to local, fresh, healthy food throughout the community. And I'm here tonight to just talk to you about Bazemore Park. Um, and what we're doing over there with, um, the commissioner, uh, and what our plans are, we just want to really let you know who we are and what we're doing there, and what our plans are for the future and how we think that we can, um, benefit the community. And as we are already benefiting the community. And Susan Clark is with me tonight, uh, the Weir Children's Initiative, she is executive director there, and she is one of our partners. So, we've come to, uh, to just let you know what we're doing there and, uh, hopefully to partner with you for future events there. Um, we're still trying. I want to give you a little bit of background on Waygreen. Uh, we are a 500 and 1C3. We began we started our 501 C3 in 2019. We have been, um, an organization loosely for from since 2014. And then in 2015, we had our first event, which is now continues to go on at the Okefenokee Heritage Center. It's the local fair market, and that is a farmers' market that we have once a month. So, this year celebrates ten years of that, um, being there at the Heritage Center. So, um. So, um, again, we have, um, our whole purpose is to make local food more accessible to those who really need it. So, in 2019, we were approached by Georgia Organics that we were already partnering with. This is a statewide, um, organization which also has a basically the same the same mission and goals. So, at that time, uh, a grant was applied for what they were calling the Family farm share program. Its program? It was a pilot program in Waycross.. And sO, at that time, we partnered with Action Packed where I can never say. Thank you. Were Children's Initiative and, um, Georgia Organics. And they applied for the grant. We won the grant in 2022 for $75,000. So, we began the program, which you have a brochure on that. And what it is, is, um, families of action-packed schools, both here in Ware County and in other counties. But we only started in Ware County, were allowed to purchase a weekly share of fresh local food. This food was, uh, was gotten from our local farmers and producers. And sO, every week these families of children that at first the children of families 0 to 8 years were targeted. That has changed a little bit over the three years that we've been doing it, but they were targeted at action packed schools Head Start. And SO, every week they get a share of local fresh food, fruit and vegetables. And it's delivered to the school, and they take it home in the afternoon. They pay $5 for the bag, and they get $25 worth of food. We have since raised that, and now they're getting $30 worth of food for $5. And that's what the grant, um, Grant is, takes care of. So, in the process of that, we're currently at 60 shares a week, but we're only using about seven providers. So, in the process of George Organics, um, came to us and said, you know what, we want to get this up to 100 shares a week. And we certainly do to help these families. Uh, let me also tell you that snap EBT families are actually given they are given these bags for free. Someone has come forward to pay their part in the bag. So, um, this year our goal was 100 bags. But again, we don't have enough farmers to grow the food to provide these fresh fruits and vegetables. So, um, we approached Georgia Organics Green approach to Georgia Organics and said, because we were already gardening over at Bazemore Park, uh, we had taken that over in 2000. Um, I'm not sure. 22 It think we were already gardening over there, and we asked Georgia Organics if they would designate that as one of our farms. They agree. And sO, we began we really started growing more things there. And SO now, besides the beds that are inside the fence, we've gone to outside the fenced in area and we're now growing food outside the fenced in area. Um, I think last week. Justin Hall is the was the steward of that of that, uh, that place. And SO last week I know he planted 100 pounds of potatoes. We put in green beans, and we'll be putting in squash and tomatoes later. We met with Commissioner Nelson, and he was sO kind to meet us over there and discuss that part. Um, and. I'm going to ask Susan to talk about some of the, um, funding that could be made available to be applied to that park. And then I'lI just talk about maybe some oft the vision that we have for that area and for other, other areas like that in the community. Page 4 of 23 ***DISCUSSION NOTES*** 03172025 WS SUSAN HADDOCK, WAYGREEN: As Connie said, I'm Susan Haddock, I'm the director of the Children's Initiative, and it's the Family Connection Partnership for Ware County. Um, SO to know that we're a network from every county within the state that we all work together. Um, but within that, we meet the needs here within our community. We go strictly off the needs that are expressed, um, and needs that come up as far as statistics, and that's what we concentrate on to do here in our county. We know that food insecurity and food access is a very big deal here in our community. Um, we have been awarded a grant up to $15,000 for this first year to be able to go in and to increase food access here, specifically in our community. Um, with that, there's a lot that goes into food access. We know that there are a lot of different reasons why people do and don't have food access, and sometimes it's money. Sometimes it's that financial aspect ofit. Sometimes it's transportation. Um, sometimes it's not knowing what to do with food if they have it. And SO, a matter of yes, they could get something that's in a can and a ready-made meal that they could fix, but they don't necessarily know how to cook or prepare or to preserve items that are fresh and healthy to be able to have long term. So, with that, we want to address a lot of that in little ways, but because of some of the issues that we have going on here, to be able to offer fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, to be able to teach people how to use them, how to cook with them, ways that they can prepare them. Because we all know that we always we started cooking. We came home with something from the grocery store and thought, I'm going to do a lot with this. And then you figured out you weren't sure what to do with it or whatever way you cooked. It was not the way that it was really best. And so, to turn around, to be able to give people that information and to be able to give them the food at the same time, SO that all of this comes together. Plus, to be able to go in and teach them how to do preservation on food, canning, freezing, that kind of thing to prepare it sO that they're able to have access to this local healthy food, but be able to continue it out through the season, um, and not just be restricted to the couple of weeks that it's right. So, with that, a huge partnership will be with Way Green Wakering and with Bazemore Park, because as they're able to increase what they're planting, they are we're able to be able to partner with them to bring access. We have this we have this space out there to actually be able to do cooking classes. Preservation classes bring people out there to say, this is what you do with the food and have different ways that kids can come out there and say, let's try this with some cheese, let's try this with some salt. Let's try and put some garlic on it and have all these ways for people in our community to one just have access to the food, but two to know what to do with it when they get home, to know what to look for in the grocery store, know what to look for, what they can get in a farmer's market, what's available here locally? Um, but every single one of those means that the people in our community get fresh food, they get healthy food, and they get enough food, which is something that some of our families are struggling. Um, while we are children's initiative, If our, um. Our goal is to help anybody. It's families. It is not an 18 and under program. That is not where our concentration is. We serve the families here in Ware County. And sO, with that, our program with food access will be that way too. It will not. It will not be limited to kids and food access. It will be all age ranges. And we know that. Like I said, there are programs available right now for kids to be able to do, like summer lunch programs, things like that. Those types of programs are not always available for the senior citizens in our community. So that's one of the things that that will address is all ages, how we increase food access. But again, a big part of that partnership is what Wakering is doing, because they're the only the only organization in our town being able to provide fresh food like this to the community. So, we'd like to be able to extend this partnership through the work at Baseball Park. CITY MANAGER: IfI can jump in, ladies, just, with time. This is a very important subject, and we're trying to squeeze a loti in right now. And I really, really want the commission to get it. Um. We do. The mayor does have a separate meeting, and we're going to start back up, and then we'll make sure to live stream that. And we need to have the slides up SO everybody can truly appreciate what we're trying to do. Uh, I think the commissioner has bought into this before. Um, SO we can, um, I don't want to try to throw too much in there. We will make sure that we at the next meeting, Mr. Mayor, with the, uh, the faith outreach group, and we'll bring them up, live through that, and then we'll bring them back before the commission the next meeting that you have a vote on what they're really asking for, because a lot will just say it right now, and its different things they're discussing. I don't want any confusion on what Page 5 of 23 ***DISCUSSION NOTES*** 03172025 WS it would be, what they would be requesting on tonight, if that makes sense. So, thank you. Thank you And, Mr. Mayor, we will be moving into, um, a Tyler update. I want to say the business integration director, Mr. Simmons, is going to It's going to do that. PATRICK SIMMONS: Mayor. Commissioner, Ijust wanted to report that phase one of the Tyler update is complete. And although this is a screen of what? Of what the new system looks like, it's all internal right now. So, staffa are currently entering requisitions and creating accounts ini that system. And Ihave to give some kudos to finance. Uh, Mara and Greg and Mercedes and Hayley have really jumped in providing training to staff being that resource. So, the public hasn't seen anything yet. They won't notice the, the, um, the change. But for staff it's much easier because like I said, it's web based. So, no matter where we are, ifyou need to enter a requisition on the floor to approve one for a special purchase. You can do that now, anywhere, as long as you have a username and password before you had to be on the city's network to do that. So, it allows a lot more flexibility in the work. Also, it's up to date. Ifyou could see our old system, you can see the difference in the look of it, the feel ofit. The next phase will be utility billing, and we'll start that probably in the next couple ofweeks. Getting that. And that's when the customers will really see the major impact. They'll be able to go in and create their own accounts and see their water usage, pay the water bills, connect service, disconnect service. So, it'll really be a major undertaking to get the community up to date on that. And then we'll start some of the smaller things like business license. Jackie and I had a roundtable with some of the business owners last week to get some of their input, sO we can start building those suggestions into the to the new interface. And then next we'll roll out community improvement. So just kind of want to give you an update on how that was looking. And really appreciate, again, the finance staff to let them know that the hard work they put into making it work for everybody else. CITY MANAGER: Thank you. Next, Mr. Mayor, we're going to move into the street and parks update. I'I do this. We do have our engineering program team here for additional questions on this matter. This is a quick update. Wel have been providing the commission and the public daily updates on what's going on with the streets and parks and the dirt roads. So, with that said, Mr. Mayor, at this time, George Street is complete. All the other dirt streets, dirt roads, are they doing what we call a build out? That's what we're trying to figure out the elevation and grading to ensure, because they will not have utilities in there, that when we do pay those roads, the water drains a certain way. I think they're about two weeks from completing that. And once they get that done, you'll see those dirt roads get paved paid over. But as I said, George Street is complete, and I apologize for any questions or comments on the dirt roads portion oft this. MAYOR: Commission Questions? Please feel free to ask any questions or suggestions. CITY MANAGER: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. At this time, we went to the streets, and these are the streets. These are the streets that have already been paved and we're doing resurfacing and utilities. Um, that includes drainage and plumbing. Um, right now, you see, those streets are. complete. Uh, Auburndale is complete. Palmetto is complete. Uh, Simon is complete. Uh, up to the city's portion of that road. I know there's been some discussion, uh, with the general public over social media and calling into us. Some of these streets do go into the county or borderline of the county, and we're only doing our portion of the street. That's all we can do legally. So, although that street might ride on through the county, we can only go up to the portion of the city right of way, if that makes sense for everybody. Um, the rest of the streets are in certain phases. Uh, right now, uh, I got to check Arlington Heights. That's the street that runs directly down the center of Gallatin. Uh, we had some issues with the cars there. Um, sO they tried to start pavement, but I'lI make sure this week to kind of put that out again. They got to move those cars SO we can get the pavement done in that area and location. Uh, Gilmore Avenue, we're stilli in water services that mean utilities? Uh, same thing with Google Street utilities. We have not started Brunel Street, uh, Parkway Drive, Washington Avenue up to Kentucky Avenue. So, uh, and once again, this is one company doing these things. So, they are moving, uh, across all the Page 60 of 23 ***DISCUSSION NOTES*** 03172025 WS streets. Um, I do not know the anticipated date of completion. Uh, we did have some weather delays as those storms came in. Uh, hopefully. And, um, we'll get an update sometime this week on when they might possibly be done with all the streets. So, and I apologize ifany portion on the paved streets that are being resurfaced and the utilities being replaced within those streets. MAYOR: I'll start with district 1. Do you have any questions of the city? No, sir. Mr. No, sir. Mr. FELDER: Yes. Um, not regarding the streets that are mentioned, but Carswell, that's a street that you and I discussed a while back. Um, and recently in the past year, the flooding issue was repaired. But you stated that there were some other issues that needed to be resolved with Carswell Avenue. Can you provide me an update with that, please? CITY MANAGER: I cannot right now focus on these streets. What we'll do, we'll go back. We got an overall plan for the drainage. As I mentioned before, I'm working with the Corps engineers. That's part of that assessment. Once everybody does the assessment, we'll come back to that. Right now, we're focusing on these other streets because that's the ones we're paying for right now. Uh, once the Corps engineers comes through and kind of gives me some feedback on what they can do or what they can't do, then I have a better understanding of what we can do for drainage. And, uh, drainage means a lot of things right now. Um, we're kind of looking at because everything is an issue here and all the systems are failing, uh, versus us. We've been doing it past kind of jump around when emergencies make us jump around. We're going to start at some designated point within the city or part of the city and work our way across the city towards the river. So, likel Isaid, right now, I don't know how that looks because I have not got the, uh, the details of, um, my engineering group as well as those individuals that come to help us out. Once I get all that, I'll come back to the commission body, and we'll discuss overall drainage strategies. MAYOR: district five. No, sir. Okay. CITY MANAGER: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Next, we're moving to the parks. Um, as you all know, each commissioner had a designated park. Uh, they did a groundbreaking ceremony. So those have been done and completed. The actual demolition has started already. So, um, we've seen there have been questions about, you know, being fenced in. Ofcourse, they have to fence these areas in to one particular protect the equipment and also protect citizens coming in and, you know, falling in holes and ditches and things of that nature. So those parks will be, um, closed during demolition phases. Now, when they get the demolition done and start doing other pre-construction, they open up certain areas of the park to the public. But right now, they're going to be closed off until they get some of most of that demolition done. That's all those the three parts that qualify for the park grant that the city received, uh, prior to me arriving here. Um, based offof demographics and economics that those areas got that that grant funding. And I pause for Any questions on that, Mr. Mayor? MAYOR: I have none. CITY MANAGER: All right, Mr. Mayor. Next, we're going to move into the office. Update. Uh, we did a presentation, uh, in February, as you were in January, where we had to, uh, do our final numbers for the opera account, and we kind of appropriated money to, uh, different items. What we're doing today is we have in front ofyou the itemized list of the remaining opera purchases we have to do. You will see some of those stay ongoing or pending or in contract negotiations. So, what I want to do today, and I'll do for the rest of the time, um, the first meeting ofe each month, we'll keep on talking about this until that funding is spent, um, fully. And I would discover I would discuss the big things during the meetings. So, the Baltimore has been ordered. Uh, the scanner contract is out for bid. Uh, back to those parks that Grant had to be, um, it's been completed. Once they completed. I mean, it's going to be added to the overall amount that we had to use the seed money for the 2.6 million, um, strip machine is out Page 7 of 23 A*DISCUSSION NOTES*** 03172025 WS for bid. And the Bailey Street Pavilion, which was destroyed during the storm, has been ordered. However, uh, we did get some feedback today, I think from once again, thanks for the finance team working with FEMA. Um, they are. They're going to cover the pavilions. Right? So, all the pavilions that were destroyed during the storm will be covered by FEMA. So, I'm about to go back and look at that monies now as far as to offer and figure out how to move that stuffaround, because at this stage in the game, we technically can't move the money around for offer because it's been appropriated. Um, but I'm going to get, um, with the city attorney and the city finance director and figure out how we navigate this now, because we did purchase, um, district four Park. Um, district one park. I think we had another area that was destroyed. We already made a purchase out of our general fund. So, we got to go back and look at this and just figure out how to move the money around. I'm sure we can do it, butj just want everybody to kind ofk know thei items that are already kind ofbeen purchased or completed. The rest of those items, you see where it says ongoing. Um, if that gets completed, we'll update the commission. And I'll pause there for any questions on the Arpa update. MAYOR: I'll move back to Michigan District one. Do you have any questions? Um. ROBERTS: Sir, ifyou don't mind Uh, I hate to go Backwards, but back to Paul's. Okay. Can you just give the people on the north side an update about that North Side Park? I know it wasn't covered up under the grant, but could you just let them know that what we're trying to move forward with that? Could you do that, please? CITY MANAGER: Uh, broader context. Um, the city does not have a city and park funding source. Um, when they did the last negotiations, um, some years back, we gave that funding source to the county. County managers park, what we call park and recreations. So, in order for the city to maintain any type of park service in the park, we have to get that money from the Splost, from the general fund, some kind of way or other means of funding. But it can be difficult because, uh, you know, the parks are fairly old as well as far as equipment. So, each Splost, when we do the Splost, uh, the commission has put in the money for the parks, and we deviate that money throughout the months into each commissioner's account. So, each commissioner has a certain amount of equal money in their account to spend on their parks. So, um, with that being said, the grant is totally separate. That grant was put in, um, based off economics. So um, and population and like any other city, every other city, other cities qualify for that grant as well. Um, SO the lower economics, those areas receive that grant. So those went to uh, district one, two and three. Each of those districts had a partner that got identified, um, to receive that grant. And those monies go in there. The remainder ofthat money, like I said, is going to come out of the Splost accounts. And that money. Commissioners can use to update their parks in reference to, uh, Commissioner Robert's Park. Um, the commissioners, each commissioner has the option to change out playground equipment, uh, to do other esthetics, water fountains, things like that. Um, some parks have basketball courts, things of nature to keep them updated. But once again, though it is quite expensive for North Side. I know Commissioner is changing that playground. I think, um, I think Commissioner is doing that one of her parks. I think Commissioner Benny is doing that as well. But those moneys come out of splash. So, for the citizens to answer the question. Those parks are being updated. But again, that's coming out of splash. And it's not it's not an unlimited source of money. You know, we, um I can't remember what was programed in the 2014 spots, but in the upcoming spots of 2023, which I discussed in a little bit, we did program $300,000 for Park and Recreations, um, monies once again split between all five districts. So, and I'1l cover that in a little bit once I get to the, uh, the where the spots update, which is next. So again, um, we are working our best to get that equipment. There is a, a backj jam on getting equipment. So, it's taking some time, like our pavilions, depending on the size and scope and scale of the pavilion order, it might take up to: six months. It's just like we're still facing some of the challenges of the distribution list. Um, and, uh, and the routes. I mean, just being honest with you. So, it is coming. Um, we do listen to the commissioners when they want to update the parts. We do our best to get stuff as fast as we can, but nothing is overnight. And like I said in that funding is not unlimited. And we are trying to replace, you know, decades old equipment with new Page 8 of 23 ***DISCUSSION NOTES*** 03172025 WS equipment. And on average, just SO everybody knows, um, a playground can run as high as $12,000. I'm talking about a couple of swings, a slide, and some other attachments. So, it's not cheap, you know? Um, and then we're getting, um, it's the last longer than the metal, but iti is not cheap. So, um, we cannot just order multiple, multiple, multiple things of that nature, but we can do what we can, uh, piece by piece over time. Mr. Roberts, to answer your question. ROBERTS: Yes, sir. Thank you SO much. MAYOR: And district two, No sir. District three. FELDER: Yes. I have a question regarding these park amenities and all the districts. You said that 300,000 will be split between all five districts when it comes to upgrading park amenities, and that's using Arpa funds. Is that correct? CITY MANAGER: Those SPLOSTS 2023 spots that we started collecting and that was approximately getting here, um, with the previous commission. So, they put in there, like I say, there's no funding source for Parks and Recreations, either Splost or we finance it out ofthe general fund. And I'm going to cover this later on. We cannot do that anymore either. We don't have the money to keep doing that. Um, we all recognize how important parks is and recreation to the to our citizens. Um, but without any funding source, a taxing source which you do not have, we have to find other streams of revenue to, um, you know, bring in money for the parks. FELDER: So, um, my question is, I've noticed, um, just driving around the city, um, I've seen park amenities, you know, upgrades at various parks outside of district three. Um, ifyou would, could you just please share with me what upgrades have been provided in the parks in district three? FELDER: I understand you're both. Thank you. Ifyou would, could you just provide me a list, please? CITY MANAGER: I will. FELDER: So that I can relay that information to the citizens. It's been asked of me multiple times. Okay. Thank you. CITY MANAGER: And in your books, There's a list in there with the. See. Okay. Okay. MAYOR: And let me let me just go into the statement that I think I need to make here. Each time you're doing these presentations, it may be good to just go ahead and combine like you're talking about their funding. We were talking about Arpa. We're talking about Splost. I think once we heard Splost 2023 and $300,000 is coming out and it's equally distributed, it's not each individual commissioner's job to find out what the other one has, although it is already listed in your booklets. So, what I'm what I'm hearing here over and over again. And I know that when I, when the commission first came in and this is for me, this is a whole new commission from the commission I had when I first came in the door. But each person knew how much they had for their particular part, and they could only spend X, Y, Z oft that amount, right? There was an occasion when a pad was bought and three got together and contributed to district three to get a splash pad in the midst of that. And so, it was. Districts one, two and five came together to help three to get that splash pad. So, they combined their funding with the idea of coming back together. And I say one, 2 or 3. It was two, three and five that came together. One didn't contribute and neither did four. So, what we started doing then is ift they want to communicate amongst themselves about thei funding that they do have, and they choose to work together toward aj part, that would be fine. But I know some of our others would never want to do that particular thing right there. But when it comes down to funding, I think that once we list off the splash 2023 or Page 9 of 23 ***DISCUSSION NOTES*** 03172025 WS the Arpa monies that are going to be distributed for a particular time, then maybe in and it's already in the workbook, I already see it. You already highlighted that, and you open the floor for questioning. A good number of these questions can be asked to you prior to our meetings, even though I know some things. For instance, like the question that we. just asked you, it's almost as ifyou would not know the answer to that question right off the top, because that's not the discussion that you're having in this meeting. But what we need to do, maybe if we're going to just talk about parts, just bring everything about parts, if we're going to talk about one or 2 or 3 things, talk about just that particular thing, until such time that these commissioners have clarity, because it sounds like they stay in the clouds when it comes down to knowing what was said, what's in the book, what is to be done, what can't be done, what their citizens want to know. These questions pop up, and I understand they do, because commissioners are going to have questions that I'm not going to get because I don't have a part. All the parts go to the citizens, but in reality, I have nothing like that in my area. So, I understand their questions and their concerns. But I think for clarity's sake and for those who are viewing, they will be able to understand if we just streamline it just for that one thing. So, ifit's going to be opera, talk about opera. Ifit's going to be because we talked about 2 or 3 things just then, andIH hear the question came back after you'd already clarified this comes out ofSplost 2023. And sO, then it came back is this Arpa and it's not Arpa because you. just said it was 2023. Splash. Splash. It's the same thing when it comes down to this. The other parts I'm having one real big issue. And I and I've had it since I've been here, and that is this, that last negotiation. We already made some decisions on that part. And now we got everybody flipping and changing midstream. And it's not city. And I'lI pause with that thought and I'll turn it back to you. But I was just making sure that we need to do something in that area where those persons who are hearing are actually clear. Okay. I think everybody'sjobi in writing and it's hard, you know, you're trying to keep up. And maybe they're losing like some students do in the classroom. But we do need you to, you know, for clarity's sake. CITY MANAGER: Mr. Mayor. And once again, when we start the budget process again, we'll quickly find those funding accounts. I was just making it known. I haven't paid for it. Now I will go back and say something. Um, as far as repairs, I try to stay away from their accounts as much as I can, because I know they want to use that money to buy items for us or new equipment. So, we have the money and the other, other means, general fund type stuffto do repairs. The fence gets broken down, the basketball gets pulled down, something gets broken. The splash pad, the splash pad breaks quite often. We do try to go out, maybe out of the general maintenance, out of public works, um, account to fix those things out there because that will eat up that part budget for the whole year, pretty much. So, we're all that. But, uh, point noted, Mr. Mayor, and we'll do a better job of explaining. MAYOR: Um, I think you did a great job. Ijust think we're not hearing. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. FELDER: Point of clarification. MAYOR: Point of clarification. Go forward. FELDER: Yes. It's interesting that you say that mayor, about what steps needed to have been taken prior to this meeting SO that our questions would be asked. And I've taken those steps, and the city manager stated that he would clarify in this meeting. And that was why I asked the question. MAYOR: Understood. Thank you. Okay. Page 10 of 23 ***DISCUSSION NOTES*** 03172025 WS CITY MANAGER: Well, Mr. Mayor, we could do the workbook. We can put them online to try to get out to the commission sO they can talk to the citizens verbatim, because they can be confusing. But I mean, that account is actually posted to an operational status update. But as you said to me, we got to make it clear we'll do that. MAYOR: One thing at a time for some of us, because it sounds like we get sidetracked by one thing that was stated. It's not that you haven't said it clearly, you said it very clearly. But I think what starts happening after we hear one thing our minds and I say our I don't have that struggle, but our minds in general tend to deviate from what we were discussing originally. So that's one example. CITY MANAGER: Uh, with that note, Mr. Baroness, we move into SPLOST FY 2023 update. And, um, this is on here. Um, because when this was voted, uh, some years ago, ofcourse, you know, we did not account for inflation, uh, operational changes, mission changes and climate changes. So, um, I got the list, and you have a copy of this before you. We try to put the list online right now for our citizens to see, but it's quite small. Um, and I hit that in a little bit, but initially, uh, that 20, 23 spots, you know, the first portion of that, um, was 16. Littie bit over 16 million. Uh, the first portion of that collection was to go right to the overpass, which has been done already. Uh, for the overpass, the remaining these monies will be collected, um, as they you would call it paychecks each month. And that amounts to around between 350,300 and $80,000 a month. Uh, that money is then it's our goal to go down this list, which I'1l show you shortly and, um, purchase those items that the commission voted on, uh, during that time frame. Uh, the reason I'm bringing to you before you now, um, most ofthese commissioners were not there, I think, on the original vote. Um, we cannot change this at this time. And, you know, it's by law. So, we have to kind of use what was voted on then, um, moving forward. But what we are we're trying to do is kind ofreorganize that list. Um, as far as prioritization, and I'm going to let the director's kind of take the first stab at it and, you know, for their directorates, just prioritize, um, what they requested. Well, what the previous director requested some time ago, and then I'lI kind of give it to the city. Um, finance director Directing I, and we'll do some city priorities. Make sure they line up with commissioners' priorities, and then we'll kind of go from there. And with that, let me, uh, it's very hard to see for those in the public. Probably can't see this right now. Um, if you go on your phone later on, you can kind of pull it up. Uh, these are everything that was in that 20, 26, 20, 23 slots that we put in. Yes. Some ofthese items we did purchase by other means, um, because they were emergencies at some point in time. So, they will be removed. Well, can't say they removed, but we will not use money towards those items. And like I said, I've asked the directors, um, using the police department because it's first to kind of look at that list and reprioritize it. On what, um, Chief Cox feel is the first priority there. And then each director will do that, and TlI come back and do a master list, and then we will purchase these items based off oft that list. Does that make sense? And, um, I know you got you have a list in front of you. Uh, this is SO that the general public can see what we are trying to buy and their tax dollars. Um, um, based off of our requirements and our needs. And I'1l kind of talk about a few of these things. Um, since we have a little time here, um, we miss quite some time before about the age of our police car fleet. We've mentioned that a few times before. We're still about, I want to say, 14 cars that are decades old. Um, we put that a few times. Um, that's the main thing with the police force. Um. Public works? Um, definitely. Of all of the directorates. Um, the equipment is the oldest. Um, you know, some of the equipment is 20, 20 plus years old. Um, custom falling apart. So, we're going to try to do our best. Uh, over the next five years of collection because this, this, this box, I mean, this will be a five-year thing. So, we'll try to do as much as we can. But once again, due to inflation and other, um, things, of course, this 16.5 is probably actually $30 million now. Um, in real money today. big. So, um, Saddam, uh, some additional trucks, Buckethead, General Motors, all those things that got puti ina while back, like I said, and even these costs that the citizens might see beside them, um, these costs were a few years ago. So of course, they are. They have risen to. So, you definitely won't be able to purchase all this over the next five years, which I get close to, uh, waste management. Um, you all know our struggles with the pack truck. Everybody knows our struggles with our keeping our pack trucks up. Um, mosquito truck is about 30 years old. Uh, you see, you see the lines down there. The fire department, Page 11 of 23 ***DISCUSSION NOTES*** 03172025 WS uh, that fire engine has been done already. So that's one of the things we won't have to do again. Um, do any improvement? Uh, one ofthe big things here is we put in for property demolition. So once again, SO citizens know we don't have any funding source to knock down these buildings. It has to come from somewhere. So, without the Splost, we could not knock down the abandoned property. So, uh, anytime someone says get rid of spots, I really hope they research what they're saying. Um, because we don't have the capability to do a lot oft things without it. So, um, but we did money in there. Um, that 550, um, basically what we've been doing, um, he's my twoy years here, uh, probably knock down vau roughly about 75% of the remaining buildings that we have, um, that need to be, um, need require demolition. Uh, and the rest. Uh, the other 25%. And I'm looking at maybe repurposing those. Maybe we can get somebody to come in and buy it and do it for us. So that goes back to, uh, some of the thing's commissioners have kind of voiced about looking at how we, um, make property available to abandon properties available to other citizens and then city engineer and, uh, the last part there, it says City Parks Improvement, $300,000. Uh, that's what I was discussing as far as coming down the spots. And that'd be distributed to each account over the next five years, hopefully to cover the expenses of getting new items in the parks. That total 16.7 million. Me again, I'm going to reprioritize this list with, you know, prioritize this list for the commission to kind of see what our assets as the parties for the cities, based on feedback from the directors. I have a question on the 2023 update. MAYOR: I think we need to wait until you have that. You're bringing it to us as it's going to be before we start having discussions on it. CITY MANAGER: Well, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, next, Mr. Mayor, we move into the residential inspection checklist. Um, you have a copy of that on your desk. Um, I don't think we can get a chance to put it up. Um, couldn't put it on the screen here for those citizens. Uh, we did put an initial copy up for citizens, um, for feedback. Maybe two weeks ago, uh, after the community improvement director and the business integration assistant director got together and had a meeting. The first meeting, uh, with some of our business owners here. Uh, this is kind of. It was a rough draft, but we did take some other guys from other cities who've been doing this a little bit longer. And like I say, I'm sorry. I just can't see that. We'll make sure we go back and post it again for those that might have questions, but basically it definitely facilitates a better understanding with the citizens. It's a checklist. Um, it's I think it's over 120 items, but this way we don't come in and inspect properties, and citizens feel like we're making it up as we go along. They go right down that checklist. Uh, this would be, um, a record. An actual record, um, thing as well. Um, and it has everything on there and what's important, what's not important. And it also has the code section that we're pulling information from SO citizens can come back and look at where did we get that from. So, it's not like a thing they decide to come here today and said you can't have a color blue because it's blue, you know. Um, sO I appreciate the team doing this. It's been it's been a struggle getting to this point. But we're at this point now and this is going to go into effect, uh, April Ist. Um, I'm going to give those other, um, for new inspections. Those other individuals that's in current inspections is going to work with them because we don't want to, you know, start them new again. We're already working with them. But everybody's new especially you have a checklist. And um, like Isay, this is a better way tojust do business for the city of Waycross. Eventually, once all the software has been updated, this will go on the tablets. So, it'll be digital and then it'll be a digital record as well.. And then we'll email a copy to, um, business owner residents and everybody have a copy ofit. They can work offthat list. Um, that way moving forward. So, and, um, I know, like I said, Iknow citizens can't see this, but you have a copy in front ofy you. Mr. mayor. Commissioners. Um, yes. And we'll go back and make sure we put this online again. But, citizens, ifyou go on our Facebook page, on our website, you can just scroll down. It's already there. And you can see the initial effort at making this list, uh, for our citizens. And again, I forgot the last bullet. It does align with other cities. Wel have been doing this before. We did cut and paste a few of their ideas. Some of the more modern cities who've been moving a little bit faster with us in this area. So, like Isaid, it's beeni it's a tested document. It's not something we just kind of dreamed up. It's been tested in other cities. Um, got feedback from other cities, um, city managers and their citizens. And like I said, the team did sit down and work with Page 12 of 23 ***DISCUSSION NOTES*** 03172025 WS some of the business owners to help add a few extra things that are specific to this checklist, and I apologize for any questions on that. Mr. Mayor. MAYOR: I'll go through each one of the commissioners. District one. Uh. ROBERTS: Yes, sir. So, this is concrete. So go ahead, sir. CITY MANAGER: Yes, sir. It is Commissioner. ROBERTS: So, once you, uh, comply with this, um, can another checklist come behind this? CITY MANAGER: No, no, the purpose of this was to be the, like I said, record keeping. So, this is it. Everything's on now. Let me take that back. There's a disclaimer on there in case. Um, somebody wants to keep a flying buffalo. I don't know, you know, certain things that we'll never be able to account for and we have to look. But 99% of that, that's it. And as many of you have already stated, this is what y'all wanted. So, we don't cause confusion with people trying to, um, do homes business owners. This will be that list. That same list will come back. So, you'll get a copy ofthis. It'll be two lists when you're doing the takeoff. So, it'll come back ifthe next inspection is some things are not completed, but it'll be this same list. It won't be a new list. Uh, it'll be the same list they're working on. ROBERTS: I do have another question. Yes, sir. So, if you have, like, some water, do you need to make a certification? CITY MANAGER: So, um, that's going to be on the next agenda for the commission to weigh in on. Um, that would be a change in our charter. Um, sO I didn't put it on here because I wanted to get some of this recordkeeping done first. Um, if you really want to do that, we're all for that now. I think with the, um. I don't know how that got to be a thing. I know that we want to kind of mimic what Georgia Power does. Uh, also, when this is presented, next meeting, we will put out, um, you still got to have a requirement of some type of inspection to be done. Um, SO even if the city was to pull out of that, um, one of the courses of action would be that the homeowner business owner gets an inspection done by somebody, unless you, um, electrician, plumber, somebody to come in and get permits. So, we can yes, we can remove the city from this process, but does not remove the requirement for the process itselfif that makes sense. ROBERTS: Thank you. Sir. MAYOR: Do we have any questions? District 2? District 3? And District 5? NELSON: Yes, sir. Mr. mayor. I have some concerns. Um, I know business is different from residential. And this is residential. Correct. Um, and I see some amendments by this that references the International Code and the National. And - know we have to go by those for safety reasons Correct. But Ihave a problem. I see one thing here. Just scanning through briefly blown in insulation must be marked in attic by stapled paper rulers for depth and R-value. That that's what to me, that's not nothing. That's a safety hazard. Ifa customer has a residential home, wants this much thickness or that much thickness, sO he would have to prove that I have this much thickness for safety reasons. Not wanting to put you on the spot. NELSON: Because I built my home and I built my business, and I had some concers about those things as well. CITY MANAGER: I think the main point of this is, first ofall, getting a standard list for whatever, it is we're looking at because You know, a lot oftimes we come out there and we've been out allowing Page 13 of 23 **DISCUSSION NOTES*** 03172025 WS people to come out there and talk offt the top of their head, even though they might be referencing the code book. Ifthe city. Ifthe cities don't know what we're talking about, it does look a certain kind of way that we are making standards as we go along. So, the primary was to put everything on the list that all the cities follow. They've been following, you know, like I say, I look at other cities, how they were doing it. That's the primary reason. And then they have a source document moving forward that we can agree upon each time. This is the list that I started with. This is what I finished with. Now certain things in there, um, it will still be judgmental. Like I said, it will be certain things that are. Yeah. Certain things be non-negotiable. You know, we already stated that as far as electricity and certain things. Um, but it is just it's to make us have a system where we do not have a system before. So that's, that's the main purpose of that. But once again, you got, you know, some things you want to add. Some of this is coming out to those two, um, references you made. Um, much like state federal. We can't just admit it. State or federal. Uh, requirement. Um, again, uh, we are here to work with citizens, um, as best we can. Um, but as you also know, um, everybody trying to save money and take shortcuts. And that's when stuff gets kind of dangerous for people to come in and rent homes and buy homes. And then we keep, we keep we keep getting pulled into that scenario as well. NELSON: Then you Mr. Mayor CITY MANAGER: All right. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, next we move into utilities feei increase. Uh, we're going to read the word on this, Mr. mayor, we're talking about this a few times before. We did not conclude the last time with the previous 4 or 5 times we spoke. Um, but it's very important that we go ahead and decide on this, uh, as we come up with the budget, uh, in July. Um, sO I'm asking that we again look at updating the water and sewer fees to current inflation and operational requirement levels. And this is a lot to this. I'm going to try to keep it simple. Um, but we talked about it a few times, SO I'm going to jump over a couple of slides, but I do want to make some points about a few things. Mr. mayor, ifI can, um, I think we all read this about infrastructure and the rising costs. Um, the majority of our, our plumbing utilities are put in the ground in the 60s and 70s. So, it is 60 years old in most cases. That granite. Um, and I don't want to be held to this number, but right now, since my two years that I can really attest to, um, we've probably only really addressed maybe 15% of its 60-year-old infrastructure. And that's, uh, as Commissioner Felder mentioned. Carswell, the few other areas we've actually went down and expanded, uh, the piping. But, you know, we talk about, you know, the whole city square miles, utilities that need to be addressed. Um, as you all know, the city, um, did an assessment about ESG then in 2020 about his capital improvement plan and his water waste systems. Uh, you know what we should be doing? How much does it cost? Uh, and again, it wasn't about like, building capacity. It was about rehabbing already failing systems. Um, and when they did that study, they that 1920 million was the first number. Of course, inflation has only been in five years, but that number has doubled as far as rehabilitation and replacement recommended. Um, and you see all the repairs we're talking about, one thing we're going to do this year with the budget, and we're going to live stream some of this. Um, prior to bringing to the commission is really talk about, um, we did we did keep track of everything we did this past year and what we ordered, how many times it was an emergency, how many times the pipe busted. When did we, uh, do the work? Um, who does the work? When do the work? Uh, and I took that real fast, too. Um, SO we do have a leak. Although we have somebody on call, and. And that person is on call. IfI bring somebody out that weekend, that is an overtime charge.. And I've expressed to the commission. Sometimes it seems my new to a certain degree, but anything, anytime something is done after business hours weekend, it's overtime. And that really has really added up. Um, it's always added over the years, no fault to anybody. Um, you got to get charged for the work is being conducted. But when I made a statement a few months ago about like, recognizing, um, is it interruption in service? What is it doing? All our water runs back. Back to us at some point. So, um, when citizens complain like the water is running on a Sunday, uh, I really need everybody to understand, you know, how that cost. And T'lI cover that at the end here. And we all got to start understanding that, you know, what is the priority. You know, is it fixing stuff, you know, or patching stuff or saving money and fixing stuff long term? And we got to start kind of understanding Page 14 of 23 ***DISCUSSION NOTES*** 03172025 WS that. Um, we did this study. Y'all remember y'all requested, uh, did we do, uh, did a study, and then we had, of course, our engineer firm did a study. This kind of combined to a degree. I didn't want to have multiple slides. We've already talked about revenue, I mean, usage as far as commercials and residents. Of course, our commercial players use a lot more resources and they pay a lot less based off of percentages. So, we discussed this already. We've also talked to these commercial, large commercial industry partners. Um, about this. They are fully aware, um, they should be paying more. They've never had any problem withi it. Itjust was never brought up to them. Uh, initially when I proposed this to the commission, uh, I discussed, uh, 3%, 3%, 5%, 7% and 10%. And we went back and forth at this time. Right now, I'm just saying we start baseline 3%. Uh, we got to do something, and we can't keep going back and forth on, um, uh, we need to do something because Ineed to have this ready to go for the next budget. The 3% will not bring in much revenue. As I stated before, but that's okay. But it will create better match money and seed money for larger, um, programs and grants. Uh, a lot of times we don't have the matching money to qualify for some of these water, wastewater and water and sewer grants. Uh, sO this will give us that flexibility. Even at 3%. 3% will be for both, uh, commercial, uh, water and sewer water. However, with the commercial and this is it says 7% here, but because when I go back again and hope the commission and citizens can appreciate this, it's inverted. It: should be the other way. The residents, I mean, the commercial people should be paying less than the residents. So, I will need to do, uh, a conversion to get it back set. Right. So, it's like any other city where commercial people use the most water and they pay for the most water. So then once we did that, I would then throw a 3% on top oft that. So, they would be equal to the citizens and residents equal to those numbers. So, and this is againj just saying. Proposed residential water and sewer rates over time. We're talking each year. $0.75, you know, over. 3 to 5 years if we kept going. Once again, I'm being very low. Um, a real study would say we need to be raised in double digit percentage. Because we're way behind. Um, I know everybody likes to compare us to Douglas. I'm going to use them as a reference again. They have the CPI model. Their water rates go up every year. Um, now they have other ways to fund stuff. Um, because they supply natural gas and all those things. But like other cities use CPI. Let me take that back. They don't go up every year. It adjusts to inflation every year. So, in some cases inflation is down. It's going to go down. Make sure I make that clear. Um but for our citizens we ask them to pay $0.75 you know each year over time compound interest. We now have more seed money for grant money to do some of those bigger items. Once again, to put it in the big pot and fix all of our infrastructure challenges that we've had. And I'm going to slow down. I'm not going. Is everybody going too fast with this? MAYOR: No, sir. I ask you; you've done this before. So, I think they should have it. Okay. Okay. The clarity ofit seems that once we're here to do our budget, we ought to be able to know what to do or not do. Okay. CITY MANAGER: So once again, I'll be asking tonight for consensus to go ahead. And if you ift the commission body likes to go ahead and do 3%, I will have to go back and look at some numbers just to make sure show the commission what would come out of that. Because these numbers are old. Um, and one more part of it is as we fix our meter problem and we get the meter is working properly, they read what's actually being used. Of course, that's going to bring in more: revenue as well. That's another part of this. Um, conclusion. Um, capital improvements. They need it. Commercial rate needs to be addressed. And I'm trying to start, you know, three years, 3% for the next three years. Uh, that's a that's a true budget cycle of three years. You know, if you look at the business aspects and business terms, uh, you know, and this is a business that we're running, uh, at the city. So, we need some support on this from the commission, Mr. Mayor, because, like, like I stated before, we can't keep going on. Um, and not doing anything. Again, we're talking about multiple years of not adjusting anything here in the city. Um, and I'm going to jump right back to the, to the next discussion because they are all tied together. IfI can, Mr. Mayor. Um, and this is tied to this, or this is tied to the utilities update, but our water and sewer service resolution update. Uh, this is our tap installation process. You've heard me mention before at the last meeting about citizens paying $500, you know, to move the tap sometimes when they're on different lines. And as I mentioned before, thisi is like a that's not the real number. That's ar number that at some point was agreed upon on to not put the burden on the citizens. And, you know, Page 15 of 23 ***DISCUSSION NOTES*** 03172025 WS in aj perfect world, we could keep that. But we are sO far, we're SO far past that of eating that cost that it is really crippling us. And, um, let me go back to that kind of. Um, right now, when new customers come in here, the customer pays 75% and Waycross pays 25%. Well, we are we are one of the only cities that does that. And this would be great if we had the revenue to back it, but we don't. And we're eating this cost every single time. And it's like it is getting really bad. And I don't know how I expressed that, but that way, uh, once again, we are notj just the water and sewer tap fees since 2010. So, you're talking 15 years, um, for new, new water and sewer taps. Um, and this reflect does this cost us reflect. Well, these numbers do reflect moving those old taps and this is what it really costs. So, when we say $500, it's not actually $500. Um, you know, for any new or old or existing cities paying this much. Well, it might be $500. You can see the size ofthe meters and what that is, how much that costs with the labor and all those things. And that goes again, uh, I'm not badmouthing any of our partners, you know, anybody. Everything's got a cost associated to it. And we probably could have done this 20 years ago. Um, you can't do it anymore. And we definitely cannot do that 25% anymore. So, I'm asking the commission to, um, you know, remove that language and get all new investors coming in for water taps and any other I know people might be coming. And please do your research and look at any other city across. The only city does this. Only city does this, and everybody elsei is 100% because they can put, they can put that 5% in their construction costs. It's not like it's a lot of money for them. But whatever business practice we came up with, we started this. And like I say, I just want everybody to understand this is the real cost when it goes to these taps and then we eat this cost every single time. So. And I'm bringing this, this up, Mr. Mayor. And my title is in together for you and the citizens. Um, first and foremost, uh, we've got to bring in more revenue for our water, water and sewer, wastewater, stormwater, all things water to start replacing all these things falling apart. Um, additionally, we cannot put it on. I understand we cannot] just bombard our citizens overnight with our, you know, with these up will be increases in costs. That's why I'm saying do it over time. Um, small things over time. 25% less. 3%. On the water. Water. Sewer. All these things add up. It won't be a super burden on our citizens, but each little bit that we do will make it that much easier on them long term. And yes, five and ten years from now, when you really see the impact, you really will see the impact. But ifwe don't do this, it's going to get worse. Stuffis breaking in much faster rate right now. And then I'm not sure what we're going to do. I have brought ideas to the commission other ways to increase revenue. Um, selling water, if that makes sense. Um, we talked about dropping a meter, um, to Blackshear in Pierce County. Um, uh, business, not business district, but, um, lose my words. Uh, industrial park. Uh, I think, and this is all predecessor, um, only discussion right now. They got five new businesses coming over there that they cannot provide water to because they cannot run water across the city. Um, we discussed before. Imma go back a little bit, Mr. Mayor. Um, and when I made that first request, quiz. I didn't do a good enoughjob explaining that charge. And then since I came back again with kind of explaining, just wanted to say this one more time. Um, if we did put that meat out there, um, it would be a system development charge that would be collected. We would have to annex anybody in or move services, police and fire to them, because I know everybody has seen that as a because what happened in the past. Um, we definitely can't provide services over there. We know we can take care of ourselves. So. But with that system charge, um, this money could be used to system expansion. System expansion. Meaning system expansion. Meaning you could expand into existing infrastructure. Ihope everybody can understand what I'm saying when I when I say that. So, it's not like we would take the charge time to move and only do, um, make new pipes, new, new, uh, expansion into, like, a new: neighborhood. We could go into an old neighborhood and expand our system. System expansion that could be used for this would really help us out. Um, you know, in sO many ways. And like I said, we're trying to get creative as we can to provide the commission a means to start funding a lot ofthese projects. Like I said, we don't, you know, we can keep on hoping somebody will figure this out for us, but eventually it's going to get figured out on its own, and then stuff's going to go up by itself and it's going to go up drastically at that point in time. Um, I'm sure everybody's aware of looking at the news right now. Other cities doing those 15 to 20% raises for the utilities and the water is because they face a challenge that we did, did nothing. And now they're in a significant event where they have to raise it up drastically. So, this would be another addition. Um, the I would like to do, um, with the Page 16 of 23 ***DISCUSSION NOTES*** 03172025 WS commission, uh, giving me concession tonight. Um, there's some things I do not know. Still, as far as togetherness and all that. But because all this is connected, um, the first thing would be to increase the water rates. Because if we did it before, then they will have to get the old rates. The second thing would be, like I said, to change the tap ratio. And then the third thing would be one of these initiatives of figuring out ways to better, uh, expand, fix, correct our failing infrastructure. And, Mr. Mayor, um, I paused there was al lot. Um, but like I said, we talked about this a few times before, and, um, we could talk about it again in another meeting, but I would like to go ahead and make a decision. Um, sO we can start, you know, internally. already started my budget discussion with the directors. And, um, like, you see, the thing when we do the thing, we're going to divest and invest. So, we're going to divest for some things. It's not making money or does not make sense. This is one of those things that does not make sense. Um and then invest any savings to other places that we can. So, what I'm asking today is that we go ahead, and the bare minimum will bei the 3%i increase in water and water and sewer across the board, with also the adjustment rate for the commercial, um, water and sewer to adjust it, to invert it back to where it should be. And then, um, once that's done, I would like to change that relationship with, uh. With our cost share agreement and go 100% from the contractor doing all those things and do that, and then hopefully everybody can truly understand watching how much we really pay for these $500, um, tap moves when, um, they were eating this cost, and we can't do it anymore. So once again, I know it's a lot. Um, but we have we have quite a few times before, and Ijust want to make sure I just presented the game, Mr. Mayor. All right. MAYOR: So, the first thing that the taps or know you want to do the water rates at 3%. CITY MANAGER: Yes. MAYOR: Let's find out what the Commission wants to do regarding that first. And I'm sure there will be some work on paper that we'll later on have to either do a resolution of some sort to vote on, but just for consent purposes, for you to move forward, to have that language put in a resolution. I'll check with district one. Is that 3%? Yes, sir. District two. Yes, sir. District three. FELDER: Um, will there be discussion after the vote? MAYOR: Well, there'll be discussion when the resolution comes before us. So, what we're doing now is just asking for the 3%. At least that's what he's asking us to do. To do the consent that he can move forward with writing a resolution, that we can make a vote on. That resolution and discussion can be had at that time as well. FELDER: No. MAYOR: Okay. And district five. NELSON: I have a question first, Mr. Mayor I'm fine with 3%. I'm fine with that but the businesses. My opinion, I think they need to pay more. I think we need to take a look at the six-inch pipe users and maybe go 5 to 7%. Now, mind you, you know, people may say because of the businesses, everybody will not be hit with that 7to 5% because we don'thave pipes that big. Um, uh, the majority ofbusinesses have those four three-inch pipes, but those larger companies, um, that would equate to about $15 a month for 5% for somebody like Walmart or some large corporation. Um, 7% will probably be more like $18 a month. MAYOR: Okay, sO let me pause you on both before you both get into this again. No, I'm not having a discussion. I'm just trying to get consent right now on whether or not to move forward. That's why I'm asking the 3% on what he's asked for. And then we can come back to that 7% regarding the companies. But let's keep it one thing at a time. That's the same thing Ijust said a few moments ago, and it sounds like we'll hear me, but we're not hearing me. Yeah. So, he gave us a consent? Yes. I believe in the three. Page 17 of 23 ***DISCUSSION NOTES*** 03172025 WS We have one and two. Say they believe in the three. Three says no. So, we got three that got consent for writing of a resolution. We can bring it to a vote tomorrow and have more discussion. CITY MANAGER: Uh, thanks, Mr. Mayor. We're almost done, Mr. Mayor. MAYOR: But now you've got three things to me now. I've got one of them done. That's the water rate. The next thing was the taps. CITY MANAGER: Yes. MAYOR: So now I'm going to the district one. And if you have a question, you can all ask questions. I don't have a problem with the questions. Discussion is another thing we. I've heard this multiple times, sO I know we're going to go back into it again. It's going to be a little back and forth again regarding this when the vote comes. So, to keep it from being belabored tomorrow and the next time we come back to this again, I'm sure it'll come back again in budget time. So, what I'm trying to do is make certain that we are clear one thing at a time. So, at this time, this tap and I'm looking at district one. ROBERTS: I do have a question, Problems now, like their neighborhood is on one line. So, we're just going on a system any kind of way, So I don't know. CITY COMMISSIONER: I know in some cases we're not the not the fault ofthe citizen. And we've been trying this our best to. That's why we're doing the $500. I'm just saying, Commissioner, you cannot even do anymore. But like I said, we'll try our best to work around that. But ifyou see if you see the real cause, it's eating us alive. I feel I know you do. I know your commission does. Um. Very bad about why these homes got built. I can't explain it. No, but it's killing us right now. I don't know what the answer ist to that. Like I said, we'll. We'll try our best to do like we've been doing. Try to move on where we can, but definitely moving forward with the caution. This is mainly focused on the new investors. That makes no sense. We've been doing and I you know; it makes no sense. So definitely that SO right now I'm just asking you like, you know, pretty much the new customers coming in with that. Like I said that that cost reflects the overall cost reflects that it can be the same, but it can be separate. So, we'll keep looking at that. But like I said, not to beat a dead horse. But over time, as other things get done, new software get replaced, new technology that'll get cleaned up too. But at the same time, we're talking years. But we got to do something to kick start all that. MAYOR: So let me pause you again. So, the question is about taps and the taps. Are you have a number that we're placing before the people. And the question that is being asked is there are no fault tap. If there's a case where the individuals do not have the responsibility as to why the tap is as it is. And the answer was we don't know what we will do with that. But as other things come along. So that's not answering. That's what I'll just put it this way. We have put that out there. Either we're going to vote on it or we're going to consent to put it as a resolution or not. So, my thing is, ifyou don't feel comfortable with it, just say no. Because right now what I'm hearing is I'm not sure. And we can't have a consent on a not sure. So, I'll say it again. District one. ROBERTS: I go for the tablets, but I just still want to make sure that that's dealing with this is the problem that you know what's going on. That's all I'm saying. I'm still. MAYOR: District. Two. Yes, sir. District three. FELDER: I have a question right here. Just based upon your statement, mayor, about the uncertainty, because as you can see, there have been several questions with each of these recommendations from the city manager. My question is, why can this not be added to our April retreat? That's coming up? Because we still have time to discuss this thoroughly. Get a clear understanding SO that everyone can Page 18 of 23 ***DISCUSSION NOTES*** 03172025 WS make a conscious effort to make a vote without having any remaining concerns about these changes and these increases. I mean, the new fiscal year does doesn't start until July 1st, and we got time. So, what is what is the rush? That's I'm just asking, could it be put on the April 3rd on the agenda? CITY MANAGER: like I said, every, every day that goes by is getting extremely worse. So, I'm just saying that sO and I'm not sure even coming out of the people talking about this for a long time. My whole two years, you know. So, I do want to do. Ijust want to make sure everybody fully understands the direction we're headed. Um, ifwe don't start making the hard decisions. But we will add it to the retreat again. MAYOR: Just before we do that, we're still looking at consent. Okay, let's do one thing at a time, because that's just the question she asked. Not necessarily requires us to make a move, because it will take three of us to make that move sO that we have two right now consenting for the tap. Now ask district five and see what his thoughts are. FELDER: Mayor. MAYOR: Okay. We'll come back to district three has a question or some more comments. FELDER: Question. Okay. MAYOR: Okay. Ready? While she's getting her question together, I go to five to find out what his thinking is. Then she'll have her question together. NELSON: Well, I understand the urgency, Mr. Mayor. Move forward. MAYOR: Okay. And we're back to district three. FELDER: Thank you. Mayor. It's a follow up question to the original question. Um, if this is going to be put on the agenda for the April 3rd, could you please invite ESG as well as Bill from GMA to give their, um, expertise on these rate increases and the pros and cons? CITY MANAGER: Will do. MAYOR: Right now, we have three consenting. So, you can do the writing of the resolution for this. And we'll still have a meeting on the retreat regarding the very topic, if the commission is okay with that. And I'll go to district one. Yes, sir. District two. District three. This is for putting on retreat and district. Retreat or just. We're going to we're going tohave the resolution put before us tomorrow. Right. But then we can have a further discussion because before the budget, you're going to bring this back up again. Okay. Okay. Okay. I have one more. You have the expansion of the. You want to talk about expanding into. Well, um or do you want to wait and do that at retreat as well? CITY MANAGER: Yes sir. And the last thing is ethics update. And I'm going to pass it over to the city attorney. But you have before you, um, a letter, um, certified letter that was sent to us today, uh, Appropriate authorities regarding this matter. And of course, that was we all knew they were going to recuse themselves from this event. And they made recommendations, uh, henceforth from that letter. And I passed it over to the city attorney. Page 19 of 23 ***DISCUSSION NOTES*** 03172025 WS CITY ATTORNEY: Mr. Mayor and commissioners, uh, asyou know, the, uh, ethics case, uh, Clayton Nelson versus Katrina Felter is pending in the municipal court by virtue of the referral from this body to the municipal court and as a result of, uh, filing the case in the municipal court, both the municipal court judge, Judge Gibson, has recused himself from presiding over this case and the solicitor or prosecutor, Mr. Joseph Johnson, likewise, has recused himself. Uh, we have an order of recusal from Judge Gibson dated March the 10th, 2025, and he has referred the matter to the district one representative for the Council ofMunicipal Court judges are to assign another judge in his place. This judge is this district. One representative is in Savannah, and the Clerk of Municipal Court has been contacted by the judge's office. The district one representative who has asked for a copy ofthe file. That request came in last week. And sO, once he receives the file, then he will make a determination as to who he's going to assign the case to in place of Judge Gibson. Meanwhile, uh, Joseph Johnson, the solicitor, has the same conflict because they both are appointed by the city Commission. And since there is no, uh, structured position, uh, provision, I should say, for replacing him, he has written to the attorney General's office in Atlanta and has asked that the Attorney general appoint someone to take his place. Apparently, some years ago, the attorney general used to do this routinely for state court conflicts, superior court conflicts, and then some other organizations, like the prosecuting attorney or prosecuting attorneys Council was formed, which took over state court conflicts. But the prosecuting attorney's council doesn't take over conflicts regarding municipal court. So, Mr. Johnson has decided to write to the Attorney general, reminding them that this is how it used to be done in the past, where if the municipal court had a conflict, then the attorney general would, um, appoint someone. So, this letter went out on March the 12th. And SO now we're waiting for the attorney general to respond, and hopefully we'll appoint someone in his place. So that's the update. CITY MANAGER: Thank you. Mr. city attorney. Mr. mayor, do you have any questions on that at this time? Okay. CITY MANAGER: Uh, at this time, Mr. Mayor, we have no privilege license renewals. We have no privilege license. We're going to have one proposed ordinance, and then we're going to have four proposed resolutions based off of the consent tonight. And then I will turn it over to the city attorney for any additional comments he might have. CITY ATTORNEY: Uh, no further comments. CITY MANAGER: And for the city report, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Sure. Um, for the city report, Mr. mayor, I want to cover, uh, two items. As I mentioned earlier about the leak process for our citizens. I just want to go over the process real fast and how we get these leaks. Um, first and foremost, I would ask that the citizens. Um. That's everybody. Ifyou see a leak, please use the app. Um, that's the fastest way to address it. Um, it does geo tag, and we'll get a whole person out there to figure it out. Uh, trying to call different weekend. Going to put extra hours on it. Um, by the time it gets to me, and, um, even when it gets to me, I feel assessed again. This is the interruption of services and what's actually causing. And do we need to bring, as I stated earlier, all these additional charges to get it fixed versus coming in Monday. And because of the process, you know, the best wasn't good enough to put it together for us. Like, like today. So, it's not as, um, maybe as it should be, but it gets directly to the point. So, um, I want to address it. So, when people see leaks, um, of course you can call. But once again, I'm asking everybody to use the app, the app go right to on call on call personnel. And that's the best way to do it again. Um, once they come and identify the leak, they're going to put this tag here, you know. So, I asked citizens to see the tag there. It means, you know, about to leave. Um, I'm not saying don't keep calling, but please just kind of look and see ifthat tag is available. It's probably a bad spot right here because this isn'tt that big. The bigger leaks, the sign will be a little bit higher. So, you can see it. That's just let everybody know on weekends that we have identified the leak and working on it. I say that because there are a lot of things that must happen, you know. So, um, in most cases, you cannot just Page 20 of 23 ***DISCUSSION NOTES*** 03172025 WS come cut the water off because it might cause an interruption in service to other people. So, you might see the water running. That means that it's running through the system. So, ifI cut it off at the, at the, at the meter or the starting point, that means other folks that might be getting water right now will not get water. It might create a bigger problem in other cases. Yes, somebody did something wrong and it's the butts of water. And we got to try to cut it off because nobody else can service. But we'll make sure that straight. Um, but when that happens, we have to come in and put locators in, and that can take up to 72 hours. That's why I say you might see a leak going after it's been called in, or a few days. That means you're trying to get located because it's mixing the ground. We have to come in there and get to that. Open the ground. Can'tj just go in there and start digging. Got to get Locaters got to look at maps. You got to see what's in their first SO we can go to the ground and kind of open it up from there versus just tearing things up. Um, once the liquidators are complete, then the team comes out there, they mark the area, and they start working on the problem. Um, and they locate the leak. So, all this process here. But this is not where there could be a few days or being open and honest a few months, depending on the nature of the leak. So, I don't want anybody to think that we are just getting out here and not addressing the leak. But there is a process. There's a there's a process. And this goes back again to understanding the process because I got to save money in some kind of way. It's all the same conversation. So, I'm not going to raise the revenue. Then I got to look at all these areas. So maybe on that weekend I don't see anybody out if not in service because don't want to pay the overtime. So, but there's a process. Make sure everybody understands that. Um, and then once everything's done, we'll clean the area up and all that. I want to say that Mr. Mayor, because I, you know, I think we got a problem of just expectation management with some of these areas. And like I say, it goes back to the first slide. We're talking 60-year-old plumbing. So, um, it cost a lot of money. So, we got to methodically do our best, uh, to save money each and every time we can right now. So, uh, I hated that people get frustrated about seeing the water run, but again, um, if services. Um, like I say, depending on ifthey interrupt or not interrupted, it might decide on decision to do something or not do something. And even then, once we come in with the locators and do the mapping, it might take 2 or 3 daysjust to see what the lines run before we even get into the ground to take the lead. And I pause there for any questions, Mr. Mayor. MAYOR: Mr. Do you have any questions? District one. District two. District three. Know and district five. No, sir. CITY MANAGER: And last name. My report quotes are online only, but I want to go ahead and put it out during a meeting. This is our special collection month. You know, April and October. Um, SO dumpsters will be out in the parks. This is the schedule again, to be online. Um, the dumpster will be out there. We're asking citizens to contact us now if you have problems, um, moving items to those dumpsters, we can get some volunteers. The city cannot do it for you but coordinate with volunteers. Um, especially our more elderly or seasoned, um, citizens to get stuff to those dumpsters. I'm also asking if the dumpster is packed. It's going to be out there for five days. Please do not place things around the dumpster on the side of dumpster, because it might cause, um, issues when they're trying to pick a dumpster up. So, this way, they're going to empty it every day. Every day they'll come back and empty it. Same time, same bat channel. All those things. So, um, now, if for some reason you don't get an opportunity to, uh, get it done in your park and you have the means to go to another park, had no problem with that as well, you know, um, as long as you, you know, citizens of Waycross. Um, and that's pretty much it, Mr. Mayor, that's the schedule. And I'm just asking you to kind of to see it now, plan and prep fori it. Um, well, you can't see it right here, but on the, on the post where you see some of that for the hydrogen atom that can't be put into there, you see those items. So just be mindful of that. You know, the paint, the grease, all those things that's harmful to the environment. Uh, and this go around right now is not for the vegetation. Rèmember October we do vegetation. This is for the book items. MAYOR: Commissioner Bennett had a statement. You want to. Page 21 of 23 ***DISCUSSION NOTES*** 03172025 WS BENNETT: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Okay. Elizabeth Park, what about construction? Are you still going to take it there? CITY MANAGER: We're still going to take it there. It might not be in the same location, but we don't want to deviate too far from what the norm is. Over the last two years. Yes, sir. And this concludes my report. MAYOR: we were asked to have an executive session tonight. CITY MANAGER: Yes, Mr. Mayor. MAYOR: And before we do that, I'm going to allow for last call for the district one through five. District one. ROBERTS: I thank everybody for coming out tonight. And I wish everyone a good night. MAYOR: In district two. BENNETT: That's it for tomorrow. MAYOR: District three. And district five. No, sir. And I want to extend my deepest sympathy and condolences to the Hopkins family. And I want to thank. Mark for coming and speaking to us. Mr. Marvin and Heart, thank you all for being here. And I want you to understand something. In these days, it's a tough time. I knowi it's very tough. I think a lot of our hearts are. just trying to even just understand what just took place. But at the same time, where our era is, we want you to forgive us. But we ask you to pray for us because we're going to be doing a good number of things, trying to make sure that we remember Miss Diane Hopkins. She's done a whole lot for us for over 20 years, and we want to say thank you for allowing her and lending her to us during this time frame. But we also say to you. We are looking at everything we're doing. Sometimes we move very fast, and we don't think as quickly as we should think. But we do want to say to you, we thank you for being here tonight and also for hopefully accepting what we would consider an olive branch to you, to say thank you for allowing this moment in time. We know we can't. We can't make up for what we've done for to you. Because once I could hear it in your voice and I could see it in your eyes. But we do want you to know that we do care, and we are concerned. And I look at the entire city. We are right now going through something that maybe we've never anticipated that we'd ever go through before in our lives. I don't know any other mayor who's going through what I've gone through in these last few years. I don't know one. I've had several different commissioners. have a whole new system of people from top to bottom, and even in the process, I've lost two commissioners within nine months of each other. No one else can feel what I feel right here. No one else can even understand what I feel right here. But throughout the whole time that we've been losing people, I've lost family members. Just like you're losing. And I wânt to call a doctor. Doctor Hopkins, because I keep doing that to her when she was here. Iti is something to have someone you love pass away. But at the same time, the idea of honoring those people that have given themselves to us, we need to continue to honor them. And in her memory, we do have some other things that we will be doing. And I1 think they did something at the last minute, which was to say, while we're doing this part, Let's do this. And I understand when statements are made. Sometimes you can't take words back. You cannot take words back. I look at people sometimes and they say some of the most god-awful stuff to people, and they never think about the Word of God. Galatians six nine says, whatsoever you sOW, that shall you also reap. Whatever you put out is coming back, and it's a cycle and a circle that no one can erase. But I always say, be very mindful of the words you say about anyone, because we don't know them like we think we know them. Wel know something about them. And that's the only part we perceive ourselves through our own perceptions. We don't know persons for persons. We know them for what they present and sometimes how we feel. But I can feel your heart tonight, and I say to you, be Page 22 of 23 ***DISCUSSION NOTES*** 03172025 WS encouraged and know family that we are with you, and you will be hearing from us more, and I'm going to do better. We're keeping in touch. The only number I have is her number. Ifyou go to her phone, I've been sending messages to her phone. I'm probably sure you've probably read some of them. But I will say to you. God is with you. He's going to cover you. He's going to keep you in this time. And I don't care what anybody else says to you. We appreciate what she has done, and we appreciate what you've done to allow her to be here with us. And if anything, else I can do, you got my number. If you don't have it, you get it before you leave tonight, okay? Because I want to talk to you anyway. And she was born on the same day as my mama. And she and Ihad conversations often about various things, and they have similar temperaments. So sometimes they would say things that nobody else can say, and they can do things nobody else would do, and people can sometimes misunderstand them. But I say to you, thank you, and again, thank you. And with that, 1 - entertain a motion for executive session regarding property. FELDER: Mr. mayor, I make a motion that we enter into executive session discussing property. MAYOR: We have a second. NELSON: Second. MAYOR: We have a motion from our Commissioner Felder and a second from our Commissioner Nelson. All in favor? Aye. Aye. All opposed? No. Motion carries. We're going into executive session. Page 23 of 23