[0:00] morning good morning how are you mayor
morning
[0:04] can we call the meeting to order please
okay um let me call the roll dr adams
[0:11] president this battle here
mr deal here oh
[0:19] here chair is here
um first item any opening remarks dr
[0:25] adams
none is battle
[0:33] [Music]
next item is um approval of the minutes
[0:38] i assume all the board members have had
an opportunity to
[0:42] review the minutes if
[0:46] does anyone have any um objections are
there any errors or missions in the
[0:51] minutes as presented
i found none i moved for approval that's
[0:57] is there a second motion a second any
discussion any discussion
[1:01] dr adams uh none miss battle
none mr deal
[1:08] none slope none recall the question
regarding approval of the minutes as
[1:15] presented from the january 28th
meeting of the utility board dr adams
[1:21] yes this battle yes
mr deal yes mr loke
[1:28] yes and mayor votes yes minutes
are approved as presented the next item
[1:34] on the agenda
is a discussion regarding um
[1:39] the household collection of household
garbage
[1:44] east of slappy drive and um
i think mr stock and mr rowe are y'all
[1:49] with us this morning
yes sir good morning mayor good morning
[1:52] board
good morning morning ken hello stacy
[1:58] hello and if we remember i believe
we were considering the um proposed
[2:05] purchase of equipment
for city staff and there was a
[2:10] request that we determine
what the cost would be to transition out
[2:17] of
household garbage collection as
[2:21] we know the city collects garbage east
of slappy drive
[2:25] and um we have a contractor that
collects garbage west of slappy drive so
[2:32] with that
mr stock yes sir thank you very much uh
[2:35] jonathan you can just go to the next
slide please
[2:41] so so the mayor did an excellent job of
leading in for me
[2:44] so i don't have to thank you for the
history that is
[2:48] that is exactly what we were uh what we
had considered in december
[2:52] and and then requested to make the
analysis
[2:56] and so we're coming back today uh with
that analysis complete
[3:00] uh and presenting basically two options
the first option of
[3:04] course is that the city would continue
to provide the residential waste
[3:08] collection to the same benefit as being
provided by the
[3:11] contractor and of course you know in
order to do that the city would need to
[3:15] replace the aging equipment
vehicles and invest in the hardware and
[3:20] software
and equipment with the route tracking
[3:23] and documentation
capabilities and i guess a third item
[3:27] there would be of course then train
staff
[3:30] you know to use that equipment the
second option
[3:34] would be contracting out all of the
residential solid waste that as
[3:38] uh you know requested to to analyze here
in this
[3:42] um item so uh and
with that the contractor would then
[3:47] provide all the necessary resources to
expand the service to the entire city
[3:51] in either option uh the city will
continue to serve
[3:55] all of the commercial customers next
slide please jonathan
[4:01] so this slide is the side by side uh
analysis of the
[4:05] of the finances uh includes the uh
assumptions i just made from the
[4:09] previous slide uh also has
that the these assumption includes for
[4:14] both options that
would use the quoted contractor rate of
[4:19] 26.48
per account per month and it would
[4:23] include the pass-through of 2.69
per account per month what it does not
[4:29] include is the really big item
which is that under the city option the
[4:33] city would have to spend nearly three
million dollars
[4:36] in order to buy the necessary equipment
again that's why we were asked to
[4:41] consider this uh next slide please
jonathan
[4:47] so the other thing we took into account
of course is is how would this
[4:51] impact employees because you know we're
very concerned about that especially
[4:55] during well at all times especially
during these times
[4:58] and in the solid waste division there
are currently 36 full-time employees
[5:04] budgeted in the contracting option the
city would retain
[5:08] 19 of those positions and obviously
doing the math the city would then have
[5:12] to reduce
17 positions however of those 17
[5:17] nine of those are currently vacant which
would leave eight
[5:21] and in looking at all of the other
current vacancies within public works
[5:25] uh those those eight could be easily
reassigned into those other openings in
[5:30] in public works
therefore resulting in zero layoffs and
[5:35] terminations in other words this would
not
[5:37] impact any current employee
all right next slide please
[5:44] so the pros and cons uh the the pros
for expanding residential solid waste
[5:50] contract
across the entire service area is that
[5:54] would increase and levelize
consistent standard of service benefit
[5:57] to all customers both east
it would eliminate our confusion of
[6:03] having two separate
service areas that comes up occasionally
[6:06] as you can imagine having a dividing
line
[6:09] i would reduce the capital cost we
mentioned
[6:13] definitely reduce risk and reduction in
certain other long-term
[6:18] obligations the cons of not expanding
the residential
[6:23] uh solid waste contract across the
service area is that we would continue
[6:27] to have a disparity of service benefit
for the different areas of the city
[6:31] and of course we would continue to have
an ongoing need for large capital
[6:35] expenditures
and we would continue to have a high
[6:39] degree of risk due to this activity
you know more miles more people more
[6:44] equipment more risk
and with that last slide
[6:50] and with that we will entertain any
questions
[6:54] okay thank you any questions any
questions dr adams
[6:58] none miss battle
none mr dill
[7:05] uh yes ken that's an excellent report uh
what is the value and how much how many
[7:11] pieces of uh
equipment would we be able to to sell
[7:15] use that we're presently using
right now we have six grapple trucks
[7:21] um and i believe it's also
i'd have to get stacy's on here to help
[7:26] me out but i believe it's also six rear
loaders
[7:29] that's correct and again i'd have to
defer to stacy if there's any other
[7:34] pieces of equipment i think there's a
couple pickups that
[7:36] could probably be shed well that would
be another plus
[7:40] the revenue that we would gain from
selling that equipment
[7:43] and this this is a in my opinion a great
report
[7:47] the thing that concerned me most was the
loss of jobs and you've got that covered
[7:52] yes sir thank you very much
[7:56] that's all mr mayor thank you mr
slow uh yes got a few questions um
[8:02] and it was it was a good presentation
informative
[8:06] um before we were only talking about
capital expenditures and replacement of
[8:10] equipment of a million seventy eight
thousand
[8:12] but now you're saying that our capital
cost would be two million seven
[8:16] seventy so um i think what you're saying
is that rather than continuing service
[8:24] as we provide it now
that as far as the analysis goes you're
[8:28] looking
at duplicating what our contractor does
[8:32] on the west side of town is that correct
yes sir that is correct so that that
[8:36] analysis obviously has
those six grapples that we originally
[8:40] talked about for that
million plus it also includes that of
[8:44] our six rear loaders four of those would
need to be replaced in the next 12 to 18
[8:49] months
so even though those haven't been
[8:51] brought to you yet they would be
you know if we were to continue along
[8:56] those lines
and then the last part is is upgrading
[8:59] the equipment
so that we would have that same you know
[9:04] level of service to be able to perform
that same tracking
[9:07] capability um with the with the bins and
stuff and there's a cost of those items
[9:12] as well
okay and that i guess leads to my next
[9:15] question i wanted a little clearer
definition of disparity of service
[9:19] because right now i live on the east
side and
[9:23] um as far as our customers go i think
that um
[9:27] that we're getting uh we are getting
excellent service i know i do
[9:31] well and we really appreciate that mr
lowe
[9:35] what we're what we would really be
referring to in this case
[9:38] um is a lot of times when people call in
with questions
[9:42] right now about whether or not um you
know trash was picked up at a certain
[9:46] time or a certain location
you know or whatever right now on the
[9:50] east side we track everything via paper
right so but on the on the west side if
[9:56] you called in and said hey
you know my trash was supposed to be
[10:00] picked up you know what time
you know we can go right to the software
[10:05] and tell you exactly down to the minute
when that bin
[10:09] was lifted and and uh that trash
deposited into the truck
[10:14] and if you really wanted to push us we
could probably provide video
[10:19] well i certainly hope it doesn't come to
that oh no but you'll be surprised
[10:23] some questions we get well and uh
but that um that certainly does it's
[10:31] it's
absolutely evident that from um a
[10:35] business standpoint
and from an efficiency standpoint an
[10:38] operational standpoint
uh of the utility board um
[10:43] and the solid waste division that it it
most certainly would be a benefit
[10:48] i think the last question i've got is um
are the containers on the west side
[10:53] different in size from those that we're
that we have on the east side
[10:59] i believe that answer is no but i'll
defer to stacy
[11:02] no so they're they're both the same they
they appear to be a different size just
[11:06] because of the shape
but they're about a 95 gallon gotcha
[11:11] okay well i just wanted to make sure
that we weren't
[11:16] doing what so many of the uh grocery
store products seem to be it seems like
[11:21] rather than go up
in price they just reduce the size of
[11:24] what you get
so thank you thank you gentlemen for all
[11:28] of that
no less cookies here sir
[11:32] well i was thinking more in terms of ice
cream oh okay
[11:36] i was thinking about potato chips same
size bag
[11:40] a third full i wonder why you're eating
ice cream and potato chips
[11:45] hey what else do you do in a pandemic
[11:51] um is that overslow that's it thank you
i i just um of course i have
[11:59] some concerns about this really
i think it's a big decision
[12:06] but first we need to
consider the fact that we would
[12:11] basically be
eliminating the solid waste division for
[12:15] household
collection i mean that maybe you'd still
[12:18] the city would maintain some commercial
accounts but
[12:21] um i think it would be prudent to find
out how many other cities
[12:25] um essentially contract out household
garbage
[12:29] i i think we talk about it being a
business decision
[12:33] and and certainly the city always needs
to be as entrepreneurial as possible but
[12:36] the city is not a business
we're providing a service to our
[12:39] residents and
um i don't think we've adequately
[12:45] vetted this issue but if you all want to
vote if the board wants to vote on it
[12:48] today that's fine i mean i was
looking over this and i thought the
[12:54] staff hadn't provided us with the pros
and and the cons on the other side and i
[13:00] i want to
address that briefly one thing we need
[13:04] to remember we've got these
numbers but concrete enterprises
[13:09] actually came in to obtain the city's
business
[13:12] on the west side of slappy at a lower
rate
[13:16] than they did and their contract is for
only one year
[13:20] so it's a pretty safe assumption
that the cost of collecting garbage on
[13:27] the west side is going to go up
after that one year
[13:33] what i have seen during my time in
office
[13:37] is when fuel prices spike
then on these long-term contracts
[13:43] the um outside contractors they start
getting a position where they're can
[13:49] actually be losing money
with that service oftentimes becomes um
[13:54] sluggish they want to renegotiate their
contracts
[13:57] with having um solid waste
even on the just on the east side of
[14:04] slappy
what we can do is we can mobilize
[14:09] and and this happened before and uh
after i speak misubidan can either
[14:13] um verify or um refute what i'm saying
but in the last few months of the
[14:19] previous contract
we had neighborhoods that trash was not
[14:23] getting picked up
for weeks and we were actually sending
[14:26] city employees
to neighborhoods on the west side to
[14:30] collect garbage
also with an outside contractor you're
[14:35] limited
to the scope of the contract and if
[14:39] they're just picking up household
garbage and we have a problem with a
[14:42] dump site
well then they don't have an obligation
[14:44] to go to that dump site
well the residents aren't going to be
[14:49] satisfied when their commissioner tells
them well
[14:53] um sorry mr jones but that's not in
concrete enterprises uh scope of
[15:00] work we we also um
[15:05] need to look at the cons and uh even
though
[15:08] ms subidan sells that she can re
reassign all these employees
[15:14] assuming that that's correct we are
still eliminating
[15:18] 40 jobs and and this
came up over the years well
[15:24] the people who work for contractors
don't have
[15:28] the same benefits that they would have
as as city employees and we are
[15:32] impacting
these people will be eliminating about
[15:35] 40 jobs
even if the individuals can
[15:40] be reassigned um mr dill brought up the
disposal of the equipment
[15:45] um that would be some income but i don't
think
[15:48] that mr stock just told us two of the
uh machines have to be replaced so
[15:54] whatever value they would have would
probably be
[15:56] um negligible um i question
this about the risk and we can get an
[16:01] answer from mr davis
i don't think this would be a delegable
[16:05] duty
in other words the city is going to be
[16:09] responsible
for um the
[16:13] uh negligence of the contractor if it's
not inevitable
[16:17] it's not a delicable duty in which event
we'd have to insist that they get uh
[16:22] substantial insurance and of course that
cost is going to be
[16:26] um passed on to us i mentioned earlier
about
[16:29] the um
[16:34] agreement with concrete enterprises
being only for one year
[16:38] well um the cost also of using an
outside contractor
[16:43] could go up considerably if uh
the minimum wage is increased
[16:48] incrementally like it appears
it it will be and um once
[16:53] we get out of the solid collect solid
household collection it's going to be
[16:59] almost impossible to to to get back in
and um i just think there's so much more
[17:04] we need to we need to look at that
hadn't been presented to us and also
[17:08] um in all fairness i i think it would be
um
[17:11] prudent to have uh surveys or
information from other cities to see how
[17:17] many cities are actually
um completely contracting out household
[17:22] um garbage collection but that's that's
my thoughts
[17:26] and if the board wants to vote on this
item today we
[17:29] i guess we can and and make a
recommendation
[17:32] um to the commission or if we want to
hear
[17:36] uh and investigate further
and and with that um dr adams
[17:46] could i provide a few responses for you
okay yes sir thank you
[17:54] um so in terms of the rate we calculated
the new rate
[17:59] because we wanted to make sure that
there were no surprises
[18:03] the contract that we have
while it is for it's not technically it
[18:09] is not for one year
it's only for one year if they fail to
[18:13] perform
as we did our analysis we did calculate
[18:17] the new rate
um i certainly wouldn't want to put
[18:21] this commission or the city commission
in a position where we have a oops
[18:26] after one year so we did incorporate the
rate increase
[18:29] um in terms of scope you should know
that the scope
[18:33] of our contract includes additional
pickups like dump sites and you know
[18:39] emergency collections
you know dead animals on the road all
[18:43] the things that we currently do
are incorporated in the rate in terms of
[18:48] quality
part of the reason the new contract has
[18:54] significantly more accountability is
because of what we encountered
[18:58] at the end of the last contract which
was not a contract that i negotiated
[19:04] um this contract requires a significant
amount of additional accountability
[19:09] which is why we have things like video
gps we know when every pickup is made
[19:14] how much
was picked up even when they do their
[19:17] bulky waste or the
the yard trash we have video when that
[19:22] was
was picked up and um that is part of
[19:25] their contract being able to provide
those
[19:28] dashboards and those key performance
indicators is part of this contract
[19:32] if they failed to do that then we
wouldn't we would we would penalize them
[19:36] accordingly
um you suggested that there were 40 jobs
[19:41] in actuality it would be 17 jobs
um that would be not jobs but positions
[19:48] that would be eliminated
as opposed to um
[19:52] 40 i'm not sure how many vacancies do
you have
[19:56] i believe we have nine so that would
that would bring it to 26.
[20:02] no sir because commercial and the the
rest of solid waste stays intact
[20:07] the only part would that would go away
would be the 17 positions
[20:12] that are essentially assigned to
residential east side collection
[20:16] okay in terms of
risk it is in their cost and
[20:23] nathan was very clear in our negotiation
process
[20:28] that any liability associated with the
contractor
[20:32] is the contractor's responsibility
um and and the city is um
[20:39] is held harmless um
and in terms of additional cost
[20:46] for minimum wage and or fuel that
happens on both sides
[20:51] you know if the minimum wage goes up to
15
[20:54] it goes up for us as well and so the
cost of fuel goes up it goes up for us
[20:59] as well so you know and in addition to
this
[21:04] we have a 38 to 40 additional
um overhead burden on every full-time
[21:10] equivalent
position um
[21:15] you know and that that encompasses
everything from health insurance
[21:18] to pension to all of our other benefits
so certainly um we will do more research
[21:26] in terms of the um other cities
and our intention this morning is to
[21:32] bring this back
as requested by the utility board we
[21:36] would like to take this to the
city commission and the second work
[21:39] session in march
for the input and we can provide
[21:44] additional um
and more detailed analysis
[21:48] um there's a lot of backup to each one
of these numbers and and we certainly
[21:52] can provide that as part of our um
presentation to the the city commission
[21:58] sharon one quick question if we postpone
this
[22:02] our next utility board meeting would
that give you all adequate time
[22:06] to check with other cities and see how
they're
[22:09] collecting the garbage um yes but
what that would mean is we would have to
[22:14] postpone the city commission
uh or potentially postpone the city
[22:18] commission until april
one of the reasons this is being brought
[22:21] to you now is we need to get direction
on our budget
[22:25] um we've already started to put together
fiscal 22
[22:30] and we need some direction from the
utility board
[22:34] because depending on how we go will
depend on how much we budget
[22:38] we'll have to budget differently miss
superdan
[22:42] uh um excuse me
can we go around the table now um you
[22:48] have the floor doc adams
okay thank you uh miss am i correct that
[22:53] i heard that
we still have to service the commercial
[22:59] uh part of the city and if if that's the
case
[23:04] how many employees would be involved
in that aspect of it and would that
[23:11] necessitate new equipment
and what would be the cost of replacing
[23:17] that equipment
yes we would like to retain commercial
[23:21] we found it to be
fairly lucrative for us um you may
[23:26] recall a few meetings ago you approved
some equipment
[23:28] for the commercial operation we did
calculate that
[23:33] that calculation has happened separately
to ensure that our cost of commercial is
[23:39] covered and we
um end the process ahead i don't have
[23:44] that number
on hand but we certainly can provide
[23:47] that as part of our overall the the
number of employees
[23:51] uh is anybody that information
number of employees in that uh uh
[23:57] or is that a separate aspect or is that
so 19 other solid waste employees
[24:03] are retained and a part of that is our
commercial operation stacey do you have
[24:09] that on hand i know we had the breakout
when we looked at our back up
[24:12] out of the 19 uh that we would retain
eight of those as operators that would
[24:18] perform the duties
you know for the front loader trucks and
[24:22] uh
the the roll-off business that we have
[24:25] good now is that equipment in good shape
or will that have to be replaced
[24:30] um and if so about what's the
approximate cost
[24:36] i don't think we're slated to replace a
front loader this year but
[24:40] the last cost i have for front loaders
is like 275
[24:44] 000.
okay thank you
[24:50] is that all right yes that's it mr
battle
[24:57] no questions for me mr dill
uh yes stacy this one's for you do you
[25:04] can you tell us some other towns about
the size or cities about the size of
[25:08] albany
that are outsourcing their garbage
[25:11] collection now
uh i believe one of robin's but
[25:16] i'd like to check and verify before i
before i really answered that because i
[25:22] understand that i was just i think the
mayor had a good point to see how it's
[25:26] working in other cities that are
comparable to albany
[25:29] um but other than that i'm all for it
that's all i have mr mayor
[25:34] thank you mr loeb uh yeah just a comment
um that you made you did make some very
[25:40] good points
um but but one issue i would um
[25:44] i might take exception to you said that
we're a city providing a service
[25:48] um and i don't recall this service being
paid for out of albany's general fund
[25:55] um we are as a city operating
uh what is a revenue enterprise and that
[26:02] means that all of our services that we
sell
[26:05] and provide to our citizens they're
paying for and they're paying for a fee
[26:08] and they're our customers
and the one thing that uh that i think
[26:12] that we've all been very conscious of
and done a good job of
[26:16] is making sure that we do and provide
that service to our customers in the
[26:20] best way we can
at the most at the most efficient price
[26:24] uh and and what's in the best long-term
um good for the city and
[26:32] uh i think that this might be an
opportunity
[26:36] for us to take advantage of those things
and that's all okay i mean i
[26:44] i just in response to that um
ms logan would point out that
[26:50] you acknowledged being within the city
service area that
[26:55] um you have no
complaints with with um the collection
[27:00] and
there's no saying if it ain't broke
[27:03] don't fix it but with that
does um the board want to vote on this
[27:07] today what's
what what is the will of the board dr
[27:11] adams
um i would vote
[27:16] uh well let me put you i think i should
excuse myself from the vote um
[27:27] what i'm asking i i have to excuse
myself from the vote
[27:35] okay um
[27:44] miss battle are you would you are you
ready to go ahead and vote on this today
[27:49] i'm fine with voting okay and
mr deal you ready to vote on it or you
[27:56] want more information
no i'm ready to vote on it i think it's
[28:00] the right move and i think it's a good
like stan said i think it's a good um
[28:05] you know we have a fiduciary
responsibility to the tax holders and i
[28:08] think that
would be doing a good job to to save
[28:11] money by outsourcing
okay and uh mr lowe you ready to vote
[28:16] yeah i'm ready to vote today okay so
with that um any
[28:23] we've already had discussion haven't we
yeah so with that we
[28:26] will call the question dr adams you're
abstaining is that correct
[28:30] no i have to excuse myself from the vote
right
[28:34] yes okay second uh miss battle
i vote yes mr deal
[28:41] mr mayor is there a motion on the table
or do we miss that
[28:44] there is oh i'm sorry
okay i thought i'm sorry okay the chair
[28:51] would entertain a motion
so moved second okay and and the motion
[28:56] is to approve to the city commission um
outsourcing solid waste collection
[29:06] in the area east of slappy drive
is that correct that is correct okay
[29:13] emotion is there a second second
motion second any discussion miss battle
[29:20] none mr deal
none slow none
[29:28] okay with that we'll call the question
i'm sorry miss battle
[29:32] yes mr deal yes
slow yes care votes no motion passes
[29:41] the uh next item on the agenda
is um appointment
[29:48] of a utility board member to the
long-term financial planning
[29:51] committee misubidan
yes mayor um as you
[29:58] may recall the um one-third of the
miad credits
[30:05] was assigned to a job investment fund
which we maintain and partner with the
[30:14] economic development commission to use
it as a
[30:19] as a way for us to secure
economic development projects
[30:26] because it was the genesis of the fund
came from the utility the utility board
[30:33] seats two people on the long-term
financial planning committee
[30:38] um currently jim diehl serves
on that committee for the utility board
[30:45] chad warbington bj fletcher bob lang
staff served for the city commission
[30:50] and this morning we need a replacement
on
[30:53] the long-term financial planning
committee from the utility board that
[30:57] seat was previously held by sam smeed
who's no longer a member
[31:05] okay um any questions from the suburban
and dr adams
[31:08] none it's battle none
excuse none
[31:16] slow none um
i i would just ask um the city manager
[31:22] for i i'm sure mr logue has a
uh good understanding of this but just
[31:28] for our benefit
um i'm getting the information
[31:33] um with the rest of the city commission
um ms subanen did you send out that
[31:40] explanation to the
members of the utility board um
[31:46] no i can send it out again or if you
want i can go over
[31:49] it now um okay can we do both
absolutely okay yes ma'am just
[31:56] give me one second to pull up the
document
[32:01] um
[32:05] sorry this will take a minute
[32:17] um derrick are you on could you kind of
give the history
[32:22] of the um yes ma'am
give me a credit
[32:29] yes ma'am it's just speaking in the pure
terms of
[32:33] numbers uh when me act uh made that
decision to
[32:37] refund those dollars back to the utility
there was a joint decision made to
[32:42] divide that up into thirds
and so the total refund amount was 76.2
[32:47] million dollars
uh and so the utility kept a third the
[32:51] city kept a third
and the decision was made to set
[32:55] one-third aside for future purposes
and it was later decided to
[33:02] create a job investment fund for that
other third
[33:06] and so all three entities kept 25.4
million dollars
[33:11] the utility and the city used their
funds for general operating purposes
[33:18] up until fiscal year 15 which was about
19.1 million dollars
[33:23] beginning in fiscal 16 they sort of set
that money aside the city and the
[33:28] utility
pretty much after we came together that
[33:32] other third that was set aside the
utility
[33:35] uh requested a million dollars of that
money for elevator repairs and other
[33:38] repairs this
city requested two hundred thousand
[33:41] dollars of that money for the game task
force
[33:44] and since that time uh there have been
some requests from the job investment
[33:48] fund thrust aircraft
victoria fields restaurant mars
[33:53] chocolate
the flats at 249 coast and clark and the
[33:56] flint
and so funds that have been exhausted
[34:00] from the
or expanded from the job investment fund
[34:03] amount to about 4.9 million dollars
that left a balance of 20.4 million
[34:08] dollars in that fund
uh we began to get some repayments of
[34:13] those funds that have been
uh issued uh from our pretorian fields
[34:17] from the flint
we've also made some interest on those
[34:20] funds over the years
and so right now at least as of our
[34:24] financial statements has a
december 31st uh there's 22.9 million
[34:29] dollars in that fund
which is the oversight that the
[34:34] long-term financial planning committee
makes recommendations on so as far as
[34:38] the job investment fund that's that
balance
[34:40] uh which i'm sure that's that's the
primary uh uh one that you're interested
[34:44] in the utilities also has
uh six million dollars left of its
[34:48] balance of that 25.4 it initially had
[34:55] thank you darren vm the
general fund allocation of 25.4 million
[35:01] was used for general operating um fiscal
09 to 15 before i got here
[35:07] we retained the remainder for several
years and in fiscal 19 we used the
[35:12] remainder to upgrade the city's street
lights to led
[35:18] so at this point the responsibility of
the long-term financial planning
[35:21] committee
is to convene to consider economic
[35:25] development projects there are a set of
guidelines
[35:28] that are required for
a project to be eligible to get a grant
[35:35] from the long-term financial planning
committee
[35:39] and we convened that committee on an as
needed basis
[35:44] um the bylaws really need to be updated
because it requires you to meet
[35:49] more regularly than that but quite
honestly
[35:52] unless there's a project to be
determined
[35:56] um so it really sort of functions on a
call
[35:59] call meeting basis but the
um it would be interesting to see how
[36:05] how
you would like that to be framed going
[36:07] forward along with the city commission
and what the long time long long-term
[36:11] financial planning committee does is
is is evaluate the projects and then
[36:16] make a recommendation to the city
commission and the city commission
[36:19] ultimately has the decision
of whether or not to grant to to approve
[36:24] a grant from the long
from the job investment fund i will also
[36:29] let you know that
um on tuesday night the
[36:34] city commission approved uh gap
financing for
[36:38] the um south albany grocery store
and we are using the job investment fund
[36:44] as a funding source
but it doesn't meet the normal criteria
[36:48] it's not a grant
um it is a loan program so these funds
[36:53] um will will go down by two hundred
thousand dollars
[36:57] um for the purpose of supporting
the um supermarket in um
[37:04] south south albany um which as you know
has been a a challenge
[37:10] able to um partner with an
operator and a building owner to bring
[37:16] bring that
back to south albany any questions dr
[37:22] adams
yes uh the super dan uh
[37:26] this south auburn project uh is it in
what we call the food desert area
[37:33] it is it's in the old harvest that
closed
[37:37] on on um on gordon
okay thank you miss battle
[37:45] no questions just a deal none
slope no questions
[37:53] well um it appears we have roughly 20
million dollars
[37:56] in the job investment fund and this
committee oversees those funds
[38:01] um we all would agree we need more
projects and industrial prospects so the
[38:05] committee
could meet more frequently but the issue
[38:08] here is
um the utility board needs to appoint a
[38:13] a member um i would entertain
nominations or if anybody wants to
[38:19] volunteer
however y'all tell me how y'all want to
[38:23] do it do you want to
take nominations or we want to
[38:30] uh i i would uh
since uh initially i
[38:38] i think i was involved in that uh
project that um and i certainly would
[38:45] like to see those type funds
uh be guarded with care so to speak
[38:51] and and not just be used heather
skether so um
[38:58] i would like to volunteer and i don't
volunteer for many things
[39:02] but i like to volunteer to serve if it's
the uh
[39:06] if it's the pleasure of the other uh
commissioners okay thank you dr adams
[39:14] miss battle um do you have any interest
in serving
[39:19] no but i'd like to nominate someone
um well i i think we're going to
[39:25] volunteer
[39:30] if she wants to nominate somebody else i
would uh
[39:34] certainly not want to take that
pleasure from her you know
[39:42] uh okay miss battle uh stan logan
okay and um mr deal
[39:50] yeah i'd like to support dr adams he's
very familiar with this
[39:55] okay um
mr slow uh as much as i appreciate
[40:02] brenda's support um i think that dr
adams would be a good choice as well
[40:08] okay that's perfect all right with that
um
[40:11] dr adams has volunteered to serve we'll
pass on dr adams first
[40:16] i'm all in favor of dr adam servant um
dr adams i will abstain
[40:25] [Laughter]
but i have to say yes okay mr lowe
[40:31] yes are you sorry mr deal i'm sorry yeah
mr lowe yes chair votes yes
[40:38] it's four oh and oh no 401 i guess
thanks for the support
[40:48] and as i said i hope the committee um
meet soon
[40:52] if we but we just need some prospects
here
[40:55] the next item on the agenda is an update
on the walmart solar initiative mr stock
[41:01] yes sir good morning again thank you i
can make this one
[41:05] really brief because there really hasn't
been any movement
[41:09] um on this but we talked about this in
december as you may recall i don't want
[41:14] to go into all of the history everybody
remembers
[41:17] so the update is is that in in the
middle of january
[41:22] the solar vendor that was working with
miag
[41:26] uh on the project due to the what they
call the subscription level
[41:30] in other words how many megawatts all
the cities were interested
[41:34] ended up coming back lower than they
anticipated
[41:37] uh that vendor raised their prices and
as a result of that price
[41:42] increase in the in the ppa our purchase
power agreement
[41:46] walmart rejected that agreement and so
um walmart also rejected a proposed
[41:53] service fee
for the cities that was included in that
[41:57] renewable energy customer agreement
tariff
[42:00] they didn't like the way it was
structured uh so walmart has requested
[42:04] me
ag power to provide updates on three
[42:08] items
and those items are an updated ppa
[42:11] pricing
which means me egg has to go back and
[42:14] find another developer
and negotiate and come up with pricing
[42:20] and then the second item is the revised
uh requitera for the the city fee
[42:27] and redo of that structure and then the
third thing we wanted was some project
[42:32] scenarios which are really
you know like we talk about are just
[42:35] options you know if this then that
uh so they wanted some of those as well
[42:40] based on that subscription level um
and that is actually where i did that
[42:46] was uh the status like i said that
happened in mid-january but we did
[42:51] uh talk with me ag on tuesday to verify
that that is still the situation and
[42:56] that is still accurate information
okay thank you mr stock welcome sir dr
[43:02] adams any questions
[43:06] miss battle any questions for mr stock
no
[43:09] mr deal none mr loeb
none well i i just want to say
[43:16] um
[43:20] my my objections to this proposal i mean
from day one has been
[43:24] the city is really not much more than a
straw man and here
[43:27] it's um been confirmed
because what was happened is the real
[43:34] purchaser and the supplier couldn't come
to um
[43:38] terms on the on the cost and so even if
we would have supported it it would not
[43:42] have come to fruition anyway but
um with that we
[43:48] proceed other matters dr adams
none
[43:54] yes i have a two-part question do we
have
[43:58] a anticipated date as to how soon
we're going to receive the results of
[44:03] the audit one
and two i guess this is for um
[44:09] um city managers super dan and two
have there been any thought as to how
[44:15] this
the results will be communicated to the
[44:20] public
um we got a first pass um
[44:25] at the report and
um we had additional questions
[44:32] that i don't think they answered
that were in the scope
[44:39] um i want to make sure that they fully
answer everything that was
[44:43] in our scope of work so we kind of sent
them back
[44:48] to do more in-depth uh analysis
and provide us a response to everything
[44:53] we ask for
and so um i would say within
[44:58] probably within the next month we would
communicate it at a
[45:02] at a utility board meeting um and at a
city commission meeting
[45:07] um the other thing i would really love
is if we were able to have
[45:12] sort of a high level um
what i call a people speak version
[45:18] um that we can we can do for the public
and so when we get the final report
[45:24] that's something that we would like to
to be able to put out on on all of our
[45:28] media and social media outlets
[45:40] anything else in this battle no that's
it
[45:44] okay under other matters mr deal no sir
okay mr loeb no my the only thing i had
[45:51] was exactly what brenda brought up
i was curious about the uh timing on our
[45:56] um consultants report and analysis of
exactly where we are
[46:01] okay i um i was reminded when i drove
into the parking lot today
[46:05] missus the lines are all crossed over
each other
[46:09] we make any progress on restriping the
or do you have to recover the whole lot
[46:14] i
[46:21] what you're seeing is the result of
restriping we actually need to repave
[46:25] the lot
and so my plan was to um
[46:29] see if we could do that either in the
budget
[46:33] or um incorporate it some kind of way
with the paving contract if there's a
[46:38] quantity
um i would have to kind of see how
[46:43] how we're doing though um
but we we are we are cognizant and
[46:48] truthfully now will be a good time
if the weather holds to take care of it
[46:52] while we don't have customers coming
into the building
[46:55] but we'll circle back and try to get a
cost and and see if that's something we
[46:59] can do this year
could that be a t splash project no sir
[47:04] no that would be funded by
[47:07] okay thank you all right next
other business or items for a future
[47:13] agenda dr adams
uh no i just uh have a curiosity
[47:19] question and maybe the superman can help
me out with this
[47:23] um i i wonder
[47:28] what is the um downsides of
using inmate labor uh and
[47:34] why why do we use inmate labor
uh in the city or if
[47:41] not why not if so how does it work
to our advantage well actually we had
[47:49] gotten
a really good um arrangement
[47:54] going um for litter pickup
especially in some of our most
[47:59] challenging areas
where you know every three days you have
[48:02] to go out and pick up litter
um the challenge we ran into though is
[48:07] they transported
the prisoners in vans 15 passenger vans
[48:13] and once covet hit it wasn't possible
for us to do that anymore because of
[48:18] social distancing
so quite honestly since the beginning of
[48:22] the pandemic we've been really limited
in in what we can do in terms of um
[48:27] um inmate labor
[48:32] okay thank you okay
under other business items for future
[48:38] agenda
miss battle none
[48:43] okay mr deal
[48:51] i'm sorry mr deal done
thank you miss lo
[48:57] okay i want to thank everybody for your
attendance your participation and your
[49:00] service and this meeting will be
adjourned