[4:12] Calling the beer board in session.
[4:16] Please roll call.
[4:18] Board Member McCowan.
[4:21] Aye.
[4:23] Board Member Dugan.
[4:24] Here.
[4:26] Board Member Sharlin.
[4:29] Board Member Curtis.
[4:30] Here.
[4:31] Chairman Eaton.
[4:32] Present.
[4:35] Each one of you has got the package.
[4:37] You got the minutes of the-
[4:38] Mm-hmm
[4:39] ... Tuesday, the May 19th. Do I have a motion?
[4:42] Move approval of the minutes as presented.
[4:44] Do I hear a second?
[4:45] I second.
[4:47] Roll call.
[4:49] Board Member McCowan.
[4:51] Aye.
[4:51] Board Member Dugan.
[4:53] Aye.
[4:55] Board Member Curtis.
[4:56] Aye.
[4:57] Chairman Eaton.
[4:58] Aye.
[4:59] There's no citizens
[5:02] comments, so we'll go into the old business, and there's no old business, so we'll
[5:06] go into the new business.
[5:08] Line item A, please.
[5:11] Item A is a beer permit
[5:14] for a restaurant doing business as Mexi Wing
[5:18] 2, Mexican Restaurant LLC, address
[5:22] 2616 Decatur Pike, Athens, Tennessee
[5:26] 37303. It is a restaurant
[5:30] and the class is on-premises consumption.
[5:34] Gentlemen, do I have a motion?
[5:35] I'll make a motion we accept the item.
[5:37] Do I hear a second?
[5:40] Any discussions, gentlemen?
[5:43] I'm just glad he's fixing to start.
[5:47] If not, roll call.
[5:49] Board Member McCowan.
[5:51] Aye.
[5:51] Board Member Dugan.
[5:53] Aye.
[5:54] Board Member Curtis.
[5:55] Aye.
[5:56] Chairman Eaton.
[5:57] Aye. There's no
[6:00] other business. We're adjourned.
[33:18] Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to get this meeting started for the regular
[33:22] session, September 15th, 2026. At this time,
[33:26] Vice Mayor, will you do the invocation
[33:28] please?
[33:37] Let's all pray together.
[33:42] Gracious and loving God, as we prepare for the long days of summer
[33:46] to begin to give way to the season of fall, we thank you
[33:50] for all the reminders of your faithfulness from one season to the next.
[33:54] As students have returned to school, and families settle into new routines,
[33:58] and our community looks forward to the months ahead, fill us with
[34:02] your wisdom and a desire to serve each other.
[34:06] Guide this city council in its deliberations, that every
[34:09] decision may reflect care for our neighbors and a
[34:13] commitment to the common good.
[34:15] Help us to be faithful stewards of the blessings you have entrusted to us,
[34:20] and to show your grace in all we do.
[34:23] In the name of Christ, our Lord, we pray, amen.
[34:26] Amen.
[34:26] Ladies and gentlemen, attention. Salute. Pledge.
[34:29] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of
[34:33] America, and to the Republic for which it stands,
[34:37] one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty
[34:41] and justice for all.
[34:51] Ms. White, roll call, please.
[34:54] Council Member McCowan?
[34:56] Here.
[34:57] Council Member Dugan?
[34:58] Here.
[34:59] Council Member Shurlyn?
[35:02] Vice Mayor Curtis?
[35:04] Here.
[35:05] Mayor Eaton?
[35:06] Present.
[35:08] Gentlemen, you have the packages of the minutes of August the
[35:12] 18th. I hear a motion to approve.
[35:14] Make a motion to approve.
[35:15] Do I hear a second?
[35:17] Second.
[35:18] Motion been made and second. Any discussions? Roll call.
[35:22] Council Member McCowan?
[35:24] Aye.
[35:25] Council Member Dugan?
[35:27] Aye.
[35:28] Vice Mayor Curtis?
[35:29] Aye.
[35:30] Mayor Eaton?
[35:31] Aye.
[35:33] Okay, we're going to move into communications special presentations.
[35:37] The first one is
[35:39] an awesome one, a TWU National Championship baseball team.
[35:48] Go
[35:49] ahead. And we'll
[35:53] take a picture right up here after we're done.
[36:05] Ladies and gentlemen, what an honor it is to be with these
[36:09] gentlemen.
[36:10] Three-time national championships.
[36:13] But we want to give a proclamation to a well-deserving team.
[36:17] So, TWU,
[36:20] whereas Tennessee Wesleyan College is a valued
[36:22] institution in the city of Athens and a
[36:26] source of pride for our community.
[36:28] Whereas,
[36:30] on May the 30th, 2026, the TWU, Tennessee
[36:34] Wesleyan University Bulldogs baseball team defeated
[36:38] Taylor University by a score
[36:41] 21 to three
[36:44] to win the 2026 Avesta National
[36:48] Association of Intercol-
[36:51] ... Collegiate
[36:53] Athletics NAIA World Series Championship
[36:56] in Lewistown, Idaho. And
[37:00] whereas this championship marks the third national
[37:04] championship in the program's history, following the previous
[37:08] championships in 2012,
[37:11] 2019, and
[37:13] whereas under the leadership of Head Coach Billy Berry,
[37:17] the Bulldogs have established Tennessee Wesleyan Baseball as one of the
[37:21] premier programs in the NAIA. And
[37:25] whereas the Bulldogs' championship season reflects the
[37:29] dedication, discipline, teamwork, and excellence
[37:33] of its student athletes, coaches,
[37:36] and support staff. And whereas the
[37:40] City of Athens wishes to recognize the dedication,
[37:44] discipline, teamwork, and excellent demonstration of the
[37:48] student athletes and the coaches.
[37:51] Now, therefore, I, Larry Eaton, the mayor of Athens,
[37:55] Tennessee, on behalf of the Athens City Council and
[37:59] the citizens of Athens, Tennessee, do hereby
[38:02] recognize and congratulate the Tennessee
[38:05] Wesleyan University Bulldog baseball team
[38:10] on winning the 2026 NAIA
[38:13] National Championship.
[38:16] But it be furthermore
[38:18] proclaimed that the City of Athens commends the student
[38:22] athletes, coaches, and staff for the extraordinary
[38:25] accomplishment and extends its sincere appreciation for the
[38:29] pride they have brought to our community, and along with the
[38:33] best wishes of continued success for the years to come.
[38:36] Proclamation this day, the 15th September
[38:41] 2026, and I do appreciate each one of you all, and
[38:45] let's do it again this year. Yes, sir. Appreciate it.
[38:48] We're going to have a picture right up here.
[38:52] Gentlemen, if you guys will stand up, let's get right here in front, and we'll have
[38:55] a picture. And the City Council,
[38:58] you guys come around because you all are short.
[39:02] Come on up.
[39:04] Should we say a few words?
[39:05] Yeah. Yeah, please.
[39:05] Yeah, I can. So thank you, Mayor, and thank
[39:09] you, the Chamber. I want to thank
[39:13] our AD, Donnie Mayfield, our president, Dr.
[39:16] Tyler Forrest, for all of their continued support.
[39:20] I'd be remiss if I didn't thank Bobby Goodfriend, Alan Carter, for
[39:24] a lot of the renovations and things that have been done over the course of the
[39:28] last year. Our facility has taken on a whole new look.
[39:32] We are
[39:34] brand new. In 2027, these six
[39:38] guys right here are the only guys returning that were on the trip last year.
[39:41] So,
[39:43] it's a brand new roster, but
[39:45] Thomas Teal, Thomas is from Arizona, was a catcher on
[39:49] our team.
[39:50] Jalen Fullwood, Jalen is from Georgia.
[39:52] He is a senior this year as well. Thomas is also a senior.
[39:56] Michael Sahm, who's a right-handed pitcher. I'm going this way.
[39:59] So
[40:01] Michael is a right-handed pitcher. He's a senior also this year.
[40:05] Ethan Wright, Ethan is from California. He was an outfielder.
[40:08] He is also a senior this year. Baylor Homesley,
[40:10] Baylor, you're from Alabama? Georgia, that's right,
[40:14] is from Georgia. You went to school in Alabama.
[40:16] Maybe.
[40:16] That's right, okay, is from Georgia.
[40:19] He is also a right-handed pitcher.
[40:21] Colton Reynolds, Colton graduated last year.
[40:24] Colton is currently on our staff as a graduate assistant.
[40:27] He is from Arkansas. And Colton
[40:29] was an outfielder for our team last year.
[40:33] Logan Fleener, who is one of our assistants, Daniel Wood, who is one of our
[40:37] assistants. Definitely want to thank those two guys.
[40:39] The hard work that they put in, the time that they spend away on the road
[40:43] and doing those things, is definitely something that we cannot do what we do
[40:47] unless these two guys do what they do. So, thank you to our community.
[40:51] Thank you to our town. It means a ton.
[40:53] We've always said we feel the support when we're on the other
[40:57] side of the country,
[40:58] a three-hour time difference, but we also feel the support from our community, so
[41:02] we want to thank you for that. So, thank you guys for everything. Appreciate it.
[41:06] Line up right up here. Let's go right up here.
[41:12] I'm going to get right in the center of you all. I don't know why. Is my hair okay?
[41:15] Looks good.
[41:19] Yeah.
[41:19] Make a window.
[41:20] You, you-
[41:20] Let's make a window.
[41:22] You got it right there?
[41:23] Yeah, it's good. It's really good.
[41:25] I'll have to back up a little bit even more. Yeah, you may have to.
[41:28] I was up there.
[41:29] Yes.
[41:33] Just barely right here.
[41:45] Thank you.
[41:46] Perfect. Gentlemen, I appreciate you all. Thank you. Appreciate you.
[41:51] Congratulations to you all. Appreciate you all. Appreciate you. Thank you.
[41:53] Coach, appreciate it.
[41:53] Thanks, bud, appreciate it.
[41:53] Appreciate you, gentlemen. Appreciate you, gentlemen. Thank you.
[41:55] Appreciate you all.
[41:58] Appreciate you. We're good.
[42:02] Thanks.
[42:02] Yeah.
[42:02] Appreciate it.
[42:03] Thank you.
[42:04] Congratulations. Congratulations. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you.
[42:21] Appreciate
[42:27] you.
[42:27] Okay, gentlemen.
[42:29] The next one is a very special one,
[42:31] that means a lot to our community and just about
[42:35] everybody here. We're going to give the Vivid Award today
[42:39] to Johnny Coffman, and the vice mayor will be giving this to Mr.
[42:43] Coffman.
[42:53] Johnny, I'm going to invite you up in a moment to say a few words, but first, I
[42:57] want to invite Mr. Chris Adams up to share a few words.
[43:01] I reached out to Chris today to see if he might want to share a comment or
[43:04] remark, and he said, "I think I'll join the meeting and share my comments
[43:08] in person," which I think is absolutely appropriate. I will say this.
[43:12] I was sitting there as Westland's baseball team was being
[43:16] recognized, National Championship baseball team.
[43:19] Mm-hmm.
[43:19] And I think how appropriate that we're honoring Johnny Kauffman immediately
[43:23] after that, a man that has done so much for education, sports, and
[43:27] recreation in our community, among other ways.
[43:30] Just a few comments from the nomination form.
[43:34] Johnny was nominated by Parks and Rec
[43:39] Committee Chair Ron Starr, and to kind of summarize
[43:43] his comments and his nomination form,
[43:46] he is pleased to nominate Johnny Kauffman for the City of Athens Vivid Award
[43:51] in recognition of his decades of service, involvement, and
[43:54] dedication to the Athens community.
[43:57] He has served as a member of the City of Athens Parks and Rec Advisory
[44:01] Committee for more than 20 years, providing his time,
[44:05] experience, and perspective in support of recreational
[44:09] opportunities and programs for the citizens of Athens.
[44:13] His commitment to our community, however, extends far beyond his service
[44:17] to the city.
[44:19] For many decades, he has been actively involved in youth
[44:22] sports and numerous community organizations and activities,
[44:26] giving countless hours of his time to programs and events that have
[44:30] helped shape the lives of generations of young people and families in
[44:34] Athens and McMinn County. His service has been
[44:37] consistent, dependable, and carried out without seeking
[44:41] recognition for himself.
[44:44] Johnny is also, quite literally, one of the most recognizable voices
[44:48] in our community.
[44:50] For decades, he has been known as the voice of the Cherokees and has
[44:54] served as master of ceremonies for Junior Miss, along with
[44:57] participating in many other community events.
[45:01] Through these roles, he has helped celebrate the accomplishments of
[45:05] others, recognize young people, and contribute to
[45:09] traditions that have become an important part of our community's
[45:12] history.
[45:14] What makes Johnny particularly deserving of this recognition is
[45:18] not one single accomplishment, but the cumulative impact of a
[45:22] lifetime of service.
[45:24] He has spent many years supporting young people, recreation,
[45:28] athletics, civic organizations, and community traditions.
[45:32] Much of that service has occurred quietly and consistently year after
[45:36] year without expectation of acknowledgment.
[45:40] At this point, I believe it is fitting that the community he has supported for so
[45:44] many years take the opportunity to recognize him.
[45:48] His longstanding dedication to Athens represents the type of
[45:52] volunteerism, civic involvement, and community spirit that the
[45:56] Vivid Award is intended to honor.
[45:59] Also reached out to my McMinn County High School classmate,
[46:03] Johnny's son, Justin Kauffman, to see if he might want to share a remark about his
[46:06] dad for this celebration. "Dad is extremely
[46:10] devoted to and passionate about his community.
[46:13] He truly believes that you should give back to make this city a better
[46:17] place to live, work, and raise a family.
[46:20] It's shown in his actions, being on numerous boards, his involvement in
[46:24] Junior Miss, playing the piano at church, and being the voice
[46:28] that painted vivid pictures to listeners for McMinn County High
[46:32] School and TW Athletics for almost 50 years."
[46:37] What great words. I want to turn it over now to Mr.
[46:39] Chris Adams to share a few comments about Johnny, which I think
[46:43] may revolve around his involvement serving on the Athens City
[46:46] School Board. So, Chris?
[46:48] Thank you.
[46:49] I'm about to pull a Bruce Pearl here and sweat through my coat.
[46:52] So- ... I'll make this quick. But
[46:55] it is certainly my honor and privilege to be here tonight to speak about
[46:59] Johnny and his impact on the community, and specifically Athens City
[47:03] Schools.
[47:04] Johnny joined Athens City School Board in March of 2016.
[47:08] Immediately, I recognized his passion for public education,
[47:13] his desire to advocate for all students, and his unwavering drive for Athens
[47:17] City Schools to achieve excellence.
[47:20] One of our first big projects was somewhat already in motion when Johnny joined our
[47:24] board. A consolidation of Athens City School buildings into an efficient and
[47:28] effective school campus where pre-K through eighth grade would be situated
[47:32] in the City Park area was a part of many school board discussions.
[47:36] This required proper planning, budgeting, negotiating, and most importantly,
[47:40] communication over a number of years between Athens City Schools, Athens
[47:44] City Council, and our community. Johnny was immediately on
[47:48] board, diligent, and always a voice of reason as we worked through the
[47:52] process to see this plan come to light.
[47:55] I've heard Johnny say many times, "This is a project that I will always be proud of
[47:59] to be a part of."
[48:00] I can't agree more, Johnny, and to be honest with you, I don't think
[48:04] we could've accomplished it without you.
[48:07] This is a project that has impacted the students of Athens City Schools
[48:12] and those now in the future, and we absolutely appreciate your
[48:15] participation.
[48:18] Johnny has served as our Athens City School
[48:19] legislative
[48:24] representative for many years. This is a huge responsibility,
[48:28] just from the amount of information that is generated from the legislative
[48:32] session, our legislators, and the Department of Energy--
[48:37] Education.
[48:38] Johnny's leadership, his stance on the importance of public
[48:42] education, and keeping Athens City Schools' needs in front of our
[48:46] legislators has been commendable.
[48:49] Most recently, Johnny assumed the role as a vice chair of our board.
[48:52] I cannot think of a better person to help lead, guide, and direct our school system
[48:56] and our board than Johnny. It is truly a privilege to serve with you
[49:00] As recognition of his efforts as school board member, Johnny was recognized most
[49:04] recently in 2025 and inducted into the Tennessee All School
[49:08] Board. It's hard to drive through McMinn County and
[49:11] Athens without seeing something Johnny Kauffman has impacted in a positive way.
[49:16] Newspapers, both from a employment standpoint and as a
[49:20] contributor, radio, local sports, Junior Miss,
[49:24] education, Marsh Hill Presbyterian Church, McMinn County High School, Tennessee
[49:28] Wesleyan, Athens City Schools, and Camp Utanay Ochi,
[49:32] and the list goes on. His desire to help others and his
[49:36] personal joy
[49:38] to see others succeed is evident in his daily actions.
[49:42] I will officially go on record tonight as being one of the many people that
[49:45] encouraged Johnny to commit his knowledge and history of all things McMinn County
[49:49] and Athens to paper.
[49:52] No doubt a book with the voice of the Cherokees as the author would be a
[49:55] best seller.
[49:58] Johnny, congratulations on this well-deserved recognition.
[50:02] You have certainly shown the way to be a true community servant.
[50:13] Johnny, share a few words for us.
[50:20] Thank you, Chris. Thank you, Jordan.
[50:22] I texted Larry last night, the mayor, and said, "I wonder if I
[50:26] can have just a couple of minutes to talk about some things we've gotten done in 25
[50:30] years on the
[50:31] Parks and Rec board," and he said, "You've got three minutes, and it'll has to be-
[50:35] ... remained to the agenda." So I'll do the best I can. My family is here.
[50:39] I want to recognize them before I get out of here tonight.
[50:41] But Athens city has been blessed with parks and rec
[50:44] directors. I can remember back to the days of Larry Zender, who
[50:48] came here by way of Clemson University and ended up down
[50:52] in Chattanooga. He's now the administrator of parks and recreation in
[50:56] Chattanooga now. Then we had Brad Chambers, who I worked with, not on the board,
[51:00] but
[51:01] for several years in several different projects.
[51:04] Brad was involved in that. He's gone on to bigger and better things.
[51:08] He's been in parks and rec. He's been parks and rec directors at different
[51:12] places. He's also been in city management in
[51:15] Tennessee and Georgia and Kentucky and Missouri, so he has done very
[51:19] well. And then Austin Fesmire, who I worked
[51:23] with prior to getting on the board when I was running the Little League.
[51:26] He
[51:27] was
[51:28] my liaison here at the city, and we had some battles over
[51:33] building a new press box and a new
[51:36] concession stand, so on and so forth.
[51:38] But Austin turned into a dear friend of mine.
[51:41] He had great vision, and he was also very
[51:45] talented at writing grants. And man, that's the lifeblood of your
[51:49] city right there and your programs.
[51:50] That's free money that you just cannot give away.
[51:54] And then he retired, and then Matt Senio is the new guy, and you talk about
[51:58] energy. This kid, man, he
[52:00] makes me tired, just watching him go from one thing to another.
[52:04] But
[52:05] you're in good hands with Matt. He's going to do good things for the
[52:09] city. Just a brief rundown of some of the things that
[52:12] Parks and Rec has been involved with, and I called Mike Heath to
[52:15] do a little research, and it was 2001 when I was first
[52:19] appointed to the board. And
[52:22] I guess the biggest thing there was
[52:26] Regional Park. That's our crown jewel.
[52:28] And there's a Frisbee golf course out there.
[52:31] There's walking trails out there. There's a pond out there.
[52:36] There's a
[52:38] splash pad out there, and right now they have just
[52:41] recently turfed the fields, and now they're
[52:45] realizing finally, after I have campaigned in front of this council
[52:49] for several times about putting turf out there, so you can
[52:52] generate
[52:55] income for your city. Those are dollars that
[52:59] you're just missing out on all those years.
[53:01] Anyway,
[53:03] that's proven this year when we had all those
[53:07] softball tournaments, baseball tournaments, people coming in from everywhere.
[53:11] The
[53:13] local league has actually even picked up, I think, a number of teams.
[53:19] And I'm still going to advocate for additional turf at those fields.
[53:23] We need them fully turfed. And
[53:26] it's just
[53:28] good common sense because you're bringing people in all the time.
[53:31] At Cook Park, we have done some things there.
[53:34] We
[53:35] put in new playground equipment there.
[53:37] We have put in a new
[53:41] pavilion. We went out there, Matt sent a guy out there
[53:45] about five or six months ago and put some new lights in, put a
[53:48] light up on a pole, shining right in Eddie Arnwine's- ...
[53:52] bedroom window, right in his window.
[53:55] Yeah, we heard about that, so we got that light moved.
[53:58] And Eddie's happy. But
[54:01] once again, I'm not going to let this
[54:04] pass me by. We still need parking at Cook Park.
[54:08] There's some nice level ground over there where that monument is.
[54:11] We can move that monument. We can set it up there by the playground, and we can get
[54:14] a whole bunch of parking places down there where that monument is.
[54:17] So I'm not going to let you forget that.
[54:20] Heritage Park was just recently reopened.
[54:22] That's a ballpark that's been there for many years, had a lot of softball played
[54:26] out there.
[54:28] Got into some disrepair, and we had a grand reopening of that
[54:32] just not too awful long ago. Veterans Park came on
[54:36] during my tenure, and it's open now, and it's
[54:40] a beautiful place. There are dedicated bricks.
[54:42] My
[54:43] youngest son, I've got a brick in his name, as he was in the Army, and
[54:48] turned that into just a showplace.
[54:50] The Parks and Rec Foundation was formed during this time,
[54:54] during these 25 years. The pickleball courts at Ingleside.
[54:58] I know there was-- Man, this was
[55:01] You either loved it or you hated it.
[55:02] But once again, the citizens wanted it, the citizens got it.
[55:06] It's a good thing. They're there. We need more pickleball
[55:09] courts. We could generate income off pickleball courts and not
[55:13] just take care of your citizens, but you can generate income off of
[55:17] that. And I talk about income, but at the same time, and
[55:21] we talk about growth sometimes, but growth is a whole lot more than
[55:25] just population. It is you're growing
[55:28] things for your city, for what your citizens want to do.
[55:33] And I see Joe Barnett here tonight, who's our director of schools for
[55:37] Athens City, and he and the city council went
[55:40] together to
[55:42] build a playground up there behind the middle school, right where those pickleball
[55:46] courts are, where they converted those tennis courts into pickleball courts.
[55:48] They needed some place for the kids to play.
[55:50] So that was a nice joint venture between the city schools and the city council.
[55:54] It's 50/50, and it's worked out very, very well.
[55:58] The Soapbox Derby came to town during this
[56:02] 25 years.
[56:03] Market Park came to town. Market Park is where they have all the
[56:07] Sounds of Summer, where they have
[56:10] festivals, and Pumpkin Town is coming up, and it'll be heavily used there.
[56:15] Also,
[56:16] one more thing that I'm going to campaign for, which I've already approached the
[56:20] council about on one occasion, and that is a community
[56:24] center. Somehow, some way, that is going to happen.
[56:27] It's going to come to fruition. That was one of the
[56:31] negatives of closing all our
[56:35] smaller schools and our neighborhood schools
[56:39] and putting in the new campus. We lost a bunch of gyms.
[56:42] And with the
[56:45] basketball program here that the city offers, there's nowhere to
[56:48] practice. And so now they've worked some things out now with the
[56:52] new school, but there's still a need for that, not only just for basketball courts,
[56:56] but for other things as well. So you guys need to keep that in mind.
[57:02] Also,
[57:04] my family is here tonight, and I'd like for them to just stand up.
[57:07] I won't make you come up here, but I'm going to recognize them.
[57:11] Stand up, please. My youngest son, Garrett, is on the back.
[57:14] He's a firefighter in Chattanooga.
[57:17] My oldest son, Justin, is right here. He works at Star Regional.
[57:21] His wife, Dana,
[57:23] who is a nurse, ICU nurse at
[57:26] Tenova in Cleveland. I guess it's still Tenova, isn't it?
[57:29] Yeah.
[57:29] Whatever it is. It's the old Bradley Hospital.
[57:31] Bradley.
[57:32] What is it called?
[57:32] Bradley Methods.
[57:33] Bradley? Okay. Garrett's fiancée, Crystal Shipley.
[57:38] This is my naturally blonde-headed grandson, Marshall
[57:41] Goodner who is a senior football player at McMinn
[57:45] and is a baseball player. He's headed to Lee in the fall to play baseball
[57:49] for the Flames. And my two cancer survivors right here,
[57:53] two of them. My wife, Mary, who has been with me the
[57:57] entire 25 years, and I appreciate you so much.
[58:00] She survived breast and ovarian cancer last year.
[58:03] She's on the road to recovery.
[58:06] Clean PET scans.
[58:08] And my sweetheart here is my granddaughter, Kennedy, who
[58:12] was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma when she was three
[58:16] and went through 29 months of chemo.
[58:18] And I probably shouldn't be talking about this, but 45-day hospital
[58:22] stay. Just turned 11 in June. She's been
[58:26] five years cancer-free. God is good.
[58:36] And I'm out of here, but the ironic thing was is
[58:39] the terms on these council, this Parks
[58:43] and Rec committee, I think it's four years.
[58:45] This year, I didn't realize that
[58:49] my term was up, and so somebody, I think they didn't tell me on purpose.
[58:53] But then I found out very late in the process that I was supposed to
[58:56] reapply to do this. It has to go before council.
[58:59] And so I hadn't done anything about it, and so I thought, well,
[59:03] I was going to retire sometime anyway.
[59:04] I told Austin at one point, I said, "I'm going to stay until you retire anyway."
[59:08] But
[59:11] so I
[59:14] filled out the application online and sent it in,
[59:19] and I guess Bridget got it, and it got all hosed up, and
[59:23] it wouldn't go through, and I couldn't get it to work.
[59:25] And she said, "Well, just
[59:28] do this and do that." And I said, "No, I think this is just a sign.
[59:31] I think it's just time." So it's been 25 years.
[59:34] And
[59:35] one more thing before I go, and with Tennessee Wesleyan here tonight, that baseball
[59:39] team, sometime when you got about two hours, I'll sit down and talk to you about
[59:43] the Wesleyan baseball program of the '70s when they rejuvenated that
[59:47] program and brought Wayne Norfleet in to coach,
[59:50] and the baseball team was recruited by the
[59:54] administration. That means the dean of students,
[59:58] the president of the college, they had no baseball coach.
[1:00:01] So they went out and recruited these kids to play baseball, and
[1:00:05] Norfleet comes in, and some of them can't line up.
[1:00:08] So the difference between the '70s and right now is astronomical.
[1:00:12] But what a great job Billy Berry has done at Tennessee Wesleyan College, and
[1:00:16] what a great job Tyler Forrest is doing there as well.
[1:00:19] Thank you, City Council.
[1:00:23] I get recognized from time to time for things, but this one is just, for some
[1:00:26] reason, is very, very special because Parks and Rec has been very close to me.
[1:00:30] It's been an honor to be associated with it for 25 years, and
[1:00:34] I do love this city. Thank you very much.
[1:00:40] Congratulations, Johnny. Of course, we've got to get a photo.
[1:00:44] Oh.
[1:00:44] Would you like your family to join you for the photo?
[1:00:47] Sure, let's do it outside.
[1:00:48] Yep.
[1:00:49] You want to do it in here?
[1:00:50] Probably do it right here in front of the desk.
[1:00:52] All right.
[1:00:55] That's it.
[1:00:57] Yeah.
[1:00:58] Just like that.
[1:01:00] We can do it right here?
[1:01:02] Yeah.
[1:01:03] You have to push this chair back.
[1:01:11] Come here, bud.
[1:01:16] Come here, girl.
[1:01:16] Come on in here.
[1:01:19] All right.
[1:01:22] Good practice.
[1:01:29] Thank you.
[1:01:30] Thank you. Thank you.
[1:01:33] Congratulations.
[1:01:38] Yeah.
[1:01:39] Don't be a teacher.
[1:01:40] Oh, yeah.
[1:01:44] Good to see
[1:01:45] you.
[1:01:48] I can't find my agenda.
[1:01:51] What are you looking for?
[1:01:52] My agenda.
[1:01:57] Where's my agenda at? You haven't seen my agenda?
[1:02:00] There's one on me.
[1:02:03] Athens City Middle School.
[1:02:05] Is it right?
[1:02:07] Yes, that's it.
[1:02:09] Okay. So we're at-
[1:02:10] Athens City Middle School's next
[1:02:16] Okay, now we're going to Athens City Middle School.
[1:02:20] Principal Mr. Simmons, please.
[1:02:23] Greetings from Athens City Middle School and Athens City Schools, and
[1:02:27] we're glad to be here for our first of two visits.
[1:02:30] And so
[1:02:33] I have a young lady, one of our
[1:02:36] teachers, that's going to present something that's very special and very
[1:02:40] exciting. I
[1:02:42] would say that, and you probably will not be surprised at this,
[1:02:46] but the most competitive thing at Athens City Middle School is
[1:02:50] not the athletics.
[1:02:52] The biggest competitive thing is trying
[1:02:55] to get our students to love reading as
[1:02:59] much as they do their phones.
[1:03:02] Okay. That's the biggest competition we have, and we
[1:03:06] are working hard.
[1:03:08] And we've had a lot of students that have captured their
[1:03:12] love for reading, and once they capture a love for reading, the phone
[1:03:16] just can't measure up.
[1:03:18] So I have invited Mandy Million here, and she's going to
[1:03:22] talk a little bit about it.
[1:03:24] Council members, you got some information on the front, and on the back, there is
[1:03:28] some dates for you. Just as you know, we always want to invite you
[1:03:32] to come to anything we have at the middle school. Now for Mandy.
[1:03:37] I'm going to drop that. Oh.
[1:03:40] My name is Mandy Million. I've taught at Athens City Middle School for 20 years.
[1:03:44] January will start 21 for me.
[1:03:47] We've always had the Accelerated Reader Program, which has been fantastic for
[1:03:51] us. We used it for a short time as a grade.
[1:03:55] We tried to encourage students to read, and three years ago, Mr.
[1:03:59] Simmons came to me and said, "Let's change it up." So I said, "Okay, let's do
[1:04:03] it." So we developed a program that is
[1:04:07] incentive-based. And so kids love nothing more
[1:04:10] than a field trip. So what we did was we
[1:04:14] created a program our own, and we use Accelerated Reader to back it.
[1:04:19] So we started with four levels, the first level being a Light
[1:04:23] Reader. The first year it was you had to read 10 books.
[1:04:27] So which is not a huge feat, but for some, we wanted to make sure that all got the
[1:04:30] opportunity.
[1:04:32] The next was the Avid Reader. They had to read 15 books for the year.
[1:04:36] The third one was Committed Reader, which was 20 books.
[1:04:39] And our last one was the Obsessed Reader at 25 books.
[1:04:44] And that year, we served over 100 students that were able to go
[1:04:48] on all of those trips.
[1:04:50] Last year, the ELA department met in the summer and decided, let's change it to
[1:04:54] Words Read,
[1:04:56] which allows a little bit more of the lower levels, mid levels, high levels
[1:05:00] to all get the same opportunity.
[1:05:03] So last year, we sent over 100
[1:05:07] kids on our trips.
[1:05:10] The first one, the Light Reader, was 400,000 words read,
[1:05:14] and that was an extended day at Camp Utan and Oche, which they love.
[1:05:18] The next one was 800,000 words read, and that was to the movies, the
[1:05:22] local movies, and to Dairy Barn for lunch.
[1:05:25] The third one was 1.5 million words read, and we took them to
[1:05:29] Dave & Buster's for lunch and McKay's in Chattanooga with
[1:05:33] spending money. And then the Obsessed Reader was 2.25 million
[1:05:37] words read, and that was a trip to Dollywood.
[1:05:42] None of the students had to pay for anything.
[1:05:44] Wow.
[1:05:44] Mr. Simmons has been very, very good to us in the fact that he said, "If
[1:05:49] you can get them to read, I'll pay for it." So we did.
[1:05:53] We put up something in the beginning at the front of the school with their pictures
[1:05:57] on it when they reach a goal, and they travel along the road of
[1:06:01] success.
[1:06:03] We've spent thousands of dollars on brand-new books.
[1:06:06] We've taken polls of our students, "What are the books you want
[1:06:09] to read?" And we've made sure to put those on
[1:06:13] the shelves in our library.
[1:06:16] Last year, we did DEAR Time for 20 minutes read, and every student in
[1:06:20] our school had a book in their hand.
[1:06:21] It's on their level, they're interested in reading, and they want to do it.
[1:06:25] This last summer, we opened up summer reading.
[1:06:28] So in June, we have summer school, so students were allowed to come in on certain
[1:06:32] days and take AR tests through the summer.
[1:06:34] And then this summer, we did it as well through June and July.
[1:06:37] This year alone, we've already had
[1:06:39] 18,603,111 words read.
[1:06:44] I want to introduce you to our top reader.
[1:06:48] She and another student last year read
[1:06:52] more words than I can account for.
[1:06:55] This one, Ms. Kinsley Durham, I want to introduce you to her.
[1:06:58] I have never seen a reader like her.
[1:07:01] She is a speed reader. She has, and I'm going to tell you, she read
[1:07:05] 55 books this summer that were not on AR, so she couldn't take
[1:07:09] the test in order to earn it. So she has read because she loves to
[1:07:12] read, and that's what we want to provoke at our school is reading.
[1:07:17] So I'm going to introduce Kinsley Durham to you
[1:07:21] She's got some things to say.
[1:07:26] So, Dixie read over seven million words last year, I can tell you.
[1:07:29] God.
[1:07:29] She would know exactly how many.
[1:07:33] Accelerated Reader has impacted my life in unimaginable
[1:07:36] ways, whether it was through my education, relationships, or
[1:07:40] personal growth. Without the AR-induced motivation to
[1:07:44] read, I would not have realized the impact reading can have on an
[1:07:48] individual. Reading is informational, emotional, and personal,
[1:07:52] therefore extremely powerful.
[1:07:54] AR brings a sense of confidence and completion into my life, of
[1:07:58] which I continue to be astonished as to how valuable and
[1:08:02] influential that is to my education journey.
[1:08:05] I could not be successful in school without the guide reading sustains.
[1:08:09] For example, my vocabulary is much higher than if I had not
[1:08:13] had the Accelerated Reader experience.
[1:08:16] In addition, my comprehension has improved tremendously as a
[1:08:20] result of reading various and diverse genres.
[1:08:23] Furthermore, the speed of my reading has increased due to the
[1:08:27] increasing number of books I've read throughout the year.
[1:08:30] All of these major components of reading are addressed through my participation
[1:08:35] in the AR program.
[1:08:37] Relationships is not an area that one would expect AR to impact.
[1:08:41] However, I have seen firsthand situations where it has been a vital
[1:08:45] factor. For instance, conversations with adults have proven to be quite
[1:08:49] difficult, no matter what the topic consists of, and yet I have seen how
[1:08:53] reading has improved my choice of words in social situations.
[1:08:57] Reading has broadened my knowledge base so that I can discuss topics with many
[1:09:01] people at different levels of difficulty.
[1:09:03] Knowing about different subjects has led to more relationships with a wider
[1:09:07] variety of ages. I now have commonality with many others that I would
[1:09:11] not have had if not for the motivational factor of the Accelerated
[1:09:15] Reader program.
[1:09:17] AR has also contributed to growth on a personal level.
[1:09:20] There is a sense of accomplishment after completing hundreds of AR tests with near
[1:09:24] 100% accuracy. The sense of accomplishment inspires me and
[1:09:28] pushes me to do more in other areas of my life.
[1:09:32] The sense of accomplishment I get from Accelerated Reader makes it easier
[1:09:36] to continue when my first attempts are not always successful.
[1:09:39] This is evident through my participation in sports, academics, and
[1:09:43] performances. Personal growth also equates with higher levels of
[1:09:47] maturity. I have seen this through my ability to resolve personal
[1:09:51] conflicts in a more mature manner.
[1:09:53] Through reading, I have seen many examples of how people have resolved
[1:09:57] conflicts in a positive or negative way.
[1:10:00] I choose to learn from this and create positive avenues of
[1:10:04] resolution. Personal growth has been an unexpected evolution of
[1:10:08] my journey through the AR program.
[1:10:10] The purpose of the AR program is to encourage students to read more and increase
[1:10:14] the complexity of the material. Even though this does occur,
[1:10:18] I have personally experienced even greater benefits.
[1:10:22] As stated, my fluency and comprehension have improved, as well as my
[1:10:25] general knowledge. I have learned about different cultures, religions, and
[1:10:29] family dynamics, along with many interesting and unusual facts.
[1:10:33] Through all of this, I have grown and matured as a person.
[1:10:37] In other words, the Accelerated Reader program has opened my eyes to a whole
[1:10:41] new world.
[1:10:43] Ms. McKeassey. Ms. McKeassey.
[1:10:47] I want all y'all to come down here and take a picture with her, please.
[1:10:50] I want all the city council to come out and take a picture with her.
[1:10:53] I just want to say, that was very well-written.
[1:10:56] That was very well-written.
[1:10:58] Very humbling what you just said.
[1:11:00] Yeah, very well-written. I enjoyed that.
[1:11:03] Here you go.
[1:11:04] You got it too, okay? I want to take a picture with you.
[1:11:07] I do appreciate you.
[1:11:09] Ready?
[1:11:12] You got to wait for this old man.
[1:11:14] I can't get around with
[1:11:17] that.
[1:11:21] Hey, thank you very much. I appreciate you.
[1:11:23] Congratulations.
[1:11:31] We appreciate the council, and I hope it encourages you to know that your
[1:11:35] support of Athens City Schools is why we can do these kinds of things.
[1:11:39] We really appreciate it.
[1:11:40] Thank you for doing this.
[1:11:41] Mr. Sammons, I really appreciate everything you do for the kids, and I
[1:11:45] personally know because you had my kids, so I do appreciate you.
[1:11:54] Awesome reading.
[1:11:58] Okay, line item D, Jack Hedrick.
[1:12:07] Amazing. This is
[1:12:08] amazing.
[1:12:17] Good evening, everyone. My name is Jack Hedrick, and
[1:12:21] I am a student at Tennessee Wesleyan, but I am also
[1:12:25] an intern at Simmons Bank.
[1:12:28] Today I'm here to tell you all about a partnered
[1:12:32] initiative between Simmons Bank and Tennessee Wesleyan
[1:12:35] called the
[1:12:39] Red Sand Project.
[1:12:41] What is this Red Sand Project I'm speaking about?
[1:12:45] Well, it's an art installation created by Molly
[1:12:48] Goochman that raises awareness about human trafficking.
[1:12:52] Essentially,
[1:12:54] participants will pour red sand into cracks of concrete
[1:12:58] in order to raise awareness for human trafficking.
[1:13:03] And I know how it sounds, it's a little weird,
[1:13:06] pouring sand on the ground for such a big issue like human trafficking,
[1:13:11] but the importance of the initiative is not the sand
[1:13:16] or even the cracks in the concrete, but rather what the cracks in the
[1:13:20] concrete and the red sand represents
[1:13:24] Talking to the council,
[1:13:26] I can say, and I can bet that you guys have heard
[1:13:30] over and over about cracks in concrete, potholes,
[1:13:33] whatnot.
[1:13:36] But cracks in concrete are not what we think about
[1:13:39] before we go to bed, or
[1:13:42] even from a week-to-week basis. There's something that
[1:13:48] just don't take priority in our life.
[1:13:51] And the things that do take priority may be football,
[1:13:55] Tennessee football,
[1:13:58] work, family,
[1:14:00] things that are pertaining to us.
[1:14:03] But
[1:14:05] all of us, and I mean everyone in this room, and some of you may have
[1:14:08] even fallen over a crack in the ground on the way here.
[1:14:12] I hope not. But
[1:14:15] all of us step over cracks in concrete every day.
[1:14:19] Every single one of us.
[1:14:22] So the Red Sand Project is essentially saying that the victims of
[1:14:26] human trafficking represent the cracks in the concrete that we
[1:14:30] walk over daily.
[1:14:33] And
[1:14:34] this may seem like an issue that Tennessee may not deal with,
[1:14:38] maybe a more secular state.
[1:14:41] But statistically speaking, Tennessee ranks ninth,
[1:14:46] according to
[1:14:47] a study done by the National Human Trafficking Hotline,
[1:14:52] Tennessee in 2024 ranked ninth
[1:14:55] in reported human trafficking
[1:14:57] cases.
[1:15:02] That is a sobering reality.
[1:15:05] And this gets to the Red Sand piece of the Red Sand
[1:15:08] Project. These cracks in the concrete,
[1:15:14] when I'm talking about people walking over them,
[1:15:16] something is necessary
[1:15:18] for there to be some type of illumination
[1:15:22] or a way for us to look down at the ground, at the
[1:15:26] victims,
[1:15:27] and the problems
[1:15:29] surrounding why things like human trafficking happen.
[1:15:34] So on September 22nd at 11:00 a.m.
[1:15:38] at Tennessee Wesleyan University,
[1:15:41] I have the address memorized, but I don't know if you guys are taking notes to have
[1:15:44] that down. But
[1:15:47] we will be pouring red sand
[1:15:49] on cracks in the concrete.
[1:15:52] And not just to look down at the cracks and to
[1:15:55] think about these victims, but to also
[1:15:59] think of solutions to issues like human trafficking and
[1:16:03] problems as such.
[1:16:07] So on the behalf of Tennessee Wesleyan students, as I can say,
[1:16:11] and on behalf of Simmons Bank,
[1:16:14] we wanted to invite everyone in the council to September
[1:16:17] 22nd, 11:00 a.m.,
[1:16:20] the Red Sand Project, in order to honor
[1:16:23] and spread awareness about human trafficking.
[1:16:26] But not just the council members, but the people of Athens.
[1:16:30] This isn't an invite-only.
[1:16:32] No one is above
[1:16:34] spreading awareness for human trafficking.
[1:16:36] So if you're able
[1:16:39] to pour red sand on the ground and to speak about
[1:16:44] hard issues like that, then we would love to have you.
[1:16:48] Thank you.
[1:16:49] Where at on September the 22nd?
[1:16:51] It's going to be...
[1:16:53] There you go.
[1:16:54] It's at
[1:16:56] Tennessee Wesleyan in the quad, so in front of Old College.
[1:17:00] Like I said, I have the address memorized, but it's really right
[1:17:04] down the way.
[1:17:07] Thank you, Mr. Hedrick.
[1:17:07] Thank you.
[1:17:09] Thank you.
[1:17:15] One thing that
[1:17:17] Councilman
[1:17:18] Perry McCown's asked me to bring up was the Cook Park parking
[1:17:22] update. Do we have an update that we can
[1:17:25] have, or do we need to have it sent out?
[1:17:29] They are working on it now. I can have an email sent out with the
[1:17:33] exact point, but they are working on it.
[1:17:36] Okay. So they're working on it, but they're going to send an
[1:17:40] email out to confirm everything.
[1:17:43] Yeah. Okay.
[1:17:46] All right. Okay.
[1:17:50] All right.
[1:17:52] So next is citizens germane to the agenda,
[1:17:56] and the first one is Ms. Luxmore. Anna Luxmore.
[1:18:02] I'm here to support my neighborhood senior center.
[1:18:06] I was asked on the fly by the director, Crystal Miller-
[1:18:09] Can you come up here, please?
[1:18:12] Oh, sure.
[1:18:12] I won't have you in front of the speaker.
[1:18:22] I'm not sure how all that process works,
[1:18:25] but I'm an investigator with the Tennessee Adult Protective Services,
[1:18:29] and I am assigned to McMinn County, so I see the ins and outs of this county
[1:18:33] and this city every single day. It's heartbreaking.
[1:18:38] Oftentimes, it's not a happy ending.
[1:18:41] I don't get very many of those.
[1:18:43] But
[1:18:44] when I have a need, it's the people like Crystal and the senior center,
[1:18:49] her crew at the senior center, they feel it every time.
[1:18:51] If I have somebody that needs food, I call Crystal.
[1:18:55] I'm working on services, Meals on Wheels.
[1:18:58] All of those things take time to get put in place.
[1:19:01] In the meantime, you've got somebody can't get out of their house, that
[1:19:04] they have no access to food. So I give Crystal a call,
[1:19:09] her crew up there as well. Any of them, if I call up there, she'll
[1:19:14] come running or she'll tell me to come up there.
[1:19:17] She's helped out quite a few folks.
[1:19:21] Quite a few. I can't even count them on all my fingers and toes.
[1:19:25] It's a good group up there right now.
[1:19:27] I think they're doing a lot of rebuilding.
[1:19:29] They've been a lot more involved in the last few years
[1:19:33] than I've ever seen them before, and that's refreshing, and it's
[1:19:37] nice to have. I see a lot of the folks going up there,
[1:19:41] and they're involved. So it's because of
[1:19:45] Crystal and her group up there at the senior center that I
[1:19:49] have
[1:19:51] less bodies to pull out of a home when I go to visit, and that happened today.
[1:19:56] It's a very sobering event.
[1:19:59] But because of the help from these folks, it is very important,
[1:20:03] and I think it's crucial to our community that it continues to
[1:20:07] exist and gets the funding that they need.
[1:20:10] Thank you.
[1:20:11] Thank you very much.
[1:20:16] I will say this about Ms. St. Lexmore, I know she does a lot of good work.
[1:20:20] I personally have seen this, personally.
[1:20:23] Gwen Whiting.
[1:20:26] I want to talk about the grant that you're asking for more money.
[1:20:30] That grant started in 2023,
[1:20:33] and we waited till September. Now, the last month that it can be
[1:20:37] fulfilled, we're waiting now to try to ask for more money.
[1:20:40] If we had done the project in 2023, would it be this much money?
[1:20:44] Because things were cheaper back then.
[1:20:46] But now we wait till last minute, and waiting last minute
[1:20:50] has caused not just the money,
[1:20:52] we canceled a ladies event to get into the park and say, "Well, we can't let
[1:20:56] you in because we're now doing what we should've done in 2023."
[1:21:00] And that led to a major black eye on the city.
[1:21:04] But we got a further black eye because now we're saying we want more money
[1:21:07] because we didn't do our job back when we should have.
[1:21:11] And that's just poor planning. And
[1:21:15] the question comes in, how much more would it have cost us if we'd done the job at
[1:21:19] the time? And so that's the first thing.
[1:21:22] And like I say, the management to cancel a ladies event
[1:21:26] because we didn't have the money or we didn't do the job, that's unacceptable.
[1:21:29] That should never come before the council to start with.
[1:21:32] Should never have happened, period, and it happens because of the planning.
[1:21:36] And this money is being asked for because of poor planning.
[1:21:39] Now, the other issue is the handbook. Want to redo the handbook.
[1:21:43] Some of you made a promise to do that when you campaigned last time.
[1:21:45] Is this another campaign promise? But what's wrong with the handbook?
[1:21:49] Well, we don't follow it.
[1:21:51] In fact, we have the
[1:21:53] orgy issue over at the police department, and we said
[1:21:57] we don't investigate that. And yet the handbook says there's zero
[1:22:01] tolerance for anything, and yet we have documentation
[1:22:05] to show that an officer, a female officer, complained about the
[1:22:09] harassment she was taking, and Nina destroyed that evidence.
[1:22:13] We don't care about that. She openly said on the record,
[1:22:16] in a trial, she shredded the documents.
[1:22:20] She had lied and said that she did investigate it in a federal court, and then she
[1:22:24] said, "I didn't investigate it there." So why do we have to change a handbook if
[1:22:28] we're not going to follow it? It also says that complaints have to be followed.
[1:22:32] It says if a citizen makes a complaint, it's to be looked into.
[1:22:36] None of them are looked into. So we ought to just have Nina shred
[1:22:40] the handbook. We don't follow it. We only
[1:22:44] follow complaints only if it offends somebody on this council.
[1:22:48] If the mayor has a complaint, he'll have it investigated.
[1:22:51] But any other complaint, when he tells citizens to F off and calls them
[1:22:55] names, we don't investigate that.
[1:22:58] That's acceptable. So
[1:23:01] other than trying to campaign, why are we changing a handbook that we have no
[1:23:05] interest in following anyways?
[1:23:07] Thank you.
[1:23:08] Thank you.
[1:23:13] Ms. Brooks, Debbie Brooks.
[1:23:18] Okay, you've been-- okay.
[1:23:23] Jason Wright?
[1:23:25] He's not.
[1:23:27] Oh, he's not. I apologize. Okay, well, that's all that's germane to the agenda.
[1:23:31] We'll go to the consent-
[1:23:40] Yeah, okay.
[1:23:42] Ms. Brooks.
[1:23:45] Now, we're voting on probably the things that you're going to be talking about.
[1:23:58] Like I said in the workshop that we had a week ago, my name is Debbie Brooks, and
[1:24:01] I've been a volunteer at the senior center for 11 years.
[1:24:05] So
[1:24:06] my mom passed away in 2017. My
[1:24:10] dad passed away in 2014.
[1:24:13] We had taken my mom to the senior center for the gospel music on Tuesday mornings
[1:24:17] and stuff. She loved gospel music, stuff like that.
[1:24:20] So anyway, after my mom's passing, we went ahead, and
[1:24:24] the friends encouraged me there to go ahead and volunteer in the senior center like
[1:24:28] that. So I'd attend the Tuesday morning gospel singing on Tuesday morning, and
[1:24:32] I would go ahead and help with the craft room projects on Wednesday morning and
[1:24:35] stuff.
[1:24:36] In the past few years, I was asked to be the acquired chairman on Tuesday
[1:24:40] mornings to inform the people of different events happening around the center.
[1:24:44] I volunteered in three First Look Yard Sales.
[1:24:47] We actually had First Look Yard Sales because we wanted to give the people that
[1:24:51] come there every day a chance to look at the yard sale items before we invited the
[1:24:55] public in. So that gave them time to look at the stuff and everything,
[1:24:59] and we just finished our first week of yard sale, and we made almost
[1:25:03] $900 out of about eight days. For two hours a
[1:25:06] day for about eight days, we made about $900 for the senior center.
[1:25:09] So
[1:25:12] participated in four annual yard sales, craft projects,
[1:25:16] Christmas tree decorating, and cleaning and
[1:25:20] organizing the storage shed like that.
[1:25:23] And now I play the piano at the gospel singing some.
[1:25:26] We also have Shirley Dingess plays the piano, and Janet Valentine plays
[1:25:30] the piano
[1:25:31] I also, when I have inquiry, I call the people
[1:25:34] individually. Takes me about two and a half hours to call them
[1:25:38] and do wellness checks on them if I haven't seen them for a while.
[1:25:41] I say, "Oh, you doing okay? You need anything?" Or whatever.
[1:25:43] I check on the seniors and stuff like that with them,
[1:25:46] everything. We provide special music books at my cost, because I
[1:25:51] ate all the cost on that one, the black books with some special music in it.
[1:25:54] So we not only use the redback church hymnal, but we also use the special
[1:25:58] music and stuff from older music that the
[1:26:02] elderly would know the music from that there.
[1:26:06] The choir donated money to buy our new church hymnals and have the piano
[1:26:10] tuned, like that.
[1:26:13] The senior center's meant a lot to me.
[1:26:15] I would like to ask for increase in funding, which would help us so much.
[1:26:20] Our regular funding from the City of Athens was
[1:26:22] $22,000. Last year, the funding was cut
[1:26:25] 10%, which was about $2,200.
[1:26:29] This directly affects some of our crucial programming as the
[1:26:33] wellness, nutrition, and our senior advocacy program, which provides
[1:26:37] help in dire needs.
[1:26:39] The girl was talking earlier, and I think she was involved.
[1:26:43] I was sitting there one day as a greeter, and we had this lady pull up in this
[1:26:47] van, and she dropped off these two people and got all these plastic
[1:26:51] bags. And we're sitting there looking, "What in the world's going on?"
[1:26:56] And she had got tired of them being in her apartment, so as far as
[1:26:59] I know, they were put out in our parking lot.
[1:27:03] So we're sitting there going, "Okay." So we worked with the lady, and
[1:27:07] I think it was late back there, and everything, found them housing for the weekend
[1:27:11] and stuff like that, so that they would have somewhere, and they wouldn't be
[1:27:13] spending the night in the cold and stuff like that.
[1:27:15] But it took
[1:27:18] the
[1:27:20] keen eye to go ahead and see this
[1:27:24] happening and stuff like that. So we are there to help the senior center.
[1:27:27] Can I ask a question?
[1:27:30] Yes.
[1:27:31] If the people here that support the senior center, if they will stand, I would
[1:27:34] appreciate it.
[1:27:38] This is all volunteers and people that come to the
[1:27:42] senior center and everything, and I mentioned it today, and
[1:27:46] this is how many showed up.
[1:27:48] Thank you very much. I appreciate your time. Thank you.
[1:27:57] Okay, that's all germane to the agenda.
[1:28:00] Appreciate each one of you all. Can we go on to the consent agenda,
[1:28:04] please? Ms. Massey, please. Ms. White.
[1:28:07] Item A,
[1:28:08] award bid RFB number
[1:28:12] 26-05 to Outdoor Solutions
[1:28:16] Services LLC for the demolition and clearing of
[1:28:20] condemned structures at 1506 Adam Street,
[1:28:24] 704 Haley Street, and 1504 View
[1:28:28] Street. Bid amount $18,035.
[1:28:34] Item B, declare as surplus property and
[1:28:38] authorize the sale of each through GovDeals.
[1:28:41] 1994 John Deere Flail Mower,
[1:28:45] asset number 2551.
[1:28:48] 1997 John Deere 5300
[1:28:52] Tractor, asset number 2757.
[1:28:56] 1998 John Deere Gator, asset
[1:29:00] number 2871.
[1:29:03] 2002 Bannerman Top Dresser, asset
[1:29:07] number 3299. 2003
[1:29:11] Toro 5500 Reel Mower, asset number
[1:29:15] 3404.
[1:29:18] 2015 Snapper Pro Zero Turn Mower,
[1:29:22] asset number 4243, and a
[1:29:25] 12-foot ramp trailer, asset number
[1:29:28] 594.
[1:29:31] Item C, declare as surplus property a
[1:29:35] Hallmark tandem axle trailer, asset number
[1:29:39] 001338, and authorize its
[1:29:43] sale through GovDeals.
[1:29:46] Item D,
[1:29:47] approve the purchase from the fleet fund the following fleet
[1:29:51] replacement vehicles for public works department
[1:29:55] from Ford of Murfreesboro via statewide contract
[1:29:59] SWC-209, number
[1:30:03] 88762. Three Ford
[1:30:06] diesel F550 trucks with rear dump
[1:30:10] beds for
[1:30:11] $274,965.
[1:30:17] One Ford F250 with dump body for
[1:30:21] $74,607,
[1:30:25] and one Ford F150 crew cab for
[1:30:29] $45,972.
[1:30:34] Item E,
[1:30:35] approve the purchase from the sanitation fund the following
[1:30:40] fleet replacement vehicle for public works department
[1:30:43] from Ford of Murfreesboro via statewide contract
[1:30:47] SWC-209, number
[1:30:51] 88762. One Ford
[1:30:55] F150 crew cab for
[1:30:57] $45,972.
[1:31:03] Item F, declare as surplus property
[1:31:07] and authorize each item to be sold through
[1:31:10] GovDeals after the replacement vehicle is put into
[1:31:14] service.
[1:31:15] Ford F150 street cleaning truck, asset
[1:31:19] number 4306. Ford
[1:31:22] F350 street maintenance truck, asset number
[1:31:27] 4308.
[1:31:29] Ford F350 street maintenance truck, asset
[1:31:33] number 4319.
[1:31:36] Ford F-350 street construction vehicle,
[1:31:40] asset number 4320. Ford
[1:31:44] F-250 street cleaning vehicle, asset number
[1:31:48] 4314, with dump bed asset number
[1:31:53] 4321. And Ford F-350
[1:31:57] truck sanitation vehicle, asset number
[1:32:00] 4326.
[1:32:03] Item G:
[1:32:05] Approve resolution
[1:32:07] 2026-24, a resolution of the
[1:32:11] City of Athens, Tennessee, authorizing the
[1:32:14] acceptance of the donation of a
[1:32:17] 1925 American LaFrance fire
[1:32:21] truck from the Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center,
[1:32:25] and authorizing the execution of all documents necessary
[1:32:29] to complete the transfer.
[1:32:32] Item H: Approve Hughes environmental
[1:32:35] proposal for City Hall mold remediation in
[1:32:39] the estimated amount of
[1:32:41] $30,592.08,
[1:32:46] plus a 15% contingency of
[1:32:49] $4,588.81,
[1:32:54] for a total not to exceed
[1:32:56] $35,180.89,
[1:33:01] and the execution of all documents necessary to
[1:33:04] complete the project.
[1:33:07] Item I:
[1:33:09] Declare as surplus
[1:33:11] certain firearms currently in the possession of the Athens Police
[1:33:14] Department that are no longer of evidentiary value
[1:33:19] or are considered abandoned property under state law
[1:33:22] after being held for more than six months, and authorize
[1:33:26] the exchange of the firearms with Craig's Firearms for
[1:33:30] in-store credit toward the purchase of law enforcement equipment.
[1:33:35] Gentlemen, what's the will of the council?
[1:33:37] Move approval of the consent agenda as presented.
[1:33:40] Do I hear a second?
[1:33:41] Yeah, I second.
[1:33:42] Motion being made and seconded. Any discussions?
[1:33:45] I just have to comment that
[1:33:47] I think we're all, and I'll speak for the whole group, but I think we're all
[1:33:50] excited about item G, the historic fire truck
[1:33:53] returning. It was discussed at great length in our work session, so I
[1:33:57] think
[1:34:00] all residents of the city will be excited for that item to return to us.
[1:34:04] Yes, I agree.
[1:34:06] Any other discussions?
[1:34:08] If not, roll call.
[1:34:09] Council Member McCowan?
[1:34:11] Aye.
[1:34:12] Council Member Dugan?
[1:34:13] Aye.
[1:34:15] Vice Mayor Curtis?
[1:34:16] Aye.
[1:34:17] Mayor Eaton?
[1:34:18] Aye.
[1:34:23] There's no ordinances at this time.
[1:34:26] There's no old business, I don't think, County
[1:34:30] City Manager. And in new business, we'll go to line item A,
[1:34:34] please.
[1:34:36] Item A: McMinn Senior Activity Center
[1:34:39] request for additional funding and other outside
[1:34:43] agencies' funding.
[1:34:46] I'd like to just make a motion of just the Senior Activity
[1:34:52] Center funding,
[1:34:53] and not add on all the other agencies at this point, just to have the
[1:34:57] discussion of
[1:34:59] Senior Center. Make a motion for just Senior Center.
[1:35:02] I'll second the motion.
[1:35:03] Yeah.
[1:35:04] Yeah.
[1:35:05] Motion's being made and seconded. Any discussions? You got the floor first.
[1:35:09] Yeah. I think we
[1:35:11] need to evaluate those that come before us one at a time
[1:35:15] in that sense. We've received the information that you requested
[1:35:19] concerning all the other outside agencies.
[1:35:21] I think jumping forward and just trying to...
[1:35:27] They're coming to plead their case of why they need funding, and
[1:35:31] I'm
[1:35:33] sorry, I'm kind of biased. I'm on their board. I've been assigned to their board.
[1:35:37] So I'll have to recuse myself from voting on this.
[1:35:40] But I wanted to make the motion on this.
[1:35:42] You don't have to.
[1:35:43] And
[1:35:45] just full disclosure out there,
[1:35:48] but I think it's something for our community that, as they
[1:35:52] presented, it's
[1:35:55] a high need.
[1:35:56] We need to fully support our seniors. We will all be there at that point.
[1:36:01] Everybody. Even those that we saw on the baseball team will be there at some point.
[1:36:06] And-
[1:36:07] I might be there now
[1:36:08] ... I need to stop at this point, but I just want to say that we need to
[1:36:12] look at this item as presented by those who brought it forth.
[1:36:18] I absolutely agree.
[1:36:21] We have to take care of our seniors.
[1:36:25] Listen, I honor you all for coming out,
[1:36:29] and it's a shame that you have to come out,
[1:36:33] but we have to honor you all. You all went before us,
[1:36:37] and whatever we can do to help the seniors,
[1:36:41] it's mandated to do.
[1:36:43] So thank you all for coming.
[1:36:49] After our work session, I asked staff to just
[1:36:52] provide
[1:36:54] a list of what it may look like to reinstate the
[1:36:58] 10% cut that we had in our budget this year for all outside
[1:37:01] organizations.
[1:37:04] I think that we have to remember that this was a
[1:37:08] really, really tight budget year, where we made some very deliberate,
[1:37:12] tough decisions
[1:37:14] for some very specific reasons, primarily because of the capital
[1:37:18] project we have underway for the fire hall, the staffing that's being
[1:37:22] added there, our program for that, and just other factors.
[1:37:27] Not in any way to discount the credibility or
[1:37:31] validity of the request before us, but I think we have to
[1:37:35] look at
[1:37:37] these allocations collectively.
[1:37:38] We made the decision to
[1:37:41] take that cut across the board
[1:37:44] So I think it sets a precarious precedent for this group
[1:37:48] to pick one organization and reinstate the cut that we made in our budget
[1:37:52] process.
[1:37:55] As much as I hate to do it, I'm going to vote against this motion.
[1:37:57] I might be the only one that's going to sit here and do it, but I feel that it's
[1:38:01] the right thing to do because we have to remember what we did in the budget
[1:38:04] process.
[1:38:05] And I'm very sorry to do that. And you
[1:38:09] all provide wonderful services there, without question.
[1:38:13] As I mentioned in the work session, I saw firsthand open and center to the
[1:38:17] community for the fish fry to benefit St. Mark's.
[1:38:20] But I think that
[1:38:23] this was part of our budget process this year, and it's unfortunate, but I
[1:38:27] think we need to hold the line and reevaluate it next year.
[1:38:30] That's just the way I feel about it.
[1:38:35] Well, I'll say this.
[1:38:38] Children and our older
[1:38:41] senior citizens, I support fully. And children.
[1:38:45] And,
[1:38:46] Councilman Dugan,
[1:38:50] you disclosed that you was part of that, and you can vote on this,
[1:38:54] but I just want to make sure of that because sometimes I have to vote when I'm on
[1:38:58] a committee, but I let it know, and you did.
[1:39:01] Furthermore, there was some
[1:39:04] budget things that we did
[1:39:06] do and then
[1:39:09] got voted down three to two. We had other things that we could've cut out of the
[1:39:12] budget, but we didn't.
[1:39:15] But as far as our seniors
[1:39:17] and children, if it's for our seniors or children, then I'm fully
[1:39:21] for it.
[1:39:24] But anyway, if there's any more discussions,
[1:39:27] not roll call.
[1:39:29] Council Member McCowan?
[1:39:32] Aye.
[1:39:34] Council Member Dugan?
[1:39:36] Aye.
[1:39:37] Vice Mayor Curtis?
[1:39:39] Nay.
[1:39:40] Mayor Eaton?
[1:39:41] Absolutely, yes.
[1:39:48] Line item B, please.
[1:39:49] Item B,
[1:39:51] AARP Stormwater Grant Contract Amendment
[1:39:55] to the agreement with Wilson Construction Group,
[1:39:58] increasing the contract amount by
[1:40:01] $213,330.70
[1:40:07] to a new total of
[1:40:08] $2,244,885.69.
[1:40:15] Gentlemen, what's the motion?
[1:40:17] Move approval.
[1:40:18] Do I hear a second?
[1:40:19] I'll second.
[1:40:20] Motion being made and seconded. Vice Mayor, you've got the floor if you need it or
[1:40:25] you don't. Anybody else?
[1:40:29] Anybody discussions? Roll call.
[1:40:32] Council Member McCowan?
[1:40:33] Aye.
[1:40:34] Council Member Dugan?
[1:40:36] Aye.
[1:40:37] Vice Mayor Curtis?
[1:40:39] Aye.
[1:40:39] Mayor Eaton?
[1:40:40] Nay.
[1:40:45] Item C.
[1:40:47] Item C, Bid
[1:40:50] RFB Number 26-06,
[1:40:54] Repair, Maintenance, and Rehabilitation of Local
[1:40:58] Streets.
[1:40:59] Do I hear a motion?
[1:41:03] Do I hear a motion?
[1:41:04] Aye.
[1:41:05] I'll make a motion. Do I hear a second?
[1:41:08] I'll second for discussion.
[1:41:10] Can you clarify your motion
[1:41:12] real quick? We just need to know-
[1:41:15] For the bid-
[1:41:15] Between the two bids
[1:41:16] ... Okay, there's two bids.
[1:41:17] Or what... Just clarify your motion, please.
[1:41:21] For the
[1:41:22] lowest bid for the repair of the streets.
[1:41:25] The Rogers Group, I guess.
[1:41:28] Rogers Group was the lowest base bid at
[1:41:30] $1,000,327.84.
[1:41:36] And there was a second, so any discussions?
[1:41:40] Just for clarification, that bid exceeds the
[1:41:43] budgeted amount of 1.15 million.
[1:41:47] That's correct.
[1:41:48] Okay.
[1:41:50] Just thought that was worth noting.
[1:41:52] So I did note here that
[1:41:55] the request was to consider the lowest bid, which
[1:41:58] you clarified,
[1:42:02] but you move forward with the understanding that the
[1:42:05] additional funding over the budgeted amount will come
[1:42:09] out of next fiscal year's allocated amount.
[1:42:12] So, with that being said, the next fiscal
[1:42:15] year will essentially be less than 500,000
[1:42:19] if you move forward.
[1:42:20] And the thing about it, though, here's the problem.
[1:42:22] We've heard that from Public
[1:42:26] Works, that the Iran war was
[1:42:30] astronomical, and what I'd looked at is around 6%, but we can't
[1:42:34] guarantee what next year's pricing's going to be.
[1:42:37] So, the citizens require us to make sure that the
[1:42:41] roads are drivable and fixable, and that's what we need to
[1:42:45] do. And I know Public Works is doing the
[1:42:49] best they can, I know that,
[1:42:52] but moving forward with the incentive of the
[1:42:55] taxes being increased and everything else, as
[1:42:58] far as tax revenue,
[1:43:01] I think we'll be okay. But, we need to get our roads
[1:43:04] paved.
[1:43:05] So I have a question, and Ben may be able to
[1:43:09] answer. We've done the bidding for all of this that's listed,
[1:43:13] all these different streets, the overlay, the mill, and overlay of
[1:43:17] certain streets, and then the full depth-
[1:43:20] Yeah
[1:43:20] ...
[1:43:21] reclamation.
[1:43:24] I
[1:43:27] know we bid out the whole thing, the whole shebang, but is there a way
[1:43:31] of...
[1:43:33] Choosing my words specifically.
[1:43:38] Can we condense and do high-priority
[1:43:41] areas
[1:43:43] for this fiscal year,
[1:43:46] and
[1:43:47] would that be a rebidding-type scenario?
[1:43:52] Kind of like we had discussed before, Councilman Dugan,
[1:43:56] when you put that list out there, that's why I'm always
[1:43:59] very cautious about doing that.
[1:44:03] We discussed that.
[1:44:05] The previous city manager wanted to put the list out.
[1:44:09] We did. We didn't have bids. We couldn't do bids, right?
[1:44:13] We can't do a bid for a budget that's not been approved yet, so we had to
[1:44:17] wait until after we got into the fiscal year,
[1:44:19] and unfortunately, you've just got a little bit of discrepancy between
[1:44:24] what we estimate for that and what we don't.
[1:44:26] I will tell you, when looking at the numbers between the different
[1:44:30] improvements that are in that scope of work,
[1:44:33] we were pretty much dead on the money with respect to the paving and
[1:44:37] the overlay
[1:44:39] component and the milling.
[1:44:41] The discrepancy was more so on the FDR,
[1:44:45] and that's a hard moving target to hit because it
[1:44:48] is a complex operation. There's a lot of moving parts to it.
[1:44:53] Trying to pin down a specific unit quantity price for
[1:44:57] that for our estimation was kind of hard.
[1:44:59] So we were a little bit short on that one.
[1:45:01] That's what most of that differential is.
[1:45:04] I would say that despite that being the case,
[1:45:08] you really don't want to cut, because let's just say that's where you would
[1:45:11] gravitate towards cutting, right?
[1:45:13] "Well, that's the highest cost item we've got, let's cut those out." But the
[1:45:16] roads that that's spec'd for are the ones that need a more
[1:45:21] invasive treatment like that. Go over to Spring Place and
[1:45:25] look at the entrance and tell me we don't need to fix it, right? It's terrible.
[1:45:29] But that type of condition goes beyond what we can do with the
[1:45:32] conventional mill and overlay. So it demands that.
[1:45:37] To the point, like we discussed previously,
[1:45:40] and Larry's got a point. Again, he asked the question in the study session,
[1:45:44] you wait, does the price go
[1:45:47] down, does it not? You don't know. I can't promise you that it won't, or that it
[1:45:50] will.
[1:45:52] That's
[1:45:53] part of doing business. This is 11%
[1:45:58] over
[1:45:59] what we had budgeted,
[1:46:01] and in my opinion, not great, not terrible.
[1:46:06] I think you do it, you lock in the price now.
[1:46:10] As you guys can see on the bid form, both contractors could
[1:46:14] be here within
[1:46:15] mid-October to do some stuff. We're going to have Rogers Group in
[1:46:19] town probably latter end of October to November to do
[1:46:23] some work to finish View Street North Jackson anyway.
[1:46:26] My expectation, just to read between the lines with this, so you all know
[1:46:30] what we would be looking at, I have no intention of doing the full-depth
[1:46:33] reclamation or anything that is a mill and overlay this going into winter.
[1:46:38] I would purely target the overlays. Those are easy.
[1:46:41] There's no real surprises to that.
[1:46:43] We can coordinate that work with AUB, and we might be able to sprinkle some of
[1:46:46] those in before we get to cold weather, and then whatever we don't do, we'll pick
[1:46:49] up and do in the spring. I would hate to cut someone's road, right?
[1:46:53] We've told them
[1:46:54] it's in our scope. I would
[1:46:57] not want to do that, just to answer
[1:47:01] your question. I think we've put it out there.
[1:47:04] You either commit to it, and we do what we can.
[1:47:06] And again, like Bridget said, we've
[1:47:09] worked with Mike before. You pull funds forward.
[1:47:12] We don't generally spend $500,000 per year.
[1:47:14] We usually consolidate a few years at a time, and then we do
[1:47:19] get a bundle. You get a little better economy of scale when you do that.
[1:47:23] Sometimes you pay more, sometimes you pay less.
[1:47:26] In the case of this one, like I said, it's within 11% of target.
[1:47:31] I think you-
[1:47:32] So is this-
[1:47:32] You make the decision you want to move forward
[1:47:33] ... really all going to be a whole year later?
[1:47:35] Because your estimate actually is estimated over the budget by
[1:47:39] $30,000-
[1:47:40] Mm-hmm
[1:47:40] ... at 1.18.
[1:47:42] Right.
[1:47:42] And we have in the budget 1.15, so that's
[1:47:46] $30,000 more.
[1:47:47] Correct. Again, we're talking about-
[1:47:49] And that's your staff estimate
[1:47:51] that you were looking for, you were hoping for.
[1:47:54] That's correct.
[1:47:55] And then all the estimates probably from this point further
[1:47:58] are going to be higher.
[1:48:02] So are you saying we need to wait until next year's budget for the next
[1:48:05] $500,000?
[1:48:07] No, you're going to be pulling a portion of that next year's allocation
[1:48:11] forward to do the full amount that we're proposing to do that
[1:48:15] we've got in that bid. You're going to be pulling some forward to
[1:48:19] do all of this.
[1:48:19] So at this point, we're going to cross our fingers and hope
[1:48:23] that 1.3 doesn't jump to 1.4 next month?
[1:48:26] Well, it shouldn't. The thing you've got to keep in mind, and again,
[1:48:30] the number that you're looking at on paper is an estimated
[1:48:34] quantity, right? This isn't a
[1:48:38] takeoff for a building where everything is a defined quantity.
[1:48:42] We've done a good amount of due diligence on our end to try
[1:48:45] to be as conservative as we can with the figures
[1:48:49] so that we don't get sticker shock when the rubber hits the road, and we're
[1:48:53] actually doing this.
[1:48:55] We may come in under.
[1:48:57] You may run into a situation where we're $10,000 or $15,000, $20,000 over
[1:49:01] it. It depends on what you really get into-
[1:49:03] At the end of the journey
[1:49:03] ... once you get out there.
[1:49:05] It's like the-
[1:49:05] Yeah. Exactly.
[1:49:06] Yeah. And we also have to take in mind contingency as well.
[1:49:09] So even with this 1.3, we're not listed a
[1:49:13] contingency.
[1:49:14] I don't do a contingency on a project like this-
[1:49:16] Okay
[1:49:16] ... because, again, you
[1:49:18] define the quantity as best you can.
[1:49:20] You get a unit price based on that, and then who's
[1:49:24] most responsive and most qualified?
[1:49:26] And in this case, you've got, I think, a good bid.
[1:49:30] Again, it's within pretty reasonable tolerance of our estimation.
[1:49:34] So-
[1:49:34] Okay
[1:49:35] ... like I said, it may come in lower.
[1:49:37] We may end up getting through this, and it'd be 1.25 or
[1:49:41] 1.3, or
[1:49:43] we'll have to cross that bridge when we get there.
[1:49:45] Well, if anything, this gives us a roadmap for
[1:49:49] the future at this point.
[1:49:50] Sure. And again, like anything, costs go up, costs go
[1:49:54] down, everything's volatile. And you'll continue to see that.
[1:49:57] You've got a price at this point that we can work with No matter what happens,
[1:50:01] we'll get this stuff done for what you got in that package, and we'll be done by
[1:50:04] June 30. And we'll get the next round together, and we'll talk about that when we
[1:50:08] get there.
[1:50:09] Thank you. I appreciate you. Any other questions?
[1:50:11] Well, I was going to say, when would you bid out the next round?
[1:50:15] I would probably jump another two years.
[1:50:18] I'm probably going to look at going forward two more years and then trying to
[1:50:20] combine two budgets' worth of paving to do.
[1:50:24] Okay.
[1:50:24] And again, we may look at doing some other STBG or
[1:50:28] funded type improvements between now and then, but you generally see us stagger
[1:50:32] those.
[1:50:33] Okay.
[1:50:35] Thank you. Appreciate you.
[1:50:37] Mayor?
[1:50:37] That's fine.
[1:50:38] May I just make a clarification?
[1:50:40] It's over budget by $177,000, not 30.
[1:50:44] I just wanted to, for the record, note that.
[1:50:46] Oh, yeah. I was quoting what they were estimating. Yeah.
[1:50:50] Oh, okay.
[1:50:51] The staff had estimated proposed streets to cost
[1:50:54] 1.18. That was 30 over what's budgeted in our-- I
[1:50:58] was quoting the staff-
[1:50:59] That was my
[1:50:59] ... number. Yeah. Not the Rogers number. Sorry about that.
[1:51:03] Any other questions?
[1:51:05] Roll call.
[1:51:06] Council Member McCowan?
[1:51:07] Aye.
[1:51:09] Council Member Dugan?
[1:51:17] Nay.
[1:51:19] Vice Mayor Curtis?
[1:51:21] Aye.
[1:51:22] Mayor Eaton?
[1:51:23] Let's pave the roads. Aye.
[1:51:30] Pave the roads.
[1:51:32] All right.
[1:51:36] Line item D.
[1:51:39] First reading of an ordinance 1161 to
[1:51:43] amend title one, chapter 1-2
[1:51:47] of the Athens City Code by replacing section
[1:51:51] 1-44 to revise the order of business for
[1:51:55] city council meetings.
[1:51:57] Gentlemen, do I hear a motion?
[1:51:58] Move approval.
[1:51:59] Do I hear a second?
[1:52:00] Second.
[1:52:01] Motion's been made and seconded. Any discussions?
[1:52:04] I just wanted to mention,
[1:52:06] like I did in the study session,
[1:52:09] and before everybody jumps the gun and throws words in my mouth, I am not against
[1:52:13] citizens speaking.
[1:52:15] I kind of like the way it's mapped out.
[1:52:17] You have items for the agenda about the agenda, so we can focus on the
[1:52:21] agenda.
[1:52:22] And then we have those who need
[1:52:27] or have information and attention items that we can focus
[1:52:31] on after the meeting and make notes of that as well.
[1:52:34] And it gives people a chance to speak.
[1:52:36] And plus, there's also times to speak, of course, for ordinances and second
[1:52:41] readings of ordinances as well. But I say all that to say that
[1:52:46] I'm
[1:52:51] a fan of the way it is already, just for
[1:52:54] my own personal sake of focus.
[1:52:57] But if anybody else has any other thoughts.
[1:53:00] Only thing I'll say is this. The TCA has changed, and now the
[1:53:04] germane to the agenda is totally different.
[1:53:06] And that's the reason why we're changing it.
[1:53:08] It's not that
[1:53:10] we're trying to split it up or anything like that.
[1:53:12] It's the germane to the agenda is
[1:53:15] obsolete basically now. So that's the reason why. Any other discussions?
[1:53:20] I just want the citizens to be able to speak, okay?
[1:53:25] We
[1:53:26] go through the work sessions, and we already
[1:53:28] hash out a lot of things in the work sessions.
[1:53:30] So
[1:53:32] just let the citizens speak. That's what I'm concerned about.
[1:53:36] Any other discussions?
[1:53:38] Roll call.
[1:53:39] Council Member McCowan?
[1:53:40] Aye.
[1:53:41] Council Member Dugan?
[1:53:43] Nay.
[1:53:44] Vice Mayor Curtis?
[1:53:45] Aye.
[1:53:46] Mayor Eaton?
[1:53:47] Aye.
[1:53:52] Line item E.
[1:53:55] Item E, proposed revisions to the employee
[1:53:58] handbook.
[1:54:00] Member-
[1:54:00] The title of the revised employee handbook,
[1:54:04] specifically including the revised longevity pay policy, was provided to
[1:54:08] us in an additional attachment.
[1:54:10] Is there a second?
[1:54:13] Is there a second?
[1:54:14] I second.
[1:54:15] Motion's been made and seconded. Discussion?
[1:54:17] I'd like to make an amendment to have the longevity as a
[1:54:21] separate vote.
[1:54:23] I
[1:54:24] just want to make an amendment to have the longevity as a separate vote
[1:54:29] instead of all in one.
[1:54:37] Is there a second?
[1:54:41] I think I may second that one. I think that we need to split that one up because I
[1:54:45] didn't look at the longevity.
[1:54:48] Because we have two options to vote on.
[1:54:49] Yes.
[1:54:51] Motion's been made and seconded on the amendment. Any other discussions on this?
[1:54:55] I feel like this needed to be voted on first, and
[1:54:59] I was going to address the handbook thing after that.
[1:55:02] If we threw it all, lumped it all together, it would just get confused, and they
[1:55:05] need guidance on which option the council wants anyway.
[1:55:09] So that's why I wanted to amend and have that option voted on.
[1:55:13] Okay. Any other discussions? This is for the amendment only.
[1:55:18] Okay, amendment only. Roll call, please.
[1:55:21] Council Member McCowan?
[1:55:22] Nay.
[1:55:24] Council Member Dugan?
[1:55:26] Aye.
[1:55:27] Vice Mayor Curtis?
[1:55:28] Nay.
[1:55:30] Mayor Eaton?
[1:55:31] Aye. Two to two, it fails. We're going
[1:55:35] back to the main motion.
[1:55:43] You did the main motion.
[1:55:44] No. Is there any more discussions on this? Okay. I'm sorry. I apologize.
[1:55:47] Well, yeah.
[1:55:49] For me,
[1:55:51] I can't vote on something that I have a lot of issues with.
[1:55:55] Not policy-wise, but
[1:55:58] I mentioned this in the study session, there's errors.
[1:56:02] I can't vote on a final
[1:56:05] ... project that's haphazardly done.
[1:56:10] I can sit here and give examples of things.
[1:56:14] I gave a couple in the study session, and then I sent an email saying that
[1:56:18] I was going to send those corrections
[1:56:22] to the HR department, but I felt like it wasn't my job to correct
[1:56:26] a piece of work that I wasn't involved in.
[1:56:29] It's not my job to
[1:56:31] do that job. So, I felt like a reevaluation, a look through
[1:56:35] again,
[1:56:36] and I just recently finished looking through, and I think there's one more
[1:56:40] section I got to finish. But I have found over
[1:56:45] one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,
[1:56:49] nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 13 different errors in different
[1:56:53] sections.
[1:56:54] One section deals with,
[1:56:57] on page 40, it says section two, but it doesn't
[1:57:01] reference anything. There was no section one.
[1:57:04] It's just random wording, section two.
[1:57:08] There's another one that's,
[1:57:10] I think, on page 46, section eight. What is that?
[1:57:14] There was no section seven or six or anything else.
[1:57:17] So, it's like it was copy and pasted and thrown together.
[1:57:21] The other thing is spacing throughout the whole thing.
[1:57:25] I know that's an OCD thing of mine, but
[1:57:30] it's supposed to be a finished product that's going to be brought forth to people
[1:57:33] who are going to be employed. And if they read through and see
[1:57:37] either grammatical or just things like that, and I know
[1:57:41] there'll probably be some issues about that, but
[1:57:44] it's just editing issues.
[1:57:47] Another issue,
[1:57:50] the ironic factor is,
[1:57:53] if we're at Will State, we have a lot of policies where
[1:57:57] we actually give second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth chances.
[1:58:01] I just thought that was an ironic thing.
[1:58:04] I'm not against that, by the way. I'm also for redemption and
[1:58:08] reconciliation.
[1:58:11] But
[1:58:12] I wanted to
[1:58:16] say I can't vote for something that's not
[1:58:19] finalized.
[1:58:21] And I understand it was, I don't want to say it was thrown together.
[1:58:25] It was put together because it was separate policies.
[1:58:28] It's the way it was explained to me is they were all separate policies, and she was
[1:58:31] putting it together in one handbook format.
[1:58:35] But one issue is
[1:58:38] that there is no revision page. I worked with
[1:58:42] policies as well, and we had a page where we
[1:58:47] listed for every time the board met, we had a revision
[1:58:50] page, and it was updated. And then also
[1:58:54] each section, there was only one section that listed,
[1:58:59] let me find it. Social media section has a policy of review section
[1:59:03] concerning how the council will review, but all the other sections of policies
[1:59:07] don't even talk about the council reviewing.
[1:59:10] So, either it needs to be at the tail end of the whole handbook that is going to be
[1:59:14] reviewed by the council, or each section, the policy
[1:59:18] section needs to
[1:59:21] have that. Only social media, page 48, was the only one that
[1:59:25] had that it'll be reviewed by the council.
[1:59:28] And then, if you look at the whole,
[1:59:33] like I said, some people might get upset about this, but
[1:59:38] I felt like we have the city policies here.
[1:59:42] Background checks, I felt like should be put further dealing
[1:59:46] with employment. We shouldn't have background checks
[1:59:50] halfway through the policy right before benefits.
[1:59:54] To me, I think letting them know after general provisions, the
[1:59:57] pay plan, and recruitment and employment, I thought
[2:00:03] background checks should be informed of that in that section.
[2:00:07] So, I really think
[2:00:09] there could be a little more streamlining of the whole
[2:00:13] thing. I can't vote for something that's not very streamlined and
[2:00:17] presentable to the public.
[2:00:20] Mayor, may I respond?
[2:00:22] Yes, go ahead.
[2:00:24] Well, the first thing, on page 18 of your packet-
[2:00:26] Mm-hmm
[2:00:26] ... there is actually a summary of revisions.
[2:00:29] So, everything that was changed is listed.
[2:00:31] It has the page number,
[2:00:33] what changed.
[2:00:34] Right.
[2:00:35] I mean, it's all there. So, you can see what was changed.
[2:00:38] As far as one of your examples,
[2:00:42] on page 40, where you mentioned section two, that you don't know what it's
[2:00:45] referring to,
[2:00:47] it states
[2:00:49] in section two of the City of Athens Workplace Violence Policy.
[2:00:54] So, it's referring to the Athens Workplace Violence
[2:00:56] Policy. So that's what that's referring to, which
[2:01:00] I didn't catch the second one you said, but-
[2:01:02] Yeah
[2:01:02] ... I'm sure it's something similar, but most-
[2:01:04] Oh, there's a separate policy concerning that?
[2:01:06] Well, there's a separate section here.
[2:01:08] Now, your job as a council is to approve policy,
[2:01:12] so that's a given. That it's included in the social media
[2:01:16] policy, that's the newest policy that's added.
[2:01:19] That was the most recent that you actually have not seen
[2:01:23] before it was put into this.
[2:01:26] Mm-hmm.
[2:01:26] This is the first time you're actually seeing that, so that's probably why it's
[2:01:29] included there is because it is the newest.
[2:01:34] But it is a given that you all pass the policies, and that's basically what these
[2:01:38] revisions are, are policies that have passed over time,
[2:01:42] and now our human resources director is just adding
[2:01:46] them all into one book-
[2:01:47] Right
[2:01:48] ... so that we have it in one place now.
[2:01:50] And
[2:01:53] if all the issue is, is formatting, we can change that without a
[2:01:57] vote-
[2:01:58] Well, I-
[2:01:58] ... anytime. It can be a work in progress.
[2:02:00] Well, I know, but it's not all just formatting.
[2:02:03] There's some others that I don't want to take up time to talk about because
[2:02:08] It's going to take a while because, like I said, I have a whole separate list of
[2:02:12] those.
[2:02:13] But I just wanted that to be known, is that I
[2:02:18] would think
[2:02:22] it would
[2:02:23] look better for the city to have something a little more
[2:02:26] streamlined.
[2:02:31] I don't know how much more streamlined it could be, but
[2:02:35] obviously we value your opinion.
[2:02:37] Right.
[2:02:38] But if we need to get this approved as soon as possible
[2:02:42] so that we can continue giving it to our employees, I understand that
[2:02:45] there may be some misspelled or wrong words,
[2:02:49] because I think it was just the wrong word that was placed.
[2:02:51] And you know how it is when you write something up, and you read it
[2:02:55] yourself, and you know what it's supposed to say.
[2:02:58] I think the example you gave was police and policy.
[2:03:02] Right.
[2:03:02] It was just-
[2:03:03] Well, another big one is on page 31,
[2:03:07] definitions. They gave a definition for robbery.
[2:03:12] "A machine gun, a shotgun,
[2:03:15] and
[2:03:17] shot-barreled rifle shotgun-
[2:03:19] Nope
[2:03:19] ... and a handgun." Those are all firearms.
[2:03:22] Now keep in mind, these policies were not written from
[2:03:26] scratch.
[2:03:26] Right.
[2:03:26] They're basically model policies that we've used
[2:03:31] from MTAS mostly, am I correct?
[2:03:35] So it's not something that she wrote up from scratch.
[2:03:39] Right.
[2:03:39] Most of this is model, and we've built upon it over the years.
[2:03:44] Yeah, and then it lists aggravated robbery twice on page 31, right after
[2:03:48] itself. But like I mentioned, you can't have the
[2:03:52] word firearm after you just listed all the firearms.
[2:03:56] It's redundancy at
[2:04:00] that point.
[2:04:00] Yeah, that is something we could-
[2:04:01] I think what we need to do moving forward is,
[2:04:06] and I'm not telling anybody how to vote, but I think that we can go ahead and
[2:04:09] adopt this, and then the next work session,
[2:04:13] city manager, you can address these things, and then we can
[2:04:18] continue on
[2:04:21] making it better instead of-
[2:04:22] Oh, yeah. It was always a work in progress.
[2:04:23] I like it that it's all in one instead of a bunch of separate policies
[2:04:28] you have to hand people when they're being hired.
[2:04:30] I actually appreciate all in one.
[2:04:33] Right.
[2:04:33] It's better. It's streamlined. It's a better thing, and I appreciate that
[2:04:37] she was doing that. But
[2:04:40] I think there's ways of... Like I said, I
[2:04:43] worked with many different policies at different banks.
[2:04:46] I even wrote a few myself. So
[2:04:52] I guess I'm done at this point.
[2:04:54] We're a policy-making board by very definition.
[2:04:57] We were presented with staff with a policy.
[2:05:00] We had an extra month to review it. We had a specific ask
[2:05:04] to determine, to pick a path going head to head policy.
[2:05:09] I brought forward my opinion work session. There was no conversation there.
[2:05:13] There again, the ask of this body was to
[2:05:18] pick a choice. Make a decision.
[2:05:22] And I think the question was answered in the work session.
[2:05:25] Hey, look, we can handle
[2:05:28] some formatting issues. Staff's fully capable of handling that.
[2:05:32] The question for this policy-making body was the
[2:05:36] content of this document. So I think we just have to be cognizant
[2:05:40] of what our role and what our higher responsibility is, and that we
[2:05:44] need to be moving this city forward.
[2:05:46] We could sit here and discuss minutia all over this
[2:05:50] packet until the wee hours of the morning, but I think what we need to do
[2:05:54] is approve this so that we can move
[2:05:57] forward. And let me say this, too. This is a holistic team effort.
[2:06:02] From the conversations I had with staff to sort of ask the questions I had to be
[2:06:05] informed about this vote,
[2:06:08] many of our... Really, everyone on our team was involved in providing input to
[2:06:12] this. As the city manager said, this is a model MTAS
[2:06:16] document. There was input provided by our insurer for different
[2:06:20] matters of risk management that have changed. The attorney had input.
[2:06:24] So I just want to express appreciation to our whole team for the heavy
[2:06:28] lift of coordinating all this, letting all the different department
[2:06:32] heads review it, and get it to a state to get it to this group to approve, to then
[2:06:36] put in final form. So thank you all so much for the hard work to do
[2:06:40] that. It's much appreciated.
[2:06:41] Well, I didn't say that the hard work wasn't appreciated.
[2:06:44] I just said-- And actually, there was a discussion. I brought it up.
[2:06:48] I said
[2:06:49] I gave the errors that I mentioned.
[2:06:51] I gave two, and then the next morning, I decided to send
[2:06:55] an email saying, "I'm not going to sit here and give all the errors
[2:06:59] that I found for somebody else to correct when it's not my
[2:07:02] document to correct."
[2:07:05] So
[2:07:08] I discussed it through that meeting to let it know that there's
[2:07:11] stuff there, and then I asked if it could be reviewed one more time before we came
[2:07:15] to this meeting,
[2:07:17] and I got nothing. I got a
[2:07:20] very berating and belittling email from another council
[2:07:24] member
[2:07:26] questioning my resume.
[2:07:28] So
[2:07:30] like I was saying,
[2:07:31] I
[2:07:32] appreciate the effort, and it's multiple departments. I do appreciate it.
[2:07:37] But like I mentioned in the email as well as the meeting,
[2:07:40] there's
[2:07:43] mistakes that I found, and I'm not an English major.
[2:07:47] So
[2:07:50] I just don't like putting out documents for the public
[2:07:53] to recruit
[2:07:55] with haphazardness.
[2:07:57] All right. I'm going to say this.
[2:08:00] I'm going to try to lighten the atmosphere.
[2:08:04] Like the old guy said one time, "Okay, I might not have dotted all the
[2:08:08] everything correctly, but did you get the message?"
[2:08:13] That's the...
[2:08:14] Did you get the message?
[2:08:16] And we can always... It's just like when I
[2:08:20] made a gospel album. Okay? And
[2:08:25] I go back over, and you want to try to correct
[2:08:28] every single little thing that you did, but you
[2:08:32] get to a place where you say, "Okay, I'm done."
[2:08:35] So did you get the message? So I think we got the message.
[2:08:40] I'm sure
[2:08:42] you can go through that document.
[2:08:45] You, city manager, you all can go through that and correct
[2:08:49] whatever needs to be corrected. Okay?
[2:08:52] I have faith that you can do that.
[2:08:55] Any other discussions, gentlemen?
[2:08:58] Roll call.
[2:09:02] Council Member McCowan.
[2:09:04] So I understand what we're voting here.
[2:09:06] So
[2:09:06] We're voting for the-
[2:09:08] Not to change anything. Right?
[2:09:10] It's for technically both. He put a motion for both the longevity and
[2:09:14] the-
[2:09:15] The longevity
[2:09:15] ... handbook all in one.
[2:09:16] It's all a part of the employee handbook.
[2:09:18] The, uh-
[2:09:19] But he listed option one instead of we're negating option two.
[2:09:23] So he-
[2:09:24] We were provided two options to choose from.
[2:09:27] We had a discussion work session. I recommended the option
[2:09:31] that has been presented here because there was no further discussion about it.
[2:09:34] That's-
[2:09:34] That's why I amended to have that discussion.
[2:09:37] I thought we already turned... Well.
[2:09:41] Chairman Campbell, we're voting on the whole thing.
[2:09:43] Yes.
[2:09:44] All the updates collectively in one vote.
[2:09:46] And
[2:09:47] his option number one for longevity.
[2:09:51] No, sir, it's not my option number one. It's the staff recommendation.
[2:09:54] What is the one?
[2:09:54] No, there was option one and two.
[2:09:56] The one that you, the motion.
[2:09:57] That's what you recommended. There was two options.
[2:09:59] Go ahead, city manager.
[2:10:00] I just want to clarify. On page 15 and 16, if you'll turn to
[2:10:03] your packet, there are still two options
[2:10:07] listed in the memo.
[2:10:10] Option one was the no prorated longevity, and
[2:10:14] option two was the prorated longevity for voluntary
[2:10:17] separation.
[2:10:20] Just to clarify.
[2:10:21] Right. And he mentioned option one in study session,
[2:10:25] and I tried to amend to have that discussion for option one and two.
[2:10:30] But is that the council member's motion?
[2:10:33] My motion is for the prorated longevity-
[2:10:37] Option one
[2:10:39] ... which is option two.
[2:10:40] Oh, option two? Did it change?
[2:10:41] Yes.
[2:10:42] That's correct.
[2:10:42] Option two.
[2:10:43] Option two.
[2:10:44] And that's been seconded. We're ready for a everybody, every-
[2:10:48] So we're at for number two. Okay.
[2:10:49] Number two.
[2:10:50] Okay.
[2:10:50] That prorates longevity pay-
[2:10:52] Okay
[2:10:52] ... for voluntary separation.
[2:10:54] Okay.
[2:10:55] Aye. Roll call.
[2:10:57] Council member-
[2:10:58] Aye.
[2:10:59] Council member Dugan.
[2:11:01] Nay.
[2:11:02] Council member Charland. Sorry. Vice Mayor Curtis.
[2:11:06] Aye.
[2:11:07] Mayor Eaton.
[2:11:08] Aye.
[2:11:11] Okay, there's two more things I want to bring up in the
[2:11:17] new business,
[2:11:19] and this is from Article 1, Section 7 of the
[2:11:24] code, city codes.
[2:11:26] I'm asking the city attorney,
[2:11:29] I'm requesting an investigation of the following matters involved, the
[2:11:32] alleged misappropriation of funds that
[2:11:36] may have occurred over an extended period of time.
[2:11:39] These concerns should be thoroughly reviewed and
[2:11:43] investigated at a potential civil or maybe criminal
[2:11:47] violations, allegedly, that are
[2:11:50] identified. The findings should be referred to the appropriate
[2:11:54] authorities for further use if the investigation deems so.
[2:11:58] So
[2:11:59] given the nature of the allegations and the individuals who are involved, I
[2:12:02] recommend the investigation be conducted by an independent agency.
[2:12:06] The issues outlined
[2:12:08] below should be fully examined. Documents I have obtained,
[2:12:12] and the city attorney will obtain them too for the investigation,
[2:12:16] over the past years, and I believe additional records, even earlier
[2:12:20] years, might even be relevant. In light of this request, I
[2:12:24] ask all records related to this matter be preserved until investigation
[2:12:28] complete.
[2:12:30] This includes records maintained in accordance with the applicable
[2:12:34] Tennessee Code Annotated, TCA, provisions, Tennessee
[2:12:38] laws, and policy and procedures of Athens, Tennessee.
[2:12:41] Preservations should include all physical and digital recordings, as
[2:12:44] well as personal or city cell phones that may have been used in
[2:12:48] connection with these matters. Number one, investigation of funding
[2:12:53] provided by the City of Athens to the Parks Foundation, including
[2:12:57] all city funds contributed to the 501 [c]
[2:13:00] organization, any absence of the document, city council approval for
[2:13:04] these
[2:13:05] contributed. Identify the individuals involved
[2:13:10] and the identities of the individuals
[2:13:13] involved, including all positions they hold with both City of
[2:13:17] Athens and the Parks Foundation. There allegedly
[2:13:21] looks like a potential of over
[2:13:24] $100,000
[2:13:27] being moved around. Number two, sanitation fund.
[2:13:31] Descriptions provided by three commercial accounts,
[2:13:36] which we have no records of being shown
[2:13:39] or found in city council approval.
[2:13:43] These discounts
[2:13:45] appear to be in place for an extended period of
[2:13:49] time, and does not
[2:13:53] reflect in any city budget during the past four years of my service.
[2:13:57] The practice was discontinued this year, August the
[2:14:01] 22nd, 2026, after it was identified and stopped by
[2:14:05] former mayor, city manager.
[2:14:07] Available records indicate that discounts were applied
[2:14:11] annually for more than over four years that I know of. ...
[2:14:14] for significant long periods of time.
[2:14:17] And number three, vehicle allowance reimbursements provided to three
[2:14:21] directors and one project manager should be reviewed to determine
[2:14:25] whether mileage claims comply with city policy.
[2:14:28] Available information indicates the individual who received car allowance may not
[2:14:32] be permitted to claim mileage for the first 65 miles from the city
[2:14:36] hall, yet such claims appear to have been submitted over an extended
[2:14:40] period of time. Records suggest these practice may
[2:14:44] have occurred for many years,
[2:14:47] particularly among the employees with longer tenures.
[2:14:51] This matter should be
[2:14:53] thoroughly investigated, and I'm pulling the Article 1, Section
[2:14:57] 7, which is
[2:14:59] it does not require a city council vote, but I'm going to give this to the
[2:15:04] city attorney for the investigations.
[2:15:07] So I want to make sure this is open to the public.
[2:15:09] Will you please give this to him?
[2:15:11] And I will send you all the documents I have also, and you can retrieve them too.
[2:15:16] Mayor, may I ask a question?
[2:15:18] Yes, ma'am.
[2:15:20] This is dealing with staff and administrative issues from what
[2:15:24] I gather. Why am I being blindsided?
[2:15:27] I was not aware that this was-
[2:15:28] You was told that I had turned in to the comptroller
[2:15:33] all of these issues.
[2:15:34] That's right.
[2:15:35] I did tell you to your face or on a phone call that I had turned
[2:15:39] it in. And
[2:15:42] furthermore, with what had happened
[2:15:45] last Monday with the letter that I'm fixing to read,
[2:15:49] it's more imperative that two of the council members
[2:15:53] had been
[2:15:57] improperly attacked,
[2:15:59] and that's my next
[2:16:01] one. I'll let... But saying this, this is the taxpayers' money.
[2:16:06] It's been going on for
[2:16:09] a long time, and even when I was a private citizen,
[2:16:13] I had been following this, but could not
[2:16:17] get into it until the former city manager had been digging
[2:16:21] into this and finding these issues.
[2:16:24] And
[2:16:25] that's
[2:16:26] one of the reasons why that me and him had been doing this.
[2:16:29] And you knew that I had been asking for the documentation.
[2:16:34] There's nothing that was blindsided because you knew I have all
[2:16:38] the documentation. You knew what I was doing because I told you that I sent...
[2:16:42] So this right here is just another
[2:16:46] that the
[2:16:48] chief ethics officer is the city attorney of Athens, Tennessee, and
[2:16:52] according to Article 1, Section 7, we can call for an
[2:16:56] investigation. And that's clear what I'm
[2:17:00] doing. I'm not doing anything blindsided.
[2:17:02] I'm doing everything for the taxpayers,
[2:17:05] not for individuals. And
[2:17:10] so be it. If the
[2:17:13] taxpayers are not aware of what we're doing, then we got a serious
[2:17:17] problem. Now, I'm not saying you because you're just an intern right now.
[2:17:20] Yes, sir.
[2:17:20] This has been going on for a long time before you, okay?
[2:17:24] There's nothing about you on this, okay?
[2:17:27] This has been going on for quite a bit of time, and it needs to be looked at, it
[2:17:31] needs to be handled, it needs to be resolved.
[2:17:34] And the only way to do it is through the comptroller and also the city
[2:17:38] attorney.
[2:17:39] And I have also requested that
[2:17:43] because of
[2:17:46] the
[2:17:47] amount of documentation I have, that probably an outside entity would
[2:17:51] probably be the best. But saying that, there's one
[2:17:54] more item
[2:17:57] that-
[2:17:57] With respect, if it's at the Comptroller's office,
[2:18:03] there could be a little bit-- there could be the issue of too many cooks in the
[2:18:05] kitchen, so to speak. I mean,
[2:18:08] they're the ones, they're the financial watchdogs, so to speak, so-
[2:18:12] They're financial watchdogs, but they're not
[2:18:15] watchdogs of our city other than doing the
[2:18:20] systems. If there's issues, it's going to take a while, but
[2:18:24] our city attorney needs to be aware of this.
[2:18:26] Our taxpayers need to be aware of this.
[2:18:28] This is a serious matter that's been going on for numerous of years.
[2:18:33] And
[2:18:36] I'll forward you all of the stuff that I have.
[2:18:40] And I'm seriously, I've been seriously thinking, just waiting for the
[2:18:43] comptroller, but I really believe that the city
[2:18:48] attorney needs to look into this very
[2:18:51] in-depth because this has to do with our
[2:18:55] taxpayers' money.
[2:18:57] This has to do with our city of Athens, and
[2:19:01] I don't take that lightly because ever since I was a citizen, I was
[2:19:05] pulling records, public records, to find these things.
[2:19:09] And the things that have been coming up is really worrisome to
[2:19:13] me.
[2:19:15] I just want to add, I am curious because you are correct.
[2:19:19] I am aware of some of the documents you have requested and some
[2:19:22] citizens have requested. But in those documents,
[2:19:26] from what I have seen, I have personally not seen
[2:19:30] anything that would cause any concern.
[2:19:34] So I am curious what documents you are referring to and-
[2:19:37] I'll let the investigation-
[2:19:39] ... welcome the investigation
[2:19:39] ... take over and I'll let the investigation because I've called for an
[2:19:42] investigation and that's
[2:19:44] where I'll stand right there because the documentation that I have is
[2:19:49] something that I take serious. And I would not bring this out to the public if
[2:19:53] I didn't. And everybody knows the way that I am.
[2:19:57] I'm always very detailed with everything. I've asked questions.
[2:20:00] I've got documentation. And I believe
[2:20:03] that
[2:20:05] this needs to be resolved. It's been going on too
[2:20:08] long. And
[2:20:14] the best thing to do is turn it over to the comptroller like I did, and also
[2:20:18] to the city attorney So that's what I've done.
[2:20:22] And that's number one. And number two,
[2:20:29] and
[2:20:30] City Manager, you're aware of the public records, very aware of them.
[2:20:34] You're very knowledgeable.
[2:20:36] Heck, I carry two phones with me because one is my city phone and I
[2:20:40] do city business with. And just like you, you've got city phone,
[2:20:44] and all of us do, because I think
[2:20:48] all my city business will be done on my city phone.
[2:20:51] Now, sometimes I get text messages on
[2:20:53] something of mine, but it's something simple, one of the citizens wanting to know
[2:20:57] about a yard being mowed. And I tell them to send me an email, and I send it
[2:21:01] straight to you. But anyway,
[2:21:03] saying that,
[2:21:06] last week I received an email, and the rest of the city
[2:21:10] council did, about
[2:21:13] a direct hostile work environment that I provided and
[2:21:17] also Councilman
[2:21:21] Dugan,
[2:21:23] during last week's study session.
[2:21:26] And the emails are right here, and City Manager, I will be giving
[2:21:30] this to you.
[2:21:32] I mean, not City Manager, City Attorney.
[2:21:34] I will be giving these
[2:21:37] documents to you that it was clearly
[2:21:40] that
[2:21:42] we were being accused of a hostile work environment last work
[2:21:45] session, where we were asking why the roads weren't being paved.
[2:21:48] And you even heard Mr. Birchfield up here today explaining
[2:21:52] some things,
[2:21:54] why we
[2:21:56] were paving certain roads in that regional park when
[2:21:59] we were leaving some of the other parts,
[2:22:02] and evidently-
[2:22:04] Mayor, I'm sorry. Respectfully, I do think that that is an
[2:22:07] administrative issue concerning-
[2:22:09] This is not an... You accused. This was an
[2:22:13] accusation of city council, and I'm letting the public know.
[2:22:16] It was sharing of information.
[2:22:18] Okay, sharing, but you gave it all to city council.
[2:22:21] Yes.
[2:22:21] And that is open to public-
[2:22:23] Because you all do need to be on the same page
[2:22:24] ... that is open to public
[2:22:27] request.
[2:22:28] Okay.
[2:22:28] So therefore, it is open to the public, and I want to make sure the public
[2:22:32] knows when you
[2:22:34] say to me that I'm causing a hostile work environment for asking
[2:22:38] questions of your staff in an open public meeting while
[2:22:41] we're having a discussion. There was nothing
[2:22:45] volatile. And I've even asked for the recordings, which I have not got
[2:22:49] yet.
[2:22:52] But anyway, saying this,
[2:22:55] there is one thing that's really bothering me with all of this.
[2:22:59] And
[2:23:01] you sent me the documentation, the resignation
[2:23:05] letter
[2:23:06] from... This is the letter that was sent to us. Okay?
[2:23:11] And I'm actually, at this point in time, I'm filing a public records
[2:23:14] request on all apps
[2:23:18] that the city manager and anyone else is doing in the city,
[2:23:23] because this right here was on an RSC app. It's not on a public app.
[2:23:26] No, it was on a cell phone.
[2:23:29] Yeah. It was on a RSC chat.
[2:23:31] And I do want to point out-
[2:23:33] And that is not a public forum, so all of
[2:23:36] this chat is supposed to be in public forum.
[2:23:41] Not necessarily. This is a...
[2:23:44] And I'm not going to say employee, because she is technically not an employee.
[2:23:48] She is a contractor. She is a temporary through an agency that
[2:23:52] we use.
[2:23:54] That was her notice to me, as her supervisor, that
[2:23:58] she was not comfortable being in that environment
[2:24:01] any longer.
[2:24:03] Let me read it to you. I'll read it to the city.
[2:24:06] This is an RSC chat, which is an app
[2:24:09] on Google that is not subject to public
[2:24:13] records. You cannot get this as public records.
[2:24:15] So this was sent to the city manager on the city...
[2:24:24] This is relevant because this is public
[2:24:28] information that we cannot retrieve.
[2:24:30] This is a chat-
[2:24:32] These are pending HR matters.
[2:24:34] These are not pending HR matters. This is something that
[2:24:38] I've got a public records right here that-
[2:24:40] There was no accusations. It was, like I'm saying-
[2:24:43] No accusations. Let me read.
[2:24:45] It was information.
[2:24:45] Hold on a second. Let me read it, okay? Bridget.
[2:24:48] Mayor, please.
[2:24:49] No, I'm going to read this.
[2:24:51] This is a staff issue.
[2:24:52] You sent this resignation documentation.
[2:24:56] This is even subject to public records, but I'm going to read this to the open
[2:25:00] public so the public knows that two council
[2:25:04] members called it a hostile work environment.
[2:25:06] There's nothing, City Attorney, that I'm doing negative.
[2:25:09] This was an attack on two city council members for asking
[2:25:13] questions of the staff. And here it is. Bridget.
[2:25:16] Can I say something? I think something needs to be said.
[2:25:20] As a member of the board of directors of this organization,
[2:25:24] from someone who has experience in a supervisory role professionally,
[2:25:29] you cannot discount or discredit
[2:25:33] what an employee says if they feel uncomfortable about their work
[2:25:37] environment. This is inappropriate, and this needs to be handled in the
[2:25:41] proper venue. So I just have the good conscience to say that.
[2:25:45] This is inappropriate.
[2:25:45] Well, thank you.
[2:25:46] Here's-
[2:25:47] Let me say this. Now, let me say this.
[2:25:49] This is
[2:25:53] totally
[2:25:55] out of line. Okay?
[2:25:56] Yeah, I agree.
[2:25:57] No, it's totally out of line where we're going with this right here.
[2:25:59] Okay.
[2:25:59] Because
[2:26:01] it's not appropriate. I've been in settings,
[2:26:05] believe me, and anything that's going on within the HR, or anything
[2:26:09] going on with the staff,
[2:26:13] we are a governing body, but we're not here to run what's going on
[2:26:17] day by day. And I would think it'd be
[2:26:21] Not appropriate to go any further with this, okay?
[2:26:24] I would think that would be-
[2:26:26] Mayor
[2:26:26] ... here's what's going-
[2:26:27] Mayor,
[2:26:28] I would say stop.
[2:26:29] No, I'm going to read this right here.
[2:26:31] They can do a public records request.
[2:26:32] This is derogatory.
[2:26:33] I would say stop.
[2:26:34] If everybody would know about
[2:26:36] self-publication, and you can probably,
[2:26:40] city attorney can do this, this is defaming
[2:26:44] of an individual.
[2:26:45] I think we should adjourn.
[2:26:47] I move we adjourn. Yes, I move to adjourn. Second.
[2:26:50] The motion has not been made up yet.
[2:26:53] So, and we still-
[2:26:54] I just made it. It's been seconded.
[2:26:55] It's been-
[2:26:55] All in favor. We have the majority council want to adjourn this meeting at this
[2:26:59] time.
[2:26:59] We don't even have the reports- Ken, you're in violation of the charter.
[2:27:04] The reports are included in your packet.
[2:27:07] But you're in violation of the charter.
[2:27:08] Citizen's comments haven't been done either.
[2:27:10] Nope.
[2:27:12] So...
[2:27:14] I'm not going to be a part of this.
[2:27:15] No. No. No,
[2:27:17] this is not right.
[2:27:20] I'm not going to be a part of this.
[2:27:21] No, especially if it was you. That's okay.
[2:27:31] Just leave those, Randi. Yeah, go. I need it anyway.
[2:27:42] I'm going to go ahead and read this anyway because this should be
[2:27:46] public information, and it is, because the DPA was CC'd on
[2:27:50] this. And, this record, this RSC, is a private
[2:27:54] chat, and I've done a public records request, and all
[2:27:59] documentation should be frozen.
[2:28:01] And I'm not saying that it's not public record, but out of common
[2:28:05] decency, out of someone who is
[2:28:08] emotionally disturbed,
[2:28:11] sharing this information with you all
[2:28:14] may not be confidential in the sense of
[2:28:18] public records,
[2:28:20] but out of decency should-
[2:28:22] Okay, what was the decency of her calling a hostile working environment and calling
[2:28:26] two people-
[2:28:26] Okay
[2:28:26] ... when we were asking questions of our local staff?
[2:28:28] I could argue that, but I'm not going to.
[2:28:30] There is a certain case that you have also
[2:28:33] considered this environment a hostile workplace,
[2:28:37] but I'm not going to get into that. But there is no difference between what
[2:28:41] you have done and what she has done.
[2:28:45] No, what I do is I make sure it's open to the public.
[2:28:49] And, for the ones that-
[2:28:52] For real?
[2:28:52] ... are elected to support the city, and
[2:28:56] they go up and leave is pretty bad. But this right here,
[2:29:01] making a statement of a hostile working environment when we were in a work
[2:29:05] session and we don't even have-
[2:29:07] And that is assumptions, by the way.
[2:29:10] She does mention-
[2:29:12] I asked for-
[2:29:13] ... those boys, but there were other instances, too, and I think-
[2:29:16] Okay
[2:29:16] ... what you're referring to was her tipping point.
[2:29:19] Yeah.
[2:29:19] She did not list all the-
[2:29:21] She didn't list anything
[2:29:22] ... instances. No, she didn't.
[2:29:23] She didn't list anything.
[2:29:23] Right. She kept it very vague.
[2:29:25] But then again, it was on a personal chat, that we don't even know what the other
[2:29:28] chat was about.
[2:29:31] That's it.
[2:29:39] Well, the quorum's not here, so we can't even adjourn.
[2:29:42] City attorney?
[2:29:47] You seem to believe that you are ready to proceed.
[2:29:51] We can't. We don't have a quorum. You have to have X
[2:29:55] amount of,
[2:29:57] because they walked out,
[2:30:06] and we still have business.
[2:30:12] Business. Well, thinking about it, there's nothing...
[2:30:15] I'm going to leave it up to city attorney.
[2:30:19] Well,
[2:30:21] I didn't come prepared for this
[2:30:26] on the Robert's Rules.
[2:30:30] Quorum, the meeting can't go on.
[2:30:37] And then you just do
[2:30:38] it.
[2:30:47] It can't be adjourned. Perhaps we can be in recess until this can be...
[2:30:52] That's the only thing we can do. That's it.
[2:30:56] Recess until somebody comes back.
[2:30:59] Well,
[2:31:00] I don't think it has to be today.
[2:31:03] It don't have to be. It can be postponed to another time, but we have to have
[2:31:06] a...
[2:31:08] What we'll have to do is we'll have to recess
[2:31:11] until
[2:31:12] the quorum comes back.
[2:31:17] We're in recess?
[2:31:18] Yes, sir.
[2:31:19] Recess.
[2:31:21] Yeah, we have to. Yeah. The same as if there's a new
[2:31:24] meeting.
[2:31:31] Someone just dropped
[2:31:35] a bomb head.