[0:00] [Music]
[0:13] at six o'clock
[0:27] [Laughter]
[0:33] yes sir i got my fair phone i'm gonna
[0:36] put on me
[0:36] okay okay all right
[1:10] core
[1:24] you
[1:37] i'm excited
[1:41] i was there
[2:04] [Applause]
[2:06] well
[2:10] so i gave it a number
[2:47] spend all my time
[2:51] [Music]
[3:02] we're actually going to have one at the
[3:04] farmers market this year
[3:25] school stuff
[3:59] usually
[4:26] is
[4:29] all right
[4:54] shirt
[5:07] anthony says tell everyone i said hello
[5:09] and they look good on camera
[5:11] thank you anthony that's your big smile
[5:36] okay
[5:46] [Music]
[5:50] um
[6:05] uh this is the city council budget
[6:06] workshop thursday may 6
[6:08] 2021. y'all please buy red and join me
[6:11] in our invitation
[6:12] my dear heavenly father we thank you for
[6:14] this beautiful day and this beautiful
[6:16] weekend this beautiful city
[6:18] please bless us as we look at the city's
[6:21] finances and do what's best for
[6:23] our employees our residents uh and our
[6:26] businesses
[6:27] and uh please use us to
[6:30] service your will uh
[6:39] the united states of america as to the
[6:42] republic for which it stands
[6:44] one nation under god indivisible
[7:00] budget workshop our first one was a few
[7:02] weeks back when we had our
[7:05] annual presentation from our financial
[7:07] advisors first tryon
[7:10] tonight we're going to get a little bit
[7:12] deeper into what
[7:14] staff is presenting to you all for our
[7:17] fiscal year 2021
[7:19] 2022 annual budget
[7:22] including all of our funds um
[7:26] yes naomi reid our assistant city
[7:29] administrator and finance director is
[7:30] going to
[7:31] provide you a presentation it's going to
[7:33] be pretty high level
[7:34] um but she is happy to go into
[7:37] details and answer questions and without
[7:40] further ado
[7:42] you have it
[7:45] thank you sean thank you mayor and
[7:47] council and our department heads
[7:49] sandra our city clerk um
[7:52] i do want to start off by apologizing
[7:54] for not getting this information sooner
[7:57] you will have the budget in full the
[8:00] budget transmittal letter
[8:01] the fee schedule the budget ordinance
[8:04] and
[8:05] all the detail for every line item
[8:06] before you well before our first reading
[8:09] so hope to get that to you by monday
[8:10] just in case you have questions
[8:12] um sean and i'll be happy to answer them
[8:14] get what the apartment heads and get any
[8:16] clarifying items before we head the
[8:18] first reading
[8:21] i also did notice that i stapled two of
[8:24] the same pages to your packet so we'll
[8:26] just skip right through that when i get
[8:27] there
[8:28] like sean said this is our second budget
[8:30] workshop um the first one we discussed
[8:33] are capital items for every fund
[8:35] left that workshop with some some
[8:39] lingering questions
[8:40] and i got together and we developed the
[8:42] budget
[8:43] as presented for your consideration our
[8:46] first reading
[9:04] this workshop i would like to get
[9:06] feedback and direction
[9:08] from city council um to finalize the fy
[9:11] 22 budget
[9:12] um i would like you all to review and go with us through the assumptions
[9:16] that sean and i made while developing
[9:18] the budget
[9:19] and then understand our methodology for
[9:23] priorities we place on service
[9:25] enhancements and our capital improvement
[9:26] projects
[9:27] in the presentation
[9:33] so a couple months ago city council got
[9:37] together
[9:37] and met at a budget retreat where
[9:40] you all discussed in length your budget
[9:43] priorities and goals
[9:45] and i left from that workshop and i
[9:48] remember mayor mcglier making
[9:50] a statement and it was um after a long
[9:52] discussion of
[9:53] what city council's goals and and for
[9:56] fountain in and what his founding means
[9:58] to city council
[9:59] it got a little quiet and then the mayor
[10:01] said to providing to preserve a sense of
[10:03] community through shared experiences
[10:05] and so i took that that quote and um
[10:09] framed it around how we were going to
[10:10] present the budget to you all
[10:12] and have the department heads keep that
[10:14] in mind while they were developing their
[10:15] budgets
[10:17] so we pulled from the strategic plan
[10:19] document that kevin bronson prepared for
[10:21] us
[10:22] um a few key items and it's delivering
[10:24] on city council's
[10:26] strategic planning goals we want to make
[10:28] sure that that's at the top of our for our brains while we're
[10:32] developing the budget
[10:33] um you all discussed in length
[10:36] addressing the aging infrastructure
[10:38] throughout the departments
[10:39] um specifically in our sewer department
[10:43] and our public works
[10:44] facilities you know we have needs there
[10:45] and we are presenting to you a plan to fund the public works facility
[10:49] in the natural gas facility you all
[10:52] discuss
[10:53] wanting to continue equitable and
[10:55] inclusive events to enhance community
[10:56] relations
[10:58] uh provide quality service to our
[11:00] community um and that's going to be
[11:02] through
[11:02] some customer service initiatives that
[11:04] we partner with our hr director on to
[11:07] train our our employees on
[11:08] good customer service um our
[11:11] while the citizens are coming in to to get those city services from us
[11:16] um we also want to adapt to the growth
[11:19] sean does not like the word
[11:20] um uh managed growth because it
[11:24] what does that mean and so he he came up
[11:27] with the word adapting to the growth
[11:29] by balancing economic development and
[11:30] preservation of fountain in his
[11:32] traditional hometown field
[11:35] we also have funding to improve our city
[11:38] facilities and parks
[11:40] and to increase personnel and
[11:42] professional development
[11:43] um and you'll see that reflected here if
[11:46] you have any questions
[11:47] i'm going to put that and grab some
[11:49] water
[11:53] i guess for the record
[12:04] people ask questions
[12:11] begin to reiterate our budget priorities
[12:14] was to address the critical
[12:15] infrastructure
[12:16] um have a heavy emphasis on our
[12:18] commitment to beautification
[12:20] employee benefits um as well as employee
[12:23] morale
[12:24] streamline our development review
[12:25] process and our new business processes
[12:29] focus on parts and economic development
[12:30] initiatives
[12:36] how we did that um we
[12:40] framed our our budget around the the
[12:42] term provide and preserve and so as we
[12:44] go through this you'll see that we are either providing
[12:46] new services or preserving the services
[12:49] we have
[12:50] by improving the maintenance on some of
[12:52] the facilities or
[12:54] um even in putting dollars into our
[12:56] employees
[12:57] um so the fountain and sewer system
[13:00] improvements will be reflected in the
[13:01] budget
[13:02] found in natural gas system improvements
[13:04] and road improvement
[13:08] a commitment to beautification um our
[13:10] new public works director russell
[13:12] slatten
[13:13] um he came in at the tail end of our of
[13:15] our budget development process
[13:17] and took a look at what laurie and roger
[13:19] put together and had some
[13:21] new ideas uh with the focus on grounds
[13:23] maintenance and so we split out a
[13:24] division of grounds maintenance
[13:26] in the public works department in this
[13:28] budget you'll also see
[13:29] uh funding for um
[13:32] a code enforcement officer and also
[13:35] funding to
[13:36] start the process on our jones to 14
[13:38] streetscape project
[13:40] should we hold our questions feel free
[13:42] um
[13:43] russell what does that look like from
[13:45] the perspective of ground maintenance
[13:47] people-wise
[13:50] i didn't we didn't add any personnel we
[13:52] shipped it we were already
[13:54] doing a ground maintenance through
[13:55] sanitation and
[13:57] all we did was it was basically make
[13:59] sanitation dedicated
[14:00] only sanitation and pull uh three people
[14:03] over
[14:04] because we didn't have a supervisor and
[14:06] a crew lead
[14:08] in sanitation so those crew lead came
[14:10] over as the
[14:11] supervisor for streets and grounds and i
[14:13] took two workers
[14:14] and we modified the way we were running
[14:15] our routes and we pulled those over to
[14:17] streets
[14:18] around so really we only have three
[14:20] people there now uh
[14:21] focusing on just uh just a couple hours
[14:25] to begin with and then
[14:26] we'll grow as needed or as
[14:30] we would have dictated by sean or city
[14:32] council
[14:33] so which is going to require additional
[14:34] equipment
[14:36] initially no uh it will be very minor if
[14:39] we
[14:39] consume a lot of them such as blowers
[14:41] and weed eaters there will be some
[14:42] eventually some
[14:43] lawn mowers uh possibly tractors but
[14:46] they're not on the high end they won't
[14:50] be
[14:50] anything like sanitation trucks or
[14:52] anything like that well with under six
[14:54] figures that's all
[14:55] like
[15:10] you thank you um public works department
[15:14] has already started that process
[15:16] with the funding that we did have in the
[15:18] budget for city hall grounds maintenance
[15:20] um you'll notice that the sidewalks were
[15:23] finally pressure washed and the building
[15:25] pressure washed as well some new
[15:27] planters
[15:28] the light poles painted and our hanging
[15:30] baskets are up now
[15:32] and so i think forming that division of
[15:34] the public works department you'll see
[15:35] that
[15:37] really beneficial to the city residents
[15:39] and just beautifying our grounds and standing out like the great city of
[15:43] mountain we are
[15:44] i saw as you walked in the entrance way
[15:48] uh just you know what having some
[15:50] dedicated
[15:51] employees just to that type of thing
[15:53] what that little bit of difference can
[15:55] make
[15:56] on a regular basis exactly
[16:00] i was curious about the planters and
[16:03] when their
[16:04] water because when i was downtown a few
[16:07] weeks
[16:08] ago a couple of them looked really bad
[16:11] they were water today
[16:15] i mean they looked bad they're supposed
[16:17] to be water daily
[16:18] we have a dedicated individual that goes
[16:20] around in the morning and hits every
[16:21] platter it's supposed to hit every
[16:22] plattered hanging basket to keep them uh
[16:25] fresh and rejuvenated okay because when
[16:27] actually it was eaten at
[16:28] jay peters um for my birthday so late
[16:33] when you were doing that that may not
[16:35] have been the schedule but it is the
[16:36] schedule
[16:37] okay i was just curious and i meant to
[16:39] ask about it but i just when i saw the
[16:41] picture i went
[16:42] oh i think they've been replanted yes
[16:43] they've been rescuing the flowers
[16:46] just a couple days ago they were
[16:48] replaced with
[17:00] and we do have the replenishment um by
[17:02] season in our budget as well
[17:07] next up is investing in our employees
[17:11] and i may spend a good bit of time here
[17:13] on this slide as well as sean
[17:15] um over the past few fiscal years
[17:18] we have put a lot of dollars into our
[17:21] employees
[17:21] whether it be salary increases even just
[17:25] paying for the common class survey
[17:27] um increasing our employer portion to
[17:29] our family coverage
[17:31] but it has been uh very nice sitting
[17:34] down to the table
[17:35] with rebecca going through our state
[17:37] health plan options and seeing how those
[17:39] dollars
[17:40] are going to come right back into
[17:41] families in the city of fountain inn so
[17:44] the cost of the city um it's 288 000
[17:47] and that's an estimate we're still
[17:48] getting those numbers coming in as open
[17:50] enrollment
[17:51] um it's going on um an estimated
[17:53] increase of 30
[17:54] to our health insurance costs and some
[17:56] years we've we've done this dollar
[17:58] amount and salary increases so to be
[18:00] able to do this
[18:01] um in this fiscal year it it does come
[18:04] in great time for our city employees but
[18:06] we did rip the band-aid off this year
[18:08] and then you'll see those personnel
[18:10] expenditures increasing overall about 15
[18:13] plus or minus in some lines so it comes
[18:15] in about 15.94
[18:18] um increase in those lines and that's a 50 dollar amount i've never
[18:22] seen it since i've been here but um
[18:24] yeah i think i just want to reiterate
[18:26] that
[18:28] and uh i think in the first year that i
[18:31] got here
[18:31] i i think we just arcola
[18:42] councilmember can you meet councilmember
[18:44] can you meet your vote
[18:46] thank you um that i believe
[18:50] um around 300 000 yeah
[18:54] it is what we had increased for salary raises colas and things so to
[19:00] do
[19:01] we are still having a two percent cost
[19:03] of living increase
[19:04] plus almost 300 000 increase just for
[19:08] the state health plan plus all the other
[19:11] things that we're going to
[19:12] be able to tackle this budget here so it
[19:15] is
[19:15] it's a it's a very healthy budget
[19:19] um but you know obviously our finances
[19:21] are in good shape but
[19:23] uh but that is like naomi said that is a
[19:26] huge band-aid to rip off in one year
[19:27] gotta take care of you
[19:29] that's right um
[19:34] so yes the cost of living increase um in
[19:37] our personnel
[19:38] budget and also rebecca
[19:41] coming in as an in-house hr we did split
[19:44] her out of department
[19:45] and so you'll see it in your budget
[19:47] transmittal letter i'll explain it more
[19:49] in depth
[19:50] but she is apartment 417 now split from
[19:52] department 411 where sean
[19:54] and sandra and myself are um and that
[19:57] way we can really see the dollars that
[19:59] we're committing to
[20:00] congressional development employee
[20:02] screenings
[20:04] all the hr expenditures that that come
[20:07] with an in-house hr department
[20:08] and so some of those items um in her
[20:11] special projects and retention budget
[20:13] um 50 of that she's allocated to
[20:16] sensitivity and diversity
[20:18] training customer service leadership and
[20:20] some health and wellness initiatives
[20:25] and this is just a chart um showing the
[20:28] percentages
[20:29] of our total personnel budget that fy 22
[20:33] personnel budget
[20:34] including all benefits and salaries um
[20:37] eight million six hundred fifty two
[20:38] thousand
[20:39] six hundred ninety two dollars um and
[20:42] then that's
[20:43] across our governmental funds
[20:46] make sure i'm telling you right and our
[20:49] natural gas and our sewer i mean i had
[20:50] three different slides before i decided
[20:52] on this one
[20:53] um and so you'll see the the 40
[20:56] just under 50 percent of the public
[20:58] safety budget which it's always like
[21:00] that for us
[21:01] and for most municipalities
[21:04] anyone have any questions to try one
[21:11] this is the right slide until um the
[21:13] next of our budget priorities is our
[21:15] fountain in parks
[21:16] and channel chime in on this one as well
[21:19] um
[21:20] the master plan for our pd terry city
[21:23] park
[21:24] we're estimating that at about twenty
[21:25] three twenty thousand dollars but we do
[21:27] eventually want to get a citywide master
[21:29] plan
[21:30] um study done and it will exceed twenty
[21:32] thousand dollars
[21:33] um our next item is our sanctify hill
[21:35] park and that's our priority for fy22
[21:39] we want to partner with lawrence county
[21:42] as they just recently passed the
[21:44] lawrence county capital project sales
[21:46] tax and earmarked 53 approximately 53
[21:48] 000
[21:49] of that to sanctify hill uh park
[21:52] improvements
[21:52] so we know just from renovating emanuel
[21:55] sullivan
[21:55] park that that's just really scratching
[21:58] the surface so
[21:59] after some community meetings and the
[22:01] master plan that we will have at the end
[22:03] of
[22:03] this fiscal year we'll be able to put a
[22:06] plan together for council's consideration and see how
[22:09] we can partner
[22:10] and get the park renovated that'll be
[22:12] more of a budget amendment for that one
[22:15] possibly we do have security partners um
[22:18] there's some grant funding available
[22:20] part grant cdbg funding
[22:22] um and we may come in
[22:26] that's right to kind of give council
[22:28] background on that so we did have funds
[22:30] available this budget year
[22:32] uh to do the sanctified hill park
[22:36] thanks did you stream that now
[22:51] yes i have sir question yes sir
[22:56] okay now because 55 year part
[22:59] is part of lawrence county okay and it's
[23:02] 53 000
[23:04] so because we're in greenville county is
[23:07] it our responsibility to give to that
[23:09] part or to reuse our foreign for the
[23:12] uh the business part
[23:16] here let me let me get back to that here
[23:18] in just a second okay so okay all right so we did have we
[23:23] had money available this year in our
[23:25] budget
[23:25] to uh to do a sanctified hill
[23:28] uh park master plan we hired a
[23:31] consultant to do that
[23:32] real good price uh very reputable
[23:34] consultants
[23:35] we've had our steering committee
[23:39] meeting already uh councilman dearberry
[23:41] is part of that
[23:42] and we have set a date uh for later in
[23:46] may
[23:46] we're actually going to have a kind of a
[23:48] block party
[23:49] out there and the consultant is going to
[23:52] have three
[23:53] renderings of uh of what the park could
[23:56] be
[23:56] and we're gonna invite the community out
[23:58] there and they're gonna all kind of vote
[24:00] on which
[24:01] uh which of those three they like best
[24:03] uh lead the week leading up to that date
[24:06] uh they're gonna be he's the
[24:07] consultant's gonna be holding a series
[24:09] of stakeholder meetings with uh people
[24:13] like uh representative mark willis for
[24:16] funding possibilities
[24:18] uh other stakeholders in the community
[24:21] to get their feedback and talk about
[24:23] what they want
[24:24] for the park but we're not going to have
[24:27] a real good idea
[24:28] about what that part is going to cost
[24:32] until we get that so it'd be it would be
[24:34] really a shot in the dark for us to
[24:35] budget for it at this at this time
[24:38] but once we get that master plan back
[24:41] and it's cost estimates we can start
[24:42] moving forward
[24:43] already talked to mark willis about you
[24:46] know we've never received any lawrence
[24:48] county part money
[24:50] um so that that's an avenue this would
[24:52] be eligible for cdbg funds
[24:55] third there could be a host of other
[24:57] opportunities of funding
[24:59] plus city funding as well so that could
[25:02] be a budget amendment or what happened
[25:05] we just won't see the final number in
[25:07] this budget that's
[25:12] correct
[25:16] that's right it's not going to fall on
[25:18] lawrence county to do it um fortunately they were able
[25:22] to include it in their lawrence county
[25:24] uh penny sales tax so that so we did
[25:26] have some funds towards that part there
[25:29] but we want to leverage those dollars
[25:33] just because that is the only uh
[25:36] improvements that are made to that park
[25:38] uh but to say that those funds are you
[25:41] know if we could do a three or four or
[25:44] five to one
[25:45] matching of that i think would be
[25:47] wonderful
[25:49] i was very excited about the our first
[25:52] steering committee
[25:54] it was a hard experience and wonderful
[25:56] ideas
[25:57] i'm looking forward in the next couple
[25:59] weeks with him
[26:01] um simply but meeting with the
[26:04] stakeholders and then
[26:06] presenting some plans i mean just in the
[26:08] few minutes
[26:09] that we were here once an hour i mean he
[26:12] had some
[26:13] fabulous ideas so and so the plan
[26:16] would be uh what we are budgeting though
[26:19] is to do a similar process
[26:20] but for pd terry city park and that's
[26:23] what that twenty thousand dollars is for
[26:24] okay during the first workshop you may
[26:28] have seen a number
[26:29] um listed in fy23 but after sean and i
[26:33] talked that
[26:33] you know to hold that kind of money up
[26:36] not knowing
[26:37] when it's going to be uh sufficient just
[26:39] didn't seem like the the best use at
[26:41] this time
[26:41] um and not being able to leverage or
[26:44] know what type of leverages we can have
[26:46] for additional grant funding
[26:47] that's the decision but that is
[26:50] definitely still a huge priority
[26:52] yes
[26:56] okay so we did touch on a few of these
[26:59] things
[27:00] um already but the overall budget
[27:02] highlights that that um
[27:04] affect all the funds is that there is no
[27:06] operating millage increase or debt
[27:08] service knowledge increase
[27:10] um there is a two percent cost of living
[27:12] adjustment
[27:13] the 30 increase in employer health
[27:15] insurance costs
[27:16] and an addition of eight positions and i
[27:19] don't have those listed but
[27:21] the physicians are in the finance
[27:23] department for
[27:24] an accounting manager and the police
[27:26] department two sro
[27:28] officers one patrol officer and one code
[27:30] enforcement officer
[27:32] in our planning and development
[27:33] department um an additional planning and
[27:35] development specialist
[27:37] and in department 424 which is our
[27:40] public works department
[27:41] two cdl drivers so code enforcement's
[27:45] going to report to
[27:46] police versus public works yes
[27:51] and kind of your question earlier public
[27:53] works is getting a head count
[27:55] edition of two with this budget
[28:08] conversation for later but i know we've
[28:10] had issues recruiting cell
[28:14] drivers
[28:28] so what we've had success with right now
[28:30] as a matter of fact
[28:31] um officially uh we had
[28:35] a couple of cdl drivers that were
[28:36] working attempt to from capacity
[28:39] and they just were hired on as of what
[28:41] day was
[28:42] last monday
[28:52] the agencies that we're working with are
[28:55] specifically targeting
[28:56] the type of folks that are looking for
[28:58] this kind of shift because again
[29:00] yes it's difficult with so much industry
[29:03] around us and some of the different
[29:05] um types of situations that we have
[29:08] um it makes it challenging but so far
[29:11] we've done
[29:12] well um and they're continuing to work
[29:15] with us that's been the better
[29:16] um avenue for us as opposed to direct
[29:19] tire just simply because again
[29:21] um it's it's the nature of the beast
[29:23] some folks just don't like it after
[29:24] they're
[29:25] there so they get to try it out and we
[29:26] get to try them out so that's been
[29:28] successful for
[29:29] us also too in the budget um
[29:32] is some concessions made for staying
[29:35] competitive
[29:37] so the hourly rate is also has a small
[29:40] increase but it
[29:41] allows us to maintain a certain level of
[29:43] competitive support
[29:45] but when we advertise for direct hires
[29:48] for cdl positions
[29:49] i think it oftentimes gets lumped in
[29:52] with those people that have cdls
[29:54] that are looking for jobs that are
[29:56] driving semi trucks
[29:58] and i think they're all we're often
[29:59] overlooked because we can't
[30:01] uh pay those kind of hourly wages
[30:05] so this uh working with these staffing
[30:07] agencies on this attempt to perms
[30:08] is working out great for that
[30:18] the next slide you have here i thought
[30:20] it would be very important for our
[30:22] council to know that staff has been watching and
[30:26] monitoring the impacts of
[30:28] the pandemic on our finances and
[30:30] specifically our hospitality tax revenue
[30:33] and our business license tax revenue
[30:35] um when i put this slide together and i
[30:37] know i'm a super nerd but
[30:39] um the the april line here this dip
[30:42] this is when the pandemic started and so
[30:45] we knew that we solved it but just
[30:46] seeing it on this this graph here
[30:48] um it it it just makes me excited i
[30:52] don't know i like lion grass
[30:53] um but you see this this is steady going
[30:57] along and we really didn't see that big
[30:59] of a
[30:59] dip even um i've seen some other
[31:02] municipalities the line
[31:03] dropped all the way down and some of our
[31:05] restaurants were able to stay open
[31:07] and continue to to maintain their
[31:09] employment levels but also keep the
[31:11] hospitality tax dollars coming in
[31:14] another item here is december 20.
[31:17] this is our christmas festival time and
[31:20] we see a huge jump in our
[31:22] hospitality tax revenue in december
[31:26] even higher than in our normal years
[31:27] december 18 is pretty flat
[31:29] compared to our december 19 a little
[31:32] bump but that's impressive um and so i think that
[31:35] speaks to several departments
[31:37] it speaks for our restaurants staying
[31:38] open um and maintaining a fun place for our
[31:43] residents to be and
[31:44] eat and keep those dollars in town and
[31:46] keeping our christmas festivities
[31:48] oh yeah i think if we were to really
[31:52] want to nerd out maybe naomi could look
[31:55] at that
[31:55] i think if you were to draw a line um
[31:58] from point a to point b there you you could see
[32:03] you can see the how it's gradually
[32:05] increasing and then you could even
[32:07] project
[32:07] out um and i think what really excites
[32:10] me here is that i mean you look at
[32:12] this april 21 here i mean that is much higher than july of 18.
[32:19] i mean our rh tax is gradually
[32:22] uh increasing so i mean substantially
[32:26] exactly um and so we are on pace in the
[32:29] next couple years to just
[32:30] continue to continue absolutely
[32:33] but but i mean if you look even the
[32:36] restaurants
[32:37] their gross income same restaurants that
[32:40] were here in july 18
[32:41] their gross revenue is increasing as
[32:44] well
[32:45] so the volume is of the restaurants is
[32:48] doing great yes we are getting more and
[32:50] that helps
[32:51] but uh just seeing those restaurants do
[32:53] better themselves is also encouraging
[32:58] and i'll detail a little bit more of the
[33:00] dollar amounts and how
[33:03] it increases your beer and i'll add that
[33:05] trendline
[33:07] our next chart is our business license
[33:09] tax revenue by month
[33:11] um also started this one in 2018 um all
[33:15] the way forward to 2021.
[33:17] um this is when sean came on board he
[33:20] moved the business license and
[33:21] permitting function
[33:22] from public works over to finance um and
[33:25] we were able to
[33:27] do some auditing and and clean up that
[33:29] process just a little bit
[33:30] and we had the staff to to commit to
[33:32] that and you can see the the result
[33:35] of making that switch and so our
[33:37] business license tax revenue has
[33:39] been consistently um maintaining high
[33:42] levels which you will see
[33:44] um in the latter part of 20 that there
[33:47] is a dip compared to some of the other
[33:49] years we did have passed an emergency
[33:51] ordinance that deferred our tax revenues
[33:53] coming in so it's a little skewed um but
[33:55] overall
[33:56] what's what keeps us um on track
[33:59] there's it goes all the way out um
[34:02] projecting some more
[34:03] but you'll see our licensed collections
[34:06] that we've collected to date
[34:08] have come in and we've already exceeded
[34:09] our budget like we budgeted just over
[34:12] 700
[34:13] 2 000 in our current budget we are we
[34:15] collected
[34:16] 723 000 and so we've exceeded budget and
[34:19] we
[34:20] anticipate more receipts to be posted in
[34:22] the next few weeks of the
[34:23] those ones that post date their business
[34:25] licenses on april 30th and so
[34:27] they'll be an updated number and their
[34:28] budget transmitter looked better
[34:30] so we did not uh feel the decline that
[34:32] some of our
[34:34] other municipalities felt in business
[34:36] license revenue
[34:39] and that's why we're able to continue um
[34:42] with some of our personnel increases and
[34:46] may increase our infrastructure improve
[34:49] our infrastructure excuse me
[34:51] next slide chart
[34:54] um this is just a graphic of our
[34:58] uh total revenue um in our general fund
[35:01] and you'll see
[35:02] that um sean pointed out a little bit
[35:04] earlier that we do have a healthy mix of
[35:07] revenue sources in our general fund
[35:09] um you'll see 18 of our revenues and
[35:12] general funds made up of our licensing
[35:14] permitting
[35:15] um and as sean was saying some other
[35:17] municipalities rely
[35:19] uh close to 50 on license fees and so
[35:22] we are very healthy by
[35:25] our taxes supporting our services and
[35:28] then our fees and licenses
[35:30] um supporting our other services
[35:33] very healthy i mean it's just straight
[35:35] down the center there
[35:36] um taxes revenues we can keep those
[35:39] taxes um
[35:40] our millage rates low um if we can
[35:42] continue to keep a healthy healthy
[35:44] revenues coming in
[35:46] the general assembly um fixed the
[35:48] business license issue
[35:50] for for the time being um but i i don't
[35:53] think that's gonna ever be off the
[35:54] chopping block uh north carolina did
[35:57] away with their business license
[35:59] tax altogether um actually
[36:03] south carolina is one of the few states
[36:04] that actually still has the business
[36:06] license tax
[36:07] um and but the fact that ours
[36:11] is only making up 18 i think is is good
[36:14] for us
[36:15] um if that ever um came to be
[36:18] while it would be a huge hit um
[36:22] there are some cities where it would
[36:23] absolutely be devastating i mean
[36:25] they would have to lay off half their
[36:28] employees
[36:29] right off the bat where i think we would
[36:31] be able to to manage
[36:33] for a little while and that 18
[36:36] includes our permit fees as well and so
[36:39] the total
[36:40] amount of that is 1800 1
[36:43] 322 and so 800
[36:47] 000 of that is our business license
[36:49] revenue um
[36:50] local tax
[37:04] we recently went to greenville county
[37:06] submitted our application in greenville
[37:08] county and we
[37:08] will be having our presentation
[37:10] scheduled for monday at
[37:12] 4 o'clock um and so i had a really good
[37:14] call with
[37:16] mr john hanson administrator
[37:19] and he's looking forward to our
[37:20] presentation and so i
[37:22] we went ahead and put those village
[37:26] dollars in this budget and that's the
[37:28] increase
[37:34] again another another chart um it's our
[37:37] general fund
[37:38] expenditures um and you'll see our
[37:41] police and fire public safety making up
[37:43] about 50
[37:45] of that 9 million 186 dollar
[37:49] expenditures across our general fund
[37:54] i don't really have all my charts here i
[37:56] just didn't have time to give you all
[37:58] more information
[37:59] um on that to break it down but you will
[38:01] have it in your budget transmittal
[38:03] um with how the increase in our
[38:06] departments were operating you kind of
[38:07] kept them
[38:08] flat because even personnel was going to jump up there so our normal operating
[38:12] we kept them
[38:14] flat as much as we could
[38:19] so next we'll talk about um our capital
[38:22] and um
[38:22] if you recall when i can't remember his
[38:25] name right off now
[38:27] first trying representative came and did
[38:28] his presentation um there were a few
[38:30] items that um staff had to to make a
[38:33] decision on based on council's feedback
[38:35] and um it was how to fund some of these
[38:38] larger
[38:39] debt funded items through the iprb um
[38:42] and that was to increase our debt
[38:44] service millage of the
[38:46] we was presented at that time five meals
[38:49] four point six meals um so sean and i
[38:52] went back to the drawing board and
[38:54] uh looked at our our new
[38:57] models and and we saw that we had an
[38:59] opportunity
[39:00] to to decrease that and actually just
[39:02] wipe it out completely by using
[39:03] hospitality tax
[39:05] um dollars and using that fund to pay a
[39:08] million dollars towards the jones 418
[39:11] streetscape project
[39:13] and so some of the other assumptions for
[39:15] our capital um
[39:16] is that all transfers except for the
[39:18] reduction and certain transfers made in
[39:20] the previous iterations of the model
[39:22] were tied to the issues of our current
[39:23] 2019
[39:24] installment purchase revenue bond um
[39:27] they are projected to remain flat
[39:29] some of our transfers and so you won't
[39:30] see many fluctuations in our transfers
[39:32] from our natural gas onto our general
[39:34] fund
[39:35] we just moved the lines that they were
[39:37] going to transfer into
[39:38] um it's wordy
[39:42] i don't want to read it all um but i do
[39:44] anticipate
[39:45] in the future a millage increase um if
[39:48] we want to continue funding our capital
[39:49] projects at this level
[39:51] or we will diminish our fund balance to
[39:53] a detrimental
[39:55] level we do not or our revenues will
[39:58] have to continue to go up so there's
[40:00] lots of balance and things to go on but
[40:02] i think um
[40:04] we do have a village bank and we can use
[40:08] it and it does help with some operating
[40:09] and i'll include that as well
[40:11] um just for your consideration but this
[40:13] month this budget does not include a
[40:15] village experience
[40:16] how many years since there's been a
[40:17] village increase forever a long time long time ago and while our
[40:22] revenues are great and they're doing
[40:24] well and and
[40:25] naomi can attest founded finances have
[40:28] never been in its greatest shape
[40:31] but we found ends also probably never
[40:34] tackled
[40:35] the level of projects that were
[40:36] attempting to tackle right now
[40:38] with the emanuel sullivan sports complex
[40:42] a new
[40:42] public works facility a streetscape
[40:47] you know we we're going to need a new
[40:49] city hall
[40:51] we've got some big ticket items plus we
[40:53] have to continue adding personnel
[40:56] um we are we're going to have to
[41:00] raise raise millage um at some point
[41:04] and naomi and i agree that it's best to
[41:07] do it incrementally
[41:08] um rather than you know a few years back
[41:11] when we when we raised that
[41:13] public works fee it was a shock to the
[41:15] system there
[41:16] because it hadn't been done in forever i
[41:19] think if we were
[41:20] to gradually do it it's not such a shock
[41:22] to the system
[41:31] next slide just break down our financing
[41:33] plan our funding plan for some of the
[41:36] debt funded projects in our general fund
[41:40] we identified 11.7 million dollars of
[41:43] near-term capital projects
[41:44] that can be funded with debt they break
[41:46] down it's five million dollars for our
[41:48] public works and natural gas facilities
[41:50] with one million dollars of that being
[41:52] funded by the general fund a million
[41:54] dollars being funded by the sewer fund
[41:56] and two and a half million dollars
[41:57] funded by the natural gas fund
[41:59] uh the next project is a 2 million
[42:01] dollar 418 street skate improvement
[42:03] project
[42:04] again with a million dollars being
[42:05] funded by hospitality and a million
[42:07] dollars funded out of general fund
[42:09] where will the other half a million come
[42:11] from from the public
[42:16] that's 4.5 i think it was supposed to be
[42:33] um again in our sewer department super
[42:36] funds excuse me rehab replacement of our
[42:38] sewer line
[42:39] um of two million dollars and our fire
[42:42] related expenses which is the
[42:45] substation three it's not reflected in
[42:48] our
[42:48] operating budget because it's contingent
[42:50] on the fire service village
[42:52] increase being collected by greenville
[42:53] county and those funds uh
[42:56] do not touch our i want to highlight
[42:59] just a couple of things
[43:00] um one i don't want to underscore the
[43:03] importance
[43:03] of the streetscape improvement if you've
[43:05] been looking at greenville news in the
[43:07] post and career greenville lately
[43:10] while we cannot always be
[43:13] looking at our peer communities to see
[43:15] what they're doing
[43:16] but if you'll read cities cities of
[43:18] simpsonville and malden
[43:20] are about to undergo two huge
[43:22] streetscape improvement projects
[43:24] um and i think in order for us to stay
[43:26] competitive
[43:27] in the golden strip um i think this is
[43:30] something that that we really need to do
[43:32] i think they're trying to emulate
[43:33] what we've already done in our downtown
[43:36] um
[43:37] and and i really think that the the
[43:39] amount of private investment
[43:41] that will flow into that south main
[43:43] street there once that streetscape is
[43:45] done
[43:46] uh we'll more than pay back that two
[43:48] million dollars over time
[43:50] and then as far as the the sewer line
[43:53] improvement
[43:55] our our sewer engineers have estimated
[43:58] approximately four million dollars
[44:00] left to rehab our entire
[44:04] uh sewer system all of our remaining
[44:07] clay pipe
[44:08] all of our remaining uh manholes
[44:11] we have a current ria project right now
[44:15] that is undergoing
[44:17] and what we've done is applied for a
[44:19] state revolving
[44:20] loan uh fund for that two million
[44:22] dollars which is
[44:23] virtually interest-free it is like one
[44:26] percent interest
[44:27] uh we've not been approved for that yet
[44:29] but if we if we are
[44:31] um that is a wonderful wonderful way
[44:34] to uh to pay for that um
[44:38] if we can get that 2 million plus that
[44:40] raa done
[44:42] we will be have one of probably the best
[44:45] sewer systems in the whole upstate we
[44:48] will have almost a virtually
[44:50] uh rehab sewer system
[44:53] we could have the whole sewer system
[44:55] rehabbed within the next five years
[44:58] which is pretty incredible
[45:03] we're watching this will be another
[45:06] conversation for another day
[45:08] but um the eligible uses of the arp
[45:12] money we're getting
[45:13] for silver infrastructure that could
[45:16] lessen
[45:17] this burden yep um
[45:21] so what let's say srf
[45:24] decides we they don't want to fund us
[45:26] that or
[45:27] if we want to uh to add
[45:31] to just finish out the rehab or
[45:34] use that money to pay the debt uh
[45:37] payments on it
[45:38] but yes the arp funds specifically said
[45:42] water sewer and broadband infrastructure
[45:45] so those stimulus dollars can definitely
[45:47] be used for sewer rehab
[45:52] we do commit could continue to monitor
[45:54] um
[45:55] every outlet we can to get as much
[45:57] guidance as we can
[45:59] to make sure we are being as creative as
[46:01] we can with those dollars
[46:03] for development we also have two hundred
[46:06] thousand dollars in our solid waste fund
[46:09] and that is two vehicles and a piece of
[46:12] equipment
[46:13] um initial budget was 562 thousand
[46:15] dollars before
[46:16] uh russ took a look at it and um removed
[46:21] one arm bandit um and so he
[46:25] the system that you're going to use you
[46:27] might explain in the back the pickup
[46:28] truck and that
[46:29] additional piece that will go into that
[46:32] truck to pick up
[46:33] um be able to cull the stacks we talked
[46:35] about
[46:36] oh yes it's called a uh and basically
[46:39] it's very
[46:40] a smaller unit it's an f1 they have 250
[46:43] with basically a dump body on it
[46:45] and what it does is it's got multiple
[46:47] uses one
[46:49] usually if somebody calls and uh says
[46:51] that you didn't pick up my garbage we
[46:52] sent a garbage truck out to pick this up
[46:54] which is how
[46:55] incredibly inefficient now we have an
[46:56] f-250 we can send out
[46:58] it doesn't we don't have to have a cdl
[47:00] driver to pick them up
[47:01] also allows us to get into the uh narrow
[47:04] streets
[47:04] and service them we can actually use it
[47:06] as another garbage truck because it does
[47:08] dump
[47:08] in the back of our current garbage
[47:10] trucks and uh it also can be used in
[47:12] special events and with parks direct on
[47:14] uh they have big events
[47:16] anybody can use it because anybody can
[47:17] drive it so it's a multi-faceted machine
[47:23] so that will replace our 2017 master
[47:25] lease that paid off
[47:26] this april as well as well as our geo
[47:29] bond debt 2015
[47:30] issues paid off in april 2021 as well
[47:37] some of the cash funded items um that
[47:39] we've included in this budget
[47:42] and our police department is our watch
[47:44] card
[47:45] camera system um
[47:48] that's eight cameras i believe yes eight
[47:51] cameras
[47:52] um a lighting and equipment package for
[47:54] four vehicles a striping package for
[47:56] four vehicles
[47:57] and ndt scanner printers as well
[48:00] we are funding using our same mechanism
[48:03] of the enterprise
[48:04] fleet management program and and that's
[48:07] why it's not shown
[48:08] on our capital so it's actually a
[48:10] monthly lease payment and we're going to
[48:12] be replacing
[48:13] um four police vehicles
[48:18] we're replacing four and adding four
[48:21] we're adding four okay just add it
[48:27] in our special events department um they
[48:30] continue to improve our christmas
[48:31] festival
[48:32] um and we're going to um
[48:36] add to our in-circle entryway there
[48:38] needs to be a lighted feature because
[48:40] it's kind of dark it's going down that
[48:41] way
[48:42] and that's at six and a half six
[48:44] thousand five hundred dollars
[48:46] and then eighty thousand dollars uh for
[48:48] our commerce park stage pavilion we're
[48:50] still
[48:51] uh getting some quotes but they're
[48:52] coming in either with sixty thousand
[48:55] or a hundred thousand for a cover over
[48:57] the stage a billion each year we rent
[48:59] from professional party rentals and
[49:02] the the amount of events that we have
[49:05] for our
[49:05] sounds of summer we're spending about
[49:07] twenty thousand dollars a year in ten
[49:09] rentals
[49:10] um yeah
[49:13] they give it a much more professional
[49:28] this time in addition to the fireworks
[49:39] it was awesome
[49:42] it is included in the budget um
[49:46] in our natural gas fund the
[49:49] cash funded project um it's a mix
[49:52] between his cip
[49:53] um this is eduardo's plan
[49:56] for a new meter replacement a vacuum
[49:59] machine you know the clayton newberry
[50:00] interconnect um install high pressure
[50:04] steel
[50:06] that's a that's a high dollar project
[50:08] and he
[50:09] we've just met recently and they come in
[50:11] a little bit higher
[50:12] um but he said he'll give me a number as
[50:14] soon as he can
[50:16] lots of subdivisions
[50:20] the total cost is 2 million 763 000
[50:24] dollars in cash funded capital projects
[50:26] for the natural gas fund
[50:28] um we do maintain our days on hand we do
[50:31] maintain our
[50:33] debt service debt ratio coverage
[50:36] um and so the fund is still healthy and
[50:39] should there be an emergency would be
[50:40] able to maintain 212 days
[50:44] of service to include these projects and
[50:48] all the other allocations to the fund
[50:50] it was not many years ago that we would
[50:53] have not been able to cash funds
[50:56] all of these projects
[51:00] and still have that kind of cash on hand
[51:02] and may i say that i can really confess
[51:05] is one word
[51:20] um
[51:28] budgeting 2.7 million dollars in our
[51:30] current fiscal year we budgeted
[51:32] around the same dollar amount
[51:34] year-to-date
[51:35] um for our subdivisions just because it
[51:37] depends on
[51:38] when construction is gonna start um
[51:40] we've only not only
[51:42] but we've spent seven hundred and ninety
[51:44] three thousand dollars of the two lane
[51:46] that we created so
[51:47] the fund um can handle this but it also
[51:50] can still handle if the projects were to
[51:52] somehow miraculously come online
[51:55] the push line would still be able to
[51:56] handle it these are estimates that we
[51:58] requested for each subdivision
[52:00] so that we have them and this assumes
[52:01] these subdivisions going
[52:05] and so what we do if we phase them um
[52:08] and then they'll push out many some
[52:10] three to five years for some projects
[52:12] um in some projects for nearing the last
[52:14] four
[52:15] to fourth or fifth days
[52:19] our sewer fund um there's there's one
[52:23] item that was
[52:24] previously budgeted for in our current
[52:26] fy 21 budget
[52:27] but we deferred it to f122
[52:31] just to give time for um for us to get
[52:35] in and
[52:36] use the the funds um already available
[52:39] on some other smaller cash funded items
[52:41] and so we met and just gonna defer right
[52:43] to the next fiscal year in a couple
[52:45] months
[52:46] but that is an item that's still needed
[52:52] a lot of words you have any questions
[53:06] this is just more about the methodology
[53:08] that we that we used
[53:10] to fund these projects and just wanted
[53:12] to make sure council was aware of what
[53:14] um the plan we select the scenario to to
[53:16] leave the
[53:17] debt service village at its current
[53:18] level 11.6
[53:20] and have the general fund operating
[53:22] revenues fund balance cover the difference um and so this is
[53:26] what it does to our general fund
[53:28] um you see our net earnings drop in 2022
[53:32] in 2023 and start to pick back up in
[53:34] 2024
[53:35] um but we felt that we were okay uh the
[53:38] fund can handle this
[53:40] still because our unassigned fund
[53:41] balance continues to stay
[53:43] um at appropriate levels this
[53:46] goes back to our conversation about the
[53:48] village increase
[53:51] if there's a huge expense our veterans
[53:54] can
[53:54] continue to drop and our unassigned
[53:56] undecided fund balance will continue to lower as well but we do feel that
[54:00] this is the best way to go for this
[54:02] fiscal year
[54:03] by not letting the additional debt
[54:05] service village
[54:08] i anticipate you know in the next year
[54:11] to
[54:11] some some even higher revenues as as
[54:14] fox hill business park comes online some
[54:17] additional
[54:17] subdivisions come online some additional
[54:20] commercial comes online
[54:21] some of those business license taxes and
[54:23] things but
[54:25] we also know that we've also got a lot
[54:28] of big ticket uh projects that we need
[54:30] to start tackling as well
[54:35] which is again there's a very high level
[54:36] overview of our
[54:38] proposed budget that you will get um and
[54:41] consider for first reading on next
[54:42] thursday
[54:43] um this is the end of my presentation
[54:45] but if you have any questions
[54:47] for me i'll be happy to answer any if i
[54:49] don't want to answer it off i'll get
[55:04] um
[55:12] [Music]
[55:17] it was quite laid out very um supports
[55:20] away with childhood understanding
[55:22] so i i've communicated all along that
[55:24] there was a lot of work put into that
[55:26] um their layout plan so i've been
[55:29] appreciated
[55:31] and by y'all taking the time to it step
[55:34] by step
[55:34] i'm able now the questions i did have
[55:37] you can answer them to the point where
[55:39] i'm very well pleased thank you
[55:43] sir um before you ask on it one of the kind of the
[55:49] hot button issue that it seems comes up
[55:51] every year although it's not
[55:54] um the grand scheme of our over 20
[55:56] million dollar budget every year
[55:58] is is the amount of funds that
[56:01] our three organizations apply for with
[56:04] hospitality tax
[56:07] what staff is proposing this year is
[56:10] uh is to not fund any of those out of
[56:13] our hospitality tax
[56:16] this year and instead use our federal
[56:19] stimulus dollars
[56:21] to fund those at whatever level council
[56:23] wishes
[56:25] one of the the
[56:29] one of the items of guidance from the
[56:32] federal government on the on the 3.9
[56:35] million that we are to receive and we're
[56:36] supposed to receive half of that
[56:38] here in some kind of may or june
[56:41] is that you can
[56:44] give those funds to two non-profits in
[56:48] your community
[56:49] especially ones that were affected by
[56:51] coded
[56:52] and we know that beyond center was
[56:54] tremendously affected by koben
[56:56] the museum and the chamber were as well
[56:59] and so we felt like this was a good
[57:02] opportunity for us to use
[57:04] those precious hospitality tax dollars
[57:06] in our budget this year
[57:08] for projects personnel and other things
[57:10] and use those dollars
[57:11] that are coming to us from the federal
[57:12] stimulus money
[57:14] um um that we you know this could be a
[57:17] once-in-a-lifetime thing use those
[57:19] for for that um without
[57:23] got those partners requested yet they
[57:26] did
[57:26] they made their requests um i we
[57:29] told uh the chamber and in the art
[57:33] center that that was our plan
[57:35] and the museum and they were good with
[57:37] that but they are going to be kind of
[57:39] waiting for that next conversation on uh
[57:42] at what level does this council want to
[57:44] fund them with that 3.9 billion that's coming that they asked for an
[57:48] increase
[57:50] we got we've got 300.
[57:58] that we would have been able to find
[58:00] those three organizations
[58:01] at the level that they requested i'm
[58:03] sure no way
[58:05] i think
[58:09] i'd like to see us so one of this money
[58:12] is for
[58:13] intended uses um and if we don't use it
[58:17] we send it back and it gets
[58:18] somewhere else and uh
[58:21] one of them is for businesses and
[58:23] non-profits affected by the pandemic to
[58:25] the lesson of the burden
[58:27] so in my view this is a conversation for
[58:30] another day because i think it might be
[58:31] best practice for us to actually adopt a
[58:32] resolution on how we plan to spend so
[58:34] with
[58:39] but the idea is it will also be
[58:41] opportunities for businesses
[58:43] and non-profits
[58:48] to be able to kind of lessen the
[58:51] really about recovering and you know
[58:54] relaunching or what have you
[58:55] um what we are waiting on the u.s
[58:58] treasury department will issue guidance
[59:00] we think
[59:00] next week give or take and that will
[59:03] give us really
[59:04] exactly how and what we can do well i
[59:06] know we've talked about this before but
[59:08] i would actually want to see some kind
[59:09] of plan
[59:10] as to how they begin to use it because
[59:13] there's been no good solid checker
[59:15] balance over the past few
[59:31] i don't include their packets um
[59:39] what's
[59:45] i would like to up i would like to say
[59:47] that
[59:49] wait a minute let me get straight okay i
[59:52] would like to say that now
[59:54] i don't agree with it i was going to be
[59:56] uh revealing
[59:59] this is what affected also by copenhagen
[1:00:03] now um and with the reveal
[1:00:07] it keep going up one year down one year
[1:00:10] so they were not the only one that was
[1:00:13] affected by
[1:00:14] the coca-19 so if it's not gonna be used
[1:00:17] for the grand purpose that the
[1:00:19] government is giving the kill
[1:00:20] i'll say send it back because i don't
[1:00:22] think we should give it to one
[1:00:24] particular business that's my thoughts
[1:00:28] and i won't speak with that one all
[1:00:30] right no dude
[1:00:31] thank you sir um what i would say in the
[1:00:34] grand scheme
[1:00:34] so let's say council was to to
[1:00:37] out of that 3.9 million to fund those
[1:00:40] three entities at the request that they asked for this
[1:00:44] year i think that that totaled around
[1:00:47] 500 000. that's in the grand scheme of
[1:00:50] things
[1:00:51] 500 thousand out of 3.9 million
[1:00:54] is still relatively low um
[1:00:57] and that 500 000 um
[1:01:00] would have been a lot more than we could
[1:01:03] have funded
[1:01:04] in one fiscal year out of our
[1:01:06] hospitality tax funds
[1:01:08] um so i just i say that so
[1:01:11] that it's possible you guys could even
[1:01:13] be more generous
[1:01:15] with the chamber the museum and the
[1:01:18] yacht center with these
[1:01:19] stimulus dollars than we could have been
[1:01:21] in our annual
[1:01:22] appropriation of our hospitality tax
[1:01:24] dollars
[1:01:25] that's right i just want the employment
[1:01:30] for just giving money you know
[1:01:33] years because this is you know that's
[1:01:36] like the stimulus
[1:01:37] it's just one time thing how are they
[1:01:41] going to maintain
[1:01:42] their operations um what is their plan
[1:01:46] because they're
[1:01:47] all you know if they all have boards
[1:01:49] they
[1:01:50] need working on their own fundraising
[1:01:52] their own funding streams
[1:01:54] and not solely rely on the city
[1:01:57] or all of that i mean i want i'm for
[1:02:00] helping them but there needs to be a
[1:02:04] more
[1:02:17] this particular use of funds arp in
[1:02:19] particular
[1:02:20] we've also got food banks that have had
[1:02:22] increased we've had
[1:02:24] uh education entities so this is not
[1:02:28] think about i'm thinking about it as how
[1:02:31] do you
[1:02:31] get everyone to re-emerge and then
[1:02:34] using it again this is all dependent on
[1:02:37] what world
[1:02:38] the treasury department the fine print
[1:02:40] on all this is
[1:02:41] but we had talked in recent months about
[1:02:44] reinvestment incentives for local
[1:02:45] businesses
[1:02:46] and a lot of it potentially having this
[1:02:49] be a way to contest that out as a pilot um so anyway
[1:02:54] there we'll see what we can do but yeah
[1:02:55] i do have to be
[1:03:00] yes
[1:03:14] um i'm kidding i feel i'm with you 100
[1:03:22] thanks anthony you're welcome hey thank
[1:03:24] you
[1:03:25] he said that we're nodding and smiling
[1:03:29] um um if you don't mind we'll go
[1:03:33] to uh any other questions number six
[1:03:37] and i just wanted to thank um naomi for
[1:03:40] her
[1:03:40] hard work on this um
[1:03:44] another interesting budget here last
[1:03:46] year was interesting with kovid
[1:03:48] this was also a copic year i don't want
[1:03:51] to get too far
[1:03:52] into the hipaa stuff on that but we've
[1:03:55] had a lot of staff issues health issues
[1:03:58] and things like that so it's been it's
[1:03:59] been tough i i do think we would like a
[1:04:02] little bit of guidance
[1:04:03] on uh process going forward
[1:04:06] do you guys feel like you have enough
[1:04:08] going forward to
[1:04:10] have first reading on our budget for
[1:04:12] next week next thursday
[1:04:16] okay yeah i'd like to see it you know
[1:04:18] that'd be good
[1:04:19] um just to make sure and i would
[1:04:22] recommend
[1:04:22] folks ask questions
[1:04:36] especially there's two readings of the
[1:04:37] budget so if there's time to
[1:04:48] do you want a minute or do you want me
[1:04:49] to go with mine first do you want a
[1:04:51] minute
[1:04:52] please okay
[1:05:06] all right back in
[1:05:14] december of 2018 you all uh
[1:05:18] passed on second reading an ordinance to
[1:05:20] grant a sanitary sewer easement to
[1:05:22] valley the adventures incorporated
[1:05:24] over real property owned by the city it
[1:05:26] found in
[1:05:27] what we're talking about here is this uh
[1:05:30] piece of property
[1:05:31] right here on valley view road um it's
[1:05:34] for a townhome subdivision
[1:05:37] at the time of the developer i believe
[1:05:39] was randy brewer
[1:05:41] um he is uh
[1:05:44] my what i've heard kind of overextended
[1:05:47] himself he got
[1:05:47] involved in too many subdivisions all at
[1:05:49] once
[1:05:50] he is he is since he's out of the
[1:05:53] project he's sold that property another
[1:05:55] developer has come in
[1:05:57] um for this project
[1:06:01] to work they needed two sewer easements
[1:06:05] from the city of fountain inn
[1:06:09] and they are exhibited um
[1:06:12] here these were the two sewer easements
[1:06:15] that the city gave this developer for this project to happen anytime the
[1:06:21] city gives
[1:06:22] uh sewer easements where we
[1:06:26] normally get something in exchange in
[1:06:28] contract terms that's called
[1:06:29] consideration what uh what the deal that
[1:06:33] i worked out with the developer at that
[1:06:35] time
[1:06:36] was instead of paying money for for
[1:06:38] those two reasons
[1:06:40] what we did was if
[1:06:43] you recall this is city-owned property
[1:06:47] right here and
[1:06:50] this goes back to the
[1:06:54] uh the whole woodside village
[1:06:57] thing that happened before i got here
[1:07:00] where we started to develop the the
[1:07:03] property along diamond tip and fairview
[1:07:05] streets
[1:07:06] found out we couldn't because it was
[1:07:07] encumbered by the federal government
[1:07:10] and so they had to do a land swap we
[1:07:13] and i i took that over the finish line
[1:07:15] but what we did is we had to take some
[1:07:17] other city-owned property
[1:07:19] in the city that we had and they
[1:07:22] identified this portion here
[1:07:24] and uh said this is going to be used for
[1:07:27] recreational purposes
[1:07:28] and instead that's not going to be
[1:07:30] recreational so you can develop that
[1:07:33] so we had this property here
[1:07:36] and it has a humongous duke power line
[1:07:39] easement through it
[1:07:41] um it's got wetlands it's it's kind of a
[1:07:44] hot mess of a piece of property
[1:07:45] can't do a whole lot with it um former mayor sam lee we were talking
[1:07:52] about
[1:07:52] what can we do with it he said well
[1:07:55] since you can't really
[1:07:56] build on it build any structures why
[1:07:58] don't we try to make it into a dog park
[1:08:01] and so when they needed the two sewer
[1:08:03] easements
[1:08:04] from the city um i said well that's fine
[1:08:07] why don't in the ordinance
[1:08:12] [Music]
[1:08:14] um it's not important uh we'll give
[1:08:17] we'll have the
[1:08:18] ordinance says that
[1:08:22] in exchange for the grantees
[1:08:26] agreement to perform grading and
[1:08:27] clearing on the site
[1:08:29] of the uh proposed dog park and that was it that was the vague language
[1:08:34] that we gave them that
[1:08:35] said instead of payment for the sewer
[1:08:38] easements
[1:08:39] is that you they would clear and grade
[1:08:42] um
[1:08:43] for for the dog park well obviously
[1:08:46] things got kind of weird when
[1:08:48] that developer that agreed to it is not
[1:08:50] out of the picture new people come in
[1:08:53] and we had this
[1:08:57] preliminary uh site plan developed
[1:09:00] for for this dog park one of the big
[1:09:03] problems with this dog park is access issues
[1:09:07] um we tried to get access here uh
[1:09:10] bilo would not let us have um
[1:09:14] uh parking through there um
[1:09:17] it's county own road you got the duke
[1:09:19] there
[1:09:20] couldn't get curb cuts so the only way
[1:09:23] to get
[1:09:23] access to it was actually going to be
[1:09:26] through the development
[1:09:28] so the parking had to be here
[1:09:32] and so if we were going to have a dog
[1:09:34] park we had to get
[1:09:36] we have to get an easement an access
[1:09:38] easement from the developer
[1:09:42] so this is what we proposed to the
[1:09:44] developer so this is their their
[1:09:46] townhome subdivision here and so we said
[1:09:48] well
[1:09:48] will you grant us uh an access easement
[1:09:52] so we can get
[1:09:53] to the dog park and they said well
[1:09:57] they didn't really like that idea
[1:10:01] given they didn't really want public
[1:10:03] traffic
[1:10:04] going through their subdivision to get to the dog park they like the
[1:10:08] idea of having a publicly owned amenity
[1:10:11] right there that their their residents
[1:10:14] can use
[1:10:14] but they didn't love the idea of having
[1:10:18] just anybody going through their
[1:10:19] subdivision but they said you know what
[1:10:21] so this was a private town home uh this
[1:10:23] is a town-home subdivision
[1:10:25] which can have private roads private
[1:10:28] roads means that this hla is going to
[1:10:30] have to pay for the maintenance
[1:10:31] of those roads so they said well we will
[1:10:34] give you
[1:10:35] that access easement if you
[1:10:38] allow us to have public roads
[1:10:41] and so we we said well maybe
[1:10:44] okay well now we're back to the point
[1:10:47] where you know they've cleared
[1:10:49] and graded and all that kind of stuff
[1:10:52] well they
[1:10:52] budgeted when they bought this this
[1:10:54] property ten thousand dollars
[1:10:57] to do the clearing and grading and all
[1:11:00] we have ever provided them
[1:11:02] was this site plan
[1:11:05] we have we city has never invested
[1:11:09] in getting uh grading
[1:11:12] plans or any civil site work
[1:11:15] done anything like that all we said is
[1:11:17] while you guys are out there clearing
[1:11:19] grading
[1:11:20] go ahead and clear and grade for us too
[1:11:22] and
[1:11:24] the developer needs a little bit more
[1:11:25] than that for for uh
[1:11:27] to go out there and and grade uh
[1:11:30] appropriately
[1:11:31] there's permitting there's wetlands
[1:11:33] there's there's quite a bit that's
[1:11:34] necessary
[1:11:36] developers come back and said do you
[1:11:38] mind
[1:11:39] we budgeted the ten thousand do you mind
[1:11:41] just uh we'll just stroke the city a
[1:11:43] check for the ten thousand dollars so
[1:11:45] basically five thousand for each eastman
[1:11:48] so that's the first question tonight
[1:11:51] is whether or not you guys are willing
[1:11:53] to accept ten thousand dollars for those
[1:11:56] easements
[1:11:56] rather than them clearing and grading
[1:12:00] and if that's if that's the case
[1:12:04] then we also need to make a decision
[1:12:07] about what is the future do we want a
[1:12:10] dog park there or not
[1:12:12] um because if
[1:12:15] um if we just take the 10 000
[1:12:18] that means they won't clear and grade it
[1:12:21] that means that we're going to
[1:12:24] have to budget funds at some point to
[1:12:26] actually get this project to completion
[1:12:29] um i had an opinion a probable cost
[1:12:33] that took out clearing and grubbing
[1:12:37] erosion control rough grading all those
[1:12:40] kind of things because we
[1:12:41] told them that they were going to do all
[1:12:43] of that
[1:12:44] and the total uh that the engineers gave
[1:12:48] me
[1:12:48] this was a couple years eight 2018 was
[1:12:51] 93
[1:12:52] 000. more than that now and then if you
[1:12:55] add
[1:12:56] all of that on there you're probably
[1:12:57] looking at 200 grand to get this dog
[1:12:59] park there
[1:13:02] if we are not going to do the dog park
[1:13:07] yes sir
[1:13:14] yes councilmember why not give
[1:13:31] it is appraised but it also it now has
[1:13:33] to be for recreational purposes
[1:13:36] the city has to own the property and it
[1:13:38] has to be for recreational purposes
[1:13:40] according to our land swap deal we
[1:13:42] cannot develop it
[1:13:43] we can't do anything other than
[1:13:45] recreation
[1:13:48] so
[1:13:51] the question then is if we do not want a
[1:13:54] dog park there if we don't feel like we
[1:13:56] want to invest 200 000
[1:13:57] at some point then that means we don't
[1:14:00] need
[1:14:01] this access easement
[1:14:04] which means we don't have to own those
[1:14:08] roads
[1:14:09] so that's kind of that's kind of the
[1:14:11] decision we need to make and they're
[1:14:12] okay with either one they of course
[1:14:14] would love to have
[1:14:15] public roads but that's the trade-off
[1:14:19] here is
[1:14:20] do we want access to that because if we
[1:14:23] don't get this access easement
[1:14:25] that property is probably deadlocked
[1:14:27] forever it probably
[1:14:29] i mean it's possible something in the
[1:14:31] future can happen by the food lion
[1:14:33] it's possible we can work out something
[1:14:35] with duke but those are long shots
[1:14:38] right um but then
[1:14:42] the these are going to be private roads
[1:14:44] and then we'll never have to own and
[1:14:45] maintain them which is a good thing
[1:14:48] um so those those are kind of the two the main two decisions is do we
[1:14:53] want to take the 10 grand
[1:14:56] and that is just going to require a
[1:14:58] resolution of counsel
[1:15:00] to change that that original ordinance
[1:15:02] um and then the other can just be a
[1:15:04] staff decision
[1:15:05] because we have not accepted the plaid
[1:15:06] or anything like that is
[1:15:08] do do we want to
[1:15:11] say we don't want the access easement we
[1:15:14] want these to continue to be private
[1:15:15] roads like we was initially
[1:15:17] done or do we want to keep this axis
[1:15:20] easement and have it be public roads and
[1:15:23] that's kind of that's kind of a question
[1:15:25] for you guys
[1:15:25] tonight doesn't necessarily have to be a
[1:15:27] vote but we kind of need some feedback
[1:15:29] here
[1:15:30] well i kind of get his point
[1:15:35] i wouldn't want cars coming through
[1:15:38] my street uh that's
[1:15:42] people that don't you know we still get
[1:15:44] some cut through but
[1:15:45] i don't know how much traffic that would
[1:15:47] actually get but
[1:15:48] i don't particularly care for the fact
[1:15:50] that we'd on
[1:16:04] may not
[1:16:09] you could still use this for
[1:16:10] recreational purposes we lack passive
[1:16:12] parks
[1:16:13] in the city really where you can just
[1:16:15] meander around we've got
[1:16:16] pretty much one side of the trail it's
[1:16:19] about probably about
[1:16:20] it so there's a i think a good use
[1:16:23] at some point for that but i think and
[1:16:26] maybe you know they were against having
[1:16:30] a road
[1:16:31] access here but maybe pedestrian access
[1:16:35] to it at some point they would be open
[1:16:38] to but
[1:16:39] i would agree with you that russell and
[1:16:41] i
[1:16:42] kind of feel the same way that maybe
[1:16:43] we're kind of sticking a square peg in a
[1:16:45] round hole here
[1:16:46] they were kind of forcing a dog park
[1:16:49] where we all like the idea of dog park
[1:16:51] but maybe this is not
[1:16:52] the appropriate parcel for us we would
[1:16:54] essentially be committing to it
[1:16:56] and we got a lot of other needs in the
[1:16:59] other parks
[1:17:00] so i mean i know that the intention was
[1:17:02] that we would be able to do this at some
[1:17:04] point with the original developers it
[1:17:05] was okay to kind of park it a little bit
[1:17:07] yeah but i think given the new developer
[1:17:11] and they're moving on quick they're
[1:17:13] we're actually to hold up
[1:17:15] at the moment they don't want to move
[1:17:17] everything if they still
[1:17:19] they well they still need to try to
[1:17:21] clear and grade
[1:17:23] yeah that's all right
[1:17:27] okay give you some feedback i think so
[1:17:30] i guess it would be i'd rather have the
[1:17:32] money too so
[1:17:36] for the resolution right that's what
[1:17:38] we'd have to do that's actually the vote
[1:17:39] you guys you would have to change the
[1:17:41] order so we would instead of clearing it
[1:17:43] gray and we would say
[1:17:44] it's five thousand parties that's
[1:17:48] correct
[1:17:50] all right naomi's back to you
[1:17:59] uh sean was approached by a company
[1:18:02] and we often are approached by companies
[1:18:04] that want to come in and do
[1:18:06] revenue recovery um we
[1:18:09] partnered with new strat at analytics a
[1:18:12] couple of years ago
[1:18:14] where we asked the company to come in
[1:18:15] and identify businesses who
[1:18:17] are operating in our city limits without
[1:18:19] a business license
[1:18:20] a couple years have passed we have grown
[1:18:22] and we feel
[1:18:24] we do not have sufficient staff
[1:18:25] currently to take on that undertaking
[1:18:28] strat was able to um be able to get
[1:18:31] to earn 80 000 from that partnership um
[1:18:34] and that was
[1:18:35] after the cost that we paid to new strat
[1:18:38] at 30 percent
[1:18:40] data max is another company just just
[1:18:42] like new strat
[1:18:44] um we would have went back to new strat
[1:18:46] but
[1:18:47] they were not operating at the same
[1:18:49] level that they did in the past when
[1:18:50] they helped us before
[1:18:52] uh data max's terms are a little bit
[1:18:54] different than new stress they request
[1:18:55] 50
[1:18:56] of the revenue that they find um for a
[1:18:58] certain
[1:18:59] term but we feel that we would not see
[1:19:02] the revenue
[1:19:03] anyway so i would like for you all to
[1:19:06] read through the agreement
[1:19:07] um and on thursday consider it for
[1:19:10] approval um so that we can go ahead and
[1:19:13] engage their services
[1:19:15] and then start seeing that revenue if we
[1:19:17] sign the contract within
[1:19:18] the next few days they can they
[1:19:21] guarantee
[1:19:22] funds to come in by july by june
[1:19:26] so a lot of cities in south carolina are using them
[1:19:30] and kind of what they they have a magic
[1:19:33] formula kind of like new strat did
[1:19:35] and what they'll do is they'll provide
[1:19:37] our city staff
[1:19:38] with about 20 to 30 businesses
[1:19:41] every month that they've identified and
[1:19:44] they let us know first
[1:19:46] who those businesses are and we can tell
[1:19:49] no they're not actually operating in the
[1:19:51] city or
[1:19:53] you know let's not let's not tackle that
[1:19:55] one um
[1:19:56] and then then we circle the ones that we
[1:20:00] say yep no they are operating in the
[1:20:02] city they don't have a business
[1:20:04] license and then they they almost act as
[1:20:07] a collection agent and there's a 60
[1:20:11] day out on this if we're not satisfied
[1:20:15] and it's just for the 12 months or not
[1:20:17] right correct
[1:20:18] see what we can get
[1:20:21] and these are not typically your mom and
[1:20:24] top
[1:20:25] mom and pop type of businesses the you
[1:20:28] know
[1:20:28] we know those those are the ones that we
[1:20:30] find anyway the ones that
[1:20:32] have a brick and mortar here but a lot
[1:20:35] of times people don't realize that
[1:20:37] the business license tax is
[1:20:40] on for it's for anybody that's doing
[1:20:42] commerce
[1:20:43] in your community and so the business
[1:20:45] license
[1:20:47] actually applies to a lot more than what
[1:20:49] people realize
[1:20:50] so what they're finding are vending
[1:20:53] machines and
[1:20:54] people that are doing deliveries and
[1:20:57] things a lot of
[1:20:58] big corporations that are doing
[1:21:00] businesses doing business in
[1:21:02] municipalities all over the state and so
[1:21:05] they've got a good
[1:21:06] list of who those those corporations are
[1:21:09] that are doing business in other cities
[1:21:11] that don't have a business license
[1:21:13] and so they'll check and see if well are
[1:21:15] they doing business and found in
[1:21:16] yep and so then they can get are they
[1:21:19] all familiar with them
[1:21:21] other cities are using them successfully
[1:21:24] we found a lot of revenue with them in
[1:21:26] lake city
[1:21:31] thank you
[1:21:48] very nice very helpful is there a motion
[1:21:51] to adjourn absolutely thank you mr
[1:21:53] clemente
[1:21:54] thank you
[1:22:12] no