[18:52] All right, if you can, and we're going to stand and open our meeting up with a prayer by Councilman Thomas, followed by the pledge by Councilwoman Mitchell. Father, we come thanking you for all that you do in our lives. Now, Father, we want to pray that you give the said wisdom that only you have that we run this meeting in a way that you'd be proud of the way that we are handling our

[19:22] city of today. We pray that we work together with the mayor in a way that only you

[19:29] would have us to do. This we ask in your son, Jesus's name, our man. Amen.

[19:37] Congratulations to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic

[19:42] of which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[19:49] All

[19:54] right. I want to call the September 8th, 2026.

[19:59] Minden City Council meeting to order.

[20:02] I'd like to welcome everybody that's here.

[20:05] It's good to see all of you here this evening.

[20:08] Are there any additions to tonight's agenda?

[20:14] All right. There are none.

[20:16] Are there any public comments pertaining to any item

[20:20] that is on tonight's agenda?

[20:24] There is none.

[20:25] All right, Nick, first we have item number one, adopt the minutes of the Minden City Council

[20:30] workshop held on August 3, 2026.

[20:34] So moved.

[20:35] Have a motion from Councilman Miles, second from Councilwoman Mitchell, any questions or

[20:42] discussions on this.

[20:45] There is none.

[20:46] Let's vote.

[20:55] That passes unanimously.

[20:58] Next, we have item number two, adopt the minutes of the Minden City Council regular session

[21:02] on August the 3rd, 2026.

[21:05] So moved, Mayor.

[21:07] Have a motion from Councilman Roy.

[21:09] Second.

[21:10] Second from Councilman Pindergrass.

[21:12] Any questions or discussion?

[21:16] There's none, let's vote.

[21:32] That passes unanimously.

[21:33] Next we have item number three,

[21:36] audit presentation for fiscal year,

[21:38] 24, 25 by Alan Green and Williamson, LLP.

[21:48] Council members, staff, guests. It's my pleasure to be here from Tim Green with Alan

[21:53] Green and Williamson, CPA firm that has been doing your audit for the last three years

[21:58] and we went over this in the pre-council meeting and so forth and so I'll just hit a few

[22:05] lights on it. I'd ask the mayor if I could have an hour and 30 minutes to present and he

[22:10] told me I had that much in the finance or in the pre-council meeting so we only use ten

[22:16] minutes so I'll promise to keep it to our 20 minutes in this. I'm sure the council

[22:22] members all in favor of that, right? Yes. I don't know. That great. I don't I don't

[22:26] think our preachers have that long.

[22:30] I've not got to overstay my welcome. We'll make

[22:32] it short and sweet here and so forth. But Miss Jenny had passed out. I'll just hit a

[22:37] couple of high points on it that we discussed in the pre- council meeting. As she

[22:42] You mentioned it's an audit and your opinion is kind of ugly opinion and a clean opinion

[22:48] as a way I view it.

[22:49] The government accounting standards board on a national level is the standards setter

[22:54] for external financial reporting and they want you to include anything that in addition to

[22:59] the city any organizations or whatever that you may have a that you assist or that you have

[23:05] a financial potentially could have a financial burden and we have to kind of go through a criteria

[23:09] on that and both the city marshal and the city court came under that review and would

[23:16] be required to be included to have it the way that the government accounting standard

[23:20] boards would like to have it. Since we didn't include those then we have to say for what

[23:25] you like, we give an ugly opinion that we're not apining on it because it doesn't include

[23:33] everything that needs to include it. But they say if you scope it down to what is just

[23:39] the primary government and that being city, what our opinion is on that is that it's a clean

[23:44] opinion, it's unmodified opinion, that's the opinion that you won't. So, for what is present,

[23:49] it's a clean opinion, and we have many governments, particularly like polysters and etc, that have

[23:56] that opinion where they say, or in the gas fees preference to include all these entities in it,

[24:02] a lot of times the polysters and stuff can't get them included, just like the city couldn't get

[24:06] included. So then we issued a second opinion within that same report that says

[24:11] everything is good as far as the city and the primary government being the

[24:15] city amended. So anyway you got the you got the opinion that you wanted as

[24:20] far as that. If we were able to get the marshal and the city council I think

[24:24] even one of may not even be audited. So to include that in your audit to stay

[24:29] much you'd have to have a qualified opinion. So anyway but you got the good

[24:33] opinions, same opinion, you've had the last three years that we've been doing your audit and so forth.

[24:38] I just kind of get into it.

[24:39] So in just basically, this council mayors has spent the money correctly.

[24:44] Correct, as far as the city, the city, right.

[24:48] But just not including the marshals and city courts or city courts, all right?

[24:59] On page 33 is kind of your operating statement for your proprietary funds, which includes

[25:06] your electric sewage and your water and so forth.

[25:10] And you notice there that you had 25 million, 600,000 that you had in operating revenues

[25:16] below that, operating expenses.

[25:19] So what we call your operating income loss was a $500,000 deficit for the year.

[25:25] but you'll notice some transfers in and transfers out.

[25:29] And for the year, you're changing that position

[25:32] with $3 million, you've got a $3 million loss

[25:34] in your proprietary funds.

[25:37] And as you know this past year,

[25:39] you kind of unweld yourself from the prior vendor

[25:43] and went to a new vendor for as your electricity

[25:47] that you're buying.

[25:49] And that's the main reason for that deficiency.

[25:53] You still want up at the end of the year with a $22 million fund balance in your net position in your proprietary funds.

[26:08] That's just a little bit about your financials.

[26:10] I think you're good footings as far as your financials and et cetera.

[26:16] I might just mention or if you have any questions on the financials, I'll be happy to stop and answer those.

[26:22] or we'll get Miss Jenny. I tried to talk to her into giving this presentation tonight

[26:27] as well, but she even thought on me.

[26:37] If you would, just as far as comments and so forth, kind of going down in the agenda

[26:41] that we gave you, we did as she mentioned to you, tested the COVID money to make sure that

[26:46] was spent according to losing regulations of the federal government. There was no comments

[26:51] on that. Just as far as kind of prior year findings you'll notice on the list

[26:57] controls over financial reporting we did have a repeat on that one and I'll

[27:01] get in that in just a second. Condition rating for your street system you know

[27:06] we had to come in about that that if you have that approach that if you take that

[27:10] approach so that you know have to do the appreciation on streets and so

[27:13] forth by you committing to maintaining them at a certain level then you have to

[27:18] maintain them at that level. If you don't maintain them at that level, you got to go back to

[27:21] appreciating them. Or you got to adjust the level standard or the quality of them that

[27:28] you're maintaining. So there was a adjustment on that. That one has been cleared. And then

[27:33] airport reporting, there was a reporting issue there that there was a report that was to

[27:38] be submitted to the federal government and was not. And that one we considered as being cleared.

[27:44] So, of the prior year comments, two out of three have been cleared up.

[27:49] Time clock system was a prior year management letter, not quite as strong of a comment

[27:56] as you would in your regular audit, which are the three that I just covered with you and

[28:01] et cetera.

[28:01] We're still wanting you to take and adopt that for all your departments.

[28:05] We think the time clock system works good and has been proven in other places that saves

[28:12] for the government whenever they have the time clock system.

[28:16] And we feel like it can be easily implemented and so forth here.

[28:23] As far as the current year findings, just a couple of one was over controls over financial reporting.

[28:29] And as was mentioned in the pre- council meeting, there's been discussions with management and

[28:35] and Elaine and her staff to try and get those two corrected as far as this coming year in and late audit submission.

[28:43] And it's not like things are well on the way to make sure that that happens for this coming time.

[28:50] The only the final thing is for us comments in the report is that this was a year that you had to have the statewide agreed upon procedures.

[28:59] there's what the legislative auditor describes as best practices.

[29:03] And they would like all governments to conform with that.

[29:06] The good part about that is that in the testing and so forth,

[29:12] that we really only tested, I guess, in about three different areas that we had to test.

[29:16] There's 14 areas that you have to test, but if you test them one year and

[29:20] there's no issues with those 14, then you don't have to test all 14 of them.

[29:24] Or if you have one or two that had an issue, we don't have to test those again as far as this year.

[29:29] Now, so in a fact, in your September 30th, 2024 report, there was only three areas that we had an issue with.

[29:38] So we're only testing on page 124-3127 in the report.

[29:43] We're only tested bank recommendations, board or finance committee policies,

[29:52] and payroll and I guess personnel were the three areas that we tested.

[29:58] and so...

[30:00] We only had those couple comments on there about the three bank account reconciliation, the payroll

[30:06] of the clearing and the police bond fund. There were multiple items that were abstaining

[30:11] over 12 months, and the state statute wants you to turn those in to the state if people

[30:19] don't claim the checks and so forth and et cetera. If you were going to do that, I would certainly

[30:25] I'm going to go back and look at each of those items, and if they're so significant dollar amounts,

[30:30] sometimes what happens is that you issue a check, you may, for some reason got reissured.

[30:35] The original check never gets cancelled, so I would go back and look at all those transactions and

[30:40] make sure that we didn't reissue the check.

[30:43] And so the check would just need to be boarded and not be outstanding anymore before I sent that money to the state.

[30:49] kind of like most of you, I'd be kind of hesitant about having to send to the state, but the state statute says you do if people did not claim them and so forth, so unclaimed property.

[31:03] And then just having one issue with payroll and personnel about attendance documentation and so forth.

[31:08] And we've discussed all this with management and they're working on eliminating those kind of going forward.

[31:16] Okay, on the statewide agreed upon procedures this next year, you kind of had that option is if you'd test them one year, the 14 procedures are 14 areas and you have no issues with them, you don't have to test those that have issues the next year.

[31:30] However, when you go to the third year, then you got to come back and retest all of them.

[31:34] So this year that's coming up, we'll be testing all 14 of those particular things, but anyway you had a good

[31:41] test on those a year ago and we went up with three areas that we had to retest, so

[31:47] I think it'll still come out good this time and et cetera, but just to let you know this is a year that

[31:52] we've got to go back, we'll have to go in and test all 14 areas, okay? As we mentioned in the

[31:59] The thing for just the staff and that there's procurement training on the legislative

[32:06] auditor's website that's on the website that you'll have to be taking this year.

[32:11] And so we've talked about that and that'll be something that'll be, you'll have to be

[32:15] doing this coming year, okay?

[32:18] But you had a clean opinion on the report as far as the city's portion, as I mentioned,

[32:23] you scope it down to just the city, which is the primary government.

[32:26] Your opinion was clean, your financials are good in a couple of areas where it was tough

[32:35] for this year, but we know why that was and so that I'll get back on track going forward

[32:41] for this year.

[32:42] So, anyway, we do think millennia and all of our staff, the mayor have to out a little bit

[32:51] But seriously, the mayor and several people, Katrina Jeff, with the IT and counting and

[32:59] department heads and folks involved with the federal program that we had to do the testing

[33:04] of really helped out and made our job easier and we appreciate all that they did.

[33:09] Are there any questions for Mr. Green?

[33:14] Okay.

[33:14] Thank you, sir.

[33:15] Thanks.

[33:15] Does there are no questions that entertain, entertain a motion to accept the 2024-2025 audit?

[33:23] I move to accept the 2024-2025 audit for the fiscal year in the September the 30th, 2025 as presented by the accounting firm Allen, Green and Williamson LLP.

[33:35] Second.

[33:37] I have a motion from Councilman Miles and a second from Councilman Roy.

[33:41] Any discussion on our questions on this?

[33:45] There's none.

[33:46] Let's vote.

[33:53] And it cares unanimously.

[33:55] Next we have item number five, adopt resolution authorizing credit card,

[34:01] signatory power for certain city of Mind and Personnel.

[34:05] This resolution adds, you know,

[34:12] I said five, but it's four.

[34:15] I skipped the number.

[34:16] Thank you.

[34:17] I'll tell you what, you can't get anything done without Ashley's help.

[34:20] I don't remember four, but the right item,

[34:24] adopt resolution, authorizing credit card,

[34:26] signatory power for certain city of men in personnel.

[34:30] This would add Chris Cheedham and Taka Harrison,

[34:33] our deputy chiefs of police is with credit card authority.

[34:37] What's the wishes of the council on this?

[34:39] Move to adopt the resolution, authorizing credit card,

[34:42] signatory power for a certain city of men in personnel.

[34:46] I have a motion from Councilman Miles, second from Councilman Thomas.

[34:53] Any questions or discussion on this?

[34:57] There's none.

[34:58] Let's vote.

[35:07] That passes unanimously.

[35:09] Next we have item number five, adopt, resolution, authorizing mayor Cox to execute a local services agreement between the City of Middenon and the Houghton Fire Prevention Bureau.

[35:21] So, just in case you're wondering what this is about, our building official retired,

[35:28] this agreement would provide the City of Minden coverage while we get a plan that will

[35:34] handle our long-term staffing needs in this department.

[35:38] So bluntly, we have to have a building official, we have to have somebody to go out and inspect

[35:43] projects and make sure that it's still in accordance to code.

[35:47] We can borrow, according to state statute, we can either hire a third party company, or we can partner up with another municipality.

[35:56] The town of Houghton has a really neat strategy that they use, that utilizes their fire departments and fire fighters to do this inspection work.

[36:06] So in the interim to get us by, we would, if it's pleases the council, I'd like to do an intergovernmental agreement with the town of Houghton for this.

[36:15] Mayor, I move to adopt a resolution authorizing Mayor Cox to execute local services agreement

[36:22] between the City of Minden and the Holt and Fire Prevention Bureau.

[36:26] I have a motion from Councilman Roy. Second. Second from Councilwoman Mitchell. Any questions?

[36:33] I have a discussion. All right. There be an unless vote and

[36:45] that passes unanimously.

[36:46] Next, we have item number six, adopt resolution, authorizing Mayor Cox to execute an agreement

[36:53] with the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development for improvements at the

[36:58] mending airport.

[37:00] We do this every year, and the DOTD has a way of giving the city relief on its municipal

[37:10] report cost by such as subsidizing grass cutting and different particular maintenance

[37:18] things that the grant would allow for. So, if it pleases the Council, I'd entertain

[37:23] a motion that we accept this annual agreement.

[37:26] I move to adopt a resolution authorizing AmeriCorps to execute an agreement with the Louisiana

[37:32] Department of Transportation and Development LADOTD for improvements at the Mende Airport

[37:40] What answer is in it?

[37:41] Second.

[37:42] Have a motion from Councilwoman Mitchell

[37:44] and a second from Councilman Roy.

[37:46] Any questions?

[37:48] There's none.

[37:49] Let's vote.

[37:57] That passes unanimously.

[37:59] Next we have item number seven,

[38:02] adult resolution authorizing mayor coxters

[38:06] that accept grant number 8.016342

[38:11] for funding assistance from the LADOTD

[38:14] for bidding designing plans in phase 1 of the construction of the airport wildlife perimeter

[38:21] fencing project. So this is a project we've already put out for vids and this is a resolution

[38:28] for us to accept the grant funding. Mayor, I move to adopt a resolution authorizing

[38:36] Mary Cox to accept grant number 8.016342 for funding assistance from LEDOTD for bidding design

[38:47] plans and phase one of construction the airport wildlife perimeter fencing project.

[38:53] I have a most of them, Councilman Roy, second from Councilman Pindergrass. Any questions

[38:59] or discussing on this.

[39:03] Do you know when they're going to start?

[39:05] Tyler, when are they going to start?

[39:07] Oh, it's going to start this month.

[39:08] They're going to start this month.

[39:10] Any other questions?

[39:13] All right.

[39:14] There'll be an endless vote.

[39:23] That passes unanimously.

[39:25] Next, we have item number eight.

[39:28] Adopt a resolution, ratify Mayor Cox's acceptance

[39:32] of grant number three, dash two two, dash zero zero three two,

[39:36] dash zero to zero dash two zero two six title construction perimeter

[39:43] fencing from the federal aviation administration for future

[39:47] improvements to the Menden Airport and to enter into a grant

[39:50] agreement with the federal aviation administration. This

[39:55] is just another annual thing that we have to approve. The

[39:59] grant has already been signed. This would ratify the

[40:03] signature on that. What's the wishes of the Council on this?

[40:08] I have a motion from Councilman Miles. Second from Councilman Roy. Any questions on this?

[40:17] I'm just glad to get all this free money. Yeah, that's a good thing. Very good thing.

[40:22] All right, let's vote.

[40:28] And that carries unanimously. Next, we have item number nine.

[40:32] Adopt resolution requesting that the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development

[40:36] Division of Aviation, provide funds required to complete the airport improvements that the men and airports specifically as described in the capital improvement program.

[40:46] Application for state financial assistance date is September 2026.

[40:51] This is an annual thing also that we have to do to stay in this program and to do our allocations annually.

[40:59] What's the wishes of the Council on this?

[41:01] I have a motion from Councilman Roy and a second from Councilman Miles. Any questions

[41:08] on this?

[41:11] There's none. Let's vote.

[41:20] This passes unanimously. Next we have item number

[41:23] 10. A doubt resolution annual certification of compliance with state of Louisiana off system

[41:33] bridge replacement program. We do this every September. Which are the wishes of the Council

[41:38] on this. I move to adopt a resolution for annual certification of compliance with State

[41:43] of Louisiana Off-System Bridge replacement program.

[41:47] I have a motion from Councilman Pindegraas. Thank you.

[41:51] Second from Councilwoman Mitchell. Any questions on this?

[41:57] There's none, let's vote.

[42:04] That passes unanimously. Next we have item number 11. Adopt ordinance number 1172, annual

[42:19] Board.

[42:20] Board.

[42:21] Board.

[42:21] That motion from Councilman Miles and the second from Councilman Roy. Any questions on this?

[42:30] There are none.

[42:31] I vote.

[42:38] That passes unanimously.

[42:42] Next we have item number 12 which is a dubbed ordinance number of 1, 1, 7, 3.

[42:50] an ordinance to amend and reenact the code of ordinances. City amended. State of Louisiana,

[42:56] chapter 42, fire prevention and protection, article three, fire protection, sorry, prevention

[43:04] code, section 42, day 71, fire works. And so all we've done, we passed an ordinance to update

[43:12] our fire works ordinance a few months ago. And then July 4th came around and we had the time

[43:19] said to stop popping fireworks at 10 p.m. on July 4th, and after a little feedback in

[43:28] a second look at it, the proposed ordinance change for tonight is to move that time back

[43:35] to midnight. We felt like on July 4th, it didn't really get dark good until 9 o'clock that

[43:41] gives you an hour to pop fireworks. So on that one date, one time a year, I'm proposing

[43:48] and we moved that time to midnight.

[43:50] What's the wishes of the Council on this?

[43:54] I have a motion from Councilman Miles.

[43:57] Second.

[43:58] Second from Councilwoman Mitchell.

[44:00] Any questions or discussion?

[44:04] Okay, there's none, let's vote.

[44:15] Okay, motion carries.

[44:17] Next we have item number 13.

[44:20] Adopt ordinance number 1174.

[44:24] An ordinance to amend and reenact the code of ordinances.

[44:27] City of Mending, State of Louisiana, Chapter 50, Health and Sanitation, Article 2,

[44:34] conditions of premises, Section 50-37, notice the property owner, failure to comply,

[44:41] Section 50-38, abatement by City of Authorized, and Section 50-39, mailing statement,

[44:50] showing expense and incurred addition to tax liability, privilege and lean,

[44:55] remedies cumulative. All right, what this ordinance see is

[45:00] Is the city, if the council decides to do so tonight, we want to establish a beautification crew. And so basically what that is, we want to have pride in our neighborhoods, we want to have pride in our properties across the city. And it's not fair to a neighbor to have a property next door that the grass is never being cut or the neighbor decides that they're just going to take bags of

[45:29] of cans and poor amount in the front yard and just leave them.

[45:33] This would give the city the ability, if it's passed,

[45:37] to assess the fine and send our own crew out

[45:41] to move the grass to find, if we have to move it,

[45:44] after you've been notified it,

[45:46] the notification process would give you 10 days.

[45:49] If you don't get it done, the hope is that you do it up,

[45:53] you make it happen and get your grass cut.

[45:55] But if you don't move your grass after 10 days,

[45:58] the final will be assessed of $500.

[46:01] We'll send the crew out and move it for you.

[46:04] And then we're going to bill you for it.

[46:05] But we feel like that is a good move for beautification efforts.

[46:11] If we have to remove trash from a yard and you've been notified and you won't comply,

[46:16] the fee on that is $250.

[46:19] Again, the goal of this ordinance is to really get voluntary compliance.

[46:25] that is the goal. We had our attorneys draft this up. It's adopted basically from other municipalities, our size, that do the same thing.

[46:35] So with that being said, what's the wishes of the Council on this?

[46:39] I'll move.

[46:40] I have a motion from Councilman Pindegraas.

[46:42] Second.

[46:43] And a second from Councilman Roy. Any discussions on this?

[46:49] So, Mayor, I just want to say, you know, this is one of the things that I've pushed for a long time to help speed up the process and getting properties cleaned up.

[47:01] You know, you just, the average person doesn't realize how long it takes to get somebody's yard cleaned up that decides that they don't want to do what they're supposed to do.

[47:13] And so I spend a lot of man hours which I don't mind but by doing this it speeds up

[47:20] that process so that we can get those yards cleaned up much faster and so it'll definitely

[47:25] make our city much better looking and that's I think the goal that we all are striving

[47:33] to be at.

[47:34] So I appreciate the Council jumping on board and supporting this.

[47:39] So yeah, I think it would be beneficial to add to the discussion the fact that we already

[47:46] have a semblance of this, the problem is it takes a long time to get through the process

[47:54] that we're currently operating under and one thing that will actually surprise you is if

[48:00] we go this route, yes, we've solved the problem of time which when your grass is growing

[48:06] in two weeks is a long time but three months is unreasonable. But actually the fee of 500

[48:12] will generally, from just looking at the past few years, will actually be cheaper

[48:16] than if we contracted it out.

[48:20] And then two, we have the beautification, the mayor's court which handles more our bigger

[48:27] issues, you know, junk in yards that's really monumental, I guess is a good word, so we have

[48:38] local citizens that help us with that, but this whole process has got to change, to speed

[48:45] up, to make things much easier in getting the city cleaned up like it should be.

[48:50] Okay. Any more discussion on this? Okay. I have a motion in a second. If there's no

[48:58] more discussion, let's vote.

[49:06] And that passes unanimously. Next we have item number 14.

[49:12] A good thing. Mending police department promotion, Spencer Tippen, Spencer, would you stand up, sir?

[49:19] Now this can't be right. This must be a typo. It says he's been with the city for 22 years

[49:25] nearly, almost to the date. So tonight he's up for a promotion to the

[49:32] rank of police captain. He has passed all of his tests and the civil service

[49:37] board police captain examination. Chief, do you have anything you need to add to

[49:42] this? Just that it's well-deserved and Spencer's always been a good

[49:48] officer and excited for tonight. All right. We have a recommendation from Chief

[49:54] McGover to do this promotion. What's the wishes of the council on this on the recommendation of police chief

[50:00] Jay McGover move to approve the promotion of men and police Lieutenant Spencer Tiffin to the

[50:05] rank of police captain as presented have a motion from councilman miles a second from councilman Roy

[50:11] Is that right or pedigree okay any questions on this all

[50:20] right well let's vote all

[50:28] right that passes

[50:28] unanimous leave. Would y'all welcome our next guest.

[50:36] Congratulations.

[50:39] All right. Next we have

[50:41] Adam. This is a long one. Are y'all going to take an intermission? You want me to just keep

[50:46] out of me. Next we have Adam number 15. Flat final plan approval. Light split a property on by

[50:55] Maximar properties LLC located at 700 Main Street. I believe this request is for a light split

[51:02] that will divide one commercial property into two.

[51:07] This request has already been unanimously approved

[51:10] by the men in planning commission.

[51:12] What is the wishes of the Council on this item?

[51:15] So moved, Mayor.

[51:16] Have a motion from Councilman Roy.

[51:18] Second.

[51:18] Second from Councilman Pindergrass.

[51:20] Any questions?

[51:23] Okay, there be an unless vote.

[51:33] And that passes unanimously.

[51:35] Next we have item 16, budget financial report

[51:39] for July 2026, City Clerk, Mulaney Sanders.

[51:44] Good afternoon everyone, I hope you all are doing well.

[51:47] I did provide a copy of the July 2026 budget report for your review.

[51:52] For June of 2026, sales tax collections, excluding the TIFF districts, totaled $746,918 in

[52:00] eight cents compared to $850,000, $39.39 in June of 2025.

[52:07] so this did reflect a 12.13% decrease. This decrease was due to decrease in

[52:15] electrical equipment sales and then delinquent payments for the city and

[52:18] minted amounted to $8,036.72 for June of 2026. All right are there any

[52:26] questions for the city clerk? Did you ever find out anything on how the

[52:31] get alcohol taxes derived?

[52:36] Yes.

[52:36] And we did end up receiving a payment to it put us at 94%

[52:40] of our budget for the year.

[52:43] But with the alcohol tax, it is based off the manufacturer

[52:46] itself and when they sell it.

[52:49] And so what a lot of them have started doing is, for example,

[52:52] Michelob will sell to a producer.

[52:54] And then that producer's selling to our liquor stores.

[52:58] When you go to the store and you have an alcoholic beverage,

[53:00] that is mixed in with the sales tax in general.

[53:04] So the alcohol tax is the manufacturers themselves selling in wholesale essentially.

[53:10] And so we did, like I said, receive the payment that put us at 98% for the year.

[53:15] It's just taken a little bit longer to remit payment now.

[53:19] And so we have not heard back on cell phone gas franchise fee is right at 87% I believe now.

[53:25] But I'm not heard anything back on telephone.

[53:27] So to change that, we'd have to go to the state to get their form changed so that each vendor would have to break out that on their sales tax form to have a true picture of what.

[53:40] They're supposed to call me Thursday, I believe at 1 o'clock, a lady from the state themselves, so hopefully we'll have a little bit more answers on that then.

[53:50] Who, and you may have said this earlier, was going to ask, who is the contact now since Cindy's retired?

[53:56] It's Miss Hannah Baker. She came from I believe B1 bank, but she was hired in as Miss Sydney's assistant last year

[54:05] training on either and then Miss Sydney retired you law so she took over them.

[54:11] Thank you. Are there any more questions for the city clerk? Okay, thank you.

[54:18] Next we have item number 17, our fire report for all did he leave?

[54:24] You've had a structure prior.

[54:25] We ain't gonna have a fire report.

[54:27] Next, we have item number 18, the police report.

[54:31] You have before you the police chief's report

[54:36] and it's been presented.

[54:38] If you have any questions, you can feel free to ask him.

[54:42] If not, I would entertain a motion

[54:43] that we accept the police report as presented.

[54:49] I have a motion from Councilman Thomas.

[54:52] Second.

[54:52] Second from Councilwoman Mitchell.

[54:54] Any questions? There's none. Let's vote.

[55:09] All right. That passed unanimously.

[55:18] I do know the fire chief was going to break to you all the very unpleasant news that starting tomorrow

[55:25] we're going to have citywide flow testing done that has to happen.

[55:31] That's how we get our fire rating. They have to test how much volume goes through fire hydrants.

[55:36] Why does that matter to our citizens?

[55:40] Well, when you open up those fire hydrants and you put that amount of volume through there

[55:45] to test the amount of flow, it also has a tendency to stir up any sediments that may

[55:52] be in the pipe.

[55:53] So oftentimes after flow testing, you're going to hear about citizens are you may experience

[56:00] dirty water.

[56:01] I would ask for everybody to help spread the word that this is just for a temporary

[56:06] time the test things going to start tomorrow and it should end on Friday and I would I'm hoping the

[56:12] water will be cleared up by Monday but it's just part of doing business with the water district.

[56:18] Believe me there's there's a few top five things that a politician doesn't like and one of them is

[56:24] flow testing because it makes for for very many dirty water calls but it just has to be so I wanted

[56:30] to make you all aware of that. Are there any announcements from anybody in the public today?

[56:40] Okay. Are there any? Oh yes, sure. Go ahead.

[56:43] The

[56:47] party's 709 Rebecca Street District C and I have more questions versus an announcement.

[56:53] I do have an announcement but I'm here today regarding my $788 utility bill. I was told that I use

[57:01] 74,324 gallons of water. And I just wanted to know a little bit more about

[57:07] the smart system because when I called up here, Elizabeth wasn't able to answer

[57:12] a lot of questions like what is the protocol if you want to dispute a bill. If

[57:16] someone came out to do my reading I didn't get the readings of that and I would

[57:20] like to know more about that. And just some steps on how do you dispute a bill

[57:25] when you didn't have a leak. I didn't have a leak. No plumbing leak. Check that.

[57:30] And I got different dates at first. They were saying maybe was the toilet and then I got another set of dates that it was July the

[57:39] 24th

[57:40] July the 24th. Excuse me 27 through 888 and it stopped abruptly

[57:45] But I haven't had any

[57:47] toilet leaks or anything so

[57:50] Just this is a big deal. Yeah, you know out of the blue 800 dollars

[57:57] I'll tell you what, after the meeting, I'll visit with you and we'll talk about it.

[58:01] I haven't looked into your account to see what's going on, but just for general knowledge,

[58:06] anytime someone disputes the bill, I would encourage you to come up here and just have

[58:11] us look it up.

[58:12] We can pretty much track within every 15 minutes how much water was used.

[58:18] We've got pretty accurate equipment in the city.

[58:21] anything subject to go wrong I understand that but generally speaking when those

[58:25] meters fail they they either fail a lot or they don't fail at all so they

[58:30] they read accurately are they zero out are they go to 999 and you you know there's

[58:35] a fault there or it simply sends us a fault code but I'd like to talk to you

[58:40] about it and maybe we can set up a time well you and I can sit down together and just

[58:44] go over and see what we can do okay.

[58:46] a new smart system alert, you all when there's an assess of amount of water.

[58:51] Yes, sort of.

[58:53] It was telling me that you guys get a report, but it's after the fact, how does that benefit the customer?

[58:59] Well periodically, we do run the reports and we notice a massive amount of water leaking.

[59:04] But it doesn't just like alert you because a lot of times a bill that's $788 actually may look

[59:12] fairly normal in the parameters it set up. It has to be like really, really crazy to ping

[59:19] on alert because you may just very well be filling up the swimming pool or something.

[59:23] That is a cool side. Yeah, it is. That's a lot of water. How much water did you say?

[59:29] 74,320 water. That's a lot of water, yes ma'am. Let's talk after the meeting. Thank you.

[59:34] And inviting the city tomorrow September the 9th at Men in Medical Center. This month is

[59:40] suicide awareness month, and we will be having mental health trainings on

[59:44] suicide awareness. I will be doing a presentation on trauma informed care, how to

[59:49] create a trauma informed community, and we also will be going over Narcan how you

[59:53] dispense it if someone is having overdose and it's free and it's from three to five.

[59:58] 3 to 5 tomorrow.

[1:00:01] Okay, great. Okay. Are there any other comments from anybody in the public? Go ahead, Chair.

[1:00:11] I hope you all are doing well. My name is Nisa Murray, 7.03, sadly, road, and mending. I'm just coming up here to just remind you guys that we are having an event next month. It's our second annual Angel Baby Fund run in Halo Fest. Not a lot of people know that October is infant and pregnancy loss awareness month. So it's not that we're competing with any other awareness. Of course,

[1:00:34] now we just want to be loud with it and just let everybody know that there that we exist to I just

[1:00:39] wanted to formally invite you guys to come out I'm sorry September 18th is the deadline for

[1:00:46] the online registration for us when I run sign up I do have flyers here if you guys would like a

[1:00:53] flyer it does have the QR codes on there just to take you to our Facebook page if you wanted to

[1:01:00] to just get an awareness T-shirt for the event.

[1:01:03] And we are also doing Memorial Yard signs this year.

[1:01:06] The goal is to paint the park in pink and blue

[1:01:10] that is the awareness colors.

[1:01:13] Just to give back to the families

[1:01:15] and to honor any angel babies that have passed too soon,

[1:01:19] is would you guys like a flyer?

[1:01:21] Yes, I would.

[1:01:23] Am I able to come up there?

[1:01:24] Yeah, come on.

[1:01:26] You went through security already.

[1:01:28] Thank you.

[1:01:31] Thank you.

[1:01:32] We would love for you to come out.

[1:01:34] The main issue that we are having is community involvement.

[1:01:39] You can now have to have lost the child to participate in any of our events.

[1:01:45] Did you guys like the fun?

[1:01:46] Yes.

[1:01:49] That's a good chat.

[1:01:52] Well, that's what happened when you were tall.

[1:01:54] Great.

[1:01:55] You're welcome.

[1:01:57] Yeah.

[1:01:58] Anytime.

[1:01:59] Would you guys like to find this one?

[1:02:05] Yeah.

[1:02:06] So, anybody who's experienced any loss, no matter if it was yesterday or 30 years ago, because

[1:02:13] it's still a lot.

[1:02:15] We're here for them.

[1:02:17] We do have resources and programs in our work in the nation.

[1:02:21] We are not profit.

[1:02:23] Parts in payload.

[1:02:24] And, in fact, if you lost experience.

[1:02:26] So, yeah.

[1:02:27] So, if you guys want to come, just come on out and we would love to see them.

[1:02:31] Okay, thank you.

[1:02:32] Are there any more announcements from anybody in the public?

[1:02:36] Come on up.

[1:02:42] You got three?

[1:02:43] Can you do it in three minutes?

[1:02:46] Okay.

[1:02:52] To the mayor, chief, members of the council.

[1:02:56] Especially you, Mr. Miles, my councilman, my district, Mr. Miles, I came to you with a problem

[1:03:04] that I was having with people in my neighborhood,

[1:03:07] knocking on my doors and had night calls following me

[1:03:12] up in the street, and you fled out

[1:03:15] told me that it was nothing that you could do for me.

[1:03:19] Well, nobody is here for you.

[1:03:23] You never came back, and as was anything still happening

[1:03:27] or anything, you didn't show no concern.

[1:03:31] And yes, sir, it's still happening.

[1:03:33] I'm having problems with the chief winter you told me when you was running for the first

[1:03:42] time for chief of public, you personally gave me your cell phone number, the call you

[1:03:47] in the time.

[1:03:48] I called you, you was out of town, you told me to talk to your chief deputy.

[1:03:54] She gave me some tips to do, it didn't help.

[1:03:58] I got a security camera.

[1:04:01] They coming in my house, in my bedroom and I still

[1:04:04] knocking on my door.

[1:04:06] I don't know what to do.

[1:04:07] I'm paying for a security camera.

[1:04:10] I might as well not have one.

[1:04:11] If people are just going to be coming in and out of my house,

[1:04:14] whenever they want to, I don't think it's fair.

[1:04:18] And then when it first started, I was keeping my great-grandson.

[1:04:24] I had picked him breakfast in the morning

[1:04:27] And I have bought some orange juice from each of the stuff and I had drinks on the morning

[1:04:33] before.

[1:04:33] And I asked him, did he want some orange juice because I knew he was picking up my drink

[1:04:37] and stuff.

[1:04:38] And he said, yeah, I gave him the orange juice and he said, I don't like this, I say, what

[1:04:43] can you ask for?

[1:04:44] What's wrong with it?

[1:04:45] Don't tell you it's right.

[1:04:46] I said, you see, dude.

[1:04:48] I said, I just had some yesterday.

[1:04:49] that, well, I tried to, it tastes like pine or somebody came and put pine in the orange

[1:04:56] juice and my baby tasted that pine or there was an orange juice and I think there was

[1:05:02] so long for anybody to do something like that.

[1:05:07] Then,

[1:05:19] ma'am, can we visit after the meeting?

[1:05:22] I mean, where I want everybody to know what's going on, what I want to know is, if anybody

[1:05:29] knows why these people are following me and doing this to me, will somebody just come

[1:05:35] to me and talk to me, tell me what if I did something wrong, what did I do, and living

[1:05:40] in this town all my life, and I never had this problem before, most of people in this town

[1:05:46] don't even know me, but not everybody in middle know me, and I think that is so fair, and

[1:05:52] I came to you all, you all, and y'all helping help me not one time.

[1:05:59] And I am afraid for my life.

[1:06:01] I don't know, I'm driving down the street, cause turning in front of me.

[1:06:06] These people coming by my house, raising their mold.

[1:06:09] And then they got people coming by them with loud music.

[1:06:13] I thought we had a loud noise, wasn't it?

[1:06:16] They coming by my house, blessing their music, real loud,

[1:06:20] just making my wounds shake.

[1:06:21] Who's want to live like that man? Let's be is it after the meeting but we okay, man. I went to you. I

[1:06:30] Came to you. I remember how the police and they came up took me and put me in the hospital for nine days

[1:06:36] And it was nothing wrong with me

[1:06:38] And I think that was so unfair of you to do that to me when I went to you for help

[1:06:43] I thought you was my last resort, but you didn't do anything and nobody knows to have nobody asked me

[1:06:51] And I'm okay. I know everybody. I'm almost everybody this time.

[1:06:54] I know what's going on with me. And then it's so unfair.

[1:06:57] I don't, nobody have said anything.

[1:07:01] And I want, if somebody knows what's going on, please come to me.

[1:07:04] Come here. Tell me what, what did I do?

[1:07:07] Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. I'll visit with you after the meeting.

[1:07:11] All right. Any other announcements from anybody?

[1:07:15] All right. We'll turn the floor over to the council.

[1:07:18] Councilor Councilman Pindegraas.

[1:07:22] None for me.

[1:07:24] That's been rolling.

[1:07:26] Councilor Mitchell.

[1:07:28] With Thomas.

[1:07:30] Councilor Miles.

[1:07:31] National night out is this my right.

[1:07:33] Oh yeah, I had that on my list.

[1:07:35] National night out.

[1:07:36] There you go.

[1:07:37] National night out, September 22nd.

[1:07:38] Thank you, buddy.

[1:07:40] Councilor Miles.

[1:07:41] I will be hosting.

[1:07:43] National night out partners.

[1:07:45] Say we will be all head parties.

[1:07:46] You're going to have one.

[1:07:47] Yes.

[1:07:48] It's an interesting plan to have one district be but we'd like to encourage everybody across the city

[1:07:53] It's a really good time to get to know your neighbors look out for one another try to get to know people that you don't visit with every year

[1:08:01] I meet people that I live right beside and we don't take time like we should to visit with one another so I hope

[1:08:08] Miss Sarah's here. Hope you have

[1:08:10] That's what I don't need now.

[1:08:13] Anyway, with that being said,

[1:08:16] I think that's everybody meeting adjourned.

[1:08:18] You'll part from my...

September 8, 2026, Minden City Council Regular Session

Transcript