[0:20] Thank you for being patient with us. I will call this meeting to order. Leading us off will be Councilman Snowden with the invocation followed by Councilwoman Power with the Pledge of Allegiance. Let us pray to Heaven and Father, we thank you for this day, Lord. And we thank you for this opportunity to see a new month. Father, we just ask for your guidance and your wisdom as we go about conducting the city's business, Lord. And Father, we thank you for this city that we live in.

[0:49] we thank you for the people that operate it and keep it safe and Father we just

[0:54] thank you for all your many blessings those that we're aware of and those

[0:59] blessings that we're not aware of we just want to say thank you this evening and

[1:04] Father these are not the blessings that we'll ask in your Son Jesus name amen

[1:31] Thank

[1:35] you, Mr. City Clerk. Please make a record of attendance.

[1:38] So no, Mr. President, you do have a quorum, sir.

[1:41] Thank you, sir. First item on the agenda is the consent agenda that consists of the approval of the September 8, 2026 City Council agenda, approval of the August 17, 2026 regular Council meeting minutes, Resolution 2026, 090801 through 0606.

[2:00] The full text of the agenda minutes and ordinances and resolutions are available at Pellam City Hall and online at Pellamalabema.gov.

[2:08] I'll entertain the motion to approve the consent agenda.

[2:11] Motion to approve.

[2:12] Second.

[2:13] We have a motion and a second.

[2:15] There is no debate or discussion. Mr. City Clerk, please make a roll call vote.

[2:19] Council President Leiborot.

[2:20] Yes.

[2:21] Council Member Power.

[2:22] Yes.

[2:22] Council Member Towns.

[2:23] Yes.

[2:23] Council Member Snowden.

[2:24] Yeah, customer Harris. Yes, consent agenda passes unanimously that leads us into the mayor's report

[2:32] No report tonight

[2:33] Council President, but it do have a couple of proclamations

[2:46] Our Lisa and Sarah here a chance

[2:52] Lisa and Sarah for yeah, come on up

[2:54] We'll

[2:59] have you send that to the mayor. I'm going to read this proclamation real quick

[3:07] Proclamation whereas nearly 37 million Americans suffer from kidney disease and every year many citizens including children adults older individuals are

[3:16] diagnosed with kidney disease, and whereas the death and breath of the nephrology nursing

[3:21] profession meet the different and emerging kidney disease and other healthcare needs

[3:24] of the population.

[3:26] And whereas the American Nephrology Nurses Association is working to advance quality

[3:31] care to citizens with kidney disease before they suffer complete organ failure, increase

[3:36] awareness in local communities, positively influence patient outcomes, and keep nephrology

[3:41] nurses abreast of the latest treatments and kidney-related research, and whereas nephrology

[3:47] nurses function as educators, direct caregivers, and coordinators to help patients manage

[3:51] their lives while effectively dealing with their health issues.

[3:55] And whereas the number of new patients dying nose with kidney disease has doubled in each

[3:59] of the last two decades, the demand for nephrology nurses will persist to expand as this trend

[4:04] is expected to continue.

[4:06] And whereas more qualified nephrology nurses will be needed in the future to meet the increasingly

[4:10] complex needs of patients who are experiencing or at risk for kidney disease. And whereas

[4:15] along the American Nephrology Nurses Association, the Hazel Taylor chapter of the American

[4:21] Nephrology Nurses Association has declared the week of September 13th through 19th at

[4:25] 2026 as an nephrology nurse's week to celebrate and honor the unselfish work and nephrology

[4:30] nurses perform each day to maintain the health of thousands of individuals with kidney disease.

[4:35] Now

[4:40] therefore, I rickwashed by virtue of the authority vested in me as the mayor of the City of Pellum, Shelby County, Alabama to hereby proclaim September the 13th through the 19th,

[4:51] 2026 as nephrology nurses week in Pellum, Alabama and encourage all residents to join me in honoring the nephrology nurses who care for patients with kidney disease and celebrate nephrology nurses efforts through advanced patient care

[5:09] and reduce the incident of kidney disease and show our appreciation for nephrology

[5:15] nurses not just during this week but every opportunity that we have throughout

[5:20] the year. Given under my hand the city of Pellamalabama this eighth day of

[5:24] September 2026.

[5:32] Thank you. We get a picture with the council

[5:36] place here.

[6:15] All right, Ms. Neville, come on up.

[6:17] All right, proclamation, whereas September 17th, 26th, marks the 200th and 39th anniversary

[6:27] of the drafting of the Constitution of the United States of America by the delegates

[6:31] to the Constitutional Convention, and whereas it is fitting a proper to concur with official

[6:37] recognition to this magnificent document and its memorable anniversary and to the patriotic

[6:41] celebrations, which will commemorate the occasion. And whereas the United States Congress adopted

[6:47] public law 915 was signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on August 2, 1956, which guarantees

[6:54] the issuing of a proclamation each year by the president of the United States designated September 17th

[7:00] through 23rd as Constitution Week.

[7:06] It's always a pleasure to get to do this. We have Ms. Neville here

[7:10] every year. Now therefore I rick washed by virtue of the authority vested in me as the mayor of

[7:15] the city of Pelham Shelby County Alabama to hereby proclaim September the 17th through the 23rd

[7:21] 2026 as Constitution week in Pelham, Alabama. Therefore I ask all citizens to reaffirm the idea of

[7:29] the farmers of the Constitution had in 1787 by vigilantly proactively protecting the freedoms guaranteed

[7:39] to us through this guardian of our liberties.

[7:44] Remembering that all loss of rights are never again

[7:50] realized, given under my hand, the city of Pelham,

[7:54] Alabama, this 8th day of September, 2026, Ms. Neville.

[8:01] This is the new era.

[8:05] Mayor Waters and I had done this a little back and forth

[8:10] for, I'm not sure how many years,

[8:11] but this is the first time Mayor Wash and I have gotten to participate in this

[8:17] proclamation of Constitution Week and I do appreciate you continuing with

[8:24] that tradition. The daughters of the American Revolution actually got this

[8:29] going long before I was born actually, but we do it each year sometime during the

[8:37] month of September that corresponds with the 17th through the 23rd to honor the writers

[8:48] of this wonderful document.

[8:51] I won't go into all the things that we all know about the document and all the things

[8:57] we don't know.

[8:58] What we do encourage you is if you have small children, if you are even an older person

[9:04] and don't know much about the Constitution. Learn it. It is what guarantees our

[9:10] liberties, our freedoms, and our rights. It is really our country in words and

[9:18] pieces of paper. I think back when I was reading, when they were meeting to decide

[9:27] whether or not to rebel, fight, right. They were trying to keep everything secret.

[9:37] If you can imagine an August or a year like we've had weather-wise with the heat,

[9:45] with windows closed, doors closed so people couldn't hear them talk. They were hot.

[9:52] not only hot-headed, but hot weather-wise, so it made for tense situations.

[10:04] This proclamation for Constitution Week is important that we continue at each year and

[10:12] I do appreciate the city once more doing it.

[10:15] I have a couple of, the D.A.R., Eisenhower was mentioned, the D.A.R. ladies were the ones

[10:26] who shoved him, pushed a little bit nudge, and got him to sign that order and make it

[10:33] a law that we would do this.

[10:35] And on the 17th at 4 p.m., Eastern time, 3 p.m., our time, you may hear bells ringing.

[10:43] It's not in your head, it's D-A-R members across the nation who may be standing somewhere

[10:51] ringing bells in honor of this wonderful document that we call our Constitution.

[10:58] And I will say I wrote down this just so I wouldn't forget.

[11:05] Daughters of the America Revolution, that's D-A-R.

[11:10] We are Historic Preservation, D-A-R, is Education, D-A-R, is Patriotism.

[11:19] What better way to promote to these goals than to protect and defend this Constitution.

[11:26] Thank you, Mayor Wash, and my God.

[11:29] Continue to bless America.

[11:31] If you can get those on the phone, bill is in the order.

[11:35] I think I'll get a picture of you up there with my account with the council.

[12:14] Okay,

[12:22] thank you mayor for those proclamations that leads us into the report by the city manager.

[12:30] Thank you council president and as Jamie Wagner our finance director is making her way up here

[12:35] I'd just like to say that it's been a pleasure working on the budget this year as it is every year and

[12:43] And this is one of my favorite meetings, second only to the year in review.

[12:51] So we, this was our first year with this council and this mayor to prepare the budget.

[12:57] And it was, I thought it was a great process, really appreciate all the input,

[13:03] but the questions, clarification and listening that I know is a lot of hours and really appreciate

[13:14] that.

[13:15] So, the budget presentation, Jamie and I are going to go into, we're going to try to keep

[13:20] it high level, but it is a big budget and it does have a lot of content.

[13:26] So, we are going to try to make it interesting as well.

[13:29] So, here we are.

[13:33] I want to start off by saying, I want to thank Jamie Wagner, who has been with us five

[13:40] years.

[13:40] Yes, almost five years because I just signed a certificate, your five years certificate

[13:44] with us.

[13:46] And she has been very driven to improve, improve, improve and would like to take the budget

[13:54] it and apply for the Budget Award from the Government Finance Officers Association.

[14:01] It's something that we both have in our former cities where we worked and it signifies

[14:07] that you're doing budgeting best practices in your budgeting.

[14:10] And so she has been diligent in keeping us on track and recommending ways that we can improve

[14:17] and putting an awful lot of work this truly in many, many ways reflects the largest amount

[14:24] of work done on this budget which is by Jamie, so really appreciate that. So we

[14:30] start out with our vision mission and values because that's where in

[14:34] organization our vision engaged and powered valued and talking about

[14:39] individuals. Through vibrant spaces bold progress and unwavering connection to

[14:45] my talk a little more about some of the things the mayor is going to be doing in

[14:50] this budget coming up which really reflects unwavering connection in our community and we strive to

[15:00] Our mission is about exceptional services and that means continuous improvement because if you're working towards exceptional, you're always going to be working to get better. Thriving community and unparalleled opportunities for our residents.

[15:14] These guide at the highest level are decisions, our values are integrity, sustainability, engagement, and excellence. We narrowed it down to four. One of the ways that we have engagement for the budget process is we have council workshops this year.

[15:29] we met 20 total hours staff participation and we use our citizen surveys which we'll be doing

[15:36] our third citizen survey at the end of this calendar year that's covered in the fiscal year

[15:43] budget. We also have seven pillars of excellence and one of the things that you will see in the

[15:50] budget this year is that every department goals have measurements and they all link to one or

[15:59] more of the seven pillars.

[16:01] So there's a real connection in each item, the items in the budget, the overall goals,

[16:09] for the department and the seven pillars for the entire city.

[16:16] Now, primer on city budgeting, primer real quick.

[16:20] So the city manager is responsible for proposing a balanced budget to the city council.

[16:25] Now what does that mean?

[16:25] The Government Finance Officers Association, our GFOA, defines a balanced budget as recurring

[16:34] expenses that are reasonably expected to continue year-to-year, and the same thing for your

[16:43] revenue.

[16:45] So those need to balance.

[16:48] Now Jamie's going to talk a lot more about governmental funds and a little bit about how that works.

[16:54] We have other monies that we set aside to purchase things because we have a lot of plans in Pellum.

[17:01] We have five-year plans for capital, vehicle purchases, there for paving.

[17:12] So we, for parks and recreation, we have a city-wide plan.

[17:18] And so we are really operating off a lot of plans with a strategy not not a lot of just want to go get this now.

[17:27] So that's important for the sustainability.

[17:31] The city council and mayor here from each department head, the finance director and the city manager during our budget workshops and dialogue with staff, ask questions.

[17:40] And then the city council are super responsible for the budget approval.

[17:45] The money comes from our revenues from taxes, licenses, permits, service charges, and then any intergovernmental revenues and other sources.

[17:55] And they're accounted for within either with governmental funds or proprietary funds, proprietary funds are those funds,

[18:02] Barney's, Walentree, Water and Suerre, Pelem Rocket Club, and this is a complex and

[18:07] ic Arena that are designed to sustain themselves from the monies that they

[18:13] collect from fees. In Pelem, we do supplement that and that's something

[18:18] a council decided years ago. And we are moving towards more sustainability also,

[18:25] those bring in people, visitors to our city, and we know that is continuing to grow.

[18:31] So there's an economic impact for these proprietary funds.

[18:39] The money goes to support city operation services, capital investments and our debt obligations.

[18:45] So let's look at our goals for the budget this year.

[18:50] No use of unencumbered funds, so that's kind of like your reserves that are not attached to

[18:56] anything.

[18:57] Financially prepared for cash flow needed for grant matches.

[19:00] We, as a city, as city our size, it's remarkable, Andre and I said around talking about we cannot believe the amount of grant money that this city has gotten per capita, I guess, if you take per resident.

[19:19] It's well over just since the time Andre's been here, well over $100 million.

[19:26] So we have a lot of that, especially our federal railroad administration grant to eliminate

[19:33] the two at-grade crossings, as that work is starting, and on the clock, like we are, we've

[19:40] got to ensure that we have cash flows for grant matches, because we may get reimbursed

[19:45] for things from other entities like the county or the state or the federal government that we

[19:51] have to come up with the money. So that's very important. That's a big one of our budget goals

[19:57] is something that was very important to the council. I'm ensure a competitive total employee

[20:02] compensation, maintain service levels and uncertain economic times, continue this council's commitment

[20:08] to increase road maintenance and traffic safety and maintain and expand recreational facilities

[20:13] do increase usage. I believe the civic complex year over year for three years is up 17%. Our parks are

[20:20] up just since last year usage 6%. So we continue to grow and and that usage means we've we've got

[20:30] more maintenance. We've got more expansion and we've got more needs and then protect the city's

[20:36] credit rating. And basically, when we look at a budget, we are not asking about what

[20:42] do we need this year. I think the most important question in a budget is do the decisions

[20:47] in this year's budget leave Pellern prepared for 5 years from now, 10 years from now, 15

[20:52] years from now, because that's the way that we have to look at our city if we're going

[20:58] to be successful.

[21:02] So, the budget priorities really center around listening to our residents

[21:08] It's protecting the services residents value, quality of life, responsible and sustainable

[21:16] budget investing in people, and then planning beyond 2027 for what's coming.

[21:21] And I'm going to have million slides for these, I just want to go over these.

[21:26] First of all, just listening to our residents, one of the things that, and also quality of

[21:32] life, residents want more opportunities together.

[21:35] that is something that we see repeatedly in whenever we go into economic development,

[21:41] whenever we survey our residents, that and we ask for impact, be it for a park plan,

[21:49] a comprehensive plan.

[21:51] I know the school also does some surveying and that's consistent and

[21:55] or if we're doing something like reamp where we're asking what do you want this major

[22:00] piece of property to be, what do you want it to bring?

[22:03] And so, in this budget for 2027 does reflect a commitment to community.

[22:12] And particularly in Mayor Wash's budget, there are lots of activities that are going to bring the community together.

[22:20] Various groups in the community, also the community as a whole.

[22:24] We also have in our budget to start our first Citizens Academy.

[22:28] This is something that the last council asked me to research and we spent about a year looking at what best practices from around the country and are excited about having that citizens academy.

[22:42] One of the things that when I went to national conference and the people who had citizens academies for years just well established never had to go out and recruit people for their boards because they were all coming from their citizens academy.

[22:58] me, and so that was so nice to hear. There's a lot of other benefits, but definitely it was great to hear that.

[23:07] Flow of traffic and congestions and management has in both of our citizens surveys been a top priority.

[23:13] We've invested and will continue to invest in no traffic. We utilize no traffic at 22 intersections on Highway 31, Highway 119, and County Road 52.

[23:24] and we'll continue to do that throughout FY 2027

[23:28] with the goal of having 60% of traffic arriving

[23:31] at those intersections on green

[23:34] and reducing wait times on red.

[23:37] So when we started this with phase one,

[23:41] so if you can picture, when you start doing this,

[23:46] it's not gonna be, it's like a domino.

[23:48] So I change waiting on a light here,

[23:51] it's gonna affect these lights here.

[23:52] So it really and truly is a it's a work in progress.

[23:58] You can't just flip switches and everything work.

[24:01] You've got to flip switches and analyze all that traffic movement.

[24:04] And then that's going to change on the day, right?

[24:07] It's going to change on the time.

[24:09] So the ones that we've got to really work the most on our U.S.

[24:15] 31 at Cabo Valley, which is 119.

[24:17] Right now it's at 48% arriving on green.

[24:22] and we also have CR-52 at I-65 North ramp.

[24:28] We've gotten that up to 62% and then 64% at the latest measurement.

[24:34] And CR-52 at I-65 Southbound is not quite as good.

[24:38] We're at 58% there, so you can see these are some measurements

[24:42] that Andre and his group are going to be looking at.

[24:45] These are things that we have to improve upon.

[24:48] Now, when we flip a switch to improve it,

[24:51] But we have to answer watch what happens down the way and it's continuous.

[24:56] So that's part of what we are happy to report that CR-52 at Huntley Parkway, Huntley Parkway

[25:02] and a Rocket Club Parkway is at 76%.

[25:05] If you drive that every day like I do, you will notice the difference.

[25:10] So that is an example of, you know, there obviously aren't as many traffic lights impacting

[25:15] Using that as there are on 31 and 119-261 area, so but we will continue to do that.

[25:24] The average approach delay shows minimal increases or decreases and right now what we're trying

[25:31] to get to is maintaining that staple traffic flow.

[25:34] But just know that it is a priority in this budget as it has been in our past two budgets

[25:39] and we'll continue to do that.

[25:40] The lighting upgrades in the 31 corridor are substantially complete and should be operational

[25:46] in the fall of 2026.

[25:49] So we're excited about that.

[25:51] The brightness that that's going to bring, I know people have gone to the Civic Complex

[25:55] and seen the new lights in the ice arena and gone wow, well you're about to see that on

[26:00] 31 as well.

[26:02] So the first project also we completed this past year on neighborhood traffic calming

[26:09] program that is designed to, that was the Creek View neighborhood on Valley View Drive, traffic

[26:16] calming is a term that she used in traffic engineering. It's so funny. Once you know this,

[26:20] you'll go pointing it out everywhere. I was driving my daughter in Tuscaloosa to her new apartment,

[26:26] and they have these little things in the middle of the street in their plants. You know, there's just

[26:31] a planner and you've got to kind of go slow around that and I was like, yeah, that's a traffic calming

[26:36] measure, you know, in all the 21-year-olds in the car are going, what and who cares? But I thought

[26:44] that was really cool. So we do have a program now and it will continue and if you're ever interested,

[26:52] you can go and look at if you want to fill out an application for traffic calming in your neighborhood

[27:00] that that is there. The work towards the commencement of the Highway 261

[27:04] widening project, the biggest thing that happened this year for us is that we

[27:08] got Al. Andre got Al. To and Hoover to separate the Hoover portion of the

[27:16] project. So we were going to have to wait for Hoover to acquire all of its

[27:21] property before we could commence the work on 261 on the Pellum side.

[27:29] So thank

[27:30] now do it independently of Hoover because Hoover didn't appear that they were going to be getting to

[27:35] that anytime soon. So our goal is of course meet 100 percent of all dot smile stones. They're

[27:44] current. I hate to say this but it's what it is right now. The current construction schedule

[27:50] shows them beginning construction in FY 2027.

[27:55] So we're hopeful.

[27:59] We're also going to have a traffic light

[28:03] at Greyhook subdivision or Highway 11.

[28:06] That's currently in the design phase.

[28:08] We know we've been measuring that for traffic

[28:10] for a long time.

[28:11] And so that's just another example

[28:13] of dealing with keeping on top of the traffic.

[28:17] And the next one is economic development.

[28:21] We, I think everyone knows about rehab, so that's going to be a focus for us.

[28:26] I know as Councilman Snowden says, the X is what that's going to cost.

[28:32] So when we say that our budget is making sure that it's responsible and sustainable and

[28:40] that we're planning beyond FY27, that's what we mean, too, is we need to make sure we

[28:46] can support we are going to know what's involved in supporting the biggest development and probably

[28:53] the history of the city. So the City Council is also committing funds and this is exciting and

[29:03] new for the city and later on I'll have a slide I'll show you, but the development of a trailhead

[29:09] restroom, pavilion and trails on Blueberry Hill which will serve as another attractive

[29:14] of amenity to encourage development in the Hauntley Parkway area, but also, I don't

[29:19] know if everyone knows this, but Oak Mountain State Park is kind of a hub for mountain bike

[29:26] racing. And so this is going to be an opportunity for us to take a piece of land that I think

[29:33] when I got here nine years ago, they had just closed on. And I remember the City Council

[29:38] President at the time taking me around and showing me this. And we had several developers come

[29:43] in and look at developing it. It's quite costly to do. Shelby County hired a trail builder

[29:48] a few years ago, and that's his job. He builds trails. So we're very excited to utilize

[29:55] and thank you to the Council for getting excited and.

[30:00] Funding that and asking us to do that. We also, in FY26, we always want to be business friendly. The city extended statutory tax abatements to several

[30:12] Social Pellum businesses, including research solutions,

[30:16] Edgar's Bakery, Kusa Composites, and our total investment by these businesses is ever is $21.8 million into the city of Pellum.

[30:25] And so being able to do that, which we are the only city in Shelby County that does the maximum amount of those abatements for

[30:34] the companies that are renovating, are adding to and meet those qualifications.

[30:43] We are also going to continue support the work of the CDA.

[30:47] They recently entered into agreement to sell the property located at 2786 Pellam Parkway

[30:51] to a developer who's going to be bringing at least two QSR concepts to the site.

[30:56] So we're looking forward to hearing from the CDA next week in our work session.

[31:02] And one of the things too is we are starting a facade improvement program to support our smaller businesses.

[31:13] We have, I think, we've just $45,000 committed to that.

[31:17] So we're going to hear more about that program coming.

[31:20] And what we can do with matches from some, they'll be an application process

[31:25] so that smaller businesses who are interested in doing some facade improvements

[31:30] We'll be able to get some money from the city to be able to do that.

[31:33] It'll be a competitive application process and this council as well as the last council is made a huge commitment to street resurfacing.

[31:45] So they had asked the city to do our pavement conditioning index and bring to them the all the city, all the streets,

[31:55] There are one's and two's and how are we going to get them the unacceptable streets will say and how are we going to get them to acceptable level so we brought the council an eight year paving plan and because of some additional

[32:09] monies that are available this year they're going to be doing some additional paving for this year and then the council asked us to put an additional 250,000

[32:21] $50,000 into the paving budget for the 2027 budget.

[32:27] These two actions will take that eight year plan down to a six year plan.

[32:32] So really, really appreciative to see that continue.

[32:40] The quality of our school system is, we need to mention this in here because while we are independent from the city,

[32:48] we really are inextricably joined with them.

[32:52] If you, when you go and you look at a place to live,

[32:55] you're looking at the quality of the school system.

[32:58] So we have this acknowledged in the budget

[33:00] and I know that they have plans to expand,

[33:03] not really, I think they might still be looking

[33:05] at some deadlines for that or their timeline,

[33:10] but we wanna make sure that we promote

[33:12] a vibrant engaged school system as well.

[33:15] Stormwater runoff and management,

[33:16] I'm a geek for this stuff so, you know, when I first came here, there's a lot of flooding and it's just there's flooding, right?

[33:27] But there was not a lot of maintenance in our storm water system.

[33:33] So, I'm going to ask the audience here, who knows what a back truck is?

[33:37] Anybody know what a back truck is?

[33:38] all right check does yeah you know what a vac truck is so it comes in and it and it what what's it vacuuming it's vacuuming out your storm sewers right so I've never worked at a place that didn't have a vac truck but we didn't have one in poem well now we have to and not only do we have to thanks to council the council the city council of poems not make that may to be this may to be this council but it's been our leadership all along and

[34:08] And then also, I'm going to brag on Andre again, but he put together a team, when we

[34:13] stop reading meters by hand, we took those individuals and Andre put them on a stormwater

[34:22] maintenance crew.

[34:23] So now, the maintenance that we do, not only with the vac trucks, but in the 2020-27 budget,

[34:30] you'll see that the goal is to inspect every year, 25% of our storm sewers.

[34:36] So there's a regular inspection, there's a regular cleaning, and if you have not noticed that that has resulted in less flooding, now this does not mean what, you know, that in October of 2021, was it 2021?

[34:52] Yes, that you can clean out your storm sewers all you want, you're still going to have flooding, but for the most part, under all normal weather conditions, we've seen flooding.

[35:04] really really be reduced so you'll see that in here protecting the services

[35:10] residents value public safety remains one of the top priorities of our city not

[35:16] only from our residents but also from our businesses and we know that we can

[35:22] not ignore public safety is one thing to say we're a safe community we can we can

[35:30] get to those who need our help, be it through fire services,

[35:34] M.S. and I think everybody knows we went into the ambulance business

[35:39] a couple years ago, and are taking on more and more that we can do for our

[35:45] residents to make sure that they're safe and that we can save as many lives as

[35:51] possible. And that continues to be because we don't have any major, major,

[35:58] major expenses in the budget committed to that, we are maintaining and we are increasing

[36:06] especially technology.

[36:10] So quality of life is also part of our infrastructure, financial accountability matters, I'm just

[36:18] going to give you an example.

[36:19] The Pelomeric Club is projecting a 10.5% increase in revenue from charges for services to

[36:25] who are approximately $1 million, the city's operating transfer to the facility is budgeted to decline by approximately 25% from $798,000 to $597,000.

[36:37] So, where's Cheney, Kudos to her and her team.

[36:42] We continue to hear about how our proprietary businesses are continuing to fill up, to look at utilization rates,

[36:51] It's to continue to expand offerings, which is exactly what our residents want, which brings us better quality of life.

[37:01] Responsible and sustainable budget, again, budget is to make sure the commitments we make today remain affordable.

[37:08] I'm not going to go over the specific numbers because Jamie is going to go over those.

[37:13] And she'll can talk a little bit about how we come up with the revenues as well.

[37:18] So I don't want to do that twice, but investing in the people who deliver city services, the council asked to hear from our committee.

[37:27] We have a fantastic committee, it's made up of employees from every department, and they come in and they prioritize and they look at a lot of data.

[37:36] This is not a committee of employees who sit around and talk about what they feel.

[37:41] This is a committee of employees who look at data, who see what's being taken advantage of,

[37:48] where are the holes, and they presented to the council for their recommendations for the 2027 budget.

[37:57] And the council asked me to put all of those in the budget this year.

[38:02] So the city is agreeing to take on 25% of the cost for

[38:07] for long-term disability premiums for participating employees.

[38:11] We are far in the state, far under many other states, as far as long-term disability.

[38:18] And as we saw from a police officer who was seriously hit in the line of duty,

[38:27] we, and we know there's nothing for her available.

[38:30] So we've been working on legislation at the state level for

[38:34] that, but also to be able to help our employees afford some type of long-term disability insurance

[38:42] to help prevent things like that from happening.

[38:46] Changing vacation approval thresholds to include increases at five and 15 years before

[38:51] there was just one change, which is not competitive at all if any of you have worked in the private

[38:56] sector.

[38:58] Eliminating the cap for the city's contribution on retiree health insurance, and that was

[39:02] something that retirees had asked for,

[39:06] and updating the retiree health insurance call share

[39:08] from 60, 40 to 65, 35 for the retirees.

[39:12] So planning beyond FY 2027, again,

[39:17] I already talked about the long-range forecast

[39:18] that we multi-year capital improvement programs,

[39:22] debt policies, infrastructure planning,

[39:25] and the performance measures that now connect everything.

[39:29] Reserve requirements, all of these things

[39:31] is are incorporated into our budget.

[39:35] Discipline is very, very important as we consider projects of the scale of re-amp, the discipline, and how we fund them.

[39:43] And the discipline is especially important as we move forward.

[39:47] And again, not saying, can we just afford the budget this year?

[39:50] And this is something that this council has encouraged us to continue to look at.

[39:55] But can we afford it for a long term?

[39:58] And how are we maintaining things?

[40:00] So that's the standard that we continue to work towards.

[40:04] So that's just some highlights of the budget priorities.

[40:08] The financial points in here, a 2% increase in total general revenues over 2026, 65.6 million.

[40:16] That's in your general fund.

[40:19] Sales and property tax revenues project is slightly below 2026.

[40:24] Licenses and permits increasing by about 21%.

[40:27] and EMS Collections Grant Revenue and Interfund Transfers also are contributing to our revenue growth.

[40:34] A 6% increase in total general fund operations over 2026, 554.9 million, so revenues are 65.6 million,

[40:46] expenses for operations are 54.9 million, and that includes the things that I just talked about.

[40:53] significant decrease in new capital projects and when you see the capital projects list of projects that are still ongoing are still in our bucket, we're still working on them.

[41:05] We continue to take on a lot of capital projects for especially for a city our size major investment support street infrastructure facilities and quality of life.

[41:18] So I'm going to turn it over to Jamie from here.

[41:29] Thank you, though.

[41:31] Okay. Good evening, Council.

[41:34] I'll walk through the financial portion of the budget, starting with the city as a whole.

[41:38] The primary goal is to develop a structurally balanced budget, as Gretchen said,

[41:43] which means our revenues, reoccurring revenues should support reoccurring operations.

[41:48] This is demonstrated on the line classified as operating surplus.

[41:53] I also want to make an important distinction about fund balance because you'll see changes in fund balance throughout the slides.

[42:01] Net changes in fund balance shows the overall increase or decrease in funds resources during the year.

[42:09] Fund balance is classified as either non-spindable, restricted, committed, assigned, or unassigned based on how available the resources are and whether they have been set aside for specific purposes.

[42:25] So when, as we're moving through this, when you see a negative change in fund balance that does not mean that we are using unencumbered reserves to fund operations, we are intentionally spending accumulated resources on capital projects or using committed reserves for the exact purpose for which they were established that distinction isn't important as we move through the individual funds.

[42:55] This slide here gives you a picture of where our revenues come from.

[43:00] On the governmental side, we are heavily dependent on taxes.

[43:04] Sales and other taxes make up almost 65% of governmental revenue

[43:08] and property taxes account for another 15%.

[43:12] License impairments makes up about 10% with service charges

[43:18] and other sources making up the remainder.

[43:22] That concentration in cell stacks is one reason we monitor the economy and consumer spending

[43:29] so closely when developing a revenue projections. Our proprietary funds are very different because

[43:35] they are primarily supported by user charges or charges for services. Water and sewer is the largest

[43:43] is representing 53% of proprietary fund revenue

[43:47] followed by the civic complex,

[43:50] voluntary trash, and then the racket club.

[43:55] Looking at expenditures, you can see that

[43:58] where our resources are concentrated.

[44:01] For governmental funds, public safety represents

[44:04] approximately 53% of expenditures,

[44:07] which is not surprising because police and fire

[44:10] are both personnel intensive operations

[44:12] and represent two of the largest city departments.

[44:16] General administration represents about 28% followed by developmental services and recreation and culture which is part of the library.

[44:26] On the proprietary side, water and sewer represent the largest portion of expenditures.

[44:32] The remaining calls are distributed among the civic complex, voluntary trash and the racket club.

[44:38] These charts provide a high-level picture before we go into the individual funds.

[44:46] This next section breaks that citywide picture and looks at the governmental and proprietary

[44:54] funds separately.

[44:56] I'll start with a quick explanation of the city fund structure and then

[45:00] All key through the general fund and our proprietary fund operations.

[45:06] Municipality, account or municipal

[45:09] accounting can be very complicated. So this slide is intended to simplify how our funds are organized,

[45:16] which is according to the general or GFOA's best practices as well. And so the general fund supports

[45:25] supports most day-to-day CityX services.

[45:28] The Capital Project Fund accounts for major infrastructure and construction and

[45:35] the special revenue funds account for resources restricted for special specific purposes.

[45:41] Those three types of funds make up our, what is considered, governmental funds.

[45:47] And then our proprietary funds account for the business type activities such as

[45:51] sewer, the civic complex, rocket cloud,

[45:54] voluntary and trash.

[45:56] Keeping these activities separate, allow us to track how

[45:59] resources are generated and used.

[46:06] This slide summarizes the general or the governmental

[46:08] fund proposed budgets.

[46:12] This is another place where fund balance can sometimes

[46:15] be misleading.

[46:16] If you look at the bottom line, a fund may intentionally

[46:21] accumulate resources in one year and spend them

[46:24] on an authorized project in another year.

[46:28] So we look at not only what the fund balance,

[46:31] whether it increases or decreases,

[46:34] but also why it changes.

[46:36] This year, accrued special revenue funds

[46:38] will be allocated to accelerate the multi-year

[46:41] straight resurfacing plan.

[46:45] And so you can see that draw down of $2002,000

[46:49] from those special revenue funds

[46:50] that we've accumulated to be able to assign

[46:53] to, you know, special projects that fit within the restricted guidelines that are almost funds

[47:00] from usually state restrictions.

[47:07] This side focuses specifically on the general fund

[47:10] and is a good example of fund balance distinction I mentioned earlier. Council has established

[47:16] committed reserves for needs such as vehicle replacements, technology, emergency response,

[47:22] plants, recreation, and infrastructure.

[47:25] The purpose of these reserves is to plan ahead.

[47:28] Rather than waiting until a major vehicle, technology, or facility need occurs,

[47:34] then trying to absorb the entire cost in one year, we intentionally set aside resources.

[47:40] For 2027, we are proposing to use 575,000 from committed vehicle replacement reserves

[47:47] to purchase templates' vehicles, which is in accordance with the vehicle replacement plan.

[47:53] This will reduce that particular committer reserve, but is exactly what the money was intended to be used for or set aside for.

[48:03] After accounting for this proposed activity, the unencumbered general fund balance is projected to increase by $1.4 million.

[48:11] dollars. So if you look, it says the net change in fund balance is almost $850,000. But when you

[48:19] take into account that we are going to use the 575 from committer reserves, we will actually be

[48:26] increasing our unencumbered fund balance by 1.4 million. And this is an important distinction

[48:33] because we have planned for the use of committer reserves while still strengthening our unencumbered

[48:39] financial position.

[48:46] Cell tax is our largest revenue source in the general fund.

[48:50] So we take a conservative approach to forecasting it.

[48:54] We're recommending 2% growth based on actual collections,

[48:59] local activity, and broader economic forecasts.

[49:03] The goal is to build a budget around revenue assumptions

[49:06] that are reasonable and supportable.

[49:08] General

[49:13] fund revenue is projected at approximately $65.6 million, sales and other taxes remain our largest source at about $43.5 million, followed by property tax at $10.3 million.

[49:28] The largest increase is in license impairments which are projected at approximately 6.8 million driven primarily by the changes we made in our business license ordinances over the past year and developmental activity.

[49:46] Service charges also benefit from increased EMS service collections.

[49:51] On

[49:56] the expenditure side, personnel and benefits continue to represent our largest recurring

[50:01] commitment, particularly in police and fire.

[50:04] The approximately 62 million shown here also includes capital and debt service.

[50:12] So it is a broader look than the operating expenditure number we saw on the previous slides.

[50:18] Overall, the budget maintains existing service levels while addressing increased personnel

[50:24] benefit, insurance, utility maintenance, and contractual costs.

[50:34] Now we'll move over from off of the governmental funds to our proprietary funds.

[50:39] Property funds operate more like business activities, revenues are primarily generated

[50:46] through charges for services, ideally those revenues support the cost of providing

[50:52] the service. However, we also evaluate each operation based on its individual purpose.

[50:59] Water and sewer and trash, for example, are utility operations with a significant long-term

[51:06] infrastructure requirements. But the Civic Complex Rocket Club and Valentree also provide

[51:15] recreation and quality of life benefits to the community. So their financial performance needs

[51:21] to be considered along with the public service and economic benefit that they provide.

[51:28] The important thing is that we evaluate each of these operations individually and that we have

[51:33] a full understanding both of its operational performance as well as its long-term capital needs.

[51:40] So that's what Gretchen's talking about, planning ahead, having those plans, knowing what's coming

[51:45] and making sure that we're putting those, you know, that money aside for those future expenditures.

[51:55] This side summarizes all five proprietary funds together.

[52:00] Water and sewer is our largest proprietary operation followed by civic complex,

[52:06] voluntary trash, and then reclub. As we discussed with the governmental funds,

[52:11] the net change and fund balance does not tell the entire story by itself.

[52:15] Some of these funds have accumulated resources, over time, specifically to pay capital improvements.

[52:21] And it's so exciting that this year, voluntary and civic complex will be paying for a lot of their capital projects

[52:29] for the first time this year out of their reserve funds.

[52:33] So that is really exciting.

[52:36] When those resources are spent on an activity, capital projects,

[52:40] When those resources are spent on active capital projects, the fund may show a decrease in

[52:47] fund balance even though its ongoing operations remain financially sustainable.

[52:52] This is why we separate operation performance from capital activity when evaluating each

[52:58] fund.

[53:03] These charts show how individual proprietary funds generate their revenue.

[53:07] For water and sewer, more than 90% of revenue comes from service fees.

[53:13] Fees provide a reoccurring revenue stream that supports operations as well

[53:18] as long-term maintenance and replacement of utility infrastructure.

[53:23] The Civic Complex has a much more diversified revenue structure.

[53:29] Food and beverage represents about 31% lessons and activities, about 28% rentals,

[53:35] about 20% in event income, about 16%. That diversity reflects the many different activities

[53:42] taking place at the facility from recreation and ice programming to events and rentals.

[53:50] Ballantry in the Racket Club also have diversified revenue streams. At Ballantry,

[53:55] revenue comes from guest fees, carpet fees, memberships, food and beverage, and other

[54:00] golf related activities. At the Racket Club, tennis lessons are the largest revenue source

[54:06] followed by tournament revenue and membership fees. These are important because we continue

[54:11] to look for opportunities to increase earned revenue and reduce the amount of support required

[54:17] from other city resources while maintaining the service levels and quality that residents expect

[54:24] from these facilities.

[54:29] This table shows the expenditure side of those operations,

[54:32] Total proprietary finite expenditures here are approximately 25.1 million including operating

[54:39] calls, capital outlay and debt service.

[54:42] Water and sewer is the largest operation at approximately 11 million.

[54:47] The Civic Complex is approximately 4.6 million, Balantry, approximately 3.98, 3.9 million,

[54:55] Trash, approximately 3.6 million, and Rocket, approximately 1.6 million.

[55:00] You can also see how different the call structures are for each of these funds.

[55:05] Water and sewer, balontry and racket have direct personnel calls,

[55:10] while the civic complex and trash have greater concentration in operating or contractual expenses.

[55:17] Our goal is to understand the complete financial structure of each operation

[55:21] and not simply whether one line goes up or down,

[55:24] You know, really looking at that holistic view and how they each one of the operations fits into the full package of city services and why people want to be residents here.

[55:42] Thank you, Jamie. So capital projects, I'm just going to go over this briefly. But if you take the cross creek trail, storm sewer rehab for $220,000 out of that, just just in your mind if you could just kind of move that over to under blueberry hill.

[55:57] Okay?

[56:01] Now, what's left on this page is your annual paving, your ADA sidewalk, which we

[56:06] do every year notice the annual paving has gone from 1.25 to 1.5 million. Your fire

[56:13] station number four renovations, and that's so we can house a new ladder truck that we

[56:19] got coming. Police Department HVag improvement, so they can keep cool because we've got one

[56:26] one more unit that needs to be replaced there, city hall lobby renovations and that's mainly

[56:31] accessibility for the public to more than one person helping them at the front desk.

[56:37] Magistrate office and courtroom renovations does all about safety and fire station number

[56:42] five patio cover, which is about drainage and making sure we take care of that building.

[56:48] Then the rest of these balance rate driving range, balance rate T box renovations,

[56:56] whole

[56:56] coming out of Ballantraze Fund, right?

[57:02] The proprietary fund.

[57:02] Civic complex improvements.

[57:05] That's for the bathrooms for next year.

[57:07] And I think everybody knows that's

[57:09] the next project that needs to be tackled.

[57:11] Blueberry Hill, Property Trailhead,

[57:14] Restaurants and Trails.

[57:15] That is the other new project.

[57:19] Now, you'll see all of these others starting

[57:21] it because remember you moved in your mind, the Cross Creek.

[57:23] The county road 35 phase 2, Brantley Hill, City Park, and then go on to the next.

[57:31] All of this entire slide are all covered by water and sewer fees.

[57:36] That's your long term water and sewer maintenance plan, which is a fantastic plan.

[57:46] I think every chance I get, I stand up and want to say, hey, I was very fortunate

[57:52] it when I walked into this job that there was a great water and sewer plan in place

[57:56] and that those that infrastructure had been maintained.

[58:01] So anyway, that is all there.

[58:04] And then we've got the Blueberry Hill Trailhead Restrooms.

[58:09] This is just, for the budget, it's going to be online and it's in our new technology that

[58:17] we have and you're going to be able to go in and see so much more than you ever could

[58:21] it online. So the residents are going to be able to go and see, look more at each capital,

[58:27] new capital project, see how it's funded. You're going to be able to just go in and find

[58:33] explanations for just every part of the budget, including the expenses and your goals for each

[58:40] department. So that is, I will say, when we were talking about this, Jamie has a son who races,

[58:50] participates in this competition and that we'd be able to cater and get these kids in.

[58:57] And it's a significant number of kids who are competing in the sport.

[59:03] So we're very excited about that.

[59:06] But that is, and then I'm not going to go through the active capital projects.

[59:11] But we have 61, in addition to the 29 new, we have 61 active capital projects

[59:18] that we've been, I think at one point there were 107, so we've been getting them completed and we have 61 more that are in progress.

[59:34] There they are, they're all in there. Yeah, we'll just keep going.

[59:44] As of September 30th, 2026, the city is projected to have approximately 57.4 million in outstanding long term.

[59:53] term, um, principal, um, for 2027 principal and interest payments on obligation.

[1:00:00] Questions shown here or will be approximately 5.97 million debt service is important to our

[1:00:08] long range planning because these are fixed commitments. Those these payments have to be considered

[1:00:15] before we determine how much financial capacity is available for operations, capital projects

[1:00:20] or any future borrowing. As we evaluate future projects and initiatives, we will be looking

[1:00:27] beyond the current budget year and considering the city's existing obligations and future debt capacity

[1:00:34] and that really goes back to Brettian about coming about maintaining our credit rating.

[1:00:44] So I think Laura has a handout of this because I know you can't read it.

[1:00:51] But I'm just saying and I know I've covered a lot of numbers we have.

[1:00:56] So I want to finish with a larger financial picture the FY 2026 have been budget put the city's mission value vision values into action by aligning resources with our seven pillars of excellence in the priorities that guide how we serve our community.

[1:01:12] We have taken into consideration or conservative approach to revenue projections, particularly with our largest revenue sources.

[1:01:20] We have also worked to maintain a structurally balanced budget so that reoccurring operations

[1:01:27] are supported by reoccurring revenues.

[1:01:29] We are using Committer Reserves for the Purpose Council established DIMPOR while still

[1:01:36] increasing our unencumbered general fund balance by approximately $1.4 million.

[1:01:41] We are continuing to plan beyond FY 2027.

[1:01:45] We know there are significant infrastructure and capital needs ahead, so preserving financial

[1:01:49] flexibility today is an important part preparing for those future decisions so I would be happy

[1:01:56] to answer any questions. But I've highlighted some of the major lines that are important, that

[1:02:04] operating surplus or deficit, then looking at where we are after we pay for those kind of

[1:02:12] reoccurring more reoccurring capital expenditures, more like vehicle equipment, once we do our debt

[1:02:18] service and then you know that lower line is really those outlying things that are you know

[1:02:24] either one-time revenues for interfund transfers or large capital projects.

[1:02:39] I don't have any

[1:02:40] questions council do you have any questions?

[1:02:46] I have no questions just a couple of comments that's

[1:02:48] unbelievable information so thank you all I mean I know that takes a lot of hours and a lot of people

[1:02:56] to put all that information together but thank you. That's a lot of information. It's unbelievable.

[1:03:03] I could not do it without the department heads. The information that they provide. I mean,

[1:03:06] I can't know everything about all of their operations. So the information they provide

[1:03:11] is invaluable and then are the rest of the finance team. I mean, they all contribute to this

[1:03:16] and work so hard on getting it done. Well, they all blame. They all say that that's all Jamie puts

[1:03:21] That's all that together, so thank you.

[1:03:25] Yeah, likewise, I want to thank you guys

[1:03:27] from Jamie and Gretchen down to the department heads.

[1:03:31] The information that you guys share with us

[1:03:34] during the budget process was truly appreciated

[1:03:39] and it gave us all opportunities to think more

[1:03:42] in more detail about what actually helps our city run.

[1:03:47] And so again, I just want to piggyback off Councilman Harris's comments that you guys reflect the quality of the personnel that we have here in our city from top to bottom.

[1:04:02] And I think we're very fortunate to have each and every one of you.

[1:04:13] All right, well, if you're watching online or you watch it later or you're here in the

[1:04:17] public, just know that if you do business in the city of Pellum, you live in the city

[1:04:21] of Pellum. We are in a very, very strong financial position. I think we're still one of only

[1:04:27] three cities with a AAA credit rating. I don't know when another one will come in, but we're

[1:04:32] talking about shifting around some of our reserves later this year to make us even more

[1:04:35] sound from a financial position, but I am also, I said this up the last meeting, proud of this council.

[1:04:43] You know, we could have done like prior councils and spent every penny that we had, but we set up side initially

[1:04:50] 2 million and then we ended up having the Blueberry Hill opportunity and then increasing the paving, which is, which is money, well used, I think.

[1:04:58] So kudos to this council for advancing those things, but we're still leaving about 1.25 million untouched, which hasn't happened while I've been on the council. We pretty much spent everything.

[1:05:09] So just thank you all for that and thank you council for being wise stewards knowing that we have the reant project coming up and that gives us some money towards that project if anything else.

[1:05:21] Thank you.

[1:05:28] All

[1:05:34] right, Mr. City Attorney, do you have a report tonight?

[1:05:38] Thank you, sir, no public hearings and no approval.

[1:05:41] I know a approved request to address City Council, no all business.

[1:05:45] We do have I think six individual resolutions to vote on real quick.

[1:05:51] I can talk fast, so bear with us, we're almost done.

[1:05:55] But the first one is resolution 2026-09-0807.

[1:05:59] and this is simply to update the developer agreement with Jen Reff. We found

[1:06:05] some administrative things. We were just updating to give clarity on what the

[1:06:08] city's doing versus what Jen Reff's doing. So that's all this is kind of an

[1:06:11] administrative vote. Remember the council like this resolution read in its

[1:06:15] entirety. I'll entertain a motion to approve this resolution. Motion to approve.

[1:06:20] Second. We have a motion in second. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye.

[1:06:26] any opposed that resolution passage unanimous resolution 2026 090 808 for

[1:06:33] consideration to approve an ABC license application for especially retail or

[1:06:38] of consumable hemp products applicant is gallery smoke with any member of the

[1:06:44] council like this resolution read in its entirety I'll entertain a motion to

[1:06:49] approve or deny this resolution motion to approve second there's a motion and a

[1:06:54] second, any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Mr.

[1:07:02] C. D. Clerk, this passes 4-0 and I will abstain from that vote. Moves this to

[1:07:07] resolution 2026-09-0809 for consideration, authorize a memorandum of agreement

[1:07:13] with Newcastle development in the Camilla Ridge subdivision. This is to fix

[1:07:17] the sidewalks to make them ADA compliant and so that work is I think

[1:07:24] I think it's supposed to happen in four to six weeks

[1:07:26] or you're told in the work session.

[1:07:28] Would any member of the council

[1:07:28] like this resolution read it's entirety?

[1:07:31] I'll entertain a motion to approve.

[1:07:33] Motion to approve.

[1:07:34] Second.

[1:07:35] Motion to second.

[1:07:36] Any discussion?

[1:07:38] All those in favor say aye.

[1:07:40] Aye.

[1:07:41] Aye.

[1:07:41] Any opposed?

[1:07:42] That resolution passes unanimously.

[1:07:45] Resolution 2026-090-810.

[1:07:49] This is the authorization to change

[1:07:51] change the time of change order with messy asphalt paving.

[1:07:56] City manager spoke about this where we had some initial streets were able to add because

[1:08:00] the budget came in or the bid came in under our 1.25 million so we're adding streets that

[1:08:06] we're projected for the next fiscal year into this one.

[1:08:10] Would any member of the council like this resolution read in its entirety?

[1:08:14] No.

[1:08:14] I'll entertain a motion to approve or deny this resolution.

[1:08:17] Motion to approve.

[1:08:18] Second.

[1:08:19] motion and second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye.

[1:08:26] Any opposed? This resolution passes unanimously. We got two left. Resolution 2026-0908-11.

[1:08:35] This is to affirm the mayor's emergency purchase authorization for a brand new school passenger bus for the Pellum Senior Center.

[1:08:42] the other one sort of died on us and so we had to make an emergency

[1:08:47] spin so the council's affirming his decision to expense that for the bus. What

[1:08:51] any member of the council like this resolution read in its entirety? I'll

[1:08:56] entertain a motion to approve or deny this resolution. Motion to approve. Second we

[1:09:00] have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say aye.

[1:09:06] Aye. Any opposed? That resolution passes unanimously. Final one. Resolution

[1:09:20] this is being purchased out of their excess revenues that they had as city manager spoke about earlier, they came in the black. So they're purchasing a new floor to go over the ice for events that will make it more expeditious and require one person to do a versus two.

[1:09:35] would any member of the council like this resolution to read in this entirety.

[1:09:40] I'll entertain a motion to approve or not resolution.

[1:09:43] Second.

[1:09:45] Ready to get out of here.

[1:09:47] Any discussion?

[1:09:49] All those in favor say aye.

[1:09:51] Aye. Any opposed?

[1:09:53] And that resolution passes unanimously.

[1:09:55] It leads to public comments.

[1:09:56] Would any member of the public like to make a comment tonight?

[1:09:58] Please raise your hand. All right.

[1:10:00] If you could come to the podium while I read this statement real quick.

[1:10:03] Public comments are limited to three minutes per speaker, individuals wishing to address

[1:10:07] the council may after being recognized, approached the podium and state their name and physical

[1:10:12] address prior to making their comments in a respectful manner.

[1:10:15] Please note the public comment period is intended for comments only.

[1:10:19] It is not a public hearing nor is it a time for dialogue, debate or questions to the City Council.

[1:10:24] Any questions or requests for additional information will be noted and may be addressed by the appropriate

[1:10:29] city staff or officials at a later time if you would please state your name and address before

[1:10:34] making comments. Hey, I'm Megan Meshard, 107 MetaVee Circle in Pellum and I appreciate your time

[1:10:40] tonight. I'm here because there's a home in our neighborhood, 106 MetaVee Circle, that is completely

[1:10:47] overgrown. The weeds are in some places more than five feet tall. The back fence is completely

[1:10:53] fallen down. The weeds have completely taken over the backyard. That's important because it's

[1:10:59] visible from Highway 52. Not only that, we've got rodents that are now coming

[1:11:05] out of the yard. We've got snakes. We've got bugs. We've got, it's a nuisance.

[1:11:10] It's not just an eye sore. I dare say it's bringing down our property values.

[1:11:15] People can see it. But we've got plenty of children that play.

[1:11:19] Plenty of children that are at risk here. And it's very frustrating because we

[1:11:23] have made numerous, numerous 3-1-1 reports. And now the answer is, well the

[1:11:28] the Pellum Police Department has taken over.

[1:11:31] And I understand that and I appreciate that.

[1:11:33] The problem is she doesn't come to court.

[1:11:36] We were subpoenaed to come testify.

[1:11:38] She got an FTA because she didn't come.

[1:11:40] They're not going to do it.

[1:11:42] You can't make somebody cut their grass.

[1:11:44] But what Pellum can do because this is in violation

[1:11:47] of chapter eight article two, eight-20, 21, 22, 23 and 24.

[1:11:52] Eight-25 says Pellum can go in and do this,

[1:11:55] fix it, clean it up, put a lien against it if she doesn't pay and reimburse that amount.

[1:12:02] And we're asking that that happened because the police department can only find her, charger

[1:12:07] with a misdemeanor, can't go out there and force her to mow her yard, fix her broken down

[1:12:13] garage, fix the broken down fence, fix these problems that are, again, more than just an

[1:12:19] eye sore. And so we're just asking, I say we because many of our neighbors have made these

[1:12:24] complaints. And y'all has been going on since May of last year, over 16 months. This family

[1:12:31] has abandoned the house for more than 12 months at a time. So there's no power, there's

[1:12:37] no water, there's nobody there. She comes back and forth. But we're in a situation where

[1:12:43] we can't, I mean, it's ridiculous. And we're just begging the city to please use what these

[1:12:49] codes allow and get something done for the betterment of not just our neighborhood and our street

[1:12:55] but the city. So thank you for your time. Yes, ma'am. Thank you for your time. I will tell you,

[1:13:00] I've been on the council for a few years and I haven't had anybody quote and articles and things

[1:13:04] like that. So kudos on the research, but please give your information to the city clerk so that we'll

[1:13:10] have that. I already see some staff, you know, taking some notes about this. One of six Meadow

[1:13:14] Meadow view circle if we can take a look at that and then get back with her and

[1:13:19] Okay, thank you. Anybody else public comments?

[1:13:24] All right, Miss Neville.

[1:13:28] Do you forget something?

[1:13:30] Well, actually no. Okay. I did try. Well, Labor Day snicked up on me and you know things shut down and I was hoping to get this as an announcement on the

[1:13:45] agenda and everything.

[1:13:46] This, I serve on the Board of Directors for the Pellum Arts Council, which denied to

[1:13:55] Gretchen for helping us get that started, the beat, beautification, entertainment, and

[1:14:03] arts team.

[1:14:04] We do two dinner theaters a year.

[1:14:08] The Fall Dinner Theater is coming up October 2nd and 3rd, a Friday and Saturday.

[1:14:16] evening. These are murder mysteries. Let me see if I can get this title right. It is the wedding

[1:14:23] from hell. That is the title. Y'all know I wouldn't be talking like that in City. But it's all

[1:14:33] in print on Facebook and stuff. But this is to serve as a reminder to please get your tickets.

[1:14:39] We think we're very important asset to the city. We make think we're more important than we really

[1:14:45] are, but we hope not. And we would like to have you attend. These are fun, entertaining.

[1:14:53] You get dinner, a nice dinner, and live entertainment because we partner with South City Theatre.

[1:15:00] In poem, who is also an asset to the city. So just a reminder, look up, the beat, key on the

[1:15:12] link, vent bright, great prices, great dinner, great fun, and you're bound to see somebody

[1:15:18] you know, and it's going to be a hell of a wedding. It was now or the ticket still around $50.

[1:15:25] dollars or do you know okay

[1:15:31] oh no no no we do it at we do it right except the not that they are

[1:15:38] having some issues their event space is very small we have access twice a year per the city to

[1:15:46] the civic center complex and ice arena so we're in you know one of the ballrooms it's a very nice

[1:15:52] You said it right. You're doing it right. Very nice venue, and I make my husband go and he enjoys it, so.

[1:16:02] Yep, so thank you, Neville. In a prior life, I served with Neville on the beat when we first started those dinner theaters and for $55.

[1:16:11] If that's the ticket price now, you get a full meal. They have an open bar if you choose to take in that.

[1:16:21] But it lasts about three hours, you get to participate sometimes in the dinner theaters and it's just a really good event that you can't be $55 a ticket for.

[1:16:31] We can't even go out to eat for $55.

[1:16:33] If you like to dress in costume, we encourage dressing according to that this is supposed to be a bombshell of a wedding, everything that can go wrong does go wrong.

[1:16:44] Besides the murder involved.

[1:16:46] All right, so please come and join us.

[1:16:48] Thank you, Neville.

[1:16:49] Mr. Shelby County reporter, that might be a cool article

[1:16:51] to have on an interview.

[1:16:52] So any other public comments?

[1:16:56] Move to council comments.

[1:16:58] We'll start with Councilman Harris

[1:16:59] and we'll end with Councilman Snowden.

[1:17:02] All right, I'll use my time to promote.

[1:17:04] I told Coach Newton that I would promote Pelham football.

[1:17:07] So if anybody has a free Friday night,

[1:17:10] please come support Pelham football on the hill.

[1:17:12] They play homewood this week.

[1:17:14] It's going to be a great, great game.

[1:17:18] Kudos to the culture at Pelham High School now.

[1:17:21] It's magical, it's unbelievable.

[1:17:23] Huge crowds in the culture is way different than it was

[1:17:27] a few years ago.

[1:17:28] So come support Pelham football Friday night, 7 o'clock.

[1:17:32] Pelham versus Homewood.

[1:17:37] On a second note, if you watched the Hellaynut Pelham game,

[1:17:40] it was very intense.

[1:17:41] And I wish we had pulled it off.

[1:17:44] I should have said there will be different referees on this game, right?

[1:17:48] Is that what I should have said? Yeah, I was trying to be politically correct, but yeah, it was it was a tough it was a tough loss for sure

[1:17:55] I don't have a whole lot to say we've been here a long time, but I do want to say I'm super excited to see what Blueberry Hill is going to look like

[1:18:02] I've been here all my life and that property is always going to be something so now it really is going to be something and I'm super excited about that

[1:18:09] So thanks everyone for being here tonight.

[1:18:13] Yes, thank you for saying for such a long meeting.

[1:18:18] I'm super excited about Blueberry Hill as well.

[1:18:21] And I'm excited that it's going

[1:18:23] not going to take very long to get it going.

[1:18:25] So what did end of spring next?

[1:18:29] Last week heard January, break ground, second quarter finish.

[1:18:34] Maybe if we're lucky.

[1:18:36] That's exciting because that will draw a lot of people

[1:18:38] to Palom and it's it's just going to be something amazing to do with something that the city's already

[1:18:46] already owns. But I wanted to say Andre where did he go? Well it's passed his bedtime but

[1:18:56] I was just really excited that he pushed 261 to be independent of Hoover. That's amazing.

[1:19:03] And then of course, you know, the stormwater maintenance and everything he's done there.

[1:19:08] I heard he also helps up a bank robbery and helps an elderly woman cross the road on 31.

[1:19:15] So, you know, too bad he left.

[1:19:18] I think he's going to go put on spandex and fight crime.

[1:19:21] But the other, the facade improvement project is really, really fun.

[1:19:28] And I know that we've always talked about Pellum just improving and looking better and that

[1:19:36] is exciting to me to see local businesses being promoted.

[1:19:39] So good job on that.

[1:19:41] And again, Gretchen, you shine when it comes to the budget.

[1:19:45] The way you put it together, I know Jamie is just an integral part.

[1:19:49] You all come together and did such a great job on that.

[1:19:53] good job in bringing a balanced budget. That's incredibly important and the fact

[1:19:59] that Ballant Ray and the Civic Center and the Racket Club soon to join the

[1:20:05] other two are making more than what they they we spend on it is a dream come

[1:20:13] true at least for me and I've wished that for many years so that's exciting to be

[1:20:16] a part of that not that I'm a part of it but you know we're present and so

[1:20:20] that's an exciting.

[1:20:23] That's exciting that it's happening. The street pavement, again,

[1:20:28] Andre out there fighting crime. I wanted to say, like, you know, great job to his team.

[1:20:34] Seth, Cheney, Cheney, how good job making money. That's great. Y'all pay for yourselves.

[1:20:41] I mean, we're on the up and up and that's very impressive. And I guess that's it. But thank you.

[1:20:51] Councilman Snowden, you're going to have a time trying to come up with something taking the last council comments.

[1:21:00] I'll scratch off some of my, maybe you'll pick them up. I just have two really.

[1:21:04] My son asked me, he knows that I read a Bible verse at every council meeting and he said, he picked out first Peter 5 to be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care watching over them, not because you must,

[1:21:17] but because you are willing as God wants you to be not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve.

[1:21:24] So there you go, little buddy. But Rick and I had the opportunity today to go to the YMCA here in

[1:21:32] Poland and they did tell us that they're going to be looking at investing a half a million dollars in

[1:21:37] that facility in the coming years. But it was really eye-opening for me. I don't know Rick if you thought

[1:21:44] the same but we had a member of Pelham Strong that was there and then Representative

[1:21:48] Kenneth Paschal was there and they were they really just wanted to see how they could get out in

[1:21:54] the community more and so we gave them some ideas but what I found was interesting was is they have

[1:22:01] classes that folks that have been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease can participate in over there

[1:22:06] free of charge and so to help with their cognitive ability and try to slow the progression of

[1:22:14] Parkinson's degree disease.

[1:22:17] They also, while we were there,

[1:22:19] they were 60 to 70 Latino or Hispanic women there

[1:22:22] that were participating in.

[1:22:24] Once a week, they had the women from the community

[1:22:26] come in, they do crafts, they eat,

[1:22:28] but they have little small groups throughout the week.

[1:22:31] But once a week, they do this one event.

[1:22:33] That was just really impressive.

[1:22:35] And we got to talk to most of them, very nice.

[1:22:38] So Mayor had some ideas, you know,

[1:22:41] how we could help that community.

[1:22:42] they have child care there that they provide to their members but one of the big

[1:22:46] things that I know that my wife Melissa's been a proponent of is swimming and

[1:22:51] drownings and teaching kids to swim and so when one bad thing happens

[1:22:56] something else you know sometimes comes in its place and Alibaster YMCA closed

[1:23:00] and they had a really big swim program there that they ended up moving to

[1:23:04] Pellown that they still partner with the Alibaster City School system in.

[1:23:12] Can't

[1:23:12] but classes or something, but they've started partnering

[1:23:15] with the city of Pellum too,

[1:23:16] because now they have that program in Pellum.

[1:23:19] And so that's just happened this year,

[1:23:21] and they have something called like, it's red to green.

[1:23:25] So if you haven't passed their swim test,

[1:23:27] you get a red bracelet and you have to have a light jacket on,

[1:23:30] if you pass it, you get a green blouse.

[1:23:32] So they're teaching them, I mean, there were kids

[1:23:33] and they're three years old doing backstrokes,

[1:23:36] and they're teaching these kids.

[1:23:38] Bring them from the school system,

[1:23:40] they had their swim classes and they go back.

[1:23:41] you know to the school so that being said I invited them to come in at some

[1:23:47] point to present on things that they're doing if they want to whether in the

[1:23:50] work session or council meeting and set us up to them to reach out and put

[1:23:54] that on the agenda but it's right here in Pellum and I have a lot of services for

[1:23:59] the city of Pellum so I'd encourage you to check them out if you have any of

[1:24:03] those needs so with that I'll pass it off to councilman Snowden. All right real

[1:24:08] quick. I want to thank everybody for coming out tonight as well as those who are

[1:24:12] viewing us on live stream. We thank you for taking the time to participate in

[1:24:17] this civic process. I first off I want to thank the mayor and our city manager

[1:24:24] and our parks and rec for quickly making a decision and executive decision and

[1:24:31] making sure our seniors are able to go on their plan trips because of our

[1:24:37] our van going down, we had to look at purchasing another one in its place and

[1:24:46] sometimes you know decisions have to be made in lieu of us up here and we'll

[1:24:53] catch up to it and I just want to thank these individuals for doing what they

[1:24:58] had to do and then bringing it to our attention so we could ratify it. Also

[1:25:04] So I want to touch again on the budget, you know, where we tried to focus and emphasize

[1:25:09] on a conservative and sustainable planning.

[1:25:15] I mean, I think that's been the key and every decision that we've tried to make.

[1:25:19] The street resurfacing is a very important component of that.

[1:25:23] We've discussed this kind of ad nauseam.

[1:25:27] The importance of trying to complete construction projects ahead of schedule.

[1:25:33] as well as on budget so that we can plan for future activities.

[1:25:39] We know there's things coming up in future fiscal years that we've got to gear ourselves

[1:25:44] up for, so we're trying to make decisions now that will help position ourselves to be able

[1:25:51] to accommodate those needs when that time arises.

[1:25:55] So again, I mean, from across the board here, I think all these guys as well as these individuals

[1:26:01] here for the teamwork, the teamwork mindset and the ideas that flow between us all in order to

[1:26:09] be able to try to make our city the best it can be. Last but not least I just again touching on

[1:26:17] the the proclamations both being very important one regarding health. I know a lot of you guys don't

[1:26:25] followed WWL radio like I do, but when you're hardcore New Orleans Saints fan you have no

[1:26:32] choice otherwise you lose your card. But one of the radio head sports talk notable names

[1:26:40] on WWL radio passed over the weekend and it was with a very brief battle with pancreatic

[1:26:46] cancer. So getting checked out, getting screened, going to the doctor. I mean I know we all

[1:26:54] yourself as tough people and can deal with pain and other issues, but my self

[1:27:01] included, and I've got somebody that will fuss at me otherwise. I won't point in

[1:27:07] any direction, but it's important to go to the doctor, get your screenings, and do

[1:27:14] the right things health-wise. And again, that's the reason why you hear us

[1:27:18] emphasize so much about outdoor activities because we want our citizens to get out and

[1:27:24] your quality of life while we have that opportunity to do it and we want to try to do everything

[1:27:30] we can to create as many avenues possible to motivate you to come out of the house and enjoy

[1:27:36] what our city has to offer. Again, thank you everybody for coming out. It's been a very productive

[1:27:42] of night, been a very informative night, and I just thank everybody for your participation.

[1:27:49] Okay, thank you, Council.

[1:27:50] We've got three public announcements.

[1:27:52] We're not going to read them verbatim.

[1:27:53] You can pick up a sheet on your way out to get all the information, not announcement number one.

[1:27:58] We're accepting public library board placed one applications.

[1:28:01] You can apply on the city of Pellham website through September 25th, 2026.

[1:28:06] on the park is September 20th, 2026 and we also have America's 250th on Sunday, September 27th, 2026 and that one is at the Bellam City Park music food trucks and everything else.

[1:28:22] I'll take a motion to adjourn the council meeting.

[1:28:25] Motion to adjourn.

[1:28:27] Is there a second?

[1:28:28] Second.

[1:28:29] All those in favor say aye.

[1:28:30] Aye.

[1:28:31] Any opposed?

[1:28:32] We are adjourned.

[1:28:36] So long, Everett.

[1:28:51] Good night, Amanda.

[1:28:53] Good night.

[1:28:54] You're good, you're not a bad guy.

[1:28:57] You're fine, you're not a bad guy.

[1:28:59] You're fine, you're not a bad guy.

[1:28:59] You're not a bad guy.

[1:29:00] You're not a bad guy.

[1:29:02] I know, though.

[1:29:03] Yeah.

[1:29:09] Thank you, Jonathan.

[1:29:11] It's like Christmas.

[1:29:13] I'm going to be in the house.

[1:29:15] I'm going to be in the house.

[1:29:19] I know.

[1:29:19] It's so funny and funny.

[1:29:21] I didn't understand how much it was.

[1:29:23] I was just a friend at the time.

[1:29:25] I just started over and over again.

[1:29:27] I have to get on base.

City Council Meeting

Transcript