Good, Seth. How are you?
I got it. How are you, sir?
I know.
» Good evening and welcome. We're so glad
to have such a big crowd to start off
the new year for the city of Radford.
This is our first meeting in the new
fiscal year and we're glad to have you
all join us this evening. So, welcome.
We always love to begin with our pledge
of allegiance. So, we'll ask Gary Harris
from the VFW to come forward.
» Present arms.
I pledge allegiance
>> allegiance to the flag of the United
States of America,
and to the republic for which it stands,
one nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice
for all.
>> Thank you.
And we ask that you would join us in a
moment of silence that you can use for
silent reflection, prayer, or however
you plan to prepare for the meeting.
Thank you all very much. Uh Council, you
have the minutes from the June 8th
meeting. Are there any corrections or
changes you'd like to make?
Do we have a motion to approve as
submitted? We have a motion. Do we have
a second?
>> Second.
>> A motion and a second. Any discussion?
All in favor, please respond by saying
"Aye."
>> Aye.
>> Any opposed?
Okay.
Oh, we're doing it over there. Got you.
Okay.
Um
at this time, we'll open the floor for
citizen comments on public matters.
Uh we'd love for you to come down if you
have something you'd like to say or
question you'd like to ask. Come down to
the podium. Be sure to put the
microphone up close to your mouth so
that we can hear you. State your name
for the record, and limit your comments
to 3 minutes or less. The comment time
is on the screen. So, the floor is now
open for citizen comments.
» Hello.
My name is Bill Fleischer.
I'd like to recognize a group of people
that don't usually get uh praise.
And that's our police department. I
watched them on the 4th of July down in
that hot park wearing those black
uniforms and the vest with all that
equipment and I know they had to be
sweltering.
And then I saw how efficiently they
handled the crowd after
uh to get everybody out safely and
quickly and I I just I really
appreciated their professionalism and
their courtesy during that time. So,
just wanted to bring them together.
>> much.
>> [applause]
» Certainly agreed, absolutely. Um any
Does anyone else have any comments for
the public record?
Come on down to the podium.
» Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you,
Mayor and City Council. I am Amanda
Hudgens and I am the uh director of
research and innovation for the College
of Nursing at Radford University and I
just wanted to bring to your attention
one of the new business items is our
Radford University Cares mobile health
clinic, which is going to be uh
venturing out into the communities of
the New River Valley, Southwest
Virginia, and hopefully the city of
Radford. This is a faculty-led
student-run clinic that is going to be
offering free care to our citizens and
training our next generation of health
care providers. So, we have lots of
services to offer and a service line to
expand as we go along, so we would
really appreciate the city's support so
we can bring this to the community in
the places where people live, work,
play, and enjoy their community.
Thank you.
>> Thank you very much.
» [applause]
» Maybe we'll all get applause this
evening. That's a good thing.
Um is there anyone else who has a
comment for the public record?
Okay, seeing no one else, we will
go ahead and close that portion of the
meeting.
Um, and we do have some things to
address this evening. Uh, we've got a
couple presentations. First, we have a
representative here from Brown Edwards
to give us an update on our forensic
audit. We started this process a good uh
bit of time ago by first issuing the uh
invitation for bid. We had several bids.
Uh, Brown Edwards was selected and since
the spring has been working toward it.
So, welcome. Thank you for being here.
>> Yeah, thank you, Mayor. Again, I'm John
Aldridge with Brown Edwards & Company.
Um, what I want to do tonight is just
kind of give you all an update of where
we stand on the project. As you recall,
when we started this
uh working with you all, there were
approximately 28 different areas we were
going to look at throughout the city.
And those went back a couple years. So,
to date, we have finished seven of those
28 tasks. So, for those seven, we've met
with staff, we've uh gone over some
preliminary findings, observations
there. Uh, so, we're going to continue
to fine-tune that before we issue that.
The other open um 21 items are in
process. We've requested information
from your staff. Uh, they're getting it
back to us um as they can because
honestly, they're trying to fit this in
between an audit, the budget, and
everything else they do. So, this is
just one extra task. Uh, but they've
done a good job. They've uh done a good
job getting us information. Uh, there
hasn't so far been any situations where
we've been stonewalled or anything like
that. Um, to date as well, I was
counting before I came, I think we have
right at 26 recommendations already of
things that you can can do better. You
know, again with looking with new staff
and some changes, this was the perfect
time for y'all to look at operations and
how to do things more efficiently. So
again, we've only finished seven and
I've already got 26 recommendations for
you. So, um
I feel pretty good, you know, going
forward this will be wrapped up fairly
timely.
However, a lot of this is on your all's
staff. So, I I could tell you if it was
all on me, here's when it would be
completed, but again, it's a lot of of
things they need to fit in, but uh you
know, some of the biggest areas we've
already completed would be related to
utility billings in that area.
Some of the big things left will be
personnel related, payroll, uh some
disbursements, and then the budget
process. Those are kind of the big
things on the horizon we need to wrap
up. But I'm sorry.
>> So, yeah, thank you so much for that.
You mentioned uh you had the seven that
are completed and at some point, will
you release those with some of the
recommendations sometime in the near
future before you complete all the rest
of the work?
>> We certainly could.
>> Okay.
>> Yeah, that's that that would be fine if
you would like it to to do it that way.
>> No, I think that would be helpful cuz I
know a lot of folks have wanted to know
is there something that has gone on or
is there something that should change
and something we can actually start
doing better now. Now, all those
recommendations, have those been
communicated to the staff, yeah?
>> Not all together yet, just a few here
and
>> be helpful, too, because then we can
begin to incorporate some of that in our
process and and go from there cuz I
think that's one of the more valuable
portions of this. Um of course, the
biggest component that we feel we wanted
to look at is the budget piece and and
that has not even been touched at this
point.
>> It's been started, but it's just very
preliminary right now.
>> Okay. So, it'll still be some time on
that is what you're telling us.
>> Very much so.
>> Okay. Thank you so much for that uh
wonderful presentation. I I know it's
not a lot of detailed information, but
it's where we are and and what we're
working on. Council, do you all have any
questions?
Okay.
>> All right.
>> Yeah, thank you so much and I I think it
would be good um for us to be able to do
a short release. So, if you will help us
with that when you do the seven that
you've covered and whatever the
recommendations are, we want to be
really transparent with that and share
that with folks. So, once staff gets it
can digest it then we'll figure out how
we want to share that with the public at
large.
>> All right, we'll plan on that. Hopefully
by the next When's your next meeting?
August? Yeah. Hopefully we'll get it
wrapped up by August and have it
>> fabulous.
>> Yeah.
>> Thank you so much.
>> Thank you.
very much.
All right, and we now have our school
superintendent and the school board,
they have a request for additional match
funds and and I'll just start very
briefly by saying
normally we would do this significantly
earlier in the year, but the way the
state's budgeting process worked, we
didn't really have a state budget until
right at the end of June. And so we're
revisiting some things that we would
have typically talked about during
budget season. And with that, Adam
Joyce, our superintendent, is here. Dr.
Joyce, welcome.
>> Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate the time.
Thank you, Council, for having us here
this afternoon. Um
I have a real short presentation and
you're right,
the budget sort of drifted through the
spring, but then once it became a bill,
we've been moving at at at lightning
speed. So, that's why I'm here tonight.
A lot of the budget
was you know, we we were treated fairly
I think by the state. It comes with some
contributions in the form of matching
funds. So, that's what I'm here to
present tonight. Now, I can click or you
just I'll just give you the click wink.
Okay.
The recently released state budget
includes adjusted funding for a number
of categories including special
education, class size reduction,
preschool initiative, compensation
supplements for staff, and our at-risk
students.
But as you know, in order to receive
those funds, locality must provide a
matching contribution. For Radford, our
LCI means that we're responsible for
slightly less than 16%
of the total amount.
Um in order to unlock these important
state resources, local required match
totals about $205,000.
Uh, that is all the categories combined.
And I think that might be all of it.
Huh. Um, so, I am open uh, for
discussion with you guys, questions,
comments, whatever it is I can help
with.
>> Well, thank you so much. Uh, there are a
lot of questions, and can we go back to
your slide about the uh, yeah, the the
now go we'll come back to that one in a
minute, but this one. So, just for
clarification on this, this is $205,209
that the city would provide on top of
the approximately half a million dollars
that the city has already budgeted for
and is provided as the the local match
prior to June 30th.
>> This is on top of the local required
effort and local required matches that
you guys appropriated for us back in the
spring.
>> And once we have done this, and once we
go into this, this is the new local
match moving forward. So, it goes from
about half a million to 700,000 in
perpetuity.
>> There are some variables there like
enrollment, things that um, may change.
It won't change a lot, so you're you're
right. Um,
this would probably be the new amount
going forward, plus or minus.
Uh, Carrie, would you agree? So.
>> Sometimes the state
» Okay.
So, just to clarify what Carrie just
said, and thank you so much for that.
Sometimes the state changes the
allocations, which could affect the
local match. Um, this year you did have
some savings that you could carry
forward. Can you talk about that a
little bit?
>> a budget ago, we um, budgeted at the
school level some monies for folks who
aren't in VRS.
Uh, we were we were going to budget
money for them to have a retirement fund
individually,
um, so that it was, you know, it was a
of an incentive or retention or
recruiting tool. So, folks that aren't
in the VRS for whatever reason, we would
deduct some money from their payroll for
them to have some retirement funds.
We didn't get that completed this year
for a couple of reasons. I won't bore
you with those, but that money is still
there. So, what I asked
your folks to help us with was to take
that money, hold it for us, and let us
have it back this budget season so that
we could in earnest start that program.
That's about $70,000.
I think it would be fair for you as a
city to take the $70,000
that you're holding for us so that we
can start those non-VRS retirement funds
and make that part of the 205, which
would which would be a new total of
135209.
>> So, the 135209 would just be for the
first year, and then once we revisit
this for budget season next spring, the
total's 205209 plus, you know, ish, and
plus whatever that other rest of the
local matches, which is about half a
million.
>> That's a fair statement.
>> Okay.
Can we go to the slide that was before
this?
So, these are a lot of things, and I
know we talked about them a year ago
when we were working through with Mr.
Meadows when he helped us develop the
budget for fiscal year 2016 that just
ended about some of these areas. How
much of this is impacted? Like, would
the compensation, and I believe the
compensation is to go to 4% for raises
as opposed to the 2% that were budgeted
for?
>> The state has made funds available for a
4% increase for SOQ positions. We are
now at a 2% increase, so that's an
increase of 2%.
>> Explain what the difference is from an
SOQ position versus someone else working
for the
>> of quality positions are what the state
believes is the minimum staffing you
should have in a school division to
deliver the education,
but the city of Radford and the school
division is always going above and
beyond the SOQs.
We're not asking for the city to fund
non-SOQ compensation increases.
Um
Carrie Long and I and the school board
have found ways to extend that 2% to
non-SOQ personnel. I can't imagine not
doing that. Um you know, someone that
you could work directly beside in your
classroom wouldn't get the raise while
you did get the raise. So, we've worked
really hard to come up with funds to um
make it 2% at at right now or four if
things go well for everyone.
>> Okay.
So, and I appreciate that. How much of
the match is the compensation component?
>> Oh, boy.
>> Is it I mean, 80% 20%?
>> It's
No, it's it's not as much as you might
think.
>> Well, that's what I wondered cuz we were
trying to figure out, you know, if for
example, the city could do 10,000 or
50,000 or 100,000, what does that mean
we can have, what can't we have, you
know, how does that impact it?
>> Right.
>> So, um
The budget originally had the 2%.
>> Mhm.
>> I'm not going to be able to hear you,
dude.
>> Okay.
>> Uh sorry.
I'm going to
>> Yeah, it's probably better if you come
to the microphone. And I apologize.
These are all I think these are
important questions to ask though as we
have this discussion cuz we're so tight.
>> Carrie can join me at the podium, I feel
a lot better.
>> Um
Okay. So, what I'm looking at is the
calc tool which is available on the DOE
website which we've shared with not this
particular one, but we have shared one
with you all in the past. Um
So, under compensation, a supplement for
the 4% is 158,729.
So, approximately half of that is for
the additional 2%.
>> Okay.
>> So, out of the 205 you're saying that's
the the total for the 2% additional 2%
raise. So, it's about 50%. So, the
special ed add-on, the class size
reduction, the preschool initiative, and
the at-risk students is about the same
then as the raise. Is that accurate?
>> Um I didn't I have not looked at it in
that particular detail, so I would think
it probably isn't done that way. It's
probably got some other type of formula
that it's figured on.
>> Okay.
All right. Um just you know, these are
questions that I had when we first were
told, "Okay, hey this is something we
need to talk about." Cuz this literally
just happened 13 days ago.
>> Yes, sir.
>> [laughter]
>> There's not been a lot of time for
discussion on that. Council, what
questions do you all have?
>> I guess my one question would be with
the budget that was passed, all these
things were in place, right? So, the
these weren't at risk of going away.
>> No, sir.
>> Okay. So, so with this supplemental
money, what exactly is that
other than the salaries?
>> All these funds would be increased. Um
special education add-on would bring us
closer to
um you know,
it's a federal special education is
federal. We want to make sure that we're
exceeding any kind of federal standards
or state standards. We want to be above
and beyond that as far as caseloads and things of that nature. Class size
reduction, we always you know, that that
just means smaller classes, which means
a better ratio for your teacher to
students. We always kind of want to be
out front on that. Um preschool
initiative gives us more funding to
accept more kids to the program, maybe
have more aids, more materials in the
program.
Um compensation we've talked about and
our at-risk students, which are kids
that are um identified based on income,
things of that nature. We are able to
support them better with with counselors
or or tutoring or more material, things
like that.
>> And I know you guys have done a really
good job of being able to find that 2%
for the other positions. Would you be
able to if we if the city was not able
to do this, would you be able to Would
you have the funds available to to able
to pick up this initiative?
>> I couldn't say right now it would be a
4% now.
>> Right.
So,
» [clears throat]
>> just
walk me through the math here. So, we
were looking at the next slide, you're
asking a total of 208
205.
>> And then you're saying the increase the
4% increase, that is how much of that?
>> Uh
about 80,000.
>> About 80, okay.
So, I guess where I always said is when
you were talking about when you're in a
classroom and you have one person that
gets a raise and then the person working
beside them, they don't get the raise. I
kind of feel like that's where our city
employees are. They're sitting next to
the schools who consistently get raises
and they've had to hold back from
raises. And so, um everyone is worth a
raise, but under restrictive financial
environments, we have to make choices.
So, um
it's a hard sell when when you guys came
to us before, all these things were
covered pretty much to your satisfaction
and now you want additional funds. Um
>> And the only reason before that is
because, you know, all of our neighbors
have the same capital and are and are
looking at the same raise potential.
I just don't want to be the person that
lets Radford slip behind because
I mean, you know, I I get the variables
here. I get why.
But it's it's hard for me to recruit
teachers from other neighboring counties
when their compensation may already be
better than ours and they're not going
to get the same raise.
That's why. And you And I know you
understand that. It's the same for your
folks.
>> Right. I was like, yeah, we it's it's
the same for our police officers and our
fire firemen and EMS workers. We're dealing with the exact same thing
on this side uh as well.
>> Right.
>> So, if we gave you your 70,000 back that
you've requested, what could you cover?
some of this with that
70,000 or is it an all or nothing
initiative?
>> No, it's not an all or nothing, but it
would take us more time than tonight to
figure how we could disperse that
fairly.
>> And
if you choose not to participate in one
particular program, whatever it is,
you're going to lose the state revenue
from it. So, it is a little bit more
impactful for us than just the
difference, you know.
>> Right, because so many other things.
>> mean out of the 500 we've already done,
if we don't participate all the way to
the 200,000 level in a category, that
you lose all of that?
>> No, you the 500 or the number that
you're using is the local part.
>> Right.
>> And um
>> So, that would not go away.
>> No.
>> It would just stay where
>> So, what we've already, you know, let's
say the state hadn't done this addi-
additional 200. What we've already
budgeted will happen regardless. These
are just additional additional on top of
that.
>> Okay.
>> And see, I mean, I don't want to speak
out of turn, but this is the state's way
of of showing the pre- the K-12 world
some love. The problem is it comes with
matching contributions that may or may
not be considered in Richmond. Right? I
mean, it sounds great that they're
giving more funding to the schools, but
what it does it burdens you and I and
the city and the school division to come
up with the matching funds.
>> Can you ask them if they'll show the
locality some love? We need some of that
love.
>> They show us a tax increase is what they
show us.
>> So, I guess I go back to the reserves
with with your reserves because we're
trying to build our reserves as a city
because we for for you to be healthy, we
have to be healthy. So, we're trying to
build our reserves. So, I guess I would
go back to I'm sure I would assume
before you came to us, you evaluated
your reserves to see if you could cover
this and if so, are you not able to? Are
you or is that a
>> We we we can't cover this ourselves, the
205, no, ma'am.
>> This has to be new money that the city
puts in the budget.
>> Right, because otherwise then we start
taking from other other, you know, pots,
so to speak, and then they're left
short. So, we I was talking about like
your reserve
>> So, your reserve account with us, you're
not allowed to take reserve money from
your account with us.
>> It has [clears throat] a most We really
want to be careful
>> dollars in it.
>> We want to be careful with our money as
well. So, this is a pot that is not
touching your cash. It's in reserves for
things like this that come up that may
be burdensome on the city that are also
burdensome on you. So, this is kind of a
in-between pot that we can pull from. I
mean, I I would support sounds like that
may be a suggestion. I would absolutely
support that. I want to support the
schools and give them all the raises,
but I have to also think about other
departments that we have. You know, the
school is one very important huge piece
with the city, but we also have other
pieces that we have to think about, too.
And I think this reserve account may be
an option to
help both ends and not burden either of
us as much as as we, you know, would
want to and still make this happen.
>> It's kind of the I think it's to your
point, Kelly. It's kind of the same
concept we came up with last year for
fiscal year 26 where the half a million
was found out of the reserve funds that you all would donate that back to
help the budget and that the city would
go on and make its local match of the
half a million. So, I think that's the
concept. And I know everybody's kind of
on the spot tonight. The the one big
issue is we don't have to make a
decision tonight to get the funds,
correct?
Okay. So, this is something we could
work on and come back with a Okay,
here's a proposal to see these are some
options that are available to us.
>> And in the meantime, Todd, I mean, what
would that look like from our budgeting
standpoint? I know, you know, we did a
2% real estate increase.
You know, if we do this, that would
negate you know, over a cent or so. How
would that affect us? Would we just have
to continue to increase taxes? I mean,
how how could we substantially fund
this?
>> So, the 205 represents approximately 2
cent on the real estate, and that's what
we went up this year. So, it would
essentially use up that
or the equivalent of 2 cent on the real
estate. If the $70,000 is used to fund
the retirement accounts for the non-VRS
eligible employees,
you're looking at
about a a little bit over a cent, like a cent and a quarter of a cent on the
real estate.
As far as what it looks logistically in
our budget, the general fund cannot
support $200,000. It can't support 138.
What it would look like, the city would
have to transfer money from one of the
enterprise funds, water or electric or
solid waste, one of those, most likely
water or electric, into the general to
fund this, to then turn over to the to
the schools for the local match. So, you
know, the only thing I will advise
council, just keep in mind, you know,
those transfers, we're trying to get
away from those, and the funds that we
do transfer out of the enterprise funds
are it's reducing the amount that we
have available to tackle infrastructure
needs. And and that's the ultimate
long-term danger of continuing to
transfer those funds out is that we're
not addressing infrastructure, like
water tanks, water lines, sewer lines,
electric pole replacements,
etc.
>> Or existing debt that we're trying to
whittle down and and get our interest
payments down and eliminate.
>> That's correct, existing debt as well.
>> I I've still
got a question in my mind. Out of the
205,
you said there's these different
categories. So, can we, I guess, if one
category is a $50,000, and one's
100,000, and one's 150, then we're on
the hook for
16% of that?
>> It's that It's
>> The match our
>> makes a whole. So, it's the um 16% plus
the uh 84% to make 100%.
>> Right. So,
but if it's 50,000 for one thing, and we
say we can't do our
>> Right.
>> 16% on that, that 50 goes away.
>> Well, that 50 That 50% that we're asking
you for is 16% of what the state would
do.
>> Okay, I'm talking about if 50,000's the
whole thing,
>> Oh, okay.
>> and our part is 16% of 50, and we say,
"No, we can't do that 16%." Then the
whole 50 goes away.
>> Right.
>> Can you give us or I would like to see a
breakdown of the categories
and what that category represents out of
that 205?
>> We We can, not tonight.
>> Right.
>> I know.
>> So,
you know, I'm thinking maybe what we do
is say, "Let's revisit this for our
August meeting and get some of that
information together and some of the
answers, um and talk about how what that
looks like if it's going to be, you
know,
we think we can do 30,000 out of water,
we think we can do this out of
sanitation, whatever that looks like,
and have something more concrete in
front of us to to look at and and see
what this looks like, cuz this is a a
big deal, and you know, I I actually
think it's a good thing we're having
this discussion. So, one of the biggest
things we've talked about as a locality
is how did we get exactly where we are
with some of the fiscal challenges we
have. This is a great example where the
state says, "Hey, we can do this
wonderful thing." And it's a wonderful
thing that I think everybody looks at
and says, "Yeah, that's amazing to be
able to do." But it's basically a, you
know, past this year, it's a 2-cent tax
increase or the equivalent budget
reduction to be sustainable. And and
that's the hard part for the city to get
to that sustainability. So, I think
coming back to this at the August
meeting makes a lot of sense to get all
the information we can
to talk about what each of these
categories represents out of the 205
um so that we understand that and then
to talk a little bit about how, you
know, if we were able to do 135 this
coming year cuz we have the special
savings we could do,
what does it look like in out years
because again, even though we may not
have a crystal ball and know that, we're
pretty much saying this is baking that
in the cake and we move from a half a
million-ish dollar match to a $700,000
match and and just understanding that.
>> it's a 2-year cycle, I think we're
pretty safe that it won't go too far.
>> more, yeah.
>> One more, yeah.
>> Right.
>> I'm I'm still a little uncomfortable
with that because I don't see a route to
make that happen. I I'm not comfortable
taking money out of these other
departments that we know have
infrastructural needs. Um
I I'm more inclined to say the 70,000,
of course, return back. That was money
you invested and then to see what you
can do with the reserves because that is why we have the reserves and I
just don't see a logical path that's
fiscally responsible to do it any other
way at this point. And we, you know, we
felt like we went in pretty knee-deep
and didn't push back on the budget as it
existed when you brought it to us and
that was hard. That's, you know, there
are other grants as you're going to hear
tonight that we would love to be able to
take advantage of that we can't that
would help the entire community as well.
So,
I'm I'm not sure for me if waiting is
going to matter because I just don't see
a responsible path
to provide more than that other than
allowing that 70,000 to return and
having the reserves, but that's just
where I currently sit, especially with
hearing from our city manager.
>> If I may, I wanted to make one more
point about the budgeted transfers to
our reserve accounts. Um we still have
two payments left, AEP, and while we've
made great progress this year, we do
still have those two payments out there.
It is possible we may have to use some
of those funds or close to all of those
funds to
uh pay that bill down. Um
I just didn't want to leave that out.
» So,
on top of all that,
>> Yeah.
>> um
I've never been this deep in a school
year without a budget.
>> Okay.
>> You know, and I don't think anyone has.
So, I'm not sure that I even have the
luxury to wait until August.
Because at the end of July, I need to
certify that we that we're operating on
a budget. That that doesn't even count
the the look that that we portray from
central office to our teachers that we
don't know what you're going to get.
>> Well,
>> Which is no one's fault, really.
>> No, but I will say this. We do have a
budget. It's just the budget
>> that was passed uh previously. We don't
have the additional match budget. So, I will say this, if I'm reading the tea
leaves correctly, August trying to
figure out a solution is probably the
best shot of getting anything. I mean, I
don't know if anybody's ready to say,
"We're going to do this tonight." with
what we don't know and and all of that.
So,
you know, that that's the hard part. I
mean, if if if council was comfortable
saying, "Let's take 70,000, that's the
carry forward, and then another 135,000,
that would be the equivalent of the
current capital reserves, and try to use
that." That could be a possibility. I
don't know if that's where everybody is.
It doesn't ultimately solve this problem
past this year, though. I will say that.
That's the really tricky part, and this
is what everybody needs to really focus
in on.
We have to build this as we're building
out the budget typically, because we
have to decide, do we do a tax increase
or a budget cut somewhere else to be
able to make that work? So, if we're
able to figure something out
accounting-wise with what we currently
have, and that's what's been offered as
a possibility,
maybe we could do something, but I don't
know. What do you all think, Council?
>> Well, I also think later in the meeting
we are looking at something that could
help address some of these later on with
the referendum that that could be used,
but I mean, I I've said it a hundred
times a hundred different ways. If
Radford City is not healthy, Radford
City Public Schools aren't healthy. No
one stands to lose more than Radford
City Public Schools if we lose our
charter. Um RCPS will not exist. We have
to get our finance house in order. You
could talk till you're blue in the face
about why we're here, whose fault it is,
should we be here? We're here. I mean,
that's what it is. It would be, in my
opinion, fiscally irresponsible for us
to do that with all the outstanding debt
that we have, with all the other things
that we have to to address. I hate that.
I I got two I've said this a hundred
times, too. I have two little Bobcats on
the way. You know,
Bobcats run through my veins, but I just
I feel like I know numbers, and I feel
like the position that we're in, it
wouldn't be good for us to take care of
you guys long-term. We have to get our
financial house in order. That's of no
That's not your fault, but it is your
problem because we're all in this
together. So, that's just kind of where
I'm at with it. And I know it's tough,
and I know that it's not about deserving
or anything like that. Those teachers
deserve more than 4%. Um so do our
sanitation workers and police officers
and everybody else. And um in the
meantime, I hope you'll work with us
till we can roll up our sleeves and get
things done, but I just think in the
to here and now, it wouldn't be a wise
decision for the city.
That's just me.
Huh? I mean, I I'd be happy to entertain
if if if or I'm always going to listen.
I mean, if you have something to
propose, I would listen. I don't know
that anything is going to change my
opinion that the city it I don't think
in August the city's going to be in a
better financial situation. Just I'm not
going to waste your time, but I would
respectfully listen to anything that you
would you would have to to share share.
>> Guy, where do you stand?
>> I'm I'm the same way. I don't see how in
the world we're going to be able to meet
that and that's why I was willing to
look at the breakdowns to see if there's
any part that we might be able to help
with, but
yeah, I'm I'm like Seth, you know, we've
just they're in such a a bind right now
that we cannot come up any with anything
like $200,000.
>> Jesse?
>> I'm I'm I think I've said my piece and
again to reiterate, it's not a matter of you
know, what we would like to do. I love our teachers. I love our
administrators. I love our school
systems. I have three Bobcats. So, um
you know, I I wish that we were in a
position to do more, but you know, we we
do have to make sure that that our house
is is stable and not built on cards. And
so right now we just have to make sure
that we're stable first to make sure
that you're stable also in the long run.
And again, I feel like, you know, with
the budget that you brought us, you had
good plans for these things and at that
point we felt like you could you could
manage these things. I understand this
would be on a greater scale and
certainly in a perfect world I would
support that, but I just think right now
it'd be fiscally irresponsible for us
to do anything other than what we're currently committed to do.
>> Kelly, do you have any other thoughts?
» So,
how how much in the reserves are there
dedicated funds? Are they Is that
broken down?
>> The capital reserve account?
>> The reserve account that that is shared
that that's there's a tract separately
than ours, but there's dedicated money
that is theirs, correct?
>> Uh approximately 1.9 million.
>> Okay, so that's 1.9 million of
our CPS reserves or that's shared
reserves for all of us, the city and the
school?
>> They're dedicated to the school capital
reserve fund. So, they're they're
Everything is in a pooled account, but
they're they're school funds.
>> So, why does using the res- that some of
that 1.9 affect our ability to pay bills
and things like that if it's dedicated
school capital fund?
>> So, uh, if they want to use school the
capital reserve account funds from
there, it will not affect the the city's
>> Okay, that's what I'm proposing is, you
know, that 1.9 million that's sitting
there as reserves or or roughly.
>> Right.
>> But, is that not allowed to be used in
this circumstance?
>> Well, it's my understanding that it is a
capital reserve fund which is if if if a
building needs a roof or a
>> Yeah, I understand capital. I mean, I'm
just saying is that is it like
>> Well, I couldn't
>> at all? I just want to make sure.
>> If
and and Trisha, if I'm incorrect on
this, if it's my opinion that if they
want to use the 205,000 from the capital
reserve account, that will present no
issues for the city well in any manner.
>> And I think it might work out something
kind of like this. If you all said,
"Yeah, we can do 205,000 out of the
capital reserve fund." It would then go
into one of our enterprise capital funds
and then we would provide that new money
as
» [cough]
>> the match. That it's not a
you know, direct take it out of the
deposit and put it over here, but it
would work out the same way essentially.
>> I mean, if if it you know, it seems like
everyone's leaning toward we can't do
this. This is an option that will
provide the money for you. I know it's
not what you want to use it for and it's
not technically capital, you know,
>> Right.
>> repairs or roof or anything, but but
that I mean,
>> This is the slippery This is the
slippery slope we were afraid of when we did the $500,000.
We just didn't want to make that a a
thing every year.
>> We don't want to make it a thing either.
We understand that and we understand
that, but I'm trying to make an option
to where you guys get your money
and not zero because that's what we're I
mean
>> I think the thing is
this is a lot for everybody. School
board hadn't had a chance to talk about
it this way and all that. Do you all
want to take this back and have a
discussion and then come back again like
I said, you do have a budget. It's just
not the budget with the match. Um our
August meeting we could have a little
more time if you want to do that. That
would let you say, "Okay, here's what we
feel comfortable doing. Let's see if we
go from there."
>> So we also have a a meeting. I don't
remember what it's for on the 22nd of
this month at 6:00.
Can we tack on a if we really have to
wait and make a decision? I I know what
I'm proposing.
>> And what one question about your
proposal is it if we did do that, it
would be predicated that we do it again
the following year, correct? Because
once you bake in that match not pulling
from the capital reserve, but that that
amount we would be on the hook for that.
>> Yeah.
>> We'd have to talk about it because again
the match you you can either do it or
not do it and that's what I'm saying. So
we could say we can match up 500,000
which we're currently doing or we can
match up 705 or whatever that total is.
So I mean it is a little bit because you're not
going to want to say, "Okay, well those
raises are baked in the cake." And then
we got to back off, but it is a
discussion that can be held depending on
where the city's financial position is
at that point in time.
>> Well, I mean people don't get raises
every single year. So that's something
that is
>> once it's baked in that 4% is is
>> [snorts]
>> the salary.
>> For your baseline and
All I'm saying is that's an option. If
you guys need to go back and think about
it, I'm proposing that we have a a
meeting on the 22nd when we're already
going to be here at 6:00. All of us are
going to be here. That gets you before
your August. Gives you a little bit time
to think. Otherwise,
I I'm I mean
>> I think it's the only way to even have a
further conversation on it. So, would
that make sense to at least go back and
have a discussion and see where we are?
It's better than a hard no tonight.
>> It is.
>> And then we figure out is this something
we can do.
>> Melissa, is it even possible to do that
on this I don't remember what we're
doing on this day. I just know I have to
be here
>> It's already advertised that we're
having a special meeting on July 22nd,
so we're good to go ahead and add the
school board
meeting agenda item.
>> feasible for Does that give you Is that
Okay.
>> And you know, which would have been that date would have been fine, except
this was the meeting that was next. And
you know, once the budget was approved,
then the the
video we had nine or 10 days to come up
with a calc tool. So, really um Ms.
Long's been sleeping with this paperwork
for about the last week. And we didn't
mean to throw it on you.
>> No, I get it. And I think the hardest
part
>> done so you can get your house in order,
too.
>> The hardest part with this is I don't
think there's anything up there that
folks wouldn't like to be able to do in
some way, shape, or form.
It's just what's practical and what's
realistic for our community at this
moment, but also long-term. And and you
know, like I said, this is why this is a
good conversation because let's say the
decision's made to go, "Yeah, we'll do
it." That's why Radford struggles with
some of the things it has because we
bake that in and then you've got to
figure it out every year. And you know,
basically, that's a 2-cent tax increase
or the equivalent somewhere. So, these
are the hard decisions that we all have
to make. Let's plan to come back
together for a short presentation. If
you can get us information prior to the
meeting, that's helpful so that we're
not hearing it the first time when we're
here. I think that'll get us to a good
place. And I do think guys, correct, if
we can know like special education
represents X amount of this, class size
reduction represents that. So, we can
have that meaningful discussion
together. That would be helpful.
>> If I were to give you the match that the locality is responsible for and
then what it triggers?
>> Yeah, that's fine. That's perfectly
fine. And I I recognize that triggers a
significantly larger number.
But it's just what what are we able to
do? How do we figure this out? Yeah.
>> Cuz I think 205 is large for the city. I
understand that.
>> Yeah. Well, and like I said, you know,
this is a hard discussion. If we were
talking about this 3 months ago, we may
have said, "Well, we have to do a 4 cent
tax increase on the real estate tax if
we're going to do that."
>> Right.
>> And and that's a discussion to have, you
know, and it'll be a discussion that
council will have if we go down this
path
for the 27-28 budget next spring.
So, these are all things and that
doesn't even get us where we need to be
fully, you know, for a sustainable
budget for the city. So,
appreciate it. Let's do that. Let's plan
it for that on the 22nd. Thank you for
bringing this to us. Uh the good news is
you got a good budget to start with and
then there's a possibility for this if
we can figure something out and us to
work together.
>> Yeah, I I I do not at all want to feel
like I don't want you guys to feel like
we don't appreciate that budget. But
once this new budget was passed, you
know, we couldn't just sit on it.
>> Oh, it changes everything and and I
think that's the hard part with
Richmond. While we appreciate the extra
money, when it comes with that string
attached, that's a tax increase. The
folks in Richmond didn't have to
increase taxes to get to the budget that
they got to and they could have made
that decision differently. So, that's
where we go.
>> Thank you all.
>> Thank you.
>> I don't know.
>> All right, we we got to keep going here.
We got lots of business to talk about.
Um
Council, we have some unfinished
business. So, going back to 2018, one of
the first things we we did was we had
the Department of Housing and Community
Development come to Radford with the
Main Street uh program to talk about
what could be done to help improve our
business district in East Radford. And
through a number of years working with
the Regional Commission and working with
recommendations of citizens and and and
everybody, we came up with a concept
that was going to help improve a number
of things and we got some money for it
from the Appalachian Regional
Commission, about 700,000. But that was
another one that came with an
attachment. We had to contribute the
city's portion, which was going to be a
couple million dollars.
We did a few of the small elements of
the project, but we've got about 300 and
350,000, something along that line,
approximately. About 300,000 toward the
match.
But right now we don't have 1.3 million
dollars to put toward this project.
And that's a challenge for us. So, we
have talked with the folks at the
Department of Housing and Community
Development, could we have a little more
time to see if we can get closer along.
They said they can't do that right now.
They have to see meaningful action. In
other words, we have to be under
contract for this project in the fall or
in the spring, something along that
line. And that's not feasible with the
budget we currently have and the
resources that we have.
These are needed things for us to do to
get our business district in better
shape. But at this time, we need to
transmit a letter to the Department of
Housing and Community Development
declining the Appalachian Regional
Commission grant at this time. The good
news is we can go back and try to get
this funding again and they've said this
is a great project, they recognize the
importance of it and that they might be
willing to fund it further down the
road. This is a tough blow because this
was supposed to help build up our
business district further, which would
help the economy and it's just a
positive cycle. But at this time,
Council, can we have a motion to approve
the city manager to transmit the the
to the Department of Housing and
Community Development regarding the
Appalachian Regional Commission grant.
>> So moved.
>> We have a motion.
>> We have a second.
>> Second.
>> Motion is second. All in favor, please
respond by saying I. I. Any opposed?
Okay.
All right, moving forward. Um Council,
we have some board and commission
appointments. The Agency on Aging,
Tourism, and the Board of Zoning
Appeals. Um
Melissa, do you have anything you want
to share with us based on the notes that
we have?
>> Sure. Um since our last meeting when you
appointed the
number um back in your June 8th meeting,
um I do have another vacancy on the
Board of Zoning Appeals. So, that was
not advertised appropriately um
because we have a new hire in our Code
Enforcement Office that he does not now
qualify as being on the BZA. There's a
conflict there. So,
um I did get a response from Sally. I'm
sorry. Sally-Ann regarding Agency on
Aging and she is willing to
continue to serve if Council so does
wish to do so.
What I've provided was
a historic I guess a historic uh
um breakdown of what the uh Tourism
Commission has been made up of. I did go
through our code to find out what the
parameters were. Like I said, the
lodging rate restaurant retail community
at large, those are just who held the
positions prior. Does not state in the
code that they have to fall within any
of those categories. Um
>> [clears throat]
>> but certainly their knowledge of the
community and their knowledge of the
business and how it might um help
support our Tourism Commission certainly
um is is a positive.
So,
a minimum of nine members have to be on
that board uh per code uh with a maximum
of 13. So, So certainly at um
Council's discretion on how they would
like to move forward. I did provide a
shown in uh shown interest list um on
the right-hand side of the column, but I
also provided a list of um citizens who
had showed interest in other boards and
commissions but had not been appointed
who we may want to fall back up on and to reach out to.
>> So with this we have and let's just talk
tourism for a second then we can go back
to BZA uh and agency on aging. Um
with this we have these positions that
are specific to these areas. Council
member, uh recreation rep, uh Radford
University rep, chamber rep, and the
school representative. But then the
others are all at large, correct? So
right now all of these together wouldn't
make nine total. So we need all of these
plus some additional uh at large folks
to be able to operate.
Correct?
>> So now including council members,
including the chamber, and the R- you
that that is nine.
>> Okay.
Uh but what I would say
>> 13.
>> Okay. What I would say, my concern is I
would want the chamber to make a
recommendation, the university to make a
recommendation, then of course council
we can decide who we want um and go from
there before we make that decision. So
if we appoint uh anyone else, the board
can't operate until they get to nine?
>> Correct.
>> And Kelsey, for her, I'm I'm sorry.
Kelly's already our
>> kicked off, David?
>> No.
>> Ha ha.
>> [laughter]
>> Well, and and I might be able to help a
little bit with the chamber rep because
Rachel Joyel has expressed interest and
she is on the chamber board.
>> Knock out those two.
>> Yeah, I was going to say what we would
want to do is maybe tentatively do that
uh pending the chamber just saying,
"Yeah, that makes sense for us."
Um
>> Sounds great. She will.
>> Yeah, she wants to. Absolutely.
>> And I I believe we talked about Tom
Bennett being a representative of the
university.
>> he was coming just as a citizen and has
not done anything formal. So, that could
be a question to be asked for the
university to say would they want to ask
Tom to serve in an official capacity or
would they want to appoint somebody else
and Tom, if he was interested, may be
able to serve as a
volunteer.
>> I can ask.
Um I can ask um
>> Angela
>> for the
>> Oh.
>> Yes, in my joint commission meeting
tomorrow, I can ask Angela for
recommendations on our RU
representative.
>> Perfect.
>> Um you'll you'll see that Amanda Winter
um she was uh
the school representative prior um
and happy to continue serving in that
manner.
>> Okay.
Kelsey, would [snorts] there be any
issue with you being Commissioner of
Revenue and serving on the tourism board
or is that acceptable?
Okay.
Tara's great, Alba's great, um Jessica
could could serve if you all are
interested.
Um
I'd like to see if we could get these
folks appointed, get a representative
for the RU rep, and then maybe come back
and revisit the rest of it in um
August to see what we have. Does that
make sense?
Okay, so do we want to go on and reins-
you know, make sure Kelly is our council
representative.
Um and then we have nominations here
potentially for Kelsey Marleta, Jessica
Johnson. Um let's hold off on Tom until
we find out if that works out some other
way, but he he could potentially be a
citizen representative. Tara Kipps as a
nominee, Alba Alvarez, and then uh
potentially Rachel Doyle. We want to
check with the chamber to double-check
that. And then Amanda has said she's
willing to do it and and the schools are
here tonight. So,
that works. Okay, do we want to go on
and nominate those folks that we've
mentioned as uh representatives for now?
Jordy, Okay, we have a motion to do so?
>> So moved.
>> We have a motion. Do we have a second?
>> Second.
>> Motion and second. Any discussion? All
in favor, please respond by saying I.
>> I.
>> Any opposed? And if we can try to get
the others in place, we can do that and
the tourism board can get rolling by the
community fest date. So that'd be
perfect.
Awesome. Thank you all so much. Um for
agency on aging, do we want to go on and reappoint Sally Ann since she did
express the interest?
>> Yes.
>> Okay. We have a motion. Do we have a
second?
>> Second.
>> Motion and second. Any discussion? All
in favor, please respond by saying I.
>> I.
>> Any opposed? We need advertise board of
zoning appeals, correct?
>> We do.
>> Okay. So if we could do that, we can
come back to that in August or whenever.
Do you need that to function pretty
quickly though?
>> I hope not.
>> Okay.
Good.
All right. Moving on to new business. Um
in addition to the uh school match uh
and the other parts of the budget, the
state gave the localities across the
state the ability to add a 1%
sales tax
to use revenue solely for capital
projects for new construction or major
renovation of schools.
This was something that was done on a
community by community basis previously.
It existed in the past. Uh some
localities have taken advantage of that,
but it wasn't statewide. Now it is
statewide where any locality could do
it. It has to be a uh ballot initiative.
It would have to be on the ballot this
November to take effect uh as soon as as
possible beyond that, and it would have
to be uh voted on obviously by the
community. So there'd be a referendum on
it.
Um
what this would mean is there would the
Radford's sales tax would move up 1%. So
basically it would go from 5 cents to 6
cents. That's not counting meals tax and
other things along that line. So, the
total tax depending on the item
purchased would be different. There are
certain things that would not be
included in this. We're still getting
all the clarification, but primarily
some personal hygiene products and some
food products would not be included in
the tax. We have heard from a number of
folks. Our Commissioner of Revenue gave
us some thoughts on this so that we
would have a little more understanding
of it as a council. There are some
challenges associated.
Also,
I I don't I heard I don't know if you
all heard from Lindsay Williams, our
Director of Elections. One of the real
challenges we have this year is we are
going to have a mega ballot in November
that there's three constitutional
amendments in addition to all the
members of council and the state or the federal elections for the um
for the Congress on that.
So, one of the concerns is that
potentially this will be a long ballot
and this would be the very last thing on
the ballot as part of that.
Council, what are your all's thoughts
given all of those parameters?
» Well, I think it's been brought up.
>> [clears throat]
>> It's a 20-year
uh
deal.
>> Mhm.
>> Um and and if we didn't do it this year
under current, I guess uh statute, we
could do it next year.
>> Right. But this is a new thing that's
not going away. It's not got a sunset
clause associated with it right now.
>> But can it be changed?
>> Any law can be changed, yeah.
>> Okay. So, I guess my initial feeling was
it's up to the the citizens.
Um and it could be changed. So, my
feeling is that we ought to put it on
the the ballot and let let the citizens
decide.
Do they want to support the schools in
this capital effort or not?
>> I tend to think the same way. I I, you
know, am I endorsing a vote for yes and
this and that? Everyone will have to
make that decision at the ballot box.
Inevitably, the schools do have capital
needs that do have to be addressed, and
this, you know, the those needs are
going to come before us, and then I
think that this is an opportunity to let
the people decide if if if that's what
they um
are are going to be able to do. I do
think that some valid concerns have been
brought up um from Kelsey and from uh Lindsey as far
as getting it on the ballot, what the
appetite for that will be this year. I I
don't know. Um but I think to Gus's
point um
you know, this does give the people a
voice on um if they if if they support
it or not.
>> What are your thoughts, Jesse?
>> Yeah, I feel the same way. Um
really is put it into the hands of our
citizens and let them decide if this is
the tax increase that that they're
willing to do at this juncture.
>> Gwen?
>> I'm sorry.
>> Okay. So, my concern is um and I'll just
share some additional thoughts. I mean,
it it sounds like we have a consensus
that folks want to move ahead with that.
I will say here's the risk. Um
we don't know yet for our community what
the overall tax picture is going to look
like next year and in coming years,
whether that's a combination of real
estate, um a combination of sales tax,
whatever that might be. And I think
that's a concern that I have. Um my
preference would be for us to wait
because we do have the ability to do
this next year and put it on the ballot
then after we've developed something a
little more substantial, and we know
where we are, or at least the council
that's serving in the spring of next
year when they're doing the budget knows
where they are uh to go from there. But
it sounds like am I the only one who
wants to wait? Is is everybody else want
to move forward this year?
>> Forward for me.
>> Okay. So, do we have a motion?
>> So moved.
>> We have a motion to adopt the resolution
and a second.
>> Second.
>> Motion and a second. Uh Melissa, would
you call the roll?
>> Mr. Trick?
>> Yes.
>> Mrs. Foster?
>> Yes.
>> Mr. Glassby?
>> Yes.
>> Mr. Wolford?
>> Yes.
>> Mayor Horton?
>> No. And the only reason I'm a no, I will
explain that is I think it would be
better if we waited. I don't think we're
ready for this for this fall to get it
passed. Uh doesn't mean you can't work
on it um and and try to make that happen
because it it's going to be on there.
The motion does carry.
But I think this is a big enough deal
for our community that this is another
tax after we've just increased real
estate taxes, after we've just increased
uh other fees and things along that
line. We really need to know where we
are before we move forward with this and
figure out what makes sense. It'll be in
the hands of the voters and we'll see
where we go. I think it's more prudent
to wait, but we're going to move forward
as a community and see where we are. I
do think it's a great idea down the road
to have some additional capital funds,
but we really need to work on developing
the most essential needs capital plan
for what we would do with those funds um
over a period of time and have some
further discussion on that uh so that
the community can make that decision cuz
that's an important part of this. That
um it has to be sold to the citizens of
Radford that we're funding improvements
at the high school or we're funding
improvements that are needed here. And I
don't know that we're ready for that at
this point in time. And it's a very
short window, so we'll see where we go.
It's going to be on the ballot. Council
approved it, so we'll see where we go
with that. Um
Council, you all heard a little bit
earlier about our mobile unit that
Radford University is uh has been
working on and they need a memorandum of
understandment on a memorandum of
agreement for affiliation. So, that'll
be an understandment
between us and the university city and
the university to agree.
And this memorandum of agreement has a
date of the 29th of May, 2026. Do we
need to alter that to the current date
if we're going to consider it?
Can you repeat the question, mayor? So,
the memorandum of agreement that's in
front of us is entered in as of the 29th
of May, 2026. For us to consider it, do
we need to alter that to today's date?
>> You can yes. The event's going to be
held in late July, but yes. Yeah.
>> Right. Yeah. Right. Right. But, we're
being asked to approve the memorandum of
understanding, right?
>> Yeah. Yeah. You can approve it with the
change.
>> Okay.
>> Now,
as I read it, I think there's no
liability to the city if someone goes
into this mobile unit and something goes
wrong.
» It's a big question.
>> Yeah.
>> Um
>> Yeah.
>> I I think that I'm not sure what role
that any
You know, as I understand it, the mobile
unit is being administrated
um
by employees of Carilion. Is that
correct? Or I'm sorry, Radford
University, not by any employees of the
city, correct?
I mean, in essence, the only thing that
the city is providing, you know, is
basically a parking lot for the mobile
unit on city property.
You know, now if there was some type of,
I guess,
condition there at the parking lot that
the city had created and somebody was
walking up to the mobile unit and I
guess tripped and fell or something like
that. Maybe then there could be an issue
for the for the city, but um as to the
um administration of the mobile unit
itself by our U staff, I think that the
exposure is low.
>> Mainly for training students. I Is that
That's kind of what the idea I got?
Okay.
How many other uh jurisdictions have
you've got agreements with?
» Can you Can you come up to the podium?
Sorry.
» [laughter]
» Well, some of this is so folks watching
on streaming can hear you as well.
>> Yes. I'm sorry.
So, I just also want to recognize
Elizabeth at the Radford Public Library
who's so graciously um been one of our
community supporters. We currently have
affiliations with um the Health Wagon
down in Wise, Virginia. Um New River
Valley Community Services, VDH. Um we're
looking to partner with Food City um and
several other local businesses. Um We
have We've looked at
um just several businesses around the
area and in Roanoke. So, we've also
started some conversations with the
least of these, which is a homeless
service center. Um and we plan to do We
plan to expand throughout the New River
Valley and Southwest Virginia.
>> But but I mean jurisdictions.
>> As far as
>> Said Food City and some other places.
Those are partners.
>> Yeah, they're they're partners. So, um
right now the city of Radford is the
only jurisdiction that we
have an agree- that we have proposed an
agreement with right now. We'll probably
expand
to Pulaski County um and some of the
other surrounding counties as well
because, you know, we do want to be able to be in the community where,
you know, we're hoping to do the the
Radford Community Fest in August. Um
have some events at the library with
VDH.
Um but also in Pulaski County. So, if
there's something hosted at Randolph
Park or something that encompasses the
county and or the city of Radford that
we can be there on site and both of our
all both our entity at Radford
University and the city could be covered
with that.
>> And it's not uh based on monetary income or
anything.
>> We're We've actually put our application
in to become a free and charitable
clinic. So, all of our services is as
long as I have anything to do with it
will remain free for our free for our
citizens regardless of insurance status.
>> saying they don't means test. That's
what you're asking, right guy?
They don't means test. So, they don't
see if you
>> means test.
>> Right. Correct. And what kind of
services is going to be again? I'm
sorry.
>> starting out with with So, we're
building a service line, which means
we're starting out kind of small just to
pilot with some screening services for
hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia.
Um and then we hope to expand out. We're
doing some school physicals uh this fall
and summer and we're hoping to expand
out to we where we can actually have
full encounters for acute care, gap care
services, and also connecting um
citizens to resources. So, if they need
a referral to a specialist or be
established with a primary care
provider, we can put that in place
immediately.
Um and then we are also looking at
telehealth services, become a telehealth
service provider. So, if a patient
doesn't have access to broadband, they
can come to us and we can facilitate
that appointment to a specialist at UBA
or Wake Forest or John Hopkins, wherever
they need to be seen.
>> Right now, it sounds like you you know,
you kind of have a mobile unit unit.
Have you thought any about having a
permanent facility if this works out on
campus or around or something like that?
>> So, I don't want to speak out of turn
because you know, there's channels that
we have to go through through the
university, but we
there have been conversations about a
center for rural health.
I don't know that that will encompass a
brick-and-mortar clinic. It would be my my heart dream to do that, but the
purpose of mobile clinics is meeting
people of the community where they're at
and eliminating that transportation
barrier. So, in my choice right now in our university, we are choosing the
mobile health clinic so we can emerge
our students in that culture of rural
health.
>> Will you be providing vaccinations by
chance?
>> So, that is it in the health care world,
that is a little complicated because
we're not providing insur- we we don't
accept insurance. It's a free care and
Medicaid has their own vaccine service
line. So, if you participate with
Medicaid, they ship you the vaccine. So,
our solution to that is we're partnering
with VDH to hold shared clinics so they
can provide the vaccine and we can
provide alternate services so we expand
those service lines, we expand the resource for the patient in one
spot.
>> Did Did I read in there that every spot
you want to to go to that the city has
to approve.
Did anybody else read that?
>> Do you know
>> I think that's just like a verbal
agreement that if we're going to the,
you know, Radford Library that we would
just make sure that Mr. Meredith knew
that or if we were going to be in
Bissett Park one day that that would
just be a shared communication,
you know, with the organizational
appointment and myself at Radford
University that we would have that
understanding before we release that
information to the city and the citizens
that we would just share, you know,
agree.
>> partnership thing you we were you were
mentioning like if Food City said, "Hey,
you can come to our parking lot."
>> We have to have the same thing with them
as well. A memorandum of agreement with
that with those organizations.
>> want to be able to go to different spots
in the city, correct?
>> Absolutely. But this memorandum of
agreement, if it's my understanding
correctly, is just to be on city
property locations. So like Radford
Library, Bissett Park. If we wanted to
host something in conjunction with
emergency services.
Um
something like that.
>> And Todd, on our end, um for for city,
how long of a or how much of a heads up
would you like, I guess, you know, for
that correspondence if if they're going
to be at the library? I mean, 3 days,
week? I mean, what what works for
>> I think a week or two in case we had to
prepare for the event, you know, tape
off an area or, you know, um if it's a
parking lot, maybe we have to fill some
potholes or something like that.
>> I hope I have that to you in 3 months in
advance because we run on academic
semester, so I have to have that
schedule 2 to 4 weeks before the
semester starts, so I have to have that
to you in plenty of time, sir.
>> time?
>> Yes.
>> How many how many events just
preliminary are you thinking of of
holding?
>> So, right now in our uh a fall pilot, we
hope to be out at least one day a week.
We have gotten a couple two days a week
and then in spring of 2027, which in
academia starts in January, we hope to
bump that up to three days a week. Um we
also have a part an MOU with Radford
City Public Schools right now. Um so
we're actually working on a a project
with them with the mobile clinic and
hope to expand that into maybe some
school-based care. Um so we'll kind of
see where that goes.
>> Is it first come first serve or is it
appointment-based?
>> We're we're still working through those
logistics. It's going to be walk-ins
mainly. Um but we do we are launching
our electronic health record, which um
is going to you know, in all our of our
media social media and flyers, we'll
have a QR code that um patients or
anybody uh wishing to acquire services
can scan a QR code and schedule their
appointment ahead of time.
>> Awesome.
Okay.
>> Thank you.
>> And it is a wonderful thing because what
a great learning tool, but what a great
service for so many people who are
struggling uh to get their health care.
So Council, we have this uh memorandum
of agreement. Do we have a motion to
adopt?
>> So moved.
>> We have a motion. [clears throat] Do we
have a second?
>> Second.
>> Any further discussion? All in favor,
please respond by saying I.
>> I.
>> Any opposed? All right. Thank you so
much.
Council, you also have the DMV Select
Agreement and that establishes terms and
conditions under which the
DMV has appointed the agent to establish
and maintain a license agency of the DMV Select in Radford and currently this
is with our Treasurer's office. So we're
glad you're here tonight, Joy. Thank you
for being here. Todd, you and and Joy
have had some discussions and talked
through it. Are you good with the uh
bulk of the agreement with how it
stands?
>> Yes, I'm comfortable with it.
>> So the manager thinks we can work
through this. Council, do you all have
any questions?
Do we have a motion to adopt?
>> So moved.
>> We have a motion. Do we have a second?
>> I second.
>> Motion and a second. Any discussion?
All in favor, please respond by saying
I.
>> I.
>> Any opposed?
Okay, we have another agreement we need
to consider. It is a Procom repeater
agreement. The purpose of this MOU is to
allow Procom to install communications
repeater antenna coaxial cable on the
city-owned tower on Prospect Street. The
repeater is just for the use of Radford
Transit to provide more consistent and
improved communications. Melissa, do you
have anything you want to share about
that from the transit side?
>> Um currently that repeater is located at
Smith Mountain Lake. So they're being a
little bit closer will have better
coverage with our
radios. Um the payment actually our
contractor covers the payment. So this
is not at any cost to us a city.
>> Okay. What does this do from a radio
wave standpoint? Is there the risk of
putting it on Prospect Street that it
will interfere with communications in
the city or does it limit us for any
other
communication on that tower?
>> It does not. We've worked with Procom
for a number of years and they they help
us with all our um
PD, fire, EMS um repeater. So they're
very well versed in what our current
status is with our repeaters and it will
not conflict with any others.
>> Fantastic. All right, Council, you have
this agreement in front of you. Do we
want to adopt or go another direction?
Do we have a motion?
>> Motion to approve.
Do we have a second?
>> I second.
>> Motion and a second. Any discussion? All
in favor, please respond by saying I.
>> I.
>> Any opposed? Um T-Mobile has requested
an amendment to their original December
11th, 2001 lease for 410 Prospect
Street. This agreement would allow them
to continue use of the tower.
Um I'm assuming the same thing applies
that us being able to do the tower on
Prospect Street with Procom won't affect
T-Mobile.
>> It will not.
>> Okay.
Council, you have the agreement for the
land and tower with T-Mobile. Is there a
motion to approve?
>> So moved.
>> We have a motion. Do we have a second?
>> Second.
>> Motion and a second, any discussion? All
in favor, please respond by saying aye.
Any opposed?
Smart Scale application. All right, the
Virginia Department of Transportation
reached out to the city in October 2025
regarding an opportunity for us to
participate in an Office of Intermodal
Planning and Investment Project Pipeline
Study for the city from Lee Highway to
Tyler Avenue, which basically runs down
Main Street. VDOT identified this area
as one of the top study locations within
the region we're in, which is called the
Salem District. And staff has worked
with stakeholders from the OIPI office,
VDOT, regional commission, and the MPO
on the proposed study. It focused on
improving the roadway and pedestrian
safety, multimodal accessibility, so
bicycles, pedestrians, and transit, and
transportation demand management needs.
The project recommendation from the
study has been developed into a funding
application for Smart Scale Round 7. So,
this is how you get money from VDOT to
pave and adjust roads and everything
along that line.
We would be looking at a resolution of
support. It does not obligate the city
to fund the project. Melissa, I know
you've worked a lot on this. Do you have
anything you want to share?
>> No, Mayor. We had had, over the last 6
months, had a number of opportunities
for the community to provide input, so
this has been out in the public.
Like you said, it does just give us
permission to go ahead and submit the
application.
So, we don't know the cost of the
project or anything like that or city's
obligation if we were to approve, but
just want to be able to submit the
application.
>> Todd, do you have any additional
thoughts or you good with it like it is?
>> I'm good with it like it is.
>> Okay. And just for people's
clarification, this is again from
basically the intersection of Main
Street Memorial Bridge East. And so, it
provides a a work in that corridor for
safety. Council, do you all want to make
a motion to approve the Smart Scale
application? Do we have a motion?
>> So moved.
>> a motion.
>> Do we have a second?
>> Second.
>> Motion is second, any discussion? All in
favor, please respond by saying I.
Any opposed? Okay.
Uh fiscal year 2027 chemical bid the
water treatment plant received bids for
one of the significant chemicals
polyaluminum chloride uses a coagulant
in our treatment process of potable
water. Uh sub suppliers of this chemical
are very limited and we received a bid
from Kymara for uh
33.6 cents uh per liquid pound uh and a
bid from US Alco for just a penny or so
or a hundredth of a penny less than
that. Um the cost of these chemicals is
included as part of the fiscal year 2027
annual budget. City staff has reviewed
this. They recommend the approval of the
award to uh USALCO.
Council, do you all have any questions?
Do we have a motion to approve?
>> So moved.
>> We have a motion. Do we have a second?
>> Second.
>> Motion is second, any discussion? All in
favor, please respond by saying I.
>> I.
>> Any opposed? All right, now we have
several appropriations here. What I'd
like to do is discuss them all quickly,
uh kind of go through them, see if
anybody has any questions, kind of
explain what they are, and let's approve
them all at once so we can get through
this this grouping. They are all for
fiscal year 2026. This is money that has
been a expended and we need to now go
back and appropriate it. Todd, would you
start us off and then we will go line by
line into what each of these are and I
know social services is here. If you all
want to go on over to the podium, we're
going to ask you about several that come
up here in just a second. So Todd, get
us rolling.
>> So to summarize these are FY '26
appropriations.
Um I'm going to defer to Vicky and Keith
on the Department of Social Services,
but I do think it's interesting to point
out that the Erronze operation that's a
joint venture between the city and the
state and it's just a good example of
how collaboration can help local
businesses and job creation. So, that
was funded half by the state, half by
the city.
>> Absolutely. And that's $25,900
for that Commonwealth Opportunity Fund.
Okay, we have several here in a row
comprehensive services act funding,
Medicare expansion, social services
grants, and social services
administrative state funding. What can
you all share about that?
>> So,
those funding [clears throat] streams
have various local match rates. Medicaid
expansion has zero local money.
Um
I guess the highest local match rate is
20%. Otherwise, it's 15.5%.
So, the typical state reimbursement
rate.
So, and
on there you'll have auxiliary grant.
>> Mhm.
>> That's the money that goes to pay for
like people who live at Fairview Home
and you know, can't live on their own
and and need supportive and assisted
living facilities. So, that's an example
of how that money is used and um
Dick Herschberger and I
sit on those boards
and right now Radford has the second
highest population at Fairview Home. So,
that those funds are being used and and
the people there residents are being
well taken care of.
>> What's the cost to the city for that?
>> Auxiliary grants.
>> Um
that's 20% local match. Whatever that
number is, you just times that by 20%.
Um
the the administration one,
it's a 15.5%
match.
>> Okay.
>> And by giving us that 15.5%
match on that, that is stopping the city
from having to spend something called
pass through, which would require a 67%
match. So, it's a a big savings if you
can just give us extra money in a
different pot of money, so we don't have
to spend other money.
>> And the city gets a better
reimbursement, right?
>> So, it's not that we're spending extra
money, we're just changing the funding
stream
of where those costs have already been
paid for.
Uh CSA administration, uh that pays for
a small portion
of the CSA coordinator's salary.
Uh the CSA coordinator works with
children that are at risk. Uh some of
the children are also school children
that are placed in private they
placement. Some of them are foster
children
uh in different uh various placements.
>> And for that, you said there is a local
match for the 13,000 or not?
>> It's it's at the CSA.
>> Yeah.
>> Uh I think it's a I think it's about 25%
local match.
Uh it's mentioned in your um
your handout. It actually shows the the
local match somewhere.
>> Okay. Okay. So, uh basically what I'm
looking at here if we are able to do
these for the CSA, it's about $2,600
additional the city's can contributing
not not quite with you add in the total,
but that's approximate. 12,000 for the
social services auxiliary if that's a uh
20% match on that, and then 4,500 for
the social services administrative. Are
we able to accommodate that, Todd?
>> Real quick, just for clarification,
these have already been expended. We're
just making an appropriation ordinance
for last year. So, I mean I don't know
if it's a matter of if we can afford it
cuz we've already done so, correct?
>> we have to find additional money for
that, or have we already spent it?
>> There is pass-through money that we have
not spent because of vacancies in the
agency. So, what we're doing is we're
giving up the pass-through money, which
requires a 6 to 7% local match. So,
we're giving up I don't remember the
exact dollar amount. We're going to give
up like $30,000 of pass-through that we
didn't spend. That will give us the
local match money to pay for the other
programs.
>> Okay.
>> So, that the main piece I wanted to talk
about was were we going to have to find
additional money. So, what it sounds
like is we will not.
>> That's correct.
>> Okay. That's good news. All right,
great. And thank you all so much. Do you
have any other questions for Social
Services while we have Ms. Pody?
>> Nope.
>> Okay. Uh and then we have a $1 million
reclass budgeted personnel savings. And
I know we've got to go back. I do
recognize I'm skipped over item 10, but
I'll I'll go back to that. For
appropriation ordinance 1815.46,
uh the budget was built on the
assumption we would have about a million
dollars in personnel savings. It's
actually likely exceeded that. Since it
was not known at the time which
departments or funds would generate the
savings, the entire amount was budgeted
just in the general fund. This aligns
the budget to the actual. Todd, do you
have anything else you want to share
about that?
» No, that that's summarized very well. Um
I will say we, you know, that's the
million dollars that was budgeted as a
credit back to the budget. But as we
work through the numbers, expect that to
grow higher as far as the savings that
we achieved from uh um um payroll cuts.
Uh it's going to be much higher than
that.
>> Okay, counselor, are there any
additional questions?
>> I just think I'll just follow up on that
question. So, we are trending much
higher than the $1 million that we
projected.
>> That's correct.
>> Okay. Are you are you starting to see
that carry over into this fiscal year as
well, where we've held the
>> We carried over I believe the $1 million
was based on a 17 employees assumption
that 17 employees would be uh uh
that that 17 uh positions in the payroll
would be reduced through attrition. And
we have went uh at one point reached as
high as 34 in FY26, but we've carried
forward into fiscal year 27 24
vacancies. So, yes, that number
we saved it in FY 26 and we will
continue to have that savings that's
there going into 27. The 27 budget was
built around that.
>> Yep. Thank you.
Um Council, we have appropriation
ordinance 1815.41
in the amount of $25,900,
1815.42
in the amount of $13,506,
1815.43
in the amount of $75,217,
1815.44
in the amount of $61,862,
1815.45
in the amount of $29,169,
1815.46
in the amount of $1,000,000. Are there
any further questions or concerns or do
we have a motion to adopt those
appropriation ordinances?
>> Motion to approve.
>> So, we have a motion. Do we have a
second?
>> Second.
>> Motion and second. All in favor, please
respond by saying I.
>> I.
>> Any opposed? Having heard four
affirmative votes, we can dispense with
a second reading if so desired. Is there
a motion to dispense with the second
reading?
>> So moved.
>> We have a motion. Do we have a second?
>> Second.
>> Motion and second. Any further
discussion? All in favor, please respond
by saying I.
>> I.
>> Any opposed? Okay. Going back to item
number 10, the right-of-way vacation for
West Main and Rock Road West. Gary
Duncan, who has Gad Management, has
submitted his request to vacate a
portion of
the right-of-way located at the corner
of West Main Street and Rock Road. A
public hearing was held on June 9th.
Staff requested City Council appoint a
three-person board of viewers who are
charged with the responsibility of
examining this request and making
written recommendations to City Council
to any inconvenience that results from
discontinuing this right-of-way. We have
reached out to Bill Fleischer, Jennifer
Van Deren, and Abram Williams. They've
all agreed, so we need a motion to adopt
these folks as our board of viewers. Do
we have a motion to do so?
>> So moved.
>> a motion. Do we have a second?
>> Second.
>> A motion and a second. Any further
discussion? All in favor, please respond
by saying I.
>> I.
Any opposed? And thank you to Bill,
and to Jennifer, and to Abram for doing
that. Okay. So, that was a a mega agenda
this evening. Todd, what do you have for
us this evening?
>> I have just a few updates this evening.
Um with regards to finance, our staff
continues to make steady progress on the
FY25 audit. I know we talked about the
forensic audit, but we are still working
on on the fiscal year 2025 audit.
Staff's made great progress.
Uh that is nearing the end of its life
or at least the end of its uh process
cycle. So, we have a draft and uh
anticipate having it ready in August. Uh I just want to talk uh just I just
want to say that
uh I'm most appreciative for staff and
their hard work on all of these audits
that are going on right now. I know it's
been a lot of work, but they've done a
great job and uh rallied together to get
all those documents together and get
everything submitted.
Uh we also continue working with the APA
and our financial consultants as we move
the city forward. Uh while there's still
work to do, we continue making uh
measurable progress toward restoring the
city's uh financial stability. Um I just
will I I briefly mentioned earlier um
we finished FY FY26 um two payments
behind to AP. And I do think that's
significant progress, but I would just
like to express cautious optimism. Uh
we're not out of the woods yet. Uh we
still have to there we we can't have any
missteps. So, we're still watching every
step we take, but uh it is measurable
progress, and I'm I'm glad to be able to
report that. And uh
and as I report that, I do want to thank
all city staff because
uh we wouldn't have been able to do that
uh without city staff taking on what
they have done.
Uh we have reduced uh payroll and I've
seen quite a few department directors
step up and uh and and be able to
accomplish more with less. And uh and I
think that's encouraging. Uh it's
inspiring. So, so I just want to thank
staff for being able to do that and I'm
pleased to report measurable progress,
but also I just want to like I said,
cautious optimism moving forward.
Uh operations, uh the automated mower,
uh that's been put into service and
we've completed training. We're starting
to use that more and more. Uh I just
wanted to talk briefly about it and our
ultimate plan for using it. Uh we're
going to use it to mow all of our
athletic fields. And if we use it for
our athletic fields, that means our
mowing crew doesn't have to mow those
fields. And if they're not mowing those
fields, we may be able to shift them to
some of these others where we have
mowing contracts. So, the city has
approximately $28,000
annually that we have in mowing
contracts that if we were able to
eliminate those,
uh the return on investment for the
automated mower is less than a year and
a half. So, um we anticipate uh
fingers crossed that it should pay for
itself. And not only pay for itself, but
it can you know, the mowing quality.
It's going to be it's automated. So,
it's going to be consistent. Uh it can
also do things that we really can't do
by hand. It can mow designs uh in the
field. It can mow a logo in the field.
You know, if we want to do that, we can
do it. Um but uh I just expect it to
increase quality and and be more
efficient and cost less in the long
term. So, so uh that's just uh that's
just one example of how we want to move
forward with automation. When and where
we can, automation can save money and uh
and it can improve quality.
Um economic development, you know, I
mentioned Arronzim um I just like to
thank staff for all of their work on
administering the city's
uh grant portfolio and working on
economic development and supporting our
existing businesses.
Um I just think Iranzi's is a good
example of of you know, creating
incentives and working with the state,
managing those, and and getting projects
in place that can help businesses and
create jobs.
Um transportation, I'd like to recognize
the work of our engineering, planning,
public works staff along with our
regional partners at VDOT
uh in preparing the smart scale
application before council tonight. Um
we're bringing that before council
tonight. Uh the approval does not commit
the city financially as you stated
earlier, but it does position us to uh
compete for future uh transportation
improvements that, you know, can enhance
safety, um transportation safety, and
the quality of our of our transportation
infrastructure. So, just wanted to point
that out. Um
Uh community partnerships, I want to
speak to that just briefly. Uh we
continue to strengthen partnerships
through community agreements. Uh I think
the agreement we saw tonight with the
uh Raff University and the health clinic
and the DMV select program. Um I think
that those expand services and make more
services available to the residents of
our community. I just think that's a
value add and it's a quality-of-life
value add. So, just wanted to point to
those and uh everyone involved in those.
I think they're great programs and and
uh and um I think they I think they
benefit the community.
Um wanted to talk for a minute about
MUNIS um and our conversion to MUNIS. Um
the project remains in the testing and
troubleshooting phase. It's very close
to being completed. Uh city staff has
completed the requested modifications to
the It's called the ProVal data export.
I think I pronounced that correctly, but
ProVal data export and we're waiting on
Tyler Technologies. That's MUNIS. Uh
We're waiting on them to complete
several technical fixes within the MUNIS
system. Uh the primary issue involves
the system messaging. Uh
display formatting for certain text
changes and validation of the production
environment, the data that's in there.
There's some data in there that's legacy
data that needs to be cleaned up in
order to get fully converted over.
Um Tyler has uh collected diagnostic
information. They have it. Um we're just
waiting on them to give us the results
and to get us where we can go live. Uh
I'm hopeful. I can't make any
guarantees, but I am hopeful that that
conversion takes place by the end of
July, no later than going into August.
Um you know, I can't guarantee that, but
that's the goal. And and it certainly
seems achievable. So uh so I just wanted
to update everyone on that.
And uh finally, um
just want to thank staff again. I know
we're starting a new fiscal year. Uh
everything that you were able to do in
FY26, I find it I I just think it's very
impressive. What some of our department
directors have been able to do in their
departments, and I look forward to
starting FY27 with everyone.
>> Thank you, Todd. Um and I I did want to
come back to a couple of the things that
you said with the noticeable progress. I
think that's significant for us to
consider. You know, uh one of the
reasons that we've had some challenges
is we've had to choose to finance uh
some of our bills with Appalachian
Electric Power um to be able to keep
cash flow preserved. Um that's one of
the real issues for the city is making
sure that we keep cash on hand. And by
doing that, that's been a way we've been
able to maintain that cash flow. At one
point, we were as high as six bills that
were being financed, and it's down to
two. We would prefer zero, always. Um
but that is demonstrable progress in
about a year and a little bit of change.
And I I think that needs to be commended
significantly. So we did want to
continue to point that out. And as far
as the uh the savings go that we've
talked about with the
uh employee reductions. That has all
been through attrition.
Uh
I don't think we have laid anybody off
for this. We haven't reduced salaries.
You know, there was a lot of commentary
with that that was going to need to be
done, but I think that's an important
piece to bring out as well that so many
people on our staff have stepped up to
take on additional responsibilities, to
find more efficient ways to do things,
and to continue to offer the greatest
service to our community for the
resources that we have available. That's
stressful, too, and we do appreciate
that, and we want to say thank you so
much to all the employees. The other
piece I just have to point out before we
get away from this is our finance
department. What a great job Trish and
her team have done. I mean, it was a
Herculean task to reimagine what we
needed to do to get it back in line, and
to make sure we were moving in the right
direction. The discussions with the APA,
the work we're doing with Brown Edwards,
all of those elements I think are so
important. And you come down to this to
say significant progress has been made
for Radford's challenges, and I wanted
to thank you for bringing those things
forward. I'll have more later in in the
meeting, but I just wanted to highlight
that as part of what you were saying. Uh
Kelly, what do you have for us this
evening?
» Um
I want to thank city staff for all they
did for the 4th of July. I think that,
you know, to echo what Todd was saying,
um
I really felt like that was us coming
into a little bit more of our
independence. I'm very proud where we've
come. We've, you know, we've tackled
some hard expenses and some tough
choices, but I feel like us hosting that
great event, and it was a good turnout
even though it was really hot, and all
of our um citizens coming together, and
um all of our staff working really hard
that day, it was just it it gave me a
sense of pride that what we're doing up
here is changing things and really
matters. So, um I appreciate everybody
and I hope you guys feel the same way.
Um a couple of things from my joint
commission meeting. Uh Summer at Selu
has been going on. Um they have a couple
more dates left. I wrote it down.
Hold on.
Uh 725 from 9:00 to 5:00 and then 8:07
from 11:00 to 2:00 is open to the
public, so you can
paint, you can picnic, you can hike and
fish and um float and meditate or
whatever you would like to do. It's a
great space that's available for
community to go and use on those dates
and times, so I encourage you to go do
that. Um we are still working through uh
the 5-year strategic plan and giving
recommendations and and looking at that,
so that's something that I feel like
will help uh the city and and the
university. Um
community impact report is something
else that we're working on that will be
coming our way that I'll share with you
more as it comes about. Community Fest
is something that is coming up next
month that we're very excited about. Um
it's on the 22nd. Uh I think we have 23
vendors
uh available left or no? There's 110
available and there's 23 left?
>> Correct.
>> Okay, sorry.
I was writing notes furiously cuz I was
so excited wanting to listen. Uh seven
food trucks, we have a new logo uh
mentioning our heart, which is very very
cool, heart and hands. Um
there is a website if you would like to
volunteer. This event um is happens
because of volunteers. There's usually
about 100, so if you'd like to
volunteer, um please go to the website
or the Facebook page.
And the city website also I think has a
link to it as well.
Uh congratulate um Radford University on
their second year at winning the
Adventure College, so that's really
great for for
Really good tourism thing for us, so um
you know, we're living um where the
adventure is, and that brings a lot of
um highlight to our community, so I
think that was great.
Uh enrollment is looking flat, so that's
also good. Um
What else do we have? Uh we talked about
the mobile health clinic, which we've looked at. Thank you very much for
everything you guys are doing there.
That sounds like a really um great
opportunity for everyone involved.
Uh National Trails Day went well. Um
it surprised me that there was 74%
community members there, so that was
really great thing that our local
community went out and celebrated, so
that was really good for us.
Um Eric Plummer, who is the chief at RU,
has written three books. If you'd like
to read about his accomplishment
accomplishments, they're called Crisis
Through the Door, Crisis at the Top, and
then a new one uh called Crisis in the
Shadows. So, if you'd like to pick up a
summer read that's by a local artist,
you could do that.
And
I think that's about it.
Other than that, yeah, thank you to Oh,
and um Sarah at the Chamber of Commerce
said that they have a new website.
They've got uh a new member database, so
that's great for all of our um
businesses around. Um I run the audit
department for National Bank, so I know
how difficult it is um
sending out the request list, but I'm
also on the back end of having to turn
in things. Um and so, I can't imagine
the laundry list of things that you guys
have gotten and weeded through and the
nitpicky seemingly questions that come
out of those things. Um so, I really do
commend you guys for getting both of
those done. Um I know that 28
recommendations seems like a a lot just
out of seven areas. Um but I want to
stress that those are all good ideas for
us that we don't have to implement them
all. They're just good tools for us to,
you know, be able to look at things from
a different perspective. Um
So, I'm I'm proud that we're getting
that information and we can add it to
our already um, you know, six sigmaing
and and looking at all the departments
and kudos to the department managers for
um, stepping up and looking at things
differently and accomplishing more with
less. I think that's great. So I think
all in all it'll be good even though it
sounds
terrible right now, that number that he
said. It's I wouldn't take it that way
anyone citizens or or city employees.
They're all good recommendations that we
can definitely
improve on. So
I'm just proud of everything that we're
doing and moving forward.
>> Thank you, Kelly. Jesse, what do you
have?
>> Um, I attended an amphitheater meeting
and we are so very close. We have the
renderings now and we're just kind of
deciding the details like where the
bathrooms and food trucks are going to
be. So we are very very close to seeing
a very nice amphitheater in Radford on
the water and I want to thank our
partners at RU for making that a reality
for us. I had a department of social
services meeting, a CPMT meeting
and
a slight
tragic mishap at my house that I want to
thank the community for helping me
overcome. I was on vacation and two of
my dogs got out. Actually, I only have
two dogs and both of them ran away. Um,
I was just so very impressed by how the
community came together to help me find
them and I just want to thank everybody
that went out and on foot, drones.
Luckily, they were both found safely.
One ended up in jail with Adele. So I'd
like to thank Adele for her help in
helping me get that rascal home, but I
was so moved. I was actually moved to
tears. I was literally halfway across
the world when this happened and the
support that I got from the community
just reminded me of why I choose this
place to be my home. So thank you again
to everyone for that.
We were mentioning um Airmid Z and I
know that they have offered us an air
purifier in the past. So, we need to
follow up on that because they really
>> in.
>> Right. Um and so,
here I go again, corporate visits. You
know I'm going to say our business site
visits. We really need to get those
going again because through those
conversations, we were able to have
conversations with Airmid Z where
they're like, "We want to give you an
air purifier. We want you to see how it
works. We want to educate the community
on it." So, if we could get those back,
I would love to see those going again.
Uh and remind everyone that we have the
Mary Draper Ingles Festival, July 24th
through the 26th. We hope to see
everyone out there. It should be a lot
of fun. It is every year. And a lot of
work goes behind um the scenes for that.
So, thank you to the Heritage Foundation
for working so diligently to make sure
that that is
um so popular every year. We get people
from literally all over the world have
showed up for this event. And also, a
little note on the 4th, I was able to
visit some local businesses and I made a
point just to go up and down Main Street
a couple times and our little city
really came alive. So, we were out
supporting not only the anniversary of
our country, but also just supporting
one another and our our businesses. So,
we need to absolutely do more of that
whenever we can. Build it, they will
come. This community shows up. So, thank
you to everyone who come out to make
that a success and work behind the
scenes to make that a success. And
that's all I have, Mayor.
>> Very good. Thank you. Seth, what do you
have?
>> Yeah, I'll I'll tie into that and just
thank everyone from the Parks and Rec,
Public Works, Fire and EMS. I mean, the
whole list. It literally takes pretty
much every department to make the
uh this year's July 3rd event um go. So,
you know, it was a hot day, but the
fireworks were absolutely great. It was good to see us come alive, and I
agree with Jesse. I
looking around town, there was a lot of
people out and about, and it was great
day for the community. Hopefully, some
of our businesses um made some money,
and I think that a lot of a lot of
memories were made, and it was uh it was
a hopeful day. So, I was glad to see
that. It was a good day for Radford. Um
one thing that that Todd I was going to
ask for an update on is the HVAC upgrade
in the um in the municipal building. Do
we have it? And the reason I'm asking is
if there are if we do have to move
anybody around for courts or the voting
or anything like that, do we have a
strategic plan in place, or how What's
the timeline looking like for that?
>> As far as the the strategic plan, I do
not have that. It doesn't mean that we
don't have one. I just can't speak to it
right now.
Um
it's my understanding that that project
should be taking place when we get on
their schedule. We would like to do it
when it's more moderate temperatures. If
we can get that done in like October,
around that time frame, it would be best
for the city, but ultimately, we're sort
of at the mercy of of the HVAC company,
as well.
>> Yeah. That No, that makes sense. I I I
agree with you. I think fall would
probably be ideal if we were able to do
it. Thank you.
Um also wanted to thank Melissa and and
all the other um planning commission um
members cuz it has been a long and
tedious process on our uh zoning
rewrite, and we're we're getting very
close, and so I just wanted to Melissa,
I know that it's been been quite yeah,
several years, and so I appreciate her
efforts, as well as all the other
planning commission members, because it
has and and Affi from
um being able to help us. It's it's
definitely been a long process, but
we're getting near the end. And then
Todd, I I I appreciate the uh update. I
won't There'll be much to say about that
in the future, and and where we're
going, and
um or where we've been, and where we're
we have headed, but it it was nice um to
see us make some measurable progress. Um
it's been a tough road to hoe, and
there's still a I mean, you can see
tonight, there's still tough decisions
and conversations to be had because
we're not out of the woods yet, and we
have to stay disciplined. Um fatigue
can't set in. Uh we do have some
measured progress, but we have a lot of
work to do. But I have been very
encouraged by the buy-in and the pride
of some of our um department heads, a
lot of our staff, cuz that culture can
be contagious. And to see that starting
to take root is um encouraging for
Radford's future, and I think you're
doing a great job cultivating that. And
again, it it's very encouraging
from six payments to two payments is is
measurable progress, and I want to thank
our finance department. I want to thank
both of you guys and and every the whole
It's taken a lot to get there, and we
have a long way to go. And I do think
it's important to to take time to
acknowledge that, but then it's, you
know, roll your sleeves up, back to
work, cuz we do still have a long way to
go. So, I just want to thank everybody's
efforts, and um yeah, that's it. Thank
you.
>> Thanks, Seth. Guy, what do you have?
>> Well, I'm not going to take time to
reiterate everything that everybody else
has said, but I did want to bring up the
July 3rd event down at the park. Uh my
wife and I spent the whole time down
there. It was good to to be back down
there. I thought the the band wasn't
like
uh J- uh Fortune, but you know, they
were a good band. They played my kind of
music, and and I enjoyed it. And I
wanted to mention uh Charlie Gowins, of
course, is the director, but I think
Donna Wolfe was the coordinator and and
the
head honcho on that thing, and I just
appreciate the the good job that she
did. And and I think everybody enjoyed
it and liked seeing it happen again. So,
I hope it's on a new roll. That's all I
have.
>> Thanks, Guy. And I I'll reiterate that
as well. I wanted to say Charlie did a
great job leading the effort along with
Donna doing the work, as well as the
whole staff. There was a tremendous
amount of work to pull off that event.
It was absolutely wonderful. Uh you
know, July 4th
semi-quincentennial weekend celebration
is a central part of the city and
everybody did a wonderful job. The
fireworks were fantastic and that was
fabulous.
Um
just a couple of thoughts. So, since we
last met, there was an article that
appeared in several of the local media
talking about how we got where we are.
It was an opinion piece and and where we
are and what might happen. And there was
a discussion about Radford's future.
Would we be better off as a county? What
would the tax rate look like? I
appreciate all the opinion pieces that
are shared and then the thoughts that
everybody has because I think it's good
for us to have these discussions.
point as I I speak to this a little bit,
nobody really knows exactly what things
would look like should Radford, say,
decide to revert to town status, ask to
join a county. That's a negotiated
process. So, you can't really say it's
10 cents of a tax, 20 cents of a tax, a
dollar of a tax. You don't know. And you
don't know if every debt that the city
has would be taken on by a county and
that some of the debt could be left with
the town. So, you'd have to service
that. I will say there were some very
good points to the article that I I
wanted to highlight that this is
one piece of a very, very long process
that goes back many decades where
the city has been working through a lot
of challenges as our economy changed, as
we shifted away from some of our
manufacturing base that existed. We
still have amazing manufacturing in
Radford. It's wonderful that we're
talking about Aeroseal this evening.
That's one of the world leaders in air
purification and engine motors.
You you look at the same with Regal
Rexnord, Kollmorgen, and they're such a
leader in motion control. They're
wonderful things that happen, but it is
good to reflect on the fact that the
city has really changed significantly in
the last 40 or 50 years and those
changes have resulted in some of the
structural issues that we have as a
community. Working to address those is
no small task and I think this council
has spent a tremendous amount of time
working with staff, working with
everybody in the community who could
work together to find a pathway to
solutions. We had hoped to have an
economic development update tonight. We
had to push that off till August because
there's a few things that we're trying
to get together, but in August we do
plan to have that discussion. And
there's room for a lot of hope in the
city. There's a lot that's going to be
happening in the last 6 months of 2026
and the first 6 months of 2027 that
should be moving us forward. That
economic development is a key factor so
that we're not just talking about real
estate tax. We're not just talking about
fees. We're talking about a total
picture that can allow this city to
thrive. You've heard from several folks
about the tourism piece just like the
semi quincentennial weekend with July
3rd and 4th. That is a tremendous
opportunity for the city. Working with
the amphitheater project, working with
the riverfront and adventure activities.
The path is there for the city. We just
have to fully take advantage of it and move forward. I want to say so much
progress has been made with the Munis
update and we're really appreciative of
Todd and our entire IT team. Very
appreciative of our treasurer for all
the work that she's done with that.
has been a major issue for the city
for at least 15 years and more like
decades and I think that's a huge issue
that once that is completed, that is
moving quite a big mountain. Now, we're
not done yet. We're almost there and
we'll have a an announcement for you
when that is complete and an update. Um,
you know, Joy is doing a great job in
the treasurer's office and we thank you
for that. Kelsey, you're doing a
fantastic job in the Commissioner of
Revenues office. There's so much about
taxation that we have to try to
understand as a locality, and it's
really important that we up here on
Council get good information so that we
can make the best possible decision. And
it's not as simple as, "Well, what
should the rate be?" There's a whole lot
of factors that come into play about how
you collect it and and what that does to
a business or an individual. And so, I
think that's a big part of where we are.
I wanted to explain my vote a little bit
tonight on the 1% referendum.
I feel like Radford has got so many
moving parts. We're just not ready to
move forward with that referendum. Now,
it has passed, and Council has approved
it, and this is just David speaking to
you in the community, but I think it is
important that we look at ourselves
holistically and really examine what
taxes are we charging and why, are we
getting to our fiscal sustainability,
and what are our liabilities, and how do
we work on that. All of that has to be
pulled together because those are all
dollars that impact all of us. You know,
and I recognize that. I want to say this
progress we've made is incredibly
important,
but I want to look at the cost of that
progress, too. For the city employees
who stepped up and done extra work,
often times for no no additional pay, or
worked really hard to reimagine their
areas to do more with less, that is a
tremendous burden, and we are so
thankful for you for doing that. The
ball has not been dropped in this
community with all of those efficiencies
that have been found, and we're so
appreciative that people have stepped up
to do that. Um, I do think that the
citizens of this city are to be
commended for their support. The taxes,
the fees, it's so difficult, but it's
what gets us in a position to be
stronger.
The issue is the options that are there
if we don't do those things are so much
worse and could be so much more
expensive, and what we lose is so much
more um expensive than the trying to
find the savings where we can. So,
everybody's working really hard and the
good news is positive things are
happening. We do have much more to say
as we move forward and we will continue
to talk about the wonderful things going
on in Radford. We do need to go into a
closed session tonight to discuss some
things. So, we're going to take a pause
to do that and Seth, if you will take us
into closed session, then we'll be back
after a quick discussion and go from
there.
>> I'd like to make a motion
to convene a closed meeting for
discussion or consideration of the
investment of public funds where
competition or bargaining is involved
where if made public initially, the
financial interest of the governmental
unit would be adversely affected.
Specifically to discuss electric standby
service tariff, contract for appraisal
services and solid waste services.
Virginia Code 2.2-3711A6.
Discussion, consideration or interviews
of prospective candidates for
employment, assignment, appointment,
promotion, performance, demotion,
salaries, disciplining or resignation of
specific public officers, appointees or
employees of any public body body and
evaluation of performance of
departments. Specifically to discuss
city managers evaluation. Virginia Code
2.2-3711A1.
» All right, we have a motion. Do we have
a second?
» Second.
>> We have motion and a second. Any
discussion?
>> All in favor, please respond by saying
I.
>> I.
>> All right, any opposed? Well, we got to
go into closed session. If you