[0:08] Are we ready to get started today,

[0:09] y'all? Think

[0:11] » John make sure it's on.

[0:12] » Okay. All we got to do is put them on

[0:14] our phones. [snorts]

[0:34] There it is. Right up there.

[0:44] Okay, we'll get started today. Uh

[0:48] this uh this is a work session. We made

[0:51] some changes in the regular uh

[0:55] dates that we were going to meet because

[0:57] of conference last week. Uh and so we

[1:00] have wanted to be sure we had plenty of

[1:02] time to uh to prepare our agenda for

[1:05] today's meeting. So we changed the

[1:06] meeting. So we went ahead and changed

[1:07] today's work session also. So we're

[1:09] going to have the work session first and

[1:11] our work session we will uh set up the

[1:14] agenda then for incoming meeting. So we

[1:17] get through and that's the format you

[1:19] kind of got. So it'll take us a few

[1:20] minutes when we get through the work

[1:22] session to transition in. But I don't

[1:24] think it'll take us that long in the

[1:25] work session. What'll probably take some

[1:26] time will be after we get through with

[1:28] all that, we're going into a actual

[1:30] budget budget meeting to try to finalize

[1:33] our budget. And uh we're required by law

[1:35] to have that budget uh in the box and

[1:38] approved by October 1. So, we've got

[1:41] plenty time. We haven't got into

[1:42] September yet, so we can we can do quite

[1:45] a few things between now and then. Uh

[1:47] and every time I get a report from you,

[1:48] Michelle, it's got more money in it. How

[1:51] you how you doing that? Just just good.

[1:54] » I'm finding way I'm finding ways

[1:59] to get

[1:59] » Money around.

[2:00] » I learned some stuff down at that

[2:02] conference. I say to get us another

[2:03] about 375,000 to go back general fund.

[2:07] » We're going to pull it from somewhere

[2:08] else.

[2:09] » Y'all could save money by just asking

[2:11] Commissioner Parker to only go to that

[2:12] trumper once every three years. Comes

[2:15] back with too many ideas every time that

[2:17] he goes. But we'll get we'll get started

[2:19] in that. And uh the first thing that

[2:21] we'll try to do is to go through the

[2:23] engineers report work session and he'll

[2:25] give us an update on what he's got going

[2:27] on. And if you have anything in your

[2:29] districts or whatever to put on his

[2:31] plate, this would be a good time to do

[2:32] it. So uh county engineer Clay, I don't

[2:36] think he want to see me. I spent a whole

[2:38] day with him Monday.

[2:39] » Oh, you spent a You spent a week with

[2:41] Ricky last Monday

[2:46] to him every day at the conference.

[2:48] [clears throat]

[2:48] » Yeah.

[2:52] Yeah, we figured out ways to spend money

[2:55] for Monday.

[2:59] » Um,

[3:01] okay. Everybody ready?

[3:03] » Yep.

[3:03] » All right, go for it.

[3:04] » Number one, update on crews and

[3:06] projects. uh paving crew has been paving

[3:09] on Pine Pine Mountain area of the county

[3:12] and uh Monday they're moving over to the

[3:14] cut over road and in Shaw Creek uh

[3:18] Valley

[3:20] paving that

[3:22] » Are they about through on this end

[3:25] » This end of the county?

[3:26] » Yes,

[3:27] » We're just now starting the tar and

[3:29] gravel part.

[3:30] » Okay, that's right. You did some other

[3:32] » Yeah, we'll we'll do that until the

[3:36] paving season's over to or till we're

[3:40] » Finish paving all we got prepped for

[3:43] » Things there for Katrina.

[3:45] » Yes, sir.

[3:54] » Got to give her one more.

[3:59] [clears throat]

[3:59] » Okay. Um base crew, they finished the K

[4:02] Creek Road project preparation work. Um

[4:06] and speaking of the HR 5826 250, when I

[4:12] was at the conference, I I found out

[4:14] that u that project has been backed up

[4:18] to the December the 5th letting.

[4:20] » It won't be let in September 25th u like

[4:24] originally scheduled. So they're

[4:26] basically going to use next FY funds.

[4:30] That's what that's about.

[4:31] » And that's for your trip projects.

[4:34] » Yes, that was

[4:35] » That probably won't be a big issue

[4:36] because of uh you've got other projects

[4:39] working try to get them in this year

[4:41] anyway. We only got so many contractors.

[4:43] » That's that's

[4:45] probably running out of people to do

[4:46] them anyway.

[4:47] » That's true. That's true. Um

[4:52] and also uh September the 8th. Around

[4:56] September the 8th, we're scheduled our

[4:58] base crew to start on the Evergreen

[5:01] cover replacement project. That's a

[5:03] covert that US Fish and Wildlife because

[5:06] of TR Park Daughters. They're going to

[5:09] pay for the cover material and

[5:13] contractor put it in. We just got to do

[5:15] the prep pre-prep work for the project

[5:18] and do the road bed, get it back open

[5:21] afterwards. It's be second Now, we've

[5:25] done that. We did the first one on B

[5:28] Circle. So, I think it's it's a win-win

[5:32] for the county.

[5:35] [clears throat] Uh the next uh item is

[5:38] uh the U Sy Road uh

[5:43] a trip to uh 582

[5:47] 02258.

[5:50] Uh the dense grade base and paving.

[5:52] That's what uh the project is up to have

[5:56] needing that to be done. And uh Alabama

[5:59] Grading is the prime on it. And they

[6:01] also have a a a paving machine and

[6:05] everything. And they are doing the the

[6:07] dense grade and paving work for that

[6:09] project. And they're scheduled to begin

[6:12] uh next week, the September the 1, the

[6:16] week of September the 1st.

[6:19] » That's an ARIR project.

[6:21] » Yes. Yes, sir.

[6:23] » It's the county's uh it's one of the

[6:27] counties at projects that we sponsored.

[6:30] » Also, next is the Moody atrip uh two

[6:34] project dealing with the traffic lights

[6:36] at two different uh intersections and

[6:38] that project is scheduled to be let uh

[6:41] to bid September 25th, 2026.

[6:47] And then our CMAC, I apologize. The CMAC

[6:52] project is the Sandy Road US411

[6:55] intersection project. It's scheduled for

[6:57] a right now it's scheduled for a June

[7:00] 2027 leting.

[7:03] » You got to be kidding me. Uh well maybe

[7:05] it'll it'll speed up but here's the the

[7:10] caveats with that is uh the

[7:12] environmental technical service of ALDOT

[7:15] they have to come up and approve the uh

[7:18] the beaver removal uh dewatering uh

[7:22] process which involved removing beaver

[7:25] dams and relocating beavers.

[7:29] Uh

[7:31] once they uh once they approve

[7:34] uh approve that then uh they'll give the

[7:38] Old utilities the go ahead to get the

[7:41] water line relocated.

[7:43] » Does anybody see a trend here? You got

[7:45] the dry spot darters

[7:48] and relocating the beavers. So this

[7:50] project should have been let be as two

[7:52] years ago. I saw a murder of crows on

[7:54] the way here. We got any kind of

[7:56] protection on those yet?

[7:58] That's a murder.

[7:59] » Clay, are there any other animals in

[8:00] your report today

[8:02] » That were Hey, tell them Clay that's

[8:04] that ain't only the problem we had right

[8:06] there about beavers. What was the other

[8:08] that held us up for all that long time?

[8:10] » Oh, yeah. Right away is

[8:12] » No that there was something else held us

[8:14] up had to do with birds or plants or

[8:17] something

[8:18] » In there. A leather flower there.

[8:20] » I forget what it was. Something else in

[8:22] there we had held us up. Then core

[8:24] engineer got involved and core engineers

[8:26] kept it tied up till here a few months

[8:28] ago and they finally released it to him.

[8:32] » Consider the water the wetland and

[8:34] » We had to pay the guy who owns that

[8:36] property. We had to pay him to so we

[8:38] could go out there and tear the beaver

[8:39] downs

[8:41] » And relocate them

[8:42] » And relocate

[8:43] » The dams.

[8:43] » And we had to pay and we had to pay the

[8:45] guy to go out there and do that by hand.

[8:48] » Isn't there something extension service?

[8:50] We Ashley's come in here. There's

[8:52] something extension service can do about

[8:53] these beavers.

[8:54] » Probably not.

[8:57] We don't do [laughter]

[9:00] we can't help with that. Sorry.

[9:02] » Can you carry some over Taliga County?

[9:05] » Yes. Take them over there.

[9:08] » Okay.

[9:12] » Anyway, we'll be glad when the Sy 411

[9:15] project is complete.

[9:21] Let's get it done before we find any

[9:23] more animals.

[9:24] » Yeah.

[9:26] No more nonhuman animals involved in the

[9:29] rest of the proports

[9:34] and probably bats held us up.

[9:37] » They got the they had the grey nose

[9:39] disease or something.

[9:43] » Okay. Item number two disc um discuss.

[9:48] We'll have a recommendations for uh road

[9:51] workers. Uh the road worker one

[9:54] positions. We have six that are open and

[9:57] and uh in just a little bit I'll

[9:59] recommend four of the positions to be

[10:02] filled and uh the job is posted uh until

[10:08] filled until those six positions are

[10:10] filled. So, we'll we'll continue to uh

[10:14] to interview until uh till we get those

[10:17] [snorts] all field recommended to the

[10:20] commission.

[10:23] All right. Um,

[10:26] moving on to number three is uh um just

[10:29] to let y'all know that I I have

[10:33] Jennifer with HR uh at my request posted

[10:37] uh for the general labor position uh at

[10:40] our office. We have uh two that's

[10:42] available and I'm going to fill one of

[10:44] them uh within the next couple weeks.

[10:48] Hopefully we recommend y'all someone uh

[10:51] September 8th commission meeting.

[10:56] All right. Number four. Uh

[11:00] would like to discuss a request for St.

[11:02] Clair County to abandon rightway at the

[11:05] end of Hurst Road in the Odinville area.

[11:09] Um, I've received the uh

[11:13] a couple years ago I got a request from

[11:15] one of the property owners along

[11:18] adjacent to that rideway and um during

[11:22] the conference I got request from the

[11:25] other uh property owner adjacent to that

[11:28] rideway. There's only two so I won't

[11:31] have to send out letters to anyone else

[11:34] uh letting them know about it. But um so

[11:39] I'd like to u

[11:41] get permission to move forward on the

[11:43] abandonment of the rideway and and I'll

[11:46] coordinate with Tina and uh and Mr. Kurt

[11:50] old

[11:52] church go down. It goes out there in

[11:54] dead end.

[11:54] » Yeah.

[11:55] » Situation out there is what it is. This

[11:57] happened years ago.

[11:59] » The road goes down there in dead end.

[12:00] There's two houses out there. Our

[12:03] rideway

[12:04] half the road out there. He owns it. We

[12:07] only own half of that road and to the

[12:10] left of it. We got a ditch.

[12:13] And he's [snorts] got an issue with

[12:14] people keeps driving out there to his

[12:16] house during the night time. Think it's

[12:17] a parking place to come out there and

[12:19] park. the other lake out there. They

[12:21] come out there and they park up there on

[12:22] his on his property.

[12:25] » He's going he's going to put a gate up

[12:27] keep that and only way he can do that if

[12:29] we just go ahead and vacate that little

[12:31] bit of portion right away we got in

[12:32] here. Well, we have a similar problem. I

[12:35] think it's in your district off 144

[12:38] where we actually went out and did a

[12:41] road all the way to the end of the road

[12:43] and the guy now is complaining that that

[12:46] from somewhere where they've got a pipe

[12:49] out there, not the counties. You know

[12:51] what I'm talking about.

[12:58] Anyway,

[13:01] I'll get with you on that one. He says

[13:03] the end of that road was never dedicated

[13:05] to county. It was just done.

[13:07] » So,

[13:08] » Just down there,

[13:10] » Reverend Jordan,

[13:11] » We was going to put a we going to put a

[13:13] color sack down there right before that.

[13:15] We had where buses could turn around and

[13:18] yard trucks, but we only got one of the

[13:20] property owners who to give us

[13:22] permission. The other wouldn't. So, we

[13:24] best do like what we're talking about

[13:26] doing just vacate that let him put a

[13:28] gate up keep people from coming out

[13:29] there on his property.

[13:33] » So we'll have to advertise for 30 days

[13:36] public public meeting for 30 days and

[13:40] then we'll

[13:42] give y'all an opportunity to hear about

[13:44] it and then give an opportunity to uh to

[13:49] agree or disagree and then we'll have to

[13:51] advertise after that that the has been

[13:55] abandoned. That has been abandoned.

[13:59] Okay. Um number five, uh discuss

[14:02] approving an easement from Alabama Power

[14:05] Company allowing Alabama Power Company

[14:07] to provide power to the new uh SWAT

[14:10] building on the road department campus.

[14:16] And I've got that easement.

[14:20] They going

[14:23] down the side of your road to a pole and

[14:24] then underground to the building across

[14:26] the parking lot or what?

[14:28] » Yes,

[14:29] » There's an there's a pole on one of our

[14:32] drives that goes to our co-mix. There's

[14:35] already a pole there. They're going to

[14:37] span over to another pole on the right

[14:40] side of that drive. Then they're going

[14:42] to go underground as I understand uh to

[14:45] to the structure.

[14:47] That's what they're doing. Good.

[14:50] Did they give a cost to that? What's

[14:52] going to cost us?

[14:54] » The easement's not going to cost

[14:56] anything. And I don't know what the

[14:57] contract

[14:59] digging from polit

[15:04] as I understand it was part of the bid

[15:07] package.

[15:08] » What about gas lines? They gonna have to

[15:10] have easement to get run the gas line

[15:13] out there too.

[15:15] » I have I'm not aware. Roy's Rodney's got

[15:19] a lot of good connections with with fire

[15:21] » People.

[15:26] » He didn't say nothing about needing

[15:28] right away going out through there which

[15:29] they already got a gas line up through

[15:31] there. So they already got right away.

[15:32] » They got a gas line up there all the way

[15:34] all the way up through there.

[15:36] » They good.

[15:38] » That' be one one thing we don't have to

[15:39] worry about with gas coming. There you

[15:41] go.

[15:42] » Except it's a half inch line and it

[15:44] won't feed a heater.

[15:45] I just that's what happened to my house.

[15:50] » Okay, it'll work out.

[15:52] » So, the the easement though is a

[15:54] standard Alabama power easement as I

[15:56] understand.

[15:57] Kurt can take a look at it if y'all

[16:00] wish.

[16:02] I got that stuff. I had a chance to look

[16:04] at.

[16:09] » That's that's all I have. Commissioners

[16:11] have any questions for Clay?

[16:14] other than the ones we put on you as we

[16:16] went down the list. You can't get any

[16:18] help out of Ashley on the beavers. I

[16:20] don't know what you think.

[16:22] » We can hold a trapping workshop if y'all

[16:23] would like

[16:24] » A trapping work.

[16:25] » Yeah, because we hire we hire tra.

[16:32] » I heard you put a dead beaver on top of

[16:34] the d on the house and they'll leave.

[16:37] » Really?

[16:38] » That probably would work.

[16:41] So dead.

[16:43] » We can come up with dead.

[16:45] » What's that? What's that? A tri

[16:48] » Spot dart.

[16:49] » Could we put them in straight to poor

[16:51] moose to keep it? [laughter]

[16:55] » Get the straight moose.

[16:57] » Try spot dart.

[17:00] » That's it.

[17:01] » Build a bridge with that. Maybe open it

[17:04] up.

[17:06] » They're just not being creative. These

[17:08] are being county government.

[17:12] You might want to buck our military, but

[17:14] don't buck what you try.

[17:17] Some leather flowers on the side of the

[17:21] beach at the Straits of Hormuse and drop

[17:23] a few tri spot darters in snails in

[17:26] there.

[17:26] » Few snails. That place be

[17:29] » All right. Enough bushy so we can be

[17:32] done by some kind of reasonable

[17:33] lunchtime. Uh Rody Wolf,

[17:38] property manager, updates on properties

[17:40] and projects.

[17:41] » Rody, give them good news.

[17:43] » Yeah, tell us buyers.

[17:44] » Good news. EMA operation center gas

[17:48] lines already stubbed up. Sitting there

[17:50] waiting.

[17:52] » The corner's building. It is stubbed up.

[17:55] Sitting there waiting.

[17:56] » Good.

[17:57] » Only thing we got to do is get Clay to

[17:59] fix the payment down there [laughter]

[18:01] so the city don't jump us. Uh, and going

[18:05] back to the SWAT thing, I talked to the,

[18:08] uh, guy that's actually doing the wiring

[18:10] out there. Uh, he had already talked to

[18:14] Alabama Fire. They're about two weeks

[18:16] out of them setting the pole, which

[18:19] gives him enough time because he ain't

[18:20] got the meter set yet for him to do it

[18:23] anyway. So,

[18:28] » And then,

[18:29] » All right.

[18:30] » Yeah, I was building

[18:33] like pretty much done.

[18:35] » They should be done this Saturday.

[18:38] » We've already lined up on power to

[18:42] there's no reason required for that. And

[18:45] we already lined up on power to

[18:47] hopefully show up next Wednesday to

[18:50] start their process.

[18:56] » I'll check what Aaron because Pat done

[19:00] this one. The spire gas down here, but

[19:03] over the one in Asheville. So, I checked

[19:05] with him and see what where they're at

[19:09] that gas line.

[19:09] » We're in the mix on all that. The other

[19:11] one that we were uh didn't know if he's

[19:14] going to have to move anything or or add

[19:17] something out here at the museum just

[19:19] building when we move the uh Aaliyah in

[19:22] there. Are we going to run into any kind

[19:24] of gas line power line issues over

[19:26] there? We got data lines. Has all that

[19:28] been resolved?

[19:30] » Got anybody? We've had line locates done

[19:32] several times and there's nothing in

[19:34] contact.

[19:35] » Remove it some, but we we good on the

[19:37] data lines that's going in because

[19:39] they'll have to change all their online

[19:41] stuff.

[19:42] » I think Glenn and Emma's already been

[19:44] over there getting everything ready for

[19:46] it.

[19:47] » John and

[19:53] official meeting about two months ago

[19:55] with them.

[19:55] » Yeah.

[19:56] » Oh, Clay too. What did you get the

[19:58] survey done up there in Ash on the lot

[20:00] in Asheville?

[20:02] » Uh he he hadn't called me to let me know

[20:04] he's finished with it. I will call him

[20:06] today

[20:13] » And an update on the uh

[20:16] rescue squad building.

[20:18] have not heard back from

[20:22] not the guy that uh

[20:25] actually come out and looked at the

[20:26] building, but his who he reports to with

[20:29] CRS give me a call of the day and said

[20:32] he was going to run it on up to his

[20:34] boss. And then after that, then they

[20:37] would send the commission a letter

[20:40] saying what they were going to do and

[20:41] what what they were going to do.

[20:48] Is that just water coming in and

[20:49] wrapping back pretty much?

[20:51] » Uh,

[20:53] it's another one of them situations.

[20:54] Don't you remember on the sheriff's

[20:57] admin building behind the jail? Remember

[20:59] the 10 way the 10 come down on the one

[21:01] and the other just barely stuck up under

[21:03] that building is is the same way and

[21:06] they did not put no flashing to where it

[21:09] very easy for water to get blowed back

[21:11] up under is what it looked like to me.

[21:14] It lasted a long time for that to just

[21:17] now be a problem like that.

[21:19] » Yeah, it really did.

[21:23] » It's been a while.

[21:24] » Yeah, long time.

[21:26] » Other than that, that's what I got.

[21:28] Well, I guess all the other thing is I

[21:30] got the

[21:32] part of the project with Dan done in

[21:34] Asheville. I got the two fans and the

[21:36] cassette units replaced. Waiting on the

[21:38] coal to come in. uh which also reminded

[21:41] me that [clears throat] uh once that

[21:43] comes in, we'll have that replaced.

[21:45] They're supposed to be here this weekend

[21:48] replacing the two coils that's leaking

[21:50] in the children out here.

[21:54] » Everything is moving right along.

[21:57] » So, next at 7:30, you and I'll meet with

[22:00] the generator pick. Correct.

[22:05] » All right.

[22:06] » Let me know.

[22:09] Anything for me?

[22:12] » Whenever y'all get ready to talk about

[22:13] what we're going to do with the other

[22:14] generator, y'all giving some thought to

[22:17] that.

[22:19] » The old generator. I had uh cous water

[22:23] going for generator. I had them go look

[22:25] at it and uh he said ain't it ain't

[22:28] going to be big enough for them.

[22:29] » Wow.

[22:30] » Golly, that's a big generator.

[22:33] » I think that's the one that called me

[22:35] and that sort of shocked me.

[22:38] He he was talking about they needed a

[22:40] 400k.

[22:42] » He said they he was talking like they

[22:44] needed like a 400k generator to run

[22:47] their what they needed.

[22:48] » He said that there wasn't even

[22:50] » That big or something.

[22:52] » He said must be run big pumps.

[22:57] » It must be something big

[23:00] » Shot. We carry we carry it up to county

[23:02] shop right we carry it up there and set

[23:04] it up up there have to we use it hook it

[23:06] up that swap building any building clay

[23:09] then we got up there

[23:10] » That's at least close to a source for

[23:12] diesel fuel since that's a day on day

[23:22] one we [clears throat] get does as good

[23:24] as that one

[23:28] » All right that's all I

[23:31] I just got a text from him. He may have

[23:34] gone to the wrong place.

[23:43] That's what he did.

[23:45] » Bigger 10.

[23:50] » Yes, that's right. He's got

[24:01] I sent him a text. So, we'll see if that

[24:03] works out.

[24:07] » All righty.

[24:08] Moving on to Tina, county administrator

[24:11] updates and information from Tina.

[24:14] » Okay. So, I've been working with the

[24:16] staff and Kirk on the procurement cards

[24:19] and the credit card policies. We're not

[24:22] ready to move forward on that yet, but

[24:24] we are working on it and we'll bring it

[24:26] back up as another work session.

[24:28] » It's going to be

[24:30] » It's going to be a lot bigger than we

[24:31] thought. Um, but we can get through and

[24:33] I'm sure

[24:34] » Did y'all get some information from some

[24:36] some of those starting cross this bridge

[24:38] while we're at the conference. You get

[24:40] chance to talk to some

[24:42] » Conference.

[24:44] We didn't talk to anybody there, but but

[24:46] we've talked to other counties,

[24:50] you know, before we went to the

[24:51] conference and we've got material from

[24:53] several counties.

[24:54] » We've got material from Baldwin County

[24:57] » And Lee County.

[25:02] » Yeah.

[25:03] » They've had a long time.

[25:06] » Yeah. Um that they use for maintenance

[25:09] and stuff like that, but not for travel.

[25:10] » We're talking about travel. Travel is a

[25:12] different animal.

[25:14] And a lot of our accounting policies are

[25:16] going to have to be revised. And we need

[25:18] all of that in place before we put the

[25:20] procurement cards.

[25:22] » They can't go in effect 1 November

[25:24] anyway.

[25:24] » Yeah. So, we'll maybe have it by then

[25:28] » And we got to make sure our software is

[25:30] compatible, but we are working on it.

[25:34] And [clears throat] the next item, the

[25:35] Museum of B City will host Helen Keller

[25:39] Art Show.

[25:41] The reception will open Friday,

[25:43] September the 11th from 2 to 4. Museum

[25:46] hours are Thursday and Friday 10 to 4.

[25:48] Saturday 10 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Admissions

[25:52] free. And you've got a fly in your work

[25:54] session.

[26:04] » I have any questions for Tina?

[26:08] » Thank you, Tina.

[26:16] Hold on just a second. Uh, and Dave, I'm

[26:21] appreciate you being here. Feel free to

[26:23] jump in here. Believe me, at any time if

[26:25] you if you've been thinking about some

[26:26] of these things, especially as we work

[26:29] on things, if they say it's going to be

[26:30] something get taken care of after

[26:32] November, that's going to be something

[26:35] that'll be on your plate. So, any of

[26:36] those if you have any comments you want

[26:37] to make, feel free to jump in there at

[26:39] any time.

[26:41] We'll uh we'll we'll work that out. We

[26:44] don't want to we don't want to leave a a

[26:46] list of things

[26:48] that surprise you. There'll be several

[26:50] things won't be able to be done for a

[26:52] while. How you doing, uh, Judge

[26:54] Ammeritus? You you need to address the

[26:56] commission on anything?

[26:57] » I was just taking some orders from Kurt.

[26:58] He had he said he needed he had

[27:00] something I hadn't done

[27:02] » And I'm and I'm taking care of it, Kurt.

[27:05] Notice where notice where Kyle had has a

[27:07] birthday today. Y'all got his birthday.

[27:09] [clears throat]

[27:09] » I'm about to send him I'm about to send

[27:12] him congratulations. So, he made another

[27:14] year just like you.

[27:15] » Amen. And that's always a good sign.

[27:18] » I'm headed to my daughter's wedding. So,

[27:22] » Anybody have any funds that they want to

[27:24] [laughter]

[27:31] » Imagine that she'll start sending money

[27:33] to you now.

[27:35] Yeah,

[27:36] » She married a lawyer at Bur Foreman up

[27:37] there. He's just new start. I mean, she

[27:39] ought to it ought to be okay.

[27:42] » You know how lawyers are. [laughter]

[27:44] » Congratulations on getting one off the

[27:45] payroll.

[27:47] » You never get them off payroll.

[27:50] » Okay. Any questions now? Anything for

[27:53] Tina? Uh

[27:56] I'm still a little concerned about the

[27:57] procurement card question, but we'll

[27:59] talk about that. Is is there anything we

[28:01] can do quickly? let us know uh to get

[28:05] that card in. I'd like I hoping we'd

[28:08] have them in in place [clears throat]

[28:09] even for travel by October one.

[28:11] » And we're going to try our best. It's

[28:13] it's just going to be a process. Um

[28:15] Okay. Um we've got so many policies and

[28:18] Kurt might want to speak of this. We've

[28:19] got so many policies

[28:21] » That references the county credit card.

[28:24] » Yeah. I mean, so there's

[28:27] » You're up next anyway.

[28:28] » I'm up next anyway. We're scooting up

[28:30] there where I'm supposed to be at.

[28:37] Um so there are um

[28:42] a number of policies. Um

[28:46] there we go. Um there are a number of

[28:48] policies that touch um credit cards that

[28:53] touch um you know the use of the credit

[28:56] card. I say credit cards that's singular

[29:00] credit card. But we're moving to the

[29:02] pecards and so we would just want to get

[29:05] everything in one place and everything

[29:08] that touches those things all you know

[29:11] calm all the tangles out and let's have

[29:14] one place we look for issues that relate

[29:16] to that and it there are um a number of

[29:19] policies there's several resolutions all

[29:22] that will be impacted that need to be

[29:25] you know either repealed and or replaced

[29:28] or you know the content moved somewhere

[29:30] somewhere else. Um, so it's just going

[29:33] to be picking all of that stuff apart so

[29:35] that we don't leave some something

[29:38] that's already dealt with, you know,

[29:41] abandoned.

[29:43] Yeah. So,

[29:46] » A bunch

[29:47] » Because it will not cover as broadly as

[29:50] the old credit card methods we were

[29:52] using. Is that what we're kind of

[29:53] finding out?

[29:54] » It it will not. No. Um, I think I

[29:57] mentioned the any of this federal money

[30:00] we get and I'm going to assume it's uh I

[30:04] I don't know whether it's whether it's

[30:05] tied in with federal money we get

[30:07] through uh DOT or not, but let's just

[30:10] say the million dollars that we've got

[30:12] in appropriation for the Riverside

[30:13] Bridge that that can direct

[30:16] appropriation federal money. There's a

[30:18] procurement policy on the federal level

[30:21] and in fact they require states to have

[30:23] a procurement officer

[30:25] and I'm not sure it be it probably good

[30:28] for us to designate somebody as a

[30:30] procurement officer

[30:31] » Right

[30:32] » To keep up with that and and it to me it

[30:34] would be better if they if they all were

[30:36] the same rules because he he he may

[30:40] spend some money that came from a

[30:42] federal grant or something and spend it

[30:44] under our rules but if they're different

[30:46] from the federal procure roots, we would

[30:48] be in trouble on how we bid it, how we

[30:51] advertised it, all of those kind of

[30:53] things.

[30:54] » Correct.

[30:54] » So that that

[30:56] if the commission thinks they can put it

[30:58] all under the same umbrella as

[31:00] requirements by the federal rules, it'll

[31:03] cover us all the way down,

[31:04] » Right?

[31:04] » But they may be too restricted. I don't

[31:06] I don't know how far they go.

[31:07] » Yes, sir.

[31:10] » Quite a bit of money comes through.

[31:11] Well, not just DOT. If we had a a

[31:13] tornado, that's that that's something

[31:16] that comes up. how we spend federal

[31:18] money from FEMA and all those kind of

[31:20] things just could be a surprise. And if

[31:23] we're spending it like we were used to

[31:25] and they didn't they didn't uh uh

[31:28] correspond with the way the federal

[31:29] government requires and we have a

[31:31] problem that wasn't necessarily tied to

[31:33] the old uh we pretty well know how to

[31:36] jump through the hoops. We're required

[31:37] to do this this and this on federal

[31:39] money but not if it comes off of a card.

[31:42] That's kind of got me concerned how we

[31:44] do a card.

[31:47] So if it can all be matched up, to me it

[31:50] looks like it'd be simpler. Yes, it may

[31:52] be more restrictive

[31:54] than we want to if it's federal, but we

[31:57] might not mind it being very

[31:59] restrictive,

[32:02] » Right? And you know one of the things to

[32:05] cons you know I think that you know the

[32:08] simplest thing right now will be just to

[32:12] deal with just the the procurement card

[32:15] policy rather than a like a

[32:17] comprehensive procurement policy across

[32:19] the board that would you know

[32:22] » Address everything. um just because the

[32:28] if if it were a matter of taking some

[32:30] something somebody else had done and

[32:32] swapping you know X county and put St.

[32:35] clear in um you know it it could we

[32:39] could we could have something ready to

[32:41] go tomorrow but there's it's tangled up

[32:43] in a little bit more than that like that

[32:46] policy that that that was developed

[32:47] somewhere else was developed in the

[32:49] context of whatever their history is

[32:52] that brought them up to this point and

[32:54] you know they untangled all those knots

[32:56] or presumably did

[32:57] » Really I think the first step is the

[32:59] clearing up the resolutions and the

[33:00] policies that we have currently in place

[33:03] that's step one step two may the more

[33:05] comprehensive uh policy we have about

[33:07] procurement,

[33:08] » Right?

[33:09] » I think we got to do one before we do

[33:10] the other.

[33:12] » Makes sense.

[33:13] » Yes.

[33:14] » So that's that's um that's where we the

[33:17] approach we're taking on that.

[33:19] » Okay. Um

[33:23] so um

[33:27] the um

[33:31] lodging tax we worked through that and

[33:33] that's ready for

[33:36] » Today.

[33:38] » Yes sir. It is. We have that ready to go

[33:41] today. I don't know.

[33:42] » Yes. And it's on the agenda. I put it

[33:45] effective December the 1st to allow our

[33:48] sales tax coordinator time to get

[33:51] letters out to all the hotels and motel

[33:56] if y'all are good with that. The state

[33:58] requires 60 days

[34:02] 90 days

[34:06] » And to keep from having to discuss it in

[34:09] in the meeting as such. Uh

[34:14] we uh

[34:16] we want to be sure that any of those

[34:18] taxes that are passed like that

[34:21] [cough and clears throat]

[34:23] like they need to be earmarked in any

[34:24] way. This money comes directly into the

[34:26] general fund

[34:26] » General fund.

[34:27] » Then the decision on how it's dispersed

[34:29] comes from whatever commission body is

[34:31] in place.

[34:33] » Yes.

[34:35] » So the only thing really that's changing

[34:37] on that is just the the rate.

[34:40] » Correct.

[34:45] Um,

[34:48] we've got a um

[34:51] memorandum of understanding about the

[34:53] folks from Aaliyah that are moving into

[34:55] the new Eegis building. Reviewed that,

[34:58] make few little adjustments to that.

[35:01] We'll get that sent over to their

[35:04] council to review and we'll get

[35:08] wrinkles ironed out of that here. have

[35:10] that ready to go pretty quick.

[35:12] » We need to take some legal action on

[35:15] uh I don't know what kind of hoops we

[35:17] have to jump through, but I was hoping

[35:18] we could put Aaliyah's

[35:21] seal on that building where it used to

[35:23] say St. Clair, New Zealand

[35:26] spot on the wall. [clears throat] It was

[35:28] there. Uh there's an official Aaliyah

[35:32] seal and I looked it up here the other

[35:35] day. We

[35:37] » Talked about it.

[35:38] » Yes, sir. Aaliyah sent me with a sent me

[35:41] what they're going to have on their

[35:42] door.

[35:43] » That's just on their door.

[35:44] » Yes, sir. But I talked with Lind Crow.

[35:46] He got us a quote to put it on the

[35:49] building as well.

[35:50] » That's good.

[35:51] » So, that's in the works.

[35:53] » I just figured it would might be better

[35:55] to wait until closer to when they're

[35:57] going to open over there so people won't

[35:59] be going over there thinking they're

[36:00] open.

[36:01] » You got a good You got a good point. And

[36:02] then the other way to think about that

[36:04] is get people as used to as as as used

[36:07] to it as as quickly as possible. That

[36:10] that that's where Aaliyah is because one

[36:12] of our problems here is [clears throat]

[36:16] Aaliyah does a great job in what they do

[36:18] and they're overwhelmed just like some

[36:19] of the things we do. But many people

[36:22] look at Aaliyah as a county agency.

[36:26] » So when Aaliyah has problems then it

[36:29] it's cost the countyy's not handling

[36:32] problem. So divorcing us from these

[36:35] other people that's that's not ours is

[36:39] good. You know, we've always fought for

[36:41] instance the issue on who are you going

[36:43] to pay for just something that simple.

[36:46] So it never ends, you know. So I have an

[36:50] inclination just put signs all up and

[36:52] down there. What you see in some

[36:53] counties county

[36:56] road maintenance stops here.

[37:00] They got them all over Jackson County

[37:02] » Because had the same issue. County road

[37:04] maintenance stops here. It's it's from

[37:07] here on in. It's somebody else's. I'm

[37:09] not going to tell you whose it is, but

[37:10] it's not ours.

[37:12] » We'd have to have a thousand signs.

[37:14] » At least we have to have at least

[37:15] » But in this case, at least people will

[37:17] get to know that's not a Slair County

[37:19] entity. That is Well, another one that

[37:21] comes to mind, they do great work. They

[37:23] do good work, but they're not ours. St.

[37:25] Clair County Health Department is not

[37:27] ours.

[37:29] And we get calls and Corey gets called.

[37:31] They get calls all the time problems

[37:33] with things that might relate to the St.

[37:35] Clair County Health Department. And I I

[37:38] wish that had a big sign over it out

[37:39] there, you know, state of Alabama,

[37:44] » Health department, St. Clair County

[37:46] minor chapter or something, you know,

[37:48] because that's those those are bigger

[37:50] issues than we think because they take

[37:52] up a lot of our time trying to explain

[37:53] to people the levels of government. I

[37:57] know it's You'd think by now everybody

[37:59] would know, but no, they don't. They

[38:01] don't know at all.

[38:03] » Uh, so anyway, that's sooner we can put

[38:05] a sign on that building, the sooner

[38:07] people will start saying that's a state

[38:08] agency that'll be moving in that

[38:10] building. But I see what you're saying.

[38:11] We don't want them going over there and

[38:12] stopping. But really, it may be all

[38:14] right if they go over there and stop. At

[38:15] least they'll start parking out back.

[38:17] » That's true.

[38:19] » I can Lyn's got the quote. We can have

[38:21] them go over there.

[38:22] » I would have problem moving forward with

[38:24] it.

[38:26] They going to park in the back parking

[38:28] lot, which is where we was always hoping

[38:29] they'd park anyway.

[38:32] » And there are set there assigned parking

[38:35] places back there. Three or four people.

[38:37] » Three of them.

[38:38] » Yeah,

[38:38] » We can put their memo when they open on

[38:40] the door as well.

[38:41] » Okay, that'd be good. Yeah,

[38:43] I'd like to see this move forward with

[38:46] Okay.

[38:56] Um, so I'm reviewing a um I'm looking at

[39:01] a contract for the um community

[39:04] corrections issue about the um ankle

[39:07] monitors. Um it's my understanding that

[39:12] the county is

[39:15] identified as the customer for that. Um,

[39:17] and I'm my

[39:20] inference is that um that that's just

[39:24] because of community corrections

[39:27] function and their um how they're

[39:30] organized here in our county. Um

[39:34] but anyway, I'm looking at that contract

[39:36] and uh that'll be circulated here pretty

[39:39] quick. I didn't have a chance to tell

[39:40] you, but I talked with Judge Weather

[39:42] Team this morning and they're going to

[39:43] have a board meeting corrections

[39:47] » Next week so we can put this on another

[39:51] work session and they're going to review

[39:53] the contract.

[39:54] » I see. Okay.

[39:56] » We can bring it back up at our next work

[39:57] session.

[39:59] » Okay.

[40:00] um

[40:02] the um

[40:06] flow forward initiative the um

[40:09] requesting information from the water

[40:12] correct the GIS mapping um thatou is um

[40:16] I've gone back through that and I think

[40:17] that's ready to be distributed to the

[40:21] authorities for their [clears throat]

[40:25] acceptance if they choose to

[40:28] » Sir

[40:29] » Good luck

[40:30] with that.

[40:31] » Yes, sir.

[40:35] » They're not going to understand

[40:39] this for years and years and years. The

[40:41] engineers that they have don't want us

[40:43] to do this. They want to control who

[40:46] knows where all those lines are.

[40:49] They're on our highway,

[40:50] » Right?

[40:50] » And uh and they're agencies that we

[40:52] created, most of them. Uh, so we we

[40:57] probably need to do a lot more

[40:58] communications to those people for them

[41:00] to know this is not a threat. We don't

[41:01] want to tell them anybody where the

[41:02] valves are located or any of that sort

[41:05] of thing. But when we do a when we do an

[41:08] application for a grant for instance,

[41:11] uh, we have to turn in information such

[41:13] as low to moderate income, the density

[41:15] of low to moderate income, where they

[41:17] are. uh we have to we have to do a lot

[41:20] of things that if we already had that in

[41:23] a box somewhere the mapping of those

[41:25] lines for instance u

[41:28] that really help us move on forward

[41:30] moving money into these systems and

[41:33] that's just going to be an education

[41:34] problem for a long time

[41:35] » But we are fighting against the maybe

[41:39] not a good term our our resistance I

[41:43] think comes mostly from their engineers

[41:46] they want hold on to that information

[41:48] like it's proprietary and some of it is

[41:51] but some of it's not. So that's just

[41:54] going to be a long time long time thing

[41:57] that's something D can straighten out.

[41:58] It's just it's only it's only a 30-year

[42:00] problem. Uh [clears throat]

[42:02] that's that we're we're trying to map

[42:04] where all the infrastructure is for

[42:06] water systems and uh a lot of reasons we

[42:11] we don't have that in our mapping

[42:12] system. Well, our individual water

[42:14] systems are saying, "Yeah, we don't want

[42:15] to give that to y'all."

[42:17] Wait a minute. First of all, it's

[42:19] probably public record. We get it if we

[42:20] make it. We don't we don't want that

[42:21] kind of relationship with them. But but

[42:24] some of that's because they just don't

[42:26] understand. We're not trying to get it

[42:28] for any nefarious reason. We We need

[42:31] that information for good things. But

[42:34] that's going to take a while to explain.

[42:36] Maybe a maybe a seminar with water

[42:38] systems a couple times a year or

[42:40] something like that. I don't know.

[42:43] That's something that uh Commissioner M

[42:45] said he was going to handle.

[42:47] » Yes, I'll take care of a case point

[42:50] would be just what we discussed last

[42:52] week. You know, we were talking about

[42:53] possibly crossing into cross that river.

[42:56] » Yeah.

[42:56] » And we have no earthly idea where where

[42:58] we would tap,

[43:00] you know, that would be something

[43:03] beneficial.

[43:05] » Where to start digging?

[43:08] » Washington DC to ask for some grant

[43:10] money for that. It's good to have a map

[43:12] showing where where we can cross the

[43:13] river to to legally tap on.

[43:15] » And I talked to Tommy Bowers on that

[43:17] subject. He said power companies okay

[43:19] that crossing years ago. You're aware of

[43:21] that?

[43:21] » It is. Yeah. We've got a we've got an

[43:23] approved crossing in a box, but that may

[43:25] not be one crossing.

[43:26] » No. No.

[43:28] Where that would come in handy?

[43:30] » Yeah.

[43:30] » And if I get that letter, I talk to New

[43:32] London.

[43:34] » Yeah. They'll be okay with it.

[43:35] » Okay.

[43:36] » Good.

[43:37] » I feel like they will. Yes, sir. I guess

[43:39] if we if we could

[43:42] we probably need to talk to Brian Price

[43:45] of he can communicate instead of in his

[43:48] technical manner some way or another we

[43:50] just communicate that that it's

[43:52] shouldn't be a threatening thing for

[43:54] them. Give us whatever you give us but

[43:56] give us something

[43:57] » Give us where your lines are located you

[44:00] know and do they run through pine woods

[44:03] that that kind of thing.

[44:06] That'd be good if we had all that in one

[44:08] » Right. It's not just municipal, it's not

[44:10] just the water systems there. It's some

[44:12] municipalities, too. But that's going to

[44:14] be up to their engineers,

[44:16] » Right?

[44:18] » For sure.

[44:20] Um and then

[44:23] with the exception of you had uh

[44:26] commissioner uh chairman, you had asked

[44:29] um about the to do some research about

[44:32] the amendment 909.

[44:34] Uh I'm happy to speak about that now or

[44:38] we can talk about it in the meeting time

[44:42] especially before I before I get going

[44:44] into retirement. Uh and it's also

[44:46] something that that

[44:49] other people will need to know

[44:52] and day what your what your options are.

[44:55] So what's that what does that amendment

[44:57] say? Well, so

[45:01] it was enacted as um a way for um local

[45:07] governments to be able to make decisions

[45:11] without having to amend the

[45:13] constitution. Um we're

[45:17] under the Dillan's rule which is u from

[45:21] the late 1800s and uh basically says

[45:26] local government you only have the

[45:29] authority that that the state gives you.

[45:32] So, um what amendment 909 did

[45:37] um was say here's the authority to act

[45:41] in these five ways and there's a list of

[45:45] five different thing categories

[45:47] basically that of um types of

[45:52] um

[45:53] matters that

[45:56] you can

[45:58] establish programs under those headings.

[46:02] um and there's a procedure that's that

[46:05] you required to follow to um be able to

[46:08] act in this way. So the five areas have

[46:11] to do with personnel,

[46:14] um litter and animal control, public

[46:17] transit and road safety,

[46:19] um county offices, so like elected

[46:23] officials and their roles, and then um

[46:27] emergency assistance.

[46:30] Um Uh this topic came up in the context

[46:34] of

[46:36] um possibly doing some sort of um you

[46:40] know retirement party if you have a

[46:42] county employee that's going to retire

[46:45] um and you know there there may be a way

[46:48] forward to do something like that. The

[46:50] ACCA has some materials about some um

[46:55] you know jump start for um you know

[47:00] employee recognition um and safety sort

[47:04] of things that um that you could put

[47:07] together. Um so there's some folks that

[47:10] are doing things. I found some

[47:12] information um that where Coleman had

[47:16] done Coleman County had done some

[47:19] um enacted something pursuant to

[47:22] amendment 909 but um the procedure that

[47:26] has to be followed is and you went

[47:28] through it when we were here last but

[47:30] » Doesn't it say in there you can that the

[47:32] local body can restrict it as restricted

[47:34] as you want. You don't have to adopt

[47:36] everything it says you you may do,

[47:38] » Right? You can adopt bits and pieces and

[47:40] and restrict them. For instance,

[47:42] » Uh when staff has to buy a frame for uh

[47:47] a certificate

[47:49] of recognition for someone

[47:53] uh we have a problem paying for the

[47:55] frame. So we have a tendency to run down

[47:59] to Walmart and pay 99 cents. Is that we

[48:01] got that straight? Can we pay that

[48:03] straight down?

[48:03] » Can we pay anything we want to?

[48:06] It's limit. I mean,

[48:07] » I mean, we can't go spend hundreds of

[48:10] dollars on one, I'm sure, but we can get

[48:12] decent looking. We pay a little bit more

[48:14] than 99, but um

[48:20] » And and the the certificate itself, I

[48:22] mean, we print them off of our computer

[48:23] in the office, and it may be something

[48:25] this something that uh

[48:27] » You've got an entity that's been working

[48:29] for the county for a long time.

[48:32] uh and and they need rec they're going

[48:34] to get recognition

[48:35] » Honor that and recognize them for that

[48:37] » With a with a professionally printed

[48:39] certificate

[48:40] and instead of I we do a good job but

[48:43] not what it could be if it were done

[48:44] through some entity that printed off of

[48:47] better stock. It's not just a flimsy

[48:49] piece of paper

[48:51] » That that starts out at that and it goes

[48:53] all the way up to where you could pay

[48:54] for the retirement party for a retiring

[48:56] judge.

[48:59] » Right. Well, right now we can't pay for

[49:00] cake or any type of food for a

[49:02] retirement party. So,

[49:04] » So somewhere in there, do you want to

[49:05] pay for the cake? You know, I think in

[49:07] 909 there may be a place in there for

[49:11] » But you can't buy you can't buy him a

[49:13] car,

[49:15] » Right?

[49:16] » Yeah.

[49:17] » That's the restriction. You going to

[49:18] give him a car as a gift for his

[49:20] retirement, you know.

[49:22] So, but the state had to go through some

[49:24] pretty big hoops when I retired from the

[49:26] state and they gave me my pistol and my

[49:29] badge. Isn't that a crazy thing?

[49:32] Policeman's going to retire and you give

[49:33] him his pistol and his badge. Well, he's

[49:35] not going to shoot anybody, arrest

[49:36] anybody anymore. He's retiring. Won't

[49:38] just give me my county, my state truck.

[49:40] You know, that's kind of what I suggest.

[49:42] That didn't go very, but that's sort of

[49:44] what fits in this category. What do you

[49:46] want to what do you want to do for

[49:47] recognition? That was one of the areas

[49:49] we really run into a problem with.

[49:51] uh

[49:53] let's say u

[49:56] a longstanding person in the counties

[49:59] uh

[50:01] does it cover for instance buying

[50:03] flowers for a funeral? Well, so my

[50:07] reading of it, and it's, you know, kind

[50:09] of the 30,000 foot view. Um, I haven't

[50:12] drilled down on it very far, but, um, my

[50:16] read is that it's it gives you a

[50:19] mechanism to establish a program. So,

[50:22] like a manner of dealing with this topic

[50:26] rather than here's Joe Smith that's

[50:29] retiring. let's go by his picture frame

[50:33] for the certificate. Um, so it's not

[50:36] that specific. I mean, maybe it could

[50:39] be. Um, it's, you know, I mean, it's

[50:42] it's broad. There's it covers a lot of

[50:45] lot of ground. Um,

[50:48] so

[50:50] » That something to be aware of. We've had

[50:53] option to do to use that amendment uh

[50:57] for many years and we've never done it

[51:00] and a lot of counties have because we're

[51:01] afraid of it. What kind of door are you

[51:03] opening up?

[51:04] » Pandora's box.

[51:05] » Not necessarily. That's what I'm saying

[51:07] is we shouldn't be afraid of it being

[51:09] Pandora's box if we set conditions. I

[51:12] think we can set some real strict

[51:14] conditions where you can't open that

[51:16] box. you can only do these things which

[51:18] is at least better than what you can do

[51:20] now which is almost nothing in those

[51:22] situations. You can't spend public money

[51:25] on those kind of private things. Um so

[51:29] u

[51:31] anyway I think it's valuable to know

[51:33] about it and and and bring it up every

[51:35] once in a while. Missions change and you

[51:37] may want may want to talk about it

[51:39] again. How how do we handle this? It not

[51:41] only helps commissioners make a

[51:43] decision, it helps staff make a

[51:44] decision. How we going? Golly, we sure

[51:46] we sure would like to be able to send a

[51:49] spray of flowers to the funeral.

[51:52] And used to we paid for it. You think

[51:54] it'd be simple. Why don't we just use

[51:55] the money out of the coke machines in

[51:57] the hallway because it's against the

[51:59] law. We used to do that. We used to take

[52:02] profit out of the Coke machines and

[52:04] candy machines in the basement and put

[52:06] that into a flower. We used to call it

[52:08] the flower fund, didn't we?

[52:10] » Yes, sir.

[52:10] » Yeah. We can't do that. The auditor said

[52:13] you cannot do that, but you can use 909,

[52:16] I think, to do that. And I don't think

[52:18] anybody's saying you shouldn't do that.

[52:20] » No, I don't think so.

[52:21] » So, you got an option to do that, but

[52:23] you can make it.

[52:26] Commissioner uh Parker's right. It could

[52:29] be something. You open the door, next

[52:31] thing you know, lots of money flowing

[52:33] through. But that's that's us. That's up

[52:35] to us. We can close the door, I think,

[52:36] about as tight as we want to close it.

[52:40] » Yeah.

[52:42] Well, the you know it it wouldn't have

[52:44] been enacted if it didn't serve some

[52:46] interest locally and at the state level

[52:49] too. And so the at the state level it

[52:51] cut down on how many constitutional

[52:53] amendments? I mean we had the longest

[52:55] constitution in the world the world.

[53:00] » This says something you know that that's

[53:02] how you have to operate to get business

[53:03] done. So I mean this is a good solution

[53:06] » We choose to

[53:07] » Right

[53:08] » And it can solve some problems that I

[53:10] think [clears throat]

[53:11] have until we till we adopt it.

[53:14] » Yes.

[53:17] » Thank you.

[53:19] » Yes sir.

[53:21] » All right. Any questions for Kirk?

[53:26] » Thank you.

[53:29] » Okay. Moving on now in our work session.

[53:32] Go back to Dean. He's here

[53:34] » Up. I didn't see him come in. I saw

[53:36] » Come on, Dave.

[53:37] » Come on up here. Dean Go forth. Dean Go

[53:39] forth is uh

[53:42] » The Sinclair County Airport Authority

[53:44] » And um he uh in fact he he one of the

[53:48] one of the ways he kind of presented

[53:50] that he would be interested in serving

[53:52] on that authority was that he would like

[53:54] to give annual updates to the county

[53:56] commission which formed the St. Clair

[53:58] County Airport Authority. Uh and and so

[54:02] we know what's going on out there and

[54:04] they know what we're doing and and try

[54:06] to try to have some connection between

[54:08] the county commission and the airport

[54:10] authority. We we appreciate your

[54:12] willingness to serve and your

[54:14] willingness to go this other step to to

[54:17] literally physically get some

[54:19] interaction between the two because the

[54:21] airport is a very valuable and what's

[54:25] what's its value? What do you think that

[54:26] place would cost if you had to build one

[54:27] today? that that is not a small a small

[54:30] idea out there. Uh so we appreciate the

[54:33] work that that you're doing on that

[54:34] board and it can spend a lot of money

[54:37] quickly

[54:38] in certain ways. So y'all have a printed

[54:41] report from Dean and the floor is yours.

[54:45] [clears throat] We're I sent some late

[54:48] » I didn't get those printed. I just saw

[54:50] them.

[54:50] » Okay. To them later. I brought a copy in

[54:53] case I want to hand it out. So first I

[54:55] want to say thank you. Thank you for the

[54:57] opportunityvious. Obviously, I love to

[54:58] fly and I've got a plane there, too. But

[55:00] I'm really interested in making sure

[55:01] that we

[55:03] for the all y'all know me and I tend to

[55:05] see things not just from a having fun

[55:08] standpoint, but from probably many times

[55:11] a business perspective. So, I want to

[55:13] tell you a quick story real quick.

[55:14] [clears throat] My first meeting,

[55:17] they thought I was a spy.

[55:22] I'm I we I knew there was a disconnect

[55:25] because we talked about it and you guys

[55:26] challenged me with bridge that gap, find

[55:29] out what's going on because we really

[55:31] don't interact and we don't communicate.

[55:34] Um so we were in our first meeting. It

[55:36] was I decided I was just going to keep

[55:38] my mouth shut and listen, which is

[55:40] sometimes hard for me. You don't say

[55:41] anything, David. [laughter]

[55:43] » I've never done that, David, by the way.

[55:46] » Um

[55:48] and

[55:50] about threequarters of the way through

[55:51] the meeting. I know Erskin, I know Ly, I

[55:53] know Ed. I didn't know I I just said I

[55:55] knew Wendy because I got a plane there.

[55:58] And we started talking about some things

[55:59] and I said, "Well, let me help you

[56:02] understand why I'm here. one, I've got a

[56:04] relationship with the commission, with

[56:05] each one of them, the chairman and every

[56:07] one of the commissioners, and everybody

[56:09] supports what we're doing here at the

[56:11] airport, but nobody really understands

[56:14] what we're doing and why we're doing it

[56:17] because nobody's communicating to the

[56:19] commission from the board. Um, I'm here

[56:22] to one understand what we're doing as an

[56:26] airport authority and how do we interact

[56:29] and what value do we bring to this

[56:31] county? It's one thing from a business

[56:32] perspective for me to say we're growing.

[56:34] Everybody knows it. This county is

[56:36] growing and there's a lot of growth to

[56:38] come. What a lot of people don't know is

[56:40] the value of that airport and and what

[56:42] kind of really gem it is for us. So, the

[56:46] more we talked, I've known Ed for a long

[56:48] time. He knows my story and other things

[56:50] that that I've done. And he looked at me

[56:53] and he said, "I think you're the missing

[56:56] link." I said, "Did you just call me a

[56:58] Neanderthal?"

[57:00] » [laughter]

[57:00] » He said, he said, "No, you've got the

[57:04] relationships with the commission and

[57:07] now being on our airport authority and

[57:10] we really feel like you can help us

[57:13] rebuild that relationship." That's

[57:15] really what I want to say. That's the

[57:16] most important thing I want to say to

[57:17] y'all today is that the airport

[57:19] authority is extremely interested in

[57:21] making sure that we rebuild that

[57:22] relationship. We share information.

[57:25] Sometimes I need to be quiet because

[57:27] they said, "Would you be that person?"

[57:29] And I was like, "Okay." Because I like

[57:32] building relationships. All that said,

[57:34] one of the things that I think you guys

[57:36] probably knew is in my first report, it

[57:39] would be pretty extensive, right? I

[57:42] believe if I'm going to if you if you

[57:44] challenge me to do something, I want to

[57:45] do the best job I can. So, the first

[57:47] thing I want to do is say thank you very

[57:49] much for the opportunity because I do

[57:52] feel like this is going to be a new

[57:53] partnership that's g that's going to

[57:55] help everyone. Um,

[57:59] I'll just start with with the things

[58:02] that I have on my agenda. There's a few

[58:04] things I left off that I I'll give you,

[58:05] too. But, um, if you just look at the at

[58:09] the economic

[58:11] impact report, and I think everybody

[58:13] should have a copy of that. You may not

[58:16] had because it was late yesterday when I

[58:17] sent it, but if you get a minute, look

[58:18] at that because it demonstrates

[58:21] something I didn't even know. Stan, you

[58:22] asked a minute ago, what's that airport

[58:24] really worth?

[58:26] millions [laughter]

[58:29] uh and the impact that it has here and

[58:32] what I see is the future not just based

[58:34] on this but based on the growth of

[58:36] industry and businesses and people and

[58:38] more and more people want to come and

[58:40] use this regional airport as opposed to

[58:42] going to Birmingham because like David

[58:45] Johnson and I were talking about the

[58:46] other day, you can't land in Birmingham

[58:47] or park your plane without worrying

[58:49] about a bullet going through it. I mean,

[58:50] it's crazy. um we're in the sweet spot

[58:55] for growth. So, there's a lot of things

[58:58] that that we can do from that

[59:00] perspective. Um grants, the first thing

[59:04] I did was was visit with Candace Hill

[59:07] and she's very interested because I said

[59:09] to her, "Can you explain to me why

[59:11] Bessemer got $4 million and we didn't?

[59:13] Did Katie come visit? Did we bring

[59:15] people here when we were applying for

[59:17] those grants? And if so, why didn't we

[59:19] why weren't we successful?" So that

[59:21] tells me there's money available. She

[59:23] said, "I'm very interested. If the

[59:25] commission so desires and and economic

[59:28] development says I can do it, I want to

[59:30] help." So, and she's gained a lot of

[59:33] experience over the years, as you guys

[59:35] already know, especially working working

[59:37] I sound like a country pumpkin donut,

[59:39] working on grants and things like that.

[59:42] So, I'm excited about that. The other

[59:43] thing uh that we all talked about is

[59:46] currently for whatever reason and and I

[59:49] chose not to go down the rabbit hole and

[59:51] create an adversarial

[59:53] situation between people on the board

[59:55] that may or may not have the answer, but

[59:57] I said, "Can you explain to me why our

[59:59] sheriff is putting our helicopters in

[1:00:03] Tallaladega County? Can somebody help me

[1:00:05] understand that?" Well, there was a

[1:00:09] couple of different thoughts behind how

[1:00:11] that happened, but the end result is

[1:00:14] they very much want the sheriff to have

[1:00:17] a place at the airport.

[1:00:20] Um, I looked at some information from

[1:00:22] 2023.

[1:00:23] I don't know that that's the budget that

[1:00:25] we need to work off of, which is why I

[1:00:26] put the request in here for the

[1:00:28] sheriff's budget. He's expressed he

[1:00:30] wants to move, but nobody really knows

[1:00:32] what's that going to cost. And I think

[1:00:33] we need to explore. We've already

[1:00:35] identified the land that we can use. So,

[1:00:36] I think the next step is what what are

[1:00:39] the next steps? Um,

[1:00:43] » Really?

[1:00:45] » Okay. That's not for me to decide. I'm

[1:00:48] just [laughter]

[1:00:52] [clears throat]

[1:00:53] » Well, I guess my answer to that is

[1:00:54] that's for the commission to decide.

[1:00:56] [laughter]

[1:00:58] » That end up being the sheriff's

[1:00:59] decision.

[1:01:00] » That's okay.

[1:01:03] » Well, I'm not going to get in the middle

[1:01:04] of that.

[1:01:06] » [laughter]

[1:01:08] » Um, I guess I could go either way.

[1:01:10] Everybody's got their opinion on, you

[1:01:12] know, aviation and things that you could

[1:01:14] do. One of the things that sheriff and I

[1:01:15] talked about was it's it's also about

[1:01:17] housing their drones and things like

[1:01:19] that as that department grows. The other

[1:01:22] thing I would add is having the

[1:01:25] sheriff's department there opens up the

[1:01:27] door for tons of grant monies that are

[1:01:30] also available at the state and federal

[1:01:33] levels. Um, I know that you guys go to

[1:01:36] Washington on a regular basis and part

[1:01:37] of the list that you've got in here, I

[1:01:39] provided some information that was sent

[1:01:41] to Joey. I've talked to him. I've talked

[1:01:42] to Bob. I've talked to you. I Ricky and

[1:01:44] Jeff, I really talked to you before I

[1:01:46] went on the board, but I hadn't seen you

[1:01:47] and been able to share what I'm sharing

[1:01:50] with you now. Um, so I think that's

[1:01:53] another venue that we can or avenue that

[1:01:55] we can look at for seeking funds and

[1:01:58] money. But if you don't go to the

[1:01:59] government with a plan or an idea of why

[1:02:02] you need it, they're just going to look

[1:02:04] at you and say, "Give me some details."

[1:02:06] But if we go with a plan, nine out of 10

[1:02:08] times they'll say, "Yes, especially when

[1:02:10] it comes to aviation, law enforcement,

[1:02:12] and those kind of things." Um,

[1:02:15] recent paving expense, I put that in

[1:02:18] there. That was uh what I'm trying to do

[1:02:20] is help you understand or see some of

[1:02:22] the expenses related to the operation of

[1:02:27] the airport. itself. I didn't come today

[1:02:29] and I did put some dollar amounts in

[1:02:31] here of some requests because I know

[1:02:32] we're looking at budgets, but they've

[1:02:34] never really come and demonstrated to

[1:02:36] you why or what what we do with the

[1:02:38] money. One of the questions was, well,

[1:02:40] the the commission used to

[1:02:44] uh

[1:02:45] allot a certain amount of money, but we

[1:02:47] don't know why anymore. I said, why do

[1:02:48] we know? Well, we we don't know. Well,

[1:02:51] it's because nobody's been in here to

[1:02:52] ask you.

[1:02:54] Now, they're now they're going to ask.

[1:02:56] are going to give you the information so

[1:02:57] that you can make a good business

[1:02:59] decision on an asset that you own

[1:03:02] inside the county. Um, but I just wanted

[1:03:06] you to see some of the that was an

[1:03:08] expense that just came up there. We're

[1:03:10] building a lot of new hangers there. And

[1:03:12] by the way, every single one of them are

[1:03:13] already spoken for when we get them

[1:03:15] open. How how wonderful is that? I mean,

[1:03:18] that tells you what kind of demand that

[1:03:19] every hanger that we're currently

[1:03:21] building is going to be occupied when

[1:03:23] it's finished. Well, while the paving

[1:03:25] people were there, we identified an area

[1:03:28] on the on the other on the back side, as

[1:03:31] I like to call it, of all the hangers

[1:03:33] that's just terrible. So, they agreed to

[1:03:35] give us a pretty good price since

[1:03:36] they're going to be on site to do that,

[1:03:38] too. So, we said yes. Um,

[1:03:41] [clears throat] capital expenditures. I

[1:03:43] think I included that with the email

[1:03:45] that Ike sent to Joey just to give you

[1:03:47] I'm not here to say, "Hey, we need to

[1:03:49] spend all this money." I I wanted you to

[1:03:51] see that so that you can start to

[1:03:54] develop how we how do we go to con our

[1:03:58] Washington start to say Congress. How do

[1:03:59] we go to Washington and ask for uh

[1:04:02] monies to help us and how do we help

[1:04:04] them understand why we need it? How do

[1:04:06] we go to the state? We talked about at

[1:04:08] the state level there's a whole

[1:04:09] department that I don't know that we

[1:04:11] really have that relationship with that

[1:04:13] if we develop it what's available to us.

[1:04:16] Um,

[1:04:18] the next thing was insurance costs. Now,

[1:04:21] I've warned the chairman's ear out about

[1:04:22] this because I really don't understand

[1:04:26] during Mr. Manning's tenure used to all

[1:04:28] the insurance for the airport authority

[1:04:30] was covered under the county. I don't

[1:04:32] know why or who or why the decision was

[1:04:34] made, but it was pulled out and they are

[1:04:39] now bearing the full expense.

[1:04:42] um you ask what the prop what the value

[1:04:44] of it is in that insurance information

[1:04:46] that I gave you. One of it is property

[1:04:48] insurance and it lists all the values

[1:04:50] all the different buildings. So it gives

[1:04:51] you a good idea from that perspective

[1:04:53] but then also some of the information

[1:04:55] that I provided and has been provided

[1:04:57] previously uh will outline things that

[1:05:00] we're going to have to do. One of the

[1:05:01] things that I'm going to give you in a

[1:05:03] minute and she can print for you is our

[1:05:05] inspection uh from aviation earlier this

[1:05:09] year. We we passed and they said your

[1:05:11] license is acceptable. However, there's

[1:05:15] some things that we need you to do. We

[1:05:17] may need some help doing some of those.

[1:05:19] I can't stand here today and tell you

[1:05:20] how much. I just wanted you to be

[1:05:22] prepared that they may send me back to

[1:05:25] say, can you see if they can help with

[1:05:27] some of this?

[1:05:27] » Yeah. And if I could start with that,

[1:05:29] let's go with the insurance one while

[1:05:31] I've got it on my mind.

[1:05:33] » Please. But I met with Sunny Bradfield,

[1:05:36] the executive director of the

[1:05:38] Association of Counties, and that's

[1:05:40] where our insurance through. I think uh

[1:05:42] » County reserve

[1:05:43] » All but about all but about six counties

[1:05:45] in the state have their their property

[1:05:47] insurance and all through the

[1:05:48] association of counties. We're

[1:05:50] self-insured. It's a multi-million

[1:05:52] dollar self-insured insurance company.

[1:05:55] Uh during the actuary portion every

[1:05:59] year, we have a report from an actuarial

[1:06:02] company that gives us recommendations on

[1:06:04] what's affecting our policy costs,

[1:06:07] what's the county paying for our

[1:06:09] insurance, and what's making it go up

[1:06:11] and what's, you know, what can we do to

[1:06:13] keep it stabilized or make it go down.

[1:06:15] One of the things making it go up were

[1:06:18] what somebody called uh uh things other

[1:06:22] than county direct county uh services or

[1:06:26] direct county property. Uh for instance,

[1:06:30] airports was one. We've had we had

[1:06:33] counties that had fairies.

[1:06:35] » Had what?

[1:06:35] » Fairies. They run ferry across the

[1:06:37] river.

[1:06:39] [laughter]

[1:06:41] » I was worried.

[1:06:44] They were running fairies across the

[1:06:45] river. Well, what's the what's the

[1:06:46] liability of a ferry?

[1:06:49] » It depends on what kind of ferry and do

[1:06:51] you have cars with people in them and

[1:06:52] what? So, it was affecting the rate the

[1:06:56] overall rate for what the association

[1:06:58] county commissions could provide

[1:07:00] insurance to the individual counties. Uh

[1:07:03] so it didn't during Commissioner

[1:07:05] Manning's term. It wasn't he didn't have

[1:07:07] anything to do with that, but it was

[1:07:08] during his term the association stopped

[1:07:12] paying anything other than direct county

[1:07:15] affiliation. It took them all out

[1:07:17] fairies not not too and uh uh airports

[1:07:22] and removed them. Now,

[1:07:27] in all likelihood,

[1:07:29] talking to Sunny, we were getting that

[1:07:32] insurance

[1:07:34] at a much lower rate

[1:07:37] through our insurance program. Maybe why

[1:07:40] they took it out. Then the airport has

[1:07:42] gone out into the private marketplace

[1:07:44] and got their own insurance because it

[1:07:46] went up tenfold. He said we were paying

[1:07:49] yada yada about that. He said for

[1:07:52] instance Charles airport it have a

[1:07:53] value. What's the liability? What kind

[1:07:56] of equipment do you have? Do you have a

[1:07:58] ALS system? Do you have what kind of

[1:07:59] systems do you have at the airport that

[1:08:01] you got to maintain? You know and and

[1:08:03] and and where are those liable for

[1:08:05] instance liable for that to be damaged

[1:08:07] or liable to to cause a plane to not

[1:08:11] land properly? uh the lighting for

[1:08:14] instance all all that's it's measured

[1:08:17] according to what the more you offer at

[1:08:18] the airport the more not just physical

[1:08:22] asset the more liability you have so

[1:08:26] factoring that in they took airports out

[1:08:28] the association county commission's

[1:08:30] liability insurance does not uh

[1:08:33] we can't even give them I said can we

[1:08:35] pay extra no to the actuarial study said

[1:08:41] best thing to do

[1:08:42] unless they're listed in your name, take

[1:08:44] them out.

[1:08:46] So, that's where that came from. Now,

[1:08:50] we could probably pay from the county's

[1:08:53] money because we took them out. It

[1:08:55] probably in the long run saved us money

[1:08:58] because of the liability causing the

[1:09:00] overall actuary to say your insurance is

[1:09:02] going up. So, we saved a little money

[1:09:04] taking it out. So, we could give that to

[1:09:06] the airport and and and break even. we

[1:09:10] would we would uh would be made whole.

[1:09:13] So, what was that figure? Well, let's

[1:09:15] just say that figure would be uh $4,200

[1:09:19] a year for a policy.

[1:09:21] Uh

[1:09:23] go out to the private marketplace and

[1:09:25] the airport authority in individual

[1:09:27] counties are now paying $20,000 for a

[1:09:30] policy that used to be costing us 4,000

[1:09:32] and something because in the private

[1:09:34] marketplace there's very little

[1:09:37] bargaining. It's every what kind of

[1:09:39] relationship that the person making the

[1:09:41] decision at the airport or the ferry or

[1:09:43] wherever has with the local insurance

[1:09:45] agent and sometimes they'll charge you

[1:09:47] more money

[1:09:49] » Because they can some of that has

[1:09:51] happened. So within that how much how

[1:09:54] much uh interaction between the airport

[1:09:56] people making that decision and the

[1:09:58] county commission does the commission

[1:10:00] want? In other words, if we let's just

[1:10:03] say we're going to cover that 42 thou

[1:10:05] $4,300 for insurance policy out of our

[1:10:09] uh out of our coffers, out of our

[1:10:12] revenue stream. Uh we be basically

[1:10:15] breaking even because it didn't go up

[1:10:16] that amount.

[1:10:19] The relationship starts breaking down

[1:10:21] though when there's no communication

[1:10:23] between we're going to burn $200 and now

[1:10:26] you're paying 20. we know y'all need to

[1:10:28] give us 20 if we don't have any

[1:10:30] influence or any kind of interaction

[1:10:32] between who chooses what insurance

[1:10:33] agent. That's kind of where that came

[1:10:36] apart. Well, you know, leave it alone.

[1:10:37] So, the best thing to do is give a pool

[1:10:39] of money to the airport based on certain

[1:10:42] figures. And I see Commissioner Crowback

[1:10:44] there, revenue commissioner, and he's

[1:10:46] very aware of this.

[1:10:48] Every airplane, as I understand it, uh,

[1:10:51] every airplane owner has to pay personal

[1:10:54] property tax.

[1:10:56] » When the county first started

[1:10:58] interacting with the airport on some

[1:11:00] money, uh, the uh the airport manager at

[1:11:04] that time came to me and he said, "We

[1:11:06] have got a lot of," this was years ago,

[1:11:08] 20 years ago, "We got a lot of airplanes

[1:11:10] out at the airport that they got chains

[1:11:12] on the door and and uh, your revenue

[1:11:15] commissioner What's in there?

[1:11:18] Why didn't it? Because the door's

[1:11:20] locked. Well, just unlock it. Well, we

[1:11:22] don't have a key. It belongs to the

[1:11:23] owner that has has the has a lease. What

[1:11:26] kind of planes in there? I don't know.

[1:11:27] It may be a broke down Cessna 150 or it

[1:11:29] may be a Citation jet. I don't know.

[1:11:33] Well,

[1:11:34] what what you what you think it's worth?

[1:11:36] Well, at that time, we wasn't bringing

[1:11:38] in but literally a couple thousand

[1:11:41] dollars a year in advoc.

[1:11:43] So, we gave we said, "How about we give

[1:11:46] you everything that y'all bring in for

[1:11:49] airplanes,

[1:11:51] whatever the county would get out of

[1:11:52] airplanes, we give all that to the

[1:11:54] airport." And that's what we did for

[1:11:56] several years. Well, it it

[1:11:59] within the first couple of years, it

[1:12:01] went from like $2,500 or whatever it was

[1:12:03] up to pushing 10 because now we know

[1:12:06] what airplanes are in there and the the

[1:12:09] the appraisers going out there and can

[1:12:12] get in the door. Why can they get in the

[1:12:13] door? Because you got to give the

[1:12:15] airport manager and the airport board a

[1:12:16] key to get in that. It's their hanger.

[1:12:19] So they open the door, let you see

[1:12:21] whether it's assessed on 150 or

[1:12:22] citations yet. Now you can go in there

[1:12:24] and based on the records from the

[1:12:26] revenue commissioner's office, we can

[1:12:27] assess a tax.

[1:12:30] And so that worked pretty good for a

[1:12:33] while,

[1:12:35] but what what happened was just like the

[1:12:38] all the rest of the growth in Slair

[1:12:40] County, the airport now has probably as

[1:12:43] many jets out there as they got system

[1:12:46] 150s. It's not that much, but it's it's

[1:12:48] really grown in the value of the

[1:12:50] airplanes. So, not only did we find a

[1:12:52] lot more airplanes out there, uh, not

[1:12:55] only did we find that we had a lot of

[1:12:56] airplanes, we found some hangers that

[1:12:58] had airplanes that didn't fly and hadn't

[1:12:59] flown in 30 years. And they had the

[1:13:02] airplane pushed over here in the corner

[1:13:04] and they were running their air

[1:13:05] conditioning business out of that hanger

[1:13:07] because it was cheaper to pay the

[1:13:09] airport that little bit of airport rent

[1:13:11] than it was to go into Pel City and run

[1:13:12] a building.

[1:13:14] So we had like 10 businesses being run

[1:13:18] out of the airport that had nothing to

[1:13:19] do with airplanes. So that let the

[1:13:21] airport board close all that down. You

[1:13:24] cannot run a business out if you don't

[1:13:26] have a flyable airplane or an airplane

[1:13:27] that can be maintained and put in flying

[1:13:30] shape certain amount of time. They've

[1:13:31] got a rule now. Well, now then you got

[1:13:32] airplanes in there that the revenue

[1:13:34] commissioner sends his people out and

[1:13:35] they put a value on them and that just

[1:13:37] kept going up. How much is it now?

[1:13:40] » The taxes we draw for abl taxes for

[1:13:43] airplanes. St. Clair County received

[1:13:45] about 4041,000

[1:13:47] » $41,000 now.

[1:13:49] » Soish.

[1:13:50] » Yeah. So, let's just say we were giving

[1:13:53] the airport authority $41,000.

[1:13:55] » Well, now it breaks now it goes back to

[1:13:58] breaking down. You know, we're giving

[1:13:59] them $41,000, but they're paying $20,000

[1:14:01] for insurance that we used to get for

[1:14:03] five.

[1:14:04] We need to set a value of what we

[1:14:06] thought the insurance was worth and put

[1:14:08] that in with whatever money we give the

[1:14:10] airport. I think that would solve that.

[1:14:13] you you got to shop your insurance. You

[1:14:14] can't just say, "Okay, we got all the

[1:14:16] money we can burn on that. We can spend

[1:14:17] it." So, that that covers whatever

[1:14:20] happened there. The other thing that

[1:14:22] happened there was the uh

[1:14:25] grant applications for

[1:14:28] the grants for federal money for

[1:14:30] airports. Every year there there are

[1:14:34] transportation

[1:14:35] monies through the FAA given out for

[1:14:38] different things at airports. And the

[1:14:40] FAA would like to have more and more

[1:14:44] uh

[1:14:46] better approach equipment and you know

[1:14:50] better lighting all that kind of stuff.

[1:14:52] Better runways, better taxi ways. Uh so

[1:14:54] they give you money. That is the best

[1:14:56] grant money other than a 100% grant that

[1:14:59] we have. It's a 95%.

[1:15:03] You get 95%. Let's say it's a $100,000

[1:15:06] grant. You get 95% of it for a 5% match.

[1:15:09] all it cost. Well, the state to

[1:15:11] incentivize airport authorities to do it

[1:15:15] was was paying two and a half% of it if

[1:15:18] the county pay the other two and a

[1:15:19] half%. Our city some cities own

[1:15:21] airports. So that incentivized

[1:15:25] airport authorities. We need to go after

[1:15:26] that money. It's almost free. In fact,

[1:15:28] it is free to us. We don't have to pay

[1:15:29] anything. County pays two and a half and

[1:15:31] the state pays two and a half and we get

[1:15:33] the grant. So that worked really well

[1:15:35] for a long time. Uh that money's moved

[1:15:37] around. has different figures. I think

[1:15:39] there's still 955% money out there, but

[1:15:42] I don't know that I I hadn't been

[1:15:44] involved in as a chairman. I don't know

[1:15:46] what they've asked for in grants had to

[1:15:47] come across my plate. Used to those all

[1:15:50] came across my plate because we were

[1:15:52] going to pay the 5 and a half% or two

[1:15:54] and a half%.

[1:15:56] Then we added that in what why the

[1:15:58] miscommunication started is we just said

[1:16:00] instead of giving them money percentage

[1:16:03] for that grant, they take it out of this

[1:16:04] tax money that keeps growing.

[1:16:07] So all right now along comes new

[1:16:10] chairman, new government and the

[1:16:13] airport. Now uh it today we'd be getting

[1:16:17] 41,000 if we were doing it like we used

[1:16:19] to without any discussion from the

[1:16:22] county commission or government. And if

[1:16:26] we kept doing it that way, there'd be

[1:16:27] plenty of money out there. But there

[1:16:28] wouldn't be a whole lot of incentive if

[1:16:30] you had that kind of money laying out

[1:16:31] there to to shop your insurance benefit

[1:16:33] for instance. Wouldn't be a lot of

[1:16:34] incentive to

[1:16:37] to go after some of the grant money. If

[1:16:38] you had any money coming in,

[1:16:41] it did it just came apart in in the way

[1:16:44] the function of the airport needed the

[1:16:47] money. They didn't need the money as

[1:16:48] much as they used to. And it's getting

[1:16:50] even more so. If you're fueling up a

[1:16:52] bunch of jets that uses, you know, 50

[1:16:55] gallons an hour to fly, then then

[1:16:59] you're making money because that's

[1:17:01] that's the only way they make money out

[1:17:02] there is selling fuel and renting

[1:17:03] hangers.

[1:17:05] » That's that's the only way. They don't

[1:17:05] have a landing fee that a lot of

[1:17:07] airports have,

[1:17:08] » Right? A lot of them have land ramp fees

[1:17:10] and all that stuff. The only other way

[1:17:11] that there's any money coming in is that

[1:17:13] adalorm tax on the airplane and that's

[1:17:16] the money comes to us at 41,000 and and

[1:17:19] yes, we can decide how to spend it. We

[1:17:20] even encourage pale city for instance.

[1:17:22] That's just the county's money. Avalor

[1:17:24] taxes goes to the county, the

[1:17:26] municipality where it's collected,

[1:17:28] school system, you know, if ever why why

[1:17:31] would anybody get any extra money out of

[1:17:32] the airport if you're not affiliated

[1:17:34] with the airport? just give it all the

[1:17:35] airport. If everybody do that, then

[1:17:37] there'd be plenty of money rolling out

[1:17:39] there. The school money that goes, it'd

[1:17:41] all go to the airport. Uh I don't think

[1:17:44] that'll ever happen, but that's the

[1:17:45] story of how it happens. That's that's

[1:17:47] the rules of how this money moves

[1:17:48] around. So, right now, we're sitting on

[1:17:50] $41,000

[1:17:51] that we could go back like we used to

[1:17:53] and give all that money that collected

[1:17:56] through the revenue office to the

[1:17:57] airport. Yet, the sheriff can't put his

[1:18:00] helicopters out there.

[1:18:02] Here we go. That's

[1:18:04] Literally, that's the way the discussion

[1:18:06] has been. We're We got to pay the

[1:18:08] sheriff's helicopter bill somewhere, and

[1:18:10] if we're not paying it out of the

[1:18:11] airport, we're going to take it out of

[1:18:12] the money that would normally have gone

[1:18:14] there.

[1:18:16] » In my in my mind, if if through the

[1:18:19] sheriff's office, we're able to get a

[1:18:21] grant to build a hanger that you can use

[1:18:23] not just for drones, helicopters, or

[1:18:24] planes, but the county is going to own

[1:18:26] it. I did a couple of things, too. Um,

[1:18:30] can I approach?

[1:18:31] » Oh, sure.

[1:18:32] So, this is one of the things I asked.

[1:18:34] » We're not like uh judges and and mayors.

[1:18:37] I just wanted to make sure we get abused

[1:18:39] a lot more.

[1:18:41] » That that don't ask me any questions. I

[1:18:43] didn't bring my glasses. [clears throat]

[1:18:45] » But I wanted you to see they're they're

[1:18:48] attempting to look at their financials

[1:18:51] because every month

[1:18:53] [laughter]

[1:18:56] Thank you. every month when we meet.

[1:18:59] Now, this is a a condensed version of

[1:19:02] the financials and kind of what we got

[1:19:04] going on, where the money is, um, etc.,

[1:19:07] etc. So, I wanted you to see that. Um, I

[1:19:11] am currently shopping the insurance.

[1:19:13] Some of it, I think the general

[1:19:14] liability renews in November, and the

[1:19:16] other

[1:19:18] in February or March, I don't know. The

[1:19:20] biggest one is a $38,000 one on all the

[1:19:22] property coverage for everything out

[1:19:25] there. The other one seems to be a

[1:19:26] pretty good price for the coverage. But

[1:19:28] I've got uh one of my folks that I've

[1:19:30] worked with a lot at insurance agent

[1:19:32] shopping it and they're pretty

[1:19:35] they're pretty big. So I'm hoping that I

[1:19:37] can identify something better going

[1:19:40] forward from a cost standpoint. If

[1:19:41] nothing else, I'm going to negotiate

[1:19:42] with the people that we currently have

[1:19:44] it with and see what we need to do. I

[1:19:45] don't know what our deductibles are. I

[1:19:46] need to read through that. So there's

[1:19:48] some more research I need to do and I

[1:19:50] got a little bit of time to do that. But

[1:19:51] I wanted you to be able to see by

[1:19:54] providing you with copies what the

[1:19:56] expenses actually are. It's one thing

[1:19:58] for me to stand here and tell you that.

[1:19:59] It's another thing when I can show it to

[1:20:01] you, right, and prove not that I have to

[1:20:03] pro you already trust me, but I wanted

[1:20:06] to validate. The other thing I did and I

[1:20:09] asked if we we've talked about um

[1:20:12] ownership. Here's the legal

[1:20:14] documentation. The way I read it, the

[1:20:17] county commission owns the airport

[1:20:20] authority. Now, I'm not the legal guy.

[1:20:22] Y'all are. I don't know how that works.

[1:20:24] The only reason that's

[1:20:25] » He's our legal guy.

[1:20:26] » Well, the only reason that's important

[1:20:28] to me is we talked about grants a while

[1:20:30] ago, and sometimes the grants are are

[1:20:32] given based on that. So, if there's a

[1:20:35] way that we can tie things together that

[1:20:37] open the door for us to go after grant

[1:20:38] monies as a combined entity, then that's

[1:20:42] » I understand. The only thing we do out

[1:20:43] there, we just point this. It's only

[1:20:46] control we have over the airport. We

[1:20:49] point the board.

[1:20:50] » Well, but that's up to us. We could put

[1:20:52] we could have done more than we have.

[1:20:54] » Uh

[1:20:56] we did give them the land. You probably

[1:20:58] got that document. I've seen that

[1:20:59] document one time. There's a we we the

[1:21:02] county government deed the property out

[1:21:05] there and it's what 140 acres, 16 acres,

[1:21:07] whatever it is. Uh it belongs to the

[1:21:10] authority.

[1:21:11] Uh

[1:21:13] » But the commission owns the authority if

[1:21:15] I'm reading the documentation.

[1:21:16] » Yes. Correct.

[1:21:17] » And the commission can there again get

[1:21:19] my using my Jeff State legal degree.

[1:21:23] If if we appoint an authority and they

[1:21:25] don't owe any bond issues or over

[1:21:27] overriding debt, we can claim that the

[1:21:31] reason we appointed it was repurposes

[1:21:34] have been met and we have no purpose for

[1:21:37] it anymore. It's been met and we can

[1:21:40] dissolve it.

[1:21:43] The the big thing holding us to not

[1:21:45] being able to dissolve a waterboard is

[1:21:46] if they owe money, which almost always

[1:21:48] do.

[1:21:48] » They always do.

[1:21:49] » Yeah. But same thing with the airport.

[1:21:51] So if the airport's doing great job and

[1:21:53] spend all their money and and they don't

[1:21:55] have any debt, then I think the way the

[1:21:58] law is set up for the appointing

[1:22:00] authority that set up the authority, it

[1:22:02] occur something about we can we can just

[1:22:05] dissolve it if there's no financial

[1:22:08] reason that we have to keep

[1:22:10] That's so oversimplified.

[1:22:12] » I'm not advocating that.

[1:22:14] » No, nobody I don't think we would be.

[1:22:16] The only

[1:22:16] » Job of course I don't get paid

[1:22:18] » Sense at one time when we really got off

[1:22:19] into the weeds on that was that the

[1:22:21] county and the city of Pel City may be

[1:22:23] joined together like they do in some

[1:22:25] jurisdictions where city appoints half

[1:22:27] the board, the county appoints half the

[1:22:29] board. We had that discussion. Well, how

[1:22:31] would we do that? Well, the county would

[1:22:33] dissolve the airport authority. then we

[1:22:36] would reconstitute it as a airport

[1:22:39] authority that the city and the county

[1:22:41] had the appointments that that could be

[1:22:43] done but that just somewhere know that

[1:22:45] gives you an idea of what can be done

[1:22:46] out there in that respect the airport is

[1:22:49] to me has always been really important

[1:22:52] Dr. John Eagerton was the was the head

[1:22:54] of the state aviation thing through the

[1:22:58] the Department of Transportation and he

[1:23:00] was he was very active with counties.

[1:23:02] He'd come see me and he'd come see

[1:23:04] commissioners and have lunch with people

[1:23:06] and they just did that all the time. I

[1:23:07] mean had a airplane free airplane to

[1:23:10] flew all over the state and just visit

[1:23:11] people and he kept us up to date on the

[1:23:13] grants those kind of things. uh

[1:23:18] that that process has not been in place

[1:23:21] since he left. It's not as much

[1:23:23] interaction between ever. I don't even I

[1:23:25] can't tell you who today is is the uh

[1:23:28] state the person with the state

[1:23:30] department of transportation over

[1:23:31] airports. I don't know who it is, but

[1:23:34] that that's where we got a lot of our

[1:23:36] our uh uh ideas and our uh guidance

[1:23:42] counseling is from that particular

[1:23:44] person. So that a lot of things happened

[1:23:47] during that time and uh I used to go to

[1:23:50] meetings all the time and commissioners

[1:23:52] some of the commissioners used to go and

[1:23:54] it's it's my fault I don't go I could

[1:23:56] have gone to any meeting out there I

[1:23:57] want to well it's one of those things

[1:24:01] where okay I got plenty of meetings to

[1:24:02] go to that seems to be running fine

[1:24:05] and uh it was until I get back and find

[1:24:08] out well the sheriff can't put a

[1:24:09] helicopter out there because of this

[1:24:10] business. So that's what we're trying to

[1:24:13] pull back together, of course, but

[1:24:14] within that is the money. And I was

[1:24:17] surprised you say that the the insurance

[1:24:20] just on the liability insurance,

[1:24:23] » The general liability is 3,800

[1:24:26] » And the other is 38,000.

[1:24:29] » Oh. 38,000. That's the reason I was

[1:24:31] burning you up.

[1:24:32] » Yeah.

[1:24:32] » Was when I saw that I was like, this is

[1:24:34] ridiculous.

[1:24:35] » Yeah. Now, we've got a lot of assets out

[1:24:37] there, but how can it be $38,000 a year?

[1:24:42] So,

[1:24:42] » And are we and are we insuring some

[1:24:44] assets that uh people that's got planes

[1:24:47] out there benefit from?

[1:24:50] » There may be there may be some things

[1:24:52] that if you got if you're getting that

[1:24:53] kind of benefit out of protection of

[1:24:55] your airplane, you ought to be paying

[1:24:56] more for your hanger rent.

[1:24:58] » They went up and I've got an airplane

[1:25:00] out there. So,

[1:25:00] » You don't want to go. [laughter]

[1:25:03] We went up last year. We did because

[1:25:06] costs are increasing. Here's what I

[1:25:08] would say. The board that's there now is

[1:25:09] doing Ed. Lyall worries about money a

[1:25:12] lot. If y'all know Lyall, he's and that

[1:25:15] and he'll tell you that every time we

[1:25:17] talk about something, it's like, okay,

[1:25:18] do we have the money to do that? Should

[1:25:19] we do that? So, that's great. So, we got

[1:25:21] a good mix of people on the board. Ike

[1:25:24] Newton sold his business last year, and

[1:25:26] that's pretty much his hobby. And he and

[1:25:27] Wendy are at the airport every day, and

[1:25:29] I think they do a pretty good job. him

[1:25:32] from a volunteer standpoint. Her

[1:25:34] » As the as it has Yeah. I mean, so I

[1:25:38] think we've got a good team. My proposal

[1:25:41] to the commission is let's combine

[1:25:44] forces and let's run this airport

[1:25:46] together as a team, not as separate. I'm

[1:25:49] not advocating that we get rid of the

[1:25:50] airport authority. What I'm saying is

[1:25:52] the airport authority is there to serve

[1:25:55] you and to serve this county. and we I'm

[1:25:58] going to be here on a regular basis

[1:26:00] updating you on what's going on. I I

[1:26:03] don't have the information on the grants

[1:26:04] and the hangers, but I'll come back with

[1:26:05] that so that you know u my message is

[1:26:09] they're they want to interact with the

[1:26:11] commission and they want to work

[1:26:12] together. And it's not just about can

[1:26:14] they get $41,000 in in revenue from Ken.

[1:26:18] It it's [laughter] now if you want to

[1:26:20] write a check for more, we'll take it.

[1:26:22] It's it's they're contributing,

[1:26:25] right? The money all comes to the county

[1:26:27] commission and you control it. They're

[1:26:29] doing some some good things to try to

[1:26:32] stabilize and support themselves. So,

[1:26:34] I'm not here to say, "Well, you write

[1:26:36] them a check for half a million dollars

[1:26:38] every year." I just wanted you to see

[1:26:39] what some of the expenses are. We're in

[1:26:41] the process of looking at budgets. Let's

[1:26:43] forge a new relationship, identify

[1:26:45] things that you guys can help with

[1:26:47] because it is aviation is one of the

[1:26:50] fastest growing industries, especially

[1:26:52] private aviation and things like

[1:26:55] extending the runway. I say little

[1:26:57] things. There's a cost to it, but

[1:26:59] there's grants available for it that you

[1:27:00] guys know the the ropes on probably much

[1:27:02] better than me. My job is to prepare you

[1:27:05] with the documentation that you need so

[1:27:06] that next time something comes up, it's

[1:27:08] not Bessemer, it's Fail City that's

[1:27:10] getting the $4.5 million. That's what my

[1:27:12] job is. So, thank you very much for the

[1:27:15] opportunity. Um, I hope it hadn't been

[1:27:18] too much information and I know I was

[1:27:20] only on there for 15 minutes. So,

[1:27:22] » Yeah, we we were ahead.

[1:27:24] » Yeah.

[1:27:24] » Yeah. We appreciate you doing it. I

[1:27:26] mean, we, you know, I've been sitting on

[1:27:28] his commission six, seven years. It's

[1:27:31] first time I've ever seen any kind of

[1:27:33] reports from airport.

[1:27:36] » And part of that part of that since I've

[1:27:38] been here is my fault. I I probably

[1:27:40] should have been going to meetings and

[1:27:42] get in and staying caught up and I

[1:27:44] hadn't I don't think I've been to one

[1:27:46] board meeting since I've been back four

[1:27:47] years ago. Like I say,

[1:27:50] » This I got plenty to do. It's just a

[1:27:53] pretty busy job. Uh but this is a pretty

[1:27:56] important entity of county government.

[1:27:59] The statement was made by Dr. Ingerton

[1:28:02] big meeting.

[1:28:04] By the way, only a few counties have an

[1:28:07] airport. That's why the county's

[1:28:10] insurance program doesn't furnish the

[1:28:12] insurance anymore because not all

[1:28:14] counties furnish it. So you you had to

[1:28:16] do the actuary with the seven or eight

[1:28:18] counties that have an airport and the

[1:28:20] other 40 said we don't we don't want we

[1:28:23] don't want that affecting our age. We

[1:28:24] don't have an airport. That kind of

[1:28:26] thing. So that's part of the issue. But

[1:28:28] one of the things he pointed out, we've

[1:28:30] always been compared somewhat to Coleman

[1:28:32] for instance. Coleman is a very fast

[1:28:35] growing hot spot. has been there for

[1:28:38] years and they're just now finding out

[1:28:40] how important their airport is. Dr. Eman

[1:28:42] made this this statement. An airport

[1:28:46] sitting out there is not the the thing

[1:28:49] that that if an industry's moved in

[1:28:51] here, seldom is an industry moving in

[1:28:53] here says, "Oh, wow. Y'all got an

[1:28:55] airport. I can land my airplane there."

[1:28:57] He says, "Most the industries that you

[1:28:59] recruit says, "Someday my industry be

[1:29:01] big enough that I can have our airplane

[1:29:02] and y'all got an airport." They're

[1:29:05] looking for that success level. And if

[1:29:07] you've got a good airport, that's an

[1:29:09] industry recruiting, too. If you don't,

[1:29:12] not saying, "Well, y'all don't even have

[1:29:13] an airport." No, but someday we're going

[1:29:15] to be good enough where we will, we're

[1:29:17] going to have us a citation jet. And and

[1:29:20] that's what helps bring it in. Now, in

[1:29:22] the meantime, with our growth with

[1:29:26] WKW and all these kind of things, the

[1:29:29] airplanes landing out there, I live in

[1:29:30] the flight path, my submission. There's

[1:29:34] more and more we do. My my business does

[1:29:36] business with Publix and I'm telling you

[1:29:37] they fly in and out. Walmart

[1:29:39] » Twin engine big twin.

[1:29:40] » They're looking for places they can land

[1:29:42] and people don't know there

[1:29:44] » Jets. I mean there's a whole lot of $5

[1:29:46] million plus airplanes land out there

[1:29:48] every day.

[1:29:49] » Um real real quick, this is another

[1:29:52] asset that you guys own. You can you you

[1:29:54] it's the Big Canoe Creek Preserve.

[1:29:57] We're going to they're going to do a

[1:29:59] better job of coming in and telling you

[1:30:00] what all they've been doing. They've got

[1:30:02] a ton of grants. Doug Morrison's done an

[1:30:03] outstanding job at developing

[1:30:05] relationships with the state. They've

[1:30:08] never been in here, I don't think, and

[1:30:09] asked for any money. Sprinkle's been

[1:30:11] supporting the majority of that. This is

[1:30:13] a fundraiser for the preserve. Right.

[1:30:16] It's going to be at Homestead Hollow.

[1:30:18] It's on September the 12th. All the

[1:30:20] proceeds go back into the foundation to

[1:30:22] help offset and pay some of the grant

[1:30:25] matches that we have. Um, I'm gonna

[1:30:27] bring Doug in, let him elaborate more.

[1:30:29] He's much better than I am at talking

[1:30:31] about those grants and ecological, which

[1:30:34] you very well know. So, I think you

[1:30:35] could probably chime in on some of that.

[1:30:38] But I wanted you to know this is

[1:30:40] something that that we haven't done a

[1:30:43] good job of making sure that this

[1:30:44] commission, who is one of the owners,

[1:30:45] understands what's going on out there.

[1:30:47] But I've asked Doug and Candace to get

[1:30:50] together and put some things together to

[1:30:51] come in and and explain to you the

[1:30:54] grants, how much, what's going on, so

[1:30:56] you know what this asset is actually

[1:30:57] doing for you as a commission. So this

[1:31:00] is on the 12th. If you want to come,

[1:31:01] please come. If not, spread the word and

[1:31:04] you should be getting a press release at

[1:31:06] some point.

[1:31:06] » Okay, good.

[1:31:07] » Oh, Pepsi. I don't know who provides the

[1:31:10] drinks in this building, but I got a

[1:31:11] relationship with Pepsi that goes way

[1:31:13] back all the way up to the leadership.

[1:31:15] They wrote a check for 25,000 and then

[1:31:17] subsequent to that they've given me two

[1:31:19] given us two checks for 10,000. So

[1:31:21] they're the primary sponsor of of this

[1:31:24] and I expect their willingness to donate

[1:31:26] more to get bigger and bigger as the

[1:31:28] preserve grows.

[1:31:30] » We

[1:31:31] » Yeah. Uh

[1:31:34] do we even we the only place we

[1:31:35] designate now or or we can designate

[1:31:38] what uh brand uses our facility would be

[1:31:42] at the arena probably.

[1:31:45] We can do it out there. Otherwise,

[1:31:47] » Can we do it at the courthouse anymore?

[1:31:50] » You have to bid it out.

[1:31:51] » You have to bid it out.

[1:31:52] » So, we just stay away we stay away from

[1:31:54] that portion of it because we don't get

[1:31:55] anything else.

[1:31:56] » I just wanted you to know they're

[1:31:57] supporting the county in ways that

[1:31:59] through relationships

[1:32:01] that I think are going to benefit

[1:32:02] everybody in the in the long run.

[1:32:03] » Everybody up here knows how active

[1:32:04] you've been in yourself and I appreciate

[1:32:07] that in a lot of ways. You found that

[1:32:08] out right after I was reelected and came

[1:32:11] back. You've been you cranked that up.

[1:32:13] He was just waiting on me to leave 12

[1:32:15] years ago. So you can jump in there and

[1:32:17] work. Go to work.

[1:32:18] » But Katrina's over there.

[1:32:20] » I think Candace is on this board.

[1:32:23] » She is.

[1:32:24] » With Philud

[1:32:26] and the commissioners give me a lot of

[1:32:28] leeway to do this so they won't have to.

[1:32:30] I think

[1:32:32] » Doug does a great job. He does an

[1:32:34] outstanding. I'm not going to say but he

[1:32:36] does a great job. Period.

[1:32:39] The cautionary thing that we have is I

[1:32:42] don't need to go to Washington DC and

[1:32:45] ask for the money it takes to really

[1:32:48] make a facility like this be what it can

[1:32:50] be acquisition of more land on the state

[1:32:52] level.

[1:32:53] » Going to need money if you do that for

[1:32:55] trails and all that. There's some trails

[1:32:57] grant money. And so I'll go to

[1:32:59] Washington DC and ask for money from

[1:33:01] some congressmen and senators that don't

[1:33:04] believe in global warming. So don't

[1:33:07] carry them entity up there that is

[1:33:09] protecting the tri spot.

[1:33:11] » I don't listen Doug and I have been the

[1:33:14] great thing about the relationship I

[1:33:16] built with him is

[1:33:17] » Money for roads.

[1:33:18] » You got to be careful.

[1:33:19] » Yes. Sometimes he and I go headtohead

[1:33:21] because he thinks in a different way I

[1:33:24] see from a business and how do we do

[1:33:26] certain things and he's like no we can't

[1:33:27] we got to protect the bank and I like

[1:33:29] Doug I'm not going to do all that. We're

[1:33:30] going to send a machine down there.

[1:33:32] So we I I understand completely, but

[1:33:34] that's the other thing that I think

[1:33:36] makes him being part of what we're doing

[1:33:38] and the relationships that he's built

[1:33:40] with US wildlife and other federal and

[1:33:43] state and in private industries is

[1:33:46] really where I think he is going to

[1:33:47] excel in the long run. And there's

[1:33:49] there's a lot of good things going on

[1:33:50] with education. Katrina, I'm sure, knows

[1:33:53] based on reports that he gives to to

[1:33:55] Springle on a regular basis. But that's

[1:33:57] that's another gem that what we're

[1:34:00] trying to do, and I'm speaking more as

[1:34:01] the chairman of that foundation, is

[1:34:03] we're trying to identify ways that we

[1:34:05] can raise money through grants, private

[1:34:06] donations to not necessarily always have

[1:34:09] the burden on Spring Bowl, but also not

[1:34:12] have to come here or go to the state.

[1:34:13] We're doing a better job of asking the

[1:34:15] state because they told us from day one,

[1:34:17] all you got to do is ask. Well, you know

[1:34:19] what? We've done a poor job of doing

[1:34:20] asking.

[1:34:21] » Now we're asking. Um they're proud of of

[1:34:25] what's happening out there. and I know

[1:34:26] that that you guys are too, the whole

[1:34:28] county is. I just wanted to take a

[1:34:30] minute to tell you what this is about,

[1:34:32] what it's for, and invite you out. But

[1:34:34] please spread the word, too.

[1:34:37] » Thank you very much.

[1:34:38] » Thank you. Any y'all have any questions?

[1:34:41] » No, other than the fact that when they

[1:34:42] do go, when Joey goes to Washington,

[1:34:45] » You need to go alone.

[1:34:47] » Oh, wow. Yeah. Let me

[1:34:49] » We send Candace. Well, we make We send

[1:34:51] the right person. We sending Candace.

[1:34:54] » You should consider going. Yeah, because

[1:34:56] coach is once coach gets in his chair,

[1:34:59] new chair, I plan on working with those

[1:35:01] relationships, too, to see what I can do

[1:35:03] to help, not just

[1:35:04] » Yeah.

[1:35:05] » But the county as a whole. So,

[1:35:10] » Relationship we have with state lands

[1:35:12] division,

[1:35:13] » All this those grant monies are out

[1:35:16] there. Candace has been really good at

[1:35:18] finding them. Things we wouldn't have

[1:35:20] even asked for. She said, "What about

[1:35:23] let's get this little $100,000 over here

[1:35:25] for this?" Well, we really don't have

[1:35:26] anything to do with

[1:35:27] » You seem to know a lot about all that.

[1:35:28] When you retire, won't you help us go

[1:35:30] snoop those out?

[1:35:31] » I'll just I'll just be happy y'all

[1:35:32] getting all you can get.

[1:35:34] » He may want to charge us a find or

[1:35:36] something. [laughter]

[1:35:38] I I November the 11th, I'll become a

[1:35:41] consultant. And and and Dave's already

[1:35:43] told me how much he's going to pay me.

[1:35:46] And there won't be anybody fighting for

[1:35:47] my consulting job.

[1:35:50] » Thank you very much.

[1:35:52] Thank you.

[1:35:53] » Okay. Uh okay. I'm glad we are caught up

[1:35:57] on that. Right here at budget time is a

[1:35:59] good time for that to happen.

[1:36:01] » Now then, Commissioner Parker, where do

[1:36:04] I go from there?

[1:36:05] » Back over here number one.

[1:36:07] » All right.

[1:36:10] » Now,

[1:36:13] okay. Now, we'll move on to the meat

[1:36:15] page of the of the work session. Item

[1:36:18] number one, discuss approval of the FY27

[1:36:21] Alabama Department of Youth Services

[1:36:22] Agency Grant Agreement Award in the

[1:36:24] amount of $343,431

[1:36:27] for the St. Clair County Day Program.

[1:36:29] The day program is a is literally a

[1:36:32] program when you arrest a juvenile. This

[1:36:34] is this is a thumbnail thing. You arrest

[1:36:36] a juvenile, you still don't get around

[1:36:37] the law that you got to educate 16 up to

[1:36:40] 16 years old at a government education,

[1:36:42] right?

[1:36:43] » So the day program is the public

[1:36:45] education for

[1:36:47] not be [laughter] in court.

[1:36:49] [clears throat]

[1:36:50] » And it's paid for out of a grant money

[1:36:51] that we have to do certain things to get

[1:36:53] the grant

[1:36:53] » Through Dys.

[1:36:54] » Yeah. Through Dys.

[1:36:56] » That money just passes through us to go

[1:36:57] to the D.

[1:36:59] » Okay.

[1:36:59] » So that's what this one will be.

[1:37:02] » Put it on. Put it on.

[1:37:03] » Put it on the agenda. Item two, discuss

[1:37:05] approval of three-year memorandum

[1:37:07] understanding between Sler County

[1:37:09] Commission, Alabama Law Enforcement

[1:37:10] Agency for the PE city location pending

[1:37:12] county attorney review. Okay. We ready

[1:37:15] to move forward on that? into your

[1:37:17] review.

[1:37:17] » Yes.

[1:37:18] » Item three, discuss doing the pro pronto

[1:37:21] track agreement. Let me back up a

[1:37:23] minute. Three-year memorandum of

[1:37:24] understanding between S County

[1:37:26] Commission and Aaliyah. I know we're

[1:37:28] restricted to three-year contracts by

[1:37:30] most entities. Let's just say a private

[1:37:32] entity that we we contract for. We can

[1:37:34] only do a three-year contract unless

[1:37:36] it's for the county engineers

[1:37:39] personnel contract. We can do his up to

[1:37:40] five. Most of them are three. Does that

[1:37:43] include if we in a state contract and

[1:37:45] did we do this on a longer

[1:37:48] » I do not know that something

[1:37:50] » But I know I know it is with with

[1:37:52] private

[1:37:52] » Yes sir.

[1:37:53] » But it may be we can do with a

[1:37:54] government entity

[1:37:55] » Right longer than that.

[1:37:57] » Yeah. And renew it. So I wouldn't have

[1:37:58] to do this. I mean they're not going

[1:38:00] anywhere until we tell them you know

[1:38:02] they'll ask us for another bill. Uh

[1:38:04] we'll look into that. Uh item three,

[1:38:07] discuss uh renewing the pronto track

[1:38:10] agreement for ankle monitoring for the

[1:38:12] chairman. Oh, it wasn't me.

[1:38:16] » This service is under the safety and

[1:38:17] security clause. We already put that on

[1:38:19] there.

[1:38:19] » Sir, can we move that to the next work

[1:38:21] session?

[1:38:22] » We sure can.

[1:38:25] » Okay. Move to the next work session.

[1:38:27] Item four, discuss adop resolution 2640

[1:38:31] to increase the dispersement of the

[1:38:32] lodging tax from 6% to 10%. Resolution

[1:38:35] 2640 replaces and repeals resolution uh

[1:38:38] 2025-51

[1:38:40] in to in totality and any and all other

[1:38:42] resolutions ordinances in conflict here

[1:38:44] with effective December 1st, 2026. Ready

[1:38:46] to put that on there?

[1:38:47] » Yes.

[1:38:48] » Okay. Item five, discuss transferring

[1:38:51] the following six uh Huelet Packard

[1:38:54] delete tablets from the commission

[1:38:56] office to the IT division. So, we'd

[1:38:59] actually be transferring them stays

[1:39:00] within under the umbrella of the

[1:39:01] commission, but it goes from the

[1:39:02] commission offic's records over to

[1:39:04] technology records. Right.

[1:39:06] » Okay. Ready to do that. Six.

[1:39:08] Request from asset manager Ashley Haye

[1:39:10] to purchase uh signage from Smart Sign

[1:39:13] for the Sinclair County Agricultural

[1:39:14] Mult224

[1:39:17] with the county credit card.

[1:39:20] » She got a pen credit card.

[1:39:22] » No, she has to use mine or I I make I

[1:39:25] purchase it for her.

[1:39:26] » I just check it.

[1:39:28] And chairman, let's back up to four if

[1:39:30] you don't mind.

[1:39:31] » Okay.

[1:39:31] » Um, anywhere except for City of Pel

[1:39:34] City, City of Pel City on that lodging

[1:39:35] tax will be nine will be 9%.

[1:39:39] » Are we Well, it's in the resolution

[1:39:41] though that takes care of that.

[1:39:42] » Yes, sir.

[1:39:43] » Okay.

[1:39:44] » Everywhere else will be 10%.

[1:39:46] » Then we probably have we we hadn't done

[1:39:48] this at all pending county attorney

[1:39:50] review. We probably need to pass this

[1:39:52] resolution pending your review to give

[1:39:53] you time to look these over. It doesn't

[1:39:55] come up.

[1:39:55] » I've looked I've looked at He's already

[1:39:58] reviewed.

[1:39:58] » But if we're going to say we're passing

[1:40:00] that resolution, it's passed. Period.

[1:40:03] » It It's already prepared. It's got um

[1:40:05] for the city of P City has got increase

[1:40:08] from 5% to 9% anywhere out of the city

[1:40:12] limits of P City is nine 6% to 10%.

[1:40:17] » Good enough.

[1:40:18] » Okay.

[1:40:21] All right. I think we're I think we're

[1:40:23] good to go on that. Mhm.

[1:40:25] » The word is like y'all want. Y'all be

[1:40:26] sure and look it over real good before

[1:40:28] we take action. Item seven, discuss

[1:40:30] request property manager Rod Wolf

[1:40:31] transfer a gun safe inventory 9042 to

[1:40:36] the coroner's office.

[1:40:38] » Why does he What's a carer need a gun

[1:40:40] safe for?

[1:40:41] » I don't know.

[1:40:42] » Was it on the maintenances?

[1:40:44] » I don't want to know.

[1:40:47] [laughter]

[1:40:48] » Not sure I do.

[1:40:51] » Like that sounds like a story. Let him

[1:40:53] have he shouldn't even be towing a gun.

[1:40:56] Say maybe he's running short for

[1:40:59] storage.

[1:41:00] » Been there ever since I've been here.

[1:41:01] » Yeah, that's true. That

[1:41:03] » Came about. Sometimes if they pick up a

[1:41:05] body in an accident, they like to put

[1:41:07] their personal belongings in the same

[1:41:08] place till they

[1:41:09] » He had a safe for that. But I'm talking

[1:41:12] He's wanting a gun safe, too.

[1:41:14] » He's already got it. It's just been

[1:41:16] under the maintenance.

[1:41:18] » It's been It's been he that safe he

[1:41:20] that's the safe he got. He's been using.

[1:41:22] Okay, you need to clarify that.

[1:41:24] » Cleaning up the inventory.

[1:41:26] » Transfer it to you.

[1:41:28] » Transfer it from me.

[1:41:29] » I think we can do that.

[1:41:32] » Item eight, discuss request propert

[1:41:34] manager Rod Wolf transfer HP Pro Book

[1:41:36] 455

[1:41:38] uh over to the IT division. Okay.

[1:41:42] Are we transferring usable items here

[1:41:44] and they're and they're deciding later

[1:41:46] to use them or what are we doing here?

[1:41:48] They may come back and they may not get

[1:41:50] rid of them. one. They've already It's

[1:41:53] already been in their possession.

[1:41:56] » They've had it. It's just still been on

[1:41:57] my inventory.

[1:41:58] » We're just cleaning it up. Good. Well,

[1:42:00] thank you for that.

[1:42:02] » Item nine, discuss request propert.

[1:42:05] The following. There's a copy in your

[1:42:07] folder. Office furniture vacuum gas

[1:42:09] compressor. Gas compressor.

[1:42:13] » I don't know what that is. Is that like

[1:42:14] laughing?

[1:42:22] Uh anyway, y'all look through the list

[1:42:25] right there. [snorts]

[1:42:26] » So all those are broke,

[1:42:29] nonusable.

[1:42:31] » Broke or have not seen it since I've

[1:42:34] been

[1:42:35] » Is that truck bed cover that one off

[1:42:37] that old truck used to belong to Rich

[1:42:39] Vowski?

[1:42:40] » No, that truck bed cover is the one that

[1:42:42] Lynn was driving. Oh,

[1:42:44] » Okay. That's the one used to be Rich

[1:42:45] Bowski, was it?

[1:42:46] » Was it?

[1:42:47] » I don't think so. Yeah.

[1:42:50] » Okay.

[1:42:51] » Yeah, it needs to go.

[1:42:52] » Well, it was gone. It's been gone.

[1:42:54] » Okay. This is cleaning up. You're in

[1:42:57] » Clean it up.

[1:42:58] » All right.

[1:43:00] Commission ready. Item 10. Discuss

[1:43:02] request revenue commissioner Kim Crow to

[1:43:04] issue a formal cancellation letter to

[1:43:06] the American Financial Credit Services.

[1:43:08] This request indicates desire to

[1:43:10] terminate the county's existing

[1:43:11] agreement with AFCS for delinquent tax

[1:43:14] collections. Okay. It's hard to out of

[1:43:17] here, but I believe that's pretty well

[1:43:18] self-explanatory. Good. Item 11, discuss

[1:43:22] request revenue chief clerk Tony Rich

[1:43:25] paid GoDaddy in the amount of $75.96

[1:43:28] can credit card for two-year domain

[1:43:30] renewal. Ready to do that? Item 12,

[1:43:33] discuss request EMA director Patrice

[1:43:35] Guski to accept the FY2025-26

[1:43:39] EMPG cooperative agreement. Uh the

[1:43:41] period of performance for this funding

[1:43:43] covers FY26.

[1:43:45] There are two amounts listed. The added

[1:43:48] amount includes uh included as 25 ES-1

[1:43:53] is one of five reset supplemental EMPG

[1:43:56] payments that will be made over a 5-year

[1:43:59] period starting in 2026 ending in 2030.

[1:44:02] Those EMPG grants are federal grants.

[1:44:04] That's one of the main things that a

[1:44:06] commission ends up in DC at the national

[1:44:09] conference level because the all the

[1:44:11] counties [snorts] in the United States

[1:44:13] fight for continuation of EMPG. That's

[1:44:16] pretty well that's that's some federal

[1:44:18] money comes down to have pay for EMA.

[1:44:21] [clears throat] Item 13 discuss Sheriff

[1:44:23] Murray to renew Randy Hurst employment

[1:44:25] contract for one year.

[1:44:27] » Yep.

[1:44:28] » Okay. Item 14, discuss request sheriff

[1:44:30] Murray to let bid to remodel the

[1:44:32] sheriff's office former bank building in

[1:44:34] Asheville. So Sheriff Murray can let a

[1:44:36] bid

[1:44:38] » And the bid will come back to the county

[1:44:39] commission for up or down

[1:44:43] » Based on the amount and based on what

[1:44:45] the the commission, you know, agrees

[1:44:47] with what's going on over there.

[1:44:48] » Okay. Item 15, discussion question.

[1:44:52] Sheriff Mary to let bid for build for a

[1:44:54] building to store the community

[1:44:55] engagement vehicle in Pel City. That's

[1:44:58] the uh the new uh mobile command

[1:45:00] » Mobile command building that's coming to

[1:45:02] Pel City and this will uh allow the

[1:45:06] sheriff to let a bid for that building

[1:45:08] and the same thing's true on that. That

[1:45:11] would be true on the one at Asheville.

[1:45:12] It's it'll come to the county

[1:45:14] commission. Y'all can look at it and see

[1:45:16] if that's what you want. [snorts] Item

[1:45:18] 16, discuss request district all harm to

[1:45:20] surplus disposal of the following

[1:45:23] inventory 48.86 86 the left return

[1:45:25] executive desk and inventory 509 a

[1:45:28] curvadenza

[1:45:30] » Put it on there

[1:45:31] » Put it on there item 17 discuss travel

[1:45:33] request be a copy of the travel request

[1:45:35] in there travel for this year sort of

[1:45:38] playing out a little bit um

[1:45:42] but you'll have the travel request

[1:45:43] [clears throat] in there for the rest of

[1:45:45] the year we'll

[1:45:46] » Well some of it's for next fiscal year

[1:45:48] too

[1:45:49] » Into the new budget

[1:45:50] » Yes sir

[1:45:51] » Okay item team discuss uh any board

[1:45:55] appointments.

[1:45:55] » Yeah, we don't have one.

[1:45:59] » What

[1:46:03] department

[1:46:04] » Human resources?

[1:46:08] » Okay. Yeah, we discuss that.

[1:46:16] Okay.

[1:46:20] Sanders reappoint to DHR. Any others?

[1:46:22] Anybody know of

[1:46:34] that one for somebody? [laughter]

[1:46:38] Oh me

[1:46:42] in 4A

[1:46:45] people are leaving us we go uh

[1:46:54] we we've had vacancies on those for a

[1:46:57] while. That's something that uh

[1:47:01] I I'll meet with Dave and he'll know

[1:47:02] what he may may or may not want to if

[1:47:05] you want to hold on some of these

[1:47:06] talking about a couple months. These are

[1:47:08] the appointments for M4A is the aging

[1:47:10] program we belong to. Uh

[1:47:13] » That'd be a good good appointment for

[1:47:14] Ashley sitting right there. Ashley.

[1:47:16] » There you go. Are you familiar with M4A?

[1:47:19] Ashley just Okay. Uh sit on that board.

[1:47:22] » I enjoyed it while I could.

[1:47:25] » That may be that may be something we

[1:47:26] look at. That'd be great. But it's going

[1:47:29] we don't want to stack it up for Dave to

[1:47:31] have to deal with these. M4A is the

[1:47:33] senior citizen program where the federal

[1:47:36] money flows through it. And M4A is four

[1:47:39] counties. Shelby, St. Clair, Blunt,

[1:47:41] Jeff,

[1:47:42] » Jefferson.

[1:47:43] » Yeah. So that's the four counties in

[1:47:45] M4A, which is a nonprofit entity that

[1:47:49] runs the agent program that the money

[1:47:51] flows through and we make appointments

[1:47:53] to that. Each one of those four counties

[1:47:55] makes appointments to it. Uh

[1:47:58] let's see. Josh. Yeah, Josh Taylor was

[1:48:00] on there. That's what I said. Jos was on

[1:48:03] there and he designed it. Ashley Ashley

[1:48:06] Katrina Katrina was on this as an

[1:48:10] » She

[1:48:13] got

[1:48:14] » Well, if you're good today and and

[1:48:16] you're good. I can't can't imagine a

[1:48:17] better entity and and really a better

[1:48:19] person because you're already aware of

[1:48:21] it and and working through your your

[1:48:23] know about the the programs they have

[1:48:25] and they they uh kind of dovetail into

[1:48:28] some of the things that extension does

[1:48:29] too.

[1:48:30] Okay.

[1:48:31] » Do you have to have an alternate member?

[1:48:33] » No, you don't have

[1:48:34] » I don't think so. You don't have to have

[1:48:36] » Okay.

[1:48:36] » We just made fill out of the seat.

[1:48:39] » We got

[1:48:41] We have a say on that.

[1:48:42] » Well, that's my appointment. So, you can

[1:48:44] quit talking about it. I'm going to

[1:48:45] recommend Ashley in this one of my final

[1:48:48] acts of official duty here.

[1:48:51] » Glad glad we got together on that.

[1:48:56] » Congratulations.

[1:48:58] » [laughter]

[1:49:00] » Train is going to congratulate me in

[1:49:02] November. [laughter]

[1:49:05] » Okay.

[1:49:07] » Very good. All right. Uh we've got a

[1:49:10] couple coming up, but we'll discuss

[1:49:12] those here. I want to discuss one

[1:49:15] particular one today before he comes

[1:49:16] back in. A couple that we've got right

[1:49:19] now, and that is the healthcare

[1:49:20] authority. The healthcare author is not

[1:49:23] on here because it doesn't have official

[1:49:26] openings, but we have anticipated a

[1:49:28] couple anticipated openings. And there

[1:49:31] could be and probably will be some

[1:49:33] pretty big activity going on with the

[1:49:34] healthcare authority because they own

[1:49:36] the hospital. St. Clair County

[1:49:38] Healthcare Authority owns the hospital

[1:49:41] and with expansion of things out at the

[1:49:43] hospital. That's they they would be very

[1:49:45] involved. So, we'll get together on that

[1:49:49] ready to move on that. Uh that's already

[1:49:52] had some input.

[1:49:53] » Uh I don't know of another one. We we

[1:49:56] put we threw you under the bus on Cus

[1:49:58] Valley.

[1:49:59] » Yeah.

[1:50:00] » Water. So you're on it.

[1:50:02] » I'm saving that one up there. Okay.

[1:50:04] Being saved.

[1:50:05] » You went to a meeting the other day, did

[1:50:06] you?

[1:50:07] » Were you in charge now? You got it under

[1:50:08] control.

[1:50:10] » We're selling water. Sell the water.

[1:50:14] » Somebody's going to have to step up.

[1:50:16] » Sell it to somebody.

[1:50:18] » Mental health.

[1:50:18] » Somebody's going to buy it.

[1:50:20] » Yeah. that mental health thing. Uh we

[1:50:22] had a really good meeting. In fact, you

[1:50:24] can see how important it was at the

[1:50:25] conference. The state director of mental

[1:50:28] health actually gave breakout sessions

[1:50:29] on about to about three entities. So, uh

[1:50:32] there's a lot of changes in mental

[1:50:33] health. Uh a lot of it facilitated or a

[1:50:37] lot of it

[1:50:39] actually stimulated by so much mental

[1:50:42] health problem in the jails. That's

[1:50:44] that's a problem.

[1:50:47] So, we need to we need I suspect that

[1:50:50] when we change administrations down

[1:50:52] there, I think you're going to have much

[1:50:54] more required discussion on the local

[1:50:57] level about what happens in mental

[1:50:59] health.

[1:51:01] It [clears throat]

[1:51:02] statement was made by her. They wanted

[1:51:04] more local involvement in the mental

[1:51:06] health problem because right now it it

[1:51:08] is a probate judge and sheriff's problem

[1:51:11] and and well, if it's somebody one of

[1:51:13] their problems, we have to pay for it.

[1:51:15] We have to figure out where the money

[1:51:16] comes from. So, it's going to be real

[1:51:17] important when that comes up. Uh

[1:51:20] Birmingham Metropolitan Planning

[1:51:21] Organization. Don't let Birmingham part

[1:51:23] scare you. Uh that that scares away a

[1:51:26] lot of people just because it has

[1:51:27] Birmingham's name on it. The

[1:51:29] Metropolitan Planning Organization is

[1:51:31] part of the regional planning commission

[1:51:32] and Katrina's probably is aware of this.

[1:51:34] Anybody working with the city, uh by

[1:51:37] law, St. Clair County is in the region

[1:51:41] that is covered by regional planning

[1:51:45] commission of greater Birmingham. By

[1:51:46] law, we would like to be just because of

[1:51:49] the working with the different entities.

[1:51:51] We would like to be part of the uh cous

[1:51:55] valley

[1:51:56] commission whatever it but it would be

[1:51:58] the people east of us. Uh I think that

[1:52:00] would be Tallaladega County and Calhoun

[1:52:03] County. But we can't. At one time we

[1:52:04] said we're just going to go over there

[1:52:06] and join them. Well, you can't. It's in

[1:52:08] the it's in the code what what regional

[1:52:10] planning district Slair County is in.

[1:52:13] and we are in the Greater Birmingham

[1:52:16] Regional Planning Commission and the MO

[1:52:19] which is listed right here is under the

[1:52:22] regional planning commission. So that's

[1:52:23] why that's important. Uh the MOO now

[1:52:27] covers it may cover all of our county

[1:52:29] when the next measurements there when

[1:52:31] the when the measure is that the county

[1:52:33] is not listed as rural anymore under the

[1:52:36] MO. that that that'll extend the entire

[1:52:39] county which means we interact with

[1:52:41] Jefferson County a lot more than we we

[1:52:43] ever have and probably wish to.

[1:52:46] » So we'll we'll work that out. That's all

[1:52:49] those anything else on here.

[1:52:53] » Before you go, I got a quick question.

[1:52:55] » Yes, sir.

[1:52:57] » Just for clarification as you are

[1:52:59] looking at the budgets and my proposal

[1:53:01] that we all combine forces together. if

[1:53:03] I need to come back and answer any

[1:53:05] questions. I hope what I gave you is a

[1:53:07] guide to our request at the airport

[1:53:09] authority for some kind of financial

[1:53:11] assistance. I'm not here. Well, I said I

[1:53:14] wasn't asking for a half million

[1:53:15] dollars, but you know what? If you find

[1:53:16] it, we would definitely use it.

[1:53:19] » Um

[1:53:21] last week,

[1:53:23] » So whatever you feel compelled is we

[1:53:26] would be more than grateful for. If you

[1:53:29] got any questions, let me know. And then

[1:53:31] once you make your final decisions on

[1:53:33] that, if you'd let me know, that'd be

[1:53:34] awesome, too. Thank you.

[1:53:39] » Get a regular budget ready.

[1:53:41] » Dave is having a meet and greet at uh

[1:53:44] Red Diamond tonight at 6:00. Is that

[1:53:47] right?

[1:53:48] » 5:30. I think

[1:53:52] » We found out something a long time ago.

[1:53:55] If you serve wine, people loosen up

[1:53:57] their pockets.

Agenda Center

Agenda

Transcript