In 30 seconds
- A regular meeting of the Helena-West Helena City Council under Mayor Christopher Franklin. Five of the six members were present; Kyle Miller was absent.
- A bitcoin-mining company, Block Ops Mining, presented a plan to convert the old Chicago Mill / Dragon Lumber site on Washington Street into a bitcoin-mining operation it described as “essentially a data center.” Per the official minutes, this was a presentation only: no action was needed and none was taken. The site is already zoned industrial, so the building permit is an administrative step, not a council vote.
- Block Ops put the investment at about $13 million — roughly $2 million to upgrade the facility plus about $10.5 million in mining computers — with eight jobs starting near $50,000. It projected about $105,000 a year to the city from power taxes alone, and cited a comparable Block Ops site in Russellville it said generated about $370,000 in total city tax revenue last year.
- Joseph Whitfield, seven months before he was appointed mayor, presented for the Dr. Philip Lockhart Foundation. The council approved its July 19 fundraiser 5K, 5-0.
- A food-truck festival permit for the Helena River Park on May 31 was approved 5-0.
- The minutes of the January 28, January 29, and February 4 meetings were approved 5-0.
- A contested airport-commission appointment took up most of the meeting. The mayor's nominee, longtime local pilot Paul Rodell, fell short on a 3-2 confirmation vote. City Attorney Andre Valley laid out the rule: the mayor nominates and the council confirms by a three-fourths vote.
- The police department received about $73,000 from an outside grant for radios, computers, and tasers. The council appropriated the money and waived competitive bidding; the funds came entirely from the grant, not the general fund.
- Reappointments to the Advertising and Promotion Commission (Misty Staley and Matthew Harvey) were moved and then rescinded after a question about whether the terms were actually up.
- In discussion of city finances, officials noted the city is about $200,000 behind on landfill and street-department equipment rental, now paid from the general fund, with a warning that the city keeps deficit-spending.
Recap
The meeting and attendance
The council met in regular session under Mayor Christopher Franklin. Five of the six members were present and Kyle Miller was absent . The council approved the minutes of the January 28, January 29, and February 4 meetings, 5-0 .
A bitcoin miner on Washington Street
Ben Smith, representing Block Ops Mining, told the council the company wants to convert the old Chicago Mill / Dragon Lumber site on Washington Street into what he called “essentially a data center” for mining Bitcoin . The official minutes record it as a presentation only, with no action needed and none taken. Because the site is already zoned industrial, the building permit is an administrative step, not a council vote.
What Block Ops said it would cost and return
Smith put the investment at about $13 million: roughly $2 million to upgrade the facility plus about $10.5 million in mining computers . He described eight jobs, seven days a week, starting near $50,000 . He projected about $105,000 a year to the city from power taxes alone , and pointed to a comparable Block Ops site in Russellville he said generated about $370,000 in total city tax revenue last year .
Permits: a festival and a 5K
The council approved a food-truck festival permit for the Helena River Park on May 31, 5-0 . Joseph Whitfield, seven months before he was appointed mayor, presented for the Dr. Philip Lockhart Foundation, and the council approved its July 19 fundraiser 5K, 5-0 .
The airport commission fight
The meeting's longest dispute was over airport commission appointments. City Attorney Andre Valley cited the governing statute: the mayor nominates and the council confirms by a three-fourths vote . The mayor's nominee, longtime local pilot Paul Rodell, testified but fell short on a 3-2 roll call . Valley's bottom line was that three members are properly appointed and two are not .
A $73,000 police grant
The police department brought invoices for radios and computers plus a same-day $13,747 invoice for tasers . The council appropriated the roughly $73,000 and, on a separate resolution, waived competitive bidding . The funds came entirely from an outside grant, not the general fund.
Water and the equipment-rental debt
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose reported on the Beach Street water and sewer repair and on meter-reading complaints, including one bill that jumped from 1,500 to 15,000 gallons . In the finance discussion, officials said the city is about $200,000 behind on landfill and street-department equipment rental , now paid out of the general fund, with a warning that the city keeps deficit-spending .
Transcript
Auto-generated from the meeting video's captions and lightly cleaned for readability — wording is kept as spoken, not corrected, except that caption-garbled names of city officials are normalized against the roster. Speaker names follow the attribution work in our governance record; a ° marks a name our reviewers have not yet verified. Every timestamp plays the city's video from that moment. Watch the full meeting ↗
0:28
Roll call Roll call (attendance) — present: Maxine Miller, Adrian Messina, Joe St. Columbia, Don Etherly, Monica Davis. Absent: Dr. Kyle Miller. (Attendance verified in the Workroom review by official-minutes.)
3:58
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey five present
4:21
Ben Smith (Block Ops Mining) hello my name is Ben Smith uh I'm representing block ops uh mining we are a Bitcoin mining company out of uh we're based out of Austin Texas uh we have sites in Russellville and Morland and we operate sites in uh Walnut Ridge Pleasant Plains and cabit right now we're expanding our operations to the Eastern side of the state Helena will be our first if we do get the approval um to to open up our eastern district uh along with a few other cities that we're working in so uh what we do is um essentially like a data center so we are looking to renovate the old Dragon lumber yard over in on Washington Street um we already have a uh letter in tent and contract ready with them to purchase the entire 168 Acres uh with those two buildings on it uh and turn that into a data center uh We've already met confirmed that there is enough power there for us um and we just wanted to come here today and and seek y'all's approval for um bringing this business to to the city um and I'll go through the slid quick slideshow kind of explaining what Bitcoin is because most people don't know what that is and um kind of go through some revenue and stuff like that for yall um so we'll start off of what Bitcoin is uh Bitcoin you can think of it as a uh processing uh means of exchange of money uh or a commodity um so what our facilities do is we process those exchanges or those transactions just like um Visa or Mastercard we actually process more dollar value than Visa or Mastercard combin annually on across our Network so it's just simply a a way to um to a medium of exchange across the internet um and it's outside the uh Financial M2 money supply of our Federal Reserve System so our federal reserve and our government can just print uh money as they want Fiat and Bitcoin there will only ever be 21 million Bitcoin ever made the last one will be in 214 um so it kind of keeps the store value like some people call it like digital gold that's the way people are using it all right so uh here is two of our sites um this is our Russellville facility and this is our Morland facility um as you can see this would be more along the lines of um what we would do here in Helena is uh renovate that building one of those buildings out there that farthest one to the road uh into a facility like this um this would be equivalent in the size uh of power capacity because power is kind of the name of the game for us we just have to we consume their computers they in data center they consume a lot of power uh one side has uh an opening for the heat exhaust to come out which it will be enclosed with uh fans and then the other side has a filtration system across it uh that's completely enclosed also and then this up there is Morland which is just North of Russellville uh we use containers at that location so um noise is always a problem with uh our industry um we I'm president of the blockchain council here in the state I worked with state legislators back in April and we wrote two laws one pertaining to noise issues and that kind of gave our industry a legal framework to work in of like how we should operate just like any other business we there was never any understanding it was kind of the Wild West up until then and there was no rules so we sat down and wanted to legitimize our industry so we thought maybe sitting with uh particular legislators down in Little Rock and getting a few bills passed that way we can have that structure and framework for our industry moving forward um the reason I said that Morland is 100 think it's like light slid a little bit I think it's like 135 feet to CH a church so from our property line to the front doors of a church um literally across the street and they still hold service on Sundays and Wednesdays no problem uh because we mitigate our noise um with different sound walls uh Etc and we have a we will always present a preconstruction uh sound study and a post construction sound and we'll adhere to to that via the Law act 173 which um we helped right so what does like what's the benefits for the city so all of our um we measure everything in how much power we consume um so there is a few a few things one you would get your your power tax uh I mean yeah your sales tax from the power sales uh which is roughly what we would show here so um a comparable size facility is Russellville um so it's actually one megawatt small than um what hell would be so um we would start off day one we would hire three employees and we always hire local guys um like and as we scale up the business and get to where we're getting in more and more of the miners we would max out at um eight employees Morland and rosville are literally like miles apart that's why we we have it separated like that but for a standalone facility kind of uh off by itself we would need eight total employees at that working seven days a week uh average salary we would start them at like 50 uh but we also offer 50,000 but we offer off some benefits we give them miners to so they can participate in the business um and then insurance and uh managers we give them a vehicle Etc uh which brings it up to about an average pay of $60,000 when you factor in the miners and the revenue from the miners um the initial uh investment in the infrastructure is $2 million so we would invest $2 million into upgrading purchasing and upgrading the facility there and then on top of that the actual computers that go in there would be uh roughly 10 and a half million dollar investment into it um so about a$1 13 million investment give or take uh when it's said and done um this like I said this is on the sales tax so St the city revenue on the our power cell alone is $15,000 tax revenue that on the sell of our power but then we have use case taxes and sales tax because we sell the computers to individuals therefore you know you would get that that sales tax on those computers also our industry the price of them are constantly fluctuating because it's based on how much Bitcoin or how much cash Revenue it makes in a year so as the volatility of Bitcoin goes the the uh computer volatility pricing also plays a role so it's kind of hard to calculate that um so back to the distance thing so our closest uh residence we 350 ft away you can see we in Russellville we are 300 foot away and 150t away this facility has been running for two years we've never had a complaint about noise or anything with us and then more we've been running June with also no complaints um yeah so here's kind of what the Russellville structure uh looks like and it would be pretty much similar to what we do out here we would just renovate the build the existing building um this this side is our uh uh excuse me this side is the intake wall with louers on it so the louvers damping damper down the the sound essentially uh and it creates the air flow that is needed to cool these computers and uh this side is the exhaust and it also on it to see this kind of too hard to see but right there those lbers in and it is since filled out all the way across um so here is where um where the site is uh it's 116 Acres uh Zone industrial already we would be we've met with Ingy a couple of times with their Engineers on uh what we would have to do to upgrade the lines and the uh facility of the substation so they would come in here is Washington Street here um we would they would introduce stops at this point and then we take over and we build out all the electrical infrastructure on the back end um we said we own the trans Transformers we have to own everything and uh then our building here and as you can see we would exhaust our Heat this way and we would build our sound retention wall along the Washington that East Side uh of the road there um uh so like here's Russellville here's a example of the sound study that we had we had to get a special use permit for it because there wasn't really any uh at the time there was no like I said there was no rules for the industry so they like I think we should just do it just to cover ourselves um and then Orland uh they have a a noise ordinance again this is the noise ordinance that we worked with at the state level uh and helped get in place and created as an industry standard um as you can see here's the sound retention wall uh that long that runs along that road right right there and then I guess Maran was on here y so Marion here is um here's the one that we're we're doing Maran we got our special use permit uh no excuse me we didn't have to get special use perment we got our permit back in December and uh we started construction on our Maran facility too um so uh Tam it will be the same but we would like to do it here in Helena uh if y'all have any questions I'm sure youall have some I'll be happy to answer question y
17:11
Ben Smith (Block Ops Mining)° you said locally you hire about seven new H
17:17
Ben Smith (Block Ops Mining)° employes uh three initially and then five more after that yes sir Y how
17:25
Ben Smith (Block Ops Mining)° much the
17:26
Ben Smith (Block Ops Mining)° total uh employment of business eight eight employees eight total employees per this site so you're not bringing in any other
17:37
Ben Smith (Block Ops Mining)° people no we would hire locally and
17:39
Ben Smith (Block Ops Mining)° there's no um no education it's all on the job just high school diploma type guys
17:47
Ben Smith (Block Ops Mining)° um or people U tot number of employment
17:51
Ben Smith (Block Ops Mining)° would be eight people yes sir eight
17:53
Ben Smith (Block Ops Mining)° people okay do you operate 247 is that
17:59
Ben Smith (Block Ops Mining)° yes sir so the noise would be a 247 yes sir so there is yep so the state ordinance is uh 60 DB during daylight hours and 55 DB at at night um for instance 55 DB is standing outside in nature that is normal sound 60 DB is me and you talking at about 3 feet from each other so um we we have always achieved that even like I was saying at our Morland location where it's um 150 foot to the front door of the church we we achieve the 55 DB all year round does
18:43
Ben Smith (Block Ops Mining)° your company use any AI artificial intelligence no sir we
18:49
Ben Smith (Block Ops Mining)° so we can change out our uh our computer infrastructure to to do that uh to do AI rendering ET the market is not there right now for that but we do have a branch that does AI yes sir that can do
19:06
Ben Smith (Block Ops Mining)° it which
19:08
Ben Smith (Block Ops Mining)° branch uh it's in our testing facility in Walmart
19:14
Ben Smith (Block Ops Mining)° Ridge y Mr Smith would you also go through how long it takes to construct and how how soon you want to be in business so we met with Ingy last week
19:26
Ben Smith (Block Ops Mining)° and I spoke to the engineers today uh they will their lead time is 60 days on their side of the buildout um if we can get permits in place uh this construction from start to finish would probably take us three to four weeks to complete so we would be waiting on energy to entergize us more than likely so how it works is eny does not make any more power for us um we have we have to go around and put in studies to find where there's Excess power that's not being used we have found that Helena has about eight megawatt well they have more than eight but they are allotting us eight megawatts of power um and they always create a buffer for economic development Etc and um out of that substation so what we have to do we'll have about a half a million dollar investment into the substation that will upgrade that substation with all their and all the lines from that substation feeding down that Main Highway strip there uh and then over to us something happens to us and we go out of business in a year we don't get to take that infrastructure that infrastructure remains in that substation and therefore it's a benefit net benefit to the city because you could bring in more uh you know more business because that electrical uses there during times of high demand um we are contractually obligated to shut down our facility so in the heat yeah In The Heat Of Summer uh or it's really cold like a couple of weeks ago when it was so cold we shut down three times that week um when we have peak hour intervals that we do it like we shut down from 7 to 11: uh during the winter normally and then in the evening time we'll shut down from like 2 to 7 it's usually four to five hour increments um because we're considered what's base load centers you can't ask a steel facility to shut down their smelting processes to to feedback that power to the to the local community but we are happyy to do it we can do it because it's so automated and it's just a few flicks of a switch and uh We've essentially fed back that eight megawatts of power to to the community that is needed and then we consume it when there isn't a need for it and that that um you know generates revenue for energy obviously and then your local and state municipalities
22:29
Ben Smith (Block Ops Mining) revenues be generated by your company for the city yep so we would um about
22:36
Ben Smith (Block Ops Mining)° $105,000 on the power sales of it and then of course property taxes uh would be in it but also sales and use tax so um for instance uh one of these computers if we sold it so anybody can take part in this so usually how uh what we do is we'll take half the facility for ourselves and half for ourselves and then we would use the other half of the infrastructure and anybody can purchase a computer and put it there and create that Revenue um so the Sal of those Compu right there say one of those computers are three grand right now um you would get the tax on those computers so that is um roughly 2900 slots or so in there is what it would be um and so I mean the math on even half of that is is pretty substantial and then of course you get the use uh tax on that at the end of the year
23:49
Ben Smith (Block Ops Mining)° too so you calculate 105,000 was that based on 1% or 2% tax I think we done it
23:56
Ben Smith (Block Ops Mining)° at the 1% yeah whatever the cities was I think it was 1% that's on the power alone it's kind of like I was saying it's kind of hard to exactly give you the power or the sales use so we always use the the power as a base because I can tell you how much power I'm going to use 247 so
24:21
Ben Smith (Block Ops Mining)° yeah College here in any way uh not
24:26
Ben Smith (Block Ops Mining)° no yeah not yet like to that's a uh you know that's another venture that we would try to do on the blockchain council side not exactly our state we also have a nonprofit that that helps us that we do things with
24:46
Ben Smith (Block Ops Mining)° so any other questions now here your own construction
24:51
Ben Smith (Block Ops Mining) I would see yep yeah so um my partner is a a contractor an electrician lineman uh we kind of own everything under block ops uh we have two separate entities basically block ops which kind of holds the real estate and then we have block strategies which holds um the operation side and the construction side and all that uh so my partner we have three Partners under that block strategies it's myself uh a man named Steven Watson out of paragold and Ricky Garcia who owns block ops and he's out of Austin Texas and like I said we do all the everything you know through that
25:46
Ben Smith (Block Ops Mining)° entity thank you we're trying we've been working hard we've been operating for like three years now I was the first one in the state to do it um I'm I'm from Maran uh born in well not born raised my dad was in Marine
26:03
Ben Smith (Block Ops Mining) Corps yep yeah my dad was in Marine Corps so we were out in San Diego for a while but uh went to school at Marian graduated Marian uh I was a fireman at Memphis West Memphis started out west Memphis went to Memphis as a firefighter paramedic 2019 uh started youtubing like how do I make some more money taught myself everything I know about electrical engineering construction computer work everything from you from YouTube University and uh here I am today so I live in Jonesboro now my wife's a nurse practitioner up there so at St Bernard so that's why we live there she's from Mary nurse practitioner
26:44
Ben Smith (Block Ops Mining)° yeah and she's from Mariana so we come down to Marana all the time in Jung I live in John y yeah we
26:53
Ben Smith (Block Ops Mining)° would hire everybody local from the community yeah yeah not run this plant for you will be local people local yep
27:02
Ben Smith (Block Ops Mining) nobody from the outside so like cabin we hired our guys out of cabit pleasant PLS out of C Pleasant Plains Russellville and Morland out of Russellville and then Maran will be out of Maran and then hel be hel
27:18
Ben Smith (Block Ops Mining)° yeah anybody have any more questions along yep when you're in full operation what kind of Revenue end of the year can can the city of hel and West Town look forward
27:35
Ben Smith (Block Ops Mining) forwards I would refer that to Russellville like I said Russellville is slightly smaller but um last year's Revenue was $370,000 total tax revenue between property tax sales tax use tax and the power tax um again that that the power tax can tell you for sure and then because I know exactly how much power I'm use the fluctuation in the price of of uh the computer sales is is the one that's hard to Target but similar size last year right the power tax would be how much 105,000 to the
28:18
Unidentified city of H to the city of H yes okay y yes sir so any other questions no appreciate it thank you
28:37
Unidentified Smith as relates to your application Mr W has looked over it and the city is going to approve it this week we wanted you to to inform the council so they'll know what's going on okay it doesn't have to go po plan commission you already zoned industrial right and uh We've we've looked at your information we just want to finish it we would do when you do the building permit uh and pay the fees for the Bild permit and and we'll go from there all right but I met with wood again today and we we'll get
29:05
Unidentified the process finished this week perfect yeah we look forward to it and I just want to say you thank you for for looking at Helen we need more people like you looking at Helen trying to invest in hel and whatever we can do to make your business successful we intend to do that but just first of all just thank you for choosing hel Y and like I was telling Mr Valley over the last few weeks I'm a Delta boy you know I'm raised here too I know our struggles is on our side of the state I go to L Rock I go to Northwest Arkansas all the time and I see they have all the best things in the world over there right and then I'm like man why can't we have that back at home so one doing it in Maran City that feels great to me uh but also moving into part of the Delta is you know is kind of holds a special place to me uh there to be able to give back to to my people on my side of the state so and I appreciate y'all letting us have this and M SPI we appreciate you especially your desire to come down and
30:03
Unidentified explain it to the council and to the public what the facility is yeah and Tak an extra step and and and I'm always always open for any questions uh thank you sir and when we get it going y'all come hang out and check it out we'll be we'll be there for Grill break right thank thank you [Music] good evening Mr Mayor members of the
30:41
Unidentified administration city council and the general public um the first item on the agenda is uh the citizen participation are we doing that
30:53
Unidentified tonight um I'm still interested in looking at um if we could just IR out the specifics i' still do so that's something to come back to
31:07
Chief of Staff James Valley okay and what I do unless you tell me differently I just keep putting it on the agenda until we resolve the the issue um the the next item is a food truck festival uh permit it's found at page 22 through 25 this one I don't believe uh Chief Bale is signed off on uh we we do about it okay well the copy in the in the packet didn't have it yes and this is a Festival May the 31st which would be seems like around Memorial Day holiday truck festival on the river primary contct Marcus West who's originally from hel but his address is in Brian Arkansas uh it's going to occur at the hel River Park um and it's open to the public from 10:00 a.m. to 10: p.m. one day uh with and there's probably gonna be some other things take place over there and so to asking at this point for the city council to approve the event permit for them to use the River Park yes
32:29
Unidentified is there a motion to Marcus West to permit for the 31st at the River Park Miss Davis yes sir Miss Davis moved
32:41
Unidentified to approve the event second Mr Anthony
32:46
Unidentified seconds the
32:47
Unidentified motion any discussion Madam CL Rec call the RO please
32:58
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey yes m e yes M minina yes Dr Miller Mr St columia Mavis yes five yes all right
33:11
Unidentified um turn to page two of the agenda item number three at the very bottom of of the agenda says Delta Circle juneth um is for the next council meeting I don't know if anybody was here tonight for that Delta circles okay and so what I try to do is put in this section things that we have but they're not necessarily for you to deal with uh tonight all right uh next we have Mr Joseph Whitfield he's with the Chamber of comerce and Delta magic and I don't know which capacity he's coming tonight uh but he did ask to appear brother
33:59
Joseph Whitfield (Dr. Phillip Lockhart Foundation) called every um I'm here today on behalf Dr Phillip lockart Foundation it's a foundation that was started um in memory to honor the legacy of Dr lockart Philip lockart he was a former teacher and Coach principal kib Delta Colgate High um and so the foundation serves multiple purposes um they do scholarships for high school students across the country now um and then particularly here in Helena West Helena because this is the community that he served um they have done this would be the third year that they're hoping to do an annual fundraiser which is generally a 5k it's the same route that um the flower power run does for the Bluesfest starts on Cherry Street goes to the River Park um it kind of comes back around downtown through Walnut Street before stopping at the stage um so the the request to tonight is um on behalf of the foundation we're just seeking a permit to do that 5K Foundation um that 5K um Community event where it serves as a um fundraiser for the foundation and as well um we're also just hoping to see a couple of people from our fire department there um maybe the police department just for safety and logistical purposes um it would be July 19th um at 8 M and so um like I said this would be the third year that they've done this event they change the board every year and um this would be this is the first year I'm on it so because I'm here in Helena I got Tas with coming to request u a permit to do
35:43
Unidentified that event is there a motion to Grant Mr permit for Coach
35:49
Unidentified lockart Ry Miss Davis motions
35:58
Unidentified Mr second Mr M Mill second the motion
36:02
Unidentified any
36:03
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey discussion Madam K call the WR Mr St Columbia Mr massina yes Dr Miller Miss Davis yes Miss Miller yes Mr ezly yes five yes thank you than
36:26
Unidentified you wanted the permit applications from so you can go ahead and get it filled out although you've approved it just I can I can get him one and I will'll make copies of it thank you okay
36:44
Chief of Staff James Valley um of course the next item is the treasur report because that may be L just we go to the minutes um start page three and go through page 19 and I don't know if you noted any necessary corrections to any of those uh the January 28th meeting you approved the minutes you did a motion to exro some funds based on tax leans and other items for the then proposed Hospital sale you authorize the mayor to sign an agreement with East Arkansas Regional Solid Waste Management District for three years with contract rates capped at $45 $50.50 and $53 you um granted permission on the side refuse truck weand permission to request bids for trash Cs and dumpsters um you granted a motion to begin the early stages of cleaning the Hernando Street ditch uh from I believe it's doodo Street to Kelly Street uh you granted permission to repair Durango and you did not pass the budget in that meeting it was passed at another meeting you went into executive session on the employee took no action in the executive session you came out of executive session and you restored the employee uh at the discretion of the mayor that's the 28th of January's meeting minutes [Music]
38:28
Unidentified yes sir with the uh I heard you talked about dumpsters um we can inform the council that we have gotten several dumpsters repaired painted and business are happy to receive their dumpsters weld them and paint them so it's not leaking on our new truck so we got maybe 10 dumpsters already repaired yes sir correct we got a uh a goty welding and we're getting U steel from uh sibl Supply Nappa and uh he's replacing the bottoms and reinforcing them putting new uh feet on them and then paint them black we requested the sign shop to create some reflective signs to go on as well uh but we still do intend to seek the kid uh quotations or BS on prices of those things it's going to be probably expensive to get them
39:24
Unidentified replaced but as it relates to the minutes from the 28 we're going to just do them all in both I go to the 29th on the 29th you met and pass the budget uh those are the for the 29th toop huh then on wait we got one other set on the fourth um that was an executive session um and no action was taken and so that's the meeting on the fourth is there a motion to approve these all the
40:10
Unidentified minutes Mr St col moves to prove the minutes as read and is there a
40:18
Unidentified second second after the second motions is there any
40:25
Unidentified discussion might being no discussion Madam C call the
40:30
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey RO Mr St columia yes Miss Miller yes Mr etherly yes M Davis yes Mr massina yes five yes all right moving right along um
40:45
Chief of Staff James Valley under the mayor we got the handbook uh we U got an agreement from Dr Miller and Miss Davis to assist us with uh the handbook and we haven't met yet so there's nothing to report on that but we're just keeping it on the agenda so you know we're going to get that done the next one is Housing Authority appointments um we have a type we got Monica Manny should be Monica Bennett um name was submitted by mail to the mayor and the council has uh 45 days to accept or reject that nomination or it becomes fielded in action and so uh the mayor says it can wait till our meeting 14 days from to day which is the 18th one of one of the meetings packet
41:49
Unidentified here uh minutes on January the 28th list all we did was list yes Siria requested that all names for airport commission be listed that's all that say that's
42:33
Unidentified it no that no vote ever taken on we don't make Chang are
42:50
Unidentified so next item is on page 72 74 is the& commission appointments I don't believe that anything in there uh notes from the clerk telling you who turn were up um
43:07
Unidentified and what P you on I'm just looking at the agenda page itself but it's is it page 72 if you want to turn over there but you're not going to find much I I'll turn to page 72 there's an email from the clerk um forwarding an email from Helen Hab April 15 2024 asking that you reappoint Matthew Harvey and reappoint Mr St that's on page 74 the email text is on page 74 [Music]
44:21
Unidentified yes sir the commission ask you to reaffirm or reappoint Matthew Harvey and miss m sty recomendation we approve those person that she asked to be
44:41
Unidentified app I make
44:50
Unidentified second the motion has been made by state columia to approve the AAP
44:57
Unidentified were submitted by hel har Mr second motion any discussion yes
45:05
Council Member Don Etherly sir my memory is that we did one last year for Miss Staley who served a two-year term and I don't think she's up for reappointment at this point um do I need to confirm that with Miss Ramsey in
45:22
Unidentified the minutes correct that's cor so Mr Harvey is in a one-year slot his would be the for Renewal and I think that's in May when it actually comes up so I don't think there needs to be a reappointment of Miss D she's still in her current term right now ever voted
45:48
Unidentified on you voted on it and they were approved but we were going to put it in ordinance form like you have in the past and the city attorney's going something that wasn't said I don't remember
46:06
Unidentified exactly why don't we come back on the 18th and see you got fig out well they have to resend the motion but but see my
46:14
Unidentified understanding was that once um the initial ordinances passed and the rest come from the bot so I yeah we need to take a look at it I guess and make sure we we're all on the same page about your
46:27
Unidentified motion so we can look at this on the next meeting would you to Mr St col Mr mend your
46:34
Unidentified motion yes they want to study Mr E will look up something for the March 18th [Music] meeting sit
47:02
Unidentified all right on the honorary Street naming we included that in the packet uh the only thing I've not it's been in there before but the only thing I've note this time is that waffer Chapel Church on Renee Street is asking that you grant an honorary street name designation which basically means you put up a sign at the End of the Street honoring a reverend Gober who who pastor of that church for a long time and who's passed away and at this point we're just informing you at a later point we have more information and let the people who are asking for make a presentation but we told them we would at least put you on notice that that request is coming um let's see page 45 is where it starts Mr yes
47:55
Unidentified sir for
48:51
Unidentified M St Columbia we're not asking you to take any action on that tonight okay
49:00
Unidentified yes
49:03
Unidentified sir if you ready go to the next item is um number five the hel Port Authority has one vacant position uh we have not gotten any names from Mr John Edwards or who's the operating officer or Mr lero Carter who I believe was the chairman of the board and I suspect at some point soon we'll get those and I mention that so since you all might talk to whoever you think you need to talk to on the way to this nomination process going forward um on item six uh job description committee we ask that we get two council members uh one that I'm asking M Miller if she would assist us with that and and other volunteer and I ask because she's been concerned about us having those and want includ you and whatever we're doing to M and shape all of the job descriptions for all the employees and if it's just miss Maxine that's fine but we'll get two that be be better Miss Maxine is you agreeing to do that all right number seven we got confirmation of airport commission app P 75 through 79 is what it's listed as I don't know I don't remember what's in there we we through this s time and
50:51
Council Member Joe St. Columbia uh I have at this point in time we do not need by airport commission I don't feel like we make any changes at this time onir when ter say expired people
51:28
Unidentified you you let me finish it says you don't get to replace I nominate you V up down that's the way that reads you see turn step am I correct they don't
51:49
Unidentified get the uh people are appointed to the airport commission by virtue of the mayor making the nomination in the count approving it by 3 fths I think it is the name you still don't get to a point the names are here again one was one was approved by me confir that the rest of these people on this listov somebody you say it's fine but I'm telling you what the lwuit is so we can keep going around the circles dancing slow or dancing fast it's pretty much up to you it has to change and Page
52:48
Unidentified 76 is not at I'm reading it now that's not that 78
52:57
Unidentified 76 is the highlighted up there please don't don't read that to rules7 [Music]
53:30
Unidentified how did we get this in our packet those what it what what's that
53:35
Unidentified now how do we get this in our package president airport commission 2025 that's what that's that was in your
53:48
Unidentified packet I don't know how we got it somebody gave it to you separately but you have one you have one don't
54:00
Unidentified you want you to tell them where you got it from what I said you don't want Adrian to tell them where y'all got that list
54:10
Unidentified from IED up this list I'm trying to help him to hear you huh trying Adrian to hear what you saying I typed up this list here that's what you're talking about other coun members have one I they have they got a you see we're not
54:37
Unidentified either Davis Davis Mr Mr missa you you don't do I'm I'm notw now [Music]
55:13
Unidentified um so Mr Mr explain to Mr I mean Mr St excuse me Mr Anthony think he he he thinks that he gets to it we've been over this over and over again you know this why it's called City
55:34
Unidentified C we G get some
55:37
Unidentified clarification what's your question mayor I'm sorry Mr St keep these people that's already onire keep he he said I don't he's keep the way it is this a secret L he
55:58
Unidentified got okay may uh is is your prerogative to appoint and what the council affirms up to you so what happens if the council does not approve it does not approve what the appointments There's No Vacancy in public office for people continue to to be there until they're they're um replaced okay so theoretically if we voted and said no we don't approve it then the people who are there will continue to stay
56:41
Unidentified there yes ma'am
57:05
Unidentified so what what it look like you what what's happening now that you decided to tell all what people ter fire they just
57:13
Unidentified get to roll on and sit I mean so I don't that's fair to keep aoid the same the people
57:24
Mayor Christopher Franklin chire so so what I mean so so what if we so what if we just dissolve the board since there's no new changes I mean you know people have served we haven't got a financial report we haven't got anything from the people who serve on these boards every time you turn around it see like it's kind of when I make commotion or do something it's kind of a hostile thing like no
57:48
Unidentified I something I present here you are you
57:51
Unidentified kind of hostle toward it like no I think it's not fair to people who to serve on this airport commission that you come in and tell me no and there's no reason
58:04
Unidentified why M CL have we received any Financial records from the airport commission we don't know what the airport commission does with Finance or anything we don't know we don't get any information about who's ready the L out to or none of that do we do we see any revenue from airport
58:22
Unidentified no sir you so I'm saying now that it's like oh we that's like saying oh nobody votes or nobody I'm not I think it's unfair that you see it we just leave why
58:39
Unidentified your so it's one of these St oh I got you these the games I mean one of the terms Inspire I know they somebody I SW they still had
59:00
Unidentified okay if I understand and this this is what I'm trying to sort of work through the way this is set up every five four three two whatever years somebody's term expires correct at the time that that term expires then does the mayor appoint the new person for the person who expires the mayor nominates for you
59:28
Unidentified all to confirm okay so let's say this go around we understand that there is one person that is up to the mayor's discretion to replace after this each the next person who is due to expire then the mayor would appoint the new person or does the commission appoint the new person how does that work it's the mayor's
1:00:00
Unidentified prerogative It's the May's prerogative but he's supposed to bring the person before this board
1:00:05
Unidentified okay so this time right as of right now he would have one appointment right or one person he could recommend and whatever then the next go around he could Appo or recommend another person right
1:00:28
Unidentified yes ma'am he has the authority to it comes to the mayor first for the mayor to to uh bring him towards this
1:00:40
Unidentified body okay so then as of right now he has one appointment or one I don't know how many times are expired at this point
1:01:01
Unidentified now one of the things that the airport commission is not doing especially in of should all the finances should have all the all those things and the recordings of every meeting because Freedom inflation act the clerk should have I see Mr sh hand in the back but they should the clerk should have a copy
1:01:21
Unidentified of all that and she said she does not whatever I do you challeng whatever I it's like oh I recogniz just a moment but I think whatever I say Mr St Clem has this agenda that we gonna shut everything you ask for it down that's one thing I'm kind of you know like whatever I'm asking for a no but it's embarrassing yes I submit these names and I think it's unfair to the the people that we keep the same old like you all SE to vote your col every time I ask or say something it's like let me get let me get a punch on
1:02:00
Unidentified thr Mr St Columbia seems to think that he controls city council what he says go because it looks to be true people to both not listen to one
1:02:22
Unidentified person so I did make one appoint is three vacancies and if you look at your sheet you'll see when everybody term expire so if you look at your page you see the terms expired this what has us here only term is not expir is supp
1:02:44
City Attorney Andre Valley Mond the relevant statute that you all are discussing is Arkansas code underated section 14 359 105 and it says the commission shall be appointed by the mayor and confirmed by three4 vote of the elected and qualified members of the city council it's and in B2 it says on expiration of their respective terms that successors shall be appointed by the mayor subject to approval of the city council for fiveyear
1:03:19
Unidentified terms so you you have names that we have submitted I would like them to be for full consideration
1:03:35
Unidentified so how many different um mayor terms have passed that there hasn't been a change of the commission I don't I don't know but when
1:03:51
Unidentified I was on the city council there was never given to us so when the when when when this was when this gave to me I took I acted on it and I think that on several things that went brought to the city CC like their financial reports has not been brought so I think that n now when I got this I made decision to put people on here that who wants to serve everybody who I asked they're willing and ready to serve and if they know their term had expired they didn't come they didn't come to the city council or to the former mayors and say hey my term expired I would like to continue serving so could come up to a vote they just they just stay like oh when I saw it I acted on
1:04:32
Unidentified it I think the only concern I have and this is just me is that for all of those terms we had a commission that theoretically could have just walked off the commission and not served not done anything for the airport not I mean they could have just said my terms up but they continue to serve the community they continue to do what was needed for the as far as I I I to understand I don't understand why you know we could not ask them to provide whatever paperwork financials reports whatever else going forward you have your one appointment allow them to continue to serve and then as they roll off then that time I mean so can't re how many been reappointed within the Fast Five Years Madam clerk
1:05:43
Unidentified what so so all five all of the terms will be expired Miss money so everybody turn has except this is a for Mone so that that's that was that brought us here so they were all um the other Commissioners they were all prior to her they were all there before her yes that was the last supp we got when I
1:06:12
Unidentified was on the city council she was the last person they brought to it and as time passed they no one else decided I don't know I don't know who Miss Monday place but when it came up somebody came all like we got for Monday what I knew she replaced Mr yeah yeah Mr Johny broom had
1:06:30
Unidentified left moved Hot Springs to next when she replaced um just to reset the the facts on November 27 2024 city clerk sand Ram sent mayor Franklin an email that address the local ordinance on how you appoint people to the airport commission outline that there were five members and the ter then started one year two year three year four year and five years but they all served five years and be rolling off one every year the way it worked in theory um and she said that the current people at that time including Mr Eddie schiffler who's an attorney and a pilot and was appointed in 2008 uh theor Monday was a pilot appointed in 2020 John King II of pilot appointed March the 4th 20 2009 um she couldn't find when Brothers Who's the airport manager and Mr Joe how who the current treasur uh were appointed nothing found in the minut from 2006 to the president to indicate when they were appointed and she did not know whether they were pilots and the law requires that to have at least one pilot out of the five but as you see several of them in the past
1:07:54
Unidentified have sir say something I believe all the people pilot
1:08:01
Unidentified except and she's getting her pilot license I believe I believe she's getting her license so they all most
1:08:12
Unidentified all yes sir I was reading from an email that Miss Ramsey sent to the m that's in your packet on page
1:08:22
Unidentified 78 78 yes sir
1:08:30
Unidentified it's practical matter takes five votes for you all to firm in you inv to come and talk to
1:08:39
Unidentified us you invited them they have not showed up the last I haven't invited anybody
1:08:44
Unidentified your minutes the last me did he say you want them to come and speak sure you have to invite that's your request I
1:09:06
Unidentified Mr Sher Mr Sher here here Mr R is here I swore in he had sered yet sir right okay yeah but I you conf you you brother's turn inspir excuse
1:09:48
Unidentified me some was talking you want to speak speak loud so we off here I want to be in the well
1:09:56
Unidentified soly the mayor just may just said he he sworn in Mr radel he's asking you all to confirm him now so that's that's what the discussion he was asking and you said you wanted must to right H to speak so but brother's term
1:10:17
Unidentified expired has not served yet what month three almost month three you come speak we can we confirm
1:10:31
Unidentified brother the Flor is about Mr rale at this point and the mayor says he's nominated pause for a second let's pause for a second as Rel to order and the rules that you wanted to follow the Mis rules you have a discussion at this point relating to Mr radel the mayor has for for youall to take action so before we go to Mr schiffler it' be a pleasure to hear for Mr Schiffer and Mr how who are both here but the topic at this point is Mr [Music]
1:11:08
Unidentified rale you just said you want to hear him and may said will you all take some action relating to him the statute I read to you said the mayor nominates he appoints and you all confirmed by three4 vote May you said you want to hear from Mr R Mr St Columbia you said you wanted to hear from Mr R you said that two minutes ago now that's pause either you all want to be listen it's time out for games I understand reasonable about all don't Point your finger at me the thing I'm telling you it's time out for game the thing I'm trying to tell you is this either you're gonna give Mr R opportunity to speak and y'all hear and vote him up or down or go forward but this ghip this is simple either you going to affirm him or you're not it's simple what's right
1:12:16
Paul Rodell (airport commission nominee) there good evening everybody good even yeah I was uh asked by the mayor to um serve on the airport commission Helen West Airport commission I have been a pilot since uh for basically three years I've got 30 years 20 28 years of a flying experience been on that airport my whole life grew up out there um first job is mowing that place know it like the back of my hand and I'd like to serve um you know the mayor asked me to serve and he's he appointed me um already been sworn in so it's up to you guys to U either approve it or not approve it but I appreciate you listening to me I appreciate that it's Paul
1:13:16
Unidentified Rell but I appreciate you listen to me thank you
1:13:28
Unidentified so Mr placing Mr buff Brothers is in a motion in the second to confirm who who were the individuals who had no record of of appointment brother6
1:13:55
Unidentified right yes
1:13:58
Unidentified sir well I think it's necessary that we hear from the chairman of the of the airport commission and that is uh Eddie schiffler he's the chairman and um appoint Mr Paul orale
1:14:25
Unidentified Place mrff Brothers is there a second second Mr second is the motion so Mr St already told [Music]
1:14:39
Unidentified Mr discussion the only discussion that I have is this the only discussion that I have is this I understand that it is the mayor's discretion to appoint someone he wants I personally don't have anything against Mr Rodell I don't know Mr R the only objection I had was to a total change of the entire cision that was the only thing I I had some concern song about understand
1:15:38
Unidentified uh you you know St CL you all have the vote so we'll see how this Ro so Mr say
1:15:44
Unidentified he's in charge the RO mayor that's what he I really wish you would not do that well I really wish that these people have been submitted and I submitted to me what you all telling me is we G it's like the V
1:16:02
Unidentified every I'm not gonna go into detail with that but there's a motion in a second plck is gonna call the road so we'll see how this
1:16:15
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey RS Miss Davis yes Mr say Columbia no Dr Miller is absent Mr massina no Mr eely yes Miss Miller yes it's three yeses two NOS
1:16:43
Unidentified one were you doing anything else on the airport commission or yourit is growing
1:16:53
Unidentified long no it takes three four it takes five the airport commission here you only hear from that's up to it's up to
1:17:02
Unidentified you well we've asked you to bring him up and you won't do it I didn't say I wouldn't do it well do it
1:17:12
Unidentified then if you can remember to stay walk I will see y don't take me to Mr Shi want to hear from you but it's unfair to me but but you
1:17:26
Unidentified I'm trying not to but the but the public see where we
1:17:33
Unidentified are good evening U I want to disagree with you madam clerk mayor the airport Financial records are part of the city's a every year and I thought y'all got
1:17:51
Unidentified copies that's not said she said she don't have a copy of the records in her
1:17:54
Unidentified office no I think you were outside and the mayor asked mayor you tell me wrong
1:18:00
Unidentified did you look the city clerk say have you ever got any finan record from theard right and I'm disputing that because the financial records are part of the city's audit every year that's
1:18:13
Unidentified that's not the same what she's saying she doesn't have a copy in her office no does she have a copy in office yeah that's the part of the audit if you no
1:18:22
Unidentified no no no I'm outside of the audit let me finish my point she have a copy in office I assume she's got the city audit in her office every do you sh I there was a mark and distinct difference between if someone foi her for a copy of your records would they be able to get a copy of your records from her office that's the question that I was addressing in her
1:18:44
Unidentified office phally in her office all du respect mayor ask her and I'm just trying to point for the record because the mayor asked her did she have any Financial records from airport and I'm saying they're part part of the audit that the Auditors do every year I'm
1:19:00
Unidentified saying it does audit and I don't dis you on that there's audit every year but the question that the mayor had asked me earlier before I walked out about the physical location are there any if a citizen came and man I want see the airport records could they get the answer is no the only they can get is can't get the minutes they can't get the other things and that's what the mayor was addressing to me I don't know what happened when I walked out the room and that's why I was that was the address that he had to M so I just wanted my question specifically to M cler was do you have a physical copy of the financial records and of the minutes
1:19:36
Unidentified that's that's all I was asking go ahead M I've interrupted you Twi and I
1:19:40
Unidentified apologize go ahead yeah well I just wanted to make it clear that the the financial records are part of the audit legislative audit there and mayor you came to the airport commission meeting in December and we had part of our financial records there and I personally you recall I stopped you out on the street in January and asked to come back again you said you'd be there but then you had I guess a municipal League uh seminar or something else you told me you couldn't didn't make it so
1:20:14
Unidentified did did okay you I mean you're [Music]
1:20:21
Unidentified always any more question Mr Shi
1:20:31
Unidentified an indication that there's two members of your board who have no record of being appointed uh is is there correct or any records of those two indiv didn't have those records so where the records were for the airport commission there was a hangar fire in 2010 and a lot of historic up in the but the the clerk was able to get when I was appointed because she looked at the city council minute so if there Council minutes then they're going to have records of showing uh who all had been appointed when they back as far as 2006 when we Consolidated to [Music] I further back I did so there are records Mr eely of the appointments it's just question going back and look at it and I if I may comment one other I guess I'm a little bit confused because Chief of Staff valy talked about in Port Authority that he was expected to have recommendations Mr Edwards chairman Carter but nobody has called or asked me for any input as chairman of the commission of any Replacements I'm I'm here tonight because I'm sorry mayor said to me he he doesn't say he has to uh all the boards operate different and some of them say that you that the body recommends to the mayor the mayor recommends and some say all right the mayor recommends yeah and he was he was saying the stat doesn't say for the port authority that he has to is what he was just telling I'm just commenting that he kind of confused me when I heard the chief of staff say well be ready for hearing from Mr Edwards and jerman Carter for Replacements of suggestions and nobody's asked nobody let me finish the point nobody's asked the commission for recommendations on it now I became chairman after Mr broom had expired I've been for finishing up uh five years as chairman that each board is different that say I have to ask you the house author board they like like the they nominate within the house the board they send their recommendation to mayor's office the mayor presents to the city council city council and votes like Mrs the council gets the board send that to me I into the council they vote that person up and down and then s it with you all I'm just saying it was confusing to me to hear Chief of Staff say we be ready for some recommendations from that Authority Bo say that yeah well I guess the other thing that confuses me is I don't think you have legal auth to Ser until confirmed and you that you can swore you swore Mr in and he hasn't
1:23:40
Eddie Schiffler (Airport Commission Chairman)° served yet well I don't think the swearing in should place until after the council has confirmed negative it say you get to you you get to make a nomination appointment but but the council gets to approve it and I don't think it's proper to sweare somebody in until the council confirms I defer to the city legally until they they confirmed they're not confirmed so that not offic until confirm cart before door so let I just
1:24:15
Eddie Schiffler (Airport Commission Chairman) wanted to talk to you the airport itself so right now we are in the process of receiving a FAA airport Improvement Grant to repair part of the M area and to provide more security they're wait we're waiting for the contractors to let the bids on that and I appreciate Mr Valley's cooperation because I've talked to him there was a contractor that was the successful bidder and then they merged changed names FAA wanted the city's blessing to uh correct that and that uh project was is ongoing now to me it would be helpful to keep the existing board on intact to finish through uh that project and then also um we're in the process of trying to re negotiate leases of some of the tenants out there and we need to get through that um and I'll say this that it is a complicated and and specialized um position in in dealing with making sure that you're complying with the FAA regulations they send information or requests all the time to follow through with what needs to be done I don't have doubt that Mr Rell could be able to do that but I think as it is going now with the existing ongoing uh project there and the leases that are up for Renewal it would be good to continue on with the same group then we can give you a recommendation so you talked about the politics of it well this what we all are doing you're nominating and the council's not approving it didn't pass you can do that time and time again but I think it would be good to have peace and bring people together to work through it and come up with some order transition on it be glad to do with you with you on that um and I guess let me make this clear the the airport and the revenue that's generated in the airport is supposed to stay with the airport according to the statute and and mayor did did you rent The Armory out to a group so those funds need to be turned over to the airport Commission because the money that specifically by the statute says D from the airport needs to stay with the airport the airport in the past has cooperated the water company has the solar panels out there and the airport least part of the grounds for the water have that solar panel project water comp on
1:27:14
Unidentified there pardon me you ask a question answer I answer your question you were commenting then I didn't hear your comment no
1:27:24
Unidentified was did you say words
1:27:28
Unidentified I okay well I thought I had he questions okay you can hear what I said so no more answer what I said that's why I was asking you to repat that's why I just responded to you okay so I'm here ask or answer questions that somebody
1:27:56
Unidentified is the board objecting to Mr rale the board doesn't have a position on that right the board would like for the city to do the proper procedure so have the proper procedure M nominates and the city council affirms and it pass tonight so
1:28:15
Unidentified it then there's nothing that was accomplished and present commission continue to serve as you pointed out there's no V
1:28:24
Unidentified understand I just was here because somebody had but for the for the record nominat confirms and here's here's I think that kicking this kicking this horse kicking this horse uh was not approved U I think the bo heard from sh I was St Columbia and Mr M want to from you but they haven't ask you any questions I have anything else you all want to hear from Mr
1:28:51
Unidentified shiffler I have no you ask one
1:28:59
Unidentified okay I'll say this we have a good cohesive group um Miss Mundy who is the Junior M here has added Youth and vitality and participant in the black Pilots of Arkansas Thunderbird chapter and we hosted educational events several times through her shepherding and invitation that pilots from all over Arkansas and the Midsouth have come she has a dynamic to it Mr John King who's a farmer is overseeing a project to install an irrigation well which would help improve the yield for the Farmland which is revenues for the airport and Mr Brothers is the airport manager and goes out there the air the taxiway lights the papy lights things that need to be done he helps look at those but I wish that may you call me and we could have input like
1:30:03
Unidentified the and you're welcome to come to the next meeting and if you want us to send you financial statements we'll be happy to send you those financial
1:30:15
Unidentified statements I've never received a request thank you mayor
1:30:25
Unidentified I have heard one issue I think needs to be addressed and that is before we get to politics and the confirmation a legal issue that keeps nagging at me and that's no documentation of two people being appointed and Mr Valley's statement about the law I totally agree with if you're not replaced you continue to serve legally continue to serve but if you can't show documentation of the and you have two people on commission doesn't matter whether they were lawfully appoint or not if we can't justify it or show documentation have two people can't legally serve because there's no proof that they were ever appointed and so I think that needs to be addressed uh to to no matter what happens that needs to be addressed it needs to be some documentation of their the issue with those who employment at this point would be every law every ordinance and everything that existed from the former city of h on went away uh other than those that the city council adopted uh during the December 30th 202 2005 meeting and the Consolidated city of hel West Hela has have records that the people were appointed if no one was ever appointed the people were not are not popular on the board so they wouldn't have that status status is if you put in a position uh you continue until you you you have a successor field but if the city clerk saying that there no no record of what brothers being on the commission then he's hasn't been put on the commission by the city any other person that hasn't been put on the commission with fall in the same uh level
1:32:25
Unidentified well no it's not a it's not a it's not a everybody the legal issue is the people who are properly appointed if they never get replaced they continue to serve law you you could you could decide in two in another year that you don't want to file for that position and if nobody else files you can to legally hold it the City Council seat because the law doesn't have a recogniz a vacancy in the office but if they were never appointed to the body then they never lawfully been there so they can't continue to serve because they've never served and so those two need to be really need to find documentation if there's no documentation then they can't there was two gentlemen on the on the body was in the
1:33:20
Unidentified email Paul you repl brother with Paul right all right
1:33:26
Unidentified no both brothers and
1:33:31
Unidentified Mr okay so yeah the page 79 says Jo current treasur of nothing found the minute from 2006 to presid IND he was ever appointed uh and it says both
1:33:43
Unidentified brought that's she's referring to both of them yeah both of them at the same time there needs to be some documentation of their appoint woman in order for them to serve I need to go back and look prior to 2006 in the Helen and the West Helen ordinance books to see if I can find any appointment hel in the book would be
1:34:07
Unidentified irrelevant because I think what happened theyo hel they didn't car over right hel Hela no longer exists well many times the Gap in well well many times we look at Hela as having consumed West legally West consume Helena though we Market ourselves as Helena on and other things but westa actually is a corporation consumed Helena and Helena ordinances ceased to exist December 30th 2005 so I think I think that needs to be addressed
1:34:42
Unidentified first all right can we we at 728 and I got a 6:00 flight 8:00 I'm leaving oh okay long got that
1:34:56
Unidentified understand I I I got a flight I got to
1:34:59
Unidentified be I got to be in Memphis by four so question is so if these people two people no can be found so legally needs to go back what there 2006 no records there that
1:35:26
City Attorney Andre Valley wouldn't as City attorney everything for hel ceas to exist on De if they were appointed by city of Helen to the AAL commission then that appointment is is not valid if they were not reappointed now we still be up to the mayor to nominate the city council to confirm by three4 vote so so we need to put but M cler can look back on the records from 2006 forward you want to look but here's the Practical issue commission you have you have people that's been on the board for for for 20 years and Airport commission has a degree of autonomy at the same time all the people should have the opportunity to to serve that the city council other the Miss Columbia Miss Columbia City has changed every seat over that same time period so it's one of those things I think the council needs to take a study approach to this and look at it but as City attorney I don't I think that you have three people that are that are are properly appointed you have two that have not been appointed at with the information I have before me right now I just gave opinion it's up to you all what to do I don't do anything else
1:36:54
Unidentified but you got a two vacancy because there's no people serving so if you leave it alone the two people that that youing can we go on please
1:37:17
Unidentified yes
1:37:19
Unidentified um the police chief is here as well as our water superintendent and in this brief amount of time we have left I would think we could do the police chief's request uh at page 80 there a grant ordinance a resolution on page 80 I believe what's happened is that they received a grant to purchase certain items um and we need this uh resolution pass authorizing that purchase and a resolution waving competitive bid in accordance with OA code annotated 1458 303 authorizing the mar to contract to purchase certain property for the city of Helen West Helen for other related purposes and it's Police radios and computers for the vehicles they're right Chief and this is being paid for by Grant from Dr and uh the total shall not exceed $9,975 191 on this particular purchase
1:38:24
Unidentified but I thought the grant was about 73,000 to this number what what you want the number to be the
1:38:36
Unidentified 73,000 well let's we're talking two things the the 73,000 city council because you have received the grant it has not been appropriated you all need to appropriate the the the grant so that they can have the authority to spend it the second thing is a wave of compartive bid wait until $59,000 ,000 that's there so it's two actions just just uh they're not spending their entire 73,000 tonight are
1:39:08
Chief of Staff James Valley you two invoices I had was for 59,000 what's the other what's the other 14,000 they brought a a separate invoice this afternoon for 13,747 for tasers so that'll take up the 73,000 with the exception
1:39:25
Unidentified $319 okay so I have a question yes sir
1:39:29
Unidentified this is grant money it's Grand M it's it's no not coming out of our treasury that right it's not General funds the money is coming to the city for specific purposes of were listed in the grant so can only be spent in consistent what we applied for right and it's for Police Department equipment but before it be spent it has to be appropriated and so thing I was saying is you're receiving 73,000 city council has to appropriate that money for them to be able to spend it the first step then he's ask you to wave competitive business the second step to spend it so the first step is that you you acknowledge that you receive 73,000 however however many dollar Chief of Staff just said and you all are moving to appropriate that money for Police Department B to spend
1:40:19
Unidentified it motion needs to be to to accept the Grant and the full amount of the Grant and the amount of how much Chief staff I just say 74,000 $73,000 change I don't have the exact number here I thought it was in this [Music] document right so the city needs to appropriate the money before they can spend it because the mayor and the chief of police cannot spend any money that hadn't been
1:40:47
Unidentified appropriated but it's a grant not coming from your general f coming from a third party new money
1:40:53
Unidentified yes sir yes sir so is there a motion to appropriate the grant fun
1:41:09
Unidentified Mo in discussion M
1:41:12
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey CL Mr columia Mr minina yeah M Davis M
1:41:19
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° Miller Mr E yes I had a resolution prepared that that was for 59,000 but there's another
1:41:27
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° 13,000 uh that's yes sir so we change that not to exceed to 74,000 right to 74,000 yes sir yes sir and we'll add the proper language to it comparative no longer has to be weigh by be by resolution
1:41:45
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° now if there's a motion to approve the resolution
1:42:01
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey M Davis yes Mr St columia M Miller Mr ethy yes M theena yes five years um so
1:42:19
Chief of Staff James Valley Mr okay we have Mr s Rose here uh who's our water superintendent and we've got several things listed here um on page 107 as an invo for Quad bomb Plumbing for about $9,200 plus or minus a few hundred P 107 10 Quon pluming 9,182 27 Cent activity log shows that there 23 hours on Beach January 15th 16th and 17 and be street is ongoing it's not
1:43:11
Unidentified resolved any estimation how much more time I didn't hear oh estimation on how long B Street going to take he coming good evening
1:43:25
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose everyone we're looking to complete repairs hopefully by the end of this month we're just trying to work on clearing that entire line that's going all the way to York Street and so we can't complete the repairs there until we get the line completely F so that's been hold up but there is a new sewer line 20 foot section in that hole and a new water line as well so just not complete yet but we getting there and in your packet there's a couple pictures of Beach Street I saw them on page 101 you can kind of get a glimpse of it on CY nearly as well 102 and 103 and four but it's a big hole on be Street really big and the photo on5 shows the leak that we talked about Park Street that's actually coming down in the 200 block of coza uh but they repaired that on a Sunday I told you in the last meeting this picture here was like something
1:44:31
Chief of Staff James Valley glazed yeah that was Park Street that was leaking um we've been getting some complaints from customers or concerns from customers with water meter reading irregularities and when I say reading irregularities is I'm saying misfunction or malfunction by the the machine the the the water meter not our water meter person doing anything that is not registering properly is my understanding that we're getting uh text in to look at those we've got several somewhere between I say five and 20 people who have asserted that they don't have a leak and the the sudden uh spurge or whatever you call it usage is not justified and so we're trying to see what's going on with those meters got a person to go from uh 1,500 gallons to 15,000 gallons for usage from one month to the next uh with no visible leaks the toilet not leaking the plum is checked it and all those things and so it's kind of difficult for us to pinpoint what it is uh what we've done from a policy standpoint is ask them to continue to pay the average water bill while we try to reserve resolve the issue we're not charge them late fees or countes until we get it figured out if we get it figured out and it's not the city's responsibility we'll work out some type of payment plan with those people uh and responsibility reduce the bill by the fact that it being improperly charged so that's what we're doing with those customers
1:46:20
Unidentified um yes find one that's malfunction that's Mr Rose is speaking from the back when find one that's malfunctioning
1:46:35
Unidentified replace B here yes sir as the funds become available as the funds become available yeah sure yes sir you can't pay it if you don't have it
1:46:55
Mayor Christopher Franklin 9,182 27 as the funds come Davis second the motion any discussion
1:47:09
Unidentified mrina Columbia five
1:47:18
Council Member Joe St. Columbia yes we've got we've got about a n million dollar income this city does and we've got about three million in debt we we need to have a meeting that we can sit and discuss how we're going to handle this what we're going to do to pay off these bills these debts I think that we need to looking into paying our bills pay our and a way of getting it done I'm through
1:48:13
Unidentified itay our bills you know when you for reelection I from there and we were strapped from can and all the things when I took office so we
1:48:37
Unidentified start excuse have not seen you come up with a plan to get hel when hel was sing alone last ad you not done nothing to to show us how we can get out of there the only thing you do is say can you pay your bills and that and some of the reason why people are not coming to this community because they here in [Music]
1:49:02
City Treasurer Derrick Turner Med excuse can I get some talking about bills can I get some I want some clarification from city council about some rental equipment that you guys rent some equipment from contractors um for the Landfield uh because equipment was breaking down and so since we've replaced the equipment in the Landfield but now the the equipment is contined to be being rented but now it's paid it's being paid out of the general fund I want to know if the city council you think you guys need to approve the money for the general
1:49:43
City Treasurer Derrick Turner° fund two funds are two separate sources of revenue so when you approve the the Appropriations in the Landfield you were using landfill revenues landfill revenues can't be used to support General operations so since we're pay for it now out of the general I want the city council to approve those Appropriations so we make the payments for the for rental for renting the equipment using using general funds
1:50:17
City Treasurer Derrick Turner° no I know the Landfield has their own has their own equipment so why we I don't know we got
1:50:41
City Treasurer Derrick Turner° continue we have council members people are asking I need this house T down that's what we do to City
1:51:05
City Treasurer Derrick Turner° is there a budget appropriation for it I mean I I didn't realize what it was
1:51:11
City Treasurer Derrick Turner° being used for we had we've been using the last year and I I think we owe about $200,000 on it right now a little over2 200,000
1:51:24
City Treasurer Derrick Turner° I thought that Mr um Wilson was working on grants and funding and all of that that would address all of that that was for the Landfield our
1:51:48
City Treasurer Derrick Turner° department um to my knowledge I didn't know that the brother was that high or I'm pretty sure this would it would been nicely
1:52:01
City Treasurer Derrick Turner told I didn't know I asked what what what you talk about have a uh I think excavator is $6,700 a month and Dozer is like three $3,995 a month and you said that's
1:52:21
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey $200,000 we are behind $200,000 $200,000 on equipment rental and whatever the equipment that was moved from the landfill to the street department that we're doing the houses with and cleaning the ditches it has to be paid for either of the general fund and can't be paid for either the street Fund in there it goes back through like I think 23 that there's some bills that hasn't been paid yet so we just need to catch up on the central Arkansas cont factor in
1:52:55
Unidentified voice I mean I would think that in light of everything else that we are struggling to pay that any bill for house cleaning and removal and whatever that would go if at all to the way back of the line I would think that we would need to clear up some of the other bills that we have my thing is that do you want to
1:53:23
Unidentified continue forward do we what do you want to continue moving forward with the rental that's that's what I'm trying if we have our didn't you say we
1:53:35
Unidentified have that's the land you're talking about P bills or you
1:53:44
Unidentified talking about talking about $211,000 that's passed through and and Contin Contin 995 say simple to me if there's no budget appropriation and there's no money for
1:54:04
City Attorney Andre Valley it well as I've been saying for years and the mayor said uh City cannot engage in Def suspending and we keep spiraling spiraling spiraling it was here before this mayor uh I've asked city council and the mayor's past and city council president to address the issue so we can resolve the issue I've asked privately the mayor the city clerk City Treasurer to start dealing with some plan and I've asked this body publicly to deal deal with it I think the issue is we can't continue to go the way we've been going and really the city should not have any evidence of indead this Beyond money that you have and so you all do need a plan you need to resolve it uh the issue is going towards the summer we need to curtail spending so that the you can pay off your p through debt I've advise people privately and I want to say it publicly uh because I don't want to be said the City attorney didn't tell us
1:55:30
Unidentified stop start so y make some motion so with whatever you all so so can I get a motion I don't need a motion to stop it I mean if you want to I mean I guess what I'm saying is I don't need emotion to stop I just need if yall want to continue with I guess you would need em was a conversation
1:55:58
Unidentified between because you because you haven't done it in the first place and they a
1:56:04
Unidentified conversation got here I appreciate that so I known and I think that's some problem you know a lot of things there a lot I don't get to see get to know about their things I don't know but it's up to you all that this is not the place excuse me Mr
1:56:34
Unidentified Mayor equipment that we're using to tear down these houses is that Landfield equipment is that what you're telling me no it's not
1:56:45
Unidentified Landfield equipment no
1:56:47
Unidentified s we need to quit tearing down house start Tak paying a bill we need cut out a lot of stuff that we're having to do and don't have to P spend what you don't have and you got to cut out something to pay these bills you got to get these bills down go back and look at some of the jobs and some of these things that we're doing can't afford US I like keep spending anything [Music]
1:57:39
Council Member Adrian Messina else got one question this doesn't cost us anything uh mayor valy and I went out and checked the property out there on Midland Heights Valley Drive several pictures state of Aransas give
1:57:57
Unidentified us yes that's on page 52 page50 what's going to happen that's your resolution asking the state to take care of you did send them a resolution y'all didn't adop it what say you want move to adopt your resolution to ask the state to do that
1:58:20
Unidentified yeah we need to adopt a resolution is that your
1:58:23
Unidentified moot make we ad resolution is mid Heights and Valley Drive that Mr Valley and I Mr Valley took pictures of yes sir in your pictures [Music]
1:58:50
Unidentified second yes
1:58:59
Unidentified yes yes is free
How this page was made: built from the city's own meeting video (YouTube ↗) and its posted meeting packet (Drive folder ↗). Dollar figures are quoted from the documents; nothing here is paraphrased from memory. Corrections: cheekforhelena@gmail.com.