In 30 seconds
- Council voted 4-0 to have Phillips County take over city police dispatch for $85,000 a year, replacing a projected $252,832 in-house cost, a net savings of about $168,000 a year, with the county to draft a formal agreement for approval on August 19 and a start date of September 1.
- Council voted 4-0 to charge employees on individual health plans $45 per pay period, an estimated $81,000 a year, starting with the pay period that includes September 1.
- Council voted 5-0 to approve a $16,022 quote from Tin Carver to repair the Midland Heights sewer pump station, paid from water funds.
- Net payroll fell to $120,000 in the last pay period, down from an average near $140,000, and the city is now current on its APERS retirement payments after falling behind in February.
- Acting Mayor Don Etherly said the court order gives him sole mayoral authority until the governor appoints a replacement, and rejected a proposal to bring in a volunteer manager.
Recap
Payroll and APERS
Net payroll fell to $120,000 in the last pay period, down from an average near $140,000 earlier in the year . The city is now current on its state retirement (APERS) payments after falling behind in February . Councilman Joe St. Columbia said he saw five or six employees working one garbage truck and asked the council to cut payroll costs .
Police dispatch handed to the county
The city is projected to spend $252,832 on its own police dispatchers in 2025. Phillips County proposed taking over all dispatch duties for $85,000 a year, a net savings of about $168,000 annually . The council voted 4-0 to have the county draft a formal agreement for approval at the August 19 meeting, with the switch to take effect September 1 .
Employee health-plan contribution
Employees with individual health plans currently pay nothing toward coverage. The treasurer priced three options: $30 per pay period ($54,000 a year), $40 ($72,000 a year), or $45 ($81,000 a year) . Councilman St. Columbia moved for the $45 option . The council voted 4-0 to approve the $45-per-pay-period charge, starting with the pay period that includes September 1 .
Sewer pump repairs
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose said rented bypass pumps are costing the city heavily in diesel and labor , and that the city has spent 'in the hundred thousands of dollars' renting pumps from Xylem over the past year . Fully repairing all nine pump stations would cost about $120,000 in labor, parts, and supplies . Vendor Tin Carver now requires 50 to 75 percent payment upfront because the city fell behind on past invoices ; the city is also applying for a state grant of up to $75,000 to help pay for pump repairs . The council voted 5-0 to approve a $16,022 Tin Carver quote to repair the Midland Heights pump station, paid from water funds .
Beach Street sewer project
Rose said the city will resume and finish construction on Beach Street this week, wrapping up by early next week . He said the delay let crews confirm the sewer line was fully flowing before filling the street back in .
Mayoral vacancy and hiring freeze proposal
St. Columbia noted it has been three weeks since the mayor was removed by court order, with no appointment yet from the governor . St. Columbia proposed freezing all hiring and cutting executive positions created under the prior administration ; Etherly replied that only previously authorized police hires are proceeding and other departments are not hiring . Etherly said the court order gives sole mayoral authority to him, and giving it to anyone else, including a volunteer manager St. Columbia proposed, would violate the order . He said the council is 'stuck with him' until the governor appoints a new mayor .
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 ↗
1:47
All present will be on earth. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses we forgive against us.
1:59
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3) Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen. Madam clerk, would you call the role, please?
2:34
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey This won't be with us. Mr. Etherly
2:37
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3) here.
2:41
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° Dr. Miller is in route.
2:44
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3) Okay, we have a quorum and this is our special call meeting. City of Helen, West Helen City Council, July 29th, 2025. And we've had the uh call to order, prayer and pledge, and roll call. There are no minutes to be approved at this meeting. So, we'll roll that over to the next agenda. Uh first item on the agenda under old business. Uh is an update on city finances. And I wanted to just share some tidbits of information. This is not a comprehensive uh review of city finances. you do have a report from the treasurer that completes the uh the first six months of the year. We perhaps in the future we'll have a meeting to to discuss those. Uh but I just wanted to share a few tidbits of information um particularly related to payroll and uh went over payroll with the uh with the treasurer earlier this week uh starting last week and it's been reported by the clerk uh several times that our average payroll was about $140,000 and uh looking at the report we had payrolls going back to January of 100 these are net payrolls as well net payrolls of 140,000 142,000 142,000 147,000 uh 130 148 um and so last pay period which would have been not last Friday the Friday before last our payroll was net $120,000 and so that was um a downward trend and it has been trending downward for the last few pay periods. Now, this next one coming up is going to tick up a little bit. Um, and what we have is we'll have fire overtime that's included in that pay period. We also have um we've been adding to the police department and so those guys are going to start to impact the payroll. Uh, however, uh, their overtime based on my conversations with the chief should start to go down as well. Remember, the council approved the deal where they would they were to bring in 11 officers to negate the overtime and it would would hopefully be a wash. So
4:53
Unidentified looking at there,
4:55
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3) this is just a a this is what I got from the treasur. This is not in your packet. These are just some numbers that he provided to me. Yes. Yes, sir. And so I'm just reading from the from the uh thing. This is just an update on on where we are in terms of payroll. Um the other thing that is is uh noteworthy is that the clerk and the treasurer report that as you know in February we got an email and a letter perhaps that said we were behind on April. they have now caught up or they're current with Apers and so the reduction in the last few pay periods has allowed them to get caught up on Apers and so we are now current with Apers we still have loy and we still have a lot of other things and so this is I would say just nuggets we're still very financially out there we have some issues but just some positive things that have along the way. We got a lot of things to take care of in the coming weeks and some some some big debts. Uh but just a few positive notes and so they are current on April. Now um
6:00
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2)° question.
6:01
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3) Yes sir. Go ahead.
6:02
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2) Uh can we cut back on some of this payroll that we got? Uh I I was out the other day and I noticed uh we were picking up garbage and there were five employees and possibly six. I I saw five uh people working on the garbage truck picking up residential garbage. There shouldn't be that many employees out there picking up garbage on one truck. That's, you know, it look like we can cut back on some of this employment that we have.
6:46
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3) I I hear you. And to your main point, cut back on employment. That is one of the proposals that we have here today. If you'll give me a few, give me give us a minute. Let's go through the agenda, we can address what you're talking about because this is not just a oneoff. There's a a whole process that that I'm trying to to deal with here. When I say a whole process, you're talking about a whole different department and I can't address your issue right now because it's kind of not what's before us.
7:20
Unidentified Yeah.
7:21
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3) However, payroll is before us and so if we can use the um the update on city finances as kind of a bridge to get to the new business, we're going to address some payroll issues. and then along the way I'll address what you're what you're talking about. Okay. Um so under new business the first item that you have is a proposal for the county to take over police dispatch and there's a breakdown attached. So that was included in your packet and what I want to do is uh in your packet it was it was emailed to you Mr. St. Columb. And then if you need one,
8:01
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2)° I didn't get a packet.
8:03
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3) Okay. I emailed it to you on Friday. And I think the clerk said if anyone needed copies, she would make copies for you. So
8:11
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2)° I didn't get a packet. All I got is what I brought.
8:14
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3)° It was in your email,
8:15
Unidentified huh?
8:16
Unidentified On your email.
8:17
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° Well, I didn't give out packets.
8:19
Unidentified Okay.
8:20
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3)° Okay. It's just it's just three or four pages. So if if if we want to take a pause, we can
8:24
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2)° All I got is one sheet.
8:26
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3)° Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Okay. We can we can here. You can have mine. You can have mine. Yeah, I can he can he can use mine. Um Well, that email I need because I got notes on it. Here's that's the county proposal. Okay, Miss Ramsey gonna go make you a copy. Wait a minute, Mr. Ramsey. Let me let me
8:52
Unidentified Well, Mike,
8:53
Unidentified Okay, I'll read it.
8:55
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3) We'll make notes. Well, okay. Mr. San Columbia, I you can you can look on on this document. I need my email because the logo on I'll read it to you so you can so you can hear the the email and what you have in your hand is you have a and I can pull mine up on my on my phone. You have a proposal from the county and what the county is proposing to do is to take over all of the dispatch responsibilities. And their proposal in that proposal they're asking for the city to pay $85,000. That's annually. That's annually asking the city to pay $85,000. And what you have is a breakdown there. And in your breakdown, what it shows is how they calculate their $85,000. But before I go to the county proposal, let me back up and and cover the uh the cost of our dispatchers. We have six de dispatchers in the police department, uh all full-time. Um we took the treasurer's report and this Mr. St. Columbia, this was in the email that that I sent to you on Friday when I emailed the packet. Um the uh we took the treasurer's report and I took the um the salary and wages that they had been paid, the gross salary and that they have been paid throughout the year and multiplied it times two. That's to project their total income for for the year of 2025 and it came out to $190,94820. And what that is is what they actually made through the first half of the year uh times two to kind of get a projection as to what they would take in the year 2025. We calculated the municipal health benefits that they're paid and that total was $18,023. The treasurer calculated the payroll taxes in Apers. That's $14,67.54. And then the April was $29,25326 and their total is $252,832 and some change. So we're all on the same page. That's what we're projecting to spend on dispatchers for this year 2025. $252,832. The county proposal is that they will take over all dispatch for $85,000. And what they're projecting is that they will need to hire, and this is what's in the attachment, they'll need to hire one full-time and two part-time people. And then they calculated their benefits and payroll taxes, and that's how they arrived at the 85. So, this of course is one because it will be a contract, the council would have to approve it. Uh, but and what you would be doing is allowing the county to take over all dispatch responsibilities. we would be trading $250,000 plus dollars approximately in payroll debt for $85,000 in cash to the county. And so it's a net savings to to us of approximately $168,000 annually based on those numbers. Now the dispatchers get overtime because they they uh reported that they were short-handed. So they were actually asking for more help in dispatch but they get overtime and so the the 168 is more or less 168 but that would be the net savings annually to us and will greatly reduce our payroll. So when we talk about that trending payroll that I talked about in the opening this would help us to continue to trend down on payroll uh and all of the the things that come payroll associated debt. Okay. So, what would the council need to do? This would be a contract and the county wants to know basically, are you interested? If the council is interested and you approve the uh the deal, then they will draw up the agreement. It'll come back on August the 19th for your approval. There will be a written agreement that has the terms and the time limitation on it. But tonight, we would need a vote to move forward and approve it. they would draft the agreement and then uh my proposal is going to be that this be implemented September the 1st. That would give the employees 30 days essentially notice and I
13:23
Unidentified will save is how much?
13:26
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3)° Approximately $168,000.
13:29
Unidentified 158,000
13:30
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3)° 68 annually every year because we won't have dispatch anymore. Right. And so um does anyone debate.
13:42
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3)° Okay. No questions, no discussion.
13:46
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2)° If we need to make a motion that we move forward on this.
13:49
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3) Yes, sir. Someone needs to make a motion to to move forward on having the county draft an agreement for our approval on August 19th. Motion by St. Columbia, second by Miller to have the county go forward with a uh an agreement, a written agreement to be approved on.
14:03
Unidentified Go ahead and draw up the contracts.
14:05
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3) Yes, sir. Yes, sir. to be presented on August the 19th to this body. Is there any discussion? All in favor say I.
14:15
Roll call Roll-call vote — Joe St. Columbia: yes; Adrian Messina: yes; Don Etherly: yes; Maxine Miller: yes.
15:08
Unidentified 19th.
15:09
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3) August the 19th, unless there's a special call meeting in between now and August 19th. Okay. The next item on the agenda is a proposal for employee contribution on healthcare coverage. Now, some of you might not be aware, we've talked about it before. uh employees who have a family plan already make a contribution but if you have an individual plan the employee makes no contribution um unfortunately our financial state at this point is not such that we can I don't think we can afford to just provide a free health care plan I think we need some employee contribution and what I put on your agenda is those are projections that were provided to me by the the city treasurer based on 75 five employees and just to give you some ballpark as to what the the take would be. And so at $30 per pay period, you would be looking at approximately $54,000 annually. At uh $40, $72,000 annually and $45, $81,000 annually. And so what I think we need to consider at this point is what level, if any, if any, we want to ask In terms of contributions from the employees 30 Oh, sorry. Either the 30 per pay period or 40 seems reasonable to me. Mr. Messina and Mr. St. Columbia, I I was personally at 30 uh which is why I listed it first, but um I'm not opposed to the 40. And that's to defer our payroll cost because we're being crushed right now by payroll cost is basically what's happening.
17:18
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2) That uh that $81,000 looks good to me. $45 per pay period.
17:32
Unidentified That would uh that would save us $81,000. Is that right?
17:37
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3)° Annually? Yes, sir.
17:42
Unidentified I've never worked anywhere where you didn't have to pay something like that. So, that sounds all right with me.
17:52
Unidentified Mr. Mr. Monday wants you to pull your mic a little closer.
17:54
Unidentified Huh?
17:55
Unidentified Mr. Money wants you to pull your mic a little closer so that they can hear you in radio land. I'm sorry, in Zoom land.
18:01
Unidentified The $45 per day,
18:03
Unidentified correct?
18:04
Unidentified Per pay period.
18:05
Unidentified Okay.
18:06
Unidentified What you're talking about?
18:08
Unidentified Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
18:11
Unidentified That would be a cost savings of $81,000. That
18:15
Unidentified That's correct.
18:16
Unidentified That looks good to me.
18:18
Unidentified I'd move in that direction myself. That's my opinion.
18:22
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3) All right. Is Is that a motion? Is that a motion?
18:28
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2)° I'll make the motion. Yes,
18:30
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3) sir. Motion by St. Columbia for $45 per pay period contribution from employees the individual health care plan. Second by Mr. Messina. Is there any discussion? There being no discussion, Madam Clerk, would you call the RO?
18:54
Roll call Roll-call vote — Joe St. Columbia: yes; Adrian Messina: yes; Maxine Miller: yes; Don Etherly: yes.
19:05
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3) Okay. Motion passes. For clarity, when does that need does it need to start at a certain time? Do you need a certain start date on that?
19:17
Unidentified You can start the next payroll, but I believe you know the employees would need you know give some notice but there's nothing
19:24
Unidentified that would stop us physically
19:26
Unidentified okay
19:28
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3) Um is there a wish from the body as to when to start the contribution? Uh Mr. the the treasurer is is asking basically how much notice you want to give the employees. I would suggest as the other that um whichever pay period will cover Septe would fall in that September 1st period. Is there any opposition to that? So we'll just make that a directive to just whichever pay period encompasses September 1st.
19:58
Unidentified The September 1st payment,
20:00
Unidentified right?
20:01
Unidentified Or includes September 1st.
20:03
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3)° Includes September 1st is what I'm saying. because we just started a pay a pay period last uh last Thursday. So whichever pay period is included in September 1st.
20:12
Unidentified Okay.
20:13
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3) Okay. All right. Next item on the agenda. You have a quote in your packet from Tin Carver. Uh Ten Carver is a company that's going to fix one of the uh and I think the water superintendent is here. I'll give you I'll give you mine. It is for $16,022 and and I'll let him address you on it. Mr. uh Mr. Rose is here. Mr. Rose, you can have the floor.
20:49
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose Good evening. Good good seeing you all.
20:51
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose° Yes. Yes, Mr. St. Cloud. As for the uh
20:54
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2)° we're renting pumps right now.
20:56
Water Superintendent Saeed Rose Yes. Yes, we're renting pumps. Um, and it is is atrocious how much we are spending to keep these pumps that we're renting running, diesel in them, and labor hours on filling them up over the weekend in the evenings. Um, so it's urgent. It's been urgent. Uh, but we're I've been getting what done and we're actually looking at a aggressive plan to start getting these pump stations fully repaired so we can start moving to bypass pumps. Okay. And so before you there is a quote from Tin Carver to repair fully repair the Tin Car I'm sorry the Midland Heights pump station uh which is located off of Valley Drive behind Doublequick. And this pump station is uh kind of one of our less repairs needed but we have two pumps that need to be fully serviced and repaired and that total will come up to about 16,000. Want to go ahead? Oh, I thought you had a question. company's got some money to take care of this.
21:57
Unidentified Yes. That's gonna come from
21:59
Unidentified water funds. Yeah. Direct come from water.
22:02
Water Superintendent Saeed A. Rose° Yes, sir. Yes, sir. So, this is the first of um many proposals I want to give or quotes I want to give on each pump station.
22:12
Unidentified Go ahead.
22:13
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2)° Okay. My question, we're we're renting pumps now. What the difference between what we're renting and what we'd pay for is how much difference.
22:26
Water Superintendent Saeed A. Rose It's going to be in the thousands. It's going to be in the thousands eventually. Um we were just doing um kind of a rough estimate. Don't quote me exactly on these figures, but we're in the hundred thousands of dollars paying Zyllem over the last almost 12 months.
22:42
Unidentified We would ultimately
22:44
Unidentified Yes.
22:46
Water Superintendent Saeed A. Rose° Yes. Yes, repairing these pumps
22:49
Water Superintendent Saeed A. Rose quickly quickly. And so it's going to be a process getting each station repaired because there's definitely going to be more um possibly additional cost or less cost depending on um the the mannerism of the pumps of the state of the pumps. Let me say it like that. And um but the thing is it's going to save us on the back end and front end. Okay? And so I actually just finished um doing a full estimated quote on getting all of the pumps repaired. We have nine pump stations.
23:20
Unidentified Do we have
23:21
Water Superintendent Saeed A. Rose Yes, we have uh well right now bypass pumps we have we have five bypass pumps or six bypass pumps currently. Okay. And so we do have a couple of stations that's still running, but we're kind of we're we're over that line of having, you know, bypass pumps at most of our stations right now. And so, um, basically what we're looking at doing is, like I said, eliminating each bypass pump by by station as we go along and make repairs. Okay. And so what we want to really look at doing is, okay, what I just did before I actually walked in this meeting, I went over basically the total cost of having every pump station fully repaired. And these are the ones, including that's running without bypass pumps. And I'm around about 120,000. I mean, that's with labor, parts, supplies. Kind of overestimating a little bit, but that's what we're looking at having every pump station repaired in due time, you know. So, about 120 grand. But if we actually look at what we're spending in Zyllem, we're almost doubled that, you know, easily within the last two years. And I'm probably undershooting that a bit. And so, this would be um effective for us to go ahead and start getting them repaired. um I'm I'm getting away from it being a um equipment issue or supply issue or even just having the labors to do it. And so that's why that quote is a little bit more than it was last time I presented it because that includes labor cost for them to come in and we get everything we need done. Okay. And so these quotes are coming with 10 Carver um but I also do have to include the electricians that we may need to come in or instrumenting supply to come in to help us with submergible pumps. And so it's going to be a little variety of contractors with the city assisting on getting, you know, these renovations done on these pumps. And so this will be just a a strong first step. Um I kind of got some good news that we already have parts, we already had some repairs done to the stations that I wasn't aware of because they wasn't running for other reasons. And so I think as we go along, you know, we're going to be making leeway and saving on the front end when it comes to these quotes and the thing, you know, the money that we'll have to spend up front, which is another requirement. I'll go ahead and put that out there with 10 Carver. Um, they are requiring us to pay a percentage if not the full amount up front to go ahead and get the parts order and, you know, to bring in services to do so.
25:48
Water Superintendent Saeed A. Rose What's the amount that they're wanting? Um well it's from 50 to 75%. Um that what I that's what I was told but um exact number you know if we get this approved tonight I'll have a better exact number uh when I talk with the the sales engineer and the credit department there you know when we want to move forward with this. And so and this is just um I'm not too sure what happened in the past. Um, I know the city, the water department specifically has been doing business with Tim Carver for years and I believe it was just a period of time where they were not getting um, their balances paid off. And so that's why we're where we're at today, you know, with Ten Carver. And um but other than that, their service has always been efficient and um and definitely a a helping hand in just troubleshooting and figuring out what we need to do for these very old pump stations that we still have three pump stations that need to be fully re-engineered. But that's that's a conversation for a later time. We just want to get off these bypass pumps, keep them running, and save money. you need from us tonight is an approval to move forward.
27:03
Unidentified Okay.
27:05
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3) Move that expense uh so that he can get that bypass pump repaired. And I I'll say this, we're spending a tremendous amount on gasoline on a monthly basis. The bypass pump themselves have rental costs associated with it. And so I've talked to Mr. Rose. Um yesterday we started a grant application to DRRA uh where we can receive up to $75,000 in funds uh for pump repair. And so we expect or we're trying to get that in by Thursday. And uh we're hoping to be able to get that money to go towards sewer pump repair. And so we we we're working on that right now to get it in. So
27:49
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2)° Okay. I make a motion and we approve it. And I second
27:52
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3) motion by St. Columbia to approve the expense to ten car $16,22 and some change. Second by Miss Maxine Miller. Any discussion? Madam clerk, would you call the role?
28:09
Unidentified Yes,
28:12
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey Miss Miller. Mr. St. Columbia.
28:14
Unidentified Yes.
28:17
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3) Thank you. And the next item on the agenda is a an update on the Beach Street project. I've gotten call many calls on the B Street project and so I I asked Mr. Rose to give us an update into the public about where we are on B Street. Mr.
28:32
Water Superintendent Saeed A. Rose I knew it was not yet time for me to stand down. Be street. Yes. Um, we will be resuming construction or finishing construction on Beach Street this week, presuming Thursday, and wrapping up early next week. And so, we had to prolong it a little bit longer than we wanted to to make sure that sewer line was fully flowing the way it needed to be, and it actually is. And so, I know it's been a long, ugly process. It's been causing distress to the local residents there um trying to get in and out their driveways. some backup issues. It's just the playground. It's been it's been terrible. But we uh we're excited to know that that area is flowing the way it needs to flow and we don't have to continue to rip up that street. That was that was going to be the doom side of us actually ripping up Beach all the way down to uh Miller and possibly Perry Street. So this week we will resume uh connecting the final service line and then starting the fill-in process. Um I want to make sure the storm drain is still working, sewer line is working. We just got to figure that the storm drain part. But uh but this will be wrapped up next week. And so that was my deadline goal was August and we're actually here in August. And so this should be done and um filled in completely like I said by beginning of next week before August 9th. Um another note I will be using uh Quadabun to help me finish this project. um they've been crucial in assisting with just getting things done along with Southern Plumbing. Um but just for the manpower to go ahead and get this wrapped up and get the dirt filled in, packed in the way it needs to be packed in until we get the actual street repair done. Um at least the, you know, street will be open again. I will, you know, need to utilize quarter bond. And so we'll definitely be seeing another invoice from them. U how will the street be repaired? I know it's brick. So, what will we have to do when we put asphalt down or brick?
30:37
Water Superintendent Saeed A. Rose Well, um I I believe we can um I I don't want to speak ahead of myself, but first thing is getting it filled in and we're going to give it gravel in. Um I believe we're actually going to possibly just be doing concrete right right there and not actually putting the brick back because that's going to be a process. Um but don't hold me to that. I just want to make sure it filled in and then we'll get to the step of actually getting it concrete, you know, back in. Right. Okay. You just did though.
31:07
Unidentified But I know how um crucial that is for a lot of people living in that era to try to maintain that historic feel of the streets. So, okay.
31:16
Unidentified I didn't even want to start on the project.
31:19
Unidentified I apologize. That's been a horror show
31:26
Unidentified off of 49 the the drainage issues we have. Any updates on that? I know we were you were working on some pumps or working to try to get that. I know it's a little bit stabilized now, but
31:43
Water Superintendent Saeed A. Rose° um the the um part the apartments the um multi- uh apartment complex having issues with drainage.
31:53
Unidentified Okay.
31:54
Unidentified And I think we got some pumps got a couple pumps or something.
31:58
Water Superintendent Saeed A. Rose Oh, okay. I'm okay. Um by um by the school. Yes. Yes. We um we definitely been in a better situation. Um once again, that's kind of backtracking to the bypass pumps. We were having u some backtoback bypass pump issues and actually to find out the pumps were getting hit by lightning multiple times. Yes. And so um that was one of the things where it's like, okay, we're um when these pumps get hit by lightning, there's not much we can do um in maintenance to fix them. having Zylum come back out to actually restore the pumps. And best believe there's a service charge for them to do that. And so, um, what I actually found out is that the Miller station is close to in working order, more so than I thought. Um, my my predecessor, Calvin Murdoch, he was actually he got some repairs done that I just didn't know about. And so, we're still using a multi- bypass pump system there to help avoid the problems on backup. And we also looked at um how we could basically clear their service line, their drainage line because there was some clog in that drainage line. So when the pump station went down, it backed up extremely fast. And so but also we haven't had rain like we did uh when we were having problems back to back. But we are definitely prepared to uh deal with any uh equipment failure issues if we get some bad weather, god forbid, but if that happens, we're we're a little bit more equipped now to get on that so they won't be dealing with that problem over and over again. Any more questions?
33:37
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3) Thank you, Mr. Rose. All righty. Uh that completes the printed agenda, but Mr. St. Columbia wanted to address the body. He sent an email and uh my error I did not include him on the agenda. So Mr. San Columbia, you may have
33:52
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2) Yeah, I was going over the uh court order uh and it clearly says that the U governor uh will appoint um let me see um because of the removal of the mayor. It is the duty of the governor to at once appoint uh and commission a mayor. I had an idea. Of course, I don't know. Uh, it's been three weeks now that we haven't had a mayor, and I don't know how much longer the governor is going to take. Have we heard anything from the governor's office?
34:49
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2) I have not. Um, I have a suggestion that we could hire uh u at no cost to uh the city uh someone to come in and uh help us resolve our situation until the governor appoints a mayor. And that's what I wanted to suggest uh to the council if and to I wanted to ask the city attorney uh would it be possible that we could probably uh employ a manager uh to work with us to solve the city problems and uh participate as a mayor uh until the governor appoints a mayor. Well, Mr. St. Columbia, I'm not the city attorney. Um, but I do have a law license. He's He's not. And I think, um, if my understanding is correct, you contacted the Arkansas Municipal League and they advised you that the governor does in fact appoint a mayor. We need to cut back on uh our money. Uh we don't have the money to pay our bills like we should. We need to cut back on some of these uh executive jobs that were appointed uh when this administration was was formed. And that's what I wanted to look at too was uh put a freeze on hiring. no hiring until we get us a new mayor and put a freeze on hiring and also uh cut out some of these executive jobs that were appointed originally with this administration.
36:52
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3) Okay. So, if I can address those one by one, you made mention of payroll when the meeting first started. Uh Mr. St. Columbia. What I have gone about doing since this fell to my to my um authority, so to speak, is I've made a conscious effort to go department by department and to speak with the leadership of each department to do my own assessment of each department in terms of what they I think they need and what I think they may be able to do without. that is in talking with the people to do an assessment of the personnel in each department because it's easy to say come in and just start cutting off pieces and parts. But if you don't know how those pieces and parts function together, you might be like the federal government, you know, send a bunch of people home and then call them to come back because wait a minute, I need them. And so I've made a conscious effort to be thoughtful and methodical about what we do on a daily basis and to meet with each department Now, to your proposal, um, you can hire anybody that you want. Let me say this, we haven't hired anybody except the police officers that were authorized before all of this stuff that got started. That was by vote of the council. Those are the only people, and that's because the chief has to get up to his number in order to cut out his overtime. So, you guys already approved that. We approved that. Um, but in other departments, we're not hiring. We're trying to figure out how to cut back how to cut back payroll. But you can hire anyone you want to. The problem that you're going to have is that you do have a court order and the court order designates one person to have the mayor's authority
38:38
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2)° hiring anybody. I'm going to put a freeze on hiring. Hire anybody.
38:43
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3) Hire take volunteers. Take anybody. You can do whatever you want to do, but only one person has the mayor's authority. And unfortunately for the people who had different plans in mind, that's that's kind of me. And so all of the executive decisions at this point, I operate under a court order, but the court order doesn't allow you to give it to somebody else. To do that would be to interfere with the court order or to be in contempt of the court order. I think the judge wouldn't like that very much. Okay. I I use that as an example of, you know, when I saw the garbage truck had five employees of the city picking up garbage on one truck in the residential area. I saw that myself.
39:35
Unidentified Yes, sir.
39:40
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3) Well, Mr. St. Columbia, I have a meeting scheduled for tomorrow over at sanitation. And I told, as I told you, I've been thoughtful and methodical. I have a meeting with sanitation tomorrow. I'll talk with them about five people on a truck. Um, I haven't seen a truck with five people, but I'm not out on the garbage routes. But I will talk to them about how many people they have on the routes and the trucks. But again, I've tried to do this in a thoughtful way so that I don't just come in and start telling people, you go here, you go there, and I don't know what those people are responsible for. Well, it's not our job on the city council to run the day-to-day operations. That's a department head's responsibilities.
40:23
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2)° Uh, but what I'm saying is I saw it with my own eyes. So, we need we need to make some changes and those need to be immediate because we can't afford to continue. You know, we don't have the money to to to pay our bills.
40:41
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3) Mr. St. Columbia, I do not disagree with our financial situation. All I'm telling you is is that to come and see here and say, "I saw five people on a garbage truck. We need to send some of those." I don't know what you saw. If you will allow me to meet with the department, I'll find out what you're talking about because
41:06
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3)° it could very well, Mr. S. Columbo. But again, I'm trying to be thoughtful about what we do. When I get to another point, if there's a proposal that requires council approval, as long as until somebody taps me on the shoulder and says, "Mr. Etherly, you can step aside," I will continue on a day-by-day basis and a weekly basis to try to find ways where we can both save money and reduce our payroll. That's been my mission from from day one, and I will continue to do that. We need also my idea of talking with the city attorney on the possibility of uh employing uh uh someone to help us manage our financing for the city. A manager maybe someone we can call him anything you want. I don't want to call him a mayor, but uh uh I have someone that will work with the city uh and not charge us anything to work with us to help us solve our problems financially.
42:14
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3) Mr. St. Columba, if anybody wants to volunteer to help, they're certainly welcome to volunteer to help. The problem that I think you're trying to skirt is that they won't have the power to act as a mayor. Do you understand? They won't have the the court order is the thing that grants the power. The court order is the thing that builds the bridge between the mayor's uh uh restraining from city hall and his removal from office and the governor's appointment. It's the court order. Unless they that person gets into the court order, they won't have the authority to act as a mayor. So there'll just be there'll be another person running around city hall. And so if anybody wants to volunteer, I'm not turning down any help at this point. It's more than a notion. But but at this point, the governor has to appoint. Until the governor appoints, you're stuck with me. Is there anything else to come from the body? That's all I had to say.
43:22
Unidentified Have a motion to adjourn. Yes,
43:27
Unidentified sir.
43:32[Music]
43:34
Mayor Pro Tem Don Etherly (Ward 3) Motion is to adjourn. Madam cler, would you call the role?
43:43
Unidentified Tojourn.
43:45
Unidentified To adjourn.
43:46
Roll call Roll-call vote — Joe St. Columbia: yes; Don Etherly: yes.
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.