In 30 seconds
- Council passed Resolution 11, 5-0, giving new Mayor Joseph Whitfield signing authority on city bank accounts for routine business like payroll.
- Council approved roughly $29,000 for police body armor (about $19,000 for 15 sets) and duty weapons (about $9,000-$10,000), after Chief Sanders said the equipment fund had only about $8,000 left.
- Ordinance 925 passed 5-0, routing fines from a new inattentive-driving ordinance into the police equipment fund.
- Council passed Resolution 12, 5-0, authorizing the mayor to pursue Arkansas Natural Resources Commission (ANRC) funding to repair the Helena and West Helena water systems.
- Council approved up to $10,000 for outside counsel after the city attorney recused himself from a roughly $230,000 lawsuit by Central Arkansas Contractors, his former client.
Recap
Mayor's First Financial Report and Signing Authority
Mayor Joseph Whitfield gave his first financial update in office. He said the city has "bleeding" in some bills and pointed to talks with AT&T about cutting costs on unused phone lines. Councilman St. Columbia asked for a monthly copy of the city's bills so council can track spending closely. Council then passed Resolution 11, 5-0, giving the mayor signing authority on city accounts for routine business such as payroll.
Inattentive Driving Ordinance Funds Police Equipment
Police Chief Sanders asked council to route fines from a new inattentive-driving ordinance into the police department's equipment fund. The clerk read the title of Ordinance 925: "an ordinance to define and prohibit inattentive driving within the city limits... and to designate the use of fines for police equipment." Council passed it 5-0. It has no emergency clause, so it takes effect in 30 days.
Police Body Armor and Duty Weapons Purchase
Chief Sanders told council the department's body armor and duty weapons are outdated and past their service life. The quoted cost was $19,000 for body armor for 15 officers and, as stated on the record, "about 9,000 close to 10,000" for duty weapons. Sanders said the police equipment fund has about $8,000 left, which he has been using to outfit new officers, and warned he would be back asking for more as hiring continues. Councilman Etherly noted the city's COPS grant covers officer payroll, not equipment. Council approved the purchase 5-0 on a motion from Councilman St. Columbia.
New Garbage Truck and Old Equipment Sales
Mayor Whitfield recommended a rear-loader garbage truck over the city's current automated trucks, citing 10 days reviewing service and maintenance records. The vendor's bid for the truck is $223,900 including warranties. Whitfield laid out disposal options for one of the city's down trucks: sell it for about $103,000 or salvage it for about $3,200 in parts. Council also authorized the sanitation and street departments to auction old equipment, following the landfill's sale of about $50,000 worth of equipment through Witcher Auctions. Landfill staff used $19,000 of that money on a new truck, leaving about $31,000 requested for a service truck for landfill workers who had been using personal vehicles on site. Council approved $4,500 to rent a backup garbage truck for six days while the department's trucks are unstable.
Drainage Bid Conflict and Water System Funding
The lowest bid on a West Street drainage project tied to the Metalbrook subdivision came from a contractor currently suing the city. Mayor Whitfield said he will likely seek new bids rather than award the contract to that bidder. Separately, council passed Resolution 12, 5-0, authorizing the mayor to sign documents to pursue ANRC funding to repair the Helena water system (No. 419) and the West Helena water system (No. 416).
Outside Counsel Authorized for Contractors Lawsuit
City Attorney Valley told council he must recuse himself from the Central Arkansas Contractors lawsuit against the city because the company is his former client, calling it "an appearance of impropriety." The suit seeks "$230 something,000" in damages as transcribed; opposing counsel is seeking depositions of former Mayor Franklin, City Clerk Ramsey, and James Valley before November 3. Councilman Etherly recommended authorizing up to $10,000 for outside counsel without naming the attorney's quoted fee, then moved to approve that $10,000 for Mayor Whitfield to retain counsel; it passed 5-0. Whitfield closed his first meeting saying the last 10 days had been encouraging.
The documents
Everything the council had in front of it, summarized. Page stamps open that page in the document desk.
Meeting Agenda
This is the two-page printed agenda for the October 21, 2025 Helena-West Helena City Council meeting . It opens with Mayor Joseph Whitfield's first meeting as mayor: prayer, roll call, minutes, and a Treasurer financial update, followed by a resolution to add him as a signer on city bank accounts . New business on page two lists an inattentive-driving ordinance with fines directed to the police equipment fund, a new garbage truck purchase, a list of surplus sanitation equipment for sale, the West Street drainage project bid, a landfill work truck request, and use of a contracted garbage truck during fleet downtime .
| Garbage truck bid (rear-end loader, with warranties) | $223,900 | |
| Sanitation equipment auction proceeds (Witcher) | ~$50,000 | |
| Landfill work truck cost | $19,000 | |
| Contracted garbage truck rental (6 days) | $4,500 | |
| Police body armor (15 sets) | ~$19,000 | |
| Police equipment fund balance | ~$8,000 |
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 ↗
0:31
Mayor Joseph Whitfield We'll open with the Lord's Prayer. Our Fur in heaven, be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those tres against us not into temptation but deliver us from evil and the kingdom power forever and amen to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Mad clerk, will you call the role, please?
1:28
Roll call Roll call (attendance) — present: Adrian Messina, Joe St. Columbia, Don Etherly, Monica Davis. Not recorded present: Maxine Miller, Dr. Kyle Miller (captions incomplete; attendance unverified).
1:44
Unidentified Mr. Miller.
1:45
Unidentified Dr. Miller's here. So, we have
1:48
Unidentified Hello, Don.
1:53
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° So, we do have a quorum and we can go ahead and get started to date.
1:58
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Um, so our first order of business was supposed to be the approval of minutes and that was inadvertently left out of the packet. So, you won't find those inside the packet. The minutes from the previous meeting, we will cover those on the November 4th meeting. Just want to make that clear.
2:18
Mayor Joseph Whitfield The treasurer, Mr. Turner, is not here for the old business report for the financial update, but I will say briefly um over this last week, this is the first full week that I've been able to be in the office. And um we have some bleeding in different areas, whether that's bills that we can maybe trim down on. We've had some conversations with the phone companies about lines that might not be operative anymore, existing lines that maybe can be um removed. And so the financial conversation between myself and the treasurer, Mr. Turner, has been pretty productive one. Miss Ramsey and Chief of Staff Valley and I have all sat down yesterday and talked to AT&T about some of our existing bills with them. So we are making an aggressive effort to try to resolve and make sure that we have less bleeding than the day before. So yeah,
3:12
Councilman Joe St. Columbia could we uh uh I said something about this at the last meeting. Uh could we each month get a copy uh an up-to-date copy of our bills so we can watch that real close?
3:25
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Yep. That's so that's part of I think that that should be something that all of you should be able to see as well as the public too. People have questions and I definitely want everybody to understand where we are kind me a meter check between each meeting what's going in what's going out and what we paid. So definitely in favor for that and I'll make sure that I speak with Mr. Turner about that. So our first new order of business is the resolution authorizing signature on accounts. If you look at the first page of your packet, this is my first meeting with you all here and first meeting, official meeting as mayor. And so this resolution would allow me to have signing power on city accounts as necessary for payroll, things of that nature.
4:11
Unidentified 11. I move that the resolution number 11 uh be read the title only and a resolution authorizing signatures for all banking purposes and for other related purposes.
4:28
Roll call Roll-call vote — Don Etherly: yes; Monica Davis: yes; Dr. Kyle Miller: yes; Adrian Messina: yes.
4:42
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey Five. Yes.
4:43
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Motion passes. Motion passes.
4:59
Mayor Joseph Whitfield We have right on time. Our next order of business, the police chief, Chief Sanders, um is going to approach to talk about an inattentive driving ordinance. This is a program that the police department is going through as that will provide different types of training ultimately allowing them to gain more equipment in the future and and I believe that this is a good uh program to support them through as we can supplement maybe some of the costs that we might not be readily able to pay and they can get those through this program. So I'll I'll give him the floor to share a little bit about how this ordinance would work and also how the program itself will be um how they will participate in that program.
5:45
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders Good evening.
5:51
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders So this inattentive driving ordinance, it's an ordinance that that's going to help with our distracted driving in Helena. Helena, it's uh it's it's for it's for the enhancement of of road safety uh and to prevent accidents for useless and careless driving. It focuses on the accountability and the prevention part of of the accidents and everything that we work on a daily basis here. I'm asking for this ordinance for the fines that we collect to go to the police department's equipment fund. Um, I'm sure you all have a copy of the ordinance if you want to read over it. I think it'll be a proactive measure towards our safer streets and it'll hold everyone accountable. You don't have anything in your book uh to control any of this as it stands now. Your the law enforcement
7:00
Unidentified we we we have the the state
7:05
City Attorney Andre Valley° if I may state statute authorizes most of this.
7:09
City Attorney Andre Valley° Yeah. Uh many the state statute has authorized also the city and adopt any statute as a local ordinance and for many cities what they have adopted these inattentive driving ordinances to give a person a chance to keep it off their record versus being speeding and receiving the points on the record
7:27
City Attorney Andre Valley° and its collateral purpose is specifically designate the proceeds to go towards equipment funds etc. And so you still would they still would pay the state court cost and etc. Uh but the fine the portion that would come to city from this ordinance only would go strictly towards the police uh equipment fund.
7:48
City Attorney Andre Valley° Yes. And so one of the requests he's made uh first day that the the mayor was sworn in he received an email from the chief saying hey I need equipment. And so, uh, one of the things about it is, uh, due to the the pending debts, uh, this is a way to to try to get some funding. It won't be a whole lot, but some funding towards the police equipment that's paid for by violators of the law versus, uh, having the city having a budget and, etc. for it. Yeah. And so that's what what the chief met with me about it. He said, "Can we do something similar?" And he and I met several times about the ordinance and then we drafted the one that we have here. But we can have a supplement and reordance for the funding.
8:29
City Attorney Andre Valley° Yes. Any traffic law in the state of Arkansas, the city can pass an ordinance that that's similar to it as a city ordinance.
8:37
Unidentified And you approve this?
8:39
City Attorney Andre Valley° Yes, sir. I've met with him two or three times about it. Yes, sir.
8:45
Unidentified I believe it's in there. Oh, is it?
8:47
Unidentified I believe it is.
8:48
Unidentified I believe it was not to exceed 250.
8:49
Unidentified Not to exceed 250. To exceed 250.
8:52
Unidentified What's that number or something? Okay. Nine.
8:57
Unidentified Nine.
9:08
Unidentified Yes, sir. Thank you.
9:11
Unidentified Which is much cheaper than a than a state citation.
9:15
Unidentified Yes, sir.
9:16
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° I've talked to the chief as uh the city attorney mentioned. I think that this is a good idea. I personally in my time around the city have seen a lot of inattentive driving for different reasons, cell phones, conversations, and I think that we ought to make sure that we keep that message of expectations clear that we want we want safe drivers. So,
9:38
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders° we're also getting a a fluctuation in in bikers. Uh we have numerous reports of just vehicles, the drivers not paying attention.
9:48
Unidentified Yeah.
9:52
Unidentified Yeah. Okay.
9:54
Unidentified Okay. You feel like this puts some teeth into the action.
10:01
Unidentified I move that we uh put ordinance number nine. Uh t retitle only. Make a motion that we suspend the rules.
10:15
Unidentified Leave the motion to suspend the rules. Uh or number 925
10:19
Unidentified placed on the third and final reading with reading the timeline.
10:24
Unidentified Thank you.
10:26
Unidentified We get a second.
10:27
Roll call Roll-call vote — Monica Davis: yes; Don Etherly: yes.
10:37
Unidentified Five. Yes.
10:38
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey Ordinance number 925. an ordinance to define and prohibited entertainment driving within the city limits of all western Arkansas to promote public safety and to designate the use of fines for police equipment for other uh purposes. There needs to be a motion to adopt.
10:51
Roll call Roll-call vote — Don Etherly: yes; Dr. Kyle Miller: yes; Adrian Messina: yes.
11:07
Unidentified The emergency clause. Do we need it?
11:09
City Attorney Andre Valley° No, sir. It was effective within 30 days.
11:11
Unidentified Second seven.
11:13
Unidentified Okay.
11:15
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° And this chief, correct me if I'm wrong. There was also a desire to talk about department body armor and duty equipment.
11:24
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders Duty weapons. Correct.
11:25
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders Weapons. This is not on your intentive driving ordinance, but since he's here, I figure it'd be good to have him explain this as well. Uh, it's very simple. Body armor is outdated. Duty weapons old. It's not my officers. I used to use the wrong verb, but it's our officers. I think we need to fully equip them with the proper things to go out here and do the job that we're asking them to do. Uh, I submitted quotes. I'm not sure if you guys have them right now. I can pass them around if I need.
12:01
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° That might be helpful. Oh, thank you. And being that this is the first time we're seeing these quotes, I think it could be a good idea to also make um or not have to rush to a judgment decision right now. This could be something that we could bring up in the November 4th meeting as well. Oh. Oh, there any any questions or discussion for the chief about the body armor or or department duty weapons? Yeah.
13:10
Unidentified Uh Chief, you've had discussions with the council through email.
13:15
Unidentified Just for the public uh that are watching sake, uh what type of equipment are you looking to for the city to consider purchasing and so
13:25
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders for the body armor? It would be safe. Um, it's a it's a higher grade body armor given what we're dealing with in the modern day. Um, it's more expensive, but I asked, well, what what is the cost of one of our officers lives? So, and for the uh for the duty weapons, we we tend to go with the the path that the FBI is on, everybody blocks the uh Model 17. That's what That's what's on the um quote.
13:59
Unidentified Hey, you got two quotes here.
14:01
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders° Yes, sir. One is for body armor and one is for duty weapons.
14:05
Unidentified The $19,000
14:09
Unidentified for for the body armor.
14:10
Unidentified That's the one you want to get.
14:13
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders° Yes, sir. That's what I feel safely sending my officers to do the job we asking them to get.
14:18
Unidentified Uh bed is for 18 units, isn't it? 15
14:25
Unidentified 15 units.
14:26
Unidentified 15. Yes, sir.
14:29
Unidentified So, uh, you want us to approve the $19,000
14:34
Unidentified for the body armor?
14:36
Unidentified And then there's another one in your in your right hand.
14:38
Unidentified Yeah.
14:39
Unidentified That's about 9,000 close to 10,000 for duty weapons.
14:44
Unidentified Okay.
14:48
Unidentified Block gun. See if okay here.
14:56
Unidentified Okay.
14:59
Unidentified So I have funding of this. You got the money in the your budget to and
15:07
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° I don't I don't currently. I think that it's I think that the severity and the the need for these this equipment could warrant um us looking at potentially the cops grant. Oh yeah.
15:21
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° So I definitely think that that's something that we could consider. And I know that this is the first time a lot of us are seeing these quotes. So if we need to move this to the November 4th meeting, I I would like to at least have a vote by then if we don't feel comfortable making a motion to
15:37
Unidentified they need they need the equipment. Are you sure? How many men do you have that's going
15:42
Unidentified currently right now? 16.
15:44
Unidentified 16.
15:45
Unidentified Correct.
15:46
Unidentified So that would be a grand total of how much money
15:51
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders for the body armor? It'll be that 19,000 that you just looked at
15:56
Unidentified for all of 16.
15:58
Unidentified So that's quote for 15. Currently a lot of the officers went through that same vendor and bought their own.
16:05
Unidentified Oh. But some of us did not and we're still currently utilizing the expired body army.
16:12
Unidentified Okay. Trying to get a handle on how much money we're talking about. You know, the bottom line,
16:21
Unidentified bottom line for body armor is going to be that 19,000. You have my copy. You You be a to look at it. Whatever that is.
16:28
Unidentified That's the bottom line.
16:29
Unidentified That's the bottom line. Body armor.
16:31
Unidentified Yeah. So, you'd like a motion from us to approve this transaction?
16:38
Unidentified I I think I think this police safety warrants it.
16:41
Unidentified Yeah, I I think they need to have it.
16:43
Unidentified Yeah, I I'd make a motion that we endorse the suggestion and the movement of it. Yeah,
16:50
Unidentified I second it.
16:52
Unidentified Yeah, we need it for our police officers.
16:55
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° There any extra discussion around purchasing new body armor and duty weapons for a police department? But we need to distinguish that that might possibly be uh reimbursed from the cops grant. That need to be
17:09
Unidentified I don't think you can use the cops grant for
17:11
Unidentified Oh, it cannot.
17:12
Unidentified No, the cops grant is to defer. It's for you to bring in new officers.
17:16
Unidentified Okay.
17:17
Unidentified U salary like
17:20
Unidentified right for Yeah, it's reimbursement for salaries and and what developments that you bring in officers. So,
17:26
Councilman Don Etherly okay, we've we've had these conversations before. The cops grant is not for cars, equipment, bullets, or whatever. for it.
17:33
Unidentified Payroll.
17:34
Unidentified It's for It's for payroll. However, um did What did you have left in your in your equipment fund?
17:40
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders Currently, right now, I have about 8,000. I've been using it to furnish all equipment for my new officers.
17:46
Unidentified Okay. So, he's got about 8,000 in his equipment fund. The rest would have to come from general funds.
17:51
Unidentified Is it possible to set it up as a stipen?
17:54
Unidentified I mean, I think if you just miss Ramsay and Miss Mr. Turner could probably if they know it's coming they could plan for it. I mean and so you know I don't know what the pressures are on them now but I'm just saying I'm not opposed to it. Never been opposed to it but it just the cops grant is like not a source for it. That's all
18:14
Unidentified question the uh chief. How long would it take for the body to arrive? Is this specifically made or how long will it take? So, we hadn't I hadn't did a bulk order before, but it generally takes about two weeks for the single orders that I saw officers did. I bought off the website also actually have the equipment in two.
18:37
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders Yes. I'd also note that if we do use the rest of my funds out of the equipment fund that we used, I'll be right back in front of you asking for money to furnish the new officers that I'm still currently hiring.
18:59
Councilman Joe St. Columbia We certainly need to protect our police officers. I agree. Absolutely. Okay. I made a motion that we move forward on. Got a second. I said I just Thank you, Mr. Sen.
19:23
Roll call Roll-call vote — Adrian Messina: yes; Monica Davis: yes; Don Etherly: yes.
19:36
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Thank you, Chief. Moving on to our next order of business. Um, we have a grant, a garbage truck proposal. As many of you, all of you might know now, we've been struggling with the routine maintenance of a couple of our garbage trucks. And we do have a gentleman here from Arkansas Municipal Equipment, a different site um from different from the last meeting that wants to talk about their proposal. You can find this on page six in your packet, which would be um a quote for what that vehicle would be and as well a couple diagrams of the rear end loader style that we would be potentially purchased. So, if you get ready to come up, we can hear from you.
20:26
PUBLIC: Ronnie (Arkansas Municipal Equipment)° Thank y'all. I'm Ronnie with Arsaw Municipal Equipment. I've got some packets here I'll pass out real quick to y'all. Yeah, back load is not This don't have the arm on it.
21:11
Unidentified No, sir. It doesn't have the arm on.
21:14
Mayor Joseph Whitfield I do think it's worth noting as well, just as we start to think about questions. I do think given the history of what I've been able to find out over the last 10 days of what our service capacity is and maintenance capacity, the rear end loader seems to be the best fit for for us right now and who's currently employed by the city and who's on our staff if it won't require as much maintenance as um extra truck or trucks that have more axles, side loaders or front loaders. Thank you all for having me here today. Um, give y'all a second there to kind of look over everything and check all the pictures out and stuff. Um, just kind of tell you a little bit about ourselves. Um, Daniel Ellison owns the company. It's a family-owned business. Um, he prides customer service. He looks for the customers to be completely happy. We have we've got I believe the best service department in the state. Um I've got plenty of references around you. Hughes just got a new truck. Um uh Stuckgart, St. Francis County, Forest City, West Memphis. I'm delivering them one tomorrow. Uh they've been on the buyback program, so I'm going to turn in one of theirs tomorrow. U Earl Park and you name it, I'm I'm surrounding you. So, I have plenty of references to to back me up on what I say is we're number one in C customer service. Um, I've got this truck here. It's stacked with warranties. I don't know if it's more warranties than y'all are wanting to pay for, but this is what we see in long-term trucks, so we put it on here. Um, the big one is that TC4 warranty. Everybody knows we're dealing with rats and mice and everything else and they like to chew wires and they like to tear stuff up. So, we like to put that warranty on there cuz it pays for itself for one trip them trying to diagnose where the problems at. Um, and you'll also have the towing warranty. You'll have a 5-year transmission warranty also and a 5-year engine and after treatment warranty, which is worth every penny because I know everybody here probably knows about deaf systems and how expensive and how much of a pain they are. So, that has all that covered on it. Um, only thing it don't cover is neglect, of course, you know. Um, on the body side, uh, you'll have twoear cylinder, two-year body warranty. Uh during that time if you have any any problems with that we have traveling mechanics. I have five mechanics that travel the state. We come to you. You don't have to bring it to us. We'll service your bed here. U why it's under warranty. After warranty we can still do the same thing. We can come here. It'll be a what we call a convenience fee.
24:16
Unidentified You actually come down here to work on the truck.
24:19
Unidentified Yes sir.
24:20
Unidentified On the body side. Yes. Uh, anything chassis warranty, they have to go to the chassis dealer. I can't touch it or I void the warranties and we carry several lines. Peterbuilt International Freight Line. We can't be certified and everything. So, we carry too many.
24:37
Unidentified Uh, we're out of Powen, Arkansas.
24:39
Unidentified Where?
24:41
Unidentified How far is that from here?
24:42
Unidentified Uh, it took me about 2 hours and 40 minutes to get here. But anything like that on that side, you don't have to come to us. We're going to come to you. Okay.
24:51
PUBLIC: Ronnie (Arkansas Municipal Equipment)° So, um, with us being kind of south of Little Rock there, we're kind of centralized, so we can usually get to everybody within a few hours. So, we're kind of in a perfect location to get all over the state. Um, but like I said, anything chassis, of course, will have to go to your local chassis dealer. U probably West Memphis, Memphis on this freight liner.
25:13
Unidentified Is it I have a this Cobra truck. Is it similar to what we're functioning with now? our trucks that we have presently.
25:22
PUBLIC: Ronnie (Arkansas Municipal Equipment)° It's going to be similar. Uh we have a bigger belly so you can put more trash in it at a time. So when you're cycling, you're doing less cycle times which makes it more efficient for the guys to do their job. They don't have to stop cycle, you know, it's it's it's a lot of dead time. So, if you're going away from automated, going to rear load, that bigger belly is going to make a bigger difference because you can get more more trash in there on your cycle times. Um, other than that, like I said, we don't have a lot of issues out of them. You're going to get a leaky cylinder from time to time. It's going to happen with equipment, all equipment, you know. Um, but that's going to be covered under warranty. No major issues there. So, And this Oh, sorry. Sorry. And on this truck here, this truck is built on the ground in Boomville, Mississippi. We have our plant over here in Boomville. They do like our 20 yards, our smaller automated stuff like that, which is not very far from y'all. Um, I can make it from my shop to there in about 5 hours to the factory. So, um, as soon as y'all make a decision and you want to purchase a truck, and I don't know if you're financing or purchasing, I don't know the details, but, um, as soon as everything's approved, I'll get that truck rolling here, uh, to my shop. I'll get everything done. I'll get it PDI, checked out. Give me a couple days, and I'll have it to you. So, it it can move real fast once I get the approvals. Um, I can't make it move until I know, you know, where the money's at or whatever. But
27:03
Unidentified what would be the turnaround time or for what would be the turnaround time for it actually getting here?
27:09
Unidentified Um, from the time you give me green go, give me about a week.
27:13
Unidentified Okay.
27:14
Unidentified That'll get set up for you.
27:15
Unidentified You actually have the truck here in one week.
27:17
Unidentified Yes, sir. It's on the ground at Boomville, Mississippi.
27:21
Unidentified Over Mississippi.
27:22
Unidentified Yes, sir. Yes. It's already built and ready. Uh we build stock units so we have them and merge situations. Unfortunately, y'all had a wreck and need a truck quick. So that's why we build stock units, but we just let them sit at Newway to the ready.
27:37
Unidentified Who around here has a truck? What other cities you you mentioned a while ago what?
27:43
Unidentified Hughes. Hughes just got one uh just few weeks ago. Well, sorry, couple months ago. Hughes.
27:50
PUBLIC: Ronnie (Arkansas Municipal Equipment)° They Yep. Hugh Hughes just got one. Um, that was that was a long time in the works. They needed one really bad and and we got it pulled off for them. So, we got them a new truck. And, uh, we got Stuck Guard. They run my 20-yard rear loads and my automats. Uh, West Memphis runs my rear loads and my automateds and my front loads. And then, uh, St. Francis County runs my front loads and automateds also. Um, Bor City runs my front loads. Um, I got parking. They run uh my automated. Uh, Earl run an automated. So, like I've got you surrounded everywhere, you know. I' I've got trucks everywhere. West Memphis had probably the most in the area. I think they've got about six or seven.
28:39
Unidentified Oh, really?
28:40
Unidentified Yes.
28:43
Unidentified Yes, sir. When you deliver the trucks, do you have someone that's going to show our people how how how these work?
28:51
PUBLIC: Ronnie (Arkansas Municipal Equipment)° Yes, I'll stay I'll stay and train them as long as I think they need to. I kind of read kind of read the room kind of seeing if they're getting it or if there's something I maybe need to address more. And I'll take your opinions, too. If there's something you want me to stress on them, I will. I mean, and whether it's cleaning, maintaining, or whatever you want me to do, I'll help you.
29:13
Unidentified What's usual maintenance? Once a month or once every
29:18
Unidentified week? They need to be greased weekly.
29:20
Unidentified Weekly.
29:46
Unidentified One of the most common uh problems with these trucks are the hydraulic systems. How do you rate your hydraulic systems in these trucks? I really don't have a whole lot of problems out of the hydraulics on a rear load. You have more trouble out of an automated than you do a rear load because there's so many cylinders involved and so many moving parts. We don't have a lot of issues out of it.
30:12
Unidentified And I think that's been part of the issue recently that the automated trucks that we have had
30:17
Unidentified Yeah.
30:21
Unidentified So,
30:23
Unidentified yeah.
30:30
PUBLIC: Ronnie (Arkansas Municipal Equipment) Yes, sir. And that's including all your warranties. Truck price itself is uh $2119. And then once you put all the warranties on there, um said it is it is more money, but everybody knows maintenance bills. Everybody knows how expensive that is. This is one truck you're not at least you're not going to have to worry about that other than brakes and tires. That's basically all you're gonna have to worry with.
30:57
Mayor Joseph Whitfield And just for the council members, as it relates to one of the down trucks that we do have, um we're basing the decision to either salvage it or sell it. And what the value is if we sell it is 103,000 approximately versus the salvage will be 3,200 for parts. So something to consider as we think about um a truck in the future
31:21
PUBLIC: Ronnie (Arkansas Municipal Equipment)° and also in in future references if I have a lot of lease turnin trucks if it's something y'all want to look into later with automates, front loads, anything like that. I do have really good pricing on the buyback programs. They'll be completely refurbished and gone through. I know I'm putting the cart before the horse. I just kind of wanted to get it out there and let everybody know there is some money saving stuff we can do if y'all get in a pinch and are needing a truck quick.
31:46
Unidentified Could you could you just describe the buyback program uh quickly? I did have a question like what does that look like?
31:53
PUBLIC: Ronnie (Arkansas Municipal Equipment)° It's a So what we do is we we we set it up on a percentage rate. So what we do is you'll get on the buyback program. It'll have uh full warranties while you're on the buyback program. And then we give you a a set amount with that truck being in the condition that we expected in the list that we give you. It'll have terms and conditions. Um you'll have your uh we'll have our guys come over. They check them quarterly to make sure they're greasing them, they're maintaining them, they're keeping them up and all that. Um so we kind of keep on if they're neglecting it, we kind of stay on top of it. Uh, we can also do that with this truck also, the truck we're discussing today. If you want my guys to keep a close eye on it, I can send my guys over every quarter and come check it out, make sure they're taking care of it, and, you know, everything's being greased and maintained properly. Um, I can help you on that side, too. I'd be I'd be more than happy to because we're always doing evaluations up here in West Memphis and Dwit and all this all around you. So, Thank you. But
33:06
Unidentified oh, sorry. And then on that buyback program also, um, there'll be a balloon note at the end and you can either choose to pay that balloon note or turn it in. I just need to know in advance that if you're going to keep it or let it go back and
33:20
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Mr. Mayor, if we if we purchase this type, how will we handle financing? So, my suggestion, I think versus the LA, and I wasn't here for the last meeting, but I do think it's worth considering this truck just considering maintenance cost and where our technicians are right now. And what I think we can do and probably should do is have that decision by November 4th. And so, myself, the treasurer, and Miss Ramsey would talk about those options, and we'll make sure that that that puts us in a position where we're not straining ourselves at all. Looking at this other build, they want about 13,000 more.
33:58
Unidentified Yeah.
33:59
Unidentified and that's going to be more maintenance. Yeah, for sure.
34:08
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Any any other questions or discuss?
34:11
Unidentified Questions?
34:12
PUBLIC: Ronnie (Arkansas Municipal Equipment)° Sorry. I was going to bring one. I had a truck on the ground I was going to bring y'all to look at tonight and they come picked it up at lunch today. So, unfortunately, I wasn't I was going to bring one. You put your eyes on it, park it out front, you can look around, check it out. I like doing that when possible. But the the Twinkie to that truck left. So,
34:29
Unidentified and this is a a 20 yard.
34:32
Unidentified Yes, sir.
34:33
Unidentified 20 yard.
34:34
Unidentified Yes. It'll be a single axle, so you won't have that extra set of axles, and extra set of tires dragging around your city streets. And it's easier on your city streets. Also, you know, a lot of people have problems with the roads and and repairing them and the money to repair them. That single axle is going to save save a lot of wear and tear on lighter. It's going to save that wear and tear on streets. So, no more questions. So, we can table this until November 4th. We'll table this until November 4th and and clerk the treasur and I will get together and discuss uh best payment options.
35:17
Unidentified Yeah. Thank Thank you.
35:18
Unidentified Thank you.
35:22
Unidentified Thank you. Thank you.
35:25
Unidentified I heard about the code.
35:29
Mayor Joseph Whitfield All right. Moving on to our next order of business. Uh we have for the fourth point list of equipment proposed for sale. The sanitation shop has a list immediately and we actually skipped this. This is page five. So if you just go back one page, you'll see a list of equipment that the sanitation and street department are requesting permission to sell. and includes a bunch of old equipment that has been stationary, is no longer working, or will provide value for other new equipment. And they're not asking to sell it yet, but we they are trying to get um bids and quotes on it to see what the what the value of it would be. It's also worth noting as you look at that list without going too without getting into a new motion just that there there was a company that the landfill used Witcher which auctions and they were able to successfully sell about and they were able to successfully sell about $50,000 worth of um old equipment that they they're also using for new purchase equipment. So,
37:07[Music]
37:08
Unidentified I would move to authorize the sanitation department to bid out this equipment for sale.
37:13
Unidentified I'll second that. Madam, any discussion before we vote for discussion?
37:21
Roll call Roll-call vote — Monica Davis: yes; Joe St. Columbia: yes; Adrian Messina: yes.
37:33
Mayor Joseph Whitfield that's motion passes. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Clark. Moving on to the next order of business. We have a bid review for the West Street drainage project. This is something that I was briefed on less than a week ago that I do think is pretty urgent. We don't and being that we're just looking at the bids today, I do think this is potentially something that could be tabled to November 4th. It's the packet titled Central Arkansas Contractors. You'll find two bids in there. This particular drain sees it needs maintenance and because of the lack of maintenance, the neighborhood sees a lot of flooding. It sees pretty uncomfortable and unnecessary water water heights through their streets when when it get heavy rains. So, I do also believe as you look through these bids, it's worth noting that for one in particular, our lower bid, this is a this is an individual that we have an active lawsuit with. We're being sued by this particular individual, and I do think that's worth noting when it comes to potentially bidding out this project to to them. As a practical matter, the question for the council is simply uh the authorization of the amount uh both will be above the mayor's spending limit and the bid uh limit. Uh but he's already received the bids. the mayor has has exclusive right to accept to reject any bids over to reject all these and get others if he so chooses. Uh so at this point is is a question of appropriation, not a question of necessarily approval. Uh to further uh illuminate the issue, the the structures that's there on West Street, the Metalbrook subdivision, the streets flood and etc. They've twice done remediation and now they're doing remediation also, but with with remediation that they're doing until the city fixed the drainage on West Street, uh, is phenomenal. So, the city needs to go ahead and get the the drainage on West Street done to properly allow the drainage to take effect cuz they're doing one side of the street, but it still has a drain on the other side of street. Unless you had a question.
40:32
Unidentified We We did. Um, Miss Davidson, I presented you photos from the Melebrook subdivision and ask you to allow us to bid this out. This was a project that was started under Mayor Franklin
40:44
Mayor Joseph Whitfield and they and the city had agreed to to do the other side of it and you authorized the bidding of the project. I told you I would bring it back to you to let you know what the cost would be. Uh the bid open deadline was um I guess a couple of weeks ago and so uh Mayor Whifffield got the bids, open the bids. He has the two and so this is the representation of it to you at this point. He'll have to he'll make the decision as to whether he wants to accept either one of them. You would have to approve the expense and he may seek additional bids on his own after. So but that's kind of where we are. I guess it's really status only. I do want it to be said that I I I likely will pursue new bids. Just I likely will pursue new bids being that one of the biders has an active lawsuit with us. So, going on to our next order of business is a work truck request from the landfill operations. This would be the last four pages of the packet, not the bidding, but the original packet that we passed out, the last four pages. On those pages, you will see a picture of a service truck. The issue is that some of our landfill, one of our landfill employees has had to use his personal truck to drive around the landfill. So, they are requesting authorization of funds to purchase this new truck. They are actually in a really good situation being that they brought in Witcher Auctions to sell a bunch of their old equipment. That equipment sold for $50,000 is what they sold it for. They already purchased a new Lee truck for $19,000 which was much lower than their original Lite truck that they um that they looked at. So that leaves them with about $31,000 and they're currently trying to use they might not need the entire 31,000 but they are asking that we authorize it so that they can get a new service truck similar to the one that you see in the photos. Okay.
43:05
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Any questions or discussion about the need for for a new service truck for the landfield?
43:13
Unidentified They definitely got to have it up there.
43:18
Unidentified Do we have a
43:19
Unidentified and and and to the extent that then what he's asking for is authorization for them because they move fast.
43:25
Unidentified Yeah. they they had one last week and they lost it because it it went so fast just to authorize them to use the remainder of the funds they have. If they come across a truck to to purchase it and then we can affirm that purchase here at the table after it happens. So to the extent that the mayor's requesting the authorization, I would make a motion that they he be authorized to allow them to make the purchase.
43:46
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Thank you. Is there a second?
43:47
Unidentified I'll second.
43:48
Unidentified Thank you,
43:50
Roll call Roll-call vote — Adrian Messina: yes; Don Etherly: yes; Dr. Kyle Miller: yes.
44:05
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Uh, we have another new business, a new piece of new business as well. Um, the use of contracted garbage trucks. As we know, our garbage trucks have been unstable and so we have been renting for we have been renting a a second truck throughout the week. This particular or this upcoming week, the street and sanitation department has requested a six day, which would simply mean that there would be a second truck for for one of those days next week to keep up with the pace, to keep up with the demand for trash pickup. The total for that rental fee would be right at $4,500 is what we will be paying for the six day usage of those two rental trucks total.
44:49
Unidentified Okay. So, you need our approval of that.
44:50
Unidentified Yes.
44:52
Unidentified Approval
44:53
Unidentified there. Second.
44:54
Unidentified Thank you,
44:56
Unidentified Madam Clerk.
44:57
Roll call Roll-call vote — Don Etherly: yes; Adrian Messina: yes; Dr. Kyle Miller: yes; Monica Davis: yes.
45:07
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Motion passes. Thank you. And we have one final business for Miss um Miss Mills. Are you do you have the grant signature? So, Miss Mills is coming up to discuss um an opportunity or a resolution to also, similar to the first motion, make me a ser on all existing grants that we have as an authorizer for any grant applications that are currently out there.
45:38
Miss Mills (ANRC grant)° Yes, sir. Thank you. Good afternoon to everyone. This is a request from ANRC, Arkansas Natural Resources Commission, and this has it's already been signed before under Mayor Franklin and again under the mayor prom um Mr. Ely. So, what ANRC is requesting is that now that we have um Mayor Whitfield that this resolution be ressigned. And what it is is it is as he said, it is simply authorizing him to enter into um the contract with ANRC to oversee and execute the water business as as it comes through. So, what we have here is a resolution for single signatory authority. And if it's okay, I'll read it. It's a resolution designating and authorizing the mayor to execute certain documents in connection with funding administered by the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission. Whereas the city of Helena, West Helena, Arkansas owns and operates public waterwork system, Helena water system number 419 and West Helena water system number 416 in order to provide stable, clean and safe water service to meet the needs of the city of Helena, West Helena and its residents. Whereas the city council has determined that it is in the best interest of the city of Helena, West Helena, and its residents to apply for assistance from the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission here after known as ANRC in order to make certain improvements to the system, repair, rehabilitate, and stabilize both water systems, that's Helena and West Helena water systems. Now therefore, be it resolved by the city council of Helena, West Helena, Arkansas, under section one, that the mayor of city of Helena, West Helena, as a signatory agent or the successor of said agent is hereby authorized and directed to make application for assistance administered by the Arkansas Natural Resources, ANRC, and to execute when approved by the city council, a bond purchase agreement and instruments issued or made pursuant thereto on behalf of the city from time to time. Under section two, it reads that the manager or the mayor of the city of Helena, West Helena, as a signatory agent or the successor of said agent is hereby authorized to execute for and on behalf of the city of Helena, West Helena, all documents and certificates as required. So again, this is a signatory authority being requested by ANRC. It has already been authorized by the council, but again, this needs to be done now under Mayor Whitfield.
48:53
Unidentified What What number is that resolution?
48:55
Unidentified 12.
48:56
Unidentified Move to adopt resolution 12. I say,
49:02
Unidentified Madam Clerk,
49:05
Roll call Roll-call vote — Adrian Messina: yes; Dr. Kyle Miller: yes; Monica Davis: yes; Don Etherly: yes.
49:14
Unidentified Thank you.
49:15
Unidentified Thank you. Thank you.
49:17
Mayor Joseph Whitfield That brings us to the end of our agenda for this evening. And be before and before I say any comments are uh I'll open up the floor if anybody has anything that they would like to introduce before we adjourn.
49:33
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Mr. D. Um the city attorney thought we might need to address that lawsuit that you mentioned uh which would have been the CAC lawsuit um the need to hire uh council and getting approval for a certain amount to to to accomplish that
49:50
City Attorney Andre Valley right and I discuss you was uh the intro mayor the issue that central Arkansas contractors show in the city and something totally unrelated I represent subject saw contract that I filed lawsuit on their behalf against someone else last year. Um, so they've sued the city and the case is moving rapidly and so I can't both be representing him and defending against him. It's is this is appearance of impropriy and so I filed all types of documents in the case in Little Rock trying to hold off but they're constantly filing things trying to get this case. Central Arkansas contractors are suing the city for $230 something,000 in alleged uh expenditures as a claim against the city. Um and so the city needs to defend it. Uh and when the Mr. Anthony was mayor pro, he is mayor pro, but when he was the interim mayor and we were discussing and he was discussing with other attorneys, it's going to be above the $5,000 that the mayor could spend. It's going to be above said well it's not it's professional services so the bidding requirement wouldn't count but it's going to take some time and a lot of energy to defend the lawsuit because they're constantly filing things and uh people are going public any attorney won't get involved going want to know if they're going to get paid so uh there in lies issues so Mr. contacted two or three attorneys when he was interim mayor and we've had those discussions but we need some type of appropriation just to get started uh because we did file answer we did uh we objected to they've they've started discovery they've done motions for uh they've done uh interrogatories request for productions they've done request for admissions and we filed a motion for such a time and denied all those things but in good faith they need to sit at answer them quickly as possible. And this weekend, I got some notices of depositions. They want to take the former mayor's deposition. They want to take Miss Ramsey's deposition. They want to take uh uh James Valley deposition. And so, they're they're trying to move faster and they try to do that by November the 3. And so, uh we need an attorney. Uh and that's that's where we are. But the matter I represented central Arkansas contracts on is totally unrelated to anything the city before the relationship with the city was broken and but the case is still pending. So I just want to be open and most definitely can further explain the the conflict interest force lawyers that what I can't both represent and man defend at the same time.
52:39
Unidentified It speaks for itself. Yes.
52:45
Unidentified What you say, Mr. Messina?
52:46
Councilman Adrian Messina I was saying we need to come up with a with an attorney.
52:50
Unidentified Yeah.
52:51
Unidentified Well, great appropriation for the mayor to hire one on that specific issue.
52:59
City Attorney Andre Valley° I I had contacted an attorney uh prior to Mayor Whitfield's appointment and I was quoted a fee uh but uh uh he will make that determination. He may not want the attorney that I talked to, but uh certainly the one I talked to is out of Palaski County, but it's going it's going to be above the spending to retain any attorney in this matter. So, I think the issue is that the process is moving and the longer it takes, the more pressure uh their attorney is putting on Mr. Val. And so um and he can by by rule rules of professional conduct prohibit him from participating in this matter. So we'll have to hire somebody.
53:42
City Attorney Andre Valley° My question is can a attorney from Phillips County do the same thing that you that you uh quoted someone.
53:51
City Attorney Andre Valley° It can be an attorney anywhere who doesn't have a complaint. I mean they can be from Philips County. One I talked to was in Pali County and I I searched Pali County. Just as a lawyer, I know it'll cost more for a lawyer to go from here to there. So, I was trying to find someone who wouldn't have travel costs
54:09
Unidentified and I but
54:10
Unidentified he filed in plastic county.
54:13
City Attorney Andre Valley° I left that out. He filed in plastic county because his business is located in plastic county and so he could have either sued in Pal County or Phillips County. He chose to file in Pala County where he and his attorney is. He's represented by attorney Luther Suda. Uh but they filed in Galactic County.
54:31
Unidentified So with appropriation 5,000 just
54:35
Unidentified I I don't I don't think so.
54:38
Unidentified I didn't think so.
54:40
Unidentified Is that information around the the number sensitive information?
54:46
Councilman Don Etherly Anytime you tell somebody what somebody else is charged and then they listen and they want the same thing that the other person was charging, right? And so I I've always been hesitant to just start calling out what this person said they would charge this much because then everybody um I I would I would I would suggest that you you put 10,000 on your radar and that may be sufficient for the entire matter but it might not be sufficient for the entire you just don't know at this point. But I would I would suggest you give them the authority at least for 10,000. Here's the bottom line. Everybody I talked to, they know who they're dealing with on the other side and they know it's going to be a lot of work. And so they priced that in. And that's why I removed Philips County. I didn't call anybody in Philips County cuz like they got to drive two hours every time they have a hearing. And so we end up paying for the the hourly fees plus travel and all of that. So I was trying to strategically select someone who who wouldn't be from here because they wouldn't have the billing for travel. So
55:46
City Attorney Andre Valley° there's no business from Jesus. Someone is here. Someone here may be willing to handle it, but you're limited also by the virtue of several of those lawyers are suing the city.
55:56
Unidentified Yeah.
56:04
City Attorney Andre Valley° but but it's a it's a personal service. So it'll be whomever mayfield feels comfortable with.
56:09
Unidentified Yeah. I said personal
56:12
Unidentified professional service.
56:13
Unidentified Say we need to give the mayor $10,000.
56:16
Unidentified That's what I would do. Okay.
56:18
Unidentified Based on my communication, that's
56:22
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° there any more discussion before a motion?
56:25
Councilman Don Etherly And up to Yeah, I'll make that a motion that we approve up to $10,000 for Mayor Whitfield to retain an attorney to represent us in the uh the matter where we're being sued by Central Arkansas contractors in Palaski County.
56:43
Unidentified I second it. That's giving him the authority up to $10,000.
56:47
Unidentified Yes. Yes.
56:48
Unidentified To find a lawyer. Yeah.
56:50
Roll call Roll-call vote — Dr. Kyle Miller: yes; Joe St. Columbia: yes; Monica Davis: yes; Adrian Messina: yes.
57:02
Unidentified Thank you.
57:03
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Thank you. Before we adjourn, I do just want to say that I'm in my first city council meeting. I am excited to be here and I think that this is um the last 10 days been encouraging to see where the city can go and I think that we we can start building something positive and so uh thank you all for being here and um we have
57:26
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° right on time. Is there a second?
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.