In 30 seconds
- Mayor Joseph Whitfield presented a corrective-action review showing the city was $583,929 over budget from January through September 2025, not counting fire and police overtime.
- Treasurer Derrick Turner reported the city paid $192,000 in back payroll taxes in October, on top of $219,000 in September, and cut monthly operating expenses 33% since July, from $858,000 to $574,000.
- The council ratified five water-repair invoices totaling $33,617.92, 6-0, tied to the city's consent administrative order on the water system.
- Councilman Joe St. Columbia proposed reviving a water commission; City Attorney Andre Valley and Councilman Don Etherly argued against moving water oversight off the council table.
- Helena-West Helena's mayor and city attorney were authorized to negotiate a payment plan after the county moved toward a court judgment to garnish the city for $168,000 in unpaid jail fees.
Recap
Finances: back taxes down, operating costs down 33%
Treasurer Derrick Turner told the council the city paid a little over $192,000 in back payroll taxes in October, after paying $219,000 in September . Asked point-blank for the city's total debt, Turner said he did not have an updated figure . City Attorney Andre Valley asked that these obligations be called "claims," not "debts," in public meetings, saying the word "debt" could be used against the city in court . Turner said monthly operating expenses fell 33% since July, from $858,000 to $574,000 in September, and the city posted an operating gain of about $500,000 in September, with another gain expected in October .
Corrective action plan: $583,929 over budget since January
Mayor Whitfield told the council a member of the Arkansas State Legislative Audit Committee had visited that week to discuss a corrective action plan, then read an overspending summary starting with city contract labor, $37,383 over a $12,000 budget . The largest lines were Sanitation Department contract labor, $166,000 over a $55,000 budget, Sanitation Department rental, $124,975 over budget, and Street Department rentals, $41,407 over budget . The total came to $583,929 over budget from January through September 2025, not including fire overtime, police overtime, or spending from October forward . Councilman Don Etherly said much of the overspending was never approved by the council: money was spent in categories where the budgeted amount was zero . City Attorney Andre Valley said the city now needs a budget reconciliation, and the council must decide whether to ratify the spending already made, to satisfy the state audit .
Water system: $75,000 grant, years of sewer-pump costs
The council reviewed a $75,000 Delta Regional Authority award to repair pump stations and remove bypass pumps currently in use . A council member said that over the last several years, gas, overtime, and pump rental costs may have added up to more than $2 million spent in the water and wastewater department on sewer pumps .
Water commission debate
Councilman Joe St. Columbia proposed reviving a water commission, describing a past board of a lawyer, a banker, and three businessmen who met monthly with the water manager, and said he had Robert Cheek draft a proposed ordinance for the council to consider . Councilman Don Etherly opposed the idea, saying the council is the water commission when there is no separate commission, and that handing oversight to a commission means giving away the council's elected responsibility . City Attorney Andre Valley also opposed a commission at this time, citing the city's active water consent order, and said any ordinance should be drafted by his office rather than outside counsel . Valley confirmed a water commission would operate independently of the council, not report to it ; Etherly then suggested an advisory board as an alternative . Etherly said the claim that the city took the water department's money is false, and separately said the city's treatment plant is not far from a disaster on any given day .
Sanitation trucks and water-repair invoices ratified 6-0
Mayor Whitfield said the city will use the salvage value of a disabled sanitation truck to help acquire two replacement trucks rather than finance new equipment outright; a garbage truck bought recently already cost a little over $100,000 . City Attorney Andre Valley said some water-system spending is happening first, under the consent administrative order, then coming to the council for ratification afterward . The council then itemized and ratified five invoices: two from Jones Hydro ($11,799.12 and $5,658), one from Xylem ($6,585.80), and two from Ten-Car / Tencarva ($4,884.42 and $4,690.58), for water and sewer pump repairs . The vote passed 6-0 .
County jail fees: $168,000, threat of garnishment
City Attorney Andre Valley told the council the city owes the county $168,000 in jail fees. Under a prior lawsuit settlement, the city was to pay that amount when a local hospital sold; the sale did not happen, and the county is now asking a court to enter judgment so it can garnish the city for the $168,000 . City officials said they made an offer to the county for a monthly payment plan and are waiting on a response; the council authorized the mayor and city attorney to continue negotiating with the county's attorney. The motion passed and the meeting adjourned .
The documents
Everything the council had in front of it, summarized. Page stamps open that page in the document desk.
Meeting Agenda
Two-page agenda for the November 4, 2025 council meeting . Old business is a treasurer's financial update. New business covers the state legislative audit's corrective action plan for city debt, a Delta Regional Authority grant, a proposed water commission ordinance, a garbage truck purchase, and a water department invoice .
| Delta Catalyst Fund grant listed on agenda | $75,000 |
Meeting Packet
The packet bundles three attachments. Page 1 is a staff overspending summary table backing the audit corrective action plan, listing each department's over-budget line items and a total of $583,929 in overspending from January through September 2025 . Pages 2-11 are the signed Delta Regional Authority grant agreement for the 2025 Delta Catalyst Fund, awarding $75,000 for pump-station repairs over a project period of October 24, 2025 through October 23, 2026 . Pages 12-19 are a draft ordinance to create an independent Helena-West Helena Water and Sewer Commission, setting a 5-member board with staggered terms, a $50-per-meeting stipend capped at $600 a year, and a requirement to cut non-revenue water loss to 15% within five years .
| Total overspending, Jan-Sept 2025 | $583,929 | |
| Sanitation Dept. contract labor overage (budget $55,000) | $166,628.03 over | |
| Sanitation Dept. rental equipment overage (budget $0) | $124,975.00 over | |
| City contract labor overage (budget $12,000) | $37,383.53 over | |
| Delta Catalyst Fund grant award | $75,000 | |
| Grant project period | October 24, 2025 - October 23, 2026 | |
| Proposed Water & Sewer Commission size | 5 members | |
| Commissioner pay | $50/meeting, capped at $600/year | |
| Non-revenue water loss target | reduce to 15% within 5 years | |
| Commission in-lieu-of-tax payment cap | not to exceed 5% of gross revenues |
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 ↗
0:53
All present Our father Who art in heaven, hallowed 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 who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. To the republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
1:44
Unidentified Are you ready? I'm going to open your mail.
1:52
Unidentified I'm ready.
1:53
Unidentified That kind of feeling this morning.
1:54
Unidentified He's It's kind of silly.
1:56
Unidentified Yeah.
1:57
Unidentified You good? that.
2:01
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Madam Clerk, will you go ahead and call the roll, please?
2:06
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey Andrews? Here. Councilman Mills?
2:08
Unidentified Yes, here.
2:10
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey Councilman Mills?
2:11
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey Mr. Mills?
2:13
Unidentified I was
2:14
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey Eberly?
2:15
Councilman Don Etherly° Yes.
2:16
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey Mr. Miller?
2:17
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey Mr. Burton?
2:19
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Thank you. So, we have a complete quorum and we can resume business as usual. Um so, our next item of business will be to um do approval of the minutes. You have both sets of minutes from our previous two City Council meetings. The one from the um our last one from October, the third week of October wasn't in there. So, you have two sets that are in your packet.
2:44
Unidentified If they are the same as the same that was sent to us, I move that we approve the minutes of the last meetings that you sent us.
2:54
Unidentified There's a second.
2:55
Unidentified Second.
2:57
Mayor Joseph Whitfield It has a second. Madam Clerk, will you call the roll?
3:00
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey Mr. Adams?
3:01
Unidentified Yes.
3:02
Unidentified Yes.
3:03
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey Mr. Davis?
3:04
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey Dr. Miller?
3:05
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey Mr. Sanders?
3:06
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey Mr. Lovelace?
3:07
Unidentified Uh yes.
3:08
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey Mr. Yates?
3:10
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Motion passed.
3:15
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Failed business financial update.
3:18
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° So, I'm not sure Mr. Turner is here. What did he say? You want to call Mr. Turner?
3:29
Unidentified Yeah.
3:39
Unidentified Ready.
3:41
Treasurer Derrick Turner Our next order of business, we'll get moving along. We're going to jump into a financial update with Mr. Turner. Okay. I'm just going to keep this brief. First thing is that we're continuing to pay down debt. Um in October we paid 192,000, little over 192,000 in payroll taxes back payroll taxes. And we paid 219,000 in September. And um me and America been talking, so we we want to this is going to be one of our main priorities is paying down the payroll taxes. Uh we expect a significant amount for our um property taxes this month in November. And so we hope that we can make another significant payment in November on the property tax. So we're doing pretty good on the property taxes. Um we're current on all the payment plans. And we paid the current payroll taxes as they come due. So after each payroll uh IRS is due 5 days later, we paid the IRS. Um state taxes are due the 15th of the following month, we pay those. So we're up to date on all this stuff. We're up to date on our payroll taxes. And as far as uh operations are concerned, we've decreased um our expenditures, operating expenditures by 33% since July. In July our expenditures were 857,000, 858,000. Uh in August they were 584,000. And in September they were 574,000. And so you have the September report, and so those are the ones that have been reconciled. So, from July July's 858,000 down to September's 574,000, that's a 33% increase decrease. So, that's Yeah.
6:05
Unidentified Monthly did it.
6:06
Treasurer Derrick Turner° Yeah. And October, I haven't started We haven't started the bank reconciliations and account reconciliations yet. But as far what I've looked at so far, October is around 540,000. So, we're starting to see a steady decline in operating expenses.
6:25
Unidentified Good.
6:26
Treasurer Derrick Turner° And so and and hopefully we can maintain this decrease in expenditures because it allows us to make these payments and Yeah. So, right now that they the payroll taxes in particular, they aren't increasing. So, they're steady coming down and we're paying them on time and so we're not worried currently right now concerned with any increase in the taxes. Just trying to see if it was anything else.
6:59
Unidentified What's the total What's our total debt now?
7:02
Treasurer Derrick Turner I I don't know. I haven't We haven't updated anything around regarding the claims. I meant to give Yeah. I I
7:10
Unidentified Print out as to
7:11
Treasurer Derrick Turner° Yeah. I I'll try to get you one. Yeah. I'll I'll try to get you one next
7:15
Unidentified Yeah, if we can do that monthly, that'll help us. You know.
7:19
Unidentified Yes, sir.
7:21
Treasurer Derrick Turner° I think quite a bit quite a bit. I mean, it is visible in that financial report uh to get the page I think it's the first page that has our account summaries on there. You're able to see what you able to see that.
7:35
City Attorney Andre Valley Well, one of the things that I want to say to the public is put for the record. Uh please address these in these meetings as claims and not and not debts. Um They're putting in a negation regarding some of these claims. If you as a If you take on the language that's a debt, you're saying that you owe it and they will use that as in the court against us saying that uh you've already admitted that we supposed to pay you all of it. And so Mr. Turner, when he sends these out, he says claims. It doesn't say debts. And what we owe. Uh there's There are some There are some claims that we know that we owe absolutely. We Mr. Turner has talked about it. But there are some that the city is disputing. And so in this in this forum, we would please use terms like claims versus a here are list of debts.
8:26
Treasurer Derrick Turner And And to add the the ones that we're disputing won't be on the list anyways. Uh I think that's it. But uh yeah, I just want to let you know our expense we we've cut our expenditures significantly since July. Good. And uh we we had I think an operating loss in August. But we had a uh operating gain uh 500 Well, let me see. 100 a little $100,000 operating We had an operating gain of about $500,000 in in September. And we should see another one in October. So, hopefully we can continue this trend. That's it. If anybody does anybody have any questions?
9:19
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Thank you, Mr. Turner. Uh moving along, we can get into our first order of new business, which in a sense is still part of the conversation on our finances that you This is a much more condensed version of some over budget items that are in listed in the financial report. So, um this past week a member from the Arkansas State Legislative Audit Committee was here and we talked about corrective action plan. What are some of the things that we can do here in Helena to make sure that we have our operating finances at optimum level. And so, what I've talked to Mr. Turner about, if you look on page one, this is an overspending summary table and this information again is direct it is in your it's in the packet for the City Council meeting tonight of materials, but these numbers are coming from the financial report. So, after going through our finances from basically January through this month of September, and I want to read these so some of our folks at home can also hear exactly some of the what some of the line items read. So, city contract labor, $37,000 and 383 cents over our budget of 12,000. Administrative Department overtime, $5,490 over our budget of 10,000. Administrative general supplies, $20,000 and 800 $20,825 over our budget of 3,500. Administrative office supplies, $20,000 $20,403 over our budget of 12,500. Administrative cable and email, $3,176 over our budget of 8,000. Administrative cellular service, $12,247 over our budget of 25,000. Administrative telephone service, $9,410 over our budget of 38,364.
11:17
Unidentified My god.
12:39
Mayor Joseph Whitfield And as I was going and I wanted to I want to make sure that's a total. So, I mean not skip I mean not skip. That's a total of $583,000 $583,929 over budget. And that's just from January to our past month of September. So, not including where we were in our October. Um not including November and obviously we haven't gotten to December yet. So, the approach that this the approach that was stated in the corrective action plan is obviously we have to do dial back some of these expenses. And I dare say that some of these expenses are line items that we can take out based on some of the employees that we currently have on payroll. Um and I also know that as we you all been here, there are certain situations and circumstances that require emergency spending, but without this including fire without this including fire overtime, police overtime, and there were other items that are also still listed in the financial report for this year. This wasn't This was not every single over budget item, but these were some of the biggest ones. And for that to be a total of $583,000 as Mr. Turner was saying we can increase our monthly budget. We can increase what we have in circulation monthly by by dialing back some of these expenses. And so I wanted to just pause to see and so for example, there will be some administrative actions taken this evening around policies for making sure that we aren't as wasteful with gas and city employee vehicles. Making sure that we have procedures and proper protocols in place in each department to make sure that folks aren't using those vehicles as personal vehicles. Things like that. Proper protocols and procedures that either have to be tightened up or have to be created. That's going to be our best approach to making sure that we can dial some of this back. And before I go further, I wanted to just give the floor to anybody that might have a question come about that.
14:42
Unidentified The There are a few items that stand stood out when I read this report and I got to tell the day. Uh one of them is the gas and oil for the street department. Street department alone. Now, is that just include the street department or is that sanitation and others for as of gas and oil? I know they have gas pump out there. We used to have it over here in the helmet. And everybody that had a car went over and got gas. You know, is it How is this monitored when they fuel up by vehicle? Uh
15:18
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° I don't think we I don't so from my assessment, we don't have a system where cars are checked out. We don't have a system where
15:27
Unidentified So, that's $40,000 right there over what they had been doing. Another item that stood out was Excuse me. Is the sanitation department contract labor. Uh you know, 55,000 over the budget. Uh
15:43
Unidentified The budget The budget was 55,000. We went 166,000 over. And I believe would would this have been one of the purchases of the trucks that was made recently? No?
15:52
Unidentified No.
15:54
Unidentified I was going to say he's using a lot of flowery language. These are the things that we talked about all the
15:58
Unidentified Yeah.
15:59
Councilman Don Etherly These were the the unapproved rentals. These were the unapproved contract labor. All of the things that that just happened and and we didn't know they were happening. And so what Mayor Weatherspoon said was we These are the things when uh Mr. Turner talked about the drop-off from July to September. These are the things that I kind of started making go away and he's continuing it. I mean, you got some some
16:22
Unidentified There was some excessive spending money, but I didn't know where.
16:25
Unidentified We had a lot of We had a lot of overtime in different departments and we had a lot of contract labor and some of those things we just kind of made them go away. So, they're over budget because some of them were never approved. So, when it says zero, that means there was never an appropriation for that made by this body, but the money was spent in those areas.
16:47
Unidentified Any of that
16:50
Unidentified following The sanitation department travel. What exactly is that? So, that is for what?
16:59
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° I'm not sure why our sanitation department would be traveling, but that that that was highlighted for the same reason that you're asking that question.
17:07
Unidentified It's in this It's in this category.
17:09
Unidentified Yeah. Let me Let me see but that don't look right.
17:14
Unidentified Might be more contract labor.
17:15
Unidentified It's in this category. That'd be my guess. I don't know. I'm just guessing.
17:20
Unidentified Travel. Do we pay expenses for when we rent a sanitation truck? Do we cover their gas and mileage here?
17:26
Treasurer Derrick Turner° No, no, no, no, no. I'm thinking that when it got entered into the system, it went into the wrong category.
17:30
Unidentified Oh, because travel they they're only budgeting $500.
17:37
Unidentified And they went over 80,000.
17:41
Unidentified Yeah, I'm just trying to see where it got us.
17:43
Unidentified Yeah, I I bet they go somewhere else. Like I mean it makes more sense. Just my guess.
17:49
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Yeah, I think I think you're right. But to address the question, these are areas that are being looked at. These are the questions that have been asked of department heads. There's a long list of things to to dive into, but Mr. Turner has stated accurately that our monthly budget expenses where our monthly budget operating budget has increased slowly, and I just want to make sure that we continue to go that route. Or decrease. I'm sorry. Decrease. Sorry. Decrease slowly. And I want to make sure that we continue to go that route. So, these are some of the priorities that definitely will be looking at. The cell phone service, that that's a really big number. I'm finding out who has cell phones, how many lines we have that are still they're still being paid for that aren't active. So, and a lot of these are just I think system checks and system checks and construction oversight. Look. Yeah.
18:48
Treasurer Derrick Turner° Now, on on certain items, I'd like to add because I'm in admin, right? So, I kind of want to explain a couple of these things, but as far as things like the supplies, what we typically do, we get we'll buy supplies, and so they kind of hit admin automatically when we use credit card or whatever. And so, and then we kind of hand them out to the various departments. So, they'll the fire department, police, whatever, they'll come get paper towels and pens and paper and ink and stuff like that. And so, when we typically, if a department can't order its supplies, and we know that that department is ordering supplies, then we'll code it to that particular department. In some instances, we just buy some things in bulk, toilet paper, paper towels, uh copy paper, and things of that nature, then we kind of sell them out. And the same thing is with the cell phone service. We had talked about kind of coding it to We get just like the health insurance, we pay one premium, and when I get the bill, I kind of break everybody out, and I kind of code it to each department. And so, uh I prob- probably need to do the same thing for cell phone service. It's still high, but it's it's it's it is very it's very overstated for admin, because some of that should be applied to police department, uh street and sanitation, landfill, whatever. The grant expenses, there was no budget for it, and I That was a mistake I had made. Uh this is the budget for teen court. And so, we've been doing it the last two or three years. And so, what happens is they I I think it's the Walton Foundation or Yeah. And so, they go through the state of Arkansas. We pay the grant expenses, uh we pay the stipends to the the youths that are participating in teen court and the administrators of the grant. And then the state will The state reimburses us. They get the money from the Walton Foundation, but they reimburse us. So, it's like a zero. Whatever we spend out, we get the exact same amount back. So, for admin, a lot of these expenses that are listed are things that we pay, but they're used by uh yeah, the other departments.
21:22
Unidentified And even in that, we want to make sure we get those under budget.
21:25
Unidentified Yeah, the cell phones still high. We we're trying to get the cell phone down.
21:32
City Attorney Andre Valley° Uh Mr. Mayor, if I may
21:33
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Yes.
21:34
City Attorney Andre Valley Uh as relates to this, now that Mayor Whitfield has identified these things, uh uh we need a budget reconciliation so to make sure that that we're in compliance with audit. If we've spent the money and it's already been approved by the council, the council either needs to to approve that that they've already approved and they need to determine whether they're going to ratify what's already been spent.
21:57
Unidentified Amend the amend the budget.
21:59
Unidentified Yes, sir.
22:00
Unidentified Well, we can't do that well, unless they're not to. They're not to.
22:04
Unidentified I mean, it's past, but pulling teeth. Getting them to amend the budget.
22:10
Unidentified I mean
22:11
Andre Valley° What what I'm saying is this, as you go forward before the end of the year, if you look at the expenditures, those that the council agree with, they can approve.
22:20
Unidentified Okay.
22:29
Unidentified But some of these I mean, if I'm hearing you correctly, you can go back and recode, right?
22:33
Unidentified Yeah.
22:34
Unidentified You can just
22:35
Derrick Turner° recode it. I mean, cuz it Yeah, I've done it before at a company that I worked for. You just recode it to the appropriate line.
22:41
Derrick Turner° Yeah, particularly the supplies. A lot of times, we don't Like I said, we pay it the here I mean, we pay the credit card statement.
22:53
Unidentified Mhm.
23:33
Unidentified I mean, because if they if they have a like I assume they might would have like a supply budget, right? Like yeah, you could just code it to the department, but
23:43
Derrick Turner° That's if I know that they are the ones who But, I don't want to guess a lot of times. It's
23:52
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Any other discussion? All right, moving on to our next um line of business. Uh Delta Catalyst 2025 Delta Catalyst Fund Delta Regional Authority. This can be found on pages 2 through 11 on the back of the new summary but the summary over overspending summary table page 2 through 11. Uh to the credit of Mr. the credit of Mr. Why am I blanking? Mr. Anthony sorry. To the credit of Mr. Anthony and Mr. Saeed Rose, they submitted for a grant a few What is Was this last year actually? Late last year?
24:34
Unidentified this is this is in July.
24:35
Mayor Joseph Whitfield July. Yeah, so in July this year, they submitted for a grant through um through this organization. It's a DRE grant. As many of you know, we have bypass pumps that some of our ponds or some that basically power in some of our pumps that we need to get off of those because that's incurring debt every month or not debt, it's incurring cost that we don't need to bear each month. And so, this is a $75,000 award for the repairs of pump stations. They're removing those bypass pumps. You can look through This is the full contract that's in here, pages 2 through 11. And I will be meeting with Mr. Saeed Rose to determine what our most critical need areas and what pumps are our most critical need needed pumps to be removed. And this might just off of the numbers alone, this might be able to get us off three, but definitely two. Definitely two pumps. So, I definitely want to thank Mr. Etherly and Mr. Rose for um submitting to this grant.
25:32
Don Etherly° If I may, I don't want to leave a third person out. Um Miss Miss Sharon Lee
25:37
Unidentified Sharon Lee.
25:38
Don Etherly over over the water department. And and this is um I got a call in July on a Friday from the representative I'm I can't remember her name. She told me we had a deadline Yeah, she said we Yeah, she said we got a deadline coming up in 7 days and you guys have a grant that you can apply for. And she said, "Can I email you the application cuz I don't want to miss I don't want you to miss the deadline." And on Sunday, I called her at home late one Sunday night cuz I didn't get it. And she said, "I'm sorry I didn't get it out in my email." And I said, "I'm sorry for calling you this late." She said, "No problem." She sent it to me on a Sunday night. So, on Monday morning, I walked into the water department and I said um I asked him to forgive me. I said, "Who's Sharon?" And then she raised her hand and I said, "Miss Lee." And I had talked to Mr. Rose and we worked on this application. We finished it and all three of us contributed to it and finished it in 2 days. We got it in by that Friday and Mayor Whitfield let me know 2 weeks ago that it had been awarded. Um and I asked her along the way, I said, "Can we buy sewer pumps with this?" And she said, uh "What Why do you need sewer pumps?" This is a strange story for people who don't live in Hell. And I explained to her what our sewer pump situation was. She told me we could and so we applied for it, we got it. And I did immediately go over and tell them and I just wanted to congratulate them because I thought it was a good team experience that we had and I wanted to let them know what we could do when we worked on things and worked toward a purpose, but uh yes, we've probably over the last uh few years spent between gas, overtime, pump rental, we may have spent over $2 million in our water department and wastewater on sewer pumps. And it came to light um about 4 years ago or so and there's been a lot of discussion about it, but there was very little effort to to fix it. And so, um I tried to make this a a step towards fixing it and you guys approved some invoices and I think Mayor Wilson he immediately recognized what I was telling him about trying to get these sewer pumps uh fixed and so he's putting effort into it and so trying to just continue to get that that situation rectified so we don't lose so much money in wastewater.
27:47
Unidentified That's good.
27:49
Unidentified Thank you.
27:50
Unidentified We currently on five and like I said, this gets us off two, maybe three, maybe.
27:56
Unidentified Yeah.
27:59
Unidentified Any
28:00
Unidentified Any questions?
28:01
Unidentified Well, I just want to bring out one fact that we've got one pumping station that carries like the hospital and it pumps water out there. That station has caused us a lot of problems over the years. And that station alone uh is very important to this community. Very very important to this community. And I want to make sure that we we're aware of that, that you are as mayor, that that particular station has been down quite a bit and and can cause us a lot of problems. That's one of the stations that we need to look at strongly and make sure that we uh have a backup when some of this stuff breaks down.
28:51
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Absolutely. I thank you for saying that, Mr. Klein.
28:53
Unidentified Oakland Drive, the station I'm referring to.
28:57
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Mr. Frank Clancy took me on site visit, if you will, to see where all the pumps were. And these pumps are very out of sight, out of mind, which I think increases the urgency for us to get off of them. And as I mentioned just a moment ago, I'll be meeting with Mr. Rose to determine, especially just where our critical need areas are. And don't don't rule out a possible invitation for each of us to go look at these pumps. I think it's important for everybody to know where they are, what they do. I think a lot of us mindlessly flush the toilet and don't think that something powering that to happen. So,
29:35
Unidentified But Frank took you around, going to take you around, show you all the pumping stations.
29:40
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Any any other discussion about any discussion about Twitter? Thank you. All right. So, we're moving on to our third order of new business. This can be found on page 12 of your packet. And I tried to make sure that the page numbers are at the bottom, so everybody can follow along appropriately. This is a drafted ordinance included in your packet for the formation of a water commission for Helena and West Helena Water Company. As all of us know that we used to have a water commission until it was dissolved, and that was no that no longer existed. And I will give the floor to Mr. St. Columbia to just mention some of his rationale behind um we considering water commission, and what he thinks the pros are.
30:33
Joe St. Columbia Good bye. And I'm going to take you back many many many years ago, uh when uh, Mr. Burris, I can't think of his first name. His last name, I'll just
30:46
Joe St. Columbia Charles Burriss. Charles What was his name? He was he he ran the water company for years. And we had in reserve millions of dollars in reserve. Uh, we had CDs back in those days. I remember I uh uh you nothing happened in this community that didn't go through him and his office. And he was very very particular I'm uh speaking now of the Helena Water Department that we had set up before the cities merged. The city of Helena was uh There there's a federal law that requires uh water companies nationally to have reserves in case of a national emergency. There's a federal law concerning that. We uh we've been in violation of that for quite some time. But uh in the old days we had we had a lot of money in our water company for and reserves for that. And that's why commissioners I think are important uh to have and why we should have a water commission like Helena used to have many years ago that looked after and that takes a pressure off of us as a a city council that we have a group of business people. And I remember it being composed we had a lawyer on that commission. We had a banker on that commission. Uh we had uh three businessmen that had successful businesses in this in this community in Helena. And uh they met I think once a month with the water manager and with oversaw the actions and and what the water the water company was doing and they called they stopped a lot of problems before they started. These commissioners did. The best I remember and recollect in my many years serving in this community. And that's why I think it's very very important that we bring this is we're putting our water company back together as one today. We need to have a commission that oversees the water company and that will be a big help to this community. And I had a a local gentleman Robert Cheek draw up a ordinance that we could look at. And I gave everybody you should have one in front of you. This was one that he drew up
33:30
City Attorney Andre Valley So he's priced in a law now?
33:31
Unidentified Sir?
33:32
City Attorney Andre Valley So he's priced in a law now?
33:35
Unidentified Yeah, tell me now.
33:38
Joe St. Columbia° Anyway I want you to look at this ordinance that he drew up. And we need to I think that the the water company should have at least five commissioners on the board and it should have at least one attorney and one banker and other businessmen that are involved and live here in the community and have businesses here for this community that use a lot of water. So that's my proposal and why I think that we should have a water commission for the city of Helena West Helena.
34:20
Unidentified Hey Joe, I'm I'm I'm I agree with you. I I would say though that um
34:26
Unidentified Are you you're looking at the ordinance?
34:29
Unidentified Yes sir. On six on 6.2 though, one of the critiques or criticisms was in times past when we had a commission, sometimes there were recommendations, like for instance, to write for grants. The commission was not responsive to that. I'd like to see some type of language like
34:49
Unidentified This is a proposal.
34:51
Unidentified I'm saying like like something like that would might would say in 6.2, like the city council can make recommendations concerning potential grant proposals, infrastructure, and improvements that are in the best interest of the city. Some some type of language of that nature, but other than that, I'm for
35:09
Unidentified This is just an idea to get us started and looking into some of the things that we need to do. Uh but this was uh
35:19
Unidentified Nothing.
35:20
Joe St. Columbia° We we can we can change this ordinance to fit our need. And that's what we need to do is look at it and and um uh discuss what our needs are, but we need I think form a commission to make sure that we we build a reserve in the water company separate from uh the general funds of this of this city. Uh in case of a earthquake or a national emergency, we have no funds set aside for that, and the federal law required that to be done.
35:54
Don Etherly° Yes, sir. Um Mr. Sankolambia, if I can You were here at consolidation. You and I were here at consolidation, right? The city attorney was here at consolidation.
36:06
Unidentified Right.
36:13
Joe St. Columbia° Well, I remember we merged with West Helena.
36:16
Don Etherly° Do you remember we met out at the college? We had the transition team. We met at the college. The Arkansas Municipal League sent their attorneys over.
36:24
Unidentified Yeah.
36:25
Don Etherly° And they advised us to go without a water commission. Do you you remember that?
36:30
Unidentified Yeah.
36:56
Joe St. Columbia° Well, there's pros and cons on all of this.
36:58
Don Etherly° Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And you mentioned many, many years. What we know today, what we absolutely know today is that all of the infrastructure work that was not done fell under the watch of both water commissions and mayors and city councils and water directors and everybody who was involved in that chain. We know more today than we knew 10 years ago or 15 years ago or 25 years ago. We know more. I'll give you an example though of what has happened. Remember they also advise We got rid of all of our commissions that were not required by law. One, if you may remember, we didn't we got rid of civil service. Remember? We got rid of civil service.
37:35
Unidentified We had a civil service.
37:36
Don Etherly And you at the time on the council and and Councilman Hollowell, you you you guys really wanted civil service and when you got enough votes to do it you you recreated civil service, right? And and I opposed it the same way I do this. I opposed it. But what happened when Mayor Hollowell was mayor? He had to come back and say, "Wait a minute. The civil service thing doesn't work anymore in this day and time and we ended up abolishing civil service all over again." That happened. These are true facts, right? We're going back in time to a time that doesn't exist anymore. We know more about what's happening with water today than we ever have. The reason why we don't have reserves, I talked to Mr. Cheek as well back this summer. He talked to me and he was really in favor of a water commission. I asked him the question, and and what he talked to me about is basically the same thing that you're saying tonight, which is we don't have any water reserve. We have millions and millions of dollars. Yeah, but two things, we didn't do any work to improve our infrastructure. They kept the rates artificially low, so they wouldn't have to raise the rates instead of doing the work. And then the other thing is there's this narrative that's out in the public that is completely false. And that is there's a belief that the city spent all of the water's money. I mean, in a frivolous kind of way. Well, water is subject to audits every year. It's subject to audits every year. So, that's completely untrue. What do we know from 2021? I talked about this in 2023 when we had the first water crisis, but maybe you don't remember. We had a memo a memo from the water department in 2021. I still have it at my house right now. It came from water. They passed it around to the council. Uh then Mayor Smith had a representative from water who presented to us. And they had been using CDs from water to pay water-related expenses. Water-related expenses. So, they were using CDs to pay water-related expenses. I'm not saying it was used in an improper way, but it was used to pay water-related expenses. They weren't reporting this to the body. We found out in that memo. And they misunderstood that they weren't bringing in enough revenue in water. They blamed all of their financial problems on an ice storm from February 2021. I sent you all a copy of it. I emailed it to you. If you go back to 2023, I sent you a copy of the memo. So, what I'm trying to tell you is is that everything starts in the water department. From the water department directors to the mayor to the city council. At this point in time what you're proposing is that with our water situation the way it is that we take it and pick it up and give it to some people who now have to catch up to where we are and learn what we already know about where we are. What did I tell you when I was sitting at the head of the table? We need to replenish our reserves. We need to replenish our reserves. We know this now. We know this now. We don't have to have a water commission to tell us that. I talked to the treasurer about replenishing our reserves. What happened to all of our reserves? We had to use them to do what? Build a new well. And well number nine went down. There's nobody better in this community to handle the water issues right now than the people who sit here at this table who have gone through every issue that has occurred in the last two, three, four years. Nobody better. Nobody more equipped. The commission is the council when you don't have a commission. The other thing is everything we say Everything I'm saying right now can be listened to by anybody in the community. If we deal with water, they'll see it. If we don't deal with water, they'll see it. But nobody saw what the commissions were doing and what the commissions were not doing. And one day it came back. And think about it this way. We had water directors who didn't recognize the financial side of water. And that was that we needed a rate increase. Sanitation fees were not being turned over to the city and it wasn't being acknowledged in water. That's the director's job. That's the director's job. That's the director's job to report that. He would report that to the commission. He or she would report that to the commission the same way they would report it to the mayor or the council. So, it's not a commission that's going to solve all of our problems. It's having people who understand the situation that we're in and who are equipped and able to handle it. To handle what's happening. And it's everybody at this table's responsibility to understand what's happening in water right now. Because that's what you're elected to do. And to pass it on to a water commission is to say I'm giving my responsibility to somebody else. I'm giving my my elected responsibility to somebody else because it may be too much for me to handle. And I don't agree with that at all. We had water crisis. I went out in the streets and watched them digging the holes. I spent hours and hours. You see Mr. Kim Wiley in the back. We talked for hours and hours when I was in the mayor's chair. I promised him that I would continue to talk with him even after my time was over. And I will do that to make sure I know what's happening in water. And I think that's everybody's elected responsibility. But if you give it to a commission, our citizens will not be able at the in the same way. Of course, they can attend commission meetings, but people watch council meetings. And this is the way they can see and hear everything that happens in water. Every time we had a water disaster, we had a council meeting so that people could tune in and find out what's going on. There's no way that I'm about to agree that we should turn around in this moment when we have all of the things that need to happen in water and give it away to a commission. And now I don't know. People don't know. And nobody knows what's happening in water just because some people think they can do it better. Anybody who wants to be on the commission, filing deadline is in August. You can be on the commission. You can take a seat at this table. You can be on the commission. But I think this is our responsibility. I don't think it's anybody else's.
44:16
City Attorney Andre Valley Well, Mr. Allen said I would stick with psychology for this second. Mr. Anthony has articulated much of what I want to say. However, the other thing we have to understand we have consent administrative orders that we have to comply with at this point. The timing of this is critical. Everyone at this table that's elected for a city council uh has an obligation, if you have not been here for 10 years, to go and receive the training related to water. And also in the last legislative session, they added sewer. And in the midst of this, the one thing we must to understand that from a administrative standpoint, the building is on fire and you're saying, "Okay, ignore the fire. Give it to somebody else and let them try to put it out and we'll take our time in doing it." What we have to be is urgent and deliberate in what we're doing. And the issue is the city council, I agree with Mr. Anthony 100% that people look at this. You get a thousand views for these these council meetings. People don't see the other commissions. I meet with the other commissions. People don't see those meetings. They're not even recorded. They're somewhere you have the minutes, you have the audio recordings, but they're not viewed on YouTube like these meetings. And the council has council meetings are viewed by everyone. Now, the priorities are we're we're in the midst of trying to do uh applications and get closing for loans and grants and etc. and this is not the time to hand it off. It's a time for the public to know everything that's going on. And I think you all are best suited. I encourage all of you all to go forward and continue to uh get your training to get it done and encourage the mayor to go as well. Uh the issue that you have right now First, stop having other people draft ordinances. I'm the city attorney. You want an ordinance drafted, I have an office, I have a secretary back there, you can see her anytime in the city of Columbia. I have no opposition to you at all. My office are open at all the time. If you want an ordinance drafted, please stop by. Now, as it relates to these as it relates to this the other things I I want to understand I want you to understand is the engineers working diligently to try to get some things done. Mr. Wilden has been working diligently and we have to go forward with that plan. In the midst of this in reading this it's suggesting well we'll do this in 30 days appoint somebody within 60 days. The city shouldn't even be approaching having a commission. First, Miss Wilden doesn't doesn't agree with it. And they are our risk management group, they don't agree with it all. Second, transparency is key for many people as we're going going forward. And I agree with Miss Wilden that much of your funds that were spent we've been in chaos for a while as it relates to water. And the commission's going to want to burn all of it. While you say they had millions, it makes no sense for you to have millions and you still have pipes not fixed, you still have all the other things related to the water company that were not done. That's the equivalent of each one of us having a holes in our roofs and saying, "Hey, I got $20,000 in the bank, but my roof is leaking." And so that's the practical thing that the commission's did and the council's continued is that were much needs that needed to be met. However, we were bragging about having money in the bank but weren't fixing the infrastructure. There's a lot of infrastructure that means upon means of dollars to be fixed. And for those also, I wanted to speak to process. Some people may be concerned about processes you go through loans and grants. The city the engineer has to uh submit plans and I don't have to submit plans before any money is paid to the city. Engineer has to submit submit that he has that this work has been done and certified before a draft is cut. This is not money or more mismanagement or anything that the city is uh going to have to deal with. Uh they're not going to give any money until the the work is done. You're approved for it, but then you have to draw it down. Take for instance the landfill grant. It was done in landfill uh bond. It was done in 2008. We still have a lock box agreement where all the money is paid by the bank and then the city gets to the the reserves for for what was what was not spent during the time frame. And so many of the concerns that citizens may have, the best thing they need is transparency and discussions here and to know what's going on. As it relates to the assistant administrative order, we do need licensed personnel. I have advised everyone consistently we need to advertise everywhere we can to get a general manager that it that it is has all of the licenses. We've been working with the current one, but we need to keep moving forward trying to get someone who has all the license to go forward. Not only that, all the personnel below him before uh be licensed. Also, financial issue that we need to address is the incentive to make sure that people have the licenses. What do we do as you get the license? Is there a set of reward system for them to get licenses? Uh we need trained personnel in going forward and those are decisions that need to be made at this table while we're still going forward and that's not something to hand off to someone at this critical juncture. Uh I will review this ordinance and and update them with St. Columbia for to make sure it comply with the law. Uh however, um as as city attorney, I don't think this is the right time for y'all to do it. I give advice. I don't vote. Uh but I will I will look at it. I will will work it and uh represent it to you after I look at look at it and make sure it comports with the law and go forward from there. But again, I think that your due diligence uh you should be moving like like the head that you have. You know, I don't have much hair, but the hair that we have left is on fire. We need to be moving like that.
50:04
Councilman Joe St. Columbia° How speaker? I had no intentions to turn the water company over to five individuals to run it. No, that's not the purpose of a water commission or should not be. But, it's to help with us overseeing the water. So, in case we miss something, I think that the water commission would be under our direction.
50:29
Unidentified Uh
50:30
Unidentified We report to the mayor and to us.
50:32
City Attorney Andre Valley° No, sir. It's independent.
50:33
Unidentified Sir?
50:34
City Attorney Andre Valley° No, sir. It's independent.
50:36
Unidentified That's my thinking.
50:37
Councilman Don Etherly They operate on their own with some uh Maybe you want to have an advisory board?
50:44
Unidentified Call it what you like.
50:45
City Attorney Andre Valley° Well, that's different. Legally, that's a different thing. You I wouldn't be opposed to some kind of advisory board. Just people who who want to be involved as citizens. A commission gives it away to the commission.
50:57
Councilman Joe St. Columbia° Well, I don't want to give it away. No. Maybe we need to call it an advisory board. I remember back then we had one. We had one and they called it commission. And it had millions of dollars in reserve. And I remember uh uh the uh the trickling down of all that money. It it disappeared. And I'd like to see our our water company sustained better than the way it it has been the last few years.
51:30
Unidentified Absolutely. And Mr. I don't I don't
51:32
Unidentified We got to do something.
51:33
Councilman Don Etherly I don't I don't dispute that at all. I'm just saying that the entire documentation we have to dispel the notion that the city took the water department's money. I've been hearing that for years. That's that's false. That's that's false. The water department's it's not money. It's equipment. It's the to fail under the Smith administration. They were cashing in CDs. They were on water related issues, but they were also bleeding. They never moved because they couldn't even turn over the sanitation fee. So, we have to tell people when they say that, tell them the truth. That's not true. The water department money because it's separate from the general fund money. No matter what you saw over the past couple of years, that's not what happened in the water department. Now, I don't I don't have a problem with people's advice and people's involvement because we had Mr. Cheek was one of them. There was another gentleman who came in and they provided proposals for the the rate increase. And I think that was a good healthy experience for all of us. And so, I don't I don't dismiss that it can be beneficial to have citizens involved. I'm not dismissive of that at all. The water commission issue is one where I don't want it to leave public view. I think everybody needs to know what's going on in water because it's so it's so crucial right now. I mean, we've had periods of time where we had no water at all. We're not far from having a disaster and people need to understand. It's just the honest truth. It's we're not far from a disaster on any given day at our treatment plant. You know, the wells in Helena need to be on the east side need to be We need a new well. We have all these leak issues and I think we need to keep this stuff front and center for the public.
53:15
City Attorney Andre Valley° What's What's the second thing for me? One of the things that if you remember, you've been on the council for quite a time. If you remember when we first did the landfill, we did the bond, we did a citizens advisory group for that. If you're not trying to give away authority, if you want somebody to advise you I know you should I can drive that or else I can meet with you. We can go through it. We can get a group of people. I'm not saying I'm not saying the city doesn't need advice. I'm not saying all that, but as a place to once you do a commission, you've handed over to them, and that's why I'm saying the timing of it. That's That's what I'm talking about. And uh as far as advice, we need all the advice we can get. If you have business people that want to form If you want to form an citizens advisory committee and and and advise them and go forward advise the body say we want to meet regular and get here's the update sitting they come and make a presentation. We can drive more than that and and get it done. I can work with you on that.
54:12
City Attorney Andre Valley° Read through the law. So, what I recommend is that I would
54:16
City Attorney Andre Valley I want If I may may one one thing. Mr. Mr. St. Clair, I appreciate your concern. I just want to make that clear that we're not we're not the I'm just saying as city attorney, I don't think it's the right time, but the advisory, we can take all the advice we can get. Okay? So, I'm not disputing you. I just want to make sure we know that. Thank you, man.
54:34
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° All right. So, what I advise everybody to do is I do advise everybody to read the ordinance, and I think that some of the points that are instilled or or or put down on paper, I address some of the the expertise that I think we that's the common that's the common um thread I think throughout conversation that we want people that understand our water systems. We want people that understand what our water systems need and how to keep them maintained. I think throughout several of the or throughout some departments, we do have a lack of understanding how just maintenance costs general equipment and even our uh more critical equipment. So, I do encourage everybody to read through the fullness of the ordinance to see what it says, and I also encourage you to speak to your to the people in your wards, to the people in your communities to understand their views on commission versus an advisory because I do think we have the space to welcome more more expertise on this matter. And I do think we have that. This man is finished.
55:33
Unidentified Mayor Woodfill. So, as just a basic functional thing the first thing about. One of the things that Attorney Valley mentioned was the consent order and he said that as far as the training even around this table I know I've been to water, I've not been to sewer. He said we have to do water
55:54
Unidentified passed this year.
55:55
Unidentified And so because we all, you know, we have different careers, we have different schedules and all that do you think that maybe we could talk with Mr. Steinberg and possibly see is there a way we can do this via Zoom or via something so that we can get that done. I mean, considering I mean, do you think maybe they would think about that?
56:19
Unidentified Rural Water does and I think Communities Unlimited does as well, but we we can speak to both of them. Well, Mr. Steinberg retired, but we can speak to Rural Water and uh and Communities Unlimited to try to get something done um and go forward. But the training I think even for those who like Ms. Eaklon, Ms. St. Columbia, Ms. Davis who've been here more than 10 years, they uh they it would still would be be beneficial to to be at the training, that's what I'm saying. They're exempted by law, but I'm just saying um to go forward.
56:48
Mayor Joseph Whitfield I think I think that's a good idea. I'm going to I think that right now as as it currently sits, we are all the body that's presently responsible for our water supply, so I do think it's a great idea that everybody that's around the table be having that. We should and I can reach out and see if we can do that. Some of the local or even having a joint time. I'll do that. Thank you. Any other comments before you go? Thank you, Ms. St. Columbia. All right. So, moving on to our new business point number four, for our garbage truck purchase, I've sat and spoken with Ms. our our city clerk, Ms. Bramblett a little bit on this and I've also met with our uh, some of our sanitation department personnel. What we're going to be doing is moving forward with trying to use the salvage value of one of our down trucks to to get two trucks. It's a very critical time for us to try to take on an additional $100,000 that we financed a brand new truck. Well, we got a new garbage truck that took us a a little bit over $100,000. So, I will be meeting with Mr. Sellers and Mr. Clarence from the sanitation department to discuss the best need or the the needs for our sanitation department right now and to have two new new trucks to get the most bang for our buck. So, that will be priority for for us and that's a smart financial decision so that we're not taking on we can get two new trucks in circulation, keep our routines and routes um, up to speed without taking on unnecessary burdens or yeah, that we don't have to take on. Any any
58:31
Unidentified Where does it stand with the insurance on that truck that was damaged?
58:36
Unidentified So, it is and correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. Ramsey, the municipality would put liability on it.
58:43
Unidentified Yeah, it was a salvage title.
58:44
Unidentified Salvage title.
58:45
Unidentified And they'll have liability on it and we're waiting on the check from the insurance company now.
58:52
Unidentified What was that again? I couldn't hear it.
58:54
Unidentified We're wait we're waiting on the the check from from the insurance company now. But the but they would give us liability on it if we if we wanted to go that route.
59:02
Unidentified Okay.
59:35
City Attorney Andre Valley° If I If I may say on these, there's not a competitive bidding waiver ordinance on these relating to Here's one of the things that I forgot to mention while I was talking to you today, Mayor. These four
59:47
Unidentified I got it.
59:48
City Attorney Andre Valley All of the things that we're laying to make sure we come in compliance with the consent administrative order. Uh we just need to go forward and and get them approved and keep moving forward. We don't want to slow down the train, is what I'm saying. Um These All of these are relating to it that you have the pumps and Tencarva and uh Xylem. Uh all of these are addressed in the consent administrative order, and these are necessary expenditures. They're above the mayor's spending limit. Uh have a I think we have to as it relates to water and the consent administrative orders, I think we have to have a balancing The council needs to know, but also we need to make every expenditure that the engineer is telling us, "Hey, we got to make this paper. We got to keep going forward." And so, in some of these, what you'll be getting is some action is being taken, and then it's being brought to you after the fact if we need to go forward because we need to go We don't need to slow down the process. Do Do y'all get what I'm saying? Okay. But these just need to be ratified by the by the body.
1:00:54
Unidentified You want to do them individually or as a as a group?
1:00:58
Unidentified If you
1:00:59
Unidentified Well, we did we itemize them.
1:01:01
Unidentified Right, I think we can itemize them and then do them. You have a Jones Hydro invoice uh Give me my glasses. Jones Hydro invoice in the amount of Is that the 11,799?
1:01:16
City Attorney Andre Valley Yes, sir, Mayor, if you would. Yes, sir. Jones Hydro in the in the amount of is is invoice dated 10/24/2025. It's an amount of $11,799.12. We have another with Jones Hydro uh in amount of $5,658. We have a Xylem in amount of $6,585.80. Uh the invoice date is 10/29. And we have a Ten-Car uh in the amount Yeah, Ten-Car.
1:01:50
Unidentified Mr. Etherly.
1:01:51
City Attorney Andre Valley° Ten-Car. Uh the invoice date is 10/29 and it's an amount of $4,884.42. Have another from Ten-Car in amount of $4,690.58. And the invoice date for it is also 10/29. Uh I think you all can approve those as a group because those are issues that have to do with the city administrator's office violence standard.
1:02:20
Unidentified Well, Jones Hydro I think was going to pump station went out on uh Oakland.
1:02:24
Unidentified Right.
1:02:25
Unidentified Ten-Car is the uh is the uh pump repair, the sewer pump repair. And Xylem is probably the the pump room.
1:02:32
Unidentified Okay.
1:02:33
Unidentified All those things are critical to us how operational our system on a daily basis. And so we don't need to make those people mad. Uh we did have some bad payment history with those people and we just corrected that and we want to keep them. So uh move to approve.
1:02:47
Unidentified Second.
1:02:48
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Madam Clerk, this is the water.
1:02:51
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° Mr. Recede. Thank you both on the ordinances for the I'm doing bills for water.
1:02:59
Unidentified Water bills for water here.
1:03:01
Roll call Roll-call vote — Monica Davis: yes; Don Etherly: yes; Joe St. Columbia: yes; Dr. Kyle Miller: yes.
1:03:12
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Motion passes. Thank you. So this is not one last um item that's not listed on your, uh uh, packets, but Wait, I'm sorry. Uh, we we got a phone call this week about potential payments to be made for our, for the jail, for the jail situation that we currently have going on with the county. And what we are waiting on right now that we were told that that would also that almost entered a judgment. Um, and so what we're waiting on right now is confirmation for a plan that we can use to make payments towards that. We're currently waiting. We have payments that We have payments that I'm not going to say pending, that we discussed possible payment options, but we're waiting to see if they will accept what they will accept monthly. But
1:04:01
Unidentified What for the public safety sake, it was $168,000.
1:04:06
City Attorney Andre Valley $68,000?
1:04:08
City Attorney Andre Valley° Is what the city owed the county for jail fees, uh, prior to the lawsuit. As part of the lawsuit, the city was supposed to, when the when the hospital sold, pay them the 168. The hospital did not sell. And consequently, they want to enter a judgment. They're asking the court to just give guns judgment so they can garnish the city and take the $168,000. That's what the county wants to do. And so we met with John Wilkinson via conference call, the mayor, the city clerk, myself, and the city treasurer. And we made an offer to the county for payment plan to pay X amount of dollars per month, and we're waiting on their response. And so we will bring it before the council for the council to disapprove that, hey, just give the mayor the and and I the authority to talk to John Wilkinson to say, hey, to get it resolved so we can make monthly payments and if we can.
1:05:07
Roll call Roll-call vote — Dr. Kyle Miller: yes; Maxine Miller: yes; Don Etherly: yes; Monica Davis: yes; Adrian Messina: yes.
1:05:22
Mayor Joseph Whitfield I'll show pass. Thank you. That's the end of our agenda. Is there
1:05:25
Unidentified We adjourn then. We've done it. Good job.
1:05:29
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° So we end the chair. Thank you. Thanks.
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.