In 30 seconds
- Two items passed 5-0: the First Responder's Day event request from Delta Magic, and the Community Service Ordinance (with emergency clause), letting eligible people do volunteer service with city departments instead of fines.
- The Uniform Rules resolution on public comment was tabled before a vote after Councilman Etherly flagged its litigation language as unworkable; it returns once sponsor Dr. Kyle Miller reworks it.
- No vote on buying five police cars (about $70,000 each, roughly $350,000 total); Mayor Whitfield deferred the decision to a special called meeting after City Attorney Valley disclosed the city carries about $87,000/month in obligations against a $5.6 million annual budget and cannot deficit-spend.
- Water department owes Entergy about $145,000 (25% deposit plus a roughly four-month repayment plan); contractor Crawford Plumbing went unpaid through at least all of 2025 and is now under a mayor-ordered stop-work order until invoices are reconciled and certified by the water superintendent.
- Sanitation is running at least half a route behind per day; capacity dropped to about a quarter of its prior level (400,000 lbs/week) once leased trucks were returned.
- US-49 bridge line relocation actually cost $42,000 via two sealed bids, against $55,000 authorized from water funds; the city chose to self-fund rather than take a 10-year interest-free ARDOT loan.
Recap
Old Business Blocked: Minutes Never Provided
The clerk's office had not provided minutes from the previous two meetings, so the council could not approve them and old business could not proceed.
Two Items Pass 5-0
The council approved the First Responder's Day event request from Delta Magic on a 5-0 roll-call vote. It then adopted the Community Service Ordinance 5-0 with an emergency clause, allowing eligible people to be assigned volunteer service with city departments under Phillips County District Court guidance. Chief of Staff Kevin Martin-Arnold said the sanitation department has about three budgeted spots left and the ordinance gives people an alternative to fines, including youth who need service hours to graduate.
Public Comment Rules Tabled
The Resolution Establishing Uniform Rules for public engagement with the council was pulled before a vote. Councilman Don Etherly said the draft's litigation language was unworkable. Etherly noted that people who come to speak generally have no active case file and are not represented by attorneys, so a ban aimed at litigants would rarely apply. Mayor Whitfield tabled the resolution to let sponsor Dr. Kyle Miller rework it before it returns to the floor.
New Receipt Reimbursement Ordinance Coming
A Receipt Reimbursement Ordinance would replace the current per-diem reimbursement procedure. Mayor Whitfield said it comes from a finding in the city's audit review. No draft text exists yet. City Attorney Valley noted the per-diem rule it would replace was also an auditor recommendation, adopted shortly after consolidation.
Code Enforcement and Fire Department
City Attorney Valley reported 70 to 80 code-enforcement affidavits filed in the past week, headed to a judge for a warrant on Thursday. Fire Chief Kevin Stackhouse reported 18 structure fires in the last 30 days, an unusual number for summer, and linked several to abandoned buildings under code enforcement; some fires are under investigation.
Water Department: Entergy Debt and US-49 Bridge Costs
Mayor Whitfield reported the water department owes Entergy about $145,000, with a plan for a 25% deposit and roughly a four-month repayment schedule. City Attorney Valley said the city will audit each metered account to see how it fell behind before making any payments, noting debts older than three years may be past the statute of limitations. Separately, engineer Ken Weiland reported the US-49 bridge line relocation came in at $42,000 after two sealed bids, against $55,000 authorized from water funds. The state offered a 10-year interest-free loan through ARDOT for the project; the city chose to pay from its own funds instead.
Crawford Plumbing Stop-Work Order and Water Staffing
Mayor Whitfield said he ordered the water director to stop using contractor Crawford Plumbing until invoices are reconciled. He said the city had made no payments to Crawford for a long time, through at least all of 2025. City Attorney Valley said an ordinance against this kind of serial contracting already exists in city code; the gap is enforcement, not new legislation. The council agreed Crawford invoices will be paid only after certification by water superintendent Rose. Rose separately proposed adding eight water-department staff positions; Valley noted the state told the city years ago its water department was underpaid and understaffed, though funding was the obstacle at the time.
Sanitation Falling Behind
Chief of Staff Martin-Arnold said garbage pickup is running at least half a route behind per day and the department cannot get current. A city staff member reported the city hauled 400,000 pounds of trash per week when it had leased trucks; capacity dropped to about a quarter of that once the trucks were returned. Councilman Etherly flagged that the Sellers sanitation contract has likely exceeded its bidding-authorization threshold and needs council approval.
Police Vehicles: No Vote, Deferred to Special Meeting
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders said the department urgently needs vehicles and officers are being openly defied by people who know the department is short on cars. He said only three patrol vehicles are currently working. City Clerk Sandi Ramsey gave the unit cost: about $39,000 per car plus about $29,000 to outfit it, roughly $70,000 each. Councilman Adrian Messina moved to buy five cars. City Attorney Valley said the state already ran the vendor procurement, so no separate local bid is required. Valley then said the city cannot take on deficit spending given its roughly $87,000-a-month obligation load against a $5.6 million annual budget. Mayor Whitfield did not call a vote, saying he wanted to avoid a hasty decision, and set a special called meeting to decide the purchase.
The documents
Everything the council had in front of it, summarized. Page stamps open that page in the document desk.
Event Permit Application — 1st Responder's Day (Delta Magic)
Handwritten City of Helena-West Helena event permit for "1st Responder's Day," produced by Delta Magic (Shay Zigler), a free public festival on Sept. 12, 2026 at Missouri/Cherry St. to thank Phillips County first responders . Hours are 3pm-10pm with street closures requested, expected total attendance 300 (peak 200) . Signed off by Police (8/14/26), Fire (8/14/26), and Street/Sanitation (8/18/26) as required before Council could approve it . Matches agenda item V.1.
| Event date | September 12, 2026, 3pm-10pm | |
| Expected attendance | 300 total / 200 peak | |
| Dept. sign-offs | Police 8/14/26, Fire 8/14/26, Street/Sanitation 8/18/26 |
Community Service Ordinance
Draft ordinance establishing a City of Helena-West Helena Community Service Program, letting people ordered by the Phillips County District Court do volunteer service with municipal departments or approved providers (nonprofits, food banks, faith-based groups) instead of, or alongside, fines . It sets up a Program Coordinator under the Mayor, supervision and safety rules, hour verification, and record-keeping requirements, and repeals the older Ordinance 19-2016 . Includes an emergency clause for immediate effect . Council adopted this ordinance 5-0 with the emergency clause at the meeting .
| Vote | Adopted 5-0 with emergency clause | |
| Repeals | Ordinance No. 19-2016 |
Resolution Establishing Uniform Rules (public comment/decorum)
Draft resolution setting uniform rules for public comment and citizen participation at Council meetings, focused on barring speakers from arguing the merits of pending litigation against the City during public comment, and giving the presiding officer authority to enforce time limits and decorum . At the meeting, Council member Etherly flagged the litigation-related language as unworkable before a vote could be taken, and the item was tabled pending its sponsor, Dr. Miller — the signature blocks remain blank , confirming it was not adopted.
| Outcome | Tabled, pending sponsor (not adopted) |
ARDOT Highway-Utility Relocation & Loan Agreement — City of West Fork, AR
Blank ARDOT ACH authorization, W-9, and Supplier Information forms , followed by a signed Highway-Utility Construction/Relocation Agreement and companion Utility Loan Agreement between the Arkansas Department of Transportation and the City of West Fork, Arkansas for water/sewer relocation tied to State Highway 170 in Washington County . Total project cost is $2,291,267.50, split $1,133,260.91 ARDOT / $1,158,006.59 West Fork, with West Fork repaying its share in $115,800.66 annual installments for 10 years starting Jan. 1, 2029 . Note: this document concerns a different city (West Fork) and highway (Rt. 170), not Helena-West Helena's own US-49 bridge line relocation discussed at this meeting — it appears to be an unrelated reference attachment included in the packet.
| Total relocation cost (West Fork project) | $2,291,267.50 | |
| City of West Fork's repayment share | $1,158,006.59 over 10 years ($115,800.66/yr from 1/1/2029) |
Crawford Plumbing Service Invoices (Water Dept.)
Ten handwritten invoices from Andre Crawford Plumbing Service, LLC, billed to the City of Helena Water Dept. (702 Cherry St.) for pump and line service calls, invoice numbers 004172–004183 (with some numbers skipped) . All are date-stamped received by the City on August 13, 2026, just days before the meeting. These back up the Council's discussion that Crawford went unpaid through all of 2025 and the Mayor's stop-work order directing the water director not to use Crawford again until invoices are reconciled and certified by the water superintendent.
| Number of invoices | 10 (nos. 004172–004183) | |
| City received/date-stamped | August 13, 2026 |
Water Department Crew Activity Logs
Eight pages of handwritten "Summary of Daily Activities" logs from Helena Municipal Water & Sewer (702 Cherry St.), each listing dozens of individual water-main breaks, service-line repairs, and copper sewer/valve replacements across the city, with equipment used (mostly a "mini-x pump") . The logs span roughly January through October 2025 and are signed by the field crew and stamped received by the City on August 13, 2026, illustrating the volume of emergency repair work behind the Water Department's staffing and Entergy-account discussion at the meeting.
| Pages of logged repair jobs | 8 pages, dozens of individual jobs | |
| City received/date-stamped | August 13, 2026 |
Water Department Budget Amendment Proposal (email)
August 18, 2026 email from Water Superintendent Saeed Rose to Mayor Whitfield and city staff requesting Council approval to add 8 new Water Department positions on top of the department's current 19 staff . Requested roles: two Meter Readers ($23k each), two Meter Reader/Service Technicians ($26k each), an Equipment Operator I ($35k), an Equipment Operator II ($37k), a Service/Maintenance I ($30k), and a Team Lead/Maintenance II ($32k) . Rose states the department is running under half the staff needed to maintain 3 water systems and 2 sewer systems.
| Positions requested | 8 new positions | |
| Current staff | 19 | |
| Pay range of requested roles | $23k–$37k/year |
Police Vehicle Financing Proposal — Commercial Capital Company
Formal financing proposal dated June 17, 2026 from Commercial Capital Company, LLC to the City of Helena-West Helena for five new police cars . Terms: $360,000 total acquisition cost, no down payment, 5-year term, 6.96% interest rate, and a $7,121.64 monthly payment (in arrears) . The proposal notes it must be credit-approved and funded by August 24, 2026 or the rate is subject to change . This is the financing document underlying Council's police-vehicle discussion, where a purchase motion was made but no vote was taken, with the decision deferred to a special called meeting.
| Total cost for 5 vehicles | $360,000 | |
| Monthly payment | $7,121.64 | |
| Term / rate | 5 years at 6.96% | |
| Funding deadline | August 24, 2026 |
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 ↗
0:13
Mayor Joseph Whitfield We come to order now.
0:22
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Okay, let's pray.
0:24
All present Our Father, who are in heaven, be thy name. Th 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, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, the glory forever. Amen. Allegian to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God indivisibley and justice for all.
1:07
Roll call Roll call (attendance) — present: Maxine Miller, Adrian Messina, Joe St. Columbia, Don Etherly, Monica Davis. Absent: Dr. Kyle Miller.
1:21
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° As we do have a quorum present.
1:24
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Thank you. As we do have a quorum, we'll go ahead and get started. Um for our approval of previous minutes, we'll make sure that those go out to you all in an email from our previous uh meetings. Those
1:34
Unidentified I move that we accept those minutes that you
1:36
Mayor Joseph Whitfield They haven't been provided. They haven't been provided yet. They haven't been provided yet.
1:41
Unidentified That must have been an old one I looked at
1:43
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° probably maybe. So yeah, our our our minutes from the last two meetings had not um been provided yet. So
1:48
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2) I got one that I guess we've already approved.
1:53
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Yeah, that would have been the last that would have been last meetings minutes.
1:55
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2) I read it
1:57
Mayor Joseph Whitfield or last meeting's minutes uh that were approved. So we'll make sure those get to your email so that we can get those approved. Um with and with that being said, we're going to jump right into our new business to try to make sure the night's um as efficient as possible. Our first new item today, this is an event request. So if you in your packets page one uh two and three pages one through three this is uh an event request from Delta Magic a review of the first responders day event proposal. Um it has been approved by all of the necessary um department heads and it's a day to celebrate the city's essential I mean I won't say only essential workers but a day to celebrate uh first responders who answer the call especially when they might not be um when there might be difficult calls to make. So this is just awaiting our approval and this came through today. So this is why this is also the first time you're seeing this. But
2:50
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2) I move that we accept their proposal
2:56
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2) for the first responders day. Delta Magic.
3:01
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Is there a second?
3:03
Councilman Adrian Messina (Ward 2) Second.
3:06
Roll call Roll-call vote — Monica Davis: yes; Joe St. Columbia: yes; Adrian Messina: yes; Don Etherly: yes; Maxine Miller: yes. Clerk's count: 5 yes.
3:17
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Motion passes. Thank you. Our next order of business is um a community service ordinance proposal. This is a proposal for authorizing eligible persons to be assigned volunteer service with city departments per Philips County District Court guidance. This is beginning on page four in your packet. And I'm going to ask the chief of staff to
3:40
Unidentified page four. Page
3:43
Unidentified got a number for
3:45
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey 15.
3:46
Mayor Joseph Whitfield I'm going to ask that the chief of staff come up to um just explain uh this is something that he particularly championed and I wanted to make sure that um he was able to let you all know the significance the possible significance of this ordinance.
4:00
Chief of Staff Kevin Martin-Arnold Yeah. I remember um for us the way I see it working is um just well I had a conversation with the district judge and he said it was something that used to h that used to be a thing anyway that it was done managed through the chief of staff in the last a couple administrations ago um that just stopped in the last about four to five years and then um for us u over at the tree sanitation department specifically um we only have about three more spots budgeted one for a driver and two more laborers um and just with the amount of work that we have, at least at like the grass cutting side of things, we feel like just giving people an alternative to be able to do some community service, whether that be um to to keep from having to pay certain fines and things like that, but also even allowing for some of the youth to be able to participate considering that like now these days they have different um community service requirements they need in order to graduate. And it will be something that also just isn't necessarily specific to the U student sanitation department as much as it'll be based on where needs may arise and where people might be able to go depending on again just
5:13
Chief of Staff Kevin Martin-Arnold° things that are kind of laid out in the ordinance. And one of the things that I love particularly about this um proposed ordinance is that it gives an alternative for sentencing when someone gets um a specific or has a specific incident or trouble that lands them in district court and and it gives them an opportunity through that alternative sentencing to essentially um help out the city and and pay their time um in that way. So, I do think that's a a form of restorative um correction that I think would do the city some good as well as those that go through district court that might find themselves in this program.
5:58
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Thank you, chief of staff. Are there any questions, um, comments, concerns potentially about this proposed ordinance?
6:29
Unidentified What number is this?
6:32
Unidentified 15. Move to adopt ordinance number 15 by placing on the third and final reading reading title on
6:43
Unidentified second.
6:44
Roll call Roll-call vote — Don Etherly: yes; Maxine Miller: yes; Monica Davis: yes; Adrian Messina: yes; Joe St. Columbia: yes.
6:55
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° Motion passes. An ordinance establishing and providing for the administration of the city of Helena was Helena community service program authorizing the placement of eligible participants with municipal departments and approved community service providers providing the super supervision documentation and verification of community service providing for program administration financial accountability safety and legal protections repealing ordinance number 19- 2016 declaring an emergency and for other purposes. Is there a motion to adopt? So move.
7:27
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° There a second.
7:28
Unidentified Second.
7:29
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Thank you. Madam clerk, will you call the role, please?
7:32
Roll call Roll-call vote — Adrian Messina: yes; Monica Davis: yes; Don Etherly: yes; Maxine Miller: yes.
7:42
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Motion passes. Thank you all. That motion passes.
7:46
Unidentified Emergency clause in here.
7:51
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° No, this emergency clause be accepted. Is there a second?
7:57
Unidentified Second.
7:58
Roll call Roll-call vote — Adrian Messina: yes; Monica Davis: yes; Maxine Miller: yes; Joe St. Columbia: yes; Don Etherly: yes.
8:12
Mayor Joseph Whitfield The motion passes. Thank you. Next up, we do have a resolution. This was also another item that was carried over from last week's or last uh meeting. This is a resolution establishing uniform rules. This resolution formalizes rules for community engagement with the city council. This was sponsored by uh Councilman Dr. Miller and this actually came through I want to say email within maybe a month ago.
8:38
Unidentified What page?
8:39
Unidentified This is
8:40
Unidentified 18.
8:40
Unidentified Page 18. Thank you.
8:42
Unidentified Page 18.
8:42
Mayor Joseph Whitfield 18. 18. So, this resolution um updates in short updates our uh engagement policy around um speech at the podium, how we how long we let uh members of the community speak, as well as what matters um uh we allow to hit the agenda for city council meeting. So, um I I don't know if we need a lot of time to review this, but I'll give you all a second. And um if there's any discussion, open the floor for that as well.
9:16
Unidentified We got this about a week or two ago, didn't we? To do it ago.
9:19
Unidentified Yeah.
9:20
Unidentified Yeah. What's that number? Resolution number
9:23
Unidentified resolution 14.
9:25
Unidentified 14.
9:29
Councilman Don Etherly (Ward 3) Let me let me jump in here before somebody says move to adopt. Um he I wanted to ask him a couple questions about this.
9:36
Unidentified All right.
9:37
Unidentified Because he references litigation. I don't think that's what he meant. Um the instances that he references in his uh resolution I can only recall occurring maybe once or twice since I've been here. But the language matters. And so I don't think this is what he actually meant. I think he wanted to use some different terms, but I wanted to ask him.
10:08
Unidentified So do we need to I mean that that's would be my suggestion because I I understand what he's getting at, but what he's what the language in is geared towards is a situation that almost never happens at this table. Uh as a matter of fact, I'm I'm looking at the city attorney. I don't know if you've seen it or not, but he's
10:33
Councilman Don Etherly (Ward 3) People don't know what we're talking about. Yeah. His resolution is is to uh not have people who have pending litigation against the city come before the city council to litigate their claims here. This litigation means they got a case across the street. We don't most people who come here don't have a actual case file. And I don't know if he's trying to say we don't want to hear from people who are claiming that the city owes them something or if he really really means cases across the street because we almost never those people are represented generally by attorneys. They don't come here. Uh we may have formal mediations. We have other forums for which we talk about it. Sometimes we've had the municipal league come here to address us about cases.
11:12
City Attorney Andre Valley° And so it kind of goes both ways. I just don't think he meant to use the term litigation, but only he can express that. And so that's why I said that
11:21
Unidentified he's attending a conference for his job. So
11:25
Unidentified if we could table it, it would be nice to have him here so he can
11:29
Unidentified wait till he comes.
11:31
Unidentified And I think I think Yeah, I think would be a good thing. I think the other thing that he called me about the resolution and the conversation we had wasn't a long litigation. it was along the time frame of the length and presentations and
11:47
Unidentified etc. Uh the litigation part I was looking for the the length on the presentations uh and etc. But that's not in this resolution that he's drafted.
12:02
Mayor Joseph Whitfield So I think we can agree that we'll table this and make sure that um the councilman makes gets his thoughts u before the body. We'll move to do that. Is there any other discussion before moving on?
12:17
Unidentified That' be fine.
12:18
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Okay. Our next order of business um we actually this is number four item number four receipt reimbursement ordinance. This is um a proposed ordinance establishing receipt receipt reimbursement as a replacement for PDM reimbursement procedures. This was um discussed during our uh audit review as one of the findings that was recommended for us. The this ordinance, this proposed ordinance has not been drafted yet, so we don't have it to sit in front of you today. Um I do know that following the conversation, some some of us were not here for that audit review, but um hope hopefully not speaking overzealously for anyone, there seemed to be an acceptance to to make this um to make this change. So that proposed ordinance will be put together and put before you for the next council meeting.
13:08
Unidentified It's not in the packet.
13:09
Unidentified It's not it's not in the packet.
13:11
City Attorney Andre Valley Historically, uh the auditors were the ones that told the city to do the the first ordinance. The first ordinance that we done is the business expense and travel ordinance. It's been in effect since right after consolidation, but it was at the direction of the auditors at the time. And so at this point, as auditors do from time to time, they change the emphasis and change the way they do things. And so they're telling us to reddraft uh the portion instead of doing PDM. What the audit finds is that uh this the city should do re receipt based reimbursement. And so we're going to amend the ordinance that they had asked us to provide in the first place. Mr.
13:54
Unidentified Yes, sir. You're welcome. One second.
14:15
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Just like I repeat this on the mic. Some of these files are a little different. So, no one's going to have the same copies. You probably seen those, too. All right, our next order of business um is code enforcement update. I don't see he's in here. That's why I passed these out. Um this is a chance to just look at the progress with city code enforcement, new code initiatives, and clarity on ordinances. What I've just passed out to you all is a sample of what the code enforcement department has been busy doing. Um this isn't in your actual packet. So this is on the um table in front of you in the Manila folders. These are in or cases where affidavits have been submitted for various um issues around the city as it relates to um vehicles that are immobile, yards that need to be cleaned, houses that are burned, um situations where uh trash has been left behind, where uh owners have moved. you will see a a range in the five to six manila photos that placed in front of you code enforcement department and I'll give um the attorney some time to just talk about maybe his firsthand experience with the department but they've worked really closely with the city attorney to make sure that these processes are streamlined and um we want to make sure that there's action so code enforcement with um with the with the goals that we have through this administration we believe that we can have a cleaner hell than what's we believe that we can have some accountability and sometimes it takes um making sure that that process actually gets started. So, um I just wanted to give you all some time to look at some of the cases that you uh will see code enforcement deal with on a daily basis.
16:06
Unidentified I don't know you want to add this time.
16:08
Unidentified Now, I would ask that you all don't remove anything out of those files.
16:12
Unidentified Thank you.
16:13
City Attorney Andre Valley Those are the active files. What you're looking at is a process. uh the mayor and the code for want to see the process. All of these individuals have been sent letters by the city code enforcement officers. They didn't respond and the city could take two measures. We could take a civil measure or a criminal measure. Uh on all of these, the mayor and the code enforcement chose to take a criminal measure. As you see though, those are affidavit for for warrants for people. And at the bottom you will see uh my scribbling. It will say approved AKV. Uh I do it rather fast. It's hard for you to read, but you will see that I've looked at these and all has been approved. There's about 70 to 80 affidavit that's been done over the past week and they're going to be presented to the judge for a warrant on Thursday. But many of y'all ask about what you do on this property, what you do on this property. And so they felt the ne necessary reason for you could see some of the process. where all of y'all have different files. Those are the active files and so we ask that you keep them in order and keep them out of the yard so we can process them. So, um some of the structures you all have asked about what's happening with this, what's happening with that and u the administration wanted you to see the active processes going on. Uh these will be signed Thursday uh by Judge uh Carter and then the warrants will be put in the system. And so these are all on the criminal process so that the city can move forward with them. But typically the way affidavit is done, a citizen or or a law enforcement officer can do affidavit. Uh they're presented to the clerk's office, then presented to the city attorney's office. city attorney's office reviews them and then uh proves that the city attorney will be willing to prosecute them and then they go back to the clerk's office and then for the judge's signature the judge signs them and warnings issued then they're arrested there and then given a court date. So, you're in the process now that the city attorney's office has reviewed them and approved that there's probable cause that there should be a warrant issued and the next issue is going back to the clerk's office. The judge signed them Thursday.
18:29
Unidentified Yeah,
18:32
Unidentified I see what you're talking about.
18:34
Mayor Joseph Whitfield And I and I do want to also just add, thank you, Attorney Valley. This is not all of the affidavit that are currently um completed. This is probably a little more than half of them. Um the process from um infraction, if you will, to resolution is not quick and that's what we're wanting you to see. And so every solution is also going to be different um as it relates to what the infraction is, how long the violation is incurred, um if the city can remedy that violation um on its own and then maybe seek a lean through uh property taxes or or whatever measure we have to take. So just want to know that I just we wanted you all to know that code enforcement indeed has been very active and um they're in the field every day. Is there is there any discussion? Any questions? And I do
19:30
Unidentified the process would be to to serve this. Then it goes into the courtroom, right?
19:36
Unidentified Yes, sir.
19:37
Unidentified And then
19:38
City Attorney Andre Valley° and and then we'll have a trial on it if they plead not guilty. If they plead guilty, just give them a time frame to straight to
19:45
Unidentified Yeah. straighten up.
19:45
Unidentified I'm looking at some of these pictures worth a thousand words.
19:49
Unidentified Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Uh part of it is is just to get it get it done. Let's let's get us let's get it done. We need it need it done. Need it cleaned up.
19:59
Mayor Joseph Whitfield And I do thank the city attorney for just asking or reminding you all please make sure everything stays in those files as these other active files. Thank thank you all. If there is no further discussion on um this item, we'll move on to our next this will be a fire department update. This is um a brief update about the year-to- date look at the number of fires department calls um safe haven baby box grant which I'll I'll talk a little bit about that but I'll you have the floor to battalian chief stack house.
20:30
Fire Battalion Chief Kevin Stackhouse Good evening.
20:33
Fire Battalion Chief Kevin Stackhouse Um this report I think we just got for the last 30 days but it's a lot. So I'm going to get we had 91 total incidents and 18 been structure problems and um there's a lot been all these bandit builds banded structures just going up I think mostly because of the um active the cos so and basically you know he doing his job really well and so we haven't a whole lot last past week I think we had like five, six structure cars and um I guess we've been working real hard on that and then we right now in the process of getting a grant brown working on a grant to get um a infant holder for the fire department
21:31
Unidentified drop off
21:32
Unidentified the safe haven box. Yeah.
21:34
Fire Battalion Chief Kevin Stackhouse° So, he in the process of getting that grant. I think he working with the mayor and getting the one for that safe haven spot. I think I think we've been talking about putting the safe haven spot at the west helen one cuz how it's set up. Got to have a big window to drop it off and West Helen's own the station they can equip that with. So, they working on that. Working on that pretty well. and um and all our other other stuff we going got going on. We got a lot of training going on. We got um right now we doing our first responder training and we just had CPR training going on and uh we doing training with some of our um closest fire departments Rondo and Lake doing training on help them with training too. So we we we staying busy and trying to get things done help.
22:37
Unidentified What's the stack house? Do you say there's 18 structure fries over the past 30 days? Is that consistent for the year? Would it be somewhere around there?
22:47
Fire Battalion Chief Kevin Stackhouse Not I say it's consistent, but right now the code enforcement is active doing the job. So some of it is uh under investigation, some not. But um during the summer months, we mostly had not grass fire, but the structure fire during the summer months cuz we had most of our structure fire during the winter months. Then the summer months, we most had no debris and wild stuff like that during the summer month because it be so dry. But strutify is not not as we can't predict but it's not common to have all these structure fire during the summer when it real hot. You keep using the term of art the code enforcement doing his job and that's that's one of the fire terms that that you're using. Could you explain to the public what you mean by the code enforcement doing his job so that they would have a better understanding?
23:39
Fire Battalion Chief Kevin Stackhouse° He going to Yeah. these structures these structures you know these some of these structures are abandoned and um and he ticking them you know what I'm saying so like I said some of them can't say it's arson or nothing like that but it's under investigation so he doing that it it boosts our structure fire
24:00
Unidentified right
24:00
Unidentified up
24:02
City Attorney Andre Valley° okay so in other words because he's so active
24:05
Fire Battalion Chief Kevin Stackhouse° he's so active yeah
24:06
City Attorney Andre Valley° the many of those fires on the 18 structures on the list of people he's trying to get condemned. Is that correct? Or the people he's sending letters to.
24:18
Fire Battalion Chief Kevin Stackhouse° I don't know he he getting them condemned. But and our in our expertise that all these structure fire coming from know these bandit build these buildings got grass on them too. A like it just it's been abandoned one two months. It's been abandoned for years and all a sudden now they coming up. So, so our SP saying the coding force is doing their job cuz now they get in contact with somebody. I'm saying so that's basically what's going on.
24:52
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Thank you. Any more questions?
24:56
Unidentified U kids have all started back to school or will be soon.
25:01
Unidentified Have y'all checked the schools and made plans for teaching children fire drills?
25:08
Fire Battalion Chief Kevin Stackhouse Yes, sir. We um October is our October month. We go around all the schools teach them and doing that's our that's that's the month designate for fire prevention month.
25:17
Unidentified Yeah.
25:17
Fire Battalion Chief Kevin Stackhouse° So we go around all the schools even out in the county sometime in the county school board.
25:23
Unidentified Make sure they got enough fire extinguishers.
25:26
Fire Battalion Chief Kevin Stackhouse° Fire we check we check the fire extinguisher. We check all the fire extinguisher at the beginning of the school year. And we check the beginning of school year and after school year. make sure all the um schools are up part on the pole and neck too and then school they do their own fire drills but they let us know they got to do one. So that's that's no anytime they want to decide I want to do a fire. Okay. Any other any other questions or discussion for battalion chief stack house? If not, thank thank you, chief. We appreciate you.
26:08
Unidentified Thank you.
26:10
Mayor Joseph Whitfield All right, moving right along. We're on um item number seven at this point in time. This is a water department um energy account update. And I should have left this just more broadly as water uh water department energy or water department um update. So, as far um we'll start with subletter a plan for moving water department energy accounts to current. Um, I did have a chance to have a meeting with the city attorney and uh, city clerk last week and we discussed uh, how to proceed with um, identifying if the accounts were collectible um, the best repayment strategies. What we did determine was that the water account the water department accounts um, because of the water department's finances sit a little bit differently than the city of Helen West Helena's um, energy accounts. And so my plan well right now our account representative Katrina Brown she is currently getting us the bills that would that would uh accumulate or aggregate into the total that total is approximately as of the last uh meeting it was approximately 145,000 that the water department owed um on energy bills um and the this is what energy is claiming is owed within the past 3 years. So that does include the the uh the amounts that they waved. Um once those bills do come, I spoke with Miss Brown today. She said that the bills could potentially hit our emails tonight or tomorrow. Um we would be able to um have um an actual bill that we would be paying per um the city attorney's um direction. So, I do plan to proceed once those bills come to make that 25% um deposit through the water department's account and then have a pretty aggressive um ideally four month plan to make sure that the water department energy accounts are um current. Um we're going to continue talking and discussing the best approach for uh the city of Helen with Helena's energy accounts because obviously those finances sit a little bit differently. But I I wanted to give a second to see if there's any question about that. This is not this this is not in your packet. I see a couple council members uh searching, but this is not in your packet. That just was a brief update. But um one of the things that the mayor missing what I what I asked was that we receive actual bills for each med so we can validate the aids, the amounts, and the amounts that the amounts that were paid. Uh, one of the things about it historically, Mr. Etherly and Mr. St. Columbia are aware of and Mrs. Ramsey, when the city's consolidated, uh, the city of Holland hadn't paid a light bill, water bill, or gas bill for over a year, and the city uh, did an agreement with the uh, utility providers to withhold the city's franchise fees, and they did that until those counts became current. Also, at that time period, the city um what the city did was the city u did a revenue bond to keep afloat because there were over $2 million unpaid bills. And after the revenue bond passed, the city later the next year did a two sales tax refinance and paid off every existing bill. So, that shouldn't have been any accounts at all that were passed dum Columbia. You made the motion to pay all the bills in 2008 to make sure we paid all the bills if you recall. looking at some of these here going back.
29:38
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Oh, so and that and that's not that's not energy that we'll get there in just a second.
29:42
Unidentified So
29:43
City Attorney Andre Valley the the issue went forward. Uh what we want to do cuz from audit standpoint just we want to be able to look at each metered account for every meter the city has an account and we need to see the balance of each one of those counts when it when it originated and how did it get behind before we make any any payments to them. And so that's the process we're in now just for clarity. That's what the mayor and I met about and that's what I just wanted to update you all on relating to it. U and anything above beyond 3 years would be uh the statute of limitations running anyway. Um so that's where we are and once we get the the metered accounts the bills for the metered accounts we'll be able to to give you better more information regarding that. Thank you, attorney. Are there any questions about about that?
30:39
Mayor Joseph Whitfield If there are none, if there are none, we'll move on to sub uh section B. This is an update regarding US 49 highway bridge line re uh relocation. This is a project that I do believe was um first first brought to the city's attention um under the Smith administration. And so this would be in your this is in your packet. Um if you look from pages 21 through roughly page 31. Yes, 21 through 31. This is um everything that pertains to this item. We are currently being asked by the Arkansas Department of Transportation to make a decision on how we want to uh financially handle waterline relocation underneath um the small bridge approaching that approaches uh the actual US 49 bridge that connects miss the Mississippi um Mississippi to Arkansas. This is the bridge if you aren't still familiar I'm talking about when you hit the bump um on your way out of town or in on your way into town. So, as that bridge has to be um remodeled and uh somewhat moved, there are some water lines that are exist underneath that bridge that have to be moved as well. Obviously, that comes at a cost where the city needs to figure out which way we're going to handle that. Um what they've included on pages 21 through 24, this is an example of the actual application. If the city were to move um in the direction of seeking a loan to um to cover this, I do believe back in late 25, maybe early 26, um we had the impression that the Arkansas Department of Transportation would cover this cost for us. Um but they would front us that cost if we were a if we wanted to do the loan and we obviously would have to pay back that loan. That comes with terms, um obviously interest as well. and they did not have specific language, but what they did send um via my request, pages 25 through 31 show an actual contract that they executed.
32:44
Unidentified What page
32:45
Unidentified 25 through 31?
32:46
Unidentified 25 to 31.
32:48
Mayor Joseph Whitfield This is an actual contract that they executed with the city of West Fork, Arkansas. Um and you were basically able to see what type of cost they incurred. Um their project was a little bit well a little bit it's an understatement. that project was bigger than ours, our project would cost roughly 56,000 not including um potential engineering fees that will probably be incurred as well. Um so what I wanted to put this in the agenda um for is a it's time sensitive because um they've waited for us to kind of make our minds up um for about 3 to four years. I do believe or I do know we are better suited to pay this rather than take out a loan. Um, I did still want you to see the application. It's fairly simple, fairly easy to do. However, being that our water department is financially sound at the moment. I do know that they're able to take care of this project, get those water lines moved, um, able to contract with the with and engineering team to make sure that gets done properly and uh, we can avoid a long a longer payment that's not necessary with extra with extra fees and interest. So my my motion or not my motion but my suggestion that we consider is um a moving on this project because that construction is ready to happen and also b uh making sure that our water department pays for this outright rather than seeking the financing option from the Arkansas Department of Transportation. And Mr. um Rose and Mr. Rollin were here. they were supposed to be here. But um I do if we are more comfortable seeing that exact figure for what that project is including the engineering fees um I am willing to call a special meeting so that we could do that before the end of this week. Um but I do know it's 56,000 for the construction not including engineering fees. So, what I'm hoping that we can discuss currently right now, being that this is a project that we have to that ARDOT is um wanting us to move on, does this body feel more comfortable with financing this project through the water department or paying for it um with the funds that we do have?
35:09
Unidentified I'm looking at this page 30. Uh the total total cost of this project is two 2,291,000. This is the This is the example. This is the This is the example contract that was drawn up from West
35:23
Unidentified my part is a million one.
35:27
Unidentified Uh
35:30
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° and all all of the so all of those numbers are from from that not estimated. This is this is an example of the contract that they approved with the city.
35:38
Unidentified How big a water line?
35:41
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° How big a water line is down there by the bridge? They I don't know how long it is, but I know they have to move a couple hundred feet of it. They have to move a couple hundred feet. It's pretty extensive length that they have to move, which is part of the reason why the project would be um costly.
35:57
Unidentified Yeah. That's where they go straight out that highway down there, is it?
36:02
Unidentified Mhm.
36:05
Unidentified Well, that's expensive.
36:07
Unidentified If we have the money,
36:10
Unidentified I mean, we need to know the amount. Yes. Yes.
36:14
Mayor Joseph Whitfield So, what I will do is um the plan for this evening was to have um the director engineer here to make sure that they could uh share those exact figures. I'm going to send those figures out to you all via email um tonight. Should they not come back in before the end of this meeting, the city at or the chief of staff is going to go try to um catch them. But for now, we can come back to this item if they are able to come in before we wrap up the meeting. Uh moving along, we'll come back to item B if necessary. But uh moving right along to sub item C. This is a review of Crowford plumbing invoices. This is the following page after 31. So starting on page 32. Um and this is rather extensive all the way down to page I'm going say 49. This is a list of invoices that was submitted for approval um from the water account manager. earlier this week. Um a the total price or the total um amount in this invoice is approximately $94,000. Um which is quite high. And I wanted to make sure that you all saw this for a couple reasons. As you can see, uh Councilman St. Columbia was mentioning that as he looked at some of these invoices.
37:32
Unidentified Yeah.
37:32
Unidentified Some of these invoices are dated back through 2025
37:36
Unidentified years ago.
37:37
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Yeah. 20 late 2024, mostly 2025. And from my understanding through the digging that I've done, um Mr. Crawford was used to uh complete some of the plumbing or not plumbing, but some of the um leak fixes that the water department has been doing. Anybody that's um kept up with our water situation understands that we have that we've had a series of leaks that um the water department team has created a leak locate team for. uh Crawford's Plumbing had um at various times, as you can see, created invoices that um summarized what that work was and the length of that work and the cost of that work. The issue for why we or how we get to a $94,000 invoice is that um work was done before any invo or work was done and invoices were not being paid before work continued. So from late 24 mostly 2025 um you will see that these invoices were adding up and none of these were paid upon completion. And so what we have here in front of us is a request to satisfy a $94,000 um invoice. This to me does kind of highlight a couple of things that I've noticed that I've worked with department heads on. a making sure that we um move away from and I think this is maybe an unofficial term but move away from serial contracting. I do believe that there's a trend that's that's happened where um the belief is that maybe if some of the work if some of the work can be kept under the mayor spending limit that uh we can amass contract or job after job instead of having some of those come to the council or this official uh body for approval. Um as well making sure that we have a proper procedure and protocol for how we procure contractors to do work for the city. Those are two things and uh specifically I've spoken to department heads about and u I want to make it clear that this is this is such an item that the chief of staff and myself have been um hard at work trying to make sure that these are processes that we avoid. So right now before us we we are looking at an invoice and I wanted to see what this body felt was the best um solution for this because it does highlight a procedure that we've been trying to straighten out. Go ahead.
40:09
City Attorney Andre Valley While y'all review it, uh, mayor, we already have a ordinance that says specifically what you just said. Uh, it addresses serial contracts and addresses purchase orders under 5,000 and expresses that, and I've tried to get every mayor preceded you to follow it. Um, and that's that's part of the issue. So, my concern, thank you, attorney. My concern with this, um, a, this sets a precedent where I, I personally want to be on record for saying do not like how these invoices were amassed. Um, and potentially puts us in a position where we set a precedent that this type of procurement process is okay. Um, not moving forward with this invoice, I, I think we all can understand would probably lead us to some some legal um issues or tension which feel like we have enough of those already. So um, I, if I may go ahead
41:14
City Attorney Andre Valley I think one of the things, may, I think you raised a valid point. I think one of the things is uh Mr. say, Rose would know, the the department manager would know whether the work was done and and etc, and for what it was done. I think the issue also, just backdating in in 20 from 2023 forward, u the one thing that both department of health and Arkansas department environmental quality or natural resources has told the city, fix all these leaks. So some, at one point every month we were fixing leaks from Quad Bomb and from uh Crawford Plumbing, and I know the city has consistently approved them for Quad Bomb. Uh, I think it's regrettable that uh Mr. Crawford has not submitted his invoices consistently. But the question at this point is whether he's done the work. But I've advised every man, advising that uh there shouldn't be serial contracts etc. In this circumstance, I don't think you set the president in this narrow sense. The city council voted all hands on deck basically to get these leaks fixed. And so the city had approved both quad bomb and pl and crawford plumbing to go forward and fix leaks because the city needed extra manpower to fix the leaks. And quad consistently build. Crawford has not consistently build, but the issue has been that they've been fixing leaks. And at this point, we still have a new series of leaks that city still needs to look at because we have a consent administrative order that that tells us that we need to get these leaks fixed expeditiously, and because it's creating too much of a water loss through the system. And it appears to me when you look through all of these invoices, although you know, I mean, we may look at the start date. If you go through here, it's extremely detailed. It tells the uh work address, the action required, start time, completion time, materials used, all of that. So, I mean, I'm inclined to believe that um, you know, we can question the timing or the lack of being in a timely manner, but it does appear that he did the work.
43:43
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2) Yeah, I, I was looking at some of these. A lot of them were putting clamps on some pipes in Waverly Woods and different places, and mentioned here that I'm familiar with the area. But uh they just put a clamp, 2in clamp on some of these PL, it took uh from 11:00 to 2:00 in the afternoon, uh 3 hours there to put one, one two inch clamp on pipe. You know, I was just looking at some of the work orders. Uh, and a lot of it was repet- repetitive type of work. Most of them were clamps. Well, on page 45, if you notice, that whole page is filled up with couplings and mostly clamps, 2-in clamps.
44:36
Councilwoman Maxine Miller (Ward 1) I just think this speaks more
44:39
Unidentified pretty strong. Yeah, but I, I think this speaks more to the fact that some of this may be avoidable if we had people within the water department that were able to make these sorts of small repairs.
44:58
Mayor Joseph Whitfield And I'm in in line with that. Um, this is why I'm, so the director for the water department had to leave because a force man was hit um by one of the uh groups that's working on the fiber optic cables right now. So that's why he had to leave. Um, but part of what you'll see um as well in this packet is it's an appeal from the department head to ask for more positions. Um, this the staff that he does have um, in large part, is is competent. Um, the one of the challenges is manpower. They're covering an area where it used to have maybe 30 to 35 people on staff, and right now um I don't want to say the wrong number, but right now that they're just um under 20. I want to say 19. So, and and I don't necessarily, my my um wanting to put this on the agenda tonight to make sure that we discuss this, I don't necessarily know if I disagree or doubt that the work was done. Um the process, I think, is is what is what I think needs to be illuminated. When this was brought to um our attention, I did instruct the uh the director to stop um using uh Crawford Plumbing until we made sure that we um were caught up on invoices, because that's just, it's a situation that just opens us up to liabilities and we don't want that. Um so yeah, so part of his appeal tonight um, if he could have stayed for the entire meeting, was to discuss potentially asking for more um manpower um at the water department, because I have, I have personally seen how that could be a benefit to making sure we can tackle more of these projects.
46:49
Mayor Joseph Whitfield We have a log, may I, may we have a log from January to December of 2025. Was Crawford paid anything last year? I don't have, I don't have a record of it. Um, and what I have is a conversation with the director saying that um there were no payments made. It's been a long time, and I quote, it's been a long time since a payment was made to Crawford. So Crawford had been using 2026, because his invoice says 8126 and it includes anything from 2026. I, I think it's unfortunate that we're having this conversation. During the whole water crisis, we had two local contractors, uh plumbers, that did, principally did all the work in helping the department to fix leaks, and that was uh Crawford and and Qual. The the the issue, I mean, and I see what you're saying Mr. St. Columbia about clamps, but that's, those are the materials used. The work, the action, is repairing lines. That means they have to get out, they have to dig, they have to locate the line, they have to do all the work that goes around repair. That's just the materials used, I mean
48:10
Councilman Don Etherly (Ward 3) most of us label
48:11
City Attorney Andre Valley° yeah, you know, these people were out there. Now, if the water superintendent doesn't question it, then I don't question it. I mean, I think that's his responsibility to know whether it was actually performed or not. But we know that we used two vendors. We used two contractors. We used Qual Bomb and we used uh, u Mr. Crawford. And so, I, I hate that he waited so long to turn in his invoices, which causes all the questions. But um, he's one of the vendors that we use. So, I, I say I hate that this conversation is taking place, that it's happening this way, cuz it almost gives it an air of something being improper, or you know, we got to go out and verify, which we didn't verify any of the other contractors' work. They submitted them and we paid them. Um, probably paid qual multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars to do work, and so um, but again, if, if the superintendent doesn't question it, then I, I wouldn't be in a position to question it. If he says it's okay, I'm saying I'm not going to. But I would want him to tell us it's okay.
49:21
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Do, okay. Is it, is that, I want to just ask for clarity. Is that, is that a way of saying that we want to wait to approve the um, the invoices until he can tell us that?
49:34
City Attorney Andre Valley° I mean, all the questions about was anything paid in this year, he can just, he can stand there, he he can answer those, and he says hey, because he would have contacted him and said hey, I need you to do this work or that work, as the superintendent u he he made the calls. If it was a certain job and he felt like bomb was better suited to do that, he would call them. If there was a job and he felt like Mr. Crawford was better suited to do that, he would make the call. So, he's the person who actually made the contact. So, if, if he says yes, this is all good, which I'm assuming he will, and I'm not questioning it, I'm just saying, I, he says that and then we go forward.
50:09
Unidentified Okay.
50:09
Unidentified That's my position on it.
50:12
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Is that, is there a consensus with that? I don't want to overlook anybody. Is there consensus with that? I mean, I would think that he would have some sort of log or reference book or something where he contacted Mr. Crawford. So, I would imagine that should be easy information for him to pull up if there's Oh,
50:46
Unidentified we're done with that. Yeah, I was assuming. Sorry.
50:49
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2) I, I want, my phone has been ringing off the wall. People calling about the garbage. They had picked up my garbage.
50:58
Unidentified We're not there yet.
50:58
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2)° In the last two, three weeks.
51:00
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Council St. Columb-. We're not there yet. We'll get there.
51:02
Unidentified Okay. We'll get there.
51:03
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2)° Before we leave here tonight, I want you to explain to everybody.
51:06
Unidentified It's going on.
51:08
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° We'll get there. We'll get there. Um, I guess one of the questions also, when we get with the roads back
51:15
City Attorney Andre Valley° the fixing of the leaks going forward, because people are constantly calling about leaks, talking about leaks, and since you're only using qual and not Crawford until this is cleared up, uh
51:27
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° not, not only using qual, I want to say that I, I've just been very clear with um all department heads, and specifically the water department, would, just we have to have a better system of procurement. So, so not just, I don't want to advocate.
51:42
City Attorney Andre Valley° No, let me pause. I stand corrected. The city council approved Qualabomb and Crawford Plumbing, and I don't know of any other plumbers that we were working with, is why I made the statement.
51:53
Unidentified Okay.
51:53
City Attorney Andre Valley° Uh, but I would, the question I have, cuz people been calling my office about, okay, is there a plan? Are the plumbers still fixing the water leaks and etc.? And so while we're on that subject, will you just address that, so that people will will know what's, what we're doing on water leaks at this time?
52:10
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Yeah. So, uh, I've had a series of conversations with Mr. Rose over the last three weeks specifically about, uh, structuring for the water department, which kind of goes back to, um, what you'll see on page 50, his recommendation to increase the number of people that he does have on the water department staff. Um, he does have a designated portion of the water department um team that specifically is, as you would say, a a leak locate team. And so um, the issue there is that, again, staffing, has, they're able to go as fast as they can fix the leaks. And so while there might be um hypothetically three leaks in Helena that need to be fixed on a given day, they may be dealing, as we just saw him leave right now, with a main issue that requires um pretty much all manpower on on hand. So um, they still very much so are fixing leaks. They do that daily. Um, I want to repeat that I did ask, until invoices were paid, so that we could get a clear financial picture of what was owed to Crawford Plumbing. Um, that we made sure we got that resolved before continuing. Um, and then I know that, as well as we've all seen, we've approved um part of our invoices for for help as well on leaks. So, I, I would, they, they're dealing with leaks uh on a daily basis. Daily basis.
53:28
Unidentified Thank you. If we can also just, as a an aside, can we have a update on the new well and the status of the new well
53:40
Unidentified when he comes? I mean
53:42
Unidentified he come. Yeah. Yeah.
53:50
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Um, I do, move before, this is not one of the sublet-letter items, but I did want to ask um, if you look at page 50 in your packet, this is an email that was sent this morning, again, or this page 50.
54:03
Unidentified 50.
54:04
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Page 50. This was sent this afternoon, which is why you're just seeing this in your packet. Um, this is Mr. Rose's proposed um plan or model for what he thinks will benefit the water department right now in terms of numbers um and manpower. He's listed out exactly um who we have on staff, and which, and I'm, I'm sure it's pro-, if it's a little small, I apologize. Um, but he has listed out who's on staff um, which positions they are currently filling in, and what his belief is. Um, we are currently, his his assessment is that we are operating under three water systems and two sewer systems. Um, and combined with half of the staff, it can be a little difficult to maintain. Um, and his proposed figure um was adding eight additional positions. He feels would give um, not only the people on staff some relief, enable, or an ability to share some of that workload, but would also increase the efficiency of how fast the water department can move um when they do get calls. So, I want to just give you all some time to look at that um and see if there are questions or discussion on that as well
55:14
Unidentified if I may. Mhm.
55:15
City Attorney Andre Valley I think the most prudent thing to do is to make sure that we look at the budget. Second thing, u Mr. Rose can easily tie this to both of the consent administration orders that we have from the department of health. Uh, the governor also told uh the city uh that our water department was underpaid, and that we need to make sure we have additional positions in the water department. And that was a while ago, when she was here, when she met with all of us, when Mayor Franklin was the mayor. Uh, and uh, the state also viewed that, that we need more, uh, need increased salaries and increased staff. The issue was, at the time you didn't have the funds, and so it's now that you have some funds, we still need to look at it. Uh, and that's the city council's duty, once you all go through and look at it. Uh, but I think that Mr. Rose could, could make a presentation that's consistent with the consent administrative order as it relates to it. But I just wanted to remind you all of of those things. Any, any additional, or any additional questions or discussion. I do want to second that, um, that's been the air of conversation that I've had with Mr. Rose as well. Um, I believe that we all, I think one thing we all agree on is that the water system or situation currently is pretty um um important, and it's dire. So, I do believe um, especially now that they have the funds uh to make purchases and pay staff, I do believe that that department can can be looked at for a makeover. And I know that the attorney also mentioned that um looking at the, I, I, looking at the um budget for this year, they, they are at 19 out of 19. So um, adding anyone else to the team would require us amending the budget um for the N. So every single position that's currently available through the budget, and appreciated that he wanted to make sure we took this route, um we would have to amend the budget to increase that. So, if there's no, are there any thoughts on that? I, I do want to just, I don't want to assume or rush past that. Are there any thoughts? And if not, we can move on. One additional thought, as you all evaluate it, I think you should look at what Mr. Crawford is due for Crawford Plumbing, and what the city paid quarter bomb last year, and what they pay for water bomb and any other plumber this year, and look at if we could do that in house, what does that translate into salaries.
58:11
Mayor Joseph Whitfield I want, I want to take this moment to add to that. Um, my vision is to be able to see the city of Helena-West Helena do as much of the work in-house as possible. So, I, I do thank you for saying that. Um, if we can put ourselves in a position where we can keep things, as, I'm not anti-contracting, and I've told contractors that, because as you can imagine, I get approached um probably weekly um about proposals to take care of something for the city. Um, I want to be a good steward of the funds that the city has, and so if we put ourselves in a position to do as much in house as possible, that's um a cost savings that you'll see gradually
58:49
Unidentified wed to come over.
58:54
Unidentified Yeah. If, if you can make it, yeah.
58:58
Unidentified My comment with the mayor, Mr. Wland just text me and asked me do we need him to come over, and the mayor says yes. So we can understand what we're saying.
59:06
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Moving right along, we'll go to uh the next um item, sanitation department update. I'll invite the chief of staff and interim director to come up. This is just a status of current equipment and current uh measures in place to try to keep uh consistent service with our sanitation schedule.
59:26
Chief of Staff Kevin Martin-Arnold° Um, so, um, I'm sure you all saw the post that kind of went back to the conversations we had about making sure the money was spent properly. Um, we made it there. Even though we had somebody check the truck out, we, uh, the driver specifically um got in it and was not okay with how he felt like it was performing. I took his word, um, considering that, again, he's the guy that's operating. He's operated trucks before. Um, and so we decided to not move forward with the purchase of that truck. And since then, we've continued to be looking for trucks. Miss Mickey has been doing a great job of it. She sent me several that I'm still waiting to hear back from dealers about. Um, I did receive some notice while I was even in the meeting, from one of them, that they'll be getting back to us tomorrow with more proof and evidence on it. I will say that part of it is a little, I'll say scary even, because um the, one, some of them are coming from that same place, and I just want to make sure that it's, yeah, that they're good. The other part is that some of them are coming from other areas, and that those have it, I know that we have our kind of sentiments about the ones that are a little further for us to be able to even um see. But um, since then we've been um, we went back to contracting twice a week with wash sellers to be able to uh help us out during the Wednesday and the Fridays. Um, we don't have a lot of contractors in the area, so it kind of makes it even hard to find, and not to say that he's not efficient, but he has older equipment, and so um even his route pickup isn't necessarily the fastest. Um, but it does, it is a great assistance. Um, I've even helped him out. Um, I've been helping our team out. Uh, what we've done is, uh, we've been trying to, uh, I've explained this before, before we got the last rentals. What we do is we try to tackle a half of the route a day at least. Um, considering that's about as much as we can get with the one walk-behind truck that we have right now. Um, and then on the next day we try to start with that other half of it. Um, and then we kind of are moving at a half a route a day, and then we kind of get help getting caught up on those Wednesdays and those Fridays. Um, we most recently have moved to overtime. So now we're um, and we're well within our overtime budget right now. We're only about halfway through, considering we're mid August, close to September, which put us in a good spot to be able to give some guys that extra incentive. Again, they're not really turning down the ability to make more money considering what they're getting paid right now. And so um, they've been, they've been getting more overtime. We worked this uh past weekend. Again, I got out there myself. Um, they're working through the heat at this point, to about 4:00 in the day, um, during the week. And so just doing as much as we can to get those routes picked up. Today we were able to knock out half of the Tuesday route. Um, we expect to, I expect to be able to have some um trucks in front of y'all, so that y'all can be able to, well, in your email, for you all to be able to look at, and then we can come together for an emergency meeting if necessary, to be able to move on with purchasing another truck. Um, truck 32, the uh side loader that we do have, we have the cylinder in West Memphis right now being repaired, so that we can hopefully get that put on. Then we'll have that side loader back, and then again, if we're able to get another one, that'll put us to where we kind of were when we had the rentals, where we had the two side loaders and the walk-behind, and we had trash getting picked up. Um, the knuckle boom truck that experienced some issues that took it down today, but it should be up tomorrow. Um, and the walk-behind, I mean not the walk-behind, the uh front loader, has been doing the commercial route pickups. Um, it has been, you know, and it was a little behind, because of when it was uh away, and so we had, and then we had a driver that went on vacation, and so I think the having a newer driver kind of slowed that down even, um, but yeah, and so between, yeah, between all those, yeah, we're a little behind on the residential pickup, but we're also running, um, so our courtesy route has been good in terms of picking up the handicap routes and everything, and what they've also been doing is running sort of what we call a relief route. So, we know areas that we weren't able to hit and they're overrun. They've been going personally, grabbing the trash, putting the back of trucks, meeting the residential trucks, dumping those, and that way people are at least able to sustain for for more days. Are there any questions? I know I talk fast.
1:03:33
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2)° When, when will we get current with picking up all the garbage?
1:03:38
Chief of Staff Kevin Martin-Arnold Um, right now we won't be able to get current there. Right now, we won't be able to get current. Right now it's to be expected to be behind at least half a route a day until we're able to get
1:03:48
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2)° I just left up, uh, and I mean I got a picture, just took this picture a few minutes ago on my way up here, and went down about that, uh, smell down there, the raw sewage. Uh, you know, and and people are asking me when are we going to get it taken care of? I don't know.
1:04:21
Unidentified Are you referring to the trash? You're referring to the trash. Are you referring to the trash?
1:04:29
Unidentified Oak Forest.
1:04:33
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2)° Up in Oak Forest. I, I just left Oak Forest a few minutes ago.
1:04:37
Unidentified I had a few calls from up there.
1:04:38
Unidentified Yes, I saw, I'm just a little confused. You said something about trash, and then you went to the raw sewage.
1:04:42
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2)° Mine, I live up on Bernie East, in two or three weeks I'm not worried about mine as I am the people. It's all over town. And so I'm, I'm just curious as to please, won't know, when are we going to get current, you know, picking up the garbage.
1:04:59
Chief of Staff Kevin Martin-Arnold° Please just continue to call. Miss Mickey is our secretary. She does a great job of informing us about when people call about trash not being picked up. And again, either we make sure that we're prioritizing that street when we get to that day of the week, or if we're able to, we allow our relief route to go over there and assist that area.
1:05:18
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2)° I just left Old Forest.
1:05:22
Unidentified What time do they start picking up garbage?
1:05:25
Chief of Staff Kevin Martin-Arnold° Um, usually around 6:30. It usually takes about 30 minutes to get the trucks and stuff loaded up. Some of them come in a little earlier, if it's like the knuckle boom truck, so they probably are off the lot by 6:00. Um, sometimes if we aren't able to dump at the end of the day, because let's say we work longer than the landfield, then we can't pick up until about 7:00, when we're able to get to the landfield and get dumped and everything. So, probably even 7:15 to 7:30-ish sometimes. And so then we're going from 7:30 till 2 at first, and then now about 4 to 4:30.
1:05:56
Unidentified If they started an hour earlier every day, what would that do for us? Um, if they start an hour earlier today, it still would depend on whether or not we're able to get dumped at the end of the day, and if we would have to go to the landfield before we're able to get started. Um, but also again, you got to consider that some of these places, some people don't even get their trash out until about 6:00 in the morning, because that's the latest.
1:06:17
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2)° They got the trash out two or three weeks. It's been sitting out. What time does landfill open up?
1:06:23
Unidentified 7 o'clock.
1:06:24
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2)° Well, they might have to start opening up at 6:00. See about, see about them opening up at 6 o'clock. Let's start this garbage pick up an hour earlier
1:06:35
Unidentified because it's not going to be, it'll be cooler at 7:00 in the morning, or 6:00, than it will be at 4 in the afternoon.
1:06:43
Chief of Staff Kevin Martin-Arnold° I'll be willing to uh reach out to the landfield director and see if he'd be willing to open up at 6.
1:06:49
Unidentified Well, I think we got to do something, because these people are not, are not very happy.
1:06:55
City Attorney Andre Valley° Understood? If I may, you all are talking just arbitrarily saying, "Let's open up at this time." There are real effects on the budget as relates to it. You would have to prove overtime for the sanitation department, overtime for the landfield. You're adding five hours each week just by you doing that, to both departments, for all the employees that's going to be working. And so those are real-time considerations that you have to do. You can open an hour early, each department, uh, they got, you got to look at the financial uh implications of that.
1:07:27
Chief of Staff Kevin Martin-Arnold° Yeah. And what we've done at this uh street and sanitation department is make sure that, again, it's only one truck of residential. So it's like we prioritize, making sure that, like, we have a group that'll do it on Monday overtime, group that'll do it on Tuesday, and then you get a maximum of about six hours on the weekend. Yeah.
1:07:45
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2)° I just noticed, my ne-, my neighborhood, I mean the things that I've seen, and I can, they picked up my garbage, and two going on three weeks now, and I, I went up here and looked in Old Forest, and all the cans are full. They're overflowing, and I just wonder when are we going to get up in the Old Forest. I, I haven't been in the other areas, but these people were calling me and I went and looked to check to make sure the validity of what they're telling me is true. And it is. The garbage is out there. Had two to three weeks.
1:08:25
Mayor Joseph Whitfield So, I do want to, I just want to interject really quickly. Um, it, it's, it is a process to find, uh, the trucks, and it's been a very diligent process. Um, even as, as the um interim director just mentioned, we, we thought we had a good truck, but we made the prudent decision to leave it. Um, we don't want to be wasteful. We don't want to be haste. Um, I, I encourage and invite each of you into city hall to come sit with us to see um what that process is like, and exactly kind of what those early findings are. The door is open. Um, I do know that um Miss Mickey sends out a daily um report as well. Yeah. A weekly, sorry, day or weekly uh report as well. So um, some of this information isn't entirely new. We know that um through those reports that there have been some delays. So um, my offer is to encourage each of you, um, if you can find time, come in, sit with us, and and see what that process is like. And um, we, we love to work together on that, but we, we are diligently handling that situation as um as best we can with the resources that we have. So
1:09:34
Unidentified Yeah, I went out to Walmart. I think it was about 8:00 this morning, and I saw the truck working out in that area, but I wonder about all these other areas.
1:09:44
Unidentified Yeah, that's probably when I got covered in trash use this morning, some of the residential areas.
1:09:53
Unidentified There is one issue. Uh, city attorney mentioned cost. Um, if you're using Mr. Sellers, back in the spring we approved Mr. Sellers coming in. There was a delay in trash pickup and we approved it in the spring, but we haven't done any other approval since then. There's going to have to be some approval, so we can kind of keep up with what we're spending on contractors to help pick up the garden.
1:10:16
Councilman Don Etherly (Ward 3) Understood. He's probably beyond his uh the bidding requirement at this point. So, there needs to be some approval of it.
1:10:25
Chief of Staff Kevin Martin-Arnold° Okay. Sorry, that that might be on me. I, I just didn't, I didn't know we were that, if it was something that each time, if it was under that certain limit, that it would require that. But if that is the case, we'll make sure that we get there.
1:10:36
Unidentified Well, what we used to do is we would say, "How long do we need him?" And then we would approve a certain amount of money. Got
1:10:42
Unidentified for a certain period of time. And then, once that was up, somebody would come back and say, "We've used all the money that you appropriated. We need some more." And that way we can track what we're spending on on contractors.
1:10:54
Unidentified Gotcha.
1:10:58
Chief of Staff Kevin Martin-Arnold° Would you like for us to prepare a report from um Sandy to show how much we've used on contracting? Um, or do y'all want to just, at the next, at the next meeting, potent-, well, maybe don't even have to get the trucks. We, we'll cross the bridge when we get there. I could include it on our next weekly report.
1:11:16
Unidentified Oh,
1:11:18
Unidentified are you currently looking for two, three, one trucks? How many are you looking for?
1:11:25
Unidentified Um, I, I really got hope that we can get 32 back up and running. I mean, the engine is great, the transmission is still good. The issue just has been the hydraulic pump on it, because it's a older truck. Um, but we've gotten some really good advice from some other uh mechanics that we've uh had discussions with, including our own. And um, yeah, that's why we end up taking the cylinder off and, uh, sending it up to West Memphis, so that we can get it repaired, cuz we understand that's the biggest issue. Honestly, the other part is, um, there might be another conversation about potentially purchasing another cylinder, so that if this happens, then we're able to immediately swap it out, get the, uh, one repaired, and then we have those in rotation, as opposed to the one cylinder, where, like, if it goes down then we're having to, like, scramble to try to get it repaired, and have to deal with, you know, lack of pickup,
1:12:13
Unidentified right? But I mean in terms of purchasing a new
1:12:17
Unidentified Oh, so yeah. So yes, sorry. Also, um, I have started, thank you for mentioning that, I have also started reaching out to bigger vendors, um, for newer, um, more refurbished used trucks, um, if not just new, on top of looking at grants, so that while we are able to get a uh a used truck that we can get in rotation right now, that's the band-aid, and then getting, um, I have the figure, so that when we do the grant applications we can be able to ask for specifically how much we need to be able to purchase a newer truck
1:12:46
Unidentified and Miss Mickey, so whenever you have um, because I'm, I'm like Mr. St. Columbia, I've had several constituents call me in this summer, not necessarily mine, but um, for instance, out on like North Fourth Street and out in that area. So, do you all have a log that you maintain, so that as they're
1:13:12
Mickey Dinges We do. We have, a, we have a checklist, uh, that the drivers report in, and we mark the streets off that have been done. But keep in mind, only being able to do half a route a day, um, we're never going to get ahead that way. We're just going to fall further and further behind, and that's exactly what's happening. Um, if you look, if you look back on the reports that I send out, where you see trucks 38, 39, and 40, those are our leased trucks. And when we had those, we were hauling out 400,000 pounds of trash every week. But when we had to give those trucks back, it dropped down to, uh, just a little over a quarter of that. And whenever we have a truck break down, it goes down a little further, and then we fall further and further behind, and our city gets buried in garbage. Um, I did some research when I was shopping for trucks, and, uh, uh, I found out that with an, uh, an ASL, an automated side loader, they can pick up approximately anywhere from 85 to 110 cans per hour, residential cans. And, uh, you know, that's, that's quite a bit, as long as it's, it's functioning adequately, um, and you have nice straight city streets you can hit that 110 mark, but for us, you know, 85 is a little more realistic. Um, so, you know, one of those would benefit us greatly. Um, but as, as far as falling behind, yeah, I get a lot of calls every day from people saying, like, u, Mr. St. Columbia says, "When are they going to get my trash?" And it just breaks my heart to have to tell them, "Well, hopefully we'll get it this day, but it's possible that it may be longer." And whenever one of the trucks breaks down that we have functioning, that sets us even further behind. Um, we're, we're so blessed to have a crew that's willing to be out in this heat. Um, we're trying to take good care of them, making sure they have adequate water, that they swap off, that they take cool-down breaks. Um, but, you know, fact is, we need more trucks. We need more people to be able to take good care of the people that we're here to serve. Um, and can I offer any anything else?
1:15:42
Unidentified No, that was, that was it.
1:15:44
Unidentified Thank you. Thank you for hearing me.
1:15:47
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Thank you. If there, did you have anything else? Uh
1:15:54
Unidentified oh no. I was going to go with any other motion.
1:15:56
Unidentified Are there any other questions?
1:15:59
Unidentified Anything else? We want to move to journ-.
1:16:02
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Well, we got, we have at least one more item. At least one more. Thank you. Uh, one second, Mr. Wall. We got, we got one. Okay. Um, the next item is, uh, what you will find in your packet on page 51. Um, this is a review of financing terms for new police vehicles. Um, I'm going to yield the floor some to the chief, uh, the police chief, Mr. Sanders. So you can come on up. I know that at the last meeting this was a, uh, we had some sentiments about the, the need to um look at these vehicles. I do want to say that the city clerk um made the phone call and was able to get us some initial numbers, and, and what you see on page 51 is exactly that. And um, I wanted to yield the floor to the chief to explain um what he thinks is the importance of of us looking at this issue seriously.
1:16:58
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders Good evening.
1:17:01
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders Few months ago we were, we were in need of vehicles. Right now we got to have them, the calls for service. Uh, my officers are getting griped at. They're getting blatantly just cussed out, disrespected, because they're having to get out, boost the car off, do something under the hood before they can even answer a call for service. Certain emergencies, we can't get, we just can't get there adequate right now. We got to do something. I understand the garbage situation and not picking it up, but when police don't show up, it's bad.
1:17:48
Unidentified You can get five, five new cars, fully equipped and everything, for $360,000. They were showing on here.
1:17:58
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders° I believe when Miss Ramsey did the numbers, it was somewhere around there. I don't have the numbers in front of me right now.
1:18:03
Unidentified Yeah.
1:18:15
Unidentified And a payment about $7,121 a month.
1:18:27
Unidentified Yeah, this is correct.
1:18:28
Unidentified This is information.
1:18:29
Unidentified Yeah, this is about right. Chief.
1:18:35
Unidentified Yes, sir.
1:18:36
Unidentified Those five cars will help us gratefully, but how, how much will that help you? Five police cars.
1:18:44
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders° That'll help us tremendously right now. Uh
1:18:46
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders I know we always talk about not saying the number, but I just had to send one officer to the police academy. So, that took away from us. It's, it's going to do us a great service. I say at minimum. I know Mr. Etherly always says, when somebody, when he calls, he want the police to show up. He said he want us there. Help us get there. Right now I received an email from the dealer where I had initially got the invoice from. He had eight in stock. He emailed me that, and another, I would say at least 25 chiefs and sheriffs, but he has eight vehicles in stock right now.
1:19:40
Unidentified So, how many calls have we missed?
1:19:43
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders We don't miss any. It's just the time that it takes to get there. We've transported detainees, arresties, whatever you want to call it, and we've been stuck on the side of the road with them in custody.
1:20:04
Unidentified Yes, sir.
1:20:10
Unidentified How many cars do you have that are operating approximately? I mean, you don't have to give me an exact number.
1:20:16
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders Three.
1:20:17
Unidentified Sandy.
1:20:18
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders° I sent sent one to the police academy yesterday.
1:20:21
Unidentified No, no, no. Not police officers. Cars.
1:20:23
Unidentified Five cars.
1:20:24
Unidentified Say again.
1:20:25
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders° Yeah. Three. I sent one police vehicle to the academy. It started yesterday. Yes.
1:20:30
Unidentified And you said Miss Sandy already looked this over.
1:20:34
Unidentified Yes.
1:20:35
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders° This is five of the car. I came with the initial proposal of 10.
1:20:37
Unidentified Took that number by five and come up with 7,000. I mean 727 $72,000 for 360,000.
1:20:49
Unidentified Mr. St. Columbia actually how that's number seems kind of high. He wants you to explain and explain to him
1:20:55
Unidentified looking at these numbers at expensive $7,000 $2,000 a car.
1:21:02
Unidentified Madame clerk, could you just explain for the uh public so that they would understand why?
1:21:06
Unidentified See if you want to explain about outfitting with the car.
1:21:09
Unidentified Yeah. So when citizens or when you go buy a car, you just go buy a car.
1:21:15
Unidentified Yeah.
1:21:15
Unidentified Correct.
1:21:17
Unidentified When we buy a car,
1:21:19
Unidentified I know you got
1:21:20
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders° we got to have radios. We have to have lighting. We have to have sirens. We have to have what we call a cast system.
1:21:26
Unidentified All that's going to be new new
1:21:29
Unidentified Yes.
1:21:30
Unidentified New equipment put on.
1:21:32
Unidentified Yes, sir. We have to have a badge with stickers on it and everything.
1:21:34
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders° What does each car cost to do each car? What? I don't have those numbers in front of me right now,
1:21:43
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey Chief. Each car that you priced out the car itself is 39,000. 39
1:21:50
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° to outfit it is an additional 29,000
1:21:56
Unidentified because of everything a police car is required to have or needs.
1:22:00
Unidentified Yeah.
1:22:01
Unidentified Yeah. So you're looking at roughly $70,000 per police car.
1:22:07
Unidentified About 70 correct $70,000 per car.
1:22:10
Unidentified Yes.
1:22:10
Unidentified Yes, sir.
1:22:13
Councilman Joe St. Columbia (Ward 2)° That's what I come up with. $72,000 per vehicle.
1:22:18
Unidentified Okay. So, it's all new equipment put on the car.
1:22:22
Unidentified Yes, sir.
1:22:23
Unidentified Siren, new. Everything's new.
1:22:24
Unidentified Everything will be new on it.
1:22:27
Unidentified Chief, how long will those cars last us?
1:22:31
Unidentified With the three that we have. So, we
1:22:35
Unidentified five new five.
1:22:37
Unidentified I'm I'm getting with you on that.
1:22:39
Unidentified All right.
1:22:40
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders So, what we're doing now is what I call hot seating. When somebody gets out of it, the next person is getting in it. They call it constantly.
1:22:48
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders° Yes, sir. So, with those additional units, we'll be able to give the ones that we have a break and those new ones will not be ran all the time. So, essentially, it will the life of the units that we have will be prolonged and we won't be wearing out the new ones.
1:23:07
Unidentified So, how long will one of these cars last you? I would ask the city attorney uh he would have better advice on how often we should probably rotate uh police units. I know we talked about this.
1:23:21
Unidentified We got to be real about this.
1:23:23
Unidentified I'm serious about that.
1:23:24
Unidentified Yeah.
1:23:24
City Attorney Andre Valley° But what he's telling you, Mr. St. Columbia, it's hard to estimate. Here's here's the practical part saying you don't have enough units because the city does not have enough units. They're constantly rotating because the question that he and I have discussed, what is the mileage that you put on the vehicle every day? Because it's constantly moving and the ones you have are constantly moving for three shifts or two shifts depending on what time they're running. And you're constantly moving the vehicles. So, the least amount of vehicles you buy, by the time you pay for these vehicles, it'll be time to get some more. Uh just to be candid with you because the the lower the number of vehicles that are purchased, the more mileage you got to put on all of them.
1:24:06
Unidentified It's almost like the sanitation department,
1:24:09
City Attorney Andre Valley° right? They start out brand new, but over the course of a year, they they put a tremendous amount of miles on them. Uh the plan that he initially asked was for units for twice as many, but now he's asking for half of that. It was 10 and now it was five.
1:24:24
City Attorney Andre Valley° Yes, sir. It was 10 at first. And the plan is to repair those three that you have the city has and so you'll have eight in rotation. So hopefully you won't have to as he say hot seat. I mean as soon as one ship in next person get in they come off the run. Uh it's uh when you can't afford a lot of can't afford a car for each each officer, can't afford home storage, it creates a problem that by the time you pay for them that they're ready for you to get rid of. Did that answer your question?
1:25:00
Unidentified Yeah.
1:25:03
Unidentified You can act with Ramsey last
1:25:05
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders° right when you act Ramsey. We bought uh the current ones we're driving were purchased during when Chief Smith was the chief. And uh we've just completed plan. When we finished complaining for those, Miss Ramsey,
1:25:18
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° last July.
1:25:19
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders° Last July. And so at this point, we need some new ones. That's precisely the point.
1:25:28
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° So how can we purge these five? M clerk, would you um explain the impact on the on the budget for that roughly $7,000 payment?
1:25:44
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° It's going to be $84,000 a year. That's going to put an additional $84,000 hit on your budget. Are you Chief, I think we going to need those five cars regardless.
1:26:18
Unidentified I agree with you on that.
1:26:20
Unidentified Pay for them.
1:26:24
Unidentified Can you Can you stationary some of those cars instead of riding all over town? We're not effective if we're stationary.
1:26:31
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders° We're not effective if we're stationary.
1:26:34
Unidentified There are some places I can see where cars are flying by, but police can pick them up right and left.
1:26:42
Unidentified I'm not saying all five have to be stationary.
1:26:45
Unidentified I would
1:26:45
Unidentified one or two maybe a day. on middle and nights they fly by.
1:27:05
Unidentified Who Who's financing these? What who got financing?
1:27:10
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° It's a company called uh Commercial Capital. The money will end up going through Kansas n Kansas State Bank, which is most of where our equipment is financed.
1:27:20
Unidentified I see where they're charging 7% interest.
1:27:22
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° Yes, sir.
1:27:27
Unidentified And so the first payment is due one month from closing. So that would be say for
1:27:34
Unidentified be one month from the day we signed the contract
1:27:36
Unidentified whether the cars are here or not.
1:27:41
Unidentified Is this what $7,121? Is that the
1:27:47
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° That's That's the monthly note. Yes. For five cars.
1:27:52
Unidentified For five cars. 11,100 for buying five cars
1:28:00
Unidentified for what? Mr. City Attorney, was it 5 years? We could finance them for five years.
1:28:07
City Attorney Andre Valley° They going to be wor five years ain't going to last five years. Well, payment on will run five years.
1:28:18
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders° I said the ones we got under Chief Smith, we purchased them in 2021. We got them in 2022. We paid them off in 2025.
1:28:34
Unidentified We got to We got to have police cars. We got to have cars.
1:28:43
Councilman Adrian Messina (Ward 2) I know we take a boat and get these police cars instead of sitting around looking at each other. you make a motion. We buy those five police cars.
1:28:55
Unidentified We need to uh pick a way for competitive.
1:28:59
City Attorney Andre Valley No, on police cars, uh the state has already gone through the procurement and you're getting with the state contract rate. And so because the state has already done so when the state does so when the purchase of police cars each municipality is authorized to deal with the vendor who will provide the contracts the cars at the state contract rate and so it's my understanding the chief has already dealt with the vendor who provide the car at the state contract rate. So, uh, if you all make the purchase, then you'll be doing so at the state contract rate.
1:29:35
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Is the, um, Thank you, Attorney Bally. I did hear a motion from, uh, Councilman Messina.
1:29:42
Unidentified Can Can we handle that financially?
1:29:47
Unidentified No.
1:29:49
Unidentified $7,000 a month.
1:29:52
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° We We need garbage trucks. We're paying contractors to help pick up garbage. All that stuff is un unbudgeted. Um I mean the question is the same one we asked where does it come from and I do want them to come on call but something else is going to happen on the other side. somebody's not going to get paid and what are the consequences of that going to be? Um, I don't know.
1:30:40
Unidentified I'll mention something to you all while we sitting here.
1:30:42
Unidentified How long will it take you to get those five cars?
1:30:45
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders Right now, he has eight in stock. He sent the email last Thursday, but he sent it to me and other about 20 30 other police chiefs and sheriffs. So right now, I don't even know if you have him in stock. I know Miss Ramsey know last time when Chief Smith ordered to be here because the reason they couldn't get them because they didn't get the certain chips. So I'm hoping he still has five out of those eight. We'll see and talk. If not, then it'll be a weight weight game.
1:31:13
Unidentified You going to take one month to get him? Two months? What?
1:31:17
Unidentified I'm not sure.
1:31:18
Unidentified Well, there's no way I don't make the chip.
1:31:19
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders° There's no way of knowing, Mr. Messina. It depends on if their outfitting equipment is there and how long it takes them to get into a shop to be outfitted. It could be 60 days before he even has his vehicles. It depends on who's ahead of him.
1:31:34
Unidentified Okay.
1:31:34
Unidentified Could be at least two months, huh? Could be
1:31:38
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° minimum. I just think that this speaks to how critical and crucial it is for us to be timely and follow through because so with the the garbage situation, the police department has to have cars and we know that we're going to have to have those cars because at the end of the day, you can't be transporting prisoners and you're breaking down on the side of the road. And I mean there's just other things that I could I would think could be liability issues.
1:32:17
Unidentified Oh, it's liability for sure.
1:32:19
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° So I mean I Yeah. I you know I'm compelled to even though I know that we don't have the money and we got to figure out where we're going to get it. I mean, I'm compelled as well to say, you know, we need to address this. The police cars and especially, I mean, those kind of cars, they don't come often. You know, if we do the five of the 10 that he wanted and you know, if you say Miss Ramsay that I mean, it might be a stretch, right? I want to Oh, go ahead. M clerk. I just wanted to add that um something one pathway that I did consider um was the fact that we have paid off from Army Corp of Engineers. Is that correct? Had an annual payment of $50,000. And how long was that payment plan for?
1:33:27
Unidentified Um
1:33:27
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° it started at $300,000.
1:33:29
Unidentified 300,000. Was that also I mean the the term for paying that was how long? It's been about five years. Five years.
1:33:39
City Attorney Andre Valley So, we submitted that last payment and that was $50,000 annually. Um, a possible pathway is to reallocate that $50,000 that was going towards Army Corps of Engineers. Now granted, that is only 50 and we'd still have to figure out um how to allocate the other 34, but I do believe that um I do believe that we could allocate the funds appropriately and that 34 would come down to about 2,000 um or about 3,000 a month. So that we would need to find that seven that full 7,000. So, I do believe that there are pathways for us to plan for this and um want us to all acknowledge that. I mean, which I do feel like I hear that this is an issue and I and I'm appreciative of the fact that we want to make sure we're doing it prudently, but I do feel like there are pathways for how to make sure that we can um finance it without further stressing um where we currently are. I I think there's there's several factors for y'all to consider and I know the chief wants five. Uh but I I think the thing about it with the the situation about the city's finances, uh the mayor mentioned $5,000 per month. Um you may have to look at work working within that if that's what you're paying. As city attorney, let let me be frank with you about where we are. We can't engage in deficit spending. We've already been engaged in deficit spending. The issue as we going forward is all the payment plans that we are engaging in. You're paying Laf $67,000 a month in addition to the $80,000 you're paying. And then Caterpillar when we settled that was $5,500 a month. And then this the county, you all are aware, you're paying $10,000 a month for the county. So that's $82,000 payment. And we were paying $5,000 a month for uh the settlement with the Army Corps of Engineers. That was $87,000 a month that we were paying. That that equates to $1,44,000 a year. Your annual budget is $5.6 million. You had surplus of 1.3 million. So you already have spent 1 million 400 1,ion4,000 out of that 1.3 million as it relates to these. And these are ongoing. Life won't be paid until uh April of next year, but that's $67,000 a month. That that that was the agreement that was made was 18 months agreement and that ends in April of next year. Your finances are are tight. If you could purchase less cars, get the cars, and then look at something later that probably be more prudent. Um because you do need cars. U five is the number he wants. The mayor has identified
1:36:32
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders° I want 10.
1:36:34
Unidentified Yeah, you want 10. 10.
1:36:36
City Attorney Andre Valley° Uh the issue uh chief candidly, we have to balance the fact that from the same general fund, we have to find money to buy garbage trucks. From the same general fund, we got to find find money to continue to pay all these other things. anything else that may come up. The mayor is identifying $5,000 a month, which the city has been paying uh that the city finished paying in June uh to the Army Corps engineers at paying the $5,000 a month. That's part of the 87,000 you're paying already. I think that you all need to focus on uh not farther going too much above that because you're already at a strain of $87,000 a month. um when you add another $7,000 a month, you you're really looking at issues. And so you paid off the city paid off the army core engineers uh the $300,000 that was $5,000 a month. And that's the $5,000 a month that the mayor is is speaking of that may be available as his next as the city's next pathway.
1:37:40
Unidentified But that was a lump sum payment, right? the city paid a lump sum payment in
1:37:45
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° so the 5,000 a month is when we made the lumpsum payment that's the entire year so there's no extra 5,000 per month
1:37:53
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° no but but for me calculating it still equates to the same as paying it over the course of 12 months it's the same month same year
1:38:01
Unidentified yeah but I'm saying it's not like we were making a $5,000 per month payment and then we stopped we paid the whole year
1:38:09
Unidentified right because the agreement gave us the uh the option of either paying a monthly or a lump sum.
1:38:14
City Clerk Sandi Ramsey° I'm I'm saying it's don't believe you have 5,000 extra dollars now per month. It's been paid, but it's a lump sum payment. That's one payment that that payment covers the entire year. It's all 12 months have been spent.
1:38:29
Unidentified This all 12,000 all 12 months have been paid. Here's
1:38:32
Unidentified one. Is Is there a used car option?
1:38:35
Unidentified I hadn't explored it. What about a mix? You know, a mix of cars. If he needs five and we could say do three new, two used, or two new, three used.
1:39:05
Councilman Adrian Messina (Ward 2) Hey, mayor, I'm gonna give you my thoughts. sanitation. These people are paying a sanitation bill every damn month and we're not picking up their garbage. To me, I think that's important. The police car, that's important, too. We can solve picking up the garbage real easy. You start it an hour earlier during the day and you work one hour later in the afternoon to get this garbage picked up for those people so they don't so they're not complaining. They're paying money. We need to get the garbage. Same time we need to get the police cars. We never know when there's going to be an emergency. And then next year when it rolls around, then we can start readjusting salaries because we're we're salary out. Um to that I just want to briefly I mean mention that starting an hour early, starting uh and going an hour longer um as has already been mentioned it does incur extra cost. So, it's not necessarily a quick fix or simple solution. And I do want us to just make sure that we kind of rein it in so that we can stay locked locked here on uh best practices for or best pathways for looking at police vehicles. So does um chief does the um the archive that you've used to get the government to get to find this uh fleet also provide the options of use through that one through that uh site as well or will we have to look outside of that?
1:41:00
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders So I reached out u to one of the dealers that had the state contract. I'm not sure if Well, I'm sure it'll be cheaper if we got a used police car. But the problem with a used police car is it's been it's been manhandled. It's been it's been abused. Nobody wants to That's why they getting rid of it. Nobody wants an abused police car. Now, we can go that pathway and I might be back in front of y'all maybe a year, maybe 6 months, but if it's a good police car, nobody wants to get rid of it. That's my logic. That makes sense. I mean,
1:41:40
Unidentified so maybe if
1:41:41
Unidentified Well, we're looking at at least two months before we get the police cars.
1:41:47
Unidentified That's an estimate.
1:41:49
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders° We could get if we purchase them, they could get in the shop. We could have some end of the month. We don't know at this time.
1:41:58
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders° Only thing I can tell you is that he had eight in stock at Dylan. In the long run, in the long run, it would be two months
1:42:04
Unidentified or it could be one month
1:42:06
Unidentified possibly.
1:42:08
Unidentified When say
1:42:10
Unidentified get you mean receive here.
1:42:12
Unidentified Say that one more time.
1:42:13
Unidentified Three.
1:42:15
Unidentified Any helps?
1:42:18
Police Chief Quanderius Sanders° But we're going to look at the potential of still possibly hot seating because the ones we got now, we're still putting band-aids on. So
1:42:32
Unidentified that's what I was thinking too. If you know we do maybe three
1:42:49
Mayor Joseph Whitfield what I what I might suggest if we um to keep us from making any decisions out of hasten that might be imprudent um I'm floating out the idea of a special meeting this um week either tomorrow or Thursday. Would that particularly work for us to um come back and revisit this item?
1:43:10
Unidentified I won't be here Friday for sure, but I mean, yeah, I won't be available Friday, but tomorrow maybe
1:43:17
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° or Thursday. And I can send out I can send out an email if we can commit to um being available for one of those days and we can pick a time that works.
1:43:32
Unidentified What's what's going to change between now and tomorrow? I guess the question is what are we what's going to happen?
1:43:38
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° The um I can get with the chief to make sure we dedicate some time to exploring other options that might particularly be um restructuring what this looks like
1:43:49
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° um with less vehicles, but also looking at used as well. So tomorrow more time to look around
1:44:09
Unidentified I for me either day would work and so I want to make sure that the body can be as flexible. I can be as flexible as as I need to be for this body.
1:44:20
City Attorney Andre Valley° I'm not putting a rush on it. Here's the the practical issue. What the chief is saying is this. He needs some decision as soon as possible
1:44:27
City Attorney Andre Valley° because eight cars going to be gone and then we start over. So if we're going to do two or three cars or five cars, he needs a decision as soon as possible. Is that correct?
1:44:43
Unidentified That and I have court Thursday not here.
1:44:48
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° So maybe tomorrow. Tomorrow will work for
1:44:54
City Attorney Andre Valley° I'm not available tomorrow, but y'all don't need me.
1:44:58
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Would tomorrow work for a potential special call meeting sometime in the afternoon? Would tomorrow work for a special call meeting sometime in the afternoon?
1:45:06
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° So, I will send out an email.
1:45:09
Mayor Joseph Whitfield I will send out an email um I'll send out an email regarding times and make sure that we can uh get that locked in. Uh thank thank you chief. We will we convene on this. Before we uh adjourn, we do I do want to revisit um
1:45:24
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Yep. Before we adjurnn, I do want to revisit uh the water department update. Um we have engineer Ken Wallen here and I wanted him to just speak a little bit to um what the project would entail for the US 49 bridge line relocation financially. So I have um shared with them that we faced two options whether we finance the project or pay for it outright. and um wanted to lay out the numbers for exactly what we'd be looking at as a city.
1:45:52
Kenneth L. Weiland And we are talking about the bridge relocations, right? And I apologize. The mayor mentioned to me that I might need to be here. I thought it was going to be just a financial discussion. It does not believe me. I should have been here and I apologize. Uh he did tell me I probably need to be here. Uh let me I know it's been a long evening for you guys. So, let me just really quickly refresh your memory on what we've got going on down at the bridge. In 2022, I think ARDOT came in and advised us that they were going to build a new bridge, that first bridge coming from the welcome center. I know y'all heard this five or six times, so I'm going really be brief on it. And unfortunately, we've got water and sewer lines that run under the existing bridge. And after we investigated and surveyed, we determined that two of them are going to be in conflict with the new piles for the new bridge. I came to then and the Ardot is really anxious for us to do get those lines relocated. So we came to the council. The council said approved to wave the bidding on it and so we could move forward without losing it six weeks. So what I did was I went out and I got two reputable contractors, both of which I'm working with, both of both of which I have current contracts that I'm working with them on. So they're very they're reputable, they're insurable, they're bondable, and I had them, we took them down, explained to them what we needed to do at the same time. Both of them gave me a sealed bid, not the big bids like we normally, just basically here's my proposal to do it in sealed envelopes. We met in Miss Sandy's office and under with Sandy as a witness. We opened those two seal bids and we had one for 40. I think the high one was 46 and the low one was 42. So they were both pretty close together. 42 by A and B construction. They're out of Ponttop. Uh again, I'm working with them on at least two projects. They bid on your West Southern project and they're probably going to be coming over. Actually, they've come over now to uh see if they can help say with some leaks. So, the only question that I know we have on that because it's it's not really a matter of you really have no choice. You've got to get the lines out of the way for the for the highway department. So I think what the the only issue was that the highway department has and do you want to explain this? You want me to to
1:48:27
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Well, you can reexlain it, but we they have the actual application in there for this.
1:48:31
Kenneth L. Weiland Yeah, you got two choices. Uh the mayor Well, I'm not going to I'm going to let the mayor say what his position is. You can either fund it internally and we can move forward. Now, we we are at the point right now we have developed a an abbreviated a short contract. so that they'll be under a contract just like any contractor would be under a contract. It's got the provisions, the payments and everything in it. It just doesn't have all the bid the bid bonds and all that other stuff. We waved that to move this thing forward. We had those contracts almost ready and the only thing that we need is a decision and really and truly it doesn't affect us. The contract's going to be the same. Everything's going to be the same on my end. But you have a choice that the highway department mayor correct me if I'm wrong offers an opportunity to give you a and it may be variable but a 10 the example they gave us was a 10-year interest free loan correct interest free for the 42,000 or you can finance it yourself without putting the city in any more debt. So, I think that was what the mayor wanted me to come over and just get get you guys briefed on. And so, it's just really a simple decision as to which way you want to go with it.
1:49:49
Unidentified That was 10 years interest free.
1:49:52
Engineer Ken Weiland° The example that the highway department sent was was a 10-year. They may they may offer others. They may offer a longer one. They may offer a shorter one. I think that if you decide to go with the highway department, then I think that would be the discussion that the mayor uh or me if he wants me to would have with the highway department. Can they change that payment term? The biggest thing was is that everything I saw on it was that there's no interest. So you you bas you basically just going to be paying it back
1:50:19
Unidentified 10 years sounds good.
1:50:21
Unidentified There were there were other fees that we might incur. Um so yeah, there are other fees. it wouldn't probably be a clean uh payment for at least to our dot, we would only owe what we what we took. Um but as far as project um expenses, um cleanup costs potentially um supporting detail if necessary, there there were a couple other places where fees could be had.
1:50:53
Mayor Joseph Whitfield We need to vote on that. I think I think I mean we've had this this has been presented to the council I think a handful of times over the last uh four years. Um it it's my position that the water department can handle this um in one lump sum payment. We can pay for the project to be done and um and give Arkansas Department of Transportation a green light to begin and um get those plans moving. So that that's my position rather than drawing it out um over a loan that the the water department would take out.
1:51:27
Unidentified So how much? He said 42. You said 56.
1:51:32
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° I thought correct. I thought I thought 56. That's why I wanted him to be here today.
1:51:36
Unidentified 42.
1:51:37
Engineer Ken Weiland 42 was construction. There'll be some engineering, but I'm going to try to keep that below the the mayor's limit. Uh, and it should be unless we hit a problem down there. Remember, we're we're digging around underneath the bridge and uh you just never know. But we've dug around a lot down there looking for these lines. So, I'm hoping that it's just going to go quick and easy. The next step would be once we get them under contract, I'm going to get the highway department to bring their surveyors over here and make sure and double check the points that we've put down so that we are all quite certain where the new piles and new corners of their pilings are going to be before we relocate these lines. And then they'll get in there. I mean, it's just basically 200 feet. We tie on here, go around where the new piles going to be, and tie back in on both lines. One's a sewer line, 8 in. The other's a 6 inch water line that runs right down the edge of Oll Rock Road. But those pilings are going to be too close. We're going to have to swing it just a little bit to the north and back down.
1:52:37
Unidentified 6 in water line. Is that what you're saying?
1:52:39
Engineer Ken Weiland° 6 in water line. Yes, sir.
1:52:41
Engineer Ken Weiland Yes, sir. We'll put in the the poly pipe, the plastic pipe, and we can just sweep it around, try to reduce any fittings, any possibility of leaks. And it's also very strong because when they drive those piles, if you if you don't believe it, come down to Ohio Street when they're pecking at that wall down there and feel it shake those buildings. When they drive those piles, there's a pretty good shake. So, this line can withstand that shake, that vibration that they're going that you're going to have when they drive those piles within 20 foot of us.
1:53:14
Unidentified So, worst case scenario is 60,000 or less.
1:53:19
Unidentified Yes, sir. Okay. I mean, I think we ought to just pay it in one lump sum.
1:53:24
Unidentified I hope. Yes, sir.
1:53:26
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° Yeah. Is there a motion?
1:53:30
Unidentified Yeah. But I don't know what to uh um
1:53:34
Engineer Ken Weiland° I mean, if anything comes up, I just bring it back to the mayor and the council,
1:53:38
Unidentified right? You said 42 plus the engineering fees. You would try to keep it under the spending authority. So,
1:53:43
Unidentified keep that. I'm try to keep that around.
1:53:46
Mayor Joseph Whitfield° So, so up to I'll just say up to 55,000. um for the project
1:53:51
Unidentified not to exceed without further permission.
1:53:54
Unidentified Yes, sir.
1:53:55
Unidentified So, I'll make that a motion.
1:53:57
Roll call Roll-call vote — Monica Davis: yes; Joe St. Columbia: yes; Adrian Messina: yes; Don Etherly: yes; Maxine Miller: yes.
1:54:13
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you.
1:54:15
Engineer Ken Weiland Again, I apologize for being tardy. Uh uh I we'll make sure this doesn't happen again. Sorry.
1:54:21
Mayor Joseph Whitfield No problem. Thank you. We'll correspond with AROT and make sure that they um have an understanding um I will send out a um brief email shortly before leaving this room and we with that we'll accept um a motion to um
1:54:34
Councilman Don Etherly (Ward 3) Mr. Mayor before before I leave probably based on all the conversation we've had about money is probably worth making sure people understand this comes from water funds.
1:54:43
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Correct. Correct. Thank thank you Councilman Anthony. the the 40 the the up to $55,000 worth of spending for the viewers at home, for the folks in the room is for the project to remove or replace um and move water lines underneath um the 49 bridge. So, thank you.
1:54:58
Unidentified Please return all the
1:55:00
Unidentified all the enforcement affidavit.
1:55:03
Mayor Joseph Whitfield Um I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn 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.