Make sure I've got everything turned on. Good afternoon. afternoon. I want to welcome you all to the May 8th budget, finance, and investment committee uh committee. And uh first order of business will be to approve our minutes from April the 10th and I'm going to
call on our vice chairman, Trey Gu. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have reviewed those minutes and find them to be in order. I move for its approval. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor signify by
saying I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. We've had one person call and request public comments. And if you would come forward, please state your name and we're going to give you about 30 seconds to te uh to talk. No, actually to get up
here. Welcome. My name is Kim Herp and I live in Las Casses. Um, and I'm here to talk to you guys. I've been here several times, but I just want to make you aware of u an issue
that the bus contractors are having right now. Um, the liability insurance that the board and the county has always included in our 4-year contract is being
excluded this year. Um, the liability insurance is on the children of Rutherford County schools, which is over 30,000 children that ride the bus every day. This is a huge liability and
responsibility of each of the 175 contractors to undertake individually. The board passed a motion to let the county do a RFP to take care of the liability insurance because the governor
Lee has signed a bill giving the county the right to put this back in our contract. We're waiting on this to be done because we have several insurance companies that are interested in looking
at this policy. The board has put a $4,000 stipen in our contract to help pay for this insurance. There has been quotes given to several individuals that have been from 4600 to
6,500 per bus. That's per year. We know a group rate would be so much lower. the board the the stifen of the 4,000 I think is like 1.4 million and that could
be used that they've budgeted to pay for that insurance because it it would be lower if we were all together. Um, if we have each of our own, if we each have to have our own liability on
the children, we fear this will cost the county a lot more money [Music] because what the of what has been budgeted for transportation because like Dr. Sullivan said, I'll buy the buses. I hire drivers
to replace the contractors that choose to not come back because there's so many contractors that don't feel like they can take that risk of of being responsible for all the children. Um I
mean you're at You still got a little time. Go ahead. Okay. Um, you know, we're risking our livelihood, our LLC assets, our homes, all of that to sign. Kim, thank you. I appreciate you coming
up. That's it. That's it. Okay. Okay. The next order of business will be our investment report. And uh, Mr. Batty's not able to be here tonight and Michael's going to cover that and our fund condition report back to back. So
go ahead Michael. Um so the first thing I'll cover for our county trustee Ted Batty is the investment report. And so our current bank rate um is 4.05% and our current LGIP rate is 4.28%. This week also the Fed uh voted
to hold interest rates steady. Um both our bank rate and LGIP rate are very closely tied. um with the Fed. Um and so that to me is held steady. So that's good for us. The second thing is they did go out to bid in the last couple weeks um for a CD and that rate came in
a little above right at 4%. Um so that just kind of gives you an idea of of where we're earning our money um around right around that four to four and a quarter percent mark um as it stands today. I'll move on uh to the fund condition report, specifically the revenue report. Um, couple things I'll
I'll focus on here is in the bottom of the first page of the revenue report, our property tax collections are coming in right where they should. Um, so that that is a very good thing. Additionally, we have hit um now that we have all our property tax in, we have hit 100% of our
budgeted revenues. So, that's a good thing. Of course, we always budget conservatively. Um, and our county side of sales tax continues to be up. Um so all good things um um on the revenue side and with that I'll take any
questions. Quick question. The cost interest rates if they stay up a bit the cost and the effect on the um debt service fund. Yes. So a lot of we strive for level debt service. So all
of our debt is is fixed um when when we borrowed. So really the only question will be what do we think that the bond resolutions you're going to see tonight? What is that going to be? And right now you would normally expect when the Fed cuts for the 10 year or something to drop. Well, it's kind of inversed right now. The 10-year went up when the Fed
cut the last time. But with all that being said is we've taken a conservative approach in the bond resolution that I'll talk about tonight. So we've estimated that we will have a little bit higher borrowing rate than we really think we will. So that we're kind of protected. So any savings there if we if we come in lower will will just be to
our benefit. But we've estimated a little bit more volatile bond market and a little bit higher rate than we think we're going to get just in case. The other thing we have is if something were to happen out of our control, we would have the option to do some type of temporary bond anticipation note uh to
let the market calm down or a capital outlay note. and and we always keep that in our back pocket if we have to. Okay. Whoever makes a motion on that and I go ahead and I'll recognize you. Okay. Thank you. Um, directors miss. So on the
county general on all the revenue, am I reading this correctly that we're at through April 104% to go? No, we've reached 104%. So we're 4% over our budgeted revenues. But the main thing is to keep in mind there
is we we've essentially stopped collecting property taxes. They're really small because they were all due in February. And so now we've collected 100% of what we budgeted for property tax. So now you're not going to see that jump as much um because property tax collections are primarily through October through February. So that's why
every year around this time of year you'll see about 100% of budgeted collections. So that's that's a good thing. So as far as like the other uh taxes uh do you do you know or any predict predictions on what that final figure
over goal or over what was budgeted? Yes. So that is going to be included a little bit in what we talk about tonight when we go over the the budget draft. And so as we budget conservatively um kind of I noted county sales tax is up about 6%. you know, we may have only
budgeted four, so we've got a little bit 2% cushion there. That played into how we budgeted for FY26. Um, but I do think we'll end up to the good maybe five or 10% this year. Um, which that includes that'll roll over into how we'll afford raises and things like that for next
year. Okay. Are the other I'm just looking at say ambulance or almost 90%. So, is that where it should be, you think, or that is? Yes, that is exactly where I think it should be. Now, you'll notice on ambulance on that first page, if if you want to get really granular, they they only have two large revenues.
One is property tax. So, they're going to hit 100% of their property tax already because we're pretty much done collecting. But then their other big big revenue, it's only at 78 or 80% right there. That's ambulance colle like collections from billing companies. And so, that's about where it should be. You can see last year at this time, we were
about at 76%. Um, and so that's just kind of an example of how property tax, you get the bulk of the collection in a small frame, whereas sales tax or ambulance revenue, those come in periodically every month. The other thing is business tax. We don't get our large business tax payment until May.
So, we haven't received that. We get trickles in, but then we get the large portion in May. Um, but ultimately, as I look through every fund, the the first page being county general 118 and then the other funds, I think we're right where we should be. I just want to caution. Think schools for example,
they're they're not at 100%. That's because their largest revenue is from TISA. Well, they still have an entire 30 something million dollar TISA payment to come that's going to be split over two payments in June. So, they're not going to be at 100% because they're not primarily funded through property tax.
Their major revenue is going to be 323 million comes from the state for them. Okay. Just one more question if you don't mind. So, um, you're not outside of schools, you're not concerned about any fund that won't make at least 100%.
No, sir. Okay. And debt service. Now, I'm I'm kind of impressed with that. That's a 30 almost 40% over. Okay. But there's a comment there. You'll see there's a number two and it said refunding entries have not yet been posted. And so, you'll see there there's one that's
3,000%. I think it's 22 million. That's the refunding. Yeah. That's why I have a comment there where it says refunding budget entries are not yet posted. We will bring those next month and that will go away. The percentage will go away. Um that is where we we don't actually receive that refunding money.
That's sent straight to escrow when we refunded the debt issuance back in January. But we book the entries as if we received the money even though we did not. But you anticipate that that fund to be over 100%. That is correct. Okay. But it will not be 3,000.
Any more questions? If anyone wants to make a motion, they need to make a motion for both these reports, the uh fund condition and the investment report. And I will entertain one now. I have a motion. I have a motion and a second to approve both the investment
and the uh fund condition reports. Any further comments? All in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Okay, next on the agenda is the riskmanagement financial report. We're going to call on
Mr. Elim. Good evening. So, in your 264 fund report, excuse me a second. Ed, I'm sorry. It's all right. Eden, insurance and risk management director. Uh in your 264 fund report you'll see
for the month of April revenue 1,865,566 expenses $2,747,12 revenue less expenditures a [Music] negative81,536 for the calendar year 2025 totals revenue 8,46
$6,612 expenses $9,712,132 revenue less expenditures a negative [Music] 1,665,520 for the calendar year 2425 I mean the fiscal year 2425 revenue total is
19,794,191 expenses 22,730,413 $13. Revenue less expenditures is $2,936,222. For the 266 fund report for the month of April, workers comp was $97,050.
OJI was 67,44062 and the total for the month of April $67,538.112 yeartoate workers comp $7,277.35 OJI $886,6927 and the year-to-ate total $893,96962. 2
cents. And for the attorney's fees for the month of April, it's $36,54748. And that concludes my report, Mr. Chairman. I have a motion to approve the report and a second. Any
discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Please continue. All right. So, I have recommendations coming from the insurance committee and also coming from purchasing. And I think I've got them in the same order that y'all have. Uh we
have the 2026 health rates. And you can see the rates in front of you. The uh recommendation coming from the insurance committee and uh forward it to the budget committee
was a 6% increase for active and and pre-medare medical plan rates a 2026 out-ofpocket amounts will remain the same for 2025 but there was one caveat to that in accordance with the IRS
guidelines which is they dictate the uh high deductible health plan the deductible for for the embedded is for the 2026 high deductible health plan employeeonly deductible. There is an increase of $100. There's also a zero increase for
dental and vision plan rates and the uh uh if you accept the the um the recommendation tonight on the next item which is the Medicare advantage. Just a moment. Uh I've talked
to Michael and for u audit reasons we need to vote on these separately. So let's do item on our page. It's item A which is the 2026 health dental and vision insurance for active employees and retirees. Am I
correct Ed? Yes sir. That's the one you were just explaining. Yes sir. Anybody on the committee have any questions on that or the amounts there? Are these additive? I mean, I'm trying to get a kind of a compensation type
question. Are these competitive? We we've these have actually all gone to bid and gone through purchasing. Uh there's three of us that I see right off hand that are in purchasing that can answer it. Uh Vice Chairman Guuh
Chairman Phillips, myself, and also our mayors here. But the these were all bid and then they were vetted through the insurance uh committee. The these are these are not bid. These are the medical rates that that we set for the self-
insurance plan. The other the other items were bid. This is the one that we set for our self- insurance plan in 264. Um you're asking are the premiums comparable to other other counties other counties you know for basic kind of compensation comparison. So one of
the things charging more or less that Ed's office does is make sure that we either meet or exceed the state insurance plan. I think that the consultants do that study and and I do believe this year that we either meet or exceed that on several tiers. Ed can correct me if I'm wrong. Yes. But one thing you have to realize the state
rates haven't come out yet. We're setting the rates for 26, but their rates haven't come out yet. They haven't given you what they are. So, you're you're kind of guessing, you know, what that'll be. But our rates are also based on our our uh you know, how much revenue we
have to come in and then how much our claims are to try to keep it balanced. We're fully self-insured with a stop-loss policy of, I believe, 500, 750. 500. 500. So, we're 500,000. So, we're fully self-insured um for medical
up to a $5,000 per employee limit of our stop-loss policy. And so, these premiums are paid over to our self- insurance fund um in 264. And then that's that's how we set that is based on an actuarial analysis of of where that fund is operating at. And so, we do have an
actuarial analysis performed every year. Um and then we try to set rates as conservatively as possible in conjunction with that actuarial analysis. We try to kind of go for an income smoothing effect. So the actuary may say one year it needs to be 18%, the next year it may say a negative five. So we try to shoot for a kind of a an
income smoothing approach kind of like the state does um to where we're not having giration in rates every year. Thank you. Any other questions about the first the health dental and vision insurance for
active employees and retirees? Any more questions? If not, I'll entertain a motion on that one. So move. I have a motion to accept uh the recommendation from I guess it's from purchasing and from the uh health
insurance. Do I hear a second? Second. All right. I have a motion and second. Any other discussion? Mr. Chairman, I'm um I retired from school system so I follow routine. Well,
you and you won't have to on this one uh on item B, Jonto. So, you're okay on this vote and we'll straighten that out in a minute. Uh Mark, call roll on this, please. Commissioner Harris, Commissioner Harris,
Commissioner Irvin, yes. Commissioner Johnson, yes. Commissioner Piery, yes. Commissioner Sereno, yes. Commissioner Guch. Oh, yes. Commissioner P. Yes. Okay. If if you would go to item B and
and I'm going to go ahead and mention this. Uh Chanto uh made a mention of rule 10 and our commissioner handbooks. if there's an item uh that we uh are affected by or our family member for
instance my wife and I are on this advantage plan that's fixing to be discussed so I will declare rule 10 uh as same as what Chonto was doing just a moment ago but uh Ed please continue okay so
number 610 I believe is I mean 6B is going to be the retirey Medicare advantage plan RFP recommendations This was opened by purchasing went back uh to the insurance committee for recommendation and then purchasing um
made their recommendation and the and for here it was uh Humanana option three at a premium rate of $2208 per member per month. Our current rate is for 2025 is premium rate of
$261 per member per month. So you'll see an approximate 15% um premium contribution savings. Okay. Any questions for the director on the advantage plan? Not I'll entertain a motion.
I have a motion. Second and a second. Any further discussion? And as I mentioned, Chanton and I both are declaring rule 10 on this. Uh, Mark call. Commissioner Harris, yes.
Commissioner Irvin, yes. Commissioner Johnson, yes. Commissioner Peary, yes. Commissioner Sinho, yes. Commissioner Gu, yes. Commissioner P, yes. Motion carries. Item C. All right. 6 C. you have the ancillary uh benefits that the
uh county Rutherford County contributes to long-term disability, life insurance, and then there's also grouped in with this is the short-term disability. Uh it's it's just very important that when you have the short-term and long-term disability that they're smooth transition. So, you try to work trying
to get uh the carrier for both of those. And when the um bids came back, uh we looked at it in several different ways uh as far as rate, as far as um a package putting them together and or
individually. And then some of them they didn't bid on the um uh workers comp long-term disability that's in the in the policy. So, they were eliminated. So after we put all of that together, um we decided to um make the recommendation of
which the insurance committee and uh purchasing agreed with the uh to place the long-term disability, short-term disability, and life insurance with the company called the standard. Uh and for the long-term disability,
uh go with option one at a rate of 0.13 per 100 for covered payroll. For short-term disability, add an additional 3030 elimination period option in addition to the current offered 07 elimination period. and what
that is on the short-term disability. If if someone gets um has to be out and applies for the short-term disability, right now they have a 7-day waiting period. But what this by giving them the additional option which is at a lesser rate at the 3030 they can they can if
they have a lot of time built up annual time sick time built up then they can go in and select the 3030 instead of the 07 because it's a cheaper rate and and decide to use their um 30 days worth of
um of annual time or sick time depending on what the occasion is. So um that's why we wanted to add that additional 3030. This is an employee paid benefit. This is not a county benefit. So we're not increasing any cost there.
Um and then also increase the group paid life to 50,000 for active employees. Um and and the um you know right now it's at 35,000. So we're talking about going to 50. We were
asked uh the insurance committee asked us to give several different options. Stay at 35, go to 50. Um and I think one and a half times your your salary and they they landed on in and the purchasing committee agreed they landed on the to increase it from 35,000 to
50,000. Uh and then also increase the voluntary employee supplement life to elections up to 750,000 five times annual salary which is whichever is less. Child and and spouse supplemental life amounts remain the same. And this again is this part
here is you're increasing the the cap of 500,000 up to five yeah 500,000 up to 750,000. And again that is a a uh supplemental life that's paid by the employee. It's not any additional cost to the to the um county. Uh you're just
adding uh additional benefit uh if they want to increase their life insurance up to that amount or whatever that qualifies. And then increase the voluntary basic dependent life election to $30,000. Um again, this is an an
employee uh option right now. I think it's at 25. So they can go up to 30. it's not age banded. And then um when you look at it, the collective impact uh for the ancillary benefits recommendation is an approximate
three-year average net annual savings of $76,300 to Rutherford County over that's a net annual savings. When you when you add these additional benefits in here, uh which several of them is employee paid themselves, uh it just gives them
greater options. So, and that was the recommendation of purchasing. Okay. You've heard his presentation on uh item E, long-term, short-term disability, and life insurance. Do I
have any more discussion or a motion? So, move. I have a motion to approve and a second. Any other discussion? Call roll. Commissioner Harris, yes. Commissioner Irvin, yes.
Commissioner Johnson, yes. Commissioner Peary, yes. Commissioner Sereno, yes. Commissioner Guj, yes. Commissioner P, yes. Motion carries. One more. All right. Item 6D under the property and casualty bids. Um the recommendation
from insurance and from purchasing was um to approve all lines for renewal as presented with cyber to remain with the current limit of 1 million. The SR was reduced from 250,000 down to to a
100,000 and um that is the base based on the recommendation from the broker finance and OIT. So we we did we've met with a lot of different people um finance OIT uh the broker and um we felt
like that was the best package uh and that's what the recommendation is and that's what um insurance and purchasing uh recommend it. Any questions from the committee on any of these items? If not, I'll entertain a
motion on this last item. Good question. Which package? Which one are we looking at here? We're looking at item D, property casualty, dental liability, volunteer fire, cyber liability, and crime insurance. Okay. And I'm on those two pages on the iPad.
Yeah, you'll see the bright colors there. Uh those are the the different carriers and the amounts. Picked which one? Well, they're all they're they're different for each each one of these for that particular
coverage. Got it. Okay. Sorry. Thank you, Mr. You're reading that right. Okay. How you pull that off? I didn't. I if if if I could comment for just a second.
our office along with OIT Rutherford County OIT the school's OIT sheriff's department uh and I think um register of deeds office we meet on a by month every every two months and we look at the
recommendation from the and the and the cyber company also is involved in those meetings at the beginning we have great discussions we we there's some I don't want to get too deep in the weeds here but there's a lot of tracking that goes goes on and uh quite honestly uh in
there's a I think because they know how involved we are, how every part of the county is involved. It's not just risk management on this. you know, I'd love to take credit for it, but I really need to give that out to the o the IT departments because when I get in those
meetings, I'll be quite frank with you, it's they could be speaking Japanese to me because of uh the what they're saying and and the the conversation going back and forth, but um I really think that uh they felt like how hard we're working and what we're doing to protect the
county. Uh I feel like that it it it paid off. Chairman Harris, we I think there were several of us I know in purchasing we had the exact same question. How did that happen? So, we were pleasantly surprised. Any further
questions? Not I will entertain a motion for item D. Have a motion. Second. Two seconds. Any further discussion or questions? Call roll. Commissioner
Harris, yes. Commissioner Irvin, yes. Commissioner Johnson, yes. Commissioner Peary, yes. Commissioner Sino, yes. Commissioner Gu, yes. Commissioner P, yes. Motion carries. Thank you, Ed. Thank you. Have a good night. Wait, wait, wait. Chairman P. Yes. I have a
question for our insurance director. all of our county vehicles, the liability insurance that I'm sure the county cares liability insurance on all the vehicles. Is it all in one package?
Yes. The bus coverage that has been carried in the past, would it have been in the same package? Yes, sir. I think it was purchasing. I was Didn't y'all meet last night? I was
understanding it to be told that even should the school entertain the idea of an RFP for the liability insurance for the buses, you were looking at probably at least a 90day span for that to happen?
Yes. Okay. Would it be a possibility to ask the insurance company that has the liability today that'll finish out this school year for like a 90-day extension on the bus coverage?
We have already we haven't asked for 90 days, but we have we have asked for uh if if they would reconsider and give us a price and add that into the package, and they said no. I tell you why.
You also cannot we couldn't do a 90-day extension. Um because that's a service that we have to bid. It would be beyond the bid threshold. And so that contract expires June 30th. So even if they were willing to give us a 90-day extension, we we would have to find some state
exchange, which I'm not aware of one, to buy that coverage off of for for three months. So, we have to buy our insurance through an open competitive bid process. And so, that's the that's the other issue we would run into when Ed's office reaches out to them for some type of extension. Um, that's just something
else to consider. Okay. Thank you. Any more questions, Ed? Thank you. Thank you. Have a good night. Next item is a general fund item seven, general fund budget amendment for GIS.
Cody. Thank you, chairman and committee. Uh, so I'm here to discuss uh Cody York. Cody York. Yes. Sorry. OIT director. Um, I'm here to to discuss the GIS uh
request for uh both there's two parts to this request. There's the moving around of several line items. And I want to thank finance and Michael Smith for being able to make this possible because it was there's a lot of moving parts and without him that would not have
happened. Uh there's a moving around a lot of unspent fund balance inside of GIS accounts. Uh so we're moving a lot around there and then we're requesting so we're moving around about 20230,000 and then we're requesting
$230,000 from unassigned fund balance. Uh and this is to replace uh GIS's storage and that storage system was put in 11 years ago. Uh and it has a 10-year typical kind of life cycle and it has
begun to fail. Actually, it has failed uh a handful of times uh several times. We've been able to kind of bring it back, but at this point it is uh operating without a backup. So both its uh its backup and the the secondary
backup and the tertiary backup are no longer alive. So um so that's what brings me here outside of a budgeting you know outside of the typical budget process uh is that we are concerned if
it fails and we cannot recover it then we will lose two 25 years worth of the state the county's GIS data. So the historical GIS data also on this storage array is the individual employees. So
imagine the people in codes engineering um property assessor I think you know those those people who use GIS they are using and saving their work that's that's what this is storing is their work that's
being saved. uh if it fails, their work will be gone. Well, they won't be able to work and their their work that eventually gets pushed to public safety will no longer be able to be pushed to to public safety um because the because
the work will be lost. So, so that's what we're looking for. Uh that's what this request is. Uh it's for a new system that would replace that um that failing system. Any questions for Director York? Motion
to approve. Motion to approve and a second. Mr. Johnson, any further discussion? Call roll, please. Commissioner Harris, yes. Commissioner Irvin, yes. Commissioner Johnson, yes. Commissioner Piery, yes. Commissioner Sereno, yes.
Commissioner Gu, yes. Commissioner P, yes. Motion carries. Thank you, Cody. Thank you, chairman and committee. Item eight, general purpose school fund budget amendments. Welcome. Good evening. Kay Martin,
deputy superintendent for Rutherford County Schools. I am here tonight on behalf of Dr. Sullivan, our director of schools. He is with his family tonight. Um, today marks the one-year anniversary of Asher Sullivan, his son's tragic
accident. So, he is with his family tonight as he should be. I also want to just take a minute and um I see a lot of familiar faces that about this time a year ago, we were all in the ER together and I just want to thank you for your
support. and the Sullivans, I know that they would want to extend your support. Um, in our darkest hour that night, you all were there helping us navigate that and um, we will forever be thankful for that. Thank
you. Tonight, we have fund 141, fund balance amendment. This budget amendment is to reflect the state of Tennessee moving from a six to an 8-year textbook adoption process to balance fund 141 GP budget. The textbook line item was cut
in the fiscal year 2425 in the intention to use fund 141 unassigned fund balance was communicated previously regarding the purchase of science textbooks. This amendment will decrease fund 141 unassigned fund balance and increase
expenditure account 71100430 bound textbooks in the amount of 6,654,414. Heard the request. There any questions for assistant director? Yes, Mr. Chairman. Um, so but this was not in how
much was in the prior budget budget we're currently operating in for textbooks. So this year we did not have this in the original to help balance that budget. Um, so it was it is now being moved over
from the fund balance. Was that is that your question? Sort of. I'm I'm just kind of I'm a little puzzled. So, we're So, we have a large school system. Sounds a little odd. Can you kind of help me understand
the follow on question is have in the upcoming budget so we don't have to fund balance or you know this coming year.
This was just something that we communicated that we did so we could help to balance that budget entering into this 2425 with the intention that we would move that from the fund balance. We want to make this purchase, this textbook
adoption will actually be for the next school year. Um, but we like to make that purchase in June as soon as possible because all the districts across the state are purchasing textbooks and so we want to make sure we get the supply before um the supply goes
low. We like to train our teachers over the summer in July and then also make sure that our students have those textbooks in the beginning of August. I can appreciate everything you just said. I'm trying to figure out why there wasn't a textbook item in the prior
budget and is there one in the upcoming budget? We did have a textbook line item uh this year. Currently, it's 1.5 million, but obviously with the textbook adoption being 6.6, it wasn't enough to cover the full amount of the textbook
adoption. So, we were using the money that we put into fund balance last year to pull it out this year in order to be able to cover the rest of the textbook adoption. Is it fair to say that it was in could could be anticipated that it would be a
number of this size or is this like a out ofthe- blue shock? Actually, I think the last textbook adoption that we did in 1819, it was right around the same amount. Um, it it was around $7 million for that textbook
adoption then. Okay. Do you have this number in your upcoming budget around $6 million? I do not because we're paying for it this year. No, I mean Okay. But the question is, are you do you anticipate
having a need for textbooks in the upcoming years? You want to answer that? So, so the Yes, sir. So, we will have the next adoption. We do not have a major core subject area adoption for next school year. Um, but we do have
additional textbooks that we purchase each year for the growth of students, lost books. Um, sometimes when we add more courses with our high schools, they need additional books. So, we will have a line item for that purchase. And the amount you're going to include in your
budget for this year roughly approximates the amount you think textbooks are going to cost. Yes, sir. Okay. Um I guess the next the other question is more of a Michael question. $6 million is a pretty hefty hit to your
fund balance. Michael, where does is really more of a Michael or or maybe you could address it, whoever wants to address it. I think it'll leave it at around 15.7 right around 15. Okay. So, is that
adequate coverage? I know we meet the ratio, but is it adequate coverage for what you know is going to be needed for example for payroll and things along those lines? I'm going to say for us to get our
budget approved by the state it has to be at a 3% fund balance. But I know for us to keep a good AAA bond rating, Michael likes it to be a little bit higher, which we foresee we foresee to put money into that into fund balance
this year, but so we we need really we need like three months we need three months worth of payroll. Um they're going to go and really it's for the summer. They don't get a tissa payment in in May or July. Um their payroll runs anywhere from 30 to 40 million a month. Um, so they need about $90 million. And
as you can see on on your iPads on that second page, this puts them right at that. Um, I I would not feel comfortable going much lower to try to make summer payroll. Um, but this puts them right at about 90 $91 million. Um, for those of you looking I can see Commissioner Gu
with his glasses there. Um, it's the $91 million number in the top right on the second page is is what I'm referring to. I thought you were reading his mind. So, any any more questions for if not I will entertain a motion for
the uh motion there or or to move uh what is it? 6,654,414 for textbooks. Motion to approve, Mr. Chair, to send to the full commission. I have a motion to
approve. Do I hear a second? Second. And a second. Any further discussion? Could I ask another How much have y'all pulled out of unassigned fund balance so far in this? How
much out of an assigned fund balance? If you give me about 90 seconds, I can tell you. And while Michael's doing that, I I'll take the opportunity to follow up. Y'all had committed to provide the b the budget for
177 and the reconcili the the additional information for how much was spent for Oakland Riverdale and Smyrna out of 177 and things along those lines. I haven't seen it yet.
Okay. So, we've got the current one and and I can send that to you immediately. um the one that I think you were referring to two or three years ago when we were actually talking about it, we can send that to you, but the 30 million that we're
referencing, we cannot come back to that number. So maybe it's something that you may want to look at and refer back to us to let us know exactly where where that 30 million was coming from because I've had uh our engineering director Trey
Lee, you know, he looked at it and he could not come back to those numbers of of the 30 million. Thank you. is actually about $45 million or the if you go back to that particular fund 177 that was passed out, you can see, okay, these
are the items and it's a simple question. How much of that was spent of that fund 177 in each of those categories? Total it up. I'll I'll be glad to get with you after. I mean, I'm a little
surprised. Please just give me a call. Sure. Sure. Maybe we can sort it out. Okay. Sure. Yep. Thank you, Commissioner. Any other questions while Michael's looking? You got it? Well, it it's it's roughly about a little over $5
million, but it's really two chunks. There was a chunk in um November that was 2 million 15,000. Do you remember what that was off the top of your head while I'm looking? It was an operation of plant.
So radios, equipment, mobile. It was radio. Okay. Was it middle was a middle school? So $2 million for I'm rounding here, but out of that $5 million, 2 million was for radios in November, and then there was 3.7 million uh for design fees. That was
back in September of 2024. Um, and everything else is really small due to prior year POS, but two large amounts, the two million and the three million. And and my concern is that that's $11 million roughly, and we were just talking about $6 million being a a a
level that was there was a little bit of concern already. And so how you know if my concern is obviously if we're going to start spending non-recurring dollars on recurring expenses out of the school's
budget see the I mean a textbook would theoretically be a recurring item even though it might be one time for that textbook. it would be kind of a recurring item. But if we're going to start spending $11 million out of that fund balance, which is a one-time
fee amount, that's a that's a concern. I'll share that concern. I'm trying to I I think the biggest the thing that we're we're looking at is is a lot of that money that runs goes into fund balance isn't just local money. It is
state money as well coming from TISSA. Um we I think a lot of a lot of some of the revenue that we will put back into fund balance this year to to cover what has been pulled out um will be somewhat
state some of it will be local but I think with that if we can keep it to where we need to at the 15% or at the three months as Michael states we feel comfortable with that because pretty much every year in the last few years we have had surplus and we have put money
back into that fund balance. We've used $30 million to help build ha you know part of a half of a school or you know that as well. So we we don't want to build that fund balance up to the point where it's just seems like we are just sitting there hoarding money. So that's
this is one of the reasons why we want to use it. The other option is is try to put it in this year's budget which will put us in a deeper deficit in order to be able to get it approved by the commission. and we didn't see that as being a a viable option either. So, we
would rather take it for money we actually currently have out of money we currently have than go back and try to put it into a budget where we don't have the revenue for yet. So, a Michael question I guess is
that those other revenue sources go into your fund balance of 90ish or something like that? The number I gave you today was was right around 90 million. That's where they stand today, not where they would end the year. Um I would have to go
includes though the that sorry to interrupt, but that includes the additional revenue sources. I think what I think what Brian's saying is right now they are at 90. Well, they'll after if you approve the 6.6 million, they will be at around 90 91 million. I think what Brian is saying
he's anticipating in the year a little better if some revenues come in better than anticipated. Um, obviously we won't know what that is until the end of June, but I think that's what he's saying is he's hoping it'll creep back up 5 or 10 million um at the end of the year, but
that 90 does not include any any any ch any additional revenues this year. That 91 would be where we stand today. Thank you. Thank y'all. Any other questions? Okay, we have a motion and a second hearing. No further discussion,
call roll. Commissioner Harris, yes. Commissioner Irvin, yes. Commissioner Johnson, yes. Commissioner Piery, yes. Commissioner Sino, yes. Commissioner Gu, yes. Commissioner P, yes. Motion carries. Thank you'all. Thank you.
Item nine, ambulance service fund budget amendment and transfer. I don't get to see enough of this lady very often, so it's good to see you again. Good evening, commissioners. Director Gaither is at an EMS conference. I am Melanie Mishoto, EMS
assistant director of administration. We have two budget amendments. The first one, we received a grant from the state of Tennessee for $98,831. It is a 100% reimbursement grant. There
there are no matching funds from the county and we are requesting to uh transfer those funds into our health equipment line item in order to purchase two power lobe stretchers for our new
ambulances. She actually has two items. Not hearing uh unless I hear an objection. Please go ahead with your second one also. Okay. The second one, we are requesting to transfer 250,000 from our paraprofessionals
payroll into our part-time payroll. We have had many personnel on FMLA. And in order to fill those positions, we have used part-time personnel. Any questions for
Al? If not, I will entertain a motion. And I have a motion. Commissioner Johnson. Second. Commissioner Irving. Any further discussion? Call roll, please. Commissioner Harris, yes. Commissioner Irvin, yes. Commissioner Johnson, yes. Commissioner
Peary, yes. Commissioner Shino, yes. Commissioner G, yes. Commissioner P, yes. Motion carries. Thank you, Melanie. Thank you. Y'all have a good evening. Next is item 10, uh, general fund budget amendment for the fire
rescue Farley. Mr. Chairman, committee. My name is Larry Farley. I'm the fire chief of the county fire department. Um, I have a budget amendment tonight. The budget amendment appropriates money from fire permits and deducts money from the
diesel fuel to cover additional cost on the data processing services. Are there any questions for Chief Farley on this? Motion to approve. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Call roll, please. Commissioner Harris,
yes. Commissioner Irvin, yes. Commissioner Johnson, yes. Commissioner Piery, yes. Commissioner Sino, yes. Commissioner Gu, yes. Commissioner P, yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Item 11, application and acceptance for the 2025
ASPCA the rescue effect campaign grant. Michael, good evening. Michael Gregory Rutherford County Pauls. Uh we're asking to apply and accept uh if granted uh this a grant from the ASPCA. Um it requires no county
match. The amounts can vary between $3,300 and $20,000 if we are approved. The money is to be used in August, September, and October for adoption events. I have a motion to approve the grant and a second. Any further discussion? Just a
quick question, Mr. Chair. Is is it these grants that's paying for the clear the what do you call it? cleared the clear the shelters is is one is one that we done. This would be this would be a new uh type event where there's actually
some funding for that um specific for those. So we would still have the clear the shelters that would work in August and then they would allow us to do this in in a couple of different weekends in August, September and October. So it' be an addition to that. Okay. And remind me what does that acronym stand for? ASPCA
is U. Oh gosh, I haven't been asked that question a long. Um, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Excuse me. Took me a while. Okay, you've heard the request. We have a motion and a second. All in favor
signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Question. Yes. Uh, Michael, you sent an email out to commissioners concerning all that was passed. Yes, sir. Representative Stevens. Yes, sir. So, some of us are
not in public safety. So, you just take a quick time explain what that law does. Yes, sir. It was asking for clarification on a law that's currently been on the books for several years. Uh, when it comes to animal cruelty, it talks about different tenants and and what qualifies as animal cruelty. One of
those things is it says fails unreasonably um when it comes to abandon or abandon an animal unreasonably. Well, where we were having problems with that was when we go to the commissioner's office. There was no definition of what that word unreasonably meant uh because it was very open to interpretation. So, um
back in the fall, met with the mayor on that. He advised me to take that to comm uh Representative Stevens. Uh we met a couple different times on that. He took the bill, carried that in and said that's just a simple way of rewarding that bill that's already or rewarding that law that's already there to take that word out to provide clarification
for the commissioner's office here. But once we started looking at other jurisdictions as well, they were running into the exact same problem. Nobody knew how to enforce that part of the law because of that one word. So it was just a rewrite of that particular law. To take that word out drops off a
animal and no longer like when they get in trouble and they go for a judge say unreasonable and that's kind of ambiguous. We were never even getting to that point where we were getting to we were writing the citation and taking over the commissioner's office and the commissioner's office said there's nothing for us to go on to show that
they did it unreasonably. So we never even got to the point of getting before the judge. It got shut down at the commissioner's office, never got processed. Uh so by taking that out uh it it just says abandons an animal where we were running into issues where people were coming we would show up um all hours of the day and night and there
would be animals just dropped off tied out whatever at the shelter. Uh we had we had um one particular instance to where a crate was left that had five cats in there um no covering on them pouring down rain. One of the cats gave birth uh in those in those things and we
couldn't prove that it was unreasonable because they said well they left it as shelter. But if we're closed and it's, you know, pouring down rain and you leave an animal such as that, then there's got to be something there to prevent those things from happening. And we're also seeing it happen a lot at vet offices. They show up, boxes of kittens
be sitting out there, um, various other things where people were doing that. And there was nothing we could do on it because of that one simple word. Yes, sir. The the the whole point of that email was I wanted you all to understand uh that Representative Stevens, how well he had worked with us. Um, and then also the lobbyist was there
on several occasions when I was there as well. I just wanted you to know that the process was working well when it came to that and just uh great appreciation to Representative Stevens. He was very communicative with me uh during that process. I'd never gone through that um in my 20 years doing this. So, he really
helped us along in that process and and stepped it along very very well. Does that answer your question, sir? Yes, sir. Thank you, Mark. Yes, sir. Y'all have a good evening. Item 12, application and acceptance for the 2025
litter grant. Keep seeing this guy. Evening chairman, commissioners. Bill Cope, Superintendent Correctional Work Center. grant application I have for you all tonight is uh that we respectfully
request and apply for the our yearly Tennessee Department of Transportation Highway Beautifification Office litter grant program for fiscal year 26. The program will provide cost of providing litter pickup and litter prevention education within Rutherford County
community. Rutherford County Correctional Work Center has been awarded this grant for several consecutive years and would like to continue this litter grant program. If awarded this grant, we respectfully request for the mayor to be authorized to accept and sign the grant award
agreement on behalf of the county. Uh last year we got 124,000. I I predict that we'll get the same this year. That money goes toward uh partial salaries, uh all the equipment such as bags, pickers, um part of the gasoline that it
takes for sending these people out to your all's communities to pick up garbage. Okay. As he mentioned, this is something we do just about every year. And you said it's the same amount as last year. Is that Yes, sir. Any questions from the committee? Not.
I'll entertain a motion. I have a motion to approve and a second. Commissioner Sereno. Any further discussion? Uh, all in favor signify by saying I. I. Motion carries. Thank you all. Thank
you, Bill. Okay. Item 13, 14, and 15. Keep this guy busy for a minute. Good evening. Steve Spence, deputy chief with the sheriff's office. This amendment is to recognize revenue from the restricted for public safety to move
funds into the drug fund building improvement requesting 200,000 from the restricted for public safety and place it into the drug fund building uh improvement line item. Okay. Any questions for motion to approve. I have a motion to
approve. Second. Any further discussion? Uh, call roll mark. Commissioner Harris, yes. Commissioner Irvin, yes. Commissioner Johnson, yes. Commissioner Piery, yes. Commissioner Seno, yes. Commissioner Gu, yes.
Commissioner P, yes. Motion carries. Please continue. We are requesting to apply for the state of Tennessee mental health patient transport grant. The grant is a no matching grant. The amount is based on the number of transports during last year. The grant runs from July 1st of 2025 through June 30th for
2026. If approved, we request the mayor to be able to accept and sign for the grant. Mark, let me ask you a quick question. And can we do this one and item 15 since it's a you can if you would. Do I hear an
objection from the committee? If not, we'll do these together. Please continue. Thank you. We're requesting to apply for the financial year 25 justice assistant grant with Murf Police Department. This allocation is equally divided to the city of Murphy'sboro and Rutherford County from the Edward Byron
Memorial Jag local allocation. We're requesting for the mayor to be able to accept and sign theou with Murphy'sboro city if this is awarded. The award ranged from 28,000 to 34,000. It's a formula based allocation for each agency. There's no match.
Okay. You've heard the request this grant. Do I hear a motion? Second. Motion and a second. Commissioner Irving on the end down here. Any further discussion? Uh all in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Motions
carried. And that's for both of those grants. Thank you. You have a good night. Thank you. Item 16, application and acceptance for the community re-entry reinvestment grant. Good evening. Lindsay Davis, the re-entry program coordinator with the
recovery courts. So, we are requesting to apply for a grant which is the community re-entry reinvestment grant is through the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development and the Tennessee Office of Re-entry. The maximum award is $150,000 and there is no match. This funding would be used to
increase the educational and vocational services, employment, and skills training for justice involved individuals. If approved, we would request that the mayor be authorized to accept the award and sign the grant contract. Okay, you've heard the request. Any questions for Miss
Davis? Not I will entertain a motion, Mr. Kirsty. And second, Commissioner Irving. Any further discussion? Have we had this grant before? We have not. No, this would be a new It would just be an extension of the things that we're already doing, but it is a new grant.
Okay. Any other questions? Hearing none. Call roll. Commissioner Harris. Commissioner Irvin. Yes. Mr. Mr. Johnson. Yes. Commissioner Piery. Yes. Commissioner Sino. Yes. Commissioner G.
Yes. Commissioner P. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Y'all have a great evening. Thank you. All right. Items 17 and 18. Mr. Mitch. Mr. Chairman. Before we get into that, if I could ask a quick question. We've we've applied for and accepted several
grants tonight. The question came up about a month or so ago about which grants have to come back to this committee andor the full commission to accept those grants. Michael, could you kind of clarify that for us? It appears
that a couple of these grants uh that uh Chief Spence just asked clarified that by the mayor can sign uh and we can approve those grants. so they they don't have to come back for approval, but there appears to be a couple of other ones that may need uh for that to
happen. What's the difference? Um uh short answer is I mean it's really up to the will of this of this body or the committee and the commission. However, on a practical basis, it's much more efficient if the grant does not require a match and y'all approve them to apply is to go ahead and accept and it not to
come back and approve the merit to sign. Typically the only ones that come back are the ones that have to have some type of match that's not already budgeted. Um and that's typically us taking something out of fund balance or something like that. Um but yeah, if it already has a budget or it's no match, we typically it's much more efficient for it not to
come back. And it actually helps us apply for some grants to be able to get that turnaround time done quicker. The one that Miss Davis just applied for uh is a new match that would probably come back. No, it was a no match grant. Um I believe it was between 50 and
150,000. Let me pull that up. But it had no match I believe. So it would not come back um since there's no match um required from the county. Understood. But it wasn't budgeted. Right. Correct. I'm saying some grants that have a match
we already anticipate getting at. So we will budget the match. Thank you, Michael. But to your point, there are some grants that we don't know exactly the amount that we would be awarded if we are awarded. So, I I could see there'd be some question there. That might be a reason to bring some of them
back, but like I said, I think it'd be a home case. Uh, depending on the situation. Okay. Now, I've lost my place here. Let me get back. Uh, Mr. Mitchell, item 17, agreement with the
Tax Management Associates for reappraisal. Hi, Rob Mitchell, property assessor. We uh I have with me Miss Paula Baxter here. She's a supervisor of personal property that works with uh the
contracts with tax management associates who we have done business with for many many years and with whom uh she has a a great affinity and and love for their work. So, uh, Nick said that, uh, since they had
changed the subscription amounts, which I believe is the first time they've done it in nine years in in over nine years, uh, that it would be appropriate to bring this back before the budget committee just to
inform you of it so you could approve it uh, and answer any questions that you might have. I know that I got a letter from Nick uh that he had looked at this and approved of it. Uh I assume that the rest of us
did too, but if not, uh that has passed through our county attorney. Any questions for Mr. Mitchell? If not, I will entertain a motion. Motion to approve. I have a motion to
approve. Second. Second. Commissioner Serero. Any questions? Call roll, please. Commissioner Harris, yes. Commissioner Irvin, yes. Commissioner Johnson, yes. Commissioner Peary, Commissioner Sino, yes. Commissioner Gu, yes. Commissioner
P, yes. Motion carries. Please continue. Uh, the second is a fund transfer from furniture and fixtures of $5,000 over into postal charges of $5,000. It's an internal transfer to cover uh postage costs.
Motion to approve. I have a motion to approve and a second. Commissioner Johnson. Any further discussion? Call roll, please. Commissioner Harris, yes. Commissioner Irvin, yes. Commissioner Johnson, yes. Commissioner Pearson, yes. Commissioner Sino, yes. Commissioner G,
yes. Commissioner Pete, yes. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Thank you both. Next item is 19 site lease agreement uh with Middle Tennessee Electric I assume for the braidable tower mte and I
think that's Mr. Clark, chairman, uh, committee requesting to, um, for the mayor to sign a contract for Middle Tennessee Electric for our braidable tower. This was a 10-year
contract. We'd like to extend it another 10 years. um is for a uh radio tower. We're leasing a we're leasing that from them or we're leasing them a spot on on No, we're are leasing that a spot from
them. Okay. Yes. Okay. I have a motion to approve and a second. Any other discussion? All role, please. Commissioner Harris, yes. Commissioner
Irvin, yes. Commissioner Johnson, yes. Commissioner Piery, Commissioner Sino, yes. Mr. Gu, yes. Commissioner P, yes. Motion carries. Please continue. The second item is a request to apply for a mitigation grant.
Um, this is out of the result of Helen, disaster of Helen. Um the state provide and federal government provides uh mitigation money after those disasters to hopefully improve the uh response and infrastructure. Uh we are requesting to
purchase a cache of generators and also a cache of Starlink fixed uh sites and with these fixed Starlink sites would go on uh buildings for infrastructure. So if our internet goes out, we have a way
to communicate. Also other people, we can use our cell phones if we lose our cell phone towers and things like that. So um the total of this is $95,000. Um our match would be
$11,875 12.5%. How many how many generators are we talking about? Some also those are pretty pricey. Um, we were requesting 10 generators estimated
at $3,000 a piece that that would where would those go like for our towers and things like that to keep communications going? Yes. Communications to it could be an individual that may um need power for
lighting. uh just array of different things. Um if you recall that when we were out at um readable tornado uh we use generators quite often for lighting at night so we could keep the perimeter
secure. Um we also use them in different other areas such as the command post and also use utilizing with rescue tools. So what we found out is that we don't have enough generators. I gotcha. Any further questions for the director? Motion to
approve. I have a motion to approve. Second. Any further discussion? Call roll. Commissioner Harris? Yes. Commissioner Irvin? Yes. Mr. Johnson? Yes. Commissioner Piery? Yes. Commissioner Sero? Yes. Commissioner Gu?
Yes. Commissioner P. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Item 21, juvenile detention,ou and contract with Rutherford County Board of Education for education services. Welcome. Good evening
everybody. In front of you, we are requesting Please state your name and position. I forgot. Captain Leon Caesar with the juvenile detention center. Unfortunately, director Duke couldn't make it tonight. In front of you, uh we are
requesting for your approval um aou and a contract with the Rutherford County Board of Education to provide educational services at our facility. This is the same contracts that we've uh submitted in the past. If
y'all have any question, I'll happily answer any questions that y'all have. As Leon mentioned, this is something that uh we've done year after year to provide services for our children there
that uh require further education. Hear no question. Move to approve. I have a motion to approve. Second. Second. Second. Two seconds. Uh any further discussion? Call roll. Commissioner
Harris. Yes. Commissioner Urban. Yes, Mr. Johnson. Yes, Mr. Piery. Yes, Mr. Sino. Yes, Mr. Gu. Yes, Mr. P. Yes. Motion carries. Leon, go ahead. Excuse me.
We are requesting for um your approval. an amendment to theou that we currently have with Williamson County um juvenile detention facility is just to amend the daily rate from
$175 to $200. This is the same contract updates we've been seeing for the last few months, right? Yes, sir. Any questions from the committee? If not, we'll entertain a motion on this one. So move. Mr. Serino has a motion to
approve. Second. And I have a question. Recognized. Thank you. So are the other counties already at $200? The From my understanding the majority are. I don't know if every county that we have a contract with, but majority of
the other counties are already at 200. Okay. Is their contract running out and this is a renewal at 200 or so? We currently have aou with them, but it never we never amended to the $200 daily
rate. Yes. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay, I have a motion and a second. Any other discussion? Call roll. Commissioner Harris? Yes. Commissioner Irvin? Yes. Commissioner Johnson? Yes. Commissioner Piery? Yes. Commissioner Sino? Yes.
Commissioner Guj? Yes, Commissioner P. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you, sir. Thank y'all. Item 23, compensation and longevity pay discussion forwarded from the public safety committee to examine cost of
various proposed changes. I don't know who's going to do that tonight. Is that Commissioner Beverly? You're recognized. Please come forward. Commissioner, as you start, we did there was one thing forwarded to us and that was Commissioner James' longevity
proposal. That's what's on the committee's iPads. Um, so they do have his longevity proposal that's on their iPads. Awesome. We'll start with that then. The public safety committee wanted to look at a total compensation package. Back in November, we really looked at
the starting salaries and how we're adjusting our compensation with some of the uh, departments and agencies that we're competing with. Uh, but one of the items wanted to look at this time was longevity. Three options were presented and you'll see those on your iPad. Um
they elected to go with I believe it was option C uh moving it from where we are at $25 per year up to $100 per year based on their time in service. Uh Michael, can you do you have what that
would have cost? That was one of the things we wanted to request was just get some numbers to see what we may want to implement starting July 1. Give me one second. I'll pull that up. So currently right now um longevity cost
us about $270,000 a year. Um, and really you're you're four, you know, that's a quarter of what going to $100 I think is what is what the num is that the number y'all wanted to go to. So you're looking at an additional almost 800 a little over $800,000 to go to that go up to
that. Okay. And I guess a roundabout number. If we were to compare that, what would it cost to do 1% to the table? [Music] Oh, those are quick numbers on the fly. So 1% to the county general fund is
approximately a million dollars. Um then for the ambulance fund, it's going to be around 170,000. Um and then a little small portion to fund 116. So you're you're probably in the neighborhood of 1.2 or 1.3 million um for an across the board of 1%.
Thank you. So that was one of the items we looked at is on longevity to see what some of the other agencies uh or entities were doing and how we wanted to move forward. We also had and forgive me I'm pulling up the minutes to make sure I get the motion that was sent to you all
correctly. We also wanted to look at adopting the market adjustment on a salary study. Uh just some quick points right now in comparison. Our fire department is the lowest paid fire department in this county, but run some of the highest call volumes including medical and
actual structure fires. Uh I think Larry's not here right now, but he will tell you uh those folks work very hard and that is a unique job. We want to make sure that we're retaining qualified firefighters and that we are continuing to be a place that we can recruit
firefighters as well. Uh but being the lowest one in Rutherford County does put us at a disadvantage. Uh patrol is the lowest ranked in Rutherford County, but only by a few dollars because we did make that adjustment back in November or I'm sorry back in January. Paramedics rank seventh out of nine surveyed and
detention deputies ranked sixth out of nine surveyed um on this market analysis. What is troubling by that is I have worked for an agency that was in those positions where we became the training wheels of other departments and this was quite some time
ago and the adjustments have been made. What worries me is that we will see deputies, firefighters, patrol and paramedics along with detention deputies leaving our entity and moving somewhere else. A corrections officer with the
state will start out at $60,000. However, a corrections officer working with the county is at right now $46,461. While we can't be at that level with the state, we just aren't able to compete. We have to get in the
ballpark. So, Michael, I guess I know we're working on a budget. How far off are we on adopting that market study versus what we're looking like for this budget? Well, we um couple things. One, we'll talk about the mayor's proposal or the
the budget um here in the next couple items, but um I think there are very targeted as part of that proposal, there are targeted raises to all the groups you just mentioned. Um, as far as how far off are we, we we have all the
market adjustments that that the that the market study showed are are in the are in that proposal. They are in that proposal. However, just because that market study shows that maybe we're we are on market level doesn't mean we're not still competing against some
of the local jurisdictions, which is why those are the targeted increases. Um, so two things that that we ran the numbers on. one we're one of the you're gonna get to this in a second so I'm gonna steal your thunder a little bit but I think the two things I've kind of
calculated one is we look at the five or 10 year experience that's going to cost us about a million and a half I don't know if that's on your still on your list it is um but that takes care of a chunk to get to that but as far as the market adjustments we've instituted all those as part of the proposal tonight
however I I still don't think that gets you to maybe where some of the concerns you're saying with um Smyrna or or Murphy'sboro or something like that. So that's why there are targeted increases and so I think I'd have to know what dollar amount you're wanting to get to to give you a
number. Well, I think the market an analysis would probably be the best start and mayor sounds like you did the leg work there. Thank you. That that really speaks volumes and gets us there. But this is a this can be a concerted team effort to look at this on multiple approaches. And like you said, that takes me to our next point looking at
the recognition of 10 years from five years. This is not essentially just giving something away. It is recognizing what the employees experience brings to our county and compensating them accordingly. Uh this would be a major boost to employee morale. We think this
would address a lot of things uh that I'm hearing on the street from our first responders, but also every other county department and it coming in just above where we are for a 1% lift to the table. But it really shows those employees that have been here for a while that came in
here with experience that we value what they're doing. So I would encourage you all to discuss that and look at it. I know we have budget meetings over the next month. The goal of this proposal with public safety was just let's start talking about numbers and seeing what we want to look at with all the
department's budgets that will be presented over the coming weeks and how we want to do this in June. So that's essentially all I had, but I'll open this um I guess if anybody has any questions on the public safety side and then yield to you all. But a couple statements on the markets adjustment. Uh
that was done with a 50th percentile target from all the agencies and entities that were surveyed. However, we're seeing a shift, especially with Metro Nashville, when it comes to first responders, the Smyrna town of Smyrna, and the Murphy'sboro uh police and fire
department. They want to be in the 70th percentile. We can't afford to do that in one year. Probably can't afford to do that in two years, but we can show strides. We can show transparency, and we can show our employees that we're making, we acknowledge where we should
be and set out a path on how we can do that. Again, the whole goal with public safety was let's see if we can set a path over the next eight weeks on how we want to implement things. I don't know if you want to mention this as part of your pay analysis, but one of
the things we looked at too was the um retirement. And so I think like Murphy'sboro City does between six or eight% depending on the match. And so just I think one thing that's important to note is our pension rate went up about a half a percent this year. So our current match on our version is 12.35.
And so I think as we as we compare salaries, we really struggle with trying to give a full approach of do we pay now, do we pay later? You know, that's kind of that same decision on longevity, right? Do do you put it in now, do you put it in later? And and so I just
wanted that to be part of the the comp, you know, the compensation because that pension piece is really expensive for us, right? Um as compared to 6 or 8% on a 401k. Um, I'm not advocating for one or the other. I just just to put that out there as far as that's a cost we're picking up is about an additional half a percent this year. Um, as a minimum that
we have to um so that's a very valid point. The county, as he stated, the county contributes about four and a four and a half to 5% more than some of these other municipalities do to a retirement. And that's a benefit that needs to be calculated in there. So, we don't necessarily need to be apples to apples,
but we we can't be almost 17,000 u $5,000 apart in some compensations that's equaling almost 10% uh when it's only about a 4 and a.5% difference. Uh one other thing, uh Commissioner James also just texted me to remind me the
military service retirement credit uh and seeing how much that would cost. It's what we're not we're not recommending whether it would be a full uh approval or denial, but more just exploring to see how much that would cost. And that is a program that would allow our employees to apply their
military service towards their TCRS retirement uh and potentially utilize that time. Question, does the chart you put together include or not include the pension amount? It just base salaries. So we would have to do kind of the math
on the fly to see if we're within 5% of those other agencies. Most are matching 8% and like he said we're at about what 12 12 and a half 12.35 12.35. So about four and a half% get you in the ballpark. Any questions for Commissioner
Beverly on his presentation? If we're fixing to do an overview of the budget for the upcoming year and we will be having discussions uh particularly about payraises or
not as we go forward, but we appreciate what you brought to us. Anything else you want to continue to add? No, thank you. I I look forward to us all working together. This can really be a team effort and I'm excited. Mr. Chairman,
you're you're recognized. Okay. So, my understanding that of these three proposals, public safety is recommending the third one C. That's what I'm That's specific. They voted on kind of three thing three
things. I'm lumping them together. They wanted this committee to look at, and correct me if I'm wrong, Commissioner Beverly, but they wanted us to look at longevity. And out of that, they kind of ranked the proposals and I believe their first rank was option C, which was to go to $100 a year. Then they the next after
that, I believe was option, was it B? Believe B and then A after that. Um, so I did run the cost. They did not have the cost at public safety. So that was one component. They asked us to look at the cost of option C for longevity, which would go to $100 a year. that would cost us about an
additional $800,000 countywide. Um the next thing they asked us to do, I believe, was look at look at a market study um across the board, but specifically at at our public safety at the positions Commissioner Beverly mentioned. Um I think the budget you're
going to hear here in the next two items does address some of those things. Um obviously we're always limited by funds. Um, but they they recommended that we do a market study and try to get our pay up to a market rate. Does that kind of summarize that piece? It does. And that's a good thing to have on an annual
basis just to make sure we're staying there and we're not making large leaps and bounds every two years. And then the third piece was I believe from Commissioner James as part amended that motion that night looked at the application for military service retirement credit which we are looking into that. I don't think we have an
answer for you tonight on that. Um, but that also got 42. I think those were the three things. Did I Did I miss anything? That was it. And then potentially amending the public the law enforcement pay table to more serve your firefighters, EM EMS department, and law enforcement all in one table. Uh because
that's where we're really having to stay the most competitive and it's easier to adjust when they're all on the same table. And how is longevity pay calculated now? Right now after three years, you're vested, but it's $25 per year, but you don't start receiving that until after
three years. $25 per year, but you start so your first year you get it as your third year and you get $75. Gotcha. For example, Commissioner Gu, our average tenure is about eight years and using a sample
salary of $60,000. Uh for comparison's sake, our current longevity on an eight-year cycle would get you $200. and uh proposed longevity would take that up to $800 or about 1.3% of the salary.
Commissioner, I think I think that's why he asked the question about comparing that cost of longevity to what what an across the board like the 1% would be, which is kind of why one of the reasons we ran that number um just to see what as far as options and see what that was going to cost. that that potential
adoption gets us more of a bang for our buck than than simply uh raising the table 1% on a flat rate. All right, thank you all for the time. Thank you. Item 24 and Michael. Uh, this is the
24, excuse me, 2025 2026 Smyrna Rose County Airport Authority budget. Look at that each year. So, every year you'll see this. Um, one of the things there's two things we look for. We want to make sure their budget
is is cash flow positive, which it looks like it is. And we also want to make sure they've budgeted their debt payments. um which I'll talk about when I go over our budget. Um from our intents and purposes, it looks like they have um it's very comparable, as you can see on their sheet, it's very comparable
to the prior year. And this is something we'll need to vote on tonight. So, so if anybody's got any questions about their budget, let us know. We're looking at it. It balances.
Yes. I mean, it it's not something that our office prepares at all. I mean, they they submit it to us as required. We we received several of the component units of the county have to submit things to our office and and we make sure that it looks reasonable. I mean um but as far as why they picked a certain number, we would have to have them come and tell
you. Main thing we want to know is if they got the money to pay us back for our and that's like I said, we always look for that and and make sure that that they budgeted that. Um and does the finance office recommend approval? Yes. Motion to approve the I have a motion to
approve the airport authorities budget and a second commissioner Irving. Any discussion? Call roll, please. Commissioner Harris, yes. Commissioner Irvin, yes. Commissioner Johnson, Commissioner Piery, Commissioner Sheno, yes. Commissioner Cooch, yes. Commissioner P,
yes. Motion carries. Thank you. All right. Item 25. And Michael, we're going to keep pushing these off on you for a minute. So, what you have in front of you tonight is our go bond resolution. We talked about this last month. Um, there's two things I want to emphasize
here. One, it's going to be for $112 million, but that's a not to exceed number. But if you remember, this includes the Lver High School edition and the Popppler Hill Middle School. And so, that's what both of these are. We don't expect it to be right at 112. We
expect to be closer to 111 million or 110 million and some change. But we're not sure what the underwriters discount is going to be. um what the closing costs are going to be and so we we always budget um a not to exceed number. Um so like I said we expect that to be a little less. Um also we've tried to be
as conservative as we can on the interest rate that we anticipate. We'll talk a little more about that when we get to the debt service fund budget. But uh that's what this geo bond is for is for those two projects that that have already been approved. Um one other thing I'll add while we are requesting this get approved tonight and we'll go
to commission next week. We don't anticipate actually borrowing money until probably July. Um but of course we always monitor the market. We will pull an issue if if we think it's very volatile. Um we do that in conjunction with our investment advisor and our bond council. Um but this goes ahead and gets
it to where we can strike where the iron's hot if we need to in June, but the plan right now is to borrow in July. Okay. You've heard the request. Uh any further discussion, any questions, comments? If not, I will entertain a motion. And as he said, this it's
already passed the commission. This is basically uh given Michael the Yeah, this is the authority for for us to go to the bond market uh to to to get those bonds. Y'all have already approved the two projects that that this is a fund. Motion to approve. I have a motion to
approve. Second. Need a second. Mr. Sereno, any further discussion? All roll, please. Commissioner Harris, yes. Commissioner Irvin, yes. Mr. Johnson, yes. Commissioner Peary, yes. Commissioner Seno,
yes. Commissioner Gu, yes. Commissioner Pink, yes. Motion carries. Okay, now we down get down to the fun part. Now, I know several of you guys, well, all of you recognize what I'm holding up here,
and we'll be using it quite frequently in the next few weeks. Did Did everybody get a copy on your desk? We We had a commissioner that passed those out, and I just want to make sure they got to the right. Right. They should. Yes. Um, so what I'd like to do is kind of go through the form the layout of the book
and then I can take I can give you a brief overview and then I'll go into as much detail or answer as many questions as you like. Um, but if that's okay with y'all, I'll kind of go through the format or the layout, tell you tell you what's there, and we'll just kind of start at the
beginning if if that's okay. Please continue. So, just like in prior years, you're going to have your uh index um that tells you what's on your tabs. That's on the first page. It's the exact same layout as last year. Right behind that page is going to be the
budget calendar on the front side of that sheet. And then right behind that is going to be the budget committee meeting dates. Now, we get a lot of questions on what department's coming tonight. That sheet is going to tell you. So, starting next Tuesday, we start with all the departments coming and you can see that
we have them listed out right there. Then we continue on the 19th and continue on the 21st. And then I want to pay special attention. You'll see on the 27th we have a joint meeting with the health and education committee that is going to include the school's budget. So, just
like in years past, we'll have that joint meeting. The health and education committee will vote first. If this committee would like to vote, you could take a vote or you could defer it. Um, as in the past, sometimes y'all have deferred that until until y'all's next meeting, but that's how we have the
calendar laid out. Any questions on the calendar? Okay. So, the next page, we're going to go to under tab one. There's going to be three things there. I'll spend most of my time here tonight on on this under this tab. Quick question. Has the schools indicated when they're going to buy
their budget? So, we I'm fixing to talk about that. Yep. Yep. Um, so I'm going to touch on each right this you're going to see right there that statement of proposed operations and I'm going to touch on each fund briefly. Um, I can go into as much detail here in a second. I will touch on the schools and about
their timeline as well when I get to them. So, as we walk down through here, it's going to be an order of fund there. And so, at the top, you're going to see county general. It's going to be the same layout for each fund. There's the adopted tax rate that we're currently under. Then we are proposing some
movement of pennies this year again as we've done the last few years. So we're proposing additional 1.76 pennies going into the county general fund. We always get the question, what's our estimated fund balance? You can see right now that's your estimated fund
balance of 104 million in the county general fund. Estimated revenues for next year 186 million. Your expenses or appropriations are going to be 187 million. And then your surplus or deficit is going to be in the revenues over under appropriations. So for the next year's
proposal, the deficit is 1.25 million for county general. Now, that seems like a large number, but that's made up of that deficit is made up of two things. Part of this proposal has a one-time proposal uh to the child advocacy center of a million dollars. And then we have
several positions that are funded through our opioid committee that we received the money in the prior year and we spend it this year. that's what kind of makes up that remainder of the 255 um is close to that. So we are balanced on a reoccurring basis. We are balanced in the general fund. So that is that is
good news to report. Um 116 118 both of those funds are balanced at zero. You'll notice we are requesting to move some pennies into the ambulance service fund. I'll talk about that in a second what that's paid for. The other thing I'll point out is in prior years the solid waste budgets approximately around 8
million $8.5 million. This year proposing it to be about 12.6. That's due to the increased anticipated revenue or expense for the transfer station to come online July 1. As we move on down fund 119 we just
talked about the airport budget. That is where they make debt payments to us and we pay their transfer their debt out of that fund. That is all that's in that fund is the debt payments for the airport authority. They currently have two debt issuances outstanding right now. 121 122. As a reminder, that's your
DEA and your drug fund that is utilized at the sheriff's office. It shows a deficit there, but I want to point out that is normal. That is every year. We do not know how much they're going to confiscate. So, they typically confiscate money and they'll spend it on the next future years. Um, as you can see, they have plenty of
money there to to do that. The highway fund is next. It has a surplus of approximately $100,000. And then next we're going to get to the schools. So that's going to be 141, 143, and 177. So you're going to see I have
plugged in, they have sent me their their totals of the budget. Their budget has not been passed yet by their school board. So what these is are placeholders. This is what they're going to request from their their board. However, that is subject to change. But I have put in the placeholders of what they told me yesterday they were going
to present to their board. I believe they presented it last night at a work session. But for example, we're going to look at 141. They are proposing a deficit of almost $8 million. Um they have a revenues of $573 and expenses of
581. They have not given me the okay or passed uh the school board to give the itemized insert uh to hand out to y'all. as soon as they do and as soon as they pass, I'll give you an insert like in prior years to to stick in your book. That tab in the back is going to be is
empty right now. I've also requested that they provide us for the 177 fund a copy of the list of projects that their board approved. Um if they send me that, I will print an insert for you to go in your book here um for 177. The other thing on 141 that that is that is this
is important and so hopefully y'all can write this number down, but every year we talk about maintenance of effort. Currently, this proposal increases the school's maintenance of effort by approximately $2.9 million. Michael, I'm sorry, Mr. Chairman.
You're recognized. Michael, um I do not want to get ahead of us, though it fund 143. Yep. Can you give me just a quick summary of how we are 6.6? Yep.
Great question. I'm fixing to touch on that. Exactly. Yes. So, before I get to that, any does that make sense on 141 for the 2.9 million overe? Okay. So, getting to 143, that's the that's the school cafeteria fund.
That fund is primarily funded by USDA revenue, lunch, and breakfast payments from the USDA. that is also made up of payments from if you were to go eat lunch with your child at school and you pay, you know, cash at the cash register there. That's what's made up of this this money. However, the USDA requires
that over a certain amount of reserves, you have a planned spendown of fund balance, and that's what that 6.6 million is. So, they're going to they're required once they reach a certain I believe it's over three months worth of fund balance, they have to have a plan to spend that down. and they typically spend that down by the means of updating
ovens, replacing old kitchen equipment, and things like that. They don't always hit it, but you have to have a plan. And so that's what makes up the 6.6 million deficit that you see right there. They have to submit that as part of their upload to the USDA every year. That plan's been down for cafeterias.
The next on 177, um, another thing to note, 177 is about 350 or so, $360,000 above what they received last year for their educational capital projects fund. Um, that's going to be the 19.344 million
right there. And then the last fund is going to be the debt service fund. That's going to right now that's showing a surplus of about $600,000. We don't have extra money in there. That is because the bond issue that you just approved that will go to commission next week. We will have an
interest payment, at least an interest payment and potentially a principal payment to budget next year in that fund. That surplus will end up getting budgeted to pay a portion of that uh interest payment and potential principal payment next year. I know that was a lot and I know
that was fast. Any questions on the summary right there? I've got a question, Mr. Chairman. You're recognized. So is Thank you. is the so the the schools on that deficit their anticipation is for that
to come from ending fund balance or correct and so it it looks like general's okay and so based on this summary if it stands firm it doesn't look like there's going to be any kind of a need for a tax increase is that correct uh the finance office nor the
mayor's office is recommending any tax increase motion to approve the budget oh that comes later that comes later. Can you ask for Can you ask for a second there? And there you go. We can we can really uh save some time
here. We we do we are still waiting for the school to to submit their full budget though. But but I will reiterate a couple things on the schools. They have told me they do not anticipate their numbers changing much. Obviously, I don't know what their board's going to do, but that's that's what they've
indicated to me. I'm going to keep moving on. Um but long story short, we've balanced all the county funds to the best of our ability. Um really the only deficits that that that we have on a reoccurring operating basis are in are in the the schools 141 or 143 there. Um
so we feel pretty good about that. The next page, every year we get the question, what's the penny bring? What's our property tax role? So the penny has increased a little bit. Um the county penny brings in a little over 1.57 million. The schools is about 1.34 million. that's going to be on the
bottom right hand corner of that page. The difference is we talk about this all the time is the weighted ADA rate. Um, currently that's 85.06 to 14.94%. And again, you'll see the movement of the requested movement of pennies there um um matches the sheet
before that. The next sheet in your book right after that is going to be the list of the nonprofit recommendations by the mayor's office. Um there will be a night we go over those in detail, but that's just want to tell you what that list is. I'll point out two things on that list
um that so far right now are not part of nonprofits, but they are part of those account codes. That's the 5% of hotel meal tax that goes to the greenway for the T city Murphy'sboro and the 15% of hotel motel tax that goes to the Chamber of Commerce. You'll see that on the front page on the back page of that sheet. uh the 5% commissioner Irving if
you're looking for that is about halfway down and it's about halfway on the back page. Moving on under tab two is going to be your positions and personnel. U I think the thing to take from this page is if you flip one page you'll see the personnel request by the mayor's office.
Uh currently that's 23 positions for the county general fund. We have those listed and broken out there. The majority of those positions are to open the new Plane View FI public health and safety building um out there near the Plane View um elementary school. And then on the back page of that is two
positions for fund 118. That's two death investigators for a total of 25 positions. Now, I'm going to cover one more thing and then I'll get into the some of the big budget highlights or changes, but the next page under tab three starts all
of your funds. They are all going to go in order. Revenue is going to be first and expenditures are going to be second. So, I won't go through those tonight unless you all want me to, but there's there's two things I want to point out. Go ahead. Quick question. When would be appropriate to ask about
the forensic center and the how the medical examiner and potential do autopsies. So I think I think when would that be? I think two options. Um one we do have a night that we talk about the autopsies budget. You could
definitely do it that night. We also cover fund the ambulance service fund one night. you could have those conver in-depth conversations that night when Brian Gaither and Denise Martin and the mayor's office are here ready to discuss that. So, I think that would probably be the best time. However,
thank my recommendation. Thank you. I was just unless the mayor's here and unless he disagrees. Thank you. Um but there's one thing I want to point out as we look through expenditures. Um and I want to and I'm going to start talking about the the pay increase recommended um as part of this
budget here. But before we do that, I want to point out one thing as you look through there. Um, if you remember, this body gave the full commission gave a four and a quarter% lift or raise across the board raise in January. And so, as you look through
this budget, if we gave no raise at all, we did. There are raises in here, but let's just for a second assume we did not. We only budgeted for six months worth of raises because it was effective January 1. So even if this budget gave no raises, you are going to see
increases in expense line items. What I'm saying that is they are going to look inflated this year above what the raise is. So here in a second, I'm going to talk about what the proposed salary changes are from the mayor's office. It's going to look higher if you were to do the math and compare two different
line items from last year to this year. It's because when the raise went into effect, it was effective I think the last week of January. So, we have to pick up the other six months worth of that raise that our employees are already getting. They got their full raise, started getting their four and a
quarter percent in January. We only budgeted 6%. So, I'm saying when you look at this and I were to tell you there's a 2% raise, their account line items are going to go up more than 2% because we're picking up the other six months, the full year of the raise where we only
had six months worth of it budgeted. And the reason I'm emphasizing that is is because even when we were going over this internally, it's very confusing when you'll see a line item that's going up and you're thinking that person's getting double the raise. You said it was 2%. And it's I'm just saying it's inflated. So when you look at that, just
keep that in mind. Now, before we get into talking about salaries, I just want to say this is probably the most challenging budget I've been through since we've since we've been here. Um, one of the reasons is because a budget is very easy if you have a lot of excess money or if you don't have any money.
Those two budgets are very easy. It's very easy to cut stuff if I have no money, you know, no money. And it's a lot hard. It's a lot easier if you've got excess money. You can give everybody everything. So, with that being said, is I think this is the most draft of a budget I've ever done, probably that the mayor's office has ever done. Um, so one
of the goals that I think my office, the mayor's office has heard loud and clear from from this body, from public safety, was, "Hey, take care of take care of everybody, but also please take care of our public safety employees because we're hurting." So this budget, we threw
everything we could with all of that in mind. So with that being said, is there is a increase lift to the table of 2% here. every employee we budgeted their step increase if eligible. So we were worried we would not be able to do that in January. So regardless of some
targeted raises to public safety or some market adjustments, every employee that that is eligible for their step increase that's been budgeted for and a 2% lift to the table. And I think that's important to note because we did give the four and a quarter in January. So that is that is a large raise that we've
been able to give with no tax increase as part of this budget. The second thing is we tried to do some targeted increases for the public safety that we talked about and for some underfunded market positions. And so part of that is
we moved for fire, EMTs, and detention. And when I say detention, I'm lumping in jail, juvenile detention, uh, county warehouse, anybody that's a guard or detention. They've moved an additional two pay grades. So we we really targeted those because those are our highest open
positions in the county. I believe the jail fluctuates anywhere from 25 to 30 openings at any given time. We also targeted patrol. So they moved an extra grade on the pay table on top all of that is in addition to the 2% across the board lift. That is all included in
what's in front of you tonight. We got as close to we could as what that mandate was we thought was from the stakeholders that everybody put in. This does not include the five or 10 years experience. We would have loved to have done that. we chose to take care of our current
employees that we have first and hopefully if revenue is available then we would shift to that. But that's kind of our thought process as we work through this. I don't know if the mayor has anything to add. Did I did I miss anything? So that that's a you're
recognized if you'd like to speak. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Only briefly only that I just want to reiterate Michael's comments. You know, this is my third budget and this was by far the most challenging budget. Uh I won't get into the reasons why. Um you you know
the reasons why, but uh we heard loud and clear that from the commission and from uh Sheriff Fitzu's office, EMS director Brian Gaither, EMA director uh Chris Clark, and of course uh Chief Farley, you know, how we need to be more a little more competitive. And so our
our focus, one of our focuses was first responders. and at the same time all Brother Rutherford County employees. And I think uh I concur with Mike's Michael's assessment of the work that's gone into this. And I just want to publicly say thank you to Michael Smith
and his team. They do an absolutely phenomenal job. Unless you're on the phone with Michael at 11:30 p.m. at night, you have no appreciation for the long hours that he works. Uh so Michael, thank you for calling me so late. Hope it was beneficial. uh but also uh Eric
Hennessy, Sonia Stevenson, and uh the the entire team were just phenomenal. So, thank you, Mr. I'm just keeping you young, calling you late, but I I get up earlier than you, Mr. Smith. So, thank you. That's true. Um so,
so with that, any any questions? I know we're not taking a vote tonight, but any any questions? Did all that make sense of what's in the book? What what was the total on uh new employees? Uh 25 I believe. I believe it was 23 in the general fund and two in fund 118.
Okay. Thank you. Any other questions for the director on the proposed budget? The other thing I'll add is this budget based on the market adjustments and the raises that proposed it was between four and 500
people that that got reclasses. So, I think we were really proud of that. We worked really hard at that without struggling. We kept balancing the no tax increase. And so, I think I think we one of the things we offered as we met with with some of the department heads was we said, "Hey, we'll dump a whole bucket at
at at one employee need." And time after time, every department head said, "We want all of our employees to get something, not just one group." And so, that's how we kind of arrived at where we were at. Okay. Mayor,
I'm sorry. I would like to make one more comment. I really appreciate um Commissioner Beverly's coming and presenting that proposal. One of the things that Commissioner Beverly u commented on that is of extremely importance to the mayor's office and I
know the commission is the 10 years of experience and you know we we had to make a decision on do we do a 2% or do we do a 10 years experience and after consulting with uh the department heads the constitutional officers you know it
was unanimously agreed that if we had to pick one we would rather have the 2% having said that you know Mike and I are already when we work on this year's budget, we're also planning for next year's budget and the budget beyond that. And so it's our in full it's our
full intent to do everything possible to bring that 10 years experience valuation to our employees next year. I did I wanted to make sure that uh we all understood that. So thank you Mr. Chairman. All right. I believe that brings us to the end of
the overview unless I've got specific questions from the committee. If not, Michael, please move on to the next item 27, board of commissioners conference pay policy. So, this was forwarded to us from the steering committee. Um, I
believe this was, excuse me, uh, I believe the county attorney and his office um, worked on this policy mainly and then and then I've looked at it. This pretty much mirrors very close to the state tribal policy. Um, we were asked by the steering committee and and by the commission to come up with a with
a policy. Steering, I think, made one or two changes to it and and that's what you see before you tonight. Um, I can answer any questions about it you'd like. Um, so the gist of it is they made and I'll tell you the two changes they made.
Uh, one of the changes was the original draft had it having to be submitted something to the finance office for an estimated cost in 10 days. And I believe they changed that to five days in that first paragraph. And that's essentially so that we could get together a cost to be able to tell the budget or the steering committee how much y'all need
to budget um for whatever to help whichever commissioner would like to go that we could help you budget for that, help you get the PDM rate, stuff like that. So that's the gist of it. It gets submitted to to my office to help you fill out the forms. There's some forms attached here. Essentially says how much it's going to cost or an estimate of how
it's going to cost. Then it talks about reimbursement. Um like I said, it pretty much mirrors essentially is over so many miles. I believe they changed it. I'm looking for it. I thought it I thought they changed it to three or 400. Yeah, 400. So air travel is not
allowed over 400 and overnight lodging is not allowed at unless it's greater than 100. Um, so the gist of it is if you drive to Nashville to a conference, you get a mileage reimbursement. You can't stay overnight and we would reimburse you the mileage or your conference fee. If you travel overnight
or greater than 100 miles, then the PDM rate kicks in and you could get your meals. We we would pay on a PDM basis. You don't submit receipts. You do the PDM rate that's on the GSA rate. Um, but essentially just lays out the steps to take if if a commissioner would like to
go on a to a conference or a trip. Um, and eventually this this would go to steering budget and the full commission and get approved. Um, and then as far as budgeting for this, y'all could budget on a project by or a trip bytrip basis or y'all could put in a a pot of money
at the beginning of the year. Either is fine. Michael, do you need a vote on this? Yes. Tonight. Okay. Well, if if if y'all wanted to go, it'll need to go to the full commission for approval, but if it you could defer it if you would like, but uh but if if we wanted to go to the
commission, we need a vote. Um what y'all saw this in steering earlier in the week? Uh Chairman Harris, I believe, how how' the vote on that go? Is it 70? We made two changes. One is uh you
cannot reimburse flights unless it's 400 miles and u the 10 to 5 days in 10 to 5 days. Okay. Okay. So So basically if if a commission wanted to attend something it it goes
through the whole process of being approved up to the county commission. That's correct. So, so anything as small as going to Nashville or something as big as going to New Mexico.
So, yes, that is so if you want to be reimbursed, yes. And so, if you want to go to a conference in Nashville for two days, you would submit this 5 days prior to the steering committee to my office to help to help gather the cost. Now, some if it's a really small trip, you may not need any help. You would just
formally submit it. Um, it would go to steering for approval. Steering always meets the money before budget. It would go to budget for funding. Um, and then it would go to commission for final approval. I'll give you an example and I brought this up at public works the other night. There's a conference in uh
I believe it's Gatlinburgg about sustainability for solid waste. and the conference cover covers uh things like recycling, composting, uh new innovative ideas that are out there. Uh I think this is an ongoing
conference that's been going on for several years, but I think it'd be a good idea for as many people on public works especially or any of the commissioners that are interested in uh our solid waste problems to go to that uh conference. But that's one of the I I
don't it's not that expensive. I think it'd be around 300 three to 400 per person to uh actually go and that's that's for the cost of the conference. I don't have exact numbers in front of me but anyway that's an example
uh that it could be used for and of course it would have to be approved by the commission but having said that are there any other questions about this? If not I'll entertain a motion. So moved. I have a motion to approve the
recommendations from steering and a second. Any discussion? Who is the second? Irving, call roll, please. Commissioner Harris, yes. Mr. Irvin, yes. Mr. Johnson, yes.
Commissioner Pearson, yes. Mr. Seno, yes. Commissioner Gu, yes. Mr. P, yes. Motion carries. So, this will be going to the full commission. All right. Um item 28, Rutherford opioid board 20 2526
funding discussion and advertising contracts. Michael, so the opioid board this past Wednesday approved several things that you'll see on the night we talk about the opioids budget, but two of those things need to be approved tonight. They are for next year. Um, one
is the Lamar billboard contract where we do the billboard advertising for the opioid committee. And the other is the Smart Light advertising renewal contract. Those go into effect either June 30th or September 1. And so they needed the artwork and stuff to pro approved. Um, and so they asked that we
go ahead and approve those tonight. Those would go into effect next fiscal year. And then the funding for the Opio board approved several funding for several organizations. that will come as part of ne this as we work through the budget. When we get to that category that night, we'll add in the funding for all this. But if we go ahead and approve
these two contracts, that allows them to start working on the the advertising to have that go into effect on July 1. These funds that we're talking about for this is coming from the money provided with the opioid settlement, not out of the
correct motion to approve. Have a motion to approve. Second and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, call roll. Commissioner Harris, yes. Commissioner Irvin, yes. Commissioner Johnson, Commissioner
Piery, yes. Commissioner Sino, yes. Commissioner Gu, yes. Commissioner P, yes. Motion carries. Item 29 is an application for safe streets and road grants. Did Did you get a hold of Alyssa or do we have anybody here that if
nobody's here to present it, I would recommend us deferring that and unless Mark, I don't I'm not sure who that is. They did not send us anything that that would also be you're recognized, please. We got somebody coming forward
may have some information here. Good. I I think I can answer a few questions on it that this is a 80 I believe this is an 8020 match uh for 500. So the county's portion of it potentially would be 20. This is permission to apply and obviously if we were to get an award of
some portion of that it would come back to this body for final approval. What this is for is for it's a match. It's a grant from the state that allow us to do traffic studies to specifically look at congested areas to do road improvements.
Uh this is an initiative uh by Commissioner Dod to work with developers and the uh road superintendent and the cities the cities of Smyrna and Murersboro are already applying for this same grant and we would like to apply for that this grant as well to work in
concert with them to hopefully help us do traffic studies to to determine how we can alleviate congestion in the future. So it is a it's an 8020 match uh Mr. chairman and I think the maximum is 500,000 but this is just permission to apply. Yes, sir. It is it's just
permission to apply. If awarded, we would absolutely come back here. Okay. You've heard the recommendation from the mayor. Any discussion or questions? I'll move that we u grant permission to
apply. Okay. I have a motion to apply and a second. Any further discussion? Uh, all in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Okay. So, they do have permission to apply. Now, item 30,
transfer station tipping fees. And mayor, are you going to do that one or we got uh I know you had a PowerPoint last time I saw that. Yes, sir. uh my apologies and I didn't bring the slide with me but I think uh with
the help of uh Commissioner Phillips like we can recall this basically what we have to do is and Michael can explain this is when the county receives revenue uh we have to set up Michael helped me a fund account and basically we're establishing the rate the tipping rate
at the transfer station by commercial haulers uh I believe the the rate is from 5,000 to excuse me 8,000 tons or more per month is $75 a month. Thank you, Chairman Phillips. Um the the rate
from uh believe 5,000 to 8,000 is 7750. The rate from uh 2,000 to 5,000 is $80. The rate from 200 tons to 2,000 tons or 1999 tons is $85. And then the gate or
cash rate is $95 per ton. And this was approved 70 to nothing by public works committee. Mayor, would you forward that to me so I can add that to the uh agenda for the commission? Yeah, you can just send me
the PowerPoint. Either one. Yeah, either be fine. Mr. Chair, you're recognized. Mayor Carr, I'm just work with me here because transportation in the contract will be $22.
That's correct. Okay. And then it'll be 30 30 cents disposal $40 $4 based on 110,000 per year for 50k.
Does that sound right? You're close, but close enough for for our illustration. Yes, sir. Okay. I think these numbers are coming straight off the contract. So, it's $72.40. That sounds right. Okay. Now, if we put in debt,
which is $20 million% over 20 years, that would be $12.32. So, if I can do if if we want to be exact here. So, um I'm proud to say that we the uh budgeted amount for the
transfer station was $20 million. Uh we were about to close out that account and we believe we're going to be honor about $17 million. So, the actual debt portion of that borrowing was going to be assigned 17. We believe we're going to have $3 million left over that debt that
will be not be used for for the transfer station. the actual cost of the transfer station, the road improvements, all in is going to be honor about $17 million. Okay. Not not 20. So, we saved three million, but go ahead. And
then 10 operator scale maintenance and utilities that I'm saying the minimum we can charge is $86.58.
So I would disagree with your numbers and that's fine. We're you know I disagree with your numbers. So the the dis disposal fee or the tipping for waste management is $40 a ton and that is a correct number. The transportation
cost is $22 a ton. The loading cost and it and it varies because we have as you as you're aware the more you the more we bring through the transfer station the lower per ton that cost is. So we had to pick a number and based on the
information waste management gave us and the information waste one gave us about committing to uh 60 and 50,000 tons a year respectively. We said, "Okay, we believe this facility in the first year of operation is going to do at least
100,000 tons." 100,000 tons through the transfer station, that loading cost is $10 a ton. So, we're at $72 a ton. You said 7240. So, we're certainly in the ball game. The we estimated that operating cost of about another dollar
maybe $120 a ton on top of that for operation cost. Operation costs are electricity, leech, water, sewer, uh, and and maintenance. And we antic we anticipate about a hundred to $120,000 a year in operational cost
associated including the hiring of a new SK person in the scale house. That's what we estimated. So what we anticipate, uh, Chairman Harris, is a total cost to the county on a per ton basis at 100,000 tons a year. It's
approximately $73.50 plus or minus a couple of pennies, but that's where we're at. And that's including debt service. No, it does not include debt service. That is No. Right. Exactly. I I want I So, I'm glad we're making that decision. We are not including debt service. No, sir.
Okay. Does that mean I'm including debt service? And it's 8650 minimum charge. Only other question to you is out of the 110k that you said at public works is coming from wast. So is that all
ruford county trash? Yes. Okay. And so you're saying that you'll be able to get 50,000 for No sir. What we're saying is that waste one came up to me afterwards and said they were here that night and said we are going to bring you 4,200
tons a month. That is almost that's over 50,000 tons a year. So between waste management and waste one, we're going to receive according to what they told me 110,000 tons a year. That is with no other private haulers coming to our
facility. They are they are residential pickup service here in Rutherford County. Currently they take all their waste to the Antioch transfer station. They do a number of HOAs on the western side of the county in the Blackman area.
Commissioner Johnson's waving his head like he knows who I'm talking about. Uh they're they're a new entity in Rutherford County. I think they've been here maybe two three years. Um and they're working with these HOAs to contract with those HOAs to pick up their residential MSW.
So they're waste one. So they don't go to the public. No sir. They go to any the Antioch transfer station. So they're saying they're going to give us Yes, sir. trash. And how much we going to charge him? Well, again, all of what
whether waste management or waste one or uh Craig Harris Waste and Hauling, whoever it is, is when you come to our facility and you're a commercial hauler and you are on credit with us, whatever you bring to us in July is what you're
build for in August for July. So that rate sheet, if you are between, if you're between five and 8,000 tons for July, you'll get a bill. Let's say you're let's say your tonnage for July is 6,000 tons. That's between 5 and 8. You're going to pay 6,000 tons times
77.50. And you'll get a bill in August for the trash that you brought to the transfer station in July. So let's say in August you only bring you don't bring anything or you bring five tons or 100 tons. So whatever your tonnage is that month, that's what you're going to pay
for at that tier tiered rate build for the following month. So it it'll it'll change based on however I want to emphasize that waste management and waste one want. This is a
this is a convenience for them because of where they're taking trash now and the wait times and the traffic. So, we expect to get an incredible amount of local trash coming to the facility that's currently going outside the county. That's what we've been told.
Okay. I mean, the thing that I'm having a problem with is the debt service. Mhm. We got to pay it. We do. So, that's not included in here. No. I'm kind of feeling like if you come in $775 and I feel like we're doing a
subsidy for like we're giving them a transfer station for $10. I mean, they get a transfer station. That's our transfer station, but they're going to be utilizing basically. I feel like we're subsidizing
it. I I I understand the argument and and I hear what you're saying. I would say that that's why we didn't enter into a contract with them exclusive to them. We set a tiered rate. So, but they've got a target to hit just like anybody else. So, anybody else could come into
the county and hit that targeted rate. What we're trying to get to, and I want to emphasize this, and you're kind of asking a question that you didn't ask, is and it's what we said at public works. This is just a starting place. I I am under no illusion whatsoever that
after three, six or nine months, we're going to come back to public works and say, you know what, we need to adjust the rate for whatever reason. What hypothetically what happens in the first month if we bring in um you know 15 or
20,000 tons which is way over the prorated rout amount of 100,000 a year. What happens if after we start doing that after two or three months? Well, we've missed the mark. We've we've uh we've missed the mark on how much trash is coming here. So, it's obvious we may have to adjust our rate. This is just
the starting place with regard to the debt service. You know, I worked with Michael on Michael, do we want to calculate in our rate the debt service? And we went back and forth and we c certainly can do that, but we don't calculate debt service on any other
public project. And so in order to be consistent, we just made the decision not to calculate it on this project either because it is a it's a bond project and we just didn't want to risk with the bond council maybe violating
some of the rules of the bond agreement. It was we were trying to just be abundantly cautious. So Michael based on $20 million or let's say Michael based on $17 million
Well, it's it's it is going to be based on it. Well, it has to be based on 20 because that's what we borrow. We have to pay that back. So, but if you're asking what our payment is on that, it's approximately a million and a half a year. 1.5 roughly. I'm I'm rounding, but
close. Oh. Oh, I I understand you. And as a as a businessman uh who's run two large engineering companies, I understand really well the VA uh the impact of debt service on on a budget and but you know being a private business owner I also
know that I don't get to apply those same principles to government I have to be careful and so I'm just trying to be abundantly careful with a go bond that we don't violate that agreement. I'm not saying we would by doing this. I just want to be careful that we don't. Well, I'll tell you this, mayor. I was so
against this, but I did not know about W1. So, that I made a mistake on because I thought they were uh I thought you were banking on 50k dollars that are already here that are going to republic because what I don't want to do is get
into contest with Republic, drop the prices down to nothing, just you know that. Okay. So where we and you differ on is the debt service. Yes sir. I got your numbers here. So what is the terms of tipping
fees? For instance, say we come back in 6 months and we're losing money. How can we raise them up? What's the procedure for us to raise? The procedure is uh Bishop and I would come to public works for a request for what we believe the
tipping fee should change to whether up or down. Well, if we're changing the tipping fee, we have to come to public works to change that that that that structure. Uh public work that we'd have that debate. We would make the recommendation uh the work public works committee that could accept it or modify
it. It would come to back to budget. Uh I think that's what is that what we settled on? I believe it is. Uh the first proposal that we saw in public works was for the mayor and the chairman of the uh uh public works to get
together with the uh solid waste director to set a rate so they could do that quickly and that was modified so that uh the public works committee would actually have to set the rate. So that's the way it is
and then once they set that rate it would go to budget then to the full commission. So we would exactly we would come with a recommendation but the public works committee would then forward that recommendation or some modified version of that recommendation here and then onto the full commission.
It'd be just like what's happening tonight. Exactly. Just exactly. I've asked no questions. Any other any other questions from the committee? If not, we do need to vote on this so we can push this forward to the
full commission. Do I hear a motion or further discussion from the committee? I have a motion to forward this with approval to the full commission. Do I hear a second?
Second. And a second. And since we're attaching numbers to this, I'm going to ask for a roll call vote. Please go ahead. Commissioner Harris. Commissioner Irvin. Yes. Commissioner Johnson, yes.
Commissioner Piery, yes. Commissioner Shino, yes. Commissioner Gu. Yes. Commissioner P. Yes. Okay. The motion carries and this will be going forward to the full commission next Thursday. Michael, have you got any other business? I do not. Having said that, we
are adjourned. I do have a reminder next Tuesday is our first budget meeting. No, no other business to be for the minutes, but just as a reminder, next Tuesday. Okay, guys. Tuesday night. Good night.