Good evening. We're going to come to order. Maybe not. Sorry. Good evening. We're going to get started. Um, want to welcome you to the city of Wilson workshop. Today is
Tuesday, August 25th, 2025 at 6:01 p.m. We're going to have roll call by Miss Patricia Ray. Mayor Goodman, I am here. President Hines, I'm here.
Vice President Cox here. Council member Jones here. Council member Martin here. Council member Rikio, she's running late. City Manager Sue Bodette, I'm here.
Attorney Kirsten Belaloo, she's absent. Finance Director Steven Bloom, I'm here. City Clerk Latricia Wright, I am here. And all other staff. Thank you. We will now have the opening prayer.
Pledge of Allegiance by Mayor Charles Stitch. Join me if you choose. Lord, we're here today to do the business of our city. I ask you to be with each one of these council members to give them the ability
to see all many difficulties in a budget. I ask you to give them the wisdom that they need to pass a budget for our city. And I ask you to be with each and every person who spent their life and came here tonight to see this
process go through in your name. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. Thank you very much. At this time, we'll have public participation. Hey, my name's Joel Penny. Uh, so I've came to the council several times about fence and the pit. Uh, I was just wondering if the project to put the
fence around the pit could be put on the budget because they have been working on it. Well, he's been working on it for like two years. So, could that be put on the budget tonight? Well,
is that your final comment? Yeah. Okay. We won't be having discussion um at this time. No, it probably it will not. Why will it not be? He's worked on it for two years and he's asked to be put it on the budget and
it doesn't need to be. Okay. Well, do it without a home. It's not what I was told by the city manager. It needs to be put on the budget. Talking about the entire thing or just
the little spot you talking about the last around the entire thing. No, I was talking about the whole thing. Well, since this is our first time hearing it, it's not the first time hearing it. It's been several. As far as it as it being having to be
put on the budget, this is my first time hearing it. He's he's worked on the project for two years to have an offense and it's not been done. For it to be on the budget, this is our first time hearing. Anybody request for it be placed on budget?
Oh, can can you Who who is he? Donald. Okay. Thank you. I haven't heard about it. Well, I've been in meeting with him and he has and I've been in I've talked to the city manager and
there has been talk about it for the past year. So, I would like to know about it. Is there anyone else who would like to make a comment? You have five minutes. Anything that's not on this?
If none, we will move forward. Item three, review of the revised budget 2025 2026 and budget related matters. Finance Director Steven. Okay. Uh, good evening. Um this is
obviously your third and final workshop. Uh but I did want to remind everyone that now uh we will have the two public hearings. Uh so again and I'm just going to read the dates uh for you. Uh September 12th at 6 pm uh will be the
first one. Um and then September 24th also at 6 pm. Again they both have to be after 5:00. So we are meeting that uh requirement. Those will be the the final two. In addition to that you have on the
10th they have seen assign your um meeting on the fire assessment as well. So just wanted to to make sure everybody was good with that. Uh in terms of the budget you have in front of you, uh it's still a balanced budget.
All funds are balanced. Um, we've made the uh not not a ton of significant changes. Um, um, you know, we moved the code enforcement officer position down. I even moved the whole department down right underneath the chief's section.
Um, we made we did some clean up on some titles. Uh, just as kind of a refresher, we lowered the fireworks uh, budget as well. Um, and then we made, you know, a couple other very small changes to clean up a couple formulas, including the team
count page. Um, um, making sure that the millage rate on the general fund, even though it was calculated at 6.75, wanted to make sure all that type of stuff was all clean and clear throughout the whole budget package. Uh otherwise again
balance and this is your you know again your opportunity to kind of go through it make any changes and talk about anything you would like to So one of the things I just wanted to bring back from the last couple meetings we talked about was Donald Barber's um
title and I sent everybody the information um that I received from Kim in HR um again on on the staffing plan page, this is page 11 of the budget. Um, we have it listed here as public works
administrator. Again, previously it was public works supervisor. So, I just want to make sure that we're okay with whatever we've got in the staffing plan or if there's any questions that either myself or Donald could answer. Just want to bring that back um to everybody's attention.
you're looking at me. Just a couple of things on the staffing plan while we're there. Um, when you look at the staffing plan for the animal shelter and you look at the animal shelter itself,
five The big 28 shelter [Music] 28 or 24 depending on what version you're looking Okay, I can ask. Yeah. Um, it splits only two employees under the personnel
services, a manager and an attendant and yet in the staffing plan. Microphone, please. One manager, two attendants. So, I put a little two in front of it. The other thing that I I did adjust in the newer version uh to make sure that position
was fulltime. There was a calculation. It was a small error in the calculation, but it is a full-time position. The manager and it shows that on the sheet are the attendants fulltime. The attendants are not. Both of them are
parttime. No, no, just the managers full time. And so the 34608 that's two salaries. Yes. Yes. So the new the the version I'm working on will have a two in the front of it. Um signifying that there's two
animal shelter attendants. Okay. said page. This is a printed copy without the plan under public works which is the last page
where it says facility worker one and facility worker two. We actually flipped those before, but I think it flipped here, but it's not flipped. It is here, but not the other place.
It has the salary the opposite. Yes. Let me make sure I got that. Yep. I will correct that right now. Can we go back for just a second to animal shelter? I did want to ask you guys this. Um, the salary that we're paying the manager at the animal shelter,
find it again, but I think it was $16.39. It's going to be very difficult to find a really good manager for $16 an hour. So, I wanted to bring that to your attention and see if maybe we do something a little higher than that. maybe $20 an hour or something else. But
I mean, I think that's probably the lowest paid manager that we have the city of Allison. It's 39 an hour. Absolutely. I I feel like that the animal shelter manager is going to have to be really good at paperwork, really
good at animals working, animal control. as well as I mean I think that number is wrong on the staff and plan because it was my understanding that shelf manager pay was 35,000 this says
27293 I tried to find part of her salary somewhere else but I could not because it said 100% on the Yeah, that was when I said earlier that's was a small formula issue, right? It's full-time. I've already made the
adjustment. It's actually 34,000 $34,86. The $16.39 is correct. In my business, I paid basic labor rates for somebody
or budget or anything like that. Just show up and follow us. [Music] I mean, I agree needs to be a little higher, but I also know back in the day that you were paying
managers to run restaurants today. So we need to do something because if not we're going to have a revolving door of managers. I'm doing $20. 18 is 37440.
And then 41,600. So the difference is a little bit under $4,200. Again, that's between $18 an hour and $20 an hour. There should be compromise in the
middle. What should be do? Let's do so. I'm good with 20. Mr. Cop, you good with 20? So, we increase the $20 an hour.
That was my last question. That was it for you? Sorry. That for you guys for you? Nothing in. All right. So, we'll go back to Luke when she initially spoke about the
administrative assistant, public works administrator for dollar. Um, as I as I stated the last time that we were here, um, okay, as I stated the last time we were here, um, the staff the organizational
chart um, showed Mr. Barber as um, supervisor of public works. And of course, he advised us that he was made administrator um prior to
Mr. uh Boulevard leaving. My concern with the public works administrator is um if he's still why why the change in the title one and Mr. Barb, if you would
like to to come and speak to that. Um why the change in the title? Um if nothing with his job is going to change, he's not over any other department or anything like that, why are we what's
the need to change the title? Tom, can you speak to that since you were here with Terry? So, I don't believe I'm asking to change it. It was changed by a city manager uh as to the reasoning behind that. You could speak to the city manager. Um I
believed it's because I have more of a role in administrative work than I do direct supervision over staff. And he classified supervisors as someone that's out in the field more looking after and supervising work that's being done. I handle the resolutions, the ordinances,
the RFPs. I mean 90% of the work that I commit to is administrative work. I did not ask for the title change. I did not solicit a title change. It was something that was determined. What he communicated to the council. I can't answer to that. I was not privy to those meetings. I just know that it was
changed. Staff knows it was changed. There's a PAF that was provided to council for it to be changed. There was no pay changed with it. It was simply changed. So I can't answer the question other than tell you that's been my operating title. Um, y'all want to call me uh the garbage collector? It doesn't
matter to me. I do the same job. Thank you. Is Mr. Bvard on the line? If he would like to speak, would you like to speak, Terry? Stand by.
Okay, you got the mic. All right. Very good. Thank you ladies and gentlemen for providing me the opportunity to attend here tonight. Um speaking to and what Mr. Barber said far as his position title change. Um you I I
don't recall the conversation that we had. You know, I know supposedly there's a a PAF under my signature that indicate there's a title change. However, it was on the same PAF and where I gave Mr. Barber additional dollar an hour for a
certificate that he had and it may very well be something that I overlooked and did not pay attention to the path that indicated a position or title change. Um but when I left there it was my intentions and the understanding of
everybody there that there was three supervisors in utilities. One under electricity, one under um gas, water, septic, fiber and one under streets and parks and you know and their
pay is indicative to their responsibilities to the city of Willist. So, um it may very well be my mistake that that title change happened. I don't know that it is or is not. Um you know,
I don't recall that conversation, you know, I'm I'm not doubting um anybody uh as far as my signature goes, you know, but like I said, it may have been something I merely overlooked. However, when I left on February the 28th um and
the time before that before the organizational change, the organizational change that I presented to y'all and that we all discussed and approved was the organal change that I left of utilities with the incoming new
city man. Thank you. Does anyone have any questions for Mr. This is Deborah. Um, when I look at the stabbing plan, the way I look at it, I'm now seeing four supervisors instead of
three. Um, I'm seeing parks, roads, and facilities. I'm seeing um what's called field operations, which I assume is water, gas, and sewer. I am seeing
um electric and the administrative position that we are talking about now public works administrator. So we actually ended up with four and I think that's because Alex got moved after you left.
I think Donald had it. No, Donald shaking his head. No. Okay. So we ended up with four instead of three. If Alex moved before you did, I mean before you left,
was Alex the supervisor when you left? So, we've moved Alex into a supervisory position because of the complexity of the water, gas, sewer, and currently fiber that's within that utility. And so
it was a lot for one individual person such as Mr. Barber even as a good of job that he does do um to handle. So the reason why Alex was made a field supervisor was to giving him the authority and I'm going to be quite
honest here giving him the authority in which and the duties in which quite frankly he was already doing right. Um yes it it was important to give him the title. it was not my intention or had it would
it ever be to have four different areas. So I would say that once again if you look at utility structure um it would be the three departments plus uh Mr. Barber would have the only uh person
his department would have a supervisor working underneath him. Any other questions? Okay. Thank you for that, Mr. Bard. Yes, ma'am. So, now I guess at this point we need just
to decide, are we going to um keep the title as public works administrator or move it back to Miss Barber's title, back to
where it was initially stated as supervisor. Sure. Um on if we just look down the road, let's say five years from now, we are Mr. Barber has decided to, you
know, move to Hawaii, live on the beach, and we are looking to replace his position. I guess my question would be if we were to to advertise for that position, you know, is it more an administrative job? Is what Mr. Barber doing now more of an administrative job?
You know, in terms of everything that you just described, or is it a job? We'd expect that person to be out in the field working side by side with Alex. And if that's the case, what kind of conflict is that going to cause, you know, has been here for longer
coming in? Anyway, I guess that would be my question is if we were to go out and write a job description or it title.
So, Mr. Revar, um, when you were here, Mr. barber's duties. What were they? So, of course, as you all know, he he has all of Willist and fiber. So, so
that was uh a lot of his responsibility in addition to his daily responsibility of you know uh gas um water uh not uh yes gas water um um sewer you know and
so but like I said it was always my expectation is that those three departments would be equal. I I guess it's like he said regardless of what you name him. My my bigger concern at least would have been for me at the time is what did the organizational structure
look like and who uh reports to who when I was there. Um each individual department was told by me in front of the director that they would report to Jonathan Bishop and return in his absence he would report they would
report to me. uh there would be no number two person um so that they all had their own duties and specific responsibilities of specifically you know Mr. Miller cannot do what Mr. Barber does and Mr. Barber uh can't do what Mr. Miller does
and the streets and parks although it's the lowest paid managerial part job in utilities. Uh he's not expected to be responsible for anything in sewer or anything like that or in electricity. And the reason it was done that way is
because when you look at liability issues and concerns, you want to make sure that those individuals are in place and making the decisions where they have their licenses. And we're not the only person this I didn't just pull this idea out of the air. I you I called several
different utilities uh Ocala being one of them and theirs are all run that way. Uh so in my mind this made the best organizational structure you know for uh the city of Willist. So, so I expected his duties to yes, there's a lot of
administrative work that has to be done in his section because of the the areas that he has control over and yes, administratively he does a lot of work when it comes to Williston Fiber. Um, you know, the offshoot of the whole organizational structure in my vision
going forward would be that Williston Fiber would eventually come out on its own and be at its own uh um department underneath utilities. Therefore, removing that responsibility um or placing somebody in strategic
development with that will fiber goal. So, um that was my thing. To me, it made sense um legally if we ever got challenged over it um that if utilities was making a decision and something went wrong um they would not be following the
directions of uh another department head or another u supervisor that had no certifications in that area. Um I I do believe in what Meredith said that yeah, Alex is expected to be in the field uh
supervising, doing the things he's supposed to be doing because that is what he was doing. Um yet there are things in um gas, as y'all know, now you're hiring another assistant. You know, that requires a lot of
recordkeeping um and a lot of inspections. I mean, nobody shows up and inspects our utility grid other than we do, unless something happens. Nobody shows up and inspects our parts and things like that. Um, however, in the
responsibility that Mr. uh uh uh that Donald has, it there are inspections that will occur and there are issues that do come up um that inherit that kind of focus of attention. So, um I
hope that asked you answered your questions. Uh it was not my expectation for you know him to uh stay in the office 100%. Um you know was there a vision like I said one day down the road to create a department of strategic
development. Um yes and that person would have worked closely with planning and that person could have actually also worked very closely with Willis and Fiverr because all that runs together the planning with the development and the fiber and all that stuff but they
would still all be independent of each other answering to Jonathan Bishop. And once again, I go back to say that when I left, um, no other supervisors was in charge of each other and in the absence of Jonathan Bishop, they would then
bring their questions to me. Okay. Thanks. So, um, my understanding what you're saying is even though Mr. Barber does a lot of administrative work that his work should also be
or will be in the field at some some point. Yeah, absolutely. So, it's just not strictly administration. No, it is absolutely not administrative. I mean, he is in charge of uh gas and water. If we have a gas issue that's
significant, um I expected him to be there. if we had a water issue, uh, main break, I expected him to be there and he was, you know, to his credit, he came to those scenes and helped resolve those issues. Um, so yes, it is not
exclusively administration. Um, just like Mike Miller is not exclusively administration, even though he has a lot of work in planning and development in developing um, electrical grids, electrical uh, layouts for houses and
subdivisions. Um, same thing there. Like I said, parks and wrecks, not quite as much. It's obviously, you know, one of the more simpler departments. It is our step-in area for the utilities department where we bring in people and they step into our doorway a lot of
times in those streets and park positions and move through the ranks uh within utility department. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else have any questions or concern? So I guess we just need to make a
decision or give Miss our thoughts on title based on what Mr. Pard has said and she can make her decision. Yes, Miss Right. Can we just ask Donna how much
administrative work that he does do? doing this daily working week. Donald, how much administrative you do? About what? 80%. We're asking I'm asking for Can you come
to the mic, please? How much percentage of your work is administrative? probably about 80 85%. [Applause] Who's the bishop? Yes, ma'am. Did you have something to say?
Uh, my thoughts and believe is just to leave it as leave it as is. And mine is I I agree with everything there said. So, I guess that's the too. So then if we're putting him in an administrative position, does that come
along with the race? You have to think about that as well. No, I didn't say you're asking. I I'm making the statement that I think he's already in the administrative position and he's going to get the rights like everybody else.
And and I I agree with also with everything that Eric said. I mean, I don't I guess the title can you know the hierarchy and the structure protect us against any concerns liability that's already you know thought out um so clearly and
discussed so clearly um keep that piece of the puzzle and then but I do think if we are if for some reason we had Mr. Barber that we want to make sure that whoever came in understood that it is
those are two very different in the field supervising staff very administrative future. So then should we change every supervisor's position to administrative because they're doing administrative
duties as well? I don't think so because they are in the field but they're doing administrative stuff as well. Only is because of their supervisory position. I mean you can ask Mike's here. I don't know what percentage he is
administrative. Um the others aren't here, but no, I don't. Right. They are working supervisor. He is not, but he probably should be right because that's what was just stated. He should be doing both, not just one.
Yes, Mr. Bishop. I would say if going down that road, the ratios wouldn't be the same. they are doing some administrative work absolutely but not to the degree that he is. So I would say they would stay supervisors he would stay in his title
that he said now and also as Mr. of art said or at least we understood him. If it's not correct, he could correct me. I understand that he had the supervisor of field operations reporting to the public works administrator.
Supervisor uh no administrator and then there all the other supervisors were stand alone but then they all reported to Mr. Bishop. That's the way I understood it. Is that the way you say it that Mr. cuz that wasn't my understanding.
He's off right now. He's gone. All right. So, hang on. Hang on. Let's make a decision. Recently emailed as a chart and that's all right. He's back. All right. Uh, thank you. I'm not sure
what happened. But the yeah, the whole goal, like I said, regardless of titles, is that the organizational components of each separate utilities, uh, the gas, the the water, the sewer, I
mean, the whole nine yards plus parks and all that that had specific guide rails up to operate in that fashion that if a decision was made, it wasn't somebody making a decision out another area that didn't have the knowledge and
licensing of those area and streets and parks. Although it's not that critical when you come to electrical and gas, you don't want Mike Miller making a decision that involves something that with the gas and you don't want Mr. barber making
a decision when it comes to something with electric that basically you have your licensed professionals in the area that you're paying them making that decision and you have that that way so when something happens it's a you're in
a better position of defense if there's any litigation in the future and that was the key goal. Okay. Okay. and I have I say leave it.
I second that. Miss, I agree. As long as the the structure Yeah. Thank you. remains the same. All right. So, Miss Sue, what will your decision be?
I'll leave it as is public works. Okay. Anything else about the budget related to the budget on the staffing plan page seven? Um, utility service award, little seven or big seven?
Little seven. Yeah. Um, are we going to just leave? Is Mr. Miller still with us? Not that Miller. Zachary Miller. I saw that he was still here because he's listed on the the plan. I'm
just wondering, are we just going to leave just take his name out and then just leave that position open? Cuz you plan to bring somebody on, right? Yes. You can actually have Stephen lower the salary to the introductory if you like. Okay.
Go back to the basic like the trainee. Okay. GIS specialist. Is he still remove the 3% or we're going to leave the 3%? Is he still here or is he gone already? No, I just told Mr. Cox because he was asking uh that position can go down to the base rate of the 1691 and it doesn't
need a 3%. Are you sure? Can you get somebody to do that for that amount? Well, it's it's a range. I mean, you know, you have your range. So, if they come in with Certs or qualifications, they would be offered something higher, but there's no reason to plan for that if we don't know what the candidate and
it was the council, I believe, that requested that if we had an open position, we advertise at the base rate. If we get someone more qualified, that's great, but we should plan on it being an introductory position. Correct? Chances are it may be somebody internal,
right? So they would take their salary with a raise and then their position would go back to the 1691. So either way it works out, it would still it would be better to have that at the lower rate. Okay.
Anything else? Anyone else? Most of them we talked about already but check I've got another one if you guys are ready. Yes. Yes ma'am. Go ahead. Okay. So big nine little five. Um under community development the city planner
of course that's we need to take Laura Jones's name out. She's no longer with us. Um I just gave you guys tonight a proposal from JD Pro. Um and I'm just looking for some guidance here from the council as to how you would like to proceed. But we can
certainly advertise for a city planner. Um like we talked about um it's going to be difficult to find one because again there's multiple municipalities that are looking for one. Our other option is to outsource this to JB Pro. The um proposal that you have in
front of you would be a piggyback off of Levy County. So it work pretty much exactly the way Levy County did it. Maybe the county had someone who was their planner, went to JB Pro and then ended up being a planner for the county through JB Pro. So, we could do the same
sort of thing here. And um Kathy Iba from JB Pro is here to answer questions. Obviously, this isn't something we can decide tonight. she can come back at the council meeting next Tuesday to more thoroughly go through this, but I just wanted to kind of get your thoughts as to whether or not you wanted to even
advertise it and try or go with JB Pro or do both simultaneously. I'm open to to either. Um I would like to go with JB Pro for this reason. We have two other positions that grant
that people have moved over to. uh that's some another position that we've got to get somebody in to train and if uh planners are that hard to get they're familiar with us
uh comprehensive plan we're working with there was another one too that planning itself so it'd be kind of like we've hired somebody that is experienced already into us you know as far just knowing
what's what and and down the road, you know, maybe somebody will come in that, you know, would be a planner for us for down the road. But I just think we got to get it settled a little bit. Miss Kathy, could you come to the mic,
please? Sorry. Good evening, everyone. Hello. So, um, what would be the price or the cost? So, oh, so the way a piggyback works is that we
would use the contract that we have with Levy County for similar services. And the way the Levy County services work, um, originally we did it on a per hour rate and then we have recently changed
it where they have um where it's a it's a standard rate depending on what the service is and what kind of application it is. So, if it's a uh zoning
uh if it's a unity of title, the one just happens to be on top of my I don't know what that if it's a union of title, there's one there's one rate for that. Um if it's a zoning application, there's another rate for that. If it's a comprehensive plan amendment, there's another rate for that.
The way a piggyback works is that we agree to to um to honor the rates that we have with the jurisdiction that you're piggybacking
on. You can piggyback on a contract if it has been competitively bid, which is the Levy County proposal was competitively bid. We submitted an application and were selected by Levy County. So your agreement on the on a piggyback is that you're going to use
the contract. Our agreement on the piggyback is that we will honor the conditions under which that contract was utilized. Um and that so it's a piggyback. You're piggybacking on the existing contract. We can't change the rates. We can't offer you different
rates. We have to honor the rate as they were established by the contract that you're piggybacking on. Um this is this kind of service we do this isn't we don't only do it for Ley County we also do it for the town of Clint interlockan
um and we we're in discussion with another jurisdiction to do services for the for that jurisdiction as well. Um planners have become harder and harder to find. We are we are we are partners
with a lot of our local jurisdictions. We try really hard to do good work. Um the Mr. Cox, the other plan that you're thinking about is that we wrote the downtown master plan. So we started with the downtown master plan working with you. Since then we have we were working
on the conference plan. Um land development code would be next. um you know we work really we work really hard to earn your partnership and so this would be another service that we would provide you and we would do it based on the existing contract that we
have with Levy County with the existing rates and those rates would then I know the way Levy County does it is that the the applicant pays the plus of 3% so they pay the whatever
they they raise their rates. So, we get a portion of it and a portion of it goes to Levy County to cover their administrative costs as well. So, it's not all coming to us. It's it's and then there's some jurisdictions that do it where
um they have a base rate that goes to the local jurisdiction and then whatever our fee, whatever the consultant's fee is, the the applicant pays that as well. So there's no real um
money coming from or cost for the city there. I mean there is there is but way most jurisdictions do it is they trans they put it to the applicant. The applicant is the one that pays is paying not you which is the way it should be. Those are they're the ones who are
incurring the are are causing you to have to provide the service. you you're providing a service because you need someone to review you need someone to present you need someone to work with them on review on the application itself
before it ever comes to you to present to planning commission all the rest of it so that's that is that is common um even when I was in the public sector we there was an application fee and they they so the applicants whether it's
being paid through a consultant or whether it's being paid paid through staff pays for the service to be to be provided. Okay. Any questions? Yes. And and likewise, if the city wanted to change some of our zoning um and our our
ordinances for any reason, then that would come out of the city's pocket. Right. Right. So, this uh application that Miss Boda asked us to provide for you um would provide a range of services. It could be CRA work. It could
be um it could be changes to your your code. It could be um a study for maybe you want to do something on parks. You want to study parks. It this this contract that we provided to Miss Bodat would provide a range of services so
that um you could hire us which you have done many times. Um, you know, we also did your uh we also updated your your maps a few years ago. That I think that was our very first contract with you. We actually digitized your maps and took
them from a paperbased map to a GISbased map. Um, so we can continue to do all the services that we have done for you. We would just do it under this contract. So I guess my um question uh would be
that we would Some would be simply passed through from you know people directly through us to and would be at no cost to us. But I do think we should budget certain amount every year for the city to be able to
use their services so that it didn't h you know maybe above a certain amount it comes to the council so that we didn't have to right you know address every every single little thing at a council meeting. And that was going to be my next question. How do we budget for this
if we don't know? Oh, we've got well, we got Laura Salvia here right now. So, even if we budgeted, left that there or just as a start at least uh to it would kind of give us an idea of where we're going. And that would be one of my questions is at our
next meeting. I see we have a copy of the contract with Ley County, but uh can you give us a copy of the variable hourly rates or are they set rates? Yeah, we have we have some of each. Um, so we have an hourly rate for each staff person and I can u that should be
a part of the Levy County contract, but I can make sure that you have that here. Okay. I can make sure that you get our um and that contract was just recently signed. It was it's was signed this year. So, it's it's using the 25 uh the
25 year. Um, the other thing that I would like to mention is one of the benefits that our jurisdictions have found working with us is they're not just getting a planner. They're getting we have our staff is now a staff of
eight. Um, I I'm you're probably aware, but Laura is coming to work for us. Um, I am don't know about anybody else, but I am. Yeah. So, so Laura would Laura would work with you as well as myself. The two of us have worked very closely, but Nick
Nick Hill has also worked for the city. Um, we have two planners who are both very good at GIS. Nick Hill is also very good at GIS. We have a GISP planner who worked on your maps. That is John Gilry.
Um, and we have Tara Howell who um came from Levy County. Um, also works for us. She also worked for Gilchrist County for a while. So we have quite a few rural based planners, but we have other people besides just one person. So you're not getting just the technical person Laura,
you're getting all of the experience that goes behind the scenes. And so we can provide you whatever the services. Um, and we also have two interns from the University of Florida who are excellent young planners.
So, not necessarily I don't think for you, but we have um a planning zone administrative assistant that was for Laura. What happens to her and her duties if we have for hiring?
So, I can explain how we do it. Yeah. Yeah. That's a question I need I want to know. Yeah. So that person is actually really important for us um because so the way we do it in Levy County, we have a dedicated line um that we can
answer any questions and we we typically have a day uh Tara is their project manager. So Tara will set aside time every week, sometimes every day to make phone calls to the applicants or the constituents who have questions about
their property. But it's that person in the office that helps make those connections to us. It's that person in the office that helps us um make sure that things are moving smoothly because we're not here located in the office. Um Terra does do some and can do some off
in office hours. So if you wanted us to be here in the office, we can arrange for ourselves to be here in the office. But having somebody in the office who can help help connect and help coordinate is really important. Okay, thanks. I just want to know what
would happen to her position if we hired you guys. Yeah. No, having Nikki is really I mean Nick, we we've obviously, you know, we've worked very closely with Nikki for the last three years and having Nikki still be here would be vital to making sure that
things worked well and were smooth went smoothly and I'm sure would actually cause le would make less time for your people. Yeah. I mean part of it especially because Nick I mean Nikki is just phenomenal and she's so knowledgeable. There are some questions that she may
ask without having to pass up to us. So you know having Nikki on staff is really important. Y I think Sue Sue can talk about that. We had a meeting last week to talk about how all this would would work and Nikki was in the meeting and understood that her role would still be very important
passing information to us. I mean, just as an aside, I mean, Nikki's running the planning and zoning meeting across the hall right now. So, we really don't want to she really do need her. I wasn't asking to get rid of her. I'm asking because, you know, if we're hiring somebody, what
does that mean for her? Yeah. No, she's very important. And she also would be So, she would she would pass the information to us, but then we would pass it back to her. She would be the one who would organize the meetings. you be the one organizing the agendas, doing all the administrative work. Um,
you know, we want to be a partner with you. We're not looking to do this in a way that that um goes goes beyond what your needs are. And having Nikki really helps cut down on what the what your needs would be and gives us partner to work with here. Okay.
There any other questions? Thank you. We appreciate the trust that you've placed us in the past and we continue to look forward to working with the city of Wilston. You're a very important um we as I you've heard me say I don't call you a client because we don't look at you as a client. We look at as you as a partner that we work with
in our planning services and we appreciate the the trust and support that you continue to give us and we will do everything we can to make sure that we continue to earn that trust. Yeah. And I know I've said to you before and I'll say it again, but people hear it again. Um, I've known a lot of
planners in my in my time and I've served on regional planning councils that were five counties and I did that for nine years and I was even their president. Uh, and you're the best planner I've ever known. And I've seen you plan subdivisions and the the ideas
that you have even for Main Street. Everything is Willist and that's what we're looking for. Yeah, we I mean this is a very important community to us and we just appreciate the ability to continue this service and um of course,
you know, we we look for Laura to continue to be able to have a relationship. This is this community is very important to her. Um, so I'm I'm glad that the two of us will continue to be able to provide services for the city. And unfortunately, I will not be able to
make it next Tuesday because I will be out of town celebrating my parents 60th wedding. Cool. Congratulations. That's wonderful. She's not gonna be here either. Yeah. So, nobody's coming.
Yeah, just us, I guess. You're not gonna be here either. You're going to be here. Right. Okay. Anything else? That's it. Um, I guess the last thing if you want to talk about this now is the email that
I sent you guys this afternoon regarding the union proposal. So Kim and I met with um Dallas Lester and with Lisa Burke from the union this afternoon and um basically this one pager can be summized
to say that they are looking for a raise of 7% effective October 1st of 2025. This is their ask. Put it back on the council. Too late. There you go. How about that? are in the third budget workshop. We're
just hearing this. I mean, that's that was my reaction when I saw it. How can you walk in here and ask for a 7% increase or a 4% increase over what we're already giving him when we're in our third budget workshop and we've
already advertised and everything? I just don't know. But is that as adding what we're giving to make 7% or is that 7% on top of the total? So if you guys were going to give
three across the board, this would be an additional 4%. What are they willing to give up to get that 7%. And we can't give it to some without giving it to all. And it's a can of worms all the way across.
Been there, done that. Yeah, just doing my due diligence. You know, if this was I would say like Deborah said, this is our third meeting. We heard this on the first meeting before we set the military.
We should have heard it in April before we started budget calculations because Steven starts April, May. Even before it came to us, they should have had this this request. I just think it's too late. I mean, it's
even dated August 26 right here on paper. Not like it's been delayed somewhere. Is there anybody here from the union to speak? They all Hello, my name is Deon Hind. What do we need to know?
Um yeah, forgive me. This is my first time speaking in a in any capacity or union. Um I would have to consult my notes and get back to you
ask for what we agreed to um in our asks. Um but yes, that is I can't give you I can't give you uh um what we what we did ask for it's not true. I don't provide you the correct
information. Um but yeah, so there's anything else I can ask answer to do that. When can I ask a question? When when you had your meeting when was that recently or was it a while back?
Uh that was today. Oh, you had the meeting today. That was our first meeting. Okay. Well, that's in my book. That's just Sorry. Um and if you had a couple months ago and and the union held it up, that would be one thing consider.
The the reason today was our first meeting, um, the city manager requested documentation from our union rep and it took our union rep a little bit of time to get it to her, but that information was requested
maybe only three weeks ago. I can't be accurate with the information because I don't have it in front of me. Um but yeah, we did try to make an appointment for negotiations much sooner than this month, even last
month. Uh I do believe we did request for one back in April. So this one page related to wages. Um are this is all this new? That was everything we asked for today.
But is it in your contract currently? Any of it in your contract currently? There are some some changes. Um, but it's not extremely different from what is currently in the CPA.
[Music] Correct me if I'm wrong on this. But has the union reps actually been here to talk like he's presenting, but to be here to represent them and and explain
what's their their theory on the raises, you know, like that. I just don't recall seeing them to come here. They're their brats. this gentleman's up here which I understand your nervousness and not
having that. So I think the local union reps have been here. I mean Mr. Lester and Right. I know they are but I mean the the local people right but not the rep himself herself.
I've never met Yeah. I've just never seen them. And it's the guys that come up and that are doing all the fight I I mean I've met with her several times but it's always about individuals not involved in contract.
This is the first time that we met and and you're right I did stall because I was asking for some information from Lisa Burke. So that initial conversation was probably about a month ago, but still was not able this information today. What I asked her
for originally, it took a few weeks for her to get that information, but again, it was not Maybe last time we're talking before and to be fair I mean that's the conversation that I had with Terry
before he left is that we get any changes in by April. I couldn't find that in writing anywhere today, but that was that was what I was told by is it happening by April and that I believe at that time and that that wages were the only thing that
could be open. That's correct. And that we should have them before I as I recall. How many union employers do you have? How many are currently in the union or how many are currently represented by How many
current? Uh, unfortunately I don't have that information in front of me. Um, I would have to get a union president or a union rep and get that information back to you. Um, but CBA does cover all is non-exempt
employees um regardless of whether or not they are independent or not. That goes from the airport to dispatchers to public works even to some employees here at city hall. Lisa said that it was 28 employees. This
paper right here says they said 29,000 29 excuse me 39 39 39 39 39 and I actually visibly counted on our staffing plan 36. So I think that's pretty close. I mean we may not we may have three that have gone.
That is that is a very likely possible. Yeah. So I counted myself this afternoon physically counted 36 that I thought would be again clerk told us 28 today but I don't know where that 28 came from. who we left out. We were trying to get a list of those
people so that Stephen could put some numbers together for you today, but we were not able to do that. So, and then how many total because totally if you do we do 7% or you
know what's going to happen, right? I know it's going to be across the board and it's I'm sorry this is last minute deal doing I just can't see us reworking the budget. I'm sure Stephen doesn't want to stay here late tonight. I will I
will tell you that I have a current I have a a text message right here that says collective bargaining agreement contact required that they make their request to us by April 1st each year before the budget starts.
So cheap dispatchers. How many dispatchers do you typically have on at one time? One. Just one. Sometime during the day, too. Just depends on if anybody calls in sick or
not. Supervisors there during the day, but she's currently covering shift because we're one person got one person in training. So, just one dispatch. as we have one person in training as dispatch. It's a She's a dispatcher, but she's not certified yet. Okay.
Yeah. I don't I'm been looking at the meal allowance and um I can talk to you about that if you want me to. Please. Okay. We need to raise that, too. So, our our dispatches work 12-hour shifts. Uh, their meal breaks are during
their 12 hours, so they get paid for their their lunch breaks currently. Yes. Okay. Yes. So, uh, I did get a call today from Miss Sue and Lisa about this and I explained this to her that we only have one dispatcher doing today. So, they don't
get a meal break. So, we pay them their entire time that they work. They're lucky they go to the bathroom. Yeah. Um, I've been there when they had to ask somebody to sit for them. So, they You have to be qualified to have that. So, is this like a It doesn't act. This
is not uh Maybe I misunderstood. I just saw this when I sat down. You're they're requesting that they actually have their food paid for, not their time paid for. What I'm reading that's in the current contract.
This is a change down here at the bottom. Have you seen this? I haven't seen it. That's not even in the contract. Deon, do you know what? That is it changed? It's not in the contract. It's not in the contract. It's not contract at all. Okay. So, it must be another change they're asking for. It's probably something new that they
want to add. Even though we already do it, they probably just want to add it in there just to make sure that it's there for added protection, I would assume. So, it's not it's not their meal. It's not their meal. I guess I'm confused by the title of meal allowance.
That's not like pdeium. that they so they get paid 12 hours. It's going to be 11 and a half. Yes. Okay. Um I I'm going to ask this. Sure. Not no judgment.
Go ahead. But um so how do we make sure that they're getting they get breaks? How how does how does that work? Because technically it should be working in a straight, right? Yeah. There should be a break or something in there. Are they at least
getting breaks if they're not getting any, you know? I I would love to have another dispatch. I would love that. I mean, that would be great. Maybe I can come and give them a break. That would be wonderful. I'm just asking I'm just asking cuz I
want to make sure that we're not violating anything related to them. No, they're getting paid for their milk. Yeah. Related to labor. they have they have downtime that they take their meal breaks uh even though they're sitting there at the console and a lot of times
during the day Arizona or Haley will go and relieve them for they can have a lunch break as well but uh they're compensated for the full time that they're that they're on the ship uh if if they get I don't want to say this the wrong way
but they have time to take a break. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Just making sure side of dispatch office. Yes. Yes. Separate across the other. It's very interesting. Poor babies.
They don't have to go very far. Okay. They take the radio in the bathroom. Radio. Take it in the bathroom with you. Don't close the door. Right. She She was gonna say something. Use Lamar's. Yeah. So, um, a lot of the times when they
need breaks or even if they want to go get food, they can just call me, I'm certified as well and I'll go work work radio for them. They need to use the bathroom. If they need to make a phone call, if they need to do anything, they need to go like, "Hey, I want to go get McDonald's and I would like to go eat
with my family member." I don't have a problem. I'm always on this. So, so that works during the day, but at night you still only have one, right? Only Only one at night. only one. Unless you want to give me another one. Show me how busy you are. I'll take it.
Yeah. Yeah, I'll take it. You know, I like people as well. The job of dispatch is a unique job because one minute you could be sitting there just like being a police officer. One minute you could be sitting uh writing report and next thing you know the whole ceiling fall in.
So, as far as showing you how busy I am, well, if you look at my Facebook post, you can see how busy we are. So, uh, it's it's just, you know, it just depends. It's one of those jobs where you can't put a you're going to have a 100 calls this night. You don't know. May come out and have five.
So, okay. Thanks. Working in the hospital. So, related to your Did you want to say that? I do. Um, I've recently been in contact with Al Lester, our union president. Um, we did submit the intent to negotiate in March. Um, it was held up for months by
the city. city manager said she would contact Stephen before the meeting today. So that so what are the results of that conversation? Um and just to re reiterate, the union did not wait till the last minute for today's meeting. It was in the city's hands. It was in the
city's hands for months without Okay. So I will respond to that. So again, I did send the email to Stephen asking him to put together two different figures for you guys. One was the 7% raise for just the employees that were affected by the union. The other was to
do a 7% across the board and Stephen wasn't able to get a total list of the employees that were covered under the he doesn't have the information for you to see. What I can tell you is what it would cost for everybody. Everybody who's not
at the 7% right now across all the funds it would be $161,83. That's all. By the way, that's remember payroll taxes, um pension, all of that would would be Yeah. So that's just not you know base
rate that includes everything. Work go up as well. Well, yeah. And I Yeah. and that will go in there a little bit um as well but this number does not include that piece of it because of the nature of workers comp you'll actually feel that
subsequent years um but yes it's based on the number of employees in certain areas so who did Mr. Lester, give it to give what to give. He said it was presented in March. Uh I believe that was an email to the
state manager. Okay. And there should be an email somewhere. I will be completely honest about that. That was before my time as the union vice president. So I would not This is me going off um an educated guess um and
the information that I've given I've been given by our president. Yeah. So, the per Sorry. Sorry. You're good. Sounds great. So, the perk vote didn't get finalized
till June to uh what was that? Resertify the union. So, there's that piece of information. I just thought I'd share that with everybody. Good point. What do you have to say? Mr. Mills, can you search the emails?
Yes, ma'am. I can. I'll look that up. Appreciate it. And what was it that uh our auditor said we need to watch this year? be undue expenditures
reserves reserves. I was going to actually make a wonderful comment about preserve on my next page right here until this first. That's right.
So this says October 1st. So there's no having there's no conversations that are going to be had related to all of this or is this conversation that we're doing to decide this is the conversation today?
Yeah, but I'm also looking at the effect. So I just want to be sure that is there going to be a meeting with you and president or is it based on what we talk about here? The meeting was today and then you
stopped. Yeah. So I met with him today and I said I would bring this to your attention today. So then obviously I have to go back and let them know what you guys thought. Yes. We didn't have this information until And how long and when did they have it
to get it back to you? Yeah. I I just got it. Him and I just got it literally this morning. Mr. Mills, are you looking? So other than the 17.4,
um the only other change is going through 70.1. The initial talks about 7% right because everything else is in the contract already that correct I don't know
just making sure this is the appropriate time but I do think that paragraph a 17.1 needs to be clarified we need it needs to state that that the certifications are on the list but sorry beating the drum here about
the list Um, to me the trouble we've gotten into with these certifications is this is this paragraph has not changed and and it can be read two very different ways and I actually discussed that with Pearson um briefly that it can be read two different ways. Um, and I
think that needs to be clarified before we agree to this. I don't know if this conversation is appropriate for correct and then I'm I'm going say something that's probably not going to be popular at all but I know with certifications you have to have certifications
and on top of on the job training or correct yes no so my question is why are we paying for individual certifications that are done. Say
there's 20 different um units that they have to cover. We're going to give them a dollar for each certification that they complete and then they have to go in the on job training and we're going to give them a dollar for that. Right. Is is that true
or not true? It is true. And if that's the case, so okay, Kim, I'm coming. Hold on, Mr. Barber. So my question is why are we paying for all these individual certification if they can't do the job
if they don't have one? They can't have one or the other. They have to have them both. So why are we not paying the dollar once they've completed the entire thing? Don't answer that. Hold on. Miss Kim, did you have something? I actually have two things. Miss, am I
good? Uh actually I have two things. So the first one with the perk vote from what I got told uh the union initially filed it wrong for February to happen. So no negotiations could have taken place in March because it was not certified. So
there's that piece that I wanted to share as well. Uh the certifications were discussed today. Um there we asked for clarification basically stating that at least a 40hour block. Um
we were told no, they're not budgeting on that. So they said that there is an education form that everybody can sign by the director. It's on the department managers as uh and correct me Sue if I misspe um it's on the department
managers to approve that training and then on that block it says does it receive a $1ert and then it goes to the city manager. I just found out about this today. I've never seen this form until today. Oh no. I've seen it. It's in that packet that you and I and
Sue reviewed. Yes. But I haven't seen any of them come across my desk with that on there. They came out of their folders. No, I'm not talking about them, Miss Deborah. I'm saying just in general, I didn't know that that form with the dollar, you know, approving the dollar even existed
until today. So, that's what we got told to utilize by the union for the certifications. Okay, Mr. Barber. Yeah, just to clarify on the search. So, you know, as mentioned earlier by uh Mr. Bart, each each each thing is on its
own. It's a stand on its own. So the procedure that you have for power, the procedure that you have for gas and water and sewer and collections and parks and roads facilities, storm water, all of those and fiber are all kind of within their own realm. So to answer
your question, um I think you remember me talking about the talking about gas. So there was the online modules, the 93 to 10 and some classes. They don't get a dollar an hour raise for that. they have to complete all those then go and
demonstrate it in the field and collectively alto together that's the dollar okay so there is no separation between those two to answer your question further um one of the ways that we're working through this is and I mentioned this at a previous meeting is I'm working with
HR to at least in my divisions to break up what a trainee is what are the qualifications what do you have to come in if you want to get hired in with someone as experience and be within a range What is a level three? What is a level two? What is a level one? And a lot of
that's dictated by the state. So for example, in water, if I want a level one distribution license, then the only way to get that is you have to have documented through an HR department five years of dedicated time specifically for water distribution. And that actually
has to be proven and sent in and certified by a licensed operator to the Department of Environmental Protection. So, a lot of the licenses aren't things that we make up with timelines that we make up. They're usually generically you have to have a year of service to not be a trainee. You have to be a year of
service or greater. Year 1 to year three to be a level three. You have to be year three to year five to be a level two. And you have to be fiveyear and above to be a level one. And if we build those into the job descriptions, there's no ambiguity and there's no question to it.
you would clearly see what you had to be in order to get to the next level and how many hours and what would be, you know, required for that. And that's the safest way to do this. And that's what other organizations, county organizations and city organizations that are larger than us do. And that's
also how they budget. They budget that range of what's potential for those employees within that budget year to achieve because you're going to know, you know, you can't achieve a fiveyear if you only have one year in. So, I I would recommend that a lot of departments do that because it would
really fix the problem of questioning what's this and what's legitimate. It should be clearly laid out in the job descriptions that no one can contest. I agree with Donald and and I my concern about this is this is a binding contract with MD with language in it and so it
just needs to have something in there that says purchase job description and city policy or something like that. But this is this is really vague and it's in many ways created the problem that we're in right now with around certifications and and the employees feeling like they're getting certifications taken away from them or not being paid for
them and and also and and maybe Mr. Barbara can come back to the podium and talk to me just about redundancy because I do understand that we need some redundancies, you know, on on the fringe if we have, you know, say an employee who, you know, if we don't have the right number of employees or the right
employee on the clock at the time that we have people cross over and help with some of the jobs. But I personally think that also should be clarified in our policy that, you know, do we need six of them? Do we need two of them? Do we need one of them? Because it affects our budget.
a lot of it circuit state mandated. A lot is and a lot isn't. So for a couple of the council members that were here um two years ago the public service commission sent their report in and testified onto it and they had talked about how many gas positions
we had, how many power positions we had, and that's why we added positions because they had stated we were insufficient to a safe staffing level. Five years ago, the electric department consisted of three people. Now, I believe there's 10 positions, right, Mike? Nine. Nine positions. So, again,
those weren't recommendations that the staff made. Those were reports that came from the public service commission. So, to your point, that's absolutely true. There is a certain level. Um, Wright Pierce is in talks right now with us to produce a staffing plan and they would propose that as something if you wanted
them to do, but Bill Young, uh, who's part of Wright Pierce has has talked with me about coming up to you guys and saying, "We've done this for other places. We would go in and do a staff analysis by department as to what the proper staffing levels would be." And they would make recommendations to you.
And included in that would be if you have 10 employees in a division, what level of certification should they have and how many of them you should have. I really would encourage you guys to do that from an outside perspective as opposed to trying to figure that out internally.
Aaron, well actually I don't have what you're asking for because I can't do that from here and that's that will take some time to go search the archive and find that. It's not that quick. I can bring that back to you. Okay. I just can't give it to you right this
minute. Okay. So, yeah, I I guess yeah, we really do need some clarification on license and or certifications to u I know what Mr. Barber had said and
I just want to be sure that we're doing exactly that. giving the dollar once the entire training has been Didn't we talk about that a couple of weeks about two or three weeks and that there was a form
too and we still don't have a list like I I haven't seen a list of the certifications from they gave us a list. Okay, so a couple things. So first and foremost no sorry not a list of the certifications of the
employees but they require like under each department. Okay. Okay. Okay. So, Kim and I did talk about this, like she mentioned, we did talk about this certification paragraph here today when we met with the union. And again, we went back and forth with
different things like 40 hours and and different things. But again, these are things that we're going to negotiate for next year's. This is this was just really about wages and that sort of thing. But that is something we can discuss in our next this expires September next year. November 30th next
year. So, we can definitely get clarification on that if we want more clarification. Um, I have asked the staff, all of the department heads to come up with a list of certifications. I have all of them except for two at this point. So, um, I'm going to put all those together. We're going to work on
some redundancy, whatever the department heads feel redundancy, at least for now. Um, but I hope to have that by the end of the week for you guys. Yeah. Now we're back to the I just think we're open ourselves up for it's either do it all or nothing and if
we Mr. and some odd thousand. Where would that even where would we get it? Can I say that when the police department wanted 7% we told him to cut
his budget so we could find it? Actually, he came to us. He already cut his budget. He cut all his cars out. in order to to manage that. Yeah. I let me be careful how I say this because
I don't want anybody to get upset. Um you just want me to get upset with what we saying. Yeah. Um the 7% that we asked for uh I went through the budget identified a way to make that happen. Um and I'm not
against anybody else if they want to do the same thing. Uh, but I understand that the unions wanting the 7% and if we can afford it, I I support it or 10%. But until then, if we can't,
I I don't want it to turn into uh the police department versus the city or the union because we took steps to accomplish what we needed to accomplish within our budget and our budget still came in 1.2% 2% I think it is even lower
than it was the year before. So it's a process that we all can do. I mean so I just don't want that to be held against us because we took that step to do that. We sacrificed. We gave up some stuff which is okay. Um because there's
something that needed to be done. But not only that, we're still going to increase your budget again by four I mean the amount by 4% for you guys. So, not only do you have a 7%, now you have 11%. Instead of
his is already seven, correct? Three, he found four. His department is still getting 7%. Another seven. No, we wouldn't because it would increase by 4% if everybody already has three. Oh, you need
So if we're giving them three and we increase theirs to four and we have to increase everybody's to four, that's another 4%. We're at looking at 11%. But we wouldn't have written it out. Yeah, I understand. Okay. Like you don't understand what I'm saying.
But we wouldn't have to do that. But we do it. He got the 7% gives him what he needs. If we have to do it across the board, he still got his 7%. But we still can't leave him out because we're doing it. No,
we did. And that's what Yes, Miss Kim. So, when the union proposed this to us, um, we basically got told we have open positions and that's where the money's
coming from. And then I re I stated we're plan on filling those positions. Where's the money coming from from then? They told us to figure it out pretty much. I don't have anything.
I don't think we can do anything until we get information from Mr. Mr. Mills about whether he actually finds this email. My thing is I feel like we're being snowballed. I agree.
This is the last minute. This is And nothing against you guys. You guys know I've always had you guys back, but I feel like this is a last minute thing on the union's part to force our hand to do this and
I don't like it. We got enough heat on us. Yeah. With citizens over budgets and this and that. And last year when there was the
clerical error and a half% we did not argue we went ahead and gave it everybody across the board and gesture of generosity. Um yeah so and I'm I'm not saying that you know that shouldn't have happened
but we have had their back in the past. Can um anybody manager or VB How did you got how did the 7% come
about? What was the reasoning or thought process behind that extra 4% increase? And and if this going to be 7%, is it 7% every year or is it still 3% but this year you're asking for seven?
No, ma'am. It was a negotiation tactic and our intent was to match what we needed, not necessarily the same way they did it. But yes, so there's our answer. This did not happen in April. This happened since the chief brought his letter.
And I actually do have the email from Mr. Lester. The email was sent March 13. Uh, sorry, March 20th. And what does it say? Uh the letter of intent states
as a sole and exclusive bargaining agent with respect to wages, hours and working conditions and other conditions of employment fulltime employees of local 2293 hereby demands to bargain over the terms and conditions of the successor
agreement to the current collective bargain agreement for the reopener. goes on to state the union is available for following dates and times. Please contact as soon as possible. Phone number, email, address. It didn't say in the mail.
No, it did not. Right. To be clear again, I did not get an amount until today. We've been talking about negotiating for a little while. But again, like Kim said, we didn't even have the union vote until June. So, we couldn't do anything during that time. But again, we did not
receive a figure until today. You can't negotiate with something that hasn't been certified and they filed to certify in or they failed to comply with the February thing. So after February, we even if the letter was sent in March, we could not
negotiate with an uncertified union. So the negotiations would not have happened whether we received the email or not because they were not certified by partner. Thank you. And I would just say if all the steps were followed, we wouldn't be discussing this now because we would have had this
discussion in our first round. So now we're just spinning our wheels. So we just need to decide we can do it. Let's do it. Not with what the what Mr. Bloom has told us, what the auditors have told us.
I just I don't see we can do it. Me too. Can't do it. I guess it's that we cannot effectively do a 7% at this time. I think we're all good with the 17.4 the
mill allowance going into effect. Anything else? Miss Jones, you have nothing. Can I shift gears for a moment? I wish you would. Okay, so um on page big nine, little
five, council manager Selena Levy, as you know, her last day with the city is next Wednesday. So you um so she's currently in the staffing plan. I guess we should take her name out of that. Um, I guess I just wanted to again just make sure that you
guys wanted to proceed with filling her position. Look at the salary. Any questions? Well, Selena is still here. We can ask her questions. Yeah. Not have a billing and accounts manager. I I agree. I agree. I'm just again
if she's intent on leaving, we She is salary. Yes, she is salary. Is there a base salary? So her current or her position her current base is around $30 an hour and I would recommend keeping
that the way it is. Um the responsibility she has her position has. Miss Selena, can you come to the podium please? Shelter manager. Yeah. Yeah. You want to be you want to be the shelter manager?
No. Hi. Um, what was, if you don't mind, um, telling us, what was your base salary when you initially started? How long have you been here? Uh, I've been here a little over four years, but I worked my way up pretty quickly. They hired me just as a billing
person. It was a utility billing specialist. Um, I then took over managing customer service and then we brought AP inhouse. Um it was something that Steven's team did. So we brought and they had they used to have a person here. Um that
person left. They didn't refill that. So I took on a little bit of that responsibility and overseeing accounts payable. Um so I mean my I don't remember what I was hired at, but it wasn't near what I'm making now. Okay. Um and you also ended up getting more
collateral duties. Yeah. I mean I I took on a lot more. Okay. Um, so I do all of the utility billing, um, a lot with work orders and then overseeing customer service, um, you know, that their manager, supervisor, and then the supervisor for
accounts payable and overseeing making sure that that's being done correctly. Um, I don't I don't remember everything. I mean, I've only gotten, you know, like the 3% we got last year and I think the year before we got like a dollar. So, I mean, not much less than what I'm making
now is what when I became the accounts manager. Um, I'm not making much more now than I was when I first got that role. I mean, I would say for the duties that I do, you're going to have to keep it similar in order to get somebody that is willing
to do what I do. Can I ask a question? Sure. Um, if you were staying, I wish you would, but if you were staying, um, what role would you play in Wilson Fiverr, if any? Um, I don't think I would really have much other than just what would come in
through customer service. Um, that would be the only thing I would think that I would do with the with Willis and Fiber just because that's what your um new admin position would be doing more of the admin stuff with that. I have very I don't have much even with
cowlink right now. I mean, I do we do take payments and I process the payments and make sure it gets to the bank. That would probably be the only thing still I would do with Willis P. Do we have any uh anybody interested in your position?
Yes. Is that person here? Yes. Who might that person be? Um, Megan Shley. Um, so you have utility billing, accounts payable, customer service, and the other
um work orders because customer service creates the work orders, goes back to utilities or wherever it needs to go, and then um then it comes back to me to make sure they get closed out. And then for any billing purposes, it would have to go
through me to put on utility bills. And you oversee the customer service area. Yes. Thank goodness. Remember when you did? So, what part of the work order can be delegated back to the administrative?
Um, a majority of it as far as getting making sure that they are stayed on top of and get closed out in a timely manner. um they could close them out, but still anything to do with any type of billing would still have to come back through my right my office. Yes. Okay.
Which makes sense cuz it's part of um Okay. Miss Sue. Yes, ma'am. What in her job? We kind of already talked about the work order. What in her
job as accounts manager can be removed? Can we remove the customer service management piece to that? And you don't want to unless you got somebody else. I remember it before she did it. Well, let me finish.
Would there be someone else who could maybe manage the customer service aspect of duties? How much goes hand in hand with utilities bill? Utility billing. Does it? I would tell you that probably 95% of
the calls that come in are to do with utilities. Utility billing or an issue, you know, with their utilities. That would tie back to billing for sure. I mean, I don't see why you would take that away from
that person. I can't really think of another department head that would fall under. No. And we've had others before. I know at one point the city manager tried to do it. Yeah. I mean, and Latricia also did it for a while.
I mean, not only is customer service answering the phone and creating work orders, they're taking all the money in. So, they're taking all the money. That's what my job is, too. I I make sure I, you know, everything is processed correctly. I update, you know, financial stuff and get that money to the bank and
everything else. So, I'm working handinand with customer service on a daily basis. Okay. So, I don't I mean, it just really wouldn't make sense to remove it from I mean, I wouldn't know if I didn't ask questions. I understand. That's why I'm here to answer. Yeah. She because I've seen her back
there. I mean, she deals with customers, too. And when it comes to their bill and so forth, you make the decision on, you know, paying half this month and half next month, right? So
person's got a lot. But since it's going to be an open position, I think we should go back to the base. Whatever it is, that's what I'm asking. Whatever it is. I don't think it needs to be a well that's why I asked the question.
Okay. So, let me hypothetically let's say Megan does not want the position and you're going to go hire outside. Do you think that you would find somebody that much less? I mean, I'm underpaid as it is. So, when you're going to take the money down and if you
were hiring someone from the outside, do you think that they would come in for that with that responsibility? I don't know. Or $30 an hour. I think you could get somebody 30. Yes. She's wanting to take it down. Yeah. Because we're asking about the base. I mean, and that's just like any
of the other base positions that we have that if somebody comes in, they has XYZ, then even though that's the base, then their rate will probably we will probably offer them something else. So it's not just that it's the base. I mean that when we say that that's the amount
that that's the amount that we stick with but um and then you add the experience that she has already too if you all right Mr. uh yeah Mr. Yes, ma'am. Just like to remind the
council based on the HR manual that whatever you make the base, we can only go 15% above for a new hire. So, if you drop the base way too low, we can only come up 15% without coming back to you. So, we're not saying to drop the base,
we're asking what the base is. So, we're trying to figure out what the base is. Understood. As well. So, um I don't know. So, at our next meeting, we need from Kim what the base is for that position. I have looked and looked and looked. Her
job description does not exist in any of her files. I'm currently creating it. It's cuz we made it up. We are working together. I know, but she should have a classification. G4, G6. There's no I can't find any
documentation on this position. I searched emails. I've searched a lot of emails. There was an old study done years ago. It was called Long and Associates and it put every class in a grade. I mean, every job in a
grade. We used it for years and we did this EPI to it not long ago. I thought it came up with it. The last bit of a grades that is anywhere in that office is from Yeah. 2012. Yeah, it's very old.
Is I mean it was old, isn't it? It's not even minimum wage. Well, that's what I mean. We added CBI to it. She's working on year to year. So, you all know Yeah, I'm looking at different uh utility companies just to get the do the
the job description portion done cuz that's kind of very important. And then I'm gonna um pull the different salaries because I know we're not competitive with Ocala because of our size. So I got to look into municipalities to um
roughly about our size to pull that data from to come with a figure that one we can afford until we could draw somebody in with that figure based on the job description.
And remember, we just on the uh shelter manager, we bumped that up because we're afraid we wouldn't get anybody. That's probably $60. So, that's true. This one's currently 30. We don't want to leave it there.
I mean, we can look back and see what it was. I don't remember off the top of my head what it was when I first took over the role. And maybe maybe that's what it is. I, you know, looking at that. Yeah, when I first started
that's that but that's when I first right I was just doing utility bill. So 24 25 would probably be a good max. I would say probably 25 26
would be that the starting obviously they got lots of experience be more than that and 15% of that's like $3. Do what now? Because of the HR manual if we hire somebody with experience we can only go
up to the 15% off base pay. So that would only be an additional $3 added on to that. So that's almost back to where she is. Yeah. So if you did it like 25 or $26 as the base and then work from there, I think that would
I can hire another. I'm ready to do that. What am I thinking? I'm sorry. She said 26. Keep going, Dar. Keep going. He said 2750. What would you say? I'll go to the 26.
Okay. So, we can put the base at 26. We need to come up with a This is just to make you laugh. We need to come up with a weird number because they're like 2607. 2613. All right. 25.98 2613
258. There you go. There you go. I like that. Is that what you want me to start the base payout? Yep. 25.99. Go 26. Go to 26 and change. Yeah, go 26. Okay, they changed it. So, let's let's
say 2610. 2610. There it is. 201610. 201610. Final. Such a final answer. She's trying. She's trying to take notes still here and I'm trying to get it done.
All right. 2016 is the base. All right. Anything else we have? I think that's all I have for tonight. That's a lot. I know. I'm sorry. Okay. Um, anyone else in the public?
Anyone else on staff? Did we finalize code enforcement and animal control coming to the PD? Is that is that finalized? I didn't have any questions. So, I guess we did. What page is it? So, we can look at the animal control is on page
five. No, I mean in the budget it's all like right now. I noticed Stephen already Stephen already put it in my budget. Yeah, it just moved. It's the same. It just moved. So, it's in PD.
Yeah, it's in PD. Stephen, we still uh balanced surprisingly. Yes. So, big 33, little 29. Actually, we gave him a little bit 33. Yep. Little 29.
Well, I guess the question, Chief, is are you good with this? I mean, is this what you were envisioning when you originally wanted to take animal control and code enforcement? Yeah, me and Stephen me and Stephen went over these numbers, so we were pretty
comfortable with them. Right, Stephen? Yes, he actually has there's a couple line items he's got that a little bit of cushion. Not much, but just a little bit. All right. Is there nothing else from staff? Anything for council?
How's your cameras coming along, Chief? Where did you go? She left. I think the permits are all done. So hopefully again next month they should be up and running. Good.
So yeah, you're uh the other day I was coming down forest going home and let me tell you there's a bus drivers that's got some lead feet. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Flying down that road. Yeah, there was no
Yeah. Also the uh Yeah, the drone the the grant for the drone that I put in for Oh, that thought. We're we're not in um Oh, that portion yet. Oh, I was just asking anybody else had anything related to the budget.
We're good. All right. So, if nobody has anything related to the budget, this is our second attempt for public participation. You have five minutes to speak. Anything that was not on the on the agenda? Is there anyone who would like to speak?
Seeing none, now we will go miss. Okay. So, I talked to you guys about the uh $25,000 grant for a drone. I'm happy to say that we were awarded the $25,000 and we are moving forward
with purchasing the drone. It is a cash advancement. Uh so will not cost us anything. They will once I send the paperwork back, they will send us the money. Stephen will take it and then we will pay for the drone. So no money out of pocket for us. And uh I think it'll
be a great tool. What else can we use the money for besides the actual drone? Training. Training. Gotcha. Thank you. Uh we're going to partner with Everybody's doing this. I mean, there's everybody's putting in for this this grant and and they're getting it. Uh
Marian County, I think just bought five and I think they're actually starting a drone program. So, I came from Marian County, reached out, talked to a couple people and they're going to invite us to their training. So, we'll be training with them. So, we'll have some good
capable people. Uh Officer Goodson is also a drone pilot already. And I have officer Sergeant O'Hara is also a drone pilot. So we have some already that's familiar with the process. So we're super excited about it. Uh I think you're going to see it's going to be a
great benefit to the city of Wilson. And they have their licenses. Yes. Yep. So I only have to send maybe two people. Are they in legalities? [Music] All that comes through the once they go through the training and get certified
this FFA requirements and different things like that. But other than that, no pretty straightforward. Okay. Anyone else on the council? That was really excited. It was only quarter to six. Yeah.
Yeah. We started at six. Awesome. It's one of those things that likes to eat batteries and we put batteries in it about once a month. Digital. All right. Nice digital clock. I think we got a movement a motion for adjournment.
[Music] I can take it back. I have a motion. Excuse me. You might want to know about this, Council President, but I'll wait. I have a motion and I have a second.
I do. How was it? Is there Is there any discussion? You have a discussion? No. Don't worry about it. Listen, you have to follow this now. We're going to all wonder what it
is. We we we can we can talk about it afterwards. Yes, we'll talk about it afterwards. No, no, no. We we had a motion to adjourn. We had a second. So now I'm Now I'm asking are there any discussion
not pertaining to the budget evidently. Okay. If the vote all in favor say I. I. All oppose say I have it five to zero. We adjourn at 7:59