Jacksonville City Work Session and City Council 8/26/2021

Call to order.

Roll call.

1. Tony Taylor – Present
2. Sherry Laster – Present
3. Coty Galloway – Present
4. Andy Green – Absent
5. Terry Willson – Absent

Adoption of agenda. – Unanimously Adopted

Public comments concerning agenda items. – No comments

Consider action to approve the employment of the following:

a. Franklin Cinto, Part-Time Corrections Officer, Range 9, effective upon compliance with Ordinance,No. 273. (New position) – Unanimously Approved

b. Braxton Bentley, Full time Corrections Officer, Range 9, effective upon compliance with Ordinance No. 273, due to the resignation of Jonathan Wilbanks. – Unanimously Approved

Adjournment. – Unanimously Approved

Call to order.

Roll call

1. Tony Taylor – Present
2. Sherry Laster – Present
3. Coty Galloway – Present
4. Andy Green – Absent
5. Terry Willson – Absent

Budget Discussion:

1. Fire – Chief Kadle spoke regarding new hires. He explained that with two stations he is currently running a three man team and a four man team, but when EMS is out on a call that four man team is reduced to a two man team. This creates a lot of concern because if there are two calls then a third would be delayed. He wanted to be honest and say that hiring one additional person per shift would not totally resolve these concerns; however it would give the current full-time staff a lot of relief. There is roughly a 24% increase in calls from this time last year. Adding an additional three firefighters will also help reduce the high turnover rate. The total cost to hire these three new people would be $177,645 and that does not include training. Depending on their current level of training it could cost an additional $65,000 per person if they have no certifications at all. Ms. Grant discussed that these funds could come from fire tax funds. Chief Kadle also noted that he had applied for a $162,000 grant that has been sent to FEMA for payment. Ms. Grant also mentioned a new grant she would be applying for that might apply to a shared fire and police training building. A portion of this building would be hardened to qualify as a safe room as well. 

2. EMS – An update is difficult at this time because the Calhoun County Commission i decision on the EMS services is still pending.

3. Street – A request was made by Stanley for an additional $10,000 to be added to the  budget. Ms. Grant noted that electricity and lights are running about $11,000 a month currently. The decision reached is that despite requesting $498,000 the city could only allocate $298,000 and would not be able to agree to the purchase of three of the requested pieces of equipment. Stanley spoke asking them to reconsider the pole barn for the equipment. He wanted to note that this was to protect the investment of the equipment and get a higher return on trade-in value and also give the equipment a longer operating life. It was noted that gas tax funds could be used for this coverage because it houses only street equipment. 

4. Garage – The first request that Stanley discussed was the need for a tire machine. The current one they have is only for 15 inch tires. It is outdated. He has located a used machine for $4,000. A new machine runs around $11,000. Councilman Taylor asked if the used machine would be more dangerous and also confirmed that it would not come with a warranty or guaranteed calibration. Stanley confirmed this was correct. Discussion noted that $10,000 has been budgeted for the purchase of a new machine. The remaining portion would have to come out of other budget areas already allocated. There was also discussion about the continued attempt to hire a second mechanic. One possibility is hiring someone right out of trade school and training them up to mechanic level. 

5. Landfill – In the past there have been two full-time positions at the landfill. Now there is one full-time and one part-time. The request is to change that back to two full-time positions. Pay and benefits for this second position would be roughly $45,000. Another area of need is an upgrade to the software of tracking gas usage. The current system is a Windows XP system that uses dial-up. It is often down more than it is up. Having an updated system would also allow department heads to have a better idea if there is misusage. The system monitors gas usage of all police, fire, and street vehicles. 

Any Other Business – No other business