[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] e [Music] get [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] no e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e thank you for coming today and thank you for your patience today I'd like to call to order our second Council budget workshop for the fiscal year 2026 budget development into order as you all know that we um have one of the most important and impactful policy items that we work on together each year in developing a plan to allocate resources from our community to align with our strategic priorities and the needs of our community so I want to thank everyone for joining us today and before I turn this over to the manager I'd like to note that our plan today includes a short break after our budget discussions and then we will go into a closed session before we go into the chamber today okay everybody got a playlist thank you very much um so let's go ahead and Mr Jones I would turn this over to you thank you mayor members of council I appreciate the uh input that we received from the budget governance and intergovernmental Relations Committee this continues the pathway well let's have introductions would you like to be introduced so um we will start with we will start with our council members good afternoon everyone council member Tiana Brown District 3 good afternoon Lana field council member at large six Ed dggs district 7 Malcolm gram District Two Marcus Jones city manager B mayor James Mitch large Anthony Fox interim City attorney Stephanie Kelly city clerk all right now let's proceed thank you so mayor members of council I appreciate the input from the uh budget governance and intergovernmental Relations Committee this is a continuation of the calendar that we put calendar we put in place for the budget workshops and today we'll have a conversation about Financial Partners solid was services and the capital projects update and mayor if there are no questions I'd like to turn it over to Marie all right thank you thank you mayor and councel as we get started today I'd like to bring up for Cherry Smith and she's the one that's responsible for leading the program and working with all our financial partners and ensuring they get their reporting in their applications together so I just just can't go on enough about the work she does to help with our financial partners thank you thank you Sherry good afternoon good afternoon so first I want to say thank you for having me this evening and uh thank you for the privilege of being able to um manage such a wonderful program that's obviously impactful to our community so I just want to start a little bit with the end in mind um Financial Partners are organizations that are selected that are able to extend the city's capacity to advance the to advance council's strategic priority and address Community concerns um so really when we partner with our organizations we keep these strategic priorities at the Forefront um to ensure that they are um showing up in an impactful way with our community members so just to take you back to October of 2024 uh city council adopted the First Financial partner policy this policy ultimately accomplished uh formalizing criteria around nonprofit status uh ensuring that organizations are aware that they can either have nonprofit status when they apply or they can be in pursuit of nonprofit status in addition to uh formalizing our financial reporting requirements and um setting in place some funding restrictions according to the organization's operating or program budget as well as establishing a term limit of 5 years with annual Council approval required um regarding funding uh restrictions we did uh say within that policy that the city would award a maximum of 30% of the agency's budget um and that is either their overall agency budget if they are asking for a funding for their overall agency or um their program budget if they are asking for funding specific to a program uh within the application process if an organization did request more than the maximum uh we would then adjust uh what we were able to fund down to that 30% maximum requirement so just to give you a timeline we opened the financial partner application on October the 16th of this 2024 uh for FY 26 we then closed the application on December the 6th of 2024 so that gave organizations about 7 weeks to pull together um all of the application requirements that we set forward for them um in order to ensure uh that we reached as many in the community as possible uh we not only leveraged our internal City Communications but we also uh used some of our partner organizations to uh invite organizations that they work with or Community folks that they were aware of um to let them know that our application process was open um for every fiscal year performance period begins in July uh and that is around the time when we start to work on the Contracting process for any organization that was selected uh you'll see that we had two new initiatives this year uh just to make sure that we were fully communicating the new Financial partner policy as well as uh be a little more intentional about allowing organizations to ask questions in advance and that was uh during a financial partner information session and we also added a component of application scoring by staff which I'll talk about a little bit more in our presentation so um our financial partners were invited to attend an information session we had 62 participants to register uh for that session we had 46 folks to join us virtually um we shared program information we shared information about the new policy and we did allow time for Q&A uh so that organizations that weren't familiar with the program uh could ask any questions that they needed in advance of completing the application um in addition we introduced scoring for all of our applications um in order to ensure that we were mitigating the impact of individual bias that could be present when folks are scoring applications we did uh develop a cross departmental scoring team there were 19 City staff so ultimately every single application uh that came forward for consideration was scored by six different people um we thought that this would allow for a more comprehensive and balanced assessment of the applications across the board in addition uh we did ensure that every organization when they submitted their application this year had to select one specific strategic priority and that was the priority that their organization primarily advances so in your application packets you'll see folks grouped by strategic priority um that is not to say that that is the only work that that organization does uh we wanted to make sure that we brought to the Forefront the primary work of that organization and that's how we started to break them down into categories so just for reporting uh for you guys to know every organization is required to um provide performance measures and we do that during the application process every organization will identify their targets their objectives um and what they hope to accomplish for the fiscal year if they are funded um and then if they are selected for funding we further refine those performance measures um they are reported on at mid year in January and at the end of the year in July uh we did include as a part of a financial partner policy the ability to hold payments if organ ations aren't uh caught up on their reporting uh so that's not to say that an organization would not be funded uh it's just an opportunity for us to come to the table with them understand where they are um according to their performance measures if they're experiencing any challenges uh meeting the targets within their performance measures and we work together to see if those are still applicable measures or if we need to update their measures so it's not a way for the city to withhold funding from organizations but rather to check in and make sure that they are well positioned to accomplish what they said they would accomplish for the fiscal year so our financial partners are uh typically awarded from discretionary Revenue uh within the city so that includes general fund dollars as well as pgo dollars um for our conversation we will focus on discretionary Revenue while we do have partners that receive dedicated revenue and there are Partners within the FI there are Partners within the housing department so looking at our FY 26 requests we had 50 organizations to apply for the financial partner program for FY 26 for context in FY 24 we had 18 organizations to apply so if you're looking at a percentage increase we're looking at over 177% increase in just interest in the program uh which is is phenomenal and wonderful um for our on our staff from our staff's perspective to have a wide range of organizations available that are at the ready to accept the charts to advance the Strategic priorities of city council um so again um highlighting that we did host an information session for all of those that applied um as well as we were available by phone text email um to answer any questions as organizations work through the application process um request total this year was a little over $8.6 million and I do want to highlight that was the largest funding request that we had have had uh and looking back through all the records for the city not just my time in the budget office on the screen you can see how we have broken down funding uh with our arpa dollars as well as discretionary funding there were a couple of agencies that did not reapply this year and then you can see our new agency requests versus our existing agency increase request all right so I wanted to put this in a different perspective for you um on a historical basis uh so if you kind of look at FY 24 fy2 we've sat right around that $1.5 million in funding um in FY 24 we were able to leverage or you guys Council was able to leverage arpa funding uh for organizations and we then Incorporated those partners that were funded through arpa and FY 24 um into our pgo fund for fy2 uh in addition uh you'll see that in fy2 there were partners that were added again as uh arpa Financial Partners so we have uh significantly grown uh the funding that we have been able to provide to our financial partners but I do want us to recognize that a lot of that was due to uh the arpa onetime arpa funding that we had coming into the city and uh you guys' concerted effort to make sure that that that funding was deployed back into the community in a meaningful way all right so uh going into some of our applications all of our applications uh they are broken down according to a strategic priority area um 11 of the 50 applications were for the great neighborhood strategic priorities which represented about 22% of our applicants for the year we also have safe communities so there were 12 applications that were received uh with that priority area uh representing about 24% of our applicants for the year and we also have our well-managed government so had three folks to apply representing about 6% and then finally we have Workforce Development which by far we saw uh the largest number of organizations uh identifying that they were advancing that strategic priority with 44% of our applicants on all of these screens you'll notice that there was an application score um to the right side of the screen I want you guys to know that the total score was out of 65 and that's it open it up for questions for Sher um Miss AA thank you Madame mayor uh Sher great job with implementing the new Financial partner policy um certainly we have seen record-breaking applications and that's great because that shows interest that organization ations have in partnering with the city um if you can I I know this is a new process especially the scoring component of it um if you can just elaborate on how the scoring uh came about especially out of 65 how some organizations got 55 or 60 versus some organizations got 40 if you can just elaborate on that uh that would be helpful because there are are certain organizations who have applied are in this room or are watching virtually and they're interested they want to know how we were ranked where we are all right thank you for the question um so we identified uh staff members across uh the city uh so they came from multiple departments there were folks that were in our Communications Department our housing department um as well as our community relations department um that participated in our scoring process every organization uh excuse me I want to give you the exact criteria so um the scoring scale was 5 three and one or zero if an organization did not provide the information at all um that is a a standard process I've found uh amongst other funders uh when they are having applications to be scored in this way uh so again it was 5 3 1 or zero and we were basically scoring on if the organization submitted all of the application requirements um and then we had our staffers to look at their performance and Equity measures so um according to those measures did they feel that they what they had proposed as an organization would it advance that specific strategic priority area for a council um while I understand that can be a very biased opinion when you look at one individual uh we made sure that we had each one scored across a larger group of folks so that we could then take the average so you will see that you have like some point 2s or 3s and that's just because we had the scores across all of those different scores all right Mr Mitchell uh thank you mayor I just want to Echo great job uh from discussion the BGR committee I think for me the uh was very helpful how you broken it down by our priorities and so you keeping you're keeping us focused on what we agreed upon and how the applications uh fit into that category now I'm lazy so I I got to make one request okay yes sir so let's go to Safe communities and I'm just going to use this as an example because we got this thorough book that says Financial Partners yeah but I was trying to read the book and match it up with the folks here and uh it was a struggle for me so we're going to use further struggle it's on page 96 six so could we add another column that shows what page it is related to our financial partner so we can see more of the detail yes sir okay okay okay thank you thank you mayor Miss Mayfield followed by Mr DS thank you Madame mayor thank you for the presentation I also had concerns regarding the scoring why some of the partners scored rather low and in reference to the financial partner book we it was highlighted and read those that their financial request was over the 30% now the way that I interpreted that in red is those need to be set aside for later the way we started out the presentation was saying that we would not potentially fund over the 30% versus the fact that you submitted a budget request that was considerably higher and one of them which should not have been highlighted in red was actually at 28% but I think it was an error that that one was caught so I would like some clarity around if you're over the 30% are we're saying we're going to consider up to 30 or are those invalid so um let me answer the question about the organization that that was in red that was uh 28% um on that particular organization's uh funding request they actually requested more than what was on their budget so their budget and their funding request did not match when you look at the actual funding request amount in comparison to their budget it did exceed the 30% um so that's where the discrepancy was coming in on that piece regarding um funding up to 30% or taking organizations out that exceeded the maximum requirement um it wasn't clearly laid out in the policy so I would respectfully say that that is a discussion that could take place among Council thank you and when we when you noted that we had a number of information sessions so there was s weeks to get the application in I also want to identify where when the applications were submitted using the example that you gave was there any followup with the organization or any of the organizations that was over the 30 to help them clarify their budget we had one information session uh so I just want to make sure but I was also available of if folks had questions prior to submitting their application I did not individually reach out to every organization to confirm their budget amounts or what they put in their uh description of activities um I I do want to be fair in that when you have 50 applicants to to apply for a program I would want to be able to provide the same level of service to each um so I just did not think that would be um a fair thing to do or efficient on your end but it helps me to know when we're looking at this breakdown some of these jump out at me as really should be County Partnerships versus City and looking at what our city priorities are was that conversation taken into consideration when we looked at the breakdown of the different applications that came in no ma'am uh we did not look at an organization and say from a staff perspective that oh that's something that could be funded through the county uh they applied to the city's program uh so we evaluated the applications based upon the criteria for the city's program and the final question that I have and you may have mentioned it and I just missed it we're saying the total amount of requests is 8,642 to 299 yes ma'am how much are we thinking that we have currently in order to have this discussion for because at the end of the day there's going to have to be some NOS yes ma'am because we're looking at a financial shortfall so do manager do we know where we are financially right now to even have this conversation sure so let me start with uh attempting to answer the last part of your question where we are now so uh um when we started off at the annual strategy meeting we talked a bit about the Gap um right now the Gap remains Millions single digit Millions um but I think what's more important is how we begin the building the budget for FY 26 so we start off with um taking out everything that's a one time MH so when we started building this budget Maria I think I have this correctly if we went to slide 10 anything that was ARA we we wouldn't have started as a base nor would we have anything that's in that additional $1.5 million we start off with that green Bo box block which is about 1.5 million so for whatever we're trying to balance to initially we're trying to balance with without with the financial partners up to what would have been considered uh fund ongoing that 1.5 million so we are starting and I want to clarify and make sure I understand for Council we are starting at 1.52 the requests are 8 million and some change so I would hope that as we're going through this process we're going to have some additional considerations for streamlining we have a number of new request ests and to be honest they are a number of high dollar new requests so I think it will be helpful for us to ensure that one we're not duplicating Services if we have partners that have been doing the work especially since we've implemented a time limit of around 5 years to help them get to self- sustainability because there's a piece of this where you are identifying other Financial Resources outside of government but also looking at realistically what we're able to do and what is our role we are hard Services we have stepped in and we have done a lot to help with our community financially that might not be as sustainable in the near future especially when we know the county is also looking at a potential Financial shortfall itself so I would like for us to keep at the Forefront the in mind 1.5 million even though there's 8 million in requests to see if we can get some reduct some recommendations on which one of these truly one would not necessarily be duplicates where they potentially can be working together like we manager you and I had our meeting last week one of the proposals is in part partnership with a separate group that also submitted a proposal that's not really logical to me for you to be looking at two different funding sources from local government to fund one program but some of these requests are considerably high dollar for new Partnerships meaning we don't have a track record with you and some of them honestly are new organizations where you don't have a track record of your work yet so I would just like for us to have that in consideration on the front end thank you all right Mr DS uh thank you Madame mayor uh I appreciate that we're starting this conversation early and uh I hope colleagues that we will not end up during the ad deletes considering a whole bunch of things that we didn't talk about before if you have any preferred project please get it into the system quickly so that uh we don't end up with that disorganized process at the end uh so uh remarkably uh Miss Mayfield and I are thinking along exactly the same lines um and I I do note that in for the past four years we have had a Pago component so I think it's reasonable to assume that at least some of the Gap may be funded again through pigo this time uh I have to say I don't consider that an ideal use of pigo because those are in fact I mean in general this is an ongoing thing P go should really be one and done um but we've done it so there's something and that means in addition to the questions you were asked do we see any capacity in pigo taking show shape should the council decide to tap those funds uh and I know the pigo uh often ends up being a residual you know late uh so I'm not sure how soon we will know about that but that would be one source my other point was can we develop any sort of a a more objective method u based on you know value added or something like that like the state has a sttip process it's datadriven uh can we look at the results that these organizations are achieving and figure out what the most productive use of our money is instead of trying to come up with some wholesale formula or arbitrarily because somebody likes somebody or whatever you know bringing these guys in and leaving them out uh and I I hope that maybe either the staff or in committee a little thought could be given to what the best basis is an objective basis because I would like to be able to tell people that don't make it look this is what we did you know it was fair and this is what happened and you weren't there so that's my thought thank you Mr yeah similar comments that Mr Drake just mentioned and if we can go back to the scoring um how did how did you guys take into consideration Community impact right the the impact that these organizations are having versus an arbitrary 5310 right and specifically related to those who are currently receiving funding um so on the scoring rubric the question was uh around the performance measures for the organization and were those performance measures that the organization identified measurable attainable and impactful um so we wanted to make sure that it was something that could be tracked we wanted to make sure that it was a realistic number um and we also wanted to make sure that it would be impactful within the community according to um the tenants of the Strategic priority that they said that they would be advancing um so outside of that uh that's how we were how we broke down the scoring and tried to keep it fair across all of the organizations and not bring in too much of an indiv individual's bias to some extent when they were doing their assessments were they required to submit annual reports audit the statements I mean I mean how do we how do we eliminate organizations right I mean so what's the process for elimination other than based on the the score itself were they required to submit supporting documentations like that uh annual reports audited statements um every organization is required to um submit either an audit or a 2-year comparative statements for the most recent two years uh we also ask that they submit uh salary disclosures organizational structures um their HR policies their financial policies their uh retention policies around data uh we also ask that they submit o over their uh board of directors so while we don't scrutinize their documents um because none of the people on my scoring team are CPAs or uh CFOs where they can analyze a financial audit um we do make sure that the organization actually provides that information yeah that was probably my follow-up question that did anyone take a look at it I look at those things um but again I'm not a CPA I am not a CFO uh but yes we do make sure that that those documents are provided if they did not provide them or if they were incomplete then they would not receive the full score or they would receive a zero yeah I think council member May feeli is is is correct there's going to be a lot of um it's almost like college says drop ad right that that we're going to that we're going to have to do based on the the total amount that's requested notwithstanding the um the impact that many of these organizations um have and based on where we are financially as a community thank you thank you and let's go thank you Madame mayor and thank you for the presentation um I you know clearly there's a need because there's such a high number for requests however you know I agree with Mr dggs that I think we need to come up with a process um of course we will be um we will be uh emotional about some of the ones that we care about but you know given the wide uh the wide uh distribution of these scores you know I I certainly feel if 65 is the top score uh is the highest you can get there a lot a lot in the 50s but then there's some in the 30s as well and I I think we need to set before we even have the individual conversations I think we need to have some guide post around listen if if a organization has scored a you know a 30 three or 32 with the midpoint being 32.5 you know that speaks to the Readiness of that organization to actually execute on the dollars um and I also think we need to have to um the the conversation around Community impact you know we know some of these and their impact pretty clearly and then there's others that you know their names that we we might not be as clear about their impact not to not saying that they don't have an impact but we it might not be as visible so I think before we jump into it perhaps we can agree to you know some some guide post and guidelines around how we want to go about this thank you madam mayor yes uh thank you Madame mayor so great conversations on Financial Partners all of this uh conversation did occur when we were discussing the policy last year especially how do we make this qualitative process as objective as possible and this is the best that um we could come up with because there is there is a piece of this puzzle which is going to be qualitative because we are ultimately uh putting more teeth into this process where we are asking staff from various departments to help us come up with the a rank um so certainly I hear from my colleagues that there needs to be more that needs to be done to eliminate certain organizations just because we have finite amount of dollars um and certainly we are happy to sort of drill further and figure out how do we make this process even more objective um you know some of the informations that you see in our package today was not part of our process in the Years prior especially the audit um organization financial statements all of that is new uh so I think organizations that are receiving more than certain amount or asking for more than certain amount now they are asked to provide audited financial statements so we have someone who is a third party a CPA looking at it and find giving an opinion but then also there are organizations that are not going to meet that threat threshold so we are not going to have we we will have a hard time analyzing that financial information within the resources that Sher team has uh that's where I think the qualitative assessment will take place based on staff's expertise um but I I look forward to really drilling um further into this a couple of questions in terms of the funding I know Mr Jones in the past we had used pigo to Mr Drake's point but then we had also provided one time from arpa funding that we had I know there there are still some funds available do we have any capacity or everything has been allocated excuse me uh council member Ash so typically what we do is when we start off with the um pigo there are some revenue streams that are a part of P that's ongoing but we we also look at the previous year's Surplus so we had a surplus of just under $14 million I would tell you that um what we've done in the past we've been able to fund areas such as the corridors of opportunity the ca some other key areas and I will tell you that some of that will should be used to address some of the reserves that are running low so for me to say there's no money would be disingenuous what will occur I believe through this process is that there will be different priorities for the council in terms of what's the best use of the funds I'll go back in time and we were I think uh Council DRS we were talking about a previous Surplus and I remember you said Marcus you gave us a slate of things but it would have been nice if you would have done something around capital and so those are the kinds of things that that we would do so I know I've spoken a lot yes there are other opportunities to use one time at some point we want to be careful because one time is one time and if you have an organization that's depending on that ongoing then we've created this expectation it's not realistic I I I couldn't agree more Mr Jones in fact as some of the organizations that we have seen to miss council member mayfel's Point some of the organizations did receive onetime funding from arpa uh and they knew that this was onetime funding but we are seeing this ongoing request um so at the end of the day I don't think it's a bad thing uh but I think how do we now figure out who gets the funding right and which means which organizations helps us tackle our priorities and most importantly where are the gaps right I guess that's where looking at the financial partners package I called over uh pretty late and uh Murray did pick up her phone and I said Murray I'm reviewing this package it's overwhelming like you know I think one um one thing I think if we can figure out where some gaps are in our services like for an example tree Charlotte let's look at that example they do the work that no one else is doing in the city in terms of planting on in school other properties right that's an no-brainer we got to do it because no one else is doing so if we can find organizations that are doing U filling helping us fill gaps so we know that these are some of our commitments that we have to deliver on uh just going through the package I was able to find some gaps that organizations were helping us with whether it's tree Charlotte is one example there are few I have highlighted in my packages um but I think that would be helpful because council member mayfel's point is correct there are organizations that are collaborating but then they all have requested the funding right so we need to filter those we also need to filter organizations that let's say if you're are funding one or two organizations that are working around youth do we need to fund more right uh things of that nature if we can just drill further um and I don't want Council to spend so much time on this because I know council member DRS will remind us this represents less than 1% of our City's budget let's let's be honest so uh but I think with sher's and Murray's expertise we can do that uh digging deeper and come to the list where we can continue to strengthen our partnership with our financial organizations I mean with our financial partners and still uh continue to balance the budget that's all I have thank you yeah I haven't spoken at all thank you so much Madam Mary I appreciate it so I was looking at I want to go back to the scoring system because when we started to talk about um I Heard uh council member ask me to talk about collaboration um with organizations partner with one another but that collaboration is not individually in their budget so because they're collaborating with another organization doesn't mean that they do not head out the scoring system if we can go back I want to look at the scoring system can you pull that slide up for me please cuz I'm really concerned about the court uh the scoring system especially so if an organizer ation who's been in the community for a very very long time some of the bigger names that's been out here for example I say United Way of Greater Charlotte they do great work but if we go and we start to look at they're going to have um everything that they need for that financial budget they're going to have um all of their checks and balances checked off they've been around for quite some time but when we start to look at like the smaller organizations which are the organizations that I'm fighting for everybody knows that it's not a secret the smaller organizations I don't want them to automatically be wiped out because if you because if you look at some of the bigger organizations that's been around for a long time they're going to have some of the higher scores they're going to be able to check off all the checks and balances and not saying that that's not um should automatically eliminate anybody I don't think that I wouldn't vote for that at all that would never be something that I vote for because I would like to look at the impact and what is the impact of the organization and what are they bringing I know you know we don't need to spend a lot of time it's just 1% of our budget but it is a part of our budget and we're at the table talking to about it so we need to address it and so when we start to think about the big picture like if they I know you said they had to have a financial audit but that was a substitute what was that substitute called two-year financial analysis twoe financial analysis so what is the scoring impact of somebody with the two-year it would be the same it would be the same so that would be no different so if they had and sorry if I may interject this is an important point just when we're looking at scoring does not mean that people that scored low with us are any less impactful than the ones that scored higher per se it means that they were more impactful directly towards your strategic priorities so I just want that on the record doesn't mean like if they scored lower that they were any less impactful but they were less impactful towards your specific Council priorities okay all right sure that no problem and where can we get a copy of the um the the the scoring system did we get that um so in the financial partner packet the binder um there is the scoring rubric for all right thank you so I would like to look at that and then my final um I would like to you know thank the staff for all your hard work especially you I know that you're you know doing a big part of it but I just want to make sure that we're being fair and being unbiased and sometimes just looking at this it it's a big red flag out there of being biased and I want to make sure that we're not doing that and that the actual impact of the organization is something that we look at and that's all that I have to say I'll get to you mayor yeah I was just going to say I I think that one of the challenges we were going to have with this is the scoring assessment kind of rubric thing that they've used to do it probably doesn't hit on exactly what we need to draw a line or make a decision exactly it's good stuff but it comes from a different perspective for me if I was kind of quickly redoing this I would get back to the basics of what is the financial partner program for and I think it has turned into something over the years and decades Beyond maybe what its intent was for me it's how do you make some kind of investment into something new that's that a group is doing to promote a an outcome that we can measure that's maybe one day sustainable and grows out on its own so that's why it's onetime money and and many times the same groups we see year-over-year getting it to fund their operations so I I think we need to get back to the basics of like are you proposing something new in addition to what you're doing today exactly how can we measure your success a year year from now and then people start graduating either to self- sustainability in doing this or if we want to Outsource because Tre Charlotte is going to do something that we value and we're not going to ever do they come out of this and they go into a budget right into the real budget of that group because this is kind of this special world where we pay attention to everything so I think a lot of it could be Whitted down just thinking about what are we trying to prove with the outcome of they sustainable on their own or they have a chance to make it into our formal annual budget to help us with something that's in our priority list and I think if you take that lens to it a lot of a lot of those great work not taking away from the greatness of the work but it's just going to whittle down when we scope in what what are we trying to achieve thank you Madame May so I would say as we have a conversation around trying to level set if we just look at what the manager just told us the 1.5 million and some change that's the top six items if we were to fund even at that the top six items just in great neighborhoods is short $ 38,8 128 I agree that somewhere we need to have the difficult conversation of looking at the scoring and for me personally I would have expected as was mentioned by my colleague we have some funders who have been funded for a decade plus the reason and just for those that are new on Council we started this conversation many years ago around having a window looking at Philadelphia and other cities that have uh three to five or five to seven year window for funding not funding and perpetuity but I would have expected those numbers if you have been a partner for multiple years to have been a lot closer to that 65 which is why I wanted a little more clarification on the scoring cuz that seemed pretty difficult for those to obtain but if we just look at the one 1.5 million these first six requests if they are funded at the levels that they are requesting that already puts us over 380,000 so we are going to have to have very real conversation regarding if there is a appetite to look at the application scoring we and identify those current partners that have been doing substantial work so even if I was to say 40 if the score was 40 or higher that is still a large number that's in here some of these requests and at the end of the day for me we are still but four that is where government dollars come in to place there is still an expectation for these businesses to identify other funding sources and not for the bulk of that fun funding source to be local government honestly the conversation is a little different this year than previous years because we just don't have it financially we have to be responsible as the manager mentioned regarding what we're going to do with Pago when we have everyday needs that need to be provided when I mentioned earlier it is on the same lines in my opinion just said very different said in different way but my colleague we need to go back to our core and by being in our core of what is the role of the city looking at it from that particular lens may help to guide us in this conversation to ensure that we are supporting our partners but being very realistic and letting everyone know seriously thank you for the application but there's not an automatic guarantee that this is going to be funded at the request that you asked and again with a lot of the new partners it is going to be very difficult to have this conversation but I just want us to level set that if we only have 1.5 million you're asking for over 8 million the first six alone would wipe us out so and we're going to have to have the same conversation when it comes around for Housing Trust Fund dollars so we're we need to be prepared to do the work of the community and understand that there's going to have to be some nose in here but we need to try to be as efficient as possible in connecting our roles and responsibility and looking at a level set I was just going to say this isn't the first oh I'm sorry Miss Molina no go ahead thank you Madame mayor I just I'll be quick I think there's a diversity of applications here based on what we see right I think um and I I want to make sure that you know not to say that anything that anyone else has said is wrong I think we have different types of applicants on this on the screen let's say for an example dream key Partners that's actually something that was they they are something that was started by way of an initiative started by the city of Charlotte right so there sustainability has an inevit you know an inevitable connection to us and I don't know if that's long-term shortterm or what ever but you know a lot of our initiatives for affordable housing uh cuz we can't do that directly with the public we directly aren't you know partnering with some of these agencies that provide the affordable housing opportunities uh United Way of Greater Charlotte is another one that's you know one of those staple initiatives that you know what they provide for the community crisis assistance Ministry for an example these people help you know thousands of our residents on a regular basis right you know then we have the diversity of you know some smaller organizations like what uh council member Brown was alluding to that are really just getting started right in the same exact conversation with people who are making substantial impact right um and so I I if I have any input into what you know the current conversation and atmosphere is it would be you know we have people who are helping at different levels right and I don't know if we you know kind of consider them an equilibrium because their impact wouldn't even be the same right so the impact of crisis the impact of United Way of Greater Charlotte the impacts of you know uh dream key partners and etc etc we have several different you know examples on the board uh wouldn't be the same as one of our partners that is doing something on a much smaller scale that's still important still has impact but I I don't I don't know if the conversation and if this was a policy the policy would like a street sign apply to all people no matter what 55 is 55 and if it says 55 it don't make sense to decide whether you got a truck or a car a six-cylinder or a 4-cylinder is 55 right but still I think you know and I think a few of my colleagues I don't remember which ones uh kind of alluded to this the like I said there they are different types of organizations and different types of impact that they have across our community so I don't I don't know if there's room to consider that when we make some of these decisions as well and that's all I have Madam mayor so I I'm really appreciate the conversation um that everyone has been very honest and candid about what the situation is for us as we move forward into the budget process um we have in had the opportunity to actually say no to groups and we some I think this will require this year will require it but I think the question is is the no because of what I think most people in this community will understand what's going on and they will really try to work with us and say this but maybe I think um I've heard a couple of things like is it onetime money you know what are our what are our criterias for this we've done a really the team has done a great job getting all of this I've had this conversation with Sher and M and and and as well and it's just been like oh well how do we get this done because we're not in we do not have a value proposition for a way to look at all of these groups differently and so if we're going to do this we need to figure out maybe it's one time maybe it is innovation maybe it's sustainability gaps or impact with somebody um I'm not sure where it would go but we've got to get someone to give us some idea of what the criteria should be to do this and and it's not to say that it's right or wrong it's just we're in a situation that requires us to be more um specific about what our relationships are as we have Financial Partners parners for our priorities and so um I don't think there's an answer right now but I certainly would hope that we wouldn't end up at the last minute which we've often done is say start raising your hand and and it's and it's chaotic and it doesn't really work so we've got to figure something out Maria I'm sorry that I you know I keep saying you know maybe we go to UNCC Charlotte maybe we go somewhere else I'm not really sure where we go because we haven't said what we're trying to do yet so Mr Jones are you going to help us get out of this so let me see if I can be helpful okay okay so a couple things what we try to do with these budget workshops is they have no surprises and so uh last year we raised taxes property tax by 1.5 one and a half cents and it got reduced a bit um and some of you said hey you surprised me Marcus okay so we're want to make sure we don't want to have surprises I believe I've been consistent since the annual strategy meeting we're not going to raise the property tax there will be programs and services that are cut in the city our programs and services and we're going to cut them based on whether or not they are giving us the outcome that we expect that they would give us so I would just say the same level of scrutiny that we're going to do our own organization um it should also be to well-intended groups the groups are amazing what they do and I think we all agree with that it's just what we're doing with this budget our goal is to preserve jobs for our city employees but also to be able to show you that before we come back to the community and ask for something on the property tax side we've looked at our expenditure side also so I just wanted to so when I said earlier you know we we still have a gap we still haven't balanced the budget we're less than two months away and while it's single digigit Millions it's still Millions so Mr Jones I'm going to ask you what do you see out of this conversation before we move to the next one because we have two or three more to do sure you know I'll just say the lens that that I have and I think what we all agree with is um it's the impact lens that needs to be over top of all of this right what's the value prop to me there are three categories there are our partners who've been with us over time there are some of our partners who are one time in nature and then there are some new partners and they're all over the board whereare they've scored some of our partners who've been with us have scored low and some of our new partners that we don't have relationship have scored high so I I believe this has helped us in that it doesn't necessarily have to be the score on the board but what's the impact what gaps are these organizations feeling um and and I'd be the first to say whoever used the example of tree Charlotte they've been with us so long and if it's something that literally we don't do but they do better do they become a part of the fabric of what we do okay okay well thank you very so thank you very much we know where Miss azir stands on this issue on value and prop value prop as it is so um Mr mits Mayor but I I I think we need to kind of close to Lo we can about the next steps on this cuz I think it was a great conversation around the diets and I agree with the city management Council MC Grant impact should be uh one of the top variables and so I don't know if this need to be referred to BG April and May because I totally agree the mayor I don't want this two months from now and we sitting around here and we just raising show of hand so so can we talk about uh maybe referral to those items you just articulated and let the committee uh find two of those and bring them back cuz I as long as you bring them back with an answer okay fair enough fair enough fair enough so so I think that we've heard people well six votes doesn't mean an answer to tell you the truth half the time so anyway that's what it that's what it does but that's where we are so I think that um if we could go ahead and do this if you're willing to take it on but I really do think the whole idea is how do you do this assessment exactly and make it work um Mr Jones any thoughts on that well to councilman Mitchell's point I think April's fine however I introduced the budget on May 5th that's what she say it has to move so it has to be in April April right so what I guess what I'm saying is it's in a couple of weeks something comes out of a committee that first Monday in April there's some additional guidance but I think after that it's really unfair to put try to put a budget together with something that's important okay and I think with that I guess what I hear um some council members say that then this shouldn't be part of the ADD and delete conversation if that's what the majority decides to do so that we are so that our budget adjustment is not so chaotic right let's go for not for no chaos okay all right so you have that first week of April all right thank you we'll go ahead and send something to you Mr heed says he can make it happen okay all right all right thank you all right Mr Jones tell us what's I I can't see the agendas the future of Solid Waste Services I think Marie will kick that off for us okay yes sir thank you and just to set the stage we're talking about Solid Waste Services we're going to go over a little bit of of the lay of the land what's currently going on what we're looking at for the next fiscal year for 26 budget development and then even beyond that considerations and again this presentation's focusing primarily on residential services and a lot of people in the public think of okay their trash pickup on a weekly basis but it's important to note that also embodies the yard waste collection recycling and bulky item collection but we wanted to also highlight um Solid Waste Rodney's team does a whole lot more than just Residential Services litter pickup street sweeping graffiti cleaning public receptacles and a whole host of other services that his team provides and you've all seen this slide before but it's important to reference it again for the total cost of government services because Solid Waste fees are also included in that Solid Waste are also included in that and again we are comparatively very low compared to our peers across North Carolina and then planning for the next year's budget analyzing residential services so that's what we're definitely taking a hard look at in trying to develop this budget for proposal What expenses does the fee currently cover again that first slide we had garbage yard waste bulky recycling so those Services cost a total of 86 million roughly and the fees we currently collect cover about 39 or right at 40 million which is 40 46% of the actual cost so what we're doing now is looking at okay how do we look at the service based on service type versus it's just residential so curbs side or the roll out versus the dumpster and again looking at all this these categories of Residential Services the fee currently covers roughly 34% of the roll out container cost and right at 96% of the dumpster so we're looking at analyzing service fees reviewing the frequency types of services we definitely want to maintain core services for our community that's the Benchmark of all we do right now is to we want to build and enhance but we definitely want to maintain what the community needs we're looking at managing long-term cost drivers aligning fees the type of services again there's only one fee right now regardless if your Cur curbs side or dumpster and we're looking at analyzing and breaking those fees out separately additional considerations under review are the frequency and cost for bulky item pickups and the small business rate right now the small businesses are charged $250 a year and that's been flat for several years so and that's not recovering the cost and we're not saying we're going to necessarily jump up to full cost recovery but we do need as our labor and Equipment costs rise we we do need to look at that fee as well and then even Beyond 26 continue to assess service options yard waste youve done a lot already with yard waste and thank you we've converted to paper bags for yard waste we're continuing to analyze opportunities to further automate or enhance those services and um to Mr council member Mitchell's point we don't do a good enough job of celebrating our wins but that transition to paper bags was a wi for our Workforce it helps us to be and just a a reminder before our Workforce had to get out of the truck bring the plastic bags over cut them open with a knife and dump them into the cart so it's definitely helping our Workforce be safer worker safety think of it this way if somebody can stay the our employees can stay in the truck and automate it versus having to get out of the truck deal with the trash get it into the trash um I mean sorry get it into the the vehicle it's and it also is a lot more efficient so it's a win-win when we are able to move that direction so in progress we're continuing to assess considerations for looking at a cart for yard waste and there's a lot of considerations about that it would be more safe for our workers it it it's Equitable service instead of people having to go out and get their own types of bins for their leaves and brush we'd have a city provided bin that there's also the re reason we're not jumping to this because we need to work with the community and continue to do that Rodney his team and also it's a significant additional capital investment because we would be getting rid of the investing in the carts getting rid of some of the rear loaders potentially and getting more automated vehicles and this slide I'm not going to go over in a lot of detail it's just to show you that Rodney and his team and we were helped with them uh continuously Benchmark ourselves and look at new and innovative ways uh to to deliver services and right now though of not the cities of Durham fville greens spur High Point Raleigh and Winston Salem have all already moved to a cart for yard waste and we're continuing to work with them reach out and see what kind of options may be um appliable to the city of Charlotte and potential yard waste Options under review again potentially looking at carts um looking at seasonal some people that have carts use the cart but then certain times of the year when there's more yard waste also have the rear loaders come by to pick up the bags or Limbs and so we're looking at potentially scheduling Services limiting weekly volume and again that's just giving you a heads up of things that we're assessing and looking at and working with our partners on and another thing on the horizon is solid waste transfer stations this is important piece of the service the service model for solid waste moving forward board and if you'll remember the benefits so right now what happens is when a dump truck gets full it has a travel all the way to a landfill and wait in line sometimes hours in line to dump its load and also while it's out there it's not on a smooth little paved Road it's on bumping conditions a lot of wear and tear on the vehicles um so that would really help efficiency um getting the trucks back quicker to the route and help is it's just important consideration moving forward and thank you for in 2025 yall designated some funding to set aside um for advanced planning for a transfer station we have not um found land yet and we're partnering with the county and looking at what what are their Solid Waste plans what are ours what locations would be ideal and also to that point meinberg County Waste Management Advisory board has advised the city and county to partner together in long-term strategies another important um initiative moving forward our current interlocal agreement with the county own specifically Solid Waste expires in 2028 and just the gist of that there's a lot of components of that but the gist is that we transport the materials if it's recycling um the yard waste or trash and then this county maintains the facilities or runs the facilities or is responsible for the facilities that receive those materials and important considerations moving forward for us are the landfill landfill tipping fees you know working with the county what's the best mod around that um how can we optimize that because those continue to increase every year and review recycling service cost benefit what other things can we maybe do with our materials moving forward that we're not um exploring now and that's it I'd like to take any questions oh my I was sorry start with Mr Jones and then we'll Mr DRS so uh thank you mayor members of council Marie I've never seen anybody go through a Solid Waste Services presentation so fast so congratulations um so Rodney Jameson uh is uh Superior in what he does I'm not sure that anybody does it better than Rodney and his team so yeah Rodney yeah he's over there okay um and along those lines customer service is so important to the city that um sometimes we take it on the chin maybe doing other folks jobs because it's so important to our residents so I want to give kudos to to Rodney what's also very important as we start to think about this budget is we have 14 budget principles um yeah right about and one is a structurally balanced budget but another one is to get the correct um cost recovery for fees that we have and there's a fee associated with Solid Waste Services and and lastly as Marie talked about uh the interlocal agreement one of the things that we're trying to do in this budget also is to make sure when we start to think about these um agreements that we have with some of our partners whether it's uh uh solid way services or the medic contract what kind of cost recovery are we receiving because that's still something on the revenue side that helps us with balancing the budget so I just wanted to frame it up a little bit as you start to have questions why this is such an important conversation we're having because this is a a fee that that we um collect as well as it's a level of service and there are some things that we could do in the future um that some the other cities are doing there are some costs associated with it but as we start to think about the return on investment sometimes those upfront costs especially when you start to think about the safety of our employees are worth the investment so having said that I I'm sorry may I just wanted to say that now go ahead Mr Driggs thank you mayor and uh thank you for the presentation so we're talking about 46% of costs there also is reference in here to various Capital costs so I assume that Solid Waste Service services like other departments has an operating budget and a capital budget and we are only covering 46% of operating expenses is there a Debt Service component or is it associated with the city's General go bonds or how do we fund capital in Solid Waste Services so there's also embedded in the fee there's also Debt Service and the the cost allocation plan so that is loaded in the fee so it it's not their full oper in budget as we said they do a lot of things like the graffiti pickup and the receptacles that aren't residential but you take the operating of residential and then load on top of that to your point The Debt Service um for their vehicles and their um facilities so that is included in the investment in new new capital goods right like uh the new vehicles things like that yeah it's not its own fund but yes so the 46% is is that uh is that Opera or is that that's both that's the operating plus the capital overhead and they have presumably a budget going out years identifying what capital needs like Charlotte water for example where they have a plan it's not the same that's part of the general fund so each year we analyze the need for vehicles and we pay for those but it's not costed out we we assume but we don't know for sure we don't specifically cost out the number of solid waste Vehicles needed so I think it would be helpful if we had some idea of what that Outlook is and we could plan for the needs of solid waste when we talk about how much to charge I think 46% uh personally is a low recovery rate on costs uh and I know it's probably sensitive because if we raise these rates then certain people who have to pay more are going to be upset but it has to be paid for and the alignment of those costs with the people who benefit from the service a closer alignment in my mind would be in the public interest U I had one other question in the past we talked about maybe changes in service uh between the dumpster and the roll out is are there any conversations going on now about whether triplexes and so on have dumpster service or roll out or how is that coming along I'll have to look to R there's not any specific that I'm aware of changing the current models where you have dumpster versus roll out all right so we're we're done with that okay um let me make sure is there any ordinance change that we're contemplating with that and I'm just asking I don't want to that's what I thought we talked about it in the past yeah I just don't want to have a conversation and then we're doing something different so Allison I don't know we're working on some Min modifications would that be part of our Udo process I don't think everybody could could hear you Allison so let's make sure that we everybody hears what your your question as well here we go why say I'm not going by myself um we are working on some minor modifications to it though within the Udo yeah the solid waste ordinance yes yes yes correct so could you give us an example of something I think it's really just clarifying the policy that's oh this one I think it's really just clarifying the policies that Solid Waste have had in practice for um for some time that need to be codified in the solid waste ordinance is what I understand the changes to be yes it's more of definition placement so so Rodney a question is if you look around your world and all of that with those I know we're doing that for the ordinance and and getting it right and all of that but are there things that we ought to be doing that are new be I mean we can do the ordinance and get it all straightened out and for the udio and all of that but is there something that you see in our future that makes this work better for safety and as well as I think you know in the environment definitely definitely um Bas what we what was mentioned earlier which is going to automated vehicle um helps us drastically and changing how the operation is running especially within the yard ways um Arena uh that is very manual that is intensive and sweat a lot of sweat being put in into that so um and injuries it's dangerous the landfill is very dangerous I know it was explain to you as if it was Rocky Roads but you're going up a hill if anyone ever if you ever want to come to Sou always please do and we can uh take you up these steep hills and you'll see yeah yeah you see driving by on 85 too so see it you know it's behind the speedway um but the job is very dangerous um so anything to minimize um accidents and strains on our our employees and our our residents is what we want to go for as a city is growing of course waste is growing traffic is growing so our trucks are driving at least 80 to 100 miles a day wow that's one truck I think um we tried this a year ago and I don't think we gave you enough time the concept of the transfer station can you explain why it's so important so important oh it's very important I can't give you exact number right now cuz I have another meeting with um the landfill Representatives but as the city grows the landfill is filling up all right the current landfill that we go to eventually we're not going to be able to go there anymore the transfer station will be a major piece of that of being able to get our waste um out of the city of Charlotte you know um so it's very detrimental this is so Mr manager I just wanted to conclude by by pointing out if you're committed to not raising property taxes it's going to be a stretch this is one place where you might be able to prevent cut in in elsewhere by by re changing the pricing for solid waste so council member DRS I I think that's part of the concept again there's a fee recovery that's a part of your policy that talks about 100% fee recovery and so no one's saying jump to 100% but is there something logical that can help us I'm saying and and it's important because we're not going to have new Revenue from the property tax thank you all right I think it was Miss Don Miss who was first Miss Mayfield or Miss Anderson which one would you like to do you want to well my name is first on the list but okay so there we go we go with Dante Anderson M mayor protim I know you're reading my list here all right no thank you um for the presentation and um this is an interesting area I you know I want to make sure that I speak from from my district I have residents in district one that are asking me about how the city can help them with yard Services because they're older and they're trying to age in place and they don't have the ability to go out and collect the leaves and and maintain trees Etc so I think this is an area that I I'd like to see what the real dollar would be just take yard waste for example if we were to convert to a container um and have the season as you as you're laying out on page 16 slide 16 go to a seasonal uh compostable bag I personally October to December is a very short time period for the city of Charlotte as it relates to leaf collection and everything that goes on I just want to see what dollar what impact these dollars would have by going to switching to this type of service um and also advocate for if there is a program if there's something we can do to help those who are aging in place we're encouraging uh our residents to age in place and to keep their homes online and to keep them safe and yet they're unable to do a lot of the things that that they need to do in order to maintain their their yards their homes so if there's something that we could do for those agent in place to assist them if needed I think that would be something that should be a part of this conversation as well so I'll try not to be the Solid Waste Services director if I'm wrong just let me know so um I believe this concept is side loaders when you think about that that's one person driving a truck and that person has the arm that comes out dumps it in the back when we talk about rear it's two to three people involved and so if I understand this which I think I do the leaf season you would always have the side loader coming in but because of the fall where there would be more leaves you would move away from the side loader well sorry we probably augment the service with augment it with additional folks yes okay yes so you would still get a strong level of service year long we would just augment that side loader during the leaf season okay Miss Mayfield thank you Madame mayor Marie thank you for this detailed presentation a couple of things that jumped out to me when we're looking at that at slide 15 the comparison of yard waste programs in North Carolina when we're looking at dur fville and others are those the fees that are being charged to the single family home owners or to the small businesses if we're having a conversation about potentially increasing the small business rate from the $250 we've had for many years this is for residential so it will be helpful for me to have an idea of what is that dollar we're talking about because we get to a point where it whether it's reality or perception it feels like we nickel and Diamond the residents since businesses have a responsibility so these multif family units that we have approved throughout the city regardless of the income of it that is a business so it will be helpful to understand what you all are looking at for what that potential increase could be in order to ensure you're paying your fair share as well as what that new fee how it can contribute to the funding needs that we're looking at and I'm also trying to understand when it comes comes to the small business rate if there's a differential from say the garbage pickup of a corporate building versus that's outsourced correct Ronnie that's so we do not outc sorry but multif family small business is what we pick up not sorry so there's dumpsters that are residential that we pick up right well there's are um outsourced as well but the small business businesses and know I'm guess I'm fumbling so he's coming up to correct but there's small businesses that are so what do we consider small business small businesses sorry go ahead small businesses are business that generate no more than five containers 96 gallon containers collection so your normal Residential Waste container they cannot exceed five of those okay that's considered small business so for me where I think there might be an opportunity in the conversation to ensure a more Equitable payment system is to be looking at the umbrella looking at what is the fee for multif family units what is identified as small business as well as residential because the idea of an additional charge on to the residents is concerning to me because even though we have stay Revenue neutral and I believe the county also also did a revenue neutral because of the property tax reevaluation you had some areas that went up over 200% so that's still created a Major Impact I'm also wondering when we say that we've now gone to the paper bags as a homeowner I'm yard then that's where it's going to go when I'm driving coming in to this building especially coming up Davidson I see multiple and around the city multiple companies that alarm maintenance companies that are blowing the leaves into the street they are not capturing these so are we even having any conversations to identify language around that particular incident to ensure that they are also paying towards the cost because again those leaves going into our drainage system systems that's causing problems with Charlotte water and other areas but we're telling the residents this is what you need to do in order to comply but we have landscaping companies that are contracted and some that are contracted through the city that are not adhering to the same rules I agree so has there been do you know if there's been any conversation about the possible impact there yes it is impact there and there's language being put together but um that's where enforcement actually really needs to take place for us to capture and catch when that happens because that that adds to our job and manager n you back in that's something honestly that we can add to CLT plus because when people are driving by they can capture the picture and that'll give the location and give the information we should be able to identify but if we're talking about potential cost I would love to have an understanding of what that business rate would look like and also what would that rate look like for the multif family versus just a sample of what the rate would look like on the individual residential owner and as far as which is some council member Mayfield did you say um see click fix I see click so CO2 plus so yes C click fix which took a long time to get here but those are ways that we can utilize it and now that you're back in manager years ago we created a partnership regarding around recycling so we had the facility that was over on the west side and part of that conversation back then was around helping to reduce what we're taking to the Landfield through recycling is that still you're correct there was a pilot and the pilot was seeing whether or not you could take let's say containers and have only that um material in the container whether it's a paper glass plastic and have something pure that you could take over to say the barn or the murf and so there there was a pilot with that with my understanding we can get you some information in the packet that it was pretty successful so it would be helpful if we can get an update because that was one of the ways that we were trying to attack CU what we don't want is worst case scenario um idiocracy where the Landfield decides to just crumble in the impact of all of that but we put some funding and support into helping to realign what's going to the Landfield that's also going to contribute to the cost and we also have opport Unity with our partners of which you and I talked about this years ago especially for our elders that are aging in place our partners through neighborhood services through neighborhood matching grants through Goodwill will connect you to young people and others that will come in and Mard and trim some of the limbs and do some things outside of just House repair to help people in creating a list we had started that it's just a matter if it's being continued thank you so much Miss s thank you madam mayor since I'm going last I only have one question um Mr Jones in terms of the recovery rate um historically what has been our recovery rate um for our um feed Avenue because I I mean I see that 46% is currently and we always have had a goal of having it as close to 100% as possible as our one of our budget policies so um has this changed recently or if I may yes okay thank you so um it's important to note that currently there's not a a different fee so the dumpster customer residential customer pays the same as a roll out customer and by city or we're limited to we can only do 100% recovery so if you look at this slide here it's cheaper for the dumpsters for somebody just going in and do that what slide number seven sorry so it's cheaper so we could not so it was 100% of the dumpster rate it and that's why we're analyzing okay does it does that really make sense or should we look at the type of service because the type of service do service a roll out is a lot more expensive so that's why we're potentially looking at yeah splitting see I see comparision with other peer cities and we are sort of uh we are the lowest right so I'm not sure if it's because other cities have Enterprise funds when it comes to Solid Waste where they recover 100% versus us where General funds continue to subsidize some of this cost um do you know I see um Rodney nodding his head so certainly he knows more than on no I was shaking my head cuz you are correct uh most municipalities are full cost go at full cost and we are not yeah I I think uh I I agree with some of my colleagues um obviously we can go overnight from where we are 100% because that would be a huge uh in increase to pass it on to our residents and uh but I I think at some point we do need to look at the services we providing and adjust our rates based on the services so I see there are several options that were provided um in this deck so there are several things we could do so I look forward to hearing more about that uh but yeah I um we are definitely on the lowest and if you're having to subsidize it that means we are pretty much using some of these dollars that could have gone towards housing or infrastructure or Public Safety uh we are subsidizing Solid Waste Services that's all I have thank you thank you Miss I'm sorry Molina I mean I got dark hair but I know sorry it's been a long day thank you Madame mayor um so really quickly I think I what I would add is first of all I think this is outstanding work considering the fact um you know a lot of these pure cities as far as residents are concerned um as far as square footage don't compare to the city of Charlotte right and then one of them is my hometown I mean love my hometown uh but the whole city is smaller than my district right and I I love my hometown uh but you know considering that we cover over 300 square miles right over 900 residents uh varying degrees of you know whether every resident is being covered but for the people that the city of Charlotte Services over like what you were saying such a wide geography one you know truck on a daily basis travels over a 100 miles right I mean I think you know even though you know we want to have a lean uh perspective when we consider this I think already we're doing what I would consider to be based on just Baseline information I think we're doing a good job with what we have right can we be more lean absolutely um what you know fees and and Associated costs do we have to pass on to the resident of course those are always going to be uncomfortable no matter what right and I see that there are cities that we can you know attempt to try to align ourselves with for you know a more lean perspective but um I think all things considered I I think so far I think we're doing a decent job with what we have like a lot of people to serve a lot of miles to cover you know um and we're still one of the lowest compared to cities that are within you know 100 mile radius of us right because that's what that looks like 100 to 200 mile radius of us you know cities across our you know state or whatever um but all things consider I still think we're doing a fantastic job Mr manager um you know I i' love to hear what the perspective would be ongoing for making us a more lean institution right um I don't know how we achiev that objective but good job I I want to add I really think that we have to begin to look at this transfer station as a capital item it's really important we can't have you know they say fires and people not safe in that Comm in in the way that we operate now and then addition to that I think Mr Jones you know that there is the solid waste agreement with the county and that is a very um important document for us so I think we ought to start working on both of these two things both of these as soon as possible because it's going to be com some some work hard work to do these so thank you Rodney you're great for this thank you all right this is our final one before we go into Clos session and it's the capital investment plan so it's coming now okay hello mayor members of council I'm Hannah bromberger the assistant director in strategy and budget and right now the presentation is being passed out to you as well as um your project status updates these blue and yellow sheets that we hand out every year they give you an update on the construction status the estimated completion date and the budget status of every active horizontal and vertical Capital project so here with me today I have Kathleen Kathleen cek she is our city engineer and she's going to be talking to you a little bit about uh in more detail on these blue and yellows on the active projects and and I also have Teresa Smith our CFO uh who's going to talk a little bit about capacity before we start planning for the next CIP so I'll go ahead and invite Kathleen up thank you Hannah good afternoon mayor members of council I'm going to start off by giving you an update on the existing projects we've had a very busy year as you can see on the slide we've completed 24 projects in the past year um based on the pictures you'll see that we've completed public art installations Ada improvements solar installations multi-use paths and Bridge construction aside from these projects other projects include installation of electric vehicle charging stations completion of our first fire Equity project pedestrian hybrid Beacon installations Street lighting projects sidewalks and roadway projects so as a reminder um this is not a bond year but we did want to come in and bring um an update on our bond projects we currently have a total of 152 active projects 19 of these projects are currently in construction over the last year we were able to complete 17 projects and we added 20 new projects of the 152 active projects 138 of them are on Target we currently have one project that is listed as over budget and we also have 13 projects listed as at risk as a reminder um a project will receive the at risk um title when the estimates are currently aligned within our budget but we are starting to approach a critical threshold within the project um it's simply a designation that serves as a warning that we're nearing the overall project contingency level um staff will continually evaluate Market unit prices that we received during the bid process on all projects this data is then used to update our project cost estimates so for facility projects these projects consist of police stations firehouses Ada projects and sustainability projects which include our electric vehicle charging stations and solar r we currently have 30 active projects and of those 25 of them are on target we completed seven years or seven projects excuse me over the past year and we've added eight new projects we currently have three projects that are showing some level budgetary risk with the denotation of at risk and then two projects that are currently listed as over budget so many of you are aware of ongoing developments at the federal level um we are closely monitoring this and the city economists discussed this at the February Workshop recent actions by the current Administration could have wide ranging implications partic particularly in areas of tariffs immigration policy consumer spending construction activity employment trends and Federal grant availability these factors have the potential to influence our projects to some regard though increased material in labor costs potential labor shortages supply chain disruptions and the need to modified project Scopes to stay within budget this could impact any number of our projects we are actively monitoring this to mitigate any potential risks I've included images of two of our upcoming projects that are currently in design the first first one is our cmpd helicopter hanger and then we also have our Firehouse number 44 which will be the city's first mass Timmer facility so next I'm going to move on to providing an update of our Advanced planning design program as a reminder the advanced planning design program was created in fy20 20 to explore potential projects and create a project pipeline for possible future funding the slide shows four projects that are currently in this program the first one is upgrade existing animal care and control facility um we looked at the option to build on site at bym Avenue given the site constraints and building infrastructure needs it was determined that the project was not financially feasible we are now exploring a satellite option the project is currently in the design phase and we anticipate reaching 30% design by third quarter of calendar year 2026 the cmbd hangar is the next project on the list if you'll recall we took the land acquisition the city council in September 9th that project is located at 801 Woodridge Center Drive the project has a very similar schedule to animal care and control um it's following that schedule by a few weeks and we anticipate completion of 30% design by third quarter 2026 our CDC which is our asset recovery disposal commissioning decommissioning facility um is currently in advanced planning um we are evaluating the Fe feasibility of two existing warehouses on Aviation property and then last but not least um you guys just received an update on the solid waste Transfer Station um We are continuing discussions with the county those are on ongoing but currently the project is going through a master planning effort um which will work to understand solid weight Solid Waste Services needs excuse me and an overall program which will help develop the project scope at this time I will turn things over to Teresa Smith who will provide an update on the capital investment plan thank you uh again I'm Teresa Smith and just wanted to give you a couple of updates um this is a slide that you all have seen before this this one you've seen at The Retreat uh this is a reminder that 2026 is not a bond year so we just had a bond uh which I'll talk about in just a second 2026 however we'll have cops and Hannah will be talking about those uh in some of the future slides this reflects the budget uh that was adopted for FY 25 through 29 this is another slide that you have all also seen you saw this one at the retreat and this one shows that the state state will return to 220 million what this shows is that uh the past referendum that we had was the $400 million referendum uh included the 100 million for affordable housing and then 238 for streets and 62 for neighborhoods um we will return to a steady state of 220 after this year uh the other piece to highlight here is that we did use a portion of those future years to purchase the red line this past uh September couple of highlights about the $400 million Bond since this was the largest bond that the city has had uh of course starting out with $100 million for affordable housing you will recall that historically we were at 15 million we were able to move that to 50 and then this past November the voters approved a $100 million Bond we were also able to focus on corridors of opportunity 25 million remained there and then we also started the Strategic investment areas and you will remember that these are targeted areas 16 targeted areas that are in addition to your corridors uh these are where we look for scalable Mobility projects that we can deliver to Citizens more quickly and we've got some pictures here of two of those winds that we have had uh so the Far East Harrisburg sea uh completed uh sidewalk there and we also had the Arrowwood sea which also have already completed some sidewalks under that program couple of other um large items there that we've included Vision zero sidewalks Street resurfacing and then some of the named Road improvements so with that I'm going to pass it to Hannah all right thank you Teresa um so as Teresa said this is not a bond year that we're heading into in FY 2026 and so since it's not a bond year we're going to focus on our facility funding which are which is our certificates of participation um the capacity has not changed here so on average cops has about 26 million uh of capacity per year which totals 130 million over the 5year plan this is the plan that you adopted as part of the FY 2025 budget and you'll remember just like with all of our Capital planning you adopt year one of the 5year plan and the other four years the out years are simply a plan so we revisit them each year um so this year we will be revisiting FY 2026 specifically and then we will making be making a plan for FY 27 through FY 230 so I want to um go a little bit deeper on all of the projects that were in the uh our facility planning in FY 2025 so we'll start with five fire Public Safety facilities uh we have a program for Equity Renovations in our existing fire stations through our Master facilities plan effort several years ago we identified some existing fire facilities um that needed a little bit of work to make sure that there um was appropriate space for female firefighters there were 13 firehouses identified that needed work five of those uh are also on a list for replacement so we've sort of set those five aside we have eight firehouses remaining as Kathleen mentioned we finished our first of those renov Renovations at Firehouse 2 this past year Firehouse 22 is expected to be complete within this next fiscal year and Firehouse 12 retrofits are in planning currently uh so we still have a few that we need to tackle and this is intended to be an ongoing program as capacities available moving on to our fire facilities program um this is this program has been funded for several years now and it provides dedicated funding to construct new infill firehouses as well as training facilities or to replace um existing firehouses that are no longer serving uh the need that they need to serve so so far we have funded uh $63 million since FY 2022 and we have an additional 44 million planned uh across FY 26 and FY 27 we'll go a little bit deeper on the components of the fire uh facilities plan and as we look at at this program a little bit more closely you'll see that each project is in varying stages from planning to construction with the new infill Hidden Valley Firehouse antici anticipated to be completed in the next few months you'll also see a little bit of budget concern on some of these projects but remember that they are in a program so the way that we do this is we budget at the program level so as higher priority projects are completed like Hidden Valley budget savings from those projects roll down to the next project in line so we aren't too concerned about this um similarly because it's a program we think that we can adjust the planned budget uh between 26 and 27 and slide some funding around to make sure that we have the right cash flow in order to keep all of these moving in 2026 as we move on to our police Public Safety facilities uh we added the 911 expansion to the budget in FY 2025 this funds um it funds A renovation at both the law enforcement center at Police Headquarters as well as the police and fire training academy and this allows for 22 more floor consoles in our te telecommunicator space each of those consoles has someone sitting at it 24/7 so three shifts a day so 22 consoles really add space for the equivalent of 66 FTE so this is a really important Expansion Project for us um we placed 7 million in the budget in FY 2025 and we have an additional 2 million planned in this upcoming year in FY 2026 um and right now both of those projects are on budget and will be completed in 2027 and 2028 respectively the police division station program we haven't talked about a ton lately because this is an older program it started in um 2013 and it was a program to build six police stations at the time police was leasing space and they wanted to have a more permanent presence in the community so they started to construct permanent stations um these six stations five of them are now complete we are working on our last station the Northwest division which is under construction you may notice on your blue and yellows that it is listed as at risk and the reason it's listed that way is because we think that the program funding for these six stations is going to expire but don't forget that in FY 2024 when we were seeing High inflation rates you approved a bucket of funding um for projects and Northwest division was specifically named in that program and so with access to that money we think that this project will be able to to continue without becoming over budget and that's Mountain on the lake area over there um 1800 1800 Mount hly Huntersville Road okay I also want to mention um a few other ongoing programs that have been longstanding in our facilities program we have uh building sustainability improvements um this program has funded its first fast charger for a Class 8 semit we continue to install EV charging St um including in the last year we completed the largest one at the cmgc parking deck if you go up to the roof there are 53 charging port uh on the on the top floor of the parking deck we've also completed uh seven solar panel installations including one that you can see looking down where we are now over the chamber um Ada and Equity Renovations continue we've completed phase one Renovations in cmgc as well as Ada improvements in Old City Hall Phase 2 Ada improvements in cmgc are currently in planning and the Solid Waste Services anex building across the street from their main building um female locker room Expansion Project is in design and on budget we also have Capital facility improvements including four HVAC Replacements at firehouses and other City owned facilities we've replaced seven roofs in City facilities and installed C readers in the cmgc stairwell to enhance Safety and Security so you may remember these buckets we show these buckets a lot usually Debt Service is in the middle we have the bigger general fund one then The Debt Service fund and then a tiny little pigo one um and the way that we showed them that way is because property tax and sales tax are the primary funding sources in these buckets um so we talked a good bit at the annual strategy meeting um about how property tax funds Debt Service and this Debt Service fund is what we use to pay principal and interest on all of our debt funded projects at the city so all of the projects that we've been talking about that are facility debt funded projects funded by cops the principal and interest is paid through The Debt Service fund and you may remember that property tax uh does not grow with inflation that was part of our conversation at the annual strategy meeting and so that lack of inflationary adjustment in property tax not only affects the general fund and our operations but it also affects the capital program and our long-term capacity to advance priorities so we are well aware that we have uh far more needs than we can fund um but as capacity remains strained we want to make sure that we use any new capacity to ensure that the existing projects within our facilities program and within the advanced planning program projects that we've talked about today um like the transfer station and the helicopter hanger uh can be funded and advanced advanced further to construction so as we look ahead on April 7th at the budget governance and intergovernmental Relations Committee Aviation and cats will be there to discuss their budgets including the capital portion of their budgets on May 5th the budget will be proposed including the FY 26 through 2030 CIP budget May 12th we will have our budget public hearing May 19th will be budget adjustments followed by straw votes on May 29th uh and on June we will present a budget for adoption all right I have a couple of folks um Miss asme followed by Mr DRS followed by Miss mayew oh I'm sorry I didn't see can I go second because I just need to Second sure so Mr Driggs thank you mayor um this is a lot to take in I appreciate it but um processing all of this is hard I'm I'm trying to just on a high level uh get a grasp of what the magnitudes of the atrisk projects are are collectively like we don't have numbers here for any of these and we got into a situation some years ago where we were in a pretty deep hole so uh I'd like to understand better um in the aggregate what all of this means uh I don't want to go line by line through each contract and so on but there must be some way to consolidate where we say total projects on budget are this at risk projects are this amount and uh and under budget uh over budget so that we can get a macro feel for exactly what our situation is um what was the annual rate of cops issuance capacity that was mentioned 26 average per year so over the six years on the on the graph uh we're averaging about 35 30 to 35 um so how do I reconcile that we had some additional growth last year um you know we pulled a lot forward for the bonds but we also had some in cops that allowed us to to adjust it slightly and we had some time sensitive needs like fire trucks that are in a four-year replacement schedule that we needed to get added to the program but we have returned to the average now just like Teresa mentioned on Geo bonds we have returned to 220 we have returned to about 26 per year in cops so if I look at the slide of 11 it looks like we've got 39 in cops in 26 and 37 and 27 and then we're going back to 15 in the out years of 28 and 29 so I would just observe that when the time comes it could be very difficult to do that uh and I I think we may be robbing Peter to pay Paul a little bit here um the other thing I wanted to mention was colleagues I don't know if anybody's noticed but occasionally in our meetings there's this talk about animal control and I don't see anything in here are we doing anything about animal control it was on the plann did I miss it I'm sorry it's in advanced planning I think okay so what's the timeline Advanced planning is inexpensive wait let we'll let Hannah what is the Mr DS asked what where are we on the um we anticipate that we'll be at 30% % design in quarter 3 of calendar year 2026 aha here we are I'm sorry I didn't see that line um and 30% is our is generally our Benchmark in advanced planning because we know enough at that point to feel feel comfortable setting a budget so this says animal care and control Reserve what does that mean in terms of our plans for a facility or uh how does that translate into uh investment in a facility sure so last year when the budget was proposed there was a uh line item for essentially a hold of future capacity for projects coming out of the advanced planning program and through the budget adjustments process city council asked us to change that name and just go ahead and dedicate it for a future animal care and control facility so we changed that name and that same capacity that was being set aside for projects coming out of the advanced planning program is now set aside specifically for the animal care and control facility unprogrammed capacity so if I'm reading this when would I expect to see uh a new or improved facility based on this planning process a facility or a budget a facility when when are we actually going to see something built council member Driggs thank you for your question um so as outlined on the slide we're currently in the design process um we're working to onboard a design Builder currently um our anticipation would be that we would bring a GMP guaranteed maximum price contract to council sometime around the same time frame so third quarter calendar year 2026 I would anticipate probably a second quarter 2028 completion date but all of that will be reliant on us on boarding a design Builder to help rev refine the overall schedule and the ended total investment is 30 million based on this slide correct okay thank you all right M just one thing Mr Sure Council Rodriguez this is typically not the way we do this typically we finish the advanced planning get to 30% and then have a number but what we've done is we've said no matter what we've already said we've taken 30 million in capacity so what I believe is we are building and designing was a $30 million facility based on the earmark from Council is that correct that is correct okay yes so I just uh would highlight that facility is as old as it is and so on and so forth so I think a little accountability on our part for when we can actually expect to see a facility you hear this design and it sounds a little squirly so the other thing in Kathleen keep me on the straight and narrow this is more or less an adoption center something that is elaborate that's inviting that will help promote getting animals adopted is that kind of where we're headed that is correct so it is a satellite option so I may be interested in a cap but it's not going to solve the problem yeah thank you okay Miss yes thank you madam mayor um I I agree with Mr Dres uh this is over overwhelming to go through this list while uh while keeping up with the presentation especially this capital investment plan project updates um you know there are about six pages here so I haven't been able to go through every single line item um but I did look at the ones that are highlighted the ones that are at risk or over budget uh so a couple of questions first if we can yeah on this slide since we on this slide let's uh let me ask a question on this one number three uh can you help me understand what that is commissioning and decommissioning facility this is for the cab so council member azmir the Ard CDC is how we affectionally call it but what it is it's a function of asset recovery and Disposal um which is where we send all City City related items to be sold off um whether it be an auction um and then commissioning decommissioning is also a function of our Fleet group where we will bring in um police cars Solid Waste Service vehicles to be um upfit for their intended purpose okay so we are relocating that facility it is currently on Aviation property and we're looking to relocate that into two other Aviation warehouses got it so that's already in our Advanced planning so does that so I guess my question is you know Mr drgs brought up uh animal care and control facility which last year when we were discussing budget adjustments there was a remaining capacity of $30 million and I'd made a motion to is you know some of these projects are at risk over budget how how how would they get prioritized with the limited funding that we have um and considering there are so many projects on here that are at risk or over budget so Mr Jones if you can speak to that um how how are we going to prioritize some of this well uh Council ashme so the good news is when something is in advance planning it's being designed to uh have a be a future project I think we're I like to separate the the two uh one we will give you more detail on these projects that are at risk and over budget I believe that um Hannah suggested that there isn't a problem with the over budget projects that can't be solved within some existing capacity many projects are going to be at risk you get a lot of yellow each year in this project in this list and it's just saying in some of these things we haven't even begun to get land acquisition but it's a a a warning signal that we're keeping our eyes on some projects the animal care and controlers I think is a bit different in that we have a set amount of money we're designing to that set amount of money and I believe the only reason why we're talking as certain quarter in 2028 is that in a normal process that's how long it would take to design it to construct it and we're really looking if I got this right a draw schedule of where the funds would be needed so so to follow up on that um you know I it's good to hear that when it comes to over budget we have some cushion because I know there is always 20 or 30% cushion on each project that can be used to address any over budget um in you know I look at Cross Charlotte Trail I thought we had addressed that that was a big issue that was at risk a while ago and that was um and now here it's again at risk yeah if you we recall one day I'm going to get through one budget workshop and not do the cross Charlotte Trail there's so many segments of the Cross Charlie trail so so now no matter how good we may have been with setting aside money when you're talking about something in let's say 2019 and you're building it in 2027 there are going to be some changes in the you know um in the economy that put some things at risk yes and I understand that whenever we plan something for to build three four five years down the road especially longer the time frame is it is in terms of it becomes more riskier to stick to that budget because of there are so many factors outside of our control I get that but you know when residents hear this hey you guys solve this we allocated more funding we have cushion that we have put 20 30% and still have that project at risk I think it really creates um doubts in Minds that hey are Are you delivering on what you said you would or you not like one example I got an email from bat Smith on Northwest station and I had forwarded that email over to Marie uh because she brings up this uh Northwest station that was first discussed it was an important topic back in 2022 it was March 2022 and we had allocated about 1.2 two 1.2 million towards the design um and the question is did what happened in terms of did the delivery method change did the contractors change after 3 years um but and it's still not been delivered so like I guess I want to make sure that we don't walk away from this meeting with this like we have a problem with the cross charler trail we don't okay um what we do uh typically in our four Bond Cycles we don't allocate all of the capacity we leave some capacity that's available for future needs I think if I went back to the beginning of these four Bond Cycles we may have had you know 125 million I think what we did over the years so I guess what I'm saying is that we anticipate projects will be at risk we don't utilize all the capacity we go back each year and look at assumptions around interest rates assumptions around you know draw schedules and typically we come back with some savings believe it or not so I guess what I'm saying is we we don't allocate everything and we we anticipate projects will be at risk and we attempt to solve those without taking any additional capacity I I guess I have more questions out after this presentation than I had before um I guess in my mind we created this whole Advanced planning to not have projects at risk so if you're saying are we are still going to have projects at risk I I don't know what we accomplished with this Advanced planning that was put in place for was it 5 years ago or was it six years ago we put this new process in place that we didn't have before because back back I guess before Mr Jones you came on before your Le leadership the process was um wasn't lot of vetting was done to come to a number um so the number wasn't very accurate so that's why we were keep we kept seeing lot of atrisk projects but now with this are we are you saying are you saying we will still have projects that will be at risk yeah I don't believe there's a city a large city in the country that can anticipate the the cost of a project with only 30% design the difference between what occurred beforehand there was no design it was well-intended people saying I guess it'll cost this and then it would be in a CIP at least with the exception of animal care and control we don't put anything into these um Cycles unless we at least have 30% design and I think we all know as you get further along the design whether it's 50 60 70 you get more refinement with the numbers but there is no anybody who can sell you that a 30% design projects are not going to be at risk I I I I don't know I wouldn't buy what they're selling So currently do we still have 20% cushion on all of our projects I don't know what we have on our projects I do know that beforehand before we got to this Advanced planning some contingencies were in my opinion outrageously High because there was no design behind it so the further you get along with design um the more that you can pull back some of these contingencies I I would say that the team is really doing a good job and I would add to that this new way of addressing projects I I call it the at McKinny group uh where we are literally Al um designing projects and implementing based on those two sidewalks the see is I I think that you will see a um I I don't want the staff to walk away today thinking that they're not doing a great job because it's it's apples and oranges eight years later than what we were doing yeah so let me make sure that I say this because when it comes to uh some of this project planning certainly we've come a long way than we were before right uh before we had this Advanced planning uh where we would have less and less projects at risk than we had before because we are doing some of this planning ahead of time um I'm not saying that we will eliminate 100% all of projects but I think we should be on track to have lesser and lesser where uh we are seeing at risk because of Contin gencies that are in place we are doing some more design and you know we are some doing some of the sidewalks it's that is that is what the city do does every you know every single day some of this infrastructure projects so we kind of anticipate some of the risk that we would see that's all thank you okay I think we've gotten a dive into a different conversation but I do think that well not I don't think I have at Miss Mayfield and Mr Mitchell that would like to speak on this and then we can come back to you Mr thank you mad May and who else M I got right yes Miss Mayfield thank you Madame mayor Mr manager thank you for what you just shared I would ask that when we're looking at for animal care and control this investment is for the adoption Center I would like for us to while we're in the design say do a little bit more research because here's the reality because of the financial impacts that our residents are experiencing they are abandoning animals the shelter is overcrowded because of so many animals that are being abandoned adoption is not necessarily happening now the way it once did now for disclosure out of the list of priorities you know this is not in my top 10 yet we need to address it but I want to make sure that what we're investing in is something that's actually going to be beneficial to the needs of the community which is to my limited understanding more storage space that is healthy storage space versus putting having a state-of-the-art adoption center when there are not as many people actually out there adopting I also have a question regarding St here on slot n so we currently are utilizing for the CDC Aviation property and at the same time we're supporting multiple projects that come before us for Aviation including the selling of land that's going to be on the books tonight I hope that we are having some different negotiations since the airport is our partner to identify in a much shorter time period another facility if we need if there's an immediate need for this facility versus it being 10 15 years down the line if it's 10 15 years down the line then we should be able to stay there as a partner considering how much our airport comes to us in Partnership if not identify a space that is the amount of square footage that we need versus trying to split up two spaces and then in the future future council is having to figure out more funding for another relocation because every time we move that cost a certain amount of dollars you know I'm going to ask you regarding fire so when we go back to slide 15 I do appreciate the funding that has been identified but this funding is for buildings I do not see and maybe I'm missing it the funding for the Investments needed for our training facility because it's great for us to have these buildings invested in which we need but our training facilities need investment we are now looking at fires that are upward of 3,000 de we have a facility where the simulated fire is only getting around 800 we have a facility that is also starting to see the wear and tear impact from having multiple fire simulations we have a water tower that is leaking we have pallets out there we should not necessarily have to send our training staff over to ason County or other areas for training even though I know that in community and you and I have talked Mr manager that there may be conversations that Central peont might be doing something I would like for us to have a real conversation about what we're going to do to protect our fire because I'm concerned that we're not necessarily giving them all access to the training here that's going to truly prepare them for what they're walking into because of how we have done infield development and the proximity how quickly the fires are going up on with the wood versus what we used to have when you're sitting on a half acre or acre land you will put out of fire very differently than the way we're doing today so it would be helpful to know that we have at least funding I identified for the design process I will say I'm not as concerned at what we see at risk in this packet because of all the projects that are on target or have been completed I would like to see numbers cuz just telling me you're at risk are we at risk by 100,000 are we at risk by 20 million that would be more feasible if we're going to have a real budget conversation yet I don't want it to get lost and I hope my colleagues also will see the benefit and us making sure that our training facility is state-of-the-art and that our future firefighters have every possible opportunity to be successful here versus the money that we spend sending them on the road to go get trained some elsewhere thank you madam mayor thank you Mr Mitchell uh thank you mayor uh so just a couple uh comments uh particularly for Kathleen and Phil so Kathleen if you can go to slide three thank than I go say the bond project updates I'm sorry I thought that was okay let's stay with so I want to say thank you uh this slide is a very important slide it should C CI a message to our citizens that when you approve bonds we complete the projects that you had given us the confidence to complete uh in the construction industry I will tell you is mindboggling to complete 17 projects but then to add 20 new projects that's kudos to what the team is doing um 138 projects we only have one over budget great job uh in construction sometimes there as many as 20 to 30 projects over budget uh thank you for showing the transparency the 13 at risk we have this right here so uh thank you for providing this uh go to the next slide to facility 30 out of 25 are on target you don't see those percentages in our industry you don't you don't have them at your place to work I'm telling you all no what about you no that's I was shaking my head yeah we we over here saying guys we we got to give yall a dose of what's happening in the market so thank you all for the job you're doing this is tough and I would say you you articulated very well the potential project impacts those are real in the construction industry labor shorted cost of material and Supply challenges so keep up the good work and to our citizens out there you're in good hands will you approve the bonds and we go build a facilities for the city of Charlotte thank you mayor thank you sir Miss Anderson thank you uh Madam mayor just a couple of points one is um I wanted to speak to the whole process of advanced planning and um I'm very happy that we have that process in place if we didn't I would be scratching my head a little bit with the city our size and and the uh the money that we manage um but being something being in advanced planning at various clips of design 30 50 60% does not necessarily indicate that uh we would have fewer projects at risk but hopefully what it's doing is crystallizing the effort and the financial backing needed to complete that particular effort whether or not it's at risk or not and so hopefully this uh the advanced planning process is providing um great uh Insight sort of a Harbinger into the Insight around what it's really going to take to complete these projects and you guys to to Mr Mitchell's point the the completion rate and what's On Target and what's at risk is is a great indication that you guys are utilizing this Advanced planning process well so thank you thank you for that um I do want to uh Echo the same sentiments that Miss Mayfield echoed as it relates to Charlotte Fire um I've I've spent a lot of time with uh our firemen and I hear continuously that the our training facility has just been worn out it's it's aged and um it can't provide the most accurate training um that firemen would like to have for the trainees and so if there is a way that we can invest in our training facility for Charlotte Fire whether it's uh you know upscaling what it currently exists um but certainly leaning into helping them ensure that the the firemen coming out have the best training possible in order to um protect our community so those are just two quick points thank you Madame mayor all right thank you um I do want to recognize Mr Drews that's what I want to do uh before we leave the whole subject of advanced planning I'd like to clarify my understanding of it um when we work on these projects we start from a position of very little and then we evolve as we work forward the advanced planning process basically had the effect of waiting until later until we put a number on it and waiting until later until we scheduled bonds because what was happening in the past was some of these bonds had to be the the issuing authority had to be renewed because the bonds hadn't been issued seven years after they were put in the cycle so I and I think the intention was to avoid some of the big shocks that we experienced uh if you do this contingency planning what you do is you put that cushion in there and it's meant to cover 80% or whatever not so big a cushion that you're covering 100% of the possible downside on every project and so there will be a lot of projects that come in under the contingency and you're able to return some capacity because you didn't use all your contingency and then you're going to get these situations the reason I'm asking for a better quantification is because I want to get comfortable that that's what's happening that that as we manage this whole process the magnitudes of of of surprise or of disappointment uh are not as big as they used to be I mean we had stuff like The JCC was going to cost $90 million and and the animal control center was $70 million uh so all we're trying to do is create a more stable environment and I think we have but it would really be helpful for us to know how stable by seeing some numbers thank you um I'm going to ask the council members um if they're prepared to now go to our closed session so I'm going to ask our attorney to read the resolution for our closed session we're doing a Clos session now did we need is this a formal do we need a so this meeting is ajour do I have a motion to adjourn this meeting so move second any questions raise your hand please raise your hand and now any mayor I don't I think this was part of the budget Workshop agenda so you don't have to adjourn so I didn't think we had to do anything about closure on it so we're good so Mr Fox yeah I think you do not need to adjourn this meeting you just need a motion to go in the close session okay the close session to go and close session to discuss matters relating to the locational expansion of Industries or other businesses in the area served by the public body including agreement on tenative list of Economic Development incentives that may be offered by the public body in negotiating pursuant to North Jal statute D I mean 143 d318 11 A4 thank you that would be the motion so mov so we have a motion and a second all in favor raise please raise your hand anyone opposed I see no one in opposition so we're now ready for our closed session um if we can ask our friends and neighbors to step outside of this room I before [Music] e