Episode 8 - February 16th City Council Work Session and Meeting

[Music] Hello everybody, this is Helen Perspectives and I am Amarilla Sparnett, a fellow of citizen of about 25 years or so. And this is David Korm. David, good to see you. David is a former councilman here in town and has a unique perspective now being on the outside of things. Yes. He knows how some of these things work from the inside. And so it is a unique opportunity to try to keep the people that serve the city accountable and keep our citizens informed. Absolutely. So it's been a fun project so far but let's go ahead and get started. We had our work, we had the regular work session meeting as well as the city council meeting. This will be the last time that it's done on the same night. Moving forward, they've changed that, we'll go over it again, we've talked about it a couple of other times but this meeting is when it became official. Is that right or maybe it became official last time? It is. Okay, so let's jump into the work session agenda. Apart from all the regular calls to order and record of attendance, that sort of thing. Let's jump right in. We've got some old business and that is the discussion of the Pell and Board of Education appointment process. Now I feel like we've been talking about this for a really really long time. But we got the council unfortunately had to postpone one of these talks because the superintendent wasn't unable to attend. Correct. She had a previous commitment and so it's important to keep it on the agenda so that they can talk and have a good system in place because you know there was a curve fuffle. Yes it was. Last time around so it's good to have some solid, some solid processes in place and and there was some interesting perspectives brought in from the superintendent. So I'm going to let you talk about who was there, what was the discussion and etc etc. So I might give you the floor. All right. So this time the superintendent of schools for the Pell and City Schools was present as well as most of the school board. And so they were wanting the opinion of the superintendent as to what she has seen as far as appointment processes and other municipalities in the places where she has served. And she said that pretty much every city that she's ever worked with or has seen is pretty much doing it the same exact way that we do it. And that is that the city council puts it out there as they would for any other board for people to apply and then they do interviews and then they select from there. Okay. So unique things from some surrounding municipalities was a homewood does put term limits on how long a school board member can serve. We don't currently have term limits on there and the term is five years. Okay. And so she was also asked about are there any special skills that she would recommend for being on the school board and she said not really you know it just needs to be somebody that would be a good team player. But one of the very specific things that she addressed and was very interesting is that she highly recommended that you not put a former educator on there because she felt that the opinion as far as from an educator standpoint would be skewed when making decisions on behalf of the school board. I totally agree with that David. I can see where an educator has their own way of wanting to educate whether it's right or wrong and that that might have an undue influence on everyone else and and typically those are inflexible opinions and and are not always students centered but outcome centered. And I firmly believe that we should have representation not just from an educator but from a parent from a grandparent and from people who have had children that have recently gone through or maybe went through a long time. I just believe that there should be a breath. A big wide variety of representation on there. Absolutely. And you know and my my mother is a retired public school teacher of 30 plus years. Yeah. And she'll be the first one to tell you former teachers or administrators or not the people you want on a school board because they are very opinionated because they're in the classroom every day and they see things. And really the point of a school board is to have an independent body. Yeah. You know that's not involved in the day to day processes of the education system. In my mind that board if they are not educators would seek the advice of an educator and then take that under advisement collectively using that advice and maybe the advice of someone who might be looking at a student not through an educational lens. Correct. And to me that makes the strongest kind of group. But it'll be interesting to see how and who we appoint moving forward. I think that there are some great candidates in town and I hope to see some of these folks that have tried to get on in the past particularly this most recent. Yes. This most recent curve fluffle. So I like to call it. But you know what's just thinking we do have a there is a council member who is employed by the board of education. So it occurs to me and you can tell me if I'm on the right or wrong track here. I'm hardly ever wrong David. No teasing. You tell me if I'm right or wrong here but it occurs to me that there is a council member who is employed by the board of education. And I don't know if she spoke or not but would that not be a conflict for her to be directly involved with the appointment of a board member since she is employed by the board of education and certainly to have conversations with someone who is her superior questioning her superior at that moment. Absolutely. There are state ethics laws that state that you cannot utilize your position or power elected role to further your career, your finances, things of this nature and the school board and the superintendent are all people that are involved in those discussions of how much money teachers should make or support staff and all of those things. And I think there is definitely a conflict here. Okay. I didn't think about it from the financial standpoint but absolutely I can see where that would happen. I was thinking more along the lines of having someone agreeable that you like or don't like, you know, that seems that that would be a conflict right there. So that will be something to watch. Absolutely. Okay. Moving forward, there are there was a review and discussion of the amendment to the collection procedures detailed in the sales tax ordinance. And this is, you know, when I first saw this, I thought, oh my gosh, we're going to talk this to death. But this is something totally different. So let's talk about that for a second. Absolutely. So right now when someone owes taxes to the city for whatever reason from a business or anybody really that's doing business in in Pellum, there is a very rigid 10 step process that they have to follow something that was established a long time ago. But the problem with that is that we're all human things happen, you know, businesses have down times and have up times and things like this. And if somebody comes on good faith to the city and says, hey look, I'm really struggling in my business, you know, can you work with me on this because this very rigid 10 step process was in place. Basically, there was no wiggle room. There was no wiggle room. So basically the finance department came and said, you know, council, we would like to look at this and see if we can change this so that we can be more flexible because contrary to popular belief municipal governments are not adversarial. They're not out to get you. They're not out to get you at the end of the day, you know, they're just following an order. But if they can work with you, they definitely will. And I know they will in the city of Pellum because we've done it on multiple issues. Well, I think I think this is a great thing. Having been in a family of small business owners my entire life, I think this is a great thing because in the end companies are people right. They are the small businesses are mom and pops. Correct. And so and there are plenty of times when people get in trouble. So I think that's great. I think that's a great thing to consider. Okay. And then that was really all that that was on the work session agenda. Of course they talked about approving the city council agenda, which they did. And I know that there was some discussion there. Some pre discussion. Correct. About what was on the agenda. But let's move on to the actual council meeting. And again, the call to order the evocation that sort of thing the pledge and the first thing that we address is the consent agenda. Once again, as a reminder, the consent agenda are items that have already been talked about. They've been discussed. There's not anything else that we need to add to it. And this time around on the on the city council consent agenda. So there are the approval of the agenda for that night, of course. And then the approval of the acceptance of the meeting minutes from the previous meeting. But now sort of the meat of things is there is a budget it there are several budgeted items. One is the renovations over a ball and trade golf club that have to do with that grant that we just last week that were those expenses going to be offset by that. So that that is again talked about rubber stamped. Then there is going to be some lighting services agreement. Where in the subdivision of Chase Creek. The city of Pellum would be taking over the billing of those. That's correct. And something interesting, David, that I did not know until you just told me and I'll let you talk about it is about the lighting. I live in a neighborhood here in Pellum was very little lighting. And it was built many years ago. I live in a power put like two light holes on each street. And it's really, really dark. And so I was discussing with David. I would love to see some more lighting in there. And David told me what that unfortunately it is standard procedure in the city that we don't put up street lights. However, if the neighborhood got together and bundled their money and put up a street light, they can then approach the city and say, okay, Pellum for safety reasons, you know, for a lot of different reasons. Would you take this over? And in this particular case, the Alabama powers upgrading this poll. And so we're entering into an agreement that the city will go ahead and take care of the cost, the electricity that's running to that poll. And we'll ultimately still belong to Alabama power, but we'll take over the bill. Well, I mean, the lesson learned here is if you can get the light poll stood up, then the city of Pellum will do you a solid and take over the bill. Because the reality is in perpetuity, it will cost more and the long run to pay for the electricity. They will be to put it up initially. That's right. So I just thought that was an interesting side note, but I think it's a great thing. I'm glad that they're taking over. Okay. And then the other thing was again, another budgeted item or was this budgeted or not? There wasn't there's not an expense related to this. This is a traffic signal lighting maintenance agreement that we're entering in with Al Dott. This is at the Highway 52 Interstate 65 intersection. The city after those lights were adjusted and they expanded and everything there. The city was handling that, but this is an agreement that we're entering and without Al Dott, where they're going to take over the maintenance of those lights, which will reduce the cost for the city. And there's no expense to the city for this project. And then the final two budgeted items was improvements to the tennis courts over at the Pellum Tennis Center. That's correct. And then finally, budgeted item to update upgrade by more of SCBA, which are the packs that the firemen wear if they have to go into a burning house. Absolutely. Those things have a shelf life on them. Yeah, that's a necessary item. They need to be replaced periodically. Okay, in terms of a public hearing request, there was none. The mayor's comments again were benign proclamations. And then the city managers is talking for the city managers report and they're trying to do something different, which I think is a good thing. Absolutely. So you want to talk about that for a moment? Yes. So the city manager periodically is going to have a different department head come and talk about their department, what they do. Kind of where they were and where they're at now type of thing. And this particular evening, she selected the IT director for the city. And what's very interesting and we were talking before we started recording today. Five years ago, the IT department consisted of one individual who is responsible for everything. There really was in a department. It was one person. And so we were outsourcing a help desk if an employee had an issue to another company and it turned out there were some challenges there. We ended up in some litigation with them because they weren't providing the services we were paying for. And ultimately the decision was made by the city manager that in an effort to save money, we really need to stand up in IT department. Yeah, I think that's a no brainer. Absolutely. And so we hired a gentleman who had retired from the doing the IT over the city of Tuscaloosa. He came over and built a team and also built the infrastructure throughout the city and all the city buildings you think about, balance trade and a rack of club, everything to bring everything together and a network. And what's really, really cool and something that he shared is that we have a backup server that is off site. Yeah. And we have a room with another major companies, which we can't talk about, another major companies, servers. So something happens internally. We have the backup. Yeah, we have the backup. That's absolutely. Well, I imagine that was a big job for this gentleman at the beginning, especially with it being 2020 and there being no actual IT department. So I think kudos, that was a no brainer. That was a great job, a great decision. And so the IT department came in and gave an update. Absolutely. And do you recall, they share anything other than, hey, we're doing great. Yeah, they talked about the infrastructure upgrades that they have done. Basically, if you were at the civic complex, if you were the rack of club, if you were a balancer, anywhere other than right in the heart of where everybody was working in the city. There were a lot of challenges there, bandwidth, why is for example, the civic complex, he said that the way you used to be able to get to the network equipment was it was up behind the concession stands behind one of the stands. And so if something happened in the middle of a game, then they would, and the concession stands open, they're having to climb all over them to get to these shells. They decided to relocate all of that. They found a room over there that was suitable that had air conditioning and they lined everything up there now. And, and for example, when we have the Christmas parade in the past, there was no way for anybody to do a video broadcasting live of the parade because they just didn't have enough bandwidth. Now they can do that. So the high school does, you know, does their broadcasting live and things like that. So just little things that he's done around the city to help increase the infrastructure. That's great. You know, we live in a digital world. So I think that's a great idea. All right. And then there was a no report by the city attorney and nobody wanted to address the council this go round. So let's talk about some of this old business. And that we're voting on tonight that's getting the actual across the board. Yes, vote. So the first one is the where the first reading was back in February, second is this new business license code for the hemp products. That is now officially city ordinance. It has been passed. That's right. So you cannot get any hemp products or you can get you can get products, but they are being charged at a fee for it on their license. Yeah, exactly. And I imagine that the consumer would get that price. I can get that passed along to the consumer. I imagine. Okay. And then the next thing is the meeting schedule that was brought up at the start of February. So now instead of meeting instead of having the work session and the city council on the first and third Mondays of the month. Correct. Moving forward, it'll be the first at the Monday and Thursday, that's first Monday and first. I can't even say it because it's so complicated. The first Monday and the first Thursday and the third Monday. And they have split the work session and the city council. So the work session will be on a Monday. They'll wait and then on Thursday, they'll do the city council. Correct. And then we'll do it all over again in two weeks. Yeah. And they both will start at 530. So that Monday, it'll be a 530 meeting and then the council meeting will be at 530. So effectively, both meetings will get done a lot earlier than they were before because everything was consolidated. Yeah, that certainly positive. But the main purpose behind this. And I think we addressed it before was to allow the staff enough time. If there's concerns about something that was brought up in the work session time enough to make changes to get more research. If a member of the council has a question, things like this. Also, in the past, the way that this has been done is that the city council president would meet with the city manager and the city clerk. And they would dictate what is on the agenda. Okay. And the rest of the city council did not know like we didn't know what was on the agenda until we were the until it was released to the public. Yeah. Yeah. So and that that's the prerogative of every council is to the way that it was done. Chad Lebritt, who's the current council president. Really wanted to allow the entire council to have input on that agenda versus just him himself. So by doing this this way at the work session, the council as a whole will say this is what's going to be on the agenda. So I totally get that. I definitely can see the benefits of doing this. But I also think it's a little self serving and did not consider the time away from citizens who might want to attend these meetings. And it will make it a little challenge. It will make it challenging. And so I would expect and would hope that the work sessions would become live streamed. Yeah. Because I know that very often I can't come to the city council meetings, but I watch. Yeah. So you know it might seem like I'm not engaged because I'm not there in person, but I'm watching. Yeah. So and that's where the meat of the discussion. Yeah. Exactly. So I would I would love to see them make up for that inconvenience that they cause to the citizens. But I say that and then I saw somebody comment on somebody's Facebook post about this change. Oh great. Now I may be I might be able to go to the meeting. So you know it may just be me, but like I said earlier, I'm hardly ever wrong David. So. No comment. So next on the agenda is new business and there is a proposal to upgrade or to enter to an agreement with Bag the elevator to upgrade the elevators over at the Pelham Racket Club. And this is a budgeted item. Yes. So nothing to really argue about is already there is a budget amendment to it from what we approved back in the fall. Because the system can no longer be upgraded from what it was so they're having to change it and change it out. And that's what the in the end the meat of it. The most of it was budgeted. So there's not really, you know, it's either do it or don't upgrade the elevator. And then you've got a budgeted item that doesn't get fulfilled. Okay. And then the next one is a lighting project that extends from amphitheater road all the way to highway. When 19 and this was a significant thing. So I'm going to let you talk about this. Yeah, absolutely. So this is something that's very exciting. We actually the former council approved back in 2020. That if you've ever driven down Pelham Parkway at nighttime, it's very dark right now because the old fluorescent bulbs half of them are right now. So we've got old poles is kind of thing. And so we said we really need to that's the main thoroughfare through our city. We really need to brighten it up, especially at nighttime make it safer. So we approved money to have new LED street lights put in and what this does is it effectively reduces the number of street lights that you need because the LEDs spread out wider. But also to have decorative poles rather than just a telephone pole. It's up in the air. Yeah. Yeah. So we had approved this and due to the cost of it, we had said from amphitheater road down to basically where where home depot is at on the south side. Yeah. Is where we were going to start. And then the hope was eventually to expand it further north and south. Well, it came. It took a while for all of this to get going, but the poles are actually in town. In fact, if you drive over near where the old Walmart used to be on the south end of town. And we're specified. Rubber's at the poles are laying in the parking lot. Oh, that's interesting. Okay. But the project came in under budget. And so the public works department came to the council and said because it came under budget, we would like to extend on the north end from amphitheater road to 119 and add additional poles. And so I'm glad that they're expanding on this and seeing this project through, but we were all excited because it has taken forever because Alabama power couldn't just go in and remove the poles because there's cable running through there. Some people had attached lights. So it took them several months to get all of this done in several years. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. It is. So that's exciting. It's probably very exciting for the people that live along that road. Absolutely. There's a number of communities in that. Not just not just homes on that road, but communities off of that road. I know that I'm constantly flipping my brights on and off when I'm going down that road. Okay. And then then we talk about the Pelham Public Library Board, which has been for discussion. Yes, it has. And so we've been talking about the last few times we've chatted and the last we left it, we were going to meet the candidates. And it appears we're not necessarily meeting the candidates were actually meeting the appointees. That's correct. So they are Tamika Wilson, who is an already serving board member. They're just re-appointing her. And then a lady by the name of Alison Gilliam. I hope I'm pronouncing your name correctly. And with the name like Amarillus, I know what it's like to not have a pronoun. So forgive me if I did not get that right. I don't know anything about these ladies. Did they share anything about them or is it just they've already done their due diligence and they felt like these were the correct questions. That's correct. Yeah, there was very limited discussion on that. Well, this is just how their process works. And now we've got to one already existing and then one new board member. So congratulations. And then finally, not finally, next is the consideration to authorize an agreement to employ a city manager. And this is the entire whole discussion about the contract for the city manager that has been the buzz for the last couple of weeks. So let's they have approved it. They have approved it. She will be getting her $1 million per pay raise. About $30,000. It's not that much. She is nobody believes that that is not what I was teasing. She is getting her raise no matter how large it is. Yeah. And is there anything else that was discussed? Anything that we might want to kind of bring up that that was. Yeah. So there were a lot of discussions surrounding this. And the amount of money that is included in this new contract is $230,000 a year, which is an increase from $199,000 and some change that we previously had her at. Also the automobile budget and the automobile budget is increasing by $100 a month. And so again, the council agreed to move forward with this. There was a lot of of sharing of how appreciate it. They were everything that she has done and things of that nature. One of the council members, Michael Harris was absent because he was actually traveling on vacation. And so he was not present, but he did have a statement that he asked the city clerk to read an affirmation of the city manager. So there were a lot of people that when we watched this, there were a lot of people that had a lot of incredibly kind things to say. It's probably the best way to say that. Then finally, we come to, there were no public comments, public comments. The city council just did some sort of again, my favorite word benign, things. There was talk about council and power talked about a pellum baseball basketball, excuse me, being in the sweet 16, which is very awesome. And then she talked about the upcoming fundraiser. That's a yearly fundraiser. It's more to grow themed. And that is for the schools foundation. That's right. That's right. I've never been. I hear it's a great event. I think it pictures every year and they're amazing. So that's a good thing. Councilman Snowden addressed the LED lighting and that that was a good thing. And and councilman towns just wished everyone a good night and councilman lever it. Quoted some scripture. That's correct. And and then the public announcements moving forward are just that it's a big announcement really that the council is taking applications and resumes through March the 6th at 4 p.m. For anybody who is interested in being considered for an appointment to these boards, the board of education. That's a biggie. The zoning board and adjust the zoning board of adjustment and appeals. Yes. And the zoning board of adjustment. So we know what the pellum board of education is. But can you help me understand what the other two boards are for? Yeah. So the board the pellum zoning board of adjustments. This is where we have zoning laws that say you can't for example you can't have a strip club next to a church. And so if you are seeking a variance to that, you have to come to the board of adjustments for zoning if it's a zoning rule that you're asking for the exception for. You have to come to that if for whatever reason you don't like the answer that you're given there. You can then go to the board of adjustments and appeals, which is more. It's a body of contractors and people that are in the industries where a lot of times these folks are going to be asking. Their citizens are not city employees most of them. Well, that was that was going to be my next question. What is the ideal candidate for you know we talked about the ideal candidate for the board of education. But what is an ideal candidate for the board of adjustment and appeals and the board of adjustment. Can it just be anybody. I mean, obviously it can just be anybody. But is that ideal? Do they accept people who may not have those architecture and engineering credentials. Absolutely. By law, there are certain people that have to be on there like you have to have engineers. Yeah, those kinds of things depending on the on the board. But really there are spots for people that don't have those qualifications that just say I want to be. They just know they don't want to strip club next to a church. Exactly. Yeah. And so you know anybody can apply for those positions. And then the council will decide who those individuals are. Okay. All right. That's fantastic. And are there just is it just one position for each of those better open right now? It is. It's correct. Yeah. I think there's a couple that are that are available on the adjustments and appeals. Okay. I know the board of education. There's just one. Yes. That's right. I didn't know if there were more on the other two boards. And on the other two boards. Do you happen to know what the term is? Typically these are five member boards. So I would say it's a five year term. Okay. That's correct. All right. The next the next public announcement is the next the next two the final two are my two favorites. Free landfill day. I just it's like clean out your house. Amen. Just say everything that you can think of. And it's the landfill over Shelby County, which is in Caliara off of Highway 70. It's a little bit of a ride out there. But it is worth it. And then my other favorite day of the year, which is the shredding and recycling day. I keep a corner in my home where it's like, okay, this is for the next recycling day. Yes it is. It's for the next shredding day. So that is going to be on April the 4th from 9 a.m. until 12 noon. And it'll be like always over in front of City Hall. And if you need more information, you can just go on the city's website, which is Palomalabama.gov. That's correct. All right. Anything else you want to say? Any great revelations? No, you know, it was a pretty short meeting comparative to some of the other ones. But the more exciting things will be coming up in the weeks ahead. Okay. With the school board appointment and things like that. So we'll have certainly a more discussion there. So on the school board appointments, just to remind everybody. And probably this is true for the other two board appointments that we just discussed. Those will be public. Yep. Absolutely. So people will submit their resumes. And it'll be basically interviews in public. That's correct. Now are those done in a special meeting or are those done during the work session slash. So they should. So they should. So they should. Historically, they've happened during a work session meeting. This council may decide to do it during a regular council meeting. But we will find out as they are putting this agenda together the way they're doing. They can just do it. How they can just decide when to do it. It just has to be done publicly. It is. And so people will be able to come in and serve those. Okay. Well, that's exciting. All right, David. Pleasure as always. Have a great afternoon. You too.