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I’m going to give each team 15 minutes. Chairman of the Shark Wave Aquatic Board Bryce Cook said, I’d ask to be recognized for procedural objection, Chair. Councilmember Chris Gibson continued, well, once I get through this I’ll bring you *inaudible off mic talking*. I’ll be recusing myself. I plan to do so. Bryce Cook said, I’ll state my objection when it’s appropriate. Councilmember Chris Gibson said, I’m going to give 15 minutes for each team to present. Then I will allow the committee 15 minutes for questioning and then I will allow 15 minutes for deliberation and a conclusion. That’s all I have. \r\n\r\nCity Attorney Carol Duncan said, just to clarify, anything that comes out today would then have to go on and be ratified by City Council. Councilmember Chris Gibson said, and I would ask that that decision be walked on tonight if we do come to a decision. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, if  it’s unanimous out of the committee it can be walked on. If it is not unanimous it cannot per the City Council rules. Councilmember Chris Gibson said, thank you. \r\n\r\nBryce Cook approached the podium and said, if I could be recognized briefly, Chair. I’m Bryce Cook. I’m here on behalf of Shark Wave Aquatic Team. I’m the chairman of the board for Shark Wave Aquatic. And I certainly appreciate all of y’all’s time and attention and being here tonight. However, there are two significant procedural objections that I must raise. First, there is an apparent conflict of interest. At least the question raised as to the Chair’s…the propriety of the Chair being involved in this process and for that we’re seeking recusal, which I believe you’ve already addressed. However, there’s also an issue of asymmetric notice of this meeting. Notice was given to one side before the public was given notice certainly before we were. And under those circumstances, I believe we will need some information and written guidance from the City Attorney on the city’s position as to each of those. Only for the purpose of making sure the public can have confidence that this process is full, fair, and neutral. With those questions before us, we, well unfortunately I have to decline the invitation to debate until we can receive some assurances and safe guards that this process is appropriate and that your constituents, our members and every member of this community can have full trust and confidence. And with that I will excuse myself. \r\n\r\nCity Attorney Carol Duncan said, so what are your two questions? Number one about recusal and number two about notice of the special called meeting. Bryce Cook said, I’ll provide those concerns in writing. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, okay, well let me respond not in writing. Number one, the Chair’s already said he’ll recuse so, that issue is addressed. Number two, state law only requires, is it two hours? City Clerk April Leggett said, two hours. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, two hours notice of a special called meeting. Period. And then there are publication requirements. I believe both sides got way more notice than that. City Clerk April Leggett said, I sent out the notification on Saturday morning. City Attorney Carol Duncan, right. Two hours is what’s required by state law, so there is no notice issue for this meeting. \r\n\r\nBryce Cook said, obviously, this is not the correct forum for you and I to have a legal debate over what the law says. And so, I will seek written guidance and additional information from the city on this and with that will excuse ourself. I assume my objections are overruled. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, I just need you to understand that the city may go forward hearing from the other side. And if the Council Committee makes a decision that’s on them because proper notice was given by state law. There is no guidance as to how this will take place because this is an unusual circumstance. We were asked if we would give both sides an opportunity to be heard by the committee and by council. And we tried to facilitate that as quickly as possible because there are no current signed contracts to use our pool. And I know both teams want to get in the water as quickly as possible and neither team can get in the water until there’s a signed contract. So, we were trying to facilitate that on behalf of both swim teams to get you in the water quicker. \r\n\r\nBryce Cook said, certainly our desire is to get in the water quicker. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, right. Bryce Cook said, at this point the entire process and framing of this conversation is so tainted apparently, by conflict of interest, violations of law, and obviously we can have a debate in another way as to the.. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, or today. We’re all here. Bryce Cook continued, legality of it. We can not have confidence based on these things. That this is a neutral process, not just a meeting. And therefore, we’ll stand on our objections. I will seek written guidance from the City Attorney’s office and we’ll…City Attorney Carol Duncan said, I’ve given you all the guidance I can give you today, Bryce. I mean, I don’t know how you, who is more neutral than the committee that has not been… I don’t think that anybody else here on this panel has any idea why they’re here today other than we sent them last years contract, this years proposed contract, and said, you know, we weren’t able to reach an agreement so we’re letting both sides come and voice their concerns to you. Everyone else on this committee is impartial and Mr. Gibson has agreed to recuse, so. \r\n\r\nBryce Cook said, sure. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, there is no other format. Bryce Cook said, all I can tell you is, I will be happy to provide you the citations to law so you can review them and not give an off the cuff legal opinion and commit to it. City Attorney Carol Duncan asked, do you have those with you? Bryce Cook said, I will send you a letter in writing first thing in the morning and I would expect as the City Attorney, you would respond appropriately in writing and advise as to what the city’s position is on this. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, I just did that. Bryce Cook said, that’s your prerogative, but until those issues are resolved, which I do not believe they are. This is not the appropriate forum to address the substantive issue until the concerns are resolved. So, with that I’ll excuse myself. Thank you all. \r\n\r\nCity Attorney Carol Duncan asked, so what’s the desire of the committee? Do you want to appoint somebody to take your place? Councilmember Chris Gibson said, Joe, do you mind running this meeting? Chairman Joe Hafner said, no, I don’t mind at all. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, so what’s the desire of the committee? Do you want to hear from, assuming JETS is willing to speak, do you want to hear from JETS or do you want to wait? My position is that proper legal notice was given for a special called meeting. More than proper legal notice was given for a special called meeting. But we tried to facilitate it quickly in order to accommodate the swim teams getting in the water as quickly as possible because we don’t have signed contracts at this point with them. But it’s up to you if you want to postpone and, you know, wait for…Chairman Joe Hafner said, when does swim practice in the morning start, like when school’s out? City Attorney Carol Duncan said, it should have started last weekend? This weekend? *someone speaking off mic inaudibly* City Attorney Carol Duncan said, right. I mean it’s ongoing for…*someone speaking off mic inaudibly* City Attorney said, right. Y’all will have to, if you want this on, yeah. Chairman Joe Hafner said, yeah, if you want to speak you have to come up to the podium, but what’s the desire of the committee? Y’all want to continue or? \r\n\r\nCouncilmember LJ Bryant said, Mr. Chairman. I’ll just say, I support the City Attorney’s position. I mean, in my nine years we’ve had special called meetings with a lot less notice. I’m not going to say it’s frequent, but I mean the City Clerk went out of her way to, you know, send messages on Saturday morning. So, this is a somewhat urgent issue. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, I believe you can hear from Mr. Stearns as to when he tried to notify as many contacts as he had in his phone from both teams. I don’t know if that was Monday or if that was over the weekend. Parks and Recreation Director Jim Stearns said off mic, Sunday. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, okay Sunday would be his response. So, I mean beyond that, I mean what the point of this was is that we have met extensively with both. Chairman Joe Hafner said, with each team? City Attorney Carol Duncan said, yes. We being, not Mr. Gibson, we being myself, Brian Richardson, and Jim Stearns. And went over what we were proposing as far as a change from last year. Just, I know you received all the contracts, just to give you sort of an update. Last year, the lanes were split five and five. I think that, and Jim might can speak to this better because obviously I wasn’t there, but I think there were constant complaints at the pool about uneven usage of the pool and perhaps some safety issues. Which the other side obviously disputes that it’s a safety issue, but some safety issues with having so many kids in the lanes versus a smaller team having less kids in the lanes. And we tried to come up with a way that it would be the most fair. I don’t think either side likes the way we came up with to be honest. So, we can’t be accused of playing favorites in that, but I think that during one of our initial meetings without either swim team present, Mr. Richardson said well could we look at last years AAU USA numbers and so we tried, because that way nobody knew we would be looking at those this year. So, they wouldn’t have tried to increase those in any way. There wouldn’t have been an opportunity, not that I’m accusing anybody of anything, but there would be no way for either side to accuse the other of increasing those numbers knowing we were going to use that as our numbers to try to guide the pool lane usage. I don’t know if we ever got any numbers from USA, Jim, but we did get AAU or do I have that backwards? \r\n\r\nDirector Jim Stearns said off mic, you have it backwards. We have USA numbers. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, we have USA and not AAU. Director Jim Stearns approached the podium and said, I just text the AAU rep again. He still has no numbers. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, right. And so, based upon what we got from USA it came down to basically 60/40. And so our thought process was six lanes for JETS, four lanes for Shark or SWAT, I guess is what they call themselves. And then my discussion was well, you can’t split the cost 50/50 if you’re not splitting the lanes 50/50 so we came up with a formula for how to calculate a per lane usage. And that’s how we drafted the contract that we presented to both teams. Obviously, neither team is happy with that contract. I think if I’m clear on the positions, I think obviously SWAT doesn’t want to lose a lane and JETS believes their numbers would reflect they need seven and three, is where we left it. And we could not get to a meeting of the minds on that. So, that’s how we ended up here today. To let them each voice their position to you guys, and let you as a committee, who is not affiliated in any way that I know of with either one, listen to it and decide what you thought was most fair. \r\nThe allegation was made that Mr. Gibson was biased and had an, honestly a bigger role in this than he did. Did he bring it to our attention? Did he initiate the calling of the meeting? Yes, and I’ll let him speak just as a citizen if he wants to do that in a second about that because his daughter was on one of the swim teams. But I can honestly say that he did not, he wasn’t the one saying well let’s use these numbers or…And neither side is happy with how we picked the lane split completely. So, I don’t know. That’s their allegation, is that it was an unfair fight from the beginning because Chris Gibson was involved and his daughter was on the swim team. \r\n\r\nChairman Joe Hafner said, so at this point…City Attorney Carol Duncan said, that’s where we are. Chairman Joe Hafner said, do we want somebody, the JETS to present, to approach the podium, present their side? City Attorney Carol Duncan said, that’s up to the committee. Is that your…Chairman Joe Hafner said, I mean, do we want to proceed? *all members of the committee said yes* Chairman Joe Hafner said, yeah, and I think that the agenda that Mr. Gibson made out was each team present their 15 minutes. They have up to 15 minutes and then we can ask questions and then deliberations. At which point does the public get to ask questions? Does someone that’s not affiliated with each team, would that be… City Attorney Carol Duncan said, oh I would think so. If there’s someone here that wants to ask a question. I would think we could have time to allow that. Chairman Joe Hafner said, at this point we’ll let the JETS present their case and we’ll go from there. Alright, please state your name and address for the record, please.\r\n\r\nEx President of the JETS Aquatic Club Tim Bryd approached the podium and said, thank you guys for having us tonight and facilitating this meeting. I know it’s short notice as well and we are anxious to get into the pool. I do want to clarify a few things that have already been said and been brought up already is the issue with trying to get AAU and USA numbers. The USA numbers you guys acquired back on December 31st after I’ve talked with USA Swim, the president of USA Swim, was a good attempt to try to find something for this upcoming year to designate lanes. In all fairness to the great attempt. The problem with that number then is that they don't change their roster out from changes that take place during the year to after the first year. So, lots of swimmers that are on our team, have been on our team are still showing on another team’s roster. If you want an accurate number today, that number is 58 USA swimmers for JETS, 20 for a Shark Wave Aquatic Club. Three times as many. \r\n\r\nAAU side of it, currently active, registered swimmers, paying dues active swimmers for the JETS right now are 155. So, with that we are asking for seven lanes for regular hours and then when the city lessons come on board drop down to five lanes. We think that's a fair number and I'll get to that in just a second. So, I just want to go through a few things; standing right here about two years ago I was approached by the mayor, several city council members that are not necessarily here tonight and said hey, we're building a huge facility we want you guys to build a team worthy of that facility. So what did we do? We add 38 swimmers. In the last two years we've now grown to 155 swimmers. We took on the challenge. That's what we did. You guys asked us to do it we did it. So, once we got to that point that's what we're asking for the lanes because we feel like we put the work in to do that.\r\n\r\nI want to explain to you why the lanes are important because all you guys, like me I was a high school coach in the public school system, I have a coaching degree. I did not understand swimming completely. I didn't understand why the number of kids per lane was that big of a deal until I saw it first hand and then I understood. It's not like baseball, a big field, or football, a huge field. What happens is you start putting swimmers into a lane to swim down the right side, hit the wall, turn around, and swim back to the other side. You have a concept what’s called circle swimming. So, you imagine like NASCAR, you start adding numbers to that. You start adding cars side by side, end to end the closer they get and one of them has a bump, takes a wrong breath, takes in water, hits the lane rope they all boom boom, they all crash. Your incident for getting injured or having an accident goes up with the number of swimmers per lane, it’s just common sense. There is no guideline for the USA saying how many swimmers you can put in a lane because you can do different activities in those lanes, but common sense will say if you’re swimming circle swimming, which is how they build endurance, it’s how they work on their strokes. Then that’s what they do. The more swimmers per lane, the more incident for possibility of an accident. That's why the number of lanes is very important. I wanted to kind of clarify that. That’s the reason why. The numbers are built, honestly, by boots on the ground. We’ve actually put out over 10,000 flyers to schools from Greene County, Craighead County, down to Trumann, Harrisburg, Walnut Ridge, all schools divided up, 20 flyers per teacher given to each school out there on the ground trying to build a program for this incredible…and I’ve been all over the country. My daughter swims all over the country. And this is one of the nicest facilities I've ever seen. It rivals the best of the best out there. For us to have the ability to be able to fill that thing up with teams from other states you've got to develop a competitive swim team and you've got to have lots of numbers. That’s what we've been doing. We've been charged with that task in the city. We've put the time and effort in. We’ve done it through social media, through guideline, giving stuff to schools, whatever it took to get it done. We grew the numbers and that's where we're at today. I'm not a courtroom attorney. So, I don't have all the procedure stuff down. \r\n\r\nWe also hold, we actually held in the last two years the largest and only USA swim meet. USA being the top elite swimming, AAU being a little bit lower level, more beginner swimmers than that. First, Jack _______ two or three years ago, this will be the third year coming up over 200 swimmers from four states at the USA level. Spent three days here and all of their restaurants benefited from it, Hijinx and all the rest benefited from those people being in town. And our goal is to do more and more and more of those to build up to have the facility you're going to have. You’re going to have USA swim meets from people from all over the country, zones, sectionals, state meets. Those are all USA events that we're trying to work for and have a team be able to compete at that level. And we have the numbers.\r\n\r\nThe retention rate per USA swim meet, straight retention of swimmers in the club in the state of Arkansas, there’s 14 teams. The top number one retention swim team in Arkansas is the JETS at 82%. The lowest, number 14 is SWAT with 22%. Retention is a big thing when it comes to building a program. To make it even bigger, you've got to keep the guys online, on task, and building the numbers. \r\n\r\nThe JETS in the last five years have produced 100% swim scholarship for any graduating swimmer from JETS, if they've chosen to swim or not, they've offered scholarships to swim worth over $1,000,000 across the board. It's a tremendous program. One of the swimmers this year got a West Point Academy nomination or bid going to the Naples Academy now. It's an incredible program. Our leadership, our head coach is a Division 1 swim coach that's coming in to take over the JETS program who worked in a large swim program in Benton, Arkansas. He knows how to handle a big team. That's what we brought him in for. We made a change just because we knew the number was so big we needed a legitimate coach that could come in at that level to build the team where it needs to be. \r\n\r\nSo, with that all being said about the program let's get to the numbers real quick to give you an idea, I have made this more simple so you can understand the lane numbers because we have overlapping numbers. We have kids that swim an hour and a half, kids that swim an hour and 15 minutes, kids that swim two hours. So, the numbers I'm going to give you are the bottom numbers that we're going to have and probably the maximum number for the SWAT team to have. I feel like that's a fair shape on our part to do that. If you do a 50/50 split like last year, we're estimating the numbers that we can see online to where we can get our numbers from. SWAT has approximately 50 swimmers and that's between here Mountain Home, Pocahontas, wherever. They’re not just swimming in Jonesboro. There are different places. 50 swimmers, five lanes for three hours in the morning, 7-8, 8-9, 9-10, gives them 3.3 swimmers per lane. The JETS, I’ll use a lower number here, I'll drop it down to 20 at 138 swimmers with five lanes we have 9.2 swimmers per lane. Three times as much. Three times of more chance of having an injury or to have an accident. On a 7/3 split with SWAT having 50 swimmers, they have 5.5 swimmers per lane. The JETS would have 6.6 with seven lanes. Still more, but more fair. It's a fair number. It's passed out even something even beyond that.  On their own website they have pools they swim in listed Pocahontas, Trim Gym, and the city pool. I called Trim Gym, SWAT gets 17 hours, four lanes per week over there to swim in. Four lanes, 17 hours per week. Key factor in the city lanes for three lanes and their ability to swim in SWAT which they've been doing since the onset, that gives them 2.3 swimmers per lane. That's it. If they’d use the Pocahontas numbers, I'll call them today too to verify, they get 10 hours, three lanes. They also use the Pocahontas facility. They're down to almost one swimmer per lane. We're still at 9.2. We have two lanes for two hours at St. Bernard’s that they’re gracious to even let us have that to carry through them summer just for emergency. That’s not even a carryover. Virtually nothing. \r\n\r\nI've got no malice towards the SWAT team and them building a program and I hope one day we have two gigantic programs here in Jonesboro. I think it would be great for the competition. I like the rivalry. Me being a head coach before I get that. I truly do. There's no malice toward them and some day they might be there where we are right now, but they're not there right now. They do not have the numbers to fill those lanes like we do. And there will be, if we're cramming 16 kids per lane, 17 kids per lane, there are going to be injuries. I don't care, the best swim coach on the planet cannot avoid that. You cannot have that many kids in a lane and be safe. I'm asking you guys today to choose safety, to choose common sense, to divide the lanes up according to what they should be divided up to in its size. I think we've earned the lanes. We've put the work in and we've earned the numbers and we've earned the lanes. Thank you guys for your time. \r\n\r\nChairman Joe Hafner said, thank you. Does the committee have any questions for the JETS? \r\nCouncilmember Dr. Anthony Coleman said, I do. Chairman Joe Hafner said, Dr. Coleman. Councilmember Dr. Anthony Coleman said, I didn't get your name I'm sorry I didn't remember your name. Chairman Joe Hafner said, can you go back to the podium, please sir. Tim Byrd said, Tim Byrd. Councilmember Dr. Anthony Coleman said, Tim. Okay, great. Jim? Okay, sorry. Tim Byrd said, Tim. Close enough. Chairman Joe Hafner said, sorry. I need a hearing test. Councilmember Dr. Anthony Coleman said, so I have no dog in this fight at all. So, I'm just asking straight up, you were talking numbers and the numbers are impressive, but when you talk about SWATS numbers are they valid? I mean, how are you validating their numbers? Tim Byrd said, no, it's a fair question because all we can do right now is verify what we have you can go online and verify each one of those numbers. Looking on, just going by Facebook, practices, swim meet attendance, state meets the numbers they're bringing there four or five swimmers for meets. That's the number that’s what we can see because we can't actually get into their business. Other than USA where we have 58 and they have 20. That was given to me by the USA president of Arkansas Swimming. So, we're three times the numbers of USA. I got to figure we're three times the number of AAU as well. I think we're even more, to be honest with you, on the AAU side. Give you an example, the last two weeks if you go to our site, you’ll see we have over 60 new swimmers that just signed up in the last two to three weeks for summer swim. They have five. That's verifiable on their site. \r\n\r\nCity Attorney Carol Duncan said, Dr. Coleman, can I ask a follow up question on that? I hate to interrupt you, but are those this year's numbers or last year's numbers? Tim Byrd said, that's current numbers. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, okay. Can you get those numbers for last year? Tim Byrd said, I cannot. City Attorney Carol Duncan continued, that we cannot get? Tim Byrd said, see, here's the thing… City Attorney Carol Duncan said, and why not? Tim Byrd continued, I asked the same questions you guys did. No, that’s a fair question because we tried to get those numbers as well for us to have those. Because they don't take a snapshot of that window and they update their stuff at the first of the year. So, people that change over during throughout that year to whatever clubs, it doesn't get reset until after the first of the year.\r\n\r\nCity Attorney Carol Duncan said, well, I understand that you may not like last year's numbers. I'm asking if you can get us last year's numbers. Tim Byrd said, no I think the numbers are great. I think last years numbers are perfect. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, right. Chairman Joe Hafner said, here's my here's my issue, sir. Some of that, like I need a number that's like published somewhere. Tim Byrd said, we have that for our numbers. Chairman Joe Hafner said, I know but in our position, or at least in my position, I will only speak for myself, I don't need like speculation. I need numbers that we can say, okay these are verified. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, that's what we were trying to do. Tim Byrd said, trust and verify. I totally understand that. Chairman Joe Hafner said, and I understand that's not perfect for right now conditions, but what were last year's numbers that we can see? City Attorney Carol Duncan said, I mean that's the question. We can only get the one set. We haven't been able to get them from the other group. So, riddle me this, let me try to go at it from a different way. Tim Byrd said, sure. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, I assume that both swim teams would have to have insurance coverage for their swimmers. Is that through one of those organizations. Do you have your own insurance coverage? Tim Byrd said, through both. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, okay, so can you get a, do students or participants have to sign a waiver? Does each parent have to sign a waiver to sign their child up to swim? Tim Byrd said, they do have waivers. They do sign proposal drafts and stuff like that as well. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, can you give a copy of that? Tim Byrd said, I'll have to check for you. I don't have a, well… City Attorney Carol Duncan said, because could we get last year's waivers? Tim Byrd continued, I don’t know if we had those from last year or not, but I'll have to find out. I get where you're coming from. You want to verify. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, verify the numbers from both sides. Right? \r\n\r\nTim Byrd said, but my thing is this, right now, the pool's getting ready to open. And right now is when you have the swimmers… If we can verify every swimmer we have through current rosters USA and AAU, if they would have stayed, they could have stated with their numbers. I can't do that. I understand your point as well. Without their numbers, it's hard to make the decision. When you get a number, however you can get a number, and we've tried as well, AAU doesn't do snapshots either of that timeframe. So, all we can do is right now. That's all I can give you is the numbers right now. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, so just for council, when we wrote the contract, we did not put in six and four or seven and three. We just said we would base it on the numbers from last year from those two organizations. We've tried to brainstorm other ways to get valid numbers. I suppose one of the things that we—and Brian, I hate to give Brian a good idea, but it might have been Brian's idea—that the city require a waiver from every student that is going to be practicing at our pool. Not that swims with them somewhere else. We don't care about that. But that is going to be practicing in our pool. And once we have those signed waivers, maybe we determine lanes…I mean, it's just a thought. We're just trying to come up with a fair way to pick the lanes. Either that or, I mean, you're not going to like me for this at all, but my position other than that is sign what you signed last year and let's move forward, and it's one year, and then you have the RAC. And I know that's not what you want to hear. Tim Byrd said, say that one more time. I didn’t hear that… City Attorney Carol Duncan said, sign the contract we did last year and, you know, move forward. And I know that's not what you want, but I don't have a way to resolve—we've tried. Tim Byrd said, there's a very easy way to resolve it. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, I understand. Tim Byrd said, all you've got to do is have them get their AAU numbers right now from today, today's date. They can call, AAU will give them their numbers. They can have a snapshot of it today. They can get USA numbers, which I got you guys today. The only number we're missing is their AAU numbers, which they can get today. All you've got to do is make a phone call and say, I need your AAU numbers, we'll pull that right now from the TeamUnify and give me your numbers. You can have that information tonight. \r\n\r\nChairman Joe Hafner said, the only fair way I know to do this is by a verified number of swimmers for each team. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, and the question is where to get that? That’s where we were. Chairman Joe Hafner said, and it's just a question of where do we get that.\r\n\r\nCouncilmember LJ Bryand said, Chairman, I would just say, again, no dog in the fight. I probably couldn't personally swim to save my life. My wife's a well-known swimmer. My daughter swims. She's two years old. She's not on either team. So, personally, I have zero dog in the fight at all. Maybe only know one or two people in the room and I’m not influenced by that either, of course. But I will say that having been in and around government for a long time, there's a lot of times I don't like the process. I don't particularly like having to run for office. I mean, we all just kind of wish we were up here forever and didn't have to run for office. So, there's a lot of processes we don't like. But there had to be a process for today. And there was a process for today. And I feel like we're asking you a lot of unfair questions because we don't have anybody else to ask of. So, I understand that. But I don't know. It's hard to make a decision when somebody's not. I mean, I feel this way sometimes if we have a rezoning or if we have an alcohol permit or whatever when we have questions and they're not here to answer it or refuse to be part of the process because they don't like the process. And I'll say, in my opinion, what I know of everybody sitting up here, nobody else has a dog in this hunt. And I trust Chairman Gibson's fairness. I'll say for me, I mean, he didn't lobby me or send me any secret information, you know, no communication with Chris Gibson about this meeting other than, hey, we're going to have a special meeting on so-and-so date at so-and-so time. Can you make it? So I don't think Chris Gibson influenced this committee in any way. But those are my comments, Chairman. \r\n\r\nCouncilmember Dr. Anthony Coleman said, so to also reiterate, colleague Mr. Gibson, he literally just called me while I was at work and said hey, I need you to come to a meeting. So I was like ok, and that was the conversation. But is there, and I’m just getting this for my information so that I can decide or whatever. And as a coach, I’m assuming you coach swimming. Tim Byrd said, no. Councilmember Dr. Anthony Coleman said, oh, you don’t. Tim Byrd said, I have a USA coaching certification. I have coached swimming. I mean, yes, but I was a high school basketball coach. Councilmember Dr. Anthony Coleman said, so I’m going to ask this as a coach. Tim Byrd said, absolutely. Councilmember Dr. Anthony Coleman said, is there a competitive advantage by having, and I understand the safety part, you explained that well, but is there some kind of competitive advantage by having more lanes versus less lanes because we’re talking numbers right now. Tim Byrd said, yes, because you have kids that are starting out, lets say 20 kids are senior level kids, ok. Which is our top level. Some of the best swimmers in the nation. Here’s what you have, even in those swimmers you have variations of ability. So they’re not all equal, so you have to kind of combine the ones that are all close in times together to have an equal. If you get somebody too fast, they’re running over people. If somebody’s too slow, they’re getting run over by somebody else. Councilmember Dr. Anthony Coleman said, gotcha. Tim Byrd said, so there’s where the competitive side comes in. Yes, you’ve got to have those lanes, enough to divide them up so they can be in a similar time period. To me there’s a very simple solution to all of this. You amend the contract to say let’s do rosters right now, forget last year, this is current rosters. These are what the numbers are right now. We’re getting ready to jump in the pool in a couple of weeks. I would say amend the contract to say provide the rosters as of today’s date for both of them, and you can have those tomorrow. **Someone off camera and mic said this is the roster I did in two minutes. It’s AAU website. Tim Byrd said, on the JETS side of it, we just pulled it up right then, AAU side of it is 158. On USA we have 58, we know SWAT has 20. The only number we don’t have is their AAU number which they could have tomorrow. So my thing is, why not amend the contract to say use today’s date, pull both numbers from both of them, and you have an accurate number going forward for what you can use in the pool. \r\n\r\nChairman Joe Hafner said, do we have… I think we need to get some public comments now. Is there anybody from the public that wants to make a comment? And I’ll say in my almost 9.5 years on the council, this is the first time we’ve ever been involved in something like this, so we are kind of flying by the seat of our pants here. \r\n\r\nJeremy Terrell, 909 Pinecrest Road, approached the podium and said, so I’m listening, and I don’t have a dog in the fight either other than I listen a lot, and I look at trends and things that go on. And number one, I don’t know why we can’t figure out two different dates for these people to swim. That may be an option, may not be an option. I’m not 100% sure. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, neither one of them will agree to that. Jeremy Terrell said, two, this is a big worry that I have, and that is this is like Revolution all over again in some aspects, guys. I mean, again, I mean, I’ve got friends that are on the JETS and I got friends that are on the other one, and I just want you guys to be real careful here that we don’t open up another situation. I think these guys will tell you, you know, they switch coaches back and forth. They switch kids back and forth. They recruit back and forth. You know, they had problems and when they had problems people went over to the other one, and when they had problems people went back and forth. You know that happens all the time. AAU, I’ve been involved in AAU, their numbers today probably won’t reflect the same numbers in June. That’s the way AAU works. 100% will not reflect. What’s concerning is, what the gentleman here, who I don’t know him, but I’m sure he cares about kids. And that’s the biggest thing is I think all these people care about kids. So you guys have got a, you know, a pretty huge responsibility here. But, you know, what’s concerning is that the mayor says to this gentleman, you know, develop a team that’s worthy of the Ridge. What does that say to the other team? You know, you guys just have to be careful here. You have to be really careful here that we’re not creating the same situation that we had with Revolution. Where Revolution got fields when nobody else did. Then other organizations can’t build theirs because they don’t, you know, have fields or lanes or whatever. This is a tough situation and like I have dear friends on both. You know, but you guys have to be careful. And I don’t know why they won’t agree on two different dates or whatever. But you know, it’s kind of like to your guys’ points over here, you give them the dates then they either abide by them or they don’t. I mean, it is what it is. Now, the biggest thing is obviously kids’ safety, and that should be first and foremost, number one. But until you know legitimately what that is I don’t know how you can make a decision. I think that should pretty much be your guys’ only decision, is what’s best for the kids and the safety of the kids. The rest of it is… City Attorney Carol Duncan said, and Mr. Terrell, to respond to that, I tried to not listen to either coach and do like my own research on what’s recommended as like a safe, you know, how many kids can you have in a lane. And unfortunately, the AAU and USA won’t tell you that. I mean, Google will tell you probably it’s safest, but you know, Google will tell you all kinds of things. But it says you know, four to five kids in the lane is probably the safest. But AAU and USA will say that has to be a coaching decision, because like he was saying, and I think if Will were still here, I think he said similar that it depends on the level that your swimmer is at how many of them you can safely put in a lane. You obviously can’t put, what I think they call minnows, in with your advanced swimmers or there’s going to be a safety issue. But you might put more advanced swimmers in a lane, or I maybe I may have said that backwards. More minnows in a lane then advanced swimmers, but I think that unfortunately there’s no neutral guidance out there for us to say ok, we’re going to say this many kids can be in a lane period. Based on the research we’ve done. Jeremery Terrell said, and what’s going to happen if one of their coaches get mad, their main coaches, and they leave and go over to SWAT and take 40 swimmers. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, right. Jeremy Terrell said, and you guys got a contract where now it’s flip flopped completely, and trust me, it happens and it has happened. So I’d be real careful on how you do it number one, a year contract when the numbers are going to switch because parents get mad, kids get mad, and coaches get mad because it’s happened with these guys. It has happened back and forth with these guys. And the numbers are constantly going to change. I guarantee you I’ll make a bet with anybody, June 1st, the numbers will be different for each team than they are today. You really need to make sure that this is number one, gives each team the ability to perform, one. Two, there is no hold back for each team to excel and become the best version of themselves. You know, we don’t need one team getting all the lanes and the other team not getting any. But, at the end of the day, I mean you know, it is only about the kids safety. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, I agree. \r\n\r\nChairman Joe Hafner said, Mr. Terrell, what would you base it on? City Attorney Carol Duncan said, not to be put on the spot, but we’re all on the spot here. Chairman Joe Hafner said, yeah. Jeremy Terrell said, I would, you guys are the, I would say one does it on one day, one does it on the other, I mean. Chairman Joe Hafner said, that’s not swimming. That’s not how swimming works. Jeremy Terrell said, I mean, I completely understand, but… Chairman Joe Hafner said, I’ve got some nephews that swim in Little Rock and they’re hardcore. Jeremy Terrell said, they are hardcore. Chairman Joe Hafner said, they’re impressive. Jeremy Terrell said, I’ve got friends that go to Paragould because they don’t want any mess of the Jonesboro stuff that’s going on. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, I will say that under one of the things that we did do to accommodate and not take any lanes away from anybody in the morning, is we moved our swim lessons that we normally do to the other pool for the mornings. So the only swim lessons that we have that’s going to take away their lanes is in the afternoon, four days a week for an hour. That also became a point of contention because then they go down a lane potentially to like, well we were proposing six and four so that became a point of contention is losing a lane. Jeremy Terrell said, I don’t think you’re going to get a decision that doesn’t have contention in it. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, correct. Jeremy Terrell said, it just has to be the fairest thing with everything in play. You know, who may be there in June and who may not be there in June. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, right. I think from the city’s perspective, number one, no offense to anyone who is on a swim team but these are city pools. So our first priority has to be open swim for kids of Jonesboro. Daycares and schools being able to bring their kids to the pools during the day in the summer. Swim lessons for kids that can’t, for whatever reason, participate in the swim team. And some of those end up on a swim team, so I think that feeds both programs. But swim lessons for young kids that we can offer at our city pools. I mean, those have to be our top priorities, obviously, as a city. Jeremy Terrell said, totally agree. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, and beyond that, we’re just trying to do the best we can do to make it fair until there are more things available at the RAC. Jeremy Terrell said, maybe you take month to month numbers and… City Attorney Carol Duncan said, well, I was going to say, we were trying to get away from refereeing this all year, because that’s what’s kind of been happening. And I look at all the Parks Department shaking their heads yes. Refereeing it every day or every month or… all that has been a nightmare last year. I think that is what led us to this point. So, I’m going to throw this out Jim and you might want to come up and speak to it. What if we did the numbers today or tomorrow, give them plenty of notice to get us their numbers tomorrow. And then I set up the contract where it says numbers on May the 6th, numbers on June the 6th, numbers on, I don’t know when they would change again, numbers on August the 6th. And our lanes, I mean our contracts stays the same, it’s however much per lane… Jeremy Terrell said, I’m a big math person. The math doesn’t lie. So just do the math and the math’s the math. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, yeah. And I mean, well, you would think it would be that simple, but $2,000 a lane is also in dispute, and we tried to base that on heating costs instead of… Maybe we go back to a lane usage fee and then you pay your half of the heating cost when you’re in the pool. I don’t know. Jim’s looking at me like his minds going. You want to come up and speak to any of that and how big of a problem that would be. *Someone said something off camera and mic that you can’t make out* \r\n\r\nCity Attorney Carol Duncna said, I’m looking at Jim Stearns and he’s trying not to get out of his chair. I’m just trying… I mean, I know this is a discussion meeting so we’re kind of brainstorming here, and you can tell me I’m crazy if that’s not a fair system. Parks Department Director Jim Stearns approached the podiuming saying something you can’t make out, I’m just joking. I’m glad to speak about the pools. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, I know. I’m just trying. Director Jim Stearns said, you know, again, I sent you guys some update kind of things we’ve kind of looked at this year. I mean, we really, again, you hit the topic. We want to be able to offer some lessons, daycare opportunities, and public school opportunities to anybody that wants to participate. And that's going to be first and foremost for the community. And that's kind of our responsibility in Parks and Rec to make sure that everybody that wants an opportunity to come and participate in water sports gets an opportunity. On that same line, so does the swim team, because their ability to swim and train and compete are directly related to the amount of time they get to be in the water, as we all know that pursue those type of goals. And so, we came up… we looked at a lot of different ways to figure out how to charge the pool. And there's no right. There's no wrong. And there's certainly not an easy way. We tried to look at how we could help by moving the mornings swim lessons to the evening at one pool so that we could free up more swim team time. And then we offer lessons at the Parker Park pool during that time. So we're still offering maximum number of lessons that we have. So that was one opportunity we had to look at to try to make it to work. And I don't know the answer. Like I said, I've been reaching out to the AAU guy a couple times since this meeting is here, and he finally just gave me the national number, who obviously they closed at 5. So I don't have access to AAU numbers, and the AAU rep for the south does not have access to those numbers. Apparently he's locked out of that system. What we tried to do is try to make a way to make it as fair as possible based on what numbers we could get. And right now those are the 2025 USA numbers, which obviously have already changed because we're in 2026. I don't know if there's a fair answer. I'll certainly entertain any questions that you may have on things. \r\n\r\nChairman Joe Hafner said, my recommendation is we see if we can get updated numbers that we can verify from a website, not just from someone texting them to us. And you base the lane allocation upon that number. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, do you want to do that once, or do we want to do that… Chairman Joe Hafner said, I don't want to do that every month. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, I mean, I was thinking, in my case, that isn't mine. I'm sorry, y'all. I've been sick, and y'all are lucky I'm here. Steroids are a great thing. That's what got me here. I guess May to June is a month, isn’t it. Chairman Joe Hafner said, do it now, like tomorrow, and July 1st or something. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, July 1st and then maybe September 1st for the ones that are still wanting to use the pool? Chairman Joe Hafner said, yeah but not every month. *Someone off camera and mic said, I'd recommend you do the end of the month not the first of the month. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, ok. Chairman Joe Hafner said, because that's when it's posted as of then, okay? June 30th, August 31st. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, I can redraft the contract to say that… Chairman Joe Hafner said, so April 30th. Can we get the numbers as of April 30th? You think? City Attorney Carol Duncan said, we can't seem to get any numbers. So is there a way… *Someone off camera and mic said, we can get you our numbers today. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, well, let me ask you this question. And you may need to come to the podium. Is there a way that you can make the AAU guy give Jim the numbers directly, as opposed to us having to get them from each team? Tim Bryd said, I can only get them pulled… I'm sorry Jim. I can only get those pulled from our team, because we can see those… City Attorney Carol Duncan said, I understand. Is there a way to facilitate… Tim Bryd said, I can reach out to Eric Logan and attempt to do that, but I'm sure you've already tried to get it to Eric, too, as well and it’s next to impossible. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, I just didn't know if it came from you and SWAT, if they would be more likely to cooperate with us and get us those numbers directly. Tim Bryd said, SWAT can actually pull their numbers off as well. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, I know they can. Tim Bryd said, I wish I could. I would do that for you. To prove my point, you know, even more so if I could do that for you guys, I would do that. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, is there a print-off that we can, that's certified or looks, that you can’t create on with CHATGPT that will show us that your numbers are what they say they are? Tim Bryd said, we can print USA and AAU. We can print that for you tomorrow off our stuff. I mean, from their site, not from our JETS stuff. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, and it’ll look… *Someone off camera and mic said, we could go somewhere and get it certified. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, well, I mean, from somebody who knows what they're certifying? I mean, a notary’s not really going to… *Someone off camera and mic said, if you look at our website, it’s there. It’s coming off the AAU website, and you can certify the print-out from that website. I would think. I mean, I could get something like that. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, to repeat what he said, because he's on the microphone, and the people doing these minutes later are going to hate our guts. Well just come say it again. Chairman Joe Hafner said, yeah, just take it. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, I'm sick. I can't repeat that. Chairman Joe Hafner said, you've got to say your name and address for the record, too. \r\n\r\nJim Rose approached the podium and said, hi. My name is Jim Rose. I live in Blytheville, 1712 Country Club Road. We can… I assume I can go to Notary Public, use the website, show the numbers, print it off, and they would certify that. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, a notary won't work, because a notary is just certifying your signature, they're not certifying the numbers on the form. So, I just didn't know if there was a way to certify them on their website or to get them to send them to us directly. Jim Rose said, no, there's no way to certify them on their website, and there’s no way to go back and get a point-in-time number that I’ve found out. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, backwards. Jim Rose said, backwards. So, we can only work at the current time, or you tell me a date in the future, and we can lock in that time. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, so, maybe that's why we've been unsuccessful in getting numbers from last year. Jim Rose said, right. And Eric in general, is not very helpful. So, sorry. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, you just put that on the record. I did not. Jim Rose said, but it is. I mean, AAU's a big deal, and there’s a lot going through it with AAU, much more so than USA Swim. And so, it is a very challenging position for him to be in all the time, to answer everyone's questions. \r\n\r\nCity Attorney Carol Duncan said, so, what's the desire of the… Councilmember LJ Bryant said, madam city attorney, are you just going to weigh AAU and USA evenly, just combine the two numbers? Or how are you thinking about that on the division? City Attorney Carol Duncan said, what are y'all tell me to do. Jim Rose said, well, the USA numbers would include a, we have swimmers who are… City Attorney Carol Duncan said, who do both. Jim Rose said, they do both. Most of them do do both. All of our USA swimmers are, in fact, AAU certified. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, you think, I mean, I can't ask you to tell us for SWAT, but you think that would give us a similar answer when we ask them? Jim Rose said, I would think so, because you have to swim, and as you become an AAU certified club or a USA certified club, you have to have insurance, and you get that from those two organizations. We get it through AAU, so we require all of our swimmers to be AAU certified to make sure that anything that happens on deck, we have the insurance to cover that. We don't require everyone to be USA certified, because that tends to get the older, more senior swimmers, and it costs like $100, and AAU costs $25. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, maybe the AAU is more accurate. Councilmember LJ Bryant said, and we’re kind of back where we started, what you said about what Brian said. I mean, if the swimmers are in Mountain Home or Pocahontas and not swimming in our pool and we're counting them or whatever, should we have a city waiver? Does that… City Attorney Carol Duncan said, will AAU give us the address? Jim Rose said, I was just looking. Someone asked me that just a minute ago. The list that I have on my iPad now does not show a list. I can go back and check to see if it shows in there somewhere, but the list I just pulled up took me like, say, two minutes. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, because, I mean, I think that's a valid question. I think both swim teams have swimmers that would be in AAU that aren't swimming here in Jonesboro that are part of your teams that swim, because both of you have programs in other cities, correct? Jim Rose said, well, we have a couple of swimmers in other cities who swim with us for some of the meets. We have two swimmers out of Mountain Home who swim with us for USA meets, because Mountain Home does not have a USA team. They do not practice with us. And we have a young lady who was with the JETS previously, and they moved to Mississippi, Olive Branch, and she stayed with the JETS and swam with meets with us. She's not going to do so this year, but she would show on the list. So, we would have three swimmers on our list who, in fact, practice every day at another location. And I would assume SWAT would have at least, because they have Pocahontas, I would assume they would have 5 or 6 swimmers, maybe 7. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, but you don't have concerns that those are going to show up on their AAU list? Jim Rose said, I'm sure they would show up on their list, but to tell you the truth, that's a minor issue for us. I mean, we're looking at 158 swimmers, and I'm thinking SWAT maybe has 50, and so if 6 of those should be taken off, to us it's not that big of a deal. I mean, we're looking at 160, and they're looking at 50. So, we would not challenge that.  \r\n\r\nChairman Joe Hafner said, so have… City Attorney Carol Duncan said, so you tell … let me get a pen. Chairman Joe Hafner said, do we need a motion to, like, or what do we need? City Attorney Carol Duncan said, I mean, this is just a communication. Chairman Joe Hafner said, you just need direction? City Attorney Carol Duncan said, so what you're asking is that we amend the contract to use AAU numbers as of, what is today? Chairman Joe Hafner said, well, I guess, if we had to get a number now, it would be, like, the most recent number. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, May 7th. Chairman Joe Hafner said, the most recent number, and then… City Attorney Carol Duncan said, and June 30th, August 31st. Would there be a reason to look at them after that, do you think? Chairman Joe Hafner said, no, not in my opinion. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, and lane usage will be assigned based on those percentages. Chairman Joe Hafner said, yep. \r\n\r\nCouncilmember LJ Bryant said, and then how will you adjust the billing to them accordingly? City Attorney Carol Duncan said, well, Jim, come back up. So, what we had attempted to do was come up with a flat lane rate based upon what our heating expenses were. Don't ask me to do math, but it was a little bit convoluted for last year. We didn't even care if we lose a little money. We just don't want to lose a lot of money, because I think we can all assume heating costs may go up this year based on everything else going up this year. But, what we were trying to do is make that fair. There was a concern from SWAT, and maybe a valid concern. I don't know that we... Explain your numbers first. Explain the numbers first, and then we'll talk about what their concern was. Even though they're not here, I think it's valid for y'all to hear what their concern was. Parks Director Jim Stearns approached the podium and said, so, what we did is, the SWAT last year chose to swim through October. So, we took the January through October heating bill, totaled it, divided it by two, and then added the $4,000, which was their contract for last year. And so, it came up with like $17,000. And so, we just rounded up to $2,000 per lane, is what we did. And then, the JETS who have chose to swim past October at the pool, they assumed the complete heating bill for November and December, which was nearly $10,000 for the gas bill. And so, they absorbed that themselves. So, we tried to make it fair to the SWAT based on the time that they swam and the heating bill. And so, that's how we came up with the $20,000. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, that was our first attempt at coming up with the number. Director Jim Stearns said, that is correct. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, and so, then they questioned that number. Director Jim Stearns said, because they didn't swim until March. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, because they didn't swim until March of that year. And I think, what numbers, what dates, they came back with us with dates that they wanted actually in the contract for this year for their usage period. Director Jim Stearns said, they wanted it to be May 1st to October 31st, I believe. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, so, they want May 1st to October 31st? Is that what it said? I think that's what it said. Councilmember LJ Bryant said, how do we account for using the heater for other purposes that aren't related to the swim teams? Director Jim Stearns said, they wanted it May 1st to October 1st. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, May 1st to October 1st is what they want their primary usage period to be. Director Jim Stearns said, correct. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, and I'm assuming they're not going to change that. But if they do, we can adjust it. Councilmember LJ Bryant said, I'm sorry, I was looking at Carol, I  should have asked you Jim. She's like, I’m not the pool heater. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, I'm like, I don't know. Councilmember LJ Bryant said, how do we account for the pool heater cost for other purposes that aren't related to the two swim teams? Chairman Joe Hafner said, it probably wouldn't be used if it wasn't for the swim team. Councilmember LJ Bryant said, that's what I figured. Director Jim Stearns said, correct. If we were just swimming from May to September, most likely we would not run the heater. The pool water temperature is typically from May to September would be fine. The heater runs very minimally. It's outside at that time before the temperature outside gets warm that would really crank it. It's about $5,000 a month, November to December. In January… City Attorney Carol Duncan said, if they choose to swim in January. Director Jim Stearns said, if they choose to swim in January, February. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, so last year what we did is we charged how much a year? Director Jim Stearns said, it was $4,000 per contract. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, so it was $4,000 per year, each with they each divide the heater in half if they’re in the pool. It was like an algebraic question. But they figured it out. Chairman Joe Hafner said, a weighted average. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, but the problem is, the reason we went to a lane, don’t talk to me math right now, the reason we went to a per lane usage attempt is because to me it shouldn't be $4,000 and $4,000 if one is going to end up with 6 lanes and one in four or one in 7 and one in three or whatever that might be. Director Jim Stearns said, correct. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, we needed to try to come up with a per lane usage. And so we wanted to then make it easier on everyone and try to incorporate the heat into that. Which didn't, oh they're going to yell at us, it's 5:30. Which didn't, I don't know how you do that. Director Jim Stearns said, it was $9,167 for the first 10 months of the year. January through October was the gas bill. And then the gas bill, November, December, the total gas bill was $10,746. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, so do you have a suggestion of a fair way to put the cost in if we go back to each team splitting the cost of the heat for the time that they have during their primary usage period and then JETS, I assume, would be willing to take over the heat if they're using it and they're the only ones using it the rest of the year. Director Jim Stearns said, there was a comment made by coach of SWAT that he wasn't aware he could swim past October 1. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, but we made them aware now and they came back saying they only wanted it until October 1. Director Jim Stearns said, correct, if they chose to swim and we would have to come back and look at that. Chairman Joe Hafner said, I just say we allocate the heating costs for the month based on the number of swimmers, the number of lanes they had that month. I mean, just have them pay for it after the fact. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, and leave… but we've got to adjust our $2,000 lane usage fee because that was anticipating including heat. Chairman Joe Hafner said, well, take it out. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, so what do we charge per lane? Chairman Joe Hafner said, take it out and just say the heating bill will be added on to… You said how much was it for the year? Director Jim Stearns said, for the year it's close to $20,000. If you do 12 months. Chairman Joe Hafner said, that's $2,000… City Attorney Carol Duncan said, ok, so let's talk easy math. So we have 10 lanes. Last year they paid $4,000 for the year plus heating. So that adds up to $8,000 which is not mathable for me. But because of inflation we now charge $5,000 would have been our contract if we were splitting 50-50 and we say $1,000 per lane plus the heating bill. Does that make sense? You've got 10 lanes, that's $1,000 per lane however that divis up and then they split the heating bill from the time that they're using the pool. Does that sound fair? Chairman Joe Hafner said, yeah. \r\n\r\nCouncilmember Brian Emison said, Carol, I've got one more provision. Don’t throw anything at me, I'm sorry. I think that I would like to see a due diligence clause built into this based off the AAU numbers that at any given time that we can ask for certification of those numbers or provide proof of those individuals. Just in case a lot of Joe Smiths start showing up on our rosters. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, do they pay monthly? How often do you pay an AAU membership? Monthly? Yes. Councilmember Brian Emison said, sorry. Chairman Joe Hafner said, the meetings are record and broadcast so that's what we have to do. Jim Rose approached the podium and said, we bill on a monthly basis and we bill it through our billing software program called TeamUnify which I believe is the same software almost all swim teams use and so that is a monthly billing. Again, all of our swimmers who are billed are AAU registered because we need that for insurance purposes so you can check the numbers. I can give you that number. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, so if you lost members, it would be in your best interest to take them off so that you're not going to pay for them? Is that true? Jim Rose said, we have to pay a small service fee to TeamUnify of like $3 per swimmer. We don't have to pay a monthly fee to AAU. That is a year membership that goes from August, sorry September 1st through August 31st, and USA Swimming goes from January 1st to December 31st. So we do not pay a monthly charge to those organizations, it's a yearly fee that we pay. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, so why would the numbers fluctuate so much? Just because people might switch teams and would want to or people might join later? Jim Rose said, that would be the case but as the gentleman commented, they don't switch that much. You may have three to six swimmers switch teams or drop out or give up. But once they pay they stay on that roster. You can physically change from one team to another. Most people don't do that because your AAU registration just kind of carries with you. But yes, that is possible. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, so people quit they're probably still going to be reflected on their AAU numbers? Jim Rose said, they would still be reflected because they are a registered for a year. And so they would drop off at the end of August. Chairman Joe Hafner said, would that be one or both teams? City Attorney Carol Duncan said, I don't know, yeah that would be for both teams.\r\n\r\nCouncilmember Janice Porter said, I do have just one question, Mr. Chairman. If we are going to determine the lane division by a date in the future, which is two days from today, is there a possibility that one team might juice their numbers? City Attorney Carol Duncan said, that was why we were trying to pick last year's numbers. Chairman Joe Hafner said, they are going to have to register a bunch of fake people. I would hope they wouldn't do that. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, I would hope neither one would. Chairman Joe Hafner said, we've been surprised before. Jim Rose said, I would be shocked if somebody would go to that level of subterfuge on the lane discussion. It's not something we would do. You know Will and I, butt heads occasionally and I don't think it's something he would really do. Councilmember LJ Bryant said, I mean, could you do it as of 9 a.m. tomorrow? 8 a.m.? Of course they could all sign up tonight I guess, not knowing how the website works. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, well I don't know. I'm just going to say I don't know. Chairman Joe Hafner said, we just need to get this wrapped up. Tim Bryd approached the podium and said, just to answer the question. So, we did have in the last two weeks we had swimming tryouts so we have added 60 swimmers. Trust and verify. But they're all signing up. They've got 30 days to sign up with AAU, so they're still signing up. So we're at 158. We anticipate like 170, 180. We’ll give the actual numbers that are actually  signed up for today where they actually are and they've come on board in the last two weeks it takes a while for new parents to learn how to do AAU registration. So yes there are some that we have today on there but feel free to call each one of them and verify. They’re actually active swimmers. \r\n\r\nChairman Joe Hafner said, I'm going to go ahead and call this to a conclusion. Jim Rose said, can I give a final comment? Chairman Joe Hafner said, final comment. Jim Rose said, we can give you an AAU list that shows from the AAU organization. It does not give you, as I’ve found, the home address of the person. But I can also give you a print out from our TeamUnify billing program which will give you the name of the parent and the address and the details of that particular member. You'd have to double check that. If that’s something you are wanting to do. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, I mean if we're talking about five kids that's kind of not an issue but if the other team raises concern, we will take that extra step. How about that? Jim Rose said, again, five kids we’re not going to worry about it either. I’m just offering you an alternative. City Attorney Carol Duncan said, we just want to be fair. Chairman Joe Hafner said, we appreciate that. \r\n","EventItemActionId":410,"EventItemActionName":"Filed","EventItemActionText":"Filed","EventItemPassedFlag":null,"EventItemPassedFlagName":null,"EventItemRollCallFlag":0,"EventItemFlagExtra":0,"EventItemTitle":"Swim clubs to debate lane usage and new contract","EventItemTally":null,"EventItemAccelaRecordId":null,"EventItemConsent":0,"EventItemMoverId":null,"EventItemMover":null,"EventItemSeconderId":null,"EventItemSeconder":null,"EventItemMatterId":26042,"EventItemMatterGuid":"D9CBECDA-7253-4905-8CBB-72DBFD0757F2","EventItemMatterFile":"COM-26:029","EventItemMatterName":"Swim clubs to debate lane usage and new contract","EventItemMatterType":"Other Communications","EventItemMatterStatus":"Filed","EventItemMatterAttachments":[{"MatterAttachmentId":44077,"MatterAttachmentGuid":"69ADD3F9-B380-41B3-90A0-4B70A08BA3E9","MatterAttachmentLastModifiedUtc":"2026-05-04T15:44:25.283","MatterAttachmentRowVersion":"AAAAAADfNJI=","MatterAttachmentName":"JETS Proposed 2026 Agreement.docx","MatterAttachmentHyperlink":"https://legistar.granicus.com/Jonesboro/attachments/08228f99-ca3e-4003-909b-7265131887a1.docx","MatterAttachmentFileName":"08228f99-ca3e-4003-909b-7265131887a1.docx","MatterAttachmentMatterVersion":"0","MatterAttachmentIsHyperlink":false,"MatterAttachmentBinary":null,"MatterAttachmentIsSupportingDocument":false,"MatterAttachmentShowOnInternetPage":true,"MatterAttachmentIsMinuteOrder":false,"MatterAttachmentIsBoardLetter":false,"MatterAttachmentAgiloftId":0,"MatterAttachmentDescription":null,"MatterAttachmentPrintWithReports":false,"MatterAttachmentSort":-2147483648},{"MatterAttachmentId":44078,"MatterAttachmentGuid":"2671D0F8-7B7F-4900-BCE0-E61BA6B2F062","MatterAttachmentLastModifiedUtc":"2026-05-04T15:44:25.967","MatterAttachmentRowVersion":"AAAAAADfNIg=","MatterAttachmentName":"SWAT Proposed 2026 Agreement.docx","MatterAttachmentHyperlink":"https://legistar.granicus.com/Jonesboro/attachments/500e7594-611f-4166-81cf-4b319ac58f51.docx","MatterAttachmentFileName":"500e7594-611f-4166-81cf-4b319ac58f51.docx","MatterAttachmentMatterVersion":"0","MatterAttachmentIsHyperlink":false,"MatterAttachmentBinary":null,"MatterAttachmentIsSupportingDocument":false,"MatterAttachmentShowOnInternetPage":true,"MatterAttachmentIsMinuteOrder":false,"MatterAttachmentIsBoardLetter":false,"MatterAttachmentAgiloftId":0,"MatterAttachmentDescription":null,"MatterAttachmentPrintWithReports":false,"MatterAttachmentSort":-2147483648}]},{"EventItemId":85682,"EventItemGuid":"0C9EDDA6-A9A0-414B-8F19-5751A46A4660","EventItemLastModifiedUtc":"2026-05-06T13:03:00.193","EventItemRowVersion":"AAAAAADfNRo=","EventItemEventId":3927,"EventItemAgendaSequence":5,"EventItemMinutesSequence":5,"EventItemAgendaNumber":"4.","EventItemVideo":229448,"EventItemVideoIndex":3954,"EventItemVersion":null,"EventItemAgendaNote":null,"EventItemMinutesNote":null,"EventItemActionId":377,"EventItemActionName":"Adjourned","EventItemActionText":"A motion was made by LJ Bryant, seconded by Anthony Coleman, that this meeting be Adjourned. The motion PASSED with the following vote.","EventItemPassedFlag":1,"EventItemPassedFlagName":"Pass","EventItemRollCallFlag":0,"EventItemFlagExtra":0,"EventItemTitle":"ADJOURNMENT","EventItemTally":null,"EventItemAccelaRecordId":null,"EventItemConsent":0,"EventItemMoverId":956,"EventItemMover":"LJ Bryant","EventItemSeconderId":1133,"EventItemSeconder":"Anthony Coleman","EventItemMatterId":null,"EventItemMatterGuid":null,"EventItemMatterFile":null,"EventItemMatterName":null,"EventItemMatterType":null,"EventItemMatterStatus":null,"EventItemMatterAttachments":[]}]