[{"EventItemId":86318,"EventItemGuid":"F7C95F47-869A-4CE8-9AD2-533FE64F3F81","EventItemLastModifiedUtc":"2026-08-07T13:18:06.753","EventItemRowVersion":"AAAAAADipIE=","EventItemEventId":3974,"EventItemAgendaSequence":1,"EventItemMinutesSequence":1,"EventItemAgendaNumber":"1.","EventItemVideo":232836,"EventItemVideoIndex":1,"EventItemVersion":null,"EventItemAgendaNote":null,"EventItemMinutesNote":null,"EventItemActionId":null,"EventItemActionName":null,"EventItemActionText":null,"EventItemPassedFlag":null,"EventItemPassedFlagName":null,"EventItemRollCallFlag":0,"EventItemFlagExtra":0,"EventItemTitle":"CALL TO ORDER","EventItemTally":null,"EventItemAccelaRecordId":null,"EventItemConsent":0,"EventItemMoverId":null,"EventItemMover":null,"EventItemSeconderId":null,"EventItemSeconder":null,"EventItemMatterId":null,"EventItemMatterGuid":null,"EventItemMatterFile":null,"EventItemMatterName":null,"EventItemMatterType":null,"EventItemMatterStatus":null,"EventItemMatterAttachments":[]},{"EventItemId":86319,"EventItemGuid":"B4DC2C73-6593-4712-A0B3-9AC8151CC158","EventItemLastModifiedUtc":"2026-08-07T13:18:17.157","EventItemRowVersion":"AAAAAADipI4=","EventItemEventId":3974,"EventItemAgendaSequence":2,"EventItemMinutesSequence":2,"EventItemAgendaNumber":"2.","EventItemVideo":232837,"EventItemVideoIndex":11,"EventItemVersion":null,"EventItemAgendaNote":null,"EventItemMinutesNote":null,"EventItemActionId":null,"EventItemActionName":null,"EventItemActionText":null,"EventItemPassedFlag":null,"EventItemPassedFlagName":null,"EventItemRollCallFlag":1,"EventItemFlagExtra":0,"EventItemTitle":"ROLL CALL (ELECTRONIC ATTENDANCE) CONFIRMED BY CITY CLERK APRIL LEGGETT","EventItemTally":null,"EventItemAccelaRecordId":null,"EventItemConsent":0,"EventItemMoverId":null,"EventItemMover":null,"EventItemSeconderId":null,"EventItemSeconder":null,"EventItemMatterId":null,"EventItemMatterGuid":null,"EventItemMatterFile":null,"EventItemMatterName":null,"EventItemMatterType":null,"EventItemMatterStatus":null,"EventItemMatterAttachments":[]},{"EventItemId":86331,"EventItemGuid":"33C17329-A1D6-476C-9696-60F5EE0B763B","EventItemLastModifiedUtc":"2026-08-11T13:27:59.457","EventItemRowVersion":"AAAAAADiqlI=","EventItemEventId":3974,"EventItemAgendaSequence":3,"EventItemMinutesSequence":3,"EventItemAgendaNumber":"3.","EventItemVideo":232838,"EventItemVideoIndex":52,"EventItemVersion":null,"EventItemAgendaNote":null,"EventItemMinutesNote":"Chairman Joe Hafner said, as you know today is just a discussion, a public discussion. There will be no votes taken today. So, it doesn’t really matter if we have a quorum or not I guess but we obviously do. But just a few housekeeping things today. I think probably the best thing to do is let the mayor and his team go through any presentation they have. Then the committee members can ask questions. I just ask that you wait until you are recognized before you speak so we kind of keep some form of control in here, some form of order. Not control, that wasn’t a good term. And then if someone’s in the public and wants to come to the podium and make a comment, we just ask that you state your name and address for the record.","EventItemActionId":null,"EventItemActionName":null,"EventItemActionText":null,"EventItemPassedFlag":null,"EventItemPassedFlagName":null,"EventItemRollCallFlag":0,"EventItemFlagExtra":0,"EventItemTitle":"OTHER BUSINESS","EventItemTally":null,"EventItemAccelaRecordId":null,"EventItemConsent":0,"EventItemMoverId":null,"EventItemMover":null,"EventItemSeconderId":null,"EventItemSeconder":null,"EventItemMatterId":null,"EventItemMatterGuid":null,"EventItemMatterFile":null,"EventItemMatterName":null,"EventItemMatterType":null,"EventItemMatterStatus":null,"EventItemMatterAttachments":[]},{"EventItemId":86332,"EventItemGuid":"B7315C18-56FA-4F16-84F6-871DB140A8BD","EventItemLastModifiedUtc":"2026-08-11T13:30:46.76","EventItemRowVersion":"AAAAAADiqmI=","EventItemEventId":3974,"EventItemAgendaSequence":4,"EventItemMinutesSequence":4,"EventItemAgendaNumber":null,"EventItemVideo":232839,"EventItemVideoIndex":88,"EventItemVersion":"1","EventItemAgendaNote":null,"EventItemMinutesNote":"Chairman Joe Hafner said, so, with that, we will move to item number three, other business, public discussion about the Shelter Insurance Agency building and I will turn the floor over to the mayor. \r\n\r\nMayor Harold Copenhaver said, alright, thank you Councilman, I appreciate it. Council, I thank you for attending the special called meeting. I just want to start by thanking everybody in the room and everybody that's been a part of this for the past year as we continue to look for a suitable facility. It's not been an easy task, and I know we've looked at several good properties that just didn't work for one reason or another. And I want to thank each of those owners for taking the time to meet with us, even if it didn't work out. \r\n\r\nSo, we are in a position of a need. The Shelter building on Highland is a rare find that we feel that almost exactly fits what we're looking for, for a fair price. I think this building represents that, and by all accounts, it's a good, sturdy, and certainly a well-kept facility. It has a lot of office spaces, includes furniture, and is a very favorable location, both for our intended use and for the future potential resale, if required. This facility fits what we need. Our police leadership has looked at it. Engineers and architects have looked at it. Our building maintenance team has looked at it. An appraiser has reviewed the pricing. It took all those opinions, I took all those opinions, under consideration and felt comfortable making the offer we are discussing today.\r\nNot only does it allow us to consolidate our Police Departments into two facilities, but it also frees up our community centers and will allow them to be returned back to the full use of the public. Since the emergency closure of the Justice Complex, which was not intended, our police have been working out of a temporary facility, including Allen and Parker Park Community Centers, the E. Boone Watson Center, which is home of our beloved African American Cultural Museum, which has been significantly impacted from a public access standpoint. \r\n\r\nSo, I wanted to make sure today, as we've done in the past, we wanted to make sure that we answered the who, what, when, where, and why for you, Council, and for the community. We wanted to have this open forum because I think it's appropriate to do so in transparency. And I worry that in the future, that we will have a major issue with our old City Hall building. We deemed it not feasible more than 20 years ago. It's going to need a new roof, it's going to need probably a couple hundred thousand dollars in HVAC work, it floods, and countless other items would need immediate attention. If we do not need to sink good money into a facility, we already know it's bad. We have spent a lot of time over the last month either researching questions for the council in one form or another, and I want to thank you for those that asked the questions, and trying to anticipate what questions may have you asked. We have assembled an information packet, and we want to walk that through with you now. So, we will move forward. So if you would please open to the first page. \r\n\r\nCouncilmember David McClain asked, are we doing questions while we go through this? Mayor Harold Copenhaver said, no, we're going to wait until, we'll kind of go through the presentation. Chairman Joe Hafner said, yeah, let's hold the questions until the end, because some of them may be answered while the presentation is going on. Mayor Harold Copenhaver said, thank you. Thank you, Councilman. So, at this point in time, Steve Purtee and Chief Elliott are going to work through, and again the staff, we have Craig here if we need any additional questions for that as well. \r\n\r\nSo, the first page, background and purpose. Since the closure of the Justice Complex, I don't want to read this word for word. I think we all know our temporary conditions and the facilities that we currently are in the arrangement we have. Over the past year, multiple facilities have been reviewed as possible temporary locations, and have been rolled out for various reasons. Purchase of this facility would allow the Police Department to again operate out of only two main facilities in free up space currently occupied by our community tenants. If you would flip to the next page, Chief. That's basic facility information. So Council, in case you're not aware, the address is listed on East Highland Drive. The current use is a Shelter building, insurance facility. The square footage is 14,418 square feet. It has 51 parking spots. It's on 2.05 acres, and the utilities are electric and natural gas. Now, on this map that you see here, we also have in Legistar, if you want to see an internal layout, a footprint of the floor plan, that is also on Legistar. So, let's go to the next page. We've got proposed usage and details of the facility. So, I've asked Chief Elliott to speak on the needs and necessities of this facility for his department.\r\n\r\nChief of Police Rick Elliott approached the podium and said, well, thank you, Mayor, council, and committee for coming today for this important hearing or discussion on this topic. So, with the purchase of this building and moving forward, we intend on moving 30 plus officers and staff into the facility. The planned divisions going into the Shelter building will be police administration, our records division, criminal investigations, community outreach, and recruiting, and the DARE officers. Vacating the parks department and the old City Hall of Washington and consolidating all those individuals into the current building on Caraway. Would be evidence ICAG patrol, mental health and wellness coordinator, training division, warrants division, court services, and the real-time crime center. I will note that evidence ICAG and real-time crime center currently occupy that facility as it is today. Once the new real-time crime center dispatch center is completed, they will move over into that building, which will free up more room at the Caraway facility.\r\n\r\nGoing on to the next page, the purchase price is $2,750,000. The renovation cost is anticipated around $250,000. We've got IT looking at it and give us a cost. We're looking at approximately $80,000 in IT infrastructure. That includes servers. Most of the infrastructure wiring is already there because it is a business office. So, the cabling that's to each office will suffice for our needs, but we will have to set the servers' connectivity back to the city. Then we want to add some additional security cameras to the outside of the facility. The inside does have some existing cameras, which is good. Then we want to upgrade the open path door system, door lock system, to what is compatible with what we're using across the city. I will say that the front of the building, the front lobby, the front wall of the building when you came in the front foyer piece where our receptionist will sit, that wall and glass has been ballistically…Ballistic material was put in place several years ago by Shelter. Apparently, due to the threats that they've had over claims, they had to add a ballistic wall and ballistic glass for their protection. So, which in today's times, I get it. People upset over whatever. So that is a very expensive piece, but obviously, it's a big advantage for us and our security as we move forward with the Police Department. The purchasing funding, as you can see below, the details, I think it's self-explanatory. If there's any need to elaborate further on that, Steve Purtee can come up. \r\n\r\nMayor Harold Copenhaver said, and I know everybody's got some questions, and like I said, as we go through this, please make notes, but I think hopefully we will answer the majority of your questions through this process. Steve, if you would, please go ahead then. I know most everybody is really going to focus in on the funding mechanism and how we came about the request at this point. Finance Director Steve Purtee approached the podium and said, thank you, Mayor. Just to recap, Chief's already laid out that the purchase price is $2,750,000, potential renovation costs of $250,000 as an estimate. To assemble that, that would require a $3,000,000 outlay. One program that we're looking at is a short-term Amendment 78 loan. That is a loan that is basically based on the full faith and credit of the city as a repayor. It will be supported through the general fund. We had submitted RFP for bids on that on July 17th, had four banks that responded. That information will be in your packets for Finance Committee going out, I think, later today. City Clerk April Leggett said, it is out. Director Steve Purtee said, okay, thank you. Those details are in that packet. We did go through that. It appears that the most favorable position for this was Arvest Bank. They offered a rate of 4.83%. If you calculate that, that would be interest costs of $382,820 on a five-year monthly amortizing loan. If you consider that that $3,000,000 would remain in our bank accounts, anticipating that they would have, on average, a 3% rate of return over that same period of time, that would realize interest earnings of about $237,000. So, the net cost of this financing over that five-year period would be $145,043. \r\n\r\nThere are a couple of key components to that. When you just microscopically look down at just simply the insurance coverage on these properties, again, we're talking about the Justice building that is unoccupied currently. You can see in the middle of this slide that that's an interest cost of a little over $16,000 a year. That coverage is provided through a blanket policy through the Arkansas Municipal League, which we are a participant in. Also, in addition to that, the former City Hall building on West Washington, that cost for insurance only is a little over $7,000. So, you've got roughly $23,000 of expense in that currently going on in those two properties. If we were to acquire this Highland Drive property, that would have an annual insurance cost of a little over $9,000. So, you can see that the net savings for insurance alone is about $14,000 when all of the conclusion of these properties occur. So that certainly looks like a benefit. And again, we've got a property that's currently unoccupied, has been deemed unsuitable for occupation. And then secondly, the former City Hall building, there's indication that that needs multiple dollars of expenses as well. So those are considered here, that indication as well. \r\n\r\nYou know, it's a real good question about why would we not use reserves for this. You know, if you look at your June report, we've got about $12,000,000 in reserves after our reserve requirement or minimum requirement. $3,000,000 of that, again, we could use that to support grant programs, other things relative to expediting those funds out of the reserve into other programs and opportunities. We could give up the interest earnings on that as well as we indicated. But there just seems like to be many more opportunities relative to that. That roughly $12,000,000 in reserves that's in your June financial packet, by the way, on the second page of that report, that is further impacted by a little over $4,000,000 in capital improvement programs that remain to be appropriated and funded relative to that. And again, you see that in your June financials as well on page 24 if you happen to look at those reports. So again, we just feel like that this gives us many more opportunities, maintaining those reserves in their current state, seeking this property through a short-term lending arrangement, always with the option that it could be prepaid early without penalty, paid off early, amortized over the life of the loan, amortized partially through the life of the loan. There's just many options that could be initiated relative to that.\r\n\r\nMayor Harold Copenhaver said, thank you, Steve. And, Council, as we learned with the revenue bond, I think it's important, too, that we show you a projected timeline. And as many of you know, it is my job to bring forth to you opportunities for you all to vote on one way or the other. And so I think it's important to see a projected timeline of this. Again, we called a special called meeting on the 6th, it will be on the Finance, or already is, appropriation Council Committee for review on next Tuesday, and then up for city consideration, which will include the resolution and ordinance at the same time. And mind you, there's an MOU here with this facility. So again, if that is not chosen at that point in time, then that facility will be open for public bid once again. And I want Council to be aware of that. The closing will be quickly thereafter on August 21st, approximately a day or two, but primarily looking at August 21st. And then renovations would begin on the facility to move in within three days after that closing. Hopefully at that point in time, both facilities we can locate. We were anticipating about two months of movement for that. And then obviously at the end of the year, the hopeful demolition of the Washington Avenue facility could be in place in order to provide a future opportunity for our downtown community until further notice and use of that facility. So again, that's a projected timeline. And I wanted you and the public to be what we're projecting in that process.\r\n\r\nThe next part of this is basically some FAQs that, and I'm not going to read these word for word, but if you would please scroll through them. I think for the public record, we did have a question on how will this affect the city budget in the coming years. And Steve, if you don't mind addressing that, I think you can go into a little bit more detail about the opportunities. Again, this is a loan that could be paid off early if we have the opportunity to do so as well. But Steve, how would that, how are we going to approach that in the budget in the coming years? Finance Director Steve Purtee approached the podium and said, yes, sir, Mayor. This obligation is about $700,000 a year in the monthly payments that would be made. When you look at your June report again, you'll notice that sales tax returns this year are trending ahead of last year. The July distribution that came in just a couple weeks ago left us at a position of about $840,000 ahead of previous year sales tax returns. That's about $80,000 over our budget projection. When you dig down deeper into that, thinking about, okay, well, we've got $800,000 additional funding that we didn't have last year. We've held a flat budget for sales tax for the last two budget cycles with a 3% growth relative to that. So then if you further look at the June financials, you'll notice that the revenue for the general fund is ahead of budget, just right about $200,000. The expenses are slightly behind budget, and primarily that's relating to, we have all of our insurance programs are paid lump sum at the beginning of the year for the full year. So, that budget does catch up through the year. So, if you look at only sales tax and realizing that you can kind of confirm that by looking at the budget variance now, about $200,000 for the first six months, positive in that that more than supports this particular obligation. The other thing that is in the budget, you'll notice we have about a little over $400,000, about $427,000 in franchise fees that were not committed to the bond program. So those are sitting in the general fund. And again, as I said earlier, this obligation would be repaid from the general fund. That's the only way it can be repaid. So those two or three components combined, everything else that's being equal would support this obligation. Obviously, when we go into our budgeting process, we look at those commitments already on the books, those records. We allow for those first, and then after that, we do the look at the various requests of our directors relative what they need to do in their department specifically, and then combine that for the budget position. Again, specifically looking at the general fund. \r\n\r\nMayor Harold Copenhaver said, okay, great. Thank you, Steve. I appreciate that. Council, we'll move on then to the next FAQ, and this is why is a temporary facility needed? I think we've gone over that several times. But, Chief, do you want to elaborate any more on that question other than what we've answered? Chief Rick Elliott approached the podium and said, I can. I thank you, mayor, again, this is something we've touched on many times through several meetings. But getting our services consolidated into two facilities would certainly make us more efficient than we do day in and day out. We're scattered out in five locations right now across town. And it just becomes hard to communicate at times and just getting together and keep informed what's going on. Yes, we have phones. We have e-mails. But there's a lot of moving parts. I've got people, four-five people, working in small areas, confined areas. We've got equipment scattered out still in the Justice Complex and other buildings. I just need to get everything housed in two locations for efficiency and better service. And we're causing the public to go to multiple locations for their needs. Our recruits are having to go to Allen Park, to meet with a recruiting officer up there. If you’re going to court services you're having to go to the E. Boone Watson Center. We meet them over there. So, the general public, there's a lot of moving back and forth. Again, consolidation, back down to two locations.\r\n\r\nMayor Harold Copenhaver said, and you mentioned to me the other day as well about new officers seeing facilities. Chief Rick Elliott said, that's true. You're correct. The old building, patrol building down on Washington, the old City Hall, I don't know if you've been in or not been to it, but you walk in, it's a blast from the 60s. You know, the tile, the couple of offices that have carpet. Ones got the Berber carpet and the paneling. The wooden desk, that are falling apart literally. And some of the furniture that was donated. So, when you talk about moving and what does that look like, you kind of jumping ahead. But whatever's in the patrol building other than personal effects will stay in the patrol building. It'll go down with the ship. It's not worth moving. Some of those desks couldn't stand to be moved. They're falling apart. Whatever we leave on Caraway, move from Caraway to the Shelter building. Again, we've got newer furniture that's going there. When I vacate some of the park facilities, some of the furniture that we drug out of the criminal justice complex, I'll leave it for the Parks Department. Most of it's not worth moving either. So, I'll let Mr. Stearns deal with that or store it or dump it or whatever. So when it comes down to move, we're looking at picking up computers, personal effects, going to different locations and plugging up and going back to work. \r\n\r\nWe gave a projected timeline of November. Reality, once IT is established, we can accomplish most of it in two weeks. Mayor Harold Copenhaver said, chief, also speak on the equipment. I think that from the furniture, we talked about it briefly, but Shelter is also providing about 95% of the contents to stay on board with this. Chief Rick Elliott said, you're correct, mayor. That was part of the arranged agreement, the office furniture. Each office, there's 29 offices. Each office is equipped with very nice furnishings. It has a three-piece desk with an overhead cabinet and chairs. There's a conference room, nice conference tables, nice chairs, a big break room, refrigerator, chairs. There's chairs in the hallway just for casual seating. Decorative tables, whatever. They're walking away leaving everything. So literally walking in and have a nice facility, some signage changes, and we’re up and running. Getting back to just the patrol building, it's kind of embarrassing that we've hired officers from other states. We've hired a gentleman from California, out of Mississippi, recently a gentleman out of Tennessee that worked for agencies over there, big, big agencies. And they come to Jonesboro, and their first day at the patrol building is this 1960s-looking building that's in need of a lot of repairs and full of asbestos and mold, and they just kind of look like, wow. So, for our patrol officers and the people that have to work in that building, it's embarrassing. I think it's a health hazard because the roof has been leaking for 12 years, and when I did have people upstairs, when it rains, we had to put out buckets to catch the water. So, it's a matter of time before there's a structural failure or we'll be mandated to leave that building, and then here we are again looking for a place to go and get out of the weather.\r\n \r\nMayor Harold Copenhaver said, alright. Thank you, chief. Council we’ll now move on to the next question, why doesn't the city just build a new police station downtown? I think we all pretty well have the idea of why, because the long-term plan is to build one downtown, but right now the city simply does not have enough funding for the project. A new downtown police station will cost more than $20,000,000, and it's not affordable until we can find new revenues, and once those revenues are identified, then that possibility could occur. But even if funding is identified, the current downtown police building will need to be torn down to make room for new construction, leaving dozens of officers without a location for more than two years anticipated for construction and timeline. So, I wish I could have a crystal ball and see into the future, but this is reality and this is what we're dealing with at the current time, and this is the plan.\r\n\r\nThe next question, if the citizens pass a proposed safety tax in November, would this facility still be needed? In short, yes, even if funding existed to build a permanent police station today, a temporary location would still be necessary because the current location of the Jonesboro Police Department Traffic and Patrol Division and all of our other facilities as well. Also, I think many of you are aware on council that this does flood, and I think we've seen that happen many times throughout the last several years, but more importantly, it's an expensive remedy in the long run. \r\n\r\nThe next question was, why buy a building and not rent? Steve, do you mind coming forward on that as well and discuss that maybe in a little bit of detail? Director Steve Purtee approached the podium and said, I think that we earlier looked at a couple of proposals, lease opportunities, and we vetted those properties, I thought, very well over the last months, even a year it seems. As with any attempt at something, you look at the opportunity cost. Again, we've talked about that relative to the, sure, we would keep $3,000,000. It would have a monthly lease obligation. After that, if we found something similar relative to a commercial building, that would be suitable. The analysis here is a 15,000-square-foot building, average GSA rental rate of $17.50 a foot. You can see the calculation here is for basically the five-year period of this loan increment is $1,312,000 over that time period. Obviously, we know that through a lease program, there is no residual at the end, and nothing to sell, of course. You can't sell a leased space when you're no longer needing it. And then if you look at that over a 10-year cycle, basically that would be a very modest lease amount of $2,600,000 for that same 10-year period. Most likely, you would be also looking at a property with a triple net lease responsibility as well, so you would have that expense going forward potentially also. Again, that's just kind of a real brief difference between purchasing and leasing. \r\n\r\nMayor Harold Copenhaver said, alright. Thank you, Steve. Also, the last sentence here, Council I feel important purchasing and building will provide the city with a sellable asset once its need has passed, should that occur. The next question, has the property been reviewed by a third-party appraiser? And yes, an independent appraiser conducted a review of the property via letter of transmittal to create a market value conclusion that projects the current value of the property between $187 to $204 per square foot. So that correlates to $2.7 million to $3 million for the 14,418 square footage. Now, keep in mind, again, that appraisal didn't include the contents as well, so the contents are on top of that, so for that value of $2.750. So the next question, what is the long-term plan for the police department facilities? Chief? Chief Rick Elliott said, well, again, the long-term plan would be to build a new Police Department on Washington Avenue. Shelter building is an interim option. Again, it all boils down to funding. We don't know what those funds are. You, as the Council has an idea of where our funding's at, and $20 to $25 million, it's not there today. If this sells or this public safety tax passes, would that be included in that capital project? That was the design would be the desire of that tax to pass, it along with a couple of other fire stations. But we can't bank on what may or may not happen in November on a sales tax initiative. Without that, there's no going forward, as you can all see with our current situation. So we have to look as a council at how would we come up with $20 million and then what would financing on $20 million look like over the next whatever. So that’s kind of where we’re at on this. Again, this is a short-term interim facility, and I use the word interim sales tax pass or the public safety tax passes that that interim could be just a few years. If it does not pass, it could be 10, 15, 20. I don’t know. You know, projection of sales tax in the city and what kind of growth that is, what other sources of income that comes into the city, we don't know. We can't predict that future. But you as the city body of the council have a better idea of where the money is and how it needs to go. And there's other expenses across the city that has to be fulfilled also. So this is, again, a quick solution to the ongoing problem. \r\n\r\nMayor Harold Copenhaver said, thank you, chief. Next, council, we'll move on then to one of the last questions we had. Will the city make its money back on the purchase when and if the building is sold? And obviously, as chief just alluded to, we can't predict the future, but I think we all know the relevance of that corner lot and where it's located. We feel from what our appraiser said that obviously it will hold its value, and we know how rates have been going up when it comes to per square foot cost in the city of Jonesboro and the valuation. And if that time were to come that we would need to sell that facility, I think we have a pretty good opportunity of getting back our funds, maybe even more than what the value we paid for the property. So is there anything else that you would like to add, Steve or chief, before I turn it back over to Joe? Okay. Councilman Hafner? \r\n\r\nChairman Joe Hafner said, all right, thanks, mayor. And before I open the floor to other committee members, I want to give the Public Safety Committee Chairman Brian Emison a chance to speak and say a few words or ask questions. Chairman Brian Emison said, sure thing. Thank you, Chairman Hafner. I just want to say great job on the presentation, chief, administration, and Steve. I've been following the RFP on the short-term financing, and I would say from the banking side of the house it's more than aggressive. I mean, 4.83% for what we're seeing for $30 million on an Amendment 87 type loan, it's a real good position for the city to be in on a five-year amortization that's on that side. Just a couple of questions I did have for you, chief, and I had one that I also had for Mr. Purtee. Is that, what does this look like from our room to grow? Do we have room at that point in each of these facilities? How many years do you think that that might hypothetically put us in place for? Chief Rick Elliott said, so, sure. The Shelter building, the day we occupied it, we have about one office space left. Now, part of this money that we're setting aside for some modifications in there would be to add two more offices. Go ahead and build it now for future growth. We'll first utilize this space for a kind of a conference room for our detectives, then once we get to the point later down the road that I need more office space, then we can sub that out into two, maybe three more offices. So there is that option. And again, once the real-time crime center moves out of Caraway, then that will free up space in that building also. So when we talk about the department growing, the criminal investigation division is down a couple of detectives, so that growth is going to be about what the numbers are at, plus two for the next several years. So not much growth going into the Shelter building. Patrol division, those numbers. Patrol officers, they're in for a briefing. They're out on the street. Whatever we have in records, that's pretty much going to be the number we have in records. So as far as civilian staff, the only other growth I project down the road would be our media person that has to deal with FOIAs and videos, things like that, because that's becoming the thing now. People wanting videos, and those demands. I've already hired one civilian for that, and she's got all the she can say grace over, plus Sally Smith. And there will be a point in time I'll probably have to bring on another one, but there's room in this facility, the Shelter building, to accommodate that. So as we look for the next 10, 15, first up there, the two buildings for the next 20 years, we'll make it happen. Sure. \r\n\r\nChairman Brain Emison said, good deal. Thank you, Chief. The next question I had was in regards to the 57, and I think you spoke to this a little bit before, the old City Hall. As far as that facility, once we have the new E911 center basically built out and there's no more need for the Justice Complex and the 57, is there anything at that point from us necessarily just demoing both of those buildings? Chief Rick Elliott said, well, my suggestion would be to demo the patrol building as we're building the new real-time ground center. One, when we have the new building set up, I'd really like having this eyesore next to it. Two, we had a presentation the other night of the Children's Museum, the old Winter Wonderland, and I thought, well, this is kind of perfect timing that if we're looking at moving forward with that project this would be additional space that could be utilized for parking or just additional green space downtown. But either way it goes, removing the eyesore would certainly make our new building more appealing, and then if the Children's Museum is going to tear that down and build a new facility, it would certainly enhance the looks of the whole block area down there. And then once we get rid of the Criminal Justice Complex, after they move into the new building, you know, that would just free up more space. So between the two properties, when the day comes and the funding comes, we'll build a brand-new Police Department. \r\n\r\nChairman Brian Emison said, great. Good deal. Thank you, chief. Next thing, as far as these other departments that are going to be moving to the Caraway Road location, do we foresee any costs associated with having to make any of those changes? I know we've already got a pretty big parking lot, a secure parking lot. Chief Rick Elliott said, no, Caraway will accommodate the number of people is about the same as what's in there now, so there's no difference. We fill the building up, and we still have plenty of parking for classes of up to 30-plus people with parking left over. So right now it's kind of full. We're finishing up a fleet of cars and starting to get those out. And in the same process, we're starting to get rid of old cars, getting them off the lot. So what you see on the lot now will certainly change in the next few months. We're just getting stuff out of inventory and put into the fleet. So that whole lot is very spacious. \r\n\r\nChairman Brian Emison said, okay. Good deal. Thank you, chief. The next questions that I have are specific to finance, so I'll have Mr. Purtee. Thank you again, chief. Mr. Steve, once again, I just wanted to say good work on the RFP, and we've been doing a little conversation back and forth today on the financing side of it and really appreciate your financial acumen kind of guiding us through this. One of the things that I just wanted to follow up on, which I would stand to say I'm in agreeance of purchasing the building and not necessarily going out of reserves but for doing the financing side of it, but tell me another reason that I was thinking that we would want to go that direction is because if we were to use the reserves that we had in there, doesn't that affect if we get any more bond issuances in the forward, I'm sorry, if we get any bond issuances moving forward, as far as how that would affect our credit rating? Director Steve Purtee said, our credit rating is such that to the extent of what level we would be probably extending the city would probably fit within the credit rating relative to that. I think what would be more impacting is any additional bonding is going to have to have a specific revenue stream to support that unless there happens to be a general sales tax pass relative to that, and then at that point the council can commit some of that future funding for that. So it would be the creation of an additional revenue stream relative to that. As far as the guidelines, there's a 5% guideline of all of the assessed property in the city of Jonesboro. Obviously we're well within that with a $17 million loan and a $3 million short-term, $17 million bond and a $3 million short-term loan, so we're certainly within those categories as well. Another thing that you alluded to that I think is important is that $3 million, as we kind of alluded to earlier, if you look at an 80-20 grant opportunity, that 20% match is going to produce $15 million of opportunity relative to other programs. So that's another thing that we look at there is we keep talking about those next home-run grant opportunities that might come about, so just keeping ourselves aware of that as well. So I don't know if I specifically answered your question. Chairman Brian Emison said, you did, yes, sir. It's always good to have ammunition for whatever those targets come around for. Director Steve Purtee said, you'll spend your reserve one time, and then you've got to replenish it. And obviously we already know what our operation budget is, how skinny it is on the annual year-over-year budget process. Chairman Brian Emison said, yes. Got you. Thank you, Steve. That's all. Chairman Hafner.\r\n\r\nChairman Joe Hafner said, thank you. At this point, I'll recognize Dr. Charles Coleman for his questions. Councilmember Dr. Charles Coleman said, I know we're not voting on anything, and I'm excited about what I see, but I'm just going to make this as plan as I normally make plan. I appreciate the fastness of trying to get this information together, but I hope we can be as fast we start trying to give raises to the officers, you know, when we’re dealing with our budget. And I'm very serious about that because of the growth of what Jonesboro. The second part of it, I guess I was almost drowned weekly when somebody asked me about moving out of E. Boone Watson Center so the people can get back in there. The community is almost driving me nuts about that, and I really didn't have any answer for them, so now I do have some. So those are two main things that I'm going to always look for. It's okay to build a business, it’s kind of like a church. You know, church people get stupid, they build buildings, but they don't build people. And so it's the same thing. If we build our people from a finance standpoint, you know, it would help us in this community. Thank you, chairman. \r\n\r\nChairman Joe Hafner said, go head Mr. Street. Councilmember John Street said, chief, there's 51 parking spots out there. Are you still confident that that will be adequate for the future? Chief Rick Elliott said, yes, we’re looking at 31 staff members moving in over there, so we'll have room for whatever visitors show up. Councilmember John Street said, so you wouldn't foresee any expenditure for additional parking anytime soon? Chief Rick Elliott said, you know, it comes down to it. There's not a lot we can carve out, but if it does that's something the city could probably handle pretty easy. But on this initial move, no, I'm not looking to make any additional parking spots. I think there's a little bit of concrete work that we have to do. We have to add an exit going off of the training room for fire code issues, and I think there's some concrete that has to be flushed out to the parking lot for a path. So other than that, there's a wall that has to go in by the training room for fire code, and so that's a quick fix. So that's the two biggest construction items. A couple of HVAC issues and IT, and we're moving. In fact, even with construction projects, I'm not looking to hold off not making any moves depending on those because the training room doesn't affect daily operations. They can come in, knock a hole in the wall, frame it up, and put a door in, and it won't affect anybody. And the wall in the hallway won't affect anybody. Literally putting up a frame, sheetrock it, and put a door in. It will not hinder anything that we're trying to do as far as getting the facility up and running. This whole operation, this whole move, you know, we're literally moving computers and personal effects. Most of the big, bulky stuff is staying. I've got seven file cabinets out of records. That's about the biggest things that are being moved. And then after that, the existing furniture that's where it's at now is pretty much staying where it is. So theoretically, you know, once you hand me the keys, could we can be working within a week? Yeah. Councilmember John Street said, I think it's an excellent opportunity. Chief Rick Elliott said, it all depends on IT, and IT assures us that we'll be up and running pretty quick. So Dr. Coleman, for you and your constituents in your ward, yes, our goal would be to get out of E. Boone Watson Center as soon as we can. Get it painted and fixed… Councilmember Dr. Charles Coleman said, so if this is done the 23rd, that means you can move out that afternoon? Chief Rick Elliott said, our timeline goal was to be out by November, but I will take that challenge, but I think I can do it by October, if not sooner. I agree. I get the same comments that you do, and I agree that it has hindered the operation over there, and so, one, we're eager to get out of it because they're all, you know, we've got six people in one open space trying to conduct business and bringing people in, and gathering information because people are on probation. So it's just not conducive to a good working environment. \r\n\r\nCouncilmember John Street said, I was just going to tell him the Police Department is the last department I think we've got that we haven't really expended much on as far as consolidating. We've accommodated almost every other department, and I agree with chief. The 57 is just pathetic. It's fallen down around itself. There's actually trees and grass growing on top of the roof. Have been for years. That's the honest-to-God truth. There's a tree growing up there. But it leaks, and it's bad, and it is embarrassing, and I think this is a great opportunity for the city, and it'll take care of our short-term needs anyway, and I really believe that that's correct that after we're done with the use of the building, with the appreciation rates, and LJ can probably attest to that. It's happening with most of the commercial properties right now. I don't see that we would lose anything on it at all. We would probably, in fact, gain a little money on that if we're done with it. \r\n\r\nChairman Joe Hafner said, thank you. Mr. McClain. Councilmember David McClain said, a couple of questions. One, I appreciate the chance to walk through the building yesterday with chief, and I feel like it will provide something that's needed. A few questions, though, maybe for Steve. Steve said we've got $700,000 that it'll cost us yearly, if that's the math. Five-year, 4.8% interest rate, $700,000. My question is, and I would like to see, instead of something along these lines, I would like to see a financial analysis that gives me how does that impact our budget, especially if we have... if we're fully staffed with the PD. We're fully staffed. What does that do when we add $700,000? What does that do to us for the next five years? I think we should have that information on hand in order to make a decision, number one. Second thing, or second, I've got a couple other things, was looking at the disclosure, and I did not see, I don't know if you have one, but it doesn't look like we've got an inspection on the building. Does anybody know if we've got an actual inspection on the building? And I understand, I saw your report as well, Craig, but again, inspection from someone that they do inspections. Actual climb on the roof. Tell me if we had, again, there were a couple water spots I saw also in the building when you first walked in. My question is, are we buying an issue? Have we got to spend more money? \r\n\r\nEngineering Director Craig Light approached the podium and said, we've had an architect and his supporting engineering staff, or consultants, go out and check all the systems at the facility. Councilmember David McClain said, but no actual inspection. Tell me if the roof is good, if the roof is bad. Director Craig Light said, our building inspection department has looked at the facility, and we've done a pretty thorough job looking at the building. Councilmember David McClain said, any concerns about water getting in anymore? Director Craig Light said, no, we didn't see any water issues with the building. Councilmember David McClain said, also didn't see on the contract no termite. Maybe that's not a big deal. I don't know, but they weren't providing that as well. Just a couple of small things, I think. Again, I don't want us to take over an issue if it becomes one. But, again, I would like to see something that gives us a breakdown and shows us what this $700,000 is going to do overall. Again, if we are fully staffed at the PD. Because right now we're not fully staffed. You know, chief, you said you had some money left over from salaries right now. But, again, if we're fully staffed, I would like to see… Again, I'm a visual learner, so I need to see it. I know you all explain things, but I'd like to see. \r\n\r\nDirector Steve Purtee approached the podium and said, our current budget, as you currently have for 2026, is budgeted fully staffed. We will slightly trim some departments. Police Department, for instance, we trimmed that by 10 patrol officers relative to the full budget. But other than that, we budget fully staffed, allowing for a little bit of transition of turnover. The budget already includes fully staffed. Councilmember David McClain said, okay. So will you send us something that shows us, again, we're adding $700,000. I'd like to see. Again, maybe nobody else wants to see, but I would like to see. Director Steve Purtee said, sure, yeah. \r\n\r\nCouncilmember David McClain said, and follow up again on the— do you all feel confident with not having an inspection, that our Inspections Department is good with that? Mayor Harold Copenhaver said, no, I think, councilman, that's a point that obviously we can address with the party involved. Councilmember David McClain said, okay. Chief Rick Elliott said, I think part of the inspections that didn't get brought up was when they looked at the HVAC system, that all the system was evaluated. There’s 10 units. And it's my understanding from the staff at the facility, that two of those was just recently replaced in the past few weeks. There's a couple modifications that Kyle Cook and his group found on the HVAC that they'd like to make some modifications to kind of help with controlling the humidity. And, again, some dampers or something, some change-out things, it's all included in this cost. So those are things they looked at. But other than that, everything's good to go. Councilmember David McClain said, okay. I'd like to see a report on that as well. I mean, I think it's worth the money to get it looked at. Chief Rick Elliott said, did you get the report from Kyle Cook? Councilmember David McClain said, yes. But, again, that's an architect that's saying, hey, this is what it's going to cost me to fix. Chief Rick Elliott said, he identified those potential HVAC issues in his report. Councilmember David McClain said, I mean, that's, again, I think we should have the roof looked at, have those water spots looked at, again, walk through it with a fine-toothed comb. If we all of a sudden discover, I don't think that we have, but if we discover there's some wear on there that we need to address, I think we should get them to address it on the front end instead of us taking it on and all of a sudden we look up and we've got to spend X amount on a new roof on top of what we're already spending. So that's my, again, that's my thoughts. Chief Rick Elliott said, okay. \r\n\r\nChairman Joe Hafner said, ok we’ll go to Mr. Miller. Councilmember Kevin Miller said, just one basic comment. I know nothing's perfect, but I think this building opportunity is very good. I don't want perfect getting in the way of good, as the old saying goes. I appreciate you getting back to me with the questions I've had. The presentation answered a lot of the questions I had. I was one of the ones that was basically asking questions about why don't we purchase the building outright versus taking the loan. Steve, I appreciate you explaining that and breaking it down. Very reasonable. I understand that aspect, and I appreciate you putting that in there. I think this is a good idea that I would like to see try to move forward with.\r\n\r\nChairman Joe Hafner said, Dr. Anthony Coleman? Councilmember Dr. Anthony Coleman said, the only thing I was thinking about was something Dr. Coleman said earlier and kind of spoke to what Mr. McClain said, too, is looking at the $700,000 but then also considering being fully staffed, having enough control on our growth, as well as increasing our officers' salaries and how that would look. So if we can kind of project that, what would be a good number? I mean, I don't know, but I think that's good, which is why I asked earlier a few weeks ago about the plan itself, and so I appreciate it. That's all I have. Oh, one more thing. The appraiser, I want to know who the appraiser is. **Someone off mic said Preston King. \r\n\r\nPatti Lack, 4108 Forest Hill Road, approached the podium and said, so I just want to say is that I'm not either for this or against this. I know that there's a need, but is it the city's top priority right now? I was a little shocked when I saw in the newspaper that mayor, that you had already offered a price on the offer on the building. I thought that's probably on contingent whether or not you guys passed it or not, and I understand holding it. But I was a little shocked to see that, because I thought first we need to have that discussion first, and then go from that. I know I spent some time with Chief Elliott a couple months ago when you guys were thinking about the two other buildings that we were having and talking about how many people were displaced and thank heavens we had those locations for them. But I think on this one right here, is that not only all the numbers and the figures and stuff like that, you're looking at the cost of the building and the added $80,000 to the IT and some added cost there. I think one thing, too, that you have to think about is how much improvement are we going to have to do at the office on Caraway to make that conducive to the people that are going to be there at that location. So that's going to be an extra cost, and I haven't heard that. I think as city council people, I think here's just some of the things that just go food for thought that you guys have to think of before you say yes or no to.\r\n\r\nI know in the past city council meetings, I know Brian has said several times that the money is pretty tight. We haven't rehired our communications director. Some of the positions haven't been rehired, and other people are doing that. But I've heard the money is tight. There's an election in November. What's the economy going to be? How is it going to change? Is it going to change? I know that I've heard that there are 17 officers that still need to be hired, and I think the incentive program is a great incentive program, and I'm glad to see that we've got some hired. But once again, it's that you're going to have to move the budget for next year and keeping and maintaining those people so they stay on. I know Steve Purtee mentioned something about the sales tax. You know, it stayed up and down, not really great or anything like that. I hope that we're not all counting on the Sportsplex to be helping the city of Jonesboro. I think if we do this, it's that all of us are going to have to be responsible for bringing in new businesses and keeping the old ones here to make sure that our sales tax stays the same or higher. The Safety First team, I have to tell you, those guys are busting their butt trying to get 3,600 signatures to get it on the ballot. They're busting their butt, and I met with them, and I told them that one reason why I have an idea that this is not going to pass, and that's the thing, is that I don't think we can assume that it's going to pass, is that when it came out in the newspaper, is that here was a list of items that was listed as saying what we could do with that sales tax if it passed. People don't like this. They want a specific area of where that's going, and all these guys that I've talked to is that the needs that they have is talking about maybe a new fire station, looking at their safety gear and helping them out versus paying money on a building. So when you think of that, is that we're at, what, at 80,000 people? And I know we want to get to 100,000 people, but we're so far behind, we're planning to catch up. So how do we catch up if we don't pass the sales tax, but we get a new building, which definitely we do, but where's our priority right now? And I think when you look at all the needs of these, the people that are trying to get the sales tax passed, I don't hear any of what we're going to get other than maybe that money can go to the building. So I think what we have to do, and you guys have to do, and then plus two, people have their property taxes just increase. So you put a sales tax increase on a ballot, you're probably not going to get it passed. So I hope that if it's on the ballot, people pass it because we probably need it. But is it going to pass? It's going to be tough. It's going to be tough. \r\n\r\nAnd I think the last thing that I have to say to all of you, and I think this is, and, you know, thank heavens for your input here and the work that you guys do, but as of last year, and we haven't heard a whisper about this, and I hate to say his name, but we have no idea what's going on with the investigation with Danny Kapales. And when they're spending the money, is that the taxpayer is looking at all of you guys, of are you spending it the most wisely? Because if it was your money, would you invest it? And so to me, it's that it's a trust factor that people are going to be looking at best. But I hope you take into account all these ideas before you decide. Thank you. \r\n\r\nChairman Joe Hafner said, anybody else in the public or chief? You got a comment? Chief Rick Elliott approached the podium and said, yeah, just give a rebuttal to one of Ms. Lack’s comments about making changes. So, we're literally leaving one desk and going across town to another desk in all aspects. So whatever offices at Caraway that these people vacate, other groups are coming in and sitting at the same desk and going back to work. So, at best, there's maybe some paint that needs to be done, whatever, but that's just part of routine maintenance that the Maintenance Department handles. That's not part of this project. We're literally just picking up personal effects and shifting everything around, setting back down, and going back to work. As I said earlier, there's not a lot of big pieces of equipment to be removing. This is why this facility with all the furnishings is a deal. We're talking $150,000-plus in furnishings, and I think that's conservative. \r\n\r\nChairman Joe Hafner said, mayor is there anything else you want to say? Mayor Harold Copenhaver said, I’m good. Chairman Joe Hafner said, I just want to say I appreciate everybody's time and effort they put in today's presentation. A lot of good discussion, a lot of good questions, and let’s see where this goes. 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The motion PASSED with the following vote.","EventItemPassedFlag":1,"EventItemPassedFlagName":"Pass","EventItemRollCallFlag":0,"EventItemFlagExtra":0,"EventItemTitle":"ADJOURNMENT","EventItemTally":null,"EventItemAccelaRecordId":null,"EventItemConsent":0,"EventItemMoverId":1133,"EventItemMover":"Anthony Coleman","EventItemSeconderId":964,"EventItemSeconder":"Brian Emison","EventItemMatterId":null,"EventItemMatterGuid":null,"EventItemMatterFile":null,"EventItemMatterName":null,"EventItemMatterType":null,"EventItemMatterStatus":null,"EventItemMatterAttachments":[]}]