001I call this meeting order. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance and the invocation following. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Dear God, please bless our elected officials. Grant them the wisdom to know and the courage to do what is right for all citizens. Amen. >> Amen. >> Roll call, please. >> Allan here. Leaffor >> here. Mr. Ravich >> here. >> Ricks >> here. Schultz >> here. Warren >> here. >> Yellen >> here. >> Good to see everybody made it tonight. We move on to approval of minutes for the regular meeting of October 20th. Is there a motion? >> I'll make a motion. >> Support. >> Motion's been made
002in support. Any discussion? Do you not? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Motion does pass. How about for the minutes for the workshop on the same evening, October 20th? Is there a motion? I'll make the motion >> support >> been made in support. Any discussion on that? Being that all in favor of the motion signify by saying I >> I >> against motion does pass. We move on to audience comments which I don't know that we have any comments. We have a lot of comments hopefully from our auditor. We will move on. Uh adoption agenda. Mr. City Manager. Any changes? >> No changes. >> Uh city council. Any changes? >> If not a motion to accept the agenda as presented be in order. Make a motion. >> Support. >> Motion's been made and
003supported. Any discussion? >> Being not. All in favor of the motion signify by saying I. >> I. >> Against. Motion does pass. We move on to the consent agenda. Is there a motion for the consent agenda? >> I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Support. >> Mot according to our rules. There's no discussion on the consent agenda motion. All in favor of the motion signify by saying I. >> I. >> Against. Motion does pass. We move on to items for consideration. We have six this evening. The first one being presentation of our fiscal year 2024 2025 city audit. Mr. City Manager. Council is scheduled to receive a presentation from the city auditors plant Moran on the fiscal year 202425 audit. Uh again this year the auditors were able to give
004an unmodified opinion which is the best opinion that can be provided. Uh and overall the city is in good financial shape and which will the audit presentation will show and Keith Shamansky from Plant Moran is here tonight to give the presentation. Keith, good to see you. >> Good evening. Nice to be with you again. Happy to say uh I don't know if I've mentioned this lately. I've actually worked on the city's audit each of my 18 years with Plant Moran and I'm happy to be here as the first time as the engagement partner on the audit. So >> congratulations. shoes to fill with Dave Harrington who's enjoying retirement, but looking forward to working with the city for many years to come. >> Very good. >> Happy to say um as Mr. City Manager mentioned, we've
005got a clean audit, many positive results to go over once again, including an unmodified opinion on the financial statements. So, I'll keep things relatively short and sweet, but happy to answer any questions council might have. Not going to go over the 50-page financial statement document in any detail. Instead, you should have a brief PowerPoint graph presentation. um that will summarize the results. So, diving right into that, slide number one is a five-year history of general fund revenue. In total, general fund revenues did decrease in fiscal year 2025. However, if you note the one-time items, um sort of the greenish teal section at the top of some of the previous years that 2024 included more than a million dollars of one-time non-recurring items, including a nearly $1 million donation for the library. So excluding that, for
006the most part, revenues were on track with where they had been in previous years. Property taxes remained the largest source of revenue, making up about 65% of the total. Taxable values throughout the city increased for the ninth straight year coming out of the Great Recession. And that revenue source was up more than 7% compared to 2024. Moving on to slide number two, a similar 5-year history. This time, general fund expenditures. And while general fund revenue did decrease, so too did expenditures. They were down about 4% compared to the previous year. As we typically see, public safety is the largest category of expenditures, making up about 43% of the total in 2025. As you might see, if you look at um each of the categories compared to the previous year, both public safety and public work
007expenses decreased compared to 2024. And the one significant increase was in transfers out and in particular um support to parks and recreation increased by a little bit more than $300,000 compared to the previous year. Moving on to slide number three. Got the last five years of general fund fund balance. So this is the equity in the general fund. Also sometimes referred to as your rainy day fund. This is the cumulative um fund balance of the entire history of the general fund including the years in which revenue exceeded expenditures. There was a slight decrease in fund balance of about $260,000 in 2025 as the expenditures did exceed revenue. However, um that was budgeted and the actual decrease was a fair amount less than what was budgeted and tracked throughout the year. About 62% of the fund
008balance is classified as unassigned, meaning it's available for any potential uses. There are no restrictions or obligations as to how that money can be spent. The other categories of fund balance include $976,000 of restricted fund balance that's residual from the library donation. It can only be spent for library purposes. And $199,000 is assigned, which is the planned use of fund balance in the fiscal year 2026 budget. So, should that amount be necessary in 2026, it's already assigned. Um, while it leaves close to $2 million still unassigned, which is a healthy amount compared to the city's annual budget. Lastly, on slide four, we switch gears away from the general fund and look at the sewer and water funds. Um, with the sewer being on the left, we're charting two financial measures here. The blue line is
009working capital, which is current assets minus current liabilities. essentially the liquid assets that are on hand to fund operations and the orange line is operating income for just the last year. So operating revenue minus operating expenses. Looking at the sewer fund, there was a small operating loss of about uh $29,000. However, that includes more than $400,000 of depreciation expense, which is a non-cash item, just an accounting measure of the use of capital assets years after they've been placed in service. Working capital decreased just very slightly, but still remains about $2.5 million. Switching over to the water fund, there was positive operating income, a little bit more than $10,000, and a slight decrease in working capital. However, as was the case with the sewer fund, the working capital of the water fund remains very healthy. So,
010[snorts] no areas of concern with either of these two funds, the city's done a nice job um containing expenses, making sure that the revenue aligns with it so that both operations as well as capital and any debt service are funded from [snorts] the funds while maintaining adequate reserves. So, that's all I had on the financial highlights for the last year. There is another deliverable in your packets, an end of audit letter addressed to city council. Um there isn't a lot outside of the ordinary or the or the boilerplate language in that letter. We do mention there was a new accounting pronouncement implemented in fiscal year 25. That was Gatsby statement number 101 which relates to compensated absences, paytime off, sick and vacation available to employees. So while that did have to be calculated using a
011slightly different criteria than what existed in the past, it overall did not have a significant impact on the city's financial statements. That letter is also where we would report any internal control related matters if we saw um potential conflicts of interest or if we identified any misstatements as part of the audit, but we did not. So there are no such items to bring to your attention. Uh which really is a tremendous credit to Angel once again. So, uh, we really thank her for her cooperation and assistance throughout the audit. She's done a great job of, u keeping track of all the city's activities both throughout the year and in all the efforts that go into closing the books as of June 30th of each year. So, we really thank her for that. In closing, uh,
012once again, pleased to work with the city um, and working towards another successful audit. I and the entire team love coming to Richmond for a week or two each summer and working with John and Angel. Um they really are extremely professional. We get the audit done um quite effectively and everything goes very smoothly year after year. And that's that's hard to say u particularly as we see accounting positions turn over at other municipalities and they struggle to find quality help to fill those positions. The city really has been very steady and has benefited um from Angel's presence for the last several years. So, with that, I'm happy to pause and see if there are any questions. >> Council, any questions? It's pretty clear here. [laughter] Looks like we're doing a great job. And, uh, uh,
013we certainly appreciate, as have as you stated, our city managers and Angel's abilities to handle uh, you know, huge responsibility here and, uh, they keep us enlightened every month. We know exactly where we stand, what we have left in our funds, and everything else. So that that's really helped us as a representing the people of this city, making sure their their [snorts] tax dollars are being used wisely. And um she's pretty tight over here, too. She gives them a hard time if we go outside. But hey, that's great. She's done a great job. And and and you know, when we've had to, you know, emergencies, uh things that we couldn't plan for or budget for, we figured it out. and and they've done a great job of telling us how we can go about doing
014that at at the least expense to the taxpayers. So, um we're really happy with the crew that we have and we're happy in Plant Moran. Uh you said 18 years >> for me personally. Yes. >> For me personally. Yeah. And I I can't imagine how many years it's been that we've had Plant Moran. It's been a long time. >> Yes. >> I've been here for 30. So, it's been all all of 30. >> Yes. >> So, no, we really appreciate that and hope that Dave has a great retirement also. you know, we really we really uh entrusted him like we entrust you now uh to tell us what's going on. If we're screwing up, we you know, we need to know and we know you people will let us know. >> We will man's a
015very prestigious uh organization. So, um we appreciate it. Again, >> thank you. Appreciate those comments. >> Any other comments? Is there a motion? I'll make a motion to receive and file the city of Richmond June 30th, 2025 financial report with supplemental information from plant moran. >> Support motion made in support. Any discussions? I don't know if we should say any more about Angel. I mean, Keith really laid it on this year how good she is. >> No, I I would mention just thanks to Angel. Uh she does a great job not only with the audit but throughout the year. Uh, and the audit's not just the two weeks that the auditors are here for, but there's a lot of prep work involved and for a oneperson treasury department to get prepared for that. I think
016Keith can attest that uh she does a great job getting ready for the audit as she does throughout the year. >> Yeah. Yep. Well said. Any other comments? All in favor of the motion signify by saying I. >> I. >> Against. >> Motion does pass. Item number two, consideration of adopting resolution 2025-16, lease purchase Pierce PNC tanker truck. Mr. City Manager, council's scheduled to consider approving a resolution which authorizes a lease purchase proposal from Pierce uh in cooperation with PNC Bank to purchase the new tanker truck for the fire department. Uh previously council approved the purchase of the 30,000galon tanker from Pierce with delivery anticipated in mid December. Uh we had previously gone over uh different financing financing options from banks and and also from Pierce and partnership with uh PMC. Um our recommendation is
017to go with that uh partnership uh has some several advantages uh along with um the lowest interest rate. uh it allows us to kind of schedule that first payment uh out one year which provides for us to kind of replenish the equipment fund after some uh recent vehicle acquisition um so that we don't have to borrow more from the general fund. Uh based on our review uh of the end of the year audit numbers, uh Angel and I are recommending going with the seven-year uh lease purchase plan with the $200,000 down payment. And that'll make the annual payments uh fit within our fund uh contributions per the fire contracts. >> Very good. Angel, anything [clears throat] to add to that? >> Pretty much covered it, did he? >> Yes. >> Very good. Very good. Is
018there a motion? >> I'll make a motion to approve resolution 2025-16 a resolution uh authorizing the city of Richmond to enter into the lease purchase agreement with PNC Bank National Association. support >> been made and supported. Any other discussion? [clears throat] >> Did we just sign contracts with uh the townships that we serve? >> Uh yes, I think these are are we in our second year? >> Second year of a fiveyear. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Any other questions, comments? Being not. All in favor of the motion signify by saying I. >> I. >> Against. Motion does [snorts] pass. Item number three is consideration of purchase waste water treatment plant grit pump replacement. Mr. City Manager, >> council is scheduled to approve the purchase of a replacement GR grit removal pump at the wastewater treatment plant.
019Uh the public service director budgets $30,000 each year in the wastewater treatment plant budget for uh equipment uh replacement. Uh and this pump recently failed. Uh we were hoping that we might be able to rebuild it, but uh unfortunately uh we do need to purchase a new pump. So uh Jim did get quotes. Uh Gorman Rup is the low bidder and Jim is here if you have any technical questions. >> Anything to add to that, Jim? >> Uh nothing. Thank you. [laughter] >> I should talk less and let them talk. >> Yeah, just let them know, John. Yeah, sure. Is there a motion? I'll make a motion to authorize the expense of $17,840 for the purchase of one self-priming Gorman Rup grit pump from Dubas Cooper with expense charge to appropriate line item in the
020sanitary sewer fund. >> Support most made and support. Is there any discussion on this? We got pretty long life on that previous motor. >> Uh we did. Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. Great. But I mean it does not run it doesn't run 24/7. It's as needed that they utilize it. >> Yeah. But is it the a container that it's in gets so high and then it turns on? >> Uh essentially. >> Yeah. Okay. >> All right. Is it going to help at all that we've got these new uh uh bulkheads on Main Street? Uh >> the anytime we can reduce grit coming into the plant is a benefit. >> Is beneficial. Okay. Sounds like a politician, doesn't he? [laughter] >> All in favor of the motion signify by saying I. >> I. >> Against. >> Motion
021does pass. Item number four is consideration of special request from the Richmond Little League over the road banner. Mr. City Manager. >> Council scheduled to consider an across the road banner request from Richmond Little League for two banners announcing online registration open. Uh about five years ago, um Little League also took over uh registration and running of the uh softball age group program. And so they started using two two banners. Uh so this time they're asking for uh them to go up in November. Uh they normally do that in the fall and then they'll come back like sometime in the winter after the holidays and do another uh two weeks. So, administration has recommended that they go up tomorrow, November 4th through Monday, November 17th, at which time we'll transition to the city's uh home
022for the holidays banner and the community theater uh banner. >> Very good. Is there a motion? I'll make a motion to approve the across the road banner request from Richmond Little League for two banners for their res registration event from Tuesday, November 4th, 2025 through Monday, November 17th, 2025. >> Supportment made and supported. Any discussion on this item we do every year [clears throat] being not all in favor of the motion signify by saying I. >> I. against. Motion does pass. Item number five is consideration of adopting resolution 2025-17 for public act 152. Mr. City Manager, >> council is scheduled to consider adopting resolution 2025-17, which uh complies with the provisions of public act 152. Each year beginning at the beginning of our coverage year for health care, city council must determine if it is
023going to how it is going to comply with public act 152. There's really three options. Uh we could either comply with the hard cap which uh sets a dollar limit of how much we contribute. uh we can split the cost 8020 uh with the employer an [clears throat] employee or we can opt out and set that limit at uh whatever we have negotiated with. uh since the >> [snorts] >> uh inception of public act 152, we has we have always taken uh option three uh which allows us to opt out of that act and then set the limit based on our contract negotiations with our unions as well as uh discussions with our non-affiliated personnel. Um and so again, we're recommending doing that this year. >> Thank you. Is there a motion? I'll make a
024motion to approving resolution 2025-17 electing to comply with the provisions of public act 152 of 2011 by exercising the city's rights to exempt itself from the requirements of the act for the next succeeding healthc care plan year support >> postman made and support any discussion on this item we always found it important to keep our health um insurance for our employees as best as we can afford to do and I this allows us to do that. >> Correct. And I would say as time has gone on and healthcare costs have risen more and more communities are going to this option that we're doing. >> Mhm. >> Yeah. >> Very good. Okay. Anything else on this? Being not. All in favor of the motion signify by saying I. >> I. >> Against. >> Motion does pass.
025Our last item is consideration of board appointment to the library. >> Council is scheduled to consider making an appointment to fill a vacancy on the library board. We have uh included in your packet an application from Darlene Pinsky. >> Is there a motion? I'll make a motion to appoint Darlene Pinsky to the library board for a two-year term with an expiration date of June 30th to 2000 or I'm sorry 2027 >> support >> motion made and uh supported there. Any uh conversation on this item? We kind of when we had her uh >> retire retirement party the other day, we We said that uh you can how how'd that old song go? You can >> you can check out anytime you want, but you can never leave. >> You can never leave here. >> And
026so we presented her at that time that she needs to sign up to be on the board. And who better than somebody that worked there and has done such a wonderful job in all the years that she worked at the uh library. So u really happy that uh she did this and uh especially at this time. She also served as one of the employees on our uh expansion of the library with the the donation that we received. So, it's we're just going to keep that committee will just keep on floating along until we figure out what we're going to do here. So, um really appreciate that and of course congratulations on her retirement from the from the uh uh library itself. So, is there any other discussion? Being not all in favor of the motion
027signify by saying I >> I >> against motion does pass. We thank her. Um moving on miscellaneous matters from the city manager. Sir, >> uh I would like to thank the recreation department and the businesses and organizations that came out and put on a really great uh Halloween event. Uh we had moved it to the main municipal parking lot uh last Friday night and it did uh it was a great venue to have it there and a lot of very positive uh comments. >> Very good. Um and and update where we at with uh Main Street uh the sewer program >> the the water main replacement project. >> Yes. Uh they're they're doing concrete restoration this week and so we anticipate the asphalt patching and brick paver, that type of work next week. So by
028Thanksgiving, I'd expect we'll be in very good shape. >> Okay. Now, uh somebody questioned me um to uh get the grass uh to grow. Is it too late? >> It is. >> It's too late now to see. >> It'll probably be seated as dormant seed, but it certainly will not grow or become established till the spring. >> Okay. Okay, very good. A lot of people are patiently waiting for Main Street to put back together again. Okay. Um, council comments. Michael, >> uh, nothing tonight. Thank you. >> Nothing. >> Jimmy, >> nothing tonight. Mayor >> Emily, >> nothing. Thank you, John. [clears throat] >> Nothing, >> Nick. >> All set. >> All right. Well, let's see. Um, we have hall walking starts tomorrow. that's going to be held at the Richmond Elementary School um as it
029has in the past. It's going to be Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursdays. Uh it will start tomorrow and run through April 16th. There is a $1 charge. Uh you can get a deal if you get a punch card. Any questions on that? Call our recck department at 7273064. Uh we already started the teen open gym at the odd. It runs two to four on Sundays and that's a drop in fee of $3 per person. The uh uh odd is also open from 5 to 7 every Sunday for adult open gym and that is uh $4 uh per adult. We have a welcome back to the odd every Tuesday starting November 11th. Uh the will be having an afterchool program running from three to five per uh $3 per person or punch cards are available. Again, questions
030on that item. 7273064. Coming this fall to the odd uh is the Toy Town Treasures toy sale. That's going to be held on November 15th. Uh doors open at 9:00 a.m. till noon. It's a entry fee of a dollar per person or bring a non-p perishable food item to donate to St. A's uh which is the community's food pantry. If you're interested again uh to be a vendor or otherwise you can call 7273064 to the parks and wreck or you can call directly to the odd at 5864304950. And don't forget to vote tomorrow. Um we do have uh an important issue there for the schools. Uh and uh the four four of us are up for reelection and uh we appreciate the support support because nobody's running running against us. So um we uh we
031still think you need to get out there and vote especially for the school uh item that uh you've heard about. There is a uh historic uh lecture. It's going to be held at uh Rags, but I think actually did I read that that's going to be held at the community center? I >> believe it's the community center. Yeah, it's it's put on by Rags, but held at the community center. >> Yeah. Okay. So, that's going to be this Friday, the 7th. Uh I don't have a time on that. Um again, call 7273064. They can probably tell you the time uh for that historic lecture. uh week from tonight, library board will be meeting at 5:30. Um and that will be our organizational meeting at 8:00 on Monday the 10th where we select our mayor and
032mayor prom. Um Veterans Day is on the 11th. City Hall, the library, and the community center will be closed. That's on Veterans Day, November 11th. Planning Commission, I'm not sure We are having a meeting um that is going to be held on the 13th at 7:00 right here at uh city hall. And of course, two weeks from tonight will be our next regular city council meeting right here at city hall at 7:00. Um there was a question, Mr. City Manager, that I had there. There it is. Okay. Um >> the yard waste ends November 24th. So that's a week of Thanksgiving. So, we should probably be in pretty good shape. >> I I from the looks of it, I think we'll be in pretty good shape. Yes. >> Okay. If necessary, like we've done in
033the past, we've always gone back and asked. >> I I can check with priority on their availability to do that. Yes. >> Yeah. Just in case, but it looked like it was blown pretty hard today. And yeah, it >> almost lost my car door. Yes. >> Yeah. It took a lot took a lot off uh what was remained on a lot of the trees. So, that's it for the calendar. Thank you again to Parks and Rec for putting on the uh Halloween event. It was a new venue as the city manager stated and uh seemed to work very well. So, we appreciate everybody that was involved and I know uh our neighborhood picked up quite a bit because of that because we're closer to the uh municipal parking lot than we are to the uh
034fire hall and uh there was at least another, >> my wife said probably at least 100 more kids that came down our street also. So, uh, that was good. And that way there's a lot of can candy cuz I told her you got you got to expect, you know, I said expect a thousand, you know. So, she there's a lot of candy there left over. So, anyhow, other than that, um, any uh other business of the city council this evening? If not, >> I'll make a motion to adjurnn. >> Support. >> Uh, all motion's been made in support. All in favor of the motion signify by saying I. >> I. against motion does pass. Thanks for being with us.