CITY MATTERS

All right, good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome. Computers are great when computers working. It's all I got to say about that right now. But anyway, it is time for city matters. So if it matters to you, it matters to the city. We've got some people who know a lot of words, and we're gonna let them do a lot of talking here today, right here on

Tom? Good morning.

We got to start out though, first by asking is it the computer or is it the person running it?

A little bit both. I'll just tell you it's a little bit of both. I like how you blame computer, but I'm suspicious.

Well, you know, you have every right in the world to be suspicious. You know, I'm not really the kind of guy that threw was people under the bus, but automation.

Yeah, clearly I am, because I just threw you right under it. I thought you, I thought your listeners would be curious about.

No, no, we're all good. We're all good. So big, big doings. We had a long, long, long city the other night.

Had a lot of items of substance and so, but it was interesting. A lot of these, a lot of what we were doing had to do with the Bartlesfield Next Plan, which is great because that's something that we have been working towards.

Uh, certain tasks associated.

With Is that the one that Larry's making, like Bartlesfield Now Plan?

Actually, yeah, yeah, that's right, plan within the plan.

So yeah, that's right, Planner's plan.

And so the Bartlesfield Next Plan identified several items of of priority in our city, sure, and in fact it created a completely new category of things for us to do, including well specifically, it was referred to as emerging issues, and so these were things that cities had not traditionally been engaged in, at least Bartlesvield not.

Traditionally been engaged in.

And one of those at the top of those merging issues were childcare. That is our community. We have great childcare facilities, we have great centers, we have great in home centers, but there does seem to be a shortage in capacity, and so I have now served on two different committees that were looking at this. Neither of those

Things of that nature.

So we spent a lot of time working on that, working through the state, trying to improve things there. The current committee is actually it's being led by the Barswoo Community Foundation of Lord Jensen, and it is focused more on the in home centers, and so we've had a lot of representatives from home child care centers, and during some of our discussions, for the first time, I realized that some of our city regulations were part of the issue, were part of the barriers for those in home centers.

Restrictive than the state.

We basically pulled those back and so that went to the Planning Commission, and then last Monday it went to the City Council. The City council adopted that, so those changes went into effect immediately, and like I said, essentially what it is is we did not want to be any more restrictive than the state, especially when the City of Artlesville is participating and advocating for child care centers and trying to loosen some of the regulations to make

So we've done a good job with that.

I think our process is now much simpler and easier and should benefit those in home centers. They're under very strict regulation for the state of Oklahoma, and we did not believe that we needed to be another layer in that.

So that was passed. The council passed it on Monday.

I think it went into effect upon publication, which would have been last week.

So those are that's now law.

One of the other items that was identified in the Barlsfield Next Plan was the rise in our unsheltered homeless population, and so this is when we did the next plan. We did a lot of public input. We had citizens oh we had actually citizen forums where city staff wasn't even present, So we had a facilitator who went and facilitated that without any of us, so that they didn't feel they didn't feel any pressure by city staff, that they could speak completely openly and honestly.

So he facilitated those meetings.

We had surveys, we had meetings with major employers, we had meetings with small businesses, we had meetings with economic development partners. So we spent a lot of time gathering input and this was one of the items that rose to the top as far as being a non traditional city concern, but at the same time was obviously a barrier to our community, or at least it was viewed by many people as a barrier.

To our community.

So after going through the Bartlesfield Next Plan, really all it was was let's begin to study this problem and try to determine if the city has a role, because again, this is not something the city has ever dabbled into the past. So council Member Quinn Shipper has actually had some experience.

With this in a previous community.

He was on the nonprofit side of it, and so he and I worked together to put together a resolution that started the process to form a task force. And specifically, the task force is not it hasn't been created yet. This what the council did last week was simply to start the process to create the task force. In November, the Council will actually seat the or not seat the task force. The Council will create it, and at that point in time it will determine exactly what types of

Much interest there is.

Once they're seated, then they have six months essentially to begin working on certain goals. And they are the goals that they're listed in here, which are important, but then there's also the types of solutions that they should be seeking that was listed and specifically, reading directly from the resolution, it says that through collaboration with local agencies. So I think that's important that the city, this is not something

Does the city have a role, do they not have a role?

Is there a coalition of nonprofits that are much better suited to this and that want to step up. So we haven't really decided what our role is, and I think that's appropriate that we approach this cautiously because we are we have limited resources just like everyone else. We don't have a lot of funds just sitting around waiting to be applied to something. So when counsel if they choose to allocate resources to homelessness, they will be taking

Look forward to that.

I always look forward to actually planning and being part of collaborative solutions. As we saw with childcare, we can have a role, sometimes it's unexpected role, and that instance, our role was is we need to reduce our regulations and get out of the way, and so hopefully something like that will develop. With homelessness, I think it's a more complex issue. It's probably the most complex issue in

And it's the same for Jason and the family. Just draves the car out there.

Mom, where are you? So we know that the course is closing on November first, Our contractor actually would like to start a few days earlier than that, so we gave them permission to begin stockpiling materials. But the course will be open all the way through October, but November first, it will be closed until it will be spring early summer next year, depending on the growing of the green.

That's a rare deal.

It is that that's right.

That is so we'll be moving away from that. We'll be looking to hire a class a professional with a business degree to run the golf course, so we get the best of both worlds. And then a lot of discussion about rates, but what was decided is that the current rates will remain in place until the course reopens, and so during that period of time we'll have that we'll have the latitude to explore those rates and determine if they're appropriate in what they should be.

So, but all that will be upcoming.

The last item that I had before I kick this over to Larry and Jason. We have a special event permit and so for anyone who requests city assets, city staff, or if they need to close the street or lease a city park, then they go through a process called special Event permit, and so that's done through through Larry's department. After two council meetings ago, council Member Dorsey asked me to review that because we had had to have.

A significant police presence.

At one of our special events and so he had asked me to review if there was a way to recover costs related to this. So I reported on that council at the council meeting and so essentially we reviewed. I reviewed a lot of cities, a lot of best practices as far as is was there a consensus among those cities as to how to handle this, And the answer is there is no obvious consensus. So we discussed that with council that there wasn't anything immediate that we

So I will look through. Actually I say I will look through.

My next step as I'll get my city staff together, including Larry. The only reason he knows about this because I sent him an invitation to the meeting, so well, he'll be part of.

This surprise and surprise, that's right.

So Larry and our police department and they will start developing some scenarios for how to for cost recovery on.

These special events.

And then what we discussed with counsel is we would start meeting with the organizers of these events after that. So we're very curious to know what is what's there there, what is their take on it? Does this damage their ability to hold events? These are our special events.

We have a lot of them. We have some great ones.

You mentioned Boufest, So there's a lot of a lot of great special events. And what we don't want to do is create a situation where again the city is is in the way of those events and we're damaging the event holder's.

Ability to do it.

So, but that will be that'll be coming up, So that will come back to the council at some point in the future.

It probably takes a couple of months to get through that process.

So and with that, I'm gonna throw this over to Larry because he's probably one of the busiest people in the city today.

We have.

In fact, he's missing a meeting right now to be on the radio. There is a meeting with the Planning Commission later today and the City Council.

It's a it's an open meeting. It is open to the public.

So and that is to review our comprehensive plan. And that's been a I'm going to say a labor of love, but I'm not sure that that's it appropriate labor.

It really has and that's you know, to kind of go into into those I'm sure as citizens know, as we've been talking about over the past year, as the conferhensive plan that the city has been going through, and it had you know, it's called Endeavor Bartles Will Endeavor, which is where the creation of our plan for the next twenty years. And to reiterate, it is a plan that covers almost everything in our city. Is talking about infrastructure, is talking about land use, is talking about just about

And that's a good thing.

That's not saying like, oh, it's so simple, but it was like it was just so fantastic to have so much involvement from our citizens that it wasn't pulling teeth.

It was they were giving information.

We didn't have to go and be like, Okay, it wasn't a silent room whenever we were Oh that's for sure. Yeah, which is and that's what we want because you want this is this is the communities plan, this is our citizens plan. This is not Larry's plan, this is not Mike's plan.

That's good beyond you.

And I exactly yeah, well wait wait wait twenty years, I'm wait.

Years, Larry, I'll be seventy. Yeah, I know, and so you know you long retire. No, no, no, forgotten. If I'm there, you're here.

That was the agreement.

That's no, that was the agreement that we made, is that as long as you're here, I'm here, and so that's you know, or vice versa.

So I'll be dust what I'm saving.

But again, it's been great and a lot of things happening within our our department you know, kbb key Bursel Beautiful is kicked off. They have selected some uh some short range projects. I'm really excited by that project. Yeah. Yeah. So we're looking at, you know, the red planters that we have downtown. We're looking at cleaning those up and doing a planting event with area nonprofits will be excellent. We're partnering with soon to be partnering with Up with

They've been incredibly successful in Tulsa.

They have and we got a donation from Phillip sixty six to helps kick that off. And so you know, I got a fifteen thousand dollars grant to help plant some trees. And so this is going to be a really amazing thing, really will Yeah.

And this is you know, we talked about what cities do well and what we don't do well. In Bartlesville, we had focuses on parks, which is primarily on maintenance of the parks, and in streets, which is primarily maintenance of streets, but we really didn't have any focus on beautification and those honestly.

Are part of parks, part of students, part of.

Our public spaces, and so KBB really fills fills.

And they are active.

I mean, they have tons of ideas.

It's a really cool group.

Yeah, it is. And I hate I hate being the guy that has to like rno baggers like, yeah, well well we'll.

Get there, don't worry, we'll get there. Let's leave that one out there.

Yeah, let's yeah, we'll get there. But they've been great, and Parks Parks Committee is going to have a lot of stuff to talk about. This mine from talking about what to do with Centennial Park with the old new old, I guess build a building there in Centennial in.

There since it was it was it was a state Centennial projects it would have been seven.

Yeah, so we're looking to reutilize that little building for for some uses and then uh, I know that they have some other great ideas they're going to before them.

So it'll be pretty fantastic.

Yeah, hopefully we can we can drive some utilization of that park and thank you to some of those facilities.

It's been a topic for a long time.

Yeah, that building in particular, So it would be great to have a plan for that. So anybody interested in the comp plan, Larry, what time and what should they do.

If they if they want to stop I as a workshop, it is being held in our downstairs conference room, so right next to the chamber. So if they want to pop in there, more than welcome to do that. It's at noon today. But if they have any thoughts or ideas, you know, we're still taking all thoughts and ideas open

And we can go from there. Perfect, very good, All right, Well, thank you, Larry.

I appreciate it, and I look forward to seeing that later today with everybody else. So, and we also have huh, I'm coming over, I'm.

Having front and center. Yeah.

So we we also have mister Jason Mnager here with us, our finance director Money J Money, I believe it or not.

I suspect that's been a nickname is.

At some point in past the whole life Jay money or just money one or the other.

We're both didn't have anything.

I don't have any money, and now you're now you're the money man. Though it's so stuffed more money, it's right. For some reason, she's just keep saying no. So all right, mister money man.

Well, not not a great month for sales tax I mean money at face value. So this this month compared to last year's October collection down about three point two percent.

It was about sixty two thousand dollars.

You know, if we go back historically the last two years where some inflated, this is really would be a good year.

You know, last month we collected a little over one point nine million. For that was one point eight so we're.

Really right on track with those even but compared to compared to last year, you know, we're down about three percent, which inn't all that bad because we're still for the year up two hundred and thirty six thousand.

You know, when you look back to that two years ago, it was up almost twenty percent for the year before. So there's a lot of little activity again, yeah, a lot of a lot of uneven.

We had such such growth from the you know, fiscal year twenty one, the fiscal year twenty two, and when we're reporting these numbers back, there's still really great months, but you're just going to be you know, one two, three percent below what we had collected in the past year. But they're really on par and and really much higher than what we saw prior to this year twenty one and beyonest.

Well, we're not making big historic movies like we did some of that year.

We have a lot of little pieces and we're getting some little films as well. As the prior month was you know, up almost eight and a half. Yeah, so it's a little bit of a big spin, you know, big spin in September and a little bit of a pullback in October.

So I think the little bit that goes game to me.

And so it looks like we've got two months that we were above last year and two months that we were below last year.

So where are we're.

We're one and a half percent above here today probably, so we're growing still.

We're still in the plus.

So we want to average growl about one and a half. And how does that compare to what we expected for the budget.

A budgetail we're up turn in thirty six thousand.

So and the reason is is because we actually budgeted for how big of.

A I believe it's one or one and a half percent.

There you go.

So it's about a three three percent swing in the other direction. So that's that's really good news.

And we have we have a guest now, so thank you, thank you Jason one last week.

Also down to use tax is far more bollatile than sales taxes.

But it's because you know, doesn't tell you how much dollar fluctuation to make a five percentage.

It's down about twelve percent for the year.

We're still still up fifty fifty thousand dollars, so still still still in good.

Shape on both of those. So, uh, we got to be qu and the beeches. You should be good.

Yeah, we do have so we do have a special guest sneaking in.

So this is well, I don't think I don't have to introduce you to this is. This is Tammy Brinkman. This is miss kW in radio.

Well, you know, I run the other end of the building.

Oh okay, she's on that end of the building. Yep.

So Tammy is joining us because she and I are participating in uh past Independence Dancing with the Stars, which is on November the.

Night the ninth.

This is why I looked at you. My memory is terrible. As we know, I can't learn to dance either.

So for working through that, they might breathe. That's so funny.

Ok, he totally forgets to breathe, Like you cannot hold your breath for three solid minutes.

You can, but but it's a really bad idea.

The things that we've learned is neither one of us are professional dancers, but we are having a really good time and we're raising many for a really great cause. So past independence. If you don't know about the school,

How many kids they had.

Yeah, and I didn't know anything about it until I became involved in Dancing with the Stars, which I got to judge it last year and was just so impressed with When I kind of dug into the program what it was about.

So if you haven't learned about it, I encourage you.

It's a great, great program to be a part of. If you're looking for a place to donate your dollars, we are taking votes.

How you vote. I have already sent on the link so you can vote for us.

So give bit about fifteen minutes and you can.

But for the first time, we've actually outgrown the venue, so the dinner is actually sold out that you can come watch us. I think they might have a hard time finding dancers because if they'd have told us this before Mike and I saw we might not be dancing. But you can still come to the venue. They've moved it into the community center the main hallway, so into the auditorium, so you can actually come watch the eight dancers, eight couples dance, so you can buy your tickets.

I promise it'll be entertaining, on point.

We don't know the dance is going to be on point, but we're gonna try to play hard. We're going to take you back to the eighties.

Because that was Mike's in my favorite time. It's his wife came and watched us practice last week she laughed really hard.

She mostly conceded that we were not good yet that we're working on.

And so you can donate money.

Five dollars equals by votes so to lessons unfortunately the children.

So we'll take your money. We will. Every dollar equals a vote.

So if you're looking for places to help us, then you can donate. You can buy tickets. If you buy a ticket, then you can scroll down and choose us to let your ticket vote count toward our please cause. And so how it works is fifty dollar donations, fifty percent judges scores, and that's how we can potentially go home with a Miraball trophy. So I think Tom's going to hook us up with a link where you can vote for us. And again it's all for past independence and artistic kids.

Always please choose us, please.

You've been watching and listening to our city batteris.

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