Statements by Fred A. Neil
1,535 statements from meeting recordings, newest meeting first.
Machine transcript. Statements are matched to this official by machine and can be wrong. Check the recording.
Feb 25, 2026, Regular Council Meeting
A yes vote means that you're going to deny the bill. A no vote means that you're turning it down and accepting the ordinance. Okay, is that understood?
Play from 2:27:06Feb 25, 2026, Regular Council Meeting
You're not basically saying that you don't agree with that motion. Then we have to bring that motion up then you
Play from 2:27:21Feb 25, 2026, Regular Council Meeting
All right. Fine. Call the question. Madam Clerk.
Play from 2:27:27Feb 25, 2026, Regular Council Meeting
Yeah, I think you've got to hit it.
Play from 2:33:47Feb 25, 2026, Regular Council Meeting
Point of order. Point of order.
Play from 2:35:50Feb 25, 2026, Regular Council Meeting
That's a yes.
Play from 2:35:59Feb 25, 2026, Regular Council Meeting
You're voting yes.
Play from 2:36:03Feb 25, 2026, Regular Council Meeting
No.
Play from 2:36:06Feb 25, 2026, Regular Council Meeting
She's voting no.
Play from 2:36:18Feb 25, 2026, Regular Council Meeting
Yes.
Play from 2:36:34Feb 25, 2026, Regular Council Meeting
No, she's voting no.
Play from 2:36:36Feb 25, 2026, Regular Council Meeting
I'm voting no, and I'm voting no, as I think that began the idea that it's a safety issue. The other issues are real. The issues of people who are incapable of taking care of, of being rational, because whether it's drug addiction, whether it's mental, or whether they've kind of given up hope, we've offered help, we have to offer help, we will continue to offer help, but for those who reject it, we still have the problem. We'll go back to the drawing board and see what we can do, but I'm voting in principle, that if a person strikes and hurts or kills somebody, it scars them for life. We should not have that,
Play from 2:47:07Feb 25, 2026, Regular Council Meeting
And that person should not have been hit, should not have been injured, and should not have been killed. And my vote is no.
Play from 2:47:07Feb 25, 2026, Regular Council Meeting
And with that, we come to city manager's announcements. Mr. Hugg?
Play from 2:47:32Feb 25, 2026, Regular Council Meeting
The mayor is not here, so we come back to council members' announcements. Yeah. Dr. Sudler.
Play from 2:47:39Feb 25, 2026, Regular Council Meeting
Other announcements? Uh Councilman Lewis.
Play from 2:49:43Feb 25, 2026, Regular Council Meeting
Councilman Anderson.
Play from 2:50:35Feb 25, 2026, Regular Council Meeting
Is that a shovel and clean up day?
Play from 2:51:02Feb 25, 2026, Regular Council Meeting
Any other council members? Hearing none, this meeting is adjourned.
Play from 2:53:01Feb 18, 2026, Construction and Property Maintenance Code Board of Appeals
Uh, just to just to follow up on it, she if she expresses being willing then, because we can find out why she didn't get the license. I mean, the you're the betwixt and between. We can forgive you for this, again, because it was late, we're not interested in punishing you. If she wants to get the license back so that it's no longer abandoned,
Play from 18:07Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
Yes. Please, Mr. Hugg. If you will, if I may make a few remarks before we start in terms of welcome.
Play from 00:04Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
Move to the next slide. Okay. Customer Customer Services, I'd like Andrea Griffith to come up. Again, you're limited to five minutes, focusing importantly on on what your most critical challenges are. Okay. And Andrea is probably, I guess, I'm not sure, the newest department head, but the newest in terms of people being on board. So, welcome.
Play from 20:05Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
You're on.
Play from 20:25Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
Next slide.
Play from 32:00Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
Yeah, Paul.
Play from 36:20Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
Um I was managed to take the whole 79 pages and reduce it into three for the entire presentation. What I have under you is one of those three pages is yours. And I think it's because of the demands that the public simply doesn't understand. You've already touched upon it. We don't control the market. We have a great crew, and I think what has happened through this this cold freeze period as an example, when it's bad, they're still out there. They're doing everything they can. Could not be more uh happy or or uh uh praise you enough in terms of what they've done. And that the future that and and and people say, "Well, you can't charge that much. You can't charge that much." But we have to, because we we can't control what the market is demanding of us to get the power, and then you have the cost of getting the power to the people. They just don't understand. So, I I and the other thing is and and concerns me is the fact that if we cut the margin too close, the cost of er getting or obtaining the uh capital projects is going to cost us more. In the long run, the the the taxpayer is going to pay more than that.
Play from 36:21Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
So this is the difficult part of trying to balance what we've just heard from you. And that's why I have so much of this that I basically captured in my Cliff Notes and in in my cheat sheet just to see what's happening. So it's a compliment for you, and I think uh one question that came to me is we made a a uh considerable investment in the Smart Energy Program. How many people have taken advantage of that to cut their electric rates? Do we have any figures to show how many people have accessed that program which is designed to save them money so that they're not spending as much on basically energy, on the electric?
Play from 37:36Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
Well, I don't think there's any question we have to get the word out even more so that there's help out there. So when people are complaining, they have a chance to basically lower their electric usage, which cuts the what the what their cost is. And again, it's what's happened has happened across the the entire nation in terms of the cost. I thank you, Paul, and I thank- I thank your crews. Every single time they go out, I make sure they- And I hope that no more squirrels get get killed in the process.
Play from 39:40Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
[laughter]
Play from 40:13Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
Save the squirrels. [laughter] I yield.
Play from 40:15Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
Mr. Anderson, you had a question.
Play from 1:00:00Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
Mr. Lewis.
Play from 1:05:51Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
Okay. Um, want to move forward a little bit. Thank you, Paul, for um however many minutes you were up here. We appreciate it.
Play from 1:08:56Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
Okay. Five minutes. Yeah. Thank you. Um, next next up is uh our Director of Emergency Management and Communications, that's her new title, uh new set of responsibilities. So, go for it.
Play from 1:09:03Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
Thank- thank you, um, Kay, outstanding job the EMS uh has done. Do you- I think it's worthwhile kind of covering the history of the fees that we have added for the services. Do you remember when we had St. Francis here, what occurred that this- that uh, and again, that was all the taxpayers' money. That was all the people who were paying property taxes were paying for all those services for everybody in the city. Uh what was the determination for us to switch to uh another company to uh basically uh set up a fee, and how much did that fee take away from the taxpayers that would have paid to have to pay 100% of all of those costs?
Play from 1:13:40Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
Up from what?
Play from 1:14:46Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
So basically, the fees, which were taking off of the property tax, so the property tax owner is not paying for the whole thing.
Play from 1:17:54Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
So that the nonprofits, which again are here in the amounts that uh Mr. Hugg has already talked about, they have to pay their share of this, keeping it off of the tax increase, which hasn't changed for what, three years?
Play from 1:18:01Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
Otherwise, it would be soaring. Would have to go up for that that price, each each what, $230,000, whatever. That that's a penny, right? So we've been able to keep that off and keep it down for that purpose and have the services and have actually more service for what than what what we were paying for.
Play from 1:18:12Jan 30, 2026, Council Workshop
I yield. Thank you.
Play from 1:18:25