2026-09-30 - Ad Hoc Budget Advisory Committee

00:00Afternoon everyone.

00:02Do we want to start with a moment of

00:03silence? I know the mayor is not going

00:04to be here today.

00:16Okay.

00:18Tammy, are you going to share a screen

00:20or

00:22>> Yes, I'm first.

00:23>> Yep, you are first.

00:25>> Okay.

00:26I'm not as familiar with sharing a

00:28screen in Zoom. So you guys just bear

00:30with me while I try to figure out how to

00:31do that.

00:34>> It's the share with green arrow on the

00:36bottom of the screen.

00:38>> Just having like I'm having some

00:40technical difficulties.

00:43Come on Zoom. Can't get Zoom to show up

00:45on my screen. Okay, I think that is

00:49okay.

00:54There should be a number of screens that

00:56pop up and then you just select the um

00:59the one that's your presentation.

01:20And Tammy, I think you have

01:24your um your information showing up on

01:28screen instead of the slideshow like

01:30your um meeting information.

01:33[clears throat]

01:34>> You are so right. I just also could not

01:37that I'm telling you this this thing's

01:39crazy today. I also couldn't unmute

01:41myself. So we've got the first technical

01:43difficulty and the second one. Now, all

01:44I have to do is pull up the PowerPoint,

01:48which should be if it will let me touch

01:51it

01:52right here. There. Okay. Am I doing what

01:56I'm supposed to do now?

01:57>> Yes, we can see it.

01:58>> Okay. Beautiful. Okay. All right. So,

02:01I'm sorry everybody for that waste of a

02:03minute of your life that you can't get

02:04back, but I am up and running now. Ready

02:06to walk through the new program request

02:08for HR for 2027.

02:10And let's just get started. Uh first of

02:13all, we're asking for permission to

02:15upgrade one of our positions. We have an

02:18admin assistant three that's really

02:19started doing a lot in our recruitment

02:21area and has been um learning more more

02:25and more and more about recruitment as

02:26we try to dedicate more resources to

02:28moving our new hires through the process

02:30faster. We're asking to upgrade that

02:33position to an HR specialist from an

02:36admin assistant three on the recruitment

02:38side.

02:41And this is only my second time doing

02:43this. So I guess you know if any you

02:45guys need anything from me, if you want

02:47me to slow down for you to read or just

02:48kind of move through this, just kind of

02:50give me some direction if I'm going too

02:52fast, too slow, whatever. But we're

02:54thinking that's going to cost around

02:55$11,000 to do that.

03:02Secondly,

03:03we're asking to partner with Open Sesame

03:07Learning. They are the primary training

03:09content provider for LinkedIn. So we've

03:12bought this beautiful LinkedIn um I'm

03:14sorry for workday. We've brought this

03:15amazing workday software that's doing

03:17great things at the city but workday

03:20itself doesn't provide content for

03:23learning. So they partner with different

03:25companies and the one we like the best

03:27is Open Sesame. And if we partner with

03:29them, we'll be able to tie all of the

03:32learning activities that we need to

03:34assign to employees to workday and

03:37manage a lot of our professional

03:39development and learning opportunities

03:41through online learning on open sesame.

03:44And to purchase that for all city

03:46employees is about $80,000 a year. It

03:48gives us access to thousands and

03:50thousands of courses. And we can tie it

03:52to performance plans. we can tie it to

03:54where somebody's not doing great or

03:56where somebody wants to improve or if we

03:58just want to develop skill sets, we can

04:00tie all that in with that open sesame

04:02learning module that would partner with

04:04workday.

04:08Um, next I'm going to move on to there's

04:10one particular class that we'd like to

04:12host in person um for our supervisors.

04:15The place where we found that um we

04:17really think we could make the biggest

04:18difference in the coming year is a

04:20course for all of them on coaching

04:22employees and having difficult

04:23conversations. This is pretty much

04:26everywhere I've ever worked. The the one

04:28thing that is super super hard for

04:31managers to do is to have those

04:33difficult conversations upfront. So we'd

04:35like to bring in a skilled trainer to

04:37train that class for all 300 of our

04:40almost 400 now 400 of our supervisors.

04:42And that total request is about $30,000

04:44for that training.

04:49Going too fast, too slow. Anybody speak

04:52up? If not, I'm going to keep going at

04:54the same speed. Um, we're also looking

04:57to see if we couldn't purchase some

04:59compensation benchmarking software. Um,

05:02right now we've been for the past couple

05:05years, we've had money set aside um for

05:08the comp study for the vendor to um

05:10benchmark our jobs. But if we were to

05:12buy this software ourselves, we'd be

05:14able to get a lot better data on pricing

05:15jobs and maintaining that on our own.

05:19We're somewhere between the 10 and

05:21$20,000 range on this request. We've got

05:22two different softwares that we've

05:24evaluated, and it will cost between 10

05:27to 20 to get a good software per year

05:29that will help us benchmark our jobs.

05:32And let's see,

05:36next one is a new position.

05:39Um, when we step back and look at all

05:41the positions in HR right now, the area

05:44that we think we could make the most

05:45difference in helping to support the

05:46city is another HR analyst responsible

05:49for um to support our workday product.

05:52It's just it's a big big piece of what

05:54we do. We already have several resources

05:56dedicated it, but we'd like to have

05:58somebody to help with data integrity,

06:00reporting, testing, troubleshooting,

06:02continuing to support that that workday

06:05product that has become a big big piece

06:07of what we do every day in HR.

06:10And that total request is looking at

06:12around 110.

06:15We're um we're going to start this year

06:17our winterfest. Um and we're looking to

06:20have some funds dedicated to making that

06:22better next year, but this is a citywide

06:25annual employee recognition event that

06:27would bring staff from across the city

06:28together to celebrate the holiday season

06:31and acknowledge their contributions

06:32throughout the year. Um, we're basically

06:35going to have a full day of cookies and

06:38Christmas and holidays and anything we

06:40can do to help um recognize our

06:42employees um another time during the

06:45year.

06:47Current cost on that is expected to be

06:48around $30,000.

06:53Lastly,

06:55we want to purchase some software that

06:59lets us do spot recognition. And

07:01basically this type of recognition is

07:03where managers are working. They have a

07:05budget in the software. We we'd put

07:08about 85,000 into the software and that

07:10money is there for managers to pull from

07:13to recognize their employees with

07:15through either a a cup of coffee or a

07:18small little $5 Amazon gift card. This

07:21is not big recognition. This is just

07:22kind of the spot recognition that you

07:24give out when somebody does a good job

07:26from dayto day. Um, that's the type of

07:29software that we're looking for. And we

07:31would, this 85 is not to pay for the

07:34software. It's to fund the money into

07:37the software that our supervisors could

07:40use to do conduct spot recognition.

07:43And then this is our final summary of

07:45our request for this year. Um, all the

07:48way from priority one to priority 7. It

07:50was really hard to prioritize, but we

07:53had to put, you know, what we thought

07:54would give us the biggest bang for the

07:56buck the quickest here.

07:58And that is all of my presentation.

08:02Is there any questions?

08:13Okay. If nobody has any questions, do is

08:16parks ready?

08:23Amy, I'm still talking to Edmond. He's

08:25having some technical issues. I'm trying

08:26to work through it with him. Is it okay?

08:30Sorry, everyone.

10:12While we're waiting, does anybody have

10:13any other questions?

10:30So, just so you know, next week we will

10:33um we'll go over BFRC executive and it's

10:36budget

10:37and then we will start looking at um

10:40fact of life increases and the

10:44fun things we talk about during the

10:47budget process.

10:49Anybody has any questions on that?

11:06>> Council member Greg.

11:08>> Thank you. Um, yeah. Well, I guess Mike,

11:11it seems like every year we sort of get

11:13to the end of this and uh then we're

11:15like, you know, trying to figure out how

11:18we fund all these budget requests. Um,

11:20is there like an interim update you can

11:22give us maybe in the next couple of

11:24weeks so we're not getting into December

11:27scrambling trying to figure out how

11:29we're paying for what?

11:31>> Yes,

11:33>> that's kind of what we're we'll start.

11:34We're stucking into revenue projections

11:36and fact of life increases and then um

11:40just going through all of the department

11:42requests.

11:42>> Okay.

11:43>> Okay.

11:47And

11:47>> I think council member Greg is right.

11:49Just having a good sort of high

11:52confidence projection on revenues would

11:54really be helpful.

12:00I mean, I guess maybe what I'd like to

12:02see from a at this point is like if we

12:06took all of the departmental budget

12:08requests

12:08>> Yes.

12:09>> stacked it on, you know,

12:12>> the increase in budget that and then and

12:14then looking at that compared to

12:18um

12:20you know, any increased tax revenues

12:22we're receiving next year.

12:24>> Yeah.

12:26I I can't remember

12:27>> the the all the revenue projections that

12:30we have and then tell you with all of

12:32the requests how much out of budget we

12:34would be. Right. We we can do that. I'm

12:37sorry I interrupted you.

12:38>> No, no, no. I I can also couldn't

12:41remember. So,

12:43did we get um

12:46was reassessment

12:48last year?

12:49>> Okay. So, we've already seen all of the

12:52increases from the reassessment years in

12:54both Charleston and Barkley counties.

12:56>> That's right.

12:57>> Okay.

13:00But not that that's ever like a um any

13:03sort of financial boon for us because we

13:05have to adjust millage down anything.

13:08>> We can't Yeah, we cannot have a

13:10windfall.

13:12>> Hey guys, the mayor's on. Sorry, I got

13:14my uh uh time chase time change messed

13:18me up. Um, sorry I'm calling in late.

13:25>> We're just waiting on parks. Mayor,

13:30>> what else?

13:31>> We're just waiting on parks. They're

13:32having some technical difficulties.

13:34>> That's what I heard. Yes.

13:36>> Got it.

13:37>> And HR just presented [clears throat]

14:25All right. Ready? We're just trying to

14:27figure out what to do.

15:22And Amy, do you want to just reschedule

15:26parks for next Wednesday? Would that be

15:28best?

15:30>> I don't want to do that, but we might

15:32need to. Um, we're I'm trying to see if

15:34he can just join by phone and maybe send

15:36us their their slides so we can share

15:39the share the slides and he can just

15:41join by phone. So just I'm sorry to hold

15:44up. I really am.

15:45>> Yeah, I've texted I texted him that as

15:48well.

15:48>> Okay. Thanks.

17:58Amy Edmond's going to try to call in. He

18:00sent me his presentation so I can share.

18:03He's dialing in.

19:05Andrea, maybe we just need to call it.

19:09I mean, I know it will make next week

19:12very busy, but

19:14>> I think someone is trying to join now.

19:17>> Okay,

19:23Edmond, is that you?

19:25>> I'm here.

19:27All right.

19:29>> Apologize for this.

19:35>> Um,

19:35>> okay. So, um, I spoke with Andrew Jones

19:39and this is this is how we're going to

19:41do this. I sent him my slide deck. Um,

19:44he has that right now and he'll have to

19:47go through the slides and I'll just have

19:48to kind of read them blindly as we're

19:50going from slide to slide. So, apologize

19:52for this.

20:00Can everyone see the slide deck? Okay.

20:03>> Yes.

20:06>> All right. And then we're on your title

20:07screen. You can go ahead and go and I'll

20:08click through.

20:09>> Okay. Well, good afternoon and thank

20:11you, mayor, council, members, city staff

20:13for allowing me to present the budget

20:14request for 2027 facilities and capital

20:18project section. And again, I apologize

20:20for this um technological hiccup.

20:23Uh slide two please.

20:25>> Yep.

20:29>> So starting off with our mission

20:30statement, but I want to add to this

20:32mission statement a little bit. I just

20:33want to say that you know that our group

20:35here, we provide turnkey services to

20:38city employees and the public. We design

20:41and construct everything from small

20:42plantings and public spaces to new

20:44vertical construction. And currently our

20:47section is maintaining the majority of

20:48the city's assets to provide

20:50infrastructure for city employees to

20:51conduct business and enhance public

20:53spaces be enjoyed by the public. Um

20:57we're able to do this by the funding

20:59requests that we make this time of year

21:01and we fully understand the challenges

21:04of carving out funding for our services

21:07when we make these requests. There are

21:09so many needs throughout the city and we

21:11we truly understand that and we know

21:13that this is a difficult task. Um but

21:16the staff has assembled the these

21:18requests. We've weeded through them. We

21:20worked with BFRC on this and um here

21:23today present them.

21:27Andrew slide number three, please.

21:33This is our uh org chart and just really

21:35wanted you to see this is the upper

21:37management staff, but really just see

21:38the staff that we're currently managing

21:40in each division right now.

21:48And if you just bear with me one second

21:50here,

21:58>> Andrew, what do you have for slide

22:00number four? Do you have the ask at a

22:02glance?

22:04Um,

22:04>> I'm on the org chart. Next is your

22:06staffing requests.

22:11>> Okay.

22:17I apologize. I opened the wrong file. I

22:19have multiple ones here right now.

22:25Bear with me one second.

22:41Hey Edmond, would it be better that if

22:43we just um did this next week?

22:47>> It it would help me out right now

22:49because I'm flying a little blind. I

22:51made a couple of changes to the slides

22:53and I don't want to be reading the wrong

22:54information on the wrong slide. That

22:56would be outright embarrassing.

22:58>> Yeah, let's let's let's punt. I mean, I

23:00appreciate everybody's patience and I

23:02was on late. Um, we have technical

23:04difficulties. It happens. Uh, but I just

23:07think this is too important for us to,

23:10you know, um, not not have all the

23:14information readily available. So, if

23:16that works for everybody, we'll just add

23:18this to the agenda item for, uh, for

23:21next week.

23:25>> That works, Mayor. Thank you.

23:28>> All right, guys. Listen, appreciate

23:29everyone's patience. Thanks everyone.

23:31and Edmund, we will uh look to hear from

23:33you um a week from today.

23:36>> Great.

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