San Angelo City Council 10-7-25

[0:00:00] 8:31 we finally have all in attendance. SMD2 was finally blessed us with his presence and showed up. I guess the traffic was hard up there on that side of town, but we'll call this meeting in order at 8:32. And with that, we're going to start off with our chaplain prayer and pledges. Johnny, let's lead us through it. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you this morning with our h heads bowed down. We seek your guidance and all that matters that come before this council today. Please touch the hearts and the minds of all the council members as they process through all the make the decision-making that's necessary here today that affects our city and our citizens. May their lips praise you and proclaim your goodness. May their work give you honor and their voices, excuse me, celebrate you. And I ask all of this in the name of Jesus Christ, your son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen. >> Amen. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible. Honor the Texas flag. One and indivisible. We'll start off this morning with some proclamations and recognitions. And as we start the proclamation for each group, I would like that group to come up and stand beside me to my left as we read the proclamation. fire prevention week. Come on down.

[0:02:15] >> Why don't y'all stand right over here? >> Okay. Little bit further. I want my FaceTime. I want my FaceTime. Perfect. Yeah. Okay. Okay, now you know what everybody else wants to do. All right. The city of St. Angelo is committed to ensuring the safety and security of all those living in and visiting our community. Fire remains a serious public safety concern for both locally and nationally. And the presence of lithium-ion batteries, and many household devices, introduce unique fire risk. Most of the electronics used in homes daily include smartphones, tablets, laptops, power tools, ebikes, e- scooters, and toys are powered by lithium ion batteries, which if misused, damage, or improperly charged, can overheat and start a fire or explode. The National Fire Protection Association reports an increase in battery related fires, underscoring the need for public education on the safe use of lithium ion batteries. Residents should follow three key calls to action. Buy only listed products, charge batteries safely, and recycle them responsibly to prevent battery related fires. Lithium ion batteries store a large amount of energy in a small space. And improper use, such as overcharging, using off-brand chargers without safety certification or exposing batteries to damage can result in fire or explosion. The city of St. Angelo's first responders are dedicated to reducing the occurrence of fires through prevention, safety education, and community outreach. The 2025 fire prevention week theme, charge into fire safely. Lithium ion batteries in your home serves to remind us of the importance of using charging and recycling lithium-ion batteries safely to reduce the risk of fires in homes and communities. Therefore, I, Tom Thompson, mayor of the city of St. Angelo do hereby proclaim October 5th through October 11th as fire prevention week. Photos here

[0:04:52] Good morning. I'm uh Deputy Fire Marshal Eric Martinson. Uh so fire prevention week, we get out into the schools and talk to the kids. It's uh basically a um a team effort between us, the kids, and the parents. So, we talk to the kids. The kids go home and talk to the parents and hopefully the kids are able to change their mind about some unsafe stuff going on in the home, right? Uh so, specifically charging scooters, phones, just about everything that we have in the house that's rechargeable is a lithium ion battery. All right? So, please make sure that you only charge your phone just enough. Okay? Don't leave it on the charger all day. Don't leave it on the charger all night. That's all I got. >> Thank you. >> One of y'all hold up for the signed copy after you just convicted me of everything that I do wrong with the battery. There you go. You're welcome. Thank y'all. Do all of that wrong. >> My gosh. Okay. Habitat for Humanity. Do we have any representatives of Habitat? Pam, Steph, Angela, Morgan. I remembered four names this morning. >> Better than normal. World Habitat Day and Affordable Housing Day. On Monday, October 6, 2025, Habitat for Humanity of St. Angelo joined with partners around the world in raising awareness, education, and mobilizing individuals and communities to act on the current global housing crisis. Habitat for Humanity of St. Angelo joins

[0:06:55] our partners to rededicate ourselves to recognizing the basic right of everyone to adequate shelter. We ask everyone to join us on one global network in communicating the message that every one of us deserves the opportunity for a better future. A safe place to live can remove batter barriers to opportunity, health, and success for growing families now and for generations to come. Habitat for Humanity began in 1976, starting as a grassroots effort on a community farm in southern Georgia. The Cristonia Housing Organization has since become a leading global nonprofit, working in more than 1300 communities throughout the United States and in more than 700 in more than 70 countries. Families and individuals in need of a hand up partner with Habitat for Humanity to build and improve a place they can call home. Habitat homeowners help build their home alongside volunteers and pay an affordable mortgage. Everyone can help families achieve the strength, stability, and self-reliance they need to build better lives for themselves. Locally, Habitat for Humanity, St. Angelo, Galilee Community Development Corporation, the city of St. Angelo stand together to help ensure we can call all to we can call and provide affordable housing throughout our community through shelter we empower. Therefore, I Tom Thompson, mayor of the city of St. Angelo, Texas, on behalf of the city council, do hereby proclaim Monday, October 6, 2025 as World Habitat Day and Affordable Housing Day in St. Angelo, Texas, and call this observance to the attention of all other citizens. >> Pam, would you like to talk? >> So, I want to thank Mayor Thompson and the honorable city council for the proclamation. Um, and I want to um shout out to the city of St. Angelo as well as as Stephanie Hamby from Galilee Community Development Corporation. We're all doing the same thing. We're trying to make sure that everybody has a safe and and and just a safe place to live. Um we've built over 80 homes since we started

[0:08:58] here at Habitat here in St. Angelo, Texas. That may not sound like a lot of homes over the years that we've been here, but these 80 families would not have had their own home. They wouldn't have owned their own home had it not been for Habitat. um they're paying an affordable mortgage. Um we are starting another home at the beginning of the year for another family. These families are working poor. They come in every day. They apply for a home. Um they go to work, they go home, they've got children, and yet they can't walk into a bank and get a a home loan like everybody else does. These people just can't. they they just can't get a traditional loan. So, they come in, they partner with us, and they pay us their mortgage. Um, so we're the bank and it's an awesome feeling to help these people get into their home. It's even a better feeling whenever they pay off their home. So, out of those 80 homes that we've p that we've built, um, 35 of them have now paid off their homes. So, we're carrying about 30 something mortgages still. So, it's great. Anybody else? Now, if we can have somebody to come up here for the virtual art capital of Texas. Oh, absolutely. Right there is perfect. All right. This

[0:11:03] is a proclamation for art and uncommon places will host the inaugural visual art capital of Texas mural festival on October 18th, 2025, celebrating St. Angela's creative spirit and heritage of cowboys and creatives. The festival will commission install 16 large-scale murals throughout the cultural arts district and across the city, strengthening St. Angelo's standing as the visual arts capital of Texas. Visiting and local artists will collaborate with residents, schools, and businesses, leaving lasting works that beautify public spaces, inspire young people, and tell our community story. Visual Arts Capital of Texas Mural Festival will generate measurable economic benefits as out of town artist, crews, and visitors stay in local hotels, dine in our restaurants, and shop with local merchants, supporting small businesses and our hospitality workforce. The city of St. Angelo recognizes that public art advances placemaking, tourism, education, and community pride, and helps us maintain and elevate our title as the visual arts capital of Texas. Therefore, I, Tom Thompson, mayor of the city of St. Angelo, do hereby proclaim October 18th, 2025 as visual art of Texas Mural Festival Day, and call upon all residents to celebrate the arts and the installation of new murals across our city and express the city's intent to recognize Mural Fest annually in the years to come. Julia, would you like to say a few words? I >> think I think that pretty well covered it. Uh, I want to say thank you, mayor, and councilman for us having the opportunity to speak in for all of the lovely artists that we have in our community, which is a high performing group of over 300. For Murfest, they will be flying in from all over. I really encourage you to come because they start in the morning and they paint and at the end you'll get to see what the gift is going to be to the city and these pieces will go out among uh wherever we're going to you'll have to look and find out anyway. But please come for that day. It's going to be a really great thing and it is really

[0:13:06] helping to brand us in the arts which we need to keep this title because it's bringing so many people to our city. in our studio. I have people come in. I'm saying why are you here? And they are saying that they we are hitting as an art city to visit. And so we really need to keep branding that. And I'm really grateful to our donors. We wouldn't be standing here. And I'm also very very grateful to the artists. When we first began, uh, Paintbrush Alley and Pop Art, which is very highly trafficic, more than I ever thought they would be, uh, every artist gave their work and now we are able to give stipens and, you know, really celebrate them for what they do. But again, I hope you will join us on October 18th and we're looking forward to it and thanks so much. We appreciate everybody. We have someone here for the United Way. Haven't seen y'all. >> No, not at all. >> Past few months. Welcome up front. The mission of the United Way of the Concho Valley is to pro to provide how a cross-section of our community may join in a communitywide effort to provide and deliver health and human service programs which address current needs in a collective and collaborative manner. In 2024, more than 90,000 local Concho Valley residents and over 62,000 being citizens of San Angelo benefited from the United Way of the Concho Valley contributions through the United We Read programming and social service agencies that provide emergency food and shelter, day and afterchool programs for children, mental health services,

[0:15:09] substance use treatment and prevention, services for victims of child abuse and domestic violence, homelessness prevention and outreach, and many others. The objective of the United Way of the Cono Valley is to assist in the expansion and development of service programs, promote preventative activities, and foster cooperation among local, state, and national agencies serving the community. The United Way is ready to assist all individuals with whatever needs may arise in the city of St. Angelo, ensuring that every individual can thrive. The city of St. Angelo supports the United Way of the Concho Valley, and we ask that you do the same. Therefore, I, Tom Thompson, the mayor of the city of St. Angelo on behalf of the council do hereby recognize and applaud United Way of the Concho Valley for its achievements and positive determination to make a difference in our community. >> I know somebody's got some words. >> Well, good morning. My name is Ashley Ammons and I am the president and CEO at the United Way. And I would just like to start by thanking Mayor Thompson, the city council, um all city staff, um and then of course the people of this community. Uh this year, United Way celebrates our centennial. We've been able to provide services for a hundred years. That's right here in St. Angelo. That's not anywhere else. That's right here. So for a hundred years, this community has been diligently supporting us, whether that's their time, their talent, their treasure uh for the United Way. There are three staff. We're missing one of us cuz she's at another meeting right now. Um, and so we could not do what we do without this community. We have about 120 volunteers that come in day in and day out that help us do this work. Um, and so we are super grateful. Um, because of you, we've been able to do that. Um, and because of this community, we're able to to provide that hand up. Um, you know, we've at United Way, we always talk about living united. It's not a slogan and a hashtag. And unfortunately, on July 4th of this year, we saw how important that was. But we couldn't be more proud to be a part of this community um with our first responders, with the city, with the county, with the state, our federal government, all of our local agencies and people who showed up um to to be that neighbor that we

[0:17:12] know. So, thank you all so much. Maryanne, are you here? Get your solo performance up here. This this one's personal for me and Maryanne, I can't thank you enough for bringing this and I want to congratulate. So, let me read this and then we'll go forward. The James Phillips William Memorial Foundation was created in 198 1985 following the tragic pass passing of James Williams, son of Dr. Harvey and Anne Williams. James, who struggled with dyslexia, experienced the challenge of an education system without the benefit of trained teachers or access to highly structured research-based multi-entury instruction. His struggles highlighted the critical need for resources and support for students with learning differences. In response, concerned citizens of St. and Angelo came together to form the James Phillip Williams Memorial Foundation with a mission to provide opportunities for alternative education instruction for those experiencing difficulty as a result of dyslexia or other types of learning difference. Over the past 40 years, the foundation has raised awareness of dyslexia and trained more than 1,000 teachers, of which my wife is one. I added that with 675 achieving the rigorous credentials of certified academic language therapists from the nationally accredited academic language therapy association. To further this mission, the foundation established the JPW learning center, which continues to provide teacher training and student tutoring, extending its impact across more than 70 school districts in three

[0:19:15] states. The enduring commitment of the foundation and learning center has brought hope and opportunity to countless students and families, leaving a lasting legacy in our community. The city of St. Angelo commends the Jane Phillips Williams Memorial Foundation and JPW Learning Center for 40 years of dedication and service in transforming education for students with with dyslexia and other learning differences. Therefore, I Tom Thompson, the mayor of the city of St. Angelo on behalf of the city council do hereby recognize and applaud the James Phip Williams Memorial Foundation and the JPW Learning Center for their vision, perseverance, and extraordinary contribution to education and opportunity in our community. You like to say some words? Well, I want to thank everyone for uh for giving us this proclamation. Thank you, Tom, and the council. Um, when this was written by my, uh, counterpart, well, she's not really my counterpart, one of my volunteers. Um, I was, it was brought to my attention that yes, we are in three states, but we're actually in six states other than Texas. We're in Idaho, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Florida. So, we have expanded across almost the country now. Um, we will continue to keep on working with children that need the help and if you need anyone know of anyone that has a child that's struggling with reading, please have them call us and we would be happy to work with them. So, thank you. [Laughter] that on. We'll now move into public

[0:21:35] comment. Members of the public may raise issues or concerns not listed on the regular agenda during this time. To participate, please sign in with the city clerk prior to the beginning of the meeting. Speakers will be called in order. They are signed in. When speaking, citizens must speak from the podium. Address all comments to the dis. Begin by stating your name and address or single member district number and limit your remarks to three minutes or less. Heather, do we have any public comment? >> Yes, sir. Sylvia Martinez. >> I know Sylvia's here. >> Good morning, Mayor. Uh good morning, Councilman. Um this morning I come uh uh I'm very concerned for um the part of my city uh the schools was taken away the uh everything was taken away. Right now I'm concerned for um how should I put it? um how the trash is at the recreation center is >> okay >> because it's filthy. Um as I drive by uh I don't know who's in charge. Everything's, you know, the school, everything's taken away from I I hear parks are getting closed and everything. I'm not here to judge people, but um there's a lot of people that uh I'm 72 years. I have Parkinson's. It's hard to to uh you know, put my words to. So, it's hard. Please um understand. But I'm here uh to talk for my kids in the vario. like y'all say, um, everything's taken away from my side, but I'm here to talk for them. As every

[0:23:42] Saturday I go and I see people go over there and play, the filth is there. I mean, get real. Who's taking care of the recreation center? I I talked to the city, you know. Um I'm 72 years old. If I could, I would go and clean it, but I can't no more. I pay my taxes, but if my house, I'm in charge around my house, my alley. When somebody is in charge of a job, you're in charge of that job to clean inside. You have a job. Get real clean because I don't want that to be taken away from my kids. You know, that's what I'm here for. I'm not judging nobody. I'm not putting nobody down because I don't know who's in charge of it. No. Of the job or nothing there. I I'm talking for my kids that go there. That's why I'm here today. And I'm sorry that I cannot talk right because I have Parkinson's. But excuse me, >> I think we've understood every word. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, mayor. That's why I'm here today and I think I have a little time to talk. Um I'm worried about uh South Oaks. Um the streets are terrible. I still pay taxes there. Um, I'm wondering how come you all haven't done nothing about, you know, it's terrible. There's no >> I still had more time because I I put it in the in the agenda, but please do something about the, you know, the it's cracked. >> All right, we'll get it. Thank you, Sydney. >> Okay. Thank you. And I'm sorry that I can't talk right because of my Parkinson's, but I that's why I can't come. But please do something about the streets on Oak Street. They're terrible.

[0:25:45] And I do pay high taxes for um >> Silia, we we got you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And Tony Jones. My name is Tony Jones. I put on the sheet that I filled out that I was from or have business in single member district 5 and I may ha may or may not have but I do have business in single member district 6. Um I'm here this morning to uh simply state I had no intention of getting up at this particular time. However, uh one of the agenda items was pulled and so uh I'm taking this opportunity to implore the council and the mayor um for some direction. Um the only reason I decided to get up during this section is because we're tagging along in the affordable housing day yesterday. What a deal. The city historically, as you well know, is at to my knowledge in my memory, has uh purchased or engaged two uh assessments on how the city is doing and what it needs to do for affordability. You've all seen those and we've all been very good. Even the homebuilders and the developers, we all do a lot of lip service to affordability. But here's where the leather hits the streets, okay? Uh, and I want to preface this by saying that Aaron, Kevin, Colin in planning and engineering are great to work with. Our relationship with those two departments is better than it's been in my humble opinion in 10 years. The communication is great. And so what from our perspective when we go out and try to make a decision about purchasing land in the city of St. Angelo, our

[0:27:49] perspective is this. Those two departments lack clear direction from you as to the the importance of affordability. For example, we're about to enter a new season. Um, planning has told us that Aaron has told us that they intend to engineering intends to rewrite the subdivision and design manual. Okay. So, they began this process by uh furnishing us with a new design for street delineators. Was on the thing for this morning, but it was pulled for whatever reason. So, we'll go from delineators that I have personally put up and have lasted 20 years in subdivisions to a design that will and those five or six delineators cost around $1,000. today. I put some in 20 years ago that are still functioning. They looked as good as the new ones. Those cost 20 years ago probably $300 or $400. The new design that engineering thinks we should or maybe might go to is a texttop design which will cost $5,000 for five delineators. And so if we could if I could implore you to um encourage them to consider affordability in St. Angelo, Texas, >> it might have an impact. >> Tony, thank you very much. And I will say that Shane and I discussed this exact item a couple weeks ago, and there's some good news for you on that horizon. Thank you, Tony. >> Okay. Thank you for your time and your service and staff as well. That will complete public comment. Now we'll roll into the consent agenda and I'll start on my left down here with Mr. Heert. Do you have anything you want to pull on the consent? >> No, sir. >> Joe,

[0:29:52] >> Harry? >> No, sir. >> I do not have anything to pull. Patrick, >> B and F. B is in boy. F as in boy. >> B and F. Karen >> D >> D. There's a joke in there. And uh Mary, >> no sir. >> With that, I'll need a motion on all items except BFD. >> All items I have a first from Patrick, >> second >> and a second from Karen for all items except D, F, and B. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Those all other items pass 70. Now we'll go to item B considering the award the fleet services vehicles to multiple vendors in the amount of 2 million 942,000 for the purchase of pickups, police vehicles, cars, and authorizing the city manager to negotiate and execute all related documents. Ryan, you're on. >> Good morning, Mayor, Council, Mr. Valenuela. Uh, how could I how could I help? What questions could I answer, sir? Uh well, I was just curious why we didn't uh why you thought we didn't get more local participation in the bids. >> Um I don't know that I have much of a thought on that. Um however, historically, this is what we see in the dealership world. There is a definite definintor in uh who bids fleet and who doesn't. So there there is a difference in retail vehicle purchases and fleet. And so if the dealerships aren't interested or willing or set up any of those versions to do fleet purchases, then they don't. And so the the there's concessions, there's processes with those fleet purchases through the manufacturer. And when those dealers are not set up for that, they they don't participate. >> Fair enough. And then uh it looks like um basically all are going to be eligible and then you'll just as each department needs a specific thing, you'll put it back out to those three

[0:31:53] and say who has it. >> That's right. From there, >> we we'll receive quotes from each dealer um that's awarded and we will compare those quotes based on the options or size of vehicle needed. >> Yes. >> Um how do you determine how many vehicles you need? Is it based on when others age out, mile out? How do you kind of go through that process? >> Well, there's a couple of factors. Uh we do work off of age and miles as a starting point. Um I will tell you that that list is extensively long. Therefore, we fall back onto our budget. Uh so we work within the budget that's provided and we start marking those items off where we uh find the most need. We keep them and those are the units that are selected for replacement, but they start on the list from age and miles. That's correct. >> Fair enough. That's all I had. Thank you, >> Ryan. Would it be fair to say that local dealerships don't get a full aotment of fleet, and that's what we've run into in the past. They can't fulfill an order locally completely. I I think I think the fulfillment opportunity is there, but again, if they're not set up to uh manage a fleet account. So, usually it takes a separate individual. They're usually running volume. Um they're just they're just geared their business model is typically geared differently and that's all. That's all. It's not that they don't want the business or anything else. It's just they're geared differently. >> Right. So, just to echo Patrick's, we do everything we can to purchase locally and then we'll extend out from there. >> Absolutely. >> Perfect. We'll look for a motion. >> I move to approve. >> Second. >> I've got it first from Patrick, a second from Tommy. Is there any public comment on item B? >> None. We'll move forward. All those in favor say I. >> Any opposed? Item B passes 70. Now we'll move to item D. Consider an interlocal agreement for the city's continuing membership in the West Texas Weather Modification Association, authorizing payment of an annual membership assessment of $40,000, ratifying the association's bylaws, and authorizing the city manager to negotiate and execute all related documents. Mr. Kelton, >> yes, Karen, you got good morning. Um, I

[0:33:56] pulled this simply because I had multiple comments from the public about this agenda item and I confess I don't know a lot about it. So, I thought maybe it would be worthwhile to have you give us a little briefing what the purpose of this organization is. I understand we've been members for a long time or had a partnership for a long time. Um, I think perhaps that this became more public interest was enhanced by the fact that the federal government is discussing eliminating a lot of these programs. And so perhaps the public has taken notice of that and is therefore responding in kind, whether for or against. So if you would be kind enough to educate us, we would appreciate it. >> I will I will try. I am uh I'm not necessarily an expert in in this field but uh the city did back um we actually started working with the program in 96 when they were actually formed the West Texas weather modification association uh which is a group of counties that's kind of shifted over the years but um includes um it's included Sutton and Schlacker Crockett Iranian Sterland Glasscock uh Reynolds I mean so it Tom Green so it's and a portion of Tom Green. And so it's not all of Tom Green, but a portion of Tom Green. So, um, it's it's included all of those counties over the years that that have that joined this association. And basically what it is is out here in West Texas, you know, we're dry. I mean, it's, you know, and every most of the time. And so, every every chance we get and every cloud that comes by, we want to make sure that we're taking as much advantage of those situations as we can. So this is really uh it it's basically an enhancement program where they basically try to enhance the cloud to produce more moisture. And when we say more moisture, it's by ten of an inch inches, not inches. So um while it is effective, it's it's not going to it's not going to take a cloud that was only going to produce a/ inch and turn it into a 3 or 4 inch rain. It's going to maybe make it

[0:35:58] an inch rain. So So that's kind of what they do. and and they're very selective about the clouds that they actually do seed. Not every cloud is a is a candidate. Um some uh some clouds um you know, you know, they the the the meteorologist that that works that works with this group, you know, he likens it to a you know, a a sick cloud and we're we're just trying to we're just trying to make it better so it'll produce better. And so that's kind of what he likens it to. He said, "And some of them are too sick to help." And then he said, "And then some clouds are are too um they're they're already um they're too efficient as they are, and so there's no point in seeding them." So that's kind of that's kind of what how they look at it and how their approach is at it. And again, like I said, we've we've actually been a voting member since 2001, I believe. Um, and so, uh, and again, this is just they were just cleaning up their bylaws and their agreements with with the with the participating groups or agencies. And so, um, this is just basically to ratify those and to um, again keep keep us moving forward in the program. >> Shane, I was reading the background material. This targets the western half of Tom County, correct? Our wershed is mainly in that area. Is that our primary water? >> The Yep. the the twin butes and the OC Fisher wersheds is what this targets for Tom Green County. >> Okay, I have no further questions. Karen, >> you want to make a motion? >> Make a motion. >> Got a first from Karen. >> Second, >> a second from Joel. >> Any public comment? >> Anna Bartage. Good morning. Anna Bartage, single member, District 1. Uh good morning, council, city manager, and uh mayor. Uh the cloud seating, I know we're always seeming to be on the edge of a drought here. But I do have questions. First of

[0:38:02] all, what are the chemicals they are injecting into these clouds? And what kind of effect is there any studies? what kind of effect does it have on we the people the organisms plant life whatever else uh and also have questions about the July 4th were they active then uh in on July 4th uh when we had parts of St. Angelo had 15 in where I live only had two inches and that's only about 5 miles away from the 15. So that's to me uh creating a few question marks in my head as to why that was. Uh so that's kind of what I have to say. I just the safety factors and I know um we do want rain. We always want rain but what are what are what are we giving up for that? Thank you. >> Thank you Anna. Any other public comment? With that, we'll take a vote. All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? >> Item passes 70. Now we're moving to what was the next one? F. Consider approving the following items. has won a master agreement under Omni contract RS250203 with the Flock Group Incorporated in amount not to exceed 309,50 for purchase and implementation of license plate reader and a drone first responder products and authorizing city manager to negotiate and execute all related items. And I'll throw the second part in there too. A resolution approving a multiple use agreement with Tex DOT for the placement of flock cameras on state rideways within the corporate city limits of St. Angelo and authorizing city manager to negotiate and execute all related documents. Travis, you're on. >> Thank you very much. Um, do you have some questions in particular we wanted to address? >> Uh, well, I just want to see if you want to talk a little bit. I know we've talked about it some, but I just want to see if you want to talk a little about tell it kind of what it is and and how much of that y'all got covered by grants and things like that. So, we've we've brought this before through the Texas

[0:40:05] Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention uh authority that we've gotten grants for um the both the drone as first responder and then also license plate readers that are stationary. Uh this is going to be majority majority of it's going to be funded through the the grant. Uh we actually were awarded the grant in September 1st and so there's money that stacks up that you can use to pay against an 8020. It's not a normal 8020 that you would see in typical government grants. It actually um is closer probably somewhere around 87% u them and and the 13% US. Uh we have some funding that we can reallocate and utilize for that. Um but the more that we stand by and not use the funds that are going by, we can use that towards the 13% as I've been uh told. It's my understanding at this point. The drone as first responder is a force multiplier. Uh it's not I know it's it's not lost on me that's kind of funny that following cloud seating we're talking about government drones. Um no relation we don't we don't seed clouds. Um the the fact here would be able to um get a an bird's eyee view on a major crime within about 45 seconds to provide real-time information to officers in the field and supervisors to provide a better response. Uh we're doing so with with grant funding. We've we've been able to I think we're seeing somewhere around $4 million that we've been able to bring in. Uh uh we're on the cusp of so we're we're excited through that. This would be another way that we when we're low manpower that we can provide a way to push back on major crime as a force multiplier. Uh license plate readers would help in regards to uh if you have a stolen vehicle or a missing elderly person or a child that is on an Amber alert and there's a vehicle that's associated with it. instead of having an officer standing there in an intersection watching, it's it's looking for those things constantly. And then it provides an automatic information real time to

[0:42:08] officers in the field saying, "Hey, we just ran this vehicle." And it has a missing adult that's endangered. It was last seen traveling on Sherwood Way. And it does so within seconds. Uh that way we can put our resources where they need to be instead of just trying to flood one particular part of town. And so if I'm looking at right, um it looks like all but about $77,000 is going to be covered by your grants. >> Yes, sir. And and there's two different grants from from this. And that's also why we have to have the second part of that is to work through there's very minimal aspect, but we want to make sure that we're following all the rules and playing well with Tex. So that we we believe that that funding will be taken care of um even as we get closer to that. >> That's all I have. Travis, how many cameras are you going to put up? >> So, we we've we're working through >> kind of give me an idea where we can put best effectiveness >> through three different grants. Uh we're hoping to have somewhere between the sheriff's department and us as a combination approach. We would have about 42 throughout Tom Green County. Uh we see in comparison uh there's um let's say Amarillo. Amarillo has I think they're to over 100 now in for their city. This is a combination approach to have them out in the rural counties. >> All right, I think that's great. With that, we'll look for a motion. >> I have a question. >> All right, got a question. Karen, >> what do you have to say to the people that have been expressed concern about being watched? I don't know how else to put it, but it's come up in our town halls. Maybe >> absolutely. and and I I would tell you that uh I I would not have thought I would be looking this direction, but it is a way to provide force multiplier and it's real time source data. So like when we're looking for a a you know, we've had several shootings recently. If we have a shooting that we we've been putting those suspect vehicles into to systems that we can try to run and check for, uh we could put that description into a drone that's responding and be able to look for those things. Uh it's it's a it's not uh it's relying on human

[0:44:10] eyes still. So there's not we're not applying an artificial intelligence to come in and and solve the case for us. This is humanized that's sourcing that data at the time of a crime. >> So you're not really watching Anna come in and out of her neighborhood, for example. >> No. No. >> Unless she's got the wrong license plate. >> I think probably be interesting to to find out what she's doing, but we're not doing that. >> No. The main thing is that the the drones will not be utilized unless there's a a crime that's sourced. So, we're looking at working with the fire department, crashes, all sorts of things that would help provide um us to be able to cut back our public safety approach uh to help save resources. And I I think this is going to be a game changer uh for that. >> Thank you for repeating that for the >> Yes, ma'am. >> purpose of educating all of us. >> Any other questions? >> For with that, we'll look for a motion. >> Move approval. First from Tommy, >> second from Karen. Is there any public comment? With all that, we'll ask all those in favor say I. >> Any opposed? With none, item F passes 7 through zero. >> Thank you. I would ask that everybody can come out to National Night Out tonight at the farmers market. Come see us. >> Gotcha. >> That will conclude the consent agenda. will move into the regular agenda. Comments regarding items on the regular agenda may be made by the public when each item is discussed as outlined above. To participate, please sign in with the city clerk prior to the beginning of the meeting. Speakers will be called in order they are signed in. Comments are limited to less than 3 minutes. Applicants, proponents, and appellants are exempt from the time limit above and instead must limit the remarks to less than five minutes. We'll move into item A, presentation of the Downtown St. Angel Incorporated bianual report. Presentation made by DSA director Monica Romis. >> Good morning, Mayor. Good morning, council. I'm glad to be here today with y'all. Um, so downtown St. Angelo for several several years has led a focused

[0:46:14] and collaborative approach to revitalizing downtown, creating a welcoming and um walkable atmosphere for our citizens and for our guests. Uh we've been a part of a national main street program for 18 years and we've received accreditation for nearly every single one of those years. And so this is really great recognition for us because it's showing that St. Angelo is taking the right steps to continue to revitalize and grow and strengthen our downtown neighborhood with the main street approach. There's four points that are guidelines for the work that we do and that's organization, promotion, design, and economic vitality. So everything that we do touches on these points and you'll see that as we go through this presentation. We utilize these economic development tools to help us assess um our city and the growth and if there is any decline, then we could take action to try to see what we can do to make um corrections to those areas. Since 1980, the Main Street program, and this is nationwide, these numbers that I'm about to state, has resulted in 115.27 billion reinvested locally, 181,647 net new businesses, 815,894 net gain jobs, 345,81 buildings rehabbed, and 37.3 million volunteer hours. Now again, that's nationwide because we are a part of this program where there are many other cities that are involved. In Texas, there's 85 cities and we're one of those. So this year within our local St. Angelo Main Street District, there were 28 properties sold. And these reinvestment numbers again demonstrate the health of our local economy. And so it's compared to last year's number of properties for the year. The total sold was 27. Um, so potentially what this means for us that we've had more properties sold already before the end of the year is that this could lead to

[0:48:16] more development or redevelopment for the remaining months that we have um left. And then in 2024, our total reinvest reinvestment was 15 million. Um, so we're getting pretty close, a little short, but we'll see if we reach that number and I'll be able to present that next year when I come back. moving into and this is our main street district here on the map. So you can see how broad it is and I don't know if you can really see but the center is the the blue area is our central business district and so the green outline goes beyond that to the railroad tracks to the north and then to the south a little past the river. Um so it's it's a large area that this main street district covers and where we report on numbers. Um, just like this combined sales and mixed beverage chart here, we have it divided up into St. Angelo, the central business district, and Main Street. And I've provided the fiscal year, second quarter, and third quarter. Um, we um, as for mixed beverage, we don't see September numbers until October 20th. So, that has been left out, but this is accurate for the second and the third quarter. What we see is a positive trend overall compared to the prior year. Our second fiscal year quarter did decrease a little bit for the central business district and Main Street. However, the third quarter increased by about 1% and 3% respectively. So that that is a positive. That's a plus there. Some fun facts. U I was looking at August numbers and so the leaders in mixed beverage um in St. Angelo is city limits, fiddlestrings, and shenanigans. And then for our central business district, which is downtown, is Fat Boss, Blaes, and Warehouse 150 as the leaders and mixed beverage for the month of August. So these figures give us a picture of our performance. So now let's take a look at um TEI because TEI plays a part in these reinvestment numbers and

[0:50:18] construction and rehabilitation. So this is an important part of the work that we do. And right now downtown St. Angel is helping with the marketing aspects of the TEI program. So I've gone on and done uh interviews on Foster Communications on KST and Concho Valley Live. Um we're really trying to reach the northern part of the TEI program as well because there are many property owners that either aren't aware or maybe a little skeptical about the TEI program. So, I want to be sure that we're able to communicate effectively with them, let them know the ins and outs of the TEI program, and that it is here as a benefit. It is here to help. Um, so we've had about 12 consults overall this year. Um, we've created yard signage and window signage that we'll be distributing um here within the next couple of weeks. Hannah and Aaron have been really great of working closely with me and Hannah will help me distribute the signage and have it put out at um various locations that have received TEI funding. Um we hope that this will encourage others to ask questions and maybe see someone that they know and say, "Hey, tell me about this TEI program." Because that's what I'm finding in uh my research is that word of mouth is also a big help in getting the word out about the TEI program and encouraging others to apply. Um, the connection art and culture booklet offered us a buy one get one free. So, we took advantage of that and we included a testimonial from a property owner that actually had two properties um that were next door to each other. Um, they utilize tears funding and so we had this long testimonial article along with an advertisement in Guanexion. I think this is really great because there are some individuals who are Spanish- speaking only or maybe they have their children that are communicating as a third party in between and so having this English and Spanish version of a testimonial, something they can relate to is beneficial for um the north side. And then this Thursday um planning department and myself will be um attending the St. Angel Realtors

[0:52:19] Association and providing a presentation to the realators because what we found is that this could be something that the realators could help communicate. If they are helping sell a property in the north or the south, they should know about the TEI program and use that um to help sell the property and then again just keep that word of mouth going to inform people that this is available and that there's funding available. Um, the north can apply at any time and anyone can drop off their application at downtown St. Angela's office. The south window just closed recently on October 1st. U, but we'll wait and see when the next opportunity will open up and downtown San Angela will share information through our email broadcast list as well as our social media outlets. Here we have um South Tiers projects um just to show some progress. The first that you see here is 123 North Chadburn. This used to be the Blue Buffalo Art Gallery. Um, so it had already undergone changes as you see on the bottom photo with facade improvements. Um, but there is a new retail store now at this location. And so they have also applied for TEI and added an awning and a mural and new signage. And so this is just to show how well the TEI program works and how it really brightens up a property and encourages neighbors to do the same. 19 East Concho. Um this was more of a interior improvement from TEI. They had funding approved for a sprinkler system. So though I didn't get the interior photo, I just wanted y'all to be familiar with the location here. And then 206210 South Chadburn is what we all knew as the Dead Horse. And this is actually two properties connected and it will be um two separate entertainment venues, Vita and Tipsy Pink. And um I believe they hope to open in November,

[0:54:21] but they've also received tears funding for facade improvements. on our new business report. Um, we have six new businesses um that have opened their doors. Um, and I've noticed we misspelled English Newsome. There's no E at the end. Um, but that has been going very well with a wine bar right across from Signature Stag, which was once Marshall Pint. Ranch 2025 filled in a space where um, Whiskey River closed, but Ranch 125 came in shortly after and opened. And then Coleman Olive Oil on Bogard, Vetera Outdoors, um, filled in a retail space. And then Hippie Hysteria, um, is very unique. think I really like Hippie Hysteria because this was a thought of having a space for craft vendors, pop-up vendors to all come in and open their small space within one space. And so I want to say there's about 30 to 40 vendors in this hippie hysteria location. And so that's been really great for downtown. And then of course we just celebrated the Roosevelt lofts. big win for downtown as far as um the first stepping stone of providing living in our extra additional living in our downtown. Tomorrow um we will be hosting the Imagine the Possibilities Tour. This is free and open to the public. Um, we want to encourage investors, entrepreneurs, um, developers, anyone that's looking to buy or lease a property in downtown, come to this Imagine the Possibilities Tour tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. We'll be meeting at the St. Angelo Studios location. And the purpose of this tour is to kind of guide like a open house. Like when you showcase a home, you're going to walk through, ask questions, take a look. The realtor is going to give you all the details about the square footage and the history of the property. And that's exactly what we'll

[0:56:24] do. And we tour each one of these locations. We have 12 East Tuig, 13 East Tuig, 113 South Chadburn, and 109 South Chadburn. Something new for downtown St. Angelo. Uh, we have and also another something new is we have a new board president, Miss Andy Marky. And we have another board member, um, Brian Benson, who is our vice president now, who put their heads together and came up with a downtown development coalition. The reason for this downtown development coalition spurred from um property owners who own properties and aren't quite willing to sell, but they do want to do something with the property. They just don't know what to do with it or they don't have the resources or the knowledge. So this coalition will be a group of investors, um people with finance backgrounds, um the entrepreneurs with the business ideas. We'll get these individuals together to help move one property and we'll start small and we've we're in our initial stages of meeting and planning and so we're continuing to meet and get valuable feedback about our next steps. I understand this is going to be a process. Um, but we welcome anyone along the way to help us out because we hope that we can activate some of these empty spaces, support the business creators, um, and then foster this community and collaboration along the way. Um, the key challenges that we identified in our first initial meetings was the disinvestment due to high sale prices. That's another issue is, you know, there might be a property that we're all interested in, but we just don't have the means to purchase it and then also redevelop it. So, how can we get through that? What can we do to get past that? And then the fact that some of these buildings are, you know, decrepit and the perception issues of redevelopment, we can work together to get through

[0:58:25] that. And so hopefully we see um some developments happening in the future, but we'll continue working towards that. our marketing and promotions. Um, this year we are in our second year of uh managing Concho Christmas Tour of Lights and this is actually the 32nd year of Concho Christmas. Um, it'll begin with a soft opening on Friday, December 5th. And then Saturday, December 6th will be the tree lighting ceremony and the parade. Um this tour of lights is very very significant uh because it does bring in residents visitors to tour the lights through the entire month of December. Historically, in one year, there was about 15,000 cars that went through the Tour of Lights. And we want to see that continue on because those cars carry about 70,000 people altogether. And of course, it helps bring visitors that are going to stay Heads and Beds. Um brings the tourism to St. Angelo who um when they're touring the lights, they might stop in downtown and grab a bite to eat before after touring the lights. Um so, it's a great attraction. Um it's a tradition for families, so we want to keep that going. Our downtown involvement, um we're going to start with a few enhancements this year. I have a new events and membership coordinator working with us in the office and she is planning a downtown window decorating contest because we know that the tour of lights is fully lit. Um but what about the other parts of downtown? Sometimes it seems a little dark up north Chadburn. So, we're going to get our downtown businesses on board, get them into the festive holiday spirit and have them decorate their window shops. And then we'll have a fun contest and awards for that. And then as far as the tour of lights, we'll add Grinchmiss on the concho and have a fun evening with the Grinch and Cindy Luhoo to visit. And then we'll also have a salute to service for Goodfellow Air Force Base on one of those evenings as well. So stay tuned for more updates on Concho

[1:00:28] Christmas. our continued marketing and promotions. Our historic magazine continues to share stories about the history of downtown and engage our readers. Um it is coincidence that when this fort a fort a flood and the fortitude of our founders came out, we had the flood here in St. Angelo shortly after. So, um, that's very interesting to read about now to read back about that first flood and, um, kind of compare it to the flood of 14 inches that we had in July. The fall issue will be coming out soon and that will be the part two series of how St. Angelo became a city. Our Star Spangled Banner concert and fireworks show, despite the rain, did really well. Our team worked effort effortless I mean tirelessly more so tirelessly to get this going. Um we partnered with St. Angelo Live and we were out there in the pouring rain the entire time. Miss Mary Coffee knows um pouring rain the entire time that we were setting up and preparing and nearly pulling our hair out to decide, you know, should we keep the event going on or should we cancel? But we decided, no, we're going to keep this keep the um event going, keep the tradition alive. And so on the day of the event on July 3rd, it did not rain during our event. And so it was very nice. We had 58 tables and believe 30 of those tables were donated to first responders. Um, so we're very pleased to be able to have some really nice live entertainment and a beautiful fireworks show um at the end of the event for everyone. The um civic events invited downtown St. Angelo to take part in Riverfest and we said okay we will and we hosted a mermaid contest. Um we decided to do this because we are known for hosting a mini Miss Wool pageant. The mermaid contest was similar. Um, but this was a

[1:02:31] little more for fun. It was free and open to ages between 6 to 12. We had six little girls show up and as you can tell from the photo, they just really enjoyed their time. Um, we also had a brief spill over the concho pearls and the mermaid sculpture along Celebration Bridge. So, this was really nice to get families engaged, get them outdoors and have some fun. I think overall Riverfest was really, really great. Um, so I thank Sid and his crew um for working to get Riverfest back on board for St. Angelo. And I'm looking forward to next year. I kind of jumped ahead. So, I'm going to go back to our downtown Halloween that we have coming up on October 23rd. Um, this is big for downtown. There's families that trickor treat at each business and location and the city. Um Brian Groves hosts a trunk or treat at city hall and people are just all over downtown. So we've seen the impact and so this year we normally have one trolley but this year we have two trolleys that will be going around to pick up and drop off guests from each location. And then we'll have our sheep on the shelf stroll in December. And um I mentioned our mini Miss Wool pageant that is coming back on November 15th. We'll open up registration soon and this will be held at the St. Angelo Performing Arts Center. Um the great thing about the mini Miss Wool pageant is yes, we're teaching confidence and um instilling um poise and and little girls um or any of the registrants, but we can also talk about our wool and Mohare history. Mr. Dolores Vernon comes to visit us and we get to model her her pieces. And so it's a lot of fun and it draws in families from outside of St. Angelo from the smaller local cities like Ballinger and Sonora. And so we hope to bring them back again this year and expose them to downtown. Social media insights. We've never

[1:04:33] really paid a whole lot of attention to this until recently. Um, we're really g getting a deeper dive into how our Facebook, our Instagram, how our website really impacts our memberships, but also impacts people that are viewing our pages. And so, what's really interesting, what we've pulled from this is that we can see our audience behavior. We can understand what they're looking at, see our overall reach. And what people like to see is event contact, event content, sheep updates. They want to know what's happening in St. Angelo. So, we'll capitalize on that and continue sharing events and any sheep updates that we have and anything else that's important that's happening in St. Angelo for our viewers to read. Our downtown banners debuted in June and they are up and they are hung and they're vibrant. They are spread out across downtown. I think they are a very beautiful asset to our downtown. you look up and you see elements that remind you of downtown like the performing arts center, the railway museum. Um, and then there's others um where we've paid um tribute to ASU and Howard College and Goodfellow Air Force Base, but the majority of these banners are things to do and see in our downtown. And then our sheep spectacular just continues to grow and grow and grow. Um, we have a sheep unveiling coming up on October 17th at the Lakehouse Pizzeria and that will be a combo ribbon cutting with the chamber and sheep unveiling. So, we thank the chamber for allowing us to partner with them and and host a double ceremony. Um, we also have JL Meat Market who is based out of Big Spring who sponsored his sheep. So, these sheep go beyond our city limits. Um, and anyone that's interested is welcome to sponsor a sheep. They can just contact downtown St. Angelo. But

[1:06:35] they're a lot of fun and they're really a big um, significance to St. Angelo. And for people to ask the question, why all the sheep? Well, we can answer and tell that story. So, I'll close with our partnerships and volunteers. These are the backbone of our organization and our community revitalization efforts. There's only three of us in our office, so we rely heavily on volunteers. And so, thus far, we've had 123 volunteer hours, 13 partnerships and collaborations with other organizations, and um seven outreach programs where we've gone and visited um other organizations events and supported what they're doing because we um want to support our community. even if it's not downtown, we're going to go outside of downtown and support other organizations and help them out. Um, our internships come from ASU. We've utilized West Texas RSVP um, Goodfellow Air Force Base. We're very, very thankful for all the volunteers who help us um, reach our goals. So, thank you all council and um, city staff for all that you do to help make downtown St. Angelo a place that's vibrant and welcoming. and we're all in this together. So, hope that we can continue to connect and inspire. Do you have any questions for me? >> Anybody got any questions? >> Thank you. >> I have one, Monica. We discussed this the other day. The lack of properties, the availability of those properties to move forward. There's a lot of Leighton properties that sit up and down Chad Burn and Oaks. And so, there's Do you have any idea? I mean, what what would help you or what's your biggest need trying to motivate these properties to get into your programs? >> I think it's talking to the property owners. That's us visiting with them, talking to them, letting them know what the negative aspects are of sitting on a property and what could become. And this is where this downtown development

[1:08:37] coalition can come in to say, okay, we understand this is your baby. You want to hold on to it. you want to be a part of it through its fruition, well, let us help you. Let us connect you to the resources that you need to get it up and going because the longer that these properties sit there, the more that they are going to go into despair and there's really nothing that we can do after that. So, we want to try to do what we can to connect the dots and if we need to support those property owners to encourage them to make that sale. There's there's a list of property owners down there and I don't know how many properties there are probably 10 or 15 that we would love to see motivate and get into something and I think with the operation and the opening of the Roosevelt loss it just shows how we kind of revitalize that while we all have interest still exploring and promoting the the vitality of downtown is important to all of us. So if if you need help or assistance in that area, I'll say please don't feel hesitant at all to reach out because we need to motivate those people to get those doors open and those buildings going. >> Right. Absolutely. And also visiting um with April from Overland Property Group, I've let her know that we'll be back in touch with her as well to see if they have any continued interest. and I'm sure they do, but that's also where we can help connect and get them in touch with the property owners so that we can try to continue developments just like the Roosevelt lofts. >> All right. >> When was that? Downtown Stroll. Sorry, >> the Halloween stroll is Thursday, October 23rd. >> The one the downtown tour. Sorry. >> The Imagine the Possibilities Tour is tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. We'll start at the St. Angelo Studios building. Um because the third and fourth floor are vacant there. We'll go across the street to the Tarpley's building which is for sale. And then we'll go up to 109 South Chadburn where Hippie Hysteria is, but that upper floor is vacant and available. And then right next door is 113 South Chadburn, which that one has been vacant for quite some time. So hopefully this will help get someone plugged into that space. >> Thank you.

[1:10:38] >> Any other questions for Monica? With that, Monica, thank you very much for a very good presentation. >> Thank you. >> We'll move to item B. Consider approving a city operated animal adoption program and a resolution authorizing amendment of the schedule of fees and charges by adding animal adoption related fees. Presentation made by animal services manager Amanda Wed. Amanda, >> good morning. >> You're up. So, we started our in-house adoptions October 1st, and the purpose of this was to reduce the unaltered animals within the city limits, provide increased avenues for subjects to adopt animals as well as uh increased avenues for rescue transfers and reduce euthanas of adoptable animals. So on October 1st, we posted on our website that we have started in-house adoptions. Um the process of this is you'll come in, you'll sign in with the front desk so that we know how we're going to help you. Um and it's because we have a couple other options which I'll get into in a little bit. you'll meet with our outcome coordinator and our outcome coordinator is going to do a brief interview and um just get to know you to know what your lifestyle is like and to see what type of animal is best going to fit you. She's then going to go and get the animal that you're desired to look at and give you time to meet and greet that animal to see how y'all fit together. Once the family has decided that they want to take this baby home, they're going to fill out the contract and we're going to set up a vet appointment with our vendor vets. That is going to be for the spay or neuter and rabies vaccination. Uh they already have their core vaccines in the shelter upon entry. On the day of the surgery, our officers are going to take the animal to the vet clinic and we have all the paperwork with the vaccine history for the vet. The vets's going to do the procedure and

[1:12:42] then the vets's going to posttop contact the owner and tell them when to pick up. Then the owner picks up the animal from the vet and they get to enjoy a new family member. So the adoption or the appointment for the spay and neuter like I said is scheduled at the time of adoption and we have a contact with the vendor vets that we call directly. we utilize the uh a number of that animal so we don't flood their systems with 100 bellas or 100 uh buddies anything like that and so that also helps us track how many we are sending to them at the invoicing time the animal is microchipped at our facility and it's relocated to another area of the shelter where it's no longer on the adoption floor on the day of the surgery like I said we will transport to the vet and the vet takes care of everything. Eventually, what we want to look at and one of these we have already started rolling out is the leptosperosis vaccine. It is not previously in our vaccines at entry. However, the vets have expressed that it is now a core vaccine. So, we have added it to our protocol. um heartworm test. We want to add that as well because it is a lengthy and uh expensive treatment for heartworms and so we want to make sure that we pre-est before someone has fallen in love with this animal. Uh same with uh feline leukemia and FIV. So this is a very contagious virus for cats. It doesn't mean that they can't live in a happy healthy home. It's just saying that they can't be around other non-infected animals. And so we want to make sure that we are testing for that to ensure that we're not infecting a whole household. The adoption fees, when we were looking at the adoption fees, we already had fees set up for livestock and small animals such as birds and pocket pets. Um when we were looking at it, we wanted

[1:14:44] to make sure we could recoup some of the surgical costs. Um, we did get a discounted rate for from the vets um for the surgeries, but we have a limited amount in the budget as far as the care. So, uh, we did look at the cost of the spay or neuter and the rabies vaccine and we are requesting that the fees be set at 150 for dogs, 190, excuse me, 90 for adult cats, and 120 for kittens. This was based on a fee calculator that we did on what we are um spending as well as we did compare other area adoption centers. Uh we are a little higher on cats. However, on the dogs, we're right in the average. We also have a rescue protocol now and they fill out an application to be kept on file for the right to pull from the shelter. It lists um who we are authorized to come and get the animals. So that uh just random person can't say I'm going to come and pull for pause. They have to be authorized by pause to come and get the animal. Uh we do actually as of yesterday the transfer form for each animal at time of transfer was approved by legal. So we now have that to utilize for each animal that is transferred from our shelter to the rescue. Um the rescue representative like I said will be on the approved list. And the most important thing for the welfare of the animals the rescues may not have a chargeable welfare violation for animals. So on the first three days of adoptions, we had three dogs adopted. Two of which had their surgery last week and went home same day. The third one has a surgery this week. I can actually update this. We had two cat adoptions yesterday as well and they are set for surgery later on this week. We did have one emu

[1:16:48] adopted, so that was a little fun. Uh, Contra Valley Paws pulled four four dogs last week after the first and Crittershack came over and pulled eight cats. So, I feel like to start it off where we haven't had anything in house for 5 years, this is a good start. We have also um listened to the public as far as wanting to be able to walk the dogs in the shelter. It is of great benefit to the animals for socialization, for behavioral purposes. And so we did start the walk to rehome program. If an adult wants to come and walk, they will come sign in, sign the waiver, gear up with our leash and our treats so that we're keeping everything inhouse and ensure that the animals are not getting unnecessarily sick or the integrity of the leash is not compromised. They get to walk and bond with the animal. So the animal gains confidence and then if they have any behavioral issues, health issues, they let us know as well. Number one, so we can take care of the animal. Number two, if they have special traits that they're seeing with these animals, it helps with the adoption. So our future goals, we do want to look at expanding hours of operation. We are not going to be looking at this until after the first of the year to get through the holidays, make sure there's no major changes at that point. Uh when we do look at that, we are going to look at opening on a Saturday, but we want to be prepared to do that in field services as well as shelter operations. Uh we are looking at a fullscale volunteer program, but at this time there's no time frame on it. We want to make sure that we have it right and so we are taking our time to develop it. Same with the foster program. We are sending those animals out to homes. We want to make sure that our process is correct and full. We do ask that the city council look at the adoption fees and consider approving

[1:18:51] them so that we can charge uh we do find if you do not charge an adoption fee. Emotional responses are more often than not the factor of whether or not you adopt and they may not feel think through fully. So, we want to ensure that we have an adoption feed that people are being conscientious about their decisions before they sign the contract and take on the life of an animal. >> Any questions? >> Oh, I'm sure we've got several questions, but we'll do >> Well, you know, it's cool. I mean, it's it's why we're here. Well, number one, Amanda, thank you for I think last week we were without a euthanasia for the first time in a long time and so compliments for that. Um, I think this is the start of a process and a transition from pause to us managing our adoption. We've seen other people come in. I was at a walk this weekend and was visiting with some PAUSE employees and they were absolutely outstanding. They were still out there promoting dogs and everybody was doing the right thing, okay, which is always a good step forward. Um, we want this to be successful and it's going to be a, you know, kind of a work in progress as we move forward. But thanks for initiating that. I want to thank Morgan and her crew and Angela for providing the backbone of this for many, many years. And we're we're at a good point to move forward. So, it's kind of like a relay. We're in the second, third leg of it. Let's keep it going. And with that, I'll open it up for questions. How about it, Karen? Um, absolutely want to underscore everything that the mayor said and especially a nod to to the to Morgan and Angela because it is a collaboration and going forward we're going to need their their expertise and their experience to factor into what you decide. It looks really great. We're we're hopeful uh and we are dedicated to walking alongside you, whatever that means. I hope fellow council members will show up and walk a dog so that they understand what's happening out there. I have a couple of quick questions. Um, are you charging a fee to the public to surrender a pet?

[1:20:54] >> There is an owner surrender fee. There currently is already. Yes. >> Okay. And what is that fee? >> So, they have an impound fee of $36 and then the owner surrender fee $10. So, they do end up paying 36. Um, excuse me. >> 46. >> 46. Yes. I just hope that we will all keep a close eye on that because we have a public accustomed to acquiring shelter and pause animals for free. And so there's a risk that if you are charged to surrender an animal that they they may take Buffy or Spot home and just let it go. So, I'll be curious uh to hear a recap in a couple of months about how that's proceeding, how people are behaving when you're asking for a surrender fee. Um, spay and neuter, glad to hear that you've got a program in place and you're ready to proceed. You have veterinary partners. Is the is the adopter paying the fee to the shelter or to the vet? >> They would be paying the adoption fee at the shelter. >> Good. And then we will be invoiced by the vets based on how many they do that month for us to pay them the for the surgical process. >> Okay, good. So the adopter is covering that cost before they remove the animal or pick the animal. Perfect. >> Um after hours, we hear about that a lot. >> What happens if if you need help after working hours or on the weekend? What procedure would you like the public to utilize to get assistance if they if they see a problem or if they need help? >> There are emergency on call officers every day. Um the police department gets the initial call. They assess the call. They contact the on call officer if needed. Um and the officer responds. Uh they respond to quite a few calls on the weekends regularly and after hours at night. >> Okay. Thank you for that. That should be in big letters on the website probably. Um, I think that's it for me. I'm

[1:22:57] excited. >> Thank you. >> Mary, Patrick, >> hello. >> Hello. >> Uh, it looks like you've done a lot in the three weeks that you've been here. Has it even been three weeks yet? >> Uh, this is week four. >> Okay. Well, uh, good job. Uh, I I love all the changes. um from a new cat owner myself. Um what happens if somebody gets the especially for cats and I and I get the the spay not euthania spay and neuter um is included in those fees. Correct. >> Yes. >> So it's just a onetime fee and they get to pick up their cat after paying that fee or after it's fixed. >> Yes. What happens if um and I don't know if there's a process and I don't want it to be um misused. Our first two cats that we paid a lot of money to have fixed ran away or got picked up by somebody. Um I mean they were chipped everything, but I I don't know that many people check chip cats if they want the cat, right? They don't it either ran away or somebody picked it up on purpose. Is there any way we can have a policy or something like that? If something like that happens, then maybe it's a reduced fee, just the span newer fee to get another one. I don't want it to be misused, right? I don't want people just come, but I feel like if with that fee, they're not going to be coming to pay that every time and pick up a cat, but I don't want it to be too expensive if something happened that was not their fault. Does that make sense? >> I understand what you're saying. Um, my caution on that is that animals are considered property. So, when you're doing a adoption, they are signing ownership of that property. it is out of the shelter's hands. Now, we have a provision if it doesn't work out within the first 5 days that they can return it without paying a surrender fee integrated into the adoption contract. But as far as a replacement animal, I would be very uh hesitant on that because we do counsel them on responsible pet ownership and making sure that they are acclimating the animal in a safe confined environment

[1:25:00] when they initially take it home. Okay. She just told me I'm unresponsible. I didn't know where to go with that. Great things. I >> get a replacement for a goldfish. Uh again, >> I was going to say it for Exactly. Anyway, >> the two we have now have never been able to go outside because of that reason. My daughter would be heartbroken. >> So, there is a um adoption period for animals. It's a 3 I3 rule. So within the first three days, they're getting used to the routine in the house and and the smells and things of that nature. Three weeks, they're getting used to the area. They're exploring a little more. Three months is be the time that they'll finally feel at home. And so we do counsel on that in the adoption process to ensure that people expect the reality that when you get this animal home, it is in a new environment. It is going to take adjustment time. It is not going to show you all of its traits right off the beginning. And you have to bond with that animal to learn more about that animal. >> Okay, I'm done. You brought up some really good points there, Patrick. You really did. And um with that, I've got some questions about the adopted adoption fees. >> Okay. And I just threw it in an AI and said, "Compare it to six surrounding nearest cities and see what you get." We're we're kind of on the upper end of adoption fees on pets. I like how you phrased that. You got to have some skin in the game to make sure you're buying this just on a not on an emotional whim. Okay. Because we did see a lot of that. We experienced that with CO. It's a global problem overpopulation of pets right now. But I I want to know that if this is not working or if we feel that there's um and this will be with you too, Daniel. If we feel there's some room that we may need to adjust this marketwise, we will we'll do that because I think sometimes the 120 something like that may be on the upper end of what, you know, a family may want to do. Maybe there's some ways we can

[1:27:02] find some funds to help those people out. Somebody loses a cat, we might start the the missing cat displacement fund for Patrick. But I just need to know there's a little bit of flexibility in this in case we need to adjust our fees. It's what we vote on today is not firm. It has some flexibility. >> Is that correct? >> Yep. It's adopted by resolution which you can change at any time by a later resolution. >> Okay. >> So if I may say with the cats it was a struggle and we are fully prepared that we may have to lower that. Um when we compared we compared to the rescues that are in the area. um as far as um immediate uh citizens serving. And so when we looked at theirs, we are higher. Um and we were also looking at the cost of what it takes for us to continue to offer this service. Um when we were comparing the overall cost, and this was actually the early consideration, was around 320 per cat. And so to make sure that we can continue this year long, we had to kind of set it to where we would recoup some of that to be able to continue. Okay. I think that's I think there's a Rocky Templan lesson in there, too. You can't charge more than what the actual fee is or time you have in or that's a tax. And long story short, we're just trying to make this thing move forward. We've got some flexibility there. Any questions down here? >> Good job. I I think you're I think you're moving in the right direction. and got a good start. >> Thank you. >> Comment, not a question. >> Sure. >> Um to uh Amanda, thank you. Um you have to to Patrick's point, you have in the last three weeks now into your fourth, you have done a lot. So, thank you for hitting the ground running. My my thought and comment is this is something that's brand new uh for us. This is my opinion. I think we need to give Amanda the freedom to do what she believes is best and right. And mayor,

[1:29:07] to your point, if we need to make some changes, that can be done. But I think we need to give this an opportunity to see if this works and how it works. And Amanda then would come to us with any adjustments, whatever they may be. Um, if if it looks like that it it demands that. So again, since this is new, I'm I am I'll say all in with um giving giving you the authority that you have asked here of us. If you're ready for a motion, mayor, I'm a couple more questions. >> Okay, >> Harry. >> Yeah, I'm going to echo a little bit of what Councilman Heert just said. Thank you. Uh you hit the ground running. We're we're making a lot of progress. Uh we're we're hitting a lot of the marks from the animal task force. Uh I think we're going to get there, but I have to agree with him. It's going to take some time. We're going to have to adjust as we go along there. So I think there's a possibility that we're going to have some more conversation in the next few months. Uh but I do appreciate what you've done. appreciate what the background with Morgan and uh and her group did to lay the groundwork so you could come in and and uh start this process. Um and I'm done. >> All right, Patrick, you had another question >> just real quick on the rescues. So, how's how does that process work? Do they do they pay this fee then they get it and they're they can do what they want? Do they get a no fee and but then they charge on the other end to get it all spayed and neutered? Does that work for those? >> So that is correct. We are not going to be charging rescues a fee to pull uh because they are taking on the medical side of it. Uh our goal is happy outcomes for these animals and if they are respectable rescue who is willing to take on that animal and help us get that animal a home, it is one less animal that is taking up capacity in our shelter which means that we are once kennel open where we don't have to look at capacity euthanas. Uh like the mayor

[1:31:11] said uh last week, we actually had no capacity euthanas last week, which we were very proud of. Uh we did have some medical emergency and behavioral euthanas um that were not safe for the public, but we're on the right track to lower that euthanasia. Um it is going to require community involvement and um community help as well from the rescues. we all are one big animal community that we've got to work together. >> And then on the um on those rescues um the word you just used um not reliable but rescues that you trust. How do you kind of qualify rescues? >> So the first part is going to be they have to have a 501c3. That is what establishes them as a rescue under the tax qualifications. Um, and then we do have an application that we are asking about their vets, about how long they've been in service, about what type of animals, what type of behavioral issues, um, how many people they have to pull, and then again, if we have any complaints of animal welfare, we're going to look into those before we make a decision to allow them to pull. >> I assume they're under the same rules that they they know the animal must be spay or neutered before it goes to somebody else. They're signing something agreeing to that or something. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um is there any I know the the euthanasia obviously is a big deal. Is there anything out there that um people know what animals are basically on that list imminently? >> So we are not putting out a youth in Asia list that fosters uh rush decisions and incomplete thinking on adoptions. It pulls on the emotions more than the responsibility. And we want these animals to last in the shelter. We don't want a person to just adopt to save a life, but then they can't handle that animal and they're rehoming it or it gets loose and it's running down the street again. We want them to make a

[1:33:14] conscientious decision that's best for their household and that animal. So, we are not putting out a euthanasia list. Now, you can see on our animals which ones are there the longest, which means that they haven't had as much of a they've had more of an opportunity, but they haven't had as much love from the public for adoption. Um, so, you know, you can look at it from that perspective, but we do not put on euthanasia list. We will with the rescues if we have medical issues that we are not equipped to deal with. Say pregnant dog um or giving birth puppy um nursing mom um animals that need extensive treatment. We will send out things to them to the rescues where they are more equipped for that before deciding if the animal has to be humanely euthanized. Is the capacity euthanasia is it always off of of time in service basically the the one that's been there the longest would be the first one on the list >> as a general rule that's the way it's been u there are animals that we go through and see that are highly adoptable and we will pull them off that list to give them a little more chance because for whatever reason they're not getting the spotlight as much. Um, example, Friday we have an adoption event over at Sketchers in which we're taking some animals. They are going to be some of our adult longest days that are actually already fixed and we're getting them vaccinated beforehand so that they could go home same day if they decide to adopt them. >> Um, I I think probably the biggest thing I've seen from the public is the I guess the lack of euthanasia list. So, I think that's something we ought to keep a close eye on. Maybe if it was just to the rescues so that they know, hey, if if we're going to pull some, these are the ones we probably need to pull and try to get adopted. I understand your reasoning, I do, but from my side of it, the biggest problem I've seen is is dogs coming in that were euthanized and people didn't realize that they were going to be euthanized. Now, if it's as simple as looking on the list and seeing

[1:35:16] longest in time, it's probably going to be those that are the highest percentage, then that's stuff people can work through. But I I think that's something that we ought to keep a close eye on from from the public and from my side of the unit. We are also trying to avoid any false propaganda. Uh we actually had that happen in on the 29th 30th in which one of the longest days who we had purposely pulled off the list um on selecting euthanasia because of his adoptability. Um we got several phone calls visits up at the shelter before the contract had ended with pause and they said we heard that you were scheduling to euthanize him that day. And I said, "We have no scheduled euthanas." And it didn't matter what I said, they heard it from social media, therefore it was law. And so that is also what we're trying to avoid is the false information on that. >> Agreed. >> Yeah. No, it sounds like you're on the right track on everything. Uh wish you all the best. That's just that obviously it's going to be a hot button issue in San Angelo. So welcome to San Angelo and social media. Thank you. >> Mayor, you had some questions. Uh Amanda with your you have a big history lot of background with your enforcement and have you met with or have you met with the the judges or the other people that would be enforcing putting some teeth in it? I was briefly sworn in um at the courthouse. I have also talked with uh legal the city attorney um a couple of times as well as legal on paperwork. they have become very well acquainted with me. Um, but I've already expressed to set up a meeting with myself, uh, the courthouse, the officials at the courthouse as far as judges, prosecutor, so that we can get on the same page as that. >> Good. I'm glad I'm glad to hear that. Uh, Karen brought up a a good point. You know, on our water bill, it has, you know, that gives an itemized list of what you're paying for. If there was a

[1:37:20] voluntary, say, space on that bill or something, if would that be feasible? You know, I I know I would probably, you know, here's my extra $5 or something like that. Would that be just a mountain to climb to maybe let that be let a >> You couldn't volunteer about it. You could >> look face. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. would have to look into that, but usually donations, especially cash donations, need to be accepted by council. No one employee can accept cash donations. So, I don't know. I'd have to look into it, see what we can do. But initially, I'd say no. Subject to further research. Karen, it's not it's not a mountain climb. We can work through that. I think if anything any funds that can be collected specifically to address spayneuter uh and the agreements that we'd have to have with some of the veterinarians really to do uh the voucher system as well. That is something that in the in the very near future needs to be addressed because we can't adopt our way out of uh the situation. We need to make sure that we're also addressing it through spay and neuter. So definitely that's something we'll take a look at and I'll work with Brandon on that as far as how we can make that happen though. So, uh, it's a good question and I think if anything just to be looking for different ways to really collect that money to make it make a difference. >> 10 dimes make a dollar kind of thing. So, but that and Amanda, we do welcome you with open arms and if there's anything that you need u >> every one of us up here is at your dispos disposal. That goes not just for Amanda but for the rest of the staff. uh accomplishing these new goals is paramount to to all of us and to all the the citizens here. So, we're glad you're here and do not hesitate to ask us for anything. >> Thank you. >> Go walk a dog. >> Yeah, go walk a dog. >> All right. For that, I'll look for a motion. Um >> I'll make a motion we approve as

[1:39:22] presented. >> I got one from Tommy Heert. And is that a second over there, Karen? Second carry Smith. Is any public comment, Heather? >> With that, I'll take a vote. All in favor say I. I. >> Any opposed? Item passes 70. Thank you so much. Now we'll move into an well at the Sketchers event, we all give free shoes for a cat adoption for Patrick. So you can run down those cats. >> I'll donate. >> I'm with you. All right. We'll move to item C. Consider awarding RFP HR125 to benefits providers, authorizing staff to negotiate contracts, and authorizing the city manager to execute all related documents for employee and retirey coverage. Presentation made by Hub International Senior County Executive Julian Fontana and HR Director Veronica Sanchez. Veronica, you're on. >> Good morning, Mayor Council. Veronica Sanchez, HR Director. Um, a few months ago, we went out to bid for our benefit suite. Um we do this every three to five years and it encompasses medical, pharmacy, dental, vision, life insurance and some ancillary products. Um we are here today to propose um to make some proposals, provide you some results and some analysis. Um I do want to note that although we will be making some recommendations on the um active group, the under 65 group and the over 65 group coverages. The over 65 group funding will not be discussed today. There is some additional um followup that I need to do on that. So that'll come back to council in on October 21st. Okay. With that, um, Julian is here with Hub International, our consultant, to provide you that information. >> Thank you. >> Morning, Mayor and Council. Appreciate

[1:41:25] the opportunity to be there uh with you all today to review the uh outcome and the summary of the uh benefits RFP. Hub International in conjunction with human resources and uh purchasing conducted a formal RFP for all the city's employee benefits plans for the uh January 1, 2026 uh effective date. Again, as Veronica touched on, this covered thirdparty administrative services, uh, provider network access for the medical plan, pharmacy benefit management services, group life, accidental death and dismemberment, long-term and short-term disability, group dental, uh, group vision, and um, conducted in a consistent process that hub takes for all of our uh, clients um, and protocols that were ensured the outcomes met the city's goals. It was a uh very active RFP. The city received uh responses from 16 different carriers. Uh there were 14 others that declined it to respond and uh there's a listing of the um respondents in the in the information provided. So the city's uh plan is partially self-funded. So we use a third party administrator uh for claims administration and for provider network access for the medical plan. uh that current administrator is Etna. Um and the slide showing here is uh the current costs per employee per month and the proposed cost from Etna uh per employee per month. And so through the RFP process, um Etna provided a more competitive uh cost-effective uh per employee per month cost at $32.95 compared to the $38.92 currently. And then they also agreed to reduce the percentage of shared savings and that's a negotiation uh for claims uh incurred out of network that are renegotiated. Um and they uh

[1:43:27] reduce the cap on that from um minimum of $6 per employee per month to $5 per employee per month. So those negotiated savings are are capped uh based on the number of employees. And then the net result uh was a reduction of $68,147 uh over the current costs uh for the city and it provided a three-year rate guarantee uh at the uh shown rate and then two renewal options subsequent to that for year four and five at a 3% increase. Um, as part of the RFP, uh, HUB included, uh, requests for allowances, um, as well as performance guarantees. The city does receive, uh, annual wellness allowance today from Etna of $70,000, and this goes to help pay for the Sharon uh, direct primary care for uh, active and retired employees. Etna increased that allowance to $150,000 annually on behalf of the city. And then we also requested a medical uh audit allowance because hub does recommend every three to five years that the uh medical claims are audited to make sure that their uh plan is being administered according to the terms and provisions of the plan documents. When we combine the administrative fees, the credits, and then the claims, because we also did a claims repricing to confirm the network discounts for the city, uh the combined annual total uh for the current year is 9 uh,482,467. The renewal uh first year for Etna um will be 9,36,188. That's a savings of $146,279 through the outcome of the RFP on the pharmacy benefit management services. Um those are currently uh

[1:45:31] considered what's carved in. They're done handinhand with Etn CVS today. Hub works with a number of different purchasing consortiums that um are public entity purchasing consortiums where you can uh align yourselves with uh consortiums that purchase for hundreds of thousands of employees uh members nationwide. And so through the RFP process uh the most competitive uh purchasing consortium alliance that we found was through employers health uh still utilizing CVS. Um, we looked at the gross ingredient cost. And so this is based on the average wholesale price of uh generic and brand drugs and specialty drugs that uh are provided through the program. There's about $80,000 in hard costs associated with those uh gross ingredient costs and then um about an additional $600,000 in uh projected rebates. So by using an external party uh for the pharmacy benefit manager, we're able to uh procure additional uh larger rebates on behalf of the city uh for those drugs. So the estimated savings uh from the current year is $646, uh82. The dental and vision plans uh were also included in the RFP. Uh the current dental benefits are through Lincoln. There's a low PO plan and a high PO plan. Um the dental plan had uh significantly high utilization. That means that the utilization the claims were higher than the premiums that were being received. Uh through the RFP process uh the percentage of increase that Lincoln uh wanted was 24.78%. We were able to collaborate with Etna uh to uh bundle those coverages and they provided a proposal of an increase of $11,948

[1:47:34] which is uh 19.5% increase uh over current. And then they did include a rate guarantee uh for next year of a maximum increase of 6.5%. the vision benefits currently provided through superior vision. Uh the request for proposal was to match the current benefits um as well as to look at opportunities for enhancement. Um Etna also is the most competitive uh proposal received for this uh vision plan um in terms of bundling the coverages and having the medical, dental and vision all together. Uh they are in the green you see they have increased the allowance for frames. So that's the retail allowance. Uh it was increased from $150 to $175. And then the uh contact the elective contact um benefit was increased from $150 to $210 over what the current plan with Superior is. And uh with that, Etna was able to maintain the current rates being paid for by the city by the employees. and they provided a 4-year rate guarantee for that vision plan. Next section is the group life accidental death and dismemberment. Um we also looked at long-term and short-term disability coverages which are not currently available uh through the city's employee benefit plan. Um the city provides a basic life benefit of $10,000 uh for employees. um $3,000 uh basic life benefits available for spouse and then 1,500 for children. Um in our review uh and analysis of the uh benchmark in comparison for the city, we did note that the $10,000 was somewhat below uh the public entity benchmark. Um with the proposals that were received, uh Symmetra is the incumbent. They did provide a small decrease of $109. Uh the standard provided a matching rate with

[1:49:40] no increase and our recommendation was to increase the basic life benefit to $25,000 per employee. Um the metro wanted a much larger rate than the standard for that coverage. So, the increase to provide uh $25,000 instead of $10,000 would be an increase of $8,29 uh for the city for that basic life benefit. Uh standard also included an implementation credit of $5,000. So, that's really a net three. Um, and then with the city implementing uh new uh benefit technology, payroll administrative services with UKG, they're going to provide a 3% uh credit uh to the city based on premiums associated with the group life, long-term and short-term disability and the voluntary life. Uh the standard rate is guaranteed for three years. uh the voluntary life AD and D benefits. These are available for the employees to purchase additional life insurance. Uh the standard proposed a higher guaranteed issue maximum of $200,000 uh versus the city's uh $150,000 currently. Um the standard is willing to offer a true open enrollment. That means that anyone uh with the city that is going through open enrollment this this year will have the opportunity to increase their coverage or buy new coverage to $200,000 with no questions asked. So, we're very excited about that and giving employees kind of a reset on their life insurance. If someone has amounts higher than $200,000, those amounts will be grandfathered uh and carried over to uh the standard. The voluntary life premiums uh although Symmetra had wanted an increase uh for the renewal, the standard proposed to match the current rates in place, no increase. Voluntary long-term disability. Um,

[1:51:44] again, this is a new benefit, not currently offered uh to the city. Long-term disability is an important keystone uh in your employee benefit package. And so, we're proposing a voluntary offering um uh to provide a 50% of income benefit to a maximum benefit of $7,500 after 90 days of disability. And these would be voluntary rates based on uh covered payroll for the employee depending on their age. Those are also included at a three-year rate guarantee. And then the short-term disability benefit uh would be, you know, prior to the long-term disability benefit, it would provide a 90 uh day benefit uh 66% of covered earnings to a maximum weekly benefit of $2,000 uh with benefits beginning after 14 days. Again, same type of scenario. uh covered benefit uh per $10 and then depending on your age band uh those were those rates and the rate guarantee is also three years for that. So, as part of HUB's due diligence, when we were hired, uh, in April, we began our our work with the city as the consultant, uh, we did a full plan review and analysis of the plan costs associated with self-funded plan. Um, and in this summary, uh, we had a a narrative that went along here, and this is kind of what I'm going to cover uh, in the plan. Uh the plan had a expected annual liability of 12,743,46, a maximum liability of $15,432 uh $421. The premium equivalent rates that were being used to offer coverage and to fund the plan um were uh at $9,190,151, leaving an unfunded liability, which we talked about when we came in. um and asked for appropriations to cover that deficit this year and we said we'd

[1:53:46] provide transparency so that wouldn't occur again um you know without council's knowledge of what's being done here. So, uh, we did a cost projection for the city's current medical plan. The three options, uh, three medical plans that are available today, that would be an annual cost of 13,531,495. And then hub alternatively um, is proposing that the city move to a dual option uh, arrangement. So going from three plans to two plans, uh discontinuing the high and the medium plan and instituting a um a base plan which is a high deductible health plan. Um and that provides um a cost of $13,41,700. So about half a million in savings overall. Uh with some increase uh contributions to uh the employees which was discussed at council. the city would receive a 9.1% uh savings compared to spending for uh 2025 or $655,667. So this is really high level. Um this is how the self-funded plan is built. So your fixed costs are what you pay at in the monthly to pay the claims and what you uh your stop-loss reinsurance premiums are. So those fixed costs are a,983,856. And then the claim liability is capped by the aggregate reinsurance, the gross utilization in the plan, uh, which the city buys aggregate insurance for. Uh, the expected claims liability was 10,756,59. Uh, the maximum liability 13 uh,,445,073. So when you add those together, the fixed costs and the claims, those were the numbers that I reflected on my prior narrative of the expected annual cost of uh 12,743,46

[1:55:53] uh with the funding um based on the premium equivalent rates of 9,144,780. that left the uh differences at expected and maximum costs that were unrealized. Uh, additionally, hub recommends a plan reserve associated with the self-funded plan that's 25% of the balance of the expected claims. And so that uh reserve numbers are shown there at the bottom. And this is something that we'll hopefully work with the city to acrue over the next 3 to 5 years uh through appropriate funding of the plan and managing the utilization. So this is the current plan designs the city offers the low the medium and the high and the cost projection for that this is done by hub's internal uh actuarial team uh and analyst was uh $13,531,495 and this is the new proposed dual option plan. So on the left you have uh the different variables the deductible the co- insurance office co-pays and then on the right you have the um high deductible health plan um with that and the health fund which is a health reimbursement account and then the current low plan becomes the buyup PO for the employees um employees uh that enroll in either plan will still have access to the Shannon urgent care uh and facilities at a zero co-pay. All preventive carees under both plans are covered at 100%. Uh and the reimbursement accounts, the $750 employeeonly or $1,500 employee plus family uh contributions that are made to the city by the city. Uh if those monies are not used, they'll continue to acrue each year up to the maximum out of pocket of 6,600 for an individual or

[1:57:57] 13,200 for a family. So with the high deductible health plan, the intent is to give employees first dollar coverage uh through Etna uh for incidental expenses for prescriptions, office visits that would go toward the deductible. In a normal situation, those will still go to the deductible, but they would have funds to pay for those uh out-of- pocket costs uh through Etna with those dollars. Um there were two minor changes to uh the plan. Um we removed the inpatient hospital co-pay. So both on on all three, the low, the mid, and the high plan, there was a uh hospital co-ayment associated with hospital confinement. we didn't see much actuarial value or need for that on the plan and so that was removed. Um and then we modified the uh emergency room uh co-pay to $500 uh to more uh kind of balance that with the public uh uh public entity benchmark. Um and the prescription benefits remained unchanged. So the projected annual cost for uh this new dual option P plan as mentioned was 13,41,700 which is a little over $500,000 less than the current arrangement that city has in place today. looking at uh formulating the rates and contributions for this. Um the city's rates, not only were they not um aligned uh to fund the minimum expected cost of the plan, but the ratio of uh cost between the tiers uh was not aligned in what would be uh actuarial fashion. So that the um the cost for an employee plus spouse wasn't twice the cost of the employee or the tiers for employee family weren't three or 3.2 times the cost of the employee. There

[2:00:01] was some implicit subsidy going on uh with the employee rate to try to subsidize the dependent coverage. And so in the new uh plan year, those have been adjusted to reflect the actuarial norms that you see in rate tiers for employee, employee, spouse, employee, children, and family. In formulating the cost you see in red, we have included the uh HRA contribution, the health reimbursement account of $750 for employee only and $1,500 for family. We're uh basing this model assuming that um 20% of the city's population would migrate to this plan in the savings estimate that's being provided. Uh we hope we think that more people may migrate to this plan uh and provide additional savings, but we wanted to be conservative in our estimate. So there's 207 uh projected enrolled in the high deductible HR plan and 828 maintaining the enrollment in the uh PO option. Um the cost increase that was used was about 5% uh and you can see that monthly change um in the employee cost shares for the uh high deductible uh HR plan. And then the increase is a little over 20% if you want to remain in the uh PO uh plan currently. And so those by tier are shown um for each of the different uh plans and coverage levels uh for the post 65 uh retirey Medicare advantage plan. Uh the city had a very large increase with uh United Healthcare last year. Uh we worked with the Unitedi with uh retirey first who's the plan provider um and had them market the plans again. Uh the United Healthcare Renewal came in at 31 uh%. Uh Retirey First was able to secure a matching plan

[2:02:05] with no change in benefits at a 4.18% increase. Uh that represents an increase in premium of about $1352 per employee uh per retiree on the plan. So we were very pleased with that outcome. uh at the end of the day uh recommendations overall is to award the medical uh thirdparty administrative services to Etna, the pharmacy benefit management services to employers health with CVS, award the fully insured dental and vision plans to Etna, uh the group life disability um to the standard uh at the $25,000 flat uh benefit. Um, we recommend in implementing the dual option for the medical plans proposed at the premiums and cost shares presented. Uh, the award of the post 65 Medicare Advantage plan to Tumana and uh award of the uh continued clinic contact with Shannon contract with the Shannon Medical Center. Uh we are still working on the fee negotiation uh for that uh per visit fee um with Shannon, but uh we do have a contract in hand and and we're in the process of negotiating that. Um to kind of round out the city's benefit plans, uh the city does currently offer accident and critical illness. Additional coverages that will be offered on a voluntary basis or hospital indemnity benefit. So, it plays a flat uh indemnity benefit based on a hospital confinement that may be of assistance to people that uh are going to the high deductible plan that want that additional coverage. Uh identity protection with lifelock. Uh there's a lot of cyber security and and such going on. Uh illegal plan services, ambulance services, and pet insurance. And those round those out. I'm available for any questions. >> Julian, number one, thank you. I want to thank the Bronica. You can go ahead and

[2:04:07] come on up. We'll ask questions of both of you. This is one of the most important things a family will have to consider every year. And what we've seen here, there's a lot of complexity. Um what I what I do find impressive is you have some rate guarantees that go two and three years. I I haven't seen those that have ever guaranteed we'll be sitting in a spot like this where we don't have to worry about what's going to happen next year. And while some people may not think that's important, it's very important just to guarantee some stability in what we're trying to do for the employees. And that's it. Um out of network, there's always a question about out of network cost on pharmacies. We have some localarmacies and that that comes up to me quite a bit. Um if somebody wants to use Myers or somewhere, are we able to work them into the program? And I know that and that may not be a discussion for today and if it's not we can go past it. >> Well, typically it's not covered. So, um there's really no way around that if it's out of network. Um I don't know if uh Julian would have any recommendations, you know, as as far as that's concerned. Um so, we do try to educate our employees about whichies are in network. Um particularly the um what's it called? I drew >> when you get three three months at a time >> maintenance >> maintenance um because you do get um a better rate um when you do that but um as far as out of network if it's not um >> if there if Meyers is not currently in network we we can have the provider relations group reach out to them and see if there's a way to contact them in the network or if there's a specific reason they're not participating. >> Well there there's two not just there's a couple in town that would be great if we could just touch that. Yeah, we can reach out. >> And that's that's not a dealbreaker, but the point of it is we want to keep as many things locally and funded locally as is. Um, you talked about the migration between policies. Um, basically we're going to have two

[2:06:11] offerings. Explain the why the migration you think about 20% of will migrate to the lower policy. >> Yes. BA based on the premium differentials, uh the cost of the plan to be in the the higher PO versus the cost to be in what is now the low plan which is the high deductible plan, >> right? >> Um as well as uh you know active healthy employees that may want to acrue those funds, those health reimbursement uh dollars that uh are going to continue on with them uh for expenses. So, lower overall cost of out-of- pocket premiums um and and the first dollar coverage available with the health reimbursement account as well as access to the Shannon clinic. Okay. >> Well, it's I think it's a great thing that we've set in front of them today. I I was expecting with we had some unanticipated hits last year to our health insurance policy and we've managed to work around that. understand the the reserves we're going to have to set up and that's a healthy chunk whether we do that at 25% or 35% I was we discussed that yesterday with Tina but we'll look at being able to have that and with that I'll throw it open to anybody with additional questions for the group Tommy >> couple of questions that these are these are minor points Julian what what is our specific stop-loss deductible >> $200,000 >> okay >> so the city incurs the first 200,000 and and re reinsured over that amount. >> Uh and a and a silly question that's all factored into the the new rate calculations that that you have uh and what what is our aggregate uh is it 125% we expected 135% >> 125%. >> Okay, good. Um to your point, Mayor, um for them to be able to secure the multi-year rate guarantees on these products is a big deal. Um, it also is a big deal. While nobody sees this other than um in the overall operation

[2:08:18] of the plan, which is what Veronica and her group are looking at, but the what you all were able to do with with the PBM uh was nothing short of amazing. Um, that that is an area of of the insurance world. the PBMs um are >> challenging. >> Yes, thank you. I I was going to use some other words, but that yes, they are very challenging. Um so, uh in in the in the whole offering and big scheme of things, this is a really good package. Even though the premiums are going to go up, we as a council have not been managing this as well as we should have. And so we got uh we got a hit this past year that we had to take care of. This should get us uh begin to get us back on the right path to fund our plan appropriately so that that should not happen again. So Julian, to your group, Veronica to your folks, too. Thank you for uh the these are things that will um make you go uh just numb because of looking at all the numbers. But Julian, thanks to your folks, Veronica, thanks to you all for for this. >> Joe, I from running a business, uh this is a grilling time in any business is providing healthcare. I think y'all have done a good job of bringing us something that'll help us, like Tommy said, get back on the right track and so I think it's a good good progress. Well, I'm going to reiterate what's been said already, but uh when I was in business, I had to do some of this. It's been many years ago. So, it's not a pleasant task to go out and have conversation with your employees, especially when you know that you're going to increase your your premiums.

[2:10:22] But this is a great package. Multi-year is something that doesn't happen all the time. So, I'm going to say thanks for what you guys did. Uh I know we got a little ways to go on on a couple items. uh negotiating with Shannon and uh uh Post 65, but we're going to get there. And I think the thing that's key here is we're going to be able to put a little more money in that fund balance, too. so that when it comes if it comes a time somewhere's down the road beyond my time comes on that you got to use that fund balance some of it'll be there so thanks >> Patrick Karen >> yes sir >> miss Mary um one final question on my part this is a very complex thing as far as customer service and explanation of benefits It's I'm sure we have people to call. It's the most important thing is when somebody says, "How's your insurance?" And you just want to give it to your wife and say, "Let her take care of it." Cuz I have no idea. The a customer service line is invaluable. >> That would be our office. Um we will be having this is a very different plan than what we've had traditionally. So we will have someformational meetings scheduled at the beginning of November. Um although the meetings are not necessarily u mandatory, we do encourage employees to attend those so that they can make the best decision for their health and their families. Um open enrollment will be later in November. So we have some time to um have these discussions with employees and and make sure they have the information that they need. >> Well, my main concern there is as as a family and a spouse, one's going to hand it to the other and say, "Okay, what is this part? help us work through. I I'll summarize it and say y'all have done an outstanding job of putting together. I was expecting a huge change this year and to come in as as well as you have and negotiated it as to the point it is.

[2:12:27] Julian, you and your group have just done an outstanding job. And with that said, I'll look for a motion. >> So move. >> I got a first from Tommy Heert and I have a second from Joseph. Any public comment, Heather? >> Mayor, >> did I miss it? >> It was Harry. Oh, it was Harry. Well, I should look instead of just guessing by that beautiful tone of the voice. So, first from Tommy Heert, second by Harry Thomas. Any public comment, Heather? >> With that, all in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Item passes 70. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, council. >> Thank you. >> Do what break. We're going to take a five minute break right quick and we'll be back here at let's just say 1050. A tears board recommendation of two projects totaling $71,823 for incentives. Item one, 16 each concho drive in the south tier zone. Number two, 2319 North Chadurn in the north tiers incentive zone. Presentation made by director Aaron Venoy. Aaron, you're on. >> Thank you, Mayor, City Council, and Mr. Venuela. We've got this project in the South Ti at 16 East Concho. They have a facade uh request that they're going to uh freshen up the rasad uh facade for their um wine bar at 16 Concho. The funding request is just under $10,000. The total proposed project is just over 13,000 with their match being uh 3,326 and2 and awning installation paint and permit fees for the awning. So here you see the small little space there at 16. Uh they're coming back in to refresh this awning. They're going to add some paint accents that have already gone to the um design and historic review commission and have been approved. uh they're keeping the architectural design by allowing some of these accents to come through. You can see back uh here

[2:14:29] on the left side where there's some accent uh some brick accents on the architectural design that will come through on the colors uh on the right side with the outlining. So with that one on 16 east concho it did go to uh we'll take these individually just just to make sure that we're separating the south and the north. The 16 East Concho did go to the TEI board for the funding request of $9,978 um6. That did go to them on the um September the 23rd with a recommended of funding with a 70 vote. With that, I'll take any questions on 16 East Concho. >> Anybody have any questions? >> Move forward, Aaron. >> All right. And I'll back up here to um 29 uh excuse me, 2319 North Chadurn. Uh they have an exterior project. Some of it is facade. Some of it is parking. Funding request is $61,130.17. The total project 68,000. So their uh match is 6,826. So they're looking at some new large overhead doors, some new parking areas, and new signage. So you can see this is a zoomed out view. It actually has a very nice facade. Now it's a rock facade that they have done in the past. But here you can kind of see where the sign is that that projects over the top of their building. And you can see along here on the frontage of their road that they do need some parking improvement uh that would help along the north Chadron corridor. Here's that sign that's a little bit close up. Um they did try to give us a daytime and a nighttime view. So it is going to be a lighted sign. Uh but it is on their property. It is an existing sign that they are just trying to rehab and uh get their new logo out. Again, here's some of those close-ups of that parking area that does need a good refresh. Um that would make that property a little more usable, some more of the space for their uh vehicle sales. These are the current doors. Um they are going to a more um better design. Of course, you can see that nice limestone

[2:16:32] accent uh stone that they have on the building right now. They are going to go over to this uh size of of this style of door over here with some lighting uh some glazed uh windows that have some um to allow a little bit more light into that area um when needed. With that, um this did go to the uh TEI board again also on September the 23rd um of this year. They did recommend 7 to zero to approve a north tier private incentive of $61,130.17. >> Mayor, I do hear one question about the 2319. >> All right. So, we'll start questions with Harry. So tell me a little bit about >> Harry, grab your mic >> signage because at one point in time when we started looking at tears funding maybe nine years ago, so a little history here, we didn't we didn't put any tears money towards signs because the business could move and Yeah. So tell me where we are with that and how the tears board approached this. >> So within our policies, signage is a very low item that we would contribute towards and the tears board looked at that particularly on this north Chadurn project um as it is one of the the while it's a cost involved there. they feel like this property owner has been there for a significant amount of time. The other project uh that has to do with the paving as well as the doors are much more costly than the sign. Now, usually if it's just a sign project or that's the major cost of a project, I don't think they would fund it as well as they do. Um in particularly in the north, they do also take in consideration how much funding is available. And in this case, we believe that the funding does justify paying for the sign and it will allow that property to continue to

[2:18:36] enhance the property over time. >> But with that, I make motion to approve as presented. >> Let me see if anybody else any questions. >> Was the uh the rest of the saw on that was it done through tears or was that something they did on their own? >> I believe they did that on their own. We looked back at the property address. We didn't see where we had actually contributed TEI dollars in the past. That doesn't mean they didn't come forward for a request. Uh we just did not find that in our records, but um we're very proud of the the property owners doing those types of things to properties like that and we encourage that along that corridor. >> Yeah. Yeah, it looks great as far as that goes. It really spiffed it up. Thank you, >> Brandon. Should we separate these two vote on them separately or should we is it okay to to take them together? >> I I would do separate. Yeah. >> All right. So, looking for a motion on item one. some of them. >> So I have a first from Harry Thomas and a second from Mary Coffee. Any public comment on item one, Heather? >> No public comment. All those in favor of item one say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Item one pass 70. We'll move to item two. If I could get a motion. >> So second. >> I have a first from Joseph and a second from Harry Thomas. Is that correct? >> That's correct. >> Just making sure. Any public comment? With no public comment, we'll take a vote on item two. All those in favor say I. I. >> Any opposed? Item two passes 70. All right, we'll move on now. Item number three, consider resolution nominating candidates to serve on the board of directors of the Tom Green County Appraisal District. Presentation made by city clerk Heather Stson. >> Hello. Um so in 2003, Senate Bill 2 um changed the method for the selection of directors to the appraisal district. Um at the end of 2024 um we nominated um two individuals to sit on the board of directors for a one-year term. The other three um that are appointed, they were appointed to serve uh three-year terms. So those two

[2:20:39] individuals that were nominated or I'm sorry that are seated in the that one-year term um their term is up now. And so we need nominations for those two seats. They will be going into a four-year term now to start that staggered process that was implemented through Senate Bill 2. >> Do we know the names of those two? >> Yes. Uh Luis Gomez and Bob Reeves. >> So, Mayor, I have a question from for Heather. >> Sure. >> Are there term limits on this? The reason I asked that question is I believe both of those individuals have been there maybe eight or nine years or maybe even longer than that. >> Um so yes, uh term limits uh were implemented. I'm trying to find exactly where they were. I know Tyler's here. Um however, the terms that they previously were serving don't count towards the the new term limits. >> Okay. Very good. So it's it's my understanding that these are probably the two most senior people. >> That is correct. >> On that crew and all the rest one are new to the board. >> Yes. >> Relatively new. >> Yes. >> Any further questions with that? I'll look for a motion. >> Well, nominations. >> We need to nominate these two. >> Yes. Or any two individuals, but these two are um eligible and willing to serve again. But it's at your pleasure to nominate whomever. >> I will take it upon myself to nominate the two existing. Okay. I'll second that, mayor. >> Or do No, it's not a motion, is it? >> Yes, >> it is. >> Okay, then I'll second your motion. >> We have a first and a second. >> Yes. >> Any public comment? >> We do. Anna Barttosh. >> Okay, Miss Anna. >> Good morning again. Anna Barttoage, single member, District 1. Uh I encourage you to really think about these um your nominations. Um in past I know city uh you say you have no input

[2:22:44] to our appraisal or taxes but yes you do because you are nominating people to sit on that board. Uh last year uh I believe uh the um people at the retirement center, the older people were um hit pretty hard because the board ruled that they didn't own their property that they are paying. They just rented from the retirement facility. So it did have a big tax effect on them. Some actually lost their homes. So what you do here does have a huge effect. So just encourage you to think about these members and uh and since these two fellas have been on there for a good while, you might want to think about that. Thank you. >> Any additional public comment? >> Ginger Moore. >> Ginger Moore, District 1. I have been on the appraisal district for three years with their board members. They do not allow you to do anything but public comment. I sent them a three-page report and the board members basically said it was public comment. They don't have to respond. They don't have to read it. And it had three attachments. And I sent it to our s our congressman and our senator Perry. Senator Perry at one point said, "You're you're have the fox in the in the hen house basically by having people that are are basically being appointed. We do not send that out for different opinions on these people and that they are always on the same board and they always vote with Tyler. Whatever Tyler tells them, that's basically what they do." Uh Anna and I went to the board meeting. Uh we basically were told we could not uh record and I told them it was an open meeting uh report and we could and we did but they also left us

[2:24:49] for for uh just a couple minutes and then they said that we were no longer able to comment any longer and we also were told that um at night at at they have them at night. No, they have them in 8:00 in the morning one time, 3 months later or a month later, we don't know when, they posted on their door. The three people that were supposed to have been elected were basically chosen in my opinion because the only place that they put the the uh advertisement for those positions was on the door of our county judge. And people do not go up there and look. I asked Vanna if it was put out. She said it was not. Um, we we need to take a hard look at who you put on there because that affects every single taxpayer in this in this city and the county because they are also on the board complete board for for appraisal district. It's completely kept secret. You cannot know. They put it on the door like four or five days before they have a meeting. And most of the other counties let you know a month ahead or two months ahead whenever they have their last meeting when the next meeting will be. you do that. Everybody does that. You cannot they do not let people look at their board meeting at all. Um they they do not record it and put it out. In fact, Tyler told me they do not record their meetings at all, which I find that hard to believe. I had to do a a a foyer request to get the financials. I had to do a foyer request to get the minutes. I couldn't even get the minutes of the meetings. Um and and about nine months ago, they just decided that and I'm sure they had reasons, but that doesn't help the people in Rio Koncho that no longer had the homestead exemption. So, you know, I mean, you need to really look at and I have uh he used to be the board president. Oh, I'm just asking you to not vote and to re reassess

[2:26:55] who you might be putting on that board and for us to look at those people and vet them. Thank you. >> Thank you, Ginger. Uh what I will say here is we have a a first and a second on the floor. We understand that. Um we can get with the appraisal district on their processes and procedures, but they provide as we have gone with basically the two most experienced people with a rookie board. So with that, I'll take a vote. All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? >> Item passes 61. Declaration of disaster issued by the mayor and extend the city council related to the severe storm and flash flooding event that occurred on July 4th, 2025. Presentation made by Brandon Dyson. >> Thank you, mayor. Uh so, as you recall, July 10th, the city council did extend the de declaration of disaster. That was only for 90 days. So, we're bringing that back uh to further extend it. I think in talking to Shane and our groups, for the most part, the debris uh cleanup is completed, but there are still a lot of third parties like Kosa DC, uh Galilee working with, uh businesses, homeowners to rehab their properties. So, I think it's important to still extend that disaster declaration. It also allows the mayor uh to continue to issue orders as issues come up uh specific to properties. And in one case, we have a property that's uh wanting to put RVs on the property and uh to allow contractors to come on and then help with some of the rehabs. that typically wouldn't be allowed by our zoning ordinance, but if this passes, I think the the mayor can issue an order specific to that property that would allow that to happen so long as the disaster is still in place. So,

[2:28:59] that's by part of it. I don't know if Jose, he's here if there's anything else to add or other questions, but >> So, the extension of this just allows us to help people as best we can, allows us flexibility to do that and not worry about parameters that have a sunset. >> Yeah. when it is for another 90 days. Um, if y'all deem it necessary to do it for longer than that, we can do that. But that's how I've drafted it currently. So, >> all right. With that, any questions? >> Move to approve as presented. >> I have a first from Harry Thomas. >> Second. >> Second from Joe Self. Any public comment? >> With no public comment, we'll take a vote on item F. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Item F passes 70. Now we'll move to item G. First reading in public hearing an ordinance amending chapter 2 administration and personnel article 2.07 boards committees and commissions division 1 generally section 2.07.001 organization and procedure by providing for alternate board members providing for severability and providing for an effective date presentation made by city attorney Brandon Dyson. >> Thank you mayor. So this was a item that you actually requested for appointing alternate members on boards. So, this adds a provision to the general board rules that will allow alternates for any board. Uh, currently, I think only ZVA actually provides for alternate members. Um, this allows any council member to nominate subject to confirmation by a city council. And so long as there aren't any regular member vacancies in existence, you'd need to appoint those first before appointing an alternate. But otherwise, we've had some quorum issues, so maybe this will help uh if we can get some alternates in place. >> Well, and Brandon, I thank you for moving this forward. We do have quorum issues and we need to move at the speed of the business. There's been I think we went two months without a planning meeting and or we had two planning meetings. >> We had two meetings that Yeah. >> Yeah. that didn't go. I mean, that sets people back. There are notes due and things. So, I appreciate you bringing

[2:31:01] this forward. I'll look for you to send out and Heather, you'll provide us names for nominations. I don't know who you will send that to, whether we'll all get one or how you decide to divvy that up. That can be decided later, but I'm glad to move forward with it as is. Anybody any questions for Brandon? >> Yes, I think so. And it pertains to what you just asked, Heather. >> Um, I think Brandon, can you confirm that you said any council member can nominate an alternate? >> Yep. So, >> anytime. Yeah, we've alternates may be nominated by any member of city council subject to confirmation by the full city council just like we do. >> And presumably you don't want 50 nominations. You want or or you don't have alternate alternates in great numbers. You want a couple of alternates, right? >> Yeah. I mean I I wouldn't expect we'd like stack one board with alternates, but >> Okay. >> You want to make a motion, Karen? >> Sure. We'll make the motion to approve. >> So, I have a first from Karen. I'll >> second. >> We got a second from Patrick. >> Any public comment? >> None. >> All uh with no public comment. We'll ask all those in favor of item G say I. >> Any opposed? G passes 70. Now we'll move to item H. First reading and public hearing of an ordinance amending the budget for the fiscal year beginning October 1st, 2025 and ending September 30, 2026 for additional water lake patrol funding staffing levels for police administration and civil service police pay plan. Tina, you're on. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Mayor. Tina Deerski, director of finance. Um, this budget amendment is three-part. Um the first part being the transfer of an additional $100,000 from the water fund to the general fund to help support lake uh the lake patrol unit. Um currently the the water fund sends $255,000 a year to the general fund to help support that effort. Um we are increasing it by 100,000 this year to 355. Um and going forward we'll build this into the original budget. Um it'll

[2:33:04] it'll increase $100,000 a year until it fully supports that operation. Um the cost of that service right now is uh around $670,000. So um the second part of this amendment is uh staffing levels for police administration. Um the chief is wanting to convert a part-time position to a full-time position and that requires a change to the budget ordinance. So that's why that's being brought to you today. And then the third part is civil ser service police pay plan. Um, since we are still under meet and confer negotiations, we parked the 5% that was allocated for the police department's raises in an account. And once we finish the meet and confer process and determine that that's how they want that funding to be used, um, we go ahead and add it to the budget ordinance and um, it's part of the uh, pay schedule for the police department. >> So, it sits in that account until we finish meeting and confirm and those items are decided on the police pay. Correct. >> Right. Any questions? >> Move approval. >> Do y'all have any questions? >> I have a first from Tommy Heert and a second from Harry Thomas. Any public comment? >> With no public comment, we'll take a vote. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Item H passes 70. Thank you, Tina. We're now going to move into close session executive session on the provision of government code one government code title 5 open government ethics subtitle A open government chapter 551 open meetings subchapter D exceptions to requirements that meetings be open under the following sections A section 551.07087 07087 businesses prospect negotiations regarding project rally point. Item B section 551 071 consultation with attorney regarding mark 3 border patrol hanger private paving contract and item C section 551.074 personal matters regarding the city manager. With that we will close to

[2:35:06] executive session and we expect this to last at least till noon. Correct? Um, we're going to go now to any follow-up or administrative issues, uh, items discussed in executive session. We'll roll down to, uh, there was there we'll get to in a minute. We'll, let's go to B. Um, consider approving various board nominations, animal shelter advisory committee, Amanda Wed, SMD6 to a first term. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Question. Sorry, Brandon. The state health and safety code chapter 823 designates uh particulars for board membership on the animal services advisory committee and it does not say the shelter director. It says a shelter director and it would not be a concern. Normally it Sorry, Heather. um it would not be a concern except that this appears to be the only board or commission uh serving the city of San Angelo that allows an employee a vote on an advisory committee and that that seems like a conflict. So hence my question. So in the health and safety code, it actually it says what that board has to be composed of and so one licensed vet veterinarian, one county or municipal official. So it already allows a municipal official. So I think the statute would say that that's not a conflict. And then to your point about the actual shelter person, one person whose duties include the daily operation of an animal shelter. So animal shelter does have a definition and it's not specific to the city animal shelter. So it could be a person from another animal shelter, but it has to be it does have

[2:37:10] to meet that definition which is means a facility that keeps or legally impounds stray, homeless, abandoned or unwanted animals. And there's also the state requirements that they have to meet. So, one example, they have to have a a vet on staff or maybe not on staff that they contract with to do inspections, I think, annually. Um, and there's some other uh requirements that they have to meet. So, assuming that another shelter meets that, uh, yeah, that person could be someone other than a city shelter employee. >> Making clear this has nothing whatsoever to do with the prior the prior manager nor the new incoming. It's just it has been a question that has popped up the the unusual situation that they're allowed a vote rather than just serving as an advisor and we see that across the across the board. Michael for Kosa DC for example, Erin for planning and ZBA. They're in the room and should be in the room. Um so just something I wanted to have a conversation about it. It could be that the details you just mentioned eliminate any other local candidates. But >> is that what you're saying? >> I'm just saying that if there's another organization that is a shelter, assuming they meet that definition, then yeah, they could be on the board. But I I just don't know which organizations that may apply to. I I'm not going to speak to each. So Brandon, would you say right now the best fit for this position would be Amanda? >> I I think it meets the statute. I I haven't known Amanda long I won't make like a personal recommendation one way or another. I just it meets the statute. >> If you're looking at all of the guidelines and parameter suggested, I don't know anybody else. >> Yeah. Our shelter meets the definition. So a person from the shelter, which Amanda is one. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> Okay. She probably is the best qualified and and I am aware of that. The concern

[2:39:12] is that they are voting on their own policy suggestions. >> I'm with you. >> Okay. >> So, you've raised that question, mayor, if I might. Brandon, does this need to be somebody from San Angela? I mean, in the in the city because on some of our boards, it specifically says you've got to be within the city limits. the the health and safety code doesn't specify that. I'm just trying to think of if there's anything else. >> Our own requirements for boards require them to be a citizen of St. Angelo with the exception of members on the TEI board. >> But the point I was trying to make is I don't know if there's another animal shelter inside the city limits that meets that criteria. So, you know, from my perspective, I I think unless we refine what that says, I'm willing to make the nomination for Manda. >> All right. I have a first. >> I'll second. >> A second from Barry. Any public comment? >> None. >> All those in favor say I. I. >> I. Any opposed? >> One. Motion passes. 61. With that, we'll move into the announcements and considerations of future agenda items, which I'm going to loop back into items suggesting executive session. I'm going to turn it over to city manager Daniel Valenuela to make an announcement. >> Thank you, mayor. Uh after much uh reflection and prayer and discussion with my wife, Susanna, I am formally announcing my retirement as of as city manager uh for the city of St. Angel effective actually next year October 31st of 2026. I want to start by saying I I've been here uh this month I complete 13 years with the city and at my retirement I'll be here 14 years. It has been an absolute blessing. I'm very humbled uh to have been given this opportunity here

[2:41:14] in San Angelo. uh from the first mayor Alvin Yu and the city council that hired me to our current mayor uh mayor Tom Thompson and the current city council that have been outstanding. I uh again have been so blessed and I'm looking forward to that retirement and actually retiring here in St. Angelo. This is a community that uh I couldn't think of any anywhere else that I could live. Um serving as city manager has been one of the greatest honors of my professional career. I am forever grateful for the opportunity to serve this community that I deeply respect and love. With that, mayor, uh, thank y'all. Um, again, I've got nothing but the deepest gratitude and everything and all the experiences that I gone through in this community. Uh, they've been great. I'm so thankful to my staff. I say outstanding. I have an outstanding staff from my directors to the frontline personnel. Everyone works so well together, city council and my staff, everybody works so well as a team. Uh, as I say, I I all I pray for is that we continue moving forward in that direction. Yes, I will be here another year. You will get a lot out of me this coming year. I'm super excited for some of the things that are on the horizon. But with that, again, I just want to express my gratitude and and thanks to all of you. We'll release a formal statement later today, but I will reiterate something and speak on and I'll take it upon myself to be speak to speak on behalf of council. We have been honored to have you on board the past 13 years. Um, we're looking for the remaining one. We're looking forward to it. We want you to help set us up. We want to be the city council that's viewed at that has the right staff, the right people. We want the best team in the room and we want them for as long as we can keep them in the room. And you have fit all three of those points extremely well. And with that, reluctantly or not reluctantly, I don't know, however you want to let

[2:43:17] we're going to accept your resignation, but you've still got a year's worth of work to do and we're not letting you out that easy. Thank you very much, Daniel. With that, >> I'll make a motion to move and close the session if we I'll make the first motion to close. >> Second. >> And I've got a second from Heert. All of those in favor say I. I. >> Any opposed? With that, council meeting is over. Thank you.

Captured 2026-07-26 · source: youtube.com/watch?v=1PxrEZLTe5k