San Angelo City Council 8-17-21

[0:00:00] presentations for today is down and out at least for the moment so what we thought we would do is go ahead and call this meeting to order and it is 8 42 a.m on august the 17th we will start by having our chaplain prayer and pledges so i believe ralph dawkins chaplain dawkins is going to be here today to lead us in prayer and pledges so please come forward good morning let us pray father we thank you for the opportunity to invoke your word through prayer into this meeting i pray to those who are in authority in the city and i lift up the mayor her staff and assistants the city council members the city manager and every person and department that is instrumental in leading and directing our city i pray that you would bless them to work together in unity today to tackle the agenda meetings on the agenda for today and i pray that you'll keep division and hidden agendas from among them i pray that you would lead them and guide them in godly wisdom and direction and instructions on how to lead manage and operate this city and all of its departments i pray that you would give these servant leaders knowledge wisdom and courage to tackle and deal with the community and its families the facilities the businesses and any other problems that may arise facing our city and its people as the school session begins this week we grant safety security and excellence for the teachers administration students and their parents and yes lord it is true it takes an entire village to support a child well we ask just as you asked the prophet ezekiel that you had made these people watchmen over our city

[0:02:03] that they would have godly watching and protection over every aspect of it i pray for the chief of police the police department the sheriff's department that they will continue to keep us safe and protected i pray for the chief of the fire department and all of the first responders who who serve our city and lastly lord i pray that you would bless the city with economic prosperity may you grant and draw in and attract to our city industry businesses corporations that will produce jobs and revenue and help us to grow and succeed and lastly i commit all of these things into your hands regardless of how things may look in the natural i confess that your word and that you are well able to bring to pass everything that we have prayed for in this city council meeting in jesus name amen let us recite the national lands texas honor today honor the flag i pledge to do with the uh i pledge allegiance okay okay okay i pledge allegiance to the flag and to the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all honor the texas flag i pledge to jesus one state under god one nation amen thank you we will now open up the meeting with public comment as there are no proclamations or recognitions on the agenda today let me talk about public comment for a minute issues or concerns not on the regular agenda may be raised by the public at this time citizens should speak from the podium address all comments to the dias begin by stating their name and address

[0:04:07] or single member district number and limit their remarks to less than three minutes we understand there are a lot of individuals here today who are either here to listen or to participate in an offering public comment because there are so many people not everyone will be allowed to speak today so what we hope is that the message that you have and many of you that come forward can carry the message for those that we will not have the opportunity to allow to speak today but with that said we are going to start with public comment and so may the first person come forward and start with our public comment section on our agenda morning mayor and city council my name is ashley leonards and i am with texas right to life i live in austin 11 2 or 11 217 blackmore drive in austin i'm actually from san angelo i graduated from mall and attended asu and graduated from there as well so this city and this issue are both near and dear to my heart so san angelo would not be breaking new ground with passing this ordinance there are already 30 texas cities that have passed this to protect their unborn mothers and children to begin to begin i would like to quickly review how this is possible before roe v wade in 1973 texas law prohibited abortion accepting cases to save the life of the mother since roe texas has been blocked from enforcing this law but those statutes have never been repealed more so criminal murder statutes in the texas penal code include intentionally or knowingly causing the death of a preborn children thus abortion is still illegal in texas but criminal punishment or criminal enforcement is unavailable at this time until roe is overruled on that note this ordinance is carefully drafted within the balance of current abortion jurisprudence by solely relying on civil enforcement until roe is overruled

[0:06:08] uh similar similar to the texas heartbeat heartbeat act which was recently passed called senate bill 8 it just uses civil enforcement to allow the sport ordinance to allow private citizens to bring a lawsuit against any person that aids or abets in an abortion within the city limits more so senate bill 22 from the 86th legislative session and the senate bill 8 from the recent 87th session both clarified that cities do have this ability to pass this ordinance and protect their preborn on two separate occasions the abortion industry has failed to sue texas cities for passing this ordinance the first lawsuit was a frivolous one brought against seven cities that had passed this ordinance and was dropped without any consequence to those cities or the ordinance and they are still in effect protecting their pre-born in those towns the second legal attack was dismissed by a federal judge saying that planned parenthood did not have the authority to sue lubbock for passing this ordinance the attorney general of texas himself also filed the legal memo for this case arguing that lubbock did have this authority and refuted many of the legal challenges and stated there is no inconsistency between the state and local abortion laws these successful legal fights show that this ordinance is strong enough to withstand legal challenges and scrutiny and does allow cities to pass this ordinance and protect their communities their children and their mothers you all have a unique opportunity today you have this ability to stand for your pre-born to protect san angelo from the abortion industry moving in to stand and show the state and the federal government that you are pro-life and that you want to stop allowing the legal killing of our children and that you will protect san angelo residents thank you and i would happily yield for questions thank you very much [Applause] if you intend to speak it would be good

[0:08:10] if you sort of lined up so that it doesn't take so much time for each individual to come forward so if you just want to kind of get organized in that way then we can quickly go through a lot of the comments and allow more people to speak so go on you're on i'm paul schirro i live here in san angelo 307 north jackson street i preach for the senate for the south gate church of christ i love san angelo it's a good city what makes a good city or great city is if it's good and it's good uh most of the people in our city are good people they're trying to do the right thing and we're a generous people we saw that with the last uh support san angelo uh it's amazing it's amazing how how generous this town is we really want to see the wheat protected and we want to see right prevail and and that's why i have such confidence in this group here we're the kind of people that are good that's most of us anyway making san angelo a a city for a safe place for the unborn is a top priority to some of us uh protecting unborn children is a good thing and that's why we're talking about it today it's like putting rails up on the side of the roads and seat belts on our children it's a preemptive thing that we do to make sure that something terrible doesn't happen it's an effort to prevent violence to the smallest people in our community and the weakest people in our community today you have before you an opportunity these don't come often but it's here now an opportunity to lead this community to lead this community and a good thing and a right thing and a holy thing to save lives and protect these babies we're asking you to make it happen

[0:10:15] to lead us in this effort this effort is legal it's already been tested this message is doable in recent weeks we know in a period of less than 30 days we collected 1500 signatures and we could have gotten many more most the people that we talked to were eager about this and happy about it and we had no arguments with anybody i didn't with anybody that we talked to they were all for this we have this opportunity and most of these people are enthusiastic about it but more important making san angelo a sanctuary city is a right thing to do if someone wanted to slaughter dogs and cats in our community and sell the meat to some foreign country we would say we don't do that not here that's not going to be allowed that's what we're asking you to do to say to the abortionist not in our city wherever else but not here opportunities don't come like this often but they're here now you have this opportunity to make our city a better place at least at least pass an ordinance to make this uh a sundown ordinance so that this will be the law until we get a referendum passed need to wrap up your comments all right thank you thank you please lead us in this city in this effort if we fail or if we're weak or if we stand back or don't pay attention we will be judged by god and by history this is our opportunity to get on the right side it's your opportunity to lead us please do that [Applause] good morning city officials um our elected officials we are just so happy that you um and thankful we pray for you

[0:12:20] guys as you lead our city and san angelo into a prosperous future in every single way and um my name is juanita brown i reside at 4845 bermuda drive in san angelo texas have been a faithful servant of the lord just being here to just believe with you guys as your leaders this is a word to the city of san angelo written in september 24 2006 this this name the city of angels was not given by man but by me says the lord and you the citizens will return to me you will rise up as the sons and daughters of your god in heaven and you will fulfill the call i have given you the enemy has decided and distorted my truth he has caused division among you and built walls i will tear down these walls and there will be no division among my people there are those who say this cannot happen but they do not see clearly i will bring a move an outpouring so great that even those with close with cloudy visions will see my glory and know it is i the lord who has done this thing in this city i have spoken a word and now it is time i will perform it look i am already assembling those who can see my body is beginning to come together and soon will rise up in victory then this land will will be reclaimed for my kingdom you my people must come together as a great army for this kingdom the angels the angels your city was named for are waiting for my command to return to their assigned post as you join in unity i will release them to their assignments this region will be this region has been a dry place but i have intended it to be an oasis a great place of refreshing have i not said if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and repent not only for the sins for their sins but for the sins of the city that i will hear them and i will heal their land this you know but have have not come together for the city of angels i am now ready to pour out my spirit on

[0:14:23] this city and this region you must be also ready to respond for my call this hour this place will be a magnet many will come seeking the power and the glory they have heard about many witnesses will go out from this place proclaiming my glory and the kingdom that has come this oasis will provide life to all who receive it a great many people will come to receive and learn i will send my reviving fire that will have no place will need no place untouched there will be men and women of great prominence come to the city not for to bring a word but to receive me this will be a strange occurrence to some but i have said i will use the simple thing to confound the wise i will do this in a place that is unherald and in a people unrecognized my glory will rise up in you and my body and in this city will be resurrected news of this thing i have done here will go out to this nation and even to the world many have wondered why all the new construction is going on here it seems like it is not needed soon more people will come and the need will be even greater and what is built now okay well i'm almost through what is built now will not even be enough there won't be enough housing and there won't be enough places to eat but i will supply the needs i will bless the city as you unify and praise and honor the kingdom of god is coming blessings will flow from this oasis healing is the living water of the river flowing out of it and you are the city san angelo truly then the city of angels will be as i have ordained it from the beginning of time says the lord thank you for letting me share i'm going to remind everyone again that there's three minutes per person there are a lot of people here who'd like to speak so please please please limit those comments to three minutes thank you thank you thank you brenda i promise you i won't take my three minutes we just want as many people as possible to be heard from today you've shown up and that's important bet i'm marty self i'm single member district two and

[0:16:25] i know most of y'all and every time i get the opportunity i watch on tv and you are doing a really great job and i commend you for that and what we would like to do is allow you all to get onto the ground floor of something really special and that's the sanctuary city uh what we're asking for for y'all to do is to make is to take the ordinance and go ahead and vote on it and go ahead and pass it uh you know to to to take it to a referendum will take 30 40 000 bucks i suppose and that money can be used for raises for employees uh you know and and so you know we have over 3 500 signatures not verifiable but you know we do have those signatures and and so if we need to take to referendum you know we feel we could but we would like for y'all to get onto the ground floor of this thing with us and go ahead and just uh pass it in a resolution and get on with it okay thank you marty thank you [Applause] i'm going to just take a moment teresa everyone keeps referring to an ordinance that's on the agenda today but there's no ordinance on the agenda today is that correct that is correct there's no action on this item today it's purely public comment hello my name is markley dixon director of the right to life of east texas and founder of what's called the sanctuary cities for the unborn initiative so last night i was 350 miles away over in east texas in the city of brownsboro texas and last night brownsboro texas became the 37th city in the nation to pass an ordinance outlawing abortion [Applause] it doesn't take much um friday

[0:18:29] talked to the mayor and this was something that a number of people in in his city were wanting to see so they put it on the agenda for monday and they got it done and so my encouragement to you guys would be to put this ordinance on the agenda for a vote by the council you guys have an obligation to uphold preserve defend the constitutional united states of america and when i read that constitution i don't see the right to abortion anywhere and we are living in a day and age where the biden administration has said that they want to see abortion access in every single zip code we're living in difficult times and i want to encourage you guys to do what's necessary to protect your zip codes protect the city of san angelo from the murder of innocent children made in the image of god i thank y'all so much i just want to leave you guys with this amos 5 15 says to hate evil to love good and to establish justice in austin texas and washington dc wait that's not what it says it says hate evil love good establish justice within your city gates and perhaps the lord the god of host be gracious in the remnant of joseph this is your obligation protect your city gates be the watchmen and make sure that the abortion industry doesn't come into the city and in the lives of innocent children made in the image of god lubbock texas the citizens rose up and they passed an ordinance the mayor and council had an opportunity to pass that ordinance beforehand they didn't do it 40 innocent children were killed in lubbock texas because of the inaction of the mayor and council and then in that election planned parenthood poured in over 300

[0:20:33] thousand dollars please do what's necessary to protect the unborn of san angelo thank you so much [Applause] good morning good morning my name is jerry peters i'm the pro-life director for the diocese catholic diocese of san angelo i don't live in san angelo i'm actually glenn martin and had a very wet trip coming in this morning i have an alternative proposal an alternative proposal prepared by our bishop it's a sample draft which is based on similar pro-life city council resolutions from hunterton indiana new haven indiana riverton utah roswell new mexico and springdale arkansas importantly they are different from the sanctuary cities for the unborn initiatives and that they do not purport to prohibit or prescribe abortion in the municipality instead it encourages the government to use legal means to protect and fight for human life affirms their commitment to human life recognizes as existing laws on conscious rights for medical professionals encourages assistance to pregnant women etc while symbolic local lawmakers passing these types of pro-life resolutions still send a message to state and federal decision makers on the importance of protecting human life

[0:22:38] additionally it would be harder for planned parenthood to challenge such horritory or aspirational ordinances as compared to explicit prohibit prohibitions of abortion under the supreme court case poker versus doe 432 u.s 519 this is 1977. there the court held the constitution does not forbid a state or city persuade to democratic processes from expressing a preference for normal childbirth at saint as st louis has done this could save on potential court costs and attorney fees and defending challenges now uh if you wish i know i've gone you know probably gone my three minutes but do you wish him or me to read some of the resolutions or that you have in in front of you or you just need to wrap it up so if you can be concise and and in wrapping it up that would be well if you would take into consideration or that's passed out uh again we're we're a a civilized civilized individuals i have been a vietnam veteran i was a u.s marine in vietnam i've seen carnage i've seen man's carnage it's it's horrible war is bad on everyone but to take human life and abortion this is unreal it it it makes us savages we should not be some type of animals so we need to protect our unborn we need to to to as a city show other cities what we are we need to do pass an ordinance we need to get this ordinance on the books and

[0:24:40] get it passed i thank you very much [Applause] hello council and mayor my name is ryan buck i'm the senior pastor at emmanuel baptist church and i live at one zero zero four two floyd lane here in san angelo texas just outside of it and um i've taken the responsibility of leading a large group of people that are here today to speak and i'll be the last one to speak on their behalf we didn't want to inundate you all day long but i do want to just mention a couple other things this morning as we were arriving we knew of 1800 signatures we gathered in about a 30-day period to to unofficial petitions to say they're in favor of this ordinance to be passed by the city council not to go to referendum and i was just given uh 2500 more signatures that were gathered that i was not aware of until just now and so there is a very large movement in san angelo uh asking you the city council to consider this ordinance not a resolution but the ordinance to pass to put up a barrier of opportunity for the future for abortionists to come into san angelo we know that's not currently the case and the state of texas is a great environment right now for people that are pro-life but we do not know what the political environment in texas will be in 15 or 20 years right now it's favorable for pro-life individuals like myself and i think like many of you stated you were possibly when you ran for office that you hold today i would like to encourage you to help put up this safeguard around the city and i'm going to tell you there are thousands of citizens like me that will support you and help you in every effort you have the the last thing i do want to mention is former solicitor general of texas and also he uh he uh he worked for scalise for him he's in the supreme court helped draft the resolution and has offered uh

[0:26:43] his services to any city free of charge if they are sued by planned parenthood or aclu and that has happened and he has stepped in the gap to help cities to save them money and so far this ordinance has stood and so i strongly recommend that you please consider this if you have any other questions like i said we are here to support you in any way that we can but please please take this ordinance put it on the agenda and vote on it and pass it thank you very much [Applause] are there more people who would like to offer comment this morning you know this this is something that we really need to look into you know if you get a chance read psalms 10 okay i'm just going to read a few verses on it it says okay in air against the wicked hotly pursue the needy let them be caught in the plots which they have devised for the wicked boasts his soul's desire and the greedy person curses and shows disrespect the wicked in his haughtiness does not seek him there is no god in all the schemes let's see but he goes on to talk about how it preys on the needy in that the arrogant people and the wicked people they prey on the needy people okay so you know they come out and say flat out that they're trying to help the humble and the poor and the oppressed

[0:28:48] but that's not the case and if you read through the to the end of psalms okay it says nations have been wiped out because of this okay a little bit of commentary i mean you know but all i'm trying to say this is not just you know quote quote a thing against but selling body parts you know and harvesting organs from babies using them for tests and that you know and stuff i mean you know abortion clinics are keeping babies alive to be harvested you know the ones that are survive okay and we've got lots of documentation of that if you look at veritas they've got people just flat out saying what they're doing and what they're making money on okay so all i'm trying to say is this is evil and wickedness and don't be fooled by the their quote compassion for the humble and that it is completely wicked and evil that's all i got to say thank you very much again i ask you if you plan to speak please kind of come lined up so that more people will have the opportunity to to share today their thoughts hi i'm lynette lucas and i just want to say that if we don't value life in our community then what do we value i think rallying life is one of the top priorities that we should have and that every single citizen in our community should be should be protected that their life should be protected and i don't think that we should put it to a level of well they might we it's a level of better we should say absolutely we value life here in san angelo thank you thank you microphone's open for anyone who would

[0:30:54] like to come forward good morning city council my name is claudia messa i live at 135 arlington street i practically had to swim here to get here never planned to speak right now but i just uh holy spirit's inside of me and i have to say it on any hard decision in life you always want to know if i make a decision today what are the effects of it in 30 day 30 years 40 years in the future i'm here to defend the unborn i was one of those mothers that sadly had to do abortion it's been over 30 years and i'm still traumatized by it help these unborn babies keep them alive don't allow san angelo to freely offer abortions to these women to these girls because we are girls at that time and we don't know the difference the pain the torment is still here today in my body and my mind the lord has forgiven me and it is something that has been so deep in my soul that i'm trying to help others as a man it's hard to see and understand why is there so much make about this but

[0:32:56] these little kiddos are human beings that should be here today and they're not because someone allowed me to have an abortion just please when it gets to your agenda if it ever does please vote against any entity here in san angelo allowing an abortion to be so easy i thank you for your time i thank you for your service my may god bless each and every one of you thank you very much [Applause] good morning good morning pardon my voice pastor david smith senior pastor of word of life assembly here in san angelo and i cannot be silent because of the unborn this is not about the government it's not even about churches it's not about religion it's about jesus he is truth today he is love none of us would be here if we would have been aborted that's an awesome statement i just made none of us would be here we wouldn't be having to me we wouldn't be having a council or a city i just want to encourage you to listen to the voice of god today this is not about man the republicans or democrats or our official stance or whatever we want it's not what we want it's what god wants it's not what we understand but what god wants he is the way the truth and the life and all these religions and churches and doctrines jesus is truth himself today he is spirit and truth in this building in us right now and i encourage you as a council to protect the unborn this is about the sanctity of life jesus came that we have life and that more abundant and life everlasting but it starts with the birth jesus came and was born in a manger as a baby now he's at the right hand of god the father and he's in us jesus christ i

[0:34:59] just want to encourage you to be strong in the lord today do not listen to man do not listen to the government do not listen to others listen to jesus the holy spirit the word of god all the father today we stand with you today that jesus be glorified in this that we walk out of this building today united in jesus christ one faith one body god help us that we not be divided by government religion man's thoughts our prayers are with you but i want you to realize god is god today and he will hold us accountable for these lives the unborn we stand for the unborn today in jesus name god bless you we love you we pray for you and may we have the courage to do what is god's will today in jesus name the great i am is here in this building god bless you thank you [Applause] [Music] well i too didn't plan on speaking today my name is leah and kelly and i graduated from high school in 1975 about the time all of this was getting started and um my husband and i at that time we've been dating since i was a sophomore in high school i got pregnant and i had dreams i wanted to go to college i had big plans and so i had an abortion and like two years later i got pregnant again had another abortion and then we got married and we've been married 45 years and he's amazing he didn't know i'm doing this so you'll be quiet [Laughter] but it was very selfish very very selfish on my part because i was just thinking about me

[0:37:02] well my husband and i went 30 plus years and did not talk about it did not talk about it he didn't even know about the second abortion he knew about the first one and it's just amazing god's grace his love his forgiveness i've just been restored i know that i'll see those two precious babies god is so good he i didn't have any grandchildren until 10 months ago and i have two precious granddaughters twin girls 10 months old and it's all because of him because of his goodness his love his forgiveness his restoration but the reason i'm here if i can save one baby one baby it's worth it i just thank y'all um this is a wonderful city i went to school here at angelo state university and i appreciate everything y'all do thank you good morning my name is peggy cox i live at 2181 loopkey lane and i also had no intention to get up and speak this morning but as my husband would tell you i can rarely keep silent and i couldn't today most of these people have talked about the opportunity that you as our city elected officials have i want to go a step farther it is not just an opportunity you have a responsibility and a duty to your constituents presently and to the babies that may become your constituents in the future and i challenge you do not remain silent on this put this on your agenda take a vote take a stand and let your constituents know that you are here to protect them and and to protect the lives of the unborn

[0:39:06] babies thank you anyone else want to offer comments [Music] hi my name is emily and don't be nervous you're okay just speak your mind i live in a generation where people think it's okay to kill innocent lives and i don't want to grow up like that i just um [Music] i just you're here today because you want us to hear your thoughts and so please forget about being nervous and just express your thoughts today because that's why we're here and that's why you're here today so please don't worry about being nervous just speak your mind um i just i just um i don't think it's right that people can just kill kill babies that are able to grow up and live to is that your brother with you today would you like to speak sir um i have raised the microphone up so you don't have to bend down so far yes ma'am um i think the same way as an adult as a baby there's there's they're both lives they're both the same thing i think they're they're both lives and it's murder it's plain murder and we're here with y'all and every we're all with you every generation teenagers you know adults

[0:41:11] elderly we're all with you and we'll stand with you in this town and we think it's it's horrible what they're doing and what this generation is being taught of abortion and that it's okay to kill and it it's it's growing it's the world's getting horrible but i think we're we're here with y'all won't you give us your name please i'm wyatt buck okay my dad is ryan buck this is this is emily buck so thank you thank you thank you [Applause] microphone is still open at the moment so if there's anyone in the back of the room or anyone sitting down who would like this opportunity right now is your opportunity my name is lupy rodriguez i couldn't let this go i had an abortion too i was at a time in my marriage which i knew that there was going to be a divorce happening and uh it was made so easy for me to have an abortion i know god has forgiven me but it's something that you just can't let it go so i ask that y'all do the right thing and i pray for y'all that you will do the right thing thank you god bless you [Applause] hello my name is stephanie soha i live

[0:43:21] at 3409 silver spur here in san angelo i've been pro-life since 1974 trying to keep babies alive people aware and i appreciate all of you i appreciate all you do you you work hard that we don't even know about and and i appreciate you especially you mayor but i wanted to say you know uh people who advocate abortion usually say that they're helping and trying to help these girls little girls baby girls and women we have the most outstanding pregnancy help center here in san angelo everything there is free they give all the help possible to girls to women to their families they have sonogram machines now they have one that can pick up the baby's heartbeat when it's only a straight line that pulsates so many hundreds of lives have been saved because of these sonogram machines they also give maternity clothes and needs they give baby clothes and needs they also have parenting classes and these people who come through the girls their boyfriends their husbands they get credit for these classes and they can go spend the credit in the huge closet that the pregnancy help center has with all the maternity and child items so it's not like san angelo doesn't help pregnant girls we have a whole set up to help crisis pregnancies we don't need abortion we don't have to kill those people

[0:45:24] please vote please vote help us to keep san angelo a wonderful place that helps crisis pregnancy not kill babies thank you thank you good morning madam mayor appreciate the opportunity to talk most of you know me something you don't know about me but the whole world doesn't so please state your name thank you brother i too was not intending to speak today my name is john bario i live at 2323 wilson street i am the product of a pregnancy that was medically advised to be aborted my mother chose life she was pregnant in 1957 with twins my brother was not developing properly she was advised to abort she said no she asked the doctor what do we do now he simply said pray and pray hard i was carried full term as was my brother he survived only two days i live every day hoping to be a worthy contribution to the world i don't say that for my own edification i say it very humbly you know that i have served this city on several boards and continue to sit on one of them i have often contemplated has abortion killed the young individual who would have grown up to cure cancer has abortion killed that one individual that influenced your life [Music] most probably you do not know whether or not your own mothers considered abortion because it's something women simply just

[0:47:27] don't talk about i'll be as brief as possible it takes only one or two of you to get an item on the agenda i think i speak for everyone gathered here and those thousands of signatures that have already been collected that we would like to see this as a priority issue a matter of life and death on your next agenda to be voted on as the ordinance was presented already legally vetted verbatim without alteration without consideration of changes because we know this is defendable and i might suggest thank you i might suggest that if the council does not take action it can be put on a ballot by petition and we appreciate your action i would not be here today had my mother made a different decision thank you and god bless you [Applause] are there any additional individuals do i see someone coming forward good morning speaking to the microphone please my name is crystal aguilar and i live at 2216 north street i'm 36 and um when i was younger i made the decision to have an abortion here in san angelo at the planned parenthood it was the medical abortion um the pill and we're here speaking about these unborn babies

[0:49:30] and i'm here to speak about the women who are traumatized by the decision they make i believe you're on this council because you you care about the people of san angelo you want to see um drug addiction the statistics lower you want to see crime rate lowered these women who make these choices i being one of them are traumatized and it leads us to a life of destruction and anxiety depression and it's not spoken you're not checked on you're not asked how you're doing you're left alone we thank you very much for your thoughts today i know it takes a lot of courage to come forward and so thank you for doing that thank you i suffered silently for years not even realizing i was i came to know the lord at 23 and still suffered silently not speaking of it and i didn't i you know i'm married i have children but i wasn't able to love my children freely because i was still affected by my abortions and praise god for the counseling for the concho valley biblical counseling center there's a wonderful lady there named lou who does post-abortion counseling who god sent in my life to help walk through that pain but while i suffered

[0:51:34] sorry while i suffered um i know that my city did not um my city suffered because i suffered i was not a productive citizen so i encourage you to make san angelo a sanctuary city for the unborn not just for these babies but for these women thank you [Applause] one last time are there more people willing to come forward susie smith 3601 willa brooke and pull that microphone down just a little bit more okay and i had not planned to speak today either i've been so moved by the people who've had courage to speak today and the heart i've been involved in the life issue here in san angelo for over 30 years and i am so so thankful to have been able to be a part of helping get the pregnancy help center started and to see how god has used that and the outpouring of love through this community just amazing i know that many of you on the council claim to be pro-life those are words and it only takes one of you to be strong and courageous please stand up

[0:53:39] don't pass up your personal opportunity your personal opportunity [Applause] microphones open unless i see someone coming forward we will end public comments so this is your last opportunity if someone has something they'd like to offer today with no one coming forward we will close this piece of the public comment section and i thank you all for coming in today and we'll move on are there any other issues that someone would like to comment on on public comment with no no one standing or speaking we will close public comment and we will move into the consent agenda on the agenda thank you i'm going to start with asking council members if there's any item with that uh we will i will start with larry is there any item you'd like to pull on the consent agenda lane lucy no ma'am harry tommy i'd like to pull items f and items i from the consent agenda

[0:55:44] with those items being pulled do i have a motion from uh counsel to approve the rest of the consent agenda with the exception of item f and item i move some move by harry second by lucy any public comment on the consent agenda with none we will take a vote to approve all the consent agenda except for items f and items i all those in favor say aye with non-opposed consent agenda is approved with the exception of f and f is consider resolution amending the 2021-2026 capital improvement plan to include an improvement to the parkview lakes tina would you go ahead and explain this yes i am yes ma'am um this was a request from our operations department to add an item to our capital improvement plan um i believe mr carter requested this one and so by bringing a resolution to city council we're allowed to add to the to the cip um this project is for part view like improvements um and if you have any questions on the project i think shane or patrick could probably uh speak to that thank you shane would you like to come forward and talk about the issue here thank you mayor where uh excuse me we're looking at um as we get ready to do sunset lake and we get ready to do the design plans and all that stuff we want to look at adding the just the south lake of the parkview lake system to those design plans and so to do that we need to have that part of the cip and then we'll determine funding as we move along so describe that meaning sunset lake flows into parkview lake so the silt and what it accumulates flows into the park view lake is that correct well they're actually two different lake systems but they're both on the arroyo they both flow into the arroyo which is our main drainage flow through

[0:57:47] that part of town and so as we look at the removing all the silt and the and the debris that's in the sunset lake as well too we also have a a a fairly heavy sediment loading in that southern lake of the parkview lake um the two lakes that are there and so that's what basically as we're looking at the dredging process to see if we can build on the build on the project to hopefully have a bigger project that we can bring in at a lower cost we're looking at adding those two together again when we go to bidding we will look we'll have the design plans everything ready to go we'll do the sun the sunset lake is the priority but we will add that other lake this the southern lake of the parkview lake system we will add that as an alternate in our bidding and our bidding plans and if the prices come in to where we can afford to do both sunset and that parkview lake then we're going to try to do both of those at one time okay uh lane would you like to make comments yes i requested this with shane um with all the discussions i've had with the residents over there over the years we were under the thought that this was on the cip until our meetings a few weeks ago when i was looking at it and then asked shane i thought this was on here and i did not see parkview lakes listed although we i think we all thought it was on the cip so this is just formally getting it on there and doing our due diligence to make sure that that that south lake where all of the sediment comes in seoul ross lindenwood very heavy i think it accumulates and even from the overflows of the the sunset lake it kind of catches what gets on the road and then washes downstream from there if i'm not uh mistaken but uh this is just getting it on to the list to where we have the formula and that is it's just it's just placing this into the cip so we can actually add it into the project itself the project scope itself i think before

[0:59:49] there's always been had been a discussion about the responsibility of parkview lake is it citizens or is it the city and i think the net effect is that we realize a lot of what sediment goes into parkview lake as a result of other things that happen in the city not just the responsibility of the parkview lake residents is that correct correct i mean the parkview lake system is privately owned between two i believe two different uh homeowners groups uh but they do act as they are privately owned is that is that more of a clarification the banks of the lake well the land the land underneath the land underneath the ponds is actually privately owned but they do but those do both of those ponds collectively act as sedimentation collectors which does clean the waters as it moves on downstream so it does provide even though the land underneath those is is privately owned uh in in its in the action of the two ponds they do actually provide a cleaner water source leaving the ponds uh which does help our ms4 and our stormwater initiatives through the ms4 permitting process okay yes oh harry no no other questions or comments okay thank you before we move on to the next item oh well we can go ahead and move on to the next item i think we'll try to do both at the same time unless there becomes an issue on that so item i consider resolution calling it'd be better to take a separate vote we will go back and we'll take a separate vote on item f consider resolution amending the 2021-2026 capital improvement plan to include an improvement to the parkview lakes lane is that your motion is there a second and a second by tommy any public comment yes please my name is stuart susdorf i live at 2514 lindenwood drive i wasn't expecting to

[1:01:53] be here to talk about this but you came to a meeting right after we bought our property there two and a half years ago some other issues with that being that yes that lake is i i wouldn't eat anything i wouldn't put my foot in that that lake because whatever it washes down there uh concerns we've had and this is a little bit different but i wanted to bring it up i had the chance we've had a there i think there's three homeowner associations there's the overall both lakes then there's two separate for the splitting of the lakes and we've had some problems with understanding who is responsible if something happens there we had a child fall in the lake apartments are close by people come and swim there not swim mainly but fish one person went swimming unintentionally and we've had some disagreement you know within the residence of who's responsible some signs were put up that weren't supposed to be they didn't go through the proper channels in our homeowners and i just i walk around there all the time i noticed somebody bent the signs we've got people that are mad because they can't fish or swim or boat on that side of the lake we don't have signs up on our side so i don't know if this is something that that needs to be settled about who's responsible if something does happen there we've got somebody that lives there that's a retired attorney that says if if something happens and you get sued your little policy that you have is not going to cover because i just heard you say underneath the water is we own i own my little strip of land i guess out to the to the middle of the lake or something from the other side i don't know so i just wanted to bring that up i had the chance uh if and i'm sure you're aware of this that there's an issue with there what who's responsible who owns a lake and i'm for people getting to use it the problem is is what happens if somebody something happens and of course we have people leave their trash there and all of that

[1:03:56] type of thing that goes with uh but i want people to be able to enjoy kids to be able to enjoy it they live in the apartments and things like that but so thank you for letting me bring that up a little different issue i think that's a good comment and something that ought to be thought through and talk through so theresa will look at that and um i don't think she's had an opportunity to because i don't i think that's a new subject that we're not aware of so unique situation exactly so we just need to look at the legal ramifications and what those uh homeowner association rules are do you teresa do you have copies of all of those various homeowners policies in terms of i do not if you have any documentation related to your ownership of that property i would appreciate it we actually have a a meeting in one of the groups homeowner association meeting tonight and uh if i can get a card or somewhere i can contact you and i'll have our president send that to you i think they're valid points and we need to all better understand that particularly the legal thank you very much for your service to our city thank you [Music] all right with that is there any other public comment on this item and so there isn't let's take a vote all in favor say aye motion passes seven i mean six tom did you vote okay so it's 7-0 item i consider resolution calling the city of san angelo texas water works and sewer system revenue bonds taxable series 2017 for i'm not sure how to pronounce that word defiance the feasings and redemption prior to maturity and enacting other provisions relating to the subject it's a lot of legal words in there i think we all deserve an explanation of what item i is yes ma'am okay so you'll recall that back in 2017 the city issued debt to purchase the ford ranch to secure our water rights out there this item that i'm bringing for you today is our opportunity to pay off

[1:05:58] those bonds with cash in hand resulting from the sales of properties at the ford ranch so the the process of defeat basically and layman's term is putting the amount needed into escrow so that when the bonds are called when we can call them on the call date in february of 2022 we've got the money available and it's ready to go but does that mean we continue to pay on the debt until 2022 we're required to continue to pay interest up until the call date which is february of 2022. and we can't move that date forward even though we've sold the ranch someone else owns it now we don't own it legally we cannot do that because when we issued the bonds we gave the bond holders the assurance of a five-year call date i think the last time we had this conversation that we only had to pay debt through june of 2021 so that dates moved out it's always been february of 2022 so i'm not i'm not sure where that came from but it's always been february 2022 we um we initially when we talked with events about issuing the debt so that we would prefer as soon as possible for a call date that way as soon as we had the funds available to pay it off we could do so in five years was was the minimum amount of time there's really no i mean we can take a vote on this obviously we have to but we can't change any of it because it's already signed off on us as um part of when we bought the ranch so yes ma'am it was signed off when we when we issued the debt initially okay so with that uh may i have a motion to approve lucy made a motion to approve may i have a second second second by tommy any public comment on this item with no public comment we'll take a vote all in favor say aye motion passes 7-0 that completes the consent agenda before we move into the regular agenda we will take a break and we'll be back in 10 minutes we will

[1:08:01] now call the meeting back to order and we 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 applicants proponents and appellants are accepted from the time limit above and must limit their remarks to less than five minutes so today we're going to start off with a report from the convention and visitors bureau and diane beijer on welcome good morning mayor and city council city manager and citizens uh thank you for allowing me to be here today and as the mayor said i'm dying based on the vice president of the convention and visitors bureau and discover san angelo if that's something familiar with you and we are a division of the san angelo chamber of commerce i was told this is going to take me a minute so i'm going to i pushed it we'll see what happens happy belated birthday oh thank you we're still waiting there it is so just to give you an idea of what the mission is of the san angelo convention and visitors bureau it is to enhance the quality of life for the citizens of san angelo through tourism marketing and promotion and throughout this presentation i'll explain that but we are all about the citizens through tourists so that is is what our our goals are in this industry the convention and visitors bureau is fully funded by a portion of the seven percent local hotel tax dollars so visitors pay our salaries visitor visitors pay all of our marketing efforts visitors pay for everything our organization does at the convention and visitors bureau so visitors to us are very important and it is a designated fund it cannot be used for any other purpose due to the state law and there are two criteria so i'm going to share those with you first every expenditure must directly enhance and promote tourism and the convention and

[1:10:05] hotel industry and then number two every expenditure of the hotel occupancy tax must clearly fit into one of nine statutorily provided categories for expenditure of local hotel occupancy tax revenues i'm not going to go into all nine of those but i'll just give you a couple of highlights for example of no more than 15 percent of the hotel tax dollars can be used for historic preservation so like building something or working on something at fort concho and no more than 15 percent of the hotel occupancy tax can be used for the arts so as you use your funds and you put those funds out for our community and our organizations those are just things to think about it can be used for convention center renovation and all of those but the the nine statutory uh laws are in in the in just in the uh presentation so if you are ever in need of looking at how you can use those i can get you a copy of that that that law was written by scott joslif with the texas hotel lodging association and they do update that on a regular basis oh next okay there we go i wanted to share our activity now this this covers our our budget covers uh starts january through december unlike the the city's budget which is an october september timeline so this is these are our efforts from 2020 of last year so um as most of you know it was a really tough tough year for the travel and tourism industry it was the hardest hit industry in the nation probably in the world about 40 percent of the industry lost their employees and they are not coming back at this time and so that has been a really tough loss

[1:12:08] for us in san angelo we lost 3 000 employees and it is the lowest hour our employment in travel and tourism in san angelo has been since 2011. so we're hoping to build that back up and we do believe we can but i wanted to talk a little bit about the sales activity we do have two sales people on our staff here at the convention and visitors bureau councilman thompson's moving around the screen i don't know what's going on there um but anyway we have susannah valenzuela and johnny gaddy we did have a different person last year john is new to our staff and has hit the ground running but i wanted to share the efforts that this staff put in last year so in mid-march before covet hit we had over a hundred meetings on our books in april we deleted most of them and canceled most of them so it was very a very difficult year we are a bit of a challenge of a community to recruit meetings to just simply because of our distance some of our challenges our flights some of our challenges our state associations like that i-35 corridor so that's where they want to be and so when we are recruiting it is uh sometimes anywhere from a one year to a three-year effort on our part to get that yes and to get that meeting and so when you have to cancel 100 of those it's it's difficult on your staff and so we were prepared to do that and we did but they did but we i wanted to share how many we had on our books because that's very important to a 52 week year having over or two at least two events a week or meetings a week on that on our calendar that affects our hotel sunday through thursday business particularly when it comes to the meetings group and that's a that's a a time frame they are desperate for so it was a very tough year that said we still were able to have

[1:14:11] about a dozen events after covid now before covid we had quite a few but but after covet we we did not have that many about a dozen and so staff still continued to sell after 2020. we were not able to get a lot of bookings in 2020 but after 2020 we have started to continue to build that up next slide as this council will remember um not all of you were on the council at the time however in april of last year i came to council i had been talking with our industry watching the trends in our industry and i came to this council asking if we could save funds in our budget for 2020 that we could apply to 2021 and you graciously allowed us to do so and we saved 200 000 out of our our about a million dollar budget to apply to this year's marketing efforts because we knew it was going to be a difficult time to to apply those dollars we also had staff not going places we cut their travel cut out a lot of normal expenses that we have so that we could do that because we are stewards of the public funds and we didn't want to spend those funds in an improper way during a time when people were not traveling next slide please you can you can move it forward thank you so during the time of coven and we're going to call it that because i don't know what else to call it we had to really think about how we were promoting and marketing normally we promote outside that is our role is to promote outside of our industry or outside of our community however we had a lot of small businesses struggling during that time so we had to kind of reposition what we were doing and while we were still promoting on the outside

[1:16:14] we wanted to help those small businesses so we tried to make it also enjoyable so we did start with a bingo game to get people to go into the stores that were open or the restaurants that were open we also were constantly updating our restaurant list on both on discover sanangelo.com and on our social media sites so so our citizens knew what restaurants were open our visitors who were staying in our hotels knew what restaurants were open if they had carryout if they had um any other options besides going into their their business and so we we were constantly updating that and the restaurants were on all the time telling us this is new this is new this is new so we were able to keep the citizens abreast as well as the visitors who were staying in our properties and so that that was new for us that's not normally something we do in our industry but we wanted to make sure those businesses were at least getting money coming into them so that they could keep their employees in in business and their doors open can move forward another thing we did we worked in cooperation with the chamber of commerce and economic development and we created a will be here for you video so that we could send that out through our sales effort to our clients who might be interested in coming but we're not quite quite ready and comfortable in doing so we so we did that and we also did a when you're ready video to promote the spirit of travel because we wanted to make sure again that those who might have been considering coming to san angelo still had us top of mind i will tell you many of the cbb's in the state went dark they stopped marketing and we didn't believe that was the way to go we still wanted to have san angelo top of mind so those were the efforts we did we also proded promoted mask wearing at our attractions so we went around the city

[1:18:19] as staff took pictures of the businesses that were open to show that you could still go in there shop safely and and contribute to the economy at the local level next slide so through those efforts we also worked on our print and digital marketing as i said a lot of the industries went dark i talked to many of our agencies that we work with on advertising and they were told people canceled we didn't want to do that first of all it was a commitment we had made to that organization too and that was important to them we want to make sure that we had a good relationship with them we did move ads so we might not have had them on the same dates that we had in the future but we are in the past so we moved them based on activity that we knew was going to happen in our community and so we just adjusted the calendar but we did not cancel so we continued to tell the story of san angelo through that we did it through 37 print publications i took a a photo of some of those not all of them and eight tourism websites so we wanted to make sure we were still out there with travel texas which is the governor's office toward texas the other second largest tourism website in the state we wanted our message out there um if in in comparison in 2019 we were only in 26 because we we were doing a little bit different type of advertising back then and 34 in 2018 so we still exceeded as far as our marketing was concerned we exceeded the numbers that we had in the past next slide the other thing i'd like to share with you is the audience that we hit so i've actually pulled the numbers of people who have the opportunity to see the marketing that we put out because that is important aarp magazine is uh is a magazine i used to do a lot

[1:20:21] of trade shows with them they they stopped doing those trade shows it's one of the large it was used to be one of the largest trade shows in the nation they don't offer that now but we still wanted to be a part of that organization that's a great market for us the retiree coming in spending a lot of money and having expendable income that's a potential of 23 million monthly readers so that is a and it's a very affordable ad and it's in their magazine so we wanted to do that we also did a little bit of an international spin and this was prior to the coveted pandemic with nexus magazine which hits south america and that is through american airlines and so we did we hit that and it was in their plane's spanish-speaking audience authentic texas magazine which is the 501 for the to the heritage trail system we were in that three times brand usa global inspiration program that is the u.s travel association's visitors guide that goes to eight countries it's in eight languages and so we felt very strongly that we needed to be present there because we always see the larger cities we see some of the west texas communities like big bend in that in that feature and we think that san angelo has a great tie-in to big bend if people are heading uh east on 35 or they're flying into the the larger airports internationally and they could come this direction pandora was a new thing we did last year that we worked with travel texas and their entities and we did a our bottlenecks are better than yours in the blues channel there that is part of pandora and we really felt like especially that austin market knowing that if they come to san angelo they're not going to have to sit in traffic they can actually experience the community without that traffic jam that everybody is aware of when you head to

[1:22:24] austin so we we are continuing to push that message because it's been very popular for us pinterest has really taken off for us and we're going to continue to expand that people love to see pictures people love to to dream travel so we wanted to to do a little bit different thing with them ride texas magazine is part of the texas monthly brand and that is the motorcycle enthusiast we're still working with them on developing maps to get people off 10 and 20 my husband's a former motorcycle writer and and he hated driving on the interstate so we want to put them down the middle so we're still working with that group on creating mapping for us to make that happen um and of course shop across texas is the website that all of the shoppers love to go to and they get that experience we also did a giveaway which was a very popular giveaway people wanted to experience san angelo eight stores in our community were named best in uh shop across texas uh ml ladies was best of the best works out pretty well since it's their 100th anniversary next year and then of course the society of american travel writers we want to have those travel writers that gives us earned media rather than paid media when they come to our community and so we want to continue to develop that relationship next slide and then other other marketing efforts that we did texas country reporter of course we have been a top texas town for the past three years that's a great audience for us bob phillips is actually celebrating his 50th anniversary with texas country reporter this year and so we will be experiencing more opportunities with them to tell san angelo's story through that anniversary theme so we're working with bob and kelly phillips on opportunities there texas events calendar texas highways and the texas meeting planner guide are our publications that are at the texas travel information centers and we want

[1:24:27] to ensure that those who do drive into texas are able to capture data from san angelo and so we feel really strongly that we need to utilize the ambassadors who are the texas travel information counselors because they will tell our story too they're they're essentially free staff and so we want to make sure to get that message out to them and of course texas music magazine with our music friendly designation we felt really strongly we needed to be present there and we will continue to to work on that relationship and parks and wildlife magazine with 55 miles of trails at the state park with lake nasworthy with the concho river we have a great nature product and and that story needs to be told the texas state park annual guide and then of course the texas state travel guide which is the guide that the governor's office puts out when they deliver the message through their staff all over the world and we have to be in that publication both uh print and digitally next slide earned media a lot of people might not have ever heard of what earned media is earned media is we didn't pay for it but we had something to do with it so we reached out we did our public relations efforts true west magazine texas music magazine texas highways travel week canada travel press canada ride texas texas town and city here magazine texas co-op and power magazine all of them had stories about san angelo we didn't pay for those stories those are stories that their readers got to see about our community that's a significant thing and we want to continue to have that because we can tell the story all day long but you know as well as i do if you're on tripadvisor ever you're trusting a total stranger over what they're saying about somebody's town these are travel writers this is what

[1:26:28] they do they travel around all over and they tell stories so they felt very strongly that we should have our story told uh tribal week canada and travel press canada i was actually in in canada in march with travel texas and we had eight different representatives from the state of texas as well as the texas tourism office they had never heard of san angelo they had talked to all of the other places like fredericksburg like houston so when they wrote these articles san angelo was top of mind because we were new and so we're going to continue those efforts we also have gone to mexico this past year we didn't susana went the year prior and we got a great lot of a great deal of press because of that being able to tell our story to another north american country and we love the fact that we can pull from both north and west and south so from canada and mexico the canadians come down the valley uh we have that winter texan market we want them to stop here when they're on their way to and fro so that's a that's another opportunity we have next slide a little more earned media rediscover america uh reached out to us and they wanted to know about our true western lifestyle so we had that opportunity texas parks and wildlife texas highways again and then true west magazine and so we have really done well on on our earned media and we will continue those efforts next slide more of our pr efforts uh we submitted the application for the top 10 true western town for 2021. uh we were ranked number two this year but the past two years in 2019 we were number two in 2020 we were number one and sadly things didn't go the way we wanted them to as far as promotion is concerned but we are now back to back to back number one and number two and we are still trying to find anybody else that has ranked that high

[1:28:30] steadily uh bob and i don't know anybody who has we will continue this effort next next month we will do the application once again we have lots of opportunities i've already mentioned emo letties we have some other opportunities that we can promote our western heritage uh through true west cowboy jubilee going to happen this year right now it is still on the books so we hope so and when is that it will be hold on i actually wrote it down cowboy way jubilee is october 7th through the 10th so more opportunities that we have i launched our visitor savings pass in 2021 2020 we had 91 downloads and people were utilizing that app what we've done is we've worked with a company named called bandwango of all things and they reach out to the businesses the businesses offer discounts and so when visitors or even citizens are here they can actually download the app as well and utilize it when they're when they are in town one of the other features of this app is when we do have a larger group we can brand it just for that group so that they can download the app it has their logo on it and they can share it with their their attendees so we think that's a great way to promote and then of course we had two shows air on texas country reporter uh there was a texas perimeter tour uh done by yours truly um with how big is texas i wanted to make a statement on texas opening back up i'm on the boards of the texas travel alliance and i was formerly on the board of the texas association of convention and visitors bureaus we had a rough year and when the governor opened our doors back up i wanted to make a statement and so i went with two of my colleagues one from the governor's office and another from tax free shopping and we drove the perimeter bob phillips heard about it

[1:30:32] filmed us and that the rest there is they say is history art and uncommon places we wanted to share the story of joy thomas and julie raymond we think they've done a fantastic job in putting public art in san angelo and beautifying our city so bob and kelly came and interviewed them as well next slide [Music] more of our public relations effort i shared early about the earned media we have travel bloggers who have come and those have usually come through the governor's office of travel and tourism had we not had the relationships that we've had with them and being able to tell our story while they were in front of us we probably would not have gotten those calls and we continue to get that those calls from those organizations so uh esther irish is out of mcallen she has a laugh with us blog and it's very popular blog i think she has a million viewers on pinterest so we base things on what their social media activity is alex timbledore was sent to us by the governor's office with here magazine and she told the heritage of our hispanic community which was a great piece kathleen maca is did tales from texas and she just reached out to us she she had heard about us and wanted to come lisa bell as well with the weather for down burleson now and then jolie ferguson with east texas news that was just out of the blue my aunt called me and said uh just letting you know that this was in the tyler paper and you your community got a photo credit so that's how we learned about it and then finally at the end of the year a couple of years ago i reached out to laura lewis and cheryl de cardova with representative darby and senator perry's office because i really wanted us to have some kind of designation that was a capital of texas designation and and when i asked them the process they told me i had to do it during a legislative year they were in the middle of the year so it was too late and so

[1:32:34] she said reach back out to me and we will we were pursuing 2021 and so i put on my calendar a 2020 october date and so i reached back out asked them what we needed to do originally we looked at the arts capital of texas but we felt like visual arts was really a strong point for us and so i did research in december submitted a powerpoint to the the congressman's office and representative darby and i testified in austin and then senator perry took it to the floor the governor signed it in june of this year and for the next 10 years san angelo is the visual arts capital of texas so we have that through 2031. getting the designation is such a terrific thing to have but my question is what are we doing to deserve it because it's we don't want you know one of the interesting things when that came out and was published i had other communities in some of the meetings that i'd gone to who said well we want one of those too we want to have that 10-year designation and of course the comment is we can only have one of those but it will become a very competitive thing and so what we want to do is to make sure that we have a program that really justifies on an ongoing basis this 10-year designation so we want to make sure we prove up that that 10-year designation is a valid designation well one of the things we're doing is working with our arts community alejandro castanon with sbdc who is also an artist is working with us in identifying all of the visual artists in our community we are doing a weekly post on our social media introducing those artists we are telling where you can purchase their art a little bit of a biography about them and putting that message out there jasmine harris is our digital marketing graphic design manager newly graduated asu dean's list student and she this was her first job out of college and she's she's

[1:34:37] hit the ground running to do that we're also working with by the stream media and some of our other arts entities on a branding piece for that so we will be introducing a logo for the arts capital so we have that that we can put around the community we've talked to the arts agencies and the arts organizations in in san angelo and because we now have this designation this offers them more chances to pursue the grants because we have visual arts capital of texas in pursuing those grants that includes adding more art so that is the effort we're making and then we will of course doing do more public relations we have shared this again with the governor's office now they know they're pushing that out they're pushing stories out for us and so we plan to take advantage of this for the next 10 years that's what i want to hear thank you next slide social media that you know i i've shared this before i've been at this for 25 years when i first started we had a website barely and we had direct mail and we sent out um or made actual phone calls on a real landline and now everything has changed a bit we're now we're still on facebook twitter instagram youtube link pinterest and linkedin and we have been utilizing those uh platforms in telling our story we are now at around 17 18 000 followers since i did this presentation one of the things we've done in our visitor center facebook and instagram there is a company called smirl that does an automatic if you sign up to like or follow these those two platforms it will turn a rotary turn in our visitor center so our volunteers now when visitors come in they say like san angelo or discover san angelo on facebook or instagram and we'll watch it turn together and people will do that and so that was that has been a way to increase those

[1:36:39] numbers and we've seen that with great effect of course twitter um is the the small 45 character um piece on uh that platform it's a little challenging but we we are able to do that youtube we've continued to increase our videos and we have more coming our bottleneck videos are getting ready to uh launch uh by the stream shot those and so we're excited about that pinterest of course i shared that and then linkedin is really more of a business profile but we put we put information about our events and other activities on that platform next slide so what did that mean for last year i just want to share this these numbers occupancy and rate uh for 2020. so last year our occupancy was at 55 and our rate was 70 dollars in comparison to 2019 it's about a nine percent difference in occupancy we were at 64 in 2019 and 78 dollars in 2019 as opposed to the 70. however the good news on that is we were at the same occupancy in 2017 so we we while we did see a decrease it was not drastic compared to other cities in the business if i owned a hotel i would be happy and sad at the same time because if you look at that number honestly you'd have thought the percent would have been a greater percent in terms of the decrease right on the other hand if i owned the hotel and had to pay the bills i would feel the pain right but it's great to see our ability to continue to put people in hotel beds and to do better than the state right and so that's that's pretty much good news when you present bad news that's still good news correct and and the actual the rate now we're at around 56 occupancy year to

[1:38:42] date um that's a january through august year to date and as far as our our rate we're at the 2019 number where it's 78 dollars and so that's that's pretty good uh we still will we can do better we would love to hit 60 by the end of the year we hope we will that is really a goal our office has is to to try to maintain at least a 60 occupancy and and we'll see what happens do you have the occupancy for june and july because unquestionably there were lots of people from out of town in our city in june and july we saw them on a regular basis in the downtown area for sure and i'm sure if we did in downtown the rest of the city did so i'm not sure what the delay is and actually you getting the information we actually started working with smith travel and we we started we purchased a weekly occupancy rather than just a monthly occupancy uh when covet started so we could actually see everything that was happening to be able to do that and then we would report it back to city finance so that they could see those numbers as well because that was very important as far as june uh just according to this it looks like we were around 55 percent and 54 but that was still better than many of our numbers earlier in the year at one meeting i don't remember which one it was you also talked about the occupancy in some of our newer hotels versus the older hotels and those numbers were very impressive right you want to i don't know yes i i i'm going to guestimate because i don't have those numbers on me but if you look at some of the newer properties that have been that are less than let's say 10 years old and you just pull that that number usually that's around 80 percent occupancy and the rate is around 130 140. so there's a significant difference in that rate and so our

[1:40:45] our newer larger properties are getting a better a better rate obviously i think that's important to point out because one of the other comments that we hear is how could san angelo afford to have one more new hotel being built right and so i think your numbers talk answer that question of why one more hotel sure can function in san angelo well i would also add that in when we are booking association groups and we want a group of a couple hundred people that want to be in one location or in proximity to each other there are times when we will send out a bid and we'll get 20 rooms here 20 rooms here 20 rooms here majority of the time we lose that bid because they are not in one location or two to three locations if you think of where you go when you go to a conference majority of the conference attendees get to stay in the same property or properties adjacent to each other and so we we need that um and and people that that don't think that's true think about vegas and take out gambling if you can think about vegas people go to vegas they fly there they drive there they park their car they are there for their conference their stay in their hotel they don't ever have to leave everything's within walking distance everything is where they need it to be and everybody is staying in the same location so there's a reason those work there's a reason it is the largest convention city in the u.s because of those opportunities and we want those same opportunities here we get from our association planners all the time we would love to come to san angelo if only you had this and that is always the reason we lose business that people want to be here but we don't have the facility that works quite what they need so when we do that we we really seek the smaller meetings that we know will be good meetings for us and that they will be satisfied because we want them to

[1:42:48] come back over and over and over again and if they come for the visit first they might come back to bring their family whatever that might be thank you next slide next slide i mean maybe hello so what does this mean for citizens if you remember back in my mission i talked to our our mission i talked about the fact that we do this for the citizens of san angelo so if not for visitor spending in san angelo in 2020 every household would have had to pay an additional 549 dollars in taxes so if you look in comparison in 2019 that number was 618 and in 2018 it was 5.94 we surpassed 2017. so we visitors coming into our community don't use much much of our utilities but they pay they pay to stay in our hotels they don't come to san angelo for our hotels i've never had anyone come to me and say i'm coming to san angelo because i want to stay at name brand hotel they never say that they come for a meeting they come for a baseball tournament they come for a weekend getaway they come for something else and they stay in our hotels they spend money everywhere else so that impact is that number those people will come and visitors will eat at our restaurants they will shop at our hotel our our retail stores they will visit our attractions they will fly at our airport they will purchase fuel at our convenience stores and gas stations and they'll buy chips and cokes and everything else that's what a visitor will do they spend dollars so that citizens don't have to pay as many taxes so we want that experience to be a great experience so that number will continue to go up next slide major accomplishments in 2020 these are

[1:44:52] just a few i know i've shared some somewhat sad news but we had to we had to share that we had to just kind of tell you the truth the facts what's happening i've already shared we were the number one true western town in the united states last year we beat tombstone we beat dodge city we went deadwood everybody knows those places we were number one because we are still the authentic western community according to true west magazine we were selected as one of only three communities that has a permanent don't mess with texas mural and that's a big deal and we are now starting to see growth where the mural is and so we're going to have more eyeballs on that mural as they come into town this one is one i'm really probably most proud of trip advisor named san angelo visitor center traveler's choice best of the best in 2020 and i got this email and it just it it almost seemed like spam because it you get that a lot and we reached out and they said this is accurate according to trip advisor travelers place this attraction the visitor center in the top 10 worldwide because of consistent 4.5 star guest reviews that's because of our volunteers and our weekend staff we're not going to take credit as as a staff i won't take credit for that i take credit because they did that our volunteers people who work for free visitors love them they tell our story and so if you're ever in a visitor center during the week and you see a volunteer sitting there please thank them they are the first point of contact for a visitor if they make that that greeting and that knowledge great for that visitor this is what happens

[1:46:53] ten percent in the world that's huge and then at our tacb conference idea fair this year of this past year we were we were given an award for our local awareness campaign and our tourism branding and promotion campaign so our efforts have been paying off even through our own industry community voting for us at one point we were informed that discovery channel would be coming to town to film some things what has happened with that unfortunately that has taken a back seat uh however fishing camp is coming january and february or either january or february they are part of the outdoor channel and they're going to be coming and so we're excited about that happening discovery channel unfortunately the show i don't believe was picked up and so that it was a new change you don't have control over that but that's part of our film friendly efforts and we also have i have a filmmaker who just reached out to me this week and we're working with cotton growers to locate a field for her to film a documentary here in san angelo and so it's we you know you never know what we're gonna which hat we're gonna wear but our film efforts the film commission sent her to us based on what is in san angelo and the photos we have sent in to them at the governor's office to let them know what is here so we were thrilled to do that and we're hoping that will come to fruition probably at the end of next month because she wants to come during harvest or right before harvest so we'll see what happens with that field of dreams in other words the field of dreams there you go a couple of other things i didn't put on here but i want to share those because those are they were 2020 they happened in 2020 but they're happening in 2021. so cowboy way jubilee you've mentioned that it will be october 7th through 10th october is going to be a crazy crazy month so hold on to your hat uh we'll have centroping and on plane air

[1:48:54] um in in the third week of october october 23rd through the 30th time frame and then also further on even with that the san angelo revolution film festival we had our first annual last year but we didn't have our first annual last year but we had already judged the films it was supposed to happen in april we had to cancel so we went ahead and did a virtual awards ceremony for the filmmakers they will be here this year we extended and added a day to the film festival so that we can show their films as well and so we're going to have that october 14th through the 16th and the the films will be integrated from last year's winners to this year's winners we're going to have a blowout red carpet ceremony for those folks because we want them to want to be back and also potentially film in our community we're going to be working with asu one of the actresses who's in part of in in the filming is a graduate of asu so she's going to speak to the the theater department about opportunities to be in films in texas so we're trying to utilize as much as we can during this film festival i have a site visit with the planner out of austin he has the austin revolution film festival and he lent us his name so that we can work and extend his film festival market and then finally i have to give huge huge props to susannah valenzuela she got us air race one this council helped vote for funding of it my advisory board helped vote for funding of it but she's been holding the hands of people from spain and england for about a year and a half and they came to us that is her market she is a leisure salesperson and sports and so she worked with them and it is going to be a great event we're working with lions club they are helping with the ticketing ticket sales are going well majority of them are out of town

[1:50:55] meaning heads and beds and that event is halloween weekend october 30th and 31st at the airport we are hoping to showcase the airport as well and that is uh that's a big deal if if indeed this event goes well and swimmingly they have said that we would be their headquarters next year and we would be the location for one of their races and then they would have maybe a half a dozen races in the u.s and it's formula one racing in the sky uh we are already working on our advertising plan for this we will be geofencing the reno air races we're also going to be doing the same at austin for a nascar race or a formula one race and so we think we can draw a lot of those out of town folks and out of state and potentially out of country folks we think it's going to be a fairly big media event as well next slide so looking forward will you we don't stop when um are we going to have the international lilly festival this year as well that is happening as you know it's about a four-hour event and so we haven't been real active with it but we've been working with larry jolly on any opportunities we can to put to push that message out because we really do find that to be a great attraction for our community unfortunately we're not able to show the people who come there because it is a free attraction if you will and so we're not able to actually monetize how many visitors come to the the gardens but if you look at tripadvisor it's up there in the top five attractions and so we will continue to push that message i have a lot of pr activities coming up and i will be sharing as i always do that we have the international water lily collection in san angelo texas because people are always surprised by that thank you so looking forward i think majority of you if you didn't i think you did but majority of you

[1:52:59] have received a destination next survey and we just closed that survey we sent it out to a little over 200 leaders in our community i'm happy to report 108 actually took it over 50 percent survey that means they want things in our community they are understanding the importance of the travel and tourism industry in san angelo we were the first convention and visitors bureau destination marketing organization in the u.s to take the destination destination next survey and so i look forward to all those other cities saying how did you get so many because i don't know that they were going to get that but we worked with a number of leading organizations in san angelo whether it's boards committees asu leadership whatever that might be because we really wanted to get a good amount of information from you on what you want in our community that is related to the visitor market we did a hotel survey so we reached out to our hoteliers we wanted to know what the market looks like for them and we will do this survey again next year because this was an off year but we wanted to see what that looked like did we have blue collar white collar sports weddings whatever that might have been so we have that data as well and then the visitor survey was probably one of my favorites and i haven't gotten all the results back but i wanted to share the word cloud that is the the the information on the right of your screen we reached out to visitors that had signed in at our visitor center from 2019 through 2020 i think 2021 it was may of 2021. those are the top words of what they thought of our community what's that zero in the middle of the end that is just there that that has nothing to do with anything it's just there it's the center it's the center friendly was number one

[1:55:01] [Music] friendly was number one so that doesn't just mean people in our visitor center that means people around our community because they just stopped there they didn't necessarily just come to the visitor center so that that says we have great ambassadors at our attractions our restaurants our retail people are greeting our visitors in a way that number one word was friendly for us that's hugely important the convention and visitors bureau has no dog in this race we have no product we have no control over the product we just market we hope when we send people to a hotel when we send them to an attraction when we send them to a restaurant when we send them shopping that the experience is going to be good for them this says it is you know very often what we find is that not only do we need to know what they said that was positive and uplifting but what were the things they said that we need to work on because we will continue to be a great city and grow as a great city if we also attack those things that were challenges for this community and and so i want to make sure that not necessarily today but that we understand what some of the challenges were that were put out there so that we can continue the work and effort to make this city great absolutely and this word cloud is that is the word cloud those were the top top things so when the top things are positive things that's great i know there were probably some negatives but these were the top words i've seen these where it has said cold or nothing that didn't happen it's great so i i love that destination x survey the results uh darren rudloff with red

[1:57:04] lost solutions will be bringing those to us next month and he's going to get all of that for us and he will be part of our strategic planning efforts when we are ready to go forward uh we are also going to be in in process of the development of a tourism master plan these surveys had everything to do with what's next so we we wanted to gather data not only from our hotel guests our hoteliers who bring in those funds and are the conduit to those funds we wanted to find out the visitor's opinion and we wanted to find out the citizens opinion all of those things matter in development of a tourism master plan so we are looking at product development one of the other things we did in 2020 and that that pivot word had to come out sometimes so here it is we wanted to look at destination management and what that looks like because not only are we destination marketers we are also destination managers so i worked with my staff on opportunities for them to be make a difference in the development of our destination susana valenzuela is on the railway museum board she is now chair of that board and she and monica ramos who is with downtown san angelo and many others but those two uh have stood out for me have really worked hard to put events in that that facility and to get that that building some exposure that it wasn't getting in the past and i know when i first got here both the museum of fine arts and fort concho were really anxious to see that third third leg if you will of the stool be enhanced and we are in that process they have they have sought after grants they've received some they're seeking more so they're trying to find funding in order to make that work and we feel very confident that we're going to see the railway museum really move forward in the future we're

[1:59:06] going to increase those hours as we get grant opportunities and so it's it's a big deal and we love that that historic great building is is being used and if you've come to any of those events you're gonna you have seen that that's happening and so that's a again the third the third leg of that that stool that we really need to have happen so uh kudos to my to my staff and particularly susannah on that piece tourism economic impact we're going to be working with darren rudhoff on that we want to find out when we have the visitors here for events we're going to find out how much they're spending and so we're going to be capturing that data in the future at events trail development we are looking at we understand that citizens or visitors don't look at city limits or county lines so we have some small communities around us that have great attraction opportunities that we can fold into our existing attractions and so we want to look at the trails from the stained glass or the the painted churches that are around our community our city to the lady and blues story to things that are happening in cristobal we want to tie all those together so that we can give a true opportunity and experience to the visitor because they're they may spend a little money out of town but they're staying with us and they're spending majority of their time their money here and if we help those communities we lift all boats and that's important and then neighborhood tourism districts we've met with asu we've met with some other organizations in our community that want to talk about how we get visitors there with the new meyer museum we feel really strongly that that asu has a new piece that can be really helpful to telling the story to visitors so we're going to be working on what those neighborhood districts look like we are all aware of the downtown district and it's fabulous it's got more growth to do but we also want to look and make sure that we're getting that visitor message out to those other places some of those some of those districts have are part of those shop across texas stores that were named the best so

[2:01:09] visitors are looking at them so we want to make sure we identify that of course we will continue to sell san angelo that has never stopped despite all sorts of challenges in 2020 we will continue to do that we have continued to to increase our meetings market we had a group that was here a couple of weeks ago in this facility and they have now said they're going to come back in 2022 we have the texas police games they'll be here next year that's a huge event with a thousand room nights we want more of that it's spread out over seven days ten days so that helps because that makes those visit those those police happy they've been here before they came back so um and we will also continue telling the story of san angelo that story is important getting the name out telling people what there is to see and do if we go back to that number we want to increase that number we want to hit a thousand we want that impact to hit hit a big number and when we're at almost 600 that's important we've continued to see great impact from the stock shown rodeo and this year having the opportunity to have them split and with the plan to continue to have them split next year it's one of the biggest ones that we have in terms of bringing people to town correct correct and we actually if you look at the numbers from i don't know if we can go back to that slide um the occupancy and average daily rate in february this happened pre-covered and so those are the winter storm and during a winter storm and february is traditionally the highest time uh as far as visitors are concerned and so with that split we didn't know what would happen the hotel hoteliers didn't know what was happened it was a nice balance and again it was during a troubled time so we expect that will be an even larger increase and it gives extra extra room for people so we we love our rodeo folks and they're celebrating their 90th anniversary next

[2:03:11] year so we have a lot of big anniversaries coming up and uh we will continue it was your april occupancy because that's when the rodeo happened and i think that has a huge impact on your occupants say april actually occupancy in april was not that high it was around 40 percent but had the the stock stock show not happened that would have been a different number altogether uh just and but that was 20 20 of last year i don't have this year's numbers i'm sorry i don't have that uh next slide and this is my last slide and i i like to share this this is actually an old graphic from the u.s travel association but it hasn't changed it all starts with a visit so if no matter what someone is coming to our community for whether it is for a family reunion a wedding a sporting event or a meeting whatever that might be they're a visitor first if they've never been here so what that experience is that 4.5 visitor rating is really important because that's that first experience for the visitor and if it starts with a visit they may want to come back they may want to bring business back they may want to relocate they may want to bring their their child to university here whatever that might be that is an important piece and if you look at this dollar sign it starts with a traveler they come here by some type of transportation they go to our attractions our accommodations they visit places that money is spent they pull money out of the atm the bank gets some money they pull anything out spending dollars those dollars go back into our our community at our banks our schools whatever that might be so visitors are really important economic engine for san angelo and we want to increase that visitor spend we want people to come here i know some people go ah we don't want we want

[2:05:14] to be a hidden gem well we want to be a hidden gem but we also want to be acknowledged as a great community because we believe that people will have a great experience here and they will want to return over and over again that is my presentation thank you very much diane well done do i have questions from any of the rest of council for diane i know you covered a lot of information a lot of points but thank you you're welcome our next item is item b consider resolution nominating candidates to serve on the board of directors of the tom greene county appraisal district for the 2022 2023 term julia yes this is part of a two-prong process whereby the city of san angelo as a taxing entity is eligible to provide five names to support for the appraisal district's board and the five members that currently are on the board are john begnan john khan louis gomez candy pool and bob reeves they have all agreed to serve an additional term and if they are so elected so what we're doing right now is just passing a resolution with the five names that city council would like to see on the ballot after all of the taxing entities and provide their five names then the tax appraisal district will actually create a ballot and we'll bring it back to you in the december time frame to vote on so today are we just confirming that we want those same five names to remain as our individuals for the tom green county appraisal district unless somebody else would like to present a new name does anyone have a new name to add to the ballot of tom green county appraisal district i see none so we will accept or we should continue to support the five names that were given action julia yes we need a motion i would move

[2:07:17] that we adopt this resolution as presented mayor thank you tommy a second by lucy any public comment with no public comment we'll take a vote all in favor say aye aye non-opposed motion passes seven zero item c first reading and public hearing of one an ordinance for cp 21-05 an amendment to the comprehensive plan changing certain lands from the neighborhood center and transitional future land use to the commercial future land use being approximately six point acres located at the southwest corner of loop 306 and foster road and 2 an ordinance of z21-08 a rezoning from the light manufacturing the single family residential zoning districts to the general commercial zoning district being approximately 6.287 acres located at the southwest corner of loop 306 and foster road and john euron thank you john james director planning and development services uh as you mentioned this is um both the conference of plant amendment and rezoning you can see there on the map it's near the corner of loop 306 and foster road you can see the existing uh plan calls for neighborhood center which is a lower intensity type commercial as well as a little corner of it that's called transitional uh we'll just be recommending changing that to the full commercial allowing a wider range of of commercial zoning uh similarly a portion of the property is zoned uh light manufacturing currently and another part is zoned rs1 for single family this would just change it all to this the general commercial zoning district which we believe makes sense at that major intersection we sent out our notifications did not receive any responses in favor or in opposition just a few pictures of the property it is currently undeveloped like i mentioned it is compatible with

[2:09:21] the surrounding area it's a good location for commercial development not only because of its location on foster road in the loop but also the housing development that's occurring behind that makes it a good location to provide nearby commercial for that residential so staff does recommend approval of both the comp plan amendment and the rezoning as did the planning commission unanimously at their meeting in july i'd be happy to answer any questions i've had phone calls with questions from people who live in butler farms off of foster road and are concerned that any decision we make might increase the amount of traffic on that foster road loop area just a comment any other questions or comments concerning that area okay with that then we would ask for a motion for approval of items c1 and c2 they'll move by tommy seconded by harry any public comment on this item with no public comment we will take a vote all in favor say aye i don't know if tom was still on if he voted since he's not visible we'll just count at 6-0 okay so that was a 6-0 vote motion approved we'll go into item 7 which is the closed session executive which we do not have anything on that item so we will now move into follow-up and administrative issues which a was to consider closed session we had none so we'll move into item b is considering various board nominations uh tax increment reinvestment zone tommy or mar smd six to second term ending july 2023 and zoning board of adjustment ditrick tillis smd-4 to an unexpired term ending january 2023. do i have a motion for approval of those two board nominations or extensions a move by harry supported by tommy in

[2:11:26] any public comment with none we'll take a vote all of those in favor of approving those two candidates please say aye non-opposed motion passes seven zero item eight c is announcements and consideration of future agenda items i think that one of the items that the council would like to talk out loud about with teresa for example is on the number of people who showed up today and ask about making us a sanctuary city they all talked about an ordinance of which we've not seen one and don't have one from our legal department so i think i'm asking as i go through council to see if we want teresa to put together an ordinance for review and then decide what action or what the process that we choose to have moving forward would be so teresa i don't know what the time frame is in terms of putting together an ordinance certainly there were some items presented to us today that outlines some ordinance language but would have to be reviewed relative to the city of san angelo and then the question mark is because the city of san angelo is a big part of tom greene county don't know if that should be extended and looked at as a total county or if the only thing we can consider in fact or that the ordinance should address is the city the only thing that you can address is the city but there was also a resolution that was proposed would you also like me to bring back an option for a resolution or just the ordinance let me ask council do they want both you have an opinion do you want a resolution and an ordinance brought back for review or do you want just an ordinance brought back for review we're gonna do an ordinance i don't think we need to have a resolution i i just would be deciding one or the other and so the the question mark is is everyone in support of an ordinance being brought back for review or do you

[2:13:30] want two options an ordinance or a resolution larry which would you like just an ordinance lane lucy i would like to say both okay harry ordinance tommy i'd like to see both because i don't i don't know the effect of the difference between the two so i guess i'd like to see both as well um he can't hear and i would like to see both so i think the majority says bring and thomas saying too so we would like a resolution brought back for review as well as an ordinance and then that will determine what we choose to do moving forward okay with that are there any other items in consideration for future agenda items that council would like to be brought forward at this point for the future council meeting okay with none then we will ask for a motion for an adjournment may i have one so i'll move by tommy second by lane i'm sure there's no opposition to that so at this point in time we will adjourn this meeting at 11 11 a.m me

Captured 2026-07-26 · source: youtube.com/watch?v=4qn9ZEjhfio