San Angelo City Council 11-4-25

[0:00:00] November 4th, 2025. We'll call this meeting to order. And to start this, we'll start off with the chaplain prayer and pledges. We'd like to welcome up Art Mavro. >> Father, as we meet together, thank you for every seat that has been filled here today, for each mind and heart. that fs the presence of this room. We thank you. Only you truly know what we are setting out to accomplish today. We have an idea, a vision, hints, and daily instructions. We have talents, abilities, and time to work. However, only you can see in perfect detail the end of every beginning, every project, every season, every life. Nothing is ever in vain. For every mistakes and missteps are used for good. Your righteousness transcends all of our efforts and understandings. Forgive us for our pride, the pride that pops up and the pride that threatens to unqualify us. Strengthen our confidence in you, in you who have made us to be. Set us free from comparison in order to work together efficiently. Bless this meeting today, all those present as well as the lives of those we will encounter afterward. ready to make every movement count in Jesus name I pray. Amen. >> Amen. >> I aliance to the flag of 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 allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. >> Thank you, Art.

[0:02:18] Would everyone with National Adoption Month please come forward? Come hang out with us up here at the front. Just stand right here. All right. As I read this proclamation, get that right. Mr. He all children deserve a safe home and a family to help them flourish and grow. Each year, many Texas children find a forever home thanks to adoptive families. In Tom Green County, there are still many children currently in foster care awaiting a forever family to bring them home. During the month of November, communities across the country come together to observe National Adoption Month to encourage and celebrate adoption. This effort along with similar celebrations in all 50 states will offer children the chance to live with stable, loving families and encourage other dedicated individuals to make a powerful difference in the lives of children through adoption. The city of St. Angelo recognizes National Adoption Month in support of the adopted families here in our community and encourages others to open their hearts and homes to children in the need of forever families. Therefore, I, Tom Thompson, mayor, city of St. Angelo, Texas, on behalf of the city council, do hereby proclaim November 2025 as National Adoption Month and call on all citizens to remember the children and families who have joined their lives through the miracle of adoption. open their hearts and minds through the idea of opening their own homes to children in need and congratulate the new families to be formed during National Adoption Month. Somebody needs to come up speak. Let us hear some words. >> Um good morning u my name is Sylvia um Min and I'm the program director for CPS and I just want to say that we thank our community. um without you we are not able to um you know secure placement and permanency for our children. Um the need continues though and we really need for our community to come together um and

[0:04:21] find more forever homes for our children uh for our teenagers, for our babies um all those that we need um that way they can stay in their community. We need them to not only adopt but foster um and foster children that are here so that they can stay within their community, their schools, their churches um with their friends and you know close family that they may not be able to be placed with but they can live with. And with all that you know that can bring h a lot of happiness during a child's trauma. um you know we can't reduce the trauma but we certainly can um minimize minimize it as much as possible and without the community and you every single one of you involved um that's not possible. So we do thank you for your efforts that continue and we just ask for that uh for that to continue through our you know through our city through our counties and um that you continue to pray for our staff. It's a hard job for our families that take in our children um and those every piece that is involved in the permanency for our children. Thank you. As we move to this next proclamation, we need anybody that's a veteran to come up to the front. Mary, Daniel, no skipping. Peter, the city of St. Angelo is extremely pleased and honored to pay tribute to our distinguished veterans of the armed forces and active duty reserve and national guard personnel of the

[0:06:23] United States of America for their service and sacrifice to our great nation. These brave men and women in military uniform serve our nation with honor, distinction, and dedication in war, international conflicts, and during times of peace. Our nation's well-being, prosperity, and sense of peace is largely due to the sacrifices made by our women and men in the military. The courageous veterans in our community have earned our everlasting gratitude for serving our nation with devotion and love of country. During their service and afterwards, veterans and active duty personnel contribute to the St. Angelo community, Texas, and our nation by offering their skills, education, leadership, maturity, dedication learned in the armed forces. Furthermore, let us also honor the families of armed service members missing in action that continue to endure the uncertainty of the fate of their loved ones that are unaccounted for. Finally, may we praise the families of all those who have served quietly with little recognition for their under for their undying commitment to and support of their veterans. In celebration of this day, as we proudly wave our flags, watch holiday parades, and sing patriotic songs, let us stop for a moment to remember the sacrifices that our women and men in uniform have made for us so that we can enjoy the privileges and freedoms of our great nation. Therefore, I, Tom Thompson, mayor, city of St. Angelo, Texas, in accordance with an act of Congress dated June 1st, 1954, do recognize November 11th, 2025 as Veterans Day in St. Angelo. Further, be it known that the citizens of St. Angelo, Texas, remember with eternal respect the service and sacrifices of all our former and current active duty personnel of the armed forces of the United States of America. Come share some love. Thank you. 11th hour of the 11th month or 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month marked the end of that great war, the war to

[0:08:27] end all wars. Unfortunately, it didn't hold true. And here we are today still requiring the service of our uh military uh to defend our great nation. We appreciate the uh proclamation and uh and the the welcome we always receive from the city of St. Angela, uh we'll see you at the Veterans Day parade this Saturday hopefully and uh uh we look forward to just celebrating the 11th uh along with you. Thank you, >> JJ. We'll now move into public comment. Members of the public may raise issues or concerns not listed on the regular agenda during this time. To participate, please sign in with the city clerk prior to the beginning of the meeting. Speakers will be called in order they signed in. When speaking, citizens must speak from the podium, address all comments to the dis. Begin by stating your name and address or single member district and limit their remarks to three minutes or less. Heather, do we have any public comment? >> First, Mike Bernett. Morning, mayor, council members, city staff, and

[0:10:33] community members. I'm Mike Bernett, uh, executive director of Cono Valley Community Action Agency and chair of the Concho Valley Homeless Planning Coalition. I reside in, uh, District 1. I'm here today to talk in recognition of hunger and homelessness awareness week. Uh this year it is November 16th through 23rd. It is observed nationwide to shine a light on the struggles faced by our most most vulnerable neighbors. Uh this is uh homeless coalition in partnership with CVCAA and the Concho Valley Regional Food Bank uh sponsoring this this year. This week is more than symbolic. It's a call to action in the Concho Valley. We know the numbers. 173 individuals were counted as homeless in our most recent point in time count. We estimate the real number is closer to 350 on any given night, including over a 100 chronically homeless individuals. With over 12,000 residents in Tom Green County that are food insecure, and then you add in the delay in government funding for SNAP benefits, food insecurity is a real issue that we are facing. This year, we're hosting three events to engage the public and honor those impacted. Uh first on Monday the 17th in the evening we have the long walk homeless vigil. This is a candlelight vigil on the steps of city hall to remember those we have lost to homelessness. On November 18th, Tuesday from 9:00 a.m. to 3 p.m. we have our monthly homeless navigation day at First Presbyterian. Uh this is a hands-on outreach event where over 30 agencies come together to provide real-time services, ID recovery, healthcare, housing support, and more to overund 150 individuals each month. On Wednesday the 19th at St. Paul Presbyterian Church in the morning, we have our annual homeless symposium where we have a community dialogue featuring lived experiences, collaborative problem solving, and a shared vision for change. These events are not isolated. They're part of a larger movement for community awareness and action. If you remember in June, we had the uh the proclamation for

[0:12:36] the Rock Rose Community Campus, which we are still working for and moving towards. This is a partnership between the city of St. Angelo, the homeless coalition, and many agencies and individuals to build a regional hub for coordinated homelessness and poverty relief services. RockRose will transform the services that we offer in our region into a daily permanent operation offering shelter, case management, health care, job training, and more. Rockrose is not just a building. It is a promise. A promise that poverty is unacceptable and that dignity, opportunity, and community are the foundation of our response. We estimate over 12,000 people annually being served at Rockrows. Finally, one more date to be aware of is January 22nd, which is our point in time count for Tom Green County. So, as we enter this time of hunger and homelessness week, I want to thank you for your time, your partnership, and your commitment to a stronger, more compassionate St. Angelo and the Concho Valley. Thank you, >> Heather. Next public comment, >> Jamal Schumpert. >> Jamal Shumpert, SMD3. Um, good morning, council, mayor. Um, I I I've watched y'all talk about Twin Mountain probably three, four years now, and um, I kind of figured out what the issue is from the last conversation. Um, I wouldn't want us to use our tax money to put pipes out there. I also wouldn't want us to use our tax money for expansion and putting pipes for businesses and these property owners. Well, not property owners, these developers who's held on to this land for for so long. Uh, in fact, you would think that spurs development by giving them our tax money and actually deters development. That's why they've been waiting so that they can get that trunch of money and we put that pipe out there using our tax money so they can put those homes out there to make a lot

[0:14:37] of money. Um, I'm I'm not against them making a lot of money, but I am against them using our tax money for that expansion for that very reason. Um, and having some of your directors come up here and ask certain different boards for money for pipes for businesses. Um, I just think we're getting too deep into the weeds with incentives, giving out so much money. Uh, we're not supporting businesses. I think we're actually doing the business ourselves. I don't know how to explain it, but the infield development program I looked over it over the past few years. It doesn't work as it was explained. We're supposed to be filling in a lot of lots within the town. Uh, some of that goes into new development on the outskirts of town. Uh there are there are quite a bit of things uh we we should take a look at and I mean there there's comments further on your agenda I have to speak on but I'd rather speak on them right now like the comprehensive update. Uh that's a great thing. great thing. But when you include the capital improvement plan, which has what I would like to call y'all's projects, not necessarily the city's projects, then you take what's needed, like the deferred maintenance on all our pipes in the city, and you go put a pipe out at Twin Mountain when you could have spent that money on buying vacuum trucks to blow out some of the sewer pipes cuz it stinks so much around town. There are I would love to talk to at least one or two of you guys about certain staff, certain priorities that are really really sinking this town. And and and the last thing I wanted to say is 49 to $52 million in the unassigned fund balance and we couldn't pay $62,000 for

[0:16:40] the 65 and older. That I kind of do have a problem with. Thank you. >> Thank you, Jamal. >> Heather, any more public comment? That's all. >> With the conclusion of public comment, we'll move into the consent agenda. >> As we move down the desk, we'll go through. I'll start on this side of the dice. Mary, is there anything you'd like to pull? >> No, sir. >> Heather, I mean, excuse me, Karen. Sorry, missed it. >> New council. >> New council person. >> New person. Karen Patrick. >> None. >> I have nothing to pull. Harry, >> nothing. >> Mr. S. Mr. Heert. >> No, sir. >> With no items to pull. Could I get a motion? >> So move. >> Second. >> I have a first from Tommy Heert. A second from Harry Thomas. Do I have any public comment on the consent agenda? With none, we'll take a vote. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? When none opposed, all consent agenda items pass 70. We'll move into the regular agenda. Comments regarding items on the regular agenda may be made by the public when each item is discussed or outlined above. To participate, please sign in with city clerk prior to the beginning of the meeting. Speakers will be called in order they signed in. Comments are limited to less than three minutes. Applicants, proponents, and appellants are exempt from the time limit above and instead must limit the remarks to less than 5 minutes. With that, we'll move into item A. Consider accepting or rejecting the high sealed bids for three lots that were struck off the city from July 1st, 2025 tax sale. And if and if accepted, authorizing the mayor to execute a quick claim deed on behalf of the city. Item one, 209 West 9th. Item two, 506 North Browning Street. Item three, 2001 West 20th. Presentation made by real estate manager Sarah Tacket. >> Good morning, Daniel, Mayor, Council. Um, I'm bringing three lots that were

[0:18:44] recently struck off during the last tax sale to the city. We are the trustee for the three taxing entities within the city. Um, this table I kind of put a little bit of information for each of the three lots. And as I show you a picture of the property, I'll I'll reference this and kind of give you those values again so you can associate them with the picture. So these are the three lots. I did list the appraised value as of today. Um the minimum bid at the tax sale and how they um come up with that bid is they take all the back taxes, all the legal fees that are associated at that time. They don't take into consideration any other leans such as code enforcement leans with the property. And then I did put on this table the leans, the approximate total amount due because that does include the taxes, the leans, and any legal fees associated with the resell of that property. And then I did um list the highest bid that was received. I will note on 209 West 9th, we only received one bid. On 506 Browning, we received one. We did receive another one that was late but so we couldn't count it. And then on the last property 2011 West 20th we did receive three bids and that is the highest bid we received. So this is 209 West 9th. It is a vacant lot. Um it's a 5,000 square ft. It's valued at 14,000 and the highest bid we received was 5600. Any questions on that one? >> No. Let's move to the next one. >> All right. 506 North Browning. Um, this house is um on the dangerous building list. It is boarded. Um, as you see, the appraisal district has it valued at

[0:20:47] 97,000 and the highest bid we received was 7,500. Then the last one is 2011 West 20th. Um, this house is not on the dangerous building list. However, it has been partially boarded. Um, the house is totally open. Somebody is removed. Excuse me. All the boards from the doors and the windows and the roof is kind of caving in in the back. >> So, it should be on that list >> more. >> More than likely. Yes. The highest bid on that one was $20,50. Um I just put this slide just some things as we're considering accepting or rejecting the bids and putting it back out is there is you know maintenance of the properties um getting this property back on the tax roll, the debt associated with the properties, the leans, the taxes, the legal fees, and hopefully the potential improvement of the properties once we deed it to the new owner. That's just kind of all the things we look at. So, I did do um my recommendation um was to accept the bid on 209 West 9th, reject the bid on Browning because the bid that came in late was about three times as much as the bid that we received timely. And then I did say to accept the bid on 20th Street. >> All right. So, we'll open this up to questions from the DIA. I believe Harry spoke up first. So, Harry, >> Sarah, on these uh when we sell these houses, the bids we get on these, do we require the uh purchaser to clean up the property or get it back on the tax rolls or do whatever we need to do. So that it's uh it's not an ISR in the neighborhood and the fire marshall doesn't have to come

[0:22:51] back again. I mean are there stipulations on those? >> Well, once it's we do the deed to them. Um they would have to be meeting city code. I mean code enforcement would be inspecting the property, especially the property that's on the dangerous building list. They would have to remedy that. either do the repairs or demolish that property. >> Okay. Very good. Thank you. >> Patrick, >> on the um since we're the trustee, how does the the bids we get, how does it get broken down as far as the leans that are already there, the different tax entities. >> There's a property analysis form that um depending on the bid, the city automatically gets $500 minimum. we we get that and depending on the bid there's percentages we have to pay the taxes and the legal fees first and if there's additional funds then the leans will be paid if not we will have to write those leans off. So it's percentages of that bid. >> So on these most likely it's going to be we'll get our 500 and then by the time you pay the legal fees most of them are that's going to be pretty much a wash. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Mhm. But I Yeah. >> Thank you. You're welcome. >> Any other questions? Tommy, >> question on uh the one you are suggesting that we reject Sarah 506 North Browning. Um since the the the bid was three times higher that was received late. >> How does that process work? Do we go back to them? Do we have to go through the whole process of re >> readvertising, rebidding, etc.? >> We would rebid it. We just uh we put it for sale sign in you know on the property and we put excuse me and we put it on the city's website and we usually rebid we bid it for about 3 weeks >> and hopefully the same folks would bid again but do it on time in time um to be able to accept that bid.

[0:24:53] >> I would think with their bid they were highly interested in it. So I think they would definitely rebid. Do we consider um what it costs us to demolish if we have to end up demolishing one of those? Is that something that we are ever able to recoup or likely no >> if we at this point had to demolish it be it would be at our cost. >> Yeah. >> So it's it's very pricey. I mean, a house is I mean, I've seen I can't say exactly um but demolition leans vary from 5 to 20,000 depending on the size of the house. >> Yeah. >> Well, and normally when we demo a property that's not ours, we can put a lean on it, but technically it's ours right now, so we can't lean our own property and then make it subject to whoever buys it. So, all right. >> Have any other questions? Sarah, I will say just consensus of the group here is uh we like staff recommendations. My question is when you go out and place these on bid, do we do we post all the fees, the back taxes and everything that's pending upon it. We post all the leans against it when they bid. >> We don't and we just haven't in the past. I don't know. We I I guess we could I can get with Brandon on that. We've we've never listed a minimum bid and we can definitely start doing that. Yeah, I don't see any reason why we can't put >> We just haven't in the past. So, I think it would be a good idea. >> No, I think in the path of transparency, you know, our citizens would like to see how much we've literally got tied and backed up in. Some people just say, "Well, we just need to sell that and let it go." They really don't know how much is back and owed until that property actually sells and somebody swaps it on a lean. So, >> I think just, you know, speaking with some of the people that bid on all of the properties, maybe the bids are so low because they're taking into consideration that especially on like 20th Street, more than likely that property is going to be

[0:26:55] demolished. And also um on 9inth Street, I would think that if it's it's a developer, he is probably going to demolish and that is very costly. So, but we can definitely uh move forward with putting a minimum bid. >> Oh, and I think it's obvious looking at this two of these are total wipeouts and restart over. So, there's it's not a money-making part on that, >> right? >> When you take that step, but I think it'd be nice if when we posted these from now on, we at least posted all the leans on it just for the citizens to know what we've already got its baggage moving forward. >> Sure, we can do that. >> Cool. Thank you very much. With that, I'll look for a motion. I'll make a motion we accept staff recommendation of accepting the bid on 209 West 9th and the accepting the bid on 2011 West 20th and then rejecting the uh bid on 506 North Browning. >> And I have a second from Harry Thomas. We got any public comment. With no public comment, we'll look for a vote. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Well, then on item A passes 70. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. Thank you, sir. We'll move on to item B. Consider authorizing staff to issue an RFQ for revisions and updates of the city of San Angela cont comprehensive plan presentation made by planning and development services. Aaron Venoy. >> Thank you, Mayor, City Council, Mr. Valenuela. Uh it's a great pleasure today to talk about a request for qualifications for our comprehensive plan. That means our community is getting to uh begin to embark on a a great journey to help our community to look at our last 20 years and to look forward the next 20 years to see what our community can become. So with that, I've just got a little bit of background and really today I want to find out your views of what we should be putting into the request for qualifications when we send this out to companies to help us build that plan. As always, I like to start with what is our our city's vision statement and mission statement. And all of you guys know this, but I say this

[0:28:56] for our community to be our city wants to be the Texas standard for opportunity, prosperity, and quality of life. And our mission statement for our employees and what we do on a day-to-day basis is to deliver to deliver excellence in services through the best management practices, a dedicated, caring and productive workforce, innovative solutions, and a strong commitment to fiscal responsibility. And you see all those key words in there, and those key words should translate into our comprehensive plan. And as all of us know in this room and in our community, fiscal responsibility is very, very important on how we lead our city. So why a comprehensive plan update? Our major plan is from 2003. We've had some minor updates in 2006 and 2009. And if you notice, and you guys hear about this a lot, our zoning ordinance is from 2000. And so even in 2003, we may have done step one and we may have done step one and 1 A and 1B in 2006 and 2009, but we really never took step two and look back at our our zoning ordinance and our land development ordinance that's from the '9s. And I want to encourage you and keep that in the back of your mind that the comprehensive plan is really step one or phase one. We've got to go all the way through to getting our zoning ordinance and our land divi uh development and subdivision ordinance updated after that process. We do have housing studies from 2019 and 20 uh 25 that need to be incorporated into our long-term plans. And we know uh everyone in the room knows economic development is critical for the success of St. Angelo. However we lead our economic development, how we recruit businesses, how we make properties available, how we look at our land use tables to allow things to happen is just critical. And we all know um infrastructure public facilities need to be congruent with the capital improvement program. And that's not the plan, but that's really the program. That's the principles behind the plan. Where are where does the plan pointing to? And that's that's why we

[0:30:59] need that in our comprehensive plan update. So here's just kind of the breakdown of what the comprehensive plan. It is the plan that leads all of our other plans for our community. It's the community vision. It's the future thoroughfare plan. where are we going to make connectivities to these new properties? Uh it's the future development plan. How are we going to grow? How are we going to do infill? And our policy program. What are our policies that's leading our our city council that's leading our city boards are leading our city staff to say this is where we're headed. Those policy plans then come back into our strategic plan, our technical plans, our corridor plans, and our special area plans. So, think of neighborhood plans or the cultural district or things like that. Those special area plans that help things continue to grow, revitalize, and continue to help our community. And then what are the implementation tools? The biggest implementation tools, what does our city budget allow us to do? What does our municipal codes say our development community needs to do? Uh, a capital improvements, how do we spend money in the future? Is it facing our comprehensive plan? Is it within those principles? And what is our zoning ordinance that allows things to grow, still protects our historical properties, our historical neighborhoods, but still allows us to grow, do infill things, and keep the heritage of St. Angelo, Texas. So, I think those are very important things. So, what is the comprehensive update? It is a guiding nonregulatory document focused on land use, transportation, car, community character, parks and recreation, and more. So all the way from how we regulate things to what is our quality of life. It is a vision for growth and development at our community scale created by the community and for the community to uh record to shared goals and desires for themselves and their fellow residents. So what does our community want? What are they telling us we want to go in the next 20 years? Examining um what is our community today? What is our baseline today? Where

[0:33:02] are we at? What are we spending today? and what are we spending it on? Um where we came from crafts the coordinated roadmap for the next 10 to 20 years. It analyzes the community both quantitatively and qualitatively. So not just the numbers but also what is our quality of our community. It sets the context for public and private development and protection of others. Again neighborhoods to industry. How do we have those separations? How do we have those areas that are mixeduse? How do we do those things? And again, the comprehensive plan may assist us with future funding with here's where we need to have our targeted grant programs looking at these types of grants that focus back on our comprehensive plan that's part of our uh capital improvement program. Again, at the very top is just our, you know, what is the vision for St. Angelo's future? What are those guiding principles that we're going to bring in for St. Angelo? Um, what are our goals as a community? How do those goals translate into policies that work down into the citiz uh into um our city um folks that are working these programs? And then what are our imple implementation strategy? What is our action plan after this comprehensive plan comes to us? What do we do in the short term? What do we do in the long term? What is that 10-year playbook, if you will, that says here's the steps you need to take to get to this level if that's where your community is headed. So what are the topics that are typical in a comprehensive plan? Again, we go back to that baseline. What are our demographics and existing conditions? We need to look at land use and economic development. Those go hand in hand. Uh transportation and infrastructure. If we don't have the roads, water, sewer, and capacity to increase those based on our economic development plan and land use, we have to get those congruent. We have to make those things happen together. What is our community character and housing and our recreation and natural environment? As we all believe and know, our community has a beautiful river that runs through it. We have a recreational

[0:35:06] lake at Lake Nazworthy. We There's Twin Butes. That's a beautiful fishing lake. We have a wonderful natural environment that we need to continue to enhance with our comprehensive plan to continue to draw people to our community. Whether those are visitors, whether those are people that stay, uh, things like that. The other things we need to mention in here is our partnerships with Goodfellow Air Force Base. Extremely critical for our community. We need that within our comprehensive plan. our partnerships with Angela State University, our partnerships with the school districts, whether they're public, private, charter, all of those dynamics are changing and we need to make sure that we're accommodating and looking forward to help them grow as well as what are the options for the city to to help things mature around those schools that they don't have to continue to consolidate and things like that. So, these are the things that are are typical in a comprehensive plan. So, as you guys know, the city council strategic priorities are infrastructure, public safety, economic development, and workforce. And each of those have some sub subcategories underneath them, but those are the four main focuses that our budget is driven by that your decisions are driven by. And so, how do we incorporate these into our comprehensive plan? And it's that capital improvement program policies. How do we set up the policies? Not necessarily the plan that will come secondarily, but the policies that drive that plan. Economic development priorities. What are our priorities with economic development? How do we go recruit? What types of industries are we wanting? How does the housing come into that fiscal stewardship? I don't think any of us can speak about that enough of we know we'll have some wins and we know we have will have some losses, but we need to balance those out and look at those. and staff has to bring you data so you can make the best decision fiscally for our community. Long-term uh planning for appropriate growth patterns again in the comprehensive plan. Why live and work in

[0:37:09] St. Angelo? What is the quality of life in St. Angelo? Parks, trails, connectivity to amenities. How are we making those things happen with our policies within our secondary plans and then our action steps that uh take it forward. So, here are the things that I that we have worked with talking with a lot of different um staff partners, community people, and here's what we're coming forward with to ask to be put in the request for qualifications out to uh the public to see who wants to come and help us with our comprehensive plan. Again, that baseline current demographics and conditions of St. Angelo, the future land use and growth framework, livable neighborhoods within the Costa DC housing study, mobility, infrastructure and resilience frameworks. And that resilient framework is about fiscal responsibility um parks, open spaces and trails with regional view for storm water, public facilities and schools. How do we partner those three things together as we look at areas that we grow? And so those probably partner with some parks aspects that we're able to do those things. So how do we partner those things together that we're not dotting around and not making a a comprehensive decision? Economic development and catalyst opportunities and then resilient communities u that we have a grant that we have submitted to the uh Texas land board. Um, it's a GLO resilient communities grant that will come in that will help us put together in our comprehensive plan some disaster economic and infrastructure items that look at resiliency. What are our redundant things? If our water line is is damaged in some major way, how do we fix that? If we have a major disaster like we had previous, how do we have in our comprehensive plan that we are going to mitigate some of those things in the future? And same with economics that if we have an economic challenge, that's a big thing for our community. How are we going to be resilient against that? If if the tax dollars are not coming in yet

[0:39:13] we have so many miles of roads that we have to maintain, what are we doing to look at that to say, all right, what are we doing for our cost today? The results would be an implementation strategy and an action framework out of this comprehensive plan. We're going to get our baseline. we're going to get our land use and these economic um development items and then we're going to have an action framework that comes back and says, "All right, city of St. Angelo, here are your next steps to keep this process going to keep you headed towards the goal." So, with that, mayor, I turn it to you and uh to the council to answer any questions for this for uh for the request for qualifications for our comprehensive plan. >> And I want to say thank you for bringing this forward. think this is an item that several of us had discussed for many years up here on the dis and we're glad to see it move forward. We think anytime something sent latent for 15 20 years we've maybe avoided some spots and had some maybe headwinds why we didn't bring this forward but we brought it forward now and I think we need to stay on top of and the decisions made with this program will be felt 15 20 years in the future. We just have to make sure we got the right plan. And when you look at something like this, uh, you can put a lot of stuff on paper, but the key to this is going to be execution. >> Yes, sir. >> And not to drag our feet. So, with that, I'll open up the dice to any questions. >> Comments. >> Comments. Questions. You're up, Tommy. >> Aaron, thank you. Um, the first time I heard this mentioned was at least two years ago during Harry's campaign. Um Harry brought up the the fact that he thought we needed um to update our comprehensive plan. Um and it goes back further than that too, but that was when it was I'll say gain gain some legs. So thank you Harry. Um couple of things that I like that that you have you have uh said would be covered. Number one is the financial stewardship. Um a couple of us were were privileged to see a presentation. It's

[0:41:16] been at least a year ago or at least last year about what financial stewardship could look like if we were to use that as an analytical tool and it was amazing what what we were presented at at this workshop. Um I like that aspect being incorporated into it. Then you said something else about data. Um to me we have that is one thing that has been lacking in my opinion in some of the plans we have now is lack of data that can help us make decisions. So hopefully this would be heavily laden with data to help us make good decisions. Um so Erin I I applaud you for pursuing this for uh bringing this forward for the I'll say no pun intended but for the comprehensive look that you have given to uh a comprehensive plan. So so thank you. >> Thank you >> Erin. I have a one question and I should I should know the answer to this but I don't. Pardon me. Uh when was our last census done? You know, the the national census and it's like every 10 years. And would that I remember filling those out and it it was a lot more than just saying how many people were in your household. How close to that next census uh that's sent out? How close are we to that? And will that could that play a role in like as what Tommy was saying uh the data and all to how that could influence that? >> Yes. Well, our census is every 10 years 2020 2030. They do do some updates in between that they're looking at things as well as some of our other plans like our most recent plan of the housing study did a lot of data research on our

[0:43:20] community. what does our community look like demographically? And so those things are always out there in the public for the folks to go and look at and really pull in. What do we look like today? And that's what this company will do is what do we look like today from a financial standpoint, from a people standpoint, from a distribution of of those within our community. And so we envision a lot of data coming back from that and showing maybe some some mapping that shows where we have infrastructure that may not be up to standards and then what does the housing look like around that area or maybe it's in our industrial area and how far away does how long does it take for an a person to drive to their job. Those types of things that we'll have some data that's based on our real data today in 2025 and 2026 when this actually kicks off. They'll be looking at those data streams that are out there. >> Deal. When you say a company, have we already notated who who that is or we send that out? >> We have not. This is the process to make sure that we're sending out the right qualifications. Then companies will say, "Hey, we have the right qualifications." We'll have a team that will evaluate those. Then we'll do some interviews and then we'll get a contract moving forward. Y'all will see the contract sometime after the first of the year. I I know you were talking about the other besides Goodfellow, ASU, of course, Howard College, all of that plays a role in it. There's been a lot of emphasis on the state parks and they've kind of got the Texas Parks and Wildlife. They've put a seems like they're they're really on the high roll to with awareness and utilizing our state park. Is there any grant opportunities that we could marry those with what the state park is doing and with the city? Is there an opportunity for for those to work in tandem or say essentially marry those together? >> I can give you the short answer. Rick may give you a better answer than it, but the short answer is yes. And within this plan, we are writing because the

[0:45:24] Texas Parks and Wildlife requires some specific language within the comprehensive plan that allows us to leverage some grant request to their organization to help us with our parks as well. And right, Rick, is there anything else to add to that? >> That's correct. Basically, we have to do some updates every so often to be eligible for those grant opportunities. So Carl usually does that. We're I think a few years out from that update, but in this case, it would be a great opportunity to just do that update. Just keeps us current. So, yes, >> I tell you what, just as a citizen of St. Angelo, I am very impressed and and grateful and thankful that we have so much u upto-date data that we can put together. And you with your uh what you've done with our maps and stuff is just nothing short of incredible. But to have those resources available to us, it's like we do have real- time data and it's not a small feat to put all that together, but it is certainly reassuring to know that we have it and that we our staff does have the knowledge then to access that and and put it into place. So, I'm of course I'm grateful to you as a council woman, but I'm extremely grateful to you as a citizen. So, thank you Aaron for your work and for your staff. We appreciate it. The thanks really goes to the there's a big team with our GIS team and our and our IT team. They're the ones that do that behind the scenes work and folks out in the field that go and collect collect data all the time. And so I'm glad we have the emphasis on data collection and now we need to put the data to work for us. >> You're the right man for it. Thank you, Aaron. Um I I think those listening and those in attendance might be curious how the public is engaged in this process. I think that's the only thing that we haven't discussed. Other than that there there is indeed as Tommy and Harry and Tom have mentioned a group of us that have been uh hoping for this asking for this for a number of years and we are delighted to see it come before us.

[0:47:26] Thank you so much. Uh yes, public engagement will be critical in this process. And so that's one of the key things that we're looking for with the partnership with who uh the company is that comes in to help us. Uh it will be public meetings. It'll be discussions. It we will also work with our communications team here with the city of St. Angelo to help get things on websites, do things on social media, getting that information out. And our staff team will also be key in getting out to the farmers market and talking about the comprehensive plan and getting out to different events all over town during this next uh 12 to 18 months so that the community is engaged. They have we get their input, they understand what's going on because that would be a terrible idea to not do that and then come up to you guys um at some point and say here we have this plan but we haven't engaged with the community because this really is a community plan. So thank you for that question. >> Good morning. Um on this on the plan, you know, it talks about the future land use and growth framework. If we had um data centers, major manufacturers, something like that, come in and kind of change the landscape of St. Angelo in the next 5 to 10 years, would it require another comprehensive plan to kind of go from there? I mean, is this something that probably needs to be done a lot more than it has been in the past? I would say it does not need another comprehensive plan. What it needs to be is our comprehensive plan needs to be ever evolving. And so we need to be looking at that plan often whether that's a seven or 10 year time frame. I would say currently we're going to be looking at those things because we know we have some of that potential and what our state what's happening in our state. So we need to be identifying those areas now because that's really us trying to look into the future and say we believe these type of industries fit with our culture, fit within our community and here's the locations in our community that make the most sense. >> And so that'll already include some of that the potential to future land use purpose there.

[0:49:27] >> Thank you. >> Well, I thought you were going to go left to right. So Joe and I were already ready. I'm going to echo what's been said. Uh thank you Erin. I think this is a giant step forward for the citizens of St. Angelo and I think uh for those people that are going to be here in 15 or 20 years. It's going to be key uh for the success of the uh the city and and the citizens. So I want to say thanks. You did touch on one item that I'm going to bring up because I think this council uh Tommy and I and I should probably be here for that. We'll talk about what do we do for services when you don't have uh the amount of tax coming in and we already know that the state legislature is going to be looking at uh capping property tax. So we'll be looking uh maybe with this uh this study but also at this the people on this das to make sure that we're ahead of the curve on this. So we know what uh we can we can keep and what we might have to give up on services uh if we lose tax revenue. So thanks again. I appreciate you. >> Thank you. >> Uh thank you Aaron a little bit. I don't want everybody to get all uh I I I sat on planning commission and I the that's a big deal is the things we saw coming before us were uh can I do this here and so I I remember you explaining these studies that we've done in the past and it's very interesting that way it it kind of helps our city plan itself. Um my question was is it going to restrict somebody from doing something but you kind of answered it with Patrick. um as long as the plan's evolving, that's the main thing. And and so that way we can grow because you may have a residential

[0:51:31] area pop up that you weren't planning in an area. So again, that that's all I had really is I I think it's a good deal. We need to do it because I we went over some of those past uh studies in the planning commission and it really helps make good sound decisions on that part. So thank you. >> And again, I just this is not a regulatory document. It's really just a guidance document with our policies. And then that next level is zoning ordinance and our codes that probably need to be changed over time to make sure that they're helping with development to come in moving things forward. And mayor, I'll just say thank you to Mr. Valenuela for for fighting for this in the budget process. Thank you to the budget team for working and thank you guys for being forward thinking this last year in the budget process. Say this is important. So really the thanks goes back to you guys up here on the DIS. Well, and I with that Eron, I want to tee up, you know, Daniel, Daniel, if you want to make some comments. I mean, you've been key on this one, bringing it forward. So, I'd like to hear some comments from you, too. Uh the comprehensive plan is a powerful tool and it's got it's got to be something that quite frankly it does it does adjust does it's ever changing but it's a good guidance for any city and um what we've done I know that back in 20ou 2030 was the the time that we actually did the comprehensive plan and some a couple of adjustments since then but uh it can't be stated strongly enough that really it is a powerful tool for what is coming for our community in order for us to do it um The planning phase itself, it has to be in place and we have to have a little bit of direction moving forward knowing what we want in our community and uh it's a great question that Mary just asked a while ago. Stakeholders, it's not just the citizens, it's all the stakeholders in our community to be involved in the whole process. You'll have from Goodell Air Force Base to our colleges to our schools. Uh it's going to be something in order for it to be truly impactful. We have to make sure that there is true involvement by all the different stakeholders in our community. This is a great step forward and I'm quite excited uh that this is happening and I'm looking forward to great things. I know

[0:53:32] this is my last year but I am thrilled that it is happening uh this year and moving forward. So again um I just want to thank Erin for a lot of the great work Rick uh that they have all the lot of thought they put into this as well. Council members your diligence as well. It's not only been something that's been talked about for a few years. has been something that's been drilled in conversations I've had with Tommy and Harry and and Tom and uh Karen. My goodness. Uh so again, this is just something that quite frankly we're pretty thrilled about and we're excited about moving forward with it. >> Daniel, summarize, I'll just say there's probably no more single independently significant item that'll come forth uh to council than this steering our direction for the future. >> Absolutely. >> Um with that, I'll go ahead and step up as a consensus from the here on the word. I'll make a motion to approve uh for the RFQ. Can I get a second? I got a second from Joseph. Is there any public comment, Heather? >> Second. >> Everybody second it. We'll just All with that, we'll take a vote. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Item B passes 70. We'll move into item C. Consider the following items regarding meet and confer. Number one, the approval of an agreement with St. Angela Police Officers Association collition establishing certain terms and conditions of employment for covered police officers to be effective October 1, 2025 through September 30th, 2026 and authorizing the city manager to negotiate and execute all related documents. And number two, first reading and public hearing of an ordinance amending the budget for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2025 and ending September 30, 2026 for police department pay plan and staffing levels. Presentation made by human resource director Veronica Sanchez, SAO POC President Nola Anderson and finance director Tina Derski. >> Good morning, mayor, council. Thank you very much. Veronica Sanchez, HR director. What we bring forward to you today is a tenative meet and confer agreement. Um, as many of you know, the uh police association and the city of

[0:55:36] St. Angelo participate in a negotiation process that at the end will um uh develop a meet confer agreement. So we've gone through that process. Um your city negotiation team consists of Michael Dayne um assistant city manager um Brandon Dyson city attorney and Tina Derski finance um director and myself. And then null if you want to go through your team. >> Yes. Um, my team consisted of myself, uh, vice president of officers Blue Flores or Charles Flores, vice president of supervisors, John Bellini, uh, Kelsey Hernandez, which is our auditor, uh, Jeff Lake, which is our representative, uh, Lyn Dye, that's our treasurer. >> So, um, on the presentation, I have just a few bullet points. >> Sorry, I turned the mic off. I apologize. Um, a few bullet points for you. Um, this agreement includes the 5% increase for police officers that city council um had previously approved in terms of increases. Um, so they um have agreed to utilize that entire amount to apply to their salaries. uh inclusion of counting vacation leave, emergency leave, wow days, United Way days as regular hours worked for the purpose of computing overtime. Development of sick leave payout structure that assists with retention and unnecessary use of sick leave. Inclusion of the appointment of two deputy chiefs. Um this will be achieved by converting two lieutenant positions. flexibility for handling disciplinary suspensions not otherwise permitted under the code. Um, for example, forfeaturure vacation time. Alternative disciplinary options by agreement

[0:57:40] requiring an officer to complete a program of counseling or rehabilitation. Upon agreement of the parties, the option to have disciplinary appeals decided by written briefs to save time and money. Contract dispute resolution procedures requiring individual officers to dispute um officers dispute to be vetted through the association before being filed with the city. Options for mediation and agreed arbitration and provisions regarding confidentiality of records utilized in internal affair investigations. Um there the agreement itself is quite lengthy. I did provide that tenative agreement in your background information. Um, this agreement would be effective October 1st through September 30th. So, um, it will be aligned with our fiscal year. Um, current the current agreement doesn't expire until the end of December. So, if this is approved, it would supersede the current agreement um, and be dated as of October 1st. We are happy to go through any of the provisions in that agreement with you. If you have any questions, we'd be happy to answer those. >> Thank you, Veronica. I'll do the same thing. I'll get the mic on it. I'm sure we're going to have several questions on the dice. From the dice, um could you go back to your first slide? There are some things I need to get some clarity on. I believe could you explain um uh the United Way days and the WOW days. I've had several I won't say several had a couple questions on what that is exactly. Mhm. Currently, um for the United Way days, if an employee um contributes a certain amount of their hourly wage to United Way, um city council has approved that uh employees receive a day or two depending on um the amount of of contributions that they give. Um as far as WOW days, that is tied to our wellness program. And so if you achieve certain things through the wellness program, a council has also approved that you get a day or two um as well there. Those are paid leave days. Um so

[0:59:42] currently that doesn't count towards regular hours work. So if you take any of those days um during the work week, the um those are deducted from that 40 hours. So you would not be eligible for overtime. Um, in this agreement, those two types of leave would be counted towards hours worked. So, it would not count against them for the purpose of overtime. >> Okay. Um, thank you on that. We'll we'll go ahead and start down here on this side of the dice and then we'll move across. Tommy, have you got any questions >> right now? >> Okay. Joe Harry. >> Yeah. Uh, no. Would you explain to me what the job responsibilities were for the two new positions that you've got listed here? Conversion two lieutenant positions to two deputy chiefs with I'm not sure that I understand what a deputy chief is. >> That's probably uh best for the chief to provide that information. >> Thank you for the question. Uh, so basically we go back to even 1999, we had more administrative staff inside the the San Angel Police Department to handle day-to-day business of the San Angel Police Department. This would take two lieutenants and convert them to a deputy chief, which is equivalent to a a major or a captain. Uh, it's right below the assistant chief. It puts them in charge of operations, kind of like what you would see with the battalion chief inside the the fire department that they're operational heavy. And it frees up the two assistant chiefs because, you know, used to we had three assistant chiefs. Uh this gives the ability for the two assistant chiefs to really handle administrative issues, work on grants, get the things that need to be done instead of also having to put their their focus on operations. >> So deputy chief would be like captain and fire department major in some other police departments. Is that my understanding? >> So you're seeing a trend across the the state that they used to be captains.

[1:01:43] It's probably the closest thing. uh and captains are being converted to deputy chiefs because they are doing a uh heavier administrative load than like being responsible for like the whole division. They're actually responsible for multiple divisions. >> I just wanted the citizens to have a better understanding. >> Oh, absolutely. >> Yeah. When I get a phone call and said, "Hey, we just promoted somebody to a deputy chief. I don't even know what that is. At least I'll be able to have enough knowledge to answer the question." So, thank you. >> So, it provides two assistant chiefs and two deputy chiefs. Uh we saw I I can say Levik and I believe a couple other cities I can I can't think of right now that are close by that have converted those captain positions to deput chiefs. >> Okay. >> Yes sir. >> Any further questions here? Patrick, any questions? >> Hey Travis, if we go too far >> um on when you started that you were talking about used to we had more administrative positions. Would that be civilian or was that police? >> It was police officers. We had two captains and two assistant chiefs. >> Got >> and then then the chief. So this is we're kind of going back to that. And we also had fewer officers at that time frame as well. >> So we still it still needs to be somebody that um knows role. It can't be a just an administrative position. It needs to be somebody that knows the actual >> and and when when working through the officers association which have been outstanding uh it's been clear of who I want there and why I want them there. And so I put that out front. Um, so that way they know, hey, these are the right guys for the right place and that's what I'm about. >> With this um with this agreement, have you gotten a feel from your officers? Is everybody pretty happy with it? >> Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I think that's why the agreement was is because of who we're putting there. You know, it's a it's an approach to say, hey, these are the right people that are have a lot of knowledge in the areas of investigations and patrol operations. And so they'll be working heavily with those as the operation chief, if you will, o over those things, day-to-day operations. >> Thank you. >> Yes, sir. And also, while I'm up here, I want to say um it's a weird spot for me to be as a chief because I wasn't on the city board and I wasn't on the association side. So, I've kind of just

[1:03:46] been in between. I've been super impressed with uh Veronica and Null and everybody on on their teams have done a great job this year. So, I just want to say publicly I appreciate them and thank y'all. >> Patrick You are you good? >> Good. >> Karen, >> I'm good. Thank you, >> Mary. >> Okay, Veronica. Um, this is an area and Chief, you may want to come back up. I may need you on this. Sorry to get you a little exercise. Get your steps in today. Um, as a city, we have struggled with retaining and keeping police officers and and pay and compensation. This is one of the things every August and September becomes something that we have to deal with to try to keep in. Are we getting in a better shape than where we were? I mean, is it easier to retain our employees and to maintain our PD, our public safety? And and we'll go with that is like since 23, we've done some compensation changes. We've got about 34% in increases in public safety, 32% in fire, 34% here. Is that getting us close to where we need to be? cuz cuz I hear that a lot and there was some some sacrifices and trades made in there to get there. Are we helping solve the problem? >> So I I think we're doing great inside the confines of what we're given as a city. Does that make sense? Yes, sir. >> So based on our our our income, if you will, from our tax base and where we're at, I think we're doing well. But when we compare that to Abalene, Witto Falls, Temple, I mean, no, we're not near into that. Our biggest competitor will never be close to, which is DPS. we've lost uh either candidates or current police officers to them. Um you know, Abalene is over 100,000 for their max pay. Midland, I'm sorry, Witchaw Falls is over 100,000. So, I mean, we have a ways to go and I want to be clear with that. But based off the confines of where we are at as a city and where we are, I think we're doing a great job in that regards. So, anything that we can push on, which would be the morale inside the department, making sure we're pushing for towards uh force multipliers to provide uh a way to get the numbers up

[1:05:49] that we need. Uh we're seeing recruiting and doing an outstanding job. We're seeing that the academy trying to double up and get more people into the academy. So, everything that we can push on with inside the confines of the arena that we've been given, we're doing a great job at. And I think the more we see wonderful uh uh cooperative approach on contracts like this, the better we're going to be and more people want to work for a place that uh that that gets along and is appropriate and is for the betterment of the employee outside of just compensation. >> Well, we'd like to thank St. Angelo's quality of life is better than anybody else's. I mean, that's just what we hope and what we want to see. And as we go through, we we make individual concessions for I won't say concessions, but we try to keep all of our officers with a car. I mean, we love to see those in the neighborhood. Everybody, if I'm not wrong, everybody all most of the police have their own vehicle. Correct. >> Anybody probably over four years gets a police car. Yes, sir. >> Right. And it's great seeing those in the neighborhood. Um, as we move forward, we just want to make sure we're staying on the same page with. Right. Those are some decisions that y'all's group and your discussions and negotiations I mean we froze some spots in choice of making pay increases and we get that and that was a decision made where we froze what four or five six positions six positions. >> Yes, sir. >> All right. But that I want to weigh that because I hear a lot of comments and I you and I both talk about we'll sit down on the side of the room and say what do we need? Well, we need some headcount, you know, and and we have to look and we're going to have to weigh those balances. But it's your group that sits in there and negotiates and says we're moving forward with salary in le of headcount. And from what I heard you just say is you're going to try to bump the headcount some as we move forward. >> Yes, sir. We're doing everything we can. We've we've hired more in the last 17 months than we have in a department for a very long time. We're going to continue to push on that, but I guess for a point of of of understanding, we're operating inside the confines of what we're given, right? so that the agreements that are made are made inside the the reality of where we're at. And so, um, that's kind of a hard comparison

[1:07:51] because I mean, we we need more bodies. I mean, we see that in comparison to where we're at in other cities. So, we we are below that that two police officers for every thousand residents. Uh, but we're doing everything we can since I've tooken office to be able to get um our team on the same page to find force multipliers and you have supported that. Um, but it doesn't replace bodies. I mean I mean we see their closest comparable will be WTO Falls and they are at 29 more police officers than us and 37 more support staff than us uh and about $6.5 million larger budget. Now there's we're not apples to apples that's just our closest comparison. So when we see those things and highlight those things it's not to point fingers or it's just hey this is the reality where we're at and as these guys move forward they'll operate inside the confines that they're given to do the best they can with what options we have and I think we saw that with this contract. Oh, and I think you hit the you hit the nail on the head and some people don't understand, you know, there's you you have x amount of money to deal with and there's points in times where you have to retain your employees or try to replace them at a different rate. Some people don't see all the negotiations that go on behind the scenes and we just need to understand we would love to grow in all those elements and silos. Sometimes we just have the budget we have and we have to work within it. So I I commend all of y'all for working down that path. Yes, sir. >> Just real quick to add to his statements, there are some provisions in here that um definitely help with retention to include that, you know, counting some of those paid leaves as regular hours worked and the sick leave payout structure. Um that's part of your packet as well. Um, typically when somebody leaves within a civil service position, payouts for uh, sick leave and vacation leave really are um, they don't have to wait a certain amount of time or um, have uh, they do have caps, but they don't have to wait a certain amount of time. Um, the provision in here actually assists with um, people being within their positions longer so they can get higher payouts. So, there are some things in here that that assist with the retention piece and and hopefully with the recruitment piece as well.

[1:09:53] >> I would I would just like to add that this contract, just like excuse me, last year's contract, we do improve on recruiting. There are some things that specific to us that we do better than I think most other agencies. Um, and it's because of this contract. So, >> I just I I'll make a quick summary here. You know, we were glad to hear last week that this this got approved. We we came to an agreement, a consensus of what we thought would work for this year. It's always going to be something we're going to be working on to improve and expand. And that's not only with PD, that's with fire department, that's with all our employees. Um, so number one, I just want to thank you for all that. Any further comments from the DA? It looks like all that. >> Okay. Okay. I do need approve approval on that particular item. >> Do we need to take these in two items or just one? >> Two, please. >> Individually >> or just Yeah, if you'll do the agreement first because once the agreement passes, then we'll know to do the budget ordinance. >> Okay. So, I'll look for a motion on item C number one. >> I make a motion we approve the agreement with St. Angelo Police Officer Coalition. >> Second. >> I have a first from Tommy and a second from Karen Hessie Smith. >> Okay. Karen Hy Smith. We didn't call her. I know that. I was thinking I didn't do it twice and then Patrick threw that up. >> Okay. >> With that, I have a motion at first and a second. Do we have any public comment on item one? With that, all those in favor of item one say I. >> I. Any opposed? >> Item one passes 70. We'll move into item two. >> So, the next item is just the budget amendment for this. U with the approval of the agreement, we do have to update the the budget amendment and that's updating that 5% for the police pay scale. Um and the conversion of the two lieutenant positions to deputy chiefs. >> I move approval. Mayor

[1:11:58] >> second. >> I've got a first from Tommy Heert, second from Harry Thomas. Any public comment on item two? >> With no public comment, I'll look for a vote. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? With no nays, item two passes 70. Thank you'all. >> Thank you, council. >> Now we'll move into item D, second reading of an ordinance amending chapter 2, administration, personnel, article 2.07, boards, committees, and commissions, division 1, generally section 2.07.01, O1 organizations and procedure by providing an for alternate board members providing for severability and providing for an effective date presentation by made by city attorney Brandon Dice. >> Thank you, mayor. Uh we had some good questions last time and so wanted to bring this back on as a regular item to address those. Uh, one of the questions being can a alternate under this new ordinance be appointed to a regular full-time member and talked through it at length with Heather did some research and don't find anything that prohibits that. So, we do think that that can happen. Um, but we did want to add a provision clarifying term limits. Um, so I did add uh that the terms served as an alternate would count towards the the six years essentially if you know they get reappointed uh as a regular also. And then because an alternate can be appointed at any time uh just for tracking purposes and to help Heather uh we put a provision talking about when that initial term uh will expire. And so it'll be based on the earliest expiring term of any regular member that's then serving. So their initial term unless they're appointed uh with a regular member will be an unexpired term first and then they'll go into their full term. So those are the revisions we made. Happy to answer any other questions on that. Chair,

[1:14:02] >> I'd just like to thank Brandon and Heather for the refinements on this ordinance and u I'm willing to make the motion to approve. >> If you hold on just a sec. So Brand I I have some questions here about we put this in place for when we lack quorum >> right >> in certain boards and we don't want to slow up um as it moves forward. Walk me through the process. If we learn on a, and this is for Heather, too. If if we learn on a Monday that we're going to be two people short to make a quorum, >> how would we move forward? Who who could we pick eligibility? How could we appoint? I mean, to me, there's questions. While we have this in place, let's talk about the execution of it. >> Yeah. Well, I I think you're appointing alternates for certain boards so we know which alternates go with which boards and then the board liaison is responsible for calling and make sure they have quorum and if they don't then they're going to be calling those alternates saying hey we need you there. Um alternates are always welcome to still go to the meetings if even if we do have quorum so they know what's going on. It's just they wouldn't be voting unless there was a regular member absent. >> Right. So, would it be suffice to say that we're going to need to create alternative members for every board and get those filled and assigned? >> Who would I think >> two alternates? Planning commission is a big one because we have uh deadlines that are statutory and if we miss those they have pretty bad implications. So, >> I definitely say planning commission. I don't know about every board. Maybe we'd want input from some directors and staff to see. >> Well, I I get a question. So, let's take our primary boards and say, okay, so who's going to make those appointments? Is it going to be mayoral appointment? >> The way draft is any member can appoint or nominate an alternate, >> but then they have to go through the same confirmation of the full council as a regular member. So,

[1:16:08] We need to start that process. And Heather, I found some places where I had some errors where I didn't have some on ZBA and a couple, but I would like for you to go ahead and let's go ahead and start and make sure we get those filled because it it's painful as a council member and a mayor for somebody to call up and say, "I've been sitting here 90 days because I've been waiting on you because one person was sick." And so I get that. So I want to commend everybody for bringing this forward. But number two, don't let us sit on his heels. feel free to push us a little bit and let's get all these positions filled. And that goes to the board, too. If y'all can think of anybody, we'll look for Heather to kind of do a summary memo on what we need to place and then we'll all put our heads together and go from there. Yes, sir. >> So, I'll look for a motion on D. >> Motion from Karen Hessie Smith. >> Second from Mary Coffee. Any public comment on D? >> With no public comment, I'll take a vote. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Item D passes 70. With that, we'll move into close session. Executive session under the provision of government code title 5, open government ethics subtitle A, open government chapter 551, open meeting subchapter D. Exceptions to requirements that meetings be open under the following sections. A. Section 551.072 deliberations about real property regarding 505 South Chadurn and 404 South Irving. We're going to go in close session. We hope to return shortly. Eight followup in administrative issues. Consider items discussed in executive session if needed. No further discussion there. We'll go on to item B. Considering approving various board nominations. Civic events advisory board. Mariah Hogan. Mayor appointment to an unexpired term ending December 2026. >> I got a first. >> Got a sec. First from Tommy and a second from Joe. All those in favor say I. >> Any opposed? No opposed. Item B, appointing Maria CL clear 70 announcements and consideration of future agenda items. Anybody have anything?

[1:18:11] Michael Dane, >> did we have some discussion about December dates? >> Did that change? >> We have already We're going the first week of December, >> correct? December >> as scheduled, but not planned for a second meeting in December. >> I thought that had changed again. No. Did I see something about >> Okay, >> we're good as of right now. Um, I have a future agenda item I'd like to have Brandon discuss. It's maybe for some education on topicality. Um, number one, when an item comes up to council and I I see sometimes, and I did this myself, when we discuss an item, what we can discuss to stay topical versus going off the course to where we we need to keep the discussions to the item on there. Uh, I think we also need to bring up um cell phone usage. I know if if you use your cell phone up here and you get text or while it's going during council, there's some implications to that. Um, we need to bring that one up. Brandon, I think if you'll just bring that up and maybe you could send a memo to us what that opens you up to. >> And uh, with that, that's all I've got for right now. Rick, >> there's evidence right there is world's worth. >> Work related email. >> Shopping for a car. >> Work related email be okay. But but items where people are sending you text and they won't do that is you know basically Brandon that is that it's public comment. >> Well if there's uh texts about business of the city that could be public information subject to disclosure. Yes. >> Regardless of what device that's on. >> Right. >> Okay. Cool. That's what I want to clarify with that. I'll take a motion to close. >> We adjourn. >> I have a first from Tommy and a second from Harry. All those in favor say I. I. >> Any opposed? We'll close this meeting at 10:05.

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