City Council Budget Planning Workshop LIVE stream 4-10-26

[0:00:00] to uh September and we get there. With that said, I would say um as we look at your presentation time, I don't know if that's documented to the minute, but if you're allotted a certain time frame, you certainly don't have to use it. Um with that, we have some people are going to be leaving to go to a funeral this morning. So, let's try to work through this as fast as we can. With that, Daniel, turn it over and kind of give us our objectives for this morning. >> Uh mayor, good interview. Uh thank you. Yes, this is basically just a second the follow-up workshop that we had uh last month. And uh again, what we talked about were the revenue growth ideas, expense reduction ideas, and efficiency focus. And council members, that's what you'll see today. The city uh city staff, we've had an opportunity to really sit down and work on some numbers, not just come in there and say, "Hey, we have some thoughts and ideas." Uh what you'll see today is you'll see some numbers that uh would benefit the city uh from the revenue perspective and the expense savings area. So again, um you're right, mayor. We'll be some of the the staff will be be presenting for 20 minutes or less. Um there'll be a Q&A uh after they do present. Uh if you have any questions for clarification, they'll they'll be there to answer that. Some of the departments will be uh actually be um presenting for about 30 minutes because they have a lot uh for consideration. So again, um we do have a break and a working lunch. We're going to work right through lunch. Uh if we finish up a little bit early that's that's that's fine. Uh but again mayor the break it's for about 15 minutes so we'll like I'm sure we'll have a discussion whether we want to take the full 15 minutes or kind of keep a little bit shorter. But with that we will kick it off with uh the first presenter and we have first is human resources. Oh >> there you are. [laughter] Okay. I was looking all over for you. Go ahead ma'am. >> Yes. Okay. Good morning. >> Good morning.

[0:02:04] >> Nothing like 7:30 a.m. to tell you I need millions of dollars, right? Okay. >> Does it get less if we wait till 8? >> Yes, they do. >> Well, then we can wait till >> I'm glad I was at 7:30. Okay. just an o quick overview about um what I presented at the first workshop. Um we did a salary survey class and comp survey. Um the consultant uh was here to present some of those results. Um since then you know we've talked about some of the things that um obviously the data is the data. So um you know based on the recommend ba based on the need what is it that we can do to to maybe bring that that need down? Um right now it's about $5 million needed in order to satisfy 100% of market for everybody in the organization. So, [clears throat] if you remember, um, for non-public safety, if we bring all employees, um, to market, um, it's about 1.2 million, 4% of our current payroll. If we bring all non-Ivil service employees to market and we account for range movement um, or that comper ratio that the consultant talked about, it's about 1.7 million. um in the first presentation that was about 2.1 million. We did have a discussion about removing the DFW market um from this study for specifically for fire and PD because it is a different market. We applied the same methodology to our non-Ivil service employees and so it did reduce that um cost from 2.1 million to 1.7 million. On the public safety side, if we align everyone to 100% a market, police was about 2.1 million. Fire 1.7 million. If we remove that DFW uh market from the

[0:04:07] model, it's about 1.4 for police, 800,000 for fire. And then fire specifically had a request that they wanted to prioritize the percentage between each one of their ranks. Um so if we applied that to fire is 428,000. So it reduced it significantly and for police um it actually went up to 1.5 million if we if we use that same methodology. Um police has not indicated to me that that is um a priority for them. So we do still have to have to have some discussions with them there. Um the reason why it reduced it so much for fire just so you know is um the firefighter rank which is where most of the employees are housed are at market currently and so there wouldn't be um much allocated there um for us to have to fund. Um so a combined overview 100% of market for everybody in the organization to include public safety it's $5 million as I mentioned 100% of market if you remove DFW from the entire model for public safety and non-public safety 4.1 million and if we create a model that um prioritizes the separation between ranks specifically for fire and PD it reduces that down to 3.7 7 million. Since the initial analysis, um, some of the things that we want to accomplish this fiscal year is moving anybody that is more than 15% behind market to at least 15% behind market. We do have some positions that are 30 40% behind market. And so, um, if we are able to accomplish moving those, um, to be at least 15% behind market this fiscal year, obviously it would, um,

[0:06:11] allow us to not have to fund that this next fiscal year. So, I have been we have been Oh, hey, Kim. >> Good morning. >> We have been talking about I'm sorry. >> That's okay. We have been talking to uh finance about how we can accomplish that this fiscal year. And then vacancy control, uh, a vacancy control process. This is something that Jonathan actually recommended. Um, and we think it's a great idea. We have positions that sometimes departments don't um, need to fill immediately after it's it's vacant and then it goes vacant for a year or two. And so having discussions with those directors to make sure that they understand the need, we understand the need. If you can go without it for two or three years, do we really need that position? So at least posing the question, sometimes it is necessary and for whatever reason they're keeping it vacant, but they want to hang on to that FT. So my recommendation would be to fund the $5 million. Yeah. Okay. Um Jonathan had the same reaction. Um it's important, I think, that we understand the need. So, if we had $5 million obviously to fund it, we would um taking into account the current financial capacity, um the recommendation would be as follows. To bring all of the non-Ivil service employees who are current and their current salary, um to market, 100% of market um we did, like I said, remove the DFW um market from the model. So, that's a 1.7 1.8 8 million need for police. um if we were to move them to market and then adjust um adjust their ranks to be plus or minus

[0:08:14] 5% um between ranks. Um based on some information they gave us in terms of where they're losing most of their um staff, we believe there should be a a larger separation between ranks between your officer and your sergeant. Um so that's what you see in this chart. Doesn't necessarily have to be that way. Um but that's a $ 1.1 million need. I will tell you that we are we did start meet confer process this week the 4th I think that was this week um we've got a subcommittee scheduled for later this month and we're going to sit down with um a couple of the association members and talk to them about this study. our consultant is going to be there so that we can review their initial request um and make sure that we understand it and obviously um feel comfortable that the association understands what the consultant has provided. Um this is going to take some time to review and obviously consider. So, um, I can say that that $1.1 million might be something that changes for fire. Um, if we bring them to market and then consider the separation between ranks that they prioritize, um, you see it's 15% um, for most of them, a 20% separation between driver and lieutenant. um it's about a $400,000 need. So, um we meet with their association from time to time. They do not have a meet and confer contract, but you know, they if they have questions or um have any feedback, they obviously contact us and let us know. So, this number might change potentially as well.

[0:10:18] So in addition to um the financial need uh what we would like to also recommend is that we um have some maybe no cost lowcost recommendation as well. Um we are recommending that we add uh a couple of um or I guess additional vacation time to our structure. Currently after or I guess the start of the fifth year you an employee will get 3 weeks of vacation. So what this is adding is at the start of the seventh year you go to four weeks and at the start of the 10th year you go to 6 weeks. We are requesting that we add the Junth um holiday to our holiday schedule. Uh currently we do follow the county schedule. they don't um recognize Junth either in their schedule. So, it would be different than theirs um if this is approved. So, this would go to 13 holidays for city staff. Um and it's adjusted only whenever the Christmas holiday falls on a certain day. Currently, the county schedule, I think if it falls on a Thursday, you get the Wednesday. Um, so anywhere between 13 to 14 holidays depending on when that Christmas holiday falls. Paid parental leave. This is pretty common within um municipalities and probably the private sector as well. Um when you um have a birth of a child, adoption or foster placement, uh employers do uh provide paid leave. In this case, we are recommending 80 hours per year. So, this means that an employee could take that FMLA period and um not have to utilize their leave. Um sometimes they use vacation, sometimes they use sick leave, and sometimes they don't use anything, so they take that time unpaid. We're requesting that the employer um pick up 80 hours of that.

[0:12:25] And yes, No, >> just want to make sure. >> And just for reference, um, since January of 25, I believe we've had about 17 FMLAs related to um, birth of a child or adoption. So, it's not a lot of people, but um, it is utilized obviously. >> About 17 And the final recommendation that we have is for an extended service hours schedule. Um we threw around a couple of ideas, both a 10-hour schedule that would allow us to completely close operations down on Fridays. Um so you you're working your 40 hours between Monday and Thursday. And then um the other one is nine a 9-hour day and you have four hours on Friday. So when talking to to directors and we didn't have an opportunity to have a director's meeting this week, but we will continue to discuss this with the directors because this schedule will work for some but not all. Um so there is a preference. The only thing we want to be mindful of is that you know we're not committing an employee to come in for 10 hours if they can't come in for 10 hours. um particularly because of daycare needs or things like that. It does not work for everybody. Um we do already have a few internal departments that are not customerf facing that work a a 10-hour schedule and are off on Fridays. So um this is something that has been discussed for many years and um honestly you know preferred um but again it doesn't work for all. So, we would, my preference, honestly, would be the the second one, 7:30 to 5:00. But, uh, I'm sorry, 7:30 to 5:30, 9 hours, and then half day on Fridays. But, if you talk to some of the operation guys,

[0:14:28] there's absolutely uh some waste in them coming in and getting equipment to a work site and being done at 12:00. You know, it just wouldn't make any sense for that. So, um, these are discussions that, you know, we we will continue to have Yes. >> So, I think what we're going to have to do is do a little education because there are you're going to get a lot of complaints about people not being able to do anything on Friday afternoon. >> Is there a way that we can stagger hours so that you cover 7:30 to 5:30 Monday through Thursday and still have until 4:30 on uh on Friday with less staff. There is a way to stagger hours. I'll tell you though from personal experience. Um during COVID we we did um something similar. We were obviously open every day of the week, but you know we staggered because some people were working from home. Um and as a director or and I imagine this would apply to a supervisor or a manager. If we say, "Okay, I'm going to work 10our days and I'm off on Friday. Office is still open on Friday." um we were still working, you know, calls were coming in, we were still having to handle things. So, if we're not truly closed on a particular day, I don't know that it counts as, you know, truly time off. Um but yeah, that's something that that can be worked out. >> I just think if we we we do enough education up front, it'll save a lot of phone calls to this group up here. >> Oh, absolutely. Uh because I can tell you once we make that change, you're going to hear, "Well, I didn't know that." >> So, however we can get it out to the public. >> Yes, absolutely. >> Vanessa, I have a question along that those lines. The the there's a lot of departments that aren't going to receive phone calls and stuff from the public, but we're not we're still going to be available to the public five days a week, right?

[0:16:32] Well, if you close down, no. >> Well, that's what I'm saying. I would not expect a a citizen to have a water department or some something where they need an answer and they call after 5:00 on Friday and or after noon on Friday and and they're not able to at least talk to someone. To me, that's completely unacceptable. >> Yes, there would be an on call the on call process would still be the same as if somebody were calling after 5. So, there are still people on on staff that would be required to answer those calls. I apologize. I misunderstood your question. >> Well, I just want to make sure that the public [clears throat] at least has access to the city five days a week like they have been and then we do the personnel shifts >> behind the not not openly, you know, to the public have to post all those hours. As long as we can the citizens have access to us, then okay. [clears throat] >> Veronica, real quick on that. Um, so both your hours are the same if we got 10 hours, 9 hours on that first one. What is the expectation of employees? So like that that doesn't leave them a lunch hour >> if they're 40 hours a week. >> We would reduce lunches to 30 minutes. Um, but and in that in that um scenario, we are open during the noon hour. Currently, most of your offices are not open during the noon hour. So you are extending the service time by 30 minutes up front, 30 minutes at the end of the day and during the noon hour. >> Um but even if you cut that to 30, they're still only they're not getting their full 40 hours. Are we giving them credit for the other or >> um some models do have giving them credit for 40 hours internally? We would make sure that they're working the 40 hours. So um we talked about this even for the the 9-hour days. You know, if you are here and and you're open to the public a certain period of time, then you have some quiet time for your to you to get your additional or your full 40 hours. Um, you know, where the offices are closed, but you're still required to work those additional hours and, you

[0:18:34] know, work on emails. For me, that's when I get most of my work done. So, >> that's that's what I was asking. That's what I didn't know. So, they would >> they'd be expected to come in at seven or something like that or work clearly or whatever. Gotcha. >> Thank you. Mhm. That's the end of my presentation. So, if there are any questions um for this or for the financial need, I'd be happy to answer those. >> If you don't have any questions right now, um keep in mind there's a 30-minut session at the end of the workshop uh that'll allow us to kind of revisit and uh talk about that as well. So, so if there's no questions, we will move on to finance department and Jonathan. Thank you, Veronica. I appreciate that. Jonathan, do you have a new title, sir? >> Yes, sir, I do. Good morning. Uh, Jonathan Flores, finance director. >> Yeah. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you. [applause] >> And then also, I think Shaneie should introduce herself as well. >> Shaneie has one. Uh Sheny Jordan, assistant finance director. >> Awesome. [applause] >> Super thankful for the opportunity to serve in these capacities. Um we do want to get started and run through these slides. We've got quite a bit to go through as well. We've got some recommendations for revenue increases as well as just the financial update of where we currently stand in this fiscal year. The first item, and we have about five of these items. The first one we'd like to bring up to you guys is uh levying a cemetery tax. Um we found in the TML revenue um guide that there is there may be an opportunity in the state

[0:20:39] statutes for us to levy an additional property tax on top of the 3.5% cap. Um so this would fall outside of that calculation that would allow us to fund uh cemetery operations. Um, right now the cemetery currently receives about $96,000 in funding from the general fund. Um, so this would this tax would be used to offset those um contributions. Uh, if we were to do it at that 96,000, it would be an increase of about2 cents to the tax rate. Um, and I believe that would be about for the average homeowner that would be about $2 increase to their tax bill. Um, so we we do have to do some vetting on this. We want to make sure we get um legal opinion on this, how this would work, uh, how we could implement it, but we believe this would be an additional rate outside of the um tax rate, the TNT calculation. Jonathan, before you get off that, I think this is a very unique approach to how we can do this. Um, I wonder whether or not you're going to get any push back from citizens because Fairmont is not the only cemetery in town and there are a lot of people that will not be in turned in that particular cemetery. So, do you anticipate that you're going to get some push back from from citizens be if we implement this? >> Yeah, I I could see maybe um some push back as far as and and we always get push back when it comes to tax increases. I I think there's always some amount of push back. I do think this one is a very limited uh impact. Again, for the average homeowner, it's about a $2 increase to their annual tax bill. Um, so it's >> not $2 a month, $2 annually. So it's it's a pretty it's a pretty small

[0:22:42] increase. Um, and and um, so yeah, I I I see us getting some push back when it comes to the tax rate almost almost always, but in this case, this would be a small a small impact. >> And I would add that on the other side of that, the general fund taxpayers are already supplementing the cemetery fund. And so in essence, they're already funding that through the tax rate. >> And and the good thing about loving this tax rate is it would be a stable because it would fall outside of the 3 and 12% cap. If it does fall outside of the 3 and 1 half% cap, it would be a more stable source of revenue for the cemetery as well. The next uh item we wanted to bring to you guys is a credit card convenience fee. Um, currently we have this proposed at a 3% fee capped at $2 for utility bills. Um, this would require us to bring an amendment to the utility fee ordinance as well as an amendment to the schedule of fees. Um, in order to charge these, uh, state statutes currently limit us to charging a 5% fee. We're below those state statutes in in this model. Um, we believe citizens are kind of used to this fee already. They pay these fees at businesses, restaurants. Also, the county charges a similar fee uh at $2 for all of their credit card transactions. Um, and this would be a a decent impact to the general fund. Currently, we spend about $130,000 in credit card fees. This fee, the way it's currently set up, would recover about $96,000. Um, utility funds, it's it's an even bigger impact. We spend uh between water, sewer, storm water. Uh we spend about $535,000 in credit card fees. Um and that $2 fee, that $2 limit for those utility bills would recover almost all of that 500,000 uh 516,000. The next item is is possibly taking

[0:24:50] public safety expenditures to a vote. This is something I think we've talked about the last couple years, the possibility of this would this would mean that during the budget cycle this year, we would identify some expenditures for public safety. Um and and we do have some items that um we've consistently gotten feedback on of of needs. Of course, the pay plan this year is a big one. uh we we're also in the need of possibly increasing pension contributions uh especially to the uh fire pension fund as well as capital needs. And then one of the other things is especially what we've seen recently is just technology uh investing in our technology infrastructure when it comes to um responding to incidents, responding to events. Uh making a big investment there would be very helpful. Um, and so those kinds of expenses, we'd go through our budget process, identify what those expenses are, and if they exceed what we're able to fund outside of the three and a half% cap, that's when we'd propose an election. That's when we would propose a vote. Um, this does mean that if we choose this route, we would have to push the budget cycle up a month. We're used to approving the budget in September. This would have to be done at the beginning of August. So, there's going to be a tight turnaround here. um property values. We received our final certified values July 25th. Uh and I believe we'd have to have a budget adopted and passed um the second week of August. So that gives us about 2 3 weeks to finalize the budget, get it done, turned around in order for us to uh have a vote on the November ballot. The goal has always been to cover our public safety costs through our property tax revenues and we're actually off Tina probably about 5 to 6% by now. So we actually the monies are coming from property tax revenues doesn't even cover public safety at this point. Uh and we are proposing if anything we're re if we're recommending a property tax rate

[0:26:51] increase it is to benefit public safety. And I'd uh take this opportunity to let the city council know that Daniel and I have been contacted by the pension review board um which governs the firefighters pension fund. Um and we are going to as a city need to increase the amount that we are contributing to the pension fund. Um whether that be on an annual base or um for example I think Midland contributed $41 million or maybe even a little bit more to their fund to get it where it needed to be. Um, of course, we don't have that kind of money laying around. So, we would propose some kind of um incremental increase over the years as as we continue to make sure that that fund is uh funded correctly. So, this would be another reason. That's why he mentioned uh the pension contributions in this in this item. >> The fiscal impact of this obviously is dependent on those expenditures that we choose to take to a vote. Um the next item is uh the opportunity to forgive facil uh city utility expenditures. Uh council could authorize an exemption for city facilities from being build water, sewer, storm water. Um this change would have an positive effect on operating funds on the general fund on other funds but it would have the negative impact on the utility side for those utility the water sewer storm water. Um also one of the things if we implement this if we do decide to exempt city facilities we would need to um require a strict water control for departments a conservation plan um that we could adhere to. that way we're not using water um more than what we need just because it's um we're exempt from paying on those bills. So those would be the two the two things to keep in mind if we do move forward with this. Um uh the impact just for the general fund if we if we did move this route is about

[0:28:54] $464,000 in utility charges a year. Um [snorts] the other option is to kind of negotiate a fee or a different price for city facilities as well. Um but in this model we just uh exempted all city facilities from being build water. Jonathan, would you anticipate questions from other municipalities on whether or not their water sewer rates would or could be waved? I know we have had requests from others along similar lines, not utilities, but uh is this something that that y'all talked through about exempting? And I'm not suggesting that it be done. It's just a mere question. Have y'all talked through that about other municipalities making that same request? >> Um we haven't found any other municipalities. I haven't I haven't researched that particular question. Um, but that is something we can look into and and bring back to you guys. >> It it may be worthwhile. Again, I'm not suggesting we do it, but I think the question might come. >> Do you Tommy, do you mean other municipalities that are paying for city water? >> Yes. >> Or do you mean other taxexempt organizations? Because I don't think any municipalities purchase. >> Not current. >> City water. >> City of Miles used to, but not current. We have the the we have two others specifically in my mind. Um so >> okay, we'll get with you and we'll look into that. >> Okay. Just Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Mhm. And >> the last item for your consideration is a rolling debt program. Um this program would create additional general fund capacity for operating needs. Currently we contribute about $2.2 million of the general fund for equipment replacement. This includes a $250,000 contribution for a firet truck each

[0:30:57] year. Um, we need to coordinate with bond council and our financial advisors to structure this program. And also, if if we ever decide to move forward with this, city council does have uh city council does need to approve these debt issuances. So, you'd for sure see these before we ever move forward with actually issuing debt. Um, but again, this would free up about $2.2 $2 million for us to use for other things such as the pay plan, other capital needs, uh other needs from the departments through the budget cycle. That that ends the our um I guess those are the items that we wanted to bring to your consideration today. I want to pivot and move forward to kind of where we sit during this fiscal year. Go through our big sources of revenues. Um starting off with property tax. Uh just real quick, the property tax formula is we receive values from the appraisal district. Uh with those values, we then set a tax rate. Uh and that is how the citizens receive their tax bills at the end of the year and we receive the revenue from that calculation as well. Um right now we are we have experienced over several years uh several property tax challenges. You're aware of these the three and a half% cap. Um the state implemented some medical exemption changes the homestead circuit breaker cap which is a limit on the growth of homestead values up to 10%. Um one that is new this year is an additional business personal property exemption. That exemption was 2500 uh prior to the legislature passing an increased exemption of now 250,000. Um I did some quick numbers um based on the available data that we have and it could be it could mean that we could lose up to $234 million in valuations this next year. Um that that would be a

[0:33:04] $1.8 $8 million impact uh to uh property taxes potentially. Um we're going to get with the appraisal district and kind of nail down some of those numbers. Uh I believe they're planning on giving us some super preliminary valuations, but that's going to be a big change for us this upcoming um budget cycle as well. And we still continue to deal with the over 65 freeze. Nonprofits are also exempted from paying property taxes. And then most recently with the flood disaster, we're going to still see uh some of the remaining effects of of the flood from July 4th. >> Jonathan, do you have a number as far as each one of these as far as the impact that we've currently experienced? >> I don't I don't have a total number. I do have these um what we've lost over time on all these. I can total those up and bring that to you guys. >> It's a big number. >> Yeah, it's a it's a huge number. I mean, um, again, just just the business property tax that we're we're going to get hit with this year, that new exemption, it's $234 million worth of valuations that are falling off. So, um, the state really is doing all they can, not just on the cap side, but also on the exemption side to kind of limit our ability to to levy an appropriate property tax. >> And more than likely, next time legislators are in session, they will enact the 1% uh as far as property tax cap as well. So that means that for the city, we'd have to be going to the citizens every year for an election. And we do live in a conservative city. We're thankful of that. But uh that means also that people are very very mindful as far as what they're willing to accept on a property uh rate increase. So uh the challenges become very real moving forward though. So Jonathan, thank you. >> Jonathan, quick question. Um if that does affect us at 1.8 8 million back here. You were talking about the on a fiscal impact rolling debt program that would free up 2.2 million in general fund allocations for equipment replacement. Does that is that static just for equipment replace uh equip

[0:35:08] equipment replacement or can that uh savings take take the place that I didn't know if it's just for equipment uh purchases or if that that savings could be passed to maybe offset this. >> Yes, ma'am. Yeah. So, with the 2.2 million that we're proposing with the rolling debt, um we would take that 2.2 2 million that's currently proposed for equipment replacement and use it for other needs. If if it meant that we had to use it to kind of offset some of these property tax decreases, we could. I think our preference would be able to use it to um do things like the pay plan, do things like fund uh public safety at a certain am uh an appropriate amount. Um >> just looking for the wiggle room. >> Yeah. Yes, ma'am. >> Thank you. >> Jonathan, [clears throat] final question here. The only thing we have any control over this slide is the over 65 freeze. Correct. >> Um, I did some research on that. I I'm I'm not sure uh what ability we actually do have. I was looking over uh one of one of the things we brought to you guys in the prior budget planning session was potentially eliminating the 65 freeze. So, I went through and tried to see what that entail. And I don't think it's it's a council action. It's not something that we can do by ordinance. We're trying to figure out if it's going to be uh citizen vote or if there is even an opportunity to eliminate that over 65 freeze. Um really the only thing that we have um control over is well I mean just the ability to continue to uh raise property taxes up to that 3 and a half% cap maintaining at that rate um or whatever cap. >> So basically with this slide we don't have control over pretty much anything. [clears throat] >> No sir. I I would say with the nonprofit exemptions, um the nonprofits do use our right ofways and some of you know, of course, they don't pay property tax that helps keep our streets up and things like that. And so I think later on in this budget workshop, you'll hear um about a street use fee. That is the only way to offset that nonprofit exemption.

[0:37:11] So you you may have some control over that one, >> right? We're seeing that one coming. But when we look at this slide, we can just go to the next slide. So this slide is is a a little ugly right now. Um this is property tax performance for the current year. We've received about 91% uh of our uh levy collected. Normally we're about 93% of the year in March. Um we're under budget 2.2 million and under under budget or under budget 2.2% uh at a dollar amount that's about a million dollars. And this is primarily due to we have not received March collections yet. Um we wanted to put this number in front of you guys just so you could see it. March collections tend to be about $2 million every single year. So we expect this number to trend back up and this just shows that we're collecting uh the appropriate amount of property taxes. We're on pace. We do think that property tax has the potential to come under budget a little bit just based off of uh valuations change but it should be offset by other revenue sources. But as we get a better number on this, we'll share that with you guys. We do have one slide to kind of help illustrate um actuals versus budgets. So what this chart is is the line graph is what we expect to receive every single month based off historical collections based off of five-year collections. And then the bar uh the bars are what we actually received in those months. You'll notice that March collections, we haven't received anything. And so once we receive that, we should be back on track budget-wise. Um the next source of revenue that we like to go over is sales tax. This is a sales tax breakdown. Of course, the state receives a majority of that and we get about half of a percent for um the development corporation and then a whole percent for the city itself. Sales tax has been performing well. Um these numbers are as of March. So March

[0:39:15] was up 4 and a.5% almost or almost 4.6%. Year to date we were at 1.69% and revenue over budget of 525,000. We did get April numbers uh at in the middle of this week. Sales tax was up in April 4%. Um that brought our year to date up almost to 2% and we are now over budget $66,000. So this we we we've we've seen um property tax or sales tax continue to grow at a steady rate around 2%. Um so that's encouraging. This is our sales tax trend over the last three years. Um 2026 there is in blue. Uh the only month that really took a a little bit of a hit was the month of February and that was just primarily due to in 2025 we received a huge audit payment that kind of skews that number for 2025 a little bit. So we're still seeing good sales tax performance. And then we also made this similar slide when it comes to monthly collections uh compared to the budget. Um and this is an encouraging graph once again uh those bars uh exceeding the budget allocation for that month as well. >> Can you go back a slide real quick? Sorry, this is all the same color, so I couldn't tell which year's which. >> Thank you. >> Yes, sir. >> Franchise taxes. Franchise taxes over the last couple years, we've been budgeting for very conservatively. We've seen a decrease in franchise taxes overall, especially when it comes to telephone and TV collections. These franchise taxes are meant um utility companies pay these franchise taxes to us and they're meant to cover the cost of maintaining ride ofways of uh maintaining uh the areas around those

[0:41:18] infrastructures uh and the use of those rideways. As you can see, we're we're trending downwards. These have always been or these have been trending downwards at least since since I've been at the city. Um, just for a frame of reference, year-to- date, telephone franchise taxes are down 37%. TV franchise taxes are down 11.5%. And that's just related to people cutting cords, switching to um, uh, no longer using landlines, no longer using cable TV, switching to those streaming um, platforms. Um the franchise taxes that we have seen maybe more of a steady um rate of increase has been uh gas utilities. Um and those are primarily due to the fact that um the those are manipulated by the price of gas. Um so those those are a little bit more steady but we are seeing major decreases to telephone and TV. As far as a budget impact though because we budget for these conservatively we don't see a huge impact to the budget. Um we're we're down to uh 2.41% for the budget this year to date. Uh $40,000 to the budget. Um we're hoping these steady out through the summer months. Um these, as you can tell, these these payments, we received these quarterly payments, so that's why you see those big spikes there. Um the big spikes that we do normally see are are in May. So that that'll be a good tell of where we're going to end in franchise tax for this next fiscal year. And then again, just the comparison to the budget. Um we're again trending pretty close. We're only down 2.4% from the budget and we still have those remaining large months to be received especially in May. >> Jonathan, should we start a promotional campaign to encourage use of landlines? Is that what you're trying to say right now? >> Absolutely. Okay. >> Uh, switch switch the cable. >> There you go.

[0:43:21] >> Jonathan, as [clears throat] you move forward that those you and Shane, I need you to make sure that you need to project those 30 to 40% losses. >> I don't see that any of that recovering. Now, Brandon, I think at one time, Tina, wasn't there a class action lawsuit that a bunch of people were going against maybe YouTube and others? That has never been successful in recouping any revenue. Correct. Well, a and there I think there was some recent legislation this last time that passed that effectively going forward killed that and I think the court case would just be for anything like retroactive before that. So going forward it's Yeah, we're not going to be able to collect that. >> Okay. So how does that affect our PEG fees? >> How does that affect our PEG fees? >> It it impacts them similarly to the franchise fees in the same way. >> That's my concern with our public information. Okay, go ahead and roll on. >> Uh, the next category, we we title these other taxes. Basically, what this is is alcohol and beverage tax and bingo tax. Alcohol and beverage tax is is the big um uh category as far as when it comes to these other taxes. Uh here we've seen a steady increase of about two 2% year-over-year. Uh we're currently above budget, two and a half% and then of course the revenue impact is smaller there at $6,000 over budget. Um we've seen a steady increase in these. These have kind of followed a 2% inflation year-over-year at least the last couple years. Um so these are a little bit more steady of a revenue source for us. Here's the uh trend chart over the last three years. And then our comparison uh to budget to date. As you can see, we're we're these are pretty steady. We do see an increase in the summer months. Um people being off, but for the most part, these stay pretty steady. Hotel occupancy tax. Um this has been

[0:45:23] kind of a a volatile source of revenue for us over the last couple years. We're hoping to see some some of this uh steady out or level out uh hopefully in the coming months. So, right now we're we're down only4% year-over-year. Uh we're overbudget 2.27% and this is primarily due to us continuing to conserve budget uh budget conservatively uh for hotel tax. We're overbudget about 30,000 for the year. Um and the next slide kind of illustrates the volatility of these payments. Um these the spikes in these for the most part uh from what we can tell are primarily due to audit payments. Uh every once in a while we'll we'll go through an audit of some of the hotel um and and ma mainly it's it's short-term rentals that really cause the the audit payments to kind of spike. Short-term rentals kind of they're not super consistent and when they remit payment uh you have 30 days after the end of the month to remmit payment for hotel occupancy taxes. those short-term rentals don't necessarily always follow that um that timing. So that's why we see some spikes here and there. And then of course in July of 2025, there was a big audit payment that we received there in July. Uh but when we trend these out over the last 5 years, we tend to see that the increase or the um larger months actually h start in March and we believe that's primarily related to the stock show and rodeo. And then of course the summer months tend to be a little bit higher as well. People coming in, staying coming to see family, coming to visit our our community. Um, but March tends to be the the uh high point in our hotel occupancy tax collections. >> Yes sir. Yeah. So those March collections that we have there are actually February night state. And then the last category of revenues we wanted to go over with you guys is

[0:47:25] charges for services. Um so currently this is made up uh primarily by municipal court fees, by planning and permit fees, and by uh ambulance collections. Um, right now we're we're up year year-over-year 15.3% and that primarily has to do with just timing of collections. Uh, budget-wise, we're up 1.2 uh% on the budget and we're over revenue 114,000. The charges for services graph here, you'll see that it kind of uh spikes at the end of the year and that's due to primarily ambulance services collections. In the beginning of October, we don't record um an ambulance payment and in September, we record two ambulance payments. So, that's why you see that big spike. It starts off low in October and then spikes at the end of the year. But you'll notice that year-over-year, these kind of these are pretty steady. They kind of uh trend along the same um trend line. And that's primarily again based on fee increases. Um, we've done incremental fee increases over the last couple years to get us to cost of service. And so these these should stay pretty steady as long as those volumes for permits and and planning and and ambulance runs stay steady as well. This is um a chart of the the budget versus actuals. Um, one of the things in March is as of this meeting, we hadn't had everything completely entered. I think we were actually still waiting for some permit and planning fees to hit March. So, that's the main reason for the gap there between uh the budget trend line and the actual March collections. Um, but again, we trend we see these uh increase over the summer months as well. And that's the end of the financial update. Any questions for Jonathan or

[0:49:28] >> Sheney? Jonathan, >> sorry. Real quick. Um, back to the franchise fees. Um, so we've we've received a ton of new um, internet providers in the last 5 years probably. Um, are we getting the franchise fees from all those? Do they just not recoup what we used to get in internet and cable and right >> phone lines etc. >> So my understanding is is that we do receive some of some franchise fees from those companies but it's it's not in it's not enough to make up for the amount of cable that's being cut. Um it's not enough to offset those those changes the changes in consumer habits. Is there any uh recourse in that because everyone is using internet for everything to raise that franchise fee. Any >> that's that's been one that I I believe going back to the the legislation. >> I was going to say those telecommunications providers they fall under a state issue franchise. So it goes at the state. I don't think we have any ability to like negotiate the amounts. Now, there is one exception that we're working on with one provider that is for broadband specific and they don't uh qualify for that telecommunications provider. There is some limited ability to do that, but I only know of one uh utility that that even applies to. So, >> thank you. >> Yes, sir. Patrick and Jeremy. All right. Good morning, mayor, council.

[0:51:35] Um, first off, I want to say I appreciate y'all giving seeing the value of this, seeing the impact that this these two items are going to have on or could have on our community. Um, and requesting that additional information to come back. I'm very excited to come back and give you a little more detail about how these would actually work, what those implementation timelines would look like, just to give you a realistic picture of kind of what this what it would look like if you if you say go and you and you fully support this and what it what it would incur. So [clears throat] again, as we talked last time, one of the um proposals that we have that would make an impact across multiple several divisions within the city of St. Angelo um as well as just out in the community from a quality of life perspective is that environmental division. Uh if we could implement this environmental division um that frees up a lot of time, a lot of burden that is spread across multiple departments, multiple divisions within the city and allow those divisions and departments to really focus on their core competencies. Those those core services that they are designed and established to take care of. Um these are items that need to be done. um their items there and activities that you know just for the quality of life of our city, for the quality of life of our citizens and as well as the marketing capability of our city need to be done. It's it's what makes St. Angelo great. Um there's very few municipalities I would say that go to the extent of the city and and perform the way that the city does, especially in our emergency operations. And when you see a step up in the in the event of a flood, in the event of a Bradford tornado, in the event of we spend months going through and and really helping our citizens out and and that's why this St. Angelo is such a great place to live. Municipalities don't do that, but St. Angelo is great because we do and we want to continue being able to do that. We've just unfortunately gotten to the

[0:53:37] capacity that through a regulatory sense from coming down from the state and from the feds as well as just what we need to upkeep through our growth and our in our expansion within the city. We just don't have the capacity to provide that level of service that we always have in the past. So, we're to the point of where we need to ask. We need y'all's y'all's buy in. We need your support in order to to allow us to continue doing this. So on the left side there you see those kind of [snorts] 13 tasks that I would say um if we were to identify the tasks that this department's going to do those are the things that we would be doing as a as a core competence. Obviously 13 is not the end number. That number is is infinite. Right? This is this is the group that would be at kind of at our becking call to do something that the oneoffs we need to get this done. we need to go handle this situation, we need to put some furniture together. Um, you know, those kind of things, this this department could do that. Uh, and again on that left hand side, you can also see the just the sheer number of departments that we would alleviate that burden on. You know, some of them have multiple departments left listed out beside there. um which means that we're not only not performing our core competence in that but we're also distributing work amongst various departments and and losing that efficiency and that economy of scale as well. This is going to bring that back to a singular department. It's going to be better coordinated. It's going we're going to have trained professionals doing these tasks. And in the case of your environmental cleanups and your um your homeless abatements, your dangerous buildings, that is a very very um well dangerous u activity. These staff members need to be trained. They need to be inoculated. They need to be protected and they need to have a very systematic approach. Just as if you were a fire department, just as if you were a police department, you have a means and a method of doing a particular activity to keep your people safe and to make sure

[0:55:41] that um everyone goes home safe at the end of the day. These things in this department, the advantage of having this done in a department is we can set up those protocols and make sure that that's happening for for our individuals and and not spreading um that across multiple divisions. What are we going to need to get this done? I need 16 people. If I'm going to do this right, and I'm not going to halfway do it, if if I'm going to be successful, we've identified 16 FTEEs that I need y'all to to bless us with. You also need a little bit of an operating budget. The beauty of this department falling within operations is we already have a lot of the large equipment within our possession that this department would use. we would adjust our activities so that we are coordinating with those departments, those other departments to utilize the equipment that we have on hand. So we're not having to make that capital investment on large wheel loaders and backho and skid steers and dump trucks. We would be almost moving to a motorpool sense where uh the the city shop is is the owner of those pieces of equipment and really putting the burden back on our superintendents to make sure that they're planning out their activities and are scheduling with the shop to make sure that they have the resources and the equipment that they need for their particular activities that gets this done without an additional capital outlay. So I I fully believe that we can do that. We have extremely competent um and capable superintendent that work underneath us. So I I don't think that would be a problem at all. It's just an adjustment in mindset and an adjustment in operation. Total for the 16 FTEEs and a little bit of um operating expense, I need $1.9 million. So the large bulk of that is staff. We're a service organization. We can't serve without people. Um, and so it it really is it's we've got to have the the boots on the ground, the hands and, you know, the hands and the gloves to do this kind of work. There's really no simply no other way to do it. Uh, a

[0:57:45] little bit. Obviously, we're going to need some equipment, fuel, supplies. As we go board up dangerous buildings, we need screws and boards and sometimes sheets of metal um to board up a particular building to keep it safe and to keep our transient population out of those buildings. So 1.9 million. Um I also want if you look up there at the very top it it a logistics and a timeline for this. What I want y'all to understand is even if you said go today I'm not getting anything done tomorrow. It's going to take us 6 to 8 months 6 to 7 months to get everything geared up to get get our our personnel uh the ordinances in place. So, we have to adjust the budget ordinance for the 16 positions. Y'all got to give us some money through the budget ordinance. So, that takes two council readings. Um, we got to post these positions. We got to hire them. We need to train them as I alluded to and get them ramped up to know exactly how to do these jobs that we're asking them to do and then fully operational um there. So, say we say you say October 1st, let's get it going and let's let's rock and roll on this. It's March, it's spring until I'm really making an impact. And I say that for y'all to understand that the eminence is now. We, you know, we're coming into our mowing season. We have, I don't think anyone is unaware that our homeless population has gotten a little um more visible here lately. Um and we need to tackle those things. We want to tackle those things. We just don't have the capability to do that. So, um, 6 months is a long time in in some case, but this is truly what it's going to take to get us up and going. So, I want to go now and not wait is my ask. If I could pull the trigger on May 1st, I'm rocking and rolling by October and we're getting this done. So, that $ 1.9 million, say y'all are gracious and you give me and you say get it done, Patrick, go out there and get it done May 1st. 800,000 this year will get will get me covered for this year if I'm

[0:59:49] gonna if I'm going to um um what's the word I'm looking for >> for that let me ask a question I've been on this council next month 10 years and I look at staffing levels for this particular department operations over that time frame and combination of Shane and Patrick you guys have never been fully staffed since I've been out council. What's your traditional How many people do you need to be fully staffed? Is it 16 here or is that just an average now to get you back to where you can be functional? >> So, I mean, [clears throat] so to kind of answer this question, if we can get this 16, that alleviates that vacancy burden on those other departments, right? So, we're doing these things with that vacancy burden in the other departments right now. But what is suffering are our street maintenance, our storm water activities, those things that we're supposed to be doing. So the vacancies have less of an impact if we can get this this department up and established and going. Um so those four to six, seven vacancies that are rolling in those other departments will help. The class and comp study we hope will absolutely help in that vacancy role. If we can get those compensation levels up to an acceptable rate, we get better qualified employees working. Hopefully that better quality employee also means a better longevity in those employees, especially if we pull in those other features that Veronica had proposed with the with the uh vacations and you know some of those in less monetary tangible um benefits as well. So, I mean, over the years, knowing that your your staffing level has traditionally not been 100%. You have actually in your group have actually budgeted less every year because you knew you

[1:01:51] were not going to be fully staffed. Is that is that a fair statement? >> We don't necessarily budget less. We just give more back at the end of the year. >> Yeah. We we we budget well instead of budgeting for you know somebody that's been here for 5 10 years and that salary we budget at the at the baseline salary. So we do we still do budget but again it's less than if we had staff that hangs around for for a while. So we actually uh there is some budget there. Um but no we have and and too and we and it does it fluctuates uh with with the cycle with with the oil field with other things that go on. our our staffing levels do fluctuate. Um we've seen it to where we had gosh across operations we'd have 25 or 30 vacancies at any one given time. Right now we're not it's not near as bad. I think right now they may have six or seven vacant right now across operations. So, um, it it cycles with the >> year because I know we've got citizens looking and when we finalize this budget July, August, they're going to come back and say, "Are you guys doing what you need to do?" So, everybody knows that we can't do everything we do because we don't have enough people. >> Yeah. And that's and that that is it. And we haven't in operation department of operations or uh and other than the three or uh the three positions that we gained in water utilities, we haven't seen we haven't seen an increase in in our staffing numbers in 20 years plus. >> Right. >> So um still operating on the same with the same number of folks with more miles of p more miles of sewer, more miles of road. So still operating on the same same set of folks. Good morning. >> Good morning. >> Can you speak in a little bit greater detail how you would distribute your 16 FTE requests across this list of 13 needs?

[1:03:53] >> I absolutely can. So, obviously with the new division, I need somebody to lead that division. So, this would be a a superintendent level. Um, actually I what I would propose right now is is we would have a maybe a little bit higher than a superintendent level because I would have that person also training or another division um potentially. So superintendent level, a supervisor, that's more your boots on the ground and daily coordinating. Um there is an administrative function to this. If we talk about all the sheer number of 811s that we're going to have to do, all the the coordination with fran with utilities on the demolitions, we got to get all of those utilities disconnected and and work through all of that as well as billing back and making sure that uh real estate has all the proper data for all the leans that we're going to that we have to put on buildings whenever in properties whenever we do a demolition or make safe. So, there's an administrative burden there. and then the rest are field crews um through there. So it would it would be um three individual crews that consist of crew leaders, equipment operators, and then maintenance workers that that trickle down there. And the reason I say three is because a part of this, if you'll remember, is an on call service that we don't have today. So today the fire department um when they get called out say in the middle of the night to a structure fire and they need help. They it's a fire that we need to get some equipment in there so that they can punch a hole through the roof, get in there and really and and address that fire. They're just calling at a whim and hoping that somebody picks up the phone because the department that has the equipment to do that doesn't necessarily have an on call structure established today. So, if I can have those three, that gives me a 3-week rotation to be on call. We know that the c the fire department knows who to call. We can respond in an expeditious manner. Obviously, when our fire is raging, that's not the time to be hammer dialing people trying to get them to answer the

[1:05:54] phone. We need to we need to call, we need to answer, and we need to respond. And so, that's what this department does. So um and again too you have vacations, you have sicknesses, you have so it kind of gives us a little bit of flexibility and capacity there with vacancies to make sure that we are still being successful. The last thing I want to do is promote this department, get your buy in and get your approval and and your grace to get this thing and then fail. I don't I want to make sure that I've got the right resources to make this thing successful. If I'm going to only get four or five people, I'm going to tell you I'm not even going to do it because your expectation and my capability are not going to meet are not going to match in in that situation. >> I'm really glad to see this proposal. Uh it may on the surface appear unsexy, but this is the this is our public face. It makes all the difference in the world. and probably 90% of the calls that we get are related to these very issues. So, thank you for what you've done. >> Yes, ma'am. >> I'm bought in. >> Good. >> One vote. >> Hey, Patrick, real quick. Um, do you have any idea uh and maybe Sarah could help us with this on what we do already? Abate, leans on, things like that. How much we recoup currently? >> I do. So, you know, we work very closely with fire fire marshall's office. um they're constantly have have a hand out and an ask on on providing assistance to them. Right now, from talking to Billy, they have nine structures that are ready to be torn down, ready to be demoed today. Um but the clock is ticking on those nine structures. Uh we're in the middle of our mowing season, so things are growing. We're starting to get those calls. Mosquito spraying is coming up. Um so again, our capacity is very, very limited to be able to help Billy with with those problems. If those nine go back, um, you know, [clears throat] we talk about that that t that tick and and that ticking clock and if that

[1:07:57] expires, we have to go through the whole process again. We have to do the we have to do the public notices. They have to go back to the board and they have to go through the entire process again. If these nine go back, you're talking about an $860,000 burden. Um, by the time we get it all said and done, by the time that they duplicate their work, by the time we get out there and demo these properties, we're demoing a property for about $12,000. Our cost straight up, just pass through labor and equipment. No profit margin on that. Um, if if we have a private contractor come in and do it, you're looking at 20 to 20 to 30 per structure. So, we're doing it about half the rate. So, yeah, the alternative is let's just fund it and let's let somebody else hand handle this, but you're getting nowhere in in that. So, um I I have a buddy that just demoed a building and and they paid $130,000 to have a bu a building cleaned, demoed, and and reestablished with landscaping. though to kind of put that in perspective for us. Um there is it's a big burden for them because you're not only talking about the rework, you're also talking about the opportunity cost. They're not doing they're not proactively making progress anymore. They're redoing what they've already done. So again, if we can get in there, my proposal is if we have this Billy gets a a demolition order, we get it scheduled for the next week. The next week we're there. That's less time for transients to enter that building to potentially start a fire. That's, you know, that the fire department would have to respond to. Now they, now the fire marshall is going to have to do an investigation on that. So again, it's it's a sequential and just a trickle down effect that we're going to be able to positively affect these other departments if we can get this done and be s and be at the level of response that we want to be and should be at for um for the operation of our city. along those we we kind of went in a little different direction, but what I

[1:09:59] was kind of wondering is if we can basically recoup our cost of services with more abatements. >> There's a potential there for that. I'm I'm not going to say that. I can I can tell you yes or no on that. But obviously, if we abate more properties, we either get paid for that abatement or we do have a lean. So the eventuality is yes. I don't think we're going to recoup our cost of this department, but we could recover some of the expense of this department. Yes, sir. >> Thank you. >> Quick follow-up question. Uh, speaking specifically to the issue of of buildings that dangerous buildings that need to be demolished. Isn't that currently posed as a responsibility of the property owner? it is, but they're in they're in the state they're in because of the lack of responsibility of that property owner. They're not taking care of it. Now, why are they going to take care of it just because they have a piece of paper that says they're supposed to? Um, again, our muscle is we get to go in there and we get to take care of it. We get to take care of that business, remove that blight, remove that hazard, and then put a lean on the property. So when the property does sell, we actually get to recover those expenses at that time. So yes, it is the property owner's responsibility. Ultimately, it still is up, you know, but the but the lever there, the trigger is the sale of the property at that point or and I'd have to look to Brandon on this if we wanted if they want to rebuild on that property, if they have to get a permit. If there's a lean to the city on the permitting, we could potentially withhold permits on that and kind of force their hand if they will to take care of that obligation and that debt at that time. >> And it's your belief that that not really absolving them of that that current responsibility, but going this different route with all these other steps still is more cost effective. >> Absolutely. Absolutely it is. >> Can't sell it the state that it's in. So you

[1:12:02] >> you got to move the needle on that. >> All right. >> Yeah. I I was just going to add so the state law on the dangerous buildings, there's actually a a 60-day waiting period um before we can actually go demo and that is to give the the people an opportunity to do it themselves. And I know Billy even before it gets to the board, he's trying to work with people and get them to do it. Um there are penalty provisions for uh like making a classy misdemeanor where we'd give them a ticket, but again like Patrick said, I mean most of these are people that aren't able to do the work and afford that. So we're not actually getting compliance. Um one method of compliance we can do is actually take them to court after we get that order and um get an injunction compelling them to do the work. But again, these people, we've only ever done that one time and it was on a commercial property that was very large and the the owners had the means to do it. They just weren't doing it, but we were successful in getting them to do it. But on these residential ones, it's just not realistic. [clears throat] >> Patrick, let me wrap this one up a little. Um, if you'll go back one slide. I think as we look at this, it'd be naive of me to think you're coming in here and naive of you to think I would think that we're not already covering this to some degree. >> We are, right? >> We we are covering this now. >> So, what the ask is is we're going to add roughly 2 million a year. Then we're going to have inflationary and is this even in Veronica's numbers? So, it's going to change her numbers and her ask. >> And if these [clears throat] people are out of bounds with a compensation summary, then there's another 10% adjustment. I get that. There's some things here that I would think Brody and some of them would love to not have to deal with. So, that frees up some things there. This is to me, it's more of an organizational change as we're trying to move some assets and requirements from other departments into one specific to keep them this, which which I'm fine. I

[1:14:04] think that's a wise idea. I think to have this cost tied to that um for things that we're already doing and accomplishing is is my gray area, but I I want to pursue it. But I think to accomplish that, this may be a two-year or threeyear move. I look at as a phase. I think if you go forward and I see you looking at Daniel there. So if there's a way to stair step this in to make sure that we don't overstep our basically our revenue on this. >> I mean we've got some really tight things coming forward. Now if we had a 36% increase in monthly sales tax like they do 100 miles down the road. Things like this are going to be easy to tolerate and to move forward with. But I I do think there's some organizational structure that you're going to have to line out um with fire department and move some of these things over. And I just don't want to overstep Veronica's ask that she's already put on the table this morning. And with that, I'll leave that to you, D. >> Yeah, Mayor, you're correct. This is actually an additional ask. Um and quite frankly, uh we heard Patrick talk about the eight or nine properties that would have to come down. And quite frankly, they've done sufficient job, but nowhere close to what needs to be done. the properties right now with the dangerous buildings for example it's not eight or nine I mean it's a hund and some odd properties that need to come down so he's just talking about the most immediate ones so quite frankly yeah they send people out and they do just enough but it's it's not enough really to really truly address the needs that we have of the community mayor I know you know that but there the challenges are real as well there's a $ 1.9 million dollar amount that we'd have to work out but Again, definitely we could meet to talk about a phase in type of a situation and how we could handle that, but it is something quite frankly that I feel moving forward needs to be enacted sometime in the near future. >> Okay. >> I agree. But I mean, your initial ask was what for an 800 if you wanted to phase and go today, the number you said. >> Yes, sir. Yes, sir. So that would be um if we pulled the if we pulled the

[1:16:07] trigger for May through the rest of this fiscal year, it'd be about 800,000 about 153,000 a month. >> And I think that would involve a question of finance. But I I'll go back to I'll start off with that. Ever brought up brought up a good point. What do we do? I do think that if we have to demolish uh a building, we need the full cost of that in the lean. Tell me that's happening. >> Oh yeah, absolutely. It gets in the lean. The problem is we can't go foreclose on that lean ourselves. We have to either wait until it sells or there's a property tax foreclosure. So, >> I get that. I just want the full value cuz if >> you didn't want to worry about that, you could just let the city take care of it. Get it for much cheaper and you can do >> No, it's it's labor, equipment, supplies, and even landfill cost are all wrapped up in there. Well, again, what's not in that is a profit. Is it an administrative profit? >> Cost. >> We're covering our cost expense recovery. >> It's just delayed payment. I I get all that, but I think this one [clears throat] it deserves some look at and some planning and some further review of just how you would phase that in, not to put the citizens at risk of we got to come up with 2 million this year and now we got to come up with 2.2 next year and we got to come up with 2.7 the next, >> right? >> And we can prioritize that list too for that phased approach. Um, you know, initially when we talked about that, we had kind of looked at that already. So obviously we need to take care of dangerous buildings, need to take care of of the fire department and get that response there. We need to take care of the homeless. So that would be my top three priorities in this. We could trickle in code enforcement, animal control, and >> mosquito spray. I get more phone calls about mosquito spray. >> Yeah. [clears throat] >> Mayor, for the sake of time, um if you don't have any more questions, let's go and move on to the next item. >> Yes, sir. So, let me give you some help on on taking care of that little problem potentially. I'm going to go ahead and throw my own little plug in for this. Um, revenues and street use fees. Uh, we talked about this last time. Um, last

[1:18:10] time was actually the third time that we've brought this up to council. Some of you weren't on council necessarily, but the timing was just never quite right. And I think with the legislative processes and and things that are happening at at our state and federal level that now is probably a very good time to take a look at this and bring this forth for another um another conversation. So again, like I alluded to on the environmental um environmental group, I don't want to do this thing halfway. If we're going to make a proposal and we're going to make this leap, let's get it done and let's get it done the right way. Um, so that's why you see a $16.5 million number there. Again, the most of these are things that are already being taken care of today. Um, through our street and bridge fund and um with the exception of the alley maintenance to that extent, the PGO projects are not um those those two things would be an additional end, you know, an additional thing that we could take care of here. So PEGO, if you'll remember, are those little projects. It's it's the smaller street rehabilitation projects, the smaller sidewalk projects that aren't ever going to compete with a major bond or a major debt issue on our on our roadways, but we absolutely know that there's some streets that are failing. Um, I know John is probably going to make a proposal here shortly about doing some infrastructure repairs on him. So, I'll be instead of him chasing me all the time and letting me guide where his money goes, I'll be chasing him to some degree and be repairing those streets that he's going to be rehabbing as well with this payo side. So, instead of just having a long little patch in the middle of the roadway, I'll be able to rehab that that whole roadway and make it nice um following his projects. Um, one of the benefits of this thing of this proposal is that we would be alleviating a current general fund obligation um that y'all are funding right now out of the general fund to the tune of about 8 to9 million. So, our

[1:20:14] street and bridge operating account, our seal code, and our preservation money, and our traffic operations money are all currently budgeted in annually in the general fund. And uh it's it's a general fund expense for that. This street use fee, I would propose replacing that general fund obligation with the street use fee revenue. And so that frees up eight to9 million that would be at your discretion to distribute amongst other priorities that council and and city management may have. Um that would be a general fund obligation. So [sighs] the additional thing that it would do, we just talked about equipment replacement and possibly debt funding that an alternative to that would be $1 million um out of the general fund equipment replacement equipment replacement fund. So again, that would free up an immediate $1 billion that um could go to either further substantiate fire or code enforcement or um PD police patrol vehicles, you know, whatever the again general fund burden on the equipment replacement fund. We would essentially be taking care of ourselves with this street street maintenance fee and let the others um have a little more capacity to handle to handle their fund. That equipment replacement fund has struggled for many many years. We don't ever see um an annual increase on that. Every time every once in a while, we'll have a one-time monies allocation to it to take care of something, but we don't see an annual bump to take care of that inflationary cost uh obligation of that fund. Again, we'd fund some smaller rehabilitation projects. Your your main streets, your um Rick's Drive is is horrendous to drive on with this bag money would take care of Rick's Drive. several um you know some of those smaller roadways again that wouldn't compete. We get to we get to begin an alley maintenance program. Um especially in in that Southland area or paved alleys, we don't do any type of preservation or any type of of maintenance of that short of fixing

[1:22:15] potholes or fixing ruting that happens in those in those alleyways. So, we could potentially do an enhanced preservation um of that alley uh infrastructure in and it is a rightaway. It is our obligation to do. Again, when an alley is competing against a street, I've got to put the money into the streets because we know we're already behind in that. And then the biggest thing about a street use fee, um again, Jonathan alluded to it, is this is going to be an equitable in impact to all properties. there is no nonprofit um distinction between who pay who gets to pay this. So right now as the tax revenue comes in, you know, nonprofits obviously don't pay that property tax. This would be assessed to all properties within the city whether regardless of their taxable status. So again, it's equitable and it's even. And in fact, we're required by law to make sure it is equitable and evenly applied um through through the methodology methodology that I'll go through next. I want to make sure that you understand that this is not a new concept. This is a concept that is being done across several municipalities across the state already. Um we've reached out, we've talked to several of those municipalities. Abalene is doing it. um you know, Galveastston, Corpus Christi, um Coppers Cove, several of several municipalities. So, this is not an un uh a new concept. What this thing does is it uses a type a business activity type. So, every business has has a niche, right? It's what they do. Whether it's a a fitness club, hair salon, a clinic, or a church, or a daycare, that's what they do. There's a manual published out there. It's called the Institute of Engineering, Traffic Engineers. Um, I always forget the name because it's horrendously long. Hold on. >> Trip generation manual. There you go.

[1:24:18] Um, that has thousands of these codes on here. So, what we did is we looked at every business whenever we initially went worked through this proposal with our consultants. We looked at every one of those of those classifications and we narrowed it down to 47. This is the 47 that was applicable at the time. I would absolutely if we get your benefit and your or your your blessing to move forward with this, we would revisit this list and make it more applicable to the businesses today. But this these 47 categories is where almost every class every business type in the city of St. Angelo would fall within one of these 47 categories. And so this is what we would use then to work through the rate calculation um method. So if we want to kind of follow through this and how do we figure out how much you're going to pay? Um so you have an athletic club for instance you have land use category. So in the case of this this example we have an athletic club. Each of these categories has a development unit. So that development unit is is what the multiplier is. So whether it's square footage, whether it's number of gas pumps, whether it's acreage, whatever that is, that's defined within that manual already. So for an athletic club, it's the number of square feet in there. And then they have a trip factor that is assigned through that manual of 6.29. So that's the number of trips per thousand square feet that that particular business model typically generates in the in the United States. So 6.29 then comes over to a street use fee schedule um on that table there on the right hand side. So you have your range between 15 and 20. So 6.29 * 3 gives you $187 which would fall in that C4 category. When we looked at this initially that would be a $55 a month rate that that particular athletic club would pay um as part of their street use contribution.

[1:26:21] That table on the right is absolutely flexible that those numbers were established by the consultant um through using numbers back from 2018. Obviously again with your blessing we would go back and revisit those numbers figure out exactly where that would be um where that needs to be again not only with the consultant but based on your direction and your guidance on what you would like to see how much revenue you would like to see. So [sighs] with that with that segue, let's kind of talk about what what does this look like? What do various rate structures on a residential and a nonresidential aspect look like and how much money does that actually generate? Um the mayor alluded in our last meeting that wasn't this a lot smaller when we looked at it last time and and he was absolutely correct. It was that 4.61 million. So what that 4.61 61 million looked at was a residential rate of 6.75. So $6.75 per residential structure. Um multif family apartment complexes, you know, those types those can with just the sheer volume and the density on that. We, you know, at the time council wanted us to trickle down that number just a little bit. So $6 for any multif family residents, we would obviously define what that is so it's very clear. And then non-residential $25 to $75 depending on which you know sea level that you that you landed in again got 4.6. What I wanted to do is show what do these various funding levels cover. So in this case it would be PGO. So it would le alleviate no general fund obligation, but it would allow us to do additional street rehabilitation. Not not exactly to the degree that I proposed at 5.5 million, but you know, it would allow us to do some of that. It could take care of our seal coat if you wanted us to alleviate some of the general fund burden, but it

[1:28:23] would alleviate $4.6 million. So, what am I not getting to do based on that that optimal um proposal? I don't get to pay for street and bridge or traffic operations. I don't get to do my seal coat, my alleys, or my equipment replacement. I would need about another $12 million in order to take care of that stuff. If we added a dollar to the residential side and added $5 to the non-residential side, it bumps that number up just a little bit. 5.7, still only paying for my payo. Um, and I need about 11 and a half to get the optimal scenario put forth or fully funded. As we trickle down that chart, what I want you to start noticing is that kind of that middle that first all that covers all of it. If I keep that residential rate, if I add at 1175, it would push our non-residential rate to about 260 to $310 per month to cover my full 15 $15.5 million ask on that. So, that kind of puts it in perspective on what a residential rate and a balance on the non-residential rate would look like if I were to fund fully fund the program. As you trickle down, what you'll start noticing is the biggest impact to the amount of funding that we get is going to be on the residential side. It's it's a sheer volume number, right? When we're talking 3,000 accounts on the non-residential versus, you know, 30,000 plus on the residential side, the numbers just start multiplying that that quickly. So, a little bit of impact on the residential side makes a phenomenal impact on the on the revenue stream without a massive impact to our non-residential um property owners. Couple of alls there. So, if you push, you know, into that 1675, I can get most of it done. Um I get my my street and bridge, my traffic

[1:30:25] operations, and my steel coat departments paid for. that would free up about $10 million out of the or that would be a $10 million revenue stream. So, it would absolutely free up that money in the general fund, but it doesn't let me do my alleys, my equipment replacement, or those PGO projects. So, there's kind of a balance there. It's a give and take, right? If you can push if if there's capacity to push the residential rate up to 2675, so 30, you know, less than $30 a month, that keeps that non-residential at, you know, at a at a relatively low number as well, 65 to $115, and it fully funds everything that I'm proposing to do today. So, there's obviously some flexibility within this on what council's desire is, where y'all want that impact, and just what kind of services you'd like us to perform, and what kind of monies you'd like to alleviate from the current general fund obligation. And I believe that's the end of the presentation. If we you want to talk have any questions or you want to talk different scenarios, we can we can absolutely go through those. Just to improve our understanding big picture, can you tell us, you probably have to go back three or four slides, I think there, that'll work. No, that'll work because it shows your six bullet points there. Um, what is currently approved and funded on our uh capital improvement plan? So the top four five of those is current or top four of those is currently funded. So traffic operations is funded, street and bridge operating, our steel coat and our our roadway preservation um is funded and then equipment replacement, those are all funded and those are all general fund obligations today. So, you alluded to it when you when you first presented it and you said it wasn't currently in your street and bridge budget and that it would free up

[1:32:29] the 8 to9 million. Correct. >> Correct. >> So, just to make sure I'm understanding it >> all right. >> Right. So if you if we were to free up that obligation that $8 to9 million basically what you would be cutting off of this list is that enhanced alley maintenance and the payo projects would those are kind of the additional services that we would that we would be performing that we're not doing today kind of along our lines. So looking at your numbers, so say the if we were trying to get to those bottom two only, that's a little over 6 million. >> That's going to be roughly between your second and third tier there. So if we were in those realms of rates, that would cover your extra projects and leave the others on the general fund, but everything would be covered, right? >> Sorry, I didn't follow what you said. >> Okay. So your first four are already covered in general fund. Correct. >> Correct. Yes, sir. If we did your revenue, total revenue somewhere between that five and that eight million. So second and third tier there. If you count them as tiers, that would fund your all your payo projects and your alley maintenance. >> That would enhance my services, but it would not alleviate any current general fund obligation. Correct. >> Um who is the uh consultant that y'all been discussing with? What what is kind of their expertise? So Kimley Horn um is who we worked with initially on this. They're the ones that set it up set up Coppers Cove um and Galveastston for sure. I know that they worked on those two, but they were obviously well vested in this. They they had a very good understanding of this model and how it works and and were able to walk us through it. So um again, it's not a new thing and it wasn't new to them. whenever we talked to them at at it, we really had some very good expertise and guidance um with real word real world application when we were discussing this proposal with them. >> Do we know where Abene per se fell in? >> I don't today. Um I meant to look that up, but some things popped up last week

[1:34:32] that kind of got me distracted. So, >> um I don't I don't have that number, but I can absolutely get that. >> Thank you, Patrick. Go ahead, ma'am. >> Just so that the relatively new council people understand this concept we talked about three or four years ago. This is not a new concept, but I think it's time that we need to get ready to truly consider implementing it. >> I agree. >> I've got no issue with it. I think it makes sense especially for all the people that don't pay any property taxes that you should Yeah, the equitable part of it is a great great idea. I've got no issue with it. >> So, I did have one more slide kind of a a timeline again that duration. Um, again, if you told me to pull the trigger today, it's going to take us seven or eight months to get to revisit with the consultant, get everything updated and get you guys a final proposal um for staff based on your guidance on where you want to fall uh within that revenue generation. Uh we would have to finalize this thing and get your approval um then of the ordinance changes to get um again adjusting that budget ordinance so that we can we can receive that revenue and set up that expense. Uh and then uh we got to set up the billing in the utilities. So make sure the statements are getting there, make sure that gets out. Obviously included within those timelines there is going to be some marketing and some someformational um stuff going on behind the scenes and then we would actually initiate it. So 7 to 8 months to get this thing going. If you pulled the trigger in May that means October 1ish we would be ready to go on this. We would have I I think we could absolutely hit that October 1 deadline if y'all wanted if that was your priority. >> Patrick I would like to see some definite

[1:36:35] projections and examples. I'll just say use the city of St. Angelo, use the Tom Green County building, use Shannon. I want some examples on them. I want to see some churches. >> We'll certainly want to know how it's going to affect theirs. I'd say go ahead and pull a list of eight or 10 nonprofits to give them a projection. >> Okay. >> While these numbers should be minimal, we don't want to affect anybody else's budgeting. I I get that we're all in favor of pursuing this. I just want to see some examples and make sure that we do it. But most important thing is you're going to set this up in billing through utilities. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. Thank you, sir. >> Appreciate it. >> Real yes. >> Real quick, Patrick, just for uh reference, it looks like Abene's around that 88 875 and then 45 to 95 and they do have some fee reductions for people that make low income things like that. So there's a lot of flexibility it looks like with with what we could do to try to help out the people that >> really burden them, >> right? >> Patrick, Jeremy, thank you. I appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Up next, we have water John Danielle. >> Thank you. Morning, mayor, council. >> Morning. >> I'm John Kaufman, director of water utilities, and with me is Danielle Ricks, assistant director of water utilities. And also over here is U Petra Trevino who is our administrator of customer service. Petra, >> can you move the mic closer to me please? >> Absolutely. Thank you. Is that better? >> Yeah, much better. >> Great. Thank you. Um, we want to talk to you this morning a

[1:38:38] little bit about uh ways we can reduce some of our costs and improve customer service efficiency. I'm going to discuss uh the subject of late utility uh notices and Danielle is going to talk about customer service portals and mobile applications. The device you see in front of you here on this picture is the new meter we've been installing for our customers throughout the city. It uses advanced metering technology uh and infrastructure technology or otherwise AMI to enable two-way communication that collects and transmits detailed utility usage data in real time for better monitoring management and efficiency for both uh the water utility and our customers. It helps us conserve water, reduce non-build water usage, and it is very accurate. In other words, it's a high-tech smart meter that is also a very important cash register for the city and our utility department. Um, and it also creates some interesting opportunities for us regarding late utility payments. We have over 36,000 metered customers customers and it damages trust and

[1:41:35] customer relations. Franchise utility no uh customers for example uh natural gas communications and so forth they don't use this technology at all. um in order to the nor do a lot of our other customers and I've cited a few examples here Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, Houston, El Paso, Midland, Abolene, and and others around the state. It's a general trend around the state of Texas that people don't do this anymore. We believe the the printing and hand delivery of orange card late payment notices should be discontinued. Instead, we should employ and use our digital technology uh for these notifications to better focus our energies on prevention, early intervention, flexible payment programs, and targeted assistant programs. It would take about two months to implement something like this. Um we think the benefits of this program is it's u higher effectiveness overall for our customers. Uh lower costs and risks, fairness to the public health uh fair, excuse me, fairness and public health benefits by keeping people in water that shouldn't be turned off necessarily. Alignment with water utility peers, other folks around us that don't do this anymore. and uh and our field meter staff can better focus their attention on things that are backlogged like u they're not getting done like backlog leak reports and so forth. We just think that this is a policy that should end and uh we should move forward into the technology age. So, we would ask for your approval of just [clears throat]

[1:43:37] >> just a real quick question. >> Uh, and maybe this really goes back to Daniel. Uh, council action to approve this internal policy change. Do we have to wait till we finish budgets in order to do that? >> No, necessarily. No. [clears throat] It can be done during during the year at any time. I I I think we ought to bring it back to the council sometime in the next couple of months and let's go through this and you know, let's get on the 21st century and and and do what we need to do. Let's not wait until August. >> Amen. [laughter] >> We need to do that. >> So, you're saying we don't need a presentation right now, Harry? Is that what you're saying? just kind of bring it back and get it done. >> Good. >> Okay, great. >> You go with that. >> That's what he said. >> That's what he said. [laughter] >> I'll take that. I'll take that as a directive. >> That's what my son says. I love Harry Thomas. >> Are we Are we Are we good at it? Got it. >> John Danielle, did you have something to add to the No, y'all are good. Thank you. I appreciate it. No, we got more. We >> got more there. >> There's more. You do have one. Okay. Yeah, we want to talk about the technology. >> Okay. Yeah. So the next part of that is the customer service portal. Basically the goal is to enhance customer service and make our customer service team more efficient and effective. So we think every customer should be able to have access to their um real time water usage and billing data through a customer service portal. Um it kind of make it simple so you can just hop on and see what what did I do yesterday? What did I do last month? See trends that sort of thing. um just to simplify things and give answers to customers whenever they need it. Um it should emphasize clarity, efficiency, and kind of help customers make informed decisions and actionable items. It's going to be bilingual for

[1:45:39] our Spanish- speaking customers as well. And the goal is just to again reduce that frustration and really help customers. So, oh, sorry. Some of the benefits um is reduced workload on our um customer service team, help them focused on more of those important items. Um a customers be able to see their usage in real time. They would be able to see historical water usage. They'd be able to update their account information, start and stop service. They would get leak detections, early alerts, um outage notifications, and that consumption pattern insights again to help them make informed decisions on how to conserve water, um get those lower bills. This will help customers be much more informed, make manage their accounts, and in turn help our customer service team more be more efficient and focused on the complex issues. Um overall, we would see this as a huge improvement for our customer service and satisfaction. So, the current software that we're looking at has a $200,000 initial setup cost and then $175,000 recurring annual cost. U, we did some numbers and we think that the current labor cost that would be covered by this customer portal is $360,000 a year. The implementation time would be around 6 months, maybe a little more depending on that software implementation. Um the only barrier we saw was the software vendor will have to demonstrate that cyber security with our IT team. The staffing impact again it would increase staff availability on our customer service team to focus on those more complex issues. Um measurable measurable performance improvements and lower cost to serve through the the portal. um and then modernized um customer information system with up-to-date real data. And again, this would be available to this 247. So, they get a leak alert at 8:00 p.m. They're

[1:47:41] looking at it real time. They don't have to wait for the next day to get someone to call them back or whatever. You know, they can see it real time. >> So, Danielle, let me just ask a quick question. current labor cost $360,000 a year for those services. I go back and I look at John's earlier side uh on these late utility payment notices of $70,000. Where do you where is the additional $290,000 in savings? >> Well, you want to implement this and you say the current labor cost to do this is $360,000. >> Correct. >> Okay. So, I'm anticipating your this late notices as one of the one of the things that goes into that current labor cost, that $70,000 that you looked at. Where is the additional $290,000 that you would have in in that 360 number? >> Well, the $360,000 is what we're currently spending without this technology. >> Yeah, I understand. And then then we would >> that savings would come from what we end up >> both of those, right? >> So the additional $290,000. Where is that savings? >> I'm not sure I where you're getting $290,000. >> So you got $360,000 that it's going to take to do this. >> Okay. >> You got $70,000 over here that you said if you implemented this portion, that's part of that part of that current labor cost. >> Correct. We would we would be people need to be there's a lot of work that we're trying to get accomplished that we're not getting accomplished that our customer service agents are not able to focus on and that's part of the problem. We need to make sure that they're more efficient in what they're what they're accomplish. >> So this is an the 360 is an efficiency if we went this way. >> Is that what I'm understanding? >> It's an efficiency. Yes. And we a lot of our staff work overtime to get a lot of

[1:49:45] customer service work. >> That's where I guess I was getting that. I wasn't I wasn't clear enough. So you got the 360 and that is part of your budget. Part of it is overtime because we're Okay, I got it. Thanks. >> Yeah. No, I appreciate it. The other advantage to this, you know, we had there was a little bit of a discussion this morning about going to a 4-day work week, for example. This technology is available 24/7, 365 days a year, including holidays. So, that's another advantage to this technology. And there's a lot of communities around the state that are using this technology. You've got a list of them here. Go ahead. Well, I I'll just name a few. Um, Kaufman, Texas. Rout rowlet, uh, Lucas, Cedar Point, Leander, Texas, Jacksonville, Fort Worth, Deer Park, Breenidge, uh, Whitesboro, Georgetown, Midland, uh, Dallas, Austin, uh, San, excuse me, San Antonio, Saw. >> I could go on. We we think it's it's it's time we entered the technology age. >> Gotcha. Jon, I think Karen's got a question. >> Yes, please. >> John and Danielle, it's uh to be clear, purely for the sake of the listening public, can the two of you address, health risks, and safety concerns that have been part of the public conversation for the last few years? >> You can't hear me? >> No. >> Do I need to ask it again? >> Please. >> Yes, please. Purely for the sake of the listening public, can the two of you address health and safety concerns which have been very much a part of the public conversation for the last few years? >> Are you speaking of the water quality or you speaking of of >> the use of the technology? >> The technology. Well, if if we can use this technology, um we can be more proactive with our

[1:51:48] customers in preventing u service turnoffs, especially for those who are vulnerable, low income, and work with them more closely on on budgeting and and and and planning for their their water utility bills. >> I suspect I wasn't clear with my question. So, the use of smart meters has concerned members of the public. Uh, and we hear about it from time to time. >> Oh, you talking about the the the radio technology? >> Yes, sir. >> Oh, okay. I'm sure your question. >> Yes. >> Um, I'm not aware of any scientific studies that demonstrate that they're a problem. I I've heard rumors, but I'm not aware of any real science that backs that up. What are you talking about? >> Well, they they transmit a signal >> uh to a to a radio tower. >> I think there are concerns about fire hazards. Uh um the the equipment can generate a fire hazard individually. I think there is also concern and when I asked my question, I I tried to make it clear that it was on behalf of people that have asked us or asked me. It's it's not because I have definitive concerns. I'm asking for your opinion as the as the professional because these questions have indeed been part of the public conversation for a while now, for more than a few months, more more than a couple of years that people are concerned about data collection, private data collection, people are concerned about fire risks associated with the equipment and people are concerned with the signals emission. I guess I think that's what you referred to as >> I don't believe there's any fire hazard. whatsoever. >> Okay. >> Karen Karen, how about it's not just I believe just research it, John. Look into it. >> We'd be happy to research fire hazard, but but we're not aware of anything with these things. >> Uh I've heard talk in the past about, you know, radio signals, but these are outside in people's front yards in in

[1:53:51] meter pits. They're not in the house. They're not in residences. Um so I don't know that there's particular danger, but we'll certainly look into that. Yeah, real quick. John, just um going back quick to the labor cost. Are you foreseeing just efficiency gain or you foreseeing to actually be able to drop FTEEs in the future? >> I don't know about dropping FTEEs in the future. I guess that's that's a possibility. You never know. In other words, but we would probably if if that was possible, I would recommend that we do it by uh normal attrition. >> Well, so you got we see some labor costs. That's what right, right? Are we going to be able to cut that labor cost and it'll pay for itself or is it No, we're just adding $200,000 to our budget every year. >> I think a lot of that is related to overtime um costs and um part of the problem is we're not getting other work done that we need to get done to help customers out. Uh a lot of complicated billing questions and so forth and and and educating our our public. We got a lot of public that walks in that ask, "What's my account number and how much do I owe?" 80 90% of our customer inquiries, walk-ins and calls are what's my account number and what do I owe that could easily be handled by automation. Isn't it already handled by I mean they get a letter in the mail, they get email, >> they get I can show you my bills, they get either direct mail or email, but they still ask. >> I I don't know that I don't know that the people that are coming to ask would utilize the online system either. I would use it, but I also could show you my bill right now. >> I don't know. I know that a lot of other communities use it and they're very satisfied with it. Um so >> okay thank you >> mayor council this is an introduction really this would require council action would be something that'll be taken

[1:55:52] before council in the future right >> so at this point for the sake of time uh we do need to move on to the next item John thank you Danielle thank you appreciate you bet >> uh up next we have engineering thank Oh, can y'all hear me through this? Yes, sir. You're good. Okay. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. Um, my name is Zephrey Nomzo. I'm interum city engineer for the engineering services department. Um going to go ahead and focus on our discussion from last time regarding efficiency and process improvements uh pertaining to going from uh basically consultant based to more in-house design. uh during the to support this direction uh I'm going to show a comparison between the consultant provided services and internal capabilities including cost evaluation based on capital improvement project that uh we recently are working through. Um this assessment will kind of highlight our present design capacity. Um essentially our software tools, our staffing resources um and also define the department's long-term design strategy detailing kind of our investments or resource needs implementation timelines and uh requirements for council moving forward and actions needed. So kind of a quick breakdown on a on a consultant uh level. consultants really played an important part in uh the current bond cycle that's kind of coming towards its end by helping implement some of city council's many capital improvement priorities. Um many of the capital improvement projects rely on external firms for design

[1:57:54] services just because they have the sheer volume and personnel to do that. Uh and the city's role at that point in time was more so project management um QAQC uh helping with the process in advertising bids for those projects, managing the construction phases. Um like I said, these firms are typically large organizations. Uh they have specialized expertise, the equipment, um and of course during our peak times that we've had, we've had anywhere between five to six projects occurring at design levels. So there was a lot of back and forth and then of course during construction we have at least two to three possibly even four uh depending on um just how things are falling in schedule. So in the next uh slide we have is basically our consultant design schedule. So this typical design schedule is uh begins with identifying a project or a need within the city. uh afterwards we go into a consultant selection from the city's Idiq list which is a list of you know 20 around 20 qualified engineers that we have um or engineering firms and we go through scoping fee negotiation process um this eventually leads through going through task orders a lot of our stuff that we have to to acquire POS get it funded and start moving um so once we get that all done we start going into kickoff meetings and This is kind of just establishing how long this timeline is just from initial concept back down to bidding and construction as I'm going. So um 30 60 90% once we go through the kickoff meeting uh with QAQC from staffing other department other stakeholders too we bring in other third party utility providers to kind of identify conflict so we can reduce the downtime in construction. Um, typically each one of those QA QCs takes two to three weeks. Um, so after we kind of get through that, we go to bid. Um, get the project going and go into construction. Uh, but on an average

[1:59:57] standard cycle for a consultant for a CIP project, we're anywhere 12 to 18 months on the initial scope. Um please keep in mind however during those processes in design we often find additional scope which you know increases costs and it also increases the timeline. So we could end up going past 18 months uh to do that and then past that initial uh consulting uh consulting fee that we've negotiated upon. So as far as the department is concerned, we're small, we're a smaller organization, more more internal. Um, a lot of the scoping and fee uh the pro the department determines project needs. Uh we reach out to all of our stakeholders from the public to uh water department, street department, storm water, um also fire department to outlay some of the older areas if we're revamping those to accommodate those fire needs. So we're reaching out instead of having our consultant do all that leg work. So we're able to do that actually readily accessible just because we meet each other not only just uh through conversations, phone calls and chats, but we also have meetings that we're set up for kind of like right here. We've had conversations prior to this meeting just discussing business and then moving on. So we take advantage of that time. We actually maintain a lot of our data and records that we hand off to the consultant too as well to start producing the project. Um, so that's kind of where we're at and what our abilities are. So, as you can tell going into our proposed our kind of in-house design cycle that we have, it's kind of shortened. Uh, we basically we still identify the project. We've already identified the project from our stakeholders and conversations and actually outline our CIPs um for future use and trying to fund those. So we we kind of take out a lot of that as kickoff meetings that ski the scope and fee negotiation. We already know what those are. Uh we can essentially right as soon as we're identifying the project as soon as we get done with the

[2:02:00] stakeholders we're typically boost to ground already with surveying uh getting information. We've already started that on one of the projects we've been tasked with with uh the water department children street. We're replacing about oh 1,000 ft of water line plus and some other items. were already boots to ground after we had that meeting. So, that kind of shows you the effectiveness and how quick we can move on some of these items. Our QAQC review times get cut down. Uh our ability to talk to these utility providers, we're always talking to them on a constant basis. So, if we have another call, we just, hey, you got another second. Let's go ahead and talk about this and get this over with instead of waiting and setting up meetings. So, that kind of shows what we're looking at is reducing timelines. But as we proceed on as the cost comparison, we're also looking at reducing those fees associated with design. So as we go to this next one, um I essentially broke down what we have on a prior project from project management to survey to geotechnical. A lot of these items, the lefth hand column is the consultant fees and the right one is the in-house design fees. So when taking this comparison into consideration, uh we took the rates that are listed within the negotiated scope and fee and then we took our rates assuming all of our staff was at the maximum pay rate and pay hour for their grade that they have. So within within those and going through those, you can kind of see the cost savings on a lot of that stuff. Project management, there's a significant savings there. Surveying, we have the ability to do it in inhouse. Geotechnical is one of those items. It's a specialty item just because equipment, right? Traffic analysis, same thing. It's more so the design software and you can kind of see traffic signal and then traffic signal that is textile relegated. But when we put that all together and kind of compare those two, there's a potential savings of about $817,000 in this instance. So anywhere between 40 to 60% on average, we can see savings coming back. There is a little

[2:04:03] more savings though because the assumption was staff was at the max uh hourly range for their pay grade. So that's not technically true right now, but that was an assumption just to add in uh almost a similar comparison to the consultants hourly rates. So um like I said, we can do the majority of the stuff in house. However, those are the specialty items we still have to contract out for and there is a potential for a little savings on those specialty items as well. >> Question. >> No, I'm good. Actually, just just turn on getting ready. >> Like I mentioning before, there is a little bit of possibility to save on those geotechnical statements because there is not the overhead from consultant to subconsultant. We just directly contract with the those those services. So um like I mentioned consultant design fees uh range from approximately 1 million to 2 million per year for each capital improvement projects as as as I've mentioned before our peak capital improvements projects five to six. So if we're hitting six capital improvement projects with the consultant fee we have $12 million that we're possibly using uh there. And then if we're talking about a 40 to 60% savings that's a lot of money that we can turn around and reallocate to other projects. Um for instance in the rehab and the PGO uh we can bring a lot of that stuff inhouse design and we can efficiently move forward with those timelines and actually plan out our projects uh accordingly. Um so we can follow up with water do the design for water sewer take care of those and then so forth with that and then just kind of create phased uh projects or capital improvement projects probably not as grand scale as two to three miles that we've have been doing on average and those projects have been you know $20 million plus but we can handle more so the smaller projects that are 2 $3 million $5 million and then phase that along a street from intersection to intersection and the improvements associated with

[2:06:05] uh we're able to keep records, maintain um data accurately on that so that way we can transition to those. And the idea for us too is moving forward is when we get downtime, we're still producing these plans so that way when funds are available or even grant opportunities that we've been seeing lately, uh they essentially want plans ready, basically shovel ready. So as soon as we apply for that, we're we're we've already passed that point that we've already created a plan set. we're ready to move. Um, and all it is is just trying to have that project meet uh the criteria for the grant funding or uh TWWD funding, whatever it may be. So, with that in-house design resources, our current resources, we have engineering staff, we have about 13 uh individuals on staff, three to four licensed engineers, two CAT techs, survey techs. um we have design software that is comparable to in current and in line with a lot of the consultants. So even if we were to hand over data for a consultant for something that they need, they would have that from us. So moving forward with that though, uh there will be additional needs uh coming up from with additional software and training just to kind of keep our guys in line current with the new tech and software. uh potentially full-time employees uh couple professional engineers, some GI tech, GIS techs, CAT techs to help with design and start putting that in and then essentially a developer reviewer to help out with a lot of the new development stuff that's coming in. Uh so that way we could guide those developments and actually have that data inhouse so we could look at doing assessments for water, wastewater, and storm water as we move forward with more in-house design. Um >> can we move off then? Yes, sir. >> Uh, under under your needs, you got $817,000 savings if we do it in house with your previous slide. >> Yes, sir.

[2:08:05] >> What's the cost going to be here >> for the additional software and the three full-time employees? Four time. >> Yes, sir. Uh, if you let me get to switch to the next slide. I I I outlined that for you and I can answer your question, sir. So, uh, this is what we're looking at. So, additionally, uh, the software and training up front is looking at $155,000. Um, the staffing and FTEES we're estimating at $410,000. So, overall, if it was a full ask, and it was able to be given on May one of this year, uh, it's it's approximately a $565,000 adjustment. So, or an ask, so to speak. And Harry, uh, council, keep in mind that in his when he showed you that savings, that was just on a project, >> correct? >> And any given time, we may have two or three or four projects uh going on the books at any one given time. >> Yeah. So the 800,000 multiplies into 2.2, 2.4 million, possibly even more. So we can actually fund more PO projects as well. Certainly, I'm in agreement that engineering needs additional people. Many of the projects over the last 10 years that I've been part of the approval process, we had to bring back in because there was something that was not correct when we first went through the review process and we had to change. So, I agree with Zeph. we certainly can make it uh engineering more efficient. Uh and if he you know he he can prove to me that he's got $800,000 savings on all of these projects we've got I'll be in agreement that we can make this work in house. So thank you. >> Is that uh your your five FTEEs there would they be able to handle the multiple projects or is that to handle one project? uh we're talking about multiple projects within design. So going forward based off of our capital

[2:10:09] improvements, we'd go look through with stakeholders, meaning other departments and anybody else that public or anything that we have uh and kind of assess the scope of those projects. Uh please understand a lot of our projects have been 2 to three mile range projects. So, u Glalena that just recently got completed. U Chadburn, which is another one, um Glenna was something that we could have done in house other than uh acquiring easements for sidewalks. That's the only thing that we're countering right now that would be out of our wheelhouse just because we can't have a licensed RLS on on staff. Um but those are things that we could handle in house and a lot of the downtime would be cut. Um, so yes, we could. >> Are there other cities that are doing this as well in house that you know of? >> Yes, there are a few that are doing it. Um, there's typically cycles. Um, when council approves bond funding, there's a vast amount in the pot and then of course you have your draw downs for the year. At that point, staffing tends to switch back over to project management because we're trying to get a lot of those projects in design and so forth. But typically when the bond funds kind of are at the end of the cycle and starting to to crest down, they start focusing more on the in-house. And a lot of the stuff that we're looking at too is as Patrick had mentioned and of course, you know, as a typical thing for water wastewater, the water utilities department, it's it's not only the it's chasing the old stuff that needs to be repaired and rehabbed. Um, and that's something that the city here has done prior to my tenure here and a lot of our tenure here is they've done in-house design just to to remedy those issues. Um, and especially with roadways too, if we go through and approve the street use fee, uh, it's easier for us to keep for us to outline that project with the departments. um so forth [laughter] with uh us doing the in-house design, obtaining the data, keeping those

[2:12:11] records in house, outlining the water, defining which sections are next. Instead of, you know, we're doing a two, three mile one here, over here, over here, we can clear out neighborhoods, uh kind of tie in, add, you know, those new pavement structures and so forth. >> Real quick, and maybe it was kind of alluded to there. So, going back to Patrick's um operating accounts, is your engineering fees that we're currently paying to the consultants, is that included in his budgets? >> No, not not what not what you Yeah, that not what you saw there. Uh and most of this has been bond funded. Um that these bond funded projects that we've done is where most of these expenses have been incurred over the past 10 years. um we really don't ha Patrick in operations doesn't have a separate fund for capital work outside of that. So it it has been the bond funds that have that have borne the brunt. And two, now taking taking that a step further on the water side. Now that has come directly out of the water fund. Uh all of those because we didn't bond that side of the uh of the equation of replacing all the infrastructure underneath the roadways that are being rehabbed. So all of all of those funds have come out of operating capital out of the water fund and sewer fund. >> Thank you, Seth. you uh thank you for doing all the work on this and kind giving some clear clearer picture of actually what can't be accomplished with more efficiencies than having staffing and the equipment that you need as well. So thanks for putting that uh that information forward. Uh sir, we will move on then to the next item. Zack, thank you again. Uh next up we have economic development and Ryan Uh, good morning. Good morning, Mayor and Council. Uh, Mr. Valenuela, Ryan Gaddy, economic development director. I

[2:14:15] see Daniel looking at his watch, so I'll get through my presentation as quickly as I can. At the last workshop, we presented kind of the financial impact at a at a higher level for the economic development activities that we're pursuing currently. And you know, I mentioned before that most of our efforts are in partnership with the chamber economic development group. So a lot of the projections that you see here are based on what they are chasing in terms of new uh new opportunities and uh what they're looking at in terms of bre opportunities and then of course what we have going on with some of our our infrastructure assets like the rail port uh our industrial park and so forth and also the airport because that's one of our key uh key infrastructure project areas. Uh before we talked about the uh uh I provided kind of what the one-time and the ongoing annual impact of our efforts are. What I've added to that is the annual impacts that those particular efforts will yield. And of course this is the financial impact to the city uh the city of St. Angelo uh the general fund primarily and it it includes property tax, the sales tax like during the construction phase of the projects and then of course the sales tax going forward primarily due to the jobs that are created. Uh it includes an element for the building fees and then the utilities and franchise fees. Now the the top section shows the the hund00 million capital investment and the 90 new and re or retained jobs that the chamber has included in their KPIs as part of the current year uh contract that we have with the chamber

[2:16:18] and u we had a meeting on Wednesday with the economic development corporation board and currently they're at about 30 million in terms of the hundred million and but that doesn't include the data centers that they're they're pursuing. So if you look at that, we we we have a model that we use to calculate the the impacts going forward. The $800,000 on the property tax side associated with that $und00 million, it will yield about $800,000 at the current tax rate. And if we schedule that out based on when we think those properties might uh be constructed, you can see that for fiscal year 27, it's about 160,000 and then it grows each year because of the phase in approach to construction. So without going into a whole lot of details, you can see that the when you combine the the initial the the $100 million project and then we have a $160 million uh project that we've already we're already contracted with. Uh it's associated with a battery energy storage system. Uh just going to be built north of just right on the fringe at the north of part of town. And um that project is already contractually and we've already got a tax abatement for it. And then you add to that the projects that we have associated with infrastructure and real estate development. And you can see that um next in fiscal year 27 we we project that we'll contribute about $635,000 and growing to about a million dollars each year going forward after that. So that's pretty much the extent of the of the revenue opportunities that we're pursuing with the with the chamber. And uh so I'll I'll try to answer any questions that you might have

[2:18:22] >> Mayor Council >> I'm sorry >> Ryan I was talking I was asking mayor and council if they had any questions. [laughter] >> Okay. Is that it? Go ahead. Go to the next item. >> No, that's it. Yeah, I mean I'll cave, you know, the revenue projections, the timelines are, you know, are obviously are based on the recruitment and expansion, the deals that we're working on, the closing, the construction completion, and then of course the the jobs. uh right now we're only including in these projections what we expect or you know what we've targeted and what we've create included in the KPIs with the chamber. So it it could it should be incremental each year. You know next year we'll have another target of uh let's say 50 million of new new activity. Uh we really don't have any legal or policy barriers. Uh there's no staffing impact. The community impact associated with these projects is you know primarily sales tax, utilities etc. And they are included in the projections and of course you know all of any any projects that the development corporation funds do require for any incentives have to be approved by council. So >> okay Ryan I have I have a question. Did uh [clears throat] I haven't had a chance to watch the um Wednesday coast of DC meeting. Did they give you any of their uh results uh to date on the on uh any of the the NAKES uh qualified businesses that that do qualify for incentives? I think we've got 140 to 150 of those businesses in town. Did they talk about any activity in that arena? you know, their primary uh approach to addressing that bre opportunity is through their what they refer to as

[2:20:25] their Sarma uh network. And and that network is covers probably the top 20 to 25 uh manufacturing and and nyx eligible uh businesses in in the city. uh and and they do have periodic meetings and they do have per uh they have targeted uh when they're going to meet with those individuals. Now, at the development corporation, we're going to start engaging in that process as well because we do feel like that there may be more opportunities than than what they're addressing currently. So we we've we're working with the the Small Business Development Corporation and they have provided us a you know a list of all of those and that they received from the workforce commission. We're going to create a basically what what most sales organizations use as a CRM, a customer relationship management tool, and we're going to start reaching out to a lot of the ones that that they may not necessarily focus on. >> So thank thank you. Yeah. >> Any other questions for Ryan? >> Ryan, thank you, sir. Appreciate you. Mayor, we're scheduled for a break right now. Did you want to go and move forward with that or >> somebody need to take five or keep rolling? >> Let's keep going. >> Okay. >> You going to run to the restroom? >> It's all right. >> Okay. >> We actually have a uh a switch here. So, Chief, you're up next. You're up next. I was told not to start yet. So,

[2:22:36] >> why are they? Okay. >> Yeah. While we're doing that, I just want to say thank y'all guys for doing this. Appreciate y'all very much. A lot to y'all take time off this. So, >> yeah. >> I can also thank Aaron for >> switching with you, >> giving me a spot. Aaron, that's one. >> That's one. >> One. >> Aaron's been a big help with getting us the drone as first responder. >> Yeah. >> So, say publicly thank you for that, Aaron. >> Just taking a break. Yeah. >> We can still do it. I mean, Five minutes. >> Let's call for five minutes. >> Let's do it. Yeah. >> Sorry. All

[2:31:38] right, we'll go ahead and continue with the budget planning workshop number two. Uh, Chief, you are up. >> Thank you so much. Um, I again appreciate this the switch and sorry for the inconvenience with the slides. Uh, the information that you have in your in your handouts is going to be different than what you're going to see on the slides and that was kind of a u we we had took two different approaches. So have that information. It did go to all council members. So you there's no no issues with violations on that. Uh but I want to cover what we've done in the last two and a half years to offset uh cost because we don't really have revenues uh of any type. So, with that, I'd like to get into it. Um, so this is what we're going to be going over is the overview of the uh St. Angelo Police Department, what we've done with cost savings and cost avoidance and what we're going to be going through with operational uh efficiencies and what we've done to civilianize different positions. will be going through grant and external funding sources that we've uh been able to bring in over uh either allocated, secured or um already brought in over $5.1 million in in funding and donations from the public and both private and and u business and we're going to be talking about what we're we're sustainability kind of where we're at uh with that. So, in regards to our our cost savings, um, this is stuff that we've been trying to trim everything we can. And I'm going to I'm going to relate it into regards to like I'm trying to put more guns in the street. That's what I've been doing since day one. I'm trying to get more gun toing uh badgewearing officers to be out in the streets effectively doing work and saving money where we can. So, the first thing we got into is when we we took office, we had issue with our training division through the partnership through Howard College. We were able to um save $100,000. And there's a little bit of redundancy here. So, I'm going to go into more detail with this slide right here. And then the next one's also be covered. Uh so, this is the where we've we've been able to

[2:33:39] save $100,000. And it was just to get it to livability for the old academy was going to cost that plus uh some flooring that had asbestous in it. So that partnership has given us two classrooms and three offices at Howard College with the cost savings to the city. And it also makes it uh closer uh to both our gun range and then to town. So when officers are actually having inservice, they're closer to town. So if a disaster was to occur, some sort of emergency they need to respond to if they're on the SWAT or hostage negotiation team to be able to get there faster. uh what we've done with the school resource officer program I believe in keeping uh kids safe and we have some some things we're working through to to to really bolster that in this the school district has agreed to pay for uh two police officers one at each high school and they also pay for a supervisory position uh that that would allow us to go over our full-time FTEES if we ever get to that point uh in partnership with um a local uh nonprofit they've helped uh with the give us a location that we've secured at at no cost um for our drug task force which is a partnership between um our state partners of DPS, our federal partners and both uh DEA and FBI and uh both the Tom Green County Sheriff's Department, which I I would be remiss if I didn't say how much that has really been working very well. Uh so they they have a deputy that's assigned to our our the area drug task force and it's been doing a lot and we'll see a lot more from that in the future. uh drone is first responder. Uh this is something that we we feel like is going to be a force multiplier and at the end of the month we'll have our first drone up and flying which will give us uh a eyes on our target much quicker and and this is I think going to be a cost savings because we can not send officers we can allocate our resources where we need to and that's why we list that here. the um operational efficiencies and the civilianization of what we've done. Uh the department has really shifted where we can appropriately. We've shifted duties that did have guns, did have

[2:35:42] supervisors and and put them back into the streets. And so we took a um a position that did have a sergeant in it and we transitioned that um what's called the Axon coordinator. But what that really is is a is a digital evidence uh custodian and they facilitate that evidence getting to the courts and managing the uh totality of of of the bodywn cameras and any uh pictures that are taken uh to make sure that that gets done appropriately. And so that was a cost savings and we got the guns back into the street. We did eliminate one administrative sergeant position um in the process of the deputy chiefs and we felt like we we made that flow a lot better. Uh we also uh cut down our our public information officer down from two positions full-time to one. We did the same thing with our internal affairs. Both of those positions were done so with um with collateral duties, right? We had to find other people to do the job alongside them. So the workload didn't didn't lower. We're getting it done with overtime. we're getting it done with other people's duties to to help uh put a band-aid on a bullet hole. These are not sustainable. And that's kind of what we're listing down there at the bottom that uh this is just something to get us by and uh to help save because we're you can talk to finance. I mean our our overtime is really high, right? If you've seen the budget book, you know that it's because we're having to answer the calls for service and get the the impact to the community and we're doing it u so in a manner that is u able to that is able to get get the uh the product done. But this is not sustainable and our morale is already starting to suffer and our um service delivery is is is starting to suffer. When it comes to public safety officers, this is something that I've been trying to implement. Uh and I believe in this product and this uh position, if you will. Uh this is a way that we can offset and and put a lowerc cost personnel that's not going to do gun

[2:37:44] toteen, not going to do enforcement. This is data collection. This is traffic control. This is uh administrative. This is things that officers are currently having to do that we can facilitate in a manner that is going to streamline the process at a at a lower cost and also provide a feeder program for us. Uh right now if you want to be a cop and we go to the high schools and trying to keep local individuals here um they have to wait until they're 21. Only thing we have really is dispatch and that's a very difficult spot to be in. So uh not not every cop should be a dispatcher. Not every dispatcher should be a cop. It's a very different spot. >> Chief, how many uh have you implemented the public safety office? So, how many uh patrol office do you kind of envision that you could kind of free up there to actually be out there patrolling? >> Yeah. So, I think we've looking at 10 positions. And I'm going to be honest, like every metric, that's why when it came to this stage of the budget, I didn't really know necessarily how to approach this because we're so far behind in every metric that really this is just going to be a another band-aid to get us to where we need to be. Because when you look at comparison of staffing, we should be probably 30 officers more than we should. We probably should have, you know, 20 more support staff. But, you know, if I I went through the budget and in a perfect world, if you had a magic wand today of what it would take to get the police department right to average, it would be like $90 million, right, for a new police station, for a command vehicle, for a armored vehicle, for salaries, for the staffing we need. That's still a low number, honestly. Um, now reoccurring would be like 7.9 or something. I'm not I'm not expecting that. We live in finite resources and and I've come to you last year with with conservative and what I think that can get us by and building up over time. And I believe in that product and that in that approach and so in this this would give us a band-aid to boost morale to show that we're going to be able to offset some of the task. And honestly, we don't know what we what we don't know, right? So meaning if we get up to 190 185 you know 95 officers we might find that our work

[2:39:49] capacity which is being offset by drone as first responder as a as a real-time crime center and with civilian staff to offset that that we might not need to go higher than that. And so uh conservatively uh this helps a step in the right direction to to offload some of the stuff that's happening to patrolman to get them back patrolling the streets. And I think that effectively two public safety officers in the in the field uh meaning working with patrol and then two officers on the front desk by themselves would free up two officers a day is conservatively. Um so that that means when we start our shift people think that we have like you know uh 30 something cops out there working. It's not unusual for us to to have 11 or 12 because of our staffing numbers. And a lot of those people are working in on overtime. Um, and that's what I guess my ask would be that when we talk about like total needs and where we're at as a department that ju to just working with y'all, right, in partnership that I'm asking that we find a pathway forward that we have a commitment to say we will keep you at average, right? We don't want to be above or below. We can talk about different who who we're going to pick and all that, but that would be in a perfect world starting point for this year to say, "Hey, here's a p a plan moving forward." Some places do that with with stepping. Uh we saw that with Witto Falls where I think they did 11% one year and then 11% the next year, but with a commitment to the people to say, "Hey, we're going to get you to stay at average. No longer just going to get you to average, but you will maintain an average." And I think that that's fair. And I think that will help with our morale and our our retention because people I mean our way of life is what we're trying to hold on to here, right? And I think that that's one thing that we have to offer far above and beyond any other place is uh any other place and I'm not speaking bad about you know Wistoff Falls or Midland Odessa or Abalene. But I'm just telling you after living and visiting and spending significant time in other places St. Angelo is the greatest place to live right and I think that that's our biggest asset. It's also why the

[2:41:52] majority of our officers are from St. Angelo. And so that's why I think this public safety program um would help keep them here. Uh, so maybe instead of you joining the Army or the Air Force or something, you join out of high school and I would like to see us as we build this out, make a a scholarship program where you spend 20 year hours working for the police department and and then the rest of the time you're going to Howard College and we help fund your college because right now in that partnership with the with Howard College, you get 18 college credits whenever you graduate the police academy from the St. Angelo Police Department. And so in a perfect world, you could finish out your two-year degree that when you you take your oath, you're also getting an associates degree, which would bolster the product to our to our citizens and and the individual officers and just make us better all the way around. So that's the kind of stuff we're we're looking for out of that. Does that answer your question? >> It does actually. So uh thank you. Uh I know that you're going to the funeral as well, so you probably have about another 10 minutes before we got to go. Um, so I that's the in the nutshell that we've looked at ways that we can save money as a city and and this is mainly because when we look at uh these contracts that we have with with Axon that we could take the airport police, the fire marshals, the city marshals and the police department and I think we're kind of transitioning towards having some sort of option for body warn cameras for animal control and maybe even some some tasers or something to help protect them. um that we can take that under one contract and consolidate under an economy of scales and help save money. Some of those are on different times. So, we need to work towards aligning those. But I think that that's one way we can do that. Uh for the sake of time, uh I will email you this handout. Uh that way you all have this. But this is the grants that we've done. Uh this is the overview of the grants. Here's the list of the grants. Uh we're talking uh everything from technology to bulletproof vests to uh actual positions being paid for. Uh I will touch on the motor vehicle crime prevention authority. Um that is positions that we don't have to pay for that the state is

[2:43:54] helping us pay for and we're seeing dividends throughout the region. We just yesterday helped uh Crockett County recover a stolen vehicle. Uh they're also helping support the drone first responder through a grant. Uh, so everything that we're doing out of that $5 million we brought in, we're not just sitting on our hands. I'm not trying to just come to you and ask for money and say, "Hey, we're way far behind." We're actively doing everything in our power from down to the last one there constantly asking Walmart. And I appreciate them so much because on little little little things matter. And so um, donations from I want to kind of publicly say thank you to Skyline Aviation. they helped step up big time and and they gave us a donation to help get our pilots trained for the drone first responder. Another big support goes out to the back the badge because they all the volunteers and people associated with that give us money pretty annually and we use that uh from everything from officer wellness to equipment that we might not have budgeted to gym equipment has been big to help bolster our the betterment of our our agency and that's been at no cost to the city. This is um basically for the sake of time I'm gonna leave that there. But we we've we've we've saved money every way we can with with uh partnerships. We've done it with with um selling old guns. We're I feel like we've nickel and dime everything we possibly can. But that's the the the main purpose of this slide is to to shared resources with the Tom Green County Sheriff's Department. We're working with the Concho Valley Council of Governments and we're doing everything we can to consolidate and save money. Uh sustainability, and this is where I'll kind of end it and get into questions, but sustainability is that we can't keep this pace. Um I knew that coming into it and and um I'm really hope I can't say enough about our our troops. they have gone through a lot and a lot of a lot of hard times and I'm having a hard time you know dealing with the burden of the vacancies right that we we are we are struggling to keep the the service levels and at some point

[2:45:57] I don't know where that line is but we have to we have to find what what gets cut if we keep losing them we lost two officers that just resigned uh to go not out of law enforcement they were midlevel years um we lost a to DPS. Uh we lose them occasionally to the Metroplex, but DPS is our biggest competitor these days. Mainly because they're that mid-level position that's making about $75,000 right now uh a year and they can they can go to DPS with that certificate and make 110. Um a lot of agencies are just trying to close that gap to get their top end pay to around 100,000 because you're not going to leave your family and go to another academy and lose your seniority for that 10,000. So that's kind of the metric that I have in mind. Uh I'm not a part of the meet and confer process. So uh I I I I just kind of live on the outside and kind of give my suggestions where I can. And that's one thing I think that's important is keeping those mid-level guys, not necessarily your supervisors. I want money for them, too, but it's those mid-level guys that we're losing the most. And I'll take any questions on what we have here. >> Travis, I have one. At the very beginning you were talking about if we could get two two people not necessarily gun toteen police officers out in the public. So if you had those two say at the desk >> which essentially takes a lot of that admin and that type of work off of them. Do you have an idea what um how much that would decrease overtime? >> Yes. So, I think totality of everything is when we we're looking at if we can get if I had a perfect ask this year, I would ask for my six positions back to get me back to 180 and give me 10 public safety officers. Both of those are about $650,000 for each one of those requests. But with those and we can get the staffing up and the salaries to maintain what we have, right? That's the three I guess really is the biggest because we already touched on that. But that we will be able to lower o overtime, right? because we can do we can work through

[2:47:59] efficiencies and I think drone as first responder is going to make a bigger impact than we think but we we don't know we don't know yet because we're talking about getting eyes on a critical incident to include fire crashes and other things like that within we're covering a mile in about uh 45 seconds and we strategically placed them out with four drones that you know by summertime we think that we're going to be able to see a big impact on that so we can clear call faster we can we can have officers assisting in taking these reports the front desk working in the field to help them pick up uh you know if you arrest somebody that is um has a lot of property the jail won't take it and so they then they have to drive from across town to come to the station log that property in then take the person to the jail or or vice versa it puts them down so if we have people that can fill that intermediary gap then that's what we're looking to do and that could be in C helping call victims that can be in in patrol finishing felony packets a large portion of our of our patrol officers are now having to do the felony investigations themselves. Um, so it's we draw a line where we kind of look at major crimes and low-level state level charges that the officers will do those and there's a lot of paperwork that goes with that that you have to put together. It's a case jacket just like you're a detective that we can have those individuals uh put together that work for them and offset that to get more officers back in the street as a force multiplier. >> Do you have kind of a ballpark? I'm not going to hold you to it, but just a ballpark on what you think your gut feeling on on overtime saved just by having those those two extra. >> Well, I can tell you that we would we would be closer to our budget. [laughter] >> Okay. >> Uh we don't know. We don't know because I don't know how many officers are going to be able to hire, right? So, that's the that's the two different factors is >> depending on what kind of incentives we get and how many officers we can get re to come back. And we did speak to Witto Falls who, you know, did that 11% each year a couple years ago and then have just been maintaining that average that they were were experiencing large levels of of of open positions and since then

[2:50:02] they're they're down to four open positions. So so does matter. We have a finite pool guys and that's the problem is >> the the supply and demand of police officers has shrunk so much that it really is putting a strain on everybody. So, we're all trying to fight for a much smaller pool of officers. And you know, in one case, we've seen them start at the Tom Green County Sheriff's Department as a as a jailer, transition to us, and then transition to DPS. And it's just that they keep going to where they're going to better their family with benefits and pay. >> Okay. Thank you, Travis. >> Any other questions for Travis for Chief? >> Travis, how many people do you need to add? I think realistically with the budget and the finite things of where we're at right now, I think that if we have the six officers back that we lost two years ago and we add 10 public safety officers and we get the pay to help maintain our people and keep them here, that is huge. And then obviously my my priority is going to be the people that we have. So pay first and then work. >> 15 16. >> Yes sir. >> You had 15 16 people >> for this year. It >> cost three and a half million. uh roughly roughly roughly three and a half to do a Cadillac version and do where you want to go with 7 and a half. But to get you up to where we need to be, >> your opinion on that paper is three and a half million. >> That would get us in the world that we're living in right now. Yes. It would make a huge impact in our morale and our impact to fight crime. >> It's all I need. I need to go find three and a half. >> Before you move off, Travis, real quick, you guys got a graduation next week, but you're only graduating two people. Is that correct? >> Yes, sir. So, how when you started that process, how many people did you >> how many people started that process and we got two? >> Uh, well, I want to thank um I want to thank HR on something because they helped us work and change our process. Used to it was a very rigid civil service. A couple times a year, you'd be at this location, do this thing. We've changed that through the meet and confer process. And so we now take test at different times, multiple times throughout that 3month time frame roughly. And we had 86 people apply, but

[2:52:05] only 13 are going to make it to boards. Out of the 13, we would be good to get 10. And out of the 10, honestly, maybe eight make it through the academy. Out of the eight, >> we're hoping we maintain them. >> So your point earlier, >> yes, sir. >> You don't the pool that you've got has shrunk significantly. So even if this particular group says 10 12 officers, you may not get to that spot for a couple of years because you don't have that many people applying. >> It's possible we're going to hyperfocus on trained police officers and we think that whenever we look at the way we structure our pay that uh we'll become where they won't leave. So like we talked about where they go from the sheriff's office, they come from Ballinger, we have one we're hiring from Kurville, right? that we can become that that that hub and then if we're within reason, right, they're not going to uproot their family because they want to be here. They really do. And that's why most of those people were losing a DPS is because of the um the the such a disparity and then they can live for still in the same town. >> Thank you. >> Okay, >> Travis. If you deploy or if you're empowered to deploy the phased approach to achieve parody in pay, um how many years do you anticipate that would take? What what did Witchaw Falls do? You referenced them several times. >> The best of my memory off the top of my head is that they did 11% and 11% backtoback two years with a commitment to their officers. We've seen that several cities across Texas that have just said, "Hey, we're we're going to make a commitment as a as a council or as a city to say this is where we're going to stay and then manage that." Um, how long will it take to deploy that? I mean, this is the the odd spot for me is being uh this is really kind of more y'all have all the needs. You everybody's there. We all have these needs. And and I I just encourage you that right now more than ever inside of our department, we are on this weird spot where we're losing people because they're just burnout and burnout is

[2:54:07] real. And so we need something that's going to give them the assurance to say we're going to take care of you. >> So that offers hope. Uh did the city of Witto Falls ever discuss >> retention bonuses? Is that the right terminology? Um, >> I mean a lot almost every agency I can think of close to our size has some sort of a sign on bonus for laterals or some sort of a uh working with Daniel we have a deal that if you can recruit somebody and they make it through the academy that they they get $1,000 for that employee to recruit somebody if they make it all the way through. So we're doing stuff like that. I can't speak to what uh they've done or not done. I'm not sure on that part. I'm sorry. >> I've been corrected. Patrick says, "I should have called it long-term incentive bonuses." >> No, I think really just mainly people want to know that they're taken care of. And I think that if we tell them, hey, if the commitment is for council, whether or not it takes one year or two years or whatever it is, that we're going to keep you at the average and we we guarantee them that that this we're not coming off this, this will be the priority, then I think that is going to keep people and they know they can see the light at the end of the tunnel. >> Chief, it's time to run. So, uh, thank you, sir. Appreciate you. Up next, we have planning and Aaron. >> Daniel. >> All right. Good morning. The clock is on. >> All right. Aaron Fenoy, planning director. Um, planning development services director. So, a lot of folks have talked about what's coming. Uh, obviously at the federal level and state level, um, laws continue to impact our cities our size when they're really trying to control maybe larger larger cities in our state. Um, we see federal level that they're cutting CBG uh, CBDG and housing funds. Uh, grants are

[2:56:10] limited for health and development. Uh, property tax limitations. Uh however, we have other things that are coming that are potential for fast growth in large developments. And as always, faster turnaround times are expected by applicants. Um whether it's for pre-development answers, plan reviews, field inspections, are they getting the value for the fee that they're being charged. So those are things that hit planning uh permits, development services all the time. Uh what do the numbers say? So I took our just our inspections for our permits team. Uh and by the way uh you've heard about some staffing things to today. It's been 34 years or more than that someone has been added to planning development services and permits an actual new FTE come in. So that's a very long time. That might have been Charlie's information. [laughter] You can see she has her arms crossed back there. So I said if you want to sit up here, you're welcome to. the worst they can do is terminate you, which she's leaving in a few weeks anyway. [laughter] So, in 2025, we had over 10,000 inspections. Um, the International Code Council says you should take 60 minutes per inspection out there in the field to make sure that you're doing a thorough inspection of electrical, mechanical, plumbing, framing, foundation, all of those things. Right now, we're trying to stick to a 50 to 52 minutes. Um, and so that equates to 547,000 minutes. You take away the weekends, holidays, so that leaves 246 days for inspections. We have inspectors that go out at 9:00 and come back at 4. And you say, "Well, why? What are they doing from 8. And what are they doing after 4?" Well, they they have plan review responsibility. They have phone calls back to contractors, to homeowners to explain what needs to be done. So that gives six hours during the day with six inspectors, uh, all that kind of stuff. And so you go through the numbers and you can they can roughly do 6.8 or seven

[2:58:13] inspections per day. So if you go with those numbers, you get out here and basically it's going to take a lot of time to get out and do those things with those six inspectors. And if you look at those numbers, um, at 88,000 minutes per per inspector per year, that's a lot of time. 531,000 minutes out there in the field doing inspections. So, this last year, if you see that we did 10,500 at 52 minutes each, we went over right at nearly 30,000 or uh minutes out in the field or four, you know, 5,000 minutes per inspector. So 120 extra days that we had to shorten our inspection times, which means we're not looking at everything when we're out there. Uh, and that can be very problematic because are we ensuring that every contractor is doing everything right? That's the whole point of us going out and doing that and having buildings, whether it's residential or commercial, that are safe for our community. Um, we also looked at that that meant nobody took a vacation, nobody took sick time, none of that. And that's not true. We know we had people on vacation. And so the the numbers really are even worse. So we're probably spending less than 30 minutes per inspection. And that's pretty important. And you can see during the COVID years when we had high volume of properties being built, it's kind of tapered off a little bit to the around the 10,000 mark, but we're still not meeting the 10,000 mark. We're just not there. We just can't do it. There's not not enough people. And we had a lot of long-term inspectors and they have a lot of them have retired out now. And now we have younger inspectors. um and they're eager but they also get burned out just like as any of the other directors have talked about. Uh and so we have to think about that as we move forward. So efficiency one annual review of fees

[3:00:16] we are doing that now. That's not something that needs council action necessarily. We are doing that now. Um but we have to stay with real-time data that shows the hours and processes and the volumes. Um our fees will be different every single year. That's just a fact. Now, some of them may go up, some of them may go down depending on volume and how much time it takes. Uh, right now, we're there's a backlog because of some software changes that we don't know exactly what our numbers are quite this year. So, we're still working on that. Efficiency two is a one-stop shop is actually we have space within our building to allow uh some other development folks to come over during the week and office out of there so that we can say, "Hey, we have office hours for maybe it's a fire marshall's uh plan reviewer or maybe it's engineering uh person that's going to sit there. We have room for that." And what we are seeing is that we got to the more people are in the same building, the better the communication is. Yes, we can email all day long or pick up the phone. Most staff rely on email and you can't tell tone. You can't tell intent and that tends to break down communication of, hey, I don't want to answer that person today. But if you're in the same office and you can literally get out of your chair and walk over 15 feet, that makes a huge impact of building a cohesive group. Um, so we think that's that's a a limited cost for some monitors. I mean with the cub cubicle spaces are there, the techn is there, they can bring their laptops, plug in, say, "Hey, I'll office out of here today." Whatever it may be. Efficiency three, um, consolidation of reviews. We're looking at trying to do a more a better case management program instead of pointing the finger across the aisle is maybe we have a residential team that they're going to go and sit in in one of the conference rooms. And so it's a planner and and whoever else that needs to look at those, they're going to sit there and review it together. let's get this together so we're not pointing the finger and hoping they're going to look at it in the next day or the next day. How do we make that a little

[3:02:17] quicker? Uh and all the way from land site, residential, commercial, things like that. Um teams could meet daily about what's going on. Um you know, less than one hour. It doesn't have to be a long long meeting. It can be hey what are we working on today? Get strategized, be solutionoriented and standardize the applications and and the reviews to move forward. So it's easier for applicants to understand what's coming along and what what needs to happen uh over time. This is more of a longer term and I think some of the other folks in in the group also talked about how do you do an organizational change. This one's kind of an organizational change. If we are going to have to contract for whatever the reasons are, um whether that's tax dollars or loss of revenue, whatever, is there a consolidation of field teams to cross train folks that are already in those field areas to do other things? Do we have that time to do that? Uh you know, what are our strengths? How do where do we overlap? How do we consolidate vehicles, trips, all that stuff? You we know what fuel costs today. We don't know what's going to cost tomorrow. But if there's way to consolidate those things, it's the only way we can from our department is to try to reduce our costs. Um, our fees are the highest fees out of the 10 sister cities. Um, we are getting more sophisticated of what goes into our fees from our software cost to our overhead, but we are very high on our fees. We know the federal government's or not the federal, but the state legislature is going to look at impact fees and they're trying to cut impact fees coming up. We don't really have any here in the in the city, but that's just another revenue source that may go away. And so that's that's the challenge uh for us. So again, our permit fees were budgeted this year at 1.5. Planning and development fees at 100. Uh if you did a 5% increase just due to volume volume or fee increase, that's $82,000. That's not a huge number. It doesn't really cost for an additional staff member, but that's if you were to raise our fees 5%

[3:04:21] across the board. It's while it brings in revenue, it's not a high volume of revenue. >> No, the the the large project permit fees that are coming through that was not projected at the time when that budget was made. That is correct. Um so we think for the long term for our department is trying to find ways to consolidate and maximize the frontline employees. How do we get frontline employees to our customers? Um, while that means limiting leadership, we still need to work with leadership to create uh consistency uh and solutions for the front and build a working relationship with the community. And really the salary savings come from pairing down over time. And I heard somebody maybe that was John that talked about attrition. That's probably one way that that would happen is over time we would go through attrition uh to try to reduce the the volume if there's consolidation we have to all right what are our strengths what are our weaknesses and can we satisfy what our community needs from our department by doing that with that I think that is the last thing I have mayor is there anything else questions that y'all have >> unless I miss something you're efficiency to the one-stop shop. >> This would be like the first step. Now, I think long-term, how do you get everybody in the same building? But that's a longer term, bigger ticket item. How do you get all those departments in the same building? That may come in a five-year plan, but in a short term, you could you could have staff come over certain hours of the weeks that they office out of there. And so when customers come into permits and say, "Hey, I really need XYZ." Well, we can give them the option, well, we can send you to their building or we can schedule you an appointment. They'll be here on Thursday at 1:00. Come back, you know, whatever it is, if that's more convenient. Uh, we do have, you know, we

[3:06:25] send staff, I mean, or not staff, but citizens back and forth all the time. Um, we do have citizens that struggle sometimes of finding where to go. And so we're just trying to how do we and then it comes back to our internal communication that we're we're all talking the same language. >> What what other departments are you mean just >> I'd say primarily would be fire prevention when they do plan reviews for commercial buildings in particular. Uh site things that would be engineering oriented while they're able to communicate with water utilities on on water lines, sewer lines, operations with streets and things like that. That would be primary. Occasionally health will be coming over. Um but yeah, >> most of the people in the other building. >> Most of the people are in other buildings. Yes, sir. >> Again, unless I'm missing something. It seems like there's no cost associated with that. >> Not a high cost. No, I think there might be some computer monitors and things so that they have exactly what they need to do their job while they're there because there may not be a customer for a while. So, can they still do their their >> I don't know why we don't regular we don't say today. Y'all just start working on some working on that plan today. >> Okay. Okay. All right. >> Erin, have you had any um complaints or anything like that with people rolling their eyes needing to go to a different building or can't get a hold of somebody? >> Daily. >> I'm sorry. >> Daily. >> Daily. Okay. I'm like Tommy. If that makes it easier and if it keeps people happy and keeps the ball rolling, do it is is my opinion. But um you say that Charlie is leaving >> unfortunately. Yeah. She's retiring at the end of this month. >> That ought to be against the law right there. >> I agree. If we could put that in ordinance somewhere, that'd be fine with me. >> [laughter] >> Are you going to try to absorb her position or are you looking to to uh >> We are instead of having an assistant director, we are going to be promoting internally for a building official and then we have a position posted for

[3:08:29] planning and development administrator. >> Okay. >> And then we're we're looking at doing some other organizational changes that we're working with our human resources department and of course Shane is is helping us with that stuff too. And so we're trying to we're trying to bring some of that again down like we've done that in the past. That's how we were able to create a not a new FTE, but an FTE that we we was a leadership role we put into an inspector role, >> right? >> We had, you know, we had another FTE that we said, "Okay, we've got to have >> public information requests and GIS help because our GIS team is just is suffering and we get so many public information requests. We need a dedicated person to do that." So that lower admin position, that's going to be a lot easier to to fulfill than than [clears throat] trying to replace the irreplaceable Charlie. >> Well, it's she's going to be very difficult to replace. We do have an internal person that uh has spent many many years with the city uh and is a great um person that we hope to to bring forward and bring bring into that role. >> Well, good. Well, if you can if that's going to eliminate some of the complaints from the citizens and it's not about your work or anything, it's just accessibility. >> Yeah. And so I think that's a win win-win for everyone. Thank you, Erin. >> Yes, sir. >> Sum it up. You know, number one, thank you for catching us back up on time. Uh, some I want to see as you move forward. I want to see revenue per employee. Okay. Um, I think that will tell you by far who's moving permits. The the goal is to move a permit through the process. It's not to hold it and review it. And I think when you get done at that, if you looked at revenue per employee that would sort some things out as who's really pushing to get things all the way through, um I do think it's if nobody understands it, and I say this for the citizens watching, a fee can never be a tax and they have to understand that. That's why your fees change every year. >> Um number one, I want to double down. And if you need to put two days a week where everybody's under one roof,

[3:10:32] I would say do it. I'm right there with Tommy. there's you will solve a lot of questions. Uh it's so much easier. You don't text, you don't email, you put them in one room and you find a solve and you move them through it. I think that's an absolutely great idea. With that, thanks for your help. >> All right, thank you guys. >> Nice presentation. All right, it's exactly 10:44. We're showing fire. You have less than one minute to get up and get rolling. >> I'm quick. So, good morning, council. Um, first of all, thank you all for this time. I know uh everybody's busy and they've got busy schedules. I have got a lot of information and it's going to be rapid fire. Hopefully, we'll save a little bit of time at the end for questioning. Uh, we bring to you all three proposals today and uh let's get started. Proposal number one is a fall assist program and this program is addressing an growing operational problem for the fire surface in general and specifically in St. Angelo. So our department currently provides uninjured fall victim uh assistance. Uh somebody falls and is not hurt, they just need help up, we go and provide that service for them at no charge. And um that has left a significant number of non-emergency calls on our department. Um so last year alone we had approximately 1100 not approximately 1184 fall victims um uninjured fall victims and 75% of those occurred at a care facility uh assisted living or nursing home. Um non-injured lift assists take the take the pl take the fire engine out of service so they're no longer available for emergency calls. Okay, these facilities oftent times have staffing available to perform this, but uh these facilities are often um pushing that workload off to the fire department and they're also pushing that liability off to the fire department. So, what I'm proposing today is if they're going to shift that workload to our department, then we're going to bill you for that mechanism. I am not proposing charging our citizen at

[3:12:36] their private residence if they have fallen. and we will continue to provide that service. So this proposed solution is to charge these care facil facilities a nominal fee of $250. So I have looked across this is a growing trend across the nation and outside the state is where it pretty much started. And uh you see prices anywhere from $450 to $750 per lift assist. And um I wanted to look internally discussed this with legal a little bit. We wanted to look internally in the state of Texas. Is there another department in Texas providing this? The answer is yes. Long View Fire Department, which is almost identical to St. Angelo Fire Department. They have started this program about 6 months ago and they're charging $250. And that 250 more uh align closer to our cost of service than a $450 or 750. Yes, sir. >> You know, I can give I can give this team a very quick training session. I mean, they may need to use uh, you know, some of his heavy equipment for some of these lists. >> I see him back there poking a finger. Yeah, just calling them out. >> All right, please proceed, Patrick. I'm sorry. >> So, what do I need to make this happen? Of course, I need city council approval to add this to the fee schedule. So, very simple, add it to the fee schedule. I need a billing mechanism and speaking with finance and speaking with the budget department, we have that mechanism available and we just need to fine-tune some of the processes. But more importantly is the communication plan. Um I don't want to show up one day to one of these facilities just out of the blue and then send them a bill. We need to get out ahead of this before we start billing, communicating with these facilities and let them know what is coming. Um, I want to also stress that the intent of this program is not to generate revenue, although that is uh definitely something that it will do. The intent of this program is to discourage the overuse of our system by pushing off a workload to a department that should not be doing it whenever these care

[3:14:38] facilities are being paid to take care of their residents. So, if you're going to shift that workload, then we're going to pay bill you for it. Um, so we're talking money. How much potentially out of those 1184 calls, 75% of those are at care facilities. Approximately 800 calls a year at $250 a call. Looking at around $200,000 increased in revenue without adding a single piece of capital, a single employee. So any questions? to wait to project what it cost you to kill an engine to >> so that that hour that that engine's out of service, there's a there's going to be a lot of costs that you can't really look at. Such as if it happens right here at Central because we have a care facility within their district. Okay, what does that truly cost? Well, we have an unconscious person, a true emergency call, right next to central fire station, the next available engine, the next closest engine, which is going to be 3 to 5 minutes away instead of 2 minutes away. Financially, there's not really a cost associated with that other than extra fuel to get there. But I promise you that family feels that cost because now there's a delayed response. Okay? And that's just on the medical side. You start talking fire side, a fire doubles in size every minute. Every minute it doubles in size. So you're talking an extra 3 to five minute response times for that first in engine. Now we've gotten there behind the bell curve and we've lost that building. So >> good information. Please proceed Patrick. >> Approximately 3 to six months to make this happen. So uh next proposal this is requesting a full-time employee. So public safety grant specialist and I put on their public safety. I'm not talking just fire. This is police and fire. Travis came up here and he showed you how many different grants that they're applying for. We have several grants that we apply for every single year as well. Um, I firmly believe that we are leaving a lot of meat on the bone. There are a lot of grants out there that that both police and fire aren't even aware of that we're missing out on. And also,

[3:16:42] there are grants that we are applying for that that we are not becoming successful and getting awarded those grants. Why? Although our personnel and fire and Travis's personnel and PD, they are good at what they do. Those are police officers and firefighters that are applying for grants, not a grant specialist. We are missing out on free money out there that because we don't have the resources, the time or the expertise to truly impact it. So the funding opportunities that are missed alone will more than pay for this position. So, um, my proposal is that we create one dedicated public safety grant administrator position. Uh, as far as, uh, infrastructure, I already have an office for this position. Um, very minimal impact, uh, capital-wise impact for that. Um but that that position would moni do the grant monitoring, the writing, the submissions and is anybody that has ever applied for a grant, the heavy lift and the major workloads on the back end administrating that grant, not necessarily just applying for it. Um again, what do I need from city council? The approval of one additional FTE position and um the positions design, recruitment, and onboarding. That will all take some time. Uh so what will this cost? approximately 60 to $65,000 a year for annual salary plus benefits. Of course, it's putting it around probably 80 to $85,000 for this position. And you saw the list of grants that the PD has been awarded. Fire's got a $12 million grant out right now. The safer grants coming open, which is about a $4 million grant for fire. AFG's coming open. Last year, we applied for a million dollars. In a very short p uh period of time, this position can 10 to 100fold repay the cost of it. Again, this is a three to six month implementation plan. Any questions on that? >> Let me just put up >> throw something out there. This is another one of these things that I I think we don't have to wait until August

[3:18:45] for. So Daniel's not here, but we got two ACM over there. I think this is these fall assist and this public safety grant is something that we could bring back to the council before we go through the final budget. So you heard me say it. I've been told that the council person can put something on the agenda. Let's put these two on the agenda before we come back in July or August for this. Okay, >> Patrick, does uh on this grant writing piece, and I understand you've got firemen doing that, but does it do you think it requires someone with that knowledge that you have in your department to be the one to apply for that grant? What I'm going at or looking at is if we had a designated grant writer or two citywide and that's a Vanessa question that could do that you know for all departments or does it require that special knowledge that you have? >> So yes and no. um operations has slash had a grant writer Jen incredibly successful position. That's what I base some of my the salary figures on. Now I approached she is she did assist fire with a couple grants but the simple fact is she was completely covered up for grants just for operations. She barely had enough time to assist fire just just fire. Forget about fire PD or any other department in the city. So the the yes to that question is um if if [clears throat] we're going to like include all of these under one roof, the number of grant positions, I would say definitely operations one to theirel. Okay. Police and fire could maybe have one to themselves and maybe one to two for all the other departments in the city because >> So that one that one FTE wouldn't necessarily have to reside in your

[3:20:47] department. >> No, ma'am, not necessarily. Um, >> I've got something turning in my head. >> So, as far as my internal employees being applying for these positions, um, there is some institutional knowledge from these positions, understanding the operations, the internal operations of the fire department, but also there when you're applying for a grant, a lot of this um, grant acceptance even to move on to the next stage is AI generated. It goes through a system and it's looking for very specific key words before it even advances to the next stage. And if you don't know those key words and you don't understand the whole process, you'll never make it past stage one. Um, and that's why I believe a grant specialist that that has operated in this world and has um been successful in the past is going to be more successful in the future. and the the two people that I have that have been working on these grants, I'm actually blown away at how successful they have been. And um because again, firefighters and my emergency management coordinator, he is he's the big grant writer for us and he's been very successful, but I can see in the future somebody that specializes this even being better at it. So, >> well, that's you're kind of reading my mind a little bit. I want to utilize these tools and as long as you're available to help answer questions and all we can cultivate that >> okay >> into it I believe thank you very much. >> Yes ma'am. Any other questions? >> All right moving on. So the last one this is uh really resides in our fire marshall's office. So I'm going to transfer over to fire marshal Billy Clemens to frap us up. Good morning everyone. Um, talking about the fire code compliance self- inspection program, this would be an inspection program that is designed to increase the number of inspections that we're able to do annually. It'll actually help uh reduce the cost uh to the businesses as well. Um, it's more flexible. Again, it's a lower cost

[3:22:49] option for them to be able to do their own uh inspection. uh with the fire marshall's office being responsible for over 6,000 uh inspections uh annually, we just don't have the staffing to be able to to make those numbers happen every year. So, with the self- inspection program, this will allow the business owners to to actually do a self inspection of their own businesses, lower their cost, and it will help us increase our numbers as far as annual inspections are concerned. Um, again, this would be for businesses that are low risk, uh, low occupancy, um, and they've received a face-to-face inspection from my office the prior year. It has to be a passing inspection in order for them to be eligible for the self- inspection program. Uh, with the program, they would be eligible to do the self- inspection for two years. Um, and then the third year, we would have to come back and do another face-to-face inspection to make sure that they're still in compliance. uh upon a passing inspection from our office, they would again be eligible for another 2-year uh self- inspection program. Okay. Uh again, this would help uh reduce the the number of inspections that the office would have to do themselves. Uh lower the cost for the uh business owners. Uh currently, uh if we do a a face-to-face inspection, it's an hour inspection that we go out and do, and it's roughly about $85 for a general inspection. um that that fee would be reduced to about $45 if they do their own self inspection. So again, it would be a lower cost. Um it would create uh control cycle uh to maintain uh the oversight uh which would allow staff to focus more attention on higher risk occupancies and business businesses that require a real person uh face-to-face inspection, especially industrial um buildings. um higher occupancy buildings uh such as assemblies, restaurants, um rodeos, those would have to be face-to-face

[3:24:53] inspections. The program would be expected to increase a revenue of about $35 $35,000 in his first year. Um it could be more. It would be based on how many folks would actually uh do the self- inspection program for the first year. Uh we would encourage that they would do the self- inspection programs if they have a passing fire inspection. Um it would be something that would be beneficial to the citizens as well as uh the fire marshall's office. Um it would moving forward would need the city council's approval for the new fee. Uh would require a legal review review of the program to make sure that we're we're still in compliance. Um an estimated time frame would be 6 to9 months. I've already started drafting up u the the checklist for them to be able to use to do their own self inspections and a cover letter that would explain the program in depth. Do you have any questions for me? >> Absolutely, Billy. And I want Brandon to weigh in on this one. I I I'm I'm a little skeptical on the liability on this part. I don't know if you could tie that in with somebody's ability to provide their insurance. I know insurance won't cover a commercial building until you have the proper equipment in place and a check off. Brandon, I want you to weigh in on this idea a little bit. >> Uh, that's a good question. I don't know about the the insurance requirements. Something I'll have to look into. Um, and I'm not familiar with this type program. I know the state on some inspections is going to like third party inspectors where the city doesn't have to do it and so long as they meet some requirements and turn it over, then we can issue the permit that way. But we'll just have to look into this. So one one of the important facts of this is a self inspection would not they would not be eligible for self inspection on their initial inspection for their the um um >> thank you their um co this is a reinspection the only way they're eligible for this is if they have a passing inspection and they're only eligible for self inspection for two years after that. So, right now, Billy touched on the fact that we have 6,000

[3:26:57] businesses in town and that we are unable to catch those 6,000 businesses yearly. If y'all recall, not that long ago, you approved the FTE. That is helping the situation, but we still have a gap there. So, we're going two and three and four years without people getting any inspection at all. Important part of this program is raising the awareness of this business owner who is constantly looking at fire safety issues at their own business yearly. Well, how do they prove this? They will have to upload videos and pictures to um validate that what that they are doing that they are claiming that their exit sign is properly illuminated or they have a inservice fire extinguisher. They will have to upload picture evidence of that. So, and there's a lot of nuts and bolts to this program that we have to figure out. This is the thousand foot view of a program that we've seen starting to kind of take off across the state. Well, >> we've drilled down in that one a little deeper than what we probably need to go to today. But I would say the principle of it to expedite the process is certainly encouraged. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Okay. Again, this is going to be for low-risk buildings, businesses, and mercantile mainly that are low risk, low uh occupancy levels. Um, again, they're just going to be checking exit signs, emergency lighting, uh things that they they are supposed to be doing every month anyway, but they will be doing it on an annual bas basis to make sure that they're still in compliance with the initial fire inspection. Um, but again, it's something that we're still in the infant phases of this uh program right now and I'm still learning the ins and outs of the program. But again, I think this would benefit the city uh helping us gain more inspections per year and it would benefit the citizen as well as it it would be a lower cost to them every year. Um, and again, they still would have to have a passing inspection when they do their self inspections. if they notice that there's any violations, then it would require a face-to-face uh visit from us to follow up on it. So, they're they're still going to maintain that

[3:28:58] compliance even with the self- inspection program because if they have any violations, we're going to send someone out to actually uh validate those uh violations and then have them correct it. And then once they pass that inspection, they remain eligible for the self- inspection program. if they fail to do so within a certain time frame, they're no longer eligible and they'll no longer be able to do their self inspections. >> So, there's going to be some accountability that's going to be behind this. Um, but again, it's something we'll have to work out with legal as well. Um, before moving forward, >> I believe you've got a handle on it. Y'all picked up what question we have. We'll ask council if they have any more questions. [clears throat] >> All right. Thanks, gentlemen. >> Thank you. Parks >> one minute early. Carl's trying to keep trying to get through as fast. All right, Carl. >> Carl White, Parks and Recreation. >> So much of this you've already seen before. There are some updates. So, I'll I'll I'll cover those updates. So, the intent is what can we financially how can we financially benefit the city in terms of additional revenue and reduced expenses. So, in summary, we're looking at about 153,000 uh from new fees and and new fees and increased fees. And in terms of potential cost reductions, about um $360,000 for a net impact of over a half a million dollars. There's other opportunities that we'll cover during this and we've mentioned before in the past looking a little deeper, but I

[3:31:02] won't go into details. Fort Concho is looking at additional revenue of $40,000 from general admission rates, Christmas and all Fort Cono admission rates increases, uh modest building rental fee increases, and from an additional 25,000 from the state building rental income. Um and Fairmont Cemetery [clears throat] some modest increases in uh started a new fee for installation of outer barrel containers. Uh chairs only services. Usually this services includes the tent and a full setup. This would just be for chairs and then flagging of all the spaces. anytime we have to go locate a space for a barrel [clears throat and cough] for a total of about 11,250 in new revenue. It's not much, but it's something. [cough] [clears throat] Uh, one thing we mentioned at the last time is the opportunity uh, to benefit the cemetery in the long run and extend its life for uh, next few generations is to take advantage of the building that we acquired, the Kelly Moore paint building, renovate that, consolidate the office and maintenance facilities into that that building, sell the existing office space and land and then convert convert the existing maintenance space and the property one and a half acres behind the cemetery that we had acquired for the new office building. Vacate those spaces in to create 1,400 additional burial spaces. We estimate that at current rates would generate more than 77 $7 million in revenue, extending the life of the cemetery. Renovation costs are estimated at 500,000. We could recoup some of that from the sale of existing office and land as well as um designate some revenue either from burial sales or from perpetual Tina or from perpetual care to to pay back that loan.

[3:33:06] [laughter] [cough and clears throat] Got to be responsible. civic events looking about 24,000 additional revenue primarily from facility use fee adjustments. Ideally, we'd like to kick that in before October. Ideally, after we finish the improvements at the river stage, which should be wrapping up hopefully next month. Um and then a small increase for increased rental of the PO pavilions. In terms of reductions for civic events, we're currently losing money on our our linens. Oftent times we use the linens and have to clean them. There's a cost to that and we don't recoup the cost of that from a lot of city uses. Um, so we're looking at kind of slowing the bleeding with that uh with a new proposal um from transitioning from a full linen rental program to a limited in-house linen inventory uh and cleaning those as needed. That would help us with about additional 6 to10,000 [clears throat] in not losing that cost. We wouldn't have that cost. So would uh not bleed as much and then lose one reducing expenses by losing one position because of the loss of the coliseum. recreation, a series of uh new and adjusted fees. Summer camp fee increase, youth basketball individual registration fee increase, sports complex, rental fee increases, uh registration increases, and then at the pool when we have pool parties, we have a deposit now for the cleanup. It hasn't really worked that well. So, the idea is to convert that cleaning deposit

[3:35:09] into a cleaning fee. Um, so we're looking at a total of about 70,000 in additional revenue from recreation. And then parks, it's a small amount, but looking at the pavilions that are rented the most and increasing the fee for those listed above and we could start that at the beginning of October. And the big thing for parks is since we have been historically unable to fill all the position vacant positions we have capturing [clears throat] capturing basically the salary savings from that um and basically having a hiring freeze until we achieve about 300,000 in savings that could go back to the general fund and >> [clears throat] >> outside of direct revenue and expenses that we just covered. Um I think I missed a slide there. Yes. So now the city is doesn't have an agreement for the for advertising and sponsorships and naming rights. We're looking to do those on our own to see how it goes for a year or two. Uh the good thing is we would capture all the revenue from that, but um we have to do it on our own. So we'll have to see if we're going to be able to achieve what we hope to achieve about a $20,000 additional for doing that in house. And then an idea is to take some funding either from operational salary savings to create incentive funds. want to increase the Texas bank sports complex incentive fund to incentivize more tournaments to come here and bigger tournaments and then also for civic events primarily for the river stage uh to bring in some of per performances and the revenue generated from that would go back into that same program to keep it going

[3:37:13] and then look at look more aggressively at the properties that we have to to lease those out. I've listed those some of those above, at least those out so we do we don't have to maintain them, but they're still within the city inventory. And then as much as possible, you know, create deeper park adoption partnerships like we've done with the Rotary Park, uh, where they come in and help do some improvements and, um, make that more viable park for the public to use. So again, the summary net impact of more than a half million dollars. One thing I do want to bring up because you'll hear more about it, but been here 26 years, so we've been very lucky, fortunate, successful over the years in doing some park improvements and renovating existing neighborhood parks. But a lot of the in the process we started that a lot of these parks and playgrounds they have a certain lifespan but thanks to grants and halfet sales tax a lot of halfet sales tax um some city funds we've been able to do a lot of those projects but a lot of those playgrounds that we started putting in Shane and I starting back in a quarter century ago are seeing the end of their life primarily for instance Kids Kingdom. It's at the end of its life. We're going through the process with the river parks master plan, identifying what the public envisions for all those river parks, but it's it's still looks like based on the input that we're getting, folks want like a signature park down there somewhere. So, that playground needs to be replaced and that one's not a cheap one. It's a signature playground. So folks want to, our board primarily wants to look at trying to identify some funds

[3:39:16] to replace that here in the near future. I'm talking next year or two. And all the other playgrounds that we put in quarter century ago are getting at the end of their life. So we needed to identify some funds whether it's halfet sales tax, city funds, grant funds, private funds to start replacing those playgrounds. >> Questions for council Patrick? >> Um I know it wasn't too long ago, but how much did the Rotary help on that one park? >> Well, they it's just started. We actually don't have the agreement signed yet, but they're looking at the list of things that we have over in five years. It's about a value of over $100,000 of improvements. >> Okay. Yeah, that'd be great if we could get more of that for for all of our parks. Um work on that. I know that's kind of part of the sponsorship part is if we could work on >> Exactly. >> those sponsor kind of like the old adopt spots, things like that, >> right? >> Um is there any I didn't see any mention of it. the north side park that got flooded. Is there any thing in the budget to make that an actual park? Should we do any of it? >> Lake View. >> I honestly don't recommend that we make it a park. I think we should keep it an open space. It's going to continue to flood. Anything we put in there is going to get flooded, >> right? So, but east of Bryant, west of Paul, there's not really a park then, >> right? And we have had conversations with the school district. One ideal location for a park in that area would be the old Lincoln Junior High site. Most of it's already been torn down. I think just the gym and a few buildings are left, but there's plenty of space and it's an ideal location for a neighborhood park for that that neighborhood. >> Isn't there that one on San Hento School? Don't they have one off of um >> like Producers Road or something like that? Right. That's over by Rick's Lane. Okay. But that's that's a long way from

[3:41:17] a lot of the other >> Yeah, it's farther out. Yeah, it's on the other side of the loop. >> That's something I'd like to see. I mean, that's kind of mine and Joe's district there. There just not there's not a whole lot there with that one out of commission now. You're right. And I agree. I mean, the flooding is going to be an issue. So, if it can't be mitigated, then a different spot is probably the the way to go. >> I think we should continue to pursue that opportunity with the school district. >> Patrick's spot on. There's a lot of people from the Paul Anne area that go over to Kirby and things like that. So, it'd be good if to look at a venue that would accommodate those areas. I mean, we have to make decisions for all the city, not just part of it. Um, with what you've presented today, I don't see any hesitation in moving to agenda items with the majority of what you presented today. I don't see any hesitation with that. Do y'all see any headwinds with that? >> All right. I would move a lot of what you have forward. Thank you. >> Just have one other thing, Carl. Have we rescheduled that uh community meeting? Well, yeah, the storm hit just right at the right time that we would have had that meeting. So, everybody canled, so we canled um instead we did the online survey and it's still open. Oh, thank you for bringing that up. We extended it to April 15 to to get more um input primarily from the from students, >> right? >> Um and we've gotten over a thousand responses already. So that one is not going to be redone, but there is there's already three public meetings scheduled. So the next one's scheduled for May 18, I believe. >> Okay. No. >> And then there's going to be a third one. >> Good deal. That works. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Carl. Nice job. Where's my clicker? >> I got it all in right quick. >> Are you hungry? >> Let's take five to grab the sandwiches

[3:43:19] and come back. But I want to keep this roll. I try one to be done by noon. I'm ready.

[3:51:45] >> All right. Bucky Hasty, information technology director. Um so one of the biggest expenses that uh my department deals with is the cell phones uh data plans internet vo landlines and uh through this process we were able to um kind of find a a way to save the city quite a bit of money with our with our current service plans. Um so that's just an overview. That's the slide y'all saw last time of what we deal with staff administration time. We got to build those out internally. We got to do a lot of reporting and we were looking for we started this by looking for a software package to help us manage this because we have multiple carriers that we deal with and we thought there should be some kind of cloud-based um service to to unify or not to yeah to unify just one pane of glass for us to look at and we stumbled upon a carrier that actually offers this service. They basically just resell uh this the the cell and data service and uh you know since they buy it in bulk you get a better price on everything. Um, so, uh, by getting this software, uh, so anyway, by utilizing this carrier, it comes with the portal software. So, we'll be able to put and access all of our data plans and cell phones into this into this uh, portal, and it's going to we uh, we anticipate it's going to slash administrative task time uh, by 10 to 15%. And that's not going to be just for my staff. U accounting helps us bill us bill these services out to the other departments. We like we need to charge those out to where they where they belong. Um there's not going to be multiple invoices that need to be gone through. There's going to be all consolidated onto one report by this portal. And how it benefits us administratively is the plan management, the provisioning um support calls that we get. But yeah, the biggest thing is the is the activations and getting new phones and hey, I want a I want an iPad for this. doesn't want a new device for

[3:53:47] that. Um, it's all going to be managed under this one platform. Um, and there's there's a lot of other neat stuff that I won't go into detail that that it can do. I'll just get down to how much we're going to save uh with this with this consolidation. Um, so for the affected lines that we're going to move over in in the beginning, we currently spend about $231,000 a year. Um, conservatively speaking, we're going to be able to shave 10% off of that uh with a savings of $23,000 uh annually. Um, one of the things that we uh require on all our all our devices, it's on all y'all's devices whether you know it or not, is mobile device management. And it's um you know, it's where the big brother's watching. We're we're big brother in this case and just keeping keeping our information safe and keeping your phone safe and uh keeping if it gets stolen, we can wipe your phone remotely. It won't have any data left on it. Um anyway, that cost that's that's uh it's $20,000 a year that we have to pay a vendor to to do that. With this portal, we discovered um that uh getting a consolidated carrier, they offer that software for free. So, we're not going to have to pay an extra expense for that. And that's another $20,000 a year that we can save the city right there. So, we anticipate on moving this as soon as possible. Uh it's the saving this savings is going to come in fiscal year 2027. So, this is something we we are already moving forward with. Just wanted to kind of share the good news with you. >> Any head nod on saving us $43,000? >> I don't need a head nod. I'm I'm going to do it anyway. >> Had a boy. >> Thank you. >> So, I have time left. If y'all want to talk about radio waves, I can talk about radio waves. Yeah, we we don't need to talk about radio rays. I I just want you to understand >> the future it is going to drive cities and how people interact with cities. >> Of course, >> traditionally it has been riding drag upon all of it. It's an initiative of everyone that we need to be a smart city. We need to go forward.

[3:55:51] It will drive how people interact with us. You need to move to the forefront of what your expectations are. We need everybody to be under the umbrella. You are the person that's going to get the phone call. If somebody gets hacked, whether it's at the airport, PD, fire department, whatever, you're my first phone call. >> Right. >> All right. I don't want to hear, "Well, it was they need to run things by you. You need to have oversight. That's all on your shoulders." All right. That's what you applied for. That's what you want to do. You own it. >> Got it, >> Bucky. Wonderful job. Thank you, sir. >> All right. Thanks. >> All right. Now, who are we going to? Airport. >> Y'all look at me like I'm going to drag this out for an hour. All right. It's what I hear y'all say. >> Yeah. >> Short story long. >> I like it. Fletcher, don't screw it up. >> Hello everyone, Justin Fletcher, airport director. Appreciate your time this uh this morning to talk about challenges and opportunities. Uh at our previous workshop, I presented paid parking. U airports rely on paid parking, surface parking, uh as a significant revenue driver for the airport. Uh when you look at FAA AIP dollars, uh AIP dollars do not cover revenue generating parking lots. They typically rely on the airport or the municipality local sponsor dollars to to cover those costs. U so we went internally. We met with Shane. We met with Tina. We went out and walked our parking lots at the airport. And we've got two lots that we can salvage. Our short-term parking lot and our long-term parking lot. They're salvageable. Uh Shane's proposing an HA5 chip seal that's a finer grain aggregate that really going to improve the presentation of our parking lots and we can partner with operations and we can restripe our

[3:57:54] parking lots inhouse. U couple of talking points though I think there's some challenges uh that we need to look at if we do sort of a phased implementation of paid parking. uh specifically looking at our our ADA cut our passengers that are ADA. That short-term parking lot has all of our ADA uh parking spots. And if we implement paid parking in that short-term lot, we're essentially forcing our our ADA passengers, you've got to pay for paid parking. So, that's that's one talking point. Um our restaurant, you know, we're working through a lease now with the co-pilot grill. I think there's a lot of buzz and excitement around the airport to get food service restored back at the airport. And his business plan is he wants people from the city to come down to the airport, visit his restaurant, and uh be customers there. If we implement short-term parking, will those customers having to interact with that self-s serve uh paid parking system, will that be a deterrent from them wanting to come into the restaurant and come into the terminal? Uh just a couple of things to consider um as we move forward. And then that long-term lot, the larger long-term lot there in the in the picture, the the red one, uh that lot has some significant issues. Uh there's there's pockets of base failure. Uh there's a portion of that parking lot where it's just only base material. There's no asphalt whatsoever remaining. That lot would remain free. And so when you look at our revenue generating opportunities, you've got to factor in that red lot uh as affecting our revenue because you do have a free option for those customers that are coming out to the airport. You've got a free option sitting there. Would they elect to to walk the longer distance, park in the free lot, or would they elect to take take advantage of that short term with that two-minute walk inside the terminal? you know, if you're parking in that short-term lot, it's a two-minute walk inside the terminal right to the checkpoint up to the concourse and then you're waiting on the flight. Uh is very convenient. So, just a couple of talking points there, things

[3:59:56] to consider uh if we do choose to uh to implement this. Here's a couple of uh kiosk. This is an example. Uh this is T2 systems. This is an automated kiosk. This is basically hands-off for airport staff if we go this route. Uh these kiosks, they're they're basically self-s serve. They're coll-located with a gate arm. So, an individual pulls up, the gate arm allows them into the parking lot, they stay for, you know, two or three days, they come back, they pay via their cell phone, they can pay at the kiosk. And, uh, there's all sorts of programming depending on what type of policies we implement. We could have a first 30 minutes free, a first hour free. There's all sorts of, you know, programming you can do inside these kiosks. Uh, procurement, we're right around 79,000 for the kiosk, the gate openers, software. Uh, one variable in this is the installation. Uh, depending on the utility proximity to the the kiosk itself, there could be utility cuts that have to be done to run electricity and comm to these kiosks. Uh, but this is this is basically a hands-off. We don't have we're not paying for an employee to manage uh paid parking. We won't have like a parking lot attendant. This is all basically self-s serve automated for the airport. that would be beneficial uh to us. Kind of a rate and fee structure. Uh we would look at $8 a day uh for short-term parking and long-term parking $5 a day. And when you look at the expenses uh working with with Shane and and Patrick, uh you know, we looked at 97,000 to to rehabilitate those two lots. In our previous workshop, you know, I I told you we had a million-doll uh engineers estimate. That engineer's estimate was to reconfigure the lots and re, you know, repair our sidewalks, just kind of beautify our parking lots. But a baby step to move in this direction is $97,000. That's the chip seal. Uh that's the the repainting of the stalls. That gets us in the ballpark. And then the kiosk and arms procurement, $79,000. So all in, we're just under $200,000 to

[4:02:00] move in this direction of paid parking. And when you look at the the annual revenues, I did a low and I did a high. There's two two schools of thought when you're calculating projected parking revenue. So the 185,000 we took an average of the number of cars that are parking in our lots and we just projected that out over 365 days over the course of a year and that gave us to 185,000. on the high section. You know, we had 57,000 employments last year in 2025. So, typically airport planners, they'll take a small percentage, 25% of your passengers are going to park at the airport and they would pay for parking. And so, over the course of three days, that would be the average day. And that would be the number of parking transactions that you have. And at $8 and $5, we're right around $346,000 a year in in annual revenues from paid parking. That to us is the airport. That reimbures our our fund balance, that replenishes our fund balance, that allows the airport to pursue improvements, maintenance obligations. U that's a significant uh revenue generator for us out of the airport. Uh moving on to lease agreements. Uh we've got two customs agreements that are kind of in the hold right now. Uh we're looking at the Border Patrol building. That's the one that we've been negotiating. Uh this one will add $75,000 in annual revenue uh to our our airport budget. Uh but the what we've done with this revenue uh what we've done with this lease is negotiate with government leasing on incorporating our expenses into the lease. And so when you look at the uh the amount of money that we spend on HVAC maintenance, plumbing, fire, fire extinguisher inspections, not to mention the wages and salaries of our employees, the amount of time that our employees spend down at these buildings performing facility maintenance. We're able to incorporate about $15,000 in annual savings over the course of the lease uh on top of the annual revenue.

[4:04:02] So, we're able to build those into the lease and we're just saving money over the course of the year u having US Customs reimburse us. This is in the hold. It's on pause until Congress decides to, you know, fully fund Homeland Security until we can get a congressional funding. We've got a lease that needs a an amendment uh to escalate the rent so that we can reimburse the fire suppression project. We can reimburse the city for the fire suppression project and also this lease. Those two are in the hold until we get uh fully funded by department fully funded by Congress. And finally, uh, land lease, land lease revenues. Our our current target focus right now is the south taxi lane. Uh, next week we should be substantial completion on the south taxi lane. Uh, we're we're looking forward to getting that project completed. Uh, this was taken before construction. Uh, so I showed you guys previously the spreadsheet that had our land lease rates. We're obviously at 12 cents a square foot. I'm pushing for higher. I think 30 gets us into the market. 35 cents a square foot may exceed the market. Uh but I'm going to pitch this to airport board in May. I've got a big agenda for airport advisory board in May and then I would bring this back uh to city council uh following the advisory board. Uh but if you look at our total projected revenues of that South Taxi Lane complex as it's fully constructed, as it's fully built and developed, our land will generate over $100,000 a year in revenue. Um and that revenue is almost handsoff for the airport. the land is generating us revenue just by uh supporting the development of those hangers and those aeronautical facilities down there. >> So, Mayor, >> sir, people heard me say that I've been around this this organization almost 10 years. I've always said that we don't charge enough for our land. So, your recommendation to the airport advisory board I think will get a lot of

[4:06:07] support up here once they approve it. >> Just let me ask you a question right quick. We do the land lease. Whoever takes the land lease has to spend a million dollars to build a hanger. >> Yes, sir. >> The cost on that. land lease is just a minimal part of it, but they take that and then over time that reverts back to the city. If the city was to take DC funds and build their own hangers, what could your potential revenue be there? I mean, you're talking six >> 100 by 100, six 90 by 90s, and six 60 by60s. The key to that is building them all at the same time so you have a uniform wall and nobody has to build independent ones on there. if KOSA DC was to move forward with this and then fun part of that especially on tea hangers. Your waiting list for tea hangers is how many? >> We've got 28 on our wait list right now for tea hangers. >> 28 people. But I mean if if we get but if the city took the revenue off of that most airports that you go to the majority of the tea hangers are run and operated by the city municipal and that's for a reason because that generates the most amount of money. I not trying to swing or sway it either way. I would like you to look into that. I think KOSA DC would be certainly um open to discussing maybe funding not all three but maybe one set of those hangers to making that to where the air airport could actually generate more revenue off of that. Just >> very good. >> Please go ahead. Sorry to interrupt. >> That's my last Justin. >> Okay, perfect. Um yeah, on that and I know we talked about that a little bit. I want to make sure the ROI is there if the city was to do that. And the other is if it's continued this way, we talked about maybe having some kind of clause so that when we get it back in 30 years and it's dilapidated and then we have to spend the millions then to redo it, that that that's not an issue cuz that's that's too cheap of a rate to have to rebuild a hanger after 30 years.

[4:08:10] >> Yeah, that very good point. You and I had that conversation. Uh what we can incorporate into these lease agreements is having the tenant implement a capital expend a cap a capex requirement. So the the tenant has to spend certain amount of money over the course of the lease. That way when the facility does revert to the airport, it's not dilapidated. It is in the in the shape or we can then subleasase it to another per to another individual. We can incorporate those clauses into the lease. >> And in addition to that, I know like on the skyline lease, I think we have an option at the end where we can require them to demolish it and take it, you know, back to just ground if it is dilapidated. So, that's a good one to have. I wasn't even aware of that. That's a good one to have. >> Karen, I believe you have a question. >> Back to earth for a minute from all the big dreaming. Um, are are planning and permitting fees included in your calculations? >> No, ma'am. They are not. >> And how would that change things? >> The city the airport wouldn't see those. I think those get built directly to the city >> for I'm not quite for sure on your question, Karen. >> The people that are building the buildings. >> Maybe Erin or Charlie could answer that, but I guess if you use an example of a million dollar hanger, you're asking what what kind of planning and permit fees would that generate? Is that correct? >> Correct. Can Erin come up and let us know please? >> Yes. [clears throat and cough] Excuse me. To answer your question, yes, they the contractors or depending on who it is that is contracted to come in would do that for the hangers. But for like the parking, there are there are permit fees for the electrical. There's a planning fee for the orientation of the parking lot and all those types of things. So each one of the projects there will probably be additional fees from the development side of the world. >> Still still a little vague. I I mean

[4:10:18] >> well the the valuation on each hanger would depend that would then trigger what the cost is for the permit fee. >> Of course there's a site plan development fee. Um we had the zoning already worked out for the airport for all of these hangers. So, we've already done that uh prior. It's really just doing those things and then depending on if they have to have water and sewer lines piped to them or not, then that would be on the developer to get those there. As well as fire suppression if they've got to get a new fire suppression line out there to put fire sprinklers in them if they're required. >> So, the impact could be fairly substantial. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> But we wouldn't be billing ourselves. >> Yes. If if we the city chose to do it, we we just like we bill every other department. >> Everybody builds us. Yeah. >> Well, and and Justin can expand on when you design these >> as you design these hangers, a lot of times you design them on the requirements not to have a sprinkler or that most people just put an electric line to them. I think if you keep them under what 13 ft, >> it's dependent on the door height. >> Yeah. [clears throat] So you don't have the infrastructure costs you have with other buildings. Cool. Right. With that, if there's not any more questions up here, >> well, I would like to ask Veronica, um, we've heard the chief of police talk a couple of times about, uh, vacancies and and, uh, people leaving. I would just like to see the data on number of people leaving, where they've gone, and so forth. I don't doubt the chief, but just from from the HR, you I'm sure you have all that data. If you would just you could that could be a Friday packet for me. It could be it doesn't need to be a public present unless somebody wants it that way but to give us that data. >> Sure. I can I can get that in Friday packets unless it's requested a different way. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. >> I think we're going to uh take a moment and try to recognize somebody today. Um recognize

[4:12:20] Kimberly if you want to go through that and just come up and discuss what we're going to do. Haven't got the recording yet. >> Okay. So, I tell you what we're going to do, we're going to recognize ASL Floyd um his funeral's today. But what we'll do while Kimberly's waiting for that, does anybody have any discussion or directions they want to give right now before we move into that? Some things you would like to see? I I will lead that off. I think you saw a definite need for more than $11 million today. I mean, just just saying. Um, I think we have property. I think we have lake property. I don't know if we can try to sell those leases out to a third party, let them manage and go out. Just trying to look at ways to bridges to further down the line. Uh, as Mary has brought this up before, there's there's small properties that make a small number. There's big properties that make a big number. There's big moves that we can make. We can all sit around here and pinch pennies, but I'm trying to find some way to put millions back into it. And just simple math today puts us 8 to 11 million just to catch up. Brody's got two fire stations he needs to build. You know, cost of 9 million to 11 million a piece. We have just a minimum requirement for PD of probably three and a half for fire is probably matching. There's lots of needs. I I heard somebody say today, well, we as long as we're average, we're good. I I don't buy that. I mean, I want to be the best 100,000 population city there is. And we need to have the best staff, um, the best programs, the best processes in place. We can't do those things overnight. That's a 10, 15 year plan. But if we don't ever get off the bench and swing for that and start with it today, we'll never get there. So, I I want everybody to, you know, we have your back. I love Becky Buckyy's statement. I'm already going forward with this. I wasn't waiting on you. Absolutely. I mean, if you see things that look at ways we can generate some revenue,

[4:14:22] please don't hesitate one bit. I mean, bring those things to us. Um, a lot of those things go into negotiations with other companies. So, they will probably start an executive um ways to make things cleaner. I know we have signed up for an AI and TML is actually putting an AI in cities workshop we've signed up for on April 16th I think at 10 o'clock or 11 encourage anybody wants to come in here and sit and watch through that please do um at that standpoint I'd leave it all open to anybody else if y'all want to talk anything if not we'll close this thing and we'll hold until Kimberly comes back all right so let's technically go on a hold that we'll call the meeting to a close and Kimberly has given us a minor thumbs up. >> They're about to start. >> Okay. >> All right. >> Hey, tell us what we're going to hear. They are doing a final call for Floyd over the speaker and that's so Floyd will uh clock out over the radio for the last time. Hey, >> that that's okay. I got it here. >> Yep. Yep. I'll just put Yes. Okay, >> she's waiting on the green light for PD side to make sure everyone's good. Just so you know, you're going to be speaker live at council. >> He accomplished 20 years in March.

[4:16:58] >> [clears throat] >> He would probably be mad at us for making a big deal. Okay. I'm ready. >> 510 to 517. 510 to 517. 492. Go ahead. on the authority of the director of neighbor and family services retire unit number 517 and

[4:19:05] 82. Floyd J. Bias began his tour of duty on March 9th, 2006 and ended his tour of duty on March 31st, 2026. On the authority of the director of neighborhood and family services, unit 517 is officially retired from the Sanangel Animal Services Department and Floyd J. Bias is 1042.

Captured 2026-07-26 · source: youtube.com/watch?v=Iuu2uVd3Lmw